Silent night, darkest black, and the soft glow of candles surrounded Owen as he meditated. Such silence was rare nowadays, even in the woods where the demon revolution laid in wait. For all of their creeds and all of their stealth, the soldiers were often noisy and quite clumsy. They loved to interrupt his quiet time. Owen slowly opened his eyes to the rays of sun that were beginning to shine into his eyes.
“I’m hungry…”
Such was a day in the life of a Possessed on the reserve squads. He did nothing but meditate and check the screens that never showed any activity. Why couldn’t Cade just put him out in the fight already? Owen sighed as he worked on chewing a half frozen turkey leg. “I’m strong, I’m tough… I’m more of a soldier than anyone else running around. Why can’t Cade just let me out?”
Because you’re unstable, that’s why.
Owen froze, mid-bite, and lowered the turkey leg. “What do you want now, Emolo?”
I just want to remind you that even in the most peaceful of times, things are not always what they seem. You look like a man, but you are still a boy. You may think you are ready to fight, but you cannot control me even if you wanted to. I am too much bear for you.
“Too much bear for who now?” Owen smirked. The monitors started to beep. “What the-?!” Owen’s eyes darted from monitor to monitor, seeing nothing. “There’s no one here, why is the alarm going off?!”
No one’s here? You know better than that.
The candles around him started to go out, one by one. Owen couldn’t fathom what was happening. He could see nothing, yet something had infiltrated the monitor room! “Who’s there?!” he shouted.
They won’t answer. You know that. How about this, instead of using your eyes, moron, how about you try calming down a little?
Owen staggered back, afraid of the phantom terrorizing him. His breathing was sharp and labored with fear. Following the demon bear’s advice, his breathing began to slow and he cleared his mind of fear. Years of meditation allowed him to do this rather easily. The dark room took on a green hue of ursine night vision, revealing a girl tampering with the monitors.
“There you are!” Owen tackled the girl before she could complete her work. They rolled away from the technology, the girl digging her nails into Owen’s shoulder. She scrambled up, trying again to destroy files, but Owen pulled her back again.
“Let me go!” she hissed, finally pulling out a knife and driving it into Owen’s right thigh. He grunted in pain and stumbled back. The girl stood and resumed her hacking, unaware that the figure of an angry bear was rising behind her. Alarmed, she spun around, only to see Owen smirking. The knife she had plunged into his leg had fallen out. The rips in his pant leg revealed a shiny wooden prosthetic, the price he had to pay for the demon bear in his body.
“That was mean. You scratched up my leg. You know how much I polish this thing?” He advanced on the girl, grabbed her by her shirt and catapulted her out the window of the tower, jumping out to land by her when she crashed to the ground. “The punishment for sabotage is death!” he shouted, about to bring a giant clawed hand down upon her.
“HEY!! OWEN!! WHAT THE HELL?!”
Owen stopped just inches short of the girl’s face. Cade ran up behind him and smacked him in the head with his own prosthesis.
“Ahh!! Did it have to be with your FAKE one?!” Owen cried, rubbing his head.
“This is why I don’t let you fight, Owen. You go nuts.”
“But this time I got someone! She was trying to hack into our files!”
Cade looked over Owen’s massive shoulder to spy the girl on the ground. Being that Owen stood head and shoulders taller than he did, it was quite the struggle.
“Owen… that’s one of ours. Hey Quinny, you okay?”
Quinn dusted herself off, cracked her neck, and took a moment to steady herself.
“What…?” Owen looked at Quinn and back at Cade, who was giving him a very skeptical look. Almost immediately, he fell to his knees and bowed to the girl he had almost killed. “Please forgive my actions! I hope I didn’t hurt you!”
“You’re wasting your time. She’s blind.”
“What does that have to do with anything?”
“Absolutely nothing.”
“Then why did you bring it up?” Owen asked, cautious to pick out his words.
“I dunno.”
Owen frowned and sat back. He wasn’t told that they were recruiting. He barely knew what was going on as it was.
“Before I forget…” Cade beckoned over the to the trees. A girl with hair as red as an apple slowly came from the woods, holding a bleeding arm and looking down. She was easily the most beautiful girl Owen had ever laid his eyes upon.
Don’t get excited.
Owen rolled his eyes. Since his leg had been taken, he hadn’t felt such a feeling as when he laid his eyes upon this girl.
“This is Jenny. She just escaped a firing squad, the lucky s***.” Cade rubbed the top of Jenny’s head. “Now that the gang’s all together, I feel that it is now time to tell you, Owen, what your first field job is.”
Owen jumped up in excitement, letting out a loud bear growl. “I’m raring to go! Finally! What do I have to do? What am I going to be?”
Cade tossed Owen a gun and smirked.
“Live bait.”