5.3 - Duality of Night

After bidding Sami farewell for the night, I decided to cut through the park two blocks away from Old Canal.

Vanessa said she was down for a call later tonight, so I thought it would be fun to indulge in this. It sure sounded better than spending another night alone with my thoughts. I viewed this as a kind of "break" for me, too.

But as I ran down the brick path curving through the park, an eerie silence flooded my ears. There seemed to be no other visitor at the park, and the bustling sounds of the late-night city atmosphere somehow grew fainter with every step I took.

It felt as if I stepped into another world entirely.

But as I turned a corner down a wider path leading to the other end of the park—my intended destination—there was someone standing in my way.

I stopped as soon as I passed the corner.

It was a girl wearing…a dark robe of some sorts? Or was it a poncho? No, a mantle?

Her face was obscured by a hood that drooped over the front of her head.

“Um…h-hello?” I spoke up, catching my breath.

The girl didn’t say anything.

Instead, she raised her head, revealing not a face but a white mask with uneven curved slits for her eyes. The mouth was carved into a crude smile in the same manner as the eye slits.

The sight of her was unnerving.

“Um…I’m…just gonna…go the other way…” I turned around and started to walk back the way I came. I knew in my head there was another way to the park exit. I just had to follow a different bend.

But when I was only a few yards away from the corner where I encountered the girl, I heard two footsteps behind me.

I turned and there she was.

The hooded, masked girl stood at the corner, motionless—just staring at me with that smiling mask and curved eye-slits. Even with all the light from the lampposts around us, I couldn’t guess any facial features behind the mask.

I froze.

“H-…Hello?” I tried not to sound scared. This girl was absolutely freaking me out. “A-Are you all right, miss? A-Are you lost?”

The girl tilted her head and still refused to say a word.

“Ma’am, I’m sorry. I-...I’ve got somewhere I need to be, all right? So, I’m just gonna…”

As soon as I turned to start walking again, I heard the rushing of footsteps behind me. I turned again and saw the girl stop in her tracks.

We were both underneath separate lampposts this time.

“Ma’am, could you please stop following me? It’s creepy.”

I started walking backwards, but with every step I took, the masked girl took a step forward to me.

“I-I’m serious, can you stop?!”

I kicked off the ground to set a greater distance between us, but the girl walked faster.

I couldn’t take it.

I bolted into a run for the the park exit, desperate to get on the alternate path.

Her footsteps got even quicker. I glanced behind me and saw her sprinting at full speed.

“W-What the hell—!!?”

The girl reached out with her right hand, bare.

I turned and held out my own right hand, gloved, focusing on the air around me. I pushed forward, thinking of only one trajectory forward, and commanded a strong gust of wind that followed the momentum of my arm.

But the girl ducked while pulling on her hood to keep it from blowing away.

When she was just a few feet from me, she again reached out with her bare hand.

At once, a cruel aura of green and black glowed at her palm, forming a ball of tainted light.

Is this…magic?!

I blinked and dove to my right as a blast of green and black fire burst from the fireball.

I got to my knees and pulled myself up next to a garbage can.

The girl stalked towards me.

“Look, miss, I-I don’t know who you are, b-but if you don’t leave me alone, I…”

The girl took slow steps toward me.

I had no choice.

“Y-You asked for this!” I exclaimed, as I placed my left hand on the garbage can.

I pushed on the lid, forming a trajectory across its whole body, and sent it flying at the masked girl.

She outstretched her bare left hand and summoned another burst of green and black fire. The garbage can exploded, sending flaming bits of trash and debris everywhere.

I seized the opportunity and bolted, rounding a bend in the path and drawing closer to the park exit.

Home, I thought, I just wanna go back home...!

Just then, a terrifying glow of green light illuminated the brick path from behind me. I heard the rushing sound of flames soaring through the air and knew. I stopped, wheeled around, and raised my hands in time to intercept the emerald fireball the masked girl had shot at me.

The flames curved around me as they made contact with my gloves, but somehow—

“OW! O-Ouch! Ngh! Agh! Ow!”

Though the flames dissipated, my gloves were somehow unable to stop the scorching heat from reaching my skin.

I felt beads of sweat run down the sides of my head and along my arms.

Just then, the masked girl leaped into the air and landed behind me, blocking my path to the park exit.

There was no time to think, no time to panic; I had to work with what I saw.

No doubt, this masked girl was a Magician of some kind. Though, of all the Magic and whatnot abilities I saw from Elaina, none of her Spells and benign tricks came anywhere close to how lethal this girl's were.

When she turned to me again, I couldn’t help but stare at her.

An accursed glow of emerald light filled the eyeholes of her mask. She took one step forward, then another, when—

She broke into a sprint, heading straight for me yet again.

I stepped forward and outstretched my right hand, forming a wind current to push her back.

The girl sidestepped to her left, pushed off the ground, leaped a short distance into the air, and I noticed her intended landing spot: a park bench.

I pulled off my left glove and placed my hand on the ground, focusing my eyes on the bench. When the girl was just a couple feet away from it, I raised my left hand off the ground and the park bench followed my motion—as if I were pulling it off its unassuming spot.

At the last second, the girl tucked her legs into her chest as the bench crashed into her, bursting violently in a cloud of dust, wood, and iron. The masked girl tumbled onto the brick path.

Not a moment to waste.

I looked at the pile of debris.

My eyes darted to as many bits I could see from under the arched lamppost. I slammed my left hand into the ground again, causing multiple bits of debris to rise into the air, induced by my artificial trajectory, and I swung my arm at the masked girl.

