The Silent Soldiers

by Travis Stinnett

will see you both soon at Grandpa’s. The boys waved bye to Charles as he practically ran back to his truck and took off in quite a hurry. They followed Mr. Coleman into the airport. Luke wondered why Charles was in such a hurry now that they were safely to the airport. They checked their baggage quickly before they rushed off to the terminal. Luke thought they would never get where they were going. The airport appeared to go on for miles. He thought they walked at least a hundred of those miles before they finally arrived at the right terminal.

  Luke and Matt were practically running through the airport as they tried desperately to keep up with Mr. Coleman. Luke watched Mr. Coleman as they ran. He couldn’t see the man’s face as his head turned back and forth scanning the crowds as they rushed toward their destination. The flight attendant was just about to close the door to the gate.

  “WAIT!” yelled Mr. Coleman. The attendant was more than a little shocked at the outburst, but she smiled gently at them.

  “You almost missed your departure,” she said as she made her way over to greet us at the check in counter.

  Luke was out of breath when they made it to the check in counter at the terminal. He looked around at all the people in the airport as he tried to catch his breath. Suddenly Luke spotted a figure standing across the airport through the crowd. He knew instantly something was different about this person he was looking at. He wondered why nobody else seemed to notice someone wearing a heavy cloak that completely concealed every part of their body. He couldn’t tell if it was a man or a woman. Just as he was about to reach out and touch Matt to get his attention a large group of people walked between him and the cloaked figure. Luke craned his head trying to get a better look at the person. When the group passed the cloaked person was gone.

  They boarded the plane quickly after the attendant got them checked in. Mr. Coleman went his own way since his job with the boys was complete. Luke really wanted the chance to talk to Matt on the plane, but getting tickets at the last minute caused their seats to be too far apart. He wanted to talk to him about what he saw at the terminal. Luke began to think maybe he hadn’t even seen the person at all. He pushed it out of his mind as he settled into his seat for the trip.

  The flight was boring to Luke after the thrill of the initial take off. He decided to take a nap. He was not really tired, but he wanted to be well rested to talk to Grandpa. He had hoped his Grandpa would be home that night, and he would get the chance to talk to him alone. Luke fell asleep quickly after he closed his eyes.

  The familiar dream started all over again. Beautiful valley, turning to night, glowing yellow eyes, and the howling wolf. This time was different though. Luke hadn’t woke up when the wolf howled. He had never dreamed past the howling before. He didn’t know what to expect after that. He looked around at the glowing eyes surrounding him. He tried to anticipate what would happen next. Luke caught a glimpse of something out of the corner of his eye. When he turned to look, there was a huge cat running toward him at full speed. The cat was solid black with glowing red eyes and the sharpest teeth he had ever seen. Luke guessed it was some sort of panther or something of that nature. Just as Luke turned to run, he felt something rip through the flesh of his back.

  Luke woke up jumping from his seat on the plane screaming at the top of his lungs. He looked around and realized everyone on the plane was starring at him. He immediately remembered where he was and turned red with embarrassment as he sank back into his seat.

  “Are you ok?” The flight attendant asked as she made her way over to check on him.

  “I just had a bad dream,” Luke replied. The dream had appeared as though it was getting weirder. Luke was more confused as to what it meant. He tried to shake the lingering feeling of fear as the captain instructed the flight attendants to prepare for the arrival into Little Rock.

  2

 

  “We failed you, Master,” said the woman’s voice as she kneeled before him. The men she sent to the airport to retrieve the boy had failed her. She punished them severely for their failure. Now, even though she knew her master wasn’t actually standing before her, she must answer to him. She would take whatever punishment he felt she needed.”

  “I was at the airport myself. There was no way for the child to be taken without causing a scene in front of all those pathetic humans,” said the already fading cloaked figure. The woman suddenly realized she had dealt punishment to innocent beings. She wasn’t the least bit sorry about it. She wanted to impress her master by capturing the boy before he returned to the Earth realm. She now knew she missed her last chance for that to happen.

