If what she just felt was wrong, then at least her eyes did not deceive her. She saw it. The three lines were like the careful work of a careless tattoo artist on his chest, and that relevant glow in the pupil of his eyes.
"Oh No! oh no!" She kept on muttering to herself. "It finally came!... It finally happened!"
"Damn it! am not ready, I have to update the plan."
She ran into the house not noticing the grocery bags that had escaped her hands to the ground.
In a world with a sky always filled with snow all year round. On a building so high it made the Eiffel tower look like a proud dwarf, a man stood on an oval-shaped balcony wide enough to comfortably park a passenger plane. He had proud eyes that seemed to look down on the world. He was slender in stature, and even though he had hair as white as the snow that fell around him, he had a very young face.
He looked far ahead, to the horizon. His sight was so strong that he could see little children playing in the snow and it made him smile.
He was still enjoying the view when a dark-skinned woman wearing a tight overall kente cloth with two rows of goomba beads around her neck strolled gently to his side. Her steps were so light, it seemed a cat walked over. But before she came close enough, she heard his voice.
"I enjoy my peace and quiet 'Shadower'. If this is not important, I might decide to remove your noisy legs."
She fidgeted a bit but still took a step forward and bowed deeply, intentionally exposing her chest. "My lord, it rang. We've found him."
The man's tranquil eyes became brighter but immediately resumed their calmness. He closed his eyes and opened them again. Took a deep breath in and out. Seeming to have arrived at a decision. "where?"
"The central messis humus. Angola, my lord."
"Which family's outpost is closest to it?"
"House Nathifa."
"Oh! this is going to be quite troublesome. If it is really him, it is going to get really messy. Am sure the other families are already aware. Your job is simple. OBSERVE!"
"Yes, my lord." A firm reply drifted in the air as she vanished from his presence.
Somewhere in another castle, a very fat man stood in front of a painting of a double-headed snake on the wall and sipped gently on his cup of wine as he listened to a report from a kneeling man behind him. He turned around and grabbed the man by his neck. "Are you sure it is him?"
"Yes, my lord! the wavelengths match." the man replied struggling for his life."
"Send the Gardeners. We have to make contact first!"
"Yes my leash!" the man acknowledged massaging his neck as he left the room.
Several scenarios such as these happened simultaneously at different places, only with different results.
Tiny was like white on rice, stuck to Derek's arm. As usually of cause, enjoying the privilege of sitting close to him. Not that anybody wanted to, except for muscle man Aesir of cause-whom was the attraction of her constant bullying. He was chased away to another sit with a glare.
Aesir sat two sits behind the duo, close to Madeline. But she barely noticed his presence as her eyes were fixed on the shameless Tiny. She was a pretty girl by social standards, having dark curly hair that stopped at her shoulders. With Pretty large and radiant eyes, a pair of dimples on the side of her cheeks that always had the attention of people whenever she smiled.
She envied Tiny a lot. For her boldness but also despised her for her lack of morals. Madeline always had a body quite muscular for a girl. Therefore, always felt socially insecure and that made her timid by nature. She also had a crush on Derek. In fact, it dated far back to before Tiny came to the orphanage. Except for her method of expressing it at that very young age was quite special. The pull your hair and take your lunch money kind of special. But she was not to be blamed. A little history hid behind her misunderstanding. She didn't know she got it wrong until her current competition arrived.
Tiny was talking, but Derek could not hear her, or rather he could, except it was drowned by a whole lot of other voices. It felt like thousands of tiny ants were crawling on his brain. All trying to get his attention. One more than the other. An intense headache hit his head, and he thought his mind was about to tear.
He held his head in pain and just as it came, it left. It was clear again.
"Derek...Derek...Derek! Are you okay?" A voice asked worriedly. He lifted his head and saw a concerned Tiny.
"No, it's nothing. I just need my aspirin."
"Are you sure? You were murmuring words...in a different language."
"Yes, am okay. It was just hmm... Klingon. You know, from Star Trek." He smiled nervously.
"Okay, if you say so. Wait, what's Klingon?" She asked as she handed him the small bottle of aspirin.
Derek was thinking about what had just happened to him when her words hit him and he grabbed her by the shoulders.
With a sharp look in his eyes, he glared at her. "What!!! You don't know Klingon? That's like the greatest language created in cinema history"
"Wait! You don't know Klingon. How dare you?" A nosy Aesir eavesdropped on the conversation and butted in. At this point, Tiny knew she shouldn't have asked such a question. Especially around these fanboys. A world of regret was about to ram into her ears.
