Blue K Dynasty: The 1st Seven Weeks

by M. O. McLeod

  “Son, you don’t want to miss meeting a Raptor,” said Paxton.

  “You don’t even know what they are or even look like.”

  Paxton said, “That’s the point. I have been hearing VIN talking about them since yesterday. They can fly, they have wings; everything is completely different from us.”

  “Do we eat them?” Ross asked his dad.

  “Supposedly, but no one has ever gotten close enough to do it.”

  “Then maybe today is the day,” said Ross.

  “Exactly the point I was trying to make.”

  The white-washed building stood out against the dark sea and the setting sun. The aquarium was open and empty as the group walked past the ticket booth deeper into the building.

  “Did the redhead say where in the building they would be?” Santino asked Kosner.

  Kosner scratched his head and looked around the empty halls of the aquarium. “All she said was pier 39 at dusk.”

  “Perfect,” Santino muttered. “We could be sitting ducks for all we know.”

  “I don’t think she wants to kill you,” VIN pointed out. “We have her brother.”

  “You say it as if I am up for ransom,” Allie retorted.

  VIN threw his hands up and tried to look innocent. “You might just come in luck one of these days, Allie!”

  Santino walked to the nearest map of the building. He saw that they were on level one with the dolphins, giant stingrays, and seal exhibit. The second floor had the visitor section, school of jellyfish, and the squid and starfish display. He looked to the last and final level and saw that there was a huge blue star placed in the fish tank section of the building. “BINGO.”

  “We have a go?” Paxton asked.

  “She is on the third floor,” said Santino. “Paxton, VIN, and Ross take the backstairs up just in case we walk into an ambush. Allie and Kosner are with me.” Santino led the way up to the third floor. The rooms were dark and eerie with huge glass fish tanks roped off to the public.

  “Look,” said Kosner as he pointed to the back of the room. “The big one in the back takes up the entire stretch of the room. I see something behind it.”

  Santino looked to the back and walked pass the fish tanks. Most of them needed their filters changed; the waters were turning a muddy jade color. He stepped near the last tank and looked inside. There were all sorts of things swimming around, alligator gars, high fin sharks, gray bichirs, and electric eels. There were only a few small fish left in the tank but Santino only assumed that the bigger fish had eaten the little ones when no other food was provided over the weeks. He tapped loudly on the glass with his sharp nails.

  “I wouldn’t want to scare the fish if I were you,” Kurma said. She was on the other side looking at Santino, her brother Allie, and the one they called Kosner. She only had eyes for Allie though. Kurma hadn’t seen him in so long, only he didn’t look the same.

  “Very clever, Kurma,” Santino raised his voice. He peered into the waters of the tank and could make out her face and body just fine now that he knew what to look for. “How did you get on that side of the tank?”

  “I have my ways,” Kurma answered back. She moved down the tank and spoke to her baby brother. “Allie, is that you?”

  He heard her voice and knew it was her. Allie squinted his eyes and looked for his sister. Then he saw her, still beautiful as usual. Kurma’s hair was still long and brown and cascaded over her shoulder. Santino had said that she was a Raptor but she looked like her normal self to him. She still had the same almond shaped eyes and thick eyebrows. Her lips were still the shade of orange that he remembered. He was looking at his sister. “Kurma, I’m here.” Allie placed his hand to the glass and a fish immediately pecked at it.

  Kurma Raptored her eyes and saw her brother even more clearly. He was a Phantom for sure. Unlike her, he couldn’t change back to his human self whenever he wanted. His soft curly hair had fallen out and his face seemed to be pulled back tight. The veins in his face made him look dark and scary. His eyes were rimmed with dark red and he loomed over her, he had grown even taller. However, she still could see little pieces of her little brother. He still had most of the same facial attributions as his older twin brother, Inis. Kurma remembered that and saw Inis in Allie. She almost cried and held her hand up to the glass wishing that she could connect with her brothers one last time.

  Santino cleared his throat. “Not to interrupt this family reunion but I heard you had something for me.”

