Black Heart Inertia - 8. Chapter 8: Justice and Mercy

* * *
Wesley sat up abruptly and dazed from the sudden and loud sound emitted from his phone. He glanced over to the body under blankets next to him, with a steady rhythm of his breath. He stood up gently trying not to wake the boy that still naked after their recent round of sex. He looked at the phone in disgust and shock that Blake Valens had called his phone.

Curiosity made him pick up the phone. “What?” He snarled softly.

“We found and killed the replica but the body hasn’t disappeared.”

“Have Chance get rid of it.” He said.

Blake shivered hard, glancing at Chance whose lips had begun to turn blue and his tears became ice. “Chance isn’t well, mentally.”

Blake’s words made memories well up in him but he pushed them back down. “Fine, I’m coming.” He hung up the phone, looking back to the now awake Acolyte in his bed.

His bedmate pulled himself up, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes. “What’s wrong?’

Wesley looked at him for a minute. If everyone had walked in on them, they would’ve thought Wesley was fucking Chance. The same white hair, glacier eyes, smooth brown skin, and the baritone voice, but he wasn’t Chance, not his Chance. His eyes were too light, the skin had a few blemishes, the voice cracked, and the white hair gave away to silver at certain points.

He felt himself suddenly enraged by the doppelganger. “Change yourself back.” He spat, throwing the boy’s clothes to him.

Fake Chance rolled his eyes and the Nexus covered him like a phantom mist. His skin sagged to allow his bones to shrink and thicken, his hair dulled and retreated until it was black, the skin tone lightened, and his face became sharper, more regal. The boy that now lay in Wesley’s bed was far better looking than Chance was but he still paled against the boy.

He looked at Wesley’s phone with white-hot rage and said, “It’s him, isn’t it?”

Wesley sighed when he pulled the t-shirt over his taut body. He knew Sean would have a hissy fit.

“There’s been an incident.”

“Don’t go, send someone else.” Sean said.

Wesley turned sharply at him, bringing his hand soundly against Sean’s face. “You don’t tell me what I can do.”

Sean tasted blood in his mouth but ignored it. Ever since Chance left, the Acolytes Wesley turned to him and begged him to help him forget all about Chance, now he always made him take Chance’s form before he even got hard.

Wesley stayed silent and approached the barren wall, gathering the Nexus in his palms as he touched the cold steel surface. He sent his will through the Nexus, the wall groaned, and a fissure between his room and the rainy alleyway appeared.

He looked out in the darkness to see a daunting light flickering down the way. “Tatiana, cover me.” He said to the Water Heart. The raindrops forced themselves to avoid their master.

He walked down the alley, arming himself with heavy magic. As he got close he heard crying, Chance’s cries. He couldn’t help but to race down the alleyway, coming to a down halt when he stumbled upon Chance and Blake. Blake’s skin had taken a heavy blue tint and heavy tremor rocked his body trying to maintain some type of warmth. He looked to Chance to see his glyph arm alit with the whole crest of the Diamond Heart. The rain around them had become like sharp hail, cutting Blake in several places but they danced away from Chance.

Wesley approached Chance carefully, feeling the cold Nexus creepy up his jeans with a certain predatorily glance. “Cover them.” There was a slight struggle in the Nexus between the Cerulean and Diamond Heart but Wesley added more will and the rain dodged them. “Where’s the body?”

Blake raised a shaking hand to the wall of the alley smeared with most of the blood but the body itself had been claimed by ice in a way of preservation. The ice had tried to reassemble the body but it was too difficult to tell what went where. Wesley called on the fire Nexus but a sharp coldness all but slammed into his body. He gripped Chance’s glyph arm gently, biting his own finger ‘til blood welled and drew another symbol on top.

“Seal.” The bright light flickered and the coldness of the alley rushed back into Chance and Chance went limp. “Take him home.” He said to Blake as the color came back to his body. “He doesn’t need to see this.”

After they left, he turned back to the body, his hands glowing with rouge light. “You, replica, have been found guilty of the imitation of life and the harm done to your original.” He brought his hands to his lips and murmured, “Flamma Batillus Incandesco.” He clasped his hands and a fire cocoon covered the remains, turning everything into ash.

* * *
Sam stood behind the curtain on the stage, peeking out to look for Chance or Blake. No one had seen either Blake or Chance and it was almost time to deliver the company speech. She was nervous as hell and ruining her hundred-dollar manicure that the lady forced on her.

“Miss. Coolidge, we’re ready for you.” The stage manager said.

Sam sighed, closed her eyes, and tried to straighten her dress. She looked at the crowd, their eyes set on her, and she sighed, wishing she knew where Chance was. Suddenly she felt herself being sent out with her breath streaking across the dance floor and to the rainy outside. She gasped at the sight of the limp Chance in Blake’s arms and someone else in the shadow of the building. Then the world began to spin as she found herself on the stage, bowing slight to the applauding crowd. She struggled not to lose her balance at the alien feel of her body.

She walked off stage and back on the dance floor as people still congratulated her. She would find out later what she did but she needed to know if what she was an illusion or if Chance was hurt. She dashed down the alley gracefully in her heels and could only smell the faintness of smoke. Sadness covered her briefly before she shook it off.

