The Fortress

Chapter 1 - The beginning

IT ALL BEGUN like a dream. You know that type of dream that seems to have emerged from nowhere even though you have always been aware of it's existence. It could be felt, it could give a sense of direction, unconsciously at first, till it becomes a reality.

"The fortitude." Jared had muttered under his breath that morning while simply replying with a nod.

"It's going to be the best for you baby, I've done all the necessary findings on the institution and they specialize in taking care of people who have situations like yours, we can trust them honey," Jared's mom said to her son leaning closely to him and stroking his hair in an affectionate way.

Jared on the other hand, had a lot going on in his mind and so many questions unanswered. It had been approximately five years, twenty six days he lost his father to a fatal accident which almost had him traumatized as he was in the same vehicle and witnessed his father being ripped in half—a sight he wished he never beheld.

Barely two years after the traumatizing incident, his mother ; Joanne had gotten married to another man named Bennie which obviously Jared did not approve but said nothing contrary to the will of his mother. He felt the least he could do was to be happy for her since she seems happy with her new husband after the saddening loss of their father and husband.

Now, two years, ten months after his mother's remarriage, he is faced with a weird disorder where he seems to be picking all the sounds in the world all at once. From people talking, to busy streets and roads, sounds of ocean waves, flowing rivers and lakes, chirping of birds, barking of dogs and other animals he just couldn't identify. He was not only hearing them, he could even interpret whatever the animals were trying to communicate. He had to stack cotton wools into his ears and padded them with earphones to shut the sounds out. It had been so terrible that he couldn't go to school anymore. He just couldn't concentrate hearing millions of sounds all at once. Hearing these millions of sound came with a terrible headache and a high body temperature. Still, he was not really bothered about his absence from school. He didn't enjoy school that much as he was part of the few students referred to as "geeks". He was an exceptional student, a straight A student in every subject taught but was not very much comfortable being referred to as a geek. Most of the time, he kept to himself and distanced himself from the rest of students.

Since he had no friends in school and everyone was less concerned about him except for the principal, he was less bothered about school.

Of course, he went to the medical center, his mom took him there. He was prescribed some drugs and went through therapy for few weeks. When nothing seemed to be working, he gave up on therapy and stopped the drugs which increased the rate at which he slept out of frustration. In fact, he had given up about a cure and felt he was going to have to live with all these noises for the rest of his life until his mother spoke about the fortress. At first, he wasn't really interested when she mentioned it but the fact she said there were people like him in the institution with similar disorders gave him hope and made him feel a little bit relief.

* * *

Sarah sunk into her couch and put on the TV to divert her mind from all her worries. Two years on her extraordinary human research and she had nothing to show for it. She felt very frustrated. She was going to take a bite on the burger she had bought on her way back from work. As she touched the burger, she saw herself back at the eatery where she bought the burger. The burger dropped from her hands and she found herself back in her apartment still seating on the couch with her burger on the floor right in front of her. She was more terrified than shocked.

"What just happened ?" she whispered, asking herself. She picked up the burger, waiting for something to happen but nothing happened. She inspected the burger very closely, sniffed it before proceeding to eat it. She increased the volume of the television, watched a few scenes and started laughing out loud like nothing happened.

* * *

After several hours of driving north outside of the city, Bennie took a sharp turn to the right that startled everybody.

"Bennie, take it easy!" Joanne screamed at Bennie and looked at him like he asked for her kidneys.

"I'm really sorry," Bennie repliedc without taking his eyes of the road. "How are you holding up kid?" he asked, referring to Jared who responded with a nod.

Jared had been nervous through out the journey as Bennie kept no driving farthaway from the city. But, he tried as much as he could not to make it so obvious. If the institution was going to make him better even if it doesn't find him a cure, it's definitely worth it, he thought to himself.

Few more minutes of driving, Bennie pulled up. "We are here people." Bennie said peering into a map on his phone and trying to figure out if he didn't miss the routes.

"Look around you Bennie, we are in a thick forest, there's nothing here."

Joanne had barely finished making her statement when they heard a baritone voice as they all alighted from the vehicle.

"Hello! you must be Bennie," the man said and shook Bennie's hand so hard that Bennie thought his hand was going to fall off. The man was of average height with thick dark hair and slight patches of white at both sides of his hair right above his left and right ear, he also had a thick bushy moustache which Jared thought was odd and funny. He was wearing a tuxedo and a pair of loafers.

"I'm Alexander, you can call me Alex," he said grinning widely. He waved at Joanne and proceeded to meet Jared who was just getting out from the vehicle.

