Chapter Three

The story delves deeper into the new neighbor.

The Protector

      The next morning came very slowly for Kenny. His eyes were bloodshot red and every clatter and bang from Shawn going in and out the laundry room irritated him. But he remained in bed, with his fluffy burgundy blanket over his face. Moments later he heard the front door slam and the car outside rev up and speed off. Grumpily, Kenny started his morning around eight by splashing water on his face and half caring to go through the box marked ‘Important’. When he came across a picture of William (on the beach in nothing but red swimming trunks), he resigned from his unpacked room, turned the thermostat up in the hallway and sluggishly went down to make coffee in nothing but his Scooby Doo boxers. His slightly hairy chest was exposed in the semi-chill house. But Shawn had a pot ready and a mug with a rainbow lettered ‘Castro’ for him with Pumpkin Spice creamer on the side.

      Kenny blessed his friend and sipped his freshly made cup as he walked around the house. He knew his friend had a good job but didn’t really pay attention to the things he bought. In the hallway beside the steps were pictures of Shawn’s family when he was a child. His dad was tall and broad with no hair and his mother was slender and petite with long black hair. Neither of them fully smiled and the baby Shawn sucked on his thumb, uninterested and looking away. There was another picture of a short Puerto Rican man hugged on Shawn’s waist, both beaming fully at the camera on a yacht. Kenny remembered taking the picture of Mario, the only guy Shawn ever dated not to mention loved, before a robbery ended in Mario being shot and killed, jolting Shawn into the arms of the FBI to find the people who did it. To Kenny’s knowledge, the case was still open.

      On the small wooden table with a Thor candle holder was a black and white headshot of Shawn’s grandmother. At the bottom of the steps were two white French doors that opened into the dining room, with a table full of discarded mail and parcels. Kenny rolled his eyes, sipped his coffee and lightly sifted through the pile. Credit card bills, advertisements, official mail from the United States Federal Government, Judicial system, lawyers, dentists, and a small blue letter from an unknown person named Percival Beal. It was the only one opened and empty. The boxes were all from Amazon and sat underneath the low hanging chandelier.

      Once Kenny did a roundabout out the dining room, he entered the living room across the hall and just leaned against the fireplace. The wraparound couch sat under the window with the white lace curtains opened the room with rays of light. The recliner was down and the mounted television had been recently dusted. He noticed a new picture sitting on the end of the fireplace; he and Shawn were the top of the World Trade Center in New York, making silly poses a month before the attacks. The picture seemed worn and a little faded but it made Kenny smile to see it.

      The aquarium sparkled in the morning sun before a swift shadow caused Kenny to look out the front window. Christian was setting up a black ladder at the end of his house, with a box full of orange items. He was in beige sweats, a black tank top and a backwards British ball cap. Suddenly he had begun fumbling with the box and items fell out. Kenny sighed and sank into the couch with his coffee, his back toward the window. He was too tired to put clothes on and have a conversation with a seemingly new stranger. Let alone help. It was just too weird.

       Kenny pulled the remote from between the cushions and tried to look for something to watch but all he came across was the news, daytime talk shows or soap operas. He smacked his lips and cut the television off and grunted.

      “I need a damn job,” he placed his mug on the side table with a small ficus, got up to put on a grey cotton robe and went outside in cow slippers, sipping on a new cup of coffee.

      Christian was struggling to get orange lights to cling to the gutters when Kenny strolled up slowly.

      “Good morning, neighbor.” He nervously began as Christian looked down with a beaming smile.

      “Hey, man! Good morning! Could you hand me those clamps in the box real quick?”

      “Preparing for Halloween, I see.” Kenny handed the clamps over, sipping.

      “My favorite holiday! I am a sucker for a Three Musketeers and love when I can just gorge on a pound of them. Makes me sound like a fatty. Anyways, maybe this year I will dress up as Superman.”

      Kenny chuckled lightly.

      “It’s okay to me. I don’t care too much for kids, although I would enjoy a little one of my own one day.”

      He blushed and tried to retract his last statement but Christian had already widen his smile, teeth glistening.

      “So you want to be a dad, huh?”

      “Change the subject, please.”

      Christian began streaming the lights parallel to the gutters and looked down at a gazing Kenny.

      “You look like s**t. Anything on your mind besides wanting to be a parent?”

      Kenny sipped and shook his head. Christian abruptly climbed down and looked him in the eye still with wide smile.

