Sky Jump

by Anastasia Bolinder

  I had a choice of melting at the soft crinkle of his nose or the way he spoke to me but decided humor would save me from becoming a pile of goo on the floor.

  “Considering its only been a month now and I’ve still not escaped, I consider that good.” I said with a slightly nervous laugh.

  He nodded and laughed kindly with me, he opened his mouth to speak when Alissa yelled at us making us both turn.

  “Let’s start this and show them, Quil!” Alissa said, and while we had both been slightly zoned out, Alissa seemed at ends with Zac though they both looked excited.

  Laughing, I put a hand to my bracelet as I looked to the SkyJumping wall with my smile fading as the thought of my father caught in my mind.

  Alissa caught my look as Keten and Zac fist bumped one another.

  “Quil, I’m such an idiot, do you want to do this?” She asked and looked to me.

  Keten and Zac’s faces dropped from happy to look over at her words.

  “I...” My mind jumped around, couldn’t I just not care about what my father thought.

  Yet, facing him with that kind of attitude felt wrong and still I wanted desperately to just have some fun with these people, though knowing them only a month, I felt I could call them true friends.

  “If you don’t want to it’s completely okay.” Keten said kindly as he stepped over to me.

  It made my lips turn in a soft smile, he had no idea my reasoning but he was always understanding.

  Glancing aside at the wall, I felt my heart sigh as the idea of really SkyJumping and not holding back.

  “I want to… But my father, if he knew or found out. He just doesn’t want anyone to see me SkyJumping...” I knew my words sounded stupid because they knew nothing about who I was, but all three of them backed me up immediately.

  “Equila, we won’t tell your dad, and besides; it’s not really a Skyjumping competition. It’s just fun, we’re not going to be on TV or win anything.” Keten’s words were soft and kind as he put a hand to my arm and nodded adding, “But if you don’t want to which I can understand, wanting to respect your father, at least stay and watch and I won’t race either.”

  My heart flip flopped like a fish trying to decide whether to risk it or just sit it out.

  Glancing at the door, I thought about what he said and for once I knew my father might agree if these were my friends and we were just having fun.

  Turning my head, I looked to the wall and then back to all of them as Zac and Alissa shared a slightly confused look that I soon realized was about hearing my full name.

  “As long as it’s just for fun.” I said and Keten nodded as Zac yawed a happy call and Alissa nodded though I saw the way Keten seemed conflicted.

  Before we started, I had set my bag down and we decided we would just climb, instead of making it a competition, though Zac still said he would beat Alissa easy and they both started up in scrambling movements.

  Keten glanced aside at me as a smile crossed my lips and my mind was left to examine and see my path without the hesitation of how to make it look slower or less like a SkyJump. But I probably should still keep myself from running up the wall, I figured.

  Keten nudged my arm as he put his hands to a steering wheel and nodded,

  “Go for it.” He said with a smile, seeming to have accepted my decision.

  For that one moment, as Zac and Alissa still were bantering as they climbed, I looked up and high above, spotted the roof. With one bite of my lip I went for the wall and started up.

  I knew that Keten immediately started climbing but I was out of his reach in seconds as I felt my palms grasp knobs to staplers and moved with a rhythm I was rarely let to freely use, it felt thrilling!

  I might have noticed the gaping smiling glance that Alissa gave me as Zac watched me pass by stunned, but my mind was lost from the moment.

  A gap, a ladder pole, a pair of succors passed it all, I knew in my blood it was right as my fingers knew guitar stings or the way my heart leapt at a photograph, this was living and real and before I knew it my head hit the roof.

  “Aw.” I said nearly letting go of the toy wolf I held onto while my feet gripped various objects to stay aloft.

  Glancing to the ceiling I was sure it would have taken longer and I felt I should have slowed down the moment I realized how little I remembered about what was around me save the objects and path I took. That was a skill my father said he would teach me one day to keep your mind focused on more than one thing while SkyJumping. At present, he always said it would not come in handy anytime soon, and considering entering by accident in the SkyJump competition, I was sure it would still be a long while even if I wasn’t trapped in La’ket.

  “Whoa...” was all Zac said, as suddenly I remembered them all.

  Still clutching the top of my head, I shifted to the side and looked down holding myself close to the wall.

  Alissa stared up with an amazed grin and Zac and even Keten wore gaping mouths.

  Blush stung my cheeks as I turned back to the wall and started descending quickly, though nothing like the speed I came up with. I kept my face to the wall, though they all seemed to come to the ground as I came close enough to the ground I slightly jumped back and landed quite softly in a crouch.

  I had been such an idiot! I thought, not wanting to meet their gaze, they were going to tell my father and it would all be over or immediately know my real secret and then my father would kill me.

  “Quil, that was fantastic!” Keten breathed.

  His voice was so unexpected, my face jumped up to his voice and was met by the others as they came over to me.

  Alissa shook her head,

  “Girl, why did you not do that at the competition?! You could have killed Jack in seconds!” She said, kindly but I felt a sudden prick in my spine at the fact that I had so easily broken one rule my father was very strict about me keeping.

