Chapter 52

[The following chapter contains strong language. Reader caution is advised.]

Friday 17th September 1999

I’d apologise for not keeping you updated with our search for Melody, but there’s not been a whole lot to say…

(And despite that: sorry!)

The past week and a half has been quite something, at least… the start of school and the resulting onslaught of homework is such a sharp contrast from the summer holidays that I feel like I’ve cut myself on it and now I’m bleeding out exhaustion. And that’s after dropping a subject, too, as is customary when you start Year 13… hell, I didn’t even tell you about us getting our exam results before, with all the Melody stuff and…

My head’s a mess. Everything’s been super busy. I’ll try to focus…

For the ninth time, Melody was absent in form. With her, Will and Kayleigh all gone, the room was feeling a little empty, like a Guess Who? board mid-game. Even then, there were still just over a dozen people left, chattering away or doing last-minute homework. Of course, thanks to Dakota’s homework doctrine, I already had everything done, and there was no one in particular for me to make small-talk with here. I hate to say that talking with Melody made form more interesting, but it really does seem that way…

Three lessons and two free periods, with ordinary subjects and ordinary exchanges, ordinary food and ordinary jokes. If not for the niggling worry about our preternaturally-powered nemesis in the back of my head, I’d almost be fooled into thinking I was just some normal teenage guy. Funny how consistently school can do that to me… wonder what’ll happen after this year ends…?

“Can we just take the day off today…? One day of rest, like God had…” Kendal asked Dakota, Zahid and me while plodding over to us outside the school gates.

“Wouldn’t that mean having Sunday off?” I jested, earning an exhausted groan from Kendal.

“It’s not something we can afford to take a break from,” Dakota reminded her softly.

“I know, but… just a little breather or something?” Kendal whimpered. It felt weird to see her so unenthused. I suppose she’d grown bored with our efforts after so many fruitless evenings.

“Seeya tomorrow then, Kitty!” a chipper voice sung out nearby, and I turned in time to see our younger companion in full school uniform awkwardly waving off a now-familiar girl of the same age, with short blonde hair and stylish glasses and a much more enthusiastic wave.

“Jo seems happy!” Dakota observed as Kitty joined us a little sheepishly.

“She’s always happy,” the auburn-haired girl mumbled with the faintest smile on her face. “No Bao yet…?”

“Are you surprised?” Zahid sighed, leaning on the fencing around the school and gazing off into space, brow furrowed.

“I’m sure he won’t take long,” I chimed in. “He knows the deal so it’s not like he’d…”

I stopped my sentence short there.

“I think I just heard the realisation click in your head,” Kendal grinned at me.

“Should we go and look for him…?” I proposed, looking to Dakota for her verdict; she shook her head.

“We don’t have time to waste. One minute more and we’ll head off without him.”

As soon as Dakota said that, Kendal looked to me again, sporting a crumpled smile.

“Remember when we had free time after school…?”

“It rings a bell…” I chuckled.

We wound up heading off a minute or two later, without Bao. By the time we’d reached Dakota’s place, he’d managed to catch up with us, more-or-less… still trailing behind, but visible way down the road. A brief “both arms fully-outstretched” long-distance waving session took place before Dakota herded us indoors.

“Sorry I’m late,” Bao addressed us a minute later when he finally stepped inside too. “I was spending a few minutes with Harriet and I lost track of time…”

“That’s fine, let’s get our homework out of the way,” Dakota responded hastily, eyes on the contents of her bag as she pulled out a textbook. Fortunately, we had far more free periods this year, and on Dakota’s insistence, we’d used much of that time to get homework done. Even so, we still had odds and ends to see too, and Kitty, being in Year 9, had no free periods and some homework of her own to complete. We spent a little under an hour working and snacking.

And then, with that as good as done, out came our big map.

