Elementary Virtue: The Prophecy (26 page)

Again, there was a murmur of voices to be heard. Ubana raised his voice, "It is written in the ancient scripts. We have no choice, we must break the pact and connect with him." A young, bearded man stood up, "If we do that, they will give us no more water and terrorize our families.” Ubana silenced him with a wave of his hand. "Like I said, we have no choice, the script is clear and indisputable. We'll drive to the north. We're going to Mellieha." The bearded young man got up again pointing his finger at Tiziana and Giacomo, sitting next to Yaros, "And what are these two scaremongers doing here?" he asked angrily. Yaros stood up raising his hands, "Tiziana and Giacomo have been our allies for a long time, strictly speaking, for seven years. Since Keanu was banished because of the fires. The poor boy had no idea that he could control fire and we chased him away like a dog. Tiziana and Giacomo have taken him in and helped him ever since. Then Giacomo tracked the Savior down and brought him to Sicily, where Keanu trained him. They are on the island since a couple of days. Actually, they are in my house in the north by the lake." The bearded young man sat down on his chair, shaking his head, "If we support the Savior, what will happen to our families, while we are away helping him get to the crater? Who will protect them? What will happen to our families? Shall we leave them behind defenseless, just like that? "

"They won’t be defenseless and the Vultures have other things in mind than to attack someone for now. We’ll leave tomorrow to Mellieha to find out what our Savior and Keanu are up to." No one dared to revolt this time. Yaros and Ubana looked at each other Ubana glanced at the audience, "We will meet tomorrow morning at dawn to head north."

Gregory slept like a stone after last night’s spectacle and he was hungry as a wolf when he woke up. He quickly got out of bed, took a shower, and got dressed. He stormed taking three steps at a time down the stairs to the kitchen and made some coffee. Then he opened all of the cupboards in search for some food. In the third cabinet, he found what he was looking for. He piled cornflakes in a bowl and poured milk over it. Keanu didn’t seem to be around. He scooped the cereal into his mouth when his phone buzzed. He stopped, who had his number except Leyla? He reached for his phone thrilled to see Leyla's image. He got ready to hide his true feelings. He had to stand firm. It was for her own good. Surprised, he saw that he had received a video message. Curious, he played it. The picture showed a band of loitering guys that seemed strangely familiar. He realized at once that they were the Akando guys from Scarborough High. James and Matt turned to the camera, "Hey, man, this is our battle rap for you,” he snapped and loud rap music sound was to be heard.

"

Hey Yo Gregory, we won’t leave you Homie,

Side by side till the end, believe it Homie.

The Black Vultures are far too strong

The Akandos will follow you in the battle

The toughest gang on the planet will make them rattle

Listen to this shit, we are coming from the shadow

Hey Gregory we are coming, no matter what. "

Gregory couldn’t help, but grin. These idiots, but he damn loved each one of them like brothers. The camera took a swing, at a rather perplexed-looking Aiden past an encouragingly smiling Brooklyn coming to a halt. Then there were Leyla and Mila both looked serious into the camera. Mila looked like she was ready to fight and Leyla's face was sad. Gregory was thunderstruck. As if someone just slapped him in the face. They would come, no matter what he did. Whether he wanted them here, didn’t matter to them.

Somehow, that thought filled him with joy. They stuck by him, even Leyla after he had dumped her in such an uncool way over the phone. On the other hand, it scared him like shit. What if they all died because of him? He didn’t even know if he stood a chance against the Vultures and the local, not to be underestimated bunch, with all the help he could get. It was all just too much. What happened last night and the big responsibility that weighed on his shoulders. He felt infinite sadness and despair rising within. Maybe he should end it all jumping off the cliff, or hang himself. The world was far better off without him. He dropped his spoon on the floor and sat on the porch swing on the terrace. Lost in thought, he rocked back and forth. That was how Keanu found him sometime later.

