by Paul Cude
Snapping back to reality, he pushed away the wave of ecstasy he experienced at just the thought of his magic, and feeling much more sure of himself, described in detail his very first encounter with his rightful power, right down to the colours and shape of the magic, sure not to give anything away about exactly what he’d been up to.
The other students sat, mouths agog. Josh’s eyes were as wide as they could possibly go. Meeks disguised his surprise at the accuracy of his words, well, for the most part anyway.
“Not bad,” ventured the spindly looking teacher. “Tell me about how you use it!”
A quandary couldn’t begin to describe Man’s situation. Wondering what he should do, a booming voice added considerably to the proceedings, and Man’s dilemma.
“I AGREE WHOLEHEARTEDLY! TELL US ALL ABOUT HOW YOU USE YOUR MAGIC!”
Instantly recognising his father’s voice, fear ran riot throughout his body, causing his legs to wobble, his arms to shake, his stomach to roll and his mind to fold back in on itself. His father had always had that kind of effect on him.
High up in the tiers of the amphitheatre, Josh slunk down low, even more afraid than Man of the being that had spawned him. Even though he’d done everything and more to try and please his dad, nothing had ever come close to working. Not once had any love, or even a touch of kindness passed between the two of them. For all intents and purposes, they were total strangers, not related at all. But he was sure that would change, when or if he could conjure up any sort of magic. After all, that’s what he’d been born into this world for. That had been the plan. If he could achieve and master that, he was sure he could gain the love and trust of his father.
“WELL...?”
His thoughts were a muddle, his mind a mess. The truth felt fraudulent and so far away. Feeling the penetrating stare of his father piercing him to the very core of his being, he decided to come clean.
“I’ve been able to access it on occasions to heal minor injuries and...”
It was this bit that he was afraid of revealing.
“...to keep me warm.”
A collective intake of sighs whistled around the auditorium.
“WHAT?!”
Man’s nervousness seemed to have surpassed that of a chicken walking through a KFC car park.
“I...I...I...I managed to use it to keep me warm, only once or twice though.”
“I SEE. AND YOU THINK THAT MAKES IT OKAY NOT TO TELL US? NOT TO TELL ME?”
It was at that point he made the mistake of looking over at his father, instantly noticing the crazy look in his eyes. Quickly he averted his gaze. At some point there would be hell to pay, he knew.
Strolling out next to the plinth from his previous position on the sidelines, the de facto leader of this tiny, stranded community, and father to two, addressed everyone there, his voice a little more calm and rational.
“So there it is... the reason you’re all here. If one of you can do it, doubtless there will be more. An extraordinary amount of time and resources have gone into your creation. Sacrifices have been made by everybody.”
A rising anger deep inside Man threatened to spill out on hearing these words leave his father’s lips.
“Slowly though, everything is coming to fruition. Use this as an example. Spend every minute of every hour of your free time searching for that ethereal spark. Nurture it, reassure it, tame it, and ultimately use it. The one thing you should NOT do is hide it.”
With a very obvious dig at his son and the tiniest hint of the punishment he could expect, the rest of the words were spat out with more than a hint of anger and frustration.
“If we find out that you’ve been pulling the wool over our eyes with regard to this, there will be dire consequences for all of you. We need to work together if we’re ever to escape and make our way back to the real world. It will take each and every one of us, particularly those that can wield any sort of magical power in this hideous environment. Now go... forgo any work or lessons that you had for the rest of the day. Meditate, relax and concentrate on finding that which we need from each of you, if we’re ever likely to escape.”
As one, the students got up and left, glad to be out from under the watchful eye of their fearsome leader. Only one remained, hidden behind a frost rimmed balcony, too afraid to stick his head out to see what was going on.
“So my son, you like to keep secrets?”
“N...n...n...not... a...a...at all,” Man managed to stutter.
“That’s not how it seems.”
Swallowing nervously, all he could think to do was remain silent.
Even Meeks was getting nervous now, constantly hopping from foot to foot.
“Did it never occur to you that I would need to know about the use of your power? You know about the plan, how long it’s taken to get to this point, the struggles, the hardship, the toll it’s taken on all of us.”
‘Some more than others,’ thought the youngster, not daring to say it out loud.
A short way away, Josh had exactly the same thought.
“Ahhh... thoughts turning to your mother?” goaded Man’s father, right on the button. “How is she? Surviving I hope.”
A cold day in hell would be the day he talked to his father about his mother.
“Anyhow, no more secrets! As a community we need to know. And I will be testing the extent of your powers from tomorrow onwards,” he said, the words sounding kinder and much more melodic now. “Have you worked out how to unlock the bonds of your DNA and reach the beast within you? Be honest now!”
“No!” Man replied instantly, having not gotten anywhere near doing so, despite trying.
