Jean and the king of the sand

"In the past there were monsters, long before the age of man and even before us. We believe that they were created by God to punish us for our sins; their great size terrifies us, but I do not deny that they are partially majestic; they represent the order of this land," explained an old voice.

"Who are you?" Jean asked, floating in immense darkness.

"But everything has its counterpart, and all of us helped to extinguish it. The earth no longer had its guardians; the creatures of the night emerged like flies in dead flesh and clung to us like barnacles on the hulls of ships," the voice continued.

"Am I dead? Are you God? What beings are you talking about? ´´The young man asked.

"I am not God; I am very far from being one. As far as I know, you are not dead yet; the divine spear is capable of killing non-human beings; in some way it affected you. Guardians are the most powerful and pure beings that once walked the planet; I will show them to you if you want to delight in their beauty.

The freckled man was dragged into a huge gate; inside were images of colossal beasts that exceeded the height of the tallest building in the world. If it weren't for the fact that they were assimilating to dinosaurs, the young man wouldn't be so scared.

"There is only one of them left in the whole world. When he dies, the earth will perish´´.

Jean felt something enveloping his body. The feeling was similar to when you're in a tub full of foam. Something was not right, and he knew it; he wanted to get out of that place. He was slowly weakening, almost as if he had diabetes or as if his soul wanted to pass away. The young man would not allow himself to be defeated easily, since what had happened five months ago caught his attention; the void was claiming the freckled man as his own, and he didn't even know why he was in nothingness or what the hell it meant or why it was created. Was the being who spoke to him the owner, or was there someone else?

Something pulled him back, away from the monsters. After that he was accelerating his speed more and more, making the boy dizzy. His organs moved forward thanks to inertia, and Jean felt as if they wanted to leave his body; a huge and luminous hole opened behind the boy, who shot out forcefully until he was grabbed by someone from his sweatshirt, as if he were a rag doll.

The room was a basement, he noticed when he saw a small and elongated window that was very high; there was a brown sofa with yellow and square cushions and on it a gray blanket that was scattered. In front of it was a plasma screen that hung on the wall, painted beige, and underneath it a black cabinet full of electronic things such as a console, headphones, video game cartridges, women's magazines, a hair straightener, and a Colt gun. Around it were black metal shelves covered with melee weapons, as well as military-caliber firearms. Banners with the flag of Great Britain hung on the walls, as well as posters of rock bands and the logo of their hunters' organization, which consisted of a white background with the red cross of the crusaders and above it a gray sword with a cross command, along with a branch that symbolized peace. There were also three mannequins carrying the black armor of the crusader organization. Jean noticed that on the sofa there were two people sitting playing a video game; one was a black-haired girl, who had her head resting on the shoulder of a blond boy with a red bandana on his head.

"Mom!" Jean shouted when he noticed that he had been kidnapped. The man holding him covered his mouth so that he would not scream anymore.

"It always happens the first time, doesn't it, Edgard?" Kevin said without taking his eyes off the screen.

Edgard Strathman, the Man of the Void, wore a brown coat with several pockets, a green T-shirt underneath with the design of a throne made of swords, black pants, and gray tennis shoes. He was 32 years old, his hair was brown and reached his neck; his eyes were golden and adorned with dark circles; the nose was aquiline; he had a closed beard in the jaw, a little longer in the chin, and his physical build was quite muscular due to the lifestyle he led, as well as being quite tall, reaching 1.87 meters.

"Don't scream, stupid brat," Edgard ordered, throwing him against the sofa.

"And this is the guy who broke your nose," the young woman said to Kevin while smiling mockingly.

The young woman with black hair is called Lisa; she is 19 years old, has a curvy body and a size B bust; the color of her eyes is hazel, the right being the lightest; her hair is short and her sideburns are long, reaching her shoulders with a red dye. He has piercings in his upturned nose and in his right ear. She wears a black women's tank top, military-style cargo shorts that cover her up to the shins, and black Converse.

"I want to know what you are, Jean Thompson," Edgard said, taking a notebook from the sofa, which he opened. ´´It seems strange to me that you are registered in your high school as if you had only entered two years ago, when everyone says that you have been here a lifetime.´´ The boy turned pale.

