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Fury
Volume II: Thunder
By: J. Dill
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I hesitated, but only because I was shocked. I was still going to kill him. I didn’t care about who he was or the connection he bore to my son. In fact, I hated that connection. Ego was who he was. Evil. Sadistic. Unchanging. None of that mattered. My son was better off without him.
But I waited one second too long. A microscopic fraction of my hesitation was Ego’s lifeline. He slipped out from under me and sped away before I could end him.
“Fuck!”
Almost as soon as the frustrated exclamation left my lips, I heard a voice from the bushes, “You almost had ’em. Why’d you stop?”
I turned around to see a small figure with wispy, straw-colored hair emerging from behind the bush. Pale as a ghost. But their countenance was nowhere near afraid. Curious. They were quite curious, a stranger, yet something in them was terribly familiar. Whether I actually knew them or not, I remembered that sometimes it’s easier to give answers to strangers, especially answers I was curious about too.
“I guess I was surprised.”
“Surprised that you have a son?” They were speaking facetiously.
I sighed. “Obviously not. I was only surprised that he knew.”
“Oh. Did that change your mind about killing him?”
“No.”
“Then I guess we’re back to square one. Why’d you stop?”
I knew the answer was there, I just had to listen to myself for a moment. It was only then that I realized the flaming sword I had created was bursting brighter and hotter the longer I held it. Ego slipped away, but the vengeful energy he called forth from me had not.
I analyzed the stranger with their pale, almost translucent skin glowing in my firelight. But they weren’t pale like Ego. No, I knew this stranger wasn’t sick like him. They were more like a ghost, a creature who could slip in and out of dimensions as they pleased. As I saw my own light reflected off their skin, the answer to their question came.
“I wanted to know how he knew about the son I shared with him. I never said a word. And I never intended to. Only three other people in my life knew of his existence. And they would never betray me.”
“But someone did,” the stranger answered.
“Someone did,” I called back.
“But would he ever tell you who it was?”
“No.”
“Not unless you were backed into a corner?”
“Right. Only if there were some way he could use the knowledge to hurt me. He wouldn’t tell me until I was on the edge of death, or somehow trapped somewhere by him. Only if I were ever in a position where he could hurt me.”
“Would it hurt you if he got to your son?”
“Yes.”
“Why? He wouldn’t hurt him would he? Even something as evil as that monstrosity wouldn’t harm his own child. I sensed it, he wouldn’t.”
And I sensed that this stranger somehow already knew the answers to the questions they were asking. Their motives extended beyond curiosity. Since I was intrigued, and I had a feeling her motives were not malevolent, I extinguished the flames on my sword. “I suppose that depends on how you define harm. Maybe Ego would never physically harm my son, but he would poison him from the inside out, warp his mind to believe his father could do no wrong, or, if he did do wrong, his purpose was justified.”
“He’s a weed.”
“Yes. Nothing but a weed. An invasive one. So, no, I don’t want him near my son ever. And I don’t think he’ll try to find him. Not now. Someday, maybe if it were profitable for him.”
“Is your son powerful like him? Or, I suppose more importantly, like you?”
I grinned. “That’s a story for another time. After all, you are a stranger.”
“Fair enough. But if you’re up for sitting with me for a while, I’d love to know what you want to do now.”
“Okay, I’ll light a fire. I’m pretty good with such things, as I am sure you can imagine.”
“As you’re sure I’ve seen,” they responded while grinning and coming closer to my side.
“You have seen quite a bit, haven’t you? And now that you already know too much of my story, may I perhaps at least have your name?”
“Mâyacihkos.[1]
... But call me, Maya.”
