Memoria - Chapter 5 - Reactia

"Chosen path lays bare,1

he of night seeks his maker.2

Time is slipping as Reactia gathers,3

guardian, choose quickly" - Infinitum Liberati4

A dark home always exudes that elusive, lonely essence that makes you feel as if you're the only person in the world. Bare rays of faint light filter through the curtains, revealing the dark outline of a chair here, or a table there, only making the emptiness even more pronounced.5

Jason flicked the light switch, banishing the darkness. He glanced over at the clock above the television, it's luminous dials showing the time to be a quarter to six, barely ten minutes or so after they... what? He thought about this. Before they left for the .... The sound the name made in his mind was something he couldn't think about. It was where everyone went when they remember. 6

Slouched on the couch next to the TV was Graham, his breathing the only sign that he was alive. That, and his open eyes staring right through Jason.7

"You want some coffee?"8

Graham's eyes shifted back into focus. With a grunt he stood up, his knees popping like gunshot echoes.9

"Got something stronger?"10

"Beer?"11

"Perfect."12

Jason disappeared to the kitchen, the stark white cleanliness of the tiles a striking contrast to the black world they had recently visited, that Jason paused for a moment to consider it. All his lives he had been faced with two opposites - one the real and one the reflection. He grabbed a beer from the fridge, the squeak from the door the only sound in the still, silent house.13

He returned and handed it to Graham who was still sat in the chair with a glazed look in his eyes. "Here you go."14

"Thanks"15

A hiss-pop filled the room, followed by the unmistakable sour smell of beer. Jason waited expectantly for Graham to finish his long gulp, restlessly looking around the room, as if expecting attack from any direction.16

"Now, care to explain to me what happened? I want to believe I passed out, but I sure as hell didn't come here before doing so."17

Jason was wondering that same thing. How exactly did they manage to end up in that other realm? It couldn't have been just luck. For some reason he knew that a twist of Fate was guiding them both. "Honestly, all I can tell you is that you have seen things not meant for your eyes just yet. And I really can't tell you more, other than to say everything we do now is destined to be. Call it God, Fate, or whatever."18

Graham blinked at Jason and took another gulp.19

"So what happens now?"20

Jason opened his mouth to speak, but was interrupted by Graham's police radio. Graham stared at it, surprised. "I didn't bring that with me."21

"Doesn't matter, it went where it was supposed to be, which is right here. Perhaps you should react" Jason said, standing up and leaving for the kitchen. He suddenly felt the need for something stronger too.22

A few minutes later, as he was mixing himself a Katemba from the small store next to the kitchen sink, Graham burst into the kitchen, panting loudly.23

"Calm down old man, you sound like an obscene phone call."24

"Must be the stress. Listen Jason, that was one of my deputies. He said a sangoma out back by Muller's farm just went nuts. Apparently he's holding a sick boy and calling your name all the time. Got any idea what this is about?"25

Muller's farm. The name meant nothing to Jason, but instantly he could see it in his mind's eye. Rolling fields of grass and small herds of cows everywhere. Mostly milk farming and occasional corn, when the rain was good, which wasn't often in this inherently dry area. That farm was one of those being disputed over by the locals. It was a racial hotspot.26

"I have no idea, but I suggest we get over there fast. I'll drive, Dorothy" Jason grabbed Graham's arm, smiled slightly and Pushed him instantly to the outlying farm.27

In the house, loose papers moved slightly in the breeze caused by moving air rushing to fill in the vacuum created by two human masses disappearing.28

When air molecules are violently thrust upon each other in large quantities, they tend to get all excited about it. Sometimes they make a rumbling sound, sometimes a loud snap. Everyone who has ever seen a big summer thunder storm has heard the telltale snap-rumble of lightning. When two people appear out of nowhere, the air that was previously there got really excited about the new arrivals, promptly welcoming them with a loud snap.29

"Could you please warn me next time!" Graham blurted, pulling himself free of Jason, "and stop calling me Dorothy, this isn't Oz you know. What transport do you call that?"30

Jason was still smiling at Graham. Whenever the old man got angry, he became really flustered, a funny sight at best. Best not tell him that though.31

"That was a Push. With normal travel, like walking, you drag your physical masses to your destination. This is similar, but more like a push than a drag. A lot faster too. It's an old trick I learned a long time ago."32

Surrounding their point of arrival were large trees, obviously being fed by an underground river of some kind. They ran in a line going north, where further along Jason could see a scattered number of wind pumps. All around the trees were rundown settlement houses, similar to those seen in larger informal communities like Sebokeng. A small boy, the only witness to their arrival, ran yelling back to the houses when Jason turned his gaze to him.33

