by C. C. Lynch
Silence fell upon us as we looked upon each other waiting for someone else to speak up first.
“I’ll go to my dad and have him teleport me to each academy so that I can get there on my own.” I began pacing as the realization of our goal began to sink in. “Is there anyone that wants to go to an academy and try to warn the people on the list about Replyx?” As pairs of eyes fell to the floor I added, “we can go in pairs and split up the list if there’s anyone brave enough. If not, I don’t mind doing this alone.”
I knew Vlaine would never let me do this on my own, but I had my doubts that the others would help.
Draxe took the list from Aiden and looked it over. “Aiden, you want to get Claire, Miranda, and Shane with me at Intervael?”
“I’ll go with you to Intervael,” Ovolina spoke quickly. Her cheeks blushed once more. “It would make more sense for three people to go and look for three people. Plus, I already know one of them.”
Liz glanced at me and smirked, “I’ve always wanted to go to Europe. You, me, and Vlaine can gather the kids at Aldershaw.”
“Perfect,” I smiled excitedly, “there’s just Lanshaw and Valdor left. Only one person is at Valdor and I’ve already been there so I can do that alone and very quickly. Lanshaw, well, who wants to go to Lanshaw with me?”
“Like I’m going to let you go to Valdor alone again?” Vlaine’s gaze was intense. Apparently my night at Valdor Academy with Erik was still a sore spot for him. “I’ll go to both those academies with you.”
Aiden flicked his finger at the paper. “You’re not going to talk to Heinrich without me. I’ll go to Lanshaw with you too, just in case.”
I skimmed over the paper and found Heinrich. Next to his name was the word “plasma.” I had no idea if it was his gift that caused Aiden’s apprehension or if they had been acquainted before.
“Plasma?” I looked around the group. “What exactly does that mean?”
“He’s like boy plasma,” Aiden answered. “The kid can legitimately turn into a different state of matter.”
Ovolina’s mouth was in the form of an o. “So he can, like, melt whatever he touches?”
“He sounds un-killable,” Vlaine remarked.
The expression on Aiden’s face made it seem like he had taken Vlaine’s statement as a challenge. “No one is indestructible if the tools are right and the timing is precise.”
My stomach churned with the severity of Aiden’s words. He made it seem as if killing was something that came as easily as studying; all it took was time, supplies, and a can-do attitude.
Ovolina cocked her head to the side. “What will they do to us if they find us?”
Liz looked away uncomfortably and began to chew on the inside of her cheek.
“They study other gifted people,” I began. “They do medical, physical, and mental tests trying to research every aspect of your gift. All the while, you’re being broken down and tortured. At the end of it all you either get a job there or you ‘give your life graciously to science.’ You essentially are a test animal.”
My mind wandered to what had occurred over the time that I spent at Replyx Corp. The countless hours I spent in solitary confinement, days without food, the fear of Nicholas being punished because I was not behaving, and the other students held there against their will. Sedation, fear, and constant surveillance kept the detainees trapped; all of them except for Lacey.
“Have any of you ever heard of a girl named Lacey? Last time I saw her she had lilac colored hair, bright green eyes, and a very faint cleft lip scar.” Blank stares met my gaze and I felt the need to explain my question further. “She was my roommate for all of about a day and half. She really seemed to know the ins and outs of the place and she just disappeared. I think she was able to escape the tree house.”
Liz’s face grew red. Flaring her nostrils at the tender spot my statement had accidentally hit she growled an angry response. “No one escapes the tree house. Not on their own at least.” She took a deep breath and smoothed a piece of blonde hair behind her ear. “Subjects weren’t allowed to have dyed hair, so I’m not sure if you are remembering correctly.”
I shrugged, not knowing how to walk on the eggshells of Liz’s emotions. “Just another Replyx mystery, I suppose.”
“You’re pretty defensive.” Ovolina glared at Liz inquisitively.