The falling debris shot at her from an angle, but the girl, now on one knee, reached behind her and unsheathed something: a crudely shaped knife—no, shortsword!

Its design was far beyond anything elegant. In fact, it looked so foreign, so otherworldly, so...ancient.

Holding the weapon in a reverse grip, the girl cut through every piece of debris as they were about to crash into her. With every swing of her weapon, its blade left a bright afterglow of emerald fire. When the last of the debris had been either cut down or dodged, the girl simply let go of her weapon, and it dematerialized instantly in a sparkle of green light, returning to its sheathe.

The masked girl then shot a glance at me, and—to my horror, she appeared all of a sudden just a few paces from me.

Was that...some sort of...teleportation?! How's that even...possible?!

I nearly fell back. Instead, I took one step backwards, then another. On my third step, I kicked off the ground to create more distance between us.

But the masked girl followed immediately.

She raised her right hand above her head, as the harsh glow of emerald embers burned on each of her fingertips.

I couldn’t think; I raised my arms to shield my face.

With one downward swipe of her arm, she tore away most of my jacket sleeves and destroyed the glove in my right hand, exposing my forearms.

She reached out with her left hand this time.

Is she—No way. Is this girl stupid?!?

As the girl closed the distance between us, I shut my eyes, terrified.

Three thoughts ran through my head at once in this moment:

1) Does this girl not know that touching me directly is absolutely a no-go?!

2) If she touched me, I would push her back with a furious trajectory—one that would make her feel absolute pain.

3) An image of my parents running up to me with tears of joy returned to my mind for several seconds, until—

A hand grabbed ahold of my left arm and squeezed tightly, forcing me to open my eyes.

I gasped as the sudden, excruciating pain of her grip took hold of my senses.

The masked girl’s bare hand clutched on to my bare arm. I gritted my teeth as I kept looking from her hand on my arm to her terrifying mask.

Impossible. I thought. What—What is this?! Why aren't my powers working on her?! This can’t be happeni—

The masked girl pulled me forward and punched me square in the gut.

“Kuhagh!” I coughed up either saliva or blood. The harsh sensation of physical violence caused my nerves to go haywire.

Just what was happening here?!

I tried to grab at the girl’s mask, but she batted my arm away and swiped at my chest with her emerald-enflamed hand—tearing at my jacket even further.

I felt a pulling motion to the left, and the masked girl threw me to the ground. My back hit the brick path and I felt several cracks form underneath me.

I felt paralyzed. I could barely move.

This girl. How is she…able to...negate my powers…?! How can she…?! Why is she able to…?! Is she…really a Magician?!

Nothing. I couldn’t think of anything coherent.

My whole body shook.

I blinked several times and tried to look up at the masked girl as she stalked toward me.

“No…G-Get…away…GET AWAY!!!”

She did not say a word.

“Who…Who in the hell…are you?!?”

She kept silent and just took one step after another.

"Leave...LEAVE ME ALONE!!!"

She raised her left hand and it, too, became enflamed with that horrifying emerald fire.

Was this it? Was this it?

No, come on, what is this?!

Who the hell even is this girl, and why…why is she able to—

The masked girl stood above me as I clutched my stomach and chest.

“Who…are you…?!”

She knelt down and again drew close to me with that horrible mask. She reached with her right hand, no longer enflamed, to hold my throat and—

—squeezed.

“Agh! Hgh! A-Aagh!”

Her grip tightened.

Again.

Then again.

I pulled at her hand and thrashed at her wildly, doing everything I could to get her off. I summoned as many bits of knowledge I learned from all my past fights so far, but nothing made her grip loosen even once.

Tears rolled down my cheeks and I sobbed and coughed from her strangle.

I could only stare at those glowing emerald pupils behind that nightmare mask.

My vision blurred and I felt my consciousness fade.

If this was my death, then I would die thinking of—

Something bright cast a harsh shine on the girl’s mask.

A blinding arc of cyan light blasted the masked girl off me and into the bushes somewhere that I could only hope was far enough away. Seeing the arc of light pass in front of my face caused me to shut my eyes.

I gasped for air and coughed repeatedly, clutching at my throat and vomiting air and saliva. As I curled on the ground, my vision slowly returned. Though, I couldn’t stop blinking.

My thoughts turned from wondering where the masked girl was, to who was it that saved me.

“JACE!!” Elaina screamed my name from somewhere, and hearing her gave me an overwhelming rush of relief.

The sound of her running footsteps comforted me, and when I blinked several times once again, there she was.

“Jace!! I’m here, I’m here…You’re all right! Hey, I’m here!”

Her voice was closer. I felt someone grab my left shoulder, and I instinctively shook the hand off.

I wanted no one to touch me; not after that masked girl tried to—…

In fact, how was that girl even able to touch me in the first place?!

That moment in our struggle haunted my mind.

I rolled onto my back and tried to look at my savior. Elaina’s face was pale in the spotlight of the park lamppost.

“You’re all right, Jace,” Elaina repeated, trying to sound calm. “You’re shaking. It’s all right.”

She raised her hands and I shut my eyes. “El...a…!”

“Just relax. It’s all right. I’m gonna lift you with a Levitation Spell. Please try not to move too much. I’ll open a portal home.”

Home, I thought. Home...

I allowed my consciousness to fall as Elaina raised me off the ground with her Magic. I closed my eyes as soon as I felt the warmth of my living room air.

“Ela…?”

“Hm?”

“…T-Thank you...”