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Khriztarl:
Talent in another dimension, different from the normal Amaka love Obi, and Sidat now lost his memory and Mara now married Khriston and Lee Mi Hoo now met jim goo bae and bula bula bula...
Franklin461 forget anti/uncle spam bot. You'll direct movies. Thanks for this update.
Well,
i think the pain in zeke's spine indicates danger.
Is amy really gonna fight her dad? Frank from the look of things her dad has been in existance thousands of years before now. Could same be said concerning amy, has she been in existance for that long?

op, if you don't mind let us in on what's happening in amy's world? Including what happened years back.
Amy just called her dad orca so who's zion?
Amy's dad is a fallen how is it, Amy's not a fallen? Who are the guardians?
Shelby, how did she get her gift?

Thanks for following.

For your questions, most of it would be answered in the course of the story.

Yes, it's a factor of time, you might want to pick up interest in quantum physics, time is a factor that travels differently across planets and galaxies and even within our galaxy, time as we know it here on earth is quite different from that in Jupiter or Saturn, it travels at a different pace.

Maybe we might get full insight to Amy's world in another story, like a sequel, but I hope you would make do with the little relevant info provided in this story to make your calculations and assumptions.

Orca is a myth, in ancient Rome, it is a place where dead souls are sent to before transported into oblivion. It is not a person. Zion is Amy's father and his role and intentions in all of this will be revealed as we go on.

Thanks again for your lengthy comment and for the compliments, I really do appreciate you taking the time to read through

Ann2012:
Well done OP

Thanks for following

Sorry for the late update, no, I wasn't banned this time. I've been really busy lately, running around to make some money It's not been as easy as I thought it would be, saving up for a laptop and i really need to get a laptop as typing with my phone is very very stressful, autocorrect been doing its worse lately.

Please bear with me.

Your comments as always are appreciated

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

The girl in black walked slowly towards the screen that showed output from the camera placed in Zeke's bottom. "Zoom in on him." She spoke to Justin, pointing at the man with the hat that was walking towards Zeke.

Justin zoomed in and adjusted the image to get a clearer view of him. The girl in black gasped.
"This is not possible."

"What, you know him?" Justin asked.
The girl in black quickly tapped on her earpod. "Get out of there now!" She screamed.

Justin looked at her, alarmed. "Who is he?" He questioned.

"The last of the higher fallen that was supposedly transferred to Orca. My father."

*

As I tried to remain on my feet and maintain my stamina, I wondered if I had heard right, her father? I wondered. I took another look at the man standing just a few metres into the subway as my head suddenly felt less heavy and the pain had suddenly stopped, he was wearing a hat like Nikita had said, and it was a black hat that hid most of his face. There was something off about him, something I could feel but couldn't put into words, it felt like I knew him even though I was seeing him to the first time, the connection was there and it felt so immense. My gaze slowly went from him to Shelby who was standing beside him and staring at me dumbfounded, and I suddenly became alarmed again. She turned to look down immediately our eyes met, something felt different about her and something also felt different in me, It was like something had flipped in me and I suddenly became bolder, power intoxicated, I felt like I was on some drug but i knew that was impossible. I had instantly became more aware about everything, from the creaks of the railway miles away to the sound of the clock ticking in the office of the receptionist on my right, to the little whispers of people walking up the staircase and staring at me and the mouse that was crossing the railway to find harbour in its home as the ground vibrated under my feet.

"Just walk away slowly." The girl in black's voice came again through the earpod. "He can not do anything to you with that much people around." She continued.

I pulled the earpod off my ears, sighed and took some steps forward, and even though I didn't have it in my ears, I could hear the girl in black protest at my action. I walked towards the man and Shelby, he was now standing in front of her, like her protector, her knight in shining armour, and it further enraged me. I stopped as soon as I was arm's length from him and we stared at each other for a while. If everything Nikita had told us was true, then he had not even aged a bit over the decades he had spent here and instead of dreading what he could do to at that point, my curiosity grew. He had a subtle smirk at the corner of his left lips and I wasn't fazed one bit.

"I think you have something that does not belong to you." I said turning to look at Shelby who still had her gaze to the floor. He remained silent for a while and I could see the contempt in his gaze, he was burning with anger but could not do anything at that moment. Tragedy.

Finally, he scoffed and turned to Shelby, he stared at her for a while before turning back to look at me.

"I think you're the one that's not welcomed here." He spoke and his voice sounded much more colder than I had expected.

I turned to Shelby and wondered why she wouldn't look at me.

"What are you doing?" I asked, directing my question at Shelby. "I'm here to get you out of here." I continued, but got no response from her.

The man walked in between us, turning to face Shelby and running his hands through her head leaving me breathless. "Why don't we let her make her own decisions." He said, his hands still caressing her hair.

He placed his hands firmly under her Jaw and lifted her head up, I reflexly held his hands and pulled them off her. He turned to look at me with his bloodshot eyes, his expression remaining blank as a small crowd was beginning to form behind us to watch the mini drama. Up ahead, I could see two police officers watching us with keen interest as they walked towards our direction slowly.

The man walked towards me and stopped when we stood ear to ear. "Today, you're lucky because you have the cover of people, but I can't promise you that you'd live to tell the tale the next time we meet and trust me, you'd pay dearly for this."

I turned to look around, and I could see some fallen among the crowd that was gathering behind us, men, women, and even children. I wondered how far he had gone in building his army and making them blend in so perfectly among normal people. The police officers were finally with us and they stared at both of us.

"Any problem here?" One of them asked.

The man turned to face them, and suddenly his expression changed and he was all lively, as he looked at them, all smiles.

"Nothing officers." He turned to me. "There just happened to be a case of a mistaken identity and we've sorted that out." He turned to me. "I think. Now if you will let us, I and my friend here have somewhere to be." He turned to Shelby and she walked slowly behind him.

I grabbed her hands as soon as she made to walk past me and the man also stopped in his track.

"We found your grandfather, he is safe and back in the country." I spoke, hoping that was the icebreaker she needed but she remained silent, not sparing me a stare.

The man walked towards us, as the police officers stared at us suspiciously.

"Do you know him?" He asked her.

She finally raised her head and looked at me. I still couldn't put my hands around what changed but she was felt very distant. "I have never met him in my life." She finally spoke, leaving me dumbfounded.

One of the police officers cleared his throat and walked towards us. "Would you let her go now, you could be charged with assault and sexual molestation if you keep this up."

Shelby looked away and pulled her hands away from mine, walking out of the subway with the man, as I watched and stood rooted to the spot.
I placed the earpod back into my ears and Justin's voice immediately came through.

"What the hell just happened?" He asked no one in particular.

I could hear the girl in black give a deep sigh before she finally spoke. "She has sworn allegiance to him, this is not good."

"What do you mean allegiance?" Justin shot back, but received no response from the girl in black.

I tapped on the earpod, also confused at her statement. "I coming back in, you have a lot of explanations to do and we have to figure out a way to get Shelby back."

*

The girl in black stood up from her sit and walked away from me towards the window, she stood in front of it and stared into the city that stood below our feet. She had not give a response yet to the question I asked, so I decided to ask again.

"You said he is your father, how is that possible, and if he was transported to Orca, how is he here?" I asked again as Justin walked into the sitting room.

"She is asleep now." He announced, referring to Nikita. He walked to the dining table and took his sit on one of the chairs, turning to pay rapt attention at us.

The girl in black turned back to look at us, her gaze still as flustered as it had been when she found out that Zion was here.

"I don't think you all understand what this means, because you are not asking the right questions. The presence of an higher fallen changes everything and it being my father makes it worse." She said in one breath.

"Then help us understand. How and why did your father get here and why is he trying to destroy the galaxies if he is one of the first few people that helped formed and keep it." I asserted.

"How he got here, I don't know. The last thing I heard after the raid on my home light years ago was that he and some other fallen had been found guilty of treason against the higher power that ruled over my galaxy, they had planned to overtake power and rule the entire galaxies because they considered us far too superior to remain silent while others thought we didn't exist, and they went against the standing order that individual galaxies should be solely responsible for its own welfare. It was a bloodbath for years as his followers slowly grew in number and it took many years before their pursuit could be curbed and another few years before he and his followers could be arraigned. Treason is a punishable offense by death and from the last I heard, he was transported Orca along with all his followers to face his penalties. Being the daughter of a fallen, as with the custom, I was quickly picked up and forced to join the guardians, a task force that keeps the balance in the universe and made sure that everyone that leaves the planet safely arrived at Orca where judgement is passed on them. It was not until around two light years ago that we heard of the attacks on the Milky way galaxies and was it implied for every other galaxies. It was chaos when it was finally revealed that some of the fallen had escaped transport and had not been recovered and that they might have ban responsible for it, but no one said anything about my father being among the fallen that had escaped."

"If all this happened light years ago, how old are you?" Justin asked as soon as she stopped talking.

The girl in black sighed. "Time is a very different factor in my planet and it spans differently across all galaxies and planets. Being the first, and the closest galaxy to the centre of the universe, the time it takes to go round the center is the shortest. We complete one revolution (one year) in about fourteen minutes here."

"So for every fourteen minutes you spend here, it means a year on your planet." Justin seemed unusually intrigued.

"Yes."

"Now, there is the factor of switching between galaxies. Because of the little effect that your atmosphere can have on us, aging on your planet is zero to nothing. As higher beings, our molecules can not age based on the factors here. Our wear and tear level is zero and this is the reason your galaxy is the most favorable place for every fallen that escapes to run to. If the vessel they posses ages, they automatically switch vessels, except for an higher fallen who can decide to remain in a single vessel and automatically preserve them."

"Woah. You know, when they told us in school that our planet was the only one in the galaxy to support life because the composition of the atmosphere in other planets were either too toxic or just below the level to support living things, I wondered what could have gone wrong and why we had the perfect air composition and water to support life. Images from places like Mars and Jupiter showed the presence of creeks and large hollows which could only mean that there was once a time that sea and oceans had existed in those planets which automatically translates to life, and now it all makes sense." Justin spoke

"But why would they want to destroy the last hope of life in the universe?" I asked curiously. "If they proceed with this plan, they would also be affected, because they would also have nowhere to go." I turned to the girl in black.

"Yeah, I've thought about that too and I've already summoned the calvary of guardians. They are on thier way here and would be here soon to eject the fallen and transport them to orca where their tru le intentions would be made known. But for now we have to do all we can to prevent them from getting their hands on all the Vynets, that would spell game over."

I sighed and stood up from the cushion I had been sitting on, that was all I could take for one day and I really needed to rest. I was about to walk out of the living room into the corridor when I saw them, the perfect image of my family. My mom was sitting on the couch while Michael ran after Shalom as he tried to retrieve the remote control of the television. I wondered what was happening, and I saw my mom turn in my direction and gave a suspicious look before turning away. I turned to look around, but I was no longer in Australia, I was back in my house and both Justin and the girl in black were nowhere to be found. The moment felt perfect, until I saw my dad walk out of the room towards them and gave my mom a kiss on her forehead. My senses immediately came back and i knew that something was wrong.

"Get our of my head." I murmured and I almost broke free, returning back to the apartment in sydney momentarily. "I said get the hell out of my head." I screamed and I immediately pulled out of it. For a brief moment as I pulled out of it, I saw Shelby staring at me, her nose bleeding.

I gave a loud sigh as soon as I got out of it and when I turned to look around, I saw the girl in black and justin standing motionless too. I walked toward the girl in black and ran my hands across her face but she was not there, she was far away. I wondered what was happening and as I tried to make it for the corridor, there was a loud sonic sound came from nowhere. It pierced through my ear drums and also that of Justin and the girl in black. I could see them fall to the ground holding their heads, screaming as their ears bled. It was different for me and even though I could also hear it, its effect was not as devastating as it was for them. My mind quickly scanned through where I had witnessed something like this before. At the subway. I was quickly alarmed.

"It's him." I could hear the girl in black scream as she wiggled and tried to get on her feet. "He is here. Get Nikita and the Vynet quickly." She fell back to the ground.

I walked out of the living room and hurried through the corridor towards the room we had placed her. The door was slightly opened when I got there and I proceeded with caution, pulling the gun from my waist a d holding it tightly with both hands as I pushed the door in. I turned on the light and I was met with a ruffled bedsheet, there was no one in the room. I hurried out and walked into the living room again and walked straight to the safe, I pulled it open but the Vynet was also gone.

"Damn." I exclaimed and instantly the sonic sound muted.

Justin and the girl in black got to their feet, struggling to maintain balance.

"They are both gone." I announced. "Nikita and the Vynet."

The girl in black groaned and got to her feet, Justin also groaned as he stood up.

"I just had the weirdest premonition." He announced. "My mom and my dad were standing right in front of me."

"It's not real." The girl in black announced. "I had suspected that she was a feeler, but I did not know the extent of her powers and he is exploiting her."

"Who?" Justin asked.

"Shelby."

I scoffed. "Why would Shelby allow him to exploit her?"

"Because she has sworn allegiance to him, and it's not something she can easily break free from." She replied, sighing.

enirock:
E don set. How pikin wan take fight papa. Nice twist Op. We await more updates as we dey play different plots for our head.

PenHub:
Thanks for the update bro
nice story

Lakesc:
This story keeps getting more interesting. Thanks for d update

Thanks for the comments, really appreciate it

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

Five days Later.

I helped Justin lift Nikita up from the room we had placed her, we dragged her across the room and placed her on top of a chair that stood just in front of the fireplace, as she fought back but had restricted movements with her hands and legs tied. She mumbled something in anger and glared at us, but we couldn't hear her because of the gag in her mouth.

"Did she say something?" Justin teased, his face inquisitive. He turned to me. "Did you hear something? Because I think he heard her call out for daddy." He chuckled and walked away to the dining table that had been his hub of operation since we moved into the house. Nikita mumbled something again in anger and I walked towards her to remove the gag from her mouth.

"I promise you, you will all pay for this, including your families and your little girlfriend." She screamed. I scoffed and put gag back on walking away from her.

"We will see about that."

The girl in black walked into the room holding a bottle and a syringe, she walked towards Nikita and I saw her eyes light up as she sighted the syringe. She wriggled on her sit and groaned again. The girl in black wasn't bothered by her actions as she inserted the needle of the syringe into the bottle and dragged out about 6ml. She raised the needle up and dispersed the air in it, she turned to Nikita who had suddenly frozen and stared at the needle in horror.

"Don't worry, we are not going to kill you, we will just ask you some questions and hope that you answer truthfully, although you won't have any other option." She pulled the cloth on Nikita's arm up and inserted the needle into it, emptying the entire syringe.

Nikita groaned in pained and her breathing started becoming heavier, the girl in black walked towards the dining and dragged a chair, placing it and sitting in front of Nikita, she cleared her throat and began.

"What's your name?" She asked and Nikita glared at her again, fighting the urge to speak. The girl in black checked her wristwatch, counting with her lips until she looked up again. "I will ask again, what's your name?"

"Nikita, Nikita molotov." She answered, sighing as soon as she had completed her statement.

The girl in black gave a wicked smile and she paused for a while, watching Nikita get angry at her for taking away her freewill.

"Nikita Molotov, who are you?" She asked.

"I'm the daughter of the Russian Chief of staff, I'm just thirty-five, but I am a certified professor in the field of nanotechnology and I also take history as a side hobby."

The girl in black raised her hand and Nikita suddenly stopped talking. I turned to Justin would had a wide smile plastered to his face as he watched the mini drama, he rolled his head towards me and winked.

"You claimed you were working with a Higher fallen, is this true?" The girl in black asked.

Nikita was silent as she tried to fight whatever it was that was flowing true her vein. "Yes." She failed. "Yes, I am. During my study about the historical war that took part in the sixteenth century, I came across the picture of a soldier that I had seen somewhere before, so I looked into it and I found photos of him in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, but his footprints suddenly went off grid after then and even after continuing to look into him and having to travel to different countries, i couldn't find anything on him anymore. I was about to give up, when on one fateful afternoon, he was standing in front of my office. What I felt at that moment could not be described by words, he really did exist and he came to me after he realised that I had spent years looking for him. He told me everything, and I mean every single thing. He had been here on earth for a very long time after the first cleansing had failed and had to remain here, because the cleansing was only possible every five thousand years. During that period, he had recovered the the Vynet from the guardians that stayed behind and killed everyone of them, he also made sure that none of their offsprings remained. He kept a low profile for over five thousand years and also built an army of fallen all over the world as they waited for the time when all the planets in the galaxies aligned and he could finally carry out the final cleansing."

