Ch. 4 - Night

Chapter Four - Night

The sky lit up once more overhead, with a deafening crash of thunder. The rain continued in a heavy downpour, causing the streets of the small town to become slick and glistening. The cobblestones of the sidewalks reflected the light from the few street lamps softly. Night had long since fallen, and those were the only sources of light aside from certain windows. Starless and moonless, the cloud-ridden night sky was far darker than normal.

 

"Damn it… I hate this blasted island's weather," a shivering, cat-like pokégirl grumbled, tucked behind some old shipping crates behind the tavern.

 

A taller woman shook her head gently, sitting next to her. Her posture was forced, sitting with her right hand pressed against her stomach. A dark crimson flowed from beneath her fingers, staining her shirt badly. "Shut up, Kittra. We'll get you fire soon enough, don't worry. We just need to make sure we've lost them," the woman replied, sounding sure of herself.

 

Kittra shook her head wearily. She appeared mostly human, the only major difference being her eyes and hair. Her hair seemed to dance by its own accord, and was a light orange in color. Eyes like glowing embers from a fire, her pupils were elongated, cat-like slits. She shivered again in the cold rain, trying to tuck herself closer to her own body for heat.

 

"I've never seen such persistent hunters. How'd they even find us?" Kittra asked once again, looking towards the pale woman next to her.

 

She got a glare in return. The paler woman spoke with utmost command, "If you keep talking, maybe you can ask them yourself when they find us. Just wait for Cassia to get back."

 

Kittra sighed but nodded. "Yes, Mistress Karumi," she intoned, in a subdued manner.

 

Karumi nodded slightly, and went back to attempting to regenerate her stomach to the best of her abilities. The fight had been an extremely rapid one, and she cursed herself for not having been aware of their presence faster. It wasn't like her at all.

 

Several minutes of silence followed. The wound was deep, and still burned of celestial energy.   Damn it! She didn't expect there to be an Archangel in the group. Kittra jumped at every little noise, as if expecting the squad of celestials that subdued her two teammates to burst out of the shadows and attack her again. It wasn't helping that she was freezing from all the rain and badly overdue for a nice fire or two.

 

Karumi's attention snapped back into focus as a faint glow lit the wall of the building across the alleyway. A light, translucent girl drifted out of the wall then, and smiled when she saw them. Karumi breathed a sigh of relief and nodded Cassia over to them. "I return, Mistress Karumi," she announced properly upon reaching the two girls.

 

Kittra glared in envy as the rain passed through the ghost pokégirl. Cassia looked exactly like a normal girl. Her shoulder length hair was slightly wavy, and its color indistinguishable due to her translucent appearance. Otherwise, she was nude, but her exact form was difficult to make out. The only strange part of her apart from the standard Wraith seemed to be her glowing red eyes. Karumi nodded towards her. "Did you find anything out?"

 

"Our attackers are of the Blue League. The celestials themselves are PLC. Three angels and an archangel. Lilit was killed by the archangel after you escaped. Malev is unconscious and has been pokéballed," she summed up gently, with little to no feeling in her voice.

 

Karumi sighed and shook her head wearily. Two team members lost, the hideout destroyed, and most of the artifacts seized. This wasn't a good day at all. "Did you find anything out about specifically why they're here?" she asked next, looking back up at the ghost pokégirl.

 

Cassia shrugged gently. "They mentioned something about a disturbance investigation in this town, but other than that," she informed hesitantly, trailing off. Her mistress didn't like failure, but at least she'd gotten that information.

 

"So that idiot's bumbling attracted the attention of the authorities. That's the last time we're working with rogue tamers, regardless of how powerful their organization is," Karumi declared, narrowing her eyes. They must have known he had help though if they were still searching the area after a month had passed. And they must be using psychic pokégirls to scan as well, or they wouldn't have found the hideout.

 

Kittra stood up slowly. "Mistress, we need to get out of this place. Let's just hide again. Or travel far away from here. With magic we could," she started suggesting.

 

"No! I've put too much time into researching this area. If we don't at least get some results, this whole mission is to be considered a failure. You know she won't like that, so we stay." Karumi stood up again, glaring towards Kittra, who shrank under her stare, and nodded rapidly.

