The Witchdoctor's Son Chapter 2
Chapter 2- The City of Monsters
Whyte Ferris is sitting in the room. The penthouse had a lot of rooms. He was blessed. He lived in the top apartments of the Witch Tower. These were where all the wealthy families stayed. It was as nice as witch accommodations got. They were nothing like the Spanish-style villas that the vampires stayed in. Or for the wealthy werewolves, these accommodations were similar to the wooden castles built on the outskirts of the forests they called the Gardens.
“They are here,” his daughter states.
He knew who she was talking about. It’s the reason he’s sweating and the reason his body is so tense. He wipes the sweat off of his head. It was seen as a weakness for a Ferris man to lose his cool.
“Is Blanco ready?”
“Yes.”
He didn’t trust her. He’d see for himself. Whyte makes his way downstairs. His son is standing there shirtless. He was the youngest Ferris boy of eight older brothers. They’d all failed their father at one point. They were all in the room, all wearing the scars of the times that they had failed. Mostly there were scars but one son had lost an eye in the Competition and the other son had lost an arm. Several had almost lost their lives.
But Blanco was different. Blanco was his pride and joy.
Whyte takes one look at Blanco and he’s sure. He turns to his daughter, “Let your Uncles in…”
The Uncles come in and they all feast their eyes on Blanco. It was Whyte’s greatest accomplishment raising this young child into the man he was today. He’d spent his whole life preparing. He spent his whole life being told that he could not fail the name. He could not fail the family.
He stands there naked in front of the other Ferris men. The room was wealthy, laid out luxuriously especially for the presentation. The great competition was going to begin and they’d need to present their best man. The whole city would be watching. There were many men.
His Uncle Tybee Ferris, who was a heavy man with a stocky composure that was always finding a reason to be disappointed with him says loudly, “Is Blanco ready, Whyte?”
“He’ll be ready,” his daughter interrupts
“That was a question meant for a man, girl,” Uncle Tybee barks at Whyte’s daughter.
She was the only female in the room. Only one. Whyte could almost smack her for being so stupid. She leans her head down in disgrace. Luckily Tybee is more interested in Blanco. And Blanco stands up straight, militant in all his posture but he could feel his younger sister give him a smile of pride. She was soft. Sweet. Not raised strict like Whyte or the other men in their family. Not like how Whyte raised Blanco. She was a member of the coven. He would be forced to send her to the Competition as well but everyone knew who the real Ferris representative was. She’d go because she had to go. Not by choice, but because the leader of the Coven required women. The Ferris family refused the tradition. All magic users were the same in the Ferris family. They were all men. Every last one of them. Ferris women existed but they were not allowed to study magic in any way at all. They were there to serve the strong, proud Ferris men.
“Strong chest. 8 pack of abs. He looks stronger than the others even Borris. No fat on his body at all.”
“He is physically superior. He works out 3 times a day.”
The last Uncle was Uncle Wesley. He’d once married an Atwood woman and cheated on her. He’d forgotten that she’d learned magic before she married him and she ended up cursing him. Since then nothing ever made him happy. He refused to smile. He lived the most dreaded life.
Uncle Wesley was the hardest for Whyte to impress. He stares at Blanco and shakes his head, “I’m not concerned with his body. Great. You’ve built a very muscular son, Whyte. But we are witch Doctors. I’m more concerned with his magic---how does he perform?”
Whyte looks at his son, “Perform Blanco.”
Manly chest. This one isn’t like the other failure of sons you’ve had Whyte,” Uncle Mansias.
They were hard on Whyte. There was a boy once in his coven by the name of Brandon Ferris who even dared to be gay. The Ferris men saw it as a weakness. Homosexuality was soft. When he died, they stripped his name from the family registry and it had become almost taboo to mention Brandon. He had become the black sheep of the family.
And then there was Whyte Ferris, Blanco’s father. He had strayed once as well. Got too entangled with another boy. He’d embarrassed his family when the man he loved...Genesis Bah made a complete fool out of both Brandon and Whyte.
Whyte was still alive though. He wasn’t like Brandon. He was going to regain the honor of his family. Whyte asked for forgiveness, married a woman, and started to bear sons to seek forgiveness from them.
