A Beast with a Smile {Book 1}

Chapter 16 (Scarlett): Welcome to the Jungle

Elly landed on the ground with me in her arms. For the second time in the same week she had saved me from a deadly fall by carrying me like a newlywed.

She set me down in the darkness; I could barely see her until her armor began to glow a bright yellow tint. Archy's armor also began to illuminate further in the distance; it was a bronze tint that made everything look like the color of a brand new penny.

He had already walked a far distance from us and was pushing some trees out of the way. Yes trees. Full grown ones at that. And thick trunked.

This fifteen year old was pushing them out of the way like they were twigs in mud.

At a closer glance, the part of the trees where Archy touched had began to disintegrate into pieces of sparkling white light that flowed toward Archy.

"Is this what he meant by spare light?" I asked Elly.

"Yeah, that's what he calls it. It's what gives him the ability to create stuff out of thin air."

"It's called the conservation of mass. Matter can not be created nor destroyed, only remastered," Archy stated in a flat voice.

"Rearranged." Elly chimed in.

Archy gave her an annoyed look, then continued, "I absorb particles from the things I destroy and recreate them as new objects. However, I can only create as much as I take. When I run out of light, I run out of my abilities."

"How do you know when you're out? It's not like you can count every little particle that enters your body."

"I just kinda feel it."

"Really? That's it? A feeling?" I asked astonished,

"Well you feel hunger when you don't consume food. You feel thirsty when you need water. You feel tired when you lack rest. I feel empty without light."

Archy had created a path of broken trees that could've been made by an elephant stampede. The small snowflakes of light that flowed all around Archy like tentacles had latched onto his arms and legs.

He walked towards the middle of the sea of lights and the tentacles wrapped tighter around his penny like body. The light was bright enough for me to see in the pitch black and I noticed Elly's annoyed countenance.

She held one hand on her side while rolling her eyes at Archy. Her eyes met mine and her expression faded at an instant.

"You ever see Star Wars?" she asked.

I raised an eyebrow in response to her odd question. She raised her hands mimicking a T-Rex and shot an arc of lightning right at Archy.

He screeched in pain and fell to the illuminated floor, "ELLY! What did you do that for?"

"You were showing off"

"No I wasn't," he argued back.

"Uh-huh."

"Nuh-huh," they bickered.

Archy jumped to his feet and braced for Elly's charge. I grabbed her by the waist seconds before the two clashed. I held one hand on Archy's head. He wasn't much smaller than me, but I was still able to hold back his fury of claws that he swung at Elly while she attempted to do the same.

"Let me go," they both said, struggling to get out of my grasp.

"When you start acting like adults. Come on, you have abilities that people can't even dream of, yet you're bickering like children."

They were children... children doomed by a disease named Atom. They will never get a normal childhood. Never had or will ever get the love and care from their mother's embrace. Instead they were turned into something outside the grace of reality and told to fight for Atoms sick twisted gain.