Hey everyone! Merry Christmas and a happy New Year. Here's my gift to you!
"You need something else," Raina told her.
It had been a few days since the sparring incident, and Pyra had become a student to Raina.
Luckily, the Phoenix hadn't lied; she did know how to fight. Not very well, but she could throw a punch and use her whip. But...
She needs a weapon she can use at close quarters.
Raina knew that in a fight, a whip wouldn't exactly help if you were fighting someone up close. She needed something like a knife, a dagger, a sword, something.
They'd practiced with the punching bag for a day, but all that showed was how much Pyra enjoyed hitting things.
For the rest of their time, they'd concentrated on going through all of the sharp looking weapons in the room.
They'd tried knives. That had ended disastrously with Pyra accidentally stabbing herself in her own eye.
Next, they'd moved onto swords. The first one they'd tried—a broadsword—Pyra hadn't even been able to lift off the ground. Then, when she could finally do that, she kept trying to hold it with only one hand, like a character in a cartoon or a movie. After explaining that that wasn't really how people used broadswords, they'd moved on to rapiers. This, also, was useless. Pyra couldn't stop calling it the 'stupid, needle sword', and, as a result, was so distracted, she impaled herself.
Currently, they were trying to use a staff (or, as Pyra called it, 'the glorified stick').
Pyra looked up at her. "Are you sure that I can't just use the whip? I think I'm very comfortable with the whip."
Raina shook her head. "Nuh-uh. If someone was really close, you wouldn't be able to swing it properly. You need something you can use at close quarters."
"Or... I can just not let anyone get that close to me," the Phoenix said with a smile.
Raina rolled her eyes. "Right, because that's reasonable."
"It is; you see these skills? No one's going to come within a one-metre radius of me."
At this, Raina locked eyes with Pyra. The Phoenix was confident, but she was always confident. However, she did seem to genuinely believe what she said...
"Ok, tell you what, if you can beat me in a fight with your whip, I'll let you use it." She didn't miss Pyra's grin as she said it.
"Sure, sounds simple enough."
In a flash, the fire whip appeared in the Phoenix's hands.
Raina reached behind her back and pulled her katana swords out of their sheaths. Pyra had never seen her fight before, and boy-oh-boy was she in for a surprise.
Immediately, Raina felt a rush. The swords were like a warm, familiar memory in her hands. She embraced them, enjoying the sense of comfort they brought.
"Ready?" she asked Pyra.
In response, Pyra threw her whip through the air. Raina watched everything as if in slow motion. She saw the whip attempt to wrap around one of her swords. Moving out of the way, she ducked and instead launched herself at Pyra.
The phoenix missed her first blow.
Well, at least she's intuitive.
That was one thing about Pyra: she'd been in enough fights to know when a blow was coming.
The two parried, back and forth as Pyra ducked and dodged Raina's swords, occasionally flipping and jumping out of the way with the same grace and style as a ballet dancer.
Say what you will about her common sense, but you have to admit; she's got style.
It became evident after a time that Pyra was running out of ideas. Raina didn't let her get enough space to allow her to use the whip. As a result, she struggled. A lot.
Raina backed her up into a corner, a sword pointed at her chest.
"Ready to give in?" she asked.
Pyra grinned and shook her head. "Not a chance!"
Raina shrugged.
I mean, if that's the way she wants to go...
Raina took a swipe. Pyra ducked and launched herself into the air. She tried to use Raina's head as something to push off of, but Raina caught her hand and threw her to the ground.
In an instant, Pyra lay on the floor, moaning.
"Ok, ok. Fine. I tap out. You win. I'll find something to use."
Raina laughed. Abruptly, her phone buzzed in her pocket. She pulled it out with a frown, but then gasped. It wasn't a text message; it was a reminder.
A reminder she'd set 11 months ago. Before all this madness, before she'd become Immortali.
It was a notification she'd set to remind her of Taylor's birthday, which was supposed to be tomorrow...
Everything else became a blur to her as she continued to stare at the screen.
'Taylor's B'day: DON'T FORGET TO BUY HER A PRESENT!!!!!' her screen read.
A younger her had written it. A younger, human version of herself. A version of herself where Taylor was still alive.
A muffled sound emanated from the background.
"Hello, earth to Raina!"
It was Pyra.
Raina turned around, life and colour returning. "Uh, sorry, what was that?"
Pyra sat upright. "You zoned out, like a lot. Anyway, I was saying that you were right, and I was wrong and you don't need to rub it in, is all. So can we get back to training? I seriously can't wait til I learn how to kick your ass."
Raina sniffed and rolled her eyes, but there was an emptiness in her. Suddenly, she didn't really want to train with Pyra anymore. There was another place she wanted to be. Somewhere she just knew she had to go.
