Dawn of the Knight: The Lance Rock Chronicles Volume 1.

  ***

  During the night, I had a restless sleep that was highlighted by a semi-conscious hallucination involving the presence of what I could only describe as a "shadow being." I sensed that a black, shadow-like figure was quietly and stealthily moving in and around the house. Its presence terrified me! At one point it came and stood before me while reaching down with one of its hands to gently caress my face.

  "Please… don't hurt me, Mr. Shadow Man," I mumbled half conscious. Finally, it moved on and disappeared.

  The next morning I woke up late. According to AJ, Stacy had already left for work and Shannon had left with Keith. The two of them had gone to join others at the private beach house of a friend. This meeting involved only the cheerleading squad which was co-captained by Shannon. AJ and I had the house to ourselves. I eventually got up, and then I walked over to the downstairs bathroom mirror to have a look at my face. My left eye was encircled by a wicked looking bruise that was dark blue, green, yellow, and purple. AJ came into the room and after not finding me on the couch, called out my name. I answered, and she joined me in the bathroom.

  "I want to thank you for warning me last night. If it weren't for you, my brains would have been splattered all over the pool."

  "I feel bad that you got punched like that," she remarked apologetically while grimacing at my eye.

  "Knocked out cold," I reminded her while still staring at my face in the mirror.

  "How are you feeling? Can I kiss it and make you feel better or do anything else for you? We are all alone here you know," she suggestively remarked.

  I looked over at her while slowly shaking my head in disbelief. "Let's you and I have a little talk, alright?"

  "Okay."

  "I am never going to get physical with you again. You are a very pretty girl, you have a great personality, and I would like to get to know you better. But only as a friend—nothing more intimate than that. Is that cool with you? Can we just be friends?"

  "It's cool. We can be friends," she replied while coming over and giving me a hug.

  "By the way, how and why are we all alone, given your mother's instructions the other night?" I asked.

  "Shannon told me to come with her, but I said I wasn't going to leave you here all by yourself with you being hurt and all."

  "That was kind of you, AJ. Thank you. Now, I'll feel a lot better when this thing goes away," I remarked while pointing to the bruise around my eye.

  "It does blemish your super cute face. But I know it'll take at least a week to go away. That's how long my bruises take to heal."

  "I haven't got a week. I'm not going to go to school tomorrow with this shiner and then have the people who saw me get punched, mock or taunt me like they did last night. I'm going to make it go away right now."

  "How? You're teasing me, right?"

  "No. With my luggage is a blue duffel bag. Open it and you'll find a modified BC vest. Bring it to me, please."

  "What's a BC vest?"

  "BC stands for buoyancy compensator. The kind of vest you see scuba divers wear."

  "This is strange looking," she remarked upon returning with it and then laying it at my feet.

  I unlocked several latches on the back of the vest and then slid a briefcase out of an oversized compartment.

  "Could you open this case for me?" I asked while handing it to her.

  "Sure," she replied while turning it over and over in her hands. After studying it for a moment she remarked, "I can't. There's a handle, but I don't see any way to open it."

  "It can be opened in only two ways. One is by the concealed manual latch located on the bottom and the other is by lining up my thumbs like this." I pressed my thumbs on each side of the handle and there was a soft electronic hum as the fingerprint reader identified me. This was followed by a clicking sound as the case opened.

  "That's neat! How does it work?"

  The outer skin is made of metal rubber which is virtually indestructible and waterproof, yet allows electronics to be integrated into it. That's where the fingerprint scanner is located. Next, is a layer of material called 3DO. This is a soft, pliable, rubber-like substance that automatically hardens when impacted. The case's inner frame and panels are constructed from a titanium-molybdenum alloy making this entire unit lightweight, strong, and nearly indestructible. You could throw it off the Empire State Building and not damage it or its contents! If Superman were to carry a briefcase, this would be it!"

  "Wow! Why is it made that way? Is what's inside important and valuable?"

  "Inside is specialized survival gear. That's all. I carry it in this briefcase because…"

  "Because…why?"

  "Because it's cool!" I replied while grinning. "Don't you think this is the coolest looking briefcase you ever saw?"

  She playfully laughed while I removed a bottle of liquid.

  "Why do you carry survival gear around? Where did you get this stuff? "she asked while touching several pieces in the case.

  "I carry it around with me because you never know when you're going to encounter a situation when you're going to need it. It was given to me as a reward for hiking alone through 600 miles of Canadian wilderness in two months. I would have completed the trek sooner but for my encounter with that wolverine and those…" not finishing the sentence as I quickly suppressed the memory.

  "Smell this," I said while unscrewing the lid and holding it under her nose.

  She took a whiff and replied, "I don't smell anything."

  "That's good."

  "What is it?"

  "It's called Dit Da Jow."

  "Tic Tac Toe?" she asked, with a puzzled look on her face.

  "No, Dit… Da… Jow. It's a Chinese bruise liniment. I made it myself from herbs and other ingredients. It works strongest and best when it sits and ages just like wine and cheese." I walked back over to the bathroom and looked in the mirror. "You have to be careful when applying it, though. It's for external use only. It speeds up blood circulation." I poured out a little onto my finger and carefully started to dab it around my eye while working it into the skin. To her astonishment, the colors of the bruise began to disappear as the congealed blood loosened and dissolved.

