Night Hunt

It seemed to Kara that everything always had to happen at night, in the middle of it, in fact, and she barely got any sleep. Tonight, she and Mary were sneaking out to find the other person in the neighborhood who could reincarnate, a power that Kara discovered herself to have. The yellow lamplights on the deserted streets flickered every now and then, giving off an eerie vibe. Kara decided to diffuse some of her fear by asking Mary questions, which annoyed the latter.

"So if I can reincarnate all along, how come I only know about it now?" she asked, occasionally looking around the dark streets.

"It's different for everyone," Mary explained, walking boldly under the lamplights, "Sometimes you discover your powers only at a certain point in your cycle, but they've always been with you."

"I wonder who I was before I was Kara Beltran, then..."

"Hopefully not as annoying as who you are now," Mary quipped.

The light above them flickered shut, and there was nothing but silence.

"Mary...?"

When the lights turned back on, a figure stood a few blocks away, a blurred shadow that was fast approaching. Suddenly the figure was right in front of Mary, a crazed glee in his expression. The Cleaner. Before either Kara or Mary could speak, the Cleaner punched Mary in the gut, sending her reeling backwards.

"Mary!" Kara shouted.

"Now, you come with me!" the Cleaner shrieked. He dragged Kara by the arm, his grip tightened around her so that she couldn't break free.

"Not so fast!" Mary staggered back up, took out her blade, and charged at the Cleaner. He missed her by a hair's breadth, though in dodging the attack, he had to throw Kara at Mary. The two rolled down the street. Kara had barely recovered her wits when the Cleaner loomed above her again, and before she knew it, she was knocked out.

---

She remembered being twelve. Her father had gotten her a piggy bank for her birthday, to help her save.

Which Kara was this? She wondered. It could get so messy sometimes in her head, ever since she unlocked her reincarnated memories.

Now she watched herself walk towards the cake to blow the candle out. A few of the neighborhood kids had been invited, and they clapped dully around her. She wasn't happy. She would never be--

Suddenly, she was twelve again. They went to an amusement park for her birthday, to reward her for being a top student.

Now she could see the contrast between the two Kara's lives. Certainly one of them had lived a better life than the other, and maybe that Kara with a better life was better off not having known her past.

That young Kara was so happy. She watched herself grow up in both lives, and figured that she would choose to live Kara Rey's life instead, if things would just go back to normal. If things would just go back--

---

Kara was rudely pulled out of unconsciousness. She was falling through another of Mary's portals, but Mary was nowhere to be found. She landed with a soft thud on the Land of the In-Between's grassland.

There were others with her. A young woman with a tiger's head, who immediately shape shifted back to her human form, and a girl sharpening her ivory blade. Kara looked around. Mary was still not there.

"Excuse me?" Kara ventured. The young woman and the girl looked at her as if impatiently waiting for her to say something next. "Where--where's Mary? Mary Rafael? Short, round-faced, scrunchie?"

The girl pointed up, and Kara followed her gaze. There was nothing above them but the giant moon.

"She's back up there, in the other world. Go through the altar," the girl motioned to the altar with the stone angels which Mary had used before to transport her back home.

"Just--just through? No slashing?" Kara asked reluctantly. The girl nodded. Following her advice, Kara charged at full speed through the space between the stone angels, and skidded against the rough pavement of her neighborhood street.

She could see Mary battling the Cleaner in the distance, their blades clashing against each other. Kara thought to run up to Mary to help her, but she realized she would only be a deadweight. She needed her own weapon...of course!

Kara began to run the other way, back to her house. She went up the stairs to her room, knowing full well Roselle always slept too soundly at night. Kara searched her drawers...where was it again? She felt its cold hilt touch her fingertips, and she knew it was what she was looking for. 

Kara held the ivory blade to her night light. She went out through the window, and ran back to where Mary and the Cleaner were fighting it out.

