I attempted to sleep for a couple of hours before being perturbed by an odd feeling I couldn't shake. It was as if my Will was telling me something was wrong. The external storm has made its way inside. My heartbeat quickened when I heard a voice in the hall. I tried to reassure myself that it was probably Rose getting water, but that wouldn't explain why I could sense snow inside the house. I moved closer to my curtain, for a door, when I heard two men talking to each other on the other side. It was hard to hear them through the sound of raging winds and snow hitting the house, but my enhanced hearing made it easier.
"Hey, you sure you saw him go into this house?"
"Keep it down, will you? And, yes. I'm sure. Just look for his room."
Hearing them get farther away, I waited until I couldn't hear them before opening the curtains and moving into the hallway. My eyes, already adjusted to the dark, allowed me to see everything.
I heard a door open, and the hushed voices got more excited, followed by a high-pitched scream. My eyes shot open, and my heartbeat became even faster.
"Damn! This ain't the brat!" One man called out.
The other man, whose voice was higher pitched, blurted. "Just grab her, an' shut her up!"
Damn it. I shouldn't have waited. They've got Rose!
Dashing through the hall in an instant, I crashed through the door to Rose's room. "Get your hands off of her!"
"Riiinmmm!" Rose called out, only for her mouth to be covered by one of the men.
My eyes, now capable of seeing more details in the dark, gave me a good look at the two. The one who had Rose was tall and muscular, wearing a thick fur coat that made him look even bigger. The other was wearing a simple coat and hood, his hair blocking the top half of his face.
Him!
"My, my, my, look who we have here. Now, isn't this a predicament…" The hooded man chuckled. Walking towards Rose, he put his hand on her neck and lightly squeezed. Rose squealed from her throat, unable to open her mouth.
"If my assumption is on the nose, and it usually is, I'd say that this is your sister, isn't it?"
My eyes narrowed, face in a grimace, but not willing to get closer in case he did anything. "You do anything to her, and I'll kill you." My voice was flat but with an icy presence to it.
"My oh my, be careful now, Walsh, we don't want to hurt his… precious sister. Do we?" He said in a teasing voice.
"This pipsqueak? I'll crush him." The other man's voice was deep and oppressive.
Is there really something I can do?
"She is precious. Isn't sheee." Taking his hand off of Rose's neck, he reaches into his pocket, grabbing something. "Why don't we all just calm down… and have a little fun." Pulling out a knife, he twirls it between his fingers before gripping it firmly and pushing it up against Rose's neck.
Rose squeals again, tears now streaming down her face. Instinctively, I take a step forward. Wanting nothing more than to help her.
The hooded man pushes the knife harder. "Why don't you stop right there before my hand slips."
"What do you want?" My voice cracked.
"Oh, nothing. Just the money you stole from me."
A voice cries from behind me, "Rin… you stole… that money." My mom, her presence unnoticed by me, was standing in the door frame of Rose's room.Her voice sounded broken and desperate. Tinged with betrayal.
I focused too much on Rose… and didn't notice her.
I looked at my mother. Her face in a frown. "I didn't steal it. I swear!"
"My, my, my, what a predicament. But… the clock's ticking, and I don't have a lot of patience."
I look back towards the hooded man, watching him carefully. "I'll get it!" My mother calls out, "Just give me a minute."
"One." Was all he said.
My mom quickly left the room.
Keeping my eyes on him, he noticed my harsh gaze and tightened his grip on the knife.
I can't keep waiting. I refuse too.
Taking a deep breath, I sought to control my anger, my emotions, grabbing onto a stable calmness within me, like a foothold, lessening the burden of my path.
My worry disappeared, my panic erased, both replaced by a chill that spread throughout my entire body.
The chill was like an ancient calling, a bestial summons that brought heightened senses and strength. A force of power I had never felt before.
The chill encompassed my Will, as I focused on letting it out. A vapor began pouring from my body, lowering the temperature of the room by a few degrees, and the breath of everyone became visible to me.
A light came from down the hall, and my mother came back with a candle in one hand and a box in the other. The candle flickered when she entered the room, and I focused on keeping my Will away from it. It was hard, but I did everything I could to focus, collecting power. I just needed a little time.
"Ah, good. You're back. And not a second too late. But why don't we keep the lights off? Its brightness strains my eyes."
It was hard to tell, but it was like there were moving strands of darkness all over the floor and walls. Like ripples of water, but black. They moved toward my mom before rising up her body. Like fast-growing vines spreading. I considered moving towards her, but she didn't react to them, as if she couldn't feel or see them. The vines of darkness kept rising until they reached her arms. They then moved along them, down her hands, before reaching the candle where they found residence.
My mother gasped when her light suddenly went out. Or at least, stopped shining. The candle wasn't put out, but was stripped of light. The once bright orange candle was left lightless, and in its place, a black flame of darkness swayed in its place. Acting no different than a regular flame. The room seemed to grow darker in reaction to his Will.
A Shadow Holder.
It's nothing but a cheap parlor trick.
"Leave the box by your feet on the floor. Once you place it down, both of you leave the room."
"Absolutely not!" My mom called out. Yelling toward the voice, she couldn't see the source of.
I Just need a little more time.
"No?! My, my, my. Do you want me to slit your daughter's throat? Do you want my buddy here to bash your head in!!?" His voice rose in anger with every word.
"Mom, it's fine," I reassured her. "And you." I grumbled at the hooded man. "You make one more threat and I'll freeze you solid."
"Oooh, scary. The inish has some feist in him!" The man teased.
His partner laughed obnoxiously.
"I'll shatter you like ice on rock." The muscular man's voice was deep and scruffy. "You think an inish like you can survive a hit from me?"
Almost there.