But they all failed the prize.
“You know what’s at stake…” Whyte tells Blanco.
That’s when Blanco nods at his father. Proud and strong. He grabs the knife that Fatty brings into the room.
“For the Ferris family…”
He was there to prove his magic and prove his power. And Whyte knew that Blanco would do anything to make him proud. It was then that Blanco grabs the knife and looks out at the crowd.
He slashes his own throat.
There are whispers even amongst the Ferris men when they see Blanco do it. Nowadays people didn’t do this sort of blood magic. Not anymore. They watch as Blanco hits the ground. Then suddenly the hardwood in the Ferris mention start to get soft. Whyte looks around and notices tears in the wood. Flowers begin to bloom. Not just any flowers either. These were red roses. These were the most vibrant red roses ever.
They were shocked. This was power. This was a power that they hadn’t seen in several generations in the Five families. And this was a power that was coming from a Ferris.
“As I said...this is the next generation,” Whyte states as his son gets up, lifts his neck showing off to the group of uncles that his wound has healed completely.
It’s at that moment for the first time in decades that Uncle Wesley smiles.
Blanco was everything Whyte should have been. He would finally redeem himself for being a fool for Genesis Bah.
After all, Blanco means White.
~
“Where are we?”
I wake up at the edge of a forest. Leon Staten is there with me. I feel weak and my stomach turns. Something is weird about this place. When I look up at the sky it had dusk over it. It’s this strange color of red that I hadn’t seen before in all my days on Moreen Island. I’d never been off of Moreen Island but I was sure this wasn’t what the rest of the world looked like.
This place was special…
“Eden, home of the monsters,” Leon tells me, “The City of Monsters is just beyond this forest. Did your mother not tell you any of these things?”
“A little. She died...a while ago,” I state.
“I’m sorry to hear that. Well, Eden a city compromised of all sorts of creatures that don’t exist in the human world. The gates to the city are that way.”
He points in a direction. I can see the beginnings of something. Towers maybe. Something sticking out just over the forest. I try to look further. The trees were so thick that I couldn’t see much but there seemed to a road out of the forest. It wasn’t paved or anything like that.
“Do they have magic there?” I ask, “Real magic…like my father did?”
I start on the road. Curiosity gets the most out of me. I was tired of doing tricks. I was doing magic acts. Leon Staten had given me the ability to walk. If there were more people like them then I had to meet them. I had to know what they knew. I wanted to know everything.
“Not so quick, Gene,” he states, “You can’t just walk into town and announce you are the son of Genesis Bah.”
“Why not?”
“Your father has a reputation in this city,” he tells me, “Many people were threatened by him before he disappeared.”
“I don’t even know my father.”
Leon Staten shrugs, “That’s not the point. They’ll know you. And you’ll be in danger. Which is why we are here. You must be escorted in. Escorted by the right people. Believe it or not, right now I’m doing magic. A spell that allows me to locate someone in my vicinity.”
He points to the ground.
I hadn’t noticed the veins stretching out from underneath the ground as though the dirt had blood pumping through them. The raised ground spreads out in all directions around us. It’s fucking breathtaking to see.
I grab him so hard that he loses his focus.
I grab his arm. “Show me…”
“One day.”
“One day is today. Please.”
I reach over to him, cupping his crotch with my hands feeling his manhood. It hardens to my touch. He looks me dead in my eyes.
But after taking a deep breath he pulls back.
“All things in time,” he explains to me, “I want us to learn to trust each other.”
He looks around. He is looking the up the road away from where he said the city was. It’s almost as though he’s waiting for something. I don’t see anyone though and as we stand there I begin to get impatient.
“What is this?” I ask.
I hadn’t imagined my introduction to the magical city of Eden that had been such a legend back on Moreen Island would be so...lackluster. We stand there for almost an hour and a half and there is nothing and no one on the road. We’re just fucking waiting.
“They are coming,” he states.
“Who?”
“Members of your coven...the Moreen Coven,” he tells me, “There are a few things you must know, Gene. Two very important things. They cannot know about me. I am not a member of your coven and me bringing you here will only cause them to distrust you.”
I never had a family. Not really. It was me and my mother. And I guess you could say that was family but she treated me more like a friend than a mother.
