Rise of Xavia

by Tara Chau

  “Don’t be afraid,” Gabe says, turning his body, so it faces me fully. I do the same, so I can look at him without turning my neck. “Don’t be afraid.” He repeats.

  “How?” I ask shakily.

  “By doing the exact same thing as I do when I’m scared.” He responds.

  “And what’s that?” Gabe looks me directly into my eyes before speaking again, his voice is strong and none wavering.

  “I am Gabriel Jones, and I will not break.”

  I smile as I recall the night perfectly. How his strong words gave me goosebumps, how once he left through the red door that stood in the middle of the room, I muttered those words to myself and found that I wasn’t afraid anymore.

  “I am Dianna Reeds, and I will not break,” I say to myself quietly.

  Placing the dagger back down on the side table, I answer my ringing phone. Speak of the devil, Gabe.

  “Hey,” I say into the phone, wishing that I could talk face to face with him.

  “Di, you might have just saved me,” he says, letting out a relieved laugh.

  “I’m sorry?” I ask.

  “I don’t think that I could sit through another Counsel meeting. I’m in the hall, and I just finished that last meeting I plan to have in years. The Counsel agreed we can now officially start the search for Lucien Novell.” He states professionally.

  I let out a heaving sigh and laugh happily, concealing the urge to squeal and jump up and down.

  “So, are you coming home?” I ask. The next few nanoseconds pass by like hours.

  “Yes, Reeds, I’m coming home.” I can see him smiling brightly in my head as he finishes his sentence, imagining him walking briskly towards the exit.

  “I’ll be back a day before you arrive back from camp,” he says.

  How does Gabe know about that? Ty. Or possibly Anne. “I’m not going. No one can make me.” I state.

  “It will be great.”

  “Experience.” I finish in a mocking tone.

  “It will,” he pushes.

  “I can go hiking any time I like. Which, by the way, is never,” I say, trying so hard to push down my raising annoyance and dread. “I already told Ty I’m not going,” I inform him.

  “You should tell him again,” he advises.

  “Yes, sir,” I say scornfully.

  “Don’t do that, Reeds,” he scolds.

  “No, sir,” I push.

  “I’ll hang up,” he threatens.

  “No, you won’t,” I say in disbelief, relieved that he is way too nice to do that.

  “Night Reeds,” he says, his voice is laced with amusement and admiration.

  The line starts beeping, confirming that Gabe has, in fact, hung up on me. I chuck the phone to the end of my bed and let out a frustrated and an inhuman kind of growl into the pillow. Stuff you Gabe.

  Stumbling into the school car park on a Monday morning, wearing navy green cargo pants and a black singlet with just the loose strands of hair pinned back from my eyes, I groan loudly. The huge heavy hiking pack is weighing down my shoulders and digging into my hips. My feet already hurt from walking around the shops all of yesterday, trying to locate some extra things that I needed for these next four torturous days that lay ahead. Which teenager has long-sleeved collared shirts lying around inside their wardrobe?

  Seeing the gathering mass of my classmates about twenty metres away, I slowly make the trek towards them. Spotting Anne and Jess towards the back of the group, I stop in front of them. Slipping my bag off my back, it makes a loud bang. I can only hope that nothing important broke.

  “What part of long-sleeved collared shirts don't you two get?" Jess questioning both Anne and me, one eyebrow raised.

  Jess herself is wearing something you would usually see in a cowboy movie. Her light brown hair is tied into a high ponytail. She wears a red and white checked collared shirt and tan cargo pants. Anne is wearing black cargoes but a white cropped top that hangs loosely over her left shoulder, revealing the strap of her sport’s top underneath. She wears her hair in one braid. It travels down until it finishes just below her shoulders.

  “If I’m going to be forced to come to this stupid camp, then I can wear whatever the hell I want,” Anne snaps.

  Jess and I grin at each other before her face becomes serious again.

  “And what about you? What’s your excuse?” she questions.

  I shrug and attempt to look excited. "No excuse, just didn't want to."

  Jess sighs dramatically and puts on her sunnies, this particular pair happens to have black lenses, so I’m guessing that eye contact is out of the question right now.

