Light and Shadow

Three, large outbursts of sand fanned out into the sky. On the final one, the sand came raining back down and Cole was glaring through it, directly at the Skorpion several meters away. In a black line, Cole drove himself into and crashed it through a large sand dune. His hand mutated into a claw and he was aiming at where the Cryptid’s brain would’ve been. However, from the top of his peripheral vision, he noticed something stabbing toward him. Off of pure instinct, Cole jumped back, getting a light cut down his cheek by the stinger before sliding to a stop next to Jessica.

“The fuck are you doing?! Help me kill this thing!” Cole shouted.

“I-I can’t! I-” Jessica started.

“Oh, to Hell with it! I’ll do it myself!” he interrupted. Then, he extended his arms out in front of him. His hands fingers were curled in with his hands pointing outwards as they connected at their wrists. Screaming, Cole fired a beam of darkness that went straight at its monstrous target. The Skorpion’s stinger started to glow just seconds before an orange blast fired from the same point. The two lasers clashed and both struggled against each other for a few moments. Cole’s eyes focused on Jessica, who was still standing in place. Aggravated with both her and the Cryptid, Cole decided it was the perfect time to let out his frustration. Cole focused everything he had to his blast and, in a matter of moments, it boomed open with its power echoing through the air. With the extra boost, the blast was so powerful that it carried the Skorpion back and crashed it through several sand dunes until it was gone over the horizon. For a moment, the dunes were scarred with the shape of the beam before the sand dropped back into the desert. A tree pulled with the sand on the closest dune. Now, Cole was panting in exhaustion with his hands on his knees. Jessica looked at him with her eyes wide in some sort of fear. Then, Cole started staggering toward her, nearly falling once, but managing to make it to her. “And why the hell… didn’t you… do anything?!” he asked in an angry tone. Jessica only whimpered, feeling hurt by his voice. “If that’s how you’re gonna be… then you can do this… on your own!!” Cole spoke.

“C-Cole, you don’t understand… I wanted to help but… But…” Jessica tried.

“But you were too scared! I know!” Cole finished. Cole took a few more deep breaths. He was already tired, and yelling only drained him more. “Ya know what…? Screw it… I’m outta-” he began. Then, a strange noise interrupted him. Cole’s eyes went wide, and he could see that Jessica’s were as well. He felt a strange sensation near his stomach on the lower left side. He looked and saw an orange dagger-like structure that had pierced through him. His hands were holding onto what stabbed him and slid off with his blood. He looked at his hands in a lost sort of way as the crimson liquid dripped off of them. Peering over Cole’s shoulder, Jessica saw that the Skorpion had returned. It was bleeding and had clearly taken severe damage, yet there it was. Right in front of her with its stinger plunged through Cole. To add to the horror that she was witnessing, the Cryptid started to shake Cole’s body up and down, forcing blood to come spewing from his mouth every time he would change direction. Jessica’s eyes started to tear up as she watched the life fade from her new found friend. ‘No… No…! No! This is my fault! I let this happen! I-I can feel it… slipping away from me again…! No… NO!’ Jessica thought as she stared at the two beings in front of her. Then, her eyes started to glow white as they narrowed into a sharp scowl.

“NO!!!!!” Jessica roared into the night sky. The sky. It was night now, and the darkness above was glittering with stars. Slowly, the stars started to illuminated brightly to the point where Cole had to squint even without looking up. He heard more noises behind him, similar to the one he heard when he was stabbed. Slowly, he turned and looked over his shoulder. So awestruck that his jaw dropped, Cole saw that the Skorpion had been impaled by several rays of light raining down from the stars. Jessica growled and then the Moon’s rays started to stretch. In one final, grand laser, even larger than the one Cole fired, a beam struck down upon the Cryptid and vaporized it nigh instantaneously. Cole was speechless as he looked at the gaping crater in the ground, so deep he couldn’t see the bottom of it. Then, the stinger inside him started to break away. With that, Cole fell forward and landed face down in the landscape around them. Jessica’s eyes stopped glowing and she held her head for a moment. Seconds later, she looked at saw Cole, whose blood was starting to stain the sand scarlet. She immediately dropped to her knees and turned him onto his back. “Cole! Cole! Stay with me! Please! Cole!” she called out. Cole’s eyes were hazy and clearly losing life as he looked at her. ‘Well… Guess it’s as good a way as any…’ he thought. Then, he gazed up at the stars above, but that was when something else caught his attention. A pitch black, curvy, figure stand at his feet.

