Children of the Mirror

...13th Part: Dark...

I watched him run out into the street and felt compelled to take a hasty step forward. He snatched the cross up off of the ground and just barely managed to dodge the oncoming traffic.

If I really had wings, I'd get him away from there faster. I could imagine it: great black wings spreading from my back as I leapt into the street to pull him away before he managed to kill himself. My back itched with the pictured sensation.

When I heard a loud and unmistakable sound of a car crashing, I nearly had a heart attack, but the sound had come from farther away. Krad ran back to me then, flinging himself into my arms and again just barely escaping death – or at least some serious injuries.

His knuckles were white as he gripped the edge of my jacket. Apparently, he did realize that what he'd just done was life-threatening. "That was so incredibly stupid," I told him, "that I am almost at a loss for words."

"Well, thank you for that brilliant update," he retorted, pushing himself away from me again. Krad took off his jacket and tossed it over my face before fussing over his hair.

This was about when I started hearing sirens. An ambulance came screaming up the road, and when all the cars were forced by law to pull off to the side of the road, I couldn't help thinking that that would have been a more opportune moment to retrieve the cross. I rolled my eyes, and made the mistake of glancing over to where the ambulance had stopped.

My jaw dropped – not because of the totaled car, but where exactly the driver had crashed it.

I thought I was going to cry.

Somewhere under that mess...

... was my bike.

I dropped Krad's jacket, staring in denial at the place where I'd parked my motorcycle. Shaking, my hands reached out to it feebly and some pathetic sort of squeak came out of my throat. My knees gave out under me and I sank to the ground.

Krad was still having difficulties with getting the cross to stay attached to his hair. Giving up the struggle and shoving the thing in his pocket, he raised an eyebrow at me. "What's with the theatrics?" he wondered.

I blinked several times and made my arm work enough to point.

Krad's shoulders sagged. "Oh, you have got to be kidding me!"

My arms dropped to my sides and I glared up at him. "I blame you," I snarled.

"What?"

"If you hadn't made us stop to retrieve that blasted cross of yours –"

"You're the one who gave it to me!" he argued.

"So!? If we had just continued on, my bike wouldn't have had the chance to become road pizza!" My voice was getting louder as the sentence progressed, until I was practically screaming at him.

"Well, what's worse, Dark – think about it! – totaling your motorcycle, or totaling it while you're still on it!? Maybe I saved you from something!"

I had no words for him anymore. I grabbed a hold of his ankles, yanking his feet right out from under him. He fell over with a yelp, and then came back at me, swinging his fist at my face. He didn't miss, and my jaw was knocked into my tongue. I spat the blood out of my mouth at him, then tackled him.

We rolled, fist flying and voices rising. As good a fighter as Krad was, I discovered I was better. Eventually, I managed to pin him down. His head and shoulders were no longer on the sidewalk and I held him there.

Krad's eyes widened in sudden panic. He turned his head in the direction that the cars were coming from, and then back to me when he spotted a set of wheels. He glanced back and forth between the two threats a few times, his breathing speeding up into horrified pants. His chest heaved beneath me with each one. Those tires were coming up fast.

"DARK GET OFF OF ME!" he shrieked. His struggles grew fiercer, his face was distorted with hopelessness, and whimpers accompanied his panting and crying.

At the last possible second, I pulled him out of harm's way, wrapping my arms securely around him as the car passed by. He pounded my back once, but his anger gave way and he buried himself into my hold, bunching the back of my coat up in his fists.

"You ever pull something like that again and I'll kill you!" he sobbed. "I hate you!"