Jaded Vision

Foresight

“Hey, Gem!” I hated when people called me that, but I had gotten used to it over the years. “It’s Germane, fuck!” People usually only called me that to tease, there’s a select few that I don’t mind using that name. Sparkle and Twinkle are other names people have come up with; I hate those even more. I’m always asked if I can see right, which I can, but some people are curious. I can see better now then I could before oddly enough.

“Hey, Gem. Got somethin’ floatin’ in your drink or just lookin’ at your reflection?”

“Just thinking, Darren.” Darren is my good friend from childhood; he’s also my partner. If I had to pick five people to entrust my life to, he’d be one of them. Darren stands a lean six foot four inches while I am a mere five-seven. He’s got: brain, brawn, charm, and good looks to boot. Me, I’ve got a “twinkle” in my eye, some lady-killer I am. Not to say I’m unattractive, but most girls don’t go for the guys that they can beat up. Although that’s more of a morals thing: can’t hit a girl. I’m not as weak as one would think either. I’m just about as strong as Darren is, but you wouldn’t know that unless I punched you in the face. Darren has everything going for him. Long golden hair, killer smile, great personality; I swear there’s a girl all over him whenever I look over at him...

“So who’s your lady friend, Dare?”

“My name’s Lilith,” the perky redhead responded.

“Yeah, Lilith.” I could tell by the look he gave me that he had no idea what her damn name was. “As much as I hate to drag you from your friend, we have to be going.” I signaled to the barkeep for the tab as Darren promised the girl he would see her again soon, lucky bastard. He most likely would never see her again... but he’s still a bastard. Me and my mediocre body with short brown hair hardly ever sees action. But when it does, at least it isn’t handed to me like a nobleman’s chambermaid, I earn my keep. Five bucks for three drinks, good thing I cut Darren off before he racked up six more just on girls. I grabbed my jacket from the stool and threw it over my shoulder. Turning to Darren, who was also gathering his things, I bent down to grab Xerna and walked out.

Darren and I walked down the moonlit road in solitude. Not quite sure why the street lights weren’t running, but they weren’t really needed. The night air was rather cool and moist, perfect for a night time stroll. I noticed that the town of Daylon seemed rather haunted at night, and for some reason I felt like putting on my glasses. I swung my jacket off my shoulder and pulled them from the pocket, then swung the jacket back. Darren had noticed my actions.

“I thought you didn’t need those anymore.”

“Oh, I don’t,” I replied while unhinging the legs.

“So why do you still hang on to them?” I slid them on and looked through the transparent glass. “I don’t know why I still have them. More of a keep sake I guess.” I liked the feeling of the rubber nosepieces, it had been so long since the last time I’d warn them. The glasses themselves did nothing for my vision, but I still liked the feeling of having them on. “Nice night out isn’t it Dare?” He looked up at the sky, then back at me.

“Yeah, nice and peaceful….” He was looking at me funny.

“What? What’s wrong?”

He continued to look at me funny and finally said, “take those damn glasses off, it makes you look creepy.”

“Oh, because of my eye?”

“Yeah, the light catches it funny and it’s just fucked up.” I laughed at this and took the glasses off.

As we made our way around the street corner the inn door swung open behind me. It wasn’t that I was watching or anything, but those old doors creak like a son of a bitch when you push them open quickly. I still couldn’t shake the feeling that something was terribly wrong. It ached like a sore muscle and wouldn’t leave me the hell alone. I tried to shake it off, rolling my shoulders. Darren must’ve seen something was wrong.

“You ok?”

“Fine. Hey Dare?”

“Yeah.”

“...Nothing.”

We walked on in silence for a while. I was walking with my head down. My gut kept telling me something bad was going to happen. Darren said something softly that sounded like a “hey.” It was enough to get me to look up at him. He gave me a look then shot his eyes back for a moment. That’s when I realized we were being followed. I smiled.

“Friends of yours?”

“Shit, as ugly as those clowns are?”

That was just like Darren, damn him. It did make sense though. As much flirting as he did it wouldn’t surprise me at all if he stepped on some egos. We stepped onto a footbridge over the sewer reservoir.

“How do you want to handle it?”

“Well, I don’t know ‘bout you, but I don’t like looking over my shoulder, lets just end it.”

“That’s why I hang with you Dare. Always thinking.”

