Enigma of the Soul - Book 1 - Pieces (10 page)

David and Alfonzo race back to his sisters' homes, finding only one house still standing. Gale’s home is torn apart and covered in blood. Alfonzo notices something strange as they walk around the house.

“Where are the bodies? With this much blood, there should be bodies?” Alfonzo hears someone walk up to the back door. Alfonzo quickly turns invisible.

“Who is in there? Come out! Show yourself!” A man's voice echoes throughout the empty house.

David walks around the corner and stands face to face with his surviving brother, Dave. Dave’s face contorts from anger to tears as he sees his brother.

“It has been such a long time. How have you been? How have you held up since mom and dad past away? Look at you! You're all grown up now. How long has it been? Three maybe five years since the last time we have met. Its good to see you.” Dave gives David a big hug. “Wait till my wife and kids see you. Your sister came over from Joanne’s to help.”

“Wait, help with what?”

“With the funeral, we have eleven graves to dig,” Dave tries to hold back the tears as he thinks about what will to happen in the next day.

“Oh, I am sorry. I am still thinking about who did this,” David nods to Dave as he nods back. “If there is room for one more, I would love to help.” 

The two walk to the gravesite that is hidden in the nearby woods and halfway between the two houses. The brother and sister bought the land together shortly after their parents pasted away. They were always close when they were growing up. When the land came up for sale they combined their funds to purchase.

David sees his sister and family when they arrive at the gravesite. Joanne drops her shovel and runs to give David a hug. Dave’s wife and Joanne’s husband comes over to give David a hug also. No one says much between the tears of joy and sadness. Everyone just picks up something to dig with and finishes the eleven graves.

They build six bond fires around the massive gravesite for light. Yellow and orange light bounce off the dead bodies like the sun was coming up to say good morning. Sporadic clouds cover up the moon producing a slow strobe light effect. David and his family bury the dead one by one, starting with the youngest first. Everyone's cheeks rain with tears as if they were walking through a thunderstorm. Gale is the last to be buried. David looks at her face; her eyes look terrified. She had glared into the eyes of the monster before she was killed. David will never forget this look. He remembers Gale to be a kind, caring person that was willing to help anyone that needed it.

With the graves covered and the markers in the ground, David turns to his grieving family in a furious tone and says, “Who did this?”

“We asked around to see if anybody saw someone different, but a bunch of dead ends was all we got. Someone passed through town like a ghost.” Dave shakes his head at David.

“I think that I need to go and ask some questions. If I find the person that did this, I'm going to kill them, then hang their body from the town square so this will never happen again,” David's eyes change color to a fiery red tone.

Alfonzo prepares for war.

A couple of months pass as David continues to hunt for the person that killed his family. Dead end after dead end greets him at every door he knocks.

'Nobody knows anything.' David thinks to himself. 'Where did this killer disappear to? Why did the killer choose my sister and brother, of all people, to kill? Why was one house burnt and the other one not even touched? So many questions.'

David stops in front of an outdoor market. Something that belongs to him and only him is calling to him from the market. Something that went missing along time ago and he never noticed it until now. His soul is drawn to it. He tries to shrug if off, but the feeling only grows stronger as he walks away.

Turning around, David walks deeper and deeper into the market not knowing where he will end up. The closer he gets to an open air restaurant the more he is drawn to it. His feelings get stronger when he stops behind a man eating lunch. He does not know this stranger in front of him, nor never has met in his life. Nevertheless, something in his soul is calling to him to talk to him. David knows that there is no turning back. He takes the seat next to the stranger and orders something to eat. David glances over at the stranger’s plate of food and does not recognize what it is.

“Excuse me, what are you eating? It looks rather tasty.”

“It is veal. I have found in my travels that this little restaurant makes the best in all the land.”

David watches the cook prepare his food as he waits. The chef smiles at the new and old customers alike as he stirs, dice, and mix the contents of David's dish.

“Is the cook friendly?” David asks the stranger.

“Yes, he is, but it is sometimes better if you direct a question in the direction of the person that you wish to speak to, meaning the cook,” the stranger takes a couple of more bites of his food trying to ignore David.

“I'm sorry if I have offended you in any way. Here let's start over.” David puts out his hand for the stranger. “My name is David, David Turner, and I am just passing through looking for someone.”

The stranger never looks in David's direction nor shakes his hand. He just chews his food and clears his throat. “My name is Devan, and I like to keep to myself.”

“Pleasure to meet you, Devan. You seem like a truly smart man and probably very handsome, too. What leads you to these parts of the country?” David ignores Devan's
comment, probing for answers to find a killer.

