Beyond Tomorrow

by Leigh Vernon

  "Yes, and these people killed those students out there."

  "Okay. That's not new." Justin said. "But what has that got to do with any of us?"

  Denzel stared back at him. "Because your powers and mine - we got them from the Seventh."

  "By the time the Seventh realized he had powers, he had been consumed with so much hate and evil that he planned to kill every other child of his father and destroy the rest of the world. So, he created an army of evil, so numerous that they were uncountable. The entire army had powers. First, they destroyed the other clans, laying waste to their cities. The human clan was happy that their enemies were gone - they lifted no hand to help them, thinking they were safe from harm. But he also came for them. Five out of the six remaining children gave their lives to end the war. Only one of them remained, Drune."

  "What are you talking about?" Justin asked. "If he created an army of people with superpowers, how come no one heard about them for years until recently?"

  "They have always been in existence. After the war was over, the few that were left decided to live like humans too. They stopped using their powers for evil and started to use them for good. Healers, philosophers, inventors, many great men that did extraordinary things over time, they were led on by these few."

  "So, if they didn't use their powers and helped humans instead, how come we have lots of people with superpowers around?"

  "They had children with their human friends. These children also had children, who also had children and it continued like that. They couldn't use their powers because they didn't know they had them, like you said, until recently."

  Justin sat on a table. Denzel was lost in deep thought. He hadn't expected anything of this nature when Shay had told him back then that a war was coming.

  "The reason why you're here is not to just to know about these things. It's to prepare you for what's coming," the man said to them both.

  "And what's coming?" Justin asked.

  "Death. Soon, Darkness will announce its presence," Denzel answered for him. "Let's go."

  Justin stared blankly at him. "I thought we were supposed to meet someone here?"

  Denzel turned to the man. "We already met him."

  Chapter 5

  Gianna walked towards the man as slowly as she could. She patted his cheeks and gave him a wry smile.

  "Please, I don't know anything," he said quickly. There were tears in his eyes already.

  Gianna didn't say anything back. She just stood behind him as Sam walked in.

  "Hello, Governor," he greeted warmly. "Nice of you to show up here."

  "Sam? Sam, you have to help me. I don't know who these men are and why they kidnapped me."

  Sam turned to the man beside him. "You kidnapped him?"

  "He said he'd rather die than come with us," the man answered.

  Sam turned back to the Governor. "You said that? No, you shouldn't have."

  The other man said nothing in response. He already knew who was behind it all.

  "What do you want?" He asked instead.

  Sam produced a jackknife from his pocket. "Some ancient people, I don't remember who they were, used to flay the skins of their enemies. They hung them outside their walls as a warning to others if they were dared to defy them. They would cut off parts of their bodies too and send them back to their families. You know why?"

  The Governor didn't answer. His eyes were swollen from crying already.

  "I don't know either," Sam answered for him. He moved closer and two guards held the other man down. They stretched his hand outwards and Sam walked towards the man. The fear in his eyes was enough to tell him just how scared he was.

  "But, on second thought, I don't think you deserve that. You are a very precious person to me and I respect the bounds of friendship, and all."

  He put the jackknife back in his pocket. The man sighed heavily as the others let him go. He looked towards Sam, who was grinning at him from ear to ear.

  "However, that doesn't mean that I don't want your soul, you know?" Sam continued. "And since your soul is the only thing that's keeping you alive, well..."

  He grabbed the man's head and held it close to himself. He said a few words and the man's soul began to leave his body slowly, painfully drawn out. Sam jabbed two fingers to his side and said a few words. The soul went back in. Sam laughed at the man, who was breathing heavily.

  Gianna looked on with interest. If there was anything that gave her more pleasure than seeing people die, it was seeing them suffer before they died.

  Sam smiled down at the Governor for a minute. "What did you say?"

  The man muffled a few words.

  "Take off his gag," Sam said to a guard beside him.

  "Please! I'll give you anything you want, anything!" The man screamed out loudly as soon as the gag was taken off.

  "Anything?" Sam asked.

  "Just name it. Please, I beg you."

  Sam stood upright. A guard brought him a chair to sit on. "Very well, then. Let's start with the Greystone Mansion."

  The man's eyes flew wide open. "That's my house! That's my freaking house!"

  Sam got up and sighed heavily. The man was stubborn even in the face of death; that wasn't something one would see every day. He was getting tired of having to negotiate with very stubborn people. He gestured to Gianna.

  Gianna walked over and punched him in the stomach. He doubled over as he tried to bear the pain from his hand and stomach. Sam sighed again and came back to sit.

  "So, you were saying?"

  "You can have it. You can have it all!" He answered.

  "Good. There's the question of whether or not I acquired it legally, don't you think?" Sam said to him. "You'll be given a phone to call your lawyer and have the mansion sold to me. Of course, I'll pay you by allowing you stay alive. Or perhaps you'd prefer another type of payment?"

  The man shook his head.

  "Excellent. Now, I have other things to do."

  Gianna walked with him to the car. The driver was smoking when they approached. Sam watched the man keenly for a minute; there was something about him that seemed oddly familiar. Then, it came to him.

