Run From The Darkness

Confessions and a Long Journey

When I was on my way to the market place I saw a new shop. As the soon to be "king" of the country, I have the responsibility of greeting all the newcomers in town. I went into the new shop at 12:36 in the morning. The second I entered the shop a weird feeling came over me. It was like my feet were pinned to the ground, making me unable to leave the place I was standing. As I looked through what seemed to be a new book store, I saw a man whom I had never seen in my life. In some ways he looked familiar, but I was sure I hadn't seen him before.

When I tried to confront him I still couldn't move. After I tried a second time I yelled to him. I heard it loud and clear, but apparently he didn't. That's when it hit me. This man was in my nightmare. I have been having the same nightmare for years on end. This man was the same man , and this was the same bookstore as well. In the dream I was paralyzed in this book store. I watch my nightmare unfold before my eyes. This man did exactly as he did in my dream. Then another man, a tall, darker man with unusually light blue eyes. I had never seen him before. What was he doing here now?

The shorter man went to pull an older looking book off the shelf, but it only moved a couple inches. The shelf rolled away from the wall to reveal a stairway. As they made their way down a staircase, I found myself moving my feet again, but I wasn't trying to. I followed them down a dark hallway, then another staircase. By the time we had finished the extra long walk, we were in a laboratory like room with weird artifacts and other things I have never seen in my life before.

Then I  caught a glimpse of my training with Fodjour, all of it. They studied my skills attentively, pen and pad in hand. They took notes on my skills and disabilities, including how many times I almost died. The tall one turned around and caught my eyes. I felt my muscles relax and I could finally move. I slowly backed away as he called to me saying "Hey, who's there!" I turned and ran as fast as I could down the hall. They both chased me back to the top of the first stairway.

I made a wall of molten hot Water to block them from the bookstore, which I fear was the worst decision I could've made. They then knew who I was, and demanded I stay In the store and not tell anyone I had seen this. That was when I realized that they were here for me. Someone was spying on me. It could be these men, it could be someone who hired them. I refused to let people watch what I was doing, when even I didn't know what I was doing. I ran as fast as I could out of the store.

What scared me the most was that it was only 12:38 by the time I had exited the weird shop. It had only been two minutes. It had felt like hours in there. Them staring at me on some weird picture relic.

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When I returned home with all the groceries my mother and father came to help me put them away. "That was awfully fast for a market run. A new shop opened this week. why didn't you stop by and welcome them to the neighborhood?" my mom said.

That was the one question I didn't want them to ask. "I did, but they weren't interested in talking." I answered. I had a feeling that they wouldn't want to know what happened.

For the next few weeks I found myself in the presence of those men, And always running from them. Whenever I walked through the market I had to hide in the alleys as to not be seen. After weeks of harassment, and no progress with Fodjour, I had to tell someone. Clair, my sister, was my only option without involving my parents.

When I got home from mine and Fodjour's lesson, I went straight to my sister's room to talk to her about the men. She thought the whole thing was ridiculous, as I was expecting, but when my parents were walking by her room looking for me, they overheard me talking about them.

They came into the room and asked me why I hadn't told them I was being followed. "I didn't want to worry you. You already have enough on your plate worrying about my element and grandma." I clapped my hands over my mouth to stop myself from saying anything else. Did I mention that this mystic lady I was going to see if I didn't get better was my grandma? 

"You knew about your grandmother this whole time?!?!" my father yelled.

"Of course I knew! Why do You think I haven't made any progress. You've never let Clair and I go train with her, and I want to train now!" I yelled back.

"You weren't trying this whole year!? You scared us half to death, thinking you were getting worse!" My mom chimed in.

"You guys didn't tell me about it either, so I'm only partially in the wrong on this one. If you had told me about her, you would know I wasn't trying." I spat back at her. We were all irritated except Clair, who didn't know what was going on.

The argument went on for another hour until I finally convinced them I was right. After that we had to get ready for the festival of the first, what I decided to call it. Mom said that after the festival we would talk about me going on the journey. I was sure she would let me go. If not I would just leave on my own.

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The festival was great and all, but I was more excited for what came after. After all the years I had begged mom and dad to let me go see her, and train with her, like the generations in the past, they always told me no. but now, now I was going to say yes no matter what. No matter what they say, I was going to leave, whether they like it or not.

"Why do you want to go so bad?" were the first words out of Claire's mouth when we got home.

"Haven't you ever wanted to go train like our people, like our ancestors?" I said

"But why do you try so hard now? why not earlier when we were old enough?" she demanded me to answer.

"How about we both ask mom to go. Then we can train today, and fight tomorrow. In a nonliteral sense." I sarcastically replied.

She decided she was up for the adventure, but needed some time to pack. I went downstairs and talked to mom about the trip. She agreed the let me go, just so long as I had a few people on the trip with me who could look after me. I told her Clair would come with asked Fodjour if he would come as well. He said he would come, but I had to let Jackie and Cillian come with to.

After they agreed I spent the next week trying to find a way to approach Radwan. It went exactly the opposite of what I was expecting. I asked him if he wanted to go on an adventure. He asked me what I meant by that, so I told him about the quest to train with my grandma. He asked sarcastically, "Will there be any broken bones or memories?"

"Not this time around old friend."I said, still feeling guilty about what had happened. After he agreed to go with us, we caught up on how life was treating us. Apparently he is working for a group of spies keeping an eye on the surrounding regions. He probably shouldn't have told me that, but I was one of the future rulers of the land and all.

Later that day I asked mom if five people was enough for her to agree to let us go. She was totally expecting me to say Radwan wasn't coming, but to her surprise he agreed. We left town the weekend after I told everyone it was a go. Just exiting the gates was an adventure. People I had never even seen before were saying they were going to miss me. As it goes, I would be missed today, and forgotten tomorrow. When I returned I would be fit for ruling. Just the thought of all that gives me the chills.

As we made our way on the dirt road, I kept spotting little shimmers in the corner of my eye, but as soon as I looked to see what It was, They were gone. This, of course, would just be the beginning of a long adventure. We still had lots of ground to cover, and who knows how many obstacles.