Chapter
10
Kevin’s point of view
“Deny him
membership!”
“Shun the
creature!”
“Away with
the twisted spirit!”
The cavern filled with similar cries of protest. I became
increasingly anxious for answers. What were they so afraid of? Why were the
armbands, and therefore the Soul Creatures, thought to be ‘twisted spirits’?
Skyir turned his now angry stare upon Flyer. “You bring a Soul
Creature into our midst, Flyer? Do you wish to doom us all to our demise?!”
Flyer didn’t answer but looked crestfallen and hurt. It was hardly
his fault, surely? He knew I was a Soul Creature but knew me for who I was, and
they didn’t believe him.
“And you, Old Quinn! Perhaps you’re not as wise as your reputation
suggests? You both seem to want to kill everyone here! Fools; both of you! What
did you hope-”
“HEY! Now, that wasn’t called for!” I protested on behalf of the
two creatures next to me. “They’re just saying what they believe. Leave them
out of this discussion! Don’t condemn them for whatever you believe I
am!”
I had attracted enough attention to myself. Grapper look slightly
amused.
“A Soul Creature dat shows concern for others? Now I’ve seen
everything!” he joked darkly.
Rembrandt spoke up this time, addressing me: “Dain’t look so
surprised! We know tha’ Soul Creatures woory a’boot one thing .…….”
He trailed off as he realised:
“Yer dain’t know what
yer are, do yer?”
“Oh, isn’t it plainly obvious?” I replied my voice heavy with sarcasm.
“If you think I’m ignorant, then why not enlighten me by answering my question?
WHAT DO THE ARMBANDS MEAN?!”
My harsh voice caused a few nervous whimpers in the crowd about
us.
The ringleaders look at each other with doubt. A few moments past
tensely before Rembrandt explained what I had wanted to know since my arrival.
“The Armbands are signs o’ th’ Soul Creatures. All captured ’uns
wear ‘em. Ain’t neva bin a Soul Creature that weren’t evil ‘n’ twisted. Many
‘ave bin an’ lossen there lives ter Soul Creatures. You’re th’ bringers o’
doom, Kevin! All o’ yer twisted spirit brethren!”
Brian’s point of view
“…… all of
them?”
I frowned and looked around the room. I was alone, but I could
swear I heard whispering. Someone questioning, wondering out loud, but the tone
suggested they weren’t talking to anyone, but to themselves. It was too faint
to be recognisable.
“…… not one
different?”
I jumped out of my seat. I was beginning to get scared. A moment
of silence passed and nothing else came to my ears like trickles of long
forgotten sound.
You’re being ridiculous.
How? It’s not like I should ignore whispering in my room.
Take a look outside. It’s probably just Leighanne in the hallway.
I poked my head around the door but no one was there. Well, Lil’
Tyke decided to wander out of one of the other rooms a second later, but
nothing else. I picked up my pet dog and carried him downstairs.
Leighanne was reading a magazine and she looked up to acknowledge
my presence and smiled.
“Anything wrong, Brian?” she asked calmly.
I put Lil’Tyke on the ground and he ran off to find his sister,
Litty Leigh.
“Where you calling for me before?”
“No,” she answered simply. “Why?”
I frowned. “I could have sworn I heard something upstairs.”
“I didn’t hear anything, or shout anything. Brian, are you sure
you’re OK?” she quizzed with concern.
“Fine…” I replied wearily. “I think maybe I’m a bit tired. Must
have imagined it.”
As I made my way back up to the room I had been working in, I had
a nagging doubt. Had I really imagined it? I had heard about my shoulder having
red marks on them when in hospital, as if they had been burnt slightly, but not
seriously. Was it coincidence that I had just previously had some kind of dream
where Kevin held me there to ‘borrow my strength’ before I collapsed? It was a
small detail, and a farfetched notion, but it didn’t mean it was untrue.
I sat back at the desk to continue with my song writing; it took
my mind off things. I sighed from the confusion of my thoughts, but then took a
sip of coffee and picked up my pen again.
“…… why?
Answer me that!….”
Eyes widening, I slowly put the pen down on the desk. I turned my
head around to look behind me at a similar speed as if I was in slow motion.
Nothing. I looked on the other side of me. Still nothing. Only the sound of the
trees being blown and tossed about outside by the strong, turbulent winds.
It seems insane to me now, but I replied to the whisper in the
room.
“Answer you what?” I whispered, trying to equal the dynamics of
the voice I was hearing, distorted and unclear.
“….is this
place so repressed ……. That prejudice is not shunned?”
“I … I don’t understand. What do you want to know?” I pleaded.
“…everything….
Everything here!”
