Enter Infinity

I stormed into my mother’s bedroom the morning after the discovery of my family’s journals. She was sitting at her desk with the side lamp on, which gave the room a dim glow.

Her hair was tied up into a bun, and she was looking at a photo that lay flat on the solid desk. When she heard me coming closer to her, she immediately slipped the photo into the desk drawer.

“Care to explain these?” I slammed the journals in front of her. I watched as her expression changed into guilt.

“Where did you find those?”

“Dakota found them hidden in Dad’s closet!” I realized my mistake when my mother smacked me in the face. Mentioning Dakota was a huge mistake.

“How dare you speak his name! Do you know the pain, and the suffering that boy put us through? Your father is dead Rain; he is dead because of him!” She began to cry. I couldn’t tell if it was out of anger, or because she was grieving.

“Do you even know his side of the story? I’m the only one who can see him, hear him and feel him. You don’t know the suffering he’s been through!” I was calm with my mom and wanted desperately for her to understand, to listen. I could still feel the sting on my cheek from where she hit me. Her fury turned into regret. She came to me with arms spread wide, and closed them around me.

“I’m so sorry, I can’t believe I hit you,” she cried, “I’ve been doing my best to protect you from his world. I should have known that fate would catch up with you eventually. I just didn’t know it would be this soon,” she wept.

“Mom, it’s okay. We need to focus on what’s happening right now. Something tragic could happen within the next few days and I don’t want you to get hurt.” I could feel the burn of tears swelling my eyes.

We sat on her bed together and we talked about everything. We talked about the journals and we even had a few laughs, until we were on the topic of my father.

“Your father and I met back in grade five. He was the new kid and I felt drawn to becoming his friend,” she explained, “He was always very strange. He wore ragged clothes and when we’d have sleepovers he’d wake up screaming from unexplainable nightmares. He knew what he was. He knew he was born a Warlock because his father explained everything to him at a young age. His father was a cautious man.” She hesitated.

“We discovered love in high school. I noticed that the feelings of friendship were changing. Jeremiah asked me out to dinner in the summer of grade eleven and that was our first kiss. We knew then. When we were twenty five when he asked for my hand in marriage. It was so wonderful, Rain.”

“Mom, why didn’t you tell me about how you and Dad met before? I would have loved to of heard it.” I asked.

“It’s a risky and upsetting topic darling.”

“So how did Dad die? I know now that it wasn’t an accident.”

“No, it wasn’t an accident at all. The shades, as you know now, are shadows of Dakotas past. They tortured your father for many years while he slept, but somehow they escaped the dream world. The shades had been released by the Executioner.”

“Who’s the Executioner?”

“He carries a four foot blade that weighs about two hundred pounds. He was the executioner in Dakotas’s time. He served King Helios Wolfe and killed whomever the king wanted dead.”

“So how did Dad die?” I began to shake. I knew that I didn’t want to know the answer but something inside of me wanted the actual truth.

“The Executioner,” she began and a tear ran down her face, “cut him in half. His body was found on the border of Dakota’s forest.”

“Why was Dad at the forest?” I wept.

“He was looking for the first Warlocks spell book, which was said to be buried with his remains in the enchanted forest. He was doing it to protect you.” She rolled onto her back and held her hands to her face, covering her eyes. She looked a lot smaller when she cried. My mother was so fragile and didn’t deserve any of this. I knew it was up to me to solve this problem. There was one more question that needed to be answered.

“Mom, did I ever have a brother?”

She sat up in the bed and stepped over to her desk. She pulled out the photo from earlier and handed it to me. In the photo was my Mom in a hospital bed holding two new born babies. I gasped and couldn’t believe it was true.

“He’s your twin. Your father and I decided to put him up for adoption. We hoped that if he was far away from all of this, the curse would end. Leave him alone, for I couldn’t bear to see my son get hurt. We were afraid for him because he was a male. Since there was no record of a female being born into the family, we thought that you would be more safe, more likely to survive all of this. I regret ever giving away your brother. When we sent him to the adoption center, your father sent his journal along with him.”

