Amber Deen Leska

“This is for Erind,” Amber Deen Leska whispered through clenched teeth. I’m not going to fail her this time. I don’t fail.

Despite herself, she pressed her ear to the store’s door, hoping to get a clue of what was happening. She wasn’t exactly telling the truth when she told Erind that she had full confidence in her. Male voices were talking and laughing on the other side, but she couldn’t make out what they were saying.

After they had alighted her car several minutes ago, Erind told her that she was going inside the store alone.

Naturally, Deen didn’t agree even if she was aware her best friend was incredibly powerful and wouldn’t have any problems even if there were a thousand of these jerks. She didn’t want to let Erind out of her sight—she was her responsibility.

However, Erind told her she didn’t want ‘that side’ of her to be seen.

Deen knew what her best friend meant. She was confident she could stomach witnessing…whatever was going to happen. However, she realized it might affect their relationship. Not on her part. But Erind would certainly be ashamed of herself, and Deen didn’t want her best friend to be uncomfortable.

Maybe it was for the best if she distanced herself in this situation.

And so she went around the back of the store and returned to the front after hearing all of the creeps had already entered.

I hope everything is okay inside, Deen thought as she heard shouting—not yet screams of terror.

She tightened the rusty chain she coiled around the door knob of the store and tied it to one of the wooden posts holding up the portico above the entrance. Giving it a test tug, she confirmed it was secure. That should stop them from escaping so Erind could…eat…them all inside the store.

It was going to be much cleaner that way.

The only remaining problem was their pickup truck. Deen looked to her left. The vehicle was parked on the other side of the gasoline station. Its lights were on and it was noticeable from the road.

The truck was alone following them. So where were Enrico and his red sports car? Did these guys leave their senior fraternity brother at the diner?

Given what happened there, Deen supposed Enrico would not be too happy they went off on their own. He might be looking for them right at this moment, driving in this direction.

She grabbed the shovel leaning against the door. This old thing was with the chain she found inside a small storage cabin behind the store. She didn’t know how it’d help—perhaps to bury any leftover bodies?— but she brought it along just the same. How about burying the vehicle?

Would it be too far-fetched to dig a hole in the ground deep enough to bury the evidence?

I can do it, she thought. With her super-strength, it was possible. But it would take too much time. Better hide the truck behind the store, away from the view of the road, and leave it at that.

Deen pressed her ear against the door again. She wanted to turn the truck’s lights off, but she was concerned about leaving Erind.

Someone inside the store screamed. A bloodcurdling scream. Unlike the muffled talking voices from earlier, she heard what it was. Erind seemed to have bitten someone’s hand.

Deen tightly shut her eyes as if that would silence the world. She didn’t want to cover her ears with her hands because that was disrespectful to the people who were going to die. The guys may not be exactly good people, but they were innocent and didn’t deserve this kind of end.

And yet, she wasn’t doing anything to stop Erind.

The truck! Tightly gripping the shovel’s rough and rotting handle, Deen walked briskly to the pickup truck. Running away from the store, running away from the screams. At the least, she could prevent Enrico or anyone else from being drawn to this location. I can save someone…That should count for something.

Darkness swallowed everything after she turned off the truck's light—sunrise was still an hour or so away.

The only thing she could clearly see was Gabe, a feathery white ball floating over her shoulder. Although Gabe was visible, it didn’t illuminate anything around her.

She pocketed the keys and stared back at the store, wondering what to do next. She should just wait here, right? How long until Erind would be done…eating?

Gunfire! Two pops echoed in the deathly silence of the desert.

“Oh my gosh!” She grabbed her shovel. They had guns? Erind might get hurt! With her cellphone lighting the way, she started marching to the store.

[Stay.]

The surprise of her Guardian Angel talking again after hours of silence made her stop. The instruction itself? She was going to disobey that. A bullet to the brain could kill an Adumbrae. She had to check on Erind.

[I would stay away from the store if I were you.]

“Why?” Deen asked, giving Gabe a sidelong glance. Expectedly, there was no answer. But she relented and followed its instructions. She stood in the middle of the gas station. Now what?

No more shots followed.

She breathed a sigh of relief.

Erind must be okay, or else there’d be more gunfire. Deen would be surprised if only two were enough to stop her best friend—she had survived a grenade explosion right in front of her.

