~ Episode Ten ~

Moonlit Shadows:

Zorfus, the Monster of Darkness

“Did your brain fall out or something, Shin?” Evan scoffed. “You actually want us to wait for another Monster to show up? Come on, man, be real! ‘Ree’s barely got enough strength left as it is after that fight with Cloria!”

Shinji sat beneath a poplar tree with Eri in his arms. Evan and Macks stood over him, fuming about the situation at hand. His gaze fell away from them, giving way to deep thought.

Was it really a fight if the Monster gave up willingly?

“We can’t leave. There’s still a job to do. The other Monster needs to be Sealed.”

“Eddi-chan shouldn’t have even been out here with us in the first place!” Mackenzie snapped at him. “I told you she wasn’t feeling well! And now because of you, she almost got killed by that Cloria Monster! She needs to be home. In bed. Trust me!”

“Cloria had no intention of hurting her.”

“Hah! Your Guardian Beast sure had other plans, though! Don’t be stupid, Shinji. I want to take Eri home! You guys can handle this Zorfus thing on your own!”

Shinji closed his eyes, feeling the weight of their disbelief at him. “…We can’t risk separating the group.”

“I’m going to the bathroom.” Evan hooked a thumb back towards a coffee shop across the street. “Y’all want anything?”

Shinji shot him a glare. “What did I just say?”

“Brother, you want me to take a wiz right here? I’ll do it.”

Mackenzie gagged. “Ew! Evan! Don’t!”

“Fine, go.” Shinji said. “But be quick. And yeah, get Seruma something to help wake her up. I’ll pay you back.”

“Yeah, yeah.” Evan waved him off and headed away with fists jammed in his khakis pockets.

Mackenzie plopped down beside Shinji and studied Eri with deep-set worry. “Please, Shinji. I want to take her home. Why is that such a big deal for you?”

“I understand your concern, Thompson. Truth is, I’m not comfortable facing Zorfus with Seruma in this state, either. But I’d feel better knowing she has the energy to fly home on Shiara.”

“Shiara?! Just call us a cab!”

Shinji scoffed. “And risk getting you both into a car wreck because the driver might forget where he’s going the moment Zorfus is Sealed? I don’t think so. You remember the memory charm is in effect, right? In any case, how are you going to explain sneaking out to Seruma’s parents if you pull up in a taxi?”

Mackenzie frowned.

“She’ll be okay,” Shinji assured her. “Seruma’s stronger than she seems. I wish you were here for the fight with Kyupo. I didn’t see it because of my injury, but the look on her face when she returned from the arboretum—you could tell she gave it her all.”

Mackenzie considered this for a time and nudged strands of hair out of Eri’s sleeping eyes. “She said fighting Kyupo was awful. A nightmare.”

“I don’t doubt it.”

Shinji felt Mackenzie’s eyes on him searching for elaboration. But there was none to give. He stole a look Evan’s way towards the coffee shop across the street. Sealing Monsters was a nightmare. A nightmare where the risk of causing long-term pain was real, no matter how much of the world around that pain repaired itself afterwards.

The night Evan Sealed his first Monster was a reminder of this.

Mackenzie fumbled for a pack of cigarettes from inside her cardigan. “Whatever. How do you think we did on those history projects?”

Shinji shook his head, returning to the now. “Uhh—Oh. I thought you guys did a good job. Personally, I would have used To Kill a Mockingbird for the movie. But that’s just me.”

“Who cares, so long as it gives us a pass. I can’t sit through those old movies,” Mackenzie confessed. “They’re so boring. Eri got the clip, so I gotta give her credit for watching the whole thing.”

Shinji watched her slide the pack open and unwrap the foil that covered the cigarettes. “What do you get from those, anyway?”

“You wanna try one?” She waved a cigarette under his nose. When he refused, she stuck it between her lips and fished around for a lighter. “There isn’t much appeal. They taste like crap and make me feel about the same.”

“Then why do it?”

Mackenzie sent him a side-long glare.

