Grey II - Ghosts

Chapter 31 - First Friend

I know you, that look in your eye is so familiar a gleam.
And I know it's true, that visions are seldom what they seem.

Lana Del Rey - Once Upon A Dream

I didn't think I had fallen asleep against my door, but I woke up from fitful half-dreams when someone knocked on the other side of my pillow. The noise seemed so loud, so close, and because I was disoriented, I rolled away into a crouch, thinking I was being attacked. The second knock was faster, clearly impatient.

"Hey Mors, wake up! God, you're like a teenager. You have a lesson in ten."

I was dressed in fresh clothes with semi-brushed hair and teeth in under three, but Ailech still teased me about sleeping like a rock the whole way to my training with Zodiac. I pretended to be annoyed, but at least I hadn't had any nightmares, not any I could remember. At least I hadn't woken up screaming with Ailech shaking me by the shoulders, something that had happened too often in my short time at the Vault.

I was almost in a good mood, knowing I would be busy for the next few hours and not have to think about my vision, or any other worries I'd prefer to ignore.

Zodiac was waiting for me when Ailech and I arrived, a small table in one corner of the otherwise empty room. I was glad the mannequins were gone, especially since we hadn't even needed them in my first practice. My flicker of happiness blew out when I saw what was laid on the table.

"I don't like using guns. Too easy," I tried to make my voice casual, but Zodi still peered at me with her violet eyes. Ailech was the one to speak.

"Too easy is how you can use air to squish someone, you know, the stuff that surrounds us, everywhere, all the time. That's not fair."

"Well, guns are crude."

Zodi gave a soft smile at my words before picking up a gun that looked much too large in her slender hands.

"You don't have to shoot them if they scare you. I'll shoot you instead. I won't aim for your heart or your head, so try to use the least amount of energy you can, the weakest shield you can while still stopping the bullet. I'll use different guns from different ranges so you'll learn to gauge the strength you need for each caliber and type. Ailech, stay close to her, she'll need heals today."

Ailech looked like he wanted to protest the person he was charged with protecting getting shot, and if I had paid less attention to her accusing me of being frightened, I probably would have argued too, but instead I just nodded dumbly. Something about her voice made me want to do as she said.

Ailech only had to heal me twice. Once when my shield shattered and I couldn't dodge the shot, having it glance my shoulder, and a second time when she had instructed me to use two small, separate shields as she shot two different guns at me. She quickly learned that was a little beyond me when both bullets easily broke my blocks and went straight through me. But the injuries weren't the worst of the session - it was the noise. I hated how loud each shot was, how each made me jump, flinch even when I clenched my muscles. More than once the noise had almost made me lose my grip on my shields.

I hated the shiver I felt in my mind each time she pulled the trigger, just like I'd felt when I had fought the hunters with Ace, when I had thought it was James flinching and my connection picking up on it. Now I knew it wasn't just his reaction, but my own as well. I hated that even our fears seemed to be bleeding together.

Near the end of the practice Zodi quickly switched her aim from me to Ailech where he stood beside me. I threw up a shield just in time, the bullet frozen in midair six inches from the center of his forehead, my air holding it like thick glass it had lodged itself into. He scowled at Zodi before grunting a hasty thank-you to me. Ember had joined about halfway through the class and looked as if she might have peed herself when Zodi pointed the gun at her trainer. She glared at her for the remaining minutes of my session, which was a much angrier look than I would have guessed her doe-eyes could manage.