The Codex of the Knights of Day - 3. Chapter 2: A New Destiny

The look on my face was clear from the one on his covered one. My face was sour, sad, and soulless. “Do you know who I am?” He nodded. If he could read my mind then he had to know who I was. “Thank you.” He smirked under the mask and shrugged.

It was strange having a conversation with whatever part of my imagination cooked him up. He was an inch taller than I was and too built to be called a real ninja, maybe like a Navy SEAL guy in a black outfit but not a ninja.

“Hi, I’m Aiden.” He shook my hand, amused at my thoughts. I could somewhat guess at what he was thinking. “Do you have a name?” He nodded. “What is it?” What he said was alien to my ears. It was nowhere near Latin or any romantic language. “Can you say that in English?” He shook his head. “Write it down.”

He pursed his lips at me and he disappeared from the room. I was in the ROTC classroom on one the table with itchy ass wool sweaters as pillows and blankets. I remembered the first time I complained about them to Caleb, and from that day, I got the nickname Cashmere. I winced, grabbing my chest as the thoughts of Caleb tried to disburse immediately.

The Seal came back, alerted by my emotions. He handled a pen as if it was a claymore. “I’m sorry, false alarm.” He moved his head as if he was trying to say it was okay. He wrote down his name but yet again, it was in a different language. “I don’t even know why I thought it would work. If you can read my mind we can work on that later.” He motioned that he agreed with me. “Well, they always said verbal communication was only ten percent of communication.”

I was silent for a long time. I really didn’t have anything else to say except, “Did everyone make it?” He smiled energetically, pointing to the makeshift cots around me. Everyone was there but Casey. “Where-?” He motioned to outside. “Then I guess I should see what’s going on.” He gave me the “no shit, really?” look. “For right now, I’m going to call you Eureka.” It may be spelled like “Eureka” as in the city but its pronounced Ah-ray-ka, don’t ask. He just hung his head, mumbling to himself. “Oh, it’s not that bad.” He flipped me off.

I can’t believe he just flipped me off. “Okay, you’re so melodramatic. What about Azoth? You don’t have to look at me like that. Enix? Kariston? Garladia, Guy for short? Hellion, finally.” Hellion smirked at me in victory.

The layout of the ROTC room wasn’t very big. When you walked in, on your left is Colonel Ferrell’s office and on your right is Sergeant Major Jernigan, SgtMaj for short, office. Go a little further and there’s Admin, the files that I’m in charge of, and go through the door from there is supply, uniforms and boots. Further than that is the armory that has our entire pellet rifle and sabers. Everyone was sleeping with in the classroom that was straight ahead from the entrance. The ones awake were SgtMaj and the Colonel, most of the teachers and Casey, and Soldier dude.

Casey saw me first and lit up, “Hey, dude, you’re awake.” He pulled me into a half hug half handshake. “How are you?”

The first answer was the truth but I decided to lie. “Okay, just a little overloaded.” Hellion just folded his arms and leaned against the doorframe. I couldn’t lie to him.

SgtMaj clapped and everyone joined in including Soldier boy. “The Hero has finally awakened.” I blushed a bit but I wasn’t a hero. “If someone would’ve told me Aiden Florence would be saving everyone and I would’ve laugh.”

“And what is that suppose to mean?” I exclaimed. I mean I wasn’t a natural leader but I didn’t care for power. I just wanted to be uninhibited.

Mr. Ashburn didn’t help the matter. “He just means you’re an adapter, not activist. You don’t go out actively to change things; you just change with the changes.”

My voice dropped into a more serious tone, a tone I never use. “When the things I love are threatened or destroyed I have to do something.” They were all silently staring at me, wondering what was going on. “Anyway, we need to think about how to get out of here.”

“Jensen was just filling us in on that before you walked in.” Colonel spoke. He was a tall lanky fellow with this lonely square patch of hair on top of his head. He didn’t look like a Marine, too skinny but I heard he was in charge of Special Operations in Iraq before he came here.

