“Enjoy your walk?” Jett asked, handing Rodrigo a PS5 controller as he reentered the room. He wondered how much more Emelina had told him, if anything.
“Yeah. Sorry about dipping out,” Rodrigo said, taking a seat on the bed’s bottom bunk. “What are we playing?”
“This role-playing game I downloaded with 4 player co-op. I had it installing in the background this whole time. Heard it’s sick.”
“Oh, come on. RPGs are lame,” Raquel said, her hair still damp from an earlier shower and hanging down to her lower back. She was dressed nearly head-to-toe in Geo’s signature blues. “Is this you being a sore loser because I started wiping the floor with you?”
“¡Oye! Don’t get cocky. I was going easy on you while you learned the ropes,” Jett said, neglecting that he’d mercilessly stomped on any delusions Rodrigo and Carlito might have had of having careers in esports. “We can have a rematch later. At least we can play this as a team.”
The four of them lost themselves in the virtual world and its dungeons for hours, but the whole time, both older boys were distracted. Rodrigo was arguing with Resent, who at first mocked him for wasting so much time playing a game, then criticized the decisions he made in it, even analyzing his performance in every battle. Jett was constantly glancing at his phone and got up hourly to look out the window.
When night fell, Jett turned his controller off and docked it in the charging station. “Let’s take a break.”
“Seriously? My rogue just got this sweet crossbow,” Raquel whined. “You mad your barbarian is absolute trash, while I’ve got the best stats in the party?”
“Sure, it’s breaking my heart. Look, play another game for a while. Ruy and I’ve gotta do something real quick.”
Though clueless about what Jett had in mind, Rodrigo grabbed his jacket and scarf. If he had to keep listening to Resent denounce his character’s liberal use of mana, he was going to have an aneurysm. He followed his cousin downstairs, where Emelina was in the early stages of cooking something that smelled heavenly.
“Ma, we’re stepping out for some fresh air,” Jett said.
“Don’t be too long. Dinner will be ready in an hour.”
The cousins left the house and walked at a brisk pace. There were lights on in homes and vehicles were passing by, so the neighborhood wasn’t deserted. While there were more people out now, there was a weird hypervigilance to them. Rodrigo didn’t think of himself or Jett as threatening-looking, but nearly everyone that passed by gave them a wide berth, and fixed them with unblinking stares.
“Dude, what’s up with this neighborhood?” Rodrigo asked.
“Dunno. It’s just an odd place, I guess,” Jett answered in a monotone. The way his cousin was acting was creeping Rodrigo out. After all, the Jett he had grown up with was almost always smiles and sunshine. Wherever they were headed, he was unusually somber about it.
After fifteen minutes, they stopped nearly a mile away, at the entrance to Prospect Park.
“What are we doing here, man?” Rodrigo asked.
“I wanted to tell you earlier, but I had to wait until it got dark. Not as many people are out thanks to the cold, but plenty still go ice skating at the rinks over on Lakeside.” Jett led him around the blue-green lake, where swans, geese, and ducks were floating peacefully, and off the road to a spacious grassy area, dense with surrounding trees.
It seemed like a good spot to murder someone. “Man, I know I was getting some great loot in the game earlier, but if you brought me out here to shank me over it, I think you’re overreacting a bit.”
“Hilarious,” Jett said in a humorless tone. “Look, Ruy, I’ve got a big problem. Back when we were younger, we used to talk about everything, and help each other out. I’m not sure what I’m expecting from you now, but I-I need to show someone.”
Rodrigo’s stomach dropped. Until now, the bleakness in Jett’s face made him think his cousin had gotten some girl pregnant. “Show me what?”
“Just watch. And try to stay calm.” Jett put some distance between them. After glancing around to make sure no one was in sight, he closed his eyes, his features straining as if he were in pain. No, that wasn’t it. He was concentrating. Concentrating so intensely, he was trembling as a flush crept up his face. Then Rodrigo squeezed his eyes shut against a blinding flash of light.
