Desired Life

Chapter 2: Long Lost Cousin

Chapter 2: Long Lost Cousin

  “Grindelwald...” my father says, staring at him blankly.
  “Hi, uncle,” Grindelwald replies.
  My father slowly walks towards my cousin and hugs him tightly.
  “We all thought you were gone for good, son,” my father tells Grindelwald.
  “Well, lucky I’m not,” he answered, flashing a handsome smile.
  As we slowly walked into my house, Grindel started recounting the story of why he was gone for so long.
  “You see,” he says, “I was stuck at first. I had gotten this job in Germany, and I had accepted, you see. But the thing is, when I got to Germany, there was no real job, apparently, and it all had been a prank. A really pricey prank, by the way. About half of my savings, it cost me. Luckily, the company gave me some money so I could come back, and so I did.
  “I went to live a few hours from here, actually, but I didn’t remember where you lived, in the end, and so I didn’t visit. But then, I began getting busy; like, really busy.”
  As he talks, I notice a funny mark on his left forearm. He keeps on moving his hands over and over. Then, I notice, he stops talking and he looks at me. When I look into his eyes, I enter that dark brown world. But then, I notice a soft glint of dark blue, almost violet.
  “What was that?” I ask Grindel.
  “What do you mean?” he answers.
  “Your eyes, they just turned dark blue,” I say.
  I notice him give me a shifty look as he says, “How come? Eyes can’t be dark blue, can they?”
  “Rarely,” I answer matter-of-factly.
  “Well then. Mine are clearly dark brown,” Grindel says grinning.
  “John, why don’t you go and get some food for lunch, huh? Here, take twenty-five bucks. Should be enough,” my father commands.
  “But, I can’t drive,” I tell him.
  “You got to Comayagua, somehow. Now you bring some food. You find the place,” he tells me.
  I groan and make my way to some fast-food restaurant where I can get food for nine. My brothers are five. Then I have both my parents, and me. That makes eight. And now Grindel’s visiting, nine people. I decide to buy some Chinese food, and, as soon as I get it, I notice something flashing at the corner of my eye. A man walks into a dead end, and he looks around. After seeing that there is nobody in the alleyway, I watch him walk into the wall right in front of him. He walks straight across it, as if it were thin air. I look at where he was, amazed. Then, I remember that I also have powers. I get in the alleyway and think of my home. I keep thinking on the image of it for a while. I open my eyes, and notice I’m still in the alleyway. I try it again, and again, but with no luck. I groan and make my way back home.
  When I get home, I ring the doorbell, and after a minute or so, one of my two sisters opens the door.
  “Ooh, food!” she exclaims, taking the food from my hands.
  “Really hungry, are you, huh?” I say, chuckling.
  “Mhm,” she mutters as she stuffs some bread into her mouth.
  “Oh, well,” I say as I break into laughter.
  “It’s a bit late, isn’t it?” my sister replies.
  “It’s barely quarter past twelve,” I answer as I check on the stove’s clock.
  She shrugs and places the food on the table. I sit as my father calls everyone to eat. After we all are sitting in the table, Grindelwald at my right side, my father blesses the food and then we start serving and eating. As each other stuff food into their mouths, Grindelwald recounts his adventure on Europe.
  “You see, first it was the prank, and then I decided to get back here. Of course, at first, I couldn’t get the ticket, since the ticket’s price a bit higher than I had thought. So, I checked on stores and I finally got some job as secretary for this man. Well, apparently, my job was too good, and after a couple of months, I was sitting behind the desk on the Ministry of England, as you can notice from my accent. Again, as a secretary, I performed my job even better than I had done it in my last job, but, after three years or so, strange things started happening. Chaos broke over the country and some really weird stuff. The Prime Minister took in on me to research about the subjects. After a couple of weeks of intensive research, I hadn’t found a single file on that matter. I quit my job, and, since I had more money than I could handle, I donated most of it to some charity. I had only enough as to satisfy my needs and buy the ticket. So I bought the ticket and, well, now you see me here,” Grindelwald finishes as I am working on cutting an overlarge piece of meat.
  “A great traveling story, yours,” my mom tells him after she had stopped drinking her Coke.
  “I don’t think of it that way, but if you say so, Aunt Marie,” Grindelwald confides.
  She nods and keeps on eating.
 
  After a lunch, everyone stands up and starts heading either for his or her room, or rather sits down in the couch and start talking about everything. Grindelwald puts his hand on my shoulder and whispers in my ear, “I need to talk you now.” He then looks and me and adds, “In private.”
  We walk into the study room and he closes the door, locking it behind him. He sighs, turns around, and quickly says, “I know what you are.” I shake my head and look at him bewildered.
