Whispers in the Dark-Chp15

“No, no, no! Absolutely not!”

Yugi and the gang were currently in the living room of the middle men’s living quarter—which was a huge mansion that can accommodate more than five people under one roof, complete with a huge swimming pool at the larger-than-life backyard; some of the most high-tech entertainment equipment like subwoofers connected to a huge hi-fi system, a wide-screen TV with state-of-the-art DVD player, gaming machines like Wii and PS3 and multi-user computer system; an impressive kitchen with automated functions; and about more than enough master bedrooms and guestrooms to house a huge slumber party—trying to convince his old best friend cum middle man of the human world Fortuno to take them to the Whisperers’ world to meet their mates, and so far, were not exactly getting the green light from him.

Eager to know what Yugi had in store for them when he mentioned of a possible friend who could help, the gang followed his lead all the way to the outskirts of the island where Fortuno and his fellow colleagues lived, using Yugi’s auto driver car Tea had gotten them so that they didn’t need to drive and cause any complications to their pregnancy. When he was younger, Yugi and his grandfather Solomon used to make trips to the outskirts to send messages needed to be relayed to them for the middle men of the Ethereal Clan from Mai or Tea and after traveling back and forth for years until he started studying grade school, Yugi knew the journey by heart. He would still occasionally go to their place when his grandfather was either too tired or too busy to help send the message (accompanied by Tea and/or Miho, of course), so he and the middle men were like old friends. So, using the GPS navigation system and Yugi’s spoken address, they found themselves driving along the road all the way to the outskirts and into Fortuno’s front gate. Fortuno had welcomed him warmly and invited them in, but after hearing their purpose of visit, he soon knew he made a big mistake inviting them in.

“I should’ve predicted this incident. No wonder I keep breaking the plates today,” Fortuno groaned, massaging his temple.

“Please, Fortuno, we’re desperate here,” Yugi pleaded. “I’ve never asked you to do anything. Just allow me to indulge in this request, just this once!”

“What you ask is too much of me,” Fortuno shook his head indignantly. “I will have to refuse.”

Fortuno, along with his fellow friends Charlie Gale, Bickford Gage and Snipes Crosshair, were the trusted middle men of Domino Island to help the Human World to handle the affairs between the humans and the Ethereal Clan. Middle men of the Human World are chosen through their inborn special gifts, which usually occur in about once every other leap year birth, and Fortuno and his friends were, of course, definitely more than just ordinary men. Middle men candidates were more than just the messenger between humans and Outer Beings, but also the main law enforcer of the supernatural kind. They are often sent to boot camps to be trained as soon as their powers have been discovered (sometimes at a very young age), and in camp, they were trained to harness the power to their advantage so that if anything supernatural goes wrong in the human world, mostly by Bad Seeds, they could at least simmer down the situation before backup from the Ethereal Clan can come along. While older middle men and those who are married and have a family live among the people in town, younger and more juvenile middle men lived in the outskirts because it was closer to the border between Ethereal and humans, and because younger middle men are stronger and more able to travel the long distances on air and sea to reach the border, thus the reason why Yugi and the gang had to travel such long distances to meet them.

Fortuno was a born psychic who, more than once, had made pretty good and accurate predictions for the human society as well as the Ethereal Clan, which compensated his lack of physical appearance. He was Yugi’s senior back in grade school and his powers were discovered when he made an accurate prediction about his librarian classmate getting involved in a ‘letter accident’—and was almost being hit by a ton of books the next day—during his second grade, and was soon taken by Tea and Miho to boot camp to be trained. Sometimes he would get together with some of the most powerful psychics from both worlds to predict any big forms of good or bad fortune, and had been quite reliable to date, so despite his short stature and nerdy look, he was quite the ladies’ and men’s man and had quite a number of devotees.

Charlie Gale and Bickford Gage were Americans born and bred in Domino Island after their parents retired early from their high-profile government jobs to seek some place more relaxing and less tedious. Both pure men, they were childhood friends and lovers and were born with unique powers: Charlie possessing superhuman strength and Bickford possessing the gift of flight. Both of them were about 6 years old when their powers were discovered and had been keeping the peace rather well. Charlie, despite his average American stature, helped people out to carry heavy duty objects and aided the Rescue Ranger Squad helping trapped people get out of their confines whenever he is not out there busting Bad Seeds’ butts, while Bickford worked alongside him to pinpoint things from a bird’s eye view. Many rumoured that they were possibly descended from a family of Fallen Ethereals who were a crossbreed between humans and Bad Seed, but they were nowhere denying or confirming such rumours, so the public were better off being ignorant. They were rarely seen without the other, and they are almost always holding hands. In other words, these childhood friends and lovers were inseparable.