Being so proactive was still new to us, considering that our ordinary misadventures involved monsters popping up to fight us as we went about our business. But Melody hadn’t attended school yet, and when we visited her house, we were greeted by Harmony, who told us that Melody had been absent for weeks and that she’d been keeping Mr and Mrs Hill blinkered to their daughter being missing (that’s becoming a filthy habit of hers). And with no idea where else she could be, we’d resigned ourselves to combing town for her, in the hopes that our weapons could track her scythe in the same way they could track each other.

So far, no luck. And while I can’t speak for anybody else, I’m afraid to voice the possibility that, no, we can’t track her scythe like that and we have no other way of locating her. I wanted to hold out hope that we simply hadn’t gotten near her yet… saying that fear out loud would only serve to plant the seed of doubt.

(The worst thing is, we don’t even know if Melody’s weapon is drawing its power from Lokonessence or not. If it is, then Harmony is presumably complicit in all of this beyond mind-blocking her sort-of-parents… which wouldn’t surprise me, I suppose. If it isn’t… what’s powering it, then? What else is out there?)

We’d split the map up with a red marker pen, carving out areas small enough for us to patrol in the space of an evening. We’d already worked through eight such regions, and our next stop was a little suburban stretch at the most north-easterly point of town. That meant taking the bus across town, to save us some time; a twenty-minute ride rather than an hour’s trek. And, of course, since we had to use our weapons in public, we donned our Painter gear in a little pathway nestled behind the park (the closest private spot we could think of) and rode the bus like that, weapons in-hand. That way, we’d just be the Painters, rather than six identifiable teens wielding the Painter’s weapons

Yes, we have already done that a few times now. And yes, other than our faces remaining concealed, we’ve been plainly visible to everyone. We’ve received a fair bit of attention every day as we’ve gone about our business, and it was no different this time, with people on the bus chattering away and people walking the streets stopping to watch us patrol.

“I feel like my soul’s growing mould,” Kendal remarked as we slowly walked between rows of cosy houses. “There has to be an easier way of doing this… right?”

“Brainstorm it, it’ll take your mind off of how ridiculously dull this is…” Bao recommended, routinely checking his Lokon blades held outstretched in front of him for any change in the intensity of their glow.

“Nobody said this was going to be interesting,” Dakota huffed from the front of our group. “I’d much rather be hanging out at home, but this is more important.”

“Harmony said Melody’s blocking her and she can’t track her, so why would we be able to with weapons powered by Harmony…?” Bao asked in irritation. I almost stopped mid-stride, fearful that he’d just burst apart the only lead we had.

“Melody doesn’t want Harmony to find her, but she wants us to,” Kitty calmly spoke.

“… huh… good call, Kitty…” came Bao’s response after a moment spent reeling in realisation (I know that’s what his silence was because I had the exact same experience).

We reached the end of that road, and found ourselves at a branching path, left and right. Like anglers waving our rods around, we moved back and forth with our weapons held out to check for a sign.

And, for the first time, we got what we were hoping for. When we faced down the left route, the ever-present light in our weapons grew a little brighter.

“Bingo,” Zahid smirked, spinning his axe.

Dakota took a deep breath in, and then steadily let it out.

“Extra attention and high alert, people. Looks like this is it.”

Eyes on the tip of her spear, she began slowly leading us into the left street. I focused on my sword as I walked, the blue glow within steadily growing more and more vivid as we made our way past one three-storey house after another.

“Doesn’t that door have Melody’s emblem on it…?” Kendal pointed out once we were a maybe little more than halfway down the street. Exactly as she said, one house had that distinctive white emblem marked onto its front door.

Wordlessly – not that anything needed to be said – Dakota guided us to that house, and knocked on the door.

And we waited.

“… y’know, we could’ve just busted the door down…” Bao commented.

Suddenly, the door was flung open from inside, unveiling a guy a few years older than us, wearing a t-shirt with some obscure heavy metal band’s logo. He stared at us with manic eyes.

“About time. She’s been waiting for you.”

Gaze still on us, he stepped aside to allow us entry. We made our way inside as he watched us, finding ourselves in a spacious hallway echoing with noise from across the house.

