A Walk In God's Temple

A Walk In God’s Temple

This novel is dedicated to the special one who made me believe in myself and write.

Sandy Mansour
I'll always be grateful.

Chapter I

Ed

It was a spring night when a thin guy who's about 20 years old wearing a silly hat and stepping slowly closer to a door and starts knocking gently on the door hearing loud noises and laughter stopping for few seconds and the door opens.

2 teenagers appearing behind the door and one of them shouts "Pizzaaaa" and takes the boxes from the thin guy, while the other guy who seemed to be the one who's living in the apartment looks at his friend as if he was silently telling him "don't be rude", and smiled at the pizza delivery guy thanking him then asked him for the receipt and tried to give him a good tip but he refused.

This gathering was as frequent as it could be, we were 4 guys and 2 girls, we'd just meet every single day, Adam is the youngest member in our gang, he's only 7 years old, he is my young brother, we don't really call him a friend as he's just my brother, the only good thing about him is that he's cute, he was a little bit chubby, he's got long curly hair with dark black wide eyes, and he speaks slowly in a cute funny way but he's also a cry baby and there's nothing I hate more than that. I knew that one day he'll grow up and get tougher so it was not such a big deal for me.

Ellie, the most beautiful girl my eyes have ever seen, she's got green eyes, curly brown hair with blondish ends that reached to her shoulders, she used brush it towards the right side sometimes, some other times she would brush it to the back and making a small bun , she was not one of those super skinny girls she had chubby cheeks, and she was slightly taller than the other girls her age and a bit shorter than me, she'd wear the cutest outfits, she doesn't get dressed like most of the other girls, I mean she'd wear dresses, she just knows how to look good with doing much effort. she's the true meaning of beauty, she was so full of life, she's got the most beautiful smile and what made everything way much better is how she's always smiling.

Patrick's my best friend he's got a big lean body. both of us are 16 years old, he had short soft hair, he's got white skin with freckles on his face, hazel eyes, wearing shorts most of the time. he was a man of actions rather than words, or should I say he was both, but no matter how brave he is, he'd only act without much thinking and would be following his heart instead and that led him to a closed door which was my elder sister's heart.

Amy is 2 years older than both of me and Patrick, she's got black straight hair, dark black eyes just like Adam, she was a bit too skinny, she's got thin lips and she uses too much make up but she also knows how to look good, and her body language was always like being in a fight, She's one the meanest people you'd ever meet, I hate to call her that but unfortunately that's the truth, she's so smart and she used her mind to control over people's actions, Patrick was the most obvious example of what she's doing to people. I've spent much time thinking why she'd spend time with me and my friends and I literally found no reason, I mean we were all younger than her and she  didn't really like us, so I never understood what's going on her mind.

We were all sitting in our living room, I was on the couch and I had Amy sitting right next to me and Ellie next to her, Patrick was sitting on the chair and pat was sitting on the ground, we were all watching the TV, our living room was really big as it was attached to the guests' room and the only thing that separated the 2 rooms is a curtain and you'd get to see my dad's drawings all around as he's always wanted to be an artist but for he was a hard worker and he got high grades in high school so he became an engineer instead.

"This movie sucks" Amy said, "But that's a nice pizza, I see that someone has eaten all of it even mine" looking at Patrick.

Patrick's face turned red but Ellie looked at him and said "don't worry Patty, you've got a big body and you'll need all you've eaten, maybe we should order some more later"

"Ben's shift is almost over, I'll call him and ask him to bring some more on his way" I said, I picked up the phone and called Ben.

"Cheer up Amy, your pizza's on the way" I said, "but Ben won't be able to make it today"

"Why?" little Adam said, "he promised me that he'd come tonight to play The Demon's Hand with me."

I gently touched Adam's head and told him that he's got some work to do, I'll play with him instead.

Adam didn't seem pleased with such offer so he didn't reply to me.

They kept on watching the movie until the bell rang and the pizza guy showed up again but this time Adam rushed towards the door, the same thin guy with the silly hat was waiting outside holding the pizza almost fell down to the floor as Adam jumped once he opened the door hugging the guy and shouting "BEN !!!"

Ben's is the last member of the wolf pack but Ben was older than all of us including Amy, he was 20 years old, he was a college student, he was a really skinny guy and he was relatively tall, he had long blonde hair, he was not so talkative until you directly start talking to him but he was really smart, he always looked tired and you could see the black color under his eyes and you'd think he's a smoker or a drug addict but it was only the sleeping disorders.  his father died when he was still young so he had to work trying to get some money to help his family as his mother was a housewife and all she could do is to cook and do the house work and that was never enough to provide a good life to her family.

"Come here Ben" I said, " stay for a while, please"

"You know I can't, I have to work, otherwise I won't get to spend this summer with you" Ben replied.

"Okay then, just tell me what are the updates?" I asked

"I don't know Ed, I told your sister to book the tickets, and you know I've already arranged everything with the camp manager"

"Does mummy know about that?" Adam said loudly so mum could hear us.

"Of course I know Adam" mum said, she was dressed up in a formal way and seemed to be going out,

"how can you go to Queens' port with me knowing about it?, I've already got the tickets for you guys.

I gotta go now so send my greetings to your families"

Mum is a gynecologist, she spent most of her time at the hospital as she was the supervisor of the department and she always had so many responsibilities.

"Thank you Mrs. Garner" Ben said, "I gotta go as well, see you later guys."

I felt too much excitement as we've been planning for this trip for almost a year but those feelings were interrupted by Patrick saying " I think we should go to Swan Island instead, Queens' port is gonna be boring, what can we do there besides visiting some graves and hearing the same stories our grandparents told us over and over again about this place"

"Shut it Pat" I said "Haven't you heard what happened there 10 years ago, I never believed in magic but I can not ignore what happened."

"There's no way it can be real Ed" Patrick replied.

"even if it's not real, we'll still get to enjoy the time together, just stay positive Pat"

Two months later it was June 24th, 10 nights away from our flight date I got the worst news, I heard my sister shouting so I got out of my room to find my mum facing Amy speaking quietly saying "It's my fault and I'll make it up to you next year"

at this moment I knew what it was, it was our trip being cancelled so I tried to control over my feelings and asked "what happened?"

"Mum didn't confirm our booking, that's what happened" Amy replied.

"Can't we do that now, there must be a way to get our tickets" I said.

"Grow up Ed, Dr. Garner is too busy to care about us and what we want, there's nothing we can do now" Amy replied.

"Amy, go to your room now" mum said.

"Yeah, whatever !" Amy replied.

Then mum looked at me, she looked sad and with a calm voice she said "I'll make it up to you, I promise"

Honestly I didn't feel like replying so I just said "Okay" and went to my room.

later that day Ellie called as we used to meet everyday but I was too mad so I didn't answer, so she called again and again but seriously I felt too sad to talk and I didn't have energy to explain my mum's mistake and I hated to disappoint her so I grabbed my phone and texted her "sorry, I'm busy, I'll call you later."

"Open the door Ed" little Adam said while he was knocking.

"Go away" I replied.

"Ellie's on the phone" Adam said.

"Tell her I'm busy now" I said.

"She knows everything Ed, Amy told her" Adam said.

I opened the door and took the phone from Adam and I heard Ellie's voice saying "I know you have nothing to say so just listen for now, it's okay, we'll figure something out and we're gonna have fun anyway, me, you, cute little Adam and all the others so please cheer up and let's meet up tonight."

"I can't, I'm sorry Ellie" I replied.

"Okay Ed, you've got my permission to skip tonight but tomorrow we gotta talk cuz we've got a long summer and we won't like spending it all at home." Ellie said, "see you tomorrow"

"Bye Ellie" I replied.

I felt guilty that she's trying to please me but I just can't accept the fact that we're not going to Queens' port as we've been planning for this for a really long time, and it's not just me, I know everyone else is disappointed but they are trying to hide how they feel.

"Guess who's here?" little Adam said.

"Adam, leave me alone, I'm not ready for your childish acts, I'm  too tired" I replied.

"I'm not a child anymore, and when I knock at your door you have to open up for me." Adam said.

"Adam I'm done talking to you, just go away" I said.

Little Adam refused to get out of my room so I furiously slapped him, and in no time Ben showed up at my door wondering why I did so, he just looked at me as if he was saying "what's wrong with you man !"

I started telling him all about what happened and he seemed to be really calm and at the end he smiled at me and told me " Every problem has a solution, you just need to be patient".

Ben asked me to get dressed and we went for a walk, we spent the whole night walking around talking about random stuff.

On our way back home he stopped and got inside a store and asked me to wait for him, after 5 minutes he got a pin with superman's logo.

"Give this to little Adam, you should apologize for slapping him" he said, "don't tell him that I'm the one who got it"

"Ben, I've never met a person who could be as nice as you are" I replied, "you shouldn't have done that"

"Ed, it's not a big deal, just remember he's your brother, you know family comes first"

I thanked him for his kind gesture and went back home. When I got inside I found everyone sleeping after this long depressing day, I went to Adam's room and found him sleeping so I just left the superman's pin next to his pillow and went to sleep.

The next morning I woke up and looked at my phone finding a text from my mum saying "I told you I'll make it up to you :)"

I felt my heart beating fast and I picked up the phone to call mum, once she answered I said "Mum, what do you mean by this text?"

"What do you think smartie?" she replied.

"Mum, don't do this to me, just say it !"

"I got your tickets, pack your bags, it's time for Queens' port"

I swear my heart skipped a beat that moment and said "I love you mum, how could you do it?"

"It was my mistake so I had to fix things, just so you know I'm the best mother" she said while laughing.

"You definitely are, thanks mum" I said, "I gotta go now to tell the guys, bye mum"

"Bye Ed" she replied.

I left the phone for a while as I heard Adam's voice and wanted to check on him.

"So you think superman will make me forgive you?" Adam said.

"Maybe he will, and if you're still mad I will know how to make you happy" I replied.

"I am mad. and nothing can make me forgive you forever !" Adam said angrily.

"Then maybe you shouldn't come with me to Queens' port and stay here away from me" I said,

"unless you'll say that you've forgiven me then maybe we can go together".

He looked at me innocently and said "you're not going to Queens' port"

"I will, and you too Adam" I said.

"How?" Adam asked while staring at me and his eyes showing pure excitement.

"We got the tickets little buddy, tell super to get ready"

Adam shouted happily that he woke Amy up and I went to text the guys on our group saying "PACK YOUR FREAKING BAGS, WE'VE ONLY GOT 9 DAYS TO BE IN QUEENS' PORT".

Chapter II

Ellie

The time has come for one of the greatest summers of my life, It's July 2nd and our flight is in 2 days, I'm getting done packing my bags and today I went shopping with my mum to get my needs.

"Have you got my Shampoo mum?" I said

"No, I didn't, please go get it Ellie" Mrs. Johann "my mum" replied.

I was really nervous feeling that I will forget something I need and I know Queens' port is gonna be too expensive and I know the camp where we're staying is too far away from the city center so it won't be easy to go buy my stuff so I should pay attention now.

"What else do we have on the list?" I asked mum.

"The cereals" mum replied.

"What cereals? I didn't write that" I said.

"Well I did, you might need something to eat if you didn't like the food there" mum replied.

"Forget about it mum, we're gonna be in Queens' port, they will definitely have the best food served for us" I replied.

"Whatever you want, but don't regret it later" mum said.

My phone's received a message from Ed saying "Ellie, what's up? don't forget the cards, see you tonight" 

"Yes sir" I replied to his text.

Ed was my childhood best friend, he's always been nice to me specially that I didn't have many friends earlier, the girls in my school never liked me and treated me in a really mean way for no obvious reason but when I grew up I realized it was out of jealousy, I never thought I was that beautiful, I mean everyone has his/ her own beauty and I'd say there was nothing special about me, I am a normal girl all I wanted was some friends.

Anyway back to Ed, he was not just nice, he was really handsome as well, he had dark eyes, a well-built body and protruding chin lines with a small dimple on his right cheek, he had black hair, it was always messy but it made him look really good, he got a little scar right under his lower lip, he got it since his childhood as a result for a fight against one of our classmates who made fun of me unintentionally as he drew a picture of me trying to please me but it was not good at all that it made all our classmates laugh at me so Ed fought against him and it didn't go well for Ed that day as the kid had a huge body compared to Ed.

Anyway Ed was always wearing jeans and any random top, he never cared about the colors but he'd care about the logos or the writings on his outfits.

After about 10 minutes I texted him "Can I call you in a bit?"

He didn't reply which disappointed me but I was busy getting done with my shopping list so it was fine and half an hour later we went to a restaurant in the city center near my dad's office where we were supposed to meet up with both of him and my elder sister Nathalie.

"You're late my ladies" my dad said, "you should have been here 20 minutes ago"

"Sorry, princess Ellie must be ready for the upcoming party" my mum replied, "I wonder how long will you still be so punctual !"

"We've been married for 23 years and you still don't know me, shame !" dad replied with a little laughter.

"Where's Nathalie?" I asked.

Nathalie is 22 years old, she's just graduated from the school of law, I'd say she's the carbon copy of dad when it comes to the personality, she's always been a hard worker, she'd get straight A's and she was willing to travel abroad to study masters and would come back later to work in dad's office.

She's always been too strict yet she had the kindest heart.

She has also got mum's beauty, she had big red cheeks, brown hair, she was almost 175 cm tall so she was a relatively tall girl.

A good looking guy wearing a suit came inside the restaurant and looked at us with a half smile on his face greeting us, this guy was called "Andy", he was Nathalie's fiance.

"Where's my daughter? what have you done to her you monster" my dad said while looking at Andy and laughed.

"I thought she'd be already here with you, I swear I didn't kill her, at least for now" Andy replied laughing back at dad.

"Here she is" mum said.

I've always loved my sister, she was my idol, I mean 6 years difference between is not such a big difference but I always looked forward to being as beautiful and successful as she is, but unfortunately since I was 12 I didn't get to spend much time with her as she was studying in another city called "Hansburg" which is 70 miles far from home so she would only get to see us on holidays and as she's leaving abroad soon I wanted to spend every minute with her.

No matter how bad I wanted to go to Queens' port I didn't feel like leaving cuz I know that Nathalie would be gone few days later after we leave.

We were done with our lunch so Dad went back to his office, Nathalie left with her fiance and both me and mum went back home.

"Where are you? you're late" Ed texted

That was a trigger to my anger so I said "you'd have known if you replied to my texts earlier"

For some reason I was never that tough person and I hated how soft my heart is so in no time I texted him saying:

"I had a long day, you should've been here to help me out with this mess, are we still meeting tonight?"

"Yes for sure, I had long day as well and that's why I couldn't reply earlier, I'm sorry about that" Ed replied.

After a minute Ed texted "I'll pick Pat up, meet us at Horizons Cafe in 30 mins."

I got dressed up and went to the cafe.

The place was not so crowded which made me feel relaxed, I also liked the place for its simplicity, it was not a big cafe, the light coming from the lamps in the ceiling was just perfect to make you feel relaxed as if you were home, we knew the staff there as we frequently came to this place so once I entered I was welcomed by a slight smile from the waitress, she was called "Maggie", she was about 40 years old, she was bit short and chubby, she had short orange curly hair which looked awful but her smile and nice attitude made it barely noticeable, I smiled back at her and finally found Ed sitting so I went to sit facing him.

"Where's Pat?" I asked.

"He's sick" Ed replied.

"What happened? do you think he's gonna be okay soon?" I asked.

"Yeah it's not a big deal" Ed replied

We kept talking about how our day was like and our plans for Queens' port and later he walked me home.

While we were on our way I felt that Ed was looking at me so I moved my eyes to see him with a slight smile drawn on his face and once he realized that I was looking back at him he got nervous and looked away so I laughed saying "What's the matter?"

"Nothing" He said.

"Okaaay" I said and looked away.

That got me thinking and silently telling myself "Why didn't you say anything Ed, why don't you have the balls to tell me how you feel towards me? am I just a friend or something more than that? how long do I have to wait?"

We kept walking in this awkward silence and the only thing that filled that void is the sound of the car horns and the sound of music coming from a club near my house until we finally arrived and he coldly said "Good night Ellie" so I waved to him and went inside.

2 days later it was time for us to leave, I was never as excited as I was this day, Dad was the second one to wake up right after me and he came to my room asking me "Is my little princess ready?"

"YES !!!" I replied excitedly.

Mum kept asking me about the stuff I packed and if I missed anything, she just didn't stop giving me instructions to follow and warning me from getting robbed and telling me to take care of myself and not doing silly stuff.

It was all good till Nathalie woke up just before I leave, we just stared at each other without saying a single word and we hugged tightly for few seconds.

"I'm gonna miss you" Nathalie whispered in my ears.

So I smiled at her with all those mixed feelings of being happy, excited, worried as it was my first time travelling abroad and staying away from my family for a long time and sad for leaving my sister.

Dad and I got in the cab and it was only few minutes till we arrived to the airport and I forgot all about my worries when I saw Ed smiling and waving to me, so I kissed daddy goodbye and went inside to join the guys.

"Welcome on board" Ed said, "Are you ready for Queens' port?"

"What do you think?" I replied.

"I won't know unless you tell me my friend." Ed said.

"I'm more than ready" I replied.

"That's the spirit" Ed said excitedly and he gave me five.

I have to confess that his excitement towards this trip was contagious to all of us even Patrick who didn't like the idea from the start seemed to be excited.

"How are you feeling now, Pat?" Ed asked.

"Not okay, but I'm gonna be okay as long as I have Amy by my side" Patrick replied.

"Poor Pat, you're gonna be dead soon, you know I'm gonna poison you" Amy said while Ed was laughing.

"How are you Adam, and where's superman?" I asked while bowing down to be directly facing Adam's face.

"Superman's great, so am I" Adam replied, "you know we're gonna race you till Queens' port, I bet superman's faster than the plane"

"Can I join you Adam?" I asked, "I wanna join the winner team"

"Sure, you just need to hold to me tight so you won't get hurt" Adam replied.

I went to the ladies’ room to fix my make up and came back after about 10 minutes leaving my stuff with Ed.

"It's our call" Ben said "Let's go guys"

"Where's Adam?" Amy Asked.

"He was standing here, I think he went to the restroom." Patrick replied.

"Damn it Adam, that's not the time for your childish acts" Amy said, "Go check on him Ed"

Everything was okay until Ed came back and we all could see the worry on his face and the nervousness in the way he talked and I could clearly see on his face that something was wrong.

"He's not there, where could he go?" Ed said while he was raising his arm and banging the back of his head with his hand as if he was trying to find a button on the back of his head that he could click on and get an answer.

I tried to calm down and think so we can fix this problem then I suddenly remembered his talk about racing with the plane.

"HE MUST BE WITH SUPERMAN" I cried.

"What do you mean?" Ed asked.

I didn't answer his question, what I did instead was that I just went near the gate thinking that he got out and thinking he really wanted to race the plane so I asked the security guard if he's seen a little kid holding a superman toy, but his answer disappointed me unexpectedly as I was pretty sure his little mind made him believe he can do this.

A young lady from the cabin crew got out of the plane and told us that the plane is taking off after 15 minutes so we should get inside, and Ed spontaneously replied furiously "MY LITTLE BROTHER IS MISSING"

"Maybe he got on board, The plane is the only place where we didn't search for him." I said. "Let's go take a look."

Ed didn't wanna come in so I went alone and to my surprise I found Adam sitting next to a bald guy who's about 25 years old with sharp facial expressions and they were having a conversation, but this conversation was interrupted when Adam saw me and said "Where are you guys, we need to leave?" and continued "I told you I'll win this race and here I am the first to be on board"

I felt relieved so I smiled at little Adam and asked him to stay in his place, then I went out to tell everyone to get in.

Once we got on board I saw something that I would call a surprise, for the very first time I saw Amy showing some affection towards her brother, she hugged him and said "Don't you ever do that to me again"

We sat on our seats as we were too late and we had to take off, so I sat next to Ed and the boys but both Adam and Amy sat next to the bald guy.

I wanted to make things better for Ed so I pinched his cheek and told him:

"I never knew that you care too much, you're such a good brother"

He smiled back at me without saying much but he looked relieved.

Everyone was busy doing something, Ed was watching a movie, Patrick was playing some games, Adam was sleeping but I noticed Ben just sitting calmly with a poker face and he seemed to be worried about something, honestly I was curious to know what's on his mind but I didn't care about him that much, I mean the only reason we're friends is because Ed likes him.

I also noticed that Amy is talking to the bald guy next to Adam and I knew from the way that she looked at him that she liked him, I have to admit that this guy looked handsome but there was something strange about him, I mean the way he got dressed was not usual, he was wearing white loose shirt with long sleeves and white pants and wearing weird looking slippers made of wooden material or something similar.

I couldn't hear what they said but I just couldn't stop myself from looking at them every once in a while, but I started getting bored and felt like taking Ed's ear phones off but I just didn't because I thought it'd be rude and all I did is to wait until we arrive to Queens' port, so the only option I had is to sleep.

Chapter III

Ed

It's been a long time flying and all I wanted to do is to keep reading and learning about the culture and traditions and check the touristic sites we should visit in Queen's port, Also I've been texting a guy who's living in Queens' port, I've never met him before but I had that app on my phone by which I can get to know people from all around the world and that's how I got to know "Salvio".

Salvio is 19 years old, he's been living in Queens' port since he was born, but he went to study journalism in Aberdeen, Scotland. so he had to learn English to be able to understand what his professors teach in their classes also to communicate with others, so his English was okay, he could understand everything I say but he didn't always know how to say what he wanna say in English and once you hear his voice you'll notice how strange his accent is, he had a brown skin, short curly hair, his beard was barely starting to grow and it was missing hair in some parts, he also had a big mouth, filled lips so I can definitely say he's got the biggest smile I've ever seen.

So back to last night while I was texting Salvio I noticed that Ben is still awake and he whispered

"what are you doing?" as Pat was sleeping on his right side and Ellie was sleeping on my left side and he didn't wanna wake them up.

"Just some preparations for a couple of events, I got a friend who can help us there and show us some cool places" I replied.

