Gateway to Astria - Part 1

by Isaiah Gray

Chapter 6

  At that moment, I stood up and fired. His words angered me so much that I came out of hiding, enraged with fury. Half the magazine was gone before I even realized what I was doing. My aim was terrible as my hands shook from the tension they homed.

  “Woah! Woah!” Kent yelled. The three bullets cemented in the stone around the stage, dirt flying up on impact. “There she is!”

  Every word made my body get even tighter as I fired eight shots, I couldn’t see where they all ended up, but I know none hit what I was aiming for. Kent was standing in the same place laughing. “Woman! You know you can’t hit me from here!”

  He was right. I had to find a way to get closer.

  “Why don’t you come closer? Hmm? That way you can get a good shot at me.” Kent said with a chuckle, waving his hand towards the stairs.

  That was the last thing I expected him to say. I looked at John, he was shaking his head violently, waving his hand frantically. I knew he was right. I shouldn’t go, but Resh was there! I had to try and do something. I made my way down to the ground floor, the room looked huge from below. It didn’t feel as big as when I was looking down above. I slowly made my way from the side to the middle aisle. Keeping my gun pinpointed on him.

  “Let them go.” I requested. “Pick your poison! Let us all go and get away with your life, or I can put a bullet in your brain, unlock them myself and then we’ll leave.”

  Expecting Kent to wince, grimace, gulp or show some sort of fearful emotion, it caught me off guard when he started to laugh.

  John craned his neck. “What’s so funny?”

  Now on his knees, fists clenched, Resh was now standing – barely.

  “I’m not talking to you!” Kent said with a sarcastic voice. John slinked back at the Kent’s harsh tone.

  Turning again to me, Kent grinned and chuckled. “Pretty miss, do you really think I’m intimidated by a measly handgun? Even your illegally obtained one at that...” He said, brushing his coat off. Dust fluttered off it. “Ew.” He continued.

  “Wait...” I muttered, confused. “How do you know that? And it’s not... illegal, just... specially issued.”

  “By whom?” He said with a sly rasp to his tone.

  “Me... But still! How do you know that?”

  “Tsk tsk! Don’t ask such silly and senseless questions! You’re a smart girl! And... you’ve been listening!”

  “Huh, well maybe I’m not, bother to elaborate a little?” I probed, by aim was slowly steadying. Definitely being in a state I could shoot him, it dumbfounded me why I couldn’t bring myself to pull the trigger. It probably was because I wanted to hear him out, how he had found out about what I had tried so desperately to hide. Me.

  “Oh gosh, You... people! You really don’t like fun don’t you?”

  “What?”

  “Oh nevermind! Your good at solving puzzles! You don’t think you could figure out that I have some smarts!”

  “Obviously.” I retorted back.

  “You don’t think, a brilliant and exuberant mastermind... Like myself, who developed and executed such a brilliant plan of events, would overlook to do a simple...”

  “A simple what?”

  “Uh, What’s it called?” He whispered to himself. “Oh! Background check! Yes! A background check of his prestigious participants.”

  “How? Next to nobody even knows who I am!” My teeth clenched together, he was toying with me.

  “Please! Having a few connections helps with that.”

  “What connections?” I inquired.

  “Well!” He started. “It helps when the President of Russia is a childhood friend.”

  “You grew up with him?” I asked

  Kent barely nodded his head as he enthusiastically continued. “The Vice-President of this... disgusting country, has our beautiful emblem tattooed on his shoulder!”

  “He what?” I exclaimed.

  “I have people everywhere Natalia. SO! When I want to find out more about a particular person, It isn’t hard for me to obtain such information such as, where you work, where you sleep, who you're with. It’s quite simple to do! I even found out about how both your parents died. Oh wait! I did that didn’t I...” He broke into an hideous cackle.

  That was the last straw. Pulling the trigger on my weapon, the next sound to come out of his wicked mouth would pure and utter silence. I expected to hear the sound of the gunshot ring all throughout the room. Much to my disappointment, the illustrious bellows was replaced with a clicking noise of an empty magazine.

  “Oh. Guess who’s out of bullets?” He said in a high pitched mocking tone.

  I checked my pockets, no extra clips. I stared long and hard at Kent and threw the weapon on the ground, my gaze undeterred.

  “You see, When I look for someone who I’m going to... fun the chance allowing someone to aid me in my endeavors, the first step is what threat they are to me.”

  I stood vigilant, clenching my fist so hard I could feel my fingernails digging into my palms.

