No Going Back

Sunday morning, Jessica woke up early, barely getting any sleep, and dragged her feet into the bathroom. While looking at herself in the mirror, she gently wipes her left cheek, remembering the frosty sensation from the day before.

She places her hand on the mirror, spreading out her fingers, fragmenting her reflection. Something happened when I walked home yesterday.

Jessica has no proof beyond her fuzzy memory and is unsure what could have occurred, but the way she felt leaving Andres compared to how she felt shortly after doesn’t make sense. Going from joy to tears within minutes, it doesn’t add up. If there’s one thing she’s sure of it’s the length of time. The sky was the same bright red from the setting sun that she saw when first walking outside.

Should she mention this to Yuuki and Kahler? Would they have any clue as to what happened? Maybe this is the reason they shouldn’t go outside, in which case she expects to get yelled at for doing so. Jessica lets out a sigh, almost regretting avoiding learning the whole truth. Not that there’s any guarantee it would explain this phenomenon.

Just then, she hears a ‘ping’ from her computer, indicating Andres sent her a message. He’s the only person she messages in general, so that’s another thing she’s sure of. Jessica lowers her hand with a grin, delighted at the thought of talking with him again.

There’s no point in worrying about this right now. She doesn’t have school and has no way to contact anyone aside from Andres anyway. Jessica decides to put it off for now.

During the week that followed, Andres returned to school. He kept it a secret so when class ended, he was already waiting in room 313 full of energy to greet everyone. And just like that, things were normal again. They started going out each night to release souls, reaching close to 180 by the end of the week. The cold doesn’t deter any of them.

Jessica forgot to mention her memory problem. She was too distracted not just due to school, but from talking with Andres right after arriving home and her nightly duties. It became a passing moment.

However, the peace didn’t last long. On that Saturday–

Jessica is sitting at her computer, tapping her finger on the desk. She sent Andres a message over 30 minutes ago with no response. He didn’t indicate he was doing anything else in the meantime, nor that he needed to rest, making this time gap strange. She can’t get rid of this horrible feeling that something is wrong.

All of a sudden, Yuuki teleports into Jessica’s room. Before she’s able to react, Yuuki says “Good, you’re dressed” and grabs her, teleporting them both to the classroom with only Kahler present. It’s 11am, shouldn’t he be asleep? Jessica then notices Yuuki’s distress, however, all she says is,

“I need you to stay here.”

Baffled, Jessica shouts, “Wait, what’s going on?!”

Yuuki simply stares, practically biting her lip, not wanting to say a word. Does that mean she’s going to hide this too? As Jessica is about to speak up, Kahler says Yuuki’s name and she grumbles before opening up.

“I got a call from Shayna. She had actually been trying to contact me for a while, but my phone didn’t ring until that moment.”

Jessica starts to get nervous. The horrible feeling from earlier, is this what it’s about?

Yuuki continues, “Michael sent a horde of souls to all roads and sidewalks as if the people were protesting. They’re completely blocking any access to Andres.”

But why is that an issue? Yuuki should easily be able to teleport to any location, almost as if an invisible force moving from one area to the next. How could something hinder her trajectory?

Kahler expands on her explanation, “The souls, they shouldn’t be allowed to take form and release a large amount of kinetic energy as a result. This interferes with phone lines, online networks, radio signals…and your abilities.”

Jessica looks to Yuuki, now understanding her panic. All this time she’s been able to effortlessly solve any problem that occurs and right now, she’s the useless one.

“Shayna and Marquise are down the road from Andres’ home attempting to release as many souls as they can. We can only assume Andres is doing the same.” Kahler adds.

“I need you to stay here.” Yuuki says before preparing to leave, “This is probably a trap, meaning Michael will be coming after us either there or here. Someone needs to stay with Kahler. I can at least teleport close and-”

“Just let me go.” Jessica says, stopping her mid-sentence. “If this interferes with our abilities instead of blocking them completely, I’d have a better chance at reaching him quicker.”

The two lock eyes. Yuuki admits she has a point. Even if her ability is affected, Jessica could still run through the crowd quicker than she can, hitting any soul in her way. There’s less risk this way too. However, Yuuki has always been the one to lead and isn’t about to let that change now.

Yuuki turns around and says “Sorry” before leaving. Jessica can only watch in disbelief as she is left behind. She hangs her head and looks at her hands before clenching them as the rage continues to build.

Jessica considers that perhaps it’s not that she has been useless all this time, it’s Yuuki’s selfish desire to handle everything herself that forced her to be held back. Why is it so difficult for her to trust others? Not to mention Jessica is the one who wants to save Andres the most. None of the others are aware of how their relationship grew. They both kept it on the down low for no real reason, but knowing he’s in danger, she can hardly contain herself.

