Moon Spirit - Chapter 3

Light Magic, Dark Magic

Pinned in place by Spaz's vice-like grip on his head, Max held the Moon Crystal as far back from Spaz as he could, his fingers clutched around it tightly. What good it would do, he couldn't imagine. One of Spaz's legs alone weighted more than him. The odds were pretty much zero that he'd stand up to Spaz and win, but even if it meant getting clobbered, he wasn't going to just hand over Sarina's Moon Crystal without a fight.

With the glow of the Moon Crystal gone, the lonely little stretch of linoleum hallway was nearly pitch black. A few squares or red and green light danced on the walls from a neon sign nearby. Spaz's face was visible,  on and off, red, then green, red, then green, but always horrifying.

"You can't have this, Spaz, no way!"

Spaz's expression turned from normal nastiness to a deranged child deprived of a toy. "You tellin' me what I can't have, Berger?"

Max realized his mistake. He'd turned getting the Moon Crystal into a mission for Spaz. "No, no, what I meant was -- you don't want this. It's dirty, covered in crap. I found it in the dumpster. It's just a stupid gumball, anyway!"

Spaz spun Max around and twisted him into a strangle hold, with his massive arm squishing Max's throat. "Gum don't glow, dork." Spaz's breath reeked of cigarettes and pepperoni -- his diet as far as Max knew. "You found a pearl or diamond something. Give it, or I'll break your bones and toss YOU in that dumpster!"

"Jewels don't glow either, Spaz," Max forced out. "Maybe it's not a gumball, I don't know. It's probably a kids toy, covered with baby drool. You really don't want it, trust me!"

In his hand, Max could feel the Moon Crystal getting hot. What was going on? Spaz didn't give him time to think about it very long. A second later, Max found himself skidding across the floor, having been thrown like a stuffed animal by Spaz. He crashed into the wall, banging his head, but managed to keep his grip on the Moon Crystal.

Spaz approached, rolling up his sleeves. "I'm gonna beat you to a pulp, Berger."

Max knew if he didn't think of something fast, Spaz would literally pound him until he was unconscious and then take the Moon Crystal. He'd wake up hours later, bruised, broken, bleeding and empty handed. No more gumball. Wait! Max suddenly had an idea. He popped the Moon Crsystal in his mouth and with Spaz just a few feet away, he swallowed hard and forced it down into his stomach. It hurt, but then the sensation stopped and that was it, it was inside, safe. Or was it?

Spaz growled and kicked out hard. Max managed to flip on his side in time to avoid taking the hit in the ribs, but he got the wind knocked out of him instead. Spaz's foot sank into his solar plexus. Forcing his body to move, Max rolled away, over an over, putting distance between him and Spaz.

"You swallowed it?" Spaz stalked toward him. "Now I'm really gonna beat the crap out of you."

Max started pushing himself up as Spaz came close, angling his foot to kick Max in the head. Suddenly lurching, Max felt something rising inside him. He thought he was going to puke. He turned to face Spaz, thinking it might back him off  -- puking was the best defense at Gangren sometimes. Who wanted to continue a fight covered in puke? But what came out instead was a blast of light, as if he had burped up hundred flashbulbs, all firing at once. It flared so brightly that Spaz reeled back, shielding his eyes. The sprinkler fire alarm above went off, filling the air with electronic distress and spraying water in every direction.

"I can't see!" Spaz shouted, rubbing his eyes with water flowing down all around him. "My eyes! You ass! My eyes!"

Max had no idea what had just happened, but he knew he had to get out of there as quickly as possible, before the other kids and the headmaster, Snefler, arrived. He forced his body up, and bounded for the stairs. He took them three at a time, ignoring the pain shooting from the puncture wound in his leg, and turned off on the first floor just as kids started coming out of doors, bleary eyed and wearing shorts and t-shirts.

"Wa's going on, Berger?" a tall, zit-faced boy named Zippler asked Max as he went past.

Max hastily replied over his shoulder, continuing to move. "Malfunction."

"Hey! Screw you too, Berger!"

