Dubai, United Arab Emirates, December 18, 2009, 10:10 pm.
After a long day filled with unusual things, Liam and his parents went to the hotel after having dinner. Liam could feel something wasn’t right; When Donggun showed him his quick sketch of Camellia, for no apparent reason, he felt in danger. After he closed the suite door behind him, he sighed loudly. “Nothing is wrong! Why do I feel freaked out?” Liam said to himself while taking off his clothes.
He lay on his bed after washing up and changed into a pair of gray shorts and a white t-shirt. Liam sighed loudly again and looked at the ceiling. He couldn’t sleep; he tried to call Nadine and Camellia, but neither answered. Half of his face was covered with bright lights coming from the shining buildings of the city. He groaned suddenly and held his head in frustration; his mind kept asking unanswered questions that all led to either Nadine or Camellia knowing the answers.
He took his phone from the nightstand and unlocked it to call Nadine one more time. It kept ringing for a few seconds. When the call ended with Nadine not picking up, he closed his eyes and pressed his lips firmly. He put his phone on the nightstand again and then took a sleeping pill next to a bottle of water. Something was burning inside his chest; something was itching his thoughts; he eyed the sleeping pill before putting it back on the nightstand.
He looked at the ceiling for a few seconds before taking a deep breath. He covered his face with both of his hands harshly and then rubbed it. “Fuck!” he cursed loudly in frustration. His mind was panicking. Camellia’s image was right inside his head; he had an unreasonable feeling that he had seen her terrified face before; he could swear that his mind was playing a weird trick on him because he had never seen her other than her usual happy self.
He moved his hands and looked again at the nightstand, then drank some water before resting his body and closing his eyes, trying to relax and, hopefully, shutting down the overwhelming feeling of chaos running its way to him. Liam a deep male voice called from far. Liam opened his eyes swiftly, looking around in panic.
The sounds of people talking from outside the suite door calmed him a bit. “They scared the shit out of me,” he said to himself, then closed his eyes.
Liam! the same voice said again, yet this time louder. Liam set up and twisted the switch off the lamp next to him. He looked around in terror; he knew this voice, yet no name or face came to his confused mind. The voice called again, and it sounded like it came from the bathroom.
Liam got up quickly and strolled toward the source of the voice. He managed after a few seconds to stand right across the door. He took a deep breath and hesitantly grabbed the doorknob. Liam opened the door fast as if he were trying to catch someone behind it, yet the bathroom was dark and empty. “Nothing,” he said to himself, then reached his hand to grab the doorknob again to close the door.
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Before he could grab the doorknob; he froze when he felt someone’s hand gripping his wrist; he opened his mouth to scream but his voice got stuck between his lungs when the voice called again, yet this time was closer and louder.
Strong bright black strings appeared around Liam’s wrist and slowly formed a human hand tightly clenching around his wrist. The bright strings lit the whole place, revealing the person who was holding his wrist; he was looking down with some of his hair covering half of his face.
Liam opened his eyes wide, not able to understand what was happening. “Liam,” the man said in a deep, hoarse voice. Liam tried to talk, but his mind shut him down.
He knew him, he knew his voice.
The man looked up and directly into Liam’s eyes. Liam stopped breathing for a long second; the face of the man shocked him to the core.
The man standing before him was tall and muscled with a tan skin tone, and black straight hair that covered some of his forehead. He was wearing a black French coat, a gray t-shirt with a black leather strap over his chest, black jeans, and leather military hiker boots.
He had a full, thick black beard and hazel eyes that stared intensely into Liam’s face. “It’s time. We can now end it all.”
Liam eyed him and said, “Who are you? How did you get in here?”
The man sighed, annoyed by Liam’s reaction, and said, “We don’t have time for this, you must remember now!” he grabbed Liam’s head with his free hand, and a mighty sparking bright black light formed from his hand and instantly covered Liam’s head. The bright strings around their hands got brighter and filled the whole place, along with Liam’s groans.
Later.
Liam splashed icy water over his face and looked at himself in the mirror and held his head in pain. “Dammit, Rayan, it hurts,” he retorted.
Rayan chuckled and said, “I didn’t know that your memory was erased as well.” He looked back at the glass window, eyeing the bright lights of the city.
“Why did it erase my memories?” he said and walked back to his bed.
“We don’t know. We did as we were told. It took Camellia eight years to get here. They were everywhere.”
“And the rest, did they get them, too?”
“No, your dome protects them well. They don’t remember shit either.” Liam sighed and looked over his bed where a large black bow and arrows were on it. He took a deep breath, then held the bow. It completely fit his large hands, where bright green strings vibrated out of his strong veins covering the bow. He took one arrow with his other hand walked to the balcony and stood in the middle.
The bow was heavy; made of strong black metal, and the arrows also made from the same material with silver-colored arrowhead and flaming green arrow fletching. Liam gripped it and pointed one arrow at the clear, dark sky.
With the fletching inches away from his face, he whispered some words to it, then shot the arrow. It went into green, and a bright flame penetrated the dark sky in the blink of an eye, destroying the calm night sky with bright mighty lighting flickering shocking it.
Rayan looked at his pocket clock and said, “Camellia should be here at any minute.”
Liam looked at him and walked back inside. He went to the bathroom to change into a pair of dark blue jeans and a black long-sleeved shirt. Liam grabbed one of his flaming green arrows and powerfully thrust it into the middle of his hotel room. He looked at Rayan and said, “This will stop their movements a bit till Camellia gets here.”