The Abnormals: Book One

by Isabelle Sorrells

  “You want meat? I can have my Shadows run back to the mainland and get some if you would like.” Jack said, his voice soft, and understanding. He flicked his hand as if he were motioning for something and suddenly a black thin line appeared, suspended in the air. Shadow-like creatures emerged from the line and shot toward Jack. Alex jumped back and reached for his sword in surprise but stopped when Jack only stood there, not showing any expressions of concern.

  Jack smirked at Alex’s reaction but kept his eyes trained on the creatures. They halted in front of Jack and he muttered commands to them. When he had finished speaking, he whisked his hand once more, and the strange creatures flew back into the thin line and disappeared. There was an astonished silence but only for a moment.

  “You can go to the mainland? Take us back!” Mark blurted out. Alex suddenly came to the realization that they had all been trying to make the most of their time spent on this island and not think the worst of it. They had all been bottling up their emotions for all this time. Their emotions were only just beginning to show. And they were locking these feelings away for him. He brought them into this mess.

  And I’m going to bring them out of it, Alex thought.

  “Yes, I can travel to the mainland, among other things and I would gladly bring you back. Only I am not perfect and one of my flaws is the fact that I can only transport my Shadows and myself through my portals, with the exception of inanimate objects,” Jack said calmly.

  There was another silence except this one had disappointment lingering in the air. “I truly am sorry and would bring you back if I could, but it is simply not possible.”

  “That’s all right. We can find another way.” Nicole righted her head and she met her eyes with Jack’s. Alex thought back to what Jack said, searching for a solution but he could find none. Alex straightened and asked, “do you think you could retrieve something for me?”

  “Depends on what it is,” Jack replied with a smile.

  “My Walkman. I forgot it in my room back in Orlson.”

  “That, I can do.” Jack waved his hand, and another black line appeared in the air and another Shadow came to his service. When it finally disappeared once again, Alex and the others were all crowded around the fire for warmth against the cold winds that had begun to drift up from the ocean.

  Not a second afterwards a Shadow returned with the thin headphones connected to the small gray box. It plopped them into his lap, and Alex nodded his head gratefully at the strange creature. He slid the headphones over his ears and turned the music on. He smiled as he was greeted with the sound of a familiar song. Another pair of Shadows appeared and flew over their heads. Plates of chicken and broccoli dropped into their laps, followed by water bottles. Once their jobs were done, the Shadow creatures dissipated into the air.

  “Dinner is served,” announced Jack as he bowed and sat next to Alex, watching as they gulped down their new found dinner like starved dogs. When they finished, their plates disappeared from in front of them and any trace of the plates was erased.

  “Where’d the plate go?” David asked, his voice muffled, his mouth preoccupied with chewing a piece of chicken.

  “Don’t worry, I took care of it,” Jack replied.

  The sun had sunk beneath the horizon completely now and the dark had taken over everything the light of the fire could not. Alex sauntered over to a rock hidden in the dark and away from the light from the flames.

  “I’ll take first watch,” Alex said.

  “Great! I’m in a good mood for sleep right now,” said David as he stood up and stretched before walking into his tent, soon followed by Mark. Nicole waved to Alex before she and Brooke disappeared within the folds of the yellow rubber. When the fire grew dim and everyone was in bed, Jack walked over and stood beside Alex. In a hushed voice, Jack whispered, “I’m going to patrol the area,” and with a wave of his cloak he disappeared into the Shadows.

  Alex didn’t bother to ask why and instead slipped his headphones over his ears and let his mind drift away into the bass that throbbed in his eardrums. Only an hour had passed before Alex was startled to see David walking out of his tent. David walked slowly onto the cliff without saying a word. Alex pulled the headphones off and set them against the rock he had been sitting on. He stood up and began to walk toward David.

  “David, you can go back to sleep. I can keep watch for a little longer,” Alex called after him. David didn’t answer. Alex took a few steps closer.

  “David, did you hear me? I said you can go back to sleep.”

