Alade (Irunmole Saga)

by Jean-Marc Akerele

  I watched carefully as Tim wove his power into the fabric of Officer April

  Johnston, observing with pride as he manipulated her every emotion and turned it into a weapon against her own innate resistance. That he did this instinctively, without the knowledge that he was using ase was remarkable, a grand testament to my teaching skills and my sly corruption of his person. D’Andre and I had talked for hours as he outlined what he needed and why, and in the spirit openness he allowed me to look through the window of his world, this world into which I would soon be entering. I learned that the man was by no means a simple gangster, indeed this self-educated, ruthless, yet incredibly calculating and farseeing person was a power to be reckoned with. He had his fingers in everything, from drugs, to real estate, from bank fraud, to small arms dealing. His contacts were as far flung as mine once had been but it was this very web of his which had got him into the difficult position he was in now. A spider is sensitive to all vibrations in its web, but nonetheless it cannot be everywhere all the time, and when the web has grown large enough the clutter and debris that must by nature of its stickiness develop, will threaten the very stability of the web. D’Andre’s web had become cluttered and he needed help in cleaning it before it broke completely and he was forced to abandon it, as he fought his own indictment under the RICO statutes that seemed likely to stick. He needed my help to not only retrieve the tools to clean it, but also if he could trust me, to do the cleaning for him. In this I felt the hand of my Goddess and smiled inwardly as I watched Tim seduce the Officer April Johnston. My plan had been to get an Officer, preferably female, and white if possible to bring in the thumb drive, because she would be least likely to talk, would keep her mouth shut when paid well, and had the most to lose by getting caught. This particular officer was a forty-nine-yearold single mother of two, confused white trash who only dated men of the darker persuasion, and walked around the prison as if it was her own personal dating service. She was an easy mark if it was sex one wanted, but as for smuggling in something she had always been resistant, because at her age and in this economy, she could not afford to lose this job, after all what other prospects did she have, especially at her age, and with her background? I watched Tim wear her down day after, I observed him sweetening the pot little by little over time, with money, with passionate words and with promises that he never intended on keeping. She was hungry for the romance that he sold her so well and after one month of hard work and a subtle and brilliant use of ase, she broke; as soon as we were ready she would bring in whatever we wanted so long as it was not drugs or weapons. And she was ready to begin immediately.

  The next few weeks were a whirlwind of activity as we put our plans into action and quickly began to see them bear fruit. Though my business had been rudely snatched from me, and though I no longer had the powerful clientele I was once had, many of my contacts had been in the criminal world and in that world profit is the bottom line. My credit was still good with many of them and so my reputation had remained intact. It was only in the real world that I had been destroyed and right now that place was of no consequence to me, for I was in prison. The trick was to reestablish contact with them, and despite the confiscation of my cell phone and other records of mine, I was old school and all my important numbers remained in my head. Yes, my spectacular fall was common knowledge now, but as D’Andre had indicated by approaching me, I still had respect in some quarters. I reached out to those contacts that existed farthest from the world from which I had been expelled, and sent out feelers to gauge my position. I was not long before I began to get replies, some out of curiosity, some to threaten, but most were hungry to reconnect with me for I had always been a magnet for wealth and they knew that I would not just lie down and die. With their resources, I was now able to help D’Andre in what he really needed; I just need to come up with a plan.

