Preternatural (Worlds & Secrets)

by Lloyd Harry-Davis

  “Oh no!” she muttered under her breath, clearly upset.

  “I’ll be right back, A.J.,” Anne said as she strode over to Jade.

  “What happened?”

  “I don’t know, maybe it was the teleporting process. Maybe it altered my physical appearance. It was like this at home when we were all of a sudden changing, then mum cut it, then it became even longer, and then grew to its original state again. And now – it’s still the same but…” Jade sighed hopelessly.

  “Well, maybe we can do something about it. I have those long hair sticks if you would like to use them for school? Maybe you could put your hair in an up-do?” Anne comforted.

  “And you won’t mind me using them?” Jade asked.

  “Don’t worry, I have plenty of them.”

  “Yes, please. I’d appreciate it,” she replied, looking relieved and much happier. Anne smiled at her then disappeared, leaving her usual familiar trace to float in the air before dissolving into the atmosphere. She had gone to bring Jaden. Slowly, Jade walked over to me and rested her head on my shoulder tiringly.

  “It is unbelievable here,” she gasped as she finally looked at the landscape.

  “This is amazing!” she exclaimed again. Tantrus walked up to us and stood beside me.

  I walked closer to the edge of the mountain, stepping on a few rocks which crumbled down the steep slope. I stood there, feeling a gush of wind on my face. My blue hair rustled in the wind behind me.

  “Aden?” Jade called behind me.

  “Are you feeling all right?” she added through the gust. This was strange. It was still very sunny with hardly any clouds in sight, but the wind was tremendously strong. Whatever though, I had no time to think of that. I stepped back from the edge of the cliff, too captivated by the view.

  “Of course I’m all right. Why?” I asked.

  “Your hair’s sort of turned…white.” She stared at my hair but didn’t seem as shocked as you’d expect her to be, almost as if she were used to it. My eyebrows pressed together in bafflement.

  “What?” I asked for confirmation. Jade suddenly grew confused when I turned around to face her.

  “Your hair is white…and your eyes –” she walked closer to me “– your eyes, they’re blue, literally an aquamarine blue. They keep changing turquoise and back to light blue. It goes back and forth. It’s actually quite astounding,” she muttered, still scrutinising me. I was getting tired of this; first blue, then red and now white. I may have as well been a rainbow.

  I pulled my hair over my eyes and saw a thick lock of white, wavy hair. I looked back up at Jade, on the verge of approaching her to walk to the house, but suddenly a turbulent rush of wind tackled me. It was enough to make me fall off of the cliff. With unprecedented reflex actions, Jade swiftly caught me by my shirt. She held my collar but the wind kept pushing me as her hair viciously billowed behind her.

  “Why is there so much wind?” I yelled through the strong gusts.

  “What?” yelled Jade back at me.

  “I said, WHY IS THERE SO MUCH WIND?”

  “I – I’m not sure,” but Jade was cut off by my sudden lively stare behind her. An oak tree that was planted on the outline of the pathway tilted and began falling. She turned around, still grabbing a hold of me until she saw the collapsing alien tree. When she had turned around, it was inches away from squashing her flat. Before she had the time to react, her purple eyes shone.

  As if time had stopped, the tree suspended midway of crushing Jade and remained frozen there as the tips of her long hair began to hang in the still air. The tips and branches of all trees around us were shooting up towards the sky as if a magnet was hovering above them. She subconsciously let go of my collar, but I wasn’t in control of myself. I was slowly held in suspended motion in the air as Jade stared at the hovering tree in front of her. The earth beneath my feat cracked and both large and small fragments of earth began floating their ways into the air, simply as if there was no gravity. The raging wind was now gone completely. I didn’t know if Jade was doing all this, but I was slowly drifting off the top of the hill.

  “Jade,” I gently called out. But she didn’t seem to have heard me. I slowly moved away from the cliff whilst floating like a helpless leaf in the wind. I don’t think she noticed what she was doing – specks of soil, along with rocks and other objects seemed to slowly levitate around her, higher into the atmosphere.

