Six
The following morning Dorian took a quick shower to help him wake up and the two headed downstairs for breakfast. A breaking news story was being broadcast on the television overhead. Terrorists had struck simultaneously at the New York Stock Exchange and the NASDAQ building in New York, killing about one hundred sixty-nine people. Both attacks involved armored cars that smashed through the front door and detonated explosives. Authorities were stating it was an act of domestic terrorism, as evidenced by a website on which a group known as ‘Starve the Beast’ claimed credit for the attack. “Wow, that was a big one. I wonder what the fallout from this will be. I’m guessing Engel is glued to the TV right now,” he said, sipping his orange juice. “I was just near there last week. I can’t believe this is happening,” she replied with a gloomy look on her face. They finished up and took a nearby shuttle bus to the airport right away, since security was going to be extra tight after the attack in New York. Dorian fell asleep on the first flight and had a dream where he was in a battle with about seventy others, attacking another group of about three hundred beings. He looked like an alien himself in a supernatural way, as did many of his comrades in arms. There were loud crashes and flashes of light and thunder all around him. He awoke with the shaking of the plane on touchdown at the Los Angeles International Airport. Yuki looked over at him and noticed that he was griping the arm rests tightly. He had apparently crushed them during his tumultuous dream session. The plane wheeled around and stayed put on the tarmac. A bomb threat had been called in to the airport, one of many they regularly received; however, after the attack at the stock exchanges everything was being taken very seriously. They waited on the plane for almost an hour until the Captain received the green light from the flight tower to proceed to the docking station. On the second flight, Dorian fell asleep again and had a dream of armies of immeasurable count gathered for a war. He saw beings that looked like a mixture of human and animal in the battle lines.
The dream had become more like a replay of future events; as if someone was fast forwarding a movie, stopping for a second and then moving forward again. At one point in time, he felt a terrible loss and the pain and sorrow associated with it. The face of the stranger had become familiar; Dorian understood a mutual respect and friendship between the two. Conversations took place with people and beings he had never seen before. All this flashed before him when suddenly the vision moved to a scene of three mountains and a river of blood that moved up and down over the tops of the mountains, into the valleys and onto the plains, going past modern buildings that transformed into the shape of X and Y chromosomes. The river formed a moat around the seventh building, the fourteenth, and the twenty first building. His visions began to fade and he awoke to Yuki wiping away the tears he had shed. “You were crying in your sleep. It must have been some dream, are you all right?” she asked, feeling sorry for him. He yawned and rubbed his eyes. “I had this terrible sadness at one point in my dream, more than any I’ve ever experienced. It seemed so real. Thanks for not making me feel embarrassed. It’s not often you’ll see me get emotional.” A short time later the plane landed and they disembarked. After reaching the corridor that lead to the terminal, the icy cold air and dull, grey sky snapped them back to the bitter reality of a Michigan winter. It was about ten days before Christmas and Dorian did not have time to even think about the holidays. His only thought right now was to get to his house, grab his bug-out bag and some clothes, and make some phone calls. It was finals week at the University and he had exams to give. They grabbed some drive-thru fast food on the way and ate in the car. There were no lights on and no cars were in the driveway of his house when they arrived. The front door appeared to be closed and he could not see any sign of break-in. He handed the car keys over to Yuki. “Wait here; I’ll only be a moment. If you don’t see me come out in ten minutes, take the car and find some place safe to go,” he said while getting out of the car. She didn’t know what to say, except, “Be careful.” He quietly made his way up to the front door and unlocked it. Nothing seemed unusual, so he opened the door and went inside where everything was dark and quiet. The house was so cold he could see his breath, having turned down the thermostat too low before he left. After checking out the kitchen he went upstairs to the master bedroom where his bug-out bag was stored. Grabbing the bag along with some cash and a taser he had in his nightstand, he turned around to leave. Then, out of nowhere, two beings appeared in front of him. One was the huge woman from before in Hawaii, her face unmistakable; the other was a very tall male with long black hair and ash-colored skin. His eyes were similar to hers and he had black markings like sigils on his skin. She clutched Dorian by the neck as the other being put his hand on Dorian's forehead. Dorian was unable to move. “What the hell are you people? Let go of me!” he demanded. They ignored him. “This could be the one, but it’s hard to tell; his Shi isn’t active so his blood would be useless to us,” Onoskelis said to the other in an alien language that Dorian somehow was able to understand. “What do you want from me? Just tell me and I will try and help you.” His captors continued to ignore him.
A small device materialized in the woman's hand. She placed it on Dorian's neck. He could feel it penetrate his skin and begin to drain him of blood. A loud humming noise followed by vibrations in the device began increasing in intensity until the woman's expression became fearful. She pulled away just as the device was destroyed. The two beings looked at each other in astonishment. “That has never happened before. Salami'el, what do you make of it?” Onoskelis asked, gripping her hand in pain. Salami'el motioned with both hands, chanting something which caused a symbol to appear as a 3-D hologram in a flame. The symbol fizzled out within a few seconds. “I do not know. Perhaps Phanu'el has marked the boy. I will have to research this,” he replied, looking intently at Dorian.
