The nurse, Dina, guided her through several corridors. Though her gaze remained lowered throughout the journey, Satara noted each corner they turned and counted how many pairs of child-sized feet, some bare, some in casts, they passed before they reached an empty visiting room. Her support worker, a quiet but perceptive lady called Priya, sat on one side of a table opposite a policeman.
Dina pulled out one of the empty chairs next to her and cradled Satara's left arm as she helped her sit down, then took the seat beside her. The fabric of the sling dug into Satara's upper chest. She found a scar on the plastic surface before her and stared at it.
“Are you okay, Satara?” asked Priya without moving. She waited for Satara to nod. “Good. This is Joe. He's here to speak to you about what happened that day.”
Satara clutched her stomach with her free hand and didn't ask which day she meant.
“Hi Satara,” said Joe. His bright, cheerful voice reminded her of the round man with red cheeks that little Bruce liked to watch on TV before he went to school. “Priya says you've been a very brave girl. How's your arm doing? It is feeling better yet?”
Their expectant silence turned into several malicious pins. She flinched away from Dina's hand as it moved towards the top of her head and hunched over her free arm as she sensed the three adults look at each other.
“It's a lot better than it was,” said Dina. “She should be able to take the sling off any day now.”
“That's great news, isn't it?” said Joe. He didn't wait for an answer. “Soon you'll be well enough to move to a new home, right?”
She didn't want a new home. Moving off her bed ten minutes ago had been hard enough.
“We're really, really sorry about what happened to your family,” he continued, speaking softly as if he expected her to burst into tears. He had no idea that she was all dried out now. “It must have been very hard for you that day.”
It was still hard for her every day and she knew that wouldn't change, no matter what anyone else told her. No matter what she told them.
“But Dina's taking good care of you here, isn't she?” He left brief spaces in between his sentences. “Priya says you saw the person who did that to your family. Is that true?”
“Satara?” said Dina softly after several taut seconds. “Joe's here to help you, lovely. Do you think you could answer some of his questions?”
“He can't help,” she murmured. The words stung her throat.
“He might be able to help,” said Priya on her other side as she half turned towards her. “But he wasn't there that day like you were. Some of the things you know might help him.”
“That's right,” said Dina.
She tried to place her arm around Satara's tensed shoulders but the nine year old leaned forward until her hair blocked out everything except the mark on the table.
“I already told you,” she gritted out.
“I know, and it must be so annoying to keep saying the same thing to different people,” said Joe. He sounded like he had scrunched up his nose. “I've heard some of it from Priya but not everything. And I know you probably told Dina some stuff as well. But would you mind telling me what happened that day too?”
She shook her head. The mark started to quiver.
“You don't have to tell me the whole story, if you don't want to.” He opened a green file. “You can just answer my questions one by one. If any of them are too hard, just tell me and we can go to the next one. Is that okay?”
She nodded after a long pause.
“Excellent. Okay.” He flipped through some papers. “You were all supposed to go to America that day, right?”
“I don't know,” she mumbled.
“You didn't know you were going to America?”
“It was a surprise.”
“For you?” Joe continued as if he hadn't noticed her clenched jaw. “So you came back home that day and you saw the person who did it?”
She nodded.
“Do you know who they are?” He pounced on her hesitation as if it were his favourite snack. “They didn't leave us any clues and your family didn't have any issues with anyone as far as we know. That's why it's taking us so long to find someone who might have – done something like that to them. If you know who it is, we might be able to catch them faster.”
“You won't catch her,” she said under her breath.
“Her?” He pulled a pen out of his breast pocket and flipped to a new page in the folder. “Do you know who she is?”
Dina's hand rested on the back of her chair. Priya didn't turn towards her again but crossed one leg over the other thoughtfully.
“She's stronger than all of you.” Satara closed her eyes but the darkness only sharpened her mental image of the young killer.
“It might seem that way, Satara, but don't worry,” said Joe. “We've got lots of strong people on our side. We can look after you and make sure no one hurts you even if you do tell us who it is.”
“I don't –”
“You don't know who she is?” He scratched the back of his hand with his pen. “Did you talk to her? Did she tell you not to tell us who she is?”
She shook her head. The older girl had said a lot but hadn't threatened her into concealing her identity.
“Okay. You don't have to tell us her name yet.” Joe forced a smile into his tone. “Do you think you could tell us what she looked like?”
She swallowed. The confession dried out her mouth like a sponge and tasted just as bad. “Like me.”
“Like you?” Joe pretended he wasn't looking at Priya when Satara finally managed to lift her gaze to his face.
“She looked like me.” She tried not to choke. “But she – her eyes –”
For some reason, Dina stiffened next to her.
“Take your time,” said Joe softly. He started to lean forward but stopped himself. “Was there something different about her eyes?”
