The Blessed

CHAPTER THREE

"Wait, can he see us right now?" asked the short man.

The woman outstretched her hand. Black- orange smoke bubbled out from her palm. A long obsidian staff materialized within her grasp.

She poked my side.

“Oh wow, I think he can.” said Amero.

“You know what that means. Stray alert!” proclaimed blue eyes.

“What's your name kid?” asked Amero.

“My, my name?”

“Uh yeah, your name, what? don't you have one?”

“I do.”

“Well then, what is it?”

“David, David Pakati.”

“Hey, if he's a stray maybe he saw the Renchi.” Said green eyes.

“Nah I doubt it. If he saw a Renchi he'd crying in a pool of his own piss right now.” Said the woman.

“Well kid? You see anything...unusual around here?” asked Amero.

“I Uhm…”

I looked behind me, the woman was nowhere in sight, neither was her car.

“What are you looking at? Did you see something?”

“I think so, but uhm, who are you?”

“Don't worry about it, kid.” said blue eyes.

“I'm sorry, but I can't keep talking to a weird stranger who refuses to tell me their name.”

“Watch your mouth, Stray.” growled the woman.

“Easy Franny. The kid's right. My name is Amero. This firecracker here is Francine, but we call her Franny.”

Amero pointed at blue eyes,

“That's Duke.”

then at green eyes,

“Scott.”

then finally the short one,

“Tanaka.”

He removed a pouch from his inner pocket.

He opened it and took a pinch of purple-colored sand that glittered in the sunlight.

He walked behind me and made a horizontal line on the tarmac. A door, identical to the first one, rose from the ground.

Amero opened it.

On the other side was part of a crystalline passage that ran into thick darkness.

“Ladies first.” said Duke.

“Here's an idea, Go hang yourself.” shot back Franny.

“You first kid.” said Amero.

“Wait a minute, you must be insane if you think I'm just going...”

“Aargh! I don't have time for this!”

“Wait! No! where are you taking me?”

“To another world.”

“Wait! For how long?”

Amero grabbed me by shirt collar and flung me past the threshold.

“When can I go hooooome!”

I crashed face-first onto a cool surface. I rose immediately and ran back towards the door, pushing past Amero and Tanaka. When the door handle was within a hair’s length of my grasp, it disappeared.

All that was left was a mess of black-orange smoke.

I tittered on the edge of the glass bridge, screaming as I struggled not to fall into the abyss.

A hand grabbed me by my backpack.

“Come on stray, don’t make me chain you up now.” said Tanaka.

This couldn’t be happening. This wasn’t happening. This was a prank that had played out long enough. I looked around me, hoping to see the cameraman. But all I saw was starry darkness. It was like I was surrounded by the night sky.

And within that sky was…a giant humanoid thing?

Just staring at me…

The creature was as large as the Reserve bank. It was submerged in darkness from the waist down. All that was visible was its bony arms and torso. Its head looked like a giant ball on a stick. Its glowing eyes looked like two full moons.

The monolith moaned a heavy and thick sound.

“Easy girl”, said Amero, “He’s with us.”

I looked back; the door was gone.

There was no return.

“Come on kid.” said Duke.

I was then faced with a dilemma. Either stay there, wherever there was, with…whatever that monster was. Or follow my kidnappers. I caught up with the group as they crossed the threshold.

“What is this place?” I asked as I caught up.

The man stopped, sighed and looked at me.

“What’s your name son?”

“David Pakati.”

“Pakati? Mind telling me what that is, my Shona is a bit rusty.”

“It means centre.”

“I see, you must be very confused and afraid right now David.”

We continued walking.

I’m a Zimbabwean. That meant that the existence of supernatural entities such as goblins and ghosts wasn’t a far-fetched notion.

“Kinda.”

“So if I told you that monsters do exist and they threaten humanity on a daily basis, would you believe me?”

“Depends.”

“On?”

“On what kind of monsters you’re talking about. If you say a dragon exists then I’ll think you’re crazy.”

“Hmmm, are you sure about that?”

“Well I’ve never seen one.”

“I’ve never seen God. Does that mean he’s not real?”

“Atheists don’t believe in God.”

“Aah, So It’s all about belief then.”

“I guess.”

“Well with that said, I can assure you that dragons do exist. Or rather something similar to them, we have a different name for them here.”

“Which is?”

“Renchi.”

“And where exactly is here?”

“This is bridge is taking us to the headquarters of the Blessed’s Association”, he said, “We also have our Academy there.”

“Who are you people?”

“Hmmm, I think the best way to answer that would be by giving you a brief history of our organization.”

“A long time ago, a long long time ago, the earth bore two types of beings. Humans and Renchi. The humans and the Renchi split the earth into two main territories that they occupied respectively. For a long time, we lived in peace with the Renchi. Humans and Renchi respected each other’s territories.”

“However, that all changed when the first king of the Renchi, Darmo, died and his son Auguar succeeded him. Auguar was a spoiled brat who had little to no training when it came to ruling a kingdom. His word was law, regardless of whether it was the best for his kingdom or not. After failing to regulate resources in their territory, Auguar ordered an encroachment of the Humans territory. That’s when Safron, the king of the Humans, sent a delegation to Auguar to enquire on why he was violating the boundary. Instead of explaining, Auguar beheaded Safron’s envoy and sent back their heads on pikes. Safron took it as a declaration of war.”

“The humans were overpowered by the Renchi due to their natural augmentations such as flight and abnormal speed and strength. King Safron was assassinated and Humanity was left without a leader.”

“Five individuals, Deane, Drako, Fenton, Geri, and Xerxes created weapons that enabled them to equal Auguar’s forces. Soon, the blood of humans and Renchi soaked the earth in what is known as The First Great War. After years of battle, the five decided to sacrifice themselves to imprison Auguar and his six generals and seal the remaining Renchi behind a mirror dimension known as the Veil. Unfortunately, the Veil wasn’t fully-proof. Renchi kept on invading our dimension through tears in the Veil known as Leaks.”

Amero faced me,

“This led to a formation of us, the Blessed Association.”

There was another door at the end of the bridge. But, this one had a metal symbol similar to the groups’ badges nailed to it.

Deputy Amero pushed past it.