Winter's Fury - Volume Two of The Saga of the Twelves (50 page)

She took her eyes from
them for a moment and stared up at the ceiling, wondering what the
next few days would bring for them. She was trying to guess through
all the possibilities. Pondering with every bit of rationale she
could muster. Did they stand a chance against the enemy Joaquin and
Anthony said they have to face soon? She had seen some of the Gifts
of a few of her companions. Even though they seemed powerful,
fantastic, beyond anything she had seen in the past. She still
doubted if their powers would be enough. Compared to some of the
creatures and entities she heard told were her newfound enemies,
how would they fare? She knew there had been no deception from any
of her companions. Just as she knew there were immense powers
awaiting realization by a majority of the Twelve. Still, she was
not sure, especially with herself. How could she stand up to those
that had created the Melded World from nothing?

The more she thought about
it, how was she so different from any other sixteen-year-old girl?
When she boiled it down to its’ basic components, she was just
living her life and going to High School? Why was she regarded
different from all the others girls her age living on Earth? She
did not feel unique or special or gifted or anything, even now.
Other than the ache in her back, she felt the same as she had in
the past. Why was she a chosen one? Why all the drastic measures?
It did not make any sense to her, not in the least. Despite the
fact she had lost everything for a specific reason. She did not see
herself as the harbinger of some heretofore hidden, miraculous
Gift. Where was this mysterious power she held in her bosom or gut,
or wherever the hell it was residing? Simple as she could make it,
she just did not feel it. That worried her. When the
proverbial
shit hit the fan
what was she supposed to do? How was she supposed
to react or fight?

The funny thing though, it
was all beside the point. The more she thought about it, the more
she could not escape one simple truth. She was not a fighter. She
was not one to be aggressive and get physical. It was true she was
a gymnast and thus stronger than most girls her age. She could run
circles around any of them as well. This excluded some of her
friends on the track team who seemed able to run for days and not
break a sweat.

But that did not change
what was real. Being in a competitive sport did not make her some
kind of G.I. Jane. It did not make her some steroid ridden, East
German, female weightlifter from the 80’s. Not in the least. She
might be assertive on the uneven bars or on the pommel horse. But
she was not your regular fist-a-cuffs, thrown-down type of
girl.

She liked designer clothes
and expensive handbags. She was religious when it came to her
manicures and pedicures just as she preferred only the best of
lotions and crèmes for her face and body. She adored silk sheets
and cashmere sweaters, brand name jeans, and the latest in
high-heeled fashion. She was not a fighter, a warrior. She was not
a duelist-to-the-death, so fuck She-Ra and Red Sonja and Sheena,
Queen-of-the-mother-fucken-jungle! They were something she was not.
Something she could not be. How was she going to battle a host of
hellish creatures, if she did not have the slightest inclination to
do so in the first place? It did not make any sense to
her.

She was still wrapped in
her thoughts when she heard someone sit down on the lawn chair next
to hers. Too distracted by the questions flowing through her mind,
she turned to look out of habit. She gasped in disbelief when she
heard Kimberly’s voice - the very last person she has expected to
come and rest beside her.

“
Hey, Hyun, can we talk
for a minute?” she asked, her voice was pregnant with
expectation.

Hyun could only stare at
her, nodding, at a loss. She did not want to hope.

“
I never did get the
chance to tell you. I’m sorry for the way I talked to you out on
the street… or the trail earlier.” Kimberly spoke with tones muted,
measured. “There just hasn’t been the time… or the privacy.” Her
voice was turning evermore reluctant, with each word that left her
mouth.

Hyun sat up at half the
speed she would under normal circumstances. She grimaced as she
felt the bindings around her body stretch and apply more pressure
to the wounds in her back. She looked into Kimberly’s eyes, seeing
remorse and a tiny speck of fear. She felt glad over the apology.
Yet, she was just as disdainful of Kimberly’s attempt to smooth
things over between them. She had always been so disingenuous in
the past.

“
I’m not sure I can trust
anything you say, Kim,” was all she could muster through the pain
and the distrust between them.

Kimberly seemed to stiffen
at that. If she had them, Hyun was sure her hackles would have
bristled with anger. But astounding as it might seem, the girl
appeared to get control of her emotions and breathed deep a few
times.

She gazed back at Hyun
through a frown the Korean teen could not read. “I guess I sort of
had that coming,” began Kimberly, somber, “especially since I have
not been the most honest person with you.”

“
It goes much deeper than
that, Kim. All this ‘stuff’ is so much more than some little tizzy
between you and me. You know that,” she said with an edge, not
willing to let things lie on the surface this time
around.

Kimberly took an expansive
draught of air, held it for a few heartbeats. She let it go in one
great exhalation, but stayed silent.

“
He’s fucking gone, Kim!”
ejaculated Hyun with sudden ferocity, her hands balled into fists.
She struck the cushion of the lawn chair on either side of where
she sat. She could hold back no longer. “He has no control over you
here. Don’t you get it? He’s not going to jump out from behind some
goddamned box or something. He’s not going to yell at you, or tell
you what to do. He’s gone. Everybody’s gone. Can’t you see that?
Everything we knew before has changed. And, if we get out of this
alive, everything we knew in the past will be even more different
when we return.”

Hyun’s vehemence seemed to
stun Kimberly, shock her, because this was not the same girl. This
was not how she expressed herself. That much was plain. Too much
between them had gone unsaid for far too long. It needed to get out
- one way or another.

Kimberly let her head drop
into her hands. She cradled them for a while.