Jensen, Soldier boy, was wearing an Air Force jumpsuit. His hair was sandy blonde like Caleb’s but that’s where the similarities ended. His eyes were crystal type of hazel green or blue, depending on the light. He resembled a rugged version of Travis Van Winkle, except his cheeks weren’t rosy and his lips were thinner but bright cherry color. His face was more angular than square, making him look a bit rough. His build was that of a cross-country runner with tight heavy springing muscles. His hair was longer than it should have been. He could have been a Spartan because his tawny Mediterranean skin. He was an inch taller than I was at most. He looked to be about 23.

He stood, staring at me mostly, “Um, I’ll start over again. My name is Jensen Trent of the 34^th Air Force Division. A few others and I were sent here for an assessment and rescue mission concerning the dome that fell upon the school. I was selected because I’ve dealt with this type of thing when we first landed. The airport was covered by the same type of dome that covers the school. We found out that we couldn’t communicate with anyone on the outside of the dome and we couldn’t pass through it.

“We found these black skinned, yellow eyed creatures that seemed to only turn certain people with their bite. We swept through the entire building trying to figure out how to get out. When we found the leader of the Demons, that’s what we call them, and the leader is the one controlling the dome but you can’t just shoot it in the head, it has to be killed by a person like Caleb. Caleb used Spartacus’ gladius to kill the thing, but it was difficult. It had regained all of its intelligence but still had the speed and strength of a demon.”

“Aiden, stop.” SgtMaj snapped at me. Hellion kept hitting his leg on the door, keeping rhythm with my feet hitting the back of the table I sat on.

“How’d you get Spartacus?” I didn’t care about anything else. His story had gone on too long.

He looked fearful; his eyes darted between Hellion and me. “I think we should talk in private.”

“SgtMaj?”

“Go ahead.”

Jensen followed Hellion and I into the office and closed the door. He looked sick to the stomach as Hellion’s eyes stayed glued to him. “Could you call him back?” I didn’t say anything. “Please.”

“Return.” Hellion backed away, still giving Jensen the evil eye as if he was saying he was watching him. He faded back to whatever part of my mind he belonged to. I could almost feel him there, listening. “Speak.”

He smirked, faintly, trying to seem all right. “He said you would be like this. He said your eyes would start to glow like blue fire the angrier you got.” He was right and it made it worse. The pain in my chest got worse like someone was breaking my ribs one by one. “You should know he told everyone about you. In camp, when everyone was pretty much telling each other about themselves, he told everyone at once he was in love with you and if anyone had a problem with it, they could fight about it then. I’m sure you know him well enough that no one challenged him.”

I looked away, pinching my tear ducts closed. God, why was this so painful? Nothing ever hurt this much, nothing. I struggled to find my apathy but it was gone. “Do you want me to stop?” Is he a fucking moron? Yes, I wanted him to stop but something demanded to know what happened.

“Just tell how he-.” I couldn’t even say it.

He held back his own tears, gritted his teeth to stop the tickle at the back of his throat. “My group found the leader first. He looked normal enough, at first I thought he was like Caleb because of the symbol of his forehead like you but his was the eleven-pointed star. He was started attacking us, toying with us with small displays of his power. Throwing fire-.”

“He had threw fire like he controlled it?”

“Yes, they have powers all their own. After about twenty minutes, Caleb’s group arrived. The leader was about to kill me, but Spartacus shoved me out of the way, taking the hit head on. He deflected the shield and put a hand right through Spartacus’ chest and I saw blood spurt from Caleb’s mouth.” Hellion appeared again with his eyes wide in terror. He looked at me then himself. “Before he lost too much blood, Caleb summoned the gladius and cut the thing’s head off. Our bullets did nothing to it, just made it itch. The necklace reappeared on his chest. The dome blew away like dust, the sun hit Caleb first, and the crystal glistened like a diamond. We ran to him, there wasn’t even a mark on him but Spartacus was a part of his mind and if the mind dies and the body will too. He shoved the crystal into my hands, making me promise to find you and protect you with my life.”

I kept the scream in my throat. I could imagine the scene too perfectly. A blood stream coming from his lips as he smiled whispering to Jensen to protect me. “That’s why I’m here, to protect you with my life as payment.” I tried to hold him but it was so harder to move. My numbness was coming back, starting at my chest to slow my heart. I was sleepily again but I didn’t want to go to sleep. The feelings would just go came back again.

