The Dark Path Page 23

  “That’s not my name,” he said without turning.

  “I’m sorry–Vain.”

  Turning back around, he once again swept Sebastian into his arms and whispered into his ear, “Call me Martin.”

  He put the astonished boy back down and, without another word, walked back to the door...

  ... and finally stepped out into the light.

  Epilogue

  A thorough investigation by police failed to find the reason behind the massacre at the mansion. Eventually chalked-up as a mass suicide by followers of a cult erroneously labeled the ‘Sons of Sordarrah’ by the press, the fact that several members of the cult were torn limb from limb or reduced to cinders, left many people still asking questions. Nonetheless, the investigation was eventually closed by the police commissioner some six months after it began.

  Sebastian Dunn ended up placed into foster care, never revealing what had truly occurred at the mansion. He claimed to be suffering from shock due to his ordeal and had no memory of anything that had happened to him. It proved no hard task to convince physicians that he was distraught, and with no living relatives they temporarily placed him into the foster care ward to await adoption.

  A giant of a man named Tobias came forward to adopt Sebastian, alongside him, his new wife Gloria and her two sons: Tony and Mikey. Apparently Tobias had been sent an anonymous message stating that the woman required his assistance regarding a personal issue. Arriving at the house to see what she required, an unlikely romance had swiftly bloomed between the two. Both of Gloria’s sons loved the gentle giant, and the pair were wed a mere three months after their first meeting.

  Tobias never found out who the message had come from.

  For several years the family lived in bliss. Gloria had apparently inherited a large amount of money not long before she’d met Tobias, and the family never wanted for anything. Tobias continued his charity work, and eventually Sebastian came to help him at Chapel.

  Sebastian aged and his powers grew within him. He was always careful; he couldn’t be sure that all of the Souls of Sordarrah had been killed, and he feared another attack by the fanatical cult.

  His powers expanded, and so too did his instinctive need to use them to aid people. He began simply helping Tobias with his work at Chapel, but he soon found himself moving throughout the city, aiding the poor and indigent wherever he could.

  Sebastian gradually established a new organization, named ‘The Martin Roberts Foundation’. By the time he’d reached twenty-seven it had expanded nationally, eventually becoming one of the most successful charitable organizations in the country.

  Several hospitals were erected providing treatment free of charge to anybody who needed it. Funding derived through the aid organization, but also in part from an anonymous contributor who, during a single fund-raiser, pledged millions of dollars towards the various charities created by ‘The Martin Roberts Foundation’.

  Sebastian began to turn his attentions overseas. Poverty stricken countries in Africa and South America received much needed aid, but more than this, Sebastian turned his skills to negotiating tenuous cease-fires between several warring nations while the rebuilding of their countries took place.

  Without the need to fund their wars, third-world nations began to divert more money into other areas. Housing, education and healthcare gradually started to receive much needed attention as a result.

  The rest of the world was watching.

  Governments began to see increases in their productivity throughout their rapidly expanding workforces. New doors were opened, other countries gradually commencing trade with them.

  The world embarked towards a horizon of renewed hope. Although wars were still being fought throughout several parts of the world, the fact that countries that had been bitter enemies for decades could finally put down their weapons and live in harmony brought hope to millions worldwide.

  All of this began to crumble when Sebastian–the lodestone holding many of the treaties together–suddenly disappeared some weeks before his thirty-ninth birthday. He had accomplished so much in such a short time, but his significance only became recognized once he was no longer there. Many nations began to doubt the wisdom of this man with no real ties to any of the countries involved. Several of the tenuous treaties were sundered in bloody battles; old wounds reopened and old hatreds re-emerged.

  Fearing his son had once again been kidnapped by the Souls of Sordarrah, Tobias hurriedly travelled to Washington DC. Sebastian had been trying to organize a cease-fire in the Middle-East when he had disappeared. He sought out his son’s aide, Vincent, questioning the man thoroughly about Sebastian’s movements during the days before he went missing. Unfortunately Vincent was of little use, and appeared terrified to tell Tobias anything other than his son’s registered itinerary.

  “What is it that you’re not telling me Vincent?” pursued Tobias softly.

  “N-nothing sir!” stammered the thin, slightly feminine-looking assistant.

  Tobias stood up and towered over the quivering little man. “My son has gone missing,” he growled, “and you know something you’re withholding from me. What is it?”

  Vincent sat silently, racked with indecision. “Another man came asking about your son just before he disappeared,” he said softly.

  Tobias sat down again. “Who was he? Police? FBI?”

  “Nobody like that. He was like nobody I’ve ever met before.”

  “What do you mean?”

  Vincent sat motionless for what seemed like an eternity. The man had never appeared brave to Tobias before, but neither had he been the trembling mess now before him. Somebody had obviously terrified Sebastian’s assistant and he was reluctant to name him.

  “I don’t know who he was,” said Vincent softly, looking away. “He never gave a name. There was just something about him.”

  “Something? What?”

  Once again Vincent seemed unwilling to talk, and Tobias crashed his fist into the table between them in frustration. “What was it?” he thundered.

  Vincent’s wide gaze shot up and he let out a tiny squeak of terror. “There was something evil about him. Something very....” he paused, searching for a word to describe the man who had aroused such fear in him. “I don’t know. There was something very dark about him….”

  “He was a Dark Man.”

  Terror flooded through Tobias as he looked through the window and out into the night....