Children of a Lesser God

Chapter 76: Spirit

Laz just calmly laid his head on the counter and without saying a word, bashed his head on it a few times. Malene looked on with a weird look on her face, wondering what Laz's problem was. At no point did it occur to her that he would act in this manner. Considering the way their interactions had been up until now, she just thought he would flat out refuse and ask her to leave. Even she knew that he didn't have any reason to help her, but she still had to come. As far as she was concerned, he really was the only one she could turn to. It made her angry and hesitant at the same time, but she had never been one to just give up and so here she was. She was expecting a fight or to have to plead a bit with him, maybe even just pay him off. She wasn't expecting this.

Laz was actually just trying to knock some sense into himself as it felt like maybe he had missed something, or better yet, trying to knock himself out so that he didn't have to deal with this. Unfortunately, fate was laughing at him since the counter was hard, but his head was harder. Sadly, he actually figured something out about it that made him stop. Although he hated to admit it, apparently a bit of head trauma made him think straight.

"So, what is it?" Laz asked with a defeated look.

"You... You already have some idea, don't you?" She said back as though a bit amazed he had figured something out. In her mind, boys were idiots. They were mentally slow and only thought about girls. She figured her dad was the only exception and her mom was lucky to have found him.

Sigh- Laz really wanted to ask her a bunch of questions, like what her problem was? Why was she always hounding him? What the hell was with the Jeckel and Hyde she pulled at the restaurant? Why was she so pissed off that night in the abandoned store concerning him and Kennedy? He had so many questions... but he figured fuck it. He really didn't care to figure this girl out. In fact, the sooner he could be rid of her, the better he would be.

"You've got some problem you can't go to the school, police or your parents about or you wouldn't be here, therefore it can only be related to our powers, right?" Laz had figured this out while trying to knock himself unconscious.

Malene was startled as she looked at him with her mouth open a bit. Apparently, she didn't think he was this bright.

"Umm, yeah, actually." She finally responded when she came to.

Laz had two things he hated himself for right now. One, this girl was quite cute when she wasn't talking and two, he was considering helping her. Weither or not thing two had something to do with thing one, he didn't really want to figure it out. He didn't think he was attracted to her after all as he couldn't help but compare her to Kennedy. Kennedy was like a warm spring day with a cool breeze but thunder clouds that came and went at times. Sure, things could get stormy, but for the most part, you just felt good about it. In fact, the changes added a flavor of excitement to the whole package. On the other hand, this girl was like a burning hot summer day that just gets under your skin and makes you feel uncomfortable. It really only looked good from inside an air conditioned room.

"What?" Laz was just asking. In truth, he might help, but if it was going to be too difficult, he felt he might not.

"There's... this... thing. Around my house. I know it's there... Like it's stalking me. I first felt it when I took off my bracelet one night. Maybe that's when it first noticed me. It was like... being surrounded by fear and having death close in on you. My spirits were terrified..."

"Wait wait wait... your spirits were terrified? What the hell does that mean?" Laz said, wondering what the hell she was getting at.

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"Oh... uh... I..." Malene seemed like she didn't want to answer. She stared at Laz like a frightened kitten that had made a mistake. It was a whole new experience for Laz.

'Seriously, this girl is way to cute,' He couldn't help but think, yet again.

"Look, you want my help? Your going to have to explain things. Otherwise, you might as well just leave. I'm not going into something I don't understand." Laz tried to clarify his intentions. Whatever this girl's problem was in the past, she seemed like a completely different person now. He couldn't help but take a deep breath and think a bit.

Maybe Laz was a bit more forgiving that he used to be. Maybe he had matured a bit after the thing with Kennedy as well. Growing up wasn't just about getting older, it was about gaining experience. After everything that had happened, Laz felt that maybe he should keep his cool a bit more. There is no telling what this girl's story is so even if he didn't like her, he felt that maybe he shouldn't just dismiss her either.

So Laz didn't say anything. He felt that this was something she should decide for herself. Tell him and maybe get his help or leave and forget the whole thing.

Malene didn't speak for a while and just kept her head lowered as though she was fighting with herself. Although the silence dragged on, Laz waited.

After a bit of time passed, she finally raised her head and looked at him. Those hazel eyes seemed to be calm and determind. It seemed she had made up her mind.

Without saying a word, Malene raised her hand and laid her palm flat in front of her. She then started speaking words that seemed like gibberish to Laz, over and over again. Finally, Laz saw a light starting to form in her palm. In barely a moment, Laz used his sense and focused on the point of light. If he had to describe it, it was like a singular point of pure energy that was slowly expanding. He could see the energy start to twist and spin in a way that was similar to how he circulated his energy, but while he used himself as a guide path, she was using this light in her hand.

