Birth of a Dark Nation

by Rashid Darden

  Strengthen the discouraged… the maggots fell away to peace and quietude and stillness.

  Comfort the sorrowful…pray for your people… I no longer feared the nightwalkers who controlled my body, for my mind was free. I had been locked in the belly of a slave ship. At least this place had a mattress.

  May all who venerate you feel now your help and protection… I would be safe. I would be strong. Help was on the way.

  Be ready to help us when we pray…and I prayed and I prayed and I remembered who I was and I prayed some more.

  And bring back to us the answers to our prayers.

  "Search every room!"

  And bring back to us the answers to our prayers.

  "Break it down!"

  And the knocking of the door was really my brother's foot crashing through it.

  I knew I heard them. I knew there was a crashing sound, like a window being broken down the hall. I knew it. I knew they'd come for me.

  They removed the tentacles from my legs first, freeing them. I could barely move them. I could hardly understand what they were saying, but I knew things were changing, then and there, in that instant, in that moment in time. I was being freed. My body was matching my spirit.

  They loosed the bonds around my wrists, freeing them, letting the blood flow freely again. They spoke, but still, I didn't understand.

  They reached around my head and removed the hood. Even in the darkness of night, the light from the moon, the stars, the far off streetlight, blinded me for a second. I adjusted rapidly.

  "Aborişade? Aborişade?"

  I blinked several times. The face in front of me was one I didn't recognize, but I knew was a friend. His head was crowned with short dreadlocks, newly begun. I could smell the scent of my people on him.

  "Yes…that's my name," I said softly. He touched my face and then my chest.

  "It's nice to finally meet you. My name is Justin Kena. My crown name is Ominiyi. But we've got to get you out of here. Can you walk?"

  "Ominiyi…I can try." I moved my legs off the side of the bed and tried to put my weight on my feet. I stood up and immediately stumbled. He steadied me.

  "I got you. But what's this? Under the pillow?" He asked. My new friend reached under the pillow and grabbed a short strand of green and white beads.

  "Hold it for me," I requested. He scooped me up in his arms and walked with me to the door, where I saw a masked figure keeping lookout.

  "Where's your mask?!" said an annoyed voice.

  "I took it off so he could see me. Nobody's going to get carted off willingly by a masked crazy person," Ominiyi said.

  "True," the other man said. He carefully lifted his mask up to his forehead and showed me his face.

  "I know you," I said. "You're Aragbaye."

  He smiled.

  "Eşusanya is here, too. We've got to go."

  He pulled his mask back down and drew both his guns. My vision was blurry but I could see that each of them had two holsters on their hips and two more strapped to their thighs. They were dressed in black from head to toe.

  "They're coming!" said another familiar voice from down the hall. I looked down as Ominiyi tried to take me to a safe corner. The tall and lithe shadow was Eşusanya, just as courageous and hotheaded as I remembered.

  Two nightwalkers reached the top of the steps and were each shot by my brother. His aim was still impeccable. The tall, Asian vampire was hit right between the eyes. The red-haired vampire was hit in the chest. Both shriveled, blackened, and turned into sludge there on the stairs.

  "Let's go!" he shouted as a chorus of additional footsteps traveled up the stairs.

  We were nearly at the open window when shots began to ring out. Ominiyi dove to the floor and pushed me over to a corner, behind a hallway table, in an attempt to keep me safe from the onslaught. Although I knew wooden bullets had a minimal impact on us, it would be terrible if I got shot in my current state of vulnerability.

  A white woman with curly black hair and a muscular black man, near her in height, were at the front of the approaching platoon of nightwalkers. Their faces looked enraged on the surface, but something curious was happening.

  Their hands recoiled as though they were shooting, but no bullets were coming out. It was as though they were creating a path of safety for us.

  Ominiyi, Aragbaye, and Eşusanya shot around the pair, aiming only for the outer section of the rapidly approaching platoon of multicultural nightwalkers.

  When they were ten feet away, the man and woman stopped, looked at each other, nodded, and then performed a standing back flip, tumbling all the way over the six vampires behind them, creating a clear shot for the brothers.