Strange thing to say.
I look and him and squint, “Why is that? Are you untrustworthy?”
“Do you care?” he asks.
He had a point. I didn’t trust anyone. Whether he was trustworthy or not didn’t make a difference to me. There was something strange about him though. This Leon Staten. He was like a figure of someone’s dream where you weren’t quite sure yet whether he could be a nightmare or not. He had his motivations. I was sure. But for right now I am in so much gratitude from being taken away from Moreen Island that I don’t want to push him for answers and risk offending him.
So I leave it alone.
“No. Let’s move on to what’s the other thing is.”
“They can’t know you have the power of coercion,” he states, “That sort of magic scares people. It is rare but also forbidden.”
Shit. This one was harder. I hadn’t relied on my gift in the past to get by though.
“Fine. As long as there is real magic I can learn,” I respond, “You give me real magic and I give you your revenge.”
“Revenge?” He asks.
“You want to get even with these people…”
“I never said that,” he quickly responds.
I shrug, “You didn’t have to. I can read people. Hiding who you are means something. I know the look of a man who has a bone to pick. I don’t know why you want me to infiltrate these people. Truth is I don’t give a fuck. You make me the biggest baddest wizard of Oz and I’ll fingerfuck a Nobel Peace Prize winner for you.”
“Ambitious aren’t you.”
“You want me to meet these people. Fine. But every time I interact with you, you’d better have a gift for me or I’m letting them know all about you.”
He isn’t amused. Not anymore.
“You don’t want to fuck with me boy…”
He had a fearsome look. One that I could be afraid of. But I wasn’t. Not even near afraid.
“Oh, I assure you I want to. I’ve never made love but I sure know how to fuck. Our deal starts now.”
There’s silence. I think I’m making a deal with the devil.
“You meet with them. You get them to trust you. You get them all to like you.”
“And in return?” I ask.
He sighs. His upper lip curls as though amused by me, irritated by me or impressed by me. Maybe a mix of all three.
He hands me something. It’s a bag.
“What is this?” I ask.
“My first magic gift. The mirror I gave you. When you get alone...look in the mirror and call for Papa Midnight seven times.”
I look down at my reflection in the mirror. I’m confused by what that would accomplish.
“What happens then?” I ask, “This isn’t fucking power. A fucking mirror? Really?”
I look up but realize that I’m alone. Leon Staten is nowhere to be seen. He’s just disappeared in thin air. As if by magic. That’s when just as he stated I hear the sound of something. A carriage coming my way. It’s an old school carriage. It feels as though I was turned back in time and dropped off into some land before the current day. It felt like I was taken back in time. Where did this place exist? WHEN did this place exist?
It brings butterflies to my stomach thinking about those things. The carriage is about to go right past me but I run out in front of it, desperate to stop it. It takes me throwing my entire body in front of the carriage to stop it.
Someone steps out of the back of the carriage.
They have on red. A few hooded red figures. There is something powerful about them. I don’t know what it is. You can just tell these were not normal humans. They looked normal enough. But there was a feeling. A stirring in my bones when I see the red on their cloaks. It’s as though something is calling out to me. I’ve never been so intrigued by anything but realizing these red-cloaked people were people like me.
They don’t speak. They just sit there waiting as though ready for me to speak.
“Are you the Moreen Coven?”
There is silence for a moment, but there is one person who drops the hood. I notice it’s a woman. She’s an older woman with black and gray hair, big eyes, and sunkissed reddish-brown skin. The kind of skin that came from people who grew up on Moreen Island.
But I had a feeling we were far away from Moreen.
“Who are you boy?”
I try to get my thoughts clear in my head. The two rules were they couldn’t know about Leon Staten and they couldn’t know about my gift of coercion. From there everything was free game. Including the new revelation I had.
“Gene Bah…”
There is a pause.
And then a nod, “Get in.”
~
The first few minutes in the back of the carriage are just stares. They are staring at me. I am staring at them. There are three of them. Three women. One older woman and two girls about my age. They have a real poise about them. The daughters were pretty. Both of them attractive in their own ways with long hair.
I watched the way they dressed and was even more intrigued. Underneath the robes were slim fitted black jumpsuit with heels. The older woman had rings lined up all around her finger.