"Huh? What's that?" Deen tensed up as she spotted light at the side of the store. She turned off her cellphone's light and hid behind a gas pump, observing the situation.

Someone had thrown out their cellphone through the window. From what she could make of the shadows, it seemed that a person was trying to climb out.

Deen had done a quick lap around the store before chaining the door and see the windows were all boarded up. Which was why she thought securing only the door was enough. Some of the boards must've been loose or rotting away. It was no surprise considering how old this place was. I'm so careless!

In total, three people exited the window.

Deen's first thought was to worry about Erind's safety. Could they have done something to her? No. There were six of them. Erind must be busy with the other three, and these guys took that opportunity to escape.

What should she do about them?

Of course, she wasn't going to let them escape alive. These guys knew their faces. It would be easy to trace hers and Erind’s identities all the way to the BID checkpoint at La Esperanza where they first met.

A dreadful thought crept into Deen’s mind—Should I just kill them myself?

The awful gnawing pain around her left shoulder blade had returned. It was more a psychologically-induced pain than anything else. If it was physical, her abnormal regeneration should take care of it. And she was indeed stressed with the problem in front of her.

She had killed before.

But those were men sent by the 2M to kill her, so she was only acting in self-defense in that situation. This was different. Different…

How?! she yelled inside her head. "How is this any different?" she asked the gas pump beside her. Not exactly self-defense, but it was also for self-preservation. There was no way she should let them go.

[Let them go.]

She raised her brow. Did those three guys have guns? Was her Guardian Angel saving her from getting shot? It could also be keeping her away from Erind who was eventually going to come out of the store.

Deen took a deep breath and relaxed. Thinking logically, chasing them in the desert would be next to impossible in this darkness, especially if they split themselves up. The best choice was to guard the truck because some of them might return to it. She was then going to restrain anyone she caught for Erind to eat.

I can't believe I'm feeding an Adumbrae. Deen vigorously shook her head. No! I'm helping a friend—a very precious person to me.

Erind was the first best friend she had, a true friend. Someone who didn't care about her appearance, her family, social connections, and all those things external to her. Erind was relying on her, not as 'Amber Deen Leska', but as her own person, and Deen wasn't going to fail her.

Deen knew Myra had helped Erind 'satisfy her urges', as evidenced by the bloodied clothes she found in the washer. Who was Myra in all of this anyway? She only did that because she wanted Erind's help in finding her sister—a selfish reason. In contrast, Deen was doing this for the sake of her friend. That's right. I'm the worst if I'd abandon my friend here.

Noises snapped her out of her thoughts.

There were no lights, and she didn't dare use her cellphone to not give away her position. She crouched down, taking care not to make any sound, and squinted at the darkness. There seemed to be a dark form lurking by the store. Erind? One of the guys?

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Footsteps hit the ground hard and headed somewhere to her far left. Somebody was there. It was too heavy to be Erind unless she had transformed into Blanchette.

[Hide on the other side.]

Other side of what? Deen just assumed Gabe meant the gas pump so she transferred her position.

Whoever was running was getting further away into the desert. Deen wanted to follow the sounds to check if it was Blanchette. Part of her wanted to meet the Adumbrae side of Erind again. How in control was Erind if she was in her Blanchette body? Would Deen be able to talk to the Adumbrae?

It might just be wishful thinking, but she wanted to try to convince it to leave Erind alone. Could she offer her own body to save—?

Blam! Blam!

“Oh my—!” Deen bit her tongue as she covered her head with her hands. Gunfire? It wasn’t Erind. Who was this guy shooting at? Now, he was running towards her from the sounds of it.

[Move to the back of the pump.]

She did as she was told.

A few more gunshots disturbed the peace of the desert. Is he using his gun as a light?

That person headed to the truck. Deen poked her head out the side of the pump, just in time to see him shooting up in the air again. From a brief second that the gun’s flash fought back the darkness, she saw that the person was the man called Grayson. She couldn’t mistake him with his skull tattoo for anyone else.

She was surprised that Erind let him go. Shouldn’t she be angriest at him the most? Maybe her best friend couldn’t control her hunger to direct it to a specific person.

“Yes!” yelled Grayson. He must’ve reached the car.

