The pain in Jacks head slowly subsides and with it does the words. Jack lifts his head from the ground, takes his hands off his head and begins to stand up. Jacks nose bleeding as the veins in his forehead bulged.

“Jack, are you okay?” Grace wails as she runs over to help him up.

“Yeah, I’m fine, but my head is killing me.” Jack replies.

Grace faces Jack, wraps her arms around Jack and proceeds to kiss Jack heavily on the lips. Her eyes weeping from both the horror and relief she just witnessed.

John picks up the shotgun from the ground and peers outside the broken window.

“Keep your guard up everyone. It may not yet be over.” John says as he begins to smash out the shards of glass still connected to the wall with the tip of his shotgun.

Isaac runs over to Jack with a damp kitchen cloth that Mrs. Sealy had wet from the kitchen sink after seeing Jacks face begins to pat Jacks nose and face in a frantic motion. Jack grabs the kitchen cloth out of Isaacs hands.

“Its cool Isaac. I am fine.” Jack says.

“Just trying to help, sheesh, you can thank me later.” Isaac jokingly replies in a shaky voice.

Jack begins to move closer to the window.

“Is it safe Mr. Sealy?” Jack questions moving into a position for a better view.

“Yeah, looks like it.”

Jack looks outside to notice at least a dozen of the creatures hastily coming out of homes, leaping over cars and heading down the street. He could only make out the shapes of the creatures thanks to the moonlight.

“What do you mean? I can at least count twelve of them running down the street.” Jack says as he continues to watch them leave.

“You can see them?” Isaac asks as he moves near John to also peak out the window.

“Yeah. you can’t?”

“No! They are invisible. Remember?”

“Not to me. I can definitely see them now. Ugly looking two-legged demon looking fuckers.”

John, with shotgun barrel facing to the sky, pushed the shotgun into Jack. Jack is startled by Johns actions and by reflects grabs the gun. John lets go of the shotgun and moves to the corner of the room to pick up a box.

“That is now yours Jack. It’s a SPAS-12 shotgun. The safety is on the side and here is a box of ammo for it.” John says as he throws the box towards Jack.

Jack catches the ammo box with his free hand as John walks towards him.

“Flip the gun upside down.” John requests.

Jack flips the gun. John touches a spot on the gun just behind the pump handle.

“Hold down this and then slide the shells into this hole here. This variant takes eight rounds and one in the chamber. Once your finished loading you can stop pressing down on that and she is good to go. Oh, and do not go flaunting my gun around if the police come over. It is illegal here”

“Why do you have that?” Isaac questions as John moves away into the kitchen.

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Jack places the ammo box on the window edge, opens it and begins reloading the gun in a very amateurish manner.

“Dads a typical gun and military nut.” Grace replies.

John, now hoisting an AR-15 against his chest and holding a kitchen chair comes back through the kitchen door.

“We ain’t going anywhere tonight. Sorry Isaac and Jack, your parents will have to wait until daybreak. Looks like Jack and me are on first watch. Jack, you stay here and guard this window and the front door. You should be able to see both from this angle. I will guard the back door. Jenny, Isaac and Grace, go get some sleep while you still can.”

“Got it.” Jack says

“Come Isaac, I will set you up in the spare bedroom.” Jenny signals to Isaac.

John, Jenny and Isaac disappear into the hallway. Jack goes to the kitchen, grabs a kitchen chair and places it in front of the window. Jack sits down on the chair, scans his eyes across the front lawn in search of the monsters and then looks at Grace.

“Why aren’t you going to sleep?” Jack queries.

“Jack, you kept saying something when you were in pain after killing that thing. Do you remember?”

“No, all I remember is that the pain was fucking killing me. But something strange did happen to me.”

“What do you mean?”

“I saw what I thought were the words Dust in bright glowing purple letters. There were other letters, but they were all jumbled up.”

“That’s what you kept screaming out. Dust, Dust, Dust over and over again.”

“Really? that’s odd.”

“Do you still see those words?”

“No, just left with a slight headache.”

“What if you try closing your eyes?”

Jack looks at Grace.

“I will give it a shot.”

Jack leans back in the kitchen chair and closes his eyes to see nothing but darkness. Jack tries to remember what the letters looked like and as he did, he begins to see purple pixels moving around his vision.

“I see something.” Jack excitedly says.

“What do you see?” Grace responds.

“I don’t know… Purple boxes… bright.”

All of a sudden, Jacks eyes are forced open, and a blue but transparent overlay appears within his vision. The words “Dust Power” show on the top left, “Dust Power” at the top right and in the middle of his vision is a skills table.

Dust Power: 1

DUST OUTPUT: 10

Skills:

Dust Vision Level 1

Gain the sight of the hidden.

“Welcome little Jack Rider. I am your new Dust companion.” A soft girl’s voice booms in Jacks head.

Jack looks around frantically trying to remove the vision he sees in his eyes.

“Calm down little Jack. You’re making me dizzy.”

“Fuck you. Who the fuck are you? Get the fuck out of my head.” Jack thinks to himself.

“I don’t have a name. A name is something foreign to me because we are one. But checking native language I will assign myself a name based on my role…”

Purple dots begin to scatter across Jacks eyes again as if something was thinking.

“You can call me Chika.”

“You can talk back to me? What the fuck is this? Who the fuck are you?” Jack subconsciously says in a panicked state as he continues to shake his head.

“Am I going insane?” Jack speaks out loud.

“What’s happening Jack? Are you okay?” Grace asks, in a concerned voice as she touches him on the shoulder.

“I can hear your thoughts. Like I said, I am your Dust companion. You won me” Chicka perks in an excited tone.

“We have been called many things in history Jack. Devil, demons, akuma, Aposis are some of the names we have been given by your kind. I have given you the power to see the hidden but not the power to hide. You can make new powers or enhance existing ones if you feed me. You can always activate me by saying “Dust On” and always deactivate me by saying “Dust Off”. But remember, you lose all my power while I am deactivated. You’d be all alone and on your own little Jack”

“What do you mean the power to see or hide from the hidden? This doesn’t make any sense.” Jack subconsciously says.

“That’s all I am going to say. Sorry little Jack Rider. You’re going to have to find out the answer to those questions on your own. But always know, the more I eat, the closer it will be until your all mine. Never forget that little Jack.”

“What the fuck you mean by that? Hello? Chicka or whatever your fucking name is?” Jack says to himself.

Jack waits for a response, but it never comes and the images in Jacks head slowly fade away. Jack looks to Grace who is still leaning down holding his shoulder with concern on her face.

“I think I have powers…”