Believing every word, the group’s leader took a step in the direction of his son, as pride engulfed his weatherworn face. For the briefest of instants, Man’s heart sang. It lasted about a thousandth of a second. A wave of cold air rushing over his face was his first clue. By then, he was out of time. A resounding ‘CRACK’ echoed around the amphitheatre as Man’s nose split in two from the powerful uppercut his dad had unleashed.
Up high, tears attempted to flow down Josh’s cheeks. He didn’t even need to see what had happened. It was all so obvious and predictable.
Using all his strength and willpower, Man stayed on his feet, albeit more than a little unsteady.
“USE YOUR MAGIC TO FIX THAT!” fumed his father, before turning on his heels and striding purposefully away.
As thick, crimson blood ran freely across his lips, down his chin and pooled precariously on the floor, all he could think of was his mother, and everything the poor woman had been through at the hands of that monster.
Too conflicted to be able to use the tiny spark of power within him to heal the damage to his nose, on the walk back from the amphitheatre Man had settled for applying fistfuls of ice to it as he walked along. That hurt almost as much as the initial injury itself. At the intersection up ahead where two of the slippery, bright paths met, Man could just make out his brother’s form, waiting patiently for him. Forgoing the usual fist bump greeting, Josh inspected the harm inflicted on his sibling.
“I’m sorry. Are you okay? Is there anything I can do?”
“No it’s okay. It’ll be fine in a while,” Man replied, all bunged up and nasal.
“It should have been me,” Josh confessed. “Once again you’ve stepped in to protect me. It’s not right. You should have let it be me.”
“What are big brothers for, if not exactly that?” Man smiled. “Besides, it’s in the past now. Let’s just forget it and move on.”
And so they did, at least to some degree, moving off in the same direction, up a slight incline, heading off in the direction of the female quarters some ten or fifteen minutes walk away.
After a short pause, Josh broke the uncomfortable silence.
“Did you mean what you said? Can you access your magic and can it keep you warm?”
“It’s true, I can.”
“Why didn’t you tell me? I’d have been absolutel
y elated for you.”
“I know you would have been. But there’s more to it than that. I thought at first that it was a one off fluke. It took an absolute age to do it again and even then I wasn’t sure. And when I said to Father that I could use the power to keep myself warm... well, I did, only once and it didn’t work particularly well. In fact it was more than a little pathetic and not something anyone would want to brag about. So that’s why... I was more ashamed at not being able to do fantastical things with it, than proud to have found it at all.”
“But just think,” continued Josh, “you can use your magic here, where no one else can. Think of the potential, think of the power you must have if that’s an option. That must be why Father was so upset.”
“Agreed.”
They, like all of the other youngsters, had all heard about their father, and exactly how powerful he’d been in his previous life. And from the sound of it, more powerful than almost any other being on the planet, or at least that’s how it had been made to seem. Most of them here were in awe of his father and bowed down and kowtowed to their demanding leader, including all of the brothers’ peers. But in Man’s mind, all these tales raised more questions than answers. If he’d been so powerful, how had he and his followers ended up here? That didn’t sound like something that could or should happen to one of the most powerful beings on the planet. And if he had that much magic, how was it possible that the cold here could keep it at bay? Surely he must have been able to produce some remnant of power, however insignificant? And just what made him think this new generation could call forth their magic, when none of the others here could? It was all very odd, and almost always set alarm bells ringing in his head when any of these stories were mentioned.
Twenty minutes later, out of breath and with the blood from his nose finally having stopped running, they reached a carefully sculpted arch beneath an icy overhang that had stalactites raining down from it. Beautiful to look at, to all who sheltered behind these walls it was just one more reminder of their incarceration and the terrible toll it was taking on them.
As the boys took two paces forward, from out of the shadow stepped a haggard, brown haired woman wearing the remains of a dirty old sack, ice caking her legs and one side of her face, looking incredibly put down and despondent.
“Oh... it’s the two of you. I suppose you can go in.”
“Thank you,” the brothers uttered, eager to get away.
Before they could, the browbeaten woman continued.
“They’re still doing it, you know. It’s supposed to have stopped.”
Instantly they froze, and not because of the cold this time. Of course they knew what she was going on about, but it really wasn’t wise to talk about it, not here, not anywhere.
“He came for your mother again, you know!”
This got their attention.
“When?” demanded Man, fury coursing through his veins, his voice much harsher than he’d meant it to be.
Taking a small step back in fright, the now scared woman locked eyes with Man before replying.
“Last night. She was brought back this morning.”
Man shook his head, closed his eyes and tried to ignore the pulsing pain from his nose.
“Thank you,” he whispered softly, nodding graciously towards the woman as he did so.
“I’m so sorry,” she ventured, her teeth by now chattering in the cold.
