Chapter 13: Adolescence (part 2)

"Jian!" Heian cried out.

Jian stood completely still. Her hair seemed to flutter in a gentle updraft. Violet specks of light resembling lightning bolts swirled around her eyes, both of which were completely enveloped in a bright magenta glow.

"What the hell happened to you?" he whispered. Never had he ever seen such a divine power. The fact that the rambunctious girl he knew since childhood possessed it was enough to turn his world upside down.

Pulling himself up, the boy cautiously approached. "J-Jian? Can you hear me?" he said with a trembling voice. "Please tell me if you're alright."

A cold sweat took hold of Heian as fear burrowed its way into his mind. Jian stood unmoving, yet the presence of an invisible aura continued to eat away at him.

'Why am I doing this?' he thought dreadingly to himself. 'I don't even know what's happening, and yet…'

Just as he drew close enough to hear her shallow breaths, a twig snapped beneath his feet. Jian jolted around to face him without so much as a moment of hesitation.

A black sphere — smaller than the ones from before — flew from the palm of her hand. Heian dived to the ground, dodging the incoming projectile by just a hair. He watched with exasperation as it collided with a vacant hut, causing it to burst into flames.

"Jian, stop! It's me—"

Another dark projectile came forth. Heian rolled away just enough to dodge the resulting explosion, but not enough to avoid the stones it sent flying in all directions. He winced as many of them pelted him.

Blood trickled into his eyes. As quickly as he could, he leapt to his feet, only to realize that he'd misjudged his distance from Jian. Mere inches away from his face was another sphere growing larger in short, sporadic bursts.

Heian shut his eyes and spun away, using the momentum of his right leg to sweep her off her feet. She fell onto her back without a sound. The sphere was launched toward the sky and came crashing down near the shelter where the elders hid.

"Snap out of it!" he commanded, grabbing her by the collar of her tunic, "I don't know what just happened, but I do know you're in there, Jian! Answer me!"

Heian stared into her pupilless eyes, hoping for some sort of response. He felt something grab hold of his shirt. Looking down, he saw her hand turn a sickly black before beginning to glow.

Without a moment to lose, he jerked backward, tearing his clothing in the process. A ray of dark matter fired from the tips of her fingers and incinerated the remaining cloth in the blink of an eye.

As his heart beat out of his chest, Heian rose up, holding a large stone. A rush of adrenaline allowed him to stay focused despite the many close calls with death.

"I'll break you out of whatever trance you've in," he declared with a new resolve, "even if it means I'll have to beat you out of it!" He promptly wiped the blood from the corner of his lip and charged.

As he lunged in with his stone-wielding hand forward, Jian extended her arm forward once more, firing off yet another ray. Undeterred, he ducked beneath. As soon as the tail end of the blast flew past, he charged shoulder-first into her abdomen.

Jian stumbled backward from the impact. Much to Heian's dismay, her eyes still emitted the eerie glow.

"Wake up!" he howled, charging in once more.

The girl fired off a barrage of the dark spheres. Heian managed to dodge any direct hits, but was grazed by a great many of them. Each one left behind a trail of black flames that burnt through his clothes and seared his skin.

As he drew closer and closer, the spheres became more difficult to avoid. The aura of one in particular touched the skin beneath his right eye. In a split second, he leaned backward, protecting his head from the brunt of the attack. Yet the sphere ran up the length of his face and left a flaming trail over the eye.

Now his vision was halved. He held his face as he continued to swerve around the projectiles. The pain was worse than anything he had ever felt, but the continued adrenaline allowed him to press onward.

"Wake up!" he cried out as he went in for the final blow. He spun around, this time striking her cheekbone with the back of his fist given extra mass by the stone. The spheres in her hands released and grazed the sides of his body.

The girl did a near complete flip before landing face first into the dirt. She let out a grunt, then went silent.

Out of breath, the battered Heian stood on guard, ready to engage once more at any moment. His adrenaline quickly drained away, and still his friend did not rise.

The quiet breeze cooled off the sweat that dripped from Heian's face. He reached down and tapped her shoulder.

"Come on, get up." His voice began to crack. "This is no time to be sleeping."

Blood began to seep onto the ground around her face.

"We need to—" He gulped, trying hard to hold back tears. The realization that he may have done the unthinkable had begun to set in. "We need to explain ourselves to the village elders. Please… please..."

Heian kneeled down and turned her onto her back. Her body was cold to touch. And though the strange glow had subsided, a profuse amount of blood leaked from her mouth, nose, and left eye.

Pulling her into his arms, he listened for signs of life. Her breaths were shallow, with lengthy pauses between each. The pauses grew longer and longer until eventually, her breathing ceased completely.

"W-what...have I done?" The boy could no longer hold back the tears. He hugged her lifeless body tightly and wailed at the top of his lungs. He was all alone. Nobody was around to console him, let alone explain what had just happened.

Through his blurred vision, he watched helplessly as the rest of her body was consumed by the sickly charcoal-like substance that had already claimed her hand. It climbed its way up from the tips of her fingers and toes. The lines that marked her veins turned orange like a bonfire.

Once it reached her face, its ascent slowed, as though it was mocking Heian for what he had done to his only friend. Soon her lips turned black and started to peel, as did her eyelashes, which became detached and fluttered to the ground like the leaves of a cherry blossom.

Heian sniffled. "I'm sorry Jian."

With those words, her body crumpled away into ash.