"Grandma!" yelled Israel.
She and the man turned to look at the source of the sudden outburst.
"Israel?!"
"Thomas!"
Israel was confused. Who is Thomas, why is the house in disarray, and why is this man holding a sword to Grandma, thought Israel as he stood in the doorway with a scared and confused look about his face.
"What's going on?" asked Israel trying to mask the dear and worry in his shaky voice.
The man began to examine Israel's body, his eyes slowly drinking in the sight of the terrified young boy in the doorway.
"You've made him into quite the young man Elanor." he said with a smirk of pleasure across his face.
Elanor?, thought Israel. He was beginning to get a headache from not knowing what was happening. Just then Grandma put the middle and index fingers of her right hand on her right temple and looked fiercely at the grey man.
He dropped to his sword on the ground. It landed heavily causing the floor to crack a little. He grabbed his head with his hands and began to squeeze and pull at his hair. He suddenly started screaming in an extremely high pitch scream. It sounded as if a field of bats and birds were suddenly screaming in unison. He staggered backwards and fell.
Grandma dropped her hand from her temple, grabbed Israel by the wrist, and began running.
They ran through the hallway and out the door. They ran until they were about half a mile away and they stopped by the river. Grandma leaned over, sat on the grass, and began gasping for air.
"Grandma," Israel said while sitting on the ground panting for breath as well, "what's going on?"
"Oh my poor baby boy. It's too much to explain!"
"Please, tell me. I need to know!" Israel exclaimed as a look of perplexed sadness fell upon his face.
"You see…when you were younger, about five years old, you came to my house in the middle of a rainy night. You were soaking wet, cold, all bruised up, filthy with mud, and covered in blood. I told you to come in and that I would care for you after you told me what happened to the best of your knowledge. I took you in also because I believe that you are the child of the Un-Written Destiny. That is why what happened that night had happened. You are a prize. You are a person un-bounded by fate! Nothing can cause you death. Only Death himself can cause you death but even then he cannot! Destiny and Fate won't allow it! At least that is what I believe."
"Why don't I remember anything about that night?"
"While I cared for you, you had horrible nightmares…painful nightmares. You would cry in your sleep but remember nothing once you woke up. Your tears caused the animals to cry in despair, your screams would send back the strongest storms; your depression would cause plants to wither away. Nothing could bear the pain you were enduring! Your suffering was so bad that Death, Israel, came to me and begged me to plea for your death. I refused. I said that it's your decision! You continued to wail and moan. I couldn't take it anymore, so I locked away all of your memories of everything before you met me. I locked them away to keep you from feeling any more pain, but now I think that I shouldn't have manipulated your memories at all. I regret it! I should have at least gradually let you know the truth! I should have taught you how to defend yourself! I should have allowed you to choose a profession! You have no way to defend yourself. It's my entire fault. Oh why?! Why did I mess with your mind?"
"Grandma…it…it's okay…" Israel said as he knelt over and hugged Grandma who was now burying her face in her hands trying to hold back the surge of tears now coming from her old weary eyes.
Grandma looked into Israel's eyes and touched his temples.
Her eyes are so otherworldly, thought Israel as he stared into Grandma's pale purple eyes.
She began to unlock his memories. All of his memories were being released from their confinements. She released his mother, caring and loving. Memories of his mother arose feelings of joy and happiness that felt foreign to him. She released his childhood memories, fun and goofy. His entire childhood was revealed to him in a matter of seconds. And then that night began to be revealed.
Each unlocking of every second of that night hurt Israel. All of that sadness, that PURE sadness, that despair, that suffering, that fear, and that confusion was released in one instant.
"AHHHHHH!" yelled Israel in agonizing emotional pain.
"I'm so sorry," said Grandma as she slowly stood up, "I'm just grateful that you still have emotion left in your heart and that you're not cold and cruel from all that you've gone through."
Israel stood up from the ground. He looked as if he hadn't slept in the last week.
"ELANOR!"
The scream came from the grey man. He was outside the house staring at them. Israel looked at Grandma and said,
"So…your real name is Elanor…my real name is actually Thomas…My mother is-," he stopped speaking because he noticed that the man had started walking towards them. Elanor turned and aw him as well. She turned back around and faced Thomas.