The school bus arrived at its destination and the students alighted it. A staggering Augustina came down with a dazed look on her face, muttering something that was definitely in a foreign language. She could swear she just heard the full story on the Star Trek franchise from two nerdy psychos, and it was all in less than twenty minutes.
The ring of the school bell woke her from her stupor. Students ran towards the large entrance of the school. Some were gisting, trying to catch up on undone assignments, some on the previous night's game.
Tiny took Derek's arm as there walked into the hallway, claiming to help the weakling against rushing. They entered the classroom and each took their sit. A few seconds after sitting, a man walked into the class. He looked to be in his mid-thirties. He was dressed in a black suit and a red tie around his neck. He had a black briefcase in one hand and an umbrella in the other, which was quite puzzling since the sky was clear but no one dared to ask why.
He took his seat at the teachers' desk and proceeded to bring out several textbooks. All of which annoyed the students, solely because of their bulk size. He took one of the books in one hand and slowly flipped through it. Taking his time on its pages as his head kept on nodding in agreement.
He took the chalk and gently walked up to the board, writing two very bold words on it. 'HUMAN PSYCHOLOGY.'
"Bring out your notebooks and please note as I go on," He said.
"We are going to be addressing the reasons for procrastination as assessed by Dan Ariely in chapter 6 of his book titled 'Predictable Rational'. In this book, Dan claims to understand 'the hidden forces that shape our decisions. He partners with a colleague of his to unravel the mysteries of why human beings procrastinate so much and as such used his students as the guinea pigs to prove his theory. He gave three classes an assignment with the first-class the liberty of choosing their own deadline for the assignment before the end of the semester which of cause most, if not all choose the end of the semester. The second class had no liberty to choose a deadline at all and were required to submit their assignments at the end of the semester. The third class, however, was given deadlines on different parts of the assignment throughout the semester. In his findings, he discovered that the third class did better than the first two."
The teacher spoke loudly as he walked about through the tiny alleys formed by the students' desks. He kept on talking as the students jotted down his words when it happened again. Derek grabbed his head. The voices in his mind had arrived. He saw himself as a child being born looking up at his parents who were smiling in joy, then suddenly it changed and he was on a farm with sweat running down his face as he tiled the land and it changed again as he fell in love with a beautiful girl and yet again another change as he caught her with his best friend and stabbed them both out of anger.
Mr Derek...Mr. Derek...Mr. Derek!!!"What?...Whaaaat!...Sir!?" Derek replied hastily, raising his head from in between his hands. looking up, The teacher was standing right before his face. Even leaning in a bit. Now that he looked up close, he realized this man looked a bit familiar.He had dark straight hair, With keen but sad-looking eyes under those glasses. His bright skin looked tanned. Derek wondered if all he did was bathe under the sun whenever it rose. "Would you mind telling the class in your own words of cause, what you think is the reason for the difference in the result by the three classes as gotten by Dan Ariely?"Derek could still feel his mind pounding in bits. He was in no way in any condition to answer any question. He felt the air thicken as he breathed. "Oh! the pressure, the pressure.""Correct Mr Derek.' Pressure'. External pressure is the reason for the qu
Note, this chapter contains minor scenes of blood and gore... Five people walked through the hole in the wall. Their every step, was elegant, like they were exempted from the chaos raging around them. They were dressed differently. Four men, and in their midst, a woman of distinguishable temperament ...their attire painted them as people interrupted on their way to a party. The woman had stunning bold eyes with dark yet scanty brows. Her delicately modelled ears framed her Elvin face in such a manner that it complimented her button nose. On her head, gold beads that looked like there were sprinkled on her flowing black braided hair reaching down to her shoulders. The pearls that adorned her neck, held, even though there were clearly not bound by any string. She wore a sleeveless red-flowered pattern danshiki that came down tightly to her slim waist and opened freely to her knees. A gold patterned insignia of a withering rose laid on the left side of her voluptuous chest. Derek fou
