Book 2 of the Eternal series

Chapter 5

Roman:

The Book of Air

Slowly, Roman opened his eyes, noticing that he was in a hospital room. The ceiling and the walls were painted white, and monitors were attached to the walls. He blinked a couple of times, and he took a deep breath.

What happened? He wondered as he tried to sit up.

“Oh, thank the gods. He is awake,” said a familiar voice, and Roman quickly turned his head.

Surprisingly, he saw his mother and his father looking at him. Oddly, he couldn’t remember a time when he had seen his parents together, and now, they sat by his bedside, holding hands and smiling their eerie smiles at him. At that moment, he noticed that there was something off about them. It was their eyes, there wasn’t any life in them, and they were just dead and black.

Conflicted, Roman blinked again to ensure that he wasn’t seeing things, and his parents still looked the same. His mother and father smiled at him, and he looked at them.

“Mom? Dad?” he asked, dumbfounded.

“Yes, son. We are right here,” said Chantelle, and Rocco nodded.

“What happened?” Roman asked as he sat up slowly.

Rocco and Chantelle looked at each other nervously, and then they looked back at Roman.

“We found you unconscious in your bedroom. A year ago,” said Rocco, and Roman looked at him oddly.

“A year?” he asked, and he scratched his head.

At that moment, Roman felt like something was off. It was almost as if he was missing something.

“Yes, son, and now, let me go see if I can find your doctor,” said his father, and Chantelle only nodded.

Roman looked at his mother in question, and she looked at him with her dead eyes. He still couldn’t remember anything, and he was getting frustrated.

“Why can’t I remember anything?” he asked, and his mother shook her head.

“I’m sure that it will come back to you in time,” she said.

It had been a week since Roman came home from the hospital, and he noticed the strangeness right away. There is nothing to eat but bacon and eggs, the same clothes to put on every day, and the strange static channel to watch.

Annoyingly, his parents would ask him the same questions every day, like clockwork. Like Riah, he didn’t dare leave his house. As strange as his parents acted, he didn’t want to know how they would be affected if he left.

One day, Roman woke up in the middle of the night from a strange dream. He and three other faceless beings were battling green, misty ghosts, and he noticed that he felt very protective over the three he was fighting side by side. Suddenly, one of the faceless being’s faces came into view, and he couldn’t believe his eyes.

It was his cousin, Ray. He could tell that the other two faceless beings were females. At that moment, Ray looked at Roman with glowing green eyes.

“Find us, cous. We have to find each other,” said Ray urgently, and that was when Roman woke up.

He wiped the sweat from his face as he stared at the ceiling and thought about his dream.

Where was his cousin now? He wondered as he took a deep breath, and then he blew it out. Was he one of the strange creatures like the ones that portrayed his family?

Roman heavily sighed as he got out of bed and walked down to the bathroom. He splashed cold water on his face, then grabbed a towel. As he patted his face dry, he looked in the mirror and jumped. A beautiful, red-haired woman was sitting on the edge of the bathtub behind him, and he quickly turned around.

Surprisingly, the woman was gone, and he looked around the spacious bathroom. Shockingly, the woman was nowhere to be found. Roman let out a frustrated sigh as he turned back to the mirror, and he saw the woman perched on the edge of the bathtub again. He looked at her through the mirror with wide eyes.

“Roman,” she said, and he was surprised by how distorted her voice was.

“You have forgotten who you are. The only way you can get your memories back is to find the others. Once you find them, you will know what to do,” she said in her strange voice, and he only nodded.

He wasn’t sure what to think about the mysterious woman in the mirror. Suddenly, the woman looked to the side, and then she looked back at him with fear in her eyes. Was he still dreaming?

“We don’t have much time. Please hurry,” she said, and then he watched her fade away.

Astonished, he stared into the mirror as he blinked a couple of times, and he only saw his reflections staring back at him.

“What did they put in the bacon and eggs?” he breathed and shook his head.

Conflicted, he threw the towel on the counter, and then he walked back to his room. Restlessly, Roman laid his head on his pillow, and then he felt uneasy.

