The LoST 2

The Lone Shadow Templar

2: Realization

A blaze of azure, a streak of crimson. Their entities intertwined in my mind. They lace hands, wrapping themselves, contorting their bodies within each other. Like lovers, they are impossible to pull apart, yet they cannot be one. They clash and fight; sparks of blue and red fly from their cores.

My insides were being torn apart, namely my head. The pulsating was like a time bomb, set to go off in the very next second. Except this second lasted a life time.

A light shined dismally in the foreground, veiled by torrents of rain and darkness. The nighttime swirled around us with a freezing cold gale, whipping the hood of my cloak right off. I could feel my hands shake as I struggled to keep control of the MP9 within my grasped fingers.

Sleepywood arose in the distance as a flooded ghost town. In the darkness, everything just seemed dimmer like a film noir. Every move slowed to a snail-like pace, every breath leaving a wisp of fog. Brushing a few blonde strands away, I moved closer, making sure the streets were all empty.

We emerged from the southern gate, the welcome sign grossly overgrown with vines. Not a soul was in sight. Together, we sauntered down Main Street with Felix leading the way. A flash of lightning tore through the skies.

As another breath of wind ravaged our cloaks, we turned into a shop labeled “Mip’s Bakery”. A scent of recently baked goods made my mouth water; I had forgotten all about food since our initial escape.

A petite little woman dressed in her pajamas came down with a lantern in one hand and a rusty old revolver in the other. As soon as she saw the likes of us, she set her weapon down and sighed in relief, “Oh it’s you again, Felix. Try not to come at 2 in the morning next time…”

“Mip, this is urgent,” Felix replied, completely ignoring her first remark, “The signal has been set. They are moving.”

“Well in that case, why the hell did you not say so!” Mip exclaimed sternly. She vanished upstairs to put on her clothes, leaving her shop on the first floor completely dark once more.

“Where can we find this man?” I asked Felix, trying to make out the pastries and cakes in the display shelves.

“Aaru would know,” he responded, looking down at his watch.

“Aaru?” I pondered.

“She was once a secret operative deep within the Dominion. Once the happenings with… your sister…” I winced. “… took place, she defected, seeing the true nature of her employers. Her marksmanship is unbelievable. They say she has never missed a shot.”

The stairs thumped loudly and Mip reappeared dressed in the same black cloak that veiled our bodies. She hid the rusty old revolver behind the counter and when her hand reappeared, she suddenly sported a silenced pistol. I saw her grin wickedly for a split second before the weapon vanished into her cloak.

After she locked the door, we set out again in the rain, leaving her quaint little shop, the “Closed” sign staring at us miserably in goodbye.

We made our way through half a foot of water towards the eastern end of town where Aaru lived. As we approached her house, my head started to throb. Those damn migraines… My hand found Aaron’s and I held it tight, trying to focus on that rather than my pulsating brain.

Mip knocked a sequence of clacks and waited for a while. From inside, I could hear fumbling and the door unlatch, revealing a head of purple hair. Without a word, Mip and Felix entered, literally pushing Aaru backwards into her own house.

“Well now,” Aaru sighed she shut the door, “Isn’t this dandy…” She flicked a switch and all of a sudden, the entire house was lit up brightly by lights that I somehow could not find the source to. Looking around, there was electronic equipment scattered everywhere. Complicated gadgets and gizmos littered the floors, sofas, and tables, seemingly unsorted and heavily disorganized.

I was so mesmerized by the clutter that I did not even realize Aaru had disappeared and reappeared carrying some sort of old gauge.

“Here it is,” she smiled to herself, “Hasn’t been used in five years, so let’s hope it works now…”

She pressed the power button and we all watched as the black palm device lit up with a hue of blue. A dark blue line started rocking back and forth like a metronome or radar that picked up nothing.

“Hmm, guess he’s not here,” Aaru chuckled lightly. She turned around to face us.

Immediately, the migraine in my head increased tenfold. I could hear an incessant beeping as everyone’s face turned to shock and horror. My vision started to blur; I tried to catch onto something as I felt myself fall.

As my head hit the ground, Aaru’s sensor imploded in her hand in a puff of blue electricity, and I could suddenly hear everyone’s voice inside of my head. Their cacophonous vocals clashed fervently, all trying to make their way to the top.

Through it all, I made out Aaron’s alarmed tone, yelling my name. I felt his hand on my face.

Then the chaos ended just like that. My vision cleared up in an instant, and the pain in my head disappeared without a trace. Waving off help, I stood up and looked around. There was no peace and quiet anymore; I could not only hear the rain battering on the roof, but every one of their voices muttering in the corner of my mind.

“Oh no…” Felix exclaimed out loud… “FFS I should have known!” He slammed his palm into his face.

Aaru’s purple eyes widened in shock and astonishment, “You… I thought… it would be a guy…”

“What the hell is going on?” Aaron shrieked, his eyes darting past each of us.

Mip laughed and muttered “Sonofabitch…”

Felix turned around and put a hand on my shoulder, “We all thought those psionic activities were random, that they were not hereditary…” He chuckled, “Guess we were dead wrong eh?”

Oh sh**…

I felt it even before he finished his sentence.

“RUN!” I screamed just as Aaru’s far wall disintegrated in an explosion, sending broken wood and concrete showering down upon us. I felt the rain.

Brief gunfire erupted through the smoke; I saw their tracer bullets whiz past my head as I dashed away from the gaping hole in the wall. Ducking my head, I crashed through the window on the other side and landed with a roll. Whipping around, I screamed out Aaron’s name, trying to find him desperately through the consuming smoke.

Someone inside yelled my name, muffled by the rain and newly pronounced voices. Suddenly, Felix’s face emerged from the window, a deep gash streaming blood on his cheek.

“Natalie, run! Get the f*** away from here!”

“Where’s Aaron?”

“He’s gone! He’s gone!” he shouted back, briefly turning around to fire his weapon into the incoming bullets.

“What do you mean he’s gone? WHERE IS HE?”

“AARON IS GONE! GODDAMIT NATALIE RUN!”

Blinking back tears of pain, I tore myself away from the window and sprinted down a back alley. The voices in my head, the explosions, the gunfire, slowly subsided into silence. Dead silence.

I know I could have run longer, but after I tripped through the mud, my body did not want to move anymore. All I wanted to do was to curl up into a ball and cry. I wanted to make rain of my own.

My fingers slowly dragged myself forwards through the underbrush. My body ached, covered with mud and leaves and drenched to the bone. There was no pain in my mind, but my heart ached. Felix’s words tore a gaping hole in my chest.

Then, I felt something cold and hard. My fingers wrapped themselves around it and pulled it back. Through the black downpour, I realized, my eyes dilating in shock.

It was hers, her weapon, her S-36 Seraph. Her guardian…

Fate stretched out its haunting hand and held my finger tightly to the barrel and grip. He looked at me with his devil red eyes and nodded. I knew what to do. The devil told me to.

They took everything from me five years ago, and now they did it again.

It was time to return the favor. No good deed goes unpunished. The blackness consumed me, inside and out. I was Natalie, but now, I was also the lone Shadow Templar.