  “You must fall,” both Raziel and Agent Reeves had said, and over the next few months fall I did. My soul had never been pristine, and working as I did, moral dilemmas rarely occupied my thoughts. But I was not an evil man by any stretch of the imagination, I simply had no morals, no boundaries and quite frankly I did not care what the world thought of me, only what I thought of me. Did I not say that D’Andre wanted me to help clean the clutter from his web? In the months that followed I learned the extent of his impressive web and soon learned that I too was caught in it with very little room to maneuver. My grey soul began to darken and the black and terrible things that he had me do for him began to fill me up with despair. Yet this did not sadden me, indeed I reveled in the change, I glorified in the madness that wove its web in my thoughts and pushed me closer to the doorway that I needed to enter. The connection that Officer Johnston had opened for me put me in such a good position that if I could not directly get certain things myself, through a quid pro quo system I could barter for them and soon I was able to fulfill almost any request, through my judicious manipulation of Tim and his own manipulation of Officer Johnston. Occasionally I would slyly caress her with my own power, marking her, and I soon found that her eyes followed me hungrily wherever I went. I watched as Tim grew in stature among the other inmates and as he grew, so did his ase. Soon I would reap the harvest of what I sown in him and leave him cored and empty, half a man and a necessary sacrifice to the Gods who put me on this path. I would feel no guilt and I would feel no remorse. This was the path that I must tread and so I would not tread it lightly. Time passes slowly in prison, and once more after several months of waiting, I found myself before a federal judge in court, but this time I was not the beaten, whipped cur that I had been when I first entered this court, no, now I was demonic, spilling dark power everywhere, so much so even the Marshals were obviously nervous around me. My work for D’Andre had precipitated this change in me and had given me new knowledge and insight into my path. He was one of the many gatekeepers of the world that I must enter and though I was trapped on the fringes of it, I was by no means a part of it. My path still stretched out before me long, dark, and confusing and when the jury pronounced me guilty I did not even look up at them, so distant were my thoughts from that time and place. All I could muster was a sigh, and as the Marshals returned me to the holding cells I knew that my journey had just begun. In time, they would eventually send me to a federal prison and it would be there that I would truly gain access to the world wherein lay my salvation. In D’Andre I had met one of the gatekeepers of this world, powerful criminals whose hands rested comfortably on all parts of their desolate kingdom, and now that I had been convicted I was eagerly anticipating meeting the many others. I needed their blessings to press on in my journey for without it, I would be stuck in the limbo between worlds and would die a slow and painful death in despair and obscurity, one from which there was no promise of rebirth only an oblivion so complete that it would be as if I had never been born, and that, to me, was unacceptable.

  When I returned to the jail, I felt a tremor in the energy of the block, and knew instinctively that one of my goals had come to fruition. Tim had finally blossomed, he had bloomed, and as he walked around the cell block he was spitting power everywhere, leaking energy like some cosmic sieve and its flavor made me ravenous. The darkness in me needed to feed and this was the most delectable of all dishes, but like all things of a magical nature there are rules and so I just could not go to him and rip it out, for it was his and bound to him. I had to trick him into giving me access to it so that I could essentially steal it from. As every one of my race possesses ase, it is as fundamental to us as DNA is to humans and one could no more a separate us from it as one could DNA for a human. Yes, one could take a sample, a taste, but not the whole package because the whole would not be able to exist without it, but Tim’s being a hybrid changed this equation somewhat. His magical side would fight my attempt to steal it but his human side would aid and abet me because it rejected the inhumanity of it and wanted it gone. The trick would be to force the magical side to surrender without a fight. But, in the end he
would still be empty, drained and broken by my actions and my betrayal would only strengthen the dark power growing in me and push me closer to the way to madness where I needed to go.

  In many human cultures intoxicants are used to open the mind to the arcane and since Tim (who loved to get high) was always eager imbibe something, I used my burgeoning network to obtain some of the drug DMT. What most people do not understand about prison is that despite being locked away, everything is obtainable in prison, it just costs more. Greedy officers, sneaky inmates and even corrupt case managers will bring in anything if the price is right. After all, the switchblade knives, cell phones, and drugs were not made by inmates, were they? They were brought in by corrupt prison officials at a lucrative profit. It was a very simple thing to obtain a few grams of DMT, which is a very unusual drug with unique properties and effects which are very useful if one is indulging in it for the right reasons. What I mean is that DMT is a powerful hallucinogen, a spiritual catalyst, which in one form or another has been used by the many cultures all over the planet for millennia, to visit the unseen world, the world where beings like me originate, the world where the Gods walk freely. I would get Tim to ingest a small amount of DMT and while his spirit was travelling I would steal his power.

