Chapter 4- Dream? Memory? Which Is It?

December 5, 2012-2027

          I woke up and looked around; I quickly realized that this wasn’t my bed, not even my house. I heard voices so I kept quiet to hear what they were saying; I heard a girl and a boy voice. Much older than me, older than Jesse I suspected, then again I could be wrong. I heard the girl voice first, “What are we going to do? We have a baby who has been cursed by a demon. How are we going to handle this Kevin?” Then I heard a male voice, I guess his name was Kevin. “I don’t know sweetie, it could have happened to anyone, yet it had to happen to our first born child. Why would the spirits be so cruel? We have done nothing wrong to deserve this.” Spirits? I’d never heard even Jesse talk about spirits of any kind. I mean I knew I was an orphan, but could these be my memories replaying in my head? Maybe I was just stressed out. What was going on with me? I heard the female voice again, “We’ll have to get rid of him. We can’t have him growing up with that curse in our house, he might get mad one day and kill us in our sleep, and I don’t want that.” Then the male spoke. “I understand, I’ll have Kitaio take him to the mountains at dawn and leave him their, he will probably die along the way but its worth getting rid of this curse.”

          Obviously this was my parents talking. Is that how it happened? Did they just leave me to die on a mountain? Jesse told me they put me up for adoption. She must have found me and saved me, I always knew their was a reason for our special bond but didn’t know what. My thoughts quickly stopped as a woman came in and picked me up. She looked at me then kissed me on the cheek as tears began to flow from her eyes. “I know you don’t understand, but we have no other choice. It’s not your fault and I nor will Kevin ever blame you for the curse put upon you.” As she said that my heart sank. Was she talking about the demon I saw as myself the other night? She must be, that’s the only explanation. Now that I thought about it and also thought about the harm that I caused that man, I knew that I didn’t blame them either. I didn’t blame myself though. All I knew was the demon that put this curse on me wasn’t joking around and neither was I.

          I started slipping from my dream, I tried to keep myself their to learn more but I couldn’t help it. Before I could stop it I woke up in my own bed in my own house. It wasn’t even morning yet, I looked at the clock and it was three a.m. so I decided to step outside to get some fresh air and think about all this s**t I had on my mind. I lit a cigarette and sat there to think. Don’t judge me though; I smoke maybe one, two cigarettes at most in a six month period. Sure it’s a bad habit but the smoke filling my lungs is what I needed. It’s not like I’m a bad kid but stress gets to everyone and its getting to me in devastating waves at the moment. As I took another hit I sat there and thought about the look on my mom’s face, if that was in fact my mom. I was almost for certain it was though, I pondered the fact that I’m lucky to be alive. If not for Jesse I would have been a wolf’s appetizer followed by their grown man dessert. The only thing I can truly remember from that night is him putting me down then a few moments later hearing the noise of his body fall onto the hard stone floor. Of course I still have his jacket, I wear it from time to time just to remind myself that he was one of the reasons I’m still alive.

          Taking another puff and inhaling the smoke I coughed a bit then thought about how open Jesse was with me. Most orphan kids have to find out when their older that their not related to the family that adopted them. I love Jesse like a mother and think of her as one; she tells me everything I need to know. Which is why I’m so educated about my past, but she tells me that she doesn’t know who my real parents were or what my original name was and I don’t expect her to. I may not always act the best toward her but overall our bond is unbreakable, and it always has been and will be that way. As I finished off my cigarette I went down the hill to try and lose myself in thought. I’d been thinking a lot lately but hell, who wouldn’t? Now that I know what happened was true and I’m almost positive who my parents were, I only had one thing left to do. Leave town and try to pursue my real parents, I want to meet them and also I am going to give that demon a piece of my mind, so I need to find them to get more information about them. I knew this is what I had to do, I wasn’t going to wait for morning, because then Jesse wouldn’t let me leave. So I left a note on my bed addressed to her and Steven.

          It said: Dear Jesse and Steven, I know that by the time you read this I’ll be long gone and if I were you I wouldn’t try and follow. Jesse, you have been the friend, mentor, and mother that I’ve needed all these years and all I want to do is thank you for putting up with me and my mood swings. I know I wasn’t always the best child but I tried my hardest to be for you. In case you two are wondering where I’m going, I at least think I owe you the explanation. I am going off to find my real mom and dad, even though I know the road is dangerous and that I shouldn’t be going alone, but things have come up recently that I have to deal with. Jesse you’ve known me since I was born and I have a suspicion that you know what I’m leaving for and I hope you understand. As for you Steven, You have been the best friend that any kind of guy could ask for, sure you’re the silent type and not much for laughing but you’re my best friend without a doubt either way. Sorry to leave you in the dark about what’s happening but its best if you don’t know right now. I hope our paths cross again, and I will always be looking toward us meeting again

 

With love,

Your son and friend Niana.

