Chapter 13

         My brothers and I all arrived at our house. The girls were already there. I think my sudden appearance scared Jessica. She emitted a funny squeak that took me by surprise. But whens he saw it was me, she ran over and tried to throw her arms around me.

         "Oh, Aden, thank God you're back and safe. You were all gone for so long," Jessica said and she started to cry. "Are you okay? You look like you've been to visit the devil."

         I noticed that whenever Jessica was scared, her sentence structure was awkward. I wondered if there's a medical explanation for this.

         "I'm fine Jessica," I said.

         "But you're not," she said. "I can see it in your expression. You were gone for a week without any calls or anything. I know you had to save the world, but you could at least tell me how you really are. If you're suffering from PTSD then we can find you a shrink, but please Aden, I am begging you, communicate with me. Please don't pretend that I'm an annoying fly who won't get off your sandwich."

         I grabbed Jessica's shoulders and held her strongly, but not painfully.

         "Slow down," I said, "You're speaking gibberish. I can't understand what you're saying. What do flies and sandwiches have to do with anything?"

         "I don't know!" Jessica shouted. "It's like you don't care about me or you can't confide in me. I am the girl that you have gone to school with for years, the girl who you trusted enough to tell what your kind were, the girl who named your race the hecapsycheires, the girl who lives in the same house with you. What else do I have to do to make you trust me?"

         "But I do trust you," I said.

         "No you don't," Jessica screamed. "You won't tell me anything. I get that you can't tell me some things because you would be killed or we would both be killed, but I know for a fact that there is, at the very least, one thing that you could tell me. In fact, you're not even listening to me right now. You don't even make eye contact anymore. What in the name of Emperor Qin's left pinky did they do to you?"

         "Emperor Qin's left pinky? What does he have to do with anything? He was a terrible emperor."

         "Whatever, you're not answering me questions, you're just making more questions. I don't care if what you tell me is that I'm going to die tomorrow. Just tell me something. If you don't tell me something in the next ten seconds, I am going to insult you in every language I know how to insult people in. I'm counting . . . one . . . two . . ."

         "Okay, okay," I said. "What do you want to know?"

         "Everything! Anything!"

         "Those are two different things."

         "Something then. . . five . . . six"

         "You skipped three and four," I pointed out.

         "Do you think I care about my counting skills? I couldn't care less about my counting skills. Just give me something to go on."

         "Why would you ask a rhetorical question and then answer it?"

         "For God's sake Aden, just tell me something. . . eight . . . nine . . . TEN!"

         Jessica started insulting me, first in English, translated a couple of the insults into French, called me a "pig-dog" in German, until I finally lost it. I clapped my hand over her mouth and received a bloody hand in return because Jessica bit me.

         "Sheesh," I muttered.

         I healed my hand and left the room. I suppose she was right to yell at me, but really, I had just come back from a war hadn't I? Couldn't she have given me a break? I couldn't believe how close I had come to hurting her. I was truly frustrated with her, and I wasn't in a good mood anyway. After the Elder's parting, no hecapsycheir who was alive on the day the Elders died would feel normal for the next five days. Nor would they feel cheery on the same day the following year. I walked down the stairs to the living room and picked up my guitar.

         I sat down on the couch and slowly strummed out a slow blues type of tune. I played for several minutes before Jessica came down the stairs.

         "I'm sorry Aden," she murmured.

         "That's okay," I said. "I probably deserved the yelling for what happened at the battlefield, but I think that I also deserved a bit of a break too."

         "No, you didn't deserve the yelling or the biting for that matter. Is your hand okay?"

         "Yeah, it's fine. Why don't you come sit down? Then we can talk." She sat down next to me and I put down my guitar. "Okay," I started, "Ask me specific questions and I will answer with specific and detailed answers. I can't just have you ask everything at once and expect me to answer."

         "Okay then," Jessica said. "Question number one: Where did you teleport to with Panton?"

         "We teleported to the Galapagos Islands."

         "Where did you go after that?"

         "We entered a place that only hecapsycheires have the power to go to. There was a stage there. Panton gave us a speech and told us about the battle plans."

         "What happened next?"

         "This isn't some fantasy world where people fight battles with swords. This is real. The way you're asking these questions implies that you think of it as a game," I said, trying not to lose my temper.

         "I'm sorry Aden," Jessica replied. "But I also need you to know that I do feel sympathetic even if my tone says otherwise."

         "Fine, whatever," I said.

         I didn't feel like myself, saying these things. I stood up and walked out our front door to take a walk. Jessica ran up to me.

         "Aden, what is wrong with you?" Jessica asked. "This isn't like you."

         "I don't know, but I don't want you around, please go back inside," I said.

         Jessica nodded and went back into the house. I meant that I didn't want her around in case I went crazy and attacked her, but it hadn't come out that way. I walked to a nearby park and sat down on a bench. I didn't really know why I had been so abrupt with Jessica. I knew that I needed to go back and apologize, but I was still mad at her for trying to edge her way into something she couldn't be involved in.

         I sat on the bench for half an hour or so until I felt more calm. I had just stood up and started walking back towards the house when an escalator descended from the sky. A cloaked figure was descending on the escalator. His cloak was black and the hem ripped unevenly. He reminded me of a "dementor" from the Harry Potter movies. He carried a scythe in his left hand while his right hand was hidden beneath his cloak. I stopped walking and watched him. The cloaked figure walked towards me and spoke in a low, manly voice.

         "Where are your brothers?" he asked.

         "Why would I tell you?" I asked.

         "Because I have a scythe that could be used to slice your throat."

