REWRITTEN 9/11/15
Creekside Park
The truck driver let us off at the outskirts of town and zoomed away without a word, trembling and white-knuckled the entire time. I stared in every direction as we began walking back towards my neighborhood, our goal to get to Creekside Park as Samik had asked us too.
Out in the countryside, we had encountered the giant mob of munchers and a smattering of smaller packs, but inside the city limits, I couldn't see any signs undead activity. You could barely tell that something bad had happened recently. Fewer people stalked the streets, clutching objects inside their coats and staring suspiciously at everyone they passed.
Us especially.
The sight of us was enough to make anyone more than a little nervous. Onyx and Minka carried black, high-tech weapons, and we were all coated in mud and dark, red blood. I had red streaks running across my face and on my hands, though the dark colors of my clothing hid the worst of it. The white checks on Onyx's pants were mottled in blood, and Minka had leaves sticking out of her hair. There was something in the way we walked, too, that spoke of our otherness. I could see it in the set of Onyx's head and in the way Minka shoved her glasses up her nose. One didn't have to be a psychic to see it. Everyone else was terrified out of their minds, and we just…weren't.
"Let's avoid my house when we get back," I said as I hopped over a pile of snow on the sidewalk. "If my parents catch me, I don't think they'll ever let me leave again."
"Why?" Onyx asked. The way she caressed the gun made me a little worried that it was going to fire by accident.
I shrugged, stuffing my hands in my pockets. "A few years ago, I asked them if they would let me strike out on my own if something like this," I gestured around us, "ever happened. They said no."
"Not that they would be able to stop you," Minka pointed out. "Now that you've got your powers back."
"That's true. I'd just rather not get into that situation at all, you know?"
They nodded sagely, and we meandered down the sidewalks, gradually growing closer and closer to Minka's and my neighborhood. I hummed a little bit as we walked, watching carefully for signs of trouble.
The Universe decided that our day had already been busy enough, and it let us reach Creekside Park without another incident. I glanced both ways before we crossed the last road, but there were no cars out and about. The sky was slowly losing its battle with the blood that streaked across its horizon, giving way to the night.
The lamps and streetlights were blasting out enough light to blind a desert nomad, and the park was well lit when we stepped onto the grass. A large field stretched out before us, ending at a snow-caked playground. The swings hung stiff and frozen, icicles clawing up from the ground to grasp at the rubber seats, and the slides looked like slick, glittering death traps. To our left, buried in snow, was a basketball court. It sported a single hoop, missing its net. To our other side lay the creek, hidden by the sloping banks and snow covered foliage. Three figures stood clustered beside creek, hands stuffed in pockets, backs to the wind.
My insides crawled with many-legged insects. They scurried from side to side, up and down. They bumped into each other and bumped into the sides of my intestines, searching for a way out.
Onyx poked me in the shoulder. "Is that…?"
The tallest figure turned around and lifted a hand to its face, shielding its eyes. It waved vigorously, hand above its head.
A smile finally fought its way past the insects and split my face open. I broke into a run, slipping in the snow, careening desperately towards my other half. The middle figure broke away from the others and ran towards me, screaming words that my scrambled brain couldn't pick out.
I slammed into him, and we skidded in the snow, crashing to the ground in a tangle of limbs. "OH MY GOD YOUR FUCKING SOLID!" I shrieked as I pounded on his chest with my fists. Something wet streamed down my face, stinging in the cold wind.
He caught my hands and held them under his chin, cheeks dimpling with a grin. "Hey."
I kissed him. I took my hands back, grabbed the back of his head, and pulled him to me, not caring that Onyx was going to use this as ammo to tease me for the rest of our days. It didn't matter that there were zombies roaming the city and eating people. It didn't matter that maybe we would all die the next day. It didn't matter that we were in the Human Realm, not the Elf Realm. Nothing mattered. I could poke him and punch him and kiss him. There would be no more mental conversations and murmured wishes. This was real, and he was solid, and there was no way I was ever going to let that go.
Somewhere behind us, Onyx snorted with laughter. I pulled away from Samik and rolled off him, using both hands to flip her off as my elbows sunk into the snow. She knew there would be blood if she tried to sing the K-I-S-S-I-N-G song, so she didn't bother. She snickered behind her hand and shot knowing looks at Minka, wiggling her eyebrows.
Samik hopped to his feet and hauled me up after him keeping hold of my hand. I studied him, planting his physical image into my memory.
He had a few inches of height on me, and his single-tone, brown hair was shaggy and fell in his eyes which matched his hair and crinkled when he grinned at me. The cuffs of his black, baggy pants were stuffed into a pair of tall, heavy boots, and he wore a long brown coat over them, the collar turned up against the wind. I loved how fine his features were. The long thin nose, the arching eyebrows, the slightly jutting cheekbones.