  “Jade!” Tantrus called out. Jade inhaled sharply and blinked succinctly. The tilting tree slammed to the ground next to her, her hair dropped, her glowing purple eyes dimmed, the rocks dropped, the soil floated back to the ground…and I fell. I yelled out to Jade as I instantly began plummeting like an anchor.

  “Aden!” I could hear my sister screaming as I rapidly dropped.

  Tantrus came running over to the edge of the mountain. They could no longer see me. Behind Tantrus and Jade, Anne had appeared with Jaden. They walked over at their own pace, unaware of what had just happened.

  “What’s wrong?” asked Anne through the settling wind.

  “Aden fell!” Jade retorted. Jaden’s eyes widened in fear.

  I could see the ground growing closer to me. My heart grew heavy and in one thump, I hovered above the ground as I was just about to hit rock-bottom face first. My hands were suspended next to me as my body was kept motionless a few inches from the ground – so close that a grass brushed the tip of my nose. As soon as I thought things had stopped, the wind surged up again and I was sent flying up forcefully like a deflated balloon. I had air pushing against my face with my white hair streaming downwards. I was getting closer to the house again, but to my dismay, I was rushed past the cliff – far too high up.

  “Oh no, no, no; that’s too high!” I mumbled to myself in distress. As I surged higher – leaving Jade, Jaden, Tantrus and Anne to look up at me in worry and surprise – Tammy and Robbie both gazed up at me as they stepped through the wormhole.

  “Oh my goodness, what happened?” Tammy asked with her hair flying behind her. There was an enormous gale encircling me that caused my teeth to chatter. I had gone far too high up, staring down at the mountain top with the house perched atop it.

  “The wind is settling,” Tammy said, distraught.

  “About bloody time!” Robbie muttered to himself.

  “That means he’ll fall, you idiot!” Tammy retorted, under the impression that I would go crashing to my gruesome death at any moment.

  “Can’t we do anything?” Jojo asked nervously. The wind gradually stopped and I was slowly descending before my plummeting would recommence. Jade took in a sharp and brief breath of air.

  “You can teleport up to catch him,” Jade suggested.

  “No, as soon as I attempt to catch him the wind will blow me back,” Jojo answered.

  “Dad, it’s him. He’s doing this. You’ve got to tell him,” Jojo said.

  “No chance,” Tantrus responded with a scoff. Jojo sighed exasperatedly and turned back to face me, metres up above her and the others. I suddenly dropped and before I knew it I had shut my eyes. The wind had stopped so the only gust I would feel would be from me falling. I slowly took a peek – everything seemed to have stopped. Was this a time stop? Was it Jojo, Tantrus or Anne? I looked next to me and saw Jade with her hand outstretched and her eyes opened in bewilderment.

  “I would have done it if you wanted,” Tammy said calmly.

  “I don’t know how to let go,” Jade said uneasily.

  “Pull me in, pull me in,” I continuously repeated quietly. I couldn’t bear to fall again, so I attempted to not jog Jade’s concentration.

  “This is so awesome,” Jaden commented undertone. Jade’s eyes were bursting with violet rays of light.

  “Okay, now try and – you know, bring him forward,” Anne said, guiding my sister. Jade was ever so carefully pulling me towards the mountain cautiously as she reeled her hands in.

  “That’s it just –” Anne was suddenly interrupted as I was sent fl
ying over her head – Jade had concentrated too hard. I was about to fall head first against the concrete path leading to the house, until a series of vines whipped and snapped their way out of the ground. They rushed up to me like pouncing snakes and cocooned my upside down body, keeping me suspended in mid-air. My hair was tilted over my head, and my face slowly began to darken to red as blood rushed to my head. Everybody else rushed to me and stared at my face, which, from its colour, looked very much like a swollen plum.

  “Your hair’s brown again!” Jaden exclaimed.

  “And your eyes are so green! They’re like emeralds,” Jade added. I had air trapped in my lungs as my blood hurriedly raced to my head. Finally, I exhaled with a deep breath. As I did, my hair quickly coloured itself blue again and so did my eyes. The vines retracted themselves back into the earth and I fell to the ground.

  I turned my head and looked at the baffled crowd gathered around me.

