Four
“Watch your step, it gets everyone.” Kyan warned Emmix. They had parked outside his Aunt and Uncle’s house; the small home was lined with natural stones and trees. It couldn’t compare to Abscan. The street carried houses of all shapes and sizes, the colors created a rainbow neighborhood. Kyan instinctively searched his pockets for the key, then realized Emmix had summoned him new clothes. He remembered the spare on top of the front door frame, reached up, and flicked it off. He picked it up off the ground and opened the glass door to slide it into the deadbolt.
The house smelt of spices and vanilla, wafting out of the door. The AC’s cool air hit him in the face, still not phasing his body temperature. He could hear the familiar commercials on the TV. Jim must be home. He led Emmix through the Better Homes style house. Each room was painted with different neutral colors paired with matching furniture and little decorations that worked as focal points. Each room was painted with a signature accent wall. They passed through the office and to the living room where his uncle sat reclined in a burgundy chair, eyes closed and fast asleep. He also reminded him of Dailen and his dad. They could all be brothers if no one knew them. “We need to be super quiet.” He whispered silently to Emmix who was skimming through the small selection of books on the shelf in the formal living space.
“Kyan is that you?” Relia walked around the corner, and crossed her arms over her chest. “Explanation please, now.” She pushed. Kyan walked past her to his room, pulling her with him. It wasn’t abnormal for her to be in his house without him, she practically lived there anyway.
“Keep quiet, Jim’s sleeping. I need to make this quick…I’m moving out.” Kyan pulled Relia in, with Emmix behind them and quickly shut the door. He searched for a duffle bag and started packing up his clothes. Emmix rolled her eyes at him; he knew she didn’t like his clothing choices, hence summoning new ones. He emptied drawers into the bags, spilling them over onto the floor and over the bed.
“You’re doing what?!” Relia snorted, “Where are you going? Wait, who’s that?” she shifted her gaze to Emmix who was walking around the room rummaging through Kyan’s things. He watched Relia turn red, as if she was the only one who had the right to be nosey with him.
“Relia this is Emmix, Emmix this is my best friend Relia Alexins. I’m moving somewhere I can’t tell you about but you need to trust that if it were safe to tell you, I would.” Kyan desperately hoped he was saying all the right things not to upset his best friend. He knew she would be hurt that he was leaving, but he had to convince her it was okay and that he wasn’t going very far.
“I don’t know what to say…” Relia trudged over to his bed and sat down, staring at the floor. “Will you still go to school? Am I still going to see you?” she inquired, playing with her thumbs, not moving her eyes. “Why is she here?” Emmix looked over at Relia, surprised.
“Oh, he’s coming with me.” She mentioned politely. Something in her voice set Relia off and she straightened up and narrowed her eyes. Kyan had never seen her so lit up, he was curious as to why Emmix changed that fact.
“Who are you?” She snapped. He whipped around to face her, surprised by the sharpness in her voice. She sounded harsh and bitter, something Kyan knew was strange and uncommon.
“He already introduced us, did you forget that quickly?” Emmix narrowed her eyes back. He could tell Relia wasn’t about to let him go, she looked like she was going to put up a fight. He couldn’t figure out what exactly was crawling under her skin, she was acting weird. He noticed the two had positioned themselves on opposite sides of the room, avoiding any close contact.
“Do you want to cut the sarcasm out of your voice before I slap it out of you?” Relia’s eyebrows pulled together, rage took over her stature. Kyan watched the two and stopped packing. He hoped a girl fight wasn’t about to break out. He knew he would try to back up Relia but he also knew Emmix could do horrible damaging things to Relia, and he’d have to stop Emmix first.
“You wouldn’t want to start anything, trust me.” Emmix glared back at her, as if she read Kyan’s mind. “You’d regret it big time.” Kyan watched to make sure Emmix didn’t close her eyes to trigger.
“What are you two doing? Stop fighting.” He interrupted, attempting to settle things before they got too out of hand. He couldn’t figure out why there was so much bitterness between them. He began stuffing his clothes and necessities, that he’d miss, into bags and piling them by the door again. He picked out his favorite books and threw them into a separate bag, picked up the clothing casualties on the floor, and tossed them in as well.