  "Hey man!" he called.

  The driver quickly put out the cigarette and walked up to them. "Are we ready to leave?" he asked.

  Sam held his head forcefully and bashed it against the roof of the car. The man yelled loudly and Sam let him go.

  "I had other plans for him," Gianna said as the driver dropped to his knees.

  "Lisa and her friend were only after the Book of the Seventh. I don't know who, but someone must have told them they would get superpowers by reading the book. He's FBI."

  Sam crouched beside the man who was twisting and turning on the floor.

  "I'm tempted to send your body back as a gift to the Bureau. But where’s the fun in that?"

  He dug two fingers into the man's shoulder and chanted a few words. There was a little flash as the man's soul came out from him and Sam absorbed it. Gianna just stood there, unmoved by the scene.

  "Drop the body somewhere close to his house. I want them to find him quickly," Sam said to her.

  Gianna came closer. "And the Governor?"

  "We still need him alive. We don't know where the crypt is located within the mansion, and we don't know if there's a lock or something. As far as we can tell, there might be some sort of problem we haven't considered yet."

  Gianna nodded. She called two guards, who carried the body to the back of an unmarked van.

  "Where to?" She asked as she eased into the driver's seat.

  Sam cleaned the jackknife with a small handkerchief. "There's a function I don't want to attend, but I have to, at the museum."

  Gianna nodded and started the car. She reversed and drove out the garage as Sam hummed to himself from the backseat.

  ---

  "You believe all that crap about the end of the world and stuff?" Justin asked Denzel as they walked out of the city.

  Denz
el didn't answer him. He was preoccupied with more pressing issues, something particularly stressful to think about.

  "We parked the truck here, didn't we?" He asked.

  Justin nodded.

  "Then, why is it over there?"

  Big Snow. He's found you.

  Justin struck a pose. He listened and heard them clearly. They were about fifteen from the look of things. Big Snow was sitting in their truck, rummaging through their stuff.

  "Cut them off from the left, I'll distract them," Denzel said to him.

  He nodded and went around back, careful to remain silent. Denzel walked towards the truck slowly; he knew there were three men hiding behind a blue BMW and another two behind a yellow Porsche. He smiled as he walked towards them. Just when he was a few feet away, he stopped. His hands went into his pockets and he brought out a gun. He moved one step forward and then backwards. A shot rang out where his leg had been. Denzel smiled again. He fired towards the truck and twenty others answered him from all angles.

  Justin heard the shots and stopped behind another car. He prayed that Denzel was safe, as he seemed to be the only one who could help him get the soul out of him. He peeped around and saw three men beside the car to his right. Since they were more concerned with what was in front of them, he knew he had a chance to take all three out. He was quick as lightening when he struck the first one down. The other two weren't half as difficult as he thought they would be. They were all down in a matter of seconds and he looked around, smiling to himself as he did.

  Denzel was crouching behind a car as the men kept firing, determined to empty all their bullets into him. He waited and counted as fast as he could. When he was sure each of them had only three bullets left, he got up and began picking them out. The first one received a bullet to his skull and just as he was going down, Denzel held him up as shield against the others. Two of them stopped to reload. Denzel caught one by the neck and the second one in the guts. The others had stopped shooting and started to reload. Denzel dropped the man he was holding and smiled. He shot two down and waited for the others to reload. The key was to make them angry and scared - he needed them to shoot without restraint, since they believed they had the advantage of numbers.

  From where he was, Justin could make out most of the shooters and he decided it was best to stick to his attack pattern. Going all out with them like Denzel seemed to be a way to die quickly. He looked towards their truck - there were four others with Big Snow, who had stopped searching the car and were watching the gun battle with excitement written all over his face. Justin knew he had to take him out; it was the only way the men would drop their guns, if they would ever consider that an option. He paused and listened intently. Big Snow's heart was beating excitedly. If he was going to take him out, he had the chance now that he was in a frenzy. Just to be sure, Justin checked to see if anyone had seen him. No one had. He closed his eyes and concentrated deeply. The strike was precise, a surge to Big Snow's heart. The fat man stopped chuckling as his head went down on the dashboard. He was dead. The men beside him stopped shooting and rushed to him. Justin smiled - now was his chance.

  Denzel realized the shooting had reduced. The counts were uneven as some of the men had stopped. He decided to go with the remaining ones instead. He waited again, this time, for the bullets to get down to one each before he lashed out. He shot at one who was openly to his left and another one behind him. He bent under and shot one of them in the toe. As the man yelped out in pain, another bullet plunged into his chest. He died instantly. There were less than eight men remaining now; three were by their trucks and the other four were still scattered around the parking lot. Denzel picked out one who had bent to reload. He ran up and jumped on the roof of the car he hid behind and fired straight into his skull. One of them had reloaded quickly and was aiming for him. Denzel knew he wouldn't have enough time to react and was about to dive between two cars when he noticed the man stop, turn and drop. As the body dropped, Denzel saw Justin from where he was. He gave him a thumbs up before he shot the man aiming for him.

