Chap 116: I Climbed The Fence

Like a gentleman, Kie accompanied Tee from the infirmary. She wasn’t weak and could walk on her own. Only one question lingered in her mind as she got off the bed.

“What happened to me?”

Kie scratched his head. “Zod said the Xenosapian attacked you. You had a bloody gash on your back when I got to you. But don’t worry—the mission was a success. Both monsters were put down.”

His words weren’t good news. She hadn’t landed any singular blows on the Xenosapians. Her earlier concern returned. The pain before everything went black consumed her thoughts. Something else had happened—something she couldn’t remember.

Walking side by side, she smelled that delicious cologne again. The Primus workers they passed also carried the scent. The memory of dark ash mana on her hands and the flash of her fangs crossed her mind, and she decided to keep it to herself.

She realized she had slept into the next day and missed training. That meant she had the rest of the day to spend with Kie and her teammates.

“You woke up just in time. You should get dressed,” Kie told her with a smile. “We’re having a pool party with hamburgers for dinner.”

The thought of him shirtless made her chest tighten. She had seen him with his shirt soaking wet from training, his abs peeking through, but never fully bare. Even at the onsen, she’d missed it—he’d gone in too quickly, and the steam blurred everything.

She dashed off to her room to get dressed in the bathing suit Miko bought for her, and soon came out.

“Hey Tee!” Zod zipped by like a blur in his yellow shorts and towel as he rushed down the stairs. “Glad you’re awake.”

He stayed ahead until she stepped through the glass door to the pool. “I already pre-prepped the burgers, and Miko handled the inflatables. She’ll be here soon… and Saeda.” He frowned a bit before turning back to the pool with a wide smile.

Tee took off the towel around her neck, exposing her bare skin, and shivered.

The large splash Zod made with his cannonball dive made her pause before going in. In all her time at Primus, she had never gone fully into the pool. She’d already had her fair share of water during the Commander’s breath-holding lessons.

It was just her and Zod. She bet Miko was busy prepping her hair for the chlorine—that had to be why she wasn’t already there with her speed. Tee dove beneath the surface, swam up through the white sparkles, and pushed her head above the water. The water rushing down her face and off her eyelashes reminded her she was alive.

Through her sticky lashes, she caught a glimpse of Kie. He was walking out from the glass door onto the patio, towel slung over his shoulder, hair damp and falling into his eyes. The sunlight traced every line of muscle down his chest, warm and sharp. Tee’s throat tightened. For a moment, she forgot how to float.

There was a reason she still kept up that relationship with Kie. It wasn’t just to gather ammo she could use against him someday—though the thing he’d told her about Karen certainly could. Seeing him shirtless, she was not supposed to feel those emotions rising, but she couldn’t help it. No one else had access to her thoughts. It was her little secret.

“Cooper, you finally made it,” she teased, floating in place and gently flapping her hands.

He stood at the pool’s edge, looking down at her. “I can’t believe Miko got me hearts,” he said, glaring at the heart pattern on his swim shorts.

Tee rolled her eyes. “Aren’t you the one who wore red lip-pattern underpants?”

Zod popped his head up from the water.

Kie’s eyes went wide with embarrassment. He leaned closer, speaking low to Tee. “What? You saw that? Dammit.”

“No one will see them when you’re in the pool,” she assured him.

“See what?” Zod asked, swimming closer.

Kie jumped into the water.

Both Miko and Saeda came through the glass door onto the patio at the same time. Miko carried the beach ball, several pool rings, and a pool bed all tucked under her arms. Saeda’s eyes still held no trace of life. Miko seemed to have given up trying to cheer her up after seeing Zod’s countless failed attempts.

Saeda sat on one of the lounge chairs, not dressed in a swimsuit. It was clear she had no plans of getting wet. Her mind was far away.

“Guys, I brought the merch!” Miko said, tossing everything into the pool like scraps being thrown to hungry dogs.

“Alright!” Zod said, catching the ball. “Hey, since there’s four of us, how about we play handball? Loser makes the burgers.” He patted Tee’s shoulder. “Burgers are simple, so I’m sure even you should know how to make them.” He raised his brows, waiting for her answer.

Tee shrugged off his hand. “Fine, whatever. And I’m not losing. Kie’s my partner.”

“Fine with me,” Kie grinned, already imagining Tee burning the burgers if they lost. “Don’t worry, I know how to make burgers,” he assured her.