  “Robbie?” I asked in wonder, finding difficulty in breathing normally.

  “That wasn’t me,” he said. Jade crouched near me and her hair dangled on my face.

  “Urgh, get it off!” I muffled as I tried to spit out the strands of hair touching my mouth and tongue disgustingly.

  “Oh, sorry.” She tucked her hair behind her ears.

  “Are you okay? Sorry, I went a bit out of control there.”

  I groaned and inhaled. The damage wasn’t brutal. I slowly struggled to get up, but once on my feet, I felt better.

  “I’m fine,” I said calmly.

  Jade stood a couple paces away from Anne and Tantrus when Anne leaned over to her husband.

  “His powers can’t handle this anymore,” she whispered to him harshly. “His fascination and excitement for Vernaesce is provoking his abilities to surface earlier than we thought; it is a matter of time before they are totally revealed. Or have you forgotten that he’s standing on ancient ground? Of course his powers are going to try and come out – they recognise their planet, Tantrus!” he grinned guiltily.

  Jade stood there, disordered and lost, as voices ran haywire through her head, but one word was more audible than the entire clamour: Totakinetic. She needn’t look up the meaning. Jade just knew.

  “A.J., I know your ability,” she yelled excitedly as she ran over to me. I looked back at her with a whip of my neck. Without thinking, I jumped to her swiftly, hopping at least a whole four metres across the grounds and landing steadily.

  “What is it?” I asked, practically pouncing on her.

  “You’re a Tot–”

  “Jade, don’t!” exclaimed Tantrus. Anne hid her face behind her hand and shook her head disapprovingly. Jade looked back and saw Tantrus staring at her with wide open eyes and moving his hand across his neck, vigorously telling her to cut her sentence. I looked at them in disappointment.

  “Aw, come on! They get to know their ability. It’s a bit unfair, don’t you think?” I said. I was so desperate to know what I could do. I just found this unbelievable of the adults. Eagerness had left me. It was jealousy I was feeling now. I was aching to know what it was. Who wouldn’t want to be able to mindlessly try and attempt to control certain things? Incidentally, the sky began darkening into grey as rainclouds rolled in. Anne and Tantrus looked up and back down at Jade and me, letting out a sigh of surrender. Tammy, Robbie, Jaden and Jojo walked over to us supportively.

  “Are you sure you can’t just tell him?” Jojo asked defensively. Anne looked up at Tantrus and raised an eyebrow at him. Tantrus returned her gaze, looking perplexed.

  “What?” Tantrus asked, lost.

  “It was your idea,” Anne said.

  “Really, Tantrus! I mean, really! It was your idea to keep me in the dark about my kinetic ability,” I jested overdramatically.

  “Your father and I were like brothers and I had the perception that you would have the same ability. You know, hybrid parents, three kids – one of them is bound to adapt a parent trait,” Tantrus defended. The interrogating made him uneasy. He sort of raised his voice defensively when he tried to convince us otherwise. We crossed our arms and looked at him piercingly.

  “You’re not fooling anyone, dad,” Jojo stated. Tantrus inflated his cheeks and exhaled.

  “Fine, you’re a Totakinetic,” Tantrus said disappointedly. I squeezed my eyebrows in non-comprehension at him.

  “Elemental manipulation,” he said plainly afterwards. I smiled widely out of excitement, but my smile turned upside down and my eyebrows remained furrowed.

  “Well, how lame!” I complained.

  “You don’t get it, do you? You’re a hybrid; you get to control all four elements. Everyone else can just control one,” Anne answered. I was left to ponder on my ability and the things I would possible be able to do as Anne walked up three stone steps to face the door. The double doors were colossal compared to us. They were a creamy magnolia like the walls, had Celtic patterns engraved on them and had rare, glistening, sleek chrome handles – but something just occurred to me that I had not noticed: there was no division in the doors to make them open. It was actually just a wall with two handles, which didn’t make any sense.

  “What the hell is this?” Jaden asked, bizarrely looking and feeling insulted as we were made to look at the wall with handles. Anne grinned.