"I've lived here since I was 8 years old; don't come at me with that!" Jean shouted, clenching his fists. Then he noticed that he was healed of all his wounds and that his whole body was bandaged.

"There is no record of you from any other state in the viceroyalty of New Britain," continued Edgard, who saw the young man looking at his bandages. Relax, you were in my pocket dimension for two weeks to heal there, nothing more.

"There must be an error in your data, which you got from who knows where. I'm not interested in having a secret stalker or admirer, old man; I don't bat on that side, but if you like, there's that faggot who should be dead," Jean said angrily.

"Do you know any other relatives?" Lisa asked. Jean's mind suddenly went blank, and thick beads of sweat fell from his forehead.

—Mi uncle Tony Thompson y...

"Max Thompson is an only child. According to the Civil Registry, he married your mother three years ago," Edgard said. Tony Thompson does not exist.

"W… Where's the camera? This is no laughing matter, old stalker," asked the freckled man, increasingly nervous.

"By the way, you're not even human, faggot," Kevin added without taking his eyes off the plasma. "And not really, I shouldn't have died; that's you.´

"Repeat it, you asshole!" Jean shouted, intending to hit the blond man, but he was stopped by Edgard.

"Unlike you, I do accept it. I'm not a human; let me introduce myself as the real me: the king of the sand," Kevin said.

"Ha, you can shove that sand up your ass if you want; I don't want anything to do with you," Jean added.

"No, you confuse things," said the young woman.

"We don't do this in a good way; you're an abnormal being, and we kill abnormal beings. You've seen us fight with one," Edgard answered. "We are giving you a chance to go on living, but if you leave this house without giving an answer, you will die right here."

"You say you don't know what's going on. Neither do we, so you must help us, because your family will also be in danger by protecting an entity like you," Lisa added.

"I don't know anything, only that the skinwalker noticed me, then I was in a dimension of the void with an old man, and you brought me here," Jean replied with his eyes dull with shock.

"If you refuse, he's going to torture you," Kevin said, mentioning Void. ´´Anyway, I don't care; the culprit of D's death is also you.´´

"You're guilty too, Kevin," Edgard said. "Old man, I sent you alone into the void so you wouldn't run into any of my servants."

"And the huge monsters and the floodgates?" Jean asked.

"Those aren't in my dimensions," Edgard said, "but then, are you going to join, yes or no? As we already told you, it is to have answers.

"I... I am keen to know more. What am I? Who the fuck am I? Jean said of his breath. ´´For that reason, I will help you for my own benefit.´´

"Perfect, no one should know, so I'll send Kevin with you to watch you," Edgard said. ´In order for the other members of the Crusaders not to kill you, you must officially be inside. I will order that paperwork with Mayor Andersen in two weeks, and I don't want you to say anything about this conversation, because the four of us will be in danger.´´

"What about the villagers of the town of Eternal Acre?" Jean asked, going upstairs, followed by the other three, on his way to the front door of the house, until he reached the lintel of the door. The freckled man turned the knob, looking back.

"We can manipulate the information circulating about you," Edgard said.

The drive home was pretty serious. Jean said nothing; he had many more doubts about everything around him; in so few words, everything he knew could be a lie, but what Edgard said could also be a lie. Kevin maintained his annoyed attitude; he walked haughtily. Seeing his opponent with that crisis made him feel superior, even though he also went through what the freckled man feels right now.

When he woke up, he was on the ground and covered in sand. He was in a dry forest; his clothing was white. In reality, it was just a long silk shirt similar to the Greek one, a bronze belt that covered his abdomen and had inscriptions in an ancient language. Its eyes were slanted like those of a reptile, and its ears were a little elongated.

He didn't remember what happened to end up in the middle of the New South Wales forest, but he could remember that he knew how to control the element that surrounded his body. He felt an evil presence behind him; it was a huge koala ten meters high that attacked him without a second thought; Kevin manipulated the sand to envelop the monster and press it until it broke its neck.

