Okay, I'll be honest... I'm a little bit proud of this one. It's is better --at least in my opinion-- than the first chapter. Aaaany way... Read, Enjoy, and Comment!!
When I was eight, I took a Latin class. It was a requirement for my training. Why my parents decided to put me in so young, I did not know. Even in spite of barely being in fourth grade, I managed to be at the top of my class. My professors were shocked.
Kid-genius, they called me, child prodigy!
My fellow students called me something different. Some words I will never forget.
One time, a classmate had got mad at me for getting an A on a hard exam. He had attempted to physically harm me.
Luckily, he was large and slow. And I was small and quick with three years of combat training under my pink zebra striped belt.
My parents patted me on my back when they learnt about my first real fight. But when the time came for Latin class, my parents told me I have completed the requirement.
Eight years later, I was able to use my Latin for the first time, outside of my Latin class. Even with his horrible accent, I could still understand the word Jae said, “Finis’
“Do you know what they mean?” Jae asked staring at my face.
“Yes,” I told him meeting his eyes.
“What?” he barked hoarsely.
“It’s a… long story.” I replied unsurely where to start.
“Then speak quickly!” Jae told me, eagerly.
“A long time ago, the world was harsh and cold, people killed people without thought. They did everything bad you could possible imagine and worst.”
Jae sat on my bean bag and I lowered my shaking legs to the floor.
“One day, a man was told of the end.
“He built a large boat in order to save all the animals from going extinct. He took his wife and sons along with their wives on the huge boat. It took a long time to make, and everyone thought he was going insane.”
I paused, “He was rather old.”
“They laughed as he built, and begged for mercy as they drowned in the waters that had flooded the earth.”
“Wait!” Jae stopped me, standing up. “This is the story of Noah, a Christian myth.”
Anger got me and swallowed me whole.
“This story is more real than you and I.” I stood to meet him. Attempting to stare him down. It was difficult when he was an inch taller than me.
“Can you prove it?” Jae asked, glancing away.
I sighed, “I can only prove it, if you want to know.”
Jae nodded, lowering himself again.
“For over a month,” I begin, following Jae’s lead to the floor. “The skies spit out tears and waters of this earth rose. Everyone outside of Noah, his family, and all the animals died. Many, swept up in the storm, made an effort to hold on to the boat, but the wind was too fierce and the storm too strong. Their own fragile human bodies, wore out and they died. One hundred and fifty days they drifted until the waters began going down. When they finally settled to a stop. All rejoiced. A rainbow was painted into the sky as a promise.”
I turned to Jae, “That never again would all life be scorched from the earth.”
Jae looked confused, “How does this tie into my parents?”
I stared up at the smiling poster of an actor advertising some sort of TV show that I used to watch.
“My parents and yours are part of a furtive group of fighters.” I surmised. “They protect Christians all around the world, from being persecuted.”
“You know of ISIS?” I questioned.
“Yes,” Jae sputtered.
“Our parents are part of BASIC, become a soldier in Christ. ISIS is their enemies. I am assum-”
“So, my parents were kidnapped by ISIS?” Jae recounted, shock written with a permanent marker all over his face.
“I think. “ I replied, “But there is more.”
I launched, half afraid of the words I was going to say, “Under most circumstances, I would confirm that to be the entire story, but that word, ‘Finis’, that your parents gave you. It’s Latin for…”
My voice gave out.
I tried again it came out raspy and quiet, “The end”.
Jae’s eyes widened to the size of watermelons. His tanned California skin stretched in a less-than-handsome way across his face.
“Like as in the end of the world?” Jae gulped.
Any other time, I might have laugh and teased him, but I was shocked to the bone and knew it was coming. I could only imagine what was going through Jae’s head. His lack of training, giving him no cover to hide under.
He bit his lip, “Where are your parents?”
I paused, taking a minute to push back the overwhelming panic needing to come up with something, “They left on a vacation a couple of days ago, I’m sure they didn’t know your family would be attacked…”
Jae’s brown eyes narrowed, “its fine.”
It was clear that it wasn’t.
“How do you know all of this, and not me?” I could detect a hint of jealousy in his voice.
“The code of BASIC is to not tell their children until they become an adult. To prevent enemies from kidnapping and attempting to extracting info from them--”
“Then how did you know?” Jae shot. Even a blind person could see the anger radiating off the boy.
“I was an accident.” I begin, “When I was six years old, my mom took me to a park. She seemed wary, but I had never been so happy. That was the first time I had been to that park. I ran as fast as I could to the playground. There weren’t many other kids there, but enough to make my mom stay at my side.”
I closed my eyes ready for the worst part of my entire childhood, “I went to the very top of the play structure to slide down the tube slide. My mom went to the bottom.”
“There was a man at the top, I still remember his face even now. One eye was scarred closed, the other was swimming in a pool of horrific scars. He took his knife and slashed. The next thing I knew I was flying down the slide, and my mom was holding me as I sobbed.”
“I looked up at the play structure and saw the man jump.” I swallowed, “The thing he didn’t know was that beneath him was a ladder that came out slanted. He fell head down, trying to roll to brace the impact. But he never made it to the ground. He died right there.”
Jae looked down, “I’m sorry.”
I continued, pretending not to hear, “My parents trained me, knowing they could never erase the image of his body swinging, or the sound his neck made when his life ended.”
“Your parents never told you, in an attempt to protect you.” I revealed, “But now they are gone as are my parents--
“For the time being.” Jae interjected.
“Right.” I breathed.
“There’s one more thing I need to show you,” I quavered.
Jae turned his eyes toward me, “Yeah?”
