Written in Life

(Chapter 8)

I watched Bernice as she slept on the couch and rested my eyes. I felt misplaced outside of the inkwell, the prison I was born into. I felt a tap on my shoulder and my eyes flicked open. Bernie's uncle smiled at me and leaned on the wall beside me, sighing.

"Cody, right?" he said. I gave one sure nod of my head and looked back to Bernice. I heard her uncle chuckle and he moved closer." Beautiful isn't she?" I never took my eyes off of her. Just stared at the one person I felt connected to completely from the first second I met her. She understood what I was...

"She looks just like her mother," her father said as he walked into the room, crossing his arms.

"I'm sorry about your loss," I said. He sighed and smiled.

"It happens," he said, laughing." It happened to my mother and it just happened to be the same with her."

"I never had a family. It surprised me how she broke down like that," I said. Bernice stirred in her sleep and guilt was almost pouring out of her. When there was no reply I looked to the two men beside me and they were just staring at me.

"What?" I asked and shrugged. They both stared at me wide eyed.

"Not even in your story?" her father asked. I shrunk down and closed my eyes tight, trying to block out the mad doctors faces, holding sharp tools before me. I shivered.

"Nope," I managed. It was silent for some time and I fell asleep against the wall.

It was a dark room with one single light shining in the middle of the room. I looked around and walked into the light. I was in nothing but a pair of gray shorts, stained brown with week-old blood. I was covered in all sorts of cuts and gashes, scars covering every inch of my chest. A chill ran up my spine as I saw a figure in the shadows moving closer. I backed away slowly as the face I knew all too well walked into the light, smiling and tilting his head to one side and setting a deck of cards on the metal sitting in the middle of the room. He slid the cards across the table with one graceful movement of his hand and looked to me.

"You know the deal. Pick a spade and I get to do whatever I want with you," he said. I walked closer and got a closer look at him. He looked as though he hadn't slept in months, a thick stubble collecting on his chin. His piercing eyes stared at my hand, smiling mentally at every movement. He was still wearing his blood-stained lab coat and his hair was long and tangled.' My blood,' I thought. I took a deep breath to subside my anger and looked at the cards on the table. They seemed to waver in my vision and I examined each carefully. I reached my hand out and moved it over the stack and it shook in fear. It was new every time I picked a spade... and worse. Cold sweat formed on my brow and I looked up to see the mental scientist staring obsessively at my out-stretched hand. I slammed my hand on the table and tried to get it over as quickly as possible. I whipped a card from the pile and looked at it and winced. The scientist tried to peer over to see the card and couldn't find a correct view. He slammed a fist on the table, frustrated.

"WHAT IS IT!!!" he ordered.

"Jack of clubs," I whispered.

"SPEAK UP!!!" he screamed.

"Jack of clubs," I repeated, slapping the card on the table face up. The man turned pale and he gritted his teeth, veins popping out of his forehead. He flipped the table over in rage and the cards went flying, thirty spades revealing themselves.

"YOU BASTARD BOY!!!!!!" he screamed. He ran towards me and I stood there. I winced and braced myself when just before he reached me, he disappeared and his lab coat fluttered to the ground with an eerie emptiness...

I instantly awoke at a sound of heavy boots marching on gravel. Bernice jerked awake as her father was gently cleaning off her face, sending black water flying across the living room. I could tell she heard something that meant harm because she wrapped her arm around her father's neck.

"Get down!" she yelled. She pulled her father down with her and I let my legs collapse beneath me just as the first bullet whistled by my ear. I covered my ears as the bullets came rushing through the old farm house with ease. Bernice didn't waste any time, crawling towards the back door, strangely in an army uniform. She took cover behind the kitchen island, quickly loading a pistol. I placed my hand on the wall and the black pool flooded from my fingertips. The plaster and installation hardened and formed into the shape of a large towering and black figure. It tore from the rest of the wall with ease and looked to the door, the bullets reflecting off of it's rough, scale-like skin. It stormed out of the door and the fires immediately stopped, having a new threat to focus on. I quickly stood up and ran towards the back door, grabbing Bernice's hand and dragging her towards the exit.

"Are you crazy?!?! We need to stay behind cover!!!" she yelled.

"There's enough cover out there for two minutes so we might want to get out of here while we still can!" I replied.

"What do you mean we?" she spat.

"They're after us both you know!" I said.

"You think we can just run? We'll get shot!" she protested. I groaned in frustration and picked her up, flinging her over my shoulder." Put me down!" she yelled, kicking and squirming under my grip. Her father ran in and her uncle was tending to a bullet wound in his leg.

"The dessert's to the west. They wouldn't dare go there," he said quickly. I gave a sure nod and ran out the door. I heard a gun shot right next to me and I jumped.

"I said let go!" Bernice screamed, pistol in hand. I held my hand out and thick black ink poured from my hand and formed into the shape of a horse, tall, lean and strong. Bernice stared at the creature with wide eyes and I smiled. That was enough to shut her up. I threw her on and lifted myself up and mounted the horse. I grabbed hold of the mane and Bernice turned herself upright. Ink dripped from my fingers, forming a slender whip. I cracked it in the air and the horse got startled, rearing up and then running as fast as its legs would let it. Bernice took her job watching our backs and shooting whenever she had to. We rode for hours until the horse collapsed and pooled into the puddle of ink it had come from, sending up crashing against the hot sand. I coughed and my dry throat burned and Bernice put in as much effort as she could to get the sand out of her mouth, spitting and rubbing her tongue with the hem of her sleeve. I tried to swallow but there was nothing there, the hot air roasting my lungs.

"Can you tell me what the hell that was?!" she yelled. And she still speaks! I groaned and fell back into the sand.

"I saved your life, didn't I?" I said." Isn't that enough?"

"Oh sure! And while you did, you left my father and uncle for dead with the most highly trained men in the whole damn page!" she said. Sheesh! What does it take to make a girl happy these days?" I don't know about you, but I never leave a man behind!"

"Well, think about this princess," I said, standing up," I've never had to worry about leaving someone behind because it's only ever been me myself and I! Nobody else! The only other person I've had to worry about is you!"

"Princess?" she said, offended.

"Is that seriously all you heard in what I just said?" I yelled, trying to hold back my anger.

"And how the hell did you just magically make a horse appear out of your hand? Are you some sort of freak?" she said.

"Hello!! We're both freaks! You can do the same thing!" I bent down and put my hand into the puddle left behind from the creature and absorbed it through my skin, making my veins black as it ran through my body. She grunted from behind me and I heard the sand crunch beneath her feet. I turned to see her walking away." Where are you going?" I called.

"I'm going to use my royalty to find some water! Just because the princess can!" she said. I already knew being with her was going to be a great time...