by Nathan Roten
Looking up he said his goodbyes to Kel, Ailey and Damien, then to the others as he walked out the door.
Damien turned to Graham in unrestrained excitement. “This is crazy! Can you believe it? We have a home. We have super-powers! I have a trident on my arm! I am glad you kept going to Wellington, amigo! We would not be here and have this if it weren’t for you.”
Graham smiled half-heartedly back at Damien. He turned his arm back over and traced a small circle with his finger on his forearm, knowing that it was vacant.
Damien’s excitement carried him all over the room talking up the new powers they all had. Chase took notice of Graham’s disappointment and walked over to him.
“It will come with time, ya know. You are not the first one to have to wait. It happens.”
With a huff, Graham said, “I guess. I just hate feeling inadequate, that’s all. I’ve held back all my life, and this is no different.” Graham was not comfortable talking about his issues, so he quickly tried to change the subject.
“So, what does your catalyst look like?”
Chase pulled up his sleeve, baring his forearm. He tightened his hand into a fist as his wrist began to glow. Within the small circle was a horizontal lightening bolt; the points extending a bit beyond the rim of the circle.
“How did you just do that?” asked Graham.
“Do what?”
“Just make it light up like that? I thought you had to use your power to make the bands show up.”
“There are a lot of things you will be able to do once you develop. Making your bands illuminate is just on level two. Just wait until you get past level ten. You think a glowing wrist is cool? You just wait my friend. There is a lot more to see.”
“Levels? What is a level, and how many are there?”
“Its pretty simple, really. The more you learn and train, the more advanced you become. The levels are a pre-designed metric to understand how far along you are. As for the number of levels, I couldn’t say. I don’t think there is a cap. I have heard of people getting up into the 50’s before, but that would take a lifetime of dedication.”
“So, what are you? Are you at level twenty or something?”
“Twenty? I wish. No, I am at fourteen right now. Cavaness is working me pretty hard to move up to the next level, but it is pretty intensive. Plus, I’ve been a little distracted lately with chasing kids through the forest,” said Chase, playfully pushing Graham, making him stagger to the side.
“Yea, well your blasts did seem a little weak to me,” Graham replied as he playfully pushed back. “Speaking of the forest; how did you get started in all this?”
“Now that is an interesting story. As you have probably figured out by now, I was also a lonely kid at Greenwood. I was a perfect picture of the ‘problem child.’ I am probably single handedly responsible for most of the gray hair in Ms. Winstone’s head. It took a very long time for me to come around, but she was diligent with me. I think she made it her life’s mission to set me straight. I remember that almost every single day, so would tell me, ‘Those who spend abundant time in the shadows know the true value of light.’ It was her mantra for me. Now, I can see the wisdom in it, but before I changed, I hated it. She was good at that sort of thing. It’s like she kept planting little seeds in me that would push me in the right direction later on. As a matter of fact, it was something she said to me that led me here. It all began one night when I…..”
Before Chase could finish his thought, the wall beside them exploded, sending both of them flying backwards across the room. They both hit the ground hard. Their arms instinctively shielded their faces from the rock and rubble that flew through the air like shrapnel. Chase tried to look around, but his mind was in a frenzy. Squinting through the smoke, he could see that everyone was knocked to the ground, even Cavaness. He look back over to the source of the explosion. Through the fire and smoke, Chase could see six men in black coats step through the gaping hole in the wall. Before he could react, he saw large purple blasts fire from their hands, hitting Cavaness in the chest.
More blasts filled the room, as Murphy and Branson retaliated. The dueling yellow and purple blasts filled the room like fireworks. Branson reached out with both hands. One hand fired a steady stream of energy towards the unknown attackers, as electricity sprang from the other. His yellow stream was met with a purple one from one of the attackers, creating a shockwave that knocked everyone within a ten feet radius to the ground. Branson’s electric blast hit one of the other men in black, making him convulse and crumple to the ground. Chase fired a blast at him, knocking him into the wall so hard that he fell down into the surrounding rubble, unconscious.
Graham laid there trying to process what has happening. His first impression was that this was yet another attempt to bring his power to the surface. He looked over at Chase. “Chase, you can stop. It won’t work if I know what it is.” Before he could get his next sentence out, a purple blast hit him in the side. His legs flew out from underneath him and he crashed to the ground with a thud. He grabbed his side and rolled over in agonizing pain. This was different. This was real. The blasts continued to fly through the room, lighting up the smoke that permeated the Manor. Graham could see Kel and Ailey curled up underneath the large table with Damien’s arms wrapped around them in protection. Thank God, Graham breathed as he continued to wince in pain. Graham looked over to Chase, but he was gone. He could see a faint path through the smoke where he had ran. Graham followed the path with his eyes until he could see two of the invaders flying through the air, and crashing into the walls.
As he lay there, he could see Cavaness’ large form through the smoke in hand-to-hand combat with two of the others. Murphy was trying to form what looked like a glowing net to capture one of them, but before he could cast it, seven or eight blasts hit him all over. His body went limp as he fell backwards. He did not catch himself as his head connected with the wood floor. He did not move. He was out cold.
