by Brian Rella
Arraziel ran into the woods, Tarek under his arm, Jessie on his back, death, destruction and chaos in their wake.
34
FRANK
June 16, 1994
Hudson Highlands, New York
Shizu burst into the kitchen. “Up! All of you, now!” he shouted. Those that were still sitting sprang to their feet. “We are under attack!”
Plates clattered to the table and shattered on the floor as the warriors dropped their dinners and followed Shizu outside. Frank was the last out and when he arrived the plateau in front of the temple radiated with the Watchers’ glowing weapons. Tension filled the air as the warriors listened and waited for what they all sensed was coming.
Frank and David stood at Shizu’s side, their weapons in hand. Shizu glanced down at them and motioned the boys back toward the Temple. “Back, young ones. You are not yet ready,” he said.
“Boys!” their mother yelled. “Come now!”
Reluctantly, the boys obeyed their master and their mother. Tugging David by his shirt, his hair still wet from the shower, Frank retreated to the entrance of the Temple.
A worried look creased his mother’s brow and he knew what she was thinking.
Where’s Dad?
The three of them stood inside the doorway to the Temple, watching and waiting for something to happen. Frank’s chest rose rapidly with anxious anticipation. He fought back the worried thoughts of his father that tried to crowd his mind.
A thunder rose in the distance. His eyes widened and his mother’s grip tightened on his shoulder. “Come on, boys, back inside.”
“But what about Dad?” Frank complained.
“Your father will be here shortly,” she said, her voice cracking on the last syllable.
The thunder rose and the ground vibrated as they backed into the Temple. “Get the other door, Frank,” his mother commanded.
She and Frank closed the three of them safely inside. David ran to the porthole at the side of the enormous iron doors that sealed the Temple. They all squeezed in around the small window as the noise grew louder, hardly muted by the doors that separated them from the outside.
Bears, deer, wolves, rabbits, squirrels, and all manner of forest creatures leaped from the tree line in front of the temple. Shizu shouted orders at his men and Frank watched a group of Watchers cast a large shield of energy around the group. It glowed in the dwindling daylight and rippled as the forest creatures crashed into it. Some animals bounced back and scurried around. Others were trampled by the stampede behind them, leaving a bloody pile of fur and flesh at the base of the warriors’ shield.
They came by the hundreds, driven by an unseen force. As the carcasses piled up, the herd instinctively split. Some animals going left, and others right, navigating around the group of warriors and their energetic shield.
The thunderous roar of the stampede receded and the density of the herd diminished, but another, less familiar sound replaced the furious stampede.
A clattering and a high-pitched squeal rang through the air. Frank winced, his hands going to his ears. The ground continued to vibrate under their feet as the sound grew louder.
Shizu shouted to his left and right, and other men joined in supporting the defensive field around the men.
The air was charged and tense, and Frank realized he had stopped breathing. What now? Where’s Dad?
Something flew from the tree line, awkwardly tumbling end over end in the air. At first Frank thought it was a large bird, but then the world slowed and he recognized the thing flung at them.
His father’s torso and mangled face splattered against the blue force field and slid down to the bloody pile of carcasses at the base of the force field.
Time slowed. From somewhere distant, Frank heard a shriek. He turned. His mother’s mouth opened in a wide oval, her face flushed, and her body rigid, as she wailed.
Still unable to process what he was witnessing, Frank turned back to the events unfolding outside.
Trees crashed down in front of the temple, landing on the shield. The warriors’ faces strained, and their muscles tensed reflexively. They pushed back against the heavy load that pounded the shield.
Splintering sounds mixed with the screeching and clattering of the creatures that approached. Shadows formed behind the falling trees. Enormous appendages reached out of the lush green forest. Something dropped down from above. Frank flinched as it crashed into the blue shield surrounding them.
Through the haze of the force field, Frank recognized the forms. Giant mosquitoes, two or three feet long, smashed into the blue field of energy and stabbed at it with their lance-like stingers.
Frank heard shouts from Shizu as more men supported the shield guarding them. In front of the shield, giant spiders crawled over the force field, their furry bodies quivering as they stabbed at the shield, trying to break through. Praying mantis the size of cars sprang from behind them, their forelegs slashing at the shield. Shizu glanced around at his men, and then looked back at Frank and David through the porthole. His face darkened and with a nod and a furious, primordial roar, he turned back to the onslaught, raised his saitachi above his head, and shouted commands.
Some warriors dropped their support of the shield spell and blasted the giant insects attacking them with bursts of energy.
Mosquitoes fell from the air, wings shredded, black guts oozing down the blue force field.
Insect legs ripped apart, thoraxes cracked open, spewing thick black sludge across the shield.
And still they came.
The men kept up their counterattack, but the shield began to dimple and fade under the continuous onslaught. The warriors dripped with sweat, their faces tense and twisted with the strain of spell casting for so long.
Finally, the number of creatures dwindled and Frank breathed again…until an unearthly howl echoed around them, rattling the doors of the temple. Dust fell from the ceiling, and the shield outside dropped when the warriors supporting it broke their concentration to cover their ears.
The shield dissipated, and the remaining insects screeched into the circle of defense.