I turned again to Justin and this time, the smile that had been plastered on his face was no longer there as realization hit him. I wondered why he had decided to come our now, after maintaining a low profile for thousands of years, it could only mean one thing, the time was near and we were walking in to disrupt the plans he had been nursing for thousands of years and I wasnot sure he would be pleased by that, I wouldn't.

"How do you know he wasn't just bluffing and was only a regular fallen?" The girl in black sounded more curious than she had been and she had always done that when it came to this higher fallen. I wondered why she was so persistent that he wasn't what he claimed he was.

"His eyes for one. When they turned white, other fallen tremble."

White?

"What do you mean white?" I asked, interrupting her.

She smiled and turned to me. "You don't know what you are walking into." She gave a wicked chuckle. "He expels fallen that disobey him by just touching them, the melt under his arms and become ashes. I've seen him do this countless times and I'm sure the same fate will befall you and your circus soon."

The girl in black stood up and paced away from Nikita in thoughts.

"Do you know who he is?" I asked but the girl in black remained silent.

Justin resumed clicking into his keyboard. "I will have to get the exact time frame of their meetings if we are going to confirm her story." He spoke, raising his head.

"There's no need for that. We are supposed to meet tomorrow at a subway. If you want to confirm my story, come with me."

Justin scoffed. "Nice try, but there's no way we are trusting a psychopath like you, and from the story you just told us, whoever this person is, he also sounds like a psychopath too. One psychopath on the loose can still be handled, but two? That's a risk anyone shouldn't take."

"If Shelby is with him, I think it's worth the shot." I imputed, turning to the girl in black. "This could be our only chance to get her back."

The girl in black stared at me for a while, and then at Justin. "I have a plan."

*

I walked through the streets of the most populous city in Australia, Sydney. It was not an understatement when people said that the state was the most populous in Australia, containing over 40% of their total population and being the hub of most its economy. Walking past people in the street, or 'Sydneysiders' as they loved to call themselves, it felt refreshing taking in the air filled with different scents of perfume, food items and most importantly, peace of mind, as that was something that had been hard to come by in recent days. I paced around for a while and finally took my sit in one of the market's open restaurants. Even after being there for over two days, I still found it quite amusing and unusual, watching people from different backgrounds and cultural upbringing find a common ground and share so many moments together in joy, without any discrimination. I hoped the peace that we had met ever since we came into the city was maintained through our stay and after we left, because we were not one that maintained stability wherever we went.

I picked up the newspaper placed on the table of my seat and glanced through the headlines, keeping up with the news had not been my strong point ever since we had started our mission of saving the world, not that it was before we did. There were a lot of interesting headlines about things happening in the country and I was amazed by some of the headlines, I didn't see any reason they should have been placed in a newspaper.

'Woman scams her husband of over 150 million Australian dollars, claims it's payment for all the hardship he puts her through as they await their divorce proceedings'

Guessed one thing was common among all countries, and that was the media. I scanned through the front page again and a headline caught my attention just on the right corner.

'China president has declared a state of emergency as violence in the country grows and more people die, amidst more claims of flying humans'

I sighed as I realized what that meant, the fallen were increasing in number and it was only a matter of time before they took over the country. I shifted on my seat, but my actions were too sudden and my back hurt again, the pain I got from it had subsided considerably over the days and it looked like whatever it was, it had finally decide to heal as my vertebrae had receded into my body. I wondered what all of it meant, if it had anything to do with the gift mom said I had but could not use because it had been suppressed. I wondered..

"Anything look unusual?" The girl in black's voice came through the earpod, cutting through my thoughts.

I turned to look around again but all I saw were the peaceful faces of innocent people going about their day.

"It's just another peaceful day in Sydney." I replied.

I heard Justin grunt before he finally spoke. "I told you we could not trust her, she is only leading us to our doom and I bet she already has one sinister plan cooked up."

"And like I have said countless times, no human can lie under the influence of the truth serum, the truth flows out effortlessly without even trying."

"Adjust the camera on your button and make sure you stay amidst people. I don't think he would be able to do anything to you in front of so many people." Justin spoke again.

I adjusted my button. "Can you see now?"

"Yes." He affirmed.

I looked around again. "How do I know it's him when I see him?"

"Well, according to Nikita, he always wears a black hat."

I scoffed. "Do you know how many people wear black hats?" I asked sarcastically.

I turned to look around again, towards the entrance to the subway and I saw something interesting, from the back view it looked like Shelby, and she was going into the subway. I stood up and walked slowly towards the entrance.

"What are you doing?" Justin asked.

I ignored him as I hurried towards the entrance of the subway.

"What, did you see something?" The girl in black asked.

"Shelby, I thinking just saw her walk in the subway." I spoke, waiting for the traffic signal to come up before walking across the street.

"Well I can't see anything in the video reviews. Are you sure it's her?" Justin asked again.

"I am." I crossed the road and walked into the subway.

*

"Now that you're in his head, you can bring him to us." Zion spoke, patching Shelby on her head as she breathed heavily, trying to maintain focus.

"How do you know this is working?" She asked. "I don't think it is."

Zion smiled. "You underestimate yourself, little girl. You have the power to manipulate minds and I will teach you how to do it, just like you found out that my partner was tied up in that little house, you can do much more than that if you let me teach you. I can make you the greatest feeler to ever exist among your lineage. But first, you have to draw him into the subway."

Shelby tried to stop herself from doing it, but she couldn't, it felt like she was compelled to do whatever he asked her to, like a slave answering its master. She felt something trip from her nose and when she touched it, she felt a liquid substance, raising her hands to her face she could see a stain of blood.

"Just a little more now, I can feel him already." Zion spoke.

*

I received a sharp headache as soon as I stepped into the subway, my back pain was back again, and this time more sever than it had ever been. I groaned and fell through the staircase, rolling off it and landing on my back as people watched me, frightened.

"What's happened?" The girl in black's voice came through the earpod.

I could not answer her as my back felt like it was going to rip apart and my head almost exploded in the process.

"I think his back pain is back." I heard Justin say.

"What back pain?" The girl in black shot back.

*

Zion felt time stop as soon as he saw the boy standing across the subway. He could feel it completely now and it was not like anything he had ever felt. How could that be possible, he made sure he killed off all their offspring and this? A fallen and a guardian's offspring, that was something he had never expected to happen. A great anomaly to the world and one that could become dangerous if he did not do anything about it. He took a step forward, walking past Shelby who had stopped what she was doing because she could no longer hold it.

*

The girl in black walked slowly towards the screen that showed output from the camera placed in Zeke's bottom. "Zoom in on him." She spoke to Justin, pointing at the man with the heart walking towards Zeke.

Justin zoomed in and adjusted the image to get a clearer view of him. The girl in black gasped.

"This is not possible."

"What, you know him?" Justin asked.

The girl in black quickly tapped on her earpod. "Get out of there now!" She screamed.

Justin looked at her, alarmed. "Who is he?" He questioned.

"The last of the higher fallen that was supposedly transferred to Orca, my father."

Thanks for the comments!

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

Three days later

Shelby stood in front of the mirror and kept her gaze on her reflection for a while, earlier, she had gotten one of her premonitions and had no one to tell it to. It was on that looked very dangerous and involved Zeke's family. She knew she had to find him fast and warn him, but she didn't even know if he was alive after they had been ambushed in Russia. There was a knock on her room's door and one of the female guards stepped in.

"The car is ready." She announced.

Shelby did not turn to look at her, she had been told earlier over the phone by the woman responsible for this, that she was going to be meeting an important person in her mission to recover the Vynet, 'The mastermind' as she had called it. Picking up her ribbon, she fit in the last piece of clothing and turned to follow the guard. They stepped out of the room and there stood two other guards that quickly followed her as soon as she walked past them, they had been putting a tight leach on her and her plans to escape had been curbed by the fact that they threatened her with her grandfather.

They sent her his pictures from time to time, he was doing well, although in isolation, but that was all that mattered to her. At the end of everything, she hoped to pay back whoever was responsible for it in as many folds as she could. She walked out of the large hotel in Sydney and stepped into the car that was parked just at its entrance, as one of the the guards held the door open for her. As the car moved into the main road, she prayed that Amy and Zeke were fine wherever they were and that they find her grandfather before they came for her, as that was the only way she could get out of this.

*

Present

"Justin has gotten us a route out of Russi to Australia." I announced to the girl in black, but her confused expression still remained plastered to her face.

"And how does that justify you bringing the whole host of guards to us in the garage?" She asked.

"They took Shelby over there to help identify who the next holder of the Vynet is and they are threatening her with her grandfather." I could see the unbelief and anger in Amy's face. "But Australia is a very big country and they could be anywhere as we couldn't track their flight path. We need to get that piece of information before we leave tonight and the only person that would know where they've taken her and her grandfather to is Nikita."

The girl in black stared at me as she tried to make sense of my statement. "So how do you plan on getting that piece of information from her while her guards stand by?"

I remained silent as I left it up to her to figure it out, her face lit as soon as she realised what I was going to do. She smiled and shook her head.

"No we're not."

I nodded. "Yes we are." I turned to look around the garage, frying to find a vehicle that would fit perfectly with the plan I had in mind. "Voila". I muttered as my gaze stopped on one of the Ambulance in the garage. I turned to the girl in black and smiled, she reciprocated.

I clicked on earpod. "I need Nikita's position."

There was another static and Justin's voice came through. "She is in the elevator with two guards, the other guards are coming down through the stairs. She would be with you in less than thirty seconds while the other guards are about a minute out."

I turned to the girl in black. "We have only thirty seconds."

"That's more than enough time." She replied walking quickly to the ambulance. She unlocked the back of the ambulance and entered into the driver's seat as she tried to hot wire it.

I clicked on the earpod again. "I want you to shut down the electric supply to the whole hospital as soon as the elevator opens up."

"What is your plan?" Justin asked, cutting me.

"Let's just say that we are going to be needing an extra seat on the cargo ship out of Russia and a high profile candidate is going to be joining us on our voyage out."

"You're crazy." Justin replied and I couldn't blame him because it was true.

What I was about to do was something that could turn the whole country upside down, but it was something I needed to do if I we were going to make up for lost time and get this to end fast.

"I need you to also hack into the traffic systems and clear the route to the port, it's about to be a thrilling ride out of Russia."

*

Three days later

The car pulled up in front of a large cathedral and one of guard stopped out to hold the door open for Shelby. She stepped out of the car and was led towards the entrance by another guard. She could also see some other guards stationed strategically around the cathedral as she walked in and her curiosity grew. She walked into the cathedral and the large door was shut behind her. Up ahead, a man stood, staring at the large painting of the last supper that stood just at the front of the building. She took some slow steps towards him, her every stride making a whole lot of noise in the very silent building. She soon stood beside him and followed his gaze as she wondered what it was that made him place on his attention on it.

"You know, when this was first painted by Leonardo Da Vinci, it had two women standing by the side of the human messiah.' He spoke, referring to the painting. "But over the years, as time transcended, a question was raised on the integrity of the religion he stood for if the truth about the picture was made known to his followers and the backlash that it would receive from a lot of philosophers and unbelievers around the continent, so what did the ancient roman priests do?" He snapped his hand and its echoe reverberated all around the building. "They rewrote history by taking out the women in the picture." He turned to Shelby for the first time and she could see his face clearly. "Do you want to know who the women were?"

Shelby used that opportunity to analyse him. He looked like he was in his early fifties or late forties, although there was something about him that was ancient, his dress was very neat and screamed wealth as he neatly buttoned his blue blazers over his tux. Her gaze scrolled to his hand and she saw the symbol on the staff he was holding. She had seen that symbol before and she racked her head to remember where she had seen it, but the tension of moment prevented her from thinking clearly. She returned her gaze to his face and thinks time, the corner of his mouth had folded into a smirk.

He looked away from her and back to the painting. "They were the women that knew who he really was, the women that he confided in whenever he felt overwhelmed by the vision he was pushing, the women that gave him advice in the middle of the night when he was troubled and also gave him a bossom to lay on while he slept peacefully, but when history needed their story to be told, they were wiped clean off the slate of earth, like they never existed because they just didn't fit the agenda." He turned to look at Shelby again. "Who would want to be in the same shoes as those women, they partook in such an historical situation but their names were never mentioned even after all their sacrifice." He shook his head. "Such a pity."

He turned and walked away from the painting, towards the priest's seat. "You must be Shelby." He said, taking his seat. "You know, I've watched several generations of your kind come and go without really knowing who they truly were because we lived in a time of peace. It was such a pity watching friends and family desert them, they considered them possessed because they could tell what was going to happen and what had already happened due to their gift. I know you have already started having some visions of your own and it's good that you found friends that could understand you and love you for who you are, something your mother was not able to do."

Shelby became automatically uncomfortable as she stared at the man. How the hell did he know about her mother and that she was not in her life? He probably ran a background check on her, that was the only explanation.

"Don't look all surprised. I know a whole lot about you and your family, I was there the day you were born and I have watched you grow into this young vicious woman that you are even though you had it rough. After you Dad's death, I thought you'd snap, but again you proved me wrong and kept on going."

Shelby immediately wanted answers. "Who are you?" She asked

Almost immediately the large door to the building opened and a man walked in, from his dress, she could tell that he was a priest, he walked past her and walked to the man, bending beside him and whispering something into his ears. The priest stood straight and looked at Shelby and she saw it, his eyes. She took a few steps backward as the priest walked past her again and walked out of the cathedral. Her heart beat had tripled and she could feel the hair on her skin rise.

"Who the hell are you?" She asked again

"Relax. If I wanted to harm you, I would have done it already." The man spoke and his voice was as gentle and cold as ever.

"I'm sure you've met my daughter already, such lovely girl she has become, passionately fighting for the planet that threw her father away like he was trash.' He chuckled for a while. "Talk about misplaced priorities."

Shelby was left at a loss as she wondered who it was that he was speaking about. She was not concerned about it, all she wanted was for a grandfather to walk free and for all these to ened quickly.

"You know, your gifts are broader than you think. You think you can only see things that have not yet happened, but no, that's just the tip of the iceberg. With the right training, you will be able to look into the future and the past of anybody you come in contact with, you will be able to find anybody you want to by just holding something that belongs to them and that is why I need you, because you hold the key to winning this war. You're like the bishop in a chess game and with the right moves, we all know how dangerous it is to own one when your opponent doesn't."
Shelby stared at the man in despair, how pathetic he was thinking that she could do all he had mentioned when he had just met her that day. She quickly saw it as an opportunity to strike a deal.

"If you want me to help you, you have to let my grandfather go. He has nothing to do with this."

The man stood up and walked towards her. "I'm not one that does things in the mediocre human ways, my human partner insisted on using him to get to you, it's amazing how human emotions work, how indebted they fell to one another. I can let him of the hook, but you have to swear allegiance to me. You should know that once sworn, you can never go back on it. It will over ride your will power and you would do whatever I tell you even if you don't want to. I just got information that more guardians are coming to your planet in order to stop the destruction of the universe, but I plan to be ready and well positioned when they arrive and I need to have all the Vynet when they do arrive."

Shelby grew reluctant, she didn't know what she was getting herself into but if it was going to get her grandfather off the hook, she was willing to pursue it, till Amy and Zeke were able to find her.

"Before I do that." She spoke. "I need to know who you are."

The man smiled and looked away from her, back to the painting. He remained silent for a while, and when he turned back to look at her, the scene sent horror down her spine as she stepped away from him. His eyeballs were different from the others, they were not dark and soulless, it was a contrast of what she had been seeing. It was as if he had lost all the dark part of his eyeballs and it was all white.

"I am Zion, the last of the galaxies founding fathers, and the messiah of the galaxies."

*

The elevator beeped and immediately the lights went off. The guards reflect took steps towards Nikita as they tried to shield her from the unknown. I walked towards them and smashed both their heads with the rod I was holding. Nikita gasped and tried to make it out of the garage but the girl in black was on cue, hitting her in the back of her head and knocking her unconscious before she could make it out. We dragged her into the back of the ambulance and drove out of the garage as the backup generator kicked in and the lights came back on. I drove past the soldiers that were running to wards the garage, they were too focused to check an unsuspecting ambulance and as fast as I could, I drove into the main road, tapping on the earpod.

