A World Apart: Original Souls Part 3

"We must!" she threw back at me.

I turned back to the bathroom door. "Corinth, please come out. Mom and I need to ask you a very important question, okay?"

A couple of seconds went by, and I started to wonder if he was ever going to come out of there. Then the k.n.o.b slowly began to turn. Cory opened the door with weary eyes and some tissues in his left hand. We took him over to the couch in the living room and sat him down easy. We both seemed to want to take it slow, to keep him calm and available to us. We really needed to clarify a few things.

"Corinth, in your opinion," she hazily glance over to me as she spoke,"do you believe that your father could have been the man in the hood?" She intentionally stared at me now from her knelt position in front of him. Her eyes were even wilder than back at the hospital. She looked more deranged than the cheetah girl that attempted to impersonate her at the abandoned factory. We both looked to him as he started to mouth a few inaudible words.

"We can't hear you, dude. Could you speak a little louder for us?" I put my hand on his shoulder, trying to rea.s.sure him.

"I d-don't k-know, for sure," was his final verdict.

I can't believe that my wife and son both feel like they have reason to believe I was involved in taking him from the serenity of his bedroom. If that were the case, then I have no recollection of it. How could I have done something and not know? And for that matter, where has Corinth been for nearly the past two years. I haven't seen him in almost as long as Julia. This was all too ridiculous to take. "I need some air," I said while getting up from the couch beside Cory to walk outside, but Julia blocked me from doing so.

In my deep state of thought, I hadn't noticed that she pulled out her llave. The situation went from uncertain to downright dangerous in a matter of seconds. She's always too abrupt in her actions. She doesn't even know if her powers are fully regenerated. Best bet is that she has a quarter of her normal strength, better yet the abilities this new World of hers will eventually grant. She'll need to rest a long while before they'll be available to aide her. But then again, I'm out of luck as well if this turns into a showdown. I sacrificed my llave to get into this place. I guess Julia didn't trust me to begin with. I still held one saving grace, but hesitated to use it with her pulling Corinth behind her.

She turned around and bent over to give him a kiss on the cheek. "Go into your bedroom upstairs, your father and I need a moment alone to talk, all right?" Corinth didn't hesitate, he did as instructed. I guess his telepathic powers weren't working so well right now, because even I could see right through Julia. 'Talk,' really meant fight.

"Dad, I don't want-" he looked up at the ceiling a moment,"to believe it was you ... it's just-" he stopped himself while standing in the middle of the staircase.

"Just go, Corinth," Julia said as gently as she could.

He looked sad and tired. Drained from the influx of emotional strain he's been through. Still, I wanted him to know I believed what he said. "That's good to hear, buddy. I'm just glad you're home. Go grab some rest and we'll see you a little later, okay?"

"Okay," he wiped his eyes like a little kid and off he went.

However things go between Julia and I, I'm so amazed and thankful to know that he barely experienced any of the pains of a normal abduction. Horrible experiences like that can leave scars on a child's mind. But he would be spared most of that conflict. He must be so lost for time. He probably thinks he's two years younger than he actually is, considering what he told us he remembers. I couldn't help but think his mental gifts had something to do with what shielded him from the things that took place in the time between his bedroom and the abandoned factory.

"I think it's time you go, Cris," said Julia with an eerie calmness. "You can retrieve your llave from the keyhole on the other side, once you've left this place."

"Julia, you can't keep me away from my son. That isn't fair."

"I don't care about what's fair anymore!" her voice was getting shaky. She was blocking the exit while simultaneously telling me to leave. I was afraid that this power would be too much of a strain on her mind. She wasn't headed the Aurora way. She seemed to be falling into the trap that all the others from the Great Eight fell into. Insanity!

"Julia, I am saying this with the utmost respect; but are you sure you're in your right mind?"

"What are you getting at?" she shouted, standing just a few feet from the screen door. "I'm the one who's protecting Corinth! You would have given him right back into the hands of the Gente Peligroso, wouldn't you?" It seemed to me she was breaking with reality. "You never wanted a child or a family did you? You were a perfect bachelor before I came along!" her shouting kept Corinth from following the plan. I noticed him peeking out from the top of the staircase. "You and Evan always got what you wanted. Any girl you could sc.r.a.pe off the sidewalks in the wee hours of the morning was up for grabs. If I hadn't forced you to commit, what then? This isn't your family anymore, buddy. Corinth and I don't want, nor do we need you here!" She sparked up her llave for an attack. "Ser Luz!" she shouted, as a sharp beam of green light force its way out of the golden key's rotation.