Frank saw Maza pinned under a giant spider, its stinger penetrating into her belly as she screamed. She turned white and vomited blood onto her face as the spider dug into her torso with his mandibles, eating her alive. Frank screamed, his heart sinking to his stomach as he watched her die.
“No! Maza!” Frank shouted, his fists pounding the wall.
Reality set in on Frank. His father was dead, the woman he loved was dead, his teachers and friends were under attack and dying. He felt the terror build inside of him and tears streaking down his face.
Flashes of light flew across the battlefield. Bugs splattered, their guts covering the ground in a soupy muck. Shizu’s gleaming saitachi were a blur as he removed half the head of a mantis that had meant to cut him in two with its razor-sharp forelegs.
Tarek let loose balls of light from his palms, blasting holes the size of beach balls in the side of a spider.
Two more Watchers went down in gruesome deaths from above, impaled by diving mosquitoes.
He couldn’t stand there another moment. He had to help. He pulled open the door, and from the corner of his eye, saw his mother had collapsed on the floor, her eyes wide and unblinking. David was at her side, tears falling from his face. David mouthed her name – Mom, Mom – and shook her, trying to get her to respond.
“Mom!” Frank shouted.
David glanced up, his face distraught. “Go,” he yelled. “I’ll help her!”
Torn between mother, brother, and his duty as a Watcher, Frank fought back the urge to run to his mother’s side and yanked open the door.
He shut the door behind him, formed his katana, and ran into the battle, his face a twisted grimace of rage.
A giant spider was about to fatally sting Rowan. He leaped through the air to aid him slashing his katana of light through a diving mosquito, and halving it in the air. He landed rolling to
a crouch on the ground at the side of the spider that was attacking Rowan. His sword gashed at the spider, cutting through its legs and stinger before it could impale Rowan.
Frank stabbed through the furry side of the arachnid, opening its side wide. It quivered and fell on its face. Rowan turned and threw it off of him, then sank his glowing red axe between the spider’s eyes.
The warriors’ eyes met. Rowan nodded subtly, turned, and went back into the fray with Frank behind him.
Frank glanced around at the battlefield. The Watchers’ numbers had been halved. Some of them lay dead in pools of gore. Others were dying before Frank’s eyes. The giants lay amongst the dead Watchers in heaps of black ooze and pasty guts.
As Frank caught his breath, the unearthly roar he had heard before cut through his head and made the ground rumble beneath his feet. As the roar ended, a loud squishing, slithering sound drew near.
Frank’s eyes flitted to the forest and a dark purple shadow the size of the farm house burst into the clearing, stopping in front of the group.
The warriors froze at the sight of the purple giant, its plump leathery flesh glistening in the fading sunlight. It resembled a giant slug and left a trail of smoking green slime behind it. Three eyes stood on stalks on top of its head and metallic-looking spikes ran down its back. Frank gasped at the sight of the giant monster, remembering the image of the creature from his childhood dreams.
“Glak'xhohr!” Shizu shouted. The monster lifted the front of its body into the air, towering above the remaining Watchers, covering them in its shadow.
Glak'xhohr had found them again and its army of giant beasts had killed Frank’s father and friends.
And now it was coming after the rest of them.
Glak'xhohr yawned and Frank gazed down its orifice. Its mouth was green and slick with slime. Rows of teeth circled its innards as far back as he could see, ending in darkness.
Something echoed from within the giant alien: a slithering and squishing sound.
The warriors, awestruck at the monster in front of them, fell back in fear toward the Temple as the sounds echoing from within the beast grew louder and then revealed themselves.
Thousands of smaller purple slugs slithered out of Glak'xhohr’s mouth. They were several inches long and moved rapidly across the ground, leaving a deep track of smoking green slime and earth in their trail.
The army of slugs swarmed them. The Watchers let loose a barrage of energy at the center of the attacking army, setting the field ablaze. The air was rank with scent of burning bug flesh, and the crackling sounds of burning slugs.
Something cut into Frank’s foot and he howled in pain. A slug had sunk its face into his shoe. He kicked it away and his foot glowed green and smoke rose from the bite mark where its venomous slime clung to his shoe.
David appeared at his side. “Where’s Mom?” Frank said to him, but David was speechless, gawking at the giant slug and its army.
Frank’s heart sank and he fell into panic. This was the end. He was going to die and so was the rest of his family. They had failed and the chaos of Glak'xhohr would enter the world and begin its destruction. Frank felt the tears well up in his eyes, the fatigue of defeat filled him, and his mind began to slowly accept the end.
Someone grabbed his arm. “Take my hand,” Shizu shouted in his face as someone else stepped to his side. Brennan.
“Fin’la Nas glkul’ emplj’ A’raff’SA!” Shizu shouted.
Frank felt the energy inside him swell larger than ever before. As it grew, it was sucked through his hands, into the circle he had formed with Shizu and Brennan. The energy radiated out from them, vaporizing the slug army that swarmed over them.
The energy pulsed, becoming larger than their circle, and spread out around them. Frank felt himself overcome with its power. Weakness gripped his bones and he thought he might pass out.
Quiet overtook him and time froze. He floated in a soundless darkness.