      “You really don’t have to lie to me,” and then he moved the ladder over and climbed back up. Kenny was flabbergasted and at a loss for words. The strong smell of lilac and lavender settled sweetly on his nose when he noticed next door to his place, a cranky Amazon looking woman rush out her blue pastel colored home, guarded by rose bushes. Her head was always wrapped in a silk scarf, each day a different color and pattern, and a long sundress to match.

      “Hello, Bonnie!!” Kenny waved but the woman gave a half wave, retrieved her mail from the end of her porch and shuffled back inside.

      “Is she always like that?” Christian asked, looking back at Bonnie’s pastel house before noticing the mailman parking at the start of the street.

      “What? A bitter old woman? Yes.”

      “Damn, I think I will introduce myself to her next. Hopefully brighten her day like I did yours.”

      Kenny blushed and blankly stared off at the house now.

      “Don’t expect her to invite you in or brighten anything of hers. Been like that ever since Shawn bought that house from her parents before they died. I guess she wanted the land but oh well.”

      Christian had climbed back down again and softly nudged Kenny out of his path.

      “So are you going to tell me what’s making you look like s**t?” he asked climbing back up to finish the lights.

      “I haven’t been able to sleep for a week.” Kenny blurted out to which made Christian’s face give a puzzled look.

      “Have you seen a doctor about it?”

      “I doubt one would be able to help. It happens after this recurring dream I keep having, which I won’t bore you with the details, but it just feels like everything that happens in that dream is real. My movements, the heavy air, the sharp thorns. God, I hate the thorns.”

      There was a moment when Kenny thought Christian had lost his footing but it seemed to be a false alarm. He blinked anxiously as the guy on the ladder remained silent. Only once he was done with the lights and climbed back down did he finally speak.

      “Would you mind helping me gut the pumpkins?”

      “But you’re not done-”

      Christian didn’t wait for the end of Kenny’s rebuttal but instead took him by his free wrist and led him inside. The hold felt oddly all too familiar to Kenny but he was fascinated by the inside of the house. Every room was being gutted and joined together to open the living area up, beaded curtains hanging where doors used to be. It looked like a huge remodel was being done by a hippie in every room Kenny passed except for the kitchen, which was all black granted tops and oak wood furnishings. A guitar case lay against the fridge which was smaller and narrower as was the stove. A tiny folded table sat against the back window of the kitchen with two mismatch chairs. Kenny was let go of at the entrance of the kitchen while Christian rummaged through every single one of his cabinets, leaving the doors ajar and taking to himself about the location of this object. But only one thing stood out to Kenny instantly;

      No pumpkins were anywhere in this room.

      “Found it!” Christian exclaimed as he pulled from the top most cabinet, a small twisted iron box that creaked opened slowly. Kenny thought it was marijuana by the intense smell it emitted but quickly found that not to be true. It was a big chunk of root with hairs that entangled themselves.

      “What is that?” He asked, sipping his coffee one last time before placing it down on the counter.

      “Tea,” the tall host beamed as he pulled a red plastic cup from the cabinet next to him and placing it beside the coffee mug.

      “What kind of tea?”

      “You said you are having trouble sleeping right?”

      Kenny stayed silent.

      “I take that as I am right. So this baby here will help you get to sleep and feel rested afterwards. I think it’s called, Sierra Mandrake, or something.”

      He broke off a piece of mandrake, dropped it into a kettle already full of water and replaced the box. Once he put the kettle on the stove, his attention was back on Kenny.

      “Would you mind sharing what your dream is about?”

      Kenny slowly walked over and sat at the table and sighed.

      “It wouldn’t make any sense.”

      “Try me.”

      With another sigh, Kenny began chatting from the very beginning at being lost in the middle of a jungle of vines, being led by a hummingbird to a towering wall of thorns and almost falling off the edge of a fire gorged cliff. None of it made any sense to Kenny, so he was sure none of it made sense to his neighbor either.

      “Sounds very nerdy to me.”

      Kenny blushed deeply and lowered his head.

      “But I am the King of Nerds,” Christian continued, unaware of Kenny’s reaction since the kettle shouted and he very speedily poured a bourbon colored liquid into the cup, “Sit me in front of The Justice League or Spiderman and I’m sure I can recite each line to each episode.”

      He placed the searing cup on the table and sat on the other side, staring at Kenny’s lowered head.

      “X-men I could take or leave…” He reached over and lifted his head with knuckle of his index finger, “Talk to me.”

      “Where did you come from?!”

