“Aliyah, I’m stuck in a hospital bed, attached to all these things connected to my body that won’t allow me to get up and walk out the door with you. If they learn that I’m still alive … I have no way of protecting myself, here,” he mumbled.
“What? I’m sorry, I didn’t hear that. What did you just say?” she turned, raising her brow, and trying to contain a smile.
“You heard me,” he grinned.
“Did the Light knight who says his duty is to protect me just ask me to protect him?”
“Your kisses are very nice, and I’m just human, after all,” he grinned.
“I can’t believe you would put me in this position. Protect you or save the world.”
“Welcome to my life,” he murmured. “You’ve done nothing but put me in that position since you were just a small child. I always chose you, Aliyah,” he looked at her intently. “Always, even if you don’t believe that.”
She returned beside him and took hold of his hand, “Tell me more.”
“I argued with the elders on hundreds of occasions when you were just a child, escaping a life we couldn’t understand, and convinced them that you meant no harm coming to Otherland.”
“And?”
“And then I travelled thousands of miles in the inbetween to find the perfect spot for you to go to, for us to meet, so that you wouldn’t go to Otherland anymore and risk imprisonment. Did you honestly believe that I had nothing else to do with my time but to be there all the random times you just showed up?”
“You were alerted all the times I came. I called for you.”
“I was already there, waiting for you.”
“More.”
“I begged you, pleaded with you, urged you to not reveal your name, for good reason, and you did it anyway, ruining everything I’d been protecting, and then you went a step further and jumped into the Nothingness. I spent many, many human years searching for you. I attended every single Ceremony trial there was just to ensure your name didn’t come up, and if it did, I’d be one of the first to know, and be the first one to volunteer to be a part of the team that hunted you, all for the purpose of ensuring they wouldn’t capture you.
“I pleaded with the High master on a multitude of occasions to show mercy, and he did, including the time I brought you to the Ceremony trial where it was agreed that if you stopped going there, you could live freely, without being hunted. Finally, I erased all your memories to free you from your pain, from what kept bringing you back there, and … from remembering me. It was the most difficult decision in my life I’ve ever had to make. I didn’t want to lose you. I didn’t want you to forget me, but I thought, at that time, that it was the only thing that would keep you safe.”
Aliyah had her head bowed. She stroked his hand with her thumb, and here and there a tear fell.
“It didn’t take away my memories, though,” he continued, “So I returned to our more-and-more disintegrating spot as frequently as I could, with a futile hope that a part of you would remember and I’d see you again. 14 months in human time, eternity in Otherland, I waited. When I heard the rumors floating around that you, that Aliyah, had returned, I was the first spectator to arrive at the Ceremony trial, and when I learned that you were about to be hunted again, your capture an imminent priority, I volunteered. My orders, my duty, Aliyah, was to return you to Otherland in physical restraints that you would not be able to escape, a unanimous decision of the elders.”
“You went against him . . . for me?” she questioned vulnerably.
“I went against them. Remember, Aliyah, as all-knowing and all-powerful that he is, he has one limitation. If he made all the decisions, all the rulings, then there would be no free will. The elders, of their own free will, three light, three dark, make the decisions. And every spectator, human or not, has a say that must be weighed carefully and unanimously agreed or disagreed upon by both the Light and the Dark. That the Dark have now made the decision to rise up against the light and destroy the peace we’ve maintained for, well, for eternity, again, is of their own free will. He cannot force people to make different choices. He can only guide. Yet he is the center piece that everyone blames when things go wrong or things aren’t the way that they want or things go differently than what they expected. What kind of world would we have if people were just born a certain way, made to be a certain way, without choice? Would anyone ever strive for something more if they knew that their life was not of their own design, rather they were mere puppets to another’s design?”
“That would be quite terrible. A world of robots. Programmed. Controlled. I wouldn’t want to live. There’d be nothing to fight for,” Lydia conceded.
“Exactly. The reason for why I urged you so strongly to not reveal your name is because of the Prophecy. The Prophecy that says - .”
She stood abruptly, the moment lost. “Nope, I’m not hearing it. I’m not hearing you. Don’t doubt for one second that I won’t leave if you try to speak any more about that stuff. Talk about ruining the moment. Couldn’t you just let me have that goodness, that belief, that faith for a little while before you threw it in my face that the only reason why you said any and every thing of what you said was because you were trying to get me to calm down enough for you to tell me what you’re duty-bound to say?”
“My God, Aliyah, you drive me crazy,” he shouted in an unusual behavior for him. A Light knight angry – that’s not something you see every day.
“Awww, did you just take the Lord’s name in vain?” she sang.
“There’s no talking to you. There’s just … no talking to you,” he said in obvious frustration. “I fell in love with the most stubborn, the most resistant, the most difficult woman alive. Why, God, why me? Oh …Wow. That … hurts.”
“Ha ha ha,” Lydia laughed unsympathetically. “Looks like the pain meds are wearing off. Now you’re definitely not sleeping any time soon. Now that I know you’re not going to die, I gotta go.” She briskly kissed him on the lips.