“They were blue.” Like the hottest part of a flame.
“So she looked like you but with blue eyes?” he asked. She nodded. “Do you know how old she was? Was she an older lady? Maybe one of your mum's friends?”
“No.” She shook her head. “She wasn't – she didn't look like she was –”
“Was it a young lady then?” He nodded at the woman beside her. “Maybe like Dina's age?”
“It was a girl.” The knot on her sling bit into the back of her neck. Her shoulders slumped beneath the weight of everything she knew. “She – she looked like my sister.”
Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
“Your sister? But you don't have a sister, do you?” Joe glanced at the other adults in turn with a faint frown. “She doesn't, right?”
“I know.” An odd urge to laugh for the first time in weeks twisted in her chest. In the void at its centre. “But she still looked like me. She had a big, black coat. And a sword.”
“That's –” Dina covered her mouth with a hand and hesitated, eyes wide.
“What's wrong?” asked Priya sharply.
“I was working that day and –” The nurse faltered again as if she knew the internal chaos her admission would induce and avoided Satara's eyes. “– and that's exactly what the person who brought her here looked like.”
<><><><><>
“Long time no see, chicky,” said the man from the alley.
“Not long enough,” said Satara. Being in places like this always makes things harder for me. I should just learn my lesson already.
“Chicky?” murmured Jason.
He tried to back away but the chairs blocked him. She tested the weight of the one behind her with the back of her leg.
“Did you think about what you're going to tell us like a good little girl?”
Do I look like a good little girl to you?
“What do you think?” She grabbed the chair and hurled it at him before he could answer.
The man closest to him blocked the airborne furniture with his body, though not before he ducked away in an undignified manner.
“I think you just made a big mistake, chicky,” he growled as they retreated through the newly created gap.
Jason grabbed the next chair in line and threw it at the two men moving to cut off their escape.
“I don’t know who the hell you are but I think you’ve got the wrong people here, mate,” he said once they both had their backs to the furthest wall.
“Nope. One missing red head and one missing Asian girl travelling together with a very shady young man.” Their leader reeled off the description easily as if he were reading an advert aloud.
Shady? Satara resisted the urge to check Jason’s reaction. How much do they know about Sin? Does he know them? Suspicion had crept into her thoughts at some point but now it filled her mind like an elephant in a flat. The gunmen on the motorway. This guy in the alley. And now all these other guys. How do they keep finding us? Did Judy tell them?
“Why are you after us?” she demanded, repeatedly activating the mark on her wrist behind her back this time. What’s taking him so long? I thought he’d come as soon as he knew we were in trouble.
Six men stood between both of their escapes routes collectively. Another four, including the leader, blocked their way to the main door. All of them were dressed in casual clothes, unlike the people on the motorway.
“You’re the one who’s supposed to be giving us information, chicky. Not the other way round.”
“We’re not telling you anything.” Jason’s shoulder brushed against hers.
His gaze flitted towards the man standing between them and the door on their left through which Sinastar had left. She nodded and grabbed another chair but one of the strangers moved faster. As he latched onto the same one, she used it to balance as she kicked out at the one blocking their way. Jason launched himself at the person between them and the door to their right.
Her opponent dodged her foot and she shoved the chair into the second man’s stomach. He swore and backed off as she shoved the first with both hands. He didn’t move an inch and grinned. “That tickled, girlie.”
Screw you. She darted back before he could catch her. Jason grunted painfully at her side as they both returned to the wall.
“I wouldn’t be so sure of that if I were you,” said the leader smugly.
“Jayce?”
He understood instantly and grimaced. “They’ve got knives.”
A quick glance revealed the absence of blood or knife wounds but his anxiety had done just as much damage to his confidence.
“You going to tell us where your other boyfriend is? Or do we have to play hide seek with him ourselves, hm?”
“You mean you don’t already know?”
They’d know if Judy was the one who set us up, wouldn’t they? Does that mean they’re working for someone else? Or is Sin really the one who –? Memories crossed her mind in a malicious slide show. The countless times he seemed to be texting someone. The way he occasionally held her gaze for a little too long. The look on his face when the cleaning lady coincidentally knocked on their hotel door shortly after they arrived. He should be here by now.
“Why would we ask if we already knew the answer, chicky?” The leader sidled closer.
She shifted in a half flight, half fighting stance. Jason mirrored her straight away.
“Because you’re stupid,” she said with a childishly malicious smile.
All those times Sin kept us safe. What if he was the one putting us in danger in the first place? To get us on his side. To make us feel safer with him than without him.
“I think you’re the stupid one here.” His men cornered them. Next to her, Jason scanned the room. “You think we won’t slice you both up to bring him out?”
