I could feel his manifestations slowly dispersing as he lost control of them, the bats overheard shrieked and started flying away, the house began to lose the misery it had been steeped in as the shadows hiding in the corners fled. Mr. A**** seemed to age and suddenly began to look older in my eyes. "Please, please," he said. "Spare me!" "You think I'm going to kill you?" I asked, disgustedly. "I'm not like you. I would prefer it if you saw the error of your ways and changed. With what I feel in this spear you were wielding, you would have been a source of great joy to a lot of people instead of allowing greed and corruption eat into your heart. It is not too late. You can change. Anybody can change if given another chance." He didn't say anything, just remained cowering in the corner. Nina must have heard all that was going on because she came out and ran to meet me. Mr. A**** looked at her in shock. "You, you are free?" he cried, "But how?" She didn't answer but held on to me tight. "Please let's go…" she said. I agreed and we started to move to the front door. I will admit I was distracted, I wasn't looking at Mr. A**** anymore, he had appeared so defeated there on the floor. The next thing I knew Nina had flown back into his arms. It was as if an invisible cord had tugged at her waist and she had been propelled backwards. I shouted and made to go after her but Mr. A**** did something and the gold chain that held her wings, that had been glowing belligerently, suddenly caught fire. Nina screamed in agony and I stopped in mid rush. "Good idea," said Mr. A**** grinning wickedly from ear to ear. "I may not have much of my powers but I still have enough to kill her with pain. Now step back!"
CHAPTER 20
"Let her go!" I shouted. Although I kept my distance, every cell in my body protested in an effort to lunge forward at Mr. A***'s throat. I watched in horror as he manipulated the chains that bound Nina's wings and once again they caught fire. Nina screamed again and her eyelids shut tight as her face contorted in pain. If any other person had come in at that moment, they would have seen a pretty young girl, screaming for no obvious reason, clutching at her shoulders and back like she was being stung there by bees. They would have seen a vicious looking elderly man in a French suit behind her, his hand outstretched, holding nothing but air and laughing maniacally. They would have seen a young man, fists clenched, standing back and observing the entire scene with helplessness written all over his face. They might have watched, puzzled, or even laughed at the absurdity of the entire scene and wondered what the "play" that was being acted was about. However for us, the participants, it was very real, even moreso for Nina who, though she couldn't see what was going on, was experiencing a very real pain. Mr. A**** finally stopped whatever it was he was doing and the flames died down as Nina promptly collapsed at his feet. We both watched her unmoving body, me with bated breath, and then she moved a little. "You bastard!" I spat out, "You nearly killed her!" He looked at me and smiled evilly. No more pretence lay on that once trustworthy face, no more gentlemanly gestures, and no calm smiles. The experience of defeat had stripped him down to his naked core and I saw him finally for what he was, a small, desperate and lonely man, forever seeking the acceptance of an indifferent society and trying to obtain it by whatever dubious means possible. Even if he had gotten whatever it was he wanted from Nina he still wouldn't have been satisfied and would have moved on to more deadly, more despicable conquests. His past opened up to me, a violent uncaring unkind little boy who had never been satisfied with the meager little his parents could afford; a teenager intent on ruling the world by whatever means possible, soaring on the honest struggles of a tired father and the tears of a saddened mother; a young adult, meddling into the realm of secrets in his bid to satisfy an insatiable hunger for power and wealth, and then a man, fully steeped in the black mire of his past misdeeds. This is what I should have seen originally the day I came to Nina's house, but because his aura was so heavy with the associations of the third realm, and because I didn't have the level of Sight that I did now, I had seen his manifestations as though they were reality, as though they were physical. And then I saw his future. He was laughing triumphantly, surrounded by a belfry of his bat-like creatures and chanting in a strange tongue.
Mr. A**** was going to win.
I physically took two steps back in shock as my eyes cleared from this vision. He saw this and nodded. "Good, good. Stay away. If you move closer I will definitely kill her. I placed this enchanted gold chain on her the first day I saw her. I wanted her gifts to be mine, all mine, but when I told my mentor he said I couldn't take it by force, that people like her were "special". The only way to steal her pre-ordained gifts was to trick her into giving them to me...and so I have been patient, and I have waited, until you came along to spoil everything." He straightened up and I saw him flick his hands along the spirited golden chain thoughtfully. "But..but then maybe you came into the picture for a reason. Maybe you came to show me the kind of power I could possess if I added her gifts to mine. Maybe my mentor was lying, deliberately preventing me from taking by force what I would have taken a long time ago. Maybe by doing that I would have become as strong as you are! The way you wrestled my guards down, how did you do it? Do you know what I had to do to conjure those guards to my side? How could you dispense of them so easily? How could you break my staff of power so easily?! I see no wings on you, Mr. Chuks, but you appear much more powerful than this girl would have ever been!" He sighed. "I want to win this battle Mr. Chuks," He said, looking intently at the prostrate body of Nina. "I want to win it at all costs. I did not come all this way in the occult to be defeated by a man barely into his youth!" There was murder in his eyes. I decided that I had hesitated enough and rushed forward. Maybe I could push him out of the way and tear the chain from Nina's wings with my hands. He saw my movement, looped the chain two more times around his right wrist and swiftly turned his palm towards me with his left hand. The next thing I knew a mighty force pushed hard against my chest, lifting me off my feet and slamming me into the wall. Pain like nothing I had felt before exploded in my head and it was all I could do to keep from passing out as I crashed to the floor. Where had that come from? I saw I was still holding on to his broken staff of power as he had called it and as far as I knew the fight we had earlier had left him spiritually drained. I struggled to my feet and almost immediately found myself in a vice-like grip around my waist. I groaned in pain and tried to free myself and eventually after much effort I pulled out of the grip, collapsing again on the floor and dropping the broken staff. Mr. A*** was laughing now. "So much power in such a small vessel! Who would have known? My Master obviously lied to me, he didn't want me to be as powerful as he was!"
