Globe Tracers 3: Heritage of Triad

Chapter 13: Her Light

"Yeah, I noticed she wasn't much bigger than you."

"You... you saw her?" I had his full attention suddenly. His eyes went straight to looking into mine. "I mean... how's she looking now? She was a mess when Tarth took her."

"Neither me seeing her nor you handing her over was that long ago," I noted.

"Still..."

"She was..." I hesitantly looked at his eyes. "She was looking okay and..." he narrowed his eyes. "Yeah you know she's still a mess don't you?" He nodded. I sighed. "They hooked her up to some life support. If there were any wounds that were immediately life-threatening they would have fixed those, but yeah, she's not out of the woods."

"She won't be unless we pull this off either huh?"

I shook my head. "No, Tarth will let her die if you don't fulfill your deal, that's just how it works. It'll mean nothing to him to pull the plug himself."

"You're okay with that?"

"I... Look no one's life doesn't have controversy." He looked down with a sigh. "The answer is no, I just can't fix it. But hey, I'm not the one grinding sand in my fist- or who was crying the whole walk down here last night."

"You cried last night... I was kind of a jerk, sorry about that."

"Probably some stuff I needed to hear. I was being pretty arrogant." I nodded to myself.

"Doesn't mean I had to put it that way," Kyle said, biting his lip. "I know better... honestly feel like I'm changing, like I'm becoming an even worse person than who I was."

"Losing someone can bring out the worst in you," I said.

He looked down, tears starting to come down. "But... but she's not really gone yet." I paused for a minute trying to think of what to say. "I mean, she isn't, she's just... it's just so bad that what you just said about finding the worst wounds makes sense and- she didn't wake up for hours in the light of the day... her face was..." he was stuttering as he talked, tears streaming down now. "If we don't do this... I'll never see her again."

"She means a lot to you, I can tell."

"You have no idea... I'm so sorry about how I acted last night. She would have been ashamed, I know it."

I marked my page and put down my book. "Ya know, maybe she would have gotten frustrated, but if she's as good as you're making her out to be, I think it would be mixed with some pride in you."

"Really?" he balked. "How so?"

"You're not just out here trying to save her. I mean who is this kid, Bart, to you?"

"Some missing kid we rescued."

"So do you even know him that well?" He shook his head to that. "That's actually pretty noble. Everything that's on the line for you and you're still risking it all for him?"

"I couldn't look her in the face if I let Bart get hurt."

"Not only that. You were rude as I'll get out last night- but I threatened to kill you both. I say that was restrained compared to what I probably deserved."

"What would you expect me to do, kill you?"

"Not sure if you would have to be a bad person to do so," I said. "I mean, self-defense and all... course not after I was knocked out and tied up..." I realized I had mixed up my terms a bit there. "But you even forced me to heal myself, because the whole time, you refused to leave me injured. After all that- you wouldn't leave till you knew I was okay." He was quiet, as was I for a while. I spoke up again. "You were harsh, and I can see it's because this is... tearing you apart."