Free Shadow Guardians - Genesis by Albert Long

don’t know what city we’re in or where they’re keeping us. There is a large clock that always chimes at noon, loud enough that the whole city can hear it. We stay blindfolded, and they give us shots to make us sleep. The man who likes to be called, “Popkins” is the worst. The things he does to Terri haunt me in my sleep. He’s never hurt me, but I know it’s because I’m three years older than Terri and will fight back. His girlfriend acts like we’re not there and that his actions are normal. I pray to the Supreme One that one day somebody will miss us, coming looking for us, and most of all find us, “she read. The team was quiet and pensive. “A large clock,” said Jericho. There are lots of clocks around here that chime at noon,” he added. “Try thinking just of the ones in poor, run-down neighborhoods,” Mimi suggested. “That gets us down to two potential areas of the city—Chinatown and Port Allegro,” Jericho said. “Should we split up and search them or go together in case we get ambushed,” Mimi asked. “We’ll stay as a unit,” Miguel said firmly. “Let’s head over to Chinatown first. In the air, the team was in formation, following Miguel, who had morphed into a sort of leadership role.
    “Can you sense the children, Mimi,” Miguel asked. “No. Nothing,” said Mimi. Here, let’s try this, Miguel said. Miguel held Mimi’s hands and looked into her eyes. He concentrated an electric charge into them, amplifying her powers. “Can you sense them now,” Miguel asked. “I don’t think this is the right place, ” Mimi said. Let’s head to the Port Allegro,” she added.
    Once in Port Allegro, Mimi led the team in the hunt for the abducted boys who must have slipped that letter on to some car or at some restaurant, or by some other miraculous means that it found its way to Mimi, Matt, Jericho, and Miguel. “I can sense the death force of the child who wrote this. They killed him. I can’t make out anything about his brother. The house is there just beyond that hill, first one on the right.
    Mimi knocked on the front door of the house. A Mexican woman opened the door, and soon a six-foot Mexican man stood behind her eating peanuts. “What can we do for your four,” the woman asked. “Lead us to the children,” Mimi said, touching the man’s hand. He turned around and walked to the back of the house and opened the basement. “Harold, don’t” screamed his wife. Within seconds of her last breath, Jericho had his hands around the front of her head in some kind of “death grip”. “What was that, Jer,” asked Matt. “It’s an ancient African mind eraser,” Jericho said. “I like to keep it in my repertoire and use it in tandem with my powers from time to time,” Jericho said.
    Rats, roaches, fleas, and worms crawled on the floor where the boy slept. Thousands of insects covered the decaying caucus of his brother—the one who must have left the note begging someone to save them. The boy’s arms were raised above his head, tied to a wood beam with some rope and a nail. Matt, in human for, picked the boy up and walked him upstairs, the others following behind. Matt ran a hot bath for the boy, while Mimi looked for something for him to eat in the kitchen. Jericho had Harold in a headlock; there was no struggling to get out of it. “Repeat after me,” Jericho said. “I am having a heart attack. It hurts severely. My blood vessels are swollen. I am going to die”. The man repeated the phrase over and over. Blood dripped from the man’s eyes. His hands and arms became swollen. His head became so large that his eyes seemed embedded in his skull. The man fell to the floor and made convulsive motions. Finally, with three hugs coughs, the man ceased to breathe. Jericho and Matt clapped hands.
    After the boy was clean and had had something to eat, Matt walked him to a fire station and left him there. The firemen called the police, and someone was dispatched to the house