Read [BL]Broken Wing Display :: Chapter Four(2)

Up ahead of him Dae could hear scraping and cracking noises. There was a muffled impact sound and an inhuman shriek. Dae exited the alleyway just in time to see Rowan’s summons thrown to the ground and demanifest. Dae’s eyes went to where it was thrown from.

It hadn’t just been an effect of the unstable connection making the creature flicker. Its physical being seemed unstable. While it was possible Senna had neglected mentioning this unnerving detail, it was far more likely that Kris had commanded it to ‘go away’ at some point. A phrase like that, infused with panicked energy, could start shredding a being's existence.

The creature charged at Dae, who side stepped it while taking in the surroundings. The pile of overturned crates caught his eyes. The dust around them was disturbed and the sun faded sides faced different directions. Dae didn’t see any signs of blood which he hoped meant Kris had used them as a shield and not been crushed by them.

“Kris?” He called out as the creature charged him again. This time he pressed towards it and knocked it back. He began forming a sword from his aluminum bar, “My name is Esper Kane, I’m here to help. Senna told me where to find you.”

A box shifted to the side. Dae saw small fingers curled around it, “Senna and Mandy are safe?”

Dae wanted to answer but Kris’ movement made the entire pile of crates unsteady. Dae could see and sense them caving in on little Kris. He fully pulled his focus from the creature and used all of the nails in the boxes to hold them upright. They were heavy enough to put significant strain on Dae’s abilities.

As he was distracted the creature sunk its arms into Dae’s back. Dae let out a grunt of pain and Kris shrieked. She pushed her way out and ran out towards Dae.

“No!” Dae yelled. His hold on the boxes broke less than a second after Kris extracted herself. The creature’s short arms dug into Dae’s back, ripping at his muscles and pumping some kind of poison into his body. Dae’s sword fell from his twitching fingers.

The creature's legs lifted up and began to contort. It had more joints than a person should. All of them creaked and cracked as they wrapped around Dae’s arms, immobilizing him. Dae fell to his knees and bit his lip to stop himself from screaming.

“Please Kris, go the way I came from.” Dae wriggled his watch out from where his arms were pinned together and tossed it towards her, “That watch will tell the other Espers where you are and they can get you out ok?” Before Kris could respond, Dae threw himself as far away from her as he could, landing on his back and pressing the creature's arms even further into his body. This time he wasn’t able to suppress his scream of pain.

Kris didn’t move to pick up the watch. Instead she took another step towards Dae. Dae shook his head and opened his mouth to yell at her again.

“Don’t-”

The moment she spoke, both Dae and the creature were rendered motionless. Her mental hold on him was absolute. He couldn’t even open his mouth to warn her to be careful choosing her words.

Her icy gaze fell on the creature poking out from under Dae. Dae knew she would try to compel it. Dae hoped she’d been taught what precautions to take when giving commands.

“Kill yourself!”

She didn’t know. The beast’s arms pulled out of Dae’s back and he heard a squelching sound as the creature drove its arms into its own body over and over. After a moment the legs holding Dae in place went slack. No longer restrained, Dae felt the command pulling him up like an obedient puppet.

The rings he had created to calm Kris’ sisters became a knife again and he began to struggle against the desire to bring it up to his own throat. He looked at Kris who was staring at him in complete horror.
“B-but I didn-”

“I know sweetie, you were trying to help. Please, I need you to tell me to stop. Can you do that for me?”

Kris swallowed nervously and opened her mouth before collapsing. Dae was hardly able to register the wound on her leg creating a pool of blood around her before he began to feel his own knife biting through the flesh on his neck. His world went dark and the last thing he thought of was Nox. Nox’s gentle smile as Dae had rushed off, leaving him again. Figures he would die the moment he found his guide again.

----Dae 7 years old----

“Where’s your guardian sweetie?” The soft spoken receptionist looked at Dae with gentle pity-tinged patience. She was new at this clinic, had to be since all the other workers would recognize Dae.

Right on que another receptionist leaned over and tapped her on the shoulder, “Tina, that’s Helena’s kid,” She turned her attention to Dae, “Do you have your mom’s badge sweetie?”

Dae nodded silently. Sliding it over the counter towards Grace, a worker he knew well. She smiled at him placatingly. It was an expression he was used to. He assumed they’d look at any of the Esper kids with guide parents that way.