So these were witches. Real ones. The ones they talked so much about on the island.
The faces are surveying me. It makes me a bit nervous.
“Why does he look like that?” one of the daughters asks.
She’s been staring at me this entire time. Her face is like a stone. Her long hair was braided to two long plaits down the side of her head. The long braids fell to her waist. On someone else it might have been an innocent look but not on this girl. There was something quite fierce about this girl. Even the way she questions me.
“Forgive my daughter,” the older woman says, “I am Angelica Atwood. These are my twin daughters...Circe and Aviva Atwood.”
Twins. They weren’t identical. I could tell that much.
Aviva had on these expensive-looking heels. They were very stylish. Her arms were layered with expensive diamond bangles. Over her chest is a golden brooch with a large ruby diamond on it. Her sister Circe was a lot plainer.
“Atwood,” I state, trying to contain my excitement, “I’d heard the name before.”
“I found it strange when I got a letter this morning,” I state, “It told us we should come out here. To this place. It wasn’t addressed to anyone. It was right under my door. It said that Genesis Bah had a son.”
She reaches in her pocket and hands me the note. I pick it up and read it. As she said it was unaddressed, but the person did call her crybaby.
“I recently just found out I was his son.”
Aviva nods, “Yeah I can feel the energy. Total Bah vibes.”
Circe shakes her head, “Aviva you’ve met like one or two Bah in your life. Genesis had no son. He had a daughter that disappeared a long time ago but he didn’t have a son. You’re lying.”
“I swear,” I respond.
“Shut up Circe,” Angelica Atwood states, “Have you discovered any magic, boy?”
“No.”
Angelica gives me a look. It’s almost a disappointed look, “Fine. Aviva. We must verify the identity of our guest.”
“May I have your hand?” Aviva asks.
While her twin sister Circe Atwood seemed sharp and fierce, Aviva Atwood has a spacey nature about her. When she looked at me it was the opposite of when Circe looked at me. Circe looked at me with stern focus and Aviva looked at me as though she looked right through me to the other side of the carriage. There was nothing there. It was lightness. Within the next few seconds, she does something weird. Something that makes me straight cringe. When she gets my hand she pulls a pocket knife out of her hand and cuts me.
Then she sucks my finger.
Then her eyes go completely black and she just leans on the glass of the carriage as though she fainted. But I don’t think that is what happened to her. I think she is in some sort of trance.
I jerk away, “What is she some sort of vampire!”
There is laughter in the carriage from the other two women. Aviva’s mother, entertained by this quickly just states, “No. But there are many of those in Eden. Aviva’s father studied Divination. Though he died when she was young, he did give her the gift to read aspects of someone’s past.”
“She’ll know if you have secrets to hide,” Circe states.
The strange thing is I wasn’t offended by Circe seeming suspicious of me. I was so used to being on the wrong side of women that it didn’t quite phase me anymore. It’s Aviva that concerned me. She was still quiet laying up against the glass when it hits me that she could find about Papa Midnight and my skill of coercion. She could find out about the two things I had to keep a secret. There was a reason Staten didn’t want me to share those things.
What if they found out?
I remembered how people treated me back on Moreen Island when they even suspected my ability. I didn’t want to deal with that again. Not here.
~
We arrive in the city. Aviva was still out of it even though it’s taken forever to get to the city. I don’t mind though. It gives me time to see the city. Perhaps she would wake up and tell them about my coercion or about Leon Staten. Perhaps she’d wake up and even to my surprise, announced I wasn’t the son of Genesis. I was prepared for it all. I would at least get to see somewhere else. Somewhere like this.
The City of Monsters and just like a child I find myself pressed up against the window.
“We use technology but the city prefers to keep its traditional look,” Angelica tells me, as though knowing it was the biggest difference, “Eden is an ancient regal city. I remember the first time I came here. I was still young…”
She was right. The roads were paved with stone but it felt like I had stepped into Ancient Rome. Surrounding the town was a tall fortified wall that made way to a grand bustling city. The city roars with activity as I see a large domed building, grand palaces, estates, and marketplaces. As we ride through I notice some places look a little shadier.
