Phantom - Chapter 02

Soon after I was born, both of my parents died.

My mum died giving birth to me and my father, unable to cope with the pressure and his grief, handed me to an orphanage before killing himself. I spent the first seven years of my life there, but I only ever really made one friend…Sophie…

Everyone else in my life just kept coming into my life and then leaving soon afterwards.

It seemed that everyone else would always get adopted soon after they arrived, so I only ever really had Sophie in my life. We were together each and every day and we would always comfort one another when our friends left the orphanage before us.

We were best friends and we got along great with one another, so, while it was difficult, we could always make it through the sad days by relying on each other. Even then though, there were times that I would wake up in the middle of the night and find Sophie crying in the corner…I never did anything to her about it, but I’m sure she knew I’d seen her a few times.

One day, a fire broke out in the kitchen and, in an old, wooden schoolhouse, it spread unbelievably quickly.

We were on the second floor when it happened.

We couldn’t get down the stairs because they were consumed by flames and the smoke kept getting thicker and thicker and…we didn’t know what to do. Sophie said that we should try jumping out of the windows, but neither of us knew how much damage a two-story jump could do to us, especially if we didn’t land on our feet.

Sophie though, she…she…never made it to the window.

A piece of flaming debris fell down from the ceiling and…crushed…her…

I…I…

I…ran…as fast as I could to the nearest window and just…jumped through it, not looking at where I was going to land. I hit the ground hard on my side and crushed my ribs, one of which burst my lung.

As I was bleeding out, all I did was curl up and cry.

Cry from the smoke in my eyes, cry at the pain in my chest, and…for Sophie…

I kept pleading in my mind again and again, saying ‘Please, someone, anyone, save me!’ and then, as if answering my prayers, he…T…appeared…

He looked at me and the burning behind me with not a single care in the world, as if the entire thing was just boring to him. Even with the fire and smoke licking at his face, he just didn’t care…he wasn’t bothered by a thing, not even the broken and bleeding little girl dying at his feet.

“You have a strong will to live,” He said. “Tell me: do you want me to save you?”

My lips were cracked and my throat was dry…all I could do was weakly nod at his offer. The next thing I remember I was in complete darkness. When I woke up, I was lying naked in a bed, covered in bandages and with various drips and needles in me. T took care of me, giving me food, water and a change of clothes, and said that I’d live and be okay in a few weeks.

After eight weeks of rest, T began my training…

Jasmine - Age Six

Date: 6th June 2165

T bashed the bo staff hard against her cheek.

Jasmine spun around, screaming, and fell onto the floor. She spat to the side, a small amount of blood mixed in with her saliva and rubbed her cheek.

“That hurt!” Jasmine yelled. T smashed his staff at the hand on her cheek and she screamed. “What was that for?”

T placed the staff gently against her neck. “If you want to survive in this world, you must first conquer the enemy of all humans; pain.”

“Pain?”

T twirled his staff behind him and dragged Jasmine onto her feet. He took the staff and smashed it against his arm; the wood split and splinters pierced his flesh. Jasmine shrieked in horror, but T didn’t even so much so as make a sound, not even a grunt.

“How?” Jasmine asked. She placed her fingers delicately over the splinters lodged in T’s arms. “How does this not hurt?”

“Pain is something that is to be endured and conquered. Once you have done that, nothing can ever hurt you,” T said. He ripped one of the splinters from his flesh and discarded it to one side. “Pain is only scary because it leads to death or further suffering. Without those fears, nothing hurts. Remember that and you will be able to survive anything the world throws at you.”

Jasmine couldn’t understand what T was saying.

How could something like that not hurt?

The splinters were the size of her fingernails and he just ripped it right out from his skin like it was nothing.

How could she just ignore the pain like he did?

“Teach me how to endure pain like you,” She asked, bowing meekly. “Please.”

T nodded. “Very well, however.” He picked up another staff and twirled it in front of him. “It will take much time to bring you to this level. Are you ready?” Jasmine nodded. “Good.”

That was the sort of training that I had to endure for days on end.

Some days, T would change his tactics to nearly torturing me.

He would pour boiling water over my skin, beat me with his Bo staff, and, some days, he wouldn’t let me eat or drink anything. However, with each day, I grew stronger. Soon enough, the beats from his staff just became small sensations; the boiling water became refreshing and the lack of food and water helped me focus.

Soon enough, I could channel out the pain that I felt…well, as long as I put my mind to it.

After that, T started training me in all forms of combat.

We began with close quarters which only took a few months for me to master. Then, he taught me how to shoot all types of guns. Surprisingly for the both of us, I was an excellent shot right from the get-go. He thought it was beginner’s luck, but, every day, I would hit the target exactly where he told me to and every time he would be just as surprised.

I don’t remember much about it specifically, but I do know that I was a great shot with shotguns, pistols, machine guns and sniper rifles.

Then, one day, T said the words that made me the happiest I had ever been in my entire life.

Jasmine - Age Eight

Date: 3rd February 2167

Jasmine fired the remaining bullets from her pistol and lower her arms, satisfied with herself after landing six shots in the target’s body in the exact places she had wanted.

She took off her ear protection and lowered her goggles and smiled, puffing out her chest proudly.

“So? How’d I do?” Jasmine asked smugly.

