Bad Lights, Good Lights [Chapter 8.2]

Oh crap, I thought, the panic quickly replacing my sudden anger. What the hell is that worker doing here? This wasn’t good. It was either the wall of this house too thin to avoid my voice being heard outside, or it was just me being too loud to ignore. I tried to think speedily of a way to get out of this unfortunate encounter—one that could trigger a fight. I looked at Damon, and saw while he was shocked too to see the man, he still held his composure.

He looked at me and tilted his head to the man. “He’s alone,” he said. “There’s nothing to worry about.”

The man snorted, seeming to disagree. “Both of you barged into my place without permission. You think there’s nothing to worry about?” He turned his attention to me. “And you, young lady, what was it you said about despising us to avoid robbers? Are you that negative? Or are you just plain racist?” Each of his words was injected with a sharp sting, and they hit me right at the point.

“I’m not here for that,” I said, snapping.

Looking at him, an idea occurred to me. Maybe this was a good time to test my ability, after all. I swiped my left arm at the man, and an unseen force pushed him back to the door, producing a knocking sound as his body hit it. As I stayed pointing my finger at him, he stayed attached to it, his feet slightly above the ground. A smile crept onto my face. It felt good using this ability, and even better when I used it to someone deserving it. That being said, I did feel like I was doing something physical while using it. It felt like I was actually grabbing him by his shirt.

“What the shit are you doing, Merah?” Damon said to me, hissing. He went closer to me, and was about to grab my arm when he hesitated, pulling back his hand to his side.

“Avoiding further trouble from this guy,” I said, slightly surprised with how calm my voice sounded. It might’ve been because of the position I was in—a superior one compared to the worker trapped in front of me, unlike six months ago.

“That’s ridiculous!” the man said. It wasn’t fear settling in his face—it was red anger, as his brows knitted, his eyes widened, and heavy breaths taken. “You’ve a light in you, haven’t you?”

The question caught me off-guard, and I instinctively held back my arm to my chest, as if protecting myself from something. The man fell to the ground—well, not quite, as he managed to stand on his feet, and set to launch himself to me. He was quick, but Damon was quicker. I must’ve not noticed his left arm turned its property into the wall’s zinc material, as he used it to punch the man in his stomach, effectively halting the man’s progress at me. I heard a sharp intake of breath as the man clutched the hurting spot, and he stumbled back until he fell on his butt on the ground near the door.

I felt the tiredness in the arm I used for telekinesis, and noted mentally I still had to get used to this ability. I approached the groaning man carefully, still sitting and resting his back to the wall with his hand on his stomach. I held my other arm in case I needed to use it. Damon was at my side.

“What do you know about the lights?” I said, pleased with the demanding edge in my voice.

He opened his mouth to say something, but hesitated. I suspected he wanted to say some bullshits at us but knew better than that. As his attention drifted from Damon and me and Damon again, he must’ve noticed we had cornered him, and he was at our mercy. He sighed deeply, closing his eyes, resting his head on the wall.

“When you look at them at first sight, you won’t realize they’re lights,” he said. “It’s only at their middle point where you can see a faint light. I met one of them a week ago.”

“And then?” I waited for more, but the words didn’t come out from his mouth.

Instead, I saw him open his eyes and make a frown. “How do I know you’re not with them, the dark lights?” His body turned rigid, and there was a flash of shadow across his face for a second, courtesy from the window’s flimsy curtain beside his bed.

“We’re not,” Damon said, offering his hand to the man.

The man didn’t take his hand, so Damon held it back. “That’s easy to say. Prove it.” He stared straight at Damon, and then—

Scarlet came out of me, showing of his—well—Scarlet light, and went close to the man. The man was about to scream when Damon quickly got down at the man and covered the man’s mouth with his hand. He tried to get away from Damon, but Damon quickly pressed his zinc-skinned hand against his chest, effectively pinning the man to the wall.

“Try screaming, and I swear you’ll never be able to make a sound anymore,” Damon whispered. It was clear that even if the man did scream, no one would hear him in this place. It was a good show of who was in charge here, though. Damon put on his sharpest glare to the man, and slowly released his hands from the man’s mouth and chest.

The man didn’t utter any word although I heard his heavy breaths quite clearly with his face reddening. He stared at Damon, before turning his attention to Scarlet. “You—you’re not like that light. Your colour is vibrant.”

“It’s because I’m not a bad light,” Scarlet said. He went closer to the man, and the man tried to move back a bit, albeit his back was pushing against the wall. “I’m a good light—as cheesy as it sounds—and I need your information about the bad light.”

I couldn’t suppress the puzzlement poking at my mind, so I blurted it out. “You’ve met one of them, but it seems like you don’t have it with you. How is that possible?”

The man looked at me, then Scarlet, before laughing, his body shaking. It was the laugh you heard when someone was making a fool of themselves. It wasn’t pleasant. He clutched his hurt stomach. “You haven’t told her, have you?”

Haven’t told me what? I hated secrets. “What is he talking about, Scarlet?”

Before Scarlet could reply, Mauveine went out of Damon’s body and floated closer to Scarlet. The man’s eyes widened, but he didn’t utter any loud sound, either. His body was still.

“As expected from the general,” Mauveine said, his cordial tone showing his amusement. “You haven’t told the girl about a light’s limit when it’s one of the important things you should tell.”

They talked like I wasn’t here, and I didn’t like it. If this was an important thing to know, they should tell me. Scarlet should tell me the moment we started to trust each other. If I was to help humans, I needed to have all the information needed to fight against the bad lights, axors.

I looked straight at Scarlet. “Spill it out,” I said, and the coldness in my voice didn’t bother me a bit.