“I’m just seeing things.” She said to herself and walked back to the entrance to see Blake driving off with the unconscious Chance and another guy. “What the fuck?”

* * *
Nico watched Sam from the roof of the other building next to the hotel. He had been there for the whole exchange between Chance and the replica. His powers were improving but only in Ice, which didn’t help his mission. He would have to send more next time, but there was going to be a small problem if Samantha decided to press the issue.

He jumped down with inhuman grace and caught Sam by the arm with his hypnotic glaze at full power. “You will not remember walking down this alley or seeing Blake, Chance, and the other boy. You never walked down this alley. Chance was never here, he was sick the entire night.” She repeated his words and he sent her back inside.

* * *
I stood inside the Tower of Ice again, unnoticed by the other people in this memory. The teenager and the woman were at the base of the high altar, unconscious. The giant ice sphere blazed on, as the shadow of the teen pulled itself up like a wounded animal. Tendrils came out the shadow, striking the globe over and over until it shattered the ice, but it underestimated the being inside. At first, it was being pulled slowly in by the creature, the shadow was able to keep its ground, but the sphere doubled its efforts and the shadow flew into the globe, corrupting the beautiful almost blinding white light.

The sable color of the shadow started to spread through the whole tower, making it seem as black marble. I backed away but it was no use, the floor was being consumed by the shadow then it stopped. I stood on the untainted ice, but I was trapped by the sea of black ice.

“Beautiful, isn’t it?” A voice came from the top of the altar. The shadow had taken a solid human shadow form, its red eyes still making my heartbeat faster than I thought it was able to. Chains still bound the shadow but they barely rustled against each other as it jumped across the tower and landed a few feet away from me.

I took a defensive stance, calling the Nexus into my hand but nothing came. “What are you doing here?” I asked, trying to make myself sound tough.

The shadow cocked its head to the side, curious glance at my Nexus arm. “You think of me as an enemy?”

“No, just evil.”

The shadow folded its arms; aggravated by my words. “Do really think me as evil? On the other hand, is it because the Colonel says I am as evil? It’s the second one, right?” He answered for me. “If you remember correctly, she said “The Black Heart is the heart of all bad magic, or should I say, all things that we deem wrong.”” He just looked at me with his demon eyes. I wanted to run so bad but I was stuck. “Humans always trying to see good and evil in a world of lesser evils.”

My nerves were starting to get the better of me. “Why are you here?”

He gestured to the scenery around us, “I have always been here. I have always existed in this part of you. You finally have taken notice of me.”

The position I was in was starting to hurt a little but I couldn’t relax with him around. “No, why are you here talking to me?”

He stepped forward slowly, allowing me to see that he had no tricks up his sleeve. “I am here to fulfill our pact.”

“What pact?”

He motioned to the scene around and it shimmered into complete darkness. I started to panic almost immediately, searching for some form of light or his red eyes but nothing. A light flickered in the distance and voices murmured in the dark. I couldn’t help but run to the light but I kept looking for the red eyes.

I finally reached the light to see a younger version of myself. I turned to see what the younger me was looking at. It was a giant tree with even bigger roots. Younger me gasped at something and I started to look for what startled him. In the middle of the great tree was a man who body was being slowly eaten by the tree. His hands and feet had turned black with their flesh ripped open and roots beginning to crawl into his body, showing the bones, sinew, and muscle.

Younger me stepped forward and said, “Awaken Obsidian Heart.”

I didn’t notice the branch on the man’s head that stabbed deep into his face allowing the tree to speak. “Why have you called upon me?”

“I seek a pact with thee.”

“I am already in a pact with the fool you see before you.” The tree said back through the man.

“I ask that thee to annul thy pact with him and establish a new pact with me.”

The man laughed painfully as the tree rooted more vines through the body. The man looked directly at the younger me, his eyes as red as blood. My younger self looked him directly in the eye. Something was happening between them, something divine and damning all at the same time.

The man broke the connection first and a dark smile stretched his haggard face. “So naïve, so much hate in your heart for no reason. For my power, I shall give my power if you try to see the truth of my power.”

Younger me furrowed his brows, not understanding what the man meant. “I accept.”

The tree suddenly allowed the man to fall and the roots to claim him completely. The tree groaned as a dark orb was wretched from its bark and descended into my body. For moment, my eyes were completely black.

“This is our pact.” He whispered into my ear. “You shall try to see the truth of my power; in return I shall help you with yours.” I turned to face him, and he outstretched his right hand. “Do you wish to seal our pact; to finish what you started?” Black flames rose from his palm like Wesley and Kyra’s.

I wanted to run but I was stuck with my own curiosity of the truth. “Yes.” I gave him my left hand and the dark flames lanced through my arm in excruciating pain. Why does it burn?

“Even knowledge causes pain.”

I jumped awake and hands were on me down instantly. I started kicking and screaming. My arm was still on fire, it burned. God, it burned so bad. I looked over to see the flames growing bigger, burning more of my bright shining flesh. I forgot about the pain for a moment to look at the new world around me.

