The Ethereal Saga - Volume One - The Child of Light

Chapter Fourteen - The Child of Light

All his life he'd wanted this moment. It wasn't at all like he'd imagined. His dad hadn't come back to make them a family. He'd found him alone and hiding in the dark looking positively savage.
"It's me, mate." Zach said calmly, trying to ease Michael. He had an unkempt beard with ripped clothes and long badly groomed hair.
"I don't know you," Michael insisted, "What do you want?"
"Dad," Alex said, "It's alright. We're friends."
Michael looked at him puzzled, wincing his eyes, "What did you call me?" He began to look wildly from side to side, as if in panic.
Zach stepped forward, hands out-reached, imploring Michael to calm, "He called you Dad."
"No, no, no. Not real!" Michael shouted turning in circles madly hitting himself in the head.
"You broke the orb, didn't you?" Zach continued, "Do you remember?"
Michael poked his head with his finger as if begging himself to think, "The orb, yes. Broken. Too many ghouls. Yes, too many of them. Shades were sniffing around our temples, not good. No, no."
"Where's the rest of it?" Asked Zach, "We only found half."
Michael waved this suggestion away. He put his hands together and gently separated them, "Orb not separate. Orb together."
"No, you broke it," Zach insisted.
Michael nodded and demonstrated his hands unclasped but together, "Broken, yes. Separate, no. Pieces, together!"
"So, who took the other piece?" Alex asked Zach.
Zach's face changed to a stern look, "We know who."
Alex shook his head, "Christian."
"Who else?" Zach confirmed.
Michael scratched his beard, "Christian?"
He hopped on each leg on the spot, side to side.
"Christian, no. Not him."
Alex understood his fractured English well enough, "How do you know?"
Michael waved his arms around, indicating to his surroundings, "Christian never here. Other one was."
"Who?" Zach interrogated.
"Friend," said Michael sadly.
A high pitch scream echoed loudly through the building. The piercing sound forced Alex to cover his ears, "What the hell is that noise?"
Michael clenched his fists and hit himself on his thighs, "Bad. This bad. Very bad."
"That's not possible!" Zach declared.
"What is it?" Alex insisted.
The scream subsided, and silence reigned again.
He looked at Zach for answers who did not look back at Alex and stared with fear at the entrance to the museum, "Banshee."
Zach looked around alarmedly, "Side entrance. We've got to go, now."
He grabbed Michael by the arm and pulled him along. Alex followed swiftly.
They ran out in to the clearing. An ugly misshapen woman swooped up and down through the skies screaming again.
They sprinted for the woodland as fast as they could. The banshee had shadows for hair and deep black pupils that filled her whole sockets. She was naked but for a shadowy aura that enveloped her figure. As they made for the trees, she began to fly towards them screaming louder.
"Spotted!" Yelled Michael.
"Don't stop now!" Zach shouted.
She was gaining on them, fast. Alex's heart was pounding and his chest heaving as his breath tightened painfully. Each of his breaths were harder than the last. Even more so, he thought, because of the stench that had suddenly filled the area.
"Shit!" Shouted Alex, "Do you smell that?"
On cue, a dozen ghouls appeared from the trees yelling and squealing.
They stopped between them and the banshee. She continued to come for them. Zach began striking her with bolts of electricity from his fist.
"Energy not helpful," Michael explained, "Need light."
Zach shouted frustratedly, "No shit! She's dark, it needs light! Hit her."
"Me?" Michael asked as though the task astounded him.
"Who bloody else?!" Alex replied.
"Forgot," Michael explained.
Now Alex look astounded, "How did you 'forget'?!"
Michael shrugged apologetically, "No help."
"No help is right," muttered Alex. His eyes darted from side to side looking for a way out. They were being flanked by the Ghouls and the banshee was seconds away.
"We need help," he said hopelessly.
He felt a familiar heat rise through his arm. For a moment he thought he was about to produce the same shuriken sphere that had decapitated his science teacher but, nothing came. Nothing from him, anyway. A herd of deer stampeded from out of the trees. Deer and doe of all differing sizes stamped over the ghouls clearing a path.
"Yes!" shouted Zach happily, "Good job, son!"
They ran through the cleared path at full sprint.
"It's the Orb!" Zach cried, "Someone's put it back together!"
He lost count of how many times he stumbled and fell, or how many times he grazed and cut his hands and legs. Something was very wrong. Beyond wrong, thought Alex. The three of them ran for their lives chased by a rabid pack of ghouls that had been increasing in size every few hundred metres. Their number was well into the hundreds. Their squealing, which made their smell somehow more offensive, was accompanied by the horrendous screech of the banshee giving chase from above.
Every now and again, when they quietened down, he could hear his father rambling off more nonsense.
"Bad," He'd say, "Not good. Very badly not good!"
Something had addled the man's brain, this was obvious, but what?
He was beginning to wonder if the darkness had truly possessed him after the Henge and whether this was all some kind of mad fever dream. He knew better of course. This felt just as real as before then. The bunker was in sight when Alex tripped again, and he felt the blunt force of the ground coming up to meet his face. A mossy rock connected harshly with the bridge of his nose. The world span around him and his nose poured blood. His head pounded, and the taste of blood filled his mouth as it dripped down. His ears were ringing, filled with the squealing, screeching of their foes. Due to the probable concussion he had just suffered, he scarcely made out the shout, "ALEX!" from the distance. Alex forced himself up to one knee and attempted to push himself to his feet. His attempts to right himself thwarted as a ghoul leaped on to his back and sank it's disgusting teeth deeply in to his collar bone. Alex screamed in anguish as a crackling bolt of electricity fired above him. An agonising scream emitted from the ghoul as it burst like a water balloon and covered him in its oozy bright blue blood. The pain was severe, and he grew dizzy from it. The feeling of pain serving as harsh reassurances that this was indeed all real and that the earlier possession was thwarted. He imagined the journey, they'd been running from ghouls then too. It was easier then. He remembered the hands holding either side of him strikingly oxymoronic compared to the dirt beneath him. He recalled Zach's firm grip holding him tightly. His callous grip antonymous to the softness of the other hand besides him.
Soft, he thought, Feminine.
"Up!" Yelled his dad, "Up, up."
Michael helped his son to his feet. Alex steadied his feet, feeling woozy from the bite and certain blood loss. They were close, just a few hundred metres in fact. They ran again, his senses returning to him as the truth hit him like a lead balloon. They arrived at the bunker. Greeted by a pack of four ghouls burning alive with Tom firing fire-bolts from his fist. They ran in to the bungalow, swiftly making for the bunker and slammed the door shut behind them.
"Just in time," Tom said relieved, "We're in trouble. Big time."
"Secure?" Michael asked, "Door block them off?"
Zach nodded, "For a little while. Quickly, we need to find Christian and the kids, now!"
"Wait!" Alex demanded, "I remember!"
"Remember what?" Tom enquired.
"I remember who else's hand I was holding when someone tried to possess me. It wasn't Christian, he jumped across at me when we landed!"
"I knew it!" Tom exclaimed, "I told you he was good."
Alex swallowed strongly, the taste of blood still strong in his mouth. The taste of betrayal stronger yet.
"Well," said Tom, "Who did it?"
"She did," Alex replied.