The Healing Mendez (Vitrian Secrets, #1)

by Dele Andersen

  “Left?” Wanda was confused. “We go home together. He could not ...”

  “He left with Alfred,” the boy said casually. The boy continued, but Wanda was already in shock, hearing Alfred's name. “Alfred came to pick Jason,” the boy continued. “He said that your mum said he should bring Jason home.” “That's not possible ...” Wanda said faintly, and then it all occurred to her what had happened. Her heart became heavy like it had been pumped full with lead.

  She backed away from the boys in slow motion as her brain began to pull the pieces together. Alfred was talking to the man in the yellow raincoat when she noticed the demon for the first time. Suddenly Alfred's disappearance hit her like a stone was thrown at her head ... Alfred must be working with the demon. He must have let the demon in through the back entrance while Alfred himself must have gone to get Jason. In total panic, she wondered where Alfred had taken Jason and how she was going to explain it all to her mum.

  ∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞

  Chapter 3

  In a rush as everything in Wanda's life seemed to be twirling and collapsing at the same time, she wandered for a moment, contemplating where or how to find her brother Jason. In her confused state, she remembered her mum and rummaged in her pocket to get her phone out.

  Wanda dialled her mum's number. The line went dead immediately her mum's mobile number was called. It went off so fast that she wasn't sure the call went through at all. Knowing that it was unusual for her not to be able to reach her mum on the mobile phone, Wanda tried again and again, but nothing happened. Suddenly, after several trials, the call was picked up at the other end when she had totally lost hope.

  “Mum, Mum.” Wanda was hasty

  “Wanda, Wanda,” she heard her mum, but it was in a rush, which worried Wanda

  “Mum,” Wanda called again and pressed her finger on the phone. She looked around in confusion. “Mum, what is going on?” Wanda asked. Her voice breaking as panic began to set in again.

  “Where are you?” Her mum replied. The haste in her voice was gone. Wanda could clearly hear the sound, and it was definitely her mum's. “I have been looking all over for you.”

  “I'm at school, standing in the courtyard, but I can't find Jason. He's not at school....” Wanda had started sobbing.

  “Come back in. I'm inside your school,” Wanda’s mum said. For a moment, Wanda froze as something caught her attention. It wasn't the voice because she knew it was definitely her mum's voice on the other side, talking. It wasn't her mother being inside the school because Wanda knew her mum was close to a few of the teachers and could have gone into the school to have a discussion with them. It was something about the statement she made “... but I can't find Jason. He’s not at school.”

  Knowing how her mum had turned into a panic freak since their father died years ago and how every little moment of not seeing them or able to lay her eyes on them would have freaked out her mum. Wanda knew something wasn't right. She knew her mum could not have heard that Jason was missing from school, and all she would say was for her to come back into school.

  With a sudden awakening, Wanda remembered the horror she left at school ... Eric and the demon. She turned gently towards the school's main entrance expecting to see something unusual once she laid her eyes on the building. She saw a person with a phone to her ears standing by the school door and looking straight at her.

  There was something odd about the person, and Wanda realised she could not even confirm if she was looking at a human being or not. She didn't wait to analyse what it was as she remembered Eric's warning that she should run far away from the school premises. Wanda turned and ran as fast towards the road. She jumped in front of a taxi, which came to an abrupt halt.

  “Are you out ...?” The taxi driver stretched his head out of the window. The man yelled at Wanda, but Wanda's attention was on the person or thing with the phone. She watched as the person haste began to run towards her. Wanda immediately got into the taxi.

  “Go! Go! Go!....” Wanda said hurriedly to the driver.

  “Are you alright?” The driver asked, this time with a more caring tone. He wondered if Wanda was okay.

  “Drive!” Wanda screamed.

  “Okay, okay,” the man pumped some gas into the engine. He drove for about five minutes watching Wanda through the rear-view mirror as she panicked, looking backward several times. “Where exactly are we going?” The man asked once he realised she was calm.

  “Kampengata ... number 20, Oslo,” Wanda gave the driver her home address and straight away began to think about who might have been using her mother's phone.

