I just about soiled myself but managed to move just enough to avoid major damage. Cara bit into my shoulder and body-checked me into the wall. As if taking a breath, she drew energy from me again, but this time, it was only a minor annoyance.
A little shock from within, like static, caused my skin to twitch. The tingle grew and every hair on my body stood on end. The creature tried to take more from me, and the irritation caused me to tense. A surge of loathing sent a jolt of power through my body.
Once more, she tried to take — no, steal from me. She had the audacity to steal from me? My fist crackled with electricity as it connected with her stomach. The force of the body-blow sent her back a dozen feet. A trail of flickering light singed the carpet along her path.
Cara managed to stay on her feet, but her muscles spasmed involuntarily. That gave me an idea. I pointed at her, charging my finger with a paralyzing bolt. I tilted my head in curiosity when I saw her sniffing the air. Her body twisted and just a few feet away, her mother was sitting up looking confused.
For the love of death. It could actually smell the blood. The creature wasn’t mindless, or at least not anymore.
Instead of just paralyzing her, I flashed across the room and sent her flying with a kick. She cleared Mrs. Hasbrook’s head by mere inches. I landed and sprang forward, appearing over her in mid-air. With the empowered slam I delivered next, her body smashed through the metal bed.
The electricity coursing through me caused the padding to burst into flames as I landed on it. The sudden fire caught me off-guard, and I shied away to avoid getting burned. The creature surged out of the inferno and swung at me. Her fist collided with my chest, and I bounced across the floor and into a wall, causing pictures to rattle.
The damage didn’t hit me until I extricated myself from the drywall. I winced.
My breaths came wet and ragged. I coughed up bloody phlegm and wiped my mouth. My eyes closed automatically as if the pain was something too bright to stare at. The fight had already taken its toll; everything hurt so much.
I underestimated how powerful a husk could be and it only took one solid hit to put me in this condition.
I should have ended it quickly. Nope. Instead, I over thought it and tried to look cool like some superhero showing up to save the day. I was an idiot to let her draw energy from me and now she was too strong.
Even so, I’d committed to my role, and I wouldn’t let the story end like this. I may have only been a healer before, but right then, I was a hero, and heroes faced challenges like this every day. Against insurmountable odds, they never gave up. I’d rescue everyone, including Cara, and I’d do it with a smile on my face. A bloody smile, but a smile nonetheless.
I focused on trying to isolate my firing nerves. The sharp pulses came from all over my body, but it didn’t matter; the electricity of hatred had become my domain. I blocked the offending signals, and the pain vanished. A bloody grin spread across my lips, and eager to continue the fight, I opened my eyes.
Like a Shinigami who’d just convinced a human to commit suicide, glee shined in Cara’s soulless eyes. Her mother was once more within her grasp. My lapse in priority had screwed me again. I growled then practically disappeared. The next moment, I was there, dropkicking her, but she’d been ready. She sidestepped and slammed both fists down on my legs. The momentum I already had sent me spinning and bouncing across the floor. Agony surged through me once more, so I blocked those pain signals as well.
Her full focus was on me; she knew I was the only threat, and I thought the same, but we were both wrong. To my complete surprise, Shawn came barreling into her from out of nowhere. While she was off-balance, I took that opportunity to charge with all the strength I could muster. The next moment, her and I were smashing through a wall, into the back yard. The sounds of splintering wood and shattering glass reached us moments after we made impact with the ground. A gash in the recently cut swaths of grass marked our landing like a comet skipping across the earth.
I sent a jolt of electricity through Cara to incapacitate her then grabbed her wrists and held them over her head. I had no idea how much spirit had gone into her soul already, but rather than check, I forced as much energy as I could manage into her. She was already writhing to get free, and I knew if she managed to get up, there would be no stopping her. I didn’t even bother to clear away the hate that tainted some of my energy as I sent it along with the last of my purified reserves.
Several neighbors came out of their houses to check out the commotion. Their murmurs grew louder as they drew closer. A war waged within me, and annoyance stood on the front lines. Looking around, I swore that if even a single one of them got too close, I would suck the life right out of them. I shook my head, banishing the thought, reminding myself that it was just the energy influencing me.
A sudden presence emerged within Cara and with her soul reconnected, my focus returned. Holding all the energy steady, I helped the outside of her soul harden to contain it. Color brightened her face and with it, came consciousness.
