Chapter 5:
Pain was the first sensation the man was aware of. Pain, followed by
intense warmth. With a groan, he sat up and slowly opened his eyes. He stared in shock at his surroundings.
He seemed to be in an alley way, but the walls and ground all seemed to be scorched flat. His skin was blistered and red all over, like he'd been caught in a fire. Then he remembered what had happened, what the man from Renraku had said. And what he had done.
Stephen Williams threw back his head and screamed, his rage and pain and anguish billowing out of him. A dozen meters away, several street squatters who had built up enough courage to venture forth to see what had happened to their alley scattered before the sound. The young mage screamed for several long minutes before his voice cracked and failed, and then he dropped his head to his knees and cried. He didn't know what to do, where to go. The men in that car were surely dead. His father was dead. Beth, his love, his light, was dead, killed in some stupid magic experiment. If only he'd left home a week, a day sooner! He could have been there. Could have helped her. The young mage sat back against the wall, eyes clenched shut, fists balled up tight enough to feel the nails slowly cutting into his skin. Warmth from the baked wall basked his back, and he slammed the heel of his fist against the ground.
He looked up at the sky, slowly turning to twilight above him, and hoarsely tried to scream. "I'm should be dead! Let me die!"
"If you want to die, surely we can help ya." A calm, cold voice came from the mouth of the alley way. Stephen lifted his eyes to see several ragged
looking toughs coming up the alleyway. The leader, and the speaker, was a human. He was dirty, wore tattered clothing, but had that tough, defiant "king of the streets" look. He flexed his hand and a pair of long, gleaming spurs popped from the back of his wrist. Behind the ganger, the others grinned and laughed menacingly, each of them holding a weapon of some kind. A chain, a baseball bat, an old piece of pipe.
Stephen slowly rose to his feet, his muscles shaky and his vision blurring slightly. He knew he was a dead man. He died in that car. or should have. Part of him died when his father passed away. A larger part of him died when Beth did. He was a dead man. The world just didn’t know it yet.
"You bastards want a piece of me?" The mage said, a slight giggle
escaping his lips. His body quivered, and his blood felt like it was aflame. "You bastards want to kill me?" His voice rose to a shriek, his raw throat cracking as he screamed. "I'm already dead, you silly little people. I'm a dead man."
Suddenly his hands lit up and his body was surrounded by flame. The flame lit up the darkening alleyway and the gangers all took a step back. "You... can't... kill... what's... already... DEAD!"
The mage took a step forward with each word, the growing conflagration around him glowing larger and brighter with each syllable. The Gangers could feel the heat of the flames washing over them as the mage stood in the alleyway staring at them, head cocked as he stared at them, his clothes more ashes than fabric, and radiating more heat than a furnace. They stood as if entranced,
staring, then one by one, broke and ran.
The mage cackled as he watched the fleeing figures. "Tell your friends, boys." He shrieked after them, flames dancing around him, scorching the stone and cement around him. "Tell everyone! Chaos has come to town!"
Abruptly the flames died out, and with a slightly startled look, the mage collapsed to the ground and gave way to unconsciousness for the second time today.
Awakening to pain and heat was not a pleasant sensation, and doing it
twice in a row made matters worse. The mage opened his eyes again, and saw
a vision of beauty standing above him, red, curly hair flowing around him, bright green eyes sparkling as she looked down at him, worry evident in her eyes.
"B- Beth?" The mage muttered, his voice dry and his throat raw.
"No, Stephen, I'm sorry. It's Cindy." Cindy, his elemental, his friend.
Bonded, rebonded, time and effort placed into her creation, care taken to bring her back, patience and true love gone into making her more than a servant, but a friend. Cindy, who remarkably looked a like Beth. Tears welled up in the mage's eyes.
"Cindy, Stephen is dead. Gone. Call me Chaos from now on." Chaos held his head bowed for several minutes as the elemental stood staring down at
him. She was not your typical elemental. Really, she never had been. She had seen the crude constructs that other mages at the school had summoned, and knew that she was different somehow. She was still bound by her summoner, by the mage that lay broken and wounded before her. But somehow, she seemed to be more.
"Stephe... Chaos. You have to be careful. You expended a lot of energy today, First in the car, and then in the alleyway." She held a cold washcloth over his face, and the cool water helped sooth the burns a
little. "You almost killed yourself when you destroyed the car. I... I've never seen you like this before. It worried me."
Chaos smiled slightly. "I should have died. I did die. I don't know,
Cindy. What am I going to do?"
The elemental shrugged slightly. "I did what I could. After the explosion, I moved you to an alley while the police were looking around. I think they thought you died in the explosion, along with those men."
The mage sighed. "I should have figured they were dead. Dead, like
Beth. Dead, like I'm not lucky enough to be. I don't suppose..."
"No!" Cindy replied hastily. "No, I can't kill you. And I can't allow
you to kill yourself."
"Then what do I do, Cindy? There's nothing left for me now. Mom will
think I'm dead. At least this means Renraku won't be coming after me. that's good, I suppose." The mage lay back in the bed, then looked around to see they were in a hotel room. "Where are we?"
"I'm sorry, but I stole some money and got us a hotel room. It's not
great, but... It was the best I could do on short notice." The red-head shrugged again as she looked down at him.
Chaos laughed, and pain lanced his side again. Everything on him felt
bruised or blistered. "What are you, my dear Cindy, You're more than you seem. You always were." But sleep took him before he could hear her answer.