Snipes Crosshair, on the other hand, was a mystery. Everyone knew he was a foreigner, but no one could figure out where he came from. He was born mute and never enjoyed communicating with the written word or sign languages, but he had something else to compensate for his lack of vocabulary: he was an Ethereal Clan Halfling and had the power of telepathy. The reason why he was called an Ethereal Clan Halfling was that he was not born from a union between a Whisperer and a human, but a union between a Shining and a human. Shining-s are a form of mysterious clan which comes and goes as they please, communicating through song and telepathy, and are glowing spiritual entities most of the time, and they usually appear whenever there is a death in a family so that they could sing their song and escort the soul to the afterlife in peace. They are like angels, but not quite like the angels you might imagine one to be, and their most distinctive features were their golden eyes and silver hair that shaped like wings around the area near the ears, and Snipes seemed to have inherited such features to be recognized as a Shining Halfling. No one knew how a Shining got together with his ‘mother’, but history spoke of his ‘mother’ mysteriously coming into the midwives’ home in labour pains, gave birth and died soon after. He was raised by the female midwife that delivered him before being sent to boot camp. He was given the name ‘Snipes’ and earned the surname ‘Crosshair’ from his foster mother, but somewhere along the line, he had learnt of his true name from an unknown source, and he didn’t seem like he was going to reveal it anytime soon. His job was to heal any forms of spiritual and emotional sickness with his telepathy and hypnotize Bad Seeds into submission, but most of the time, his job was as a messenger.

“C’mon, guys!” Joey pleaded. “Isn’t there anything we can say tuh convince ya? We really wanna meet up wif our mates tuh confirm how they’re doin’! Dinna ya guys believe in true love?!”

“We also believe in tradition and never messing with danger. To ask us to take you to the Sky City is to ask for trouble,” Charlie and Bickford replied simultaneously, their hands clasped together tightly as usual. Even though they were not twins, they spoke and acted like one, and it almost looked odd, if not annoying. Even their sweatshirts and baggy trousers looked exactly the same. No one really knows how they do it, but they manage to speak simultaneously without missing a word even though they are totally different individuals.

“That’s an odd way of saying coming out of a pair of twin wannabes who snog each other like there’s nobody’s business,” Malik grumbled, earning a dark glare from both of them. Being the son of the older middle men living in town, he had access to all files of new middle men candidates, and knew enough about Charlie and Bickford through their reports and biodata-s.

Snipes just listened quietly to everything that was debated between his fellow colleagues and the five without a single thought in his telepathic mind. He wasn’t much of a ‘talker’, more like just a passive listener and taking no sides.

“It’s just gonna be a while,” Yugi begged. “We’re just gonna drop by, see them, maybe a brief chat or two, then leave. They won’t even know we’re there.”

“People don’t just ‘drop by’ there for sentimental reasons, Yugi. You really need to have a special reason, not just going in out a whim of emotional purposes,” Fortuno retaliated. “There is a reason why humans cannot just go into the Ethereal World. It’s already a lot of hassle just to let us special people in. Why do you think we would only meet up at the border and not enter the Ethereal World unless under dire circumstances? Think of what it’ll do to your unborn children!”

“What exactly is it that keeps us out? What are you not telling us, Fortuno?” Tristan asked, his eyes suspicious.

“For starters, the atmosphere of the Ethereal World itself is complicated,” Charlie and Bickford replied. They both took a sip of coffee prepared by Snipes at the same time and continued, “Due to the War and the abundance of magic-use, the whole place is crawling with invisible Ethereal entities that are not dangerous to them but could be dangerous to us. Normal human beings who enter there almost always end up suffering severe hemorrhaging and even for us special people, without a special bangle created and given to us by Maximillion Pegasus, we would’ve been experiencing migraines now.”

“Um…OK, that’s tough,” Joey gulped, rather impressed at the way Charlie and Bickford can speak such long sentences together without missing a beat.

“Think of it as entering a factory where you are surrounded by intense heat and clouds of smoke,” Fortuno gave them an easier picture to imagine. “I can guarantee you your children wouldn’t even survive the ordeal, let alone yourselves. Besides, you’re lucky that we did not report you as well for fraternizing with the Whisperers, judging by your condition.”

“What do you mean?” Ryou asked worriedly.

“Oh, come off the innocent look, boys. We know about the attack on Diesel Kane and his gang. He and his band of misfits had been blabbering all day about being attacked by Malik’s half-brother or something,” Fortuno looked at Malik accusingly. “We had to investigate about it somehow so that we can go about doing rumour control, and judging by the amount of invisible Ethereal entities around Domino High, I’d say we had to honour the tradition and report to the Whisperer Clan about this.”
“What?! You were the ones who told them about Marik coming here?!” Malik exclaimed, slamming his fists onto the table. “How could you?! He was only trying to stop them from raping me! No wonder our mates haven’t been seeing us! You’re the one behind all this!”

“We were only doing our job,” Charlie and Bickford stated in a matter-of-fact way. “Whatever way the Whisperers wish to use to deal with them is entirely their decision. We are only the messengers.”

“More like a bunch of fuckin’ tattletales!” Joey growled. “Now you have no choice but to take us there to compensate for our loss!”

“And how are you guys gonna go about it, huh?” Fortuno folded his arms across his chest. “Don’t forget, you guys are in it as well for fraternizing with Whisperer. We were kind enough to overlook this matter because of your condition and let the Whisperers deal with their own problem. If it weren’t for us, you guys would’ve been in the Confinement Room living out your pregnant days in solitary confinement and be stripped of your title as the child’s ‘mother’ after the birth, even if they are born Human-dominant. You will never see your child ever again. Is that what you want?”