T pressed a button and the paper target drifted towards them. He took it off the rail and examined the holes in it carefully. Two bullets had gone through the target’s eyes, one through its heart, one through the centre of its spine, and one in each of the target’s lungs.

“Impressive as always,” T said, nodding slowly. He handed her the paper and she smiled. “If you can keep this up, I might start taking you out on missions soon.”

Jasmine’s eyes lit up and she smiled. “I can’t wait!”

T smiled slightly and set up another target. “Now, again with the machine gun this time.”

That…honest to God, used to be my happiest memory and…it was warmer than any moment I had spent with Sophie.

It was the first time T had ever said that I could go on missions with him and I was ecstatic.

I had trained two years just to hear those words and, when he had finally said them, I felt so warm, so…happy…so happy that I could hardly contain myself. It was those words that encouraged me and drove me through the rest of my training, and my hard work paid off.

When I was thirteen, I was given my very first job.

T had been contracted to take out an Italian mob boss who had bought out the entire top floor of a block of flats for himself and then converted them into a gigantic flat for himself. My job was to go in there and kill every last person there, whether they were members of his organisation or civilians.

T wouldn’t go with me…he wanted to see if I could handle a mission of that level by myself, though he was close by monitoring my progress.

After all, he didn’t want to see a five year investment go to waste.

Well, it’s not like I needed his help.

Jasmine - Age Thirteen

Date: 17th June 2172

Jasmine waited patiently as the lift crawled towards the top floor.

She loaded her silver pistol and pulled back on the barrel, running through the mission specifics one final time in her mind.

Twenty six guards, two prostitutes and her target, Omero Covelli.

Armed with guns, no Superhumans, Guardians or mercenaries. Low firepower, 9mm, poor accuracy, high chance of jamming and seven rounds in a magazine. Jasmine’s magazines could hold fifteen bullets and one in the chamber.

While there were some knives in the target’s kitchen, Jasmine wasn’t too worried about them. The guns were obviously the main threat but, luckily for Jasmine, the guards didn’t have any body armour whatsoever.

Put simply, the mob boss was too arrogant, and too cheap, to properly outfit his crew.

As she passed the tenth floor, she checked her equipment once more.

“Six magazines, knives, grenades; two: one stun, one frag.” She said, feeling her body where her equipment was stored. Jasmine took a deep breath and exhaled slowly, steeling her resolve. The lift arrived on the top floor and Jasmine’s eyes narrowed, focusing herself only on the mission.

As soon as the doors opened, Jasmine did a quick scan of the corridor before she began her attack.

There were six guards, standing at attention, and they were taken back by Jasmine’s sudden appearance which allowed her to strike first.

She shot the closest one in the head, and then snapped her aim to the furthest ones, firing three bullets at them. They all dropped down dead as their friends drew their guns.

Jasmine, however, was quicker.

She snapped to them in turn and fired two shots at each of them, dropping them to the floor and emptying her magazine.

As Jasmine’s gun didn’t have a silencer on it, the rest of the guards knew she was there.

Quickly, she reloaded her pistol and ran into one of the four side rooms.

She barged through the door, rolled forwards and took cover behind a sofa. Three guards in the room had turned to face her and had already opened fire at her. The bullets tore through the fabric and only just missed her. One scraped her cheek and she let out a small hiss.

Once their gunfire began to slow, she made her move.

She jumped straight up and open fired at them, her bullets tearing through their chests and stomachs, and they fell down dead. Jasmine then snapped her aim to the door and she cut down the two guards who charged in as reinforcements.

Bullets flew through the wall and Jasmine reflexively leapt onto the floor, crawling back behind the sofa and reloading her gun once more. She had taken down eleven guards and used two magazines, meaning that she could afford to miss a few shots here and there. She shot blindly from her cover through the wall five times but the barrage of bullets didn’t slow.

Jasmine began to crawl away from the door, making sure she moved carefully through the room towards the far door from where she had entered. She knew that there were probably a handful of guards on the other side, but she could easily turn the fight into the favour.

She silently pressed her back against the wall and slowly reached for the door handle. She checked the other door and holstered her pistol, before taking out her two grenades and putting the pins between her teeth.

Jasmine ripped the pins out and made her move.

Jasmine opened the door and threw the stun grenade in; then, she threw the explosive grenade at the other door. Jasmine took cover behind the wall once more as the trigger happy guards in the room next to her began to fire. The grenades detonated and her ears began to ring, a bright flash behind her and an inferno emerging in the room before her.

She burst through the door she was next to, drew her pistol, and unleashed bullets at the people inside. Soon, there were six dead guards and one dead prostitute.

Jasmine reloaded her gun as fast as she was able to and took cover once again next a wall. She added the dead guards in the room to her total and confirmed seventeen guard’s deaths, not including any that had been caught in her grenade’s explosion.

“No sign of the target,” She whispered. She then checked the watch on her wrist and scowled. “Five minutes until first responders arrive.”

Jasmine stepped back into the first side room, which now had a gigantic hole in the wall courtesy of her grenade and moved into the main corridor. She counted the number of bodies and found that there were ten now rather than six.

Her grenade had caught a handful of them in its blast.

“Five more,” Jasmine noted, making her way carefully down the corridor.

At the far end were closed double doors and they were the only ones on the floor that weren’t open. She slowed her pacing and hid next to one of the doors, pressing her side against the wall. She unloaded her magazine and loaded in a fresh one, before checking that it hadn’t jammed and she readied herself to breech into the room.