A hole in the darkness burst open in front of him. A vortex formed, and a white light rushed over him, emanating from the swirling energy. He felt objects sweep by him and into the portal. The silence was broken by Glak'xhohr’s roar. The vortex pulled the creature in, its body squeezing through the small hole. Frank felt himself being pulled into the vortex as well, but then a powerful shove thrust him many yards away.
He landed with a thud, his mind swam, his vision blurred, and he blacked out.
35
FRANK
June 16, 1994
Hudson Highlands, New York
Specks of light permeated the blackness. Frank was dimly aware he was lying on his back. A loud ringing filled his ears and when he opened his eyes, the world was out of focus.
His head ached, as if something heavy was pressing on it from all sides. He tried to lift his arm, but he thought he might pass out.
He moaned and sensed someone come to his side.
“Frank…” The person was saying his name, but it was distorted, like he was under water.
“Frank,” he heard the voice again, louder this time. The world came into focus. The ringing in his ears subsided. He tried to speak, but it came out a croak.
“David?”
“Frank, can you sit up?” the voice said. He could see the person’s features now. It was Brennan. Frank reached out for help to sit up. Brennan grasped his hand and pulled him forward. Frank wobbled and nearly fell to the ground, but Brennan wrapped his arm around him, steadying him.
“How is he?” It sounded like Rowan. Frank turned and winced.
“He’s okay, I think. Frank, you okay?”
“I…I… What happened?” Frank asked through the fog.
“He’ll be fine. Go check on the others,” Brennan said. “I’ll speak to him.”
He heard footsteps receding behind him as his head drooped to his hands.
“Your strength will return soon,” Brennan said. “The spell drained you of all your energy. That’s why you feel so weak.”
“Did we do it? Did we kill Glak'xhohr?”
“Not exactly,” Brennan said. “The spell we cast… It was Shizu who opened the vortex. We helped by combining our energy with his, but it was his spell, and… We don’t know where he sent Glak'xhohr or…where…” Brennan was struggling and Frank sensed something was terribly wrong. His mind immediately went to David and his mother.
“What is it? Where are David and my mother? Where’s Shizu?” Oh my God… My dad...is… He’s dead –
“Frank, your brother and Shizu… They were sucked into the vortex.”
Frank’s breath caught. “What? We have to go get them back. Right now!” He tried to rise and fell back down, landing roughly on his bottom.
“Easy, Frank,” Brennan said. “It’s not that simple. We don’t know where they are. Only Shizu knows, and we have no way of contacting him. He saved us both. He pushed us away at the last second.”
Frank was stunned and drained. His mind grappled with questions, but he was unable to speak. The world started to swim and go black again.
“No…no…” was all he could manage to say.
Brennan placed an arm around him and gently lowered him to the ground as the world went hazy and out of focus again.
“My mother…where is she?” he said in a whisper.
“Frank, she’s okay, but…she’s not speaking. She’s in shock. Rest. You need to rest now,” Brennan said. And then Frank felt himself swirling round and round like he was caught in a whirlpool, and the world disappeared above him.
Frank awoke to loud voices. It was dark, but he thought he was in the Watcher’s quarters in his bed. His strength had returned and he was able to sit up. He rolled his legs to the side of the bed, and rubbed his face with his hands. After a moment he stood and wobbled to the doorway and down the hall toward the voices. He stood in the entrance to the dining hall. Rowan and Brennan were arguing.
“We must go after them!” Brennan shouted.
“Go where?” Rowan replied
.
“There must be a way!”
“There is not,” Rowan said. “They will have to come to us. It is the only way.”
Brennan pounded the table with his fist and turned away.
“What are you talking about?” Frank said from the doorway.
They both turned to him and their faces were solemn.
“Come and sit,” Rowan said.
Frank walked to the table and sat between them. He looked from one to another and waited for one of them to start. Rowan began.
“Frank, your brother and Shizu are gone for now and there is no way for us to get to them,” he said.
Frank could sense the frustration in Brennan.
“Are they alive? Do we even know?”
“We don’t, but we suspect Shizu knew what he was doing and had a plan. At least we hope,” Rowan said.
Brennan looked away.
“You will go with Brennan now, Frank. You will continue your training in the field. You will go to New York City.”
“I want to stay here and help try and find them,” Frank protested.
“Yes, we should stay here and try and find them,” Brennan agreed.
“I tell you there is nothing that can be done,” Rowan said to Brennan, his voice rising. “We have no idea where Shizu sent Glak'xhohr and we do not have the people to search the entire universe. He will have to reach out to us.”
“You won’t even try!” Brennan said.
Rowan shot him a furious look. “Enough. We must rebuild our forces here and we must bolster the Watchers in the field who are guarding the imprisoned Fallen. I have heard your council, Brennan. My decision is final. You will go to New York with Frank and complete his training. You will take his mother with you and she will be cared for in Watcher’s Ward there.”
“Who put you in charge?” Frank asked.
Rowan glowered at him. “I was third in command, young one. With Shizu gone and Maza dead, that leaves me in command. Now not another word from either of you. I have enough to deal with.” Then he turned and stormed out of the dining hall.