“Stay out of it, Kyan.” Relia flashed. “Why not?” she turned to Emmix, “Because you don’t want to cry when I beat you down-”
“Whoa, hey stop Relia. This is unnecessary.” He quit packing and walked over to her, knowing she could get flustered easily. “I’m not going very far, it’s not like you won’t see me.” He said in a hushed voice. He could see in her eyes that she felt burned by the idea of him leaving, tears were welling up. He grabbed her and wrapped his arms around her shoulders, hugging her tightly. She hugged him back, nestling her face in his shirt. He kept her there for a long while, not letting go because he knew he’d miss her just as much as she’d miss him. But it was the safest thing to do to keep her safe. His fingers ran through her hair, calming her down. She rubbed his back with her fingers then balled her hands into fists full of his shirt. “I’ll be back, I promise.” He whispered in her ear, letting her go.
He stood back and took in his room one final time. His sheets lay sprawled over his bed in a messy heap. The curtains on the window still held a light brown stain from when he accidentally knocked over a cup of coffee playing air drums at his desk. He’d miss that stain. By the tall window, his long walnut desk and shelves looked bare, even with all of the papers and books tossed across its surface. Half his room was organized while the other half was a confusing mess. He reached into his closet and grabbed his favorite pair of brown oxfords, wishing he could take more stuff. He loved collecting books; it had become a secret hobby of his. It hurt him to leave most of them there, but he needed to. I’ll only hurt the people I love if I stay.
“Alright Emmix let’s go.” He picked up the bags by the door and slung them over his shoulder. “I’ll see you Monday Relia.” He said, leaving the room and heading towards the front door. He set the bags down and walked over to the kitchen. He slid open a drawer and grabbed a pen and a sheet of paper. He scribbled: Eliana and Jim, I’m moving out of the house for awhile. Don’t worry about me I’m in a safe place, I just think it’s about time since I’ll be eighteen soon. I’ll still go to school; I’m not dropping out or anything. If you need me just contact me through Relia. Love, Ky.
He folded the paper in half and walked over to Jim, setting it on the coffee table next to the couch. He took the remote and turned the TV off. He glanced at Emmix who had looked at his Uncle the first time since arriving, and turned pale in the face, whiter than she already was. She hurriedly took the bags off the floor and silently opened the door ready to book it. Relia walked over to her before she left and whispered something in her ear, quiet enough for Kyan not to hear. Then louder, she continued “Take good care of my best friend for me.”
We need to leave, now. Kyan heard her voice in his head again. He looked over at the two staring each other down. He grabbed the bags from Emmix, gave Relia one last quick hug, and shut the door behind them. “What was that all about?” he asked Emmix while they walked over to the bikes.
“It would’ve been a whole lot easier to just summon your crap you know that right? Because I feel like I was just put into a Jr. High movie with a bunch of caddy girls. That whole thing was ridiculous. You’re friends with that?” Frustrated, she pulled out her keys and accidently dropped them on the ground. Her hands were shaking as she fumbled around to pick them up. He observed her as she grew more and more frustrated every time she dropped them.
“Hey, I don’t make fun of your friends so you can’t make fun of mine.” He added, reaching down to pick up the keys for her, “She’s just being protective-”
“No, that wasn’t being protective, that was being a psycho crazy jealous bitch. She likes you Kyan, and it’s completely obvious. Even when she threatened me...” Emmix grabbed the keys and bags from him and tossed them behind a bush. “I’ll summon them when we get back.” She mumbled, climbing onto the bike and taking off. Kyan hopped onto his bike to catch up with her.
Emmix slammed the garage door, leaving Kyan in the dark. The ride home was difficult, he struggled to keep up with her and also know when to turn or stop. Almost running into several stop signs, he gave up. They hadn’t said a word to each other the entire time. He hoped the whole thing would blow over by the next day. He wasn’t a huge fan of drama. Walking around with his arms outstretched in front of him, he finally found the door and opened it. Only, it was the wrong door.