"Hey, the kitchen looks just as if something exploded. Have you had breakfast?" Gregory didn’t answer, he was staring silently into distance to the horizon. Keanu stood beside him, peeling a banana, "Ever heard of cleaning up?" Gregory still didn’t answer. He just stared dully ahead of him. As if he was miles away with his thoughts. He kept his phone in his hand. "Uh, oh," Keanu frowned, "I know that look, guess Arielle texted. Bad news?" Gregory looked at him and Keanu hadn’t been kidding, he truly knew that look very well out of his own experience, as if someone did no longer want to keep on living and thought seriously about jumping of the nearest cliff or hanging himself at the nearest tree. "That bad?" Gregory didn’t answer, but he handed Keanu his phone and continued to stare into distance.

Keanu plunked on to the swing, which groaned as if it would buckle beneath him. Gregory winced looking up irritated. Keanu clicked on the video message watching the Battle Rap. He grimaced as if he bit into a lemon, "Somehow infectious, the boys got talent they could hit the charts. And who is standing next to Arielle? Pocahontas?” Gregory got up turning around furiously, "You're such a sarcastic, insensitive asshole," he stormed into the house and Keanu didn’t follow him. He watched the video message again. He played the rap a few times. The boys actually had made an effort with the lyrics and there was no doubt that they were serious and would appear on scene. The end of the message, focusing on the two serious-looking girls, was giving him the shivers. This Leyla seemed deadly serious about it. No matter what Gregory said to her, she didn’t seem to be impressed about it. On the contrary, she seemed to have decided, that she would come whatever the consequences were. The other girl looked a bit like Valentina, but she had something wild, Indian about her, that clearly lacked Valentina. She was like a hardcore version of Valentina. The thought brought a grin on his face. Gregory came back still angry and grabbed his phone. "What is there to grin about, you stupid asshole? You think it is funny that my friends have decided to die because of me. You really make me sick." Keanu could be very fast, Gregory already knew that, but he had forgotten about it and was suddenly reminded when he was lying on the floor and Keanu’s forearm pressed him to the ground.

"There is only asshole around here and that is you. I'd be giving everything to have friends like that, standing behind me and a girl who genuine loves me. If they want to come to help you, it's their decision and their responsibility." He let go of him, "If you’re asking me, you don’t deserve them. Continue to crawl away in your self-pity." He got up and went into the house. Gregory remained dazed on the floor. A moment after, he heard the car roar. He stayed a while lying on the cool stone floor. Keanu was right and yet he still felt guilty. Veronica, the small roundish housekeeper stuck her head through the porch door, "Is everything alright boy?" Behind her, a tall handsome man stepped out onto the terrace. He looked like one of those chief physicians in the doctor series, walking with flowing gowns through the hospital corridors. One of those guys’ women gaze at with a silent sigh, a doctor with the charisma of authority about him, snow-white teeth, and graying temples. Gregory stumbled to his feet reaching his hand toward him, "I'm sorry, I must have dozed off," Gregory said apologetically. The man looked at him knowingly and smiled, and as Gregory had suspected, his teeth were indeed perfect and dazzling white, the kind of white that was almost ridiculous emphasizing his dark complexion.

"Gregory, right? I am pleased to meet you. I have heard so much about you. My name is Yaros and I own the house. Where's Keanu?" Gregory knocked off the dust of his jeans, "I guess I’ve annoyed him, that’s why he drove away.” Yaros patted Gregory’s shoulder going ahead of him into the house." "Yes Keanu is quite explosive and emotional, I'm used to it. Now about us, I think it's time that the two of us had a talk."

Leyla felt stupid, standing in front of the classroom, waiting for Moonworthy to come out. Students rushed by looking puzzled at her. Shit, she thought when she saw Greyson strolling along with a couple of guys. What was she supposed to do? She quickly went back into the girls' loo. She didn’t feel like talking to him. She crashed into someone, "Oops, not so rough," she heard a voice sounding amused. Leyla turned around, it was Greta an exchange student from Denmark, with straw-blond hair and big blue eyes she had bumped into. "Hey, you do look rather pale, are you okay?"

