Pantomime

“Kitezh, I could give you the option to give up and hand yourself over to me right now. Though at this point, I know you have some tricks up your sleeves. Or more like, tricks you turned invisible.”

Jadwiga paced around the rim of the observatory dome. She looks down, trying to find any trace of Kitezh, who of course is invisible.

“There’s no way I can shoot someone that I can’t even see nor hear. I’ll just carpet bomb this roof if I have to.”

Jadwiga pulled out the two gemstones again. She threw the yellite aimlessly on the roof. Then once again, squeezed the redite in her left hand, and mimed out a gun with her right hand.

CLACK!

BOOOOOM!

The roof shook again. Kitezh was like a ghost. Not a single sound was heard afterward.

“This isn’t efficient. I can’t just waste all these stones,” thought Jadwiga.

Jadwiga looked at the ground again. She heard some weak cries.

“Well, if I can’t find you, Kitezh, I’ll just go after someone I can actually see,” said Jadwiga menacingly.

Jadwiga chucks the yellite at Nadia’s body. She squeezes the redite again.

“If you let me kill you now, I’ll let your friend live. Just say the word, Kitezh” demanded Jadwiga.

There was silence.

“This is your fault, Kitezh,” said Jadwiga

BAM!

“OW! Ugh!”

Nothing blew up. Just a wail out of Kitezh, and a redite on the ground. Jadwiga’s eyes widened, and rummaged through her bag for more gemstones.

“Kitezh, I got you now!” yelled Jadwiga.

Jadwiga pulled out another yellite, and readied her hands for another shot.

BAM!

“AH!”

The yellite did not blow up anything. Kitezh yelled again.

“You can’t keep covering your friend forever. Maybe I’ll break every bone in your body. That works for me too,” said Jadwiga.

The gemstones slowly rose up into the air. They appeared to be floating away, as Kitezh limped away carrying them. The gemstones slowly became invisible from Kitezh’s powers.

“Great, I lost you. Maybe I’ll just lure you out again.”

Jadwiga looked back at Nadia on the ground.

CREEEAAAAAK!

Jadwiga felt something shake around her. She walked around the edge of the dorm and found the source. The dome was opening up the view. It was being opened by Kitezh from inside the observatory.

Jadwiga looked through the opened door, and glanced around.

BANG!

“OW!”

Jadwiga shot a redite stone at the controls. Kitezh was struck from the spot.

“You’ve just been screwing around this whole time. What do you think you’re doing? Do you want to stop me or not?” Jadwiga asked impatiently.

Kitezh picked up the redite from the ground. She wasn’t visible, but the motion of the stone showed she was in serious pain.

“I’m ready to fight now,” said Kitezh.

Jadwiga pulled a yellite out of her bag.

“Are you actually ready? Or am I going to shoot it, and you’re going to block it again?” asked Jadwiga.

“I mean, I want a fair fight. We have a fair duel,” said Kitezh

Kitezh clutched the redite to herself.

“Let’s see who has the faster arm. I try to throw my redite at your yellite. You try to throw your yellite at my redite. Sound fair?” asked Kitezh.

Jadwiga put her arm down. She readied the yellite like a baseball pitcher.

“Whoever throws second gets caught in the explosion. Alright, I’ll play your game,” replied Jadwiga.

Kitezh was standing next to the telescope in the room. She stared at Jadwiga’s hand with the yellite. She rubbed her hands around the redite as if it would give her magic powers.

BAM!

Before Kitezh could react, she was struck in the chest by Jadwiga’s yellite.

“HA! You think I’d be stupid enough to fall for your stupid game?” laughed Jadwiga.

Kitezh fell to the floor in pain. She had lost her grip of the redite. It was right next to her on the ground.

“And now we do things my way,” said Jadwiga casually as she pulled out another yellite.

FWOOOOOSH!

BOOOOOOOOOM!

“AAAAAAH!”

THUD!

The explosion did not come from Kitezh’s redite. Jadwiga was suddenly on the ground of the observatory. She was badly injured and trembled as she tried to get back up.

Jadwiga looked behind and realized where she had been standing. Right above the open view of the observatory was the actual entrance to the inside. The arch of the entrance was heavily damaged.