"How do you know this friend?" Ben asked, "I mean did you meet him before? it's not easy to trust people those days."

"Don't worry Ben, he's a good person" I replied, "He's not gonna kidnap us"

"Okay whatever you say my friend, you can take the lead and you know I'll follow you wherever you go" Ben said while smiling.

"It's easy for you to say this because you're the one who planned everything and you know that I know nothing about your plan, for now you're hired as the leader of the wolf pack" I replied and grabbed his shoulder gently.

After this short conversation Ben left his seat for a while, I think he went to the restroom and while I was trying to sleep I felt Ellie's head leaning on my shoulder.

"Ellie" I said quietly, I was a bit feeling nervous and didn't know if I'm supposed to wake her up or to remain silent. when she didn't reply I decided to enjoy the moment and I just kept looking at her, she looked just like an angel and I just couldn't stop thinking about how great she is and something inside me was telling me to kiss her on the cheek but I was telling myself to stop thinking that way, she's my friend, just a friend and will never be more than that, she's too beautiful and she's too good for me.

Every time I see that beauty I feel like I'm out of breathe and I act in the dumbest way, when she smiles I feel my heart melting inside.

With all this confusion inside of me I decided to stop thinking and enjoy having her right by my side resting her head on my shoulder.

That little bit of heaven was over when Adam woke up, looked at me and said "how long do we have left? I'm getting bored here"

his voice made Ellie wake up and she checked her phone, with a quiet voice she said "only 35 minutes left, we're almost there Adam"

While we were speaking the guy with the white shirt sitting next to Adam was looking at us and I noticed that he had a strange tattoo between the back of his neck and shoulder, it was some sort of writing in a foreign language, I didn't want to stare as I might be rude to him that way and I wouldn't understand what’s written anyway.

after a while we finally landed after this long night.

"I'm so excited" Ellie said looking at me and smiling with a spark in her eyes.

"Yeah we finally made it" I replied while stretching my body.

Once we got out of the airport I said "Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to Queens' port, this is Mr. Edward Garner, and this is my friend Mr. Ben Walker and he's going to be the captain, now our journey begins" then I looked at Ben and asked, "what's the plan now captain?"

"The camp manager told me he'll send someone to pick us up to the camp, he should be waiting here for us somewhere" Ben replied.

We kept waiting in front of the airport hoping that someone will show up to take us to the camp for about 15 minutes, and what made everything worse is that none of us had network connection, all we had is the address and the phone number of the camp.

Ben stopped an old man passing by and asked if he can use his phone, the man didn't seem to understand what Ben said and after a while trying to explain what we wanted he pointed at a phone booth on the other side of the street.

Ben crossed the street and held the phone but after bunch of times trying to call the camp he realized that there's something wrong with the number so he came back to us saying "I think we should take a cab to go there"

"But the address is written in English and most of the people don't seem to understand us, I think it's gonna be a problem" Amy replied.

"Let's give it a shot, we got nothing to lose" I said.

"I'm sorry for interrupting you, I see you're going to Salt Lake Camp, I can help you if you want" The muscular guy with the white shirt from the plane said.

"Praise the lord" Amy replied

I looked at Ben as if I was silently asking him if we should follow that guy so Ben looked back with an expression on his face as if he was saying "tell me a better option".

After a while we took a mini bus that was supposed to be going near our destination according to what the bald guy said.

"I see you're coming here as tourists, what are you planning to do here?" the bald guy asked.

"First we're planning to go to the camp to get some rest" Ben replied harshly as if he didn't wanna go through this conversation.

"So what's your name, sir?" Patrick asked.

"Yeah we've been talking for a while now and I never knew your name." Amy said while smiling at the bald guy.

"I am Manolis and I'm no sir, I am a man of God and I'm here to help you as an answer for his call" The bald guy replied.

"So where are you going Mr. Manolis?" I asked

"Where I belong, The Temple Of Wisdom" Manolis replied," it's only 15 minutes away from your camp"

"Cool, maybe we can meet up sometime and hang out together" Amy said.

"I'm sorry my lady, we're not allowed to go out unless we're permitted" Manolis replied.

After a while we arrived to our station which is 10 minutes away from the camp, meanwhile Patrick looked jealous but that answer relieved him.

"Maybe we can come visit you instead if we had time" Patrick said proudly while all he had on his mind is wishing to never meet him again.

"Yeah that's a great idea Patrick" Amy said.

"I regret to inform you that no females are allowed to be inside the temple" Manolis said.

Patrick looked as happy as a little kid would be but his happiness was interrupted by Manolis saying:

"And no (Chafehas) are allowed as well"

"What are (Chafehas)?" I asked.

"People like him" Manolis said pointing at Patrick.

Ben looked angry and Manolis noticed that so he said "Don't worry my friend, you're not included, I don't know the right words to explain but Chafehas are the fat ones".

Patrick got really angry but he didn't know how to reply so he tried to punch Manolis but while he was running towards him he tripped and fell down to the ground, Amy couldn't help but laughing but Manolis remained silent and stared at him which was creepy.

"I'm sorry sir, he didn't mean things to be that way" I said, "Now I know our way, thanks for your help !"

"No problem, don't hurt yourselves" Manolis replied.

I felt really bad for Pat but I didn't know how to react properly, I mean Manolis was really rude by saying that to Pat but I'm not sure he wanted to offend him and after all he helped us to get to the camp and nobody likes to get in troubles by the start of the journey specially that we're too far away from home.

Finally we arrived to the camp, we were too tired and all we wanted is to get our rooms and get some rest, but we were extremely disappointed as this place was really dirty, while we were walking around trying to find the camp manager we smelled horse shit all around.

I remember checking the photos of the place before Ben has booked it, the place looked totally different from what we found on the internet.

"Hello hello, welcome to Salt Lake Camp" an old man said, "you came on time, we're about to have lunch"

This old man was the camp manager, he had a deep voice, he was about 180 cm and 130 kgs, I'd say he was about 60 years old, he had a filthy grey beard, long grey hair, wearing glasses with small gray lenses, he was  also wearing the most random outfit, he was wearing brown shorts, yellow shirt with flowers on it and black boots.

"You're Mr. Frank, right?" Ben asked.

"Yes I am my friend." Mr. Frank replied, "I hope you had a nice flight."

"Can we get our rooms now?" Amy asked rudely.

"Sure my friend, room 216 for the ladies, 311 and 312 for the guys, don't be late for lunch"

We went to our rooms and it was a greater disappointment, we could still smell the horse shit and trust me this was the worst place anyone could stay in.

I stayed with Adam, Ben and Patrick's room was right next to ours and the girls room was on the other side of the camp.

Adam and I took a shower and we went outside to have lunch together.

"We have to find another place, I'm not spending my summer here, not even a single night" Amy said.

"I don't like the place as well but let's spend the night here and later we'll see what other options we can afford" Ben said.

"So you just came here, huh?" a girl sitting on the table next to us said, "You just need some time to get used to the place and the smell"

Amy ignored what the girl said and looked up in the sky and said "Maybe we should find Manolis, I know he can help us"

I looked at Pat and said "No we're not meeting Manolis, I've got a friend who can help us but as Ben said we have to spend the night here and we'll see what we can do later"

"Have you met Frankenstein?" The girl asked.

"Who is Frankenstein?" Adam asked and looked scared.

"The camp manager, you'll meet him soon anyway, he never leaves the camp" the girl said.

"Yes we met him about an hour ago" Patrick replied, "but isn't he called Mr. Frank?"

"That's true, but everyone here calls him Frankenstein after what happened to him" the girl replied.

"What happened to him?" I asked.

"An accident" that's all she said and I thought asking her won't be the best thing to do because she didn't seem like she wanna talk about it, but Pat wouldn't miss such chance and said "what kind of accident?"

The girl looked confused and suddenly Mr. Frank showed up and said "I hope you enjoyed your meal"

I thanked him and we didn't talk that much while he was around, we just ate our food and when he tried to start a conversation Ben apologized to him telling him that we need to rest.

We went to our rooms after a long day and I fell asleep in no time until I heard someone screaming...

Chapter IV

Ellie

I'd say that since we left the airport bad things started to happen, I mean I barely slept during our flight, Ed was too excited that he didn't notice how I feel, he was too focused on our plan and he'd stick to Ben instead of being with me, Also following that guy called Manolis didn't make me feel comfortable, I can't believe Ed made us follow him, I felt really bad for Pat and what made it worse is how Ed reacted, he should have defended Pat instead of thanking that weird bald guy for humiliating our friend.

What else? Spending the night at that shitty camp.

I don't hate Ben, I just didn't like him but after bringing us to this ugly place I couldn't trust him leading our trip.

You know spending the night with Amy was not that bad, everybody thinks she's mean but actually I like her, she's being sarcastic most of the time but I don't think she means to hurt anyone, actually I like her sense of humor but I just don't like it when she makes fun of poor Patty, sometimes he deserves what he gets but I just don't like seeing him sad, he's my childhood bestfriend.

After that long day when we went back to our rooms I fell asleep in a blink of an eye but suddenly I felt something tickling my leg and to my surprise I found a huge grass-hopper standing over my right leg and his eyes were directly facing mine so I screamed.

Amy was braver than I am, she hit it using her bed sheet and moved it away, we lost it for a while so I was freaking out, but in no time the door was knocking, Amy opened the door.

I saw many people standing outside our room door some of them looked scared and others looked curious to know what's wrong and it was Ed stepping in looking worried and hardly taking his breathe as he seemed to be running all the way from his room saying "What's wrong, are you okay?"

"It's an insect" Amy said, "but we lost it, it went that way" she pointed near the drawer next to my bed.

"Woah, it really is a big grass-hopper" Ed said, while he was about to crush it with his slippers Frankenstein stepped inside the room shouting "NOOO !!"

"Damn, that scared me" Ed said with a little laughter and he looked a bit surprised for not understanding why Frankenstein was shouting.

"It's a beautiful creature my friend" Frankenstein said, "How dare you take its life away?"

He extended his hand and grabbed the grass-hopper to put on his arm saying "Ohhh, look at this beauty" he got emotional and looked at the grass-hopper with a weird admiration look as if he was its father and his voice softened while he was saying so which was really awkward.

In no time Frankenstein took the grass-hopper and got out of our room and when he opened the door we could clearly see that everybody in the camp including Adam, Ben and Pat were waiting outside so Frankenstein said:

"It's just an insect, no need to worry, please get back to your rooms" 

Ed looked at us and he gently said "I'm glad you're okay, do you need anything?"

"An insecticide obviously" Amy said.

"Thanks Ed, but I really think we should leave this place as soon as possible" I said.

"We will, I texted a friend and he's gonna help us find a better place tomorrow" Ed said.

Ed stood there silently for a while then he asked me:

"Would you like to go out for a walk?"

"I don't think I'd be able to sleep anyway so yes, let's go !" I replied.

We went out, the weather was really nice, it was really calm and dark that somehow it was a bit scary, I mean if I was alone here I'd freak out but for Ed was there I was enjoying it, I looked at the sky and it was full of glowing stars, it was utterly beautiful.

"How are you feeling now?" Ed asked.

"A bit better I think, I think I prefer being here than being in the room." I replied.

"I bet you do, but remember we're still surrounded by insects here" he looked at me and laughed.

"hahaha, so funny" I replied coldly.

We walked for a while until we found a bench so we decided to sit there and we started talking while looking at the sky, then I asked him.

"Do you think that there are people or any other creatures living there?" I asked while pointing at the sky.

"Maybe, but why does it matter to you?" he said.

"I wonder how they see us? I wonder if someday we can go live there." I said.

Ed didn't reply to what I said, I think he didn't care about what I said, but I didn't bother anything as I was enjoying the view.

After a while of complete silence Ed said:

"If you got the chance to go there, who would you like to take with you?"

"Nathalie, and maybe you and the guys if you'd like to join me" I said.

"I would love to join you" he said excitedly then he remained silent for a while, later he calmly said "I would like to be wherever you are"

I smiled and didn't know how to reply to this so I said:

"It's getting late, we should probably go back to our rooms"

"Okaaaay" he said and he didn't seem to like what I said, I think he had something to say but we've been sitting there for a long while and he chose to talk about the most random stuff instead of telling me what he really had on his mind and I hated how he always did that.

We arrived to my room and Ed said "good night" then left and I went back to sleep hoping we would spend the night without having to face such a situation -Having insects invasion- till the morning, Amy was asleep already but I was too worried so I stayed up till 5:00 am and finally fell asleep and for this night I had the strangest dream.

I dreamed that I was walking around in a place where I was surrounded by huge green trees and walking on a gray path and behind those trees the place was surrounded by grey walls with sharp spikes all over the walls, the sky was gray just like the color of the path as it was extremely cloudy that I couldn't see the sun even though it was still morning time, I felt uncomfortable as I was all alone in this place and I wanted to go out of this place and the gate was right behind me but some force was controlling over me and it made me walk all along the path, while I was walking I found four horses tied up to a tree and they were making noise as if they wanted to tell me something or maybe they were just scared and I could feel the wind blowing strongly that I lost control of myself even more and the winds pushed me away from the horses and got me walking along the path.

After a while I couldn't see neither the walls nor the gate, only surrounded by trees and grass till I found a huge statue in the intersection of 4 different paths and there was something weird about this statue, the statue was a naked man standing his head left up high as if he was looking at the sky holding some rolled paper in his right hand, what was really weird about this statue were 2 things, first is that he didn't have a full head he just had a face and the back of his head was just a big hole, so it's just his face attached to his neck, the second thing was that I kept looking at his face but his facial features are somehow forgotten once you move your eyes away from it.

I started getting even closer to the statue and I found some writing on the rock that he was standing over, it was in a foreign language so I couldn't understand what was written but I suspected it to be a description about the history of the statue.

Suddenly there was a crack in the ground and those cracks started to form a big hole in the shape of a circle surrounding the statue.

The wind has blown even stronger and I started hearing a voice asking "Do you want to stay here forever?"

I felt like crying as I felt that I got stuck in this place and I kept shouting "No I wanna go home" and I felt something holding my shoulder and shaking my body but I couldn't see anyone around so I decided to close my eyes and when I opened them up I found Amy sitting next to me on the bed and laughed saying "have you seen ghosts already?"

"It's just a nightmare" I replied.

We got dressed up and went out to have breakfast with the boys, as expected Frankenstein came to greet us and asked if we had a good night sleeping.

I started to accept Frankenstein, I mean he's a nice man maybe he doesn't look so good and his actions are pretty weird but he's kind to us.

"What are the updates Ed?" Amy asked.

"We're going to the city center in a couple of hours to meet a guy called "Salvio", he's from Queens' port and he's Ed's friend." Ben replied.

We planned to go find another place to stay in but we didn't want Frankenstein to know that we're leaving so we packed our stuff and left it in our rooms willing to come back and get them if we found a better place, so a couple of hours after the breakfast we asked the girl we met yesterday about how to go to the city center and she told us that the most convenient way is by taking a bus and she told us that a group of people from the camp are leaving so we can join them.

"The bus is a bit late, isn't it?" Ed said while looking to this group of friends.

"Nothing is ever on time here" a guy said, "We're here in Queens' port mate"

We kept waiting for about 15 mins. and while we were waiting Salvio called Ed telling him that he's already arrived in the place where we were supposed to meet so he's gonna be waiting for us and then the bus came so it took us about 40 minutes to be in the city center and finally we met Salvio.

"Hello, you must be Ed, and you probably are Ben, I hope I've not mistaken" Salvio said while he was smiling with his big lips.

"That's true" Ed said while he was smiling as well and got closer to shake hands with him.

They kept talking about random stuff on our way trying to find another place where we can stay, meanwhile I was thinking that Salvio seems to be a nice a guy but I didn't like the fact that Ed mentioned Ben to him and never mentioned me.

Finally we found a nice apartment for rent which was not really expensive, it was a little bit far away from city center but everybody liked it so we decided to move here and we decided to spend the night in Frankenstein's camp and come back tomorrow morning with our bags.

Salvio helped us taking the bus to go back to the camp and we agreed to meet up tomorrow and spend the day together, but on our way we found something interesting, we found another bald guy wearing those loose shirts and pants a little less muscular than Manolis and he was wearing brown instead of white.

As usual when we arrived Frankenstein greeted us and offered us dinner as we've already missed lunch and asked us about our day, we didn't want to talk too much so he wouldn't know we're leaving as we didn't know how he'd react to this according to his strange behavior.

We went spent sometime walking around the camp until we got tired and then we went to sleep to get ready for tomorrow.

As expected I spent too many hours trying to sleep and I was only thinking about 2 things, first is the statue I saw in my dream and second is how bad Ed is treating me and messing things up.

"Are you still awake?" Amy asked quietly.

"Yes, I couldn't sleep." I replied.

"Is it the insects?" Amy asked.

"No, just thinking" I replied.

"Well I'm not able to sleep anyway so maybe you can tell me what you got on your mind." Amy said.

For the first time Amy and I had a real conversation, I didn't feel like telling her about that nightmare because I knew her sarcastic nature is uncontrolable so what I did instead is asking her:

"how do you know if someone loves you?"

She looked at me, smiled and jumped over to lay next to me on my bed and said "Well if someone loves you then you would know, it's that simple"

"What if I'm not sure?" I asked.

"That means that you're either sure that this person doesn't like you but you can't accept the truth, or you're just afraid to believe that you can be loved."

I smiled at her with mixed feelings of being happy that I might be loved or disappointed that the truth is that Ed never loved me more than just a friend, I think nobody should ever feel that way towards himself/herself.

All of this confusion made me look down on my bed sheet as I didn't wanna face Amy so she held my head up and looked me in the eye and said "We both know what you're talking about and I know how you feel, Ed is my young brother, he's so stubborn and he acts as a jerk sometimes but he's a good person and it's pretty obvious that he likes you"

"Really?" I asked while being happily surprised.

"There's no reason to tell you a lie, but we gotta plan something to make him stop being such an idiot" Amy said.

I was extremely happy after we got through this conversation as now I know for sure that what I feel towards Ed is not going in vain, also having such a conversation with Amy was something totally unexpected and it got us way too close to each other.

Chapter V

Ed

I was really glad that we could finally find another place where we could stay apart from Frankenstein's ugly camp, next day early in the morning I woke Adam up and we took our luggage and waited for all the others in front of the camp's gate, we all gathered so we were ready to leave before Frankenstein would notice us leaving as we've already cancelled our booking online to his camp and we only paid for the first 2 nights, so we got outside, took a bus and left to the city center.

Salvio was waiting for us in the bus station near we'd stay so we walked all together but I noticed that there was something wrong with Ellie, she was really cold, she barely talked to me the whole time since the morning and once we arrived she'd take a step away from me and she was walking with Salvio the whole way to the apartment, I don't know what they were talking about, I mean they barely knew each other so I couldn't understand what will they be talking about all this time but she was smiling and laughing and whenever I tried to join their conversation she'd turn cold and barely reply to what I say.

I just could not control my feelings, I felt angry deep down and I started becoming jealous, I know Salvio didn't have any bad intentions but I knew this was not right.

I kept my feelings to myself and said nothing at all, we arrived to the apartment and left our luggage and we were ready to start our tour in Queens' port.

"So what are we doing today, Ben?" I asked.

"I think the plans would change since we have Salvio here, surely he knows the place better than I do" Ben replied.

"No, please don't change your plans because of me" Salvio said, "Unfortunately I won't be able to join you today as I got other commitments and things to do with my family, but I promise I'll be joining you after a couple of day, hope you enjoy your day"

Ben looked at me as if he wanted to ask what  should he be saying and looked back at Salvio and said "It's okay, we can meet up later, we're here for a long time so we'll probably have more time together later."

Salvio left and Ben took us to a museum which was 20 minutes away from our apartment so we called a cab but it was not enough for all of us so we called another cab, so Amy, Ben and Adam took the first one and I got the other one with Pat and Ellie.

Pat sat in the front seat so I got the chance to sit at the back with Ellie and I really wanted to talk to her so I said:

"Have you slept well last night?"

"Better than the first night" Ellie replied.

"Do you like it here so far?" I asked.

"It's a nice city" she replied.

I felt uncomfortable as I was trying to keep the conversation going but she kept giving me those short answers and I felt like she didn't wanna talk to me but I didn't know why so I felt really bad but I decided that I won't give up so I asked her "Is there something wrong?"

She slowly turned her beautiful eyes to be directly facing mine and in no time she looked back down and quietly said "No, all is good"

"I see, at least you're stuck here with 2 extremely handsome guys in one of the fanciest cars, how can you not be happy?" I said.

Ellie faked a laugh and said "Yeah, Patty looks great today"

"Am I?" Patrick asked. "I think I needed to stay home, I'm feeling sick"

"I'm pretty sure you're going to be okay when we arrive to the museum" I said.

"I hope so" Patrick replied.

In no time we arrived to the museum, it was not a big one but it was exciting enough as for a start, this museum was called "The Living Stones", it was in the open air, they only had a gate and a fence surrounding the place.

"I wonder why it's called that way !" I said.

"This museum used to be a graveyard for the Zulu soldiers who died during the war against People of Aghora Pravus, and they kept some of their belongings buried in the ground with them as God of Zulu returned some of them back to life based on how their lives was like back then, but so many things have changed regarding this place now." Ben said.

"Hold on a second how do you know all of this?" Amy asked.

After a couple of seconds of awkward silence without any reply from Ben he said " I just read about it on google"

"Zulu and Aghora Pravus, that seems interesting do you know any thing about them?" I said.

"It's said that Queens' port was split into 2 different parts, the north was where people of Aghora Pravus lived, and the south belonged to Zulu tribe" Ben said, "Aghora Pravus were the people who worshiped the God of wisdom, and Zulu tribe were not that religious but they believed in magic so they had 7 wizards who represented the 7 souls of their God."

We kept walking around in the museum and watching the tombstones with writings in Swahili language and we saw some of their belongings which were some colorful bracelets and necklaces, we also got to see an old map of Queens' port and right beneath it there was a writing explaining the geography of the city at that time.

