Saphora: vol.1 Retention (The Athena Universe) (21 page)

“
That
house?”

“Yeah …”

“What happened at that house?”

There was a long pause. And Maverick prepared to take back his question, feeling the tension in the air thicken.

“I’m … sorry, I-“

“No,” Saphora said, shaking her head.

She gave a soft smile, looking up at the apologetic Maverick. She gazed into those light brown eyes, and sighed. Her life was changing enough as it were. What would sharing a story with one person do? After all, she doubted that he would believe anything she told him. She looked back at him, then down at the book, before setting it to the side.

“Do you want to go there? I’ll tell you.”

Maverick’s eyes widened, hearing her offer. He didn’t know how to react initially. There was a mixture of excitement, doubt, and curiosity coursing through his thoughts. Excitement was the first thing his emotion decided to act on.

“Really?”

Saphora was silent with her answer, but Maverick heard it loud and clear. He nodded, standing up and looking down at Saphora, who now had her neck craned to look at him.

“Yeah! Sure,” he breathed, adjusting his jacket. “My car is out front.”

********

“You see what I mean, right?” Maverick asked, looking around the living room of the house.

The floor was covered in dirt, leaves, twigs, and bits of rubble from the roof and walls. The walls’ colour was beginning to fade, and the richly decorative paneling was beginning to peel from all directions.
It smelled of damp wood and musk, the house. But Saphora was used to it. Maverick, on the other hand, was not. You could hear it in his voice.

“It really looks like something came crashing through here.”

Saphora made a noise of acknowledgement as she slowly made her way to the kitchen. There was always some anticipation. Some anxiety that her sanctuary would be gone each time she came to visit. But as always, the marble counter was still standing. Her hand grazed the top of the counter as she sighed. She welcomed the dust onto her hand, and even spread her fingers out as she reached the edge.

“Saphora?” Maverick called, coming into the kitchen with her. Saphora turned around, interrupted from her thoughts. “Are you alright?” he asked a little wary. Saphora nodded, taking her hand from the counter and moving to hold her elbows with crossed arms.

“Yeah … Yeah, sorry.” Maverick frowned.

“It must have been bad …” Maverick said, coming a little closer to her. She looked up at him
. “Whatever memory you have of this house,” he clarified. Saphora swallowed the sudden lump in her throat. She gave a nervous laugh and nodded.

“It’s not the best memory …”
she said, looking down at the counter, wanting to wipe the dust off. Maverick was hesitant to ask again for the memory, fearful that she would become angered. So they were silent for about a minute before Saphora finally spoke up again. “Maverick?”

“Yeah?” he answered, almost in the middle of her question.

“You can keep a secret, right?”

Maverick started nodding, but before he could answer, Saphora continued.

“Especially if you telling that secret meant you never seeing me again?”

Maverick’s lungs twitched at the immediate threat of losing the girl he possibly had feelings for. He nodded again, slower this time as his lips pressed into a hard line.

“I won’t tell anyone, Saphora. I swear.”

Saphora looked into his eyes. At the sincerity of his words, and couldn’t help but smile. It was a refreshing thing to see.

“You’re rare, you know,” Saphora said with a slight shake of her head.

“Rare?” Maverick questioned. Saphora nodded, and he chuckled a scoff. “Says the girl with natural anime features.
”

Saphora laughed and shook her head.

“I was born with this. People aren’t born with kindness. Or forgiveness … And they’re even more likely to lose them after having met the world.”

“What have I to forgive you for?” Saphora scoffed.

“So you’re not mad at me for raging at you?” Maverick shook his head. “Not in the slightest?”

“If anything I was afraid. That I’d lost whatever this is before it even got started.”

Saphora blinked, a little stunned by his response. Her mouth hung in a state of hesitation for her next words. Part of her wanted to deny that anything was starting, and part of her wanted to be grateful. She was grateful. That someone would care if she were to be gone from their life. Even after such a small amount of time.

“Thanks …” she mumbled, still staring at him. He smiled and shook his head, sticking his thumbs in his pockets. His shoulders shrugged and he looked away from her, feeling a bit flustered.

“Eh, it’s just the truth.”

“Well thanks for telling it,” she said with a slight nod. “Not enough people admit it, these days. The truth.” Maverick shifted his weight on his feet, breathing in.

“So … What about you?” he asked. Saphora shook her head some, briefly confused. “Are you going to tell me the truth?”

“If you’re going to keep it a secret.”

Maverick nodded silently and Saphora took a deep breath.

“Well, it was raining, and …”
Saphora stopped, mid-sentence. Her eyes wide. She made a sharp turn to her left, her eyes studying the area. She heard a creak. It disobeyed the rhythmic and tuned creaks that constantly echoed throughout the house. And it was only one. It was a creak caused by a pressured weight on the floor. But Maverick and Saphora – they were on tile. Saphora’s heart thrust against her chest as a chill coursed through her. She looked up at Maverick, who was looking over in the direction she once had been.

“What is-“

“Shh,” Saphora urged, cutting him off. She tilted her head in the direction that she had heard the creak. And when she heard it again, her stomach fell.
No
, she thought.
Not here.
She stepped forward with cat-like motions, as she strained to hear anything else. His voice. His breathing. Anything. But what she heard confused her. It was a soft crackling. Both Maverick and Saphora gasped as they saw flames begin crawling into the kitchen. Maverick took several steps back as Saphora stood in horror. There he was.

Tebias.

“Saphora, get back!” Maverick shouted, coming forward to pull her back by her arm. She stumbled backwards, being forced to partially turn towards him during the pull. Her eyes stayed fixed on the flames that started licking up the doorway of the kitchen. She wanted to rush to put them out. To save the house. But what about Maverick? He was about to be in grave danger, if he was not already. Saphora looked past him to the boarded up window above the counter against the wall. With a quick refocusing, the boards were ripped from their positions and flung about the room, leaving the window bare and easy to climb through. Saphora started pushing Maverick backwards, making him stumble slightly.