  I put a hand to my wrist and for once when I needed fake words they always seemed so much easier to lose than the ones that I wanted to say.

  “I have been studying the wall in class, I just figured out a way up and wanted to see if it worked.” I said, trying to easily dismiss what I had done.

  Zac shook his head and glanced to the wall.

  “You would have to be a Skyjump or have magic to do that!” He said and for all of five seconds I felt stiff and lifeless.

  Alissa bumped his shoulder before I could speak and shook her head thankfully not catching the stiff, icy freeze that held me.

  “You’re such an idiot, Skyjumps are extinct and she is in classes without mage training. What does that say to you?” She asked rhetorically and rolled her eyes.

  Zac did the same back to her and Keten nodded to me.

  “Names aside, you sure can Skyjump. I think I lost the bet.” He said and we all burst into laughter though a shadow caught my eyes as I glanced to the door.

  Breath tight in my chest, the room suddenly felt cold and less than what it had been moments before.

  Someone had been watching.

  Chapter 17

  “Late Night Thrills.”

  The fact that I tossed, turned and could not sleep upon returning to my room did little to help ease my worry and the lump that held close to my heart. As if disobeying my father was not easy, even knowing he might never find out about it.

  But it had been safe, I was with Alissa, Zac and Keten. All of whom I could trust without a shadow of a doubt.

  Glancing around, I held my covers nearly over my head and though I was not afraid of anything being in my room, the image of the shadow kept that unease and guilt roving through my mind as unsettled as my legs felt shifting from one side to the other on the uncomfortable mattress.

  Looking to my clock on the desk it read 1 a.m. in bright blue and I felt as if the night was lasting much longer as if to punish me. I put my arm over my eyes. Knowing sleep was not my friend this night, I sat up with my hair down, slightly obscuring my view as soft light filtered in throu
gh the bubbled window in shifting opaque hues.

  I wanted to play a soft melody on my guitar but a worry struck me that on occasion when I tried to play softly, the moment my head tilted to the soft sound of the rhythm, I was playing much louder and faster than I realized.

  It was simply out of the question.

  I detangled myself from the sheets which bound me and stood stretching slightly as my body complained about rest though I could not seem to find it.

  Glancing to my door, I realized no one would be out at such a late hour and maybe I could get a few pictures of places now that it would be less crowded.

  A knot held in my chest as I all too eagerly felt the idea was wonderful to go out alone after being stuck around so many people for weeks on end.

  Slipping on my shoes in my old tee-shirt and pair of red pajama bottoms printed with horses, I grabbed my bag and slung it around my shoulder starting for my door.

  After checking that everyone else had not decided to venture out during the night, I started walking down the eerily silent, dark hall where each shadow I passed felt far more alive than it was, yet my curiosity about this place kept me moving as I came to the main room, the stars above twinkled and the fountain held silent.

  Taking out my camera, I glanced around again but felt safer seeing no movement in any of the dim corridors lit by the luminescent floors.

  Why should I feel safe when I kept feeling like I saw shadows? I wondered.

  Shaking my head as I glanced to where I was taking a picture, I clicked the button inducing a flash as its soft mechanical purr felt loud. I considered how safe I was in a building like this with only Lucy who hated me, for one reason or another, and then there was Jack. Both, I was sure, simply hated me for SkyJumping alone.

  I was safe here, I reasoned, though I still felt unsure. I kept walking to the hallway door out of the girls wing as I took the finished picture from the camera and put it in my bag. I would look at it later as my eyes fuzzed from the darkness lit only by soft hues of the moonstone floor.

  Glancing around, I was about to start back when an idea hit me, I had wanted a picture of Mr. Jacobsen’s class and the atrium!

  Turning, I looked to the door and wondered if it would open to let me out and better yet, would it let me back in?

  Had I been slightly more awake I was sure the plan I concocted was stupid but with a sleepy and severely underdressed look, I held out my crystal making it glow softly.

  The door easily opened just enough I could slip through. Once through the door that before in the girl’s wing had looked eerie, now felt intimidating as the glowing halls faded out to darkness with the hallways spanning out for what looked like miles. The shadows in the halls felt frightening.

  “There’s nothing to be scared of.” I said in a whisper, I held my camera as if a consolation to the feeling I was dumb enough to come out alone.

  While I walked down the hall I considered numerous times turning back as shadows made me slow or the soft running of a cleaner or repairmen’s cart went down a hall close by.

  “It’s probably just Burt.” I said, trying to calm my nerves as I came to Mr. Jacobsen’s room that’s door held open.

  The blobs hung stagnant in the air but they glowed with a soft hue. Glancing around, and behind me down the hall, still left me feeling exposed as the glow of the floors and the dark shadows were all I found within view.

  Taking the picture took seconds and this time I was moving before the photo had appeared as I crept past his room and knew it was only a short distance to the atrium.

  Peeking around the corner to the hall of the atrium, I almost lost my nerve. What once seemed interesting and inviting about the atrium now looked foreboding as the mist within swirled and the hall seemed slightly darker than the rest.

  Pursing my lips, I suddenly had a clarity that made me glance around with nervousness. What was I doing? Was I honestly out taking pictures for fun at one a.m?