I couldn't begin to process being attacked by my wife while my helpless son watches. I rolled out of the way from her beam and knocked into the coffee table between the couch and the television.

Ser Luz!" she shouted again and again. She was destroying the very place she built to be a sanctuary for her endangered son. The table beneath the staircase exploded into several smaller fragments as I attempted to run around the back of the couch, pa.s.sing the staircase and out the door.

I dodged all but one of her beams. She moved inward from the door, tracking me around the living s.p.a.ce, so I sprinted for that very door. The Luz hit me on the side of the head while running toward my means of escape. It smacked me right in the temple, knocking me clear through the screen onto the wooden porch. I heard a crack in my left shoulder as it made a dent in the white panels. I felt it, but I'm rather surprised by the lack of power behind the blast. Julia's even weaker than I figured she'd be. I was barely affected after the initial shock.A bit like a rough tickle. I am ticklish, but it's the impact with the porch that's got my shoulder feeling darn there dislocated. But better bruised than buried.

Not much physically pain, but I feel so bad inside for all this. She used all her power to ensure Corinth's safety, and she had to do it all alone. Now her mind is being eaten away by the pressures of that power. She must think she has to attack me to protect Cory, just like she thought she had to create this place. Perhaps she was right? Maybe I should just leave them in peace?

Just then, a terrifying scream ripped that thought clear out of my mind.

Julia had lost it worse than I thought possible. She was on a collision course with Corinth. I noticed the roof of the house bulging as I stood up and rubbed my shoulder. The pain started to get to me, but my adrenaline was already running high enough to help me forget it and forge ahead. The scream came from the upstairs rooms. It had to be from his room.

I ran into the house to see that the ceiling above the living room was sunken in. It looked as if some huge weight was pushing down on the floor above. I hung a left to round the staircase and started up the steps, taking them two at a time. When I reached the landing, I discovered what was making the house bulge. The crushing weight pushing down on the floor, it was Julia. She must have gone upstairs to get to Corinth before me.

I suspected this all along. Her ego, it's bulging outward and it's reflecting in her appearance. She's turning into a bloated, crazed monstrosity. I couldn't believe what my eyes were seeing. Julia had exponentially grown into a large oversized whale-like version of herself. Her brown hair looked short now that her head was the size of two basketb.a.l.l.s. Her fingers are stretching out and she's getting taller and wider with each pa.s.sing second.

Suddenly, the upstairs floor hit its weight capacity limit. The whole thing came crashing down. The center floorboards splintered, as her ma.s.sive body dropped with the wicker furniture of Corinth's short-lived bedroom, falling down into the living room. Julia wasn't yet large enough to be in the downstairs living room, and what remained of the upstairs bedroom, at the same time. But from the look of things, she would be soon. I have to move quickly before she can reach us.

I beckoned Corinth over to me. He was standing against the wall, cowering from an ever-expanding Julia when I stepped into the room. She was too busy blowing up to notice that I had entered. Corinth noticed, but stayed calm, not saying a word. Frozen in fear perhaps, but silent no less. Good thing that he hugged the walls. If he'd been a couple of feet closer to the center of the room, he would have crashed down with his mother.

"Come on!" I waved him over with my hands, while idling in the hallway outside the room. I didn't want to put any more pressure on the still standing outer perimeters of the floor. Lest the sides fall down too."We don't have much time," I told my frightened son, "but be careful. One wrong move and you'll fall down into the living room." I didn't want to scare him anymore, but that's a place neither us want to be right now.

"I can't- I'm scared," he whispered.

"Corinth, you have to find the courage inside of you to do this. This is a serious situation. If we don't get out here before-" I didn't want to think about it that way, so I just shut my mouth. They'll collapse soonon Corinth's weight, if he doesn't move. He was hanging on a hope and a prayer. Still, I looked at the boards and knew that they were too damaged to keep up while he was fidgeting about. He was too scared to stand still.

