by Navi' Robins
“Aiden, I’m talking to you! What did she do to who?”
“Nobody, Tony.”
“Naw, bro, it sounded like you were going to say ‘what she did to Sarah.’”
“What? C’mon, look at my sister. Does she look like she’s had something done to her?”
“Uh, yeah? She hasn’t been the same since that night.”
“Who would if someone you trusted was trying to kill you? That’s all Tony, she’s just trying to move on like the rest of us.”
“Dude, why are you lying to me? Not cool Aiden, not cool at all.”
“I’m not lying to you!”
“Okay, you know what, I’m going to go back inside now because I don’t want you to keep lying to my face anymore. It’s bogus and it’s getting me upset and I got two beautiful seniors in there who can’t wait to use and abuse me. So I’m going to leave you here, okay? Handle that, though. Get it together, dude. We don’t need your and Jasmine’s kind of arguments or fights here tonight. Some of us are actually having fun.”
Tony then quickly walked past me but not before running into my shoulder. Tony was furious about me not telling him the truth and I felt bad about it, but I made a promise to Sarah and I wasn’t going to break it. Sarah was already having trust issues after Jason and I wasn’t going to be someone else close to her that would abuse her trust again. But the nerve of Tony to say I was attracted to Jasmine. I didn’t know where he pulled that craziness from but the last thing I wanted to do was kiss her. What I wanted to do was on the other side of the spectrum of affection and it wasn’t romantic or nice. Brian had no idea the type of danger he was in and as much as I wanted to warn him I decided that I would just let him experience her evil all on his own. I still didn’t understand my reaction but I did understand that I needed to get Sarah out of here and fast before she relived that night all over again.
I slowly walked back to the ballroom and looked around for Sarah. I didn’t see her on the dance floor nor at one of the tables sitting down. I saw Peter standing by the punch table and I walked over to him to find out where she went.
“Hey, Peter, where is Sarah?”
“I don’t know. She just ran out of here as soon as Jasmine came in. She seemed really upset but she wouldn’t tell me why.”
“Which way did she go?”
Peter pointed towards the hallway I had just come from and fear began to pulsate through my body.
Sarah couldn’t have gone out that door because I would have seen her or she would have definitely walked over to me. We both knew that once Jasmine got there it was time for both of us to call it a night. I looked around again and saw Brian standing alone on the far side of the room.
I quickly ran over to ask him if he’d seen Sarah.
“Yeah, I saw her,” he answered. “She walked out with Jasmine about ten minutes ago.”
“With Jasmine? Why?”
“I don’t know; they just left me standing here.”
“Which way did they go?”
“Out the front entrance, I think. When you see Jasmine, ask her if she wants something to drink—for me?”
“Brian, after tonight I don’t think Jasmine will be needing anything else to drink.”
“Huh? What’s that supposed to mean?”
“Never mind”
“Hey wait, Aiden. I know you think I was bogus for asking Jasmine out, but dude she’s fine, I couldn’t help it.”
“Brian, it’s cool. I just need to find my sister. I’ll talk to you later.”
I ran out the front entrance to look for Sarah and Jasmine. If anything has happened to my sister, Brian can believe he will pay for it dearly and Jasmine has crossed my family for the last time. I don’t care about how many of them there are. I will exterminate each and every one of them if one hair on Sarah’s head is out of place. Outside I asked the valet if he’d seen Sarah and Jasmine and he pointed me towards the side parking lot that was right next to a small park. I ran towards the parking lot hoping I wasn’t too late and the Shadows hadn’t taken my sister hostage or worse. I ran as fast as I could towards the side of the hotel.
I shouldn’t have left Sarah alone!
I ran around the parking lot calling out for Sarah, but there was no answer. Then I glanced over towards the park and saw two figures standing face-to-face in the darkness. I could make out Jasmine’s silhouette quite easily, I could pick out that insane hour glass figure with my eyes closed, I thought. I ran towards them to see Jasmine placing her hand on Sarah’s forehead. Sarah seemed to be in some kind of trance and she wasn’t moving at all. She was just standing there with her eyes closed.
