NP: Army of Me by Bjork

Be warned. This is a special entry to the Reapers book and may or may not be related to the current story plot. You may read on to find out.

∞XIII∞

Between gawking at Madame Roselle while she helped me get dressed and staring at Mr. S from the backseat of his red Rubicon, I didn't know what was weirder.

He looked at me from the rearview mirror. "You sure you're okay there, kiddo? You look pale. Listen. If you're not feeling good about this, we can just go back."

"No, Mr. S-I mean, Mr. Vincent's Dad. We're almost there."

"Okay," he replied without tearing his eyes from me. "But if you change your mind, just say the word. 'Cause you can always go back. Seriously. You know that, right?"

Before I could ask a thousand questions, I felt my forehead crumpling as the vehicle slowed down. At first, I thought we stopped at the wrong house. But then, looking closer, I realized it was Dad's house, but with a better paintjob and a decent lawn.

As I got out of the Rubicon, I saw someone sitting in the hammock in the front porch. I

I heard Mr. S say, "Take care, Aramis. Crazy world out there," before the Rubicon swerved back into the road.

I did a mad dash to my mother. She was just there-short hair, freckly face, gray eyes and all-scribbling on her notebook, occasionally punching something on the calculator.

When she saw me coming, she lifted an eyebrow. "Oh, you're here."

With the sobs escaping my throat, I ran to her, smothered her in an embrace and buried my face in the hollow of her neck. "I missed you, Mom."

She just stood there, hands limp on her sides. "What's gotten into you?"

I pulled away, wiping the tears with the back of my hands. "Nothing. It's just... I really missed you."

Mom shook her head as if in disappointment. "What have you done this time, Aramis?"

"What? Nothing!"

She picked up her notes and marched to the living room. "You're always like this, Aramis! You think getting all sappy on me would make it all okay? Well, that only works with your Dad! So since he's not here, you're going to have to take responsibility for the all your crap!"

"Why? Where's he?"

Mom took me by the shoulders, looked me in the eyes and shook. "Your dad left us, Aramis. How many times do I have to say it? I'm sick and tired of you acting out and leaving a trail of mess behind you for me to fix. I can't fix everything! So for once, stop being a brat and just accept the fact that whether you like it or not, it's just you and me now."

"Why did Dad leave?" My voice cracked.

Her eyes went blank. "Just tell me what you did so I can brace myself before someone calls me for settlement. Did you hit someone again?"

"No."

"Vandalism? Caught smoking weed?"

"No! For Eldessakes, Mom."

"Then what is it now?!"

"Nothing! I don't know what you're talking about."

Covering her face with her hands, she flopped in the couch, her shoulders shaking as she tried to muffle the whimpers. "I don't want to see you like this, Aramis. You're destroying yourself. You're still young, but you've somehow turned into this... monster. It's as if... you already gave up. You just gave up on life."

∞XIII∞

We were in the bleachers-Carter, Lindsay and I-sprawled like sloths for the whole afternoon. It was a lot warmer there. Plus, I was told ditching two or more periods couldn't hurt my grades. If I cared.

For some reason, we were all in black. If that meant anything, I didn't dwell.

"Look," Carter said, cocking his head to the basketball court.

Vincent just got the ball and was about to shoot. I thought he glanced at me for a millisecond before the ball went into the basket. Some of the girls watching from the other side of the gym cheered and screamed so loud it hurt my ears.

"Why are we even here?" I muttered through the corner of my mouth. "Let's just go."

Lindsay rolled her eyes-it looked like she put a whole year's supply of eyeliner on them-and scoffed. "Come on, A. You've been crushing on him since when? The third grade?"

Carter snickered, biting on his lip ring by force of habit. "Try kindergarten."

"Hello?" I said, inserting all the mockery I could muster. "I just transferred here a year ago."

"Right, A," Carter said. "And I'm a nerd. Plus, Lindsay's a medium."

They exchanged high fives and laughed some more as though they were in some kind of acid trip. When, finally, the laughter died out, Lindsay pulled her thighs up her chest and hugged them. I watched her blue eyes shift to and fro as the ball get passed from one player to another.

"Seriously though, A," she murmured to her knees. "Why don't you just walk up to him and say it upfront?"

That caught me off guard. "Say what?"

Carter leaned back, resting his elbows on the step behind us. "That you like him, what else?"

"I don't like him."

Lindsay blinked once as if that was some cryptic code I should be able to decipher. "Maybe you love him."

"Let me get this straight: I don't like him, but I love him?" I said, trying to sound analytical. "That's contradictory. Negative plus positive equals zero."

Carter burst out laughing again. "Nice one, nerd."

"Not zero," Lindsay said, seemingly in deep thought. "It's not zero if you love him more than you don't-like-him. It could happen. Like me and Carter."

Carter pressed his lips, trying not to smile. "Yeah? You don't like me?"

"Sure I don't," she answered without batting an eyelid. But before Carter could cry in a corner, get another piercing or worse, write poetry, she added, "I hate that you get tattoos that don't mean anything and you want to me to act like they look cool. I hate it that ring of yours. It's cold whenever you kiss me. But-"

He rubbed his hands together. "Here's the good part."

I pretended to dry-heave.