“Lounge, next room over,” the man told us as he closed the front door. It suddenly dawned on me that we – or at least, I – hadn’t even considered what would happen once we actually found Melody. And now we were stood in her hideout with no easy way out.

Still quiet, seeming rather tense now, Dakota led us through the hallway and into the living room. I can only describe the room as a war between order and chaos: an organised mantlepiece below bizarre art painted onto the wall, sofa neatly in position with its cushions scattered about the room, coffee table nice and neat while empty crisp packets and discarded magazines lay around it. And there, in the centre of it all, sat regally in an armchair like it was a throne, was Melody Hill.

“There you are,” she greeted us with a light, confident smile.

“And there you are,” I replied. “Now it’s our turn to hide.”

“That could be entertaining, but I’m a little busy these days…”

Her eyes focused in on Kitty.

“I don’t believe we’ve met yet, have we? I’m Melody Hill.”

“Kitty Townsend…” my friend said cautiously. “I saw you on TV.”

“Shhh, don’t tell anyone,” Melody purred back, before returning her attention to all of us as a group. “I can hazard a guess, but I’ll ask all the same… what’s your decision, Painters?”

“We’re not siding with you,” Dakota told her immediately.

“Of course… you’re siding with them, then. The normal ones.”

“Why does this have to be us vs. them?” Bao asked her in exasperation. “We’re all people.”

“I’m not the one setting the rules. I didn’t make it us vs. them, it’s how things have always been. But what do you know? You all blend in seamlessly enough. I do too. The people here, the new friends I’ve made… they have nowhere to go. They’ve been cast out by everybody they know because they’re different. They’re your brothers and sisters, and you’re betraying them if you side with the people who turned their backs on them.”

She leant back in her chair imperiously, as though she’d just played a masterful chess move and was waiting gleefully to see how we’d try to counter it.

“And you want to put innocent people in danger just to help them?” Dakota quizzed her.

“Nobody’s innocent,” Melody countered assuredly. “Not one soul.”

“You’re crazy…” Kendal glowered at our nemesis… and Melody cackled back.

“See? Look how quickly you threw that card down! Look at the language normal people use. Even you’ve taken to it,” she sneered. “Kendal, you’re crazy too. Everybody under this roof is crazy. Stop fighting it. Stand with me.”

“What about our families? Our friends?” I spoke up now. “We turn on them as well? ‘Sorry, Mum and Dad, I love you but you’re not insane so-’”

“Turn on them before they turn on you,” she nodded before I could continue.

“For fuck’s sake…”

Zahid shook his head in disbelief.

“Are you hearing yourself, Melody? This is bullshit.”

“Clearly, I’m not going to convince any of you…” Melody concluded, and rose to her feet. She placed her hands over her face momentarily, and withdrew them to reveal her skull mask suddenly on her face. Her scythe manifested in her right hand a second later.

“Guess I’ll have to stop you here, then.”

A wall of white abruptly slammed into the six of us, throwing us out through the windows and sprawling into the front garden. I could feel bits of glass sticking into me, but had no time to worry about it as Melody prowled across the living room and leapt through the shattered hole where the windows had been. She clicked her fingers, and as if from nowhere, a pack of white creatures (something like a cross between Velociraptors – the Jurassic Park ones, at least – and Alien) surrounded us.

Kendal fired at one from the ground, but it evaded the arrow with frightening ease.

“Stay down!” Dakota called out to us, and then planted her spear base-down into the lawn, letting a canopy of green envelope us in a protective dome.

“What a remarkable fight you’re putting up,” Melody chuckled, waving her scythe about lightly. “Really, though, let’s do this properly…”

She tapped the tip of her weapon against the dome, and seemingly began to dilute its green with her white; in a matter of seconds, the entire thing dissipated.

“This white of mine… it’s Lokonessence’s shadow,” she told us as we stood up, ears with her but eyes surveying the predators surrounding us. “That’s the easiest way to explain it, anyway. White is sterile, empty, void. It’s a blank page, a fresh canvas. And it can hold her fast. That’s why your weapons are white.”

