by Joshua Laack
Chapter 13
“Though I am not now, I was once as human as you.” Andrew's jaw dropped until he caught it and forced it closed. This impossible creature, faster and stronger than anything he had ever encountered was human? That was hard to swallow. How could that be?
“Is this evolution, the next stage for humans?”
“Yes and no, but mostly no.” She smiled. “It is not evolution, but in a sense, it is the next stage. Most humans will never see this stage in their lifetime though. I will try to explain it in a way that makes sense.” She sat back in the sofa and looked up as if trying to recall details that were buried deep. She glanced back at Andrew. “How old would you say that I am?” Andrew shrugged.
“You look about seventeen or eighteen. When we were connected though, I felt that you were quite a bit older than that.” He raised his shoulders again in a slow shrug. “Maybe a hundred,” he suggested, nervous to offend a girl about her age. She patted him on the arm.
“I hope this doesn't frighten you, but I am a lot older than that.” Andrew was about to deny the possibility of that, when his mind interjected. This girl who wasn't just a girl had some amazing powers. Why couldn't she be a lot older than she looked? She could just age so much more slowly than a human that it would be impossible to tell.
“Two hundred?” She shook her head. So he thought he guessed a little high. She stared hard into his eyes as if trying to determine how bothered by all of this he was. Andrew did feel a little weirded out, but he thought he could handle it.
“I was born in a small village in what is now eastern Romania almost eight hundred years ago.” This time, Andrew was unable to catch his jaw before it fell all the way open. Eight hundred years? It just wasn't possible. Well, a short time ago, he would have said that demons and mind controlling super beings weren't possible. He was no longer confident in what was possible and what was not. How could he be? He closed his jaw.
“You don't say,” he said with as little surprise evident in his voice as he could manage. Johari burst into laughter.
“That was not the reaction I was expecting,” she said after laughing for a moment. He grinned at her as she resumed her story. Andrew felt himself drawn into the tale, lost in a recounting of history from over seven hundred years earlier. As he listened he tried not to think about it too much. “I was more intelligent than many of the other people in my village. I experimented with growing things in different ways and with storing food in ways other than how it had always been done. Some of my ideas worked. I shared whatever I learned with others and never tried to hide it. Because of this, I was well liked and accepted by most of the village. I had a mate and a little girl and I was happy. When I was about nineteen, a strange illness struck the village and young children and the elderly in our tribe began to waste away and die. The chief of the village was one of the few who didn't like my intelligence. He was jealous and I believe that he didn't like the idea that anyone, let alone a woman, might be more intelligent than he was. So, when the illness struck, he told everyone that my beauty and my intelligence must be because I was possessed by evil demons who were now causing the deaths. He convinced them that the only way to save the village was for me to die.” She glanced at Andrew to see if he was listening and understanding what she was saying.
“Then what happened,” Andrew asked, eyes intent on her face? Johari looked at him for a moment, shook her head and then continued her story.
“I would have argued with them, but at the same time, my daughter became ill. She died after only a few days.” No tears were on her face, but Andrew could hear weeping in her voice. After all of the time that had passed, there was still a great deal of pain in that loss. “I was in no condition to defend myself. I even wondered if maybe he were right. What if I had killed my daughter? My village had a way to deal with those who they believed were possessed by spirits. I was hung upside down by my heels from a tree. Then both of my wrists were sliced open. They believed that the spirits lived in the blood and that they would die if all of the blood ran from the body. As I mentioned, I was well liked in my village, but no one spoke for me and no one came to witness my death aside from the men who tied me up to the tree. The part that hurt the most was that my mate was one of the men who helped to string me up. He watched without any apparent emotion as the chief sliced my wrists. As I felt life slipping from me, I realized that it was ridiculous that I had anything to do with the illnesses. I knew there were no demons within me. I wanted more than anything to live. I tried to tell my mate that it wasn't true and that I loved him. I begged him to help me, but he never even acknowledged that I was saying anything or looked at me more than he had to. The men left once I was hanging there with my wrists cut. They walked away without ever saying a word. None of them wanted the spirits to enter their bodies as they poured out of mine. I cried out for my mate, but he never turned.” Johari paused for a moment and glanced down at her wrists. Andrew followed suit. They were perfect. There was no physical sign of the scars still etched in her spirit. “As I hung there in that tree dying, I heard a man's voice behind me. He asked me if I wanted to live. I didn't even need to think about it. Of course I said yes. He told me that I would be different if he saved me. I didn't care. I begged him to save me. He grabbed the rope that was holding me with one hand and then sliced it with a knife with the other hand. I wasn't a heavy load, but he lowered me to the ground with one hand like I was a feather in his grasp.” Andrew's mind was reeling.