He felt around the wall for a switch, and turned the lights on. He walked into the large room Dailen had brought him to earlier that day, the one with the weapons and plants. He silently shut the door behind him, and stepped on something that made a crunch. He looked down at a pile of glass that had been shattered right in front of the door. He hopped over the pieces, wondering how they got there. He took a closer look at the glass, noticing some had remnants of black marker. Instant recognition hit him, the demon jar. He searched around for the lid, looking under the tall metal cabinets and drawers. How did it get here? He continued searching, feeling around on the floor. His fingers first hit the sharp point of an arrow then the cool metal lid; he quickly grabbed both and pulled them out from under the cabinets. So if the jar is here, and it’s broken… where’s the dust? Kyan slowly turned around to the broken glass, fear emanating from his skin. He picked through the shards with his fingers, ignoring the painful scratches and cuts. No sign of any dust was in the pile. Where’s the dust? He repeated in his mind, blood pulsing even faster, panic reaching his nervous system. He swore he could hear his heart beating louder than it ever had.
A sharp blaring scream came from somewhere in the building. Kyan stood straight up and shut his eyes tight, feeling the similar mice crawl up his arm, the sensation had started to become unnoticeable. Another scream and he opened his eyes too early. He decided to wait on it and sprinted to the door on the opposite side of the room. He jerked it open; the first thing he noticed was the torn wallpaper. The poor cherubs had been scraped off violently. “Melan!” he heard Rysen yell, and ran in the direction it came from. He spun around the library corner and saw the source of the screams.
What stood before him scared him more than any movie or bad dream ever could. This was no Lesprin. This was what nightmares had nightmares about, everything Kyan feared most in life, this monster was it. As if the creature entered his mind and stole all of his phobias and turned himself into one massive terror. Kyan stood frozen in his shoes with more fear than he’d ever felt before.
“Do something Kyan!” Rysen broke the fear coma, bringing him back into reality. The creature had Melan pinned down on the floor mouth open like it was about to eat her. He shut his eyes and waited for the mice, they didn’t come. He opened his eyes and looked down at his arm, still nothing. He attempted shutting his eyes again and still no mice. It wasn’t working, and he was only killing precious time. He looked at Rysen and shook his head, no good. His body was running on adrenaline and fear. A small pain shot through his temple. He was clueless and something was wrong.
The creature leaned closer in to Melan, mouth still open but not to eat her. Instead, it spoke thick Latin. “Nihil prosperum belli, tot proelia vincent tibi, nihil prosperum habebitis. Hoc est admonition. Et revertar.” The entire speech blew over Kyan’s head, he couldn’t, for the life of him, figure out what it had said. As quickly as it spoke, it disappeared into thin air, leaving Rysen, Melan, and Kyan dumfounded.
Rysen ran over to Melan, picked her up, and immediately walked out of the door and down the hall. Kyan had absolutely no idea what to do with himself. Emmix ran into the room while he contemplated how insane he was. “Where’d they go?” she asked, Kyan was more confused than he’d ever been before, even after all the events leading up to that moment. “Are you okay?” She walked around to stand in front of him, waiting for a response. Kyan couldn’t find any words to speak. “I’m going to take a wild guess that you have no idea what just happened.” At this, Kyan snapped out of it and looked down at her, pain tugged at his temple, blood pulsed through it like a heartbeat. He felt dizzy; the world around him grew blurry and unrecognizable. It began to spin, moving up and down, he felt his body work its way into submission. In one moment he dropped to the ground, out cold.
When Kyan opened his eyes, he found himself in the same bed, the same room, and the same situation as he did the morning he arrived at Abscan. His temple was even hurting like it was that faithful morning. Except this time he was alone in the recovery room. He pulled the sheets away from himself, looking down to find new clothes again, pajama pants with little ducks and no shirt. This has got to stop happening. He waltzed out of the room, looking around for anyone. The wallpaper had been repaired where the cherubs were ripped off. How long was I out? What remained as evidence were thin white lines of glue around each rip and tear.