  “What do you mean by that?” I ask him, frowning.
  He raises his eyebrows and then answers, “All that disappearing and reappearing as if nothing. The crazy things happening with the sudden levitation of things. The building incident. Every one of them happening in your wake.”
  He waits a moment, as if expecting for me to know what he’s talking about. As my brain takes in what he said, I ask, “Wait, how do you know about all that?”
  “I talked to everyone,” he answers quickly. He shakes his head and adds, “You really don’t know what I’m talking about?”
  “Why would I?” I reply.
  He shakes his head in dismay and answers, “Just thought you would’ve; had higher expectations on you, to be honest. Well, I have a good and a bad news, both go inside the same topic. Which one do you wanna hear first?”
  “The...good news?” I ask.
  “Well, good news is, you’re not alone,” he says with a hint of a smile.
  My eyes open widely in shock; between the paralyzing shock I manage to mutter, “I’m not alone?”
  “No. Bad news, though, is, that you are going to be, if not already, followed,” he voices.
  “Followed? By whom?” I inquire.
  “Government,” he mutters that one word.
  “Isn’t that good? Doesn’t that mean protection?” I tell him.
  “Not at all, not when you are one of us,” he replies matter-of-factly.
  “One of us? What do you mean by that?” I inquire.
 Grindelwald sighs and, after a couple of silent minutes, finally answers, “Us, John. We are...a more powerful specimen, if you would like to call it that way. Some call us magicians, others call us wizards or, rather, demons, some call us possessed, weird, outcasts. Or rather, some call us the name that we’ve adopted as our own, since it’s...quite the more satisfying, quite the least insulting: Outsiders. We perform tasks with a higher difficulty than ordinary humans would be able to perform. Of course, it is rare to find Outsiders with same powers than others have. For instance, some might have the power to control water while others have the power to control liquids themselves, rather than just-“
  “Woah, hold on. Did you say powers?” I say, astounded and realized.
  “Yes. Powers, John. You and I, we are feared. We are treated as freaks, per se, the building incident on your behalf,” he says with a look of disappointment. “Now, I know life has treated us harshly. I didn’t work for the Ministry as I told your parents I did. I was in England though. That bit of information is true. I was working against the Ministry. It isn’t just you and I against the whole world of people who have decided to get rid of us. There is a society. A secret society, hidden in the depths of all history; it has managed to escape notice from mundane eyes so far, until just a couple of years ago. When I was in England, chaos, strife, and many other disasters happened. At first, I admit, I was oblivious to what was happening. It seemed like some normal disaster that would eventually happen anywhere where humans set foot on. But then, I noticed, it was, actually, created by human hands. But those were no ordinary human hands. Those were powerful hands. Those of an Outsider. The clues were quite difficult to read at first. But then, one tiny mistake made the whole world aware of the danger that us, Outsiders, posed in society. Our exile was imminent.
  “It started in India. The 1st of October of 2012, a gang of twelve was walking around this small town. All of a sudden, they decided to pick on this little, apparently defenseless boy. At simple view, it would’ve looked like he was harmless. But after what happened, you would know that the boy would be more than capable of killing a whole country if it came to. Of course, the kid didn’t even think of killing the dozen teenagers, but, of course, he seemed to be in need of protection. That is when his powers sprung to full strength.
  “You see, for some people, powers don’t present to them only until they are quite in need of them. That is the case of the boy. For others, powers present in case of survival, since they sense that the owner is in need of more time than would be normal. That is your case. For others, powers present themselves when very strong emotions come to surface. That is, I suppose, your case too. And at last, for others, powers come when the situation requires it, when it is time to choose what you want to be, who you want to chase, and if you want to help, or if you want to kill. That is my case.
  “Now, the boy was very needy, and his powers came to surface, creating a massive explosion, that not only eradicated the gang, but it destroyed more than a simple nuclear bomb would’ve destroyed. The boy ran away, seeing what he was capable of and put his life on the deadline. It didn’t take long for the Government to find the boy and kill him. It was a couple of days later that more and more incidents started happening. Whole families suddenly popping off the map; tsunamis in calm seasons; towns burnt because of a fire escape. By then, the clues were evident. And then, it happened in England.
  “A couple, husband and wife, were walking across the city. Birmingham was the city. The merry couple was walking, as I said. But they were no ordinary couple. Again, these were Outsiders. The thing is there are not only good Outsiders. As nobody can help but differ from others at some point, there are bad Outsiders. These couple was one of them. They were headed for the nearest community hospital, and when they reached it...The hospital blew up in a matter of seconds. Everyone inside it died, except for a single baby.
