Banished Pt. 13

"This feels nice," I said, and smiled at me.

"I know it's pretend; but it does. Like were going on a romantic walk, or something."

As we got to the line of trees that led towards the grove, however, I disengaged from Leanna, then prompted her to pick up the pace.

We started out at a moderate jog, which Leanna seemed a little uncomfortable with at first, but she kept up with me nonetheless.

"I'm not really tiring," she noted, a little worriedly, and I nodded.

"That's the armor," I explained.

"Is it safe, though?"

"Probably not, but we don't have much choice. Most things will kill us easily without it."

We decided to move a little more quickly, but Leanna quickly began to struggle to keep up.

It was interesting to observe, since she'd probably expended the least amount of core usage out of any of us.

We continued on for a little longer, until Leanna seemed unable to continue like that, and I pulled up to a stop, to let her catch her breath.

"Nate, do you think we're being followed?" she suddenly asked.

"Followed?"

I looked around, then shook my head.

"Only one of us could keep up with that pace, I think."

"I keep seeing a shadow, moving between the trees, following us."

"Where did you last see it?"

She pointed off to our left, and I studied the area for a bit.

There was probably nothing there, I knew that, but I needed her to think that I was taking her seriously.

"Maybe we should keep moving," I offered, and she nodded.

We headed off again, but this time at a bit slower pace, allowing us to talk.

"Are we running away from them?" she asked finally, and I shook my head.

"We wouldn't get far without getting rid of the trackers."

Her eyes flicked to the dagger on my boot, and the halberd on my back.

"What if we ditch the weapons?"

I shook my head.

"The thing that's tracking us is in here," I said, indicating to my left wrist, "and possibly somewhere else in our bodies."

"How are you so sure?"

"Do you remember when I tracked you guys down? When you were with Vanessa?"

"Yeah..."

"The Kobalt led us there. To you, I mean."

She frowned.

"Maybe we would have been better off staying with her," she said, and I shook my head.

"She'd already worked out a deal to sell you all to them. As proper sex-slaves."

Leanna grimaced.

"Guess I can't trust anyone..." she said, a little despondently.

As we continued on, I noted that Leanna seemed to be casting furtive glances over her shoulder, in the same direction she'd indicated before, but as her attention continued to shift away from the path ahead, she made a few missteps, until eventually, she landed badly on a tree root, and tripped.

I'd been keeping an eye on where her feet were landing, and as I darted to her side, I caught her just as she left the ground, and prevented any serious damage.

"Ouch," she groaned, as soon as she put pressure on her foot, and I steadied her, then eased her down to the floor.

"Does it hurt?" I asked, as I examined the foot.

She was wearing one of the leather sandals, rather than the heavier armor boots from the armor set.

I moved the ankle a bit, and she winced.

"Ouch!" she cried out again.

I opened up the supply pack, and fetched the waterskin, but before I could offer the thing to her, she cried out, and leapt into me.

"He's there, Nathan!"

I quickly turned in the direction she'd indicated, and though there was a flutter of leaves, stirred perhaps by the passing of a gentle breeze, nothing else was in sight.

I turned to Leanna, and as I saw the panicked look in her eyes, my mind flashed to something else.

//

"He's there! I swear, he's there!"

"Anna, just put the knife down."

"No! You don't want to stop him. You're going to give Nathan to him!"

I was cowering behind her, but even as she brandished the knife dangerously, I felt no fear.

My mama was a strong woman, and she would not let anything harm me.

"Anna, please. The only thing here is Julie," my father pleaded.

"Julie would hide him. Julie would give Nate over in a heartbeat! STAY BACK!"

She swung the knife menacingly as he tried to approach, and my father shot me a pleading look.

"Mama, look. He jumped out of the window!"

"What?"

She turned to where I'd indicated, and my dad shot me a thankful look, before moving in and snatching the knife.

He wrestled mama to the ground, and I felt an urge to kick him, and tell him get off of her, but instead I snatched the knife up.

"I'll protect you mama. In case her comes back!"

I stood protectively over her, at the doorway that led out of the kitchen, and as she stared at me, she gave up her resistance, and instead smiled.

"My son. My precious boy... don't ever let them make you think that you're just a tool! Don't- ah!"