“Hey you’re up.” Emmix strolled up to him, she too was wearing pajamas; only, hers were actually tasteful and flattering. “You ready to be caught up on what happened yesterday? You’ve been out all day.” She crossed her arms over her chest and leaned against the wall. Kyan traced his finger tips over the glue.
“Alright, speak.” He sighed, dropping his hand to his side. He faced her, and leaned against the wall as well. He felt more exhausted than he had in a long time, all the information and fighting had begun to take its toll on him. He now knew a fraction of what Dailen had been going through for however long.
“Okay so while you and I were at your house getting your crap, Melan and Rysen were actually doing what they said they had to do. Which was practicing with the arrows, Dailen made sure they did it. There was this one jar we’ve had for a year or so that was a ticking time bomb. They didn’t say why it was out, but Rysen was pushing the arrows around in that huge room with all the weapons, and accidently knocked over the jar with one of the arrows Melan shot. It shattered against the door leading to the garage and instead of taking minutes to respawn it formed in seconds. That wasn’t a normal Lesprin demon; it was a Tantibus which, in Latin, literally means nightmare. It has the ability to creep into your inner mind to find what you fear most out of everything, and makes itself into that fear. If you’re afraid of spiders and snakes, it will transform itself into a hybrid of the two. It looks different to everyone, because everyone has different fears. What it said was a sort of warning. Saying that it will be back and threatening that we won’t win the war.” While speaking, Kyan watched as Emmix’s eyes darkened. He could see sadness creeping into her and taking over her demeanor. He also couldn’t ignore the fact that her tank top fit her tiny body perfectly, and her pajama pants flattered her small figure.
He looked back at her eyes, the warmth was gone in them, and only coldness revealed itself, “What’s wrong?” he interjected, catching her off guard.
“What do you mean?” she stumbled, as if she’d been caught stealing the last cookie from the jar. He waited patiently for her to break and tell him what was bothering her. They stood there for what seemed like an hour, waiting for the other one to say something. He could see the silence pushing through her, anticipating for her to crack. Finally, “Don’t think for one minute that I’m going to just open up and tell you my life story Kyan Rogues. I’m a tough one, you’re gonna have to try harder than that.” She slyly winked at him, spun around, and walked away. He watched her disappear down the hall.
“Yeah she is pretty cute.” Melan’s small voice made Kyan jump. Now he was the one that looked like the cookie stealer.
“I wasn’t uh… I was just…” he trailed off, failing to make an excuse.
“Hey don’t worry about it, it’s our little secret.” She smiled, “Are you okay? I heard you passed out last night.” Her face held a dramatic worried expression. Kyan could tell she was the type of person to care a lot more about other people than about herself. His mother was the same way, putting other people before her, making sure everyone was taken care of before tending to her own needs. He found comfort in that, knowing him and Melan would get along really well.
“Oh I’m fine; it was just a relapse from Friday night. Are you okay? The thing was scary; I thought it might take you for a second.” He watched as she attempted to hide her sorrow, looking away quickly and kicking her foot at the ground.
“Yeah I’m solid, nothing can take this girl down!” her voice broke mid sentence. She played with her fingers, trying to distract herself. “Well I’m gonna go make some dinner are you hungry?” She tried changing the subject but he could tell she was pretty shaken up. He lifted her chin up to look at him; her nose was turning red, signs of holding back tears. Her eyes were also darkened, resembling a more reddish pink. “Come here.” He mouthed, pulling her in for a hug. She reminded him so much of his mom. In that moment he could imagine hugging her, the old feeling of love he missed so much. He could hug his aunt as many times as he wanted, but could never feel his mother’s presence like he could while hugging Melan. He almost didn’t want to let go, scared that the moment would not present itself again.
He could feel his shirt start to dampen, she was crying. He held her tighter, remembering what his mom had read to him in a book once. Animals and autistic people had lots of things in common. When they stressed out and panicked, a good way to calm them down was exerting even pressure on all sides. It created an all around hug, similar to swaddling a baby. He knew the same thing worked with practically everyone.
He felt her freeze up in his arms, her scar rapidly filling with black. He knew she was about to disappear, and she did. Knowing that she wasn’t very far, he whispered, “If you need me I’ll be in my room.”
