Rebirth (Legends of the Kilanor Book 2)

by Jared Stone

  There was a pause in which one could practically watch the gears turning slowly in the two boys’ heads. “Yes, sir,” Dan eventually mumbled, almost reluctantly but with great deference. Lucian was instantly reminded of how much he detested the pointless pecking order which existed within frats. But he had to also admit that Sam’s influence over the two larger boys was very appealing to him as well….

  With a snort from Chaz, the two fraternity guards turned inward and took a step to either side, forming a passageway of sorts through which Lucian could enter. As he stepped between the two of them, Lucian hugged his arms in tightly and took up as little space as possible, for fear of brushing up against one of them and arousing his ire.

  “Sorry about those two,” Lucian heard Sam say with a chuckle. “They’re a little overprotective!”

  Lucian looked away from the doorway and into the main living room. It was sparsely furnished, with a couch and a couple of recliners facing a huge big screen TV. A little farther back was the kitchen, but all Lucian could see from his vantage point was a table and some wooden chairs. Stairs led to an upper floor on his right, and to his left was a closed door. All in all, it was a much neater and cleaner space than Lucian had anticipated, but he reminded himself that Sam was also not a stereotypical frat boy.

  Sam stood right in the middle of this room, facing Lucian. He wore a tight, black button-down dress shirt wrapped over a white t-shirt, and both were untucked and hanging over fitted designer jeans. This was the first time Lucian had ever seen Sam out of his standard athletic jacket, and he didn’t mind admitting to himself that Sam looked damn good….

  “Welcome to Omega Alpha Omega, Lucian,” Sam said with a smile that made Lucian’s knees buckle. He couldn’t help but swoon now that he stood before the upper classman in his element; he just seemed more powerful and confident than Lucian had ever seen him before.

  Before Lucian could respond, he nearly jumped into the air as Chaz and Dan shouted “O! A! O!” behind him in unison. Lucian was again reminded of why he hated fraternities.

  “Thanks…,” Lucian said with a half-smile after his nerves had settled back down. “Is that what OAO stands for? Omega Alpha Omega?”

  “O! A! O!” Chaz and Dan shouted together again. Lucian really wished that they would leave and let Sam and him converse alone for a moment.

  “Yeah,” Sam said with a raise of his hand to signal to the two other boys that they should cease their cheering.

  Lucian thought for a moment. “Isn’t that kind of a negative thing, though? Like, doesn’t Omega mean the end of the world or something?” As soon as he said it, he wished he hadn’t, for he felt that it sounded juvenile and uninformed. He had a nasty habit of becoming foolishly chatty when he was around someone he liked.

  Sam smiled again and shook his head. “You’re right that Omega means ‘end.’ Just like Alpha means ‘beginning.’ But that doesn’t mean it’s inherently a bad thing. Everything has a beginning and an end. It’s just part of life! So Omega Alpha Omega symbolizes “The end is the beginning is the end.” It reminds us that everything goes in a cycle, and I think that’s pretty cool!”

  Lucian was awestruck, positively gobbling up every word the articulate older boy had to say. “Oh, okay, then,” he responded dopily, again wishing he hadn’t immediately after.

  Sam just smiled in return. “Well, shall we go?” he asked playfully, motioning toward the door and grabbing a thick black jacket that lay on the top of a chair beside him. Lucian nodded enthusiastically, then turned and walked back out past the two door guardians who still stood sentinel beside him. As Sam walked out behind Lucian, he turned to Dan and said, “Watch the place while I’m gone, won’t you?”

  “Yes, sir!” Dan responded fervently with a single nod.

  * * *

  “So, how’s your lasagna?” Sam asked Lucian over the dinner table.

  “Mmmmmm, so good!” Lucian responded, holding his hand over his half-full mouth so as not to spew food all over his date.

  The two boys sat in a dimly-lit Italian restaurant to which Sam had led Lucian after leaving the OAO house. It was technically considered an off-campus restaurant, but it was close enough that they could walk there without any trouble, as its location on University Boulevard was directly adjacent to the easternmost border of the school. Lucian had at first been a bit disappointed when he learned of their destination that night, thinking that anything this close to campus was not suitable for a real first date. However, once they had arrived, he saw that the venue was actually quite intimate, and he found himself very much enjoying sitting there in the romantic setting with Sam.