"Meet us at the port, it's time to get out of here."

So I got suspended again and found out that the reason might be because I keep on posting long paragraphs whenever I come on the platform (for my story) and that the bot might have mistaken it for spam and that's why it keeps suspending me. Was also told to comment and do other things before posting updates to prevent the bot from continuing to suspend me.

it's really frustrating and I would try to make comments on other things before posting an update if I can and hope these continuous suspensions would stop

CHAPTER TWELVE

Justin pulled the car by the side of the road and we remained in it while he ran a check through his PC. I had decided that we had to figure out a way to leave Russia that night and go to Australia undetected and he had suggested that the best way to do that was to go through a cargo ship. He successfully pulled up the log of the closest port and was running through the departure list for the night.

"There is a ship leaving for Australia by 11:50pm."

I turned to look at his stereo, it was already 10:38pm.

"It means we technically have an hour and twenty two minutes to get in, get Amy and drive to the port without drawing attention to ourselves."

One of the walkie talkie came on and there was a voice speaking through it in Russian. I knew what that meant and turned to Justin, hoping he had finished configuring the earplugs and had secure the signal, we had to move quickly now if we didn't want Nikita to find out the state of things.

"I've gotten into the security cams and looped the output, they would be watching clips from minutes before." He handed me the earplug. "Put this in, I would be giving you directions from here. From the look of things, she looks to be in the last ward on the west wing due to the concentration of security there, there is no security cam there, so I can't see what is going in there." He looked away from his laptop for the first time in a while and turned to me. "Be careful."

I pulled out of the car, checking the gun clip, I still had about six shots left if it came to that, I was determine to do all I could to make sure we successfully recovered the girl in black and afterward Shleby after which we had to analyse the situation and figure out a way forward. I adjusted my shirt over my shoulder and walked across the street towards the gate of the hospital, two security guards were having a conversation at the little security post when I walked by and they seemed very uninterested in whatever was going on around them.. As I approached the entrance of the hospital, my gaze caught a security guard standing on the outside of the building. I tapped on the earplug.

"Is there any other entrance into the building, the front entrance is compromised." There was a static and Justin's voice came through.

"To your left, down the building, there is a garage in there."

I turned to my left and walked down to the garage, it was a very large space that led underneath the hospital. There were various cars parked in there, including ambulances and there were also some unsuspecting family sitting in their cars and having sad talks.

"To your right, you should be walking straight to an elevator."

I walked to my right and came directly to the elevator, I clicked on the button and waited for a while as it indicated that it was occupied. As I waited, I turned to look around in order to make sure that I was not seen and did not raise any kind of alarm.

"Don't worry, I'm your eyes in there. Before anybody comes within five miles of you, you would already know." Justin's voice came again reassuring me.

I turned and found a camera just above me. The elevator pinged and finally opened and I stepped in, just as it was about to close, a lady rushed in, from her expression, I knew she was there to see somebody and it wasn't any good news. I sighed as she clicked on the fourth floor, that was just two floors below the floor I was heading to and we remaned in the elevator quietly as it moved up. There was another beep and the door opened, she rushed out almost immediately and ran down the corridor as the door shut again.

"Stop at the fifth floor." Justin's voice came through the earplug

I quickly reached for the button and clicked on the fifth floor. The door opened and I stepped out of the elevator, the sign above read Orthopaedic centre and there were patients with crutches and wheelchairs all over the floor.

"Use the staircase on your right and wait for my signal before you walk into the floor, it's crawling with more soldiers now, I think they might have figured out that something is wrong."

I sighed and pulled the door open, bursting into the staircase, I shut the door behind me and climbed up to the sixth floor, standing behind the door and waiting for Justin to give me the signal.

"Now."

I pushed the door and walked straight to the right casually to avoid any form of attention from the people there, there were more nurses and doctors on the floor compared to the previous floor.

"Where is the changing room?" I asked.

"Two doors ahead and to your left." Justin replied.

I pulled the door open and walked into the room. As quickly as I could, I picked up a white coat and a face mask and put it on, dragging one of the hospital machine with me as I stepped out of the room and wheeled it towards the said room. I had taken about four step when I had a call in my direction and a nurse stood there, glaring at me.

"Kuda ty idesh' s etim? (Where are you going with that?)" She asked in anger and got the attention of most people in the room.

"Shit."

She walked towards me and glared at me again. "Ty zdes' noven'kiy? Na birke chetko ukazano, chto eto neispravno (Are you new here? The tag clearly states that this is faulty.)" She continued, pointing at a red tag and something written in Russian. Amy had helped us understand and speak Russian, but she never thought us how to read it.

"Izvini, ya ne obratil vnimaniya. (Sorry, I wasn't paying attention.)" I replied, trying to do some damage control.

She stared at me again. "YA predpolagayu, chto vy odin iz novykh stazherov, v kakom otdele vy nakhodites'?"

"Obshchaya meditsina (General medicine.)" I quickly responded.

"Otlichno, ya polagayu, vy znayete, kak zalatyvat' i ochishchat' rany, vrachu v palate 44B nuzhen kto-to, chtoby pomoch' yey zalatat' patsiyenta. (Great, I assume you know how to patch and clean up wounds, the doctor in room 44B needs someone to assist her in patching up the patient.)"

"That's Amy's room." Justin spoke immediately, I nodded as I tried to smile beneath my mask, no harm done.

I followed her down the hall, lowering my head as I walked past some of the unsuspecting soldiers. She pulled the door to the room open and I could see a doctor sitting beside an hospital bed, holding a skin stapler. I quickly turned to the patient and recognized Amy immediately, I finally gave a sigh of relief. There was no one else in the room and I wondered where Nikita had gone to, the doctor did not raise her head to look at us, she concentrated on what she was doing until she was able to get the last angle for skin stapling. My gaze caught Amy's and she stared at me curiously, I nodded my head and I could see the relief on her face.

"Finish up here." The doctor spoke, pulling off her gloves and handing over the tray of equipment to the nurse. "Make sure you don't allow those soldiers in and if they try to forcefully get in, send for me." She continued. She turned to Amy. "You need to rest, luckily, whatever it was didn't harm any vital organ and you would only have a little scar on tour abdomen, apart from that, you would be fine." With that she walked out of the room with the nurse, leaving me with her.

I pulled my mask down immediately and the girl in black quickly sat up.

"How did you get in here, and why are you dressed like a doctor?" She asked.

"There is no time to explain, we have to get out of here now." I replied, clicking on the earplug. "I got her, we need a way out."

"Just a moment." Justin replied, piling up on my anxiety. "Shit." He spoke and I felt my heart miss two beats. "A car just pulled up in the garage and Nikita is back, I must say she doesn't look too pleased."

I walked over to the girl in black. "Can you stand?" She nodded and I helped her to her feet. "You have to remove that." I pointed to the bracelet that Nikita had earlier given her. "You come with me immediately I walk out of the room. It would be easier if I'm the only one they can see, they think I'm a doctor and would not be alarmed. Make sure you stick to me."

She pulled it off and handed it over to me. "We are not dropping the bracelet, I think Justin can take a look at it and develop something similar to it that can definitely help me blend into the human world." She spoke

I collected the bracelet and placed it into my pocket. "Here we go."

I placed the nose mask over my face and walked out of the room, Shelby following me closely behind, we walked past the soldiers and down the hall, the elevator beeped just ahead and Nikita stepped out of it along with some soldier, and like Justin had said, she looked unhappy and furious. She walked past me and our gaze met as she did, I tried to maintain a straight face as I walked past her. I quickly slipped into the the elevator before it closed, the girl in black reciprocating my actions. I sighed as soon as the elevator closed and pulled off the mask and white coat. The elevator slowly descended and the time it took felt like eternity.

"Guys, there is a problem." Justin voice came through. "She just walked out of the room in a ger and her soldiers are running through the corridor, I think they figured out that she's gone already.

Of course they did, I thought. "Is the entrance still safe?" I asked as the elevator beeped and we were back in the garage.

"Unfortunately no, the soldiers have moved to the gate and are checking every car a d person that is leaving the hospital."

I sighed and ran my hands through my head, this was something I had expected, but not when I was very close to walking out with being noticed. I thought for a while and an idea struck me.

"You still have the original clips of me being in the garage right?" I asked.

"Yes, why?"

"I'm sure they would be looking into the cameras and trying to figure out where we are. Upload that and let them know that we are in the garage."

There was a short pause and Justin's voice came in again. "But that would lead them straight to you."

"Yes, that is exactly what I want." I smiled turning to look at Amy's confused face.

CHAPTER ELEVEN


I got to my feet groaning, I could feel some pain in my back, probably from bruises I acquired smashing through the inclined plane, the persisting back pain was back again, and this time much more severe than it usually was. I groaned loudly and almost fell back to the floor, my hand quickly grabbing what had been the bed frame to keep me from hitting the floor. Justin hurried to me, placing his flashlight on a bent wood.

"Are you okay?" He inquired.

I could not give him a response as I tried to contain the stuffing pain coming from my back, I could not contain it anymore and I gave a loud shout.

"It hurts." I screamed, my hands slipping off the bed frame as I fell to the floor.

"What's wrong, are you hurt?" Justin sounded concerned.

"My back." I managed to say.

He pulled his torch closer and ripped off my clothes, pointing his torch at my back. "Oh my God." He muttered as the pain began to subside.

"What's wrong?" I questioned trying to catch my breath.

"Something is wrong with your spine, they are protruding out of your skin and from the look of things, this isn't something new, your skin has healed around them, giving them space to protrude in and out."

I groaned and pulled what was left of my torn cloth over my back, the pain had finally subsided and I felt relieved. I had also noticed it on the night of the concert but I really didn't think much of it. There was no article of similar symptoms on the web no matter how I phrased the keywords and since it was something new, I had decided to watch and see how it advanced; a feat I thought would be successful if not for the ever growing pain. Anyways, I was not the problem we had at that moment, the girl in the black and Shelby needed help and they needed it fast and we could not sit around discussing protruding spine.

"Judging from your reaction, this is not the first time this would happen, am I right?" Justin was at it again, ever inquisitive.

I ignored him and tried to locate my cellphome in the mass of broken woods. I turned over the screen and found out that it was broken, I sighed as I turned the screen on and tried to scroll through but received no response from the screen.

"Do they know?"

I turned to Justin, my gaze indicating that he should back off but Justin wasn't one for that, he always wanted to see what he could do.

"Does Amy and Shelby know about this?" He asked again.

"No they don't, and I plan on keeping it that way until I figure out what it is. Now, we must focus on how to rescue the girl in black and Shelby as they need our help. It's only a matter of time before Nikita discovers that her men are not with the Vynet and have been compromised, and we need to have gotten both of them back by then."

I walked towards the kitchen and picked up a piece of wood, I hit the floor in a straight line, listening attentively until a piece of wood popped and pulled out of the rest. I tried to reach into it and was met with an empty space.

"Looking for this?" Justin spoke and my gaze went to his right hand.

"How did you know where it was?" I asked as I walked back to him to retrieve the Vynet.

"Well, Amy gave it to me earlier when we were ambushed and made me promise on my mother's grave to protect it with my life."

I was shocked by Justin's statement, I didn't know he had lost his mother and at that moment, I realised that I didn't know anything about him. "I'm sorry, I didn't know about your mother." I said, walking back to my room with some ropes.

Justin followed me from behind. "There's nothing to be sorry about, she died a long time ago, I was two and I barely remember her face." He said.

I bent beside the soldier and put the rope beneath his legs, tying them tightly, I tried to drag his hands, but my back hurt everytime I tried to exert it. "Can you help me here." I called out to Justin.

We rolled both soldiers to the corner of the room and I made sure that the rope was secured around them. I reached for their pockets and pulled out their guns, lasers and walkie talkies.

"Were you able to track them after they left the apartment?" I turned to Justin.

"Actually..." He spoke, leading me to the sitting room "...yes. I was able to gain remote access to the car tracker and they went to Rovelette Hospital." He dragged his backpack and pulled out his laptop from it. Its screen lit up and a google map appeared. "It's around seven minutes ride from here if we take the shortcut around Dolgoda."

"And Shelby?" I asked. "Any sign of her?"

Justin sighed and I knew that it could only mean bad news. "About Shelby." He clicked into his PC and pulled out a clip of an hanger. "She's no longer in the country." He turned the screen to me.

I could some soldiers drag Shelby out of a black vehicle and drag her into a private jet as she struggled to get free. Her face was covered with a black piece of clothing but she was wearing the same clothes she wore when they had abducted her earlier, although, I could see some stains of blood on them. I tightened my fist in anger.

"Do you know where the plane departed to?" I asked Justin, turning the screen back to him, I had seen enough.

"I tried to track every flight registry and there was no record of this particular jet being in the hanger. My thoughts are that they didn't file in for departure and if there is no record for it, they might as well be anywhere in the world now."

I became even more furious hearing this, Nikita had proven to be a step ahead of us every time and it was really frustrating playing second fiddle to her, it was time we levelled the play ground.

"From the conversation I heard over the phone, I assume the Chief of staff's daughter is responsible for all these and has gotten her hands on my files." Justin spike and I could sense a glint of guilt in his voice.

I sighed again, trying to collect my thought and figure out a way we could get out of the mess we had put ourselves in. One of the soldiers groaned and I pointed my torch to him.

"Not all psychopaths are born into distorted family." I spoke, walking to the soldier.

He groaned again as I bent beside him, hitting his face rapidly with my right palm as I tried to speed up his regain of consciousness.

"Hey." I muttered.

He stiffened and tried to make a swift move away but discovered that he was tied and restricted, he stopped struggling and stared at me like a furious mouse caught in a trap.

"You want to live right?" I asked. "Well, all you need to do is to tell me where you took my friend, the girl that was abducted from this cabin."
He stared at me for a while and burst into a loud chuckle. "You think I would just hand over that piece of information to you?" He chuckled again and spat to the floor.

I shut my eyes, I had expected it to come to this and like Nikita, I was ready to do anything to achieve my aim, especially when the lives of the ones I loved were at stake. I walked back to the table and picked up a gun, I walked towards the soldier, pointed the gun at his leg and pulled the trigger. He screamed and cursed as he placed his head against the wooden floor in an attempt to numb the pain.

"Now, we can do this all day or you can save your life by giving me the little piece of information I want." I spoke again.

He groaned loudly in pain and I could hear his laboured breath but I wasn't triggered by any of it, I had grown immune to emotions at that point, it felt as if my humanity had been turned off and nothing felt better.

He stared at me with rage in his eyes as he bit his lower lip. "Bleep you, I will make sure I gut your intestine and make you watch as I roast them and feed them to my dogs."

"Wrong answer." I pulled the trigger again, catching his second leg and he screamed again.
Justin walked towards me and whispered into my ears. "Isn't that getting too much?"

I ignored him and walked towards the soldier, pointing the gun to his head. "You can give me the information I want or I kill you and wait for your friend to regain consciousness. I am sure he would not be as adamant as you were when he sees what became of you after holding out."

He groaned again in pain and cried out, I pressed the gun against his head, apply more pressure.

"Okay, okay." He finally spoke and I could hear Justin give a sigh of relief. "She confessed that the next place you were going was Australia and that the next holder of the Vynet was there, so she was taken there to identify who it was."

I scoffed. "And were you all stupid enough to think she would actually identify who it was, handing the Vynet to you, just like that?"

He groaned again and tried to catch his breath. "Not when we have her grandfather and can end his life anytime." He turned to me again, his eyes burning. "I also wonder what would be of your family once Nikita discovers what you have done. She is not a woman that forgives and she loves to do extreme things to show you that she's in charge." He chuckled again and I was tempted to blow his skull out. I decided against it and smashed the back of the the gun against his head, leaving him unconscious.

I turned to Justin. "We have to get out of here now."

He quickly packed his backpack and hurried out of the house, we walked towards his parked car and pulled in. Before he started his engine, he turned to me.

"Back in there, you weren't going to kill him were you?" He asked.

I didn't turn to look at him, I kept my gaze ahead as I tried to think of the next step. "Not if he gave me what I wanted." I replied.

As we pulled on to the road, my mind went to my family and I wondered how they were. I vowed that if anything happened to them, I was not going to be letting the person responsible for it get off the hook easily, even if it involved killing them.