I got up as fast as I could, made my way to the bathroom and locked the door behind me. Hellion knocked on the door but I didn’t have the strength to go back over there so I just called him back into my being. I splashed my face with water, the cold sting jolted me to stay awake and let the numbness take over. The red began to retreat from my eyes and the blue tint of my eyes settled back to the normal color. My skin no longer seemed pale but its original milky tint and rosy cheek that offset the intensity of my eyes. I pushed up my glossy black hair to see the symbol he kept referring to. It was looked wide ‘V’, maybe it was suppose to be a bird.

When I came back out, Jensen was waiting for me along with the Colonel and SgtMaj. Oh, joy the whole war part ready to make their plans. One of the desks had all sorts of guns from rifles to grenades to semi-automatics.

“Do I get a gun?” None of them looked particularly awesome. “I want two hand guns so I don’t-.”

“NO!” They all said at once.

SgtMaj turned to me. “Aiden, the last time you had a pellet rifle you shot a hole through the cinderblock.”

“That wasn’t my fault, someone didn’t clean out the rifle and the tube was in there so it’s not my fault it went off.”

Stupid Jensen added, “Caleb told me-.”

I heard the acid lace my voice, “You, shut up. No one was talking to you.” The rage was leaky through again.

It was clear enough for no one to mention his name. I didn’t care what people thought anymore, I just needed to get out of here, out to the sun.

“So what are you planning?” I grabbed two silver nine millimeters and a few ammo clips. They looked at me, trying to figure me out.

SgtMaj pointed to the Hamm Radio Club radio on the school map. It was separate building from the school like the gym because Mr. Edge, the club’s supervisor, ran experiments for Chemistry and the club made robots and radios and things like that. I was in it for three years, but I still don’t know how to make a radio, but I can make the antenna. “We just got a call from the kids over there. I need you, Casey, Alex and Jensen to get over there and bring them here and whatever radio stuff too.”

They jumped when I loaded the guns. “I’m might be a poor shot without my contacts but the safety’s on. Besides, Casey and Alex should stay here.”

Casey whined immediately, “Come on, dude, I’m the only who can see since you forgot to cover your eyes.” He had a point; I would be a bumbling fool until we got inside.

“Actually because of our powers we can see in the dark.” Jensen was carrying at least four guns: a semi-automatic rifle, two hands guns and sniper rifle. Why does he need a sniper’s rifle? I don’t know. “Besides, there are really four of us and it’ll be much easier to travel by following just Aiden.”

Casey dropped himself in the swivel chair, twisting his cute face. “So I’m stuck here.” I would trade places with him in a heartbeat.

Jensen pulled me over to the side. “What’s the best way to get there?”

I tried to remember the fastest route there. “It’s a separate building from the school, off to the south east. You can see the antenna sticking from the top of it so we could get signals through the trees. We’re going outside it’s the fastest way. Are you ready?”

He cocked his semi-automatic and grabbed two more rounds of ammo. “Now or never.”

I noticed the way everyone looked at me now. They saw me differently now, they saw someone who was saving them. Everyone kept nodding or waving as we walked to the door that would lead us directly outside. SgtMaj, Colonel, and Mr. Ashburn stood behind us, guns at the ready to shot whatever might try to come through while we got out.

Mr. Ashburn handed me a radio, “Stay alive, please. And don’t shot yourself on accident.” I had half a mind to flip him off but why ruin such a pleasant moment.

Outside of school, the darkness was ever worse. The black snow fell heavier and there was many more demons waiting deep in the forest, their yellow eyes piercing the dark. I summon Hellion, waiting for them to attack but they didn’t, just watched. We darted away, guns and swords ready but they never moved; eyes only followed us.

Making it to the Radio club was easier than it should have been but we found plenty of demons waiting for us. My guns didn’t work as well as Jensen unless I got a head shot. Their skin was tougher than normal skin and my bullets weren’t jacketed so after the impact of the bullet would only go a few inches deep, but it served as a painful distraction. We sweep around the building, no demons was left alive.

