Page 4 of Hybrid Heroics

“I have a theory,” I shouted. “It’s because you constantly fail, isn’t it?”

When I got no answer, I kept pushing, grinning as I wandered forward. Or sideways. It was hard to tell.

“Amelia was at every turn, wasn’t she?” I inquired. “Always beating you at your games or stopping you from achieving your goals. You thought, with her out of your way, you’d finally win at something. But even with Amelia gone, you continued to fail. And miserably at that.”

I laughed to myself. “You’re not very good at taking over the world. Sure, you’ve got power, but where is that getting you?”

Silence followed, though I wasn’t surprised. Taunting him with Amelia wouldn’t work unless I was actually willing to kill her. I may dislike her, but eventually I would be indifferent about her presence. She was important to my parents, so death by my hand wasn’t an option.

“Nowhere, really,” I answered for him. “You’ve only become more angry as time has passed. With each new failure, it would seem you’ve lost your grip on reality.”

“My grip on reality is firm,” Alric drawled, humor in his tone. “But thank you for caring.”

“Are you positive?” I asked. “Sometimes reality isn’t what you’re expecting.”

He scoffed as he mused, “Are you trying to test me?”

“Maybe.” I shrugged. “Maybe not. We are in my head.”

“I’ve come to know it very well.”

I snorted, repeating myself. “Maybe. Maybe not.”

“You don’t believe me?”

“I don’t need to. You believe you.”

Alric tsked. “What is it you think you’ve hidden from me?”

“What is it you think you know?” I countered, waving my hand around the white expanse. “This? Some childhood memories that surfaced… You haven’t reached very far, Alric.”

“Let’s take a trip, shall we?” Menace littered his voice, but it wouldn’t stay.

“I’d love nothing more than a field trip chaperoned by my deranged uncle. Will you be leading the way? Or shall I?”

The hallway of Papi’s Victorian home in Detroit filled the space in front of me. The scent was so clear—charcoal, cinnamon, and burning pine from the fireplace—that I couldn’t help but smile.

A shock of silver hair flashed through the hall, opening the door directly across from hers. I knew this memory all too well.

“Jack,” she whispered as I mouthed the words with her. “Jack? Are you okay? It sounded like you fell.”

A black colt stood on shaky legs, the ceiling fan lightly blowing the flames of his mane and tail. And the younger version of me screamed before she slammed the door in poor Jack’s face. A hoof kicked at the thin wood between them. A high-pitched screech followed, morphing into a groan as Jack hit the floor.

“Everyone knows I don’t do equestrians of any form.” I waved my hand through the memory. “Showing me how I developed an irrational fear is mighty kind of you, but is that the best you can do? You know we’re not here to bond over bullshit, right?”

The next few memories played at once, spreading out across the white abyss like pop-up books.

Alric, for all his faults, had a dark sense of humor. In another lifetime, perhaps in an alternate dimension, we could have been friends. Or at the very least, mutual acquaintances instead of enemies.

“Why are you always with those men?” the little boy on the playground at school asked Jack and me. “Don’t you got a momma?”

“She doesn’t have a mom.” The little girl sneered when I smiled at her. “He doesn’t have parents at all. My dad called him a bas—”

She wailed pitifully as I pulled her blonde curls from her head. It still made me grin, even though it had been fifteen years ago.

“They all learned a valuable lesson that day,” I commented, walking through the memory. “I never thought twice about teaching the kids at school that they couldn’t fuck with Jack. Demons or not, they figured out quickly that he is my brother.”

“Siblings make you weak,” Alric mentioned, his voice floating around me. “The people you care about are targets.”