Her eyes were no longer the lonely white clouds that drifted aimlessly in the sky, they were the gray, that ended the night, prelude to the sunrise. I breathed out a sigh of relief. It was finally over, and I had won. The hero prevailed.
I was exhausted, but I composed myself enough to deliver my famous line. “Cara. Welcome to your second chance.”
I was sweaty from the exertion and could have collapsed. I wasn’t eager to start feeling the impending pain of whatever damage I’d incurred during the fight, so I left the nerve blocks in place. I added it to the list future Jesse would have to worry about. I looked down at Cara.
Since she wasn’t trying to eat us anymore, and if you ignored the blood dribbling down her chin, she was kind of cute. Her hair, long, dark, and shiny with a bit of dirt mixed in, cascaded around her small face. Thick, but well-kept, eyebrows and low cheekbones framed her deep-set eyes and long eyelashes. She was still a bit pale, so the blood and her haunting beauty formed the visage one would expect from a bride of Dracula.
Dirt had become a topping for her ice cream cone pajama pants. The collision with the ground had pulled them just below her hips and her oversized sweatshirt was stretched, exposing the delicate skin of her lean stomach. Of course, gentleman that I am, I barely noticed those things.
“Are you going to get off me?” she asked seductively, or angrily; I wasn’t sure which. That was probably a good indicator of how well my love-life was going.
“S-Sorry,” I stammered. I stood and held out my hand to help her up. She got to her feet, pointedly ignoring my chivalry. Rude.
She dusted herself off and looked around, but confusion never crossed her face. Starting at the small crater we stood in, Cara’s eyes drifted toward the house and paused on the broken windows and people-sized hole in the wall between them.
She tilted her head like a dog does when it hears strange noises. When she turned to me, I noticed she still hadn’t blinked. It was kind of creepy. Her expression and demeanor was underwhelming, like she was in shock, but her reaction was apathy instead of whatever shock should look like.
“I assume that was your fault?” she asked, stone-faced and crooking her neck in the opposite direction to her curious dog tilt. “A bit much, don’t you think?”
“You tried to eat us,” I replied. One of her eyebrows raised so I sighed. “It’s complicated. Let’s go back inside and I’ll explain.”
I could hear more neighbors exiting their homes. A couple was creeping toward us, a little too close for my liking. I didn’t think making good on my promise to suck the life from their bodies would be good for business, so I motioned Cara toward her house. There were several faces peeking out of the hole. Shawn’s among them.
His arrogance could have gotten someone killed. Remembering that fueled a predilection for vengeance. I thought I would have to slash his tires or key his precious sports car later. One way or another, he would pay for his transgressions. I would make him rue the- I shook my head, it was the energy talking. I figured that I better warn the girl too, her soul was basically made of it at that moment.
“Cara,” I said, trying to brush the wood splinters and insulation off myself while we walked back to the house. “You’re going to feel frustrated and have some powerful urges to act out for the next few days. You’ll need to come to my place so I can take care of it.” She looked at me with an expression I couldn’t place.
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“Are you some kind of pervert? Who even are you?” she asked, eyeing me. It was my turn to quirk an eyebrow. Replaying what I had just said, using the word ‘urges’ followed by an invitation to my house must have been misconstrued.
I chuckled. “Oh, uh, no… My name’s Jesse Gil. I’m only 19, but I have a very successful business healing people,” I lied. “It’s nice to meet you.” I blinked soot out of one eye then paused. “Err…I wasn’t winking. That was – What I mean to say is: your aura is off right now because of what I did to you.” I facepalmed. “This isn’t coming out right.” I exhaled deeply and words finally coalesced properly. “I brought you back to life, but there were — complications. I need to fix them, but I need time to recover first. It’s hard to explain, but you may do things you’ll regret later. Just be conscious of your thoughts and actions.”
Cara stopped and glowered suddenly. While it may have been an outburst, she finally blinked and acted more human. “I don’t give a shit who you are, creep. You don’t know me. Who the hell are you to tell me what to do?”
“Language,” I said under my breath while averting my eyes. I didn’t want her to cause any more of a scene, but she still heard me.
“What? Are you my mother now? You know those are really big pants to fill, right?” She smirked, then flicked her hair into my face with a sneer as she continued toward the house. She was starting to piss me off, and I was pretty sure she just made a fat joke at her mother’s expense.