  David continued walking, not saying a word, his eyes trained on the cliff’s edge ahead. Then, Alex noticed something was off. David’s eyes were closed and he was breathing as if he was still asleep. Alex remembered what Jack had said, “The experienced may also cause their victim to do anything in their sleep. Maybe even kill.”

  Alex sprinted forward and ran as fast as his legs could carry him to David. He was only two steps away from the edge. Two steps, one step, David was leaning over the edge threateningly, swaying back and forth until he started to lean over the rocky waters beneath him. Alex jumped at him and clasped his hand around David’s arm, jerking him back. David landed on his backside hard, waking him up just in time to see Alex slip and fall off the edge and into the treacherous waters below.

  TWENTY-SIX

  "ALEX!” David finally came to his senses in time to see Alex slip and fall off the cliff. A small chunk of the cliff where Alex’s foot had been fell off along with him. David lurched for Alex, falling to his knees with his arm outstretched for him. Maybe he could catch him in time, he thought. Alex thrust his hand forward and reached for David’s hand. Alex’s hand only grazed David’s finger-tips before gravity overtook him and carried him farther and farther down.

  David’s sudden cry startled everyone awake and sent them sprawling out of their tents in a hectic panic. From deep in the woods, Jack’s head jerked up as David’s shout echoed through the trees. Leaping up from the ground, Jack leapt yards at a time and ran for the camp. hoping that whatever he had heard had been misconstructed as panic.

  Alex watched as David grabbed blindly at the air, desperately willing for everything to be only a nightmare. Alex could smell the salty water lingering in the air, burning his nostrils. The impact of his body slamming into the freezing water sucked the air out of him, forcing him to open his mouth. The freezing water entered his gaping mouth and flooded into his lungs. The sudden rush of cold, rapid water tossed Alex around and sent him sprawling deeper into the black depths of the ocean.

  In a matter of seconds, the anger of the unforgiving ocean took him over, and darkness surrounded him as he sank even deeper. Before his body gave in and his eyes shut, he caught a glimpse of a dark figure swimming toward him. Alex could just make out that it was Jack before his eyes closed and he was fully engulfed in darkness.

  ***

  Alex’s eyes fluttered open to five concerned faces hovering over him, all of them illuminated by a torch gripped tightly in Mark’s hand. None of them looked more troubled than David. Alex lurched forward and leaned to the side, coughing up water. When the coughing and hacking ceased, Alex felt a sharp pain shoot from his head and down his body. Alex grimaced in pain. When he had finished recovering, he looked at Jack, who was kneeling beside him. Alex smiled.

  “We really need to find a way to stop falling off things,” Alex managed before he coughed again. Mark and the others all snorted at Alex’s comment and stifled their laughs. Alex staggered to a standing position and steadied himself.

  “Oh my gosh! You’re bleeding!” Brooke shouted in surprise.

  “What?” Alex asked. “No I’m not.”

  “Yes, you are! Look at your back!” Brooke pointed at Alex’s back with a trembling finger. Alex glanced over his shoulder to see his back drenched in watery blood. There was no cut. Slowly Alex brought his hand up to his head. It wasn’t h
is back that was bleeding, he realized. It was his head. Alex brought his hand down and stared at the blood on his fingertips.

  “I’ll be all right. It isn’t a large cut. It’s not big enough to need stitches.” Alex wiped off the blood on his jeans.

  “It may be just that, but we are still going to patch you up.” Jack smiled with worry and waved his hand. Bandages and scissors appeared out of thin air, and Jack waved his finger in a circle. The roll of bandages unwound itself and started to wind around the large cut on Alex’s head. When Jack finished, the bandages were almost completely hidden beneath his hair if not for the small chunk at the back of his head. As soon as his head was bandaged, Alex turned to David.

  “David, are you all right?” Alex asked.

  “Me? Why are you asking if I’m okay? You’re the one who fell off the cliff!” David pointed out.

  “In case you have forgotten, you were about to fall off the cliff yourself.”