“Out the window. Climb out of the window!” she urged, pushing him on. He turned around, squinting at the light that was coming from the now clear window frame. He nodded, moving towards it.

“Right.” he said, pulling her along. “Come on!” he said, trying to pull her in front of him. But she shook her head, tugging back and pushing him instead.

“You first,” she said, turning her head to look behind her. Maverick tugged on her harder and Saphora’s feet skid against the grimy tile.

“No way!” he said, reaching his other arm around her waist to pull her forward. And for a moment she was stunned by the little resistance she was able to produce against him. Her mind flashed to Tebias dragging her across the counter top, and proceeding to drag her along the long the floor against her will. She whimpered, her mind momentarily reverting back to her seven year old self. Her eyes went wide as their colour shifted from a ruby red to a glowing white.

“No!” Saphora shouted, unleashing a wave of energy from her
body, and sending Maverick flying through the wall, taking the window out with him. He crashed onto the ground with a thud and rolled into a still stop a few feet from the house. Wind picked up around Saphora for a few seconds before her psyche switched back, and she realized what she had done. She took in a sharp breath of air as she leaned over the counter, trying to peer out of the hole that was now taking the place of the window.

“Maverick … Maverick?!” she shouted down at him.

He was unmoving on the grass. But she could see that he was breathing. She waited for some type of response from him. But instead, she heard a cocky chuckle from behind her. She spun around, anger in her dimming white eyes. She gripped onto the counter behind her as she looked at the entering Tebias. Flames following him like an army.

“Who was that? A lover?” Tebias mocked, acting as if he was peering over her shoulder. “Doesn’t look like you’re treating him very well.” Saphora glared, actually taking a step forward. Her fists balled, surprising Tebias.

“Leave him alone,” she warned, in a voice that was not her own. It was altered by both fear and rage.

“
Don’t be ridiculous, child,” he said in disgust, taking a step forward, and casually removing his leather gloves. “I couldn’t care less about the human. You, on the other hand … Are beginning to ware on my nerves,” he said as his eyes narrowed.

“Yeah? Likewise. My life is falling apart because of you,” Saphora jabbed, spreading her feet apart so that her stance was a little sturdier.

“Your life? And what does your life consist of? Entertaining these humans? Suppressing your power? For what? You have no idea the life you’ve given up. That you’ve cast aside for this pathetic one.”

That made Saphora angry. And her eyes brightened in their whiteness, making Tebias rethink his step forward. He made it seem like Saphora wanted nothing to do with the life she could not remember, which was anything but the truth. All she’d ever wanted was to be able to remember. To be able to remember the face of her mother. Her father. To remember what they were like. To know why she was abandoned. She took another step forward, her fists twitching with her growing rage. He had crossed two lines. Making her hurt someone who actually gave
a darn about her, and accusing her of not caring for those she could not remember. Now she was angry. And Tebias could feel the gust pick up ever so slightly in the room.

“You think I
abandoned
it? All I can remember is you! And that darned night! And it’s ruined any chance of me rebuilding any sort of life! I go to therapy and tell them again and
again
about that night. About
you
. And yet no one believes me when I say you tried to
kill
me,” Saphora raged. Tebias chuckled.

“What a sad story. So you haven’t remembered anything else? Not your mother? Your father …”

“I’m warning you.”

Te
bias laughed.

“Always entertaining, I
’ll give you that much,” he mocked with a sigh. But then his posture changed, becoming more serious. And Saphora’s confidence wavered just a bit. “But unfortunately, I cannot return home without your corpse.” And with that, flames sprouted in the palms of his hands, startling Saphora into taking a step back against the counter. She looked at him with a new fear. She had thought that she could defend herself against any other weapons he had. That she could use her new found control over her gift to keep him at bay, and maybe even defeat him. But seeing the fire sprout from his palm quickly destroyed that thought of hope, and replaced it with despair and fear. He was like her. Different. Mutated somehow. Only his power, she decided, greatly outweighed hers.

“Which means of course, that one of us must die,” he concluded with a smirk, before launching the first ball of fire at Saphora. She screamed and flung herself to the ground behind the counter. The ball flew out of the hole in the wall and hit a tree in the back yard of the property, causing its limbs to burst into flames. Saphora gasped and stumbled to her knees.

“Maverick!” she screamed, gripping the edge of the marble counter top. But before she could curse at Tebias, she felt the sizzling of her flesh from making contact with another fire ball. She cried out, bringing her hand to her chest and curling around it. Tears stung her eyes as the pain crippled her momentarily. There was still no answer from Maverick. Only more laughter from Tebias.

“
Maverick
. What an odd name. Typical of the humans,” Tebias scoffed, stepping closer to the island counter. Saphora sobbed, squeezing her hand against her. She clenched her teeth, unable to respond any other way. She needed to get away. She needed to get Maverick away. She’d be darned if she was the cause of him losing his life. She looked around the kitchen frantically, her eyes stopping on the oven in the corner. She stared at it in thought. She’d never lifted anything that size before. Nor with such the momentum that she would need.

“Maybe I’ll keep him as a pet after I’ve finished with you,” he chuckled.
And then grunted as the stove suddenly made contact with his chest. He tumbled back onto the floor with a growl, his hands coming to either side of the stove. Saphora scrambled to her feet and rushed to jump out of the window. She was unstable because of her hand, but thanks to her manipulation of levitation, she was able to get to the ground beside Maverick. She crawled to his still body and immediately started to shake his shoulder.