Neo Chronicles: Nexus
Episode 46: The Darkness Surrounds Me
Table of Contents
Demons. That's what they are. Explains a lot.
I've seen them every damn day of my life. They haunt my dreams. They tarry my vision. Always jus' out of reach. Always standin' on the verge, jus' outta sight. But I felt them. I always knew they were there.
Then somethin' flipped. Don't know what it was, but it came outta nowhere. All of a sudden, the shadows weren't backin' down from the light. They've always walked among the livin'. They're as much alive as we are dead. S'jus' gettin' harder an' harder t'tell the difference.
But that ain't the weird part.
I look up at the front of the room. Mayer's surrounded by waves of that very darkness that exists in us all. He's upset—shoot, he's always upset—but this time he's got a reason t'be.
There's a very large, very sharp, spiky pillar of ice inches away from his face. It wasn't there a second ago. I put it there. More accurately, I threw it there. Honestly, I'm surprised I didn't end up missin' the target. My aim's never been what you'd call good.
But it hit, an' it hit the right thing. It hit the darkness. It sits there, stickin' outta the wall. The darkness moves away from it like ink oozin' from a broken pen. My hand's extended out in its direction. Icy, cool fog stems from my palm an' finger tips. The further you go down from me towards the it, the more visible the ice pillar appears.
Speakin' of the darkness, it doesn't look too happy. I see it react. It reverberates away from the sharp shard. It's been split apart.
Now, it crawls along the floor as separate entities, lookin' for a place to reconvene. They're livin' puddles. The more they move, the larger they get. They spread across the entire room, coverin' everythin' in their path.
“You can see them, too?”
Noah's eyes are open wide as he looks in my direction. He's confused.
The darkness now touches every corner of the room. Within the shadows, pairs of bleedin' red eyes peer into the quickly dimmin' light.
It strikes with quickness. First, overtakin' Mayer where he stands. Like a puppet, he acts out its will.
“What are you doin'?” Tameka is clearly clueless. Like most others in the school, she's unaware of the darkness's influence. She can't see the shadows. She can't feel its presence. So when Mayer clutches Noah by the arm, wraps it behind his back, and encloses him in a headlock, Tameka cries out.
“Get off of him!” She does so in vain, but her actions speak louder. A torrential burst of wind shoots forth. If she were able t'see the darkness rise up and shield her target, maybe she'd have more of an idea. But as it stands now. Still clueless.
“Dang it, Noah!” Jamal leaps from his chair. The fury of the sun ignites his path. From his hands, he shoots flames. The embers erupt as a stream. Mayer pushes Noah towards him.
“Oh crap, stop!” Noah cries out, crossin' his arms in front of him. Half a dome of ice covers the front of his body like a shield. The fire meets the ice. A fog of steam is made.
“Outta the way, nerd!” Jamal shoves Noah out of his path, an' continues chargin' towards Mayer. He draws back a fist, flames already coverin' it. But before he can land that punch, a dark an' powerful force stops him in his tracks.
Lookin' t'his right, he can see Rayne clutchin' on t'his arm. A flash of red gleams from her eyes, an' a dark, shadowy aura emanates from her bein'. Like a fog, the darkness overtakes her. In the next instant, she pulls Jamal inward an' strikes his side with a knee. He bellows over, practically spittin' up.
I see Noah roll along the floor, barely avoidin' a heavy blast of wind as it plows through. I take a look at Tameka an' see that she's been taken, too.
Chris speeds in behind Tameka, lookin' t'catch her by surprise. As fast as he is, she still sees him comin'. He throws out a flurry of punches, all of which are effortlessly avoided. Tameka backflips away from the last one, and a gale force slashes forward at him. Chris is fast enough t'evade it. All the desks in the gale's path, along with the wall it ultimately collides with, are in shambles now, but Chris is unscathed.
Now where did Mayer go?