Branson was still locked in his streaming blast with one of the others. His stream was growing shorter and shorter as the dark purple blast coming from the other guy was growing longer. In a split second, Branson was overtaken by the purple stream as the invader’s blast met his hand, and in a huge flash of purple, he was send crashing into the table where Damien and the others had taken shelter. Branson hit with such force that the table broke in half, sending shards of wood everywhere. The two halves of the table tossed in the air and fell on top of his unconscious body.
“Run, Graham! Get the others and run! NOW!” Chase’s voice echoed through the room. Graham could not see where he was. Graham’s adrenaline kicked in. The pain in his side faded and he jumped to his feet, running over to Damien and the others. He grabbed Damien by the arm.
“Come on, we have to get out of here!”
“WHERE?! I can’t see anything!” yelled Damien.
Graham twisted his head around in a panicked search for an exit. He looked all around until a glare to his right caught his eye.
“GET OFF HIM! AhhhhHHHHH!!!”
Graham could hear Chase trying to help Cavaness as blasts flew from what he assumed was Chase’s hands. The glare hit his eye again.
“The mirrors! We have to get over to the Transit Mirrors! Grab each other’s hands,” shouted Graham.
Small rocks peppered his face as the fighting continued behind them. Graham heard another body hit the ground. His heart sank as he prayed it was one of the invaders and not Chase or Cavaness. Graham could now see a faint outline of one of the mirrors through the smoke. He stretched out his hand as his wrist illuminated. They were almost there. He was just a few feet from the mirror until a large hand with a glowing purple wristband took hold of his arm.
“Where do you think you are going, boy?” The voice was deep, callous and cold. “OVER HERE. I have them!” yelled the sinister voice to the others.
The smoke was beginning to clear, just enough to make out one of the invaders forming thick black chains
between his hands. Cavaness was already bound, and Chase was in the process of being shackled. The chains around their bodies looked like a solid smoke. The Former placed his hands over Chase’s and Cavaness’ mouths. Once he removed his hands, a strip of a thick black smokey substance remained. There was one other invader still conscious. He fired two blasts into their chests. Their muffled grunts of pain echoed through the room. Graham struggled against his captor, but he could feel his energy being syphoned from his wrist. Damien reached out to fire in retaliation, but the stranger held his glowing purple hand to Graham’s temple. “Ah, ahhhh. That would be a mistake.” A wave of fear swept over Damien. He wanted to fight back, but not at the expense of Graham. He put his hand back down.
The element of surprise was too much. All the members of Aegis were either unconscious or bound, and once again Graham could not help but feel the sinking feeling of despair over not being able to help. The other two men in black walked over and picked up their fallen comrades. They carried them over to where Graham and the others stood. One by one, the taller stranger grabbed his teammates by the wrist. Both of their bands began to glow as he transferred some of his energy to the others, bringing them back to consciousness. They all stood up, shaking off the pain, regaining their awareness of where they were and what they were supposed to do next.
The man holding Graham looked at Cavaness and Chase as they fought against their bonds. “So, this is the one. The bottomless well.” He tightened his grip around Graham’s wrist. Turning his wrist so that his forearm was facing the ceiling, the man took notice of the vacant circle. “He is strong, no doubt about that. I guess we will find out soon enough. Us, that is. Not you.” He looked over to one of his subordinates and gave a nod of approval. The leader then removed two of the Transit Mirrors from the wall and threw them to the ground. With two swift stomps, he shattered them beneath his boot. Each one of the invaders grabbed Kel, Damien and Ailey by the arms and placed their hand to the center of the final mirror and vanished. Only Graham, his captor, and one other man in black remained.
“Time it right,” the leader said to his comrade. The other man then raised both hands and shot a large pulse of energy into the ground, then turned around and exited the room through the mirror. The entire house began to quake and tremble, as the floor began to crack beneath them.
Graham’s captor looked over to Cavaness and Chase. “I won’t kill you myself. I would, but I have my orders.” He looked directly into the eyes of Cavaness. “Consider us even.”
Cavaness clenched his jaw and furrowed his brow, murmuring something behind the strip covering his mouth. Graham looked behind him at his captor’s face. Bent over and nearly breathless, Graham searched his mind until he remembered where he saw this man.
“Si…Silas?”
Bits of the ceiling began to fall down around them. The walls were beginning to buckle and the beams from the ceiling were cracking and caving in. Silas shifted his gaze from Cavaness to the ceiling above. The corner of his mouth curled up into an evil grimace. “A little ironic, don’t you think Cavaness? Best of luck, old friend.”
At that, he placed his four fingers into the small divots carved into the wood surrounding the glass of the mirror. Still having a firm grip on Graham’s arm, he placed his thumb to the mirror, and with a fading mist, they were gone, along with the mirror. Within minutes, Portfield Manor imploded into a large heap of rubble as Silas’ sinister laugh lingered in the air.
