(no subject)
Chapter 6
White boots pounded upon dark grey concrete. White gloves squeeze into fists of rage and hate and anger. Flames erupted into the stomach, but still churn and beat the legs that carry him to an unkown place. Faster and faster still churn the legs of the mortal whose life has been destroyed by countless errors and fights. Mist clouds the eyes of the mortal and soon he is lost deep within a forest of thick pines and dark spruce. Dry dead leaves and needles crunch and snap and crackle under his pounding feet. Into a veld doth he run. Down into it he slips and slides from a hill of mud and earth and grass and twigs and needles from the pines of countless ages. Mist filled this veld. Scot looked round himself and then walked into the mists. He was soon lost to the world and entered the world of mist and water vapors. After a while, he stopped walking and then knealt to the ground and folded his legs underneath his body.
He closed his eyes and thought of what had been going on in his life from the time when he left April up to the present. Images of his past flashed before his mind and he silently cried out for the images to stop and be frozen in the bowels of his mind. But they would not stop, they went on and on and on. Like some crazed drunken driver who could not drive straight, but had already lost control of the vehicle, flashed the images of Scots' past life in California. "Things were so simple back then. Damnit! Why couldn't I just have stayed back there, in California and lived with my friends and my former life and not had to have worried about being a Light Warrior?! WHY?!" Scot thought to himself. By now there were so many thing flying past his eyes, though closed they were, that he could see nothing save for a deep blur of reds, yellows, blues, greens, browns, greys, purples, and many other colors that he couldn't tell what they were.
"Damn you father! Damn you!" Scot thought some more. "You should have seen what was going on in my life when you forced me to move here with you! Yes, I was born here, but I didn't want to come back. I didn't like being here where every one trated you like dirt. I was happy that we had chosen to move out to California, but I didn't know what was in store for me once we got there. Oh, sure the first few years there, I didn't really like living in such a hot climate, but when I met April, things had changed. I had changed and I had taken a vow that I would always be there for April and the rest of her friends." Scot rose from where he had been sitting for the past three hours and cried out at the top of his lungs:
"DAAAAAAAAAAMMMMMMMMN YOOOOOOOOOOOOU, FAAAAAAAAAAAATHEEEEEEEEEERRRRRR!" He shouted and hollared with all the might that was left in his still tired lungs from the long run that he had taken to get to wherever he was now. He fell to the ground and wept. The tears splashed and smashed into the ground like rain drops that were falling in heavy torrents of water. In a few moments, Scot regained control over his emotions and then rose to his feet, heavily. It was time that he find his way home. He looked round and realized that he might have to wait until the fog had cleared somewhat before he could see clearly where he was. Then he remebered that once lost within a fog bank and there was very soft, wet ground underfoot, to turn directly around and kneal to the ground and look for his own foot prints. He did so and then he quickly found them. They were beaten into the ground so deeply that he would have tripped over them had it been a more clear night.
He took a few steps forward and then froze. Something wasn't right. He felt cold, but not from the chill wind that was blowing from the northeast. There was something within this bank of fog.....something that he didn't really want to meet right now. Something that was pure.....................................evil.
"Who's there?" He called out into the darkness of the fog. No answer. He felt that the thing that was with him, in the fog, was still there. He could sence it. Where was it? To the left? To the right? In front of him? Behind him? Where on earth was the damned thing? He looked to the left and right, but nothing was there. He continued to walk and then he heard a twig snap. It was right in front of him. He instincivly threw his best front kick-side kick-hook kick combination and felt all three attacks hit something........something that was made of......wood. He took a step forward and saw that he had just kicked a tree.
"Alright, that does it! WHERE ARE YOU AND WHAT ARE YOU?!" Scot said. Another twig snapped, this time to his right. He again threw the same kicks that he had thrown before, but his foot hit nothing save for air and cloud. He was growing tired of this cat and mouse game. He paused to rest for a second and then looked round himself once more. "I'm warning you! Either stop this foolish joke or face my wrath!" Scot shouted into the fog. Nothing. He walked forward a few steps and froze. Something was behind him. He threw a back kick and again hit a tree. He was getting pissed off with this game and it was time that he ended it. He brought up his right foot and felt the heal of his boot. The metal plating that he had placed upon it to make him two inches taller than he really was, was slightly dented in the center. He checked his other boot. The metal plating was a bit scuffed up, but the damaged could be repair quickly.
"Well whoever is playing this game, will wish they hadn't chosen me to be the player who gets to be the mouse." Scot thought. Another twig snaped to his left, but Scot threw the kick to his right and then one to the rear. Both sets of kicks did nothing. He decided to stop throwing kicks and keep walking, since they weren't hitting anything that was human. Kicking trees was a good way to break his bones, but he didn't really want to do that right now. All Scot really wanted to do was to get home......preferably a-l-i-v-e. He continued to walk and then he froze once more. Once more he had that same feeling that something or someone was following him. He went on with his walking and again that feeling came to him.
"This is getting very annoying." Scot thought. He stopped and then listened to the sounds of nothing. He shook his head from side to side twice and then continued to walk out of the fog bank. Then something snapped inside of his brain and Scot broke into a run. Behind him he heard the patter of feet pounding upon the ground in hot pursuit. Branches and leaves and needles slapped against Scot face as he tried to stay on a straight line with his foot prints. He jumped over a log and landed on his feet, but he kept running. Over another log went he and then he stopped and threw himself down underneath the log. The sound of feet pounded closer and closer. Suddenly a large shadowy shape leapt over the log. Scot froze. He didn't even dare breath. The shape stopped and then looked round. It turned to face the log under which its prey lay. Scots' eyes widened in horror.
What he saw was totally unimagineable. He was face to ugly to with a beast. Dark red eyes glowed brightly in the dim light of the fog. Black fur covered a huge body of pure iron muscle. White fangs, seven inches in length and three in circumference, adorned a large black maw. A thick red tounge hung loosely out of the mouth of the monster that faced the log. It stood six feet and ten inches on four feet, twice that if it were to stand on its powerful hind legs. Claws adorned each of the beasts' four feet. Four toes each foot had and claws were on each toe. It claws were curved and cruel looking. Sharp they were and strong were the legs that bore them. Six inches thick and three inches long were the claws. Thick and long were the hairs that made the fur coat which gave the beast warmth during the cold days of winter and made it a part of the shadows. A long bushy tail rode the back of the beast. It waved slightly in the air. Large puffs of white clouds exited from the large wet nose that sniffed the air for its prey.
No whiskers adorned the sides of the nose. Its ears were large and shaped in the form of triangles. The beast turned around and was soon gone from sight. Scot breathed a heavy sigh. He looked around and found that he had gone of the path of his foot prints when he had tried to run for life. He looked around and then walked back the way that he had come. Within a few moments, he was back on track. He had just about reach the end of the veld and had gotten to the place that he had come down into it, when he heard the sound of a twig snap to his left. The face of the beast showed next to him, maw wide, eyes narrow and glowing, saliva drooling from the fangs, tounge laping the air, growing, all teeth bared and ready to take Scots' head off. "Shut up, shaggy!" Scot said as he back knuckled the beast in the mouth, the back of his hand crashing into the two front fangs of the beast and knocking them loose. The beast howled with rage and pain and leapt at Scot, who merely ducked.
It sailed through the air and landed a few feet from Scots' right. He jumped up the bank of dirt and dead grass and then made a break for it. In a moment, the beast was after him in hot pursuit. Scot dodged trees and jumped over shrubs, always running and never tiring. Within a few moments, he could sence that the beast was right behind him and that they were in each others' line of sight. "I have to get out of that things line of sight somehow. My power.....the Stick of Venus! That's it!" Scot thought. He ran as fast as he could so that he could have time to stop and unleash the death that his Power Stick would bring about. He barely managed to keep away from that things teeth, how was he going to get enough ground between himself and the beast that was chasing him through the woods? How?..... He jumped over a log and then placed six feet between himself and the beast. He reached into the left side of his shirt and pulled out his special weapon of death.
He skidded to a hault and then balled his right hand into a tight fist. It was time that he got this over with. If he was going to die, then he'd die standing, facing his attacker, and fighting. He heard the feet of the beast that was chasing him and then he saw it. It had stopped in front of the long and then it jumped over it and landed a few feet from Scot. Scots' eyes were narrow and filled with anger. "Come on, bitch! Come to papa!" He thought. He then looked directly into the beasts' eyes of blood red brightness and it walked forward accepting his challenage. It soon had itself trapped by feet, for it was very close to Scot now and its teeth were bared and ready to bite him in half should he move. Scot held out his fist and then threw his Stick of Power into the air. It spun around in a three hundred and sixty degree cirlce, flat and then the orb upon its surface glowed a bright ornage and mists arose from the ground that were orange and poisonous. The beasts' eyes widened in horror and it fell to the ground yelping and screaming and howling with rage and anger and pain, for the mists were eating away at his coat of fur and skin underneath the fur. Soon it would be nothing but bare bones and rotten flesh. Suddenly the beast gave a lunge and took Scot to the ground. He fell screaming in pain and then all went black.
Drops of the early morning dew fell from a blade of grass and hit Scot on the eyes. He woke with a start and then looked round him. The woods were gone, but not far off, for he could still see them. He lay in a glade of fresh green grass that reached his hips. Droplets of water shinned like diamonds in the early moring sunlight. He looked round himself once more and found that he had been slightly wounded on the left arm, but that the wound had been washed and dressed. He then felt his body for his Stick of Power and found it on the inside of his shirt, in a small pocket to the left side of his chest. A slight breeze started up and it smelled of fresh flowers and newly mowed grass. There were no trees in the glade save for one large grey oak that was huge. Its branches were the size of an elephants legs in a diameter, the leave were three times that of a normal oak. Gnarled branches twisted and turned in the bright light of the sun and made the tree look as if it were wise and ancient beyond the singing of mortals. Scot had an impulsive urge to walk towards the tree and climb it. It looked of a comparable size to the oaks and spruces that he had seen in the forests that were near his home. Within a few moments he was standing beside the massive trunk of the tree and whistled a low, one note, whistle. The thing was eighty times the height, weight, and thickness of a normal oak. It looked as if it were a giant of monster and he, an insect of a human standing near it, felt small and afriad....though fear was not a word he would use to describe himself. He was the kind of human that had no fear of death....no fear of pain.....no fear
of--------Evil.