"Aah, how are you doing my young one?" He asked looking down at Jared.

"I have these weird noises in my head can you fix me?" Jarad asked almost immediately.

"I can't fix you, but I know somewhere where you can be fixed," Alex whispered to him, still grinning.

"Follow me please!" He urged them.

They got to a particular tree, a very tall and wide one. Alex placed his palm on the tree and suddenly, there was a ruffle among the dried leaves on the ground and they all suddenly went down screaming except for Alex. For a minute, Joanne thought the earth had opened and swallowed them. She wasn't wrong. The ground actually opened and they went in. It was like an elevator under the ground which Alex controlled using the tree. After few minutes of going down, there was a halt and a loud whirring of engines followed immediately by the opening of a door right before them. When they walked out of the elevator, they were all marveled at the sight of the castle like building which stood so gigantic with patches of green grasses on the floor all around it.

"Hello! Master Alex."  A young boy betweenthe ages of fifteen to sixteen suddenly appeared and disappeared almost immediately.

Bennie and Joanne turned to face each other dramatically with a startled look on their face with the boy's sudden appearance and disappearance.

"Hey! Jamie," Alex replied even in the boy's absence.

"Don't worry very much about boys like Jamie, we have a lot of them here and trust me, in no time, your son will be feeling better." Alex had barely finished his sentence when Jamie appeared again, but this time putting his left arm around Jared's neck.

"Guess you are the new extraordinary. I bet you will enjoy it here, everyone's got their own......woah! your earphones look so cool, let me check them out".

"No don't......arghhh!" Before Jared could say further, Jamie pulled the earphones off his ears which made the cotton wools come off. Jared screamed as all the sounds hit him all at once heavily with a high-pitched strident. He tried enduring the pain that came with sudden rush of numerous sounds but didn't even know when he let out a scream.

"Jamie!" Alex yelled with his brows knitting together. He obviously was fuming with anger. Jamie disappeared dropping the earphones. He actually did not understand what went wrong at that moment. Alex rushed over to Jared who was on his knees already with his palms at both side of his face, covering his ears as if he was trying to obstruct the numerous resounding noises in his head. Joanne squatted also and tried to relieve her son of his pain by bringing his head close to her chest and patting his face severally.

"We got you your earphones and wools, let's fix you with this for now," Alex said as he carefully stuffed Jared's ears with the cotton wools and padded them with the earphones just had Jared had done months before.

"You mean he doesn't take off the wools and earphones at all ?" Alex asked facing Joanne inquisitively.

"He doesn't". Bennie chirped.

"Oh, I'm really sorry about that, I give you my word, Jamie won't go unpunished."

"No, he doesn't have to be punished, he never meant to do that," Jared replied Alex as he stood up.

Jared scanned the building, it was a very huge one and wondered if he would get to see every part. He enjoyed the scents of the environment and the air seemed very pleasant and soothing to him.

They finally got into the building itself and Jared was more than impressed. He could see the reflection of himself on the marble floor, really impressive, he thought to himself. So much work and money must have been put into this building just for people like him. He adored the mansory walls which were beautifully graced with photo frames of different Greeks and Egyptian's gods and goddesses.

"We are using the elevator Jared,"  Alex called out to Jared who seemed lost in thoughts as he examined the large hall. Jared jerked back to reality and ran to catch up with Alex and his parents before they reached the elevator. Joanne and Bennie were also obviously amazed and adored the hall but they didn't drift unconsciously adoring the hall like Jarad did.

* * *

As Henry scribbled some words into his notebook, his phone rang for the umpteenth time. He finally picks it up in frustration.

"What is it !? I thought I told you not to call during......"

"Check the news, it's a bank robbery and it's just one man but he seems to be holding up against the police so well. So many damages by one man, he is almost getting away," the speaker over the phone interrupted.

"Okay, get off the line." Henry punched his computer keyboards and found the news. He zoomed the face of the man projected on the monitor, punched his keyboards a few more times and found an identity matching the man except that in records, he was dead.

"Hmm, Ian Connors, he will do," Henry said to himself smiling sinisterly.

* * *

Sarah was excited and nervous after watching the news highlights. Finally, she was getting close or getting started. There was no way the robber could have survived all those shootings and caused so much damage if he wasn't an extraordinary. He was even able to send a police car spinning with just a kick from his left foot and that means she finally had something to write about. More importantly, what she had always wanted to write about in the last two years. She felt positive.