Lindsay turned to me. "It's not what he does for me or how he behaves that I love about him. It's just... him. Just. Him. All I did was accept everything else that comes with the package."

Right then and there, Carter pulled Lindsay toward him. They kissed while I grunted and cleared my throat and rolled my eyeballs. But I might as well be invisible.

"I don't get it," I groaned.

Lindsay smiled at me when finally, they let each other go. "You don't have to. You'll know when you do."

Blankly, I stared at Vincent. The practice game was over and he was fooling around with his teammates. It was really weird. I didn't peg him for the athletic type. Gone were the days when I would see him in those brown hiking boots. I even thought they looked cool on him. But he was still Vincent, although, not the Vincent I knew from that other world... or dream.

"Sounds like you had it all figured out, huh?" I sighed.

"No," she said. "It's just that once you lose the chance, you can't just go back, you know."

∞XIII∞

I had no clue what I was doing at the court. The coach was giving the team the suitable congratulations and their idea of a celebration was hitting and throwing each other.

"Good job, Vince!" It was Amyr who gave him a pat on the shoulder.

"Thanks, Coach!" he grinned smugly.

Amyr pulled him away from the other players. "You were unstoppable back there. Keep doing that and I promise you, my boy, will take the team far. So, practice. Saturday. Just you and me."

Vincent looked confused. "But coach, what about my other teammates?"

With shake of his head, Amyr looked Vincent in the eye. "You're the star player here, Vince. The others are here just to fill in the slots. If you let them drag you down, you won't get to the top."

"But they're my friends, coach," he replied, incredulous.

"You're special, Vince. Don't let that go to waste. This is your destiny. And if you don't grab it, if you let the people you care about get in the way, your chance to greatness will be lost forever," he said, his expression grimmer than it should have for someone who was doing a pep talk for a ball game. "I want you to be formidable, relentless, a cold-blooded killing machine. You have to unleash your inner demon and you can't do that if you're always looking after others."

It took Vincent a while to sort his thoughts and when he did, it looked like he had found his resolve. He was laughing quietly to himself as if he just remembered something funny. "Say, Coach. How can you be 'great' if you can't even protect the people you care about?"

After that, he turned his back on a dumbfounded Amyr and saw me standing in front of him.

"You heard that?" He jabbed a thumb over his shoulder.

"Sort of," I answered, unable to meet his eyes. The other players were looking at me funny. It was disconcerting as though I had this invisible tentacles on my back that only they could see. "Can we talk outside? It won't take long."

"Sure."

We hadn't even moved when two girls-one blond, the other Asian-in cheerleader uniforms ran to Vincent, giggling. Both of them anchored an arm around Vincent. I had to blink twice to realize who they were.

"You were great back there!" the blond trilled.

"Yes! Keep it up, Vince!" said the Asian girl.

"Girls, can't you see I'm talking to somebody here?" Vincent smiled apologetically, but it didn't seem like he minded being in a tug of war between two girls. "Girls, this is Aramis. Aramis, this is my big-"

"Older sister," the blond corrected, narrowing her eyes at Vincent. "Vincent never gets tired making fun of my being vertically-challenged. I'm Luci, by the way."

"That came from you, not me," he told Luci, laughing a bit. Then he motioned to the other girl. "And this is Mei-"

"His girlfriend," the girl cut in, her feline eyes sweeping me from head to toe before glaring at my shabby hi-cut sneakers. "Nice... shoes."

I dropped my gaze. "T-thanks..."

Mei looked up at Vincent. "We have to go. The after party isn't going to start without you."

"Just a minute," he said, untangling himself from her grasp. He pulled her in and touched his lips on her hair. "Wait for me in the car. I'll catch up with you two after I hit the showers."

Pouting, Mei snagged the sheepish Luci and dragged her to the exit, muttering under her breath as she did.

With a sigh, Vincent disheveled his hair. "She can be a handful sometimes, but she's really nice... once in a while."

"Sounds like you... really like her."

A stupid grin painted on his face. "You think? I won't be able to put up with her moods if I didn't. And the whole school thinks we look together so I'm not complaining. Gotta get all those votes for the Homecoming or I'll never hear the end of it from her..."

"Are you happy?"

With both his brows raising, he paused as if in deep thought. "I guess... This is as good as it gets, right? Could be worse-Why're we even talking about life like were fricking forty-year olds?" A long sigh left his lips. He even managed a supposed-to-be goading sneer. "Enough about me. You wanted to tell me something?"

"Y-yeah," I muttered. "Vincent, I just want to let you know that I-I..."

"You what?" he patiently waited. "Come on. Tell me."

I fidgeted with the seam of my black sweater. All I wanted was to get this over with. Just a minute ago, I knew exactly what to say. But all that bravado was gone. To think that I had become the type that wouldn't even blink when faced with wraiths and now, just the thought of saying three words to this guy was scaring the hell out of me.

"I just wanted you to know that... I really appreciate you helping me back at the woods the other day."

His gaze went right past me. "Oh... Is that it?"

"And please don't tell anyone about the crazy stuff I might have said or did back there..." It came out raspy.

"Crazy," he murmured to himself before looking me in the eyes so intense I thought I would be incinerated. "Sure. Not like you can go back and get a do-over, right?"

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

to be continued on or before the Purge.