Chapter Seven

The next day, Max met Diana in her office with three other people he had seen around. "I need to

talk to you, alone!" he watched her company leave the room. "You need to tell me what is going

on". Diana looked at him without blinking. "What I can say is that Dorothy was foolish to have

fallen for a Fallaway".

Max's gaze was intense, "That didn't answer my question".

"The world was divided into two human societies, the ordinary human society and the magical

societies. The magical society or magical world as many would call it was divided into two, the

good forces and the evil forces. You can always guess how they operate by their names. For

centuries, the Fallaway family ruled the evil force's Kingdom, while the Kendricks, my family

ruled on the other side. The two Kingdoms were always at the opposing sides since the death of

the princess who eloped with the evil force's Prince. Twenty five years ago, the government

decided to ally with the magical world to help fight crime and bring criminals to justice. They

created the Magoon group, your father was the leader until he found out that his families were

trying to destroy us, the Kendricks and then take over the two Kingdoms. Then your parents

decided to repeat history, they started a fresh ravaging fire between the groups, your father

blackmailed his family, apparently, he knew something about his family's deal with the

government which everyone didn't know. Your grand father, Danny Fallaway became power

drunk, he set an attack on us and he killed my parents and a good number of us. Then the

prophesy came, Dorothy would give birth to a son who would bring balance to the magic world".

Diana paused. "Everyone knows that Danny Fallaway would stop at nothing to sabotage this

prophesy".

"There is a magical portal only you are destined to open, the Pretencis' magical method"

"I know about that". Max told her how he had lost focus anytime he practiced with his father and

then the last time he had tried the Pretencis, he had almost caused an Earthquake. "You need to

master its usage".

Max looked out through the transparent walls, the people looked tired and sick. Like himself, he

could guess that they had been hiding for a very long time than he can ever imagine. Diana

showed him some children who were given birth to inside the hiding place and had never set

their eyes on the outside world. "Are you going to hide here for the rest of your life?" Max

looked around again.

"We can only win this by fighting a war against Danny Fallaway and his Magoon group if we

have the double blooded on our side. Fallaway is power drunk and we are not hiding, we are

preparing for war. War Max, we are preparing for war" Diana took out a cigarette. "We've lost so

many fights with the Magoons and they had killed us to this number. Danny will stop at nothing

to see us destroyed and he needs you to do that.

"But this place doesn't look like you are about to fight a war" Max looked at the people who

looked so weak and tired.

Diana led the way. "Follow me".

She took him through a dark hallway he let the sound of Diana's shoes lead him. The last turning

they took led them to a wide practice arena. They people were divided into groups, each group

had an instructor, the instructors wore the same red color jumpsuit, and the students wore blue.

The whole arena became silent at their sight. "Good morning fighters, this is my nephew, Max

Fallaway, be nice". He watched Diana leave the same way they had passed, on a second thought

he could notice so many similarities between Diana and his mother, and she walked like his

mother.

The fighters stood there, staring at him till an instructor shouted "Back to practice". He watched

them all for a minute, they practiced with magic. The instructors became the opposition and they

had to defeat the instructors. Max joined the group that had soldiers of his age. "Diana has

special instructions about you". The man motioned to a woman sitting alone at space in the

arena. "That's your instructor". Max walked to her. She was reading a magazine, Max concluded

she would be in her mid thirties, even though her features looked twenties, her wrinkling face

gave her away. "I trust Mike would have trained you so well".

Max's eyes widened "You know my father?" Alex was right, they all knew so much about him.

"Everyone knew your father". Her face was still buried in the magazine. "Your mother was my

best friend". She placed down the magazine. "I heard you tried the almighty technique".

"The Pretencis? Yes". Now, max knew how important the technique only he could do was to the

two sides of the war. His father's family wanted him because of that and here, they needed him to

master this technique before they declare the war on the Magoons and the Fallaways.

"Tell me how it happened". She fixed her eyes on him.

He cleared his throat. "He had just killed my parents". She shook her head.

