The Embers of Nethremis

Chapter two: Secrets and Truths

        Dedicated to DutchFeminist

           Vicissitudes in our lives as humans alter our perspectives on life. These changes whether good or bad affect us and sometimes we may never go back to being the same again. I am probably having an epiphany right now except for the fact that that there is no kind of elation that comes with the realization. All I feel is numbness and detachment from my surroundings. Denial at the awful sight before me and the fact that my ears have gone deaf while my heart keeps repeating one single word over and over again like a mantra hits me like a bucket of ice-cold water. Due to my sluggish comprehension of the turn of events, everything is playing out in slow motion like a well-edited movie as I look around horrified. Seeping into the thick living room carpet is my father’s crimson blood quickly staining the blue rug purple as he bleeds uncontrollably while my mother frantically tries to stop the bleeding. Her usual neat hair is in matted strings to her forehead, bright eyes wide and panicky, lips swollen and bleeding with her apron drenched in blood I am not sure is hers or not. I hear Hafmal let out a strangled gasp before rushing to my mother’s aid. This small movement unfreezes me and pulls me out of my reverie. I dash quickly to my family and help my mother staunch the bleeding while looking around for any sort of aid but my eyes fall on three bodies that are as still as stone and bile rises up my throat and the desperate urge to vomit hits me forcefully. “Mama let’s get help” Hafmal says anxiously. “We need to put pressure on the wound” I say with my voice shaking. “You are going to be okay Daddy” I continue even more alarmed as more blood gushes out. “Training room behind Changer” he wheezes out painfully as I try to shush him. We all try to put pressure on the wound but apparently nothing is helping as his breaths become even more shallow. “We need to make a tourniquet or something” Hafmal says edgily. “He did not get hit on the arm or leg, baby” Mama says disconsolately. “Yeah luck-y me r-rright” Dad says struggling to smile through his pain as his breaths become even slower and more shallow before he takes one last ragged breath and becomes limp. “We need to get help” I say hysterically in denial and put more pressure on his mute chest. “We have to do some-thhingg” I stammer in a frenzy as Hafmal holds me back and presses my sobbing face to his chest and pulls Mama closer. We all snivel for a long time as we embrace and I am the first to break out of it. I turn to look at my father only to find his once vibrant, brown eyes empty chasms staring back at me. The lifeless orbs staring blankly at nothing were nothing like him. I remember his deep, throaty laughter, his eyes the colour of caramel that melted my heart and a thousand more memories. I feel stuck in the past and I am pulled back to painful reality when I see Hafmal slowly closing the void abysses. Hafmal while struggling to calm his shaking breaths says; “He said something about the training room right?” “Yes, he did and I know what he means” Mama answers blankly. “We have to leave as quickly as possible” she continues. “We can’t leave him here Mama” I try to reason. “Nalia listen to me okay? Your father and I did not want it to ever come to this but all I need is for you to trust me like you always do.” “But who did this to him?” “Who killed him?” I ask gravely as anger begins to surge through my body like a blazing inferno. “I will explain everything later but right now we have to leave. You have no idea how difficult this is but you guys have to just follow my lead okay?” Mama says in a surprisingly steady voice.
                   Hafmal takes my hand and as we head down to the training room, I can’t help but look around at the house I grew up in one last time. It’s like I am trying to commit to memory all the laughter and happiness embedded into the walls of the house. As we climb down the ladder, Mama first, I feel a sense of premonition but Hafmal follows me down and puts his hand on my shoulder calming me. Mama walks purposely towards the weapon rack and tells us to follow quickly. “Take what you need and choose your strengths” she says while looking back at the training room’s entrance.
              Hafmal chooses the electrical bow and arrow instead of the normal one, a gun and two spikers. I pick six spikers and a normal bow and arrow while Mama picks two handguns and a packet of bullets by pushing a small button on the rack which protruded into a small drawer containing the packet. “We need clothes next” Mama says and surprises me even further when she presses an inconspicuous button on the wall beside the weapon rack and a small door juts out. The door opens up to a small closet where there are four stands with an outfit on each. “Hafmal, you go to the second rack and change as quickly as you can” Mama says pushing Hafmal into the tiny closet and “switch on the light by your left” she finishes restlessly. “Alright Nalia now I need you to get us three backpacks behind the weapon rack before Hafmal finishes changing” Mama instructs me. I dash to do just that just as Hafmal comes out dressed in black cargo pants and a black, crocheted shirt with leather gloves, straps for his weapons and thick ankle length boots with a black beanie. “You next baby” Mama says and I follow her instructions all the while wondering why we were not upstairs with Dad and how my mother could finish off three guys when we came back from the Barzz. “I had help from your father” she says startling me before I enter the closet.     
          When we all change into identical outfits, Mama says what has me reeling in shock. “We need to flee and leave no trace but first we need to take care of your…” she says unable to finish the sentence. We both nod sadly and as we start walking towards the gate, I hear voices and I turn to see Mama’s eyes wide as saucers as she puts a hand to her lips and gestures for us to follow her behind the Changer just as Dad said. Walking with stealth, Mama tells us to help her look for a push button beside the large screen and after a few seconds Hafmal finds it. “Quick push it” she says. He does to which a stone patterned door materializes as the screen swings forward and we all go in just as the screen swings back into place and footsteps approach the Training room.  I turn around and let out an involuntary gasp at the long pristine white antechamber before me.
           On each wall are flickering blue flames on lit torches, giving the passageway a vibrant, blue hue. I feel no heat when I get close so I tentatively touch one of the torches and surprisingly feel coolness on my fingertips. “They are just holograms Nalia” Hafmal says pulling me out of my fascination. “Keep walking” Mama says in front.
                As we reach the end of the antechamber, we are welcomed by a thick, mahogany door with a miniscule screen where the handle is supposed to be. Mama puts her thumb on the screen and a robotic voice answers; Admission Granted. The door rotates and a glass tube comes into view, sliding open just as Mama tells us to enter. It goes dark for a few seconds before we are rotated into an equally immaculate, large room. With everything white except for the smooth-edged, circular table the same colour as the door surrounded by twelve leather chairs, the room feels airy despite being underground. Our heavy footsteps echo around the room as we follow Mama towards the head table where she presses yet another button and to my astonishment, Dad’s hologram springs up. I lose my balance but Hafmal steadies me before I fall and we look at the hologram with rapt attention as he starts to speak.     

