The Otherworldly Minds Saga Chapter 5
It’s late at night when I get home. I get outside to see my brother doing push-ups outside in the rain as my father screams over his head for him to keep doing more. The way he’s screaming at my brother unnerves me. All these hopes that he had for my brother was all shattered at that moment.
“Where the hell were you? Do you know what time it is?” My father asks me angrily as I approach.
I ignore him looking down at my brother who was still suffering in the rain.
I bark at him, “Zaire get inside…”
Zaire looks confused. He looks at me and then looks back at my dad. My dad and I face off looking at each other in the rain and I can tell that things are completely awkward between us in these moments.
“Wh—-what?”
“Get inside!” I bark again.
He does what I say probably partially only because my father wasn’t giving him any pushback. My father looks back at me. Normally I wouldn’t have said anything to him but right now I’m feeling the anger building up in me and I’m desperate to get answers to what I just learned about him.
As soon as my brother is gone I can feel the tension grow between us. I feel betrayed by the revelations I just got.
“When were you going to tell your son that you might not be his dad?” I ask.
He gives me this squinted look.
“Who have you been talking to?”
“I don’t wanna play these games. You know who I’ve been talking to. You know what I’m talking about.”
That’s when he gets up in my face. His breath is foul and there is this level of anger coursing all through his body, “You got some nerve coming to me asking about some rumor. You been around that Harris boy, haven’t you?”
“He says that Cordae Sr. is Zaire’s real dad.”
“That boy don’t know shit. And neither does his father.”
“Then why are you so mad? Why have you spent his entire life acting like you desperately had something to prove.”f
“I spent my life trying to be the best father that I can be…”
“To him. You were a shitty father to me. Maybe you thought you’d lose Zaire. Is that it? You thought you’d lose him after he realizes what the truth might be.”
My father grunts, “You don’t know what you talking about, boy. You have no idea what you’re saying.”
“You have no idea what you’re doing as a father. I wasn’t enough for you. I guess I wasn’t the one reminder that Cordae Sr. couldn’t hold over your head. The moment Ma was institutionalized you lost your fucking shit…”
I turn away from him. He made me sick and so can’t believe I’m finally admitting it not only to him but I was admitting it to myself. Turning away from him seems to piss him off to a whole different level of crazy.
<He’s coming at you. I’m taking over.>
The Princess hears his breathing. She counts his steps as he approaches hearing the deep angry grunts that I caused with my words. He tries to swing his fist at the back of my head. She dodges it, dropping low right in the midst of time. She turns sweeping him off his feet guided by his own weight and and then slippery wet ground. She twists his arm when he’s on the ground causing him to squirm in this deep pain.
I’d didn’t want her to break it, but I did want to make my father very clear with what was happening right now.
“Listen, Cordae Sr. wants a blood test. You are going to tell Zaire the truth…tonight. Or I will…”
He stares at me shocked that I’m so strong. His weak son that he never gave any attention to because I had nothing to do with the sick competition he had with Cordae Sr. was strong enough to lay him flat on his ass.
~
It’s morning and I can feel myself almost needing more energy. The Princess explains to me the more that she takes over the less energy my body is going to have. Maybe that explains why it feels like I just ran a marathon. Every muscle in my body is sore from having the Princess take over so much.
<It’ll get better with time.> she assures me.
If she meant that I’d get used to an alien spirit in my body controlling it, wasting all my energy and turning me into a walking zombie then she was wrong. This shit was something that I’d never be able to get used to.
“Well I’m going to sleep until it gets better.”
“I don’t have to do anything but stay black and die.”
I roll my eyes, “Oh you insist. Well then Princess, excuse me as I do your bidding.”
She was spoiled. I roll over at that moment ready to go to sleep. As soon as I close my eyes, she opens it. We go back and forth for a good five minutes before she finally speaks again.
<The Warrior was attacked yesterday. Which means they know who he is. If they know who he is there is only a matter of time before they figure out who you are. You won’t survive a full blown Upsetter attack…>
Goddam it. She had a point. I get up at that moment. This was going to be harder than I imagined.
It’s even worse after so shower when so get downstairs and see my little brother sitting at the table. Zaire usually would be eating now but he’s just sitting there looking like he’d been run over by a bulldozer.
I put my hand on his shoulder, “He must have told you…”
“Get off me!” He jerks away.
<Well you weren’t expecting that reaction?>
“Zaire, you’re mad at me?”
“Why the fuck did you have to say something?” He asks shaking his head with even more confusion, “What the fuck is going to happen now…”
“You’ll get there test. You’ll find out the truth.”
