While walking through the mall, Seth walks past many stores, some stranger than others. In fact, he finds himself standing in front of a very strange store, one sporting lots of pink and strange models wearing very little clothing - rather, it appears to be that they are wearing some strange contraptions of some sort. He is not familiar with such items, so he stops to look, and that is when he sees something extra intriguing.
In that strange store of pink and uncomfortable-looking oddities, he spies a man with spiky bleached-blonde hair waiting on a nearby bench at the side of the store. Is that… Onyx? If it is, then Luna must be close! Although, he isn’t wearing his typical pale blue clothing… maybe he obtained new Earth clothes? That is possible. I don’t want him to see me yet though…
Seth continues walking toward the store, looking for Luna. He enters the store without being detected by Onyx, but is so distracted that he nearly knocks over one of the scantily-clad mannequins.
“Hello, sir. May I help you find something?” A perky store employee locks eyes with Seth, who immediately comes unglued from his objective as he notices how intensely the lady begins searching his eyes and his body - she clearly finds him off-putting, just as everyone else has so far.
Why do I have that effect on people? “No, I do not currently require any assistance. Thank you for your query.” With that, Seth continues into the center of the store, looking for any sign of Luna. After a moment or two, he gives up on trying to find her, and turns away to exit the store. That is, until a curtain slides open in the back of the store, revealing a girl with long, black hair and bright, violet eyes.
LUNA! Seth doesn’t hesitate to walk right toward her and do the deed he had been intending to do for a long time. He unsheathes his knife, never taking his eyes off of his target. He gets within about ten feet of her before the perky shopkeeper notices him again.
“Sir, I am going to need to ask you to leave - weaponry of any kind is not permitted in the mall.”
Seth pauses, and looks down at the unsheathed dagger in his hand.
“That knife, is a weapon. And it is prohibited here. You may either leave the store now or I will have to call security.” The woman holds up her cell phone, readying herself to call in reinforcements.
Seth grunts, and clenches his teeth. “You have no business telling me what to do.” Before he can take any further steps, the woman blocks his path and presses a panic button. An alarm sounds, and Seth watches as his target locks eyes with him for a split second before shrieking and running out the door with her gaudy pink-striped shopping bag in tow.
Well gee, thanks a lot. Seth shakes his head and rolls his eyes, as he is forced to let Luna get away due to the unwelcome grip of the woman’s hand on his arm.
“You’re not going anywhere until security gets here.”
Seth takes one look at her steady gaze, and then in one swift motion, he dislodges his arm from her grip by bending her arm at an odd angle, causing her to scream in pain and let go of him. When she finally does, he bolts right out of the store, running in the direction where he saw Luna go - but he’s too late, because she is nowhere to be seen.
CHAPTER 20
“At the mall, you say?” Officer Carnes taps his pen against the deteriorating wood finish on the top of his desk. “You’re really sure it was him?” He raises a medium-brown eyebrow as he absorbs the information that is coming to him through the phone. “Okay, okay. Yes, I’ll file that as a report. What was he doing again? An assault weapon? Okay, roger that… yeah this kid is bad news, that’s for sure. Thanks again, Sanders. Okay, bye now.”
He ends the call and starts hastily scribbling down information in a notebook. This kid has been sighted so many places causing trouble, and yet no one can seem to catch him - very interesting. Little master of disguise, eh? We’ll see about that… we’ll just have to see.
✷✷✷
After her shift, Jade goes directly to Evander’s pod. I wonder what he’s going to tell me? Hopefully nothing too bad happened since the last meetings - we’re just not ready yet. Then again, will we ever be? No, probably not - a revolution of this magnitude just isn’t… usual. Or normal. None of this is. She shakes her head, hoping her worrisome thoughts would dissipate into the fog of the Upperworld - but they don’t. They never really do, no matter how hard she tries to focus. Then again, knowing how to operate under pressure is part of her job description - but despite centuries of experience, this is one obstacle that seems much bigger. And that’s understandable, because it really is.