Places that had large signs on them that said Blood Bank where people waited on long lines. Aqueducts were built outside of the city to bring fresh water to what looked like fountains and perhaps public baths.
Springing out from the city are these towers. Dark, black, and completely gothic. They pierced the clouds overhead. There was something very stunning about them.
“What are those?”
“The only place a witch is truly safe in Eden. Those are the witch towers.”
Angelica explains to me as we pull up to the towers how things are there. There were many families of witches and each family belonged to a bigger group called a coven. Each coven then belonged to a bigger group called a Practice. There were four Witch Practices.
As we get to the grand door I find myself staring out into the large court but when we go through into the inner walls of that surround the towers I notice this place is different from the busy bustling city outside of these walls.
This place was gray, dark…
Gloomy.
“This is where we live. There are four practices of magic. In that tower to the North, the largest tower is where the Castors live. There are many of them and they have dangerous elemental magic that they use. Right below it is the Divinations. They hold power over knowledge of the future and the past. Then there are the Talisman witches...the deadly Voodoo witches that originated from the Bayou of Louisiana and parts of Africa.”
“And that tower?”
“The smallest tower. All the other three practices have multiple covens. We just have one coven made up of 5 families.”
Angelica is good with explaining things. She seems to go on and on forever, only being injected by her daughter when she had to make some rude comment correcting her mother or making a point about how ignorant I am. Circe seemed good at both. We pull over the carriage to the front of the lawn. I watch Angelica scoop her daughter Aviva into her hands. The way she carries her makes me think that Angelica is a lot stronger than she looks. As we get out, I notice someone running towards us.
The toned, hard body is something to behold as it moves towards me. His chest was bare. He wore nothing but red shorts that clung to his body like elastic. His face was one of those shockingly strong masculine faces, handsome and toned. His jawline was just as muscular as his biceps. His haircut is trimmed perfectly around his face as though he’d just gotten it down several minutes before appearing. Not a single hair was out of place. But I’d come to know that this was nothing unique about this person. There would never be a hair of place. There would never be a flaw.
And my heart drops.
“He’s perfect.”
I doubt there was anyone yet who had made me feel like that on Moreen Island. A symbol of perfection. Someone who you knew went out of his way to make sure he appeared completely put together at all times.
I hadn’t even realized how audible I was until Circe gives me a mocking laugh.
“I wouldn’t bother if I were you,” Circe teases, clearly ready to get underneath my skin and exude this bitchiness that comes out of nowhere at times, “That is a Ferris. Blanco Ferris at that.”
Most people knew about my sexuality. Maybe it was the androgynous look. My face was a bit more feminine but my body is tight and fit. Nothing compared to this man though.
Angelica goes forward to meet this Blanco Ferris. I stare from right outside the carriage with Circe. It’s hard not to look at him. I can see her doing the same thing. Her eyes scanning the beautiful manifestation of a man running over towards us.
“Well, I’m already bothered. Very bothered,” I nod.
“Men like him won’t go for it,” Circe states.
It’s clear now that Circe has just been wanting to get underneath my skin. She’s going out of her way to it. I can see the way her lips keep curling every time she does it. She is one of those girls who enjoy seeing someone else’s disappointment. Or perhaps even someone else’s misery. There is just negativity that exudes from this girl.
But I’m not the type to be easily manipulated.
“Straight men? I don’t have that issue…”
“Asexual men.”
Asexual?
I raise an eyebrow at that moment confused. Was that a thing? Was it truly possible for a human being to not need sex at all? I have to admit though that I am even more intrigued.
He makes his way up to us. I watch as a droplet of sweat forms right underneath his chin and fall down his neck, makes its way gliding down the hard chest, down to the ripped abdomen, down to the tiny toned waist to finally disappear. His shorts were low, showing off the deep-v cut in his crotch area.
As he approaches he stops with the power of a stallion, trampling hard onto the ground to lower his momentum.
“Headmistress,” he says to Angelica, “My father sent me to search for you…”
His voice is deep. Sultry. I don’t think I’ve ever heard a voice get so deep. It’s as though it comes straight off that muscular chest of his. I find myself glaring, obsessed as I stand there. My heart was beating, my mind was racing and my ass was getting moist just being next to him.