  I was about to turn away when my eyes caught something on the floor in front of the atrium.

  Glancing around, I knew I should go back before I did get in trouble, but the knowledge that something was on the floor before the shifting bubbled wall was a tantalizing adventure.

  Making my feet move slowly to the place only a few feet down the hall, I crept. I leaned down and examined the substance on the floor, tilting my head with my camera in one hand I put it to my nose and it had no smell save earth as I noticed it was like dirt or something very close to it, maybe even clay from the way it slightly clung to my fingers.

  “What is this?” I questioned quietly as suddenly a swirl in the mist made me look up.

  There was nothing within the bubble wall yet, that piercing feeling held in my chest as I stood up slowly and glanced around.

  Just take the picture and get out Quil, this was a horrible idea, I scolded myself.

  Holding up my camera I took the picture and the slight flash illuminated the mist but nothing stood in it to my great relief. Still feeling a prick in my spine however, I took the picture from the camera and put the camera away as I hurriedly started back to the hall, though I never let my eyes leave the atrium walls.

  Once I was around the corner I felt slightly safer but as I kept walking a sound took me off guard until I realized it was someone running down the hall I had just been in. Glancing back I suddenly thought of everything I could and would get in trouble for as someone rushed down the hall at me.

  My legs tore into a run and I considered I could have only moved faster as a horse as I glanced back turning another corner and caught a silhouette racing down the hall.

  Sliding to the door to the girl’s wing I put my crystal out and glanced behind me hoping it would only open enough for me to slid through and quickly said with my mind for it to shut and it did so swiftly.

  My eyes fixed on the door as I slowly backed away; the picture still in my hands though my heart racing and my mind thrumming. I had not cared to look at the picture as I waited for the shadow to come to the door, when none did after a few minutes I figured I had lost the janitor or teacher as I turned and started back for my room.

  Turning from the door to my room as it shut, I let out a soft sigh and looked to the ceiling as the adrenalin had gotten my mind to rethink what I had done. It was the stupidest thing I had done, but I wanted to get photos without everyone gawking over my ancient camera. And yet the photos no longer felt worth the risk I had taken to get them.

  Thinking of the photos, I glanced down at the one I had taken and turned it over. What was there made my heart drop and my legs felt wobbly.

  Within the four by five photo of the atrium wall was the red glint of eyes that looked as if they had been standing no more than three feet within the wall’s misted breadth.

  There had been someone or something watching me. Suddenly I glanced and backed away from my door I was awakened to the fact that the shadow that had run after me might not have been a teacher or custodian after all.

  Glancing back at the picture the red glint of the eyes made me feel as if I stood with eyes watching me all over again and the unease in my chest tripled as I replayed the shadow that had chased me over and over again in my mind’s eye.

  ***

  I did not sleep well, or at all, after that for the next two weeks. Beyond being tired I never stepped foot outside at night again and my fear of what had chased me haunted me in my dreams as if I had awakened an angry ghoul in my moronic escapade.

  The little sleep I got was haunted by red eyes watching me and when I awoke I was drenched in sweat. I had hidden the photo in one of my drawers under an unloved pair of grey socks but I had more than once considered throwing it away.

  Knowing that something might be here in the school, let alone the atrium made me very jumpy and on more than one occasion Keten had to apologize for walking up behind me and saying hi at lunch or in the game room and making me nearly knock over people in fear.

  The game room had been the only retre
at for me when we played the SkyJump board game, there was only Alissa, Zac and Keten and the room was quite small and had one door that I could see making me feel safer.

  Classes felt half like a dream as again it was one slightly safe place though my mind still worried what or who it could have been. Yet deep down even Jack when he sneered at me in class had not a trace of the reddish glow to his eyes that had been in the mist.

  We had learned about Spectors once in Mr. Jacobsen’s class and the way he spoke about how people with refined skills could hone a cloak into a shadowed worker that could look like a person shrouded in mist seemed slightly jarring. He also told that even he could not do such a feat and that it, like the Skyjumps, were extinct.

  It was becoming ever prevalent from both my teachers and friends that SkyJumps were thought of as-

  “Extinct.” Mr. Deplen said in his shrill voice that felt less annoying now that he seemed to have classes worth listening too.

  “SkyJumps are a breed of elk mixed with horse though it was said male and female, like reindeer, had antlers though males were larger.”

  That class had both been interesting and slightly boring, when you were the creature the lesson was centered on it was hard not to zone out, especially on barely three or less hours of sleep.

  And then there was Mr. Sheplar’s class.

  I was still trying to climb a block, if there was a more humiliating thing to be stuck on I’m not sure what it was because while other students talked about getting better at things they were struggling with, I was falling over and over again and I was absolutely sure I was also failing.

  Before starting up the blocks one day, I went to Mr. Sheplar and felt at asking was better than trying to climb a box for the hundredth time. I needed to pass his exam in only a week and a half.

  When his eyes fell on me he tilted his head and I shuddered realizing compared to the danger I could have been facing with the red eyed thing in the atrium, Mr. Sheplar was a stuffed animal.