If I break through here without any cover, they’ll shoot me instantly, She thought, glancing around the corridor for anything that could help her.

She spotted a fire extinguisher along the corridor and she grinned.

Jasmine took the extinguisher and threw it through the doors, causing the guards to fire wildly at her. She dived in between the open doors and fired several shots at the extinguisher, engulfing the room in smoke.

The guards kept firing even after losing their visibility and one of them had landed a shot in her elbow, causing Jasmine to groan in pain.

As they had all been firing at once and had started the moment Jasmine had burst the doors open, they all needed to reload at the same time and, in that moment, Jasmine struck.

She emptied her magazine into the three guards, before dropping her pistol and throwing her knives at the other two which pierced their hearts. She grabbed her pistol and reloaded it once more.

She heard her target, Omero Covelli, scream and try to flee and Jasmine inadvertently smiled at the sight.

“No, you don’t,” She said, snapping her aim to his back and shot him through the spine. Omero fell onto his knees, screaming madly in pain, and Jasmine aimed at the back of his head.

The prostitute that had been in the room had picked up one of his guard’s guns and shot it at Jasmine. The bullet tore through her right arm and Jasmine hissed through her teeth, before shooting the prostitute through her skull.

“Stupid bitch,” Jasmine hissed, covering her wound with her free hand. “Now then.” Her smile returned. “Where were we?”

Jasmine slowly walked towards Omero and holstered her pistol. Omero began to beg her for mercy in Italian, offering her riches and rewards beyond her wildest dreams, but she didn’t understand a single word of it.

She ignored him, reclaimed her knives, looked into his eyes and twirled the blades between her fingers. Omero shrieked and tried to run, but she threw the knife through the back of his right leg and he collapsed onto one knee. Jasmine then violently grabbed his head, placed her other blade against his neck and slowly slit his throat open.

Omero began to cough blood as it spewed from his neck. He clutched his wound and fell face down onto the floor, a small puddle forming around his head.

Jasmine sheathed her knives and climbed up onto the roof where T was waiting.

“Nice work,” T said as he began to patch up her wounds.

Jasmine smiled and whipped her hair over her shoulder. Her arms were covered in blood but she didn’t care; she had completed her first job and T was happy with her work.

That was all that she needed.

“Thank you,” Jasmine replied with a beaming smile.

Nice work…two simple words that drove me to do so many more missions for that monster.

No, it wasn’t just that…Everything about that night made me want to continue as T’s apprentice.

The thrill of the danger of death, the excitement and euphoria I felt when I pulled the trigger, the sting and burning pain of my wounds, and the way that he praised and acknowledged my hard work.

I even excitedly asked when my next job was and he laughed, saying ‘They will be plenty more’.

After that, T came with me on all of my missions, saying that he didn’t want to see me get badly wounded like that again. You know what, I believed that when all he wanted to do was to have some fun doing the missions himself.

By the time I was thirteen, I had already been on eleven jobs and received eleven large payments. By my fifth job, T and I had turned the entire job into a game. Whoever got the most points at the end of the job got a bonus of 10% of their pay. It was fifty points for a headshot, ten for a chest and one for a leg or arm shot.

As ashamed as I am to say it, I enjoyed the game.

Almost as much as T did.

Jasmine - Age Fifteen

Date: 7th November 2174

“I bet I can nail her from here,” Jasmine said, grinning slyly.

The wind whipped her ponytail against her face and her head was rested at the butt of a sniper rifle, her eye gazing down the scope. She was lying on her stomach on a rooftop with T stood next to her; he was using binoculars to look at the same target Jasmine was.

They were two hundred metres away from the target who was on the fifty eighth floor of a skyscraper in Beijing that belonged to Gaia Industries. They were having their annual Christmas party and all that was between Jasmine and her target was glass that wasn’t bullet-proof.

T hummed, lowering his binoculars, and he looked at her sceptically. “I don’t think you can.”

“Wanna bet?”

He raised an eyebrow. “Go on.”

“Half of my pay against half of yours. If I land a headshot, you pay up; if I don’t, I will.”

T pondered the bet over his mind briefly, before nodding and offering her his hand. “Deal.”

They shook and Jasmine began to take aim at the target’s head.

It was an elderly woman with thin grey hair and light blue eyes who was standing in a small crowd of others, talking happily and a glass of champagne in her hand. Even if Jasmine missed the headshot, the poison lacing the bullet would end her life, but Jasmine needed to land the headshot to win the bet.

Jasmine’s finger rested patiently beside the trigger and she made her final checks.

She checked the wind; slight breeze from the left, maybe a metre a second. The distance to her target wasn’t changing; roughly two hundred metres from her to the target. The woman wasn’t moving either; just the occasional nod or twitch when she was talking. Nothing that would stop Jasmine from killing her.

She lined up her shot and waited for the wind to pass.

Once it stopped, she fired.

The bullet soared through the Beijing night sky and slammed into the woman’s cheek. The bullet ripped the woman’s face open and she spun onto the floor, blood spewing from her face. Jasmine could see the panic flood over the other guests’ faces and she smiled.

A handful of men ran over to her, checking her pulse and evacuating people from the party, guns raised and pointing in all directions. Two of them walked over to the shattered glass pane and looked into the distance, causing Jasmine to smirk; there was no way that they could spot her from there.

