Palatinii Cycle

by G'vonni Avner

  Katie’s usual cheesy, thoughts filled her head while she tried to make sense of it all. What had happened was impossible. Yet she knew that she saw what she saw. Deep down, Katie truly believed that she had turned her kitchen into water and turned it back. Katie remained frozen in shock.

  “You can control water, at will it seems,” John explained. “You can draw it from the air, expand it or even alter its chemical make-up to turn it into ice or snow. Its limits are the limits of your will and creativity.”

  Katie stared at her father for a second and then let out a small laugh. “You’re crazy. I mean, I’ve heard of parents overthinking their children’s abilities, but this is something else.”

  Natasha’s expression was pleasant, and she smiled as she spoke. “Katie, have a seat.”

  Katie didn’t mind being told to sit down, but from your parents, it wasn’t a good sign. Usually, it meant that your parents had something to say that would be upsetting, such as your best friend just died in a car accident, or your boyfriend or girlfriend was cheating on you, or the most likely and they wanted to have “the talk” with you again for the fifth time. Either way, it put Katie’s guard up and even though she was expecting the worst, she sat down on a chair by a small table against the wall.

  “No,” John said, a bit harshly. He leaned on the doorway, the plate of pie still in his hands. Katie leaped to her feet, unsure if she should sit or stand.

  “She should sit, John” Natasha said in a deeper voice than usual.

  “Later, after she sees more for herself,” John replied.

  “What more is there for her to see?” Natasha asked, slightly irritated. “She’s already seen that she could turn our own kitchen into water.”

  “She must be certain that it was her!” John said.

  Natasha glared at her husband for a moment. “She isn’t in the same situation that you were in.”

  “I know,” John sighed. “But even so, she has to know how to protect herself. And she must know that she can.”

  “What are you talking about? Protect myself from what?” Katie asked frantically, moving closer to her parents. “Mom, what is Dad talking about?”

  Without warning the refrigerator door flung open and an icicle shot out of it towards Katie. She dodged it by moving over to the side and the ice hit the wall behind her and shattered.

  “What the hell, dad?” she asked. Her blonde hair whipped around her face and she blew it out of her mouth.

  Katie’s father smiled. Another icicle hung over his head, pointed in Katie’s direction. It too shot off towards her, but that one was easy for Katie to dodge.

  “John, don’t hurt her,” Natasha warned.

  Katie’s adrenaline spiked up and her body was rising and falling with each hard breath she took. She was panting. “Her natural abilities will reveal themselves soon enough. I won’t need to be careful; their instincts will take over,” her father said.

  Another shard of ice shot out towards her. She dodged it but another came, this time more quickly. Katie screamed and threw out her hand in front of her face to protect herself. The icicle changed direction and shot towards her father.

  John closed his eyes, and the ice melted into water, splashing his face. He stood there for a small moment and the water evaporated from his face. Katie could see the droplets of water rise, turn to steam and disappear into the air.

  “Not bad, not bad,” John Dimes said, chuckling. “I didn’t quite expect that to happen. But I am proud of you.”

  Katie stared at him and looked over to her mother. Katie noticed that she was smiling ever so slightly.

  “I know who she was,” Katie said, her memory coming back in flashes. “The girl I saw earlier today. I know her.”

  “It was Sabrina,” John said. Katie looked at her father, his answer catching her by surprise.

  “I know,” he said.

  “Who is she?” Katie asked. “What is she?” she added, remembering the incident that day.

  Natasha walked closer to Katie. “She is one of us. More accurately, she is one of your kind. You and your father’s kind. I’m from Earth, though not without my tricks.”

  “What do you mean?” Katie asked.

  “Katie,” John said. “You were born in a place called Narque. Shortly after your birth, your mother and I found a way back here, to Earth, and since then we have spent our lives here, blending in and leaving the other world behind. Unfortunately, Sabrina also found a way here, though how she did I do not know. She must have had help.”

  Katie laughed, a sickening dread building in her stomach, “I must be dreaming. That’s probably what’s happening. I’m dreaming because I have my graduation tomorrow, and I’m probably oversleeping and you two are about to be called by the principal or something and told that I am missing.”

  Her parents said nothing, so Katie then added, “I guess I’ll just be on my way upstairs, where I am sleeping, and hopefully wake up pretty soon, and wake up to completely sane parents.”