She looked over her clipboard and instructed Dae to go to chair c7. He nodded and mumbled out a thank you. For some reason it got hard to speak when the workers looked at him like that. It felt like his throat was full of stuffing and he had trouble swallowing. But he always tried his best, these ladies were like his mom so they must be just as tired.

He realized he’d forgotten his book right after he sat down. He rummaged through his backpack and pouted over its absence. Each chair had a tablet slotted in the right arm but Dae didn’t like reading on the tablets, the light made the headache from the transfusions worse.

In the absence of a book to entertain himself, Dae pulled out two metal balls he kept in his bag. Adults didn’t like Espers using their abilities unsupervised. They said corruption built too fast in little bodies. But the staff liked his little tricks and said if he was going to use his powers right before a transfusion was the best time to do it.

The two spheres clicked against each other as he rotated them in his hand. He tried his best to focus on them. His teachers said metal manipulation was hard because metal was everywhere and it took a lot of focus to specify what you wanted to use your powers on.

To Dae it felt like vibrations in a spider web. He knew his power had locked onto his intended goal when he started to feel vibrations filling out its shape. The two spheres hummed in his palm then lifted out of it. He could still feel them as if they’d never left his hand. His eyes narrowed with focus as the balls click-clacked one over the other, building up in the air like a sports team stacking their fists.

A nurse, a guide, stopped in front of Dae’s chair. He was tall and thin. If he weren’t so tall Dae would have worried he was too young to be a guide. His face was soft and covered in acne, he looked like the middle schoolers who sat behind Dae on the bus. His tag said “James.”

“Hello Dae! Still making sure we’ve got plenty of corruption to cleanse, I see.” Dae looked away, the balls fell back into his open palm and the nurse chuckled. He set down several packets with various supplies for setting up a peripheral IV. Dae held out his left arm facing up and clenched his fist over and over again to get the blood pumping.

“Didn’t we use the left last time?” James looked over Dae’s chart, frowning.

Dae looked at him and nodded silently before pulling up his right sleeve to show the bandage wrapped around it. James flinched and whistled sympathetically.

“What happened? You’re always so well behaved, I just can’t imagine you getting into trouble like that.”

Dae sighed as he considered whether or not to answer the question. James' concerned expression pushed past Dae’s embarrassment. It was clear where James’ mind had gone and Dae couldn’t bear his moms coworkers making that kind of assumption about her.

“Was trying to cook myself something. Tried to reach across the burner. The chair I was standing on wobbled and I fell.”

James’ frown deepened. Dae wondered if he should have just lied.

“Want me to look at it? Burns are serious business. I know Esper’s are heartier than other people but you can still get infections.”

Dae wanted nothing less than for James to undo his bandage and see just how bad the burn was. If James saw it meant Dae’s mother would hear about it. Dae had done such a good job hiding it from her. She didn’t need any more to worry about.

“Don’t tell my mom,” Dae mumbled as he offered out the injured limb. James gave Dae a sympathetic smile that clearly told Dae he would not be honoring the request. Not that Dae really expected him to.

The burn was along the inner part of Dae’s arm. It stretched from mid forearm, past his elbow, and almost to his armpit. James hissed as he unwound Dae’s pathetic attempt at bandaging the area. He shook his head and pulled a few patches from the dresser next to the chair. He ripped it open and carefully plastered it over part of the burn. He repeated this with the other bandages, overlapping them to fully cover the area.

“Dae that’s going to scar. You should have told your mom as soon as it happened.”

Dae looked away and remained silent. Fully aware that nothing he said would make him or his mother look good. James shifted to Dae’s left side and Dae laid his arm back on the armrest. James stayed silent as he tied the band around Dae’s arm and disinfected the vein. Dae was thankful for the peace.

The needle breaking Dae’s skin stopped hurting a while ago. He was a big boy and he’d been getting these treatments for a long time, long enough to have permanently damaged some of his veins. The taste of Saline filled Dae’s mouth and he breathed a sigh of relief that he wouldn’t have to be stabbed again.

His tired eyes followed the thick red liquid racing along the saline filled line, chasing the clear liquid away until the entire line was solid red. James told Dae that he was all set and promised to check on Dae again in fifteen minutes.

