by Kim Cormack
Intrigued, Kayn asked, “How do you know my name?”
“Haley’s an intuitionist.” The girl answered. “That is sort of like an Oracle, but she doesn't see it, she feels it. The walls in this place have been buzzing about you. You, my girl, have been foretold to be big deal.”
Kayn attempted to smile. If this girl that had been stuck in here for lord knows how long was still capable of smiling, Kayn had better suck it up and return it.
Astrid burst into a giant grin as she declared, “Welcome back to the land of the living.”
As Kayn rose to her feet, in her head, she could have sworn she heard Winnie cheering. Winnie couldn't see what was going on in here...could she? Kayn asked, “You really know the way out of this hell hole?”
Astrid replied, “I know where the Amber room is but we need to find the rest of the clan first.”
Sufficiently convinced, she began following Astrid through the labyrinth of gliding walls. Kayn understood the rules of this place. Whatever her darkest thoughts conjured up, would pale in comparison to the Testing’s interpretation of her fears. With an imagination as strong as hers, it was difficult to stop her thoughts before they surfaced, providing ammunition for this depraved game of phobias. She pictured them all stuck in actual amber as though they were nothing but ants preserved in tree sap. She immediately shut the image down. A shiver of adrenaline coursed through her veins as her mind reeled through visions of what she’d already gone through. Astrid opened the wall by asking it politely to move. She stepped into a long corridor and as Kayn followed her blindly, it occurred to her that she could be following a demon or a hallucination. The path began to snake around the corners. If she had to believe in something to bring her soul back from the edge of despair, why not this girl? Kayn took a breath and pursued her beacon of renewed hope.
Astrid closed her eyes and murmured, “Come on. Where are you guys?” She glanced down at the symbol on her hand, raised it to her lips and kissed it while saying, “Be forewarned, if we get to the Amber room and I find out we’re the last clan through again, I will lose my shit and it will be epic.”
Kayn looked down at her palm. Her heart warmed a touch further. Zach and Melody were close by. She could feel it in her soul. Kayn’s bond to them began responding to the magnetic pull. She led Astrid down countless twists and turns until they reached a dead end. They were there on the other side of the wall. Kayn was certain. She felt an instinctual pull, prompting her actions, very much like the feeling she’d had when she needed to touch the carvings on the wall of the Ankh crypt back in the land of the living. Could she resist the urge to touch the wall and use her ability? She lifted it and hovered it a foot from the wall. She opted out of saying the words aloud and thought them, Open for us... Please. Help us find the others. The wall stood solidly defiant against her internal pleas. Finding her temper difficult to restrain, Kayn curtly spoke aloud, “Open for us! Help us find the others!”
Astrid kindly repeated Kayn’s words while laying her palm against the wall, “Open for us. Please.”
It stood solidly in their path, denying their request with silence. They both leaned against it, slid down and sat on the floor. With her back touching the wall without intention, nothing magical happened. Kayn glanced at Astrid and said, “Are you real? Just tell me you’re real. I think I may be beginning to lose my mind.”
Astrid leaned over, pinched Kayn’s arm and teased, “Do I feel real to you?”
Kayn smiled and rebutted, “It is pretty convincing.” As they sat there against the wall, feeling defeated. Kayn added, “I can feel them. They’re right there on the other side of this wall.” Her mind wasn’t playing along with her survival plans anymore. She knew there was something she should do, but she couldn’t remember what that was. She just needed to close her eyes and relax them for a while. Her eyelids grew heavy. She felt her nerves begin to calm as her pulse slowed to a gentle whooshing sound in the isolating quiet. Her mind too exhausted to keep operating.
Astrid elbowed her, she opened her eyes as the tall blonde stranger ordered, “No sleeping Kayn. I know this is all too much and you don’t understand how your gift operates yet but I heard your Enlightening. Haley was able to find you, emotionally attach to you and track you because of it. I understand you probably don’t know how to operate your abilities yet but from what I understand a Conduit is supposed to be able to absorb and transport magical energy. It sounds like a pretty cool ability to have. If you need energy, take some. You should be able to take energy from all that is magic.”