Hyun stared at her with
flared nostrils, breathing in and out with emotions so old they
were stale. They left her mouth feeling desiccated, unclean. “He’s
not here, Kimberly. He’s gone. Whether you like it or not, he will
not be here to boss you around. You will have to do things by
yourself, for yourself from now on. You will have to, because you
can’t hide behind him and his temper,” continued Hyun, but in a
softer, more subdued tone. “You will
have
to stand on your own two feet,
and find that girl I used to know when we were in middle school.
You remember her? The strong, independent Kimberly Madison before
there was a Sonny, before all
this
.” Hyun swung one of her legs
over the width of the lawn chair. She was facing Kimberly more
direct. She put her hands on her knees, leaning forward. “You do
understand what all this mean, right?”

There was only
silence.

“
Kim?” prodded Hyun. “You
know this, right?”

Still the other girl did
not stir, but rubbed her hands on her forehead, refusing to look
up. Her chest was filling and un-filling in rapid successions,
though no sound came for her.

“
Kim?” Hyun attempted once
again. “This has –.”

“
I know!” exclaimed
Kimberly of a sudden, looking up at Hyun with a lost look on her
face almost as if she was laying eyes upon her for the first time.
“I know!”

“
Good,” muttered Hyun
after a time. “That’s all I wanted to hear.”

At her side, Kimberly
flung herself against the back of her own lawn chair, so violent
the entire seat creaked in protest. She stared up at the ceiling in
the same fashion Hyun had done only moments before.

Hyun could see there were
tears streaming down her face now.

The girl did not utter a
single sound.

“
You ok, Kimmy?” asked
Hyun, using her old nickname for the girl that, at one time, had
been her closest friend.

“
No, Hyun. I’m not ok…,”
replied the girl as the watershed of tears increased. “I have said,
on more than one occasion, I broke up with the loser. Yet, you just
don’t seem to understand that.”

“
Well, what the hell did
you expect, girl? How many times have you said just that in the
past? Only you show up at school the very next day with the dude
draped all over you.” Hyun knew her riposte was cruel, but she’d
had it with the wishy-washy bullshit Kimberly had been laying on
her for so long.

Kimberly wiped at her
tears. She was angry now, but they kept coming despite all her
efforts. “Jesus Christ, Hyun, you don’t think I already had that
shit in the back of my mind every time I opened my mouth to say
it?”

Hyun forced herself to not
reply, curious now. This appeared to be a Kimberly that had not
shown herself in quite some time. She was being honest with not
just her, but with herself as well. She had not done this in
years.

“
I left him, Hyun. I said
fuck-off and… I left him,” continued Kimberly, each word throaty
and raw.

Hyun knew this girl before
her. She was the one who spoke from the center of
herself.

“
He tried his stupid-ass
shit on me one time too many and I left him. I told him if he tried
anything - anything - like he had before, I was going to fucking
kill his ass.”

Hyun’s brow furled.
What the hell is she talking about?

“
I warned him, you know. I
told him no more pushing or shoving. No more meth. No nothing.”
Kimberly did not stop. “As usual, though, he didn’t listen. He
didn’t think I’d put my foot down and keep it there. Just like you,
he figured I’d cave in like always and take him back regardless of
what he did or what he said.” Kimberly brushed at a stray strand of
hair that had become mired in the trail of her tears. “But, he was
wrong, just like you are wrong now. I am done with all that crap,
Hyun. I want to be myself again. I want to do what I like to do. I
was finally doing just that when all this stuff happened.” Her
mouth twisted. It made her look cruel. “Now I’m stuck here with
monsters in every corner, fighting for life for real. No metaphor,
no simile - for real – I’m just as frightened of that as I am of
not caring. I want to care. I want to be a part of something. I
don’t want the past to define me anymore. I am so done with all
that stuff, Hyun. I’m tired of it, tired of carrying the burden
around. I miss my friends… I miss who I was before he took it all
away from me and turned me into a piece of trash.”

…
A piece of trash? Kimmy,
what are you talking about? No man can ever turn you into anything
unless you let…

Oh, fuck…!

Hyun was so perturbed, she
could not speak. In her mind, she knew her eyes were big. They
would be gushing with the dread she felt welling in her
heart.
Oh god, please
no…
, was all she could begin to think. She
kept repeating it in her mind over and over. She did not want to
say the wrong thing. Kimberly had never even come close to
mentioning why things between her and Sonny had deteriorated so
far. What she was currently describing was brand, spanking
new.

“
Kimmy,
I’m sorry. I did not know,” she said with quiet introspection,
trying not to set the girl off. Inside though, her blood was
beginning to boil.
That son of a bitch
made you didn’t he? That bastard beat it into you, so you would
believe it all to be true – that you were nothing, that you were
trash…
She took a breath and held
it.
Oh, how I wish I could get my hands on
you, Sonny! Oh, how sweet would that be.
It was a calculated notion, perused and considered with cool
detachment, like taking out the garbage. If Sonny had been anywhere
near Hyun Jin Kwon, he would have run the other way in fright. It
would have taken but a single glance at her face.

That was when she caught
just a glimpse of Kimberly’s expression before she turned away from
her. Her hand had been blocking some of it from view, but not
enough to hide it altogether.

Haunted?

Was there something
else?

“
Kim?” Hyun scooted
forward on the lawn chair to the edge of her butt, moving as close
as she could without falling. She reached out to put a hand on the
other girl’s knee.

Kimberly shuddered under
her touch.

“
You have to tell me.
Whatever it is, you have to tell me. I can see it’s killing you to
keep it hidden.”

Kimberly turned toward
her, more tears gathering, threatening to fall.

This was not what focused
Hyun’s attention to a laser-fine point. It was the stark fear
written on the other girl’s face that stopped her cold. It made her
heart leap into her chest.