by Navi' Robins
“Yes, if you can harness enough positive energy. Mr. Angel’s is a Shadow by the way; so it’s not exactly the same thing but you are grasping the concept.
I knew something wasn’t right about dude with the way he did magic…smh
Anything that falls within time and space is at your disposal, but just like a car, if the tank isn’t full the automobile can only go so far. Because there is very little positive energy left in this realm making the planet disappear is impossible.”
“So if I feel all positive and chipper I could do whatever I wanted?”
“Exactly! And with my training paired with external positive energy, you can be a very powerful ally of the order of the Baraqu.”
“Training?”
“Yes, I have always been a keeper of our history and a teacher or trainer to those that possess the powers of the Baraqu.”
“How long have you been doing that?”
“Over six thousand years.”
“What! You’re telling me that you are over six thousand years old? Man, whatever. Now you are playing with me.”
“The Baraqu don’t age like humans. Yes, we eventually die if not killed in battle, but some of us can live to be tens of thousands of years old before we succumb to old age.”
“Do the Shadows know about you still being alive?”
“No, they do not. That is why you needed to be blindfolded…”
“No, I got knocked out,” I interjected.
“Yes, knocked out because we can’t risk them finding me here.”
“So you don’t trust me?”
“Actually, no I don’t, and I won’t trust you until you decide to accept the charter of the Baraqu and rid the world of the Shadows and their evil leader Alal.”
“Accept the charter? What do you mean exactly by that?”
“Aiden, it’s no secret that we are losing this war and I am unable to take the battle to the Shadows because of my lack of access to positive energy. You have to understand that this world is producing vast amounts of negative emotional energy and any positive energy that may be produced is quickly eliminated. One of the best places to draw positive energies until of late was sporting events. They were a goldmine for me and I could draw that energy from anywhere in the world. But now the Shadows have moved to eliminate that source as well by allowing games to be rigged by players or the referees; quelling any cause for the fans in the stands to rejoice in a positive manner and give me the energy I need.
“But even if I was to act I need to do so behind the scenes, because if the Shadows found out a Baraqu warrior was still drawing breath in this world they would stop at nothing to prevent me from seeing another day and I don’t have the access to enough positive energy to repel all of them.”
“And he is important to this war, Aiden,” my grandfather added. “Without him we would have no inside information as to what we are up against. He has been around for a very long time and even though he can’t join the resistance on the battlefield, he is a great tactician and has led our cause to many victories.”
“So let me get this straight. What you are telling me is I am a descendant of cosmic super beings that were banished here on Earth. That I am some kind of half breed that feeds on human emotions to gain powers and I have an enemy that is addicted to negative human emotions. That enemy has managed to take hold of the entire world by creating an environment of suffering and pain; making it almost impossible to use my powers and you want me to join in the fight to stop them? From the way things look you’ve already lost. I mean potentially your most powerful ally is a dead drained battery that needs recharging, but the enemy controls the energy source so basically you are bringing a toothpick to a nuke fight.
“I don’t know but it doesn’t sound like I could do anything to turn the tide. I am bound under the same laws he is,” I pointed out.
“No,” Jaffrey said. “Somehow you are able to produce your own energy source from within. And I can tell you that energy source is very powerful if you were able to destroy a Shadow like Telal, the man you knew as Jason. Telal was the right hand of Alal and the second most powerful Shadow in their order. He was also the deadliest assassin this world has ever known. He was a master of getting so close to his targets that they would actually fall in love with him and wouldn’t see their demise coming until it was too late.
“Aside from being a very powerful Shadow, he possessed a unique and powerful ability; a rare gift that very few in history has had the privilege to possess.”
“And what is that?”
“He was a shape-shifter.”
“He could change his physical form to look anyway he wanted?”
“Not exactly, Aiden. You see, the world of men sees things in the physical form but the reality is who we really are is embedded in our soul. The unseen denominator that determines what kind of people we are and will become in the future. Our soul is what drives our character and how we interpret the world around us. It is often referred to as your Zini by our kind. It is true the flesh profits nothing; it’s only a shell that covers up what really matters. Telal had the ability to actually see a physical manifestation of your soul and change his soul to match your own, causing a false sense of security and trust in him. It’s something that no one can combat, not even the Baraqu and Telal is responsible for murdering numerous key leaders of our order.
“He was a formidable warrior and he commanded an elite squad of assassins that were insanely dedicated to him. His death will send shivers through the Shadow’s ranks and and they will want retribution. I am also certain his death has already gotten the attention of Alal, who rarely gets personally involved in this war. He has minions both Shadow and human across the globe doing his bidding with almost perfect efficiency. So until now he’s had no reason to personally get involved; but seeing that his second in command has been killed I can predict he may look into this matter himself.”
“So is that why you guys whisked us away to the other side of the world and then proceeded to get all cloak-and-dagger with me?”
