Running up flights of stairs with no break in sight, “What did you do?” Suke’s winded question was met with silence from Rom who was running beside her with controlled breaths.

“I think he is going all the way to the top,” Shade stated, flying up ahead and seeing no signs of James stopping his climb up the stairwell. “Does he run track? He tried to kick Suke’s head off and then just took off top speed out of our room and hasn’t slowed down.”

“I have a bad feeling of where he is going,” Rom said before doubling her speed in hopes of catching up.

Unfortunately for Suke who started to trail behind, let out a shout. “How!” She stopped running and leaned over to look up the stairwell of the remaining seven floors to the roof. Suke was already in disbelief of James blazing through the flights of stairs from the first floor but Rom being one or two staircases behind him was astonishing. “I hope he isn’t heading for the roof,” Suke muttered to herself walking out of the fifth-floor staircase.

The sound of a metal door slamming open and the sun shining through at the top of the stairwell was enough for Rom to shout “Shit!” Although she burst through the same metal door to the roof only a few seconds later, James was nowhere to be found.

“James!” Rom rushed to the edge of the roof and was relieved looking over. “Ok great but where is—”

“Watch out!”

Shade’s warning was a half a second too late and a thundering kick shattered Rom’s right arm. Fuck! Felt like a sledgehammer hit me. As she stumbled to the side holding her arm and turning around, James was staring at her with gleeful eyes.

“You don’t know how long I have been waiting for this,” James rejoiced.

Both Rom and Shade were perplexed by the yellow radiating from James’s bleeding spectrum.

“I don't get it. How is he infected with a haunting while having a joyous spectrum?”

“I don't know but once you restrain him then I can change his spectrum.”

“Easier said than done,” Rom replied while barely dodging a kick that came crashing down from the sky. Seeing the concrete ground of the roof that James’s right foot left in pieces, made Rom count herself lucky but also confirmed something. It must be a bionic leg.

“Can you please stop with the kicking!”

Rom’s frustrated shout was followed by the sound of the roof’s door slamming open with Suke rushing out. “I’m here!” Seeing her roommate holding onto a limp arm, no more time was wasted and Suke ran over but had a swift back kick just missed her face on the path to Rom.

“That was close,” Suke said standing next to Rom who pointed to her face.

“A little more than close.”

Blood started to come down from a cut on Suke’s cheek which she started to wipe away while peering down at James’s right foot with a single metal claw projecting out his shoe.

“How did you like my little surprise Mark?”

You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

Suke had no idea why James had a claw hidden in his shoes or why he called her Mark but that name registered within Rom’s mind.

“That name sounds familiar,” Shade said, fluttering up above with Rom confirming “Because it is. Mark was one of the kids' names that followed him home, that afternoon when he was younger. I wonder who he thinks I am. I hope it's not John because he was the worst from what I saw in his memory.”

“John,” James announced turning to Rom, “where are the rest of your lackeys?”

A synchronized “Damn,” came from both Rom and Shade who lowered their heads in displeasure. “Suke. We just need to hold him down so Shade can change his spectrum to stop the haunting.”

“So are we just going to ignore the claw coming out his foot?”

“I am ninety percent sure he has a bionic leg,” Rom indicated, “and I am one hundred percent sure his kick can break someone’s arm.”

“I had a feeling your arm was broken from how it was swaying around but how do you want to do this because you have one working arm and I like my arms unbroken with fewer cuts on my beautiful face.”

Rom shook her head. “Believe it or not, this isn’t my first time having my arm broken. Actually, one time I had both arms broken and I still had to deal with the person who did it. Also, it’s us against him so let’s just stay away from his kicks and we should be good.”

Suke wanted so badly to ask Rom why someone would break both her arms but instead nodded to her and they both went on the attack. The two never fought together and it showed greatly through their terrible coordination. An attempt to sweep James’s legs turned into Suke being knocked off balance by Rom. An attempt to grab James turned into two girls slamming into each other.

“Do you have two left feet,” Rom grunted.

“Two left feet? How about you with poor eyesight!” Suke yelled back.

As the two started bickering, they didn’t notice a kick was about to slash through their abdomen. If not for Shade flying into the middle of James’s face, his claw would have been dripping in red.

“Get out my face you fly!”

“I’m not a fly!”

Shade wrestled with James's eyebrows before being snatched up and slammed to the ground. A quill was about to meet its end from a stomp until James’s foot froze just inches over Shade. Suke had no idea why he stopped moving or why his face became pale with a bead of sweat coming down but she wasn’t going to pass up on the opportunity to finally seize him.

“I got him,” Rom and Suke both said after tackling and pinning James to the ground.

Suke’s hand that was upon James’s chest was feeling a strong pulsation. “His heart is beating so fast. Is this normal?”

Rom who was holding down the other side of a struggling James answered “I have no idea.”

“Get off me!”

James's bawl was ignored as Shade rushed onto his forehead. As the seconds passed, “I can’t switch out his memory.”

“What do you mean you can’t switch out the memory?”

“Do you want me to say it in a different language because I can’t and the fact remains that I can’t switch out the memory. Something is blocking me. I can’t see it but I can feel it and—”

Shade shot off James’s head twirled through the air, and crashed to the ground. Rom became alarmed. “What happened! Are you ok!”

No response came from Shade but Suke who was beginning to lose her hold on James yelled “Please hurry up!”

“Shade!” A weak flutter was seen, “Shade?”

“Sorry. I was out of it. That something forced me off him.”

Unfortunately, Shade’s inability to change James’s memory meant that his infected spectrum would continue to run rampant.

“Let go!” James growled with an added weird twitch, “Let go…let go…let go.”

“What is happening? It’s almost like he is glitching like a machine,” and just as the last word came from Suke’s mouth, James broke free and elbowed her in the nose.

“Shit,” Rom mumbled as a fist clobbered her face.

James easily broke free from Rom’s single grip holding him down and got on top of her with another punch about to land until the sound of the roof door opening was heard. People wearing black and white outfits dawned with a grey sash around their waist flooded through and surrounded James, Rom, and Suke while Shade fluttered above.

Suke who was holding her bleeding nose and looking around uttered “Hi?”

James who was still on top of Rom gritted his teeth and shouted “Who are you all!”

Instead of an answer, one of the sash bearers stepped forward, and a white quill with green polka dots and a brown shell fluttered out of their collar. Although James didn’t know who they were, he had no problem pouncing off Rom and towards the one sash bearer with a kick. What happened next both surprised and fully confirmed something to Rom.

James’s right leg clanked against the one sash bearer’s arm that blocked the kick. Upon pulling back his leg, the sash bearer gripped part of James’s pants causing it to be torn off, revealing a bionic leg.

“I knew it,” Rom remarked getting up from the ground but was quickly apprehended along with James and Suke. Even Shade who was fluttering in the air ended up being chased into a small cage by the other quill with green polka dots.

“We have the targets in custody and on our way back,” one of the sash bearers announced into a small radio attached to his black long-sleeve shirt that was buttoned up from the side.

As they were all being led off the roof, Rom asked “Where are you taking us?”

“The Sanctum.”

Suke dropped her head saying “Shit.”