Chapter 9

As Crow closed the door he let out a sigh. Isaac was standing in the hall with his arms crossed and a testing looking on his face.

Crow took a few steps, then stopped. “Yeah?”

“You're not helping.” Isaac stated bluntly. “You're best bet is just to-”

“I know!” Crow answered, turning to the blond. He lowered his voice, “It doesn't sit well with me to let him wander around thinking that he's the only one who knows! It's not right.”

Isaac looked down, shrugging a bit. “It's part of the whole experiment. We aren't supposed to tell him anything.”

Crow grabbed Isaac's shoulders and shoved him against the wall. “And what happens when he starts doubting reality as something that's fake, huh? What happens when everything he remembers he thinks aren't real? What happens then?!”

Isaac looked to the side with a sad look on his face. “We have to just let it play out.”

Crow jerked him and took a few steps back. With a huff he started down the hallway, then stopped and turned to Isaac. “I'm not comfortable being in the shadows.” And with that, Crow walked down the hallway and turned down some stairs out of sight.

Isaac jumped a bit when a hand rested on his shoulder. He looked up to Akiio's red eyes watching him. Isaac frowned, hanging his head. “I'm not comfortable with it, either.”

Akiio nodded, patting the blond hair, pulling a braid toward him, then let it fall. “Same.”

~*~

After Will finished eating the food, he placed the tray back onto the night stand. He swung his legs over off the bed, staring down to the floor. It was wood and lightly honey colored. He tilted his head, his blue eyes swirling with confusion.

Just what's going on? Shouldn't a kidnapper be more violent and cruel? Realizing he was questioning himself into confusion, Will just shook his head and concentrated on observing the room.

He stared at the jeans in their folds and messy piles. Then he stared at the doorway and the doorknob; it's copper warm tone, but firm and sturdy.

I didn't hear a lock.

Will glanced over to the window that was letting in no light, even though the curtains were open. Curious, Will stood up and walked around the bed in his bare feet to the window. He stopped just short of it, leaned forward a bit and then touched the glass with his right hand's finger tips.

It's glass. Will concluded to himself obviously. I thought it was painted. Will stepped closer and peered out.

It wasn't night time, because there were no stars in the sky. Yet the sky was a deep dark navy, like it should have been nightfall. There were torches lighting the mysterious streets. The roads looked like brick paved together, but it was so dark it was hard to see. As if a black mist hung in the air. Going up and down the dark roads were a few white balls of light based near the brick.

What are those?

Will stared out the window, content for only a few moments.

Then his curiosity began to build larger and larger, until it exploded like a popcorn bag bursting within a microwave. The pressure had simply been too much.

Right as a clock somewhere rang out with six low gong sounds that echoed through the silence of the room, Will turned toward the door. Almost sprinting to it, Will pulled the door open. He looked up and down the hallway for a sign of anyone. The hall was empty, save for a bookshelf at one end.

Will hurried down the hall glancing toward the doors as his pace quickened. Fear and curiousness were mixing and billowing together like a typhoon within him.

His blue eyes spotted a stairway, and Will rushed down it. Before he knew it, he was at the base of the stairs. To one side of the next hallway he saw a warm golden light and heard voices speaking, and to another he saw a plain wall with an antique handle on it. Probably made of iron. Will briefly thought as he took a breath and hurried to the handle. He slammed into the wall with his shoulder as one hand grabbed the knob and jerked it up and down until the door gave way and burst open. Will stumbled inside to the strange knick-a-brick shop that he had been in the day before.

Will took in a breath as he saw the strange bottles, books and various other items inside. A flash of him entering the door across the room from him now passed within his mind.

I've been in here before. This is... This is that shop! Noc- Nock... Knock.... Overturne... Nocturne!

“Hey!” A man's voice called behind Will.

With a start, Will panicked and looked behind him. There he saw a blond, the man who had kidnapped him and a man with black hair- all three of which were running toward him.