Meanwhile Pat looked really sick so he told us that he's leaving to get some rest and will be waiting for us in the apartment. Ellie asked him if he'd need anything and she wanted to leave with him but he refused so I went outside and called a cab for him and told him to send me a text when he arrives.

It was such a turn off for me that Pat got sick but I didn't wanna waste the day without knowing all about the history of this place, I mean I came all this distance to be here for this.

I returned back to where I left them right in front of the map and I asked Ben: “where do you think Frankenstein camp is on this map?"

"I'm not sure but I think it's over there" Ben said while pointing at a brown spot which referred that it was a desert area in the north.

I had so many questions on my mind as I wanted to know more about Zulu and the 7 wizards, I also wanted to know about Aghora Pravus and the God of wisdom but I preferred to just walk around and watch the monuments in the museum instead of asking too many questions.

We spent about 4 hours in the museum then we decided to leave so we went to get some food and later we walked around for a while and it was about 7:00 pm so we decided to go back to the apartment.

When we got back we were too tired so I wanted to check on Patrick but I found him asleep so I didn’t wanna disturb him and told Ben to calmly come in and wake me up if Patrick is suffering from anything.

For about 2 weeks we kept visiting most of the touristic sites in the city, we only got 3 days off resting to get ready for new adventures.

One night when we arrived to the apartment Ben told us that he needs to get some stuff he needed , little Adam asked me if he could join him so I asked Ben if it's okay with him.

Ben smiled at me and said "Who could be a better partner than Adam?"

They went together, Ellie and Amy went together to the kitchen to prepare the dinner for us.

Later after 30 minutes Ben and Adam were still outside and didn't come back which got Amy a little worried and she asked me to call Ben.

I thought it's fine, I mean they are mostly walking around enjoying their time and there's nothing to worry about but I brought Amy’s phone as I didn’t bring mine and tried to call him but I think his battery was dead so I was not able to get in touch with him.

Meanwhile Ellie's phone rang and she went to her room to answer and she stayed for about 15 mins. talking and when she got out she looked as if she was crying so I asked her "What's wrong?"

"It's not a big deal, I just miss Nathalie" She replied.

I slowly moved my hand and put it on her head and gently brushed her hair with my fingers and told her "Please don't be mad, I know you wanted to be with her this time but I know you're gonna meet up later during her next vacation so cheer up"

She smiled but I knew she's still sad so I told her "I'm too hungry, will you help Amy with the food please, I don't want canned food anymore and I can't stand Amy's cooking."

She laughed and wiped her tears with her hands and quietly said "Okay Ed".

I told the girls that I'm going out to check on Adam and Ben and left, I've been trying to call Ben too many times already but every time I'd hear "The mobile you have called is not available, please try again later" and I kept walking around for about 20 minutes so I started to get worried and after a while I decided to go back as maybe they'd have returned back while I was out.

"Where are they?" Amy said and she looked really worried.

"I don't know, I thought they would be back already" I replied and I started to freak out but I had to hide it otherwise I knew Amy would lose control.

"Have you called Ben?" Ellie asked.

"I did so many times but his phone is turned off" I replied.

"I'm calling the police" Amy said nervously.

"Calm down, they will be back soon, I know it" I said trying to control over the situation.

After about 3 hours the door knocked so Amy rushed to open the door and she was shocked to see Ben standing alone.

"Where's Adam?" Amy shouted.

Ben looked at the ground and he was silent as a grave.

"BEN !!! WHERE    IS    ADAM?" I said while I was holding his shoulders and shook his body fiercely.

"Aghora Pravus has him" He replied while his voice was shaking.

"What do you mean? who is Aghora Pravus? where's my brother?" Amy kept yelling and started losing control and crying.

"God of wisdom" Ben said.

"Where is that fucking God of wisdom?" I asked, "I gotta go bring Adam"

"You can't" Ben replied.

"What do you mean?" I shouted.

Ben stood there silently without saying a word and it was driving me crazy knowing that Ben just lost Adam that easily.

Amy fainted and I lost control so I went out of the apartment not knowing what to do or where to go but all I knew was that I could not be here.

Chapter VI

Ben

It's great to finally be back home, I've been waiting for this moment for more than 8 years.

I've never come here before but that's the place where my father belongs and I believe I belong where my father and my ancestors belong, I belong to Zulu, the real residents of Queens' port.

I've really wanted to follow my father's steps, he was a great man with a loving heart, his name was Xavier Walker.

People of Zulu are my people, and God of Zulu is my god, I believed that only God of Zulu could bring my father back to life and that's why I wanted to come to Queens' port in the first place.

8 years were long time enough to know how to get here, I mean honestly when I knew that Aghora Pravus took his life I was broken into pieces specially that I never got the chance to say goodbye to him.

He was my favorite person in the world, I could never accept not having him in my life.

God of Zulu has brought so many people back to life throughout the history, I believe that this power could also bring my father back to life.

It took me some time to start planning so since I was 14 I started working and got a bunch of part time jobs, saved money and last year I convinced Ed to join me and come here.

Honestly I feel a little bad for not telling Ed the truth about why I wanted to come here in the first place and made him think that we're only spending our vacation here.

It was not only about bringing my father back to life but also taking revenge for my people from Aghora Pravus.

I have always been weak, I never knew how to stand for myself, my father has always been my strength, he was the source of my pride, he never was a rich man but he was the smartest, he knew what his life is all about, it was never about achievements or glory, it was all about serving God and whatever he did was to glorify god of Zulu, he used to live with my grandparents in Zulu, they were a middle class family but for the war against Aghora Pravus they lost everything starting from their money, lands and even their house was burnt down to ashes.

My father was still too young when that happened, my grandfather was called to serve the 7 wizards and join the army, he didn't want to do that, he never believed in God of Zulu and just wanted to live peacefully but the wizards announced that whoever turns down the call then God of Zulu would take their lives but if he joined the army then his family would be offered a safe place to stay and food till the end of the war so he had no other choice but to accept the call.

In no time my grandmother took my father and stayed in the refugee camp and my grandfather stayed few miles away in a military camp for training and getting ready for war.

One night after a long training in the military camp the soldiers were ready to fight the next day, but unexpectedly the spies of Aghora Pravus knew about the upcoming attack so after everybody slept in the camp tens of Aghora Pravus men came to the camp and set it all on fire and nobody could survive from the soldiers, my grandfather was burnt alive, what could be worse than that and for the fire was great my father was able to see it from the refugee camp and for the horror of the situation my father ran to the military camp trying to save his father but all he could do is to get to see his father being burnt alive while screaming with the loudest voice he could ever hear.

After this long night the men of Aghora Pravus were spread all around the camp cutting the throats of whoever survived the fire.

Out of the 7 wizards only 2 were able to escape and ran away, but the rest were captured by Aghora Pravus, and when they found my dad they captured him with the 5 wizards.

This day was not over, Aghora Pravus surrounded the refugee camp and tied everybody up in chains and took them to the temple of wisdom and there comes the worst part, they brought the 5 wizards up on a hill to be hanged in front of everybody, and an old man appeared up the hill and everybody could see that he was the priest of Aghora Pravus, he had an unforgettable speech not for how great it was but for how it revealed the dark side of Aghora Pravus.

"We're all gathered here today in the presence of the almighty God of wisdom" the priest said, "as we're all here now we want the innocent people of Zulu to confess their sins and ask for forgiveness from the only true God, Aghora Pravus is merciful and his people are not murderers, as you see we're here to ensure that justice prevails on this holy land, kneel to the God of wisdom and you may be forgiven for all your sins"

Most of the people were helpless as they were only old people, women and children so most of them fell down to the ground on their knees but an old man stayed standing and refused to kneel and started calling others to stand for what they believed in and shouted "We are not the people of Aghora Pravus, God of wisdom is not our God and he will never be, no power in this life can change that, may you all burn in hell for the injustice and the crimes you've committed towards Zulu yet you have the ego to come here and claim that you're not murderers"

While he was shouting few people stood up and my grandmother was among them.

In no time men of Aghora Pravus took their swords and cut their heads off their bodies and my father got to witness this while he was down on the ground without being able to stand and fight back as he knew if he moved he will die, after a while the 5 wizards were hanged and their bodies were left for many days to be rotten in front of everybody and eaten by the hawks.

My father knew that he'd be taking revenge someday but he can't be doing that soon, so he spent some years serving the priest, throughout this time he would secretly spend some time every night in his room praying that God might get them out of this situation and save Zulu, he kept serving the priest until he passed away and another man was elected to be the priest but this man refused my father to be his servant as he believed that my father is a foreigner and no foreigners should be this close to the temple of wisdom.

My father decided that it's time to leave Queens' port as there was no way he could revenge for his family while being this close to the enemies so he started meeting the few living people of Zulu trying to convince them to leave with him and start a new life away from this messed up life but everyone refused as they were afraid to die.

In no time the high priest of Aghora Pravus knew about my dad's plan to escape so he tried to catch him but my father could secretly escape by the help of one man from Zulu that decided to join him.

They headed to the south to be back to Zulu but it was just ruins and they knew if they stayed Aghora Pravus will find them sooner or later so they sneaked out of the country.

Few years later my parents got married and I was born.

I grew up being told this story over and over again and that's how I knew all of that.

My father started to accept the fact that he could do nothing to revenge for his parents and he wanted us to live peacefully.

8 years ago my father went for a business trip abroad and he never came back, later we knew that he was murdered, we received a letter and it was mentioned that while he was on the ship going to Rapizkstan he was pushed out of the ship into the water and left to drown and they never found his body.

luckily the murderer was caught and we got to see him once in the court before he was sentenced to be imprisoned for a lifetime and all he said defending himself is that he did it for Aghora Pravus, he did what is right.

I wanted to strangle this man with my own hands but I never could and that's why I feel weak and helpless.

From that time I decided to do what my father couldn't and take revenge for him, my grandparents and all the people of Zulu.

Here I am now and this is my time.

I have to admit that I made some mistakes in my life and I will still do for the sake of my father's life without a single regret.

I've always loved Ed, I also loved little Adam but I have a confession, it was not Aghora Pravus who took Adam's life, I did.

I don't regret it, and I'll do it all over again cuz I knew it was the only way to get my father back.

I am not a heartless man, I have my reason for why I did that.

I've never went to buy things earlier today, I knew that one of the 2 wizards is still alive and he was the only one who could bring my father to life, I wanted to go alone in the first place but when Adam insisted to come and I did not refuse as I knew he is still too young to understand what's going on.

When we arrived I found a really short man whose height didn't exceed a meter and a half but he seemed to be really strong, he was wearing a weird outfit that revealed most of his body and it was all covered in tattoos and he was wearing tens of bracelets on his arms and necklaces around his neck, he was walking with his bare feet and once he opens his mouth you'd be able to see few yellowish brown teeth as he lost the rest of them, he seemed to have lost his mind a little but what do you expect from a wizard?

The wizard looked at me, got closer, put his hand upon my head and said "That's a true man of Zulu" then he turned his face and walked a couple of steps away, he said: “I know why you’re here”

I didn't know what to do or what to do so I fell on my knees and said " May God of Zulu be risen forever my lord"

"you know the rules, life for life" the wizard said "but are you sure you want to this?"

I moved my head up and down so he took Adam away to offer him as a sacrifice to the God of Zulu.

I knew that this was not the right thing to do but what other options do I have? the wizard said "Life for life".

What was strange about the whole thing is while I was watching little Adam being taken away I was standing calmly feeling nothing at all, I just felt numb and I was thinking about nothing but having my father back.

Everything has changed when I realized that I'll need to go back home and meet the guys without having Adam with me, honestly I started to freak out when I thought about how Ed will react to this.

Ed is like a brother to me, I just can't lose him but if he knew the truth then I'd surely lose him forever even if he could forgive me we surely won’t be friends anymore.

The only thing that I had to think about is how to keep Ed by my side, I would never be able to tell him the truth, the only truth he has to know that Aghora Pravus is our enemy.

Chapter VII

Ed

I spent the whole night walking around with no place to go, I was not able to think clearly and I didn't want to see anybody, I couldn't see Amy as she's gone out of control, I know I should be there to support her but how can I support anybody when I can't even help myself?

I did not want to see Ben or hear his voice, how can he be so careless? all I wanted is to find him, get him back and go home, I needed to calm down to think about what's right to be done to be able to get him back but whenever I try to calm myself down and think I'd only hear his voice saying "Aghora Pravus has him, you can’t get him back" over and over again and I just couldn't stop this voice.

Honestly I was not able to think about Ellie or Pat no matter how much I loved them and I knew the only one who would be able to understand how I feel is Ellie but something was stopping me from going back to the apartment.

I also kept thinking of the conversation I'll be going through with my parents when they'd call to check on us, I mean how can I tell them that I lost Adam?

All I had to do is to keep walking around and I felt that I can barely walk so I went to the corner of some street and I sat down to rest, after a while I just fell asleep as I stayed up all night and I was too tired.

"Ed, come here" I heard Adam's voice calling so I quickly opened my eyes but he was not there so I immediately stood and started walking towards the voice, but when I looked around I found that the surrounding area looked so different from the streets I walked in last night, I didn't think about it too much, all I wanted is to find Adam.

"I'm here Ed" Adam continued speaking but he was still nowhere to be seen so I started shouting his name hoping that he will reply to me.

I kept saying this over and over again while running trying to find Adam but I couldn't hear his voice anymore.

I was walking over a gray path that was surrounded by trees so I did not have any other options but to follow the path till the end.

I kept running for a while until I heard Adam's voice saying "You're almost there Ed, hurry up" I was too tired already but since I heard Adam's voice I took a deep breath and I went on running along the path until I found a huge statue of a man standing and that statue was surrounded by a big hole and all I could see is the back of the statue which was right in the middle of intersection of 4 different paths and I walked around the hole to be able to see the statue's face and to my surprise it was Adam's face on the body of that statue.

"We don't have much time, don't ask me anything, just listen" Adam said.

"I don't understand, what happened to you Adam and how did you get here?" I asked.

"You don't understand Ed, that's not how things work here" Adam said.

I remained silent as I was shocked to see him as a statue and I didn't understand what he's trying to say so I just waited for him to speak.

"We're running out of time, all I want you to know is that I believe in you and you need to believe in yourself, just follow your heart and it will lead you where you belong" Adam said.

"Ed..., Ed wake up"

It felt like I blacked out for few seconds and I opened my eyes to find Amy, Ellie and Pat standing in front of me.

"Are you okay?" Ellie asked.

I moved my head up and down telling her that I was okay.

"Don't you ever leave me again" Amy said.

I could not talk at that time so I hugged her then held her chin with both of my hands, looked closely in her eyes and told her "Everything will be okay, we will find Adam, I know he's alive".

Patrick helped me stand and I put my arm over his shoulder and we started walking back to our apartment but I could clearly notice that Ben was not there so I asked Pat about him.

"He went out last night, he said he will go search for you but he never came back, I'll call him to tell him that we found you."

Deep down I didn't feel like seeing Ben so I didn't react to what Pat said.

"He's not answering his phone I think he'll probably be back later today, I sent him a text telling him that you're here" Patrick said.

"Okay" I replied.

When we arrived back to the apartment I couldn’t do anything so I just went to sleep, I have no idea how long I slept but when I woke up I found Ellie sitting right next to my bed on a chair and once I moved my body she noticed me and she said "how are you feeling now, Ed?"

"I'm much better now." I replied.

"You've made us all worried about you, stay here I'll go bring your medicine" Ellie said.

"No, please stay here" I said, and grabbed her from her hand.

"Your body is still too hot and you're covered in sweat, wait here and I'll be back in no time" Ellie replied.

She came back shortly and she had a pill in one hand and she was holding a cup with some hot drink in the other hand and she asked me to drink it.

I took a sip but it tasted awful so I spit it out and asked her "What the hell is that?"

"It's some herbal drink, I know you don't like it but it's the best thing to cure your fever" she said, "Please drink it, do it for me" she looked at me sadly as if was going to die.

"Yes sir" I replied, I was just trying to show everyone that I'm getting everything under control so I had to be a little sarcastic to make them feel better and that everything will be okay.

Ellie smiled at me then she called Amy and Pat to come into my room.

When Amy came in I could clearly see that her eyes were red and I knew she's been crying so I told her to come sit next to me on my bed, the bed was barely enough for one person so I had to move to give her some space and when she sat I put my arm around her waist to hold her closer to me so that she won't fall and looked towards her and asked "How are you feeling now?"

"It doesn't matter" Amy replied.

"It surely matters, you are my sister and you're my main supporter, I need each one of you now so we can get Adam back" I said.

"You've heard Ben, Aghora Pravus took his life" Amy replied.

"Ben never said he saw that, he only saw it when they took Adam away, something is telling me that Adam is still alive, I just know it, and I'm gonna get him back"

"Yes, we're getting Adam, whatever you do I'll be in, but you need to get some rest first" Pat said.

"We're not doing anything on our own in this dangerous place, we're calling the police and wait here" Amy said.

"Well now we're doing the right thing, we need to think then act, so yes we should call the police but I'm not sure they'd speak English so we'll probably need Salvio here" I said.

"I'll call him now" Ellie said.

I was not pleased that Ellie is the one who said that and I started feeling jealous once more but it was not the right time to complain about anything, I need to leave all my feelings behind and be as rational as I can.

When Ellie called Salvio she didn't speak too much as she didn't wanna explain what happened, she only told him that we need to see him as soon as possible so he said he won't be able to make it tonight but he'll be here early in the morning.

"So Ben hasn't come back yet, huh?" I asked.

"No, I tried to call him again a couple of times but it seems like his phone is out of service" Pat replied.

I realized that Ben's not coming back, I didn't know if I should feel bad for him as he left for feeling guilty for a mistake he never committed, I mean I remember how Manolis humiliated Patrick so Ben should have been terrified when other fellows like Manolis showed up and took Adam, I would have been helpless myself.

but another part of me was extremely furious that Ben has given up so easily without defending my little brother, how could he do that?

"I'm going to sleep, wake me up when Salvio arrives" Amy said.

"I feel too tired as well, and we have a long day tomorrow, we have to find Adam and Ben" Pat said.

"Okay then, good night guys" I said.

Ellie didn't leave my room and she kept sitting on the chair right next to my bed, I knew she was tired and she looked so sleepy but she was just there sitting without saying a single word.

"Aren't you going to sleep?" I asked her.

"Later, I need to make sure you're okay, so I'll leave when you sleep" Ellie replied.

"Don't worry about me, I'm fine but I've been sleeping for a long time so I don't expect to fall asleep soon, you should probably go back to your room to get some rest, it's been a long day for you" I said.

"I said I'm not leaving" Ellie said and she sounded angry.

Honestly I felt pleased that she insisted on staying, I didn't feel like being alone with all the thoughts I had on my mind, and what better company than Ellie can I have?

I felt awkward as we were just staying silent and I didn't know what to say but I tried to break the silence with a question so I said "I know it's been tough for you being away from Nathalie, have you talked to her for the last couple of days?"

"Yes we did, but it was not like a real conversation, she's been busy getting ready as she's travelling abroad soon" Ellie replied.

When I found that the conversation's going well I decided to keep talking about her sister so I asked:

"Where's she going?" honestly I didn't care about the answer but I just wanted to keep the conversation going with Ellie.

"She's going to Aberdeen, Scotland, she's gonna be in the same university with Salvio" Ellie replied.

"Really? so that's what you've been talking about with Salvio?" I asked.

"I see you're concerned, do you have a problem with that?" She had an evil smile on her face and she looked happy for some reason but it only got me mad.

"No, you can do whatever you want" I said, "I'm sorry if I'm bothering you with my questions"

"Well I think Salvio is a nice guy" Ellie said and her voice tone seemed angry for some reason, "he's got a good sense of humor, maybe you should spend more time with him" she seemed more relieved by the end of her phrase and she smiled at me again but I could see there's something wrong and she's trying to say something that I could not understand.

"Maybe I will, but I need to find Adam first." I replied.

That smile on her face has disappeared in no time and she said "I know little Adam will be okay, and yes we will find him"

It was about 2:00 am and we were still talking, after a while I felt like going to the bathroom and when I went back to the room I found her sleeping on the chair so I took my blanket and put it around her body and left my room to give her some privacy and went to sleep on a sofa in the living room.

The next morning I heard the door knocking, it was Salvio so he got in and I explained what happened to him so he called the police and after 10 minutes they came to our apartment, they kept asking us many questions like "When did that happen?", "how does Adam look like?, "Do we suspect anybody?" and so on, Salvio kept translating all we said and the cops told us that they will do their best to find Adam and if we had any further information we should be immediately telling them.

Honestly I thought those cops are going to be useless so even if they can help us I believed that I should be doing something to save my brother.

"Do you have Manolis's phone number?" I asked Amy.

"No, why are you asking?" Amy replied.

"Manolis said he was going to the temple of wisdom" I replied, "He's one of the men of Aghora Pravus, he must know something about Adam" I said.

"I know what you're thinking and no, there's no way I'll let you go there" Amy said.

"Amy, I won't stand here waiting for something to happen to Adam, I have to go" I said.

"What if he's dead already?" Amy yelled at me.

"He's not dead !!! and if you don't want me to go alone because you're afraid to lose me then come and join me" I said.

"That's insane" Amy said.

"Amy is right, you can't go there by yourself, that would be like suicide" Salvio said, "but if you really want to go there then I can sneak you in, but honestly I can't go inside, I don't wanna die"

"Okay then, what's your plan?" I asked.

"We can only go there when the sun goes down so it will be easier not to be seen" Salvio said.

"Ed, you're my best friend." Pat said, "If you're going there then I have to come with you"

"That'd be too risky Pat, don't worry I'll be okay" I said.

"No Ed, I'm not leaving you, we're in this together" Pat said.

"Okay then, we're leaving tonight 3 of us, Ellie please take care of my sister" I said.

"Nobody's taking care of me, you're not going anywhere out of this apartment" Amy shouted and she was extremely furious.

"I'm doing this for Adam" I said.

Amy went to her room and slammed the door, I hated to make her feel that way but I knew that this was the right thing to do.

