(5.5 k words, 20-30 min read)<\/p>\n\n\n\n
After that strange fall with all the lights, that random guy who grabbed Langley, then losing grip of Pretty\u2019s and Mariah\u2019s hands, Marshall crashed out through a mirror by himself and his legs caught on the edge of a vanity which almost fell right next to him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He sprawled out onto the floor, unhurt, but dazed, \u201cUnng.\u201d The gun fell from his pants, scattered onto the wood floor, and lay still.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He picked himself up and looked around. He was alone and breathing hard, probably from all that running from the novis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cMariah? Pretty? Myles!\u201d Marshall called to the room. He looked back at the mirror which was now a shattered mess; there would be nobody else flying through that mirror.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He gasped for air and decided to lie on his back. \u201cWhew,\u201d he was safe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Where was he? There was other furniture around him, old and unused. Definitely stored. It was stacked almost to the top of the tall ceilings around him. Bedsprings, shelves, collapsible chairs, and curtains. There was another vanity, but the mirror was already broken. Did the Astronomers already make it through that one? Were they anywhere near? There were leaves all over the floor, like someone had left a window open for a long time, but any windows in this room must have been obscured.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He heard footsteps approaching. \u201cMariah? Fellow Astronomers? Who\u2019s there?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cSounds young, so be careful,\u201d A gruff voice came from outside the room.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWho is it?\u201d Marshall asked.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
There was no answer as the footsteps slowly approached. Marshall first saw the barrel of a musket and then a fully-fledged man wearing a feathered metal helm and a leather chestplate came into view.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWha\u2026?\u201d Marshall said from the floor. \u201cWho are you?\u201d In his panic, he didn\u2019t think to grab his own weapon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The man pointed his gun at Marshall, \u201cDon\u2019t you fucking move. I don\u2019t need you alive, but it’s better if you are.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWhoa, what?\u201d Marshall lifted his hands. \u201cDon\u2019t shoot, sir. I know I\u2019m not supposed to be here, but I have a lot of explanations for this. I\u2019m sorry.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The man approached cautiously. \u201cRetarded, hm? On your feet, now<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Marshall obeyed the man\u2019s every command until he was downstairs and around many other men dressed just like the one who had taken him prisoner.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWha\u2026? What\u2019s going on? I\u2019m having trouble breathing here\u2026 anyone have water?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThink he was sneaking up on us?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cFound him upstairs; looked like he just broke a mirror because it was that sound I was following. He was probably up there all along,\u201d The man who had captured Marshall at gunpoint said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWell, we\u2019ll harvest him tomorrow. I\u2019m too tired to hang another today.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Marshall heard and felt a dull <\/p>\n\n\n\n thwump<\/p>\n\n\n\n When he woke up, there was water in a small bottle nearby. Marshall was in a metal cage. He forced himself to move and reached out of the cage for the water, but it was snatched away by a cloaked figure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cNope, not yet,\u201d the boy said. Marshall guessed its age to be fourteen from the movement and the voice pitch. The deepness of the voice didn\u2019t quite match the size of the kid.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cPlease,\u201d Marshall said. \u201cI need it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cYou\u2019re a strange case, Marshall.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cYou know me?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI read your mind,\u201d he said, like he was explaining how to add and subtract. \u201cHave you met a prophet before?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe hell? What kind of cultish bullshit did Myles get us into? Why am I in here? Let me the fuck out, man!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cNo, but it was God who gave us our powers. Do you know what power you are?\u201d Anda gave him the water.<\/p>\n\n\n\n He grabbed the water, thinking: This is what Myles telling us about. That we were all special in some way. <\/em>Marshall was panting after a long drink of water, \u201cNo.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cYou\u2019re telling the truth. You\u2019ve arrived from somewhere else entirely and are now here, a severely-underdeveloped fraiser, yet you\u2019re twelve years old. How?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWho are you? And are you going to let me out?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI\u2019m Anda, like \u2018Panda\u2019 without the \u2018p\u2019. Nice to meet you. I work for the Cavaliers, and with you, we\u2019ll have to wait a while for your fraise organ to develop, otherwise it\u2019s a fraiser wasted.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI\u2019m guessing a fraiser is whoever has powers? What is a fraiser exactly?