Ch. 2 The Reaction
Mumbling the word, “clear”, this time in my head, I briskly proceed to the living room through the kitchen. Something… is off though. I can feel it so much so that, even as my mind remains clear my body wants to act a fool. The muscles in my hands, arms, and chest start to tense to the max. Just when I feel like my bones are going to break, they stop and recede back to the way they were before. My feet, legs and everything else that considers itself lower body essentials, decide to immediately follow suite. The result has me feeling the way I do after strenuous exercise. You know, that tension and feeling that causes your muscles to naturally stay contracted. It’s as if you’re flexing but you’re not and as a whole you bulkier; more defined. However, for yet another uncontrollable reason my abdomen didn’t get the memo and decided on its own that it wasn’t yet time to let go and relax.
Only when my eyes were on the verge of watering did it happen. All at once this acid, snakelike, pain sensation coils its way up from my stomach to my eyes and grips them like a vise. Feeling like my eyeballs are being boiled like eggs, I react by snapping my head back and slamming my eyes shut so fast, a tear escapes. Then, everything stops, like the pause for effect in a speech that allows the listeners to soak in and feel the passion of the speaker. The world chooses this singular moment to let me experience it a new and I literally feel the change in me.
Slowly everything starts back up again like the slow clap in an inspirational sports film. Unfortunately, again all I can do is react as events unfold in swift succession. The tear that escapes my eye misses my cheek and falls to the kitchen floor with a sound surprisingly loud for a droplet. I snap my head forward, the pain now gone I open my eyes remembering the task at hand. At first everything looks fuzzy but as I gather myself I quickly realize that it’s not my vision that’s fuzzy rather something I see that is. For some strange reason I hear breathing that is not my own coming increasingly closer. Blood the smell soon attracts my attention to the floor. I don’t know how I know its blood but I do. The crazy thing is that the stream now accumulating on the ground is not only coming closer still, but silver in color. Why is there blood? At last it dawns on me that the arrow once gripped between my fingers is gone. Released in my agony, that very same arrow is now embedded in the shimmering image midways down. My situational analysis comes too late as at this very same moment I’m hit in the gut with a force that has me flying over the kitchen island. At least I know my hypothesis is right, I think to myself as I look up to see the shimmer shifting into the form of a man.
Pulling the arrow out of his side with ease he says, “I guess you can see me now. Hmmm. My godly Yama must have been enough to start kick start the reaction in your blood. Luana did well keeping your latent abilities docile.” He glances at the bow in my hand then to the quiver of arrows on my back and tilts his head slightly. “I do believe she had mentioned some time ago that your training had begun. Time to find out how well she did. “With a smirk on his face the man starts toward me again. I get the feeling I’m out of my league, but something about his cockiness has pissed me off. Fine come get it, I think to myself, ignoring the pain I feel from my stomach as I prepare to stand. Before I can fully gather my bearings I find myself rolling to the right, free runner style as the intruder’s right fist sails into the and through the microwave that moments ago sat just behind my head. Quickly, gathering myself on one knee, just a few feet away I’ve already notched my second arrow and I let it set loose. Thwack. He swing the entire microwave sending the arrow the spiraling into the window so hard the head is stuck in the glass while the shaft skits into the leg of the coffee table next to the door. Seriously, what is with this guy, I find myself asking as I release a series of arrows in swift succession. Regardless, of the fact that I’m virtually at point blank range now, he by some divine miracle is still managing to deflect every single one.
