Jay Walker: Origins (Chapter Five)

I MEET A DICK PARROT

Thursday September 7th, 2014. 11AM.

I open my eyes, my head feels like it’s about to split open. I curse as I sit up. I look around me; I see Taylor still knocked out beside me—we're in a moving vehicle; I'm guessing it’s a minivan. I want to kick and punch and scream, but I know it won’t do any good. So I stay put. I check my pocket for my phone, it’s gone. I check Taylors too, nothing there. I curse again and sit tight wondering where we were going. After what feels like hours we're still moving—

“BANG! BOOM! BOOM” I hear loud noises coming from outside followed by screams, painful moans, cries—suddenly, the van screeches and comes to a halt. I hit my head and moan in pain, Taylor turns fast asleep. I hear someone scream from outside the van, then a thud on the floor. Someone’s coming, I say to myself; I hear footsteps approaching us. Without much force, someone opens the door of the van, and surprisingly, it’s the man from my house.

“You!” I say.

“Yes, me; now get up let’s get the hell out of here?” He says with authority like he’s my father or something, who does he think he is? I say to myself frowning even though I obey without arguing and get down from the minivan. I see bodies scattered on the floor, this is first time seeing bodies like this; I should be petrified but for some reason I’m not.

“Did you kill all these people?” I ask still staring at the bodies.

“No, I didn’t; I knocked them out—we don’t hurt humans” He answers like it’s nothing checking the bodies of the men.

“What’s your name?  What were you doing at my house? And why are you checking their bodies?” I ask patiently waiting for an answer as he checks the bodies.

“Christian” He answers without looking at me. “I think it’ll be better if your Mum explains everything kiddo”. He says, throws my phone at me and starts walking towards a car, my car to be precise. He brought my car! Yay! Wait, he drove my fucking car?? No one drives my car except me.

“Are you coming or not kiddo?” He asks me as he steps into the driver’s seat of my car.

“My names Jay” I tell him, he acts like he heard nothing. Then I hear Taylor talk in her sleep, reminding me she’s still here. I go back into the van, I look at her and I can’t help but stare.

“What about her? We can’t just leave her here” I insist.

“Yes, we can; and we will” He retorts, short of words I throw back and this time; I feel the same raw strength I felt when I first met Christian in my house.

“No, we won’t!” Christian seems to get the hint, he sighs comes down from my car; enters the minivan, carries Taylor on his shoulder back to the car and places her gently on the backseat. Then get enters the car with me already in it and drives off.

***

The drive back to Moonlight Creek from wherever Christian rescued me and Taylor from is taking forever. The weird silence makes things even worse. I check up on Taylor again for the umpteenth time, I feel guilty for bringing her into all this. I sigh and face the road again. I check my phone for the time and its 3pm, just then I hear Christian say something.

“What? I didn’t get that” I ask, he looks at me and repeats.

“You know it’s not your fault she’s caught up in this right?” I look at him not knowing what to say exactly.

“It doesn’t feel like it…” I tell him “…I feel responsible” I add, playing with my fingers.

“It’s normal to feel like that, this world is pretty messed up: believe me—I know” I raise my right brows trying to understand why he’d understand what it feels like, but then I don’t know anything about him. Who am I to judge?

“You know I'm not the bad guy right?” He asks, I’m not really surprised he asked; I mean I’ve been giving him a cold attitude since we left the van.

“Yeah, I noticed.” I answer, and then I add “I know you want my Mum to explain all this stuff to me, but it would mean a lot if you could just like explain. She might not even tell me when we get back” I say. A few minutes pass without Christian saying anything, like he was considering if he should tell me or not; just then he starts talking.

“We were royalty, our father; your grandfather was the werewolf Alpha Supreme while our mother was the most powerful witch of her time. There was a war raging on between the werewolves and the vampires, natural enemies. My beloved sister, your mother felt obligated to stop the war. So she married your father, the prince of Transylvania. Over time they fell in love, they were happy; there was peace for a while between the wolves and vampires, but my older brother Edward was of the opinion vampires are parasites meant to be slaughtered. My father Alpha Knighte was against him—Edward wasn’t the obedient type; he challenged my father for the Alpha status. My father wasn’t willing to fight his first born son, his very weakness—my brother, Edward killed our father.” I can see tears forming under Christians eyelids; he notices me and cleans his eyes.