Everything was bright, white and glowing. I looked to the men who held me down. One was Blake, his blonde hair almost blazing like the sun. He was fully dressed in beautiful silvery armor with the crest of the Acolytes.

I was amazed by his angelic light until I saw the other thing in the room. It was twisted with blackened skin and raw flesh with barbed wires running through the body. Parts of its sides were rotting away. My nose and eyes burned at the smell of that abomination. I screamed again, louder until my throat was raw and screamed more. It started come towards me.

I reached out to the Ice but it refused. The fire finally died away leaving my left arm untouched but a gauntlet wrapped in chains covered my fist. I sent the chains at the monster running through the corrupt body. The chains slithered slowly through the body, wrapping itself around it like a boa constrictor.

Blake started to say something but I couldn’t hear him. I couldn’t hear anything. “Now is not the time to See the Truth.” The Black Heart voiced.

Fatigue washed over me, the bright white world toned down until I could see my room again. Blake’s hair stopped blowing through the ghost wind and his suit of armor faded away to leave his plain clothes. The room begun to spin wildly, my body slumped back into something soft and I closed my eyes.

* * *
“Why hasn’t he woken up yet?’ Blake sat on the edge of Chance’s bed. Chance looked dead. His face completely solemn with his hands folded across his abdomen. The shocking alabaster hair had dulled almost to a gray and the black streaks had spread. Wesley’s seal still pulsing on his right hand.

Wesley looked at the body then Blake. “My seal isn’t temporary. I have to take it off.” He climbed in the bed, straddling Chance’s hips. “Be ready, his powers are going to flare out when he awakes up.”

Wesley redrew over the seal, willing it to open. Chance sprung forward, screaming and fighting and threw Wesley off with unknown strength. Blake used Nexus created strength to control Chance. Chance’s hair colors reversed, the black became dominate and the white recessed along with his eyes.

His screams and kicks slowed then stopped as he began to look around. He was enchanted by something. His gaze stopped at Blake. His glacier iris was now the pupil and vice versa.

Blake turned to see if Wesley recovered. “Something’s wrong. I think the Black Heart is loose!”

Wesley moved faster, summoning another seal. Chance snapped his head towards him and screamed in bloody murder. He raised a shaky hand at Wesley and chains erupted from his palm. The tips of the chains were knife head, slicing through Wesley easily, pushing him off the ground. The chains tightened around him.

“Chance, stop! Stop it! Wake up!” The boy jerked back to Blake, his eyes inverting themselves. Chance relaxed back into his bed with sudden sound of the chains slithering back to their master’s hand and faded into nothing.

* * *
“Shirley?” A soft voice called from beyond her door. “Are you okay?” Her little sister asked, poking her head through the door. Shirley mumbled something underneath her covers. Rebecca tiptoed over to her sister’s bed, picking up the sheet slowly enough to peak under.

Shirley squinted at the sudden light that entered her sanctuary. “What, Becca?” She said, tiredly. Her eyes were sunken and her face completely pale.

Rebecca frowned at her older sister’s tone. “Dad said you better not be playing like your sick because he says you’re still going to school.”

Shirley tried to push herself up but her bones ached as if someone took hammers to her joints. “Tell Dad, I’m not going.”

Shirley heard Rebecca running out of her room. She didn’t remember the last time she felt this bad. Even when she broke her collarbone. She barely remembered when she started feeling bad.

A week ago, at that party. She thought to herself.

She and Greg had gone to some rave in the industrial district of Fall Oak. It was so perfect, the music, the lights, the drugs. The drugs were the best, so many effects, each one sending her higher than the one before. The whole night was perfect except for Greg.

Greg was just so annoying that day. He was upset about his cousin dying. She wasn’t mad that he was upset, except for the fact he kept bringing her high down. Originally, she said she wasn’t going to go but Greg was so adamant about the thing she went. He didn’t do anything but sulk in a corner until that old guy came. She watched them talk from the dance floor. Greg pointed to her and the man smiled. After that, everything was just a blur of lights.

Heavy footstep entered her room. Her dad ripped the blankets off her to see she was still dressed in her work uniform. “Shirley, are you alright?” He stared at his daughter as she shook lightly. She was feverishly hot and she was covered in bruises. “Who did this to you?” He roared.

She twisted her aching body to face him. “I don’t know.”

Her father drew her up in his arms. “We’re going to the hospital. Rebecca, call your mother and tell her to meet us at the hospital.” Another bone cracked and she let out a breathless scream as something crawled under her skin. “What the hell is that?”

* * *
I woke up again with in my room, alone. The image of that thing flared across my mind, in perfect detail as if I was looking at it again. I screamed before I remembered it was a memory. It was so vivid. So real.

“What was that?” I asked myself.

“That was your Sight and you saw the Truth.” I didn’t even flinch when I heard the Black Heart’s voice in my head.

“My Sight?” The light in my room ebbed and the shadows grew long. The Black Heart appeared in the corner in the biggest shadow. “How?”

The shadow smiled with white teeth. “I’m only an illusion. I thought it would be better for you to actually see instead of just listening.”

I just went with it. There were too many things going on for me to question only one thing. “So you were saying before you manifested in my room?” I said dryly.

