White Oblivion

by Amirah Bellamy

  Ina and I didn’t need any convincing. We could feel the tension in the air. Besides that I knew that Doran had instructed J to get us out of the house so I obeyed. I also knew that Doran, even with his calm demeanor, was prepared to defend his family at all cost and that he wanted to ensure that we were safe knowing that he didn’t do so in vain.

  Quickly, Ina went first onto the window ledge and quiet as a mouse J hoisted her up onto the roof. He went next. Meanwhile, I couldn’t help but eavesdrop on what was going on downstairs. However, I could barely hear anything from the room with the door closed.

  Then just as it was my turn as I stepped out onto the window ledge to grab J’s hand from above for him to lift me up the most horrific of sound pierced my ears. It sent a sharp pang shooting through my heart like a poisonous arrow.

  I heard a loud crack then Doran scream out in agonizing pain! It sounded like someone slammed a metal folding chair shut. However, I knew we didn’t have any metal folding chairs and that the cracking sound was Doran’s bones.

  Breath instantly left my body and I was frozen. Still whispering, J frantically pled with me to come on. Overcome with despair my body went limp and J hung onto my arm with all of the strength that he could muster up.

  I saw Ina peer over the roof ledge pleading with her eyes for me to please join them. I gathered some courage, got myself together and snapped out of it. Then, grabbing the roof ledge with one hand and holding onto J’s hand with the other I hoisted myself up onto the roof.

  When I climbed all the way up onto the roof J and Ina hugged me tightly. Ina had tears streaming down her face with her eyes plagued with terror. I was shaking like a leaf terrified at the thought of what they were doing to Doran.

  In that moment I felt like life had left my body. Doran was my air. I had such a strong connection to him that it felt like I was experiencing his pain.

  I couldn’t believe how quickly things had taken a turn for the worst. My thoughts were racing and all that I could think about was what to do to save Doran. I wondered if I could make my wings come back and fly to his rescue and bring him back to safety. However, I had no idea how to make it happen. I knew that I had to do something, but I didn’t know what that was. My heart was heavy with pain and I was struggling to focus enough to recall what was going on when it happened the first time to make it happen again. I needed my wings!

  Then, just as the thought of it entered my mind I realized what it was. When I was levitating my heart was light!

  Quickly I let go of all emotion. I allowed myself to feel that pure love that I felt when I was levitating. Before I knew it I was back. I’d done it! My wings had returned. Ina and J stared at me in awe.

  I couldn’t believe that I was able to invoke the shift on command. However, I had no idea how to get back into the house and even if I did I had no idea what I would do once I was in there. Then, just as quickly as I had shifted back into myself I was back into my white body.

  I was devastated! I had failed Doran who loved me enough to risk his life for me! I was so upset with myself for not being able to hold it together long enough to help him in his time of need. Disappointment didn’t begin to describe what I felt about myself in that moment. My worry over Doran had apparently been stronger than my love love for him and I felt horrible about that.

  As I sulked J motioned for Ina and I to be still and quiet. The more I heard Doran’s agonizing screams the harder I cried. I had to do something. I couldn’t just keep hiding out on the roof while those monsters killed my husband.

  I decided to give it another shot. However, the more I heard him scream the more hatred claimed my soul. I hated who they were. All they ever did was bring chaos and terror everywhere they went. Parasites all of them! I cursed their entire existence! It angered me how patient we’d always been with them and their childish, savagery ways.

  All they ever did was kill and terrorize us and without ever having reason or justification for doing so. Meanwhile, we just stood by and let them do it. Why!?!?!?!!!

  We were the ones with ample reason and justification to eliminate them, yet we never did. Always the passive, so-called ‘peaceful’ ones. The more these thoughts ran through my mind, more heated I became. I mean literally! The roof started to get really hot, which was strange because it was late Fall.

  J looked at me and I looked over at him in puzzlement. It wasn’t me causing things to heat up.

  “What’s happening?” I whispered.

  “I’m not sure, but now we have to get off of this roof before we burn up,” J whispered back.

  J then went to the edge of the roof laying on his stomach to see if the cops were still in the house. I went to join him. He quickly tried to stop me from seeing, but he couldn’t stop me in time.

  I looked over the ledge of the roof and saw the cops dragging a very limp Doran out to a police van. His legs were loosely dangling beneath him. My heart cried out in agony as I quietly watched. Then for an instant Doran’s eyes met mine. They looked at me assuringly as if Doran knew something that I didn’t.

  Doran and I always had such a close connection that we didn’t need words to communicate. He would always call it the power of black love. I felt that love in that moment and I knew just what Doran was telling me. He was telling me not to worry. Though looking in my eyes he also knew that I would never do that.

  Instantly, I visualized myself snuggled up on Doran’s chest on a Sunday morning. I let all the other emotions go and allowed the feeling of love in that moment consume me.

  Meanwhile, as the cop threw Doran into the van I heard him again scream out in pain. It looked like they had broken both of his legs as they were both quite contorted.

