Tompkin's School (For The Extraordinarily Talented Book 1)

by Slick, Tabi

  “So, these night walkers aren’t the monsters?” I asked, starting to put it all together.

  She shook her head, fervently.

  “Oh, no,” she replied, “they are the academy’s army.”

  So, much seemed to have changed over a hundred years. Or had it? Perhaps the night walkers still existed, but were much more quiet about it now than before? I would bet that Chuck would be the head of the whole operation if there was one.

  “If you act different,” Catherine continued, “or say the wrong thing, they will take you into the woods and bury you.”

  “How do you know this?” I asked.

  “I saw it,” she whispered, shivering, “I saw them bury another classmate last month. They report it to the papers as missing students, blaming it on gangs. But they don’t let us look at the newspaper.”

  My eyes widened in astonishment. I couldn’t believe what I was hearing! This academy was murdering innocent students just because they were a bit different? All this to get rid of the monsters that flew at night. I felt the anger grow inside of me as the reality of what was occurring at this school set in.

  “What time is it?” I asked, suddenly feeling like it was late.

  “Nearly door closing time, I’m sure,” she responded.

  “I’ve got to go,” I exclaimed.

  “They’ll take you,” she warned.

  “I’m sure I’ll be fine,” I said, grabbing the bag with my old clothes in them, “thank you for the dress. I’ll return it when I can.”

  I rushed to the door, leaving the traumatized girl behind. Although I hadn’t found any clues as to where the brothers were, I still had obtained very interesting information about the school that would definitely help us. I checked the hall and found that it was empty so I ran towards the stairs and out towards where the paths met. It was dark outside and I could just barely see the path below me and I was worried that I might have stayed too long.

  “Kain!” I called when I saw him, waiting for me at the bottom of the narrow path.

  He spun around and I noticed that he had also found a change of attire. We didn’t need to draw any unwanted attention to ourselves, more than we probably already did with our complexion and black hair.

  “Hey, how was it?” He asked.

  “No luck on the brothers,” I said, “how did you do?”

  He just shook is head.

  “Where’d you get the outfit?” I asked.

  “Stole it from some student,” he shrugged.

  “Huh,” I said, “well, I did get some information.”

  “What?” He inquired.

  “Did you know that the school basically has an army?” I asked.

  “An army?” He asked, raising an eyebrow.

  “Yes,” I replied, “this girl Catherine told me that the school has these men she calls night walkers who search for students that they think are like us.”

  “And what do they do with them?” He asked.

  “She said that they bury them,” I answered, “and they don’t let them look at the newspaper.”

  “Probably why Ms. Chomsky ripped that paper off that table so fast,” Kain added.

  “Probably,” I agreed.

  “I just can’t believe this,” he said, “I mean how is this academy still even around in our time if this is true?”

  “I don’t know,” I shrugged.

  Suddenly, we heard footsteps behind us and we quickly got off of the path and hid behind some brush. We waited in silence as the footsteps got closer, hoping that we weren’t seen already. We definitely didn’t need to get ourselves killed in freaking 1911.

  “How is this going to work?” I heard a familiar voice ask.

  It’s Edwin, my thoughts whispered.

  Kain nodded in acknowledgement.

  “Simple,” Lawrence’s voice responded, “we slip in through here and go straight to section F for the journal.”

  “Easy for you to say,” Edwin’s voice replied, “with you’re invisibility power you don’t have to worry about getting caught.”

  “Don’t worry,” Lawrence assured him, “I’ll cover you. If anyone challenges us they won’t know what hit them.”

  “It’s not the full moon, though,” Edwin’s worried voice said, “we’re not as strong as we should be for a mission like this.”

  “Come on,” Lawrence said, “we need to get to the library before someone notices we’re gone.”

  I met eye contact with Kain and I knew he was thinking the same thing. We needed to get to the library, but without the brothers seeing us. We would let them do the hard part of extracting the journal and then we would take if from them. I peaked over the brush and verified that they had already left the path.

  Come on, I thought.

  We left the woods and followed the path to the main campus. It was extremely dark without the streetlights that usually framed the parking lot and major sidewalks, but we could see the lantern that one of the brothers held. They were halfway to the library so we quietly followed them, keeping our distance so they wouldn’t hear us. We crept to the back side of the library just out of site from the brothers. We peeked around the corner just in time to see the twins breaking in through a side window into the dark, deserted library.

  Should we follow them? Kain’s thoughts asked.

  That could be too risky, I thought back, what if someone comes?

  Then you keep watch, Kain’s thoughts suggested, and warn me if anyone does.

  Sounds good, I shrugged, not wanting to argue.