When his vision returned seconds later, he shrank back, his every muscle tensing involuntarily to fight...or run. What stood in front of him resembled his cousin only in its wiry build. Unnatural, opaque green electricity coated its entire body. Erratic bolts that popped and sizzled stabbed out of its head like elk antlers, as a tail of lightning swished behind it. What he was seeing was more inhuman-looking than Resent or even Flint.
The anxiety in those brown eyes was the only definitive proof that this being and Jett were the same. In a distorted voice, he said, “Please, help me.” The crackling electricity died down, revealing the boy beneath. His knees buckled, crunching the fallen leaves under their weight. “I don’t wanna be like this, man. I’m a monster.”
In Rodrigo’s brain, a million questions entered a battle royal for control of his tongue. When he spoke, it was with enough composure Jett might’ve found it suspicious, if he was in a sounder state of mind. “Does it hurt when you do that?”
“No, and that just makes it worse.”
“Do you hear a voice in your head? Maybe constantly carrying on about how inferior humans are?”
“Insolent bastard,” Resent said.
The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.
“What? No.” Jett’s gaze dropped to the ground.
“When’d it start?” Rodrigo asked, cutting to the chase.
“On Wednesday. My friend Eric was getting jumped by some kids behind our school. No one else was around, so I ran over to help him. But once I showed up, and they started focusing on me, Eric bailed. They beat the crap outta me until I felt this weird rush of energy and lifted my foot to kick one of them.” Jett paused, tears he had barely been holding back now streaked down his cheeks. “I electrocuted the guy, and somehow it spread to the other three. They were all flopping around on the sidewalk like fish outta water...I think I really hurt them, Ruy. Haven’t been to school since.”
Rodrigo applied cold, hard logic. “Well, it’s been five days, right? If they were really hurt, or even dead, it would’ve made the news by now. Hell, if even one of them was seriously injured, the others would’ve ratted you out to the cops, and we’d be seeing sketches of your mug all over. I think you just stunned them, physically and mentally.”
“That makes sense, I guess,” Jett said, some of the stiffness leaving his shoulders. “I’ve been checking the news on my phone, feeling like the Men in Black are gonna break my door down any minute. Still, why me for this?”
Seeing his cousin ready to slip back into self-pity, Rodrigo switched tactics. “Jett, remember when we were kids, and we always used to run around the playground acting like we had superpowers?”
“What about it?”
“It was a bit of an obsession for us. Other kids were constantly playing ball, learning an instrument, or blowing all their parents’ money on trading cards, but not our clique. We were in our own little world.” Rodrigo snickered at the memories of a simpler time. A happier time. “That was never purely make-believe, was it? Even at that age, I think we grasped the world’s unfairness and wished we could be powerful enough to do something about it. Sure, it was an impossible fantasy that only got further away with age, but if it would’ve been a dream come true then, why not make the best of it now?”
Jett looked up at Rodrigo again, but with a livid expression. “Are you kidding me with that bullshit? This is real, not some kiddie crap from grade school!” He shot to his feet, swiping his tears away. “This was a mistake. The more you talk, the clearer it gets. You can’t even begin to understand what I’m going through.”
The corners of Rodrigo’s mouth tugged upward at the irony in those words. He thrust his arms out in front of him, palms facing the night sky. “You shared this with me because you wanted advice? Sadly, I’ve got nothing. But that’s cuz if you’re a monster, so am I.”
Jett gaped at the black nebulae spinning in Rodrigo’s hands for a long moment, as if he thought it were a mirage. “What? How?”
“It all started with me touching an urn,” Rodrigo began.
He planned to recount everything at once, but after a few minutes, Jett exhaled deeply, interrupting him. “Wait, wait. You’re kinda blowing my mind here. So you’re saying your powers are on loan from a demon?”
“Yeah. Resent, the Prince of Hell. Sometimes he takes over my body.”