  “I am sorry, Master. I should have gone and finished the job myself,” said the woman sarcastically.

  “And ruin your place within the pack? That would be even more stupid than causing a scene in front of the humans!” The man yelled down at her. The woman flinched at the tone of the man’s angry voice as though he could cause her harm. The man had again projected himself into the cave from whatever far away dimension he had been banished to. “You must be smart. We need you to hide within the pack to inform me of their actions, and to keep a close eye on the boy. The time is coming for me to return and bring the boy to stand at my side. We must be as prepared as possible. That responsibility lies with you alone,” The man told her. His voiced calmed steadily as he again explained her importance.

  “I understand, Master. I must go and prepare myself for his arrival at the mansion.” As soon as her last word was out, the man quickly faded from the dark cave. She slowly stood and walked out of the cave. She had a big job ahead of her. She couldn’t fail her master a second time for fear that he would end her life for good.

 

  The plane seemed to move in slow motion as I anxiously awaited its arrival at our gate. I could see Matt a few rows in front of me as he stared out the little window next to his seat. He was lucky enough to get a window seat. I couldn’t see anything as the plane made its way to the gate. We got our carry on bags out of the overhead compartments and were on our way to the exit door. As we made our way down the hall into the terminal I spotted a man holding a sign that read MR. STALLINGS AND MR. CARRINGTON. You could hardly call the person holding the sign a man. He was about 3 feet tall with long gray hair and beard. He reminded me of one of Santa’s elves to be perfectly honest. He was dressed pretty much the same way as Mr. Coleman back in Dallas, minus the dark sunglasses. I let out a little giggle at the sight of him and Matt caught on to what I was looking at.

  “I guess that would be us,” I told Matt.

  “Guess so,” he replied. We slowly made our way thru the crowd toward the tiny little man. When he finally realized we were headed his way you could see the excitement light up his tiny little features. The little man hurried over to us.

  “You must be Luke!” the little man exclaimed as if he had known me my entire life. You could feel the excitement pouring from the little man as he shook my hand enthusiastically.

  “It is such an honor to finally meet you,” said the little man.

  “Nice to meet you too sir,” I said in a very confused sort of way.

  “Please forgive me. My name is Jackson Rathburn. I work for your grandfather, Mr. Carrington,” he explained.

  “It’s very nice to meet you Mr. Rathburn,” I said.

  “Oh no, no, no, you must call me Jack,” he said with a huge smile.

  “Ok, Jack. This is my cousin Matt,” I said.

  “Oh, please forgive me Matt. It is definitely a pleasure meeting you as well,” he said as he blushed with embarrassment.

  “Same here,” said Matt with a very annoyed look on his face.

  “I will be escorting you to the mansion to meet with your grandfather.” I couldn’t help but feel nervous and excited at the thought of my grandfather being home, and about the possibility of getting some alone time with him. I had so many questions popping into my head as we followed the little man named Jack thru the airport in Little Rock. The airpor
t wasn’t nearly as big as the one in Dallas, but it still took us some time to get outside to the car. We followed Jack out the front doors of the airport and I spotted a huge limousine with another of the black suited men waiting to load our luggage into the trunk.

  “Looks like we’re riding in style Matt,” I said.

  “Wow! Grandpa must be loaded sending a limo to pick us up,” said Matt. Matt and I had never known exactly what our grandfather did for a living. We knew he was in real estate. We were beginning to realize he must have loads of money. Neither Matt nor I had ever been to Grandpa’s house. We really didn’t know what to expect with “the mansion,” as Jack put it, but we were both overflowing with excitement about our first plane ride and our first ride in a limousine. This was almost more excitement than either of us could handle in one day. The man that loaded our luggage now opened the door at the back of the limo. The three of us climbed into the back seat. We heard the front door open and close, the engine started, and the car began to move. We couldn’t see the driver with the window to the front seat being completely blacked out. Jack didn’t seem to be bothered by it. We watched out the windows in anticipation as the car made its way onto the freeway headed to Eerie, the town where our grandfathers’ mansion was located.