“I win,” She giggled.

“This time, at least,” T said. He tossed his binoculars over the side and turned to leave. “Let’s go.”

“Okay.” Jasmine pushed her rifle over the roof’s edge and it smashed into the ground below.

T and Jasmine then left the rooftop, as if nothing had ever happened.

I never found out whether or not anyone else had died that night because of our ‘disposal technique’, or whether or not they ever figured out where the shot was taken from. At the time, I couldn’t care less. I had just won a bet with my partner and I was so happy.

After that, whenever we went on a mission, T would always offer me a bonus if I killed the target in a certain way or with a particular weapon…the last one I ever had was to kill the man with just my knives…

Back then, I thought that it was all just fun and games and that the people we were killing were the evil ones. As much as I hate to admit it, T had corrupted my mind with his lies.

It took me twenty eight jobs to learn just what kind of a man he really was and just how much suffering I had been causing.

My 28th job, my last job, was the Bald Merchant; my biggest, yet best, mistake I ever made.

Jasmine - Age Seventeen

Date: 4th December 2176

The man tried to run through the living room, but he fell over practically everything in his path. He tripped over the sofa and smashed through his glass table, leaving him stunned and in pain.

Jasmine was right behind him, her clockwork knives deployed, and she jumped onto the sofa, bounced off it and planted her blades in the man’s back. He cried out in pain and tried to throw her off him, but Jasmine withdrew one of her blades and cut off the man’s hand. He grabbed the wound and yelled madly, and he threw his elbow in her face.

Jasmine was thrown off his back and one of her blades snapped off, remaining stuck in his back. The man ran through the nearest door, but T, who had been waiting on the other side, kicked him in the stomach, causing him to double over and then crumple onto the floor. Jasmine then stabbed the man through the back of his head, killing him instantly.

She withdrew her blade and began panting, sweat dripped from her forehead and she was covered in his blood.

T sighed and took out his silenced pistol, crouching down to examine the body. “Shame, I didn’t even get to do anything.”

Jasmine smiled and sheathed her knife. “Sorry, should I have left you something-?”

“Daddy?” A young girl asked from behind her.

The colour drained from Jasmine’s face and she slowly turned around, praying that she had just been hearing things, but, unfortunately, there, standing in pure terror before them, was a little girl.

At a glance, Jasmine knew that the girl had to be less than five years old. She was dressed in bright pink pyjamas, had brown hair and blue eyes, and she was holding a plushie in the shape of a cartoon cat.

“Where’s my…daddy?” The girl whispered, tightly clutching her cuddle toy.

“No…” Jasmine said, tears forming in her eyes. “T…”

T stood up and froze when he saw the girl standing there.

“Daddy?” The girl asked, terrified.

T sighed slowly and aimed his gun at her face. Jasmine gasped and she ran in front of T, putting herself between them.

“What do you think you’re doing?” T demanded, narrowing his eyes.

“I could ask you the same thing!” Jasmine protested. “She’s just a kid!”

“And she saw us! She knows who we are!” T cocked his gun at her. “We can’t let her live.”

“What’s wrong with my daddy?” The girl asked.

Jasmine bit her lip and swallowed deeply as she felt the vomit climbing in her throat.

The thought that she had just taken a young girl’s father from her right before her very eyes made Jasmine feel sick to her stomach, a feeling of disgust surging in her chest.

“Why not wipe her memories or something with magic?” Jasmine offered, smiling nervously. “Why not take her in like you did me? Why not-?”

“Move.”

“T, we don’t-” Jasmine tried to say.

T’s arm stiffened. “Jasmine. Move.”

“No.”

T frowned and his eyes narrowed. “Jasmine. Move!”

“No, I’m not letting you kill her!” Jasmine yelled.

T clicked his tongue and pushed Jasmine to one side.

“Don’t!” She screamed, but, it was too late.

He had already shot her in the head.

Jasmine fell onto the floor and stared in horror as the young girl’s corpse fell onto her back, blood pouring from the wound and her eyes still filled with fear. Jasmine ran over to the girl’s side and cradled her head in her hands as the realisation that she was dead hit Jasmine, and it hit her hard.

Jasmine gritted her teeth and burst into tears, slamming her fist at the ground.

“Why?” She whispered.

“Jasmine, let’s-”

“Why, T?” She screamed, standing up and glaring at him. “She was just a child!”

“She saw our faces!” T yelled. “In our line of work, that’s the same as handing our photographs to the police.”

“She was an innocent young girl and we killed her father before her eyes…Doesn’t that make you feel a thing?”

T sighed and turned away from her. “Jasmine, I don’t know if you’ve ever realised this, but every single person on this planet has a family. There is always someone who will feel sad at someone’s death, no matter who it is. The only difference is that, this time, they actually saw that person die.”

Jasmine ground her teeth and stared daggers at him, her hands curling into fists. “We took away her future…” Jasmine deployed one of her pistols and thrust it at T’s face, tears rolling from her eyes. “I…I can’t do this anymore…I can’t. I…I can’t forgive you for this. I won’t take children’s lives!”

Jasmine pulled back on the trigger four times; however, no bullets fired. She turned the gun to her hand and pulled back on the trigger and, as she feared, nothing came out of the barrel.