The shadow nodded. “All Acolytes, or rather, all people who have been graced by the Nexus in an Acolytes capacity, can see the Truth. The Truth,” He went into explanation before I could ask it “Is the world of Nexus flow. You can see how people use the Nexus. You can tell what power they use, how they abuse it or serve it. It is a very powerful tool but it comes at a cost.”

The abomination appeared next to me and I screamed sending a Frosted Gale at it only for ice to cover my walls. The shadow stepped over to the memory, “This is the cost. Whatever you see stays with you forever, fresh. The memory does not fade, or dull, or is never forgotten, only pushed back into the depth of your mind. The only way to stop the memory from scaring you every time you see it is to show it to yourself over and over and over until there is no reaction. With a wave of his hand, the memory simply turned to dust.

“If you use your Sight too much, you will go crazy. It is a great tool but don’t use it unless you are about to die because you will become dependent. The Truth is always dangerous.”

“Wait, our pact is based on the Truth. If I use my Sight-.”

“No, I meant truth as in why I use my powers the way I do. You already See my True form like you saw Blake’s.” The memory of the Acolyte Crusader in Blazing Glory. “Yes, he is a good person. The question is, is he good or just naïve?”

“Blake’s a good person.” I defended him.

The shadow titled his head to the side in a smirking way. “Are you sure? You barely know him.”

“Look, I don’t need this right now. I have things to worry about.” I snorted. “I need to,” I glanced at the clock, “go to school.”

He followed me into the bathroom. “What about the Original?”

The memory of Shirley’s, I mean the replica’s death hit my like a physical blow, making me grab the countertop to steady myself. “Yes, that’s why I’m going to school. She’s in my chemistry class.”

“You should hurry; you don’t know what effect she’s suffering from a Class C replication.”

I squinted my eyes at him, “How did you know she was a C Class replica?” He just stared at me. Oh, right he’s the Black Heart. “Why did you make replicas?”

“That is a discussion for another time.”

I got to school a little after 12 so I made it in time for lunch. I saw Nico looking at me as I walked into the cafeteria. He got out of the line and walked over to me. God, he looked so good. He wore royal blue deep V-neck long sleeve cotton showing his tan skin. It was something about the way he walked. The slow steps set to some erotic beat that made him walk with such fluid movements in his almost too tight green pants. Every head turned to watch him meet me the half way of the cafeteria.

My heart started beating harder the closer he got. “Hey, Nico.”

He gave me a small smile, putting his hand on my arm. “Are you feeling better?”

What was he talking about? Oh, the dance. “Yeah,” I lied. “I don’t what happened, I just got sick.”

“Maybe it was all the drinks and the dancing.”

I almost opened my mouth to say that I didn’t drink any alcohol but I rather not mess up Blake’s lie.

“Yeah, I’ll listen to you next time.”

“Really?” he smirked. “Come on, I’ll buy you lunch.” He pulled me to the lunch line.

“Thanks.” I said, scanning the cafeteria for Shirley. She usually hung out with the heavy stoners. I didn’t see her. “Hey, have you seen Shirley by any chance?”

Nico turned around looking over the cafeteria like I did before. “You mean Shirley Price?” He looked again. “No, can’t say I have, why?”

Damn, um….lie! I need a believable lie. “She’s tutoring; I mean I’m tutoring her today after school.”

His eyebrows furrowed and he pursed his lips to the side. “No, I didn’t see her today, but her boyfriend is, uh. Over there.” He point back over to the stoner table to this Asian kid with strawberry red hair. He looked sad to be honest.

Nico pulled me away from my curiosity to the lunch line. Nico ordered all of my favorite food, which was a bit creepy, but I had to remind myself of the fact that the school always cooked the same thing on certain days so it wasn’t that difficult to guess what I would buy. Sam smiled the whole time, giggling to herself.

“What’s so funny?” I snuck next to her, stealing a fry.

She turned to me, biting her lips; hard like something so funny was about to happen it was going to kill her. “Nothing.” She snickered.

Nico pulled me away with his warm hands. “Come on.”

We passed by our normal table with Sam almost breaking her teeth smiling so hard. Nico brought me to the outside tables. The sun shined brightly today and with the snow gone, leaving nothing but the healthy green grass. Everything seemed simple and clean.

I took a seat across from Nico, realizing that no one else was out here. “Nico, is this a date?”

He wiggled his eyebrows cutely, “Think of it as a mini-date.”

I half smiled, “I’ve never heard of a “mini-date” before.”

Nico smiled and leaned back to relax his shoulders, making the muscles in his chest move in a subtle way under his royal blue shirt.

As we talked I started to realize that I had mistook Nico as being just this raw lust when it was actually just a cool sense of confidence and his strong opinions. He was a lax person when you talked to him alone. His smile died down from Hollywood smile to the shy half smile. His jokes were simple with a bit of sarcasm to make them stick. I loved his laugh, so I don’t know how to describe it. It made you want to laugh softly at its sound.

Nico stopped talking and stared at me. “What?” I said, automatically wiping my face.

