IGNATIUS The Colors of Rage

Chapter a Photokinesis

Nansen cropped Iggy’s hair down between his chin and shoulders, the usual length, but even so it was a completely new set of hair. Pitch black, thick, shiny, and extremely healthy. He was already reaping the rewards of physical beauty. His body was tall, slender, and gaining muscle in his shoulders and arms where men had the most. Which was good, because he was always so puny and skinny. He dressed in a nice navy blue sweater, black pants, and black running shoes, all in new sizes. He looked and felt great, inside and out, as if nothing could stop him. Optimistic that happiness was right around the corner, waiting, and he was finally ready to accept it. 

In the lobby, Baine stood close to the front door with his arms crossed over his chest and Emi stood at his side with her back turned. She could sense Iggy coming closer, and she tingled with anticipation, but when he came into the circle, she hung her head down and turned her rosy cheek away, too shy to meet his stare. 

Baine waved his hand in a gesture of appreciation toward Nansen, who was leaning over the upstairs railing, twirling his fingers goodbye. Iggy looked back and Nansen puckered his lips and sent a kiss into the air. Iggy couldn’t tell if he was sending a kiss to him, or if he was mocking the kiss between him and Emi, but either way Nansen was a very strange person, and now that Iggy was able to see him eye to eye, he noticed it.

Iggy’s ribs shook from a small wave of embarrassment. Then he glanced over at Emi, and found her still turned downward, not watching at all. Baine opened the main door and through the opening Iggy could see the luster of Baine’s black car parked in front. He knew it was Baine’s black car from stories and jokes Baine shared with the others. It had been used and repaired many times over. The wheels were dusty and the paint was scratched up. The front windshield was shattered… but regardless, it was a vehicle within the wall’s perimeter. 

With one hand laid over his heart and the other pointed at the car, Iggy whispered in doubt, “are we going…?” Baine opened his mouth to answer, but before he could, Iggy dashed out of the house and rounded the back of the car. His hand slipped over the etchy exterior, leaving light trail marks from his fingertips. Shaking with eager adrenaline, he yelped, “are we going in it?! Please tell me that we’re going in it!”

Baine came out of the house with Emi trailing closely behind him. “Yes… now, open the doors lightly-” 

The lights flickered on inside and Iggy lashed the back door open hard, wobbling the car side to side. The springs creaked from underneath. Then, he dove into the back. He scattered to sit in the middle, pressing his back into the hard leather seat. “Is this really happening?!” he gasped. “Is this really happening?!” 

Emi sat in the front passenger’s seat, and Baine sat behind the wheel. She looked over at him with large droopy eyes that lacked new excitement. “What’s the big deal?”

Baine peered through the rearview mirror, found Iggy’s reflection, and smirked a little. “First car right and first visit to the outside. It’s a very big day for our little prince.”

“I’m no little prince!” Iggy argued.

Baine turned over the key and the vehicle started with a jolt. Iggy sat erect and gripped the back of their seats, stretching irreversible indents into the leather. They went backwards, turned, and then forward. They had completely turned around! 

With immense joy, Iggy hollered, “yeah!” and kicked the floor with his shoe heels.

Emi pointed at the speedometer. “We’re only going two miles per hour!”

“I don’t care!” he hooted. 

Ahead, the bright headlights highlighted the iron gate. Baine pressed a button on the side of the steering wheel and the gate cracked apart. The cage door was finally ajar displaying a long road lined with full bodied forest that led straight away from the house and disappeared into the darkness forward on. 

Iggy prepared himself. He leant back into the seat with his palms holding tight to the back of their headrests. The muscles in his thighs tightened. “I am ready for this.... I’ve been waiting for this,” he chanted. 

Then, they jetted off. Everything on either side of the road became blurry as they sped toward the emptiness. The wind whistled through the miniscule cracks in the dashboard and windows. Their hair whipped to and fro wildly with the wind. Behind them, fresh leaves kicked up off of the pavement and fluttered away in the whirlwind.

Iggy’s jaw dropped. “It’s like we’re traveling through time in a spaceship!” He pointed toward the front window, right in between the two. “The black ending is going further away the closer we come! I can’t believe it!”

In the corner of his eye, he saw Emi subtly turn her cheek. Even in the dark cabin of the vehicle, the tiny lights exaggerated their effects against her bright skin and hair. She reflected it as if she were a source of mutual light as well, and nothing seemed more conflicting with the darkness than she. She peered over at Baine. “May I ask you a personal question, Baine?” He moved his head to say ‘no,’ but she continued without permission. “Why is Nansen so…. clingy over your younger brother? I mean, he is very weird. Moody...”

Iggy laughed and pried his fingertips away from their headrests. “No one likes gossip,” he snickered. “I’m just kidding. In fact, I would love to hear about how much Nansen loves me. Go on, Baine. Let us have it straight.”

Baine exhaled, already annoyed, and glanced at Iggy through the mirror. “If you’d guess why, I bet you’d guess wrong.”

Emi leaned forward and observed his face deeper, enticed. She wrapped a palm around her cheek and held her head up. “Why is he always around, and so close by? Jealous.”

“He’s not jealous…”

She lifted her eyebrows and sunk her chin, enlarging the appearance of her eyes. “Jealous of you and me.”

Baine rolled his eyes. “Geeze, you say it as if we have something going on.” He shrugged and tilted his head toward his window. “I suppose education happens fast for all of us, and I guess I can start with the basics… Well-” he cleared his throat “-Nansen is desperate to share himself with someone else.”

“You mean... like feelings?” 

He looked down and shook his head side to side. “No, not quite. We all come to feel this way, some stronger than others. It’s an itch that only has one way to be scratched.”

“I don’t know what the hell you’re getting at,” Iggy grumbled, finding himself less enthusiastic about the conversation than the traveling.

“...It’s a natural evolutionary way of increasing viral existence,” Baine articulated. “I know, big words. What it means is, the stronger the virus works in an infected person and the longer they go without infecting someone else, the stronger this desire to share becomes. The only way to soothe it is to give your precious blood away to be consumed by someone else.” 

Emi glanced back at Iggy from over her shoulder, meeting his gaze briefly before turning away.

“The thing is,” Baine continued, “to whomever you give your blood or to whoever steals it will forever hold a part of you. You will protect them at nearly all costs to preserve that part of yourself, excluding self-sacrifice. It wouldn’t make any sense to the virus’ long lasting life for someone to commit suicide to save someone else, now would it?”