Samantha was sitting in the park, her leg crossed at the ankle. Leaning back she read one of the books for the English class. Flipping the page, she caught the breeze and let out a sigh. The humidity was something very different than what she was used to. Suffocating in a lot of ways. Any breeze was a good one. She was tempted to call her geist more than once just to cool off.
School wasn’t something she was going to focus on but she had to put up with it. And it worked as a good cover for the time being. She stared at the book for a moment longer then shut it and lowered it with a frown. She couldn’t stop thinking of that guy.
Two times in a row and then he suddenly manifested his geist. She hadn’t ever heard of that happening. At least not for someone who had only ever met a Geist for the first time. He was lucky to have not get eaten on the spot. He was more than lucky here. Or unlucky. Getting attacked by two wraiths in one day was unheard of.
She scowled at the thought, trying to figure out what her next step was going to be in this. She was going to meet him in a few days and she’d see how fast a learner he was. Maybe she could teach him the basics so he could defend himself at the very least. But that might be asking a lot in one session.
Standing she slid the book in her bag, adjusted it tight against her back and started walking toward the train. Pulling out a flip phone she checked for where the next train was going to be coming from. She didn’t get the browser open when it pierced her ears. The ringing that was the bane of her existence.
Closing her eyes and taking a breath she concentrated on the sound and its direction. It was toward the suburbs, not the city. Not even that far from her. Leaving the park, she got out her phones map trying to guess where the wraith was. The closer she ran to it the louder the ringing got and she was guessing it was maybe two miles away.
That put it near a supermarket. She tapped on the image and it looked abandoned. Long since closed down, which there wouldn’t be a lot of people around. Shoving the phone back into her pocket she kept running.
Speeding across the street she ignored the car horns coming her way as the sound got louder. Wincing she narrowed her eyes and pressed her fingers against her temples. Scowling at the corner she could see it in the distance.
J walking across the street and sprinting through the abandoned parking lot she kicked a door open and it groaned loudly under the sudden stress. The inside of the supermarket was half knocked over shelves and abandoned carts with wide empty swaths of space where displays would have been set up.
The ringing had plateaued in her ears and her head jerked to the side as something crashed nearby. Accompanying the crash were the startled shouts and screams of young voices.
“Kids. Great.” Grunting under her breath she sprinted toward the noise and ducked through the abandoned ailses. Watching her feet, she stepped over the glass and rocks to keep her approach as quiet as possible.
Another crash echoed and she watching something fly through the air before crashing behind her. The screams echoed into the high ceiling. Samantha swore under her breath and slid to a stop. Punching her fist together her spine tingled and her limbs cooled. The ice formed into the gauntlets on her arms and boots across her feet. The mask formed around her neck before clasping around her mouth.
Crouching she focused and iced formed beneath her feet before she launched herself forward. Clearing several aisles, she looked down and saw the tail of the Wraith disappear around a corner. One of the racks were sent flying into the wall and it let out a roar.
She hit the ground and jumped again a pillar of ice sending her forward. She clapped her hands together a sheet of ice forming between her digits. She threw it down as she landed on top of one the aisles and kicked forward like she was on a skateboard. Clearing the aisle proper she kicked herself forward.
Clearing the last of the aisles she finally saw what it was. It was huge, six legs dragging across the ground. Its body was long and thrashed around like some sort of snake. It’s head though was lined with eyes that and a toothless mouth. In front of it were three kids, couldn’t have been older than eight graders. Probably snuck in here on a dare.
Ice formed under her feet and she launched herself toward them. Clasping her hands together she crashed into its back with an explosion of force. Standing for a second she turned toward the kids and shouted, “Go! Get toward the door! Run now!”
The wraith hissed and bucked her off but she flipped forward and landed on her feet in front of the kids. Punching the ground, a wall of ice erupted behind her separating the kids from the Wraith. It hissed and whipped its head to the side breaking the aisle down.
She started skating after it, ice under her feet and its legs from under it. She did the same to the next and knocked it down. Grabbing onto the last leg she jumped at it but the wraith kicked her back sending her into the aisle.
Grunting she shook her head and skated back at the wraith. Clasping her hands together she created a spear of ice and lunged at it. It turned to face her and she stabbed it right in the jaw. She shouted and drove the spear in deeper but that drove her halfway into its mouth. The wratih hissed and started to close its mouth around her.
Gritting her teeth, she dropped the spear and caught its mouth trying to not get chomped down on. It raised its head toward the ceiling and her eyes widened as she watched a glow appear in its belly.
Flames shot out of the wraith’s mouth searing the ceiling and setting the few lights still hanging aflame. It slammed its weight back on the ground knocking the rack’s down and turned to find the kids again. It didn’t get far before Samantha crashed into the ground in front of it. Groaning loudly, she stumbled to her feet. Cracking her neck and squaring her stance she raised both fists. Her gauntlets were scorched and her clothes smoked but she was in one piece.
The wraith growled as it stomped forward. “Geist warrior! You you keep interupting my meal!”
“Yeah well too bad. I hope you enjoyed the last one because it’ll be the last one you ever have.”
It charged at her with another roar and she stomped the ground with both feet and ice raced forward. It crawled along the ground forming directly underneath the wraiths feet but it continued toward her without a second thought. Taking a slow breath, she squeezed both her hands into fist and the ice surged upward coating all six of its legs.
