by C. C. Lynch
Vlaine nodded and winked.
My nerves calmed significantly and I was actually touched that Aiden and Vlaine had a system in place to make sure that I was safe.
Vlaine sat up suddenly and put his hand in the air as if he was signaling someone to wait. I wanted to ask him what was happening but I also did not want to interrupt whatever was occurring at the moment. The seconds passed slowly until he said, “Curtis needs to talk to you about something. Nothing is wrong, but he forgot to tell you something earlier.”
“Okay,” I nodded and stood. “Be right back.” A second later I was in a rainforest too dark to feel safe in. I teleported myself to the base of the steps in the safe house and a lantern at the top of the stairs were the saving grace to helping my eyes adjust to the darkness.
“Hello,” I called out as I made my way cautiously up the stairs. “Vlaine said you needed to talk about something.”
“Yes,” my father’s voice came from a shadow. “I forgot to mention that there is a ceremony being held at Aldershaw Academy two days from now. It is a big deal there and it will actually help you be a bit more inconspicuous.”
The idea that he contacted Vlaine before contacting me did not sit right. “Why didn’t you ask me instead of Vlaine?”
I was face to face with my father and my eyes had finally adjusted to the darkness of the forest. He led me into the house that was lit with several lanterns then motioned for me to have a seat, to which I declined by shaking my head.
“You said before that you have problems with distance.” His mouth opened to continue his explanation, but I was too churlish to listen.
“It sounds like it would have been good practice then.” My nose scrunched in a snotty manner. “What is it that you needed to talk to me about?”
“Aldershaw Academy has an annual celebration, a festival, for the day that the school opened.” Silently, he strolled to a tea pot and heated the bottom with flames from his palm. He offered me a cup, but I gave the same reply as I did when he motioned for me to sit. “The school colors are crimson and grey. Wear a cloak with one of those colors.” He paused and spoke slowly to keep the words fresh in my memory. “February twentieth, the festival begins at noon.”
Just as I was about to teleport myself out, I stopped in case there was anything else I needed to hear. “If that’s it, then I’m going to head back.”
“Just be careful,” he added sincerely.
His last word hung in the air as I disappeared from his sight and found myself back in Ernvlik Academy.
17
“Frankie, Frankie, it’s okay,” Ovolina hushed her brother as he began tossing things about the room in a terrible rage. Items were thrown in every direction by both his hands and telekinetic gift.
I had woken up to a ruckus and ran to the sitting area expecting to see an attack from Replyx, but it was one of Frankie’s fits that I had yet to witness until that morning. I rubbed my eyes quickly before swatting and ducking from a wrought iron fire poker.
The fear of worsening the situation caused me to keep my mouth shut. I wanted to heal and calm him, but offending Ovolina was a probable outcome. I could just imagine her becoming angry that I believed her brother needed to be healed. Any sort of obvious use of my gifts on him would be tactless and I would end up begging for Aiden to reverse time so that I could remove my foot from my mouth prior to it being inserted.
Frankie’s rage was turning the room into a chaotic whirlwind of books and debris.
A small crowd was forming behind me, watching the episode. Lena leaned in a whispered into my ear. “Does this happen often?” Her shoulder touched mine and her thoughts were loud enough to enter my mind. He needs animals around, they dull the lunacy.
“I’ve known them only about twice as long as you have. This is the first time I’ve seen a fit, but I was warned about them beforehand.” I turned and walked back towards my room. “We should leave them alone,” I said to the group, “don’t make either of them any more upset than they need to be.”
I felt bad for Frankie. Being conscious of the fact that we were stuck underground in the middle of tundra was enough to make me go mad, never mind the addition of whatever it was he suffered from. Glaston Academy may have been secluded but there was always the option of finding a highway nearby.
