Chapter 5: FRIENDS

Was it a dream? Was it a vision? Or was it a memory? Mechi couldn’t be sure. He tried to understand what was happening with him. “My strength is his.” were the last words that the strange man had said. What did that mean?

He hadn’t remembered actually falling asleep but he must have because it was already starting to get light out as the sun started to rise. He got out of bed, put on his clothes, and headed down the stairs to the kitchen.

Yarin was already sitting at the breakfast island, munching on a piece of toast. “Morning sleepyhead.” she said with a mouth full of toast. She swallowed before continuing. “I went to the “Sev” early this morning, and got a little food for the house. We have… let’s see… toast, and that’s about it.” shoving the rest of the toast into her mouth, she got up to make more.

“Yarin,” Mechi started, “Have you been having any weird dreams lately? Because I had a really weird one last night.”

“I don’t really dream anymore,” she replied, “I’ve had some weird ones before, but I don’t have them anymore.” She looked at the toaster as if, by the shear power of her mind, she could make it cook faster. “I’m not sure I want to know, but what was your dream about?” She asked him, as the toaster popped.

“Have you ever heard of someone name ‘Silvanus Longspear’?” he asked, not expecting the answer he got. The look of surprise on her face was almost shocking to look at.

“Have you?” he repeated, more in response to the look than anything else.

“Um, no, not really.” Yarin replied, her face shifting back to normal. “The name sounds like something from an old legend, from the time of kings, knights, and dragons. How did you come up with such a name as that?”

“I didn’t make it up,” he said with some esparity, “the man in my dream said his name was ‘Silvanus Longspear’. I’ve never heard it before so I figured I’d ask you to see if you’ve heard it before.”

“Nope. Enough nonsense, we have a lot to do today, and we better get started soon.” She said. “Eat your toasted breakfast and brush your teeth, you have three-year-morning breath.” then walked off laughing.

As the twins were getting ready to leave the house, the doorbell rang. This was not an unexpected occurrence. Mechi went to the door and peeked through the window.

With an excitement that he hadn’t felt since he started heading home, he opened the door. It was his best friend Ryan Mac, and Yarin’s best friend Michelle Gaster. The two friends used to date, but found that they got along better as “just friends”.

“Mechi,” Ryan said, slapping him on the shoulder, “I heard that you woke up, but I almost didn’t believe it. How’ve you been?”

“Um, unconscious…” Mechi replied.

“It’s great to see you again.” Michelle said, shoving Ryan out of the way.

Mechi had no idea how to react. Thinking he was alone in the doorway, he stood stunned for a minute, then realized that Michelle had been speaking to Yarin who had come up behind him.

“Michelle!” Yarin screeched, and ran through the doorway, wrapping her arms around her friend.

“That was awkward,” Ryan said, looking over his shoulder at the girls as he and Mechi went inside, “I had no idea that they had missed each other so much.” Mechi laughed.

“How’re you doing Ryan?” asked Mechi, leading his friend into the living room. “I haven’t seen you since… come to think of it, I haven’t seen anyone for a few years.” he said jestingly.

“Yeah, ever since…” Ryan stopped mid-sentence because he didn’t want to dredge up any unwanted memories. Mechi had already started drifting off into a memory when Ryan had started talking.

“Yeah.” Mechi said sadly, but quickly reverted to his previous attitude. “It’s great to see you again, and so soon after we got back. How did you know we were here?”

“Chris.” was all Ryan had to say, and Mechi knew that Chris had probably run all over the town letting everyone know that they were back.

“Gott’cha.” he said, to show that he understood.

While the boys were in the house visiting and catching up on the last few years, Yarin and Michelle were lounging under the large Birch tree in the front yard.

“I can’t believe that you’re finally home ‘Y’, this is so exciting. You have to tell me everything about your time away. What was your apartment like? Where did you work? What did you do for fun?”

The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

All these question rose from the fact that Yarin had made the difficult decision not to keep in contact. It was not only because she was so busy, but more that she didn't want to create a link between her home life and that of Carter Haines.

“Slow down ‘Shell’,” Yarin said, laughing. “I can’t keep up.”

“Sorry.” Michelle pouted, “I just missed you so much and…” her eyes started to tear up and she was unable to finish her thought.

“Yeah, I missed you too, ‘Shell’. I will tell you everything you want to know. I got an idea first though, hang on and I’ll be right back.” She quickly ran off in the direction of the house.