She let out a slight laugh and dropped her pistol onto the ground. “Blanks…” She whimpered. “You…gave me blanks?” T slowly aimed his gun at her. Jasmine started to cackle, but she cut herself off, smiling bitterly at T. “You knew that I would try to kill you.”

He aimed at her chest and fired twice.

She jerked forward and collapsed onto her knees; T caught her before she fell on her face and he shushed softly into her ear.

“I thought that this might happen if we ever ran into the daughter,” T confessed, squeezing her tighter. “I’d hoped that you would’ve pushed through it, just like I taught you. Why, Jasmine? Why did you make me do this?”

She grunted and spit blood onto his cheek. “T, why did you make me do all of this?”

***

T tossed Jasmine into the river after he patched up her wounds poorly and he watched her drift away on the current. He watched her flow down the river, dying the river red behind her, until she was no longer in sight.

T sighed, took out a cigarette, lit it and took a long drag from it. He slowly exhaled and looked up at the night sky, a frown on his face.

“Stupid bitch,” He muttered, a pain resonating in his chest. “Damn it.”

***

The sky became brighter and blinded her vision.

Jasmine’s eyes felt like they were on fire, but she couldn’t do anything to protect them.

How long…?

A rock brushed against her leg, chipping away at her skin and more of her blood flowed into the river.

How long have I been floating down this river?

Jasmine felt a handful of fish swim beneath her. She didn’t even twitch when they touched her.

Why…am I not dead yet?

A log blocked her legs, twisting her body around it and sending her head first down the river. She bashed the back of her skull against a sharp rock and her vision grew darker.

Why did you bother patching me up if you wanted me to die? Did you want me to suffer?

Jasmine’s vision kept getting darker and darker and soon she could barely make out the sun glaring into her eyes. Her eyelids grew too heavy for her to hold up and they gently lowered over her eyes.

I understand now, T. This, this is the ultimate price I pay for betraying you.

You truly are the worst.

***

Elthia placed her dirty green shirt into the river and rubbed at the stains, whilst carefully watching the water and her surroundings for any signs of threats.

However, just like always, there was nothing.

The young girl was dressed in a worn emerald shirt, a torn black skirt and battered and stained white shoes which were a size too big for her. She scrubbed vigorously at the dirt marks and they had disappeared in minutes.

Elthia smiled and pulled the shirt out of the water. “One down, two to go.”

She placed the clean shirt on a large rock in the sunlight, grabbed another dirty one and began to wash it. Then, she saw her; the girl with pink hair and pale white skin, streaks of red liquid flowing from her body.

The body drifted by her and Elthia caught it, lifting the girl onto the riverbed and resting her gently onto the stones. She looked over every inch of the girl’s body, checking for wounds, and she found several which were incredibly serious.

She had two gunshot wounds in her chest that had been poorly stitched together, a large cut on her inner thigh, and a piece of her scalp was missing.

“What happened to her?” Elthia asked, resting her ear on the girl’s chest.

When she didn’t hear her heartbeat, Elthia straightened her back and placed her hands on the girl’s head. Her arms and the girl’s head began to glow green as an armada of pain swarmed over Elthia. She bit her lip and hissed through her teeth, trying her best not to scream and to just endure the pain, knowing that, if she stopped, then the girl would definitely die.

The pain ceased in Elthia’s body and she saw that the wound had healed.

Elthia then moved her palms to the girl’s chest wounds and, like before, they glowed light green and were soon closed. Finally, she put her hands on the girl’s thigh and healed it. Elthia let out a long exhale and fell onto her bottom, panting and sweating heavily.

Elthia smiled, satisfied with herself, and she ran her fingers through the girl’s hair, examining her features more closely.

Her eyes were closed, her hair was pink and had been dyed red from her blood, her skin felt cold and looked like a corpse and it was covered in old, jagged scars.

What have you been through? Elthia wondered, frowning.

Elthia stood up, brushed herself down and went over to her home and grabbed a blanket. She covered the girl’s naked body with it, making sure that it was securely wrapped around her and would keep her warm.

With nothing else to do but wait until the girl awoke, Elthia returned to washing her shirts.

Two hours later, the girl woke up.

Elthia heard the girl roll around on the stones before she saw her move.

“Ah, you’re awake?” Elthia asked, turning around, a small smile on her face. “I’m glad.”

The girl slowly sat up, holding the back of her head, and she turned to face Elthia with her beautiful purple eyes. The girl blinked a few times, looked Elthia up and down, scanned her surroundings, and then touched the wounds on her body.

“I’m…not dead?” She asked in disbelief.

“I healed your wounds,” Elthia said. “Um, I have some clothes if you wanted to put them on.” The girl shyly grabbed the blanket on her and nodded. “Then, please wait here for a moment.”

“…Thank you.”

Elthia smiled and grabbed the clothes that she had put aside for the girl and handed them to her. Quickly, the girl changed into the baggy shirt and shorts as Elthia sat down beside the river, watching the fish dance in the water. The pink haired girl shuffled next to her and groaned.

“Ah, my head hurts like hell,” She moaned.

“It’ll be some time before the pain goes away,” Elthia told her.

“How do you know?”

“Because, I’ve had that before.”

“You’ve had your scalp removed?” Elthia weakly nodded and placed her head between her knees. “How did you even save me?” The pink haired girl asked.

Elthia tensed up and wrapped her hands around the tattoos on her arms, looking away from the girl.

“…With…magic…” Elthia whispered, closing her eyes.

