“Alright guys, I’ll catch up with you tomorrow morning.”
“Come on Dick,” Lisa groaned as she pulled on him. “We were all gonna go downtown. Hangout. Waste some time.”
Lily and Gav nodded in agreement but Dick shook his head tapping her hands lightly. “Sorry but I already made some plans with another friend.”
“What other friends. You cheating on us?” She reached up and pinched his cheek and he made a noise swatting her away.
“I’m allowed to have other friends Lisa.” He checked his phone and sighed. “I’ll talk to you guys tomorrow.”
He waved at all of them and backed away heading down the street and circled around the school toward the gym. From the outside there were a few students heading inside to get ready for sports practice. Standing outside the door and leaning against one of the doors was Samantha wearing a brand new all black of the school’s uniform.
She looked up and nodded toward him, standing upright and picking up her school bag. He walked awkwardly her and he wasn’t sure what to say. They weren’t exactly friends and this partnership with her was still new. In the past week they hadn’t even talked, just acknowledged one another in the hallway.
“Well you’re in one piece.”
“Yeah. The bruises were gone the next day pretty much. The cut on my head took an extra day to get rid of.” He shrugged. “It was weird with how fast I healed all of it. But I guess that’s what my geist wanted.”
She nodded. “You’ll get used to it. It’s a blessing some nights. Now come on, we’re going this way.”
He didn’t understand what was in the direction she was going but nodded and fell into step behind her. The sun was still in the sky and warmed the air considerably. He unbuttoned his blazer slowly and slid his arms out of the sleeves and let it hang off his shoulders.
“It’s so damn hot. Voy a derretir!”
She glanced over her shoulder and raised her eyebrow. “What?”
“I’m gonna melt.”
She gave a slow nod and then glanced down at his wrist. “You’ve been practicing without me around haven’t you?”
He glanced at his wrist blinking in surprise but nodded slowly. “Yeah. Nothing crazy. Just making them appear and disappear.”
She stopped as they approached a corner and waited for the light to turn. “Show me.”
“What? Right here?” he looked around suddenly self-conscious without knowing why. “In front of people?”
She looked around and got a strange look from a woman at the light. Samantha smirked lightly and then looked at him. “Yes. In front of person.”
He made a face but raised his free hand. Staring at it he took a slow breath and just focused. The way that he made it work was simple. He pictured the bracelet around his wrist, the small silver glow of interlocking pieces to be a simple chain. Taking another breath he whispered, “Manifestar,” before it finally formed against his wrist and hung loosely.
Letting out his breath he held it up to her and she touched it. Turning the bracelet slowly she gave a slight pull before letting it hang. “Not bad. We’re going to have to work on making that faster. And without the battle cry.”
He rolled his eyes and put his hand in his pocket. The light turned red and the walk symbol flashed for them. She moved immediately crossing the street and leading him toward an older part of the city. Lots of old store fronts that used to have business but the owners couldn’t keep it up.
“How have you been sleeping the past week?”
The question caught him off guard and he looked at her surprised. “Uh. Pretty bad actually. Been getting this weird ringing noise in my ears the past few nights.”
“Good.”
“Que?”
“That ringing in your ears is you sensing the wraiths. We all hear it when a wraith reveals its true form. Usually when hunting.”
He stopped and she turned to look at him with a raised eyebrow. “You’re saying that the past few nights someone has been getting killed by a Wraith?”
“No, I said one was hunting. And I’ve been hunting them. As far as I know, no one has died. I tracked one down and finished it off over the weekend.”
“That explains why it finally stopped.” He grumbled to himself.
The longer they walked the fewer there were cars or people with them. He’d been down here once before when Lisa wanted something from an obscure bakery and had dragged him down because none of the others would do it with her.
“Desierto,” he said and sighed. “What’re we doing out here?”
“We’re going in there,” she pointed to one of the empty shops. The store sign had long since fallen off and the rain had washed away any indication of what it may have been. The windows were entirely boarded though the wood had seen better days. She crossed the street without any fear of a car and kicked the door in. She broke the glass and then reached in, grabbing the handle and opening it from the inside.