Kayn struggled to her feet. That actually made sense. Leave it to a stranger to explain what she was with absolute clarity.
She looked at Astrid and made an attempt to explain her predicament, “I’m afraid to. I did some messed-up stuff after my Enlightening started. I blew someone up. There was a huge mess. It was a tiny bit traumatizing, to say the very least.”
“New abilities are always scary,” Astrid replied.
Kayn made another attempt to explain, “It wasn't my ability that scared me. It was the feeling. I enjoyed it too much. Every time I try to use it I lose myself in it.”
Astrid grinned and whispered, “It takes both the dark and the light.”
Kayn swallowed the fear of losing what was left of her as she rubbed her hands together and placed both of her palms flush against the wall. She felt them begin to heat up. The essence of the wall travelled up her arms and settled in her chest. She shivered as she pulled her hands away. This time she had more control. She began to pull her hands apart and a brilliant ball of energy formed between her fingertips.
Astrid’s eyes widened as she whispered, “Shit.”
Void of emotion, Kayn commanded, “Open up or I’ll blow this whole place back to hell where it belongs!”
The wall obediently ground open, revealing her trapped clan members. They’d obviously been held captive. Zach lay unresponsive on the floor. Melody leapt up and raced at Kayn. She froze when she saw the orb balanced in the palm of her hand. It was then that Melody noticed the tall girl with short hair. Mel grabbed her weapon and held it menacingly towards Astrid. Kayn, without thinking shifted the orb to one hand and touched Melody’s shoulder to let her know that Astrid was friend not foe. Melody crumpled into a ball on the floor. Whoops. She crouched beside her fallen clan. As Mel opened her eyes Kayn assured, “She’s not our enemy.”
Melody groaned while attempting to push her body up from the ground. She managed to get herself halfway when she stammered, “What did you just do to me? Who in the hell is she?”
Kayn felt her grasp on reality wavering again, “She’s a friend and I don’t have any idea what I did to you.”
Astrid stepped in and held out her hand offering to help Melody up. When Melody didn’t accept it, she said, “My name’s Astrid. To make a long story incredibly short, I’m Ankh. I’ve been stuck in here with my friend Haley for a long damn time. We haven’t gone completely insane because I have a happy place. We know how to get out of here.” Astrid held up her palm and showed Melody her symbol.
Mel took Astrid’s hand as she answered, “A happy place sounds incredible about now.”
“I guess you haven’t run into a girl that has pink shoulder length hair?” Astrid enquired.
Mel grinned as she replied, “Not yet, but I personally can’t wait to meet her.”
Astrid crouched down in front of Zach and said, “He’s pretty damn hot.” Zach began to moan and flail around. Astrid teased, “Quite obviously mentally disturbed, but pretty damn sexy.”
Melody sparred, “Aren’t all of the best ones?”
Astrid sighed, “Sad, but true. This may look a little bit gross but trust me.” She licked her fingers and placed them on Zach’s head. He stopped flailing around and grinned. She said, “Sexy Zach is now having a wonderful dream. Leave him for a few minutes before you attempt to wake him up. I need to find Haley. If you keep heading in this direction, you’ll come across sleep chambers. Wait for us
there. Please, don’t leave without us. I promise I won’t be long.”
They watched Astrid run away in the opposite direction.
As Kayn stood there watching Zach, her hands began shaking uncontrollably.
Melody noticed her volatile state and said, “Kayn, you have to release the energy you take. I can take it from you.”
“What if someone comes before Zach wakes up?” She replied.
Melody pointed out, “You’re visibly shaking.”
“I can last a little while longer,” Kayn responded over the humming of her amped up mind. She thought of what Astrid had told her about the Conduit ability. Had Frost known that Kevin had been ordered to kill her during the Testing? Had he been a part of the twisted little plan? She thought of Patrick pulling her from that room. He’d said, ‘Nothing is what it appears to be.’ Why had he helped her? She felt the need to explode subside just a little. She was over thinking everything.