  They landed behind the half-dozen nightwalkers, paving the way for their deaths by wooden bullets. After my brothers were done, all that was left were gelatinous puddles.

  "Eight down," the woman said. "Nigel is out feeding, but he will certainly be on his way back. Cassandra is downstairs."

  Her companion stared at us as Ominiyi tried getting me on my feet again. I stood by myself this time.

  "You must be Andre," Ominiyi said.

  "Yes, I am."

  "Thank you," Dante said.

  "It's not over yet," Eşusanya said. "Now, come on, the window."

  "No!" the woman said. "Orlando is too weak. You're going to walk right out the front door."

  "But Cassandra and the others…"

  "You have to take us hostage. It's the only way we can all make it out of here. Walk us straight down the stairs with your guns on us."

  "Sasha, that will never work!" Eşusanya said.

  "Listen! We got you in here and we saved your lives. You owe it to us to get us out of here, too! Now what we're going to do is walk down the stairs with our hands over our heads and you're going to threaten to kill us if Cassandra doesn't step aside."

  "Goddamn it Sasha, if you get us killed I will fucking kill you!" Eşusanya hissed.

  We began walking down the winding stairs to the first floor of the house. The menacing lady of the house was frozen at the bottom of the stairs while we descended. She was beautiful, yet frightening, in her charcoal gray pantsuit and pearls.

  "Sasha! Andre, what have they done to you?" she asked incredulously.

  "Mistress, we-"

  "Shut up, bitch, before I put this wooden bullet through your skull like your friends back there." Eşusanya acted convincingly.

  "Oh my goodness, no!" Cassandra said.

  "Stay back, Cassandra," Eşusanya said.

  "Victor! There's no need for further violence. You have what you want, please just let my children go."

  "And there's no need for us to trust you. They're coming with us until we're far away from here."

  "We could be helpful to each other, darling. Put down the gun."

  "You think I'm stupid?"

  "Then leave it up. Listen. I know we did you all wrong, and I'm sorry. I follow Nigel. But we took care of Orlando, I swear we did. We were always going to send him back."

  "Once you drained him?" Ominiyi asked.

  "You're Justin!" she exclaimed. "So they did turn you!"

  "Never mind him, you focus on me. Look into my eyes. Tell me what you were going to do to him."

  "Your hypnosis won't work on me darling; I'm far too old for that. But I'll gladly tell you. Nigel wanted to identify any weakness of your people so that he could destroy you. He believes that the Razadi will be the downfall of our people."

  "And you?" I asked.

  "I think otherwise. I think we can study your blood, your DNA, figure out what mutations allow you to walk in the daylight. Together, we can be unstoppable, Victor. Daywalker and nightwalker living together in peace. Conquering the world. All mankind serving us."

  "Razadi don't want that!" Dante shouted. "We just want to live in freedom. And you shattered that when you took our brother!"

  "For the betterment of us all. Listen. It's not too late. We can work together and show Nigel, show all
of them who believe in the old ways, that this can be the new dawn! Not the destruction of any of us, but the birth of an entirely new nation!"

  "You know nothing, Cassandra," I said, standing up tall with my hand on Ominiyi for support.

  "And Orlando speaks," she said smugly.

  "You think that our blood will let you walk in the sun? Well…what do you think will happen if we drink your blood instead? Hmm? Maybe we don't want to own the sun. Perhaps we want to own hell!"

  My fangs elongated and I hurled myself at her, knocking her to the ground as I bit her neck and drank her sour blood.

  "Aborişade, no!" they cried out. I knew I shouldn't be drinking the vile blood of a nightwalker, but I hadn't had a proper meal in months. She would have to do.

  Her blood spilled out from the wounds I made in her neck. I gulped her down. I heard the roar of the ocean in my ears rather than her screams and the shouts from my brothers to stop. I grew more powerful by the second.

  I stopped and looked around me, smiling. Everything was red.

  "We have to go!" Ominiyi shouted in slow motion.