 

Cassia smiled and nodded, before tentatively reporting, "I think I might have a new potential hideout." Karumi grinned before looking over at her.

 

 

"…but why a Chickenlittle? I mean, those things don't exactly have any combat moves that are useful, or that high of a mental capacity," I asked again, confused.

 

Patrick chuckled and shook his head, before repeating, "Look, I told you. I want to evolve her into a Hot Chick. I lack the moon stone to pull off a Cockatrix."

 

Shaking my head, I took another sip of my shake, as we were still waiting for our burgers to arrive. Kari was shopping if I recall, and I had no idea where Dad was. Danni sat, emptily staring at the table advertisements, next to Patrick, and Kiya sat, swaying slowly back and forth, to my right. "You said that. I just don't get why…"

 

Kiya snickered lightly, before breaking in with, "Because Master likes Danni…"

 

I blinked before looking back to Patrick, who was looking over at the topic subject. "I do. Is that so wrong?" he asked gently, looking back over to me. Kiya looked a little sad to my right and I frowned.

 

"She's a threshold, isn't she?" I deduced, looking over at her. She seemed to have an avid curiosity in how the rotating table advertisement worked.

 

Patrick sighed and nodded. "She used to be my best friend. Now she's this. I want to at least get her a little bit back to her old self. But since I can't afford a moon stone," he reasoned, looking down again.

 

"You want to evolve her the absurdly hard way," I finished, looking over at her again before continuing, "And you're bringing her along to keep an eye on her and try to find an easy pokégirl for her to get experience fighting, right?"

 

Patrick finally smirked up at me. "You're awfully clever. What exactly is it that you're planning to do in the future?" he asked, seemingly trying to change the subject.

 

Sighing, I put my shake down again. "That's a hard one. I don't exactly have a lot of skills," I pointed out, rolling my eyes to myself. It was frustrating, how my body was.

 

"Keith is really nice, so he would make a good tamer, wouldn't he?" Kiya tried to reason, resting her head on the table, while managing to look up at me inquisitively still, somehow.

 

I snorted and shook my head. "Not with my body the way it is…" I rebutted, looking downwards. Not that I had much desire to be a tamer. A researcher or breeder maybe, but both of those required a fundamental amount of 'physical labor' as well.

 

"Blood curse?" Patrick asked weakly, frowning at me.

 

I nodded softly. "My constitution is extremely weak. It gives out completely after too much physical labor," I explained. Kiya frowned but nodded as if she understood.

 

"That means he gets really tired and locks up after doing things tiring," Patrick translated for his Peekabu, who gasped and nodded, holding her hands up over her mouth.

 

I was surprised when she hugged me gently, though. "Kiya is sorry, she didn't know!" she whined, looking like she was going to cry.

 

Smiling, I shook my head softly and patted her. "It's okay, Kiya. I didn't take offense…" I assured. She seemed to visibly relax and let her hands slide down to only holding my arm before nodding gently. I sipped more of my shake again, before adding, "I just wish I'd gotten more than these stupid eyes for it."

 

"Well they look pretty cool. What did they do again?" Patrick asked, tilting his head while he looked at them, apparently.

 

I tried to resist snorting again, and failed miserably. "They see better in the dark," I said, sounding cynical. Of course, I didn't tell him what the other eye did. I only told Kari about it, after I freaked out at the funeral. When your left eye can see things not of this plane of existence, going to a cemetery is generally a bad idea, I discovered. Took me three hours to stop freaking out over it.

 

Patrick frowned. I could tell what was going through his head without him even saying it. Which was good, because he didn't strike me as the type that would say it anyway. "Well, that's still useful in a sense, right?" he offered. Yup, didn't think he'd say it. It's pretty much useless.

 

"Maybe for a Tamer…" I muttered, trying not to sound too spiteful, regardless.

 

Our burgers finally got there, however, which temporarily interrupted any conversation. There's just something amazing about a bacon topped double cheeseburger which renders anyone eating it totally unable to stop until it's gone. Of course, I use the word "burger" lightly. I'm fairly certain it wasn't actual, pre-war beef and bacon. Probably something synthetically processed, but I'd never looked into it before.