Tee didn’t like that he assumed they would lose. But with Miko the speedster on the other team, the game felt unfair before it even began. Still, they went ahead.

The game went on for three hours with no winner. Their stomachs growled louder than the splashes, so they finally agreed to take a break.

The sky had turned a dark purple, but the lights from the pool and the glass door kept the area bright. Tee followed her teammates out of the water and wrapped her towel around her waist. The faint lights highlighted the contours of Kie’s back muscles, and she was secretly glad she was walking behind him.

She glimpsed Saeda sitting under the wooden umbrella. The faint shimmer of the pool reflected in her eyes as they shifted to follow Tee’s movement. A tight feeling pressed in Tee’s chest, but she ignored it.

She swallowed hard and refocused on the others heading inside to make burgers. Her fingers were shriveled and the night wind felt too cold on her skin. She couldn’t wait to feel Kie’s arms around her to warm her up.

While the others prepared the burgers, she decided to spend a moment alone with Saeda. She filled two glasses with juice and headed back outside. Her hands shook when she didn’t see Saeda on the lounge chair.

The image of Saeda creeping up behind her flashed through her mind. Tee turned around quickly, but no one was there. She broke her long stare at the lit-up walls behind the glass door when she heard drops of liquid. Looking down, she noticed the juice had spilled over the rims of the cups when she turned too fast. Her heartbeat was loud in the silence.

But why would Saeda creep up behind her? It wasn’t like she knew she had killed Snickers. And it was an accident.

Maybe Saeda went to bed. Tee went back inside and stepped onto the first stair when she glimpsed something dark in the corner of her eye. She turned, but again, no one.

Her wrinkled fingers made her suddenly self-aware. She dashed to her room to reapply a fresh layer of concealer. In front of her mirror, she wiped off the makeup covering the curse mark on her neck like a second skin. As the mark of her demon revealed itself, her defenses crumbled. She remembered during the previous mission—right before everything went black and the pain began, she had seen him. 

Jack.

The black blur that rushed past her bathroom doorway in the mirror made her freeze. Her pounding heart clogged her ears. The pain in her chest swelled in the single second she stayed still.

Was that Sade? In all her time at Primus, Sade had never appeared before her the way he used to. Knowing that he was real—and a Harbinger—hit differently. Her heart hammered faster, and the silence around her felt too sharp.

Her breath steadied when she realized there was no way he could have entered her room before her without her hand signature. And she would have seen him. Her thoughts were cut off by a voice.

“It’s time,” came the deep voice behind her.

Tee looked up into the mirror and froze. Her eyes were blackened with a burning pin of light at their center, but it wasn’t that that tore the scream out of her.

A second face slid into focus beside her own.

Blond hair. A bloodless, pale face. Features sharpening in the reflection as if carved out of the dark.

Jack.

Her scream burst out before she even realized she’d opened her mouth.

Just like before, his blond hair began darkening to black, and he smiled, revealing black teeth. But was he really there? She spun around—nothing but darkness flashing across her vision.

“It’s time…” whispered the voice inside her head.

The pain hit instantly, knocking the strength from her legs. She collapsed to her knees, palms slapping the floor. The agony triggered claws to shoot from her fingertips. She couldn’t see, but she knew the sound of claws scraping tile and the extra weight dragging from her fingers confirmed it.

The pain numbed her hearing as she fought the force trying to take over her body. All she could make out were millions of gray buzzing dots, like static—a perfect picture of the torment flooding through her.

Something large began rising in her throat, but she swallowed it back and lifted her head.

“No!” she yelled.

Her strength vanished, and she fell flat on the cold floor. Light from the hallway shone through the small crack of her eyelids—no darkness that time. She exhaled in relief and shut her eyes.

Tee cracked open her eyes, expecting to glimpse the glowing numbers on her digital alarm clock. Instead, bright sunlight washed over her. She snapped her eyes fully open.

She had to squint, brows knitting together, as sunlight speared through the leaves above her. The small leaves weren’t the ones she saw at Primus. She pushed herself upright, and the treetops shifted into view—dark brown trunks rising from a stretch of bright green lawn. The startling familiarity carved a deep hole in her chest. Then something inside her mind tilted when she realized she couldn’t feel the grass beneath her palms.

Was she dreaming?

