Vitality

by Marleina Murray

  Vitality

  By: Marleina Murray

  Chapter One

  A nightmare is merely a daydream from which the sun is stolen, so I made use of the night as I took back my life. My name is Adeptia. It means to be highly skilled, an expert. My parents named me well, but there was once a time when I thought that they were crazy for naming me so. She’s dead now, and so is my brother. Victor was his name. Am I a twisted soul for laughing at the irony? As I take this long car ride to only God knows where, I’ll tell you about all of it. About how, four years ago, my family sacrificed everything to keep me safe. Protecting me so that I may protect something bigger. As I said before, my parents named me well. My father? It’s complicated, you’ll see why in due time.

  Abysmal, my planet, my home, was overrun by the Absolutes. Let’s just say that they didn’t like my family. Not one bit. Especially my mother. Serenity was her name. They felt that she took too many risks. Okay I’ll admit it; she was a bit off her rocker. She kept me hidden knowing that it would cost her life!! Who would’ve known that the locket she placed around my neck held the portal to another world?! A better world. A world away from the Absolutes. At the time, I only had half of the locket and only when it was whole it would work. My mom didn’t know where the other half of the locket was. She had last seen it when they took my father away. At the time I didn’t even know if my father was alive or not. I didn’t know if the Absolutes had the other half of my locket. I just knew that it was out there, and my mother trusted me to find it. My main focus was finding the other half at any costs. I deserved it, and so did the people of my world. I’ll take you back four years ago, where it all started.

  Chapter Two

  “Dede” I heard a soft muffled voice of my nickname being called and almost failing to break through the blanket I had snuggled over my head. “Dede, baby wake up.” I grunted sleepily and pulled the blanket from over my face to see the silhouette of my mother. Everything was dark except for the soft glowing light of two moons coming through the window. I thought she was waking me up because I didn’t hang the sheets up on the clothesline outside earlier like she had told me to. Hey, I was sixteen. What better way to get out of doing chores than to half-ass do them? “Okay, I’ll hang them up in the morning.” I mumbled and rolled back over, annoyed that she woke me. “Something has come up” she said, on the verge of tears, ignoring the attitude in my voice. My heart began to pound out of my chest, my mom never cried. I hesitated, afraid of what had brought tears to her eyes. My mother had told me before to never be afraid of anything, so I sat up and faced her. I was not ready for this. I wasn’t ready for anything, I just wanted to sleep.

  “What’s wrong?” I asked, trying not to sound nervous. She ducked down and pulled me to the floor. “What?” I urged, on the verge of panic. “I have to go away for a while, Adeptia” she said trying to talk without crying. “No! Not you, too!” I yelled with thoughts of my mother being tortured running through my head. She grabbed my shoulders and shook me. “Get it together baby, it’s only for a few days. They suspect that you are here.” she said steady and low, so low that I could barely hear her. “I don’t understand, I’m not ready for this” I said, fighting back tears. “There’s no time to explain” she urged, trying to calm me down. She placed a little diary in my hands. “When you get a chance, read this. It may not have everything that you need to know, but you’ll understand when you read it.” She instructed, then put her arms around me and hugged me tight. On a normal day, I would’ve told her that I wasn’t five anymore. I loved my mother with all of my heart, but we never really showed affection. There wasn’t any room for that. Not in this world. However, it wasn’t a normal day. So for the first time since I watched the absolutes drag my father away when I was eight, I embraced my mother. We both sat there crying. It wasn’t a normal day at all.

  My mother went into the front pocket of her apron and pulled out a chain as thin as a thread of silk. It had a tiny gold half heart on it that glistened in the moonlights. She placed it around my neck and tucked it underneath my shirt. “Guard this with your life baby, do you hear me?” she said. I said nothing, just nodded. From then on I knew exactly what it was. It was war. War? With who? Little did I know.