  I kept my focus on my love for Doran. Suddenly, I felt that familiar feeling of lightness. I looked to the side of me and saw that my wings had returned. I looked below me and saw that I was levitating. I maintained my focus on love.

  One cop jumped into the back of the van with Doran while the other closed the rear door of the van and then headed towards the driver’s side with the key in hand.

  I kept focusing. What happened next blew my human mind.

  26

  Beyond the control of my human mind I returned, my wings spread wide and I took flight. With a hunger for flesh I began to circle. It felt as if I hadn’t eaten in thousands of years. My sense of smell was instantly heightened and the stench of nearby sick, wounded and weakened prey was intoxicating. My predatory instincts had taken control as I flew high, circling drunk with the thought feeding.

  Then as if it was a magnetic pull I swooped down and grabbed the cop just as he was about to shut the door on the driver’s side of the police van. I swiftly yanked him out of the van just barely within seconds of him shutting the door. The thrill of the hunt had by then heightened the intensity of my anticipation to feed and I had instantly become the ultimate predator.

  Then, suddenly another urge overshadowed my anticipation. As I circled the van with the screaming cop tightly clutched in my talons I felt a familiar stare that drew me in.

  It was Doran, but he was neither the white Doran nor the black one. He was an ibis-headed Doran standing upright with fully healed legs holding a staff burrowed deep into the heart of the other cop as he gazed at me in awe.

  We locked eyes and I descended down to where he was using the cop, who was still tightly clutched by my talon, as my landing pad.

  Doran and I looked at one another intensely and within moments we had resumed our white physical forms. Even in that form Doran’s legs seemed fully healed as we both stood at the rear of the van still in shock.

  I jumped off of the dead cop and ran up to Doran hugging him tightly and showering him with kisses.

  “What was that?” he asked excitedly.

  “It was black love baby!” I exclaimed still holding him tightly.

  “Ha ha! Well that was some serious love! If I ever had any question about your love for me before it’s damn sure gone now!” he gleamed.r />
  “Oh yeah…. well I can say the same. You were loving me pretty good yourself from what I could see,” I replied.

  “I guess love truly does conquer all,” Doran said.

  Then J and Ina came running from out of the house and Ina ran up and gave Doran and I a huge hug. J stood still in a daze no doubt questioning if what he just witnessed was real.

  Then going to hug us both he looked at Doran and said, “Man what the hell was that? I thought for sure we had lost you. It was hard as hell just to watch that, but I remembered what you said about doing things the right way in the right time.”

  “I know son and I’m proud of your because to tell you the truth I don’t know that I could have done that and we both may have gotten killed,” Doran said.

  “Baby who were you and how did you make yourself shif?” I inquired.

  “I can’t even really explain it. It just seemed like an intense feeling of love overcame me and it was the only thing that I could think of. It was a feeling even stronger than the pain I was in. Next thing I knew I felt this feeling of lightness, like what we felt briefly when had all transformed at once. Then, I became this sort of half bird, half human thing. Once that happened something else took over and I was no longer in control of my actions….” Doran explained before I interrupted.

  “Actually babe you were in control. The real you was in control. It was the evolved you,” I corrected.

  “You know you’re right baby. That’s actually exactly what it felt like. Then it started to get really hot and I had this intense hunger for flesh. It seemed to consume me. So I took the stake that instantly appeared in my hand and put it through the cop’s heart. By then you came down and we turned back into these bodies.

  “Wow dad! That’s amazing! I’m so glad you figured it out,” Ina squealed hugging Doran again.

  “What do you mean figured it out baby? Figured what out?” Doran inquired.

  “Love dad! The key to evolving is love. Once you and mom figured it out you could use your power to change into the bird! That’s the same thing that happened on an episode of White Oblivion. The lady was gonna lose her man to the monster, but then she remembered how much she loved him and didn’t want him to die and that’s when she turned into the woman superhero and he turned into the man superhero,” Ina said matter-of-factly.

  We all looked at one another in puzzlement then Doran grabbed Ina’s hand and said, “Ok let’s go inside and discuss this show further cause I gotta know how this kid show is predicting everything.”

  We all nodded in agreement then filed into the house. When we got into the house the first thing that Doran did was secure the front door, putting on all the locks. We still hadn’t figured out how they identified us as being a threat in the first place and before we discussed the cartoon we had to figure that out. For all we knew there were more cops on the way.

  27

  Just as that thought entered my mind Doran gestured for each of us to to pretend like he had been taken.

  So J and I started a fake discussion carrying on the discussion as if Doran wasn’t there. I figured Doran must have assumed that since they viewed him as a threat the house may have been bugged.

  That did make me wonder how they even identified our family as being a threat. It seemed that Doran read my mind because as J and I talked Doran was busy taking extra precautions to secure the house and locate the bugs, if there were in fact any.

  I figured it was probably happening to all the families. They were getting more fearful of an uprising and were starting to try to protect themselves. Thinking about it all made me sigh heavily. It was all a big mess.