“So are we, so are we,” replied Man, making his way past her, ducking under the archway, followed closely by Josh, the two of them disappearing deep within the labyrinth of twisted tunnels that made up this part of the chilling prison they all found themselves trapped in.
As they followed their usual path in total silence, on their way to see their mother, both of them barely contained the rage and vehemence they felt. The atrocious acts that had been committed in the past in the name of the long term plan, were, unbelievably, still going on. It was impossible to see how that could still be happening. It should have all stopped, long ago. Both of their hearts threatened to break at the thought of what their mother, and no doubt the rest of the women, were still enduring.
Two sharp left hand turns and a one hundred and eighty degree right hand turn later, they arrived at the stupendously small space that had been designated as their mother’s. Lying in the harsh, cold and damp corner, their mother shivered as she slept, curled up in the foetal position, wheezing occasionally as her ragged breath went in and out. It was all the boys could do not to cry.
Almost right on cue, whatever nightmare she was suffering from seemed to get worse, forcing her to cry out in pain, screaming, “No... no... no!” at the top of her voice. Both boys rushed over, just as she came around.
“Mother,” they both exclaimed.
“Oh boys... it’s so good to see you.”
As gently as they could, they helped their mother to her feet, brushing a little of the ice off her as they did so. As she stood, they both noticed the bruising on her legs and wrists. A bitter resentment threatened to send them both over the edge. Clearly clued into her sons’ feelings, their mother tried to dismiss it all.
“It’s okay. It’s just one of those things. It’ll stop soon.”
“IT’S NOT OKAY UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES!” growled a furious Man.
“He’s right,” added his brother softly.
“Boys... please, let it go.”
Sensing there was nowhere else to go, and not wanting to upset their mother further, both brothers let it drop, for now at least.
“So what’s your day been like?” their mother asked.
“Man’s found his magic and has even been able to use it,” blurted out Josh excitedly.
“Really?” exclaimed their mother.
Deeply ashamed for the most part, Man really didn’t want to get into all of it at the moment, and gave his brother a withering look for spilling the beans so to speak. Try as he might though, he wasn’t going to disappoint his mum by not sharing the details with her, now they were out in the open. She and Josh were the two beings on the whole of the planet that he trusted and loved the most.
And so after they’d all sat down and made themselves as comfortable as possible, he told her everything. To say she was surprised was something of an understatement. Pride radiated off her like rays from the sun, something that cheered him up considerably. As well, all talk of magic and using it to push away the cold, did at least distract from the pain and heartache that she was suffering from, something Man was incredibly grateful for.
After munching their way through a few raw vegetables and sipping fresh, ice cold water from the rusty metal cups that had been left here for them to use at the time of their confinement, their thoughts turned to what would happen next.
“The plan actually seems to be working, at least the first part anyway,” ventured their mother.
Man sat hunched forward, head in hands, trying to wrap his mind around everything that had happened.
“And what of you Scooter? How are you feeling about all of this?”
Scooter was her nickname for Josh and something she’d called him since he’d scooted around on the ice as an enthusiastic toddler.
As his mother was one of the two beings he felt he could be totally honest with, Josh relayed his fears.
“I’m scared that I won’t be able to find my power, or that I won’t have any at all. What if that happens? I’ll just be a burden, taking up more of our limited resources, unable to contribute in any meaningful way. I’m not sure what Father would do if that were the case.”
“It won’t come to that... rest assured I’ll see to it personally,” declared Man.
“Thanks,” replied Josh, “but don’t make promises that you probably can’t keep. It doesn’t befit you.”
“Oh I’ll keep it alright. If they want me to use my magic to help them, then you can be damn sure it’s going to come at a price. And that price will always be the safety and wellbeing of my family... both of you!”
“Thanks,” stated Josh, proffering out his hand.
Man took it and pulled him in tight.
“You don’t owe me your thanks. Always being there and just being my brother is enough. Always together, never apart.”
“Always together, never apart,” repeated Josh. “I love you, you know.”
“I know,” replied Man with a smile. “I love you too. Now go and get some rest, and perhaps we won’t be late for anything tomorrow.”
Josh smiled, turned and headed off in the direction of his own tiny space.
Man stood stock still for a few moments yet, a steely gaze imprinted on his face. Those two beings were all that he cared about, all that he had. And he’d be damned if anything more would harm or endanger them. Having always been afraid to stand up to his father, one thing here and now became plainly obvious. The time was near at hand when he’d have to. And he’d be ready. If need be, he might even be prepared to use that ethereal spark of power that he now knew resided within him. It was ironic that he’d told his brother to get some rest, because he had no intention of sleeping. Instead, he’d be searching for his power, caressing it, exploring its boundaries, willing it to do his bidding, all in an effort to keep those that he loved safe. In only a matter of minutes, he was tucked away, lying on his own block of ice.
