The Pain Thief

Chapter 17

SPECULATIONS

Zoe woke up early the next morning when there was just a tiny bit of light coming through. She didn't entirely remember falling asleep, so she was more than a little surprised when she opened her eyes to see Jack asleep in front of her. There was a blanket over the two of them, so she assumed Mr. Z had been in to check on them. 

She had no idea why being so close to him was making her nervous, especially since they'd slept in the same bed like that before. It wasn't like they were tangled up together either, but her heart just seemed to speed up. 

She sighed, rubbing her eyes and sitting up. It was early Saturday, maybe six or so. She got out of bed and slipped some blue flare jeans on over her pink shorts, trying to be really quiet so she wouldn't wake up Jack. She had a feeling this was the most sleep he'd gotten in a while. 

Despite her efforts, he woke up, blinking a few times. 

"Good morning," Zoe said to him with a smile while she cleaned up a little. 

He blushed for some reason, but smiled back. "Morning. Feeling all right today?"

"Just fine. You look much more well-rested Jack. I'm glad."

Jack rubbed the back of his head shyly and got up, stretching. Zoe twisted her hair back and reached into her pockets out of habit, surprised when her hands didn't come back with her hair pieces. She frowned, letting her hair fall back around her shoulders. 

"You alright Zoe?" asked Jack. 

She frowned and averted her eyes, remembering that they had fallen out during her fight. They were a gift from Jack and she never went anywhere without them. Now she had lost them and didn't want to face Jack. 

"My hair clips," she said sadly. "They fell out during the fight."

"Oh!" said Jack excitedly. "They're at my house."

Zoe raised an eyebrow. 

Jack elaborated, "I picked them up when I found you, but I didn't want to lose 'em so I put 'em in my room. I can get them back to you whenever."

Zoe felt the urge to hug him, but resisted, remembering the hug they had last night. Instead she just took his hand and smiled. "Thank you so much Jack, you don't know what that means to me."

Jack smiled too, but Zoe wasn't great with these moments. She said with a chuckle, "Go take a shower or something and I'll meet you downstairs. I have a feeling there's a lot of information to pass along."

***

About an hour later, they were all sitting at the kitchen table. Mr. Z usually got up early anyway, so he made them both breakfast. Jack's hair was messy from the shower, but he didn't seem to mind that it was wet. 

Zoe rolled her eyes with a smile as Mr. Z sat down. In his hand was the black stone that the man had given her. 

"That stone," she said distractedly. 

Mr. Z looked up, sighing. "I don't mean to push you for answers already Zoe, but I think you might have some information that could be useful."

Zoe nodded and began explaining what happened. She recounted her fight in full detail, skimming over the parts were she got hurt a little, but describing how the man fought with physical attacks. She told them about how the stone was supposed to control hazes and that they wanted to get rid of people like her and Jack so they would be unopposed. 

"Did he say what he was planning on doing?" asked Jack. 

Zoe shook her head. "He er... dissolved before I got the chance. His clothes were left there."

Mr. Z nodded. "It seems as though this stone allows people with power to enhance that power by absorbing the energy of the hazes. It's possible that the hazes with special abilities that you faced, such as the one with swords for arms, were failures; people like you who used the stone and were physically overtaken by the hazes. The one you faced most likely had strength for his power, which is why he only used physical attacks."

"He said there were more like him," said Zoe. "Which means there are more stones like that."

It was silent for a moment as Zoe thought. Then she said aloud, "He called me 'Pain Thief' when he saw me. He knew who I was and he knew what I could do. He separated Jack and I, which must mean that he knew I usually only defend. He seemed genuinely surprised when I used Malachi's power."

"'Pain Thief' huh?" said Mr. Z. "It seems the two of you are being watched. They know about you already, though since you don't use Malachi's strength, he wasn't expecting it."

"Why me though?" said Zoe. "I've got the power to heal, but they know it's not an offensive power. Why would they want me dead so badly?"

"I think our first question is 'Who is they,'" said Jack. "We need to find out more about what we're up against."

Mr. Z sighed. "I'm afraid the only way to do that is to fight them, which doesn't seem like it would end well." He twisted the stone around in his hand. "Maybe this can help us."

It was silent as they thought for a moment. Finally Mr. Z said, "Just keep your eyes open for now and try to stay in contact as much as possible to avoid being separated again. That's all we can do until we figure out more, or someone else appears for another fight."

It wasn't a happy thought, but it was something. If anything good had come out of her fight, it was that they now had a better idea of what they were up against. 

***

Zoe had been feeling much better since she healed herself and was dying to walk around a bit. She got Jack to walk back with her to his house, giving Mr. Z some time to rest after taking care of her for the week. 

She was still a little winded, but otherwise fine. She was however aware of Jack's continued nervous glances in her direction as they walked. 

Finally she just turned to him and tilted her head accusingly. He stopped walked and just stared back innocently. 

Zoe rolled her eyes and they walked up to Jack's house. It was the middle of the day on a Saturday, so it was kind of quiet. Zoe pulled her sweater tighter, shivering a little. She had changed into a tee, but was still cold. It was almost November after all. 

"Hey, I'm home," Jack called out. 

The two of them walked into the living room where the whole family was just relaxing a little while watching some tv. They all looked surprised to see Zoe there. 

"Oh hold on, I'll get your clips," said Jack, leaving the room and running up the stairs. 

Everyone was still staring at her. "Um... is everything ok?" she said, feeling small. 

"Zoe!" yelled Jana and Sarah at the same time, big smiles spreading across their faces. 

"Are you ok?" said Sarah worriedly. "We heard you were really sick."

"Yeah. Jack seemed so sad about it," said Jana. 

Zoe blinked a few times. She figured he'd lie to his family, but was still surprised at the concern. They'd be a lot more concerned if they actually knew what happened. 

"I'm fine now. I was just... really under the weather for the past few days," Zoe said, rubbing the back of her neck nervously. 

She got the feeling that Sarah didn't believe her, but the rest of the family just seemed pleased. 

Jack came down a second later, holding her hair pieces in his hand. Her face instantly lit up as he handed them to her. They weren't even chipped, despite the hits she had taken. 

Zoe couldn't help it. She gave Jack a brief hug to thank him before bundling up her hair and putting them in. 

Something about knowing that he even gave these back to her made her feel just a little better about all the difficult battles ahead. If they were together, they could win. It was as simple as that.