Unfortunately, one of the neighbors had caught up to me before I could calm myself. “Excuse me, what’s going--" When I turned to look at him, he took a step back in alarm.
I took a step toward him, so close that our noses almost touched. With loathing eyes, I growled more than said, “No.”
The gravity of the word weakened his knees, almost as if it was a threat; a threat of bodily harm and the promise of a slow, agonizing death. The man’s eyes widened, and he fell backward when a cascade of sparks descended from a floodlight next to me. I turned away. No one else had the gall to approach after that.
Cara’s father was the first to meet me as I walked through the artful void I’d left in the wall. I could tell he was struggling to keep his nerves in check.
“Is she alright?” he asked, staring at his daughter. There was a quaver in his voice. Cara didn’t give me a chance to respond.
“Duh. I’m walking around, aren’t I? God. You’re such an idiot.” She pushed her way through her father and he almost fell over from the shove.
She walked toward the couches. The one I hadn’t split in twain was upright again and Mrs. Hasbrook was sitting upon it, staring at nothing. Cara stopped and stood over her.
“Are you going to sit around all day or are you going to make me breakfast… or lunch… or dinner? I don’t even know what time it is, but I’m starving.” Mrs. Hasbrook showed no sign of acknowledgment, she just sat there in a daze. Cara snapped her fingers. “Hello… anybody there?” Her mother blinked a few times. “Get off your fat ass and make me food, you cow.”
“Language,” I said, covering it with a cough. Cara turned to glare at me, then flicked her head back toward her mother.
“Did you hear me, or are you deaf too?” she said. Mrs. Hasbrook searched her eyes, then gave a sad nod. “Good. Now, I’m going to take a shower. There better be food ready when I get back.”
She stomped down the hall, presumably toward a bathroom. Everyone’s eyes, except mine, followed in her wake. I was staring at something else in disbelief. One of those weird bird plates was still on the mantle. With all that rumbling, me collapsing the fireplace, and Cara breaking out of it, somehow it had survived. I took a deep breath and exhaled, calming my emotions.
“Why is she acting like that?” one of the aunts asked.
Before I could conjure a response, Mrs. Hasbrook piped up, still in somewhat of a stupor. “That isn’t her. That isn’t my Cara.” Her voice had a gravelly quality to it. Likely, the consequence of being bitten in the neck. She still stared into the broken fireplace. Bricks were scattered around it, but the fixture’s structure still held.
Her mind was lost in the ashes from which dusty footprints disappeared into the white carpet. As if to no one, she continued speaking. “She would never speak to me like that.” I was only half-listening, distracted by the flying menace portrayed on porcelain.
The woman’s blank stare left the fireplace and surveyed the room, inspecting the damage to her once idyllic home. One of the couches was bent and had splinters jutting out of the back, the floor sagged in places, blood and scorch marks had ruined the carpet, smoke trailed from a crumpled hospital bed, and there was a hole in the wall the shape of someone with a perfect physique holding a petite teenager.
I also perused the room with my eyes. I was surprised by the amount of damage. It was obvious that an epic battle had taken place, and yet, somehow, miraculously, that bird plate was unscathed. I knew I was abnormally fixated on it, but I couldn’t help it.
Mrs. Hasbrook continued to scan the room, but instead of dwelling on the damage, she searched for the source of her suffering, the one responsible for the defilement of her home. Surprisingly, her judging gaze didn’t land on me. It settled on Shawn.
She swallowed hard and croaked, “This is your fault! You said you could handle it, but you should have never come here or at least you should have waited for your boss. Now there’s a monster in my home!” She took a deep breath, like a train building steam.
“My daughter was quiet, kind, and obedient. She was precious and that- that thing is not my daughter. You took my child away from me. You screwed up and I’m the one that has to suffer because of it. I demand that you do something. And I demand that I be compensated for the damage to my home.” Even though she was struggling to speak beyond a harsh whisper, Shawn shrank with each word. Unless I said something, he would leave the house in my pocket, but for once, I was speechless.
I could only stare at her in disbelief. She’d been knocking on the devil’s door, witnessed a super-powered wrestling match, and thought her daughter was a monster, but she was worried about the damage to her home?
Actually, her tirade kind of reminded me of my first job. It was by far the worst one I’d ever had. It was basically just people lying to try to return things to the store that they’d broken. The customer was never right. Thankfully, it wasn’t all bad. The staff members were alright, but my old boss was the best.
