We left Al’s condo just before midnight. Even though we didn’t say anything, we both knew we’d be late to my charred apartment building. Al doesn’t like to waste her time waiting for people, and I tend to be late for stuff anyway; don’t judge me, it’s an illness. When we arrive, the whole crew is there: Dale; Leah; Bullse – Ken with a pair of crutches; and Cara, with Jascia’s projection standing next to her with her arms crossed. Apparently, the last two had officially joined our merry band as combatants.

I feel like there was someone else there too. He’s incredibly annoying and pretty much ruins everything. It’s on the tip of my tongue. Yeah, yeah; Shawn. I had hoped his incompetence would make him not show up, but there he was. To my disgust, his arm was casually wrapped around Cara’s shoulder.

“So, what’s the plan,” Shawn asked. As I expected, Al walked right past him, kicked in the front door of the apartment building, and walked inside. I gestured to her dramatic entrance as if to present the prestige of a magic trick – that’s the conclusion of a magician’s illusion, for those that aren’t familiar.

“That’s the plan,” I said. We followed my mentor. Inside, she walked directly to the stairs. I hadn’t accounted for the possibility that Selena would be in my actual apartment. After the climb, most everyone was winded, except Al, and of course, me since I’m a prime example of a perfect human specimen. A lot of the floor was charred and there were a few questionable squishy spots in the hall. They were from the lingering water that firefighters sprayed on the fire.

There, standing inside my mostly missing apartment, were 10 muscular guys waiting for us. Selena was nowhere to be seen. I should have figured it was a trap.

“Where is she?” Al asked the men. They responded by rushing at her. Al just stood there as they descended upon her. As the first guy made it to her, she sidestepped and slammed a fist down at his head; he sunk into the floor a little but was able to block most of the force. Her assessment had been right; Selena was using Jascia’s power somehow.

“Well, looks like this is going to be interesting,” I said. Leah, of all people, took charge.

“Everyone support Al. Jesse, you’re on spike making duty; Ken, throw them at the enemies that aren’t actively attacking; Shawn shoot lightning at the same targets, but if you can’t control it, stand here instead; Cara switch with Jascia and have her make me and Dale stronger without controlling us. Let’s go people,” she said. Actually, I was kind of impressed by her decisiveness; I probably could have made a better plan, but I figured I’d let her have her moment.

Al kneed the guy stuck in the floor, sending him flying into another grunt, throwing them back. One of the others charged at her, only to be smashed through the floor into the level below. Three new opponents took his place, swinging recklessly. She dodged their strikes easily.

As Leah instructed, I stomped on the floor to make a spike-ish piece of charred wood, it was more – pear-shaped than anything, and Ken gave me an odd look, but still did his part. It flew through the air toward a guy standing in back, but the shard was batted away before it could strike. I noticed Shawn raise his hand, but I grabbed his arm before he could fire off a bolt of electricity. Now was as good a time as any to teach him how to improve his control.

“Don’t use your whole hand, use one finger like you saw me do before. Make sure you point well away from others,” I said. Dale entered the fray after making physical contact with Jascia who was now in control of Cara’s body. I continued explaining Shawn’s power to him. His entire focus was on listening to my quick lesson. “Lightning can’t fully be controlled; as it gets further away, it gets less accurate since it can arc to a different target that might ground it quicker.” He nodded.

Dale plowed through a guy, sending them both hurdling through a wall. Glee appeared on Leah’s face as soon as she became empowered. Her expression looked almost maniacal, like she had just chugged multiple energy drinks. Was that the way Dale said I looked? No wonder he was worried about me.

Al dispatched one of her opponents by kicking him through a wall. The sound of several crashes followed as he made holes through several more apartments. A spike from my and Ken’s team knocked back a man descending on Dale, but it didn’t make much of a difference, because the fighter that Al smashed into the level below, exploded out of the blackened carpet, sending Dale through the ceiling. Leah was there a moment later with a flying knee to that enemy’s face. He crashed through another wall. Shame struck me; I should be in there decreasing the structural integrity of the floor. I should be the one punching guys through walls, not I’m standing in the back throwing pieces of wood.

“Get your head in the game,” Ken said. “We just threw a piece of wet drywall.” I realized then that I wasn’t really making an impact on the fight. It was like I didn’t even have powers. I was doing nothing more than picking up pieces of debris and Ken was throwing them. Somehow, I’d become the bag boy for a golfer with crutches; I was the useless one. Even Shawn was helping, taking his time to line up his shot between calming breaths, making sure not to accidentally hit anyone on our team.

Al hopped backward to dodge a strike, and while she was in the air, Selena phased – yes, phased directly behind Al, swinging at her neck with a knife. Al noticed just in time to awkwardly block with her forearm. The knife went all the way through, causing her to wince. She went on the offensive, but her counterattack went right through Selena’s afterimage. There was no respite as one of Al’s original opponents tackled her to the floor.

