Bloodlines: Everything That Glitters (30 page)

As soon as the words as left my mouth, a large pinch grabbed a hold of my intestines and twisted them. I reached out and grabbed on to the top of the counter then slowly hit the floor.

When I got up from the ground, I was no longer in the antique shop but in the middle of a sunlit forest- the one from all of my dreams. I looked around in amazement as the sounds of nature swept across my ears. “Where am I?” I said aloud before realizing I was standing here completely alone.

“Welcome to your home,” Benjamin said as he appeared next to me. “This is Xyonthis, the twentieth dimension,” he continued.

I continuously looked around for any signs of life. “So this is the place I keep seeing,” I breathed while inhaling the smells I was surrounded with. “Why am I here?”

“This is where you were born, follow me,” he said as he walked off through the trees. “Where your mother met your father and where they conceived you.”

I followed quickly behind him through the fog of the forest and watched as a woman ran effortlessly through the woods with her bare feet. As the woman got closer, I noticed her face as my mother. Jumping in front of her to catch her attention, “What are you doing here?” I demanded. Her short purple hair blew in the wind as she ran through me as if I wasn’t there.

“She cannot see you, this is the past,” Benjamin told me. 

I turned around to watch her as she ran into the arms of a very tall and very handsome young man. “Who is that?” I asked as I walked closer to them.

“That is your father, Hero; the last living god.”

My mother kissed the stranger and I turned my head, my father’s name was David. “Impossible,” I said, curiosity forcing me to turn my head back around to face them.

“This union was never supposed to happen. A Genesis and a god are never supposed to touch, but these two defied that rule as you see here.” 

“What is a Genesis?”

“They are found mostly in nature, you mom and her sisters are the last of them. They were all bound to a particular forest here in Xyonthis. Your mother was over the Lavarian Forest, just south of town.”

I watched beyond the mist of the trees as my mother passionately made out with the handsome stranger. “Can we go now?” I said before turning away and leaving the two behind. “I’ve had enough of this part, what’s next?” The sticks crunched beneath my feet as I attempted walk out of the woods. Once I’d found my way through the clearing, I tried to look beyond the fog as I heard the whispering of a small village.

“The name of this town is Hartnem,” Benjamin said as he stepped onto the graveled path.

“They’re a little close to town, nobody caught them back there?” I replied while looking back at the opening of the woods. However when I turned around it had completely disappeared. “What happened to it?”

“That forest is located far away from town and is enchanted. When Phlinx got wind of a prophecy predicting a child ‘Born of Gold’ she had Masaya put out a bounty for you,” he replied calmly as I followed him to a door where a tiny baby was crying. Seconds later, men stormed through the doors and snatched the baby away from its mother.

“The town went mad as they searched for you, many babies as the one you‘ve just seen were snatched away from their parents and taken to Masaya, where they were ultimately killed- or enslaved.”

I couldn’t help the sadness that now began to build around my heart. “I’m really not that special,” I admitted aloud, surprised that anyone would go through the trouble.

“You are they product of a forbidden love,” he continued, before everything disappeared and the surroundings of the antique shop reappeared.

“Wait, what happens after that? How did I end up here?”

“I told you not to expect much, I’m afraid I can show you no more than that.”

“Well, it’s a little more than I knew. Why hasn’t my mom told me any of this?” I looked around the store for Nikko but he was nowhere around. “Where did Nikko go?”

“It is the next day, I’m sure he has went home by now.”

I stared at him with confusion. “I was knocked out for a whole day?”

“One of the unfortunate side effects of that synthesis, Nikko should be back shortly,” he responded calmly. “Would you like something to eat?”

“I need to get home, it’s the middle of the day and I have to be at home to feed Triton. I don’t have to eat, you know that.”

After walking around and looking at each individual trinket in the store, I decided to sit down.

“Your body is still human, going days without food will drain you and make you weak. Also, don’t bother asking your mother of these things; after she settled down with your human father she began to lose her knowledge of the world she left.”

“Tell me about the Beasts. Where did they come from?” I said while looking down at my watch. Waiting was something I hated doing, but being halfway across the world made it necessary to do it.

“Only a select few have them, and by few I mean a little less than six. They are only for the defenders of our dimension. I have never seen one in person, but I’ve heard the legends. Five defenders will make it safe for us to return home. Do you have one?” he asked curiously.

I got up from the chair I was sitting in and unhooked the bracelet from my wrist. “Yeah her name is Azlyn, she’s some kind of weird firebird or something. Do you want to see her?” I asked, holding out the bracelet to him.

“I cannot touch it,” he responded as he pushed my hand away. He backed up into the beaded area and came back out with a large book. “I think what you have is a Phoenix,” he said as he sat the book on the counter and began flipping through it.

“What is a Phoenix?”

“It is said to be a symbol of long life and peace. Thousands of years ago there used to be hundreds of them all around Hartnem, then one day they all disappeared. That’s when things started getting bad,
really
bad.”

He turned the pages in the book quickly before stopping at a picture of a bird similar to Azlyn, beside it was a two headed bear, the winged tiger, an angry gorilla and a cloud of smoke that took on many forms.

“What is this? I know some of those.” I pointed at each of the pictures, “That’s King-Nash, Aspen and Norma.” I hadn’t known whom the cloud of grey smoke belonged too.

“You have seen these?”

“Yeah, one is my brothers, the other is a friend of mine and the third is Centure’s,” I responded.

