Chapter 7

August was tired. Sweat streamed down his brow and found its way to his eyes. His shirt was soaked. His stomach grumbled and begged for food but to reach for the burger and fries that lay in the cockpit was sure death.

And his brand burned!

Summoning light was as easy a task as talking. For veterans like Davis, it was almost subconscious, drawing swords of pure Light in the moment before the opponent had the time to pull the trigger or a shield of plasma that would incinerate the bullet before it ever had the chance to pass through.

Bending was a whole different story. Forcing refraction to happen around an object so it seemed invisible, a hard skill to learn, and an even harder one to maintain. It required a high level of concentration to bend light around oneself or a human sized object, let alone the Cessna that August was holed up in.

Kilimanjaro International Airport was all around him, along with hundreds of Heralds of Life. An East African airport was literally the worst place for him to be by any standards. It was a miracle they hadn't yet noticed him, one that he hoped would hold. The question was would he hold till Davis arrived with the boy.

The last time August had spoken to Davis it had been to tell him to meet him in hanger five, he already knew where. That was thirty minutes ago and Davis was yet to reply. August had thought about leaving, he had no qualms about abandoning Davis, but Marie would never forgive him if he left her son behind.

But he truly didn't know. Whether Ivan Potocnik had gotten the better of them, which would mean Davis was probably being tortured and they would have the kid. It was a scary but very possible situation, but it wasn't enough to make August leave because he just didn't know. He couldn't afford to underestimate Davis.

***

Davis was limping. The giant had tried to hide it and he would have if only Angelo hadn't noticed the broken rear window of the Toyota they had abandoned in Namanga. He remembered gunshots but where the bullets had gone was indecipherable amid the chaos. But judging by Davis' limp, Angelo had a rough idea where at least one had gone.

But he didn't bring it up. He would have to ask later, probably when half of the Kilimanjaro International Airport staff wasn't after them.

Davis had landed the helicopter without checking in with flight control and right beside the runway at that. Right before they had reached the airport, Davis had given Angelo the tiny Motorola and told him to text "Meet on the runway."

It took longer than expected because a) There was only one number on the contact list and b) Who the hell knows how to text with old keypads anymore?!

Once the eternity of pressing keys was done, he'd sent the message but got no reply. They were standing at the end of the runway, a jeep was first approaching. It would arrive before whoever it was Davis had made Angelo contact did. They probably had guns.

Angelo looked at Davis for help but the man stood there and watched the jeep approach with a stern look on his face that did nothing to mask his pain.

The jeep arrived and stopped literally centimeters in front of Davis who didn't even flinch. Angelo had taken a few steps back and stood rigid with fear. They could have run him over but the man didn't even flinch? What the hell was this guy?

Angelo approached as two armed men stepped out of the jeep and slammed the doors shut. They looked up at Davis and shouted as if he couldn't hear them perfectly clearly when they spoke normally.

Angelo had experienced this countless times, especially from teachers at school. He didn't have a solution, just a way of making the person feel shorter by looking up and ignoring them. Just like Davis was doing right then.

"Excuse me sir, you're not supposed to land here..." one of the men said in a heavily accented voice to Davis who seemed fascinated by the lights beside the runway bearing against the night sky.

The second man regarded Angelo with spite and disdain but it was a hard task to be intimidating when the only hair on his head was his eyebrows. Angelo snorted and failed to hold back a smirk.

The armed men didn't fail to pick it up. All three men turned their attention towards Angelo. It was the bald man who spoke.

He had asked why Angelo was laughing in Swahili which provoked even more laughter from the teenager. After annoying him for long enough, Angelo finally spoke.

"Samahani..." He choked, "I'm sorry it's just, I can practically see Davis' reflection on the back of your head" he spoke in the best Swahili he could manage.

Davis snorted and was soon laughing as well. It was surprisingly high pitched but it did its job. Angelo had noticed it the moment Davis had ignored the armed guards. It was a simple ruse, he was buying time for whoever Angelo had sent that message to.

But why was Angelo helping? A simple answer, he had decided to trust the man who had taken a bullet for him.

"I'm sure our wife doesn't even need to spend money on makeup mirrors." Davis said drawing even more laughter from Angelo and himself.

The second guard smiled silently and was clearly trying very hard not to laugh. The bald eagle was not as pleased and went to push Davis over but the giant was already falling, completely weak with laughter. He aimed a kick at Davis' ribs who was rolling on the grass but he missed and he landed on his buttocks for it and the laughter became shouts and even his partner joined in before helping him up pulling up his uniform sleeves.

That was when Angelo saw the Bronze ankh that stretched from his wrists, around his lower arm to his elbow. The boy froze, it's what gave him away. Whether Davis had seen it or not was difficult to tell because he was still laughing on the ground.