“Do you know who adopted him? Where can I find my brother?”

“He was adopted into a family not to far from here. We were disappointed that he wasn’t
sent very far away. He lives in the next town over and his name is Claude. That is all I know darling.”

I heard foot steps coming down the hall. I thought it was Dakota so I ran to the door. When I got to the door I knew something was wrong and that it wasn’t Dakota at all.

“What’s wrong?” my mom asked.

“Get down,” I yelled at her.

My mom instantly fell to the ground beside the bed. A giant bang hit the ground outside the door. Then the door shattered into tiny pieces of wood. A massive creature threw itself into the room. It had a bloody potato sack on its head, and its body was large and its skin looked rough. It wore no clothes. It had hooks attached to its skin with dangling shackles attached.

In its left hand was a massive, rusty meat cleaver. The monster raised the weapon high and I luckily ducked before it was able to decapitate me.

“Mom you need to get out of here. I’ll distract him!”

A spur of bravery charged through me. I darted towards the creature and threw myself into it. It fell backward into the hall, leaving me enough space to squeeze by and run down the hardwood floors. I needed it to follow me. Little did I know that the creature could run faster than I. I tripped at the end of the hall, and before I could get to my feet, its hand was reaching to grab me.

I was about to scream when I felt a warm liquid hit my face. Opening my eyes I saw that it was blood. Dakota stood in front of me with a sword that was usually hung on the living room wall. The creature’s arm that was out to grab me was no longer there.

“Get out of here Rain, get your mother too,” he gasped as the creature began to attack.

“Please be careful Dakota!” I ran back for my Mom’s bedroom. I could hear the clanging of the two blades striking each other.

“Mom lets go. We have to climb through the window!”

“Where’s the monster? Are you hurt?” she asked when she saw the splattered blood on my t-shirt.

“Dakota’s taking care of it, you go first.”

The jump would be a little difficult and we’d have to be careful not to break a limb. My mom went first and I came tumbling after. We bolted for her car, started the ignition and then began to drive.

“What the hell was that thing?”

“Rain, I couldn’t see it. Only those with the sight can.”

I explained to her what it looked like and the weapon it carried.

“I don’t have any idea who that could have been. Why did Dakota help us?”

“He helped us because he’s not the bad guy our families put him out to be.” My tone was serious. I owed Dakota so much for what he did for me. It was because of him my mother was not injured. It had to end.

“Where should we go?”

“No matter where we go Mom, they’ll find me.”

Suddenly, what I had read at Cassandra’s the other day burst through my mind. The words ‘What do you believe’ were like a broken record in my head.

“Take me to Cassandra’s and I want you to get a hotel room for yourself. It’s not safe at home anymore.”

“I can’t just sit around at a hotel room knowing that you’re not safe!”

“Well you’re going to have too,” I was stern with her.

I stared out the window for the fifteen minutes it took to get to Cassandra’s place. My Mom and I said our goodbyes. Instead of knocking like I usually did, I charged right into her house and darted up the stairs to her room.

“Cassandra, I need you to track that nerds blog. Get any information you can on this guy,” I pulled a chair up beside her at the computer desk.

“Why does it matter who he is?”

“He may be my brother.”

“What? You don’t have a brother.”

“Okay. Here’s the deal. The other day when you sent me back to the forest to ‘face my destiny’, a doe led me two miles into the forest where I found a castle. When I entered the castle, Dakota was awaiting my company and took me to the tower where he told me about his tragic past. After that I went home, had a nightmare that Dakota woke me from. Then we made-out a bit and the next morning we found old journals that belonged to my ancestors in my Dad’s office. And today I confronted my mom about them and it turns out I’m half warlock, who happens to have a brother who had been adopted. We were just attacked by a huge fucking monster, escaped through a window and I don’t know if Dakota is safe or not. Jeez I just want this shit to end!” I caught my breath. I told her the story as fast as possible.

“Wow, that’s pretty crazy. Are you okay?”

“So, you believe me?”

“Of course I do. And I know why you need info on this guy.”

“My Father gave my brother his journal. I need it”

“Okay, I’m on it. Give me ten minutes,” she winked at me and focused on the computer screen.

