Chapter #17; The Party Crasher
1568 Words
He manoeuvred the water in mesmerising patterns; loops and swirls and drizzles and mizzles. It gushed across the cement and dripped down the walls. It had only been a couple of days practising, but, apparently, he was a quick learner.
A voice cheered on his performance from behind, soon following with a slow clap.
Ryeon turned behind in a swift move, letting the water fall to the ground into a frothy puddle.
“Sakin!”
His face lit up as his voice conveyed a mixture of an excited surprise and a terrible shock.
“Still dressing like an old geezer?”
He faced down and looked upwards at him with wide eyes and upturned eyebrows.
“I regret ever telling you what that means.”
His vocal stance grew serious and threatening, which was rather unexpected for him. It made Ryeon grow concerned.
“Hey... Sorry. I didn’t know you would take it to heart.”
He turned his face away, raising his eyebrows high and clenching his fist.
“I didn’t take it to heart.”
His tone grew ominous. Ryeon snapped his fingers in front of his face as Sakin tried to turn away from him. He jolted, then paused, then momentarily stared at Ryeon’s face all the while the whites around his eyes overpowered his features in expression. He brushed off Ryeon’s hand from his shoulder and proceeded to walk away. He stopped before his foot landed on his third step.
“Look, mate. I’m sorry. I just—”
How could he tell him about the horrors of what Iris wanted to do once she got her grimy little hands on him? Would he believe him? Absolutely not. Ryeon still thinks she just likes to annoy him when he’s become a plaything for her. Iris would release all of her pent-up pettiness through one dramatic playtime session. All Iris is is a coddled child breaking her toys for...
“SAKIN!”
His expression returned from the temporary blank-face disassociation he had adopted, whereas Ryeon’s face was petrified in terror.
“You just WHAT?”
Sakin closed his eyes, took a long breath, and prepared for more questions.
“I’m just a bit busy these days.”
Ryeon now had both his hands on Sakin’s Shoulders, gently nodding to the rhythm of his words.
“Are you sure?”
The first question.
“Yes.”
Ryeon stared him in the eye. A little intimidating, but okay.
“Well then, we can”
“SAKIN!”
They both spun around like curious animals. Aibek was fuming.
“Weren’t you supposed to—”
“I’m coming!”
He ran out of the ally like a wild animal let loose. Sakin could feel Ryeon’s grip fade away as his shoulders drooped downwards and Aibek marched forth strangulating the circulation of the hand of his he was gripping onto.
“You were supposed to get flammable things for Iris. Now she’s burning away at my head.”
“Didn’t know someone like her could have such control over someone like you.”
He tightened his grip on Sakin’s hand whilst he quietly chuckled behind his back.
.
.
.
“Uuuugggghhhh...I’m bored.”
“You could always leave.”
Aibek elbowed him aggressively. Sakin waved for him to lean closer.
“What is she doing in my apartment?”
He whined in a harsh whisper.
“First of all, it’s our apartment.”
“We both know I’m the only one who pays for anything.”
Sakin, furious, interrupted his poor attempt at a whisper. He had to hold his rant back by holding his finger up to his lips.
“She got powers, but I still have mine, which doesn’t make sense.”
“Maybe, if you let me help, it might.”
Aibek waved his hand mid-air as if he were brushing off his support.
“The only way I can figure anything out is by keeping this rat around.”
“What rat?”
It was a genuine question of hers, probably the only legitimacy she would ever display, but it sent both the boys shrieking like mice. Only for a few seconds though.
Sakin grasped his collar and excused himself from there, hopping over the random objects lying around on the ground. Before leaving out the door, he looked back to warn.
“DON’T SET MY STUFF ON FIRE.”
.
.
.
Sakin’s strides were between a brisk walk and a run. The pouch of emerald green crystals rattled in his pocket. Where’s Malam? Where’s Malam? Where’s Malam? He thought to himself in a rushed rhythm. Wait! He halted in his tracks. Didn’t Malam have an underground bunker under that apartment complex? Near the school she offered to enroll him in? Well, that’s where he’s headed now.
He peeped around a corner in the wall, where there was nothing but a single water puddle and a broken pipe with an end sawed off. Sakin strolled around, looking like a lost young animal.
Wasn’t it her—
The water underneath him fell taking him along.
It was here.
“Sakin?”
Malam looked surprised at first, but a bright smile started spreading slowly across her face. She ruffled his hair, which aggravated him a bit, put a hand on his shoulder and led him down the ugly pink-laced carpet.
Walking down the hall to the little worldly escape room Sakin noticed sparse light entering from little holes in the ceiling, all camouflaged the same way the entrance was; by a film of water resembling the puddle. Any light source that wasn’t natural looked to be battery power, or at the very least wireless.
He took his place upon the patchwork cushions as Malam began to brew whatever tea she felt was appropriate to the moment.
“Why’s the counter made of quartz?”
She looked over her shoulder to give him a wide grin before starting.
“The boen before me took particular interest in researching the rare & elusive effects of different things. They would include poisons, and yes, crystals and gemstones. He was quite particular about keeping his work as secret as possible, but we managed to recover most of his work after his uuh—”
She hesitated for a moment, unsure if she should say exactly what she meant.
“Departure.”
“What happened to him?”
Her avoidance of the topic, however, failed to dull Sakin’s childlike curiosity.
“I’m sorry, Sakin.”
She lamented with a heavy breath.
“But recounting those events would prove the use of the rose quartz meaningless.”
Sakin let out a disappointed sigh and looked down to sip from the cup she had handed him mid-conversation. It was wonderful. It was warm, yet incredibly refreshing.
“You know, Sakin, you’re the only one who knows their memory was wiped.”
Sakin groaned, confused.
“The others must have known, right? The change of conditions is rather dramatic, and admittedly a little unexpected to be a constant household state.”
“The others found out on their own accords if they did. Though there are some whose memory I was unable to wipe.”
...
“What?”
Previously Sakin had just assumed that all had somewhat similar conditions to his. All natheren to be specific.
“I was able to wipe the surviving parent’s memories, but those three themselves got their abilities before I could. I have to make use of the quartz a few weeks before their thirteenth birthdays, since after that their abilities could activate whenever, but I hadn’t been the boen when these three got theirs’.”
“Just out of curiosity, who are those three?”
He was never able to hold back his questions.
“Dolores, Odin and Aibek.”
He squinted his eyes slightly. Aibek? He doesn’t look like someone who has much going on for himself.
“To be honest, and sorry if I sound a little rude, but I expected you to turn out far worse than Aibek. I didn’t bother to even separate you two.”
He did have his influence on Sakin, but he still managed to maintain some of his sanity. The comment did make Sakin bite his lip, though only because of the mention of Aibek’s actions.
“I don’t know if you know,”
This topic had been nagging at him for a while and was the original intent of his visit.
“But two humans recently got powers. One water and one fire, and unfortunately the fire one has a low tolerance for the other, they’re planning to play a so-called ‘prank’ on the water one.”
She listened closely, gently nodding to the sudden development.
“I read of this sort of thing in the last boen’s papers but never expected it to prove true. I think it had something to do with the blades I provided Dolores to hand over to budding natheren.”
This was an eye-opener for him. Adawna’s old dagger had been in custody during the rise of both cases.
“There’s this knife that both of them had. The fire one had stolen it from the fire one.”
“However”
She added.
“It has to do with the crystals embedded in the blades. And those are merely vessels.”
Crystals? Blades? Vessels? What?
- Writer