"Run! Run away to the city known as Alteya. There will be a friend of mine there. Chronos… Ask about Chronos… She can help you."
"But-," Elanor cut off Thomas.
"Go NOW!" yelled Elanor revealing a rage unheard from her before. There was still care in it though.
Thomas hadn't ever heard her yell before, let alone with such rage. He looked at her in shock and fear as he began to stagger backwards.
"Please go," whimpered Elanor as her eyes began to tear up again.
Thomas turned around and began running as fast as he could.
"Come back here boy!" yelled the grey man now no less than 10 feet away from Elanor.
Thomas sped up as well as the breeze.
A storm began to roll in. Elanor began to fight the grey skinned man.
"Fool…" sighed the man as he pulled out his sword and shook his head.
Elanor had been building up her telekinetic powers. Her hair began to flow from the energy that was apparent around her. She had been looking down and now she looked up, revealing her vibrant purple eyes. The ground cracked, fragments of the earth began to float as her body levitated off of the ground. She kicked off from her position and flew towards the grey man with her fist in front of her.
As she approached him, he waved his hand and a shadow came across the grass and covered her. She fell to the ground. He closed his fist.
"Ahhhhhh! Ahhhh! Ugn! Ah!
Elanor's bones were cracking and splitting while inside of her body. The grey man began to laugh hysterically. As Elanor rolled on the floor, bones now shattering and piercing the skin causing her blood to spill over the green grass, she looked at the grey man with her tear filled eyes and released all of her telekinetic powers in one blast. As soon as she released it, her skull cracked and caved in.
The blast disrupted the land around it. The trees began cracking and the earth began to float around. It was flying towards him. When it hit him, the impact sent him backwards about five feet. He fell to the floor dropping his sword but this time it fell straight into the ground. He stood up, dusting of his jet black suit, smiled, and said, " Now where oh where has my little boy gone?" He snickered, picked up his sword and began walking forward.
Thomas had been running along the side of the river for about 10 minutes now. He stopped and began panting to catch his breath. He fell to the ground due to fatigue. He rolled over and began staring into the sky, now covered in black and dark grey clouds. It began raining and with each raindrop that fell on him, tears would fall from is eyes. His hair became wet and as he sat up, it clung to his bare chest. The band he'd put around it earlier no longer bound it. It must have fallen when I was running, thought Thomas as he continued to cry.
BOOM!
A sudden thrash of thunder sounded, scaring Thomas out of his hopelessness. That sudden noise got Thomas angry and so he began to yell as more thunder sounded. Louder and louder he emitted his voice not only trying to drown out the thunder and rain but trying to drown out his fear and sadness. Why isn't the storm leaving like Grandma said it used to, thought Thomas as his voice slowly quieted.
"Thomas!"
Thomas looked and saw the grey man coming up the river. He hadn't seen Thomas. Thomas jumped into the river and swam to the other side, near the forest. He crawled out of the river, frantically looking around to see if the grey man saw him, but he didn't see the grey man anymore! He turned and ran into the forest. With each step, with every breath he took, and with every drop of rain that hit him, that night crept its way from past memories into present ones.
Thomas stopped suddenly because he had gotten a cramp in his side. He grabbed it and looked around for a spot that was remotely safe for him to sit and regain his energy. He saw a half hallowed out tree and walked to it with a limp. He put his back up against it and slowly slid down. As he sat, he looked up and noticed that the moon was shining brightly through the storm clouds above him. I bet there's no hurting up there, thought Thomas as his eyes filled with tears. The reality of the situation was setting in now.
"What did I do to deserve this," Thomas asked himself drearily.
"You didn't do anything."
Thomas's heart was suddenly consumed by fear as his eyes widened. He slowly looked up to the sight he was dreading. The grey man was kneeling before him.
Where'd he come from and why didn't I see him come up to me, thoughtThomas.
"What do you want with me," whined Thomas.
The man snickered a little and said, " I need you to be my partner in both work and play. I need you to be a partner when fighting and my lover in romancing."
