Destiny

The same heart-shaped face, long blond hair, and the eyes…his eyes.

Liam stared in shock, for there, on the face of one he hated so very much, were a pair of large clear, harmless blue eyes.

The boy stared back at him; shock reflected on his face..

He stuttered, “L…Liam.” Then, with a quick glance over Liam’s shoulder, he was off down the street.

*What? He isn’t the one who attacked me. He…*

Stunned the dark haired police officer could only stare after him, he recognized the same burly men, who held him down that awful night, as they raced past him. They were clearly after the kid.

While Liam was still dumbstruck by the resemblance between the kid and his tormentor (and he was kind of confused about why the kid should know his name) he was definitely not the same person. His tormentor had menacing red eyes that burned from within, a direct contradiction to the eyes he had seen on the boy. The child's eyes were filled with innocence. Liam made his decision.

He took off down the street. If he could catch up to the boy he could lead him to his car. It was only a few blocks from here. The kid had rounded the corner ahead. Liam cut through an alleyway that would bring him out in front of the boy.

Once he was through the alley and right into his tracks, the boy skidded to a halt in front of Liam

“This way kid.” Liam shouted, and led him by the arm to his car. The frightened child submitted to the grasp of the officer, understanding that his options were limited.

As soon as they were in the car, Liam hit the ignition and they sped off. The boy turned to see his pursuers swear and spit on the sidewalk amongst a crowd of confused bystanders. They sighed in relief as they realized that they had lost the burly flunkies.

Liam turned to the boy. “So kid, you gonna tell me what that was about?”

The boy stared at him.“I… Why are you helping me?”

Liam shrugged. “You looked like you needed helping.”

The kid started to stutter before replying, “But…I…I’m…how am I going to word this…” he took a deep breath, “My name is Raphael Johnson. For the last three years I have been controlled by a demon named Talison. The last thing he made me do was impregnate you and stalk you.”

Liam almost drove off the road in shock. “Wha?”

* He IS! He’s him… But no…he isn’t. Not really. That demon was controlling him… that must be why his eyes were red, but how? *

Even though the boy's explanation was insane, Liam found relief in any explanation that he could find for the incident that had caused them to meet. Things suddenly became clear and complicated at the same time.

He pulled over and turned to his passenger.

“How? But….” Liam trailed off and tried to think again. Raphael just stared at his shoes. “The man who…overpowered me was evil and very strong. He had slanted red eyes... How could you be him? You look too young and your eyes…they’re way too innocent. I almost believe that you were possessed, if that‘s the truth."

Raphael looked up from is shoes, “Like I said Talison was controlling me with this.” He held up a pendant with the image of a bull in the center.

Liam felt sick. “Look Raphael,” he began,

“Call me Raph.” The kid interrupted.

“Okay Raph. If what you say is true and someone was controlling you. Then it wasn’t you at all; it was just this Talison using your body. "

Raphael’s mouth dropped, “That’s it? You’re not mad. You’re not gonna kill me or yell at me or something? You forgive me just like that?”

Liam chuckled at the rush of words from the boy’s mouth, “There’s nothing to forgive. Like I said it wasn’t you, it was Talison using your body. So you technically didn’t do anything.” He pulled back onto the road and resumed driving.

Raph wasn’t satisfied. “But you’re not upset about me saying you’re pregnant or anything? You’re acting like you couldn’t care less. Do you believe you’re pregnant?” he glared at Liam suspiciously

Liam hid his smile, “Yeah, and what a long and interesting experience that was. But I’ve made my peace with it. I’m not going to kill the baby just because of the weirdness of its conception; although, it won’t be easy to hide from the media. Not to mention I’ll have to raise a baby by myself and try and keep it safe from that creature. Sure I’m mad at the bastard, but it’s not the end of the world or anything. Right?”

Raph calmed down at this, “Yeah…I guess. How come you believe this though? Most people would just think I was crazy.”

“Doesn’t surprise me much,” he replied, “I was working on a strange case recently with unexplained murders …but that’s another long story...hey! You’re the missing kid! The one whose finger prints were at the crime scene!”

Raph fidgeted. “Well, yeah, you could say I was the weapon in those murders. Talison was trying to figure out how to impregnate a human male using my powers. It has to do with this prophecy. But he kept messing up and they died. I’m glad it worked on you. Otherwise you’d be dead and unable to save me from flotsam and jetsam back there…umm…. Where are we going anyway?”

