Spirit

The Parchment's Secret

I didn't want to hear the details. As soon as Leena started explaining, I raised my hand as a sign of 'shut up'.

I turned and walked away, pacing aimlesly, trying to absorb the information Leena just told me. Maddie was dead. Maddie. My girlfriend. The girl I fell in love with.

"Wow," I muttered to myself, rounding around a dark corner. "I don't understand that... thing." I kept walking, not looking at my surroundings. "Life. Life likes to fuck me, doesn't it?"

"Probably." A raspy voice replied.

The Dragon was gazing at me.

"Life likes to fuck all of us. That's its proffession. You just have to embrace that fact."

I gave a small chuckle. A sad one.

"Look, I almost lost my son because I was scared of you. I lost friends, family and kids I cared about because of you. But I'm not taking it out on you. Or on the world. I just accept it. You should too. That girl of yours, her spirit is now free. Her spirit, her reflection, is better where it is."

I stared at her. None of her words made me feel good. Call me selfish, but I wanted Maddie's spirit with me. And that wasn't going to happen. I turned on my heels and kept walking.

"Fox." She called again. I stopped, but didn't face her "Revenge-" She bit her tongue, as if she was dreading the next few words. I expected the usual speech on revenge, that it was the road to troubles bla bla bla. But obviously, I didn't know the Dragon that well. "Revenge is in that parchment. Learn it, read it and-"

She faltered as I continued my way towards nowhere, ignoring the scroll and it's content, and thinking that this was the last time I would ever feel anything, except the burning sensation in my gut, my head, and my eyes which I labeled 'Revenge'.

Back at the warehouse, I opened the scroll alone, only for it to reveal a bunch of drawings and sketches. At first glance, I didn't understand any of them, then looking at the details, I decoded some of them.

Then, something caught my eye at the end of the parchment . A power, according to the scroll, was given to all casters. But I only saw one caster perform it. My mind was racing furiously, but I figured now wasn't the time to play detective. I carefully ripped that very part out off, and hid it in my pocket, and made sure for it to not be seen.

I rolled it back and left the bedroom. The whispers downstairs suddenly hushed. Everybody closed on me as they saw the parchment in my hand.

"So, let's get stronger." Roy started. He was the only one who was in a little good mood, since he got out of the place where his terrible childhood lies.

Rob made little eye contact with me, but I recognized sympathy looks from his face. I must have felt the same for him, since he was the one who rescued Maddie from the rapists, but I couldn't bring myself to feel anything.

Leena would often break into tiny sobs, which annoyed me a bit.

Oli and Jack rested on each others shoulders, and Jack would offer me his hand for comfort, and I took it most of the times, trying to ignore the weird feelings.

As soon as I unrolled the parchment, the group launched itself a bit closer to have a better look.

Leena scanned it quicker than the others. She seemed somewhere between relief and confusion. "That's all the information?"

"Yep. Just scanned it upstairs. None of it vanished." I croaked. I wasn't surprised that she was the one to ask me that question.

"I just wanted more-"

"Ask Rob for that."

"Well, let's get training." Rob interrupted after the awkward moment of me and Leena glaring at each other.

As one, we all left our spot and went to a corner or left the warehouse to practice the scribbles they memorized the most.

Everyone went in pairs.

Oliver and Jack practiced a new level of energy balls, since it was on the top of the scroll. Apparently, casters were doing it wrong. It wasn't supposed to just push your opponent, but it was supposed to be more of a bullet, if perfected, it would go through the opponent's body. Pretty gory stuff, yeah.

Leena and Rob went to the back of the warehouse, trying to practice the unhuman speed and strength, or so they say.

So I was stuck with Roy, and we decided to try and summon a shield. Apparently we can. I took the first try in summoning a shield, because I was striving for new powers to fuck 'Hakem''s shit up, and I didn't care about energy balls hitting me in the gut. And so it began. At the beginning, nothing happened, so Roy hit me straight in the stomach, but I didn't feel the pain. After several attempts, and a lot of checking the scroll, something light blue appeared in front of me, but it was barely visible that it shattered as soon as Roy's attack hit it.

"Umm, Luke, I think it's my turn now." Roy said weakly.

"Keep going." I said dryly.

"Luke! I just spent half an hour hitting you in the gut!" He stated urgently. "You should -"

"I-said-keep-going." I muttered quietly.

I knew bossing and ordering Roy wasn't a great idea, since I heard he can litteraly suck the electricity out of a human body, but he only sighed and continued.

We spent almost two hours at the same pace, but I didn't care. My reward was a shiny new shield that finally protected me from Roy's attacks.

Roy, however, only took like thirty minutes to summon the same shield as me, but I didn't care.

By the time we all finished, it was night time. I could barely feel my stomach. Leena and Rob were drenched in sweat, informing us that they made a huge progress. Oliver and Jack walked back into the warehouse with energy balls that seemed concentrated, flickering and shooting out little sparks, and even with Roy's shield, Oliver was able to send him a couple of feet back.

They all laughed, and I turned to look at Maddie waiting for her to make a sarcastic comment, but the truth hit me once more, and I felt like Roy had been hitting me again with his energy balls.

I turned and left to take a walk in the woods, and to my relief, nobody followed.

I got the missing piece of parchment out of my pocket.

Even in the moonlight, I swear I could see the power it instructed.

But how could it?

Okay, I'm in the middle of the woods.
I'm closing my eyes as the parchment says.
I'm imagining the front of the warehouse.
I feel every particle- wow I do feel every particle of my body floating rapidly to that specific place.

I opened my eyes.

I was in front of the warehouse.

I had just teleported.