Greta had a strange accent and was sometimes rather difficult to understand. She nodded and quickly closed the door behind her, as she saw Greyson coming closer. Greta followed her gaze, "Man that Greyson is a hottie! He follows you around, right? Always creeping around you, man you are such a lucky girl. He really is a piece of work. I wouldn’t mind sinking my teeth into him," she licked her lips. Leyla raised her eyebrows. European girls were open when they wanted to get down on someone, not as clammed as she was herself. Still, if she thought about Ana, probably not all of them were as bold as Greta.

"No problem here, you can have him, I don’t want anything from him."
"Then you don’t mind if I’ll give it to him real good?" she looked lustfully through the half open door, "look at these muscles, if the rest keeps up the promise he’ll be a real grenade."
"God," Leyla rolled her eyes slightly annoyed, "as if sex was the most important thing in life."
"Of course, it is what could possibly be more important?" Greta looked astonished at her, with her baby blue, round eyes. Leyla didn’t feel like talking to Greta about the importance of sex in their lives. She pointed to Greta's chin and grinned, "You've got a little drool on you face, but seriously, you have my blessing, but he's a nice guy and I like him, so go easy on him. You seem to be quite briskly when it comes to the opposite sex. So, please don’t hurt him. He is not that kind of guy, if you know what I mean."

"Hey, don’t worry, I’m not going to eat him alive. I just want to have a little fun while I'm still young," she still looked through the crack where Greyson was standing with his buddies. "I'm only going to nibble at him a little," she gave Leyla a slight push, as if she made the best joke ever and left the girls loo. Then she walked over toward Greyson, "hey handsome," she said coaxingly. Leyla waited a few minutes until the coast was clear, and then she hurried out of the girls' loo. She just saw Moonworthy disappearing into the teachers’ lounge. Damn it, she had to talk to him. The Amulet, she had seen in her dream, didn’t go off her mind. It was possible that it was just a dream and that it didn’t mean anything, but what if it wasn’t? She just had to show Moonworthy her sketch. She went outside with her lunch and sat on a wooden table. Mila and Brooklyn were both sick. Some stomach flu got around and Leyla didn’t feel like joining Melissa. She could do without her gossiping. Suddenly Aiden was standing in front of her and sat down beside her, "Hey you, your two girlfriends seem to have caught the same virus, but you seem to be ok.” Leyla nodded poking listlessly in her salad, "Yes, and my appetite has nothing to do with a virus, well maybe a virus on two legs,” she laughed sarcastically. Aiden pulled out his phone, "I wanted to show you the video message I sent Gregory today," he played the video. Leyla sighed, "This is not bad, but I look like I'm on my own funeral. Did he get back to you, so far?"
"Not yet."
"Do you think that he will?" She looked at him almost pleadingly. Aiden raised his eyebrows, "I think so, because eventually he wants us to come, doesn’t he? Besides, the fact that you look like a mortally wounded deer on the end perspective of the Video, will make him think things over once again and certainly provoke him."
Leyla had to admit that he was right. She grinned, "Mila looks as if she wanted to clobber someone." They both burst out into laughter and could hardly stop laughing. Gabe passed by with his tray, he was with Greyson and two other guys.

He looked over suspiciously. Gasping they both calmed down. Leyla cleared her throat trying to remain serious, but she chuckled still hysterically. After exhaling a few times, she was in control and able to speak normal again, "The rap sounds a lot better now, since Saul helped them out yesterday, don’t you think so?" She had to concentrate, so that she didn’t start laughing again. The video was just too hilarious. Aiden looked at her and she couldn’t help giggling again. She laughed until the tears run down her cheeks, then the laughter ebbed slowly and an unpleasant hiccup remained. After a while and a sip of water, she was feeling better. Aiden got up to join his buddies but Leyla held him back, "Stop, wait a minute, I have to tell you something seriously," she told him about her dream and the amulet. She showed him the sketch she made after her dream.