Herb Stern, the man I thought I recognized on the bottle, was a balding middle-aged man with a silver tongue. I remembered that he could resolve any situation with nothing but words.
One such circumstance involved a disgruntled scuba diver that wanted to return a camera that stopped working because the salesperson said it was waterproof instead of water resistant. Herb somehow redirected the blame from the employee to the acidification of the ocean caused by global warming. The customer left a bit confused, but with the broken camera in hand.
After the masterful exchange, Herb shared a piece of advice with me, “Jesse, you should take responsibility for your actions, but when people just want someone to blame, make sure it’s not you. Now, where’s Eric? I have to fire him.” With that wisdom in mind, I had to figure out a way to put that Herbism to use.
Shawn endured more berating while my eyes perused the room. I noticed a bed pan crushed beneath the bed frame. Crutches lay on the floor near there and a wheelchair was parked next to them.
Energy doesn’t completely replace someone’s personality. It could have a powerful influence, but they’d still, more or less, be themselves. Certainly, her behavior was unreasonable, but I doubted Cara was as meek as Mrs. Hasbrook claimed. The deterioration of her health would explain the way she was being described. She must not have had the strength to act any other way.
With Herb’s lesson and my detective-like observational skills, I’d settled on a new role. I walked through Mrs. Hasbrook’s gaze, which seemed more like a mine field at that point. Her eyes followed me as I leaned against the remains of the fireplace. Taking on a contemplative expression, I spoke.
“Ma’am, this isn’t Shawn’s fault.”
“Bullshit!”
I swallowed my typical reply.
“I hired you to bring back my daughter,” she rasped. “That is not my daughter.” Mrs. Hasbrook’s attention didn’t stray from me as she gestured toward the hallway. The pressure she exuded made it difficult to remain calm, but I was a professional.
“That’s where you’re wrong, Mrs. Hasbrook,” I said, smugly waving a finger at the woman with my eyes closed and a smirk on my face.
“You see, Mrs. Hasbrook. May I call you Mrs. Hasbrook?” My focus drifted to the plate on the mantle as I spoke. “Your daughter was very ill; her body was deteriorating. That’s all it may have looked like,” I explained.
The decorative piece showed a robin standing on the edge of a nest with, perhaps, satisfaction gleaming in its beady little bird eyes. Its mate was gliding in for a landing, soon to discover he was now the proud father of a bunch of small, blue eggs. I picked up the plate to inspect it further, then continued speaking.
“But there was more to her illness than what you could see happening to her body. Something under the surface that couldn’t be seen. At least, you couldn’t see it,” I said turning to my rapt audience.
I looked back down at the plate and shook my head. I wondered whether other birds made fun of robins for having weird-colored eggs. That made me exhale in a little chuckle and I continued where I’d left off.
“Maybe you could have felt it, I don’t know. I know I saw it, but I digress.” I shooed the words away. “The point is, Mrs. Hasbrook, her illness was doing more damage than you realize.” I moved my eyes from the plate to her. “Much more damage.” I held her gaze with a pregnant pause for dramatic effect.
“Her disease wasn’t just one of the body, Mrs. Hasbrook.” I exuded the conviction of a priest revealing demonic possession when I smashed the plate on the floor. “It was an affliction of the soul!”
The shocked expression on her face and the silence that followed spoke louder than any words could have. My performance was so awe-inspiring that she was speechless. I knew Herb would have been proud and I planned to work on my award acceptance speech later. I wasn’t done yet though. I had to get my walking corpse of a body out of the house before the effects of my performance wore off.
“She will need to visit me a time or two to complete her treatment.” I whipped a card out of my pocket and handed it to Mrs. Hasbrook. She took it absent-mindedly. “Have her come to that address in a couple days.” I then retrieved Shawn and left through the front door. After closing it behind me, I came up with the perfect coup de grâce. I re-opened the door and peeked my head in.
“When I’m done with her, she’ll be free as a bird.”
I hoped my captivating showmanship was as well-received as I thought it was. Who am I kidding? Of course it was. My execution was almost as impressive as my billboard.
That brought a smile to my face, but as soon as I closed the door for the second time, I doubled over. Sweat beaded on my forehead, and I had to swallow the bile that rose in my throat. I took a few shallow breaths then forced air into my lungs. I blinked away the spots in my vision.
Before Shawn could notice my condition, I straightened. My transition to future me had begun. The consequences of my reckless use of magic had arrived.