He gripped and clung to every ounce of wall he could get his fingers on, while his mother seemed to take a disturbing leave of absence from reality. She continued growing. Her head bounced back and forth without focus slightly below us, and that's where his sight was aimed. But I needed Cory to focus on this, on our own dilemma before the inevitable occurred.

The fall was gut wrenching and unannounced! He jerked while watching his mother, and the twisted up floorboards around him dropped straight through. I helplessly watched him tumble down into the living room below, just evading a collision with a growing Julia. His head hit the downstairs floor hard. The only thing there to break his fall was the debris from the first collapse. It was no soft landing. My only hope is that he wasn't impaled by anything sharp. He laid there unconscious as a seething Julia ferociously snapped to attention. She looked to his seemingly lifeless body, and then to me with a thunderous shout.

"This is your fault!!!" Her face was bloated to the point that she could barely see, or I suspect that she can't see, because I can't see her eyes at all. They're both lost in the confusing mess that's become her face and body. She'd already outgrown the living room, and soon the upstairs bedroom if something didn't give. All of her limbs extended far beyond the reach of any ordinary human being. She couldn't be stopped now, unless I did something drastic. Something I had no intention of doing, but was able to pull off. She pa.s.sed into the upstairs area, now looking down at me. Her head was ready to crash through the rooftop when I made my decision.

I pulled out the llave I took from the cheetah girl back at the factory and hoped for the best. I wish I had used it to save Cory before the collapse, but it was too sudden. I have no idea how stable this thing is. I hope it can hold the surge of my power going through it. I took a good look over the detail of it and almost threw it across the room. The thing looks-cheap. No spells were written on it to protect it from being easily knocked out of rotation, so I'll have to play this safe. Even if I can get this thing to work with Julia so close, it could still break on me.

I put the key into rotation. It started up shaky. The thing looked exhausted an overused. Cheap too, if I hadn't mentioned that already. I suppose this llave wasn't even the cheetah girls. It must have been some sort of hand me down. It had scratches that looked to be way too many years in the making for that girl's apparent age. It kept spinning at my chest, but had a hard time picking up pace. I needed this thing to at least be rotating fast enough to get out a couple of powerful spells. If it could do that then all could be saved.

I looked out and Julia's new form wasn't very pleasing to behold. She's high above me, head bobbing for imaginary apples, and she looks p.i.s.sed that she hasn't found any. I grimly stared up at her while she descended into madness.

"Julia, you're losing it, like most of the Great Eight. This is doc.u.mented. Not just myths. That's why there's a law against this. It's too dangerous for a normal person to take on. You've got to break free or else this whole place is going to blow," I temperately cautioned her, but it only made things worse.

"You think I'm normal," she screamed down at me. "I am the creator of a World apart from the Puente del Cielo. The others, they pretend that the walls that once separated the Worlds have been broken down, but I know better. I've created a place of grandeur and freedom of expression. This paradise will never be claimed by the likes of a Draconian. You are a disease here, Criston. You and your sour people are a disease that must be eradicated. I am the bringer of punishment, here to seek vengeance against all those who Draconia and its leaders have wronged!" A sanctimonious chant that wasn't as demented as one might think. Draconia does suck, but it's not a disease... per se.

All of her worse qualities and feelings were being drawn out by the feasting power inside of her. I knew she hated living in Draconian, heck I did too. Especially after all that's happened. Still, this power is too much for one person to bear alone. I should have been here for her. If we had split the burden things would have turned out differently. Her mind is being eaten away by the all consuming power she manifested. The weight of a world is literally on her shoulders. Unfortunately for her, I'm here to make it just a little bit worse.

The-cheetah girl's used llave had gained enough traction on its rotation by now. I hope it's ready to do what must be done. I hope that my power doesn't overwhelm this thing. I still need it for one last trick after my first spell, if this plan is poised to go as I planned it.