“Huh? You didn’t throw those explosives! I saw that!” exclaimed Jadwiga.

“Aren’t you forgetting someone?” Kitezh asked smugly.

“Ah! That bitch! She used a wind spell. You gave her one of the stone and had her shoot it at the other. But, you made those gemstones invisible! How would she know she would hit!?” Jadwiga questioned frantically.

“She didn’t have a gemstone. You were so busy walking on top of the observatory itself that you failed to notice. There were regular doors to the observatory. I just placed the two gems in the path of the door. All she had to do was slam it shut with her wind, and that’s how you get where you are.”

BAM!

“Ack!”

Kitezh kicked Jadwiga on the ground. Jadwiga lay flat down again.

“I guess you can say we both deceived each other with that game. And now…”

SLAM!

“ARGH! THIS IS MINE!” yelled Kitezh.

She was holding Jadwiga’s arm. Her hand formed into a gesture of a gun.

PSSH!

“OW! What the hell?!” exclaimed Kitezh

Kitezh was rubbing her eyes. There was dust on her face.

“Don’t underestimate me!” yelled Jadwiga, as she struggled to free herself.

Kitezh saw Jadwiga’s left hand. It was on top of a pile of dust from the explosion.

Kitezh needed to stop Jadwiga right now. She completely forgot until right now that she doesn’t need to fight fairly. She needed to take away the one thing that she believed was giving Jadwiga the phenomenon powers.

She spotted the one thing that stood out behind her. An eye-sore of strange moving threads squirming around on fabric.

“YOUR BACKPACK! THIS IS WHAT’S GIVING YOU POWERS!”

PSSH!

“Get off of me!” screamed Jadwiga.

Kitezh was blinded. She let go Jadwiga’s right arm, and went straight for her backpack.

She tried to yank out whatever she could find. However, something was tickling her hand. Kitezh was not just seeing things from the dirt in her eyes. Those lines were indeed alive.

The lines appeared to be squiggly drawings of people moving around. They were trying to attack Kitezh. However, they’re just threads. They can’t do much.

Kitezh could feel the gemstones in the backpack, and attempt to pull them out. She could feel something pulling her hand, and something pulling on the object that she’s holding. Jadwiga was pulling her arm out, and the threads were assisting Jadwiga to keep Kitezh’s hands off her possessions.

As mentioned though, these threads are threads. Kitezh had a small thumb war with the threads, flicking them away from whatever she was trying to grab. However, the threads were now trying to hide the gemstones Kitezh was trying to use as a weapon.

As a last resort, Kitezh grabbed whatever she could get her hands on inside the bag. She allowed Jadwiga to pull her arm out once she had acquired something smooth and round. It was a bottle, but full of contents unknown to Kitezh.

“I don’t know what it is, but worth a shot!” thought Kitezh.

SMASH!

“Cough! Cough! Th-this is… my…”

Jadwiga got drowsy. Her body slowly became limp.

“I recognize this smell. Th-this feeling… this is… sleeping…”

Kitezh immediately rolled away from the spot. She covered her mouth and looked at Jadwiga. She was knocked out.

Kitezh clumsily got on her feet and nodded her head. She weakly grabbed Jadwiga by the feet, and dragged her out of the observatory.

Kitezh was about to fall asleep herself, but could feel the energy rush through her body as she approached the railing of the tower.

CLANG!

“I… hate you…”

CLANG!

“You wanted… to kill… Nadia…”

CLANG!

Kitezh was slamming Jadwiga’s head against the metal railing. She finally grabbed her body, lifted her up on her feet, and bent her forward over the railing.

“KITEZH, NO! STOP!” screamed Nadia.

“She… wanted… kill…” Kitezh said in a slurred speech.

“This is our chance to get answers. We need her alive, Kitezh.”

Kitezh just stared at Nadia in confusion. Nadia couldn’t see it, but Kitezh started to cry. She had to keep her own killer alive.

Kitezh's grip got weaker until she let Jadwiga slump back down on the ground. Kitezh slowly fell on the ground and went to sleep.

Nadia saw the two girls lying on top of each other at the railing. She crawled over to the girls.

“Kitezh, it’s going to be okay,” said Nadia.