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Caught Halfway by Ashlucard713

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Chapter 2

The car bounced along the desert, the rough ride jarring his wounds to the edge of tolerance. Knives gritted his teeth against the pain, determined not to let it get the best of him. Another oversized rock hit the wheel and a thousand needles shot through his legs. He gasped for breath, trying to get enough oxygen to override the signals to his brain. The pill bottle rolled around on the floor in the back seat, its rattle beckoning him. Pain tore through his flesh, but he set his jaw and refused to give in to the tempting call. A single pill would more than take the edge off, but two would knock him out while they wreaked havoc with his body chemistry. Three hours of coma-like sleep, searing pain jolting him awake, then hallucinations of flowers and bunnies for another ten hours. He should have known better than to raid a woman’s medicine horde in the middle of the night.

The wind whipped at his hair, the roughened locks lashing at his skin. A week’s ride over the barren landscape had more than taken its toll on him. His face felt raw and torn, blasted by the desert wind. He would have put the car top up, but for some reason he couldn’t figure out the buttons. At least the compass in the car worked. By keeping that needle pointed west, he’d managed to stay on course without too much difficulty.

The suns were low against the sky, and evening was starting to set in. Against the horizon, the tiny town of Daelu waited. Barely worth a dot on the map, less than thirty people lived there, and it only survived because it was perched on the edge of civilization. Beyond it stretched a vast ocean of sand, the Prok Dunes. Over a thousand iles wide at the narrowest point, only a few had dared to cross it, and even fewer survived the experience. He’d navigated its shifting sands once before, almost three years ago.

As he drove into the town, he cast a cautious eye about him. Daelu was still the same town he had left years before. The buildings were still crumbling, the streets derelict and forlorn. Knives parked the car in front of the general store and climbed out. Nothing had changed. The doctor’s front window was still broken and boarded over, the barbershop’s sign still hanging by one rusty chain, and the brothel was still…

Pangs tore through him, but he bit his cheek against them. The telepathic link ripped open again, and another’s thoughts flooded into his mind. Foreign emotions cut into his concentration, and he had to focus hard to work the link closed. He could barely recall the supplies he needed, but he had to get them now. He would have no time afterwards.

The young clerk eyed him warily as he walked in. As you should, pathetic garbage, he laughed inwardly. Knives gathered his purchases and dumped them on the counter, leaving the clerk gaping with surprise. “You travelin’ alone or with an army?”

“Do you have any painkillers?” Knives snapped, his temples beginning to throb again.

The clerk jerked his thumb to the shelf behind him. “Whatcha see is whatcha get.” One dusty bottle of a generic brand. It was probably older than him.

Knives groaned inwardly. Something is better than nothing. “That and a bottle of whiskey.”

The clerk rang everything up and dumped the merchandise into bags, all the while popping his gum as loud as possible. “Ya owe me $$52.30.”

“Do you know Ancilla?”

The clerk’s eyebrow rose. “Ya lookin’ fer a night on the town?”

“Answer the question.”

“She’s dead.”

“When?”

“Month ago. Died a’ some weird disease. Doc didn’t know what it was. Prob’ly from all the booze. Some say Ted dun her in. Either way, it dun’t matter none.” He snorted. “She’s dead, and the town’s a whole lot happier for it. Always draggin’ in those whacked-out guys. Drunks, hobos, didn’t matter who they were jus’ long as they could pay. But her daughter… Eh, it dudn’t matter.”

“What about her daughter?” His eyes narrowed.

The clerk spoke slowly, voice edged. “Where’s my money?”

Knives snorted and grabbed his bags. As he walked out the door, he could hear the clerk screaming and wheezing as he crushed his own trachea. A smile broke on his lips as Knives set the bags in the trunk. Now, to business.

He worked the mental link open again. Now he could hear her, feel her. Tracing the link to the other end, he found himself in a backalley. Beside a dumpster sat a pile of tattered rags, rags that shook with soft weeping. Something stabbed at him, a hundred-years-dead pain. Tien.