“Aliyah, aren’t you forgetting about something?”
“No, I don’t think so.”
“Your son?!”
“Your arms aren’t broken. You can handle a bottle just fine.”
“Aliyah!”
“You’re not helpless, Jacob, you can handle yourself. Besides, he’s not after you. He’s after me.”
“Can I just get one more kiss, one lasting longer than an eighth of a second?”
She shook her head, “For a Light knight, Jacob, you’re insatiable. You should learn how to appreciate what you’ve been given. See ya.”
CHAPTER 32
Lydia hadn’t even made her way out of the hospital before her cell-phone was ringing.
“Oh my God, he has one near-death experience and now he’s acting like we’re married. What?!” she answered the phone.
“Can you at least tell me where you’re going?”
“No, you’re not following me. Goodbye,” she hung up the phone.
“What?” she answered when it rang again.
“How long is it going to take?”
“I don’t know. I haven’t seen this person since I was like a pre-teen. If he’s three blocks away, it won’t take me long. If he decided to move to Alaska, then yeah, it’s going to be a while.”
“Will you call me? Check in? Let me know you’re safe?”
“I’m sure you’ll be exploding my phone if I don’t. Now leave me alone and let me take care of my business.”
Not three seconds later was it ringing again.
“WHAT?!” she exploded.
“I love you.”
“Jacob, I know you’re not accustomed to the medications of this world, but these are all the side effects. Now stop it.”
“No seriously, I love you. Can’t you say it back?”
“No.”
“But what if I die when you’re gone?”
“Don’t even go there. You have a child to take care of. I’m trusting you. You can’t die.”
“Jacob, I am not listening to this right now. You’re a big boy. Handle it.”
“I love you.”
“Ahhh!” she hung up the phone again. Yet in all her frustration, she couldn’t stop smiling.
Her first stop was the closest public library where she searched up his name, Colton Fedmin. A variety of emotions stalked her just thinking of that name.
He’d been her friend, only her friend, her only friend. The fear had never left her when she’d had to walk to and from school. The fear of being kidnapped, even though it had already happened. When the bell rang and all the other kids were running out the door, she was the one that remained, trembling, shaking in fear, terrified of being kidnapped. Worse was that she was a walker.
It was Colton that saw this. Colton that befriended her. Colton that went out of his way to walk with her home, and Colton that was always there bright and early every school morning to walk her to school. She’d been able to feel safe, which meant, she’d been able to focus on her studies instead of spending the entire school day being terrified of its end.
Only then was she able to enjoy certain parts of life. She came to look forward to waking up every day just to have that walk with Colton to school. Then she began enjoying school itself. Then life stopped feeling so bad, because she’d learned how to block out everything between 3:30 in the afternoon and 8:00 in the morning, so life was always great.
She’d begun talking more, making more friends, taking more initiative, joining programs at school, and her life seemed almost normal. She was able to smile and feel pleasant things in her heart. And Colton had always been able to make her laugh, even on her worst of days after waking from her night terrors.
Then one horrible day, Dwayne was standing at the door when Colton was about to turn around and go to his home.
“Who’s your friend, Aliyah?” he’d acted like he cared.
“No one, just someone from school. He lives down the road, so he’s been walking with me to make sure I don’t get kidnapped by bad people.” She’d said this innocently, but his eyes had darkened, his lips had pursed in just that way that said he didn’t like what she’d said, so she hurriedly scrambled through her mind to try to figure out what she’d said that was wrong.
“Well any friend of yours is a friend of mine. Why don’t you invite him inside?”
“No, that’s okay. He has to go home so his parents won’t worry,” she’d said quickly.
“It’s okay, Aliyah, I can come inside for a bit. My parents won’t mind,” Colton had responded, filling her with dread.
“You see, his parents won’t mind,” Dwayne said. “We can even call them and tell them he’s here so they won’t have to worry.”
She made the excuse, “I have a lot of homework I need to do.”
“We can do it together,” Colton said. “That’s if your Dad doesn’t mind.”
“No, I don’t mind. I don’t mind at all. Come on in. I’ve got fresh lemonade and chocolate chip cookies that I just picked up at the store. Aliyah and I can’t possibly eat them all ourselves.”
Colton Fedmin. The address showed up at his parents’ house in Ohio. Shakily, she dialed the number. “Fedmin Residence.”
“Hi, Mrs. Fedmin. I’m trying to locate Colton.”
“May I ask who’s calling?” Her voice had changed to suspicion.
“Aliyah.”
There was movement, heavy breathing, and then a badly muffled earpiece, “Colton, honey, there’s an Aliyah on the phone wanting to speak to you. Would you like to speak to her or do you want me to tell her that you’re not here?” She spoke to him as though he just a child.
Lydia had to pull the phone away from her ear while it loudly exchanged hands.
“Aliyah?” he said, like he’d never expected to hear from her ever again.
“Colton. You remember me,” she said, both edgily and fondly.
“Of course.”
“I can’t say much over the phone. Can I come visit you?”
“Su-sure. When?”
“I’m in New York City. I can leave now and be there –“
“In 6 hours and 28 minutes.”
