by M. H. Soars
I managed to get to a section of the gymnasium that wasn't so thick with smoke yet, and I could better discern what was going on. I felt, rather than saw, a kid possessed by a Myserian pick up a big piece of twisted metal, probably a piece of the collapsed stage, and aim it at me as if it were a lance. It was like I had eyes in the back of my head.
Everything that happened next felt like it was in slow motion. I dropped the piece of cloth covering my face and turned on my heels as I felt energy concentrating in the palms of my hands. I raised them, and like a scene straight from an action movie, energy balls shot out of my hands, barreling straight toward the kid who was ready to skewer me. Just then, someone shot in between me and my target, absorbing the hit from the pulsating, purple energy spheres. The power was so intense that it sent the person crashing down several feet away from me.
I was still looking at the spot where my unintended victim had fallen when I heard something whoosh awfully close to my ear. I turned my attention back to the initial threat and realized that the possessed kid had indeed just tried to make shish kebab out of me. I got angry all over again, and this time, my energy balls did not miss their target. This hit was less intense than the previous one, but it managed to knock the kid down nonetheless.
I ran to where I had seen the first person fall and almost lost my breath entirely when I discovered that my unintentional victim was Julian. It was hard to explain what I felt in that moment. He looked dead. My guilt was so intense that my knees buckled. I found myself kneeling next to him, trying to find a pulse.
“Please be alive, please be alive,” I whispered.
It was there, but just barely. I had to get him out of the building. I placed my hand on his chest and it started to glow purple again. I didn’t know why the Fury was manifesting now; I didn’t have the healing touch like Alexia and that was what Julian needed. This shouldn’t be happening, I thought. I should be controlling my powers, not the other way around.
Julian gasped. His eyes flew open, suddenly making me forget my churning emotions.
“Julian, are you okay? Talk to me,” I said.
He blinked a couple of times before his intense, clear baby blue eyes focused on me, and he smiled. A wash of relief ran through me. We stared at each other in bewilderment for a few seconds. My errant heart started to beat uncontrollably. I should not be feeling this way about Julian. What was the matter with me? We were under attack, Matthew was missing, and chaos surrounded us. In a reflexive gesture, I touched my rose pendant, and Julian’s eyes followed the action. The smile vanished from his face, and he finally seemed to be aware of our surroundings. My heartbeat returned to normal, but the elated feeling was still there. Maybe I was reading it all wrong; maybe it wasn’t elation but appeasement.
“Can you stand up?” I asked.
He did with my help, but he was still a little wobbly. I didn’t think he would be able to walk out of there on his own, so I had no choice but to take him. I looked at the kid who had attacked me. Without stopping to think, I bent down and threw him over my shoulder. I was past worrying about what anyone would think about my super strength.
We managed to find our way out without any further attack. The whole time I kept thinking to myself that Matthew would be okay and that I would come back to help him as soon as Julian and the kid were safely outside. But that didn’t prevent my heart from breaking more and more the further I walked away from the gymnasium.
Once I got outside, I found the rest of the gang. Sean, Mia, Melanie, Alexia and Ethan were huddled together, watching in a daze the smoke swirl into the sky. Firemen and paramedics were already at the scene, and that meant going back in wouldn’t be so easy.
A couple of paramedics took Julian and the other kid from me. They wanted to check me too, but I didn’t have any time to waste. I needed to find Matthew. As soon as they turned their backs on me, I ran away. There were too many people in need of care for them to chase after a crazy girl. I was almost back at the gymnasium when I met Lucas dragging a nearly unconscious Zach with him.
“What happened to him?” I asked, not hiding the desperation in my voice.
“The smoke. He stayed in there too long trying to control the fire. But it was too intense already.”
“What about Matt? Have you seen him?”
Lucas gave me a pained look. “I thought he was already out.”
“I gotta get back!” I ran toward the school, not caring that Lucas was shouting at me that it was too dangerous, that the fire was out of hand.