Lena followed me into the room and sat on the bed before I even walked over to it. The words from her mouth began to flow and my mind was so busy elsewhere that I could hardly concentrate on her life story. Kindness oozed from her pores and her exuberance was necessary in the group. I was afraid that my solemnity would offend her, but I trusted that she was not the type of person to judge solely on facial expressions. Had that been the case, she would have walked out of the academy when she first arrived and was greeted by a room full of sullen teenagers.
Partially ignoring Lena was somewhat founded, I thought. I was worried about keeping a handful of gifted humans from getting tortured. I had a vision of my mother as I nodded and gave a partial smile to Lena’s one-sided conversation. The way that she would simply agree and say whatever she felt necessary to hurry my story along. What was so important for my mom that she could not spare me the few minutes to listen to my thoughts? It was unfair for me to compare importance in circumstances. For all I knew, my mother could have had dire things going on in her life, relatively speaking.
Lena’s words danced into a constant melody that was almost therapeutic. It was nice to have someone speaking in a lighthearted manner. Vlaine was intense, Liz was reserved, and Ovolina was overbearing. Lena would be the necessary buffer in a rather somber group.
Thoughts of the other students swirled in my mind until a hush caught my attention. I asked Lena to hold her thought and went to the sitting area to see if Frankie had settled down. He, Ovolina, Draxe, and Liz were absent from the room. Vlaine and Aiden were searching through a large black leather-bound book.
“How’s Frankie, is he okay?” My eyes darted between the two before resting on the book. The way both their hands held the item closely made it seem to be something of great importance.
Vlaine cleared his throat and answered. “He’s fine. Ovolina has it under control.”
“Good,” I smiled, “because we need to have a meeting.” I figured that Frankie was in his workshop and Ovolina was either in her room or in the workshop making sure that her brother was cooling down. “Where are Draxe and Liz?” I had not meant for the question to sound accusing, but my tone betrayed me.
Vlaine’s lip lifted in a partial smile. “Draxe is training Liz to fight.”
I could not hold back my surprise. “To fight?” My brows flew up at the thought of Liz sparring with Draxe.
Aiden slapped the book shut and placed it in between two similar looking ones on the shelf. As he shuffled books about, he answered my question with an optimistic air. “With the inevitable meeting with the big bad wolf, it seemed like a smart tactic. Liz really doesn’t have any self-defense skills. Invisibility is passive, so Draxe thought it would be a good idea to add muscles and agility to the group on top of the gifts that we already have.”
“Yeah,” I nodded, “that’s a good idea.” I chewed on my lip nervously. “I don’t want to interrupt that. Vlaine, would you please go get your twin and Miss Liz. I’ll gather the others.”
Without another word we went about and gathered the group for the big discussion.
Vlaine leaned against the wall while Ovolina, Frankie, Draxe, and Lena were squished onto the couch. Liz sat by the fire watching me intently as I paced around the room. The eyes of everyone made me feel far more nervous than I should have been.
“First of all,” I began without making eye contact with anyone, “my dad told me that there’s a festival at Aldershaw on February twentieth. The school colors are grey and crimson. If we were a cloak with one of those colors, we will fit in and be able to scoop up Luka, Saundra, and Seamus.”
“So wait,” Lena cleared her throat, “what is going on and wh
y do we need to go to the Aldershaw Academy?”
I sucked in a breath in preparation for the long story, but Draxe lent his amicable personality for the task. He gave a surprising amount of detail within a few short minutes, explaining everything that had happened and what we foresaw happening.
“And what exactly do we do after we gather all these wanted Gifteds?” Lena cocked her head to the side.
“We want to make sure everyone has a fair amount of warning and let them know they have a place to stay until the danger is gone.” I paused, somehow feeling selfish for my next statement. “If anyone happens to want to help us take down the tree house, then we’ll take it.”
Lena nodded along, understanding what I was saying. Her pitch raised as she asked her next question. “How are you planning on stopping them?”
“I’d like to get all the captives out of there.” Before I could finish my answer I was cut off by Ovolina.
