Dark Chocolate, White Diamonds
By Dixxy
Chapter Fourteen: A Bad Feeling
(Kento)
Watching Keisha leave the house was heart wrenching for me, but I knew she had to leave. If Sage or even Sue Lee came home and saw her, we were pretty much busted and in HUGE trouble with several people that we really didn't WANT to be in trouble with. Which is EXACTLY why we were going to make sure no one found out.
I cared very deeply about Keisha and the previous night, it seemed like the only way we were going to be able to express all those emotions was by going "all the way". We'd both been nervous, understandably, but all that mattered to us was exactly to things: me and her, her and me.
Truth be told, I hated watching her go. I hadn't seen her for a number of weeks, and she'd been in horrible condition then. Keisha looked pretty bad when she came in from the blizzard, but as the night went on, she was laughing, smiling, and giggling again. The Keisha Narrlobi I'd fallen in love with was back. It was music to my ears hearing her happy again. It was. . . I don't think there's a word in my vocabulary I can use to describe it. To know I was bringing on that happiness made me feel even better about the whole thing.
Everybody always says that doing "it" is supposed to make you a man. I'm not sure if that's true or not. In a way, I felt like I was leaving some of my childhood behind, I guess, so I can kind of see their point. But the more I thought about it, the more I realized it was something I'd already done. Fighting the Dynasty was a huge change in my life. Dais and the other Warlords had called us "children" in the beginning of the fight. By the end of the second war, they were referring to us as "little men". Was that true? Had we really grown up that much in the weeks it took to take Talpa down?
Once Keisha had gone down the path and was out of my sight, I closed the door and reflected on my emotions. I was happy one moment, then felt terribly lonesome the next. I didn't like that sudden absent feeling. The house was too quiet, too empty, now. I sighed heavily, leaning up against the doorway with my hand on my forehead. I blew up at my bangs went into the kitchen to clean up.
While washing the dishes, I began to feel an impending sense of doom. I stopped short, lowering my hands, the dish I was working on, and the sponge into the soapy water as I let my eyes wander, trying to think of what I was feeling. The feeling passed and I continued to wash. Sometimes that happened, which I guess comes from being a seer. You get little "false alarms" that mean absolutely nothing. Maybe I'm going crazy, I don't know, but I just let it slide whenever it happens and only react if it's really strong or I can see visions to go along with it.
Once I was finished drying and putting them into the dish drain, however, the feeling returned. And at that, it returned with a vengeance. My psychic senses began to go ballistic. I stopped in the middle of the kitchen, almost doubling over. I felt nauseous and very not-right.
Kento! Help me!
KEISHA!
Kento, it's-
I mentally screamed. Keisha was in trouble! I grabbed my jacket bolted out the door.
The last time I had been that scared and frightened was the day that Keisha's parents were murdered. The same thoughts buzzed through my head, only they were accelerated this time. Keisha. . . she was more than just my girlfriend, now. I couldn't stand to think any harm came to her. If something happened to her, someone would pay with their life.
I arrived at the house to see the door was slightly ajar. I bit my lip. That couldn't be a good sign- it was too cold outside to have the door open. I raced up the walkway and bolted in through the front door. "Keisha! Evan!" I screamed, looking around the house. Then, I paused as I realized the condition of the house. "By the Ancient. . ."
The Narrlobi household was in shambles. Tables were knocked over, drapes ripped to shreds, and vases were smashed, just to name a few of the disorders in the house. A family portrait of Keisha, Evan, and her parents lay lifeless on the ground, the glass protecting it spider-webbed. I looked at the picture in shock and horror. "What happened here?"
"Kento!"
I heard Evan's voice from the general direction of the den. I ran through and jumped over the debris and mess to get to the room, where I found Evan lying on the floor, his hands and ankles tied. "Evan! What happened?" I demanded as I began to untie him.
Evan was in hysterics as she began to explain the situation to me. "It's Grams. It's Grams. She isn't just psycho- she's flipping psychotic!" he said, sounding exasperated (though, considering his house was a mess and he was tied up he had every right to BE exasperated). "She went and joined some cult in all these black robes and dark magic and stuff."
"Your grandmother is in a cult?" I asked.
"She's the clan's Elder or something," said Evan, looking worried and confused. "I heard her and the clan's leader, I guess, talking about my parents." He closed his eyes, a few tears dripping down. "The clan. . . they killed them. And now they've got Keisha and I think they want to do the same thing to her!"
I froze, staring at Evan. My eyes were wide with shock and horror, a sickening feeling churning in my stomach. His parents. . . the Narrlobi's. . . it CAN'T be. . . "You can't be serious," I said, staring at him in disbelief. "They couldn't. . . she wouldn't. . . her own. . ."
"Do I LOOK like I'm kidding to you?" he said, tears freely flowing now. "God, Kento, I don't know why she thinks this is good. They have bad magic- you should see her room! It's covered all over in dark symbols and bleeding walls and trinkets and stuff, and there's some demon living in her mirror, they used something to teleport the lot of them away-"
"Calm down, Evan. Just calm down- you won't do anyone any good if you don't calm down," I said, holding my hands up. Evan nodded, sniffling as he leaned up against the wall, still shaking nervously. "We're going to get her back. Just tell me where the thing was and I'll go after her."
"Alone?" he said. "You've got to be kidding me!"
I nodded grimly. "Well. . . I don't have time to wait around for one of the others to get here. It's my responsibility as her partner in arms and her boyfriend. I have to go alone, and once I free Keisha, she can help me fight off these cult people and then we can come back home," I said.
