A Different Descendant: Freshman Year 1

Chapter 26

    “Death?! What do you mean by death?! Henry’s going to die?!” Katie exclaimed.
    “No, I’m going not going to die. The anagram is misleading,” I said.
    “Then what is Athed?” Daphne asked.
I paused. Of course it was similar to death. But similar isn’t equal to being the same
    “Think about it this way. I’m basically standing on the thin line between life and death. That enables my soul to gain some sort of connection with spirits, thus allowing me to recall things I can’t remember.”
    “This is too crazy to take in,” Daphne said with a heavy sigh.
    “I know it sounds crazy, but this is something I have to do.”
    “I can’t comprehend the hero complex you have here. You’re risking your life,” said Katie. She had the most worried look on her face.
    “I agree with Katie. Why can’t you just tell the police or something?”
    “We’re helping the police by doing this so I can remember. If I don’t do this, there’s a high chance that thousands of people will die.”
They went silent yet again.
    “Alright fine. But promise us that you won’t go after her. Whatever you remember, you find your way to tell higher authority,” said Clyde.
    “I promise.”
He went quiet again.
    “What do you need us to do?” he asked.
    “At least one person needs to stay behind,” I began.
    “I’ll stay,” Katie volunteered.
    “We all will.”
Daphne, overwhelmed by emotion jumped into a tight embrace.
    “Please don’t die,” she sobbed.
    “I won’t,” I promised.
    Daphne and Clyde went to barricade doors and make sure no one came into the school.
Once they were out, I took off my clothes, leaving my briefs on.
    “Katie, I need you to record as soon as I’m unconscious. I will say different things. Things of which I will have no memory of, including the memory of my encounter with Lever.”
    “Alright. But why I that so?” she asked.
    “There’s no time to explain!”
    I remembered the most important detail.
    “And most importantly, don’t move my body. My soul needs to come back to the exact spot in which it left it.”
    That was by far the most important detail. If my body was moved by even a millimeter, I could die.
    I looked into Katie’s eyes and I saw intense worry. She was fighting back tears. She was scared, and my heart melted for her. I walked towards her and held her right palm in my hands.
    “I’ll be back in a few minutes,” I said with a smile on my face.
    “All I have to do is wait it out,” she said and wiped the tears that seemed to break the dam and flow down her cheek.
    “All you have to do is wait it out,” I repeated.
    Clyde and Daphne ran inside.
    “Doors have been barricaded,” said Clyde.
    “Is is time?”
    “Katie ill fill you in on what you need to do while I’m unconscious.”
     I looked at Katie and I fell deep into her brown wet ones. Her quivering lips, her worried face and her smeared make-up made my heart cry for her. It was like those features were begging for my comfort.
    “Alright now, start recording,” I said, walking to the ice cold bath tub.
    “I’m recording.”
I stared at the ice cold water for a few seconds with trembling.
    ‘Alright Henry,’ I said to myself.
I swallowed a rather large gulp of saliva and entered with one foot. It was way colder than the first time. It was like my right foot had become ice itself. My breathing course changed rapidly. I could hear every single breath I took in.
    Sensing my spirit about to give up, I hurriedly put my second leg in. I slowly lowered my body into the bath tub, while performing “Temporary heat breathing technique;” A technique that helps to warm the body a little bit when cold. It was working, but barely.
    I closed my eyes slowly and let myself go into a world I would have no memory of by the time I woke up. A world where lies were abominations, as all that Temporarywould be said while in that world would be nothing less than the truth.
    *************************************************
   

      I gasped myself awake from my unconscious state and forced my upper body out of the cold bath-tub. My body was colder than anything I had felt in my entire life. My teeth clattered vigorously and each breath I took was louder and deeper than the last.
    Katie rushed towards me and wrapped a towel around my upper body.
    “Oh my God! I was so scared!” she exclaimed. It was evident in her breathing. Her hands shook with fear as she used another towel to dry my cold body.
    Noticing their absence;
    “W-where are-?”
    “Their parents called. Your mom’s been calling for a while now. No one’s told her anything. She’s very worried.”
    “W-we c-can handle t-that later,” I said as my body shivered.
    “H-how long w-was I-I out?”
    “An hour forty five,” she replied.
    “Play the recording. The important part,” I said, still shivering.
    “Alright,” she said, pulling out her phone.
*********
     In the recording, I explained what happened when I followed Ms. Lever to the alley way. She was talking to someone, a male to be precise. I stayed behind a dumpster and listened in on their conversation.
     Mrs. Lever was a mercenary sent to Mystery Falls to nuke the city. And it was a mission that was meant to happen that very night. She arrived in Mystery Falls a few weeks after high-school resumption.
