They All Carried Ghosts

Chapter Five- Finding Strength (Part Two)

Zeke! I cried with all my might as the monster rushed towards him for a third time. I ran forward not knowing what i could against such a beast but, I was too slow.

I watched as the monster picked Zeke up like a toy and toss him back across the parking lot.

"No..." I cried in my head. 

He hit the ground on his back and tumbled a few feet and didn't move.

Dante came around the other side of the building just in time to see Zeke hit the ground and he immediately rushed forward and dragged Zeke's body out of the open. 

The monster looked at Dante and started to walk forward.

Was Zeke dead? No way. There was no way. I can't even begin to imagine what it would be like without Zeke there. Whenever something was wrong it was always him who was there to help keep me calm, to cheer me up, or to just be there. Especially with all that has been going on lately. These monsters and thier connection to us. I never noticed it before but Zeke was my best friend. He was like a real brother to me.

 "Zeke..." I said quietly. "No. If he's gone then what's next...?"

I felt the rage and anger and sadness build up inside of me and swell up and just when I felt like I couldnt get any angrier and sadder I felt something like a wall opening up and my emotions poured out of me and I rushed towards the monster at full speed.

It felt effortless. It took all of a second to get within twenty feet of the monster. I was totally out of control and that monster was going to die no matter what. It would have to pay the ultimate price for killing Zeke. 

I jumped into the air raising my arm and punching the monster in the side of its black bulging, misshapen head, knocking it back and sending black and white dust exploding in the air around the impact area. It sounded like a thousand glass mirrors breaking.

I looked at my arms to see they were almost glowing and covered with floating white sparkling dust. I further examined myself to see that the rest of my body was covered lightly with the stuff.

I didn't stop to think about it. Zeke was dead and the monster who had done it wasn't. Justice had to be done. 

The monster was stumbling still after the first blow and had just regained it footing when I hit him again. 

And again. And again. And again. I hit him as many times as I could each blow sending the explosion of black and white shining dust in all directions. The rage building even more after every hit. 

The monster hit the ground hard laying on its chest. I jumped onto its back and with both hands focused all my energy into them. It felt natural. Was this the feeling Zeke said he had? I focused harder and my hands sunk into the monsters neck. It felt like sticking my hand into a pile of dry sand except after reaching in far i felt something there. I grabbed it and pulled it out.

It was a sword. Long and not shaped like ones I had seen before. It had a handle long enough to hold with two hands and was longer and broader than any sword I'd known about.

This must be a great sword. It had black gems shining in it but as I held it, the white dust that surrounded me seemed to take over turning the black gems embedded along the hilt and blade white and they started to glow. It was pure silver and felt light in my arms though I knew it had to be incredibly heavy.

I pulled the sword completely out of the monster and it cried out and swatted me off of its back.

I landed softly on the ground a few meters away as the monster got up and bellowed in rage. It started towards me again at full speed on all fours.

Calm but still filled with seemingly unquenchable rage, I raised my sword up and brought it down on its head as it charged at me and I completely severed it in two. 

It cried out one last time as it quickly turned into a large pile of black sparkling dust around me. 

The rage inside dimmed and I became calm again. The greatsword I held slowly turned into white dust and it sunk into my skin as well as the rest of the white dust that cloaked me.

The others stood back in shock at what just happened. I ignored thier expressions, quickly looked over to where Zeke lay beside Dante, and ran over as fast as I could.

"Please be ok Zeke..." I thought to myself. "Just be ok..."

As I got closer to him I could hear Hero calling for him as she ran up to meet him too.

Dante called for Angelo to get first aid or something.

"He still has a pulse" he said looking obviously afraid to be in my presence after what i had just done but still worried about Zeke. I paid no attention to it. 

Angelo came up with some first aid but there was nothing that really could help his condition. 

Thats when a thought came to my mind. The black dust. Why do I think it can heal him?

"Help me get him over there Dante!" I said gesturing towards the remains of that monster.

Without hesitation he grabbed his feet while Angelo grabbed him by his arms and I held him in his mid section and we carried him over to the pile of black dust.

"Just lay him in it" I told them. 

"It'll fix him up?" Dante asked still in slight fear of me. 

"I dont know" I answered. I don't know what to do besides this.

We laid him down into the dust and watched as it started rising slowly around him and entering his skin gradually getting faster and faster. Each grain of dust lifting off fo the ground and being absorbed into his arms and chest.

When there was no dust left Zeke still lay there unmoving.

We all kept our silence. What was there to do? Was he really gone right now?

Then, all of a sudden, he heaved a deep breath and sat up straight.

"what just heapped?" Zeke asked looking around frantically."Wheres that monster???"

Dante and Angelo looked towards me.

"Ask her. Because I sure don't know." said Dante scratching his head.

He was alive! So this black dust can heal him. Does that mean my white dust does the opposite? I don;t know and I don't care. He was alive and ok I assume as well. I wanted to hug him hard as I could but all i could manage was to say;

"Aw. I was just about to cook up your corpse Eze. Too bad..." I smiled a little to let him know I was just kidding but maybe he didn't see it. I wanted to hug him but couldn't find the motivation to do it.

Zeke laughed a little and hopped up seeming is completely healed. 

"Thanks" He said smiling back. but then another look came across his face.

"What just happened"? he asked.

I smiled. "I found my strength" I said.

He smiled back. "You alright?" he asked.

"Yea you were the one who almost died idiot"

He laughed looking over at the rest of us who were still in shock. They managed to laugh a little but they were all obviously weirded out except Hero who looked really intrigued.

 She turned to me as if a thought had just come to her mind and then suddenly a thought came into my head too.

Looking around suddenly I asked, "Where the heck is Max?!"