  My mother and I quietly ran to my brother’s room. Victor was only two years older than me and we fought like cats and dogs. She woke Victor and told him everything that she had just told me. He jumped out of bed and shoved me “This is all your fault!” he yelled. “My fault?! Great! I just found out but somehow it’s all my fault!!” I screamed, shoving him back. My mom tried to calm us down, but it was too late. We were at it again, shoving and screaming as usual. I hated him sometimes. We both stopped dead in our tracks when we saw that my mother’s attention was drawn to the window. Then, we could hear it, too. Someone was coming.

  Victor and I both went to the window still out of breath from bickering. Men were marching up the road towards our house, at least fifty of them, from what the moonlights would allow me to see. “Absolutes?” I whispered. I had never seen one up close before. My parents had always hidden me from them, but I never knew why. No one ever told me anything. Why? Why did I have to watch as my father was drug away from that very same window? Why did Victor always sleep with his shoes on? Little did I know. I HATE ABSOLUTES. “There’s no time left, they know.” My mother said with tears gushing down her face. “They know what?” I urged. Neither one of them answered me. My mother hugged Victor and I tight. Something told me to hold onto that moment.

  “You know what to do.” My mother said to Victor. Victor nodded and went to his closet, feeling around in the dark. A few seconds later, he pulled out two backpacks. He grabbed my arm and, just like that, Victor and I were out the door. I took one final glance back at my mother. She didn’t watch us leave, she never took her eyes away from the window and I knew why. It was too painful. I felt it, too but there was no time to let pain get in the way because The Absolutes were searching for us…they were searching for me.

  Victor and I quietly snuck out the back door, careful not to make a sound. “Where are they taking mom?” I whispered, more to myself, still trying to register what was happening. I wasn’t even sure if Victor had heard me. After a long pause, he looked at the ground with despair painted all over his face. “I don’t know.” He finally replied. We stood there at the back door in confused breathless silence. We could hear the footsteps getting closer. Trying to piece something, anything, together, I tried to swallow the lump in my throat as I asked “What are we doing? Are we running? We can’t just let them take her!” I began to shout. He pinned me against the wall and put his hand over my mouth. “We have to.” He whispered. I shoved his hand away, suddenly angry at the decision I had already knew we were making. It was starting to sink in. I was angry. Angry at my mother? Angry at my father? Angry at Victor? Myself? It was all too much to take in as the front door was kicked in and the sound of heavy boots filled the house.

  Victor and I went on the side of the house and ducked behind the bushes. We were supposed to be long gone by then, but neither of us had the strength to just leave our mother alone like that. We could hear my mother getting slapped around and questioned. I was so angry and afraid that I started to get a headache. “Where is she?!!” one of them yelled. “We know of your daughter Serenity!!” another one spat. “She’s dead, I killed her myself” my mother said, spitting out blood. Some of the Absolutes laughed. “Oh really? So, where’s the boy?” one of them asked sarcastically. “Who are you for me to have to explain anything!” my mother stormed. I smiled inside. My mother was never known to back down. Not to anyone. She was then drug outside, and thrown down into the dirt. I clutched my brother’s arm as both of our hearts sank. We shuffled closer to the front of the hous
e to peek around the corner and see. Tears flooded my face at the sight of a bloody, distorted faced mother laying on the ground as they crowded around her.

  Victor winced and turned away. “We should get going.” He whispered to me, his eyes were still closed as he tried to erase the sight. “No” I shook my head, staring at him shocked. We couldn’t just leave as if nothing happened. Could we? Should we? “I have to see what they’re going to do.” I choked through tears. The Absolutes stood all around her. They were all in white, and one of them had on a gold belt that glistened in the moonlights. I guessed that he was the leader, the tyrant, the mastermind behind all of this madness. I was flooded with rage as they all grew silent and he began to speak. “You know the penalty for murder Serenity.” He spoke, almost as if they were old friends. My mother slowly stood to her feet, looked him in the eyes and said “You kill innocent people every day Commander, now where’s the justice in all of this?” My mother looked calm and steady. Through all of this, I couldn’t help but be proud. I wanted them dead. Each and every Absolute. Dead. Home was never home because of those idiots!