  “I’m fine. My brain is just a bit foggy.”

  “Don’t let your guard down just yet. It’s still here,” Jack interrupted.

  “What’s still here?” Nicole asked, both puzzled and slightly frightened at Jack’s tone of voice.

  “The Prestidigitator,” Jack replied.

  “The Prestawhatta?” asked David.

  “A Prestidigitator. A citizen of Heltiana. They can create illusions and control your body. They are basically magicians. That’s what caused David to do what he did. And it’s still here.”

  “It’s still here?” Nicole asked.

  “Whoa! Hold up! So, I wasn’t sleepwalking?” David asked. Jack looked at him and shook his head.

  “Oh, good,” David sighed in relief.

  “The Prestidigitator sent you two a message in your dreams. What puzzles me is that their messages always come true. But today it didn’t,” Jack explained. Brooke, Mark, David, and Nicole all stared at Jack as though he told them he was Santa Claus. Alex was the only one who acted as though he actually knew what Jack was talking about.

  A strong wind whipped past them, snuffing the light of the torch out. Alex looked up for the light of the moon, but a dark cloud covered it, leaving them in the pitch black. Thunder sounded in the distance and rain poured down.

  “When did it start raining?” David shouted over the thunder.

  “Storm Conjurer!” Jack shouted. The suddenly heavy rain made his words sound like a whisper. “Be ready to fight!”

  “Fight? We can’t fight! We’ve never fought in our lives!” Nicole glanced over at Alex’s expectant glare. “Well, most of us haven’t.”

  “Yes, you can! I’ve seen you do it! You’ve been fighting since the moment you stepped foot on that ship. Even if you don’t think you can, I at least know Brooke can.” Jack threw his arm up, brushing his cloak back. In his hand he held a dark brown leather hardcover book, thick with pages yellowed with age.

  “Sorry, but I have no idea what you are talking about,” Brooke said as she raised her eyebrows in confusion. “I can’t fight. I have no idea how you came to that conclusion.”

  “Yes, you do. I don’t exactly know what it is quite yet, but you certainly can do it. You used it with the Clandestine Brobdingnagian. You only need to figure out how to make that ability manifest again.”

  “What are you talking about? You’re speaking nonsense!” Brooke shouted.

  Lightning shot through the sky. In front of them the tree tops rustled in the distance. The trees that were on the edge of the clearing rustled in the wind while a behemoth of a monster stepped out. Taller than the trees, it had a long, stretched-out mouth that had rows of razor sharp teeth underneath its lips. On its sides were six rows of multiple arms and hands. It’s tail was covered in black scales and spanned the entire width of the clearing and more, disappearing into the woods. It was all black except for its shining yellow eyes. The monster turned its head, and once it caught sight of the group it let out a loud roar.

  “Oh my God it’s Godzilla!” shouted David, pointing toward the monster.

  “It does look strangely like Godzilla, doesn’t it?” Nicole tilted her head and stared at it with interest.

  “A monster just stepped out of the trees and that’s what you are focusing on?” asked Mark furiously.

  “Look out!” Jack shouted as he leapt aside. The monster’s tail swept back and forth at them in order to knock them off their feet. “JUMP! JUST JUMP!” Jack shouted. The five of them only stood and stared at another quizzically.

  “You heard him!” Alex demanded. They looked and shrugged at each other while a titanic-sized tail made its way toward them. They all bent their knees and propelled themselves off the dirt-covered ground. They leapt high into the sky and high above the trees.

  Alex tumbled into a summersault and landed on the other side of the clearing. His mouth was wide open from shock. His friends had all landed in scattered positions around the clearing. David had fallen on his knees and rolled over while Nicole was crouched in a squat. Brooke and Mark were standing on their feet with their eyes trained on their shoes in surprise. David stood up and slapped his hand on his forehead, breaking out laughing.

  “I must be dreaming!” he shouted hysterically. The monster let out a roar and charged at them. It’s roar shook the ground, causing David to stop his hysterical fit.