I was standing on the eroding landing in the hallway, when Julia flicked one of her ma.s.sive hands my way. I wasn't expecting it. She seemed disoriented at different times, but I guess she got her wits back. The force sent me backward, knocking against the wall. Another weak hit from a tired Julia. Just like the attack that sparked out of her llave downstairs, this. .h.i.t failed to put me out of commission. The llave of the cheetah girl lost some traction, its rotation perturbed, but it held. I laid flat on my back with my head propped up against the wall behind me. I stared clear into the bathroom as my sight began refocusing. I turned back to Julia. Her arms waved wildly, like a banshee that just found out her husband's been cheating. I figured her angry tirade is all the more reason to get out while this raggedy key is still spinning.

Standing up would put me right back in the firing lines, so without bothering to get up I yelled out to the four winds. "Teletransportar De Dos!" and instantly both Corinth and I disintegrated into a black and blue dust cloud. But before we were clear of Julia's tyranny, the llave exploded into a fine golden dust. Corinth and I are on our own now. I had no way to rectify what's gone wrong here. Luckily, the spell took. We were lifted up by the wind and carried to the gate of this new World, Corinthia.

I looked back to Julia for a moment, as her overgrown form took hold of the beautiful home she had built for our family. Her ego overwhelmed her and she overwhelmed the capacity of the beach house on the seash.o.r.e. Her arms and legs came bursting through the bay windows facing the blue oceans. With one last anger-fueled-gesture-she tore the house into two separate pieces. She raised her arms into the air and shouted something in rage. She had outgrown the house in mere minutes. There was nothing left that I could do as pieces of wood and metal flew all across the sh.o.r.eline.

My intention was to put her to sleep with a spell called'Nox.' I learned it from my father. It's powerful and very useful to insomniacs. But it could be quite the attack if peppered with a steady hand. A strong wielder could render someone unconscious for days. It takes some time to put a powerful person to sleep though, so I hoped that the distance I put between Julia and I would give me the time necessary to ease her to slumber. I wanted to soothe her pain, ease the burden that she must now carry alone. If I could have done that, she would have the time needed to adjust to her new role as the builder of an entire World. Her mind must be racing a million miles a minute with me here to provoke her.

The only way to end her suffering now is for me to go. But there's no question now that I have to take Corinth. Julia's shown that she's not ready to carry this weight yet. She needs time. Time alone to learn the ins-and-outs of absolute power. But if there's anyone who can do it-it's her. I'm sure she'll follow in the footsteps of Aurora, the greatest of the Great Eight.

Corinth was deposited by the spell just at my feet. I scooped him up off the ground, and then turned to walk up to the golden gate that nearly crushed me a day ago. "Insert key, please." For a second, I wondered if I needed a key to get back out, but the gate quickly put that fear to rest. It responded almost immediately after I spoke. Now, off Corinth and I are, back to reality, back to the Puente del Cielo.

From the corner of my right eye, I saw Julia's bloated body and ego dragging itself toward us, but it was far pa.s.s too late. I shed a lone tear for her. She didn't think this through. She forgot about the stories. Some say that they too are myths, but we all know what happened to them. It's been a thousand years, but that's not long enough for eight cultures to forget the Ancestry Wars. But unlike the Great Eight, she acted for n.o.ble reasons. She did this to protect her son. She is the mother of the year, if not the century. She'll see Corinth again.

While the dazzling lights consumed us, I looked down and thought that maybe my boy was coming to. Only a few moments pa.s.sed, we seemingly glided through the pillar of Corinthia, and before I knew it, he and I were on the sky bridge. The sun is shining above, and everything is as it should be. The twilight should be coming soon. We left Corinthia in the morning, so nightfall on the bridge was likely imminent.

It almost feels as if we were never in Corinthia. The feeling completely washed away. The sun's light reflected off the gold and silver railings of the bridge, and straight into my eyes, taking me out of my thoughts. It was that bright. In fact, it's so bright out here that it gave me an instant headache. Corinth was still unconscious, so I laid him down on the sidewalk, cupping his head in my hands, checking for any serious wounds. I still couldn't get a read on anything.

The sun's intensity seemed to be flaring with every pa.s.sing moment. It's odd that my eyes haven't adjusted yet. We'd been here a few minutes now. I don't recall in all my life in Draconia it ever taking this long for my eyes to adapt. The sun couldn't be that bright this late in the day. I could barely see Corinth's body right in front of me at this point. I thought maybe I was pa.s.sing out again from all the wear and tear of the last crazy couple of days, but I felt as pink as a pistol. Still on an adrenaline high.