“Come on. And close the door behind you.” After looking both ways he chased after her and stepped into the place. He coughed immediately as both dust and just stale air assaulted his face. The entire inside was empty, an abandoned paint bucket and a few planks of wood but that was it.
Samantha walked toward one of the walls and dropped her bag near it and turned to face Dick. There was about twenty feet between them currently. “So, you’re trying to be strong enough to fight off the wraiths.”
She took a stance turning both hands palm up and spreading her legs slightly. Ice appeared over her hands out of nowhere and then cracked, showing the finely crafted gauntlets. She stomped once and the boots formed on both feet.
“Alright that’s co-“
“Defend yourself,” she dashed forward sliding across the ground, ice under her feet. He panicked and threw up his hands and she stopped in front of him, fist hanging inches from his face. Rolling her eyes, she sighed and took a step back. “That is a terrible start.”
“Oh, come on I wasn’t ready.”
She turned and narrowed her eyes at him. “You really think a wraith will give you a chance to get ready?”
He looked at her and frowned but gave a short nod. “You’re right.”
She rubbed her temples slowly but back away and raised her hands again. “Let’s make this the first lesson then. Get your geist ready at the drop of a hat.”
She dashed at him at the end of her sentence and he blinked in shock, trying to manifest the bracelets and their chains but he barely even had the idea of them around his wrist before her fist hovered in front of his face.
He stared at her and swore under his breath. She slid backwards to her starting position. “Again.”
And so, it went for the better part of an hour. Samantha would reset to the distant and then dash at him. Either a punch or a kick or some other attack. He would try to react to what she was doing but he would always fail. With each failure his frustration grew higher. Samantha offered no type of advice either. She was watching how he was reacting and trying to learn and noted his subtle improvements with each attack.
She stood in front of him her fist out at his stomach and stared at him. He stared back and the muted frustration on his face made her stand up rather than slide back. Instead she looked at him and reached for his hand.
He didn’t pull away despite how cold her hand felt. She raised his hand and stared at his wrist and motioned toward him. “Call it. Your geist.”
Confused he did as she asked, looking down at his wrist he willed them to life. The effort caused a strain on his face but they materialized at his call and he let out a sudden gasp. “You feel that?”
A sudden wave of exhaustion but it was the same thing as if he felt a chill down his body, from the base of his skull to his fingertips and toes. The kind you got from realizing something that was now so obvious. He stared at her and she nodded. “Hold onto that feeling. Memorize it. It makes it easier the next time.
She slid back again to her starting point and crouched slightly bringing her arm back and narrowed her eyes. “Defend yourself,” she dashed at him again the ice creating a path for her to slide at him.
This time though he wasn’t defenseless. He remembered the night when the Wraith attacked. He whipped his arm down and the chain flew from his wrist straight at her. Her eyes widened slightly and she did her best to duck under it as the chain sailed overhead.
She righted herself and continued forward. She punched the ground and icicles exploded underneath his feet. His other hand flexed reactively and the chain wrapped around him then expanded forcing the icicles to appear around him. The ones that collided with the chain shattered.
He was so focused on this that he didn’t notice her in the air. Samantha had jumped and was coming down. He couldn’t react fast enough and she halted a few inches away from him, her fist just above his face. His chest was heaving, the chains frozen in place near him unable to act without his will.
She tapped his cheek with her finger lightly and took a few steps back, careful to avoid his chains. “Doesn’t look like you have any performance issues. You just need some practice with your technique.”
He sputtered, embarrassed and she broke out into a laugh as she walked back toward the other side of the room. Shaking his head, he straightened up as he felt the chains rattle against the ground. “Defend yourself.”
Rather than sliding toward him she stomped the ground and sent a path of icicles straight at him. They erupted from the ground like a rift. He flexed his hand and the chain acted, surrounding him immediately for the sake of protection. But he wasn’t watching the ice he looked around, eyes darting left and right for where she might come, his other hand ready.
