The Mark of the Infinite

They all began closing. The doors, the windows, any outside available for the small boy to head out through. They did so in his face, one by one slamming like a song of mocking for only him. This morning, as comfort for all the things that were happening, he wanted to go out, find Herocke, fly off to wherever he felt like. It was his kingdom after all, he could wherever he wanted to. But he awoke to this, every servant and maid shutting everything that gave air or light. He was too busy trying to find an exit to even ask why they were doing this. His steps were a signal for all the servants to watch and close. Everything he found was the shutting of light, of the birds singing, of the clouds, of the fairies, of the angels, of the occasional dragon who flew by, even of the blue that Ricky had learned to adore.

“Stop!” he managed to shout, just when he was running down the halls full of crystal windows, the servants one by one dropping the curtains to cover the light.

Ricky tried to catch some glimpse of the light, but he was too late, and the light was always ahead until there was nothing but the artificial light from the halls of the castle. For the young boy it was still dark. He then though of the back entrance, surely it would be open right? He dashed forward to it, everywhere that once held a window or a door, shut or covered. He found it then, a bright light coming from the shinning sun outside. The back entrance, he smiled excitedly, his pace quickening forward to it. He could feel the natural light envelop him, nourish him and gave him the energy he needed to push himself forward. He was so close. He could touch the handle of the door, open it and take in the free hair. But then it was closed, a maid turning the key to it shut, then covering the beautiful light with the curtains. Ricky had then stopped, the force too much that he had even tripped, but luckily he found his balance quick and stood, looking as his last chance to go outside was shut and covered as the rest. He starred at the maid with a pleading gaze, hoping that maybe she would be kind enough to open it and let him out.

The maid could only stare with pity, a bow and an “I’m very sorry, your majesty.”. She continued down the halls with her usual business, key safe in the pockets of her long skirt.

Ricky remained starring at her until she disappeared through another hall, leaving the young prince alone in this area. Everything was silent, and dark, only but small dim lights that weren’t enough to really light up the halls in their entire splendor. Ricky could only feel one ray of pure sunshine, he didn’t notice it until the burning heat was felt on his back. He turned, the light, although small, glowed like it was the very sun to someone who was just denied of it. This small window was high up in this particular wall, in the very center shinning on him like the star of this room. Could he reach it? He though quickly. Two separate pair of stairs were at either side, but none of the two was close enough to give him leverage. There was nothing he could do, he was officially stuck.

“Do you agree with any of this?”

“Orders of the council.”

“But the poor boy,”

“It is for his safety, and own good, you know what happened, he’s more at risk than anyone in this castle.”

“Are his lessons going to start soon?”

“I assume so. We can’t leave the kingdom kingless for long.” At no point did Ricky turn to hear all these conversations.

They were all the same anyway, no matter which servant or maid passed, guard or official, all their words were the same, of the boy who sat under the only sunlight he had. For the rest of the day Ricky had stayed in the spotlight, sitting, starring with inner bliss out at the blue sky. There was no other comfort than this, and no servant could move him from the spot, despite the calls and even getting his best friend to do something about it. He was caged to that singular light, hypnotized to be a serving to it. Suriel thought that maybe he could do something about it. From the shadows he came and moved closer to the boy, waving and trying to catch his attention somehow.

The boy saw nothing but the light, he was paralyzed at it, and as Suriel came closer, he noticed that the boy’s eyes were blank to it. A silly though that came to his mind was that the sun burned his sight. It only made him more worried for the boy, placing his hands on his shoulder and trying to shake him from his stance. Nothing, in fact, he couldn’t even move the boy. It was like trying to move a heavy rock. What was going on?

“He can’t see or feel you.” He heard a sudden voice, making him stand abruptly, looking around to see where it came from.

When did it become this dark? Much of the castle had begun to disappear, the only things left being the wall where the window was, and the boy sitting in a single circle of light.

“Whatever you do it’s not going to work.” The voice spoke again, and once again Suriel turned and turned and found nothing.

“But I have faith in you.” He was really beginning to get scared, paralyzed just as the boy, as nothing still appeared.

He felt so expose, like any moment now someone would come and attack, kill him in the spot without any ounce of mercy.

“You’re going to need some help.” It came closer, but yet he could not distinguish from where it was coming from.

It was tricking him, different spots for him to check every time. Then the laughter began, if it wasn’t terrifying enough.

It was sudden, how he felt the presence of someone behind him. Not behind him, more like above him. A figure basically flew down, her long black dress flowing along with all the darkness of the room, reminding Suriel of some sort of dark angel. He couldn’t really see her, despite the fact that she was there, her hands now caressing his face dearly. Despite the smooth touch, it wasn’t soothing at all, in fact Suriel had never felt so endangered in his life. She continued to laugh, evilly, and Suriel quickly wondered why was that. That’s when he noticed that her simple white fingers began to change, turning into vicious black claws, which begin to dig into the skin of his head. He couldn’t scream, couldn’t jolt, but he could feel the agonizing pain, the claws now burning, basically wanting to melt or explode his head. Blood began to trickle down his body, even staining her black claws, yet she didn’t mind, if anything digging them deeper into his skull, finding joy in it.

