Born of Fire: The Dawn of Legend (4 page)

“You like picking a fight with someone weaker than you?” Rex asked in a sinister voice, grabbing him by the scruff of his shirt and head butting him. Allison’s father staggered backward until he hit the wall. “What happens when they’re not?” He charged forward and with all his might rammed into Michael, causing the wall behind him to crack. Rex then kneed him in the shin, breaking Michael’s tibia, and with a savage display of strength, threw him across the room. Allison screamed as her father crashed onto the dining room table, completely destroying it.
Finish him,
came the silent will within. Rex could feel the other voice trying to cut in but the power burning within was suppressing it.

Michael shook his head dazedly and gazed up with a horrified look on his face. Standing above him was Rex, red flame rising from his burning eyes. Huge veins bulged in his neck and head as his muscles seemed to expand. Rex reared his head back and let out a sound like a long, triumphant howl. So loud was it that Allison and her father cried in pain, and the house shook violently. Outside, car alarms went off everywhere as a powerful vibration rumbled through the ground.

Kill him
, instinct demanded.
Kill your enemy
.

Rex’s mighty roar drew to a close, and he looked down at the battered and bleeding man lying pathetically at his feet. “Time to die,” he said in a voice that sounded like his was being joined by an otherworldly growl, and his jaws unhinged and spread wide.

Michael looked up to see Rex’s nightmarish set of teeth coming down at him. Allison jumped between him and his would-be killer. Immediately, she wrapped her arms around her father and screamed, “NOOO!”

Startled by this, Rex snapped out of his blind rage and found himself wondering what had happened.
Rex, you must stop,
came the voice.
Look at what you have done!

He looked around and saw that the living room was in ruin. Hearing Allison whimper, he turned back to face her. “Allison—”

“Get away from us, you monster!” she screamed.

Rex stood in place, stunned.
Monster?
he thought.
What does she mean
?
Didn’t I…save her?
He looked down at the father and daughter who were both bleeding and scared out of their minds. His attention suddenly shifted to the sound of police sirens coming down the street. He then heard a voice coming from Allison’s phone lying on the ground where she had been.
   

Miss, are you still on the line? The police should have just arrived at your location. Please let me know if you are still there
…

Allison had called the police while he and her father were fighting, which meant that his plan of getting out of there before things got worse was now out of the question. He turned back to her and asked, “Why?”

“G…get…get away,” she stammered in terror.

“I just wanted to help you,” Rex said somberly, the fire in his eyes diminishing.

“Get away!” she screamed.

How could she defend him after what he did to her?
Rex asked himself desperately. Then he got his answer when he caught a glimpse of himself in a shattered mirror, seeing his savage appearance. It was then Rex realized that her father was the least of her concerns. She had just seen something worse.

The next several hours felt like a dream to Rex, one in which he seemed to lazily float through. The police, hearing Allison screaming upon their arrival, burst in through the front door and were surprised to see the three of them badly injured. They immediately attended to Allison and Rex, while a medic looked over her father, Michael. Rex was so numb that all the frantic talk around him seemed like muffled chatter. He felt someone leading him out of the house to the back of the ambulance parked out front, where he was made to lie down on the stretcher inside. Seconds later, he heard the two ambulance doors shut.

The ambulance drove off into the night with Rex in tow, arriving at the hospital a little over fifteen minutes later. He was wheeled inside and set up in a room. Over the course of an hour, several nurses worked at cleaning his wounds. He heard them say they were not as bad as they had been told. Even the doctor who came in and looked at him did not believe the initial police report that described how he looked when they first arrived at the scene. Aside from a swollen lip and some dried blood in his fur, Rex was perfectly fine. No one seemed to have a logical explanation.

Rex was holding an ice pack to his lip when he heard his father’s voice coming from outside the room and down the hall. “Excuse me,” Philippe said frantically. “I’m looking for Rex Dho! They called me and told me he had been hurt and was brought in!”

“Are you related to him?” asked the doctor, who had just walked out of the room after looking Rex over.

“I’m his father,” Philippe replied.

“Right this way,” the doctor said as he led Philippe back into the room.

“Rex,” his father exclaimed in a panic-stricken voice as he rushed over and wrapped his arms around his son. “Oh, my god! I was so worried! Are you okay?”

Rex looked into his father’s eyes tiredly before eventually nodding.

“He had some minor bruising,” said the doctor from the doorway, “but most of it seems to just be shock.”

“What happened to him?” Philippe asked insistently. “I got a call at work from the police! They told me he’d been in some sort of a fight!”

The doctor looked uncertain how to respond. “Well, to be honest, right now we’re not exactly clear as to what really happened. Can I talk to you out in the hall for a moment, Mr. Dho?”

Philippe turned back to Rex and placed his hands on his shoulders. “Sit tight,” he said reassuringly. “I’ll be right back, promise.” The doctor led his father out into the hall, where he could hear them speaking in hushed tones about how he was found in Allison’s home and the reports that he had been far more severely injured than they had seen when he was brought in. Ten minutes later, they both came back in with forced smiles on their faces so as not to alarm him. “All right, Rex,” Philippe said as he placed a hand on his son’s back. “The doctor says you’re going to be just fine, and that I can take you home now.”

