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  Rushing to him, he began to rock him gently.

  “Simon! Simon!” When the latter weakly moaned, he was relieved, Simon was like family to him.

  “What happened?” Zeke exclaimed, tearfully, “Why is there so much blood? Were you caught in the explosions?”

  Simon muttered weakly. It was one word, but it was enough.

  “Tyler.”

  It was then Zeke realised that Simon hadn’t been burned, but he had been cut. He recalled Tyler’s Godspark freak-out a few years back. It was then he felt a chill in the air.

  “Zeke,” Tyler said. “I asked you a question. Where are Mum and Dad?”

  In shock, Zeke turned around slowly, looking at his brother. It was then he noticed his sword was drawn and had been the whole time.

  “Tyler…what is this?” He asked. Questions rushing to his head. His mind had already begun to generate answers to them, but he refused to listen to them.

  “Why did you cut Simon?”

  Tyler simply repeated his question.

  “He’s bleeding out Tyler! Don’t you know he could die if you hit him so hard.”

  It was then Simon regained enough energy to speak.

  “Zeke! Watch out, he’s one of them.”

  Simon’s warning came too late. Moving too fast for Zeke to dodge, Tyler slashed him across the torso, watching him crumple to the ground.

  A scream pierced the air, it was Mrs Davids. The Davidses had returned, dodging violence and chaos, into what seemed like their worst nightmare.

  Mr Davids rushed at his son, his paternal instinct struggling with itself. Concern for the younger matched with concern for the older. How did he not see this coming? He swung at Tyler, striking him in the face. The latter did not display any reaction.

  “Damn you.” Mr Davids looked up at his son’s face, his face running the gamut of emotions. All the fight went out of him as he swallowed, “And, I love you, son.”

  Tyler’s sword sang out through the air, cutting his father in half from the waist. He died instantly.

  It was at that moment that Mrs Davids gave up. With one of her sons all but dead, and her husband murdered by the other, her spirit had broken. Tyler walked towards her. Building his resolve as he did so. Their eyes met, and then he stabbed her in the heart. She too died, eyes opened with shock.

  “Tyler…how could you…” Zeke struggled to stand, the pain inside and outside nearly paralyzing him. He couldn’t understand what was going on, or more accurately, he didn’t want to. Simon had followed Tyler tonight and Tyler attacked him because Simon stumbled upon whatever this was.

  My brother is behind this.

  “How could I not? In this dead-end town, the only way to move upwards is to join those upstream,” He turned his head, tears streaming from his eyes, to face Zeke. “This was my last test. You are my last test, Zeke. Once I kill you, I will have killed all the ties I have left to this place.”

  Tyler wiped his tears. “Let me tell you, with each kill, it gets easier.”

  Zeke didn’t expect it then, but his Godspark activated at that very moment. After years of experience, he would theorise that the mixture of trauma and self-preservation forced his natural powers to awaken. The kitchen knife he had picked up transformed into a sword, and he instinctively knew that just like his brother’s sword was his Godspark, this was his.

  He lunged towards Tyler, blinded by anger and rage. But once more, it was all for nothing.

  “A Godspark?” Tyler blocked his attack, his sword countering Zeke. With deft footwork, he stepped forward. One hand grabbed his brother’s smaller arm. The other arm running him through with his sword. All done in one movement.

  Pulling it out, Zeke collapsed to the floor. Laying on the cusp of unconsciousness.

  Tyler smiled to himself and then frowned. “Jeez, even when I killed Mum and Dad, I still don’t have it in me to kill children directly.”

  Zeke and Simon lay on the floor, the former barely conscious, the latter barely alive. Mr Davids and Mrs Davids, in contrast, were already dead.

  “You’ll pass out soon, just let the darkness take you, you shouldn’t feel a thing.” Tyler paused, “Don’t worry Simon, I made a stop at your place when you passed out. You will meet your parents.”

  With his work done, Tyler began to walk to the door, stepping over the bodies of his family.

