Black Heart Inertia - 6. Chapter 6: Planning

Sometimes when I stared into the mirror, I would cry and curse my eyes. They knew something that I didn’t. They mocked me with their knowledge, with that damn glint. In them, I could see my reflection or the real me that refused to come out because what happened. I looked now, knowing a few of the secrets yet my eyes still gleamed and the true “me” unchanged.

“You know vanity is one of the seven deadly sins.” I smiled at the voice behind me. It was Nico in fitted jean, a V-neck sweater with a red shirt underneath that hugged his chest right. “But seeing your body, you have to right to be vain.”

I just turned and smiled, sheepishly at him. For the past three days that I’ve been back in Fall Oak, Nico has visited at times where I was wearing the least bit of clothing. Today, he caught me in nothing but trucks and my socks.

I looked back at my reflection, seeing my lying eyes and walked into my closest. “What brings you here today?”

He leaned on the closest doorframe and folded his arms. “Just checking on you.”

“Again,” I said with an eyebrow raised. “For the third day when I barely wearing any clothes?” He smirked and shrugged his shoulders. I grabbed some black shorts and a yellow tank top. “So, I’ll ask this again. What do you want?”

He moved faster than I expected, trapping me in a corner, grinning like a Cheshire cat. “What do “I” want? Hm, I want-.”

“That does not involve me, naked and spread eagle on your bed.” Even thought I would like that very much.

His shoulders slumped in defeat. “You just take the fun out of everything.”

I started to worry about people touching after I got back. My body temperature was around 84 degrees, if I concentrated but normally I was 72 degrees. I could make a boiling pot of water into the coldest water you’ve ever felt without turning it into ice.

I slipped in between his arm and the wall before our skins touched. I would be upset if people thought I was a vampire or something like that.

“Why are you here, Nico?” I had to soften my tone. “Not that I don’t appreciate you being here.”

“You got me.” He said putting his hands up in surrender. “After you turned in the article on Clark and the others, my boss wanted the exclusive on you.”

“Because you’re my good friend.” Nico wasn’t the only person that approached me for a story. My house had become a media swarm. The Colonel had to make a call to get them to leave me alone and here was my friend doing the same thing,

I laid my head down and brushed the hair out of my face. My hair was going faster than normal. I could pull into a decent ponytail now. It was in the awkward stage where it just looked weird. He plopped himself down next to me. I stared at his shiny dark eyes and his red lips. I felt myself chewing on my lip as I fantasized how his hands would feel on my skin, How he would kiss me, how our bodies would grind against each other and the moans we would make.

“So?”

I snapped myself out of my dream. “Huh?”

His face was serious, his eyes lost their funny glint and it was replaced by coldness. I felt my heart pick up, my breath became slightly labored, I felt like I was oddly naked in front of him.

“About the interview?”

“Uh, sure. What time?”

He gave me a half smile and the glint returned. “Tomorrow around 12 at Cafe World. I promise that I’ll behave.”

“Okay, I’ll go.”

He pulled me up with him. “Walk me out?” I followed him out the room. “Don’t you need your crutches?”

“No, I’m fine.” In truth, I had my heel healed. I couldn’t take the pain but I still had to play like I was hurt. I couldn’t swim or go to gymnastics but my coaches allowed me to be out for a few weeks. I doubted that I would be out of shape thanks to Wesley and his suicide exercises.

Before the bottom of the stairs, my dad walked in. He was home earlier than I would’ve expected, He looked up at us and smiled at Nico and waved him goodbye and I stayed on the stairs. When the door closed, so did the warm air in the house. I felt the ice Nexus wrap around me. Dad shivered and looked at me. I couldn’t help it even if I wanted to.

“I’m sorry.”

The words sparked my anger. “’Sorry’? That’s all you have to say?! “Sorry, Chance I lied about your entire life!” My life, the lies you spun to tell me about every scar. How mom died! How I lost my memory! All of it was a lie!”

“I did it to protect you! I already lost you mother. I didn’t want you going back for the sake of revenge!” He roared, shaking my resolve. “I couldn’t-can’t lose you again.” He grabbed me by the shoulders. He didn’t even shiver at my skin. “So, yes, if it took lying about everything to make sure you’re safe, then I’ll lie a thousand times.”

“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to intrude.” Blake said, peering from the front door.

I shrugged Dad off, “No, we have training to do. Come on.” I didn’t wait for Blake to crossover with me.

“Dr. Shatterheart.”

“Blake.”

* * *
Sam rested on the sofa, waiting to go back asleep but afraid. Her dreams were getting too confusing. They never stayed in a sequence or an order. Sometimes she couldn’t tell what was real when she finally woke up, but the dreams were so real but they couldn’t be real.