“What is it, Blanco?”
“Trouble. The Divinations all had the same premonition. Every single one of them. All at the same time…”
The way he presents this news makes me think that this is something that doesn’t happen very often. Angelica doesn’t react in shock immediately but she raises her eyebrow as though very interested in what this handsome boy is telling her.
“There are dozens of members in each divination covens.”
He nods, “I know.”
She’d gone into small detail with me in the carriage about the different Practices. Divination were the white witches. They were one of the most powerful practices because of their knowledge. I could imagine how powerful it would be to be able to tell the future. Perhaps it was more powerful to be able to tell the past. I look at Aviva still laying in her mother’s arms. She was just now beginning to stir.
She had to be quite powerful. She knew blood magic and the magic of these white witches. I find myself intrigued desperate to learn more.
I’m desperate to learn EVERYTHING.
Angelica seems surprised, “What could they possibly have all seen at the same time?”
“Him.”
He turns to me and for the first time we make eye contact. He’s even more attractive up close. He was tall, good-looking, nice skin, hair, and teeth. Bonus points because he has an angular jaw, perfect nose, abs you can bounce quarters off, defined pelvic muscles (the V shape on ab covers you want to lick), and rock hard body parts… I mean muscles. I want to say that there were sparks because of how attracted I was to him. But that wasn’t the reality of the situation. The reality of the situation was he looked at me as though I was something that should have been swallowed before I came into existence.
I don’t think a man has ever looked at me so cold. Not one. Not in my entire life.
“What is their problem?” she states.
He looks at her. He looks at me. Then he looks back at her, “Mistress. I’d prefer you to speak to my father about that. I don’t want the stranger to hear. He’s not one of us.”
He looks at me as he says that. It makes me feel low. It makes me feel as though I don’t belong. With all the rude behavior that Circe has been giving me, this is the first time that I’ve ever been truly offended.
“Yes he is…” a voice states.
It’s Aviva. She’s finally woken up from her sleep.
“You’ve seen something?” Angelica asks her daughter.
Aviva nods, “This is the son of Genesis Bah.”
The name held weight. I can tell by how Angelica’s face goes a little white as though she had expected this to be some sort of trick I was pulling on her. She seemed almost prepared for it to be some trick. This time she did seem shocked. This time looking at me meant a lot more than when I told her myself. The confirmation from her daughter made everything clear.
“How is this possible?” Angelica asks, “When did he have a son? What else do you see?”
My heart starts racing to wonder what Aviva was able to take away from my blood.
“Everything is so hazy?” Aviva states, “His blood is thick. Potent. I need rest…”
That’s when we hear sounds in the distance. It wasn’t hard to tell that a group of people was headed our way and from the look on Angelica’s face, I didn’t think these people were in a very good mood.
Blanco Ferris has a serious look. It’s as though he doesn’t seem capable of smiling at all. I’d never seen a look so serious and so sexy all so effortlessly.
His voice comes out stern and strict, “Headmistress, we don’t have much time…”
“Circe take your sister inside and gather the coven. Blanco, take the boy into the Common Dorm…and lock the doors.”
“He doesn’t belong there,” Blanco states.
“Blanco do what I say. We don’t have much time, remember? But before you leave tell me why the Diviners are so frightened?”
Blanco looks nervous to speak around me. Really nervous, but he nods his head and bends it low as though giving into Angelica’s witch.
“They had a premonition. A prophecy. They say the child of Genesis Bah will open the gates. And let evil into Eden. One worse than anything we’ve ever seen before.”
~
It’s been hours. This room was huge there were bedrooms linked to a common area. Everything was red. There were satin red pillows on the couch. Red blinds coloring the windows causing the entire room to be tinted crimson. It looked like sex in here and it didn’t help because of the company I kept. It seemed lived in as though there were people who stayed here. But who? I am in the room with Blanco and it has to be the most awkward thing in the world. He hasn’t put a shirt on. I’m turned on by him and annoyed by him all at the same time.
“Can you tell me what’s going on?” I ask.
“Don’t talk,” is his quick immediate response.
My heart is racing. People were coming to kill me and the only thing that stood in the way of that is an older woman who Ms. Fizzle if the magic school bus went to Hell.