The breeze, that was calmly blowing at first, stopped altogether and Scot had the sudden impression that he had just walked into a trap. He turned around and was face to face with a man. Scot faced an old man with a long pole about six feet tall. Upon the top of the pole was a golden ball with wings coming out of the center of it, streching east and west. Three rings of gold rode upon these wings that were also man of gold. The mans' face was covered by a large triangluar shaped hat made of straw that looked like half polished gold. He had silvery hair and was wearing a blue and white gown that was tied together at the waist by a long white chord of rope. His feet were covered by white cloth wrappings that looked like cloth boots. They went all the way up to the mans' knees. Upon his neck, he wore a cloth bag that hung down to the center of his chest. Inside the bag he kept a golden flute that had two long wings coming out of the center of it. One wing would point to the east, the other the west. The end of the flute was made into a hawks head with the upper beak curving past the lower beak. The flute had six holes in it and was about six or seven inches long.
"Who.......?" Scot said. He then froze his words for he thought that he knew whom this man was and that he meant him no harm. A slight blue glowing outline of the man orbited his body and face and eyes. "You are the Ghost of the Ancient One, are you not?" Scot asked quietly. The man nodded, the whites of his eyes; now the only thing left to be seen of them, shinned brightly for a moment.
"Where am I?" Scot asked. "I am not dead am I?"
"No. You are in a mere glade, standing next to a mere oak tree." The Ghost said.
"Mere oak tree? Ha! I see no oak, but a tree of wisdom and of virtue, life, justice, and trust. This is not an ordinary oak tree, sir, it's a tree of all things. I see no oak."
"You are right in saying so, for it is a tree of the aforementioned things that you have, Venus."
"How did you know my name? I mean my real name?"
"I know everything about you.....all I really need to know about you that is. Your private affairs I know nothing about for I will not invade that world of yours. I merely invade the world in which I must do so in order that I may help you and your team defeat Hate and her followers. I must warn you though, there is a person that you know that may very well become one of Hates' followers. I cannot tell you whom that person is. You and your friends must find out by yourselves. You will be able to find your way home on this path." The Ancient One said as he pointed his winged staff at the ground. A dirt path showed dimly between blades of the tall grass.
"Wait. I shall accept your warning, Ancient One, but I have a question that I would ask of you." Scot said.
"Ask." The Ancient One said.
"By leaveing my friend April, have I gained the "wisdom" I have shown to my friends or is that because I am the Light Warrior of Wisdom?" Scot asked. There was only silence between the two people for a moment.
"Do you think that by leaving your friend you gained wisdom and thus were able to help Randy with his feelings for Elisabeth?" The Ancient One asked Scot. Scot looked at him for a moment and then spoke coldly. Ice was upon his voice and death in mind.
"No. No I don't think that by leaving April I gained wisdom. What I had done was foolish of me. I should have tried to fight for her harder. I should have told my father about my love for her and maybe then he would have let me stay with her until I could support myself on the money I would earn from working." Scot said.
"Farewell for now, Light Warrior of Wisdom." The Ancient One said. He was gone like a shadow of the night when the first ray of sunlight touches it and it must scurry forth and find a hiding place to lay till its enemy falls from the sky and its friend comes to guide it back to wherever it may have been the night before. Scot followed the pathway home and was soon walking slowly through the woods that he had been chased through the night before. He reached inside of his shirt and pulled out the jeweled heart that April had given to him. He looked at it with longing and saddness filled his black heart. He was so busy looking at the shiny jewles in the heart of gold that he did not even see the object that was crossing the path. His right foot bumped into it and he fell to the ground and then rolled over an object of pure white color. He stood up agian and looked down. Before his eyes were the shattered remains of the beast that he had fought with the night before.
The skeleton proved to that of a wolf, but twice that of any wolf Scot had ever seen, so he guessed that it had been a werewolf that he had fought with the night before. "Good ridence to you, you bitch from hell!" Scot thought to the bones. He turned and walked away from them and left them to the magots and worms to devour in Times' maze of time. Within an hour he was standing in front of his own home and then he opened the door and walked inside. His father was sitting on the couch watching television when he walked in.
"Scot." He called from the family room. Scot turned a step and then walked into the family room. A book case was to the far left wall of fake wooden boards. Almost every shelf of the case was filled with books of wisdom and fantansy and myths and other such objects of coldness and evil. These were all of Scot personal collections. He would often read the books in the family room and his parents had given to him the case for him to place them upon so that he would not have to keep going from his bedroom to the family room and back again when he wanted another book to read. A large twenty-one inch screen television sat in the center of forward facing wall, the one that faced Scot's father. The screen was blank now and his father was facing him, standing and looking directly into his son's ice cold eyes. behind him and inbetween the book shelf and the corner that connected the wall with the television and the wall behind the book case, was small dresser that was filled, from top to bottom, with video cassettes. Pictures of Scot's family adorned the wall behind Scot.
"What?" Scot said looking directly into his father's eyes and not feeling fear build up, but hatred.
"I just wanted to know why you didn't come home last night. Are you okay? Do you want me to take you to see a doctor?" Benjamin said.
"I'm alright and I don't need a doctor. I got caught off guard last night and so had to use my Power of Venus to stop an evil creature. By the way, some one named the Ancient One saved my life. Who is he and what does he want with me?"
"Are you sure it was the Ancient One? He told whom he was without telling you? I mean you, after the first moment you saw him, knew whom he was?"
"Yes."
"I thought that he was dead. Does he want the former team of Light Warriors to help the newest team with this fight?"
"N....Y.....I have no idea. Sorry." Scot said coldly. Hewould have liked to say yes and that way he could return to being a normal teenager without the threat of having to fight for his life every day he was alive. He pushed past his father and then walked into the hallway that would take him to his bedroom. He didn't feel sleepy right now, but he did want to just be alone for a while. He entered his bedroom. To the immediate left was his bed pushed up against the wall. In front of him were two more book cases filled with books on wisdom, truths, and fantanties. There were even a few romance novles that he had. He had never finished any of them, for his heart would not let him. Every time that he read one of those books, he always found himself thinking back to April and the mistake of leaving her. To the right of the book cases, was the closet. On the far left wall, hanging in front of the window, was a large clear crystal that bent the rays of the sun and turned them into rainbows. They danced and played in Scots' eyes and on the wals of the room. Above his bed, mounted upon the wall, were two swords, one shorter than the other one. These he had been given when he had reached his black belt levle in the art of Karate.
He had never taken them out of their sheaths, for he had never had to. To the left of the window, on the wall that his bed was pressed up against, were several pictures of his friends, some medals he had taken when he had competed in tournaments, and a framed picture of his girlfriend, April. To the right of the framed picture was a picture of himself and between the two was a wooden heart that he had made himself in his wood carving class that he had taken when he was in the eighth grade. He lay down upon his bed and then sat up again. He realized that he had to take off his Light Warrior outfit. "Venus power down!" He said aloud. His costume disappeared into a bright white ball of light and then the ball of light faded from sight. He was wearing jeans and a tee-shirt that was dark purple. He lay down upon his bed once more and then fell into a restless sleep.
Nearly six days had passed since the day when Scot had met the Ancient One. Standing in the cold wet grass of the school football field, Scot looked out towards the west. His friends soon joined him and they all walked over to the cafeteria to buy some hot chocolate for the cold winter's day. A slight frost lay upon the ground and it shinned brightly in the dim light of the sun. "Something wrong, Scot?" Jacky asked, her brown eyes shinning in the light of the sun only to be covered by the steam of her hot chocolate.
"No. Why do you ask? Am I too silent for your taste?" Scot said.
"No, it's just that you haven't spoken much since the death of Rockcite." Jacky said.
"Is that a problem?" Scot asked. "You should know by now that I don't speak much and when I do, ice fills me words and my voice."
"Now you just lost me." Randy said. "What do you mean that I fill your words and your voice?"
"What I mean is that I am as cold as your Power of Light is deadly." Scot said. He turned and faced the cold wind that was starting to blow in from the north-west. Almost six hours later, Scot was at the temple. He was in the Hall of Meditation. He sat, with his legs folded underneath him, eyes closed tightly, in front of a candle that was buring brightly. Thirteen other candles, all the same height and distance from each other, surrounded him. He was in the Ring of Fire and he could not leave it untill all of the candles had gone out. A shadow appeared in the open doorway and then closed the door behind it as softly as it could. Scot didn't hear the door close, nor did he see the movement of light leaving the room. He merely sat where he was in silence and deep thought. The shadow waited quietly at the door, lost in shadows made by the flickering lights of the candles. The shadow only had an hour to wait, for the candles were almost down to the point where the wax would make the flames go out. An hour passed and then another quarter hour and all of the flames, save one, were out. It waited a little more and then the room was in total darkness. Scot knew that the door to the Hall had been shut. He looked over to the door and then stood up in shock.
Chapter 7
The eyes of the two people met and then Scot turned around. He lit a match and then took hold of another candle, this one was a spare in case if he had messured the others incorrectly, this one would be the correct height. He then picked it up and faced the shadow that he saw. A young face looked at him with tears in its eyes. The person had short slightly curly blond hair and fair skin. Its eyes were the brightest blue color that Scot had ever seen and its lips were a deep red. It wore a white tee-shirt and over that was a green sweater with the words: "Go Trogans" printed in bright gold letters upon its chest. It had white jeans on and black shoes. Glasses adorned the persons' face, but the light of the candle did not block the veiw of the persons' perfect eyes from Scots' sight. "April." The name was spoke even before Scot knew what was going on. The young, now sixteen-year-old, girl ran forward and had wrapped her arms around Scots' neck before he could stop her from entering the Hall of Meditation with her shoes on.
"Scot, I've missed you so much. I thought you and I would never see each other again." The girl said. Scot reached up and pulled her gently off his neck. He looked into her bright blue eyes and then the two of them walked outside the Hall of Meditation. Once outside, Scot again looked into her bright blue eyes. He opened his mouth to say something, but before he could say anything, April had placed a finger on his lips.
"Don't say anything, Scot. I know that you feel ashamed for not writting or calling me. You were upset that you had left me without fighting harder to stay behind. I know and I forgive you. You see, I wanted to ask you the same thing: I was kind of hoping that you'd be able to forgive me for not doing the same thing to you. I never really fought your father and mother and tried to make them let you stay in California with me. Nor did I call you or even write to you. I'm sorry." April said. Scot nodded a few times and then hugged her gently to his body.
"You are forgiven, April. I can't hold anger with you nor with any of my friends. I am incapiable of doing that. I've missed you alot. Oh, by the way. I have something of yours. Something that I think you might want to see." Scot said. April's eyes lightened with puzzlement and confusion. What could he have that belonged to her that she might want to see? Scot saw the light in her eyes and knew that once he pulled out her gift, the shock would really surprize her. He reached into the right side of his shirt and pulled out the heart pendant that April had given to him as a farewell gift. Her eyes went wide in amazement and shock.