I found myself wanting to stand in between the two, to protect Liz from having to say anything.
“I was there.” Liz spoke flatly.
“And how did you get out?” Ovolina’s eyes narrowed on Liz.
Frankie stepped into the room, breaking the tension slightly. Ignoring the obvious discomfort in the room, he took a seat in the middle of the floor between all of us.
When Liz answered her voice was tight with warning. “I had help.” The glower she had on her face told Ovolina to tread carefully.
Without blinking, Aiden was suddenly in a different spot in the room. “What was Lacey’s talent?”
I shook my head at him, amused and curious to why he was in a different area of the room. “She altered people’s memories. I replicated it already, but I can try again to be certain that I’m not suffering from some sort of insanity.”
He smirked. “Why don’t you do that?”
I wanted to ask him how many times he had stopped time during that conversation. How many times he reversed it, or maybe even sped it up.
“Okay,” I smiled, walking to the bookshelf. I pulled a book out and flipped open to a random page. Two hundred thirty-six was the page number I pointed to for the group. “Everyone got the number in their head?” Everyone answered yes by nodding their head, aside from Ovolina who answered with an eye roll.
Closing my eyes, I went into Frankie’s mind and changed the number that he saw to Three hundred forty-eight. Once I opened them I asked for the answer. In unison they answered the correct number, all except Frankie.
“It was unmistakably three hundred and forty-eight.” Frankie declared harshly. “I saw it with my own eyes.”
I shook my head, feeling slightly guilty. “You saw what I made you see.” I jumped back into the memory that I had changed. It was easy to find because he was playing it over and over again in his mind. I changed the erroneous numbers to the accurate ones. “Do you still think the number is three hundred forty-eight?”
He did a thousand-mile stare before looking at me and shaking his head, no. “It was two hundred and thirty-six.” Frankie pivoted and made his way into his little electronics office leaving the rest of us in silence.
“Okay,” Aiden looked at me then at Liz and added a patronizing undertone, “let’s just pretend that this girl altered everyone’s memories in that place Abrielle was stuck at. Do you think that, just maybe, she would be a good person to find so we can ask her a couple questions? Like, I don’t know, maybe how the hell she tricked everyone into not knowing she was there except for Abrielle.”
Feeling the tension build between Liz and Aiden made me want to tuck my tail and run away from the explosion I expected to occur. I wanted to placate everyone but doing that for Liz was going to be an impossible task.
“Listen,” I spoke up quickly, “I’m going to see my dad so I can get a bearing of where the other schools are. I can ask him if he knew anything about Lacey. For all I know it was a worker there disguised as my roommate as a mental trial or something. If anyone wants to come with me, put a tee-shirt on so you don’t roast while we’re in the jungle.”
“I’m coming,” Vlaine pushed forward and interlaced his fingers with mine.
I looked around to see if there were any other takers, but no one stepped forward. Looking at Vlaine, I teleported us to the safe house my father and Luther set up. Vlaine’s tight grip on my hand helped my balance when we arrived. Rubbing his thumb on my hand, Vlaine pulled his lip up in a half-smile and looked over my shoulder with a glimmer of amusement. Following his line of sight, I saw Aiden leaning against the stairs of the house.
“He’s going to be trouble,” I giggled.
Nodding in agreement, “it’s what he’s best at.”
The house was empty so I called out to my father telepathically asking him to meet me at the safe house. If it took too long for him to return, I would travel to my mother’s house like he asked. Vlaine and I rested against the railing and looked out to the jungle as we waited for him to show up. Aiden had blipped out of sight from the moment we had seen him against the stairs. Part of me was jealous that Aiden could go off and explore with the ease of knowing any mistakes could be corrected with his ability to transcend time. Our gifts seemed to be more of a burden to me than they did to everyone else. I had a need to keep my ego in check so that I did not let the power of replicating gifts get to my head.
