by Summer Lee
She looked at Daniel. “Alright, Ahab. Get a move on.”
“I don’t want to go without my partner.”
“Why worry so much about someone who is no longer here?”
He did not answer, but watched as the Hive members were taking the treasure out of the large pillar on small wheeled carts to the location Yasmeen had given. “I’m just curious, my queen. Maybe she found a way out.”
Yasmeen narrowed her eyes suspiciously, like she believed that he knew something she didn’t know, and that just would not do at all. “Out where? Speak! What do you know about where the wench has gone to?”
He tried to contain his anger when he heard what Yasmeen called Magena. She was his friend and nobody would talk about her like that. Nobody.
He shook his finger directly in front of her face, which caused her to back up in surprise. “How dare you talk about my best friend like that! You’re just some remodeled version of a horrible ruler! I was loved better than you. Your own servants hated you enough to push you out a window, so you could be devoured by dogs!”
When he mentioned the dogs, he saw her cringe. She showed rage. He used that to his advantage. “What’s the matter, my queen? Dog got your tongue? Hah! I think I see a little puppy! Woof! Woof! Woof! Woof!”
“Stop it! Ahab would never do that,” she commanded with strong fright in her voice. I knew you were not Ahab, just by your mannerisms! You dare try to fool a queen? Hah, back at you!”
“I know you’re not Jezebel!”
“Hah! I was reincarnated, peasant!”
The Hive members paid no attention to the argument. They were preoccupied with their task at hand.
Daniel thought about what Yasmeen just said. It coincided with what he and Magena briefly talked about when she was with him. Maybe there was something bigger going on than what they experienced. Maybe they weren’t just feeling disconnected from every scenario they went through. Maybe he was caught up in something surreal that only his father was able to manufacture. Maybe no one around them was human. Maybe they weren’t really there at all.
That would explain why Yasmeen thinks she is Jezebel. She is not real, he thought. But it didn’t explain why the shroud and her jewels just happened to be at the same place at the same time. There were too many coincidences, and Daniel didn’t believe in coincidences.
He had to remember what Magena did to make herself disappear. He strained his thoughts, tapping into his memory, while he was trying to keep Yasmeen at bay.
The Hive members were almost finished re-stacking the gold chunks and jewels.
Daniel glanced from the shroud to Yasmeen, then back to the shroud. “If your Oompa Loompas are taking all of the treasure in the area, then why haven’t they picked up the shroud yet?” He didn’t know what that name Oompa Loompas meant even though the words came out of his mouth. He realized that was probably one thought he should have kept to himself. But that is a cute name.
Yasmeen narrowed her eyes at him with an evil grin. She looked at the shroud and her eyes widened.
He realized that she knew something, but it didn’t look like she wanted to share her news with Daniel. Just then, she ran toward the shroud. Daniel did the only thing he could do. He had to run toward the shroud as well. He instantly made a dash for it and got to it a split second before she did. As Daniel reached out for it, he felt a hard punch on his chin. “You hit me.”
She laughed, “Ha ha.”
Falling down near the shroud, he still managed to wrap his hands tightly around it and hold it closely to his chest. “Wow!” he exclaimed, while releasing one of his hands from the shroud to rub his jaw. “You hit like a dude!”
Yasmeen smirked as she dove for the shroud. Daniel managed to hold it tight and trip her at the same time. He held her foot down, making her fall short of her goal. She looked back toward him and gave him a low growl.
“Whoa,” he said, quietly. “This doggy bites.”
With her free foot, she kicked him in the forehead, making him release her other leg. He shook it off and jumped to his feet, faster than he realized he could. He then jumped toward the shroud’s tube, hit the ground, and pushed it out of the way right before Yasmeen could grab it.
Still, the Hive members did nothing. They were split with their allegiance because they still seemed to assume that Daniel was King Ahab and that he and his queen were just having a lovers’ quarrel.
She kicked him in the gut and he felt most of his air exit his lungs quickly. He opened his mouth but could not get his breath. He pushed her away and made it back onto his feet in time to receive a one-two punch straight to his nose. He felt a small trickle of blood drip from the left nostril, as he clenched his fist and then opened it several times. His fingers hurt.
“Fight me!” she yelled, with the wildest look she had displayed so far in her eyes. “Fight back, you coward! I could kill you!”
He narrowed his eyes at her as he caught his breath. “Then do it! You can beat me up all you want, but I refuse to hit a woman… no matter how much she deserves it.”
Surprise showed on her face as it hit her like a force of bricks. Standing still, she momentarily studied his face. “Are you joking or serious?” Then she began to chortle. “I cannot believe what I’m seeing! A man who won’t defend himself when threatened! Hah! You clearly are no man at all, to be bullied and beaten by a woman! The men of this time must think you to be a woman yourself, to be so cowardly!”
Daniel knew that she was just trying to goad him into a bigger fight, and he couldn’t help getting angry at her words. He clenched his teeth and breathed out slowly. “First of all, you must have not done your homework about the men from this time, because they would applaud me for being a gentleman. Yes, there are some men who would have punched you into the next chamber of this cavern, but I’m not like that. Secondly, maybe I don’t think you’re worth my time.”
