Mylo’s heartbeat sounded back into existence with a bang. Everything flashed into view. He was upright with his head hung down. He couldn’t move. Any movement would disrupt the balance of his numb body. His feet stood on the cobbles of the street. They weren’t on the roof anymore. He tried to lift his heavy head upwards to look around him, to look at Willow.

“Willow?” He sputtered out. 

“Don’t hurt me!” Willow yelled, followed by soft sobs.

“I’m not- Willow what’s happening?” He asked. He managed to lift his head a little higher and tried to observe his surroundings. 

Around him, where there should’ve been several guards, was a large, dark, dusty mark on the stones of the road. He stood at its center. It moved outward from him with a radius of about two meters. On the rim to his right was the singular body of a guard. His chest rose and fell slowly in his unconscious state. His fingers twitched where he lay, like he had just been electrified by a bolt of lightning. 

“Where did the guards go?” Mylo asked, scared of the answer he was about to receive. 

“I don’t know,” Willow squeaked out. “We were falling, and then you..." She trailed off.

Mylo looked up at the roof they had fallen from. It looked so high up, there was no way they could’ve made the fall without even minor injuries. Willow’s dad was no longer up there. He was probably rushing down there, intent on saving his daughter.

Mylo took his first steps as he began to regain feeling in his muscles. He turned to where he had heard Willow’s voice. She had pressed herself up against a wall of one of the buildings.

“I’m sorry,” he muttered.

“Maybe it's too dangerous, whatever’s inside you,” she replied. “I don’t think I can handle this.”

"Please, Willow, I need to save my brother,” Mylo pleaded.

“Is this what you did to him?” Willow questioned, looking down at the dark circle around him.

“I didn’t do anything to him,” Mylo replied. “That wasn’t me.”

“I know,” she cried, “but it's a part of you now.”

"Willow, if we don’t go, there’s no saying what it’ll do to your dad when he gets here,” Mylo argued. He felt bad for saying it, like he was forcing her hand. 

“Dammit, and what about me?” Willow questioned. “How am I supposed to know I'm safe?”

“It spared you, didn’t it?” Mylo questioned. “You’re not dead.”

Willow looked up to him with teary eyes. 

“I won’t let it hurt you,” Mylo added, trying to instill even the littlest bit of confidence into his answer. “Now let’s go before your dad gets here.”

Willow wiped her tears from her eyes. “Dammit, hurry,” she mustered. “Just stay back from me, ok?”

Mylo nodded. He understood her caution. He didn’t even know the full capability of his newfound powers or what she must’ve seen.

They trekked back into the backstreets. They were still silent, empty, but it wouldn’t be long now. They had increased their bounty by at least tenfold following that incident. There was no doubt that every single guard, no matter their rank, would be out searching for them. The question was, how many would be brave enough to approach them?

Mylo’s muscles hurt less now. He wasn’t sure if it was because of the lingering numbness that dulled his pain or if the possession of the monster had somehow refreshed them. He recalled when he had awoken following Fenn’s disappearance. Weak sure, but painful maybe not, at least not physically. 

Willow didn’t turn down any of the side streets. She was headed to the end of this one, where the black bars of the capital gates blocked their path. Willow unsheathed her knife as they neared. 

Mylo turned his head behind them to make sure they weren’t being chased. To his misfortune, he could make out the red figure of Willow’s father in the distance. He was far away, but that could change quickly. 

Willow came to a halt at the gate. She started to saw at one of the obsidian bars with her blade. “There’s another knife sheathed on the back of my waistband,” she said. 

Mylo hesitated for a moment, remembering what she had said about staying back, but in this case he figured there was no choice. Mylo searched her, frantically trying to locate the tool. He first pulled out a compass from the holster on her right side. He shoved it back in.

“Other side,” Willow mentioned.

He could figure that out. Mylo reached around her and pulled at the leather sheath, removing the small blade. He didn’t take any time to examine it and crouched below Willow, sawing at the base of the bar.

Passersbys from the central loop on the other side had taken notice of the commotion. Many stopped to watch. Others retreated from the area, not wanting to be implicated. Caskor was typically an uneventful place. It wasn’t odd that they were unsure of what to do. 

Mylo wasn’t worried about the guards they would call over. If anything, it was Willow’s father that would catch them first. With what little time they had, Mylo was realizing that the blade she had allotted him was designed for no more than stealth. It did not have near the sturdiness to saw away bars.

“Willow, stay away from that boy!” her father yelled behind them.

Mylo tried to gauge how far he was. The yell did not sound all too distant. He heard a snap above him, followed by the vibrating of the metal bar. Willow had cut through her half.

Mylo ducked as Willow backed up and came in with a kick to the bar, trying to knock it over. The first try wasn’t a success, but it weakened the point Mylo was trying to cut away at. With back and forth movements, he tried to push the silver blade through the bar. 

“Willow!!” her father yelled again.

The loud voice was close enough to bounce around Mylo’s eardrums. He was approaching quicker than Mylo had estimated. If Willow didn’t kick down the bar in this attempt, he would catch them.

Willow backed up once more and jumped with a flying kick over Mylo’s head, just grazing the top of his curls. 

The bar snapped off, clanging down on the other side. 

The onlookers in the street backed away as Willow tried to squeeze her way through the slim opening. She managed to twist through it and collapsed down beside the bar on the other side.

Mylo leaped up and tried to pull himself through. He felt a yank on his sleeve. Mylo snapped back around, clanging his head against one of the bars as he did.

Willow’s father had grabbed hold of him, trying to pull him back through the gate. His ripe tomato face was twitching with fury as he continuously yanked at Mylo to pull him back in. Mylo could feel the fabric of his uniform stretch.

“You little brat, stay away from my daughter!” He yelled.

“Let him go,” she answered, gripping onto Mylo’s other sleeve.

“He’s dangerous!” He screamed.

Like a game of tug-of-war, they yanked him back and forth. In the game of strength, Mylo didn’t know how Willow would beat out her dad. He could see his muscles bulging under the well-decorated uniform. 

“You’ll kill him!” Willow yelled back at him.

“He’ll kill you!” he responded. 

Their battle of strength had another factor: the strength of the fabric in Mylo’s uniform. With one final yank from Willow’s father, Mylo’s entire sleeve ripped off his arm, causing Willow’s father to tumble down to the ground.

Mylo fell forward, collapsing on top of Willow. He raised his head, coming face to face with her, meeting her caramel eyes. He could feel her body heat igniting a fire inside him. It burned.

“Hey, you might want to get up,” a familiar voice mentioned. It was Karn.

Willow shoved Mylo off of her and got to her feet. 

Karn reached down, and Mylo grabbed his hand from under his sleeve. 

Mylo glanced around. A larger audience had gathered around them, awestruck by everything that had just occurred. It was about to get bigger with the two sets of guards running towards them from opposite sides of the central loop. 

“Willow,” her father started, “he’s a monster. You have no idea what you’re doing." He was grabbing onto the bars inside the gate, his body far too big to fit through the skinny gap.

"No, dad, for the first time I think I do,” Willow responded. 

“Great! Can we get moving?” Karn chimed in, pulling them to escape away from the enclosing guards. 

Willow turned away from her father, and they began to push their way through the crowd of people.