It lurched forward but the ice crawled along its legs dragging it down. It thrashed on the ground but the ice latched onto its lower body pinning it in place. Letting out a cool breath she walked toward it slowly.
It opened its mouth and let out a blast of fire toward her but she raised both arms and placed them together creating a shield. The flames parted and she stepped through them to face the wraith.
“This won’t hold me long!”
“It won’t. But I’m going to ask you some questions before I kill you.”
It hissed as it struggled, “What makes you think I’ll answer someone like you?”
Narrowing her eyes she glanced at one of the limbs and tapped her finger against her palm. The ice cracked and then exploded. The wraith shrieked as it slumped forward the remains of it’s limb barely keeping it upward. It tried to send another gout of flame at her but another shield of ice protected her.
Tapping another finger to her palm another of its limbs exploded in ice, this time on the opposite side. It screeched again and she ignored it and glared. “Talk! I’ve seen three Wraiths in this city. Where is your maker? Who’s the one who spawned you!”
It gasped then coughed out a laugh. “Why do you want to know? Do you want to rush to your death that quickly?”
“I’ll be the judge of that. Where is it?!”
It just snarled at her. Crouching she leaped forward and landed on its back. Turning quickly, she touched the scaly back and sent the ice racing to connect with it in it’s limbs. It tried to continue to move until the ice stopped around it’s neck. “Your kind doesn’t die. Not easily. I’ll imprison you in here and let you starve in your cage.”
It snarled and tried to glance back at her. “You can burn warrior!”
Samantha stared at the creature and took a slow breath. Clapping her hands together she jumped and turned around before creating a spear. Driving the weapon into it’s back it jerked backwards and then collapsed to the ground. The ice along with the creature fell away and she dropped to the ground as its corpse faded into smoke.
Waving it away she kept her geist manifested and was ready to leave when something caught her eye. It was a balled-up ball of paper. She snatched it up and slowly unrolled it to see a flyer. It was a circle in the center, the words at the bottom of the page faded. “A snake eating its own tail,” she mumbled under her breath. “An Ouroboros. Why’d the wraith have this. And where is this?”
She was new to the city and didn’t know anything about clubs or locations so she did the next best thing. She went to a library. Taking a computer against the wall she paid for a few minutes and logged in with the basic information.
She searched clubs in the city and scrolled through a few pages of them but didn’t come up with anything remotely useful. A lot of dark webpages with neon lights and pictures of girls and guys dressed to show off as much skin as possible. She honestly wondered if it was okay to look this stuff up in public.
Next, she searched the Ouroboros and she got nothing but Wikipedia articles and philosophical essays about the cycle and what it meant. Brushing her fingers through her hair and letting out a sound of frustration and she the flyer out of her bag and stared at it. It looked low effort. No creativity put into the image itself. But then again maybe it wasn’t really meant for people like her to see it. More so for other Wraiths.
She tried Ouroboros Club and got a bunch of places in other states along with YouTube videos. She felt that she was entering a dark new scene and by the amount of leather she was seeing on display she was really not eager to delve deeper.
Closing the window and scowling she leaned back in the chair trying to figure out how she was going to even remotely find this club. Maybe she’d just have to go out there and do some old fashioned foot work.
Leaning back in her chair she groaned as both her shoulders ached along with her legs. That fight had been rougher than she had been preparing for. And she handled it badly. At least she saved those kids. Her captain would be proud of that much at the very least. Speaking of her Captain she glanced at the time.
It was going on five. Staring at the blank search engine bar and plain background of the screen. She owed a progress report to her captain soon. Instead of calling her though she logged out and started out of the library. Taking a cool breath and puffing it out again she put her hands in her pockets. As she walked a group of girls walked past her, their conversation loud.
“Have you heard about that new club on 13th?”
“The snake one right?”
“Yeah. I totally wanna go to it but I don’t want to go on my own. You’re coming too right?”
“Isn’t that place kinda creepy though? It’s like an old factory or something.”
“Oh come on. It just looks that way on the outside. A lot of great party places are like that. Lame on the outside and awesome on the inside.”
They were too far away for Samantha to hear anything else but she’d heard enough. Getting her phone out she googled 13th street and clubs and saw a bunch of no name places but nothing involving snakes. So instead she found the location of the club itself on the map. It wasn’t far from her motel actually. Only a few train stops over.
That was good. This was something she could work with. Filled with the sense of progress she rushed past the turn stalls and winced going toward a pillar. Holding onto it tightly she held her shoulder and then her hip.
She took a step forward and winced moving slowly across the station before going to a bench. Sitting carefully she let out a sigh and rubbed her shoulder and thighs. “Alright. Maybe not tonight,” she mumbled to herself.
Her captain would have wanted her to rest for the rest of the weekend, take her mind off the wraiths for the time being and enjoy the city for what it was. There were plays, movies, good food and just the lake itself. She could hear her lamenting in her ears that Samantha was young and got to enjoy the good life.
But she would never do those things. She was only thinking about her missions and then moving on. Staring at the ground Dick’s face flashed into her mind again. She was going to see him once the weekend ended and she hadn’t given a single thought to what she was going to teach him.
“Well for starters, let’s see if he can manifest his Geist. And if he can throw a punch. All that stuff the other night was on instinct. I’m not going to have his death on my conscious. He’ll learn how to defend himself. And once I’m done I’ll report it to Captain Betty. Send a real trainer out here to keep track of him.”
She told herself this but it rang hollow in her ears. There was no way it was going to be that easy.
The Harlequin Library 