*

Two weeks ago

My mom sat across the room from me, silent. It had been over a minute and she had not even said a word to me. Shelby had excused us and I knew it was hard for her, since she had specially picked out the Chicken and drink for that occasion, her big mouth ruined the moment though.

"Did you ever plan on telling me though?" My mom asked sounding disappointed. "Or were you just going to walk out of our lives because you feel like you're no longer answerable to us because we are not your biological family?"

I sighed, that definitely had nothing to do with me not telling her about my plan to follow Shelby to Russia and if anything, I really wanted to tell her and seek her advise but my bruised ego and distorted thinking prevented me, furthermore, I could not endanger her further by telling her what was happening, ignorance in her case was far better.

"You know, I've always known this day would come, a day where you find out the truth and decided that you no longer wanted us to be part of your life and no matter how hard I prayed that it turned out differently, I always knew that it was always going to be like this."

I could tell that she was hurt and only somebody you loved could feel that way towards you and it became very much harder to handle. I wanted to breakdown and tell her everything from the girl in black to the fallen but the implications were far too great and I could not handle the guilt if something happened to them because of what they knew.

She stood up and sighed. "I'm not going to stop you from leaving, take your time. Whenever you are ready to come back, we will be here, waiting for you with open arms." She walked towards me and almost gave me a hug, but stopped in her tracks. She shut her eyes and tears rolled down from it. "This is not goodbye, I've known you since you were born and I know you would come back to us." She wiped off the tears and walked out of the room, shutting the the door behind her.

Ismaxx:
I love dis...kip it rolling bro

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Khriztarl:
Whoa.. Interesting piece.

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enirock:
Interesting.

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Odoogu:
this is becoming a mission impossible...

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Lakesc:
This is getting more interesting. Thanks for the update

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CHAPTER TEN


The girl in black took a few step towards us, her gaze still flustered and fixed on Nikita. Nikita ran her hands over her face again and did not flinch, she only kept her gaze on me, her look frightening.

"It's been quite a journey, following you two around from the hospital, to your house and it's good to see that your family are doing alright and are beginning to adjust to life without your dad."

I got to my feet as I squeezed my palm in anger at how she touched such sensitive topic without caring, I was alarmed that she had all these information and had been keeping tabs of my movement from the beginning, I wondered how she was able to know all these without drawing suspicions; the CCTV camera. She even knew about my family and where they were, I grew more alarmed.

"Don't worry, nothing will happen to them." She continued, probably sensing my alertness. "At least if you're cooperative." She added, raising my guard again.

She stood up and walked towards a shelf on the right part of her large living room. "You know, it's not fair to have a conversation with somebody and not get to at least get to see them."

She picked up another shade and clicked on it. It beeped and a red interface appeared across its lenses. My eyes fell wide open as I hoped it was not what I was thinking. Nikita turned to look around the room and stopped when she got to the direction of the girl in black, how did she get it so fast?

"There you are." She said. "It's really a blessing, getting to witness something as magnificent as this and I'm telling you this as a nano technologist and as an historian." She took some slow steps towards the girl in black and wave her hands through her. "Wow, phenomenal. It's nothing like I have ever seen before." She repeated the motion again. "The way your molecules quickly dissociate at the presence of something denser than it is a case study every scientist will want to get their hands on." She smiled and walked away, moving back to her sit. "It's a pity that they would have to wait to read my publications after I am done."

I scoffed, turning to the girl in black who stared at Nikita, rage and curiosity lingering on her expression. I turned back to Nikita who had picked up her glass again and was about to take another sip out of it.

"What do you mean by publications?" I asked my mind failing to comprehend the statement.

She smiled and dropped her cup. "Your friend, Shelby wasn't an easy one you know, she really held out through the endless torture and beatings but once we got our hands on her grandfather and showed her proof, she melted like ice cream under intense heat." She chuckled.

The girl in black clicked on to her bracelet and charged at her angrily. Nikita raised her head and did not flinch even for a second. There was a loud sound and an alarm beeped, out of the blue, a red light appeared and pierced through the girl in black, she screamed,l and fell to the ground, clutching on her abdomen. I hurried to her and helped her turn over, she was bleeding heavily in lower abdomen and I applied pressure on it to prevent any further bleeding.

"What the hell do you think you are doing?" I screamed, doing a poor job of controlling my rage.

Nikita chuckled again and picked up her glass. "You know, your new friend had a lot of important information on the invisible girl, including nasty ways to harm her too. So immediately I acquired that information, I used my connections as a professor and as the daughter of the chief of staff to prepare a gift for her. She waved her hand to a CCTV camera and almost immediately, some soldiers hurried in holding rod-like materials, they also had the same uniforms as the soldiers that had ambushed us back in the cabin.

She rose up and took some steps towards one of the soldiers, receiving the rod from him. She walked towards us and bent beside the girl in black.

"Do you know what this is?" She asked, smirking.
The girl in blacked winced in pain as she tried to get up but couldn't.

Nikita clicked her tongue. "If I were you, I wouldn't try to get up anytime soon. This is the first of its kind, you know, humans considered infrared lasers obsolete because the wavelength was just too small to cause any reasonable harm to humans and could not be used as a weapon of mass destruction, who would have knew that a technology we considered useless would suddenly move up the pecking orders? Well, life they say, is all about change."

I growled in frustration, the girl in black had lost so much blood and really needed to be treated if she was going to survive, but I didn't know how that was going to be possible because there was no way anyone could see her, talkless of touch her and Nikita wouldn't back down of her revolution talk even with a life at stake.

"What the hell do you want?" I asked in frustration.

She stood and walked back to the soldier, handing over the rod back to him. "Simply put, everything."

I sighed, shutting my eyes as my frustration grew, how was it so hard for her to speak in plane terms even when she knew it was the right thing to do for everybody in order to waste less time.

"What do you mean by everything."

"I can save you friend here, my men have made lot of modifications on the bracelet your amateur tech expert made and..." She walked towards the wall and unlocked a safe, bringing out another bracelet. "..this can save her. It not only makes her hand visible like the one she has on, but it impacts all the molecules in her body, bringing them together and making her whole and susceptible to our touch."

I stood up to receive the bracelet but she pulled her hands back. "Not so fast. First, I will need to get am important information from our dear invisible girl."

"Amy." I said angrily. "She has a name, and her name is Amy." I said again.

Nikita gade an uncanny look. "Not a bad name." She said. "Shelby didn't seem to know where it is, and trust me, if she knew, she would have given it to me." She turned to the girl in black who gave a death stare. "The Vynet you recovered in China, where is it?"

Woah, I wondered what was happening and how she even knew about the Vynet existence. The girl in black was quiet, as she clung onto her abdomen tightly, I knew that resolve and I knew that she preferred to die, than to spill its location, I wasn't prepared to let that happen.

"What do you want with it?" I asked.

Nikita sighed and walked towards us again, and my eyes was fixed on the bracelet, the girl in black's only lifeline to surviving this scare.

"I know you have been told a lot about it, and how it was dangerous to all mankind and could end humanity and life in other galaxies blah blah blah, but what your friend here didn't tell you, was how it was also the key to saving humanity."

"You're crazy." The girl in black muttered in pain.
I turned to her, my gaze questioning. "What does she mean?" I asked.

Nikita chuckled. "She told you stories about how earth and humans were the least developed amongst all of the galaxies and how we were far too behind on technology, but she never mentioned that the Vynet was more than just a tool to destroy all of mankind, the Vynet is also a storage device that contains every detail of the location, progress and every single detail on technologies used in every other planets in the galaxies, a data that can only be assessed when we get our hands on all the Vynet and use them as one. Imagine what it would mean for us if we had all that information for ourselves and are able to conquer every other planet in the galaxy, colonizing them and declaring ourselves as the one and only superior specie."

"You must be out of your mind." The girl in black countered. "You will only make it easier for the fallen to get their hands on it if you put it together. You would have done most of the work for them, and all they would need would be just to activate it at the equator."

Nikita gave a wide smile and placed the bracelet on the center table.. "You think I am going to let outcasts from your planet to stop me? I am going to destroy every single person that tries to stop me from achieving my aim and the fallen are included. You know, after watching a clip of your little tussle in China, I have come up with more effective ways of destroying every single fallen and it is a simple technique that is more effective than using swords.

The girl in black groaned. "Only the sword can banish them, preventing them from taking over another vessel." She spoke almost in whispers as she struggled to get the words out.

Nikita smiled. "And what about an higher fallen?" She asked.

The girl in black expression suddenly changed and she stared at Nikita in shock and I knew something was wrong.

"What's an higher fallen?" I asked, staring at both ladies in confusion.

The girl in black shook her head. "That's not possible, the last one was banished long before I was born and there is no report of him not making it to Orca." She spoke and it was almost as if she was trying to convince herself.

"What's going on here?" I asked again, my question falling on deaf ears. "What's an higher fallen?" I asked again.

"Well what if I told you that he didn't and he has also bought into my vision of conquering the whole universe if I could help him get back home and make him the ruler of your planet." Nikita spoke, ignoring once again.

"He lies, there is no way an higher fallen could escape transport to Orca without raising a code five alarm among the guardians." The girl in black remained adamant.

"Well, I don't know how he did it, but I've seen him banish a lot of fallen and locked their souls behind the Vynet he is harnessing. I only need to get the remaining Vynet and we would have all we need to move our quest to the next phase and I don't plan on letting anything stop me. So I will ask again, where is the Vynet you recovered in China?"

"The higher fallen, what is his name?" The girl in black asked, ignoring her question.

"Why would you want to know that? Anyways, he is a very private man, and we never really got to the level of exchanging personal information, all we do is strictly business and nothing more, although I think I saw an ancient chain the last time I visited with an inscription of Zion."

The girl in black gasped and shook her head, her eyes wide opened.

"Who is Zion?" I asked again and it fell on deaf ears once again. I figured that something was wrong and she was keeping something back, I also knew that she was not going to let go of the Vynet's position without trying to put her life on the line and I had to act fast. I slowly dragged my phone out and dialed Justin's number, I quickly pocketted it as soon as he picked.

"I know where it is." I announced, getting Nikita's attention. "But I will only promise to take you to where it is if I can get an assurance that Amy will be treated."

My gaze caught the girl in black's and the death stare she gave me was enough to scare away a vulture from an animal's carcass. Nikita looked at me for a while, she then nodded and walked to the girl in black, she placed the bracelet over her hand and almost immediately the soldiers took a few steps back, some pointing their guns in her direction. It was obvious that they could now see her and that was definitely going to help her get treatment.

Nikita turned to me. "Now, it is your turn to make your move. I would transfer her to one of the best hospitals while two of my soldiers will go with you to retrieve the Vynet, any wrong move will jeopardize hers and Shelby's life and their bloods would be on your hands. You would get her back in one shape as soon as my men confirm that they are in possession of the Vynet." She spoke, motioning to zlsome of her soldiers to come forwards and pick the girl in black.

Two stepped forward and pulled her up from the ground, taking her outside. Nikita turned to her wrist. "You have till midnight to get it to me, if not, you will never see your friends again." She stated sternly. She stared at me for a while before walking out with some of her guards. Two remained behind and led me to the car that they were going to convey me in.

*

I opened the door of our cabin in the woods and turned on my flash light, the cabin that looked so beautiful and fit to hold human lives now looked like a scene from a war movie, every single thing had been turned upside down, including the wooden floor. I checked my phone and found out that the call had been disconnected and I prayed that Justin had gotten the message and turned up while I stalled the soldiers.

"Move." One of the soldiers spoke and I walked into the cabin, trying not to step on some broken glasses on the floor.

I led them into what had been my room and I couldn't recognize it as it was in the same state as the living room. I prayed earnestly as I thought of what to do. There was a loud bang from the living room and the soldiers turned back to face the living room, this was my opportunity. I raced to the closest soldier just in time to redirect his fired shot away from me to the window, the bullet shattered what was left of it. We struggled with the gun for a while and there was gunshot coming from the living room, probably from the other soldier. The soldier pushed me onto an inclined wood and it broke into pieces under my weight, he groaned in anger and pointed his gun at me and for a moment, I thought that it was the end for me. The was a loud bang and something fell to the ground, the soldier stared at me for a moment before falling to the ground in a loud thud. There stood Justin, painting as he held the handle of the frying pan he had just used to smash the soldiers head, he stared at the motionless shoulder in shock, his gaze slowly rising to meet me.

"What the hell happened?" He finally spoke.

YOUR COMMENTS ARE HIGHLY APPRECIATED!

Khriztarl:
Frankline461 we got the update. Thanks for that.

At last. Let's move on now

CHAPTER NINE.


We all sat in silence around a table in the tea shop, from where we sat, I could hear sirens from afar off and also the constant bell rings from the top of the door of the cafe as people came in and went out of the cafe in ones and twos. The girl in black and Justin were sharing the same chair and I was sitting alone on mine, I wondered what had gone wrong and how our plans had been neutralized in just one moment of surprise. Justin, as usual had his head buried in his laptop, clicking endlessly and I couldn't help but wonder if he actually ever spent anytime away from his gadget, the girl in black on the other hand seemed to be in a deep thought, as she ran her thumb over her middle finger over and over again in a circular pattern. I turned to look outside the cafe through the glass walls and the whole area looked very peaceful, not like one that had been run through by multiple soldiers and endless coenvoys and had bodies laying just a few metres into the forest. A lady walked up to us smiling pleasantly and holding a tray in her hand, with the way she was dressed, I figured she worked at the cafe.

"Gotovy li vy zakazat' seychas? (Are you ready to order now)." She asked with her smile still on.
I turned to Justin who seemed distracted but still raised his hand to speak.

"Da, kofe podoydet, a takzhe odin chizburger. YA ne uspela poyest' (Yes, a cup of coffee would do, and also one cheeseburger. I've not had time to eat today)." He replied, not taking his eyes off the screen of his PC.

She turned to me and I told her to get two of whatever he was having. She turned and walked away to the couple sitting two tables away, they had just walked in and were giggling at an inside joke as they gave their responses. I sighed and shut my eyes, it was already night and we had no idea where Shelby was and also had no single clue to how to find her or whoever took her. I prayed that wherever she was, she was doing fine and hanging in the while we figured out a way to get her back.

"This doesnt make any sense." Justin spoke, raising his voice a little and getting the attention of most people in the cafe, including the smiling waitress. He turned around immediately, giving a fake smile and bowing his heads continuously to apologise. They all went back to what they were doing.

"The uniform the soldiers were wearing are all fake, and I tried tracing them through CCTV footage of in the area, but I lost them as they approached Grushevskaya, their tail just went cold and every other footage from there has been erased. I tried recovering it, but the backup access has been revoked and damaged too, something is not right here."

I rolled my eyes and rested my back on the chair I was sitting on, if only I understood anything he had just said, when it came to government, I knew they would do all they could to hide their secrets and this would not be any different. I turned to the girl in black again, and she was still lost in thought, her hands repeating the same action. The waitress came back to our table and from her expression, I could tell that she was no longer as happy as she initially was to return to our table. She placed our orders on the table and hurried away as fast as she came. Justin picked up his cheeseburger and buried his teeth into it, biting off a large chunk.

"Hmm." He muttered. "This is best I've eaten yet." He turned to the girl in the black as I picked up mine and grabbed my cup of coffee. "Uhmm, how do you eat?"

"What's in Grushevskaya?" She finally spoke, her gaze still looking lost in thoughts.

Justin adjusted on his chair and placed his cheeseburger back in its wrapper, he clicked into his laptop again. "Just residential buildings, some hotels and the Platov international airport." He announced, picking up his cheeseburger and taking another bite.

There was a short silence before the girl in black spoke again. "Get all the CCTV footage from the airport." She stood up and grabbed her sword and the bracelet and turned to Justin. "There's an hotel down the street, book a room there and gather as much information about everything that happened in the airport today, we will be needing the key to you car."

Justin turned to look at me and his expression was as shocked as mine, it was already late and we should all be retiring to bed to rest for the day, but that didn't look like what was happening and although I was also wearing out, I knew that we still had to find Shelby and getting rest should not be on the table for now, lucky Justin.

"The key to my car, why?" Justin replied mouthful.

"We need to pay the chief of staff's daughter a visit tonight." She replied, turning to me.

