Twinfinity: The Onyx Ravens (7)

Chapter 7

Facing off

∞

“Well, well, well,” Decker said as he entered the clearing. “If it isn’t li’l miss walking stick!”

Tommy had started to try and figure out a way around entering their ambush. To him it seemed utterly ridiculous to knowingly enter an ambush point when you knew exactly where the ambush point was. Whitney pointed out to him, however, that it didn’t matter one way or the other. She explained to him that his earlier point still applied. They couldn’t outrun them, and if they tried to maneuver away from them it would only serve to make them even madder than they already were. It was actually smarter to just fall into their trap and hope they could out talk their adversaries.

“Leave us alone Decker!” Riley commanded as the rest of Decker’s gang came out into the open. Every single one of them was armed with a Rattan Escrima staff and every single one of them was closing in on them as if the small group were a feast.

“I’ll leave you alone runt! As a matter of fact you can even run along if you want,” Decker informed her. “It’s her I want,” he added pointing toward Whitney.

“Decker … Man she didn’t know what she was doing. She’s blind and deaf,” Jacob cut in.

“Shut the fuck up,” he said as he turned back to Whitney. He took a step forward and looked at her suspiciously. “Blind and deaf?”

“Yeah, man. She’s both blind and deaf. She didn’t even realize what she was doing. She just reacted to some unknown person trying to grab her!”

“Oh, well I didn’t know that. I guess I’m totally being a jerk and over reacting,” he said. He stepped slightly aside and waved his arm in an ushering motion as if he were allowing them to pass.

“You mean we can go?” Jessica asked.

“FUCK NO YOU CAN’T GO! I’m not buying that blind and deaf bull shit! That bitch broke my nose and I’m gonna make her pay for it like I promised!” he said as he jabbed the end of his staff into the ground.

“Over my dead body,” Tommy said taking a step forward.

“Hey, fine! That can be arranged,” Decker said.

It was as Tommy made his statement and took his step forward that something changed in Whitney’s mind. The something that changed was inarticulate in its description and was signified to Whitney by one lone, brown leaf and there was no doubt that it was driven by her sense of danger.

That one lone, brown leaf, twisting in the breeze, set against a backdrop of its green compatriots, all of which doing their own twisting, as if they were having a secret argument, like a kennel of dogs barking for attention. That one lone brown leaf, dancing on the end of its twig, hanging on for dear life, from a branch in its tree, like all of the other, greener leaves. Whitney’s mind (using Tommy’s vision and hearing) plucked the differing color of that single brown leaf, from its perch in the tree behind Decker, and she became aware of her awareness.

She wasn’t just aware of that one brown, dancing leaf. She was aware of every leaf on every tree that surrounded them, but it was more than even that.