The two metal spheres were still in his hand. He opened his fist and saw that they’d been crushed down, shaped to fill the spaces between his fingers and palm. It was always easier to shape metal when he put it in his hands. He’d imagine it was clay and knead at it until it took the shape he wanted. Unfortunately, the contours of Dae’s fingers had made sharp ridges. Dae frowned and focused on rounding the shape out once again so he could put it back in his bag.

An alarm went off next to Dae. He whipped his head to the side and saw his pump flashing two warnings

“Increasing Corruption”

“Ineffective Guiding”

James was at his side in an instant. He turned off the alarms and put a hand over Dae’s head. An icy feeling spread from where James’ hand rested. Dae shivered and James frowned.

“The infusion isn’t helping…”

Dae stood and tentatively grabbed the bag to better read it. Instantly, Dae was able to find the issue. It was in the 'provided by’ section. The ID number who’d donated the blood was listed as Guide 141, Helena Kane.

James caught on fast and grabbed the bag to check for himself. He cursed under his breath and pressed a button on his watch. A tech came running up, looking nervous.

“You gave him his mom’s blood. Is it that hard to check the damn chart? Now his stats are up even more.” The tech sputtered out an apology to both James and Dae before wandering off presumably to get a new bag.

“We don’t have any other A+ that isn’t from 141.” The tech looked at James as if bracing to be blamed for the shortage. James just shook his head and grabbed a rolling stool that he situated next to Dae.

James offered out a hand and Dae took it reluctantly. That icy feeling spread up his arm, making it achingly numb. He scrunched his nose up and pressed his eyes closed, facing away from James. After a minute or so he opened his eyes again.

To Dae’s horror, James looked terrible. His head was wobbly and his eyes were unfocused. He kept blinking like he was trying to refocus but the more he tried the more detached he looked. Dae pulled his hand away and held it against his chest. James, disturbed by the motion, toppled forward into Dae’s lap.

In spite of Dae’s best efforts, a wail clawed its way out of his chest. The tech from earlier rushed over and hauled James off of Dae. He put an arm under one of James’ and looked at Dae fearfully.

“Uhh, I’ll send someone to help you in a second…” Then he rushed out, supporting James who limped along with him.

Dae stared down at his hands despondently.

The help that the tech promised ended up being Grace from the front desk. She walked over and gently led him to a chair behind the desk with her.

“Sweetie, I think we’re gonna need to send you a town over. You know how to ride the bus right?” Dae nodded, swinging his legs so the spinny chair swayed back and forth.

“I’m gonna call the center in Haleway. I’ll make sure they have someone waiting for you at the bus stop. Here…” She scribbled on a sticky note, “Give this to the bus driver. It’s got my phone number so if they have questions tell them to call me. The center will cover your ticket so don’t let them charge you!”

Dae nodded mutely. She had always been kind to him. It was nice she was putting so much effort into making him feel safe. Why did it make him feel so hollow? Grace handed him his mother’s badge while she spoke to the center in Haleway. Dae didn’t pay much attention to the conversation, just the way Grace glanced at him nervously.

He shouldn’t have played with his marbles. If he’d just sat still like they said James wouldn’t be sick and Dae wouldn’t have to ride the bus to Haleway. Grace wouldn’t have to look so sad and anxious.

The wait at the bus stop felt eternal and nonexistent all at once. When he stepped up on the bus steps the driver frowned at him and he handed over the note. Her face got sad just like Grace’s had.

“Sit right behind me sweetie,” She said gently. The person who had been occupying that seat glanced over and smiled at Dae softly before moving to make room for him.

Dae didn’t like how everyone could tell what he’d done. He didn’t know what was on the note. He’d been too tired to read it. It must have been bad since the bus driver had to keep an eye on him and the passenger was too scared to sit with him.

He took the seat that had been cleared for him and turned to face forward. His fingers clasped around the metal bar on the back of the seat and it crumpled under his touch. He shot up and fell backwards, glancing around frantically.

Tears started to sting at his eyes, made worse when the driver turned back and noticed what he’d done.

Would Grace be disappointed in him for being kicked off the bus too? Would she stop being nice to him and giving him candy? Would his mom decide to switch back to the night shift to punish him?