After replaying her activation in his head, Kyan wondered why he wasn’t able to trigger his freeze earlier. He looked down at his hand, examined the thin light scar on his arm, and traced it up to his neck. The line curved continuously, creating spirals all up and down his arm. It didn’t look normal, for a scar, it lacked the jagged unevenness of new skin. In fact, his looked like someone had taken a fine point sharpie and drawn a line from his wrist to his neck. Was it like that before? As he was thoroughly examined his arm, Rysen sneaked up behind him. “You doin’ okay?” He lightly touched Kyan’s shoulder; he was beginning to get annoyed with how many times he was being asked that.
“Why does everyone keep asking?” He faced Rysen, hoping to get an honest answer out of him. He watched as the man contemplated telling him something he assumed was important.
“Alright I’m not supposed to tell you this, but Dailen took some of your blood after you passed out last night post Tantibus attack. He’s been running tests on it and he thinks you’re… unstable…” Rysen watched Kyan, looking for any sign of anxiety or panic. He noted the slight jealousy he felt that Kyan had a fit figure almost as nice as his and also had great hair. He continued when he only noticed confusion on the boy’s face, “When Emmix’s foot hit your temple it struck an important nerve, which was why, at first, it was really easy for you to switch on your ability. But when you weren’t able to trigger it in front of the Tantibus and when you passed out shortly after it left, Dailen thought something might not be right. This kind of stuff never happens, usually it takes a few tries to activate quickly, and venators start at an early age. Plus no one’s ever had trouble triggering once they’ve done it before.” Kyan’s expression was unreadable. For a minute Rysen thought he was just in shock, but when he dropped to the floor he knew something was really wrong with him. “Well I hope you heard me.” He sighed, picking Kyan up and taking him to the infirmary, again.
As he walked in, Rysen watched Dailen hard at work at the lab table he constructed in the past hour. He was hunched over several flasks of different purple liquid. He wore Melan’s short white kitchen apron to act as a lab coat. He had thrown on a grey button up and cargo shorts. From behind he looked like a teenager in chemistry class. Rysen walked over to one of the beds and slid unconscious Kyan on top of the sheets. Dailen turned around as Rysen was walking out, “Again?” He looked exhausted, Rysen felt bad for him. Dailen had become like a father figure, especially after Rysen left his own family to join the venator life at age nine. He could see the exhaustion in Dailen’s eyes and face muscles.
“Yeah, he dropped in the hall after I told him everything.” Rysen glanced at Kyan, with his eyes closed he looked older and more mature.
“You weren’t supposed to do that Piltre. He probably went into shock or had an anxiety attack.” Dailen looked back at the table, examining the beakers closer. “I think I’ve found a temporary solution. This,” he held up a small tube with glowing purple liquid, “will go to the damaged nerve near his temple and hopefully be used as a soother. You three will absolutely need to be with him tomorrow. I know how much he will want to go to school-” Rysen attempted to protest and Dailen stopped him, “you will go. He’ll want to feel normal and all that, but it’s dangerous for him to be alone, especially in public.” He walked over to Kyan, looking down at his unmoving body. He took a syringe out of his pocket and disinfected the needle. He slipped it into the tube and sucked out a portion of the purple solution. He picked up Kyan’s arm and found the vein in his skin to pierce. Dailen stuck the needle in and pushed the liquid out of the syringe. He stood back and Rysen joined him in watching the glowing purple flow through his vein, up his sleeve, and eventually up his neck. “I hope this works-”
Kyan’s eyes flashed wide open; his hands gripped the sides of the bed. His eyes widened, jaw clenched, and fists balled up. His hand immediately smacked his head where the injected liquid stopped. He let out a sharp shriek of agony. Dailen turned around and ran over to the table, lifting and searching each flask, trying to find out why it was having the opposite effect. Kyan continued to yell, ripping the sheets off the bed. He leaned over and threw up blood onto the floor, coughing over and over. His body began to convulse rapidly, Rysen tried to hold him down. “Kyan snap out of it!” he yelled over the shrieking, he climbed up onto the bed and sat on top of him. “Calm down!” his heart was speeding up, Rysen had never let anyone die on him, and he wasn’t about to start a trend.