I raised my head and saw Mr. A**** still holding on to the chain but now it was a brilliant blue colour. Light emanating from Nina's body shone brightly into the chain ad was pulsing like some sort of electrical current into Mr. A****'s right arm. "When he said her destiny was great, I thought he meant she would become very rich in life, or a wise person, or something like that…I never knew he was talking about raw power! Maybe she would have been a prophetess or a healer, but now we shall never now, eh Chuks?!" he said, and with a sudden violent tug he tore her wings off. I shouted and struggled towards her as Mr. A**** carried the still glowing wings and held them to his chest, uttering some incantations. I didn't care what he was doing, I just wanted to make sure Nina was all right. As I crawled towards her she started convulsing and arched backwards as her eyes rolled into her head. I shouted her name and held on to her until the convulsions passed and she became still. I looked at her chest for the reassuring heave of her breathing. I saw nothing. I still held on to her, hugging her limp body and refusing to look into her eyes. Mr. A*** was still chanting and finally I heard him gasp. I looked up just in time to see the dismembered wings disappear into his body and then he started to grow a pair of his own, only that they were bat-like, sinister, covered in dark brown leather and ended in talons. Mr. A**** himself seemed to increase a little in size and his full spiritual regalia returned. It was a painful process as he squirmed and tore at his face and back but finally it was done. He stood up straight and examined an outstretched wing, and then the other one. "Yes. Yes!" he laughed. "This is magnificent! I feel – " I didn't let him finish. Shouting at the top of my lungs I lunged myself full bodied at him. I caught him in the chest and we both tumbled over the old sofa. I was shouting and trying to land a punch on his ugly face, noticing that my hands had inadvertently caught fire; and he was struggling to defend himself. I managed to get on top of him and landed a solid punch on his chest. He grunted but caught my wrist on my second attempt, grasping my other hand as well. Although they still burned, he showed no sign of pain and with a shout he flung me off him. I tried to get to my feet but was brought down by the full weight of the sofa which Mr. A**** was now using as a battering club on my back. And he was still talking. "Have you ever heard of the strength of mad people, chucks? That is nothing compared to what I have now!" The sofa came down again on my back and I heard the wooden frame crack with the force. Pain shot through my back and I fell, rolling forward to avoid another blow. I caught Mr. A**** by his legs and pulled hard, throwing him off his feet. I pressed my hands against his chest and mustered all the fire I could, and this time he screamed in pain. He tried to yank my hands off but they were now so hot he couldn't even hold them.
I laughed maniacally, forgetting what I had said about not killing him, forgetting about a lot of things except Nina's body lying still on the floor. He writhed and struggled and finally kneed me in the stomach and the pain made me double up and let go. He stood to his feet and pointed a winged talon at me and I felt that vice-like grip around my waist again, constricting, making breathing difficult. I concentrated and grasped the invisible vice with both hands, concentrating my fire and everything else I felt into my hands. And there we stood, locked in spiritual battle, both screaming in anger and pain, when I saw something behind him. Nina was standing up. I was so surprised I lost concentration and Mr. A*** slammed me against the wall, laughing and coming closer as his vice like grip increased, I struggled to break free, to breathe as he moved his grip from my waist to my neck. "You see, Mr. Chuks, I win! I am stronger than you are!" Nina stood there, surrounded by a bright blue light, her eyes closed, her face peaceful as if she was asleep on her feet. I watched as two new pairs of wings grew out, bigger, whiter, lovelier than the ones before them. And this time there was no gold chain to bind them. And her apparel changed and in a flash she was dressed in white with a silver bangle on her wrist and a golden belt around her hips. I had seen that kind of belt before and recognized it immediately. It was the same kind of belt Pachios wore. She's an angel? I thought. Mr. A***, oblivious to what was happening behind him, still maintained a death grip on my throat, I started seeing little dots of bright lights as my brain struggled for oxygen. Nina spread her wings and I was amazed at how Mr. A*** didn't notice the dazzling brightness that shone through the dusty and gloomy parlour that had been serving as our spiritual battleground. Her wings beat once, twice, and I felt Chuks the stronger within me feeding off the light with a joyous laughter. My head no longer hurt, my eyes became clear, but I was still in Mr. A***'s grip. And then Nina suddenly opened her eyes. They were a dazzling blue, and so bright I couldn't see her eyeballs. She took in what was happening and then her face contorted with rage. I raised my hand and pointed feebly behind Mr. A****. He looked at my finger and laughed. "Really? You want me to look back kwa? At what? Are you seeing your demise?" I continued to point, slightly alarmed at the apparition I was seeing although deep within me I knew I had nothing to fear. Mr. A**** was still laughing and maintaining his grip when I guess he saw the reflection of Nina in my eyes because suddenly his countenance changed!
No comments:
Post a Comment