“Come.” I scrambled to my feet.
The world was a wash machine around me as I started to toward the door. I ignored my head as it insisted the world was scrambled.
I grabbed the door handle and yanked it open.
My room (along with my parent’s and many other extra rooms) was on the second story of house. The first story was a large metal kitchen. It was accompanied grandly by only a slight smaller room. We call it the mud room. It was piled high with old boots, cracked leather jackets, and every bit of odds and ends from a rusty horseshoe to an old kitchen set I had used to play with. The first had other rooms too, but they were less used and much smaller. The mud room was where I toted Jae to.
I swung open the large wooden door, and shot through it, leaving Jae stranded and staring.
“Why did you bring me to your…” Jae struggled for words, “Uh junk room?”
I snorted, unintentionally. I felt my cheeks started to morph into the flattering color of a red rose.
“It’s a mud room,” I spat, my brain relocating the embarrassment on my cheeks to my voice --and toward Jae.
“Okay.” He gave me a weird look as though someone had taken his face apart, then put it back together without having any idea what a human face looked like.
I ignored him and stepped into the room.
With deji vu hanging in the pit of my stomach, I reached the switch.
Light was a beacon for the bugs cowering in the corners of the room. With the synchronism of a well-rehearsed performance, all of the light-deprived insects shot toward the light. There were so many, the poor bare lightbulb was completely in-blanketed.
The flies were guards at best. Pests at worst. But JOK had insisted. Everyone has to listen to JOK. The spoiled, power-driven brat.
“Woah,” Jae mumbled, I jerked my head toward him. He was standing directly in front of the area.
A thousand voices crowded into my brain. How did he--, Does he kn--, How--?
I shut them down, “That would be the entrance… How did you--?”
He kept his eyes on the wall-door, which was impressive because the rest of the room was completely coated with coats (no pun intended). As well as old picnic blankets, old muddy toys, and old leather boots. The walls were light brown with a mysterious stain in one corner. But they were completely hidden by the mass of collapsible chairs and random sport supplies.
Jae was standing in the far corner of the tiny room, eyes on the door.
Well… Really it should be referred to as a panel, but I was trying to defuse all the cliché descriptions.
As if some ghost had forced his hand, Jae’s slammed into the wall.
I hadn’t even realized I was moving until I almost ran into the wall.
“Jae!” I screeched. “Stop! You’ll—“
-BAM-
The impact rocketed through the whole house.
Snapped out of his daze, Jae looked up at the ceiling. A showering of white descended on the two of us.
I waited for the pain, for something large to crash down on me. It did not. The absence of pain made me open my eyes.
I got the weirdest twisted feeling as though my brain had been restarted.
“What did I--” Jae started.
But he couldn’t get the words out before the wall-door fell in with a bang.
I swallowed. That wasn’t normal, but my life had never been normal.
“Let’s get geared up.” I said, forcing a smile.
In usual situations, one could go with a taser and a knapsack with food, clothes, and money. But I had no idea when (or if) I would ever see my home, again.
I found the dusty emergency bags and helped Jae properly hide his stun gun, knife, and special devices that included knockout gas and a memory eraser.
“With all this stuff, I could kill any army,” he commented, looking at his supplies.
I turned away sadly. Soon that would be less of a joke and more true.
“Hey, that was suppose to be a joke!” Jae tried grabbing my arm to turn me around.
I knew Jae was no enemy, but my nerves were on high and my instincts kicked in.
I twisted my arm in the direction of his thumb to break his grip. Then grabbed his wrist and turned his so his face was almost on the ground. My palm was against his elbow, keeping it straighten.
“Don’t touch me,” I breathed.
The tiny room was so quiet that when Jae’s knife slipped out of his pocket is made a thunderous clattering against the pavement.
I released his arm.
“You’re easy to catch off guard,” I told him, avoiding his eyes.
“What?” Jae looked shocked, rubbing his arm distantly.
“In order to be part of BASIC, you have to learn to fight.” I explained, “The first thing a warrior learns is to be ready for anything.”
“Vigilant?” he asked.
“Sure.” In school, Jae was a top student. I should’ve known he wouldn't wait long to start adding in some vocabulary from years prior.
“Wait! Does this mean we are gonna be, like, super heroes?” his eyes turned to the size of a modest fruit bowl.
I bent to pick up the patient packs that sat slouched up against the wall.
“To say we were super heroes is like saying that coat is a blanket.” I immediately felt guilty for my bluntness. My dad would always say,’It's better to be blunt, then be caution of someone's feelings, and have someone pay the price. Unless..’ he would grin, ‘You are a knife, in which case it's better to be sharp!’
‘But dad!’ I would protest, ‘That doesn't even make any sense! How would a knife be caution of someone's feelings?’
He just smiled, ‘Alina. It's a saying it's not suppose to make sense.’
Unexpectedly, my eyes begun to water.
I blinked rapidly. Keep it together, you lose it so does he, I told myself.
“But,” I said in a softer tone, “we will be heroes, of some sort.”
If we pull this off, I thought.
Jae's face lifted, the look I see him get every time he gets a good grade on a test.
“Here’s your bag,” I gave him his luggage. I hefted my own pack on my back.
“Woah,” Jae exclaimed, “It's light!”
I smiled, “Technology is beautiful isn't it?
He nodded.
“Back-saving,” Jae said with a laugh.
I resisted a smile.
“Let's go,” I said.
Jae frowned slightly, as I was an intricate puzzle that he couldn't solve.
I turned away, preventing myself from losing focus.
As I exited the room, I could hear his footsteps behind me, hollow with confusion.
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