She rings the doorbell notifying Evander of her arrival, and he opens the door for her. His tired eyes stare back at her from a sullen face.
“Yes, I am as tired as I look. Come on in, though.” Jade closes the door behind her, and clicks it into place, sealing them both in the soundproof dead zone.
“Well, you said you had something important to tell me from your meeting, right? She crosses her arms over her chest, preparing for the worst but hoping for something good, for once.
“Indeed, I think it’s a good thing… of course, we’ll have to propose it to your group as well, to make sure they’re onboard with it…”
“Well, what is it? I don’t have all day, you know.”
Evander rolls his eyes, and then scratches the back of his head. “They think Onyx would be best as the leader of the Upperworld.”
Jade’s jaw drops, but slowly nods. There was a small part of her that was hoping she would be elected as leader, but granted, it was a long shot - even she knew that.
“Oh, okay. Yes, I suppose that would do. What was their reasoning?” She tries to get the information out of him, as if to find out why she herself was slighted. Evander, being as tired as he is, is rendered quite oblivious to her subtle hints.
“Well, he has four centuries of in-depth Earth and humanoid studies under his belt, as well as experience working in the Upperworld, and more recently, on Earth. He’s a prime choice because he’s seen it all, and that almost guarantees that he would be considered a worthy vessel for the life current to flow through.”
Jade chews on her bottom lip and avoids eye contact with Evander. “That’s all… very solid. I… cannot think of any reason why not.” She allows the new information to wash over her, as the feeling of defeat hitting her like a brick wall - neither sensation is fully present without the other.
“Indeed, I’m surprised I didn’t think of it myself sooner. He is the most logical choice…”
Jade nods, but her frustration doesn’t subside. “Evander?”
He turns his head away from the graphs and charts on his tablet. “Yes?”
“Did you ever think…” She pauses to search for the right words. “…Did you ever consider, that maybe… I could do it?”
He freezes mid-database search and turns to face her. “Jade, I mean, I don’t know. Not that you aren’t amazing, but…”
“But what, Evander? What do you possibly have to say to me that I haven’t thought of already? Because believe me, I have seen it all.” Her mouth takes the shape of a vicious sneer, and as if on cue, the temperature of Evander’s pod seems to drop considerably.
“Jade, I didn’t mean… if you want to, you can present your case to the Disturbers, I just… wanted to fill you in, I had no idea you felt that way. Just please remain democratic about it. What works well enough for The United States of America will work well enough for us.”
Jade’s face becomes ashen and stone-cold. “Thank you for the update, Evander. I’ll be going now.” She walks over to the door, planting each step with the pressure of a thousand granite boulders hitting the ground.
“Jade, I apologize if I -”
“Save it.”
“Okay, well, uh, see you at the next meeting? Or, uh, I guess you’ll meet with your group and I’ll meet with mine, since there’s limited space…”
Jade just glares at him, her cheeks bright red.
“Bye, Evander.” She marches out the door and leaves Evander alone
in his pod, wondering what went wrong so quickly.
This is odd… I really had no idea she wanted to be the leader of everything… it’s kind of a surreal thought. I know Jade is rather… full of herself, sometimes, so I guess it makes sense. But we’ve got to think about what would be best not only for the Upperworld, but all of humanity, both present and future. And right now, I have to stay focused on that.
Evander sits dejectedly on the floor for a moment, resting his head in his hands. Suddenly, it feels as if he is hurtling into oblivion - or if not himself, maybe the entire human race. It’s pathetic to think how high the stakes are, and how easy it would be to mess this up, very badly. I cannot let that happen.
In that moment, he vows to himself to make sure that Onyx is the one chosen. Granted, there is currently no way to communicate with him, since his embedded device has been expelled, but Evander figures he can just transport him back to the Upperworld when they need him, since his essential biological info was saved permanently into the main system.
Onyx will know what to do - and I know the groups will choose wisely.