  "That's amazing!" she exclaimed. "I've never seen anything like it! How did you know how to make it?"

  "I've been studying martial arts intensely for 12 years now. I'm a martial arts master and that was part of my instruction."

  Her face took on a skeptical look.

  "It's true," I continued. "I've been trained in several styles of martial arts. I was one of my instructor's top students. I'm a lethal weapon!"

  "If you're such a lethal weapon how come you got your butt kicked last night at Keith's house?" she asked while grinning mischievously.

  "Because I wasn't expecting to get into a fight," I replied. "I'm ashamed to admit it, AJ, but I let my guard down. I also wasn't in combat mode. In my defense however, I came down here to go to school, not brawl with fellow students. I suppose I was being too naïve, though. Besides that, I didn't do anything to deserve being punched by Greg. I had no reason to believe he would attack me like that. What's up with that guy, anyway?"

  "He's a bully. Just because he's a boxer, middle linebacker, and co-captain of the football team, he thinks he can do whatever he wants and get away with it because of his status. And like the other players, he always does. I'm sorry you got hurt. What's… combat mode?"

  "Combat mode is… let's see… do you remember in the movie "Spiderman" when Peter Parker first acquires his powers after being bitten by the spider? His senses become acute to the point where he is completely aware of everything that's going on around him. That's what combat mode is like. It's a total awareness of everything going on around you in your environment; a heightened preparedness for anything and everything. The man who taught me it, my mentor, lived in it continuously. I haven't been able to train myself to the point where I'm in it to that extent. But I won't be caught off guard again. The next time any of
those guys tries to attack me, they're the ones who are going to need this," I warned while holding up the bottle in front of her.

  I could tell she wasn't completely convinced, however. "Let's go to the den. I think I saw mats near the exercise equipment we can use. I'll give you a demonstration." I spread some of them out on the floor. "First, I'm going to warm up a little." She watched as I moved through a Yang-style form of T'ai Chi Chu'an.

  "That looks like a slow kind of ballet," she remarked.

  "If you were to break this form down, each one of these movements has a potential application for attack or self-defense." Next, I went through a fast Choy Li Fut form.

  "Now that looks pretty awesome. What else do you know?"

  "Go ahead and try to attack me."

  She came at me, but it quickly became obvious that she had no fighting skill or ability.

  "Go find a broom or mop," I suggested.

  Off she went. In a few moments she had come back with the kitchen broom. I unscrewed the whisk end and handed her the handle.

  "I want you to swing this like a club and attack me." As she tried, I intercepted her before she could strike. Then, while using her own momentum, I threw her down and away from me onto the mats.

  "Whoa!" she exclaimed. "That was awesome."

  "Now, try it again. But this time, swing with all your might." As she stepped back, I focused my breathing and concentration. Again, she came at me swinging the handle with full force. This time however, I simply stood there, absorbing the impact of the blow. She screamed in shock as the wooden rod struck me across my chest.

  "I'm so sorry!" she exclaimed apologetically while gently feeling my chest. "Why didn't you stop me like before? I didn't mean to hurt you! Are you alright?"

  "It's okay. I'm not hurt."

  "What? How aren't you?"

  "I went through training that has toughened parts of my body. Only an exceptionally hard punch can hurt me in that particular area."

  "Wow! That's incredible!"

  "Here, let me show you a simple, basic, self-defense technique that you can use if you're ever attacked. Say I was to grab you by the shoulders like this. How would you get away from me?"

  "I guess I would try and push you back like this."

  She tried to push me away, but I was immovable. No matter how hard she tried to twist, turn, or writhe out of my grip, I held her fast.

  "Okay, you win. I guess I can't escape."

  I released her and then I reached my hand down to the bottom part of the shin on her right leg. "You can kick me between my legs using this part of your body. Make sure that when you kick, it's with the bottom part of your shin and not your ankle and foot, or you'll hurt yourself. Now when I grab you, slowly try and kick me between my legs—and I mean slowly!" I grabbed her, and she carefully raised her right leg until her shin touched the bottom of my crotch.

  "If you kick hard enough—and with your muscular legs it will be hard—you'll drop me in an instant. Don't worry about aiming. As long as your shin is in between my legs, you can slide it up against the inside of my thigh until it reaches the top. Then, bang, I'm history, if you know what I mean," I remarked with a nervous grin.

  She smiled playfully and asked, "Will it hurt that much?"

  "Yes, believe me, AJ, it will hurt that much! Just remember—kick as hard as you can."

  "Okay," she replied while nodding her head.

  We walked back to the family room and I sat down.

  "I take it your sister is still ticked off at me?"

  "Yeah, she is."

  "Would talking to her do any good? Did I even have a chance with her? Was she even a little interested in me?"

  "I think she was because I know she definitely thinks you’re a really good looking guy. But I know she also likes Keith. You should try to talk to her. Tell her how you feel."

  "Let's go see her."

  "We can't. She's at Jill Cruses' beach house up the coast near Goleta and we have no way of getting there. All the cars are gone."

  "I saw another car in the third bay with a cover on it. Can't we take that one?"

  A look of apprehension suddenly came over her face. "We're not allowed to go near that car. It belongs to my father."

  "Your father? What's it doing here? Why does he keep it here?"

  She wouldn't say anything more about it and then my smartphone rang. After a brief conversation I hung up. "Guess what? The airport found my guitar!"