Unleashing the Dragon

by Noah Harris

  “I love you, Mom. Dad. I’m not trying to hurt you. I never was.” Barry said. “I’m sorry I didn’t say anything sooner. I was just…I was scared. I was afraid I’d lose you. I almost lost you once.”

  “We understand,” Gerald said.

  His dad just smiled. Barry could barely believe what he was hearing or seeing. His father of all people was calmly understanding.

  “We love you too, honey. We just want you to be happy.” Carol said. “Meanwhile, I can think of a perk to all of this. You keep bringing home all these handsome young men!”

  Barry blushed and he turned away while Guy laughed with her. None of it ever seemed to surprise or phase Guy. He seemed to be able to glide gracefully through all of the obstacles life put in his way with a smile. Barry wanted to feel relieved but something continued to drive a feeling of unease. Maybe he was being too suspicious.

  “What happened to that last man you were with? Nathan, was it?” Carol asked.

  “Oh. Um,” Barry said. He didn’t think they’d ever get this far, so fast. It seemed like only yesterday his parents wouldn’t give him the time of day. Now they were comfortably asking about his love life. He felt his stomach twist in knots. “We broke up. Cultural differences.”

  “Eh, you were too good for him,” Gerald said frankly. “He was a bum.”

  “He wasn’t a bum,” Barry said. “He just needed help starting his life here. Everyone needs a little help. He actually started his own channel doing magic tricks. He’s actually gotten really popular.”

  “Popular isn’t the same as successful. He was mooching off you.”

  “He was making his own money. It wasn’t a lot, but he contributed. Besides, this isn’t some Victorian romance novel. Money shouldn’t matter.”

  “It’s not a matter of money, I’m just saying—”

  “It doesn’t matter.” Carol interrupted. “So, how did you two meet?”

  “Should I tell her or do you want to?” Guy asked.

  Barry nodded, letting Guy go on about how they met as Barry sat back and thought about things as quietly as possible. His mind went vacant though as he focused on his feelings. The unsettled feeling only grew the more he sat there and watched the three of them talk. He felt like there was something missing in all of this, something that he wasn’t privy to. He couldn’t put his finger on what it was though. It may just have been his own cynicism ruining the moment.

  Still, all of this was going so well without him having to do anything. It was a familiar feeling, and for a brief moment Barry remembered the island. He thought of the illusions Xanathen created for him. He remembered just how real they seemed. They were perfect. That’s how he knew they couldn’t be real.

  “I’m so happy for you two,” Carol said as she listened to Guy.

  “I just hope I can make your son happy,” Guy said as he put a gentle hand on Barry’s tense knee. “Sir, would you like me to get you a drink?”

  “Well alright!” Gerald said. “You just read my mind!”

  The world came to a complete stop as Barry experienced a sickening epiphany. Gerald’s words repeated in Barry’s mind as it all began to piece itself together. He shook slightly with unease as he sat unmoving, staring at the floor.

  “Barry? You alright?” Guy asked as he stood up.

  “Mom, Dad, could you excuse us? I need to talk to Guy. Alone.” Barry rose to his feet and pulled Guy into his old bedroom without any further interjections.

  His old room had been turned into the guest room. Gone were his many posters and dingy old bed. Instead there was a double bed and a dresser. It was a simple room that served its purpose. Barry didn’t have time to reflect on the changes, but instead kept his eyes away from Guy and focused on keeping his mind vacant. Guy looked over at Barry inquisitively, looking for some sort of answer. He couldn’t find one, not in Barry’s expression and not in his mind either. For once there was nothing he could read.

  “Barry—”

  “What did you do to them?” Barry interrupted.

  “What?”

  “What did you do to them? My parents. What did you do to them?” Barry asked again. “There’s something I learned a while back. If it’s too good to be true, then it probably is.”

  “Babe, relax, your parents—”

  “You may be a mind-reader but you don’t know my parents like I do.” Barry said. “None of this is adding up. None of it. They’re being so accepting of everything, even talking to you online. That just doesn’t sound like them at all.”

