Spirit

Doubts and Facts

Ever felt, even when the room was full of people chatting and laughing, lonlier than ever?

Yeah, well that's how I felt for the next few days. The attack on Chinatown didn't even have an impact on the people there, but it shook the fuck out of my soul.

Maddie was gone, I knew Leena was lying about her true abilities (since I teleported, AND practiced it when everyone went to sleep), I wasn't going to tell them about it, and I had no idea what I should do next.

'Hakem''s attack on Chinatown proved something: their power. They would have destroyed a whole city if it weren't for a legendary fire-breathing animal spirit, and so far, we were short on those. They were one step forward to dominating the world, now that they destroyed a whole city that could turn into an army with a snap of a finger by a porn-obsessed woman.

I didn't realise all those thoughts had carried me from the woods to the warehouse on a cloudy night.

"On another one of your grief walks?" Leena asked me tentatively.

I gazed at her. Their were too many words I wanted to say to her, most of them curse words, in a loud throat-destroying voice, but all that came out of me was: "Grief walks?"

"You know, that's what we're calling them. The walks you take every night when you think we are asleep." She chuckled.

"You certainly like to keep an eye on me, Leena." I noticed coolly.

"And you certainly uploaded an attitude towards me." She replied with the same tone.

"You do seem annoyed about it. If Maddie was still here, she would have kept me busy from... whatever shady things are going on in the warehouse."

"Shady things?"

Okay, either she was stupid, or really good at this. And I wasn't going to let her win.

"Maybe the others can't see it, but something in the air feels funny. And I should know, since air is my aptitude. Beware." I smiled.

"Luke?" Jack called from a distance. He seemed to be straining with something. "Can you help me lift the dumbells back in place?"

I fought the urge to laugh as he was struggling to carry some 20's back to their place.

I made my way towards him. As I was helping him, I looked back at the spot where Leena and I just had our little conversation, but she wasn't there anymore. That bitch. She really pissed me off. I knew she was hiding something important about herself, and revealing it in front of the whole crew was only going to make things worse.

"Jack," I whispered abruptly, "I have to confess something. But you have to promise not to tell anyone."

He gasped."You're gay too?! I knew it! I saw the way you were looking at-"

"What?! No! Jack, please, it's serious."

I told him my suspicions about Leena. That she was hiding something important, maybe something that leads us to 'Hakem' even. And to prove my point, I even showed him the piece of parchment about teleporting.

I didn't know why I told him. Okay I knew why. He was the person I trusted the most in this place, he saved me from the hospital, he helped me with the drugs, and he helped me from my father.

When I finished talking, he gazed into space for a couple of minutes. I was seriously out of breath, and I was shaking, scared that he would burst out at me and make a scene.

"Luke, if what you're telling me is true, then we have been eating shit since ever." He finally said. His eyes were full of worry and pain.

"I'm still assuming, but I see no other way around it."

He was silent again. I knew his brain was racking over and over, searching all the possibilities there are.

"Okay look- oh hey guys" He then yelled, as Roy and Rob made their way into the warehouse. "We'll talk about it later." He whispered to me. Then he turned to Rob and complained about leaving the dumbells all over the floor.

Night came quickly, and the food I had was enough to make me have a quick nap. But it wasn't a nap, of course.

I was standing in the middle of the forest, staring at nothing but trees around me. My feet were planted to the ground, and my voice came out in feeble echoes.
My fox suddenly appeared from behind me, looking worried.
"You can't and you shouldn't!" He said.
As usual,  I didn't understand a thing.
"What am I not supposed to do?" My voice came from a far.
"You know what I'm talking about." He replied sadly.
"Trash Leena? Expose her? Because she de-"
"No, something more dangerous. It will happen tonight." He said on a more urgent note.
"What will happen? Please help me understand!"
But it was too late, more spirits were emerging from the end of the forest, and I recognized the cry of the python, giving me chills all over my body.

I woke up with a start, and I noticed that everybody went upstairs to sleep. And of course they had the usual debate on who was going to do the dishes, and since I didn't call "not me" during my sleep, it was my turn. (Happened to me before many times.)

I rolled my eyes and superseded a smile, and went to get on with the small pile of dishes in the dim light.

That's when I heard a noise outside. I left the water running so that the person who was outside would think I didn't hear them. I peered my head as much as I can, but the noise seemed to go fainter and fainter.

I did the natural thing, I followed. Whoever this was seemed very fast, and I was hardly keeping up. We arrived at the end of the woods, and that's when the voices stopped.

I knew how much of a fool I was, and how I should have listened to my spirit. That feeling peaked when someone out of nowhere kicked me in the nuts, and I fell down on my knees, but the person wanted more, so he hit me straight in the face, and I heard a crack, and blood made its way from my nose to my mouth, the metallic taste making the whole situation worse. He then grabbed my hair and pulled my head back and whispered in my ear: "Is it funny now, or should I send you to Mexico to make it funnier?"

It was a girl, a girl I unfortunately knew. 

Emily left me there, blood and dirt sticking up my face, but that wasn't the bad part.

She joined a group of people that I recognized some of, faces of 'Hakem' supporters, especially the one in the middle.

"Arg, Pirate." I laughed through my pain. My father was wearing an eye patch, hiding the hole I probably had created when I attacked him months ago. "You look adorable."

"Likewise." He smiled, and I knew there was nothing I could do. I was cornered. "I would espe-"

"Okay cut the crap. What the fuck do you want?"

"No swearing." A chilly voice said from the back.

I knew this voice.

I knew this sentence.

I knew I was screwed.

Everybody, even my father, made way to their leader, Dr. Paul.

"No way." I whispered.

"Yes way." He whispered back. "But now please, let me reunite with the person without whom, I wouldn't be standing here, with the Fox at my mercy."

I thought Emily was going to step up.

Paul continued and announced: "Come forward, Leena, my daughter."

And truly, Leena apeared, and got down on one knee so I could see her teary eyed face.

"I'm really sorry." She whispered, as another tear fell down from the corner of her eyes. As I saw her face, I knew she really was.

But that didn't matter; her hand got close to my face, and a yellow mist came out of it.

Everything fell into darkness.