I AM SHAWN (Shawn Ep. 2)

Dear Stranger,

After my first letter, I am sorry to tell you this may be my last. Not because danger knocks or certain doom presses, but because I feel my efforts are in futility. I mean, who turns to the stars for help, especially when everyone and everything points to the fact that there is really nothing out there?

Even though I have been warned not to use this portal anymore, I have decided to use it one more time to tell you the story of how I found this place.

The words of my father in the journal have been my rock-the very fuel that keeps me going.

After the departure of my father and everyone else on the plains of where I do not know, I turned to the only direction I am sure of-Germany. This is one of the few countries that opened her arms for us to come into. Even with this, it takes two things to enter these lands-the highest amount of desperation or an incredible ounce of immeasurable beauty. I guess the latter did the trick for me.

The lady commanding the border was fierce and stern. She commanded respect everywhere she stepped. It was enough to install decorum at the border. Everyone was desperate, even the guards, this made her the best hand for the job, and me…the first pick to enter Germany.

Amidst the hundreds of people that filed out in a seemingly endless line, our eyes met and connected for more than a minute. Shy, I looked away. The sharp contrast between the fierce lady everyone knew, and the gentle one locking eyes with me now, sent shivers down my spine. I became nervous. Minutes after attending to certain matters, she came to me.

“What’s your name, little man,” she said, with a heart-melting smile and thick Scandinavian accent that surprised me.

“Shawn,” I trembled,

“It’s all right, Shawn. Where are your parents?”

My countenance dropped, and tears welled in my eyes. Looking up at her in this countenance, I could see the sparks in her eyes. It was like the somberness was contagious as her countenance dropped also. For the moments that she waited for me to give an answer, everything I’d experienced over the past months replayed in my head: as vivid as the same moments that happened to me. I fought back a sob and mumbled words I cannot even remember. Then tears gushed out rather than words. In a similar feeling, she embraced me tightly, stroking my head gently and muttering the words: “It’s gonna be okay, little man” …rich in the same Scandinavian accent.

She was soft and gentle, her body felt like I should remain there all day. She pulled me by the arm and before the end of the hour…I became a citizen of Germany!

Having sat on the bench for nearly two hours, the lady emerged from the office and made straight for me. She looked like it was time to leave this place. The grin on her face assured me of a lot of things…the most important fact was that I was a German. Not just a German-a citizen, with all the rights of a German. Won’t be the first time anyways, but it would be my first time in Berlin-The Berlin!

Unlike the cities I’ve been to, Berlin was a smart blend of peace and beauty. Everything was too organized and everyone had a lush mixture of different interests. The ladies looked strong,?much like Milla; the men looked stronger. Like Spartans in a different country and time.

“I’m Milla,” she said finally, “And I live…here” we drove through a quiet neighborhood with houses built like the ones the Yellow men built when they came to enslave my people decades ago. We pulled into a garage-there was another car in there, smaller. On the back, was an insignia: a winged circle with the name - MINI. I allowed my finger to stroke the insignia and caressed the smooth body of the car.

Milla noticed my interest in the car, and she smiled.

“Just like you, Shawn, I am a blend of everywhere I’ve been-Russia, Germany, South Africa, and yes…Britain. So I carry every bit of them everywhere I go!”

I was ushered into her house, and I felt peace like I’d never felt before. In that instant, I realized my father was right. “I will be okay”?Or so I thought.

The next few days were calm and gentle. I was rid of my fear to leave the house on the third day as the streets were so gentle that you seldom get to see a car drive by. She had everything that I needed: great appliances all connected to the internet. I would often stroll around the house and appreciate the gracious artifacts hanging on the walls like the house of a great hunter. Wild bears, tusks of giant elephants, the full skin of a very rare albino tiger. These constituted only a fraction of the rare things hanging on these walls.

I’ve only spent seven days so far but it felt more like home than anywhere else I’ve ever been. Milla would often come to my room at night to kiss me goodnight, her eyes welling with care and affection. She gave me a room close to the attic, having recognized my fears of being too close to where harm can come to me

“If anything happens, you can hide up there in the attic, or just jump out the window…” Milla said once,

On the night of the 7th day, after a whole day with a neighbor whom we went to church with, the all-too-familiar scenario happened. Only this time…the tables turned. It changed my life forever, bringing me here, and making Milla something I never thought I would have again-family.

They came again. Wearing the night as a cloak. The usual silver shimmering in the dark. About thirty minutes after Milla tucked me into the soft bed I have come to love. Often a time, I would sit in there staring at the star-studded ceiling of the fairly large room. It was homely. The kind of comfort I have never…ever experienced before. This night, however, the usual heaviness lingered in the air and the once calm, homely bedroom felt and smelt more like an abattoir…with its normal chills and smell of death. There was also another kind of smell, like that of an impending storm filtering through the window - petrichor.