Kyan stopped moving, and slowly closed his eyes. Rysen watched as the scar on his arm filled with the black, but something was different. It looked like waves on the beach, filling up then emptying inch at a time. Waves of black and pink rippled through the curved line. “Dailen, you should see this!” He rushed over to the two, intensely observing Kyan’s scar.
“I don’t know what’s happening.” Dailen stood in shock. Him and Rysen exchanged glances.
“…Why don’t you trigger?” Rysen glanced up at the older man’s face, fear and terror peeked through his orange eyes.
Surprise took over Dailen’s face, “What? I haven’t done that in years. There’s no way it could work...” Dailen looked down at the floor; shame worked its way into his demeanor.
“How do you know if you haven’t actually tried?” Rysen stared blankly; terror arose in him, creeping from his eyes into his nerves. He watched as Dailen fought an inner battle, deciding if he should attempt it. Then he shut his eyes, breathed in and out smoothly. He took a few moments to slow down his heart beat.
Dailen felt rusty, all the years of not working it out and using it, he thought it might have disappeared. Every breath was important, time was ticking. He focused hard, hearing each pump of blood leave and enter his heart. He waited a few extra moments before opening his eyes, nothing. He tried again, not completely hearing what Rysen had said just before he withdrew again. He waited a little longer than the last time, focusing even harder. He didn’t have the scar, and without it he had to pull all of his ability out of an aged old dusty cabinet in his head. Come on Clares, you can do this. A long minute passed then out of nowhere, he felt it. The small spark of venator still in him, he reached for it and grabbed onto it.
Upon opening his eyes, Dailen placed his hand on Kyan’s head. Familiar pictures flashed violently in front of him, it was like a movie made from a camera inside of Kyan’s body. It took over his vision, replacing the infirmary with an inside look at Kyan’s veins. His vision followed the blood stream while dodging blood cells, finding the cause of the pain. A small violet-lime sphere attacked red blood cells and nerves. Dailen reached into the fake movie and pulled it out with his hands. He grabbed onto it as if it were the size of his palm. The picture shut off and he was looking back at Rysen, holding a small glowing bead.
“What is that?” Rysen asked the obvious, still stunned that Dailen had pulled it off. He had actually triggered again, they thought he’d never be able to. He was already anxious to tell Emmix and Melan.
“I don’t know. It wasn’t in the syringe or the tube when I injected him.” They both whipped around after hearing Kyan rustling the sheets. Rysen climbed off of the bed and stood next to Dailen, watching the poor boy wake up. The waves in his scar halted, disappearing back into his skin.
“Why does this keep happening?” He said in a rough voice. He looked at the two standing over the bed. He tasted blood in his mouth and questioned how it got there, then noticed Dailen holding something in the palm of his hand. “What’s that?” he asked, pointing to the object. The pain in his head was gone.
“We don’t know. What’s the last thing you remember?” Dailen waltzed over to the make shift lab table and rolled the object into a beaker by itself, and sealed it in tight.
“Uh I think I was talking to Rysen in the hall about what was happening. Then I felt a sharp pain in my head and everything went black.” The boys looked at each other; Kyan read something in Rysen’s expression that looked like fright. He raised his eyebrows, “That’s not what all happened… was it?”
“I think you need to rest. Are you still planning on going to your old school tomorrow?” Dailen walked back over to the two boys, taking a seat on the nearby bed.
“Do you think I’d be okay?” There was hope in Kyan’s eyes, hope for a normal day out of all the crazy days he’d had. “I won’t tell anyone about… you know…” Hope kept pulsating through his mind, taking place of the pain that was there prior.
“I know you won’t. I’ll give you the go ahead, just come back here if you start to feel weird. I mean even if it’s just a headache.” He warned, lying back onto the adjacent bed and shutting his eyes. “It’s been a long day. We all need to rest.” The boys watched as Dailen sunk deep into slumber for the first time in a week.