The Masked Stranger

Chapter 12

James's P.O.V

It's been three days since Jade was kidn*pped. We've hardly made any progress. My beta, Mason, has been trying to gather all the information he can. Meanwhile, Jayden has been having fits of anger. That's why right now I'm standing in my office having broken one of the windows in it. I’ve been trying to contain my anger and worry about her, but I snapped. I need her back, and I don’t know how much longer I can take this before I lose all control and go on a rampage to kill whoever took her.

“James?” I heard Mason knock on the door before coming in.

“What is it, have you found something?” I rushed over to him and grabbed his shoulders hoping he had some sort of trail.

“We don’t have anything solid yet, but I have a team of trackers spread out panning all local werewolf territories for now. We’ll continue expanding our search, but for now I have come to check on you. How are you holding up?” He asked while he loosened my grip on his shoulders and helped me sit down.

“I appreciate your concern, but all I can think about is if she’s alright. I can’t sleep, I can’t eat. All I do is think about whether Jade is okay, her being gone and me not knowing is what’s making me a wreck.” I gave him my honest thoughts.

“Look I might not be able to understand exactly what this feels like for you to go through, but if you need anything I’m around let me know how else I can help. In the meantime how about you do something productive to get your mind off of it instead of breaking windows otherwise you’ll have me worried about your poor desk next.” He chuckled at the last part of his sentence before leaving my office. I shook my head and then decided to take his advice. I started doing some paperwork to get my mind off of the current situation. I just hope that we find Jade soon.

Jade's P.O.V

I woke up with three shadows hovering over me.

"Oh finally the witch is awake." A male voice says. Then I see three male bodies walking towards me. All of them holding a weapon of some sort, and the next thing I know I can't see.

***

They must have done something to me because when I woke up I was in a dark room with almost no light and it looked like a prison cell and my arms were chained up. My limbs felt weak as I weaved in and out of consciousness.

***

I don't know how long it's been, I thought James would have found out I'd been kidn*pped by now. I haven't seen anyone for about two days. Except for the occasional guard doing his rounds or something or someone bringing me water, which, not gonna lie, I'm happy about the fact that I haven't seen many people. But I just feel off, like they're planning something big, I need to warn James, but how? I'm chained to metal bars inside of a cell. And it's not like they're just gonna give me my phone back. If only there was a way to outsmart them. Then it hit me, and no I'm not talking about an idea. I mean a pebble. It literally hit the back of my head.

Suddenly, the door opened, I quickly put my head down and pretended to be unconscious. Then I felt the chains on my arms being loosened, I looked up, only to see a ghost. I mean it had to be. There was no other way I could see my dead brother helping me get out of these chains.

"W... Who are you?" I asked the person, still not sure if I was hallucinating or not.

"Don't worry, I'm here to help and keep your voice down." He whispered after pulling my chains off and dragging me out of the cell.

"Bu-," Before I could even finish what I was saying, he covered my mouth and pulled me behind a corner. Pushing me against the wall. I noticed a guard walking past. Then the person quickly pulled me into a small room and turned on the light. That's when I could clearly see that I was just having a hallucination of my brother. I mean this guy looked nothing like him. My brother had black hair, this guy has brown hair, my brother had green eyes, this guy has silver eyes and he's also way taller than my brother was, he must be at least 6'1. In fact he looked more like the guy who flashed through my dreams.

"Quickly we don't have a lot of time, while you were unconscious they put a tracker in your neck, we need to get it out." He pulled out a knife and a pair of tweezers and tried coming near me.

"Woah there buddy. Hold up I don't even know who you are, I'm not letting you near me with a knife." I said in a do I look stupid tone.

"Very well, my name is Apollo, I'm your familiar, right now I'm in my human form." He told me, all I did was look back at him with a blank stare on my face. Is this guy okay? Did I somehow end up in the looney bin?

"Fam- What, sir I think you're a little confused, especially because I have no clue what you're talking about," I said very loudly. Then the name Apollo connected in my mind. Trust nobody but Apollo, that’s what Mr. Demotov said. Could he be the Apollo he was talking about.

