Enjoy
Chapter 4
“I can’t believe you bought my grandmother’s house.” I stated, walking and glancing around the den. Once we’d gotten out of the bedroom, we’d made our way down the hallway and stairs, towards the den, passing several rooms and bathrooms, the kitchen, the office/library and the living room on the way. It hadn’t taken me long to recognize the old Victorian style mansion as Nana’s old home, I’d been in the mansion so many times, I knew it inside out, despite the many changes they’d done to the place.
Anthony and his three friends – another one had come to join the party – had bought the house two months ago and moved in little more than a week ago. Funny that of all the homes in Canada, they chose the one mansion in Quebec that I loved and wanted more than anything. Coincidence, right? I laughed to myself. Even I wasn’t that gullible.
I looked around the small room. They’d definitely made it more modern, since Nana’s furnishings had been prehistoric, in my opinion. Now it had two large L shaped sofas making a sort of square contour in the center of the room. A cube table stood in the middle of the sofas. Still walking around, I paused to look at the hung pictures, to skim my fingertips over the grey stone of the old fireplace, ignore the ugly yellowish-green lazy-boy and admire the candlelight chandelier that they’d kept. It didn’t fit with the rest, but who cared? It was gorgeous.
Finally, I turned back to the four pairs of eyes watching me. The closest pair, of dark chestnut color while hidden behind black glasses, belonged to the guy named Ben. In his early twenties, he was tall, broad shouldered and muscular, had jet black hair, a pale skin tone and a hint of Asian ancestry. Although physically fit – and good looking – he was the very definition of what a genius would look like, in my mind, anyway.
I looked off from him, to pause at the guy sitting comfortably in the lazy-boy. His name was Jason. In his thirties, he had really short brown hair, piercing green eyes, some whiskers on his well-framed face and the sexiest Scottish accent I’d ever heard. He looked to be in good shape, was tall and ruggedly handsome.
The other guy, Greg, was fidgeting on the sofa with a Rubik’s cube, his tongue sticking out in concentration. He was about my age, no older than twenty, for sure. He had a boyish charm to him with his blond spiked hair and navy blue eyes. And – what a surprise – he was in really, really good shape. He was only wearing a pair of sweatpants, showing a very nice six pack. I’d love to just-
“Crys?” Anthony called, taking me out of my daydream. He sat himself on the sofa opposite from Greg. “Come an’ sit.” He patted beside him. I did, although not as close as he’d indicated.
“So tell me…what is going on? If you tell me that that was some visual effects though, I might just strangle you.” I said it in a mocking tone but we all knew I was only partly kidding… Okay, not at all. “What was that thing? And what are you?” I pressed.
“You mean we.” Jason stated.
“No, there is no we. There’s you,” I pointed a finger to them, “and then there’s me,” I pointed to myself, “caught in the middle of your… problems.”
“Oh believe me,” Ben said “you are in this as much as we are. You just don’t know it yet.”
“Well since I don’t have to believe you, I’m inclined to say I don’t give a – “
“Okay, okay. Enough!” Anthony commanded when I was about to add something again. Clearing his throat, he focused solely on me. “Listen, I’m going to tell you everything you need to know, from the beginning. Some things might be hard to trust us on, but I want you to hear what I’ve got to say. Then we can answer any questions you might have.”
“But – “
“No buts! Just listen, all right?” After I gave a curt nod, he glanced to the others, who nodded their agreement as well. Then he began. “We are part of an…organization, put it that way, that has existed since before the thirteenth century –“
“Twelfth, actually” Ben cut in.
“Whatever… it’s been up and about for a while, there, happy?” He glarred at Ben, who smiled at his anger. “Now, as I was saying, the goal of the organization is to employ people with specific…gifts to help keep the world safe. You know, the kind of SAVE THE WORLD missions. Among the organization, we are known as the Galäbriel Knights. To outsiders, we are Shifters. Although most demons refer to us by other very barbaric names.” All four guys cracked a smile, remembering something. “I guess ability isn’t quite the right word. ‘Powers’ suits better. We have the ability to shift our body’s reality into another one, hence Shifters. We still don’t know what the other reality is and I honestly don’t give a shit.”
He gestured up and down his body. “Like this, we’re your average Joe. But when we Shift, we can harvest Light into weapons to help us defeat evil.” He let out a sigh. “I know this might sound unreal, but it’s the truth. The entire planet is consisted of Light and Dark. Think of it as the Ying and Yang or Good and Evil, it’s basically that. It’s everywhere and in everything, from objects to people and so on. Humans contain both the Light and the Dark inside their bodies. When we Shift, we can see their essence. It kind of looks like their shape is glowing in yellow or black. I can’t really explain it; you’d have to see it. Anyways, humans are born with a balance of both sides. However, depending on how good or bad a person you are, the more you tend towards one of the two and eventually your essence has more weight on one side. It’s really complicated, I know, but eventually you’ll understand. For creatures though, it’s completely different. You are either born a Light Dweller or a Dark one. There have been some exceptions, but it’s still almost impossible to switch sides. You’d have to have a radical change and completely abandon yourself to the other side, which would be hard for anybody to change so much in their heart and mind.
So that’s what we are. We are Light beings, who use their powers to save people and stop those TAKE OVER THE WORLD plots.” He bent and took the can of 7up to drink.
“Being a Shifter is hereditary.” Ben shared.”It is passed down by family members for centuries, although we can never know who will get it. Some people have died because it was only their great grandson who gained their abilities. Once a Shifter awakens is powers, which is usually in puberty, his ancestor loses his powers and in consequence becomes a Council member.
The Council is like our government; they make the major decisions. Since they have all been Shifters once before, they know how things work. We get all information from them: where there have been sittings, plots being made and other boring stuff like that. Anyways… you don’t really need to know all this. We need to know who your Shifter ancestor is. Anyone come to mind?” He asked.
“Nope. My last relative was my maternal grandmother, Nana. And then my parents, but they’re just doctors. I’ve seen their schedules before, they wouldn’t have time to go and play hero.”
“We don’t play!” Greg interrupted.
“It was a figure of speech.”
“But that’s not what really matters right now.” Anthony added brusquely. “What’s important is to figure out what you are.”
Now this, I couldn’t believe. “Me? Weren’t you just trying to convince me I was a Shifter?”
“In normal circumstances we would, yes.” He stated. “There’s just one problem; in over 700 years, there has never been any females among us.”
