Chapter 7

EMPTY ARMOR

A strange new ache between my legs radiated up into my core, a shadow of the burning desire that had consumed me the night before. My sore shoulders and legs protested under the weight of my pack, even though it was lighter now.

I glanced over at Magnus, who was hiking beside me, and he flashed a smile back at me. He'd taken more of my stuff when we'd packed up this morning. We walked slower on the hike out than we had on the hike in, stretching the time we had left together before we had to return to our real lives. We hadn't even made it off the side trail yet.

"Do you think-" Magnus began.

"Lumi!" someone called out ahead of us. "I was hoping I'd run into you!"

I looked up to see the guy from the outdoor gear shop heading straight towards us, a huge smile on his face which faded as his gaze fell on Magnus, the already chiseled lines on his forehead deepening. He had a small backpack on and was holding a red rose in one hand. He stopped in front of us in the center of the trail, blocking our path.

I couldn't remember his name.

"Is this your boyfriend?" he asked.

"No," I said, not looking at Magnus.

"Oh, good." The guy smiled and reached up to brush a small strand of greasy salt and pepper hair away from where it stuck to his forehead. He thrust the rose towards me. "I brought this for you. Did you find the other one? I saw your truck. I've been checking to see if it was here, and I was so excited to see it parked in the lot today."

I didn't take the rose.

My stomach churned and twisted as I stared at it. This guy had left the rose?

He stepped forward close enough to feel his breath on my skin as he panted, pushing the rose against my chest and brushing his against my collar bone. I moved back and he stepped forward with me - at least, he did until Magnus pushed in between us and knocked the guy's hand away.

"What are you doing?" Magnus asked, stating my unspoken thoughts.

"Listen, kid, you aren't her boyfriend and we have a thing going. Lumi came out here to meet me, just like we talked about." The man frowned at Magnus. "You can walk on."

I don't like this one, Niamh said, sniffing the his leg. He smells bad.

"I didn't come out here to meet you," I said, shaking my head.

"Lumi, Lumi, Lumi," the guy said as he tried to step around Magnus, who sidestepped to stay in between us. "We talked about it. You were going to come out here, and I was going to meet you. Is this guy bothering you?"

"I don't know what you're talking about," I said.

"You're breaking my heart, Lumi," he replied.

"You need to leave her alone," Magnus said. He stepped towards the guy until his face was only inches from the guy's face. The older man stepped backwards, looking down and away.

"We're leaving," Magnus said.

"I'll walk Lumi back to the lot," the guy said.

For a moment I wondered what I should say. Maybe there was part of my conversation with him at the shop that I didn't remember. Maybe I had accidentally led him on, and it was my responsibility to make things right.

"No, you won't," Magnus said, his voice firm and deep. "You're going to continue with your hike. If I see you anywhere near us, I'm calling the cops."

"Magnus," I said, finding my voice. "Don't you think that's a bit extreme?"

"Yeah, what the hell, man?" The guy frowned, clenching his hands into fists. He lifted his chin to focus on Magnus, not turning away this time. "Who do you think you are? You're just some punk kid. Do you go to school with her? Do you think that makes you good enough for her? She is the kind of girl who needs a real man to take care of her, to give her what she needs."

"I don't know you," I said, goosebumps prickling my skin. "And I know Magnus. He's my friend." I moved closer to Magnus.

"But he's not your boyfriend," the guy said, his voice turning into a whine. "I could be your boyfriend."

Magnus unsnapped his backpack, shrugged it off his shoulders, and set it down on the ground before turning back to face Creepy Guy.

"You need to back the fuck off before I kick your ass," Magnus said, lifting his fists.

Magnus had never gotten into a fight in his life. At least, not to the best of my knowledge.

But there was a vicious, delightful part of me that absolutely loved that he was willing to throw down with a stranger who wouldn't leave me alone, who clearly had been hoping to catch me alone.

"Yeah, kick his ass, Magnus!" I encouraged.

