The Weaponsmaster

Prologue

6 YEARS EARLIER

The rain came pouring down that night with the streetlights flickering on and off. Kevin ran down the street, determined to get his sister back home safely. She’d gone to her friend’s house before the storm, but something had happened to her.

When Kevin called to make sure she was alright, someone answered the house phone, but then he heard screaming and the crunching of the phone being destroyed. His parents weren’t home that night; they had to handle a few “errands,” as they called them. They’d taken his youngest sister, Jackie, with them as well, leaving him alone that night. Kevin wasn’t the strongest, or the bravest or the most protective, but he wouldn’t let his sister get hurt. He could feel something wasn’t right, and the smashing of the phone confirmed that.

He’d been able to sense different types of energy in people for a long time now, like their determination or sadness, but in this case he felt an ominous energy coming from the presence of not only the storm, but from the number he called. Something was wrong; he knew this storm and this feeling couldn’t simply be a coincidence. His mother had told him not to go when she called him, but as the oldest at fifteen, he felt obligated to protect his two little sisters, and right now his nine-year-old sister Andrea needed his help. She’d always looked up to him, and now wasn’t going to be his time to let her down.

            Kevin continued to run, approaching the house where his sister would be. The houses weren’t too far away, but it felt like an eternity of running to him with that bloodcurdling scream still ringing in his head. Thunder boomed and lightning crackled in the distance, igniting fear in Kevin’s heart. Rain beat down on his head, trying to dissuade him from his quest, but he would not allow it overcome him in his sister’s time of need. While Kevin was no swordsman or fighter, he had felt strange lately and had been able to do things he’d never thought his body was capable of.

His soccer practice the other day was only one example of these strange occurrences. Kevin had been dribbling down the field when Lance came in front of him to steal the ball. Lance was an overconfident, snotty, blond-haired know it all. Since fifth grade Lance just always had to beat Kevin at everything, including soccer.

Kevin and Lance had been considered rivals since this whole “competition” started, so Kevin wanted so badly to score the winning goal against Lance. All of a sudden Lance kicked the ball away, so to get it back Kevin somehow did an under-the-feet sweep kick, knocking Lance off his feet. He swiftly maneuvered around his fallen rival, and getting the ball back, scored the winning goal. He’d never been able to do anything even remotely like that before, but thought it was a fluke so he moved on.

The next day was even weirder though. A boy about his age in almost all black clothing appeared before him asking him to train or something. He had seen what Kevin did and wanted to teach him how to control his “power”. He’d said it was imperative in order to avoid some type of disaster. Kevin began to walk away thinking it was some kind of joke, but after only a few steps, he was tied in a type of white cloth.

The boy appeared in front of him then, his face as hard as stone, the white bandages around his left arm missing. He sent a series of images through Kevin’s mind to try to make him understand, pushing Kevin to his limit. He fell to his knees; his breathing was labored now as he saw those images of fighting and death.

The boy untied him then and agreed to let him think about what he’d seen, but warned him once again about the consequences of his actions. It was obvious that getting Kevin on his side was really important to him.

He knew something that Kevin wanted to find out, but was gone before Kevin could even blink. He was going to think about it, simply because of all the strange things happening, but wasn’t sure what he would even be training for or why. He wasn’t sure about the training, but he did want answers to why he could feel other people’s emotions and feel where they were. Kevin hadn’t seen the boy since then, but could feel his presence as he moved around. The boy felt cold all the time, hiding his emotions so well that he didn’t feel like any other human Kevin had met.