Chapter 6 Who is Cheryl?

It was warm, nice, and pleasant. Just lying out here under the moonlight. Iris felt her cheeks move as the ends of her mouth curved up in a smile. It was probably her first smile in ages. Looking at her now, it wouldn't seem comprehensible that her past had been a pleasant one. A normal life, like a normal child, from whom parents expected great things. Parents always doted on their children and Iris had been an only child. She was to do something great in her life.

Nobody expected that she would inherit something so strange; this invisible energy around her that would slash at anything unpredictably. The light, they called it, the thing that granted people powers. She seemed to carry an abundant amount; so much that people began to notice.

The first time she felt something, like an aura, was when she was five and watching cartoons. She'd been jumping up and down like a mad child, silver hair flopping around. No one realized that the furniture began to vibrate. She kept on jumping, and jumping… until she fell. Her head hit the floor and at that moment, a pencil fell from the shelf. A book fell from the table. A small ball rolled over to one side. More things began to happen.

Iris sighed softly and rolled over to one side, watching a leaf fall to the ground beside her. She didn't want to think any further. She closed her eyes and let the sleep take over.

.

I couldn't sleep that night. Maybe it was the rock hard mattress that had never been slept on, or maybe just the fact that I was officially on the run. I turned and twisted in bed until I gave up completely. I got off, crept out of my room, hoping someone else also had trouble sleeping. I headed towards the lounge through the dimly lit hallway. My feet were silent on the wood paneled floor. When I reached the end of the hall, I saw a small hunched figure sitting on the floor in front of the fireplace. She had her back to me.

Just as I was about to interrupt, someone else entered. I backed up a step, making sure not to get spotted.

"Can't sleep?" It was Ricky's voice. He went over and sat down beside her. "So, do you not like the room or…?"

Cheryl shook her head. "It's not that. It's just I've never slept in a place this big. It just feels odd."

A few seconds of silence went by. I saw Ricky hesitate as he asked,

"May I ask… where you've been staying… previously?"

"I'd rather not say…" Cheryl replied. "What about you? Did you always live here alone?"

Ricky shook his head. Even from afar I could tell he looked sad again.

"I lived here with my grandparents. My parents would visit often and sometimes stayed over for days so all their stuff is still here."

Cheryl sighed as she stared into the fireplace."I wonder what it's like… to have a family," she murmured. And then to Ricky, "What about the room I'm staying in. Whose is that?"

I couldn't exactly tell behind those spectacles what his eyes looked like at that moment. He watched her in silence. The fire crackled in the corner, its flames dancing around consistently. After what seemed like half a minute passed, he spoke.

"It was… my little sister's." There was hesitance in his voice as he spoke in almost a whisper. Something about the way he said it that made a knot pull inside my stomach.

I noticed Cheryl shift a little in her place, a bit uneasily. She didn't respond to it right away. Then after a long pause she finally spoke.

"So… what happened?"

"Well, they don't come over anymore. Now, it's just me and my grandpa. That old man at the counter smoking a cigar, that was him."

"I see… What about…your grandma?" Cheryl asked as if scared to know the truth.

"She's…" Ricky paused to study her face for a long second after saying, "She died a long time ago."

There was another pause. Something was wrong this time. I could see a frown on Ricky's forehead.

"You okay?" He asked and then realized quickly. "Hey, are you crying?" Without a second's hesitation he pulled her into a hug, with her cheeks wiping the tears off his shirt.

"It's okay, don't worry about it," he told her.

I could hear very faint sniffs from afar. After a few seconds, Cheryl pulled away, wiping her face with her sleeve.

"I'm sorry. I don't know why I started crying all of a sudden. I just… I think I should go back to sleep."

"I think so too," Ricky's voice was a lot gentler now, as if he would start crying any minute too.

She got to her feet, wiping her face some more.

"Sorry about your shirt."

"No, no. It's completely fine. Don't worry about it. Just get some sleep, okay?"

Cheryl nodded and half turned, when a rustle from out the glass window made her stop. Ricky's head snapped towards the fireplace. Something crawled through as it crackled louder than before. He was on his feet within seconds, one hand stretched in front of Cheryl protectively, beckoning her. She just stood there, staring unresponsive.

A thin line of a shadow extended onto the carpeted floor in front of them. Cheryl watched in horror as the thing materialized in front of her in the form of a man made completely out of shadows. I saw her hands ball to trembling fists as she stumbled a step back.

"I didn't even sense it coming. Damn it, I'd turned the sensors off…" Ricky was muttering.

Within an instant, the shadow wrapped its long skinny fingers around her throat, pushing her all the way till her back hit the wall. She let out a pain filled gasp. It was so fast it was almost undetectable. Ricky moved towards them. With a flick of the shadow's other hand, an army of Catters tore through the window and pinned him down.

"You promised… And now you think you can hide from us, hand over the light!"

"I…" Cheryl was choking.

The shadow's lime yellow eyes flashed towards the empty hallway beside her. He suddenly let go. She fell to the floor, coughing hard for air. She looked up quickly, puzzled, as the shadow took a step back. It had its eyes locked on something in the hallway. Cheryl half turned with a painful neck to see me walking into the dim light of the room.

"You…" the shadow murmured. The Catters, suddenly alert, darted towards the now broken window and dissolved into the darkness outside.

"The hell do you want with her…" I spoke in such a low, threatening voice, it surprised me. My murderous glare was fixated at the thing.

"I didn't know he would be with her… damn it…" I heard him mutter to himself as he backed up against the window and disappeared into the darkness as well. I kept my glare at it for a few seconds till I could no longer feel its presence.

I then looked towards Cheryl. Ricky was already at her side, inspecting the pink fingermarks on her neck. I turned around to leave.

"Dixon, wait!" It was Ricky who called out.

I stopped and looked at him.

"Aren't you even gonna ask what happened?"

"She won't tell, even if I asked." I said. My face was bleak as I met her gaze. There was a long pause. "I thought so." I whispered to myself and then walked away.

The next morning, I was already at the book shop peering through the window for any sign of night guards outside. Our stay here at Ricky's humble home might not have been so bad if it hadn't been for the attack last night. There was no telling what might happen next.

"Did you even have breakfast yet?"

I turned and found Ricky coming through the door. He caught me texting on my cell phone without looking at it. I noticed his dubious eyes scanning my phone.

"Who's Jon?" he asked right off the bat.

I rolled my eyes at him.

"You need to stop doing that," I told him.

Ricky flashed a mischievous smile as he walked over to the window beside me.

"Just being extra careful," he said, peering out through the half opened plastic shutters.

"So it's not just your lab, it's my phone too? The way… your powers work."

"It's the phone that gets a text from the phone that gets a call from the phone you just texted… if you get the gist. As long as there's a connection… I can tap into an endless link."

"So… you're just a peeping tom then." I joked.

"Laugh all you want, but I too have saved my fair share of lives just by… peeping." He made quotation gestures with his fingers. He then walked over to the nearest shelf and began rearranging books.

I endured a minute of silence before finally saying it.

"How's… Cheryl?" The hesitation was evident despite my efforts to conceal it.

"Go ask her yourself," Ricky advised.

I breathed out a long sigh.

"She may not be able to tell you anything right now. But I'm sure she'll open up when she's ready. The longer it takes, the bigger the trauma behind it."

I glanced up at him in surprise and part guilt.

"You shutting her out will only distance her from you," Ricky said with another sad smile as he stared into a book, lost in his own thoughts.