PRL Serials

Wendy is on the road with Great uncle after a fall out with the ancestors.

“You are headed right into a trap,” Anesuishe said furiously at Wendy’s home. Isheanesu and Great uncle were there, Aile was there with her sister Stephanie and their ancestor Fang. Wendy was pacing the living room and Aile sat on the couch; the spirits were scattered around the room, most were standing and avoiding eye contact with an angry Wendy. Anesuishe stood in front of the doorway to the kitchen and she stared Wendy right in the eyes when she paced in her direction.

“We found them,” Anesuishe continued. “Ivan and Clay, even Kevin, but their location is tied to the witch. And we didn’t locate them until she wanted us to. We can go to meet them where it seems they are located now, but if the witch wants us there, then it can’t be good. She has tormented our family for centuries, there is no reason to trust that all that history is suddenly unimportant.”

“We don’t know exactly what she wants,” Isheanesu added nervously, “but this can’t be coincidence.”

“Did you ask her what she wants?” Wendy asked in response to Isheanesu, but she looked at Anesuishe.

“We have tried,” Fang said from behind the couch. “She only taunts your relatives. And these men, their souls are not responsive. We are sure that this can only be some set up to trap you and your ancestors.”

Wendy listened. She heard their warnings and she knew that they were all probably right. The witch Miriro had only ever been trouble and she wouldn’t be keeping friends of the Chimutengwendes safe, they would automatically become her enemies and she would use them to get whatever it is she really wanted. Since her ancestors first introduced her, Mirio has always been the biggest threat that they were arming Wendy against. 

“I’ll go alone,” Wendy said after a few minutes of silent pacing before the crowd gathered in her living room.

Anesuishe and Great uncle both laughed at the suggestion. Fang, Aile and Isheanesu shook their heads sadly.

“I’m serious,” Wendy said, “this is all really strange. I bet you they’re all in Durham, North Carolina, which means Miriro is working for the CZS, which means not only are they doing freaky science stuff, they also have access to mediums and spirits for God knows what reason. We have to deal with this. We have to get Kevin, Ivan and Clay back, and we have to know what the CZS is up to.”

“The CZS resurrected Darker,” Aile said. “They’re more secretive than the IBF. What exactly are you gonna do alone? Get caught like your friends?”

“If I get caught, at least they won’t have any of you, and I have a strong connection to my ancestors that is hard to break or exploit, so I’ll be safe long enough to get answers and get them back to you all. And if something does happen to me, you contact Alia and the others.”

Wendy was adamant about the plan and everyone agreed to it except Great uncle who stayed by her side even as she pleaded with him to stay in Georgia.

“You are my treasure,” Great uncle said solemnly to her after Wendy pleaded with him to return to the others for most of the drive and even as they arrived in Durham where Anesuishe and Fang had guided her to the location of her friends. 

“Training with you has been a true joy of my long existence,” he said to Wendy. “When I am with you, I feel pride for the sacrifices we have all made to maintain the power of our lineage, and I could not ask for a better Brave to stand for us in the physical world. I will follow you into hell, my treasure, and I dedicate the remainder of my afterlife to your causes, even if they seem foolhardy to me. You have proven yourself capable and worthy of my trust. So if this is what you must do, then I am bound by my honor to travel with you. You insult me to try and shoo me away.”

Wendy apologized as they parked at a distance from the campus of the CZS that loomed large on a hill in a clearing of pine trees. 

“I love you, Great uncle,” she said and got out of the car to lean on the hood while she stared at the CZS. “Be my eyes inside. I’ll see how far in I can get from the front gate. You know Ivan and Clay, we go for them first. Ivan is the more sensitive of the two, so if we can communicate with either of them, it will be him. Hopefully they can help get to Kevin.”

Great uncle nodded and then flew toward the building. 

At the front gate. Wendy is surprised that no one is inside the booth that is obviously made for a security guard to sit out front. She grabs the bars of the entrance, but the gate doesn’t budge. She notices a black box with two buttons and she pushes the green one, then waits while the box rings like a telephone.

“State your name and the purpose of your visit,” the black box says.

Wendy had figured out a story she thought might be convincing enough to get her inside as she made the drive from Georgia.

“My name is Wendy Chimutengwende, I’m an assistant of Dr. Thomas Eakran at the IBF. He asked that I speak with Dr. Worthington or an authorized assistant to update on the patient called Darker.”