Rex quietly slid off the table as his father picked up his backpack and slung it over his shoulder before nodding to the doctor. They made their way out of the hospital and to the parking lot.

The ride home started quietly. Despite looking borderline catatonic, Rex’s mind was like a whirlwind. The multitude of images that had shot through it when he touched that red flame were still swirling around in his head. Some of them had even begun to take shape. Granted, they were nothing that made any sense to him, but one still managed to stand out: an endless expanse as far as the eyes could see being consumed in red fire. The sky was a scarlet blanket cast over the world below, and just beyond it a faint-white glow emerged from the red and black shroud that hung over the burning hell.

Philippe’s voice interrupted the haunting image and snapped Rex back to reality. “You got in a fight today at school, too?” he asked, surprised, holding his phone in his hand. He had been listening to his messages while Rex had been lost in thought.

“Uhh, yeah,” Rex replied quietly.

Philippe let out a heavy sigh. “Was it Dustin again?”

“And some other guys, too,” Rex replied, snapping out of his daze and acting more like himself.

“They said you shoved half his body into a locker.”

“Actually, it was just his head.”

“Damn it, Rex, what is happening with you? Son…these fights are getting worse, and I’m afraid of what’s going to happen if they keep up. I know how people can get with you, but at this rate they’re going to lock you up!”

“Well, if you show me a magic trick to make them all disappear, I would be grateful because I’m really tired of having to deal with them every day,” replied Rex angrily. “I didn’t ask for any of this! I used to wish I could figure out what was so wrong about me so I could fix it and have them leave me alone!”

“And now?” his father asked, raising an eyebrow.

“Now I’m starting to think it’s they who are the real freaks,” answered Rex in a more sinister tone. “The ones with something wrong with them. They cannot seem to be happy with just going through the day peacefully; they can’t live without making each other’s lives hell.” Rex’s voice became eerily calm as the discussion took a darker turn. “No fixing people like that. Only thing you can do is put them down…burn the slate clean and start over with new—”

“Rex,” Philippe cut him off. “Don’t
ever
say anything like that again, do you understand me?”

Rex blinked in surprise. He had not been paying attention to what had been coming out of his mouth. He spent so much time inside his own head that he sometimes forgot who he was around, and that how he perceived the world and the people in it would come across as an unsettling perception of reality. Then again, how could he argue with that? Obviously, he was far from well adjusted, or he would be able to live happily.

“Angry,” replied Philippe in a more relaxed tone, having calmed down himself. “I know, son. Anyone would be in your position. No one likes someone holding them down and constantly making them feel like they are in the wrong just for existing. It’s only a matter of time before that person rises up and fights back, but what matters is why you fight.”

“What do you mean?” asked Rex as he furrowed his brow.

“If you fight only for yourself, the people you love will always be caught in the middle. But if you fight to defend, you’ll always find the strength to rise to the occasion and keep them safe. That, and they’ll always be there so you’ll never have to fight alone.”

“That’s a bit heavy-handed, don’t you think? Even for you, Dad.”

“Doesn’t make it any less true.”

Rex did not say anything else but gave what his father said a great deal of thought. They drove in silence for a while before he realized it was not the way home. “Hey, isn’t this the way to—” Philippe turned and winked before turning down another familiar street.

A smile crept across Rex’s face as the realization of where they were going washed away his anger and confusion and filled him with a sense of joy and excitement. Moments later, they pulled into the museum parking lot, and Rex quickly unbuckled himself and jumped out. The autumn night air was cool against his face, and he looked back at his father with anticipation.

“Is she…?” Rex asked.

“All ready to meet you,” his father replied, smiling.

They made their way to the back of the museum, to a rear door reserved for museum personnel. Philippe pulled out an I.D. badge and held it in front of a scanner. There was a beep, then a click as the door unlocked. Opening it wide, he said, “After you.”

Rex happily walked through and immediately made his way to the back of the museum to his favorite area, the Great Hall of Dinosaurs. He was not unfamiliar with the museum and how it was involved with the mysterious circumstances that led him and Philippe to become father and son. In fact, the tale of how he had been found as a baby in the tyrannosaur nest had always been a favorite bedtime story when he was younger. He loved the way his father would tell it, throwing his arms up for dramatic effect in all the right places, and doing all sorts of sound effects to recreate the night. Perhaps that was the reason Rex had always loved dinosaurs, and why he always felt a connection with them. While he did not understand the particulars, he knew that when in their presence, he felt at peace, like in some way he was reuniting with family.

