Greys II - Ghosts

Chapter 38 - Chains & Changes

You saw the worst in me and now I can't go back. And now I can't believe you saw the worst in me.
Cold hearts are never warm when you need them to be.

Like Moths to Flames - The Worst in Me

I didn't want to sleep, again, but I also didn't want to spend a second night staring at my ceiling, and possibly hear James wake from another nightmare. It made me feel sick to just think about. Instead I let Ailech drop me off at my room after our archery and then looped back down the hall once I heard his door close, heading for a small gym that was in the middle of renovations - or maybe it was always set up this way. Regardless, I liked the look of the room, torn up with scaffolding and ropes and boards strewn about. It was like a gymnasium with all the equipment hanging from the ceiling, creating blocks and detours all around, almost like an indoor jungle, which is why I liked training there so much. Archery, knives, my Sign, all of it was different in such a cluttered space, in a situation that mimicked the real world far better than a wide open gym.

I kept the lights off, so just the moonlight from the high windows, the ones that were barely above ground, illuminated the piles of wood on the floor in ghostly light, or the metal bars and construction ledges ten and twenty feet up the walls. I liked the deserted feel of the place, the quiet darkness. No one came looking for me here, though I rarely visited during the day. It was almost like my replacement secret place when I couldn't go to one of the artificial forests. Sometimes I didn't even train when I came, just sat and relaxed, sat and listened to the life of the Vault going on beyond the four walls surrounding me.

This time I wanted to train though, to throw my mind into something so I wouldn't have to think, wouldn't have to feel. I let my Shift out as soon as I closed the door behind me, taking in the new picture before me, painted in grays and blacks and whites, without a single shadow too deep to see through. It was beautiful and even more-so bathed in the soft moonlight. I dropped the bag from my shoulder and dug out the small crossbow I had been practicing with for the last two weeks or so. I sent my Sign out through the room, making the chains and ropes hanging off the scaffolding sway in a slight breeze before I decided on my targets. I had been working on speed lately, since my accuracy was usually acceptable by my standards.

I made my way to the center of the room slowly, ducking under low-hanging work, half-climbing over piles of material. But eventually I stood in the center of it all, watching the wind-made movements out of the corners of my darkened eyes, slowly counting down in my head until I would begin. I had fifteen arrows, each about eight inches long. They were lightweight for speed, but still strong enough to deal deadly damage. The bow reset quickly too, and was small enough when folded to easily be hidden along with the arrows, which is why I had wanted to learn to work with the crossbow in the first place. It was a little too conspicuous to carry a full bow around with me in the real world, and my glamours were still hardly reliable.

4...3...2...1

I let the arrows fly at each of my chosen targets, some embedding themselves in the wood of the walls, some in the construction debris, some glancing off chains or cutting through ropes. I released all fifteen arrows in just under as many seconds, and only missed two marks. Then I heard breathing. A slow, even noise coming from the corner behind me. I should have known it was him, no one else could sneak up on me like he could, but I was still surprised he was there.

My heart jumped. I knew I had nothing to be afraid of, but it was disturbing to turn and find a pair of dark depthless eyes watching from the shadows. He looked like the thing of nightmares and I could only imagine how he would look to someone who didn't understand, who didn't know our world.