"You still have the pendant that I gave to you?!" She said in amazement. Scot took it off his neck and then took hold of her right hand and placed into her quivering hand. She looked at him strangely.
"I want you to wear it now. As my gift to you." Scot said. April placed the heart pendant over her head and then let the chain drop down to hang round her neck of silk white skin. Then the two of them drew closer to each other. Closer and closer still did they draw to one another. Then April stood up on the ball of her right foot and kissed Scot on the lips and at the same time wrappedher arms round his back and neck. Scot did the same with his arms, but left both feet firmly on the ground. Aprils' eyes closed and so did Scots'. Scots' heart beat increased and began to perspire for a moment, then he checked his emotions and only let his love for April flow. Aprils' heart beat quickened and she quickly got it back under control. In a moment they released from the Kiss of Love and then stared into each others' eyes for a long time. A shadow crossed Aprils' vision, but she paid no heed to it, for it was gone quicker than when it had come. Suddenly Scot seemed to sence something. He was about to turn around and see whom might be spying on them, when April took of his hand and he turned back to her. They kissed again and again they were lost in their feelings of love for the other.
They again parted and again looked into each others' eyes. "Are you going to be doing anything this weekend, April?" Scot asked his girlfriend.
"No that I know of. Why?"
"Well I was kind of wondering if you'd like to go out to dinner with me this weekend or something like that?"
"I'd love to!"
"Great! When would you like me to pick you up? Say around seven?"
"Hmmm......I'd think it might be better if you pick me up around seven-thirty. I'd need the extra half hour to make sure that I'm ready by the time you get to my house. That reminds me, I need to give you directions to my uncles' house!" April said. She reached into her left pocket and pulled out a pen and a small scrap of paper and wrote a few words down upon it. This she gave to Scot and he placed it into his right breast pocket.
"Are you living with your uncle now?" Scot asked. April nodded. "What about your parents?" He asked slowly. April turned away. Scot knew that he had made a mistake by asking her about her parents. "Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to hurt you, April." He said softly to her.
"That's alright. You didn't know. My mother and father are......" April didn't finish her sentence. She couldn't say the word that would end it. She didn't want to admit it to herself nor to her friends. Scot placed his right hand on her shoulder. He looked at her in her face and saw the pain in her eyes. He knew damn well what had happened.
"If it hurts you too much to say it, then don't speak the words ever again. At least not until you're ready to speak about it." He said. April turned around and walked away from Scot for a moment. Her hands were clenched tightly into fists of rage and sadness. Scot walked over to her and then froze. "April?" He said softly. She looked over to him with sadness in her bright blue eyes. The look was one of deep hidden pain and rage that she had kept inside of herself for so long that it was now apart of her being; a part of her self. The pain was what really struck Scot. He felt helpless against such a look of utter and complete paralizing pain. There was nothing for him to do about it, save to comfort his love. April turned away.
"They should never have left. I tried to tell them that they could be in danger if they left. They didn't listen to me. They were police officers, both of them. There was a massive riot and several police officers had already been shot and sent to the hospital. I had seen a vision of their deaths and wanted to talk to them about it, for I knew that they would understand once I told them about the damned vision, but they left anyway.....dream or not, it didn't matter to them. They had taken a goddamn oath to protect the "innocent and weak" to the death. Fuck the police! Fuck that damn oath! Fuck everything to do with the law! Screw everything that has to do with protecting people and the weak and.....and.....and......FUCK THE FUCKING LAWS!" April screamed at the top of her lungs. Scot could tell that she was pissed off and angry with her parents for dying. He knew what had happened even before she started to continue. He let her talk and yell at the open air. He wasn't going to help her, for she didn't need that kind of help. She need to get her anger out of her system and if this was the way that it had to be done then so be it. April went on, only this time she turned her rage on at Scot and his love for her:
"DAMMIT, SCOT! WHY DID YOU HAVE TO REMIND ME ABOUT THEM?! FUCK YOU! YOU.....YOU BASTARD FROM HELL!" April shouted at her boyfriend as she balled her right hand into a fist and then lunged forward and struck him on the right side of his jaw. Scots' head spun to the side, blood dripping slightly from his split lip. He turned to face her again and then looked cooly into her frozen eyes of hate and pain.
"Can't you hit me any harder?" He asked softly. Aprils' eyes turned to maddness and she again lunged forward and struck him in the stomach with her left hand balled into a fist so that the fingers were pointed up towards the sky. Scot hit the ground instantly, pain flaring in his gut and finding that he could barely breath. He slowly stood up and then faced April again.
"That was the weakest punch you've ever given to me! Did you forget every thing that I taught you? Come on, April! Try harder! Hit me again! I dare you!" He said. These words really pissed April off. She dropped into a front stance with her right leg behind her, her foot bent onto the ball of her foot and her leg bent at the knee. Her left leg was in front of her, also bent at the ball of her foot and at the knee. Her legs were spread at hips-distance from each other and every fiber was prepared to give Scot an attack that he could never, in a million yearsm avoid properly and would always be hit in some way by it. Scot remained where he was. He knew what he was doing. He knew what would happen. He knew his friend too well and he knew what she would do. The attack came: April jumped into the air and then spun at a three hundred and sixty degree circle, throwing out her right leg as she spun in the circle. The foot went flying towards Scots' chest and then.......
Stopped an inch away from killing him. April collapsed to the ground and Scot caught her just before she hit the ground. She melted into his arms and sobbed. "I'm sorry, Scot. I didn't really mean to lose it when I did. I didn't hurt you, did I?" She sobbed. A few tears rolled down her cheeks. Scot brushed them away and hugged her close to his body.
"No, April, you didn't. You did what was to be expected of you. You were under stressful times when your parents passed away and so you kept it all locked up within you. You didn't want to admit to yourself that they were gone and will never come back again. They both knew the risks of being cops and any cop who doesn't think that their job is like fighting with death every step of the way is very stupid. Listen to me April, what you did, I wanted you to do. I knew that you were in pain and I knew that the only way to make you lose that pain was to make you very angry, thus I mentioned your parents....but only to piss you off enough to the point where'd you forget about the rules of karate and attack me full bore. How are you feeling now?" Scot said as he looked into her eyes of pain and sadness.
"A bit better. Thanks for trying to help me." April said and kissed him lightly on the mouth. Scot kissed her back and within an hour or so, the two of them parted and they walked home alone. April had wanted to be by herself on her way home, so that she could think about what had happened. She had never done anything to hurt her boyfriend, until now. Dispite everything that Scot had said after what she had done, she felt terrible and stupid for doing what she had done. She had earned her black belt six months after Scot had left her and then had quickly worked her way up to third degree black belt. Now she and Scot were the same rank, only he had more experience and thus, if they were training in a dojo, would outrank her. She turned down a dark street and then began to walk home. Hardly any street lights showed their pale and yellow glows on this street. April wasn't scared. She knew the area well enought to know that she shouldn't be in any danger, but she still remained on guard.......just in case.
A shadow crossed her vision and she mentally prepared herself for battle, but physically remained calm of face and ignorant of the shadow. It drew closer and a young man passed her in tennis shoes and sweats, jogging now across the street and disappearing into the darkness behind her. April brought down her mental guard slightly, but left her mental sight up. She would need her eyes and sences to tell whether or not she would be in danger. Some where at a house not too far away a dog barked and yipped excitedly. April knew the sound of the dog barks. They were happy and gay and full of glee. "It's friend and companion must be home." April thought. She picked up her pace a step and then turned onto an even darker street. This one had no street lights that were on, and those that did appear to her eyes were either burned out from neglect or in pieces due to gang-related gun fire. April brought up her mental guard once more and slowed her pace to fool any whom should see her that she was in a blissful mood, full of ignorance and close-minded of the dark shadows that would cross her path. In reality, she was really fully aware of whatever would meet her gaze and she was ready to deal with whatever it would be. If it be a shadow of a human, she prepared to fight or to run. If it was the shadow of an animal, she prepared to step out of the creatures' way and show no signs of intending harm or help, save if the poor thing was wounded and could not fight back. If the shadow was of a human and she saw the person before he or she would see her, then she would quickly check to see if that person had a weapon of some sort.
Knife: She'd block the attack and take the person to ground and at the same time, taking the weapon from the persons' grip. Gun: She'd do whatever the person holding the gun said to do, until she could take his or her advantage from them and fight back so that she'd be able to take the gun and not get shot in the process. Club: She'd block the attack and bring that person to the ground, doing the same thing that she would do to a knife: remove it from the person. Chain: She'd get out of the way of the chain and then attempt to run. If that didn't work, then she'd fight to the death to get away. Another shadow passed her vision and she was well prepared for it. It was joined by another one and by still another. April saw four people near her own age, one looked to be about eighteen, coming towards her. They were all dressed in black Raiders jackets that made their chests, arms, and stomachs look twice as big than they really were. Each of the four people had red hats pulled onto their heads. two of the four hats had little fluffy red balls of yarn or some material like that attached to the top of them.
The pants that the four kids wore were baggy and sagged below the waist line. Shoes that were three sizes too big for them were worn upon their feet. White puffs of moister seemed to come from their heads. A slight breeze brought the foul bouquet to Aprils' nose. She knew the smell of the air that she now smelled. It was marijuana that she smelled. "Great. Weed. This is just what I need right now: a bunch of kids smoking weed and heading right for me. Better cross the street.....damn! They see me! Okay, kid, stay calm and walk on past them. If you show them that you don't give a shit about whatever they say, then hopefully you won't have to fight. Just don't say anything to them." April thought to herself as the four kids spotted her and began to laugh and jeer at each other under their breaths. April walked on confidently. She knew what to do if they started to cause trouble, but she wasn't sure if she really wanted to do what would be necessary. She had come into ear's distance of the four kids.
"Go suck an egg, bitch!" One kid said to his friends, for clearly the voice was that of a male.....under the influence of the drug that April could smell on the boys' breath, his words were slightly slurred and mixed a tone that seemed to say that the boy was sleep-walking.
"Fuck you, bastard! Go suck your ma's dick!" Another kid said.
"Where on earth did these kids learn their language from? A cardboard box?!" April thought. Then the two that had been fighting with one another saw her. They turned their attention on her quicker than a cheetah could run.
"Hay, whatdawe got 'ere?! Ya lost, kid?" The first boy said. April took no notice and simply walked on past the four. They turned and ran after her to catch up. April ignored them.
