What Lies In Me

Chapter 9

Tony and Sadie rush out of the house just as Jackson begins to stir.

"What happened? I heard something! Is he alright?" Sadie asks while walking over to Jackson and kneeling next to him. Jackson opens his eyes, lifts his head, and looks up at Sadie and myself.

"Uh... Which one of you guys saved me?"

I raise my hand. Jackson lets his head fall back onto the ground and exhales.

"Dang. You didn't go and try CPR or anything, did you?"

I stand up. Jackson is obviously fine. Sadie offers to help him up. I'm about to do the same when Tony walks up behind me and grabs my shoulder. I turn around to find him holding the sword that I created, his eyes wide.

"You figured it out?"

I nod.

"How did you do this? Is it sharp?"

"It's my blood. I'll explain once we get inside. And yes, it's sharp."

I hold up the hand I used to heal Jackson, and heal it with a thought. I turn back around and see Jackson on his feet, unsteady.

"Hey, come over here." I say to Tony. He drops the sword, and comes over to where we are. We move to either side of Jackson, and support him as we begin to walk to the house. As we get about halfway there, he shrugs us off and walks on his own.

"So, what happened?" he asks.

I frown. "You just about got yourself killed. Nice effort, though."

He exhales, clearly a bit exasperated. "The part I wasn't there for."

"Once we get inside." I assure him. "You need something warm to eat, and I wouldn't mind eating something either."

Sadie catches up with us, holding the sword and a piece of the shattered bat, and looking at me with an incredulous expression on her face. As we walk through the garage and into the kitchen, she speaks up.

"You'd better explain everything. Whatever it is that you were doing out here at one in the morning, it sure did leave a mess."

"Yeah, yeah, I will. Just let me grab some stuff, we can talk while we eat."

I grab some sliced melon out of the fridge and begin warming up some soup. Jackson checks himself for fever, and finds that he has warmed up to normal body temperature already. Sadie places the bat shard and sword on the table, and Tony picks up the sword. He seems quite taken with it. I pour soup for the four of us, and sit down.

I first explain, in between sips of soup, the discovery of my abilities. They remain silent until I finish explaining. Tony is the first to speak up.

"So... that makes you a bloodmage? That is beyond cool. And if you could make this with it..." Tony puts the sword on the table.

"Yeah..." Jackson replies, grabbing the sword and inspecting it. "You could do a lot of damage with this... It's a really well-made blade! Whoa, it's sharp."

"So, that's great, but why didn't the sword catch on fire?" Sadie asks.

"I don't know." I answer. "Maybe... maybe I can't really use magic. I can only alter the way things are. For example, this sword. Unless I add oil to it, metal won't burn... so maybe that's why this didn't burn. If I tried it with a stick, or a wooden sword, then who knows?"

"That would make sense." Sadie replies. "I'd see if we could test your theory now, but you're probably tired of cutting yourself." I nod in agreement. "On top of that, we haven't heard the rest of your story yet."