     Since then, her team had been gathering information on the military base that held arms and ammunitions, including the missile that was strong enough to take out the city.
    As I listened, I was grabbed from behind by another of Mrs. Levers’ comrades. She warned me not to get in her way and then had me injected with something that made my memory about that moment vanish and left me unconscious. And then, I came out of my trance to where I was at that moment.
    “Shh,” I whispered, stopping her from completing her statement.
    There’s a ‘side-effect’ to Athed. A few minutes after performing Athed, one’s senses are usually heightened for about an hour or two, due to an indirect contact with spirits.
    I sensed the presence of someone heading towards us. The feeling was quite similar to Mrs. Lever’s. It grew stronger as whoever was approaching was getting closer.
    “Don’t move a muscle!” a middle-aged man said, pointing a gun at both Katie and I. He wore all black and had a ski-mask on, so it was impossible to see his face. Besides the shivers from the cold water I had just come out of, I was shivering with fear, and so was Katie.
    “Finally, you found them,” another man said. He was dressed the same way as the one that held a gun at us.
    “What are we going to do with them?” the first man asked.
His partner looked at us two teenagers with our hands up.
    “Let’s take them with us. She’ll decide.”
They seized our phones and led us to their vehicle. It was the type of van used to transport prisoners. We were cuffed separately with one hand to the seats and were transported.
    One partner drove, while the other watched us closely. Next to him was an open case with syringes filled with a fluid. I was still cold and I couldn’t get warm.
    “Get you’re a$$ here!” the person driving yelled. He groaned and went to the drivers’ seat.
    My hands were shivering intensively, and I couldn’t get warm. I was too cold to try any breathing technique to help keep warm. With my body in that state, I couldn’t channel my thoughts in one direction.
    Katie held my cold hands in hers, and they felt warmer a bit. I lifted my eyes to see the beauty that caressed my hand to help drive the cold away.
    “I read that physical contact helps animals get warm. I just thought I’d try it,” she said and squeezed them a little tighter.
    “Is it working?”
I heard her, but I just couldn’t speak. My lips were numb for some reason.
    “We can’t let them take us to where Lever is,” I said and pulled my hands out of hers. With my palms a little warmer, I could think a bit.
    “My hands are warmer now, so I think I can throw a fist or two,” I said, stretching out my fingers.
    “You’re gonna fight?” she asked.
    “On my count, I need you to cry out loud. Can you fake tears?” I asked.
    She widened her right eye and touched it with her index finger, causing it to redden and water a bit.
    “Excellent!”
I sat on the ground, leaned back and placed my head on the seat. I whispered; “Three, two one”. And she wailed.
    ‘Oh? She’s quite the actress,’ I said to myself.
She cried and cried, until our ‘watch-guard’ came in. It was indeed convincing.
    “What the hell is going on?!” he growled.
    “He just fainted. He said he was cold, but I didn’t think it was this bad. I think he’s gone hypothermic,” she cried.
    I sensed his face move closer to mine. He placed his hand on my forehead. “This is obviously—.”
    Before he could complete his sentence, I sent my knee towards his groin. He held them in response to the pain and without a moment of hesitation I went for a clean uppercut that connected perfectly to the base of his jaw; strong enough to knock him out cold.
    “I will never regret taking Taioui classes.”
    With his body face down on the ground, Katie reached into his back pocket to check for the key to free our wrists. Luckily, it was there.
    “Here,” she said, tossing me the key.
I caught the key and hurriedly freed myself.
    The vehicle stopped.
     “What’s going on there?” his partner called out.
      On hearing his voice, I hurried towards the wall next to the door. I flattened my back against the wall and sucked in one deep breath.
    He came in with his head first and noticed his partner on the ground. He turned his face to the right to receive a strong and affectionate kiss from my fist, strong enough to give the same effect as it did to his partner.
    My fist stung from the pain of knocking out two mercenaries. But there wasn’t any time to focus on that stuff. I hurried to Katie’s side and freed her as well.
    We searched them and seized their guns. For each one, I cuffed both hands to the foot of the bench.
    “Katie, figure out where we are,” I said while I worked on the cuffs.
She left for the driver’s compartment.
    “Uhh, Henry,” she called out.
    “What’s wrong?” I asked.
    “We’re in a desert.”
    ‘Desert?’ I thought.
She rushed back with worry.
     “How are we so far from home?!” she asked with agitation.
    “They haven’t driven for too long now have they?!”
    “Relax. If you’ve taken a good look at the maps, there’s an arid region between Mystery and Star Falls,” I said.
    ‘We’re not too far from home,’ I thought to myself.
    “What now?” Katie asked.
    I stayed quiet and thought of what to do.
    ‘If we hurry back to Mystery Falls, it would be unwise as we could all be dead before anything could be done to stop Lever. Heading towards the military base was reckless. But if I’m careful, I could stop her.’