She had spoken with Eakran before he left about the CZS and he was honest about the twisted work that he had done for them that Alia, Kevin, Ivan, Clay and others had been forced to deal with. She’d gotten to know Darker and the story of his resurrection at this very facility, and knew that Worthington would be interested to hear news of the man.

There is a pause at the black box, long enough for Wendy to ask if anyone is still there.

“I’m sorry ma’am, you’re not on Dr. Worthington’s schedule. You should call his assistant to schedule an appointment. Have a nice day.”

Wendy frowns.

“Sir, my boss was adamant about me speaking with someone today…”

“Then your boss should have scheduled an appointment with Dr. Worthington,” the black box interrupts. 

“Do you really want to be the reason that Dr. Worthington doesn’t get information about the patient who walked out of his facility, past his security so easily, even though he arrived here in a bodybag?”

There is another silence. Wendy worries that no one is listening, but before she can speak again, the metal gates swing open. Her heart races. This could be a good thing, but it could also be very bad. She is ready for whatever.

Where are you Great uncle? Wendy reaches out to her uncle with her mind.

I am on the third floor of the main building, Great uncle says in her mind. I have been watching them. I think I know how to help them. Brace yourself, Anesu, your friends are being tortured. There are others here, I think one of them is Kevin.

I can see where you are, Wendy says, I’ll be there as soon as I can.

She walks the long driveway through the neatly manicured lawns to the bottom of the high steps that lead up to the entrance of the main building. She looks up at the closed door for a minute, but when no one comes out, she starts up the stairs. As she nears the top, the large wooden double doors swing open. She stands before them staring inside; it looks like the lobby of a hospital. She walks in and stands before a desk as the doors close behind her.

Something is happening, Great uncle says to her in her mind. Something is moving, I’m coming to you now.

Wendy looks up the large staircase behind the desk, up at the high ceiling, down the long halls that all seem empty. Then she looks up as Great uncle descends through the ceiling.

“There is a man coming down, and he will look very familiar. Be careful, they were waiting for us.”

Great uncle stands ready next to her as the young man she recognizes as Rhode descends the grand staircase with Miriro at his side. He approaches the desk and sits. Miriro stands considering Wendy.

“You are something, aren’t you?” Miriro says to Wendy. “You can do more than you’ve ever needed to defend against my Rhode. I can feel greatness in you.”

Wendy watches Miriro smile and if they did not have history together, she might believe it to be genuine.

“Why are you here?” Wendy ignores the pleasantries.

“Because I hope to introduce you to someone who can unlock your true power, the power of the Brave Chimutengwende.”

“I’m doing ok,” Wendy says. “Why are you helping anybody?”

“Because we all want something. I want a world that is mine, and I’ve learned that there are enough out there that I could have my pick. Tin would give me that, and he can give you things too.”

“Ten? Like the number?” Wendy asks.

“I think she’s saying tin, like the metal,” Great uncle says and Rhode chuckles softly in his chair.

“You’ve met Rhode’s dragon?” Miriro says, “show her, boy. This is the part where we subdue her.”

Rhode smiles and he looks at Wendy. His physical body does not change, but the form of his spirit grows and morphs before her eyes into a twelve foot dragon that looks very real, not blurred at its edges like a normal spirit. The scales on its back glistened like bark encased in green sap that is bright in the light. The dragon bares it’s long teeth and a green-blue flame issues from its mouth and rages through the walls of the building, causing no visible damage, but Wendy feels her soul sweat, like she is stewing inside of her body.

Wendy hates to change her soul form, it feels extremely uncomfortable to bend the essence of yourself into something that it doesn’t come to naturally or with regular habit. She yells an incantation that Isheanesu had taught her and she holds her hands before her as they seem to freeze and a wind gathers that sends her hair flying. She continues the incantation as she throws chunks of opaque ice at the dragon, and she hits him as he shrieks and blows a flame that dies away as he falls unconscious under Wendy’s assault.

When the winds settle, she turns her attention back to Miriro.

“Why are you here?”

“I am distracting you. Turn around.”

Wendy laughs, but then she hears Great uncle struggling. She turns and he is in an intense fight with an older white man with gray hair. He is a man, not a spirit and Wendy directs the cold winds of her incantation at him. The man flips away from Great uncle’s attack and deflects Wendy’s winds at her uncle. He is blown against a nearby wall. Wendy attacks the man and he defends all of her blows with relative ease. He retreats and stands next to Miriro.

“She is impressive,” the man says.

“What do you want?” Wendy asks as she prepares her next move.

“We want you Wendy,” the man says. “I’m glad you have come. My name is Tin.”