I'M NO ORDINARY MAN

Chapter 10

I was back at the base of Table Mountain. Two pieces of paper was scrunched in my hand. I hadn't noticed that before. I opened it and found Jack's handwriting inside.

Read this when the time comes. After this, you are free to go any way you prefer. Destroy the werewolves and we will have done our job...



In my other hand was the paper from Cleopatra :

 Keep the half clean...

So there was a major difference in what the both of them had wanted me to do. Couldn't I do both? I mean, it wouldn't actually be harmful to see both of this in effect, right?

Jack and his stupid friends wanted me to destroy the werewolves, while Cleopatra had wanted me to protect the werewolves from vampires. I could destroy the werewolves after I release them or maybe destroy the vampires instead and free the werewolves. Or maybe… No, I was out of ideas.

‘No, what you plan to do, all that confusion would only mean the End of the World!’ the Voice growled in my head.

‘Good! I'll deliver the First h*******t myself,’ ‘No! The End Gods have not meant it to be like this. The time is not yet right to cause the First h*******t!’

‘Watch me!’

‘Christopher Lois! Do you dare challenge me?’

‘You are nothing!’

Pain burst into my mind. I fell to the floor, as the pain wrecked through my body. My doppelganger came into my head. But it spoke in cursing hisses. I screamed as I felt something exploding inside of me.

‘I don't want any of this! I never wanted any of this Power… It is too much for me’ I screamed and sobbed.

The pain stopped wondrously. I got up again. My doppelganger stood at my side. He told me that I had passed the Third Challenge on becoming a vampire.

‘I can disappear now. The End Gods wanted to test you and they created me. A human version of you. If you had been human, it would have suited you better. In being a vampire subjects you to a curse far worse than anything that has been created. You must take thousands of mortal souls into you to allow yourself to live. If you had realized it earlier, all this needn't have happened. But we had to make sure, and we have decided that we have chosen well. You are one newborn that will never be suitable with your own society. That’s why you have a lot of Gifts. Other vampires will not be able to find you. Your powers are like a mask for you. A cover that prevents anyone from finding you. At least, until the First h*******t. Your instincts overwhelm you too much at certain times. Andrade did his job well,’ my doppelganger spoke.

‘A vampire keeps to his words... You don't want this life, live up to it,’ the Voice in my head sighed.

‘Forgive me, Voice,’ I told myself.

‘Apology accepted. Now, don't you have something to do?’

I shot my powers into the Twist and it shifted, leaving a clear climber's path for me. I leapt onto the rocky wall and hauled myself upwards. The Twist closed back behind me as soon as I was on the top.

The top of the mountain was flat as mentioned earlier. Dead trees clumped one fourths of the mountain in darkness. I walked to the centre of the mountain and pulled the diamond out of my pocket.

It glowed orange but unlike the last time, it didn't shoot out any golden rays of light or any strings that erupted from the Diamond. I wondered about what I had to do.

I heard the Voice whisper in my head. It told me to jump off the end of the cliff. I didn't worry much, because I doubted that it would hurt me. Then, I remembered that I had promised to not act like a vampire. This was crazy, I told myself. How was I supposed to think human while jumping off a cliff? I leapt over the sheer drop. As I fell, my eyes caught a glimpse of gold. I smashed my hand into the walls, and stopped myself. I climbed the side and felt for a hole.

I observed the hole and found that the diamond could not fit in. A spherical slot above this space could fit the pearl perfectly. I looked at the paper the Queen had given me. Keep the half clean...

Does it mean I have to break the diamond, in half? Could it stand that? I gripped the centre of the Golden Diamond and broke it. It broke easily, as though it had been created to break into two parts. Complicated enough, as soon as it broke in half, it grew back into two complete golden diamonds.

I stared at the two diamonds in my hand. Below me, the Twist twirled menacingly. I couldn't cast my powers into the Twist. I could do only one thing at one time. I felt a sudden urge of relief rush through me.

I was feeling more and more human by the minute. So, I must think like a human. Not like a vampire... So, what use am I as a vampire. I remembered being a vampire has subjected me to a curse more terrible than Death.

But what had my doppelganger meant by saying about Mother? The fact she did all that to me, was for a reason.

‘You will know that soon enough. We will cross the bridge when it comes. For now, settle this matter. The End Gods have ordered me not to interfere with your decisions. You may choose whatever it is that you see fit. The end of the werewolves or the End of the World is in your hand. Choose well, for your choice effects everything that you hold dear,’

And then, silence was all that I could hear.

So, I lined my options out.