“Don’t you touch her! Get away from her!”
Jasmine turned to me exposing “the smirk,” and then darkness began to surround me and I knew she was casting the darkness curse on me. When Jasmine first cast this curse on me, I was unaware and unprepared; but tonight I was prepared and just like Jaffrey did balling up the alternate reality like a piece of paper, I did the same to the dark reality that was surrounding me. My quick response to Jasmine’s curse caught her off guard and wiped that smirk completely off her face as she took a step back with a look of surprise and fear.
She then tried to cast the curse again and I crumpled it up again and ran towards her as fast as I could. She kept casting the curse and as I ran, I quickly balled up the darkness and threw it to the side of me like balls of paper thrown to the floor. I then made a car from the parking lot appear right above her head. Jasmine looked up at the car right before it came crashing down. But before it could crush her she smiled and took control of it and threw it in my direction.
Her quick response surprised me and I wasn’t expecting to see the same car hurling towards me, so I teleported myself out of the path of the car and appeared right behind Jasmine just before it came thundering down into the ground sending a cloud of dirt and grass into the air. I grabbed her hair from behind and slammed her onto her back. She yelled out as the force of the ground sent shockwaves of pain through her body. I then changed the density of the skin and bones in my arm and fist, similar to hardened steel, and prepared to punch a hole straight through Jasmine’s chest as she lay on the ground grimacing in pain.
Her eyes widened as she saw my fist cutting through the air towards her chest and she quickly shifted away from my oncoming blow. The force of her movement knocked me off my feet. The ground was not kind to me when my body fell and the impact forced the wind out of my lungs.
As much as I wanted to lie there, I couldn’t because I knew Jasmine was going to try and attack while I was down and my assumptions were correct. The same car that she hurled at me was now hovering over me and in a fraction of a second would come down on top of me. Any normal person would have just chalked this one up in the loss column but not me. I wasn’t normal and Jasmine wasn’t aware of what I was capable of. I quickly teleported Jasmine inside the car and much to my delight and her surprise she wasn’t expecting that. I then sent the car zooming upwards into the sky and when I thought it was high enough I sent in speeding down towards the earth. I could hear her screaming and fighting trying to get the car doors open; which I conveniently sealed tight. She then tried to break the glass as a last resort. Too bad I made them unbreakable as well. She was trapped and before she could figure it out the car and the ground was reunited.
The impact of the car hitting the ground caused several car alarms in the parking lot to go off. The sound of the impact was like a bomb detonating and I could hear screams coming from inside the hotel. I walked over to the car to gloat in my victory, smiling to myself at what I had accomplished. No one would ever hurt Sarah, not while I drew breath. No matter how beautiful or sexy the assailant may be; they would face a brutal demise if they decided to go after Sarah to get to me. But my victory was short lived because to my surprise and disappointment the car was empty.
“Very clever, Aiden,” I heard Jasmine say behind me. “I wasn’t expecting that at all. You’ve been trained very
well to control your abilities. But so have I and I’m not easily beaten.”
I turned around to face her, but she wasn’t there.
“Just like you, I am different, I am not like other Shadows.”
This time her voice was coming from above me as if she was flying but when I looked up no one was there. During my training with Jaffrey he warned me about the Shadows’ ability to be in multiple places at once. He said it was a cheap trick to get their prey to concentrate on the sound of their voice and not the sound of their movements. I closed my eyes and listened. Her voice was everywhere now, surrounding me like a tornado spinning faster and faster. I kept listening for movement and tuned out the sound of her voice. Then I heard her move by a tree that was no more than three feet behind me and I quickly harnessed electricity and sent a bolt of electrical energy in her direction. I heard her scream as the electricity struck her body, throwing her to the ground. I opened my eyes and saw her lying on the ground, smoke coming off of her body as she moaned in pain trying to get up.