I started feeling around in front of me because the light seemed to be intensifying even more, instead of mellowing out. I knew this couldn't be an ordinary situation, so I reached farther. I felt something hard as I inched forward. Something cold and round on my hand. It felt like the steel toes of- "We didn't want it to come down to this," said a familiar voice.

Then suddenly, as if on cue, a different, much louder voice came over a booming megaphone. "Put your hands on your head now! If you fail to comply you will be shot down where you are!" the rumbling male voice made no apologies for its abruptness. So, I stood up, putting my hands on my head. The blaring lights started to come down. As they did, it revealed a new sight for the Puente del Cielo. It was filled with high-powered spotlights on the tops of rough terrain camouflage vehicles from Squadron.

These green and brown jeeps had all the stops necessary for a cop to do his job under any circ.u.mstances and then some. The steel-toed boots I felt were those of a member of my own Squadron team. At first, I suspected Evan, but I should have known better to doubt my greatest friend. But the shockwave that came over me when the lights on the jeeps went out completely was earth shattering.

"Geary!" I couldn't stop my lips from saying it aloud. One of four team members that were said to have died back in the factory. He was apparently still alive, but Evan told me that he and the others were taken out. Perhaps he was misinformed, because here Geary is standing at an angle in front of me. He was grounded to the left side of Corinth's now flinching body. My boy could not have picked a worse time to start waking up.

"We have some business to take care of here, Criston. Let's make this easy for all of us, okay?" He nodded like the snot faced jerk he is. What the h.e.l.l could he be talking about? I guess Squadron didn't take too well to me escaping like that. I hoped they didn't suspect Evan's involvement. The jeeps had me barricaded in. They're lined up one after another, stretching across the width of the bridge. They were in front of me and likewise behind. There was no escaping this time around. "Now hand over your llave, and the boy won't be harmed," Geary threatened. I don't know what's going on, but I know I don't like him using my son as a bargaining tool.

I leaped at him, even though he was holding an absorption gun. I didn't want to take another hit from one of those puppies anyway. My hopes were that I could wrestle the rifle like gun from him and turn this little get together into a full-fledged party.

I knocked him to the ground and straddled his torso. He was a pretty big guy, but then again, so am I. I used all of my six-foot-two muscled frame to break the death grip he had on the gun. He held on tight, but I pressed the gun down into his throat, pressing my face to his, then snapped back, pulling the gun away with me. As I gained this leverage over him, I ran into another problem. The dozens of men that came to aide him just as I started this futile a.s.sault. It took at least six men to pull me off of him, kicking and screaming, but at least I let him know that I wasn't a lame duck just yet. They dragged me back, and he got up with a tense look crawling over his face. He seemed embarra.s.sed that he needed so much help to deal with a defenseless father.

"Hold him back and let me have a piece of him, boys!" he said to the men behind me, gripping my arms and shoulders, while forcing me to my knees. After he spoke, they responded immediately by tightening their grasp on me. I guess his pride wasn't too important that he couldn't simply pummel the embarra.s.sment out of me. This was going to hurt. I braced myself as he came in for a harsh blow to the gut. He stepped back, leaning on his left leg, and then drove his right fist into my stomach at hurricane wind speeds. I hunched over in agony, as he giggled in delight.

Like a harsh winter breeze, someone shouted out, firm and familiar. "Stop this idiotic rant now!" But it was too late for Geary, the jerk, to halt his second shot. His fist came plowing into my chest, as I lifted myself to catch wind of the demanding voice, harder than a soccer ball kicked by the strongest of strikers. I cringed again, dropping my head, and started coughing my lungs out. I couldn't catch my breath, not after a hit like that. I kept my head down for a second and saw Corinth being picked up and carried away by a strange fellow in white.

I started shouting, kicking and throwing myself about."Corinth! Corinth... wake up! Use your powers, use your powers!" But he was still foggy. He could barely open his eyes, better yet focus his mind enough to help us out of this jam. I kept screaming and shouting though, because I didn't know what else to do. I felt the walls closing in around me. Every one of my plans had fallen to bits. I just couldn't get it right.