This was so like one of his fantasy stories that a part of him didn't want to believe it could be real, but the sincerity in Johari's voice and face was proof that she believed the words she was sharing with him. Also, he had experienced enough of the truth of the world she was part of to know that it was more real than this one in which the wool lay heavy on the eyes of humankind.
“Was the man who came to you the creator you mentioned,” Andrew asked? Johari shook her head.
“No, he was involved much earlier in the story of our kind. This was just another who had once been human, but became what I am today. He was just there to share the life that had been given to him.” She sat silent for another moment, mind lost in a past so long ago that Andrew couldn't even begin to comprehend all that it encompassed. Finally she continued. “I felt the moment of my death approaching. I knew that I was going to die despite what the man had offered me. Then he did something I did not expect. He bit his own wrist, pressed it to my lips and ordered me to drink. The first little bit of blood flowed into my mouth. I thought at the time that there was no way I was going to drink his blood. I would have preferred to just die, but then I tasted it. It tasted so alive. Before I even knew what was happening, I was swallowing as much as I could and felt a surge of strength flow into me with each swallow. I don't know how long I drank, but before I was ready, he pulled his wrist from my mouth. I blacked out the instant he pulled away. When I awoke, it was to the most excruciating pain I have ever felt in my entire life. The pain of childbirth was nothing compared with this pain.” She paused again, remembering her daughter, before continuing. “The pain didn't get better either. As bad as it had been when it started, it somehow just got worse until I thought that I might die from the pain alone. Then it stopped. It didn't fade away, it was just there one instant and gone the next. Then I passed out again.” She looked up at Andrew for a long time.
“What happened when you woke up,” he asked after a minute? It was another long moment before she continued.
“When I woke up for the second time, everything was different. I was different. The man who had saved my life was not far from me. He welcomed me back to the world of the living, but I wasn't sure that that's where I was. Everything looked strange, even the man. He explained to me that I was now special. I was part of an elite group of individuals who were 'Of the Blood'.” Johari stared at Andrew for another long moment.
Andrew felt another doubt about the whole thing. It was so much like the stories he enjoyed. Jason would laugh at him for
believing in this. He almost started laughing, but there was something in her expression that said that not only was it all true, but that she had more to tell. The doubt faded away looking into those eyes. This was insanity, but it was normal that was the lie. This was truth.
“What else,” Andrew asked softly? There was the longest pause yet, and he thought that maybe she wasn't going to answer. After a long time, she spoke, though quieter than before.
“You believe that I am the heroine of this tale, but it's not true. I haven't always used my abilities for good.” Andrew felt a shiver run down his spine, but just waited without reacting. “I awoke from my change with something else in me as well. I was angry. Angrier than I had ever been before in my life. What right had those men had to take my life? What right did my mate have to treat me as if I were a piece of trash to throw out? I spent several weeks with Sabinus, the man who had changed me, learning to control my new body. It was difficult, but I used the anger to forge ahead faster than Sabinus could believe. In all that time, the anger only burned hotter, never dissipating in the slightest. I kept it all inside though, never letting on to him the anger that filled my heart.” Johari's eyes darkened as the memory of that anger filled her. “I waited until Sabinus left me on my own one evening, I don't even remember why, and then I started running toward the village. The joy I experienced each time, being able to run that fast was almost enough to turn me aside from my quest for vengeance, but the anger rose up even higher and pressed me onward. I came into the village in the middle of the night, easily passing by the men who watched for danger. I went first to the chief's hut and crept inside. He was sleeping beside one of his wives while the others lay in the next room. I placed my hand under his jaw and broke both his jaw and his windpipe with the squeeze of a hand. His eyes popped open in pain, but he stared up at me unable to make a sound. I knew that it was too dark for him to see me inside the hut even though I could see almost as if it were day. I wanted him to know who did this to him, so I grabbed him by an arm and dragged him outside where the moonlight would illuminate me enough for him to see. 