After few hours we were ready to leave, so I went to Amy's room and knocked on the door to say goodbye to her but she refused to open the door so I stood behind the door and said:

"I love you, I'll be back and I'll bring Adam with me, I promise, till then take care of yourself and don't tell our parents anything"

Then I said goodbye to Ellie and we left the apartment but once we stepped out I told the boys to wait for me and I got back in.

With slow steps I got closer to Ellie and said "You've always been a good friend, take care of yourself for me" and I lost control over my body and I found myself less than a meter away from her and I felt that I couldn't stand still so I found myself leaning towards her body and I hugged her like I was never going to see her again, I could feel one hand holding my waist tightly and the other holding my head and going slowly down to my neck, I wanted to let go but I couldn't, I felt the warmth of her body and it felt like I've been freezing cold and I finally found a shelter.

It felt like the time has stopped for a while and all the planets rotating around the sun for millions of years also stopped to witness this indescribable moment and the whole universe is waiting for the signal from us for that bond to break down so everything can go on , it felt just right.

She took a step back and looked me in the eyes then took a step in once more and grabbed my head and she pulled my lips with hers as if she was breathing me in, for the very first time I felt that way, I felt the Adrenaline moving up inside my veins and I couldn't breath but I didn't care, I just lived a pure moment of joy and I felt that I want nothing else in this world, I felt like I'm on the top of the world, I am the happiest man alive no matter what was going on around.

She stopped kissing me but our foreheads were still touching and so were our noses and I could see a tear falling down on her cheek.

"Ed, you have to come back for me" She said.

For all those feelings I've been going through I was not able to reply but I wiped away hear tears and all I did was kissing her back going all the way down to her lips then her cheeks then down to her neck.

I could hardly stop myself but I had to go so I hugged her tightly and left as the guys were waiting for me.

We immediately moved to the station and took the bus towards temple of wisdom.

Chapter VIII

Ben

It's been a really tough night for me, I've been drowning in my feeling of guilt for letting Ed down till I reached the rock bottom. It was one of the worst feelings I've been through since my dad passed away, it felt like someone has put a knife inside my chest and I could feel the tissues around my heart being cut slowly until this sharp knife rested inside my heart.

I let my younger brother down, I betrayed him, I am the worst living person, I should be hanged, or maybe I should have been the sacrifice instead of Adam.

That night when I had to tell him that I don't have Adam I knew that I fucked up already but the way he looked at me made me wish that the ground beneath me shall crack and swallow me inside it forever, I could see the hatred in his eyes and I can't blame him.

I knew there was no way to fix things between us at that time and Ed would not accept to talk to me so I decided that the best thing is to give him some space but I couldn't stand myself so I told the guys that I'll be searching for him but in fact I decided to run away as I don't belong to this place anymore, the only reason I was staying was for Ed and since he's not here I should be with my people of Zulu.

The first thought that came to my mind is to return back to the wizard and spend the night there but when I went there all I could see is the campfire burning and few remains of food that's already been eaten and his tent was right behind the fire so I went to check if he's there but he was not.

This place was in the middle of nowhere, it was right in the middle of the woods and to get there I had to walk along a narrow muddy pathway and when I arrived there it was too dark already that the only light I got to see is the campfire and the moon light.

"My lord" I said in a deep loud voice trying to hide my fear while I was trying to find the wizard but he never showed up so I decided to stay and spend the night there as I knew it would be too dangerous to go back to the city at that time.

After a long while waiting and sitting by the campfire I decided to lay down on the ground to rest my body but suddenly I heard the sound of a wolf howling and in no time it was followed by howls of other wolves that I could not see but I could clearly hear and the sound was getting closer and closer so I broke a branch of a tree, lit it up by the campfire and got closer to the tent to defend my back from any attack.

The wolf pack showed up finally, they were about 6 or 7 wolves and I could see that they were hungry as I saw my reflection in their eyes, one of them seemed to be the leader and they were all following him, they were taking slow steps towards me and with every step they were showing their sharp teeth and angry faces as if I've killed one of them, I didn't wanna run because once I do I'll be attacked so I was holding the lit branch with both of my arms getting ready to fight them and slowly taking small steps back to the tent while facing the wolves until the wolves trapped me as the tent was right behind me and campfire behind them and there was no place to go.

We all stopped moving and their leader was only 5 meters away from me so I was waiting for him to attack me and I knew I'll be dead anyway but at least I'll get to fight and die with honor.

Suddenly the leader wolf jumped towards me so with all my strength I hit him with the branch I was holding so he fell down to the ground but he was barely hurt and all the others were ready to attack me so I had no option but to run, so I threw the branch to run faster.

Right after I started running I slipped and fell down into a dark hole in the ground that I couldn't see as I was rushing, the hole was really narrow and steep that my body could barely go through it so I kept sliding all the way down.

I heard the sound of a sword drawn from a sheath but it was too dark so I could see nothing and I felt something moving behind my back, suddenly a man showed up from behind and his sword was right in front of my neck.

"What are you doing here?" The man said.

"I just slipped and fell down here, please don't kill me" I said.

"Shame on you ! If your father was here he would have killed you himself" The man said, then he moved the sword away from my neck, I got to turn around and I could barely see his face, he was the wizard.

"I've been searching for you my lord, thank God you're here" I said.

"Stay away from me you filthy animal, I recognized your face since I saw you, your father was the chosen one to save the people of Zulu, and here comes his son, a coward that can never belong neither to Walkers -Ben's Family Name- nor to Zulu" the wizard said.

"Why are you saying that my lord?" I asked.

"You've let your people down with your weakness, but it's not just about Zulu, you also lied to me, the little kid is not one of the Walkers, he doesn't have your blood, I should have killed you instead" the wizard said.

"Hold on, what do you mean with that? I never said that the kid is my brother" I said.

"Only Walker's blood can be sacrificed in this situation" The wizard said, "Now get out of here, you don't belong here"

I got really angry and I almost cried so I said "how dare you talk to me like that, I'm the only son of the chosen one, and yes I don't belong here, I don't belong under the ground, I don't hide, I fight and I will take revenge for Zulu"

"You know nothing kid, you are not one of Zulu" The wizard said.

"Maybe I don't, but you surely know, I need your help !" I said.

"I can help you with nothing, I can't even help myself" the wizard replied.

"You can return my father back to life, can't you?" I asked.

"Deceiving God is a great sin, I can no longer help you" the wizard said.

"Then help me get out of here" I said, I knew that it'd be meaningless to stay with him and I knew that there's another wizard who escaped the day Zulu was doomed and maybe he can help me but I had no idea who he was but I knew that I could find him.

"Follow me" the wizard said, while I was following him he lit a candle so we could see the way, we walked in a dark dirty way as if we were walking in the sewage, we kept walking for about 10 minutes until he stopped and told me:

"Go this way and you'll be out of here, may God forgive you, but remember, don't you ever come back here !" then he left and I had a long way to get out of this place.

When I got out of this place it was the sunrise, I had no idea where I am but I knew I was not far from the city center as I could see the buildings so I walked towards the city.

I haven't eaten since last night so I decided to stop somewhere to get some food and find somewhere to stay.

I found a cheap hostel, it was not bad I'd say, I had to stay in a room with 7 other guys but I didn't complain as I was too tired so I decided to leave everything behind and sleep to see what I can do later.

Later after a couple of hours sleeping I heard loud noises in the room as when I got in there was nobody and I heard some loud punk music that really annoyed me but I was too tired that I couldn't open my eyes and decided to try to ignore the noise and go back to sleep so I moved my body a little bit to sleep on my side and face the wall until I felt something hitting my back so I had to check what happened so I looked the other side to find a guy who was about 25 years old looking at me and saying "Sorry bro, my bad"

I moved my head to tell him that it was okay and turned my back to him and went on trying to sleep.

I started to smell a bad odour and they music got even louder and I heard everybody laughing in the room so I got really angry but tried to keep myself under control and looked at them to find the same guy standing right next to my bed with 4 other guys who were the same age, once I looked at him they burst into laughter so I told them:

"guys please calm down, I'm trying to sleep here"

"Haven't I said sorry already, what's wrong with you man?" The guy said and he had a serious look on his face as he was trying to scare me.

"It's okay man, but as you can see I'm trying to sleep, you can celebrate outside" I said with a deep voice.

"Okay then" the guy said then he told the others to go out.

I thought I've finally become strong defeating myself and facing my problems but it was only the start of a bigger problem.

He locked the room door, took off his t-shirt, looked me in the eyes and said "You don't know who I am, do you?"

This conversation didn't go well, it was not even a conversation, the guy got closer to me and punched me on the face so I hit the wall and fell back on one of the beds.

He stood over the bed and I was right under him so he started kicking me on my belly and chest bunch of times until I was barely able to breath  then he bowed down and took a closer look at my face and said:

"I knew you since I first saw you, your blonde hair made it obvious, you piece of shit are one of the Walkers"

I kept bleeding from my nose and spitting blood from my mouth and once he was done humiliating me he turned his back walking away towards the door so with all my strength I pushed him and he fell down to the ground but it barely hurt him and made him even more furious.

He got a baseball bat from his bag and hit me hard with it on my arm that I heard the sound of my bones cracking, I fell down to the ground and I was helpless then he put his leg over my face and spit on me.

My backpack was right next to me and I had a knife that I thought I would need during camping so while he was walking away I stood once more and shouted "I'm not done with you".

"Do you want more? I thought we're done already !" he said.

He took a few steps closer and while he pushed me towards the wall, took off his belt and started strangling me with it so I got my knife and stabbed him in his neck.

The blood was streaming in all directions and he was struggling to breath making the ugliest and scariest sounds anyone could ever hear and I heard his friends knocking on the door trying to break in and I was shocked not knowing what to do.

While I was covered in his blood aching from the pain of my broken arm, I rest my head on my hand trying to think what to do and my mind was shouting:

"Did I really kill him?" I never thought of myself as a murderer, what have I become? I am a monster.

I couldn't think clearly so all I did was taking a bed sheet and wiped the blood off my face and body, grabbed my backpack, held the knife with my mouth, unlocked the door and quickly held the knife pointing it at them and said "He's dead, follow me and I'll kill you too"

They moved away so I quickly ran away back to the woods to save my life.

Chapter IX

Ed

We finally arrived to the station right before the temple of wisdom and that's where we got out as we didn't want to be spotted by any of Aghora Pravus men.

"Let's go this way" Salvio said.

Salvio looked really worried and his feelings were as contagious as measles and it infected us immediately and I could see that on Patrick's face but I did my best to hide it.

"This is the place" Salvio said, "You'll have to jump over this wall, this is the highest spot we can reach to so crossing to the other side won't be so hard"

The wall was extremely high and I got scared that if our feet slipped that means we're dead so I looked at Salvio and asked him "Are you sure there's no other way to get in?"

"The only other way is through the main gate and trust me you'll never get in that way" Salvio replied.

"So that's farewell then my friend" I said.

"I really wish you can find your brother but I have to leave you here so good luck buddy" Salvio said.

We threw our bags to the other side and started climbing and luckily we could cross to the other side of the wall without being hurt and to my surprise once we got down I saw the gray path like the one I had in my dream.

I was curious to know if by the end of this path I'll meet Adam but there was no way we could walk this path as we'd be seen by the men of Aghora Pravus once we do that so we decided to hide between the huge trees and walk parallel to the path.

"Stop, did you hear that?" Pat said.

"What? I heard nothing" I replied.

"I swear I heard someone calling me and his voice was coming out of this tree" Patrick said.

"This might be an illusion, let's go Pat" I said.

"It's calling again, how can't you hear it?" Patrick said. 

I looked everywhere around me but I could see nothing but the trees but then I heard the sound of (clip-clop-clip-clop) and I saw a horse running with a carriage attached to his back and it was walking along the path so I told Patrick to lay down on the ground and not to make any sound.

The horse stopped moving and I tried to check out what's going on but I could hardly see because I needed to stay unseen but once the door of the carriage was opened I saw a bald man getting out wearing those loose white clothes and once he got out he looked towards me, I didn't know if he saw me or not but he was about 70 meters away from us and we were hiding between the trees so I knew there was no way he could have seen us.

Unexpectedly he moved towards us and said "Edward, you're finally here, you know I've been waiting for you" once he spoke I realized it was Manolis.

I looked towards Patrick and whispered "stay down" and stood up to walk towards Manolis.

"I see you've got company, you brought that Chafehas (Fat boy) with you, I mentioned the rules previously" Manolis said, "But don't worry I got the situation under control"

I was shocked for a while but I was trying to understand so I asked him "How did you know we're here?"

Manolis looked at me with a poker face and said "Follow me, I'll explain everything on our way".

"Where are we going?" Patrick asked while we were getting in the carriage.

"You're not going anywhere, God of wisdom has sentenced you to death" Manolis said.

"WHAT DO YOU MEAN?" I shouted while looking at Patrick's terrified face.

"I got nothing to do about this, I told you I'm only a man of God and I only follow the orders." Manolis said.

"I don't wanna die" Pat said and he started crying like a baby, "Ed, please do anything about it" he looked at me and the way he did made my heart break as if he died already.

"Is there anyway we can save his life?" I asked Manolis.

"Well rules are rules, your friend knew he shouldn't be here and he still chose break the rule, but after all rules are meant to be broken" Manolis said, "God of wisdom seeks justice but he's also a merciful God"

For a while he looked away and said few words that we did not understand but it seemed that he was praying and then looked back at Patrick and said "It's your lucky day, you are not going to die today, but you'd still have to be punished"

"What's the punishment?" I asked.

Manolis didn't reply, he raised his hand as a sign for us to wait for him and he walked few steps away and went down to pick something from the ground and when he turned around we found him holding some kind of mushroom and told Pat "You have to eat this"

"What if I don't wanna eat this?" Pat asked while looking at me and I could see the fear in his eyes.

"Then I'll have to leave you here" Manolis said.

I looked at Pat and I knew that eating this mushroom is too risky but few minutes ago he was supposed to die and now if he doesn't eat it then I'll be left alone with Manolis whom I never trusted, so I said "Eat it Patrick, it's okay".

"I can't Ed" Pat said.

"Okay then I'll eat it instead" I said and took the mushroom from his hand and while I was still biting it Manolis hit my hand so I dropped the mushroom and he said:

"You're breaking the rules again, what are you doing?"

Suddenly the wind blew and the sky turned gray and everything was exactly like what I dreamed about.

"You made him angry" Manolis said, "Now get in before his anger destroys all of us"

Manolis pushed me in the carriage first then he and while he was getting in he kicked Patrick and we moved immediately. I wanted to get out but the speed of the horse was extraordinary that once we moved I couldn't see Pat there in 2 seconds, it was something like magic.

"So what happens to my friend now?" I asked.

"I don't know for sure but I don't think he's still alive anyway" Manolis said.

Manolis stretched his body to reach to the back of the carriage and he got handcuffs, gave it to me and said "You should put this on"

I don't know why but I moved my hands towards him and he tied me up.

While we were on our way I couldn't stop thinking about Amy's words to me thinking that I made a big mistake that I'll be regretting soon, or should I regret it now? I left my best friend behind, how can he survive alone? Is he even still alive? and where are we going? I started thinking about the dream I had.

"You're a smart man, do you know that?" Manolis said interrupting my thoughts.

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"Where should I start? coming to Queens' port? such a nice choice !" Manolis said.

I looked at him and I thought he's trying to make a joke out of me but his face looked so serious so once more I asked him "What do you mean? I still don't get it".

"I've seen you, I've seen what's inside of you my friend, you do believe in God, also you believe everything happens for a reason" Manolis said.

"So...?" I said.

"You came here for a reason, you met your skinny blonde friend for a reason, your brother was taken for a reason, and most of all you've answered the call of Aghora Pravus !"

I was really confused but all I cared about is Adam so I enthusiastically asked him "What do you know about my brother, do you know where he is? please tell me Manolis !"

"I don't have such information but maybe God of wisdom knows" Manolis replied.

We stopped and Manolis helped me get out of the carriage, once I got out I found my self surrounded by hundreds of men wearing those loose brown clothes and few of them were wearing white shirts like Manolis, they were all shouting something that I did not understand and how excited they were got them screaming the same words even louder over and over again saying "Eshkier Marasta Aghora Pravus"

They were surrounding me and Manolis, we were heading to a great building which looked like the temples of ancient Greeks, we had to take the stairs all the way up, the gate of the building was about meters width and 15 meters height, and the building was fixed by great pillars and was covered by a spherical roof that was made of gold and the gate was guarded by 2 huge statues holding spears and armors on their hands and they were slightly taller than the height of the gate, I've never seen such a great building, while were going upstairs I asked Manolis "What are we doing here?"

"You'll know soon" He replied.

Chapter X

Ben

It was getting dark and I'm still here in the woods aching from the intolerable pain of my broken arm and I tried to move it a little bit so all I got is more suffering.

I didn't know what to do but all I had on my mind is to find the other wizard to return my father back to life, but seriously how can I do that without being able to move properly?

I had 3 options on my mind, first is to go back to the wizard I met last night but I knew that it'd be too risky as I remembered his face when he told me to never come back again, also the way he talked to me revealed that he hated me so I won't risk my life asking him for help again as he might kill me.

Second option is to go back to our apartment hoping that Ed might forgive me for what I've done and help me heal my broken arm.

The last option I had is to just lay there in the woods hoping that someone might find and help me.

I chose to stick to the last option as my fear from being rejected by Ed has stopped me, but my long blonde hair made me easily recognizable, so I wanted to cut my hair with the knife I got but how can I do it with one hand?

I started hearing people coming towards me so I had to hide for a while because if they found me they will probably hang me, so I went deeper inside the woods until my way was blocked by a river.

Without a second thought I got in the water to hide from those men chasing me so my whole body was under water except my head and I got a big leaf to put it over my head so they won't see me.

After a while the noises stopped so I got out of water and I knew the woods ain't a safe place for me so I decided to head back to the apartment, Ed can't let me down, and even if he did then it won't be much worse than what I'm going through already.

But there's still no way I could move around with this long blonde hair without being recognized so I decided to get a lighter from my backpack which I hid behind a rock before I go down in the river and I had the worst idea anyone could ever have on their minds but it was the only way to save my life, so I set my hair on fire.

My hair was too tall that it almost reached to my shoulder so in the beginning I thought it's gonna be okay but in no time I got my face burnt so I started screaming and immediately put my head down in the river.

I'm not sure what hurts more now, is it my arm or my burnt face ! I tried to to touch my head, I could feel the skin of my scalp softened already and I could feel few hairs still left in the back of my head but when I looked at my reflection in the river I was shocked, I literally have turned into a monster, most of the layers of my skin were removed and my face has turned into bloody red color and some other parts turned into white blisters around my mouth and nose and the remaining hair turned black as coal.

I also felt my eyes burning and I couldn’t clearly see but I'd say seeing my reflection in the water was definitely what hurt me the most !

I put my head back in the water to overcome the pain, I spent few seconds thinking: "What if I keep my head under water forever? death would be better than living as a monster, I think I deserve it, maybe I've always been a monster I let my best friend down and killed his little brother, I killed a man, and I can't do the only thing I wanted, I can't return my father back to life !"

I was running out of breath slowly and that was pleasing me, when my body started floating I held a big rock in the bottom of the river to keep my head down.

Finally I blacked out, am I dead already? am I meeting my father finally? it took me only few seconds to open my eyes and see myself in a deep hole and when I looked up all I could see is the cloudy sky and a huge rock with a non-recognizable shape as it was too far up there.

But why am I here? is it gonna be lit up, am I burning in hell? I don't understand what's going on but I can't stay here, there must be a way out.

I walked all around trying to find a gate, a door , stairs, a ladder, or any way out of  this place.

Nothing at all? is this the end? No, I'm not giving up !

The whole was to big and it was like a circle so after walking for a while I found one side which was a little less steep so I decided to climb it up as it was muddy so even if I fall down I won't die, hopefully!

But I'm already dead, does this even make sense?

Anyway I climbed up and for some reason my arm was healed and I could use it. after I reached to the top I could finally see the rock and I found it to be a gray huge statue and to my surprise it had my own face !!!

"Don't be scared" The statue said.

Actually that didn't help but to make me even more terrified !

"Ben Walker, you've made some mistakes, I know you think it's time for judgement but it's not" The statue said.

"Where am I and what am I doing here?" I interrupted him while speaking.

"It doesn't matter where you are ! but "what am I doing here?" that's a good question ! you tell me" The statue said.

"I want to bring my father back to life" I said.

"No that's not what you're here for" the statue replied.

"Then...?" I asked

"You're here to walk the path, to pay for the mistakes you've done, to do what your father couldn't do" Statue replied.

Then I felt someone pushing me so I was about to fall back into the hole, I kept resisting falling, I couldn't look back to see who's doing that but that force kept pushing me so I fell back into the hole and I knew it was time for me to die but right before I touched the ground I blacked out again.

I struggled to open my eyes but I couldn’t see anything, Did the fire blind me? I felt that someone was standing right in front of me, I was laying down on the grass, completely wet and struggling to breath, I kept coughing and spitting water out of my mouth.

surprisingly I couldn't feel the pain in my arm the same way so I got really glad and thought my face was healed as well so without thinking I pushed that person out of my way to look at my reflection in the water but I was disappointed for not being able to see but I touched my face to feel it and it turned out that I am still the same ugly monster.

“Who is it?” I asked.

“It’s me Ben, I am Patrick !”

I couldn't hold my tears so I started crying silently and hiding my face away from Patrick until he asked me:

"What happened Ben, how did that happen to you?"

"It's a long story" I replied, "How did you get here? how did you find me?"

"Long story short, we went to the temple of wisdom to get Adam back, they found us, luckily I could get out alive but they have Ed." Patrick said.

Once again I fucked up ! Aghora Pravus has Ed because of a lie I've told.

"Do you know where they took him?" I asked.

"I'm not sure, but I know he's with Manolis, they guy with the white shirt !" Patrick replied.

"We have to save Ed !" I said passionately.

"There's nothing we can do now, I barely survived death today, and you can't go this way anyway, let's go back to the apartment first" Patrick said.

I felt so weak so I couldn't argue, he helped me stand and went back to the apartment.