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“My, oh, my. You always get yourself into these situations. How many times am I going to have to save you? I might just let you die one day.” a seductive, feminine voice spoke. Then, the figure got larger as if it were closer to him, right on top of him to be exact. “Or better yet, I’ll switch places with you. You could be trapped here, and I’ll exist out there.” the voice continued. “After all, you are my Alter, boy.” the voice spoke as Cole felt something similar to a finger tracing his lips. Then, Cole heard a sound, like a quick bit of laughter, devious laughter. “Unfortunately, I can’t. It’s not quite time yet, so the others would get mad.” the figure added. “Now then, let’s get you back on your feet. A dead Alter is a useless one.” the voice finished. That was when Cole got the sensation of lips being pressed against his. Cole’s eyes were wide open in panic as he gazed into another, black pair of human eyes, similar to that of a female.

Screaming and sweating, Cole burst up from the sand. For a moment, his eyes darted around in distress. That was when he noticed a warm glow off to his left. He looked and saw Jessica sitting on the other side of a fire with her legs hugged to her chest. For a moment, they stared at each other, lost in what was happening with the other.

“H-How did you-” Cole started.

“A-Are you o-” Jessica began at the same time.

“No, you go- Okay- No, wait, I’ll-” they both tried, say the same things simultaneously. Finally, Jessica held her hands up, showing that she was going to let him speak first.

“How did you start a fire?” Cole questioned.

“I just focused a ray of light into some wood from that tree that fell when you blasted that Skorpion. It’s kinda like burning things with a magnifying glass and the Sun.” Jessica answered. Cole blinked a few times in surprise. He was expecting more of a practical answer, but decided not to think much of it. “But what’s up with you?” she inquired.

“A little more specific, please?” Cole replied.

“Well, for starters, your wound. It’s gone.” Jessica specified. Cole lifted up the left side of his shirt a little and saw that his wound had in fact vanished without a trace. However, he didn’t look surprised by it whatsoever.

“It happens. Any fatal wound I take gets healed. I have no idea why though.” Cole explained.

“And what about your screaming? What was that?” she continued.

“Just a nightmare…” Cole lied as he looked away from her. Jessica paused for a moment. She had more questions, but wasn’t sure if she would get an answer from him. ‘He seems to be acting more open, so now’s probably my only chance.’ she told herself.

“Hey, you sunk those Wraiths into a shadow earlier, so how come you couldn’t do it just now?” she asked. Cole let out a sigh.

“Follow me on this one. It might be a little strange, so just go with it.” he stated. “Okay, so, I’ve classified every shadow into two different categories. There are Still Shadows, and Active Shadows. Still Shadows, are shadows that aren’t moving, like the shadow of a building, or a tree. Active Shadows are the opposite. They’re shadows that move, like a person, or something flying through the air. I can only manipulate Still Shadows because my powers can form a sort of link between myself and that shadow. If I try to control an Active Shadow, the link breaks and I can’t do anything with it. That’s why I was able to sink those Wraiths into the building’s shadow, but I couldn’t sink the Skorpion into its own shadow, because one was moving and the other was not.” Cole explained. Jessica scratched the top of her head with a confused, beady-eyed look on her face and her left eyebrow raised.

“Uh… I think I get it…” she claimed.

“Now, I have a question for you.” he stated. Jessica focused on him again. “Your power is amazing, but you didn’t fight those Wraiths or that Cryptid. Why?” Cole said. Unlike Cole expected, Jessica didn’t respond right away. Instead, she hugged her knees closer and put her head down a little.

“Because I’m afraid.” Jessica finally answered. Cole’s confusion was clear across his face. “I can’t control my powers. I can manipulate light, but there are times when it doesn’t do what I want. I’ll fire a blast meant to take a Wraith out and it’ll level a skyscraper instead. It happens more often than not, so I only use my powers when I have absolutely no other choice. I should’ve helped you right away, but I didn’t wanna kill you. I’m just glad that I didn’t. I couldn’t live with killing you, too…” she explained. The last part of her words caught Cole’s attention. It was so vague that he couldn’t help but wonder what she meant.

“Me, too? What do you mean?” he tried. Without saying a word, Jessica turned away from him and lied down, leaving her back to Cole and the fire. Cole’s eyes showed his regret immediately. “Sorry.” Cole apologized without getting a response. After that, he lied back down and stared at the sky above. He couldn’t stop thinking about the figure. ‘What the hell was she? Who the hell was she? There’s just too much shit that isn’t adding up…’ Cole wondered. Then, he sighed and shut his eyes, knowing they had a long trip ahead of them and that he needed to rest. On the other side of the fire, however, Jessica was still awake and a single tear ran from her right eye to the sand beneath her.