Delire opened his eyes and was pleased to notice that his brain was working correctly again. The shock if meeting another human had worn off, and he was ready to face his new situation with a clear perspective.

He sat up, sighing slightly as he stretched out his back and shoulder muscles. He noticed Angeline sitting not too far away, holding his tool.

"Beautiful, isn't it?" Delire asked with a grin. Angeline looked up, a bit surprised.

"Not too bad, actually. How was your nap?" Delire shrugged.

"Fine, thanks. Sorry about that, by the way. I just needed to snap out of the shock." Angeline nodded her understanding.

"It's fine. It gave me time to get over my shock as well." She looked down again at the wooden tool in her hands. "And honestly, there's a lot of potential in this. If I could get my hands on some kind of knife, or even a sharp rock, I could spruce it up a bit." Delire shrugged, although glad that the tool might come in handy.

"Well, I'm glad to hear it. Anyway, I can get us to the river now." Angeline frowned.

"Doesn't it have a name? The river, I mean?" Delire sighed.

"Why, yes it does. It was painted on a big colorful sign next to the river, and there were some tour guides who were offering a full history on it as well."

"Alright, no need for sarcasm," Angeline snapped, annoyed. "I was only wondering if you'd named it or something." Delire snorted his thoughts on that comment.

"Nah. I just said, 'Sweet mercy!' and started gulping down some water. I'm not exactly a poetic type."

"Well, I think the river needs a name," Angeline said stubbornly. Delire rolled his eyes.

"Well, in that case, you can sit here and think while I get a drink." Angeline was in no way content to let this annoying boy have the latest word, but she had no response ready. Delire had already turned away and was starting to walk, so Angeline had no choice but to follow him. She considered sulking, but she wasn't a sulk-y type, and pouting would only give him more satisfaction. She contented herself by thinking furiously of some way to regain her damaged dignity.

***

Delire honestly hadn't meant to annoy Angeline as much as he had. He had only meant it as a bit of friendly teasing, but now he felt as if he might have offended the girl. He made up his made to be kinder next time they spoke, and let her have the final word.

Of course, as a reader, you can clearly know that deciding to let a female of Angeline's fierce and independent personality is a mistake. But Delire was a kind soul, and he meant no harm to this stranger. But with that in mind, we really must return to our story, where Angeline suddenly had a brilliant idea and cried out-

"Mercy!" Delire turned to look at Angeline, a bit startled by the random and sudden exclamation.

"Excuse me?" he asked in confusion.

"That's what the river's name should be: Mercy," Angeline declared triumphantly. "That's what you said when you first saw it, and that's what it will be when we get there. It's the river Mercy." Delire shrugged.

"I have no problem with that," he said. Angeline frowned. She was rather hoping for him to object, so she could take her revenge in a verbal battle. But she decided he wasn't the type of person that one could take a vicious revenge on without insulting, and she abandoned her plotting.

Now, as a reader, you can observe that someone with Delire's easy-going and fun nature is, in fact, the exact person that would not take any sort of offence if insulted or made fun of. His kind and forgiving nature made him a perfect person to have a companionable argument with. But, with that thought in mind, we now return to our story, where Delire had realized that he ought to get to know his new companion.

"So," he said, getting Angeline's attention, "what was your life like before... before this happened?" Angeline thought for a moment.

"Well, it was no stroll down the rainbow," she admitted. "See, my sister recently... well, she ran away. It was just me and my mom, trying to make our way in the world. Before my sister ran away, though, it was fine. We never had much money or anything, but we didn't need it. We were fine." She turned to Delire, not wanting to have to remember her past life too much. "What about you?"

"I was pretty darn lucky," Delire admitted. "My family was never in need, and me and my brothers got along well. In fact, it's pretty amazing that we never got... caught..." Here, Delire stopped and his eyes widened. "Oh, goodness," he breathed, "I almost forgot! See, I'm so used to hiding it, I almost forgot..." He stopped walking and turned toward Angeline, who was curious.

"I'm sort of... a little... uh, well..." Delire held his hand out, palm up, and a small shadowy sphere leaped out of it, and then right back in, disappearing into the boy's skin. "...magical," he finished nervously. Angeline gasped, and Delire flinched at the noise.

"Sorry," Angeline apologized. "It's just... amazing. What else can you do?" Delire's eyes widened a bit, surprised at her willingness to accept his peculiarity.

"I can do a lot," he said, waving his arms to lift some shadowy matter out of the ground. It swirled around him while he spoke. "In fact, I'm always discovering new ways to use it. I can shoot it across distances, or use it to shield myself. I can use it to lift things, and plenty of other stuff, too." The swirls of shadow spun around Delire, and he reached out a hand, commanding them. They obeyed, twirling toward Angeline. She reached out and touched it lightly, curious.

"It feels... alive," she gasped. The darkness pulsed under her fingers, and was smooth and warm.

"It is," Delire replied, bringing the darkness back into himself. It flowed straight through his clothes and into his skin easily. "It's like another part of me, but also separate. It understands what I want it to do, and I understand how it wants to accomplish that." Delire paused thoughtfully. "You know, maybe that's why the kidnappers took me. It would make sense, I suppose." He frowned, finding a flaw in his theory. "But then, why did they take you?" Angeline gave a sudden start as she realized the answer.

"Because I've got a power too!" she exclaimed. "I mean, like you, I'm used to not talking about it, and it's just a part of my life, so it just feels natural, and I just forgot about it, and besides, it-"

"Okay, okay!" Delire laughed. "I've got it. Now, what exactly can you do?" Angeline's excitement drained away, and she glanced downward, apparently finding something interesting down there.