The tears in my eyes kept me from seeing the firemen who were blocking my path. I felt a couple of strong arms holding me tight, preventing me from taking another step toward the inferno.
“Let me go!” I screamed as I thrashed against the arms holding me. “Matt is still inside! He needs me!”
“Nobody gets inside, Miss! The roof is about to collapse,” Someone said from nearby. As if it had heard, the gymnasium roof folded in on itself in a jumble of sparks and rubble, the sound as loud and arresting as thunder.
I shouted Matthew’s name one more time before everything went dark.
Matthew
I walked around like a blind man on a suspension bridge. My head felt like it was filled with cotton, my mouth was dry, my eyes stung from the black smoke. Screams and noise seemed to be far away and reverberating in my head at the same time.
The last concrete thing I remembered was the feel of Sam’s hand in mine. She was my anchor in this sea of confusion but I had lost her, too. Around me I saw flashes of people either running away or entangled with one another, and I couldn’t understand what was going on. I thought someone had hit me earlier, but I couldn’t remember what had happened to my attacker.
In my drunken stupor, I followed the light. Wasn’t that what you were supposed to do when you found yourself in darkness? As I approached its source, I felt incredible heat, like I was plunged inside a churning volcano. The warmth licked my skin and singed my hair, but I didn’t mind. It was like coming home. I stared as the crackling flames rose up into the air and surrounded me. They climbed up my legs in curling, ruthless rings. But instead of screaming in agony, all I felt was peace. The fire kept growing, covering me with relentless, voracious surges, until a roaring sound like thunder came from above. I closed my eyes and let the Phoenix soar.
CHAPTER 34
Alexia
I was safe and sound in Ethan’s car, headed back to La Maison Falafel, like I had promised my uncle over the phone. My mind kept saying so, but my body was having a hard time grasping that reality. I was shaking all over, even though the heat was blasting in Ethan’s car and I was wearing his tuxedo jacket. He kept glancing my way to see if I was all right, but at least his glances weren’t followed by, Are you okay? anymore. He knew better, since I had snapped at him when he asked me that question for the thousandth time.
Fire trucks and ambulances had surrounded the school’s perimeter pretty quickly, and everyone kept saying how lucky it was that the gymnasium was a separate building from the school, especially when its roof collapsed in a shower of sparks worthy of a Fourth of July celebration.
We still didn’t know if everyone had been able to escape the inferno, and the grim mood among the survivors was enough to put anyone in a depressed state. I should count myself blessed since my family and my inner circle of friends had made it outside unscathed, but I was still feeling wretched that Ethan had whisked me away from the scene as soon as the paramedics cleared us. I had wanted to stay behind and use my abilities to help, but Ethan didn't want me to flaunt my healing touch in front of everyone. He was trying to protect me, but that compelling feeling I got every time someone near me was hurt overrode all sense of caution and self-preservation. I’d tried to fight him. My uncle had agreed that he should take me home, so that was where we were headed.
We were about five minutes from La Maison Falafel when Ethan’s phone rang. From the conversation, I could tell it was his dad on the other side of the line
. Ethan tried to convince him that he was fine, but apparently his father was flustered and demanded to see him immediately. Ethan sighed and looked at me after he hung up the phone.
“Dad is freaking out. Do you mind if we stop by my house first?”
I had never met Ethan’s dad and I suspected Ethan had kept me away on purpose. But even though I didn’t think tonight was the best occasion to meet his dad, I couldn’t say no to Ethan.
He lived in a neighborhood where the houses were single-story and super close to each other. Some of them were in good shape, others not so much. Ethan’s was one of the latter. His front lawn looked recently mowed, but I noticed that the house paint was faded and peeling in spots.
A dog barked nearby, followed by the crying wail of a young baby. I spotted random plastic toys and bicycles scattered in front of some of the houses. It was all very suburban, completely different from the area around La Maison Falafel.