Then he remembers something he found in his research that might just do the trick. Without getting prematurely excited, he steels himself to focus enough to re-open one of the files that he saved to his tablet from his office. A broad smile creeps across his face as he finds what he needs to ensure that Onyx is the one chosen for the job.
Now I just have to hope that he’ll be on board with it - knowing Onyx, I am confident that he will be, once I bring him back here and fill him in on everything.
Evander fights the urge to summon Onyx back to the Upperworld too soon, as he knows full well that he is needed on Earth to protect Luna, and hopefully defeat Seth.
I can’t leave him there too much longer, but for now, I will, since he is needed there.
He smiles to himself, thinking about how easy it was to foil Jade’s elaborate self-absorbed scheme to obtain the highest possible accolades. But he also knows all too well that things are rarely as simple as they first appear.
CHAPTER 21
“Onyx!” Luna feverishly grabs his hand and sprints out of the store, with Onyx running behind her carrying all their shopping bags. They breeze past the many multi-colored displays of other stores as they run, but it all goes by in a blur. Adrenaline courses through their veins as they both struggle to catch their breath.
“Luna, was it really that bad? I mean, it may be a bit awkward but I didn’t think -”
Luna finally stops running once they are safely at the other side of the mall. “It’s Seth - he was in the store.”
“What? Why didn’t you say something?” Onyx’s eyes widen in a feverish panic.
“I did - I screamed and ran, remember?”
“I know, but if I knew, I could’ve -”
“What?” Luna plants a hand on her hip and flips her long, dark hair out of her eyes.
“I don’t know.”
Onyx drops the shopping bags momentarily and pulls her close. “I cannot let that happen again. That was… too close of a call…” His breathing intensifies, and he places his lips on hers as Luna responds wholeheartedly.
“Did you… get a good look at him?”
Luna slowly nods. “He… looks like me, doesn’t he?”
“I would think so.”
Luna bites her lower lip. “It’s just… weird. And he had a knife…”
“He had a knife?”
“That’s what I saw…”
Onyx breathes in and out slowly, and closes his eyes. Was he planning to stab her to death? He struggles to avoid hyperventilating.
“We need to leave, now. He’s probably still in this building. Let’s go check on our house - I really hope they let us live in it now.”
Luna smiles at him, and grabs some of the bags with one hand, and holds onto Onyx’s arm with the other. They both walk rapidly to the mall entrance, and make their way back to their housing complex.
“Onyx?”
“Yeah?”
“Do you… think we’ll be okay? I feel like… he is always following us. That really… upsets me.”
“Well, I can promise you that I will do everything I possibly can to protect you. I don’t know how our lives are going to turn out - we’ve already been through a lot more than the average human, but I’m confident that it’ll be good. I think that because you are good, Luna. Everything about you is just oozing goodness - it’s hard to imagine anything terrible happening to someone with such a high-quality sense of morals…”
Onyx looks at Luna to see that she had almost tuned him out, but she is looking directly at the beautiful, mid-afternoon sky. It isn’t quite evening yet, but the sky has almost golden haze about it where it is obvious that midday has come and gone.
“So short answer? Yeah, I think we’ll be okay.” Onyx kisses the top of her head and leads her into the main desk of the condo complex just a few blocks down the street.
“Hello? My name is Onyx, and I’m here to see if the house I had purchased is ready to live in yet.”
The same tight-lipped woman from before is behind the desk, this time sporting a spotless-white blouse with a matching beige suit jacket and skirt. Her glasses are poised condescendingly on the bridge of her very long nose.
“Weren’t you dressed in a costume before?”
Onyx shakes his head.
“Oh, so you mean you dressed like that normally? Okay then…”
Onyx manages to smile politely, even though this woman is insulting him every chance she gets. In a moment like this, he is reminded of the guide who trained him centuries ago and how important it is to treat all people with respect, even when they do not deserve it.