\u201d Marshall said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Anda laughed, \u201cDid you hear everything I say?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Marshall nodded, \u201cYeah, I heard it, now answer my questions. Why am I in a cage? What\u2019s a fraiser?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe\u2019re fraisers. Children. With the fraise, we receive power. Do you know yours?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cNo, I don\u2019t know my magical orientation. Why\u2019d you lock me up?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cYou\u2019re in a cage so the Cavs can use you and so you don\u2019t escape. But since we\u2019re waiting for your fraise to develop\u2026 well, I perceived you\u2019re a hush; they\u2019re pretty common. Which means we just have to wait and keep you from being able to do anything incredible.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Anda walked away, thinking.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Marshall didn\u2019t have the energy to move. He was thirsty again, like he\u2019d eaten a handful of sand an hour ago.<\/p>\n\n\n\n He remembered his dad. He saw his dad die.<\/p>\n\n\n\n No, no, he didn\u2019t. This was some strange, strange dream. He didn\u2019t see anyone die, nobody died.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Marshall felt tears roll out of his eyes despite his mental disbelief. His father was dead, and his other friends didn\u2019t make it through the mirror after all. He guessed they didn\u2019t jump through all at the right time and were left in the mirror or wherever one goes in the infinite space of mirrors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Marshall didn\u2019t know how long he was in the cage and absently ate and drank the food they brought him. Every few hours, Anda would come into the room chewing his pointer knuckle and staring at Marshall. Then he would leave. Marshall hadn\u2019t moved from his lying down state; he just wanted to die if they weren\u2019t going to fill him in on all of the other missing pieces. Sometimes his eyes would cry automatically out of frustration and then stop for a few hours and then start again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Days passed; Marshall changed positions to keep from cramping horribly in the cage, starting to become used to the routines of the Cavaliers. He heard them call themselves Cavaliers or Cavs in a neighboring room.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Eventually, Marshall started talking again when Anda would enter the room, but Anda wouldn\u2019t answer any questions; he would just stare, frowning at Marshall and looking impatient.<\/p>\n\n\n\n One day, Marshall heard two Cavaliers marching up to the room with Anda. When they entered, Marshall noticed the red-hot piece of metal and he rose, his heart rate rising.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIt\u2019s only going to hurt for a little,\u201d Anda said, \u201cwe just don\u2019t want you overpowering us once you\u2019re out. I don\u2019t know why you weren\u2019t a fully developed fraiser, but this is just a precaution.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cNo, what the fuck are you doing to me? What the fuck is this?\u201d Every last of Marshall\u2019s senses were shot, all of them bracing for some life-changing, excruciating pain.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The cage was opened and Marshall fell to the back of his confinement. \u201cNo! What the fuck?!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Cavalier with both free hands leaned down and grabbed Marshall.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cNo! No you fucking don\u2019t!\u201d Marshall was scrambling against the bars, putting up a struggle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cMarshall, please don\u2019t. You\u2019ll only burn your face too,\u201d Anda said as the cav pulled Marshall from his confinement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cFUCK YOU, YOU FUCKING PSYCHOPATH!\u201d Marshall screamed, fearful tears welling in his eyes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Cavalier was able to hold Marshall steady, \u201cHold still you little fucking twat,\u201d as Marshall watched the two red-hot metal spikes float close to his face.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cNO! NO YOU FUCKING DON\u2019T, LET ME GO! FUCK YOU!<\/em>\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Once the metal, gently glowing with condensed heat, reached his eyes, Marshall screamed. He screamed louder than he\u2019d ever screamed. The metal only party went into his eyes; too far and you reach the brain. The eyes are a delicate machine and only a short distance into them will ruin them permanently. Marshall\u2019s eyesight, his twelve years of vision, was ended permanently. Even as the searing metal left him, pieces of flesh sticking to the hot metal and smelling nauseating, he put his hands to his eyes and screamed. It was more than pain they\u2019d inflicted; he would never see daylight again, never see a human face, never see anything again. No scenery, no smiling friends,<\/p>\n\n\n\n He\u2019d never see the stars ever again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n They locked him up again as he tried to cry. He found quickly that he had no tear-ducts to cry with, though his nose still ran. He whimpered into a ball. A part of him had died just now; he wished the rest of it would die too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Marshall cried out in pain several more times as it continued to return in waves that slowly faded. Once the pain subsided, he passed out from exhaustion and sadness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n He woke again to a void of darkness and began to panic. He remembered what they did, but the new reality was now striking him. He would never be able to see. How would he live properly? How would he live? How? How would he eat? How would he read? He didn\u2019t feel sad now; he just felt panicked.