Void Guardian 2.7

Approach 2.7

We pile into the Jeep, Riley behind Hannah and Amy behind me.  The drive is short - it’s not far and with post-school traffic, it takes more time to exit the parking lot than actually travel there. Hannah takes a little extra time to circle around to the backside of the mall where it’s a little more empty and less trafficked.

When we park, Hannah looks back at Riley dubiously, waiting for more direction from someone she clearly holds in… well, not contempt but a certain amount of doubt.

Riley looks a bit nervous as he climbs out and declares, “Okay… um, let’s line up behind the Jeep.”

We do so, and he stares at the ragged line while moving his hands a little, like he’s trying to work something out before finally motioning us to gather up instead of being in a line. “Um. Hands in. Like we’re about to shout go sports team!”

Hannah locks gazes with me, then just about rolls her eyes right out of her skull.  I shake my head - it was bad joke, but not that bad.

The impromptu huddle Riley calls us into is awkward. Even excusing the massive height difference between Mr. Green and myself compared to the girls, I barely know Hannah and Amy, and they’re not entirely trusting of Riley.  I grasp his wrist firmly, contrasting the blondes, who gingerly touch his hands.

I can’t help but snicker internally over the contrast. The two boy-crazy girls from yesterday being so hesitant now to so much as touch a real boy, much less hold hands for a purely utilitarian purpose.

Our odd hand-holding stances are highlighted by the delay that Riley seems to have in initiating the transfer, his eyes closed in concentration.  I watch Hannah’s eyes flick between the rest of us, still untrusting.  Her mouth just starts to open, a smart comment no doubt on the tip of her tongue when our surroundings blur for a just a moment, resolving into the apartment.  I don’t feel any motion, but my hair moves just the same, a slight breeze that swirls around us.

Hannah’s mouth clicks shut, surprise on her face that she quickly hides behind an aloof air.

Riley opens his eyes and pulls his hands back, and for a moment he fumbles with them, moving his hands toward his pockets before just trying to relax them at his sides. His statement is likewise haltingly awkward. “So. Here we are.”

The girls take a few steps around, eyeing the place out. Amy wears a surprised expression while Hannah scrutinizes the meager furnishings.

“Not bad,” the taller blonde pronounces her judgement like it just barely meets her standards. “You’re sure this place is secure?”

Riley looks at a bit of a loss but firms up enough to respond. “There’s no door, so no one else can get in… so, yeah, pretty sure.”

Paranoia is understandable, but we need to get over this. “Hannah, this is where he took me after I got trashed by the thing in the valley.  We didn’t make it much more than a mile away. If it wasn’t at least secure from monsters, I’d be dead.”

Hannah’s expression is sour as I shut her down, but she nods and sits herself on the bed. Amy glances back and forth between the three of us, opens her mouth to say something, meets Riley’s eyes, and shuts her mouth. What’s going on with her? This is the same girl who tried to cozy up to me for information last night? She looks around for a chair and seeing only the one, seats herself on the floor at Hannah’s feet.  Riley’s still the picture of an uncomfortable teenage boy - he looks at the chair, back to us, and then nervously shifts his hands before jamming them in his pockets.

I shake my head and lean against the counter in the kitchen. I’m not exactly dreading this, but I am kind of on the spot here. “Okay, I guess I’m the one who’s going to talk the most.  I don’t know how much I have to say is valuable, and how much isn’t, so Hannah, Amy, stop me and ask questions if you need to.  Do either of you remember what it looked like?”

Hannah’s bitter look doesn’t dispel at all, and her voice is tight. “No. I just heard the noise it made.”

Amy nods tentatively, tone subdued. “It was big, and it had some kind of light spots on it, and a flashlight or something.  I didn’t get a real good look at it, but I could tell it wasn’t human and I tried to signal you guys without shouting.”

I nod. I guess that’s what the jittery laser was all about. “I’m kinda surprised you didn’t have some kind of signal pre-planned or anything.  You’ve been doing this for a while, so I expected a little more… coordination?”

They both wince and Amy folds up, holding her legs and biting her lip. Hannah puts a comforting hand on the shorter girl’s shoulder and gives a squeeze. I’m missing something.

Hannah speaks, voice unwavering but pain on her face.  “Krystal was the one who planned and passed messages between us.”

I wince myself.  Great going man, poking that recent and open wound. Plus not realizing that experienced or not, losing a teammate would have messed up their coordination. And that’s not even getting into the whole they’re just teenage girls thing.  Shit.

Riley’s voice pulls all three of us out of our respective internal funks, a soft query making it clear he has no idea what we’re speaking of. “What… happened?”

Amy speaks softly, her head craning back to look at the brown-haired boy. “Krystal is… was the third of our team. She was smart and really fast, and knew all kinds of ways to fight monsters.  She… died a couple nights ago.”