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
Revelation
Graham’s feet landed on the cold, stone surface. He hadn’t realized that the attack on Portfield Manor had knocked him right out of his shoes. The light from the bulbs around the cavern danced along the surface of the water in the large pool. Graham tried to get his baring as he looked around. Six of them who were trained enough to take out Cavaness and the others, against four kids who were largely undeveloped. Their chance of survival was very grim.
Thick black smoky chains had already been placed around the hands of Kel, Damien and Ailey. The Former was in the process of extracting more chains from his hands so he could shackle their feet as well. They were lined up all in a row near the edge of the pool, with one of the men in black standing guard behind each one.
Silas shoved Graham, making him shuffle forward, almost falling to his knees. He looked at his friends, now completely bound. His eyes asked them if they understood what as happening, and each of their eyes confirmed they did not. Graham stood there trying to process the events, trying to understand who these people were. What did they want? Why take us? How did this guy know Cavaness? Oh no! Were Cavaness and the others even alive? Surely the house had crumbled by now.
“I’ve been told you are the one that can tip the scales in our favor. Is this true, boy?” said Silas in his controlled yet icy voice.
“I don’t have any idea what you are talking about. I’m a nobody. If there was someone who is strong enough to give you an edge, there is no way it could be me. Please, just let us go,” said Graham.
“Go? Now? Why, we didn’t get to finish our conversation the other day. I don’t think I even got to give you my full name. My name is Silas Serene. You know, my offer still stands. I can still help you if you like, though I can see that you have already gotten started.”
Silas grabbed Graham’s arm and twisted it so that his forearm was facing upwards. He hovered his hand above Graham’s wrist, making it illuminate. Silas stared at Graham’s band and the empty circle that should house the emblem of his gifting. He released Graham’s arm, letting it fall back to his side. “Not there yet, I see. No matter, we will make it come to the surface one way or another. These things can be tricky. Alex created your little training facility to develop you. If have found the more direct route to be more effective. We like to apply a more direct ‘cause-and-effect’ atmosphere. You see, the real key is to find the proper motivator. The most difficult part is to find the right fit when there are so many to choose from.”
Silas paced around Graham as he spoke, his hands joined together behind his back in a sophisticated strut. “Public humiliation, physical harm, destruction of personal property, injury to loved ones….these are very effective methods. Which one do you think will draw out your ability, Graham?”
Graham’s blood ran cold at the mention of the last ‘method.’ He could take pain. He would prefer torture over seeing his friends being hurt. He had done that once today already. His pace quickened as his eyes combed the cavern for anything that would get them out of this and back with Aegis.
Silas must have noticed Graham’s change in demeanor, because he stopped his pacing and smiled. “Ahh, something struck a nerve, didn’t it. Now, it is just a process of elimination. Very well.”
“Wait! Just tell me what you want me to do and I will do it. What is this special person supposed to do? I can’t claim to be someone I don’t know about.” Graham was grasping at any possibility to buy time to think.
“Do you really think I am foolish enough to give you time to formulate an escape? Let’s just say that there is one special person who is rumored to have a gift of unlimited potential. We will leave it at that.”
“And you think I am this ‘holy grail’ of limitless power? I can tell you right now that you have the wrong person.” Graham pointed to his friends. “Ask them. They will tell you. I haven’t been able to save anyone or do anything to help this entire time!”
Silas looked at Graham, then the others, then back to Graham. “So modest and humble. I am touched. Of course no one will think they have this much power. That would be arrogant, and besides, you have just stepped into our world.” Silas put his hand on Graham’s shoulder. “I wouldn’t expect you to know your potential right from the start. It has to be revealed. That is what I am here for. I am here to help you.”
His grip tightened, making Graham’s knees buckle under the pain. “Now, you have bought enough time. Have you found a way out yet?”
Graham was silent.
Silas held up his hand. It ignited into a ball of purple energy. He held his hand close to Graham’s head as he leaned in to whisper something in Graham’s ear. Graham gasped.
“Ladies first.” Silas fired a blast, hitting Kel directly in the stomach. Kel yelled in pain as she doubled over and fell to the ground.
“STOP IT! Just take me with you and do whatever you want to with me! You don’t have to do this!” Hot tears began to form in Graham’s eyes.
Kel lay there curled up in the fetal position as Silas threw three more blasts, hitting her in the small of her back and thigh. Kel cried out in pain as she curled up tighter into a ball to shield herself from the attack.
Graham threw a punch at Silas, but his reflexes were too fast. Silas moved his head to the side, dodging Graham’s paltry attack. He then fired a blast into Graham’s ribs, making Graham stumble to the side.
“Physical harm won’t do. You are much to stubborn for that. Don’t worry though. I can see what needs to be done.”
Silas began to walk over to the others. Kel was still on the floor, and Ailey tucked her head into her shoulders as she shifted with her shackled feet away from Silas. She knelt down beside Kel and threw herself on top of her to protect her. Damien tried to summon the water from the pool, but the chains that were crafted from energy seemed to be blocking his ability. He frantically swept his hands from side to side trying make the water rise, but the power of the Former’s chains were to strong. Not knowing what else to do, he sprinted towards Silas and sunk his shoulder into his gut, knocking him to the ground.