Incident 27 (3 page)

The
class got a good laugh out of this. Brandon simply shook his head and wrote
something down in his notebook. Something negative, no doubt. “Looks like I’ll
be seeing you again after the break, Ev.”

Ev
returned to his seat, dejected. How was he supposed to become a god if he
couldn’t do something as simple as conjuring?

After
class, Maya met him in the hall. “How’d it go? Did you pass?”

He
sighed. “’fraid not.”

She
hugged him. “Cheer up. You’ll get it. You just need to keep at it.”

He
looked away. “But what if I
don’t
get it? What if I never get it?”

She
forced him to look her in the eyes. “You can’t think like that. You, Ev Bannen,
are going to get it. Tell me you’re going to get it.”

He
said weakly, “I’m going to get it.”

“Again.”

“I’m
going to get it.”

“Louder.”

“I’m
going to get it!”

Everyone
in the hall turned to look at him. Maya seemed satisfied. “Well, you made a
fool of yourself, but at least you got the point.”

“You’re
the one who made me do it.”

She
smiled. “Let’s not argue who made who do what. We’re going to your house
tomorrow, and we need to make sure we’re prepared. Do you have everything you
need?”

“Yeah,
I’m pretty well packed.”

“Me,
too. Remember—we leave in the morning. You want me to come to your dorm and get
you?”

“Nah,
I think I’ll be OK.”

“Good.
Be at the hangar by eight.”

Well,
he might still have had problems, but at least he wasn’t depressed by them at
the moment. Maya had succeeded in cheering him up.

Chapter
II

The
following morning, Ev met Maya in the hangar. The cavernous room was primarily
used for storage, but every so often they cleared the floor to make room for
airplanes which the faculty members created using their advanced conjuring
skills.

Brandon
and Freya were just finishing creating a large passenger plane when Ev arrived.
It was an amazing thing to see in action. The various pieces of the massive
vehicle simply materialized out of thin air, like reverse-disintegration.

As
usual, once it was completed, Brandon and Freya dropped to their knees, exhausted.
Even for veteran gods, the process was taxing. They always recovered fairly
quickly, though.

When
Brandon saw Ev and Maya, he made a grand gesture to the newly-created plane
and said, “All aboard for Morovia.” Throughout the day the gods would be
creating various planes and taking students to each continent where they would
then make separate arrangements to go wherever they were headed. This
particular plane would be going to Ev’s homeland, the crescent-shaped continent
Morovia, home of the great metropolis Seraphim City.

“Thanks
a bunch, Professor,” Ev said. He then added, “Professor
s
,” remembering
to recognize Freya’s contribution as well.

Freya
got back to her feet. “Our pleasure, Ev. I’m just glad we don’t do this every
day.” Usually the Academy just had to ferry one or two students to and from Mt. Orleia. In such cases, they employed small sleighs pulled by otherworldly tigers Freya
summoned from her chest. Ev still had no idea where those cats came from.

“Good—I’m
not too late.”

Ev
and Maya turned. Jaysin was standing there. “What are you doing here?” Ev asked
him. “Your plane doesn’t leave for another hour.” Jaysin was going back to his
homeland of Chrichton.

“Just
wanted t’say goodbye.”

Ev
rolled his eyes. “Cut the drama. We’ll only be gone a week.”

Jaysin
extended his hand. “Still…think I’ll miss ya, mate.”

Ev
shook his friend’s hand. “Well…as much as I hate to admit it, I’ll miss you,
too. Probably.”

“Get
a room, you two,” Maya laughed.

“Hey,
hey, hey—watch it, missy. In case you’ve forgotten, I know your weakness. You.
Have. A. Boyfriend.”

She
turned red and whirled away from Jaysin. “S-Shut up.”

“Hey,
no worries. I didn’t mean nothing by it. Just having a poke at my friends,
that’s all.”

Ev
laughed. “You’re all heart, Jaysin.”

Jaysin
shrugged. “I try.”

