A Dark Ghost

Chapter Twelve

I woke up and staggered to my feet. The surrounding area resembled an old camping ground - the kind scouts used. The trees stretched upwards, giving the place an unearthly feel. A figure came up to me and put a steadying hand behind my back. I was getting dejá vu. Lee? No, I took in his features properly and it was definitely Cole.

"The Intel?"

"All in here, darlin'." He patted his jacket pocket.

"And the agent?"

Cole paused. "He wasn't told that there would be two of us, so he prepared for the worst. But he'll live. Now, you know how Alban is about schedules. I'm giving you an hour and then we're starting training."

"An hour? How do you know I haven't got a concussion? For all I know, there could be eight trash cans over there instead of four!"

He ran his hands through his golden hair and sighed. "I'll give you two hours, max. There are only two garbage cans."

So I went back to the tent, and he started to set up for our latest training session.

~

"Right, we know you respond best to emotion, so I need you to take every piece of anger you've ever had and use it. Every annoying thought, every single damn thing. Let it fuel you."

I looked around at the set-up. The clearing had been arranged with piles of flammable old materials from the junkyard not that far away. There was half an old sofa, a few piles of cushions, just generic things that he'd improvised with. The items surrounded us, they were separated into twelve separate piles at regular intervals. Clearly, Cole had put a lot of effort into this.

"What's all this?" I shrugged off my jacket and tied my hoodie around my waist before we started. It was a black and white NASA hoodie with 'I need my space' written on the back in comic, bold letters. The only downside was the fact that it had a few holes around one of the shoulders. Probably the main reason why it had been ditched. I didn't care, it was comfy and it reminded me of Black Betty.

Cole did the same with his jacket and threw it outside the circle. "Right. Let me explain. I've been dying to do this thing with you. I saw it in a movie once and... yeah." He was so excited, it was actually cute. Cole was practically buzzing, and I'd never seen this side of him before. He shook his hair out of his face before continuing. "Where I'm standing? 12 o'clock. Behind you? Six. Left is nine, and the right is three. You get the gist?" I nodded. "Cool. I'm gonna call out a number, and that pile of stuff you need to set alight. I will always have my back to twelve, in case you get mixed up. This exercise should work on your concentration, precision, and ability to think under pressure. Act fast."

I took a deep breath. This was easy enough when you thought about it but... could I really control this? Last time I wasn't very... precise? With my actions? Another deep breath. Come on Aria, you can do this. I thought back to Cole, the time I finally got the ability to work in the way I wanted, sort of, instead of just affected my judgement. I always knew you could do it. He said that then. Was it real? Shaking my head, I pushed the thought to the back of my mind. Concentrate. Concentrate. Concentrate. Come on.

"FIVE!" I had to turn around to make the pile of junk behind me on the right burst aflame. Do the next one without turning, do the next one without turning. "TEN!" The fire shot upwards, singing an overhanging tree branch, burning it to a crisp without even having time to set the leaves alight. "Good, good. TWO!" He was relentless, I was thinking faster than I ever thought possible and I felt like my mind needed to breath more than my lungs. Being trapped inside an (albeit incomplete) ring of fire led my mind back to the day at Leda Corp. The day that saved and simultaneously ended my life. Without it, I wouldn't have met Lee. But I also wouldn't be slowly dying faster than everyone else is naturally slowly dying. I harsh cough caught me by surprise and rattled through my chest. I let it out and continued to concentrate.

"SIX! ONE!" Two at a time? Seriously? The sofa Cole was facing caught the flames, and slowly started to burn away from one side. The cushions on his left gave him no warning as they succumbed to my fiery abilities. He took a cautious step to the right, closer to 'ten', but away from the heat that was taking over 'one'. I stifled a laugh. Seven more to go. My hair had come undone from the loose band that had been holding it in and I tried to shake it out my face. I couldn't see properly.

"Ignore it," Cole whispered. I was surprised by how close he had gotten to me without me having realised. 

"Shh." I shot back. "I'm concentrating." He laughed back and said something else. Murmured, under his breath. "I didn't quite catch that," I spun around 360, taking in the damage so far. As I put my foot back down, I saw Cole show me nine fingers. 'Nine' was the next to set ablaze. We continued like this three more times, for 'four', 'eleven' and 'eight'.

"Close your eyes." The last thing I saw was his face as he winked at me. "Five."

"Hey! That's cheating, we've already done five!" I flipped him the finger in response, a cheeky grin escaping my lips.

"We've already done one too, so I don't know what you mean by that."

"Touche." I didn't need my eyes open to know he was grinning like a Cheshire cat.

"Three." I heard a step, a step closer? I felt his breath, hot, close to me. "That session, last time..." he faltered a little, somehow wary of what he was about to say. "You asked me why I was doing this, all of this." He didn't wait for me to say anything in reply, to interrupt or even nod. "I was too chickenshit to say it then, but I'm going to tell you now." I giggled at the fact that he had just called himself chickenshit. "I was never doing this because Alban forced me. I was doing this because for once in my life I had found someone who understood what I was going through, even if it was just for a part of the time. From then on, you were my responsibility, and I couldn't let anything happen to you."

"I can take care of myself, you know."

He laughed. "Says the girl who once buried her fist in a wall."

I knew his lips were just inches from mine. Was he thinking the same thing I was? I took a chance, I whispered something. A number.

"Twelve." The ring of fire was complete. His hand was on my face. He stroked it, brushing a wisp of hair out of my eyes. It stayed there a moment, then two, then three, then--

His lips caught mine. Hard. The sheer force knocked the breath from my lungs but in the best way possible. Cole's skin was hot to touch but so was mine - comes with the territory. We stood in the now-complete ring of fire, and I ran my hands through his hair as he pulled me closer. I could see the outline of flames everywhere around us from behind my closed lids, but I didn't care and neither did Cole. My entire focus was on him. The fire raged around us and we did nothing. It caught at our clothes, trying to tear us apart but we were stronger. It was like nothing I'd ever experienced before.

I barely felt the rain as it poured down, dousing the flames almost instantly. Each droplet evaporated within seconds of reaching my boiling skin. It belted down, should've soaked us instantly but we never felt it, not really.

For once in my life, I felt as if things we going to be okay.