'You condemned me to die because you were jealous of me,' I told him, 'now I condemn you to die for taking my life away from me for no other reason than that.' His eyes were wide, though whether from pain or shock, I could not tell. I hung him by his feet from the front of his house and slit his wrists. I went in turn to each of the men who had strung me up, but I simply broke their necks while they lay in their beds.” There was less regret in her voice about the chief, he had deserved her anger, but she sounded as if she would take back the deaths of the others if she could. “I saved the hut I shared with my mate for last. As I approached, I realized that I intended to spare his life. I wanted to show him that I was still alive and tell him that I had not been possessed. I hoped to change him too and bring him into this new life with me. When I entered the hut, I saw his sleeping form laying upon our bed and I felt almost excited to share this new life of mine with him. I had loved him in life and once he understood the truth, our love could follow us into rebirth. I stood and listened to his breathing and his heartbeat for a moment before I noticed something odd. There was another breath and another heartbeat nearby. I thought someone was right outside and I was about to look when a slender arm reached around from the far side of my mate and wrapped itself around him. In just a few short weeks he had already cast aside all thought of me and taken another mate. The anger within me exploded into a fountain of rage. 'Hello,' I said, loudly enough to wake them both up. The two figures sat up in the bed staring in the dark to see what was speaking. I watched my mate walk to the embers of the fire in its pit and stir it up with a stick. The stick caught fire and the room lit up enough for them to see my face. I waited until I knew that he saw me and recognized me and then I moved to his new woman. It was a girl named Nalin. We had been the best of friends since early childhood. She gasped as I appeared beside her and again when my fingers wrapped around her neck. My fingers closed as she beat against me to no avail. All the while I stared up into my mate's frightened and shocked eyes. The scene was so unexpected that he didn't cry out or even move for a moment. Then he threw himself at me with a yell, the fire stick brandished before him in desperation. He jabbed my head, but instead of piercing or burning me, the stick just broke in his hand and the burning piece fell to the bed. The blanket caught and the stuffed straw mattress soon after began to blaze. I released the now dead body of my former friend and let it fall to the burning bed. Then I stood up to face my mate who had turned to grab his spear. I just stood there as he rushed toward me across the small room, weapon in hand. At the last moment, I stepped aside and grabbed the shaft of the spear. I spun it and he flew by me aided by the force of my spin. He crashed into the far wall of the hut and fell to the floor groaning. He struck with such force that the building shook and at least one of his ribs cracked. Thatch from the roof rained down on me as I walked over to him. 'You could have had me forever, but you abandoned me not only to die, but even my memory before I was even gone a month.' I growled at him and he cowered on the floor, both in pain and fear. I grabbed his spear point and slit his wrists. 'May the demons within you drain out and die.' He looked up at me and an evil sneer spread on his face. I stood up and looked around the hut. The fire had been spreading rapidly and I could tell that other people in the village were waking from his shout and from the smoke. I kicked him in the head, snapping his neck so that there was no chance that anyone could save his life and then I ran from the village.” Johari stared down at her feet for a long time before she said anything else. “The horror of what I did that day has been with me ever since. You say that I save people from the demons, but I am worse than them. I had the chance to do the right thing, but I am a monster. I have spent the entirety of this long life of mine in an attempt to make up for my choices that day and none of it has come close.” She stood up and started to pace around. “I will leave you alone to think about everything that I have shared with you, and if you don't wish me to be around anymore, I will understand.” Andrew could see the pain that was still with her, after so many years and instead of being frightened of the monster she claimed to be, he just wanted to take away that anguish. He stood up, walked to her, and wrapped his arms around her. She didn't respond at first. Then she turned within his arms and raised her own to hug him back.
“I would prefer it if you would stay,” said Andrew. He released the hug, but grabbed her hand before she moved away. Her mind still seemed to be lost in her past as he pulled her back to sit on the sofa beside him.
Once sitting down, Andrew wrapped his arms around her again. She was rigid for a moment, but then she relaxed a little and leaned her head on his chest. A calm settled over both of them as they sat there, not talking, not needing to for quite a while. Instead of fear, Andrew realized that he had never been so content in all his eighteen years.
They sat there for a while longer, just enjoying the peace that seemed to fill the air around them. Andrew thought of more questions for her, but didn't know if he should ask them or not. He didn't want to bring her any more pain than she had experienced in the telling of her tale. Her hand caressed Andrew's, pulling at the strands of light beneath the surface.
“I am sure that you have more questions. Please do not be afraid to ask me anything. For some reason, it makes me feel better to share with you, though I am afraid that what I have shared will push you over the edge when you have time to absorb it all.” Andrew waited a moment and then spoke.