  “And how is your pasta?” Lucian inquired in return once he had successfully swallowed what he had been chewing.

  “Excellent,” Sam said with a grin.

  It was nearing the end of the meal, with only a few bites left on each plate. The night had been lovely, consisting primarily of idle chatter about school, hobbies and interests, and details about how each of them had grown up. Lucian was fascinated by some of what Sam had to say. The attractive older boy had apparently lived all over the world at different points when he was younger, and he shared stories with Lucian of his adventures in Europe, Asia, South America, and Africa. Lucian’s own life, by comparison, was nothing special at all, and so he found himself listening intently instead of speaking for the majority of their time together. Lucian had not quite caught the reasoning behind so many intercontinental moves, with Sam vaguely alluding to his father being in confidential work, but he thought it best not to press the issue. Hopefully, with time, Sam could open up to Lucian more as they became closer….

  “So, you looking forward to finals?” Sam asked with a somewhat mischievous smirk. He clearly had memories of how finals week felt to freshmen, and he was apparently anxious to hear Lucian complain about the agony and torment.

  “Ugh!” Lucian exclaimed a little loudly for their surroundings before he caught himself again. “I am really not looking forward to it. I had plans to study over break, but I never actually did that….”

  Sam chuckled. “Yeah, that’ll happen,” he said.

  “I can’t wait until they’re over,” Lucian continued, imagining the glorious swath of nothing but free time that would be his Winter Break. Since he had started school, even weekends and holidays had been overshadowed by the looming specter of paper deadlines and necessary study. He almost wouldn’t know what to do with himself once this weight had been lifted for a few weeks in a row. Of course, he still had to deal with the significant inconvenience of a necromancer on the loose….

  “Yeah, I definitely know how you feel,” Sam said sympathetically. “It’s like there’s always something to do. Some sort of responsibility to take care of, so you just find yourself running from one thing to the next, never catching up or getting a break to enjoy what you already have.”

  “Exactly!” Lucian agreed adamantly, happy that he had found someone with whom he could share his misery. His parents always tried to be supportive, but they had been out of school for so long, they really didn’t remember how it felt to be in the midst of it. And Willow just really didn’t care enough about school to see things from his stress-ridden perspective. Sam seemed to truly understand what it was like.

  “Yeah, life’s just like that, I’m afraid…,” Sam went on to say seriously. “It’s so easy when we’re young and innocent, but, once we grow up and see what life is really like, it gets a lot more difficult.”

  Lucian pondered over this for a minute. “Yeah, but it’s not all bad,” he said thoughtfully. “I mean, sure, there are difficult times. But then there are some really great ones too. And I feel like the bad times make the good times all the more special.”

  “Yeah, but then those good times never last either,” Sam countered. “Good times are just temporary. All times are just temporary. Everything is always changing, and then, when you lose something you love, it makes you feel even worse than you did before.”
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br />   Lucian was surprised by the sudden negative turn that the conversation had taken. Sam always seemed so upbeat and happy; this newly expressed view on life was uncharacteristically cynical. Lucian thought that perhaps it was a result of his tumultuous past up to this point. It was difficult for Lucian to imagine what it would be like to move around so frequently, always having to change schools and friends and never being able to truly set down roots.

  “Seems to me like it would be much better to just avoid all that suffering altogether, you know?” Sam added.

  “You mean, like, just being dead?” Lucian asked skeptically. He was now concerned that he might have a suicide watch on his hands.

  Sam shook his head. “No, no. Not death,” he said. “Even a life after death would cause suffering, wouldn’t it? Being separated from what you loved in life, or constantly looking for the purpose of your existence after death. But some religions talk about a complete end to existence just being a ‘blissful nothingness.’ Nirvana. Doesn’t that sound much better to you than this roller-coaster of emotions and loss we all have to go through?”

