Samantha slowly reached down with her left hand for the sword she had lost when she fell. She kept her eyes locked on Henry. Even though he was out of range of any attack that she could do to him, she was not sure of his abilities. The odds were rapidly dropping in her head. She had never felt such power. She did not think he even touched her when she went flying back. There was no way he could have reached between her blades and pushed her. Even if he had somehow managed to avoid the blades, to push her as far as he did would have taken something beyond human strength. She could read thoughts and did not age, but those were not superpowers like this.

Her hand felt the hilt of the sword and she lifted it up, holding both swords at an angle in front of her. She did not know what to expect or what to do.

Henry started to walk toward her. Samantha felt herself unconsciously walking backwards until she felt the door of the car behind her. She looked to her right and saw the path away from the supermarket that Henry had mentioned. He approached slowly, as if giving her time to decide what to do next. She saw the path around the car to her right that would bring her to the supermarket door. She could go that way or run around the supermarket to get to its back. From there it was only a small fence between her and the highway. She could hitch and be gone in moments. Her car was parked in the other direction. If he continued at his pace, she could get there and leave the parking lot before he made it halfway to her car. She doubted he would be as accommodating.

The odds spun in her head. She did not know enough about the situation to place her wager. She had seen him push her away, but that didn’t mean he could do it again. She was the best trained immortal. She knew that. She had faced others in sparring and to the death matches. She had never been bested, rarely been even challenged in the frantic moments leading up to the final strike. And this guy was old, older than he had any rights to be and still be able to wield any weapon. She thought about running, but she felt that large lump in her throat that was her pride. She could not so easily give up a fight like this.

Samantha straightened up and faced Henry. He continued his slow, methodical approach toward her.

“Have you made your decision, Samantha? I’d hate to have to do away with such a beautiful woman. You can help me train Esther. I saw the way you looked at her. You had the same feelings I had when you met her. There’s something there that’s special. We both know it. Why waste your life trying to fight me when we can go after Esther together?”

Henry was almost in range of her swords. She had already decided what would happen next. The dice stopped rolling in her head and she prepared herself. Just one more step and Henry would be in range of her sword.

“Henry? Samantha? What are you two doing? What are you holding, Samantha?” Samantha turned and saw Samantha standing next to her door. “I forgot the bagels. Are those swords?” Esther stood frozen standing against the open car door. Samantha could see the long feather coming out of Esther’s hand where she was holding her keys from the car. Her car was beeping from the door still being open.

“Now is this how you want to introduce our world to Esther?” Henry asked. He looked smug and smiled toward Esther. He turned his back on Samantha and walked toward Esther’s car with his arms out. “Don’t worry, my dear. We’ll explain everything. It’s just a misunderstanding.”

Samantha waited only long enough for Henry to turn his back completely toward her. She lunged at his unprotected back with her left sword. She felt the same force hit her chest that she had felt earlier. The force pushed her back but her right hand had already been swinging down. As the force hit her, she flicked the sword in her right hand and watched it continued its path toward Henry. Henry turned to face the sword, his eyes wide and his arms moving to try and avoid the tip of the flying sword. Samantha’s swords were weighted to be thrown, and after a single rotation, the blade embedded itself into Henry’s chest with a satisfying thump. The force propelling Samantha’s motion backwards stopped suddenly, and she slid on her backside across the ground. She dropped the left sword from her hand before she hit the ground so she wouldn’t stab herself again. She felt the concrete scrape across the shoulder of her arm, and also felt the burn across her thigh. She ended up in a crumpled state and had to sort through her limbs to get up.

She heard the scream before she saw the result of her sword throw. Esther was standing against the car still holding the feathered keys in her hand, which now was over her mouth. Samantha looked over to where Henry had been standing moments before and with a powerful satisfaction she saw his body fallen forward with his spine still above the ground where the sword was propping it up. A small puddle of dark blood was leaking from the corpse onto the black asphalt.

Samantha went into action. She grabbed the sword she had dropped off the ground and ran toward Esther. She continued to scream and tried to back up and get back in the car but she was too shocked to complete the motion. Samantha was a bit disappointed by her reaction. She knew it was too early to show her this part of her training, but even so, she would have hoped she could have held things together better.

Samantha lifted the sword point until it was almost touching the bottom of Esther’s pointy chin.

“Esther, you’ll need to concentrate now,” Samantha said in as firm a voice as she could muster. She was suppressing a broad grin that was fighting its way onto her face. Esther’s timing could not have been better. As she gambled, Henry had been overconfident in Samantha’s reaction. Many people had the same reaction when they faced Samantha: they thought of her as an overweight blonde with no skills that were worth worrying over. They were usually surprised when they first saw her move. But that was never the big surprise in the fights. From her age and her role in the guild, they would quickly figure out that she was more skilled than her body let on. What they never did figure out until it was too late was her ruthlessness. She had been told too many times by too many men (and quite a few women) that she had an incredibly sweet and innocent face. That none of those people saw the hypocrisy in enjoying her innocent face and never overlooking her weight issues was always lost on them. None of them ever got beyond her physical appearance. Her face may be a beacon of calm and sweetness, but it was never enough of a beacon for them to forget about her weight or physical appearance.