The radio club building was the size of a Family Dollar store that had two sides to it. If you go through the left door, it’s the Chemistry side with all the chemicals and experiments. The right is the workshop to build radios, lasers, mouse robots, and soldering tools. The back room is the storage room and the ladder to the roof. The demons had the entire building surrounded so there was no way for anyone to escape.

“Mr. Edge? Anyone here?” I called out, doing another cliché. “They might be in the back room.”

The emergency lights in radio club were pale white spotlights. Both rooms looked equally ruined, scars of claws, blood splatter, tools and chemicals melted together. The attack happened in mid-day yesterday when I had a free period in my dorm.

The storage door had long trails of claws marks, but it was made out of reinforced steel so breaking it down wouldn’t be easy for anything unless you’re an eight foot tall Spartan. Sparky power kicked the door off its hinges without breaking a sweat. There was no one in the room. No bodies or signs of a struggle except for the trail of blood that went up the ladder, and the blood covered handle. The radio whined but no one said anything.

I went up first, pushing the handle open slowly, hoping nothing would cut my head off as I lifted the cover off. “Hey, anyone up here?”, no response. I followed the blood out to the corner of the roof. I nearly dropped my gun. Aaron looked at me through weak bloodshot eyes.

I had forgotten all about him until now. I remembered he said he left to ask Mr. Edge a physics question right before the eclipse. I knelt down to see where he was bleeding up. His left thigh had been reduced to ribbons and bones. It was really fucked up because Aaron was a Irish step dancer, a good one.

“Jensen, do you have bandages?”

“Yeah, in my pack.” He tossed his pack over his shoulder, taking out alcohol and gauze wraps and a knife. “I need you to keep pressure on the wound while I wrap it.”

“Okay. Hey, Aaron, you’re surprised I’m the one saving you too. I’ve been getting that a lot lately.” I was trying to stay calm, touching the opened wound. My own leg starting hurting in sympathy. “You’ll be fine in a bit. Were there any others with you?”

He winced as the gauze tightened even more. His voice was nothing but a shadow; he had lost so much blood. “Mr. Edge flipped out and starting talking to himself and bit-.” He stopped talking, staring at his leg. He knocked my hands away, tearing at the gauze in haste, healthy pink skin was underneath, and he was healed.

Hellion collapsed, holding his leg in pain. “What’s-?” Jensen stopped in midsentence looking at my bloody left leg. “You took his wound.”

I sat there for a minute, numb to the pain in my leg as Hellion suffered but that too stopped as the same burnt-orange light came from the wound, reconnecting tissue, cells regenerating, and my skin came back soft and pink. We just kinda sat there in silence amazed by my sudden abilities. First, the incomplete form of Hellion I used against the demons, then Hellion fully formed and now the whole healing thing. This gets worse and worse as the day goes on.

The radio whined again. “Aiden! Aiden, where are you guys?!” Casey’s voice came through frantic. Another people’s voices were screamed behind him. “Aiden, you have to come back.”

“Fuck! Hellion, go and help them, we’ll be there as fast as we can.” He nodded and bounded off the rood, landing agile as a cat. “It was a trap. The whole thing was a trap to get the two people with the means to defeat them away.” Aaron explained the rest of the story. They threw him up here and Mr. Edge made call to SgtMaj. “Hurry and send Sparky with Hell.”

I could tell Jensen didn’t like the name Sparky but Spartacus was just too long. “He can’t go the far from me and neither can Hellion, look.”

I peered down to see that 10 yards away was Hellion waving frantically at me. See, it gets worse every second. “Great.” I struggled to get up, the pain was there now, but Aaron was fine. “Shit, this must be the downside to the power.”

Jensen turned his back to me. “I have a plan, hop on.”

It wasn’t fun being carried on Jensen’s back. His speedy and uneven steps made it harder for me to control my shots and his comments about it made me want to turn the gun on him. It was a ten-minute walk and running it was six. We reached the ROTC room to see the brief lights discharged from the guns roaring inside.

Jensen dropped me immediately, swing his gun forward but at the last second a demon jumped, swatting him back. I felt Hellion already inside, fighting them. People began to pour from doorway, screaming with their eyes wide in fear. Hellion flew through air, skidding along the ground. His pain erupted along my back making the pain in my leg worse. Hellion pulled himself up, limping in front of the remaining people with his curved blade gleaming with rage.

