Seven Heavenly Spirits

All of it happened so fast in the eyes of the four spectating.

By the time the four had time to react, Taro was already in the air, screaming for his life. Vida started running towards Hendrix. As she got closer to him, her fear of what was happening turned to fear for Hendrix as she could see tears coming from his eyes. She still wasn’t able to get to him before Alex was.

“What are you three doing?” Bloom’s face wasn’t covered by a smile for the first time since they met her.

“Hendrix, control yourself, damn it!” Alex said as blood continued to drip from her hand, still holding the string.

Hendrix did not respond. Instead, the guitar string tried to force its way through Alex’s palm, making Alex strain even more.

When Bloom saw this, she zoomed over to Hendrix, giving him one punch in the gut, seemingly knocking him unconscious, while the guitar strings slid back into their place of origin, like snakes retreating in defeat.

Taro fell to the floor as Bloom zoomed over to help.

“What happened? Are you three alright?” Bloom asked.

“What is that guy? He’s the fucking devil! He tried to kill me!” Taro exclaimed as he dragged himself away from the still unconscious Hendrix.

“That’s not true!” Vida ran over to Hendrix and scooped him up in her arms as she continued to talk.

“He came here to settle things with you guys and you two tried to kill him. Say it!” Vida’s eyes started to water as she looked at the bruised and battered Hendrix. It reminded her of the blood she saw coming from Mr. and Mrs. Frewin, it reminded the other three of that day as well, as they rushed to Vida’s side.

While Amora, Akilah, and Chase rushed to Vida, Alex slowly picked up the unconscious Kai and the injured Taro while still whincing at the pain in her right hand.

“I’ll take these two. Bloom, you gonna be alright with him?” Alex gestured to the unconscious, teary eyed Hendrix that was now surrounded by his friends.

“Yeah. Get them to the infirmary. I’ll follow after you.” Bloom said as she walked towards the group of five.

“What happened?” Bloom asked as she examined Hendrix.

“I-he was getting beat up. He was about to die!” Chase stuttered over himself as he pointed towards the direction that Kai and Taro had left in.

“Don’t point fingers. Tell me what happened to Hendrix.” Bloom made herself clear.

“He was on the brink of passing out. One of them was running around him. All of a sudden these things came out of his mouth and started attacking the two of them, but it didn’t seem like Hendrix was controlling it.” Akilah explained somberly yet confused.

Bloom continued to examine Hendrix’s injuries with confusion while taking in the information that Akilah was relaying.

“Help me get him to the infirmary.” Bloom said while signaling everyone to help pick him up. They gathered him up off the ground and made the long journey towards the compound’s nurse.

“Another one?! What happened?” A woman with shoulder length hair turned in surprisement as Bloom entered the infirmary carrying the still unconscious Hendrix.

“I’ll tell you later” Alex said from the corner of the room.

“Hold on one second.” The woman stopped wrapping a bandage around Alex’s hand to help set Hendrix down on one of the free treatment beds.

“Is this the nurse?” Chase whispered to Bloom.

“Oh! Sorry, I haven’t introduced myself! My name is Jessica. I am the nurse for the compound, since I’m the only one here that has anything remotely close to a medical degree. I also specialize in healing Spirit since my Mode is health!” Jessica smiled through the somber attitude of the others in the room.

“Now, time to look at this guy. He’s definitely the worst off. Just by looking at him, I’d say he only has a couple hours to live.” Jessica examined Hendrix while casually stating that fact.

The room fell silent as Vida began to cry.

“That was a joke..” Jessica looked confused.

“Sorry about that guys. Jessica’s bad at reading the room.” Bloom’s reassuring smile returned after being gone since they intervened during the fight. Jessica rolled her eyes like she didn’t do anything wrong.

“In all seriousness, these injuries seem superficial at worst, they’ll probably heal in a couple days. Let me take a look at his Spirit.” Jessica held out her hand above Hendrix’s chest as it began to glow.

The nurse goes quiet suddenly as she continues to examine Hendrix’s Spirit signatures in a frantic confusion.

“What’s wrong?” Bloom asked.

“There’s something wrong?” Alex stood up from her chair across the room as concern grew through the group.

“Can I pull you two aside?” Jessica whispered while quickly glancing at the four kids awaiting an answer to the concern.

“You kids go to your rooms.” Alex signaled them out the door.

“Wait, what’s wrong?” Vida asked while trying to look over the shoulders of the adults and onto Hendrix.

“Go.” Alex insisted.

“C’mon Vida. It’ll just be worse with us here.” Chase signaled to the exit as well. Vida followed his advice as they made their way out of the infirmary and back to their rooms.

It is late afternoon now. The mood between the four teens was now as somber as ever. Amora, Akilah and Chase all congregated in Amora’s room so that they wouldn’t be in silence as they awaited Hendrix’s return.