  They grabbed me, pulling me away from Cassandra's beautiful, bloodied body, leaving her spurting and nearly lifeless. I didn't walk; I floated along with Aragbaye and Eşusanya and Ominiyi as they pulled me away from the scene. The house became a big, brown blur.

  Sasha and Andre didn't follow. They were frozen, stuck for some reason over the body of Cassandra. We flew away, free to live, free to be, free to choose. Just free.

  Back to Work

  A few weeks after the massacre at the Anubis Society's mansion, things were back to normal. I drove my new Mercedes Benz into the gravel parking lot behind Magdalene next to Steve's car, a modest Honda Accord. We'd both done well for ourselves since ourselves since the Foundation took over.

  "That's a nice ride you pushin'," Steve said.

  "Thanks. Hard work pays off." I smiled.

  "Indeed. Can we talk?"

  "Sure, what's up?" I asked, leaning against the closed door of my car.

  "Nothing…we haven't talked in a while. You know, just shoot the shit like we used to."

  "Yeah. It has been a while."

  "Yeah man. So, I was hot and heavy with Chiyoko for a while, but she just up and disappeared on me."

  "Word?" I asked. I'd long since learned to perfect my poker face when dealing with Steve.

  "Yeah. Used to see her every week at the bar, but then she was just gone."

  "That sucks man, sorry to hear that."

  "Yeah. I really liked her, too."

  "I'm sure somebody else will come along."

  "We'll see." He shifted his weight from his left leg to his right leg and put his hands in his pockets. My mind wandered to the night Chiyoko died; how Dante impaled her, making her a mass of slime on the floor.

  "Are you okay, though?" he asked, snapping me back into the moment.

  "Me? Yeah! Everything's fine!"

  "Okay." Steve smiled.

  "You don't think so, do you?"

  "I mean…you changed."

  "Changed? Naw, it's still the same old me. I'm still Justin Kena. No worries."

  "Yeah. I know. You just…"

  "I just what?"

  "Justin, you've lost like 50 pounds easy. I never even see you eat anymore. And you've just been rolling with Dante and his crew since you met him. I mean, I know that's your boy and all, so it's cool. But I can't help but wonder what's really going on. I worry about you, man. Shit goes down with you personally and I don't even hear about it anymore. Those weeks that you were sick. The Foundation takeover. It's just all shady man, and I don't want you to be in any trouble. You my boy."

  "Steve, I promise you…"

  My mind wandered again, to the first day I'd met Dante… to the day I learned what he really was… to the day I learned about nightwalkers… to the day I was attacked… to all the memories I'd made since those days and to all the memories I received from my brothers. My first kill. My next kills.

  My emotions got the better of me and I began to weep.

  "Hey, it's okay man!" Steve came over and embraced me. My weeping continued as I clutched him back.

  "What's wrong? You want to talk about it?"

  I sniffed and wiped my eyes. My heart broke because I knew in an instant what had to be done.

  "Steve…look at me," I began.

  "Yeah?" he said.

  "Steve, everything with me is fine."

  "Everything with you is fine."

  "My health and my well-being are fine."

  "Your health and well-being are fine."

  "There is never any need to worry about me. I am safe. I am with people who love me. I am with people who take care of me. You have never seen me happier."

  "I've never seen you happier."

  "You don't worry about me."

  "I don't worry about you."

  "Now…there's no need to remember this talk. Just remember those emotions. You understand?"

  "I understand."

  "Have a good day, Steve."

  "You, too, Justin."

  Steve turned around and walked up the pathway to our building. I remained next to my car to wipe my eyes and get myself together for work. I followed the pathway and glanced across the street, seeing Dante sitting on the stoop of the Masonic hall in his leather jacket and black kufi cap. I waved. He nodded at me and pointed to his pants pocket.

  I reached in my pocket and pulled out my phone.

  I LOVE YOU. HAVE A GOOD DAY.

  I smiled and looked at my ipsaji, who was smiling back at me. He would be my protector today, and every day, for the rest of my life, if he could help it.

