Black Guard

Black Guard

The loud city noises seemed quieter than usual. A familiar muffled voice buzzed against a young girl’s ear. “Helloooooo! Earth to Leilani! You good, girl?”

“Hm? Oh, uh, yeah. I-I’m fine,” she mumbled partially still caught in her own thoughts, “What were you sayin’?”

Her worried friend gripped the bridge of his nose, “You are a lotta things, but fine ain’t one of ‘em. You've been through a lot this last."

“Luke, I get it! Goddamn!” Leilani burst out drawing a rather copious amount of unwanted attention which made her quickly withdraw under the safety of her favorite black hoodie. “Can we please talk about this when we get to my house?”

Luke could tell his friend was a mess and for the life of him, he couldn’t figure out how to ease her pain. All he could do was stay by her side and make sure she got home safely. “Yeah, let’s get ya home.”

***

Leilani’s Apartment

Luke rested on the couch with his phone to his ear as the TV played through the usual commercials. “Yeah, she as alright as she can be. She was fired today, her family’s gone, she’s got nothin’ left. As her best friend, I feel like it’s my responsibility to be there her like she’s been for me. What do you mean, ‘she can handle herself.’ That’s really fucked up. Look, I’m just… No, it’s not because I still have feelings for her, I’m just worried. Are you really gonna pull that card now?! Fine! Fine! I’m coming.” Whoever was on the other end of the call wasted no time in hanging up. He clenched his phone to keep from chucking it across the room.

He made his way to the closed door knocking softly, “Hey, Lei? I gotta go but… I’ll be back, ok? Everything’s gonna be alright.” Luke grabbed his jacket and rushed to the door, but to his surprise when he opened it, a young man, no more than 20 stood before him with a small black book in his trembling hands.

He cleared his throat, “Does a uuhhh, Leilani P-P-Price live here?”

“Why?” Luke answered with narrowing eyes. He never threw his weight around but Luke sported an impressive build and he knew how to throw hands if the situation called for it.

“Um, th-this is for her. Can you make sure she gets it? It’s from her parents.”

Luke’s eyes widened, “Why is she getting’ this now?”

The young man was clearly in a rush and scared of something but he seemed more afraid to say anymore than absolutely necessary. He shoved the book into his chest, “Just take it!”

“What?” before Luke could ask anything else the man was down the hall and out of the building. There was so much going on and he had no time to figure it all out right now. He set the book on the kitchen table and left.

***

Later That Night.

Leilani tossed and turned as visons of a tall, red eyed woman staring a little girl down forced her eyes open to a dark room. She reluctantly emerged from her cocoon of covers brushing her wine red, curly hair behind her ears so she wouldn’t hit any walls on the way to her small living room. Her eyes were still tight. “Luke?” She noticed the Tv was on but no one was on the couch. “Maybe he’s in the bathroom,” she thought passing the small black book and opening the fridge to grab a beer. It only took a few seconds for her to down the drink and fall limp on the couch still exhausted.

“Ooohhhhhh fuck, what am I gonna do?” she moaned into a nearby pillow, “I don’t even know how much I have in my account. What am I gonna do for food… or rent? Why did I hafta to open my big ass mouth?”

She flipped over and stared at the ceiling hoping, praying even, that the answer to all her problems would drop onto her face. Unfortunately for her, this was the real world, and she knew all too well how things could go from worse to total shitstorm in the blink of an eye. At this point, she was expecting the building to collapse on top of her. The only thing that managed to snap her out of her funk was the roar her angry stomach made when the realization she hadn’t eaten anything since she was fired that morning. She picked herself up and began to go form cabinet to cabinet in hopes of finding something she could throw in the microwave.

She never had a lot of company but her cooking skills were legendary for how she could literally ruin even the easiest of dishes. Leilani frowned until she found a lone pack of ramen in the back. “Maybe God hasn’t abandoned me after all.” There wasn’t much in her apartment. Most of her belongings were still in boxes marked ‘New Home’. She pulled a small silver pot out of one of the boxes and made her way to the sink when something caught her eye. It was the black book that rested alone on the counter. After slowly creeping closer her eyes widened, and the blood drained from her caramel face. The word, “No,” was the only thing her throat allowed to escape. She grabbed a knife and plunged it through the cover into its pages before carefully bringing it to the window.

Leilani opened the window and flung the book into the clod winter’s night before slamming the window shut. Her breathing and heartrate increased as she slowly backed away, tears forming in the corners of her eyes. “No, no, no!” She shut her eyes and began rhythmic breathing to calm herself. It was beginning to work until a voice sent a chill up her spine.