"Okay Toussaint," The man with the tattoo said the smile long gone, "You're done. Get up."

But Davis lay there laughing still. The tension grew rapidly and only doubled when the man repeated himself. The bald eagle had rubbed himself down was staring at what was happening.

Then his partner pulled a gun from his holster and aimed it directly at Angelo.

"Get up or your nephew gets a bullet straight through the head" he smirked triumphantly.

Davis laughed on while seated on the grass much to Angelo's annoyance. But if he had decided to trust him, he would trust him to the very end.

The tension was thick enough to cut through, Angelo closed his eyes because he didn't know what do. There was the sound of something heavy crumpling to the ground. Moments later, a second followed. Then absolute silence.

"You can open your eyes now." Came a deep serious rumble that Angelo recognized as Davis' voice.

He opened his eyes and instantly covered them. When a pair of bright lights shone directly into them blinding him instantly. He suddenly had a rough idea of how Ivan and the border patrol felt when Davis did whatever the hell it was he did to them in Namanga.

It was then That Angelo realized with horror that a plane was headed his way. He took a few steps further into the grass and Noticed Davis limping more definitively towards him. Once far enough, they watched the Citation CJ4 turn to face the runway.

Davis walked limped towards it and Angelo soon followed when his vision had cleared, stepping over the passed out if not dead bodies of the guards. He didn't know which was which. He was pretty sure he didn't want to know.

"I can't believe it." He shouted over the plane engine as they approached it, Davis was struggling more and more with each step.

"Which part?" The giant shouted back, "Me? Your mother's real job? Or the mind reading thing with Potocnik?"

"No, I mean sure, all of that stuff as well, but what I truly can't believe is that you were driving me around in a tiny Toyota Passo." Angelo replied with a fake look of bewilderment on his face but the giant didn't turn around to see it.

"Well, beggars can't be choosers..."

"Neither do they own private jets." Angelo said cutting off Davis who chuckled and stopped as the plane's door swung open and a pair of headlights beamed down the runway.

Reinforcements. Someone must have seen what Davis did and they were not happy about it. There was something barely audible being screamed through a pair of megaphones. Davis signaled for Angelo to enter get up the steps and enter the plane but he hesitated at the bottom.

But this wasn't the time for some dramatic movie moment where he leaves all his known life behind with explosions all around him. A hand grabbed his shirt and pulled him into the jet snapping him back to reality. Davis quite literally dived into the plane after Angelo who barely managed to move further into the cabin. Angelo realized with horror that the explosions were real.

The gunshots didn't cease when Davis closed the door and the Caucasian man stumbled towards the cockpit. Angelo quickly found himself a seat and strapped himself in but Davis stayed by the door holding it as if preventing the bullets from penetrating the airplane.

By the way, where are the bullets going?

"August, hurry the fuck up, I can't hold this barrier much longer!" Davis shouted as if answering Angelo's thoughts.

What barrier?

Angelo pulled open the window's cover and instantly closed it again, blinded. He was subconsciously aware of the plane moving as he rubbed his eyes in an attempt to regain his eyesight. He felt the plane accelerate then eventually take off from the ground but it wasn't until it began to steady out in the air that his vision began to return. A few minutes more before it returned completely to the sight of Davis seated right opposite him with a worried look on his face.

"You shouldn't have looked outside the window." He said almost angrily.

"I'm fine, thanks for asking."

"This isn't the time. Your sarcasm wouldn't have saved you from losing your eyesight." Davis half shouted.

"Is that what you did in Namanga?" Angelo asked anger boiling within him, "Is blinding people part of your daily routine?"

"I was protecting you from whatever those monsters were going to do to you."

"Last I checked, you looked, spoke and walked the same and even did some weird supernatural shit too! Which by the way, you never explained."

Angelo was shouting. He didn't care, he was too angry. A look of guilt that disappeared as quickly as it came flashed on Davis' face.

"You're right, "The giant said, "It wasn't exactly easy to say anything when you were passed out through most of our little road trip. August?" He called out to who Angelo presumed was the pilot.

In the quiet minute that passed, Angelo noticed Davis' blood soaked shirt. It could have been his own, judging from his limp, or maybe even the guards at the airports. He wasn't sure he wanted to know.

The short burly Caucasian man that pulled into the plane walked out from the cockpit. His matte black hair with streaks of grey here and there was a mess and his eyes would've spat out lasers for all Angelo knew. Angelo could smell the sweat from where he sat which to be honest wasn't very far but it was vexing nonetheless. He really had to try to speak in a manner that wasn't rude. Seriously, he did.

"Someone's been running in a marathon in khaki pants a shirt and, are those loafers you're wearing?"