We stopped nonchalantly and turned around. I dropped my jacket and unsheathed Xerna. Not that I really planned to use it, probably just a bunch of dumb-ass drunks anyway. Darren cracked his knuckles and stretched his arms. He cracked his neck quick from side to side.

“No need for the ol’ knucks tonight, I’ll fuck these whores up the old fashion way.” There was three of them. It was funny, they didn’t act like drunks. The way they’re circling around us, it almost looks like they’re… oh shit! A bullet whizzed by, grazing my hair. These bastards were serious. Darren went right to work, closing fast on the son of a bitch shooting at me. He ducked a bullet and came up from underneath delivering a stunning uppercut. Poor guy, the force of the punch knocked him over the bridge into the water below. Hope he likes swimming in shit.

I turned my attention to the other two. One made his way to the left of me, and he was holding a chain tied off around his wrist. The other one flashed a knife, but his attention turned to Darren to my right. SXerna glinted beautifully in the moonlight. Its thin elegant blade reminded me why I carried it around. There is something so suicidally beautiful about a well made blade. He started spinning his chain around from side to side. Fucker had skills. My sight suddenly started to get blurry, of all the times. It was hard to describe, like seeing two pictures at once overlapping; I was dizzy as hell. After a second though, the dizziness went away. The two lined up perfectly, except their were two guys with chains. Each eye saw the same guy, but a different version of him. The jewel eye version was faded, almost transparent. The next thing I noticed was that the normal eye version was a few seconds behind the jewel version, or the jewel version was a few seconds ahead, which I couldn’t tell.

Suddenly, my jewel sight saw him lunge forward and swing the chain, aiming for the left side of my neck. I tried to raise Xerna to defend myself, but it was too late. I flinched, but nothing happened. When the chain connected the jewel vision of the man disappeared. I refocused on the real man with the chain, and watched as he started to lunge forward, just as I had seen the other do before him. This time, I was ready. Xerna spun through the air and caught the chain as it whipped towards my neck. The chain wrapped around my trusty friend and my opponent was completely at my mercy. Quickly, I brought my left foot around as it connected with his head. As he veered off a quick jerk of the wrist and his chain shattered and slid off Xerna in individual links to the ground. The man fell back and landed face first on the footbridge. I glanced over to check on Darren. The man with the knife stabbed forward, but Darren moved effortlessly inside of his arm and threw a quick right jab. The thug stumbled back a few steps, then charged Darren carelessly swiping at the air. Darren stepped from side to side, easily avoiding him, then unleashed a lightning fast barrage of punches ending with a mean left hook that grounded the punk hard.

I turned and walked over to my guy. He rolled over and saw Xerna’s pointed edge only a few inches from his face. Darren called over to me.

“You all right?”

“Fine. You?”

“I’m all right, but I hit this fucker a little too hard; pansy fell unconscious.”

“That’s all right,” I said. “I’ve got all the answers I need right here.” I looked down into the eyes of my attacker. “And I’m pretty sure right now your in a talkin’ kind of mood, am I right?”

“Go fuck yourself, I ain’t saying shit.” I tried my best to give him a stare that would burn through him, try to scare him into talking. It was then, at that very moment, things got really fucked up. The deeper I looked into his eyes, the more I saw. Places, people, memories. All flooding through my mind at once. They say your life flashes before your eyes before you die. I think it had to be something like that, except the life flashing before my eyes wasn’t mine. It was his-the man who attacked me. I saw it all. He and his friends were a couple of thugs trying to find a man with a jewel for an eye and kill him to collect a massive bounty. This man, the one they were after, he traveled with another man who was known only as a handsome guy. They’d been tracking us for years, almost right after I got my…sight.

It was so distant, but I could hear Darren calling to me.

“Gem! Germane! Snap out of it!”

The man who hired him, his name was...shaking. Why am I shaking?

“Who’s, Darren? I…where…I mean, I saw it.”

“Saw what? What’d you see?”

“There’s a price on my, on our head’s, we’re marked men. My head, after they kill us, has to be brought to...”

“To who?” I had to think. Why did it hurt so much to think?

“His name, his name is Phillips. A Mr. Phillips.” I looked down at the man who’s memories I’d stolen. His face was completely blank, like the soul was ripped right out of him. His eyes, the worst of all, his eyes were so hollow, so blank, as though he were in some kind of trance. “My god. What have I done?”

“C’mon Gem, lets get you inside somewhere to rest. We’ll figure this shit out in the morning.”