Harbinger (The Bleeding Worlds) (16 page)

“Look, I can help you.” She shook her head. “No, I think I’m
supposed
to help you. Are you still suspended?”

“Yes.”

“There’s someone I need you to meet at the school. Can you meet me there when it’s over?” She asked.

“I guess.”

“In the meantime,” she took his arm, “we should get you home.”

“What about those?” Gwynn motioned to the carcasses.

“These?” Fuyuko walked over to the bodies and gave them a firm kick. They crumbled into dust.

“What?”

Fuyuko shrugged. “Curses. When they die, they go to dust. Theory goes that they come here through the Veil. When they die, the Veil takes back what belongs to it. All that’s left is dust.”

“But the thing in the Cameron house, they said it was a homeless man.”

“Must have been a Taint. Again, the monster part goes back to the Veil, but the thing they were before stays behind. It’s a messy business, hunting monsters.”

The two walked in silence.

“This is me.” Gwynn said pointing to a small two storey.

“Tomorrow, at the school when it’s over. Don’t forget.” She tried to keep her tone soothing, but injected enough force to prevent negotiation.

“I won’t”

He went into his house. When the door had shut, she pulled out her cell phone, punched the number, and waited.

“Hello?” The voice sounded hoarse. She hadn’t even checked the time.

“Hi Dad. Sorry if I’m waking you.”

“Fuyuko?” He cleared his throat. It must be late. She imagined him rubbing the sleep from his eyes and looking at the clock. “Calling twice in one night? What’s happened?”

“I have an odd request dad.” She cringed, but she had to know.

“All right. What do you need?”

Gwynn’s sword. Would asking her father about a forbidden topic bring more scrutiny on Gwynn? How would she respond when her father asked why she wanted to know? Still, the similarities were too much. The stories the kids whispered to each other in the dorms in Suture and the spooky tales told by those who had been to the lowest levels were forefront in her mind. Even if her concerns were childish, even if asking her father made her appear foolish, it would be better to know and have her mind at ease.

Fuyuko drew a deep breath. “I need you to tell me about the bogeyman.”

Gwynn
closed the door behind him, watching out the window until Fuyuko moved on.

A light was still on in the kitchen.

He drew a big breath. He had been wrong. He had flown off the handle. He needed to accept this and set things right with Jaimie.

She didn’t greet him in the kitchen. Pridament sat at the table.

“Where’s Jaimie?” Did his voice show the anxiety that clenched his chest?

“Upstairs.” Pridament said. “She’s sleeping.”

“What?” Gwynn couldn’t believe it. After their fight, she just gave up and went to bed. Maybe he’d missed his chance to fix things. Maybe she saw how much easier her life would be without him. “She didn’t want to see me?”

Pridament held up his hand, “I needed to explain things to her Gwynn. I needed her to understand what you were going through.”

“What did you do?” Gwynn’s fists balled tight.

“Nothing. I just showed her a few things. She’s fine, just a bit…overwhelmed. She asked if I could wait for you. Let you know that she’s not angry anymore. She just needed to get some rest.”

Gwynn flopped into the other chair and rested his head in his hands. He breathed slow and long through his nose, counted, and let the air out through his mouth. He stretched the exhale until he had counted ten. “I guess I can understand. This…thing, it’s too much for me too.”

“It doesn’t have to be Gwynn.” Pridament reached out with his hand. He stopped just short of touching Gwynn and let it rest on the table. “I can help you. If you’ll let me.”

“I still don’t know about that vortex. I don’t think I can fix something like that.”
I can’t fix that.
“You say I have the power, but I don’t feel it.”

“Don’t worry about that for now. What’s most important is making you comfortable with your abilities. When things don’t feel so foreign, then maybe you can decide what you want to do about the other things.”

Gwynn shook his head. “There isn’t time. I was in the park. I was…” he drew a breath, tried to think about whether he should mention Fuyuko or not, “attacked, by two creatures. I think you would’ve called them Curses.”

Pridament’s mouth went slack, but his eyes remained intense. When he spoke, he measured each word. “Was there a tear?”

Gwynn shook his head. “No. Not that I could see or feel.” He added quieter, “I don’t know much. I might’ve missed it.”

“Let’s assume you’re right, and there was no tear. What are your thoughts?”