"In the history of Pretencis, it only worked on fear. Fear of losing something, of losing someone.

Your parents were dead, you could only be angry at that moment. Tell Max, what your fear was".

She was right, he was had fear fill him up to the brim and the fear wasn't for himself, it was for

Liz. "I thought he would also hurt my friend". He watched a smile form on her face.

"A girl friend, I presume". She dragged the girl

"We were class mates, nothing more". He had to change the topic. "I'm supposed to be training

right?"

She stood up. "Meet me here by 10pm; we need this whole arena for your training".

Max scanned through the trainees, he left when he couldn't find Alex among the trainees.

The night's meal was short. He wandered where Alex had been, he wasn't at the arena earlier and

he wasn't at the hall for dinner. It was almost 10pm; he had to prepare for his training anyways.

Alex's shoes were laced with mud when he got inside the room. "Where have you been?" Max

asked.

"We had to get some more groceries, the population kept increasing". He gave Max the usual

smile.

"I'm heading off to the arena". Max took his jacket from the bed.

"Special training Huh?" Alex asked, Max gave a nod.

The training lasted more than Max was used to. She attacked when he least expected. She was

faster and her punches hurt more than his father's. He blocked when he needs to and he also tried

to lay some punches on her. She dogged almost all his punches. "Why is my

The Pretencis control took him longer to perform. He kept loosing focus until his instructor

mentioned Liz's name. "Think about going to rescue Liz at the Magoons' prison". He clenched

his fist, the air moved the same way he movers his legs, red blazes replaced his blue eyes, his

hair stood still in the air then he floated in the wind. The grasses began to uproot, he flung his

instructor on bare floor. The ground began to shake like an earthquake would happen "Max stop,

max stop it. Control yourself". She shouted on top of her voice. It took Max some more minutes

before he fell to the ground, he saw everyone stare at him from afar, and they had come to see for

themselves what he had caused. The last thing he remembered was Diana and Alex running

towards him before he blacked out.

Diana met Fredrick, the doctor. "How is he?" Fredrick told her Max was still unconscious and he

just needed some more time to get his body system back in shape. "What's really happening

Fred?"

"The powers he carried are too much for his control, he has two strong forces trying to take over

his mind. He needs more time".

Diana robbed her face. "We don't have more time Fred"

Fred showed her the screen near Max's bed. "Look, everyone with magic has just a single bold

black dot in their brain, a sign that they are different from the non magic. Max has seven bold

dots" Fred sighed. "The highest dot that was ever recorded was three, Danny Fallaway. This boy

is capable of more destruction than you can ever imagine.

Max watched the fan roll for a minute before he had a clearer vision. Diana sat by his bed, a man

in white overall checked his pulse. "What happened"?

"You lost control, you need more rest". He watched Diana leave the room. His mind went back

to when he first lost control of his powers then whatever happened yesterday, they all looked at

him with so much fear in them, with so much hope too.

***********************

"You kept telling me you lost the boy and he kept opening up the Pretencis, I'm losing my

patience here!" Danny Fallaway held Sam up against the wall, Sam struggled for breath. "There

is only one explanation to what had happened. He is training with the Kendricks and their

facility". He let go of Sam. "Get me the boy! I won't spare you if you failed this time".

"Get the seer; we need to track him down". A little girl followed Birdie into the huge room. She

sat across Danny. He told her he needed to track the double blooded. The little girl gestured for

his arm. "Your right arm". She slit his palm with an ancient knife. The little girl held on to

Danny's hand, chanting some words in whispers until her green eyes turned white. She suddenly

let go of his hand. Her vision took her to the restaurant. She saw Max enter a restaurant by the

road then he had told a chef he wanted to cook. "That's all I saw, I can't go beyond the magical

blockage". Danny dismissed her, she was half way to the door, the little girl turned abruptly "I

see death, I smell death". She turned to leave. "You will fall by the hands of your own blood"

EIGHT

The night felt differently from the ones he had spent wi