Purity

Chapter Five

The next morning, I woke up feeling refreshed and well slept. I get up to begin my usual morning routine. Bakery for bread, Butcher for veil. After getting the veil from the butcher, I make my way home to prepare my egg cart for todays rations. Once I get to the house, I get a sudden feeling. A horrible feeling. Like, way bad feeling. Was it the same thing from the night before at the town hall? No. This is way worse than that feeling. As I start walking closer to the hen house behind the house, my ears seemingly go silent for a moment. Then I hear it. The most menacing and putrid snarl bellowed from inside the hen house. My heart sunk deep into my toes and with a flash of light I ran to the side of the hen house to peer over into the mesh window. Were one of the hens hurt and making such a vial noise? No way, I’ve never heard a noise like that come from a chicken. As I peek into the window, I see a goblin. Small, skinny and green with evil death-filled red eyes stuffing its face with the hens. Blood poured down its Chin onto the weathered cloth made robe it was wearing.

“Eghhh! HAhaahaha!” The goblin shouted in a strange, raspy and higher than a normal human pitched voice, “I can smells you human. *snort* You smells like fear and fresh PURE blood. I needs a taste of you! So delicious that’s smell! *Snarl*”

Ok, Hell no, was all that was running through my mind. I bolted around the side of the house to the front for the door. In the moment, I felt a burst of energy like all those other times my powers activated, except this time, it was like a blue flame pulsing with my heartbeat. Not hot but almost cold like fresh rain drops hitting your face. Mellow and sweet. Just then I began to smile and relax. Such a comforting feeling in the moment of fear. Fear… Then I remembered there’s a damned Goblin that wants to eat me! The flame went bright fiery orange, and I began running faster, faster. As I reach the front door, I reach my hand out to grab the handle. The door flies completely off its hinges, straight to the back wall of the living room, narrowly avoiding my father’s head. I ran into the kitchen, grabbed the largest knife I could find, and prepared myself for what was sure to walk through the hole where the front door used to be.

“James! What the hell did you-“ My father began to scream at me but was abruptly cut off by the bloodied snarling beast looking him straight in the face from the doorway.

“You smells foul old man! *Snort* *Snort* Nasty! Blech what Nasty blood YOU have. Smells like ass of chicken!’ Griped the goblin, “I wants the boys blood. That smell! So delightful! So PURE!”

The beast lunges at me and I move swift as the flip of a flame on a freshly lit torch. Mid lunge I kick the beast in its gut, and it pukes chunks of hen all over the kitchen floor.

“Aghk! You slimy little boy, why won’t you lets me just eats you and drink up all that pure blood!” Snarled the goblin while raising what looks like a chicken bone sharpened to a deadly point.

He lunges again but this time with the bone out in front. I slap his wrist, causing him to drop the bone and lurch my body forward. Knife in hand, I swing. Slice. The goblin drops to the floor with a violent jerk of muscle spasms. Thick purple liquid about the same texture as blood begins uncontrollably spraying out of its neck. Some of the liquid sprays in my face and I feel the sharp burning pain upon its contact to my skin. I begin panicking again because of the pain and ran to the washroom to wash it off my face. It burned like acid on my skin and smelled like hot tar and bad mead. My face was slightly red and swollen, the skin was irritated. I had no other marks on my entire body. I was untouched by the beast. I walk back into the living room and gaze into the kitchen. The goblin was still on the floor laying still in its bodily fluids. I killed a goblin. Sure, I should’ve been excited about my first kill, maybe, but I was sick to my stomach at this point. Not from the goblin, but my father. I destroyed the door and he and my mother were arguing about me in the living room. This day just keeps getting worse.

“Honey, he was being attacked by that thing! What do you expect him to do? Let it kill him?!” my mom cried.

“The boy is a traitor to his family and his townspeople Elaine! That was not magic, it was some strange beast tactic! The boy moved faster than anything I’d ever seen! He’s a monster, just like that thing he brutally murdered in our kitchen!”

First off, at least I know I’m not crazy. My father confirmed that I really WAS moving extremely fast. I was happy for a moment that I wasn’t going nuts or hallucinating these things. Then, I was thrown into a fit of absolute rage. My father thinks so lowly of me because of something I still had no control or understanding of. That’s it, I’ve had enough.

“Really dad? I’m a traitor because I can’t use magic, like a cleric? I’m a monster because I have some strange power I don’t even understand?! What, do you think I’m not your real son now too? Is that why you favor Marcus and Seth over me? Was it a gut feeling from the beginning? You want to cast me out of my own home because I’m different, is that it, Xavier?! I’m sick of this! I’m you son not your b***h housemaid you can just boss around and treat like crap! If it wasn’t for me, you’d all be dead! That thing would’ve finished off every hen and barreled in here to eat you!! Hell, a simple ‘thank you’ would suffice for the crap I just went through to protect you!” I ranted angrily.