Once we got inside Amy shouted and looked terrified as she looked at my face and said:

"What happened?"

Patrick told her that we'll talk about it later and helped me sit on the couch, Amy brought a bed sheet and tied it around my arm then around my neck and gave me a pain-killer and left me to rest.

"Where's Ed?" Amy asked.

"He's in the temple of wisdom, but don't worry he's gonna be okay" Patrick replied.

Amy didn't seem surprised as if she knew that this was gonna happen so she just sat next to me as if she wanted to do anything to help.

Chapter XI

Ellie

It's been really tough since the boys left, Amy locked herself in our room so as I was left outside I sat on the couch with many thoughts and feelings to deal with.

Did I really kiss Ed? it felt amazing, I felt like I finally drank a freezing cold cup of water of water after being lost for years in the desert, I'm finally sure that what I felt inside of me was real, the love I had for him is a mutual feeling.

I felt really happy for that but I was really mad for the fact that we wasted a lot of time pretending that we are friends, I was mad that I'm the one who to take the first step while he's the guy, things don't work that way, maybe he just kissed me out of empathy not out of love, Ed has always been nice but what if he doesn't really love me?

It's not fair to go through all those feelings, he didn't even tell me that he loved me !

I wanted to let my feelings out, I used to tell Nathalie about all my secrets but I can't call her now, she's probably asleep for the timezone difference.

After about an hour struggling with my own thoughts I finally fell asleep on the couch until I heard a phone ringing, it was not mine so it was probably Amy's, but to my surprise it wasn't , Patrick forgot his phone here.

Damn Patrick you can't be serious, the only way we can get in touch with the boys is lost now, Ed's phone got damaged few days before we came here so he never brought it to Queens' port.

What made it worse is that I found the name appearing on the screen was Mrs. Garner -Ed's mum-, I didn't know what to do so I decided to leave the phone, after a couple of minutes she was calling again so I decided to pick up.

"Hello Mrs. Garner" I said.

"Hello Patrick, why aren't you answering my calls?" Mrs. Garner said angrily.

"Sorry Mrs. Garner, Pat forgot his phone here, it's Ellie and I'm sorry about that mostly there's an issue with the signal" I said.

"Aha, that makes sense, I've been trying to call Amy many times but she never answered, tell me how's your trip?" she asked.

"It's great...." I replied

"Is Adam near? can I talk to him?" she asked.

"He's asleep now" I said and that was the first excuse that came to my mind but probably she'd call again so I need to find a better answer.

"What about Amy or Ed?" she asked.

"Amy is asleep as well,  and Ed is out with Pat bringing us some food as we're leaving tomorrow for a tour that's gonna last for a week so we need to be prepared, oh by the way the place where we're going has a poor signal so don't worry if they didn't call you or answer your calls, we'll be in touch once we return back" I said.

"Okay, thank you Ellie, send my greetings to everyone and kiss little Adam for me" she said.

"Hahaha, of course I will Mrs. Garner, goodbye" I said.

"Goodbye" She said.

I felt like I can breath again, I felt great that I didn't mess things up and we still have enough time before Ed's mother would call us again but I felt bad for lying to her.

I went back to sleep, around 7:00 am I heard the door knocking, I knew it couldn't be the guys otherwise it'd be a miracle if they brought Adam back that fast so I thought I might be hallucinating but I heard the door knocking again so I struggled to leave the couch and went to open the door. I found Salvio standing when I opened up.

"Hi Salvio, come in" I said.

He entered and sat down on a chair in the living room right next to the couch where I was sleeping and he said nothing so I had to ask him:

"Where are the guys?"

"They are in the temple of wisdom" he replied calmly.

"So what are you doing here?" I asked then I realized my question was rude somehow so I said "I mean why aren't you with them?"

"I can't be there, the temple is no place for people like me" he said.

"But you said you'll help them !" I said.

"I did, and I helped them to get in, but there's nothing more I can do and I was clear about that" he said.

His answers were driving me mad, I couldn't blame him for anything, I mean he was honest and he did all he could as he promised but his answers got me worried that we've sent Ed and Pat to hell and nothing can save them.

Also I couldn't get why he came back here instead of going back home, it made the situation really awkward for I had nothing to say and he sat there looking around.

"Do you need a hot drink? I'm making myself some coffee" I said trying to overcome that awkward silence.

"Yes please, extra sugar" He said.

I went to the kitchen to escape that awkward situation hoping that Amy might wake up to save me from this.

I started boiling the water and I heard steps coming closer towards me, I thought Amy finally woke up but I realized that if it was her she would have said hi to Salvio and I'd hear her voice so that got me even more nervous.

"Do you usually cook back home?"

I looked back to find Salvio blocking the kitchen door and smiling at me, I didn't wanna panic so I acted normally and said:

"Not really"

"That's weird, the way you're holding the spoon in your hand refers to great cook" he said.

"Holding the spoon? Haha ! Is that your idea about a good cook?" I replied sarcastically.

"Well I'm not sure, but I'm sure you are a beautiful cook" he said with a slight smile which made me even more nervous.

I wanted to put an end to this conversation as I didn't feel comfortable at all but things got even worse when he got closer and stood only 2 steps  away from me, slowly and softly he held my hand, looked in my eyes and said:

"Why are you so nervous, I'm not trying to hurt you?"

I looked at my hand so he slowly moved it away and said:

"I'm sorry if I made you feel uncomfortable" and turned his back to me moving out of the kitchen.

I felt sorry so I said: "It's okay Salvio, no need to worry about that".

"I know it was not appropriate to do this, People here in Queens' port avoid physical contact, we don't even shake hands, that's the way I was raised but it was a culture shock for me when I went to Aberdeen, I mean back there it's pretty normall to hug each other, at the beginning I didn't feel comfortable but later I got used to it" he said, "I'm a little confused about how to act now"

I felt guilty for the way I treated him so I took a step closer towards him, held his hand, touched it gently with my other hand and said:

"It's okay Salvio, we are good friends, I just don't feel comfortable when it comes to physical contact with strangers, and you're not a stranger anymore" then I smiled at him trying to make the situation better.

He smiled back at me and our conversation was interrupted when we heard a door opening so I went out of the kitchen and found Amy leaving her room so I said:

"Good morning, I'm making coffee for me and Salvio, will you need some?"

She didn't reply but she moved her head up and down as a "Yes" and went to the restroom.

Salvio went outside of the kitchen to sit on his chair in the living room and I went back to the kitchen to bring the coffee and went back to the living room waiting for Amy to join us.

"Did you sleep well last night?" Salvio asked Amy.

"Aha" she replied coldly.

"Ed and Pat got in, Salvio helped them" I said.

"I see" Amy still replied coldly.

It felt even worse than when I was alone with Salvio, the way Amy acted made everything so awkward.

"See what I found last night?" I looked at me and pointed at Patrick's phone.

Amy looked as if she was about to explode but she remained replying coldly saying:

"That was expected from Ed's dumb friend"

Salvio looked at her and said: "Don't worry they're gonna be okay !"

"Who told you I'm worried? do I seem worried to you?" Amy replied angrily.

I didn't know how to react to such attitude, I felt really bad for Amy, She's here thinking that one of her brothers already died and her other one is on his way to follow him, but at the same time I was thinking about Salvio and how mean she was to him, also I felt disappointed for not being able to keep a conversation going with her.

"Well I think we'll need to get some food for today, we can't wait here till we starve, would anyone like to join me?" I asked, I was trying to flee out of this awkward situation.

"I'll come with you !" Salvio said.

I looked towards Amy but she said she'll need to rest as I expected and I couldn't blame her, I just wanted to get her out of that bad mood but I decided to give her all the space she needed.

I went out with Salvio and once we were out he asked me where I was intending to go so I pointed at a market close to our apartment.

"No way, that's going to be too expensive, let me take you to some good grocery stores" Salvio said.

I didn't refuse as it's been a while staying in the apartment doing nothing at all and I wanted to move out of all that stress so I followed Salvio.

"So how did you get to know Ed?" I asked as we had a long way to go and I wanted to make it more entertaining.

"It was some English chatting app on my phone, I wanted to improve my English and Ed helped me with it, what about you?" Salvio said

"Childhood friends ..." I said as I didn't expect that I had to answer this question and for I was still not sure about Ed's feelings towards me, and Salvio noticed my confusion.

"I see, let's forget about Ed for a while, tell me more about you !" he said.

"Me?" I blushed and got nervous, I knew he was enjoying it from the way he was looking at me.

"Do you see anyone else around?" He said and laughed.

"I don't know what to say, maybe you can start then I'll figure out what to talk about" I said.

He started talking about himself, and shared some of the stories, he seemed to be confident and I liked that, he also made fun of himself so I realized his confidence is not out of arrogance.

He was also smart, he told me some stories about his university and how he made it to be in Aberdeen !

We finally reached our destination and he told me that he's going to bring some stuff he needed and we agreed to meet again after 20 minutes in the same place.

While I was bringing the food we needed I stopped to get some fruits and after I went inside an old store and paid for it I found some shade coming from behind and I could notice this shade is getting bigger which means that its source is getting closer, I turned around to see a huge man and all I could see from his face is a big white beard so I screamed.

"I'm sorry my friend, I didn't mean to scare you" The man said, then he looked at my face and I saw how his face seemed surprised to see mine and he said, "Oh it's you little pretty thing, where have you been?"

The surprise was mutual as I realized that this man was Frankenstein, I took a short while to know how to reply to his question and I said:

"Hello Mr. Frank, we've got some friends here who invited us to stay with them"

"That's great, hope you're enjoying your time here" he said, "But how did you get here? only locals know about those markets !"

"Yeah I've got a friend here with me, he's a local resident"

"I see, I don't wanna waste your time but if you ever needed anything call me anytime and I'll be glad to help" he gave me a card and pointed at one of the numbers telling me that it's his private number and the rest are for his camp.

Then he smiled, waved at me and left. I returned back to the place where I was supposed to meet Salvio and he was waiting for me there so he took the bags from my hands and we went on our way back to the apartment.

Chapter XII

Ed

The bells started to ring loudly once I entered that ancient building, it was even louder than the sound of the people following us.

It was too dark in the beginning and I could barely see where I'm stepping as the only light came through a tiny hole from the top of the spherical ceiling which was tens of meters away from us but shortly I heard someone speaking loudly as if he was fighting someone so all the crowds remained silent and surrounded us inside the building and I could clearly see everything as once that man called I saw mirrors turning our side from all around on the walls and the tiny light that got through the ceiling invaded the room that for its intensity and glowing I got blinded for a second and couldn't open my eyes.

Few seconds after that call I found a really tall bald man with a muscular body that seemed to be around 45-50 years old, he was wearing pants similar to the one Manolis was wearing but his shirt was different, actually it was not a shirt as much as it was piece of cloth covering few parts of the upper part of his body and he was wearing a big golden necklace with adinkra symbol which looked like two rings with open protruding ends coiled together, it represented wisdom throughout the history in some African tribes, also he had a big white beard, he was holding a golden rod in his hand, and he had a tattoo on the back of his left shoulder and neck with writings similar to the one Manolis had.

This man came in and the guys wearing white shirts followed him and they took few steps up to sit on a stage that was right in the middle of the building, That man sat right in the middle on a chair that was higher than all the others and they sat around him in the shape of "U" letter.

Manolis walked away from me to join that man, and he took the stairs up and once he arrived next to him he bowed down and kissed his hand then kissed the symbol on the necklace and sat on a chair in front of that man's chair but it was in a lower level so I could still clearly see that man behind Manolis.

That man moved his arm telling everybody to sit down, so everybody bowed down to him then Manolis said something in their language so they all sat down on the ground and I was the only one standing trying to understand what's going on.

"Sit down Edward" Manolis said in a calm deep voice.

Adinkra Symbol

I did as I was told, later the man sitting in the middle behind Manolis started talking so he said:

"God has revealed who you are to me Edward, you are a real man, a fighter and I see why you came here, I know you're searching for your little brother, aren't you?"

"Yes sir" I replied.

"I'm sorry, I've never had the chance to introduce myself to you, I am only a man of god and I'm the high priest of Aghora Pravus" The man said.

"It's my honor to meet you sir, but what can I call you?" I asked.

"I'm no sir, and you won't need to call me anything as you're not allowed to talk to me, you're only allowed to answer my calling and as you're here now that means you're only one step away from answering Aghora Pravus calling." the high priest said.

"But I don't understand what you're talking about" I replied.

A man pushed me from my back so I fell down on the ground, I didn't know why he did that but what happened next got me terrified, Manolis stared at the man who pushed me without saying a single word and 3 men stood up and took him out of the building while he was screaming.

"There are few things you need to learn about wisdom young man, first is that everything you do now has consequences later so you should be careful what you do, a man is dying today because of a single mistake, you're lucky you're still here, but you still don't know the rules and Aghora Pravus is merciful, I bet you'll be more useful alive.

Second thing you need to learn is that wisdom is all about listening rather than speaking, so for now you're not allowed to speak until you are allowed to"

I moved my head up and down to say that I agree, so he had a slight smile on his face and said:

"Aghora Pravus is calling you to be one of his servants, you have the right to accept or to refuse, you have all the time you need to think but remember what I told you about the consequences"

He raised his golden rod and the people with the white shirts got down first off the stage then Manolis got down then the high priest followed them and got out of the building.

all the crowds wearing brown shirts left later after the same man called to turn the mirrors back around and it got back to the darkness, I also got out as I didn't know what to do and I had hundreds of questions running through my mind so I needed to find Manolis.

Once I got out I found all the men wearing brown clothes but I found none of the ones wearing white including Manolis, I hopelessly asked them about Manolis knowing that they won't understand me and of course they didn't, I tried to explain using the sign language but it was in vain, I mean what'd be special about him except wearing the white shirt, they are all bald and muscular, it's like being lost in eastern Asia.

I gave up and decided to follow the others as they were all walking away and there'd be no point to stay here alone.

After about 30 minutes walking along they gray path surrounded by the huge trees not knowing where I'm going I heard Manolis calling me and he said:

"You're a bit late but I know you'll follow your heart and find your way, that's what a wise man does"

"I just followed the others" I said.

He was standing outside a big tent and obviously that's where he stayed, it was bigger than all the other ones and it was even much bigger than a house, it was slightly smaller than the ones in a circus or a festival, so he told me to come inside.

"I know you're still confused and you have many questions on your mind, you don't have to keep it to yourself, tell me and I hope I can help you with them" he said.

I never felt comfortable around him even though he never did anything to hurt us, even what he did to Pat was not wrong if we think logically, first time he was just avoiding a punch and earlier today he was following his God's orders, so far he's been helpful, I still can't trust him but at least he's not gonna hurt me, so I decided to talk to him and be careful what I ask or say, so I started by saying:

"I just want to know where my brother is, that's all"

"Well I don't have such information as I told you before, and there is no reason to lie to you, but what I can tell you is that if you become a servant of Aghora Pravus I can guarantee that Aghora Pravus will reveal the truth to you and hopefully you'll find your little brother" he said.

"A servant? why me?" I asked.

"It's an honor, Aghora Pravus doesn't call anyone to serve him, and trust me being God's servant is the best way to live your life." he said.

"How could that be?" I asked.

"That's not what a wise man would say ! but let me ask you a question, how do you want to live your life?" he asked.

I took few seconds to think then I replied: "like everyone, I want to get a nice job, earn some money, get a beautiful wife and travel during vacations around the world, just live a happy life"

"Like everyone else !" he said and stood up to walk around his huge tent and stood up next to a small opening in his tent which was supposed to be like a window, he kept looking outside and said:

"Come here and tell me what do you see?"

I came closer, looked out of that window for a while and said:

"Trees and other tents?"

"What else?" he asked.

"Uhmm, I don't know what I'm supposed to say, I see the sunset, gray path and few clouds up in the sky"

"Exactly, that's what you can see as you are standing here inside but to be able to reach out to what you saw you have to step out of this tent and go out, and your life is like a day, you'll get to enjoy for a while but the sun will go down and this day will be over, so how do you want to live? inside the tent or crossing the limits?"

I remained silent for a while not knowing what to say, I'm still not convinced with what he's saying but I didn't want to show any kind of disrespect to his logic.

"So what's the thing with the white clothes you're wearing and the tattoo behind your neck?" I asked.

"Well the tattoo means "A property of Aghora Pravus" in our language." he replied.

"What about the shirts? why are you wearing white unlike all the others wearing brown?" I asked.

"Well we're all servants of Aghora Pravus, if you've become a servant you'll need to stop acting like all the other people in the world including wearing their clothes, so you'll need to wear brown clothes like the rest of the people here." he said, "and for me I'm wearing white because I'm the son of the high priest"

"And the rest of the men wearing white are your brothers?" I asked.

"No, actually only two of them are my step brothers, the rest of them are the former high priest’s sons" he said.

"So let's say I don't want to be a servant for Aghora Pravus, what are the consequences?" I asked.

"It's simple, you have the choice to refuse but let me remind you that you're refusing worshiping the one and only true God and you're going to spend your lifetime in the tent but after it's over then the day of judgement will come and there will be no chance to confess your sins and there will be no forgiveness" he said.

"And what should I do to be his servant?" I asked.

"You should start by confessing your sins, and leave everything related to your past life behind to start your new life wearing the brown clothes, before you enter the temple you'll get to choose a wife and you'll be with her until she gets pregnant and gives you a son that will hold your name and then you'll leave her to live in the temple serving Aghora Pravus" he said.

"What happens if I never got a boy" I asked.

"You'll have to wait until you get one, otherwise you'll never be allowed to enter the temple." he said.

"And what happens to the girls?" I asked.

"Aghora Pravus has created women to please his men and satisfy their needs, so brave men like both of us would choose one of them to be holding their sons, and the rest of them belong to the high priest"

I realized why Manolis had many step brothers now, and probably he has many sisters and step sisters as well.

"So why don't you allow the women inside the temple to live with you?" I asked.

"Wisdom is meant to be for men only, women's brains ain't big enough to understand God's wisdom, as I told you they were only created to please us for a while as we're still in our tents before we cross beyond the limits" he said.

"Can I ask you one last question?" I said.

"Sure" he replied.

"I think I wanna be a servant for Aghora Pravus but I think I need some time to make up my mind and say goodbye to my past life, so am I allowed to do that?” I asked, honestly I didn't have the intention to join them but I needed to find a way to leave this place and at the same time I'd get a chance to find a way to get Adam back.

"I can not tell you what to do, of course you can go but you gotta be ready for the consequences of whatever you do related to your past life" he said.

I've already heard too much talking about the great and almighty Aghora Pravus and I've already had enough of the word  "consequences" that it was like a noise ringing to my ears endlessly and it was dark already so I decided to spend the night in the tent with Manolis after he offered that and decided to leave the next day to return back to search for Patrick and return to the girls.

Chapter XIII

Ellie

I returned back to the apartment with Salvio after we got all the groceries we needed and it was a shock once Patrick opened the door for us and we got to see Ben with his burnt face sitting on the couch where I slept last night.

"What happened?" I whispered to Patrick as I wasn't brave enough to ask Ben, I couldn't even look at his face.

"Let's not talk about it now" Pat whispered.

"Why did it take you so long?" Amy said.

I grabbed a chair to sit as far as I could from Ben as I couldn't look at his face and I said:

"Just getting what we'll need, you won't believe who I met today in the market !"

I knew that I can't ignore Ben's presence anymore so I looked towards him, smiled and said:

"Welcome back Ben, what happened?" then I looked away immediately.

"He's too tired to talk now, probably you'd need to get some rest now Ben" Patrick said.

Patrick seemed to know something that he needed to keep as a secret so I didn't like the way he acted but I choose to remain silent, Patrick helped Ben to go to their room.

"So who did you meet?" Amy asked.

"Hold on a second ! where is Ed?" I asked.

"Pat said he's in the temple of wisdom" she said, "I'm pretty sure he's okay, and I know he's gonna bring Adam back, he promised me"

"Yes, I believe he will" I said so as I didn't know what else I'm supposed to say even though I didn't truly believe in what she said but that's all I could hope for !

"So who did you meet?" She asked me again.

"I met Frankenstein, the camp owner, he offered to help me with anything I needed, he's such a nice man" I said.

"Aha..." Amy said as if she was asking me to keep on talking.

"Maybe he can help us find little Adam" I said.

"I don't think telling a stranger such information is a good idea, how can he help us with such a thing anyway?" Amy asked.

"I don't know but I know that we got nothing to lose" I said.

Amy didn't seem to be pleased with the idea so she said:

"I'll go check on Ben, feel free to do whatever you want, just take care of yourself"

It was obvious that she refused to let me go but I think she didn't wanna argue and she didn't wanna lose control on herself again as she was trying to keep her shit together so that's why she acted that way.

It was a bit weird because Salvio was silently standing there not engaging in the conversation, I knew he'd be the only one joining me if I decided to go meet Frankenstein as Patrick was being weird and Amy have been through too much already that she had no energy to do anything and she was clear about it so I looked towards him and said:
"Shall we go?"

Without hesitation he replied: "Yes, let's go"

We walked towards the bus station which was not far from our apartment and waited there to find an old rusty bus coming towards us so got in, after we sat on our seats and stayed silent for a while watching the road Salvio looked towards me and said:
"Ellie, I know it's not the right time but can I tell you something?"

"Sure" I replied being driven by my curiosity.

"I think you're .... , uhhhh. how to say this? you know what, never mind" he said.

My curiosity grew even bigger than it was and I said:
"Please say what you got"

"It's not a big deal, I just thought that you should know that you've got the most beautiful eyes I've ever seen, and I love your haircut, you look perfect under the sunlight, I mean I wish you could see what I see" he said.

I laughed then blushed, I was surprised that he really told me that, that was one of the nicest things I've ever been told but I was not expecting it to be from Salvio, I barely knew him but that feeling he made me feel was so overwhelming, then after a couple of seconds not knowing how to react I said:
"Thank you Salvio"

"Never mention it, so why do you want to meet this old man anyway?" he said.

"I was hoping that he could help us find Adam and Ed" I said.

"Yeah I hope so too" he said coldly with a fake smile on his face.