  “Listen, man this isn’t like crack, or dope or any of that other shit you take,” I lectured Tim, “This can give you the spiritual insights that you have been searching for. Remember what I have been teaching you about reality, and illusion? This drug will temporarily lift the veil and you will see the true reality. Don’t take it just as another recreational experience, take this seriously, this stuff is no joke. Do you still want to do this?”

  “My man, I have tried everything on this planet probably except this stuff. Let’s do it. I remember what you have shown me, don’t worry I won’t get lost.”

  “You choose this of your own free will?”

  “Yes, I choose this of my own free will, what is that some sort of ritual statement, like in vampire novels?”

  “Yes, something like that. You do know how to use a syringe, right?”

  “Alade, dope’s my drug of choice; you’re damn right I do.”

  “Here then, take this; it is already full and ready to go. I will keep watch over you.”

  “What about the guards?”

  “Dante and Nate are keeping a look out for me.” “How long will I be gone?” he said, as I looked at him carefully, quietly handing him the syringe, “Not long, about an hour,” I said out loud, but in my mind and in my heart, I said, “Forever, my friend, forever.”

  “What the fuck happened to Tim?” D’Andre asked me, the next morning after count. “Is he going to be alright? Damn. This couldn’t have happened at a more inconvenient time. Fuck!” I looked at him and smiled, knowing what he was fretting about, “D’Andre, my man, calm down, don’t worry,” I said amused, “I’ve got Officer Johnston under lock and key and business is still proceeding as usual. Nothing has changed. I never intended for Tim to control that doorway so completely anyway. All along I have been cultivating my own relationship with her and now, well let’s just say she belongs to me. Don’t worry, nothing will change.” He looked at me carefully and then let out a sigh of relief. “That’s good to hear, you sly dog,” he laughed, “I always wondered why you made such a point of never being seen with her and now I understand. Good job. Anyway, do you know what happened to Tim? It’s some strange shit; they say he’s a vegetable now. I had just spoken to him a few hours before the incident. How could this happen? He was as healthy as you.”

  “Well obviously not quite as healthy as me, because I am still here, and he is not, but I see what you mean. I spoke to Officer Johnston about it and she said that it seems that he had a complete psychotic break, and is now catatonic.” “Okay why don’t you pretend that you are talking to someone educated in the penal system? What does that mean in simple English?”

  “It means that Tim’s mind has gone somewhere and is never coming back.”

  “But how? I mean how does one’s mind just go away and never come back?”

  “It doesn’t usually, unless there are some extraordinary circumstances.”

  “Oh yeah, like what?” “Well, I gave him some DMT to inject and while his soul was voyaging in the spiritual realms, I ripped out the magical power in him which he had inherited from his non-human father, that I had been cultivating for the last year and ate it to add my own power which also comes from the same source as his did, because I am not actually human either. Does that answer your question?” I smiled my sweetest smile and looked at him while he just stared at me with his mouth wide open and after a breathless moment, he burst out laughing. “Alade, you are hysterical! So you are not human? No wonder you’re so weird, though do you know you sound like a crazy man? Anyway, I hope Tim is enjoying his journey; at least he is out of here. You have Officer Johnston locked down? Good, because I have lots of work for her to do, and since you will be getting sentenced soon we don’t have time to waste.”