"I can, um, talk to dead people," she said quietly. Delire's eyes grew a bit in surprise. He had expected something more... well, he wasn't sure what he'd expected. But it wasn't that.

Realizing he'd let an awkward silence fall, Delire hastily exclaimed, "Well that's, uh, interesting." Angeline nodded.

"I can see visions too, sometimes."

"Well, that could come in handy," Delire said encouragingly. Angeline nodded, still a little glum about the strangeness and uselessness of her ability.

"So, how does the whole... uh, dead person communication thing work?" Delire asked, mostly just wanting to pass the time.

"Well, I have to be near the place where the person died," Angeline began. "Then I can see them as a ghost. Well, sometimes I can, anyway. They can see me, too, but they can see all the living world. Then I can talk to them, and they can hear me and I can hear them."

"What are ghosts like?" Delire asked, this time genuinely interested. Angeline wrinkled her face at the question.

"Weird," she said. "Really weird. Not like humans at all. Most of them are just really bored and don't care about anything. And then some of them are angry, because they did die and all. Ghosts don't listen too well, either. Mostly, they just either ignore you if they're the boring ghosts or yell at you if they're the angry kind." Delire grinned.

"Well, that's neat. It's comforting to know that I can still annoy you when I kick the dust." Angeline smiled and rolled her eyes.

"I had no doubts you'd find a way." Delire laughed, and when he stopped, he gasped quietly.

"Oh, we're here! I didn't even realize..." Angeline now saw the river Mercy stretching out, a few hundred yards away.

"Thank goodness!" she exclaimed. Delire tutted at her and wagged a finger.

"The proper exclamation is 'sweet mercy!'" Angeline scowled at him.

"You're a proper pain in the rear, you know that?" Delire nodded.

"I've got a reputation to hold up, here. And apparently, I'm succeeding." Angeline refrained from laughing by turning away and walking briskly toward the Mercy.

***

After the duo had drank to their contentment, they sat by the bank, content to just be content for a moment. Neither of them spoke, but they knew each other well enough by now that the silence wasn't awkward. It simply meant none of them had anything to say, and until they did, it would be quiet. And that was okay.

"Do you think," Delire started slowly, "that there are more of us?"

"Well, sure," Angeline shrugged. "I use my cloning machine all the time." Delire grinned, accepting the jest.

"No, I mean more people with powers. Do you think there are more of them?" Angeline shrugged.

"I don't know. There probably are. We can't be the only two, can we?"

"We aren't," Delire assured her. "Some of my family has powers, too. But do you think more people with powers got kidnapped?" Angeline sat up a bit, getting into the conversation.

"Maybe. It's impossible to know for sure."

"I was just thinking," Delire said, staring across the river, "that there could be kids like us out in those woods, or in these grasslands. I just wish we knew where they were, or if they're even here." Angeline nodded.

"We just have no way of knowing," she said. Delire frowned at the truth of that statement. Maybe others would show up. Or maybe not. He really couldn't influence the situation one way or the other, and that annoyed him.

"I just wish we could know if someone's here, that's all," he said. Angeline nodded.

"Same. But we have no way of knowing."

***

"Someone's here." A shadowy figure crouched in the grass, studying its surroundings.

"They've been here," the figure muttered. "Two of them, by the looks of it. Interesting." The figure stood up abruptly, and a low chuckle escaped its throat. "Very interesting."

***

"Can you-"

"No."

"Okay, just-"

"No."

"Maybe a-"

"No." Delire wasn't budging in the argument.

"Alright, just-"

"No."

"Come on!" Angeline exclaimed. "Just try, Delire! Try!" Delire sighed and loosened up a bit, examining Angeline for a second.

"No."

"Just try, okay?" Angeline begged. "Imagine if it worked! You could just wrap me up in shadows and lift me, and I could scout out, or look for something, or-"

"Or be violently suffocated as your shriveling body comes hurtling towards the ground," Delire said flatly. "Argument over."

"No, argument not over!" Angeline huffed, crossing her arms and planting her feet. "Do it. Try it. Once." Delire turned back and sighed.

"Alright, look," he said, annoyed. Shadows suddenly jumped out of the ground around Angeline and streaked over to Delire, gathering under his feet and lifting him up. "You know why I can touch this stuff?" He reached out a hand, and the shadows flowed past it like water. "It's because I can control it. I have a bond with it. I know its potential, how thin I can stretch it, how it wants to be used." The shadows flowed toward Angeline, stopping a few inches from her face. She held her breath as the solid darkness wriggled in front of her.

"Can you feel it?" Delire asked quietly, still standing on a floating current of shadow. "Can you really, truly feel it?" Angeline stared into the morphing, whirling, wiggling dark and opened her mouth to reply. But suddenly, the shadow whipped away from her. It seemed to look away, into the distance. Delire turned that way, squinting.

"I don't see anything," he said, all the quiet danger gone from his voice. "But the shadows can sense it, and that's enough for me. Let's get moving." Angeline glanced back at the river Mercy, flowing pleasently.

"But what about water?" she asked.

"Unless whatever is coming plans to drain the river, we should be fine," Delire shrugged. Angeline nodded and followed Delire's lead, heading back toward the trees. Angeline glanced at Delire's face as they kept up a fast walking pace. He looked determined and serious, but not worried. Content that there was nothing to be too worried about, Angeline copied his determined expression and hurried on.

***

Delire's fingers hummed quietly with the shadowy energy inside them. He wasn't sure what the darkness saw. But it had communicated to him - somehow, without words, it had told him that something was coming. Something powerful. And although he tried not to show it, he was terrified. Because the thing was following them. It was following them, and it was fast, and it knew exactly where they were.