  I just hoped he wouldn’t let the twins see or hear him. We didn’t need to make any new enemies. I hunkered down behind some bushes where I had a good visual of the possible areas where this “army” could come from. I didn’t want to be seen and have to get into a fight while I was still in my human form. I had no idea if I was even capable of doing any kind of damage when not in transition, except perhaps the few powers I had control over. But again I had never used my powers in combat mode outside of the transition. I hadn’t had the need to and I totally didn’t even think about practicing. I hoped everything worked out as desired, otherwise we could all be frozen forever or something. It seemed like I had been sitting there forever when I soon heard voices not too far off to my right. I peered through the branches and noticed a large group of lanterns spread out across the campus grounds just to the side of the library. I knew there were people holding the lanterns, but since the sun had set I couldn’t see them causing an eerie effect.

  Kain, they’re coming! My thoughts warned.

  I waited a moment for a response and when I didn’t hear any I quietly left my spot and slowly crept around the back. There had to be a back entrance. The voices were getting closer and I knew I was running out of time. Why wasn’t Kain responding? Did he even hear my warning?

  Kain! My thoughts shouted, but still there was no response.

  I finally found the back door in the pitch darkness. There were very few times that I would ever wish for the full moon so I could transition, but being able to see in the dark would have been very helpful. I tried to pull the door open, but the door was completely locked. I took a deep breath, trying to calm myself down as I felt myself start to freak out. The army was on their way and I knew they would kill us along with the brothers in a heartbeat. Four birds with one stone? Efficient. I shook my head and tried to focus on the task at hand. I couldn’t afford to get distracted. I focused on the door, even though I could barely see it, and stretched my left arm forward in the air towards the door. I hoped this worked, and worked quietly. My arm tensed as my hands locked on its target. I felt the connection and began to move my arm away from the library.

  Crack!

  I heard the rusty metal of the door’s hinges break away with a loud snap. They would’ve heard that. I knew I was running out of time so I threw care away and focused harder. There came another deafening snap as my pull caused the entire door to fly away from the library and slam onto the ground about twe
nty feet away from the building.

  “This way!” I heard a man’s voice shout.

  I heard their rushing feet and I immediately ran into the library. It was so dark as the rows of books acted as a barrier between me and the windows above. I raced through the rows as best I could in the dark and immediately started looking for section F. My heart was beating so fast that I could feel it pounding in my ears. I knew the men were not far behind and I prayed that I would be able to find Kain in time to get away. This was so not worth it. I didn’t even want to think about how we were going to get back to our time. I heard the footsteps rush through the back entrance and saw the light from the lanterns reflect through the spaces between the shelves. I ducked down as the light passed by me, hoping that they didn’t see my shadow.

  “Everyone quiet!” I heard someone call to the other men.

  I heard my heavy breathing and immediately held it. I wasn’t about to give them any hints as to my location. Suddenly, I heard a crash come from the front side of the library.

  “They’re on the other side!” A man shouted, his voice sounded as though it was close.

  “We’ll go around,” Another replied, “cut them off over there.”

  Kain, what the hell are you doing? My thoughts asked.

  At this point I was panicking as our chances of escaping were exponentially decreasing.

  “Pssst!” I heard someone whisper behind me.

  I jumped at the sound, nearly knocking into the bookshelf I was crouching beside. I spun around to find Kain peaking around the far corner of the aisle.

  “Where have you been?” I whispered.

  “Where do you think?” He hissed back.

  I looked over my shoulder to make sure we were in the clear and then quietly made my way to where Kain was.

  “Why haven’t you been responding?” I aske.

  “Out of range?” Kain joked.

  I jokingly punched him the shoulder, shaking my head.

  “Don’t ever do that again,” I scolded, “anyways, did you find the journal?”

  “Yeah,” he replied, “Edwin found it.”

  “Well?” My eyes widened as I noticed that he wasn’t holding any kind of book, “Did you get it?”

  “No,” he added.

  “Why not?” I asked.

  “I was about to,” Kain whispered, “but before I could we all heard the men’s footsteps and so they ran off.”

  “You lost them?” I asked.

  “No, that’s why I came to get you,” he replied, “we need to go after them, but we have to keep some distance. The men saw them escape through the front.”

  “Well, come on then!” I cried.

  We both sprang into action, making a run for the front of the library. When we reached the front we didn’t see any signs of the men and so we rushed for the door. We slowly opened it a crack to make sure no one was standing on the steps. From what we could tell there was no one was blocking the entrance so we slipped through the door and out of the library.

  “Look,” Kain said, pointing to the group of men, “they’re heading towards the woods.”

  “They must be close to catching the brothers,” I muttered, “they’re running pretty fast.”

  “Come on,” Kain replied.

  We rushed towards the woods, keeping a safe distance away from the men who were armed with rifles and others with spears. We were gaining on them and soon we could see Edwin and Lawrence in the distance, running for their lives. I saw Lawrence grab Edwin’s hand and try to use his power to make them both disappear, but it didn’t work. Only Lawrence vanished, leaving Edwin looking as though he were all alone.

