Inkchanger

15: Case Closed

Agent 97 had worked hundreds of assignments in his tenure at the Supernatural Cases Division. He'd stopped a demon from leaving a changeling in a senator's home. He'd arrested a zombie living behind a Chinese restaurant. He'd stood vigil at the wake of a white wizard as every kind of mythological being came to pay their respects. And because he had so thoroughly trained his mind to see what was really there and nothing else, he had never once been surprised, never been afraid, never even been impressed by what he saw.

But he had never seen anything like this.

Miss Zara Carter, aged 18, orphan, petty criminal, rising artist, and supernatural anomaly, lay on her back in the center of the small cavern, her clothing having been lovingly straightened and her slim hands carefully folded over her navel. Her features were serene, sweetly curling lips and unfurrowed brow suggesting she was on the verge of a smile. A wild halo of black hair pooled around her shoulders. The bare skin of her torso flushed pink. She looked for all the world like she'd simply fallen asleep.

Except for the rose bush growing out of her chest.

Three feet of black stems with tiny yellow thorns tangled around each other, forming a fragile stalk and dozens of thin branches bearing roses so blood-red they should have been dripping. The flowers pulsated in a heartbeat rhythm, emerald green leaves holding them aloft proudly, their petals glittering with dew that had never fallen. The ethereal plant illuminated the simple tribal tattoo that covered Zara's bared chest with a pale pink aura, its sharp-lined briars and soft blooms exactly mirroring the miniature tree that towered over her body. Its home, its host, its mother, its victim.

For the first time since he was a rookie, Agent 97 wasn't sure what to do. He was rooted to the spot, a perfect inverse parallel to his quarry.

And he could feel Sofi's eyes burning into him.

She rose and stood beside him, barely reaching his shoulder but holding herself as if she were a nine-foot tall bear queen. Letting her eyes finally fall on Zara, she kept them trained there. Her voice came out imperious and distant.

"You killed her," she said flatly. A statement of fact more than blame. "All she ever wanted was to feel love and hope and joy - all that emotional bullshit people take for granted. To unlearn what she'd learned from all those years of being fucked over by the world. To be a real person."

Pause. Sniff.

"And she was. So slowly I wanted to throttle her, but she was changing. Using that stupid inkpen made her so damn happy. Helping all those people just like her. It was working."

Sofi's voiced cracked and gave out momentarily, steaming tears threatening to ruin her unnerving calm. She turned towards Agent 97 and glared at him as if she could make him explode with her hatred.

"Then you ruined everything."

To her surprise, he turned and met her gaze. Sofi couldn't help noticing his eyes were chocolate brown, just like hers. Without his sunglasses, he looked different somehow. Not intimidating, not threatening. But human. Exposed. Like maybe he wasn't a government spook or a perfectly-programmed robot. Maybe he was just a man doing his job. A man who didn't hate or fear the girl he was chasing. A man covering up sympathy and care to avoid the deep cuts of the world.

In that instant, she could see it as clearly as if he'd said it out loud.

But when she blinked, the fleeting glimpse into his humanity winked out, his naked eyes revealing no more than brown reflections of herself. A sad pear-shaped girl subconsciously flexing iron muscles in her grief. The urge to lash out at him reared up again, her fingers clenching and trying to form claws. In the impulse-suppressing pause, she searched Agent 97's face again for signs of understanding and got none. That moment had passed.

She let out a ragged sigh and turned back towards the magical rose bush. They stood that way a long time, side by side, agent and friend, neither willing to break the vigil just yet, each mind racing to guess what the other would do. Enemies bound together by wonder at the sinister miracle they'd witnessed.

It was Agent 97 who moved first.

He replaced his sunglasses as slowly and carefully as he'd removed them. Reshielded, he tilted his head towards Sofi and nodded to her once in acknowledgment. Then, he turned on his heel and strode purposefully out of the cave on well-oiled bearings, leaving the disheveled bear-girl to grieve over her departed friend and her magical roses.

As far as he was concerned, this case was closed.

+++++++++

It's a darkness human eyes weren't meant to see. But I'm not afraid.

I float further downstream, weightless and drifting along the top of the black velvet river, buoyed on my rose-petal raft. Swirling currents of ghostly light lap my edges. The dancing waves rush through every sparkling cell of my skin until I laugh with the effort of containing so much pure sensation. No more fury or shame or guilt to sink me to the bottom, down to the clinging mud where I used to hide. Just the sheer exhilarating scent of utter, unbounded, unrelenting ease. I smile even though no one can see it, just because it feels so good.

And I dream, wrapped in a cracked-open heart filled with the ripest of roses. Finally feeling, finally happy, finally free.