This Is Who We Are

by Matt Christiansen

was luckily only one level. He was creeping up to the fourth door when he heard a distinct voice coming from inside. He took off, seeking shelter behind the first thing he could find, which happened to be a dumpster. He peered out from behind it to see the door open, making Kifo’s voice clearly audible. He was angry, yelling at who Lee could only assume was Abeba. Not long after the door had opened Abeba’s small silhouette emerged from the door before it slammed shut.

  She paused a moment, head swiveling, and headed towards where Lee hid. Looking around wildly, Lee saw a bench under a sign that read “designated smoking area”. Seizing the opportunity, he hustled over and sat, hands folded, waiting for Abeba.

  Before long she rounded the corner, cigarette in hand. She walked with her head down, not expecting to meet anybody. As she walked Lee said in a dark voice “Smoking kills, Abeba…”

  Her small head snapped up and looked wildly around before locating Lee, who was still sitting calmly. “Lee!” she said in a shocked voice. “What are you? I was just-“

  “Stop.” Lee said sharply as he rose, immediately silencing his foe. “Don’t run. I just wanna talk. Enough blood’s been spilled tonight, I just want answers.” He was now approaching Abeba slowly, who had taken a step back.

  “I’m sorry, Lee. I tried to meet you but he…” She paused a second, thinking wildly, eyes looking everywhere but Lee. “I…”

  “Stop.” Lee said darkly. “There’s nothing you can say that I’ll believe anymore. I don’t know what happened or why you betrayed us, but I don’t trust for a second that you were tricked.”

  “But Lee…” she said, still in a sweet and innocent voice. “I…”

  “Arrgh!” Lee roared in frustration, pounding a hand against the brick wall. “Cut the shit, princess! I’m not buying it anymore so you can just stop. No more sugar coating, no more lies. You’re gonna tell me the truth.”

  His face was inches from hers now and as he talked, a dramatic change came over her face. The sweetness and innocence transformed into a cold calculated stare. Finally being called out for what she was, she seemed to abandon her masquerade. She was dark now, unfeeling and harsh.

  “That’s better…” said Lee, his tone saying that he had her right where he wanted her. “Now tell me why Kifo called me his little blood diamond.” She opened her mouth and was shot a warning look from Lee.

  “There’s an ancient tribal prophecy.” Abeba’s voice was flat and icy now, and her eyes were the same as they had been that night so long ago. “A boy with hair stained by the blood of the people of Africa, named by the stars ‘the Blood Diamond’, would be born when the stars aligned just so. It happens once every century and they aligned the night you were born. The prophecy said that you would be a great warrior and would be undefeatable in battle. Kifo was determined to capture you and bend you to his will. He thinks you’re the incarnation of the Blood Diamond and wants to make you his soldier.”

  The lack of feeling in her words told Lee that she was speaking, for once in her life, the truth. “And growing up together, that meant nothing? You were just getting close to me so you could tell him how to capture me…” Lee concluded, met only by silence and an emotionless stare.

  He then turned his back to Adeba, saying in a quiet but firm voice “This… this ends tonight. Tell Kifo that he can dream all he wants. I’m not eight anymore, my mind isn’t mush. Remind him that we could have killed him tonight, and that we didn’t. Likewise, I’m not gonna hurt you or pursue you. You’re gonna leave and I’m never gonna hear from you again. Am I?”

  As he turned to face Adeba again he was met by a desperate sounding barrage of cutting words. “Mercy… the weak excuse of the cowardly. The Blood Diamond… HA! That bridge has been burned. Kifo isn’t looking to transform you anymore. He’s just gonna hunt you down and kill you, you’re too weak to be the Blood Diamond! And as for me, you think I’m something that you can just ignore and I’ll disappear? I’m inside your soul, Lee. I’m not going anywhere. You’re going to be haunted for the rest of your life…”

  Lee smiled darkly, knowing that he must have struck a nerve to provoke such a reaction. Her voice was brimming with actual passion now, which was far removed from her practiced voice. In a matter of seconds Lee covered the distance between them and had Abeba pinned against the wall. He spoke barely above a whisper, but with a threatening tension that dared her to move.