“Yes, after the events at your house that ended with the death of Telal, your life is in more danger than it was before. So if you are to face this danger head on, you will need to learn how to harness and use your powers.”
“Okay, why would I want to do that? I never asked for this nor do I want it! All I want to do is be normal and play football, go to the NFL, meet a nice girl, get married, have children of my own, and did I mention be normal?”
“Yes, you did mention that,” responded Jaffrey.
I could tell he was getting agitated by my lack of willingness to accept who and what I was.
“How about I just hide out and don’t go back to Deerfield. Start over somewhere else where they can’t find me.”
“Aiden, there is no place in the realm you could hide from the Shadows. They can track you just by your emotions. If you experience any emotions at all, positive or negative, they will be able to locate you immediately and come for you and if you are not able to master the power you possess they will kill you and your entire family.”
“Why them? They aren’t Baraqu, are they?”
“Yes and no…you and your siblings carry the bloodline, but you are the only Baraqu warrior. But all of you are gifted and they will also murder your mother to close the circle. Our experiences with their execution squads are they leave no one alive to carry on the bloodline.”
“So they must have known I was a Baraqu Warrior!”
“No, they didn’t, they couldn’t have known because your powers were dormant so there was no way for him to know this. Your family has a long history starting centuries ago with fighting Alal and the Shadows and some of your ancestors are responsible for some of the greatest defeats the Shadows have faced. So your family is well known and we think he was sent there to get close and observe, waiting for your brother Manny to make contact so that they could track him and murder him.”
“Manny? Why would they want to kill Ma
nny?”
“Because he and his team are on to something big and not even myself or your grandparents know what they are doing. It must be a serious threat to the Shadows for them to send their best assassin and his followers to come after your family. I think his attack on your family was triggered by something he saw in your sister, because from what she said he was concentrated on her.”
“Do we know what he saw in Sarah?”
“Not at the moment. She’s not talking about it, but hopefully she will because we need as much information as we can to better train you both in protecting yourselves.”
“What about my mom, is she…?”
“No, she’s not. We hope you see the seriousness of the situation you face, Aiden,” responded my grandfather.
“I understand to an extent, but I’m still wondering why would you want a teenager to join the resistance. I mean you guys are worse than an African warlord recruiting child soldiers.”
“I wish I could offer you some kind of comfort Grandson, but I can’t and I am sorry you have been thrown into this war. We all tried to keep you and your sister away from the minefields but the recent events have forced our hands. You have to stop seeing yourself as a child or teenager. Your childhood was over a few nights ago and now it’s time for you to step up and be a man.”
“I’m not ready for all of this and I don’t know how you expect me to be so accepting of becoming some kind of super-soldier. I didn’t even want to go to the armed forces when I thought we were all normal and now you want me to join in a war that’s full of supernatural beings that want revenge on me because I accidentally killed their greatest assassin. I’m just not so eager to go out and kill people.”
“That’s understandable, but you must know that the people you are trying to avoid killing didn’t offer your father the same courtesy,” Jaffrey responded.
“What are you saying? The Shadows murdered my dad? So he wasn’t killed in action in Iraq?”
“No, he was returning from an important and highly classified mission when his team was hijacked. The rest of his team managed to escape but he was captured, tortured, and killed,” Jaffrey answered.
I felt anger swell inside of me at this new revelation. Everything I thought I knew or believed was all a cloak hiding the real truth and discovering my father was a victim of the Shadows made things even more complicated.
“If the mission was so secret, how was he hijacked?” I asked while trying to fight back the emotions I felt when I played back that violent vision I had on the night of my birthday. I began to understand what I saw and realizing my father may have actually gone through that torture almost mad me lose my cool.”
“I won’t lie to you and tell you that every Baraqu can be trusted and they support the resistance. Some of them would rather not fight and hope that the Shadows will show them mercy. They are rarely correct in their assumption and once their usefulness is drained they are disposed of.”
“So he was betrayed by his own people? Nice, and I’m supposed to fight for the same people that gave my dad up? Yeah, that is really giving me incentive to take up the battle for the Baraqu.”
“Aiden, the fight isn’t for you or those people who made those decisions. It’s for the future of this realm and all the other realms that stand to fall if the Shadows succeed. It’s only a matter of time before they figure out how to cross over into other realms and cause the same havoc they caused here. Their treachery will have no bounds or mercy.”
“I still don’t see how I can make a difference. They have the same power I have and according to you a lot more of it.”
“That is incorrect Aiden. I’m sorry if I led you to believe your powers and theirs are equal. Your powers are not equal. Understand, positive energy is much more powerful and potent than negative energy. Positive energy keeps the sun active, negative energy would cause it to falter and shut down. Some see that as a great and terrible power—to possess the power to shut down the sun. But in reality the sun would shut down not because the negative energy is so potent, but because the energy that has taken control of it isn’t powerful enough to sustain its unrelenting power. One of us could with a snap of a finger lay waste to legions of Shadows with the right amount of positive energy at our disposal. But heed my warning: Don’t ever underestimate their power. They are still formidable adversaries. But their power has limits and boundaries, which positive energy does not.
