Chapter Thirty-One: ‘The dance of shade and darkness...’

Hector had to destroy his metal. It only weighed him down, and Geoffrey was already faster, able to ride the red shadow like a wave through the corridors while carrying Jenny at his side.

They reached the school’s front entrance, and Geoffrey did not hesitate to rush through the sliding doors to meet the police force there.

Still inside, Hector could see the officers scrambling for their firearms at the sight of Geoffrey’s red mass. Their bullets would do nothing, of course. He had to protect them.

Hector slapped the tiled floor with his hand, and an iron wall shot up in front of Geoffrey, curving over his head like an immobile tidal wave. Cut off from the policemen, Geoffrey tried to circumvent the wall, but Hector kept adding to it until the metal met the school’s pale brick. And abruptly, there was nowhere for the aberration left to go, except through Hector.

Geoffrey returned to the entryway, Jenny at the shadow’s heels.

Hector reforged his sword and shield.

“Always trying to spoil other people’s fun,” said Geoffrey. “I thought I raised you better than that.” Metal promptly clapped around his face, which the shade immediately burst through; but when Geoffrey could see again, Hector was nearly on top of him. The sword barreled toward Geoffrey’s chest. He dodged but not completely.

Hector’s blade caught the side of Geoffrey’s ribcage, taking flesh with it. The reds mixed, blood and shadow confused.

Geoffrey slinked back and sicced Jenny on him, but Hector encased her in iron before she even took three steps. The red shadow lunged again, breaking upon Hector’s shield before being slashed apart by the sword.

“This is not very fun,” Geoffrey complained. “I don’t think you are being very--” He had to stop and flee when he saw that Hector was not going to wait for him to finish talking.

Before Geoffrey could reach the west hall, a metal wall appeared in his path. He leapt away from Hector’s sword, bounding over the reception desk and rushing for the east hall, but another sudden barrier cut him off. Even the chamber’s windows clapped shut with iron.

“I see you are determined to end this now.” Geoffrey swerved out of Hector’s reach. “Then I might as well oblige.” Metal blocked his vision again, but Geoffrey was prepared. The shadow tore it off while two other streaks shot toward Hector from separate directions.

Hector rolled to the side and took one streak with his shield. The other swirled back around, and he slashed horizontally but missed. The shade caught him under the arm. He had a thin coat of metal there, but the impact still knocked him off his feet, and he felt a rib snap. The shadow coiled around his torso, making him groan as it tightened, and he could see several more red snakes gunning for him.

He again resorted to full defense. Spikes jutted out all across his body, reaching even farther than before and shredding every shadow that got too close. He could hear Geoffrey snickering as they shrunk back to him.

“Good! Don’t make it too easy for me!” The shadow spread out around him, gathering into a swirling cluster like some sort of hydra. He sent them all at once.

Hector made a wall in front of himself. The shadows slammed into it, leaving dents and pushing the whole mass of iron backward. Scowling against the wall, Hector slapped his hand on the largest dent. A pillar shot out from the other side and tore a path straight through the red.

Geoffrey avoided it easily enough and then circled around to Hector’s side.

The problem was Geoffrey’s mobility, Hector knew. A mere iron coating had proved useless, but thick barriers had not, so that was what he went for when he saw more red snakes reaching for him. And with another wall in the way, he couldn’t see Geoffrey, but he didn’t need to. He only wanted to limit the aberration’s options. He steadily placed more barriers around the room, soon creating a small maze, and each time the shadows managed to find him again, he hacked them down.

“I see what you are trying to do!” Geoffrey said from beyond a wall. “It will not work!” An iron pillar shot out at him, and he narrowly slid out of the way, going right. Another pillar appeared, this time blocking the path rather than attacking, and Geoffrey ducked under it, only to find still another metal beam there. He turned around, and abruptly, Hector was at his side, replacing the wall that stood there a moment ago.

Geoffrey reeled back and barely avoided the sword. “You will trap yourself before you trap me,” he said, bringing his shadows to bear. A red cluster whirled at his side, forming a spinning drill. It dug into the wall next to him, expanding the hole quickly.

Hector had a different set of shadows to contend with. While ripping through them, he merely tried to keep Geoffrey in sight, eliminating walls as he ran and making new ones for Geoffrey to tunnel through.

“You will grow tired before I do, you know!”

