Four of a Kind

Coming to Terms With

My whole body went numb and limp. I couldn’t move. My eyes and mouth were the only exception. I could hear the footsteps getting farther and farther away from me. Then it all went silent. After that followed gunfire. I could hear the sound of bullets blasting ringing into my ears. These maids weren’t licensed to kill. They were licensed to keep a house neat and tidy. I was thinking about stuff like that since I didn’t know what else to do and was getting frustrated.

That’s when I heard Maq’s voice in my head. “Reeves why are your maids shooting at us!? I thought we’re on the same side!” he echoed.

“How come you can talk to me?” I thought back.

“When you’re conscious and aware of my ability to communicate telepathically you are in complete control and what you want to say to me or how much of me you want to hear.”

That was a good enough answer. “Those maids aren’t just out to kill Andy, they’re gonna kill you both too!” I thought to him.

“Bullshit! Why would they? Surely I recall your dad requesting our assistance for a task! Why would he start shooting us!?”

“Now’s not the time for that talk! They immobilized me. Shoot them in the leg and come drag me out!” I thought.

“Where are you?”

“Where we all agreed to meet up after sweeping this f*****g Depot!” I thought to him.

He didn’t reply. I just hoped he wasn’t pissed at me and started ignoring me. The sound of bullets firing was heard constantly. The sound of the bullets scraping metal echoed into my head. It was a very dizzy sound. On top of the limp body that I slowly started to have slight control over, it was still sensitive. That feeling you get when blood stops flowing to one portion of your limb and you touch something with that limb and it causes a queasy reaction was happening to me. I felt like blood just stopped flowing throughout my body and despite regaining control over the body, it was still a pain to move.

I could only imagine how excruciating the first few seconds might be when Kim lifts me up.

I heard a yell. Then I smiled. That roar could only mean one reason. Kim was turning Red. That might turn the tides. I didn’t know for sure if he was bulletproof. But it might cause a distraction long enough for us to get out.

“Reeves?” I heard Maq’s voice. Out of the corner of my eye I saw a blue band glowing in the dark and was relived. He lifted me up and I winced and howled in pain. Sure, it wasn’t that painful but it’s always the small things that set me off.

“Kim’s gone Red?” I asked making sure.

“Yep.” He said.

It was a bit awkward the way he was carrying me. I could hear Kim roaring and bullets firing from my northeast. So we headed northwest, which was where the entrance to the middle section was. Once we got through the broken glass doors. Maq telepathically told Kim to retreat and come back to us. And that we were hiding in a small storage closet at the end of the middle section.

It was a small but comfy closet. There were bean bags and everything… it looked familiar. Me and Maq stayed silent and closed our eyes attempting to rest and hide at the same time.

We then heard footsteps outside. It was Kim. Maq poked his head out the door told motion him to come in silently. I closed my eyes again. A moment later I heard the sound of heavy breathing and fresh blood.

Kim was covered in scratches all over his body. They weren’t severe but many of them drew blood and the net total was enough to make me smell blood.

“You okay?” I asked.

“I am” he replied.

Maq took off his jacket and gave it to Kim. Kim smiled and wiped his sweat and blood with it. Even with all this darkness around us and only the dim light we had from the strongly glowing bracelets, I could see the blood lust eyes Maq was staring at Kim with.

“What happened to them?” I asked Kim. “The maids.”

“Heylian was stabbed-”

“WHAT?” I asked alarmed.

“Let me say it all.” He said. “Maq stabbed Heylian with knives at her clothes and stuck her to the wall.”

“You can do that?” I asked Maq sounding impressed.

“On the contrary I didn’t stab her.” Maq explained. “The end of my daggers have a magnetic link when activated. Just think of it like a invisible rope tied to the back end of two daggers. When I threw the daggers. The magnetic link automatically connected and form multiple links or ropes to pin the maid against the wall.”

“That was risky. What if you killed her?”

“That won’t happen. I deducted where she was depending on the source of the flashlight she attached to her arm. I could picture her silhouette despite the dark and executed my suppression successfully.” Maq explained further.

“What happened next?” I urged Kim to continue.

“I punched the heads of the second and third ladies till they passed out. It was difficult. They were shooting me with their guns until I won.” Kim said.

I was impressed with how much willpower they had. I guess they weren’t assigned lethal guns for nothing.

We all breathed heavily in sync deciding our next move. I couldn’t believe my dad would pull a fast one on me like that. Why would he kill my friends? This can’t be possible.

“Why would your father put them out to kill us?” Maq asked the million dollar question. It doesn’t make sense Reeves.”

“I don’t know either.” I said tired.

“Is it because of me?” Kim asked.

I looked at him and thought hard. It was true that other than me. No one cared enough for them to live a long life. Kim’s dad was a abusive drunk. Maq had no life outside of my dad’s payroll. And Andy’s foster caretakers wouldn’t care enough to give a damn. But that didn’t mean they were worthless. They saved my life and watched my back. They might’ve been the only good thing other than my new spear that happened to me when I made the big call to break into this society.

“It’s not because of any of you. We’re gonna find Andy and get out of this basement. My dad might still be home. We’ll demand why he ordered the maids to kill you. If he does confirm your worse nightmares…we’ll take down all the maids and trap my dad here for a week with nothing to eat or drink. Then we’ll see whose the boss.” I told them solemnly.

“Okay, now that we got one issue out of the way, how are we gonna find Andy? I think he’s already left this floor and gone out.” Maq said feeling dejected. “It’s gonna be harder for the three of us since three’s a crowd.”