No!
screamed the reply. Get out of my head! The pile at his feet shifted as the concealed girl pressed her palms to her temples. I don’t wanna listen to you anymore! Get the heck outta my head!

“Tien,” he said quietly.

Her eyes jumped open when she realized the voice wasn’t in her head anymore. She spotted boots in front of her, and followed them up to a face. A face she somehow recognized. Pale blonde hair, once cut like a soldier, now hung in lank and dusty locks to his ears. Piercing blue irises in bloodshot eyes looked out from a face chiseled in flesh-colored stone, stone recently blasted rough by the desert sands. The face triggered a memory, one she couldn’t recall.

“Great. First, I’m hearing voices. Now I’m starting to hallucinate.”

“You are not hallucinating,” he calmly replied.

Her head rolled in mild drama. “Now my hallucination is in denial. What would a shrink have to say to that?”

He exhaled deeply. A teenage girl. She had to be a teenage girl.

“I heard that,” she bit off. She shrugged off the rags and leapt to her feet, the top of her head barely reaching his shoulders. Knives was taken aback. She looked nothing like he imagined, but everything she should be. Though red and puffy, her eyes were fierce and sharp, the blue edged with a fiery orneriness. Her body, bony and malnourished, pathetically attempted to fill the coarse dress draped over it. Light-colored hair, matted with debris, fell past her waist. She straightened her thin frame and shook her finger in his face. “All right. Who are you and why the heck is your voice in my head?”

“Would you quit the theatrics?”

“Answer the question!”

“My name is Millions Knives.”

She stifled a laugh. “Did your mother name you that? Or did you change it?”

His jaw stiffened and he shot her a look that would have sent any human cowering. She merely raised an eyebrow. Is that supposed to scare me? she thought to him. For a split-second, his face floated between anger and surprise before the stone mask set in again. “That is beside the point.”

“Hey, I’m not the one who’s ungrammatically named after a bunch of weapons. Now, why have I heard you in my head all my life?”

“I’m a plant.” Crossing her arms in suspicion, Tien cocked a brow as her eyes scrutinized him again. “I have monitored you since you were born, and—what are you looking for?!” She had begun to circle him.

“The leaves,” she replied innocently, patting the top of his head.

He swatted her hand away. “Not that kind of plant.”

“Then what ‘kind of plant’ are you? One of those… ‘things’ in a giant lightbulb?” His face hardened. “You’re telling me you live in a lightbulb?”

“I can, yes.”

She rolled her eyes. “And I thought I was delusional.”

“You’re also a plant.”

“You’re absolutely nuts,” she laughed, turning on her heels and walking away. “In case you haven’t noticed, I don’t live in a giant lightbulb. See ya.”

“You’re only two and a half years old, but you look fifteen,” he said, and Tien froze in her tracks. She turned around, confusion on her face. “You can read the thoughts of humans, even if you don’t try.” She started walking back to him. “If they get physically close enough, you can see their mental images. And, when you hold a small lightbulb…” He produced a bulb from inside his shirt. “You can make it glow.” On cue, the bulb lit up in his hands, and Tien stared in amazement. She lifted her eyes to him again.

“You really are a—” she muttered breathlessly.

“Tien!”

The girl wheeled around in the direction of the yell, and her face fell. Six men were staggering across the street, heading right for her. No! I gotta run! Gotta hide!

Why?
came his calm reply.

She whipped back around and looked into his face. He was watching the men, a supercilious sneer twisting his features.

“Tien, wha’ the hell is ya doin’ now?”

They won’t stop chasing you. Not until you teach this garbage a lesson.

Not now!
Panic rose in her thoughts. Now is not the time—

Now is the perfect time.


She tried to run, but she found her hands in his iron grip. Struggle as she might, she couldn’t loosen his hold. She fought and pulled, but to no avail. This guy must be nuts! He can’t face down Ted and his pack. Ohhh, Ted’s gonna kill me!

Not if I kill him first.


She froze and stared at him. He really is crazy!

“Tien!” The men had reached the alley, and Knives released Tien’s hands. The leader of the group looked Knives over, a predator studying his prey. “Wha’ kinda filth ya hangin’ out wit now?”