Deen looked over her shoulder, back at the store. She heard wood getting torn apart followed by a low growl. It was unmistakable even if faint. Something not human came out the window by the left side where the other guys had exited. She couldn’t see that part now because she had changed positions, but she was certain it was…

“Erind!” she excitedly whispered, pushing down the urge to call out loud. And by the sounds of it, she did transform into Blanchette.

Should she find another hiding spot? Deen intently peered at the corner of the store, trying to see if a shadow was going to show up. Even if it was mostly the Adumbrae in control, Blanchette should remember about her, shouldn’t she?

“No…no…I’m going to keep my promise,” she mumbled to herself. It was up to Erind if she wanted Deen to interact with her Blanchette transformation. Furthermore, if Blanchette lost control of herself in her feeding frenzy, Deen didn’t want to be around.

Instead, she should get Grayson and put him somewhere visible so Blanchette wouldn’t miss him. It would make Deen feel so much better if it was Blanchette who killed him rather than herself or Erind in her normal body.

Deen went to the pickup truck. With her cellphone’s light, she found Grayson digging the dirt right outside the driver’s side of the truck. He must be looking for his keys.

“Tahir?” he said, facing Deen. He blinked his eyes to adjust to the light.

“No,” she replied.

[Use shovel to cover your face.]

Grayson fired his gun at her. Deen felt a tingle race from her hand up her arm as she steadied the shovel shaking from the bullet’s impact.

"Die, you bitch!"

More bullets came, but Gabe was ready to tell Deen which way to lean and how to angle her shovel to avoid or block them. “Wow, this is amazing.” She chuckled at what just happened. “The bullet blocking thing, not what's about to happen to you," she clarified to Grayson.

"Why won't you fucking die?"

The desperation in Grayson’s voice got to Deen.

[One step left. Raise shovel to your right shoulder.]

No… Deen let the next few shots hit.

There was a searing pain in her shoulder joint. A bullet must've lodged in between her bones. Parts of her arms stung. The oozing blood warmed her skin from the cold desert winds. I'll need to change my clothes later.

Grayson jumped back inside the pickup truck and slammed the door shut. Was he going to escape out the other door?

Without any hesitation, Deen punched the driver's side window—her fist went through it like it was paper. She grabbed the front of Grayson's head and tried to drag him out of the car. He held on inside the car and pulled away from her hold. She slowly closed her grasp so that he couldn't escape. Her fingers pierced skin and flesh, and soon her nails were scraping his skull.

Don't think about it. This was like the time she was punching the men sent by the 2Ms to capture her. She should ignore the sensation of human flesh and bone. The memories of cracking skulls under her knuckles made her sharply breathe. I don't want to remember that!

In frustration, Deen reached with her other hand into the truck to pull Grayson's hand holding onto the steering wheel. Some use of super strength and some broken bones later, and she finally got him out.

Deen bent down to pick up her shovel and phone. When she turned back to him, he had stood up and was trying to run. Extremely irritated that he wasn't following her plans, she chased him and whacked his legs with the shovel.

"Yeaargh! Fuck!"

"I don't want any of this to be personal," Deen explained to him.

Grayson vomited on the ground while groaning and rolling in pain. From the smell, he must've peed himself. She tasted bile at the back of her throat. Swallowing hard and breathing evenly, she pushed down the urge to puke. Perhaps, she should've just killed him and spared him this suffering—suffering which she was causing.

No! No, no, no... She already decided to help Erind. And she was going to see this to its end. "You're a perverted harasser and you should be in jail," she lectured him. "But that doesn't mean I have the right to torture you or even kill you. Perhaps others might think so, but I don't. It's not justified."

She continued talking.

To him? To herself?

Probably the latter.

Deen went on about how she wasn't supposed to be the judge of Grayson's actions in life, much less punish them for it. Even though Grayson wouldn't care, if he was even listening to her, Deen told him that she wasn't going to fail Erind again.

"I'm sorry," she eventually said as she seized his ankles and pulled him.

Her words rung hollow. But what could she say to a man she was bringing to slaughter? She tried to remember all the harassment he did to her and Erind to make herself angry. It just didn't work; her heart still felt heavy in her chest. She was feeding him to an Adumbrae—that Adumbrae was her best friend. But still.

"I'm really sorry, but Erind comes first," was all she could say in the end. Her shoulder pain returned.