 

          I took one last look at the house I grew up in, and at Steven’s house where I’d spend all my free time, then looked away and started to walk toward the gate to fix what was going on with me. I was about to open the gate when I heard an unfamiliar voice. “Where do you think your going you piece of Atarian trash?” Atarian? I’d never heard that phrase before. I turned around to see standing before me a demon as dark as night itself looking at me with solid black eyes. He looked as if he could snap my neck with one hand, he probably could. He was tall, like about ten feet tall, very slender. He towered above me like a building; he had the wingspan of two full grown men, and the stare of a soul that had been tortured since the beginning of time. I tried not to look him in the eyes but it was getting harder each second that went by. “I asked you a question you pathetic worm! Where do you think your going?” He said this with a voice that shook that ground and everything around him. “I… I was just leaving… You know, as in won’t be in your way much longer? So I’ll be on my way!” I had a feeling he could sense the fear in my voice, but that wasn’t hard, a deaf person could hear the fear in my voice.        

“Oh no you don’t. You have to get through me before you leave; you should know that Atarian rules by now!” Their that word was again. What did it mean? I decided to take my chances and ask. “So what is an Atarian and what rules do you mean? I’m kind of new to this.” He laughed with such a tone that I’m surprised Satin didn’t think he was being challenged. He looked at me then I guess he realized I was serious. “Wait. You really don’t know do you? That’s hysterical. Well before I kill you I guess I can fill you in.” That reassured me about as much as his eyes did. “Their has been a war between Atarian and Religos tribes since the dawn of time, since anyone can even remember. So the different tribes have learned to live together with a fight every now and then. But long story short, you can tell who’s who by the symbol they bear on their palm.” I hadn’t been paying much attention to my hand due to recent events, call me crazy but it’s true. I looked down and saw a red mark burned into the skin of my palm and it looked like some ancient symbol I couldn’t make out. He continued to explain, “The color of the symbol represents the powers you command and what you’re capable of. For instance, yours is red, just like your demon color, mine is black just like my demon color. Do you see where this is going? And finally I guess I have to explain that each demon has its own turf, and you happen to be all over mine, and I’m from the Religos tribe and you’re from the Atarian.” I understood now, since I was on his turf, he could kill me and that wasn’t good news for me. The instant it clicked I turned and ran with all my leg strength to try to outrun him. I failed miserably, he caught me right away. 

“You have to follow the rules, Atarian, kill me and you own the territory, and may come and go as you please, but that won’t happen anytime soon.” He threw me against the wall and raised his fist, he was about to punch me until I heard a sick sound. The sound of a blade going through skin, the demon looked down as if he was surprised that he was bleeding. He then fell to his knees and with his last breath he yelled “I’ll be back Atarian! And you better be ready!” with that he disappeared into a cloud of dust and standing behind him with a sword was Amilia. I can’t believe she saved my life, I was astounded. Not because she’s a girl or anything but the fact that the timing was perfect just blew me away. She looked at me and smiled while sheathing her sword. I looked at her and said “Amilia… That was amazing, I’ve never seen anyone fight like that before, I mean that was really impressive.” She smiled, kissed me on the cheek and said “No problem, a wolf never fights alone so why should you?” I blushed at the fact that she kissed my cheek. I was paralyzed. Amilia Stolonis just kissed me. Sure it wasn’t a full on mouth kiss but it was good enough to make me want to faint. She actually kissed me. I quickly snapped out of my daze when I realized she was still standing there.

          “Thank you so much, and why did you kiss me? How did you know I needed help?” I said this with a quiet yet confident tone. This was totally out of character for how I was feeling at the moment though. She giggled, cutely might I add, and then looked into my eyes and said “Like I told you, no problem. And I knew you needed help because I heard talking then yelling and figured something was going down, but did you just ask why I kissed you? Really? It’s because I like you silly!” When she said that it was so cute yet it turned me on at the same time, how did she do that? I blushed again the realizing she had just said she liked me I kissed her on the lips and held it for the longest time. It wasn’t my first kiss but it was a damn good one, and she knew it was too. I pulled back and looked into her eyes and she laughed a little and whispered “You taste like cigarettes baby, have you been smoking?” I looked at her and tried to smile and act as innocent as I was which I wasn’t at all. “Yes I was, I was really stressed and I needed it, but I’m sorry if you don’t like the taste.” She looked into my eyes and laughed then kissed me again. “No it doesn’t bother me, it was just a bit of a surprise, that’s all. So sorry to ask this again but why are you out here this late?” I didn’t want to lie so I decided to tell her the truth. Which wasn’t easy at all, but after I explained it to her and told her what I was doing and where I was going she understood.

She looked at me after I told her everything and kissed me again and then said, “I have one more question. Can I come with you? I want to help you as best as I can. Anyway, I’m sick of this stupid town and the people in it please take me?” I wasn’t about to say no to the prettiest girl I knew, after I found out she liked me! I told her that she could come with me as long as she was prepared, which I knew she was, and that the road ahead would be dangerous. She agreed and I told her I’d protect her to my best ability, she smiled at that. So hand in had we walked out of the city gate, and we both knew we probably wouldn’t see home anytime soon if ever again. It was a risk we wanted to take. Together.