He now couldn’t help feeling the rage. His anger pushed him into a corner. All he could do was try to make her feel insignificant. That, and barking like a dog, would be the best shot he had at getting to her. He did not have a desire to fight to the death—her death.
Her lower lip started to tremble, as he could see her eyes tear up. He wondered if it really was that easy to make her cry, or if she was just really good at faking it.
She lowered her head and began to whimper, as she placed her face in her hands. Her cries became louder. Daniel wasn’t sure what to do next.
Remembering that she was a figment of Dante’s imagination, Daniel could not figure her out. Was Dante putting words in her mouth, even now? Or was she really able to have emotions? He would have to assume the latter.
CHAPTER FIVE
Magena
Explosions were all around. The entire block of warehouses went up in flames.
Magena opened her eyes, aware that something was wrong. She held her hands over her ears to block out the noise. The shouting and gunfire was loud enough to drive her both deaf and crazy. Whatever caused her hearing to become so sensitive had been with her for years. Her mind couldn’t wrap around the fact that she was connected with a virtual reality world. She didn’t understand why she had to be included in the plan for Daniel by his father.
She just hoped she was now in the real world. Just the thought of not knowing what was real and what was not made her extremely nauseous. Maybe that’s what Daniel’s father was trying to do to her. Maybe he was trying to confuse her so she would lose all sense of reality.
If that was the case, then she wondered how she disappeared from the cavern and reappeared attached to all of the tubes within the lair of the enemy. How did he do it?
As she felt her lunch doing disturbing things in her stomach, she realized that Dante DiBenedetto only scratched the surface of what the virtual world was really all about anyhow. His knowledge was advanced. But it would be bigger during the tribulation. “Did you tell me your name?”
“Yes. It is Reuben.”
She looke
d up at Reuben, feeling sluggish. “What’s going on?”
“Magena! I know you’re disoriented, but we really need to get you out of here before we talk!”
“I do need help.” Her vision blurred, as her mind raced through everything that happened recently. That was too much for her to take in. “Will you help me?”
“Yes. That is why I am here.”
There was another loud explosion, and she collapsed. As soon as she felt Reuben pick her up, she blacked out completely.
Magena slowly woke up with a very bad taste in her mouth. She was so dizzy that she decided not to move too much. Instead, she looked around and analyzed where she was. She appeared to be inside the back of a van. The windows were either tinted or covered in something black. Is this still the visuals stuff? she wondered.
“No… this… is… real.” Her speech became too slurred to understand, as she drifted off into an induced slumber, which she was fighting all the way. Her mind went blank. She was soon fast asleep.
When she woke up again, she looked around and asked, “Why am I here?”
“We are rescuing you.”
“What do you do, pick me up every time I fall?”
“You could say that.”
“Tell me your name again.”
“Reuben.”
“How does your driver see where he’s going, Reuben?” she asked groggily, looking around at the windows covered in black.
“The windshield in front of him is clear.”
“It doesn’t look like it to me.”
“That is because your captors drugged you.” She saw that Reuben sat right next to her with his legs crossed Indian style. There was some kind of padding on the floor of the van which made it really soft for her to lie on. There were no seats in the back. Just the padding and several duffel bags that looked especially heavy.
“Where’s your gun?” she asked while glaring at Reuben.
He smiled and looked surprised. He pointed to his ankle holster. “Right there.”
At that moment, she spotted another Israeli male in the front passenger seat. He looked back at her with a smile as well.
“You’re pretty alert for someone who just lost her lunch.” Reuben laughed.
“I don’t remember vomiting, but… I do feel… groggy.” Her words were slurred.
“We had to give you a tranquilizer to calm you down,” Reuben said. “The explosions scared you senseless.”
The other person in the front seat laughed. She first looked at him and then the driver. She shook her head, because she did not understand. She shook her head and then grabbed her hair and felt how short as it was. “Who cut my hair?”
“They did.”
“I can’t take much more of this virtual stuff,” she mumbled.
“It is just the tranquilizer kicking in. This is the real world.”
“I hope you are not lying to me.” She could barely keep her eyes open and leaned back on the side of the van.
The man in the driver’s seat lost his smile and gained a concerned look. “Reuben told you who we are. Right?”
Sighing, she said, “Yes.”
“Okay, I’m Levi. We are here to help you. You’re probably concerned about not hearing the rest of what Dante DiBenedetto had to say, but time was of the essence and we had to get you out of there.”
“Dante had already deserted me.” Her thoughts went backward. “What about Daniel?”
“We still have to find Dante’s son, Daniel.”
“I am so tired.”
“Then sleep, my dear.” She closed and rested her eyes, and could not tell how much time had expired. When she finally woke up, she realized she had been asleep again! She woke up completely and felt it was the best sleep she had ever had. Stretching her arms high above her head, she giggled to herself, thinking that maybe everything that happened the past several weeks was just some weird delusion. She thought that if she were home, her parents would surprise her with her favorite breakfast. Then she realized she couldn’t remember what her favorite breakfast was.
