Rising Shards

Laenie saw a suburban neighborhood at night appear before her. Sirens lit up in the distance, gradually moving towards a spot of billowing smoke. Voices cried out, and people began to gather outside of a house in a cul-de-sac. The house had its right chunk destroyed, with the smoke coming up from it.

“Do you recognize this?” Twilight Umbra asked.

“Yes,” Laenie said. “It’s the night Rem…” She stopped for a second. "A-are you sure this is the right one?"

“Rarely, the wrong memory can appear for a jump fifteen,” Twilight Umbra said.

Laenie spotted herself from that night, collapsed on the ground.

“What…what happened?” the Laenie on the ground cried out.

Four ambulances and a fire truck pulled up. Laenie groaned and sat up. Medics came to her quickly as others rushed to the site of the destroyed part of the house. Each of the medics had visible fangs.

“I’m…I’m fine,” Laenie said. “Rem…”

Laenie got to her feet, against the wishes of the medics tending to her. “Rem!”

“There’s no one there,” one of the medics coming out of the house said. “This feels like a pyre situation.”

“Got it,” Another medic said. The two moved to one of the trucks and pulled some heavy looking boxes out. They began putting together a turret-like device. Each piece clunked together. As they got closer to finishing it, it looked more and more like a weapon.

“What are you doing?” Laenie asked. “Don’t hurt Rem!”

“Please stay out of the way, miss,” the medic at the strange device said. “If you want Rem to be OK, you have to let us do our jobs.”

Laenie didn’t want to stand back, she felt an angry rumble in her stomach, but she dismissed it.

Another medic had a scanning type device out that they checked as they walked around in the area. It beeped faster and faster. When it was at a rapid beep, the medic nodded.

“Should be right there,” they said, marking a spot.

The turret fired a beam that hit the ground. Its impact created a yellow mist-like substance. A medic pulled Laenie away from the mist cloud. Laenie stared as something began to form in the center of the mist. It was a morphing blob at first, growing bigger and bigger until someone was there, standing in the center of the mist.

“Rem!” Laenie cried, running to her brother, shaking off the medic holding her. Two more medics grabbed Laenie, stopping her from getting close to Rem.

“I didn’t mean to…” Rem said. “I didn’t…”

The medics roughly grabbed Rem and dragged him away.

“Hey!” Laenie said.

“Stay back!” A medic yelled.

The medics took Rem to an armored ambulance and tossed him inside.

“Don’t hurt him!” Laenie said.

The medics were strapping Rem down to a bed on the ambulance, and he looked scared. Laenie felt her heart pounding. The rumbling feeling in her stomach got stronger. She had never felt this angry in her life. She felt a sharp pain in her teeth.

“I said…don’t hurt him,” Laenie growled.

Suddenly the medics and ambulances looked small beneath her. Laenie’s thoughts were foggy, she just felt anger and fear and a dim sense that she had to protect Rem. She felt a sharp pain in her back, then everything went dark.

* * *

Laenie woke up in a hospital bed. She had a jolt of panic, but it subsided. She felt strangely, overtly calm. There was an IV connected to one of her arms, and the liquid in the bag connected her was a pretty shade of blue. She smiled as she looked at it and drifted back into sleep.

After a long while of falling in and out of sleep alongside strange dreams and nightmares, Laenie finally woke up enough to feel like herself again. There was a silver band on her right wrist. She still felt exhausted. A few nurses had some brief, basic questions for her such as her name and where she lives, but that was all they offered before leaving her with an old video to watch.

“We all live in the world,” the voice on the video said. “But all of us are different. Upon reaching puberty, some find themselves going through another changey change. These are the people with the Canidodutessant genetic makeup. Do you know what kind you are?”

Laenie felt a pain in her teeth, and promptly bit her lip on her teeth. She felt her eye teeth with her tongue. They were definitely longer than they were before. Her Cani awakening had finally happened.

After the video finished, the nurses came in and took the video away, asking Laenie if she had any questions. Laenie wanted to ask why they kept saying “changey change,” but decided against it. A few minutes later, a doctor with short red hair arrived. She approached Laenie very calmly, which was greatly appreciated.

“Hi Laenie, my name is Dr. Diast,” She said. “How are you feeling?”

“Exhausted,” Laenie said. “And sore teeth. And kinda sore everything.”

“You got hit with a lot of tranq darts and then a calming IV for a few days, and after everything else that’s not surprising.”

“Tranq darts?” Laenie asked.

“It took about a hundred to bring you down when you were all beasted out.” Diast said.

“So...it’s true then?” Laenie asked. “I’m an Exa Cani?”

Diast nodded. “No one was hurt by your first transformation, so that’s really good. It’s going to be a pretty big life change, so let’s take everything very slowly from here to make sure you adjust.”

A bit more of the night came back to Laenie. “What about Rem?” She asked.

“He’s doing OK,” Diast said. “Another doctor more qualified to talk about his situation will meet with you soon.”

Dr. Diast checked Laenie over and explained a bit more about her being an Exa Cani. She got a bunch of pamphlets and suggestions for emotion training, which would be much more important now. Somehow, despite all the worry and panic Laenie was feeling, Dr. Diast made her laugh. 

Dr. Diast recommended a few schools for Laenie to attend, with special recommendation for Diast’s own school, Rising Shards.

Laenie’s parents stopped by, obviously shaken by everything. They didn’t have much detail about Rem, it seemed like they knew as much as Laenie did. They weren’t allowed to stay long, but it was nice seeing them again.

The other doctor that arrived later was more serious, and Laenie felt immediately uncomfortable around him. He didn't give his name, and didn't have a name tag, which made him feel even more distant from Dr. Diast.

“Hello Laenie,” he said. “I’m here to talk to you about your brother.”