Ethan opened the door and called out to his dad. Without waiting for a reply, he went to look for him. That left me alone to inspect the small living room, which contained an old brown couch and a black La-Z-Boy with its leather upholstery torn in a few places. The television was ancient, and the rest of the furniture was mismatched. Some pieces looked really worn-down, others were a bit newer, but it was clear that they had been acquired at a secondhand shop or found on the curb. I had no idea that Ethan’s dad struggled so much financially, but then I had no reason to know, since I had never heard Ethan complain about money. Suddenly I felt guilty about my lifestyle, even though it wasn't my fault that my family had money.
I approached the mantel above the fake fireplace, where some picture frames were scattered. There were pictures of a younger Ethan alone, some with his dad, and only one of him with his sisters. I picked that one up to have a closer look. I was surprised to see that Ethan’s sisters looked familiar, but not in the sense that one would expect. They didn’t look like Ethan at all, and I couldn’t discern what about their appearances tugged at some suppressed memory of mine. Oddly, there weren’t any pictures of Ethan’s mother.
“Alexia?” I heard Ethan call me from behind, and I turned to face him and his dad.
I walked over to them with a tentative smile on my face, but when I was close enough to see his dad’s expression, my smile vanished. He was looking at me wide-eyed, like he had seen a ghost.
“That’s impossible,” he whispered to himself. I stopped in my tracks, glancing at Ethan nervously, not knowing what to do.
“Dad, this is Alexia, my girlfriend,” Ethan said cautiously.
Ethan’s dad shook his head vehemently. “No.”
“Dad, maybe you should lay down,” Ethan said as he tried to pull his dad back into the main hallway. But his dad wouldn’t budge. Nor would he take his eyes off of me.
I hugged myself, feeling completely self-conscious and wishing that I could bolt and go home.
“No!” Ethan’s dad screamed. Ethan and I winced. “You’re dead!”
I took several steps back. Now I knew why Ethan had avoided bringing me here. His dad was emotionally unstable.
“Dad! You're scaring Alexia!”
Ethan’s dad ignored him. “Her name is not Alexia. Her name is Rori.”
“Rori? What are you talking about? Who’s Rori?” Ethan asked.
His dad said, “Rori is your sister.”
“What?” We both shouted at the same time. The guy was completely loony. I felt really sorry for Ethan. Maybe I should just call a cab and go home before his father became more flustered on my account.
“Your sister,” Ethan’s dad insisted before he looked at me again. “They told me you were dead, too.”
It was my turn to shake my head in bewilderment. “Mr. Lancaster, I’m not your daughter. My name is Alexia Munroe, and I’m your son’s girlfriend, not his sister.”
“You don’t believe me. But then, how could you after all this time?”
“Dad, please,” Ethan begged, but the guy was stubborn. He pushed Ethan away and took his wallet from his back pocket.
“I can prove it to you,” he said. I figured it would be best to indulge him for now, until Ethan could calm him down.
He opened his wallet, pulled a folded piece of paper from it and handed it to me. I looked up at Ethan. He sent me an apologetic smile, which I replied to by mouthing that it was okay. I unfolded the piece of paper and got another surprise as I stared at a picture of myself that I didn’t remember posing for.
Ethan, noticing my reaction, pulled the picture from my hand. His eyes widened as he looked at it. Then he glanced up at his father again. “Dad, why do you have a picture of Alexia in your wallet?”
“I didn’t. The woman in the picture is not Rori, son. It’s your mother.”
Samantha
Durgin’s assurances that Matthew was fine did nothing to calm my nerves or stop me from glancing out the window now and then. It had been almost two hours since we’d returned to La Maison Falafel. Two hours since a flaming building had collapsed on top of Matthew. Two hours that I had been trying to reach his mind and finding only emptiness.
“He should be back by now. Why hasn’t he called us?” I asked for the thousandth time to nobody in particular.
My cousins and sister were all in a state of numbness, either recovering from the effects of the Lotus Dust, or recovering from the ordeal itself, in Zach’s case. Zach had inhaled a lot of the toxic smoke. If he had been an Earthling, he wouldn’t have survived.