     “Well?”
I looked Katie in the eye and said;
    “We’re heading to where Lever is.”
    She went silent for a bit.
    “Henry, we need to head back and let the authorities know what’s going on,” she debated.
    “And what if she does who knows what and we’re all dead before any major steps could be taken?” I asked and removed the bullets from one of the guns we seized.
    “Henry, she’s a mercenary for God sake! She’s dangerous!” she whined.
    “Katie-”
    “What if she has comrades there and they’re armed?” she added.
    “Give me a gun.”
    She froze.
    “W-wha.”
    “Relax, I’m not shooting anyone.”
    She slowly picked up one of the guns we seized from our kidnappers and gave it to me.
    “What are you going--”
    I sucked in a deep breath with all the force I could muster up, I repeatedly smashed the gun onto the hands of one of the cuffed kidnappers.
    Katie screamed, but it wasn’t as loud as the man that woke up from the pain. I didn’t stop until I was certain that both wrists were broken. The sound of breaking bones and blood that spewed out made me scream out as well.
    “You b*stard!!”
    When I was a tad relieved from the act I had just committed, I went over to the second man and did the same thing. The only difference was, the screaming was a lot louder.
    Once I was relieved from my actions, I could finally ask questions.
    “Where is she?” I asked.
    “What are we supposed to do, just tell you?” the first man mocked.
    “If you don’t answer his questions, he’ll shoot you!” Katie threatened.
    ‘Um Katie, it’s pointless to threaten people like them,’ I said to myself.
    The first man burst into laughter. His voice was a tad thicker than his comrade’s. But I had one more trick up my sleeve. One they definitely wouldn’t have seen coming.
    I gave the gun to Katie, took in a deep breath and crouched in front of them both.
    “One of you injected me back at Mystery Falls,” I began.
Both their eyes widened.
    “Surprised?” I asked coldly.
    “You shouldn’t have any memory of that,” the first man said.
    “Don’t fret, your drug worked.”
   Their faces grew red with anger. A mere fourteen year old had them handcuffed with broken wrists and knew their plans. Anger was only due.
    “Is that the same thing you used to inject me?” I asked, pointing at the suitcase in the corner.
    If they kept silent, then that was a yes. They definitely had to talk.
    “And what if it is?” the first man replied.
I walked to the corner and picked up two syringes full of the fluid. I walked back to their cuffed bodies. With cold eyes, I jabbed a syringe into the first man’s neck and injected every single drop of the fluid into his neck.
    “B*stard,” he whispered.
I did the same to his partner, and in seconds, they were both unconscious.
    *************
    Katie and I searched for anything that could help us figure out how far we were from Mrs. Lever, but found nothing. We were only able to find a walkie-talkie.
    As I pondered on what to do, a message arrived from the devil herself.
    “And how long exactly does it take to bring a fourteen year old kid? You incompetent duo just have to drive in a straight line on passing the border!” Lever yelled.
    ‘That answers it,’ I said to myself.
I signaled to Katie to be quiet and prepared to try something very risky.
I took in a deep breath and spoke in a false deep tone.
    “We’ll be there soon. Over.”
I didn’t wait for her response before hurriedly removing the batteries and shoved it under the chair.
    “Straight ahead it is.” I said.
    I turned on the ignition, put the vehicle into gear and drove straight ahead. Before we got there, I had Katie take over the driving seat once so I could make sure our kidnappers were still unconscious.
    “There it is,” said Katie, drawing my attention to the fenced military facility up ahead. My palms were much sweatier than they had ever been before. With every heart-beat, it felt like my heart was going to leap out of my chest, and my body shook to the core. Not out of cold, but fear. Intense fear.
    We parked in front of the open gate and hurried out of the vehicle.
    “What’s your plan?” she asked nervously.
It was then I realized that I hadn’t thought of a plan. I was too scared to think. One error could spell death for me or Katie, or even the both of us.
    “I’ll find her, and stop her,” I said and squeezed my hands into a tight fist.
She went back to the vehicle and came out with a spanner.
    “At least, take this with you,” she said, handing me the spanner.
    “Thank you,” I replied.
There I was, unable to move. It was the time to avert the vision I had. But I just couldn’t move. The fear of dying to a mercenary was really scary.
    As I reminisced in the fear of death, Katie pulled me in for a tight hug.
    “Just come back safe.”
In that instant, her hug helped pull me out of the dark depths of fear and gave my body enough strength to move.
    “Sit in the vehicle. If you notice them waking up, give them half a dose each,” I instructed.
    “And if you see Lever coming your way, drive and get far away from here.”
    “If that happens, what about you?” she asked with worry.
    “I’ll be fine,” I assured her.