  “I learned, that at all times, Natalia Earhart keeps at her side a throwback 21st handgun that resembles Jewish standardized military sidearm, modified for safety, power and adaptability to further enhance in potency, and adjusted for the most advanced ammunition available and even unavailable to the world military. I also know that its standard clip size is fifteen bullets. Eleven of which your shaky arm fired at me. And four of which echoed through my catacombs. Oops! All out!!” He gave a large grin.

  “How did you take my spares?” I asked through gritted teeth.

  “Please... With the only people with access to above. People of the streets, master thieves will owe favors to get their hands on things from the outside world.”

  Resh was rustling in his chains now, as was John.

  “Come on Natalia! I’ve done my research and you’ve proved it! You solved my little puzzle. You should have figured all this out! You’re taking my fun out of it!” Kent started pacing back and forth. “Wait!” It said holding his hand up. “Oh! Well played... Well played, Natalia.”

  I sighed. He saw through my plan.

  “Brilliant. Brilliant. Brilliant. Brilliant. Brilliant!” Kent said with increasing speed. “You! Are! Stalling!” He continued. “Round of applause to you!”

  I sighed. “So did I finally win something? Seeming as this whole thing was just one big downfall.”

  “Ah! Nope! Your stalling has only further aided my plan, but it woulda been a good plan.” He replied.

  I nodded. “Figured as much.”

  “Flattery won’t work either!” He chimed. “Anyway, enough chatting! Let’s get the ceremony started!” He clapped his hands together.

  Glancing over my shoulder, rows of armored individuals came down the aisles. I wasn’t Resh; I had no chance in hand to hand combat with all of these people. Two men led me up onto the stage and chained my wrists and ankles; I didn't resist. They were heavy and rough. Tight on my wrists, they gnawed at my skin even when I moved the slightest.

  “Why did you bring us here? Why us?” I asked as I tried to remain as still as possible.

  Kent slowly walked over to me. “I need some special liquid.” He made his way over to me and pulled out a syringe. Grabbing my left arm and wrenching it forward, he slowly drew blood into the syringe now in my arm. “Ow!” I exclaimed, something about the needle hurt more than usual, It felt like the blood near it was vibrating.

  Finally pulling it out, he flicked the syringe and glanced at it in the light; he looked confused, not sure why. He tossed the thing over his shoulder and it shattered on the ground, creating a small pool of blood. Next, he did the same thing to Resh, but Resh blood came thick, dark red with glints of gold shinning in within and all around it. “Ah yes!” He started. “Perfect, I started to get distraught for a second.”

  What was he talking about?

  “Well you have your blood… Can we just go?” I asked at the impossible chance.

  “Psh! Heck no! Y
ou get to enjoy the fun! Watch the show! It’s going to be exciting! Why would you… go?”

  It was really starting to bug me how immature this guy was. All the talk about fun, as if it was some sort of game! Psychopath... I thought to myself.

  “So why us?” I requested again.

  “Well, I needed something only you have!”

  “Then why not just kidnap us or something?”

  “Cause’ that’s boring!” He exclaimed. “It’s much more fun to have you walk right into my hands! It also lets me work on other things in the meantime!”

  “Crazy…” I accidentally slipped out; he didn’t hear me thankfully.

  “I bet you’re wondering, how did you manage to pull that off? Well! I can say it definitely wasn’t easy! It takes a lot of careful strategical stuff, concocting, and oh so very much brain power. But it was so worth it! I got exactly what I wanted and I even had fun doing it! Who would’ve guessed?

  “There are so many variables though. It never could have worked.”

  Kent stood blinking for a while, then burst out in a hysterical laugh. “Hahaha! Oh Natalia! It’s a lot easier when your life was being guided.”

  What was he talking about?

  “You see...” He continued. “I’ve had my eye on you for a very... very... very long time... “ Kent's eyes went black, pitch black for a few seconds. Not just the pupil, but his entire eye, like the soldiers we faced earlier. They changed back to normal quickly. Maybe I was just imagining things.

  I didn’t say anything. He had a pattern of making me curious.

  “Every major and even any minor event in your life was predestined to happen. I lost quite a few men in that riot.”

  The riot that killed my dad. This was old news. Not interrupting, I let him keep on going.

  “The first boy to ask for your number, ever wonder why he, just out of the blue, stopped texting you?”

  “What?” I said. Thinking by now I’d forget it, I was surprised to find I remembered that moment as clear as day.

  Kent smirked and chuckled. “Poor kid, his brakes malfunctioned and he took a spin off a cliff.”