“Soul searching. Now, if you don't mind, I would like to get back to enjoying my food.”

“Soul searching, aye. Boy, I did some of that back a couple of years ago and have been doing some more these last couple of months. You know, I have always found it quite interesting that when you look for something long enough. You tend to find it.” David takes a couple of bites of his food. “Mmmmm, this is good. My compliments to the chef.”

The cook thanks David with a smile, then glances at Devan's face. The cook goes from cheerful to fearful in seconds. David's feelings become uneasy. Devan finishes his meal, pushes his plate away from him and scoots his chair back.

“If you say one more thing, I'm going to have to do something seriously bad to you,” Devan continues to glare straight forward.

‘David, it is time to go! This in not the time nor place for a fight. Just leave this man alone and get out here before anything or anyone gets hurt.’ Alfonzo says to David in his head.

David finishes his dish, pushes the empty plate away, and thanks the cook for the meal again. He gets up and walks a couple of steps. David has the sense that Devan is watching his every move. David stops and turns towards Devan to say.

“Be careful, there is a killer out there somewhere, and he is not particularly nice either.”

“Thanks, I'll watch my back,” Devan replies.

David and Devan’s eyes connect. They are surprised to find something that neither one has ever seen before. Both of them swear that they saw little pieces of their soul in the other’s eyes. Neither one moves for a couple of seconds until Alfonzo speaks up in David's head to take him out of the trance that he is in.

‘Come on! Let’s go!’ Alfonzo says in David's head.

David turns and walks away, wondering where Devan fits into his life now. Devan pays his and David's tab. They walk away in the opposite directions.

Devan thinks to himself,' You want to see a killer, David. Then let me show you a real killer. One that you won't be able to stop.'

David walks back to his sister’s home. He knows that the killer will show up, and he will be waiting for them.

'It is only a matter of time before the killer hunts down all of my living family members to finish them off. But this time around things will be different. Things are different; I am different; and my surviving family has changed, too. The only thing left to do is to take a much larger role in their lives. This change starts today.' David thinks to himself as he turns the corner at the end of the street that his sister lives on.

David arrives at his sister's home and knocks on the front door. Waiting patiently, he listens to the children play inside. David's sister yells at the kids and tells them to go outside if they are going to make all this noise. David tries not to laugh as he can hear his sister get closer to the front door. The front door swings open with a creaking sound.

“You know that you don't have to knock anymore now that you are in town. Besides that, you are family,” Joanne says she lets him into the house.

“I thought that it would be nice and gentlemanly-like if I did this. Besides, I like hearing you scream and yell at your kids. You do it quite nicely,” David begins to mock her as he walks past her towards the kitchen. Lucien slugs him on the arm and laughs.

Lucien turns to David and says, “So are you going to be around a lot more now?”

David replies, “Times are changing, fast and I am changing just as fast, too.”

That night David sat down with Joanne and her family to have the first home cooked meals he had in a long time. David slept on their couch peacefully through the night as Alfonzo slept in one of the many trees surrounding the house. She kept watch over David and his family as the unknown whispered in the night.

In the morning, David tells Joanne and family that he needs some time alone and he will be in the woods if is needed.

David’s appointment with Alfonzo to learn new spells and abilities has been long over due. He quickly learns that he is not as dedicated as he thinks in the meeting, repeatedly falling flat on his face.

“Why can't I get this?” David says in frustration to Alfonzo.

“Because you are trying too hard. Relax your mind. Relax your body and then you shall do this with ease.”

“This should be the easiest thing that you will ever teach me. Controlling fire should be a piece of cake. So why can't I do it?”

“Look, you need to stop being so hard on yourself. You need just to relax and let it come naturally to you. If you keep this up, you’re going to blow us up. Relax; it will come to you,” Alfonzo says flying to a branch closer to David.

“So, what do you think that I should do?” David puts his arms up in the air.

“Just listen to me, and you will be doing it in no time flat. First, hold your hands out in front of you with your hands cupped facing up in the sky. Second, close your eyes and relax your breathing. Relax your body to let the energy flow through you. Last, concentrate on making a ball of fire in your hands.”

“Okay, but if this does not work, I am giving up for awhile,” David scratches his head.

David gets into a comfortable stance and begins to do what Alfonzo told him. He closes his eyes, cups his hands, and slowly breathes as he concentrates on a fireball in his hands. Alfonzo watches the fireball form from nothing. It gets to the size of a cantaloupe, freely floating within his hands. Alfonzo tells David to open his eyes. David slowly opens his eyes to see a floating ball of fire

“Look what I have done! I did it! I have created fire from nothing,” David shouts as he begins to play with the fireball. Showing off, he throws it into the air, and gets cockier by the minute.