  Barry thrust his arms down in anger and felt himself twitch. He continued to glare at Guy and refused to ease off. He felt sick to his stomach and while he really had nothing to go on but an inkling, Barry felt it was enough for him to justifiably question what was happening Though he felt jittery he forced himself to stand his ground.

  “My life’s been pretty weird since I crashed on that island. Now that I know that magic exists with you dragons, I guess I can’t really come to any logical conclusions anymore, especially when the ‘logical’ one makes zero sense,” Barry said. “Since I’ve met you, things have gone even more astray without me even having to do anything. I haven’t noticed until now. What did you do to my parents?”

  Guy stood without saying a word. The sympathetic expression hadn’t vanished from his face but instead became even more affectionate. He smiled as he held Barry close to him, his fingers running through his hair as he cradled his head. Barry felt a wave of comfort flow through him as he waited for an explanation. He eagerly awaited being proven wrong.

  “Barry, I’m sorry. I should’ve been more honest. I just…changed their minds,” Guy said, his warm breath bathing Barry’s ears.

  Barry jolted out of the embrace, keeping Guy at arm’s distance. “Changed their minds? Like…brainwashed them?”

  “That’s a harsh term,” Guy said. “I’m not making them do anything evil. I just switched off the part of them that made them, y’know, bigots. Problem solved.”

  “No. No! Problem not solved!” Barry snapped.

  In a literal sense, yes, his problem was solved. He now had his parents accepting him completely for who he was. He could have his life with his lover and his parents and everything could be alright. He would never have to feel alone again. But he looked back on his parents’ vacant pauses and their wide, glassy eyed expressions and he felt unsettled. Those were the words he wanted to hear but they were not the people saying them.

  “What? You want them like they were?” Guy asked, raising an eyebrow.

  “No. I don’t,” Barry said. “But not like this. That’d be like turning me straight. Of course I want them to accept me. I want them to do it on their own, though. I want them to come around to it of their own free will.”

  “You know that’s not gonna happen, right?” Guy asked.

  “It doesn’t matter. I don’t have to like it. Turn them back. Let them go. Undo it!”

  “You really don’t want your parents to accept us?”

  Barry thought of his time with Guy and how much he had treasured it. The memories of the months they spent together warmed his heart. He fawned over their first kiss and all the time Guy spent listening to him and just holding him. Barry thought over all the things he learned from Guy and how much he felt he had grown since meeting him.

  The memories had grown dark and twisted with doubt. If Guy was willing to do this to his parents, was he willing to do this to Barry too? Had he already done it? Barry’s nostrils flared as he continued to look back on nearly a year together as his memories turned rotten and malformed. All of the moments between the two of them warped into some perverted abomination that made Barry seethe with rage.

  “There is no us!” Barry shouted. “I want you to drop this brainwashing shit and I never want to see you again!”

  “You’re breaking my heart, Barry.” Guy said sadly.

  Barry glared at him furiously. His trust had been shattered completely and lay scattered on the ground, leav
ing only Barry’s warped vision of Guy. No longer was there the handsome eccentric man who came in and swept him off his feet. His face was drained of all charisma and intensity and instead showed something twisted and manipulative. He was repulsed by this new view of Guy and wished he had never seen him at all.

  He couldn’t bring himself to say a single word. His mind just frothed with the most spiteful, hateful thoughts that came to the surface one after the other. They popped up at an alarming rate, screeching in his head and refused to stop.

  Guy staggered a little, leaning on the bed as he clutched his head.

  “Son of a bitch, ow! You’re giving me a migraine.” Guy groaned as he sat down.

  Barry’s eyes went wild with inspiration as he continued to let all the thoughts, every single one of them, have their frenzied freedom. Guy winced as he leaned back still holding his throbbing head. Barry refused to stop as he opened his mind and dashed through the house. Barry made as much noise as he possibly could. He snatched the remote from Gerald’s hand and turned up the volume until he couldn’t hear his parents’, or Guy’s, protests. Every radio that he could find was turned on with aggravatingly loud static, vacuums were turned on and given free reign as they screeched.

  Barry bolted to the garage and rummage through everything until he stopped as he saw the perfect tool.