The ice collided with the chain and shattered on contact. Samantha appeared from behind the ice catching Dick off guard. Her fist slammed into the chain and they held under the attack. Startled he threw his other hand at her and the chain sought her out.
It darted at her and she caught glimpse of it but raised her arm to block. She meant to create a shield of ice but the moment the chain hit her, the ice didn’t form. Shocked she took the full brunt of another hit getting launched off the ground. She hit the ceiling with a grunt and landed on her feet and hand. Coughing she looked at the chains and they vanished from sight immediately.
Dick rushed to her side panicked at what happened. “Lo siento! Lo siento! Are you alright?” he asked and she waved her hand to him.
Groaning she stood up slowly and looked at him. “Looks like your chains have more a bite to them than I thought.” Cracking her neck she gave him a look and then at her gauntlet trying to figure out what just happened. “Maybe you’ll be more helpful than I thought.”
They continued to practice like this, Samantha not doing anything complicated just working with his reactions. She had a new respect for the strength of his chains and she wasn’t caught off guard again. He learned quickly but he was still unused to fighting let alone like this.
She dodged between his chains, ducking and diving under and around them. She slid forward going underneath and the ice gave her a clear path. The chains couldn’t recede back fast enough and she was at his chest, her hand resting against it. His chest was heaving and he had some sweat on his face.
She stood slowly and raised both hands up, “I think we’re good for today.”
Nodding quickly, he raised a hand and held his finger up. Taking a step backwards he stumbled then fell backwards. His chains caught him on the way down. Sitting on the ground he let the chains disappear and then the bracelets themselves faded away.
She let out a slow breath and her gauntlets and boots faded away like snow on the wind. She went to the other side of the room grabbing her bag then walked and sat across from him. “Here,” she pulled out a water bottle and handed it over to him.
“Gracias,” he unscrewed the top and chugged half the bottle away and then set it between his legs. “How long have you been doing this?”
“I assume you mean being a Geist Warrior,” he nodded quickly and she shrugged. “As long as I can remember. Probably seven years now.”
“Seven years?” he nearly knocked over his water in surprise and she waved her hand.
“Yeah. It’s no big deal. It’s my life.”
“How did you get started?”
She looked at him dead on, “A wraith attacked my neighborhood when I was a kid. A lot of kids were taken and eaten. I was one of the only two to survive that slaughter. A Geist Warrior, my mentor, saved us. When I started showing signs of my geist manifesting she decided to train me. Meeting a wraith increases the odds of your geist awakening. The younger you are when you see a wraith the more likely your geist will manifest.”
“You were kidnapped? What about tu mama y papa. Didn’t you ever want to go back?”
She gave him a sad smile. “They saw the wraith as it tried to take me. Tried to stop it. They were killed. The other kid was lucky. Parents weren’t home when he was attacked. Just a sitter. Though his geist manifested as well, he only stayed long enough to know how to defend himself in case another wraith showed up and went home.”
“I’m sorry.”
“Don’t be. It’s alright. Honestly,” Reaching into her bag she got another bottle of water and sipped it slowly. “What about you? The day in the alleyway wasn’t your first time seeing a wraith.”
“It was,” he tilted his head. “Why do you think I freaked out so bad.”
She stared at him and shook her head slightly. “Not possible. If that was your first time running into one, there’s no way your geist would have manifested so fast.”
He shrugged his shoulders trying to guess at what might have happened. But he didn’t have anything off the top. He would have remembered if he ever fought or ran into a giant demon monster thing like that.
“Maybe I’m just a natural at this,” he raised his hands doing finger guns and smirking at her.
“You wish. Adequate maybe. A C- at best.
He winced at her but still smiled. “That’s still passing.”
“Not in this classroom. I only take B+ or higher.”
“Damn, guess I’ll have to keep studying with you then.”
“Guess you will.” She looked out the window and saw the dark orange light leaking into the store front. She rubbed her hands together quickly and sighed. “It’s going to be sundown soon.”
“Is that a bad thing?”