The girl saw the tattoos on Elthia’s body, smiled and patted her on the head. “Thank you for saving my life.”

“You…don’t think…I’m a freak?” Elthia asked.

“How could I think that about someone who saved my life? You can save people’s live and that’s…” She smiled sadly. “An amazing thing.”

“But…I’m…not human…”

“Do you have two arms and two legs?”

“Yes.”

“Do you have a mind and emotions?”

“Yes.”.

“Do you have opposable thumbs?”

“Yes.”

The pink haired girl leant back on her hands. “Being human…isn’t everything…I mean, does it even matter if you’re not human?” Elthia tilted her head to the side as Jasmine’s sad smile grew. “I’d say being a good or kind being is more important than being ‘human’. After all, being kind isn’t just a human thing, so who cares what you are as long as you live a life you can feel happy while living it?”

Elthia shot her a quizzical look but didn’t press the issue. “What’s your name?”

“I’m Jasmine, Jasmine Dalena. Nice to meet you…”

“El-Elthia,” Elthia whispered. “Elthia Soparta.”

“Well, Elthia Soparta, thank you for saving my life,” Jasmine said with a smile.

***

The next day, Jasmine wasn’t sure what time she had woken up for the first time in years.

When she had been living with T, he had meticulously planned out her entire day from start to finish, including what time she had to wake up in the morning.

She sat up in Elthia’s makeshift bed that she had made for her and touched the wounds on her chest. Even though they had felt like they were on fire less than a day ago; they now looked and felt perfectly fine as if they had never been damaged.

Beside her head was a pile of freshly dry clothes, folded neatly in a small pile, which Jasmine couldn’t help but smile at.

She’s a sweet girl, isn’t she?

Jasmine put on them on and, once she was dressed, she stepped out to the river side and saw Elthia sitting next to a small fire, roasting two small birds over it. Beside her, there was a handmade bow and two bloodied stone head arrows. Resting in the river, waiting to catch fresh prey, was a fishing line and, lying on a rock beside it, were three dead fish.

“Good morning,” Jasmine said and she sat across from Elthia.

“Good morning,” Elthia said, smiling weakly. “Breakfast will be ready soon.”

“Thank you. Is there anything that I can do to help?”

“No, its fine.” Elthia kicked off her worn boots and flexed her toes, allowing Jasmine to see the many cuts and scars that were on her feet.

The fire began to dwindle, so Jasmine took the initiative and walked over to the nearby forest. Even though Jasmine wasn’t wearing any shoes, the stones that she stepped on barely hurt her, especially after everything she had been through the day before, even when they cut her.

Jasmine collected a handful of thick, short sticks and dropped them beside the fire. Elthia shot them a quick glance and nodded, taking one of them and placing it carefully onto the fire.

After a few minutes of silence, Elthia took the birds off the fire and rested them against a stone, making sure that their cooked flesh didn’t touch the ground. She then took a plate from beside the fire and placed one of the birds onto it.

Elthia then offered the plate to Jasmine.

“Thanks,” Jasmine said, but she hesitated to take the only plate that the girl had. “What about you?”

Elthia shook her head, took one end of the stick from the other bird and began to slowly chew on the meat. She hissed at how hot the food was and Jasmine cracked a small laugh, finding the action quite adorable.

However, given the girl’s silence and frankness, Jasmine knew that she didn’t want her there any longer than necessary.

As soon as I can, I’ll head off, Jasmine planned. I should have more than enough money in my bank account and supply caches that I can survive on for a long time. And, that way, you can go back to living how you like it. Just you.

Jasmine’s expression became gloomy and she looked at Elthia. Is this really how she likes to live? Just her? All alone?

“Aren’t you lonely?” Jasmine asked softly.

Elthia took another bite from her food, swallowed it hard and shyly nodded. “I am.”

“Then, why do you stay here?”

“Because there’s nothing left for me anywhere else.”

Elthia chewed on more of the bird’s flesh and crunched it angrily with her teeth.

They sat in silence until they had both finished their food. Jasmine wiped her lips down with her fingertips and brushed the crumbs off her. She stood up and walked over to the river bed, washing her hands in the water. It wasn’t exactly hygienic, but it was better than nothing.

She dried her hands on her shirt, did her morning stretches and let out a long hum.

“Hey, do you know which way I should go to get to the nearest town?” Jasmine asked.

Elthia dropped the sticks that she had been holding and stared blankly at the ground. “You’re leaving?”

Jasmine tried to smile a happy and reassuringly at her, but she couldn’t manage it.

“Well, I mean, you don’t want me here and I can’t keep living off of your things like this, so I thought it’d be best if I left,” Jasmine said, scratching her cheek. She stepped onto the grass and turned away. “Thank you for every-”

Something wrapped itself around her, holding her in place.

Jasmine looked down and she saw two arms wrapped around her waist. She glanced over her shoulder and she could see Elthia pressed up against her.

“Elthia?” Jasmine questioned in disbelief.

“Don’t go,” Elthia whispered into Jasmine’s back.

“Huh?”

“Don’t go!” Elthia screamed. “Please...don’t…go.”

“Huh? But I thought you hated me being here,” Jasmine said.

Elthia nuzzled her cheek against Jasmine’s back and sobbed. “I don’t hate you being here, I-I was just…unsure how I felt.”

“What do you mean?”