  “You think you have some privileged place in my life? You’re dead. You’ve been dead for four years, Abeba. Four years. You betrayed an entire village of innocent people to help some raving drunk try to bend and fulfill a pagan prophecy that has absolutely no roots in reality.” He looked down, grabbing the gold chain of the necklace that hung limply around her neck.

  “You see this?” he said, ripping it off of her neck. “This is a blood diamond.” He held up the small red luminous rock to her face, forcing her to look at it. “This chain that you think you have on me?” he continued, shaking the gold chain in her face, “Gone.” He took hold of the small red rock attached to the chain and ripped it out, leaving the gold bent and warped. “Take your chain, princess… I’m done.”

  As he turned and strode from where she was now crumpled against the wall, he heard her slide to the ground, unable to speak or retort. Without so much as a glance over his shoulder he turned the corner and was gone.

  • • •

  Moses and Lee walked slowly, talking as they made their way through the darkened town. Lee gave his account to a fascinated looking Mo as they walked. Lee told him all about the prophecy about the Blood Diamond and about his confrontation with Adeba.

  “Dude… way to go!” Mo said, pride welling in his voice. “Do you think she’ll keep her distance?

  Lee smiled in the dark. “Oh yeah. She’s not coming back. I don’t know about Kifo though. If what she said is true, he’ll be after us with a vengeance now…”

  “That’s alright,” Mo said, “he knows that we can fight back now. He’s gotta just be twisted after tonight.”

  Lee’s hands were now shaking slightly as he rationalized what had gone down over the past hour. After a stretch of silence, Mo asked him quietly, “So what do you think about the whole prophecy thing?”

  “Honestly? I don’t think there’s anything to it. I’ve always had red in my hair, but it’s not like I’m some great, undefeated warrior. You’ve saved my life like three times. Kifo would have killed me on that island, and he would have killed me again tonight. That doesn’t sound like an invincible soldier to me…” Lee spoke slowly and distantly.

  Presently, as they made their way through the sparsely lit town they came to the eastern most street, where the slope up from the ocean took a steep incline and the trees met the outskirts of town. Making their way along the edge of town, they found an unlit gravel road and began to ascend it through the trees. The seldom-used road continued upward through the dark silhouettes of trees, turning and finally reaching it’s end at a clearing, amidst the trees at the top of the ridge overlooking the small town.

  The boys gazed up at the looming shadow of the town’s old water tower, surrounded by a haphazardly placed chain link fence. Mo was the first one to clear the fence, followed closely by Lee. They then crossed the distance to where one of the legs of the water tower rose. Mo, again taking the lead, reached for a ladder that would otherwise have been invisible in the darkness and began to ascend the looming black tower.

  As the boys reached the top and sat, feet dangling, staring down at the rows of lights sloping down to meet the sea, the sky was riddled with stars, a crescent moon, and wispy clouds that scarred the otherwise perfect gradient of the night sky. The night was breathless and as the boys sat gazing out over their kingdom the silence was deafening. There was no traffic in the streets, which were traced by tiny beads of light along each of the main roads in the seaside town. The air coming up from the ocean was cool, with a salty smell. The boys sat in the stillness, over the dark rooftops.

 
“What are we doing, Lee?” Mo asked rhetorically.

  “What?” asked Lee, genuinely at a loss for words.

  “We’re not men, we’re not warriors or soldiers. We’re not heroes or adventurers or kings. We’re just kids…” Moses said, sighing tiredly. “We’re in way over our heads… we always are. I mean, how is it that we always find ourselves thrown into such heavy stuff?”

  The stars were out in full, shining down on the boys as they gazed out into the endless horizon. It was Lee who spoke up next.

  “You’re right. I wish we could change the stars, change what happens to us and lead normal fourteen-year-old lives…” Lee mused as he gazed into the night.

  “This is who we are,” said Mo, a realization dawning in his voice. “There’s nothing we can do to change what happens to us, all we can do is pray that God’s doing it for a reason. Sure Kifo might be hunting for us, but we both know that we’re not alone. There’s no way I’m always that lucky. No way. There’s something out there watching out for us, Lee. You know I’m right…”

  There was a long pause. The stars themselves seemed to be taking in a breath. The silence of the night air was deafening and at length Lee spoke up again, this time smiling.

  “You’re right… We don’t have any idea what we’re doing, but you’re