  “Just wait,” she replied. I noticed that underneath the two handles, in between both of them, was a circular dent that was made in the magnolia-painted wooden wall – it couldn’t have been a door. When I looked up, I noticed that the wall we were facing was at least five metres high. But this had to be the entrance; there was nothing else. The dent beneath the entrance was a ring not bigger than a jam jar’s lid, but its circumference was quite thick.

  Anne lifted her right wrist delicately and spirals of green embers formed around it instantly. They solidified to form a sleek, smooth, silver bangle that was the same thickness as the ring in the door. She removed it delicately and slowly placed it inside the dent. It fitted perfectly like a puzzle and Anne let go as we stood back and observed in awe. The silver, perfectly-circular bangle was absorbed into the dent with a set of mechanical clicks as it rotated its way in. We treaded further back to get a better view of the wall-like entrance to this magnolia palace.

  Louder series of mechanical clicks began to sound around the compound. Suddenly, as the bangle was further absorbed into the depths of this large wall (leaving behind it a hollow black ring), a set of straight-lined dents began to spread around the ring, similar to how the sun would be drawn by a child in a cartoonish manner. The long, straight-lined dents spread far across the wall to all the Celtic intricate spirals and interlocked with them. As the mechanical clicks and clunks progressed more hollowly, the straight-lined dents that had intertwined with the patterns retracted to the centre of the then hollow ring and in the process, pulled the patterns with them smoothly. The patterns moved fluidly and suddenly aligned in the middle of the wall, elongating to one, long and thick hollow stripe. The stripe seeped into the wall and entrenched itself, forming a division in the entrance we faced. With a loud, echoing, reverberating knock, the stripe became a gap and the freshly-made doors glided open – magnificently.

  “Oh – my – goodness,” Jade muttered.

  “Key,” Anne simply stated with an outstretched hand. The bangle in the door flew out of the dent and floated back to wrap itself around her wrist. She then waved her hand over it and it defragmented into a series of emerald green pixelated pieces and disappeared.

  “I teleport it to somewhere safe – just in case,” she said with a light smile.

  The only assumption I got from this…well, was that we were rich. I had no idea what kind of paying job Tantrus, Anne and mum had – but it must have been extremely revered and important. My eyes glistened; I almost started tearing up. My jaw was aching more now, on the verge of unhinging, as my mouth stayed dropped in awe. Jaden, Jade and I subconsciously huddled together and interlocked arms in amazement as we faced the enchanting building in
front of us.

  A smile brightened my somewhat dim face. The three of us climbed the steps after Anne and everybody else followed. Robbie, Tammy and Jojo all seemed unmoved by the fact that they had a house that looked like the pearly gates. We three siblings entered, still pressed to each other with our arms still knitted together. In front of us all, was a wide, long, white marble staircase with gold railings that climbed upstairs in a straight ascent as if it was a ladder to heaven. The corridors upstairs led both left and right and was decorated entirely with minimalist sculptures and paintings.

  On my left was the sitting room and it had no door leading into it; there was a wide arch dividing it from the hall. The living room was immensely wide and contemporary, playing with shades of white, black and dark brown wood. There was a large flat screen, 3D television that hung on the wall and a stand underneath it, stacked with TV guides and remote controls. There was a vast collection of DVDs packed inside a small glass shelf beside it. Two, white, chalky columns were placed on the left and right sides of the living room arch entrance. On my right was a long open dining hall. The only door in the room was at the back and it most probably led to the kitchen. The dining room was equally contemporary.

  Robbie and Jojo ran up the long staircase hurriedly; Robbie departing to the left and Jojo to the right.

  “May I?” Tantrus offered Jaden and me to carry our luggage. Jade eagerly held her belongings, so awestruck by what surrounded us.

  “Follow me to your room,” Tantrus enthusiastically commanded.

  “Room? You mean us three have to share –”

  “Actually, the boys share a room and the girls share another,” Tantrus interrupted as we ascended the resplendent and dazzling flight of stairs. Anne lightly tapped Jade on the shoulder and hinted to come with her by soft hand gestures. They diverted to the right as Tantrus, Jaden and I took to the left.