In almost a blind desperation, she continued to push herself; she could not let Kali escape again. Lives were hanging in the balance. Eliza kept her spear balanced lightly in her hand as she ran after Kali. Taking this turn and that turn, she followed closely just waiting to get within range.Kali was searching for a patch of darkness with which to disappear into, but with the numerous lights and the bath of silver which the moon cast over the night, the task was incredibly difficult. If not impossible. Kali darted swiftly into another side street, but this time as Eliza turned the corner, she saw Kali stopped before a high stone wall. It was a dead end. She just caught the flick of Kali’s wrist and the refraction of light that danced brilliantly off a dagger being thrown. Eliza pivoted hard to her right and spun out of the way. She completed the spin and without breaking stride, she allowed the weight of the tip of the spear to carry the shaft forward. Taking a tight grip just shy
Eliza ripped the tip of the spear back through and kicked Kali to the ground. “Bitch,” she spat lividly through clenched teeth. Kali’s body convulsed for a few moments, but as a pool of blood spread steadily, she finally lay still and deathly silent. The so-called goddess of Death was no more. He tucked his shield back around into place, and panting like he had just completed a triathlon, limped over to Eliza. “Are you hurt?” he asked breathlessly. That was when he noticed the blood dripping from her arm. “Oh my god,” he gasped. He sunk to his knees and took the end of his shirt. He tore off a strip of cloth and tied it around her arm. Now that the fight mechanism had fallen away, Eliza’s chin began to tremble. The tears broke through and she buried her head in his chest. “I-I’m… s-sorry. I was so stupid,” she muttered through the sobs. Taking a deep breath, she said, “I-I-I th-thought I was d-d-dead.” “Shh,” he comforted. “It’s okay now. It’s all over.” He held her closer as hard
In an instant, the quiet whir of the stairs being extracted, and the door being sealed shut came to life. The whine of the jet engines sounded, and a dull vibration raced around the cabin. In less than another minute, they were off. Eliza was bent over Blakeney and worked feverishly on his severe injury. With his shirt off, the cut was on full display. It ran from the back of his left shoulder to the middle of his back in a diagonal slash. It was deep and the skin had folded back a bit. Blakeney’s jaw was clenched in order not to scream as Eliza finished cleaning the wound and dumped coagulant powder on it to stop the bleeding; his color had already faded slightly from the blood loss. He turned away to allow her room to work and pulled out his phone once again. Dialing a number from memory, he listened to the endless ringing. Finally… “State your name and business,” a nononsense male voice sounded through the speaker. “This is James Olympia… I need to speak with Director Masters.
As a warm, fatherly smile had spread across his face, he had said, “I never knew this side of you existed. I’m really proud of you, Eliza. You did a great thing… you saved a lot of lives today.” At this, Eliza had turned as red as a tomato and bit her lip shyly. From that point onward, the small feelings of guilt that had crept up on her due to killing an actual person—if that’s what you could consciously call someone like Kali—began to recede. They were slowly replaced with a sense of pride and accomplishment. And he didn’t even remind her of how she had run off after Kali on her own, doing the exact same thing she had chided him for so many times. He had just smiled supportively and held her close as the two of them withdrew to her room and crashed for almost the rest of the day.Even though James had wanted to declare Sunday a lounge day, Eliza wouldn’t have it. She had dragged him away from the TV that morning and into the library and proceeded to drill him in preparation for the
James dropped Eliza off at her room, then made his way across the school to his own dormitory. He walked his way down the hall, his room the destination, but as soon as he had passed the bathrooms, Ricky came bounding toward him.“Dude!” He shouted. “Where you been? I need you. Some freshmen challenged us to Call of Duty… four on four, custom match.” For the first time, Ricky seemed to spot his bags. “Throw your bags in the room and get Tres asap!” You know what? I could use the distraction, James figured. He knew before any big test, the best thing to do was to allow his mind to relax. Cramming never worked. If you didn’t know it by then, you never would, was his motto. “Alright. I’ll grab him.” “Hurry up, hurry up,” called Ricky as he jogged back down to the lounge. Still shaking his head, he stopped before his door and allowed Alexandra to scan his biometrics. The doorknob flashed green and the door popped open with a click of the lock being thrown back. “Whatever you’re doing
The rest of the exams passed without much fanfare. After having done so well on his math midterm, at least he thought so anyway--- results would be handed back on Friday afternoon---, his others seemed incredibly easy. Even English Lit. required much less effort than he had thought at first. Their last examination ended on Thursday morning and even though they were basically out for the holidays, all of the students had to stay until they received their test scores back. So as the teachers wiled away at their papers, they took the time to spend the remaining hours with their friends before heading home for a couple weeks. Mostly, they all just hung around the different lounges playing video games, watching movies, and flirting in the way typical high schoolers do. Outside not much of an option because a cold front had moved in and the temperature plunged into freezing territory. James smiled like a child in a candy store as the weather channel projected a massive snowstorm coming int
By the time everyone was packed and had managed to load everything in the trunk of Eliza’s Fiat, the sun had already sunk beneath the horizon and the darkness of night was fast approaching. He climbed into the passenger seat as Eliza started the engine and they pulled out of the parking lot. “Will you stop whining,” she snapped at Tres. Tres didn’t respond directly to her, just mumbled various complaints under his breath. He sighed, exasperated now. It had taken Eliza coming to their room and issuing copious amounts of threats to finally pull Tres away from his video game. “I’m right in the middle of a quest,” Tres had exclaimed. Eliza released a scream of frustration, then, “Just take your laptop and play it at my house. We need to leave…” She glared at him with eyes narrowed to slits. “Before midnight, preferably.” Still, Tres ignored her. “Just a second,” had been his mumbled response. The clicks of the game controller continued on fervently. “Fine… you leave me no choic
White Christmas trees that were chest-height and lit up brightly could be found on either side of the road every ten yards or so. They were like a beacon that followed them the entire drive. Even the security gate and stone fence were decorated: each gate had a wreath hanging on it and the walls seemed to have luminescent icicles hanging on them. “A little over-the-top?” James asked to no one in particular. “Yeah,” Eliza whispered. “Are you kidding me,” Matt burst out excitedly as the house came into view and they could see the Santa Clause display on the lawn, the elves, and all the colorful lights around the house itself. “It’s freakin’ awesome!” She tucked the car under the archway which led into the gravel courtyard and parked. Matt and Tres exploded from the back in order to take in the decorations a little better. James chuckled as he saw Eliza eyeing all of the lights warily. “I take it they never do this?” Eliza shook her head adamantly. “No. Never. Usually the in-side