-o-

A tap to the window, and Suriel had awoken, shaking nervously enough to shake the entire car. Gensel stared worriedly from the outside, tapping the window yet again to catch his attention. It took a while for Suriel to take in his surroundings, to remember everything from last night, and to realize that he was still here. His hands raised to his face, to feel his head completely, no trace of holes created by dark claws. He felt such a relief. It was only a dream, a dream. And yet Gensel remained outside, blinking and waiting until Suriel relaxed enough to speak to him.

“Hey, are you okay?” he asked.

Suriel nodded, now managing to sit up and look around him.

“Where are we?”

“Dinner, here in Arizona, though we stopped for breakfast before continuing.” Oh yeah right, and he was indeed hungry.

He quickly got down from the car and followed Gensel inside, taking their seats by a near window. Like Gensel had said, it was a dinner just off the side of the road, old it seemed, decorated with a fifties theme that was expected of such restaurants. Suriel felt like a real runaway with this. They were handed their menus by a male waiter, who was quick in his moves, and had swiftly continued with the rest of the customers, only giving them both a quick good morning. That was how they liked it. The both of them were silent as they starred at the things available in the menu. The waiter quickly asked for their food, and the silence continued as they simply sat there waiting. Suriel poked around with the salts and peppers, playing along with them as some sort of entertainment. Gensel just couldn’t let it remain like this for the rest of the day.

“Is everything okay?” he asked, hoping it would get his attention enough to leave the two spices.

It didn’t, and although he heard him and simply nodded without really answering anything, he continued to play along with the little bottles. But soon enough he got bored from them, placing them back on their place before he looked up to Gensel. He was tired, and it was obvious that something was annoying him.

“Weird dream.” He simply said.

Gensel chuckled, it seemed he wasn’t the only one, but he didn’t say much on it. Who knew if Suriel’s had been more traumatizing or even something personal that he didn’t want to dig into? He decided to think of something else they could talk about, but he was interrupted by the waiter, who seemed to balance hundreds of plates on a single hand and hip. It seemed so stressful, leaning from time to time to fall. Gensel and Suriel tried to offer some help, holding out their arms to try and save any plate that just might fall.

“I got this! I got this!” he declared, proclaiming it rather happily.

A glass had then fallen, which luckily Suriel had grabbed it on time.

“That is your water sir.” From the mess of plates he took out a single one, which was balanced somehow in the middle and he then offered to Suriel.

“Your oatmeal and sandwich,” He placed it gently on the table.

Another plate was just to fall on Gensel’s head, which the waiter took right on time, just inches away from his face.

“Your Ham and cheese sandwich,” Then it was placed just as Suriel, both their foods looking great, despite being on the verge of falling down on the ground, table…or on them.

“And finally,” From the mess of plates, he took a small cup, placed on the table with such a relief.

“Your raspberry tea, hope you enjoy.” Ah yes, he could finally move to the next customer, and not a single plate broken on the table.

Yet, as soon as he turned, a spoon had fallen off, and thus he had tripped, everything he had on himself falling to the ground in a loud crash, food stained the floor as well as himself. All of eyes of the dinners starred at him and the huge mess, a long silence as the waiter could only sit there and turn red from the embarrassment. Another waiter had come, this time a female who took notice of the situation, glaring at the waiter menacingly. Even Gensel and Suriel felt scared by that stare.

“It’s coming out of my paycheck, isn’t it?”

“Well what else did you expect?” she scolded, snapping at him to get to clean before she continued to ask the cook to make the same dishes again, as well as get one of the waiters at the back to continue working while Luis cleaned up his mess.

With a heavy sigh he began picking up shards of breaking plates and glass, taking a cleaning cloth from his apron to begin cleaning much of the liquids. Suriel couldn’t let him deal with this alone, so he stood from his table and kneeled down to help, picking up many of the pieces alongside him. Gensel soon followed, picking up much of the fallen food and placing it on some of the remaining full plates.

“You don’t really need to help,” he told them.

“It’s all right.”

“We can’t just let you deal with this alone.” And so the three of them began cleaning the area, until much of the pieces were off the floor and placed in the trash, all that was missing was a mopping.

Gensel and Suriel had returned to their food, watching constantly if the waiter needed anymore help. As they starred, Suriel noticed something particular. Around his neck he had a key necklace. Suriel had seen many types of key necklaces, some that were honestly fake and were simply meant as an accessory to wear. This one, this one seemed like an actual key. Intricately design like a city key, gold and carved in a diamond or opal vine design around it. It showed a great amount of wealth, probably even an antique, just certainly not something that a mere waiter from a broken down dinner would poses.

“Luis!” Suriel had called out, he had noticed the name tag. “Where did you get that?” he asked, clearly pointing to the necklace.

“Oh, this?” he picked it between his fingers like it was nothing, just…a key.

“A great aunt of mine left it for me in a will back when I was a kid. Just recently I found it, though it looked cool and decided to wear it.” He explained simply, then continuing with his mopping, he was almost done.