         "Ha," I laughed. "Death threats won't force me to tell or give you anything. I haven't even known you for a minute, and already, I don't like you."

         "I would tell me the truth if I were you," he said.

         "And why is that? Because you have a scythe?"

         "Why are you provoking me?"

         "Because you're amusing me."

         "How am I amusing you?"

         "Never mind, please continue."

         The cloaked figure sighed and said, "Look, I work for the Elders. Do you really want to make them upset?"

         "They've already cracked the code to get to the former Elders' wills?" I asked.

         "We did not need to 'crack the code' son of Sergius. Our people are quite smart. In fact, they are much smarter that the five of you combined."

         I was really starting to dislike this guy. "Oh, right," I said sarcastically. "All you had to do was say, 'Please my lords. You were the former Elders. I know you can't hear me right now because Vadrak zapped you, but anytime you want to give me the code to open the safe with your will and other important documents would be great.'"

         I don't know why I was saying all of this stuff. I think that I did that because I didn't like him. I hadn't even give him a chance. I didn't know why I was like this, but it felt good to say those things. I thought I was going crazy at the time, and yet, I still provoked the fellow.

         "You dare taunt me as if you were my equal!" he burst out angrily.

         "Well, whatever you want to call my previous words, feel free."

         "If I were to report you to my superiors, you would be dead."

         "Ah, but as I've already said, death threats will not motivate me. I would be happy to tell Panton or the new Elders themselves where my brothers and I live, but not you. Unfortunately for you, I've seen through you. You barely serve the new Elders; I'm not telling you anything that I don't want to tell you," I said defiantly.

         The cloaked figure growled in frustration. "But I am a servant of the newly appointed Elders! I'm actually smarter than you might think!"

         "Okay, I'll test you, what does I.T.P. stand for and what are the symptoms of the disease?"

         "What! I have no idea. That's not a fair question. If you want to play medical questions, then I'll ask and you'll answer if you think that you're so smart."

         I'm sorry to say that now I was enjoying myself with this character. He was a real piece of work. "Okay," I replied, "what's the question?"

         "What is the definition of osteoporosis?"

         I laughed. "Of all the questions you could have asked you ask about osteoporosis? Oh, I see, you've been diagnosed with osteoporosis. In fact, you started out as a mortal, and I think you still are one. You're just like Jean, one of the servants of the former Elders. He was a mortal too."

         "Are you going to tell me the definition of osteoporosis or not?"

         "Osteoporosis is a medical condition where the bones become brittle and fragile which is a result of loss of tissue. It's typically a result of calcium or vitamin D deficiency, hormonal changes, and it can be genetic too. See I got all of this out of the New Oxford American Dictionary. Pretty good right? Who had it? Your mum? Your dad?"

         "Stop it!" he shouted. "I have another question for you. This time it's scientific. What was the Manhattan Project?"

         I laughed again at his lame questioning. "The Manhattan Project was the code name for the project that was setup to create the atom bomb. It was set up in 1942 and was the detonation of the first nuclear weapon in White Sands, New Mexico. I'll cite my sources again. The simple New Oxford American Dictionary. I think it's my turn to get an answer from you about I.T.P. and no, I have not been diagnosed with I.T.P. I am a hecapsycheir, not a mortal like you."

         "I couldn't care less about this I.T.P. stuff. I'm quizzing you under orders from the newly appointed Elders."

         I turned around and saw a security camera was watching us from a nearby building. It wasn't an ordinary security camera such as mortal's use to protect national banks. This was a high tech hecapsycheir's video camera. Before the hooded figure knew what was happening, I strode forward and pulled off his hood, reached into his ear and plucked out the earpiece, and kicked the scythe out of his hand. I figured the earpiece connected to the newly appointed Elders.

         I turned back around to the camera and said, "If you want to talk to my brothers and me, you can send Panton to get us, not this unintelligent mortal. At least the former Elders knew what mortals would be good for the job, like Jean, not him."

         I had no sooner finished my sentence, than the mortal jumped on my back and tried to pull me to the ground. It was a futile attempt because he had no idea how to fight. I think that he was just mad at me for humiliating him. I plucked him off my back as easily as if I were pulling an apple off a tree and heard a bone snap. Oh, right, he had osteoporosis. Oops. I healed him by passing my hand over the broken bone and teleported back to the house. As soon as I entered the house, I felt as if a huge weight had been lifted off my shoulders. I felt more like myself, but I scarcely noticed it so I let it pass.

         "Where have you been?" Demetrio asked.

         "Sorry, I had a little business with the Elders' new page. Just wait 'til you meet him."

         "They've already appointed new Elders?" Timur asked.

         "Yes, and I can't say they have much taste in mortals either."

         "Jeez, Aden, you look like you've been enjoying yourself. What happened?" Jessica asked.

         I told them the story about the mortal with osteoporosis.

         "It looks like the new Elders want to talk to us," Irvin said.

         "Are you kidding?" Hearst asked. "I thought they just wanted to annoy us, so they jumped on Aden's back and set up a camera. It's as if they're stalking us."

         "You have some creepy thoughts in your head, Hearst," Portia said.

         "No, I'm not kidding," Irvin said. "I think that they really do want to talk to us. I also think you're right about the stalking thing."

         "You do? Why?" Demetrio asked.

         Irvin turned around and pointed to a camera on the wall that was focused right on us.

         "Okay, I'm starting to think that Irvin and Hearst are right about the Elders tracking us," I said.

         The camera moved up and down as if it were nodding to us. Jessica grabbed my arm. I thought that she was scared.

         "Aden, I don't like the sound of this. What's going to happen?" she asked.

         I was wondering the exact same thing when the lights went out.