I didn't like how he reacted to this but at least he's trying to help me now and he's been really nice so far so I tried to kick this idea out of my mind.

After a while we arrived to the camp and we met a guy so we asked him where Frankenstein is and he pointed towards a lake and saying some words that I didn't understand but obviously he understood what I said or at least when he heard "Mr. Frank" so we went along the way he pointed and we could see the huge old man waving at us then he said:
"I didn't expect you to come that soon but that's such a lovely surprise, will you need a room?"

"Hello Mr. Frank, unfortunately we won't be able to stay here for a long time but we actually came here to see you" I said.

"No problem my little friend, the camp is yours to visit anytime you want and I'm here to help you with whatever you want" Frankenstein said.

"That's so kind of you" I said and smiled at him, "I heard that there's a temple nearby called temple of wisdom, do you know how we can go there?" I asked.

Frankenstein got a bit nervous and confused, he took a while and carefully said:
"Why do you want to go there?"

"I just wanted to go sightseeing with some friends and I thought you can help us as you offered" I said.

"I see, but actually there's no strangers allowed to get inside the temple" he said.

"Why not?" I asked.

For the first time Frankenstein turned from the person with the friendly attitude into a scary looking person as he stood up and had that serious look on his face and said with a deep angry voice:
"Why do you want to go there?"

"Our friend was taken by Aghora Pravus, we need to save him" Salvio said.

Frankenstein looked towards Salvio then looked at me with the same serious look on his face and said:
"I should have known" he said and started walking around, "So you need me to help you with that, huh?"

I moved my head up and down.

"Okay, first we need to find a quieter place away from people to talk, follow me" Frankenstein said.

We kept walking by the lake for a couple of minutes until we found a fishing boat and Frankenstein told us to get in, I didn't want to keep going but I just did for a reason that I never knew.

We started moving towards the other side of the lake, we stopped and we kept walking between trees hearing the sound of the wind touching the leaves of the trees and some other noises that we didn't recognize, it might have been some wild animals which is dangerous but at least it was not footsteps of someone following us but it didn't make anything better for me, I was still terrified.

"I know this place" Salvio whispered in my ears.

"Where are we?" I whispered.

"We're few minutes away from the temple of wisdom" Frankenstein said, "They won't ever follow us here"

"Who would follow us?" I asked.

"Men of Aghora Pravus" Frankenstein said.

"Why?" I asked

"That's what they do, specially if you are foreigners, but it doesn't matter it's not just about you, I'm not safe to be around anyone" He said and he looked worried.

"Why are you saying that Mr. Frank?" I asked.

"I think you’d rather say Frankenstein, I got used to it, or whatever you’d like to say my friend..." he said, "That's not even my real name"

"So what's your name sir?" Salvio asked.

"My real name is Puntos Khagalio but I had to change my name to be Frank, people called me Frankenstein for what happened to me, I bet someone has told you about it" he said.

"Actually I know nothing about it" I said.

"Probably you've heard about the judgement day, it was long time ago when Aghora Pravus men invaded Queens' port and burnt every living man in Zulu, I made it out alive and I wish I never did..." Frankenstein said then he looked away, his voice was shaking and he was trying his best not to cry.

I looked towards Salvio not knowing what to say to Frankenstein, I felt like hugging his big body or doing anything to comfort him but I couldn't.

"I was supposed to protect my people, I was supposed to protect my family, but I chose to run away like a coward and left them behind, I left my wife and 2 daughters to be slaughtered like animals and I was hiding, I wish they hanged me that day instead of having to live this way, here I am and I have turned into another man, Puntos Khagalio died long time ago" Frankenstein said.

"So you are the wizard?" Salvio said.

"I'm no wizard, I am just a liar, I wanted my family to have a good life so the only way to get our needs was to pretend having the magical power given to me by the great God of Zulu, but of course it was just some old tricks with flames and other stuff and for people's ignorance they believed me." Frankenstein said.

"So how can you help us Mr. Frankenstein?" I asked.

"I've already did, I brought you here to show you the wall surrounding the temple, if you're thinking about crossing then you're committing suicide, if you're smart enough you'd know that the only way is to make peace with Aghora Pravus and to avoid them until you get to leave Queens' Port like I did, I mean here I am living peacefully in my camp with some nice people, what else would I need?"

"But our friends have already crossed to the other side" Salvio said.

"Okay then go ahead and cross to the other side, good luck with that !" Frankenstein said.

"It's getting late Salvio, I think it's time for us to return back home" I said while looking towards Salvio as there was no point for us to stay any longer, "Thank you Mr. Frankenstein for your help"

"Don't do stupid stuff my little friend, stay alive as long as you can" Frankenstein said.

Frankenstein showed us a way between those big trees and told us it's a shortcut to the nearest bus station, while we were halfway he told us to walk along a path and he'd have to return the other way.

After about 10 minutes of walking alone with Salvio trying to get out of this place I started to hear a quiet voice calling my name.

"Did you hear that?" I asked.

"Heard what?" he replied.

"That voice" I said, while I was saying that I heard it calling even louder and I felt a weight being put on my eyelids.

"Ellie, Ellie, Ellie..."

I couldn't see anything for a while and I kept calling Salvio loudly hoping that he can help me but it was all in vain.

I opened my eyes to find myself at the same place where I saw the gray paths, the big statue, surrounded by the big trees, everything was the same except that the hole surrounding the statue was getting way deeper and wider.

"Ellie..."

"Who is it?" I said.

Nobody replied but I saw a tall girl with long brown hair and once I saw her I realized that she was Nathalie even though I didn't get to see her face.

"Nathalie, what are you doing here?" I asked.

She didn't reply, she kept walking towards the statue, I kept following her but for some reason I was way slower than her so I couldn't catch up with her.

"Nathalie, wait for me" I yelled.

She kept walking and walking towards the statue until her way was blocked with the big hole in the ground surrounding the statue, she stopped for a while then looked back at me.

"Why aren't you replying to me?" I yelled again as she was still far away from where I was.

She looked back, smiled and waved at me and jumped into the hole !

I was shocked and I ran quickly towards the hole while shouting: "Nathalie, Nathalie...." and to my surprise when I looked into the hole she was not there.

I kept calling her name tens of times while crying and not knowing what to do.

For some reason I looked up towards the statue and I was shocked to see that it’s got Nathalie's face.

"Ellie, Ellie..."

I opened my eyes to see Salvio's face, he was holding my head gently while I was laying on the ground.

"What happened?" Salvio asked.

"I don't know !" I said.

"Who is Nathalie?" he asked.

"She's my sister, I saw her !" I said.

"We should probably leave, it's not safe here" he said.

Salvio helped me stand and we kept walking between the trees until we heard footsteps following us, it kept getting closer and we kept walking quicker and quicker trying to avoid whoever is following us.

"Patrick, Patrick..."

I immediately stopped and shouted;

"ED !!!"

I ran towards him, hugged him and said;
"I'm glad you made it"

Ed didn't show much emotions, instead of that he asked me:
"What are you doing here?"

"It's a long story, let's go home now and we'll talk about it later" I said.

"I lost Pat !" he said.

"Pat made it back home, no need to worry about anything, let's just go !" I said.

I could clearly see that there was something wrong with Ed, he didn't care about my presence, he was cold as ice and he barely talked, I was too tired to talk so we kept walking silently until we finally reached to the bus station and we got back to the apartment.

Chapter XIV

Ed

"Love of my life, you've hurt me
You've broken my heart and now you leave me
Love of my life, can't you see?
Bring it back, bring it back
Don't take it away from me, because you don't know
What it means to me”

Those were the lyrics of an old song I was playing over and over again when we got on the bus, I just felt betrayed when I saw Ellie with Salvio, I've previously noticed the way he was looking at her and the way she was laughing at everything he said whenever they were all together and totally ignoring me like I don't even exist, in the past few days I tried to get rid of those thoughts no matter how hard it seemed but I kept convincing myself that there can't be anything going on between them, also I shouldn't feel that way towards Ellie, we're just friends.

But since we kissed I knew that we're not friends anymore, our bond has grown bigger and the way we feel towards each other is clear now, so why is she with Salvio now and what were they doing?

I was curious to know this long story but I decided not to ask again while we're having Salvio around.

The bus finally arrived to our station and we got out, before we got inside the apartment Ellie stopped and said:

"Ben is back"

I could clearly see that she was worried that I would start a fight with him but unlike what she thought I seemed so calm and not caring about what she said.

Then she said:

"He's badly hurt, his face got burnt and he lost his sight"

I don't know if she told me that trying to make me show some sympathy towards him, to calm the storm of anger she thought I had inside of me or to tell me that as a kind of information that I'm missing.

I looked at her not knowing what to say so I bluntly said:

"Okay"

*Knock knock*

This sound was a trigger to a thought I tried to avoid which is seeing Amy's face after knowing that I'm back without Adam, what should I tell her? Did I really do all I could to get Adam back or I was distracted by what I saw in the temple of wisdom or was it Manolis's words to me about choices and consequences? or seeing Ellie with Salvio?

Seriously what am I doing, I felt like disappearing, too many things I should do and I've done nothing at all, I'm not letting anyone down but myself.

"Ed, I'm glad you're back" Patrick said and strongly pulled me into the apartment.

"Thanks Pat, I'm glad you could make it too" I said.

"What happened buddy? did you find Adam?" Patrick said.

"No, but I will find him soon, it's just a matter of time." I said

"Is everything okay man?" Patrick looked me in the eyes and quietly said so.

"Everything will be okay, don't worry about me big buddy" I replied.

Meanwhile Amy rushed out of her room towards me, hugged me tightly and I gently touched her head brushing her hair then she looked at me and said:

"Thank God you're back"

"I promised you" I replied.

"Tell me you knew anything about Adam" she said passionately.

"I saw him and he's okay, but I can't get him back now, but I promise it will be soon" I said.

I had to lie to her to make her feel better, but in fact it was not a lie, I know I will bring him back because there are no other options and actually I saw him in that vision so I know he's alive but I still don't know his place which will be easy to find if I got to convince Manolis to help me as there was no way I'd ask Salvio to help me again, if only I could kick him out of the apartment I would definitely do that without hesitation, I don't trust him anymore, that fucker is trying to steal my girl.

"Why didn't you bring him now? Amy asked.

"I told you I will get him back !!!" I said furiously, I don't know why I got this angry but I tried to calm myself down, then I said "Sorry, I'm just too tired"

Amy didn't reply to me but her reaction was just being calm knowing that I'm going through too much stress.

"Ben is here, you should probably talk to him Ed" Patrick said.

"No you should get some rest first and later you'll have all the time to talk to him" Amy said strictly

I didn't reply to any of them I walked towards our room and opened the door to find Ben lying on the bed, he looked towards me and his face showed that he was terrified.

"I know you're mad and you should..." Ben said.

"Shhhh, don't say a word" I said.

"We need to talk Ed" he said.

"We will..." I said, I closed the door and locked it, and took slow steps towards him, once I saw his arm tied to his neck I realized that it was injured so I held his hand gently then said "I see your arm is injured what happened?"

"Don't worry about me, it's not a big deal" he said.

"Ed, please open the door" Amy said while knocking at the door.

I didn't reply to Amy and she kept knocking and talking over and over again and this noise was increasing my anger, I needed to stay focused on my conversation with Ben.

"Oh Ben, I'm not worried at all, but you know what? let's make it a big deal" I said and I squeezed his arm fiercely so he started shouting from the pain.

"ED !!! OPEN THE FREAKING DOOR" Amy shouted.

"You know what I can't stand? I can't stand cheating, it hurts me so much as you get to trust someone with everything you got and they'd still choose to let you down by their own free well" I said

"I deserve it, I won't argue with you, but please listen to me first then you can do whatever you wanna do with me" Ben said.

"I don't wanna listen to any of your shit, and yes you deserve death !" I said and held his neck with both of my hands and started to strangle him.

In no time Salvio broke the door and got in, he pushed me away so Ben could hardly breath again.

All my anger to take revenge from Ben has turned to be a chance to take Salvio down, I ran towards him but he moved in order to avoid me, the girls were shouting saying "STOP..., STOOOP" but I finally could push Salvio so he fell down to the ground and I started punching him endlessly until I got a strike on the back of my head, it was my best friend hitting me, it was Patrick !!! I looked towards him while I was down on the ground, I felt betrayed one more time, for the guy I would have died for in the temple of wisdom defending some stranger and the guy who took my brother, I wanted to blame him but for the strike was so strong I blacked out in no time.

"What are you trying to do?"

"Who is it?" I said and couldn't see anything, everything was still black.

"It doesn't matter who I am, what matters is who you are !"

I started to see with a blurry vision, I was facing that big statue one more time, I tried to look at his face thinking it was Adam again, it looked so much like him but it was not him, I didn't know who is that but I couldn't.

"What do you want from me? why am I here?" I asked.

"I want you to be wise, to think before you act so you won't regret the consequences of what you're doing, and I can't tell you why you're here, you're the only one who knows that"

For God's sake, the same shitty talk about consequences comes again, is it Manolis hypnotizing me or using magic to control over my mind? I don't understand what's going on but I am just sick of this whole thing.

"What's the point of all of this? why aren't you straight to the point? why do we always have to play games instead of telling the truth?" I said.

"Only a wise man would have the answers, you still need some time"

In blink of an eye I found my self laying on my bed and I saw Pat and Amy sitting right next to me, Amy said:
"How are you feeling now?"

"I'm sorry pal, I had to do this, don't be mad at me" Pat said.

"I'm okay, everything's okay, where are all the others?" I said.

"Salvio took Ben to his apartment" Pat said.

"Where's Ellie?" I asked.

"She went with them, she said that someone has to take care of Ben, she'll be back soon anyway" Patrick said.

Amy kept giving me that look as if she wanted to blame me for my actions, I know I've lost control but I'm losing my mind since we lost Adam so I kept avoiding looking towards her and didn't say anything.

"How long have I lost consciousness?" I asked Patrick.

"It's been about 3 hours" Pat replied.

After about 30 minutes Ellie returned back and she looked so angry and she didn't even ask me how I feel, I didn't feel like doing any efforts to fix things with her as I was already mad at her, I knew she never cared that much about Ben, it was all about Salvio, I really don't get what she's trying to do, one day she kisses me and the next day she leaves me behind like I never existed? that doesn't make any sense to me.

No matter how much I didn't feel like talking to her but I knew that's what's supposed to be done so I went to her room and said:

"I think we need to talk"

"I have nothing to say..." she replied.

"Okay then, can you listen to me?" I said.

"aha" she replied coldly

"I don't feel like talking here, can we go out?" I asked, "I don't Amy or Pat to hear me"

"Yeah, whatever you want..."

We got out of Ellie's room and while we were getting out of the apartment Amy said:
"You're not going anywhere, you're gonna stay here"

"Amy, we're just going for a walk" I said.

"I know what you got on your mind, there's no way you're going to Salvio's place" Amy said.

"I told you we're just going for a walk, calm down !" I said.

Ellie looked at her and moved her head up and down as a kind of approval to what I'm saying just to comfort Amy.

Chapter XV

Ellie

We kept walking around for a while and it's been 5 minutes already and we're still walking silently so I started to get pissed off waiting for Ed to say anything.

"Are we gonna spend our lifetime walking?" I said.

"Why are you acting like this?" Ed said.

"You tell me why you're acting that way !" I said.

"In case you can't see I'm going through too much, and instead of supporting me you're blaming me for the way I act? what are you expecting me to do?" Ed said.

"I am expecting you to grow up and stop acting like a child, every time you have a problem you choose to run away" I said.

"Seriously? I don't get you Ellie, I lost my brother here and all I'm doing ever since is facing everything trying to find him" Ed said.

"Good for you" I said.

"You know what? I don't accept the way you're talking to me" Ed said.

"Great, what do you want me to say?" I said

"Tell me the truth, is there anything going on between you and Salvio?" Ed asked.

I felt the blood being pumped up through my veins and I felt like breaking something so bad but instead of getting furious I just laughed sarcastically and said:

"What do you think Ed?"

"I don't know, you tell me !" Ed said.

"Yes, I like him" I said, in fact I just liked him as a good friend but for the question was too dumb I wanted to provoke him with my answer.

"I see..." Ed said, he looked so mad but he didn't say anything, that's what I hated, I wish he could show his emotions and fight with me instead of just giving up on me.

"Is there anything else you wanna say?" I asked.

"No, let's go back home" he said.

My eyes started tearing and I hated to make Ed see me cry, no matter how much I felt like fighting with him but I chose to stop myself, then I said:
"I won't go home with you, I gotta go take care of Ben"

"Whatever you want Ellie" he said coldly.

I turned my back upon him and slowly walked away wishing that he'd stop me or do anything to fix things between us, to prove his love for me was real for he hasn't done anything to ensure that what we had was true.

I couldn't hold my tears, I felt my heart breaking inside as if it was like a cup of glass falling down to the ground breaking into million pieces, or maybe it was even worse, I wish it was broken already, in the past one way to torture criminals was to tie their legs to a buffalo or a horse and their arms to another one and they would start hitting the buffalos so they would move in opposite directions and they won't stop unless the criminal's body is cut into two halves, that's what Ed has done to my heart.

I finally arrived back to Salvio’s apartment, I wiped my tears and tried to hide my feelings but once Salvio opened the door for me he noticed that there was something wrong with me so he kept asking me what’s wrong, I didn’t feel like talking about anything so I said:
“I’m okay, how’s Ben feeling now?”

“Ben is fine, he’s in my room resting , but you’re not, and you have to tell me what’s wrong with you !” Salvio said.

“I don’t feel like talking now” I said.

“Well I respect your desire but I can’t leave you that way, I know that letting things out will make you feel better so please don’t keep things inside of you”

“It’s just silly, I had a fight with Ed”

“It’s not silly, tell me about it” he said.

“I don’t know why he’s acting like this, I know that losing his brother has affected him and I appreciate that he’s under too much stress but he’s just being too mean to me” I said.

“Well I don’t know what’s going on between you, but all I know is that you don’t deserve this.

“Ellie, you’re a beautiful girl, if he doesn’t know how to treat you right then he doesn’t deserve you in his life, just forget about him” he said.

“You’re right” I said.

“Let me tell you something, I have not known you for a long time, I’ve been hesitating to tell you this but since I saw you for the very first time I knew you’re different, you’re not like any other girl I met before, you’re smart and beautiful as I told you before, your beauty is just irresistable, I think I love you Ellie, I’ve been feeling like this for a long time but I know I should take it slow just to make sure if my love is true for you or if it’s just affection, I can’t say I’m 100 percent sure but all I know is that I can’t let you go without telling you how I feel towards you, I decided to this yesterday, when you fainted in the woods I felt afraid to lose you, I knew I’d do whatever it takes to keep you safe, I know you might not be ready for what I’m saying but I know that I can’t stop myself from telling you how I feel towards you.

We only live once and for this I wanna spend this life with you” Salvio said.

I was really confused, I didn’t know what to say, I felt really happy that someone feels that way towards me, but I really wished Ed would have said that instead.

“It’s just a cute thing to say this Salvio, I appreciate your sweet words and feelings towards me, you’re a good guy but I think I need some time...” I said.

“I’m not asking you to do or to say anything now, I just wanted to tell you how I feel, I can’t make you feel the same way towards me but I just want you to know that I love you” he said.

“Well I gotta go check on Ben” I said.

“Sure, let’s go” he said.

Once we got in Ben moved his body from laying on the bed to sitting on it and said:

“Ellie , I’m glad you’re back, tell me how’s Ed?”

“He’s okay, how are you feeling now?” I said

“I’m okay, can you call Amy for me? I need to talk to Ed” Ben said.

“Yes, sure” I said and gave him my phone, he weakly stood and got out of the room and kept talking for a while, we couldn’t hear what he said but he came back after a couple of minutes, he looked pretty calm which indicated that everything was okay and that made me feel good but I still had to ask him about it.

“They wanted to come but I don’t wanna disturb everyone hear, so propably I’ll be leaving tomorrow back the apartment, Ed’s calm now and we got everything under control”.

“I don’t think going alone would be a good idea, I think we should join you” Salvio said.

“No it’s okay, don’t worry man, I told you I got everything under control” Ben said.

Salvio looked towards me and stayed quiet for a while then said:
“Okay whatever you want”.

I didn’t know if I should go with Ben or to stay here, if I chose to go with Ben then I’d have to see Ed and I really didn’t wanna see him, it’d be so awkward, and if I stayed with Salvio it’d still be awkward as he just told me how he feels towards me and if I stayed it’d be like giving him space to go further or like approving our relationship as I chose to be with him over my friends.

I’ll stay and let’s not think too much about it.

 

 

 

Chapter XVI

Ben

I woke up early in the morning to go back to the apartment and meet Ed.

I could barely see everything was so blurry, I didn't want to interrupt Salvio's sleep but while I was leaving Salvio's mum got back, she had the same brown skin, she was a relatively short woman, and she didn't know a single word of English except Hello and that's what she said once she saw me.

I've been told by Salvio last night that they had some kind of family gathering and that's why there was nobody at home, He told us a little bit about his family and that's how I knew that he had 2 older brothers, one of them was living abroad long ago with his wife and kids and the other one is still here taking care of his father's business which was about trading furniture and related stuff, seeing his mother back home was unexpected as he told us that they won't be back before a week.

Anyway back to his mum, she was a kind woman from Dominican republic and that's why she could only speak Spanish and Swahili which was the mother tongue in Queens' port.

She came closer to me and I could see sympathy on her face and she said Ben and other stuff that I didn't understand, I realized that she probably knew my name as Salvio must have told her about us ! I didn't understand what she said even though I knew a little bit of Swahili because of my father and I was studying Spanish back in school, I didn't know what to say so I smiled at her.

Then she held my face and she looked straight into my eyes and her face turned from sympathy to anger and started yelling so both Salvio and Ellie woke up, I didn't understand what was going on but I realized that it was mostly because she realized that I'm one of the Walkers even though my face was completely burnt and I was almost completely bald so how could she recognize me without my blonde hair?