Someone coughed into their hand, dragging my attention away from him. "Hi, Enia. We're here too," said the tallest of the three newcomers. "So great to see that you care so much for your parents."
I turned away from Samik to smile at the other two. "Sorry. Sorry. Guess I got carried away. Of course I'm excited to see you!"
They came at me with open arms that I happily fell into, breathing in a sweet, piney scent. They were my parents; Teemo and Arin Silverson.
Teemo and Arin both looked like they were about twenty-five. Elves had the ability to choose which age to become immortal at – or to choose to stay mortal. We could start and stop the time whenever we wanted, but we could only grow older, and past years couldn't be reclaimed. We could still be killed by a wound or a disease – we were immortal, not invincible – but old age would never claim us unless we let it.
Teemo was the tallest of the group, standing a few inches over six foot. His hair was longer and a darker brown than Samik's, and sometimes, it nearly hid his constantly dancing blue eyes. The angles and lines of his face were bolder than Samik's, giving him the classical hero look. He was also dressed in black pants and a brown coat, but he had left the coat open, and underneath, he wore a sleeveless brown tunic, the edges and buttons worked with a dull gold thread.
Arin was an inch shorter than me and fine-boned throughout her entire body. Her hair, if it were possible, was an even brighter shade of orange than Onyx's, and she wore it in two long pigtails draped across her shoulders. Her green eyes matched mine perfectly. Her coat fell to her waist and was the color of a deep river. Black tights covered her legs, disappearing into a pair of knee high leather boots, soft laces curling up her shins.
I staggered back involuntarily, hand going to my heart. It was going to blow if it received any more shocks. Onyx caught me by one elbow and steadied me. "Okay?" she whispered in my ear.
I nodded, all words frozen somewhere between my brain and my larynx.
"How did you guys get here?" Minka asked, taking over control for me. I focused on remembering how to breathe.
"The Portals are open," Samik answered. "So we thought we'd pop by and say hi."
"That's awesome," Onyx said. I was leaning heavily on her. "So we can go wherever we want now?"
Teemo nodded. "Pretty much. They're still a little wonky from being closed for so long. Honestly, we're lucky we ended up here and not in some void. Given time, though, they should get back to working normally."
I could feel the excitement pouring off Onyx like waves crashing against the shore.
"Enia, are you okay?" Arin asked, concern coloring her words. She took a few steps towards me and reached out a hand.
"She's still processing," Onyx answered for me. "Her brain's a little slow sometimes."
"Is not," I managed to mumble. I finally picked myself back up, taking control piece by piece. I pushed away from Onyx and took a deep breath of air, the cold rushing through me and clearing away the sticky cobwebs of shock. "Okay. I think I'm good now."
Samik held out his hand to me, wiggling his fingers, and I took, twining my arm through his.
"Where are the zombies?" Teemo demanded suddenly, spinning in a rapid circle as if searching for the elusive undead. "Samik told us there were zombies! I wanna bust some ass!" His right hand burst into flame, and he cackled evilly. Arin whacked him upside the head, looking at him pointedly until he put out the fire.
"Technically, you'll be busting some heads," I pointed out.
Teemo flapped one hand; same difference.
"I've been calling them munchers," I continued, petting Samik on the arm unconsciously. "And we haven't seen any around since we got back to town."
"Maybe the police managed to clean them up, but we doubt that," Onyx picked up the story. "They'll be back."
"Just like the Terminator," I finished, cracking a grin. Onyx smirked back, but the other elves just looked confused. Oh yeah, they wouldn't understand any of my human pop culture references. "It's a quote from a movie," I explained, unable to do its awesomeness justice.
"We should get you guys some human weapons," Minka interjected, dragging us back on track. "Humans don't react too well to magic." She glanced over at Onyx. "You know some pawn shops that sell swords and stuff, right?"
She nodded, giving off a 'yeah, I'm so cool' vibe. "That's right. They aren't too far from here."
The five of us followed her out of Creekside Park. She took us down dark, narrow side streets that wound lackadaisically towards the downtown area. Teemo buzzed with excited energy, staring into each shadow as if begging for something to come shambling out.
We didn't talk much. I was too distracted by absentmindedly petting Samik's arm. Teemo was busy searching every nook and cranny and hoping to get attacked, while Arin had to stop and look at every single thing she found that was different than back home. She picked up a bent bottle cap, looked it over, and carefully set it back in its original place. She looked over all the trees and let a spider crawl onto the back of her hand. Onyx kept her face furrowed in concentration as she struggled to remember exactly where the pawnshop was, and Minka was left with no one to talk to.
We made it to the entrance of the store without being attacked, much to Teemo's dismay. It was full dark when Onyx shoved the door open and stepped inside, letting it fall shut on my face.
"Hey!" I griped after I'd reset my nose and shouldered my way into the shop, the others right behind me. Onyx just gave me a shit-faced, I'm-so-happy-with-myself-right-now grin.