"What?! Why me?" asked Thomas as his face showed an intrigued yet somewhat fearful expression.
"Because…. your gifts are great! You are great! You are perfect!"
The man now approached Thomas, clearly violating his personal space. Thomas couldn't move. He was trapped. The man continued, " You are pure, yet you are lust incarnate. You are death; yet you give others reason to live. You are cursed, yet you are perfect."
The man was now within two inches of Thomas's face. He kissed his neck and slowly trailed his tongue along his neck to his ear and stopped. As he did that Thomas grew a little more relaxed, but tried to push the grey man away. The man looked Thomas in the eyes and at that moment, moonlight streamed through the darkness of the storm revealing the grey man's face. His eyes were the red of rubies. His hair was silver and spiked. Thomas was in awe. The man brushed his head past Thomas's face. The smell of roses lingered in the air for a moment.
The man whispered into Thomas's ear, " I need you to be mine. I must be the first and only one to ever enter you and I must be the first person you ever enter as well as the only." His words were so gentle and smooth.
"What is your name?" asked Thomas as he continued to try and push him away. His efforts were useless. The grey man was too strong.
"That's right! You don't know my name."
He slowly backed away and stood up. He stared at Thomas lustfully and spoke, " My name is S-"
He was cut off by a kick in the face from James. He had jumped from a nearby tree. The grey man landed harshly on the ground. James turned and grabbed Thomas.
"I heard the screams from the waterfall. I ran and saw everything." James explained as he pulled Thomas closely to his chest making Thomas grab him tightly.
"Stupid child!" grumbled the grey man as he lifted his body from the ground. His suit untouched by mud or water.
James held Thomas tightly and said, "Buh bye!"
He then jumped into the air. They were about 20 feet high before they suddenly flew at a high speed towards the mountain valleys.
As they flew, Thomas cried a little and the storm began dying down. Thomas's tears fell from his face and as they fell they looked like little diamonds. So warm, thought Thomas. He was referring to James hug. The wind slowly dried them.
When they got near the mountains but still in the mountain valleys, they landed. They lie down in the grass and stared at the sky, now clear of any storm clouds.
"What's going in?"
"I'm not quite sure myself."
"What do you mean?" asked James as he sat up.
Thomas sat up to, while saying, " I just learned a lot of things that I didn't know." Then Thomas began explaining everything.
"So your real name is Thomas and not Israel?"
"Yeah…"
"You have no family that you know of?"
"Nope…"
"That grey guy wants to have you as his?"
"That's what I think now…"
"And you need to get to Alteya to find a girl named Chronos?"
"Yep…"
"Well that's not too far away from here. It's past those mountains though."
He pointed to a ring of tall thick mountains that seemed to be an unnatural barrier of giant stone spires.
"We have to go through though."
"We?"
James looked Thomas in the eyes, smiled, and said, "Well yeah! I mean you need someone to protect you since you're unable to protect yourself."
Thomas laughed a little. He laughed as he thought to himself, Sure…if that's the excuse you want to use then be my guest. Thomas then remembered something and said, " Well I do know how to fight with rapiers! I can use a whip to! I've just never used them in combat…only when I played with my mother as a child."
"Yeah, well person to person combat over life is a bog difference!"
"Well…." Thomas got quiet and stood up. James did the same.
"Well let's go before that grey guy catches up with us."
They began walking across the field and before they knew it, they were at the mountain base. It was HUGE!
"Through there." James was referring to a gigantic hole in the mountains base. It was pitch black and seemed deprived of life.
"Through there?" asked Thomas with widened eyes of worry.
"Yep!"
"Can't we go around the mountain or over it?"
"No. To go around the mountain would take too long and to go over it would be too dangerous. If we go through, there will be less danger and it'd be a lot faster."
"Well-" James cut Thomas off by asking him if he was scared. He asked him in a taunting way.
"No! I…I'm just…I just don't want to go through there!"
James grabbed Thomas's hand and said, "I'll hold your hand if it'll make you feel better and if you are scared, it's okay. You've been through a lot, but don't worry. I'm here and I'll protect you."
Thomas blushed and said, "Okay," and they began walking into the dark, silent tunnel.
