Spirit

Bonds

"Please, go away now" I said, balling my fists.

My dad laughed. "You're gonna fight me, kid? You can't even make this!"

He made an energy ball and threw it right at my stomach. I hit the ground, and all the air escaped my lungs. I got tired of that feeling.

I got up, but this time he punched me, and I staggered backwards and grabbed hold of a tree.

"You can't defend yourself Luke!" My dad laughed. "These kids aren't helping you in any way possible!"

You obviously don't know about our stun-guns, I thought, but I wasn't going to say that out loud. I cursed myself for not carrying one with me right then.

"But don't worry. Once I take you with me, you will thank me. We will train you the way it's supposed to be."

"You're working with 'Hakem'!" I breathed.

"Oh, so they taught you something. Good, good. Of course they made us the bad guys. But let me tell you Luke, we are not stupid."

I let out a small laugh.

"Laugh all you want. But five and a half kids won't do anything to faze our plan."

"You're seriously trying to rule the world?" I laughed again. "That's so five year old evil character cartoon."

"You don't think we would do something like that if we didn't think it through, right? Do you know who are the casters in this world and who are the humans? Do you know how powerful we are?"

"I don't give a shit. All I know is this is wro-"

"Don't talk to me about wrong and right Luke!" Dad yelled.

So far my plan is working.

"Wrong and right are just excuses that hold you back from the one thing that really matters in this world. Power!"

"You really lost it! Even if you force me to join, I won't do a damn thing to help you."

My dad yelled in outrage.

Any time now, I begged.

"Well, you might as well die here!" He screamed.

Before he could do anything a bird flew straight through me and hit my father right in his chest.

"What the..." he groaned.

They heard! Finally!

But the bird wasn't finished. He got a bit high then turned and flew down beak first at my father. But this time, the bulldog leaped and bit the falcon by its wing, throwing him away.

I was worried that something might have happened to Jack, but he appeared right behind me, walking like he had all the time in the world.

"How stupid," he said bored. "Didn't you think of the possibility of a casters' tracker near a warehouse, Gaby?"

I turned around surprised.

"You know my father?!"

"He's you're father?" Jack seemed surprised. Then he remembered he was mad at me, and threw me the cold shoulder. "Old acquaintance."

"Ahh, my little gay companion. How's the missus?"

"Get away from here." Jack spat.

"What if I don't?" Gab- my dad replied. I could here a little panic in his tone.

As fast as thought, Jack threw an energy ball at my father, but he rolled away from it, and threw one right back. Jack ran and jumped on a tree, sending him behind my father. But before he could throw another ball, his falcon made a slight yelp, and Jack got distracted. He watched the bulldog bite his spirit as it started to bleed a little. Jack winced, and my dad screamed in victory.

My nerves got the best of me, and I tackled Gaby, sending him to the ground. I thought like crazy about how I could distract the massive bulldog.

Jack winced when the falcon started getting heavily injured, so what if...

I grabbed a small branch from the ground, and while my dad was turning to hit me, I stuck the branch in his left eye. Blood poured out of the eye socket.

Gaby growled, and sure enough, the bulldog did the same.

I was pretty satisfied of myself until a searing pain struck my face. My dad was hitting me all over my body, cursing me, then he threw me five feet away using one of his spirit balls.

"I should've killed you the second your mother died!" He screamed. "Even though you deserved a slow and painful death, I should ha-"

He stopped himself as he heard another growl. I dared to turn back and watched a hyena approaching slowly, unmistakably targeting my dad.

He swollowed hard, then called his spirit to go back inside his body and ran at an incredible speed.

The hyena turned back and entered Maddie's body, making her eyes glow. She ignored me and went straight to Jack.

"Thank you both so-"

"Yeah whatever." Jack walked away.

Guilt was eating me alive. Then anger did.

"Okay seriously?" I asked turning towards Maddie. "I just saved his life!"

"Yeah well, you'll have to do more than that."

"Are you kidding me? What do you want me to do? Die for him?"

"I would enjoy that." She smirked.

"Oh, the hell with you." I spat.

She didn't answer. She just started checking on my injuries.

"Bah, nothing serious. You'll live."

"Ah thank you I wouldn't have known." I mocked her. "How will Jack do?"

"Don't worry about him. He's a tough one. Plus, spirits heal faster when they're inside their casters bodies. That doesn't the same way around sadly."

"Of course it doesn't..." I murmured.

Back at the warehouse, I told everyone what happened, the exact same things that my dad told me.

"You're the one what?" Rob asked.

"You tell me. I mean how can I be anything when I can't even cast my spirit?"

The whole room was silent.

"Nevermind, I'll just go to sleep. We'll talk about it tomorrow." I finally gave up.

As I got to my mattress, I automatically checked for my pills to take one.

Oh my God. This is how far I've fallen.

"Luke?" Someone called behind me.
 
Jack was standing at the stairs, watching me. I didn't say anything. I guess we were both trying to figure out what to say.

"Look," he started, "I kinda have to say sorry, but I don't know how."

"No, it's me who should be sorry Jack. After everything you did to me, I-"

"Hey, it's okay. You were under the influance of a man pulling toxic pills straight out of your body."

I laughed. He looked at me one more time and gave me a warm smile, then turned away.

I layed in my matress, thinking about what happened today. While some stuff were starting to make sense, others were still a mystery. I didn't even notice how tired they made me; by no time I fell asleep.

The fox was in my hands. He was still bleeding, but he was better. Power and spirits were surrounding me, whispering things I didn't pay attention to, because all I cared about was the fox's state. He looked at me and said: "You're the one!"