Chapter 14

Nate approached the starting point after three days of hunting down the players that were supposed to be hunting prisoners. There was a certain feeling of dread at the starting point, many prisoners were happy to be alive, but they were also afraid the repercussions of all those dead people would somehow blowback on them.

Guards came rushing out of the wall looking angry but they did their duties and handed out tokens before walking back. Nate was now a thousand tokens richer. Added on to his previous amount he now had almost seventeen hundred tokens in total.

When they were back outside of the wilderness there were hundreds of prisoners here to escort the participants belonging to their neighborhood. They seemed surprise to see so many people alive. Usually a hundred survivors would be considered fortuitous but this time there were a hundred and eighty survivors.

“Nate!” a little scrawny kid was waving to him from the crowd of people.

Nate smiled and walked over to Aidan. “Buy me food!”

“Kid that’s the first thing you say to someone who just survived the Wilderness? No shame...” Nate sighed.

“Pfft! Like you had any trouble. Peep the stalkers.” Aidan said nodding his head backwards.

“I see them.” Nate was already aware there were people following, some hiding in alleys while others didn’t even bother disguising the fact they were following.

“Should I take care of it?”

“You crazy? Transforming for these small fries isn’t worth it.”

“I don’t need to transform to take care of a bunch of humans.” Aidan said with an air of superiority.

Nate shrugged his shoulders. Aidan took that as a sign to go ahead. He turned around and addressed the four burly men walking behind them. “Hey you little shits. Move it!” Aidan waved his hand telling them to get lost.

“Shut that kid up.” One of the men said to the other.

That man tried to swat the kid but Aidan easily dodged it. Aidan then cocked his right arm back and punched the man in the gut. The man curled up and started groaning.

“Billy quit acting alright? He’s just a kid, if that punch hurt you then you should never show your face in public.” One of the men laughed.

Billy curled up on the floor completely unaware of what was going on. Aidan casually walked up to the others and handled them just as easily, even when the last guy took Aidan as a serious opponent he was dealt with as if the roles were reversed, as if Aidan was the adult and the adult was a little sickly kid.

“I’m impressed.” Nate laughed as Aidan strutted back to him with a puffed up chest.

Aidan’s little display deterred the stalkers hiding in the alleyways to give up. “The spirit of the wolf can be channeled even in human form.” Aidan said proudly.

Inmate #985237, report to the Humane Society five miles to the south-west. You have three days.

Nate paused as the message played out in his head. “What’s wrong?” Aidan asked.

“I’m wanted at the Humane Society.” Nate pondered the reason why they might’ve been calling him. Going that far south would put him back in the forest and the manor of the vampires. Were the Humane Society setting up in there?

“Nate. Nate? Nate!”

“Hmm?” Nate looked at Aidan who was shaking his arm.

“I asked you what is that? Humane Society, who’re they?”

Nate spent the next several minutes explaining what he saw on the cell-phone. About how the Humane Society was coming to assess the prisoner’s situation and things like that.

“What’s a cell-phone.” Aidan asked, perplexed.

Nate looked at him with a saddened expression. He sometimes forgot Aidan lived inside the Asylum his whole life. He spent the next four hours telling stories about the outside world, all the inventions, the food, and even airplanes.

Back at their apartment Nate was training while Aidan stuffed his face with food and watched the show Nate put on, completely enraptured.

There were four action figures around Nate. Nate had his eyes closed as he concentrated on each action figure, moving their arms and legs as if they were miniature humans. He made them fight each other as if it was some kind of anime show. Two figures clashed against each other in mid-air while two others fought on the floor.

Nate was happy to provide entertainment for Aidan, but what he was actually doing was practicing his control. Moving things with his mind took intense concentration and the faster he wanted to move the objects, the more practice he needed.

His brain throbbed but it wasn’t bad yet. The fight continued as the action figures got even crazier into their battle. One of the figures in mid-air got a good hit on the other and sent the figure crashing to the ground. The one in mid-air took advantage and dived down to stomp on his fallen foe but the one on the floor barely dodged in time.