She was different. The other Shadows I’d faced were easily killed by such a shock of electricity, but not Jasmine. I could tell she was in a lot of pain but she wasn’t dead and the only thing that was physically damaged was her dress. I thought the smoke was coming off of her skin but it was coming off of her burning dress. Before she could get up I used telekinesis to lift her body from the ground and forcefully slammed her against the tree behind her. I made sure she couldn’t move by using my powers to keep her bonded to the tree. She struggled, but eventually she discovered she wasn’t going anywhere…well, maybe hell, but she wasn’t going anywhere until I sent her there. I slowly walked over to the tree but not before glancing over my shoulder to see where Sarah was. She was now on her knees, weeping with her hands covering her face. Seeing Sarah like that only multiplied my murderous rage towards Jasmine and I quickened my pace towards her to end this once and for all.
“Before I end you, tell me—what did you do to my sister?”
Jasmine was in terrible pain and I could tell it was hard for her to speak clearly but she cleared her throat so that she could speak.
I saved her life, that’s what I did.” Jasmine’s response infuriated me even more.
“What!? Are you insane? Look at my sister, look at her! How is that saving her life?”
“Listen Aiden, I know you have no reason to trust me because of what I am. But I am telling you the truth.”
“Or you could be trying to save your ass!”
“No Aiden, I knew who Jason really was and I wanted to warn your family. But the only way I could was to awaken Sarah’s abilities. Your family was marked for execution by the council and I couldn’t just let them murder all of you. Had I not awakened her abilities, she would have never been able to see Jason for what he really was and he would have killed all of you in your sleep. I tried to warn her but she wouldn’t listen, so my only option was to awaken her ability.”
“Oh, so now I’m supposed to believe that a Shadow wants to help a family of Baraqu, right?”
“Believe what you want, but it’s the truth.”
“So what were you doing now? Saving us again? Look at her—she’s a wreck.”
“No Aiden, those are not tears of pain but tears of joy. I gave her more control over her ability, more confidence. I didn’t have time to complete the awakening with her because I heard someone coming when we fought at the school and I couldn’t risk it being another Shadow. Do you know what would happened to me and my family if they found out I was trying to help your family?”
“Hmm let me guess, what I’m about to do to your lying ass right now?!”
“Precisely, Aiden.”
“So I guess the darkness curse you were putting on me was a life-saving technique?”
“No, Aiden, I was protecting myself.”
“How is that?”
“You are Baraqu and I didn’t know you weren’t aware of your abilities. I misread you. Your aura is very powerful and it appeared you were a threat and I wasn’t sure what you were going to do to me! You were staring at me pretty hard!”
“It wasn’t because of that! I was clueless about all of this!”
“So why were you staring then? Oh, okay I see.” Jasmine chuckled. “Boys!” she said rolling her eyes. Her revelation about why I was staring at her made me blush and I turned away for a split second.
“Listen, Baraqu stud…you won and I can see that you are a killer and ready to end my life, so let’s get it over with because this tree bark against my back is pretty uncomfortable.”
“For someone about to die you are pretty coy about it.”
“Everyone and everything dies Aiden, we can’t escape it, and if I am to die here telling you the truth then so be it. But I’m not going to beg you.”
Her arrogance was astonishing; even in the face of death she was still defiant.
“Well, have it your way Jasmine.”
I began to ready myself to send a bolt of lightning through her body while Jasmine looked towards the sky waiting for the final blow, and then I felt someone reach for my arm and pull me away from the tree. It was Sarah, and when I looked in her eyes I saw compassion in them. Compassion for this evil I was about to destroy.
“No, Aiden, this is wrong. She is telling you the truth, she did help me, and she helped us.”
What? I quickly turned to Jasmine and demanded to know what kind of mind control did she have over my sister.
“Aiden stop! Stop it now! I am not under any mind control, my abilities make that impossible. She just completed the awakening in me. When she initially did it she wasn’t done, so I wasn’t completely awakened and my abilities were uncontrollable and inconsistent. Now that it’s completed I can turn it on and off anytime. Let her go!”
