Chapter Six

He didn’t think he could feel pain once he was dead. But as it happens he could not only feel pain but he could also feel the emotions wrapped up with pain. He didn’t wait all this time just to be the victim of the fucker’s son. And Allen would be damned before he let his vulnerability show again.

He didn’t need to hide in the tiny closet anymore and so he kneeled next to the window and he glanced down at his wound. The dagger had opened his spirit better than he thought possible. His matter, which would have been blood if he were alive, continued flowing.

Orion must have failed. He clearly remembered when Orion ordered him to time jump to the present day to battle Rick and destroy his son and some young woman; Orion claimed this woman to have the ability to become a Dream Crusader. If he, Orion, was successful in finding their book and opening the gate to the Forbidden Realms then there would be no need for Allen to fight anyone because time would have been altered.

And it seems as if his master has failed. He had been here for the past twenty years. He hid and watched the Hopman’s with a close eye. He watched his future world pass him by without being allowed to join it.

If he had not succumbed to Orion’s passion, he would still be alive and enjoying this present time. For the past twenty years he sat alone hating Orion for what he had made of him. And now he was left with the empty feeling of loneliness and desertion. Without anyone giving him orders he felt like a lost lamb without a shepherd.

There had been many nights when he thought that pretty soon this lamb would be lost forever and even the greatest of the shepherds couldn’t bring him back home.

Vince awoke feeling rejuvenated. How long has it really been since he’s had his own dreams? He sat up and looked over at the digital clock and registered that it was ten thirty and he only had another half hour before check-out time. He cocked his head to the right and felt it pop and then he stood up.

He went to the bathroom to relieve himself and then took a quick shower. Feeling better than he had in a long time, he got out, dried off, and put his clothes back on and hurried out the door.

He had decided to pay a visit to the diner before heading back on the highway. Stepping inside the bright diner he scanned the area and found a booth next to the window overlooking the parking lot. He sat down and the waitress approached him the second he got comfortable.

“What can I get for you?”

“Uh,” Vince did a quick scan of the menu and then looked back up. “I’ll have a Number Two, sunny-side-up eggs, sausage links, and a black coffee.”

The waitress smiled and turned around and headed to the back of the counter where the cook’s station was and slipped her ticket across to the cooks.

Vince let his mind go over several things he could teach Mykella during her training. He was wondering if he should begin with defense moves then go to offense, or the other way around. He had taken karate such a long time ago that he could no longer remember any good moves, both offensive and defensive. He’s seen enough of the old Rocky films to teach her a basic technique of boxing, but that was the movies.

He glanced up from his thoughts and almost jumped back in his seat. For a fraction of a second he thought he saw his mother standing by the door with her profile toward him. And she was gone just like that.

The waitress returned and put a cup of coffee down on the table in front of him. “Thanks,” he said, only half-looking at the young woman.

She smiled back and as she turned he saw something even stranger than seeing his mother in this diner. As the waitress turned, he saw that her eye had twitched as if she were thinking (or, for that matter, remembering) of something that she knew she couldn’t quite put her finger on.

And then she was there – his mother – standing next to the old juke box resting next to the door. She vanished as soon as the waitress brought Vince’s food to him.

As she placed the plate down, she looked at Vince with an embarrassed expression in her eyes. “I’m sorry,” she began and pulled away as she stood up. “You look very familiar.”

So she was trying to recall something, he thought and smiled up at her. “Have you been to Chicago?”

This novel's true home is a different platform. Support the author by finding it there.

She shook her head. “Not since I was about five or six.”

Vince stole a glance up at her name tag and squinted in confusion. “Xan? I’ve never heard that name before.”

She smiled. “It’s short for Alexandria. I shortened it when I was in high school.”

They stared at one another for a short time and they were brought back to whatever present time this was by the sound of an older man from behind the front register.

“Xan, table three needs refills,” he called to her.

She turned and nodded and quickly picked up her tray and headed off to table three where she picked up two coffee cups and two juice glasses.