Derek looked out the car window, at the receding back profile of a woman he had always known to be the closest thing to a mother. He remembered she would always ask him to help her reach the top shelf in the mall and would mount a chair screaming whenever she saw a mouse. She had always been so fragile and gentle. But now, words could not describe what he was seeing. "Did she just leap a full nine feet in the air to give an acrobatic kick?" He muttered to himself. "It was even effortless. like she was jumping over a little ditch in her path."He looked into his palm, at the object she had shoved into his hand. It was a little black cloth sack. It had an insignia of a roaring 'Cat'. He opened the cloth sack and a pendant fell into his palm.It was oval and gold around. It had the engraving of a roaring cat just like the sack. Now that he looked closer, it was more like a roaring tiger or lioness. It felt smooth to the touch even with the engraving, like the body o
Derek raced into the main house."Mrs Manica!...Mrs Manica!!...Mrs Manica!!! The reverberation of his screams echoed all around. He went to the cafeteria but was welcomed only by the tables and empty chairs. He checked the dorms and even the kitchen but there were all empty. Even the creche was empty of its toddlers. Like everything that survived on two legs had suddenly vanished including the caretaker, the helpers, volunteers. There were all gone.Madeline and Tiny took Aesir to the sickbay and laid him on a bed."Don't worry I gat this." Madeline took down the first aid kit hanging on the wall. "The only people that know this room more than myself are probably the old nurse and 'the weak one'.""The weak one...?" Tiny raised a brow"Yes, Your boyfriend!""My boyfriend!?""Yes, Derek?""Oh! Do you mean Derek?... Yes...yes, he is." Tiny averted her gaze away from Madeline a little. "I think Aesir got a bad concussion at school
The coagulation of ink on the wall had formed into a massive ring. It shimmered a golden hue and gave a slight humming sound, like the lingering ring of a bell. A rune was at the crown of it and it changed in shape at short intervals.Derek stood up in awe and even forgot the pain in his neck. "We have to go, we have to leave now!""I agree, we have to get out of here before that thing swallows us." the cowardly Madeline already headed towards the door, but Derek grabbed her by the shoulder and pulled her back."That is not what I mean. I meant we need to go through the gate. And fast too." Pointing at the ring. "We don't have much time and I can't explain how I know this but if we want to leave this place, we have to go through that thing."Boom!!! a sound loud enough to shake their feet was heard from above their heads. The three of them ran outside the cottage to see what was going on.Above their heads, Ellen and Vera had joined forces to hamme
At the safe borders of a great waterfall, a tour guide introduced the tourists to the beautiful scenery of one of nature's most spectacular wonders. With a fall of about 344 feet high and a width of 1312 feet, this amazing site has been the inspiration for famous poets, painters, sculptors and a variety of musicians. It has enlightened leaders, resolved wars and even had a religion with fanatic believers based around it. This was the great Kalandula falls. For years, adventurers and daredevils have tried to test the stinging whips of its unforgiving trials but have lost their pitiful lives to its impatient waters. Myths and legends of its past and supernatural abilities spread wide in varying stories. One of which was of mystical beings who look down on the rest of the world living behind the curtains of its falls. If only they knew how close to the truth the version of this story was.The tours ended early today. Tourists were directed to stay as far away from the wate
Derek walked into the cafeteria. Aesir and a couple of the usual gang were already at the usual table. It was noisy today like it had always been on any other day. He took his tray to the table and sat closest to his best pal. Preparing his fork to enjoy his bowl of noodles, he looked up to participate in the day's bout of arguments on superhero weaknesses. He frowned. Something was wrong, these were not his friends. No, there were. But yet they were not. Derek fell out of the chair in fear and panic.These were not the friends he had come to know for years. "Wha... What happened to you guys? Andre, Where is your hand?" A face came closer to him and he backed off some more, "Fred, your eye?""Oh! you don't remember? we gave them to you." A face that had one side of its cheeks dripping to the floor like melted butter answered him. It was Aesirs.He screamed and kept on crawling backwards. His left hand came across an obstacle and he turned his head in reflex to c
"Take me there." She ran out of the room. Derek followed after them.It was along the corridor of a small alley. Two beefy looking men blocked Madeline's path to a wall. There held steel pipes and had perverted looking expressions on their faces. One of them even licking his lips. On the other side of the wall, a man held Aesir by the collar of his shirt with a pistol to his face. He was much skinnier and shorter with a full-bearded face and a vertical scar on the left side that trailed from his eye to his neck. He looked to be the leader of the motley crew as he was the one spitting out orders."Leave them alone," Tiny ordered on arriving at the scene. "Kareem, go get your father." She instructed the boy and he ran off into another alley.Everyone turned to her and the men burst into laughter. The man with the gun looked at her. His gaze like a dog that found a new toy stopped at her waist. He had naked perversion apparent in his eyes. "Asim!" He called out, an