“Sam!” Kyle called. “Sam!”

“What?”

From her tone Kyle could tell she wasn’t in a good mood. “Uh, mom wants to talk to you in her office.”

She groaned and got up. Her mother was the event planner of Fall Oak. Any party, at any place, at anytime, it was her mother’s work. She worked for out of state client who flew here everywhere. And now, at the age of 44, Vanessa Coolidge was training her daughter to do the same.

Sam knocked and let herself in. “Kyle said you wanted me?”

Vanessa waved her and continued to speak into the phone. “Okay, well, it’s all set up. Have fun. Bye.” She said with an overzealous laugh. “God, people are annoying sometimes.” She smiled, waiting.

“Kyle said you wanted to talk to me?” She asked aggravated.

The thought dawned on her, “Oh, yes. Have you finished planning the Valentine’s Day party?”

“No, you never told me I was in charge of the party this year.”

Vanessa glared at her. “Did I say I was doing it? Huh?”

“No, but you usually tell me when you want me to do something.” She retorted.

Vanessa tried to ease her tone. “Sweetheart, you know the Valentine’s Party is our main event. That’s how we get clients. Besides, I have another event that requires me in Ann Harbor.”

“But you never told me I was doing it.” Sam was fuming. “Valentine’s is in two days, how am I supposed to get catering, a location, security, and valet. Oh, top of that, you what me to send an invitation to who?” Her mother wanted too much so fast. Invitations would take at least a week to go around.

Vanessa rose from her seat, not liking Sam’s excuse. “I don’t give a damn what you have to do but there better be a party. Get some minor celeb, and Shatterheart-.”

“You want me to use Chance?!”

Vanessa grinned. “Of course. Samantha, this is a business all the time. Why do you think I pushed you to be friends with him? He’s the town’s celeb. Son of famous doctor and heiress model, with his exotic looks, Balmier Lake, and the serial killer mom. This is the time to use him and whatever else you have to do to get the party perfect.”

Sam left without a word. She could hear Kyle trying to hold his breath around the corner. Vanessa had changed after their dad left them. Vanessa worked hard at a PR firm and made her own. Sam helped her with her brother but it forced her to grow up faster than normal. She pushed the past into the back her mind and dialed Chance.

“Hello?”All she heard was ragged breathing. “Hello, Chance?”

The heavy breathing continued. “Sammy?” The voice whined.

“Chance, are you okay?” She had already started to run to her car. “Where are you?”

“Sammy, calm down. I’m fine.” Chance said regaining his breath.

“Where are you?”

Chance hesitated, thinking of a lie. “At uh, a uh, you know, one of those self defense thingies. And the thing trying is kicking my ass.”

“Why are you doing this?”

“Because, after being kidnapped, Blake thought it would be a good idea.”

“Blake’s there with you? Why didn’t you call me?”

“I thought you were planning for the party.”

“You too?”

“What do you mean “You too”?”

Sam walked to her and got online. “Mom wants me to plan the Valentine’s party.”

“Plan? You mean you haven’t already done it?”

“No, none told me that I was supposed to plan it!”

“Okay, okay, let’s calm down. Alright, what do you have so far?”

“Nothing.” She snapped.

He winced. “Um, I think the Marriot’s hall is open.”

“The invitation?”

“Put it on Facebook, school website, and the newspaper, I mean that’s the fastest way besides calling people, to get people to come.” Chance was better at planning parties than she was. “Plus, you save on money. Decorations, decoration, oh you can-.” Sam heard the phone drop and Chance yell, “You bastard, how did you find me?!”

“Chance, what happened?”

“I swearing to God, if you break my phone, I will shove my foot so far up your ass, you’ll be chewing on Steven Madden for two weeks.” Someone else mumbled something and the phone went dead.

Sam dialed Blake, hoping he would be somewhere near Chance. “Blake? Blake?!”

“Yeah, what’s wrong?”

“Someone got Chance and I heard-.”

He cut her off. “Yeah, I’m looking at Chance being dragged back in the room.” He chuckled. “I never thought Chance could cuss so much.”

Sam smiled back. “Just don’t let Chance hear you say “cuss”. He says, “It’s "curse" not "cuss", you hillbillies.” She tried imitating his voice.

“I know; he’s given me a lecture on it already. So, do you need something?”

“Yeah, I have a Valentine’s party to plan and-.”

“You’re on the phone too.” Someone said on Blake’s side. “Give it up.”

“What? No, just give me a min-.” His phone went dead.

Sam sighed again. She couldn’t plan the party by herself. With Chance gone the only person she knew that would know how to throw a party was Nico Sky and how much did she hate Nico Sky.