  “I don’t think so,” Lucian stated truthfully, still taken aback by the opinions posited by his date. “Sure, life is tough. But I honestly wouldn’t want to give it up for anything. It’s pretty great being alive, and I would definitely choose occasional suffering over never having had the chance to experience living and going through really wonderful times. And laughing. And loving someone….”

  Lucian said this last point very wistfully as he stared into Sam’s eyes, hoping that the frat boy would interpret his hidden meaning. But Sam just sat there with a furrowed brow, as if deep in thought.

  “Well, that’s one way of looking at it, I suppose…,” Sam finally said. His gaze was cast down to the table as he mulled over what Lucian had said, seeming both pensive and disappointed. Then, after just a moment like this, he shot his eyes back up at Lucian.

  “Well, I’m stuffed!” he exclaimed with a big smile. “You all done with yours too?”

  Lucian scooped up one last bite of his meal and shoved it into his mouth. “Am now!” he said with a smirking mouthful of food.

  At this, Sam motioned toward the server for the check. Once it had been placed on the table, Sam swiped it away before Lucian even had the chance to reach for it and stuck his credit card inside. Lucian tried to argue with him that they should split it; but, in the end, the older boy would not hear of it, and Lucian very gratefully acquiesced to Sam’s insistence.

  The two boys then grabbed their coats and walked outside. December was most certainly barreling toward them, and the night had grown very cold and the wind along the street very strong. They didn’t talk at all as they traversed the crosswalk with their hands in their pockets and their faces turned down to protect their skin from the wind. After crossing the street, they stopped beside a sheltering alcove where they could better hear and see each other again.

  “Well, the house is back over that way,” Sam said with an indicative nod of his head. “I’d invite you over, but I think Chaz and Dan have some buddies there tonight.”

  Lucian smiled. “Thanks,” he said, “but I have some unpacking to do still anyway. I’ll just head back to my room.”

  Sam smiled. “Thanks for coming out to eat with me tonight, Lucian,” he said earnestly. “I really hope we get to do it again sometime soon.”

  Before Lucian could even say anything in response, Sam opened up his arms and pulled Lucian into a very close hug. At first completely unprepared for such an interaction, it took Lucian a few seconds before he realized what was going on. As the bulging muscles in Sam’s arms squeezed against Lucian and the smell of his cologne hit Lucian’s nostrils, Lucian felt weak in the knees and was very glad that he had a big, strong man holding him up at that moment. He soon reached up and wrapped his trembling arms around Sam’s back in return, just to make sure it didn’t seem unrequited. But, like all good things, it was not meant to last, and Sam let go of a dizzily enamored Lucian and stepped back.

  “Th- Thank you,” Lucian said with a dopey smile. He wasn’t sure if he was thanking Sam for the night or for that great hug, but, either way, he was most certainly appreciative….

  “See you soon,” Sam responded with a wink before turning and walking away, bracing himself once again against the driving cold.

  Once he had regained his wits about him, Lucian also ventured forth from the alcove and continued on down the pathway through campus toward his dorm. In his state of elation, he barely even noticed the cold or paid attention to where he was going, moving as if on autopilot back to his dorm. His mind was solely fixated on the wonderful evening he had just had and on the image of Sam’s perfect, smiling face. Lucian felt butterflies in his stomach as he imagined their next time together, perhaps even holding hands, or maybe even….

  From the bushes to his left, Lucian suddenly heard a rustling of leaves. It was not the sustained, natural jostle resulting from wind, but rather the deliberate passage of something moving through the branches. He froze, mid-stride, as his heart began beating fast. Looking around him, he realized that he was in a darker section of the campus, surrounded by thick trees, and he thought of how foolish he had been to not pay attention to where he was going. A very imminent threat still remained with the necromancer on the loose, but the recent reprieve from danger had lulled Lucian into a false sense of security. Now, he was immediately yanked back into the fear and dread that had characterized most of his days over the past few months.

  Lucian turned to face the noise and stood at the ready to either fight or flee. The bushes were once again quiet, but Lucian was certain he had heard something. He stared into the darkness, trying to see if anything was there, but he saw nothing. He remained tense and alert.