Option 1 : I could destroy the werewolves or protect the werewolves Option 2 : I could do both and cause the First Holocaust...

I saw more writings on a golden plat that was melted into the walls.



‘Demented revelation of the werewolf spirit arise ,’ I translated directly.

Or maybe,

Option 3 : Rising the werewolf spirit only.

It wasn't really a bad idea, arising the werewolf spirits. I had flashes of images in my mind. I could see Jack, Jacque and Rose standing on a boulder in the middle of an endless ocean. The sea roared around them. Enormous tidal waves rose and fell around them.

But they stood there, unshaken at the dangers that posed all around them. Jack produced a silver vile from inside his cloak and poured out the contents. The water shifted into a whirlpool that led straight to the base of the seabed.

‘By the Power of the Crown with me, I cast all the Waeroherias into banishment,' shouted Jack as he traced a sharp knife on his right hand and held a bag in front of him.

Silver blood dripped onto the seabed, and electricity cackled from within as a hole opened up. He shouted something to Rose. She closed her eyes and the electricity crept onto her hand. It was causing her pain, I could see that. ‘Dementoz Revilio Dof Entrapio Waeroherias Spirutnia,' Jacque chanted slowly.

All three of them repeated the sentence three times and the black hole in the ground sealed once again. The electricity vanished and the ground began to crack. The ocean rose menacingly around them. Lightning lashed the sky as thunder boomed through the skies.

‘We have caused the First h*******t!’ screeched Rose.

‘No, look! We have done it...’ Jack cried, happily.

White ghostly things flew through the air and were sucked into the hole. Then, the ocean became calm once more. Sunlight crept out and glared at them.

‘Are we done?’ Rose asked.

‘No, not yet. We have trapped the spirits. That's as much as the accomplishments by far. But to destroy them, we alone cannot do it. We require another. A boy younger than all of us,’ Jack spoke.

‘Another? Are you in your right mind? The Elders doesn't expect all of us to survive this mission. To add another, and to top it off, a kid. Just think of that...’ Jacque shouted. ‘He'll just be a helping hand, that's all. We can let him leave once we are done...’

‘What about....we destroy him?’ Rose sneered, like it was the most obvious thing in the world.

‘No!’ Jack cried.

‘You don't have to do it. We'll take care of it...'

The images vanished and I remembered that I still had one more thing to do. Traitors, I thought as I stuffed the two diamond halves into the hole. Upon being forced, it shrank back to two halves, not wholes. I inserted the pearl in the centre.

The diamond halves seemed to sprout out small gold veins that went though the earth and encircled the pearl. The space between the pearl and the diamond halves were filled with golden veins. The veins seemed to melt and hardened into a diamond with a pearl for the core. For a moment, I thought I saw that the diamond and the pearl had turned into a crown.

That’s what I thought I saw but it seemed obvious that all it was was just a diamond and a pearl. Between the three options, it was pretty obvious that Option 3 would be the one I was going to pick. I closed my eyes as I chanted the inscribed words three times. But by doing that, I was actually betraying the vampires and helping the werewolves’.

I had second thoughts. In the end, a war will rise because of the werewolves. Think like a human, not as a vampire. If I'm human, I would choose what's fair. And if being fair meant releasing the werewolves, then that was what I was going to do. Another reason would be the fact that I would be pissing Jack, Jacque and Rose off their limits. I wondered what they had wanted from The Elders to go so far.

‘With the Power with me,’ I decided I would copy Jack’s words, ‘I release the werewolves' spirit from the depths of the ocean!’ I shouted. My voice echoed through the air in slow waves. For a split second, the moon shone golden. Then, the moonlight focused on the pearl – cored diamond. The pearl and the diamond melted away into a miniature hawk. It looked so real that the magic that created it wondered me.

The hawk glowed brightly, and it was as warm as the golden coffin. It fell out of the hole and dropped onto my hand. Magically, the hawk grew in size to the size of a horse. For a moment, it looked at me. Then, it spread its wings and took flight into the sky.

It flew around the sky and swooped down and stood beside me. I had the craziest impression that it was waiting for me to leap onto it. It spread its wings in a final sort – of – way and rose into the sky.

It blinked three times at me and flew away towards the ever - stretching , vast sky. I guessed it might have collided with the Moon, though that might sound a little crazy. For in the next second, golden dust filled the sky. The dust lay frozen and suspended in the air and then, they zoomed together at me and encircled me like a golden cage.

It whizzed into the Twist and it shifted away, revealing a pathway. My work was done here. I was free, I thought as I slid down the side of Table Mountain. To freedom and whatever that was waiting for me out there...