The Blessed

CHAPTER TWO

The next day, when I woke up, I bathed and got dressed in what I had worn the day before.

I forced down four slices and poured myself some juice.

When I dropped off at the bus stop that was a kilometer or so from school, I realized that it was only nine in the morning. But the sun was so hot that my armpits and forehead were already damp.

A shadow sped past in my peripheral vision.

“Son of Sentep…” it whispered.

But when I tried to face it was nowhere to be seen.

I remembered the dream I had the previous night. 

Then, a conspicuous car caught my attention.

It was a white Toyota wish parked on the left side of the street. 

But the occupant, not so much.

I couldn't hear what she was saying, but I could tell that the woman inside needed help. her hair was plastered on her slim face, and her blue eyes were filled with desperation. She was banging on the driver's side window and shouting something.

I removed my earphones and walked over to the car. I noticed that, somehow, she had dropped her car keys on the ground.

“Hey! Hey, can you help me? I locked myself inside. My keys are right there.”

“Yeah, I see them.”

I picked up the keys. As soon as I put the key in the keyhole, the scene around me transformed.

It felt as if the car, the surrounding houses, and the vegetation were all props that fell over and disappeared into the ground. Before me was jagged, oval-shaped rock the size of a skyscraper. It served as an entrance to a giant rectangular monolith that towered past the clouds, which, I noticed, had also suddenly appeared out of nowhere.

The previous midsummer sky was now heavily overcast with a threat of downpour. The air was thick and putrid. Just like the park.

Diamond-shaped creatures, slithering globs, and spider-like organisms were suspended in the air surrounded me. The scene before me, no reality itself, flickered before my eyes like the image of a TV on a stormy night.

I was standing next to the car again.

The woman stumbled out.

Her form also flickered between humans and something black and otherworldly.

Her breathing was heavy as she examined herself and flexed her fingers.

"Ha... Hahaha! Praise the Anti, it worked..."

She rose to her feet and approached me.

She placed both of her hands on my shoulders and said,

“Your father, he shall be free soon.”

I immediately assumed that she was either a crazy person. Or maybe she was locked in the hot car for too long.

“Sure thing.” I said as I gently removed myself from her grasp and continued on my way.

I had only taken a few steps when a door appeared out of thin air before me.

It was an old, worn-out thing that reminded me of those classic Victorian doors. I circled it…

There was nothing behind it. It was hinged on air, an entrance to an invisible place it seemed.

Suddenly, the door flew open.

A skinny man with copper skin emerged. His steps were wide and urgent. Close behind him was a woman with dreadlocks, two larger men, one with smoldering blue eyes and a muscular build and another with emerald green eyes and an average build, and a small man with brown eyes.

The five were all dressed in the same getup. Tan brown ankle-length coats and baggy pants of the same colour. They had dark brown knee-length boots, and plain white cotton shirts. However, besides the leader, the group had white arms bands with a black ‘S’ on them.

Around their necks were thin silver chains with small circular pendants.

I noticed that the pendants had different symbols on them.

The brown-skinned man's pendent had two interlinking circles, the woman's simply had a diagonal line, blue eyes' had a miniature cartoonish sword, green eyes' had two crossing arrows and brown eye’s had two interlinking hexagons.

They also had oddly shaped badges on their coats. The leader of the groups’ badge was gold while the others’ were silver.

"Where the hell is it?" said the brown-skinned man.

His chin was held high and his chest puffed out. He reached into his inner pocket and popped a brown cigarette into his mouth. He pulled out a lighter and brought the flame to the tip. Orange plumes of smoke began to escape the corners of his mouth.

The other four kept on scanning the environment.

The door behind them exploded into a cloud of gray smoke, leaving no trail of its existence behind.

The woman reached into her coat and produced a small golden ball. It had intricate engravings and shone brilliantly in the sunlight. From the object, several blue tongue-like things ejected and licked the air before retreating.

“If it was a Walker or a Flier then it would still be in the vicinity.” she said.

“Also there's no water source around here so it's definitely not a Swimmer.” said green eyes.

“Don't tell me they gave us a dud.” said the smaller one.

“I've been telling the Director to check out the surveillance system for months now. But oh no, what does Amero know, I'm only the Deputy of the place.”

“It can’t be a dud”, said the woman, “They said it was a Priority S.”

Then, an otherworldly sound came from behind a tree beside the road.

We all focused our attention on it, until something that I can only describe as an alien dog popped out.

It had green skin, six legs and four eyes. Its mouth opened to reveal a long-forked tongue and four rows of razor-sharp teeth.

The short man stepped forward,

“I got this.”

He held up his arms, the right one bent back and the left one stretched forward. The arrow on his pendant lit up with a sparkling orange light. Soon enough, a bow materialized from a cloud of black-orange smoke.

The monster growled, pivoted on its haunches and catapulted itself towards the man.

While the creature was in mid-air, the man pulled on the bows string. Blue sparks blinked into existence. Then a blue bolt of electricity formed.

When it was a few feet from him, the man let go of the string.

The electric bolt ripped through the air and the beast. A mess of green, blue and yellow splattered the ground around.

“Actually, they said it was an unknown signature.” continued dreadlocks.

"Then where the hell is it? I'm standing here and I don't see a single thing!"

After a few moments of not finding whatever they were looking for, the foul-mouthed leader, Amero, looked at me.

We stared at each other for a while…before he decided to take a step forward.