  “The baby was one of us, or rather, is one of us. He’s still alive, hidden underground with a small, but strong group of Outsiders. The good ones, by the way. The thing is, there are stories about that baby. Apparently, he is one of the many Outsiders that is born with the power, but grows up oblivious to his powers, since only feelings, survivalism, and everything that I told you, can get his powers to surface. The thing is, it is said that there is a rebellion rising. Not only does the Government want to rise against the Outsiders, but there is vast group of humans thriving to tear us apart. Of course, inside the Government there are plenty of Outsiders. It is widely known who they are, but since they work for the Government, they are safer than one of us will ever be in our whole lives. Unless, of course, Gerard Harrison decides that they no longer are of help.
  “Now, our duty is to overthrow the Government. There is a whole bunch of good Outsiders. The problem is, most of them are afraid to show themselves by who they really are. I, luckily, am not afraid to fight the Government. You have to do what is for the greater good. And, John, I can train you, if you want.”
  I stare at him, awe-struck and paralyzed by the shock of the words. I shake my head, trying to get the feeling away. “But, how can you...didn’t you say that...but you...UGH! You told me that nobody has the same powers!” I exclaim.
  “I said it was on rare occasions that people have the same powers. It is known, though, that those of the same blood have a higher possibility of sharing powers. And as I have told you, I am also an Outsider. Who do you think spoke to you as you were falling from that building?” Grindelwald answers with a grin on his face.
  “It was you? Then, you were the one who saved me? I felt a dark, cold thing wrapping around me, and then, I was falling towards the rooftop. Was that you?” I ask hopefully.
  “I’m sorry to say, that wasn’t me. I can teleport, but I am not able to perform such a feat of extraordinary power. You, on the hand, saved yourself, even if you didn’t want to do so. You, John, are destined to become a great warrior. You are the leader we’ve all been expecting to meet, John. You are afraid of your own, personal power. You know that if you let it go, a monster, unrecognizable to yourself, will wreak hell on earth. You are afraid of being guilty of such chaos. But John, if you let me train you, you can become the rightful, wistful, wise leader that us, Outsiders, have been waiting for,” Grindelwald replies with a hopeful expression on his face.
  “You sure you’ve got the right John Adams? I mean, there must be plenty of John Adams over the world, you know. Plus, I haven’t got the ability to lead, if you haven’t noticed. I’m barely fifteen years old, definitely not wise, nor wistful. I’m not even sure if I’ve got the guts to do it! I’m not a public speaker! I can’t even speak for myself many times! And, I’m not even sure what, if any, are my powers!” I shout.
  As everyone outside falls silent, someone walks to the door and knocks as he says, “Is everything okay in there?” my father’s voice resonates in the room as Grindelwald stares at me disapprovingly. “Yes, we’re fine,” Grindelwald answers. As the footsteps fade and Grindelwald holds his finger to his mouth signaling silence. Finally, the speech outside continues and Grindelwald looks back at me.
  “Yes, you are the John we’re looking for. Besides, you’ve got brains, and you know it. You’ve got enough wits, guts and everything you can think of! You can do what I’m telling you. With a little bit of practice, you can learn to keep your fear at bay when you speak in public, and you do have powers. How do you explain what happened back at the hospital? Your sudden disappearance, your going back to the rooftop? You are stronger than you think, John, you just don’t want to accept it,” Grindelwald states harshly.
  “Well, then show me. Show me what I can do,” I tell him.
  “It’s not up to me to show you what you can do. You will know at the right time. For all that I know you could create earthquakes, materialize things out of thin air, and kill with sight! I don’t know!” he says desperately.
  “Okay then. I accept your offer to train me. Tell me when and I will arrange the meeting and somehow try to fit it in my schedule,” I answer, finally giving way to Grindelwald’s insistence.
  “Ah, busy body we have here, huh?” he says mockingly. “Now, I think the day for our first meeting should be right for this Tuesday at...how does four o’ clock sound? In the afternoon, obviously John.”
  “Perfect. Though...no, never mind, I have nothing to do that day. Where will the meeting be then, Grindelwald?” I ask.
  “Um...my new apartment, I guess? I’ll show up at school to show you the way,” Grindelwald says. “And call me Grindel, preferably, sounds slightly better, after all. Crazy parents naming their kids with such a hideous name, mine.”
  I laugh and Grindel opens the door. We come out of the study room and he quickly says goodbye to my family, embracing my father again and leaving through the door. I make sure the door is locked well as I come out with him. I notice that he checks if anyone is around and, as a dark green aura shines around him, winks at me and disappears in the blink of an eye. I sigh and re-enter the house.