“Why, you little…” Tristan was about to lunge forward to hit him when he was gripped by the collar and held up high in the midair by Charlie with one hand, while holding Bickford with the other, who in turn watched everything that went on in a nonchalant way. Snipes held the rest of the boys back with his piercing gaze, forbidding them to come any closer.

“There are more ways than one to cause a miscarriage,” Charlie and Bickford stated. “Don’t make us do either one of them.”

“Put him down, Charlie. There’s no need to be harsh. Remember, he’s carrying the future of the human race,” Fortuno gave Charlie a warning look, indicating that this was not the first time Charlie had used his superhuman strength out of whim. Charlie and Bickford nodded simultaneously and Charlie set Tristan down gently on a nearby sofa.

“As I was saying,” Fortuno continued, “we did this out of concern for you. It has always been the tradition that Whisperers and humans are not to be emotionally attached to each other. They promised us the future of our human race, and we promise to allow them to repopulate their world as well as a token of our appreciation. We’re lucky they were not too demanding and only do it once for every teen herms that come of age. To break the deal and forsake the tradition is to go against the Law of both Ethereal and human. There is nothing we can do for you here. Go home.”

The five were reluctant to leave without getting a sort of positive answer, but they knew better to push someone with powers like them into a decision they clearly do not want. They sighed and was about to leave when Ryou suddenly hit the brakes of his wheelchair when Tristan tried to wheel him out.

“Is there really nothing you can do for us?” Ryou asked quietly.

“R…Ryou?” Tristan was rather surprised at Ryou’s sudden action.

“No,” Fortuno said in a hard tone.

“Not even if we begged you?”

“I’m sorry but I cannot allow myself to budge to your brash decision.”

Slowly, without a word, Ryou supported himself on the armrests of the wheelchair and got up. He refused Tristan’s helping hand and got off the wheelchair, waddling slowly towards the four middle men. Without warning, he slowly knelt down and went on all fours, his head kissing the ground as he bowed at them.

“Ryou! No, get up! You can’t kneel in this condition!” Yugi exclaimed and tried to help Ryou up, but Ryou wouldn’t budge from his stance.

“My parents say to never lower yourself to anyone. It is a disgrace and shows that you have lack of dignity,” Ryou said quietly, his choked tone telling everyone that he was crying. “But dignity and disgrace be damned if I would never see the father of my triplets ever again. I survived this long not only because of my friends and family, but also because of my mate. He may not always be there for me, but when he did, I felt that I can handle this pregnancy, that I can go through the birth of three beautiful babies and I know that I can count on their father to raise them well if they are Whisperer-dominant.

“If it weren’t for my mate, my babies wouldn’t have been in my belly, but probably six feet underground with the rest of the failed pregnancies. Because of my small built, there is no telling when I would lose them. I would’ve suffered depression, prenatal stress and all sorts of ailments that the previous ‘mothers’ had experienced without the reassurance of their mates, and would’ve lost them before it could even come to term. Everyone said I was a miracle, and I owe it all to my mate. To not see my mate ever again is to kill my unborn children, and I do not wish for it to happen.

“So what is a worth of grace and dignity when all I need is the love of my mate? Please, I beg of you. Please take us to the Whisperer Clan. I wish to see my mate, just this once, and we will never bother you again.”

“Save me your sap stories, I…” Before Fortuno could retaliate, suddenly the other four also went on all fours, doing the same thing Ryou was doing.

“Please, we beg you. Please let us see our mates. Please!”

Fortuno suddenly felt rather awkward all of a sudden being faced with five heavily pregnant boys going on all fours begging him to do almost the impossible. His colleagues looked at him quietly, as if waiting for his decision, but he could feel the slight accusing aura from their eyes, as if he was at fault for making pregnant people having to go to this extent to get his permission. Fortuno was torn and didn’t know what to do.

After almost 10 seconds of awkward silence and no reaction from Fortuno, Snipes finally sighed quietly and walked to the kneeling five. He took Ryou’s chin and made him look at him eye to eye. The other four looked up slightly as well, wondering what the mute Shining Halfling would do to Ryou.

“To allow a child to suffer a fatherless life is a sad fate,” Snipes ‘spoke’ through his telepathy, allowing everyone in the room to hear him, “but to allow a child to suffer death before knowing life is a fate crueler than the Devil himself. Please rise. We will help you, but only just.”

With that, Charlie and Bickford came forward as well to help the boys up to their feet and Charlie placing Ryou back to his wheelchair. Fortuno finally sighed as a sign of giving in and came up to Yugi.

“Since my fellow colleagues have taken pity on your plight, I suggest you better make yourselves at home. I will make the necessary calls to your families and your assigned midwives to allow you to stay here for the night. Don’t worry, I won’t rat out on you. I will help you just this once. We will set off to the border at dawn tomorrow, coz it’s gonna be a long ride.”

If the boys weren’t heavily pregnant, they would’ve glomped Fortuno by now.