"Why did you hit him when I clearly ordered you to stop?" came a question from my new worst enemy.

"I couldn't stop myself. It was like a reflex or something," said the oaf, Geary, while he scratched his head, defiantly looking the other man in the eye with a smirk.

"Criston, I'm sorry that had to happen," Evan said in a bizarrely calm tone. "I know that you couldn't possibly have your llave with you. After all, you had to give it up to Julia in order to get into Corinthia, isn't that right?" My mind was racing. I couldn't believe he had betrayed me, -and I couldn't even figure out how he'd betrayed me. His plan seemed so flawless. He helped me escape those two goons that tried to take me to the locked docked. It worked out perfectly. "I'm sorry that things couldn't go over more smoothly. We needed Corinth and we knew you were the only one Julia would allow access to the boy. So- we did what was necessary," he said, with an absent look in his eyes.

"Who the h.e.l.l is 'we?' Who are you working with, Evan? How could you do this to me? We're brothers, and Corinth loves you. He always has!" He seemed completely unaffected by my words.

"This is an issue better discussed with those who still need you alive," his voice grew colder with every word. This certainly wasn't the Evan I grew up with. But then again, no one seemed to be like their old selves any more. My wife of thirteen years just nearly destroyed me and our son over a misunderstanding. "Destroy it, on my command!" Evan turned around and shouted back to a man standing behind a long-range explosive gun on a jeep at the center of the barricade to my front. What were they intending-on shooting down? Was it me? I didn't think so, because Evan said 'they,'whoever 'they' are, wanted me alive. Then I turned my head back and noticed what the explosives gun was taking aim at. The locking mechanism to Corinthia. The gateway. "Are you looking, Cris? Because I really want you to see this." His smug smirk left no room for sympathy. He knew exactly what this meant. "Fire!" he demanded.

"No!" I yelled in shock.

How would Julia get out? How would Corinth and I return without the gate? It would take darn-there forever to build another. I guess that's the intent. To cut us off from one another, but more so Julia from us. They most likely feared what new powers she would possess- in time. The gate was supposed to be hidden, but I led them straight to it.All of this was my fault and I'm helpless to fix any of it. My key to wielding magik was in that lock.

As the explosive pullets. .h.i.t the small insignia that marked the gate at the bottom center, a small amount of gold flakes burst out with a lot of the marble from the pillar in response to the impact. The short-lived little gold spot that once marked the entrance to Julia's new World was no more. The pillar itself seemed as if it was going to crumble, but they planned for that. A team of three rushed it, and started reconstructing the damaged area right away. They began s.p.a.ckling new cement from a large silver barrel they carried over. They brought it from the jeeps. They were done quickly. I looked to it after they finished, and it was as if it had never happened. The so called, Pillar of Corinthia, was just an ordinary pillar now.

"It's a cover up," I whispered to myself, while still held captive by the robotic jerks that Geary needed just to get in a punch. They pulled my arms downward, behind my back, and placed two tight bangles around each of my wrist. These bangles were tethered to one another by a short chain. I knew this item all too well. I never thought there would come a day when I'd be on the receiving end of their grasp. The last goon behind me didn't spare an inch as he tightened the handcuffs he'd just placed around my now burning wrist. Oh, karma. -I probably should have listened when all those criminals asked me to loosen the cuffs, and instead I'd tighten them more, nearly taking their wrist off in the process. 'Come on, they're burning my wrist, man!.' That was the most common phrase I heard after I was rea.s.signed to city patrols. Now that guy is me and it's not a fun feeling. Especially when you know for a fact that you're not wrong. My head dropped low, and out of the corner of my eye, I noticed Evan walking toward the former Pillar of Corinthia.

He motioned for the construction crewmen to step aside so he could inspect the fix. It looked like brand new to me. It appeared from the outside that no damage had ever occurred. They could move on without the public being any the wiser. I can't believe that Evan is the guy in charge of all this. Though he didn't seem much like the guy I knew for so long now, there's no mistaking that he's deeply involved in this cryptic scheme. While peering at him, I noticed he lacked a certain sense of human emotion. He conveyed an overly devoted focus on the goal at hand, like some sort of robot. In fact, most of the Squadron members present seemed robotic in movement and speech.

