Enter The Sandman

Chapter 5: -DATA ERROR-

"Um... okay... whatever, i'm starving!" I yell out as I run around Adam into the house.  Adam just stands there looking at the ground, with a depressing look on his face.

I barge in the room and run towards our dining table.  I notice a beautiful arrangement of dishes and utensils.  The food looked freshly cooked and well arranged, and the table was covered in a gorgeous fabric.

"Okay... i'm sure you expected questions... so here they are.  One, when did you buy this stuff?  Two, Why did you buy this stuff?  Three, why did you even do this?  And four, i'm assuming this is what took dinner so freaking long?"  I ask in a completely dull voice.

"I bought it when I could, I bought it cause I could, I did it cause I could, and dinner can take as long as it can" Briaunna replies to me with an irritated face.

"Whatever, long as this food isn't poisoned, this looks great!" I say loudly.  I then pause to think for a minute.

"Wait a minute... Brima didn't help with this, did she?" I ask in a suspicious tone.

"Please!  She was outside training with you guys all day, as a matter of fact, she's still out there!  I made sure I did something to outdo everything she's done..."

"So that's it hmm?  You were doing it to beat all of Brima's meals..."

"What?  No!  That's... okay maybe true.  But regardless, I did it!  I'd like to see her do better than this next meal!"

I ignore her and sit down, to get right into eating my meal. 

"Oh, you want a challenge do you!?  Challenge accepted!" Briaunna yells out as she grabs her plate and slams it down on the table.  She immediately starts to dig in to her food, and finishes in a matter of seconds.

I stare at her with a disgusted face.  "I can't believe you... wait a minute... aren't Brima and Adam going to come in for a meal?"

"If they don't, i'm eating their food!" Briaunna shouts out while getting up from her chair.  I quickly run out the back yard and notice Brima standing there staring towards the sky, but I don't see Adam.

"Huh?  Where's Adam?" I ask.

"I... i'm not sure... he said he would be back later and just... disappeared..."

"Well... whatever.  More for us, I guess!  You should hurry inside so you can have something to eat, my mother has cooked something actually good for once!"

"Ah... yeah... okay..." Brima replies while still looking in the sky.  She turns towards me and starts walking towards the door.  As she walks past me, she smiles at me and then heads inside.

I get a confused look on my face, but follow her inside.

As we walk through the kitchen, I don't notice my mother anywhere.  "Huh?  Where has she gone off to?  This is strange... she was just in here.  Maybe she headed upstairs?"

"Maybe..." Brima replies quietly.

"Well... i'll just head upstairs to see where she went, you go on ahead and eat."

"Oh.... okay..." She replies hesitantly.

I run upstairs and check every room upstairs, but I see no one.  "Mom, if this is some kind of joke, just come out already, it's getting pretty old!" I shout out.

Suddenly I hear Brima scream loudly from downstairs, and I quickly run down.  I trip while in the middle of the staircase and fall down to the bottom face first.  It hurt like crazy, but I rub my face and keep going.

I look over towards where Brima was, and notice she is still there safe and sound.  

"Why did you scream!?" I yell out.

"There was a man staring through the window next to the table!" She says in the most un-shy tone I have ever heard her speak in.

"Stay back... i'll head outside and check on it" I say heroically.

"B-be careful..." 

I nod and slowly walk out the front door.  I get ready and charge beta to my hand.  I walk around the house and look in all directions, but I don't see anyone.  Then I once again hear Brima scream from inside the house, and I run inside.  That's when I notice an old man with long white hair and raggy looking clothes eating our food.

"Hey!  What do you think you're doing!?" I shout out.

"Eating this delicious food, obviously!" The old man replies.

"No, smarty, I mean why are you in this house eating our food!?"

"Oh that?  Well, boy... I came here to give you and your little girlfriend some trainin'" The old man says as he finishes his food.  He stands up and walks towards me.

"Don't walk towards me!  I don't quite trust you!" I shout as I gather beta to surround my body.

"Oh, my!  What a magnificent beta amount you have there... how much would this be... 2 million beta strips?"

I get a shocked look on my face as I back away from this old man.  "How... how did you know that without linking your beta with mine!?"

"It's a nice little technique that I learned through my years..." The old man replies with a smile.  He grabs the cane off of his back and slams it on the ground and starts to lean on it.

"Maybe you would trust me more if I say that i'm the one who trained your brother?"

I get even more surprised.  "You... are the guy he was mumbling about?"

"Well, i'll just say yes to that.  Seems that Adam had called upon me for his help... this is quite shocking indeed, if you ask me.  It seemed quite urgent, so I rushed over here.  Sorry if I scared ya' kids."

I lower my guard and relax a little.

"Just what I was waitin' for" The old man says with a smile, as he appears behind me, grabs the back of my head and slams my face on the ground.  I scream in pain, but he suddenly lets go of the back of my head and walks backwards.

"Apparently we need to train your reflexes as well... you seem rather slow the way you are now" The old man says.

I stand up, brush myself off, and don't say a word about what just happened.  The old man looks over towards Brima and says "You too.  You could have also reacted to his beat down faster.  You two seem like you will need a lot of work..."

"Why just us two?" I suddenly ask with my head down.

"Hmm?" The old man hums questionly.

"I said why just us two!?  If you trained someone like Adam, why couldn't you train a lot of other people as well!?" I shout.

"Well it's quite simple really... I only train Seishunn Souls, you see."

"But Adam isn't a Seishunn Soul!  So why did you train him!?"

"Hmm?  This... is a shocker" The old man says as he raises his hand to scratch his chin.

"What is a shocker!?" I yell in anger.

"Seems like no one told you the full story, have they?"

"What!?  There is more to it!?"

"Well... you see... the thing is..." The old man coughs.  He closes his eyes for a few seconds, pondering to himself.

...

...

...

... 

"Your brother Adam... is a Seishunn Soul."