“What are you thinking about?” Vlaine kept his eyes on the floor of the forest. His mouth was tight, a sign that something was upsetting him.
“All of this,” I shrugged. “Do you think this is a fool’s errand, what we’re about to do?”
He pushed himself back from the rail, his triceps flexing as he did so. “I think it’s stupid not to just blow the place to the ground.”
“Vlaine, there are innocent people in there.” I whispered, knowing he was aware of my reservations.
He banged his fist on the railing lightly. “You’re making a mistake by trying to save a few lives when the loss of them will save a lot more.” Vlaine turned to me and held my gaze with his deep blue eyes. Putting a gentle hand on my face he added, “your heart is in the right place, but the second things go south, we’re eliminating every soul in that facility.”
“Fine,” I shook my head. There was no way I was going to let any innocent person get hurt, but being the only person in the cause to think evil could be healed was going to cause unnecessary fissures of trust. “If it becomes too big of a risk, I’ll personally throw the fire that initiates the tree house inferno.”
Vlaine’s face relaxed and he pulled me into his side with a quick squeeze. The stress somehow seemed to melt away with the proximity. His muscles rippled with each breath he took.
The proximity and growing relationship made me miss Steph and long for the field day she would have gossiping about the wall of testosterone that I could now call my boyfriend.
“Thanks,” Vlaine flexed his arm with a mischievous grin, “I have been working out.”
“Ugh,” I slapped his chest playfully, “stop doing that.” Crossing my arms, I shook my head at myself. “I really, really need to put up that mental wall.”
Vlaine shrugged and leaned his back against the rail. “Your thoughts help my fragile ego.”
“Yeah,” I laughed sarcastically, “you really need the ego boost.” I pointed at him and squinted, “you already know how attractive you are.”
“So, you think I’m hot?” He mocked a look of shock.
I rolled my eyes at him. “Because a super telepath like you hasn’t heard that in the mind of girls a million times.”
“Me? I would never!” He put his hands to his chest dramatically. “Besides, Draxe is usually the twin on their mind. Most gifted girls are smart enough to stay away from me.”
“I’ll try not to take offense to that, Vlaine.” I tried my best to hide the smile forming on my face.
All humor vanquished from his face. “Why aren’t you ever in other people’s minds? You could learn the latest gossip, ace all the exams, and it’s the best way to learn your enemies.”
“If only Sun Tsu had our gift,” I raised a brow. With sincerity, I answered, “I’m not much of a quidnunc and cheating on a test would get me absolutely nowhere in life. I would truly love to read the minds of my enemies, but I know that some people know when someone is in their mind. Feel like helping me with my mind-diving tact?”
A look of astonishment came across his face. “I can’t believe I forgot to teach you that. It’s easy.”
He leaned forward and held my hands like we would whenever he was teaching our ISE sessions. The proximity made me realize how intimate the classes were. It was no wonder I started developing feelings for Vlaine without even realizing it. Closing my eyes was the only chance of concentrating with him so close.
“Now,” he spoke lightly, “I’ll open up my thoughts so that you can go in easily. When you go in, start at what I’m thinking about first. Don’t go poking around for memories right away. It’s natural for a person’s mind to wander to random thoughts so as long as you start on what they’re thinking about in that moment, it should be easy to delicately move on from there.”
Lightly skimming the loudest thought coming from Vlaine, I did as he said. Apparently poison dart frogs were the subject of choice in that moment. Slowly slipping into his memories, I found the conversation he was having with Aiden that morning. From there I jumped from random memory to random memory trying my best not to cross any unspoken boundaries.
Finally, I got to the memory that I had been most curious about. It was when Vlaine and Jay went to Replyx. He and Jay were in a vehicle together and changed their appearance as they pulled into a parking garage. Without a word they both got out of the car and made their way to a curved building matching the size of the other glass monsters nearby. Through the doorway was a foyer that opened up to a large open staircase with silver rimming each step. When they reached the top they bypassed the two women and security guard checking employee badges.