"Nice 'air color, girly.....whatcha do? Bleach it?" The second boy asked April, placing his hand upon her hair. She raised her left arm up and pushed his arm off her head. The boy froze for a second in shock, his friends laughing slightly. "Oh, gonna be a tough thing, eh?" He said. April mentally
re-prepared herself for a fight. With this kind of tounge, she knew that one of them might pulled a weapon. She flashed her eyes at the four people bothering her and found that they didn't seem to have any weapon on their bodies, but she assumed that they did.
"Wanna have some fun, girl?" Asked a thrid boy. April flashed her eyes towards him instantly and saw that he had just lighted another marijuana stick and was puffing on it slowly so that it glowed brightly in the darkness of the deep night.
"Hay, yer deef er somtin', girl?" A fourth voice said. This one wasn't deep enough to be a boys'. April flashed her eyes over to where the person stood and saw, by the light of the moon, that it was a girl of about nineteen that she faced. The girls' eyes were rock cold and frozen within her skull. She had thick black hair and smelled of whiskey and beer and cigarette smoke. April took a few more steps forward, as she had always been doing since this gang of people started to follow her home. She just had to keep walking on and maybe they'd back off and see that she wasn't going to fall victim to their games. She knew that they might not want to back off due to the influence of the damn drugs, but she was well prepared for a fight. The girl called to April again, this time insulting her:
"Hay, you slut! Get back 'ere! I ast ya a queeston and I want an answer, dammit! Do ya 'ere me?! I said now dammit, ya bitach!" The girl said. The first boy looked over to the girl and said:
"Let me 'andle dis." He said to her and then he turned back to April, whom had gained three feet from the all, and was still gaining space between herself and the threat of the punks....that much room between herself and these punks from hell, would give her the advantage she would need in order to take more than one of them to hospital with her. "YA DAMN ABORTION SURVIVOR!" He shouted at April. He and his friends started to laugh. Inside April wanted to tear that kid apart, but outside she only seemed not to hear what he had said and just kept on walking. She knew that if she broke into a dead run now, they'd see her and would give chase. If she could run from them she would have done so a long time ago, but she didn't know if any of them were high on steriods or on a P.C.P, one of the most deadliest drugs she had ever seen.
The four kids swiftly over took April and she stopped. She knew that her game wasn't working. It was time that she got this over with. She had only one more thing left to her before she really had to fight any of them. She had to try to talk them out of trying to hurt her. "I take it you four want to have some fun with me?" She asked. The three boys' eyes gleamed for just a moment. She saw the look. "Well I've got news for you four: back off. You're not my type. Sorry. Good-night to you four." April said. She turned around and the third boy placed his left hand on her right shoulder. He forced her to turn around and then he removed his hand from her shoulder. The other three swiftly surrounded her.
"Well then, if we can't have any fun with you girl, then we'll settle for your watch and wallet." The second boy said. April smiled slightly at him.
"Oh, I'm sorry, but had I known that the four of you would want my watch and money, I'd have brought it with me. As it stands, my watch and wallet are in my other pair of pants. Sorry again." She said. The girl was standing to her right. Her eyes shinned like hot coals in a fireplace. April knew what was about to come. She had never really been in a real fight before, save for the one with her ex-boyfriend and that wasn't even a fight: He wasn't high on drugs; just too agressive and possessive. That was why she had fought against him and had beaten him: He was too angry to see that his anger was what had destroyed his chance of getting her back under his control.
"Well then, if you don't have your watch or money, then we'll just have some fun with your body! Get 'er!" The third boy said. He reached behind his back and pulled out a knife handle and pressed a silver button and the blade snapped into place. The second boy tried to grab her from behind, pinning her arms to her body. She threw her right leg straight upwards, but behind her and felt her foot hit his groin hard. He let go instantly and was on the ground. In the same instant, the third boy lunged forward and tried to slash open her neck with his knife. She ducked and then kicked him in the stomach, hoping that he'd drop the knife. He didn't. He didn't even go down with her kick. Damn. "He must be the one on some other drug, most likely P.C.P!" April thought. She was back on her feet in an instant and she turned to deliver a spinning side kick to the girl that faced her. Before the girl could even move out of the way, the foot hit its target and she went down to the ground for good.
The boy on the ground was up now and had grabbed April again, this time making the dreadful mistake of leaving her arms unpinned to her body. The third boy again tried to stab April. She caught his arm at the wrist and drove it to her side, where it stabbed into the flesh of the boy holding her. He instantly let of her and placed his right hand upon his stomach. He fell to the ground bleeding and nearly unconscious. "That's it for ya, bitch!" The first boy said as he reached into his right pocket and pulled out a thirty two caliber gun! The third boy, ol' knify, had got over to her right. They were prepared to kill her. April turned to face the boy with the gun.
"Try to shoot me." She said. She saw his finger move and she moved at the same time that the boys' trigger finger moved. She hit the ground just as the bullet came out of the gun and slammed into the chest of the boy with the knife. Again the trigger was pulled and again a bullet slammed into the chest of the boy with the knife. The kid with the knife hit the ground back first and forever would he remain on the ground. His life was over for him. The torture of drugs and choices and freedoms were gone from his life now. He was dead on the spot. The moment the gun was fired, lights were on in almost every house up and down the street. April then kicked the boy in the right knee, shattering his knee cap with the force of her kick. She got back up on her feet, bent down and retrieved the gun from the boys' grasp and then she turned and ran. An old man stepped out into the cold night a few houses up the street and saw April running from what looked like a fight. He then saw the gun in her left hand and moved to stop her from going any where else.
April saw what was going to happen and came to swift stop. The man faced her with cold eyes. "I.......I need the cops." She breathed heavily. Never in her life had she had to run so fast in so short a distance.
"What happened?" Ask the old man.
"Never mind about that right now, sir. Just please call the police and an ambulance and be quick about it!" April said to the old man. He turned to go back into his home and call the police, then turned back to April. He nodded his head towards the door and she followed him inside. Once the two were indoors, the old man called the cops and soon they arrived with an ambulance. April told her story to the police and gave them the gun.
"So after you noticed that the kids were high on some kind of drug, you were ready to fight them?" Ask an officer.
"That's right. When they tried to grab me, I fought back. I had no intention of death on my mind when I fought each of them, but they didn't back off. I had no choice, but to drive that boys' knife into the stomach of the other person. I was just trying to protect myself." April said. The officer had steel grey eyes and paleish white skin. His thick bushy brown eyebrows knotted together at the begining of the bridge of his nose. The right eyebrow was raised slightly.
"You're sure that's what happened? You didn't pull the gun yourself and kill one of your so called attackers, right? The same with the knife......you didn't bring that into the conflict and try to kill them all with it, right?" Ask the officer. Aprils' face hardened with anger. Why didn't the officer believe her?
"I told you the darn truth, sir. Why won't you believe me?" April asked.
"Watch your mouth, kid or you'll find yourself in handcuffs!" The officer snapped. Another officer walked into the house and placed his hand upon the shoulders of the officer speaking to April.
"Leave the girl alone, Greg. Can't you see that she's scared enough? She just stabbed a guy out there trying to get away and you treat her as if she was the one who pulled the weapons! Back off or I'll site you for harrassment." The new comer said. The officer was a trim black woman in her mid forties, with slight heighlights of grey in her hair. She looked over to April and smiled kindly.
"How about I give you a lift home, huh? Don't really want you to get attacked again. Come on, kid." She said to April. The two of them left the old mans' house, after April had thanked him for calling the police and then headed out towards the police officers' car. A german sheperd was sitting in the front passenger seat looking out the window at the house. It was a large dog for its breed, weighing in at about two hundred and fifty pounds of muscle and teeth.....cruel teeth that were curved and sharp and could bite someones' hand in half if the dog wanted to do that. A thick black color, with a police badage attached to it, was strapped round the animals' neck. It's big black eyes shinned as it saw its owner approach the car and then they turned to one of concern and suspicion once they beheld April. The dog turned on its guard and was ready to attack if the need came. It did not. The two humans walked up to the car and then the officer placed her hand upon the dogs' head and scratched him behind the ears. It wagged its tail and licked her hand.
"What's the dogs' name?" April asked.
"Cop." The officer answered. "I wouldn't try to pet him if I were you, miss..." The officer said as she opened the door to let Cop out so that he could walk around.
"April. April Dawson." April said.
"Like I said, I wouldn't try to pet Cop, April, because he'll....." The officer was saying, but stopped as she saw April bend down to the dog and hold out her hand to his nose for him to sniff. He walked over to her slowly and then sniffed her open hand, which was facing palm up. Slowly April turned her hand over so that it faced palm down and then she slowly began to stroke him on the nose, working her way up to his ears. She rubbed the sides of his face, the back of his neck and the underside of his lower jaw. Then she scratched behind his ears and Cops' tail began to wag. He licked her hand.
"Well I'll be a daughter of monkey! Cop never lets any one other than myself and my daughter and son (may his soul rest in peace forever) pet him." The officer said. April stood up slowly and then walked over to the police car to go home, once her body had passed by Cop he turned to face her and then, with his jaws, clamped down upon her right hand. He didn't pressed hard enough to bite her, just to let her know that he had a hold of her hand. She turned to face him and smiled.
"That happens to be my hand you're trying to take off, Cop." April said gently. The dog let go and whinned slightly. April looked over to the officer. She rolled her eyes.
"Scratch him behind the ears again and then we'll be able to go." She said. April did so and then climbed into the front passenger seat of the car. Cop climbed in after her and lay down on her lap. He was heavy for her, but April didn't mind. On the way home, April was silent and only scratched Cop behind the ears and rubbed his face and under his jaw and around his fury neck. Within a few moments, April was standing in front of her uncles' house. In the dim light of the porch light, one could see that the house was two stories tall, white panlled and each window was carefully framed by a set of three inch thick light blue shutters. There was a light on in the front window on the left of the heavy oaken door. Aprils' uncle stood outside speaking with the officer and looking at April to make sure that what the officer said was true.
He didn't trust the police....his son had been shot by an officer and was paralized, even though his son hadn't pulled a weapon the officer nor had he done anything wrong to cause the officer to have to shoot him. The officer was sentenced to life in jail, but that still didn't take away the feeling of hatred for the police, it was still there, under his kind words and soft heart, it still lived inside of him. He had dark hazel eyes with a small ring of green in the center of the irises. He had a few dark bloches upon the top of his balding head of pure silk white hair, but other than that he was in prime physical shape for being sixty-eight years old. His skin wasn't loose around his bones, it was tight and it made him look as if he were in his mid thirties. He could bench press one hundred and fifty pounds with both hands on the bar and he could leg press two hundred and fifty with one leg. Within a few moments, the officer left and April and her uncle walked inside to the welcome thought of their own beds.