  Where were they taking everyone? And were they just going around rounding us all up? What were they planning to do?

  Just then the thought popped into my mind that J was right. They knew who we were. They knew exactly who we were. It was just what the man who rammed his car into the Johnson’s house was expressing when he said, “I know who you are!“

  It was over for them and they know it which is why they were doing what they were doing, trying to buy time. They figured that taking some of us captive would buy them some time. But it wouldn’t gonna work I thought to myself.

  I went to whisper all of this to J and Doran. They looked at me in agreement. This all made me wonder about Connie and this whole thing with her authorship of the cartoon.

  White Oblivion was a very popular cartoon, which meant that she had to work with them to get it onto a major network. Then I had just remembered something. The night we went to the workshop Connie was not herself. She seemed to be holding something back. Besides that, that was the shortest lecture I’d ever heard.

  Whispering to the two of them I said, “You know that workshop that Doran and I went to where Connie was presenting?” I asked.

  They both shook their head signaling a yes waiting to hear where I was going with it.

  “Well Connie said that she had travelled all over the world and saw this happening everywhere. But she wasn’t very informative and considering how spooked out we all were she was actually quite short with us. Then the whole thing about the authorities looking for her since this hit the general population,” I explained.

  They both shrugged.

  “It all makes sense. Connie was the Trojan Horse so to speak. She was who they used to identify us and when I say us I mean those of us who were ready to evolve. That’s how they located us so quickly. There must be something more to who we truly are than even we know. I bet you it’s been those of us that attended that workshop who have been the ones among the blacks who have been coming up ‘missing,’” I explained further.

  Doran nodded his head in agreement. THen Doran whispered that when he and J had gone out to retrieve empty bottles they’d heard some talk about that, but hadn’t actually made the connection to the workshop.

  Suddenly, just as we were putting more of the pieces together it started to heat up again. We all looked at each other and shrugged.

  “It’s getting hot again mom? Do you feel it?” Ina asked.

  “I do feel it baby. I don’t know what that’s about. I wonder if it’s heating up everywhere. Let’s open the window to find out,” I said heading toward a window in the kitchen room on the back side of the house to remain discreet. We didn’t know if anyone was still watching the house or not. I opened the window and stuck my hand out and it felt like mid July outside. It had to be at least 90 degrees outside.

  “Wow, it’s hot as hell out there. What’s going on?” I said thinking out loud.

  “I wonder what’s causing it. I’m thinking we should check online on some social media sites. I’m sure people are capturing this on film. Maybe we’ll also see something that’ll give us an idea as to where they’re taking everybody,” J offered going to retrieve his tablet.

  While J looked into things I thought about how they must have been torturing the others.

  Interrupting my thoughts J whispered, “I got something!”

  Anxiously running over to J who was sitting on the couch on his tablet I asked, “Whatcha got?”

  “I found several videos showing this same location. Look here’s a really good one. Looks like this person is on the inside posting. I guess they didn’t find his phone,” J said showing me a clip of what looked like slave quarters in the middle of DC. As I watched I felt like I was time traveling. Had we gone back in time? I thought we were so past all of this savage behavior. I couldn’t believe my eyes. Their paranoia was absurd. Surely, they knew that it would backfire as it always had.

  “We have to do something. Besides that I think it has something to do with things heating up,” J said.

  “Yeah but we can’t go up against them. I can only imagine how heavily guarded it is….” I said before the strangest thing happened.

  I looked up and saw that Ina then J were levitating. They even had the same glow that I had when I was levitating. Also, like me they had shape-shifted into another being. Ina had taken on a
cat-like face and J took on birdlike features similar to Doran’s, the difference being that J looked like a hawk.

  As I watched them in awe it began to get even hotter. Then I too began to levitate and transform. I looked and my wings had returned along with my beautiful brown skin, which I was so happy to see. Soon Doran transformed too.

  “What is happening to us mom?” Ina asked with a puzzled expression, which quickly transformed into a smile. “This is great mom! It’s just like on “White Oblivion.”

  “What do you mean by that Ina?” both Doran and I asked simultaneously.

  “Well on White Oblivion after the special people changed they started to get powers and their bodies changed, well sort of,” Ina explained.

  “What do you mean by sort of?” I inquired.

  “Well their bodies were never real in the first place so when they changed they realized that the mean people had put them in a dream world and they had been there so long they forgot they were dreaming. But then they started to remember and when they did their powers came back,” Ina said matter-of-factly.

  “Wow looks like Connie put it all in that cartoon. But why would she do all that then snitch on us? I doesn’t make sense,” I pondered aloud.

  “Yeah but if what Ina says is true none of it even matters because no matter what they do to try to stop the change from happening the change is gonna happen regardless. If these bodies aren’t real then neither is this place and neither are they. I say we go help the others now, while we’re in this form. We don’t know if it’ll last. Besides that they’re gonna start getting more and more desperate. Plus, we need to find out why things are heating up so much and what the connection is between the heat and what’s happening. That’s the one thing we can’t seem to explain.