He sat down again listening interested. But when she told him that she thought Chayton Moonworthy was originally a Di Santos and had written an article about the Onendas. He frowned, "You think crow man is one of us. To me he looks more like a Vulture. I don’t see him exactly as trustworthy rather kind of devious. He has that air of a double agent about him. Are you sure about that?" Leyla nodded, "I'm sure to 99.9%. I read his article and wanted to ask him about it before, but Greyson and this Danish exchange student got in the way and distracted me, then he got away and I missed him. I wanted to ask him about the amulet, if he has ever seen it during his research." Aiden seemed worried, "I don’t know whether that is such a good idea. The shot might as well backfire. I don’t trust the guy, even if he can’t be as bad considering what he did for Natalie." Leyla looked at him imploringly, "Don’t worry, if he reacts strange, I'll find an excuse why I am interested in the amulet." Aiden was not convinced, "Just be careful."

He got up, joining his buddies. Leyla remained behind. She had not the slightest doubt. She was convinced that Moonworthy was the author of the article, he just had to be. Her phone buzzed, Ana was about to board a plane to Europe and sent her a selfie of her and Saul at the airport. Leyla's heart felt with her, why things had to be so damn complicated in life. Since one found the love of his life and in a blink of an eye it was gone again. Although they said that you always met twice in life, but that was kind of a lame comfort in certain situations. She pondered for a while about what to text back. It wasn’t that easy to find the right words and she finally chose a Jing and Jang symbol consisting of a male and female silhouette. She wrote, - It'll be okay, we have to be convinced and believe it, because everything that we can imagine can happen ... Right? - Her phone beeped and shortly after, she received Ana’s response. -I will keep that in mind, leading my thoughts in the right direction. Saul's, new song is called, - like a tattoo on my brain - and he dedicated it to me, that is a start. I hope that we will all see each other again XOXO Ana. - Leyla read her text a few times more, and then she saw Chayton Moonworthy going back into the school building. Her chance had come. She quickly cleared the table, grabbed her phone and followed him. She reached him just before he got into the teachers’ lounge. Slightly out of breath, she stopped in front of him. "Mr. Moonworthy, do you have a Moment?" He turned and looking surprised. What did this girl want from him? He didn’t have the slightest idea. Normally, the girl made a big circle around him as if she was being afraid of him.

In class, she sat mostly ducked at her desk. As if she was thinking, that he wouldn’t ask her anything if she didn’t try to get noticed. Well, he had noticed that math was not her favorite subject, but actually her marks were not that bad. Either she underestimated her abilities or she couldn’t stand him. Or both. Anyway, he was quite surprised to see her standing in front of him. Wondering what she wanted to ask him he looked at her. Leyla felt petrified under Moonworthy's stare. She didn’t really know what it was about him that scared her that much. Why the heck was she so afraid of him, he was just a measly little man dressing strange. But, every time he looked at her with his piercing eyes, she shuddered and got goose bumps. The guy just scared her and she had a bad feeling when he looked at her. Silently she stood in front of him unable not speak.

Chayton Moonworthy looked impatiently at his watch, "Then shoot, I have other things to do than standing around here listening to your silence." Leyla coughed, but she had no idea how she could ask him what she wanted to know, so she took out the sketch from her backpack, holding it out to him, "I wanted to ask you if you have ever seen this amulet before or read about it?” He looked at the sketch with narrowed eyes. "May I ask why you want to know that?" Crap, that would be worse than she expected. Moonworthy seemed to belong to the people who like to ask many questions. "I’ve seen it in a dream." He looked surprised, "And why should I know anything about it?" She looked nervously around, a few students passed laughing, among them, there was Greta, she waved at her, probably wondering what she wanted from Moonworthy. Leyla lowered her voice, it was barely more than a whisper, "I read your article about the Onendas and the Savior legend." He stood there thunderstruck, staring at her as if she suddenly had grown two heads. "Did you listen to me? I am talking about the article concerning the prophecy, of Chayton R. Di Santos. You wrote that article, didn’t you?" Chayton put a finger to his lips motioning her to keep quiet. "Detention that is what you get, you will stay after school today. I am not allowing such insolence."

