CURSED: The Last of Five Kingdoms.

Episode 14-Leaving for school(part1).

They reach a marble white building that towers over the other little buildings. Standing beside it is a handsome boy wearing a uniform of purple velvet and silver. 

"Who is that?" Mael taps the man and asks.

“Yeah, he is a messenger. They're in charge of getting messages across to everyone and anyone. But in here, everyone has their own messenger,” says the man quietly as the walk the black stone steps towards the boy.

The boy is a head shorter than Marl. He has a very pretty, face, clever eyes, pointed and straight nose, slender body but long fingers and feet that looks abnormal. Apart from that, he looks very much like a human being.

"What is your name?" Mael asks the man.

"Ah, I thought you will never ask. My name is Humosh."

"Who are you?"

"I am your spirit guide. You conjure me when you need answers, when you are confused and when you need purification."

"Why haven't you showed up until now? You know, there were a lot of times that I was in those states but you have never shown up. So, why now? What makes the moment special for you to be here?

"Because now is the time your powers have awoken. This is when I have been freed."

Now they are facing a second pair of doors, golden this time, with words engraved upon them: RAYVIN ACADEMY.

Mael's guess has been right. He is in the Academy.'

"Ahhhhhhh!" He screams, waking everyone up. By the time he struggles up, everyone is in his room, panicking.

"Antigon, what is it?" For the first time in his life, his mum is calling him that. He has never heard his mum call him that. Not for once. 

"Mael, are you okay?" Harry and Lucas echo.

"What happened?" Mael asks, sweating profusely.

"You screamed," his mum gets a towel and dap on his sweat.

"Am sorry. It is nothing. Just a bad dream." He takes the towel from his mother and begins to clean himself up.

"Okay, get some rest." His dad hugs him and leaves. His mum does the same.

"Are you alright, man?" Harry asks.

"Yeah. Fine. Just itchy pitchy. That is all."

Sitting on Mael's bed, "I know that you are confused. I am confused as ever, the information and truth is a lot for me to deal with but it is nothing that we can't get through. We will get through it like always. The good thing about it is that I have got you and you've got me. It is me and you against the word." He hugs Mael, who leans in like a puppy that needs comforting. "Get some rest." Harry leaves the room.

Mael must have been having all these bad daydreams and nightmares more vividly because of getting to know the truth.

"How am I am going to deal with bigger problems if I cannot even deal with this small one?" He laments. Going to the bathroom, he takes a cold shower and changes into a new pair of shorts.

For the rest of the night, he stays awake. Afraid that he will continue with the dream. He was trying to stay away from reality, as far as he could. He knew that one way or the other that he would face it but just not now. He isn't mentally, emotionally or physically ready to deal with it. Moving to a new place, away from family, his room, his car and his video games. At least those were the things that made him happy. When he is around them, he forgets the birthmark and everything that makes him sad. This moment reminds him of the foster home, Mr. and Mrs. Wales and how he felt he would never adapt to the new environment when he got adopted. But it only took a little while before he settled in, even loving it here more than his foster home. Now, this too is going to be taken away from him. And he has to deal with a new environment again. 

"Am I even sure that I would be able to cope?" He starts pacing up and down his room, throwing a pinball on the wall. Something he learnt from Anderson back at the foster home. Whenever he is tensed, he takes a pinball and throws it on the wall. It helps his concentration. 

In as much as he doesn't have much of a choice, he feels more at peace now. At least he knows that the birthmark on his back is there to protect him and that his parents didn't abandon him. In fact, he was loved and cherished before their death. I guess it is up to him to not make their death be in vain. He needs to make sure that he fulfils his purpose and redeems himself in other to claim the throne. 

"So much for Harvard," bouncing the ball one last time on the wall before collapsing into the bed. 

Now, that he knows everything that means that his family is equally in danger. If they had to sacrifice a lot for him for all these years, the least he could do is to keep them safe. And the best option is to attend Rayvin Academy. It has to be. Right? That is the reason why he had that dream and his spirit guide revealed himself to him. To let him know that he isn't alone and whatever he needs to get through this is at his beckon.