Melody whispered, “You disappeared. Where did you go?”
Kayn concentrated on breathing as she replied, “Talking about it definitely won’t help me calm down. Let’s talk about Zach.”
“He hasn’t been fully conscious, not for any length of time,” Mel explained. “I’ve just been towing him around and playing dead whenever we bumped into anyone else. I’m not sure why but nothing bothers you if you’re already down. I’m not talking about just the other clans. Even the creatures walk away from you if you lie down and play dead.”
While actively ignoring the walls endless chatter, Kayn whispered, “One of the other clans must be slowly dwindling in numbers.” Maybe, it was them? “Do you really not hear the voices?”
Melody looked at Kayn and confessed, “It’s been getting harder to open my eyes and yes, I can hear the voices now. It’s more than that. I think an empath ability has been triggered within me. I can feel everything. I can hear them crying in the walls. The new addition to my abilities is on overdrive. The emotions are weakening me. A lot of the voices have succumbed to the darkness and rage within them. Some are rooting for us. Others are just so sad and lonely, it’s heartbreaking. Can you imagine what that would be like to be living, breathing beings, trapped in stone? Some of them just want to make our transition easier. Those are the ones that keep telling us to sleep. It’s not because they’re evil, it’s because they’re forgotten tragic souls that have lost all hope. They understand where we are in the game and what our odds are with only three. I don’t know how much more of this, I can take. I’m afraid the next time I die, I won’t come back again. I’m afraid I’ll just disappear into these walls.”
Kayn met her friend’s solemn expression as she confessed, “I was done when Astrid found me. I’ve been through a lot, but nothing like that. This last time, it was more than my spirit could handle. It was the strangest thing, I thought Astrid was Chloe.”
Mel reached over, took Kayn’s hand and assured, “When Zach wakes up, we’ll find the other two and follow them out.”
Kayn stared deeply into Mel’s eyes as she whispered, “I hope that’s true.”
“Maybe, if you take some of my empath ability it will help you stay with us?” Mel suggested as she reached out.
Kayn’s hands began heating up before she touched her and foreboding urged her to decline. She was hanging on by a thin thread. She calmly replied, “I won’t be able to stop myself and it would be counterproductive. I need to continue to evolve into what I’m meant to become.” They sat in silence. Anguish, despair and violation were key ingredients in the evolution of a warrior. She didn’t even want to allow herself to think the word but she knew what she was becoming. She felt the solid mass of strength and resolve as it swallowed up what remained of her heart.
Their deep conversation was interrupted as Zach groaned, “Well, that epically sucked.”
They were both instantly by his side as he struggled to stand. Zach placed his hand over his heart and complained, “It’s like someone lit my chest on fire.”
Kayn’s heart flickered as Mel and Zach embraced. She had the urge to join in. Would she attempt to take energy from him? The last thing she wanted to do was hurt him, after all he’d suffered through during his Enlightening. Kayn kept away from them as she changed the subject, “Do we ever have some cool news to share with you!”
Zach smiled and teased, “I could use some cool news.”
Kayn said, “We found two more Ankh girls in here. They’ve been in here for a really long time and they know the way out.”
“Hallucinations you mean,” he teased. “There’s no possible way to stay alive in here for any length of time.”
Melody was visibly excited as she replied, “They’re real and one of them has a happy place as a gift.” There was a brief pause in conversation as Melody added, “I realized that sounded completely insane as the words left my lips but it’s true, isn’t it Kayn?”
Kayn smiled because she could tell that Zach wasn’t buying it. She confirmed, “They are real.”
Zach strolled over, patted Melody on her shoulder and teased, “I understand that you girls believe they’re real and if you think they are, I can’t wait to meet our new imaginary friends.”
Kayn exclaimed, “We’re supposed to meet them at the sleep chambers.” The walls had shifted their position. Kayn glanced at Melody. This was going to complicate things.
