Corrupted

Keely searched through the rubble of a store near a meteor impact sight. She knew it was risky. Strange things happened to people when they went too close to the meteors. The last person she had seen this close to a fragment went crazy, babbling about seeing ghosts. God knew there had to be plenty of spirts around. So many people had died from the impacts. There were times that Keely felt like she could feel their presence pressing in on her. She wondered if the meteors hadn’t changed more than just civilization.

Carefully picking her way through the glass, Keely realized that this had been a jewelry store at one time. A complete waste of time. Diamonds were pretty but you couldn’t eat them. Just as she turned to make her way back through the debris, a glint of purple caught her eye. Keely crouched down and carefully pulled the stone from shards of glass. Amethyst, if she remembered what her grandmother had taught her. The stone had been cut into a heart shape and attached to a locket. The chain was a heavy link platinum. Gram would have been impressed. She had loved platinum. Said it was powerful.

Keely hadn’t always paid that much attention when Gram got talking about crystals and metals. She’d known that her grandmother practiced witchcraft, but it had always seemed kind of silly to her. Magic wasn’t real but her gram had always managed to pay the bills with the potions and spells she sold. Keely had always been surprised at how desperate people could get.

The chain was long enough that Keely could easily slip it over her head. She pulled several layers of shirts she wore to keep out the fall chill and slid the locket inside. As the metal settled against her skin, she felt dizzy and sick to her stomach. “That’s weird.” She thought as she felt herself crumple to the ground.

“Keely!” She heard a voice shouting her name.

“Keels! Wake up. Why are you so fucking close to a frag?”

She could hear the fear and desperation in the voice of the person trying to wake her. Who was it though? The voice sounded familiar. Using all her energy, she forced her eyes open. The image was blurry at first. A worried face came into focus. Aaron Bender. The class jock. Keely was surprised that he even recognized her or knew her name.

She had always struggled with her weight before the impacts. Now, she was finding barely enough food to stay alive. Six months of living like this had stripped away the extra weight. Sometimes she wondered if that was the only thing that had kept her alive this long.

“Aaron?” she still couldn’t really believe it was him. They had been in the middle of their senior year when the meteors had hit.

“Yeah. It’s me.” He paused rocking back on his heels. Nervously, he glanced away. Like he was watching for something. “We need to get out of here.”

“Give me a second. My legs still feel pretty wobbly.”

Aaron didn’t say anything. He just reached down and scooped Keely up like she weighed nothing.

“Hey! Put me down.”

“No. I said we need to get out of here.” He had already walked them clear of the debris of the building and into the more open part of the street.

Keely wanted to struggle but she still didn’t have the energy. She was starting to get frightened. Where was he taking her? Panic made her heart race and her breath come in short, sharp gasps. A tingle started in her chest and radiated outward. Suddenly there was a flash of bright purple light, and Keely found herself on the ground looking at a dazed Aaron sitting a short distance away from her.

Aaron shook his head, trying to find his equilibrium. “What the hell just happened?”

As he looked up, he noticed that Keely was pulling her shirts out to look at something on her chest. She let out a deafening scream.

“Get it off! Get it off! Get it off!” She babbled.

Aaron scrambled across the ground to where she sat. He approached her carefully and peered inside her shirt. A purple heart shaped stone and silver chain looked like they were fused into her skin.

“What the fuck…” He muttered half under his breath. That was when he noticed that a faint light pulsed within the stone. The rhythm was something like a heartbeat. Aaron was afraid to check but he bet the pulse matched with Keely’s heartbeat.

Keely reached to grab the locket and pull it free. She watched as the locket appeared to sink even further into her skin. The pain of it moving ripped another scream from her throat. Her entire body was shaking.

“Don’t touch it, Keely.” Aaron grabbed her hands and pulled them away from the stone. “Where did you find that thing?”

“I found it in that building you found me in.”

“Seems like being so close to the meteor did something to it.”

“You think?!” She exclaimed, sarcastically.