“Before I met you, I was hurting inside. Then, when we started talking, you said that you didn’t hate me, that you thought I wasn’t a freak, and that my powers were beautiful, I…I felt warm. My heart felt so warm and I felt…something. I didn’t know what it was, but I knew that it was a strong feeling. Then, when you weren’t around, my chest started to hurt, but when I thought about being with you, my heart felt at ease.”

Jasmine smiled and let out a little giggle. She took Elthia’s arms off of her and turned to face her. “That’s love, Elthia. Do you know what love is?” Elthia shook her head. “Well, love is when you like someone so much that you always, always want to be around them. It makes you feel warm right here.” She pointed to her heart. “That feeling of warmth is what all humans want and what they spend their life searching for. Those people who make them warm.”

Elthia titled her head a little. “So, I love you?”

Jasmine nodded. “Hey, you’ve never had a real family before now, right?” Elthia slowly nodded. “Then, from now on, I’ll be your kind, reliable, beautiful and strong big sister, okay?” Jasmine told her.

Elthia’s eyes widened and they sparkled beautifully.

Jasmine had never seen eyes so full of joy.

Her smile stretched wide across her face and she threw her arms around Jasmine.

“Sister!” Elthia shrieked.

Jasmine giggled and embraced her back.

I was too scared to use my bank account because T could trace it, so we had to use the money that I could steal or earn from part time jobs. We bought a small flat in a nearby town and spent the next six months living a nice, normal life there…but…I kept having nightmares about everything that I’d ever done with T.

All the lives that I’d taken, all of the blood that I’d spilt, the sadistic glee that I took from killing people like it was some sort of a game…all of it just kept coming back to me whenever I closed my eyes.

I…I needed to do something…something to wipe away my past and clean the blood off my hands and to get those thoughts out of my head. When I began hearing about the Guardians on the news, I suggested to Elthia that we should apply to be Guardians, so that we could find our family there together and she agreed to it immediately.

The orphan who had lost her family and the girl who had been ostracised by hers and run away from them…We both wanted to have a real, loving family and Ferris was the last place we could try to find one.

***

Eric’s eyes hadn’t left Jasmine’s face since she had begun, but he wasn’t able to process everything that she had told him.

“I…I can’t even begin to imagine what that must have been like…” Eric said softly, unsure of what else to say to her.

Jasmine smiled sadly and stared blankly at her hands. “Even though it hasn’t been that long since then, I feel like I’ve spent so much of my life trying to run away from who I was and what I did. Ever since I realised what I’d become, I’ve been trying to escape my past, leave all of it behind and start again fresh, where no one knew who I was and I could reinvent myself…and I thought I’d found somewhere where I could do that with the Guardians...

“If…If I had died that day…before I’d met Elthia…before I’d met you and the others, then none of this would have happened. It’s my fault that everyone suffered and were put in danger.” She turned to Eric, tears pouring down her face and smiled regretfully at him. “I’m so sor-”

Eric threw his arms around her and brought her into his chest, catching Jasmine off-guard.

“Eric…?”

“Jas, I can’t understand what your life must have been like, and I can’t even begin to comprehend how much you’ve suffered in your life,” He said, holding her tighter. “And, this might sound harsh, but I don’t care who you used to be; all I care about is who you are now, right here, in this moment. I know what it’s like to try and accept who you were, to try and better yourself and move forward from your past and I was only able to because of Kaida. I don’t know if I can do anything to help you, but.” He pulled away from her and stared into her eyes, smiling softly. “I’ll do everything that I can to support you, not just because you’re my friend, but because I know just how hard it is to overcome your past alone. Jasmine, I want you to rely on me and let me help you.

“I know it might be difficult and you might be scared that you’ll eventually say or do something that will drive me away, but I want you to know that I will never betray you. Feel free to rely on me from here on and talk to me about anything and everything on your mind and, no matter what it is, I’ll always be on your side.”

He smiled at her and wiped the tears from her eyes and brought her gently into an embrace. “Please don’t say things like ‘If I’d never met you’ or that what happened last night was your fault,” Eric said. “If Elthia’s big, strong sister isn’t able to manage by herself, then the big sister will have a reliable big brother to depend on.”

Jasmine felt more tears gathering at her eyes and she shut them tightly, nuzzling her head into his chest. “Do you really mean that?”

“Yeah.”

“I can rely on you for anything?”

“Yeah.”

“I can talk to you about anything?”

“Yeah.”

“You’ll never hate me?”

“Of course not.” He stroked her hair lovingly. “I’ll always be there for you.”

Jasmine couldn’t hold herself back from crying any longer and she bawled her eyes out, crying out into his chest and hugging him tightly.

“Eric…thank you! Thank you.” She sobbed.

Eric smiled warmly, held her gently and continued to stroke the top of her head, whispering, “You’re very welcome.”

***

Outside of Jasmine’s hospital room, Connor listened in on her conversation with Eric and couldn’t help but smile at his friend’s words. He had arrived just as Jasmine had begun explaining her story and couldn’t bring himself to interrupt them or leave them alone.

“Seems like they’ll be just fine,” He said quietly, satisfied that they would both be okay and he walked away from them.

I guess I really don’t have to worry about Eric as much as I used to.

***

The early evening sun was slowly lowering in the distance while Ajax was standing on the rooftop of the hospital, gazing out at Ferris in the distance through the tall metal fence.