“I feel more confident with this one, especially after the Nephilim I encountered. We won’t bring him to Belial unless we’re sure, I have witnessed many of these turn out false. Salami'el, put a Shemzol on him and let us be away,” she said. She waved her hand over a small box she held in her other palm. It became bright, forming a moving sigil on the ground in a circle around all three of them. Salami'el grabbed Dorian by the back of the neck and chanted something. Dorian felt a slight tinge of pain with some pressure. Salami'el released his grip, dropping Dorian to the floor. Someone was heard making their way up the stairs slowly. “Is everything all right?” Yuki asked in a cautious tone. Before Dorian could say “Run”, the two beings disappeared in a flash of light, causing a power outage. Yuki walked over to the bedroom where she saw Dorian lying on the floor and she ran over to help him. “What happened?” she asked. Dorian had a vacuous expression on his face.. “I can’t move; my body is numb. They were here, Yuki; the woman from before and a male one like her. They did something to me. I can’t move.” Yuki lifted him from behind under his arms and dragged him to the bed, leaning him upright against it, then wrapped him in a blanket to keep him warm. “One of them put something on my head. Reach behind my neck and let me know what you feel.” She did as he instructed and felt around the nape of his neck. “There is something attached. It feels hard with a raised surface, almost like a button. Does it hurt when I touch it?” “There’s just pressure, and I feel a bit dizzy when you run your finger over it. I hope someone can tell me what the heck is going on. They wouldn’t even answer or talk to me, like I was just a piece of meat or an object to them,” he said, slowly twitching his fingers. “It looks like you're beginning to move again. That’s a good sign. At least they didn’t give you the standard anal probing you usually hear about,” she said with a laugh, trying to raise his spirits. After about twenty minutes the feeling in his arms and legs returned and he was able to move again, albeit in a slow, groggy fashion. She helped him to his feet and the two of them dragged his bug-out bag to the stairs and slowly slid it down each step while he held tightly to the handrail. Whatever was on the back of his head was giving hi
m a bit of vertigo, causing his balance to be a bit off, so the process was tedious. They made it down in one piece and he sat at the kitchen table, somewhat exhausted from the ordeal. “I’ve never felt this way before; these are new sensations for me. Do me a favor and run into the bathroom. There’s a hand mirror in the top drawer; can you bring it to me?” he asked, while gingerly touching the foreign object on the back of his neck. “You don’t happen to have a small mirror in your purse do you?” he asked. “I think so,” she said. She made her way into his bathroom and returned with his mirror. “Here's yours. Now let me see if I have one.” She went outside to get her purse, returning a moment later with the lid to her makeup case. “Hold this up for me please,” he said, positioning the smaller mirror in the front. “I have a flashlight attached to the bag, on the side, right there; grab that for me will you?”
She aimed the light so that he could clearly see the object on the back of his head. It was metallic, made of what appeared to be pure gold with a strange symbol of an arrow pointed to the right with two small circles above the tip on the left side and one on the right, bearing a resemblance to a crop circle image. It appeared to be fused to his skull and any attempt he made to pick at it caused a great deal of pain all over his body. “This thing isn’t coming off without help. I have no idea what this symbol means; have you ever seen anything like this before?” he asked. “No, maybe in a movie once, but not in real life. Do you need to go to the hospital to have it looked at?” “Part of me wants to, and part of me thinks that if a surgeon tries to remove it I’ll suffer some horrible effect that they won’t be able to predict. Things just keep getting stranger by the minute,” he replied with exasperation. Yuki sat down next to Dorian and held his hand in hers. “What happened up there? What did they say to you?” He told her everything that had happened and they sat quietly for a moment afterwards. “By the way,” he said in an annoyed tone, “I thought I told you to wait in the car and take off if I didn’t come down in ten minutes.” “I’m sorry. I heard you yelling and some loud humming noise and ran in to see if you were all right. When I got in I heard a strange voice talking and saw a bright light. I figured you might be in trouble.” “So what were you planning to do, rescue me?” She looked hurt. “I didn’t know what was going on; I couldn’t just leave you.” He smiled then kissed her hand. “Fair enough, thank you. Let’s get out of here.” They left to get his computer, which was locked in a closet at the lab. It was early morning Wednesday and as they drove they noticed many military vehicles on the roads-quite an unusual sight, considering there were no major military installations in Ann Arbor, let alone Michigan. “I wonder what’s going on?” Yuki asked, thinking of the recent terrorist attack in New York. “It could just be precautionary, judging from what happened at the stock exchange.” he replied. She looked over at what he was doing. “Um, I don’t think it’s a good idea to touch that while you’re driving. If you have black eyes or get dizzy we are going to crash.” He laughed. “I think you mean black out, not black eyes.” She lightly punched him in the arm. “So my English isn’t perfect. I’m going to