White boots pounded upon dark grey concrete. White gloves squeeze into fists of rage and hate and anger. Flames erupted into the stomach, but still churn and beat the legs that carry him to an unkown place. Faster and faster still churn the legs of the mortal whose life has been destroyed by countless errors and fights. Mist clouds the eyes of the mortal and soon he is lost deep within a forest of thick pines and dark spruce. Dry dead leaves and needles crunch and snap and crackle under his pounding feet. Into a veld doth he run. Down into it he slips and slides from a hill of mud and earth and grass and twigs and needles from the pines of countless ages. Mist filled this veld. Scot looked round himself and then walked into the mists. He was soon lost to the world and entered the world of mist and water vapors. After a while, he stopped walking and then knealt to the ground and folded his legs underneath his body.
He closed his eyes and thought of what had been going on in his life from the time when he left April up to the present. Images of his past flashed before his mind and he silently cried out for the images to stop and be frozen in the bowels of his mind. But they would not stop, they went on and on and on. Like some crazed drunken driver who could not drive straight, but had already lost control of the vehicle, flashed the images of Scots' past life in California. "Things were so simple back then. Damnit! Why couldn't I just have stayed back there, in California and lived with my friends and my former life and not had to have worried about being a Light Warrior?! WHY?!" Scot thought to himself. By now there were so many thing flying past his eyes, though closed they were, that he could see nothing save for a deep blur of reds, yellows, blues, greens, browns, greys, purples, and many other colors that he couldn't tell what they were.
"Damn you father! Damn you!" Scot thought some more. "You should have seen what was going on in my life when you forced me to move here with you! Yes, I was born here, but I didn't want to come back. I didn't like being here where every one trated you like dirt. I was happy that we had chosen to move out to California, but I didn't know what was in store for me once we got there. Oh, sure the first few years there, I didn't really like living in such a hot climate, but when I met April, things had changed. I had changed and I had taken a vow that I would always be there for April and the rest of her friends." Scot rose from where he had been sitting for the past three hours and cried out at the top of his lungs:
"DAAAAAAAAAAMMMMMMMMN YOOOOOOOOOOOOU, FAAAAAAAAAAAATHEEEEEEEEEERRRRRR!" He shouted and hollared with all the might that was left in his still tired lungs from the long run that he had taken to get to wherever he was now. He fell to the ground and wept. The tears splashed and smashed into the ground like rain drops that were falling in heavy torrents of water. In a few moments, Scot regained control over his emotions and then rose to his feet, heavily. It was time that he find his way home. He looked round and realized that he might have to wait until the fog had cleared somewhat before he could see clearly where he was. Then he remebered that once lost within a fog bank and there was very soft, wet ground underfoot, to turn directly around and kneal to the ground and look for his own foot prints. He did so and then he quickly found them. They were beaten into the ground so deeply that he would have tripped over them had it been a more clear night.
He took a few steps forward and then froze. Something wasn't right. He felt cold, but not from the chill wind that was blowing from the northeast. There was something within this bank of fog.....something that he didn't really want to meet right now. Something that was pure.....................................evil.
"Who's there?" He called out into the darkness of the fog. No answer. He felt that the thing that was with him, in the fog, was still there. He could sence it. Where was it? To the left? To the right? In front of him? Behind him? Where on earth was the damned thing? He looked to the left and right, but nothing was there. He continued to walk and then he heard a twig snap. It was right in front of him. He instincivly threw his best front kick-side kick-hook kick combination and felt all three attacks hit something........something that was made of......wood. He took a step forward and saw that he had just kicked a tree.
"Alright, that does it! WHERE ARE YOU AND WHAT ARE YOU?!" Scot said. Another twig snapped, this time to his right. He again threw the same kicks that he had thrown before, but his foot hit nothing save for air and cloud. He was growing tired of this cat and mouse game. He paused to rest for a second and then looked round himself once more. "I'm warning you! Either stop this foolish joke or face my wrath!" Scot shouted into the fog. Nothing. He walked forward a few steps and froze. Something was behind him. He threw a back kick and again hit a tree. He was getting pissed off with this game and it was time that he ended it. He brought up his right foot and felt the heal of his boot. The metal plating that he had placed upon it to make him two inches taller than he really was, was slightly dented in the center. He checked his other boot. The metal plating was a bit scuffed up, but the damaged could be repair quickly.
"Well whoever is playing this game, will wish they hadn't chosen me to be the player who gets to be the mouse." Scot thought. Another twig snaped to his left, but Scot threw the kick to his right and then one to the rear. Both sets of kicks did nothing. He decided to stop throwing kicks and keep walking, since they weren't hitting anything that was human. Kicking trees was a good way to break his bones, but he didn't really want to do that right now. All Scot really wanted to do was to get home......preferably a-l-i-v-e. He continued to walk and then he froze once more. Once more he had that same feeling that something or someone was following him. He went on with his walking and again that feeling came to him.
"This is getting very annoying." Scot thought. He stopped and then listened to the sounds of nothing. He shook his head from side to side twice and then continued to walk out of the fog bank. Then something snapped inside of his brain and Scot broke into a run. Behind him he heard the patter of feet pounding upon the ground in hot pursuit. Branches and leaves and needles slapped against Scot face as he tried to stay on a straight line with his foot prints. He jumped over a log and landed on his feet, but he kept running. Over another log went he and then he stopped and threw himself down underneath the log. The sound of feet pounded closer and closer. Suddenly a large shadowy shape leapt over the log. Scot froze. He didn't even dare breath. The shape stopped and then looked round. It turned to face the log under which its prey lay. Scots' eyes widened in horror.
What he saw was totally unimagineable. He was face to ugly to with a beast. Dark red eyes glowed brightly in the dim light of the fog. Black fur covered a huge body of pure iron muscle. White fangs, seven inches in length and three in circumference, adorned a large black maw. A thick red tounge hung loosely out of the mouth of the monster that faced the log. It stood six feet and ten inches on four feet, twice that if it were to stand on its powerful hind legs. Claws adorned each of the beasts' four feet. Four toes each foot had and claws were on each toe. It claws were curved and cruel looking. Sharp they were and strong were the legs that bore them. Six inches thick and three inches long were the claws. Thick and long were the hairs that made the fur coat which gave the beast warmth during the cold days of winter and made it a part of the shadows. A long bushy tail rode the back of the beast. It waved slightly in the air. Large puffs of white clouds exited from the large wet nose that sniffed the air for its prey.
No whiskers adorned the sides of the nose. Its ears were large and shaped in the form of triangles. The beast turned around and was soon gone from sight. Scot breathed a heavy sigh. He looked around and found that he had gone of the path of his foot prints when he had tried to run for life. He looked around and then walked back the way that he had come. Within a few moments, he was back on track. He had just about reach the end of the veld and had gotten to the place that he had come down into it, when he heard the sound of a twig snap to his left. The face of the beast showed next to him, maw wide, eyes narrow and glowing, saliva drooling from the fangs, tounge laping the air, growing, all teeth bared and ready to take Scots' head off. "Shut up, shaggy!" Scot said as he back knuckled the beast in the mouth, the back of his hand crashing into the two front fangs of the beast and knocking them loose. The beast howled with rage and pain and leapt at Scot, who merely ducked.
It sailed through the air and landed a few feet from Scots' right. He jumped up the bank of dirt and dead grass and then made a break for it. In a moment, the beast was after him in hot pursuit. Scot dodged trees and jumped over shrubs, always running and never tiring. Within a few moments, he could sence that the beast was right behind him and that they were in each others' line of sight. "I have to get out of that things line of sight somehow. My power.....the Stick of Venus! That's it!" Scot thought. He ran as fast as he could so that he could have time to stop and unleash the death that his Power Stick would bring about. He barely managed to keep away from that things teeth, how was he going to get enough ground between himself and the beast that was chasing him through the woods? How?..... He jumped over a log and then placed six feet between himself and the beast. He reached into the left side of his shirt and pulled out his special weapon of death.
He skidded to a hault and then balled his right hand into a tight fist. It was time that he got this over with. If he was going to die, then he'd die standing, facing his attacker, and fighting. He heard the feet of the beast that was chasing him and then he saw it. It had stopped in front of the long and then it jumped over it and landed a few feet from Scot. Scots' eyes were narrow and filled with anger. "Come on, bitch! Come to papa!" He thought. He then looked directly into the beasts' eyes of blood red brightness and it walked forward accepting his challenage. It soon had itself trapped by feet, for it was very close to Scot now and its teeth were bared and ready to bite him in half should he move. Scot held out his fist and then threw his Stick of Power into the air. It spun around in a three hundred and sixty degree cirlce, flat and then the orb upon its surface glowed a bright ornage and mists arose from the ground that were orange and poisonous. The beasts' eyes widened in horror and it fell to the ground yelping and screaming and howling with rage and anger and pain, for the mists were eating away at his coat of fur and skin underneath the fur. Soon it would be nothing but bare bones and rotten flesh. Suddenly the beast gave a lunge and took Scot to the ground. He fell screaming in pain and then all went black.
Drops of the early morning dew fell from a blade of grass and hit Scot on the eyes. He woke with a start and then looked round him. The woods were gone, but not far off, for he could still see them. He lay in a glade of fresh green grass that reached his hips. Droplets of water shinned like diamonds in the early moring sunlight. He looked round himself once more and found that he had been slightly wounded on the left arm, but that the wound had been washed and dressed. He then felt his body for his Stick of Power and found it on the inside of his shirt, in a small pocket to the left side of his chest. A slight breeze started up and it smelled of fresh flowers and newly mowed grass. There were no trees in the glade save for one large grey oak that was huge. Its branches were the size of an elephants legs in a diameter, the leave were three times that of a normal oak. Gnarled branches twisted and turned in the bright light of the sun and made the tree look as if it were wise and ancient beyond the singing of mortals. Scot had an impulsive urge to walk towards the tree and climb it. It looked of a comparable size to the oaks and spruces that he had seen in the forests that were near his home. Within a few moments he was standing beside the massive trunk of the tree and whistled a low, one note, whistle. The thing was eighty times the height, weight, and thickness of a normal oak. It looked as if it were a giant of monster and he, an insect of a human standing near it, felt small and afriad....though fear was not a word he would use to describe himself. He was the kind of human that had no fear of death....no fear of pain.....no fear
of--------Evil.