“Ted, Ted, please,” Tien whimpered, backing away. “He came up to me. Please, please, Ted.”

“Ya know,” he slobbered, slamming her shoulders hard against the dumpster. “I don know if I like the way ya was lookin’ a’ him.”

“Please, Ted. Please.”

“Ah, so you’re Ted,” condescended Knives. Don’t let him rule over you.

Her eyes widened in pleading. Go! Please, just go!

“Yeah,” mumbled Ted, turning around. His paw kept Tien in place. “Wha’s it to ya?”

“I have a little lesson for you,” leered Knives.

The men laughed. “Hehehehe. An’ I gots a lil les’n for ya, too,” chuckled Ted. “Take ‘em, boys.”

Before the men could obey, their hair started to float with static. Electricity snapped through the air, and Knives’ eyes began to glow. Blue lightning gathered and five black orbs appeared. He held out his hands, manipulating the streaks of power with his fingers. The orbs floated around the plant, mesmerizing the humans with their presence. Suddenly, the orbs shot out, attaching themselves to Ted’s friends and swallowing them alive. The men’s primeval screams echoed through the alley, building to a frightening crescendo of pain and torture. Just before the breaking point, the screams abruptly choked off and the orbs disappeared, taking the men with them.

“Worthless human garbage,” stated Knives as his eyes returned to normal. “Only good for consuming resources.”

“Wha’ the hell did ya jus’ do?” slurred Ted.

“Extermination.” With inhuman speed, Knives grabbed the human by the throat and slammed him into the alley wall. Plaster and adobe cracked under the impact. “Now it’s your turn.”

“Knives, please. Don’t,” pled Tien. But she knew it was useless.

“Do you have any final words?” mocked the plant. Ted only gasped and wheezed in his grasp. Knives’s right arm transformed, his fingers turning into elongated blades.

“Hmm, you won’t be needing these.” The man screamed airlessly as tender parts of his male anatomy fell away. Knives reveled in the human’s pathetic whimpering and crying, and he pressed harder on the windpipe in his fingers. Human eyes bulged in pain as plant eyes narrowed in delight. Drawing back his arm, Knives deftly plunged his blades into the human’s stomach. Fresh blood splurted out as the man’s eyes began to roll back into his head. The plant withdrew his blades and released his hold, and the body slid to the ground.

Blades returned to flesh and Knives disdainfully shook the remaining blood from his arm. He turned on his heels and grabbed Tien’s wrist as he left the body in the dust. “Come on, we have to leave.”

“You just—how could—he—” she stammered as he dragged her away. As he neared the car, she regained her senses. Throwing her arm out of his hand, she dug her bare heels into the dirt and stopped. “You just ki—” Suddenly conscientious, she said in a quieter voice, “You just killed six men. And now you expect me to just go off with you?!”

“Yes.”

“No. No! I am not gonna climb into a car with a murderer!”

“Then are you willing to stay here and be punished for this?”

“What?” she said. “Now wait a minute! I didn’t do anything! I even tried to talk you—”

“Do you think they’ll believe that? The townspeople? The humans?”

She didn’t answer. She just stared.

“Everyone here hates you,” he stated flatly. “They think you’re a monster, a freak of nature. Not even your own mother defended you.”

Tears formed in her eyes. He’d cut her deep, but he couldn’t stop. Not when he was so close—

“You want nothing more than to get out of here. Every morning, you watch the suns rise and dream of the day you can escape. Now you can. I am your ticket out of here. I am the one who can help you the most. I can help you discover who and what you are. You are not human. You know that. You’ve known it since before you can remember. Now come with me.

She was still in shock. A million things ran through her mind, but she couldn’t decide on anything.

There is nothing for you here.

Her mind was so torn. To stay here meant pain, but to go with him—somehow that felt both right and wrong at the same time.

“Murder!” she heard a voice scream from the backalley.

Tien didn’t hesitate a second longer. Running past Knives, she jumped over the door into the car. “C’mon! Do you need a written invitation or something? Let’s move!”

He shook his head. She was still thinking like a human.


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