He pulled my hand away from my face, holding it gently. “You were just staring at me; I thought I would return the favor.”

I felt my face flush, thank God, I’m black. “Sorry.” I said, wiping my hair from my face.

“It’s okay, really. I rather have you staring at me than you staring at some other guy.” He said honestly.

The heat of Nico’s hand began to creep slowly up my arm, leaving goose bumps in its tracks. The heat like hands caressed my chest sending buzzing sensation through me. The more I tried to keep my composure the heavier, the hotter, the cloudier my thoughts got, except my thoughts of Nico. I thought of his lips crushed against my own, how his hands would feel would feel on my body.

He brought me out of my lust-filled thoughts with dark luminous eyes so close to me so fast. I looked back and forth between his lips and eyes that kept getting closer. I think I said something but I don’t know, I don’t give a flying fuck what I said, I just wanted for him to touch me, to kiss me.

Our lips met, soft and gently. We were both afraid the kiss would break the other if we pushed too hard. I pulled away, trying to hide the fear across my face when he pulled me back strongly. His lips were soft and unyielding, sending an electric charge through my body. I wrapped my arms around his neck as I felt his tongue flick against my bottom lip, asking me for entry. I would allow it and I felt like I was going to burst. His tongue sucked softly on mine, not over powering me and let me search his mouth. The phantom heat was getting greater; his hands slipped up my shirt a bit. His kiss was like white lightning, a flash that spread, spread again, and stayed. My God, he was intoxicating.

* * *
Sam smiled at Nico and Chance kissing furiously. She could almost feel the ecstasy that rolled from Chance as the kiss became darker. She turned back to Blake and his strange colored eyes. She wished he had an interest in her. She wished someone had an interest in her. She thought Sebastian would be but Chance ruined it. No, she can’t say he ruined anything. He didn’t know any better, he didn’t remember that she liked Sebastian.

“Hey,” Blake tapped on the table to get her attention.

She glanced up, “Huh?”

Blake lifted her chin, carefully. “What’s wrong? You look like someone stole you dog.”

She chuckled a bit, “Just depressed. My little Chance is all grown up.”

Blake looked outside; Nico had finally removed his lips from Chance’s. They panted slightly, close enough to breathe for the other. Their eyes locked as though they were trying to see some profound truth. Blake considered it as nothing but lust, that would eventually die away, and the way Nico was it wouldn’t last for very long. He went through five boyfriends in the short time he had been there.

Blake rolled his eyes in mild disgust, “I doubt it’ll last.”

Sam stretched across the table and slapped Blake on the arm. “Don’t say that!”

Blake rubbed the red angry mark, “Sorry, I just don’t think Nico is a good match for Chance.”

Sam didn’t see anything particularly wrong with Nico. “Why?”

Blake looked at her with a gaped mouth. “He’s a whore.” He winced at the volume of his voice. “Do you know how many “boyfriends” that kid has had?”

Sam scoffed at him, “Its high school, just about everyone’s a whore.”

“So you want Chance to become a whore?” he retorted.

“I didn’t say that. I just meant he needs someone else in his life that he can depend on.” In truth, Sam was tired of taking care of Chance. She loved him but he wasn’t going to give her what she wanted and she was annoyed that everyone was so up in arms behind Chance.

Blake said nothing as he watched the emotion play across Sam’s face but one he recognized immediately, Loneliness.

* * *
Greg Nguyen sat impossibly sober with his thoughts of his cousin Terry, her coming back to life. He gave Xion all he had to bring her back to life, including Shirley. He didn’t understand why Xion wanted Shirley so bad but if that were the price to pay for Terry, he would do it happily.

He loved and treated Terry like his own daughter. He brought her everywhere when he wasn’t high or working. Terry was a sickly girl because her parents were both addicts, making Terry have an undeveloped stomach. Greg’s parents spent all their money for the surgery to give her a plastic stomach but it still wasn’t enough. Her immune system was all but nonexistent, a cold would put her in the hospital for weeks, so to help pay the bills, Greg got a job but it was worth it to see Terry happy and playing.

“Greg Nguyen, please report to the principal’s office.” Was sounded over the PA system.

His stomach lurched when it was repeated twice. Every scenario went through his head: did Shirley remember what happened, did Xion come to the school to deliver Terry, did Shirley die, or did someone figure out what he did? So many things could be waiting for him.

He was already at the door and knocked. “Come in.”

He gripped the door handle with a shaky hand and opened the door. “Sir, you call-.” His eyes darted to the two police officers with deadly glares in their eyes. “What’s going on?”

One reached for his handcuffs, “You, Greg Nguyen, are under arrest-.” He rattled before Greg made it out of the office.

The sound of the cops’ shoes pounding the floors behind him sent Greg into an Olympic run for freedom. He came to a screaming halt when he saw two police covering the east exit. He picked himself up again, running back to the cafeteria. They were so far behind him, he was going to make, and he was going to make it.

When he reached outside, a surprised gasp and a cold blast of air greeted him and suddenly his legs were in the air and he fell back to the earth. He was bewildered on how he was caught; he searched frantically until he settled on the glacier eyes.