  “You damn asshole,” Mustering one last burst of energy, a distraught Zeke yelled at the departing shadow of his brother, “We’ve lived here our whole lives! How could you just kill everyone without feeling anything! Mum, Dad, Simon, our neighbours!? Why!?”

  If Zeke hadn’t been delirious from blood loss, he would have seen that Tyler had already shut the door and could no longer hear him.

  * * *

  A sweet smell filled his nostrils, bread or something. His body ached, touching his chest, he found bandages there, covering him.

  There was movement in the room.

  “He’s awake,” an unfamiliar voice said, “Your brother is awake.”

  “Oh thank heavens,” Simon’s voice echoed in his ears.

  Zeke opened his eyes, finding an old woman stood over him.

  Still groggy, he asked her, “What happened?”

  “I found your bodies in the street after the attack on Karn.” Gesturing at both Simon and Zeke, “You two were still alive, so I saved your lives. Not many others were so lucky”

  Zeke flinched. His last memories lingering on the edge of consciousness, he tried to suppress them, to make them go away.

  “What about the town?” Simon hung his head, already knowing what she would say.

  The old woman sighed, and then told them what she had heard. One of the Nephilim, Jason, had paid a visit to the town with his acolytes. Many people were killed as he displayed his power, and he had established a new regime. They were on the outskirts of the town, so they were safe. She had wandered with her family, but she couldn’t turn down dying children.

  Her sons had brought them back, and she had treated them with medicine for the past month. Simon had woken up a week earlier and had been helping her with whatever chores he could do, while not opening up his wounds. Half a week later, Zeke began to help too.

  A week after Zeke had woken up, Simon asked the inevitable question.

  “What are we going to do?”

  Zeke had considered it anytime he had a moment to spare, to think, and to process. He gave the only answer that made sense to give.

  “We have to move on. We…we have no family anymore.”

  Simon looked at Zeke as he said this. The other boy just stared into the distance. This was his way of dealing with the betrayal that they had endured.

  * * *

  Zeke was alone, approaching the Rune Knight outpost. As the guards took notice of him, he held his hands out indicating he was unarmed. He had travelled for 6 months by himself, leaving Simon, and living off the land to get this far.

  “Can I join you?” Zeke spoke once inside, finally espousing his dream, “Can I join the Rune Knights?”

  The officer in charge eyed him up and down, sizing him up. “Eh, you look kind of scrawny, are you sure you’re up for it?”

  Zeke manifested his Godspark from the kitchen knife he had behind him, raising his sword and pointing it towards the sky. The man made for his sword, but something in Zeke’s eyes stopped him.

  “I have a Godspark,” Zeke said, “I have always dreamt of joining you.” Sheathing his sword, he turned towards the man once more. “Please, let me join you.”

  * * *

  A year had passed since Zeke joined the Rune Knights that day.

  He had advanced through the group and was now and Adjutant, serving directly under one of the field squads. He had taken to Runes and bladed combat as a fish did to water.

  “You’re getting better, Zeke. It’s only been a year.” Zeke’s sparring partner Sandra, said one day as they crossed swords.

  “Thanks.” Zeke parried her next st
rike. “You could say, I’m kind of a driven person.”

  * * *

  It was barely two years after that that the news came in. After routing a small gang from a town, Sandra found the note.

  In a panic, she ran to the squad captain, Jeanine, who was about to release the rest of the Knights for the night after a successful mission.

  Upon seeing the note, Jeanine’s expression changed,

  “Goddammit, Zeke.” Zeke apologized in the note, but he would be deserting the Rune Knights due to differences of opinions. Rune Knights were supposed to be stripped of the power to use Runes when they were dismissed, a deserting Rune Knight was often a priority in the first few weeks.

  Jeanine ordered the squad members to go after Zeke, much to their dismay. He had become friends with many of them over the years, and they respected his skill.

  “Why would he do such a thing?” Jeanine wondered out loud.

