Revenant's Resolve Chapter 17

It felt like weeks that Reznik was locked in that basement.

Weeks of abject boredom and silence every hour of the day as he had nothing to do but wait. Wait and be idle, save for the few bright points where Zarah came in to “work” on him telepathically.

Each night, after light ceased streaming through the floorboards, she would join him, feed him dinner, and gently prod at his psyche.

The daily touches felt far and away less painful than that first session, but likewise also felt respectively less impactful. As if whatever progress she made was intrinsically linked to the amount of pain he felt in his head.

Though, the pain itself was also new and worth enjoying in its own right. For the first time, the aches and stabs he suffered felt like they were actually happening to him - instead of dulled, like a bad memory.

The pain was his, and not his body’s.

Luminita often joined him in the mornings, but had recently taken up a new activity for his benefit. After she placed his tray of food on the ground, she would open a book and begin reading aloud to him.

What fascinated Reznik to no end, though, wasn’t the stories being told - however enjoyable. No, what fascinated him was the way his body reacted once it finished crudely stuffing its face with food.

It would sit and watch.

Merely sitting cross legged on the floor, much like it did for Zarah, watching Luminita tell what was surely a collection of stories for children. Periodically, when she would change the pitch of her voice to emulate a character or cough from a dry throat, Reznik’s head would tilt curiously.

More and more, it all began to feel like an extension of himself as he noticed that more and more of his body’s ticks were happening in concert with his own related feelings.

When he would feel curious and intrigued by the plot of a wisecracking rabbit exploring a hidden world, his body would lean forward and lend Luminita an ear.

When an evil witch would be on the precipice of overcoming the heroes of the story, his body would unleash a quiet, rumbling growl that had more in common with a cat’s purr than any semblance of real hostility.

At least, not hostility in the sense of actively seeking someone to rip limb from limb.

In truth, over this time, Reznik had grown far fonder of Luminita than he already had been, and eagerly awaited her presence in the mornings, almost longing for the sound of her voice in the same way he would feel hunger.

So when he was suddenly deprived of both of his friends one day, the change felt stark and sudden.

At times, Reznik could hear Luminita and Zarah talking from the floor above, so he didn’t worry that something terrible had happened.

But one day of abandonment turned into two.

Then three.

Then a week without company or food.

Ever more, his body grew agitated.

Instead of waiting patiently, or even a slow, meandering pace around his one-room world, his body would erratically squirm and twitch, reacting to the smallest of sounds with nothing less than overwhelming hostility.

Reznik’s body once saw a mouse, and with a howl, shot after it - all without Reznik having the ability to react fast enough to catch it. By the time he’d managed to grip the sluggish thought and hurl it like a stone at his body, he was already attempting to reach with bound hands through a small hole in the wall.

Reznik lost count after a week, time becoming rather meaningless without a clear indication of morning and night.

At times, he would try and direct his body to do things as he had before - things as simple as lifting his arms to grasp at an imaginary plate, or book, or anything in vain. It felt like he’d returned back to the state that he’d left the undead lands in.

Which was, to say the least, less than ideal for his hopes of becoming a functional person again.

They couldn’t have forgotten about him, or written him off - could they?

No. Of course not.

I am making progress.

I… I was.

Reznik stared fixedly at the flickering candle that had yet to dim or burn to the base since he’d arrived, just like he’d been for hours now.

His head and shoulders twitched and shuddered randomly, like his body was trying to do anything but stand still.

Then, a bucket of water was thrown over his psyche - he heard the latch be thrown.

The door open.

Then two pairs of footsteps clopping down the wooden steps.

Zarah was first, holding a white, carved pipe in one hand, and a notebook in the other.

Luminita was close behind, and Reznik smelled the seared meat long before he saw it. She carried a massive platter piled high with cooked poultry, fish, pork, and steak that looked almost like she was struggling to heft the weight of it.