Max groaned. Vocabulary was forever a problem around here. "It means the alarm is screwed up."

"Well, nex time just say it, dork."

Max ignored him and half-ran, half-skipped to the end of the corridor where he rounded a corner and entered the maintenance section. He needed to find a place to hide until morning. Going back to his room was out of the question. Spaz would come for him there as soon as things quieted down. Nobody struck back at Spaz and didn't pay for it. 

At the end of the hallway, Max checked to make sure no-one was looking before he opened a door labeled "Boiler Room." He'd been here before to hideout. Slipping in quickly, he closed the door behind him. The noise was deafening, pumps and fans and clanking burner chambers, but that was his protection. It was a pretty miserable place to be, so nobody else came here.

Working his way deep into the room, stepping up, over, between and around rusty pipes, each the size of a giant python, he came to a nook where he kept a blanket and a pillow. His secret hideaway. It was nestled between a giant intake vent that kept the air moving steadily and a brick wall that had been painted white about three thousand years ago. Nobody would ever find him here. It smelled like oil and grease and wet cement, but that didn't matter to Max. The rest of Gangren tended to smell like urine.

So glad to be somewhere safe and secluded, Max climbed in and lowered himself onto the blanket, finding little comfort for his sore legs and side on the hard cement beneath. The pillow felt like heaven. He put his hands behind his head and lay back. In the soft glow around him, he could just see the trunk of pipes above, banded together with big steel straps and suspended by bolts the size of his arms.

Wait.

A soft glow?

He'd never flipped on any light.

Max put his hands up before him. Wow -- the light was coming from him. Holy crap! He was glowing.

"That was definitely not a gumball!"

What had he done by swallowing that thing? Had it been dissolved by his stomach acids and come out as a burp, leaving strange glowing traces in his flesh? Sarina would be really upset to find out that the human she trusted to take care of the "most wonderful and dangerous" object on the planet had eaten it the first change he got. Idiot! Still, he hadn't really had a choice. It was either that or let Spaz have it, and that would probably have been worse. If only he had run the other way.

What an odd, strange night this had been. He still felt like he hadn't really processed the fact that he'd met Sarina and that she had been made of moon beams. She had always been flesh and blood in his dreams. How was it possible that she existed as a magical creature? Before this evening, he would have sworn that magic didn't exist in this world. But it did, apparently, and some of it was inside him now, making him glow. All he could hope was that making him glow was the worst it would do. What if he burst into flames any second?

Too upset to sleep but too agitated to think about such complicated things over any more, Max rolled over on his side, looking at his glowing hand, wishing he had answers. If he was lucky, Sarina would provide some when he saw her in a month. After she got over his having swallow the Moon Crystaland burped it up. One month. He just had to manage to stay alive and sane for that long. One month. Not that long, right? It was something to look forward to at least -- seeing her again would be amazing, although a little difficult too...

Max held hid hand out and swayed it back and forth softly. Little sparkles trailed it's path. Wow. Magic. As he watched, the center of his right palm started glowing a little brighter and a circle formed in the center, soon glowing much brighter than the rest. He drew it near. The circle became more pronounced and finally took full shape, the shape of a ball within his body, just below the skin -- the Moon Crystal, glowing peacefully inside of him. Holy Crap! It wasn't gone, it was floating around inside!

"What are you?" Max gasped.

As if in reply, the Moon Crystal stopped glowing all at once, casting everything into deep, deep darkness. Max stopped breathing for a second. What had he done? Should he apologize or something? Slowly, he became aware of a presence there with him, not threatening, but not really friendly either -- ancient and powerful. Fearing the impact of anything he might say, or do, he remained still and quiet. Then it spoke to him, directly inside his brain.

"Let me tell you a story," it said, "from long, long ago."

The next instant, Max found himself lost in another world, in a story with perfect detail and clarity, as if it were one of his own memories. He wasn't watching it like a movie, but in it, merged with it, an invisible all-seeing spectator. The voice began weaving the tale and a dark night sky speckled with stars spread out above a small ancient village near the sea...