Before I know it, he's by my side. Then the strangest thing happens. Jamal, Noah, and Chris all stop movin'. Each of them, mid-action—Chris in mid-dash, Noah rollin' t'his feet, an' Jamal kneelin' down t'start an uppercut—are now frozen in their tracks.
As for the others? Unaffected. Each of them take advantage of their now still-borne foes. Tameka creates a miniature hurricane underneath Chris that launches him straight into the ceilin'. Rayne, with her dirty, elongated, wolfish nails, slashes Jamal across the face.
I'm not sure if I should be frozen, too, but I ain't. Mayer throws a punch my way. I see it comin', an' I react with reflexes I didn't know I had before. I step to the side and watch his fist swoop past my face. In the next instant, I'm roundhouse kickin' him t'the back with a hard, ice covered foot.
Direct hit. He reels back, then falls forward on a knee.
I look in Tameka's direction an' wave my hand her way. Fire juts out like a stream. She sees the attack and puts up a wall of wind to block an' divide its path.
Then the boys unfreeze. Chris's back squarely bounces off the ceilin', an' he plummets right back down over the desks into the floor. Jamal's face now has five gash marks carved into it, all bleedin' out. He cries out like you'd expect. Noah's just now comin' back to his feet, but as he looks up, he's left bewildered by what just transpired.
“What just happened?” he asks.
Chris rolls over, and moans, then forces himself onto his feet. “It's dat dang time warpin'!” he says. “We can't do crud against it!”
“Oh my God!” Jamal's still cryin' the stin'in' feelin' his face gives him.
“Dang it, we gotta do somet –” Noah starts out.
Then the darkness singles me out. Its influence is so cold, it freezes the passage of time. Again, I'm unaffected. Two of its emissaries make their way towards me. Tameka and Rayne leave their fallen victims as discarded waste. Noah, Jamal, an' Chris are of no interest to them. Not anymore.
I take a few steps back, only stoppin' as I bump into somethin'. I turn my head and see Mayer starin' down at me with his fiery, glowin' eyes. He grips me by the shoulders. In the next moment, I'm held above him my back touchin' the wall. I wince as his fingers dig deeper an' deeper. His grip is vise-like.
I see Tameka hold her hand out. I know what's comin' next.
From the sides of my waist, I open my palms. I can feel the heat from the flames rise up. It doesn't hurt me, but I can see the sweat start t'drip from Mayer's temple. His eyes squint, an' his grip loosens. The fires I hold grow larger by the seconds.
Tameka makes her move. A small cyclone is hurled my way.
I pick both my knees up t'my chest an' kick towards his. A large pillar of ice juts outward, pushin' Mayer off me. As I fall to the floor, I immediately roll t'the side. The cyclone breaks through the wall.
Before gettin' the chance to bounce on t'my feet, I see Rayne hoverin' over me throwin' a punch. She comes in so fast, but as her fist makes its way down, I see the act slowly. Then I look around and see everythin' happen slowly, darkness included.
For a moment I wonder if this is another time trick, but then it hits me. My heart hits me. It's beatin' wildly through my chest. I notice my breathin' is a lot heavier than it was.
This isn't time slowin' down.
This is me speedin' up.
An' the darkness can't keep pace.
The flames envelope my entire body. I jump out of the way of Rayne's punch and watch as she plunges right through the floor. The scowl she gives me is only amplified by the subtle growlin' noise she makes. I immediately shoot fire her way, but in the next instant, she's gone.
Mayer's back on his feet. Tameka's chargin' my way. I see Rayne speed towards Chris. A blast of fire gets deflected by a gust of wind, but I'm already headin' after Rayne.
I see Mayer's arm reach out at me. I'm fast enough to avoid it, but then somethin' slashes me across the back. A gust of wind as sharp as a blade.
I throw myself at Rayne. My shoulder rams into her back, an' we both hit the floor. Time resumes.
“ – hin'!” I hear Noah finish his phrase.
He's right. Somethin' has t'be done.