"Pleasure meeting you too, Angelo." August said in a Western American accent.

Angelo barely held back a snort. Hearing them speak on TV was totally different from actually meeting one of them. He had a fleeting urge to imitate the man's accent.

August nodded to Davis who stood and limped to the cockpit without uttering single word. Angelo heard the door click as it locked. The American tsked at Davis' blood stained seat.

"That man always leaves blood everywhere." He said and didn't elaborate.

He sat on the one next to it, crossed his legs and yawned.

"You have questions." He said yawning again.

"Yes," Angelo said, "How do I know you'll answer them?"

"I will. We're not being chased by telepathic creeps anymore are we?"

"No, but they could be waiting for us."

" Where we're going, they wouldn't dare set foot in."

"Which is?"

" We'll land in Addis Ababa and then take another flight to JFK via London."

"That's the most specific answer I've received in days. Thank you. "Angelo sighed and racked his brains for a place to start.

"Who exactly are you people?" Angelo asked but didn't wait for an answer, "What exactly is it that you guys do? Am I going crazy or did the man you call Ivan Potocnik control people's minds? Did- did Davis produce light from nothing? What does any of this have to do with me? Why..."

"Hey slow down, slow down." August cut Angelo off with a slightly frustrated look on his face.

"I'm sorry," Angelo said quickly.

"It's fine, it's not every day your life gets torn apart." August said, "But I promised to answer all your questions, so I will with a bedtime story..."

"Dude, I'm sixteen."

"And I'm forty, but the story is meant for me anyways. Any questions it doesn't answer you can ask when I'm done, and only interrupt when necessary, okay."

"Just get it over with, please." Angelo said tiredly.

"All right." August said, "For you to understand, I have to all the way back to the beginning. Now I know it's an old cliché but trust me, for you to understand all I'm about to tell you, there is no better place to start. Tell me kid, what do you know of the big bang theory?"

Angelo was caught off guard. He'd stopped paying attention at the word 'cliché'.

"Excuse me?" He asked nervously.

"What do you know of the Big Bang? Not the sitcom, the actual big bang."

Angelo racked his brains for a second before answering the best he could.

"Well," He started, "I know that it was suggested by some Belgian priest, which is ironic."

"Go on." August said when Angelo was quiet.

"It explains how the universe began from an astronomical point of view. That the universe emerged as a single point and stretched to its current size, or something." the boy said scratching his nose.

"Not bad." August said, "Not perfect but...Oh well, I hope you're not very religious."

"I go to mass every Sunday."

"Okay..."

"I was being sarcastic man, chill."

"Oh thank god." August sighed relieved, "Because I don't think you would have accepted that the Universe as we know it is a conscious being."

"Excuse me?"

"Except, you see, the big bang didn't just expand space-time and spread an infinite amount of energy through it, it split the first being to exists consciousness into five different entities." August was saying.

"I hope you can keep up. The four conscious beings controlled different aspects of the already expanding universe, Space-time, Light and matter..."

"Those are three." Angelo interrupted.

"Patience. The aspect of matter is divided into two, physical and metaphysical. I don't want to get in too deep with the details right now, I'd need a classroom for that. Then as it has a tendency to do, history repeated itself. The being of matter replicated its aspect and created lesser beings which we call life. But life was imperfect and had its existence on the plane of the space-time continuum was limited so it eventually tore itself apart but then rebuilt itself again anew. A process that has continuously repeated itself since the first living being.

"So these lesser beings, they gave the deities names based on their impact on their existence. The being of physical matter who created them they called the Inventor, or, Lord Life. The Light they named The Great Guide, Lady Light to some. The being of metaphysical matter they named Lady Death, the Harvester. The deity of space-time, they called him the Judge, Lord Time.

"But there was a fifth deity, one that existed beyond the edges of the expanding Universe. Lord Darkness, the taker." August finished dramatically.

"So you're a cult that worships these deities?" Angelo asked provocatively.

The smirk he got in reply was not the intended result.

"No." August said. "Somewhere along the line, a war was started and the deities, along with the lesser beings took sides. Lord Life and Lord Darkness teamed up against Lady Light and Lady Death."

"And Lord Time?"

"It remained neutral. Tried to control and maybe even stop the war entirely."

"Tried? As in past tense?"

"Yes, he disappeared millennia ago. No one but the rest of the deities knows where he is, and it's a close kept secret."

"But what does any of this have to do with me?" Angelo asked despite already knowing the answer.

"Because, Angelo," August said yawning, "Your family is descendant to a string of Servants of the Great Guide: your mother, Davis, your grandmother and even the generation before that. And the War of Heralds has you wrapped around its finger.Such is the hierarchy of the universe." August yawned one last time and passed out on the seat.