All expect Geary, of course. He was just as vile as usual. He seemed to possess all of his human traits that made him the derelict moron -I knew. That's why I always kept a close eye on him. Always put him in the team I led. Being the commanding officer, I figured keeping morons like him in line was my duty. Of course, it was. And we never got along well because of it.

Evan walked away from the pillar, came over to me and crouched at my front. He lifted my head so that we were eye-to-eye. "I'm sorry that you couldn't stay in the fold, Criston," he said with his robotic talk. "We have been friends for so long and I must admit this is no easy task."

"You're no friend of mine," I said through my teeth. Then in drastic fashion, my tongue and lips, in fact, my entire mouth, reacted instinctively. I hocked a pile of spit straight into his face, and then arrogantly smirked.

He wiped away the spit like it wasn't repulsive at all to him. He didn't even flinch when the first bit of it touched his face after leaving my mouth. His eyes were cold blue, icy and distant. I stared into them, and all I could see was a captive mind. This isn't the Evan I grew up with, not a chance. I can't read this new man. The walls of this man's mind didn't crumble as Evan's usually did when challenged.

Normally, he could never hide an ounce of emotion from anyone, better yet me. His best friend and really ... his brother. His icy blue stare didn't say much of anything to my heart, except n.o.body's home. His tan skin didn't have the same warming glow. He looked unnaturally pale. I thought maybe I shouldn't have done that, for Corinth's sake. I need everyone as calm as possible, to ensure he is treated with a sense of respect and care. But really, who could hope for such a thing from someone who hunts you down and holds you against your will.

"I deserved that I suppose, but let me a.s.sure you that you are only alive because those above me want it to be." He called my arrogantly smirk, and raised me the value of my life. New Evan had quite a hard poker face. He turned away to take something from a Squadron goon standing behind him. I couldn't make out what it was, so I let my head drop again. Just waiting for those around me to decide my fate, as well as Corinth's. I saw just Evan's legs swiftly turn back toward me after he retrieved what he wanted from the goon. Then, he freaking shot me!

"Ow!" I immediately cried out in shock. He got me right in the neck with an absorption dart. A little different from the bigger guns, it was intended for one target at a time. There was no blast radius to account for, just a single dart in my neck. It slowly started working its way through my system. Leeching out any traces of magik in me. I didn't want to go through this again, but I started pa.s.sing out right after my head hit the cobblestone streets with the gold and silver pixie dust flakes in them. I could see only the sparkle from the flakes against the twilight as I began to drift away, lying helplessly on the Puente del Cielo.

Just before I completely lost it, I pulled out the dart sticking from the left side of my neck. I knew the effects had already kicked in, but I was still defiant. My head had hit the ground hard a second ago and my vision was fading from it. But as I stared at the little mechanism I just-pulled from my neck, I'm almost certain it isn't an absorption dart. If not, then what on earth did he just do to me?

Chapter 4:.

The Seat Of Power

March 28, 1002 ~ Midday I came to while in the back of a moving van. I was lying sideways at the very back of the vehicle on its floor. I guess these guys didn't care much about the condition in which I arrived to wherever we're headed. My hands were still handcuffed behind my back. I tried to wiggle out, but it was pointless. From wiggling, I realized that my feet were now shackled as well. Evan knows all too well that I'm crafty. Apparently, he is too. Even more so than I. He must have thought to take every precaution possible to prevent me from escaping.

I can't see to the outside, so I can't gauge where we may be going. But wherever it is, I can tell the driver is in a huge rush to get there. The van kept making sudden turns and swerving back and forth. It seemed as if the driver was-evading traffic, because there's a loud siren that accompanied the roar of the engine. I had never seen an interior of a van like this before while at Squadron. In fact, the siren was different from the local police units, and Squadron's alike. If I took a gander, I'd say that we are in the city center. Hints from the evasive driving. That's the only place I can think of that's populated enough to need to drive like a maniac.

