Beyond Kombat: Backstage Pass 2 Mortal Kombat

Chapter 17 - Prey and Predator

“Me?” Johnny squeaked. “Why me? Of all people, me? Why not Liu? He knows more about this stuff than I do!”

“Liu is a grumpy bastard, Outworld would be in the toilet before we knew it.” I replied.

He looked around, trying to find something to argue back with, before shaking his head. “No, you’ll change your mind. We’ll go back to the fortress, I can stay this time and everything will be fine. Right?”

Arguing about this would be pointless. There was no changing my mind; I was satisfied with the thought of leaving. In fact, I was beginning to look forward to it. All I had to do was get rid of Kitana then I could go. I could bring Osamu with me, too. Already I could feel he calmed me. Maybe that was what made me come to this decision. He cleared my head...I could use someone like him.

Instead of arguing I nodded, “Okay, sure.”

He smiled and turned away, thinking he had won.

“Well, Kitana is close, Raiden told me. She’s heading this way quickly and since she hasn’t been walking at all she’ll be well rested whereas we’re...not as rested.” Liu said. “I suggest we prepare now. She should be here by noon.”

From that point on the morning was filled with stretches and polishing whatever weapons we had. Johnny, not used to fighting with much, found a fighting stick in the bag of items we salvaged. Liu was polishing a thin sword, and I was twirling my daggers around in my fingers, practicing. I was ready for Kitana; she was the only one standing in the way of my freedom from all of this mess. This essentially was my last fight and I would hold nothing back.

Liu seemed to watch me like a hawk, as if he expected me to run off at any moment. I pretended to ignore him, but it was hard. He was being confusing again; looking at him would only infuriate me more. What did he care if I ran off anyway? He hated me...right? Sometimes I questioned this, while other times it was blazingly obvious he did.

Time crept slowly. It felt like the sun grew hotter and hotter as it passed slowly over us. I wanted to remove some clothes, but I didn’t want to look at my skin. The first thing I would do when we got back was see the healer. Maybe they could fix my scars...somehow. Then I would pack and leave immediately. I wondered where I would go. Maybe I would go to America, or maybe I would go somewhere like Italy or Paris; somewhere I’ve always wanted to go. Somewhere with a beach would be nice.

My skin burned like it had in the fire as the sun slid over me like mud. I gripped at my shoulder as the burning became unbearable. I looked over at Johnny and Liu; they had to feel this, too. I expected to see their skin turning pink from the heat, but instead they were sitting, polishing or practicing, as if nothing was going on.

“Aren’t you guys burning up?” I asked, wincing from the way my clothes touched my skin.

Liu frowned. Johnny shook his head, “No, why? Are you?”

“My skin hurts...” I muttered, shaking my head. I looked down and saw Osamu. He was staring at me; watching me. I lifted a brow at him and I could have sworn he did the same. “What are you doing?” I whispered.

I pulled up my sleeve, whimpering from the pain, and looked at my skin. It looked blistered, worse than before, and now began to itch. The itching was horrible. It felt like a thousand tiny bug were under my skin, biting at me and clawing at me. I couldn’t take it; I began to scratch at it. The skin flaked under my nails. The pain and the itching subsided the more I scratched. I clawed at my skin like a demon, causing flecks of skin to fall to the ground.

“Zak, stop!” Johnny jumped up and ran over to me. Osamu looked away from me and barked at him. He stopped and looked at the little dog. It glared at him for a second before looking back up at me with that same intense stare.