When the crusaders arrived on the scene, they saw the boy on top of the dead monster. They had been looking for him for a week since he devoured a couple of farmers. Void was the one who tried to dialogue with the boy, but they spoke different languages, so he decided to help him; he took it with him and signed paperwork for the boy to enter the Crusader organization by saving his people from the monster. The only condition was that Kevin learn his language and that he measure himself when he wrestled in public.

Jean turned the knob with nerves in his stomach; as he entered, he saw a man with short black hair reading a newspaper about the intrusion of the skinwalker and a brown-haired woman watching television; the woman looked at the door, and her blue eyes filled with tears as she saw her son enter the house.

She jumped off the couch and ran with open arms to hug the young man. The freckled man did not know what to do; he could not cry, but he was also not upset when questioning whether those feelings of his mother were real or false, like everything he believed; his father also got up from the couch to hug the boy. Kevin was unfazed and gave a fake smile greeting to Jean's parents.

"Hi, Mr. Thompson," Kevin said, raising his left hand.

"Son... I thought you were dead, for God's sake! Said the woman, touching the freckled man's cheeks.

"I got lost in the forest when I escaped from that monster, and they already found me... "Mom," Jean said, cutting off his voice as he said the last word.

"It must have been a long drive to get here," Max Thompson said. How come you didn't run into more monsters?

"It was a matter of luck, Dad," replied the freckles. "Can we come in? He's Kevin; he'll stay here for a while since his house was destroyed by the Wendigos."

"It's fine for me; I'll take care of you; just wait while you clean up," the woman said kindly. The father showed Kevin the second bathroom, on the second floor, while Jean bathed in the bathroom on the first. Max noticed that the carpet was not stained with dirt or mud. "Why isn't it dirty?" The man questioned the woman as he crouched down, touching the carpet. The boys arrived at the spacious dining room after ten and fifteen minutes, respectively. They ate as if there was no tomorrow.

"Tell me, son, what were those wendigos like?" asked the mother as she shook the hair of the teenager, who forgot the appearance of these monsters.

"Actually, I don't know; I can't describe them physically," Jean replied.

´´How many kilometers did you walk, or what happened to you during your trip?´´ Max asked.

"I don't know.

"Nothing else out of the ordinary happened," Kevin said, noticing the attitude of both parents.

"Nothing," Jean added with a lost look. Her mother kept ruffling his hair.

"I think you played with his hair too much" Kevin said, taking the woman's wrist, who violently pulled away from him. ´It was you all this time ´´

"What about me, child?" said the woman, standing beside her husband. ´My son reached Arkana just like us; he's a chosen one. Look into his eyes; you can't deny it.´´

"Void was right," Kevin said. ´´Jean, wake up, you're being controlled!´´

"Hey, kid, we didn't have to live with a monster for you to fuck up," Max said, pulling two knives out of his sleeve.

"What did you do to me?" Jean asked, annoyed, as he came to his senses and got up from the table.

"I think that to have a normal day tomorrow, we will have to use force," Max said, cutting off Kevin's right arm, who did not flinch as he separated his arm, turning it into sand. His left arm turned it into a huge mass with which he hit the woman, pushing her away from the table.

"Run, Jean!" Kevin shouted, holding back Mr. and Mrs. Thompson. The freckled man ran to the door, but his head began to hurt. The image of the turbulent ocean ran through his mind; suddenly, the pipes of the entire house burst, wetting the four subjects; Kevin's body turned to mud, and, therefore, he went on to let go of the parents.

"You shouldn't have come back, Jean; you made things worse than they already were," Max said, approaching his son.

" Give me back my memories, you fucking couple! ´Jean shouted. The water began to boil, burning Max's eyes and the woman's skin, who jumped out of the window, escaping into the forest in fright.

"Aaahah, brat!" Max shouted, waving his blade to try to kill his "son," but he was lifted to the ceiling when he was pierced in the chest by a pile of sand. He fell to the ground dead.

"Da... Dad! ´´ Jean shouted, understanding that he helped kill the man who deceived him. He turned pale from the violent act, kneeling and covering his face while crying bitterly. Edgard was right; he lived deceived all his life without knowing who he was, and the woman who stole his memory escaped. ´For fuck's sake!´

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