Children Of Deurom

Chapter 2| The Wolf Of Germany

Arminius yawns as he observes the High School from his cramped car. He looks around, looking for someone. Nolan better hurry up, waiting out here is unbearable. He thought. As soon as the thought crossed his mind, Mr. Johnson approaches him, holding a sword.

“It’s about time Nolan.” Arminius scolds, grabbing the sword. “What took you so long?”

“My apologies,” Nolan replies. “It’s not exactly easy to find the display keys, they hide them pretty well.”

“And you’re sure this is gonna work?” Arminius asks.

            “Shouldn’t you know more about this than me?” Arminius scoffs at his response.

            “Just hurry up and let’s get out of here.” Nolan takes the sword back from Arminius and disappears back into the school. I better hurry up and find this kid. The games aren’t too far away, I’ll barely have the time to teach the kid as it is. Arminius thinks to himself, leaning back in the driver seat. He must have dozed off because the next thing he knew the car door slammed shut and Nolan was in the passenger seat. Arminius re-adjusts his seat.

            “Sleeping on the job?” Nolan jokes. Arminius rolls his eyes and starts the car, driving off into the night. Arminius didn’t have to wait long, it was the next day when he got the call from Nolan. “I think I found someone.”

            “You’re sure?” Arminius asks eagerly, it would be better if this was a sure fire thing.

            “I can’t be entirely sure. But he was checking out the sword. It seemed like it worked.” Not exactly what Arminius wanted to hear, but he would be willing to take the chance.

            “Alright, meet me when you get done. Bring me everything you have on him… you can do that right?”

            “I can copy the file from the school, yes.”

            “Good.”

“I’ll drop it off on my lunch break.” Arminius hung up the phone and sat back in the chair in his hotel room. He felt exhausted. I forgot you actually need sleep in the mortal realm. So annoying. Arminius closed his eyes. His dreams were filled with darkness, absolute darkness. He stands in the middle of it all, in his sights, a wolf. It looked like the wolf was surrounding a younger pup; the older wolf looked beat up, scars ran along the body he used to block the pup. Arminius walks towards the wolves but it seems like they don’t notice him. The older wolf is growling at something. The darkness? Maybe. Arminius searches around but finds no predator in sight. Suddenly, a lion appears. It was bigger than a normal lion, with fierce golden eyes. It leaps at the wolves. Arminius snaps awake to Nolan shaking him.

            “Are you ok?” He asks, concerned.

            “I’m fine.” Arminius replies.

            “You were freaking out in your sleep.”

            “Just a bad dream I suppose.” Arminius gets up and grabs a water bottle from a mini fridge in the corner of the room. “So what’s the story with the boy?” Nolan opens the file.

            “Aidan Kessler, he’s 16 years old.” Arminius grabs the file from Nolan’s hand and looks at Aidan’s school id. There’s a familiarity in his face, he’s seen it before. “I have him in my history class, he’s smart but lazy. If he’s not goofing off he’s asleep, which is baffling because he always seems to just… know the material.” Arminius stares at Aidan’s picture. Where have I seen you before?

            “Family?”

            “His mother passed away last year to some mysterious illness. Technically, he’s in the care of his older brother.”

            “Have you met him? The brother?” Arminius asks.

            “No, Aidan passes it off, but there have been some murmurs that Aidan basically takes care of himself. His brother is always away. Something about his work.”

            “So we just need to convince the boy?”

            “Basically yeah. He’s stubborn, but I think we’ll be able to win him over.” Arminius continues to stare at the picture. I swear something about this kid is…familiar. Could it be?

            “So, is there an easy way to this?” Arminius asks. “How are we gonna get him by himself?”

            “Not entirely sure, sir,” Nolan replies. “I believe he works out at a gym on Crescent. You could try there.”

            “I’ll just tail him. It’s not like this is my first rodeo.” Arminius says grabbing a set of car keys from the nightstand. “I’ll go now and tail him from the school. It’s probably better that I’m close by anyway, just in case.” Arminius takes a condescending look at Nolan. “With no disrespect but you’re a bit out of practice.”

            “Yeah, I suppose I am.” Nolan chuckles. “Besides, it’s better if no one knows I’m here.”

            “Agreed.” Arminius leaves the room and quickly drives over to the school, hoping he isn’t too late to catch Aidan. He pulls right in front, knowing this is where most students exit. He looks at the clock. 1:30. He still had another hour. Arminius gets out of the car and begins to stretch a bit, stiff from being cooped up for some time.

            “Hey!” A voice yells, Arminius turns to see a Security Guard coming towards him. “Can I help you with something?” s**t, I knew I should have stayed in the car. Arminius thought to himself.

            “Yeah, I’m just waiting for my kid. I’m a bit early.” Arminius chuckles.

            “Are they expecting you?” The Security Guard asks.