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cFuck, fuck, fuck,\u201d Marshall just\u2026 didn\u2019t know what to do now. \u201cWHAT THE FUCK DID YOU DO TO ME?! YOU TOOK MY FUCKING EYES!\u201d He slammed his arm against the metal cage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n CLANG<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cFuck,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The clanging echoed through the room.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI don\u2019t understand you.\u201d Anda\u2019s voice surprised him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cSHIT,\u201d Marshall said, grabbing the bars of his cage. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cOh, did I scare you?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cYou fucking\u2026 psychotic\u2026\u201d In a rare occasion, Marshall couldn\u2019t find the words in his fury. Then he found them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI\u2019m going to kill you, Anda. Use your insight and let me know if I\u2019m lying.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Marshall heard a murmur and footsteps starting to leave, \u201cYour face is disgusting. Please tie this around your eyes. I know you can\u2019t see them, but it has some red and yellow chinese dragons on it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Marshall heard a piece of cloth fly down into the cage. He felt around for whatever was just thrown. It was a handkerchief.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Marshall felt like sobbing again, but before he did, \u201cFuck. You. I promise you, Anda. I will kill you. I\u2019m a man of my word.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n He folded and put the handkerchief on a few minutes later. The handkerchief felt good; it felt like he finally had a reason to be blind. It explained why he wasn\u2019t seeing anything. He felt calmer. He wondered what the dragons looked like on his hankerchief.<\/p>\n\n\n\n At first, he felt less depressed since now he had a reason to get out, and that reason was to kill Anda. But first, Anda would get his own eyes out with a red-hot poker, much slower than Marshall\u2019s own operation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n After several days of stewing and fantasizing about Anda begging for his life, Marshall began to think of how he would escape. Marshall\u2019s lungs had acclimated and his thinking was clearer. The cavs would have to open the cage at some point and he would kill them. If they did this a lot, they probably had some kind of knockout gas or sleep-potion. That\u2019s how he would do it if it were his operation; kids were hard to deal with and could be slippery. Unless they just relied on their brute strength, which would work with nearly the same effect. Even after days of thinking, Marshall could only run through the same situations and damn near all of them wound up with him dying.<\/p>\n\n\n\n One morning Marshall was sitting thinking and listening to the conversation below between two Cavaliers and he could tell where they were in the room and roughly how big the room was. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWait,\u201d Marshall cocked his head. He could hear their surroundings if he tried hard enough: two of them had taken off their swords, one was asleep. Anda wasn\u2019t here. It was when they spoke that he could hear where they were and many of the things around them, just from the sound bouncing around.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Incredible! He could smell what they were cooking and even what they hadn\u2019t put into it yet; there was a small bowl of spices, fresh from what he could sense, sitting close to it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Just from the sound and smell! He spent all day listening, watching with his ears, feeling around his cage. He whistled to make noise and could sense roughly how big the room around him was. It was like he was seeing the room again!<\/p>\n\n\n\n Days passed like this, Anda would walk into the room and consider the prisoner for a few minutes, not saying anything, murmuring, and then leaving.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Why are they waiting to kill me? Does it really take this long for the fraise to develop?<\/em> The lack of knowing bothered Marshall, but in the few days he\u2019d been listening to his world and seeing it in this new lens, he\u2019d also found out how to smell and how to taste the air. If only Anda knew\u2026 maybe he already did; there was no way to tell.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Marshall found that his body was becoming incredibly flexible and though he was boxed up, he could still contort into complex forms that he\u2019d never been able to achieve before.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Three weeks into Marshall\u2019s captivity, he heard three sets of footsteps marching up the stairs; the last time he\u2019d heard this many people heading up the steps, he lost his eyes. Marshall was ready for round two; instead of panic, he just felt a sickening thrill of hate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Anda walked into the room. Marshall could sense him just by the sound, the vibrations, and two cavaliers, he could hear their metal chestplates and helmets simply rubbing along their cotton shirts. Marshall could smell a long rope in one of the cav\u2019s hands.