“It won’t be too late for you, will it?”
“Not at all. I’m glad you called. I’ve never forgotten about you, Aliyah.”
“Nor I you, Colton. I’ll see you soon.”
She wasn’t even able to fully dial Jacob’s number before he was calling her. “You rang?” he said pleasantly.
“You called me.”
“I knew you were trying to reach me. Jacob’s fine. He woke up. I gave him a bottle and a small taste of this green hospital jello, which he loved.”
“He’s not supposed to eat that,” she yelled.
“He’s not supposed to eat that, you hear that, Jasper? Only a couple days ago you were 12 years old, and she’s yelling at me for giving you a taste of green jello. Tell her, tell her how much you loved that green jello? How it lit up your eyes and made you smile.”
“If it made him smile, that means it gave him gas, you idiot. Did you - .”
“Yes, I changed him, or rather, I had this lovely, very compassionate and nurturing nurse with a great –.”
“Jacob. As great as it is to finally have you get off your Light knight high-horse you’ve been on for all the time I’ve known you, I don’t have time for these games. While you’re being pampered and living it up in the hospital, I’m finding a solution for our problems.”
“You think it’s easy taking care of a newborn baby? Like I’ve just been sitting here doing nothing? You’re off trying to save the world while I’m taking care of a kid that poops every five minutes.”
“You shouldn’t have fed him the Jello.”
“It’s not that. I think he might be lactose intolerant, so I had the hospital staff change his formula.”
“Well it’s not my fault I can’t breastfeed him 27 years after he was originally born,” she exclaimed.
“Are you going to see your parents? Your birth parents? Is that what this is about? It definitely explains your crankiness.”
“No, I’m not going to see my – They’re probably dead, or have dementia, or don’t even remember me. I didn’t exactly age the same way normal people age. How would I even explain? No, I’m not seeing them. I don’t even remember them. I’m going to Ohio to see an old friend. He has something that he’s been safe-keeping since my body was ten years old.”
“You’re not cheating on me, are you? I mean, think of your son.”
“Are you freaking serious right now?” she yelled.
“No, actually, I was joking.”
“Jacob, you haven’t had a sense of humor in all the time I’ve ever known you. You’ve always been so rigid with your duties. I don’t know how to deal with this.”
“Maybe it’s just me, the real me, the human me that I’ve never had a chance to be. I tell you what, it feels pretty good.”
“It’s . The. Morphine,” she emphasized. “Get it through your thick skull. I checked in with you. Told you what was going on. Now I’m saying goodbye. Goodbye.”
With all the driving she’d been doing lately, she was going to have to rob a bank or something to keep up with gas money. Her disability check had come in just today, and already, it was almost gone. The world, both worlds, were crumbling to the Darkness, yet she still had to worry about financing the gas in her car in order to defeat it.
“So how long have you been Aliyah’s friend?” Dwayne had asked while Colton ate chocolate chip cookies and Aliyah sat there, head bowed, with no appetite.
“Since the beginning of the school year. We just moved in, so this is my first year at this school, and I noticed how scared Aliyah was to walk home alone, so I been walking with her since, and we became friends. These cookies are really great, Mr. Demonica.”
“It’s too bad Aliyah is refusing to enjoy them with yo
u, Colton. Perhaps she’s been spoiled too much.”
“We got a big test tomorrow. She’s probably worried about that. She’s the smartest person I’ve ever met.”
“She is very smart, isn’t she? I’m so proud of my Aliyah.” He came behind her and began playing with her hair. “Did she happen to tell you why she was so afraid, Colton?”
“She just said that she sees on the TV and hears on the scanner all the time about little girls being kidnapped, and she doesn’t want it to happen to her. I don’t blame her. I’m lucky I’m a boy. It’s always the girls that get kidnapped.”
“Has she ever spoken of me, Colton?”
“Yeah, she says that you’re her Dad and that you raise her by yourself and that she doesn’t have a Mom.”
“Did she ever tell you what happened to her Mom?”
“Yeah, she said her Mom died in a car accident a long time ago, and that she doesn’t remember her. It’s pretty sad.”
“It is sad. You’re a good friend, Colton.”
“Thank you.”
Dwayne had taken hold of her hair, and yanked, causing an involuntary cry to escape her, finally alerting Colton’s fear.
“Who sent you?”
“Whu - what?”
“What is your interest in my daughter?”
“I- I lost all my friends whu-when I had to move. She – she’s the only person that accepted me and-and wanted to be my friend.”
“Do you like her, Colton?”
“Yeah, I just said. She’s my friend.”
“Do you want to protect her from being afraid and from being hurt? Will you do anything to protect her?”
“Daddy, Colton needs to leave. He needs to study for the test tomorrow,” child Aliyah said.
“No, I’m not leaving, Aliyah,” Colton said.
“You’re a very intuitive boy, Colton, aren’t you?”
“I know there’s something going on that’s making Aliyah afraid, and I’m her friend, and I don’t want her to be afraid.”
“What, do you suppose, she’s afraid of, at the moment, Colton?”
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