  The others didn’t see Zeke, but Sandra had been his friend from day one. She knew his habits and knew how he thought. While everyone scrambled to look for him, she waited, and sure enough, he emerged from his hiding place in the compound.

  Stepping out of hers, she confronted him, sword drawn.

  Upon noticing her, he smiled apologetically “I’m sorry, but I didn’t think that’d it get this far. Let me go, Sandra.” Zeke’s sword was drawn, but he was not in a combative stance. He would fight to incapacitate Sandra if it could guarantee his freedom, but not if it could not. Both Knights understood that.

  “Why?” She said, “I thought you joined the Rune Knights to help ‘the world’ as you put it. What changed?”

  Zeke’s expression changed. It was true that he had joined the Rune Knights with idealism in his heart, but it was also true that something had changed in him. Or perhaps in how he saw things. He sincerely believed at first that the Knights would be able to free Karn County, but time had dampened his hopes. A sober assessment of his situation had only served to disillusion him further.

  “I said that, but now I feel differently. When it comes down to it, it’s probably a mixture of things. I mean; what is a world? Can you hold in your hands? Can you see it with your eyes? If you could fly across into the sky and look down — will your mind comprehend it? The world is too wide for people like us to understand,” Zeke said. “Is it the planet? No one calls the ones in space ‘worlds.’ Instead, you could say a world is the people in it. For me, my world was shattered years ago. I really-- really tried to rebuild it here -- but I can’t. I just can’t.”

  Zeke was being uncharacteristically wordy. He attributed it to him not being normally conversational at the best of times. Now, he had spilt his guts out to her. It was time for her response.

  “Can I make you stay?” She said softly.

  “If you tried I’m sure you could. But I’ll fight you every step of the way,” he said. “But is that really what you want? I don’t plan on becoming an enemy of the Rune Knights. I’m sick of fighting, there’s nothing here anymore for me. So please, just let me go.”

  “So then — all of this can’t become your world?”

  She gestured to the compound, but Zeke knew she meant something else.

  ‘As a friend, am I not enough for your world?’, is what she would have said if she spoke her true feelings. Maybe she had deeper feelings for him, Zeke pondered, or perhaps she really was someone who found him worthy of being a friend. Either way, he wasn’t able to understand or acknowledge her feelings.

  “I’m sorry.”

  Sandra looked at him for a moment, then sighed and turned away from him.

  “Don’t ever let me see you again. If I do, it’ll be the last time.” She said. “You’ll be ‘dead’ in a week Zeke. Consider it a favour.”

  “Thank you.” He nodded and re-sheathed his sword.

  The other woman was silent as Zeke walked past. Later, she would report that Zeke had eluded her and the rest of her squad, a week later, she would find ‘Zeke’s’ corpse. Mangled beyond recognition, but with his personal effects on it. The official story would be that Zeke had attempted to escape but had a fatal run-in with people stronger than him. While Jeanine had her suspicions, the Knights would close the case. After all, what good was looking for a dead man, when they had other issues to deal with.

  * * *

  Months later, Zeke began making his mark, capturing people on wanted posters for money. He would loiter around Karn County sometimes but would never be able to fully enter.

  His time with the Rune Knights had disillusioned him because of what he had discovered, and he wasn’t sure what he was doing with his life at this point.

  His current prey was fast, and good at hiding. But Zeke was faster, and patient.

  When the man got up from his hiding place, Zeke was on him an instant. He sliced his tendons and knocked him off his feet. As he was cursed at by his writhing captive, Zeke simply smiled, shaking his head.

  “I have no personal grudge against you, Jack.” Zeke dabbed ointment on the man’s wounds to stop him from bleeding out, “But I’m a bounty hunter now, and you know how it is.”

  None of the local depots had enough cash to pay out, so he would have to travel to Pesque, where the Bounty Hunter Guild had a major office. Perhaps he would buy a mobile home, so he could move around, rather than living in the wild and in sleazy hotels.