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThree of you? For what? What\u2019s the rope for?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n He could sense them looking at each other and then one cav waving a hand in front of him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cHe can\u2019t see, but he can smell and hear well,\u201d Anda said. \u201cHe\u2019s still harmless.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Marshall smiled knowingly. What did Anda know?<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n He sensed Anda beckoning them to open the cage and follow through with whatever they were about to do. He also sensed every weapon (steel had a stronger smell than he realized) that they carried. His interest was piqued by the six-inch knives in their boots.<\/p>\n\n\n\n As he was drawn from the cage, he slipped his hand into one of the boots.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWait!<\/em>\u201d Anda cried.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Marshall\u2019s fingers had already drawn the knife and he already could sense where their necks were, locating the vital arteries. <\/p>\n\n\n\n He flipped the knife into a stabbing position in his hand and he stabbed angrily into one of the cav\u2019s neck. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cGakk,\u201d the cavalier gurgled in surprise as the blood started, falling to his side.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Marshall rose to his feet and could feel the few drops of blood sliding off the tiny blade in his hand. The remaining cav and Anda backed up, the cav gripping for his sword.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cKill him!\u201d Anda shouted, backing up. Marshall imagined him remembering every word of Marshall\u2019s earlier threat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n With a yell, the Guru flung his knife right between the cav\u2019s eyes before the sword was halfway from the scabbard. The cav fell lifelessly to the floor; Marshall could sense his eyes were wide open as he died.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The first cav he\u2019d stabbed was still twitching on the ground holding his neck. Marshall smelled the blood, like a roll of fresh pennies, ebbing from between the dying man\u2019s fingers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Anda had frozen and was at the complete mercy of Marshall who pulled the knife from the cavalier\u2019s head like a fucked up version of the Sword in the Stone<\/em>. The head lifted off the ground for a second, then released the knife and went thud<\/em>ding back without a bounce.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cDon\u2019t kill me, please, Marshall don\u2019t kill me.\u201d Anda held his hands up near his face and his legs buckled from under him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cA man of my word.\u201d Marshall heard himself say this as he grabbed Anda by the cloak, pulled his neck near, and stabbed repeatedly into the young prophet\u2019s chest. Once Anda was gurgling on his own blood for a few seconds, Marshall\u2019s arm became tired and he released the prophet, who crumpled on the ground and writhed for a few more seconds. Then he died.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Guru of the Astronomy Club stood around, the knife still in his hand, now dripping with two different types of blood. His head moved slightly as he picked up on the subtle smells and sounds that mapped out the surrounding. Three dead in this room, all by his will. They locked him up, and this is what they got. The air became strongly scented in blood. After two more minutes of simply standing around and realizing his freedom, Marshall left the room, tracking bloody footprints out of the room and down the staircase he had only gone down once before.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Then he started to realize what he had done and ran outside. Before he could make it out the door, he began throwing up whatever was in his stomach. It was as if someone stomped on his stomach and made the rest of his innards much lighter, like they also wanted to empty out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cUgh,\u201d Marshall said, and then dry-heaved a few more times before standing upright. \u201cFuck\u2026 what did I do?\u201d The other cavs must have left somewhere; they were always coming and going from the house. And if that were the case, when would they be back?<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI killed him,\u201d Marshall said. He had his revenge. \u201cI killed them. All three.\u201d He had to clarify. Two of them were out of self-defense, but that last one\u2026 what would the Astronomers think of that<\/em>? They\u2019d think that was \u2018pretty dark, man\u2026\u2019 And then? Marshall felt a beautiful (or was it frightening?) disconnect, like he lost his eyes again and couldn\u2019t quite see. He was sensing the world in an entirely different way: he was sensing the world in nearly complete numbness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n He squatted, his legs feeling so free and his back finally stretching out, and unclasped the cutlass and took the knife from this cav\u2019s boot. Before he left, Marshall searched the building which he guessed was a house, but found no sign of his backpack. No more gun. That gun felt like he had it a long time ago; how long was he in that cage? Now armed, Marshall walked out the front door and into freedom. He started crying.<\/p>\n\n\n\n He stepped around, smelling all the new smells, feeling all of the freedom again. He felt so light and happy, and his muscles\u2026 despite being caged for so long, they seemed stronger and healthier, stretchy and durable. Shockingly responsive and reflexive, like he didn\u2019t have to think much to keep his balance or create movements.