  Again! The leaves shook as something passed by beneath them. Lucian began to back up, eyes fixated on the spot and hand held out in preparation to generate qi, until….

  BAM!

  Lucian slammed into something right behind him. He whipped around in terror.

  “Lucian,” Father Ini greeted, standing there calmly after the boy had collided with him. “I am sorry; did I startle you?”

  Lucian breathed out an audible sigh of relief. There were few other times in life when he was happier to see a priest. “Oh, I’m sorry, Father,” Lucian said, still gathering together his ability to form sentences. “I was just a little spooked, that’s all.”

  Father Ini smiled. “It is understandable,” he said. “With so many misguided souls in the world, it is wise to be cautious in the dark.”

  Although this was said softly, Lucian had a shiver run up his spine as the priest spoke. This could have been attributable to the cold or Lucian’s already tense state, but it might have also been a result of the distant light shining off the dark priest’s face in such a way as to make him appear skeletal and ghoulish. Lucian simply squeaked out a, “Yeah, true.”

  The priest’s ghastly face then dropped to be even more serious. “And where are you coming from this evening?” he asked Lucian.

  Lucian swallowed. He felt apprehensive to inform the Catholic chaplain of his date with Sam. “I was just out to dinner with a friend,” he said. He felt the night’s chill, which had not bothered him at all only moments before, begin to creep back into his limbs and claw its way into his core.

  Father Ini nodded grimly. “Well, it seems…,” he began.

  At that moment, from farther down the walkway, a group of six or more students came bustling past, loudly calling to one another and creating a general commotion. Though Lucian was usually put off by such displays of raucous behavior, the introduction of more people into the creepy environment around him was actually a very welcome change.

  “I will wish you a good night, Lucian,” said Father Ini loudly enough to be heard, all the while casting a condemning stare at the rowdy group. “Please remember to be more alert in the dark.”

  Lucian smiled and nodded. “Thank you Father,”
he said. “Have a good night!”

  With this, Lucian turned and continued his frigid walk toward his dorm as the priest faded into the darkness of the opposite path.

  7 - Interruption

  93 CE: Rome

  “I really think you two make an adorable couple!” Bennu playfully taunted as he sauntered down the shady forest road ahead of Dareia and Argus. It was already getting late in the year, and summer was definitively coming to a close. The leaves of some trees had already turned in color, while others still put forth an ultimately futile effort to resist. This created a strange assortment of oranges, yellows, and greens that made looking up more reminiscent of a splattered painter’s pallet than a forest canopy.

  “Ugh,” exclaimed Dareia, placing her palm upon her forehead in frustration. “We have told you a thousand times now: we are not a couple!”

  Bennu’s face cracked into a gigantic smile. “I know what you say,” he replied impishly, not bothering to turn around and look at the priestess. “But there is just so much… tension!”

  Argus awkwardly looked at Dareia for a moment before darting his eyes away again bashfully. He had to admit to himself that she was breathtakingly attractive, with very strong convictions and even stronger prowess in battle. He felt that there was some truth to what the boy was saying, always bubbling just below the surface of his friendship with the priestess, but he didn’t wish to fully admit to himself that that was the case. He didn’t want it to be the case. It couldn’t be the case. Not so soon after….

  “Well, why not?” Bennu chimed in again, breaking the stream of thoughts in Argus’ head. “You are both such attractive people. And there is clearly something there. Why are you two not…, you know…?” At this, the boy made a lewd, gyrating motion with his hips.

  The three of them had been traveling together for a few weeks by this point, making their way back from West Gaul to the Coliseum in Rome, and Bennu had remained as unapologetically shameless and impetuous the entire time. Though it felt as if Dareia and Argus had suddenly adopted a rowdy teenage boy together, Argus found himself growing quite fond of their new companion. For as unrefined and carefree as he was, Bennu provided a sort of levity in their journey that had been severely lacking when traveling with Dareia alone. Though Argus felt great fondness for the priestess who had brought him out of his misery in Rome and given him a new lease on life, he had to admit that she was normally very guarded and very... serious.