The Conduit
822 Words
Joe stretched his arm out and magically, he could feel the knife coming back to him.
"How long is this going to take?", he asked, impatiently.
"It's probably far away or you're not pulling strong enough. Order him to get back... and you pull with a strong mind"
Joe sighed and closed his eyes. "Come back!". The knife flew back to his hand. "Wow! That was fast!".
"No", Toby objected. "That was weak. You'll get better anyways".
"What next?"
"We're leaving".
"How are we gonna do that?"
"Hypnosis", Toby replied. "Say goodbye".
Joe walked to the click to say goodbye.
"Don't forget us, Joe", Chuma said.
"I won't".
"Come back for us", Ada added and Joe kissed her. This time, he led the kiss.
"I will".
As Joe walked towards the gates, they could see a wind behind him. Joe didn't see a wind. He could see a million Soldiers, accompanying him to war. The others stood where they were and watched Joe perform whatever magic he planned.
"What do you want?", one of the soldiers questioned him as he approached. He kept looking at his back as if he expected someone to show up. He seemed to be unaware of Soko's mysterious death.
"You have these ghosts in your hands, use them", Toby said.
Something told Joe what he needed to do. He made a gesture, as if he was throwing something at the Soldier. The soldier stood still, hypnotized, as a ghost entered him.
"Open the gate", Joe said and the Soldier obeyed the command without questions.
Joe walked out, followed by the wind.
★★★ ★★★ ★★★
"A mortal Messiah is born
From the darkest of origins
Accompanied by ghosts of war
Fighting alongside fantasies.
"Followed by a mystique wind
And a petrifying stance of old gods
Tails of fiercest soldiers pinned
And their heads rub the mud.
But a great war lies ahead".
Odogwu began his weird poems, just after Joe left. The people still wondered how Joe got the soldier to open the gate but they didn't dare to try their luck's.
Ada sat on the ground. Idris and Alex sat beside her and Chuma was standing. They all had that weird boring look on their faces. Everyone seemed still as they carefully listened to Odogwu as he chanted his usual poems.
★★★ ★★★ ★★★
Two soldiers showed up as Joe kept walking. He threw ghosts at them and they became hypnotized, like the rest.
He got to the park where the soldiers kept their vehicles. Two soldiers were returning from wherever they had been called and met Joe.
"Stop there! who are you?", Joe could hear, as they approached him from the back.
'Duck!', something told him and he bent, quickly, as two bullets flew over him. Still bent, he threw ghosts over his head and they got hypnotized.
Joe walked over to them. "I need a vehicle".
"Take any of them", one soldier replied.
"Where's the key to that big one?", Joe asked, pointing to one of the vehicles.
"Uthman has the keys to all of them. He's coming"
Before the Soldier stopped talking, the Soldier he was referring to had already showed up. Uthman suspected that something was off but he didn't react rashly. He needed to be sure if his fellow soldiers were actually talking to a civilian or something else was going on.
"Hey Soldier, I need the key to that car over there", Joe said.
"And who are you? Who is he?", Uthman asked the soldiers who just remained still and silent.
"They're hypnotized", Joe said and Uthman pulled out a gun. Immediately, Joe threw a ghost at him and hypnotized him.
"The key", Joe said and Uthman handed it to him. "Thank you".
Joe got in the car, started it and zoomed off. The soldiers regained their consciousness.
"What just happened?", Uthman asked, confused.
The other two couldn't explain exactly what happened.
"The car's gone", Uthman panicked. "We are dead!"
★★★ ★★★ ★★★
"Soko's dead", A leading soldier said, addressing the other soldiers. "And we can't explain how it happened?"
"It was a stab wound, sir", a young soldier replied, nervously.
"I have eyes too, Hakim", The Leading soldier replied. "Was any civilian found around him?"
"No, sir. All of them were free of their duties at the moment."
"Well, he couldn't have killed himself and then, made such a noise to attract everyone. Gather the working civilians and search them. Kill whichever one has a knife"
★★★ ★★★ ★★★
Joe drove, as fast as he could, away from the vicinity. There was a fast growing confidence in him and it scared him more.
"You could have waited for the gun", Toby said to him in the car.
"What gun?"
"The soldier's gun. You could have waited for it", Toby repeated. Joe was still confused.
"Sorry but is indestructibility part of the package?"
Toby smiled. "You could have stopped the bullet"
- Writer