“You know, the true fire master can throw the fire ball away from them and make it return.”

“Watch this,” David launches the fireball and it lands fifty feet away from him and Alfonzo. Standing there, David tries to control the ball of fire from this distance. Nothing happens. David takes a couple of steps forward and hopes this may solve his problem. David tries again but only gets the fireball to roll around on the ground. David stops, scratches his head, and wonders what went wrong. He looks at Alfonzo for an answer but gets nothing in return. David tries something drastic. He puts both hands forward and concentrates hard making his hands shake. The fireball rocks back and forth. Bursts of fire shoot from the ball as it lifts off the ground. The ball grows and changes before David and Alfonzo's eyes. Paws, a body, and a tail emerge from the fire. Lastly, a head forms with two eyes staring back at David. A fiery lion stands forty feet away from David. David puts down his hands to admire his fine handiwork.

“So, you think that your pretty good at summoning fire?”

“Don’t you realize what I just created? I have what it takes to do this and more.”

The fiery lion roars at David. David turns to see what the lion is doing. David and the fiery lion are only fifteen feet away as it roars even louder. David screams in sheer terror as he turns and runs to get away from the fiery lion. Sprinting away from the lion, David dodges trees and bushes. The lion gains on David with each step he takes. Crunching and popping sounds bounce off trees as David and the lion race through the woods. David looks over his shoulder for a split second and sees the lion getting closer. Tripping on a small root, David falls forward with his hands reaching forward. The lion jumps over him and skids to a stop. David's body catches on a low hanging branch. The branch bends fashioning a slingshot with David being the projectile. As it reaches maximum, David stares into the fiery lion eyes and the lion snorts heavily back at him. David feels his body flying through the air. With a heavy thud, he smacks upside down into a tree. He falls to the ground headfirst. David rolls over only to see the fiery lion closing in on him. The fiery lion tackles him and David tries to fight the lion without success. Then David stops fighting because something is not right. He puts his arms down on the ground to realize that the fiery lion is licking him on his face. Alfonzo flies over to David landing by his head on the ground.

“Have you forgotten everything that I have taught you so far? You know, the reading of people's thoughts, the ability to transform into a phoenix, and lastly, that fact that fire cannot hurt you? Tsk, tsk,” Alfonzo flies away to a higher branch as the lion disappears.

“That was a mean trick you just played on me!”

“I thought that it was quiet funny.” Alfonzo snickers then asks. “Are you getting hungry? I’m famished.”

“Yes!” David replies as he stands to brush the dirt off.

David arrives at his sister's house just in time for lunch. He walks through the back door into the kitchen, sits down at the table, looks at everyone sitting down, and asks, “what's for lunch?”

The two kids crack up with laughter as Joanne and Lucien shake their heads back and forth. Joanne turns around to scold him but begins to giggle. David sits there clueless, wondering why everyone is laughing at him. Joanne holds out her pocket mirror in front of his face. Turning red from embarrassment, David wipes the dirt from his face, including the leaves plastered to his forehead. Lucien hands David a rag and a dry towel to clean himself up with.

“Back from adventure land, are we? Kill all those big bad dragons did we? But I'm betting that the pink elephant put up quite a struggle,” Lucien says trying to keep a straight face.

“Yeah, and the purple webble-wobbers put on an even bigger battle,” Justin says as he falls off his chair laughing.

Lucia joins in on the fun. She begins to make silly faces at everyone that making them laugh louder. Joanne, Lucien, and David act like kids again by making funny faces, noises, and just acting silly. The two kids fall on the floor with tears in their eyes with their sides aching from laughing so hard.

After a couple of minutes, the room becomes silent. The adults look at the children as they peer back at the adults with everlasting joy in their eyes. Joanne clears the air by clearing her throat and announces that it is time for lunch.

Everything had been going smoothly for a week. Sunday was the greatest lunch that they had ever had. That night was another night to be shared with laughter and food. Before the kids went to bed, David told stories about imaginary creatures and the different adventures that they went on. The next morning when David woke up, he noticed something that he had not felt in a long time. It was by far the best night sleep. David sits up and realizes that he is the only one in the house. Walking outside, he finds everyone in the backyard tending the garden. Alfonzo tells him that he slept for a day and a half. David cannot believe what Alfonzo told him, and he blurts it out loud to the phoenix. Everyone stops and stares at him, questioning if he is talking to himself and wondering if he is crazy. Alfonzo reminds David they cannot see a phoenix sitting on the edge of their roof. David laughs it off and helps with the gardening.