“I can’t, Sarah, I just can’t. I’m sorry but this is for your own safety. I can’t bring myself to trust a Shadow. Not after what Jason did to us.”
“No Aiden, you won’t. You won’t even try.”
I walked over to the tree and looked Jasmine in the eyes.
“Whatever you did to my sister, it doesn’t work on me.”
Jasmine began crying and wouldn’t look at me.
“Just do it please, you are making this harder for me.”
“Harder for you? I thought you were ready to die.”
“No, I said everything and everyone dies and I wasn’t going to beg you.”
“So why are you crying?”
“None of your business Aiden, you don’t believe a word I’m saying anyway. Remember I’m evil, I’m a Shadow,” Jasmine mocked.
I could hear Sarah pleading with me not to kill Jasmine. I couldn’t bring myself to listen to her. She was young and naive; she had no idea what these things were capable of. She didn’t see what I saw in Jason, she didn’t see what I saw in Spain.
“I’m tired of talking. It’s time for you to die now.”
Jasmine looked at me with eyes filled with tears. I was expecting them to be tears of anger or sadness because her time had come, but they were tears of regret. Not the type of regret from bad things we do in life but regret from something unrealized. Something she wanted so much that was being taken from her on this night by my hands. I placed my hands around her wrists so that she wouldn’t try and get away while I sent thousands of kilowatts of electricity through my body into hers. I wasn’t taking any chances; Jasmine was right, she was different, and Jaffrey warned me that she was uncannily powerful. Sarah began screaming behind me, pleading for me not to do it, but I wasn’t listening. I looked into Jasmines eyes one last time. This time she looked directly in mine and what I saw in her eyes wasn’t regret, sorrow, or anger. It was something completely different and then she did something that changed our lives forever…
CHAPTER TWENTY TWO
I felt an electrical charge run through my body from my toes to my hair follicles. It was warm and felt like I was walking on air. This wasn’t the electricity I was planning on usi
ng to kill Jasmine. This was something else. I was in a trance and it felt like time was standing still and then I realized what was happening. Jasmine had kissed me and I was kissing her back.
When I opened my eyes I discovered that Jasmine and I were floating about fifteen feet above the ground. I looked down at Sarah and she had the biggest smile on her tear-drenched face. I looked at Jasmine and she was also smiling and crying. I didn’t understand what was happening to me. Jasmine was my enemy, her kind had taken my father from me, sent a man to our home who shared our mother’s bed and used his powers against us so that he could kill us. Jasmine was a Shadow and my enemy but here floating above the earth on prom night I’d just discovered that I was madly in love with her and what was more surprising was that she felt the same.
Yes, I called it madly in love because we both had to be out of our freaking minds to even let something like this occur. The dangers and ramifications of our love could rock the very foundations of the realm. This wasn’t supposed to be. This was impossible, but sometimes the only logical answer is the impossible. Jasmine smiled at me seeing the confusion on my face. I looked at her and she nodded in agreement with me. Yes, she too thought this was crazy, but here we were.
Back on the ground I sat down on the grass in complete confusion. What just happened? Jasmine sat next to me and held my hand and placed it on her chest over her heart. With my hands that close to her…cough…you know…I damn near fainted.
“This is what drives my actions Aiden, not my heritage or what I am.”
“But if that’s true then why did you do all that crazy stuff to me? The football games, tryouts, the lunchroom?”
“Aiden, as powerful as I am, I am still a teenage girl and sometimes we do dumb things. I wish I could explain it further. But after our first contact in the lunchroom I realized you weren’t aware because of how it affected you, but then again being a teenage girl who liked a boy that didn’t like her I decided to mess with you. Yes, it was mean and I am very sorry, but I’ve wanted to kiss you since that day in the lunchroom. I figured that since you weren’t aware maybe you could love me too. But when I saw Jason with your family at the games I knew that sooner or later you would be aware and would hate me. But to experience what we just did tonight, almost killing each other and then this; even though we both are aware of what we are and the history behind who we are, is a miracle.”
