The Bond series, Number 6

THE BOND -6-
Entry: The Void

Parker was screaming into the darkness. You would too if you were falling into nothing but black. A light shined far away, and came closer as he fell.

He made contact with the light and below him was the sea. His body shifted into an arrow like figure and dived into the blue.

By the time he made it to shore, he was exhausted. He walked about ten foot then collapsed onto the ground. Funny, he thought, you would think a place called ‘The Void’ would be like black and have sort of an outer space feel. But no. It was just like his home. Earth. It was like an alternate version of earth…. With trees and oceans, a sky and land. Somebody looked down at Parker as he was passing by.

“You new here?” Parker looked at the man with a trapper hat on. A plain black one, highlighted with a streak of blue on each of the dog ears. At the front of the hat was a metal piece with writing etched into it, but he couldn’t make it out. The guy had brown eyes, and had a little touch of hair above his upper lip. He was skinny. Not like anorexic skinny, but probably around 100 pounds. He was wearing blue jeans with sneakers. He wore an aviator jacket, and beneath that, you could see the collar of a blue shirt.

“…yeah,” Parker managed.
The man smiled. I say man, but he only looked 16.
“Hah, alrighty then. Come on.” He held out his hand to held Parker up. Parker accepted the offer.
“Um… to where might I ask?”
“Home.”
Home? I just met the guy and I’m going to his house? Stranger danger.
Parker pulled the guy back from dragging him and stood there.
“Um.. That’s very nice, but I don’t want to go to your house.”
The guy stepped at Parker.
“Look, you just got here and I don’t want you to be homeless. Once you find a place you can leave, but I can’t leave a fellow Guardian stranded.”
Fellow guardian? Parker looked at his hat. Yep. The symbol for angel was sure enough there.
“Alright… But I’m going to work out the rent.” Parker smiled, so did he.”
The guy started walking forward, but Parker lingered back.
“Hey, before we go… What’s your name?”
The guy turned around. “Eski. Eski Polaski.”
Heh. What a funny name.
“Uh… are you Russian or something?”
“Nah, I got the nickname Eski back in sixth grade, because I used to always wear hats like this,” he pointed to his aviator hat, “And my friend called it an ‘Eski Hat’ as a joke cause it reminded him of an Eskimo. And it just stuck, all the way until I came here. And Polaski is from my dad, who is half Russian…. Wait.. I guess I am Russian.”
Parker’s face widened, giving birth to a huge smile.
“You’re not that bright, are you?” Parker said with a chuckle.
Eski softly punched Parker on the arm. Parker thought to himself, “He’s not that bad. Kinda nice.”

He walked with Eski, but was shocked when they saw the town. Because it wasn’t a town. It was a village. And this wasn’t modern day America. This world was stuck in the feudal Japan era. Everywhere you looked, there was women in robes and gowns, and the men were in tunics. The buildings were all so elegant and royal. Eski and Parker walked up to a hospital.
“Well, that’s it.” Eski said as we admired the hospital.
“Uh.. You live in a hospital?”
“Nah, my apartment is on the resident’s side.”
“Oh,” Parker looked dumbfounded. Who would want to live in a hospital? Think about it, people puking everywhere, and diarrhea plastered on the walls, the stench of death. Ok… maybe that’s a slight exaggeration, but still, it’s a hospital.
The two walked up to an apartment, Eski pulled a key out of his jacket’s pocket.
“Here, we are, building 429,” he said as he turned the key.
The door opened. It was actually kind of nice. It had a full kitchen, all nice appliances, a nice living room, and in the bedroom, there were two beds. We walked into the bedroom.

Eski pointed at the two beds and said, “That’s mine, this one is yours.”
I got the better of the two. The beds were exactly the same, but I got the one beside the window. I’ve always slept beside the window, everywhere I’ve ever went.
“Hey, uh… thanks..” Parker said timidly.
Eski directed his sight to him and smiled.
“Don’t mention it. We’re not going to be staying here a lot, so it really doesn’t matter.”
“What do you mean?”
“Oh, you don’t know? Well, as Guardians, our duty is different than the other Protectors. See, they just fight off the Imps. We, however, are more direct work. We target the Reapers themselves, the high ranking ones. We get our sources from another high group of protectors, the Black Ops, which are like the spies.”

“Oh… ok… what are the Black Ops?”
“Spies. There are three groups of them. Group One helps the Guardians, by infiltrating the Reapers village, the Village of Hell. Group Two helps the our neighbor villages most of the time. And Group Three is an art development team. They research scrolls and scriptures from ancient times and mold them into new arts, which are then shown to whoever they think deserves that power.”
“Oh.. So, if the Reaper’s village is the Village of Hell, are we the Village of Heaven?”
“Yep. You catch on fast. All the protectors work for God, so it’s fitting, right?”
“What exactly is a Reaper?”
“Well.. A Guardian is chosen by God to protect, blessed with an angel right?”
“Yeah..”
“Well, a Reaper is the exact opposite. A Reaper is chosen by Satan to reap souls and take them here, to be turned into demons and cast to Hell. That’s where the Village of Hell comes from. A Reaper is cursed with a demon, that’s where they get their superhuman power. A Reaper is generally stronger than a Guardian or Protector, because a Reaper controls their demon, but a Guardian is an angel itself. Protectors don't have angels, but are still blessed with an elemental power."

Wow… ‘I’m an angel’ Parker thought to himself, ‘who would’ve guessed.

“Now, let’s go see Master Kairi to get you initiated.”
“Ok.”

They walked out of the hospital to the streets.


-END-