“What happened next?” I ask him and he continues the story.

“He couldn’t kill our mother, so he put her to sleep. Our baby sister, Rebecca stood with Edward and still stands with him. Edward killed anyone who stood against him. I was against him, your mother was against him, and Malcolm was against him. We started a rebellion, your parents separated because of the war. They had no choice; your father never knew your mother was pregnant. When your mum left, he changed.” I had no idea tears were already forming in my eyes until they started dropping and that Taylor was already awake.

“I'm sorry” She consoles me and pats my shoulder; I smile at her and face Christian.

“I met Rebecca, what does she want with me?” I ask with renewed strength.

“You’re a threat to Edward; you can unite our two species and bring balance to our supernatural world. He doesn’t want that” He says.

“Isn’t that supposed to be a good thing?” Taylor asks Christian.

“It is; but it also means the wolves control less power—it’s all politics” Christian answers her.

“If my dad is a vampire as you claim and my Mum is a werewolf; which is basically impossible. I mean have you seen her run? A 5 year old runs faster than her…” I emphasize in my attempt to make a point. “…why am I normal? I suck at everything physical, am I not supposed to have like top superhuman agility and stuff like that?” I ask this time looking straight at Christian for an answer.

“You do, your Mum wanted you to lead a normal life, so she used magic to suppress your werewolf and vampire sides; to protect you.” He answers without taking his eyes off the steering.

“Protect me from what? Unbelievable, she’s lied to me my whole life” I exclaim.

“Give your Mum a break kiddo she did what every mother in her situation would do” Christian points out and I know it’s supposed to make me feel better but I don’t feel better, I feel worse—the thought a part of me has been locked away all my life, I didn’t know what to feel other than anger. Just then, Taylor spots a large beautiful parrot heading for the direction of my car.

“Isn’t that a parrot?” Taylor asks no one in particular, getting both Christian and I to look in the direction of the bird.

“Oh! That’s Abby, my anim—partner” Christian answers like it’s completely normal to have a bird for a partner, what else am I going to see? Elves riding horses? Christian brings the car to a stop, parks it by the roadside—I watch in awe as he gets out of the car stretches his arm forward and the parrot lands on his arm. The parrot makes a rough annoying noise that makes my ears want to fall off as it lands comfortably on Christians left arm, do parrots make noise like that?

“Sorry about that, I can’t help it; it just happens” the parrot blurts out looking straight at me—in shock I jump back screaming.

“Wow, wow, wow, did that parrot just talk?” I ask Christian who looks like he’s trying really hard not to burst out laughing. Taylor moves closer to Abby to get a better look.

“Looks like she did…” Taylor says looking intrigued, I’d say she’s taking this whole thing better than I am; I might just go insane before the end of today. “I’m Taylor, nice to meet you Abby—” She adds with that bright smile that showcases her dimples, while Christian looks like he’s trying even harder not to burst out laughing. I was about to ask him what’s so funny when Abby talks again.

“First of; I’m he—not a she—” Abby corrects Taylor who realizes her mistake and tries not to burst out laughing too.

“I’m so sorry, I didn’t know” Taylor apologizes to Abby; if this wasn’t my life right now I’d be laughing really hard that a human was apologizing to a bird; I mean a parrot.

“Apology accepted, it’s not every day you meet a beauty like me; nice to meet you Taylor; I’m Abby…” Abby greets back as his eyes move from Taylor to me again like he’s just realizing my existence. “This is Jay Walker?” He asks Christian with disappointment boldly written on his face even though he’s trying to hide it. “He’s not much” he adds with his eyes back at Christian.

“Alright Abby what do you want? You didn’t appear now to tell me what you think of my nephew” He asks Abby waiting for a reply.

“Oh, yeah that; I thought you’d like to know there’s a tracker on him and Rebecca is on your trail—” He tells Christian like its nothing and before he can finish his sentence we already cut him off.

“Why the hell didn’t you start with that?” I ask Abby glaring at him like I’m about to pulverize him.

“Shit, how close are they?” Christian asks Abby who is still acting indifferent.

“About thirty to forty minutes behind you, not too far” he answers nonchalantly.

“Fine get back to camp, tell Malcolm we’re on our way” Christian adds before lifting his arm up to the sky for Abby to take off.

“Your parrot is a dick” I exclaim.