Two more bodies were thrown out, Mrs. Hartenedy and one of the new P.E. teachers. Clapping sounded from the ROTC room, a boy about my age walked out wearing a long fitted black trench coat with the neck clasped together by a silver chain. His wily black hair and olive toned skin highlighted the mark of his forehead, a triangle inside of a circle with a line going through it.

He smiled wide at me. “I’m surprised that the Knights in this world responded so fast. And to think of Aiden Florence as the Knight with the hand of the Creator.” His voice sounded familiar. He shoved his hands in his pocket, twisting his face in curiosity. “This is your sword, I imagine.” He was talking about Hellion, who still hadn’t recovered yet. “So, uh, this is you squire?”

Jensen was finally coming around but Spartacus was still gone, leaving him unprotected from the boy. “Your shield is very impressive, heavily detailed and inscribed too. You were always good with your hands in my class.”

He couldn’t be. I looked at him again, his shoulders were slumped down and he kept ballooning his face like a monkey. “Mr. Edge?”

The boy looked around as if he was trying to find Mr. Edge. “Oh, I’m sorry, I forgot how old I was.” Apparently, becoming a demon gave you eternal youth or it at least reinvigorates you. “Yes, it’s me, James Edge.”

He turned back, leaving the conversation on a strange note like normal. Popping noises came from his fist until nails tore through the leather gloves. He turned his head to me, “My brothers have told me that he’s alive due to Caleb’s sacrifice.” Sorrow washed over me again, choking off my air. “Should I kill him for you? It’s quite clear on your face, you want him dead.” I called Hellion back, adding his speed to mine to save Jensen. Edge smiled as I deflected his blow off Hellion’s sword. At the last seconds, I flipped the blade, slicing at the air where James once stood. “Your synchronization rate is rather low though, fourteen percent.”

I couldn’t hold onto Hellion’s sword any longer, too heavy to move. It turned into black snow and my stamina went with it. “As you can see, a Knight and his Sword can act as one but when the synchronization rate is low as yours; one can barely keep a mental hold on the attributes of his Sword. And you said I was a bad teacher.”

Just for the record, he was a bad teacher. He taught the material his way but when it came to taking test, you have no idea what they wanted because they used different words and their formulas were different. On top of that, when it came to explaining things, he would give an analogy that had nothing to do with subject; we all just nodded and copied the answer out of the back of the book like the rest of the school.

James smiled and held his out as a ball of green flames filled it. “Did you also know when you ignore your synchronization rate it makes it harder to summon your Sword?” He started to chuckle, he thought we were hopeless. Whistling sound came out of nowhere, traveling on Sparky’s bronze shield, and spinning with deadly accuracy at James’ head.

I smirked at him; I only need a second to kill him. “I don’t need my sword.” He tilted his head, trying to figure to why I was smiling. Without looking, he caught the shield still spinning in his hand. I took my chance then, aiming straight for his head, I pulled the trigger.

His head jerked back, blood spraying out but he didn’t fall. What the fuck is he made out of? He started to growl like a demon and his eyes turned back to the yellow eight-pointed star. “You really are making me mad.”

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Casey running from the forest, wielding a captain’s saber that we only used for ceremonies. It wasn’t even the sharpened one, it wouldn’t do anything. James spun around and knocked the saber out of his hand and grabbed him by the throat. Casey still fought, kicking wildly as James held him up by the throat about to strike. I fought the stabbing pain in my head and forced the sword to appear along with Hellion’s speed spurring me forward. I cut through James’ darkened skin, stopping before I cut through Casey.

James coughed up a bit of blood, his strength waning as he dropped Casey. I realized why Hellion’s sword had jagged teeth so when he would pull it out an enemy he would tear and saw through everything on the way out. I let the blood well up and ripped the blade out, allowing a fountain of blood to rain out his body. The other demons howled in fury and retreated to the woods.

The sunlight broke through the dome, bathing James’ body in rays before it burst into black snow. Hellion’s sword did the same and everyone rejoiced. We made it through the unholy night and found a Knight and his Squire, but how many more eclipses will there be?