CHAPTER 5: The Burning Arrow
"Hey!" Valek said while snapping his finger in front of my face.
I was completely lost in the memories of my past. I had no idea of what was happening around me.
"Are you ok?" he asked sympathetically.
"I'm good," I said while trying to make my mind come back to the real world.
"I'm sorry I didn't know that," Valek said. It seemed like he actually felt sad.
"No, it's alright. How could you have known anyway," I said while still being lost in my childhood flashbacks.
"Are you sure you're ok?" he asked again.
"Yeah," I replied.
"Good, because we have a big journey ahead of us. Are you sure you can keep up?"
"Yes, I am sure."
"Ok, well then let's get out of this hospital. The old ladies are making me very uncomfortable. I can't spend another second here."
"Seriously?"
"What?" he asked.
"If you don't remember clearly I am 65-year old myself," I stated.
"I meant the other ladies with human bodies of a 70-year old. You are a 20-year old looking soul don't forget that."
"Yeah, still it's the same," I said. We started walking towards the main exit route of the hospital.
"No, it's not the same."
"Oh yes, It is Valek"
"MAKE WAY!!" we heard a person's scream. As I turned my head right to see who had said that, I saw a male nurse with a wheelchair running right towards me. There was a man sitting on it. He seemed almost unconscious. His head was bleeding heavily. The white shirt he wore was all covered with blood. It was like he had been through an accident.
"MAKE WAY!" the nurse shouted again while coming full speed at me. Then *bam* he bumped right into me. Then again, he couldn't hit me so the nurse and the wheelchair went right through my soul. The female nurse and old woman, who were standing behind me, jumped on the opposite sides to make enough space for the wheelchair to move from there.
I shrieked when the wheelchair almost hit me. I closed my eyes and pulled my arms in front of me to stop it. I wasn't used to the things being passed through me still. Valek was standing near the wall of the exiting door. He couldn't stop his maniacal laugh after seeing me.
"I mean, come on Linda, get used to this now."
He started laughing again. I quietly walked towards him while he was getting almost out of his breath after all the laughter. I hit his left foot with my foot so hard that he almost screeched from the pain. He started jumping like a monkey while raising his foot above the ground.
"What the hell is wrong with you?" he said angrily while holding his foot in both his hands.
I started laughing like a crazy person.
"I mean, come on Valek get used to being able to be hit by another spirit now," I said while I continued laughing all the way out of the hospital.
Valek followed me with his foot still raised in the air. He almost fell at the exit door while jumping his way out.
"Are your feet made of steel or what?" he asked while acting as if I had paralyzed him for good.
"What are your feet made of feather or what?" I asked while mocking him once more.
To reach the main street we had to walk through the grounds of the hospital Valek and I started walking towards it. Valek was the one leading us again.
"Where are we going?" I asked him.
"To get you admitted in a psychopath's hospital. This hospital isn't the one for you." He said still in an angry tone.
I gave a little smirk once more as I couldn't get over the fact that the son of death got hurt by getting hit by my foot.
"Stop it," he said furiously.
"Ok, ok." I said while force stopping myself not to laugh.
We reached the main street. There was a tremendous traffic jam there. All the vehicles were honking at each other.
There was a small fight happening right in the middle of the road. Two people were fighting each other while another one was trying to make them calm. Probably one of them had put scratches on the other one's car. The noise was too much to hear what they were saying exactly.
Valek suddenly stopped right before we were going to cross the road.
"What happened?" I asked him while his back was at me.
I walked right past him to get on his front side. His face had gone numb. He wasn't responding to anything. He wasn't even looking towards me. His eyes were stuck staring at the sky.
"Are you ok, Valek?" I asked again, but he didn't even blink his eyes.
He kept staring at the sky for a moment. As soon as I turned around to see what he was looking at, I saw a black arrow coming towards me from the sky. The arrow was so fast that it didn't even give me time to move a limb. Valek pushed me aside and jumped to the opposite side. It was matte black in color and the nock of the arrow was on fire. It went past, like a gust of wind, from right between us and got stuck on the pole which had traffic lights.
"What is this?" I asked while looking towards Valek.
He was still staring at the arrow in a numb state. He looked a lot whiter than usual. His eyes had gotten pale red in color. He walked towards the pole to look at the arrow. The rear end was still on fire. It didn't seem to be affected by the air.
There was a black ash colored paper attached with the arrow to the pole. It had something written on it:
"Mors Vocat Vos!"
Valek pulled out the arrow from the pole. It seemed quite hot as steam was rising from it, but Valek didn't seem to be affected by that. He pulled the letter out of the arrow's tip and held the letter in his hands. He said something which I didn't understand. It wasn't English for sure.
"What is it?" I asked again.
"I have to go," he said while still looking at the letter.
After a few moments the letter turned to ashes in Valek's hand. The arrow's nock wasn't on fire anymore either. He threw the arrow fiercely in the litter box near the pole. The box caught fire immediately. Some people from the corner of the street ran towards the litter box with a fire extinguisher.
Valek and I moved back while they extinguished the fire.
"What do you mean by that you have to go?"
"I have someone to meet with."
"You can't possibly think of leaving me here alone. Are you thinking of leaving me alone?"
"You'll be fine Linda. Just don't go any further than this area where I can't find you."
"But, Valek."
"I will be back before you even know it."
"I don't think it is a good idea leaving me all by myself here Valek."
"Don't worry with feet like yours, you can beat the hell out of anyone. Just don't go roaming much farther away than here. You just look around, maybe you would find some other spirits like you walking on the main street. Make some friends."
"Who do you have to meet with this urgently anyway?" I asked out of curiosity.
"My Dad," he said with an expressionless look.
"Tell him to call next time he wants to meet with you, the arrow could have hit me. What is the deal with all this drama?"
"I will surely ask him that." He seemed lost in something while talking to me, in some really deep thoughts.
"Just go and come back soon."
"I won't take long."
After saying this he walked towards the main road. The traffic was not jammed anymore. He stopped and stood in the middle of the road and sat on one of his knees with his head looking down. I didn't quite understand what he was trying to do, a magic show perhaps.
The moving cars and buses started slowing much down than usual. The wind stopped moving and the children on the crosswalks stopped walking. Even the birds flew slower than usual. It was like the time had stopped. Valek put his right hand on the road as if he was draining the power from his surroundings.
A moment later black feathery wings started growing from his shoulders on his back. They were as large as the size of a car. As he started to stand up his wings started catching fire at their ends and ashes started moving in circles around him. His eyes got wine red in color.
The scene was unexplainably amazing. I doubted he had any powers in him. He started rising up in the air with his wings flapping, creating strong breezes of air around him. While I was watching him do all that, he vanished into thin air. All the cars started moving at their normal speed. The birds and the children also became normal. Where had he gone?