  “Not for you, Santino,” Kurma curtly said. “I have something to say more so.” She took her hand off the glass and walked back to where Santino was standing. “You made your father into a Phantom.”

  “That’s none of your business, but yes, I did,” explained Santino. “It is better for him this way; he won’t be killed by one of us if he is already us.”

  “By us, you mean Phantoms?”

  “There is nothing but Phantoms now and Raptors, but it seems like you really don’t have any numbers on your side at the moment. I believe twenty million humans have been wiped out already. You only have four other Raptors. It looks like I am the one running the city.”

  Kurma wasn’t going to start with him. She knew that she had delivered a massive blow in getting the Phantom gangs off the streets. It seemed to her that he had no idea what she had been doing in the last couple of weeks. “Have you spoken to your father recently?”

  “Kurma, I don’t have to answer to you. What my father and I have is not your concern. Whether he is a Phantom or not, I have everything under control.”

  A door was heard opening and closing off to the side. Kurma could see that more Phantoms were coming but she was safe where she was. The wall fish tank had its own feeding room and she and her Raptors had the whole place to themselves since nobody worked the aquarium anymore. Kurma saw three Phantoms joining Santino. He did have more numbers than Kurma did; she was slightly annoyed by this.

  Ross and the two other guys jogged up to Kosner. “What’s going on Kos?”

  Kosner lowered his voice and replied, “Meet the infamous Kurma.”

  All Ross saw at first was a large fish tank that took up an entire wall. Then, as the fish swam left and right clearing his line of view he saw her. The girl looked exactly like the girl from the news. Ross turned to Kosner again and asked, “Her name isn’t Karmenia?”

  Kosner pointed out Kurma. “That is Kurma, Santino’s old girlfriend.”

  Ross slowly backed away and took his father by the arm. “We have a problem dad.”

  Paxton scrunched his eyebrows up at his son. “A problem? What do you mean?”

  “Remember the girl I had told you about? The one that I had seen on the news…”

  Paxton recalled his son talking about how he picked up a channel over the telecommunications about some new chief of command. “You were talking about some lady who was supposed to be cleaning up the streets.”

  “Well that’s the girl that I saw with the mayor.”

  Paxton hadn’t heard him right. “You said the girl was getting the Phantoms off the streets. That she was like an enforcer and an exterminator all in one.”

  Ross nodded his head at his dad, now he was getting the idea of it.

  “What the hell are we doing in here then?” Paxton raised his voice. 

  Chapter 25:

  It Was Only But a Dream

  “Let me just get straight to the point,” said Kurma.

  “You don’t want to stay a little longer and see my face. I know you miss me Kurma,” Santino said.

  “Don’t flatter yourself Santino,” Kurma said with disgust in her voice. “Me and you will never happen…”

  “Again,” Santino corrected Kurma.

  “Do you know that they are hunting Phantoms down?” Kurma asked, trying to switch subjects.

  “Yes, but they don’t have enough man power to stop us. It’s over, the city will fall and I will be the one picking up the pieces.”

  “You don’
t control any major territory; you have no man power besides the little cronies that I see with you today?”

  “Oh, I have plenty of territory. I see that you have been doing my dirty work for me, getting rid of all the little pesky gangs that have been popping up all over my city.”

  So maybe he did know about her movements. Was he playing dumb to protect his dad too?

  “Your city?” Kurma couldn’t believe how cocky he was. Just like the first day that she had met him. She hated that side of Santino.

  “Now, I can swoop in and take all the blocks, streets, avenues, and boulevards, or anything else I want. So thank you Kurma,” Santino grinned his deadly smile at Kurma through the glass. “Thank you, so much.”

  “If you didn’t have my brother on that side of the glass then I would kill you, right here, right now.”

  “But I do have him on this side. He is a Phantom like me, you kill me then you kill him,” explained Santino. “Do you really want that on your hands?”