From
behind them, Brandon coughed. “Sorry to interrupt, but everyone else has
finished boarding the plane.”

“Looks
like it’s time to go,” Ev said.

“Take
care, Ev,” Jaysin replied.

“You,
too.”

Jaysin
then added, “You take care as well, Maya.”

Without
turning around, she said, “Same to you, Jaysin.”

* * *

They
boarded the plane, and by the afternoon, they had arrived at Seraphim City International Airport. Ev couldn’t help but be reminded of the last time he had
been at a major airport. That was in Stiftung. Belial had just unleashed the
Nephilim into the city, and the students, who were on a field trip, had to
fight their way back to the airport in order to get on their plane and escape.
Unfortunately, they had to overtake another plane—also attempting to
escape—which ended up being destroyed by a Nephilim. At the time, Brandon and
Freya justified the sacrifice by saying they had to get back to the Academy to
summon reinforcements to fight the angelic giants. On a purely logical level,
Ev agreed, but that incident still haunted him. Seeing all those people go up
in flames only a few feet away was something he would never forget. It seemed
it was his fate to take part in the deaths of others.

“Ev?
You OK?”

He
snapped out of it and looked around. They were walking through the terminal,
and Maya was attempting to talk to him. “Yeah. Sorry. I was just remembering
our escape from Stiftung. Oh, wait—you weren’t with us.” In fact, Maya had gone
over to Belial’s side after shooting her friends with arrows. They had had to
flee Stiftung without her.

“No,”
she said. “I guess I wasn’t.” She went quiet. She deeply regretted her actions,
but no amount of apologizing would ever undo them. Both of them simply had to
live with the things they’d done.

He
took her hand. “It’s OK. As long as we’re here for each other, we can keep
moving forward.”

“Thank
you, Ev.”

They
said their good-byes to Brandon and Freya and headed to another terminal. From
there, they would catch another plane to another airport further to the south.

* * *

After
another hour of flight, their plane landed in Grantz Municipal Airport about forty-five minutes outside Ev’s hometown of Upton. They took a cab the rest of
the way, and before long they were in Upton.

“Nice
place,” Maya said.

“Yep,”
Ev said. “10,000 people, one police station, two fire stations, one high
school.”

The
cab drove them through town, up Main Street, past a collection of businesses
that comprised downtown Upton. Here and there were parks with walking trails,
nice-looking playground equipment and dilapidated buildings—a study in
contrasts. Some of the tax money was spent well, and some of it wasn’t.

They
went past Upton Middle School, which was three large white buildings built
side-by-side. Each building housed a different grade. One of Ev’s few fond
memories of growing up was attending here. He had loved school, mostly because
he didn’t have to fear his father during the day.

Behind
the middle school they entered a neighborhood. It was strictly a middle-class
residential area, not too rich and not too poor. The Bannen family probably
would have made more money if Ev’s father had let his wife work full-time. But
no, he (violently) insisted the bulk of her life be dedicated to serving him.

They
came to a brick one-story house at the end of the block with a two-car garage.
As it was when Ev had grown up here, nothing about it stood out at all. The
lawn was well-maintained by a man Ev’s mother periodically hired. You’d never
know this house had once been the site of constant fear and, ultimately, a
gruesome death.

Ev
paid the driver and they strolled up to the house. He rang the doorbell. A
middle-aged woman with fading brown hair answered. “Ev! It’s so good to see you
again!”

They
hugged. “It’s good to see you, too, Mom.”

“Come
inside,” she said to the two of them.

When
his mother had shut the door behind them, Ev said, “Mom, I want you to meet
a…uh…special friend of mine. This is Maya Brünhart. Maya, this is Anni Bannen.”

The
two women shook hands. “Nice to meet you,” Maya said.

“My
son has a girlfriend!” Anni exclaimed happily.

Ev
was suddenly embarrassed. “Well…that’s…I guess…”

“It’s
OK, Ev,” Maya said. She turned her attention back to his mother. “We’re still
feeling things out.”