She ended up tying his legs to a wooden post by the store's entrance with the chains she earlier used to lock its front door.

"Don't scream so you'll live longer," she said. He quieted down, probably accepting his fate. Did her words sound too threatening? She was honestly trying to be helpful, but it came off as something morbid.

[Turn lights off.]

Deen complied, tensing up at the possible danger. Was Erind coming?

"Help! Help!" Grayson suddenly screamed. "I'm here! He—!"

Surprised at the outburst, she instinctively swung the shovel at his face. He crumpled in a heap. "Oh my god," she said as she knelt beside him. "Are you still alive?" His body fell limp as she tried to pull him into an upright position. Even if she wanted to check if she killed him, she didn't want to turn on her cellphone's lights.

She looked around to check what her Guardian Angel was warning her about.

Are those headlights?

A car had veered off the main road and headed towards the gas station.

As it approached, Deen noticed its red color. She still couldn't clearly make out its form, but its lights were positioned very low. A sports car and other similar models had low ground clearance. How many sports cars drove through this stretch of the desert at this time of the day?

It meant only one thing. It was Enrico and perhaps other ACO fraternity members.

"How did they know to come here?" Deen said as she slinked away into the darkness. She didn't bother to hide Grayson's unconscious—maybe dead—body because they could see the truck anyway. There was blood there if they'd investigate. Her Guardian Angel also didn't tell her to do anything about it.

Gabe did guide her on how to avoid being seen. Two men alighted the car, one from the passenger's side and one from the back, and rushed to the pickup truck. Sure enough, they found traces of struggle, specifically the broken window and the blood. Mostly my blood, Deen thought from behind a gas pump.

The two rushed to the store. Deen wanted to stay and check their reaction when they found Grayson because it might give her a clue if she really killed him. But she had a more important thing to do. And it's better if I didn't know, she added in her head.

Deen sprinted to the cover of the truck, careful not to get seen by the light from the sport's car. That was her target—she should prevent their escape. The driver should still be there and it was up to her to incapacitate him.

Looking behind her, she saw Enrico and his friend run in the direction where their fraternity brothers had fled earlier. They must've seen or heard something that made them go there. This meant that they didn't know there was an Adumbrae here.

Erind chose this place because there was barely any signal here. So how did they find us? Did they decide to randomly check this abandoned gas station and saw the pickup truck? I'm just going to ask the driver of the sports car.

An engine revved, followed by the sounds of tires crunching gravel.

[The car is going to leave.]

Deen's eyes widened at her Guardian Angel giving her information instead of an order. "Are you going to let me decide what to do?" she whispered as she rounded the back of the truck. "You could've told me about it much earlier."

She would've preferred actual instructions in this situation. She surmised that the car was driving back somewhere with a cellphone signal to be able to call the police. She couldn't allow that.

"Help me!" she hysterically screamed as she popped into the car's view. She waved her hands and jumped up and down to make sure she was seen. "Help! Help me, please!" A girl with bloodied clothes asking for help? The driver was bound to help her.

The car didn't stop. It continued reversing back to the main road. In fact, it was gradually picking up speed.

"What the...?" She rushed to get the shovel she left beside the truck and then sprinted towards the car. "Am I going to make it?"

[Throw shovel.] Gabe rattled off instructions on how to do it with a perfect form.

"Yah!" Deen yelled as the launched the shovel. It pierced through the air, giving off a slight whistling side, and penetrated the passenger's side of the car as it righted itself on the road. The shovel entered the window and most likely hit the driver.

This time, the car stopped.

"Oh my god...oh my god..." she said with each exhale. Her arms tingled from the adrenaline rushing through her body. "Gabe, what was that supposed to be?" she snapped at the feathery orb floating over her shoulder.

It was silent. Was it trying to teach her how important it was to listen to its instructions?

"I'm not going to let this one pass, Gabe," she said as she marched to the car. She was trying to be angry, but couldn't. A huge smile was on her face. This car could've called for help if not for her. What would Erind do without me?

Deen was going to tell Erind about this later so she'd recognize how important it was that they were together. Her best friend had to understand that she could rely on her. Just like when Erind woke up after the grenade explosion—Deen was immediately there for her.

It didn't matter that it was Deen who threw the grenade.