“Yeah, if she can do it before the rest of us just kills everyone there.” Ovolina snorted with her arms crossed against her chest.
“There are innocent people there.” My voice was low as the vivid memories of drugged Glaston Academy students played in my mind. “I really think that we can do this without killing anyone at all. I just have to heal everyone quickly enough.”
“You might be a replicator,” Ovolina snarled her lip defiantly, “but you’re the only one that wants to try and ‘help’ these people. If they are truly a threat to me or Frankie, I’m not going to play capture and heal when we can just explode and kill.”
“I could heal them,” I whispered. I looked around the room to the eyes that refused to meet mine. There was no one in my corner, not a single person willing to speak on my behalf to support the healing of the criminals instead of simply going to the extreme. I looked to Lena, the one person that I knew would be more likely to choose my side.
She shrugged slowly. “Abrielle, there are certain types of illnesses that even a healer can’t fix.”
I shook my head and slumped down in front of the fireplace near Liz. These were real people they were so nonchalantly thinking of killing. They were the daughters and sons of fellow humans, not chunks of polystyrene that could just be crumpled and tossed into the trash.
“I understand,” I sighed in defeat, “I know that healing the insanity from the people is probably a risk that will waste time, energy, and maybe even cause more damage than good. I’m willing to do whatever it takes to stop more people from getting kidnapped and used as lab rats.” Taking in a deep breath, I let the reality of what would most likely unfold sink in. “So let’s figure out the plan. We need a solid timeline to go off of when we get these people to safety.”
Lena put her hand in the air as if we were in a classroom. “Can I make a request?”
“Sure,” I nodded.
“Can we get some sort of animal down here? I’m starting to feel a bit claustrophobic and it would really help.” Her eyes drifted towards Frankie and back to me.
“Yeah,” I shrugged, “ask Ovolina afterwards and if it’s fine with her I’ll teleport out of here and get you something.” Ovolina crossed her arms and rolled her eyes exasperatedly. “Anyway, we decided that Liz, Vlaine, and I would go to Aldershaw and Ovolina, Draxe, and Aiden, would go to Intervael. Should we do this at the same time? We can bring everyone back then Aiden and I can head to Lanshaw or should we split this up into days so that we can adjust slowly?”
Lena screeched her thought far too loud for an enclosed room where everyone was gathered. “I always believe in ripping off the band-aid. Just do it all at once.”
“I’m so glad the outsider has her opinion ready,” Ovolina snapped.
Everyone ignored Ovolina’s quip. “A vote,” I announced. “Hands in the air for doing it all at once and hands down for spreading it out over time.”
Lena, Draxe, Ovolina, Aiden, Liz, and I raised our hands while Frankie and Vlaine had their hands secured by their sides.
“Okay then,” I nodded, “it’s settled.”
“So,” Liz bumped her shoulder into mine, “where are we going to get a crimson and grey cloak?”
I smiled and grabbed her arm.
18
“The crimson looks good with your dark hair,” Liz stated, while twirling in her grey velour hooded cloak. “What do we know about this festival, anyhow?”
I had called out to my father telepathically several times in order to get more information on the event. The fact that I was able to do so successfully told me that either I was getting better with my telepathy or he was actually much closer than the meeting location in South America. Once I felt satisfied with the information gained by talking to him, I traveled with Draxe, Vlaine, and Liz to a costume shop in my hometown. Draxe and Vlaine were busy getting supplies while Liz and I had fun dressing up. The clerk pointed us straight to the hooded robes, but wigs and ridiculous items kept us entertained before we even made it to that section.
“On the first day that they had opened Aldershaw Academy, the staff was so excited that they threw this huge party and decided to wear the school colors, crimson and grey. The next year they threw the party again in the same fashion, and the students went a bit wild with it. Every year since it’s been this big traditional festival.”
“And the capes?” Liz raised a brow before twirling in hers again.
