About a decade ago... In Tamara’s settlement.
It was a peaceful night... like any other night for the Larson family. Gentle raindrops tapped on the windows while the small apartment smelled like blueberry... sweet and fruity.
Little Levi sat at the table with his father, trying to finish a wooden jigsaw puzzle... his mother folded the clothes on the couch, humming a tune with a gentle smile.
"Ah... dad, this is too hard." Levi pouted, trying his best to find a placement for a new piece he was holding, but to no avail.
"You’ll get it, champ... you just have to keep trying." Brian chuckled and then put another piece in its place, bringing the picture closer to life.
"If you finish it before dinner, I will let you eat ice cream." Ruqya offered, smiling.
"Ice cream?!"
Levi lifted his head sharply, exposing the cutest face there was... His face had gentle features: a small nose, round cheeks, and soft red lips. Yet, his eyes were the main stars.
They elevated such naturally average features to a divine state, making him resemble a child forsaken by the heavens, unfit to live amongst men.
His eyes were soft gray like the color of a gloomy cloud... and yet, they were bright and full of life, the kind that made people pause to take a closer look at them.
When he blinked... the color changed on its own to soft blue, resembling a peaceful ocean before the storm. Each time he blinked... his eyes changed colors. Yet, his parents didn’t see anything wrong with it.
They knew what it was and still... they embraced him.
Ring Ring...
Suddenly, Brian received a holographic call on his Neuralens device. He smiled at his son and told him to continue without him until he finished the call.
"Don’t worry, dad, I will wait for you to return so we can put the final piece together." Little Levi grinned happily.
"How thoughtful..."
Brian smiled and kissed Levi on the top of his head before walking away to the balcony. Then, he picked up the call, his expression turning cold in an instant.
"Rob... haven’t I told you not to contact me ever again until you get admitted to rehab? I am not giving you any more money... you have sunk yourself in debt, and I won’t allow you to do the same to me or my family." Brian said, his tone merciless.
He didn’t even want to approve the video call... having no interest in seeing his brother’s deadbeat, sunken face, looking like a fentanyl addict.
"Brian... I messed up, cough, I messed up bad..."
Rob’s voice came from the other side, sounding shattered, frail, and utterly regretful like he had committed the gravest sin of mankind.
"So? The usual?"
Brian’s heart didn’t move an inch, already used to hearing the same sentence over and over again.
"No, you don’t understand! You have to leave, like right now..." Rob’s voice cracked, seeming like he was on the verge of breaking into tears.
"Rob... what have you done?"
"Sob... why didn’t you just give me the money... why, you know my condition, you know I can’t help it, why did you forsake me, brother... why."
As he listened to his brother’s tearful voice and rapid scratching movement, Brian’s heart skipped a beat this time, having a bad, bad feeling about this... he knew that his brother was a gambling addict of the highest level. He even snorted high doses of crushed SR Pills to achieve the highest form of bliss before falling into a coma that lasted a day or more.
A gambling addict, a drug addict, and even a sex addict.
He was the worst of the worst and as much as Brian tried to help him out... he realized eventually that some people just didn’t want to be helped.
No, some people would find peace only when they dragged you down to the bottom of the barrel with them because it was too much hard work to rise back up and live a respected life.
Hence, the moment his brother came to ask for the sixth loan, Brian had enough and cut him off good as much as it pained him... at least, until he got himself into rehab.
"Rob... take a deep breath, and tell me, what have you do..."
Before Brian could finish his sentence, the lights went dark in the entire complex... a wide electrical shutdown in the building, which was something almost unheard of in today’s society.
Levi and his mother looked up at the ceiling... Levi was puzzled while Ruqya had a small frown, her eyes darting everywhere.
Fortunately, the Holy Pillar was still showering them with its divine light... leaving the apartment to have beautiful flickering golden ambers floating everywhere.
"Aaah... how warm."
Levi expressed in happiness, liking the warm sensation of the divine light on his skin. But then, his smile froze after he caught from the corner of his eye two men standing menacingly in front of the door. Both were wearing formal suits and had their gloved hands covered behind their backs.
It was like they just appeared out of thin air.
Just as Levi was about to let out a terrified screech, he found himself incapable of moving or talking... he was frozen in place, his mesmerizing eyes were the only source of expression left within him.
And, they looked scared.
Meanwhile, Ruqya and Brian suffered under the same fate, their minds telling them to shout, to run, to save their son from the intruders, but nothing... not even a twitch was allowed in those two intruders’ presence.
"I was utterly confounded when I received intel that a family of Radians were living here... in my backyard, playing a game of being mortal... but, I believe you didn’t expect that your divine bloodline would still pass along to your child, even when he was born from two mortal bodies." The man in a black suit with a white shirt and a blue tie disclosed with a warm smile, "Why didn’t you tell me? We might be serving two opposite ends, but I would have still treated you to a drink."
"..."
"..."
Brian and Ruqya were left gazing at the Bishop with confused looks mixed in with a tint of fear... it was like they had no idea what he was blabbering about. They were completely caught off guard.
The Bishop and Darius noticed this from their looks... they looked in each other’s direction and the Bishop asked, "Are you sure about the intel?"
"Definitely... his loser brother has contacted the Duskbound Order to place a hit on his family to claim the inheritance and his start-up company. I accepted the assassination hit since my agency is interested in owning the technology to bury it and keep the Daywalkers weakened. But, when I went to scout, I found their son and his peculiar eyes... I did my own research and found that his eyes share great similarities to those infamous treasures."
Darius paused, his eyes affixed on Levi’s breathtaking gems, which had turned red and agitated already... then he continued with the same flat tone.
"I connected the dots and realized that the sole reason for his existence to make sense was if his parents had also been Radians, but descended to the Chained Universe to start a new mortal life, or they are running away from something."
"That’s an assumption, not facts." The Bishop frowned, pointing his finger at them, "Go, get me some facts... I will take care of the kid."
Seeing the Bishop heading towards Levi, Brian and Ruqya started screaming inwardly for him to stop, their eyes burning with such fervor.
They didn’t even care that Darius was drawing closer to them... their desperate, pleading eyes stayed locked on the Bishop’s gloved hand as it reached toward their little boy.
But then, their power of speech was restored... their mouths immediately voicing out the loudest shout for help.
"Help!!! Intruders!!! Stay away from my son!!! Help!!!"
"You can scream and cry all you want, no one can hear you." Darius said calmly, "We have about one minute to get what we want from you before the Anti-Sleepwalkers Bureau sends someone to check the outage. And we hope you will cooperate. Otherwise..."
As he said, he glanced in the Bishop’s direction, who was holding Levi from the back of his neck like a dirty street animal.
"Please, don’t hurt our son! We really don’t know what you’re talking about... I am just a businessman with a housewife and a son, how can we be compared to our deities?" Brian swiftly started cooperating, not wanting to see them remove a hair strand off his son’s head.
"Please let us go... you got the wrong people." Ruqya begged too, her eyes already covered in tears.
Darius gazed at their hearts and spirit through his advanced spiritual vision... he saw nothing out of the ordinary.
Their bodies and souls were as ordinary as they could get... he didn’t even spot a heartbeat skip, or any other involuntary sign of them telling lies.
And yet...
"Not enough..."
Slash! Slash!