"Mama, nini tatizo?" Salvio said                         

*What's wrong mum?*

"Ndio yeye" she said.                                           

*That's him*

"Najua hilo,hakuna haja ya kuwa na wasiwasi" Salvio said.   

*I know that, no need to worry*

"anafanya nini ndani ya nyumba yetu" she said.   

*what is he doing in our house?*

"utulivu, nitafafanua baadaye" Salvio said.           

*calm down, I'll explain later*

"What's wrong Salvio?" Ellie asked.

"My mum thought he was stealing our house, she wasn't expecting guests, my bad, no need to worry I explained everything to her" Salvio said, "I'm sorry about that Ben"

I knew that he was lying to me as she knew my name and his body language was supporting what I'm thinking, I didn't wanna waste time with him as it doesn't matter if I trust him now or not, he helped me and that was kind of him but our relationship will be over once I leave this house, but I realized I shouldn't leave Ellie alone with him so I said:
"It's okay, misunderstandings like this happen all the time, I think I should probably leave, but for a second thought I realized that I'm too weak to go this distance all alone, can you join me please? I don't trust my legs"

Salvio made a wise decision by being patient without saying a word waiting for Ellie to reply as I knew he didn't really care about me as much as he cared about Ellie, so we both kept looking towards her waiting for her reply until she said:
"I don't feel okay, I think I'm getting sick, I'd rather stay here for a while to get some rest and mostly I'll come to see you later"

"Ellie, I really need your help, please come with me" I said.

"I think Salvio can help about that" Ellie said.

"I'd love to help but I can't leave you here alone while you're sick like that, mum won't be staying for too long here and even if you needed her help she won't understand you" Salvio said, and that proved my point.

"Okay then, I'll go now, see you later and take care of yourselves" I said and left immediately.

I arrived back to the apartment after a while and once I knocked on the door Ed opened for me, his face looked serious and he didn't say anything but he moved to leave me some space to get in, Amy and Pat were sitting there and they asked me how I'm feeling now, everything was fine until we started getting straight to the conversation we couldn't have before.

"I know you're mad at me Ed, you should be but we needed to talk so please listen to me" I said.

"Where is Ellie? you lost her as well?" Ed said sarcastically.

"No, she's with at Salvio's place, she's not feeling well that's why she didn't come, but she said she'll come back later" I said.

Everyone could clearly notice that Ed got angry but instead of showing his anger he calmly said:

"What do you have to say?"

"It was all my fault losing Adam, but I think I know where we can find him" I said.

"Are you messing with me? do you think I'm stupid? you come here defending yourself by such a lie? if you knew his place then why didn't you bring him yourself?" Ed asked.

"I never said I knew his place, and if you'd give me a chance to explain then you'd understand" I said.

"Go ahead" he said.

I kept telling him all the story about why we came here at the first place as I was seeking getting my father back to life as the men of Aghora Pravus killed him and explained that the only way was to reach to the wizards of Zulu, the only thing I lied about was not telling him that I met the wizard, instead of that I said that men of Aghora Pravus recognized him and they were trying to kidnap both of us, I survived but I could never save Adam, but here I am now asking for forgiveness and I'll do whatever it takes to get him back.

"So where do you think they have him, I was in the temple of wisdom already and I met the priest himself and he told that they don't have him" Ed said.

"Of course he said so, do you expect him to tell you that they have him?" I said.

"Then what do you think we should do now?" he asked.

"There's no way we can get inside the temple of wisdom, so I'm thinking we should find any of wizards of Zulu, they can help us" I said, I knew it's pointless as the wizard told not to see him again but I was thinking of it as a way to prove that I really want to help until my father gets back to life.

"Actually I can go inside the temple of wisdom, if your words are true I will find him there but if you're lying to me then I'd bury you alive" Ed said.

"Ed, that'd be too dangerous, I don't think that's a good idea" I said.

"I don't care what you think" Ed said.

"Ed, stop acting like a fool, Pat told me what you faced there, you guys were about to die there" Amy said.

"And I'm here now which means I didn't die" Ed replied, "Are you coming with me or not?" he said while looking towards me.

"If men of Aghora Pravus saw me they would kill me, just look at my face Ed, I don't this to happen to you" I said.

"Okay then I'm going alone." he said.

"Well I can't be useless, I'd still go try to find the wizard and I'm sure this would help us" I said and this time I was not lying, I mean my father is still not back to life so Adam might be alive and if it's like then there must be another way to get my father back to life.

Chapter XVII

Ed

I decided to give it a shot and go again to the temple of wisdom hoping that Ben is not lying to me, according to what he said I think he had no reason to lie.

I knew that the only way they would let me in is by accepting to be a servant to Aghora Pravus, so once I arrived the guards stopped me, I tried to explain why I am coming but once I mentioned Manolis's name they let me in even though they didn't understand what I'm saying.

I headed towards Manolis's tent, he greeted me and said:

"I'm glad you're back, I hope you've decided what to do !" he said.

"Yes, I just needed some time, but now I'm sure I wanna be a servant of Aghora Pravus" I said.

"That's great, but tell me what has changed your mind, I mean why do you want to be a servant of Aghora Pravus?"

"Remember the window? I think I stepped out away from where I was standing and now I can see things clearly" I said.

"Hahaha, that's what a wise man would say !" he said, "Look at me Edward ! what do you see?" he said.

"What do you want me to say? I don't understand your question" I said.

"Wrong answer, but it's okay you'll learn, anyway we need to go to see the high priest to tell him that great news and start the ritual celebration of making you a servant" he said.

We walked out of the tent and Manolis's carriage was waiting for us outside so we got in and we moved towards the south, that was where the high priest stayed.

When we got out of the carriage I saw a tent which was about 5 times bigger than Manolis's, there were few guards surrounding the tent and once we got in I saw tens of women and young ladies and little girls, Manolis talked to one of them and she said something and pointed to a room so we walked that way and Manolis told me to stop right in front of the room, we kept waiting for about 5 minutes then the high priest came out.

"I heard the news, so you are sure you want to be a servant of Aghora Pravus?" The priest said.

"I do" I said.

"Okay then, let's proceed" he said, "Manolis, take him to the temple now"

We got back in the carriage and we left, I thought the building where we went last time was the temple but I realized that the temple was even bigger and fancier than that building we were in.

To my surprise I found that the place near the temple was exactly the same I saw when I blacked out and in my dream, I saw the huge statue of the man with no head and his face was unclear and had no recognizable features.

I felt my heart beating so fast and I knew I was so close to finding Adam finally but I needed to keep my shit together not to make any mistake.

"Take off your clothes" Manolis said.

"Why?" I asked.

"You have to be washed away from your sins" he said.

"And what's gonna happen next?" I asked.

"Don't ask too many questions, you'll see, the high priest will be here soon"

I took off my clothes and Manolis pointed at a water fountain, a man wearing brown had a piece of sponge in his hand and a bottle of some aromatic oil in his other hand and he started showering me.

Once that man was done the priest arrived and he said: "It's time"

The man who was showering me gave me clothes similar to what he was wearing except that it was black, that man left us, and Manolis told me to follow him and we got inside the temple.

It was sunset already so it was getting dark so one of the men wearing white clothes who came with the high priest brought a burning rod and he put it in a stand in the middle of the temple then the high priest said:

"Come here son, I need to stand right on this spot"

I stood where he told me, he had a book in his hand and a bowl in the other hand, he started reading from that book with a deep voice, he said some words in Swahili and after he finished he told me to repeat the following words after him.

"Lord of all, God of Wisdom, may you fill us with your wisdom eternally" he said. 

"Lord of all, God of Wisdom, may you fill us with your wisdom eternally" I repeated.

The priest put his had inside the bowl and took out some ashes and started putting it upon my chest.

"May our forgiveness be granted for we've been ignorant and we've mistaken, we don't deserve your mercy but for your generosity we stand here and ask"

"May our forgiveness be granted for we've been ignorant and we've mistaken, we don't deserve your mercy but for your generosity we stand here and ask"

Once again he took out ashes and put it on my shoulders.

"May your light penetrate our limited minds and lead us to grow in the knowledge and wisdom"

"May your light penetrate our limited minds and lead us to grow in the knowledge and wisdom"

Then he puts the ashes on my head.

"May this life be yours forever our almighty God Aghora Pravus"

"May this life be yours forever our almighty God Aghora Pravus"

After I finished saying this all the men wearing the white clothes said in one voice:

"Eshkier Marasta Aghora Pravus

Eshkier Marasta Aghora Pravus

Eshkier Marasta Aghora Pravus"

"Congratulations Edward, you've only got one last thing left to do, you need an heir and someone to carry your legacy, it's time to get married and once you get a son you can become a completely obedient servant for Aghora Pravus" The high priest said, "For now come with me"

When we got out of the temple Manolis left alone in his carriage and there were many other ones enough for all the people wearing white clothes but I moved with the high priest.

We got back to his fancy tent, there was a feast for us, there was too much food and too many drinks for us, we sat all together -me and the men with the white clothes- and started eating.

When we finished our food the high priest stood up, raised a glass and said:

"Tonight Aghora Pravus gave us a new brother to join our big family, this is not a time for an eloquent speech but we're gathered here to thank Aghora Pravus for all his generous offerings to us.

For now it's time for you to pick a wife, you don't have to take much time to think for this time there will be no consequences for your choice" he laughed, then he clapped his hands twice and immediately all the women in his tent got out of their rooms and they made 3 parallel lines.

The high priest walked towards them and said:
"you can choose any girl you like from the ones standing here, most of them are my daughters, sisters of those brave men or their daughters" he was pointing at the first line, then he moved to the second line and said: "Those are the wives of those devoted men sitting here with us, they can't live with the rest of the people as they are purer than the rest of the public" then he moved towards third line, there were only 8 women standing there, he said: "Those are a personal property, unfortunately you can't pick any of them as they are my wives" then he laughed.

I felt like I'm paralyzed, I couldn't move from my seat, so the priest laughed and said: "Come here son, they won't bite you !"

I thought that if this has to happen then let's make it happen in a good way so I walked around them and all I was thinking about is that I felt like I'm cheating Ellie, she's the only one I loved, it's not just about Ellie, it's more like I'm cheating myself, I'm telling my heart to do something unlike what it wants.

I kept walking until I saw a pretty white girl with a really long straight hair reaching down to the end of her back, she had wide black eyes, thin lips, red cheeks, and her body was just perfect, when I looked at her she seemed nervous but she smiled so I stopped and said: "I want her"

The high priest clapped his hands and said:

"That's a great choice, she is Manolis's sister by the way, I hope you enjoy your choice" then he told Manolis: "Take them to the breeding house"

Manolis went outside the tent to call one of the men wearing brown clothes and told me to go with him so I asked him:
"Why aren't you coming with me?"

"Your bride has to get ready, I'll wait here and bring her when she's done" he said.

I went with that man until we arrived to a quiet place, it looked creepy from the outside as it was like few cabinets made of red bricks in the middle of nowhere and nobody seemed to be around but an old lady who pointed out for me to follow her, she lit some candles inside one of the cabinets, no matter how ugly and scary it looked from the outside but it was like a fancy hotel room from the inside.

I kept waiting for a while until I heard the sound of Manolis's carriage coming close to us so I went out, he looked angry for some reason I didn't understand but he told his sister to go towards me.

I was so nervous, am I really getting married, I am getting married to a total stranger, is that how I'm supposed to feel about being married? I knew this was wrong but I needed to loose the tension between us so I closed the cabinet door and only window so nobody could see us and Manolis left, then I said:
"I know you're nervous, honestly I know you are too but let's forget about those feelings for a while"

"No Inglesa" she said, and she got even more nervous.

I heard the sound of someone moving behind the window, I made sure that no one can see us but unfortunately they could hear us.

I felt that what I was about to do is so wrong, so I decided that I'm not gonna sleep with her, what I did instead is that I kept hitting that girl fiercely all over her body and kept slapping her on the face, she kept screaming and I think that was what whoever was spying on us wanted to hear.

I felt guilty for what I've done but after about 20 minutes of humiliating her I opened the window and made sure that no one was spying on us then I whispered in her ears saying "sorry"

She looked so angry but all she could is to keep crying until she fell asleep.

The next day Manolis knocked on our door to wake us up and when I opened the door he still had that serious look on his face saying:
"The high priest wants to see you"

I quickly washed my face and I got in the carriage with Manolis and my new wife that I didn't even know her name.

when we arrived we got in the priest tent, he greeted me and said let's go for a walk and pointed to my wife to go inside his tent.

"How was your night last night? I hope you enjoyed your last few days of being a free man !" he said.

"hahaha, I don't think I should share such stuff" I said.

"No worries son, I'm just making sure everything is alright" he said.

"I liked the temple do you think I can there later today?" I asked.

"Sure and you're gonna spend a lifetime here so don't rush things, maybe you'll get sick of it later" he laughed.

"So what's the thing about the big statue with no head near the temple?"

An old lady was rushing towards us and she was shouting something and came to talk with the priest, he looked at me and calmly said we should back to my place.

When we got there he said:
"Sit down, make yourself comfortable"

"Is there anything wrong?" I asked.

"No, it's not a big deal" while he was saying that 2 men suddenly showed up from the behind and tied me to my chair.

"I've been told that your wife is still a virgin, is that true?" he asked me.

"No sir" I replied.

"You are lying, even after being washed away from all your sins, that breaks my heart, take him away" he said.

The 2 men tied me to one of the horse they were riding and they took me away to put me in a cell.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Chapter XVIII

Ben

It’s so confusing when you have to choose between what’s easy and what’s right.

Should I risk my life or to stay here waiting for some miracle that might never happen?
I don’t wanna die, death sucks, I haven’t lived long enough and so far all I’ve been through was hard time, I don’t wanna keep complaining but I was just hoping that things might finally get better and get my father back, I know nobody would stand this silly talk anymore but I still have a life to live anyway even if I never got my father back, and I can’t be this selfish, I can’t leave my mum alone in this world to suffer.

Anyway I decided to give it a shot and try to find Adam so I decided to go see the wizard.

“Where are you going?” Patrick asked.

“I have to go Patrick, I can’t stay here watching bad things happening to my beloved ones, I can’t stand this anymore” I said.

“You’re not going anywhere, stay here” Patrick said.

“Don’t do this to me, I really have to go” I said.

“Then what are you gonna do, if you’re willing to join Ed then it’s not the best idea, I tried before and I almost got killed” Patrick said.

“Don’t worry about me Patrick, I have survived so far, and let’s be honest, my life is worthless to all of you, you’re only my friend because of Ed, so let me help our friend for God’s sake” I said.

“Woaahh, hold on ! Ben you’re my friend because I chose you to be my friend, why the hell would you say this? Your life is worthy to all of us, or at least for me.” Patrick said nervously.

“You are a good guy Patrick, but nothing can change my mind, I will go and nobody can stop me.” I said.

“Then at least let me come with you, you’re too weak to go alone” Patrick said.

“Don’t be stupid for God’s sake !! I can’t risk your life, as I told if I died I’m worthless but you got family and friends that care about you, why would you risk all of this?” I said angrily.

“I just don’t get you Ben, I’ve just told you that your life means a lot to me and you’re still insisting to go alone, what’s the point of all of what you’re saying?”

I couldn’t stop the baby crying inside of me, the words the wizard were being shouted in my ears telling me how I deserve death and how I am a disgrace to all the people of Zulu, I can’t forget how he looked at me. I couldn’t stop my tears from falling down.

“Patrick, my arm is killing me can you get me a pain killer, please?” I said.

“Sure” he said.

Once he left the room I jumped out of the window so he won’t come with me, and I started to run away from the apartment, people passing by were staring at me looking worried not understanding the reason why a tall guy with a burnt face running along the streets of Queens’ port.

I knew they felt some kind of threatening seeing me but luckily I was hard to be recognized without my long blonde hair, for I’ve been here long enough I knew my way to go out of the city reaching to the woods and finding my way to the wizard’s secret place.

When I got out of the city I stopped to take a rest. Then I kept walking for an hour and half until I reached to the place where I met the wizard.

I found the hole where I fell while I was running away from the wolves but this time it was blocked so I couldn’t go down so I decided to go and enter from the sewers, it was a bit hard to find as I was only using my imagination as a compass so I would imagine where I walked down there under the ground but eventualy I found the place where I got out, it was still too dark inside but this time I had a flashlight so I kept walking slowly so I won’t slip in the mud until I found the place where I met the wizard, but it was messed up and I kept searching for him but he was nowhere to be found, it was such a disappointment to me.

What can I do now? I have no idea where I can find the wizard, but the only thing I could do is to go to his tent where the wolves attacked me and maybe he’s there.

I went there and he was still nowhere to be found, but this time I found drops of blood over his little inside the tent, I know this meant that this was an indicator for upcoming bad news.

Once I got out I heard someone shouting something and for this very moment I swear my heart skipped a beat and I knew this would be the end of me.

I couldn’t look behind but I heard the steps of people running so I started to run, in no time the sound of the people running behind stopped so I got the chance to hide behind a big tree to look back and to my surprise they were not running after me.

It was the wizard covered with his own blood and 4 muscular men running after him and yeah they stopped as one of them threw a spear that penetrated the wizard’s leg and stopped him.

They put him in chains and took him away, I decided to secretely follow them to see where they are taking him, I have to talk to him.

They kept walking until they reached to their horses. The guy who got the wizard with his spear tied him with a rope to his horse and he was literally dragging him behind as he was not able to move.

Luckily they were not moving quickly as the wizard would have died being hit by some rock or a tree, so I was able to follow them.

They finally arrived to some big gate that looked familiar to me and I realized that this was the temple of Wisdom as it a big sign on the gate with “Hekalu la Aghora Pravus” written on it.

At the same exact time I found a huge insect walking over my arm and when I tried to move it away it stang me, I tried not to scream but I couldn’t as the pain was unbearable and for that freaking insect one of the guards came towards me, he kept shouting and calling me to come out as he could see me but he knew I was there, I kept hiding and he was getting closer until he pulled me up from my shirt, he kept talking to me and saying things that I didn’t understand so he knocked me down just like what Zidane did to Materazzi in the final of world cup 2006.

He called the other guards and they helped me stand, tied me in chains and took me away.

After being dragged just like the wizard they put me in a dark cell.

I felt so dizzy so I eventually lost consciousness.

“What brought you here?” a deep voice with unrecognizable face said while hitting me with some rod on my back.

“Who are you?” I asked.

“I am the upcoming priest of Aghora Pravus” that voice said, and  looked closer to find Manolis facing me in that dark cell, “The guards told me they found you in the morning, show me your arm !” he said.

I raised my arm and he held it and he took out some ointment and started applying it on my arm.

“You’re going to survive” he said, “So I heard you’re one of the walkers, huh?”

As I said I knew the end is coming soon so I proudly said:
“Yes, I’m the heir of Xavier Walker of Zulu whom your people killed 8 years ago, and if you want to kill me now then do it quickly”

“Not now” he said while laughing sarcastically.

“Then what do you want from me?” I asked.

“I don’t want anything from you, but Aghora Pravus is a God of justice and I’m only here as a servant for his justice as I told you before” he said.

“So what’s gonna happen now?” I asked.

“For now you’re going to stay here until we inform the high priest that you are here and then we’ll see what Aghora Pravus will tell him to do” he said, then he left me alone in the dark cell.

Chapter IXX

Ellie

Since Ben left I realized that I shouldn’t be here, I felt so uncomfortable being in Salvio’s house alone, even though his mother was there and no matter how kind she was to me I started feeling like I should go back to be with all the others, I stayed in the living room for a couple of hours and most of this time Salvio was talking to his mother, of course they were speaking in Swahili so I didn’t understand what they were saying. But every once in a while his mother would come outside to look at me without saying a word and after a couple of times I looked back at her and she smiled at me.

I kept staying like this but when I had enough I told Salvio that I need to go out for a walk, he wanted to join me but I told him that I’d rather be alone.

I kept walking out and the river was near so I sat on a bench and I got my headphones started playing some music trying to fill the void in my heart.

I literally had nothing to do as there was no way I could go back to see and at the same time I didn’t feel comfortable being alone with Salvio and his mother.

While I was sitting there feeling bored I started checking the photos on my phone and I saw photos of me and Nathalie then I found a couple of Ed’s silly photos that he used to send me back home when he gets bored and writing funny captions on it and that was a trigger for my mind to think of all the good times we spent together, maybe if I never came here to Queens’ port then all the shit we’re going through now would have never happened, maybe things between me and Ed wouldn’t have been that way.

I didn’t just lose him as a lover, I lost my best friend and I don’t get why this is all happening, was it my fault after all?

While I was drowning in my thoughts a song called “Let her go” was played as I left the music playing on the shuffle mode, Ed used to sing that song and he told me that it was one of his favorite songs, I remember when I asked him why he told me that it’s about a lover that let his girlfriend go and he’s regretting it and that’s what happens in real life, sometimes you have to let people, and if they love you enough then they will come back.

I never liked what he said about this song as I believed that we make our own choices and we’re responsible for what happens but I really loved this song as it’s got good music and for it reminded me of him.

But If I were solid as a tree so far then this song would be the very last axe penetrating my core and breaking me to fall down to the ground, I just couldn’t control my tears.

It was getting dark already so I decided to go back to Salvio’s apartment, when I got back I found him sitting in the living room and he said:
“Were have you been all this time, I got worried about you !”

“I just needed some time alone” I said, “Where is your mother by the way?”

“She had to go back to the family gathering” he said.

That made feel even more uncomfortable.

“Ellie, I need to tell you something” he said.

“Sure, is everything okay with you?” I asked.

“Yes, I’m fine, can you come here next to me?” he asked.

I felt that there was something wrong but I sat next to him anyway, then he looked directly into my eyes and said:
“I’ve been through a tough time, I’d say that my life has been a tough time and I hate myself for this”

I didn’t know what to say so I just kept looking in his eyes waiting for him to keep talking as whatever I’d say would be meaningless now.

“You know what I don’t wanna talk...” he said.

Right after he said that he was leaning towards my face and he started kissing me so once he did I pushed him away.