“Baraqu control time and space which creates reality and Shadows control that reality,” added Jaffrey.
“Wait! You are confusing me Jaffrey. You just said time and space equals reality and the Shadows control reality, so that would make us equals, correct?”
“You have much to learn, Aiden. Reality is made up of time and space, so that would mean you control the elements that give Shadows their powers.”
I sat there for about a minute trying to make sense of what Jaffrey was saying but it still wasn’t clicking for me. How could the Shadows controlling reality make them weaker than those that control time and space?
“I can see you are trying to wrap your head around this concept. Let me make this easy for you. Without time and space there is no reality. But time and space can exist even if a reality doesn’t exist.”
Now it started to make a little more sense to me. I still needed some more time to think about that concept to fully understand what Jaffrey was trying to teach me. But I was getting there.
“So you are saying I could just walk into a host of Shadows and just start handing out cans of whoop ass?”
“Yes and no, but we will get into that more once we start your training.”
“Training? I never agreed to join the resistance!”
“No, you didn’t, but I will train you all the same. You must learn to protect yourself and your family if you are to survive another week. So enough talking for tonight, tomorrow we start training and during your training you can think about joining the resistance. But by the end of your training you must make a decision.”
“How long is my training?”
“That’s entirely up to you Aiden. Get some rest. Tomorrow is going to be a very interesting day for both of us.”
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
To say I couldn’t sleep that night would be an understatement. Actually I didn’t even attempt to fall asleep. There were too many mental traffic jams in my head to even entertain the thought of sleeping. My entire world had been turned upside down and everything I thought I knew to be reality was all smoke and mirrors. Everything about my dad, the world, my family, and my future was now an unknown variable. I felt completely naked in this new world I had awakened in and through the night I caught myself praying that all this was a horrible nightmare and when the sun rose over the horizon things would go back to the normal. The whole ancient battle between two races of superior beings—and me being one of the last warrior kind—sounded like a really good RPG video game.
If only it was just a game. If anyone had told me any of this before experiencing Jason the other night, I would have laughed in their face and if they had told me this before coming in contact with Jasmine, I would have suggested they get medicated immediately. But after experiencing those two, it all made sense and as much as I wanted it to be some kind of sick YouTube conspiracy theory, I couldn’t ignore what was personally happening to me. And Jason, I still felt him; the closeness and love I felt for the man was still fresh and I couldn’t shake them. He did a serious number on me and no matter how hard I tried the remorse of taking his life hung over me like a dark cloud. I knew it had to be done, but I wasn’t happy about taking another human being’s life. Even though Jason wasn’t completely human, I mean he had some extra shit going on inside him.
Just like I did. Never in my darkest nightmares did I fathom that I would be forced to kill someone. Especially someone I thought loved me. All these thoughts played on my sanity and emotional stability. I knew my grandfather and Jaffrey wanted me to become a man, but I was only seventeen
years old and no matter how you slice it this was a much bigger piece of cake than I was expecting from life. The more I played the scene from my mom’s room back in my head, the more emotionally unstable I became. What did Jason do to me? Why was I feeling sorrow for the man who was planning to murder all of us in cold blood? I tried to fight back the sorrow and anguish but I couldn’t and before I could regroup I began to cry uncontrollably. The more I fought the harder I cried and I found myself gripping the covers in anger.
My muscles were so tense that they began to shake and soon it was like I was having a seizure. My heart was racing and I began to sweat and my eyesight became blurry. The room was spinning now and I felt like I was being pushed towards the wall. What is this? I thought. Am I having a heart attack or am I being attacked by some unseen force? My symptoms became worse the more I fought my emotions and before long I’d fallen off the bed, unable to move. It felt like my body was shutting down and eventually I felt my lungs would too. As I lay there unable to move, the only thing I could think of was Sarah and my mom. I felt like they were both in the room with me, begging me to stop fighting and let my emotions flow. But I didn’t want to feel the way I felt. I didn’t want to feel sorrow for Jason and I definitely didn’t want to feel the love I had for him. I wanted to hate him with every inch of my body but no matter how I tried, I couldn’t. I loved him; even at the moment when I took his life, I loved him. This was a truth I didn’t want to accept but here in this room, feeling my body shut down, I needed to make a decision. Either hate Jason and die or admit I killed a man I loved as a father and live.
Was this a test? Whatever it was, I was willing to fail before I succumbed to my emotions. My lungs had completely stopped working and I could feel the burn in my chest as my body fought to survive. I was moments away from blacking out for probably the last time and I welcomed the darkness. There was no way I would ever admit I loved Jason, so if this is my end, so be it, let the darkness take me. A thin veil of darkness began to cover my eyes and then…