Lucas wasn’t present. He had gone home to let his parents know he was okay. That had been a surprise. Why would an Arcadian operative need or have parents on Earth? There was so much about Lucas that we didn’t know. It was baffling that we had taken him into our fold no-questions-asked.
“I’m more concerned about Alexia at the moment,” Gary said. “I specifically asked Ethan to bring her home immediately.”
“He had to stop by his house. His dad needed to see for himself that Ethan was okay,” Zach replied. His voice was raspy from breathing in all that smoke.
He had showered and his hair was still damp, but being clean hadn’t lifted his spirits one bit. He still felt incredibly guilty that he hadn’t been able to use his powers to stop the fire. I didn’t need to peer inside his head to know that much. It was written all over his face.
“Regardless. Things have gone beyond our control. Myserians attacking en mass at your school? That’s preposterous!” Gary exclaimed in a rare loss of composure.
“Don’t worry. We're telling Alexia the truth. If we have to move everyone to Arcadia for the time being to ensure the Promised Ones' safety, we will,” Durgin said solemnly.
I heard footsteps outside and ran to open the main door, thinking that Matthew had finally returned. Instead it was Alexia. She passed me by in a rush, not even bothering to ask me if I was okay. She was still covered in soot and her hair was in complete disarray.
She went straight to Gary and stopped just a few inches in front of him. “I want to speak with my father. I’ve been trying to reach his cell phone, but it goes straight to voicemail.”
“Alexia, dear, I called your father, and he’s on his way here. He knows you’re fine,” Gary replied reassuringly.
Alexia was shaking visibly. I was afraid to know the cause of her obvious distress.
“Fine! You'll do, then. Who are my real parents?” She shouted. Her hands were clenched close by her side. Gary couldn’t keep the surprise from his face, and it took him a few seconds to muster a reply.
“I beg your pardon?”
“I’ll repeat. Who are my real parents? And don’t give me some bullshit explanation, because I know your brother is not my real father. Was he even married in the first place?”
We all stood there as Gary tried to figure out what to tell Alexia. He finally decided to go with the truth. “How did you find out?”
Alexia’s seemed deflated by Gary’s admission. Maybe she had been hoping that he would come up with a pl
ausible explanation. Anything would have been better than realizing she had been lied to her whole life. But the question still remained: how had she found out the truth?
“So it’s true, then. How could he? How could you?” Her voice broke into a sob. “Did you know that my real father is still alive? Did you know that I have a real family that has missed me all this time, and that they were left broken-hearted when they were told I was dead like my real mother?”
“Alexia, I…” Gary started to interrupt, but she wouldn’t have it.
“Did Larry know all that, and he still took me away?” she shouted louder. “Answer me!”
“Yes,” Gary quietly admitted.
I thought, What the hell? He stole Alexia from her real family? Why? This was worse than my wildest nightmares. How could they?
Alexia took several steps back. Her hands rested on her stomach as if she was in extreme pain.
“So you’re aware then that I have fallen in love with my own brother?”
“What?” Zach and I shouted at the same time. I was glad the others were still dazed and confused. Otherwise the mayhem would have been unimaginable.
Alexia turned to look at me and Zach, bloodshot eyes and all. “My real father is Mr. Lancaster. Ethan’s father. Which means -” She couldn’t finish her sentence. She started to cry in earnest. I walked over and pulled her in for a hug. She came willingly. I looked over Alexia’s shoulder, and my gaze locked with Durgin’s. His deep-purple colored eyes seemed to be glowing with I-don’t-know-what. Anger? Compassion? I couldn’t tell.
He took a step toward us and said, “Ethan is not your brother, Alexia.”
She froze in my arms before she turned to face him. “What?”
“Ethan is not your brother. He’s adopted.”
Alexia shook her head. “No. He would have told me if he was adopted. He wouldn’t have looked at me the way he did if he knew we didn’t share the same blood.”