“Did anyone get Vida?” Chase asked as he shuffled a deck of cards he found under Amora’s bed.

“I tried. She said she would join in later. She’s not taking the whole thing well.” Akilah picked up a few cards from the now shuffled deck.

“First Mr. and Mrs. Frewin and now this? Who can blame her?” Amora’s voice started to get weak as she buried her head in her arms. Chase leaned over to comfort her.

A knock on the door was answered by Akilah. It was Bloom.

“How are you guys doing? It’s been a lot today.” Bloom spoke softly through the quiet atmosphere of the room.

“Yeah. We’re just passing the time since none of us can sleep.” Akilah responded.

Bloom looked around the room.

“And Vida?”

“She decided to stay in her own room. She’s doing the worst out of all of us.” Chase said as he continued to comfort Amora.

“Alright. If you guys are doing alright then I’ll go check on her.” Bloom closed the door and headed over to Vida’s room.

Bloom knocked on the door.

“I said I’m fine guys. I’m just tired.” Vida’s muffled voice reached Bloom through the door.

“It’s Bloom”

The door was answered.

“Can I come in?”

“Yeah.” Vida stepped aside to let Bloom in.

“How are you doing?” Bloom didn’t even get another word off before Vida started to ask her own questions.

“Is something wrong with Hendrix? Is he going to be alright? Please tell me he’ll be alright.” Vida asked what seemed like a million questions.

“Hey. Hey.” Bloom put her hands on Vida’s shoulders.

“He’s going to be alright.” Bloom’s reassuring smile calmed Vida down even if it was just enough to get her to quiet down.

“What was that all about then? Why did it sound like the nurse was scared?” Vida continued to ask questions.

“You’ll know soon. I need to ask you some questions, though. It’s urgent.” Bloom continued to hold Vida by the shoulders.

“Oh. Ok.” Vida was taken back but ready to help in whatever way she could.

“Do you know anything about Hendrix’s real parents?” Bloom’s question seemed out of left field.

“Um. No. Mr. Frewin said he found him walking the streets in a daze. Hendrix never told anyone about anything before that day.” Vida continued to think.

Bloom let out a sigh.

“Alright. Do you know anything about his last name?” Bloom continued to interrogate Vida.

“Um. No. I don’t know that either.”

“Alright. I’ll ask the other three if they know anything. Meet Alex in the gymnasium tomorrow at noon like usual. I’ll tell you about everything later.” Bloom let out a little smile as she headed out of Vida’s room

“He’ll be alright. I promise.” Bloom’s words reached deep into Vida’s chest. Her smile only added to the relief Vida felt.

A little later. Vida finally left her room to go join the other three.

“Vida.” Amora spoke her name quietly as she jumped into Vida for a hug.

“You alright?” Akilah joined in on the hug.

“Yeah. Thanks guys.” Vida hugged back.

“We would’ve had to drag Hendrix into this.” Chase jokingly said as he patted Vida’s back. The group laughed quietly as the somber mood lifted even if it was just a little.

“Haha. Yeah.” Vida laughed.

The next day came quickly. After chores were done between the four they all congregated at the entrance of the gymnasium.

“Alright. I wonder if we’re just going to continue on with the training like usual?” Akilah asked the others as they stood anxiously at the doors.

“Maybe.” Amora said, unsure.

“I just want to know Hendrix is alright.” Vida’s words resonated through the other three as they all agreed.

They opened the door and inside to a bandaged up Kai and Taro talking to Alex, who was reprimanding them.

“You’re not safe either, Hendrix. Get over here.” Alex pointed at the corner of the room where a zoned out Hendrix stood.

“Hendrix!” The four quickly ran over to him in excitement.

“I knew you would kick ass, man.” Chase punched Hendrix’s arm in reassurance.

“We were worried about you.” Amora said as she quickly hugged him.

“Don’t do anything like that again.” Akilah ruffled up Hendrix’s hair before joining the hug.

“Hendrix!!” Vida ran into the arms of Hendrix, making the five of them fall over in unison into a pile of laughter.

“He’s the one who needs to be taught a lesson! He doesn’t even have a scratch on him!” Taro interjected the happy moment to point out this fact to Alex.

“Yeah!” Kai agreed with Taro.

“Yeah. About that.” Alex began to think about her next words.

“Hey! You two started it with your mindless insults. Or do you want the four of us to join in next time?” Akilah stood her ground against the two brothers.

“You five would be nothing without that freak of nature over there.” Taro pointed at Hendrix who was visibly holding himself back from interacting with the two brothers.

“Hey, hey. Let’s all calm down” Bloom entered the room and walked over to the side of Alex.

“I think that even though you three did go out of line yesterday, it would be a good lesson on Spirit.” Bloom turned to Alex to continue.

“Oh, oh yeah. What do you guys know about the Seven Heavenly Spirits?”