by Navi' Robins
Yes, I admit that I traded in my father for Jason, that I turned my back on his memory for my enemy. I admit and accept that I allowed my enemy to share a bed with my mother and I let my guard down when I should have been more vigilant. I am just as guilty as Jason in this betrayal and I am just as responsible. I had a father and his memory deserves more than what I gave him. And today as I kneel in pain at the acceptance of my failure as a son and brother, I admit that I still love Jason and I am sorry I had to kill him.
CHAPTER NINETEEN
Suddenly I felt a cool breeze across my face and when I looked up and opened my eyes I found myself kneeling on the beach behind my grandparents’ home. I could see the house from where I was and all of the lights were out besides the glow of multiple vehicle headlights shining from the driveway. I knew the Shadows were already there and waiting for me to arrive.
Let’s not keep them waiting.
With everything I’d learned about Shadows from Jaffrey, I was almost certain that they already knew I was there. Over the centuries they’ve become masters at hunting the Baraqu and I was no exception. Yeah, they knew I was near so trying to sneak in would be a waste of time. I thought about it for a half minute and decided to just walk up to the front door and meet them head on.
I prayed that because it’s been so long since they’ve hunted a fully functional Baraqu, they may have forgotten how and left their pet witches at home. Because if they haven’t, this could get very interesting. As serious and dangerous as this night was, I was uncommonly calm and relaxed as I hurried up the beach towards the house. I felt focused and confident in my ability to fight my adversaries, and then it dawned on me.
What if I hadn’t admitted my guilt and feelings about Jason? The doubt and self- deception would have caused a chain reaction through my body and my mind would not be as clear nor would I be as focused. As annoying as Jaffrey was, I had to admit that his training was spot-on when it came to preparing someone for battle as a Baraqu. To go up against a foe as powerful and skilled as a Shadow, there can be no room for doubt. Was I one-hundred-percent sure any of us would survive tonight? Hell no! But I was one-hundred-percent sure I would give my all and I had the skill and power to up our chances of survival.
They had the upper hand of being here first. But I had the advantage of purpose. A purpose that I believed was greater than my life. That purpose was family and the love I had for them. Most of all I had the purpose of protecting Sarah, my reason for taking this path down a road unknown. Tonight was my coming-out party to the Order of Shadows and I aimed to misbehave. After tonight I would make sure that even the thought of touching my family would bring a waking nightmare to all my enemies. They took my father from me, they made us fall in love with a man who planned to mutilate us in our own home, and now they have invaded my grandparents’ home, holding my family hostage to lure me out. They may have thought that this was the best course of action. I was going to show them they miscalculated on all fronts. I would not show mercy nor would I give quarter to those that would harm the people I love. Tonight I would become a terrorist of terrorists.
I finally arrived at the front driveway and there were at least twenty armed men in full tactical gear standing out front with their guns aimed at me. One of them stepped forward and began speaking.
“Identify yourself!”
I remained silent. I just stood there looking at them and watching this dark opera unfold. I could tell these men would not hesitate to fire on me regardless of my status as a minor. I felt a surge flow through my body as I began to concentrate on saving my family trapped inside the house behind them.
“Identify yourself, I won’t ask again! If you don’t speak we will open fire! Who are you?”
I wanted to remain silent, but I was on a mission not just to save my family but to send a message. So I decided to oblige him.
“Aiden, my name is Aiden Storm.
“Fire!”
His order was obeyed without hesitation. The sonic crack of hundreds of bullets flying through the air was deafening. Any other time the sudden order and sound would have broken my concentration and startled me, but this man giving the orders was no Shadow, he was just a puppet, a hired mercenary doing their bidding. He had no idea who and what he was facing. The Shadows made the first move and they underestimated me. First big mistake. Being the good student that I was, I took Jaffrey’s advice on ending confrontations in three moves or less. First move, they opened fired. Second move, I teleported all twenty men to where I was standing right in the path of the bullets they just fired at me and I teleported myself to where they were standing out of harm’s way. The switch was so fast they had no time to yell or gasp in terror at their deaths coming at them at 2300-feet per second. I didn’t even stay to see them drop as I quickly turned and moved towards the front door.
I could hear them all dropping to the ground as I opened the front door and entered the dark house. I didn’t want to linger because I had no idea what else my family’s captors had in store for me and also watching people die wasn’t my idea of a must-see experience.
I knew I had no choice but to take the lives of those that were here tonight, but I wasn’t sure I was proud of it. I was only seventeen and I wasn’t a hardened gangster nor was I a teenage soldier recruited and trained by a third world warlord. No, I was Aiden Storm from Deerfield, Illinois, a boy who once was a nerdy introvert and now possessed powers beyond the comprehension of 90 percent of the world’s population. Thrust in a war that has gone on for thousands, maybe even millions of years between two factions of the most powerful beings on this planet. I wasn’t ready but I had no choice but to get ready because unless I acted my entire family would be killed tonight.