Jay and Vlaine answered the salutations of the women at the front desk with an acknowledging nod of the head. As they bypassed them, Vlaine called out to me telepathically trying to get an idea of my location. Vlaine’s mind then went into the thoughts of the people around him trying to find the path that would lead to those being detained. They met each other with knowing glances and waited for an elevator at the far end of the right hallway. Once inside they clicked on the fourth floor button, got off, and made their way to a locked hallway. The sign on the door indicated that the labs were specifically biohazard level four.
The two looked at one another trying to discern the method of entry into the hall. A number pad and fingerprint scanner blocked their path. Putting his hands to the glass of the door, Vlaine peered inside. He was able to get a peripheral view of the solarium that I had walked through when Jeremiah had given me the tour of Replyx. I had been a locked door and an elevator from freedom and I had no idea.
I pulled out of Vlaine’s memories slowly and opened my eyes. His deep ocean blue eyes were searching mine as if he had been reading my thoughts at the same time. Could you tell I was searching? I asked him mentally.
“There was only one point when I knew what you were doing. You played an image over a couple times. If you’re going to do that, make sure that you’re searching your own memory and not theirs. It will be a red flag for someone because it’ll actually cause them to see the image too.”
“Got it,” I nodded. He could tell what I was thinking, but I still felt the need to explain what I had been focusing on. “When you were there at that door at Replyx, I had seen the other side. Now that I know how to get to the cafeteria, I could get to the tree house. Except there was a key, and we would need a way to get through that door without the alarms going off.”
“It’s a good thing you’re friends with tin foil then.” Vlaine smirked at his reference to Luther.
“It would have been a good thing to know when we were discussing everything at the ski resort that night.” My words were laced with a surprising amount of bitterness.
Vlaine brushed away a thin film of sweat from his forehead with the back of his hand. He shoved his hands back into his pockets and sighed. “We talked about a lot that night. The topic of importance was the other students, not the anatomy of Replyx.”
I shrugged. He had a point but knowing that I had been so close to freedom that very day and I never even noticed that hallway with the door was frustrating to say the least. A list of what-ifs played through my mind until I finally shook myself of the resentment.
In the silence, I called out to my father once more deciding that if he didn’t come soon I would need to go to my mom’s house and assume something had gone wrong. After a few moments Vlaine told me that he would give it a try in case I was still having difficulty with the distance matter. Just as I was about to give up hope and head to my mother’s house, Curtis blipped right behind us.
Stress was not a strong enough word to describe the expression painted on his face. “Sorry,” he began flipping a folder in his hands, “I was at Hagan trying to talk some sense into those people.”
“Hagan?” I looked between Vlaine and my father waiting for an elucidation. “What happened?”
“I thought for sure that they would help us out with the issue of their brightest prospects being abducted by their previous workers.” He wiped his forehead with a handkerchief and walked inside the house where he threw the folder onto the table. “They said that the threat was not directly affecting them so they would not waste any more resources with such matters.” He gave me an apologetic look and scratched his head nervously. “Sorry, Abrielle, I tried.”
A mix of emotions ran through me. I was happy my father sought help from a powerful group of gifted adults, but disgusted that they weren’t willing to help. “It’s okay, we weren’t planning on their help in the first place so there’s really no loss.” I ran a hand through my humidity frizzled hair. “I appreciate you trying, Dad.” The last word sounded foreign and part of me regretted saying it. I was trying to be kind after all the help he had given me, but I still did not know the man. I may have shared his DNA, but he was a friendly acquaintance if anything.
“Do you happen to remember a girl named Lacey that was my roommate for a very short time?”
Curtis’s brows furrowed. “You never had a roommate while you were there. Perhaps you can ask Luther.”
“What about any workers there with purple dyed hair?”
“No,” he shook his head, “no one was there with purple hair.” He looked apologetic, but it simply meant that Lacey had been wholly successful.