      “Winchester, Eng-”

      “No, what made you move here? This house has been abandoned and condemned for years and then all of a sudden you just pop up.” Kenny snapped his fingers at the word ‘pop’, “These dreams keep getting more in depth and it’s starting to worry me that there is chaos in my circle of friends because of something you brought here! On one hand, Junior wants to be politically correct about every little thing and his views on something very sensitive is causing negativity everywhere. I woke up with five texts from my friend Teddy, who you will end up meeting one day, and seven from Junior.”

      “What’s the other hand?”

      “That I agree with both sides. I think we can fix our problems by trying something different than what we’ve been doing.”

      “What topic was it? Religion? Politics?”

      “Prostitution,” Kenny began to eye his cup, “But we briefly debated politics, to which I did not get involved with.”

      “Smart guy.” Christian smiled, “Let your friends have their own opinions. I’m sure it is more than your differences that keep you guys together. And if I have to repeat it till the day I die then I will, but I am not hear to cause you any negativity. Plus, I think the tea is cool enough for you to drink, now.”

      “So I drink this and go crawl in my bed?”

      “That’s funny. Mandrake will almost instantly put you out so if you don’t mind, you’ll be crashing on my futon in the snug. I kept that room closed off.”

      Kenny grabbed the cup and sniffed it. He made out nutmeg and chamomile.

      “For some odd reason, I don’t feel scared that you will try to carve my body into a bunch of small pieces in this snug of yours.”

      “Very dark. But no, you shouldn’t have any worries around me. I have no intentions of hurting you. Ever.”

      But Kenny didn’t catch the last part or care for his unanswered question, for the mandrake tea worked just as instantly as it was said to. And he passed out at the kitchen table with a light thud from Christian’s palm, who had reached out to cushion his dropping head before ultimately carrying him into the den.

 

      The dream immediately began with the lightning bolt striking the side of the cliff, causing it to crumble under Kenny. He reached for a hanging vine but missed it as the feeling of his stomach sank, along with his body. But just as he was seeing his life end horribly in the fires below, he was caught suddenly by his wrist. Wind flushed his eyes and made it difficult to see but all he could make out was a dark silhouette before being pulled to safety, resting against the vined wall.

      Everything became abruptly still and Kenny sat there looking into Christian’s smiling face. He wasn’t in a tank top or jeans or hat anymore but dressed in a leather suit, completed with a knee length coat of two tails and a head full of short curly black hair. A katana, locked in a brown sheath housing a small ninja star on the handle, rested on a utility belt looped around his side with a pistol crossbow on the other. The hummingbird angrily pecked Kenny’s head and buzzed toward his savior.

      “Are you okay?”

      “Where did you come from and how are you in my dream?” Kenny rubbed the top of his head, glaring at the hummingbird perched on Christian’s shoulder.

      “It’s a bit complicated,” he stood before pulling Kenny to his feet, “Something that I really don’t think you’re ready to hear now.”

      He whipped out the shiny katana and sliced effortlessly into the wall, opening it up to a huge mass of darkened jungle with a tall shadow of a tower with pulsating light deep over the rolling mountains on the misty horizon. When they stepped over the threshold, the light snapped out and darkness covered the area with only the stars above to shine the way.

      “Why aren’t you answering my questions?” Kenny bawled, “This is MY dream! Which I’m still puzzled how you got in here. Maybe it’s because you were the last person I saw before I fell asleep. That would explain it. Yes it does. So okay, Dream Christian, I think you are the most attractive man I have ever met and want this dream to become a wet one. Take me right here and plow me!”

      Christian snickered for a few moments before erupting in laughter, pushing through the brush and cutting down thick hanging vines. The hummingbird had buzzed ahead to examine the path.

      “As flattered as I am, for any normal person, Kenny, yes this would be a dream. But for you, it’s not.”

      “What?”

      “Without saying too much, just know that you are very, very exceptional. And you can pretty much do extraordinary things but for some reason, you’re not ready yet.”

      “Ready for what?”

      Christian shrugged and changed directions with the rocky path, slicing every now and then.

      “Whatever you are on the journey for will answer that. Just do me a favor, will ‘ya?”

      Kenny stayed silent trying to figure out if he was truly dreaming or if the mandrake tea was causing these sudden feelings of certainty. Dreams always feel realest when you sleep the hardest, he kept telling himself.

      “Kenny?”

      “What?”

      “A favor?”

      “Sure, what?”

      “Don’t tell anymore people about this.”

      “Why?” Kenny hopped over a large root in the way, “It’s just dream.”