I was stunned. It had answered back. So it couldn’t have been my
mind playing tricks on me.
“Everything where?”
Despite my persistence, the voice didn’t answer this time.
Was I going mad? Did my cousin’s death herald something unreal and
supernatural? Whatever it was, I’m not sure I wanted to be part of it. Reality
was all I could live with in my currently emotionally healing state.
Kevin’s point of view
All of them? All of the Soul Creatures were evil? How was that
possible? I wasn’t evil, surely?
“How could there be not one different?” I asked, alarmed.
“That, Kevin,” Skyir boomed, in his unusually low voice, “is just
the way of things, in which we have no or little say.”
Flyer flapped his wings in anger and defiance, “Kevin is not evil.
Why else would he help the rest of us out? Why would he suffer solitary
confinement several times instead of letting us be whipped and beaten?”
“Och, aye! ‘Ee did tha’ on behalf o’ me a few suns back! Not ter
mention th’ others. Ain’t yer got a debt ter Kevin ‘ere?” Old Quinn protested.
The elder ringleaders didn’t approve of the free will being
expressed right now, and certainly didn’t seem to like the idea of being
cheeked by a youngster and answered back by an ageing, weakening creature not
voted to lead the resistance group.
Maybe….. I thought, it was because it was working to our advantage
at the moment.
Yet another high-pitched Valedron voice joined those of the two
friends supporting me.
“I seen Kevin help us lots. Evil creatures is not helpin’ us.
Monsoon likes Kevin. Not evil. R’member cave-in last cycle? Kevin help Monsoon. Not let Monsoon die.” The
Valedron, Monsoon, fluttered across and sat on my other shoulder, not occupied
by Flyer. “Monsoon say let Kevin stay!”
I patted his head gratefully. I was surprised he remembered it at
all. That cave-in he spoke of; that was last ‘cycle’, or week to me. Monsoon
was barely recognisable then: crushed, bruised, and encrusted with a coat of
dirt and grit. Luckily, I had managed to dig him out before he died from lack
of air and took him back to the sleeping caverns to recover. Unfortunately,
many others hadn’t been so lucky. About 15 died in that cave-in, and it made me
sick to think that the guards didn’t give a damn. They even hit and whipped a
few of us for stopping our work to try and dig them out with out bare hands and
claws.
“Ya, Kevin likes music! He taught some of us new songs; dat is not
what Soul Creatures do. Soul Creatures think dat music is trivial, an’ dat we
aren’t worth lookin’ at!” A Small Gecko, Dommur, joined.
I grinned as he bounded to our feet. All to often, when the guards
weren’t around, I’d heard the Small Geckos’ comical chorusing of ‘Backstreet’s
Back’ or ‘Larger than Life’.
Others too joined the sudden rally of silenced opinions being
shouted boldly. Yet, the greater portion of creatures still lurked in the big
crowd, staying tense and quiet.
Skyir obviously had strong views on the matter.
“You fools fail to realise what you are dealing with!” he snapped.
“This…… mammal…. Is EVIL, I tell you!”
“How do you know, Skyir?
Do you know me well, like Flyer…. Or Dommur? You say this, but why? Answer me
that!” I demanded.
He looked stunned, not expecting such a violent outburst.
Strangely, in the back of my mind, something faint came to me, and I was just
barely listening to it as it whispered: “….answer
you what?….”
Confusing what I thought to be my angry mind playing tricks, and
Skyir’s highly racist comment against Soul Creatures, I automatically answered
that odd, unrecognisable whisper.
“Is this place so repressed that prejudice is not shunned? You can
just judge others and think it’s OK?” I cut in the silence my demands heralded.
But again, a whispering voice crept into my head: “……I … I don’t understand. What do you want
to know?…”
And again, I answered.
“I want to know everything. Everything here. I don’t belong here
and I don’t know what goes on here. I want to get outta this dump and I need to
know your worlds and cultures to make it out of this prison. And I’m willing to
do it myself if necessary, but I’m pretty sure a few of you want to tag along
when I do. I say ‘when’ since I want to get back to my family, and friends, and
I KNOW I can.”
I spun around angrily, and ignored Flyer and Monsoon, as they fell
off my shoulders in surprise, too raged to be concerned right now.
“You want my help? Then at least show a bit of gratitude and
equality! I don’t help dictators, Skyir! Not even joint ones! I believe in
democracy, not autocracy!”
I let Flyer land back on my shoulder. “And maybe find the answers
to my questions, and tell me a bit about this galaxy! I’m not leaving
unprepared for whatever lives out there!”
I pointed upwards: the direction of the surface, and freedom.
I stormed off, leaving many bewildered faces behind.
***
