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Kyren and Kaleb

She looked up at him with wide eyes, “Kaleb… Do you think there’s something… Different about me?” The lanky man looked down at her. Different… Well that was sort of a given. She was the only human on the planet who could control all elements. She was incredibly powerful, but she couldn’t control it at all. If there wasn’t something different about her, he’d be surprised. Still, he was the kind of man who tried to keep things peaceful, and if that meant trying not to tell her the truth, it was what he’d have to do. Instead he shot a jet of water from his palm, and it formed a puddle in a depression in front of her.

“You don’t look different to me, dear.” But he knew she wasn’t quite satisfied with that answer. She looked at her reflection in the puddle for a long time, the almost fuchsia hair looking more vibrant than the deep brown eyes that she could somehow make so wide. They reminded Kaleb of pools of water sometimes, even if they weren’t blue like his. They were the kind of eyes that seemed to waver and have depths he knew were physically impossible. He had a hard time looking into them when she was sad. She’d started to remember things as they walked, headed towards whatever nondescript conclusion to their story was waiting for them. Sometimes she was thrilled to remember things, but lately she’d been having disturbing dreams, things that she had stopped sharing with the others. It worried him, because he could almost feel her tension and unhappiness.

“Did you have any dreams last night, Kyren?” She looked away. She didn’t want to tell anyone what she saw at night anymore. Before, it was wonderful to remember. She wanted to share the mysteries of what she was learning about herself. But now she saw dark things, scary things, and the last thing she wanted was to tell anyone what was wrong with her. Kaleb controlled water. His life seemed so simple. He had his twin brother to support him any time he was in danger, and she felt strongly for the both of them. His twin Kenny had protected her so many times. She took slow deliberate steps away from Kaleb as she tried to buy herself some time. She could lie to him, say no. But she was tired. She was tired of lying to her friends, she felt so far away from them now. But she knew they were right there, waiting for her. Would they stay if they heard what she could remember?

“I dreamed of… Murder. Have you ever killed anyone Kaleb? I mean, not just a monster, another person?” He was taken aback at her question. Killed anyone? She was probably the gentlest creature he’d known so far. She was a bit timid, but she cried when she killed a plant, never mind murder. He couldn’t imagine what could cause the girl to dream of murder. He himself wasn’t much interested in that sort of thing. He’d gotten into some fist fights before, but never anything serious, and he’d never had a reason to kill another human being. When the forces of evil sent their insects and beasts to kill the elemental guardians, he saw nothing wrong with killing those. But none of them were people either.

“I guess not, Kyren. Why were you dreaming of such a horrible thing? Was someone trying to kill you?” Kyren’s eyes shut down at that. He saw it, and panicked a little. He wasn’t sure what he’d said that was wrong, but she closed her eyes once, and when they opened he could tell that she was closing up on him. He couldn’t let that happen, and so he said something he considered a little silly.

“Well, that is to say, I haven’t killed anyone myself. Maybe you should ask Caius about that. He’s killed before, in war.” She looked over at the big man. He was tall and had huge muscles. Yes, she decided, he could certainly kill another human being if he wanted to. She believed that. Now she almost wanted to leave Kaleb and go to Caius, wrap herself up in his arms, and see if she could feel some kind of kinship. For it wasn’t that she was afraid of murder. She’d seen it, many times lately. She’d had amnesia for so long; she’d thought she had a good handle on the kind of person she was. She’d never considered the kind of person she was before now. It hadn’t mattered, because she was with the other guardians, and even though it was frustrating, they loved her and she loved them. It was with great trepidation and acute pain that she approached the idea that she hated herself. It was like there was someone else locked up in her head with her, who liked to come out at night.

“No… Maybe. In my dreams… I’m the one killing,” She shook her head; “they aren’t dreams though. We both know that.” He did know that. And he was afraid of something like this. Ever since she spoke of knowing a man with black greasy hair and a hooked nose, he’d suspected something bad had happened to her. Otherwise, the Goddess of Light wouldn’t have dropped the poor girl in the middle of nowhere without any memory of who she was or why she was there. Maybe this was the Goddess of Light’s mercy in action. But She had been weakening lately. If Kyren had been rescued from something horrible, she shouldn’t be remembering any of it. Perhaps this was evil gnawing at her, the way it attempted to gnaw at the group with frequent and tiring attacks by monsters and insects and shadow-beasts. He reached over and wrapped his arm around her shoulder. He wasn’t Kenny to her, who somehow seemed to be able to dial in to every one of her moods, but hopefully he could help.

“It’s okay. You wouldn’t hurt a fly now, that’s what matters. Maybe you did some bad things in your past, and that’s why you forgot. Maybe something bad just happened to you. You never know. We forget things for all kinds of reasons. Your mind can barely handle all this power you have, why should you have to deal with bad memories all at the same time? Just try to put them out of your mind.” The brief surge of hatred that Kyren felt momentarily for Kaleb had nothing to do with his arm on her, and everything to do with the thought of putting these memories out of her mind. Like an angry snake, her mind recoiled against the idea, even though she wished she could do such a thing. But there were essentially two people living in her head now, and one of them was getting stronger.