Once she had disappeared into the back room, Vince grabbed his fork and shoved an entire egg into his mouth. Odd woman, he thought and shoved a sausage link into his mouth. While chewing he kept thinking about the waitress’s eyes. As he shoved his second egg into his mouth he recalled her hands. And as he finished off his second sausage, he thought only of her face and he had come to a conclusion.

He stood up, reached down and grabbed his coffee and downed it in one gulp – he almost cried out when the scorching liquid went down his throat – and headed over to the back room and waited for Xan to return.

What he did not expect was to be standing on the wrong side of the swinging door and when she pushed it open, he fell onto his back as it hit him in the face.

“Oh my God!” she yelped and quickly put the tray down on a near-by table and bent down to help Vince up. She helped him to a chair and sat down next to him. “Are you okay?” She had turned bright pink. “I am so sorry. I didn’t see you there.”

Vince had been rubbing his forehead while listening to her apologies; he was feeling a bit embarrassed as well. “It was all my fault – I was standing on the wrong side it seems.”

“Why were you there? Did you need something?”

“Yeah. I wanted to know if you are my sister.”

Everything seemed to have stopped, including their hearts. Several customers seemed to have been watching the scene as Vince could feel their eyes on them.

“I…thought…maybe,” She was shaking with anticipation as she looked at Vince. “I don’t know.” She looked away as if in some mental anguish she did not want Vince to see.

He reached into his pocket and laid a paper down on the table. “Did you write this?” He slid it over to Xan.

With tears welling in her eyes she glanced down. There was no need to read it. She had written that letter a long time ago in hopes of finding a family. And when it was never answered, she thought that either her brother was dead or else she had the wrong person. She put her hand over the paper and nodded.

Vince stood up and walked to her. “I’m Vincent Hopman. I just found your letter yesterday – I didn’t know my dad was actually trying to find my real father.”

She shook her head. “Doesn’t matter now. We’ve gone our separate ways – sort of a falling out, you could say. But let’s not talk about that. You should come to my house when you can,” she reached into her apron, pulled out a piece of scrap paper, and scribbled down her address.

He grabbed it but kept staring at his sister like this couldn’t be happening. “My dad died yesterday.” He didn’t know why he was telling her this – especially now in a place not too intimate.

Nonetheless she pulled him to her in a warm embrace. “I’m sorry,” she said.

It was at this moment, being held by blood, Vince broke down and wept. It took him several moments to get control of himself and when he did he pulled away with an apologetic look in his eyes. “I didn’t mean,”

She shook her head. “It’s okay. Really.” She looked back at the man behind the register; he too had been watching the scene – tears were brimming in his eyes as well. “Can I leave a little early,” she asked.

He grinned at her. “Just work a couple of hours over next week,” he replied and she nodded and turned back to Vince.

“Let’s get out of here.”

“I was looking for you just as much as your father was looking for us.” Xan returned to the living room and dropped a photo album down next to Vince. She had just gotten over the lengthy story of the time their mother left their father. Jack had decided on taking Xan with him to another state without telling Tracy where he was going. She was pregnant at the time.

“How’d you know about me?”

She sat down and opened up the album and laid it in his lap. “During one of our many moves I found old prenatal check-up receipts and knew they weren’t from when I was a baby. When I asked Dad about it he gave me the cold shoulder.”

Vince looked down and saw his mother when she was alive. How young and beautiful she looked while holding the baby Alexandria in her arms. So full of life. He looked up at her. “Why doesn’t my father want anything to do with me?”

She shrugged. “My guess is that he suspects Mom may be with you and he doesn’t want that confrontation.”

He lowered his head, turned a couple of pages, and laid his hand on a picture of Tracy and Xan when she was five. “Mom died right after I was born,” he whispered and suddenly felt an enormous cloud overcome his soul.

She couldn’t see or feel that cloud, but Xan did notice a different appearance in her brother. “You okay?”

“There’s things happening in this world, Xan. Things that one couldn’t possibly comprehend.”

She leaned forward and looked at him. “What things?”

He turned his head and had a terrified look in his eyes. “Bad things. Evil things.”