“Good morning, dear,” said Chantelle as Roman walked into the kitchen.

The house seemed strange to him, and it didn’t feel like home. There was nothing familiar about the place, and everything seemed so confusing. Besides that, he still couldn’t shake the feeling that he was missing something, not to mention the mysterious woman in the mirror. She looked so scared when she faded away.

“Find the others,” he mumbled to himself, and his mother turned towards him from the stove.

“Are you hungry?” she asked with her eerie smile, and Roman shuddered at the smell of the freshly cooked bacon and eggs.

“Not for that,” he said, frankly, as he sat at the kitchen table.

Chantelle only smiled at him as she brought a plate of the nasty food to him and set it down in front of him.

“Eat up. A growing boy like yourself needs his strength,” she said, and he made a face as he looked down at the plate of food.

Noticeably, there were specs of green in his eggs, and he made a disgusted face as he pushed the plate away from him. He didn’t care how hungry he was. He was not going to eat that. Heavily, he sighed and got up from the table.

“Are you going out to the garden?” Chantelle asked as she sat down at the table, and Roman looked at her.

“Yeah, I guess I am,” he said, and then he walked out of the backdoor.

That was one of the same questions his mother asked him day in and day out.

What was so special about this garden? He wondered as he walked out to the small, sectioned-off area of tilled dirt.

Roman saw that someone had made the garden ready to plant things in the dirt, but nothing grew. Aggravated, he hit his knees and put his hands in the soil. At that moment, he felt a rush of energy flow through his body, and he looked at the dirt oddly. Surprisingly, a small strawberry bush was in front of him, and his stomach growled loudly.

Cautiously, he looked at one of the juicy, red strawberries, and his mouth began to water. Gently, he pulled one of the berries off the bush and slowly took a bite of it. It was good, as the juices ran down his throat, and he picked another one off and popped it into his mouth. Happily, he sighed, and then he wished he had something else to eat.

At that moment, another plant sprouted from the ground, producing ripe cherry tomatoes. A couple of more plants sprouted with different fruits and vegetables, and he happily feasted on them. After he was done, the plants disappeared, and he chuckled.

“Thank you,” he whispered, and suddenly, a slight breeze picked up around him.

Tiny voices laughed, and they seemed to be riding with the wind, and he felt a powerful surge of energy flow through his body. He closed his eyes, and he took in a peaceful breath.

“We found you,” whispered the tiny voices happily, and Roman thought that was odd.

“Who are you?” he whispered.

“You will find out as soon as you find the others,” the voices said, and then they faded away with the breeze.

Heavily, he sighed as he opened his eyes. He wished that one thing would make sense to him in this strange world.

“Roman!” called Rocco, and Roman looked at the back porch.

“Yeah,” he called as he got to his feet and walked to his father.

“Tomorrow is a very special day,” he said, and Roman looked at him in question.

“What’s so special about tomorrow?”

“We are going to visit with my brother. Tomorrow is visit day,” Rocco stated with his dead-eye eerie smile, and Roman shivered.

“Visit day?” he asked, and Rocco nodded.

“Yes,” he said, and strangely, he walked back into the house.

Curiously, Roman followed his father, watching him as he took a seat on the couch next to his mother. Eerily, they sat straight up with their heads forward toward the countertops. Rocco picked up the remote and turned the countertops onto the static channel without even looking.

“Dad?” he called, but his mother and father didn’t look up.

Aggravated, Roman growled a low growl, and the wind began to pick up inside the house. He looked around, startled as the things on the shelves began to fall to the floor, and he jumped backward. At that moment, Rocco turned to his son with a stern look.

“Knock it off!” he yelled, and Roman looked at him oddly.

“What? Do you actually think that I’m doing this?” he asked frantically, and Rocco gave him a knowing look.

“Son, stop with the games,” Rocco said, and then he turned back to the countertops.

Scared and lost, Roman ran back outside, and the wind had stopped blowing in the house. Defeated, Roman hit his knees by the garden and put his head in his hands.

What is happening to me? He wondered.