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I bet I could turn a flip right now, Marshall thought and simply threw a leg over his back, performing a beautiful, near-perfect backflip. He tried to smile or laugh, but the revenge he had taken just a minute or two ago was too fresh to allow it. He could still taste the bile simmering in his mouth like old electricity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Marshall started to walk and kept walking, smelling, and listening for many hours. Eventually he could feel that he was on asphalt from the smell and sound of his feet, and that there were buildings, not houses, on either side of him, like a small town. Like Winton.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Though he could walk around and dodge everything in his way, it took effort, so he found himself a stick and walked along, tapping the stick in front of him like he\u2019d seen in a School for the Blind up in Wilkes-Barre, back in Pennsylvania.<\/p>\n\n\n\n He headed down the street, tapping along, and stopped at a step. It was odd that there was an entire step in the middle of the road, but then he sniffed, listened, and tasted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This wasn\u2019t a step; it was a cliff.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cHm?\u201d This was the first sound he had made in several hours.<\/p>\n\n\n\n He was in a cloud, misty, wet. And the cloud wasn\u2019t low, Marshall was high up. This cliff was overlooking a huge amount of sky.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cHmm,\u201d he dug his stick into the ground. He tapped it a few times. \u201cHmm.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n He could smell the expanse before him, feel the wind so beautifully brush against his face. He was on a precipice and one step forward would kill him. Make him as dead as Anda whose corpse he left to rot<\/em> like an animal<\/em> just a few hours\u2019 walk behind him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n He turned around and started walking the other direction, tapping his stick along and enjoying the numbness, but mostly focusing on what he could feel and smell, what he could hear. He was in the small town again, considering where he could go now. He could see\u2026 but only points with high energy. If there was something stagnant, there would be a sort of blank spot in his 360 vision. He could sense the buildings around him; they smelled old. He could hear the leaves and rabbits running together.<\/p>\n\n\n\n He was hungry and suddenly didn\u2019t see it as such a bad idea to kill a rabbit. He removed his knife from his belt and ran his fingers gently along the blade. He could smell the metal much better now, and visualize how he was going to throw the knife. The rabbit was around the corner of a building, sitting, eating something. Marshall took a few steps, keeping his stick off the ground. He found he could walk with footsteps as light as dust.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Once he came to a vantage where the rabbit wasn\u2019t obscured by the building. He took a deep breath; his side was to the rabbit who sat calmly, chewing, watching him. He knew it was watching him, almost feeling the innocent eyes\u2019 soft gaze. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Hunting was like cliff-jumping; you just needed to take the shot. The hardest part of taking the shot was the moment before. He used his whole body and threw the knife beautifully, better than he knew he could.<\/p>\n\n\n\n He heard the blade thwip<\/em> through the air and thhht<\/em> with a nauseating swiftness into the rabbit\u2019s fur. He heard it start scurrying, scuttling\u2026 limping and then flopping over for the last time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Marshall kept his head facing away from the building and refused to face the rabbit. He didn\u2019t need his eyes anymore. He was probably stronger than he was yesterday, and somehow he had even better reflexes, better muscle control, better\u2026 everything. They took his eyes, but he pivoted. He was better than this. What else could he do that he didn\u2019t even know about yet?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Marshall used his newfound smell and hearing to search the buildings on the street and found materials to make a fire. He considered his sight; if he could see, he probably would never have found these items. Along with two sets of cigarette matches, Marshall had found a couple of carpets and took the one that was thicker as a blanket.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Marshall muttered nonsense to himself once he had a fire going on a rooftop. The Gargoyle Instinct was what Langley called that: the dumb feeling of wanting to get on top of buildings and shit. In his daze, he wondered if there was anything ridiculous printed on the carpet over his shoulders. He could be wearing a confederate flag for all he knew.<\/p>\n\n\n\n He discovered he could even sense when the rabbit was cooked. He didn\u2019t know what constituted \u2018cooked,\u2019 but he could sense the temperature within the meat almost like an infrared sensor, but it was flighty and he could only determine it if he focused. To be safe, he waited until it was heavily cooked before taking it off the top of the fire.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It was burnt nearly to a crisp.