The darkness in the house was thick, sickening, and familiar. It was the same darkness that had invaded our house when Jason revealed himself. The Shadows were near; I could feel the air of fear and depression being blown through the darkness. I was on their turf now and I wasn’t prepared to fight them in the darkness, so I decided to take control of the electricity in the house to see what was around me. I was only able to get the lights to flash on for about ten seconds, but it was long enough for me to see what I was up against. I was surrounded by six cloaked Shadows and in the corner stood a very strange man. He was a black man but not African American. He seemed foreign by the way he wore his dreadlocks, maybe Haitian or from some other island in the Atlantic. Then it hit me as the lights slowly dimmed. He was Kashaptu, a warlock brought here to bind me so that the Shadows could kill me. Cowards! They didn’t have the guts to face me fairly. Then I heard the hissing of one of these evil Shadows trying to speak. Similar to Jason but still unique.
“You are a fool to face us, Baraqu. We are the masters of this realm and your kind are just a dead species too stupid to know when your time has ended.”
Oh, so this asshole not only came to kill me but he came to gloat, too? Arrogant piece of shit! I should have been terrified at what I was facing but I felt no fear, just determination to save my family. If I was going to be bound by that warlock hiding away in the corner, I was going to have to fight with everything I had. A physical confrontation with six Shadows was suicide even for the most skilled fighter but if I was to go out I was determined to take a few of them with me.
Then the warlock began chanting something in a language I’d never heard before. He kept repeating the same phrase over and over again:
“Usella MitutiIk kalu Baltuti, Usella MitutiIk kalu Baltuti.”
I took a step back, preparing for the first strike from one of the cowards waiting in the dark for this warlock’s binding spell to take effect. Jaffrey explained to me how it feels to be bound.
He explained the vibration and rhythm you feel inside immediately stops, you break into a cold sweat, and your entire body becomes cold all the way to your bones. It’s hard to move effectively and the process of mind-and-hand coordination is hindered. He said it takes full effect after the binding spell is repeated s
ix times. But the strange thing is I was sure he had chanted that strange phrase six times and the effects he described had yet to happen. I still felt the surge of my power flow through my body. As a matter of fact the surge was increasing and I felt invincible. Then the first strike came. A glowing claw slashing through the darkness towards my face.
As quickly as the claw appeared, I made the Shadow that it belonged to pay for it. I simply snapped my fingers and he immediately burst into flames. His screams filled the entire house like the sound of multiple people burning in the same fire. I could hear the other Shadows scream at the Warlock,
“Bind him! Bind him!” And him replying in a heavy Caribbean accent, “I did! I don’t know what’s going on!”
I could sense their panic as they cowered away from their burning comrade into the darkness. Their fear was like an energy shot to my powers and I quickly started pursuing them in the darkness without fear. I could hear them moving away in the darkness, trying to find a way out of the mess they’d gotten themselves in. Run cowards, I thought. None of you will leave here alive. I felt a shadow moving towards the door behind me leading outside. I quickly turned and sent an electrical charge from my hands to the door handle and as soon as the Shadow reached for the handle he was instantly shocked and thrown across the room; slamming so hard into the wall that it exploded into a black mist that disappeared into the darkness. I could still hear the warlock chanting his spell despite the obvious—that it had no effect on me. Maybe he hoped that eventually it would and before his hopes became a reality I quickly manipulated the elements and created a huge safe that quickly formed around the warlock. Before I sealed him inside, I sucked all the air out of the safe like a vacuum and shut the door. Then to finish him off I heated the steel safe till it turned white with heat, cooking him alive inside. I could hear his muffled screams of pain as he burned, banging on the walls, hopelessly trying to find a way out. His screams were quickly silenced by me crushing the safe with just a clap of my hands and then making its flattened form dissipate like dust in the wind.
I know that was gruesome but what they were planning to do to my family did not invoke thoughts of cotton candy and fluffy bunnies. Like I promised before, they would never forget this confrontation and in order for that to become a reality I would have to be just as ruthless as they were; like I said, no mercy or quarter.
The other four Shadows met their deaths in equally imaginative ways. The last Shadow’s demise was my dark opera’s finale. I decided to trap him in a glass bubble and opened a portal to the Mariana Trench where I dropped him in the deepest part of the world’s oceans. He could reflect on his way down before the pressure crushed him—his life’s choices, namely the choice that made him put his claws on my family. Once I closed the portal I was expecting the lights to come back on so that I could find my family. But the darkness remained, which would mean there was still a Shadow in the house. I decided to enhance my eardrums so that I could possess superhuman hearing and listen in the darkness for the Shadow’s whereabouts. I started moving towards the kitchen, listening for any sound that would give away the Shadows position. It was surprising how fluid my actions and responses were that night. Everything came second nature, like breathing. I didn’t even have to think hard on my responses, they just came instantaneously. Jaffrey was one hell of a teacher. As hard as his training was, I now understood its intensity and the reason for it. And I also understood why one Baraqu could threaten the entire Shadow order. We were absolute badasses!
