Aberrant: 2011 - Sunsets on the Oahe Shore

[White Light]

Wrapped in a pair of tight, grey sweat shorts, a black tank top, and a pair of shoes, Lina set off from the small cabin in a slow jog. It had been a few days since Ravenshire went off to tend to his business, and only a day since Lina felt well enough to move whatsoever. By some quantum miracle, Lina had almost completely healed from the internal injuries that previously plagued her. Soon, Lina found, that a type of ‘Regeneration’ had manifested within the boundaries of her body, as she had accidentally pierced herself with a nail, and the wound was gone in a mere minute.

In her head mind was a picture of Dark Spiral, and it was what plagued her since their first meeting months ago. Lina tried to sort out what had gone down and what she could do better on their next meeting, but nothing helpful came to mind. “I need to be stronger.. “ she told herself a million times, but she knew she couldn’t convince her body into becoming stronger. She had noticed that over the past few months she gained abilities, like a force field, a ray of heat, regeneration, and she even found that she could concentrate her light around her fists, giving them an aura of destruction. Still, though, they probably wouldn’t stand against Dark Spiral. Ravenshire seemed to have a plan, but Lina didn’t want to draw this out over a long period of time.

She wanted blood, and she wanted it as soon as possible.

As she jogged along the cleared path, with a nova-techno song blasting in her ears from the MP3 player strapped to her arm, she reached the lake that defined her current residence. It seemed enormous to most, but Lina had lived by a lake all her life, and not far from the Great Lakes. Lina decided that, today, she wanted to jog the perimeter of it. She had heard that bears and moose were common to this secluded getaway of hers, but she’d never seen them. An hour passed before she had known it, and the sun was bright in the sky. The path rarely diverged from lakeside, but there were short occasions when it would make its way from the shoreline into the fields.

Lina was enjoying the outdoor privacy. It was the first time she’d actually been out of sight from the followers in some time. She knew that they weren’t around, but somewhere in the back of her mind she knew she still wasn’t alone in this place. She knew that someone was watching from somewhere. Lina spied several forest animals, like squirrels, raccoons, birds, and deer. They all ran before she reached them, and Lina had expected as much. She was incredibly fast, but they heard her far before she could reach them.

It was nearly two hours after she set out that she grew bored with her music, and she removed the headphones from her ears and wrapped them around her armband. Only minutes after that her gut began to ache with pain. She took a deep breath, but that only caused her to stop running. It had felt like the wounds in her stomach had been torn open again, spontaneously. She lifted up her shirt and inspected her stomach, finding no marks out of the ordinary. “I’ll sit down” she told herself, but she did not. She moved to a brisk walk, hoping that the pain would die out. Before she knew it, she found that the path had led her to a large, unkept field next to the lake. Lina slowed to a stop before deciding to lie in the tall grass.

Footsteps approached her, and Lina opened her eyes. It’s gotta be one of my guys. There isn’t anyone around here for miles. Lina closed her eyes, and opened them once they stopped at her head. It was an unfamiliar face looking down at her. His eyes and hair were brown, and he looked to be a little worn out. The two just looked into each other’s eyes for a time before Lina could think of reacting. Why aren’t I getting up? Her muscles were not reacting in accordance with her brain’s commands, and she couldn’t voice her complaint.

”Because I don’t want to have to put you in pain.” He said to her. His voice was soft, and yet, somehow, it seemed troubled. He sat next to her, wearing a pair of blue jeans and a sleeveless tee. He was very, very skinny. He looked out at the lake, than closed his eyes.

Lina tried to summon her light, but couldn’t do that either. She tried to speak, than realized that she hadn’t spoken before either. Who is this clown, and what the fuck did he do to me? The guy kept his eyes closed and didn’t seem to acknowledge her thoughts. She stared at him for a time as he kept his eyes closed. What is he doing to do? Lina thought, while struggling all she could to wrench herself free of the paralysis.

“First, we’re going to watch the sun go down. I will miss the serine Dakota sky, and its luxurious sunset when I go. Plus, it will be a great end for you.” He said, as he opened his eyes and smiled at her.

He can.. You can read my thoughts?

“Well, I certainly do hope so. Otherwise I may need a urgent psychotherapist. I’m a psychic. A nova, like you.” He looked back at the lake. “Like you in the sense that we share a node. Not like you in the sense that I have white skin, or falsely lead a group of sheep to their death.”

Okay Laura. You can get out of this. You’ve gotten out of worse before.

“Laura?” He said to her, looking down at her once more.

Fuck off, ass shit. She thought, and would have smiled if she could. He seemed to pick up on it as he smiled back at her. He’s cu..NO! She forced herself to think only of woodchips, and he laughed.

“It’s fine, actually. I get that a lot. If you knew me before I was a nova, you’d know that I was cute back than too.” He said while laughing. “If you want to think about woodchips, we can talk about that too.”

Lina screamed in her head. This was worse than torture. I was not fucking calling you cute you fucking douche bag! I will fuck your ass up the moment you fucking slip up. You think about that.

He looked away from her and kept quiet. After a few minutes of gathering her thoughts, he decided to speak. “I’m sorry, that was mean. I shouldn’t have let you think that there was a way out of this.” She wanted nothing more than to scream, but she just laid there, a small section of tall grass in the vast fields of the Dakotas.