He walked through the darkened hall with his father not far behind. He spun around slowly, taking in all the various skeletons. “Stegosaurus, Triceratops, Therizinosaurus.” He knew them all. “Saurophanax, Deinonychus, Camarasaurus. They all stood majestic and strong. Every inch and curve of bone a beautiful and powerful work of art.” Then, just up ahead, there was his favorite: Tyrannosaurus rex. He slowly walked up to the large display, which took up the entire back end of the hall. There were two adult T. rex skeletons: a mother crouched down over a nest of three babies, and a father towering over the family, baring his thick serrated teeth menacingly at anyone who walked by as if, even in death, he still was guarding his family.

Philippe walked up beside him and leaned forward against the railing as he looked up at the prehistoric family. “Do you think they had problems like us?” he asked.

“Everyone has problems, Dad,” Rex replied simply.

“I mean, do you think they went through the kind of personal struggles we go through?”

“The life of a T. rex was brutal. They were barbaric warriors who fought constantly with each other. Many remains have shown terrible wounds inflicted by members of their own kind and plenty of signs that they even ate each other.”

“Wow,” replied Philippe with a wide-eyed expression. “They didn’t mess around, I guess.”

“No, but I think they had a sense of peace and understanding that we don’t.”

“Oh yeah?” said Philippe as he turned and leaned his back against the railing, looking over at his son. “What makes you say that? From what it sounds like, they were just as bad to each other as we are.”

Rex had always respected the fact that his father had never judged him for what he believed. While most would write off such notions of dinosaurs being people as ridiculous, his father had always treated it with the same respect he would any conversation he would have with him, making these moments the only times Rex felt like he could truly speak freely. “No boundaries,” he said simply. “No restrictions. They lived a life without borders. Every minute was lived to the fullest. Their world, their era, was full of beauty and truth,” he went on as he looked up at them in wonder. “No school, or worrying about how to fit in with the in crowd; nothing superficial or unnecessary. Everything just…fit.”

Philippe smile and nodded as he beamed at his son with pride. Rex’s heart had always been pure and strong. He could not and would not ask for a better child to be a father to. Still, his own heart broke more and more as he watched the kind of person he feared his son was turning into: angry, spiteful, and wrathful. These were not the kinds of things he had wanted to see come from the boy he had held in his arms for the first time in this very spot fifteen years ago. He often wondered if it was his fault, if he had slipped up along the way, and if there was something he could have done better. Then again, when he looked at how bad this town alone had become over the past decade with gangs and drugs, he realized he could have turned out so much worse  “Well, then,” he said, pushing himself off the railing. “If there’s one thing I’ve taught you, it’s to never keep a lady waiting. Shall we?” He gestured for Rex to follow.

Philippe led him to the far left corner of the museum, which was blocked off by a large red curtain that went all the way up to the ceiling. “Come on,” he said as he slipped through the divide in the red fabric.

Rex followed him through and was instantly shrouded in darkness, squinting hard to try to make anything out. He could tell there was something large in there with him but was unable to see what. Suddenly the lights turned on and Rex jumped back in surprise. He found himself staring at an enormous clawed foot, which he looked up from to take in the whole animal. There, in front of him, was the skeleton of the largest tyrannosaur ever discovered.

“Hera,” whispered Rex in awe.

“She’s named after something Greek, right?” Philippe asked.

Rex nodded silently.

“Remind me again why they still use lizard in the name if they’re birds,” Philippe asked as he joined his son.

“It’s just tradition at this point,” Rex explained. “Sir Richard Owen gave them the name dinosaur in 1841, which means ‘terrible lizard.’ After that, every new dinosaur that was found was viewed as a lizard, even though we eventually found out they weren’t related to them. Naming them that way just stuck, I suppose.” Rex walked closer to the massive skeleton. “Just look at her,” he said admiringly.

“Her?” Philippe asked, surprised. “You mean it’s a girl?”

“She, Dad,” his son corrected. “She’s a girl.”

“Right, I’m sorry,” Philippe apologized with a smile.

“Dinosaurs were a race of people. Not things. They were a dynasty that existed for over two hundred million years that had no equal.”

“She looks a lot like the ones I found you with when you were a baby.”

“Well, she was the same species, just…bigger,” Rex explained, never wasting an opportunity to educate anyone on the finer points of dinosaur evolution. “Tyrannosaurs were a very unique group of theropods.”

“Those were the meat-eating ones, right?” Philippe double-checked.

“Yup. It’s made up of numerous different species like Tarbosaurus, Albertosaurus, and Tyrannosaurus rex, who up until now we thought was the biggest in the family. Then we found others that rivaled them in size. But she puts them back on top.”

“With all you know about them, you may be working here one day,” his father said proudly.

“You think I could?” Rex asked with such surprise that his father could not help but smile.

“I think you can do absolutely anything you want, son. If anything, I’d say don’t even settle for this place. Aim higher. Don’t let anything stop you, not even the sky.”

They stood in silence for what seemed like an immeasurable amount of time. Rex felt like he could stay all night gazing up at this miraculous wonder of the ancient world. A strange feeling in his gut, however, interrupted his moment of bliss. He could not explain it, but he sensed something was very, very wrong.