Mael couldn't sleep so he stays awake till the next morning and is too excited and nervous to go back to sleep. He gets up and pulls on his jeans because he doesn’t want to walk into the station late — his mum will be taking them but it is still rude to report late on the very first day. He checks his go-to list yet again to make sure he has everything he will need, he sees that his box is set and ready, and he begins to pace the room, thinking through once more to make sure he is set. He is also waiting for Harry to knock on the door. After what seems like forever, mum knocks on the door, Mael heaves a sigh knowing that, that is his cue to get out of the room.

Mael's huge, heavy trunk together with that of Harry's are been loaded into Mrs. Vandisia’s car, in front, Harry and Mael sit at the back. Despite all efforts to try and talk Mr. Vandisia into coming along with them to the train station to see them off, he refused. Saying that will be too painful to see both of them go, and he will cry.

They get to Moon’s pathway at half twelve, awfully late. The boys take out their trunks and dump them onto a cart, wheeling them into the station. There, they bid Mrs. Vandisia goodbye and board the train.

***********

Getting to their first stop, all the students on the train exits it to join the second ride. Getting to their supposed stop, it isn't there.

Melody stops frozen, facing the platforms with a nasty grin on her face.

“Well, we are here. Cross five — Cross five. Our entry should be somewhere at the beginning, but they don’t seem to have built it yet, do they?” She is already looking exhausted and angry.

She is quite right, of course. There is a big signpost with Cross boldly written in italics on it and a big signpost with Cross six over the one next to it, and in the middle, emptiness.

“I suppose this is how my parents want to get rid of me. They even had the mind to tell me to have a good term with a smile on their faces and leaving without another word. My term has not started but it's not going well at all." Melody cries out.

People are walking past them, some laughing and others, murmuring. Mael's mouth goes dry. What on earth are they going to do? The students are starting to attract a lot of attention because of the way some of them looks. They have mysterious items on.

Mael makes a move to ask someone. He stops a passing guard, but wouldn't ’t dare mention Cross five. The guard looks lost and doesn't know a thing about what Mael is saying. He is even frustrated and wants to get rid of Mael because it looks as if he is there to play a prank on him, the guard.

"You've hidden cameras, right? This is all a joke." The guard roars and walks away, murmuring about disrespectful kids of nowadays.

Getting impatient and desperate to meet up with time, Melody approaches a second guard.

"Excuse me, Sir."

"Yes, young lady."

"Is there a train scheduled to leave by 1:30 pm?"

"Let me check." Going through an endless list, "no. There's none scheduled for that time."

Some of the kids are now trying hard not to panic. These are all first-year students and they have no idea how to meet up with their train. According to the large clock over the arrivals board, they have less than twenty minutes left to get on the train to Rayvin Academy and he no has an idea how to do it; they are stranded in the middle of a station with trunks. Some too heavy that they hardly lift, no adult, and no train. Maybe the school must have forgotten to include all the information that they needed to get through in their letters. And even when they forgot, the least they could've done is to send over a teacher to help the new students out.

At that moment a group of people pass just behind them and Mael catches a few words of what they were saying.

“— another semester at Rayvin Academy, of course —”

Mael signals for the rest of the kids to follow behind him as he turns around to tail the woman who is leading and talking to two kids. Each of them had the same trunk as everyone else. At moment, Mael felt happy knowing that he isn't alone nor is the rest of the kids.

Heart hammering because of the weight of the trunk, Mael, Harry and Melody, each struggling with his trunk. They stop and so did the rest of the kids. Mael tip-toed getting close enough to where they are so that he could hear what they were saying.

"Now, where is that Cross five?" Says the woman who looks exactly like them. It is hard to tell if she is their mother or sister.

She mutters some inaudible words to them and hugs them. "Mael, you first."

What looks like the oldest boy marches toward the signpost Cross five.

Mael watches, careful not to blink in case he misses it — but just as the boy read closer to the dividing barrier between the two signposts, a large crowd of people rushing to catch their more physical train, passing off in front of them and before the pathway that reveals those kids and their look-alike mother or sister gets cleared away, the boy had disappeared.

Mael makes sure to fix his eyes on the next boy.

And seconds later, he too is gone.

“Excuse me,” Melody says to the woman, getting out from behind Mael. She is the courageous one.