A chill ran down Gwynn’s spine. In the midst of staying alive, it hadn’t been something worth thinking about. Here, in the kitchen, safe, he recalled their eyes, the way they sniffed the air, and their determination to get him. Fuyuko had just been in their way. “They were hunting. Probably me.”

Pridament nodded. “Yes, I think that’s right.” The man’s eyebrow lifted in puzzlement. “You were able to defeat them?”

“I did.” It wasn’t a lie. Fuyuko had fought them, but in the end, he had finished them both. Right? The details became wispy and difficult to hold.

“How?”

“You’ll think I’m going insane.” Gwynn had already convinced himself.

“Adrastia?”

Gwynn shook and a cold sweat broke out on his brow.

Pridament nodded. “I heard you mention her name at the Cameron house. Right after you started channeling so much power you convulsed. I interrupted it.”

“Do all Scripts see her?”

Pridament shook his head. “No. She’s all yours.”

Gwynn ran his hands through his hair, grabbing a handful, as though pulling out his hair might pull out the madness. “So I am going insane.”

“No, I don’t think so. I’ve known of Scripts who had similar experiences; they would have a vision of a person or thing that offered them power. Most Scripts awaken at six or eight years of age. It’s young to gain almost godlike powers. By creating a gatekeeper who controls the power and doles it out at a manageable rate is possibly a way that they cope.”

“So this is normal?”

“Well,” Pridament dragged out the ’l’ a little too long, “I wouldn’t say it’s normal. But it isn’t something that’s never happened before either. So, in other words, it’s a little odd, but you’re not insane.”

“That’s not as comforting as I had hoped.”

“The point is you saw her. She offered you power and you took it. And with that power, you defeated two Curses.”

“No.” Gwynn shook his head. “She said I wasn’t ready for the power. She just… sang.”

“What did that do?”

“I don’t know. It was like I could see clearly. The doubts, the fear, it just went away. I tore the Veil and it gave me a sword. Then I killed the Curses.” Gwynn trembled. The word ‘kill’ hit him like a fist. “I killed. I used a sword and I… I killed.”

“Things that would have killed you Gwynn. Those creatures aren’t of our world. You said it yourself; they attacked you. What you did was in your own defense.”

“Still. I’ve never…” Something in him broke. The darkness, where his sorrow and the sword, lived, whispered to him.
That’s a lie….

Pridament put his hand on Gwynn’s arm. It comforted him, grounded him. Like his father’s had.

“Let it go Gwynn. You’re alive.” Pridament smiled. “And the reason is because you defended yourself.”

Gwynn’s throat constricted with the choking back of tears. “I need you to show me how to control this.”

Pridament squeezed his arm. “Good. Yes. We can start tomorrow.”

“I should probably check with Jaimie.” Gwynn sniffled.

“I told her you would need training. She said that I could do it if you were willing. You still off school tomorrow?”

“Yes.”

“Then I’ll see you in the morning.”

Pridament rose from the table and moved toward the front door.

“Do you really think those things were hunting me?” Gwynn asked.

Pridament looked outside. “We start your training tomorrow. Get some rest.”

“That doesn’t answer my question.”

Pridament went rigid, his eyes sad. “My priority is to teach you to defend yourself. Does that give you an answer?”

§

Gwynn awoke to
the ringing of his cell phone.

“Hello.” His voice hoarse and cracked.

“Didn’t I tell you we would start work this morning?” Pridament’s voice said. “Get up.”

Gwynn turned to the clock. It said ten. “Shit.”

He tumbled out of bed and moved with the grace of a drunken stupor to the closet. He struggled into some pants and yanked a sweater over his head.

He opened his bedroom door. Down the hall, Jaimie’s door was wide open. He found her room empty and the bed made.

Right
,
ten
.
She would’ve left for work a long time ago.

Gwynn trudged down the steps, his chest heavy. The sight of a piece of paper lying on the table made him feel a little lighter. He picked it up. For a brief moment, the terror crossed his mind that this wouldn’t be a good thing. He forced himself to read.

Gwynn, I thought after everything you went through yesterday, I should let you sleep. Your friend explained a lot. I’m sorry I was so angry; it wasn’t all your fault. I’ll be home around dinnertime. We can talk more then. Love you, Jaimie.