“Hey, wait!” called the same voice, coming from the man with the navy blue hair.

Will turned back into the store, dashing across the floor. He slid to the door and stopped, putting his hands to the door again. He jerked the handle, hoping it'd be the turning kind. He noticed it was the kind you put your thumb on the latch and then it would open. It took Will one push forward to realize the door opened inward. He tried again, this time yanking the door.

By this time, Crow and the other two young men were in the room. “Wait a second!” called Crow.

“Don't go out there!” called the blond.

Fear and panic filled Will. He ran through the door. His bare feet came into startling contact with a cold concrete polished pathway as he ran forward, expecting to turn left and heading back out of an alleyway. Instead, when Will got twelve feet out from the store, he ran onto more cold paved brick like he had seen before.

Yelping and turning around suddenly, Will looked around. Blurs were before his eyes. He saw flashes of light balls clearing away from him like a crowd, the three young men still on the polished concrete path, and when he looked up he saw no stars in the depressing dark sky.

A loud screech thundered through the air, as the loud flapping of wind being moved by leathery wings followed.

Crow called to him. “Will! Get back here! Now! Will!”

Will looked toward Crow in fear. At that moment he saw the desperate frightened look on Crow's face, with his hands cupped around his mouth. The blond behind him was pointing at something, his mouth hanging open. Will turned to look behind him and then up.

A large lizard, like a dinosaur... No... A... Dragon? Will barely had time to think as the dragon landed before him and he fell backwards, his elbows holding him partway up.

The dragon leaned it's head forward, it's claws scratching on the brick. It's deep green eyes were surrounded by purples, violets and blues, looking like a poison fog coming upon you. It opened it's mouth, revealing a bright red tongue and sharp pearly white teeth. It's wings opened and blasted down to brace the tips on the stone as another loud screech came forth, and a warm hot air of smelly dead decaying breath blew all over Will.

Will screamed a few seconds, falling back with his eyes wide open. He gasped and began to hyperventilate, sure this was going to bring him death. This, right in front of him. This was Death.

“Stop!” cried a little girl's voice through the following silence.

The dragon's eyes looked from Will toward the store front.

“Leave him alone, Matéas.” The girl's voice said with remarkable sternness coated by a confidence Will couldn't place.

The dragon shifted it's head upwards, followed by its neck. It opened it's mouth and with another loud screech, the scales ripped off of the dragon's body, leaving behind a slimy mess with scales scattered around. Then, they vaporized and the purple fog cleared with a forced wind revealing a young man with long black smooth hair, with the same frightening deep green eyes. He was dressed in several layers of tunics, tied with thin bands of gold and silver woven together. He looked mystical, but a power radiated off of him.

“And why would I want to do that?” he asked the little girl with a smooth voice. It was as if velvet had come from his mouth followed by silk.

Will, terrified, turned his head to see the little girl. Even more terror and shock filled him.

The little girl was really little. She was a bit taller than Alexander, looking like she was about nine years old. She was dressed in a navy skirt and vest with a cream button-up underneath with puffy sleeves, bare legs and cream ankle socks with navy mary-jane shoes. She had a light blond hair, looking like buttermilk, held up in two pigtails that were giant masses of waves and curls. Her face was framed by flat short bangs with no part and thick lashes over her lime green eyes.

“He's under my protection.”

The man scoffed a bit, waving a hand toward Will. “I see no mark of protection upon him.” Then he paused, never looking away from the girl. “Give me back the sword and I'll leave him unharmed.”

The girl smiled, almost like a child would. But there was something darker behind it, and Will could see it. “It's in transit to the person whom requested I fetch it for them.”

The man radiated such anger off of him, it made Will look back at him. “I will have Invictus delivered to me before you will ever have a chance to see it's true radiance revealed.”

The girl's eyes thinned. No one moved or said anything as the man turned back into a purple fog, and then a dragon and then flew away up into the sky and finally out of sight.

The girl turned to the young men. “Fetch him quickly before someone else decides they want him.”