The Summoner Series - Book One - DUALITY

Chapter 6: Cece - The Anxious and the Optimist

My vision was still fuzzy. I just woke up to what sounded like someone arguing with someone else who wasn't responding. I took in the surroundings and realized that I was sitting in some sort of jail cell. What the hell did I do this time? I don't think I fought anyone.

I was lying down on a bed connected to a wall with the head facing away from the cell door. I couldn't have been out for too long, my hair wasn't an absolute bird's nest. I sat up on the bed to face the other bed in the cell.

The voice I heard was coming from outside the cell, "Come on guys, you can tell me where we are. You know I'm just gonna slice anyone I meet to bits, right?"

Slice them to bits? Oh god I hope this guy's not celled with me.

The person was at the cell door now. He was dressed in all black except for some purple lines on his black hoodie. Crap.

"Can you at least take the handcuffs off, fellas? I'm down for a little bit of bondage, but not right now." The guards who were also dressed in all black jingled some keys as they unlocked the handcuffs from behind the perceived psychopath. He put his hands in front of him and rubbed his wrists. The door was unlocked and he was quickly shoved into the cell and the door was locked behind him. He faced the cell door and continued to talk to the officers, "Thanks fellas. Hey, do you mind bringing me a larger pillow? I have a weird thing with my neck and it's uncomfortable for me to sleep." The guards were ignoring him and walked the way that they came from. "No? Alright, I'll see if my new friend here can help me." He turned around to face me who was now curled into a ball with my knees near my chin on my bed. "Damn, I knew I was scary but I didn't know I was that scary."

I just sat there, wide eyed in fear, staring at the menacing person staring back at me. We were frozen, just looking back at each other for a solid thirty seconds until the stranger finally said, "So, do you say something, or do I?"

I finally let a sound squeak from my mouth from behind my knees, keeping contact with the one visible eye. "Are you the Grim Reaper?"

"What the hell are you talking about?" He gestured to his body and said, "Do I look like a skeleton in a cloak with a scythe?"

"I mean, you're pretty damn close to it." I let my legs fall to the side of the bed. The stranger sat down on the bed opposite.

"Well, I mean I try to be edgy, even if it doesn't work all the time. I'm Nocturnus, by the way." He held out his hand in attempt to shake hands.

I reached out for his hand and gave as firm a handshake as I could while still being mortified by the person in front of me. "Cece. Nice to meet you."

"Pleasure to meet you too." Nocturnus laid down on the bed and stared at the ceiling. "So what are you in for?"

I didn't actually know why I was here. I was never placed in jail before, and when I got into a fight I got away every time. "I'm not quite sure, really. I was painting this morning, and I was about to finish my painting that I've been working on for a while, I was knocked out by a dart, and here I am." I finally relaxed while I talked about my artwork. "What about you?" I regretted adding in that last question because I knew that the answer would be gruesome before he said anything.

"Could be for a number of things. Anywhere from theft,"

Ok, not that bad.

"Murder,"

There it is.

"Or being a Summoner. Who knows." Nocturnus sat up on his bed and faced me again. "You're not a Summoner, are you?"

"No, I'm not."

"Cause you look like a Flora to me." Nocturnus squinted his one eye as if he was examining me closely. "You don't have an affinity for plants, do you?"

I started to become nervous. "I mean, yeah, but that doesn't mean that I can Summon."

"Don't be too sure." Nocturnus stood up from the bed once more and walked closer to me, making me more nervous than before. "You can bring things back from the brink of death, can't you?"

I broke out in a cold sweat. I didn't work well under pressure. "Sure, with plants, but I don't really try to, like, heal people."

Nocturnus backed up. "Well you should some day. You might just be surprised."

"Wouldn't I know if I was a Summoner?"

"Not necessarily. Some people go their whole lives without knowing that they can Summon. Which may be a good thing actually. Summoning can corrupt people when they use it too much or for extreme personal gain."

"How do you know so much?" I was becoming invested in Summoning now.

"Because I've seen it happen before. Believe it or not, but it's not uncommon for people in power to be Summoners. Ever hear of a guy named Hitler? People say he was a Pyro, but I think he was an Aerol. Before the Final War most presidents or kings or whatever were Summoners, even if they didn't tell anyone." Nocturnus laid back down in his bed and closed his eyes, or really his eye from what I could tell.

"Then what kind of Summoner are you?" I was kind of nervous asking this question too because I didn't know what kind of response it would warrant.

Nocturnus sighed and sat back up in bed. "I'm not sure what I am. I've never met someone that could do exactly what I could." He put out his hand to the side and a ribbon of shadows shot out, forming a scythe. I was stunned at what happened. I've never seen someone Summon a physical object before. But my pondering was cut short when Nocturnus brought down the scythe so that the blade was next to my neck. I looked into Nocturnus' eyes and saw that they were glowing purple. "I can make people feel very, how should I put it, anxious. So I adopted the name Anx for my power."

I didn't know what to make of the situation. I just stared at Nocturnus' vibrant purple eyes, wondering what could possibly drive a person to be like him. Nocturnus raised his hand that wasn't holding the scythe and snapped his fingers, keeping eye contact with me.

He snapped his fingers again, but nothing happened. A concerned look crept across Nocturnus' face. He looked at his hand that was snapped. "Why isn't it working. Aren't you scared?" He raised the scythe so it was even closer to my face.

I kept looking at his eyes. "No, not really."

Nocturnus was looking very frustrated. He lowered his face so his chin was near his chest, but kept eye contact with me. "Why." He didn't have the inflection of a question so much as a demand. His voice seemed lower, almost as if he was holding back a scream.

The only thing for me to do was to respond honestly. "Because when I look at you, I don't see someone who hurts people just to hurt them. I see someone who has been hurt and only wants to find resolve to the aching pain inside."

Nocturnus stayed silent, but didn't move his scythe away for a few seconds while he contemplated what I said. He finally dropped the scythe so it disappeared into the shadows of the cell. He laid back down on his bed, this time on his side so that his back was facing me. "Sorry to say this, Cece, but you're wrong." He didn't turn around to face me, but he did sit up and yelled out of the cell, "And can someone get me that pillow!" Before going back to his side and falling asleep.

I didn't know how I should have responded, but I was just glad that my head wasn't resting in my lap. I took one last look around the room before doing the same thing myself and falling asleep.

But I didn't know that Nocturnus was wide awake, still contemplating what I told him. He would do that all night until something else was dropped on him later that day.