Then I heard something move behind me in the kitchen. Then it was above me, then behind me again. It was fast and didn’t move like the other Shadows. I could feel its violent intent and it was searching for the best angle to attack. It was way too fast for me to pinpoint its location and the kitchen was too small for me to effectively fight whatever this thing was, so I backed out into the family room. But I noticed it didn’t follow me. I could now make out its shape while it stood floating in the kitchen doorway that lead into the family room. It was definitely a Shadow, but much smaller and faster. There was an ominous feeling that illuminated from it. It was angry and filled with hate. It felt personal and directed towards me, not the Baraqu, but me as Aiden Storm. To this Shadow, this was personal and I was temporarily distracted by the aura of hatred and violence it created in the room.
And it was during that distraction that it attacked. It attacked with over-the-top violence and rage, sending furniture and anything else it could throw at me in my direction. Its aim was bad, very bad and every time it missed it would scream in rage and tear holes in the walls with its claws. Then it started spinning in a circle faster and faster until it created a miniature tornado that started to tear the plaster off the walls and ceiling. This thing was going to bring the entire house down on my family just to get me. I had to stop this before the entire house crumbled on top of us. I stretched out my hands to contain the spinning Shadow as I slowed time down till the entire room was moving in slow motion. With everything slowed down I could pinpoint where the Shadow was and I sent a lightning bolt directly into the middle of the vortex. I quickly sped up time to its normal pace, bringing everything in the house falling violently to the floor including the Shadow.
The lights immediately came back on and I could make out the Shadow in the far corner of the family room. Smoke came off of its body as it lay there trying to get up. I walked over to it ready to deliver the final blow and then I noticed that the Shadow was no longer in its Shadow form.
It was now in its human form and what I saw brought me to my knees. I then understood why this Shadow was so much smaller than the others. It was a child. A little boy no older than ten or eleven lying in the corner with massive burns over most of his body. He was crying from the extreme pain his tiny body was made to endure while still trying to get to his feet. After several tries he gave up and slumped back down on his side breathing heavily. He looked up at me with eyes seared red full of pure hatred and regret. But his regret wasn’t about his inevitable death this evening but that I wasn’t in his place and he in mine. And when he opened his mouth to speak he made that perfectly clear to me.
“I’m sorry, I didn’t know you were a child. I’m so sorry.”
“Why are you crying?” the boy snapped at me.
I hadn’t notice I was crying, kneeling next to him. But a quick wipe across my face with my hands revealed tears.
“You shouldn’t be crying, you should be smiling. You defeated your enemy!”
I couldn’t believe how cold and hateful this little boy was.
“If I were in your shoes I would piss on your dead carcass!”
His hatred was shocking to me for such a young boy. He should be in bed, or playing with toys, not here dying. What would force a child into this life?
“Why do you hate me so much? I’ve never done anything to you.”
“How could you say that?” he screamed before coughing from the pain and strain of trying to project his voice out of his dying body. “You took everything from me!”
“No, I didn’t! I don’t even know you. I’ve never met you in my life.”
“No, you haven’t, but you knew my father Telal! The man you knew as Jason. He was my dad and you killed him! You took the only parent I had left. The Baraqu already killed my mother years ago and my dad was all I had. And now another Baraqu killed him! I had nothing left but revenge and I failed to honor his memory by sending you to hell, you murderer. I hate you! Curse you and your family, I hope you all die horrible deaths at the hands of my brothers!”
The words that came out of his mouth pierced my very soul and sent chills through my body. Here, lying in a corner, dying, was the son of the man that had made a serious attempt on our lives. Not once during all this confusion and confrontation did it ever dawn on me that maybe Jason had a family of his own. I just assumed men so evil were incapable of love, so developing a relationship to the point of bearing children seemed farfetched. But making incorrect assumptions had becom
e a bad habit of mine and the proof of my ignorance lay dying in front of me. He was angry, hurt, and alone and the only option that was left for him was revenge and murder.
He possessed an extreme amount power for his age, which more than likely was an inheritance passed down from his father but he lacked proper training. Even though he had almost destroyed this house he was acting on rage alone. This revelation also shed light on what he was possibly doing prior to losing his father. Before the death of his father he was a kid and proud of his father and by the rage I saw in his dying eyes his father loved him in return. Even though the actions of his father led him down the path of destruction, I still felt deep remorse for taking his life. Were my actions to protect my family just? Yes, they were; but like Jaffrey taught me, every action—good or bad—warrants a response or reaction from the universe and before me was my answer from the universe.
I should have felt anger and hatred towards this boy who had attempted to extinguish the lives of the ones I loved. I should have taunted him about how his father died screaming from the pain of being burnt just like him. I should have told him the truth about who his father really was and he deserved death at the hands of the Baraqu. I should have done all these things and more, but to my surprise I felt deep sorrow and remorse for what I had done to this boy. He belonged to his father and his father to him and my actions had severed that connection forever.
As he lay there gasping for air, trying to hang on to the little life he had left in his body, I placed my hand on his head. At that moment his eyes met mine and I could see the fear of death in them. He was going into the unknown and the fear of the darkness was gripping him. It was then I understood that no matter how fearless or evil a person can be in life, at the moment when death takes hold of them, leading them into the darkness, all the emotional and physical cloaks we use are removed and death strips us bare before taking us forever. I wanted to know his name, how old he really was, but that would be a waste of the precious time he had left. So I remained silent and kneeled by his side until the end came.