  “I’m not strong enough!” I heard Lawrence exclaim.

  I saw Edwin trip on a root, letting out a cry as he fell to the ground.

  “Brother!” Edwin called, reaching for Lawrence but there was no use.

  Before Lawrence or I could help, he was surrounded by the army.

  “Thought you’d get away with it, you demon?” A man taunted.

  What do we do? My thoughts asked Kain.

  I’ve only mastered boiling things, Kain’s thoughts replied, Why don’t you freeze them?

  I don’t know if it’ll work! My thoughts cried as we stopped just out of sight, but close enough that we could see that Edwin was completely trapped.

  You’re gonna have to try, Kain’s thoughts said.

  I took a deep breath and tried to I cleared my thoughts. It would be a miracle if I was going to be able to do this without making a mistake. I squinted my eyes as I had done before and tried to push the power outward. I opened my eyes to see that nothing had changed. Why didn’t that work?

  “Where do you think you’re going?” The men laughed as they watched Edwin try to run passed them.

  Try to boil them! My thoughts shouted.

  I have been, Kain thought back, it’s not working.

  I clenched my fists so tight my nails nearly broke the skin. We weren’t strong enough to take out all of them in time! I squinted once more, visualizing my desire. I heard someone begin to choke and I opened my eyes to see what was happening.

  “What’s he doing?” A man cried.

  “He’s using his magic! Stop him!” Another bellowed.

  I could see the man being choked and knew he would soon be dead. But why didn’t they freeze? It was as though I had no power at all! Suddenly, a gun was fired and I saw the blood as Edwin fell to his knees.

  No!!!!! A familiar thought echoed silently.

  We both heard his voice and knew that this was Lawrence. He didn’t know we were here, so how did his thoughts push to ours? Perhaps the loss of a loved one had intensified his thoughts, broadcasting it to all who had the ability to hear.

  “Don’t just stand there,” one of the leaders shouted, “stab it in the heart so we can bury it.”

  I felt the anger inside of me rise to an all new level and my entire body shook with rage. Suddenly, I felt my eyes flash and I opened my clenched fists as a giant flame erupted in the palm of my hand. Without even thinking about it, I threw the ball of fire towards the group and watched as it landed on the far side of them. The trees and brush immediately caught on fire, causing panic amongst the armed men.

  “Fire!” They shouted.

  “Grab the carcass!” One of the men called over his shoulder as he ran away from the flames.

  All of sudden, the entire scene seemed to fade away and we were no longer surrounded by fire or the men who were called night walkers. We were still in the woods, but the trees looked older and the grass became soggy from rain.

  “Where did they go?” I asked out loud.

  “I don’t know,” Kain replied.

  “We have to get back there!” I cried, sloshing through the wet brush towards where Edwin had been shot.

  “He’s gone,” Kain said, following me, “we must be back in our time.”

  “Why? How?” I asked him as if he should know.

  I walked over the ground where I had seen him fall to his knees. Why couldn’t we stop it? Why couldn’t we save his life? Just then I felt another heartbeat that felt similar to how it felt in transition, but it didn’t quite feel like Kain’s.

  Izzy, Kain’s thoughts filled my head, do you feel that heartbeat?

  Yes, I thought.

  How? It’s not even the full moon, Kain thought.

  I just shrugged.

  Out of nowhere, I felt a tug on my heart. I looked over at Kain and could tell that he felt the same thing. I placed my hand on my chest, feeling the new heartbeat along with my own. It was the craziest feeling I had ever felt. Somehow, it felt different than when we were in transition...less natural. I heard a twig snap and I spun around.

  “Who’s there?” Kain called.

  Suddenly, a tall figure in a long cloak appeared in front of us. I was sure I had seen this figure before. This was the figure I had seen outside of the Walker’s home after the funeral.

  “Who are you?” I asked.
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  The figure reached up and removed the hood to reveal his face. He crossed his arms as he leaned against a nearby tree. As the wind blew his long, wavy blond hair away from his face, the aroma of his blood sent a tingling sensation through my body. I had never been able to smell the blood of others outside of the full moon so it was definitely a strange experience. It was also odd that I recognized it. A crooked smile appeared on the stranger’s face and I froze when I realized who it was.

  “Fancy meeting you here,” he said, grinning as his shaggy hair fell into his eyes.

  “Lawrence!” I gasped.

  I just stood there in awe that I was actually looking at the eldest Bartholomew brother. Not in the past or in a dream, but in the present. He stepped forward very close to me and I could feel his breath on my cheek.

  “Call me Choyce,” he whispered, brushing his lips against my ear.

  To be continued...