May 15, 2014—Portland, Oregon, United States
Sixteen-year-old Jean stood next to his partner, Caldwell, outside of a small brown house in Portland, Oregon. The weather was dark, cold, and wet. Jean shivered in his light leather jacket as Caldwell asked his young apprentice, “Do you feel that, Jean?”
He answered with a shiver, “You mean besides the wind? Not really.” He rocked back and forth on the heels of his shoes, with his hands shoved deep into his pockets. “Can we just go in and save the girl, already?” He was not only cold, but impatient.
Caldwell laughed softly. “We can save the girl, but I want you to be completely prepared. Remember, this is your first time alone, and I want you to be safe.”
Jean rolled his dark brown eyes that were nearly matching the night sky. “I’ll be fine.” He pointed at the tall, red curtains of the house. “Sneak inside and take out the diamond inside the girl. Done.”
“And if her situation is bad enough?” he asked his young partner.
Jean sighed with irritation. “Take her back to the DKF. Yeah, yeah, I got it. You’ve only been pounding all this into my head since I was nine.”
“Okay,” Caldwell announced brightly, clapping his hands together. “Go save the girl, super stud.”
Jean ignored Caldwell’s comment and went around him. “Thank you.” He didn’t wait for a reply—he just wanted to do this as quickly as possible. He wanted the feeling of saving that girl’s life. He didn’t know how badly she needed him, and he wouldn’t leave her waiting. If he was being honest with himself, he wished Caldwell would have saved him only five minutes earlier. But he wouldn’t think about that. Not now. He only wanted to think about this girl and crushing the curse living inside her.
Jean crossed a lawn spotted with patches of dirt and weeds. He snuck through the back door which, surprisingly, was left open. Talk about luck, he thought ironically. They must have forgotten to lock it.
A set of concrete steps led from the door down to a dark kitchen. Inside, Jean couldn’t see much. It was nearly pitch black, but there was a bit of light coming through a very small arch-way. Jean guessed it led to the living room. He hid around the corner of the entry way to spy on them.
The father and mother were kicked back against a puffy red couch that matched their curtains. A young blonde girl—probably thirteen or fourteen—lay sprawled out on the floor with a bored expression pasted on her face. A dim, blue glow from the television lit up their pale faces. The girl especially was so pale that Jean had to convince himself not to stare. As he looked around, he noticed that there were no lamps, no ceiling lights, not a flicker of flames. There was only an old chunky ’80s television with an antenna plastered to the top, around which the family huddled.
Again, his eyes fell on the girl who was lying on her stomach, propping her chin in her hands. She let out a deep breath and Jean had to tell himself to focus as he planned his strategy from the shaded corner. This was not the scenario that Caldwell had planned for him. It was well past midnight; the girl was supposed to be in bed, along with the parents. He was just supposed to go into her room and take the diamond in her sleep. Her parents were paranoid and superstitious people. It was the reason Jean didn’t knock on their door in the first place. It was the reason he broke in. They never had visitors, and the knock would have freaked them out.
The father was also known to pull out a gun on people who trespassed onto his property. Jean carried a gun, but he didn’t want to draw that kind of attention from the neighbors. He didn’t want any trouble from them.
He looked around the kitchen in search of an item that he could use to knock the parents out, without the item breaking and making a ton of noise. He silently went through their kitchen drawers and found a wooden cutting board. He picked it up and closed the drawer.
The parents were engrossed in what was happening on the TV as Jean snuck up behind them. He closed his eyes and lifted the board high above his head to strike them. Before it collided with the father’s head, there was a high-pitched scream—he guessed it was the girl, but he didn’t have time to check for sure. Instead, he clobbered the father’s head with the block of wood. When he dropped onto the couch next to his wife, Jean hoped that he didn’t kill the guy. There was no time to check. The mother was backing away with fear. Her screaming alerted the girl that something was happening. She got up as Jean grabbed the mother in mid-run and hit her with the cutting board. Then, he dropped her with a thud.