  She started to leave the kitchen, but her dad called her. “Wait.”

  He walked over to her, placed the plate down on the table and grabbed her arm. She tried to jerk free but with little success. Her father didn’t grab her hard, but with enough force for Katie to know that she wasn’t dreaming.

  “If I jump out the window to wake myself up, will you freak out? You know, the dream law where if you’re falling you will wake up?”

  “Let’s just say that I’m not going to let you near a window just yet,” John replied. He led her to the living room and Natasha followed behind. “I’m going to show you something else,” he said. He spoke slowly in a deep calming voice.

  He grabbed a rolled-up map from the wall. He put it on a low glass table and opened it.

  “Oh my god, you guys still have this?” Katie asked in disbelief.

  “What did you think this was?” Natasha asked. “Some stupid children’s art project we kept just because?”

  Katie chuckled. “As a matter of fact, yes. I’ve never even thought about it after I made it.” Katie looked down at the map and admired it. She was nine years old when she drew it in an art class. She won first prize for it. The other kids, and some parents, didn’t believe that she did it by herself, or even helped at all. There were mountains, seas, rivers and lakes, all drawn in clear detail. There were several cities and many areas of forests and grasslands.

  “This is a map—”

  “I know, I made it,” Katie said, cutting her father off. “I had a dream about it the night before I drew it.”

  “This is a map of Narque.”

  “How is it, though?” Katie asked. “I can’t even remember anything about it.” Though when she said it, Katie felt as if she were lying to herself.

  John Dimes smiled. “It is where you truly belong. Now, I have to tell you fast,” said John, in a much more serious manner. “We don’t have much time and I expect you will want to see your friends and make your plans for tomorrow. Narque has been under attack for over nineteen years. The people attacking it are ones who have studied the ancient history of Narque and use that knowledge for destruction.” John immediately went into telling Katie about it.

  “It is similar in the way the people of Earth go to war with each other, except that, while Narque doesn’t have bombs or missiles, they do have the ancient powers which are far more devastating.”

  “You’re serious?” Katie asked.

  “Yes,” John replied.

  “So why are you telling me this?” Katie asked.

  John sighed. “Because a time may come when you must go back to Narque and save it. The power to save it lies within you.”

  Katie didn’t know why, but she had tears in her eyes. She was scared and confused. “What about you two?”

  Natasha smiled at her sadly, “Well, we will—”

  “Support you in every step you take, in every way we can. And we will always love you,” John said, interrupting his wife. “Now go upstairs
and enjoy tonight and tomorrow. You’ve earned it after spending all these years in school.”

  Katie walked back upstairs slowly. She was confused and angry that her parents weren’t letting on as much as they knew. Katie could tell that they weren’t telling her something. She tried thinking hard on what it was, but she came up with no ideas. She lay herself down on her bed and texted Tyson and some other people, reading their Facebook posts about their post-graduation plans.

  Down in the living room, John and Natasha stared at each other.

  “We should have told her,” Natasha said.

  “I couldn’t bring myself to do it,” he answered. “Maybe we’re wrong.”

  Natasha walked over to her husband and put her hand on his cheek, “I hope so. But those chances are slim.”

  John grabbed Natasha’s hand and kissed it. “Do you think she believes us?”

  “Yes,” Natasha said in a whisper. “I do. But even if she doesn’t, in due time she will be forced to accept it.”

  “You mean when we’re gone?”

  Tears slipped from Natasha’s eyes as she gave her husband a small, sad smile.

  4

  Graduation Day

  Katie got up around nine the following morning. Usually, she would have been up by six, as her first class would start at a quarter to seven, but today was graduation and, thankfully, the school board closed it for the day.

  After her conversation with her parents last night, Katie went to her room. She went online and used various social media to keep up with the daily affairs of all the people she knew, snapped photos with her friends and added to her story while she vigorously tried to keep up with everyone else’s. Many of her friends were talking about what jobs they would take, where they would spend their next vacation, what colleges they would go to and who was dating who. She mostly talked to Tyson, who seemed to reply faster than anyone else.

  Hours faded by without notice. She had stayed up until almost three in the morning, talking to Tyson who was her only friend conscious at that hour. Tyson asked to change their nine o’clock breakfast the next morning to ten when she suddenly realized that it was so late, and she replied with a quick “sure” and “goodnight” before falling asleep.

