ODE TO THE END: A BALLAD OF BROTHERS

CHAPTER 24

NAOMI

As they stepped to the exit, Naomi clung to the slack of Achim's shirt. She knew what carnage lay outside, in the alley beside the saloon, and she watched Achim's sharp eyes go wide the instant he opened the door. "What happened out here," said Achim.

Solid earth had been raised and pulled into the shape of a spire and the heights of the newly erected formation reached beyond the shallow skyline. It was an anomalous thing, but the clues of its origin were quickly found at its base. Naomi watched as Achim's gaze fell from the spire peak to the earthen sphere below, and her jaw clenched. Encased in that shell of granite was Brielle, an unsuspecting witch with the force to fold stone like fabric, but Achim, glaring at the shell, could call lightning on a whim.

As if imbued with an innate knowing, the dark boy quickly discerned the dangerous nature of the earthen shell and extended a hand before Naomi. He then eased her backward, his gentle nudge in confusing contrast to the darkly ferocity displayed in the tavern. Naomi was comforted, but, with red blood still rolling from his hands, she thought of Brielle

"Achim." Naomi spoke on quivering lips. "Y-you need to know"-- 

Achim's attention turned to her mid-sentence, but his eyes remained cold. Naomi was stung by a static chill and her voice froze over.  Her breaths held in her chest and Naomi stepped away from Achim with a limp in her step. Naomi staggered. The bullet that bit her earlier left wounds that she nearly forgot, but the limp drew Achim's eyes to the crimson that caked her heel. The punctures in her hand soon became visible to him as well and Achim's sharp eyes slimmed into a severing edge. "Where's Brielle," he asked.

There was gloom in his question. A palpable threat that loomed like death. She saw the mortal specter in Achim's pale gaze and she knew what she had to do. Protect Brielle. Alas, Her tearing eyes betrayed her when she glanced at the shy girl's prison.

Achim's bladed gaze sank into the stone sphere and he knew that Brielle was inside. "I thought so," Achim growled. Again, he pushed Naomi back, but she saw his bloody, killing hand trembling. "Listen Naomi. I've never seen anyone do anything like this before." His voice was brittle, his words wound in anxiety. The dark boy clenched his fists  "...If she comes for you again, I'm not sure if I can stop her."

Achim had his back turned from the sun-kissed girl, but Naomi did not need to see his face to identify the fear. Afterall, she had not been far from the feeling. But even so...

"W-wait," said Naomi. "She wasn't the one who attacked me. Brielle saved me using those rocks she moved. A-and then she imprisoned herself like that because..." She bit her own tongue. "I'm scared," said Naomi. "I know you are too, but I don't think Brielle's bad."

"It doesn't matter whether she is or she isn't," Achim responded. His pale gaze returned to the self-crafted cage. "Brielle's in there right?"

     "She is, but she made it to keep herself from hurting me!"

    "So she is dangerous," said Achim. He approached the sphere with the blood on his palms boiling. Lightning danced between Achim's fingers, flickering with power as chaotic as his will to use it. To stop him, Naomi grabbed Achim. "Let go of me," he shouted.

A series of shocks pierced every cell in Naomi's hand. The sting shot through her arm, her very skin tingling at the threat of static destruction. Naomi's grip loosened, but it was not the pain that eased her hand. It was the ire in the dark boy's brutal demand. "Achim! I told you—"

    Achim seized Naomi's wrist and bent it just shy of a sprain. He then wrenched her hand away and shouted, "NO, NAOMI! I TOLD YOU!" The suddenness of his violence was an amnesiac in that Naomi forgot her strength, her ego, and herself  before his harsh words. Achim continued, the boy barely maintaining his composure.  "...I told you to do what I asked, Naomi! I told you and you refused to listen! NOW LOOK WHAT HAPPENED! LOOK, NAOMI! LOOK AT EVERYTHING THAT YOU DID!"