*

Two weeks ago

I sat on my hospital bed, my gaze fixed on my phone looking at nothing in particular, I was lost in the thoughts of my next step. I had to make a big decision, one that involved walking away from my entire life and going onto a new path that consisted of unknowns, or deciding to stay put and fight to protect the ones I loved the most. I was going to be discharged tomorrow, and Shelby had already booked a flight for myself and her to Russia the day after. She claimed to have promised the girl in black that we would be arriving on that day and that she should be at the airport when we did to take us to her rendezvous point. After our twisted conversation, my mum and I had barely spoken again and although I knew I needed to get her input on the decision I was about to make, my strong headedness and stubbornness prevented me from seeking it.

The door to my room opened and Shelby walked through, carrying a nylon bag. She had initially stepped out to get us something for us to eat, and although the restaurant was only a few blocks away, I wasn't expecting her to come back that quickly. She dragged a table to me and placed what she had gotten in it and from the looks of things, she had opted out for fried chicken, chips and drinks instead of the usual fried rice and chicken. She dragged a chair and sat beside me as soon as she emptied the nylon, dragging one of the mini cartons and exposing several fried chicken. She picked up one stick and chewed off some part, catching my gaze as she did.

"What?" She said smiling, retrieving the chewy chicken from her lips and placing it back on the carton. She picked up a cup and poured some drink into it, she handed it to me and poured another for herself. "You know, we would be going to a foreign country, and trust me, the first thing you would get frustrated about is their food. So, it's best to eat as much as you can now and try not to miss it too much."

I smiled and picked up a wing. "I think chicken would not be a rare commodity in foreign countries." I took a bite and it dissolved in my mouth. Well garnished.

Shelby smiled and took a sip of her drink, she placed the cup back on the table and picked up her chicken, her gaze fixed on me. It was my time to question her.

"What?" I asked, trying to restrict the urge to smile.

She smiled and took a bite of her chicken. "You know, it's thrilling, having to do something this special with you, travelling far across the world and saving humanity with the one you love is not something you get to witness everyday."

My countenance dropped and I sighed, taking my first sip of the drink she got. We had been over this several times, and no matter how hard I tried to tell her that it was over between us, she seemed to always turn a deaf ear to it, talking about we taking a break and getting our heads back before making such major decision, and no matter how many times I told her that it was over, she simply turned a deaf ear to it prompting me to stop trying altogether. I cleared my throat and took another bite of the chicken and she raised her head, as realization hit her.

"I know you said it's over between us, and I know that I've been quite adamant but I think I just need more time to get my head around it, I'm so used to losing things that I'm fund of clinging on to things I cherish. Who knows, maybe this trip would be what I need to finally get over you." She smiled and picked up another chicken.

The door to my room opened and my mom walked in, her expression questioning. "What trip are you talking about?"

*

Present

I rang the door bell again and turned to look around. The streets was almost empty and the cold breeze that blew might have been one of the major reasons for it. I sighed and turned to the girl in black who had said almost literally nothing on our way here, I knew how it felt to blame yourself for something bad that had happened and I knew that she might have felt responsible for Shelby's disappearance since she had brought us into it and was looking for ways to make things right as soon as she could. I wondered it she could feel the chilling effect of the cold breeze that blew. The address Justin had sent us on our way here was that for an apartment in one of the numerous estates in this part of town, from the look of things, it was a very private estate that was not as secured as I thought it would be. I rang the bell again and did not still get a response.

"Maybe no one is home." I said, pressing the bell twice again.

I heard some rustle behind the gate and my heart tripled its beat.

"Remember the drill, make sure you sound convincing if she is not possessed, and if she is, take a step back and let me handle it." The girl in black said, her voice and expression, ice cold.

There was a loud metallic sound behind the gate and the gate was unlocked. The woman we had seen earlier at the concert stood there, and although most of her costumes and make up were gone, she still looked as stunning as she did in the concert. I could not get a clear look at her eyeballs because she was wearing a black shade again, and this made her even more suspicious. The girl in black took a step forward and pulled her sword, but from the reaction of the woman, I wasn't sure if she could see her. The girl in black turned to me and took a step into the compound just beside her and I was certain that she couldn't see her.

"chem ya mogu tebe pomoch'? (How may I help you?)." She asked, her gaze and stance distant.

"Do you speak English?" I asked, trying as much as possible to sound decent.

She took a step forward and peeped out of her gate, looking left and right. "Are you lost?" She asked again and I sighed as I realized that I didn't have to crack my head to speak Russian, Shelby had been the expert in that and would have been more convincing in a situation like this.

"Good." I spoke. "Can I come in?"

She scoffed and stared at me like I had asked her to hand over her entire wealth to me, she adjusted her shade and spoke. "Sorry, but I don't know you and you would forgive me if I refuse to let a stranger into my house in the middle of the night. If you're lost, you can call one of the help lines, I'm sure government officials will be more than happy to help you."

I couldn't help but notice the accent she spoke in as I sighed. "I'm a foreigner and my friend was just kidnapped by some russian soldiers, but the thing is that this Russian soldiers are not actually russian soldiers and my friend is nowhere to be found now. So if you can spare a minute as the chief of staff's daughter, I would really appreciate the gesture."

There was another awkward silence and she finally stepped away from the entrance to let me into the compound. As we approached her condo, the scent of lilies and Rose's hit me and I could see the beautiful garden she had far right to my position. This made me wonder why most prominent people loved to have a garden, were they that lonely and in search of something to do? We stepped into her apartment and I saw the girl in black down the living, slowly going through the files that had been placed on a desk, trying to figure out if she could find anything that would point us in the right direction.

"I think Justin left out an important detail about her." The girl in black announced as we stepped in. "She is a professor in nanotechnology and bioinformatics." She said, running through other files.

The chief of staff daughter motioned me to sit and stepped to her fridge to bring out a drink and two glasses. She walked back to me and placed the glasses on a stood, pouring some for me and some for herself. She pulled her glasses and placed them the stood, she turned to look at me and I had a clear glimpse of her eyes and they were clear. I sghed and collected the drink she had stretched out to me and placed it by side, I really needed to find put what she knew about what was happening since she was the closest link to the Chief of staff.

She cleared her throat and dropped the glass on the minitable turning to look at me. "So I assume you are Zeke Churchill and the girl that is missing is Shelby Elias."

I was shocked at what she had just said and turned to look at the girl in black who had also stopped whatever she was doing and turned to look at us, also shocked at the sudden declaration. The chief of staff's daughter turned to look around.

"And I also think that the invisible girl is somewhere in this house too, nice to meet you." She spoke turning back to me, her expression indifferent. She stretched her hands to me. "I'm Nikita Molotov and I've heard a lot about you. We have a lot to discuss."

I've really tried my best to put up an update and each time I'm banned for days even after messaging the mods. I've read through the chapter, made word modifications, deleted paragraphs and rewritten them but still I get banned again. It's really frustrating and the mods are not doing anything about it.

I will try to post the update again now, and if nothing shows, that means I've been banned again and this might be all for some time if the mods continue to keep quite about it

CHAPTER NINE.

We all sat in silence around a table in the tea shop, from where we sat, I could hear sirens from afar off and also the constant bell rings from the top of the door of the cafe as people came in and went out of the cafe in ones and twos. The girl in black and Justin were sharing the same chair and I was sitting alone on mine, I wondered what had gone wrong and how our plans had been neutralized in just one moment of surprise. Justin, as usual had his head buried in his laptop, clicking endlessly and I couldn't help but wonder if he actually ever spent anytime away from his gadget, the girl in black on the other hand seemed to be in a deep thought, as she ran her thumb over her middle finger over and over again in a circular pattern. I turned to look outside the cafe through the glass walls and the whole area looked very peaceful, not like one that had been run through by multiple soldiers and endless coenvoys and had bodies laying just a few metres into the forest. A lady walked up to us smiling pleasantly and holding a tray in her hand, with the way she was dressed, I figured she worked at the cafe.

"Gotovy li vy zakazat' seychas? (Are you ready to order now)." She asked with her smile still on.
I turned to Justin who seemed distracted but still raised his hand to speak.

"Da, kofe podoydet, a takzhe odin chizburger. YA ne uspela poyest' (Yes, a cup of coffee would do, and also one cheeseburger. I've not had time to eat today)." He replied, not taking his eyes off the screen of his PC.

She turned to me and I told her to get two of whatever he was having. She turned and walked away to the couple sitting two tables away, they had just walked in and were giggling at an inside joke as they gave their responses. I sighed and shut my eyes, it was already night and we had no idea where Shelby was and also had no single clue to how to find her or whoever took her. I prayed that wherever she was, she was doing fine and hanging in the while we figured out a way to get her back.

"This doesnt make any sense." Justin spoke, raising his voice a little and getting the attention of most people in the cafe, including the smiling waitress. He turned around immediately, giving a fake smile and bowing his heads continuously to apologise. They all went back to what they were doing.

"The uniform the soldiers were wearing are all fake, and I tried tracing them through CCTV footage of in the area, but I lost them as they approached Grushevskaya, their tail just went cold and every other footage from there has been erased. I tried recovering it, but the backup access has been revoked and damaged too, something is not right here."

I rolled my eyes and rested my back on the chair I was sitting on, if only I understood anything he had just said, when it came to government, I knew they would do all they could to hide their secrets and this would not be any different. I turned to the girl in black again, and she was still lost in thought, her hands repeating the same action. The waitress came back to our table and from her expression, I could tell that she was no longer as happy as she initially was to return to our table. She placed our orders on the table and hurried away as fast as she came. Justin picked up his cheeseburger and buried his teeth into it, biting off a large chunk.

"Hmm." He muttered. "This is best I've eaten yet." He turned to the girl in the black as I picked up mine and grabbed my cup of coffee. "Uhmm, how do you eat?"

"What's in Grushevskaya?" She finally spoke, her gaze still looking lost in thoughts.

Justin adjusted on his chair and placed his cheeseburger back in its wrapper, he clicked into his laptop again. "Just residential buildings, some hotels and the Platov international airport." He announced, picking up his cheeseburger and taking another bite.

There was a short silence before the girl in black spoke again. "Get all the CCTV footage from the airport." She stood up and grabbed her sword and the bracelet and turned to Justin. "There's an hotel down the street, book a room there and gather as much information about everything that happened in the airport today, we will be needing the key to you car."

Justin turned to look at me and his expression was as shocked as mine, it was already late and we should all be retiring to bed to rest for the day, but that didn't look like what was happening and although I was also wearing out, I knew that we still had to find Shelby and getting rest should not be on the table for now, lucky Justin.

"The key to my car, why?" Justin replied mouthful.

"We need to pay the chief of staff's daughter a visit tonight." She replied, turning to me.

*

Two weeks ago

I sat on my hospital bed, my gaze fixed on my phone looking at nothing in particular, I was lost in the thoughts of my next step. I had to make a big decision, one that involved walking away from my entire life and going onto a new path that consisted of unknowns, or deciding to stay put and fight to protect the ones I loved the most. I was going to be discharged tomorrow, and Shelby had already booked a flight for myself and her to Russia the day after. She claimed to have promised the girl in black that we would be arriving on that day and that she should be at the airport when we did to take us to her rendezvous point. After our twisted conversation, my mum and I had barely spoken again and although I knew I needed to get her input on the decision I was about to make, my strong headedness and stubbornness prevented me from seeking it.

The door to my room opened and Shelby walked through, carrying a nylon bag. She had initially stepped out to get us something for us to eat, and although the restaurant was only a few blocks away, I wasn't expecting her to come back that quickly. She dragged a table to me and placed what she had gotten in it and from the looks of things, she had opted out for fried chicken, chips and drinks instead of the usual fried rice and chicken. She dragged a chair and sat beside me as soon as she emptied the nylon, dragging one of the mini cartons and exposing several fried chicken. She picked up one stick and chewed off some part, catching my gaze as she did.

"What?" She said smiling, retrieving the chewy chicken from her lips and placing it back on the carton. She picked up a cup and poured some drink into it, she handed it to me and poured another for herself. "You know, we would be going to a foreign country, and trust me, the first thing you would get frustrated about is their food. So, it's best to eat as much as you can now and try not to miss it too much."

I smiled and picked up a wing. "I think chicken would not be a rare commodity in foreign countries." I took a bite and it dissolved in my mouth. Well garnished.

Shelby smiled and took a sip of her drink, she placed the cup back on the table and picked up her chicken, her gaze fixed on me. It was my time to question her.

"What?" I asked, trying to restrict the urge to smile.

She smiled and took a bite of her chicken. "You know, it's thrilling, having to do something this special with you, travelling far across the world and saving humanity with the one you love is not something you get to witness everyday."

My countenance dropped and I sighed, taking my first sip of the drink she got. We had been over this several times, and no matter how hard I tried to tell her that it was over between us, she seemed to always turn a deaf ear to it, talking about we taking a break and getting our heads back before making such major decision, and no matter how many times I told her that it was over, she simply turned a deaf ear to it prompting me to stop trying altogether. I cleared my throat and took another bite of the chicken and she raised her head, as realization hit her.

"I know you said it's over between us, and I know that I've been quite adamant but I think I just need more time to get my head around it, I'm so used to losing things that I'm fund of clinging on to things I cherish. Who knows, maybe this trip would be what I need to finally get over you." She smiled and picked up another chicken.

The door to my room opened and my mom walked in, her expression questioning. "What trip are you talking about?"

*

Present

I rang the door bell again and turned to look around. The streets was almost empty and the cold breeze that blew might have been one of the major reasons for it. I sighed and turned to the girl in black who had said almost literally nothing on our way here, I knew how it felt to blamw yourself for something bad that had happened and I knew that she might have felt responsible for Shelby's disappearance since she had brought us into it and was looking for ways to make things right as soon as she could. I wondered it she could feel the chilling effect of the cold breeze that blew. The address Justin had sent us on our way here was that for an apartment in one of the numerous estates in this part of town, from the look of things, it was a very private estate that was not as secured as I thought it would be. I rang the bell again and did not still get a response.

"Maybe no one is home." I said, pressing the bell twice again.

I heard some rustle behind the gate and my heart tripled its beat.

"Remember the drill, make sure you sound convincing if she is not possessed, and if she is, take a step back and let me handle it." The girl in black said, her voice and expression, ice cold.

There was a loud metallic sound behind the gate and the gate was unlocked. The woman we had seen earlier at the concert stood there, and although most of her costumes and make up were gone, she still looked as stunning as she did in the concert. I could not get a clear look at her eyeballs because she was wearing a black shade again, and this made her even more suspicious. The girl in black took a step forward and pulled her sword, but from the reaction of the woman, I wasn't sure if she could see her. The girl in black turned to me and took a step into the compound just beside her and I was certain that she couldn't see her.

"chem ya mogu tebe pomoch'? (How may I help you?)." She asked, her gaze and stance distant.
"Do you speak English?" I asked, trying as much as possible to sound decent.

She took a step forward and peeped out of her gate, looking left and right. "Are you lost?" She asked again and I sighed as I realized that I didn't have to crack my head to speak Russian, Shelby had been the expert in that and would have been more convincing in a situation like this.

"Good." I spoke. "Can I come in?"

She scoffed and stared at me like I had asked her to hand over her entire wealth to me, she adjusted her shade and spoke. "Sorry, but I don't know you and you would forgive me if I refuse to let a stranger into my house in the middle of the night. If you're lost, you can call one of the help lines, I'm sure government officials will be more than happy to help you."

I couldn't help but notice the accent she spoke in as I sighed. "I'm a foreigner and my friend was just kidnapped by some russian soldiers, but the thing is that this Russian soldiers are not actually russian soldiers and my friend is nowhere to be found now. So if you can spare a minute as the chief of staff's daughter, I would really appreciate the gesture."

There was another awkward silence and she finally stepped away from the entrance to let me into the compound. As we approached her condo, the scent of lilies and Rose's hit me and I could see the beautiful garden she had far right to my position. This made me wonder why most prominent people loved to have a garden, were they that lonely and in search of something to do? We stepped into her apartment and I saw the girl in black down the living, slowly going through the files that had been placed on a desk, trying to figure out if she could find anything that would point us in the right direction.

"I think Justin left out an important detail about her." The girl in black announced as we stepped in. "She is a professor in nanotechnology and bioinformatics." She said, running through other files.

The chief of staff daughter motioned me to sit and stepped to her fridge to bring out a drink and two glasses. She walked back to me and placed the glasses on a stood, pouring some for me and some for herself. She pulled her glasses and placed them the stood, she turned to look at me and I had a clear glimpse of her eyes and they were clear. I sghed and collected the drink she had stretched out to me and placed it by side, I really needed to find put what she knew about what was happening since she was the closest link to the Chief of staff.

