The Quiet Ever After

It wasn't the flash of lightning, the thunderous boom, nor the front door blowing in and careening through the living room that got Axel out of bed. Those just woke him up in a fit of slight annoyance. It was the off-glance out the window, where he spotted the burning patch of grass out front, that had him soaring downstairs.

“What?” Nina, his wife, uttered when he was out the door.

He landed with a thud at the base of the stairs, then cut across the house toward the front door. A ghastly figure waited for him next to the embering fireplace in the family room. The mantel was left alone but there was a notable emptiness between it and the TV, where the mythic Sword of Kureon was meant to be. The light of the small fire outside mixed with the moonlight, casting Axel and the vagabond in thick shadow.

“What have you done?” Axel asked, his voice still low from sleep.

The figure raised the blade, catching the glint of their fiery arrival on the shiny blade. Axel couldn't see its face but a familiar sense washed over him. And when they spoke, it confirmed this vagrant’s identity.

Great.

“The impossible,” said Sarzo, a Phantom of the Starlit Plane. “I’ve done what my allies have always been afraid of. I have taken the Sword of Kureon, the blade that slew the Devil and quelled Queen Titania! Now it is mine to at last take our revenge!”

His voice was that of sandpaper slowly churning against a bit of hardened clay. It bore the lunacy of an obsessed creature. Axel had to give him credit for not losing composure—at least he was holding the blade with the respect it deserved. It’d taken quite a bit of time, and considerable amounts of magic, to get that thing forged right.

“No mightier weapon in all creation is there! No foe it cannot slay! And you, little fool, have left it wide open for me!”

Anxiety brewed in Axel. He bounced on the balls of his feet, chancing another look outside. Was the fire spreading? No. No!

“Alright, enough of this,” Axel muttered and fell into an old stance. For a split second, his muscles responded in confusion--they hadn't done this in a while. But once that instantaneous moment passed, an unnerving calm overcame Axel. One that he wished he didn't need to have anymore.

“Indeed. You thought the war was over. You rested for too long and allowed peace to weaken you while I sharpened my mind for this one victorious moment!”

The Phantom lunged. Axel did the same, and in a fluid movement, disarmed Sarzo with a flick of his wrist.

“Huh?” Sarzo peeped before Axel blasted him square in the chest with magic, smashing the Phantom into the street outside through the already-open door.

Before he could brace to his elbows, Axel was on him, eyes ablaze with golden light. Sarzo didn’t make another sound as Axel swung his arm, another spell catching Sarzo in a net, and flung him away, sending him hurtling into the next great source of magic.

The heat of the moment, lasting no more than a second or two, passed.

“Oh, wait,” Axel muttered. The next great source of magic was...yup, that was probably his sister. Something warm nudged his back.

No time to call her! She'd deal with Sarzo probably better than Axel could.

He spun on his heels, and with another swing of his arm, a spell of great wind quenched the flames dancing atop the once-perfect green grass.

His heart dropped as he inspected the lawn. A brown patch stared back at him, with blotches of its presence staining other nearby parts of the turf. Sarzo’s unnecessarily cantankerous arrival did minimal damage outside of that area, but it was right there at the front of the house, obvious for anyone to see.

Axel rested his hands on his hips and lowered his head. “Just perfect.”

The Phantom didn’t even have the decency to land in the garden and maybe even hit the house with some of his magic. Ideal? No, of course not, but at least that could be easily patched and replaced with a few utterances of magic. The grass would need mending and tending, a complete replacement. Reviving it was just out of the question.

Why now? Why couldn’t Sarzo have waited two more weeks? What difference was it going to make? Or, if that idiot knew the blade wasn’t that well guarded, why not go after it before, like in the summer when the lawn was easy to bring back?

Nina emerged in her robe with her phone out, though the light coming down on Axel actually came out of her hands, only appearing to be from her phone. She rubbed the sleep away from her eyes.

“Oh, Axel,” she muttered, stepping over the sword. “Is it bad?”

“We’ll need to replace this piece here ,” Axel muttered. “I can head to the store in the morning.”

Nina rested a hand on his shoulder. “I’m sorry. Do you need the car? I can teleport to work tomorrow.”

Axel shook his head. “I don’t mind the walk to the store, I’ll just have to head out early in the morning. Damn it. I was going to go visit Geoff in the morning to see how he’s doing, maybe play him in cards. I owe him a game.”

She rubbed his shoulder. “Anything I can do to help?”

“Mind stopping by Geoff’s house in the morning to check on him?”