The cops arrived a few breaths later, hauling him up. “Thanks a lot, kids.” They congratulated Nico and Chance.

Chance’s voice full of panic asked, “What’s going on? Why are you arresting him?”

“We’re arresting him for Aggravated Assault of the first degree.”

Nico did a double take, “Who did he attack?”

“Shirley Price,” The name automatically reminded them. “I never saw anyone beat that bad. She’s got broken bones all over.”

It dawned on Nico what Shirley was about to become. “I saw her last night, she was fine.” He needed Chance to get there before it was too late.

The cop called over the detective, “Do you mind coming down to the station with us to make a statement?”

“No, not at all.” He turned back to Chance, kissing him lightly. “Sorry, we had to cut this short.”

Chance nodded only half-paying attention to him and Greg being carried off. “It’s fine.”

Nico leaned in closer, whispering into his ear, “You should find Shirley. This would make a great article.”

He nodded, taking the bait, “Excuse me, officer, do you know where Shirley is?”

“She’s at St. Anthony Central in Denver.”

* * *
Nico allowed a little of himself in the kiss just from pure curiosity. Chance’s lips were soft, firm, and scared. Chance pushed him back, fear of the chicken sandwich on his breath. He chuckled to himself on the inside, he loved virgins. He pulled Chance back into the kiss, harder this time.

Nico pulled himself away mentally; he could sense the Black Heart fully awake inside of a deeper part of Chance’s mind but heavily guarded. Now, he only had to force the boy to embrace the Black Heart and Nico would enthrall him. His mission would be over and he could rest.

He returned to the kiss, Chance’s eager mouth sucking at his tongue. He pulled himself away and raced across the table to get at him at a better angle. He slid his hand under Chance’s shirt, feeling the tight stomach, leaving goose bumps on the skin. His Hunger was coming out, drugging Chance into sheer ecstasy. Chance tasted divine. He never ate from a Nexus Heart. Such power that was welled inside him.

He ripped himself away before it got out of hand. He was completely hard and dripping in his jeans and he felt Chance’s raging. He looked in Chance’s eyes to see the sable of his pupils had corrupted the iris.

Chance smiled and sighed. “Wow.”

Nostalgia claimed Nico with full force; his mind was spinning wildly as he ached to rejoin their lips, to push their bodies back together. ““This sets my heart to fluttering in my breast, for when I look on you a moment, then can I speak no more, but my tongue falls silent, and once a delicate flame courses beneath my skin, and with my eyes I see nothing, and my ears hum, and a cold sweat bathes me, and trembling seizes me all over, and I am paler than grass and I feel near to death.”-Sappho.”

* * *
I only thought of Nico’s words when he left me to go to the police station. I could only remember a few words of the poem, but the look in his eyes was so penetrating. Why did he say those things to me? Was the kiss that good to him? I mean, it was basically my first real kiss. It was perfect really. Not too strong, definitely not too gently, the way he held me. I can still feel his hands on my face.

“Hey,” Sam ruined my memory. “What happened?”

I glanced back to Greg being put into the police car. “Greg has been arrested for beating Shirley.”

She made a confused face. “Shirley Price?” She asked with disbelief. “I never thought Greg was that type of person.”

“You knew him?” I never knew who Sam’s friends were outside of Sebastian, Blake, Nico, the others, and me. Sam’s not introverted but she doesn’t exactly go around making friends but that’s mostly because of me. I could tell she was afraid of leaving me alone, afraid I might be afraid.

She nodded, looking disappointed. “We’re in Art Survey together; he’s my partner. I guess what happened to his cousin got to him.”

“What do you mean?” I was scared to ask the question. I didn’t need any more nightmares.

She smiled dreamily while staring at the ground. Sam really was a beautifully girl when she smiled like that. “His little cousin died.”

“Oh no.”

She huffed, “I know. The little girl never had a chance. She had a plastic stomach and a bunch of other problems; her parents were addicts and it finally killed her.”

I pulled her away from the growing crowd of spectators, “Something like that would mess anyone up.” It would fuck me over.

“But you see that’s the thing. He kept saying that he would see her soon. I could hear him mumbling that she’s coming back.”

It was Kyra Dervings all over again. Someone dearly loved died and their parents, or lovers, or whoever wanted them back at a bad enough price. Moreover, they would have to die for it. It was so stupid.

I stood on my tippy toes, Blake wasn’t anywhere around. “Where’s Blake?”

Sam repeated what I just did and shrugged. “Uh, he might be inside.”

Blake and Wesley stood on the other side of the school. Wesley already opened a Looking Glass to the hospital. We stepped through and Wesley and Blake shivered with the drastic temperature change. Screams pierced the silence of the hospital. I used to make fun of people in movies that ran towards the screams but now I found it hard to run the other way.

Shirley’s eyes were full of panic in her airy hospital gown, staring at her grotesque arm. It was almost as large her as it bubbled and elongated. She screamed again with the sounds of bones snapping and her left leg turned an ugly shade of green. Something wiggled underneath her skin she screamed again but this time it was more wild and animalistic out of the range a human voice could go. The sound brought us to our knees then darkness.

