A Dark Ghost

Chapter Nine

Three weeks later.

I leant on the floor for a second, catching my breath as Cole held his hand out to help me get up. Grinning, I pulled him to the mat beside me and the look of surprise on his face indicated that he did not expect to have me now straddled across his chest, with his arms pinned above his head to the mat beneath us.

After a short while, I spun off, taking now as a good time to get a drink and take a few deep breaths.

"What, no help?" Cole left his hand waiting in the air for some help up from the ground.

"And risk you doing to me what I just did to you? Never. Come on, old man." I downed the cup of water and returned to the mat. My sparring partner was lying flat on his back whilst wiping sweat from his forehead. "How am I doing anyway? Crushing you?" I sat down next to him.

"I admit... you're slightly better than I anticipated..." I let out a soft but quick laugh in response. Hand to hand combat was one of the only classes I aced here— next to battle strategy, of course.

Alban's idea of us working together one on one was pretty good, but I still paused before asking, choosing my words carefully and trying not to show the way my breath hitched in my throat as I spoke. "Can we move on to the... erm, the second part of our training?" I nodded to the row of fire extinguishers on the wall behind us, in case of emergencies.

With a sigh, Cole nodded. He stood up from the mat without any help from me and took his water bottle from the side. His hair flopped into his face slightly and the smooth marks of his muscles were showing through his sweat-soaked tee. Before long he had joined me on the mat again and he shifted from one foot to the other.

"So... how does this work?"

"I just sorta touch you."

"And it happens? Just like that?"

"Just like that. Yeah..."

Tired of putting it off, I grabbed his hand. It was soft to touch, yet also hard from the calluses that are only left behind by guns. Within an instant, I could feel the power inside of me and it was excuse enough to let go. Cole told me to take a deep breath, even though I was calm.

"I'm calm. I'm fine. This is the most chill I have ever been in my entire life!" I tried to point out.

I was not calm.

Once again, I found myself staring at the centre target in the row of three across the back wall. We were in a warehouse similar to the Paintball arena, and this was the twelfth time we were doing this. Trying to focus, I stared at the centre target. Low budget - it was a bale of hay with a black 'X' spray-painted onto it by yours truly. Nothing happened.

"Come on!" I practically screamed. Thrusting my arm out and nothing happened.

"Calm down, it's fine. We'll get there. What did you do last time to make it work?"

Last time. Oh yeah, last time I did this and it worked, I burned down an entire fucking building, possibly killing multiple people in the process and shortening my own lifespan by about fifty years. But no biggie? Right? WRONG.

"I can't do this." I walked towards the row of mirrors on the wall opposite the targets and took a long hard look at myself. I was not the same person I had been when I walked into the League. For better or for worse, I had changed. "This is stupid." As I turned away from Cole, I could feel the same anger that always tried to control me in our sessions building up inside of me. I always thought it was anger, but it could've been fear. Fear of failure. Fear of dying. Fear of something. If only I knew what it was.

"Try again, you'll get there. Something's stopping you." Cole tried, reassuringly.

"Yeah, no shit." I rolled my eyes sarcastically at his reflection in the mirror. "This is useless. I quit." Out of twelve sessions, this was the seventh time I had tried to walk out. Once again Cole tried to be supportive. Even though it was clear that I was officially a lost cause.

"At least try, one more time?"

"Shut up, Cole. I know you don't care. You're only doing this because Alban is forcing you."

"No, I'm not."

"Then. Why. Are. You. Here." Every word that came out of my mouth was filled with a venom I didn't even realise I possessed. Every syllable punctuated with the sound of cracking glass as I smashed my curled fist into the mirror. Cole watched me. He watched me fall apart.

"Well?!" Pieces of the shattered glass buried themselves in my hand but I ignored the pain. The pain of my hand. The pain in my head. The constant pain reminding me of the hell I was living. "WHY ARE YOU HERE COLE?" I screamed, blood dripping down my wrist, I could see him through the shards of glass that were somehow still attached to the wall. All the while Cole watched. He waited. Then it was his turn.

Pain filled his eyes, as he opened his mouth, as I punched the wall, the place where the mirror used to be one last time.

"I--" He was cut off by the barrage of flame leaping up from all three targets. The fire was almost as high as the warehouse, its heat reaching where we were standing at the other end. "I..." It didn't take long for Cole to compose himself. Everything he could've said lost in the wind. "I... always knew you could do it."

I started to sink to the ground, lost for words but Cole caught me before I reached it. Supporting my arms as he led me to a bench where I could sit without cutting myself anymore. I leant into him, still unable to speak as he wrapped my hand in a towel. Together, we watched as the blaze slowly diminished until all that was left were the charred remains.