  “Hi,” a chirpy and sweet voice chimes from behind me.

  From the corner of my eye, I spot flaming red hair, my heart rate accelerates, I jump back in shock, a bit of a late reaction.

  Helena Troy stands behind me smiling brightly, wearing a white see-through long-sleeved button-up collared shirt, which she's tied off just above her belly button. She's wearing a white singlet underneath and tight black cargoes; her hair is braided in two, which is swirled into a bun at the bottom of her head. In short, she's managed to follow the clothing guidelines and still looks amazing. The three of us stare at her for a few moments. Jess is the first to speak.

  “Helena, you look great.”

  Helen beams and steps forwards into the circle. “Thank you, all of you look stunning, but I don’t think that it’s quite what the teachers had in mind,” she says, still smiling.

  "Are you excited about camp?" I ask, trying to change the subject.

  "Ecstatic, I can't wait to get out into nature again. The note said it was about three hours away; it's got water holes and cool caves,” she explains excitedly.

  Don't get me wrong. I love nature and water and swimming and the trees and occasionally camping, but doing now, and not with my class. Yes, spring is the best time to do it… but again, with my class?

  “Have you girls seen the boys?” she asks.

  “No, I haven’t seen Ty,” Anne answers, a slight hint of annoyance lingering in her voice.

  “Hey,” I say to Helen, trying to distract her from Anne before things get too heated. “You still haven't unlocked my number yet. I'm now friends with Ty, so it's no longer necessary. I feel like I haven't spoken to you in ages.”

  “Oh god, sorry, forgot about that. I'll do it as soon as I get home. Don't have my phone with me,” she admits.

  Everyone is supposed to leave all electronics at home for this camp, but Anne and Ty brought theirs, in case we get an urgent message from the Sanctuary. One phone per tent, all four of us were to share a tent with each other, and the other two boys were sharing as well.

  “That’s cool.” I shrug.

  Spotting Ty and Hayden from across the lot, I point him out for Helen. She smiles at me and gives all of us a quick see you later before prancing over to Ty.

  "She's gotten a lot happier since you came, Di. You opened up a whole new friend group for her." Jess says proudly.

  “I just feel sorry for her. She’s not so different from me.”

  “She’s nothing like you,” Anne says, disgusted.

  “Sorry?” I ask, eyebrow raised.

  “She’s destined to destroy the world at some point, and you’re fated to save it. From here," she points out mercilessly.

  Jess’s smile turns into a troubled frown as she considers all Anne’s saying. I simply shake my head. If she has no reason to turn bad, then that's never gonna happen. I look over to see Helen laughing sweetly as Ty tells her something. Her moon mark isn't easily seen from this far away. Plus, her bright hair drowns out the pale colour of it anyway.

  “I thought you were over, Ty, Anne,” I say, instantly regretting it.

  "This isn't about him. This is about being smart,” she huffs. You can practically see the fire bursting from her nostrils and ears.

  “Keep your friends close, but your enemies clos
er,” I quote.

  Anne and Jess raise their eyes to meet mine, completely confused.

  “You’ve never heard that before?” I ask in bewilderment.

  They both shake their heads in synchronisation. I sigh. "If your close with your ‘enemy’,” I say, adding quotation marks on the word enemy, using my fingers, "then you'll be more likely to know how they think. Therefore, know what their next move should be if they ever turn to the dark side."

  “You’ve watched way too much Star Wars with Gabe,” Anne huffs.

  “God, you have no idea,” I huff.

  “I guess that makes sense,” Jess admits.

  I smile pleasantly at them both, willing Anne not to be mad at me anymore.

  “Listening up!”

  We all turn to face Miss Lenox, who is wearing a blue polo shirt with grey cargoes while scanning the crowd of growing teens. “I’m going to call out your names, and you respond with a yes and walk calmly onto the coach. If you know that a certain person is not here, then when his or her name is called, politely say absent,” she commands.