“You must think I’m cruel right about now.” Zarah stated bluntly when she made it to the bottom of the steps, moving to sit atop the small wooden table that held the candle. “That… I’ve done this to punish you for screwing up, somehow.”

Well… the thought was on my mind.

But…

Can I have that food before we talk? I don’t know if I can hold him back anymore…

His body uttered an overwhelmingly hostile growl, snarling as it bent at the knees. Clearly, it wanted to pounce, or sprint wildly at the women. His cuffed hands raised before him, struggling against the weight he tried to place on his body.

It wanted to be fed.

“And I’m not going to feed you. Not yet.” Zarah shook her head as she apparently read his thoughts, or at least predicted roughly what he was thinking.

Zarah set down her notebook beside her, then produced the lighter from before out of her pocket, and sparked it up - proceeding to suck the flame through the pipe.

She exhaled a ring of smoke and stared levelly at Reznik while he struggled.

“Do you know what happens to most telepaths, Reznik?” Zarah questioned after a second, his name drawing the whole attention of his body for a moment before it resumed its fight against Reznik’s will. “Most go insane. Turn into a driveling mess of a creature that argues with the voices in their head, never knowing the power they actually possess until it’s too late.

“Many of those end up becoming monsters in their own right - frying the brains of the people around them, simply severing consciousness from body in an attempt to get a fraction of peace in their own head.

“Others kill themselves.”

Reznik continued to work at reining in his body’s attempts as Zarah monologued at him, forcing himself to not allow himself to be transfixed by her words lest he lose control.

“I was lucky enough to be found by an experienced psycher when I was young, and was taken into his tutelage.” Zarah took another puff of the pipe as Luminita moved to go back up the stairs, watching Reznik with a nervous look. Zarah raised her unoccupied hand to stop her, turning fractionally towards the young woman and saying: “No. Stay here. Believe it or not, you are instrumental to this.”

Luminita paused mid-step, looked to Reznik, looked back to Zarah, and then to Reznik again.

“Okay. Can… I help?” Luminita questioned after a short exhale that looked to be more for nerves than breath.

“No. Not more than you already are.” Zarah shook her head brusquely, continuing her staring contest with the Revenant in the room. “But as I was saying, when I was young, my master struggled to teach me how to control my power.

“He… was a great man, but at times a lackluster tutor.”

Zarah smiled sadly and dropped her eyes for a moment, drifting to a different place and time.

“He… brought me to a crowded market, packed with people after months in a library, with only my thoughts in my own head - the first peace I had experienced in my life.”

With those words, it finally clicked for Reznik.

Just why Zarah and Luminita had left him alone without food for so long.

“I… was overwhelmed, panicking, a thousand thoughts and emotions pouring into my mind without anything to stop them, or even slow them down. Like trying to plug a river with a stone.

“So, he gave me something that I desperately wanted - his knowledge. In the middle of that crowded square, my master knelt down, looked me in the eyes, and told me to focus on him. Then, he dropped the walls that had kept me out of his mind for close to a year at that point.

“If I wished to hear a fraction of the secrets that I wanted to learn so badly, I would need to shut out the noise of the world, and focus my power on one point - an impossible task up until that point.”

Zarah pushed herself off of the table and began to walk towards Reznik.

His hands darted up, instinctively reaching for Zarah’s throat before he clamped down on himself.

“Reznik. I will need you at my side very shortly. And to do that, I need to know that even at your worst, you -can- control yourself.” Instead of reeling from the stunted attempt at an attack, Zarah reached up and took his hands. Then, one of the manacles clanked. Then the other wrist was freed.

And before he knew it, Reznik was absent of any restraint.

“You’ve divided your consciousness and your body to protect yourself from the curse that overtook you, and it has served you well until this point. But you need to remind your body that it is -not- a separate thing.

“You control it. You -own- it.”

Zarah let his hands go, and the shackles fell to the floor with a loud clatter of metal on stone, causing Luminita to jump.