A few minutes later, she returned to her friend in the front yard. “K, let’s go.” she said, grabbing her friend by the arm and lifting her to her feet.

“Wait, I thought you had things to do with Mechi today.”

“Yeah, but I just let him know that he’ll have to meet me later. The boys need their ‘Guy Time’ and we need ours.” she said as they quickly walked down the street.

“Wouldn’t it be faster to drive?” Michelle asked, straining to keep pace with her friend.

“Yeah, but this way, we’ll have plenty of time to talk. Ryan’s going to drive Mechi to town later.”

“Cool,” Michelle replied, obviously happy, “sounds like a plan.”

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T.C. was a little upset with himself for having lost the twins’ trail. Somehow, he wasn’t able to locate them anywhere. He searched the apartment that Yaryn had been living in, after being informed that her brother had been released from the hospital. He had stopped by the apartment, hoping that he could catch them there, but no such luck. The apartment was empty except for the furniture that was too big for them to take. “Apparently, she felt that they had to go in a hurry.” he thought, “Could this other one like me, really be that terrifying?” He was looking through a High School yearbook that had been left behind, and saw Yaryn’s picture.

“Yarin Vascellum.” he said aloud. “The Elders are up to their little ‘name games’ again.”

“Very funny T.C., you know that the Elders don’t have a sense of humor. You should know that better than anyone.”

“Wow,” T.C. replied, “You just love bringing that up, don’t you. Listen, don’t you realize what the last name…”

The voice interrupted him. “Yes, roughly translated from the original latin, it stands for ‘Vessel’.” I don’t see what the big deal is.”

“Think about it,” T.C. said, “you don’t think that it’s just ironic that the names of these kids, who are destined to tip the scales in this fight, means ‘Vessel’? I mean, what they are about to go through… You know what,” he said mid-sentence, “never mind. There’s no point to try explaining it.”

“Very well,” said the voice, “by the way, there seems to be something lodged in between the table and the wall over there.”

T.C. walked over to the table and moved it. He bent down to look at what it was that the voice had mentioned. It was a note.

“Carter,” it read, “I told you that we were leaving. You can’t intimidate me anymore. I want to let you know, however, that I am grateful for your guidance the last three years, it has been really instructive. On a short note. We’re gone, good luck trying to find us.” The note was signed, “Yarin and Mechi Vascellum.”

“That idiot,” said T.C., crumpling up the note in his hand, “If I’ve read this right, I know which one of us ‘Forsaken’, she’s been dealing with. I hope he hasn’t read this note, because he’d probably take it as a challenge.”

“Carter, let’s see…” the voice chimed in, “Carter Haines most likely. Forsaken for being the reason…”

“Shut-up, I know who he is.” T.C. yelled, “The bastard!” Stomping to the door, he threw it open with such force that it broke off the hinges. He didn’t have time to worry about the damages he might cause using his abilities. He had to find the kids as quickly as possible.

As he entered the hallway, he heard a door shut, and looking around noticed one of the neighbors peeking through the crack of their opened door. Waving to them as if saying ‘sorry to disturb you’, he quickly walked toward the stairwell and the exit.

“If Carter is mixed up in this little 'game', as you call it, that the Elders are playing,” the voice told him, “you no longer have the luxury of acting human to fit in. Not until we found the twins.”

“Can you locate them?” he asked as he rushed out of the apartment building, stopping just outside, looking one way, and then the other, waiting for a reply.

“It’s hard, my powers aren’t what they used to be, you know. Probably from all those years of being stuck in your head.”

“Yes, I know, but you have to try. In my experience, Carter is much worse than even you know. The facts have become much worse since the Elders lost track of him. We Have To Find Those Kids.”

“First off,” the voice said, “being ‘all-knowing’, I do know how bad he is, even with what’s happened since the Elders lost him. And second, it’s faint, but I think I have located…”

“Where? Which way?” T.C. said, completely ignoring the ‘First off’ notion of the voice.

“Coral Reef, five-hundred miles east of here.”

Without a word of thanks, T.C. took off as fast as he could go. Even though everything around him seemed to be standing still, he still felt like he wasn’t moving fast enough. “Carter Haines,” he thought, “I’m going to kill him! But first… the twins.”

“Well, that’s a messed up idea.”

“What? We were told that they’re fair game.”

“I don’t like it, this isn’t what they’re meant for.”

“Do you know what they’re meant for? They’re not even human.”

“Fine, but she’s mine.”