The owner eyed us suspiciously as we filed into the cluttered space, his hands clenched around something hidden under the counter. I raised a hand to him in greeting. "Hi."
"Store closes in ten minutes," he spat in a gruff voice.
I shot looks accompanied by a raised eyebrow to the others. Onyx shrugged and pointed towards the back of the store where the weapons were held.
"Ooo, pretty," I murmured, eyes going wide, as I drifted over with Samik in tow.
The shelves on the wall were lined with double-edged swords of all sizes, curved and straight, ornate and plain. Other racks held elegant katanas, cloaked in their dark sheathes. The glass counters held rows of polished knives, both medieval and modern, and beside them, stacked against each other, were little throwing knives. It was beauty incarnate.
I slid behind the counter, ignoring the shopkeeper's grunt, and picked up a simple-looking, double-edged sword. Its straight blade was about as long as my arm, and its hilt was a utilitarian gray. It felt solid and sturdy in my hand, unlikely to fail me.
Samik came and leaned against the wall beside me, fingering a katana. "So…" he said.
"So…" I agreed. What did I say in that kind of situation? We'd been separated for years, and now we'd suddenly found each other. I wasn't good at conversation under normal circumstances. I was lost, trying to read a dictionary with dyslexia, with him standing there beside me.
"Found a name for your Vengeful Mask yet?" It sounded lame to my judgmental ears, but it was something at least.
We had created the Vengeful Masks to be tools that we would use to dominate the world. I was the Vengeful Authoress, but Samik hadn't been able to come up with something cool. Vengeful Samik didn't inspire any sort of fear, and neither did the Vengeful Chef. (Though Samik did make an incredible chocolate cake that could kill you with how delicious it was).
He shook his head sadly. "No. Teemo thinks I should be the Vengeful Kitchen."
I rolled my eyes. Teemo had a strange obsession with kitchens, specifically with blowing them up. "That doesn't have any pizazz."
"That's what I told him. Then he suggested Vengeful Explosion."
"Hey, that one sounds cool," I said as I stuck the sword in its sheath and hid it beneath my jacket.
"Yeah, if I could manipulate fire."
I quirked my lips to the side. "True. Vengeful…Earthquake?"
"Isn't that redundant?" he asked with a raised eyebrow.
I shrugged.
A giant crash and a strangled yell interrupted our conversation, tearing away any small shred of peace. We glanced up, searching. It was Teemo – he could always be counted on to be the cause of any disturbance.
He brandished a massive broadsword above his head, cackling wildly as he advanced towards Arin. She held a thin rapier out before her, eyes narrowed in concentration. An expensive-looking, elaborately painted vase lay shattered on the ground beside them, and the shop owner spluttered angrily from behind his counter, waving his arms frantically. "Should we stop that?" I asked, as Teemo and Arin danced back and forth across the store.
"Probably, but it's too amusing."
We leaned side by side on the counter, elbows touching, and watched as Teemo and Arin tried to kill each other. Arin swayed under the massive blade and came up lunging, but Teemo leapt backwards, spinning around a round display table. He twirled the sword in shimmering arcs, narrowly missing the shelves that surrounded him. Arin beckoned with one hand, smirking, so Teemo thrust the broadsword into the air, yelling a challenge, as he prepared to charge.
"ENOUGH!" the shop owner bellowed from his place behind the counter. He pulled a large shotgun out from its hiding spot and brandished it wildly. "GET OUT OF MY SHOP OR I WILL SHOOT ALL OF YOU!"
As one, we skedaddled out the door, muttering apologies. We didn't put our weapons down.
"Well, that was rude of him," Teemo huffed. We stood clustered on the sidewalk under the light of a streetlamp.
"You did break, like, half of his wares," Samik pointed out. He pulled open his coat and shoved the sheathed katana through his belt.
"At least we didn't have to pay for our weapons," Onyx said, happily brandishing a brutal looking club. There were spikes poking out of its metal head. Beside her, Minka examined a long, wickedly sharp dagger, grinning very slightly.
"So let's go before he remembers that," I suggested and started off in a random direction. The others hurried after me, storing their weapons in various places around their person. I looped my sword belt around my waist and cinched it tight, feeling like a badass when the weapon settled comfortably on my left hip.
"We need one more person," I announced suddenly.
"Why?" Onyx asked with a raised eyebrow. There was no where for her to stick her club, so she held onto it, tossing it back and forth between her hands. The stolen gun hung across her back.
"There are six of us," I explained, gesturing around the group. "One more makes seven. Seven is a good number."
"Who would this seventh person be?"
I grinned, wiggling my hair. I could shake the top of my head forwards and backwards just by moving my eyebrows. It was my one true talent. The one thing that would get me through life and attract all the ladies to me.
"I know just the person…"
Enia: Woo hoo, Friday! Man, the weeks go fast in college.
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