 

Patrick set his sub down after it was half gone, and took another drink of his soda, before asking, "You don't seem to be the typical, hormonally driven teenager, so what's so interesting about being a Tamer?"   He picked his sub back up before I answered.

 

"I guess I just wanted to be like my dad. Or at least how my dad used to be," I told him, shrugging.

 

He seemed to understand and nodded. "I've heard of Jason Ó Braonain back when I was in Wales. Good, prominent citizen and respected tamer that worked with the law enforcement, right?" he asked. I nodded gently, a little surprised that he'd heard of Dad.

 

"Yeah. He used to be further north, in the Belfast area before he retired and moved down here," I added, just for conversational purposes.

 

Patrick frowned, and shook his head slowly. "Why'd he move all the way down here? He could have just settled in Belfast, couldn't he?"

 

"He moved here before I was born. I have no idea…" I answered, shrugging.

 

He half frowned, but shrugged a few moments later, causing me to raise an eyebrow. "How's he doing now?" he asked suddenly, before I could wonder.

 

I shook my head weakly. "I honestly have no idea.  It's like he's not there, half the time, and the other half he spends at the cemetery."

 

 "Kiya thinks that's a depressing place to be…" Kiya muttered, after several seconds of prevailing silence.

 

Patrick and I nodded solemnly in agreement. "It is depressing. He must be taking the loss of his mate and daughter really hard…" he concluded.

 

I shook my head sadly as I finished my shake. "I don't get it at all. It doesn't even feel real to me yet, but he broke down almost instantly. I wonder if there's something wrong with me?" I pondered out loud.

 

"He was heavily bonded with your mother. To have that severed would be, for lack of better words, horrifying. And losing a daughter at the same time," he pointed out, trailing off and looking down at the table.  I sighed.

 

It had been a little over a month since the event. Mom and Jessica were gone. Just gone. I hadn't even had time to say goodbye to either of them before they were. They were, and the word always churned over and over again in my mind, taken from us. Against their will. It was maddening the longer I thought about it. None of it felt real at all; as if I were to wake up at any second.

 

"You okay, Keith?" Patrick asked, snapping me out of my thoughts.

 

I jumped, but recovered rapidly and nodded. "Yeah. I was just thinking of things," I muttered.

 

Patrick shook his head. "You need to take time too. I know this can't be easy for you, but Kari and I are here for you," he reminded. I sighed and nodded slowly. Kari was being really supportive, and Patrick certainly didn't need to keep hanging around here. "In fact, I vote we should go pay our respects again. It might make you feel better," he continued.

 

"I suppose so," I muttered, tipping my empty shake over onto the tray, idly. Kiya gave a droopy eared expression, while Danni was spinning the advertisement around on the table.

 

Patrick ignored the Chickenlittle, and nodded. "It's settled then! " he declared, pounding his fist lightly against the table for added emphasis.

 

The spinning advertisement wobbled and fell over. Danni jumped and made a panicked squawking noise, as if utterly surprised and knowing she'd be in trouble now. Then I heard a wet popping noise from under the table? Something hard hit my right foot and broke open. Then I felt the wetness oozing over my foot and sighed, disheartened...

 

 

Karumi frowned as she peeked around the still slick head stone. Kittra sat up against the same head stone, playing with a pot of flowers by setting the blossoms on fire, one at a time.

 

"The tamer that Kessandris belonged to, right? Why him?" Karumi asked, frowning at the head stone. 

 

As if on cue, Cassia's head popped out of the rough stone partially. "It's his blood gift and son you might be interested in," she enlightened, smirking.

 

Karumi raised an eyebrow, then looked back at the man in black hair, collapsed against the side of a tombstone, large brown bottle of something in his hand. He was in a business suit, and it looked like he'd just come from work. A strange time to be getting drunk, I suppose.

 

"He has the Spirit-bound blood gift. Rumor has it he performed it at some point during the event a month ago, from the police report, but no results were ever noted," Cassia continued, seeing that her mistress was simply content to watch him.

 

Karumi nodded, as if remembering now. "Oh yes, I told you to investigate what that idiot, Zageith, was actually doing here."

