Chapter 21
In case you
were wondering, I am not dead. I have also decided that I will be continuing
this story. For those still interested, excluding this week, I will be posting
weekly on Saturday. If that comes to be too much I will figure out a different
system.
When Seth reached the payphone, he remembered that he didn't have her
number. Not only that, but he wasn’t stupid enough to go back to the school
and meet a non-human principal. “You’re not human, either,” piped the voice. “I
don’t want to hear a word from you,” replied Seth. The voice asked, “Really? Even
if I know a place we can go to?” Seth asked the voice why he should believe it
and the voice responded by asking if he had any better ideas.
It was in that moment that Seth realized that he was alone. Before this
moment, he had never realized what that meant. He could not return home because
of his father nor could he even go back to school and see his friends because
of the stunt he had just pulled. He couldn’t even go back to the club because he
doubted that he could figure out a way for Jack to let him stay another night.
It was due to all of this that Seth reluctantly agreed to the voice’s offer.
The voice said, “Good, now close your eyes.” After a split second the
voice ordered him to open his eyes. The world that he saw was different than
what he was used to. It was blue and white with lines running all around it.
Seth said, “What did you do?” The voice said, “I’ll explain later, now do you
see a bright gold line.” Seth said, “What are you-wait I see it!” The voice
told him to follow it.
As he followed the voice, Seth was struck with a feeling of familiarity.
It felt as if he knew just who the line belonged to. Not only that, but he felt
as if this was someone he could trust. He wondered why this was true. There was
also the matter of the voice. He called it that because there really was no
other name for it. It was hard to describe, but if he had to, he thought that
the voice was the same as him, but different. It said things, that the
pre-fight Seth would have never done, but the current Seth accepted. Not only
that, but it felt as if the voice had two things that Seth lacked: control and
memories.
It was able to control Seth’s freaky dragon powers, but it did not feel
as if it were a different entity trying to control Seth’s body with his own.
Not only that, but it knew things. Things about Seth that he felt he should
know. People, places, and experiences that were once his, but were now gone. It
was a strange experience, living for sixteen years believing that nothing was
wrong and then realizing that something had been taken away from him. Even
after “his seal,” as Kane put it, had been broken; he still felt like the old
Seth. Sure he was stronger and had dragon powers now, but he still cared about
his friends and still liked the things that he liked before all this happened.
The line lead him around New York for what seemed like hours, but was
really only about thirty minutes. It continued on inside of a condo tower. When
Seth went to enter it, the guard at the entrance stopped him and when
questioned on why a kid was here. Seth surprised himself by saying, “I’m
looking for Marcus Aelius.”