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Marshall didn\u2019t complain, chewing the tough, stringy meat. Probably an old rabbit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Marshall finally finished the meat and felt slightly less hungry. He climbed down from the top of the building and kept walking, wrapped in the carpet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n He began walking in some direction and in several minutes arrived at the cliff\u2019s ledge again. There was a drop so deep he couldn\u2019t perceive the bottom, so he decided to keep his distance. Along the ridge he walked for several hours, his breaths coming in slow heaves. He was nearly acclimated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Marshall stopped feeling the sun on his face and over time the air became colder. Wrapped in his carpet and warmed from his walk, he fell asleep.<\/p>\n\n\n\n He dreamed he could see himself around a campfire with his friends. Like most dreams, he didn\u2019t find this situation unusual in the least. There he saw Myles talking, mostly with Mariah. Wait, he could see in this dream, but as a third-person; he was still wearing Anda\u2019s bandana over his eyes, and there were dragons on it like he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In the dream, Myles was now asking about his mask.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cFacelights,\u201d Marshall answered, happy that he\u2019d figured out whatever was bugging him. Was something bugging Myles? The answer was: \u201cFacelights.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Marshall tuned out of the conversation and became enamored about seeing. Right now, just seeing was enough. He woke up before he could continue the fascinating and joyous reopening of his eyes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n There were birds overhead waking him. He could feel the sadness in his heart that he\u2019d woken up with: the nostalgic feeling in your chest when you wake up with tears in your eyes. He put his hands on his face and rubbed them, stifling a couple of sobs. He missed his eyes and killing those three captors didn\u2019t make it sting any less. Part of him was furious for that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Guru kept journeying, wondering what he\u2019d find. At noon, the path dropped off a cliff again, but he could sense ground a few yards below. He rolled up the carpet, speared it down, and began scaling the cliff\u2019s face. At the bottom he smelled houses close by. Wood and metal in organized piles, spaced apart quite nicely. He smelled charcoal too and walked toward it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A house was partially burned down, some of it buried under the collapsed roof. Marshall stood listening, smelling, wondering if there was anything under the rubble worth salvaging. He only smelled pieces of the house and a lot of broken dishware when he picked up a scent of fine metal, purer than any he\u2019d smelled.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cHm?\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n He stuck his cutlass upright into the dirt and walked over the rubble, kicking over some of the charcoal and then moving aside larger pieces of wood. After several minutes of shoving debris aside, he pulled out a long duffle bag from the dirt. The smell of metal permeated the air as he unzipped the bag.<\/p>\n\n\n\n He put his hand on the contents and felt three swords of varying lengths. He ran his fingers along the handles: Japanese swords. The smaller ones had a belt for them, but the large one had a shoulder strap.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cHm,\u201d Marshall considered and then began carrying all three.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Then he felt underneath the swords once he realized the duffel bag wasn\u2019t empty. There were clothes. There were shoes, too big for him, and there were pants, baggier than any he\u2019d known. Like M.C. Hammer with a low, elastic crotch. And a poncho that would fit on his shoulders much better than any carpet. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIt\u2019s a ninja outfit,\u201d Marshall said to himself, surprised at how growly his voice was. He hadn\u2019t spoken a word in almost two days. He cleared his throat and said, \u201cNever heard of a ninja with a poncho like this one.\u201d It was little more than a large wool square with a hole in the middle. He put the pants, swords, and poncho on and jammed the cutlass into the charcoal, leaving it behind sticking upright out of the rubble.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Marshall started walking again in no particular direction, whistling a few notes he made up on his own. He could \u2018see\u2019 better when he made constant noise like clicking his tongue or whistling. I really am like a bat, aren\u2019t I? <\/em>He was using echolocation to get around.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The next day Marshall began practicing with his new swords. He figured he\u2019d figure out how to use them properly as he went.<\/p>\n\n\n\n They swung through the air easily, but felt a little heavy. His muscle control was so excellent he had no fear of the huge blades. After an hour of practice, he felt that was enough for the day and decided to sit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n He listened to the forest, resting like a real ninja. He wondered what life would be like once he was watching television again and wondered when he\u2019d meet someone else. Every good thought he had was swallowed by the thoughts of him killing those three back at the outpost and wondering if they were still there, rotting on the floor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Then he thought about the town he first visited. Why was it parked on a cliff? Was there some kind of earthquake? He had to be on earth since there were humans and they spoke english, right? Did he travel through time? He wished Myles were here. The Sage and the Clairvoyant would know what\u2019s going on. Why did the fraise exist now? They must be somewhere completely different, somewhere in a totally different time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n You killed three people because you <\/em>wanted to.