  “You...”

  “Yea that was me!” He raised his hand slightly. “You ever wonder why your college set you a letter offering you a scholarship?”

  Yes... I thought. I replied “No” regardless; this was starting to frighten me.

  “And you know how hard it is to demolish the state capital building?”

  He was talking about recently now.

  “It wasn’t... that hard... actually.” he said in a mellow tone before picking up again.

  “Even arranging the destruction of the California Bureau of Investigation facility.”

  “You did that?”

  “Well, all of these I’ve done indirectly, maybe you would recognize the ones who actually did it?”

  With that, a man stepped from behind the curtain. “Hello Natalia.”

  To my surprise, it was my boss, the one who I never got along with. I closed my eyelids shut as images sped a mile a minute into and out of my brain. Every single conversation I’ve had with my boss.

  “Ah! There it is! Natalia Earhart’s one famed weakness. Her ability to re-live the past. Too much info, too much data! Senda ya right back to the horrible things you’ve seen! Most are random but you’re good at blocking the ones that trigger.”

  My heart was racing from the burst of moments. My mind pumping, feeling like I was about to collapse. The high-pitch ringing was back in my ears.

  “But to me that’s a challenge. Come!” He said and motioned to the curtain. A woman, older in age. I recognized her, but I couldn’t pin where. Racking my brain, images flew through my mind, trying to find out who they are. Then it clicked. She was the woman with the border collie who was complaining about some “gas”. She was one of the people I interviewed after the destruction at the state capitol building. More images of that scene whizzed through my mind at a million miles an hour.

  “There we go! Next!” Kent yelled. His eyes flickered again.

  I closed my eyes and looked away, I didn’t want to relive something, not now. I wasn’t going to look, nothing could make me. Until I heard the voice.

  “Hey there niece.”I turned back. “No... Nononono” I said. Slowly peeking through my narrowed eyes, I saw a man standing there, dressed in a suit and tie. It was my uncle, the one who let me use the room at the top of his condominium complex. Every image of my uncle all the way down to my childhood whirred through my brain. It hurt and it hurt bad. My head throbbing intensely, I teetered on the edge. I could feel the dark crawling up around me, but I fought it.

  “Woohoo! It’s woooorking!” Kent exclaimed, dancing around like he was either excited or had something in his pants. “Oh and we haven't even gotten to the best part!”

  “Oh no... Whatever came out next I knew would push me over the edge. On my knees, my breathing had become extremely heavy, and my body was shaking extremely violently.

  “S-stop!” I yelled out.

  “Huh, never thought I’d hear that coming out you.”

  “Please...” I muttered. The thing I fear the most is the tragedy of my own story.

  “That’s so ironic! Because I’m pretty sure those are the exact same words you choose to ignore at your old job! Isn’t it? Hmm? You did this for a living... You messed with people’s minds, tricked them into telling you every deep and dark secret they had and that your superiors wanted to know!” He walked over to me and leaned up to my ear and whispered. “But we both know you were the superior one the entire time.” He chuckled in a hushed way that you could describe it as whispering one.

  I pulled away as much as I could, but my chains kept me from going very far. My hands were shaking and my heavy breathing made my head start to spin.

  “Seeming as how you ignored their words then, How does that old proverb go? Do onto others as you want them to do unto you?” He crossed his forearms to make the letter “X” and made the sound of a buzz. “Request denied!” He whispered at me.

  “Leave her alone!” A voice yelled out. John was trying to stand up for me again, but this time instead of a harsh grumble or snappy phrase, Kent turned around and roared. A deeper, throatier roar than a lion unleashed from his voice. His eyes flickered black for a moment as well. The jump of fright it gave me sent me from my knees to the ground. I could hear chains rattling in the distance, and as my eyes were still closed, my best guess is they were John’s.

  “What do you remember from those days Natalia?” I heard Kent ask me. “Anything? Anything at all? Probably not, there were tons of people and different faces you saw every day. It’s not like there’s one who was always there.”

  No.

  “Wait... Oh yes! There was someone wasn’t there?”

  Not him...

  “Hoho! and if I remember right, you had quite a thing for him too!”

  No! Please, I don’t want to go back there, not there, somewhere else please!!!

  An single image passed through my mind, an image I tried so hard to block out forever.

  “AH! What was his name...”

  A smile, dark black hair, bleached at the tips.

  “Oh yes!”

  Two misty brown eyes.

  “Nathan.”

  Nathan... That set it off. It wasn’t long before the black overcame me.