They Called Me FIVE

LANCE

At that moment, I instantly regretted killing Sam's blood hog. It wasn't up to my hands to take her life. This Faerie… Sam deserve justice. For his father.  It's supposed to be him, holding her head in his hand. Not me.

Shadow… I called on to the deepest part of me. To the shadow I begin to recognize as another entity. I became one with him in my body. But that doesn't mean I shouldn't get his consent about things I decided to do – using his power.

I can feel it stirring in my gut. Without the actual words, he knew what to do. He agreed with me. I smiled. I pick up the Blood Hogs body and tuck her head in my side. 

"What are you doing?" Magnus asked behind me. I beamed at him.

"Correcting my mistake. Which way?" Magnus indicated the moss covered plywood. With my bare hands I tore it apart. He whistled.

"Since when did you become this strong?" He asked, kidding around. 

"I'm always strong." I told him. "It's just I was stupid enough to never see the real value of my gift." 

Together we hopped the basement's floor and emerged at the low ground of the busy street. Thunderstorm weigh in our heads. I glanced up. Lightning cackled once or twice between the folds of black clouds. 

I ran my eyes across the highway. The billboards of spicy fried chicken stands at the top of buildings and screens. Cars drove past us with kids at the backseat and parents arguing at the front. 

"Where are we?" 

We're inside of a city. Definitely not Chicago. The street signs… I don't recognize them from  Chicago. More like they're the streets famous for Hollywood films. 

Magnus hunkered backwards. I wasn't sure if he's serious of going back to the basement. When I look over my shoulder, I have a bad feeling that the world is having disagreement with gravity. 

The basement, the apartment, the room of Sam. The place where the battles scream relentless earlier – no trace of it was found behind me. We are standing right outside of a family park. 

Gates with trimmed bushes a few paces from us. Two pine trees on our left. I see small children playing swings and seesaw inside. Mothers sitting at a placemat with baskets and different set of food prepared for picnic at their feet. 

I glance at Magnus. We're the only two awake. Three of our members knock out. I look at him for answers. I should have expected he's as clueless as me. He wasn't from this world, I reminded myself.

Magical realm is full of ugly Faeries, drunk protruding belly Beasts and Gifted people in funny medieval times costumes. There are no cars, no means of advanced transportation, no skyscraping buildings and definitely no electricity. 

"Err, Magnus. Where's the basement we're just in earlier?" 

He scratched his head. Patted the sidewalk cement. Slid Sam off his shoulder and Seven, letting the two sleep at his lap.

"Let's rest first. I'm tired." He cracked his neck and clamp his fingers to his right shoulder. Rotating them counterclockwise. 

I settled myself beside Seven. Gingerly took out the sleeping parrot figure of Alpha Beast and let him continue his slumber in my lap.

"Would you believe me if I told you the golden bracelet brought us here?" he asked.

"Would you believe me if I told you I can raise the dead back to life?" I asked back.

He sat frozen in the spot, face drain out of color. I patted his shoulder. 

"You okay?" he didn't respond. His eyes turn translucent for a second before he blink them back. 

"Yeah, I am. Sorry, I was…" 

"Surprised?" I guessed. He reached out to Seven's hair and brush a part of her hair from her eyes absentmindedly.

"Then Lance, would you believe me if I told you Seven knew beforehand you have that kind of power? And that she told Alpha Beast to seek you out first because it was for sure you are the first target?" 

A crippling shiver ran from the tip of my hair down to the smallest toe. 

"How?" 

He shrugged. "Seven is not exactly the chatty type. You know she.." Magnus trace his lips with his thumb and index finger. A gesture for silent. 

I take a shaky breath and began narrating the things I saw when I was trying to bring back Sam. What the shadow told me, the things I saw at the gate, and how my blessings resurfaced after that. 

I also told him about the bugging dream I had with Efta. And the 'I live three thousand years ago' tale from the shadow.

I thought Magnus will laugh at the last piece of information I told him. But he didn't. He looks ahead. At the cars buzzing around, blaring their horns at pedestrians. 

"Who is Seven exactly?" he voiced his thoughts out. I stared at him. He cleared his throat and flex his aching shoulders.

"I mean, isn't it weird? She has the same look as deity Efta from your dream. She knew what kind of powers you will possess. She appeared to be well informed by her blessings. Even the Meira chick you fall with said 'she has another identity' and 'she's not the person we think she is'. Unlike you and Sam, the idea of Faeries and another world, the idea of chosen ones by the high deities, the blessings, the responsibilities, all of it doesn't seem to faze her."

"Don't you think Meira had told her beforehand? In order to make use of her 'life blessing'?"

Magnus shook his head. "I doubt that. You may have bear your mark at birth but blessings don't surface if the prophesied stone didn't graze the sky. Even I wasn't informed I will be the 'Seeker' stated in the prophecy. Honestly, thinking back still give me goosebumps." He looked at me sideways. 

"You know, I kind of orient myself to the different reactions each Eklektos will have when I told them their identities. I expected the denial, the 'You're nuts. Get away from me' look." 

I hung my head low. Remembering the times I was saying the exact same thing to him few months ago.

"Sorry, about that." He gave a hearty laugh.

"Don't be. I had my own fun watching the look in your faces."

"Wha –" he raised his palm to stop me.

"My point is, I EXPECTED Seven to have that kind of reaction. I know it's a possibility Meira told her about her abilities. But not her 'real identity'. I know Faeries. They weren't nice enough to orient their victims for what they are. As long as they get to use them, that's good enough reason to make them 'go crazy'." 

I get what he means. Sam was also used and preyed upon by a blood hog. And he lived without knowing who he actually is. Speaking of Sam…

"Hey, Magnus. Back at Sam's room. He was invisible right? Did you see how Seven touched him at his chest and his invisibility blessing wear off?" 

Magnus nods. "My guess is Sam didn't go invisible on purpose. I think that was his power going out of control after he watch his father being murdered. That would explain why he never went invisible again when the Childes attack. Like you, it will take time before he can control it." 

Magnus patted Sam's head twice. Sam wiggled at his lap. 

"Yeah, I guess so. But don't you think how strange it is that Seven knows Sam didn't do it on purpose? I mean, I wasn't aware his invisibility is actually an accident. He's doing a great job pretending 'this is for my safety purposes'. And Sam despise girls. So unlikely he'll tell her, right? Or Seven just luckily guess?"

We both look down when Seven squirm at her sleep. Murmuring a word that made my blood go drain from my brain.

"Lancelot…" she called out, in a whisper, a heart aching longing. A single tear escape from her eyes and Magnus wiped it off.

"Did you just hear..? The name she called.." I stare at Magnus in disbelief. He stared back, confused.

"I told you. The shadow from that other world didn't call me by my name Lance. It was Lancelot. Magnus, he greeted me welcome back. He also told me, indirectly, someone went through hard ways in order to get me back in the world of the living."

I'm dropping hints here. And he doesn't get it.

"Just try and weigh these possibilities. What if Seven is not actually from human realm like me? What if she had lived a long life span of more than three thousand years ago to know this 'Lancelot'? What if, she already knew my powers and her own because she once have been a deity? And that she came down here with us to fight the Faeries? To save her own people?" 

Something in Magnus expression told me some part of him consider this possibility true. And a piece of information in his head click. Now he's staring at her in disbelief.