The breeze, that was calmly blowing at first, stopped altogether and Scot had the sudden impression that he had just walked into a trap. He turned around and was face to face with a man. Scot faced an old man with a long pole about six feet tall. Upon the top of the pole was a golden ball with wings coming out of the center of it, streching east and west. Three rings of gold rode upon these wings that were also man of gold. The mans' face was covered by a large triangluar shaped hat made of straw that looked like half polished gold. He had silvery hair and was wearing a blue and white gown that was tied together at the waist by a long white chord of rope. His feet were covered by white cloth wrappings that looked like cloth boots. They went all the way up to the mans' knees. Upon his neck, he wore a cloth bag that hung down to the center of his chest. Inside the bag he kept a golden flute that had two long wings coming out of the center of it. One wing would point to the east, the other the west. The end of the flute was made into a hawks head with the upper beak curving past the lower beak. The flute had six holes in it and was about six or seven inches long.
"Who.......?" Scot said. He then froze his words for he thought that he knew whom this man was and that he meant him no harm. A slight blue glowing outline of the man orbited his body and face and eyes. "You are the Ghost of the Ancient One, are you not?" Scot asked quietly. The man nodded, the whites of his eyes; now the only thing left to be seen of them, shinned brightly for a moment.
"Where am I?" Scot asked. "I am not dead am I?"
"No. You are in a mere glade, standing next to a mere oak tree." The Ghost said.
"Mere oak tree? Ha! I see no oak, but a tree of wisdom and of virtue, life, justice, and trust. This is not an ordinary oak tree, sir, it's a tree of all things. I see no oak."
"You are right in saying so, for it is a tree of the aforementioned things that you have, Venus."
"How did you know my name? I mean my real name?"
"I know everything about you.....all I really need to know about you that is. Your private affairs I know nothing about for I will not invade that world of yours. I merely invade the world in which I must do so in order that I may help you and your team defeat Hate and her followers. I must warn you though, there is a person that you know that may very well become one of Hates' followers. I cannot tell you whom that person is. You and your friends must find out by yourselves. You will be able to find your way home on this path." The Ancient One said as he pointed his winged staff at the ground. A dirt path showed dimly between blades of the tall grass.
"Wait. I shall accept your warning, Ancient One, but I have a question that I would ask of you." Scot said.
"Ask." The Ancient One said.
"By leaveing my friend April, have I gained the "wisdom" I have shown to my friends or is that because I am the Light Warrior of Wisdom?" Scot asked. There was only silence between the two people for a moment.
"Do you think that by leaving your friend you gained wisdom and thus were able to help Randy with his feelings for Elisabeth?" The Ancient One asked Scot. Scot looked at him for a moment and then spoke coldly. Ice was upon his voice and death in mind.
"No. No I don't think that by leaving April I gained wisdom. What I had done was foolish of me. I should have tried to fight for her harder. I should have told my father about my love for her and maybe then he would have let me stay with her until I could support myself on the money I would earn from working." Scot said.
"Farewell for now, Light Warrior of Wisdom." The Ancient One said. He was gone like a shadow of the night when the first ray of sunlight touches it and it must scurry forth and find a hiding place to lay till its enemy falls from the sky and its friend comes to guide it back to wherever it may have been the night before. Scot followed the pathway home and was soon walking slowly through the woods that he had been chased through the night before. He reached inside of his shirt and pulled out the jeweled heart that April had given to him. He looked at it with longing and saddness filled his black heart. He was so busy looking at the shiny jewles in the heart of gold that he did not even see the object that was crossing the path. His right foot bumped into it and he fell to the ground and then rolled over an object of pure white color. He stood up agian and looked down. Before his eyes were the shattered remains of the beast that he had fought with the night before.
The skeleton proved to that of a wolf, but twice that of any wolf Scot had ever seen, so he guessed that it had been a werewolf that he had fought with the night before. "Good ridence to you, you bitch from hell!" Scot thought to the bones. He turned and walked away from them and left them to the magots and worms to devour in Times' maze of time. Within an hour he was standing in front of his own home and then he opened the door and walked inside. His father was sitting on the couch watching television when he walked in.
"Scot." He called from the family room. Scot turned a step and then walked into the family room. A book case was to the far left wall of fake wooden boards. Almost every shelf of the case was filled with books of wisdom and fantansy and myths and other such objects of coldness and evil. These were all of Scot personal collections. He would often read the books in the family room and his parents had given to him the case for him to place them upon so that he would not have to keep going from his bedroom to the family room and back again when he wanted another book to read. A large twenty-one inch screen television sat in the center of forward facing wall, the one that faced Scot's father. The screen was blank now and his father was facing him, standing and looking directly into his son's ice cold eyes. behind him and inbetween the book shelf and the corner that connected the wall with the television and the wall behind the book case, was small dresser that was filled, from top to bottom, with video cassettes. Pictures of Scot's family adorned the wall behind Scot.
"What?" Scot said looking directly into his father's eyes and not feeling fear build up, but hatred.
"I just wanted to know why you didn't come home last night. Are you okay? Do you want me to take you to see a doctor?" Benjamin said.
"I'm alright and I don't need a doctor. I got caught off guard last night and so had to use my Power of Venus to stop an evil creature. By the way, some one named the Ancient One saved my life. Who is he and what does he want with me?"
"Are you sure it was the Ancient One? He told whom he was without telling you? I mean you, after the first moment you saw him, knew whom he was?"
"Yes."
"I thought that he was dead. Does he want the former team of Light Warriors to help the newest team with this fight?"
"N....Y.....I have no idea. Sorry." Scot said coldly. Hewould have liked to say yes and that way he could return to being a normal teenager without the threat of having to fight for his life every day he was alive. He pushed past his father and then walked into the hallway that would take him to his bedroom. He didn't feel sleepy right now, but he did want to just be alone for a while. He entered his bedroom. To the immediate left was his bed pushed up against the wall. In front of him were two more book cases filled with books on wisdom, truths, and fantanties. There were even a few romance novles that he had. He had never finished any of them, for his heart would not let him. Every time that he read one of those books, he always found himself thinking back to April and the mistake of leaving her. To the right of the book cases, was the closet. On the far left wall, hanging in front of the window, was a large clear crystal that bent the rays of the sun and turned them into rainbows. They danced and played in Scots' eyes and on the wals of the room. Above his bed, mounted upon the wall, were two swords, one shorter than the other one. These he had been given when he had reached his black belt levle in the art of Karate.
He had never taken them out of their sheaths, for he had never had to. To the left of the window, on the wall that his bed was pressed up against, were several pictures of his friends, some medals he had taken when he had competed in tournaments, and a framed picture of his girlfriend, April. To the right of the framed picture was a picture of himself and between the two was a wooden heart that he had made himself in his wood carving class that he had taken when he was in the eighth grade. He lay down upon his bed and then sat up again. He realized that he had to take off his Light Warrior outfit. "Venus power down!" He said aloud. His costume disappeared into a bright white ball of light and then the ball of light faded from sight. He was wearing jeans and a tee-shirt that was dark purple. He lay down upon his bed once more and then fell into a restless sleep.
Nearly six days had passed since the day when Scot had met the Ancient One. Standing in the cold wet grass of the school football field, Scot looked out towards the west. His friends soon joined him and they all walked over to the cafeteria to buy some hot chocolate for the cold winter's day. A slight frost lay upon the ground and it shinned brightly in the dim light of the sun. "Something wrong, Scot?" Jacky asked, her brown eyes shinning in the light of the sun only to be covered by the steam of her hot chocolate.
"No. Why do you ask? Am I too silent for your taste?" Scot said.
"No, it's just that you haven't spoken much since the death of Rockcite." Jacky said.
"Is that a problem?" Scot asked. "You should know by now that I don't speak much and when I do, ice fills me words and my voice."
"Now you just lost me." Randy said. "What do you mean that I fill your words and your voice?"
"What I mean is that I am as cold as your Power of Light is deadly." Scot said. He turned and faced the cold wind that was starting to blow in from the north-west. Almost six hours later, Scot was at the temple. He was in the Hall of Meditation. He sat, with his legs folded underneath him, eyes closed tightly, in front of a candle that was buring brightly. Thirteen other candles, all the same height and distance from each other, surrounded him. He was in the Ring of Fire and he could not leave it untill all of the candles had gone out. A shadow appeared in the open doorway and then closed the door behind it as softly as it could. Scot didn't hear the door close, nor did he see the movement of light leaving the room. He merely sat where he was in silence and deep thought. The shadow waited quietly at the door, lost in shadows made by the flickering lights of the candles. The shadow only had an hour to wait, for the candles were almost down to the point where the wax would make the flames go out. An hour passed and then another quarter hour and all of the flames, save one, were out. It waited a little more and then the room was in total darkness. Scot knew that the door to the Hall had been shut. He looked over to the door and then stood up in shock.
Chapter 7
The eyes of the two people met and then Scot turned around. He lit a match and then took hold of another candle, this one was a spare in case if he had messured the others incorrectly, this one would be the correct height. He then picked it up and faced the shadow that he saw. A young face looked at him with tears in its eyes. The person had short slightly curly blond hair and fair skin. Its eyes were the brightest blue color that Scot had ever seen and its lips were a deep red. It wore a white tee-shirt and over that was a green sweater with the words: "Go Trogans" printed in bright gold letters upon its chest. It had white jeans on and black shoes. Glasses adorned the persons' face, but the light of the candle did not block the veiw of the persons' perfect eyes from Scots' sight. "April." The name was spoke even before Scot knew what was going on. The young, now sixteen-year-old, girl ran forward and had wrapped her arms around Scots' neck before he could stop her from entering the Hall of Meditation with her shoes on.
"Scot, I've missed you so much. I thought you and I would never see each other again." The girl said. Scot reached up and pulled her gently off his neck. He looked into her bright blue eyes and then the two of them walked outside the Hall of Meditation. Once outside, Scot again looked into her bright blue eyes. He opened his mouth to say something, but before he could say anything, April had placed a finger on his lips.
"Don't say anything, Scot. I know that you feel ashamed for not writting or calling me. You were upset that you had left me without fighting harder to stay behind. I know and I forgive you. You see, I wanted to ask you the same thing: I was kind of hoping that you'd be able to forgive me for not doing the same thing to you. I never really fought your father and mother and tried to make them let you stay in California with me. Nor did I call you or even write to you. I'm sorry." April said. Scot nodded a few times and then hugged her gently to his body.
"You are forgiven, April. I can't hold anger with you nor with any of my friends. I am incapiable of doing that. I've missed you alot. Oh, by the way. I have something of yours. Something that I think you might want to see." Scot said. April's eyes lightened with puzzlement and confusion. What could he have that belonged to her that she might want to see? Scot saw the light in her eyes and knew that once he pulled out her gift, the shock would really surprize her. He reached into the right side of his shirt and pulled out the heart pendant that April had given to him as a farewell gift. Her eyes went wide in amazement and shock.
