Shards of Kairos

IX - Motel California

Julian felt like he needed to sleep for a thousand years. And it made him feel unsettled and irritated. Now he had two people to watch out for, to keep safe, and to protect. And at the moment, Julian felt completely inadequately equipped to do any of those things. And it was a problem he couldn’t remedy without finding the Shard and feeding the Crystal.

And he had to do it soon.

Putting Katie in a crude stasis had completely, physically depleted him and the Crystal at his wrist was cruel now. If it didn’t have enough power, it would take it from him.

A thousand years of sleep probably wouldn’t solve what only feeding it could do. But the point was to avoid what Julian needed to feed the Crystal with.

They had the book and the Shard for some reason wanted it too and wanted it badly. They weren’t intelligent enough to know what it held, that it could turn the tides of a war, of a disease, that had been spreading for thousands of years. But they were persistently hunting it for some reason Julian didn’t understand. And they were hunting them too, he could feel it… another uncharacteristic trait that had developed recently. Julian had a keener sense of the enemy, the more and more he fed the Crystal with every enemy it devoured.

They’d dismissed Julian as a viable threat for a long while. And even when he’d brought the fight to them, they’d still dismissed him as anything that could threaten their plans for domination. And it was true. It was a maddening, rage inducing truth. That he was just one person struggling against a black tide too monumental - even with an army - to even leave a dent.

But now, suddenly, that tide was bearing down on the three of them. And Julian could feel it. Like standing in the shadow of a tidal wave and waiting for it to all crash down upon them. And Julian was exhausted down to his considerably broken soul.

He’d given Katie nearly all that he’d had without making himself completely defenseless and while the Blight had come close to closing in on them at the police station in Briarsfield, they’d gotten away in time. And the closer the three of them got to the polluted and desolate city of Detroit, the shadow of that great tide did lessen. But Julian was wondering if they could shake them at all now.

Something felt... Different. Disturbingly different.

When they pulled over, the motel Mitch had been talking about looked like it hadn’t been inhabited for decades. It looked eerily similar to Julian’s entire planet actually. Derelict and utterly abandoned.

And he assumed it was the one Mitch had spoken of, noticing the number '58' on the motel sign when he’d pulled in. Obviously it wasn’t in the state Mitch had intended. If the look on his face was any indication, disappointed and frustrated.

“I don’t think there’s anything out here but this.” Mitch said, hands on his hips as he surveyed the small, derelict motel.

Julian however wasn’t too swayed by the condition of the building, kicking the stand down on his motorcycle and getting off, taking his helmet off too.

He heard Evie come up to him more than he saw her, even wearing his sunglasses, and felt something familiar against his arm.

"You left it in the car.”

Julian even subtly appreciated how Evie pressed the handle up against his arm instead of holding it out, where he possibly couldn’t see it. His cane. Julian reached for it and his fingers accidentally brushed against hers-

And the vertigo the accidental contact induced immediately staggered him.

As fast as Julian threw his walls up - it wasn’t nearly quick enough. They’d come in contact in far deeper ways than physically whether he’d been wanting that or not, and he certainly hadn’t been, Evie’s sharp intake of breath telling him she’d been just as unprepared. And it was becoming stronger. And Julian was wondering, futilely, if he could stop it at all.