            “No,” Arminius replies. “I’m just coming back from a business meeting in New York. Needed to stretch the old legs.” Arminius is friendly with the Guard, not wanting him to kick him off school grounds or worse…run his plates. The Guard looks Arminius up and down, trying to find a cause to not believe his story. And why would he? Arminius really does look like he came from a business meeting; dressed in a dress shirt and pants, and a vest.

            “I apologize, carry on sir.” The Security Guard leaves Arminius to his own devices.

            “That was close,” Arminius whispers to himself. He gets back into the car and leans back. Boredom made the time go slowly, but finally, the bell rung, letting Arminius know to pay attention. He watches waves of children rush out the doors, he scans the crowd looking for Aidan. He finds him talking with four other children, one of which Arminius did recognize. “Joan, you sly girl,” He says to himself. “I forgot your age lets you pass as one of them.” A car horn diverts Arminius’ attention. Joan and the other girl she was with, begin the walk towards the car. That must be her representative.

            Aidan follows the other boy to a car and they begin to drive off, Arminius follows suit. They drive for a short period of time until stopping at a house. The boys exit the car and walk inside. Arminius reaches in the back seat and grabs an energy bar. He can see from the window that the boys are on the couch playing a video game. Children these days are so lazy. Arminius leans back in the seat and takes a few bites out of his energy bar before he knew it, he was asleep again.

            The dream was like the other one. Total darkness, but something was a bit different. Arminius looks around to see the wolves again, Arminius walks up to them and investigates. To his surprise, the wolves were dead. The older one had been brutalized, multiple claw and bite marks covered his body. The younger wolf’s throat had been torn out, it laid curled next to the older one. As Arminius looked at the slain wolves, he heard a snarl behind him. He remained still except for slowly turning his head. The golden eyed lion is behind him, blood covers its face. He snarls again at Arminius before leaping at him.

            Arminius snaps awake, covered in sweat. He tries to catch his breath, as though he was actually fighting the lion. He looks at the house to see Aidan and the other boy leaving and getting into the car. He follows the car to a small house. The outside was taken care of, the lawn was mowed and there was a driveway but no car. The outside of the house was painted a beige color with red trimmings. This must be where Aidan lives. He thought. I can wait till the other boy leaves and just knock on the door. Aidan gets out of the car and walks up to his house. Arminius waits patiently for the car to leave before he gets out. Just as he starts to walk up to the door, Aidan runs out of the house holding a gym bag. Arminius ducks out of view and gets back into the car and follows Aidan.

            The building Arminius followed Aidan to wasn’t much. It was a very run down building; the paint on the outer building was chipped, the sign which reads ‘Felix’s Boxing Gym’ is faded and falling apart. Arminius gets out of his car and tries to enter the building where he’s stopped by a man who appears to be a guard.

            “30 bucks.” Says the guard.

            “To enter the gym? Don’t I sign up for a membership or something?”

            “Gym isn’t open for workouts tonight.” The guard replies. “The owner is hosting some competitions.”

            “So this fee is to view the event then?” Arminius asks. The Guard nods in response. Arminius reaches into his pocket and pulls out a wad of bills, he gives the guard $30 and is granted entry. The inside of the gym reflects the outside, very poorly kept; ragged boxing gloves are shoved to one corner along with various exercise equipment, the floorboards look like their peeling off of the floor. Cheap metal chairs surrounded a beat up boxing arena. Arminius takes a seat near the front row. He watches as stragglers or people begin to fill patches of the seating. The Promoter appears in the center of the ring with a microphone.

            “How’s everybody doing tonight?” He asks enthusiastically. Some of the audience reacts while most of them just sit in silence. “We got some pretty good matchups here tonight, so just sit back, relax, and enjoy!” The Promoter leaves the ring and the first matchup gets underway. Arminius watches the beginning bouts, uninterested. He scans the surrounding audience, trying to find Aidan, but cannot pick him out of the small cluster of people. Just as Arminius is about to give up and head to Aidan’s apartment, The Promoter comes back out into the ring. “What did I tell you, folks? Some pretty interesting matchups, and this one coming up? Woo-wee… is defiantly a doosey. We have local undefeated Heavyweight, Alejandro Martinez facing up against the Light Heavyweight underdog, Aidan Kessler—”

            Arminius stops in his tracks. So, you were a contestant after all. Arminius sits down back in his seat and watches the bout. He is amazed at the large physique of Aidan’s opponent. Aidan’s gonna get himself killed. Aidan comes out to the ring and attempts to touch gloves with Alejandro but gets socked instead. d**k. Arminius watches with keen interest as Aidan gets pummeled with punches but still standing his ground. Gotta give it to him, he’s persistent. The bell rings signaling the end of the round. Arminius notices that Aidan appears angry in the corner, but it was the gloves that Arminius noticed most. They were steaming. Nolan was right, he is the one. The bell rung again and Aidan came out swinging, landing hook after hook on the man who was, just a few moments ago, brutalizing him with punches. Then his gloves caught on fire. Arminius leaps out of his chair and heads closer to the ring. Alejandro gets dropped to the ground and rolls out of the ring, Aidan and the referee begin ripping his gloves off which was followed by Aidan running to the back. With everyone distracted by Alejandro screaming in pain from the burns, Arminius sneaks out through the curtain and to the back and searches for Aidan. He begins looking around when suddenly he hears a door open. He runs towards the sound and see’s the door slam shut. He runs out the door to see Aidan walking swiftly in the alley.