"Shut up, we need to keep quiet. I'll explain later, right now we need to get that tracker out of your neck and hightail it out of here. Trust me, I promise I'll explain later. But for now, just listen, and do exactly as I tell you, got it." He demands, I then nod my head and let him cut open my skin to where he used the tweezers and pulled out the device. He covered my mouth to muffle the sounds of sheer agony I felt. "Now come on, we don't have long before they realize you're missing." He took my hand and dragged me behind him leading me down different corridors in the building before we finally got outside. Then he pulled me into some bushes up against the large brick building.

"Now what?" I asked.

"Now this." He said before shooting something on the ground out of his hand, causing something to pop up. Based on my si-fi knowledge, it looked like a portal to another universe or another world. Honestly, I'm not sure what I know anymore.

Before I knew it, the portal thing sucked us both in and closed right behind us. We were in a black space with lots of blue and purples. I reached out to touch the colors and they followed my hands movements and soon popped like a bubble. Then a portal opened on the other side of us and pulled us out. Pulling Apollo out first, then me. We both landed face down on the ground Apollo because I landed on him. I was used to injuries. I quickly stood up and brushed off all the grass and dirt off of my leggings and hoodie. Then Apollo stood and did the same.

"Apollo, where exactly are we?" I questioned.

"Jade, welcome to wonderland."

"Wait really?" I asked.

"No," he replied.

"My word, you're naive ." He said causing me to punch him in the shoulder.

"Oh yeah, would a naive person do that?" I said, glaring at him.

"I brought you here, don't make me take you back." He threatened.

"Whatever." I said, rolling my eyes. "No but seriously, where are we?" I asked.

"Jade, welcome to Dorvale the center of all universes and first planet in all of creation."

"Great, and what exactly are we doing here, I don't know about you, but I need to get back to James. To help him figure out what those guys are planning."

"Don't worry time works differently here, I'll train you here for a while, but there it'll only be a few weeks or so. Now follow me, the queen is expecting us."

"Umm, excuse me did you say, queen?" I ask while chasing after him.

"Yes, she's waited for nearly eighteen years to meet you. Well eighteen years earth time. Time is very different here. A year here is equal to a month there, something like that. Our time just flows differently."

"Umm, okay then. Wait why does time flow different here than on earth? I’m not sure I understand the science."

“The science, oh please. You’re on a planet where every universe converges at we are beyond science. Time flows different here as opposed to earth and other planets because the god of time chose to make it so, just like how the god of creation chose to make this planet first and chose to create the other gods.” He said his arms semi folded, one of his hands waving around.

“Uhhh?” I gave him a puzzled look and just stared blankly due to the amount of confusion that washed over me.

“I forgot that where you lived on earth is mostly monotheistic. My mistake for thinking you would understand something so complex.” He looked down and shook his head.

“Wait monotheistic? Is that something to do with religion?” I asked, trying to wrap my head around the conversation.

“Close, but not quite. Monotheism refers to the belief that there is only one god, end of discussion. However the fact that there are multiple gods proves the opposite. I mean I should know I have met the god of time before. Anyway we shouldn’t dwell on things like this I’m afraid you might run out of braincells if you continue to think about it.” He grabbed my hand and started dragging me behind him.

“Hey I my braincells and I are perfectly fine thank you. Jeez you’re mean.” I mumbled a little.

“Mean?” He said then let out a laugh. Suddenly his grip on my hand got tighter and her pushed me against a nearby tree and blocked me in with his arms on either side of me. “You think I’m mean. You have no idea the lengths I have gone to to keep you safe for your entire life. I have been a loyal familiar and I will continue to be, so I advise you to watch your words and maybe show a little more gratitude.” He then moved away from the close proximity and let out a deep breath and straightened out his clothes my guess as a way to compose himself. ”Look I’m sorry for that outburst, it was a nasty bit of behavior on my part and I shall not repeat it, just please don’t say something like that so easily it makes me feel like all my work has been useless.”

“Uh okay, and I’m sorry I promise I didn’t mean to set you off like that it was partially a joke. Although you did kind of start it by saying I don’t have the brain capacity to think about more and I’m quoting you here ‘complex’ things.”I said doing finger quotations.

“Huh you make a good point I should not have said that. Now can we just move past it.” He looked away in embarrassment.

“Sure just remember I forgive, but I never forget.”I started walking again this time while laughing.

“I knew I should have just stayed in Shiza.” He said before sighing.