  “You know you are lucky the boy I came to pick had left for home,” the driver tried to make Wanda comfortable.

  Totally in panic and apprehensive, tears trickled down her face, but she looked away from the driver and tried to hold it in, making sure she wasn't crying out loud so that the driver couldn't hear her.

  Her entire afternoon in the last hour had turned into a lifetime experience, something she would never forget. Her mum came up again on her mind. Losing her dad affected her mum gravely, and it was harrowing, a pain Wanda herself had carried for nine years wishing she could lay her hands on those that caused the car accident, which killed her father, but the police never found them.

  The thought of her mother and brother suddenly being pronounced dead like the night they came to give her mother the news of her father's death played itself over and over in her head, and it frightened her. She deliberated on it for some time thinking about what had happened to her mum and where Alfred could have taken Jason. Tutu came up in her mind, and quickly Wanda took the phone out again and called.

  “Tutu, Tutu,” Wanda whispered in a scurry while sniffing as she tried to control her tears and emotions.

  “Wanda, where are you?” Tutu asked quickly. Her voice defined by worry and concern.

  “I don't know?”

  “What,” Tutu shouted.

  “In a taxi,” Wanda corrected slowly. She ignored Tutu's shock. “Jason is missing, and I can't reach my mum. I hope they haven't gotten her.”

  “Who is going to get your mum?” Tutu enquired, and when Wanda remained silent, she included. “And who has Jason?”

  “Alfred has Jason, and I think he is working with some demons ... They might have my mum.”

  “Demons ...” Tutu broke off, and the line cut off.

  Wanda looked at the phone and wondered why Tutu went off abruptly. She called back but couldn't reach Tutu, the phone kept ringing, and Tutu didn't pick up. She pondered why Tutu would suddenly cut her off and not pick her call the moment she mentioned demons.

  “Could Tutu possibly know something about all these?” A thought flashed through Wanda's face as she cogitated, and then the taxi slowed down. She looked up and realised they were already on her street.

  A moment later, Wanda stepped out of the taxi after paying the driver. She rushed into the building and went straight up to their apartment. Her fingers trembled in a panic, not knowing what to expect by the time she entered their residential apartment. She'd heard enough funny stories of some students' mum's disappearing by the time they got home.

  Wanda moved closer to the door, touched her pocket, and then remembered her own key was in her bag that she had left behind in school. She closed her eyes, frustrated, and feeling like hitting herself, then she heard her mum's voice in the apartment. Her mum was talking to someone. Hastily Wanda shouted out, trying to force the door open and calling out to her mum as tears fell from her eyes.

  The door to their apartment flung open.

  “Wanda!” Sofia called her daughter in bewilderment, wondering why she was crying, looking tired, dirty, scattered, and panting heavily.

  “Mum,” Wanda replied, rushed in, and hugged her mum. The joy and relief of seeing her mum alive filled Wanda.

  “Are you alright?” Sofia moved her eyes from left to right, trying to identify why her daughter looked so dishevelled.

&n
bsp; “What happened to your phone?” Wanda asked instantly.

  “I can't find it. I have been looking for it. I went out a few hours ago, and I lost it,” Sofia replied, then placed her hand on her daughter's back and consoled her as they hugged each other in a tight grip. Suddenly, Sofia's tone changed as she realised Wanda had returned home alone. “What's the matter? Where ... where is your brother?”

  Wanda was happy this was her mum talking; she could hear the panic already in her mum's voice, though she had not mentioned that Jason was missing. Without panicking or trying to scare her daughter, Sofia pulled away from the hug but held Wanda by the shoulders.

  “Where is Jason?” Sofia requested gently, but she was already worried as she looked directly into Wanda's eyes. She could see more tears gathering in Wanda's eyes as she demanded Jason.

  “I ... I don't know mum - I looked everywhere for him...”

  “What do you mean?” Sofia raised her voice.

  “Easy Sofia,” the man Sofia was talking to was already on his feet the moment he heard Wanda shouting by the door. He had stood up, straight from his position resting by one of the sidewall units.