give you a black eye if you don’t watch it, mister!” They arrived in front of the Medical Science Building and Dorian waited in the car while Yuki left to retrieve his computer. All the while he wondered what this thing on the back of his head was, and how he was going to have it removed. It was a strange feeling, knowing that aliens (or what he thought were aliens) actually existed. What was in his blood that these beings wanted? Yuki approached the car with a box in her arms and a worried look on her face. She opened the door and got in. “I just realized that thing on the back of your neck might be some kind of alien embryo implant like this movie I saw. We should get it x-rayed just in case, to make sure it does not cause your head to explode or something,” she said in her half-joking, half serious tone. “I’m glad this is providing amusement for you, Yuki. My life could be in jeopardy here.” “Let’s get going to the safe spot. Where is it, by the way?” “In Norway, near Bergen. My mother went back there to retire,” he replied, as he placed the car in gear. “Norway? I didn’t know she lived there. Ooh, how awesome!” She beamed and clapped her hands together in delight. “We have a vacation home we used to visit during summer when my father was alive. Mom keeps it for the memories and in the hopes that someday I'll have a family to bring there. It should provide us with a quiet place to work. I’ll get the tickets for the flight. We can stop at your place so you can grab whatever else you might want to bring.” Yuki was getting excited at the thought of traveling to Europe with Dorian, and as usual she was in fantasy land, smiling with the occasional blush thrown in.
Dorian called Kasia, who was usually up at this hour. “Ah, there you are,” Kasia answered in a disgruntled voice. “Hi Kasia. I don’t have a lot of time; my battery is about to go on my phone. Listen, I need a favor or two from you.” After Dorian had finished making arrangements with Kasia for his exams, he and Yuki traveled to Yuki’s apartment to gather her things and chart out their next course of action. He booked their flight for the following day while Yuki packed for the trip and made some phone calls to her family. They had some time to kill before his scheduled office hours so they headed over to the lab. Yuki did some searching on the internet for the symbol, but she was unable to find a match. Dorian started to go through the one hundred fifty plus emails he typically received on a given day and noticed one that stood out from the others. The subject line read “Esme”, his birth mother’s name. His pulse quickened and he wondered who else knew about her and what new calamity this would bring. Just as he opened the email there was a knock at the door. The first student had arrived; it would have to wait. After everyone had left, Kasia dropped by before leaving for the day. She stood at the doorway with her hand held out. “Where is the gift you were supposed to get me?” she asked, with a toothy grin.
“I’m going to be traveling to Europe in a day; I promise I’ll pick you up something,” he said in a vain attempt to appease her. “You just got back from Hawaii, and now you’re headed to Europe? Must be nice. I better get something good from you. I like jewels, gold, and chocolate. In that order; good luck,” she said with a laugh. “I have the perfect thing in mind,” he replied with sly smile. “By the way,” she said as she was walking down the hall, “You might want to turn on the TV. I think the President is going to have a speech or something to do with all hell breaking loose here.” He went into his office and shut the door behind him. Logging back into the university mail, he opened the message with his mother’s name as the subject. “Dorian Lystad. Since the time of your birth we have been keeping a close watch over you, and have been very gratified with what you have become. Though the odds have been considerable, you have succeeded in many ways, but you have not begun to reach your full potential. The answers you have been searching for and more are within your grasp if you would hear our words. Therefore, we invite you to take a small journey where we can discuss the events of the past, present and possible future; the end of the human experiment, as well as information about your parents. If you would be willing to trust us, then trace your hand along the ground following the outline of this sigil and say the words “PETA BABKAMA LURUBA ANAKU” and we shall discuss things in more detail. No harm will come to you.”
He re-read the message to make sure he hadn’t missed anything, and stared at it for some time, trying to make sense of it all. The notion of chanting some bizarre incantation was contrary to everything he knew as a scientist, and the only reason he had not deleted the message as asinine drivel was due to his recent experiences. He took a deep breath and called Yuki to his office to ask her opinion. “Take a look at this,” he said, turning his computer monitor towards her. “Take a look at what?” “The message in the email,” he replied, checking his screen to make sure he wasn’t missing something. “What email? There’s a blank page,” she replied in confusion. “You’re not messing with me, are you? There’s a paragraph right there.” He read the message to her, apart
from the incantation-or what he believed to be some type of incantation-to her. “I think I saw this in a movie once. You say the words and then you’ll be transported to some castle in the sky. Or was it another planet? I don’t remember. When do we go?” she asked nonchalantly, in a way that suggested she didn’t believe him.
The Return of the Watchers (Armageddon Rising Book 1) Page 7
