Twinfinity: The Onyx Ravens (8)

Chapter 8
A New Kind of Darkness
∞
There were a lot of things that Whitney couldn’t see happen after Tommy left and she withdrew from him. She couldn’t see the flowers and the grass wilting around her as she absorbed the life that they contained. She couldn’t see the birds dropping from their nests, or the squirrels keeling over as she stole the simplistic souls that they possessed. She couldn’t see or hear Decker as he began to issue commands to his cronies, ordering them to begin their assault on her, pointing his finger first to them, and then to positions that surrounded her. She couldn’t hear the feet of Riley as she ran through the rest of the woods, or the feet of Jacob and Jessica as they trailed after. She couldn’t see or hear Tommy as he pursued them, nor could she feel his guilt about leaving her behind.

But she didn’t need to see or hear any of those things in order to do what she needed to do.

Whitney had her shadows and she had her awareness. And even though she couldn’t see what was happening with some of the lesser forms of life around her she could feel the surge of energy that sapping those life forms provided her.

Whitney unclipped her seeing cane from her belt and thumbed the button that actuated the inner pistons, releasing a shot of carbon dioxide, and forcing those pistons to extend outward, lengthening her cane to its full extension. It wasn’t designed to be a weapon, but she would start with it until she could take one of theirs.

“What’s this,” she didn’t hear Decker ask. “The blind and deaf girl is going to fight back with her cane?” he finished with a laugh, but he wouldn’t be laughing for long.

Whitney was happy to see that Mr. Simple (Cree to those that knew his name) was the first to make a move. His move was simple, taking his Escrima in both hands, attempting to swing it like a baseball bat, aiming for Whitney’s gut, in a wide and sweeping arc, Whitney blocked the move easily with her cane, spun, presenting her back to him momentarily, and thrust the butt of her cane into the crick of Cree’s throat. He fell backwards, bringing both hands to his injured neck, letting go of his staff in the process, and allowing Whitney to replace her cane with his weapon before it touched the ground.

Whitney didn’t need her sight to accomplish any of this. Her newly discovered awareness told her that the neurons in her mind and the nerve endings beneath the surface of her skin weren’t limited to just touch. They were so receptors that she could sense even the slightest vibrations in the air, similar to the way a spider can feel the vibrations in a web, but without the need for an actual web.

Whitney didn’t hear that Decker stopped laughing, but she still knew that he had done just that.

The raging crony did come next. He lifted his staff over his head with the intent of hammering it down onto Whitney’s head.