Chapter 54
Solin’s point of view
Alone now, away from Kevin, I let my tears
flow freely.
He was slipping away from everything he had
fought so hard for, and all of my convincing had been useless. I only hoped
that my flaring, desperate anger was enough to sway him, after leaving him to
mull over it.
In spirit form, I walked briskly towards
Atlanta, passing oblivious humans on my way. Observing their daily lives,
watching groups of them talk and laugh amiably, to see young couples walking
hand in hand… the happiness that all humans were capable of. This was the life
Kevin wanted to abandon?
My mind was interrupted by an acute
anxiousness… an indescribable sense of duty, pulling me forward with increasing
urgency. It was then quiet words drifted into my mind from afar…
“Solin! We need you’re help! Come back now…!”
Flyer……
Pleading for my help…
That was what was dragging me forward…
My tears forgotten, I picked up my pace,
darting onwards with renewed urgency.
Kevin’s point of view
Sleep, that’s what I needed. Peaceful sleep. I
had spent hours reliving that scene over in my mind, in which I had been too
stunned and bewildered to say or do anything:
“You think it’s funny to play games with me?
Your heart belongs to Kristin – I’ve always known that… but you! You bury
yourself is this little game to toy with my feelings after I’ve just been so
open with you?! And to think I trusted you to understand!”
“Solin, I-”
SLAP!
“I go through all that pain and suffering from
rejection, and you expect me to just sit back and watch the same happen to you?
You want to throw away your last chance to go back to your family after knowing
I never could? You disgust me!”
With my guard down, she had no trouble
reaching in to kiss me briefly.
“I care about you, Kevin. I love you enough to
not want to get in the way of your happiness. That’s why you have to go back.”
She stepped back, letting me go. Totally lost
at what to even think anymore, I felt my cheek and my lips. Just when the first
inkling of thinking started to germinate in my mind…
SLAP!
“I’m going back myself!” she declared angrily.
“I’ll be back in one day. If you haven’t worked out the truth by that point…
then don’t expect to ever see me again afterwards!”
I lay down, resting my hands on my chest and
staring at the ceiling blankly. Her words… had it really been that bad for her?
Did I really have no clue as to her inner pain, bottled up for centuries? Had
all of my bitterness and suffering been just a mere glimmer compared to her
despair?
Yet, she seemed so eager for me to go back to
Kristin. Surely if she loved me, she would want me to stay with her instead?
No, she thought I didn’t care. She thought
this confusion was an act, to let her down carefully, to spare her some sorrow.
That I felt nothing…
I realised with growing anxiety… that she was
wrong…
But could it be, after vowing to forsake all
others, I had… fallen in love again?
My eyelids drooped, and all sounds – the wind,
the rain, the TV that Leon was watching – faded into darkness.
Tranquil moments passed, before a glittering
of faint light disturbed me, causing me to open my eyes. Yet, as I sat up, I
was not in the bedroom. All was dark apart from a green-blue mist surrounding
my prostate form. Lifting my head, I blinked, dumbstruck.
“Right,” I muttered out loud, “this is weird.”
“Och, aye lad!” a Scottish accent cut through
the mist, followed by the unmistakable silhouette of a Giant Gecko. “Yer ain’t
never see a fog like this’un back on Old Nosteran!”
My eyes widened: “Old Quinn?”
“Yer remember’d me, lad!” The great reptile
pulled me upright into a crushing hug.
I stared, once released, unable to comprehend
what was going on.
“This is impossible!” I stated with shocked
volume. “You… you died years ago, before I left the Empire!”
Quinn threw his stout arm over my shoulders,
carefully avoiding my wings.
“Och, ‘course its’ nay possible!” he exclaimed
casually. “You’re asleep, Sonny Jim!”
“Oh,” was all I could manage.
“Now, t’has come to our attention that yer
been back ‘ome fer months, but yer not wit yer family.” Quinn stated. “Wot yer
up to, then?”
“What do you mean ‘our attention’?”
Another Scottish voice joined in as another
familiar Giant Gecko stepped out of the mist.
“Yon Quinn ‘ere means me n’all, Kev lad!”
“Kallur!” I exclaimed.
“Aye, bonnie lad!”
Another hug.
“Quinn’s right, yer ken?” he declared. “Yer’ve
lost yer fightin’ spirit! What happened to yer soul?”
Sadness stole over me like a dark shroud. I
felt there was only one answer to that.
