Metawin

4. Diving In

She didn’t know how long she stood there frozen as she watched the beast barrel towards them, but then words filled her head and spilled out of her lips.  Her arm that was holding the wand jerked up without consulting her and a blast of light flew from it.  She stumbled back and the light hit the creature, knocking it back.  It tumbled over and laid on its back, stunned.

“How on earth did you do that?” James asked, turning towards her and grabbing onto her.  “You never said that you knew magic?  All of this time you were looking all confused was an act?  Why didn’t you say anything?”

“I have no idea what just happened.”  She stared at the wand, was it going to go off again?  It was way too dangerous and she shoved it back into James’s hand.  “Are you sure you should be carrying those things around?”

“I’ve never seen anything like that,” James said.  He swished the wand and nothing happened.

Queenie took a careful step away from him, just in case it went off.  “What have you guys gotten me into?”

“It’s really not supposed to do that,” James said.  He gave her a coaxing smile as he held out the wand.  “Magic is mainly shifting things slightly.”  His eyes darted over to Sloan.  “And it’s really not magic, I just like calling it that.”

She raised her eyebrow.  “I’m not about to believe something like that.  Keep that thing away from me.”

The creature made a scraping sound and they all jumped, backing away again.  “We should get out of here before it comes to,” Merit said.

The beast looked like it was drunk, as it staggered to its feet and swayed.  That didn’t make it any the less scary.  Whatever she had done had bought them some time, but she didn’t think that it would do them any good.  She was sure that adrenaline would allow her to power through the stitch in her side, but they couldn’t run away fast enough from the creature.

Before she could work herself into a panic attack, she heard a scraping noise from over her head.  Her heart leapt into her throat, were there more of the creatures?  She scanned the rooftops and spotted a person standing of the ledge of the building next to them.  Was the person intending to jump?  Couldn’t he or she see the monster?  If it was her, Queenie didn’t think that this was the best time to commit suicide.

But the figure did dropped down from the sky in a full diving form.  Queenie’s breath caught in her throat, she could almost picture  water surrounding the person, but the cold hard truth was they were the only soft spots around.  She squeezed her eyes closed and tried not to listen to the sound of the body hitting the concrete.

A soft thump made her jump, but it wasn’t quite what she had expected.  It sounded more like a cat landing on the floor than a crushed body.  She opened her eyes to see a man standing in front of them, but facing the monster.  All Queenie could make out was his back, including his long brown hair that went down to his shoulders.  His clothes were black and made out of cloth, though they fit him as tightly as a leather catsuit.  In his hands, he held a sword, the blade just long enough to almost touch the side of the building he had just jumped off.

Without even glancing at Queenie and the others, the man rushed at the monster.  A shout stuck in Queenie’s throat, but what use would it be anyway?  There was no way that man was normal and it was obvious that the creature was a monster.  The man didn’t hesitate as he closed in on the enemy, stabbing into the creature with all of the force he had accumulated.  

The monster screeched, a wounded cry that made the hair on the back of her neck stand up.  Light shone on the creature’s fur like it was covered in spiderwebs, but coming from the inside.  The cracks spread and then the beast shattered, the pieces winking out of existence the moment they touched the ground.  It only took seconds and then there was no trace at all that there was ever a monster in front of them.

“What just happened?” Queenie asked, her voice bouncing off the walls in the silence.  She turned to James and the others.  “Why couldn’t you do that from the start?”

“There’s no way that I could do something like that,” James exclaimed.  “Who do you think I am?  Superman?”

Queenie jerked her thumb at the guy who had rescued them.  “What makes that guy, then?”

“Superman?” James suggested.  He shrugged and then headed over to the guy.  “Hey, man, thanks for the save.”

Queenie trailed after him, wanting to know first hand what was going on, dodging Merit when he tried to keep her back.  Sloan joined her a second later, giving her a smile as an extension of friendship.  Who knew that it took a monster to get over a petty thing like jealousy?  Well, Queenie probably would have become friends with Sloan sooner or later, and it wasn’t like she would really consider her a friend, but she’d go with it for now.

The guy turned around to face them, actually paying attention to them for the first time.  He looked pretty handsome, which made his clothing choice and actions all the more strange.  It would have been perfect in a movie, but this was real life.  Queenie looked up at the sliver of orange sky she could see, and life was only supposed to be a little bit weirder than fiction.

“You okay?”  He had a faint accent, but Queenie couldn’t pin down where he was from.  She frowned, it was odd because she usually had a good ear for those sorts of things.  His eyes latched onto her.  “I’ve been looking for you for ages.  You must save the world.”

“What?”