"You know, we really should be getting to that Sangoma. Where is your deputy?"34

Graham, who had been staring at the departing child, looked up towards the village. "There he is, with that crowd, up there near that building," he pointed out.35

To the west of the village, largely obscured by the trees, a crowd was gathered around what appeared to be a cattle holding pen, probably the village's source of basic food and milk. In the growing darkness the crowd was more like a moving shadow than people, the colours of their individual garments fading with the dwindling sunlight. Graham headed off towards the deputy, who was quarrelling with a man who looked to be the chief of this village. Jason stood his ground for a few minutes longer. The wind swaying through the trees made an ominous hushing sound, as if in anticipation of the meeting of two old friends. He didn't know what was about to happen, but he felt that tonight there might be something different. Already he could feel the energy of the ground beneath his feet coursing through his veins, and if he set his mind to it he could feel the underground stream feeding all these trees. He could sense the larger ones swaying gently in the breeze, and he knew if he tried, he could feel the whole planet. His consciousness was greater than it had ever been. Dazed, he set his mind toward the cattle pens, hoping to see what was going on there. Slowly he started walking as his mind explored a few steps ahead. Below a felled tree he could feel the old spent energy of three men working with primitive axes to cut the tree. They needed the wood to keep their fires burning this summer, which was already fading from the lands. He felt the tree's pain and tears welled up in him. He could remember a time when such acts were never done without permission. All around him he could feel pain and suffering, but also joy intermingled with the passing of days. So overwhelming were the emotions, that he had to forcefully close his mind to them, and focus on the task at hand.36

The crowd fell silent when he approached, and they parted a little for him to pass through. Off to one side Graham was still talking to his deputy, who had forgotten the chief for just a moment. He was staring at Jason, along with everybody else in the village.37

To the left of the cattle pens was a small room, and this is where his makeshift human tunnel led him. The entrance looked foreboding, a gaping hole in red sunblasted brick. One of the only structures that was here when they settled on these lands. Inside Jason could hear the soft crooning of an old man, and could barely make out the body of a young boy lying at the Sangoma's feet. The smell was overwhelming. Intermingled with old cow manure, was the sharp smell of blood, and the slightly nauseating aroma of spices and perspiration. The only light was that of five candles, four at each corner of the room, and one in front of the man.38

Ducking, Jason entered, his mind suddenly overwhelmed by long-dead impressions. It took him a second or two to squeeze his mind closed, and he exhaled slowly.39

The old man looked up from his chanting and greeted Jason with a smile. The white teeth in the darkness appeared to float, a dark impression of the Cheshire cat, and he, Alice, who dared to enter the rabbit's hole.40

"I am Ngasi, healer of this tribe, please sit down", he welcomed, motioning to a spot opposite the unmoving boy.41

This felt so familiar that, for a moment, Jason was certain that he was back in the room with the moving mosaic, staring at himself again. Thankfully the feeling of deja vu passed quickly.42

"I am Jason, the guardian of Memoria."43

"Yes, we know who you are, and our time is little, soon the darkness will come here."44

"Why do you say that?"45

"Because I have its treasure."46

Ngasi pointed at the boy, and Jason could clearly see that he was not dead. It looked more as if he was in a trance.47

"what have you done to him?" Jason queried, reaching out to touch the cold skin. The boy felt dead.48

"The darkness broke his memories, like it has done with so many of your children. I have kept this one alive after he tried to kill himself. You must act quickly, Jason the Guardian. If this boy dies, my people and yours will blame each other for the deaths."49

Jason nodded, in this world in which he lived now, the boundaries between black and white was clearer than ever before, and the tension in this one little town could cause the whole country to explode like a stick of dynamite. Even after so many years of freedom for them, the old pains and memories still remained fresh, and it needed just one good excuse to flare up in full blast.50

"If his chain was broken, there is nothing I can do, he will choose his own fate. Most choose to kill themselves. The reason for this is not clear, but I believe they are overwhelmed with the knowledge that they live on, and hope to have a better life in the next incarnation. Only a trained guardian can survive a breaking."51

"Indeed, something must be done to keep him alive, if only for a short while."52

There is no reason for some men to do what they do. Some do it from instinct, others do it simply because they felt like it. Jason grasped the boychild's arm, and his mind was instantly filled with images. A torrent of moments and feelings and memories that blasted through his mind, leaving him panting after a few seconds. In the darkness of his own mind, and that of the boy's, he uttered one of the arcane words, and before his eyes a wall made of solid steel went up.53

It took only a few seconds, but in that moment, a light so absolutely white radiated from them both, that the people outside had to shield their eyes. In the darkness of the early night it felt as if a sun had exploded.54