I get up and move to the door. He beats me to it. The guy is twice my size and built like an iron wall. I collide into him and I’m the one being vaulted backward by the force of his mere presence.
I recover and approach again. This time I’m gentler. This is my way of doing things. I reach my head forward slowly touching his abdomen. My hands slide up each of his packs until I rested my hands up against his chest.
“Your body is amazing. You're built like a Greek god.”
I meant it too. My warm breath is up against his lips. My eyes lock in his eyes. My body gets so close on him that I feel his breathing back on me. There it was. The spark. I am hypnotized by his lips for some reason. He had big lips. They were soft, full, and were this beautiful bronze color similar to his skin tone.
And that’s when I realize.
Holy shit! He got me. For the first time, I’m the first one to stare at another man’s lips waiting for him to speak.
“What are you doing?” He asks, turning his nose up at me.
He looks at me like how girls looked at me. It’s this halfway disgusted look. I turn back away when I hear a knock on the door.
There is this boy there at the other side of the door. He was tall, thin, and ridiculously handsome. It’s completely different from Blanco. And the strange thing is that he had on red. It was different from Blanco though. He has a red sweatshirt and jeans with some red sneakers. He looked like he was actually in the same time era as me. And according to Angelica red was our color. He was a member of the coven. It all of a sudden became clear that these men in the Moreen Island were very attractive.
“Blanco, my man,” the new boy says in a smooth almost satin-like voice, “I’m supposed to take over here.”
“I have no time for your shit today,” Blanco responds to the boy.
“No seriously. Your father called.”
Blanco reacts. It’s the first time I see his stone-cold face change up a little bit. All of a sudden he was highly alert.
“Shit. My dad?” he asks, reaching past the boy who came to the door, “Watch him.”
When Blanco leaves this other boy is looking at me. He’s looking at me hard and mutters the word, “Gullible.” Then he walks forward this cocky smirk on his face. He was a cool guy. Something about the way he moved to his swag to the lazy ways his eyes rest on me as though wanting me to take note of what he just did for me.
I just have a feeling from his cockiness when I ask, “No one came to get him, did they?”
“Nah,” he states, “Everyone is making a big fuss about you, so I had to come out to see what all the fuss was about.”
My heart is racing about. Was I safe? Something was happening outside of these doors and I wanted to know what it was. As cute as this boy was, I didn’t have time to entertain this at all.
I sigh, “Well now you see it?”
“And I can say that I get it,” he states, licking his lips, “I’m Notch Boss…”
“Notch...I need your help…”
He licks his lips again. Flirting with me in a way. This was more like it. This was more like it.
~
I don’t know how he does it. There’s something really interesting about this Notch boy. He tells me to follow him. And he manages to maneuver through the halls of the long tower as though he’d built this place himself. Every time I think I hear someone and we are going to run into them he manages to lead us down another hall, or into another room that connected to another hall. All the while he manages to make as much eye contact with me as possible, never forgetting to smile.
The only way to describe Notch would be cool. He doesn’t talk. Not a word. He’s hard to read and I think he wants me to strike up a competition. When I don’t he’d just smile, and I’d smile back. The simple speechless flirting goes on for quite some time. He had a coolness about him that immediately caught my attention.
We go to all these paintings.
“You want to know what they are saying, move that painting and peep through the hole…”
I do what he says stepping forward and peeping through the hole. An argument is happening. It’s getting heavy.
And then I hear Angelica’s voice, “We can’t kill him. He is a part of my coven. He has every right to be here.”
Then there was someone else. Someone in white arguing back.
“Angelica this premonition is serious. He could be a threat to the witch race. He could be a threat to Eden.”
“Not him,” a voice interrupts.
The door had opened in the room. Someone had walked in.
“What are YOU doing in here?” Angelica asks the person, “This is a meeting for leaders…”
“I know that the prophecy isn’t about Gene. Genesis had a daughter. Gene’s twin sister. He never mentioned her.”
The voice sounded so familiar. So fucking familiar. It couldn’t be...
“How d you know this?” Angelica asks the person who interrupted the meeting.
“Because I raised him.”
And that’s when I realize it’s my mother. She was alive...
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