He turned on his heel and disappeared into the teachers’ lounge. Leyla stayed behind perplexed, "But I haven’t done anything at all." The guy probably wasn’t right in his head. She had just asked him a question, nothing more. How could he keep her in school for detention? Damn, she couldn’t even ease her way out, as the last lesson of the day was actually math. Such a miserable crap, Brooklyn and Mila were not there, so she didn’t have the chance to tell anybody about her misery. The afternoon went on forever, and in math class she tried to make herself invisible, which worked quite well, because today Moonworthy ignored her completely. After the lesson, she remained at her desk, earning pitying looks and encouraging comments from her classmates. Moonworthy closed the door behind him, and then he turned around to face her. He almost looked friendly, which set her totally off track, what the hell was going on? "So," he said. "You are certainly wondering why I gave you detention." She nodded looking suspicious. Something seemed to be in the bush that had nothing to do with math. She hoped that he wasn’t going to make any inappropriate move on her, otherwise she would throw him with a Hane Maki move to the ground. He was small and somewhat skinny, so he wouldn’t stand a chance against her. She was ready to fight, but then his words threw her totally off track.

"I think, that I owe you some explanations. First, you have to know that at this school, nobody knows that my true passion isn’t math, but history. In particular, the history of my people kept me busy for many years. Now, I wonder how a teenager like you would be able to find out that I am the author of that article and thus found out my true identity." She shrugged, this guy really asked some strange questions, "Actually I didn’t even dig for it. It was more like a coincidence, I mistyped when I wanted to find out about trigonometry and found something about previsions. As I don’t believe in hazards, I kind of started to read on and when I saw the drawing of the Savior at the end of the article, that looked like Gregory Rossi I got quite curious. At that time, I had no idea that you were Chayton R. Di Santos. It was only when I found out that you have been adopted I jumped to the conclusion. What does the R. stand for?" "How do you know I was adopted?"
"That doesn’t really matter, I just want to know if you have ever come across this amulet during your research?" He looked thoughtful, and then he held out his hand, "Well, show me the sketch again, I’ll have a look at it, but I must tell you that I don’t believe a word you are saying about that dream. I am sure that there is something else behind it that you are not telling me."

She took the sketch from her backpack and handed it to him. "Actually, it doesn’t matter whether you believe me or not, just tell me if you have seen the amulet before or not, then I'll leave you alone." Chayton Moonworthy looked at the sketch for a while obviously in thought, then he took out his cell phone taking a picture of it. He handed it back to Leyla. "I'll go through my documents, it looks familiar somehow, but if you want me to get into the matter, I think I deserve to know the truth. I want you to tell me the real reason you want to find out more about this amulet."
"Ok, then I suppose that I’ll be doing some detention tomorrow again, if I understand you correctly."
"Not necessarily, you may come over to my apartment after school." Shit, she thought. Being alone with Moonworthy at his apartment? That wasn’t an option and was hardly going to happen. She still didn’t trust him. He was too mysterious. She would need to convince Aiden to come along. She nodded agreeing and left the classroom. Moonworthy seemed to her like some dark double agent, she didn’t trust him at all, who knew what was going on behind these piercing black eyes and it didn’t really matter that he was a Di Santos, he still could be kind a serial killer or whatever, right? But, at the same time he was also her only chance to find out about the amulet. Although it was actually totally ridiculous to look for something she had seen in a dream. She hurried to get home. Her thoughts run wild. Maybe, she didn’t even need Moonworthy after all. She hadn’t asked her best friend Google yet about the amulet. When she got home, nobody was home except for Rogan. She was glad about it, as she could do quite well without her aunt staring at her, still hoping to find out where her son was. She could understand that Shannon was desperate, but she had already told her a million times that she knew that Gregory was alive, but couldn’t tell her where he was. But her aunt Shannon wasn’t giving up that easily. She still tried to get some details and Leyla wasn’t able to give her any.