He looked embarrassed then immediately he turned angry and started kissing me without stopping no matter how hard I tried to push him away, I kept screaming and my voice was triggering his anger and giving him more control over my body, he ripped off my clothes and yes what you’re thinking about has happened, I kept crying and shouting “Why did you do this?”

He kept looking towards me without saying a word, then he left me laying on the couch and left the apartment, I had no idea where he went but I kept crying all night hysterically.

The next day I took a shower wishing that the dripping water would wash away what happened last night.

I put on my clothes and it was time for me to leave this shitty place, I wouldn’t stand spending another minute here.

I decided to go back to the guys and what happened last night is going to be a secret that no one should know anything about.

Chapter XX

Ben

 

After a long sleepless night spent in the cell I heard the footsteps of someone coming close to my cell, one of the guards opened the door and pushed someone with a woolen cover on his head and he fell down to the ground then the guard closed the door again.

I was curious to know what brought this man here, or at least talk to him just to overcome the silence that was driving me crazy in this dark place so I asked him:
“Who are you?”

That man didn’t reply so I got closer to him to remove the cover on his head, once I did no matter how dark the cell was I immediately realized that it was the wizard.

“Are you okay?” I said.

He still didn’t reply, I realized that he lost consciousness.

I knew it was all a matter of time till he wakes up, so all I had to do is to wait.

After a couple of hours I heard the footsteps again, this time when the door opened I saw Manolis and to my surprise it was Ed with him, once Ed saw me he said:
“You made it and came here, you shouldn’t have done that you idiot, you’re gonna die like that”

And he hugged me like a child hugging his father, it felt great that I was forgiven after all but for the pain of my arm I couldn’t stay longer without shouting from the pain and gently pushing him away.

“It’s time for you little brother” Manolis said while looking to me.

I knew that I might never see Ed again for I’ll probably die soon so I told him:
“Take of yourself buddy, this man knows where your brother is”

Manolis immediately pulled me from my chains out of the cell, and closed the door behind us, he took off my chains and we got in a carriage taking us away.

****************************************************************

Ed

Seeing Ben here made me realize that he is a true friend and he was really intending to do whatever it takes to help me find my brother.

The man in the cell with me started moving and  groaning so I helped him lean his back on the wall, once I touched him he started shouting saying:
“hakuna kupotosha zaidi, tu kuniua”   * no more torturing, just kill me *

I didn’t understand what he was saying but I knew he was in pain so I told him:
“I’m sorry if I hurt you”

“Who are you?” he asked.

“My name is Ed, I’m just a tourist and I think they improsened me here by mistake” I said, I had to lie because I didn’t know who he is and there was no need for him to know why I am here, “I’ve been told that you know where my brother is, will you tell me where he’s been?”

“I don’t know who your brother is, and whoever told you that I know anything is a liar” the wizard said angrily.

“I’ll ask you one more time where my brother is, if you didn’t reply to my question then you can count yourself dead” I said while I was even angrier than he was.

“Then please kill me now” he said carelessly.

“Sir, I don’t know who you are, but I lost my little brother few days ago and I know he won’t survive longer as he is alone, please help me save his life for God’s sake, you seem to be a good man who would help if he knows the truth” I said, and for the second time I was lying about him being a good man as he looked like a criminal or some psycho with his rotten teeth and ugly face covered with tattoos.

“Aha, so you’re talking about the little kid who came to me with Ben Walker, that bastard doesn’t deserve life, I wish I’ve never done that”

“What the hell are you talking about you crazy old man?” I said furiously.

“Life for life these are the rules, Xavier Walker deserved death but he is still alive and for that his son deserved death instead and there’s no way he could live except by following the rules.” He said.

“So you’re saying...” 

“Yes your little brother was sacrificed in order to keep that Walker bastard alive.” He said.

Without thinking I fiercely hit the wall and stayed silent for a while not knowing what to say, it felt like I’ve been struck by a lightening.

****************************************************************

Ben

I arrived to a big building and obviously it was the temple and I saw the big statue I saw in my dream that had my face but this time it had no recognizable facial features, I kept looking at it trying to know if what I saw was reality or what I’m seeing now is just a dream.

My thoughts were interrupted by Manolis pushing me and telling me to get inside the temple.

Once I got inside I was shocked, I saw many men wearing white just like Manolis and even more men were wearing brown, it was all good till a man wearing big golden necklace showerd up, obviously it was the high priest but that face seemed familiar to me, that was the face of the man I’ve been searching for for so many years.

“Is it you for real?” I said and kept rubbing my eyes for a while to make sure that this was not a dream.

“Welcome home son, I knew your heart will guide you here” he said while his tears were filling his eyes and rushed towards me to hug me.

I felt so weak, I’d say emotionally more than physically, what I felt inside is so hard to describe, I’ve been waiting for this moment for 8 long years, I’m not sure what I wanted more, to get my father back to life or to take revenge for his death and tearing our family apart.

Here he is facing me now, what could be better than that, but it was all ruined when I saw him dressed like those freaks, is he really one of those psychos? I don’t understand a single thing.

“Manolis, untie his chains” my father said.

“Father, this is not what Aghora Pravus wants” Manolis said.

“I am the high priest and nobody knows what Aghora Pravus wants more than I do, follow the orders” my father said angrily.

“Stop bullshitting me ! everyone knows what you’re doing is wrong” Manolis replied.

“How dare you talk to your father like that? How dare you talk to your priest like that? If you spoke any longer I would imprison you” my father said.

“I only respect you because you are my father, I’ve defended your back so many times in so many ways, do you realize how many men standing here hate you? Did you realize that they won’t follow your orders? Did you realize that you’re alive only because of me?” Manolis said, then he looked towards the men wearing white clothes and said: “kuchukua wote wawili”   

* Take both of them *

I was already tied in chains so they just went towards my father and they knocked him down and tied him up taking his necklace giving it to Manolis and leaving my father half naked to be dragged and they put us back in the cell.

Chapter XXI

Ed

“You said the rule is life for life, take mine and get my brother’s back” I told the wizard.

“Things don’t work that he didn’t just die, he was sacrificed for someone else to live.” The wizard said.

While we were talking 2 men wearing the brown clothes opened the door of the cell and got inside, and tied our chains to the wall so we literally couldn’t move, and meanwhile 2 other men were dragging the high priest and Ben and did the same to them and left 4 of us here in the cell.

“You bastard, you killed my brother” I said trying to free myself from the chains in vain, “You don’t deserve life, I hope you burn in hell”

Ben didn’t bother looking at me which drove me crazy and made me try even harder to free myself.

“Dad, how did you get here?” Ben said looking towards the high priest.

I started to understand what the wizard was saying, my mind stopped thinking and I felt dead for a while for I’ve been too drained trying to free myself so unintentionally all I could do is to listen to the converstation trying to understand and know if there’s anyway I could return Adam back to life.

“I don’t know how to explain this Ben, but yes I was among the dead, not literally but everybody wanted to kill me since I left Queens’ port, people of Zulu wanted to kill me for I’ve abandoned them and Aghora Pravus wanted my life for I’ve broken a vow, they didn’t just want to kill me, they wanted to kill you and your mum because that’s what they believed the justice of God is.

I had to protect you even if it will cost you my life” Ben’s father said.

“Stop lying to your son, he will know the truth after all so it’s either you tell or I will, we’re all dead anyway so you better fix your mistakes before you die” the wizard said.

“What do you know about my life? What do you know about the truth, we’re all liars you dumb fuck ! but it’s either you lie to fuck things up or to fix things and that’s what I did unlike you, you kept lying to all of us taking the money of innocent people thinking they are dumb enough not to know that you’re taking it to yourselves and claiming that it’s all for God.” Ben’s father said.

“So what is the truth dad?” Ben asked.

“The truth is that I’ve mistaken, everybody makes mistakes, and my biggest mistake is thinking that I could take revenge for what Aghora Pravus has done to my family and people, but I’ve realized that we’re all sinners, the only one who is perfect is God himself, and the question is who is God? Do you remember when you were a child, I’ve taught you that the most important thing is family, so family was my God, I loved you and your mother beyond what anyone can call love, I worshipped you Ben, but what I realized later is that Aghora Pravus is the only true God no matter what his people did, I mean all the religions will tell you to do what’s good and call for peace but what happens in real life is that there are millions of religions and Gods and everyone would think they are the only ones who are right and everybody else is wrong,

People of Aghora Pravus are obsessed with their God, they had a messed up philosophy they believed in which was all about (It’s either you are with the true god or you are against god) and for they believed they are following God’s rules and making justice prevail they killed anyone who stands against them which is totally fucked up, Aghora Pravus is a God of peace as I said.

I had to stop the war and that’s why I am here, I chose to be one of them and here I am the high priest, or should I say I was but not anymore.” Ben’s father said.

“Do you think I am stupid to believe this? What about Manolis, you keep talking about the family and you go marry and make another family?” Ben said.

“I’ve married Manolis’s mother long time ago before I leave Queens’ port and run away, those are the rules to be a servant of Aghora Pravus, your friend over there can tell you all about it, Manolis is my son and so are you, but he is only my son because I had to have an hier but you are my son because I loved your mother and I chose to have you in my life” Ben’s father said.

The guards came back to our cell and opened the door, they took us all out to the court, when we arrived everything was exactly the same like the first time I went there except that Manolis’s seat was empty as he was sitting on his father’s seat.

Chapter XXII

Ben

I was shocked when I saw my father’s reaction and how he turned that angry when he saw Manolis sitting on his seat, he kept shouting telling him that what he is doing is wrong and Aghora Pravus won’t forgive him for that.

“Shut up old man, we don’t have time for your shit” Manolis said and he moved his hand telling everyone to sit down.

“We’re all here today gathered in the presence of Aghora Pravus the one and true God to announce that our priest is a sinner and deserves trial, for that as the upcoming priest I will replace this man and the elections will be held soon to know the upcoming priest of Aghora Pravus who will replace me after my death, for now let the trial begin” Manolis said.

A man shouted with a deep voice so everyone stood then kneeled before Manolis the new high priest.

“Everyone of you is here for committing an unforivable crime, you’re all sentenced to death but for Aghora Pravus is a merciful God some of the judgements have changed” Manolis said

“kuleta mtu mfupi” Manolis said while pointing at the wizard.

*Bring the short man to me*

One of the men wearing brown clothes pulled the wizard from his chains and tied him to a wooden pole facing us.

“Admit your sins now so you might be forgiven” Manolis told the wizard.

Unexpectedly the wizard looked pretty confident and fearless, he stayed silent without replying to Manolis, kept staring in his eyes for a while then he spit on his face.

Manolis remained calm which was unexpected as well and all he did is pointing to a huge man holding a sword.

“If you have any last words, it’s time for it now” Manolis said.

“Burn in hell” the wizard said.

The huge man left his sword and cut the wizard’s head off his body, the necklaces he was wearing fell down and cut so the little marbles spread on the ground and their sound falling down in the silence of the situation was so loud in my ears as if I was standing right under a church bell.

Manolis walked away and entered some room in the building where nobody could see him, he spent about 15 minutes until he came back and this time felt like 15 hours, he came to us and said:

“One life will be saved today, one of you has been forgiven by Aghora Pravus, for now we will free you from your chains and each of you will have a knife, whoever deserves this forgiveness will survive.”

ED

The same man shouted again and immediately everybody stood up and started to move while pushing us out of the court.

They surrounded us from all directions in the shape of a circle whose its diameter was about 15 meters, one man came to untie each of us and gave us a knife.

We all were extremely nervous, everyone around us could see that I thought I would kill Ben immediately once they set me free but I realized that killing is not that easy, I felt paralyzed for some reason and I kept sweating hard, also my hands were shaking that I almost dropped the knife.

I have to kill them, in the beginning I wanted to take revenge for my brother but for now if I don’t kill them I know they will surely do, everyone is fighting for his life now.

In a blink of an eye Ben’s father rushed towards me and pushed me so fell down to the ground and dropped my knife. He laid over me and raised his knife, right before he move his hand down Ben shouted: “STOP”

There was literally no reason for Ben’s father not to kill me but unexpectedly he stopped and looked towards Ben saying:
“What’s wrong?”

“If you touched him I will kill you, I don’t know who you are, there’s no way you can be my father !” Ben said.

“If I don’t kill him he will kill you, don’t be stupid Ben” His father said.

“He’s my bestfriend, nobody will kill anybody today, that’s what Manolis wants us to do” Ben said.

“Ben ! I’ve been trying to protect you all my life, don’t be dumb and destroy what I’ve done for you all those years, if we don’t kill him those men will kill us all !” his Father said.

Ben looked really confused, after a couple of seconds he looked towards me and said:
“Okay then let me kill him myself.”

He walked towards me, I tried to pick my knife but his father was so strong leaving me no space to move.

Ben

The crowds around us kept shouting as they wanted us to quench their thirst for blood and killing, no matter how loud they were the noise inside my mind was louder thousands of times, I can’t even express what I had on my mind into words.

I held my knife and squeezing it with my fingers as if I was trying to break and with all my strength I stabbed him.

“What have you done?”

“I have done the right thing?” I said.

Then I took the knife out if his body and stabbed myself right in the middle of my belly.

“Why Ben? Why did you do that?”

“If anyone deserves life then it’s you, I’m a murderer, my father is a liar, what’s your sin?”

“Ben, I know you never meant to lose my brother, you’re the only friend I have here, you know I have always loved you, you can’t just die”

“I love you too Ed, I always did, you are the brother I have never had.

I couldn’t protect your little brother earlier but here I am protecting my little brother, I hope that one day you might forgive me for what I’ve done” I said.

“I forgive you, just don’t leave me Ben !” Ed said.

“Life for life, If I don’t go now then it will be you instead and I couldn’t let that happen, those are the rules my friend.” I said, for a long I never felt relieved that way, I smiled at Ed regardless the pain I was going through and closed my eyes to rest forever.

Chapter XXIII

Ed

 

The crowd stopped shouting, I could only hear the sound of my breathe, I felt like my mind is going to explode.

Everybody started to step away from me, I kept holding Ben’s head and shaking him hoping that he would talk to me until Manolis stood right in front of me and said:

“Aghora Pravus has forgiven you, now it’s time to get cleaned up and washed away from your sins again to serve him.”

I closed Ben’s eyes and left, while I was walking with Manolis towards his carriage I kept looking back at Ben without being able to hold my tears, some men went to hold Ben and his father’s bodies to bury them somewhere in the woods.

We went to the same place where I took the shower, the same man came to rub my body with the sponge, I didn’t feel anything and Manolis was standing there watching me.

After we were done, we went to the cabins where I spent the night with that girl, when I got in I found her waiting for me, everything was exactly the same.

After 5 minutes of awkward silence and staring at the floor of the cabin I stood up and left the room.

Manolis was still waiting outside and he said:
“Where are you going?”

I didn’t reply, I kept walking and that drove him crazy so he ran after me and grabbed my arm telling me:

“If you made the same mistake twice don’t expect that Aghora Pravus will forgive you.”

I kept pushed his hand away from my arm and kept walking. Which made him say:
“Xavier Walker did that before, he ran away and death is what he got, from his own son, don’t expect better consequences”

I didn’t care about what he said, how can I trust a guy that witnessed his father dying and act as if nothing has happened. How can I trust a God whose justice is by killing others.

All I had on my mind is that I have to leave this place immediately, I need to bring Amy and leave Queens’ port.

I kept walking in the dark woods until I found my way back to the city, it was about 3:00 am when I arrived back to the apartment.

Once I got in I found Ellie sleeping on the couch, I didn’t wanna wake her up so I headed straight towards Amy’s room but she woke up.

She yelled: “ED !!!” and she hugged me tightly, I couldn’t resist her so I hugged her back.

“Did you find Adam?” she asked.

“Adam’s gone” I replied.

I was feeling numb but once I said that she cried, I told her to stay quiet not wake anyone up, she hugged me again and said: “I’m sorry for your loss”

I tried to keep control over myself so I knocked on Amy’s room and got in to wake her up.

When she saw she hugged me just like Ellie and asked the same question but her reaction was completely different.

“He is not dead, I know it, and we’re not leaving Queens’ port until we find him” Amy said.

“Amy, please don’t do this to me, we have to leave now” I said.

“I am not going anywhere until we find Adam” she shouted hysterically, Ellie tried to fix the situation so she took me out of the room in order to leave Amy to calm down and realize the situation.

“Don’t worry Ed, she will understand, she just needs time” Ellie said, “Would you like to go for a walk?”

“I don’t think I should leave Amy alone in this situation” I said.

“Ed, I need to talk, I can’t keep this inside anymore” she said.

Ellie

I had storms inside my mind, I don’t know if I should tell him about what Salvio did to me, I’ve been hiding it from Amy and Patrick since I came back to the apartment, I was not able to tell them, I mean what can I tell them?

I didn’t want to talk about this with Ed as I was afraid that he would juge me but I knew he was the only one who would be able to love me with all the shit I am now.

“What’s wrong Ellie?” Ed asked.

“I have mistaken, I love you Ed, I should’ve told you long time ago but I was afraid that you won’t love me back” I said

“I love you too Ellie, I thought that actions speak louder than words so I never wanted to say it, or maybe I was afraid as well but I did all I could to prove it and everytime you would push me away” I said, “but why are you saying this now?” he said

“I don’t wanna waste more time without you, what happened in the past is in the past.” I said.

I was waiting for this moment long ago, I was expecting that I will be utterly happy when I hear this but everything is all about the timing, and this timing was the worst, and Ed’s reaction was cold which was extremely disappointing, I wish he’d have hugged me, emotionally more than physically but he couldn’t so it was all meaningless.

I kept kissing him, I don’t know why ! my body was here but my soul is somewhere so far away from where he is.

It was 6:00 am when we got back to the apartment, when we got in I found our luggage packed and left next to the door, Amy and Patrick were awake.

“We’re ready to go” Amy said.

While we were heading out a lady kept shouting and grabbed my arm, she was Salvio’s mother, I got terrified as I knew her presence means some bad news to me, but Ed stopped her asking what’s wrong and he looked confused more than I am.

Salvio’s mother angrily said:

“Come with me”

Ed told Amy and Patrick to stay in the apartment and he came with me following Salvio’s mother, then he asked me if I knew who that lady is but I denied as I didn’t know if I should tell him.

Salvio’s mother took us inside a market and we saw Salvio standing behind the counter, she kept yelling at him and he replied angrily saying things in Swahili, but eventually Salvio said “Mama” and once he did Ed looked concerned, he was watching everything silently.

I started crying hysterically once I got in and saw Salvio, that coward ruined my life and ran away like nothing has happened, I trusted him and all he did was letting me down, I thought he loved me and no matter how much I loved Ed I started catching feelings for him for how good he was to me, but now I see that his love is nothing but a lie.

After a long argument between Salvio and his mother, Salvio said:

“I will have to marry you Ellie, that’s our family’s traditions”

“Go to hell” I shouted at him with all my anger.

“What traditions, can you tell me more about it?” Ed asked.

“I slept with Ellie so I’ll have to marry her.” Salvio said.

“Aha, then you should do what mama tells you” Ed said and left the market.

“Ed, wait !” I said while running trying to stop him.

“What do you want from me?” he shouted.

“I want you, I love you Ed.” I said while crying, I didn’t know what else to say.

“Yeah you love me and you sleep with some stranger, huh?” he said.

“I can explain” I said.

He left without giving me a chance to explain anything, I know I’ve made a big mistake but I haven’t committed a crime.

At least if he is not willing to forgive me then just give me a chance to defend myself, I needed to be heard, I am the victim here.

Chapter XXIV

Aghora Pravus

“The one and only true God” how many times have you heard that sentence from people with different religions all around the world.

Muslims, Christians, Jews, Buddhists, Hindus, People of Queens’ port and many others would all agree that they are right worshipping the true God and everyone else is wrong.

I’m not here to discuss who is right and who is wrong and this is not gonna be a religious speech, I am here to talk about myself and about you !

Some people would call me a God but I am more of an idea, nobody has ever seen me but they chose to believe in me which is a great sign of faith ...

Or maybe they are just dumb !

Let’s agree that everyone needs to feel protected by something bigger and stronger than him, some people would choose religion and create their own Gods like the sun, moon, statues and so on..., others would have a specific name for him like those ones I mentioned above.

Some others would choose their own Gods and that’s what happens in real life, some would choose money, fame, power.

I hate to make it my speech like a coaching training so I’ll just get straight to the point.

I’ve created a masterpiece out of rocks, and I mean the huge statue near the temple by that. This statue would personify your God and show you who you worship deep down inside of you not what you claim, just like a lie detecting device.

What we have deep inside of our hearts is always mysterious, some of us would claim that they are self-aware and I can’t say that they are liars, but trust me our hearts could be so decieving and as the time passes you’ll always realize new things about you.

Ben thought he is weak and he has always hated himself for that but for me he was the bravest character, he chose to give up the things he loved the most –his father- for the sake of what he thought is right.

Manolis thought that he loved me and he made himself think that he is always following my orders but how can anyone love who he can’t see when he can’t love his father that he can see everyday?

Ed and Ellie thought that they loved each other but when they had to go through tough times it turned out to be lust.

What I can clearly see that is common between all of them is the lack of love.

But I still can’t deny that they are great worshippers, what I mean is that even though they couldn’t love enough in the situations above, they reveiled their true Gods.

Ed worshipped Adam and he’d have given his life for him without hesitation.

I won’t talk about the others as I see you got my point and let me say that what I meant by worship is extreme love that will make you do anything for your beloved God.

I almost done with my speech but let me tell you one last thing about myself, Aghora Pravus means God of wisdom as you’ve previously known.

The question is what is wisdom?
I don’t have the healing answer about that question but let me tell you that wisdom is a related term with the knowledge.

Knowledge is your way to the future, but knowledge is also a burden, sometimes not knowing the truth is a blessing. I’d also say that I am cursed being the God of wisdom.

I know the ending was not satisfying to you, honestly I felt the same, but that’s life, you keep living for a while with all the ups and downs just like a roller coaster but you ain’t a God to control when it begins or ends.

This story is just like your life, it would stop in the middle of a sentence !

The End