Vince turned slowly around the corner, and looked, and his hair stood on end.
Jasper was holding a chubby homeless man by the jaw. The man wore only ripped shorts, his chest bare. Blood dripped from an open wound where Jasper's grip had crushed in his jaw, bone shards pushing through the skin.
Jasper turned to Vince and gave a gesture to approach.
Why is he doing this? Vince thought, his mind trembling.
Then Jasper said with his deep voice, and command.
"Use your book."
Vince hurriedly dumped the stuff he had purchased to the floor. At these words his entire body trembled.
Is Jasper really going to make me kill a man?
Vince was haunted by the thought of murdering another soul and his stomach was twisting.
I have done it already, but that was life or death. I can't now. Before, I had no choice!
A gurgling voice roused in his back-mind.
I killed them because I dragged them into that. And the same will happen, should I do it now. Death affairs, unless it is self-defense… and so far I am only a murderer.
The atmosphere dimmed. His surrounding dim voices of people and sound of the ocean became silent.
I'm no better than a murderer. To be a good Stacker, to be a strong one, I must kill. Otherwise I would be the one dying.
Vince was beaded with sweat. He rubbed his arms, trembling.
He stared at Jasper, and his heart sank. Those evil black eyes blazed right right into him, into his very soul. What had those eyes seen? Death? The loss of a loved one?
For a Stacker, it's all the same. Death is only the price of the power.
The lives I've taken… they were only so I could keep living.
Vince had seen death and violence, whether in the depths of Koburn or in faint memories of Earth. But there had been one place where death hadn't touched him, the years he spent in that other world, those 29 years where death had felt far away.
Was it always just a false world?
If I want answers… if I want power… I'll have to take another life.
His lips curled into the faintest smile, though pain still lingered in his eyes.
When the world revolves around me, it feels fucking cruel.
Vince laid a shaking hand on the book which lay next his side. It wasn't heavy. He knew that. But the burden of what he was going to do was intolerable.
Vince picked up the book and stood with his back.
AHH!
Pain had flown through him, sharp, familiar, much smaller than ever. He rubbed his eyes and pushed himself on.
I can do this.
He began to think of his life as he drew the cover back: What would Father think? What would my family think? What about school? Self answering and bitter, self hollowing.
They won't give a fuck.
He forced the book fully open.
his head was filled with a swarm of whispers, snatches of knowledge, names, pictures. A single word moved through the noise, and scraped and looped at his brain, until it stood out.
Misfortune.
The next page he was on was blank, followed by words crawling on the page as though written by a hand.
Name: Ward Cuya
State toward user: scared, awe
Stacker: No
A foul drawing of a human anomaly came under the lines and the page became motionless.
Interesting.
Vince glanced at Jasper. "I don't think this can be used for offense or defense," he said.
Jasper only stared.
And it must do something at least.
There came more, more words, and with every word came a stab of pain as the book forced its way into his head.
Grab it! Grab it!
Vince slapped his hands to his head. There's nothing to grab!
AH!
The pain spiked again. Fuck it.
He clutched at the paper.
SNIP!
The page tore. The letters and information were the same, and were printed upon the ragged scrap. The paper began to move in his hand, and became loose, together. It contracted in a few seconds, and was rolled into itself until it was a small, dark blue orb.
What the fuck.
The orb clung to his fingers, leaving a faint trail of light when he moved. Pain knotted with every motion, but he pushed through.
It worked. It actually, works.
More training swamped his mind.
Think anomaly! Think body!
Body.
Does it want a human body?
He was glancing at the fat man Jasper had. His eyes were big with naked terror; his mouth filled with blood and bits of bone where Jasper had trampled him. His stomach contracted, however his head reduced. Legs. If it's body, think legs.
"J-Jasper, please, put him down," Vince stammered.
Jasper complied. He laid the man on the ground. The homeless man scrambled up and ran away as panic added to his flight.
Vince focused. He cupped the orb and threw it.
The orb was moving as a flying mote of light. As it touched it disappeared into the legs of the man.
CLICK!
The legs of the homeless man numbed, and closed like a switch had been flicked.
THUD!
He collapsed, unable to stand.