  “Would you care for something to drink?” Jack asked Matt and me.

  “Sure, what do you have?” Matt asked.

  “See for yourself,” Jack said as he opened the limos mini fridge. It was packed with every sort of soft drink you could imagine. We both settled for our choice of canned drink, and Jack closed the fridge. We sipped our sodas as we exited the interstate.

  “So, how long have you worked for Grandpa?” I asked Jack.

  “I have been with your grandfather for many years, he explained, “Long before either of you were even born.”

  “That’s cool.”

  We rode in silence as we continued down the narrow two lane road leading into Eerie. I noticed that we were driving through nothing but woods on both sides of the road. I couldn’t remember if we had passed a house at all in the past couple miles. Soon after that we passed a couple of small houses. We passed a sign that said Eerie, population 314, and that let me know just how small this town really was. Next we passed a little convenience store and were running parallel to railroad tracks on the opposite side. We slowed down to make a right hand turn that took us over the tracks. We passed a couple larger houses and were again surrounded by woods. We drove a few more miles when the car began to slow down to make another turn. The driveway opened up to a little guard shack with a huge black metal gate hung between a massive block wall. The wall must have been at least 12 feet tall.

  I noticed cameras pointed in different directions down the top of the wall. I wondered why Grandpa needed so much security. The limo stopped at the gate. I noticed the two guards looked and dressed much the same as the driver and Mr. Coleman. The guards approached the driver. After a brief conversation one of the guards went back to the guard shack. The other made a circle around the car. After the guard completed his search of the car he went back to the guard shack. We watched as the huge black gate started to slowly open. The guard motioned for us to go in. The car pulled slowly forward through the gate.

  Matt and I both stared out our windows as we made our way down the drive and through more woods that surrounded us. At one point we crossed a small covered bridge that crossed a creek connecting two very large ponds on either side of the road. We continued down the driveway as the woods began to thin out and open up to fields all around us. Just as we started over the top of a hill we caught our first glimpse of our grandfather’s’ mansion. Our mouths dropped open in awe as we took in the view. We could see the house across a valley from where we were coming down the drive. I could hardly put into words how big this place was. It could barely be called a house at all. It was more along the lines of a castle than anything. Huge gray stones made up the majority of the exterior surfaces. Massive columns held up the roof that covered the entryway to what I assumed would be the front door. At either end of the massive central part of the house, which was at least three stories tall, were two towers. These towers were like something you would see in a fairy tale story. They were round and extended above the main level of the house. I had never seen a house as big as this one in all my life, even in the Dallas area. I couldn’t wait to get inside and start exploring the place with Matt.

  I glanced over at Matt as the car veered to the right around the circle driveway in front of the mansion. I hadn’t noticed before, but Matt was looking rather pale and was sweating quite a bit even with the rather cool temperature in the limo.

  “Are you feeling ok Matt?” I asked. “Not really. I think I’m just tired from all of the excitement we’ve had today,” he said. “You’re probably right. I’m a little tired and worn out myself.”

  It was beginning to get dark by the time we arrived at the house. I looked at the huge spotlights that illuminated the area around the mansion. The back door of the car opened and another black suited giant motioned for us to get out. Two younger guys, dressed also in black suits, approached the rear of the car and opened the trunk. I was beginning to get the idea that these black suits were uniforms for my grandfather’s employees. The younger guys unloaded our luggage and began hauling it into the house.

  As we walked up the steps and approached the huge front doors, Jack said, “Matt, why don’t you come with me and I’ll show you to your room so you can lie down. You aren’t looking very well and probably need a little rest from all the excitement.”

  “That sounds like a great idea, Matt said, I’m really not feeling well at all.”

  “Luke, why don’t you go into the great room straight through those doors,” Jack said pointing to a set of double doors as we entered into what would be the foyer of the mansion.