  We all wait for our names to be called out. Anne's called earlier than Jess’ and mine because her last name starts with a 'C.' When Gabe's name is called, I call out his absence and brush of a grin from Jess. My name is called, so I smile at Jess and walk onto the coach. Anne has saved a whole lane in the back, two seats on the right and the other two on the other side of the walking path. Helen is sitting on the other side by the window.

  Anne has also taken a window seat and glaring ferociously at anyone who comes close to the remaining two seats. I smile and sit next to her. Looking down the lane, I see Ty board next, taking his seat in front of Anne and me, next to Hayden. About five minutes later, Jess enters and takes her place next to Helen, sighing in contentment.

  Within the next ten minutes, everyone has boarded, and the engine starts. We pull out of the school gates, and fifty students cheer loudly. Even Anne, Jess, and I get caught up in all the cheer and start laughing happily as well. Maybe this won't be as bad as I thought.

  * * *

  How wrong was I?

  Three hours later, the class piles out of the bus and yells loudly. Somehow the temperature has just dropped into what you would call snowy mountains worthy. Everyone shivers and hastily runs off to find their bags. I overhear some boy from our class mention that this is a cold snap. A bloody cold snap! Of course. Not a very good time to be camping then. I wrap my arms around myself and clench my jaw closed, attempting to stop my teeth from chattering. Anne is squealing, and Jess, I continuously repeat the words, “Oh my god.”

  The driver is lugging out all the bags from under the coach, teenagers snatching them back and ripping them open to find warmer clothing. We all walk over to the pile of bags forming on the cold, hard ground. It takes us about ten minutes to locate all our bags, due to how much our class overpacks. I pull out a blue long-sleeve and shove it over my head.

  Then I slip into a black hoody that I have yet to give back to Gabe. I’m still so cold that I decided to add another shirt over the top of my blue one. Once I closed up my bag again, I look over to see that Anne is wearing a glamorous coat with animal fur lining the insides. She smiles proudly at me and flips the hood on. Ty's simply put on a white long-sleeve and a black beanie. Jess has a woollen jumper on and has let her hair down to cover her neck. Hyden has a vest from Kathmandu, and Helen's wearing a green jumper and a grey scarf.

  “Here,” Helen offers me a cream white scarf; I take it gratefully and wrap it twice around my neck.

  So much better.

  But still.

  So.

  Cold.

  We all haul our bags onto our backs and join the class around the circle that is forming. I place my bag back down in front of me along with the rest of them and look to the three guides standing in the middle of the circle.

  Two of them are ladies who look about mid-twenties, same with the man as well. The guy looks vaguely like Chris Hemsworth while he was playing Thor ages ago, except with paler skin and brown eyes.

  Anne nudges me, and I nudge her back, knowing exactly what she is thinking. I smile as I see her eyeing mister Hemsworth. Shaking my head, I pinch her arm. She glares at me and gives me an innocent shrug, going back to staring at the guide.

  “Welcome,” one of the girls speaks, “to Camp Green-bridge.”

  Dear Dyla, save me.

  * * *

  Our class experiences the four seasons within the first three hours of camp. One minute it’s so cold my toes are numb, the next it is so hot I start sweating just by walking on flat ground for three minutes. The guides lead us everywhere. By the second day, we have walked over 45 kilometres, hiking to the place where we will set up camp, then walking back down to our activity sight.

  The plan for the whole duration of camp contains activities such as ab-sailing, rock climbing, canoeing, flying fox, and the one I am looking forward to the most, archery.

  It had taken one and a half hours to walk up to the ab-sailing. Our whole class was exhausted, even Helen. There is a ten-metre one and a fifteen-metre one. Ty, Hayden, Helen, and Jess, with the other quarter of our class, ab-sailed the fifteen, and the rest of us attempted the ten-metre.