She cleared her throat and dropped the glass on the minitable turning to look at me. "So I assume you are Zeke Churchill and the girl that is missing is Shelby Elias."

I was shocked at what she had just said and turned to look at the girl in black who had also stopped whatever she was doing and turned to look at us, also shocked at the sudden declaration. The chief of staff's daughter turned to look around.

"And I also think that the invisible girl is somewhere in this house too, nice to meet you." She spoke turning back to me, her expression indifferent. She stretched her hands to me. "I'm Nikita Molotov and I've heard a lot about you. We have a lot to discuss."

Azurevermillion:
Wow

Thanks for following

TroubleIsland:
Wow am in love with this..... Finally am now comfortably sitted waiting for the popcorn seller. Kudos my name sake Frankline

Thanks

CHAPTER EIGHT


Three weeks ago

I sat on the bank of the sea, my hands locked above my bent legs. The sun was almost down people were beginning to return to their various houses, the only few left being photographers that tried to capture perfect moments from the fading horizon. My mind was clogged with thoughts, and I got resounding headaches as I tried to process them all at once, my head felt like it would burst open if I didn't stop prompting me to take a long breath and shut my eyes to clear my mind. It didn't work and rightly so, for somebody that had just found out that his whole life had been a lie and he was a misfit, a part of me wished I had remained unconscious and stayed in coma and that this turned out to just be one of those hallucinations people got when they went under, but the continuous self inflicted pinch marks on my arm was a clear proof that I was well and awake. I turned to my right side and saw a family of four, basking in euphoria of the beach as they chased themselves around a mould of sand they had built and the scene worsened my anger and frustration. Why now, why me, if they were not my biological parent, who was and why were they in such hurry to leave me?

"I knew you'd be down here." A voice came from above me and I knew who it was. I didn't spare her any look, I was frustrated and knew that I might have disrespected her, walking out on her while she spoke, even though I had every right.

She took some strides towards me and took a sit om the sand beside me. She joined me to stare at the horizon just as the strong ocean wind blew, her scarf wiggling to its effect. She remained silent for a while, and kept her gaze on something deep in the fading sunset.

"You know, when you were younger, whenever your dad and I had a free time from work, we would always bring you down here and we would build sand castles and name them after your favourite movie characters." She paused. "It feels like a long time now."

I tried to recall the memory she was speaking of, but the more I tried, the more I grew more frustrated at not being able to remember anything from my childhood. I sighed and gave up.

"Why?" I asked almost subconsciously. "Why now, why even bother telling me this? It would have been better for everyone if I had just remained oblivious to this fact."

There was a pale grin on her face as she finally digested whatever she had been craving for in the horizon.

"I also thought of keeping it a secret from you, and that is why we never gave you the necklace on your nineteenth birthday regardless of whatever consequences we had been warned of. I need you to listen to the whole story before you conclude and put a wall up between us and decide what you want to do next."

I heaved and stared at the beach sand in between my legs, trying to gather whatever resolve was left in me to completely hear the rest of the story.

"After that day in the kitchen, you dad and I became worried and even though there was no rational explanation for what I had witnessed, we still needed to know what was going on. So we contacted your birth mother again."

I turned to her. "Are you still in contact with her?"

"No. After we told her what had happened, she appeared at our doorstep the day after and although ww tried to convince her, she remained adamant and refused to see you."

I scoffed.

"No, you must understand that it is hard for any mother to let go of their child and whatever the circumstances was in her case, she still felt very guilty for not being able to remain in your life and teach you things you should know."

I nodded my head and returned my gaze to the sunset that had almost dissapeared now, only its edges could be seen. I wondered why my mom defended her, I was so filled with rage that I knew if I had come face to face with her in that moment, I wouldn't have been able to hold myself back from calling her the trash that she was.

"It was then she gave us a few insights to your gift, and also told us the reason you couldn't be woth her. She said that as long as you stayed with her, it was easy for them to track you down and take you away because of your gift. She then argued that it was best for everyone if your gift was suppressed and never allowed to come into its fullness."

"Suppressed, how?"

She sighed. "If there is one thing I've never been proud of doing in my entire life, it was the next thing we had to do to you to suppress your gifts. It was torture to watch you at such young age, go through the pain you went through."

"What do you mean?"

"There was an inscription on your back that kept on growing in every passing day and your mom claimed it was where your abilities came from, the more it grew, the more your gift grew and the easier it was for them to find you. All we had to do was cut out the inscriptions in order to prevent them from growing any further."

I turned to face her. "Like a skin graft?"

She swallowed hard. "Yes, but not medically. She claimed you had to feel every emotion from it, only then could the gift be weakened."

I shut my eyes. "So you peeled off the skin of a five year old without any anesthetic or painkiller."

"Yes. It was such an horrific experience for me, and I couldn't hold back hearing you scream through the process, so I begged them to stop but I was held back till the process was completed process and you laid there, unconscious. When you woke up, you had partial memory loss from the trauma a could not remember most things that had happened. You birth mom told us that you were safe till you were nineteen and that then, the only thing that could keep you safe was the necklace. That was the last time we ever saw her, or were able to contact her, she just vanished into thin air."

She paused a little as we both watched the final ray of the sunlight dissapear and the last of the photographers pick up their stuffs and headed out of the beach.

"Things went back to the way they were after that, and was so perfect that we got carried away and concluded that the worst was over. So we decided not to give you the necklace on your nineteenth birthday. It was not until your dad sent me the video clip from the car's deck that I realized it was all happening again and I needed to give you the necklace to keep you safe, but I was too late." She wiped her face and I realized that she had been crying.

I cringed and held my legs together, the weather was suddenly too cold for me to handle and I started regretting running out of the hospital room without my jacket.

"That's why I told you none of this was your fault, because sincerely, it was mine. If I had just done what I had been told, things might have ended up differently and your dad might still be here with us now."

She didn't have all the blame, I thought, if I had also listened and followed the girl in black, it might have turned out differently too. My mind quickly went to the last moment I saw him and I remembered the mark under his chin.

"When we had the accident, just before I drifted out, I saw a symbol underneath dad's chin. Do you know what it means?"

She turned to me, wiping her face. "What symbol?"

"I can't really remember what it looks like exactly, but I remember seeing a cross like symbol with hedges at its four angles and..."

"An inscription at its center?" Mom cut in, staring at me with shock in her eyes.

"You know what it means?" I asked anxiously.

She shook her head. "It's not possible. That's the same symbol we had to cut off you, it's the symbol that marked the root of you gift, the one we had to cut out of you."

*

Present

The girl in black took another peep through the glass window, repeating her actions some more times before walking back towards us. It had been unusually quiet for a while and the soldiers had all maintained a position and made no further advances towards us. Justin had been trying to hack into their com for us to be able to listen on conversations, or at least figure out what frequency they were transmitting on and somehow get us in it, but it was taking longer than he had expected as their firewall proved more secured than he had hoped for something he pointed as weird since he had done it multiple times before.

"We can't just sit here and remain duck, we are giving them enough time to strategise and coordinate a raid that we might stand no chance against. I would use my invincibility advantage to try to figure out a way to get you guys out of here. All I need is for you to be ready to move when I signal." The girl in black spoke.

"One more second." Justin said as he typed vigorously into his PC. "Yes, I'm in." He dragged his backpack and pulled out a walkie talkie and an electrical bracelet.

The girl in black and I exchanged an awkward stare.

"Do you always carry all these with you when you go visit people?" I whispered.

"My motto is to be always prepared because you never know when you might need to use them, and I'm glad I brought them along." He picked up the walkie talkie and kept on tuning untill we could hear some of the soldiers conversing in English. From the look on Jusin's face, I figured out something was wrong.

"That's weird." He spoke, returning to his PC and clicking on it to being back the clips from their body cams, he zoomed in on their clothes at logo. "They are dressed as Russian military but are conversing in English."

I shook my head confused. "And how is that weird, English is a very common language."

"That's the problem." He interrupted. "English is a very common language in the rest if the world, but not in Russia. Not up to five percent of the population speaks English, talk less of people in the army, something is off."

I sighed and again, turned to the girl in black who was getting seemingly impatient as time ticked away. Justin picked up the bracelet and connected it to his PC and an interface appeared on the screen, it clicked on back code and started modifying its algorithm.

"After I was able to see you using the infrared light, I spent most of the night analysing your image to figure out the reason you couldn't be seen in naked light and found out that it had to do with your body's molecules. Human's molecules are tightly fitted and exist in solid form but yours have more gaseous propensity hence your molecules are scattered in air. This made me wonder if your molecules would obey the gas law and at least liquify in a vacuum. I made a vacuum simulation to see how the same molecules would fare in it, and viola, they came together due to the absence of air and existed in solid form. So I came to the conclusion that wherever you were from, your atmosphere must be very unique, almost like a vacuum."

The girl in black and I stared at Justin trying to make sense of everything he had just said, but with the situation at hand, my brain had a hard time creating the acetylcholine needed to perfectly decode what he was talking about.

"Done." He unplugged the bracelet and stretched it to the girl in black. "I call her Morgan, you know, after the popular Nigerain reggae singer."

I rolled my eyes, how could he still try to make a joke in the situation we were in. Our heads were literally about to be blown off and that was not a time to be declaring your love for a country's musician.

"If no one has told you by now, I can't impact matter here. I can only use these swords to do my bidding because they have been consecrated for events like this. The only ones I can touch are vessels possessed by the fallen and house anomalies that can somehow see me."

"Well, that's all about to change now. It's a little project I had worked on during my time in college, I thought it would be revolutionary and maybe change the world, but I was turned down when I brought it up to the council of science. It brings scattered molecules together and solidifies it. I initially created it to be used in houses in cases of gas leaks, it work by preventing the volatile gas molecules from spreading around the room, clogging them into solid forms hence reducing the risk of a fire outbreak and it would perfectly work in your case too. It would bring together the molecule of any hand you wear it on, making it visible under naked light and able to impact matter."

I was mind blown and knew that we had gotten our hands on a gem, one with a revolutionary inclination. He unlocked the bracelet and asked the girl in black to stretch her hands, she did and he locked it around her wrist and it hung on it.

"Wow." I exclaimed. "That's amazing."

Justin smiled. "It's just something I do in my spare time, it's not really a big deal." He returned his laptop and clicked into it. "It's the only prototype I have and the battery power is very short, twenty minutes short, so you need to do whatever you want to in twenty minutes. My car is parked about three hundred metres southwest of here, if you plan on creating a route, the southwest route would be the best idea."

I turned to the girl in black and her gaze was still on the bracelet as she ran her fingers around it. She stretched to pick up an apple from the tray and to her surprise and mine, her hands held it. She lifted it up to her eyes level and gripped it tightly, surprised that she was able to finally touch something that was man made. She raised her head and turned to Justin.

"I only need ten minutes." She picked up her sword and strapped it behind her.

I sighed. "How do we know when to make a run for it?"

"You would know." She said before stepping out of the cabin.

I turned to Justin who had a smile on his face as he shook his head in awe. "I love the thrill, I'm definitely in."

*

The drive to Justin's house was a rather short one, since he had decided to go with full speed in order to prevent the soldiers from catching up on us. Amy had successfully created a route to escape and the bodies we saw on our way to Justin's car was proff that the bracelet had given her the extra edge she needed. She only had a hand that was visible and could now use it to do things to humans since they could not see the rest of her body, preventing just a hand from getting shot at was much more easier than preventing the rest of the body from getting into crossfire. We had agreed to meet downtown at dusk while she tried to figure out who they were.
Justin suddenly brought the car to a stop and I almost hit my head on the car's deck, seatbelt to the rescue. He lowered his head and told me to do so too. Up ahead were some soldiers dressed in the same way as those we had encountered in the cabin, they were standing in front of a building and I knew that some must have gone in.

"I would take it that is your house." I whispered as he parked the car behind another parked car.

"Yes." He pulled out his laptop. "I think we are within a hundred feet and should be able to get into my server to delete the files." He clicked into his PC some more and his countenance changed immediately. "No, no, no." He exclaimed.

"What's wrong?" I asked, everything seemed to be taking a bad turn.

"The files, I can't find them anymore. They are gone."

Khriztarl:
Gan gan.
frankline461, i hope those times you decide to update you'd give us looooooooong updates o. Thanks for the update.

We'd see about that. Thanks for following

Lakesc:
They really need an asset such as justin in their quest.. Thanks alot op

Thanks for reading

raptex:
Nice story.

Thanks

Odoogu:
appreciate the gesture.
Justin is a dam**n good asset.

Thank you for following

YOUR COMMENTS ARE HIGHLY APPRECIATED!

NOTE: There has been a change in the days scheduled for updates, and starting nextweek, I would be dropping an update on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays only. Sorry for the inconveniences and thanks for your understanding.

CHAPTER SEVEN

Three weeks ago

I stood on the balcony of my hospital room, looking down at the city, a nurse had earlier told me when I asked, that my room was on the fifteenth floor of the skyscraper hospital building which consisted of about twenty floors that were very easily accessible. It was one of the floors that were reserved for VIPs, the other floors being the fourteenth and thirteenth floor, where Michael and Shalom were admitted. I was curious what the upper floors had then been reserved for, and I found out that they were mostly offices and fourth generation operating rooms. They contained very expensive machines and devices and they were stored there to reduce and prevent the risk of theft and damages. I had also discovered that the hospital was wired with CCTV along its corridor and was impressed when I found out that it was not only limited to the VIP wards, but also the regular wards too, improvement.

It was evening and the sun had already set far ahead of me, its pale brightness shining over roofs of buildings, cars and people that went on their various ways, trying to make ends meet in a world that only the fittest could survive in. The cold wind blew across my dry skin and it felt so refreshing, more so from the height I was standing. The serene environment, coupled with the breathtaking scene of the sea far ahead made me feel very much relaxed as I took in the beauty of nature and had a mental orgasm. My outlook on life had been altered ever since I had my near death experience, I suddenly felt at peace with most things and realized that life was too short to worry, worry about things that could be taken away from us in an instant, things that we were made to work so hard to get, only to easily loose it all in the end. In a way, I questioned the point of everything, the reason we were actually created, or the reason we actually existed, why we had to strive so hard from the beginning of our lives till the end and then seize to exist in a snap, our footprints wiped away by the ocean of time. There had to be a greater purpose for it all, if not, it was meaningless.

Shelby had finally gone home, her grandfather had requested that she rested a little instead of hanging around the hospital, since the worst was over. Mr. Elias, Shelby's grandfather was her guardian, and had been since she was just about two years old when her parents decided to separate. Her mom never looked back after that, not even after her father had died a few years later in a gory truck accident. The driver of the truck was never found and after years of investigation, the case was closed and declared inconclusive. She never showed up for the funeral or sent any condolence letter. She also never wrote back, even when Shelby had sent her countless letters, begging her that she needed the influence of a parent in her life and that she should at least come see her once in a while. One day, Shelby decided that she had had enough and travelled across the state to see her, that was when she received the last straw that broke the camel's back, her mom blatantly told her that she never wanted anything to do with her, and that she was a mistake she would always regret for the rest of her life. That was over seventeen years ago, but she was never the same after that event, and even though she always played strong hearted, she was just a little butterfly that sought after a flower to land on and relieve all its stress. I also noticed that whenever a subject that related to parenthood was brought up, she avoided it like a plague.

The door slid open and my mom walked into the room, slowly shutting the door behind her. She joined me in the balcony, dragging a chair with her and placing it just beside me, she took a deep breath and smiled at the universe.

"What a scene." She pointed out.

I nodded in agreement and there was a short silence.

"There is something we have to talk about." She started, dragging her chair to face me. "And I think this is the right time to discuss it."

She got my attention immediately, I had earlier decided to ask her outrightly about the necklace she was wearing and what she knew about the events unfolding, but she had been too busy to sit and talk so I decide to wait until she had time to finally sit and talk.

"Your dad and I had decided to wait until your twentieth birthday when we knew that you'd be mentally fit and ready to hear it. But with the recent developments and the fact that your twentieth birthday is just around the corner, I've decided to tell you the truth today." She pulled off the necklace and handed it to me. "This belonged to your real mother."

It took me a while to process that bit of information, and when I finally did, the shock and confusiom that followed was indescribable, I had never seen that coming from any direction.