* * *
She was shaking uncontrollably from the cold, dark, damp room. She was confused and hungry. Besides the pain in her body, the confusion in her mind, her stomach took precedence above all. She had never been this hungry in her life. She tried to get out but she couldn’t leave the dark room. She could smell the food on the other side of the door; she kicked and screamed at the door but all she could was someone snickering from the other side.

Now she was wasting away in the bed. She couldn’t escape. Was she the victim of a kidnapping? She remembered the party, the drugs, she and her boyfriend making out in the car. Someone stood next to them and shined a light on her, and then nothing. She stopped caring about how she got there; she just wanted to eat. She was so hungry. Why would they lock her in here with no food? All she needed was a little bit of food. Something to eat that would calm her stomach Crackers, juice, bread, water, cheese, something to stop the pain.

As if a miracle, she heard the door open and she bolted to it, slamming herself into the hard wood door. She looked for an opening to see a tall glass of thick red liquid. It had a heavy metallic smell to it. It smelled like heaven. She gripped the glass, staring in awe at the mysterious liquid. She drank greedily, her breath fogging up the glass. When the last drop hit her tongue, she murmured “Thank you.” Over and over until she fell asleep, content.

Mr. Xion opened the door and smiled at his new pet. “Sleep well my darling. You have a big job to do soon.”

* * *
Xion closed the cellar door and returned to his living room where Nico waited. He sat across from the young man. “I’m sorry, I had to feed her.”

“No, it’s quite alright.” Nico said.

Mrs. Xion put some drinks out and left, kissing her husband’s cheek. “Thank you, darling. Now, as you were saying.”

Nico nodded and took a sip of the beverage. “Yes, I wanted to talk to you about making Chance unleash the Black Heart.”

“Ah, you mean the child that killed Clark." He said with certain distaste. “What do you want me to do?”

“I would like for you to use your replicas to force him to use the Black Heart.”

“Why should I?”

“I heard your wife has been having some problems lately.” Nico smiled at Xion trying to mask his expression. “She’s been getting hungrier than a normal Class A replica, hasn’t she?” Xion kept his face neutral. “The Black Heart can fix her. Even make a make better one.”

“But I would lose so many.”

Nico shook his head. “The Heart can make new ones better, faster and easier than you have.”

“Allow me some time to think about it?”

“You have thirty seconds.” If as on cue, Nico’s phone rang. “Excuse me.” He walked outside to answer it. “Hello.”

“Hi, Nico, this is Samantha Valens.” She sounder irritated.

He smiled, “How can I help the beautiful Miss. Valens.”

She rolled her eyes. “Look, Nico I need some help.”

“With what?”

“I’m planning a Valentine’s Day party for my mom’s company and I need help a lot of it.”

“Will Chance be going?”

“He’s supposed to be helping me but he’s tied him right now but yeah, he’s going. Why?”

“No reason. I’ll be at your house with some help in 40 minutes.”

She sighed in relief. “Thank you so much, Nico.”

“I can’t say no to a pretty lady.”

“Yeah, bye.”

She hung up him and he returned to Xion. “Have you decided?”

“Fine, what’s our first move?”

“On Sunday, there will be a Valentine’s party held by Samantha Valens. Send the replica there and she’ll go after Chance herself.”

“Fine.”

* * *
“Can’t we take a break?” I was getting tired of running. We’ve been running for the pass 2 hours. It was supposedly our “down exercise”. Wesley was making me train with his unit. They were all lean, tall, and runners. I was a swimmer and a gymnast. Swimming made you light and lean. Gymnasts usually ranged from all sizes and we were a little bit thicker not that we’re fat or anything.

The guy next to me smiled, he wasn’t having a problem running constantly. He was ok looking, muddy brown hair and green eyes. “Boss, it’s not that bad.” He said to me.

“Stop calling me ‘Boss”.” I said each word separately so I could breathe. “Captain Dick for brains is the boss.”

The person just laughed and shook his head. “You used to be the boss.”

“Hm, well I’m not anymore. Can we stop yet?” My legs felt like noodles trying to hold up an elephant.

“It’s not as bad when you were in charge.”

I looked at in disbelief. “I was worst?”

“Yep, you used to make us hold back Sporite an inch away from our hearts.”

“What’s Sporite?”

“UH, it’s anti-life, it can kill anything.”

It was strange to hear about myself. This guy wasn’t the only one who told me about my sadistic ways. Blake told me what I used to throw fire at them to make them faster. I would torture the Acolytes to make sure they wouldn’t tell the enemy anything. I had to laugh at myself. I tortured kids to make sure they would never tell and I lose my memory one the first try. I felt weird as everyone stared at me while they rested I finished my last lap. The Prince of Hearts had been brought down to the level of a novice. I could barely active my powers on command.