  One of the men got a clean shot at Justin. He smiled as he pulled the trigger and watched as the man disappeared before his very eyes. Shock registered all over him as something struck him from behind. He fell before he could turn, Justin smiling mischievously from behind him.

  "Is there something else he can do that I don't know about?" Denzel asked loudly as he hit another man in the chest.

  There's so much he can do that he doesn't know himself.

  If you two don't mind, we've got three others to take care of!

  Denzel stopped for a while. He hadn't expected Justin to be able to do that. Only a few could talk back at them when they were in the other realm. Only a very selected few could.

  Two of the men were already tired of shooting and were dropping their guns, hands up in surrender. The third man opened fire on them angrily. Justin gave Denzel a long look. The man shot the remaining man in the head and walked up to Justin.

  "What made him do that?" Justin asked.

  Denzel looked around at the carnage. "They swore never to surrender until they had stopped breathing."

  "Isn't that wonderful?"

  Denzel dragged the lifeless Big Snow out of the car. He noticed the way he had died, and stared at Justin who was also pulling another dead body off the bonnet of the car.

  "They let us go back then. Why come after us now?" Justin asked.

  Denzel checked inside Big Snow's pocket. He found his phone and saw a message notification. "He was paid to."

  Justin walked round to stand in front of him. "Who paid him?"

  Denzel showed him the message on the phone, dropping it into his hands.

  "Wait, the phone is locked and there's no number on the message," Justin said to him.

  "Good. Now you know who sent them after us," Denzel replied.

  Justin sighed loudly. He dropped the phone and climbed into the truck. Denzel was inside already. There was blood on the driver's seat.

  "Don't look at me like that. It's not like I could stop them from, you know…" Justin said in defense.

  Denzel opened the glove compartment and brought out an old rag. He cleaned the seat as best as he could and dropped the rag on Big Snow's dead body. He got in and sat with a long sigh.

  "That must feel awfully bad," Justin teased.

  Denzel flashed him a dry smile. "You have no idea."

  "Where are we heading now?" Justin asked. "I don't even know what all I'm supposed to do in all of this."

  "You're already doing what you're supposed to do," Denzel answered him.

  "And what's that?"

  "Carrying him around."

  "Isn't that the greatest thing ever done for humanity?" Justin fired back. "I might as well get my statue erected in West Michigan."

  "You might be lucky enough to meet the Governor and tell him so. We're driving there now," Denzel answered.

  Justin wanted to say something in response but kept quiet instead. There was no need to argue with him. If it ever came to it, he knew just what he was going to do. Right now, he would allow things to play out as they should. After all, he was the one with the body.

  "You don't know what's coming, do you?" Denzel asked him. "You have no idea what's really going to happen to every one of us if what I think is about to happen actually happens."

  "We could start from you telling me what I need to know," Justin answered.

  "Let's head to West Michigan then. All your questions will be answered there."

  Chapter 6

  West Michigan was a very proud city. It sat between two valleys and expanse of Rocky Mountains. The city had survived quite a lot of change as time went by and humans evolved, but it remained untainted to the outside world. There was a time when it was rumored that West Michigan was a city of the dead. This rumor was made seemingly accurate with the number of unknown murders and killings that were unearthed daily by the police. But the appointment of Sam D. Curry meant that this
rumor was put to bed once and for all. Arrests were made, trials followed and the city had maintained a very long period of peace, until its recent civil war. Despite the war, West Michigan continued to prosper immensely on all fronts.

  "And we have you to thank for all this, Mr. Mayor," the woman said to Sam as they shook hands.

  Sam smiled wholeheartedly at her. "What can I say? My family has been in this city for generations and I felt it was my utmost duty to ensure that it was a safe place for generations that would come after ours."

  "Well said. Very well said," the woman replied as she beamed with smiles. "Now, can we get down to business?"

  Sam offered her a seat. "We most certainly can."

  The woman was wearing a red suit. There was a white muffler tied around her neck with an insignia that identified her as one of the most powerful people in the city. She sat down gingerly, eyeing the woman who stood behind Sam.

  "She doesn't ever leave your side, does she?" The woman asked, pointing to Gianna.

  Sam looked back. "Gianna has been with me for quite a while now. I trust her with my life."

  The woman scoffed. "Wish I could say same about Stanley. I never can tell what's behind those sad eyes of his."

  Sam didn't say anything in return, so the woman brought out a piece of paper from her suitcase.

  "I suppose you're familiar with the way the Governor died?" She asked.

  "Sad way to go," Sam responded.

  The woman nodded her head. "Very sad indeed, but there's still one thing that remains puzzling to me."

  Sam knew where she was driving at and got there before she could. "You mean the business with his mansion?"

  "Why, yes. That mansion has been in his generation for so long. All his fathers and those before them were buried there. I wonder why he woke up one morning and suddenly decide to sell it."

  Sam adjusted the collar of his shirt. He hated having to dress this way every day; he hated sitting in this office, listening to humans whine about how they wanted this or how they wanted that, but he had no choice.

  "I find myself in shock every time I remember how he had told me of his bad debts," he answered the woman, avoiding her piercing look. "He always said it would take only death to separate him from that mansion."