Obelisk of the End

Illustration and literature by J B.

Chapter 1 of Obelisk of the End

Ever since I was a kid, I was told not to run with scissors and not to play with fire, but no one ever told me not to play with knives, so I thought that it was okay. I would say that was the beginning of the end, but others would say that it was when I found them. What is “them,” you ask? Well, “them” refers to the knives in my hands glowing with a red tint. How on Earth did I get here? Since when did I go through my sister's personal stuff? I never had done this before, but today was a hot summer day in California and I was sick of watching television, so… I guess that was when I made the unwise decision to go through my sister's stuff. Of course, I could not just find some random garbage or some secrets that I could hang over her head, no… I had to find glowing knives. It was just my luck. My sister had been away at college for three months now, leaving me alone in our apartment, which just shows how much she trusts me and look how I have abused that trust.

Regret is how I could describe my feeling? I just walked into her open door and started rummaging through her stuff and what do I stumble upon? Glowing knives. A few questions and possibilities popped into my head, why are they glowing? Biolumiencious could be a possibility, but it’s not dark and this glow was somewhat supernatural… Crazy talk, of course. The second question was, why does my sister have glowing knives in her closet? That could be answered by a few possibilities, the only ones that I would like to believe is that it’s for either self-defense or some hobby that she picked up in her few months that she spent in Egypt. Self-defense was a pipe dream, because these almost sword-like knives were a bit too large to just protect yourself with. They looked more like the giant knives in the kitchen that we used to cut watermelons. The second option was even less believable, because my sister is a law student with no hobbies or free time, and what sort of hobby required two giant glowing knives?

I walked into the living room and placed the knives on the counter. This is probably one of those mysteries that I should just leave alone and forget about, but… If my sister has gotten herself into some kind of trouble, like a cult or supernatural trouble, then it is my duty to help her as her only living relative. It was just us, so we need to stick together.

We have something called mutual trust, so she would have told me about something as important as joining a cult, but of course, I am just jumping to conclusions it is quite possible that she has a good reason for having glowing knives in her closet, a very good reason. That is that optimism that I hate so much coming through, being optimistic is like asking for your hopes to be run over by a truck. I go out of my way to try to keep my expectations as low as possible, so that if they fall, it will be a short drop.

I stared at the knives sitting on the counter, glowing with a faint red tint. The light around it was pulsing almost like it had a heartbeat of its own. I sat down on the sofa with a large sigh, there really is no point in worrying about it. My sister is an adult, she can take care of herself. I can almost imagine her saying, “Naddia, my dear little sister, can you try minding your own business for once?” And I would run to my room, shut the door, sleep it off, and then wake up in the morning, completely forgetting about the event of the night before.

I would not say that my sister is suspicious or mysterious, but…. she could be very private and secretive, which is probably why I am blowing this little discovery out of proportion. No matter how much I want her to trust me fully, like how I trust her, she will continue being the secretive person she is. But thinking about it now, am I really trusting her fully? If I did trust her as much as I think that I do, then I would probably just put the knives back and never think about them again, but there was something about them, something about their faint glow, pulsing in tune with my heartbeat that called to me. I wanted to use them, for what, I do not know, but I feel like they belong to me for some reason, which is, of course, crazy. The knives belong to my sister, I only just found them in her closet, so I should just put them back and never think about it again. Right, that is exactly what I should do.

I stood up from the sofa and grabbed the knives off of the counter and walked toward her room. Bang, Bang, Bang. The sound of fists slamming on the front door echoed through the apartment. I am not expecting anyone, this is the summer, so it would not be one of my friends from school. My sister is halfway across the world and the landlady took the rent just last week, so who is knocking on the door? I stayed right where I was, frozen halfway in a stride towards my sister’s room. My sister taught me to not answer the door unless I knew exactly who was there. She said that if I wait long enough they will either leave or make themselves known.

Bang, Bang, Bang. I sprang into action, I speed walked to the door and peeped through the hole, and caught a glimpse of a suit. Bang! That was the sound of a foot hitting a door. Bang! The sound came back in a more violent fashion. I took a step away from the door and it came crashing in on me. The door bent in and broke into splinters. I managed to dodge the bulk of it, but tripped and fell onto the floor, the knives skidded from my hands and landed a few feet away. Blood dripped from my hands and stained the tan-colored carpet. I flipped my head around rapidly, trying to see who just broke down my door. The shadowy figure of a man stood in the doorway, my eyes traveled up him until. I saw his face.

