chapter 19: Did I make a mistake?
Inside a dark basement a guy was sitting on a chair. He was blindfolded and his arms and legs were tied together with the chair. He was letting out muffled sounds which were nearly impossible to understand. Suddenly the room was surrounded by the sound of clomp footsteps. The man sitting on a chair was trying to scream and make as much noise as he possibly could. The footsteps stopped after coming near him.
He heard a sharp sound of a metal chair dragged through the basement floor. He noticed that the owner of the footsteps took a seat before him.
"If you scream, you die." I looked at the guy who looked really frightened. This guy was lucky that dad was in a good mood today. I removed the blindfold from his eyes and let the guy see the room and me who was thinking what to do with his sorry ass.
"Nice to meet you kid, I am Ryan Miller." I said before bringing a tool box in front of him. I carefully kept that on the floor and looked at him. His eyes were filled with panic and fear.
"Now if you obey me, I will not hurt you, but if you even think of informing about me or my family to anyone else. I WILL HUNT YOU DOWN." A slight smile crept up my face.
I removed the gag from his mouth and let the kid breathe for a while. "What's your name kid?"
"Please let me go, I promise to never come near her." the guy looked at me like I am a psychotic murderer.
Umbra do I really look that scary?
"Not you, he is scared of your dad." she was still yawning in my mind. This made me wonder if she can really sleep.
Dad must have done something to him.
"Now tell me your name." I calmly asked him.
"W-what." He asked.
"Did I stutter?" I said while grabbing his neck with slight force.
"Ron Bridgestone, I live 10 minutes away from here." He said while gasping for air. I removed my hand from his now bruised neck.
"Extra information is always welcomed." I couldn't stop myself from grinning.
"Now time for me to give you a momento." I opened the tool box and took out a carpenter's pincer and grabbed his left hand.
"Everytime you scream I will remove one of your fingernails." I used the pincers to pull out one of his fingernails.
*Aaaaaahhh*
He screamed really loudly which resulted in me pulling out another one. This continued until he stopped screaming, even if he did not stop screaming I would have let him go because only two nails were left.
Ron had tears running down his face, he was biting his lips so hard that blood started dripping from them. I took out a small pouch of salt from the box and covered his fingers with a layer of salt.
He started weeping more profusely but still didn't scream, so I decided to let him go. I removed his bindings and stood up from the chair.
"You are free to go now." I said while wiping my hands with a dry cloth. The wicked smile still didn't leave my face.
"T-T-thank you." He said before running off at the speed of a cheetah.
"Was the salt necessary?." Umbra asked in a bored tone.
Ofcourse it was, I learnt from my dad that it is necessary to season your work.
"Now that you mentioned your dad, don't you think he is getting more scary as he gets old." Umbra said with the mind equivalent of pondering.
"No, who told you he's scary? My dad is the perfect example of a gentleman." I said before leaving the basement door but did not forget to lock it.
"Ryan! dinner is ready." I heard my dad calling me, I leisurely walked towards the dining room and saw a table full of some great things to fill my belly.
I'm gonna look so bloated after this.
"Everyone has a seat." My mom said before she took a seat too.
The first thing I started eating was prosciutto and fig salad. Some people prefer eating salad after the meal but I personally think that any time is salad time.
I was peacefully eating my share of food but suddenly weird talks started popping up which almost forced me to start coughing.
I carefully dodged them, and even dad sometimes helped me save my face.
The next thing I set my eyes on was salmon with blistered tomatoes, god I love salmon and the skin side has the perfect crispiness which makes you want to devour it completely. The slightly charred tomatoes were really juicy from inside.
Suddenly, a few tomatoes were dropped on my plate by Becca. I rubbed my forehead before nagging her how she should eat her food without being picky but nothing seemed to go through that hard skull.
I decided to concentrate on the next thing I'll munch on. It was the most welcoming thing one could put on the table, you might have guessed it, it was lemon and herb roasted chicken, mom perfectly split it into different portions. After this my tummy was almost filled but how can I forget the lovely, juicy beef my mom prepared with much love and dedication. And finally for dessert, we had cheese cake and cream pie.
"Thanks for the food. It was really delicious." My dad said before leaving the table. After my dad left slowly all of us got up from the seat before washing our hands.
"Now time for a round of questions, and this time you will answer them Ryan." My mom said while causing me to sweat metaphorical bullets.
"Let's start with the salmon, who do you think cooked it?." My mom asked with a soft friendly smile but only I knew that it was a test of authenticity.
"I'll just say it at once."
"The salad was arguably prepared by Becca because I am familiar with her way of working.
"Salmon was cooked by Selene because it tasted different from the way mom cooks it."
"As for the beef, mom cooked it because the taste tells a story that it required almost a day of work to prepare."
"And finally the cheesecake was made by mom."
"I believe that I passed this test with flying colours." I said with a smug smile.
"Bravo! you won the game and are rewarded with absolutely nothing." Mom cheered with clapping.
I just shook my head in astonishment.
"Selene, will you stay tonight?." My mom asked with an expectant look.
"Yes ma'am, if you are fine with it." she said in a calm tone.