Next thing I know, I am reaching back and grasping air as my quiver is now empty
Noticing this he starts up again. “Well, you certainly have some decent reflexes but the tension on your bow needs tightening because those arrows were just too slow, not to mention that they lacked force.” Mind racing, nerves shot, I start to back up thinking maybe it’s time to call it quits. You know, the whole run and fight another day thing. Wrrooong!! Just as I start to turn to dip out the microwave goes whizzing past my head so close that I can feel the gust of air touch the tip of my nose. “Sorry kiddo, can’t let you do that just yet. You still have one more test to pass.” “What”, I say as I take another step back. Looking at me suspiciously the man squints his eyes as if deep in thought. At least I think it is his eyes but I can’t say for sure because he is still kind of blurry, almost transparent still. Then again, I could still just be woozy from that gut shot that still feels like I was hit with a hammer. Looking in his eyes, I watch them widen like a light bulb just lit up as he says, “Oh yeah, I remember now, your mom said I had to break the seal on your mind.” He fumbles around patting what I hope are transparent clothes, because the thought of him being naked on top of everything else is something I simply don’t want to entertain. Still inching backward, he finally pulls out a piece of paper that for some reason makes me feel even more uneasy, as if that was even possible. “Aww yes, here it is. Let’s see here. Before I can object to whatever the hell it is he’s talking about, I hear these words and everything goes blank.
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Starry Nights
Sunny Days
Rays of light
Under a moonlit gaze
Surrounded by these four walls
I sound the trumpet
As Jericho falls
aaron..aaron…Aaron…AARON… AARON CAN YOU HEAR ME!!!
I awake to find my mom cradling my head in her lap and a house so out of whack that it looks like it’s still under construction. My head is pounding and… and… aww; I leap up to my feet in utter surprise to see my mother of nineteen years with red violet skin and crimson hair. Umm mom is that you, I ask as I stagger backwards still woozy. You look like a comic-con avatar that got left in the summer heat and pollenated on. “Haa Haa very funny. I suppose the seal being broken didn’t hurt so much as to take away your sense of humor. Seal? That’s when it came back to me, the worst morning ever. Along with some other memories that I somehow know weren’t there before with some scenes of martial arts training with my mom without the strange pigment, fiery hair and… pointed ears.
Mom your ears are looking exceptionally pointy today. Is there something you want to tell me? I decided to say after taking another look around. My mom exhaled. “What are the last things you remember?” I dwell on it for a moment. Then I say, “I remember a stranger in the house, a guy stranger.” “Mmhmm, go on,” she says, now pacing back and forth. “He called me kiddo like he knew me.
He was camouflaged, but not like wearing camouflage colors. I mean beyond gear like… like… like the movies, “Shooter”, with Matt Walberg where he’s camoed out to the max and you can’t see him in the mountains. Except, he was beyond that.
No, that’s not right. I mean... No wait… Realizing now, that I too am pacing I stop. I turn and look at her, my mom, but only at her eyes and I say what I usually say when I, for whatever reason, just can’t properly articulate what I am trying to say.
It’s complicated.
She takes a step towards me, but as she does I take a step back. I didn’t mean to but
I still feel leery of her, especially in light of the current situation. For some reason, I just feel like she’s trying to steer me down a path I wouldn’t normally go. I can tell she’s hurt by this but I know she understands. So, we stand in silence for a few moments in watch of one another. She breaks the silence first. “Predator”. “Huh, I say”. “He was like predator”, she reiterates. I think for a second scratching my head, then say, “The guy I mentioned earlier, yes, he was like, Predator, from the movies. Obviously, not as hideous though because he had a human face and no fangs. Wait! How do you know that? No answer, she just continues. “I know there are plenty, of things you want to know. I know that there are things you want to say, but right now I need you to focus and push through the headache that you are sure to have right now because if you don’t you won’t get the chance to find the answers whether I tell you or not.” If it isn’t just like a parent to try and force your hand but make it sound like it’s all your choice when there really isn’t one, or at the most not much of one. So, I close my eyes and focus. A few seconds later my fractured memories slowly begin to fall into place as I speak aloud. The guy I mentioned, yes, he was like a human Predator. He said something. My head hurt. I saw a bright white light that felt warm and then I was waking up to you. I pause again, and then I say that’s all I got. Finally opening my eyes I am too late to fend off my mother’s hug as her warm embrace covers me and I have no choice but to hug her back.