“Not judging,” he said. “Just curious. Seruma doesn’t mind?”

“I don’t know, Shinji. Why do dumb kids do anything?” The aggravation in Macks’ tone softened over the next patch of words. “And no. My smoking doesn’t bother her, not that she’s ever mentioned—I, um, I took up the habit after my sister died.”

“Your sister?” This startled Shinji. “What happened?”

Mackenzie scrubbed the back of her head, looking away. “She—well—it happened when I was eleven. Um—Thanksgiving weekend. Yeah. We were driving behind Amanda’s boyfriend—Roads were bad, vision was bad. Uh ... Big ol’ transport through a red light. My mom and dad and me saw the whole thing.”

“Oh my God.” Heavy waves of sickness rolled over Shinji’s stomach. “That’s awful. I’m so sorry.”

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Mackenzie shrugged. She made a sort of wall with one hand to protect the precious lighter flame and took a couple of puffs off her cigarette. “It’s fine. But that’s why I started smoking. Helped with the stress. Still does, I guess. Mostly steal them from my mom’s stash. Half the time she’s too stoned to notice anyway.”

“Seruma knows, right?”

“Obviously. I tell her everything.” But Macks’ eyes glazed with a sheen of lostness. “…Almost everything.”

“What do you mean?” Shinji asked.

“I dunno. Sometimes stuff goes a lot deeper, Shinji. Stuff that just—sits there and rots. Stuff you dunno if you can tell anyone.” She took longer drag from her cigarette and stared off into the distance. “Stuff I dunno how Eri would react to. If she’d even understand…”

Shinji’s gaze dropped to Eri snoozing in his arms. The smell of her strawberry perfume lingered in his nostrils, a bittersweet reminder of an identity still so secret to her. Guilt hardened around the waves of sickness in his guts. He nodded, grasping Mackenzie’s logic completely.

“She’s so sheltered,” Macks continued. “You know how nuts her family is—all that religious and military crap. Apparently her dad makes Eri call him sir? Ugh—Grosses me out.”

“…Have things gotten worse?”

“Worse? Shinji, it’s like she’s a walking porcelain doll! I’ve been to her house maybe twice, and I’m happy to never go back—I get enough of an earful second-hand. If Eri’s parents aren’t constantly at each other, they’re constantly hovering over her. But then they’re never actually there for her when she needs them.”

Shinji nodded. “That sounds like her parents. I suppose you’ve met Noah, too.”

“OH—Her freaking brother, right? Acts like Eri’s third parent—God, it’s the worst!” Mackenzie shook her head, drew a thin breath between gritted teeth. “And, like, stuff happened today with her mom and I just—it makes me so mad.”

“Seruma’s really important to you.” Shinji observed this with a pang in his heart that mixed both regret and gratitude into a single ache.

“Eddi-chan’s very important to me,” Mackenzie murmured from behind the safety of her kneecaps. “She means more than anything to me, Shinji. More than she can ever know. I just want her to be happy.”

He nodded. It was a fair desire to want.

Mackenzie then asked, “You guys used to be best friends, right?”

“Yes. Our mothers used to babysit for each other. Believe it or not, we actually met here at the park as preschoolers.” Shinji pointed her attention to a nearby jungle gym over by the old windmill, that acted as a playground centerpiece. “Right over there.”

“You’ve known Eri a long time,” Mackenzie mused.

“Yes.”

“Her moving away must’ve been really hard. Kinda funny that fighting Monsters put you guys back on each others’ radars.”

Shinji hesitated, becoming very aware of Eri’s weight in his arms. “Things with Seruma are—complicated.”

“Figured. But I’ve seen you sneaking glances at her in class. It’s pretty obvious she’s on your mind,” Mackenzie said. “Listen—Eri cares about you, too. I know things are awkward between you guys, but—I dunno, maybe it’s time to bury the hatchet. Maybe take her out for a slushy or something and talk, you know?”

A startled grunt escaped Shinji.