He looked at me with new amazement. “Surely you four are who the legends speak of, can I meet your Azlyn?”

“Of course, she’s a little too big to be let out in here though, and she’s been kind of having a little trouble with stealth mode so outside wouldn’t be the greatest place,” I replied while looking around the shop.

Nikko appeared moments later with two bags in his hands. “I know you don’t like to eat, but I brought you food anyway,” he said as he held out the bag to me.

“I will eat it once I get home. It was nice meeting you Benjamin, I will make sure to come back and see you- or Nikko could bring you to me so you could see Azlyn one of these days.” I shook his hand then walked over and embrace Nikko. “I’m ready.”

I sat on my bed looking out of the window and finishing up this last
week’s homework before we got out on break.

“It’s seventeen,” Ash said as he walked into the room.

“What’s seventeen?”

“The answer to number twelve,” he replied before stepping in fully and having a seat next to me on the bed.

“Random, but thanks.” I put the binder down and looked at him, “What brings you here?”

“I have something lined up later and won’t be able to take Corey to her drivers class, think you would be able to take her?”

I got up from the bed and walked over to sit the cinder on top of the desk. “Sure, what time does she have to be there?” The last thing I wanted to do was be trapped in a car with her at this point- I didn’t feel like being fake anymore, it was exhausting.

“Thirty minutes,” he replied as he got up to leave the room. “Good thing this is her last class, she should be getting her license in the mail pretty soon.”

“She must be about to get a car pretty soon too. I seriously hope it’s something as crappy as my first car,” I said before grabbing my keys and walking out of the door.

Corey met me out in the hallway next to the stairs and started walking down when I got close, “Thank you,” she said as she walked out of the door.

I walked outside and across the grass to the car, the air was cold and dry, immediately drying my nose as I breathed it in. Small droplets of rain hit my forehead before I got into the car and started it. “So I found out new information,” I said as I backed out of the driveway.

“Oh yeah? What did you find?”

“I’ve already said too much,” I caught myself before disclosing too much, remembering she couldn’t be trusted. “Besides, I think you already know this stuff anyways.”

I sped down the road wanting to get her out of my car. I’d started resenting her and I didn’t know exactly why; it was something about the way she talked and the way she sucked-up to my parents and pretending to be everything that I’m not. Whenever I tried looking deeper into her thoughts it was the same effect I had with Ash, only hers were repressed, which had me exhausted every time I even tried.

The pine from the wooded roads on the way into town was comforting, it almost reminded me of my picnic with Nikko in Cathedral Caverns. I slowly let my mind wonder off for a moment before tuning my full attention back to driving. Corey and I sat in silence for a moment then she started rambling off about stuff I didn’t care about; her life now, her life with my brother and her past life. “You’re talking a lot.”

Corey looked over at me with confusion, a little bit of the old Corey shown through her eyes; so incomplete and unsure. “I’m sorry. I
won’t say anything else; we’re close to the class now anyways.”

I felt like I owed her an apology, I didn’t mean to be rude -or did I
? - I just wanted her to learn the goldenness of silence. “That’s not how I meant it. You can talk, just, I don’t know. Forget I brought it up, keep going.”

“Are you sure?” Without waiting for my reply she was back into her stories. I let out a deep sigh and tightened my grip on the steering wheel.

She broke from her story and pointed ahead, “That’s the place right up there.”

I pulled in front of the entrance of the building and unlocked the doors so she could let herself out, “What time do you get out?”

“Don’t worry, Ash will be here to pick me up,” she smiled at me before getting out of the car and closing the door behind her.

I pulled slowly out of the circular
driveway and headed back home; enjoying the silence as I drove.

Once I was home, I ran up the stairs and into my room; homework was still waiting. After finishing the last section of the assignment, I threw it to the side and looked at my phone; it was 3:00pm and Nikko had yet to send me a message of any sort. By now he should have been off of work but I didn’t know whether to text him or just wait. I decided to call Wade instead and have him keep me company.

“Hello?”

“Hey Aliza, could I call you right back? I’m busy.”

I heard the voice of a woman in the background before he hung up the phone in my face. “Sure,” I replied to myself as I sat the phone down on the bed.

Reaching around my binder I grabbed the television remote, watching it would hopefully pass time. “There is nothing ever good on TV anymore,” I said as I continuously flipped through the channels. When nothing satisfied my taste for entertainment, I started looking around the room for dirty spots and quickly cleaned them up. “There has to be something around here to do, maybe I’ll go see Centure,” I mumbled before walking over to open my window.

A scrambled thought forced its way into my brain and I grabbed my head.

Are you busy
?

I nearly jumped out of my skin as Nikko appeared in the room holding a red velvet box.

“I’m sorry, did I scare you?” he chuckled.

“A little bit,” I replied, putting my hand over my chest.

He stepped forward and held out the box, “Open it.”

I took the box from him and pulled the opening apart. Before I could look at what was inside, the front door slammed and I heard Triton’s little bells dingle up the stairs. “Disappear,” I whispered as I walked over to open my room door.

“Hey mom, are you down there?” I yelled out into the hallway.

“Just dropping Triton off, they just called me in,” she responded seconds later.

Triton ran into the room and sniffed around then licked my toes. “I missed you too little buddy,” I smiled at him.

My mom dressed quickly and the door slammed once more as she left out.

“Okay you can come out now,” I said aloud, hoping Nikko was still somewhere in the room or the house.

He walked out of the closet and gave the box back to me, “Here you go.”