I realized that I had no idea how much time haspa.s.sed. The darts are usually weaker than the radius blast. Also, I wasn't using much magik at the time, but I had just used a spell with that cheetah girl's llave before they caught up with me. Abruptly, I recalled my fading mind on the bridge. Was it a dart or some new technology he shot me up with? Without my llave, things are-going to be very rough with these guys. Most likely it hadn't been very long, only a couple of hours I'd estimate.Then again, the sun was fading when I began fading, but now she's standing tall in the sky, I noticed from one of two back windows.

The car came to a very sudden stop. With my body being pressed up against, what seemed like two outward opening backdoors, I still couldn't get any sort of vantage point. My mind raced about Corinth's well being. That sun-dried Gente Peligroso from the abandoned factory said something about a transfer. I'd never dream that Evan is willingly taking part in a plot that might end my son's life.

I kept on thinking sad and maddening thoughts until the two backdoors swung open and I rolled out off the floor of the van onto a road filled with shrieking people. It was a low drop, but still hurt, -as I couldn't even begin to brace myself for it. The ma.s.ses had come out for some event, but it didn't seem like anything remotely cheerful. Some screamed, some threw their fist into the air in rebellion, and others even carried signs. Signs that nearly split my mind in half.

I thought it possible, but I never imagined the extent to which the 8ights Council would go to remain firmly in control of all that occurred in Draconia and abroad. But only here in Draconia could they ama.s.s a crowd like this. Full of angry parents, scared onlookers, -and lone strangers that just wanted something to yell about. This was the 8ights' way of making people feel like their voices were being heard. By giving them the opportunity to confront public enemy number one.

"Me," I whispered at first, while staring up from the ground at the crowds behind barredmetal barricades. "You think I'm the one to blame for all this. Open your eyes people... you're being duped!" I started shouting, but with all the push back from the large crowd in Center Square, no one could hear my cries. Not even me. The collective voices of concerned citizens, or idiots, whichever fits best, drowned out my every word.

A set of Squadron goons, guys I never encountered before in my fourteen year career, picked me up off the ground where I fell from the van. As they erected me to an upright position, I found myself facing the crowd head on. They were held back by dozens of those barricades. I a.s.sumed they would, at the very least, unshackle my legs so that I could walk, but the opposite happened.

They grabbed me almost simultaneously. Onefrom underneath my shoulders, and the other from beneath my knees. Those two went on carrying me after a third goon dressed in a standard all black jumpsuit slammed shut the van's backdoors. These were the ordinary Squadron uniforms, but these weren't ordinary Squadron members. These guys seemed superhuman. Way too strong for their sizes, and just so d.a.m.n emotionless.

Every time I caught a glimpse into one of their eyes, they appeared lifeless. The color of their eyes was also very strange. I had never seen a shade of blue like that in all my life here in Draconia. This is our race, we all have blue eyes, some lighter and shiny than others, but nonetheless just plain old blue eyes. This shade was so icy, so shiny that it didn't look like something that occurred in nature. At least not the nature I grow up around. Come to think of it, Evan had the same myopic stare shuttering through and through last I saw him.

Though it's possible that I'm the one who has become myopic. As I glanced back at the crowd behind me, all I saw was a gray blur of angry faces that I couldn't see past. I couldn't distinguish one mad face from another anymore. I lacked the ability to relate to the fears that must be enveloping all of the Worlds right now. To hear that a new World has been created must be terrifying. There were so many dangerous people out there, even groups of them like the Gente Peligroso, but no one believed that anyone had the power to do such a thing. Year after year, we hear different news stories about someone trying and failing miserably to use the forbidden spell that Julia masterfully wielded. Overtime, those stories occurred less and less. The very nature of them struck fear in the hearts of potential candidates for future attempts to create with the dreaded phrase: Novus Ordo Seclorum I didn't dare utter the phrase aloud, for fear of the outcome. I didn't even have my llave with me and I still couldn't muster the courage that Julia didn't seem to think twice about. To bring about a New Age Order is no small feat.

While I thought, I looked around at the buildings downtown and they didn't have the same vibrancy that I used to notice. Center Square at the Parthenon was crowded and tense, but all I saw was a uniformed image of gray on gray. The goons had gotten me to the large marble steps of the Parthenon and were carrying me up into the building, where I presume the 8ights Council would decide my fate.