I gasped aloud, “Dad?”

End of Chapter 1

Chapter 2 of Obelisk of the End

Well, that just brought a new definition to a false alarm. Is this just not my day or am I imagining all of this bad luck? First, I find these suspicious glowing knives, then someone knocks down my door, and I call them Dad, because he looks strangely like my father. Ugh, how embarrassing! Heat rose to my face and I looked away from the dark silhouette standing in my doorway. Realizing what was happening, I sprang to my feet and scrambled away from him. He looked at me with dead eyes as I grabbed one of the knives off of the table.

I held it in front of me with both hands, “Who are you? What are you doing here?”

He was silent. He lowered his face to the ground and shadows enveloped his face until all I could see was his wide grin. That smile did not belong to my father, it was crazy. His white toothy grin spread across his face pulling the skin tauntly. He chuckled to himself, a low voice.

I raised the knife higher, “Who are you?!” This man just burst into my house laughing like a maniac, not my day is it. He stopped laughing and raised his face to look at me again. His grey eyes matched mine, but there was a cruel intensity that I never had. His black hair threaded with gray stuck to his face and beads of sweat dripped from his face. He was breathing heavily like he had just run a marathon. His suit was tarnished with sighs of impact and the occasional splotch of blood. He had clearly engaged in a fight and did not come out on the winning side. Is he seeking refuge? Running from someone? But why would he pick my apartment? There were fifteen other doors that he could have kicked down before he found mine, so he meant to come here which means that he wants something that I have or he wants to kill me. Those are the only options in my book. If he wants to steal something, then go ahead, I can buy new stuff, but if he is trying to take my life, then he is going to get this weird knife plunged in his leg.

He stepped towards me and I took a step back and felt my leg glaze the soft material of the couch. I can not back up anymore or I will be cornered. I guess that this would be as good a time as any to get closer to the door, because it is clear that he is not going to tell me what his intentions are. I flipped the table in his direction and he nimbly sidestepped out of the way. While he was distracted, I slid over the ground so that I had the door to my back.

I started to back out through the door and he finally spoke, “Do you think that you could escape if you manage to get through that door? It’s futile, Naddia. Give it up. Set the Dagger of The Forgotten God on the table and put these on.” He took golden handcuffs out of his pocket and dangled them in front of him.

Is he delusional? Like I would give up without a fight. He knew my name which just solidifies my concern that this is not some random attack. Has my sister gotten into something illegal and now they are coming after her family? That is an option, because I know that I have not been doing anything shady.

I took a moment to glance down at the knife. My eyes glazed the floor looking for the other knife, but it was nowhere to be seen. Dagger of the Forgotten God? This must be about the glowing knives. Of course, this is my karma for going through my sister’s stuff without her permission. If my sister was here, she probably would have laughed at me and said that this is what happens to nosy kids.

If this man wants the knives, then I would gladly give them to him, but it seems that he also wants to put on some weird golden handcuffs and that is a big NO.

I continued to back up and tried to smile confidently, “In your dreams.”

I turned around and ran as fast as I could down the hallway. I was unaware of whether or not he was following me, but I kept on running. I ran to the door to leave the apartment and pushed it open. My bare feet stung as they stepped onto the sun heated pavement.

The door pushed back against me and I tripped falling backwards. I skidded on the floor. My already injured hand wiped blood on the wood floor. The door slammed closed. What? How did that happen? This can not be bad luck, I felt as though someone was pushing on the door from the other side…. He must have friends waiting for me if I run. This is bad. How can I get away from this?

I struggled to my feet still clutching the knife. And the door opened as though someone was coming in.

The light shown through to the familiar silhouette. It was him. The same man, how is that even possible? How did he get down here so fast? Did he jump from the fifth floor?

He chuckled again as I backed myself against the wall. That’s impossible. I stood staring at him, my eyes wide open. This is… Impossible.

“Give it up, Naddia. You can not escape, because I am not human.” He stared at me…. No, through me. His eyes pierced me like a knife and I started to shake and the knife clattered from my hand. I looked down where it should have been on the ground, it was gone. I gasped aloud. All of this is impossible. This should be impossible. It’s impossible, right?

End of Chapter 2

Chapter 3 coming soon!