“Woah!” Aidan shouted. Nate almost lost his concentration at Aidan’s outburst. Aidan was eating furiously as he watched the battle, when he saw something impressive he’d make little “oh!” and “Ah!” sounds that made Nate want to burst out laughing.

Eventually the pain in Nate’s brain became too much. He set the figures down and made them bow to the “audience”. Aidan laughed and cheered, which made Nate ecstatic someone enjoyed his little puppet show.

He wondered where and how he got his powers. It was a question that’s bothered him ever since he survived the eight story drop from his apartment. He also wondered why the demon chose their family, out of the hundreds of people living in that apartment complex.

When he couldn’t think of a proper answer he moved onto his powers. He’d discovered his powers had limits. There was a certain amount of mental energy he had at his disposal, the more he practiced the denser his mental energy became but after the burst in his brain it was like a flood of mental energy entered allowing him more access to energy. If the available mental energy before was like a pool, then after the burst in his brain it was like a lake. Using his telekinesis, he could lift heavy objects but the further away that object was, the heavier it felt to him in his brain. For example, lifting a car was no problem as long as he was near it. But lifting a car twenty feet, or thirty feet away was like trying to lift a mountain.

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His ability to create things with his mental energy also had limits. If there was enough force striking what he created, then it would shatter like glass. Like when he created an ethereal hand to restrain Charlie’s movements, once Charlie applied enough force his ethereal hand shattered. But his newest ability was strangest of all. Just like when he used mental energy to ‘puppet’ his own body and move faster, he could do the same with other people. As long as they weren’t awake he could use his mental energy to take over their bodies as if it was his own.

“Again! Again!” Aidan shouted when things had calmed down.

“You want me to go again, then hand me that bag of trail mix.” After a quick meal and a short rest Nate resumed the battle.

…

Anza was standing on a balcony looking down at the garden. The garden was her favorite place to relax but today she couldn’t, her nerves were on edge. There was a figure down below covered in crimson blood. Concentric circles made with black powder littered the ground. Incense burned, as the figure covered in blood danced and sang.

“Is this your first time?” Luke asked from behind her.

“Mother told me Amelia was trained as a shaman. I just never knew what that meant exactly. There was never a need to use her shaman powers.” Anza replied.

It’s been three days since the incident and Anza was still dealing with the fallout. There were government officials and rich influential people that were demanding answers. Family members, demanding blood and payment. Even the Founding sent people to question her competency. She needed results, and she needed them now.

The singing from down below was getting louder as Amelia’s pace quickened. Her dance was strange to behold; Anza could feel the power gathering in the air. Amelia’s singing came to a climax, thunder was heard in the air, gale wind started blowing fiercely as the clear blue sky turned cloudy. Suddenly everything calmed.

“Did it work?” Anza whispered. She felt the power that gathered finally being released.

Luke didn’t answer. They both watched Amelia carefully when suddenly a grayish portal opened up not two feet away from where she stood. Figure after figure rushed out of the grey portal and gathered before Amelia. There were thirty-seven figures total

“Go! Avenge yourselves! No one else will do it for you!” Amelia spoke with authority. With an inhumane roar the thirty-six figures suddenly disappeared.

…

Nate was in front of a large building with the words, Humane Society written across the top. Two guards with automatic rifles stood guard outside glaring at the hundred or so prisoners who were standing outside.

The message he received when he first came out of the wilderness became more and more insistent that he go to the Humane Society. He figured just to shut it up he’d go find out what they wanted from him. Turns out, he wasn’t the only one.

Finally, the large gates opened and several people came out with clip-boards in hand. They started to read off prisoner number names. “…The rest of you please leave.” Several people showed up that weren’t called, whether to support the ones who did or were just curious to see what was going on didn’t matter, they were first asked, then forced to leave.

Nate figured they must have more than just prisoner numbers. Otherwise how’d they know which prisoner was which. After the others left Nate and a few prisoners were escorted inside the building under armed guard. They were then separated and taken individually.

The person Nate ended up in front of was a mousy looking girl with glasses. She was tapping away on her computer barely looking at Nate. “So you’re the one who slaughtered your parents. Hmmm.”

Nate felt a flash of irritation coming on but he ignored it. For ten minutes she continued tapping away on the little computer. His curiosity got the best of him. An ethereal ghost like version of him dejected from his body and went to stand over by the woman’s shoulder.