“What are you crying about, girl?” the voice asked. The last thing Leilani wanted to do was turn around and acknowledge voice but what was she supposed to do? Her head slowly turned to face the voice. Sitting on her couch was a woman with bone straight jet-black hair, glowing crimson eyes and a long black dress with an anagram P on her left breast.

Leilani kept her distance trying to keep from hyperventilating, “W-why are you here?”

The mystery woman pulled a cigarette out of thin air and a lighter to match, “I’m here to give this to you.” She lit the cigarette, took a long drag and pulled a familiar looking book from under her thigh. Leilani gasped realizing it was the book she just threw out of the window, in perfect condition to boot. “This…belongs to you now. You don’t know what I went through to get this to you,” she blew a series of perfect circles into the air, “Don’t you wanna know what happened to your family?”

Leilani’s expression hardened, “They’ve been gone for months! Why are you showin’ up now?!” The anger that swelled inside her at the thought someone dredging up memories she tried so hard to bury gave her courage she never knew she had to speak up to the woman. “I know what happened. I’m past it! Now, can you please leave!”

The woman snickered, “You’ve definitely grown a spine since the last time we met.”

“Excuse me?! Grow a spine? I was nine! Do you have any idea what I had to go through after seeing you covered in blood creeping around my house in the middle of the night? Years of therapy! I was sent to live with my aunt because people thought I was crazy!”

The crimson eyed woman turned to Leilani, “Well, the jokes on them, isn’t it? Look, I know you have a lot of questions, but time is something you don’t have right now. If you want answers,” She lifted the small black book, “Then open it.”

Leilani recoiled at the sight of it, “Last time I opened it, is when all this shit started. Why would I go back?”

The woman stood up, “You don’t have a choice. Now, take it!”

Leilani snapped back at her, “I always have a choice!”

The woman stood up, “So you choose to find another shit job you can’t stand? You choose to let those above you treat you like garbage when you show compassion? You choose to live your life like a ghost? Hell, you only have one friend in this god-forsaken town and his relationships are straining because of you. The only thing you’ve chosen is a miserably quiet death. One where no one comes to mourn or cherish their memories of you. If this is what humans do with choice…,” She pulled out a gun and aimed it at her head, “Then I’d rather see the end your suffering rather than let it play out. Give me an answer. Do you want to truly live or do you want to simply exist? The power to make a change in countless lives within these pages, including yours, but I can’t force you to take it. I am presenting you with two different forms of salvation. Call it the best set of choices I can provide.”

Leilani couldn’t believe she’d been forced into this after everything that’s happened. In hindsight, she definitely would’ve chosen the collapsing building over this. “Oh really?! What a load of garbage!”

The woman didn’t budge an inch. In her mind, the words she spoke were law. “Well?” One would think the answer was obvious but Leilani hesitated. This slight pause made her sigh with displeasure, “I…understand.” She gripped her weapon firmly but before she could pull the trigger, she felt Leilani press her hand on top of the little black book. “Oh?”

“You said I could make a change, right?”

The crimson eyed woman nodded, “Yes.” She placed her other hand on top of Leilani’s, “ The time has come for you to assume the role you were born to play. Do you, Leilani Price, take the mantle as one of the twelve who guide the world? If you do say ‘I do’.”

“I-I do.”

“Will you promise to continue the efforts you forefathers and mothers to bring balance to those under your wings?”

For the first time in her life, Leilani stared right into the woman’s eyes not with fear but determination, “There’s no one under me.”

It was a strange response, but one that painted a genuine smile on the woman’s face, “Then I, Betty Beatrice Black, shall be your guardian, now and forever.” She raised her hands away from the book until only Leilani held it and bowed. “You have much to learn and little time to do it, but I will guide you according to your parent’s wishes.”

Leilani could feel the warmth emitting from the book in her hands, “And what were their wishes?”

“To show you the world in its entirety and allow you to form your own beliefs and views.”

Leilani sighed, “And what if I deem the world unworthy of my… guidance?”

“Then that is your choice, and I will follow your commands whatever they may be.”

She rolled her eyes, “That’s just great. First things first, no bowin’. I ain’t royalty.”

Betty stood up, “But you are.”

“No, I’m not. We didn’t live like royalty. I didn’t go to a fancy school or anything like that. We were just a normal family.”

Betty knew her pleas would fall on deaf ears, “Understood. What should I call you?”

“Lei’s fine, I guess.”

“Understood.”

“Now what?”

Betty looked around at the barely furnished apartment, “Check your phone. You may not be royalty but I can’t allow you to live in a place like this. Proper furniture would be a nice start.”

Leilani unlocked her phone and noticed a notification from her bank at the top. She opened it and gasped, “Where’d twenty grand come from?!”

Betty smiled, “It’s yours, always was.”