"Uh, sorry, but is it ok if we pick this up tomorrow? I have something I've just remembered I've got to do."
Pyra frowned. "Like what, exactly? We live in the same house. What else could you possibly be doing that I don't already know about?"
Raina sighed. "Something private, ok?"
"Oooo, has Raina got a boyfriend? While I don't know when that could've possibly happened, I'm willing to accept that Tinder is a distinct possibility."
"Yeah, sure, Tinder," Raina mumbled walking out of the training room, leaving a rather bewildered Pyra behind her.
***
Raina stepped out of the house into the afternoon sunlight. She squinted. It was the first time she'd left the house since the funeral.
Nothing much had changed. It doesn't matter how much your world fell apart: the rest of the universe kept going as it always had.
There was no obvious sign that the atrocities of three months ago had even happened.
A knot tightened in her chest.
She felt as though she could just walk right out of the house—as she'd done on many an afternoon—and walk home, into her own house, where she'd find her parents making dinner, her brother studying, and her sister trying to annoy him as much as she possibly could.
But she knew.
She knew they were gone. The memories of their deaths were burned into her mind. She could never forget, and she would never forgive.
She hadn't forgotten Samael. She hadn't forgotten that it was his fault they were dead. And even though she'd improved, she'd never forget that. It was a fire within her body. A constant reminder of what she was training for. Because one day, she was going to get another chance to kill him, and when she did, she was going to take it with both hands.
She was going to make sure that no one would have to suffer at Samael's hands ever again.
She began the quiet walk, hands in pockets. Before leaving, she'd changed from her black fighting clothes, opting for jeans, converse and a green shirt.
It felt strange to walk to the place she was going. She'd always known where it was. Everyone did, but it wasn't a place people usually went.
Rounding a corner, she came upon the cemetery.
It wasn't spooky, or dark, or even remotely as imposing as the ones from movies.
Generally speaking, cemeteries weren't scary. Certainly, there was a hush about them, an atmosphere that demanded one's respect, but it wasn't creepy, it was peaceful.
She walked to the end, where four new gravestones poked out of the ground. Nothing had grown on them. No moss or lichen. No weeds. In fact, there was even a fresh bunch of flowers leaning against them. Raina had a pretty good idea of who'd put them there, but she didn't want to think about them. They were a whole other form of grief on their own.
Instead, she sat down.
"Hey Mum, hey Dad. Hey Tay, hey James. It's uh... it's me... Raina. I just uh... I just came to say hi, and I, uh... I wanted to wish Tay a happy birthday, you know, for tomorrow. She would've been ten."
A tear dripped down her cheek.
"And, I guess I also wanted to say that I'm sorry, you know, for everything. It's my fault, isn't it? If I'd told you, or if I'd done something about it, maybe you'd still be here, right?"
Another tear.
She didn't feel stupid. She felt as though she really was talking to them, as though they could hear her, as though she really was making up for her mistakes.
"I hope that you guys can find it in yourself to forgive me. Maybe then, maybe one day, I can learn to forgive myself, but trust me, I'm a long way off that. I just don't know what to do anymore. Most days, I just try and get through it as best I can. I'm better than I was, but, the truth is... I don't know who I am anymore without you."
She put her head in her hands and sobbed. If they really were there, if they really were listening, she hoped they realised just how sorry she was. Well, at least, until, she was interrupted.
"So this is the tinder boyfriend. Well, I gotta say, he isn't much of a talker."
Raina turned around. Lo and behold, there was Pyra, staring at her, hands on hips.
Raina rolled her eyes. "Seriously, you followed me?"
Pyra nodded. "Yep, wasn't anything better to do, was there?"
She groaned. "What do you want now?"
The Phoenix girl sat down next to her. "To help."
Raina stared at her.
Pyra sighed. "Seriously, like, legit. I just want to help."
Silence.
"So..." the Phoenix began. "This is them."
"This is them," Raina confirmed.
"And that reminder on your phone?"
"A reminder I'd set last year... for Tay's birthday."
"Oh... right. Guess you forgot."
"Yep. Guess I did."
Silence. Raina didn't know what to say. She didn't even know if she wanted to say anything. These graves, this cemetery, her family... they were private. Sacred, somehow. Something only meant for her. She didn't really feel like discussing them like this, right in front of them. It felt rude. But then again, when had Pyra ever been concerned about being rude?
"So... come here often?" Pyra asked. "After... well... you know..."
Raina shook her head. She wrapped her arms around her legs and rested her head on her knees. "No, I haven't been here since the funeral."
"And that was...?"
She sighed. "Three months ago."
Silence. The wind blew through the trees. In the distance, Raina could hear cars whooshing past.
