Falling for a God

Ch 31: T'Challa

~Adrian~

I was out of the cage, pacing back and forth.

My father wasn't the man I had known all along. Suddenly he had become this monster whom I couldn't recognize anymore.

As much as I wanted to free my mother from her tank, I couldn't. If what my father wrote in his diary was veridical, my mother would surely die out of it.

How does keeping mom in a tank can prolong her life? The details I do not know, but she's aware of it.

Her eyes, dark like marbles, and her eyebrows dropping as if she was in constant mourning; she knows what happens if she gets out.

"I will be back."

She pressed both hands and her forehead against the tank. I mimicked her posture and although separated by a cold glass window, I couldn't have felt warmer and closer to her. I have to save my sister first and somehow get my father away from you. Please mom, just wait a bit longer.

————

I can't breathe underwater, that's a fact, and my strength is no comparison with Adria. My hypnosis makes up for all I lack, but it's useless if I am far from Adria. I'm the only one who can break her hypnosis.

Talokan is out of my reach, but not with Wakanda's technology. There's only one person I know of who could take me there.

After knocking a few times, a boy, around twelve years old, opens the door. His eyes were big and bright, and his eyebrows raised with a defined expression of amusement.

"Is Nakia home?"

Before I had taken B'alam from this little place, a woman had come yelling after me.

The day before Adria met with my father, I resumed my research on Wakanda's royal family.

I recognized Nakia from an online article. It surprised me to find a noblewoman, lover of the late King T'Challa, in such a humble little house.

"My mother isn't home. Who are you?"

So this is her son.

"I am a friend. Adrian. Do you know when she comes back?"

"Don't know, and I shouldn't talk with strangers. Goodbye."

He closed the door in front of my nose.

I wait out of her house, sitting on the front porch. It's no use to get her phone number. As soon as she realizes who I am, she will throw a fit.

"You're still here?"

The boy asks as he peeks his head out the window.

"There's something important I must tell her. I will wait for her."

He closes the window and walks out of the door instead, then sits by my side. Brave little man.

"What is it that you want to tell her?"

He doesn't seem fazed by my legs, or my ears.

"I thought you didn't speak with strangers."

The boy gave it a hard thought before sighing loudly.

"You don't seem like a bad man."

"Well, don't judge a book by its cover—"

"Oh..."

"Wait wait. I'm not saying you can't trust me. You definitely can. Just don't trust any stranger out there, got it?"

"Got it."