My father just stood there in what seemed like a defensive stance, as if he were expecting me to tear him limb from limb. That just pissed me off more. No matter how angry I was with him, I wouldn’t lift a finger with harmful intent. He’s, my father. Just as he began to speak, I bolted out of the doorway and ran. I closed my eyes and just kept running. Eventually I began to feel exhausted. So, I throw myself backward toward the ground, but never hit the ground. Confused, I opened my eyes. I was floating, mid-air, 10 feet above the ground next to the tree of purity. What the hell is happening to me? Why can’t I figure out how I’m doing these things? Am I a monster like my father said? This has been the worst 12 hours of my life! Ok, maybe not the worst. I did get to see a beautiful bust by shear accident, which I wouldn’t mind seeing a second time. Lost in my daydreaming, I hear a voice. An angelically beautiful voice coming from below me. It’s Lei! She’s standing there at the base of the tree talking to herself.

“Where is he? He’s always at the road when I’m not even out of bed. Did his dad make him clean the house again? Why am I so anxious to see him? Is it because of last night? I didn’t think James ever looked at girls in that way, much less looked at ME that way. But why do I feel almost relieved that he saw me? God do I- Oh…. Oh God. I like James! Why did that feel like a huge weight lifted from my chest? Ok Lei you can do this. When you see him, confess your feelings to him? Oh, hell why am I so stupid?! As if he would ever like me back. I’m always picking on him for having longer hair than me and calling him a girl.” She throws her head back and covers her face. She opens her eyes and peers through the creases of her fingers. She noticed me floating above her, and her face turns red as a tomato.

“Jaimie?! How are you- How long have you been There?!” she gasped.

“I can explain Lei!” I quickly reply, “I wasn’t trying to listen, it just kind of happened. I’ve been here longer than you I just didn’t want to freak you out. Also, I don’t know how to stop floating.”

She rolls her eyes and climbs up the tree to my level.

“Just start explaining. And catch me” she says as she jumps out of the tree and land in my lap.

We sat there together, and I explained the entire scene with the goblin, my father, and now this.

“Honestly Lei, I liked you for a while now, I just didn’t really know how to tell you without sounding like a total moron.” I muttered.

“It’s totally fine Jaimie, I didn’t know I liked you until a few minutes ago. But maybe we should just stay friends for the time being” she remarked.

“Totally understandable,” I reply, “I don’t want to risk a friendship that I’ve had for so long just because of lust.”

“I didn’t say I lusted over you, asshole.” She giggled.

“You know what I mean, bitch.” I chuckle back.

Suddenly, I stopped floating and we began to fall. I landed feet first on the ground and caught Lei in my arms.

“Seriously,” Lei responds in shock, “You have to figure out how this thing works.”

“Yea I’ve grasped that much” I said.

We laughed and looked around. The sun was going down already, and we’ve completely wasted an entire day just floating in the air, literally. Today started off bad, but man was it all worth it to know that Lei has feelings for me! I feel like a million bucks. Once I walked Lei home, I was going to head home, but her father had other plans.

“Hey kiddo, I heard you and Father Xavier aren’t getting along to well.” He exclaimed, “If you want, you can stay here for a while.”

Now, I had no clue how he knew about my father and I’s debacle, but I wasn’t going to pass up an opportunity to get a break from it.

“I appreciate it Mr. Wortham” I reply graciously.

“You can just call me Michael.” He chuckled.

By this point I could call him dad. He’s been more morally supportive to me in the last 15 second than my father has been my entire life. He walks to the hallway and opens the little closet door, pulling out a spare pillow and blanket. While handing me the blanket, he explains that the room they have prepared for Zane isn’t being used because he is still a baby and sleeps in the room with Michael and his wife.

“Thank you so much Mr. Worth- Michael.” I spoke.

“No problem at all J. Stay as long as you need.’ He replied.

Lei and I stayed up for a few hours just talking about anything, as we usually do throughout the day. This time, it was at night, at her house. I didn’t really know what to say or do, thinking back on what happened earlier between us today, so it was nice to keep that subject avoided. Eventually, we both ended up passing out in the living room on opposite sides of the sofa. For the first time in a long time, I dreamed. I had an amazing dream of Lei and I Laughing and running down the street, seamlessly floating as to not feel the brick road under my feet. We ran to a cozy little home, and she opened the door. Apparently, it was our home. It seemed like we were together. And we had CHILDREN! I didn’t know whether I should wake up or be happy with the dream.