“Andy’s not out he’s still here.” I said.

I could feel the suspense and tension of the other two rising.

“Where!?” Kim asked.

I pointed outside the window of the closet. He’s right there looking at us.  

Maq and Kim turned towards where I pointed. It was dim and faint. The light wasn’t strong enough to clearly show us what I was pointing at but all three of us could make out a silhouette of a teenager. He had his gun in one hand and a kitchen knife in the other.

He was either staring at us like in a horror movie or had his back turned to us ready for anyone that might come through the broken glass door. I didn’t know what to do. My ass was glued to the beanbag. Partly because it was comfy and I needed the rest. But also because I was scared of Andy.

I felt irritated that I was intimidated by Andy’s presence. Andy was NOT the violent, psychopathic type. So him chocking me till I passed out was gonna be trauma. Maybe it was also the fact that the position he was in made me spooked. The only source of light was near the glass door which we all came out of. His body stood still covering a portion of the light. That was why we could tell it was him. Something about seeing his silhouette standing still with light shining behind or in front of him was really spooky. Either way there was no way any of us would gain the courage to go to him anytime soon. I tugged my neck at the place where he left his claw marks at. It was thanks to Synedrate that I healed quick. But there was no way I was letting him choke me here and now.

“What do we do?” I asked myself. “ Kim can you go Red again?” I asked him hoping that his big red monster can give us a concrete win if push comes to shove.

“I think I need to have a vreak.” Kim replied.

“Let’s just go out there.” Maq said.

I had it. I took the initiative and got out of our comfort zone.

“Andy?” I whispered loud as I can.

If Andy heard me, he didn’t show any signs of response. I still couldn’t tell whether he was facing front or back. I gulped and took another step forward.

None of the maids were in sight. I couldn’t even hear them. All I could hear was the deep sync breaths me and Andy were taking. At least I could confirm he was still alive. I looked back to see if the other two were gonna come. They were peaking out the window but they didn’t take a step outside the closet. At least things won’t get very messy if the maids found us.

“Reeves” Andy called out.

“What’s up?” I replied instinctively it was how I usually replied when he called me. I guess today was no exception.

“Do you know the story of Jekyll And Hyde?” he asked.

I didn’t know what he was trying to pull. But I went along with it. “Yeah, sure. It was about this man who had a split personality. The other persona was the complete opposite of the man. It was a story about his struggle with his mentality.”

“Why do you think he was struggling?”

“To fight the evil persona of himself? I don’t know.”

“What if he was struggling, not to decimate his evil counterpart, but to build the best version of himself by taking only the good stuff he liked about his two personas, like separating the wheat from the chaff. Don’t you think that was his struggle?” he asked.

I was facing him now. With the help of the light I could clearly make out his face. It was a very unnatural facial expression. Disturbing if you will. He was grinning like a madman.

Andy… the condition you have has the same difference as Kim’s. But his body transformation was due to Synedrate. But yours is a natural condition. I’m pretty sure with Synedrate we can fix you up.

“Help!? You want to help me?” He asked. I can hear his voice cracking. I can tell he wasn’t right in his mind. I needed to calm him down or something. But in all honesty. It’s best to let it all out. It would make things much more easier to handle for the long road ahead.

“I told you Reeves!! I’m struggling like I struggled back in that girl’s house!! I’m struggling like I did on that dining table when we were surrounded by bad guys!! And I’M STRUGGLING RIGHT NOW!!!” He said c*****g his gun and aiming it at me.

“You didn’t give a single damn WHAT I THOUGHT WHEN YOU DRAGGED ME INTO YOUR CIRCUS s**t! ALL FOR WHAT? SO THAT YOU’D FEEL MORE ALIVE? THE WORLD DOESN’T REVOLVE AROUND ME BUT YOU THINK THAT MEANS I GOTTA KEEP THEM POKER FACES ON WHEN MY MIND STARTS BREAKING!?” He yelled enough for everyone else to hear. I know those maids were gonna come round anytime soon.

“Look Andy…” I started coolly choosing my words carefully. “The world doesn’t revolve around you. It has to revolve around 7 billion other people. Everyone gets their share of time when the world revolves around them. Now’s your turn.” I said smiling. So I sat down and told him I was gonna hear him out.

If I had to say it again I would’ve worded a bit differently. Kim and Maq finally came out the closet and intervened because Andy was trying to kill me with his gun. I guess the other four must be dead or knocked out really bad to be oblivious to how obnoxious we were. Andy was firing his gun like a madman. It didn’t have the normal sound a gun makes when you fire it. So let’s call it a cross gun.

The arrows were only a few inches away from piercing me. The old wooden picnic tables were old. But they weren’t prone to penetration of the arrowheads Andy was firing. Each sharp blade made a satisfying “sink”  sound.

None of us three had any projectile weapons. Maq had his daggers but they were lethal and dangerous if thrown blindly, plus he needed proper position to even throw. And Andy was still firing crazy. That’s when I realized that my spear could fire lasers. But we still didn’t have a shield or anything like that. I couldn’t aim. But I tried a few blind shots. It didn’t hit it’s mark. I missed widely. I fired randomly. Statistically I was supposed to hit something.

“Ugh!” Andy cried out. I heard the sound of him falling.

“Finally” I thought getting up.

Andy got up as soon as he fell but before he did I realized I wasn’t me who shot his back.

Heylian was here.