CHAPTER SIX
Daniel
When Yasmeen raised her head, she showed her first signs of vulnerability to Daniel since he had met her. Her eyes were puffy and drenched in tears. They reminded him of those paintings with the big-eyed children. “How can I be of assistance to you?”
He almost thought she was going to reach out to him and him only. The look she gave him, made him feel that maybe he could help her. He could be her champion. Her eyes moistened, but she did not answer. Instead, she turned cold.
It did not take long for him to realize that she did not intend to be befriended. He opened his mouth to speak. “It’s a shame that—”
He was stopped by a piercing pain in his body. A swift kick to an unmentionable place and Daniel was doubled over, trying to hold in a scream. The pain was intense. He clenched his fist to punch her when he looked up and saw Yasmeen grab the tube with the shroud. She laughed hideously, as if she had just been sentenced to death and decided to have fun with it. “You kicked me, you witch. Don’t do it again.”
She was definitely not all there mentally.
Realization of how she hit him made him think seriously about escaping. He watched closely as she removed the shroud from its shield of protection, and glared at it. Her left hand trembled, as she slowly placed it over the bare artifact and closed her eyes. She waited for… something. Something never came.
She opened her eyes in surprise. Anger replaced astonishment and she chucked the shroud against the wall. She glared at Daniel. “Why haven’t I gone to where the female peasant went? Are you deliberately stopping me from performing my magic?”
“No!” Daniel shouted back as he managed to stand. “I’ve had about enough out of you, though! Maybe you could get away with this kind of action in the place where you came from, but you’re not getting away with it here! Not with me!”
She had a smirk on her face as she slowly approached him with her hands behind her back. “I saw your eyes, mortal. You craved to be my hero. For that brief moment, you would have done anything I asked of you, even if it meant betraying your peasant friend. You are too easy to control and are therefore no more fun to play with.”
He knew by the look in her eyes that she was crazy. If he thought he was going to be able to help her, he knew differently at that moment. She was evil. As long as they both were alive, they would be enemies.
She tilted her head slightly and grimaced. “You are right about one thing, peasant. I won’t be getting anything done around here with you worshiping me.”
“Wait! That’s not what I said…” He stopped talking and frowned. It was no use. Maybe he originally wanted to help her, but not worship her.
Before he could say anything more, she turned toward the Hive members who were finishing up moving her treasures out of the cavern. “Members of the Hive of Baal! Hear your queen and stop what you’re doing this instant!”
Daniel saw that they were all controlled by her voice; all at the same time. They did exactly what she commanded and watched her to await further instructions. They lived to serve her.
She turned back and looked Daniel in the eye. With a smirk, she attempted to show her power over him. “My loyal followers,” she said while still glaring at Daniel. She raised one finger and pointed at him accusingly. “He is an impostor! I am the queen of Israel—Queen Jezebel. My heart breaks that my beloved King Ahab is not here with me. This liar played on my feelings and used me to get to my treasure! He is no royalty! Destroy him!”
Daniel’s heart sank, as he looked around trying to remember exactly what Magena did that enabled her to disappear. He didn’t have much time, as he saw the minions carefully place the treasure down on the golden slab and retrieve their weapons. That bought him about 30 seconds. Maybe 40.
He knew that Magena touched the shroud the same way that Yasmeen had. He also figured out that was only part of what he needed to do to leave the cavern without getti
ng killed.
His eyes darted to the shroud, then to the treasure as instinct took over. He grabbed the shroud and quickly stuffed it back into the tube. He then looked in the cave past Yasmeen and tightened his lips. He knew what to do.
He finally figured out that Magena touching the shroud was only part of her escape. He was ashamed that it took him so long to figure it out. Daniel ran as fast as he could, straight toward the queen with the tube held tightly in his hand.
He realized that Magena had no idea what she was doing when she disappeared anyway. He was going into the plan fully aware that it may fail, so he realized the outcome could be different.
Yasmeen cringed as he got close to her. He saw some of the Hive members approaching from behind her. He winked at her and grabbed her hand before she could react. Running full speed, while dragging the wanna-be queen (who was fighting him all the way), he made his way to the magic slab where the treasure lay. He grabbed the closest piece of her treasure. It was a closed golden box.
Holding it brought him into a state of realization. It had a power unknown to him. After that, everything seemed to be going in slow motion for Daniel. He was still in Yasmeen’s space, and could not figure out why.
The Hive of Baal was hot on his tail.
He used his momentum to swing his captive toward her oncoming entourage, buying him enough time to catch his balance and open the chest. He peered into the now open chest and immediately placed his hand on the golden coins he saw scattered in there.
He then looked up at the horde of creatures who wished to do him evil, as they rushed toward him.
He glared at the imposters. “Hey, Hive guys! This is either going to work or you guys are going to make sure I don’t try anything else. If I wasn’t a king, would I be able to do this?”
He waited for a brief moment as the horde surrounded him. His timing was definitely off, but it didn’t stop him from still trying. The blurry vision faded, as he realized something horrible.
If what he did was going to work, which it seemed like it was doing, then he may have inadvertently just given Yasmeen a clue as to how to follow him to find Magena, to wherever she was.
