Guardians

⊲ Chapter 2.1 ⊳

I slowly opened my eyes and was greeted by the blurry image of my bedroom ceiling. My mind was in a fog and I was having a difficult time focusing on anything. My whole body felt numb. Nearly. I still felt the faint weight of sheets on top of me and the gentle pressure of a mattress below me.

I laid there in a daze trying and failing to comprehend my surroundings. What's going on? I don't remember how I got here. Then, an image flitted through my mind of piercing red eyes, sharp claws and a horrifying face scrunched in a snarl. My eyes went wide as a sudden jolt of fear forced the fog out of my mind. I quickly pushed myself up from the bed and began to look around frantically for any possible danger but then stopped as pain from the sudden movement rushed through my body, making me yelp. I clutched my left arm, where the pain was the most excruciating. It felt like someone was running a knife down my arm through the flesh underneath my skin. The same imaginary blades of pain seemed to make their way through my right leg as well but the pain was more dull. I sat still for a while, teeth gritted, waiting for the agony to subside. It seemed an eternity had passed before the pain finally faded to a manageable intensity, and only then was I able to think clearly again.

I cautiously took in my surroundings. I was in my bedroom but I hadn't the slightest idea of how I got there. Memories flashed through my mind of the intense encounter with that monster in the alleyway but they were distorted and incomplete, flashing through my mind slow enough to recognize what they are but too quick and too warped to understand. What happened? How did I get here?, I wondered.

I slowly started shifting my legs towards the edge of the bed, gritting my teeth as this caused shooting pains to rocket their way through my body. Once my legs were hanging off the edge of the bed, I tested my weight on my left leg, which seemed to be in less pain, but when I tried to stand fully my legs wobbled and began to buckle. I quickly sat back on the bed. I had no interest in being introduced to my bedroom floor by gravity.

Then I heard a voice.

"I wouldn't try to stand yet if I were you"

I whipped my head towards my bedroom door and noticed, for the first time, that there was a woman standing there. She'd been standing there so quietly that in my semi-delirious state, I had not even noticed she was there. She wore a long black coat trimmed in white at the collar and hems with a plain gray shirt and pants underneath. She had clear, bronze-pigmented skin that appeared to glitter in the light when she turned her head and her dark gray eyes exuded intelligence and confidence. Her most striking feature, however, was her dark brown hair marred by a single, wide streak of bright white strands.

"Who—," I started

"Kirya Aella," she stated, cutting me off.

"I'm sorry?"

"My name is Kirya Aella"

Alright, that's nice. What am I supposed to do with that?, I wondered indignantly. "Okay... but who are you?" I asked cautiously, preparing myself in the case that I would have to run, not that I really could in my condition.

The woman who called herself Kirya studied me quietly for a moment. "I am the one who saved you from that demon. Or rather, I guess I saved you from yourself," She replied thoughtfully.

What. The. Hell?

"What do you mean? You... you saved me... from myself?" I asked slowly.

"Yes, your mana was out of control and I stopped it from flowing."

"My what?" I asked incredulously.

"Your mana," Kirya paused, "I understand that you don't know anything of our world, correct?"

I was tempted to give her a deadpan look and state, "No yeah, I totally get it, because this is the reaction of a person in the know," but I pushed that thought aside and asked, "What do you mean 'your world.'"

Kirya grinned, her mahogany painted lips curving upwards. "Well there's a lot to explain but let me ask you something first. Have strange things ever happened around you?"

My mind immediately went to what went down in the alleyway on my walk home from school. "You mean like what happened with the... what did you call it? Demon?" Man, did I feel crazy asking that question.

"I suppose that case does fit the bill but that's not quite what I was getting at. Think back. Was there ever a time when someone angered you or you were sad and strange things just started... happening?" Kirya said, emphasizing her last word.

I was turning up a blank, unable to recall any instance like she was referring to for a moment. But then, I remembered.

Seven years ago.

I shuddered, remembering how I stood amid the chaos of my fifth grade classroom, staring in utter confusion at my classmate who was sitting crying on the floor. I remembered how I caught a glimpse of an angry bright red burn on his arm before my teacher roughly grabbed me by the wrist and hauled me out the door to the office. My heart thundered in my chest as I recalled the shouts of "monster!" and "freak!" that followed me out the room. The very air in my bedroom seemed to still as the frightened, accusational shouts of my former classmates cut through my mind.

"Did you think of something?" Kirya asked, snapping my attention back to her as she took a step away from the wall.

"Th-there... there was a time in fifth grade that I—," I started to say, my voice wobbly, "I don't even remember... I mean, I don't even know what happened."

"Let me guess. You got angry at someone and next thing you knew, that someone was injured and you didn't understand why."

I gazed at Kirya in disbelief. "How..."

"It's a common story, many children with magical powers experience the same thing."

I exhaled shakily. "Wait, wait, just wait. Mana? Magical powers? I don't—" I took a quick, shallow breath, "today I was just worried about writing an English paper and then all of a sudden there's monsters trying to kill me," I paused shortly, my breathing heavy as my lungs scraped up what little oxygen they could, "a-and there's magic and then I somehow have powers. I just don't understand. It's all too much—"

"Calm down Emily"

"—And then there's you. I don't know who you are. I just—"

Kirya took quick, deft steps to close the distance between us and upon reaching where I sat on my bed, she placed her hands on my shoulders. She had a cold aura that wafted off of her that had this odd calming effect, like sitting in a perfectly air-conditioned room after spending time outside on a hot day. My breathing started to become more steady as the roiling thoughts of my mind calmed.

"I know this must be a lot," Kirya continued calmly, "and I wish I could give you the time to come to terms with it all but we don't have that luxury."

I blinked at her, confused. "Why? What do you mean?"

Kirya sighed. "Like it or not, you're part of our world now. You can't go back to the life you've known up until now. More demons will come to kill you now that your powers have grown too strong for your mother's seal to hide."

"What? My mom? What does she have to do with all of this?"

"She—," Kirya started but then she was cut off as the door to my bedroom slammed open. A young man entered in a hurry. He looked to be about my age and he had the same dark brown hair and bronze skin as Kirya. He wore an unzipped, rumpled black jacket with a dark red shirt underneath and black pants that looked to have knives in cloth sheathes at the side of his thighs. He had the most striking storm gray eyes that sparkled with flecks of amber and silver.

"Sister, we have to leave this place," he said to Kirya. "The demons have found us."

⊲ 2.1 ⊳

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