  Guy was writhing on the bed when Barry came back in, hands filled with a large hammer. The endless noise grated on Guy and pulsed inside his head, piercing every wrinkle in his brain. His cries of anguish were tuned out by all of the noise in the house but he continued to stand up despite his growing migraine.

  Barry clutched onto the sledgehammer as he gathered as much strength as he could to swing, not at Guy, but at the wall nearby. He began to swing repeatedly, letting the vibrations bounce off the wall and reverberate through Guy’s head. With each slam into the wall he left gaping holes in his wake.

  Guy crumpled on the bed as his bleated cries were muted by the noise. His head throbbed increasingly as he felt the world twist around him. His stomach roiled and he felt his mental grip slip as his vision darkened. He collapsed limply on the bed.

  All the noise came to a stop as Barry turned everything off, leaving Guy to moan and writhe unconsciously on the bed. He paid him no mind. Instead he turned his attention to his parents who had dropped to the floor in an uncomfortable daze. Barry sank to his knees to prop them up as he listened to their steady breaths. He felt relief to see them coming to their senses.

  Gerald’s eyes opened as he slowly came to, looking up at Barry with glazed eyes. Barry calmly urged him to rest but he was having none of it.

  “Barry… I know you won’t believe it… But I think that guy was in our heads,” he croaked.

  “I believe you, Dad,” Barry said. “More than you know.”

  “It hurt…It hurt so bad. Like…vices. Vices on my head. It wouldn’t stop. I couldn’t control what I was saying.”

  “It’s okay, Dad. Please, you need to rest. It’s over.”

  “You stopped him, didn’t you?”

  “Yeah.”

  “You’re…You’re a tough guy. Heh. I…Your mom wasn’t lying when she said we love you.”

  Barry wanted to hug him and reassure him. All he could do was smile and nod at him that he understood. It wasn’t the conclusion he wanted, and he was almost certain it would never go the way he wanted it to. But as much as it hurt him he knew he couldn’t force things. He knew they loved him. Progress would come.

  With his parents sleeping peacefully Barry returned to the guest room. He shook Guy awake with a stern look in his eyes. Guy breathed softly, fighting the violent sickness in his stomach at Barry’s intense glare. He said nothing as he continued to look up at him.

  “Where’s Xanathen?” Barry asked simply.

  “I didn’t have anything to do with…” Guy trailed off as he saw Barry’s hand land lightly on the handle of the idle sledgehammer. He winced. “Alright. Alright. He’s with my clan. They wanted me back, and I didn’t wanna go. So I convinced him to go in my place. Told him you two would never work out. Please don’t smash that hammer again.”

  In one single action Barry managed to get all the information out of Guy. Even the things he didn’t say spoke volumes about who Guy was deep down. Barry smirked as he thought, So this is what it’s like to be a mind-reader?

  Instead of grabbing the hammer, he grasped Guy by the hand, pulled him up and dragged him out of the house.

  “Wha—? Where…” Guy asked as Barry sat him in the passenger seat of the car, his mind still reeling. “Where are we going?”

  Barry sat behind the steering wheel and focused on the road ahead of him. He knew he had made mistakes and while he couldn’t go back and fix them, he knew that the man that he loved was in trouble. He quickly accepted the grave reality of how dangerous his mission would be. He didn’t have the powers or the strength of dragons, but he had the tenacity of a man and that proved to be enough.

  “You’re coming with me,” Barry said as he started the engine. “We’re gonna set all this shit straight and get Xanathen.”

  He scowled as he looked over at Guy. Unfortunately, he needed him for this trip and refused to let him out of his sight.

  The car shot forwards as Barry’s goal was back in Florida. He knew his plan would be daring, crazy even, but years of Coast Guard training had prepared him for this. Barry didn’t have wings like Guy or Xanathen, but he was determined to use his skills to fly just like them.

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  Acknowledgments

  I wish to express my sincere gratitude to Ms. Nicole Davis for proofreading this book and providing me with the opportunity of delivering a higher quality book.

  I sincerely thank Ms. April Calandro and Nic Baker for their beta reading comments. I also wish to express my deepest naughtiest gratitude to Jo Bird, Sheryl Howard, Nichole Reeder and Everett Jones for not only helping me proofread this book but also helping me behind the scenes.