“And that’s why Harmony couldn’t find you, right?” Bao asked behind me.

“Partly that. Partly the fact I’ve learnt how to keep her out of my head. Or else she would’ve uncovered all of this a long time ago. Look at how calm you all are with my Hunters circling you…”

“Not our first rodeo,” Zahid noted. “Sic them on us, already.”

“Alright then,” she chirped, and with barely enough time for me to be prepared for it, the Hunters lunged forwards. I held my sword forwards, and willed half a dozen blue blades to spring forth from the real one, angled like a windswept umbrella: the creature managed to impale itself, if only lightly, and it thrust itself backwards as quickly as it had pounced. The construct-blades began spinning rapidly around the main one like some kind of glowing saw weapon, and I advanced on the Hunter, driving it back.

The sensation of razor-sharp claws slicing through my back stopped me dead in my tracks, and I felt the agonised cry involuntarily leap from my throat before I heard it. A second Hunter had clearly attacked me from behind, but the pain was too much for me to take and I collapsed to my knees before I could even think about turning to face it.

“Alex!” I heard Kitty call out past my spinning senses.

Of course, it only lasted for a passing moment, as the pain faded away and my senses realigned. I turned to see Kitty now going toe-to-claw with the beast behind me; I turned back and found the one in front of me closing in again. No time to start generating more blue constructs, and no need. I thrust my sword straight for the Hunter’s chest, and once the creature stopped moving, I urged my weapon to unleash an almighty pulse of blue through its body. With a blood-curdling screech, the Hunter faded away.

Confirmed: Lokonessence can still kill white-made monsters.

I focused on the battle behind me, where Kitty was dealing blows to her opponent and dodging bites and slashes. Beyond, the others were likewise showing various degrees of success in their own battles, colours and claws flying every which way.

“Come on, Alex,” Melody uttered a few feet away. Tearing my eyes from the skirmishes, I saw her making her way to me. “If you’re not going to do yourself a favour and join me, at least fight me.”

She swung her scythe forward, and I moved out of the way. I wasn’t even sure how to sword-fight someone with a scythe… aim for the inner edge of the curve?

“Why don’t you understand that what you’re planning is wrong?” I asked her, bringing my sword up and preparing to block her next blow.

“I want people to be at peace with who they are,” she told me, and took another swing. I managed to catch her weapon ahead of me with my own. “Rather than a world full of people like you, who hate themselves for being a monster.”

“Isn’t it a good thing that I think I’m terrible? You know what I’m like!” I found myself saying. She pulled her scythe away and attempted to strike my legs out from under me; I sprung backwards.

“Nobody should be ashamed of themselves. I don’t hate you at all, Alex.”

White spikes emerged along the outer edge of her scythe’s sickle, and she thrust it towards me, a move I only just managed to block in time.

“Join me and you’ll never have to run again.”

“The world shouldn’t have to change just to make me comfortable!”

Or anybody, but certainly not me.

“Maybe not, but you wish it would, don’t you? Everybody does. And we have the power to make it happen.”

I forced her back a little, pitting my own strength against hers and narrowly overcoming her.

“You are my favourite monster, Alex,” she continued, pushing back against my weapon with hers. “Your friends, and mine… they don’t compare. You’re in a whole other league. You’re a dragon and you will burn everybody you care about until they run away. But you can’t burn me. The others can be soldiers in my army, but you’ll be prince consort. You’ll be right by my side as we bring the world to its knees.”

“Shut up!” I snarled at her, unwittingly unleashing a blue burst from my sword that sent her reeling. She briefly seemed surprised by that.

“Hrm. I didn’t calibrate it well enough. You’re only supposed to be able to affect the Hunters right now…” she muttered.

Kitty suddenly bounded forward, diving onto Melody and holding her Lokon claw to Melody’s neck.

“Stop. Monsters just make more monsters. We’re lucky to have a place in the world.”