  Santino thought he was so smart. Yeah, she couldn’t kill him, yet, but she could get to his dad. His dad was somewhere in the city going crazy and was making a name for himself. Clearly, a name that Santino had no clue about; otherwise, Santino would have thrown that in Kurma’s face as well. On the other hand, Kurma wanted Santino to protect Allie, and while he was doing that he would have a blind eye to his father’s whereabouts. Kurma knew that Santino’s reach would not be able to hold his own father, a man that did what he wanted and went as he pleased. So go ahead and watch out for my little brother while I go handle your dad, Kurma thought.

  “Good-bye Santino. You seem to have everything under control as you said,” said Kurma as she backed away from the glass.

  “Kurma!” Allie yelled through the glass. “Tell Mami that I’m okay. And just know that I love you.”

  “I love you more little brother.” Kurma turned to leave the room and sniffed her tears away. She hadn’t talked to her mom in weeks and didn’t know if she would ever see her family again.

  “Your brother is sexy, even as a Phantom,” Jackie said out loud.

  “Not a good time Jackie!” Kurma yelled as the girls exited the room.

  ***

  “She is just as pretty as I remember,” Santino finally spoke up as the group drove back to the Upper East Side.

  “Who, Kurma?” asked VIN.

  Santino nodded his head. “Yep, it’s just too bad that she is our enemy.”

  “Two new species, only one can come out on top,” VIN replied.

  “It’s going to be us. We can’t trust anything that she says or does,” Santino knew that Kurma had changed and not for the better. “It’s Raptors against Phantoms and the city is ripe for the picking.”

  “So you were hitting that, huh, Santino?” VIN asked as he nudged his friend on the shoulder. “That’s my man.”

  “No love lost really,” Santino played it off. He couldn’t have feelings for Kurma; she didn’t feel anything for him or that’s how it seemed. “Ross,” he yelled to the front. “When we get back to the storefront I want you tracking her every movement.”

  Ross turned around in his seat. “No problem Tino, but I don’t need to track her because I already know what she is up to.”

  Santino asked, “What do you mean?”

  Ross responded, “Kurma is going after the next big Phantom gang.”

  “Duh, Ross, I know that, I’m talking about if she comes near us, if she is plotting on us,” Santino clarified.

  “I don’t know about plotting on us,” said Ross. “But, I do know that your dad has been making a lot of waves in the city and that she is going to go after him and his gang.”

  Santino whipped his neck back as he heard the news. “My dad has a gang?”

  “Not just any gang either,” Paxton said as he drove through the night. “They are called the Phantom Plague.”

  Santino had heard it all. “Why didn’t anyone bother to fill me in on this sooner?” he yelled.

  So that’s what his father was doing when he left, building a gang. Darius just couldn’t let Santino have a little name for himself. He had to come in and show Santino up, just like he always did. All the records that he had broken in high school, all the medals he had earned were nothing compared to Darius who had always bragged that he had accomplished it all first.

  “Ross, find out everything you know about this gang and get to tracking Kurma. I don’t want her getting to my dad before me,” Santino instructed.

  “You sure that he is the head of that gang?” Kosner questioned. He felt kind of responsible since he had ok’d the idea of turning Santino’s dad into a Phantom.

  “Mmm-hhmmm, the media up north is having a field day about this Darius guy. Put two and two together and you have your answer,” Ross said. “Kurma has been getting rid of the gangs all over the city and now she shows up asking about Santino’s dad, who is making moves with his following. Not that hard to figure out.”

  “We have to get to him before she does,” said Santino. “No telling what Kurma and her Raptors are doing.”

  Santino didn’t dream much but that night his dreams turned into nightmares. He had to admit it; he was tired and stressed out, Kurma brought out the worse in him. Then to top it off, his father was openly going against him in making his own Phantom gang. His dreams reflected his anxiety and he slept horrible.

  ***

  Santino loved his new house, everything was shiny and new and all his. He had spent hours going over every little detail in the move. Making sure that chair went there and that window opened up to that room. It was refreshing to just sit back and take a breather in his own place. He inhaled deep and almost gagged.