“And what if it is true? My entire life is going to be turned upside down. I’ll be Cordae’s Harris younger, less talented brother…”
He gets off the table and storms off.
I think about chasing him down but I hear the voice in my head.
<Let him go. He still thinks Cordae is the enemy . Your dad has drilled that into his head all his life. Same as he’s done with you. It’ll be hard to shake that view.>
All of a sudden seeing my brother’s anger for possibly being related to Cordae Sr. was like holding up a mirror to myself.
“Am I really that bad?”
<You want the truth? Or a lie to make you feel better at the fact that you’ve been treating Cordae like a brainwashed moron.>
“Shut the hell up.”
<You do remember I’m a Princess don’t you.>
“Well shut the hell up, your highness.”
~
It’s hard to focus in school. I doze off in three classes and it takes the Princess to literally sit me up and keep my eyes open so it just seems like I’m somewhat engaged. This idea of having someone else in your body was draining. What’s worse is that every time I close my eyes I have some sort of teenage girl’s wet dream about Cordae. Sometimes we are in some far away place and other times he right next to me. It’s always about Cordae. It never fails.
And then finally I hear a buzzing in my head. The buzzing is almost stifling.
<It’s the Technician. He wants to meet in the library. Please make a detour to the bathroom though first and clean the drool off the side of your lips. The Warrior is going to be there.>
“Fuck Cordae…”
<There goes the brainwashing. Can you try—-just TRY to be nice to him for once.>
Being nice to Cordae. It felt like something almost unfathomable at that moment but then I remembered how closed off and resistant my brother was to being related to the Harris family.
If I hated them then how the hell would I be able to let my brother be open to them?
-
By the time I get to the library, Jean, Justin and Cordae are already there. I remember what the alien said in a way. The way that my brother acted was fresh in my mind. I wanted to be different.
“Hey guys…”
The library has a bunch of students in it but I find them gathered around at a small rectangular table in the back. There is a level of privacy here, especially when I look around and see that the librarian is all the way in the front. As I approach there is a level of tension in the air. I wonder how they are going to react to me and this new thing I was going to try. This “being nice” thing that I was hoping went over well.
I’m trying to be as positive as possible as I walk in. It doesn’t go unnoticed. I think Cordae and Justin both look at one another with wide eyes.
“Is this Mr. Doom smiling?” Cordae teases giving me a smile of his own.
“Where the hell have you been?” Jean asks, “The Technician sent out the alarm 15 minutes ago.”
I must have spent more time in the bathroom preparing for Cordae than I imagined. I look over at Cordae, but when our eyes connect we both divert them almost immediately. Things are still weird between us and I’m not sure how to make them better.
“Don’t ask too many questions, Jean, we finally got him in a good mood,” Justin offers.
Jean, for the first time, seems to take this as a sign not to go digging into my business. She smiles.
“Well thank you all for coming,” she offers, placing a few thick books in front of all of us, “The Historian wanted me to make you all little guides to properly inform us, the hosts, about the predicament that we’ve found ourselves in. He knows a lot. He’s sort of---nosy…”
“Then you two are a perfect match,” Cordae asks.
I don’t know why I find this funny but I do and I show it...reluctantly. It’s just a relief to know that someone else besides me found Jean to be really nosy.
Jean rolls her eyes, “That wasn’t that funny. Curiosity is a virtue.”
“Not this curious. You did this in two days, Jean?” Justin asks lifting up the thick book and flipping through all of the pages, “How many pages is this…”
“750…”
The girl had the time to write 750 pages. A part of me would have been surprised if I didn’t remember how it was possible for the alien to take over my body and defend me against my father earlier that day. These creatures weren’t like us. They were capable of amazing feats. None of us should have been surprised in the least that this feat was just something else that they could do better than us.
None-the-less Jean seems to be proud of her work and the collaboration she’s had with the Historian. She has this wide smile on her face even though none of us gave her a compliment yet.
Reluctantly, trying this nice thing, I open my mouth and mutter out, “Thanks for doing----erm, all of this.”
“QUIET!” A voice calls out from the front of the library, “There’s people trying to do some serious work around here.”
We all turn to see the librarian giving us a look as we are talking. We break out into a little laughter for no clear reason. I guess it was the point of doing serious work that gets to us.
“You’re welcome,” Jean states before saying, “Turn to page 215. I want you guys when you get the chance to spend some time delving into this section. This section talks about Upsetters.”
“Says here they have the ability to take over bodies too…”
“But unlike the Druids they destroy the mind of the person and take them over completely,” Jean explains, “The goal they have is to strip the knowledge from different worlds and destroy them afterward.”
“How so we stop them?”