  Canoeing is more fun. Although we still have to walk back down the mountain to the lake, it wasn’t half as long as walking up. The whole class is ordered to pair up and grab a canoe to take down to the lakeside. Mister Hemsworth, well, that's just our name for him. I'm pretty sure his real name is Tom, who organises us all into teams. After ten minutes of trying to get the hang of it all, Tom brings out two beach balls. It is basically like capture the flag, only on water. Just five minutes in, Ty lobs the ball to our canoe. In an attempt to catch the misaimed ball, Anne causes the unsteady canoe to capsize. We both resurfaced laughing. Of course, with my luck, I manage to take in at least two litres of river water. One of the other guides, Georgia, a girl from north England, who speaks with a very thick accent, unlike Ty and Anne, leads us back to camp once we are done.

  I smile uncontrollably as she speaks, her accent making all her a’s sound different, make her sound a lot posher than the rest of us.

  The company that the school had organised this with said that they would supply the sleeping mats, food, and cooking stoves. Although they did do that, the sleeping mats may as well be a simple cloth.

  Waking up on the third day, I can’t feel sicker or more tired. After the long hike yesterday and the day before and the day before that, plus the complete lack of sleep, I just wish I could keel over and die. My feet and legs hurt so much that I can barely shift one inch. My back and neck feel like the muscles have contracted overnight as I try to move; my butt throbs as I repositioned myself on the cold hard ground, making me groan in effort. It only takes a couple hundred tries to get my eyes to focus.

  I hone my gaze in on the top of the tent. With the sun now shining brightly outside, the dark blue colour has shifted to a pretty, deep ocean shade.

  Okay, one step at a time. I slowly lift my head off my makeshift pillow, causing me to moan softly. Then I place my arms under me and use them to push me into a sitting position. Ow. Looking to my right, I smile as I see Anne still sound asleep, loose bits of hair escaped from her braid that I did for her last night. Even though she looks calm and in a deep sleep, I know that if I were to even brush aside a piece of hair from her eyes, she would be wide away within seconds. Anne is trained to sleep lightly, only so she can still be energized by the morning but wake at the smallest of noises.

  A precaution, being a Protector can be dangerous considering demons are smart, and we don’t hide our faces.

  To my left, I see Jess silently reading a thin book, which just so happens to be in Latin. She nods me a good morning and places her finger on her closed lips, telling me noiselessly to stay quiet. On the other side of Jess, Helen sleeps soundly. I look at the mark on her forehead, my eyebrows furrow as the moon starts to gl
ow faintly. She stirs and turns onto her back, still asleep. I lean over Jess slowly, watching the moon pulse quicker and brighter as I near. I slowly bring my finger to her cheek, tapping her once.

  Bright cold pain shoots up my finger and into my body. Using my other hand, I quickly muffle my anguished cry. Jess snaps her head in my direction, pupils wide. The pain is still here, so cold I feel like I'm freezing from the inside out. Another wave of ice flows through me, and I scramble back from Helen, shoving my body up against the corner of the tent.

  A sob escapes my lips as I bring my knees up to my chest and wrap my arms around my body, trying to warm myself. It doesn't work.

  The glacial chill turns my blood to ice. I start to quake intensely. The cold is so bitter that I feel frozen but burning at the same time. I'm immobilised, powerless to stop whatever evil runs through me.

  A nightmarish shriek tears from my throat, waking both Anne and Helen. The two of them join Jess in staring at me in terror. My breathing starts to accelerate; I can't seem to get enough oxygen.

  “What’s happening?” I hear Anne ask desperately.

  "She-she just tapped Helen! The moon was pulsing before. Why is she…." My ears chose to stop working at this point. I look around frantically at the three of them.

  Once my gaze reaches Helen, I stop. My body and mind shut down, as does my breathing. Helen is…dead.

  She looks like Lucien when he uses his powers, just more…demonic. Helen’s eyes are pitch black, some kind of brown liquid oozing out from her eye sockets. She opens her mouth to talk, and I scream again. Most of her teeth have either been knocked out or rotten. Black and red veins decorate her once gorgeous face, bulging horribly, making me sickeningly nauseous. Helen’s skin, once a beautiful pale white, is now a rotten yellow and pulled back deadly tight around her skull. Her hair is blood red, the tips dripping with real crimson blood. She cackles; it's icy and causes excruciating pain to shrill through my ears.

  My breathing starts again but slow, too slow. Too shallow.