Liam pulled up to a red light, “Well, since you’ve been in captivity for a few years it’ll take a while before we can locate your parents and I think we should look into that amulet thing; so we’re going to a friend of mine. She works with the police sometimes. Her name's Maya, she’s a psychic, she’s worked with the police on several occasions, including my most recent case.”

They drove in an uncomfortable silence until Liam pulled up in front of a small magic shop.

It was very cluttered inside. With books and baubles everywhere. Liam walked up to the desk with Raph nervously following him. The lady at the desk was very tiny, with mouse brown hair and large brown eyes. As Liam approached she smiled and rushed forward to envelope him in a hug.

“Liam! Whatever brings ye here? And with a friend too.” She winked at Raph.

Liam smiled, “Well we were wondering…”

“Liam!!!” shouted Maya, “Why do ye have more than one aura?”

Liam blushed scarlet. “Umm well that’s not why we came…”

Maya seemed to ignore him for her own curiosity. “Why, its almost as if ye are with child.”

Liam turned even redder if that was possible. “Well…I…kinda am.”

“Wonderful!!” shouted Maya, “but tell me, however did this happen? Last time I checked ye were male.”

Liam was too embarrassed to do much more than stutter. “Umm…well…I still am…that is…I think, mostly…err.”

Raph, ignored so far, spoke up, “It was me.” Liam and Maya both stared.

An awkward silence ensued.

“Whatever do ye mean child?” Maya asked.

Raph solemnly presented Maya with the medallion. “When I was 13 a demon named Talison put this around my neck and began controlling me. He waited until I was mature enough to fulfill a prophecy. It is a prophecy that has been passed along by his people for about 500 years now. It goes like this:

2,000 years after the first Son of the Father
A new Shining One will come.
He will have a miraculous conception
And He will have the power to destroy our race
Or free it from the darkness to which we were banished.

“The son of the father part means Jesus, apparently he banished the demons 2,000 years ago. He was conceived with a miraculous conception, but that was brought about by the power of God or whoever. The demons don’t have that kind of power. They can’t get something from nothing. Talison thought that if he achieved a conception that was impossible it would count as the same thing. So…he decided on getting a male pregnant so that he could control the child. That’s where I come in. I was born with the power to heal. He used my healing powers to change Liam’s body so he could bear a child. He used this medallion to control me, and he had many failed attempts before he succeeded.”

Maya examined the medallion, “I see…. I can destroy this, but that won't stop Talison from coming after ye…one moment.” She walked over to the shelf behind her and pulled out two pendants. They were a dark murky gray color. “Here, these will confuse your auras so the demons can’t trace you while I work on a more permanent solution.”

Then she put the medallion on the counter and sprinkled it with a powder, “Attero Malum!” she shouted. The medallion made an odd screeching sound before turning into a pile of dust.

Liam blinked; He’d never seen Maya actually do anything with her magic before.

After sweeping the dust into the garbage Maya motioned the two of them behind the counter and up the stairs to her apartment.

Once they were settled on her couch she spoke. “Now lad, I understand that this Talison was controlling you and is responsible for the murders that occurred a few months ago. Does he have anything to do with the group EMIM? They were behaving quite suspicious at the time but we weren’t able to find anything linking them to the murders.”

Raph nodded, “Yes. At least I think so. I’ve never been able to properly remember things when Talison is controlling me; but the name sounds familiar. They may be a cover for Talison’s dealings with humans. ”

Maya frowned, “What sort of ‘dealings’ would he have with humans?”

“Well, the majority of it is in slaves and information. Talison also uses humans for gathering ingredients and rare plants and herbs for his experiments.” Explained Raph.

Liam and Maya exchanged a look.

“We’ll have to look into it eventually, but it is probably too dangerous to act right now.” Liam cautioned.

Maya nodded and turned to Raph.

“Well then that’s settled. So ye’ll need some training I suppose? So I’ll teach ye.” Maya then turned to Liam. “I can put a shield spell in place that will prevent any creature with evil intent from coming within the city limits. I’ll have to exclude humans of course. That cannot be helped, and I won’t be much good for anything else while I’m holding it up.”

“I understand,” replied Liam.

“Good.” nodded Maya, and as Liam and Raph got up to leave, she called after them. “Oh, yes, Liam you might want to move out of your apartment until I get the spell up. Chances are they already know where you live.”

Liam nodded and explained that he had already thought of it. He turned to leave once more.

“Oh and Liam.” Maya called, “Good luck with the babies.”