  In the office, I waved and spoke to all of my employees. Everyone was pleased with their jobs and that suited me just fine. They thrived on their independence. Our jobs program was up and running and a formal press conference with the city would be coming soon, just in time for Christmas.

  I sat in my chair and turned on both my desktop and my laptop computers. While they were warming up, my office phone rang.

  "Hello?" I said.

  "Hey dick breath," Victor replied. I laughed.

  "What's up?"

  "Just wanted to remind you I'm taking Orlando down to Charleston for the sorority board meeting."

  "Okay, cool. I saw that on my calendar. How's he feeling?"

  "Getting stronger. Still having trouble sleeping, though."

  "Yeah, that's to be expected. Getting some Iota blood will be good for him."

  "And me, too. Getting tired of this local blood."

  I laughed again. "Be safe, Victor."

  "You too, bruddah."

  I hung the phone up and began sifting through my work emails. I saw one from Selena Esteban from the Friends of the Crown, asking for a lunch date. I replied right away, putting her on my schedule. It had been a long time since we chatted, and I would need to continue to cultivate that relationship in order to establish myself as a real nonprofit executive—not just a front man for the Foundation for Community Justice. There was more to me than what I had been through.

  A few minutes later, the Skype alert on my laptop went off. It was Babarinde—so far, the only person I ever needed to Skype with.

  "Hello, Uncle John! To what do I owe the pleasure?" I smiled into the camera imbedded in the laptop while I looked at Baba's smiling, chiseled brown face on my screen.

  "How are you?" he asked.

  "I'm good! How are you?"

  "I'm fine. Good, actually. We've got a lead on Ogundiya."

  "Really? Wow, I never thought we'd find him so soon. When one goes off the grid…"

  "Exactly. And as quiet as Ogundiya is, I thought it would be years before we found him."

  "So where is he?"

  "My sources say that the Djinn have him and they're ready to negotiate."

  "The Djinn? Jeez. I thought we were cool with them?"

  "We were. Last week. So, how about it? Will you go get him?"

/>   The Djinn were far more mysterious to me than any other being I'd encountered since I'd been made a Razadi. Mysterious—and dangerous, I was sure.

  Things would never be back to normal ever again. And that's just the way things would be from here on out.

  "I'm on it."

  Epilogue

  Nigel entered Cassandra's bedroom. She stirred in her four-poster bed. Sasha and Andre brought her upstairs every day after nightfall to give her some reprieve from her dark coffin in the basement. The attack had left her weak.

  Sasha sat at the foot of her bed, waiting for instructions, while Andre stood guard by the door with a semi-automatic assault rifle.

  "Hello, darling," Cassandra said from her bed.

  "How are you feeling?" Nigel asked after he sat down beside her.

  "Tired, but getting better."

  "Good. We'll get those bloody daywalkers yet, don't you worry."

  "Nigel, please…"

  "If Malcolm had been here, he would have stopped them."

  "Even Malcolm is no match for them."

  "Andre and Sasha let eight of us die. Eight!"

  "It was an ambush, Nigel, they couldn't have known. And with wooden bullets and everything! It's not their fault."

  "And they destroyed millions of dollars of research! Had we even known about their sabotage when it happened, we would have known we were next. Millions of dollars of work down the drain!"

  "Can you really blame them? What we did to that young man was unconscionable."

  "What we did to that boy was our right! It was our destiny! This was only a taste of what we can do to them. They'll soon find out just why we're called the Anubis Society. Malcolm!"

  Malcolm rushed in.

  "Yes, sir?"

  "Unleash the jackal!"

  "With pleasure, sir."

  Malcolm sped out of the room. Within seconds, they heard the sound of his engine igniting and then taking off from the driveway of the mansion.

  "Oh, Nigel," Cassandra said, as she closed her eyes. The air in the room chilled and Andre and Sasha glanced at one another in terror as Nigel spoke.

  "We are the guardians of the jackal. I will do whatever I have to do to ensure that we are the victors in this war. The Razadi will pay by their total extermination."