Is that what Sin told him to say? The air in her chest turned to metal. They were outnumbered, unarmed, and would have been utterly outmatched if it had happened prior to meeting Sinastar. If he hadn't already trained them.
“Are you waiting for permission or something?” Her voice quivered slightly. Is this why I didn't tell him about the alley? She adjusted her stance into something more offensive as Jason glanced at her and lowered her tone. “They’re not the only one with weapons, Jayce.”
“But – Sin –”
“Do you think he’d want us to die keeping it a secret?” Even as she spoke, her zai slithered beneath her skin with the zeal of a snake fresh out of brumation.
“I guess not.” His high pitched laugh gave her zai the kick it needed.
“You going to fight again?” The leader lit up another cigarette. His men pressed in closer. “Okay, Chicky. You can entertain us for a little while. We won’t kill you but someone's probably going to get hurt.”
“Yeah,” said Jason as he lifted his unsteady hands in front of him. “That'd be you.”
“You two.” The first man nodded at the two closest to him. “Go find the big boy. He should be quite willing to join us by now.”
What the hell does that mean? She waited for the two men to move towards the door on their left, then hissed in Jason's direction. “Right!”
The men on the right moved towards them but Satara rushed towards the leader instead with Jason hard on her heels. She threw a chair at the last person between them and ducked around him. He choked behind her as Jason attacked and she bit back a smirk as she lunged at the first man. He sidestepped her but she grabbed the front of shirt and hooked her leg around his.
“You little bit –” The pressure against the back of his knee overwhelmed him and she slammed him back against the wall.
Taking hold of his yellow hair and matted beard, she dragged his face down towards her rising knee but he blocked her attack with both hands. She danced back out of range as he tried to grab her legs.
“Never go head to head with a full grown man,” Carl had once told her. “No matter how strong you are, most of the time they'll be able to overpower you. You need to think and move faster than them. That's where you have the upper hand.”
But Carl didn't know about zai. Black Fire rushed through her arms and both legs. She kicked his already lowered head and the impact hurt her hips but momentarily floored him.
“The hell –?” exclaimed one of the men behind her and she assumed Jason had also activated his zai.
A switchblade protruded from the leader's trouser pocket and she grabbed it along with his hair before he could move. She flipped it open and half straddled him, pressing its blade to his jugular vein. Jason was also controlling the flow of his zai. It was barely visible as he wove around his attackers like the wind. His fists and feet ripped into them with the ferocity of a squall.
She met the eyes of the men who had been about to look for Sinastar and they froze on their way back to assist their leader. She yanked his head up and pressed the blade closer. Though she couldn't see the damage, the leader struggled beneath her and growled incoherent threats as if she had drawn blood.
“Stop fighting,” she told them, voice raised. “All of you.”
Jason glanced in her direction as if to make sure the order was hers but one of their attackers had already hurled a chair at him. He cried out as it collided with his crossed arms and the man next to him grabbed him from behind before she could react.
“Get the hell off me!” yelled Jason but the blow had destabilised him and he lost the fierce flow of his movements.
“Let go of him,” she snarled. The leader's cigarette lay abandoned on the tiles next to his head.
“You first,” said the man. He held a knife to Jason's throat as the latter tried to elbow him in the ribs.
“I don't think so.” Her fingers tightened in the leader's hair. Her mind flipped in all directions like a fly that had been sprayed with Raid.
“Go, Tara!” yelled Jason as he clawed frantically at the arms half trapping his own. “Find Sin!”
“You sure you want to do that, chicky?” gritted out the man beneath her. She let him turn his head until she could read his face. “You're the only one we have to keep you alive. You think we won't hurt him?”
“You think I won't hurt you?” She dragged the blade a centimetre across his skin and he jerked in surprise. After a second, a red trickle emerged from his beard and rolled down his throat.
“Then let's see who can hurt each other more,” he rasped. “Stab him in the stom-”
Satara snatched up the smoking cigarette and pressed it into his eye. He screamed and she stumbled off him. The man holding Jason changed his grip on his knife and so did she. He paused, half ready to both defend himself from her and stab her friend.
“Hey!” Jason's expression reflected alarm as she didn't stop moving. “Wait –”
She dropped down onto one knee and slammed the knife into the middle of his captor's shoe as hard as she could. He roared and Jason broke free but not before the man caught her across the head with his fist as she tried to retrieve the weapon. Forced to abandon it in his foot, she rolled sideways and scrambled until she had the wall at her back and Jason at her side again.
“You okay?” he gasped as his captor yanked the knife free but collapsed in one of the few chairs still standing in the mess they had made of Judy's reception.
We failed. Frustration choked her. One of the men beside the leader pulled out a gun as the other two helped him up. We can't get away like this. Is Sin coming? Or is he waiting for them to finish us off?