 

Cassia smirked softly. "It's strange. I scanned him easily. I'm still not that good with psychic techniques, but I encountered a problem," she explained, trying to put this in the best light possible.

 

"A problem?" Karumi inquired, skeptically as she turned her head to the left, around the tomb stone. Two more younger boys were coming down the path, followed by what looked like a Peekabu and Chickenlittle?

 

Cassia nodded. "I tried scanning his son, but I couldn't manage to even get a surface thought," she replied, seeing the group heading towards Jason's location.

 

"That's his son right there, the shorter one, isn't it? And maybe he just has the Sealed Mind blood gift?" Karumi reasoned, lowering herself to a kneeling position to watch the four approach the pair of graves.

 

The fiendish Polterkissed shook her head slowly. "I've tried reading those before, remember? They feel different. Like their mind is just, well, absent? His, for lack of better words, attacked me," she tried to express. She'd never experienced something quite like it before, so words were difficult.

 

Karumi frowned and looked intently at Cassia for a few seconds, as if judging if the story were true. "Wait, do you think he has training in resisting psychic techniques?" she asked, looking back at the shortest boy looking a little concerned.

 

Cassia shrugged. "It's hard to say, Mistress. I thought if he blocked me, he'd be aware of my attempt, but so far, he hasn't even seemed to notice. That, and I heard a weird noise right before the energy in my scan was destroyed. It was almost like a growl," she pointed out, shuddering involuntarily at remembering it. It had been kind of scary!

 

"A growl? Does that mean something else he's not even aware of is protecting his," Karumi started deducing before widening her eyes and looking over at the man next to the tomb stone, and deducing, "Oh, I see. The Spirit-binding. He performed it on his son. It must have partially worked, and whomever he stuck inside the boy, is protecting him."

 

Cassia gulped wearily. "It couldn't be Kessandris, could it?" she asked nervously. She mentally decided she was never going to scan the boy again.

 

Karumi shook her head. "Zageith said he finished her completely. I doubt she could have been saved after already killed like that. Wait, didn't the boy have a sister of the same species as Kessandris?" she asked.

 

"Jessica. She was really nice. Stopped to talk to me at the grocery store a few months ago," Kittra informed, still burning flowers and going on her second pot.

 

Both Karumi and Cassia stared down at her, vacantly for a few moments before Karumi shook her head. "Well he said that he only left the humans alive, so he must have gotten her too. So she must be the one inside the boy," she deduced, looking back at Keith.

 

Keith seemed to be shouting something, but they were too far away to make out most of it. Jason just held his hand up and absently waved the two boys away, attempting to dismiss them. After a few moments of watching, Karumi smiled again. "This gives me a wonderful idea… Who lives in their house, altogether?" she asked, looking to Cassia.

 

She shook her head gently. "From scanning the father's very easy to read surface thoughts, himself, the boy, and another girl. Not sure who she is, though, but she seems to be relating to the boy in some way."

 

Karumi nodded and grinned further. She reached into the pouch at her belt, tucked safely behind her cloak, and pulled out a moderately sized book. After flipping through several pages of the dark red book, which looked as if it had seen better days, she smiled and stopped, ordering, "Cassia, go find the girl, then mentally report back. Kittra, make this pattern in chalk and grave dirt around the entire graveyard perimeter." She handed Kittra the open book as she did so.

 

The Hellcat blinked, but nodded before standing up again, heading in the opposite way of the humans. Cassia frowned lightly. "What are you going to do, Mistress?" she asked, quietly.

 

Karumi chuckled and watched the shortest boy shake his head and start walking away, followed by the taller one hesitating and following after. "I'm going to say hello to our friend over there, and ask him if he wants to help," she stated in an nonchalant manner.

 

Cassia raised an eyebrow to her as she headed towards the two fresh graves.

 

 

My foot collided with one of the chairs and sent it flying. The only thing it managed to do was make a loud noise and my foot hurt. Patrick picked up the fallen chair and sighed. Aching, I felt my body start to not handle the stress very well and I had a small coughing fit, forcing back a spasm. Warm liquid started running down my cheeks without me telling it to, and I sighed.

 

"He's hurt, Keith. I think he and your mother were bonded really heavily…" he tried to justify.