“Al!” I exclaimed, but my concern was unwarranted. She rolled backward and sent him flying, propelled by an explosion. She continued her roll back to her feet. 6 of the 10 guys, rushed at her, the others in different states of recovery. She growled.

“If you have time to be worried, you have time to fight!” She snarled at me. Her anger was in full force, she’d become a berserker, and she pushed herself even harder. The fluidity of her movements increased as she ripped the knife out of her forearm. Each of her actions transitioned seamlessly into another, switching between, and sometimes simultaneously, attacking and defending. She sent one guy flying with a punch from her knife hand, then spun to slash a throat. While in rotation, she ducked under a swing and swept a leg. Leah grabbed the tripped man mid-air and used him as a flail to take out someone else. Dale dropped to the floor above onto another grunt. It didn’t seem like there was any progress being made against the enemies, and that’s when things got much worse.

Jascia stood a few feet behind Ken and I to avoid as much of the combat as possible. A man barreled toward us, but I managed to finally be useful, by impaling him with a bathroom tile spike. That’s when I heard Selena’s voice.

“Now’s your chance to take out Aloysia. Trust me, it’s for the best,” she said. I spun to see both Jascia and Ken nod. Before I could act, Selena phased away. Dale and Leah suddenly froze in place, then turned to engage Al. Clearly, they’d just fallen completely under Jascia’s power’s influence. Bullseye dropped his crutches so he could sink to the floor and crawl around throwing everything he could reach.

All I could do is watch as everyone attacked Al from all angles. Shawn and I, not under anyone’s influence, were both stunned. Al dodged, weaved, and struck out. Even when she was blinded by ash, she still managed to dodge several swings. She was a machine.

This was the Al I knew. The woman that, when fighting at full power, defied all logic. Flames shot from her eyes to clear away the dust blinding her, but while distracted, Selena phased in near her. My sister stretched out a palm, then seconds later, she disappeared. Al had cleared her eyes and sent her combatants away with dragon breath. Afterward, however her shoulders sagged, and her movements became more sluggish. She jumped back, gasping for breath like I’d never seen. Selena must have poisoned her with something. How many powers did she have? I didn’t know how to help.

It wasn’t me who ran to help her, it was Shawn. My chest clenched, the pain not from my injury, but from my heart. Regardless of my experiences during training, Al mattered to me, and instead of helping her, I just stood there – like a coward. In that moment, even Shawn was more reliable than I was. But what could I do? Without my real powers, I was useless.

It didn’t matter how I attacked; these guys were invincible. If I impaled them, they would just keep fighting; if I tried to use poison, they’d just recover, and I’d probably also hit Al; I couldn’t fight alongside her unless I wanted to die from a single hit; there was nothing I could do. Al staggered back and used a wall to stabilize herself. She looked down at the floor as if she knew, this were her final moments. Time stood still enough for me to see the clear picture of her silhouette, cast by the glow of the city’s lights through a shattered window. It looked like the dramatic pause in an action movie – moments before a beloved character dies.

The scene struck me hard, and suddenly, it didn’t matter if I was the hero, the villain, the sidekick, or the comic relief; I wasn’t going to let it happen. Al looked like she was about to fall over, but all of her attackers were in front of her. I used Atom’s power to send me hurdling forward and pushed off with the empowered strength from the energy Al shared earlier that day. I screamed to get the enemy’s attention for just a moment. The rage in it even gave Shawn pause. I flew past him and swung my arm in a wide arc, sending a wave of flames out. The blast sent the entire brigade flying through the exterior wall to the street below.

Al drooped forward off the wall, but I caught her before she could fall. I checked her breathing and her pulse, both were steady. She was asleep or unconscious. The sound of several thuds came from outside. I looked over to Shawn to see what was happening.

“Get Ken!” I shouted to him, but he’d already gotten there. It appeared that Ken had just been knocked out. Shawn was knelt over with two fingers touching Ken’s unmoving form. He had just used his power like a stun gun. I admit, that was clever, and I was genuinely impressed. Unfortunately, Jascia was sprinting toward him, intent on adding him to her thrall. I pointed at her with my stump.

“Shawn!” He looked over, but it was too late, she tackled him. Before things could progress further, I picked Al up and charged toward them. As Shawn rose to his feet, I used the maximum amount of strength that I could muster and kicked him in the chest with my heel. It sent him flying so hard, he went through several walls. I followed his path and kept punting him like a football until we were at an external wall, and he was ejected from the building as well. Had she been conscious, Al would have been proud.

While everyone was making their way up the stairs to my floor, I ran back to find Jascia trying to flee. I took a deep breath and blew knockout gas at her as soon as I was close enough to hit her with it. I sighed in relief. Everyone was off the table except Selena, who phased behind me to whisper in my ear.

“She needs to die, trust me,” she said. I shook my head before her influence could take hold. I spun on her with my lips curled.

“It’s over, Selena. Just stop this,” I said.

“Not until she’s dead.”