“So what does it open?” he asked.

A key like that surely opened something incredibly valuable.

“I don’t think it opens anything, I mean…” he headed towards their table, picked a napkin from the table and then took off the key.

He held it like a pencil, and to the surprise of both, he clicked the bottom, and voila, a point came out…and he proceeded to write his name on the napkin and a smiley face. It was a fucking pen. Suriel was slightly disappointed.

-o-

He was getting tired, his legs would surely give up any second now, yet they managed to pull along, quicken his pace, run faster to wherever this road will lead. The brown leather gym bag bounced along with his hurried steps from the hold of his hands, hitting him constantly, but it was nothing compared to the strain that his legs were surely suffering. He looked back, the police car was just making a turn, ready to reach him. Goddammit. He needed to hide somewhere quick. There were no trees in the quick vicinity, only but a small dinner that he noticed, close for him. He was in a hurry, and decided to hide there until then. His fast pace never stopped as he headed closer, noticing two other men heading out of the dinner, both making their way towards the car.

“Did you leave an extra tip for him?” Suriel had told Gensel, who was currently searching his keys in his pockets, but he couldn’t reach them.

They were already standing on either side of the car, Suriel waiting for Gensel to open, but he still continued to fidget with his pockets, not coming in contact with it.

“Hey guys!” Luis had called from the restaurant, holding the keys that Gensel was looking for.

“Did you drop this?” Gensel nodded eagerly, watching as Luis came forward to hand it in.

Just then, they heard something smash at the car, not another car, simply another person. Suriel had jumped, startled, moving back afraid that this person would do something to them. He was tired, breathing heavily, finally catching his breath as he rested momentarily at the back of the car. Gensel and Luis stood equally surprised, heading closer to the man, only easily, for they were also quite scared.

“Uh…” Suriel uttered.

“Is this your car?” everyone jumped back with their hands in the air, the menacing look in his eyes seeming like he was to bring pain to anyone who as so much touched him.

Suriel and Luis pointed immediately over to Gensel, who turned nervously, as if trying to find an escape, but he had no choice than to come to face to face with this stranger.

“Where’s the key?” he asked, managing to stand, heading over to him, Gensel moved back towards the car that was parked next to his.

He stood terrified, not even managing to utter a word.

“Uh…I have the key.” Luis, unaware, just raised the key for everyone to see.

Suriel rolled his eyes and groaned, and Gensel just wanted to sink into the concrete and hope for everything to pass around him without getting hurt.

“Unlock it!” he ordered, and Luis did, Gensel tried to signal him to not to, but it was already too late.

Before he knew it, this stranger picked Gensel easily and basically threw him to the back of the car.

“Get in!” he commanded to Suriel, and he did so as well, deciding to sit beside Gensel.

He now regretted not bringing his taser, and who knows if this dude had something with him to hurt them, he couldn’t runaway either and just leave Gensel like this.

“And you!” he then pointed over to Luis, who still stood with the keys in his hands, petrified without knowing what to do either.

Since Luis wasn’t really doing anything, he groaned and basically grabbed him from the apron, took the keys, and then just threw Luis into the car as well.

“Wait! Wait! I can’t go! I have to go back to work.” But Rei didn’t care, he got in himself and took the wheel, placing in the key and turning on the engine.

“Hey! What are you trying to do?” Suriel finally managed to ask, just helping Gensel to sit up straight in his seat, who still seemed shocked, coming to the conclusion that his parents’ car was getting stolen…with him in it.

“Shut up! I just need to get away for a second! I’ll give you guys back the car in a second!” he shouted at them, moving the breaks and driving the car out of there, fast without really taking in consideration that he was easily going over the speed limits, as well as he was an easy track for the police to see him.

-o-

The big screen presented everything to him, how Rei stole the car, how Gensel sat panicking at the back, on the brink of a nervous breakdown, Suriel screaming at the thief to stop the car and give it back. He really seemed like he was to punch him soon. And then there was Luis, who was still crouched in the front seat, face against the door, legs extending over to the driver’s seat, his rear up for Rei to clearly see. That was an uncomfortable position and it seemed comical to the male who saw this. What a way to die, George thought to himself as he gazed at everything. The theater was empty, dark with only the lights of the movie playing. Only but a red button was there, which began to glow then, signifying that he should be sending his companion to work on the necessities to welcome the new arrivals. He pressed it, and a compartment opened to a microphone.

“Ashley!” he called.

It took a while, a lot of fussing and falling pieces before the girl picked it up.

“Yep?” she finally answered.

“Incoming. Group of four.”

“Four? All together?”

“Yes.” There was then silence.

She must have turned the microphone off at her side. He waited before he could hear sounds again, the same shuffling.

“I’ll use the pink fluffy room this time.”

“All right, Angelo and I will be waiting for you by the 4th hall.”

“Got it!” and the call was over, Ashley had a lot to prepare and it was best she went to work on it quick while the four of them were still alive.

George himself had to get going to help her.