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n He jumped when he heard a scream just under a half-mile away.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Marshall leapt to his feet and listened again. The scream was from a girl being chased by something.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cCavs,\u201d Marshall clenched his teeth and started walking first, letting his head and body catch up to the change of position, then jogging, then sprinting through the woods.<\/p>\n\n\n\n He smelled the trees, the grass underfoot, the fallen logs, the hills\u2026 he sensed everything and whisked past it toward the scream which he pinpointed. The screaming continued; he guessed under a quarter-mile away now. His breathing came in torrents as his feet barely touched the ground in his sprint.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Under three minutes later he slowed, sensing something lying on the ground up ahead. It was a corpse, but not a human. It had a humanoid shape, but its legs had an extra joint and was almost eight feet tall. It had a round head and all its teeth were sharpened to points. The only clothes on it were around its waist. There was a knife blade snapped in half sticking out the thing\u2019s head. The hilt lay on the ground nearby.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWhat the hell?\u201d Marshall said, hearing more footsteps and some chuckling a few hundred feet away. Whatever was there hadn\u2019t sensed him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Marshall gingerly jogged along to the noise and sensed another human clinging for life up in a tree surrounded by five more of the strange humanoids. She was losing strength and Marshall sensed her grip slackening. She started climbing higher and trying to find a foothold that would keep her upright even if she lost her grip.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Marshall crept up on the things around the trees. They chuckled like old men around a grill of burgers, but they didn\u2019t talk. He drew the two shorter swords, quiet as an hourglass.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Marshall made a few clicking sounds with his tongue and all the chucking stopped; he sensed all six heads looking toward the sound.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWhoever\u2019s there,\u201d panted the girl, \u201crun away. The gangs are hungry.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cAre you hurt?\u201d Marshall called out and four of the things rushed toward his voice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n He heard the girl\u2019s body thump against the tree branch as she fell unconscious. Marshall stepped out from the tree brandishing his swords. The things made small shrieks<\/p>\n\n\n\n Like a novis<\/em> Marshall thought, but this time, swords in hand, he had no fear.<\/p>\n\n\n\n He leaped at the first two and swished the swords straight through their necks. They fell past him to the ground and he slashed the third one down as it reached for him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Long arms, got it<\/em>, Marshall thought, twirling his swords. The last one was hesitant, but he could sense it was still smiling.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The one thing next to the tree was standing under the girl\u2019s limp body waiting for it to fall.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cFuck,\u201d Marshall muttered and walked toward the last thing. It reached out and he cut through its arm, sinew and bone, and it shrieked in pain.<\/p>\n\n\n\n He sensed the girl\u2019s body waking up, but not before it slid again, closer to the thing\u2019s outstretched arms and gaping mouth. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWake up!\u201d Marshall called as he swung his second sword at the one he was fighting. It chopped through its thigh and the thing fell to the ground wailing and spurting blood across the ground.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Marshall ran to the tree with the girl. The thing was still waiting underneath the girl who was now dangling by one hand swinging her legs toward the tree, but not before the thing jumped and grabbed her foot.<\/p>\n\n\n\n She was too tired to scream, but Marshall could sense her panic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Marshall stabbed both swords into the thing\u2019s stomach and sliced outward, but he didn\u2019t have enough strength to cut through all the way. The thing screamed and convulsed, pulling the girl down from her weak hold.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Marshall released both swords and stepped under the falling girl. He caught her flawlessly, bending his knees and leaning over to break her fall, but her momentum was too much and they both fell to the ground anyway.<\/p>\n\n\n\n She wheezed at the impact and he sensed her eyes slowly closing. They opened again once more and looked him in the face, though he was looking straight forward.<\/p>\n\n\n\n As her eyes closed she said, \u201cAre you…blind?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n She had fainted from exhaustion and blood loss.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Marshall Chapter Sixteen (Spring, 2037) (5.5 k words, 20-30 min read) After that strange fall with all the lights, that random guy who grabbed Langley, then losing grip of Pretty\u2019s and Mariah\u2019s hands, Marshall crashed out through a mirror by himself and his legs caught on the edge of a vanity which almost fell right … <\/p>\n