“Apparently there was this ‘secret’ group in the school that would wear hooded robes on that day.” I squinted and scrunched my nose. “Sort of like a fraternity.” Sighing, I continued on, “the furtive faction, of sorts, was only for the most trustworthy of members. Two years after the group had been started everyone wore one to represent the unity of the school; that everyone was worthy of a cloak.”
“Ironic.” Liz mumbled while rubbing the soft material between her fingers.
I nodded with a sad smile. “With the amount of unanimity in some of these schools, how do you think it is possible Glaston was turned into such a crappy place?”
Liz’s eyes were in a dead stare for a brief second. “A corrupt leader can do disturbing things.”
I nodded in a sad agreement and folded the robe in my hands.
We handed our items to the cashier who was devoid of any gifted humming. Large gauges in his ears would have easily allowed me to stick a pinky finger through. Dyed black hair fell in slick, unwashed strands to his shoulders and piercing grey eyes shown through the wisps that covered most of his face. When he spoke, ever so briefly, a lip ring bounced with each movement of his mouth.
Had I turned off my telepathic and empathic abilities, I would have looked at the cashier differently. I would have seen a man in his early twenties who chose to express his multifaceted personality through different means of appearance; however, my abilities were utilized and at their full potential. I could read him, feel what he was feeling, and knew the many regions of his personality just by being in a close proximity. He wasn’t thinking about texting his friends, scrolling through social media, or playing a mind-numbing game. The man before me was thinking about poetry. Not just any poetry, but the type that the incredible minds of William Wordsworth, Lord Byron, and John Keats wrote.
Was it fair that I could read him so easily? I gawked at him awkwardly as I wondered the ethics of our gifts. Were they completely genetic, or perhaps chosen for us by some sort of fate? What divine power gave me the right to search this man’s innermost thoughts and feelings?
Liz’s elbow brushed my arm lightly, bringing me back to reality. I had gotten so lost in thought that the sale had been completed for nearly half a minute while I simply stared at the cashier.
“Sorry,” I shook my head with a chuckle. I searched my mind for a lie to explain my prolonged staring. “I was trying to figure out why you look so familiar. Did you go to Blyden High?” Somehow the lie came out smoothly, something I had never really done before. Perhaps it was not a complete lie and somewhere in the recesses of my subconscious I had a distant memory of the man’s f
ace.
“Yeah,” he nodded quickly, “I graduated a couple years ago.”
I snapped my fingers like I had an epiphany. “That’s where I know you from. Okay. Thank you very much!”
Embarrassment hurried my feet along as I practically sprinted out of the store. Liz gave me a questioning look but simply shrugged it off just as I began to open my mouth to explain. It was part of the reason I had come to adore Liz. She was reserved, quiet, intelligent, and unwaveringly accepting of the few she chose as friends.
I could never blame her for how careful she was about opening up to people. She remained invisible unless she wanted to be seen. After what she had been through at the tree house, any person would have their reservations when meeting new people.
I was grateful that we decided Liz would be traveling to Aldershaw Academy with me. Somehow she made me feel more daring and outgoing. I’m not sure if I felt like I needed to overcompensate for her silence or if she simply complimented my personality.
Excitement was quickly outweighing anxiety with the upcoming trip to Aldershaw. Personally, I was afraid I would not want to leave. The dated European charm of the school was appealing, but not as much as the idea of touring Scotland without the overwhelming expense of a plane ticket.
We met with Draxe and Vlaine outside the store. Fortunately both our stops were in the same strip mall and they came to us with a carriage full of groceries, household items, and some trinkets that Frankie requested.
“Well,” I arched my brow at the carriage full or organic and inorganic material, “let’s give this a whirl.”
I successfully transported my three friends and the carriage full of items back to Ernvlik Academy. Doubt had been a nasty entity on my shoulder whispering that there was no way I could transport that many things through space, but I won over that creature of uncertainty.