“You don’t need to get pissy.”

“Easy for you to say. You don’t have a chunk of rock and metal melted into your body.”

“I …”

“Well, look what we found.” A voice floated across a distance jerking Aaron’s head up.

“Damn it!” He exclaimed softly. He should have known better than to come anywhere near Keely. Now both of them would be hunted like animals. Aaron had been following her from a safe distance for a while now. Today when she went down so near the frag, he had thrown caution away. Now that had blown up in his face.

“D’Tarius.” Aaron let the venom bleed into his voice.

“Aaron, you white bread, piece of shit. You just won’t die, will you?”

Keely watched as several people moved out of the shadows. She recognized a few of them as people that had attended a rival high school. “Please tell me they aren’t still holding on to old grudges from before the meteors?”

“Old grudges, with a few new ones thrown in for good measure.”

“New ones?” Keely asked. Raising her eyebrows at Aaron.

“I may have stolen some food from them about a month ago.” He replied, never taking his eyes off of D’Tarius. He knew that the former gang member was never without a knife.

“Jesus! You must have a death wish.”

“Not really. I didn’t want to starve to death.” Aaron replied with a shrug.

Keely could feel her heart beginning to race. With each beat she could feel the stone pulse. It felt like heat was gathering in her chest.

“Look…”

“Shut up, Aaron, and duck when I tell you too.” Keely closed her eyes, concentrated on the stone and visualized pushing energy into it. “Duck!”

Aaron hit the ground, glancing up in time to see a wave of purple light flash. As the light hit D’Tarius and his group, it sent them flying several yards through the air. He felt Keely collapse on his legs. They had to get out of here. There was no way to know how long D’Tarius and his crew would be neutralized.

Aaron pulled from beneath Keely and crouched to hoist her over his shoulder. She had been out a while when she first found the stone and it had looked like she might have put a lot of energy into that attack. Not sure where to find safety, Aaron headed back for the base that he had near his old home.

It took nearly an hour to get to the base. Keely still hadn’t woken up. He was starting to get concerned. Aaron placed her on the couch in the Ferguson’s, his old neighbors, living room. Their house had taken the least damage and could still be secured with locks. He had house sat for them a few times in the Before so he had known where to find their hidden spare key.

It was starting to get dark, so he lit a few of the candles that he had collected. He glanced over to check on Keely and nearly dropped his candle. Dark purple veins that looked like stone twined their way up her neck nearly reaching her face. She was going to lose her mind when she saw that.

He stood over her looking down. Just then, she opened her eyes.

“Shit!” He exclaimed nearly dropping the candle.

“What’s wrong?” She asked, her voice sounding weak.

“Your eyes…”

“What about them?” Keely swung her legs off the couch and sat up.

“They glow.” Aaron almost didn’t recognize his own voice. “And they might be a different color?”

Keely grabbed the candle from him and slowly got to her feet. She looked around the room and noticed a mirror hanging near what looked like the front door. Walking on shaky legs she made her way to the mirror.

Aaron shook the daze off just in time to cover his ears when she screamed. Yep. Lost. Her. Mind.

Keely stood frozen looking at the image in the mirror. Her eyes, that had been blue, were now purple and glowed like a cat’s eyes caught in the light at night. The hell! She thought. That was when she noticed her neck. She barely managed to prevent another scream.

“Oh, Christ. I look like one of dinos from that video game from a few years ago. What did they call that…” She struggled to sort through her memory. “Corrupted! That’s what they called it.” Her voice faded away as she said it. Something wet rolled down her cheek. What was that? A tear. She hadn’t cried for months.

God, she wanted her gram. Her heart ached from it.

“Hey, don’t cry.”

Keely felt Aaron’s arms gently pull her against his chest. She sighed and rested her cheek against his shoulder. Tired. She was just so damn tired.

“Why don’t we get some sleep? Things might look better in the morning.” He softly whispered in her ear.

“Yeah. Let’s get some sleep.” She whispered back.