Fable (on hiatsu)

48. Uncontrolled

"How odd," The man said. "All of a sudden, the presence of all those Spirits suddenly faded and this was the last with an unconcealed monster."

"Hey! The monster bit was uncalled for," the girl retorted. "My name is Romur!" She clenched her fist, her fingers were all pale.

Damn! I'd totally forgotten to tell her to conceal her own presence!

"Leaver her alone! She never did anything to you! In fact, none of the Spirits here did!" I growled.

"Maybe so, but I was hired to get rid of them all. Sorry, kid."

"What about the Spirits of Good Luck and Prosperity that live here?! Tell the board about them! They won't want to have them killed, right?" I was grasping at straws.

Romur glared at me. I could tell she was mad at my betrayal. I glared back, there was more to what I was saying than she thought.

"Perhaps, but that would also give the other Spirits them time to run away wouldn't it?" Sayanel frowned.

"Tch." He saw through my plan.

The man walked further into the room. He was ignoring Kyuu and the boys, but he was seriously glaring at Romur and me.

"What an odd human you are, though," he reflected. "You're actually taking the side of Spirits?"

"Why not!? We all coexist. Why can't I continue coexisting with them since I can see and touch 'em?"

"Because they cause disaster within our world!"

...

Now I was officially mad.

"Oh, shit, he really said that?" Jo flinched. Toby grimaced and they both began to inch their way to the door. "Nice choice of words dimwit..." Toby hissed between his lips.

Kyuu frowned. But she wasn't as... touchy as I was about that word.

Disaster. Cataclysm. Destruction. Pandemonium. Fear.

"So do humans..." My voice was dangerously low. My blood raged through my body, pounding at my temples, racing through my veins. It pulsed, lanced with the energy of my life. The gold tendrils of power that weave themselves through my muscles, veins, nerves and senses.

I was mere seconds from hitting the man.

When Plum ran through the classroom door. Her black hair danced in the wind of her speed. Her smart eyes took in everything. She gritted her teeth and made a spear of water, condensed from the air.

"Run!" I yelled.

Too late.

The spell-bound paper that Sayanel had had in his hand flew through space. Straight at its target. It hit with a clap of thunder. The smell of singed skin and clothes wafted through the air almost at the same time as I saw Plum collapse.

Plum collapsed onto the ground.

She collapsed and lay there, eyes unseeing.

Her hair fell, like a blanket of jet, upon her broken frame.

I was next to her. Someone was yelling, crying. It took me a while to notice that it was me. I picked her up. Her water spear had lost its form, now just a puddle on the ground.

All the colours seeped away. The distant clap of thunder resounded in the back of my mind. Rain fell in sheets in my memories, tap-tap-tapping on the roof. Bird calls, songs, music, her laughter, her smiles, her way of turning her head, the way she always fiddled with her braid

Everything.

Then the word was glowing. Bright yellow, white, gold, red edges, orange iridescence. My emotions faded to nothing. Nothing. I was holding a foreign body in my arms. The light buzzing at the back of my mind.

Some part of me realised that I had let go of my barrier.

Every passing minute would cost me a bit more of my life. Every second shaved hours off my clock.

Sparks danced. Blood ran.