Both of the girls’ gazes flick back to me. They aren’t judging - they’re just expecting the witness to speak. But guilt weighs on me anyway. I don’t keep my voice entirely steady, but I disguise it with heat. I am angry - at myself, at Puchuu, at Sandra. “Car accident. She ran right out into the road and I saw her get hit - it was messy.”

The memories are still fresh. Bloody pavement, a last shuddering breath, the horrible voice of the little monster.  I was looking for anger, and I found it in spades. “It shouldn't have happened.”

It’s another moment or two before I refocus on Riley. I add on, “It’s why I’m so new.  I’m her replacement.”

Riley pales a bit, the sickened expression on his face showing his thoughts are constructing what I saw firsthand - a young girl mangled by a few tons of moving metal.

After a pause, he swallows uncomfortably before croaking out. “No… it shouldn’t have.” His voice wavers, then solidifies to state the next bit clearly. “But people are going to keep suffering as long as that thing is roaming around.”

My self-stoked anger is cut through as Riley speaks. He’s right, and the sickly look on his face shifts into something a bit firmer, like he knows he’s got to do something unpleasant.  As he looks around at us, especially at Hannah, his jaw sets.

Hannah speaks, her voice uncharacteristically soft. “He’s right.  And that sort of answers my next question, which would have been: can we count on you to back us up?”

He nods immediately, hesitating only afterward. He turns to address me, concern clearly expressed in his blue-green eyes. “Are you feeling pretty alright?”

Anger drains away, slowly. Now there’s shame there too, and exhaustion. I’m not sure this charade is something I want to keep up forever.  Covering lies with strong emotion and technical truths - I’ve done it before but I don’t like it, and like always I just feel disappointment in myself afterward, even if it’s necessary here. I hate it. It’s not even remotely honest. I respond with yet another technical truth. “Yes… and no. I’m okay to fight, but I’m not happy about this whole thing.”

Amy goes to stand, but I hold up a hand. “Okay, I don’t want to derail the theme music moment here, but all of you still haven’t heard me tell you about what we’re fighting yet. And it’s important.”

They quiet, and I bleed a little of my nervous energy, the remaining shame and exhaustion by pacing the length of the kitchen, and focusing on what I can remember of the creature. “It’s big. At least two feet taller than me - and way broader.  It’s built like a gorilla - and it looks like it crawled out of the deepest part of the ocean.  You’ve probably seen pictures of anglerfish and all those other ugly-looking deep sea fish.”

“Just like those things, it has its own lights - spots on its body and a lamp in its chest. That’s the ‘flashlight’ beam you saw.” I nod at Amy. She’s tensed up, imagining what I’m describing, but nods back, remembering.  “And just like those things, it’s got disgusting black flesh covered in bony growths, and a huge set of jaws with translucent, jutting teeth.” I splay a claw of tensed fingers up from my chin, miming the look.

“The important part is what it did to all of us - it made us afraid. It howled and I couldn’t feel anything except terror. It was nothing but the desire to sprint as far and as fast as possible to get away from something twisted and wrong.” I look at the girls on the bed. “I managed to shrug it off after a moment or two, but you guys didn’t.  And you ran.”

I regret saying it almost as soon as the words leave my mouth. Hannah’s eyes narrow, and her jaw sets. Amy pulls in on herself some more, shoulders hunching as she stares down. Fuck! I need this to be an info session, not a destruction of the morale Riley just managed to raise. I modulate my tone a little, trying to be sympathetic and understanding, trying to salvage what I’ve just torpedoed. “Look, guys. Not your fault. It was in your heads, and ‘RUN’ was all I could think initially too. It’s… not your fault I’m resistant or something.”

I fail. The mood stays down, Amy hugging her knees and Hannah’s fists tightening. Riley looks frightened, staring into the middle distance, but then straightens, taking an abrupt breath.

“Guys. That’s--that’s got to be why. I mean, what happened to your friend.” He almost trips over his own words in the rush to get them out.  “I can’t imagine any other reason someone that skilled would run straight into traffic. She had to have been fleeing from that thing, too scared to even realize where she was going.”

Hearing him say that hits me like a physical blow.  I hadn’t put it together, hadn’t realized. It wasn't my fault. Then a crystal clear thought flowers in my head.

That monster is responsible for me. For losing my body and my family, for my whole fucking situation. It’s the monster’s fault and my new fucking job is killing monsters.

“Son of a bitch.” I breathe, anger back in full force, a burning star in my gut flaring to light as I gain an acceptable target to vent my rage and frustration over this whole situation. “It makes too much sense. It hit Krystal with so much terror and she must have been too fast for it to catch, but she still ran right into a car.”

I look over and both of the girls are back in the game. Amy’s back is ramrod straight, and shock and anger plays across her face. Hannah’s impotent anger has focus now, and it shows in the grim set of her jaw.  She punches the mattress, swearing. “Dammit!”

Amy stands, a stormy expression on her face and declares, in the strongest tone I’ve heard from her in the short time I’ve known her, ”We’re going to go find that thing, and end it. Tonight.”