The computer screen was divided in two, on one hand there was a report with him image on the file. On the other there was a game of solitaire. She was focused on the game of solitaire.

“Are you fucking serious?!”

The woman flinched as she saw Nate getting aggressive. Reaching over he swiveled the computer screen so it was facing him. The other people behind him were sitting at their desks assisting other prisoners, when they saw his aggressive actions they stood up in alarm and looked for help. But that changed when they saw what was on the screen.

“Your fucking playing a game instead of talking to me? Why the fuck am I here!” He shouted getting angry. Several armed guards began hustling their way over but they were cut off by a white haired Asian man.

“We’re here to help you of course.” He said calmly.

“Help?” Nate scoffed. “You call yourselves the Humane Society yet the first thing you do is address us as inmates. Would it have killed you to use our names? And if that wasn’t bad enough you’re here berating me about killing my family. Why the fuck should I be here then?”

“You’re Nate Walker? Come with me please, I assure you we didn’t mean to offend.” Nate was still fuming but the man was talking so calm that he felt like an asshole for being aggressive. The white haired man wasn’t that old, only mid to late twenties at the most yet he spoke as if he was the man in charge.

He led Nate out of the main floor where the other prisoners were being handled and brought him to a large room with a padded door. There was an expensive rug on the floor, a desk, and a computer screen. One large window that faced the outside so those inside could see the forest landscape nearby.

“My name is Kiru Sangsanoy. I’m sure you’re wondering what you’re doing here. I’d be glad to tell you but first can you tell me why you participated in the Wilderness hunt even though you had seven hundred tokens?”  Kiru reclined back on the large chair behind the desk.

“There was someone I was looking to protect.” Nate said off-handedly.

“Is that so? But how would having a thousand points more help you protect your friend? Why risk your life?”

“You don’t know what goes on in here. If you want protection, then you have to put in your work. When your number is up, it’s up. Now can you tell me why your ‘Humane Society’ hasn’t done shit to stop the things that go on in the Wilderness?” Nate lied and it was obvious to the man sitting across from him but he didn’t care whether or not Kiru knew the truth.

“Well ‘We’ don’t know what goes on in Black Watch Asylum. I do, but that was through other means.” Kiru smiled.

Nate looked at him suspiciously. “Who’re you?”

“I’m a mage.” Kiru said without hesitation. “And I’m pretty sure you’re one too.”

Nate scoffed. “You expect me to believe that?

“Well why not? You see there are only two scenarios that could’ve gone down in your apartment that night. Either you really did kill your parents and ate their flesh. Or a demon came and wreaked havoc in your apartment.”

Nate’s jaw hit the floor when he heard Kiru mention demons so casually. He looked carefully at the man but his expression was so calm and collected it’s like he didn’t just mention demons. As if he could hear Nate’s thoughts he continued.

“We’re perfectly aware of demons. We know it visited you.”

“Do you know why? Where does it come from? Why was it so disfigured yet still looked human? Why— “

“Woah! Slow down, I can’t answer that many questions at once. I’ll tell you what we know but first I’d like to run a test on you. If you agree, and pass, then you’ll get the knowledge you seek.”

“And if I fail?” He asked.

“Well if you fail then you’re useless to us. We’ll leave you here to rot in Black Watch Asylum.”

A flash of anger went through Nate but then he realized Kiru’s meaning. “Wait, does that mean if I pass you’ll get me out of here?” He asked hopefully even though a part of him felt surprised at the man’s callousness. If they knew he was innocent but wasn’t a mage would they really leave him here to rot? Nate didn’t bother asking though.

“Bingo.” Kiru stood up from behind the desk and shooed Nate to the corner of the room. He then reached down and removed the carpet revealing strange symbols on the floor.

“Sit there, in the middle.” Kiru ordered.

Nate was perplexed but he followed orders. There was an empty space right in the middle of the large diagram, Nate sat down.

“Now, cut your hand and let the blood pour onto the diagram.” Kiru said handing Nate a knife.

Nate looked at Kiru strangely. “Just do it.” Kiru repeated.