I dropped to the ground when I finished. “Yes! I ‘m finished!” The ground felt so good against my flaming skin.

Wesley smirked and got up. “Alright, hit the showers.”

Everyone walked with ease to the showers I struggled to push myself up. “Except you, Shatterheart, I want 5 more pyramids.” Pyramids were something I only saw on a Marine Corps. You would run around a football field, or the size of one, do 10 crunches, sit ups, pushups, and 10 pull ups and do it all again but add 10 to everything each time.

“No.” I said sadly. My legs hurt too much.

“I said get up!”

I glared at him. “You can go fuck yourself with something hard and sandpapery.”

He smiled at my defiance. “Don’t make me make you.”

“I’d like to see you try.”

I knew I shouldn’t have said that. His hand was engulfed in black flames, “Boy, do I love revenge. Dominum!” He hit with one of those echo things. It didn’t hurt as bad when the Colonel used it. He looked at me as if something was wrong. “Dominum!” It hit hard, making everything blurry.

“Stop.” My head felt like it was going to split open.

He was getting angry. The spell wasn’t working properly. “Dominum!” It worked this time. My body painfully stood up. It moved by itself. “See, I made you.”

I tried to move but it didn’t respond. “Let me go.”

He moved closer, smiling with his perfect teeth. “Do you remember this?”

“Remember what?”

“Doing this to me. Do you remember?”

“No, I don’t.” How bad of a person was I? “Let me go.”

“Do you what you did me?” He sounded like he was about to break down. “All the things you did.”

I felt sick. “Look, I’m not the same person. You can’t do that to me.”

“Oh really. Let me tell you what you did me.”

* * *
Chance sat, anxiously waiting for Nico. He stared at his coffee as it just sat there. He didn’t know why he even ordered coffee in the first place. Since yesterday, he hadn’t been able to eat. He couldn’t understand himself. No, he couldn’t understand the Chance before Balmier. His sick ways of training and what he did Wesley. He understood why he hated him so much.

“What’s wrong?” Chance jumped. “Calm down.” It was Nico. “You okay?”

Chance let out a heavy sigh. “Just a few bad memories.”

“You okay with the interview.”

Chance forced a smile. “I wouldn’t be here if I wasn’t.”

Nico pulled out a pad. “I’ll start off with questions about your youth.”

Chance kept his face neutral. “Okay.” He said meekly.

“So, when and where were you born?”

“Uh.” His mind went blank.

“You don’t remember your birthday?”

“Sorry, I’m just a little scattered brain. I was born December 18, 1992 in New Orleans, Louisiana.” Nico was surprised; he didn’t have an accent. “Well, actually, I was born on a boat in French waters but my parents were still living in New Orleans so they went with that. But I hate boats.”

“Why?”

“All that swaying and moving, and noise, just not my thing.”

“SO what was your favorite toy growing up?”

“That I can’t tell you. You’ll have to ask Sam or Dad.”

“Why? Is it embarrassing?” Nico was smirking.

Chance looked at him confused. “No, I don’t know.”

“What do you mean?”

“No one told you?”

“Told me what?”

“Aren’t journalist supposed to research their subjects?”

“Yeah, but I couldn’t find anything on you.”

“Oh.” He thought of the Acolytes when Nico said that. “But, um. I lost my memory four or five years ago.”

Nico faked being shocked. “How?”

* * *
The planning for the party was finished all thanks to Nico. All she needed was a dress. She decided to run to Café World before going to the mall. She heard a familiar laugh and spotted Chance and Nico. Nico and Chance were doubled over laughing. They looked good together.

She walked over after ordering. “And I just fell off the stage, face first with ACDC make-up. You know the one with the star.”

“Hi, Chance.”

“Oh, hey Sam. I was just telling Nico the Volleyball story.” His ribs were hurting from the laughter. “So what are you doing here?”

She smiled, “Since, someone forgot to help me with planning; I’m going to get a new dress.”

Chance smacked himself. “Oh my God, I’m so sorry. Did you finish everything?”

She sat down. “Yeah, thanks to Nico.” Nico just smiled. “So, you’re coming right?”

“Yeah, of course.”

“Good." She heard the bartista call her number. "Oh, that’s my order.”

Nico reached across the table, his hand touching Chance’s hand. “I wanted to ask you one more question.”

Chance looked down then back up. “Yeah?”

“Would you go to the dance with me?”

His heart started beating faster and his palms became sweaty. “Uh.” Nico’s smile was infectious; he couldn’t help but say, “Yes.” His phone started ringing again. “Hold on. Blake?”

“Yeah, Chance, we have a problem.”

Chance signaled for a moment and walked outside. “What’s happened?”

“We have another replica.”