My ears were still ringing when I woke up. The room was devastated and bloody. The emergency lights put everything in a red haze. Wesley lay unconscious next to me with bloody ears and ugly bruises. He was still breathing but it was shallow. I slapped him a few times but he wouldn’t wake up. Blake was nowhere to be seen.

I put Wesley in another room and left to go get Blake. I followed the craters to the nurse’s station of the floor. Blake stood his ground with his broadsword out and wet with blood. He roared and rushed after…it.

It was this tall, tall green monster with ropy sinewy muscles. Its arms dragged on the floor like sledgehammers that crushed the ground every time they rested along with nails that ripped through concrete with ease. It had no ears, or mouth, or penis, or vagina, just like a doll but in the place of eyes was a red globe thing and Shirley’s tattered hospital gown clung to its arm like an old bracelet. It was Shirley.

Shirley swatted Blake into the wall, stunning him. She raised the other hand, the red haze of the lights made it look like Hell. I couldn’t reach Blake in time, “No!” Chains erupted from my hand, stabbing into the Shirley’s arm. I couldn’t see normally anymore. My vision was split between the chains and myself.

I felt myself being flung into something soft and hard. The chains retreated to me, giving me my eyes. Blake grunted cradling me and dodging Shirley’s next attack. He pulled me and moved faster than I thought a person his size could move. He leaped into the air as if he had winged feet and cross-sliced Shirley’s red eye.

She let out that horrible scream but my ears went numb suddenly. Red blood gushed out of the wound, too pale to be human. Shirley clawed viscously at Blake but with every swipe, her accuracy became worse until her monstrous body collapsed into spasms onto the floor. Blake banished his sword back to the unknown and walked back to me.

As he pulled me from the floor, I saw the faces of Shirley’s family. Her sister’s lifeless eyes bore a hole into Shirley. Her dad’s chest was torn to ribbons with closed eyes, and her mother still breathing, painfully. Her eyes wandered from each body of her loved ones and with a small shutter, she drifted off.

Blake brought me back to Wesley who had recovered somehow. Wesley healed the both of us and called other Acolytes to “clean up”. Everyone was so blasé about it, as if it was just a normal thing to happen. How could they be so calm? How? People were dead, people saw things that they never should have saw. They died in confusion. It must be horrible to die not knowing what’s going on.

“How?”

Blake looked towards me. “How what?”

It didn’t make anything sense. “Why are you so calm? Why is everyone so damn calm about this?!”

“Calm, you think we’re calm?” He asked me with disbelief. “Do you know how many times I have had to fight one of those things?”

“Don’t call her a “thing”!”

He raised his hands in surrender. “You’re right it’s not her fault. It’s that stupid replica’s.”

“You can’t blame her; she never asked to be born.” I was getting hotter, pointing my ice covered finger at him. “Just like we never asked to be born so don’t you dare blame her?!”

He got in my face, fast. “Then whose fault is it?”

“The humans! The humans who can’t, who won’t let go of the dead, or people who do just to fucking do it, so you can’t blame anyone but us! No one but us humans.”

Blake snorted like a bull and yanked me from the room. We walked down the ruined hall, “I want you to look and see what a replica has caused. All these bodies, all of these dead because of your precious replica.”

One of the bodies, a nurse, moaned and pulled another corpse away in horror. She wiped wildly at the blood on her uniform, pulling at the fabric until she reached were her legs should have been. She cried that she could still feel them. An Acolyte rushed to her, pushing their foreheads together, staring deep into her eyes. I blinked and I Saw. The red haze of the emergency light paled in comparison of the crimson color that now wrapped around the nurse like a second skin.

“NO!” I figured it out too late but Blake already knew what was about to happen.

His grip on me tightened almost enough of break my bones. “She knows too much, anyone alive knows too much and we can’t make her forget.”

I trembled and kicked only gaining mild grunts from him. “Let go! You can’t!” I kept screaming but no one cared. “Don’t!”

“It must be done.” He said looking directly at her.

I felt the sudden rush of flame engulf the nurse as if it was my own body. I crumpled like a piece of paper against Blake, sobbing. He stood there watching the blazing nurse cry. It was supposedly the most horrible death one could suffer and from what I saw, it was.

“It had to be done. People must not know about this. We’ll have to burn the whole hospital down.”

The fire dwindled down to nothing leaving only her ashes behind. That’s all we are ashes that are to return to the earth. To rot in a box and become worm food. Could there really be a God that just could sit there and watch this? Watch humans do such horrid things. To make another face the unknown alone. What if darkness is the only thing waiting for us on the other side? No memories to support you, no prayers to help, no heaven, no hell, no purgatory, no peace, it was just empty nothingness. She shouldn’t have died. No, it was not their right to condemn her for the sins of others, our own sins.

“Now, you know the Truth of Resurrection.”He spoke.

I didn’t understand what he meant until I held both hands over the ashes. The shadow knelt next to me, its hands on mine. They ashes cracked, smoked, and danced with a bright fury that made others shield their eyes. I Heard her screaming but I couldn’t hear. She fought me furiously, pushing me away in her confusion. The Shadow quieted her, the light faded, and her body remained, whole and new.