Jett shook his head and looked at him like he was a lunatic. “Are you sure? What if, when you touched this urn, it took something already...inside you, and made it into a split personality?”
The idea made Rodrigo doubt himself momentarily, but there was too much evidence of Resent’s existence. “Aren’t you Catholic? Shouldn’t demons be right up your alley?”
“Only cuz Ma’s been forcing us to go to church every Sunday since forever.”
“Well, trust me, you’ll get it if you ever see him.”
“Either way, at least you know how you got your powers. I have no clue about mine.”
“How about you?” Rodrigo asked. “I mean, it can’t be a coincidence I met you two days after Jett got his powers, can it?” Maybe Jett had a demon in him, too. One who didn’t love the sound of their own voice as much as the prince did.
“Perhaps, or perhaps not,” Resent said, as enlightening as a Magic 8-Ball.
Jett cracked a half-smile, his first sign of optimism since entering the park. “Still, dude, you dunno how much better it makes me feel to know I’m not the only weirdo.”
“Same here,” Rodrigo said. “Have you figured out how to use your electricity yet?”
“I’ve been testing it out here since I got it. No matter what I do, I can’t use it at all unless I armor up like I showed you. And even then, it’s rough.”
“Perfect. Enough emotional drivel. Let’s see what he is capable of,” Resent said, and Rodrigo got that horrible out-of-body feeling as control was yanked away from him. His hair spiked up and his eyes turned purple. Resent’s lips split into a malicious grin as he stared at Jett.
Jett staggered back as if someone had struck him. “Holy crap! Are you the demon?”
“Yes, I am Prince Resent. Show me what you can do, human.” Without further warning, he rushed at Jett and punched him square in the jaw, knocking him into the grass.
Jett was on hands and knees, spitting up blood. “W-what are you doing?”
“Your sparks. Bring them out,” Resent said as he picked him up by the collar of his jacket and tossed him against the trunk of a tree. He rebounded off it and threw an awkward punch, which Resent deftly sidestepped, then retaliated with a knee to the solar plexus. Jett doubled over, gasping for air.
“Come on, take it easy,” Rodrigo said, hating to see his own limbs brutalize his cousin. The closest they’d ever come to blows was play-fighting as kids.
“I am holding back tremendously. His deplorable lack of tenacity is no fault of mine!”
“I don’t wanna fight you,” Jett said softly, not moving. The look on his face was a combination of fear, pain, and confusion.
“Submission won’t make an opponent after your life cease their assault,” Resent said. Seeing the comment had fallen on deaf ears, he looked into Jett’s eyes and spat in his face.
Jett blinked, flinching as the spittle sprayed him, but continued studying his sneakers in an effort to pretend he was elsewhere. Although he didn’t go seeking trouble like his brother, the middle school Jett went to wasn’t very good, so he was no stranger to violence. Had high school changed him that much, or was he still mistaking Resent for Rodrigo?
“Look at me, you damn coward!” Resent roared. “I shall dine with your family shortly. If you presume this runt I’m inhabiting can protect any of you from me, you’re sorely mistaken about the nature of our relationship. It is one of master and slave. If I start beating you all to death, there’s nary a thing he can do to stop me.”
Though Rodrigo knew Resent was trying to provoke Jett, the naked truth of the statement terrified him. It had been his immediate concern when the prince first took control, but had fallen into the background with the threat of Flint. Before he could interject, Jett finally met Resent’s gaze. He spoke in a whisper, “If you hurt any of them...I’ll make you regret it.”
Resent yanked Jett closer so their faces were inches apart. “Oh? And what exactly does a mewling twig like you intend to do? Plan on telling your mother on me? Go ahead. I’ll strangle the life out of the sow right in front of you.”
“Shut up!” Jett yelled as electricity surged, rising from his feet to encase his entire body, forcing Resent to let go. The fury of sparks made violent circles around Jett as he tackled Resent and sent him sprawling across the ground. His voice distorted, he said, “You wanna fight so bad? Fine. You’ve got one.”