His Reflection (8)
written by Sycia
Death:
That night,
K’ had Maxima take over to watch out for Kula. The large man had not explained
his absence earlier that day, coming back a few minutes after Kula realized her
memories were implanted. K’ could care less about it anyway. He was still
feeling a little awkward from the incident.
K’ had left
the hospital and it’s stinking atmosphere for that evening. He wanted to test
his fire out again, hoping that the weird incident with his reflection and black
flames had passed on peacefully.
He took a quiet
stroll to a park some distance from the hospital. Finding himself a secluded
area near some dense vegetation, the white-haired man began to practice some of
his moves.
His fire failed
him this time. He wasn’t very surprised, but the thought of being so dependent
on it for so long made K’ realize he was at a disadvantage now. Should NESTS
come for him anytime soon, he would definitely have trouble fending for himself,
by himself.
With furrowed
brows and the disability nagging K’ at the back of his mind, he trained harder
and faster than before on his normal fighting tactics that did not require him
to use fire. This all got K’ panting and heaving, but the thought of his
handicap refused to leave him.
Exhausted after
two hours of pushing himself to the limit, K’ sat down on the damp ground for
a rest. He closed his eyes calmly, trying to stop worrying for the moment. A
true fighter can fight under any circumstance. K’ figured he’d best take
this disability on as more of a challenge and a lesson.
‘I
must adapt my skills to this. Depending too much on a certain aspect of fighting
has its cons. Now I know…’
He almost dozed
off; it was a cool breezy night and he was tired. His mind slowly settled itself
into a state of stasis. Then a terribly soft, barely audible snap of a twig
jolted K’ back into the waking world.
The sounds had
been so faint, yet it seemed like thunder in his mind. K’ lay still, not
wanting to let his watchers know he knew of their presence. He sensed about ten
people all around him, in the shadow of the night, waiting to pounce on him like
lurking wolves. He could tell they were specially trained; aside from the twig
snapping, nothing else gave them away.
He pondered the
couple of options he had; fight or flee. It had never been in K’ to run from a
good fight, but then again, he was lacking his fighting flames now. Furthermore
these people probably had weapons with them, since they were so professional.
He decided on
the wiser choice; to make a run for it, though he hated the thought of it… He
thought himself an escape plan hastily: he’d make his getaway in the forested
section of the park, only a few meters behind him. Whatever weapons his watchers
had were sure to slow them down in the dense vegetation if they chose to pursue
K’.
K’ took in a
slow long breath, then picked himself off the ground faster than he expected,
and bolted straight into the thickets that lead to the forest.
His powerful
legs faltered a bit, the undergrowth tearing at his pants and the uneven soil
with roots jutting making him stumble serious times in the darkness. He could
barely see anything in front of him, save the common pillars of black that were
trees, and the large shadows of bushes.
K’ didn’t
know how long he had been running. His breath grew short after some time, and
then his silverish-white hair began getting soaked in his perspiration. Then he
could bare the running no longer, and stopped to lean against a large tree,
gasping as silently as he allowed himself to.
After that much
running, K’ senses were heightened. Perhaps it was because of the adrenaline
rush he had, fearing to be captured. Whatever it was, K’ felt as if he could
hear everything around him.
And what he
heard was not good.
Faint
footsteps. Not running, not rushing. Just plain, menacing footsteps purposely
planted heavy and noisily, coming closer to him every second. Then the rushing
of feet came, from everywhere around K’. Though he could not see where his
pursuers were, he knew they had trapped him. How did they manage to keep up with
him?
He didn’t
like being trapped like an animal. No way he was going down without a fight.
With or without his fire, K’ was going to battle his way out of this one…
He took off to
his right and collided violently with one of his chasers. The black masked
person let out a disgruntled ‘oaf’ sound before getting silenced by K’ who
delivered a cold, cruel kick at the neck, snapping it instantly.
K’ wasn’t
going to stand there to be found out. He sped off again, but this time, didn’t
make it past ten meters.
First there was
a loud sound that seemed like a mini-explosion. Next came the impact. A strong
force blasted itself into K’s mid-back and he fell from the strength of that,
landing on the wet ground unwillingly. He clambered up almost immediately, eager
to get away from the area, and whatever hit him in the back.
Then came the
pain. He hadn’t finished two steps when a consuming fiery sensation shot up
his spine, turning into a wave unbearable tearing pain. K’ stumbled from the
agonizing sensation and put his hand out on a tree for support.
The pain was so
intense, K’s legs were wobbling, threatening to fail him. He could not find
the strength to make a sound or to move anymore for that matter. He had
instinctively put his free hand on his abdomen when he felt the pain start, and
now, it was wet of something.
He pulled his
hand away to look, despite the pain. Blood. Dark warm blood on his fingers,
soaking his glove and probably his entire sleeve too. Before his mind cold react
to that, everything around K’ suddenly seemed to turn darker than it should
be. The pain began to subside, getting replaced by an odd numbness. But K’
still could not move.