“If you burn this hospital,” My voice was not my own but the Black Heart’s. “I shall tear you asunder and I fear Chance will not stop me.”

* * *
I drove home in a cab. I could barely move but I would have been damned if I went anywhere with Blake. He wasn’t the Knight I Saw. He was another lowly human with the delusion that he knew what was right.

“The entire human race lives with that delusion.” The shadow said sitting across from me in the now darker cab.

“Why? There’s a better way and we don’t take it, why?”

It raised an eyebrow and shrugged. “This is where Reality trumps Fact. Fact, there is an easy way to go about this. It’s harder for people to face the Truth but it’s easier than waiting. Reality, the Acolytes choose not to because of fear. They think they are saving people this way but in the end, the lives spent protecting this secret that will eventually get out would equal those lost if humans knew about replicas.”

“I can’t just sit here and let them kill replicas but I can’t let replicas go and kill everyone. There’s no balance to it unless one wipes the other out.”

It patted my hand, “You’re not a child anymore Chance, you make a balance. Find a way to save the replicas and protect the humans.”

He was asking a bit much but it sounded right. For a second I felt crazy asking advice from the Nexus Heart of Darkness but Darkness doesn’t equal evil, it’s only unknown. “How do I do this?”

The Black Heart smiled. “You become a mirror. You let them see themselves in you but when they are gone you do what you can to set things right, even if it’s in the cover of shadows.” He emphasized on the last part.

I told the cab driver to stop at the police station for a minute. “I’ll start off with Greg.”

Greg sat alone in the holding cell with no fear or sadness on his face. Actually, he looked happy as hell. I was amazed by how the Black Heart used shadows to sneak me past the police. I’m going have to use that some other time.

“Greg.”

I laughed when he jumped clean off the bench and landed on his face, squirming away as if I grew a horn. “Who’s there?”

I leaned against the bars, nonchalantly. “How’s your cousin?”

He looked like he shot himself. “How do you know?”

“Shirley.”

A flicker of remorse registered in his steel gray eyes. “I had to, I love her.”

“She’s not going to be the same.”

He broke out into a smile. “I know. She’s going to be healthy this time.”

“That’s not what I meant. She won’t be the same little girl you raised.”

“He told me about that, I’ll have it covered.”

He didn’t care at all. “No, that’s kinda what I meant. She’ll be a different person. Sure, she’ll look exactly the same minus a mole or something but otherwise she’ll be the same on the outside but she won’t be like the original.”

My words were getting to him. He was just as grief struck as the rest of us have been. He was thinking. “What does it matter?”

“Because as you watch her grow up, she’ll act different, do different things, she won’t be the same person.”

“Terry never grew up; it’ll be like she never died.” He was trying to defend his reason. I felt bad for destroying it.

I shook my head; it must be horrible to be ruled by grief like that. “But you will always know that Terry, your Terry, might have done this, or that. You will always compare Terry to original Terry and that makes her different.” His resolve was breaking; I could feel his faith dying. “You will always think the original Terry might have done this. The “might” makes her different.”

His plan was falling apart too fast for him to repair. “NO! He promised me that she’d be the same!”

“You will know she might not be.”

He slammed his fists on the ground. “Please, no. I gave him everything.” Tears clearly ran down his face. “I gave up everything for her; he promised she would be the same.”

I pulled his face towards mine. “Is she alive?”

He nodded but he refused to look at me. “I called him, she’s alive.” He looked at me only then, some glimmer of hope that she was the same in his eyes. “Promise me you’ll help her. Swear on your life you will help her every way you can.”

I gripped his hand tight. “I promise my life that I will help her in any and all ways.” I tried to wretch my hand away from the sudden fire that his hand gave me but it was futile. A tree, an apple tree tattoo was raised on our hands.

“A Pact has been performed.”

“Even if she’s not the same as my Terry, I’m still responsible for her, I still love her.” Greg had lost his faith but not his love. It was amazing what one love for one person could do.

“That’s good, because you are.” Being a mirror was almost too easy. “Where is she?”

“I don’t know, but the man who…” He didn’t know how to say it. “The man who made her, he-.”

“Tsk, tsk, tsk.” I twirled around fast enough to see one of the policemen standing with an evil gleam on his face. “I hoped you knew better.”

His form changed into something demonic. The bars snapped like twigs underneath his power. His head and torso was like a bull’s but his hind legs reversed like a goat and a tail that was a snake. It bent down at the snake tail threw me with impossible force into the wall. I couldn’t think, I could barely see. I could only feel the chaotic Nexus that surrounded the beast and Greg screamed and the smell of burnt flesh filled my lungs. I passed out.

* * *
Colonel Sonet replayed the scene on her television. “He can resurrect!”

Wesley nodded, “Yes, it seems his relationship with the Black Heart is growing. He has used his Sight and the chains of the Black Heart.”

She never believed her plan would work with Chance but now, so many possibilities. “With more emotions, more danger, he can do everything.”

“What do you ask of me?”

So many things he could accomplish. “I’m adding Sean to your squad.”

Anger ran through Wesley briefly. He wouldn’t have much time to get Chance back. He would just have to make it. “Yes ma’am.”