  The commander laughed at what my mother said, but she still stood her ground. “We know that she is out there!” The commander screamed, getting in my mother’s face. Victors posture changed, like a vicious animal ready to pounce. My mother’s eyes darted in our direction then quickly away not to give up our hiding spot. She had spotted us. She glanced at us again, giving us a silent order with her eyes, to go. We didn’t move. “When we find her, she will open that portal!” The commander yelled so loud it echoed. “I told you, she’s dead” my mother urged, wanting them to get everything over with. “We know you’re not that stupid” another one snickered. “She’s the only one left who can actually use that stupid thing!” The commander said, getting frustrated.

  I nudged Victor, and he pointed to my neck. Then, it hit me. This was no ordinary locket. They wanted it, and would stop at nothing to get it. I’d be lying if I said that I wasn’t tempted to hand it over, but then, what would that mean? Couldn’t they just have it and leave my family the hell alone! Why did they need me to open it?

  “I have it,” my mother lied, “I’ve buried it just up the road. I’ll take you to it if you’d like?” She offered. “You are lying!!” The commander growled as he slapped my mother. This time, she didn’t budge. “I said I can take you to it.” She said more forceful. Then, the commander got so close to her face that I thought he was going to kiss her, and said “Is that so?”. They all began to laugh. They were laughing so loud that we noticed before they did that the wind was picking up speed. My mother outstretched her hands to the sky and closed her eyes. “Leave my home, now.” She commanded. When she opened her eyes, they all grew silent. Staring at her as if she was some unfamiliar being. Victor and I exchanged glances, neither of us had any idea what had just happened. Did she just do that?!

  My mother cut a path through their circle and walked back towards the front porch in our direction. Victor and I ducked down more so we wouldn’t give up our hiding spot. The commander pulled out a gold gun and pointed it at my mother. I tried to run out, but Victor grabbed me and I fought to pull away. That’s when we heard it. I thought that I had went deaf for a few seconds, there was a long hi pitched ring in my ears as my mother hit the ground. The commander walked up to her, pointed the gun at her head as she lay face down trying to crawl away, and pulled the trigger two more times. I’m not sure what was louder. The gunshots, or Victor and I screaming “NO!!” at the top of our lungs. All of their eyes shot in our direction. We stood there breathless and now alone. Our mother was dead, and we were busted.

  The commander fired a shot in the air, at least we weren’t fully busted. “Vic, is that you?” the commander asked, as if it was a game or something. “Why don’t you and your sister come on out? We only want to talk.” He said, putting bullets in the clip of his gun. He was so close that we could hear the reload crisp and clear. He was so close; we could hear him breathing. He began to casually whistle and wait, holding off his men and giving us a chance to come out. We didn’t take it. The whistling stopped and so did our hearts for a brief moment. “Split up and search the perimeter of the house, we’ve got two of them!!” The commander barked the order at his men.

  Chapter Three

  Before they could corner us in, Victor shoved a diary in my backpack, and then we were running. Towards the back of the house, past the house, and now out of the bushes and into the open. That’s when they all began to fire their guns at us. We kept running, but they were trained for times like these. Was it even possible for us to get away? Was it possible for me to keep the pee from trickling down my legs as multiple trained Absolutes tried to take me and my brother’s lives? Was anything possible at this point? Was it even worth it? I wasn’t sure about anything. Run. Faster. Run. Run. That’s all that I could come up with at that moment.

  Into the woods we went and they were right behind us. We could barely see because the trees blocked most of the moonlights. I prayed to whoever was listening that those bastards couldn’t see in the dark. Please don’t see us. I tripped over something, but Victor never let go of my hand. Until that moment, I didn’t even realize that our hands were glued. Tough old big shot Victor, he was just as afraid as I was. Any other time, I probably would have teased my brother. Not this time. We couldn’t afford to lose each other, not at a time like that. We were all we had left.

  Victor pulled me up and we kept running. My foot was bleeding. I had completely forgotten that I wasn’t wearing any shoes. I now realized why Victor had always slept in his. He knew that one day, this time would come. I was the last to be let in on this cruel inside joke, only to find out that I was the punchline.