“I found an address. He lives on 57 Scottsdale Avenue. I’ll get the directions off Google
map.”

A second later she printed off the directions and handed them too me.

“Well I guess I’m driving,” she said.

“No way, you are not getting involved in this.” I shook my head. I couldn’t risk losing her.

“Well, I have my G2 and you do not. How else do you plan to get to the next town over?” She had a point.

“Fine let’s go.”

By the time we arrived at our destination it was late afternoon. Cassandra and I stepped out of the car. The house was a small bungalow, with a triangular roof. Its windows were once a pale blue but were now chipped and faded as if it hadn’t been painted in years. There were bushes that hadn’t been trimmed, growing up the side of the house.

“This place is sketchy,” Cassandra pointed out.

“Thanks, I’ve noticed.”

We walked to the front door, rang the bell and as expected it opened before our eyes. A
tall woman, mid thirties, wearing a trashy outfit stared Cassandra and I down. She looked like she just took a shot of heroine.

“What do ya kids want? I ain’t got no money,” she said in a deep southern accent.

“Sorry ma’am. Were here to have a word with your son,” I said politely.

“Are you girl’s friends of his?”

“Of course we are. May we come in?”

“Whatever.”

The trampy mother led us to her son’s bedroom.

“Claude, your friends are here,” she said and staggered down the hall.

We stepped into Claude’s room and the boy who sat on the bed, hands in his lap, was not what I was expecting at all. From the looks of his mother, I was expecting someone a little more hardcore. This boy was handsome and cute, with a grey button up shirt and dark blue, boot cut jeans.

“Rain, he looks just like you,” Cassandra whispered so Claude couldn’t hear.

“I knew you would come. You’re my sister aren’t you?” he finally spoke. His voice wasn’t deep or rough. It was soft.

“How do you know about me?”

“Take a seat. Make yourself at home.”

“Thanks,” Cassandra and I said in sync.

“I had a nightmare about you. The Shadow Lord told me who you were and that you would come to me. He said he was going to kill you before it became possible,” he began to explain.

“Who’s the Shadow Lord?” Cassandra asked.

“That’s what the King likes to be called nowadays.”

“Weird,” I said.

“How did you find my address?” Claude asked.

“I tracked your blog and it led me right to your address,” Cassandra exclaimed, taking
full credit for Claude’s whereabouts.

“Well then, we have a few things we need to discuss,” I said, staring intently at the
brother I never knew I had. “First, I would like to see my… our fathers journal. I need to see if there is anything in it that could lead me to the first warlocks spell book.”

Claude stood and walked to his closet. He pulled out a hidden box, took the journal out of it and handed it to me.

“I suppose if all of this is real, I shouldn’t be posting it on a blog. Not that any of my readers will believe a word I write anyway.” He sat beside Cassandra and they exchanged glances. I was starting to sense some chemistry. I let out a small giggle.

“So how are my real parents? Are they nice people?” Claude stared at the floor as if it was impossible to make eye contact.

“They’re wonderful! Our Mom is beautiful and kind. We live in a great house not far from here. It would be great if you were able to come live with us. I’m sure Mom would love to take custody of you,” I said with hope in my voice. I felt sorry for Claude. He seemed like a great guy with a horrible life at home.

“That would be great wouldn’t it? I would do anything to get away from here. I’ve put up with a lot of bullshit with my foster mother. Every day I tend to her while she’s high off cocaine. I can’t do it anymore, I want a normal life,” he hesitated, “Tell me about our Father. What’s he like?”

“He was a great man. He did everything for his family and lost his life protecting me. He was looking for the first warlocks spell book before he was attacked.”

“That’s a shame. I’ve read through the entire journal and there’s not much useful information on the spell book. All it said was that it could be found in Dakota’s enchanted forest, where the first warlock himself was buried.”

“Maybe Dakota knows something about it. I need to find him. Claude, are you coming?”

“Sure, I’ll take my car and follow behind you.”

“Great, we’ll find him at the castle I’m sure,” I said and we all headed for our vehicles.