The Drellic Saga: Books One, Two and Three

by Mike Marlinski

  Chapter Nine

  Syll found Drellic nearly one hour later. He had managed to crawl to the side of the road, before falling unconscious again.

  One of Morn’s orange transports was hovering beside him, sparkling in the moonlight. The engines emitted a dull hum, as the ship came to a stop and the circular light pads that ran along the sides of the ship, illuminated Drellic’s body; frozen in the fetal position and barely drawing breath.

  The side hatch abruptly flung open, allowing Syll to run out to Drellic with one of Jin Callos’ aids; a pale man named Throll, who was in his thirties and had only a dark military jacket over his summer street clothes and thin leather gloves, to protect him from the intense cold.

  Syll had a white fur coat wrapped tightly around herself. Her slippery white gloves made it difficult for her to get a grip on Drellic’s icy shoulders, but Throll insisted that he could carry him on his own.

  He dropped down to one knee and lifted Drellic with both arms, as he rose to his feet. He then allowed Syll to lead the way back to the ship.

  Once the three of them were secured inside the cabin, Syll ordered the computer to raise the temperature of the cabin by twenty degrees, to accommodate Drellic’s worsening condition. Drellic was still barely breathing and had yet to so much as blink his eyes.

  Syll had activated the homing device on Drellic’s transport, before he had left the day before. Being lonely and naturally worrisome, and already having a husband stationed off planet for months, Syll had watched Drellic’s every move that day.

  She saw the transport violently crash into the woods, before being stolen by an unknown party. Unfortunately in Drellic’s case, the list of likely suspects was long. Many of his classmates resented him because of the rumors surrounding his family, as well as the fact that he was dating the most sought after girl at the institute.

  When they reached the new Kail House, a three story red brick building at the opposite end of the city, Drellic had regained consciousness and leaned on Throll’s shoulder, as he hobbled into the house.

  He was wrapped in a thick black blanket and had a puffy white bandage on his forehead, covering the wound he had received from the crash. Drellic then shook the tiny icicles and bits of snow from his curly blond hair, as Throll disappeared up the staircase beside him.

  Upon entering the family room, he about to fall lifelessly onto the sofa, before Syll ordered him to his room to change, before meeting her out in the kitchen.

  Drellic returned to his mother a few minutes later, wearing a dark red, long sleeve shirt and black sweat pants. He sat at the kitchen table, confused by his mother’s irate facial expression.

  She was glaring at him with cold haunting eyes, as he folded his hands on the table and hesitantly turned to face her.

  “Are you alright?” she asked while maintaining her cold gaze.

  “I’m fine,” he answered. “I just don’t know why you’re looking at me like that.”

  “I think you do,” Syll answered. “It’s that girl. I warned you about her. This family already has enough to deal with. But you just had to have her didn’t you? You had to make them hate you even more, didn’t you?”

  “But I love her,” Drellic whispered.

  “You’re only fifteen! You don’t even know what love is,” Syll snapped, as she leaned forward in her chair.

  “You didn’t listen to me before, but maybe you will now that this has happened,” she continued. “Being with Moya Fen is dangerous, because you have had a target painted on your back, since the moment you walked into that school.”

  “But I didn’t fucking do anything!” Drellic screamed, as he jumped to his feet.

  “I’ve had enough of this! I’m sick of having to tip toe around, because everywhere I look, people are either talking about me or kicking the shit out of me! All because father supposedly killed someone, who was just another fascist fucking asshole, anyway!” Drellic cried, as tears began to stream down his face.

  Syll then quickly got up from her seat, slapped Drellic across his face and grabbed him by his shoulders.

  “You are a Kail! Act like it! No tears! We talked about this!” she screamed. “You have no idea how lucky we are! We were about to lose everything, but we’ve been given a second chance here! And now your father is out there trying to save every last one of us, including the people who call him a murderer. Because that’s what we do. We hold our heads high and endure, to show the ignorant wastes of society that we are better than they are!”