  What was that smell? He took another breath and his nose picked up the burnt aroma once again. His heart raced as he looked around and saw a small fire outside by his pool. He raced to the water and tried to put the flame out but when he looked into the pool, it was empty. The fire raced and the next thing he knew the flames had reached inside his living room. He ran back to the glass doors but they were locked. He had just come outside, how did the doors lock that quickly? Santino pulled on the glass doors and watched as the angry red flames licked at his brand new furniture, burning down his draperies, crackling and popping as the heat mounted. Santino could not watch his house burn down without trying to fight the fire himself. With all his might, he flung the doors open and stepped into the burning house. The doors closed behind him immediately. What was he thinking? The house was already up in flame; the last thing he could do was try to save as many items of his as he could.

  Santino grabbed for his prized possessions as bits and pieces of burning house came down on him. A giggling voice sounded off around him. Was he going crazy? Who was laughing at him at a time like this? The more Santino grabbed the more the house came down and the louder the laughing became. It sounded like Kurma’s laugh, a sweet empty laugh, a laugh that could mean a thousand things. The fire continued on and Santino didn’t think he was going to make it out. The frame of the house wasn’t holding and the fire leapt closer and closer to him. He had to drop all of his belongings; they weren’t going to get him out of the house. Santino would have a better chance with less weight. The flames were making him see things; he was falling over his own feet, seeing shadows in the fire, shadows that reminded him of Kurma. She was trying to kill him; she must have started the fire. Did she not know that this was his dream home? He had built this himself. But then again, she probably did know and started the fire anyway.

  Santino’s mind raced as he tried to leave, waves of flames blocking every which way. He had to escape, if only he could just get through the flames unscathed, then he would be free. Santino felt different, he could feel his body becoming lighter and thinner. He held his arm up to his face and saw that his fingers and hands were beginning to slowly vanish right before his eyes. Santino still felt the flames of the room and still felt his hands and arms, but the feelings were somehow different…
not normal. If his hand could vanish then so could the rest of his body and then he would be free of the sweltering house. Santino concentrated on his thick frame and watched in the glass windows as his body dissolved into thin air, only flames of fire and ash were left in the house. Santino walked through the walls that were on fire, walked through the scorching rubble that was on the ground and came from the house.  Kurma was there waiting for him and laughing at him. He could see her just fine but still could not see his own body. The house finally buckled under the inferno and collapsed into a pile of coal, smoking and black. Kurma stopped her giggling and stormed up to where he stood still invisible and plunged her hands into his chest cavity.

  “I see you, Santino. I see right through you!” Santino heard Kurma scream loud and clear.

  Santino woke with a start, covered in sweat and shivering. He hadn’t felt the cold of the winter all season but on that night there was a bone shivering chill in the air. His arm burned, not a heat burn, but the kind of burn from being in the cold for too long. He pulled his hand to his chest and tried to rub some heat into it, but he didn’t see an arm. What Santino saw made his eyes wide with fright. His right arm and hand were gone, yet, he could feel how heavy it was, and he knew it was still there, just invisible to the naked eye. Maybe his eyes were playing a trick on him or maybe the dream had a meaning to it after all. Maybe he could become transparent and vanish into thin air. 

  Santino sat up in his king size bed and concentrated on his body. Sure enough, certain parts of his chest and legs began to slowly fade away, giving him glimpses of the bed sheets and covers that were underneath him. Santino rushed to the mirror in his room and focused on his face. His face had broken many hearts during high school. Before becoming a Phantom he was a great looking guy. His smooth face, dimples, hazel eyes, and his winning smile were always getting him in trouble with the ladies before Phantasm. But that was no longer his face. Now, as he looked in the mirror all he saw was a mask, a really tight mask that did nothing for his looks. Becoming invisible was probably a good thing. Santino concentrated once more on his image. The same way he had thought about disappearing in his dream was the same way that he wanted his body to evaporate in the real world. And it worked, Santino could catch little glimmers of his bodies outline, but still, the more he concentrated the more of his room he could see and the less of him he could make out.