“Yes and no. I need to go patrolling. Following leads on the wraiths. The one I dealt with the other day gave me an idea of where to start looking.”
“Where are you going?”
“I’m going to follow a lead. You’re going home. We’re done for today.”
“Seriously?”
“Yes seriously. You can overwork your geist. And if you overwork it, or worse break it, then you’ll have to heal your geist and trust me, that’s not a fast process. You need to go home, eat, do some homework. Rest.”
He looked at her and then glanced away with a slow nod. “Okay.”
He jerked forward to stand up which she reached out and grabbed his arm to steady him. The moment he was upright he felt a rush of dizziness and stumbled forward. She pressed a hand against his chest, “Feel that? That’s why you need to rest. The geist is like a muscle except ten times more sensitive and ten times more powerful.”
He gave another nod and she moved wrapping her arm around his waist to move them forward. They got close enough so that he could grab his bag and she had her own. Once they were ready they walked out of the old shop and the street lights were already turning on above their heads.
“So, your geist gauntlet things. Is ice a normal thing or is it special?”
She shook her head. “Each manifestation of a geist has different properties. But they’re all good at taking down Wraiths.”
“So, what does mine do?”
She shrugged. “Up to you to find out. You’ll get there.”
Just like before there was no activity on the side walk or the streets around them which was great for Dick. He felt a vibration in his phone and checked it quickly.
Tio: You still out mijo? Getting late.
Me: I’m omw back now. You bring home any food?
Tio: We’ve got leftovers. That’s dinner. Deal with it.
Me: Alright. Alright.
He started to put his phone back and then glanced at Samantha for a second. “Hey Samantha. Since we’re gonna be working together think we should exchange numbers? Easier to get in contact with one another in case something happens.”
She glanced at him and sighed with a short nod. “Hand over your phone. I’ll add my info.”
They swapped information quickly and the rest of the walk was in silence. Despite how hard the training had been he felt accomplished in some way. Knowing that his chains weren’t a waste of time was satisfying and even more so knowing that Samantha would keep helping him. Knowing more about Samantha was a bonus.
They parted at the train station. “I’ll call you next time we’re training. And if you hear the ringing again try to meditate. Makes blocking it out is easier.”
His dream came to mind again. The night his parents and brother had been killed. The red eyes that floated in the fire, all the other weirdness, he had thought it was just him remembering it wrong. That he had only been four and the event was traumatic. But what if he hadn’t imagined it as a kid. What if it had actually happened exactly like that. He didn’t want to think of that. Instead he focused on his new goals. Learning how to use his chains, to get better than adequate.
Sitting in his bed in his pajamas, with a plate of warmed up pizza he was balancing between eating and being on his phone. He’d gotten a lot of flak in the group chat, mainly from Lisa though Gav never wasted a chance to talk trash about him. He didn’t do much to defend himself but instead was searching.
He googled Geist, Geist Warriors, and more but didn’t learn much of anything. Geist was another word for the spirit of a person and of course Geist Warrior and Geist Legion didn’t turn up anything. He stopped for a second, staring at the search results and unconsciously found himself typing the information.
It wasn’t the first time he’d look up the information. The newspaper article about the fire that engulfed his home. It listed him as the sole survivor, the fire having claimed the lives of his twin and both his parents. There wasn’t anything special in the article aside from the cause being unknown.
The eyes from his dream flashed into his mind again and he jumped slightly dropping his phone. Staring at it he put his head in his hands and took a slow deep breath. “Uno… Dos… Tres… Cuatro… Cinco…” he whispered and then felt it. The dull ringing in his ears that stole his breath away and made him sit up at alert. This ringing was louder and double layered like several bells ringing together all at once.
He felt his bracelets manifest around his wrist on some kind of instinct. He looked at them each in turn before glancing toward the window. A wraith had shown itself out there. That meant Samantha heard it too. She was strong and she’d be fine. But he couldn’t take his eyes off the window. Gripping his pendent he whispered.
“What would you do, hermano?”
The Harlequin Library 