"Arriana didn't tell me a lot about how they died..." Pyra began. "But from what I can gather... it was some pretty nasty stuff."
"It was," Raina whispered. She screwed her eyes shut. Images of that afternoon came back to her. Images of blood and limbs and bodies. Flashes of crimson and skin. A bathtub of scarlet. A red-soaked carpet. Her own stained hands. A metallic smell clinging to the air...
Something shook her shoulder. Immediately, Raina was back. Her eyes were open. She was back in the cemetery.
She watched as Pyra retracted her hand. The Phoenix Girl stared into the distance in front of her, but she spoke to Raina. "Try not to think about it. Try and think of something else. I know that sounds hard, but it works."
Raina stared at her for a second. "What?" she scoffed.
Pyra looked at her. "Listen, I'm being serious for once."
"Yeah, but I thought you didn't know how to handle this kind of stuff, right?" Raina asked, raising an eyebrow.
Pyra looked down. All the laughter and jokes had drained from her face. "You know how I told you that at least you had a family? Well... I did once... sort of."
Raina cocked her head to one side. "Huh?"
Pyra nodded. "Yeah, there was this lady. She fostered me when I was a kid. I called her Mum and everything. Didn't even know I was a foster kid. Well... not until she died."
Raina looked away, resisting the urge to gulp. "Uh... um... how'd she die?"
"Cancer," Pyra mumbled. "She got real sick, and it was too late. And when she died, all of her stupid family, all those dumb pricks who pretended they actually gave a damn about me... they all went to the funeral, and then they just left me in the dust. Like I was nothing. Like I wasn't even worth the effort."
"Jerks," Raina said.
Pyra snorted bitterly. "Yeah. Exactly." She turned to face Raina. "But you want to know what keeps me going?"
Raina raised an eyebrow. "Tenacity? A strong desire to drive everyone to distraction?"
Pyra shook her head. "I don't even know what that first word means. As for the second... well, yeah... kind of. But that's not just it. For a while, I was upset. I was hurt and lost and angry. I knew that the only person who cared about me was in the ground, and as for the woman who gave birth to me... my parents..." At this, Pyra's face contorted with rage. "I realised they didn't want me. They just left me. No one wanted me. I was sad, yeah, but I was also angry. I was angry beyond belief... and it's that anger that I held onto. There was this feeling in me... something that told me one day, if I held on... I'd get all those selfish pigs back."
"Isn't that exactly the opposite of what you're supposed to do? Aren't you supposed to like, come to terms with it and just accept it?"
Pyra shook her head. "No way in hell! I don't just accept anything. I don't give in. I keep going, and if it's rage that fuels me, then so what? No one was there for me when I needed them to be, so why should I give a damn about the 'right' way to do something? The truth is, you do what you want. The world makes up these stupid rules because people are dumb. But the rules don't matter if no one cares about you, because no one's there to keep an eye on you. So take my advice: don't get mad, get even. Or rather, get mad, but don't let it distract you from your real goal, and that's to get Samael back for what he did to you."
Raina thought about that for a moment. "Isn't that from a movie?"
Pyra shrugged. "Who cares? It works for me."
Raina nodded. "Fair enough."
"So, are you going to do it?"
"Do what?"
"Get him back."
Raina sighed. "I don't know. I want to. You're right, I'm angry. Really angry, but..."
"But?"
"I don't think I can."
Pyra looked at her like she was dumb. "Are you for real right now? You nearly killed him three months ago, but you're not sure if you can do this? Seriously?"
Raina's shoulders slumped. "Look... the way I was when I nearly killed him... I... it wasn't really me. You how I was when you met me, right? Well... I was kind of like that. I just took a backseat in my own head... and something else took over. I don't actually know how I did it. The only thing I remember is realising what I was doing and wondering if it was what I wanted to do."
"Because you'd never killed anyone before," Pyra finished.
Raina nodded.
Abruptly, Pyra laughed.
Raina turned to her. The Phoenix Girl was overcome with great peals of laughter.
"What? What is it?" she asked.
Pyra giggled. "I just thought—" she inhaled between giggles. "I just thought of how screwed up this whole little scenario is. You're an Immortal with all these cool powers, and I'm a Phoenix, and our current mission is to eventually find a way to kill some other psychotic Immortal, or all the humans in the world are even more screwed than we are."
Raina shook her head in bewilderment and disbelief. "And you think that's funny?"
Pyra smirked and chortled a little more. "Hilarious, actually."
And, while Raina didn't laugh quite like Pyra did, she smiled all the same. Yes, she supposed it was pretty funny. Or crazy. Either one.
But it was just the way things were, and besides, Pyra was right: she had a score to settle.