  Wanda was happy to see Bathe. He had been there for them since her dad died. Bathe looked older than his age for someone in his forties, with several gray hairs on his head and wrinkled forehead. He was big but not too tall; about six feet. Wanda sometimes enjoyed his company, and other times did not. She couldn't bear the thoughts that anyone could take her father's place, and she could see her mum felt the same way too. Her mother had kept away from remarrying though she looked gorgeous by all standards for someone who was forty-one years old.

  Bathe walked up to Wanda and spoke gently with his right hand placed on Wanda's shoulder, “What happened to Jason?” Bathe inquired in a low tone, his eyes focused on Wanda as he waited for her to respond.

  “I think a demon got him....” Wanda said. She spoke before realising what she had said.

  “What?” Sofia flipped. “I told you and Jason, I don't want you talking ...”

  “Mum!” Wanda shouted and spoke fast as the tears she'd been holding back began to gush out of her eyes. She spoke in a hurry. “I saw it with my own eyes. Tutu could not, but I saw it, and it chased me all over the ... ”

  “Wait,” Bathe butted in, and Wanda could see the seriousness in his face. She looked up and noticed that both Bathe's eyes and those of her mum were now intensely fixed on her like she was going to be vaporized, and they wanted to see it when it happened.

  Sofia already wore a shocked look on her face. Her face was wrinkled in suspense like she had seen her dead husband resurrect. “Is there something wrong?” Wanda asked, slowly feeling uncomfortable at her mum and Bathe's silence but deep stares. She wiped the tears off her eyes quickly.

  “You saw a demon, and it chased you?” Bathe repeated like he didn't hear Wanda properly.

  “It's a long story....”

  “Give me a quick summary,” Bathe's response came out fast, making his inquisitiveness a concern for Wanda.

  Wanda narrated her story, from stepping out of school and seeing Alfred while she and Tutu chatted until she had to rush into the taxi. She left out the part of the story about Eric being killed by the demon. She couldn't come to terms with the fact that she had let a boy die in her place.

  “Oh! No!” Sofia was shocked. She raised her hands straight to her face and covered her mouth. “No! No! No!” She continued while shaking her head like she was forcing herself to wake up from a dream.

  “Sofia.” Bathe turned. “We need to get her away from here now.”

  “No, no,” Sofia cried, tears already settling in her eyes. She took her hands off her mouth and placed them on the side of her face. Wanda could see that her mum was facing Bathe but wasn't looking at him. She was almost falling unconscious. “Marcus promised me this would not happen.”

  “Yes,” Bathe answered. “Marcus probably said all that to keep you from being worried.”

  Wanda watched as her mum instantly began to shiver. She didn't understand what her mum and Bathe were talking about but could see her mother was disturbed.

  “What should I do,” Sofia complained, “how do I find Jason?”

  “I can make some calls about that and get a few people to track him down,” Bathe said. “But right now, you and Wanda have to leave here.”

  “Leave?” Wanda said, but she wasn't bothered that they were ignoring her. The urgency in her mother's voice and Bathe's tone created such heavy suspense, it swept away all the fright she had previously.

  “Where can I hide her from demons?” Sofia protested.

  “You know where Sofia,” Bathe responded, and Wanda could sense there was more to the story. Probably some history between her mum and Bathe, long even before her father died.

  “I thought ... the entire demon and prophecy thing ended for us when Marcus and Xavier died.” Wanda heard her mother complain and wondered who Xavier was.

  “That isn't the issue now, Sofia,” Bathe tried to console her. “Wanda's safety is what we have to figure out right now. I'll make some quick calls, and I think you should gather a few things together,” Bathe said. “But make it light, probably only important Vitrian and Marcus' stuff ... like his Praying Méndez.”

  Praying Méndez caught Wanda's attention. Eric had mentioned the same words. He had asked for hers, but she had no idea what he meant. She had only looked at him like he was speaking in a foreign language when he mentioned it.

