The alarm began its annoying daily cadence of screeches and beeps to wake the boy in the bed to his right. "Sebastion, turn off your frackin alarm!" the boy whispered intensely from the lowered leather gamer seat at the foot of the bed. He was small enough that even sitting cross-legged with a full body pillow around him, the boy still had plenty of space in the chair. By habit, the boy shifted a head of wavy black hair just before a pillow flew through the open space it had occupied, "Sh...the....hck.......up...Ashhol." Came the sleepy mutterings of his would be attacker. Epic fantasy music emanated softly from the TV as the smaller boy in the chair continued pressing buttons on his controller. This day began just like a hundred before, ¬¬¬¬young Akzel could have never known that by the end of this day his life would¬¬¬ be changed forever.
Akzel was like many 10 year olds, he found his fun in video games, anime and online. Unlike most he always had his twin brother Sebastion looking out for him. Akzel and Sebastion were identical twins. Both boys had round cherub faces, full lips. Their skin was sun tanned and a natural caramel colored. Both boys had a head of wavy hair that their parents had them keep short on the sides, though Akzels was longer and messy at the top. Only two differences separated the appearances of the twins. The first was their physical stature. Akzel was smaller, though the same height Sebastion had almost 30 pounds of muscle causing him to be more athletic to Akzel's slimness. The other, more striking difference, were their eyes. Sebastion's eyes, like their fathers, were a honey brown and in some light sparkled golden, whereas Akzel's eyes were a light shade of violet, almost too soft in the tanned skin of his face. He wore a pair of white framed horn rimmed glasses that slightly magnified his eyes and never was without a pair of large Beats headphones and his phone playing music a video game or any other media one could think of.
Eventually, the routine holding true, Akzel would save his progress and shut off the gaming console. By this time his mother would be waking up and coming down the hall, giving him enough time to get back into bed and feign sleep or act as if he is just waking up as well. Today he went with the latter, meeting her at the door, the boy yawned and, giving her a hug, walked sleepily out of his room, down the hall and into the bathroom. Once his morning rituals were complete it would be back to his bedroom to dressed and wake his brother to go take his morning shower.
As Sebastion headed out the room at zombie speed Akzel checked over his shoulder in the mirror above their desk, where he had been combing his hair into place and straightening his tie, to make sure he was headed down the hall before rushing to the door on silent black-socked feet and closing it silently. He locked it and then dropped down to his hands and knees below his brother’s bed, best place to hide his stuff was where his brother’s junk was, he thought to himself. The boy, after pushing through objects he'd rather not identify, came to a simple wood box and pulled it out. Looking around again cautiously he set the box in front of him and, folding his legs beneath him, the boy began to whisper breathily. His eyes fluttered shut and his voice began to speed up rapidly the words lost in the whirring of the AC. The light above the fan dimmed drastically and a symbol flashed in resounding radiance atop the wood and the lid clicked open. Breathing heavily and with a slight sheen of sweat on his brow, the boy lifted the lid and with a smile slide the dark green leather bound book. The cover looked to be covered in scale like patterns and was empty of wording besides ‘книга' embossed vertically along the right edge of the cover from the center up to the upper right edge. Akzel slid the book into his white Jansport backpack, pushed the case shut and under his brothers bed.
After a final once over from their parents Akzel and Sebastion said their good byes and began the walk to school. As they reached the two-block point Akzel began to look out the corners of his eyes. Sebastion watched him silently for another block, leading them into the park they used to cut through traffic on the way to school, but halfway through the park, when they were in the area with he densest amount of trees Sebastion stopped. Akzel continued on for a moment more before stopping as well. "What are you doing? We're gonna be late, Bastion." Akzel said as he turned to his brother staring at him intently, "What's going on with you lately, Akzel?" Akzel shook his head as if in irritation as his stomach began doing three sixties, "I dunno what you're talkin about, but we need to g.." before he could finish the statement an explosion of stars blinded him and he felt the gross brushing along his cheek. His vision returned accompanied with a shock of pain on his jaw. The boy looked up in amazement, "What the heck!?" he shouted as his brother stood over him looking as shocked as he felt. But suddenly his shock turned to rage and he heard himself speaking in a language not spoken commonly for millennia. Sebastion, ignorant that his fate was sealed, shook himself and seriousness replaced surprise just as Akzel raised his hand. A purple light flashed and a shockwave of energy sent Akzel hurtling through the air. He slammed stomach first into a tree and lay on the floor catching his breath. As oxygen began to recirculate through his small body so too did the realization of what he'd done.
