THE UNION

Chapter 8: RICHARD

Richard is looking for his cigarette around his room as usual, it has always been his way to cool off and

not think of the world but he couldn't find it. He stares at his hand and in his head they were all filled

with blood, bloods of John and bloods of other people he had killed.

"She's right, I shouldn't have killed John."

In 1989, Richard was two years old and he had just discovered his power. His mom Mariam, a middle

age light lady wearing heavy accessories is talking with a doctor, she is clearly disappointed by

Richard's power.

"This young boy is expected to take over the throne and rule the mafia underworld but his only power is

teleportation." She talks arrogantly, the doctor tries to reason with her.

"Teleportation is quite a useful power Ma but there's no way I can change his powers." The doctor

says, she sighs.

"He'll need alot of training, I need to prepare him." That night, Mariam goes to her room to join her

husband, Jacob about same age with Mariam, very tall sits at the edge of the bed.

"What did the doctor say?" Jacob ask curiously, Mariam sits beside him

. "He has teleportation." She places her head on her knee, unlike Mariam Jacob is optimistic about it.

"That's good news, he can help with all the stealth missions." Jacob gets really excited and stands up

to check on his son, Mariam grabs his hand.

"We can't make him excited about this, we have to intensify his training. The only reason why people

are afraid of you is because of your transformation to monsters, we need to make him work hard."

By 1995, Richard has started getting different training on how to handle and take care of himself. Be

moves to a dining room and he is given a timetable.

Mondays for physical training

Tuesdays for Language study

Wednesdays for power training

Thursdays for participation in missions

Fridays for Dinner with other Families.

Jacob insisted that Saturdays and Sundays should not be added and Richard should rest after all the

stress, Mariam isn't happy about this but she plays along. On one particular Tuesday, Mariam is with

Richard listening to him speak in French, she stares at him firmly.

"Start." She says boldly, Richard stares at her and his feet starts shaking but he manages to speak.

"Je ne dois pas être faible car les faibles perdent toujours et finissent par mourir, je ne dois montrer

aucune émotion.........." He stutters, knowing what he has done and Mariam is quite aggressive he

quickly apologizes.

"I'm so sorry..........." He quickly begs, she slaps him on the right cheek before he could complete his

statement. She grabs his cheek with her hand.

"You'll die as a weak child." Mariam walks away disappointed.

In 2004, it's Richard birthday. He sits on the dining table hoping his parents will show up, he knew they

wouldn't cause they never showed up for his birthday but he had some kind of hope in him, his doctor

walks in with a chocolate cake and drops it on the dining table. The doctor looks around and sits down

on a chair beside Richard.

"I'm sorry." He pats Richard on the shoulder, the doctor had always taken care of Richard immediately

he knew his mom didn't like him he made a promise to himself that he'll always look out for him.

"I knew they won't show up." Richard runs off to a bathroom, a teardrop rolled by his cheek then

followed in an unbroken stream. He grabs a tissue with his hand and cleans off his eyes, he

remembered what Mariam said that he couldn't show emotions so he stood firmly and walked out of the

bathroom. Richard looks for the Doctor around the house, he finds him at the backyard sitting on the

ground and holding a cigarette. Richard runs to him and sits beside him.

"Thank you for the cake. It looks amazing." He sniffed and wiped his eyes while trying to smile, he

stares at the Doctor's cigarette he had seen different people use it and wanted to know more about it.

"This cigarette how does it make one feel?" The Doctor is shocked by the question and has no idea on

how he'll reply, he puts his hand around Richard shoulder.

"I guess you're already getting older." He looks around to make sure no one was listening to them.

"This will probably take you to another world, it will let you forget about everything you're going

through......." the doctor says, Richard interested in this quickly interrupts.

"Like no emotions?" Richard asked, the doctor nods to the positive, Richard sneaks a cigarette out of

the doctor's pocket.

The next day, Richard is training with a sword against one of the family's guard, Jacob and Mariam

stand at a corner of the room watching him. The guard hits Richard head with the back of the sword,

scared that he might get in trouble for hitting the Boss son the guard loses focus Richard sees this as a

opportunity and teleports behind the guard, sweeps his feet. The guard falls on the floor, Mariam runs

towards her son happy he is already getting better.

"Nice going son, now kill him!" Jacob hears what Mariam said and runs toward them.

"What?!" Jacob yells, he moves to the front of the guard, Mariam pushes him aside.

"Our son needs to start joining us for missions, this is the perfect way to make him understand."

Mariam says, Jacob isn't happy with the idea, he had always shown more sympathy to the guards

unlike Mariam. "I won't let this stand." Jacob walks out, Mariam points her finger to the guard which

meant that Richard should stab him. "This is a good lesson for you son, he lost focus and the weak

never make it in this world."

