rise from the dead

When Rain doesn’t say anything, Victoria twists back. Her eyes fall on Rain on the floor and she curses.

The barricade explodes.

She sprays ice from her palms, but instead of producing the solid blocks she has been making, this ice takes on the shape of spears, punching into the chests of the monsters. The ice turns black as the monsters collapse.

Then I’m watching a horror movie. The monsters begin to disintegrate, flesh slewing off bones, and pretty soon those go down, too. Eventually, I am staring at a ball of sludge.

My stomach quivers.

Victoria doesn’t catch all the monsters, though, and they continue running full speed. I watch, frozen.

One of them jumps on me and I scream. It claws at my shirt, gnashing its teeth. As I fight to pull it off, I’m treated to a front view of a thousand little daggers. My feet are kicking everywhere, my hands flailing as I shove the thing off me. It gets thrown down and trampled as a dozen of its friends leap onto me.

“Help!” My heart races as my survival mode activates. Suddenly I’m able to scream and swear and swing out with rabid punches, barely able to keep the monsters’ mouths from my throat.

“Use your power!” From somewhere, Victoria’s voice rings. The monsters have obscured my view from anything other than their hideous faces, but I hear her. “Push yourself!”

I imagine my hands glowing with fire, focus on the fear, the panic that’s battering my chest like a sledgehammer.

My hands warm. I push them out to the other monsters and they all back away. I get up, coaxing them backward with my outstretched arms.

Good monsters, I coax in my mind. Just a little bit more behind…

I nearly think I’ve saved myself, but when the monsters realise I’m not about to blast them with anything more than a little bit of uncomfortable warmth, they growl and begin to advance towards me again.

They jump as a unit. One of them has a sword again. It aims at me and cackles, its mouth dripping with saliva. I throw up my hands, hot and glowing. They snarl as their faces blister. The monster with the knife shrieks and pulls its arm back like it’s going to throw it in my direction. Oh no.

An ice spike flies through the air and spears the monster back. The creature disintegrates as the others turn to the source of the attack. Victoria slays them all with a sweep of her hand and a barrage of ice.

My hands cooled as I gasp, my knees jellying until suddenly I’ve collapsed onto the ground. The area around us is a pool of black sludge. It’s disgusting. I dry-heave onto the tarmac as my stomach finally retaliates to the torture I have put it through.

Victoria stalks over to me. “What’s your power?” She glances down at my hands. The air has warmed, but as she comes closer, cold radiates off her.

“F-fire?” My answer comes out in a question, because I’m really not sure.

Victoria folds her arms. “But you can’t even produce it? Really?” She shoots me a demeaning look. I’m a little scared, but my anger flares inside of me. I tamp it down. It’s a score best settled later.

Right now, Rain’s still about to die. When I turn to him, he’s collapsed, his body curled up as he lies in a pool of his own blood. His eyelids flutter. He’s awake, but barely.

Victoria kneels beside him as she probes his wound.

“We need to get him to the hospital,” I urge Victoria.

Like he’s accentuating my point, Rain coughs. Blood dribbles from his lips. His entire face is ashen.

“That’s it, I’m calling the ambulance.” I reach into my pocket, but Rain stops me. His hand leaves a bloody smear on my arm.

“I won’t make it.” His voice gargles; he coughs like he’s hacking a lung out and blood dribbles out. “Haven, I’m sorry you have to see this. Follow Victoria.” He glances at Victoria and says, “Just remember, Vi. I would die for you.”

Before anyone can respond, Rain’s hands slip from my own. The light in his eyes go out. His entire body goes limp.

“No!” I grab onto Rain’s hand, shake him. His skin is cold, with only a lingering hint of warmth. Tears prick my eyes. I didn’t know this boy well, but he died because of me, even when he didn’t know me. If I had been able to fight off the monsters, this wouldn’t have happened.

“You done yet?” Victoria snaps. I stand and wipe my eyes furiously, all the time glaring at her. Victoria’s eyes sweep me.

“So you’re the new one, huh?” She snorts. “Wimp.”

I growl at her, my hands clenching. “Aren’t you his girlfriend? How are you this unaffected?”

With a scoff, Victoria walks over to Rain.

“Girlfriend, my butt. Woe to any girl who’d want to date that idiot.”

I roll my eyes. “Yeah, because he’s dead. Isn’t he your friend? Shouldn’t you at least-”

Victoria shushes me. Alright, I’m done with her. I nearly snap at her, until she reaches down and grabs the hilt of the knife from Rain’s back. She pulls it out with no hesitation, producing an awful squelch that sends my skin crawling.

Blood streaks down her forearms as she grips the knife and glances over at me.

What if-

What if Victoria’s the bad one?

I eye the blade in her hand, the blood over her pale skin, her dark gaze. Slowly, I back away.

Victoria takes a step closer. “Where do you think you’re going?”

I’m not sure if I can outrun her, but I sure can try.

Just as I’m about to pivot away from Victoria, she catches on. But instead of running forward to murder me, she tosses the knife to the floor. It falls with a metalic clatter. She sighs. “Please stay here, Rain went to Hell and back just to locate you. Give it five seconds.”

Give what five seconds?

I open my mouth to ask, when a low moan stops me.

My eyes snap to Rain on the floor. As I watch, he winces and rubs his chest.

“That actually hurt,” he says as he slowly sits up, his movements small and controlled like he’s afraid to move too much.

Victoria grabs his hand and pulls him up.

“You...you were dead.” I can’t help but stutter.

Rain’s green eyes twinkle with amusement. “Death doesn’t stick so well with me. Come on, we have to go. Vi?” He holds out a hand. Victoria rolls her eyes and smacks a coat into his palm. Rain grins and shrugs the jacket on.

Both of them have a skeleton bracelet on their hand. It’s the type shaped like the bones of a hand, fitted perfectly across their knuckles in a dark, metallic matte. Rain notices me staring.

“Oh.” He lifts a hand to display the bracelet to me. “You’ll get one soon. It’s not an accessory.” Let me guess. The next thing he’s going to say is, it’s not an accessory, it’s a symbol. Instead, Rain clenches a fist.

There is a soft shink! and four metallic blades pop out of the knucklebones of the bracelets. I startle. They look like a shorter version of Wolverine claws, tapered down to the end. Rain grins sheepishly. “It’s dangerous.” With another clench and flick, the blades pop back into their bone-like sheath. He turns to Victoria, face grim. “You got all of them?”

Victoria folds her arms. “I don’t do messy jobs. For God’s sake, call Kai. I’m exhausted.”

Rain doesn’t respond. Who is Kai?

[You’ll meet him soon.]

I gasp and Rain puts a hand on my shoulder. “Whoa, calm down. That was me in your head. Sorry, I didn’t mean to scare you.”

Beside him, Victoria rolls her eyes. I decide I don’t like her.

Something crashes into me and I fall backward, arms pinwheeling for control, and land on my butt. Pain explodes up my tailbone and I find myself staring at a new boy.