  After almost two years of commuting back and forth between the CDF and the federal courthouse, I was finally sentenced to four years in prison, having been convicted on the pettiest of the original charges against me. They had long ago dropped the conspiracy charges but by convicting me of the smaller charges they not only guaranteed my incarceration, but my acceptance of the draconian post release supervision rules. My enemies had succeeding in what they wanted which was to destroy me and my credibility and to keep me out of the picture long enough to consolidate their power. I looked out at the gallery in the courtroom hoping to find a comforting face, hoping against hope to see my father again but I knew that hope was futile, for he also knew his duty and would not shirk it even for me. As I searched the many faces suddenly I felt a chill run up my spine and when I looked at the final portion the gallery I understood why. Sitting at the back, immaculately dressed in all grey, mimicking my role as the Grey Man, was Brian Batard, my apprentice, my betrayer, the one responsible for my fall, and despite what the Gods said about destiny, in my eyes it was him and him only who did this to me. He did not smile and he did not smirk, he simply watched me, as if his presence there was to make sure the final nail in my coffin had been hammered in. As the verdict was read he stood up, adjusted his clothes and began to walk out, and in that moment of confident dismissal, I called my power to me and I chose to strike at his treacherous self. My hours of meditation, and my theft of Tim’s ase had left me stronger than ever, and I was filled with a dark power that was nascent and hungry to be exercised, for with each use it grew stronger and with each use I grew more corrupted, so completing a cycle that would one day culminate in my rebirth as the Destroyer that my Goddess was counting on. With great malice, I constructed a sharp spike of power and as Brian walked away from me and the life he had destroyed, I lashed out with every bit of hatred from the depth of my being and delivered it hot and screaming deep into his cerebral cortex while feeding it a portion of my madness and my despair. The court erupted in panic as he fell to the ground and began twitching and convulsing, but unfortunately for him death was not the punishment that I intended for him, so with a quick pulse of energy I sealed the hole I had made to enter him and withdrew all my power except the seed I had deposited there. My dark see, would grow in time, and no matter how far the distance between us I would be able to find him and torment him. When the time was right I would come for him and in my vengeance, I would tear his soul from him and devour it before his dying eyes. I would savor the nascent possibility of retribution and let it suckle me in my new circumstances. But now I was a convicted felon and soon I would be transferred somewhere else to a federal prison and I needed to prepare for this reality and for the gatekeepers whose blessing I would need. I knew that through D’Andre I had a proverbial letter of introduction and this gave me confidence, so when I finally returned to my cell, tired after my long day, I quietly sat down and meditated on what was to come. My journey was just beginning, and f
or the first time since my fall I now had the strength to go on.

  Brian Batard was the most treacherous of individuals and he was well aware of it. His problem did not stem from any sense of guilt for his actions, but instead from a complete lack of satisfaction or fulfillment from his despicable actions. He had become powerful upon the backs of men and women who had trusted him and whom he had betrayed and he had become wealthy beyond his dreams by bartering on the access given him by the many mentors he had stabbed in the back. And through it all he had not lost one night’s sleep for it was in his nature to be poisonous and he accepted this. If others could not see it then that was their problem, just as the scorpion had told the turtle in that fable, it was just his nature. At least that was how it was with everyone except Alade. Alade was aware of his treacherous nature and in fact had cultivated it for his own uses. He had treated him as a friend despite his nature and had always treated him as an equal. Yet there was something not quite right about Alade something hidden and something fake which Brian knew was the key to why Alade always got what he wanted and even though Brian was his heir apparent, Brian seethed and bubbled inside because he knew that no matter how much he learned or no matter how much he took even from Alade he could never possess that otherworldliness which was inseparable from his ever fiber. Alade Akeju was power. He breathed it out, shat it out, ejaculated it, and spoke it with every gesture and movement of his beautiful body, and yes that unearthly beauty was also a torment to Brian who could not help but wonder about his own desires. It was for this reason that he had gone to the courthouse, and it was with this mystery in mind that he had gone there in the guise of the Grey Man in order to provoke him and to try to understand what had happened. Yes he had wanted to take the business, but that was secondary to his true desires, because Alade was right, Brian did want to be him, to possess him, and on some levels despite being heterosexual, he wanted to caress him as only a lover could. Brian continued to contemplate this as he stood up to leave but he had not walked two steps when he heard an angry buzzing in his ears, and felt a pressure behind his eyes, and one second later he was lying on the ground convulsing. As his body spasmed, Brian felt a presence in his mind and tried to open his eyes but found that he could not and even as the medics revived him all he could hear was the sound of familiar laughter in his head and the words, “This is just the beginning.” There were mysteries in this world that were best left alone and Brian had only regretfully now learned his mistake.