Slowly, the energy stopped forming and became a tiny person. Due to the size and characteristics, it was hard to call it male or female, but it was dressed in what looked like a blue tunic or dress with white hair down to it's shoulders and rather sparkly wings that unfolded from it's back. It looked like a perfectly made little doll, until it started speaking..

"I'm a spirit," was all it said. The voice was rather androgynous and there was still no way to tell it's gender, but the voice was still very sweet to hear.

"Da fuck?" Laz's entire vocabulary seemed to escape at the moment this little thing popped out. The fact that he could even say something was rather good progress.

"This is Aqua. Spirit's don't have genders so you can't call it a he or she and calling it an it sounds rather rude so instead, I just call this spirit Aqua," Malene explained.

The little creature shook it's wings a bit before flapping them and talking off from Malene's hand. It hovered in the air before coming over and flying around Laz, as though inspecting him. It then flew back to hover around Malene's head before saying in it's sweet little voice,

"This thing looks stupid. Are you sure it can help us?" It asked the girl.

"Hey now, don't be rude. It's not like we have much of a choice," Malene replied back in a bad attempt to defend Laz.

"What's the point? Hey, wait. You're thinking we can feed him to the monster and get it to leave us alone? That's a wonderful idea." The little spirit beamed as though it had just figured out her idea. Laz could feel his eyebrow start twitching uncontrollably as he watched them and listened in on the conversation.

"No, that's not the plan. Now shush. He can't hear you, but that doesn't make it right to suggest something like that." Malene calmly explained while pointing her finger at Aqua.

"Please. I know you must of had that thought somewhere up there since it is a possible choice. You're too smart not to have thought about it," the spirit fired back while poking it's finger into Malene's. She just smiled but didn't deny it.

"WHAT THE HELL IS WITH THE LITTLE TALKING PERSON THAT WANTS TO FEED ME TO A MONSTER?!?!" Laz lost it. It lost it hardcore.

Let's drop the fact that it's a little talking person...

That can fly...

And called me stupid...

And appear out of a light on your hand...

But now it wants to feed me to this monster?

AND YOU'VE CONSIDERED IT???

This time, both Malene and Aqua stared at Laz as though they'd been struck stupid.

Neither side moved, apparently from shock.

The little spirit seemed to be the first one to recover it's senses as it flew over to Laz's face and started waving it's hands around.

"YES, I can see you waving your hands around, that a problem?" Laz asked, confirming it's actions.

"How can you see me?"

"Why do you want to feed me to this frightening creature?"

"You'd be more filling that my mistress?"

"How the hell is that an answer?"

"You asked the question, don't blame me for the answer." The spirit looked indignant.

"Don't blame me for smacking you with a fly swatter."

"You want to go? Bring it on big boy." The little spirit adopted a fighting stance as though it was going to attack him.

Malene, finally coming back to, looked at Laz and Aqua going back and forth before confirming that Laz could really see Aqua. From what she knew, it shouldn't be possible for him to actually see Aqua's shape or speak to it. At least, Aqua normally followed Malene around and seemed invisible to the world. At times, Malene even thought that maybe she had just gone crazy and was imagining the whole thing. Even when Aqua touched her, she felt that it could be fake. The only times she was able to prove Aqua was real was when she had Aqua do things, like break a lock or that time it attacked Laz to scare him.

Those flashes of metal that Laz thought he saw were actually just energy reflections from Aqua. Normally, Aqua was just a ball of blue light that hovered around Malene, but didn't have any substance. When Malene 'summons' it, then it can become corporeal and actually interact with matter. It takes a bit of energy to maintain it however so she can't keep it going all day, but normally, eight hours it's really a problem.

The problem was that because no one else could see Aqua, Malene started doubting herself. After the first time she tried to introduce Aqua to her parents and was dragged to the doctor's for a referral to see a shrink, she knew than that she could not talk to anyone about Aqua. Because of that, she started to wonder if Aqua was real, or if she was going crazy and the things that did happened were caused by her another way, like with a knife.

The more this thought hit her, the more she started to believe it. She felt like she was blanking out, doing stuff and then thinking that it was Aqua's doing.

It really began to scare her. Then this beast appeared and she freaked out. Knowing that once again, no one close to her would believe her, she decided to find the one person who seemed to hate her and tell him about it. Malene was able to pull Laz's address from the student directory and decided to come down her to see him. Even if he got mad at her again, at least he was someone she knew. He was real. No matter how scary the real is, it's still better than the unknown scary.

And now, this red eyed monster was arguing with Aqua, showing that Malene had never imagined it. Aqua was real which meant she wasn't crazy. She couldn't help but start to tear up and she brought her hands up to her face to cover it.

"Yeah? Little shit. I'm going to go grab a can a raid and take out your whole family."

"OH? How's about I grab a stick and fly it straight up your ass? Eh? What now?"

It was only once they both heard Malene's sobbing that they stopped and looked at her.