Finished laughing, the hooded man's face returned serious. Raising his voice, he yelled, "Now! Leave the damn box on the ground, or Monarchs help me, I will slit your daughter's throat, and then kill you all!"
"That's enough." I spoke, my voice calm. Frost vapor escaped my mouth like a dragon breathing fire. Stopping my absorption of power and instead releasing it out through my right hand and out towards the two men, I take a step forward.
"W-what… did I say… stop r-right th-there." The hooded man tries to speak between chattering teeth. He strained his right arm with the knife and attempted to pull it across Rose's neck, but he couldn't move it.
A layer of frost slowly covered their bodies, spreading across them like a storm in winter… inevitable.
The hooded man's control over his Shadows weakens, allowing light to escape into the room again, the frost glimmering in the candlelight. As the ice spread over their bodies, the room became visible in the reflection. The walls became covered in strands of light and darkness, like the reflection of waves as one fought for control over the other.
Walking towards them. "I have already given you one chance… leeway. I won't give another. I asked you to leave me alone, and you brought this feud to my family. I'm done asking, so I'll show you instead."
"You r-rat! I h-have a De-Decent Shadow Will." The hooded man growls. Attempting to sound threatening over his chattering teeth.
"That's cute. Because mine… is that of a Lord."
His gaze locked in shock, like a stone effigy of fear. His pupils dilated, and his mouth fell agape.
A conniving smirk spread across my face.
"I-I couldn't ev—? Wa-wait. L-lets talk about t-this. I'm sorry, okay. I-I didn't know."
Reaching the pair in a few steps, I grab the hooded man's hand with the knife, squeezing and pulling. The man pleads and groans, the layer of ice cracking. With little effort, his hand snaps clean off. Blood spurts from his stump, but immediately freezes. His hand, now in pieces on the floor, drops the knife. He cries out in pain but is frozen still, unable to move.
All he can do is scream and cry.
"Your ignorance changes nothing."
Looking towards the muscular man, his face contorted in fear as he pleaded, "Wa-wait, man. P-please, have m-mercy."
I picked up the knife without saying a word. Bringing it over my head and back down in swift succession. My enhanced body amplifying the speed. The knife cleanly cuts through his right hand holding Rose's mouth and falls to the ground before shattering. The muscular man lets out a pained howl.
Straining his muscles, he moves slightly, the ice cracking until it shatters in a rain of sparkles. Rose lets out a squeal and runs toward our mother in a panic, free from his grasp.
Having broken free, his attention fully turned to me. Smashing his severed and non-severed hand into the wooden floor, they dug into the earth, becoming covered in stone.
Flexing his muscles, his face a grimace of focus to block out the pain, he lunges at me.
One stone fist comes flying toward my stomach, the other toward my face.
With the looming danger, adrenaline shoots through my veins. My hair stands on end, my senses increase, and my perception focuses. My heightened eyes could track his every move, like my body could perceive risk. Everything moved in slow motion.
Leaning right to avoid his right arm crossing towards my stomach, I raise my arm holding the knife. Ducking under his following jab to my face, I bring the blade towards his left arm. The earth, reinforcing his fist, powders my face in dirt as it passes my temple. Like a razor through butter, the knife cleanly cuts through his elbow, severing his left arm. Inertia carries it forward as it disconnects, crashing into the wall behind me a moment later.
Falling to the ground in a hard thud, the ball of muscle of a man rolls around, convulsing in pain. Feeling backlash from my Will, colder than ever, I loosen my hold on it. His blood, no longer frozen by my frost, spreads everywhere.
Kneeling next to him, I raise the knife to finish him off…
"Rin…!" Rose calls out from behind me. I turn my head to see that she has activated the body enhancements of her Fire Will.
Her body was embraced in a warming flame. Contained to not burn anything, the heat spread throughout the entire room, melting my frost. Tears welled up in her eyes, but were immediately evaporated by the heat.
"Don't do it!"
I look at my mother, then back to her. "They broke in, held you captive, and you what? Want them to live!"
"Yes." She spoke slowly, forcing out the word.
The fire around her flickered violently as she spoke. Her voice cracked, like that one word was the most difficult decision of her life.
"I… I can't. I need to make sure that these two, they'll never hurt anyone ever again!" A single frozen tear fell from my eye before melting away.
"There are terrible people in this world! I know that! You want Mom and me to be safe. But you've already done that. So please, Rin. Don't make yourself a terrible person by going any further!"
My frost, now all melted into water, was overpowered by Rose's flames. I looked down, seeing her reflection and mine.
She was bathed in her flame, as beautiful as a matriarch, but I… I looked disgusting. Ice covered my face, blood was all over my hands and clothes, and spots of dirt from the muscular Holder grimed my face.
I just want to make sure...
"Rin!" Rose calls out again.
With the two men on either side of me, I divert my attention between them. The hooded man was still wailing on the floor, covering his stump with his other hand. The muscular man was torn in panic between his severed hand and the missing half of his other arm.
Shifting my body to face the hooded man, I bring the knife to his throat. "You'll be my first."
Without hesitating, I push the knife in a slash. Blood came pouring out in a fountain. He grasped his neck in an attempt to slow the bleeding. Which came as a futile effort as he gurgled his last few breaths. A second later, he was dead.
Rose hid behind our mom, not daring to look.
The cries of everyone drowned in my anger.
The second intruder watched as I slit his partner's throat. In defiance of his condition, his body forces his flight for survivability. Holding out the stumps of his arms, he controls the stones on the ground to compress around them, slowing the bleeding like a tourniquet.
Dashing towards the door, plowing through Rose and my mother, he runs outside in a panic. Making his way outside into the storm.
I stood to chase him out, but was stopped by my mom. With a sad smile, she looked at me and shook her head.
I just killed someone…