After 5minutes, Richard runs off to his room. Blood is dripping down from his hand, he grabs his pillow

and squeezes his head on it, Richard just had his first kill while his mom expected him to be exicted

about this achievement Richard felt he had made the biggest mistake of his life.

The next day very early in the morning Richard puts on a all black cloth. He and his parents were going

on a mission, this was Richard first mission and for very good reasons he was very nervous not only

did he just kill someone but he'll have to kill more he couldn't risk losing or else his parents will be

disappointed. He brings out the cigarette he stole from the doctor and remembers what he told

him."Makes me emotionless."

Years had passed and by 2008 Richard was already into drugs, it helped him with control over his

power and he didn't bother about anyone he killed. He did anything to always hide his emotions and

master his powers. One night Richard is looking for his credit card he needed to head out to get drinks

as usual, he couldn't do without it after a long time of searching he decides to go to his dad for money.

He walks into his parents room and sees Mariam slicing Jacob throat. "No!" Richard screams out of

confusion and disgust, he never liked his parents but his dad was much nicer to him than Mariam.

"Shut up, I can explain." Mariam talks in a very low tone but Richard isn't ready to listen, he didn't want

to see her and didn't want to stay in the house either, a huge blue coloured wave starts coming out of

his body and he suddenly vanishes out of the room.

Richard finds himself in a forest, he looks around and runs out of the place. He leaves the forest and

gets to a roadside Richard is quite confused about where he is, a huge wave of emotions hit him when

he used his power something he had never done, a woman passes his side and he talks to her in a

very awkward and creepy way. "Where I'm I?" The lady uses her purse to his him on his face scared

that he might be a kidnapped. "Fimile jare." The lady runs off, Richard sees a newspaper on the floor

and picks it up to look at the location, he sees his in Abuja and screams. "I've never gotten this far with

my powers, from Lagos to Abuja." Richard talks to himself, Richard wasn't planning to head back to

Lagos he had no family apart from his Mom or even friends apart from the other mafia children he

didn't plan to visit the doctor cause he knew he'll put him in a lot of trouble but even if he wanted to go

back to Lagos he couldn't cause his power weren't working. "Come on, at least get me out of this

forest." Richard walks around the road with no family, no phone, no money and no way back home.

Two months later, Richard doesn't stop drinking and smoking his condition has gotten quite worse

since he had on where to stay. Most times he ends up sleeping on the ground of the street or

uncompleted buildings he used his clothes to cover his body and at one point he had to start wearing

rags. One particular morning Richard sleeps off outside in front of Papa's house, Papa and Ayo come

out of the house starting at him Ayo is particularly disgusted by the way Ayo sleeps cause he snores.

"Should I carry him out of here?" Ayo says, Papa feels pity for Richard. "Bring him in, he probably

doesn't have a place to stay."

A hour later, Richard wakes up and finds himself on a comfy chair unlike other days he woke up

peacefully, he looks around and finds Papa starring at him from behind.

"Who are you?" Richard quickly gets up, Papa sits down on the chair.

"I saw you sleeping in front of my house and I thought that you might need help." Papa talks gently and

folds his arm, Richard is dizzy cause of the drinks he drank yesterday.

"I don't know what you think........" Richard throws up on the floor before he could finish his statement,

Papa stands up.

"Stay and heal, go and meet Ayo you'll probably find him intriguing." He points to the kitchen, after few

minutes Richard knows he has no place to stay and Papa is actually kind to him he thinks of staying,

he goes to the kitchen and sees Ayo cleaning the dishes. He isn't shocked about Ayo looks he had

seen worst during his time.

"So you're some kind of robot?" Richard says and chuckles, Ayo turns around to confirm who was

talking he sees it's Richard and sighs.

"You look terrible." Richard didn't bother to look at his body, he hadihad a shower for a very long time

and he wasn't even bothered. "What is this place?" Ayo drops the dishes and cleans his hand hand. "I

guess for people like us to heal."

4months later, Richard settles in Papa's house and has a very strong brotherly friendship with Ayo.

Papa always referred to Ayo as the elder brother while Richard as the younger one, due to Richard

multiple training whole he was growing up he helped Ayo with his powers. One night they are both

coming out of a forest, Ayo is flabbergasted about Richard's knowledge of Supernaturals power. "How

do you know so much about this?" Ayo ask, Richard laughs out loud. "My parents." Ayo hits Richard

hand. "Aren't you lucky?" Richard sighs and starts talking about everything he had gone through to

Ayo, he never told Papa about this Ayo was the first and Richard felt comfortable about it, he knew Ayo

actually cared about him and would actually protect and watch over him. Richard was happy and he

never had any plan to go back to Mariam but he wondered why she hasn't sent a search team to look

for him.