“I won’t let that happen,” I said. “And if you so much as touch her – I’ll hunt you down.”

“You’d hurt your own sister?”

“You’re possessed. I’m not sure how much of my sister is even left.”

“I’m not possessed, Jesse,” she said.

“Then what?” I asked. She ran her hand down her body in an oddly seductive way which was disgusting since we were siblings.

“We’re one.”

“What?”

“Her and I have merged into a single person now.”

“So you – fused. Like with a fusion dance from an anime?” I asked.

“No! Of course not.” She shot me a scathing look. Then she said the words I’d feared most but somehow already knew. “We made a deal.”

Selena had made a pact with a demon, and that’s why I couldn’t find the creature when I invaded her soul. It also explained why she’d been missing for the past 10 years, and if the deal had lasted this long, it was most likely permanent. My chest clenched once more. Since killing my family, I’d held out hope that she still lived and that I’d find her. My mouth fell open and tears welled in my eyes. My sister was gone.

I gently set Al down on the floor. Some of my tears fell on her face. Even asleep, she had a radiance to her. Lying there, unconscious, and helpless, she looked so small. There was no semblance of the monster that I’d made her out to be. I wiped my tears off her cheek.

“Why?” I asked Selena.

“Why?! I could ask you the same thing,” she spat. I looked up to see fury burning in her eyes. I straightened. “Why are you still protecting her?”

“Because. Unlike you, she was there. She was there when our house burned down, our whole family was dead, and you went missing. She was there – and you weren’t.” Selena stared at me dumbstruck.

“Are you kidding me?” She asked. “You should remember. You were supposed to remember.”

“What are you talking about?”

“The dreams, Jesse! The dreams! You should remember everything.”

“Wait – that was you?”

“Of course, it was me! Did you really think that suddenly, after 10 years, you’d started remembering everything?” She asked.

“I – why? Why would you make me remember the worst night of my life?” I asked.

“So, you could see what actually happened – obviously. You’re not actually conscious when you’re like – how you were.” My lip curled in a snarl.

“And whose fault is it that I was – the way I was?”

Selena gritted her teeth and approached. I grit my own teeth, and stood my ground as she slammed a palm into my forehead.

There was a flash, then I stood in my childhood home – but I was shorter? I tried to look down but couldn’t move my head. I knew however, that I was definitely not in my body. A door closed, and I moved automatically to see who it was. It was – me.

“Jesus? You’re home early,” I said, but it was Selena’s voice, that came out of my mouth. I was in Selena’s body.

“Yeah. It was slow at the store, so Herb sent me home,” the younger me replied. Is that what I sounded like? Eww. “He should have sent Mari home. I’m a much better worker than she is. I won’t be able to afford the new fucki-“

“Language!” Selena shouted and put her hands on her hips. I would never swear when Mom was around, but since that day, it was me who would yell that.

“Sorry!” The younger me – more simply, I rose my hands up in a placating gesture. Selena narrowed her eyes at me. “Your dead glare is nowhere near as scary as Mom’s,” I said. ‘Dead glare’, sounded like something I would say now.

“It’s death glare, not dead glare.” Ehh, that was still something I might say.

“Whatever.” I shook my head and started taking off my shoes. I was wearing a white dress shirt with a black tie and black pants – the same thing I’ve worn for work for the last ten years…

“Are you hungry? Mom and Dad went to buy groceries with Diego,” she said. “I can make you something.”

“Ugh, can’t we just order pizza? I really want to try this new place, Ernesto’s,” I said. She rolled her eyes and turned to walk into the kitchen.

“Why bother trying new pizza places if all you get is cheese?” She asked, disappearing around the wall.

Cheese pizza from Ernesto’s, like I get all the time now. Have I just been trapped in the past, reliving that day, every day since then? Could I have been trying to remember something all this time? I might have started to cry if I weren’t trapped in Selena’s body.

“Jesus?” She asked. I hadn’t responded to her pizza jibe. “Jesus?” Again, no response. There was a clattering in the hallway leading from the door.

“Jesus, are you okay?” Still – no response. Selena walked back to where we’d been talking with trepidation. She saw blood pooling on the floor even before she rounded the corner. She surged into the hall full of fear.

I was kneeling on the floor, clutching my throat, unable to breath. Blood seeped through my fingers from a deep gash on my neck. My eyes, filled with terror, met Selena’s for just a moment, before I collapsed. She rushed toward me, and frantically tried stop the blood, but there was nothing she could do. It only took a few moments for the light in my eyes to fizzle out.

Tears poured down Selena’s cheeks; she was stunned. I could feel her thoughts as if they were my own. She’d just been talking to me, and now I was dead. How was that even possible?

The sound of the door closing again wasn’t enough to stir my sister from her stupor, but the wet thuds of footsteps did. A pair of combat boots stopped next to my corpse. Selena wiped away her tears to clear her vision and she looked up.

There, standing over me covered in blood, was Al.