  Katie didn’t mention anything to her friends about… whatever it was that had happened. Not yet, anyway. It killed her to keep it from her them, but she wasn’t sure how people would respond. She wasn’t even sure how she should respond. But she needed to tell someone or she might explode. She decided she was going to tell Tyson and Emily after graduation. They were her two best friends, after all.

  She quickly dressed, taking care of what she was wearing and went down to the kitchen. Both her parents were there eating breakfast.

  Something brushed against Katie’s leg. It was her cat, christened “Kitty” for reasons lost in lack of sleep and ingenuity when she was born. Katie bent down to scratch Kitty’s ears, but Kitty clawed Katie, hissed and stalked away, leaving a shallow scratch on Katie’s hand.

  “Ow!” she exclaimed and examined her hand. The cut was bleeding just slightly, but as Katie looked at her hand, it quickly sealed itself.

  “I warned you last night,” Natasha said in a playful voice. “She’s in a scratching mood.” Katie’s mom finished and then added, changing the subject, “Did you sleep well?”

  “Oddly enough, I did,” Katie replied and walked up behind her mom who was seated at the table.

  She smiled and stole a bite out of her dad’s toasted bread with peanut butter. “Is it normal that my hand healed so fast after Kitty clawed at me?” She looked at her hand again, then down to the floor where Kitty was looking up at her, licking her mouth with innocent wide eyes. There was no sign, except for a thin line of dried blood, that her cat had even touched Katie. “I saw my skin heal over the cut.”

  “And now you know why you’ve never scarred, even after your surgery for your appendix,” John said.

  Katie wanted to remark about having a model body which, even though her parents might appreciate, it wouldn’t be as much fun as doing it with her friends.

  “You may evolve as you grow up,” Natasha said.

  Katie raised an eyebrow. “You mean I will grow more?” she asked. Katie was already one of the taller students in her school and she could get an alcoholic drink whenever she wanted without being asked for an ID, though, she thought that may not be due entirely to her height.

  “I mean, get older,” Natasha said.

  “What a relief,” Katie exclaimed. “I’m going to get older than I am now!”

  “No, that’s not what I meant—”

  “Your mother means that now that you’re aware of your capabilities, you may find them developing more quickly than before,” John interjected.

  “Okay, I guess that makes sense,” Katie said reluctantly.

  Katie glanced at her watch suddenly and said, “I should get going. Tyson and I are going to meet for breakfast. I don’t want to be late.”

  “I like Tyson,” Natasha commented without the slightest trace of guilt on her face. She took a bite of cereal, caught Katie’s eye for a second and quickly looked away.

  “Yeah, I like him too,” Katie said with a straight face. “That’s why he’s my friend.”

  “If you say so,” Natasha said.

  “We love you, Katie,” John called out as Katie started walking away.

  “Love you guys, too!” Katie replied as she got into the elevator.

  “Oh, Katie!” John shouted.

  “Yes?” Katie called back, sticking her arm out to stop the elevator door from closing.

  “We won’t be at your graduation,” John said.

  Katie quickly walked back to the kitchen. “What? You’re joking! There’s no way you two are not going. I’m graduating from high school. Of course you two are coming.”

  Natasha shook her head. “Katie, there is a reason we told you what we did last night. Something is going to happen, and we have to be ready when it does. There are things hidden in our home that don’t belong here and if they were to fall into the wrong hands, you would not be safe.”

  “What things?” Katie asked.

  “We can’t tell you,” John said.

  “What, you guys don’t trust me?” Katie accused.

  “No, it’s not that,” Natasha answered. “There’s just too much to explain, and you’re not ready to know yet.”

  Katie sighed. “Fine, but after this, no more secrets. When I get home, you explain everything.”

  “In due time,” Natasha said, her once casual smile growing strained.

  “You guys are freaking me out,” Katie said. She started to walk away but turned and hugged them both tightly instead. She held them for a long moment. “I’ll see you after graduation. And you’ll explain everything.” She then left before the emotion could grow any fuller inside of her and risk breaking out.

  John and Natasha exchanged looks, in the same ominous way they had been recently. “I feel bad about it,” Natasha told her husband.

  “I do too. But we have to let things play out as they do. Otherwise, she’ll never have a chance,” John replied.

  “And there’s no other way?” Natasha asked.