  “Your grandfather will meet you there shortly.”

  “Ok, sounds good to me.”

  “Will you be ok, Matt?” I asked.

  “Sure man I just need to lie down for a minute,” he replied. A massive staircase on either side of the double doors leading to the great room led to the second story. I watched as Jack led Matt up the stairs. I watched until they were out of sight before I entered into the next room as Jack had instructed.

  The room I entered was indeed a “Great” room. It was bigger than our entire house in Dallas, which made it a bit overwhelming. The walls were covered in a dark colored stone from floor to ceiling with dark hardwood floors. There was nothing down the center of the room except for a thick rug. On the left side of the room was a very large fireplace surrounded by an over sized brown leather couch and matching chairs. The other side of the room had a huge table that could seat at least two dozen people comfortably, with chairs all around. The rooms’ ceiling was at the level of what had to be the same height as the second floor ceiling. Statues, plants, and trees of different sizes decorated the room. A huge chandelier lowered down from the ceiling to what should be the first floors ceiling in the center of the room.

  I walked around the room looking at all of the paintings hanging on the walls. I made my way back around to the sitting area in front of the fireplace. About the time I sat down on one of the large chairs, I heard the door at the other end of the room close. I looked up to see Grandpa, with a big smile on his face, walking toward me. I stood and he came up to give me a big hug.

  “I am so very happy you are here, Luke. I have waited so long for the day that you would join me here at the mansion.”

  “I’m so glad to see you Grandpa. Is Matt ok?”

  “He will be just fine, son, don’t you worry about him. You are both in very good hands now that you have arrived at the mansion.”

  “I have so many questions for you Grandpa. I have been waiting for years to ask them.”

  “Well, let’s sit down and talk for a while. I know you have lots of questions for me. I have lots of things to reveal to you as wel
l.” We both sat down with Grandpa in one of the big chairs, and me on the end of the couch closest to him.

  “I’m just going to come out and ask you this, Grandpa. I hope that I don’t upset or anger you for asking.”

  “I want you to know you can ask me anything and I will never get upset or angry with you, Luke.”

  “Ok. I want to know what happened to my parents. I have asked Uncle Charles several times over the years and all he ever tells me is that there was some sort of accident. I want to know what happened to them exactly.”

  “Luke, Charles was correct about the accident. After your parents placed you in his care they took my private jet to flee from Nhados. They decided to return to England, to your fathers’ home country. Your father believed that with you in hiding, and them in the protection of his people you all would be safe from Nhados. Somewhere in the middle of the ocean the plane went down. The plane crashed into a small island and exploded on impact. I sent a team to look for any survivors, but none were found,” explained Grandpa.

  “I have something else to tell you that you probably are not going to understand. The world and the things in it are not what they appear to be. There are many things that you have never seen or experienced. Some of the creatures that you have experienced only in movies live right along side us in everyday life. The supernatural world exists in great secrecy from the human race. I’ll explain what I’m talking about later. Some of it is just too much for you to comprehend all at one time. Your mother and father were very powerful, very important, supernatural beings.”

  “What exactly do you mean by beings Grandpa?”

  “Luke, I need for you to just listen to everything I tell you and believe that I am telling you the truth.”

  “Ok, Grandpa, I trust you.”

  “Fifteen years ago your mother and father met and fell in love instantly. This love was strictly forbidden in the Supernatural community because they are of different races. I don’t mean the color of their skin. Your mother was a shifter and your father was a vampire.”

  3

  “You’re kidding, right? Vampires are just characters someone made up for the movies, Grandpa. And, what exactly is a shifter?” I asked.

  “Vampires very much do exist, Luke. Please allow me to finish. A shifter is someone that transforms into an animal during the full moon. Full blooded shifters can change anytime they choose. Your mother was a shifter. She was of the race that changes into wolf form, better known as werewolves.

  “So, my dad was a vampire, and my mom was a werewolf?” I laughed at Grandpa as I thought