      “S**t,” Christian spun around, causing Kenny to collide with his chest, “This isn’t a dream Kenny! Look, you see that tower all the way in the distance?”

      He nodded slowly.

      “We are going there together. I was sent here to help you get there because in that tower will unlock the answers to the questions I don’t have for you.” They began walking again, “You said these dreams started a week ago? That says a lot especially when I wasn’t informed about it until a few days ago.”

      “Informed?”

      “Do you see the jungle around you?”

      “Who were you informed by?”

      “Do you see it, yes or no?!”

      “We are walking through the damn thing, of course I see it!”

      “This place isn’t anywhere in California, North America or the World even. I’m not entirely sure where it is exactly but I know that we aren’t on the physical plane anymore.”

      Kenny’s head began to hurt and he soon realized that it would hurt whenever he woke up.

      “You projected yourself here, man. The first sign of your power awakening.”

      “Okay, just stop!” Kenny halted and refused to move, shocking Christian to backtrack, “What in the f**k are you talking about? Who are you, where did you come from and what the f**k are you talking about? I’m not moving until you start talking and not in circles!”

      The tall gentleman sighed and housed the katana back in the sheath.

      “You were chosen,” he started, “Chosen to do something great. I don’t know exactly what before you ask but I do know that it has something to do with some war that happened a lifetime ago. But the Others, save one, were scared of your existence and the power you hold so you were bound powerless until the signs that the bound was breaking started to show. This place being one of them. I was sent from them by their orders. You sent yourself here, Kenny and you always send yourself back. I was to make sure that happened without harm.”

      “Chosen? Power? The Others? F**k, man, this is a lot.” He plopped onto the ground in frustration.

      “Well, I could talk about it more if you want to keep moving.”

      Kenny looked up at Christian and frowned into his eyes.

      “You still haven’t told me who you are.”

      “Andre Christian Archer,” he bowed deeply with a satisfying smile, “Your avowed Protector.”

      Thunder rumbled from behind them unexpectedly and it snapped Christian into attention, pulling Kenny to his feet by his forearm and moved with speed through an open path carved out by the hummingbird’s razor edged wings. Christian praised his pet as they progressed with more speed as the thunder seemed to be moving closer, rattling the ground beneath them.

      Kenny felt the winds begin to pick up as they jumped over another root down another path. He heard rain falling in the distance but it seem to make Christian break off into a run, pulling him into one as well. The two ran as fast as they could, thunder over top of their heads, ground shaking violently, and the winds picking up speed and just as soon as a raindrop fell onto Kenny’s shoulder, Christian yanked him into a hidden cave blocked from view by hanging twisted vines. The raindrop had ate a small green hole in the Miami Heat shirt before running out of strength.

      To his horror, the hidden entrance of vine began being eaten up by the acid that fell on it. All the brush and vines they ran through was being shriveled away with more thunder echoing in the cavern. The hummingbird ruffled her feathers as she nestled in Christian’s inside jacket pocket while the two stared in awe at the destruction of the jungle.

      “This isn’t a dream?” Kenny softly asked, not taking his eyes off the huge horizons of foliage vanishing in a thick cloud of acid.

      “I’m afraid not.” Christian looked down at him, “But we have to keep moving.”

      However, a sudden crack and flash of lightning separated the two, violently causing Kenny to fall awake out of his own bed, wrapped in his grey robe. He groaned as he hit the floor face first and scrambled to look at the clock but the cloudy sky told him the sun was still up. Quickly, he peered out his window across the street but saw no movement. Or anything at all.

      Christian’s house looked completely deserted; no lights hung on the gutters, no perfectly hedged bushes, no curtains on the windows. And another ‘For Sale’ sign back in the front.

      Kenny jolted out the house, still in his robe, across the street peering in each window. No furniture or hanging beads were anywhere in the house or any sign of the folded table or guitar or small fridge or remodeling. He couldn’t believe anything he was seeing. Where did his new neighbor go?

      He checked his cell phone for the time and it had barely turned noon when he confusedly reentered the house. With the phone still in his hand, he rushed again to his room and fished out Christian’s cell number he had written on the back of his PG&E business card. But the number was disconnected. Defeated and confused he collapsed onto his bed and listened to the soft patter of the drizzle against the roof.

      Rubbing the corners of his eyes in frustration he picked up his phone again and dialed a saved contact.

      “Shawn,” Kenny groaned, “I need you to find someone.”

 

Author's Note

Tell me what you think...Ignore any spelling errors (still editing as I go)