Tower of Light (Under The Cowl Book #2)

CHAPTER 14

     What Sara said next quickly became a weight off her shoulders. But it also became a request Jessica had no intention of following. Live in a world filled with her sister's delusion of a man she should run from, no. But will play the part of the oblivious sister and the "just one of the guys" type friend. It was the only way to bide her time and put into motion the duties entrusted to her sister by Jack T. Chance.

Coincidentally their annual hunting trip was around the corner. The perfect setting to settle the debt.

Everyone including Dan had decided to come along. She hated how he'd smile and laugh like friends do all the while beating the shit out of her sister behind closed doors. The first day felt longer than normal. At camp everyone took the time to memorize the map of the hunting grounds. The day felt endless to Jessica. She had other things on her mind, like how the trip was going to end once Dan was in her cross hairs.

The second day came and Jessica had already picked her spot. She watched Dan's every move, an oaf unaware of the hunter's eye on the back of his head.

They split off into groups when Jessica decided to strike first during the second hour.

And what came next was a simple bullet to the shoulder. The shot did not come as a surprise to anyone once echoed. It was Dan's pain luring cry when Jessica knew she was on the clock. She had to move fast.

The sound of Dan's screams was a beautiful tune Jessica wished her sister could hear.

Jessica made her way to where Dan lied writhing in pain. First to arrive, she noticed his rifle was no longer in his grasp but on the ground. But as a weapon still within reach, Jessica snuffed any chance of giving Dan false hope against what's to come. And so she kicked his gun away from him.

"Oops." she taunted.

"Did you just fucking shoot me?!"

"I did." she replied with a cold tone as if Dan should know why.

"You shot me." his said with a softer tone of voice, aware that this was no accident. "She told you about us."

"Does this really surprise you? You've laid your hands on my sister and convinced her to defend you. I'm guessing she thought she could save you before something like this happens."

Jessica raised her rifle in front of Dan's face at point blank range.

"Do you think anyone will miss you after I pull the trigger?"

"Wait a minute." he started to sweat. "What are you doing?"

"What my sister should have to do the first time you hit her."

"Please, I don't want to die." Dan begun to plead for mercy, "I will leave Sara- she will never have to see me again."

"Begging won't save you. I already did some digging around about you after my little heart to heart with Jack Chance." 

Dan's face turned white with fright. 

"I learned some things that explain some of the trouble I found my sister in. You see, I know my sister is a gambler, because I'm the one who regretfully got her into it. I thought she had that little vice under control, until she met you. You took her to an establishment run by Jack Chance. Turns out you owe him something that's a lot more meaningful than money. Like your soul. And instead of paying him what you owe, you let my sister become responsible. I can't take back what my sister has to give him. But he's willing to shave off a couple years of servitude. And I'm sure you know what that means." 

"You can't believe a word that psycho says."

"You mean the thing about raising the dead? I didn't- not at first. And he didn't tell me, Sara did. What really convinced me was the black lantern ring I remembered seeing on his finger."

Finger on the trigger, sights dead center and aimed right between Dan's eyes, Jessica took a deep breath ready to take a life.

"So what happened next?" a voice said behind Jessica.

Jessica jerked her head to the side where she found Bekka hovering off the ground in flight. Her eyes a bright yellow as the rest of her body covered in the uniform of the Yellow Lantern.

"I've had to see this memory of yours countless times." Bekka said. "But it never goes any further once you placed your finger on the trigger. I'm not saying I can't guess what happened. What I want to know is how you felt during and after the act."

Specks of blood on the top of her hand, Jessica followed the red spotted trail on the barrel of her rifle. The deceased Dan lying on the ground with a giant hole where his face use to be. Horrified, guilt ridden, why,  a rage induced impulse forced her to take a life. And quickly it left the moment the act was done.

"You regret this moment, but it's not what you fear." Bekka watched.

One shot, two shot; over and over gun shots fired where bullets meet flesh. Jessica's entire hunting party, killed by the rifle in her grasp.

"You killed them all. Was that too the price of Sara's debt to the Black Lantern?"

"They saw what I'd done." Jessica admitted with sudden indifference, like she was a different person. One of the people from her hunting part lied dead on his back besides Dan while the rest lied on their stomach as they tried to run away. "I couldn't let them leave."

"But you too were injured. Shot in the back."

"Nothing my power ring couldn't help me accomplish."

"How, you were not selected to be a member of the Green Lantern Corps yet."

"The Green Lantern Corps never would've accepted me if they'd known the truth."

"And what is the truth?"

A bright grayish light with a mixture of various colors for a moment appeared around Jessica's finger. A tether it became, a leash wrapped around her finger. Leading into her pocket, the tether pulls out a ring practically with a mind of its own. The ring slipped onto her finger and ignites. "I've spent hundreds of lifetimes searching for the perfect host, a mind that circles the emotional spectrum and never stray. I have been chosen to wield the Phantom Ring." Jessica turned to face Bekka. "And you do not belong here."

Out from the surrounding bushes and behind shielding branches, other versions of Jessica emerge all dressed the same. Each one shrouded in a different color of light from the emotional spectrum.

"Now I see." Bekka confirmed.

"Get out!"