I went back to my room after talking with dad for a while about me not being at home for a year. I dropped my lazy self on the bed and decided to check my phone.
I saw that Elijah sent me a text message which was "Hey, do you want to go hiking tomorrow?."
"Nah, I'll be leaving for a while." I replied to him.
A few minutes later "Why?, are you going on a couple's holiday?." His message popped on my screen.
"Not really but that is the excuse I plan on giving my mom and sister." I sighed.
After that we talked about some things before I turned off the phone. I was looking at the ceiling while thinking about ways to use my energy more efficiently.
After a while Selene came inside my room wearing a cute nightdress. My mom must have given this to her. It was mostly white with some pink patterns.
"How do I look?." She asked with a bashful expression on her face.
"Cute, almost like a bunny." I asked her to join me, which she obviously did.
"Selene, Tia said that she will train me starting tomorrow."
"I know, she told me about it?." She said while burying her face into the pillow. I gently caressed her hair before saying "Did you enjoy your time with my family?."
"Do you even need to ask, you mom and I get along really well, as for Rebecca, we still need some time." She gave me a soft gaze.
"Do you want to, you know, do some stuff?" I said while maintaining eye contact.
"I am always ready." She said before attacking me with a passionate kiss.
Heavens, even god can't save me now. I don't want to disclose the private things so let's meet the next day.
The next day.
"That was a long night." some words escaped my mouth.
"Did you say something?." Tia asked with a weird look.
"No, I didn't." I said while whistling.
"Did you say goodbye to your parents?." Tia asked with a smirk.
"Yes, and it's only for a year, so they agreed, albeit reluctantly.
"Who said it is only for a year?." Tia's smile gave me a creepy feeling.
"It will be the year for them, not us." She started laughing while patting my back.
"What do you mean?." I was really confused about the things she was saying.
She didn't reply and motioned me to follow her, which I did but still couldn't shake off the feeling that something was off.
We were at Selene's mansion. This morning Tia asked Selene to prepare some kind of training hall. We were walking in the long hallways of her mansion. She stopped before a grand door which had some golden patterns on it and something was written on it. I could not understand what language it was so I asked "What's written on it?."
"This is just some bullshit language, you have no need to pay attention to, just think of it as some kind of quote you see on earth." She said before opening the door with a bang.
The inside soon revealed it to us, it was a grassland and if you looked further then you would see multiple mountains, standing proud and unmovable. I stepped inside the miraculous place with careful steps. Upon entering I realised that it was real and not some horrendous joke pulled by the girls.
"Cool right?, this place is a pocket dimension, we'll spend 100 years here and only 1 year will be passed in the outside world.
"This is called Preternatural Dimension." She said before taking a deep breath. This also grabbed my attention as I noticed that the air here is more pleasant to breathe.
"So it begins now?." I was filled with anticipation and excitement.
She suddenly flew off and I followed behind her. "Use your eyes to find the differences in the air."
My eyes turned silver and the thing I saw left me speechless. The atmosphere was filled with different coloured particles. They all were different in nature. The orange one was violent and destructive like fire, green was sharp like blades ready to decapitate anything that came their way, blue was calm but if you looked closely it was violent like the orange particles, last but not the least, brown, they looked kind and forgiving.
"What are these things?They are so beautiful and awe-inspiring." I muttered under my breath but Tia heard me.
"What you see now is known as Mana, the fundamental requirement for life to flourish. The first thing you'll need to achieve is dominion over these naughty Little particles." Tia said with a chuckle.
"Mana is the basic thing that every supernatural being should know how to use.Unlike you every dragon starts to use mana from birth." She said in a stern tone.
"But yesterday you said that I was using too much mana?If I don't know how to make use of it then how will I waste it?" I was really confused by her words.
"Ryan last night I was trying to be discreet about you because in this vast universe there are many weird powers we are still unaware of. I could not have taken the risk of you getting exposed to higher beings. The power you use to fuel Time Control is known as divine force. Only gods are capable of using it. Just to break your bubble, you are not a god, but a dragon god just like me and my father."
"Wow you keep throwing stuff at me. At Least have some pity on me, I cannot handle all of this at once." I sighed while trying to process everything she said.
"Ok then, I guess all your questions have been answered." She said before we landed in front of a mansion which was identical to mid century British mansions. It was huge, even bigger than the one Selene lives in.
I saw Selene taking a sip from a cup. She was wearing a black dress which looked quite sensational on her.
"You guys are here, Ryan, do you like this place?." she asked with a soft smile on her face.
"Hmm this place is really beautiful but I would have preferred a tree house instead of a mansion. You know, just for some unique experience."
"Ryan, I feel so sorry for you." Selene said in an emotional tone which caught me off guard.
"Wha-" I was interrupted by a flaming fist which collided with my face.
"TRAINING STARTS NOW MY DEAR DRAGON." I heard Tia before I went too far from them.
I fucking hate this already, she is not a trainer, she is a fucking psychopath.
"Well you were the one who signed up for it." Umbra sighed before she went back to sleep again because I'll probably not need her for a while.
I looked at the direction Tia and Selene were in but the only thing I saw was a giant body of fire coming towards me with great speed.
FUCCCCKKK.