//

That's right... it was my mother who'd said that, not my grandmother, but as I studied Leanna and her searching gaze, I wondered what it was that she saw...

For my mother, it was a boogeyman who sought to take away her son...

But was Leanna's boogeyman after her?

I took her hand in mine, and looked into her eyes.

If I stayed with you, would you feel safe?

Would my presence keep the shadows at bay?

I often wondered if my mother would have met her own fate, had I somehow found a way to stay by her side.

She'd withered into an almost unrecognizable person by the end.

But her smile was no less beautiful.

Would Leanna's be as well?

I studied her, suddenly realizing our faces were closer than I'd realized, and as she stared into my eyes, her lips quivered a little, and without warning, she kissed me.

It was a soft kiss and it lasted only a second, but as soon as she pulled back, a panicked look crossed her face.

"I-I'm sorry!" she exclaimed, but I cut off her protest as I leaned in and kissed her back; a slightly longer kiss, moving closer to her as I did, and as we broke apart, she studied me, a shell-shocked expression on her face.

"W-why? There's no-one," she began, and I shook my head.

"I've been reacting like an idiot every time we kiss," I explained. "I need to get better at it so they won't suspect anything, won't I?"

She studied me for a bit, then nodded.

"You're right. You need practice," she said.

She licked her lips a little, but as she moved in to kiss me again, she winced, and my attention shifted to her ankle.

We weren't so far from Grenze already that I couldn't carry her back, but I really did want to get some scouting done.

I began to examine her foot, looking into her core as I did, and I immediately noted that there was a little bunch of threads forming around the foot.

I used energy manipulation to help them along, and she studied me as I did.

"What is that?" she asked finally.

"Accelerated healing," I explained.

She bit her lip uncomfortably, a worried expression on her face, and I tried to convey reassurance to her as I did.

"You can do it too, you know. Just, focus on me... concentrate really hard, and you'll see something like a pale blue light, and threads connecting the energy inside of me to everything else in my body.

She furrowed her brow, but as she did as I asked, and kept at it for a bit, her eyes suddenly went wide.

"I-I see it! It's... so beautiful!" she exclaimed, and I smiled a little, rubbing the back of my head.

She placed a hand against my chest, then began to trace the pathway of some thread, eventually coming to the bump that represented a skill, perhaps, and she circled the spot, before continuing on.

As I continued to peer inside of her, however, examining the skills within her own network, I saw something interesting...

What is that? I thought.

There were the usual skills like speed, strength, and endurance that I was now able to identify at a glance, but this one...

I'd never seen anything like it before.

Even the aura itself seemed... dark, and much more like what I'd come to associate with monster's cores.

It aroused my curiosity to say the least, but I quickly noted that the threads that had gathered at her ankle were now dissipating.

I tested the ankle, moving it about tentatively, and Leanna studied it.

"Does it still hurt?" I asked, and she shook her head.

"We heal quickly, huh? Makes me wonder if we're even human anymore," she said, suppressing a shudder as she did.

"You should be good to walk, but we'll wait another twenty minutes. What do you wanna do, though? Head back?"

She pursed her lips, as she gave the question some thought.

"I feel so much safer away from them..." she said, her tone a little wistful.

"What about our stalker?"

"Do you think we can shake him?" she asked, and I shot a worried look at her ankle.

"I don't want to aggravate your injury," I said, and she nodded, then stood up, and tested her weight on the foot a little.

"I think I'm okay to walk now," she said.

As she tried to walk, however, she stumbled, and as I caught her, she looked up at me, and I held my breath, as our faces were suddenly quite close again.

I steadied her, and she twirled the loose end of her long, braided hair, before casting a quick gaze around.

"How far would we have to go... to get away from them?" she asked.

"They could track us anywhere in this forest overnight, I think... besides, we have no maps, or anything to go by. We'd be lost, and at their mercy."

She crouched down, and held herself a little.

"It feels just like back then..."

"What does?"

"Being cornered... afraid, alone."

I rested a hand on her shoulder.

"You're not alone," I reassured her, and she turned to look up at me.

She placed a hand over mine, and gave it a squeeze as I crouched down beside her, and I caught her eyes flick to my lips once again, before she leaned in to kiss me.