"You still have the pendant that I gave to you?!" She said in amazement. Scot took it off his neck and then took hold of her right hand and placed into her quivering hand. She looked at him strangely.
"I want you to wear it now. As my gift to you." Scot said. April placed the heart pendant over her head and then let the chain drop down to hang round her neck of silk white skin. Then the two of them drew closer to each other. Closer and closer still did they draw to one another. Then April stood up on the ball of her right foot and kissed Scot on the lips and at the same time wrappedher arms round his back and neck. Scot did the same with his arms, but left both feet firmly on the ground. Aprils' eyes closed and so did Scots'. Scots' heart beat increased and began to perspire for a moment, then he checked his emotions and only let his love for April flow. Aprils' heart beat quickened and she quickly got it back under control. In a moment they released from the Kiss of Love and then stared into each others' eyes for a long time. A shadow crossed Aprils' vision, but she paid no heed to it, for it was gone quicker than when it had come. Suddenly Scot seemed to sence something. He was about to turn around and see whom might be spying on them, when April took of his hand and he turned back to her. They kissed again and again they were lost in their feelings of love for the other.
They again parted and again looked into each others' eyes. "Are you going to be doing anything this weekend, April?" Scot asked his girlfriend.
"No that I know of. Why?"
"Well I was kind of wondering if you'd like to go out to dinner with me this weekend or something like that?"
"I'd love to!"
"Great! When would you like me to pick you up? Say around seven?"
"Hmmm......I'd think it might be better if you pick me up around seven-thirty. I'd need the extra half hour to make sure that I'm ready by the time you get to my house. That reminds me, I need to give you directions to my uncles' house!" April said. She reached into her left pocket and pulled out a pen and a small scrap of paper and wrote a few words down upon it. This she gave to Scot and he placed it into his right breast pocket.
"Are you living with your uncle now?" Scot asked. April nodded. "What about your parents?" He asked slowly. April turned away. Scot knew that he had made a mistake by asking her about her parents. "Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to hurt you, April." He said softly to her.
"That's alright. You didn't know. My mother and father are......" April didn't finish her sentence. She couldn't say the word that would end it. She didn't want to admit it to herself nor to her friends. Scot placed his right hand on her shoulder. He looked at her in her face and saw the pain in her eyes. He knew damn well what had happened.
"If it hurts you too much to say it, then don't speak the words ever again. At least not until you're ready to speak about it." He said. April turned around and walked away from Scot for a moment. Her hands were clenched tightly into fists of rage and sadness. Scot walked over to her and then froze. "April?" He said softly. She looked over to him with sadness in her bright blue eyes. The look was one of deep hidden pain and rage that she had kept inside of herself for so long that it was now apart of her being; a part of her self. The pain was what really struck Scot. He felt helpless against such a look of utter and complete paralizing pain. There was nothing for him to do about it, save to comfort his love. April turned away.
"They should never have left. I tried to tell them that they could be in danger if they left. They didn't listen to me. They were police officers, both of them. There was a massive riot and several police officers had already been shot and sent to the hospital. I had seen a vision of their deaths and wanted to talk to them about it, for I knew that they would understand once I told them about the damned vision, but they left anyway.....dream or not, it didn't matter to them. They had taken a goddamn oath to protect the "innocent and weak" to the death. Fuck the police! Fuck that damn oath! Fuck everything to do with the law! Screw everything that has to do with protecting people and the weak and.....and.....and......FUCK THE FUCKING LAWS!" April screamed at the top of her lungs. Scot could tell that she was pissed off and angry with her parents for dying. He knew what had happened even before she started to continue. He let her talk and yell at the open air. He wasn't going to help her, for she didn't need that kind of help. She need to get her anger out of her system and if this was the way that it had to be done then so be it. April went on, only this time she turned her rage on at Scot and his love for her:
"DAMMIT, SCOT! WHY DID YOU HAVE TO REMIND ME ABOUT THEM?! FUCK YOU! YOU.....YOU BASTARD FROM HELL!" April shouted at her boyfriend as she balled her right hand into a fist and then lunged forward and struck him on the right side of his jaw. Scots' head spun to the side, blood dripping slightly from his split lip. He turned to face her again and then looked cooly into her frozen eyes of hate and pain.
"Can't you hit me any harder?" He asked softly. Aprils' eyes turned to maddness and she again lunged forward and struck him in the stomach with her left hand balled into a fist so that the fingers were pointed up towards the sky. Scot hit the ground instantly, pain flaring in his gut and finding that he could barely breath. He slowly stood up and then faced April again.
"That was the weakest punch you've ever given to me! Did you forget every thing that I taught you? Come on, April! Try harder! Hit me again! I dare you!" He said. These words really pissed April off. She dropped into a front stance with her right leg behind her, her foot bent onto the ball of her foot and her leg bent at the knee. Her left leg was in front of her, also bent at the ball of her foot and at the knee. Her legs were spread at hips-distance from each other and every fiber was prepared to give Scot an attack that he could never, in a million yearsm avoid properly and would always be hit in some way by it. Scot remained where he was. He knew what he was doing. He knew what would happen. He knew his friend too well and he knew what she would do. The attack came: April jumped into the air and then spun at a three hundred and sixty degree circle, throwing out her right leg as she spun in the circle. The foot went flying towards Scots' chest and then.......
Stopped an inch away from killing him. April collapsed to the ground and Scot caught her just before she hit the ground. She melted into his arms and sobbed. "I'm sorry, Scot. I didn't really mean to lose it when I did. I didn't hurt you, did I?" She sobbed. A few tears rolled down her cheeks. Scot brushed them away and hugged her close to his body.
"No, April, you didn't. You did what was to be expected of you. You were under stressful times when your parents passed away and so you kept it all locked up within you. You didn't want to admit to yourself that they were gone and will never come back again. They both knew the risks of being cops and any cop who doesn't think that their job is like fighting with death every step of the way is very stupid. Listen to me April, what you did, I wanted you to do. I knew that you were in pain and I knew that the only way to make you lose that pain was to make you very angry, thus I mentioned your parents....but only to piss you off enough to the point where'd you forget about the rules of karate and attack me full bore. How are you feeling now?" Scot said as he looked into her eyes of pain and sadness.
"A bit better. Thanks for trying to help me." April said and kissed him lightly on the mouth. Scot kissed her back and within an hour or so, the two of them parted and they walked home alone. April had wanted to be by herself on her way home, so that she could think about what had happened. She had never done anything to hurt her boyfriend, until now. Dispite everything that Scot had said after what she had done, she felt terrible and stupid for doing what she had done. She had earned her black belt six months after Scot had left her and then had quickly worked her way up to third degree black belt. Now she and Scot were the same rank, only he had more experience and thus, if they were training in a dojo, would outrank her. She turned down a dark street and then began to walk home. Hardly any street lights showed their pale and yellow glows on this street. April wasn't scared. She knew the area well enought to know that she shouldn't be in any danger, but she still remained on guard.......just in case.
A shadow crossed her vision and she mentally prepared herself for battle, but physically remained calm of face and ignorant of the shadow. It drew closer and a young man passed her in tennis shoes and sweats, jogging now across the street and disappearing into the darkness behind her. April brought down her mental guard slightly, but left her mental sight up. She would need her eyes and sences to tell whether or not she would be in danger. Some where at a house not too far away a dog barked and yipped excitedly. April knew the sound of the dog barks. They were happy and gay and full of glee. "It's friend and companion must be home." April thought. She picked up her pace a step and then turned onto an even darker street. This one had no street lights that were on, and those that did appear to her eyes were either burned out from neglect or in pieces due to gang-related gun fire. April brought up her mental guard once more and slowed her pace to fool any whom should see her that she was in a blissful mood, full of ignorance and close-minded of the dark shadows that would cross her path. In reality, she was really fully aware of whatever would meet her gaze and she was ready to deal with whatever it would be. If it be a shadow of a human, she prepared to fight or to run. If it was the shadow of an animal, she prepared to step out of the creatures' way and show no signs of intending harm or help, save if the poor thing was wounded and could not fight back. If the shadow was of a human and she saw the person before he or she would see her, then she would quickly check to see if that person had a weapon of some sort.
Knife: She'd block the attack and take the person to ground and at the same time, taking the weapon from the persons' grip. Gun: She'd do whatever the person holding the gun said to do, until she could take his or her advantage from them and fight back so that she'd be able to take the gun and not get shot in the process. Club: She'd block the attack and bring that person to the ground, doing the same thing that she would do to a knife: remove it from the person. Chain: She'd get out of the way of the chain and then attempt to run. If that didn't work, then she'd fight to the death to get away. Another shadow passed her vision and she was well prepared for it. It was joined by another one and by still another. April saw four people near her own age, one looked to be about eighteen, coming towards her. They were all dressed in black Raiders jackets that made their chests, arms, and stomachs look twice as big than they really were. Each of the four people had red hats pulled onto their heads. two of the four hats had little fluffy red balls of yarn or some material like that attached to the top of them.
The pants that the four kids wore were baggy and sagged below the waist line. Shoes that were three sizes too big for them were worn upon their feet. White puffs of moister seemed to come from their heads. A slight breeze brought the foul bouquet to Aprils' nose. She knew the smell of the air that she now smelled. It was marijuana that she smelled. "Great. Weed. This is just what I need right now: a bunch of kids smoking weed and heading right for me. Better cross the street.....damn! They see me! Okay, kid, stay calm and walk on past them. If you show them that you don't give a shit about whatever they say, then hopefully you won't have to fight. Just don't say anything to them." April thought to herself as the four kids spotted her and began to laugh and jeer at each other under their breaths. April walked on confidently. She knew what to do if they started to cause trouble, but she wasn't sure if she really wanted to do what would be necessary. She had come into ear's distance of the four kids.
"Go suck an egg, bitch!" One kid said to his friends, for clearly the voice was that of a male.....under the influence of the drug that April could smell on the boys' breath, his words were slightly slurred and mixed a tone that seemed to say that the boy was sleep-walking.
"Fuck you, bastard! Go suck your ma's dick!" Another kid said.
"Where on earth did these kids learn their language from? A cardboard box?!" April thought. Then the two that had been fighting with one another saw her. They turned their attention on her quicker than a cheetah could run.
"Hay, whatdawe got 'ere?! Ya lost, kid?" The first boy said. April took no notice and simply walked on past the four. They turned and ran after her to catch up. April ignored them.