  “A lot of good that’s doing!” Drellic cried. “Father’s out there saving the world, but we can’t tell a soul about it. People attack me for things they think he did, but I can’t retaliate, because it’ll just make things worse. And now you’re telling me I can’t be with a girl I love for the same reason!”

  Syll then thought that a different approach might be more effective, when it came to reasoning with young Drellic.

  She then softly replied, “You almost died out there tonight. Do you realize that? What happens if she’s in the ship with you, the next time you’re attacked?”

  “I shouldn’t be being attacked!” Drellic yelled. “But my protective detail doesn’t appear to be doing a good job. I don’t even want to be at that school anymore. I don’t even want to be here anymore! I’m sick of always being told I have to hold my head up high and move on. Just get over it! Well, I’m done,” Drellic concluded, as he started to walk back towards his bedroom.

  “What the hell do you mean, you’re done?!” Syll screamed, while blocking his path.

  “As soon as I’m of age next year, I’m joining the military!” answered Drellic. “I’ll get as far away from you people as I can, and I’ll disappear myself. I’ve heard of people that can do it. I’ll get a whole new identity and join the ranks. Then, I’ll never have to hear the name, Kail again!”

  Syll wanted to strangle her son after his last words, but couldn’t bring herself to move or even say anything. Instead, she just stood there and allowed him to retreat into his room and slam the door.

  She had never heard her son denounce the family name before. Whether he had only said it out of anger or not, she knew that had Morn been present at the time, Drellic would have acquired a whole new definition for the word, pain.

  At that moment, she knew what had to be done. She had always regretted her decision to let Drellic take the transport out on his own to be with Moya, and was not only in fear for her son’s life, but for the life of the innocent girl, he so desperately wanted to be with.

  With a heavy heart, Syll contacted Moya’s parents via holographic projection, and told them about the attack. She then advised them to keep their daughter away from Drellic, for her own safety.

  When the conversation ended and the connection was severed, she immediately thought to herself, “We will get through this. My husband will find a way to save us all and his heroism will redefine us.”

  But as she passed by Drellic’s bedroom door, her thoughts were interrupted by a faint buzzing sound, coming from the other side.

  She pressed her ear to the door and couldn’t identify the source of the noise. For better or for worse, she decided to enter the room. When she found that it was locked, she began pounding on the door and calling Drellic’s name, to which she received no reply.

  As Syll continued her attempts to get Drellic to open the door, Drellic was sitting at his work desk in front of a mirror. He had pocketed his father’s electric razor earlier, and was then in the process of shaving his head.

  He stared intently into the eyes of his reflection, showing no emotion or regard for his mother’s cries from outside the room. He just kept on shaving, while filling the waste basket at his side, with locks of his hair.

  Drellic had also removed the bandage from his forehead, revealing a scar over his left eye that was sure to be permanent. It was the first of many more war wounds to come.

  Though he had not witnessed the conversation, he already knew
what his mother had done. He knew he had lost Moya once again.

  A moment later, he set the razor down, his head completely shaven, and lightly caressed his scalp, while admiring his new appearance. He then sat back in his chair to begin contemplating when he would speak to his mother again, when his eyes were suddenly drawn to a green glow coming from outside his window.

  He parted his curtains and raised the blinds, to see several green glowing insects flying high above the other, smaller homes in the neighborhood.

  They appeared small and frail, similar to common houseflies, but were unaffected by the violent, bitter cold winds or the bombardment of icy hail and snow.

  As Drellic looked more closely at the tiny creatures, he noticed that the precipitation seemed to stop just before hitting them and then roll off to the side, as if they had some form of protective shielding around them.

  Then without warning, one of the insects landed on Drellic’s window, allowing Drellic an even closer look. Its small black eyes seemed to be consciously staring into Drellic’s from behind its furry green feelers.

  As they made eye contact, while Drellic did his best to study the creature before it flew away, he had the undeniable feeling that he was being studied as well.