  “Maybe not,” said David as he turned and ran the other direction and the others followed. Alex ran forward and latched onto one of the scales on the monster’s tail. It thrashed its tail about wildly, shaking Alex off and sending him crashing to the ground before Alex could get a hit. Jack grabbed Alex’s shirt and yanked him off the ground in time for the monster’s tail to come crashing down where Alex had landed. Jack released his grip on Alex’s arm and bounded up into the air.

  Jack hovered in the air a few feet away from the monster’s head. He held out his book in his hand and opened it. A dark purple smoke surrounded the book, and it began to lift out of his open hand. He brought his hand down and thrust his other out with his palm facing the monster. His legs were perfectly straight, and his cloak fluttered in the strong wind and rain.

  He began to murmur words that Alex could not hear over the roar of the wind. He continued to murmur until Shadows were surrounding him. The Shadows lunged at Jack’s command and at the monster, completely covering it. “Come on! Now’s your chance!” he yelled.

  Alex leapt at the monster with his sword but was soon slapped back by its tail and sent sprawling back to the ground with a thud. Alex rolled out of the path of the monster as Jack continued to throw Shadows at the beast. Brooke stood staring at the monster, scratching her head.

  “I don’t think I can do this! I don’t know how I did it last time! I don’t think I was even the reason it happened!” Brooke shouted.

  “Hurry up and figure it out before we get eaten!” shouted David as he tumbled away from the slashing tail. “It’s Jurassic Park all over again!”

  “That never happened. That was just a movie! Dinosaurs are extinct, so whatever this is it isn’t a dinosaur!” shouted Nicole as a lightning bolt struck the ground a few yards away from her feet.

  “You’re one to talk! After we watched one of those horror movies, you thought Slender Man was real for three months!” Mark laughed.

  “I don’t do that anymore. That was four years ago. Keep up!” Nicole shouted as she pulled Mark out of the way of a lightning bolt’s path. “Be aware of your surroundings.”

  There was a flash of black in the corner of Alex’s eye and he turned to see a man in black disappear into the woods. Could that be the Predigistator Jack mentioned? Alex raced after the man that disappeared into the woods. He brushed aside branches and leaves, chasing after the flash of black that moved through the trees swiftly and silently. Lightning struck a tree in front of him. Alex sped up and ran beneath the falling tree. He wasn’t about to lose the stran
ge man. Nothing was going to slow him down.

  As soon as he was in the crashing tree’s path, he tripped and fell. Before he could get out of the way, the large trunk came crashing on top of him.

  “Timber! Ouch…that must’ve hurt, huh?”

  Alex cursed at his stupidity and looked up from his pinned down and helpless position to see two figures looming over him. Suddenly, the rain and thunder stopped. There was only dry soundless lightning. One of the figures was a woman in her mid-twenties with smooth, brown skin and long, silvery white hair. A long white and sparkly robe with white ruffles around the neck and bottom was draped around her shoulders. The rest of her body was hidden neatly beneath the folds of her robe.

  A man in his early thirties stood beside her. He was skinny and tall with short, spiked black hair. His black coat looked like that of a butler’s and a red vest was placed neatly atop his white dress shirt. Both his pants and his shoes were black. One of his hands was covered by a pure white glove. Blacked-out rectangular sunglasses obscured his eyes from view. These two looked as if they just came from some sort of charity banquet.

  His skinny arm reached up and slid his glasses off and stuffed them inside his coat, revealing ice cold blue eyes. “Hello. How may we be of service?” The man asked sarcastically in a husky voice.

  “Who are you?” Alex blurted, ignoring his offer for help.

  “Mmm… how rude. You should learn your manners, boy,” said the woman in a sing-song voice. Alex scowled.

  “Fine. Fine. Since you asked, my name is Jaheim, a Prestidigitator. This is Winona, a Conjurer,” the man gestured to him and the woman. The woman knelt down on one knee and put a hand up to Alex’s face and brushed it gently.