“Why am I the one stuck here?” She mumbles aloud.

“Are you good with math? This formula is difficult.”

Jessica turns to Kahler who is absorbed in his school books as always.

“You’re doing homework at a time like this?!” she shouts.

Kahler stares at the equations as he speaks, “I was never able to graduate high school before all this started so I’m trying to make up for that.” he pauses for a moment, “Somehow Michael found Andres’ house so there’s a chance he knows about this base. We should relocate once they–”

Kahler looks up at Jessica and notices how worked up she has become since arriving, making it easy for him to know her next course of action. She turns to face the door and Kahler merely watches her run off.

Jessica starts at normal speed until she reaches the end of the hallway, and then down the various flights of stairs. She considered before that she would be able to leap off of or run down any building, but without testing it first she would rather not try.

Once on ground level, she starts using her superspeed to run into the gym and pushes open the emergency exit doors that lead outside. Even if she’s starting at a different point, she knows exactly where Andres lives.

She continues on the school field and then jumps over the surrounding fence. Going at such a high speed, she estimates she went as high as 10 feet before landing on the sidewalk across the street, with her feet skidding a few inches before stopping. With no hint of exhaustion, she runs down the sidewalk, hoping to reach her destination within minutes.

**********************************

At home, Andres is standing by the front window with the curtain pulled to the side. He is surrounded by what he determined are souls. They literally flooded the streets, not leaving one empty spot, barely allowing even them to move. Judging by the fact that they are simply standing there, that seems to be their purpose. To block any movement in the area.

It took him a few tries to reach the saviors. After noticing his messages to Jessica weren’t being sent, he began calling the others, rotating from Yuuki, to Shayna, to Marquise, and repeated until Shayna answered. There was a lot of static making it difficult to hear each other, but he was still able to get the message across; “I’m surrounded and can’t escape.” Annoyed by the static, he hung up and tossed the phone on his bed, believing aid will be here soon enough.

In the meantime, he started using his reaper ability to force the souls to pass on. He noticed that wasn’t working as it should either, taking at least 2 tries each. Knowing he couldn’t sit around and wait, he continued to try.

“Did he find my home ‘cause Jessica came over?” Andres considers before shaking his head. “Even if he did, we ain’t done nothing wrong.”

He was able to get 32 souls to pass on, and it always seemed that another took its place each time. The amount of death in the city is truly endless.

As exhaustion begins to hit him, Yuuki appears in his room, panting from the difficulty of teleporting to this location. It took her a few attempts and she could only teleport a few feet each time.

Whenever she landed in the middle of the crowd, she would swing her weapon to make the surrounding souls disappear. Some were holding weapons so she did get some cuts on the way, hearing a ‘clunk’ from the metal blades hitting the ground as the souls holding them dispersed. She refused to let the pain get to her and pushed on until she got to where she needed to be.

“You probably want to know what’s going on, but wait until we regroup.”

Andres nods in agreement and stands beside her. Yuuki places her hand on his shoulder and closes her eyes before teleporting. She concentrates as she tries to visualize Shayna and Marquise’s current location, the corner of Knorr and Cottage Street.

After a few seconds, they successfully teleport after the first attempt. Yuuki wants to complain that it happened so easily this time, but has to set it aside for now.

They find themselves behind Marquise’s shield with Shayna releasing souls beside him. Andres takes a seat on the sidewalk with everyone smiling at the sight of him.

“It’s good to see you safe, Smooth.” Marquise says.

“Heh, I don’t think they planned to break in, but I def couldn’t do anything on my own. Thanks.” Andres says.

“What do we do now, Sky?”

Shayna would like to join in the celebration, but they’re still stuck in the middle of a large group of souls. Yuuki kneels on the ground, attempting to catch her breath,

“How is your shield holding up?” she asks Marquise.

“It’s protecting us, but isn’t strong as usual.”

As expected, that too is affected by the souls just like everything else.

“Hold on a bit longer. I’m going to take Andres and Shayna to a different location before-”

As Yuuki explains her plan, Jessica suddenly runs up to them, easily pushing away the souls, releasing many more than any of the others have done within the last 30 minutes. She checks on Andres first, with both relieved to see each other unharmed. Since their recent visit could be the cause, he didn’t know if Michael tracked her and laid a trap at her home as well. Thankfully, that wasn’t the case.

The only person upset is Yuuki. Rather than waste time questioning her, she teleports back to school—

**********************************

In room 313, Kahler simply watched as Jessica left. He could tell there was no convincing her to stay so he didn’t bother. Then all of a sudden, he feels a burning pain and clutches his chest. He hangs his head slightly and looks towards the windows.