With the window half-opened and the translucent curtain letting in a fair share of the inconspicuous moonlight, I perceived the three figures that stood in the corners of the room, shimmering. They were almost invisible as they seemed to lurk in the dark waiting for some sort of order having dropped in from the ceiling.

I trembled in my bed as I stared at them.

Just then, as if on cue…lightning forked through the night sky outside and illuminated the room. All three green eyes on their heads flickered to life, and their darkly contoured faces blazed for a split second. Pairs of sadistic, cold eyes shone back at me. I jerked in my bed and swallowed hard, teeth gnashing.

At this point, images of my prior encounter with these demons began flashing back into my subconscious. First in Egypt, then miles in the deserts of the middle-east. Each encounter often left body counts in the hundreds. This was when I remembered what my father once told me:

“Boy, you’re the son of the man whom the entire world has come to fear. However, these are men…just like me…just like you. The only difference between us is that these men will stop at nothing to take-you-down! They are the kind of men who would kill a fly in the market with a bazooka. If there’s any definition or manifestation of evil…it-is-them!”

?

Suddenly, a small explosion forced open the room door directly in front of me. The door blasted directly toward me and I was soon engulfed in the fume of smoke and covered under the door. Then I heard faint darting sounds like pins flying out of a toy gun. These sounds lingered for about 5 seconds, accompanied by quick footsteps that seems to dash around every corner of the room. What followed was the sound of a uniform thud, like three bodies dropping at the same time.

I quietly slid under my duvet, only for the door on top of me to be lifted and the duvet yanked off of me with a certain desperation. And there was Milla…

“Let’s go, we’ve been compromised!” She said with urgency.

I looked around and saw the three demons in the corners all lying lifelessly on the wooden floor. There was no blood. They seemed to be wrapped in some kind of shimmering silver polythene.

The sky outside continued to rumble. Each time lightning tears through the sky, I continued to take in Milla’s vista in front of me.

Dressed like Lara Croft ready for battle: gun holsters around both knees and shoulder holsters holding what Milla called her favorite twins – a pair of Desert Eagles. There was another long gun at her back and her hair bound to the back in a new strange but beautiful ponytail. Her usual cute and cuddly grimace seemed to have disappeared, covered under a cold, hard, yet resolute look. It was beautiful…even for me.

“They are wearing next-gen laser-tempered liquid body armor. Impenetrable by even a .50BMG bullet from a multi-equipped Dragunov,” She said as she made for the window. She seemed to string some kind of long line of rope in her hand as she spoke. “We need to get you out of here, they won’t stay dead for long, and you need to know your weapons!”

“They won’t—“ The words were caught in my throat as I attempted to process the gravity of the last information and speak at the same time. I was right,?they are demons.

“Wait—“ I started, “ What do you mean?”

“Yes, there is a small opening around their neck region large enough for darts to penetrate, but too small for any bullet.” She is now standing at the window, holding a small gun with a hook at its muzzle. “To get you out, I had to tranquilize them to give us a window…” At this point, she smiled as she stared out of the window, turning for a second to wink at me. Even in the midst of this, Milla didn’t lose her sense of humor.

“I get it…window.” I smiled too. “But we aren’t jumping out of the window now, are we?” I asked, a certain fear evident in my voice. Milla turned away from me and shot the hook out of the window, she clipped it against the frame of the window and weighed on the zip line with her hand, testing. Then she turned to me, looking calmer than earlier with a grim, somber countenance.

“Shawn?” She said, “I knew who you were from the moment I saw you at the border but from this moment, you will travel through many places, and follow many people. It will be tough, fast, and back-breaking. You will be hungry, tired, blind, and deaf…you will feel like giving up. At some point, it will feel like the whole world is against you. But there’s one thing I want you to know. Even if there’s anything you should hold most dear” At this moment, Milla reached into her inner breast pocket and brought out a rubber wristwatch. She moved closer than she earlier was and adorned my right hand with it.

“However you feel, wherever you are…I am Milla. And as long as the sky is where you are, I will find you! I’ll crawl under any rock, swim to the depths of the seas, travel to the highest mountains and I will find you”

I looked at the watch. In the center is the insignia of a curled-up dragon, breathing fire out of an open mouth. “It’s a watch…” I looked up into her eyes, “but why?”

She smiled as a tear glistened down her cheek. The lightning faintly illuminated a side of her face as she fought back a faint smile…like that of grief and pain. “You’re my son, that’s why. You’re my son now…we’re a family. And you know what family does…”

“They stick together?”

Suddenly, like three round stones hitting a wooden floor, we turned and saw…round, black, and somewhat heavy round metals rolled toward us. What followed was something I have seen too well. We were both engulfed in its consequence as Milla grabbed me and flew out of the window. There was no redemption. No warning. No safety. At that point, I knew again…all too well…that WE NEED HELP!

This is the first half of my final letter. I will send you the second half shortly as I have exhausted the word count given to me. Until the next one,

I AM SHAWN!