  Bathe pulled his phone out from his pocket, and hurriedly walked away to make a call. Sofia turned away, walked towards her room, and Wanda quickly followed her.

  “Mum, why do we have to leave?” Wanda asked.

  “You shouldn't have seen the demon,” Sofia muttered, but it wasn't a complaint; it was more like she was trying to clear her head that it should not have happened.

  “Mum ... I need to know what's happening. We have to do something about Jason; we can't just leave without him?” Sofia pushed through the door to her room and turned immediately to look at Wanda.

  “Are you sure you saw a demon?” Her mother's voice was firm. The usual firm tone Wanda got whenever her mum corrected her. Wanda could see fret written over her mother's expression. She knew it wasn't the time to play with her words.

  “Yes, mum,” Wanda answered. “I saw it the same way I am looking at you right now. The same way, dad described.”

  “I told Marcus not to tell you and Jason those stories, but he assured me it meant nothing. You and Jason weren't chosen; you had nothing to do with The Chosen. Marcus said,” Sofia sighed and bent down to pull something out from her wardrobe under her set of dresses.

  “Chosen ...” Wanda repeated, staring at her mum tumultuously. “What does that mean?” She asked as her mother turned to the bed with a wooden box in her hands. The box was outlandish but well polished. Wanda was sure she hadn't seen the box before, even though she'd opened and looked into her mother's closet several times.

  The box was made of thick wood, well polished in dark chocolate brown. It was designed like a treasure chest with a lid that had an oval shape. There were objects in it with symbols on them like the symbol Wanda had seen sparkling on the object Eric was holding. The symbol had a unique appearance. It was carved into the wood on all sides and at the top of the box.

  “What is this?” Wanda's eyes became fixed on the box in her mother's hand.

  “You can see it,” her mum croaked.

  “Yes, I can see the box, mum,” Wanda answered, and Sofia realised that truly something had changed in her daughter. She knew Wanda's eyes were now open. Something she had prayed against.

  “It's Marcus',” Sofia said dismally. He brought it home a few days before he died and told me not to give it out to anyone.”

  “It belongs to dad.” Wanda wondered why her dad had such an old and ancient-looking wooden box.

  Sofia placed the box on her bed and opened it. Wanda was stunned at the content. They w
ere items she'd never seen before. Pegs of different kinds, some were wooden, but most of them were metallic...more like silver-like in appearance. It also contained some documents and notes with different writings, revealing they were written by different people.

  As Wanda studied the items, she realised a few of the things in the box looked like the ones she saw with Eric but longer. They were as long as her arm from her wrist to her elbow. They were as long as the ones that Eric threw when they were together at school.

  “This is your father's Praying Méndez,” Sofia said as she picked up one of the objects. She didn't turn to look at her daughter, but she continued to study the Méndez in her hand, looking at it passionately. Smiling as fond thoughts of her late husband flashed in her memory.

  The Praying Méndez was as long as the other silver-like object in the box, but it was different and had a remarkable appearance that caught the eye. It was like silver mixed with wood. Its shape was like twisting silver and wood together; it went from the bottom of the Praying Méndez to the sharp pointy tip at the top. Like the other objects in the box, the Praying Méndez had a thin elongated cone-like shape. On the silver side were the same Greek symbol; the imbedded symbol on the silver side was made of wood, and the symbol on the wooden side was made of silver.

  “What does it do?” Wanda looked astonishingly at the Praying Méndez, knowing that Eric had said she needed it for the demon.

  “I'll have to explain later.” Sofia closed the box. “We need to get out of here.”

  Immediately Wanda and her mum stepped back to their reception room, Bathe quickly end the call he was making, and Wanda noticed the unexpected way at which he stopped talking like he didn't want them to hear the conversation. Sofia didn't seem to notice the abrupt attitude from Bathe, but Wanda did.

  “I have about twenty people looking for Jason,” Bathe said. “They should find him very soon.”

  For a while, Wanda wondered what that meant and who these twenty people were that Bathe could suddenly and quickly order them around to look for her brother.