“The fifth who was captured should know that knowledge but we must find the Fifth. We must journey to the place… we have a limited time. The King Destroyer is coming to Earth. Once he does...we won’t have much time.”
“The King Destroyer…”
“Turn to the bottom of the page.”
We all do what she says. She had an entire section of the book that is outlined with the King Destroyer. Right below the name there is a symbol. It’s a symbol of a triangle with two circles inside of it.
“This is how you’ll know him. This is how you will know the King Destroyer…”
To be honest I’m left sort of speechless wondering what I’ve gotten myself involved in.
“We should get out of here before that Librarian loses his shit,” Justin explains, “We will plan to rescue the Fifth.”
“There is a problem with all of this,” Cordae says, “I’ve been compromised.”
“It’ll probably be safer if you stayed at my place for a little bit,” Justin offers, “Especially if they know that you are a Druid.”
“I’ll get some stuff after school and head your way.”
“I’ll help you…” I say randomly,
They all turn to me. It wasn’t me who said those words. It was the Princess. She was really forcing me to be nice. When they all turn to me so just try my best to soften it up.
“I don’t think it’ll be safe for him to go back home alone,” I shrug.
Cordae gives me a look. At first I think it’s suspicious but the way he looks at me really makes me think that it is past that. Cordae is definitely surprised that I am trying to by his side to help him with this and the only one more surprised than he is...is me.
“I’ll pick you up after school.”
And then I mutter words that make me cringe, “It’s a date.”
A date? A date! This wasn’t even the Princess who said those words. This time it was me. I want to crawl into my own skin for being so corny. Nonetheless though he gives me this honest sincere smile in return and nods slowly.
~
<Please don’t embarrass us…>
“Shut the hell up…”
“What was that?” Cordae says walking up behind me at the end of school.
“Nothing, you ready?”
He nods, “Yeah...my car is this way.”
I follow close behind him. He had these jeans that fit like a glove on showing off his masculine bubble butt in the perfect way. As he gets to his care he stops and turns rather quickly to me.
“After you…” he opens the door for me.
I wonder if he caught me staring at his ass.
“You really opening doors for me? Really?”
“Like it or not you have a princess inside of you,” he reminds me, “The Warrior will make me punch myself if I don’t show a little bit of respect.”
I think about arguing but then again he had a point. So this time I just go with it. I get in his car and we start driving to our side of town. His car smells like him. It’s this deep nutty cologne fragrance that makes me feel like the fall season. It is both rich and masculine. He is a fast driver but his car is smooth. Every once in a while he turns to me and asks me if I’m OK before he adjusts the music or adjusts the heat.
<He’s nervous. Spark up a conversation.>
I am resistant to it but nonetheless I open my mouth and say, “Did your father get the blood test…”
“He’s going tomorrow. I think he’s scared about what it all will mean if Zaire actually does turn out to be his son. Do you know what that means?”
“What?”
“We will be family. We would have shared the same brother…”
It was a scary thought. After all these years of being taught to basically hate him it is possible that we actually would be related.
“Guess that’d make the whole kiss even weirder.”
“Was the kiss that bad…”
“I didn’t mean it like that…” I correct him.
He turns. A smirk spreads on his cheek. He manages to get out a sly smile before turning back his attention to the road. He drives a stick shift and I watch as his hands graze the shift over and over. He keeps turning back to me throughout it all making me feel like I’m the only one in the world.
“So you didn’t hate it?” He asks me.
“Is that the Warrior asking or is that you?” I ask.
He shrugs, “The Warrior…”
I don’t know why that disappoints me. I don’t know why I turn back to the side of the car and utter a soft, uneasy, “Oh…”
“Wait you didn’t think I…” he starts before seeming flushed, “Oh shit I thought we were still kind of agreeing how weird this whole Druid thing was making us attracted to us even tho we obviously aren’t.”
“No you’re right. The whole Druid thing...is...weird…”
It gets awkward after that. Really awkward. I can feel his eyes burning a hole in me for the rest of the car ride. I can’t believe I put my guard down in that way. Of course the Warrior had been just trying to flirt with the Princess. Why else would I think anything other than that.
We pull up to his house.
“Something’s off…” he says.
“What?”
We walk out of the car and that’s when we notice his door is open. As we approach it definitely looks like forced entry at the threshold. I stand behind him and he points to the house before signaling me to be quiet by literally cupping his hang over my mouth.
Someone was in his house! It was as clear as day. That’s when we walk inside his house. Things are broken. They are torn all over. It’s clear someone has been in the house looking for him.
“Fuck…” I whisper.
There is a sound coming from the kitchen. Someone was in there.
“We are taking over,” Cordae says to me.