"You aren't going alone," said Evan, starting to stand up straight. "I'm going with you."
"YOU'VE got to be kidding ME!" I said, looking at him in shock. "You don't know anything about magic, martial arts, or self defense. You'll just slow me down! I don't want to sound like I'm insulting you, Evan, but you're more use to me if you don't tag along- this is dangerous."
"No!" he said, shaking his head in defiance. "This is my little sister that's been kidnapped! I've already lost my parents! I've practically lost my grandmother, now, too! I'm not going to sit around while the last family I have is in danger! I'm SICK of staying home while she's off fighting the Dynasty. I'm SICK of hearing her tell me about all this dangerous stuff she's done that could've killed her!"
"She's a Ronin Senshi!" I argued back. "All of the Ronins were chosen to be either Warriors or Senshi because of either birthright or because we're all strongly connected to our elements and virtues! She knows that this means her life gets put in danger quite frequently! Just deal with it!"
"No, I can't deal with it, Kento. Even if you head off alone, I'll follow you. You can't stop me from going with you," he said. Looking into his eyes and seeing the determination in them, I knew he was right. Nothing I could say would get him to stay home. EVEN if it meant dying, he would still want to go.
I sighed heavily. "You have no idea what you're going into," I said.
"Then why should I be afraid of something I don't know anything about?" he said.
I closed my eyes. "Before we go, I want to take a look at your grandmother's room- maybe we can get some sort of a clue as to what we're heading up against. You did say there's weird stuff in there, right?" Evan nodded. "So, can you show me where it is?"
"Sure," he said. The two of us went upstairs, the second story of the house untouched. "The Dark Wing- that's what they call themselves- they didn't go up here. Grams and the High Priest came up here after I snuck into her room once I heard about what they did, but. . . not much happened up here." He stopped us infront of a door. I placed my hand on the doorknob, ready to open it.
As soon as I touched the doorknob, my head began to fill with dark images. Screaming people and evil demons danced through my thoughts, a dark energy pouring into my soul. I let go, frightened of the door knob. I backed myself against the wall. "I don't know if I've EVER felt THAT much dark energy in such a small space before! The concentration of it is unbelievable!"
"Then you believe me?"
"You try to tell me I come into this house looking like a tornado
ripped through it and I DON'T believe something happened here? Even
wild parties don't leave a house in THIS much of a mess!" I said. I
looked towards the stairs. "This is creeping me out. I don't want to
leave Keisha with those creeps longer than she has to be left with
them. Let's work on getting out of here right now."
"Don't need to tell me twice," said Evan. The two of us went back downstairs, where Evan led me to a glowing purple crystal. It was a translucent sphere about five inches in diameter. Unlike the rest of the magic I'd felt, this was a more neutral magic- it was neither good nor evil. "That's what they used to teleport out of here. Think you can work it?"
"Probably," I said. "Teleportation is actually a really easy skill to master if you have the right magic." I scrunched up my nose. "Unless of course you have the power naturally- then it's wild and harder to tame, as Sara taught us last fall. But it's a rare gift so in general terms its child's play."
"Is it?" he asked.
"Oh yeah," I said. "Most of the rooms inside of Trulpa's castle, including the ones Sage, Cye and I stayed in, didn't have doors. You either learn to teleport or you don't get anywhere." I placed my hand above the crystal and murmured a short spell I knew that could analyze how some magic items worked. I closed my eyes, feeling the energy feeding off of it. I smiled.
"Well?"
I looked at him and nodded. "You touch it and it brings you to a pre-designated spot. Hopefully that spot will bring us to or at least near where the Dark Wing people took Keisha," I said. I put my hand back above it, preparing myself to go. "You still want to come?"
Evan placed his hand above a different point on the crystal. "Yes," he said.
"On the count of three," I said. "One."
"Two."
"THREE!"
KA-ZAP!
KA-ZAP!
The crystal brought us to the middle of a forest, where we saw no one aside from the two of us. "Were they here, or did they move the spot?" asked Evan, scratching his head. "I don't see any sign of Keisha or those cult people anywhere around here! It's nothing but trees and more trees all around!"
I bit my bottom lip, trying to analyze the situation. "I don't know," I said. "They probably moved to another location, because I can feel some essence of the magic I felt back at your house." I took out my armor orbe, fingering it. "I THINK I can use my armor orbe to locate where Keisha's armor orbe is, and hopefully, Keisha as well."
"Okay, then do that," said Evan. I nodded, slowly levitating the armor orbe between my hands. My girlfriend's older brother stared at it in awe. An orange beam shot out to the left, where I sensed a mixture of Keisha's powers and the darker powers from earlier. "Is she that way?"
"I think so," I said, putting my armor orbe back. "I'm guessing ten or so miles away."
"Ten miles?" said Evan. "If we're walking, that'll take a few hours!"
I bit my lip. With my armor, I could easily get there in a matter of minutes, but Evan had no such powers. I wracked my brain, thinking of all the powers I had. I could make earthquakes and manipulate metals and rocks, I could use super strength, I could see into the future, and I could shape-shift.
"I got it!" I said. "Evan, do you know how to ride a horse?"
My companion shrugged. "Well. . . yeah, I guess so," he said. "Why?"
I closed my eyes and started to shape-shift. Evan swore, amazed at what he was seeing. I finished the transformation, now a yellowish-horse with black hair. I neighed in response, flicking my new tail at him. I used my head to gesture for him to get on. Once Evan had straddled my back and grabbed some of my mane, I took off.
Keisha. . . please be all right. . .