 

I shook my head rapidly and gripped at the other chair on this side heavily, trying to catch my breath and not spasm again. "There's no reason to be giving up on everything! He has to realize that there are other things that he can," I started to shout, before just losing energy and falling into the chair I was gripping.

 

Kiya made a soft whimper before sitting down again opposite of me. Patrick sat down as well, quietly. "I just can't understand any of this. They're gone. Dad's lost it. And all because some asshole I don't even know shows up. He destroyed everything. What right did he have to just come here and," I started, before choking back another sob and letting my head fall onto my arms. They gave a spasm of complaint, but I ignored them.

 

"He didn't destroy everything. You and Kari are still here. Your Dad will recover," he tried to reason, staring out the window at the miserable sky, darkening. It was probably going to rain again.

 

I shook my head slowly. "He still had no right," I muttered weakly. Did anybody?

 

Patrick sighed and shook his head. "Let's just watch another movie, okay? The distraction is what you need the most, right now," he reasoned. I nodded slowly and stood up, wincing as my legs gave complaint. Damn this body!

 

"What time is it? I figured Kari would be back from a simple grocery shopping trip by now?" I asked, suddenly realizing that it indeed was getting dark out.

 

Patrick shook his head slowly. "Almost seven. She has been gone a rather long time, hasn't she? Although you know what they say about women and shopping…" he pointed out, smirking.

 

I raised an eyebrow to him, but chuckled. I could tell he was trying to make me feel better, so I was glad for the attempt, regardless. Heading out into the main room, I walked towards the entry hall to make sure the outside light was on for her, anyway. Patrick followed more slowly, looking at some of the paintings that lined the hallway.

 

Just as I reached for the light switch, I heard the outer door open. Smiling, I opened the inner door in time for Kari to walk through, carrying several shopping bags. "Sorry I'm late, but I really stocked up…" she informed, smirking at me.

 

Grinning, I snatched two of the bags out of her arms to help haul them to the kitchen. "We were beginning to wonder if you got lost," Patrick informed as she walked past him carrying the last two bags.

 

"Oh shush, I wasn't that late…" she defended. I averted my eyes. Most people don't take four hours to shop for groceries. "Besides, I ran into your Dad on the way back," she added upon setting the bags down on the table.

 

I glared lightly. "What did he want?" I asked, probably a little more bitterly than intended.

 

Kari shook her head and looked back at me. "He wanted to talk to you and apologize for his behavior. And said something about showing you something important…" she informed, getting a ponderous look to her.

 

"Something important? Where is he?" I asked, less angry and more confused now.

 

"I met him at the store. I don't quite know how he knew I was there, but he told me to deliver the message to you, and have you meet him down at the cemetery," she explained, shrugging.

 

Patrick raised an eyebrow. "Why there? He's acting extremely strange."

 

I shook my head. "Regardless, he's my dad. I should probably meet him as he requests," I absently decided.

 

Kari frowned, but nodded. "Just be careful. There might be ferals on the outskirts this late at night," she requested, looking worried.

 

"Don't worry. I'll go with him. Kiya should be able to handle a feral or two," Patrick offered, knowing there weren't any ferals too dangerous near town.

 

I smiled and nodded gently at him before chuckling. "Maybe I was more worried about seeing ghosts?" I offered, winking at Kari.

 

She blinked slowly and looked vacantly at me for a few seconds. I blinked to before shaking my head. "Well it is a cemetery," I added, "You know, ghosts and whatnot?"

 

Kari snickered and nodded. She needed more sleep, methinks. Nodding to Patrick again, I grabbed my coat off the rack and headed out the entry way. He followed shortly after, then Kari? I stopped and looked questioningly back at her as she walked out the outer door, followed by Kiya and Danni. "What?" she asked, "I want to go too. I'm curious as to what he wants."

 

I nodded silently. She almost seemed to glow in the light of the porch. For some reason, I didn't realize before how pretty she was.

 

After a few seconds, I noticed I was staring. Blushing, I looked away from her and started down the path again. Things were happening too quickly for my liking. I needed to sort out things in my head.