          “Heyyah kiddos, I think you might want to sit down for this” He says gravely. “Let me tell you folks a little story you should not have to hear. If you are listening to this, then something I have feared for a long time has happened. I hope it never comes to this but just for the benefit of doubt, I made this. You see kids, when I was little, my father taught me the art of fighting, not for offense but for defense just like I used to tell you. At eighteen, I was recruited by the Couthers as a covert agent and have worked with them ever since. Listen to me carefully kids, there are places beyond Nethremis. Beyond the peaceful life here and beyond its people. We have been taught that beyond Nethremis is a wasteland but that is not true. There is a settlement of people beyond our borders where a secret group of people operate. They call themselves the Reformers. Have you ever wondered why the criminals of Nethremis that are usually sentenced to death are never openly buried? Have you ever wondered why a lot of our old people are gone? Have you ever wondered about Nethremis’s utopia being odd? It is because of the fact that the Reformers are the ones controlling Nethremis from outside. My team and I are barely to getting them; they are like smoke, slipping right out of our hands. I need you all to go the upper state and meet with the Couthers. I need you to finish what we started. You kids are my warriors! You are my everything! You have to fight for the freedom of Nethremis. Fight with all you've got, my littles.  There is a route to the upper state from this very room under the chair with a black strip on its leg. You will have to move the chair and open the trapdoor underneath. Just follow the pathway and you will get to your destination. It will take you at least seven hours on foot so you will have to rest and try to get some sleep. You will find all the necessary equipment needed in the backpacks your mother will have given you. If not, you will need to go back to the training room and get them behind the weapon rack. Look for a button beside the weapon rack, press it and change into the clothes inside the closet. I really do hope you still have your mother here to guide you. If the Reformers have gotten me already, it means that my other team members are either targets or gone. I need you to know that I never wanted this life for you. I need you to never forget your roots. I need you to always be kind and brave. Never forget what your mother and I have taught you. Never forget the memories we have made together and always remember to close your eyes and let your imaginations take you wherever you want.” We all whisper the last sentence together and burst into tears while smiling.
                   “We need to get to the upper state as soon as possible” Hafmal says while sniffling. “Yeah we do” I respond dejectedly. “Mama we are here for you okay?” I say to my now stationary mother while putting an arm around her. She turns her face to my chest and sobs inaudibly. “I have found the trapdoor” says Hafmal as he wrenches it open. We take our backpacks and this time my brother goes down the trapdoor which apparently has a ladder as I hear him clambering clumsily downward. “Coast is clear but be careful because the rungs are a bit slippery” he warns. I let Mama climb down first before I follow her into a damp, earthy tunnel with the same fake torches as the one in the antechamber above us.
               As we make our way through the twisting turns of the tunnel, I can’t help but marvel at how much my life has drastically changed in just a few hours. How I am not the same eighteen-year-old girl with an annoying sixteen-year-old little brother whose daily goal was to out prank her little brother. How I now have my own personal demons to fight.
            
Author's Note: Hey guys! To those that gave me 5 votes and a few reads, I love you forever. Thank you so much. I hope this chapter is not bad. *fingers crossed* Please with an apple on top, tell me what y'all think😃
Would you guys mind having questions at the end of each chapter? It could be just random and as crazy as you want😎 I love crazy!
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Love Always,
Covertteen.