It was a firm, pressing kiss, and her arms moved tentatively around my neck, as she shifted to face me, pressing her lips to me again, and this time, parting them a little.

I kissed her back, and eventually, she pushed me back against the nearby tree trunk, resting her weight against my chest as she kissed me intently.

We kissed for a while, until finally, her eyes opened, and she broke away just enough to speak.

"I'm sorry," she said again, and I shook my head in response.

"I need the practice, remember?" I offered, but she shook her head slowly.

"No... that wasn't acting," she admitted, blushing a little. "I've always been alone, Nate... running from shadows. I've never had... anyone-"

Her words trailed off, as her voice got a little choked up.

"When you said just like back then. Did you mean earth?"

She nodded.

"I didn't have friends, and everyone called me crazy... but I wasn't wrong."

"Wrong about what?"

"He was always watching... always. Then he..."

She got choked up again, and I took her hand into mine.

"Who was he?"

"My science teacher... I knew he was watching. Wanted to hurt me... but I didn't realize how, until..."

I gave her hand a reassuring squeeze.

"Did you tell anyone?"

She nodded.

"Everyone found out. He went to jail, but... they still said I was crazy..."

She shook her head, as she continued:

"The thing is; I saw others watching me just like he did, and I know they wanted... what he wanted. But nobody listens. Everyone knew what happened. I didn't understand. I was right. But they still wouldn't listen. Then that... man, grabbed me, and I woke up here."

"Leanna, were you on medication?" I asked, and she nodded.

"I was... and it made the nightmares stop; it really did! But the stares... they were real. You have to believe me!"

"I do," I said, petting her lovingly, and seeing something of my mother's image in my mind.

Back on earth, I'd developed a pretty good relationship with one of my therapists in my teen years, and at that time, he'd confided to me that there were two types of patients that were the most difficult to treat.

The first was high functioning psychopaths like myself.

According to him, most of us used therapy as a means through which to learn how to better imitate 'acceptable forms of behavior' which the more ill-intending amongst us would use to just better disguise their true motives, and more dangerous behaviors.

I had a hard time arguing against that, as I had indeed been doing that very thing, though, perhaps not with the same ill will that he was describing.

The second category, however, was that of paranoid schizophrenics who actually had someone out to get them.

In most cases, the someone wasn't really as ill-meaning as Leanna's school teacher, or wildly conspiratorial as they imagined... but nevertheless, it was difficult to persuade someone that most of the paranoia they experienced were delusions, when an identifiable, and provable example of someone being 'out to get them' existed in their lives.

As I studied her now, I began to consider how we could treat her problem.

Proper medication, even through the catalog, would probably be difficult to come by...

And even if I could miraculously remember anything about what medication my mother was on, we were probably at least two decades past that by now.

Then, there was the matter of the Kobalt, who I had noticed were quite interested in us; their fascination was quite innocent and not ill-intended, of course; but that was sure to trigger Leanna's paranoid tendencies.

How do I fix this?

My mind almost instinctively went to Miriam.

Hypnotherapy was quite common in treating psychosis, wasn't it?

Maybe it wouldn't be bad if we could use it to help her.

Though, even that would have to wait until Miriam had recovered.

No, I would have to use a more straightforward approach.

Go through her paranoias one by one, and explain the ones that I could, while also redirecting her suspicions of the Kobalt to a more deserving source.

"Leanna. I think I need to tell you some things," I began, and she looked up to study me.

"About what?"

"About who is really after us. It's not the Kobalt," I began, and she shook her head, withdrawing from me.

"But I swear-"

"I know, they probably stare at you a lot, but it's not them that you have to worry about. It's the people who sent us here," I finished, and she studied me. "You're probably right. Someone snatched you on earth, and brought you here. And they are tracking us, through their technology, which we need to survive anyway."

She was still shaking her head.

"What if the Kobalt is working with them?"

"Not likely. They have almost no knowledge of technology, and to the people who brought us here, they're nothing more than indigenous savages..."

"What if they're lying? Acting?"

"Even the children?" I asked, and she paused at that. "And if they are acting, then why are there no bad actors?"

She thought about it for a moment, but I didn't want to give her enough time to find an explanation to fit her world view.