Esther face was pale and her eyes were opened wide. She looked down at the blade under her chin and her blue eyes crossed a bit.

“Breathe, Samantha. In and out. That’s a good girl.” Samantha lowered the blade now that she had her body between Esther and any possible escape. “You don’t understand what you saw here. I will explain it to you, but there’s much I need to do between then and now. Let me see you take another breath.”

Esther whimpered but was no longer screaming. She nodded like a victim in an attack. At this point, Samantha knew she could tell her to hop on one leg and wave her arm in the air, and she would do so. She was not so sure she would do so when she went over to the body to perform the last rites. Samantha knew the odds, and they were against her. She looked around for not the first time to make sure nobody was around or watching. Samantha peered inside the supermarket. It was bright in there, and likely not much could be seen from inside out in the darkened parking lot. The supermarket closed with the coffee shop, and the only people still hanging about would be employees cleaning up and closing up for the day. Samantha knew from experience that most of the cars left in the parking lot, parked far away from the door, would be the employee’s cars. She had to act quickly.

Samantha grabbed Esther’s wrist and pulled her toward the body. When Esther saw where Samantha was taking her she started to resist. Samantha put her arm around Esther’s shoulder and pulled her close. For not the first time she wished she was taller. She hated having to look up at her, her arm barely reaching high enough to get around her shoulder and to keep her near her.

“Listen, Esther. What you’re going to see next is going to be even more shocking than what you saw before. You’ve opened the window into something you probably never thought existed. I want you to watch and not try to run away.” Samantha gestured with her sword as she spoke quietly to Esther. “I don’t want to have to hurt you, Esther. I like you, I really do. But I need to perform the rites, and you need to cooperate until it’s done. Trust me, you’ll have many more questions after than you do now. I know it’s hard for you to understand, but let me do what I have to do. What you see here, this thing,” Samantha paused and gestured toward Henry’s inert body. “Is, or at least, was not human. It’s a monster. Here, I can prove it.”

Samantha continued to walk until she was over by Henry’s head. She pulled Esther with her, and Esther stayed as far away as she could, limited by the pulling of Samantha’s short and stubby arms. Samantha knelt down on the parking lot ground and pulled out the blue pouch from around her neck. She removed a small glass vial and with her teeth pulled off the cork. She began to chant the ritual that would pull the essence of the body into the vial. Samantha only knew two incantations. Hunters only needed these two. The first one was the gift, and the second one was the job. That was how it had always been explained to her.

The words of the incantation continued and Samantha’s mind wandered. The incantations themselves were weird. She did not learn them by memorizing or reciting. Once she started the incantation, she did not need to concentrate or do anything. She sometimes felt that it was not her doing the magical spell, that someone took over her body when she was casting the rite, and she was only watching. It was a strange feeling to see her mouth and body moving without any control of her mind. She again tried to will herself to move, just a bit, a finger even, to show that she still controlled what was happening. But as always, the finger did not move. It was like when she started the incantation she had pressed play, and now her body was going through the motions that would bring about the incantations. Her brain watched from outside. She could not even control her eyes, as they opened and closed based on the position of the incantation.

Samantha lost sight of Esther when the ritual began, her hands and arms no longer under her own control. She hoped that Esther had listened to her and watched what was happening. She knew it was unlikely, the odds clearly stacked against her. She heard the rings and saw the lights of the gambling machines in her head. She wished she could turn around and see where Esther was. She wanted to take her back to her apartment, she wanted to protect her and comfort her from what she saw that day. Esther needed protection. Samantha saw that. She was too delicate for this world. But she knew that once the guild had chosen her, the best way to protect her was to bring her over into the fold. The guild would take her with or without Samantha’s help. And she knew for the betterment of mankind, it would be with Samantha’s help.

The chanting continued for a few more minutes, and Samantha watched Henry’s body start to glow slightly, and the essence begin to leak out of it, like a slowly deflating balloon.

Daily word count: 2,177.

Words remaining: 21,698 (28,312).

The sun chased my headache away. I can’t believe it is Thursday already. The week and my story are flying by. I don’t want to jinx it, but this has been the easiest Nano in recent memory. As I approach the middle of the story (plot-wise), I can see two paths: either a strong finish where the different plot and storylines come together, or another year where everything flies apart and I end by forcing words to meet Goal. I almost prefer not to know which path will choose me.