His heart began
to race with his mind flashing of unremembered memories. K’s breath got faster
and shallower. Soon he wasn’t even taking any air in, only struggling to try
to get some of it to no avail. Then it all slowed down for him. His desperate
attempts to breathe were no more.
The last thing
K’ remembered doing was bending over, and coughing up bucketloads of blood
before his mind turned blank and his world turned black all round.
* * *
When the world
was no longer black for K’, he wasn’t in the reality he expected to wake to.
His dream presented itself to him once more.
He
stood on an invisible floor, surrounded by a space of revolving kaleidoscopic
colors. Neon and dark, fast and slow, were bedazzling to behold. They seemed to
be encircling him, as some of these colorful materials formed in front of him
into what looked like a plain mirror.
The reflection was one that didn’t resemble him. He still had his
white-silvery hair and his black attire, but his face seemed distorted, as
though his features were all blurred and out-of-focus. Then the reflection
became its own person.
The reflection stepped out of the ‘mirror’ slowly. When it had fully
detached itself from the mirror, the reflection did a move somewhat similar to
K’s ‘one
inch’, shattering the mirror into a billion sparkling shards. The move,
however, was tainted by a faint black aura. To K’, the aura felt vaguely
scary, and murderous. Like the shadow of a cold-blooded killer.
His reflection faced him. K’ regarded it calmly as it stood before him.
Then its aura became denser. The transparent black aura slowly morphed into
wisps of thick rich black tendrils. It now seemed as if the reflection was in
the middle of a slow yet strong black fire.
But this time,
the black tendrils did not embrace them as they usually did. K’s reflection
regarded him for some time, unmoving. K’ too, looked at it in an odd manner.
The
kaleidoscopic colors shifted to a darker hue, eventually turning all black. The
reflection’s black tendrils then glowed a soft eerie blue color.
K’ stood
still. He felt as though something should happen. The silent suspense reached a
climax. Then the reflection laughed. It was the same terrible laugh that Maxima
and K’ experienced the few days before. But this time, K’ found it bearable
so did nothing.
The reflection,
still laughing, step forth, advancing towards the even K’. The latter only
felt fear when his reflection was face to face with him, as if it was laughing
in mock of him. It sensed his fear.
It stopped its
laughing as abruptly as it started and stared K’ in the eyes. K’ tried to
look away from its dreaded red eyes, but it had snared him in it’s glower.
Then it reached out at K’ with its black tendrils, and merged into
him. All along with K’ yelling in agony as the process sent pain stabbing at
him from all angles.
* * *
“What? Vaw?
You called out fifty of our best operatives just to catch one man?” An
unshaven man regarded another whom Kula had met before going after K’ a few
days again. So the one who had instilled so much fear in the icy girl was called
Vaw...
Vaw looked at
his colleague strangely, “You know how powerful K’ is. Why take chances?”
“Well
apparently, he wasn’t that powerful.” The other man spat bitterly. He looked
at the unmoving K’, who lay face flat on the ground in a growing pool of
blood.
All other the
two important men, NESTS recruits were standing guard. The small area of the
forest was now completely lit with a floodlight on a dusty jeep.
“So what were
we supposed to do? Just kill K’ and take him back to base? Sounds like a tough
job for fifty men.” The unshaven man scoffed sarcastically.
Vaw snickered,
“Not really. We’re just here to check on his progress.”
“?”
Vaw ordered
some of his men to bring out and set up some medical equipment around K’.
“Vaw, what
are you doing? That guy is dead. No one survives a blast from that prototype
sniper you used on him.”
“Hush my
friend. I know he is dead. But what happens next, will surprise even you.” The
black-eyed Vaw squatted down and completed setting up the simple machine on
K’. On the green screen, it showed a flat line. Vaw smiled at this and stood
up again.
“Now we just
wait.” He said smugly.
“Wait for
what? He isn’t going to get up and walk away on us.”
“Hah. My
friend, you are going to have to eat those words when I’m done with him.”
Vaw looked at the green-screen in anticipation.
Two minutes
later, the other man grew impatient, “Vaw. I demand to know what you are doing
with K’.”
Vaw ignored his
comrade. A soft beep sound was heard. Turning to look at the green screen once
more, Vaw was delighted to see a jump in the flatline. And another jump, then
another. Soon, it acted as though the machine was put on a normal person,
showing the normal heartbeat.
Laughing, Vaw
turned to his shocked companion and delivered him a pat on the back, “See?
Nothing to worry about! I told you you’d have to eat those words!”
The other man
was at a complete loss for words.
“Come, gather
your men and things. We don’t want to be here when he wakes up.” Vaw
requested.
“Huh? But!
But we’re supposed to retrieve him!” The other spluttered, pointing at K’.
“I’ve got a
slight change in plans. Now instead of just snagging one bird, we can get three.
I’ll tell you the rest at base. And yes I’ll also fill you in on what we
actually did to K’…” Vaw sighed.
His colleague seemed satisfied with that, and did as he was told. Soon, the whole area was cleared, leaving only K’ where he had fallen…
Part 9 coming up...