It still felt unreal to him that it hadn’t even been a day since the incident with T and that so much had happened to him and his friends in such a short amount of time. It was strange for Ajax to think that last night three of his friends could have died and yet, strangely, Ajax was smiling.

He heard someone step out onto the rooftop and he casually glanced over his shoulder and found Jasmine of all people there.

“Hey,” She called meekly, closing the steel door behind her.

“Yo,” Ajax replied, turning back to the view. “Come to look at the view, too?”

“Actually, I came here looking for you.”

Ajax shot her a quizzical look and she smiled nervously at him. She walked over to the fencing and stood a few metres away from him, basking in the low sun’s light and taking in the magnificent view before them.

“How are your injuries?” Jasmine asked.

“All fine,” Ajax swiftly replied.

“I-I see. Um…did the others come by and visit you?”

“Connor and the rest did, yeah.”

“Alexis?”

Ajax smiled. “She tore me a new one, saying it was too irresponsible for me to go and do something so reckless alone.” He laughed quietly to himself. “Not like she would have done any different.”

Jasmine’s expression became pained and she looked away from him, a frown on her face. She took a deep breath in, mustered her courage and spun to face him once more.

“Um-”

“How are you doing?” Ajax asked, cutting her off.

“Huh?”

Jasmine had been caught off-guard by Ajax’s question, especially after she had just gathered all of her courage to apologise profusely to him.

“Sorry, should I have not asked?” He asked.

“It’s not that…just…” She smiled and shook her head, resting her back against the fence railing. “Never mind.” Jasmine looked towards the sky and lost her smile. “I know that, no matter what I do, the memories of last night will never go away, no matter how much I suppress them or try to forget them, and I did feel like complete shit.”

“Did?”

“Eric stopped by earlier and, well, he was angry with me but also concerned about me.” She smiled slightly and her cheeks turned slightly red. “After talking to him about my past, I’ve started to feel a lot better. I’m so lucky that I have such great friends on my team.”

Ajax smiled at her, before grinning cheekily. “Let me guess though, that excludes me?” He asked, jokingly.

“That’s not true.”

“Huh?”

It was Ajax’s time to be caught off guard this time.

“You are my friend, Ajax, and always have been. Well,” Jasmine said, shyly scratching her cheek. “At least, I’d always thought we were.”

“Even with all of the verbal abuse?”

“Evony and Connor do that to you all the time and you don’t seem to mind it too much.”

“Um, please don’t make it seem like I like to get bullied by them. It actually hurts when people are so brutally honest with me.”

Jasmine smiled slyly and shot him a look. “Even though that’s how your like and how you live your life?”

Ajax frowned a little and lowered his head, pouting. “I can’t argue against that.”

Jasmine laughed a little. “Then, I’ll be brutally honest with you right now.” Jasmine took a step towards him, looked into his eyes and smiled. “From the bottom of my heart, thank you, Ajax, for not only saving Elthia’s life, but mine as well. It’s a debt that I know I’ll never be able to properly pay back, but I wanted you to know that I really do appreciate what you did for us last night.

“Thank you for saving our lives.”

Ajax’s eyes widened as a growing warmth flooded his chest, giving him a sense of pride and happiness that he had never felt before.

“You’re very welcome,” He said, smiling proudly back. “But, you don’t have to worry about paying back that debt, you know.”

“But-”

“Jasmine, just hearing you say thanks is all I needed.”

“Why?”

Ajax leant back against the railing and turned his eyes back to Ferris once more. “During the tournament fights, I showed the world that I could go toe to toe with Superhumans of all levels and win, and, more than anything, I proved to myself that I could really be a Guardian, that it wasn’t just a naïve dream that I had. Last night, I was able to act like a real Guardian for the first time.

“Just knowing that I was able to save you two and get you home safe was all that I needed and being thanked for it was more than I could have ever asked for. I mean, think about it. If I had messed up my throws, or arrived a second too late, then you two would both be dead so, just being able to have you thank me is all I need.”

“Ajax…” Jasmine whispered, stunned. “That’s…amazing.”

“Oi, why do you sound so shocked about that?” Ajax asked, pouting a little. “I’ve always been like this. It’s not my fault if you only remember the bad things that I say.”

“Sorry about that.”

Ajax huffed a little and folded his arms, over-exaggerating his annoyance. “Even I say some good things that are worth remembering here and there.”

“It’s not my fault that you also say a lot of really memorable bad things.”

“Just so I know, how many of the good things that I’ve said in our time together have you remembered?”

“Um…just now?”

“Oi!”

Jasmine stifled a laugh but was unable to hold herself back and Ajax soon joined in with her.

“You know, if you do ever need someone to lean on or talk to, I’m always here for you,” Ajax said, smiling awkwardly. “I know we’ve never had that sort of relationship, but-”

Jasmine giggled and smiled back. “Thank you, but I’m sorry. I’ve already agreed to go to Eric about these sorts of things already.”

“Ah, damn. And here I was thinking that I’d done something cool, but Eric had already beaten me to the punch.”

“Sorry, but, honestly, thank you,” She said. “Not just for saving my life, but for offering to let me lean on you.”

“Hey, we’re friends, aren’t we?” Ajax grinned and held out his fist to her. “At least this much is to be expected, right?”

“Yeah, I guess you’re right.”

She hit her fist against his and they smiled brightly at one another.