Magnus flashed me a wide eyed smile.

As a result of him looking at me, he wasn't looking forward when Creepy Guy sucker punched him, hitting him right in the gut.

Magnus didn't even move.

He didn't crumple, or gasp. Instead he looked down at the fist still connected to his abdomen, his eyes widening with surprise, a savage smile spreading across his face.

Creepy Guy looked equally shocked, pain slashing across his face as he pulled his hand back, gripping it with the other one.

"Are your arms made out of styrofoam?" Magnus laughed, the sound deep and dark. "You hit like a pool noodle."

I felt a surge of affection for Magnus. Even in stressful situations he never put down half of the population when insulting another guy. His metaphors were creative, and didn't rely on stereotypes of female weakness.

Then Magnus hit back, striking Creepy Guy back in the gut.

For a moment I didn't understand what I was seeing. From the noise that Magnus made, that helpless shocked sound, a raspy high pitched inhale, I didn't think that he understood it either. It was the kind of sound someone made when they realized that their entire life was about to change and they couldn't stop it any more than they could stop a runaway train.

Magnus's hand was sticking out the other side of Creepy Guy's body.

Creepy Guy let out a garbled scream.

Magnus screamed back, matching the man's terror as he yanked back his arm, the slurping sound of flesh moving through flesh. Magnus staggered backwards, his arm covered in blood up to his elbow as Creepy Guy clutched at the bleeding wound in his abdomen.

"You…you…" he gasped out.

"No, I didn't mean to," Magnus stammered.

Creepy Guy coughed, blood spilling from his mouth.

He fell over, gasping on the ground, struggling to breathe.

"You hit his lungs," I said, my voice sounding cold and distant.

"I didn't…" Magnus held his bloody hand up in front of his face.

For a moment I could see it.

We could try to get help, but we were so far from the trailhead that this guy would likely bleed out and die before we could get there. He would die, and Magnus would spend the rest of his life in jail. There was a part of that image that curled its fingers around my heart. Magnus in jail meant he didn't have options. I could be there for him, writing him letters, visiting him, and he would have me, only me. I could be there for him and have him forever.

But I loved him too much for that to be our future.

I loved him so much that I wanted him to be free.

Even if it meant he hated me.

"Hit him again," I whispered.

"What?" Magnus looked at me with wounded eyes, his eyebrows pulled up and centered, his mouth open and trembling with the horror of his own creation.

I walked over to where Magnus' backpack lay and undid the strap that held the ax.

"If you don't do it, I will do it for you," I told him, lifting the ax. "We're eighteen. We'll be tried as adults. There is no way they will believe that kind of wound was accidental."

"What are you saying?" Magnus whispered.

I walked over to where Creepy Guy lay gasping on the ground. I gripped the ax in my hands, and I hesitated. I didn't have to be a part of this. I could just abandon them both and leave Magnus to his fate.

But I lived in a world that didn't give a shit about me. Teenagers like Magnus and I would be villainized and thrown to the wolves. Even if his parents got him a great lawyer, mine wouldn't, and they would go after me even if the blood wasn't on my hands.

I loved Magnus too much to leave him alone in this.

I loved myself too much to think everything would just work out.

No matter how much I was raised to hate myself, I didn't. I loved myself and with that emotion came the knowledge that I couldn't give myself to the mercy of others, a mercy I knew with a certainty didn't exist.

I lifted my gaze to stare at Magnus.

He was looking back at me like he'd never seen me before, his eyes wide, upper lip rising to part his lips, jaw dropping, nostrils flaring. He took a deep breath.

Was he going to tell me that we had to do the right thing? That we had to turn ourselves in?

His eyes tightened and his mouth closed, his jaw clenching.

"I'll do it," he said. "Step back."

Magnus walked over to the man, lifted his foot, and stomped on his head. It only took one blow, and the crunch of it surprised me just as much as it had seeing Magnus's hand going through Creepy Guy like he was tissue paper.

"What are you?" I asked.