“When I was consigned to Oblivion, the better
part of my soul was left behind…”
I stepped out of their reach. “I don’t deserve
to go back. I’m just a potent demon.”
“Strong –yes, but a demon… far from it.”
That deep, powerful voice – it could only be…
“Fotuf?”
The mighty dragon stepped from the veil of
shadows, a grin on his wizened face.
“Soul Warrior,” he bowed his head humbly. “So,
the legend was true.”
“But… then…”
“Be still, Kevin. Yes, I am dead.”
“How?”
“The revenge of the Jackal.”
Disbelieving, I clenched my gecko-ey hands
into fists, fuming.
“Oh God! I’ll kill him! I’ll-”
“Calm down, lad!” Quinn clipped me around the
ears sharply. “Nay frettin’ o’er that!”
“Quinn is right, my friend.” Fotuf soothed.
“Existence was becoming a chore, being on the wrong side of 1000. In a way, he
released my burden.”
I still raged on: “But does he have to
terrorise everyone who has ever helped me?”
“Do not hate him for my demise. Anubis fell
into madness out of desperation and having to hold too much power. He was not
always evil.” Fotuf’s claw rested on my shoulder. “If you must hate him, do not
hate him because of me.”
I finally relented, calmed by the wise words
and faces of lost friends.
“But despite everything, I’m too bitter to
receive the old friendship of the others now. And even if I wasn’t, I have a
dilemma – I need help.”
“This is your help, son. You asked, and so I
gathered it.”
I spun sharply as a human strode out of the
blue haze…
Flyer’s point of view
Solin appeared finally out of the shadows,
dripping with rain from the dark night.
“You heard me!” I sighed anxiously. “Did you
find anything?”
“An unresolved situation… it is best if I do
not explain until later. What did you signal me for?”
My expression turned grave, as I led her to
the second floor of Brian’s home. The group of humans was gathered in Brian’s
daughter’s room. Solin took in the sight with shock. Each of the humans was
teary eyed, some sobbed freely. And there, still crouching by the bed, still
sobbing into the quilt, was Brian himself. He clutched the quilt tightly, his
face buried in it. A quilt of a bed… that was now empty.
“She’s been taken…” I stated sadly, landing on
AJ’s shoulder, “during the start of the night.”
Solin stiffened in tense anger and fear, her
eyed widening as her keen senses caught something we couldn’t.
“Flyer,” she breathed. “An Ancient has been
here!”
Kevin’s point of view
Déjà vu crept into my senses, knowing I’d been
here before… speaking with my father’s long-deceased soul.
“We are waiting for your problem, my son.”
I said nothing. I didn’t even move. Everything
seemed so surreal, and I was trapped in a dream of shadow and mist.
“C’mon now, Kev. Didn’t come to see yer for
nothin’!” Quinn stated, his voice piercing the silence.
“Is this real?”
“’Course it is lad!” Kallur confirmed. “Now,
tell us what’s botherin’ yer.”
Uncertain, afraid and numb with shock, I
looked at the interested yet calm faces of my reptilian friends and my father,
relating my thoughts, emotions and confusion of the situation. I was torn
between two beings, but couldn’t choose either of them.
The four of them conversed afterwards in quiet
tones. Their words were whispered, inaudible. However, it was not long until
they turned back to me.
“A difficult choice to make, Kevin,” Jerald,
my father, commented. “Unfortunately, I must once again tell you that the
decision is up to you.”
My shoulder slumped in disappointment. This
was not as helpful as I had hoped. Bitterness overwhelmed me, and I narrowed my
eyes at my father.
“So this is all I deserve is it? To have the
problem thrown back in my face?” I exclaimed incredulously. “You said you’d be there
for me! So where were you? When Anubis trapped me? When I was stranded in the
future? When he attacked again today?”
I spun on my heel, striding away into the
mist. My father’s stern and strong voice halted me.
“Who do you think pulled you from Oblivion?”
I swallowed, burning with rushing guilt.
“That… that was you?”
“I have helped you, when you were without
hope. Yet the trials you have endured were your trials alone.”
I hung my head in shame at my accusations,
refusing to meet his gaze.
“You obviously need more time to think, until
Solin returns.” His voice was now tinged with annoyance. “Speak to us with your
mind if you need to ask something.”
As if by his will instead of my own, I awoke
finding myself lying on my side, staring at the rising sun. The night had
passed swiftly… leaving me 12 hours until Solin returned, and I was forced to
decide…
***