A white bench swing hung from a nearby tree, stark against the dark trunks and fresh lawn. It was identical to the one at her clinic’s public recreation space. To the side, beyond the green, an open first-floor corridor stretched along the building. The walls and grilled glass windows were whole—nothing like the broken ruin her home had become in the present.

A flicker of white at the edge of her vision made her turn. An MG official stood there.

The MG off wore a white uniform matching most of the clinic walls. The stray hairs jutting from the side of their face could’ve belonged to a man—or a woman far too comfortable with body hair. But the sagging flab under their butt, barely filling the pants, leaned heavily toward male. If not, then that guard was really letting themselves go and doing her a favor by keeping their face out of sight. Tee grimaced, imagining whatever unholy face hid behind that turned head. It couldn’t be worse than bushy-eyebrows from her Academy.

The guard leaned lazily against a pole in the metal fence separating the trees from the clinic’s car park. She had never bothered learning the MG offs’ names. They rotated too often. The ones she saw in the day would be swapped out by morning. That excuse only lasted while she’d been blind to how corrupt most of them were. A few took their jobs seriously but Tee could count those on her fingers.

The memory of her black-filled eyes in the mirror flickered through her mind, and she held her breath. The sudden silence inside her head made the rustling treetops sound sharp, almost like breaking glass. Unsure what to do, she locked her gaze on the shifting patches of sunlight on the grass. Their movement meant the branches above her were swaying in the wind.

So why couldn’t she feel the breeze on her skin?

She looked down past her shoulder at the blades of grass between her fingers. Even with her palms pressed into the bristly lawn—nothing. No sensation. Just like the wind.

A dream, then.

Too bad. There was no better time to throw stones at an MG off than when their back was turned.

Another small motion in her peripheral vision pulled her head around. She blinked several times, startled by the pale, half-lidded eyes of the girl standing beside her—half her height, with elbow-length white hair. Only the length was different. The bangs hid the girl’s forehead, but her skin was the same deep brown.

The unnervingly familiar features made it clear it was her younger self.

Old memories crashed through her. She had cut her hair for the Mid-Guard, but before that, it had been long. Sheep didn’t have hair falling to their elbows, did they? Even after two thousand years of evolution and two Apocalypses. She had straightened hers to avoid being mistaken for the woolly cold-blooded mammal mostly for the benefit of the blind people pretending they had perfect eyesight.

Her gaze followed the little girl as she walked toward the swing. A small boy sat there. Tee gasped at the sight of his blond hair. She leaned forward, drawing her legs in to push herself to her feet.

Where in Dreden did he appear from? She gasped, remembering it was exactly like the day she first saw him—sitting there without ever entering the swing. Maybe that wasn’t going to be one of those messed-up dreams where nothing matched reality.

That wasn’t good. Those were her favorites because they were easier to twist around.

Her younger self stood stiff as a pole, staring at the mysterious boy as he swung back and forth. The swing was free for anyone at the clinic, but no one ever used it except her. His smile and wide blue eyes shrank with every forward swing he made under her stare.

Tee knew why she had stared that day. His pale skin and light ginger-brown hair seemed unnatural. The way she looked at him was the same way people looked at her the first time they saw her. It just never occurred to her how awkward she must’ve looked.

The boy leaned forward and stretched his legs out. When his heels brushed the ground, he slowed to a stop and rose from the swing. He kept his gaze on his shoes as he stuttered out an introduction.

“H-hi, m-my name’s Ja—um—Jack.”

Once he heard what came out of his own mouth, he pursed his lips in embarrassment.

Tee tipped her head back and laughed at the treetops. Neither her younger version nor Jack turned her way. Definitely one of those boring dreams where she only got to watch. Still, she was willing to test her luck.

She strode over and swung her hand at little Tee’s head for a neck-snapping slap. Her hand slipped right through the smaller girl’s head. Tee gritted her teeth.

“Are you real?” her younger self asked—but didn’t wait for Jack to answer. “And why are you here—do you have an appointment?” She gasped and stumbled back. “You’re sick with some contagious illness, aren’t you? Stay back!”

Older Tee’s eyes darted toward the parking lot, but the entire area blurred. She knew what came next, but the dream only showed what she’d known back then. Her lip curled as she wondered how to wake herself up. But how?

Young Jack tucked his chin and rubbed the back of his head. “I… um… don’t have an appointment.”

He tilted his head, looking behind her toward the small gate she’d used to enter the lawn area.

“I didn’t even pass through the clinic. I climbed the fence.”