"Did you hear me? Hey kid, I'm talking to you!"
"No! He's listening to me! Shut up!"
"Both of you be quiet!"
A young, pale girl stepped in front of the two bickering men who turned to face her, standing in front of a shivering mass shrouded in the shadow of the building. Her face betrayed obvious fear, though she was clearly defiant and prepared to fight the two burly men in front of her if she had to. "Look at him! Look at what you're doing to him!" She gestured behind her at the shivering mass without looking.
"He's no worse than yesterday," said one of the men.
"Yeah, calm down little girl. I have a message for my wife that I want him to deliver."
"I have a daughter!"
"It doesn't matter!" The girl looked to be near tears, though she retained her grim and determined expression. "He's not here to deliver messages! Does he look like he could even if he was? Leave him alone!"
The two men eyed her, both questioning internally why she was so verbally violent towards them. After a couple more seconds they both shrugged, joining the crowds of physical and spectral beings, and other... miscellaneous creatures in the streets. As they did, the girl gently shooed a cat with four tails away from the shivering mass, ensuring that the alley was completely void save for herself and the boy she was protecting.
She knelt beside the mass, reaching out to touch it. All this time, she had been defending a young, winged boy, who was 16 years of age. His knees were drawn up to his chest, and he was burying his face into them, his hands over his ears to block out the endless stream of sound. His entire body was trembling and he was rocking back and forth slightly, whether he was meaning to or not. His wings were tight against his back, the feathers mostly clipped from living in the streets for so long. As her pale hand made contact with his shaking one he flinched away, recognizing the feeling of a spirits skin. He let out a short gasp of shock.
"It's okay Wind. Wind Storm, it's me, Shining," she said quietly, quickly pulling her hand away. "Everything and everyone is gone, you're alright now."
Wind Storm stopped shaking, though he was still rocking slightly, relaxing as he realized there was nothing there as Shining Light had said. He uncovered one ear slowly, tilting his head to look at her. His eyes were red, as though he had been crying. Shining Light smiled at him, though she was sad. She had been unable to help him for the first few hours of that day, having awoken in a completely different part of Dodge City. It had taken her hours to find him, and when she had he was surrounded by spirits, all shouting to get his attention, all desperate to be heard. It had taken her so long to drive them all away she couldn't help but feel guilty.
"I'm sorry Wind, you know how we are. I woke up in a completely different place from where we were last night. When I went back, you had gone. I came as quickly as I could."
"No, Shining, don't apologize..." His voice trailed off, weak and cracking slightly. Now that he knew he was alone, he had relaxed much more, though his knees were still drawn up to his chest. He took his hands off his ears and wrapped them around his legs.
Shining Light sat herself next to him and wrapped one arm around his shoulders. He leaned into her dropping his head back into his knees, and she stroked his hair with the other hand. The hair had clearly once been a dark obsidian the same shade as his wings, but had gone grey from the stress of his almost unique ability. She knew he wasn't as relaxed as he looked, but she also knew he couldn't remember a time when he had been perfectly at ease.
"You know," Wind Storm said with slight humour in his voice, "your name is so appropriate."
"Why?"
"Shining Light. You're my shining light. I don't know what I would do without you."
Shining Light sucked in a short breath, her eyes on his unmoving body. He was breathing slowly, content in her cold, lifeless arms. She knew his story, he had told her two years ago, when he had began to fully trust her. He had come here from Cloudsdale, where his family lived. He couldn't handle it there anymore, and flew to Dodge City. That had been the last time he had used his wings. From there, he had taken to living on the streets, where she had met him.
He had a sixth sense, the ability to see spirits. The ability to hear them, and they could see him, hear him, and touch him. There was no difference between the physical and spectral worlds for him; there were both there, all the time. He could not differentiate between the two. Because of this, spirits were constantly trying to get him to deliver their messages. Endlessly tormented by the dead, both physically and mentally. His second sight also included creatures that mankind once believed in, though no longer had the patience for. He saw them all, there was nothing real or fake for him. He had expressed multiple times that were it not for Shining Light, he would have gone completely insane, killing himself to join them and end the torment. She didn't know what that made her, but she knew he needed her. And in an odd way, she needed him. She felt for him and wanted nothing more than for him to be safe.
"Thank you," she whispered, her voice hardly more than a breath. She couldn't imagine how he could be as comfortable as he was at the moment, she was dead. Cold. Wasn't warmth most comforting? She had been dead for twenty years, trapped in ageless limbo.
"How do you manage?" he asked. "You see as much as I do, both the living and the dead. You hear them."
Shining laughed lightly. "But they don't try to talk to me as they do to you. The living don't see me. The dead do but don't care. I can't deliver messages, I can't make contact with the living. That's all most of the dead really care about." There was a pause and the words hung in the air, an odd gravity to them. "I wish you couldn't see all this. It's far too much, being able to contact everything. What do you call them? The dark world and the light world. Are you ever going to tell me which one is which?"
"No, I won't. I don't know which is which half the time. And sometimes I think the same way. It's hard, but if I didn't, I wouldn't be able to see you." He looked up at her, shifting so he was no longer leaning into her. "I know that I wouldn't need you if I wasn't able to see these things," he glanced out into the street, where there was a fish with horses legs that stopped in front of the alley, looked in, and continued walking, "I wouldn't need you, but I like needing you. You're so kind, so much kinder than the other dead." He shook his head sightly, his eyes closed. "When I see people your age, it makes me sad."
"It shouldn't. When you're dead, you have a way of simply accepting things."
Wind Storm blinked. "I remember being- good with storms," he said, completely changing the subject.
"That was your special ability?" This was new to Shining Light, he had never mentioned what he was good at before. She had assumed that he was good at seeing the dead, but the mark on his palm was a tornado, which had nothing to do with his sixth sense. He must have found this out before coming to Dodge City. "It must have been hard to find that out."
"It was. But was good with them. I was trying to get away from the- you know- and, it just turned into a twister. I broke it up before it could get anywhere. I broke it faster than I'd ever seen any of the weather team do."
"Wow."
"Part of me wants to go back to that. Most of me, actually. But-"
"Wind, you should rest. You look so drained." Shining didn't know if she could take what he was saying. He had never done this before; opened up so completely to her, in all of the three years they had known each other. "I'll stay here, to keep the spirits away."
"I need to learn to do that myself Shining, I can't depend on you forever."
"But when you're sleeping, resting, I'll be there. Please. For me. When you're awake, we'll discuss me leaving you. But for now, no."
He locked eyes with her, his sky-bright eyes meeting her faded navy ones. There was pleading from both of them, though Wind Storm slowly caved in. He was tired, quite drained, and emotionally ruined. It was as he felt every day, though sleep cleansed some of it. Sleep was his escape. He leaned into Shining Light once again and closed his eyes as she wrapped her arms around him defensively, his breath slowing as he drifted to sleep.