"Leanna. I promise you, from this moment; there is no question that I will ever refuse to answer. If you feel as if you need reassurances, I'll show you as much as you need to see to understand. That goes for everything, okay?"

She stared at me, a slightly lost expression on her face, as I continued:

"I'll never let anyone hurt you; or threaten you. And anytime you feel threatened, just come right to me, and I'll deal with whatever it is. I promise; any time, any situation. No matter how small an issue it might be."

She nodded this time, a slow, singular nod, and I took her hands into mine, and brought them to my lips, not in a kiss, but just blowing gently onto them.

She tilted her head down, and as our foreheads met for a second, I felt something pulse out towards her, but before I could even ask, I saw a flash in her eyes, and I spun around instinctively just in time to see it...

A shadow.

I spotted it just as it darted in between the trees, and an involuntary gasp escaped my lips as saw how quickly it moved, leaving a trail of leaves in the wake of its passing.

Fuck, I thought. Why couldn't that have just been a delusion?

I grabbed Leanna's hand and led her off, heading in the direction which I believed would take us most quickly out of the grove, but every time I looked over my shoulder, the thing was there, stalking us, hunting us.

I followed its movement as it went from behind us, to somewhere off to the side, matching and surpassing our speed with effortless ease.

But why wasn't it attacking?

I eyed the thing, then took a tentative glance at Leanna who was tracking its movements with her eyes.

Wait...

Didn't it seem to be moving along with her gaze?

I pulled up to a stop around a large tree trunk, just as the thing slipped out of sight, and I got Leanna to face me, before burying her face into my shoulder.

"Close your eyes," I said, and she did, trying to slow her breathing down as well.

She was panting, and up close like that I noted that she really was a striking girl.

I kept my eyes peeled however for the creature, and as it never came, I took a quick look into Leanna's core.

Could I tell if the skill was being used?

Not unless she actually activated it, huh?

Although, her core capacity had fell quite significantly.

And there was no way that running or anything else that we did could have done that.

"Leanna, I think you might be in control of that creature," I said, and she eyed me as I withdrew my halberd.

"What? How?"

"A skill," I explained. "I want you to look out for the creature, okay? But try to think about controlling its movements when you see it."

"What if I can't?"

"Then I'll protect you," I said, indicating to the halberd, and offering her a reassuring smile.

She nodded.

"O-Okay."

I readied myself, and she got into position behind me, resting a hand on my shoulder for support.

My eyes darted across the field of view, looking for signs of movement, until I saw another leaf trail, and followed it to our shadowy stalker.

"There!" she said, and I nodded. "It's... I can't stop it."

I glanced over at her, and saw her eyes tracking the shadow's movements in quick flutters.

"Slow your eyes down. Focus on the creature, and don't let it lead your gaze."

She wet her lips, nodding as she concentrated.

The creature made an approach to us, and as it slashed with a clawed hand, I gasped as I parried the blow.

Fuck! I thought. There was some pretty solid power behind that slash!

"I-"

"Just calm down; focus, concentrate. I'll defend you for as long as you need."

She nodded again.

The creature darted in again and again, and I repelled him each time, but he was too quick to counter attack.

As time went by, however, I noticed the creature slowing down, until eventually, it walked over to us, and just stood there.

"A-am I...? Am I really doing that?"

"You tell me," I said, smiling, and as I stared into her core, I could clearly see the threads gathered around that skill with the dark aura.

The creature walked around a little, then began to look around as well.

"How much control do you have over him?" I asked.

"I dunno. How do I find out?"

"See if you can make him jump," I offered, shrugging, and she nodded.

She focused for a bit, and sure enough, the creature leapt into the air.

"Holy crap," she said.

"Holy crap indeed. Do you think you could make him slash this tree?" I asked.

She nodded, focusing on the task, when suddenly the creature stepped up to the tree and slashed-

*Whish!

-and nothing happened.

"Did he miss?" she asked, but as I stepped forward and raised a hand, touching the creature's bladed arms, the hand went straight through.

"That's odd... I felt some force when he attacked me earlier, but I think he might just be a shadow now," I said, and as Leanna reached out, she shuddered as her hand also pushed through the creature's shadowy body.