Jean’s eyes connected with the young girl’s. She stared at him, but she didn’t scream—at first.
Without any words, Jean dashed for her, jumping over the couch, but she slipped away. She bolted to her room and Jean took off after her. Before she had time to slam the door in his face, he wedged his foot in between the door and the frame. He kicked it open, and that’s when she let out a high-pitched scream of terror. She was trapped in the corner of her bedroom.
Jean bent down, taking her arm roughly and pulling her up. She kicked and punched, but it was useless. Jean was trained for this, and he was much, much stronger than her. When she tired, she cried out, “What do you want from me?!”
Jean held her firmly against him. He pressed his lips into her soft blonde curls and said simply, “I want your diamond.”
She elbowed him in the stomach. He doubled over, gasping with surprise. She started crawling away and Jean jumped on top of her, tackling her to the ground. He flipped her onto her back to face him.
“I don’t have any diamonds! I swear!”
She was hitting him over and over. Jean grabbed both wrists and pinned them above her head. He didn’t bother to be gentle anymore as he literally ripped through first three buttons on her shirt so that her white chest was showing. She cried, “Please, stop! I don’t have any diamonds!”
He let out a tired breath, shaking his head. “Yes, you do.”
Without another second, he slapped his cold hand against her chest. Once he connected with her skin, the entire room lit up. He slowly dipped his hand into her melting skin. The light was so beautiful that Jean couldn’t look away. He craved it, the feeling of saving this girl, even though she didn’t know he was saving her. He continued to reach deeper into her chest, and when he felt the hard jewel, he yanked it out, making her howl. Then he crushed it. Images flashed over his suddenly white eyes and he fell to his knees as he saw the girl’s life.
He saw her trapped in darkness, never allowed to visit the outside. Her parents believed that light of any kind was evil. They did everything to protect this girl from it, even though they never explained to her why. The only source of light the girl knew was from the dim television that they had hooked up for her recent birthday. When Jean’s vision was finished, he gasped, letting the girl go. She immediately wiggled away from him, yanking her shirt up to cover her cleavage. Tears rushed over her white cheeks.
Jean’s face was white with shock. He stared at her for a long time, so intensely that she couldn’t move. He didn’t know why she wasn’t running from him after all of that, but she wasn’t. Her face was curious and wide-eyed as he caught his breath from all the work it took to pin her down and take out the diamond. He was still painfully new at taking out diamonds. Yet, despite his exhaustion, he couldn’t take his eyes off her. It was like he’d known her, his entire life.
He swallowed against his dry throat and moved toward her. She didn’t budge, surprising him again. He lifted a shaking hand up to her cheek, rubbing his thumb over her fallen tears.
The only thing that escaped his lips was, “Oh, Merra.” He watched her face shift from horror to confusion and he smiled gently. He moved his hand from her cheek. “You are free,” he whispered. “You are free from the dark diamond inside you.”
He stood up, and when he started to walk away, Merra followed him out of her bedroom.
“Wait,” she said softly, not knowing why she was calling him back. He didn’t hesitate to turn around and pin her with his penetrating eyes. “What was that you pulled out of me?”
He waited a beat and then responded, “It was a cursed diamond, created to enforce bad luck.”
She shook her head. “No, I mean the pretty blue sparkles around it.”
“It’s called light.”
“My television box doesn’t do that when it gives light.”
He smiled gently as if talking to a child. “There are different types of light.”
“Is there different lights where you’re going?” she asked.
“So much that it would blow you away,” he replied and then turned to walk away again.
Merra looked at her unconscious parents and back at the dark man passing through her kitchen.
She ran after him.
“Wait!” she shouted, stopping him from opening the back door. He turned again, just as anxiously. He swore he could see her small chest rise and fall with nerves. “Take me with you.”
He grinned knowingly and held out a hand, “I figured you’d say that.”
She slowly took his hand and he shook it firmly with introduction. “Jean Forswa.”
“Merra Peters,” she whispered.
He tilted his head toward the door. “This way. I have a car waiting for us.”