Anni
nodded. “I understand. It was the same way with…” Her mood abruptly darkened.
She was going to say,
It was the same way with Dom and me
. But that
would have been a load of crap. Ev had long ago vowed never to resemble his
father in any way, shape or form. “Never mind. It’s not important. Please, have
a seat, you two. We have so much to talk about.”

Ev
and Maya sat down on the couch in front of the TV. Anni retreated into the
kitchen. Maya looked around and said, “There aren’t any pictures of your
father. That’s no surprise, I guess.”

Indeed
there weren’t. There were photos of Ev and his mother which varied in age.
There were photos of baby Ev, middle-school Ev, high school Ev, young Anni and
present-day Anni. But there were no pictures of Dom Bannen. Ev explained,
“After he died, we burned every last scrap of his existence. He never deserved
to exist in the first place.”

Anni
returned from the kitchen with sodas which she offered to Ev and Maya. She then
pulled up a chair and sat down in front of them. “I’m sorry my husband isn’t
here to meet you, Maya, but he ran off years ago—”

“Mom,”
Ev interjected. “She knows.”

“Oh.”
Anni’s face was melancholy. “I’m sorry you had to be burdened with that
knowledge, Maya.”

But
Maya said, “It’s OK, Anni. Ev felt he could tell me because I told him
my
dark secret. We found one another because he both had similar experiences.”

That
seemed to satisfy Ev’s mother. “Well, I won’t ask you what
you’ve
been
through. People have a right to their privacy, after all. Still, I will never
forgive myself for what happened.”

“It
wasn’t your fault,” Maya said.

“But
it
was
. Poor Ev lived in constant fear because I was too weak to do
anything. I kept telling myself Dom would change, that he would eventually see the
light and stop abusing us. I was such a fool. And then came the night where he
actually decided to kill me. I was so scared, I couldn’t move. Because of that,
Ev had to do the inconceivable, the thing no child should ever have to do. It’s
my fault he has to live with that for the rest of his life.”

She
was in tears now. Ev went over to comfort her.

* * *

After
Anni had calmed down, Ev returned to his place on the couch beside Maya. “I’m
sorry about that,” she said.

“No,
it’s OK. You have a right to be human. That’s something I didn’t learn until
last year,” Maya said.

Anni
smiled approvingly at her. “Thank you, Maya. I can tell you’re a good match for
Ev.

“Let’s
change the subject, shall we? Tell me about this university. You suddenly ran
off to it, and I never really got the details. To tell the truth, I’ve been so
worried, wondering if you chose a good school.”

Ev
sighed. He had not been looking forward to this. He didn’t know how she would
react when he revealed the truth. Nevertheless, he decided it needed to be
done.

“Mom,
were you following the news last year when that evil god took over Stiftung in
the Murnau Islands?”

“Of
course I was. It was unbelievable, really; a real, live god who isn’t Bethos!
But what does this have to do with your college?”

Ev
told her everything, starting with how he had been saved from refghasts by
Brandon Strong, to his sudden enrollment in Divine Protector University, to their field trip to Stiftung and the subsequent attack by Belial, to their
journey through the Tower of Babel. Anni stared at him, dumbstruck.

Finally,
she said, “I think I need to lay down for a bit. This is a lot to take in.”

“Sure,
Mom. I understand.” But did
Mom
understand? Could she accept the reality
of her son as a god-in-training? Only time would tell, he supposed.

* * *

In
the backyard, Ev and Maya stared at the indistinct patch of grass. It looked no
different than the rest of the grass. “This is it,” Ev said.

“This
is where you buried him?”

“Yeah.
Luckily it happened at night, so were able to dig up the grass without anyone
seeing us. I still see it clearly when I close my eyes. His blood was on my
hands and I was going crazy with fear. I had just killed my father. I had taken
a life. I knew what it was like to be a killer. For the love of Bethos, I was
eight!”