This triggered Reznik’s body to snap its head at her and shove Zarah aside as it leapt for Luminita.

No.

NO!

Reznik dropped the entire weight of his consciousness against his body as it was mid-air, refusing to allow any harm to come to either of the women, let alone the one who wouldn’t be able to defend herself against him.

With a stumbling stutter-step, Reznik’s body tried to stop the landing but only ended up tripping into Luminita.

Fuck! Fuck!

Reznik had accidentally slammed her into the wall, and now she stared wide-eyed up into his eyes from less than an inch away. So close, he could feel her breath on his face.

Reznik felt his lips pulling back into a snarl, his body about to take a chunk out of the woman.

STOP!

Not her.

Food!

There, right behind us!

All the shit you spilled on the floor, more than enough and better than her!

We- no, I can eat that instead.

Reznik’s jaw snapped shut and his head pulled back.

Pushing himself off the wall with a low, confused-sounding groan, his body turned around.

Then he looked down at the meat on the tray. And the ground beside the tray.

Only a couple of sausages and a steak had managed to get booted off by an errant foot.

Zarah stood in the middle of the room, watching Reznik with an almost wrathful glare. Finally, he felt a twinge of pressure against his mind, as if Zarah was holding a proverbial telepathic gun to his temple.

“Ah. Good, I was worried for a moment.” The Elf said, straightening back out and blowing a breath out through her nose. “Now. Grab your plate, and join us upstairs for dinner.”

I can do this.

We just… squat down and grab the handles of the platter.

Just… down… okay, down!

Slowly, awkwardly, with eyes only for the meal, Reznik squatted down.

His hands shook.

His fingers twitched.

With an utterly massive amount of willpower that felt sisyphean, Reznik’s palms reached the handles on either side of the platter.

All of Reznik’s senses felt alight, ratcheting up in tension higher and higher as he exerted control of his body.

Finally, his fingers wrapped around the grips and he lifted off the ground.

To his amazement, the tray came with him, spilling another sausage, but otherwise no worse for the wear.

Looking back to Zarah with what he hoped was a surprised expression, if he was even making one, he waited for instructions.

With an amused smirk, the woman raised an open hand towards the door, beckoning him to finish the second half of her instructions.

Up the stairs and eat dinner with them.

Yes.

We’ve come this far.

I can do that.

Luminita was still breathing heavily when she ascended the stairs a moment later, making room for Reznik to follow.

Taking the first step up felt sluggish, but he managed to succeed, followed by another after another, until eventually he was back upstairs inside of Zarah’s house.

Mildly surprised, Reznik found that the home had been significantly tidied since the last time he was up here.

Books still occupied the shelves of the room, however they were all now in organized rows on shelves, the backs of tables, and small stacks beside lounge chairs instead of their previous, helter-skelter organization.

The room also lacked the previous coating of dust.

Everything now had a clean, almost vibrant tone to it, as if every item had been polished to perfection.

It felt like a home.

Can…

No.

Reznik shook off the immediate hope that it could be called his home.

The basement however - given how long he’d been down there, he absolutely could consider it his home.

The basement didn’t count as part of the house, did it? No, it couldn’t, no more than a shed.

“Come on, stop balking. Table’s over there.” Zarah gently tapped Reznik on the shoulder and pointed to his right from behind. “I would like to eat dinner too, before it gets cold. Luminita here is a wonderful cook, and is a large part of the reason behind my change in routine.”

Change in routine?

Reznik absently turned and slowly meandered over to the table, realizing that the herculean task of coordinating his body to carry out fine motion was not quite finished.

He would have to set the tray down on the table.

As he approached, Luminita pulled out a chair in the middle of the four-seater table and smiled woodenly, most likely unsettled by his unprovoked attack earlier.

Sorry, Luminita.

I hope this doesn’t mean the end of storytimes in the future.

We were just getting to the good part of that one too.