“How do demons come into the story?”
“The chief of my village was correct about the illness being caused by demons, but he was wrong about the source. They somehow found out that something that would stand in their way would come because of someone in my village so they tried to wipe out the village before it could happen. In doing so, they caused me to be.” A fierce note entered her voice. “I am a force that has stood in their way many times.” It seemed that some of the anger was still within her, though no
w it focused upon the demons. “On a larger scale, the first of us came into being about two thousand years ago in order to begin the fight against the demons. Before that time, there were few people alive who were not in some way corrupted by their power. They had almost free reign in this world and many people were tricked to follow their evil ways. It got so bad that most of the people were destroyed for their evil. After that, humans spread out once again and the demons started again, trying to corrupt them all. That was when our creator decided to give the world a force that would be able to stop them. ” Andrew smiled.
“They don't have a chance with you in their way.” Johari shook her head.
“They still cause a great deal of harm, even with us fighting them. They are behind almost every terrifying thing that has happened in this world. They start all of the wars, stand behind every cruel tyrant and leader. They speak through these leaders of great good, hope and change while at the same time, crushing the freedom of the people every chance they get. They find evil within people and they magnify it. As my own story testifies, not even those of us who are of the blood are immune to their dark power.” Johari shook her head, “I do not understand how you can want to be so close to me, knowing what I am and what I have done.”
“You saved my life from the demon that plagued me for as long as I can remember. You brought hope and beauty into my life that until now had been devoid of those things. How could I not accept you as your are?” She seemed to ponder that before nodding.
“I suppose that makes a certain kind of sense.” She looked over into his face. “You have not known demons as long as I have so you do not realized just how amazing what you have done is. Few people so deeply in the grasp of a demon ever fight back. Most end up taking their own lives or just allowing the demons to control them. You have given me renewed hope that people can be saved and that this war we fight has a real chance to change things.” After that, she was silent for a long time again, and Andrew didn't feel like interrupting the peace.
Some time later, Johari straightened and disentangled herself from Andrew's arms. “Thank you for listening and for holding me. I think you need some time alone to assimilate the things I have shared. Your parents will be home soon and I think you should spend some time thinking things through and spend a little time in reality with your parents.” Andrew's eyes widened.
“Oh no! The house is destroyed. What will they think when they come home and find that and I'm not there?” Johari smiled.
“Calm down. It has been taken care of. We are good at fighting the demons, but also good at protecting humans from the truth of the war. Others like me have repaired your house and made certain that if anyone saw anything, it was forgotten.” Andrew relaxed a little, but wasn't sure how it was possible. The main floor of the house had been destroyed. He couldn't do anything but take Johari's word for it at the moment, but he would feel better after he saw it for himself. Almost as if their conversation had summoned it, Andrew's cell phone rang.
“Andrew, where are you?” Her voice sounded concerned, but nothing like it would if the house had been as destroyed as it had earlier.
“Sorry mom, I should have left a note. I am hanging out with a friend from school. I will be home in a bit.”
Andrew and Johari began to move to the front of the house. Andrew looked at his hand and realized that it was shaking. His breathing was a little ragged and his heart was beating faster than normal. It wasn't surprising when he considered just how much he had been through.
“I better not drive. A part of me is still in shock from everything else this day. You were right. I think I need to go home and try to absorb today.” Johari nodded. Together they headed out to his car in the driveway. She climbed into the driver seat and they took off toward his house. When they pulled up in front of his house, she smiled.
“If you need anything, you should call me right away.” She took his phone and typed her number into it for him. She gave him a brief smile as he climbed out of the car. She stood there for a second as if unsure whether or not it was safe to leave him alone there and then she was gone.
Andrew let out a breath he hadn't even been aware of holding. He stood there in front of his house not wanting to face his parents when he broke into a laugh. He couldn't help it. He was freaked out beyond anything that he had ever experienced, but he was happier than he had ever been at the same time. It was a strange combination of feelings, but no matter what the world held for him after this, he knew that he would be able to face it with clear vision and open mind.
The dark voice that whispered at him his entire life would no longer be there to drag him down. The darkness in his vision would no longer obscure the brightness of life. Today was a brand new day. The beginning of a life of hope and opportunity. With laughter still echoing in the air behind him, Andrew opened the front door into a house without a scratch and went to greet his parents. He couldn't wait.