After he’d read it, the tension in his chest eased.

The doorbell sounded.

“Well, you look like crap.” Pridament beamed. “Ready?”

“Sure.” Gwynn grumbled. He opened the closet for his usual coat, but found it missing.

“That thing was torn to shreds, remember?” Pridament said. He held a bag out to Gwynn. Inside, a new black coat waited.

Gwynn didn’t know what surprised him more, that it fit, or that he liked it.

“Thanks.” He said. “I can pay you back.”

“Don’t worry about it. Consider it my way of starting to apologize for wrecking your life.”

“It’s not your fault. You didn’t make me a freak.”

A pained grimace flashed across Pridament’s face. “No, no I guess I didn’t. Thanks for not shooting the messenger.”

Gwynn shrugged. “No worries. Let’s go.”

Walking to the car, Gwynn looked skyward. Overhead, the vortex growled. “How long will that thing last until, um, everything goes?”

“There’ll be signs before the end.”

“Like what.”

Pridament stopped and turned to the sky, seeming to inspect the anomaly he couldn’t see. “Horrors of biblical proportions.”

“Do you mean that, or are you making a sick joke?”

Pridament sighed. “Honestly? Most of the people in town will turn to Taints, any bodies of water will boil and there will be earthquakes that will turn this town into a crater. After that, similar events will repeat worldwide until the planet tears itself apart.” Pridament raised an eyebrow. “Glad you asked?”

“At least I got a straight answer.” Deep down, though, Gwynn began to understand why adults sometimes sheltered kids from the truth.

They were in the car traveling south on Kennedy, heading toward the industrial district.

“I know you’re helping me by doing this, but could you try and drop me off by three at my house?” Gwynn asked.

“Do you have a date?”

Twinges of guilt pricked at him. Sophia in the hospital. She wasn’t his girlfriend, but what if the events at the Cameron house hadn’t happened? She might be. Somewhere inside her fractured mind, she might want that. No, he wasn’t going on a date with Fuyuko. He just hoped to find out more. Maybe he wouldn’t have to stop the vortex with just Pridament’s help.

“No. Just meeting a friend about the work I’ve missed.”

“I’ll do my best. We’re not doing anything too fancy today; I need you to learn the difference between drawing from your own power reserves and tearing the Veil. I also want to make sure you can seal any tears you create.”

Pridament pulled into the driveway of a derelict warehouse. He travelled down a lane way that ran the entire side of the building and pulled around the back. He hopped out of the car to open a large door and then drove into the warehouse.

The space was empty, except for a table with a chair and a laptop.

Gwynn pulled his coat tighter around him. “Going to be hard to concentrate with this cold.”

“I’ll take care of it.”

Pridament went to the table and reached underneath. A moment later, the hum of a small generator filled the space. Pridament stretched out some extension cords with heaters attached.

“It’s not ideal, but it should help. See the circle on the ground, go stand in the middle of it.”

Gwynn moved to where Pridament had indicated the circle drawn on the ground. Getting closer, it turned out a cable formed the circle. In four places, the cable met with small black boxes. Separate wires ran from the boxes to a generator and the computer.

“What’s this?” Gwynn asked.

“A Prometheus circle. It’s used for training new Anunnakis. If your power starts getting away from your control, I can activate the circle and it will negate any Anunnaki’s powers within its perimeter.”

“How’s it work?”

“Honestly, the science is a little beyond me. Something about wave canceling or something. The only thing you need to know is that you don’t have to worry about things getting out of control.”

Gwynn stood in the center of the circle. Despite Pridament’s assurances, his throat tightened with anxiety. He kept scanning the warehouse, waiting for Adrastia to make an appearance. He wasn’t sure whether he considered it lucky or not that she had yet to appear.

Pridament sat at the table and punched a few keys on the laptop. An electric hum buzzed around the warehouse. He stood up and approached the edge of the circle.

“So, there’s a few things you should know. First off, the Veil is everywhere. Right now, you and I are standing in an abandoned warehouse. Also in this same spot, dozens of men are working. As well, it’s an open field where animals are grazing. All those things and countless more are happening right here, right now. The thing that keeps us all from crashing into one another is the Veil.”