“Typically new buyers are notified via a phone call when their move-in day has been scheduled. Did someone call you yet?”
“I do not have a phone number on file, so I decided to just come check instead.”
His rebuttal to the woman’s curt reply clearly is making her suspicious of his intent, but she turns to consult her computer anyway.
“Well, Mister Onyx, it appears that your home is… ready for you. That is pretty rare, usually the process takes more than a day. Well, lucky you.” Her sarcastic slur on those last couple of words are not lost on Onyx’s ears - his Earth studies make him privy to different human habits, personalities, and cultures. He does his best not to upset her any further, but her words leave a small sting.
“Here are two house keys, one for you… and your wife. Welcome to Aquatic Springs.” She tosses a plastic smile their way, and then goes back to typing away on her computer. Onyx shrugs his shoulders and leads Luna toward their new home.
CHAPTER 22
I was so close, but I lost her - I always do. Seth dejectedly mumbles to himself as he walks around the mall, searching to find Luna again. I could have done it, I could have really done it. Then I would have completed my mission and could go home.
Seth mutters some expletives under his breath that he had picked up from his time on Earth so far. Everything about being on Earth worked a lot differently than being in the Upperworld, and even though he hadn’t been there very long either, it was his first conscious memory since what he referred to as his “re-awakening”. So naturally, he would compare all the oddities of being on Earth to the very different atmosphere of the Upperworld.
He stops for a moment, and realizes that Luna and Onyx likely would have rapidly left the mall upon seeing him there.
What cowards they are! The least they could do is face me and just get it over with - running away is only going to elongate her own suffering. Wouldn’t it be easier to just… move on to the next realm? The girl must die… and running from her fate will do nothing to change that.
After a quick perusal of his fewer and fewer options, Seth decides to make his way out of the mall to see if he can find them before they get too far away, and he has to start from square one again. He makes his way past all the brightly-colored store displays, bu
t makes sure to take a detour around the shop where he was almost captured - that would just be another setback, and there is no time for any more setbacks. Her death must happen as soon as possible, lest Zephyr would become upset with him. And having a frustrated boss is no way to start a symbiotic partnership.
Seth continues moving through the mall at a brisk pace, narrowly dodging small children and families walking in the opposite direction. Some of the children cry when they see him - his appearance isn’t overly disturbing, but he undoubtedly has a bit of a strange energy about him that certainly gets a significant amount of attention from onlookers.
He quickly gets to the main entrance of the mall, and opens the door into the late-afternoon sunlight. The sky is a deep orange, as evening rapidly approaches. Well, looks like it’ll be another night of sleeping under the stars. Seth mumbles a few more expletives to himself and makes his way back to the main part of town, where the park and benches are. He’s hoping to see Onyx and Luna on the way, but nothing is guaranteed. And the scariest thing is, Seth is beginning to doubt that he’ll ever find them at all. Doubt is the one thing that Seth is not programmed to know how to fight. The parasitic emotion quickly begins to burrow into his inner core, tearing away his resolve by the shreds and eating away at his confidence. He tries to shake it off, but to no avail.
Well, maybe I’ll have better luck tomorrow after I get some… sleep. I think that’s what people call temporary unconsciousness here. In the meantime, I’ll keep my eyes open for Onyx and Luna… even if I have to kill him to get to her.
✷✷✷
“Settle down, everyone. We’re about to start - thank you, thank you.” Jade tries to grab the attention of the various sorters, guides, orderlies, record keepers, and technicians in her pod as she commences session one of the meeting of the Disturbers. The crowds had gotten so large, that due to limited space, her and Evander decided to do multiple sessions so that everyone could fit in at some point and get the information and updates they need. Although, that conversation happened before their fight, which left them both feeling both frustrated and drained. Regardless of any of their personal feelings, the importance of their work vastly outweighs it. They know they must stay focused on what is really important: rallying the Disturbers together and appointing a replacement for Zephyr before he becomes completely obsolete.
The Fall of Zephyr Page 8