  I couldn’t help but feel guilty. All of this was my fault. Feeling that kick in the gut from the realization that I was the punchline, stopped me dead in my tracks. I stopped running. I sat down against a tree and started to hyperventilate. “What are you doing?!” Victor asked, I could tell he was looking at me like I was crazy. “Go! Just go.” I sobbed. I was so confused. Victor sat down next to me. “I can’t just leave you,” he said “Do you even know what’s around your neck?” he asked, full of wonder. “No, and I don’t care!” I shouted, frustrated. “Is that all that matters? What about us? What about mom and daddy?!” I pleaded as buried my face in my hands. It was my first time with the locket, and I already felt like my life wasn’t my own anymore. It belonged to the dumb locket.

  Victor was probably glaring at me at that point, but I didn’t care. “You know that isn’t true,” He urged “If you knew-“ He stopped talking when I snatched the locket half from around my neck and threw it to the ground. Although it was nearly pitch black, we could see the necklace as if it were alight itself. The necklace floated up off of the ground and reattached itself to my neck. “See?!” Victor yelled.

  Chapter Four

  “I was trying to tell you that no matter what you do, or how you feel, you can’t change it!” He said, frustrated. He took the backpack off of his back, opened it, and dug around with his left hand. “What are you doing?” I asked. “Hold this” he said, and he handed me a first-aid kit. “They got my hand” He said, cleaning it fast and wrapping it in gauze. “You have to get to a hospital!” I said concerned. “I’ll be fine; this is more important.” He said, as he finished wrapping his hand tightly. “You’re telling me that you think this locket is more important than losing too much blood?!” I snapped. “No, I’m telling you that we have a mission and that if we don’t finish it, everyone will suffer!” He snapped back.

  Victor stood to his feet. “Are you hurt?” He asked. “I cut my foot when I fell” I told him. He used the light from the locket to clean and wrap my foot. He helped me stand. We heard one of the Absolutes coming and stood still and silent against the tree. I tucked the locket back underneath my shirt. I held my breath as the Absolute walked right passed us. Victor dove on his back and snapped his neck. The Absolute’s now
limp body hit the ground. Victor pried a silver gun from the Absolute’s dead fingers, and looked at me “Survive at any costs.” He said.

  I pulled the locket half out and held it up to the Absolute’s face. He didn’t look like us. His nose curved upward and looked like a pig’s snout, his earlobes were pointy, and he had four rows of pointy shark teeth. “Do they all look like him?” I asked in disbelief. “Yeah, they do.” He said. I checked the Absolute’s pockets, nothing. “He’s not one of us at all, is he?” I asked, still shocked. Victor was quiet for a while. “No.” He finally said. I went silent. I didn’t know what else to say. “We can’t stay here; it won’t be dark forever,” he said “we are in deeper than ever now. I just killed an Absolute, and the penalty is death.” I was still speechless. Then, I began to laugh at the irony of the situation. Victor followed suit. We laughed at all the madness that had just entered our life that night. Maybe in hopes not to slip into it.

  I went back to examining the Absolute. He had a branding on his inner wrist, a triangle inside of a circle, inside of a shape that I had never seen before. In the middle of the triangle was a dot. “Hey, what’s this mean?” I asked Victor. ‘shis middle left finger. I took it. “What is it with you guys and gold?” I asked the dead creature. “We have to go now.” Victor said grabbing my arm, forcing me to move. “Wait! Why can’t we at least wait until morning?! It’s cold, I’m tired and we need water.” I tried to argue. “You just don’t get it do you?” he snickered, still pulling me. “If we wait until morning, they’ll corner us! They never fight fair!” he explained. Victor was frustrated. He stopped and faced me. “I don’t know why it’s us, Adeptia, but it is” he said, half talking to me, half talking to himself. We were both hurting. Bad. “I want mom.” I said. “I do, too, but we both know it isn’t possible” he said, squeezing my hand. We walked along in silence, but I knew that tears ran down his cheeks, just like they ran down mines.