“This isn't fun any more,” rumbled the leader with one hand over his eye. The blood on his neck was a vivid red as he pointed at her. “It's time to go before friends we don't want to see turn up. And then I'll get you back for that little move, chicky. Nice and slow.”
They're not after Jason. She tried to step in front of him but Jason grabbed her elbow.
“We're not going anywhere.” He squeezed her arm without looking at her.
“That's right.” The man grinned like a skull. “You're not.”
Satara threw out her hand without a second thought as the gun went off. Several of their attackers made shocked noises as a barrier of Black Fire reared up in front of Jason, who flinched back against the wall as if the bullet had caught him.
“Oh crap.” He breathed, meeting her gaze as the zai-barrier vanished.
Again! The odd gesture Sinastar made before concealing them with his zai flashed before her eyes. She mimicked it at once and tried to summon her zai into the cage created by her hands. But the room smelled like sweat and gunpowder, and Jason's shaky breathing melded with the high pitched noise in her ears.
“What're you waiting for?” snapped their leader, despite the alarm on his face, and another man withdrew a gun. “We don't need the boy.”
Sin came here for me, not Jason. Her zai trickled from her palms and prowled between them like an agitated black tiger, flickering continuously. If he's really our enemy, how are we supposed to win even if I stop them here? That was only one bullet. If they attack us at the same time, how can I hold them all off by myself?
“Tara,” croaked Jason. “Don't –”
Several memories rattled through her in quick succession like coins in a vending machine.
“Did you empty your mind?” She swept her pride out of the way with a reluctant, irritable hand after Jason's zai manifested for the first time.
“Kinda –?” He held a fist out to her too and his dark green eyes gleamed. “How the heck did I end up beating you, Tara?”
<><><><><>
“It's okay, Satara,” breathed Sinastar. His touch reached past her skin and landed around her wild thoughts like a lifebuoy ring in turbulent waters. “That's your power. Yours. You don't have to fear it. It's only as strong and as controlled as you are.”
<><><><><>
“My eyes have opened and I refuse to watch this Tribe destroy everything it could be.” Blue Lightning flickered around her sister's hands and head, bringing out the colour in her eyes. “I don't care who or what I have to face to save it. Why should I? When I've awoken a force great enough to bring an entire empire to its knees –”
The guns went off a split second after her zai flared out from between her fingers and enveloped them both from head to toe. Jason let out a yell beside her as the heat rushed over them but calmed down once he realised he wasn't on fire. His fingernails still dug into her arm. White Lightning flashed in time to the movement of her eyes.
I can kill them. Or drive them away at least. Then we might be able to – Her Black Fire crashed into the ceiling and created a rapidly enlarging circle of ash, smothering her beneath its weight without warning. Another memory followed the last few.
“Zai is a combination of physical energy and conscious intent, and emotion can have great affects on its strength and your control of it.” Sinastar held up a cautionary hand. “But you have to be careful when you use memories as triggers to release zai.”
“Whyyyy?” drawled Jason with an impish smile.
“Because if you release too much of it at once, depending on the quality of your zai, you could blow yourself up by accident.”
“Dude, don't lie.” The humour leapt from her friend's face to her cousin's gaze where it darkened.
“I'm not lying.”
“Tara!” Jason grabbed the back of her hoodie and shouted over the roar of the flames. “It's too much –”
“I know.” She almost parted her hands. But if I drop this shield now, they'll shoot again and I won't be able to –
The pressure of zai forced her back and she nearly crushed Jason against the wall behind them. Her bones felt like they would splinter and her thoughts started to melt.
I can't keep him safe. She pressed her shoulder back against his and ground despair between her teeth.
“Tara, you're bleeding,” choked Jason.
That won't matter in a second, Jayce. She interlocked her fingers tighter and blinked away the thick moisture in her eyes. If I can't save you, then none of us need to leave this place alive. Not them. Nor Sin. Saytarnia can be the only survivor this time, if she wants.
A shock wave passed through the air as if there had been a silent explosion just as the men shot at them again. She grabbed onto Jason as they steadied each other and her zai-shield caught the bullets right before it crackled out of existence. No. No, no, no.
The men opposite them regained their footing a lot faster but the room suddenly darkened as though they were in the midst of a solar eclipse. Smoke-like tendrils covered the windows but the light that filtered through them was tinged with a familiar deep red. She followed them to their source and the men beside the doorway on their left cried out and staggered away from it. That's –
Black markings rimmed Sinastar's glacial blue eyes and mouth alike. The pallor of his flesh pierced the shadows as he stepped into the room and they all winched in unison as the temperature plummeted impossibly.
“Get out.” His quiet voice seemed to echo around them. “While I can still let you.”