“Well, what direction did they say the chambers were in?” Zach questioned.
She slowly spun around, scrutinizing her surroundings as she commented, “I’m not sure now. The walls changed position while we were waiting for you to wake up.”
Zach quipped, “Well now, that wasn’t very helpful of you walls. I thought you were supposed to be on our side?”
“Do not mock the walls Zach,” Kayn said.
Melody repeated, “Yes... Never mock the walls.”
“Okay girls, pick a direction and I’ll go,” he declared. “It’s time to get going. People are coming to kill us.”
Melody felt the stone, attempting to trigger her intuition to determine which direction was the right one as she replied to Zach’s statement, “I think we’re over the trying to kill each other thing. We are all just trying to get the hell out of here now.” Mel looked at Kayn and said, “I can’t tell. We could have turned around while we were waiting. I don’t have any idea.”
Kayn wandered around without touching the walls. Come on ...give us a hint.
Melody squeezed Zach’s shoulder and asked, “Do you feel different? I think you were Enlightened.”
Zach shrugged as he looked at his hands and stated, “I don’t feel like giving up anymore.”
“Good to hear,” Melody replied.
Kayn quite randomly piped in, “I guess we’ll have to wait until you get pissed off to see what you can do.”
They all looked at each other and began to laugh. They were so tired and frankly, even though they all had the urge to keep fighting now, they were beginning to lose their marbles. Kayn asserted, “Let’s just think for a minute. Remember, brains before brawn. I say we find out which direction the walls want to let us out.”
Zach walked to each wall and asked politely to be allowed out. Only one direction opened and he shrugged as he attempted to walk through the opening.
Kayn grabbed him and said, “That’s not the way out. We need to go in the opposite direction.” She strolled over to the opposite wall and stated, “This is probably the way. If the walls shifted and moved to prevent us from finding the sleep chambers, why would they point us in the right direction?”
Zach asserted, “What if they knew you were smart enough to figure that out and gave us the way out, knowing we would make the choice to go in the opposite direction?”
Kayn paused for a second… He had a point. She said, “My instincts said they were trying to trick us. If you follow your instincts, you always end up in the right direction. That little tidbit was courtesy of Winnie.”
Melody walked to the wall and stood beside K
ayn. She said, “That’s a good enough reason for me.”
Kayn ordered, “Open!” The wall of course ignored them for this was not the path the crypt wanted them to take. Each of the others tried to ask and nothing happened. Kayn said, “I guess we have to get out, the same way I got in.” She glanced back at the others and cautioned, “I’d stay away from me for a while after I do this.” She laid her hands flat on the surface and took a deep breath as she felt the energy travelling from the wall through her fingertips into the palm of her hand. It began to burn and she fought against the urge to pull away. The veins in her arms became visible as the fire travelled at an excruciatingly slow pace up her arm to her torso, it gathered in her mid-section, setting it aflame. She forcibly let go of the wall and began deliberately moving her palms apart as she molded the orb of energy between them, entranced by it.
Melody whispered, “Are you still with us Brighton?”
She still wanted more. She needed more. Emotionally vacant, Kayn replied, “What if I destroyed this place?” She could make sure no second tier ever had to go into the Testing again. She’d be willing to sacrifice herself for that cause.
Zach whispered, “Kayn, this isn’t who you are.”
She heard him through her savagely intense need for more energy. He’d gotten through to her. She began chanting in her mind, you are only opening the wall, nothing more. Zach reached for her but she was coherent enough to move out of the way.
Melody stepped in between them and said, “I was blown half way across the room the last time I touched her when she was like this.”
Kayn stared at the wall as she commanded, “I’m only going to ask you nicely one more time...Open!”
The wall did not comply. Kayn thrust her palms surging with power against the wall. She screamed, “Open!” Her command echoed throughout the crypt. As the wall opened, standing on the other side were two incredibly stunned girls from Ankh.
The taller one with short hair said, “The walls all switched around on you, didn’t they? I hate it when that happens.”