"I have set up a wall in his mind, one that will keep him from remembering anything until now. It will not last, but it is the best I can do."55

At their feet the boy was slowly opening his eyes, colour was returning to him, and he seemed to awake from a deep sleep. The sangoma smiled again. Then there was a snap, like lightning, somewhere outside. Jason turned to look out the doorway. The crowd gathered outside had also heard, and most of them were turning to see what was happening.56

"Thank you Jason the guardian, but I think he is here."57

"Yes, he is here. The failed pupil."58

Outside night had finally fallen, and Jason stared up at the sky. Stars glimmered faintly, and the moon shone barely on the horizon. Irony that it now shone bloodred, a trick of the dust in the air. The first spring rains had not yet fallen and everyone was edgy about it, especially the farmers who would soon need to tap deep into the underground veins of water to irrigate their crops. He walked alone toward where he had heard that ominous sound of arrival. Behind him the crowd had grown silent, and even the wind had died down, casting a deadly silence on the world - only broken by the crunching of his feet on dry leaves and twigs, their snapping a joking echo of the very telltale sound that now drew him forward. Far in the distance he could hear a few dogs barking, their call as forlorn as a lighthouse-foghorn in deep mist. Jason felt their panic. Another darkness, other than night, had descended upon the world tonight.59

Ahead of him he could see the tall shapes of the towering trees, their shapes faintly outlined. Finally he reached the same clearing where he and Graham had arrived a short while ago, and yet years ago it seemed. The shadows here flowed together, changing shape while he looked, a nauseating effect at best. After a few seconds they condensed into the shape of a man cloaked in shadows.60

Jason glanced around. A rustling sound came from all around him. Listening closely, he could make out thousands of soft whispers, like lost souls speaking to him;61

get him62

stop him63

free us64

They hammered into his mind, filling him with sadness and anger at this entity that had caused such pain for so many uncounted years.65

"You are neither here nor there, Jason the Guardian."66

The voice startled Jason, and he glanced to his left, faintly surprised to see Ryan standing next to him, his eyes focused on the shadow that walks like a man. Jason smiled faintly. The surrounding gloom had started to deepen, some of the trees fading into darkness.67

"This is not the time for the final choice, you are not yet ready" Ryan said without turning to look at Jason, and promptly turned around and walked into the fading trees. The blackness swallowed him in a welcoming embrace. Jason turned back to look at the man that now stood cloaked in utter black a few steps ahead of him.68

Jason lifted his hand and uttered familiar words. A pale blue ball of light appeared, casting more shadows about him. The man didn't appear to even notice. And even though Jason couldn't make out any features, he knew who it was. It was the man who had broken the Memoria chain, doomed to live forever.69

"Once again we meet Guardian, but this time you are more powerful" a raspy voice spoke up, coming from everywhere, even from inside Jason's own mind. It sounded like thousands of screams, formed to make one voice.70

"You cannot stop me, even the dead stand with me on this" Jason replied, his own voice changing to encompass all those who hid behind the trees. It was filled with anger and power. The dark man took a step backward at the sound of it.71

"The dead cannot choose sides, they are gone from your world, and live in mine." That raspy voice again, grating on Jason's nerves. He clenched his teeth, trying to avoid saying anything that could anger the dark man. Jason knew he stood no chance against this evil force, yet here they were both equal. By now the trees and moon had disappeared, and all around was that familiar darkness again. They were back in that world between worlds. Jason lifted his other hand, and immediately another ball appeared there. The combined light flowed around Jason, giving him an aura of flowing blue and white. The light snapped off his hair and clothes, small sparks like static electricity followed by faint snaps.72

The dark man laughed at this.73

"A child's trick! What are you thinking, Guardian? Or should I call you Jason in this incarnation? It doesn't matter, my work here has already begun, and you cannot stop me."74

"I have stood in your way in many other forms, and I will do so again in this time."75

The shadow nodded, a barely perceivable movement.76

"Indeed, but you have failed in all times."77

"Answer me one question pupil. Why are you doing this?" Jason asked, hoping the derogative term to his erstwhile student would anger this shadow into revealing more of his intentions.78

The shadow seemed to grow at Jason's words, and red streaks appeared within the blackness surrounding it.79

"I am not your student anymore Guardian! You want to know what makes me different from you? Then look!"80

A red laced shadow like an oil slick broke off and flowed toward Jason. It happened so fast that Jason barely had time to step backwards before it was all around him. In him, time and meaning disappeared, as Jason struggled with the black satin around him, until finally he could not move. Moments later his mind broke open with imagery so strange, he could do nothing but look.81