  When he arrived in Pesque, the registrar noted the bounty he had picked up. “You’ve got skill kid. You captured the famous ‘Cannibal of the Marshland’. Where’d you train at?”

  Zeke rolled his eyes, “I don’t think that’s any of your business.”

  The man scoffed at him. “Just making conversation kid.”

  Zeke heard a soft gasp from behind him and turned around to see what happened. Another bounty had been delivered. Not as impressive as the Cannibal. He had turned to see who bad brought him in, and had been met with a ghost from his past. Bigger, more scarred, tougher looking, but still recognisable.

  For the first time in 4 years, Simon and Zeke laid eyes on each other.

  Their tragedies forgotten and, in the past, the only thing the two friends turned brothers now reminded each other of was home.

  Zeke swore to himself that he would never return to Karn County after that. His world had come to him. For a while, he truly believed that.

  Chapter 16 - Discovery in the Dark

  Simon’s eyes teared up as he recalled their last days in Karn County and their eventual reunion years later. He had simply become a bounty hunter afterwards, prior to that he had bounced from gang to gang, searching for a purpose. Finding his friend and brother from years ago had stabilised him, and both had quickly become a team in the intervening years.

  Zeke was stoic as he let the thoughts he had buried flow through his mind.

  Town Taker Tyler. He had avoided any news about Karn or Tyler deliberately after he left the Rune Knights. He had hoped he would be able to lead a regiment to overthrow Tyler’s gangster takeover of the town, but it wasn’t to be. He had deserted and was presumed dead.

  Even now, Karn County seemed to have rebounded from the invasion, and it looked like it was even stronger than ever.

  Bearing in mind that Timothy ‘The Zealot’ was the hand pulling the strings, it wasn’t as bad as he had imagined. There were no drug dealers, or protection shakedowns happening in plain sight as was popular in other towns with gangster influence. The most obvious thing they had done was an architectural overhaul and the implementation of the Order Squadron.

  Timothy had not bothered to control by proxy but had simply installed himself as mayor. This was in title only, ‘king’ would be a more accurate designation of the role he took.

  Zeke had come back, he had gotten his catharsis. It was time to leave Karn and leave it forever. He said the same to Simon, and both agreed, Simon less so.

  He found it odd that they ran into so few people they knew, and Zeke noticed it too. Karn had grown bigger, but it felt smaller somehow.
/>   * * *

  Georgina had just finished interrogating Taylor. She had just received a report about a woman without a Godspark, and Taylor’s squad report had just come in.

  The brunette woman tapped her fingers impatiently. Yet another subordinate delivered reports of a Godspark user evading capture. Apparently by flying.

  They were in the conference room of the large silver towers in the centre of Karn, nicknamed the Shining Towers. She quite liked that name and had adopted it when speaking about their base.

  Thanking Taylor, she dismissed him, leaving her alone with the shared executive secretary.

  “It’s clear that whoever these people are, they are together,” she said. “Or what do you think? Charlotte?”

  Charlotte replied, “They didn’t come through the gates. I believe it’s likely to think that they came together, and ergo, in a vehicle. We can presume it will be located within a mile or two of Karn.”

  “And why would you think that?”

  Charlotte pulled up a map of Karn and studied the outskirts.

  “If they need to escape, they’ll need a short trip towards their ride, but not too far.” Some of the town was bordered by hills, so they could rule that out.

  “Well,” Georgina licked her lips, “My stalking skills are extraordinary. I think I’ll go stretch my legs outside Karn. Tell Tyler I’ll be back later tonight.”

  “Should I send out a squad for you?” Charlotte asked, ready to make the arrangements. She could send a small contingent of Order Squadron members to comb the grounds and minimise the work Georgina would have to do.

  “No,” Georgina replied, “I can handle a few people myself. Don’t forget, I’m one of Timothy’s executives. If there’s cleanup required, you can send a small squad in four, no five hours time.”