Dagger

Chapter 12

Forest marched in between the halls of the training rooms, he had just returned from Herb's with Melody and he was determined to find Mr. Marcus.

He absolutely hated the idea of innocent people being killed, at that thought, the vision of the plump man's eyes filled with fear engulfed his thoughts. Then he saw the man fall to the ground, dead. There was blood all over his hands, and he couldn't tell whose it was...

Forest stopped in his tracks and squeezed his eyes shut and willed the thoughts to go away. Once he got himself in order, he continued down the hall.

Just as he had expected, he seen Mr. Marcus in training room 19, hitting a punching bag. The door was opened, and Forest stood just beyond it as he gently knocked on the glass. The sound of his fists colliding with the heavy punching bag, slowed, then came to a full stop as he noticed Forest standing in the doorway. Mr. Marcus pushed the punching bag back to the back wall, which was where it usually remained during training, amongst the other equipment.

The teacher turned and faced Forest, trying to catch his breath as he placed his hands on his hips. "What's up?"

Forest stepped inside the room. "I don't know what's wrong with me, I just feel depressed and awful all the time and I hate it. I constantly blame myself for the death of that man, and I just can't get over it." By the time he finished talking, he looked as if he might cry.

Mr. Marcus's eyebrows shot upward. "Wow... that's quite a lot," Forest slowly nodded. "Why don't you come in and sit, so we can talk about it."

Forest obeyed, and came in and sat across from Mr. Marcus on the blue mats that covered the floor.

His thoughts raced, the silence burned him. Finally he took a shuddering breath in. "I just can't take it."

"Well, I'm going to start by saying that I don't blame you, and neither does Wyatt or Jack or Melody." He hadn't really thought about that. It was mostly his own guilt that plagued him but this information brought up new worries.

Forest's eyes began to widened as he spoke and recalled the events of the fight. "You didn't see his eyes, his pleading face, he didn't want to die."

Mr. Marcus shifted to get comfortable on the floor. "I have fought, I was a Guardian. I have seen that fear, so many times, too many to count. This happens to all of us, we get discouraged and shaken..." He trailed off, then abruptly spoke again as if he wandered into space for a moment and was now coming back down to earth. "Let me tell you a story," Forest said nothing in response as he waited for him to continue. "There once was this happy couple, and they fought to save people. They were successful and happy, but behind that, they too went through the feelings that you did. But they always knew that for those that lost their lives, there were double the amount of people that they had saved."

Forest tilted his head to the side. "Is this a true story?" No matter if it were or not, he couldn't but think that those people that had died could've been saved.

"It's true for almost every Guardian in existence, but there is someone specific that I did have in mind...."

"Who?" Forest's interest piqued.

He hesitated for a moment then smiled. "The Caverly's."

Forest Vaguely remembered hearing that name from somewhere, but he couldn't quite place his finger on the familiarity of it. "Could you tell me about them?" He asked, hoping it would help him.

Mr. Marcus seemed to be treading lightly on this topic. He gazed at Forest and then smiled. "Sure."
"There was this happy couple. Newly married. Life was great, they had great jobs, each other, and happiness," Forest couldn't help but notice the tinge of reminisce in his voice. "They were famous and beloved Guardians, but this also made them targets. They had this dagger, with an engraved C on it, it was their signature weapon and they brought it into a lot of fights and it helped them bring in a lot of criminals. Anyways, they had a son, and when they had a family gathering, they were attacked. They were killed, the dagger went missing along with the baby."