 

"I'm going to Ball you two, so we draw less attention," Patrick annoiced, drawing both girls into their respective balls and putting them on his belt. He then nodded to me softly, and we all started walking.

 

Walking as slowly as we were, we managed to get to the cemetery in five minutes or so. Kari was lagging slightly behind us by then, but we didn't run into any ferals, so I suppose it was going well. Why he wanted to be out here at this time of night, I have no idea.

 

The cemetery looked creepy at this time of night, and I swallowed, trying to ignore all of the drifting, ethereal images. My left eye felt more like a curse at this point.

 

Patrick went in first, followed rapidly by me. It was almost dark by then, and there was only the light at the entry, but the moon was full and I could see most of the graveyard. Frowning, I made out two shapes towards the center. Two?

 

"There are two shapes. Who's the person with him?" I asked cautiously.

 

Patrick frowned and shook his head, but Kari walked passed us. "Let's just go and see. I'm sure whoever it is, that they're nice. Why else would your dad be with them?" she reasoned.

 

I was too busy staring at her back to reply. She was glowing after all? It was faint, but definitely there. "Why are you glowing, Kari?" I asked, unsure.

 

Patrick frowned and looked over at me, then back to Kari again. "What do you mean?" she asked, turning around. My eyes widened as I saw the glow extend off her ears several inches, as if almost a solid form.

 

"I don't see any glow, Keith," Patrick informed. 

 

My eyes narrowed and I felt them get more slit-like. "You were gone too long, you didn't react to the ghost thing, and I'm seeing a different form now. Who are you?" I asked.

 

Patrick looked confused. "What are you talking about, Keith?" he asked, raising his voice a little.

 

"My left eye can see ghosts. I wonder if it can see other things?" I pondered out loud, backing away from her.

 

She snorted softly and shook her head. "Cute, young man," she spoke, in a much higher and stronger voice! Patrick's hand went down towards Kiya's pokéball.

 

The center of my forehead have a sharp pang, and I "saw" the image of a fast moving, curved blade? Reacting on instinct, I managed to fall backwards.

 

"Dodge was halfway out of my mouth when an elongated scythe blade barely passed over my chest as I fell. That would have cut me in half!

 

Landing hard on my back, I looked up in time to see "Kari" holding the scythe in the position she finished the slash in. Her eyes were glowing an orange color now, and she was rapidly growing cat ears while her hair shifted orange? "I'm glad Mistress have me this now," she commented, followed by a high pitched giggle.

 

I glanced over at the flash of light as Patrick pulled out Kiya. The pokéball was in his left hand and his right was clasping his right shoulder. Apparently he didn't jump back fast enough.

 

Kiya stepped in front of her Master instantly and glared at the Kari impostor, who no longer really looked like her at all. She was some sort of feline pokégirl, but judging be the eyes, either diabolical or fire type as well.

 

"Where's Kari?!" I demanded, glaring at her. Could Kiya honestly take her, though? With that strange scythe too?

 

The pokégirl shook her head softly. "Cooperate and you might just find out. Now go to your Daddy or die," she ordered, lowering the deadly blade to level with my face with one hand.

 

"Go towards your Father, Keith. If she attacks, Kiya and I will stop her," Patrick assured, drawing a handgun I didn't know he had.

 

The feline pokégirl burst into laughter. "Stop me? Oh, this should be entertaining. I'm almost tempted to attack just you, simply to find out how you plan to do this," she said, snickering still.

 

Not waiting for her to decide to, I ran towards the middle of the cemetery, the two figures turning to look at me. A giggle soundede from behind me, and my forehead throbbed again. Falling instinctively, the sound of air whistling over my head greeted me, shortly before I plowed into the ground.

 

A heavy gunshot rang out, then, and I heard the sound of sparking metal behind me while my ears were still ringing. What was he using, a cannon?!

 

Not looking to find out, and ignoring the ambient static in the air as the ground behind me lit up, I scrambled towards Dad again.

 

Sliding to a stop ten feet from him, I wondered how he could possibly just be standing there, smiling. Then I saw that his eyes looked vacant?

 

Glancing to the other figure, as she smiled softly at me, my eyes widened drastically.

 

"M-mom?!" I managed to stutter out.