            “Hey, kid!” Arminius calls to him only to be ignored. “Wait, hold up.” Arminius rushes and gets in front of Aidan. He stares at him, not wanting to scare him off. “Hey, I just wanted to see if you were alright. That was some fight, especially the whole… fire thing.”

            “I’m fine, now if you excuse me—” Now I can try and lead him into this.

            “How’d you do that? The fire thing?” He asks. “It was a pretty cool trick--”

            “Look, I appreciate the concern but I really need to leave,” Aidan replies, pushing past the man as he begins to walk faster down the alley.

“Take care, Aidan,” Arminius calls back to him, Arminius notices Aidan looking over his shoulder before walking faster out of the Alley. It’s him alright. The man thought. No mistake about it…Rest now, Aidan. Our paths will cross again soon. Arminius walks back into the building where the Promoter and the referee are taking care of Alejandro. They help him to his feet where small burns polka dot his body. Every punch Aidan laid on the Heavyweight, left a burn on his body. Looks like emotional control is going to be a key factor in his training. Arminius leaves the boxing gym and heads back to his motel where Nolan was waiting for him.

“How’d it go?” Nolan asks. Arminius takes off his jacket and tosses it onto the bed. He sits down in the chair.

“You were right. It’s him.”

“Did you talk to him?” Arminius shakes his head.

“No, he flared up at a boxing match and ran off.” Nolan looks shocked.

“A boxing match?”

“Yeah, apparently your student likes to… ‘Throw down’ as the kids say.” Nolan sits on the bed.

“Against adults or other kids his age?”

“Adults. Burned a fighter in an entirely different weight class.” Arminius tells him. “He’s a persistent s**t though. The guy pummeled him in the first round and he took it like a champ.”

“That’s troubling,” Nolan replies, running his hand through his hair.

“He’s got a fighting spirit, Nolan,” Arminius says, trying to console him. “Better to do it in a gym than out in the streets or at the school where he can get in trouble.”

“I suppose you’re right.” Arminius stands up and begins to look through Aidan’s file again. Average grades, no remarks, no extracurricular activities. Just an average boy.

“We should probably talk to him soon.”

“Don’t worry, we’ll get him in time for training. And besides, I can watch him during the day.” Nolan reassures. Arminius goes and starts the shower, Nolan grabs the remote controller and turns on the television to the news.  The headline story reads ‘Gladiator spotted’. Intrigued, Nolan turns up the volume.

            “A mysterious man dressed in a gladiator armor appeared today downtown—” Arminius steps out of the bathroom and begins to watch the news. “Police received multiple 9-1-1 calls describing a large man dressed as a Roman gladiator wondering the streets downtown, the man was allegedly carrying a sword and a shield. When officers attempted to question the man, he fled the scene, even flipping over their police car. Officials are offering a reward for any information leading to his capture, and caution not to approach this man as he is armed and extremely dangerous.” Arminius grabs the remote from Nolan and turns off the television.

            “s**t,” Arminius swears, throwing the remote controller on the bed.

            “I guess you’re right, we should talk to him soon.” Nolan agrees. “That guy seems like bad news.”

            “He is. I saw him in the last Game.” Arminius claims. “I can assure you he is not someone we should take lightly.”

            “You don’t mean…he’s here too?”

            “Seems that way. Don’t know what kinda trouble he got into but…yes, he’s probably here as well. An unfortunate coincidence I assume.”

            “But…he hates you.”

            “Yes, I’m well aware Nolan.” Arminius scowls. “I should have tried harder to speak to him at the boxing gym… Shit.”

            “You merely tried not to push him,” Nolan assured.

            “Yeah well, now we don’t have a choice.” Arminius looks at Nolan concerningly. Nolan stands up, looking as though he is going to leave. “I’m not saying let's go right now.” Arminius scolds, Nolan sits back down in the chair.

            “Then when?”

            “We’ll talk to him tomorrow, after school. Tell him you need to see him after class, and that’s where we’ll do it.”

            “A bit risky doing it at the school isn’t it?” Nolan asks. “What if he flares up? Or runs?”

            “We’ll just have to deal with that problem if it arises,” Arminius replies. “We can’t afford to wait any longer, we’re already late to the party and with him here… Aidan’s life is in serious jeopardy.”