Hector slipped an extra wall in--not in Geoffrey’s path, but rather just beside it, seemingly unworthy of attention. And when their chase made a complete circle, Hector was ready. He pulled his fist to his shoulder, and an iron block popped out of the wall as Geoffrey passed. It shoved him straight toward Hector.

Geoffrey’s eyes widened as he watched the sword close in, as he realized that he didn’t have his balance, that he couldn’t dodge this one. Shadows rushed to his defense. They might as well have been paper.

Hector gored him through the stomach.

Geoffrey was not smiling. Dumbstruck, he tried to speak and only coughed up blood. His shadows all shuddered as Hector ripped the sword back out, taking flesh with it. Geoffrey staggered back.

Hector stared at his work, still tensed to the point of trembling. He almost couldn’t believe his eyes.

“How careless...” Geoffrey’s shadow caught him stumbling and propped him up. “This body is already done for...”

Hector raised three walls around the aberration, boxing him in. Only the space between the two of them was left open.

Geoffrey spared a glance at the walls. “Ha... you wouldn’t be willing to let me find a new body, would you?” A red cloud poured out of Geoffrey’s face.

Hector cleaved it in two.

The red shriveled and shrunk back to him, making Geoffrey spasm violently. And even now, he still managed a bloody grin. “Damn... I wanted to see my power grow more. Desmond--” He stopped to hack up more blood. “Desmond told me--he said... that one day, I would be able to turn my slaves into monsters. I was really looking forward to that, you know...”

It was nearly done, Hector knew. Geoffrey was down. The shadow was contained. He wasn’t sure if aberrations could die from blood loss like normal humans, but didn’t intend to wait that long. And yet, the sight of his father’s body, his father’s face--it made him hesitant. And even though he knew it had to be done, a small part of him didn’t want to deal the finishing blow.

“You bastard,” said Geoffrey. “Are you not even going to say anything? After everything we have been through together?”

He had no desire to respond. It seemed too respectful.

Geoffrey gave a hoarse laugh. “What if I told you... that I wouldn’t hurt anyone anymore? In fact, what if I even agreed to help you? I would... I would listen to you--do anything you say.”

Hector’s eyes bulged, and his mouth twisted beneath the helm. He could hardly believe how much those words angered him. He’d tried to remain calm throughout the fight, to not let anything Geoffrey said get to him, but this--this was ridiculous. An appeal to his better nature? As if there was anything which could convince him. After all the murders. All the lives destroyed. All the families.

The motherfucking arrogance.

Rage came rushing back to him, blindingly strong. He almost couldn’t even hear Geoffrey’s next words.

“If you just--kagh--just spared my life... I would do that. Yeah? What do you say?”

“Fuck no.” Hector raised the wall between them, completing the box. He touched the metal with both hands. He could hear Geoffrey shouting from inside.

Hector skewered the box with a dozen metal pillars, all focused with his soul. Geoffrey’s agonized cries still rang out. He added a dozen more. The noise stopped.

He opened the wall. There lay Geoffrey. A crumpled heap with metal bars stuck through it, piercing the chest, neck, skull, stomach, every limb multiple times. The last bit of red shadow shriveled up and evaporated into nothingness.

He stared at the body, waiting, half-expecting it to spring back to life and attack him again. He kept waiting.

Geoffrey was dead. Finally.

Hector breathed. He could only feel so relieved, however. This was not just the proof of Geoffrey’s death. It was also the proof of his father’s. And as that sunk in, as the urgency and adrenaline of battle wore off, Hector slowly broke down.

Hector destroyed the metal around his father’s body and dropped to the floor, unable even to stand. He was exhausted and in pain and nothing made sense. Nothing, except for the fact that everything hurt.

The weight of it all washed over him--a series of horrible waves. His father. His friends. His home. His school. Everything that was supposed to be normal about his life. Everything that was supposed to be safe. He couldn’t think of a single thing that had not been destroyed. Obliterated.

He wept. He didn’t know what else to do. His brain felt numb. He couldn’t sort anything out.

‘Garovel?’ he tried. ‘Are you back yet...? Please be back...’ He waited for a response but received none. He sighed. ‘I could really use your advice right now...’

At length, he remembered Sheryl and Ms. Trent. If nothing else, he could at least go check on them. Maybe he could figure out what to do after that.

Groaning, covered in blood, and clutching his ribcage, Hector struggled to his feet again.