Reznik bent slightly forward at the waist and leaned the tray over the tabletop. He had it right where he wanted it, and just had to wait a moment longer to let it go.

Then, he dropped it too early, and it clattered onto the wood raucously, but thankfully without spilling any more food.

Internally face-palming, Reznik decided to ignore the small fuck-up and just try to sit down. He imagined he would find it far easier now to control his movements once he finished eating.

At an arduously slow pace, Reznik lowered his rear onto the chair, finally making contact before Luminita pushed it in.

Without waiting, Reznik finally dug into the food - and blissfully, his body didn’t need to be battered into submission for this. Instinctively, one of his hands shot out and seized up a whole steak before taking a massive bite, tearing meat away from meat.

“Well. I suppose your manners need a bit of work, but the progress you’ve shown is… remarkable.” Zarah offered with a genuine smile as she pulled a bite of steak off of her plate with a fork. “I’m sure within a year or three we’ll have you ready to dine with nobility - not that I’ll ever torture you like that.

Ah right.

People use utensils.

Well… I guess this just means there’s room for improvement.

I don’t think I could figure out how to even use a fork.

“I think he’s doing a great job. Other than that little slip up down there…” Luminita offered from the other end of the table before taking a deep swig of wine from her glass. “I mean, you’ve seen how hard it was for me to adjust to life here after my parents… well. After everything that happened. I believe in him - he can do it. We can fix him.”

Reznik polished off the small pile steak, and was halfway through deconstructing a whole chicken when the latent gurgling in his gut finally began to settle.

“Oh? Pray tell, my little assistant, what do you mean by ‘fix’?” Zarah quipped with a raised brow, leaning back in her seat and interlocking her fingers above her stomach. Glancing back to Luminita as he stuffed a whole sausage into his mouth, he caught the moment her eyes flicked down to her lap and her cheeks went a deep scarlet.

Reznik looked back to Zarah, who now wore an ill-disguised smirk.

“I mean- well, he’s clearly alive. He’s not some zombie, he’s shown that since day one, from what you’ve told me!” Luminita blurted in an abrupt, defensive way. “I’m sure we can get him back to normal, or something close to it. He said his name, and you can talk to him with thoughts - imagine what he could do in however long it takes. If he can say his name, he can say other words too, right?”

Zarah’s smirk had only deepened by the time Reznik glanced back, giving Luminita a look that clearly communicated amused suspicion.

“Ah. Sure, if that’s really what you mean.” Zarah quipped with teasing eyes, taking a long pull of her wine. “I’m sure there’s nothing else you have in mind for your undead hero other than scintillating… conversation.”

Luminita’s gulp was audible even to Reznik as he chomped away at a piece of crispy bacon.

“I do admit, he is certainly easy on the eyes for a Revenant, easy enough to be mistaken as a Human.” Zarah offered before taking another bite. “However I think a full… conversation is still a long ways off.”

You know what…

No.

I -can- say other words.

Sorry, Luminita.

I really didn’t want to do that down there, but hunger is a force to be reckoned with.

Sorry.

SORRY

“Shhhs” Reznik hissed between bites. He swallowed the last of his platter, which had been put away before the women had even finished half their plates. “Ssssrrreee.”

“I’m sorry, what?” Zarah quickly leaned forward in her seat, a curious smile spreading across her face as Reznik felt her presence in his mind, gently, as if merely viewing his thoughts through a proverbial window.

I’m trying to apologize.

I attacked her, and I really didn’t want to.

“Ssssoreee.” His body half mouthed, half-hissed.

“I- is he saying he’s sorry?” Luminita looked at Zarah with a pleased and mildly self-satisfied grin.

“He absolutely is.” Zarah nodded slowly with an entertained chuckle. “Like I said, conversation is still far and away, but he’s certainly trying.”

“See?” Luminita beamed over at Zarah, crossing her arms confidently over her chest. “I told you so.”