“I think she’d really like that.” Mackenzie’s stare lingered, almost uncomfortably. “She misses you. Told me, herself.”

Shinji frowned. He said no more on the subject.

Some time later, Eri roused with a quiet groan and nestled against the crook of Shinji’s elbow. She gazed dreamily up at her friends. “Nnnmm … Whu ‘appen?”

“Well, hello, you! Welcome back to the land of the living.” Mackenzie offered her a tired smile, cigarette smoldering between two fingers.

“Cloria’s Sealed,” Shinji supplied. “Now just waiting on Zorfus to show up.”

Macks winked at Eri. “And looks like you got the best seat in the house, Eddi-chan.”

“Huh?” Eri wrinkled her nose, confused, then caressed her forehead with a wince.

Shinji didn’t understand what Mackenzie meant either and helped prop Eri up between them both. “Evan’s gone to get you something warm. You were right, maybe pajamas weren’t such a good idea.”

He darted a look in the direction of the coffee shop. His gaze instead settled on a hulking figure made of pure shadow, standing within a burst of trees away from the main path.

Mackenzie saw it too and bolted alert. “Is that—”

“Zorfus!!” Shinji gasped.

The Monster’s legs barely moved as he came towards the trio at an impossible speed, carried forward purely by the light of the moon cast against the ground. Zorfus raised both arms. What appeared to be an inky wheat scythe bubbled into existence where its hands should have been. It swung down at them.

“Get out of the way!!” Evan appeared in time to catch the shadowy weapon with the tines of his Water Trident. The parry gave his friends the narrow escape they needed.

“Damn,” Shinji muttered as he tugged Eri along by the wrist. He looked over-shoulder to find Evan engaged with the Monster now, trading blows back and forth, dancing a majestic warrior’s dance. “That was too close.”

Mackenzie, who was at their heels, stopped to catch her breath.

“Thompson, what are you doing?!”

“I can’t do this!” she declared. “I always wanted to be in a shoujo mahou, but this is getting crazy! First that snake-thing at the library, and now this? That guy just tried to kill us! Sorry, Shinji, but me and Eri are out!”

“Are you for real?!” Shinji stared at her, stunned. “We’ll talk about this later! Right now, we gotta pull together and Seal that Monster!”

“No! Shut up! You can’t make me!”

Eri, who was now fully awake, watched in horror past Mackenzie as the Monster dispatched Evan into a patch of bushes like he were mere litter. Zorfus turned with his wavering scythe weapon and came forward on hostile strides.

“Oh, shit.” Shinji stumbled backwards, pulling Eri along for the ride.

Mackenzie took one glance over her shoulder and bolted past them both.

“Thompson—!!”

A ripple flowed through Zorfus’s shadowy body as it made its way towards them on a motionless track. The Monster melted into an inky stream that left a trail of brown, life-drained grass in its wake.

“Macks, watch out!!” Eri unclasped her Fire Pendant. “Element Fire—R E L E A S E ! !”

A gust of air formed around her as the Fire Pendant glowed to life. The Fire Hammer formed in an instant.

Eri snatched the elemental weapon out of mid-air and brought it down upon the inky stream as it flowed by her slippers.

“Zorfus, Monster of—huh?”

A puddle formed beneath the flat of the hammerhead. The torrent rushed onward through the grass. Eri lifted her Fire Hammer away. A few droplets trapped beneath squirmed away to catch up with the rest.

“Oh, no…” Shinji uttered. “Seruma, look…”

The flow of darkness was following Mackenzie’s flight at a steady pace.

Eri darted after her. “Macks! Behind you!!”

Mackenzie slowed beneath the glow of a lamppost, turning at the sound of her name, stumbling through an unexpected puddle. “Oh, gross…!”

“Get out of there!” Shinji shouted.

But it was too late. An ogre’s hand of liquid shadow rose underfoot and closed its fingers around Mackenzie’s little body. It stretched high above Eri and Shinji and threw Macks far into the distance, her screams of terror echoing across the night sky.