"Nineteen years ago, four years after your dad and I had gotten married, things were going on fine, we were comfortable and making some extra incomes from our first jobs, but I found it hard to concieve. I had about three miscarriages within those years and we both decided to put conceiving on a hold till we found out what was wrong and adopt for the main time while we still tried to get our lives together. We contacted an adoption agency and were told that there was a woman that was urgently willing to hand over her four weeks old baby, so we met with her to discuss the formalities and prepare the paper work. On the day we met, she told us that she didn't need our money and only wanted us to promise to protect you no matter the cost. She also handed us this necklace and told us that it was a family heirloom that had to be given to you on your nineteenth birthday to prevent them from finding you. We didn't know what she meant by that till a few years later, when the first attempt was made on your life. I was in the kitchen and I heard a scream in the garden, I hurried out and found a man on the ground, screeching, you were only four years old and you stood above him. He begged for you to stop but nothing happened till he stopped screeching and laid lifeless. I pulled you in and tried to call the cops, but before I got back to the garden, he was gone."

I swallowed hard, I didn't have any memories of what she had just described and with the look on her face, there was no way she had decided to make up something like that. I stood up, and my chest felt tight, the breeze that blew no longer felt refreshing and I felt like I was suffocating. I hurried out of the balcony and out of the room, I needed to go outside to get some fresh air and I needed to do it fast.

*

Present

The girl in black paced around the living room, moving in a circular pattern that was beginning to make me nauseated. She had both hands placed on her waist and her long weaved hair beat against her back with every stride.

"I don't buy this idea, involving strangers in something this important. I know you've been seeing this guy in your visions and it definitely means something, but how do we know we can trust him? We can't let every single person you see in your visions get involved with what we are doing, it's just too dangerous. " She asked, still pacing.

"I don't know if he is trustworthy, but I know he would not be in my visions if he doesn't have a role to play in all of this and my gut tells me that he will play a major role in finding the Vynet." Shelby replied.

She was sitting on a sofa, just across the room and had her legs crossed. She had barely said a word to me after we returned from the concert, and whenever she did, she either threw jibes or tried to shun me. It felt like she was had something to get off her chest but she remained adamant that she was fine even when I had politely asked her what was wrong. I wondered if it had anything to do with the usher from last night, but it felt like there was more, something she was hiding and it was eating her up and the usher had just happened to be the trigger to a ticking bomb.

The girl in black scorned. "So you want us to tell him everything and leave it to him to decide whether or not he'd help us or not? And if he decides not to and decides to spill everything, what happens to the whole mission?" She turned to me. "What do you think about this?" Her question caught me unaware.

With the little information I had been able to gather from the concert the night before, I could not say much about the Justin guy. He looked rather convincing and from what we could see, not possessed by a fallen, which was very important, he also seemed like someone that knew a lot about the country, and was also a tech guy that could come in handy. Shelby had also confirmed that he was the guy from her recent visions and even though she still couldn't figure out what the vision meant, I thought it was best to keep him on our side till we figured that out.

"Uhmmm." I muttered.

Shelby scoffed and gave a sarcastic laugh. "Not like he would know, he only reacts quickly when it comes to staring at the backsides of ushers and not when his input is required on important matters."

That was it for me, I had absorbed enough of the punches and jibes she had been throwing at me ever since we got back from the concert, all these for something she had refused to give me a reason for. I wasn't going to let it continue and if she had decided to keep mute about the reason for it, she might as well keep her jibes to herself.

"The question was directed to me and not you, and you should learn to restrain yourself from poke nosing into other people's life and maybe try to stick to yours for a change." Damn, I bit my lower lips as soon as those words came out and instantly, I knew that I had made a big mistake allowing my emotions get the best of me.

Shelby was speechless and stared at me in shock, I could see the pain in her eyes and although I felt bad for saying it, if it would make her lay off me for a second at least, I was going to take it. She picked up her phone and stormed out of house through the back door, shutting it loudly behind her. The girl in black turned to me and I could also see shock written all over her face.

"What was that about?" She asked and I realized she had stopped pacing around, the power of words.

I sighed and took my sit on the old sofa, I knew I had aim too low and needed to apologise to her, but I needed to allow her cool off first if I didn't want it turning into an all out war of words. The door bell rang and the girl in black shook her head.

"I'm still against this, but majority carries the vote." She unlocked the door and Justin walked into the living room all smiles. He was carrying a backpack and was wearing a thick cotton jacket.

"Wow, it was really hard to find this place and I must tell you, I looked through all the footprints and land images of this area, both current and old, and not a single one of it had a landmark for this place, not even classified footprints. This place is like a fortress, a safe house." He placed his backpack on a chair and took a slow look around the house. "I had to follow the directions Anastasia gave me to the letter and made sure I didn't miss a single turn to find this place." He turned back to us. "Where's she by the way."
I turned to look at the girl in black who frowned, her hands akimbo.

"You said you can help us get into the Chief of staff daughter's apartment without triggering any security systems and buy us the time we need to ask her some questions." I took the lead since the girl in black was still at a cross road.

"Yes, but first, before I do that, Anastasia had promised to tell me what this was all about and to let me know what I was getting myself into."

The girl in black rolled her eyes and walked over to Justin. "The less you know, the better for you and it would remain that way till we decide if you're trustworthy enough."

Justin smiled and walked away from her to his backpack. "You know, after the concert yesterday, I did a little digging and found out that the name Alexander Dmitri amd Anastasia Popova were just aliases. This made me kind of curious and I decide to do some more digging." He brought out his laptop and clicked into it. "It was a smart thing you guys did, travelling to a couple of countries before coming into Russia, but you need to learn that if you want to perfectly cover your tracks, never use the same device to book your flight tickets. All I needed was you IP address, and rest is history." He turned the screen to us and I could see mine and Shelby's profile. "So I guess your real names are Zeke Churchill and Shelby Elias."

"I knew this was all a mistake, there's no way I'm letting him walk away with all these information." The girl in black picked up her sword and I wondered if she was about to do what I thought she wanted to do.

"Woah, woah, I don't think that's smart. If I don't show up in three hours, everything I know, including the video clip would be sent out to different streaming websites and news companies and my dear, the whole world will know about you, 'The invincible girl'.

I thought the headline 'The girl in black' would be more capturing but I decided to keep my thoughts to myself. "What video clip?" I was becoming more curious.

Justin turned to Amy. "When I tried to look into you, you were a little like a ghost and I could not find a single digital footprint of you, not flight ticket, no ship ticket, no bus ticket, not even a single image of you on the net. But again, I thought, you had to come into the country through one way or the another and this further propelled my curiosity, so I decided to hack into the CCTV of Rostov airport, but I found nothing there, I tried the train station and all major routes that led in and out of the state within the past week, but I came up with nothing, it was almost as if I was searching for a ghost and at that moment, an idea struck me. I hacked into the feeds of Rostov musical theatre and replayed the clips from last night, you know, when we were having our little conversation and I had my answers. There were only three people in the clip and not a single image of you. At first, I thought I was losing it, I mean, I was certain I saw you at the concert, so I decided to tweak the clip a little and added some infrared filter, and voila, there you were."

I took a few steps towards Justin, shocked at his declaration. "You mean, you saw her using an inflared filter?".

"See for yourself." He turned his computer screen towards us.

It was a video clip from last night and for the first time, I saw the girl in black on a screen. Her image was not detailed, and was more of rays than an actual person, but I could see the perfect impression of her body shape on the screen and was left marvelled. I wondered what would happen if this got out, it was only a matter of time before physical weapons that could affect her and other fallen were developed and it would then become an all out war between humans and her kind.

"I see we now have an understanding." Justin cut in. "All I'm asking is for you to tell me what I'm getting myself in, and give me a chance to decide if I want to get involved or not."

The girl in black sighed. "I knew getting him involved was only going to complicate things. Get Shelby, she needs to be here."

I cringed at the thought of having to come face to face with Shelby again but we needed to put our differences aside and try to work out our new problem, one she had played a role in creating. I stepped out of the apartment through the back door and walked into the woods. I figured she could not have gone far to clear her head and should be around a mile radius at the least.

I was about a thirty seconds in when my leg got caught under a root, I bent to pull it out and almost immediately, I heard a loud bang and something grazed my shoulder. I quickly took cover behind a tree as adrenaline pumped through my veins at the realization that I had been shot at and would have lost my life if not for the root. Trembling, I turned to my arm that had been grazed by the bullet and saw that it was bleeding a little. There was a loud scream and I recognized Shelby's voice. I tried to take a peak but another bullet hit the tree, forcing me to seek cover once again. I could hear a vehicle start and some rustle of leaves that were coming towards my direction and decide to make a run for it towards the apartment. With my heart in my mouth I ran as fast as I could, running in a zig zag manner as the girl in black had taught us, it was a survival skill i didn't know i would be using that soon. More bullets flew in my direction but i was able to make it to the back door and quickly shut it behind me.

The girl in black pulled me into the living room and placed a finger over my mouth, I turned and saw Justin lying on the ground his hands having some tremor.

"I think I was tailed." He whispered as he kept on typing into his PC.

"Shelby?" The girl in black asked me.

I shook my head. "They took her."

She sighed and grabbed her sword. "Were you able to get a look at them?" I shook my head. "Okay, go with him to his apartment, and make sure you destroy the evidences. I will handle them. Meet me at the tea shop downtown at dusk."

"Uhmm, I don't think that is a good idea." Justin spoke as he crawled towards us.

"I don't think anyone cares what you think." The girl in black shot back.

He turned his laptop screen to us and it was a video clip from the body cams of the men outside, and even in the middle of a life and death situation, I was impressed with his skills. He clicked continuously and there were more video clips coming from different body cams all around the cabin.

"We are surrounded." He concluded.

Elvictor:
gathering enough toxic.. op, you are there.

I am

enirock:
Now it's clear for Shelby. That's the man she's been seeing.
Nice one Op. We are grateful.

Thanks for reading

Herbiedeen:
Guess that's the indian man shelby has been seeing of recent

nice work

Thanks

Odoogu:
what a Chase
thanks op. more grace, ink and money

Thanks

Also, for those that like good music, you can check out the two songs listed in this chapter.

LSD-Audio
Rauf and Faik- Aetctbo (Might not understand the Lyrics but it's got good rhythm)

YOUR COMMENTS ARE HIGHLY APPRECIATED!

CHAPTER SIX

Three weeks later

I walked into the room and found a new tux placed on my bed, I sighed and turned back to the living room where the two ladies sat, their gaze fixed on whatever movie they were seeing. They were so calm and unconcerned about what we had to do that night and one would have thought they had done it before or that I was over reacting. I had not been able to sit still after we had gone through the plan one last time the night before, mission blueberry as Shelby called it. It all felt weird and foreign to me, even though all we had to do was to observe and try to fit in as much as possible; my frustration lied in the fact that I found it had to just 'fit in'.

"I thought the girl in black said we didn't need to wear anything special for tonight's event?" I spoke, interrupting their show. Not surprising, they were seeing a Russian movie without subtitles it had become a ritual.

We had undergone some basic Russian language training over the past week although the girl in black had provided us with chips that automatically translated what we wanted to say in English to Russian, a technology she claimed humans were still decades away from developing. The 'mind reading chip' Shelby had quickly tagged it deviating from it's original name 'Pherth'. She had done a lot of naming, and was also responsible for choosing the names in our fake passport. Alexander Dmitri and Anastasia Popova.

"Amy." The girl in black protested. "My name is A-M-Y. And yes, I said that, but someone seems bent on making sure she and her date steals the show even when we are supposed to go in and out of the event unnoticed."

Shelby rolled her eyes. "Easy for you to say, since no one can see you, you can decide to throw on whatever you want and would be admissible. We are going to a very important show with a lot of high class Russian officials and we are going in with fake identities and a fake invitation card. The least we can do is to look the part and hope luck is on our side." She turned to me. "Also, while you took a stroll, I went through your wardrobe and I couldn't find a single cloth that fits the event, why in the world would you choose to pack only casual wears?" She sounded exasperated.

Well, maybe because no one told me that our mission involved attending a high class Russian show until the last minute, not that it would have changed anything even if they did. I never attended shows in school, and now I was being made to attend one because we needed to find out which of the Russian officials had been possessed and was holding the Vynet. I raised both shoulders and Shelby rolled her eyes again.

"A 'thank you' would suffice." She said, staring expectantly.

"How's your premonition these days, are you still seeing that indian guy?" I asked sarcastically.

Shelby scorned. "Yes, and I think the pieces are coming together, but I can't see the whole picture yet and how it all relates to us or what we are doing. Don't try to change the topic."

I smiled, typical Shelby. I shook my head and walked back to the room as she growled in disappointment.

"You know you won't die if you say it." She shouted after me as the girl in black bursted into laughter.

I pulled off the hand glove I was wearing and placed them by the side of the bed, the most difficult thing since we had come into Russia was dealing with the cold. We had to wear a lot of clothing to prevent ourselves from literally freezing due to the zero degree temperature. It was winter and we had picked the worst time to visit, some of the locals claimed that Rostov had one of the warmest weathers when compared to other regions in the country but it was hard to figure out what they meant by warm; being able to see my every breath and wrapping myself in more than five different pieces of clothing was definitely not my definition of warmth. The only time we could remove some of these clothings without the fear of hypothermia was when we were indoors, sitting in the comfort of the electric furnace.

I sat on the bed and stared at nothing in particular for a while, picking up my phone, I still couldn't believe my life had taken such a huge and drastic turn. Few weeks ago, if anyone had told me that I would be in Russia, trying to save the world, I would not have believed it because I was no hero and only wanted to live a fulfilled life without dramas, but here I was, the protagonist of a major drama, holding a fake identity and planning on attending a dinner with most of the prominent people in Russia. I scrolled through my gallery and stopped at the picture of my dad smiling, it was a picture I had taken some months back when I had visited him in his office. He had been so consumed by whatever he was doing in his files that he didn't even notice the flashlight go on and off. He was so full of life and even though he was disturbed, he still subconsciously had a smile on.

As I pulled off my sweater, I felt an uncomfortable sting in my back, it felt like there were spikes underneath my skin and I had to slowly remove the jacket to prevent any further discomfort. Placing the jacket by my side, I checked my wristwatch for the time and it was already past two. It meant we still had about four hours before the show and I needed to rest in order to bring calm to my mind and put it in the right place for the mission. I placed my head on the pillow and stared at the ceiling, I missed my family as I wondered what they were up to, it was a shame I could not be around the ones I loved the most until it was all over, I couldn't bring any further harm to them. In a way, I derived all the motivation I needed from the fact that at the end of it all, I would be reunited with them, after I had made whoever was responsible for my dad's death pay from their crimes. I held the necklace I was wearing and swore that as long as I was alive, I would not stop until every single one of them paid. I connected my head phone and plugged it into my ears, as Audio by LSD reverberated through the speaker, shutting my eyes, I let the music take over me.

*

Three weeks ago

I watched Shalom and my mom through the glass wall as I could not bring myself to enter into the ward, she looked pale, Shalom, as my mom fed her. The doctor had brought great news earlier, the extent of her spinal damage had been exaggerated and instead of direct ligation, she had a mere compression of her spinal cord and needed to be put under observation over the next few days to determine how long it was going to take for her to regain full control of her lower body. Mom had quickly booked one of the best physiotherapist in the country to work on her immediately she was able to regain sensation to her lower body and help her get back to her feet in no time. Michael on the other was doing much better and had been moved out of the ICU to the male ward and was responding to treatment, I couldn't bring myself to see him either, not when I had put them all in arm's way.

Shalom muttered something as she wiped her mouth and mom placed her hand over her head. She also said something and Shalom smiled. I smiled weakly as I watched them, but deep inside, I ate myself up and mourned what could have been.

"You know none of this is your fault, right?" Shelby walked towards me and handed a can of malt to me as she took a sip out of hers.

Everyone had been trying to assure me that none of what had happened was my fault, but no matter how I looked at it, I always saw a different outcome if I had listened to the girl in black and went with her on her voyage to save mankind.

"It's hard to see that." I replied, pulling the cork on the can and taking a sip from it.

"What are you going to do now?" Shelby asked, taking another sip. "We do not have much time now. After what happened in China, Amy is convinced that other careers of the Vynet would want to speed things up and this gives us a very short window to stop them now."

