I wipe the sweat off of my forehead. Wet spots have appeared beneath my arms and on my back. My sword makes contact with a loud thwak. I spin around in midair and kick my opponent's blade. It flies to the ground and I take the opportunity to go behind the boy and put my blade to his neck.
“Okay, okay! I surrender!”
I release him and he slumps to the ground. His younger brothers, Sam and James, giggle at Yan. His older brothers, Jeffrey, Eric, and Kyle just smile at him amusedly. When Kyle looks at me, red ebbs around his silhouette.
“Wow, how did you get so good?”
Yan asks me with much curiosity. He lays on the dirt, his curly brown hair frizzed around his face. He reaches for his wooden sword and I kick it away from his hand. His loud and raspy breathing lets me know that it is time for my next opponent. All of the brothers enjoy this pastime and it keeps me on my toes.
I am still confused about telling them apart because they all have the same shade of brown hair and the same blue eyes...well all of them except James who has little toddler strands of dark black hair like his father. Their ages are really the only way to tell who is who. From youngest to oldest; James 4, Sam 6, Yan 10, Eric and Jeffrey 13, and Kyle 20.
Even though I have little knowledge of the boys, I feel like I am one of them. Kyle is very mysterious, a vault of secrets from the concentration camp from which I broke him out from. He seems a little bit frustrated that I was able to break him out when he was not capable. His green hair has caused him to think of himself as the best, adding to him being superior because he is the oldest. I think that me being a Beny also might cause him to feel threatened.
He steps forward into the worn dirt circle.
“My turn.”
I pick back up my splintering weapon and Kyle does the same with Yan’s sword. He strikes a wobbly crane pose just to be funny, but the look on his face is completely serious. His back faces his brothers, who are rolling on the ground with laughter. They can not see the death glare that he gives me. I feel butterflies flutter up into my stomach and my heart races. The wood begins to feel heavy in my sweaty palms.
He reaches into his shirt to pull out a steel charm in the shape of a muscled arm. He touches the metal and his hand begins to shimmer. The peach colored skin turns to a grey, then shines appear and it becomes metallic.
He swings at me, with his blows slower than normal. I block it with the wooden sword and it splinters and snaps like a twig. He lashes out at me again, this time hitting me square in the chest. The breath is knocked out of me and I fall to the ground. The sky floats clockwise and blurs.
“Kyle! Stop it!”
A voice yells out and I open my eyes to see him crouched over me with his arm raised. I roll out of the way just in the nick of time. He pulses with red. Wow he has anger management issues!
He pins me down once again and I turn my head away with fear. He grins at me, knowing that I am afraid of him and his aura turns to orange for excitement. I grasp his arm and begin to feel heavy. My head refuses to lift, as if all of my muscles had turned to bone. His fist comes down and I am sure I am going to die, with that heavy of a weight hitting me. Darkness creeps in on my vision and I hear a loud clang of metal on metal.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I wake up with Mamma Jane hovering over me. Darkness has fallen outside of the cracked window. She holds a cold cloth to my forehead. The boys stand behind her; the five young ones stand around the bed and Kyle in the corner. Did I faint?
“Wh- what happened?”
She presses her finger to my lips. I try to sit up in the bed but she pushes me back down.
“tchchhchchchch, don’t try to speak or move,”
She looks over at her sons,
“Could you give him a minute please?”
The five boys file out of the rickety room. Kyle hangs back for a second, dark grey outlining his figure. I am glad that he feels worried about me and not lingering anger that would cause him to attack me again.
He slams the door behind him.
“Could I have some water please?”
She hands me water in a chipped, cheap glass. Mamma Jane propps me up on some scratchy pillows. I feel way too stiff for a normal faint.
“What happened to me?”
“Oh sugar, you used Kyle’s power. It took him years to master it. He ended up in the same situation the first time that he used his 1st power. When you touched the metal, you turned to steel. You were like a statue! We all lifted you up and carried you to my room and that is where we are now. After a couple hours you loosened up and turned back to normal.”
“A couple of hours! Kyle tried to kill me! If I had not used his power, I would be dead!”
She does not seem shocked. I would be appalled if my son had tried to kill someone. I wonder why she is not surprised. Just as I am about to ask, she answers my question,
“He told me all about it. He feels really bad. He has a really short temper...we have been working on it. Anyways, if he had killed you he would have saved you with his 2nd power. He has the ability to save any person who has not begun to decompose yet. James fell off of the roof last year. He was stone cold when we found him. Kyle brought him back to life, he saved my boy...”
She sniffs and wipes her eyes. I am relieved that she ceased talking. Now I know where Jeffrey got his volubility.
Wait a second... it is kinda creepy that Kyle can make zombies. Resurrecting the dead? Shivers wrack my body just thinking about it!
“Here, i’ll help you up to bed.”
She holds my arm as I waddle back up the mangled stairs and into my drafty room.
YOU ARE READING
The Silver Fox
Teen FictionA young girl's life is changed when she is discovered to be a Benizione, a race of people born from normal parents. These people have special powers and are looked down upon by others, especially by King Tuin. Benys also have brightly colored hair...
