23rd of Unor, yr. 1064
She has blue eyes.
God, they know I don’t do blue eyes.
Damnit.
I close my eyes and sigh. Blue-eyes has herself pushed into a corner. Idiot.
“Where do you think you’re going?” I ask through my teeth, “through an inch and a half of glass and down five stories? From what I understand, your abilities don’t include flying.”
She gulped nervously, but stayed where she was. The moron! The door was ten feet behind me! From what I heard, she was a formidable opponent; she could at least try to fight her way out.
She’s whimpering now. It’s actually starting to get annoying.
I avoid looking at her blue eyes as I walk towards her; I’ll have to look at them eventually, but the longer I can put that off, the better.
I kneel down to her, grab her wrist, take a deep breath, and look straight into her eyes, trying to pretend they were any color but blue. “Honestly,” I said under my breath, “I really, really hoped you would try and fight back. I don’t want to have to do this.”
Her eyes widen, and for a moment, she looks hopeful, like I’m going to just let her go.
“But, unfortunately, you didn’t, and I can’t have you telling around that the infamous Zalika is going soft.” I grip her wrist tightly. It probably hurts. Her eyes lock on mine, and I know she can’t look away. My green eyes are likely the last things she’ll ever see.
A moment of focus and her energy fills me like a wildfire. I wasn’t expecting so much energy from such a meek person, and the surprise almost breaks my focus, which would not have been good for me. Another second of fire, then the ice cold shiver that comes with a newly acquired ability, and it’s over. I should break eye contact then, while my focus is diverted, but I don’t. It’s a useless habit really, I mean, dead people don’t know the difference, but it’s never felt right to just kill someone and walk off without a second glance. I always take a moment to really look at them, memorize their face, and I usually brush their eyes closed before leaving them.
So it isn’t until the sight of her glassy blue eyes has already unleashed a wave of unwelcome memories that I realize my mistake. S*** s*** s***! I need to get away from her. From those eyes. My head is spinning, and my only vaguely focused eyes are feeding me a vision of a shiny-around-the-edges room. Those eyes. They’re just like—no. No.
Vaguely, I feel a shoot of pain in my tailbone as I drop to the ground. It’s hard to get a good breath. There’s not enough Oxygen in here. It’s hot in here. Really hot. Too hot. I need air! There’s not enough air in here! My stomach lurches, and a warm feeling rises in my throat. Now there’s a foul taste in my mouth and nose. My throat hurts. My stomach hurts, too. Now it’s hard to see. It’s not hot anymore, now it’s a kind of numby cold. Sitting up like I am really uncomfortable. If I just lay down…

My right arm is asleep. My skin is sticky with cold sweat and my hair is clinging to it. My mouth tastes absolutely disgusting and my sinuses burn. Using my left arm to avoid the painful pins-and-needles, I push myself up—slowly. I don’t want to pass out again—and take stock of the room. What was this morning’s breakfast is sitting in a puddle in front of my face, but by some miracle my clothes and most of my face and hands are free of the vile-smelling stuff. The girl is slumped in the corner where I left her earlier. And there she’ll stay. It’s not worth going over there to put her in a more dignified position.
I sit for a few slightly vague minutes until most of the dizziness has passed and stand up.
There’s gonna be Hell to pay for the higher-ups when I get back. I don’t do blue eyes.
Oh well. What’s done is done. Her ability is going to come in handy, I think I’ll keep a good chunk of it when the higher-ups make me hand it over.
I know that her ability is the reason they pegged me for this job, despite my adamancy on the eye color issue. She was a teleporter—one of the rarest abilities on the world, second only to mine. Had Chandler, the other Theif, tried to take her down, she would’ve just popped out of there, or worse. With that energy of hers, she could have reversed the Theft, leaving him dead, and her with not only all the abilities he had stolen and kept, but also with the ability to Steal. If the Old Government got ahold of that kind of power, they’d tear the New Government to shreds.
Normally after a gig, I’d Hail a Cab and spend ten awkward minutes in a car full of Men in Black-esque agents. But luckily, abilities always come with innate instructions, so I can avoid the awkwardness. I’m glad for Dead Girl’s energy now. I’m a little shakey still. Her energy reservoir is easy enough to tap, and the wildfire fills me once more, and with newfound vivacity, I focus on the shiny new ability in the corner of my mind. A blink later, I’m standing in the Met, NG headquarters.
“Zalika!” exclaims a voice behind me, “I see you were successful.” A light chuckle, “You nearly made me spill my coffee!” I wheel around and send my fist straight into Callum’s nose, grinning as I feel it shatter. He stumbles to the ground, dropping his precious coffee. It’s a good thing it’s one o’ clock in the morning, because if people were here, I would have a lot harder of a time getting away with that kind of crap.
“Goddanmit, Za.” He’s not chuckling now. He sighs, placing his thumb and index finger on his nose and grimacing a moment later as the cartilage repairs itself. “These were new slacks.”
I ignore his whining. It’s not like the stains are permanent. “I thought I made it clear that I don’t do blue eyes.”
He sighs as he picks himself up from the floor, “Za, you understand why it had to be you. Chandler couldn’t have kept her in the room. Never mind the energy required for this. What were we supposed to do?” He sighs, “And anyway, how long do you expect to keep this up? You can’t keep refusing to do your job just to avoid seeing blue eyes.”
I roll my eyes. “What are you going to do? Fire me? Send me on my way and have only Chandler to do your dirty work? How long do you think NG would last if I wasn’t around?”
He starts to make what he probably thinks is a clever remark, but stops suddenly, and starts staring critically at my face. I’m wondering what he’s looking at before I realize that I never bothered to wipe the sweat off my face and comb out my hair. Crap.
“Zalika…my God.”
“It’s nothing,” I say gruffly, pulling strands of hair off my sticky face. “Mind your own business.”
“Goddammit, Za! This” he gestures to my disheveled self, “is not nothing. This is a big freaking deal. And what brought this on? Blue eyes? What if you have to fight hand-to-hand with a blue-eyed opponent someday? What’ll you do then? You can’t do this to yourself!”
“It’s none of your business!” I say, maybe a little louder than necessary. “I can take care of myself. I know how to deal with this.”
“No you don’t know how to deal with this! If you knew how to deal with this, it wouldn’t be happening anymore. For God’s sake, it’s been two years!” He shakes his head, making that stupid ‘I’m just completely at a loss of words at your utter stupidity’ face that adults are so fond of making. He stays that way for a moment, then looks back up at me. “Please,” he says, his voice softer now, “Get some help. Please—”
I roll my eyes. I knew that was coming. I’m turning to walk away when he grabs my shoulder and stops me. That I don’t find amusing. I shoot him a glare that clearly lists all the things I could—and would—do to that hand if he left it where it was.
He pays it no heed, “Listen to me, Zalika!” He grabs my other shoulder and holds me so that I can’t turn away. In most areas, I’m so much stronger than Callum that it’s pathetic. But when it comes to brute strength, I don’t have a chance against him. “There’s no shame in asking for help. A terrible thing happened to you. You deserve to—”
I’m done listening to him. I focus my energy on my arms where his hands are gripping. In an instant, they’re hot as a cake pan fresh out of the oven. As I expect, he pulls his hands away in shock. I take the opportunity to turn and run. Once I’m a reasonable distance away, I make use of my new ability to blink out of the room and Callum’s line of sight.