Floating above the school, Michael is able to break down the forcefield that covered most of the area with a single touch. On any other weekend, it would be much smaller, but Kahler didn’t want to take any chances. He chose to receive alerts of any intruders, including souls, as soon as they approached so the group could take action. However, there’s no one else here. This may have been the true intent of Michael’s trap; for Kahler to be left to his own devices.

Still in the air, Michael enters the classroom by going through the windows. He normally wouldn’t be able to go into solid objects as such, so he deduced this room itself is part of the barrier. An imaginary room of Kahler’s creation.

“I finally found you.” Michael says.

Rather than talk, Kahler sits back in his chair and lets out a big laugh as if turning into a maniacal beast. Combing his fingers through his hair, he looks at Michael.

“It’s about time. Is it really so difficult to find someone who looks exactly like you?”

While Kahler continues to laugh, Michael clicks his tongue and rushes toward the madman. He picks him up by the throat, squeezing just enough to allow him to breathe.

“You damned shapeshifters always play tricks like this, but can never hold your own against me.” Michael proclaims.

Despite the pain from being strangled, Kahler tries to laugh, with it sounding more like a cough. He speaks, though his voice is barely audible, “We have to get back at you somehow.”

To have to witness his own face showcase such vile expressions and spout nonsense, it’s nothing short of rage-inducing, making Michael regret responding each time. He tosses Kahler to the back of the classroom with enough force to dent the sheetrock. Kahler lets out a gasp before sliding to the ground.

Stating they both have limited abilities was putting it lightly and helped Kahler feel better about his own weakness. Truthfully, his abilities are nothing comparatively, allowing Michael to easily shut him down, leaving him feeling powerless. While laying on his side, he raises his eyes to glare at his attacker.

“That’s it, can’t have you die on me yet. We still have a ritual to perform.”

All of a sudden, Michael notices someone in the corner of his eye. He shifts his head to the left and sees Yuuki, that woman he also can’t stand.

She takes one look at Michael, then Kahler before taking action. Easily predicting her movements, Michael flies to Kahler only to see that she is already there. Yuuki grabs him and teleports, but not before Kahler flashes the middle finger, trying one more stab at Michael.

Michael stops and continues looking at the dent in the wall. There’s no reason to fret. The one person he’s been tracking will surely be transported to the same location, allowing him to find them without fail.

The thing that bothers him the most is that sword. “I have to find a way to destroy it, else it will continue getting in my way.” He then disappears in a flash of light, deciding to wait patiently until all the pieces are set.

Yuuki takes Kahler to a run-down construction site. It appears to be a 3 story building with it consisting of steel beams. Judging by the condition of the surrounding tarp, it has been abandoned for years.

She places him against a support beam and stands above him.

“That was crude. Finally showing your true colors?”

Finding it difficult to lift his head, Kahler continues to look to the ground as he tries to steady his breathing.

“Whenever I see him, I can’t help it. It reminds me of the memory I was forced to watch, of when my father disappeared. All because of him.” Taking on Michael’s appearance was one form of payback, but that alone wasn’t enough. Kahler wants to annoy him any chance he gets, and he’s not alone. “You know the feeling, right?”

Yuuki looks at her sword, remembering the final words from her mother. ‘Your name, Yuuki, represents courage and bravery. I pray that, and this sword, help you in your journey.’

She last saw her mother when she was 12. Having to watch her disappear as well, it was burned into her mind. Since she had no other family, Yuuki was left completely alone.

Any time she felt it was too difficult to continue on, she would grip the sword and think of her mother’s words. It was enough that she was eventually able to meet Kahler. The hatred they felt for Michael is what formed their mutual agreement, and so he awakened her ability and they proceeded to work together. All to get revenge for what they lost.

However, this isn’t the time to reminisce.

“I’ll be right back-”

“Hold up.” Kahler stops her, wanting to give one last piece of information beforehand, “I think I know how he found us.” Yuuki’s eyes widen as Kahler raises his left arm, showing her the top of his wrist. “We never did ask Jessica where she was raised.”

Just like everyone else, she never considered that to be a factor. Even Kahler initially thought it up on a whim, and denied it at the same time because he couldn’t sense any chips himself. He has yet to confirm this, it remains pure speculation, but taking into account Jessica’s involvement in each incident, it’s the most logical conclusion.

As the one who invited her, Yuuki feels ashamed, “This is my fault, isn’t it?”

“No.” Kahler clears his throat in an attempt to make it easier to speak. “That bullshit called ‘fate’ and ‘destiny’, one may be able to change aspects of it, but the people taking part are already predetermined. You did exactly as you should have. It’s me who was too lax. At least you’ll have another chance.”

Although Kahler meant for the last sentence to be taken in a positive light, Yuuki sees it as agonizing.

“I don’t think I’ll be able to do this a second time.”

The mysterious phrases exchanged, only the two understand what they mean, but the conversation comes to a sudden halt.