Rushing to his feet, or as close to his feet as he could get, the boy stumbled his way away form the tree. He was soaked, When did it start raining? he thought to himself. “Ahh,” He screamed as he lost his footing and tumbled down a hill that hadn’t been there before. With a splash he landed in yet another puddle. When he lifted his head up everything was read. He slowly put his hands to his face and realized it was just on his glasses. Akzel pulled his glasses away from his face, examining the thick red substance on his glasses, his head still really fuzzy. And just as the realization that it wasn’t raining dawned on him he realized what the liquid was and looked down at a pool a blood with his brother twitching at its center. His eyes bulged wildly and he stood to run to him but couldn’t move. He strained every muscle till he thought they would tear through his skin and still he couldn’t move. Just then he heard another sound. The sound of fingers slapping down into the tensed meat of an open palm. Clapping, he thought, Why would someone be clapping? My brother, he needs a doctor, maybe they can help. “Help!” He screamed and the clapping came closer. His cries died down the closer the clapping came until he could feel the breathe of this hopefully Good Samaritan.
But, as the footsteps brought his “savior” into the boy’s field of vision another surprise knocked the air out of him. It was he and his brother’s teacher, Miss Sophia. But, further then that she was the perfect God-send to help in this situation, since she was the one who taught him how to harness the energy he had turned on his brother in the first place. The newly beginning smile already began to fade as he realized something was wrong. He could understand why she would have him restrained; he broke one of the cardinal rules of magic, no harming another mortal. He could understand the dual bladed object she was holding at her sides as protection from a potentially dangerous magic user. But, the look in her eyes and the feeling of her. Slowly, as if not of his own will, he closed his physical eyes and opened his True Eye.
Akzel sat up quickly in the bed of his apartment. He rolled over and his hand reached for his cell as it rang. Most likely another customer, Hunter for Hire, was his title. Though he relished any chance to hunt down a witch. Almost 7 years since that day and about 3 years since the last time he had the nightmares. So what happened to start them up again? “Speak.” His not so adult sounding voice spoke into the phones receiver. “Payne…Akzel Payne…?” the voice from the other side stopped his heart in its tracks, “Se…Sebastion…?”, He whispered, his body trembled as a cold sweat broke out over his body. The sound of the phone being taken away form him ripped his heart to pieces, but the pain was quickly quieted by a deep resounding fury. Hatred, a Rage, which had been festering for almost 7 years. The voice that spoke next was sultry to the point of erotica, clearly sarcastic in it’s teasing, the joy behind it could not be hidden. “OH my how you’ve grown my little Axe of Pain.” Not trusting himself to speak, Akzel let his silence hold. “Oh, I see, well I shall get to the point, many of my sisters in The Craft, have you killed by now if you are hearing this but something, someone worse is coming and even we don’t want her here. Mother is coming you should warn your precious Templars before its too late.” The teen took a deep breath and smirked pushing off from his bed and rushing to the window where he looked down and into eyes so familiar. Honey brown skin, curves in all the right places. Sophia was Kim K on a supernatural level, she exuded sexuality in a raw way that no female of modern human society could. This was someone old in power. His soft violet eyes blazed with a heat as powerful in its rage as hers was in its experience. She sat there on the streets of London, probably the closest place to her original home she had been in the past half decade and stared up at him warning him of what could possibly be destruction on a global scale and he couldn’t care less.
Everyday since his brother’s death at his own hands Akzel had trained for this. Each death of each witch he hunted down, at first on his own, but then as he got better and more established, with contracts from all three major organizations, all this was only training. He knew his goal; he knew his end game even at that age. He remembered his father’s first phone call. How his parents never looked at him with hatred, never blamed him for their other sons death and how that made him feel even worse. How they understood and moved him to London to live with his uncle near the main HUB for the society that their lineage followed back for years and years all the way to its established beginnings with his distant relative, Hugues de Payens. The Templar. Everything was directed towards this one moment and the shudders left his body almost in ecstasy. The look on her face changed from amusement to one of confusion; in a seriously interested manner as the boy who was now almost a man spoke. “Rita Sophia, I know you, I have hunted you.” Rita nodded smiling and staring up from the street into the hatred in his eyes, drinking it in. “I don’t care what happens to this world, but whatever it is, you will not be hear to witness it.” With that final world he tossed the timed grenade he had under his pillow out the window and hurtled the other way.
As the smoke form the explosion cleared, he looked out the window and saw nothing, as expected. Either way he was pleased. Turning on his laptop, he uploaded the conversation to his blog. He got dressed and grabbed the backpack that was his only constant baggage, pulled on his headphones and pushed in the code that would cause an implosion of his room, which was specially situated away from any civilians actual living spaces, in on itself as soon as his presence was no longer sensed in the vicinity.
He’d finally found her, he didn’t want revenge. What he did was his own choice, this was not vengeance. This was atonement for the sin he had committed, fratricide. On that night of sin, he made a promise to himself in the form of a blood pact to do three things.
1. Never use magic again.
2. Switch places with his brother.
3. Hunt all witches until the day he kills the witch Rita Sophia.
or as she is known to the world, Morgana LeFey.
Reply With Quote
Originally Posted by SoraAdvent
Posting Permissions