He's a demon. I told you already, Niamh chirped.

"I don't know," Magnus shook his head. "I always knew I was strong, but this…"

He shuddered.

"This is like superhero stuff," I said.

"Is it?" he asked.

"Listen, we just need to bury him," I said, my tone soft as I put my hand on his shoulder. "We're off the main trail. We just need to get him to a place where he won't be discovered. Maybe take away his ID and drop that somewhere else."

Magnus nodded, his face ashen.

"You find a good spot to bury him and start digging. I'll go through his bag," I said.

Magnus nodded again.

I didn't wait to see what he would do. I crouched down next to the body, trying to avoid looking at the mess of the head. I dug through the bag, making a note that I'd need to take the whole thing and destroy it somehow to get my fingerprints and DNA off of it.

My hands shook as I dug through the bag.

There wasn't any ID, just a set of car keys, a bunch of zipties, a roll of duct tape, a knife, a bottle of water, and a taser. I frowned at the collection, confused by it. I took the knife and used it to cut the backpack off the guy's shoulders, unwilling to wrestle his corpse from side to side to slide it off his arms.

"I found a good spot," Magnus said. Then he looked at the body, turned, and threw up.

"I'm sorry," he whispered, retching again.

I looked away until he was finished, fighting my own urge to expel the contents of my stomach. This was messed up. I didn't know why Magnus was so strong and he didn't either and now we were dealing with a dead body.

It's nothing more than a mouse I reminded myself in my head. Just a rodent of unusual size.

"Let's get the body over there, cover up the mess here, then start digging," I said.

Magnus nodded.

Magnus didn't need my help to lift the corpse, but given that we didn't want it to bleed on him anymore, I grabbed the legs, struggling and dropping them several times as I my arms and hands couldn't quite make it the entire way. Magnus didn't have any problems, but he waited each time I stopped until I was ready to go again. Even with my physical weakness, we hauled it over to a small animal den that was set on the side of the ravine.

"I figured it was easier to seal up a den than dig a hole in this area," Magnus said.

While Magnus was busy stuffing the corpse in the hole, Niamh and I took care of the blood in the dirt. She was able to burn small things, so she trotted around on the blood spills, little whispers of smoke pooling up in the air from her feet. After she was done I returned to help Magnus seal up the den. It took hours, and the sun was high and hot in the air by the time we were done. We stripped down and washed our clothing in the stream, Magnus changing into a clean pair of clothes.

"Did you find his ID?" Magnus finally asked as we got ready to hike out.

I showed him the contents of the sawed off bag.

"Lumi…" Magnus said, a note of relief in his voice. "This guy was going to hurt you."

"He was harmless." I shook my head. Maybe my friend just needed to believe that the person he killed was a bad guy.

"He had zip ties and a taser on a hiking trip where he was hoping to catch you backpacking alone," Magnus pointed out.

"Right," I nodded, not seeing the connection. "You're right."

Magnus searched my face, frowning. Whatever he was looking for, wasn't there, and he lifted his eyebrows at me his face shifting to reflect incredulity before settling back into determination.

"I'll drive his car," Magnus said. "We'll take it to a shit area and leave it there with the keys in it."

I nodded.

It was going to be late by the time I got home. It was already way too late. I knew that as soon as I got into service range my phone was going to blow up. There would be hell to pay when I got home, and the price was always steep.

We hiked out to the parking lot in silence. We took care of Creepy Guy's car, and I drove Magnus back home.

"Not your boyfriend, huh?" Magnus broke the silence as we pulled up to his parents' house.

It took me a minute to realize that he was commenting on the argument with Creepy Guy.

"Well, do you want to be?" I replied, a small flush of excitement rushing through me.

"You were really there for me," Magnus said quietly. "If I was going to have anyone in my life be my girlfriend, it would be you, but I think we both need space after what just happened."

All of my elation faded, sinking down into my chest as I forced the smile to stay on my face. I nodded, pressing my lips together to keep the words inside.

He didn't want me.