Nina nodded. “Absolutely. But I can’t play him in cards.”

“I know. Work.”

“Oh, no. Last time we played he kicked my ass so bad I almost flipped the table. We agreed that we need a third party around.”

Made sense. Nina was fun to play with but a sore loser in a tight game. Geoff was one who liked to toy with his opponents, always knowing from the first for second turn how he was going to win. He was a silly little old man like that.

Axel sighed. “Not much we can do about this—oh, wait, you sense that?”

Nina nodded. Sarzo was on his way back, incredibly. He soared right toward them in a direct path. Ah. Wait. It was the same spell. Linda was just returning the favor Axel sent her way.

“Not enough time to call for a banishing spell, is there?” he asked.

“Did you use the magic-magnet spell on him? Really? You and your sister haven’t seen or heard from each other in how long and your first interaction is this?”

“It was an accident.”

Nina rolled her eyes. Sarzo’s form was visible in the streetlights. “No time for it. Sword?”

“Don’t want to make a mess,” Axel said.

Nina shrugged and generated magic in her hands. She raised them, focused, and Sarzo halted in the air, frozen in Nina’s spell. He cried out as the aura tightened around him.

“Okay, knock him out, I can call Deb and—”

Sarzo shouted once more, straining against Nina’s spell. She flinched.

“Man, I’m out of practice,” Nina muttered.

Phantoms were notoriously slippery. Best way to deal with them was to either kill them or to find a way of removing their soul entirely. Containing them? Not so great, but, it was better than making a potential mess on the streets of a quaint little neighborhood that was slowly rousing from the quick burst of lightning.

“Okay, let me try—”

“Nina? Axel? That you?”

Both of their concentrations snapped. Axel and Nina spun on their heels to the direction of the voice. Sarzo made no noise, but Axel sensed that he vanished, slinking into the shadows to, likely, come back soon and try some mischief again.

Geoff stood under his porch-light. He looked around, sleepily, for the two of them. He rested one hand on the wall and the other had a tight grip on his cane.

“I heard lightning but there’s no storm,” Geoff called again. “Is that you?”

The two jogged to the old man’s house, careful not to step on his lawn. Delightful as it was to see their friend, it was also the dead of night. Geoff was the last person who needed to be up this early getting so little sleep.

“Yeah, we came outside to take a look,” Axel said. “Looks like our lawn was on the unfortunate end of it.”

Geoff smiled meekly. He already looked thinner, more out of it, than he had in the morning. Nina sucked in a breath at the sight of it. Axel didn’t let the sting of it find its way into his face or voice. Geoff was the type to worry when other people worried about him. Geoff gave them a hearty cough, one surprisingly strong given his shape, and then brought back his grin.

“And I thought I saw—ah. Well. I’m seeing lots of things these days. Hearing them, too. Guess my body’s not the only thing falling apart these days.”

He tapped his head with the hand not braced against the wall and wavered. Axel stepped forward, quick, to help Geoff.

“Here,” Axel said. “Let us help you inside.”

Geoff rested his weight on them. “Thank you. Strange about that lightning. Oh. Was someone else with you?”

“Yeah,” Nina said. “You did. Some kid, I think, couldn’t get a good look at him.”

“Was he glowing?”

Axel chuckled. It helped ease Geoff up a bit. They entered the house, Nina following behind the two of them to help in case Geoff stumbled back. They moved by old furniture, stepping over floorboards squeaking happily to have old friends return. Pictures of a younger, healthier, Geoff and his wife, Carol, dotted the place. Memory seeped out of the walls.

They settled Geoff in bed upstairs.

“Make sure you get to the store first thing in the morning, Axel,” Geoff said. “It’s when they have all of the good sod out there.”

“I will,” Axel said.

“Mind if I stop by in the morning?” Nina asked. “I can bring a bit of breakfast?”

“Are we going to play cards?” Geoff asked. He tried to suppress a cough but couldn’t. He waved it off, as if it were just a nuisance, and not the calling of what was to come.

Nina nodded in response, words failing her.

Geoff let his twinkly-eyed grin let them know they were free to go back home. Yet, the two lingered, just a moment longer, until he fell asleep. But he didn’t stay that way. Axel and Nina walked with naturally light feet, certainly light enough for Geoff to miss it.

The old man reached to his nightstand, grasped a picture of Carol there, happily smiling in the moonlight, and brought it close to his chest. Sleep claimed him, and Axel and Nina waited one more moment to ensure the rising and falling of his chest would continue before heading out.