I took another sip of the malt, its bittersweet taste sent a different kind of sensation to my thalamus and I savored the taste. I turned back to the glass and kept my gaze on Shalom.

"My mom has an exact replica of your necklace." I announced.

There was a short pause and I knew that she had probably seen it too.

"I know, I saw it when I first arrived the hospital. Do you think she knows more than she's letting on?" Shelby took a step closer and stood beside me, her gaze fixed on my mom and Shalom.

"I don't know, there's only one way to find out."

*

Present

The shofer (chauffeur) pulled up in front of the Rostov state musical theatre, the building was much bigger than the images made it look. There were lots of activities going on outside the building as people exchanged pleasantries, the whole area was also crawling with security guards and this made my heart flutter a bit as I swallowed hard. I stepped out of the car, adjusted my tux and walked over to the other side to hold the door open for Shelby.

"Spasibo (Thank you)." She said, holding my outstretched hand as she stepped out of the car.

As the girl in black had pointed out earlier, with Shelby's choice of clothing, we were definitely going to stand out in the crowd, there was no way we were walking in and out of the theatre unnoticed. She had picked out a Perry Elis black tuxedo for me, coupled with a black leather oxfords shoe that perfectly fitted me. She was wearing an ivory black sequin dress with glitters sprinkled around it and a black face net that made her look breathtaking.

"Pozhaluysta (You're welcome)." I extended my arm to her. "Shall we?"

We approached the entrance of the building elegantly and were asked to present our invitation, my heart fluttered again, moment of truth. Shelby handed over our invitation to the guard who scanned it, something popped up on the screen and he turned to look at us, I held my breath and was prepared to make a run for it if the situation called for.

"Dmitri, Popova."

I nodded in affirmation. "Da (Yes)."

He handed back the invitation to us and waved over a female usher. "Special guests."

She smiled at us politely, and with flair asked us to come with her, swinging her hips intentionally as she walked in front of us. I gave a sigh of relief as we walked into the building and Shelby winked at me. We were led to a platform with less guests and everyone there looked important. The usher stopped and turned to look at me, the smile still plastered on her face.

"My zdes', yesli vam nuzhna drugaya veshch', vy mozhete pozvonit' mne (We are here, if you need any other thing, you can call on me)." She said slowly biting her lower lip.

"We are fine." Shelby quickly imputed before I could say a word, gripping my hands tightly. "Eto vse (That will be all)." The usher walked away but not before glaring at Shelby.

Shelby turned to me. "Were you really enjoying that, why didn't you just tell her off?"

She looked irritated and angry and I didn't see the reason she was, but I couldn't let it go any further, we were there for a reason and needed to stick to the plan.

"I can see you are already getting attention" A voice came from behind us.

We turned and there stood the girl in black, contrary to what Shelby had said, she was not putting on just any dress and I was sure that if people could actually see her, she would have garnered more attention than we would.

"You look nice." Shelby complemented her. "You're so uptight I almost forgot you were a lady and you should have a sense of fashion." There she went again, I wondered what had suddenly ticked her off that make her suddenly obnoxious.

Amy smiled and turned to look around the room. "Don't get used to it."

"So, what are we looking for exactly?" I asked, also running my gaze around the room as men and women chatted happily in Russian and security guards whispered endlessly into their devices.

"Anything out of place." Amy responded.

I grinned. "That would be us."

There was an announcement and everyone was asked to pay attention as the opening musical act was about to be performed. The announcer called the names of the singers and there was a loud applause from the entire building. The singers, Rauf and Faik, stepped up to the stage and were going to be performing one of their old songs Aetctbo. There was a loud round of applause after they finished performing, and rightly so, even though I could not understand most of the lyrics, the song still had a way it connected to my soul, great rhythm. The rowdiness resumed as soon as the singers stepped off the stage and we turned back to look for anything 'out of place'.

"There." Shelby pointed out.

There was a lady standing at the corner talking to a man, she was also wearing an expensive black gown and had a shade on.

"We can't check if she's possessed or not, and if she is, there's no way we can drag her away in front of all these people and security."

The girl in black scorned. "Try me."

"Dragging out the Daughter of the chief of staff would be kidnapping." A voice startled us from behind. "And with all these security guards here, I bet it you can only make it five feet to her before you're shot."

There was a man dressed as a waiter standing behind us. He didn't look like most of the waiters and had an indian accent even though we couldn't get a clearer look at his face.

I cleared my throat and turned to Shelby who for some reason looked more shocked than I was. I did my old laughter trick, hoping to clear up the air.

"I think you misread things mister, we were not planning on kidnapping the daughter of the chief of staff."

He smiled and moved toward us. "Well if you actually planned on kidnapping her, doing it at her condo will be wiser. She's a very private woman has little to no security guards there, not that I've been stalking her or anything. I'm Justin." He stretched his hands towards me. "Justin Case."

I received his hand shake and nudged Shelby who had been silent. She remained silent.

"And just in case you need anything, I'm the man for it. I'm actually a tech expert working as a waiter part time." He looked away from me and turned to the direction Shelby and the girl in black were standing. "You lovely ladies have been awkwardly silent, what can I get for the three of you."

YOUR COMMENTS ARE HIGHLY APPRECIATED

CHAPTER FIVE

Ever wondered what happens when we die, or when we almost die? Religion and science have given very different and opposite explanations for this, and instead of bringing light to a rather tricky subject, it leaves us further confused and frustrated than we initially were, as we try to figure out which is right, and which isn't. This rift of confusion is then suddenly resolved when we finally choose our way of life and what it is we want to believe in; either to believe in a superior being that judges us at the end of our walk in life, or to believe in the big bang theory that states that we exist as a result of a mighty explosion millions of years ago. That being said, our perception of the afterlife involves one of two things, being judged and being subjected to eternal condemnation, or everlasting peace, or having everything we've ever done flash before our eyes in the few minutes and suddenly after, we just seize to exist. This is of course barring some others, like those that claim we are reincarnated and made to live again in another body whilst forgetting everything we ever did in our past life, or those that claim that we have to travel through endless test to prove that we are good enough for the afterlife. Each school of thought fights to be heard and to be shown as the one and only truth, but what you realise when you die, or when you almost do, is that none of this school of thoughts matter when you are on your way to the other side, regardless of your beliefs or way of life, it always ended in one way; a mystery we only get to uncover on our way to the other side, and quickly forget if we are called back before reaching the blue light.

The first thing I heard when I finally came through was the constant beeping of the heart monitor, it beeped at such regular intervals that one could get used to it and forget that it was there all together. My head felt like it had been filled with bags of cement and I was suffering from a gigantic hangover. I could hear some voices as I struggled to open my eyes -a feat that seemed like an herculean task- and I was able to catch a very familiar one in the midst of all the jumble, my mom's.

"He is waking up." She announced to whoever was in the room and I could hear footsteps run off.

"I would get the doctor." Another voice said as the footstep trailed off. It was another familiar voice but my brain had not woken up fully to figure out who it was.

My eyes finally opened up a little bit and I could see the ceiling of the room I was in, although not too clearly. Its brightness sent impulses of pain to the back of my head, through optic nerve, as my lens struggled to adjust to accommodate the image. It took about another minute when the doctor came and pulled my eyelids back, for my eyes to finally adjust, and I could see everyone in the room. He had been muttering something since he stood over me, but all I heard were enhanced movements and whining echoes that I couldn't understand.

"Can you hear me?" The doctor aksed again and I could finally hear him. "Blink twice it you can." He pulled back the touch he had briefly placed in front of my eyeballs.

I blinked and slowly turned to look at my mom and I could see the joy in hers eyes. She had eye bags, probably from excessive crying and lack of sleep and it made me wonder how long I had been unconscious for. The doctor stood in front of me, obstructing my view again, he placed a finger in front of my eyes and asked me to follow it to the left, and then, to the right which I did albeit painfully. He sighed and turned to my mom.

"The worse is over now, all he needs now is rest." He announced and I saw her fall to the ground in tears.

Some of the nurses tried to get her up but she refused as she weeped uncontrollably, I thought I had her say something regarding my siblings but I couldn't grasp what it was as I again, slipped into oblivion.

*

I opened my eyes again and this time it was much easier than it had been when I tried the first time, I felt very much better and my muscles that had been aching suddenly weren't anymore. I also found out that the tube that had gone into my mouth had been removed. I adjusted on the bed and helped myself up as I looked around the room, it was a very spacious one and moderately decorated, with flowers just beside my bed, knowing my mom, I knew she must have requested that we were made comfortable regardless the cost. My eyes caught a figure in the balcony, and although the ray of sunlight that shown from that direction initially prevented me from seeing who it was, but as my eyes adjusted I realized who the second voice had belonged to.

Shelby had her back to me and her ears plugged in with her earpiece, the blowing wind made her hair fly and she looked like an actress playing a scene for a movie. She was oblivious to my actions and looked to be in deep thoughts, her expression savouring every bit of breeze she could get from whatever floor we were in. Suddenly, like a shocking realization, my mind drifted to my dad and siblings and I was anxious to know how they were fairing. I shifted my legs and sat at the edge of the bed and that was when Shelby turned, finally catching my movement. She hurried into the room, pulling the earpiece out of her ears.

"You're finally awake." She said rhetorically as she tried to help me to the edge of the bed. She also stacked some pillows behind me, to support me from behind.

I used my hand to shift my weight back and finally got comfortable in my position as she took a few steps backwards. We had a lot to discuss, but first, I needed to know how the rest of my family were doing.

"My dad, Michael and Shalom?" I asked, preparing myself for the worst.

She was silent for a while and I could see that she was contemplating whether to tell me or not.

"I deserve to know." I cut into her thoughts.
Sighing, she dragged a chair and sat in front of me, intertwining her fingers in front of her face. "Michael is fine, he suffered injuries to some of his internal organs, but the surgeries were successful, and he has since stabilized. The doctor said that it was only a matter of time before he is released from the ICU"

A good news, I thought, but knowing Shelby, I knew she had probably decided to start from the less hurtful news.

"Okay, Shalom and my dad?" I urged her on as she had suddenly stopped talking and looked distant.

She took a deep breath in and stared at me for a while. "I don't think I should be the one telling you this." She protested.

"Just tell me.' I was becoming anxious and frightened, had something bad happened to them?

There was another short pause but it felt like eternity as I stared at her hoping I was wrong.
"Shalom had a damage to her spine, just around her L1 vertebrae. The doctor said she has lost function of the lower part of her body, she is now paraplegic and would spend the rest of her life on a wheel chair."

The news hit me harder than I thought it would, and even though I had braced myself up for something like that, hearing it proved to be a very difficult task to handle. I felt my heart collapsing deep within as pain and anger overwhelmed me.

"Your dad did not make it."

My heart stopped for a moment and all I could hear was the beeping of the monitor, my vision suddenly became blurry and there was a sharp pain in my head as I tried to keep myself from falling off the bed. Shelby pushed me back and helped me maintain my balance. I lowered my head and shut my eyes, I couldn't hold back the tears that suddenly formed behind my eyeball and flowed without resistance, I felt responsible for what had happened to my family, the girl in black had warned me of this possibility but I refused to listen and turned a deaf ear to her. She also had a blame in what had happened, ever since she had showed up in my life, things had taken a sudden turn from good to bad and for all I knew, she might have been responsible for bringing whoever did this into my life. The tears flowed seamlessly down my face and I lost every sense of masculinity as I broke down in tears in front of Shelby, I wished for time to go back for me to make things right, I would have gone far away from my family and faced the tragedy alone, but I was not smart enough, I was dumb, dumb to have allowed such fate befall my loved ones, bringing them nothing but pain and suffering.

I thought of my poor sister whose life had been destroyed due to the foolishness of her brother and I wasn't sure I could ever come to face her again, the guilt would kill me. My dad who had his life set only for his son to bring about his downfall, I was certain he would never forgive me wherever he was. If only I had known that it was the last time i was ever going to see him, I would have just told him everything and not wait till we got back.

The door to my room opened and someone walked in, from her strides, I could tell it was my mom and I couldn't bring myself to look at her.

"You're up already." She said, hurriedly placing what she brought on the table.

She walked to me and stopped short when she saw the tears in my eyes, she turned to Shelby, who nodded and she knew what had happened. She slowly bent beside me and held my head.

"You don't have to be like this now, you should rest and look after your health, let the others worry about theirs."

I raised my head and stared at her, how could she still be so strong in this situation? I knew she was hiding her pain behind her words, she had to be strong for all of us and she really did a good job of it.

"I'm sorry." That was all I could say as the tears flowed. I had cost her a life and probably already ended another. It wasn't something even I was able to forgive myself for.

She pulled me for in a hug as she quickly wiped off the tear that fell from her eyes. "It's not your fault." She said, gripping me tightly. "Trust me when I say, It's not your fault." She assured.

She let go of me after a while and helped me wipe the tears off. "I don't want you to eat yourself up about this and just recover. That's what we all want." She grabbed the bag she had dropped. "I will be back, I need to go to your sister's ward."

As soon as she stepped out, I turned to Shelby. "You called me, just before the accident to warn me. How did you know it was going to happen."

Shelby slowly paced around the room. "You might think I am insane if I tell you, but you have to believe everything I say. "

I scoffed, she had to try living my life for a day. "Try me."

She paused again. "I saw it happen."

I didn't understand what her statement meant. "You were there when it happened?"

"No, I mean, I saw it happen, before it happened."

At that point, I would have thought she was out of her mind if I hadn't known any better, but I did, I just needed to figure out what she meant and what role she played in all of it.

"A week after I moved to China, I got down with the flu and was really sick for a while. I got treatment and along the way, I started having vivid dreams and nightmares. The doctors said it might have been a side effect of the medication, but even after I got better, I still had them and it started interfering with my daily routine. Then all of a sudden, I started seeing things, really scary things, people who looked normal, but weren't."

"What do you mean by were not normal?" I interrupted her. What she had described so far was the same thing I had been going through and I really had to get the details.

"Well, they walked amongst people and even interacted with them. But some of them had wings, really big, strong wings that people seemed not to notice, although I only see the wings in a flash before it vanishes again. There was also something wrong with their eyes, they all had black scary eyeballs."

I almost jumped out of my bed, I was not going insane and Shelby had just confirmed it. I had witness everything she had said, but not those with wings. It made me wonder if they had ever tried to attack her, like they did with me.

"Were you ever attacked?"

"No, although I later got to find out that it was because of this." She pulled her shirt and brought out a necklace. It was the necklace she had always worn when we were in school, she had told me during our days that it was a gift from her late father before he died and she had worn it ever since. I had seen that exact necklace somewhere before, but I still couldn't figure out where I had seen it.

"On the night before we left, I decided to take a walk out of the house, down the street, and that was when I saw them, two people fighting in the middle of the road as people and cars passed by and acted like they weren't there. They were not normal people. The man had wings and the girl wielded swords, she seemed like an expert, but she was already badly injured. I tried to get people to separate them but they all stared at me like I had lost it and went about their ways. I tried to interfere, but the girl waved me back. The man attacked her again and with one strong swing, she beheaded him right in front of my eyes. I was in shock, someone had just been killed on the road and no one cared. The girl wiped her sword and walked up to me, she pulled down my shirt and brought out this necklace. She mumbled something and told me that I had to leave to find the boy and get him to safety, she said I would know when I saw him and that I had to make sure I brought him to her in Russia. That was the first time I saw you in one of my visions, you were sitting in a car and looking out on the road. At first, it was in flashes, just fragments when i fell asleep or when I laid to relax, i didn't understand what it meant but it felt so real. With time, the fragments started coming together, but I still couldn't really get my hand on it and what it actually meant until last night when I saw it completely, the accident. I tried to call to warn you but you weren't picking, I sent you loads of texts but none of them got delivered. We have a lot to talk about, but we have to leave first, she said your family will never be safe if you're around them and I don't think you want any further harm to befall them."

There was only one person that would say what Shelby had just said. "The girl, did she tell you who she was?"

"Yes, Amy, she said you call her the girl in black."

Mom walked in interrupting us, she had a smile on her face as she approached us. "I have good news, Michael just woke up. I know you two have a lot to catch up on." She continued and I knew she still thought that we were together. "But I want you to rest for now."

She helped me raise my leg back on the bed and dragged the cover over me, that was when I saw it, the necklace she was wearing, it was the exact replica of Shelby's.