They all spread out and search the street. Atalia approaches me from a distance, I see her sleeves tattered and her slacks ripped from the sides. Her hair was a mess and her hands were filled with red with bumps and bruises. As she reached me, she extends her hand and assists me out the vehicle and calls one of the Arbiters to guide me past the gate.
“But with all due respect, my eminence, she's fifteen minutes late for the curfew,” the Arbiter said.
“It was I who kept her from reaching the curfew because of this little incident. Let her be, or would you want to suffer my wrath?” She proudly said.
“My apologies, I will assist her as you instruct, my eminence,” the Arbiter replied.
She then brushes off my hair and my uniform with her hands, clearing the dust that have accumulated. She reaches inside the vehicle and hands me my school bag then pulls out my guitar case and says,
“It seems that it’s broken. I apologize. I’ll get you a new one, so let me keep this one for now,” she apologetically said to me.
“But I need it to play for class tomorrow,” I worriedly said.
“Do not fret, I will get you a new one by daylight,” she reassures me along with a smile.
“Follow the nice Arbiter. He'll guide you inside, so you won't get in trouble.” She added.
The Gate Arbiter guides me towards the fifth gate. I wave goodbye to Atalia and she waves back and smiles. We reached the gate, as I pass by the human pathway, I see people my age being forcefully detained. Some pleaded that they were late because of the incident earlier at the train station, some because of the incident with the silver-haired man, but they were denied, cuffed, and put into a line to be directed to the detainment cells on the left side of the walls. I can't stop imagining that one of them could have been me. How lucky can I be, having to witness all these amazing things and be able to come home safely without fearing the consequences of being late for curfew?
“Follow me,” the Gate Arbiter said.
I obediently do as the man says. He directs me to the southern side of the wall, the lights from the posts slowly getting dimmer and the grass start to get taller the deeper we venture. He commands me to stop. He tells me to drop my bag on the grass and instructs me to stand on the side as he opens a penlight and starts rummaging through my belongings. The area was filled with trees and tall grass, there wasn’t much of anything there, but I can see the sky filled with clouds that covered the moon. The breeze from the wind moving the grass scratches my legs and starts to itch, making the situation more uncomfortable. He then points the light to me and asks me to remove my blazer and hand it over to him to be checked. I do as he instructs without hesitation as I fear angering him would give him a reason to detain me.
“The blouse, take it off,” he commandingly said.
“But, sir, I can't hide anything under my shirt,” I respectfully replied.
“Regardless, this is a light punishment for breaking the curfew,” he replied aggressively.
“But Atalia said—”
“She may be a Smith, but we won't see her around that often. So, if anything happens to the little old you, she won't be able to defend you,” he said with grimace smeared across his face.
I was scared and helpless. I have never been in a situation like this ever before; the feeling of being overpowered in both physical and social standing as I was a mere Sevenite. My mind turns weary as the man clutches my throat. He starts sweating while grinning like a wild hyena. I knew I was a goner; I have already given up.
My body felt light as my arms dropped to my side and had no energy to resist. The Gate Arbiter was a large man, about six feet tall, and I a shorter five-foot-four. He raises me by the throat, slightly choking me further as my feet were tiptoeing, trying to reach the ground. Out of nowhere, through the right-hand corner of my eye, I saw two red flickering lights from a distance. Then suddenly, it was closer to the Gate Arbiter's left shoulder, they seemed like red eyes that glow in the darkness of the night.
The next thing I know, I'm sitting on the ground with my back on the wall. I hear subtle grunts and a scream of agony. I crawl towards the sound, creeping in to get a better view. Then I saw him, the Demon. With his silver hair, well-toned build, and red hood, he was beating the Gate Arbiter senseless. There was blood beneath them, the green grass turning red. The Gate Arbiter's face was filled with purple bumps through the beating. I ran to the Demon and clutched his right arm to try to stop him in landing another blow.
“Please stop, this man might die,” I pleaded.
“This is no man, but a monster in a shell of a human being,” he replied with a deep voice.
“But please find the heart to leave him be, he is already battered and broken. He may have a family,” I exclaimed.
“What makes you so sure that this man honors his family? What makes you sure that once he recovers, he would not do any harm to others just like you?” he asked.
“Because he'll fear you, they all will,” I softly replied.
“Do you, yourself, fear me?” as he faces me in a serious tone.
“No, because even monsters have hearts.”
There was a moment of silence. In the middle of the tall grass and towering trees as the cold wind blew. The sounds of rustling grass and leaves fill the surroundings. He walks towards me; I can clearly see that his mask looks like a dragon's face cut in half. He leans forward and our foreheads touch, he starts to lean in closer. I looked at him directly without fear and realized that the red eyes he wears were just thin glass tinted with red. Beneath the glass lies two beautiful blue eyes as blue as the summer sky.
“Beautiful,” I said out of my astonishment.
“And so are you,” he replied.
“I may be a monster or demon, or any other creature of evil in your eyes, but only because I am a man forged in pain and injustice; built to be a weapon not for terror but for freedom.”
I'm puzzled about what he said. I was riddled with questions about him as I have never heard of him before. Earlier, I remember hearing Atalia and she seems to have encountered him several times before. He turns around and fixes his purple gloves. As he turns, I saw blood and a bullet hole on his red hood from the gunshot earlier.
“You seem to be no monster as you draw blood when injured. But who are you, and how come I have never heard of you before?” I asked.
“The world is not as it seems. The world you know should have never been, and it is far beyond what you can imagine,” he replied.
He faces towards me and raises his head as he looks up to the sky, I follow suit and look towards the sky as well. The clouds start clearing the night sky, the moon slowly shining upon my face. I close my eyes as I feel the moonlight’s warmth through my skin.
“Why do you speak in riddles? Your words seem to come from a higher form of society,” I said.
“It is not important who I am, or where I came from, or what my past holds. I walk these streets not to incite fear to the hearts of its people, but to unearth the secrets from the people trying to cover the truth. Beyond this surface that we walk on; hides a past of our true selves, our true being; of what is and what was.” He says.
I look towards him with a sense of wonder. I was mystified by how he looked under the bright moonlight. He was not from this world; he was something even more. Not a monster nor a man, but a warrior reincarnated in a man’s body.
“People like you are rare in this day and age, a pure-clad heart with no hatred nor pain. Living in this wasteland filled with darkness to the brim, a girl of light that shines upon our fiendish whims,” he says.
“Justice will be served and the people will be free. I will do what is must to abolish all greed. Because unlike all the others, I am a man, not shackled by the laws of this fake land, nor am I grounded by their beliefs or “godly” hands. I am a man from the past, sent to the present to make right of yesterday’s wrongs. I am a man unbound to their false thrones.” He exclaimed.
A gust of wind blasts strongly from behind me, covering my eyes. As I cleared my vision, the silver-haired man was already gone along with the bloodied Arbiter. As I stand here in the middle of the trees and flowing grass, my head starts to fill with questions, unasked. What is he? What does he mean?
I started this day filled with hopelessness and lost inspiration while singing songs that I pulled out of my heart; struggling to keep pace of my dream as a dark void of doubt clouded my mind. Now, I unearthed something more than I can imagine. What I’ve seen tonight opens the door for exploration, a world to be unbound in due time.
Comments (1)
See all