"Nice 'air color, girly.....whatcha do? Bleach it?" The second boy asked April, placing his hand upon her hair. She raised her left arm up and pushed his arm off her head. The boy froze for a second in shock, his friends laughing slightly. "Oh, gonna be a tough thing, eh?" He said. April mentally
re-prepared herself for a fight. With this kind of tounge, she knew that one of them might pulled a weapon. She flashed her eyes at the four people bothering her and found that they didn't seem to have any weapon on their bodies, but she assumed that they did.
"Wanna have some fun, girl?" Asked a thrid boy. April flashed her eyes towards him instantly and saw that he had just lighted another marijuana stick and was puffing on it slowly so that it glowed brightly in the darkness of the deep night.
"Hay, yer deef er somtin', girl?" A fourth voice said. This one wasn't deep enough to be a boys'. April flashed her eyes over to where the person stood and saw, by the light of the moon, that it was a girl of about nineteen that she faced. The girls' eyes were rock cold and frozen within her skull. She had thick black hair and smelled of whiskey and beer and cigarette smoke. April took a few more steps forward, as she had always been doing since this gang of people started to follow her home. She just had to keep walking on and maybe they'd back off and see that she wasn't going to fall victim to their games. She knew that they might not want to back off due to the influence of the damn drugs, but she was well prepared for a fight. The girl called to April again, this time insulting her:
"Hay, you slut! Get back 'ere! I ast ya a queeston and I want an answer, dammit! Do ya 'ere me?! I said now dammit, ya bitach!" The girl said. The first boy looked over to the girl and said:
"Let me 'andle dis." He said to her and then he turned back to April, whom had gained three feet from the all, and was still gaining space between herself and the threat of the punks....that much room between herself and these punks from hell, would give her the advantage she would need in order to take more than one of them to hospital with her. "YA DAMN ABORTION SURVIVOR!" He shouted at April. He and his friends started to laugh. Inside April wanted to tear that kid apart, but outside she only seemed not to hear what he had said and just kept on walking. She knew that if she broke into a dead run now, they'd see her and would give chase. If she could run from them she would have done so a long time ago, but she didn't know if any of them were high on steriods or on a P.C.P, one of the most deadliest drugs she had ever seen.
The four kids swiftly over took April and she stopped. She knew that her game wasn't working. It was time that she got this over with. She had only one more thing left to her before she really had to fight any of them. She had to try to talk them out of trying to hurt her. "I take it you four want to have some fun with me?" She asked. The three boys' eyes gleamed for just a moment. She saw the look. "Well I've got news for you four: back off. You're not my type. Sorry. Good-night to you four." April said. She turned around and the third boy placed his left hand on her right shoulder. He forced her to turn around and then he removed his hand from her shoulder. The other three swiftly surrounded her.
"Well then, if we can't have any fun with you girl, then we'll settle for your watch and wallet." The second boy said. April smiled slightly at him.
"Oh, I'm sorry, but had I known that the four of you would want my watch and money, I'd have brought it with me. As it stands, my watch and wallet are in my other pair of pants. Sorry again." She said. The girl was standing to her right. Her eyes shinned like hot coals in a fireplace. April knew what was about to come. She had never really been in a real fight before, save for the one with her ex-boyfriend and that wasn't even a fight: He wasn't high on drugs; just too agressive and possessive. That was why she had fought against him and had beaten him: He was too angry to see that his anger was what had destroyed his chance of getting her back under his control.
"Well then, if you don't have your watch or money, then we'll just have some fun with your body! Get 'er!" The third boy said. He reached behind his back and pulled out a knife handle and pressed a silver button and the blade snapped into place. The second boy tried to grab her from behind, pinning her arms to her body. She threw her right leg straight upwards, but behind her and felt her foot hit his groin hard. He let go instantly and was on the ground. In the same instant, the third boy lunged forward and tried to slash open her neck with his knife. She ducked and then kicked him in the stomach, hoping that he'd drop the knife. He didn't. He didn't even go down with her kick. Damn. "He must be the one on some other drug, most likely P.C.P!" April thought. She was back on her feet in an instant and she turned to deliver a spinning side kick to the girl that faced her. Before the girl could even move out of the way, the foot hit its target and she went down to the ground for good.
The boy on the ground was up now and had grabbed April again, this time making the dreadful mistake of leaving her arms unpinned to her body. The third boy again tried to stab April. She caught his arm at the wrist and drove it to her side, where it stabbed into the flesh of the boy holding her. He instantly let of her and placed his right hand upon his stomach. He fell to the ground bleeding and nearly unconscious. "That's it for ya, bitch!" The first boy said as he reached into his right pocket and pulled out a thirty two caliber gun! The third boy, ol' knify, had got over to her right. They were prepared to kill her. April turned to face the boy with the gun.
"Try to shoot me." She said. She saw his finger move and she moved at the same time that the boys' trigger finger moved. She hit the ground just as the bullet came out of the gun and slammed into the chest of the boy with the knife. Again the trigger was pulled and again a bullet slammed into the chest of the boy with the knife. The kid with the knife hit the ground back first and forever would he remain on the ground. His life was over for him. The torture of drugs and choices and freedoms were gone from his life now. He was dead on the spot. The moment the gun was fired, lights were on in almost every house up and down the street. April then kicked the boy in the right knee, shattering his knee cap with the force of her kick. She got back up on her feet, bent down and retrieved the gun from the boys' grasp and then she turned and ran. An old man stepped out into the cold night a few houses up the street and saw April running from what looked like a fight. He then saw the gun in her left hand and moved to stop her from going any where else.
April saw what was going to happen and came to swift stop. The man faced her with cold eyes. "I.......I need the cops." She breathed heavily. Never in her life had she had to run so fast in so short a distance.
"What happened?" Ask the old man.
"Never mind about that right now, sir. Just please call the police and an ambulance and be quick about it!" April said to the old man. He turned to go back into his home and call the police, then turned back to April. He nodded his head towards the door and she followed him inside. Once the two were indoors, the old man called the cops and soon they arrived with an ambulance. April told her story to the police and gave them the gun.
"So after you noticed that the kids were high on some kind of drug, you were ready to fight them?" Ask an officer.
"That's right. When they tried to grab me, I fought back. I had no intention of death on my mind when I fought each of them, but they didn't back off. I had no choice, but to drive that boys' knife into the stomach of the other person. I was just trying to protect myself." April said. The officer had steel grey eyes and paleish white skin. His thick bushy brown eyebrows knotted together at the begining of the bridge of his nose. The right eyebrow was raised slightly.
"You're sure that's what happened? You didn't pull the gun yourself and kill one of your so called attackers, right? The same with the knife......you didn't bring that into the conflict and try to kill them all with it, right?" Ask the officer. Aprils' face hardened with anger. Why didn't the officer believe her?
"I told you the darn truth, sir. Why won't you believe me?" April asked.
"Watch your mouth, kid or you'll find yourself in handcuffs!" The officer snapped. Another officer walked into the house and placed his hand upon the shoulders of the officer speaking to April.
"Leave the girl alone, Greg. Can't you see that she's scared enough? She just stabbed a guy out there trying to get away and you treat her as if she was the one who pulled the weapons! Back off or I'll site you for harrassment." The new comer said. The officer was a trim black woman in her mid forties, with slight heighlights of grey in her hair. She looked over to April and smiled kindly.
"How about I give you a lift home, huh? Don't really want you to get attacked again. Come on, kid." She said to April. The two of them left the old mans' house, after April had thanked him for calling the police and then headed out towards the police officers' car. A german sheperd was sitting in the front passenger seat looking out the window at the house. It was a large dog for its breed, weighing in at about two hundred and fifty pounds of muscle and teeth.....cruel teeth that were curved and sharp and could bite someones' hand in half if the dog wanted to do that. A thick black color, with a police badage attached to it, was strapped round the animals' neck. It's big black eyes shinned as it saw its owner approach the car and then they turned to one of concern and suspicion once they beheld April. The dog turned on its guard and was ready to attack if the need came. It did not. The two humans walked up to the car and then the officer placed her hand upon the dogs' head and scratched him behind the ears. It wagged its tail and licked her hand.
"What's the dogs' name?" April asked.
"Cop." The officer answered. "I wouldn't try to pet him if I were you, miss..." The officer said as she opened the door to let Cop out so that he could walk around.
"April. April Dawson." April said.
"Like I said, I wouldn't try to pet Cop, April, because he'll....." The officer was saying, but stopped as she saw April bend down to the dog and hold out her hand to his nose for him to sniff. He walked over to her slowly and then sniffed her open hand, which was facing palm up. Slowly April turned her hand over so that it faced palm down and then she slowly began to stroke him on the nose, working her way up to his ears. She rubbed the sides of his face, the back of his neck and the underside of his lower jaw. Then she scratched behind his ears and Cops' tail began to wag. He licked her hand.
"Well I'll be a daughter of monkey! Cop never lets any one other than myself and my daughter and son (may his soul rest in peace forever) pet him." The officer said. April stood up slowly and then walked over to the police car to go home, once her body had passed by Cop he turned to face her and then, with his jaws, clamped down upon her right hand. He didn't pressed hard enough to bite her, just to let her know that he had a hold of her hand. She turned to face him and smiled.
"That happens to be my hand you're trying to take off, Cop." April said gently. The dog let go and whinned slightly. April looked over to the officer. She rolled her eyes.
"Scratch him behind the ears again and then we'll be able to go." She said. April did so and then climbed into the front passenger seat of the car. Cop climbed in after her and lay down on her lap. He was heavy for her, but April didn't mind. On the way home, April was silent and only scratched Cop behind the ears and rubbed his face and under his jaw and around his fury neck. Within a few moments, April was standing in front of her uncles' house. In the dim light of the porch light, one could see that the house was two stories tall, white panlled and each window was carefully framed by a set of three inch thick light blue shutters. There was a light on in the front window on the left of the heavy oaken door. Aprils' uncle stood outside speaking with the officer and looking at April to make sure that what the officer said was true.
He didn't trust the police....his son had been shot by an officer and was paralized, even though his son hadn't pulled a weapon the officer nor had he done anything wrong to cause the officer to have to shoot him. The officer was sentenced to life in jail, but that still didn't take away the feeling of hatred for the police, it was still there, under his kind words and soft heart, it still lived inside of him. He had dark hazel eyes with a small ring of green in the center of the irises. He had a few dark bloches upon the top of his balding head of pure silk white hair, but other than that he was in prime physical shape for being sixty-eight years old. His skin wasn't loose around his bones, it was tight and it made him look as if he were in his mid thirties. He could bench press one hundred and fifty pounds with both hands on the bar and he could leg press two hundred and fifty with one leg. Within a few moments, the officer left and April and her uncle walked inside to the welcome thought of their own beds.