“It shouldn’t be luck. It should be a right. For the lucky ones like you, and the unlucky ones…”

Melody chuckled again.

“Pardon me. I don’t know you. Harmony kept you a secret from me. Maybe you aren’t so lucky?”

“I’m lucky now,” Kitty hissed. “I just want a normal life, whether I deserve it or not.”

“You’re not normal. You deserve more than that.”

The others joined us now, the remaining Hunters defeated.

“We’ve won, Melody,” Dakota began. “Just give up.”

“Oh no, you beat my Hunters; my entire plan is foiled!” Melody sobbed melodramatically from the ground. “You do know you can’t stop me, right? No matter what you do. There’s no going back. Our masks are going to come off. Drag me with you, take me to the police… it won’t stop me. In fact, you’ll just make things easier for me.”

“… Bao, you’ve got your mobile, right?” our leader asked while glaring down at Melody.

“Yep. Who’re we calling?”

“The police,” she stated.

“Ah, so you mean we’re calling Melody’s bluff?” Bao smiled, fishing out his mobile.

“You’re going to regret this,” Melody insisted beneath Kitty. “Oh, and you’ll need to wipe my emblem off the door, or else they’ll miss this place entirely. Maybe fix the windows up, too.”

It took maybe ten minutes for a couple of police cars to arrive. Unmasked, Melody was visibly smirking the entire time she was being apprehended, and I watched her keep the same expression even as the car she was in drove away. None of the other people in the house were there by the time the police checked… presumably, they’d slipped away at some point during the fight. We managed to get away without much hassle, having provided all the information we could. Even then, we were asked to stop by the police station when we could, to make proper statements.

Our work was seemingly done, though none of us could shake the fear of Melody being right… that, somehow, this would barely prove to be a bump in the road for her revolution.

…

“Alex.”

Dakota poked my cheek as if her saying my name hadn’t already grabbed my attention. Being a Friday night, I was staying over at hers; the others had gone home, and Kitty was in bed as of a minute ago. And here was my telly-viewing being interrupted by a finger to the face.

“What…?”

“What’s wrong?” she asked me gently.

“Nothing’s wrong…” I assured her, earning a sigh.

“You’ve looked bothered all evening. You promised you’d talk to me when you’re upset.”

Damn that agreement…

“It’ll upset you too…” I said lowly.

“Then we’ll be upset together,” she told me with that warm smile of hers.

“Melody…”

Where to begin? I took a moment to gather my thoughts.

“When I was fighting Melody, she started saying that I’d… I’d burn everyone I care about. That I’m a dragon. She was saying she’s the only person I can’t hurt.”

“She wanted us to join her. She was trying to win you over,” Dakota claimed. “Don’t worry about what she says…”

“But she’s right,” I continued. “I’ve burnt you before. I’ve burnt all of you. I don’t want to do it again, but what if I do…? What if I lose control? I don’t want to drive you away, and now I’m saying that and I feel like some clingy idiot…”

Dakota hugged me tight, and I embraced her in kind.

“You’re talking to me about this right now instead of bottling it up. That’s a good thing. We’ll work our way through all of this, one day at a time. You’re not a dragon, Alex. You’re not a monster, none of us are. We’re… we’re not perfect. But that’s okay, right?”

“How many times can you tell me that before you get sick of it…?” I questioned, fighting back tears now. She seemed to recognise that, and rubbed my back.

“I won’t get sick of it. You’ll believe it a little more each time I tell you, long before I ever get sick of it.”

She chuckled softly at that.

“You’re a good person, Alex. You’re allowed to hurt, even for stupid reasons. Just don’t let the hurt win.”

“I’ll try…” I nodded, holding her close. “How’d you get so wise…?”

“I’m not wise,” she whispered. “I’ve just got a lot of experience in fighting the hurt…”

I held her tighter.

“You do such a good job of it.”

“I try.”

“We can try together…”

“I’d like that…” she told me with love in her voice.