Only I know it isn’t Cordae who is speaking to me. I know this because in the next few seconds I lose control of my body as well. The Princess takes over and she is taking over because we are under a threat. Someone had ransacked Cordae’s home in search of clues about him. We were too late. It was clear that Cordae had been completely compromised and now it was clear that the Upsetters were looking for him.
Our bodies enter the kitchen and that’s when we see Cordae’s father lain out in the middle of the kitchen. He’s bleeding out.
Cordae’s father had been stabbed.
“Dammit…” The Warrior rushes to his father's side in an attempt to stop the bleeding.
“Will he be OK?”
“Get out of here, Princess…” Cordae says.
I take back control long enough to argue, “I don’t want to leave Cordae alone.”
The Warrior looks at me, “He will be fine—-I mean I will be fine. It’s possible whoever attacked this house is still here. We can not compromise the Princess and reveal whose body she is in. That is our top priority.”
I look over at Cordae. I feel bad for him. I couldn’t imagine coming home to someone having attacked my father over something that I was involved in. He lets the Warrior take over but I can see the concern mounting underneath his eyes.
But he was right. I had to go home. If they found out I was involved with Cordae they could do worse to my family and that’s something I couldn’t allow.
~
I get home late that night. Too late to make dinner. I’m surprised though when I get home and they are already eating. I silently sit at the table with my father who doesn’t say a word to me. Zaire must have been the one who cooked. It’s obvious because the food is a bit salty and he’s looking at me with this pissed off look that he had to be the one to cook.
Honestly I am so shaken about what I saw at Cordaes house that I am focused on my phone sending Cordae a message saying: Are you OK?
My dad slowly gets up to clean his plate after eating leaving Zaire and me at the table.
“Where the hell were you?”
“I had to do something after school.”
“Something huh? Like hang out with Cordae…”
“How the hell did you know about that?”
“Troy told me he saw you get in the car with Cordae earlier,” my brother says with this confused look on, “What exactly do you think you’re doing hanging out with Cordae Harris…”
“Cordae Harris could be your brother…”
Zaire grunts at the thought, “I tried to reach out to Harris Sr. for the blood test. He didn’t even bother returning my call.”
I had a feeling the blood test was out of the question now because he was attacked. I shake my head at the thought however and just cross my arms.
“That probably won’t be happening.”
“First you want me to get the test and now you don’t. First you hate Cordae Harris and now you don’t. This is like the third time this week you’ve come home late. What is happening with my brother?”
Zaire was dependent on me. I can see how angry he is when he’s talking to me. He damn near is throwing a tantrum.
“There is a lot going on that you don’t understand…”
“Does it have to do with why you are hanging with my rival?”
I nod, “Yeah…”
“Fine. Explain it to me.”
<Don’t tell him anything.>
Just when I’m struggling with how to keep my new life a secret from my brother there is a doorbell. The doorbell interrupts everything but it comes right in time because my brother is looking at me with this confused look. He feels like he’s losing his big brother and maybe he has a point.
Just at that moment the doorbell rings.
“Are you expecting anyone?” I ask.
My brother was the only one who usually had guests. My brother shakes his head and all of a sudden the ringing keeps getting more and more aggressive.
I get up at that moment. I sneak a knife from the dining table without my brother noticing. I get to the front of the house. My heart is racing and sweat rolling down places that I didn’t even know existed.
All I can keep thinking about is what happened to Cordae. What if that happened to me? I didn’t have the perfect family but they were still my family. They were still people that I loved.
If something happened to them…
<Calm down. Stay focused.>
I let her take control completely as I moved to the front door. Something was telling me that something bad was behind this door. I don’t know if it was coming from my own senses or the senses of the Princess. All I knew was I had a bad feeling about this.
A real bad feeling.
I open the door.
The person is standing there. It’s a woman dressed all in white. Her wavy brown hair is cut to her shoulders. Her smile is wide and her cheeks are full. She gives me a cheeky smile.
“Aren’t you going to hug me?”
I just stand there unsure of what to do but then I hear my Dad calling from behind me. He’s seen who is standing at the door.
“Diane? Diane!”
He runs past me almost knocking me down in the process. I watch how he embraces her.
It was my mother. She was out of the institution she was in and she was standing at my doorstep.
What?
How?
<Did you see the bracelet around her neck?>
I’m confused what the Princess is talking about but then so see it when she steps away from my father and steps towards me.
“I’m home. I’m home for good. Come here son…”
I let her embrace me but I see the symbol. It’s the same symbol that Jean had showed us.
A triangle with two circles inside of it.
<Your mother is my father. Your mother is the King Destroyer.>
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