“Is he OK?” Laenie asked.

“Yes and no,” the doctor said, which was a much worse answer and showed much worse bedside manner than Dr. Diast. “Rem’s physically fine after his incident. But he’s a pyre Cani, so he has a great number of challenges in front of him.”

“A pyre Cani? What is that?” Laenie asked. The video only mentioned Cani, Exa Cani, and Kanibari.

“It’s a very, very rare kind of Cani.” The doctor said. “They are Cani with powers that are difficult to control and intensely destructive. In his case, he can inadvertently trigger a massive explosion. With his own body.”

“So he’ll just explode?” Laenie asked. “Is that what that weird machine was that brought him back to my lawn?”

“He needed that for his awakening, but unfortunately as time goes on he’ll learn to reform himself without any machine help.”

“Unfortunately he’ll be able to reform himself?” Laenie asked.

“That’s not what I meant,” the doctor said. “It’s unfortunate in that his explosion ability won’t go away. Unless placed under intense care in safe locations, far away from anyone who could be harmed by his ability.”

“So I can’t see Rem anymore?”

“You can see him in very controlled situations. He needs to stay in a special chamber for a long time, especially now as his ability is so new to him.”

Laenie felt the surreal sensation of something truly awful sinking in; the dreamlike feeling that was also too real as her insides churned at the realization that nothing would ever be the same.

“It was possible you’d be like him,” the doctor said. “So in a way, your Cani type is a relief.”

Laenie couldn't wrap her head around it. Around any of it. She could only cry. But the doctor offered no comfort, and left abruptly.

The scene went dark, and Laenie was back to herself.

“How are you feeling?” Twilight Umbra asked. “We can take a break if you need it.”

“I’m…I’m OK,” Laenie said. “I know what you’ll show next.”

A hill formed, and the darkness around it stayed, but the twinkling stars of the night sky dotted in, as did Rem standing alone. Laenie ran to him, a phone in her hand that had a text from Rem up that just said “Meet me at the park. You know the spot.”

“Laenie,” Rem said. “I’m glad you came.”

“Why are you leaving?” Laenie asked. “They’ll help you!”

“That place wasn’t helping,” Rem said. “It was a prison.”

“But…you’ll be in danger,” Laenie said. “Just tell me, why are you doing this?”

Rem sighed.

“I met someone who knows what I’m going through and hates to see my true abilities squandered in there.”

“They didn’t want to squander them! They want to protect you!”

“They want to treat me like a freak, just like mom and dad do,” Rem said. He softly added, “You can come with me.”

Rem got out his own phone and made a call.

“What are you doing?” Laenie asked. She hoped he was calling home, or the clinic.

“I’m at the park, up by the steeper hill.” Rem said. “Thank you.” Laenie caught the name on the phone before he hung up; the name was Risa.

“So will you join me?” Rem asked. “They won’t treat you as a freak, either. They’ll be different than everyone else

“And what are we really? Cani? Because everyone treats us like Cani.”

“We’re monsters, Laenie.” Rem said. “And the world will just treat us like that, containing us because they’re afraid of us. And maybe they should be afraid. But their fear shouldn’t come alongside my captivity. They can be afraid of me, but I want it to be because of my might.”

“What are you talking about?” Laenie asked. “What are you saying, you want to rule people?”

“Maybe,” Rem said. “My new friend says I can do anything with my power. And maybe I have more powers. Maybe you do, too.”

Lights from a car appeared on the street. It pulled up to reveal a fancy limo.

“Last chance, Laenie.” Rem said.

“Rem…” Laenie reached out to him, but she couldn’t move.

“I’ll take that as a no.”

Tears streaked down Laenie's face as Rem got into the limo. He stopped after opening the door nearest to him.

“Don’t tell mom and dad you saw me.” Rem said. “It’s for the best.”

Laenie watched the car speed away, its windows too dark to see if Risa was in there with him. She felt the nervous rush of emotions that she had felt when she and Rem first got their fangs. Laenie clenched her fists, then without thinking tried to run after him. But in her mental daze, she tripped on a rock directly in front of her, losing her balance completely. She tumbled down the hill, roughly landing at the bottom facing the stars. She stayed there, softly weeping for a long while. She reached to her side and dragged herself over, then strained to get back to her feet. Rem and the limo were long gone. She didn’t want anyone else to deal with her situation in the middle of the night, so she started to walk home.

“You are very brave for facing this again.” Twilight Umbra said.

“I never saw him again.” Laenie said quietly, maybe more to herself than to Twilight Umbra.

“I’m sorry,” 

“I don’t get why I have to look at all that,” Laenie said. “I don’t feel any better.”

“You may not for a long while, but this is important for your journey as a Cani.” Twilight Umbra said. “And I think that moment showed something incredible about you?”

“What? I don’t find the monster form very incredible; you know.”

“Not that,” Twilight Umbra said. “When you fell. You still got up after all that. I find that very interesting.”

“Why?”

“It shows a great deal of inner strength,” Twilight Umbra said. “Even at your lowest point, you found the willpower to rise again.”

“Huh,” Laenie said. “I didn’t think about it that way.”

“And that whole night passed without you transforming?”

“Somehow,” Laenie said. “I might have just been too tired from it all.”

“Your future is still yours to choose, but I know which path I’d like to see you follow,” Twilight Umbra said. “Are you ready to go back?”

“Yes,” Laenie said. “Thank you for helping me through that. It was nice to meet you, too.”

“Why, thank you. Not many take the time say that.” Twilight Umbra said. “I hope we can speak again soon.”

“I’d like that.” Laenie said.

Laenie took the door back, not feeling a weight off her shoulders or much better really. But she made it through a big trial at school she’d been dreading, and she felt like she deserved credit for that.