| The Individual |
| The first bandage wound around her tiny arm delicately. She added another tenderly. Not a bad job really, but it would take a while to heal. Her other hand stopped just barely above the bloody bandages. Should she attempt it? Her mind jumped back a step to the first time it had happened. The little black sparks had sent a gangly youth flying across the school cafeteria. The fool shouldn't have tried to steal her lunch, but she hadn't intended to hurt him in the least. Her hand hovered, suspended in time, and then she withdrew it. Nothing good happened whenever she used the sparks. Even the white sparks somehow ended up making things worse than she intended. So instead she ran her fingers through her once black hair. The gentle white streaks looked more like waves of foam through the dark. "Shut up. Just don't think about it," she said just barely audibly, slowly standing. It was difficult with only one arm, but she did manage. Her elbow scrapped against the brick building behind her. Another scratch. A pair of grey stoic eyes scanned the alley and miserably noticed the same pair of eyes staring back at her from a puddle. She brushed the dirt from her cheek with the back of her hand, but only ended up smearing it worse. "It's time to move on," she whispered quietly to herself, looking down at a strange watch strapped to her wrist. A sigh escaped her still lips as she moved out onto the street. "Once again no one," she muttered, wondering which town to head towards next. A flash caught her eye and she looked down at her hands. The sparks were dancing across them. She reached into her pocket and pulled out a warn out pair of leather gloves. The fingers had long ago gone, but they still covered the sparks. So with a heavy heart she pulled them on as a low growling reminded her of the mortal aspect of her life. Food. A broken down diner, probably bordering on bankruptcy, lay a block and a half away. It would have to do. Gathering up the courage to face people again, she made her way to the diner. No one seemed to notice the small figure pushing her way through the crowd. No one thought it was odd that a fifteen year-old girl was wandering around alone in the bad part of town. But people are like that. They don't often see beyond themselves. The diner was just a few feet away now as the girl reached for the door. A woman's scream echoed from down the road, and before the girl realized it, people around her were running and screaming. They shoved her aside and into the glass of a shop window. She tried to move, but couldn't against the panicked crowd. Her face was pressed into the glass, and she stared into the blank eyes of the monster that was drawing nearer. The monster could only have come from the imagination of a child. Nature wasn't that cruel. The beast had tentacles coming out of its head like hair, and it was using them to grab people and fling them into the crowd. Deep roars came from behind the creatures mouth full of razor sharp, shark-like rows of teeth. The body was mishapen and looked more like a lump of playdough molded into a torso. The monster's four legs all ended in sharp razor like claws. The arms were furry and taloned, and even the whip-like tail jerked around to smash up buildings. The crowds had now stopped pushing the girl against the window, but only because the creature was now towering over her. It roared and glared down at the girl. Hating her for some unknown reason. And to the girl the only unusual aspect of all of this was that her watch was suddenly awake and adamant about something. "What do you want?" the girl asked, covering her head as she ran towards the creature. She managed to dodge a tentacle and move past the monsters legs. She had no intention of saving the other people. She merely wanted to make it through this. Unfortunately her plan was backfiring because the creature had turned to follow her. "Sarai! You have to stop it," her watch said. "No. No I don't," the girl said, pulling off her gloves in case she needed to defend herself. "But...that's a..." "I don't care what it is. I just want to live through this," she said, running in a random sort of zig-zag pattern to confuse the beast. It seemed to be pursuing her with a vengeance. It was a miracle the thing could move that fast on those legs. "Well looks like you've made a new friend, ducky so you're going to have to kill it if that's your goal," the watch chided. Silence told the watch she just didn't want to admit he was right. "Okay, fine. I can try. But if I die, you're going down with me," she said, turning suddenly. The creature stumbled to a stop, confused at why its dinner wasn't running anymore. In a few minutes it would wish she had kept running. "Well, what is that?" she asked her watch, looking for any weaknesses at all. Before an answer could be given, Sarai had thrown herself to the ground, narrowly avoiding the tentacles. The creature had given up on waiting and was now attacking her relentlessly. A drop of liquid fell from the sky and landed near the girl's head, burning a hole in the road. "Great, it excreets acid. I hope this works," she muttered, running as fast as her legs could manage towards the monster. She was aware she had no athletic talent, but she needed to be closer for her magic to be any good. In reality, she had no plan, but it turned out that she didn't end up needing one. The S.W.A.T. team had finally managed to show their faces and had begun shooting as she was headed for the beast. The creature turned angrily, spraying acid through it's half-nose at the teams. Shields came up, but proved useless. The S.W.A.T. team opened fire once more, hoping that they could kill it before it sprayed them again. Only Sarai saw the bullets being absorbed into the putty-like body. She threw her hands out in front of her sending shock after shock of black colored magic. It too was absorbed by the putty, so she shifted her aim for the legs. Success. The monster's tentacle shot out at her and wrapped quickly around her midrift. The girl gasped as all the air was forced from her lungs. She put her hands on the tentacle holding her and sent more magic into it. Not a smart idea, as it only made the creature more angry. Sarai soon found herself in the air and for one dreadful moment time slowed enough for her to think to herself that this was going to hurt and maybe she should aim for the monster's face. She shot out magic as she picked up speed. Somehow it managed to hit the beast in the eye. With it's legs already weakened, the creature became drunkened by pain. It fell to the ground just short of missing the police. The girl's frail body landed hard on the pavement, as blood began to trickle down into the gutter. Her eyes flicked for a moment then shut. As she slept white sparks sprang from her hands and began to weave in and out of her body... "I think she's awake now!" a smooth voice said. A deeper voice followed. "It's about time. The doctor's were beginning to talk," said a much deeper voice. Sarai opened her eyes and saw a man with a badge lookind down at her. He had sweet brown eyes and a gentle smile. The smooth voice belonged to a girl who looked so much like him that she had to be his daugher. "We have to talk," he said, his daughter coming up beside him. And then Sarai saw the daughter's tail... |