"What the hell are you doing here?" Mary asked her loudly, dodging the Cleaner's attack. Kara jumped back to a safe distance, realizing she had no idea how to use the blade.

"I was going to help you!"

"I sent you away to help you!"

With a swift blow to the side, the Cleaner knocked Mary out again. He walked towards Kara.

"You make my job so much easier," the Cleaner said, grinning through his bleeding gums.

"Don't move any closer, or I'll--I'll--"

The Cleaner knocked the blade out of Kara's hands as quickly as if she had never held it at all. She was going to die, she realized, as the Cleaner raised his scythe to tear through her body.

She was going to die again. Then the happy twelve-year-old who went to the amusement park came back to her. That life that she had always wanted, making things up to Roselle--would she give up now?

Mary ducked and rolled to her side as the scythe missed. She grabbed her blade and took a stance.

"Oh please," the Cleaner laughed, "You don't even know how to use that thing."

"No," Kara said, "But I know how to do this." She quickly turned back and began to run as fast as she could to the nearest house. She pounded on the doors and screamed for help. She remembered Mary saying that the Cleaners would never dare cause a fuss in front of "normal" people.

"Stop that!" the Cleaner said angrily, charging towards her, but someone had opened the door to where Kara was standing, and they saw him.

Suddenly the whole street was awake. The barking of dogs having woken in the night could be heard. Someone was calling the cops. The Cleaner looked around helplessly, then ran back to a sliver of darkness before disappearing.

Kara ran back to the wounded Mary. "Are you girls okay?" One concerned neighbor asked them. "What was that?" others were heard saying.

"You okay?" Kara asked Mary worriedly. She was also afraid that this was something she shouldn't have done, but it was all she could think of to do at that moment.

"Thanks," was all Mary could say. Kara smiled at her. She felt like she earned that.

---

In the morning, the Cleaner was nowhere to be found on campus. During lunch break, Kara and Mary sat by the school rooftop, resting. Somehow there were too many curious stares at the cafeteria. They were an unlikely pair, after all. The school's popular girl and its outcast, hanging out together?

"Where do you think the other reincarnator is hiding?" Kara asked.

"Reincarnator?" Mary laughed.

"Well, what do you call people like you and me?"

"I don't know. We don't put labels on things like that. Maybe magical people will do."

"Okay. Where do you think the other magical person is hiding?"

"I don't think they're hiding," Mary said, "I think they just...don't want to be found." There was something sad in her tone, and Kara looked in her direction to check if she was okay.

"Something wrong?" Kara asked.

"It's just that, people like us, we just want to live like everybody else, don't we? We didn't choose to be born this way, and yet we are. I mean, if it were me, I wouldn't want a stranger come up to me, no matter how similar our experiences are, and tell me to leave my happy life behind."

Kara remembered her memories of her two lives, and somehow understood what Mary meant. Their conversation was interrupted when the rooftop door opened and Will came through.

"There you are!" he sounded relieved to see Kara, but when he saw Mary he doubled back.

"Kara..." he slowly began, "Is there something you're not telling me?"

"Oh, Will," Kara laughed. He was being his usual silly self, she thought. But before Kara could come any closer, something slashed the space between her and Will.

"Well, well," a familiar voice said. The Cleaner looked on angrily at the three of them. Mary immediately brought out her blade, and so did Kara, who had learned from last night's fight. A confused and bewildered Will stood where he was.

"You wouldn't do anything with him around, would you?" Kara pointed at Will, who looked even more confused."M-me?" Will stammered.

"We're way past the niceties, ladies," the Cleaner growled. He ran towards them, clutching his scythe by his side. Mary immediately blocked the blow with her blade. "Get Will out of here!" she shouted at Kara.

"Will, you have to go. This isn't your fight," Kara said, trying to coax Will back down the stairs. Before she could finish, the Cleaner pulled her hair and threw her to the side.

"Oh, I love casualties," the Cleaner said, aiming for Will.