by C J Benjamin
“What did you do to her? Look at her arm,” Nova yelled. “I knew this was a bad idea!”
He turned on Sparrow. “You better be able to fix her!”
“Don’t threaten her!” barked Journey, puffing up his chest and trying to get closer than Sparrow would allow to Nova.
“Stop it! All of you! We need to calm down!” Sparrow yelled. “Give me a minute to think!”
We were silent for a split second. It was long enough for me to look back at my arm and see that the stone was receding and my flesh was returning. It looked pink and new, but it was definitely skin.
“Uh guys, look,” I said holding up my arm.
We watched as my pink skin waged war against the stone. It retreated all the way to my fingernails and then finally surrendered completely. Then we all swiveled our heads, turning our attention to Journey’s stone hand. We were all expecting his hand to turn back to flesh as mine had, but after about five minutes of waiting, Sparrow spoke up.
“I just realized something.”
We all looked at her.
“Well she’s a Parallel right?” She paused, seeming to expect us to get to the same conclusion as she had, but when we gazed back at her with blank stares she looked aggravated and realized she was going to have to spell it out for us. “She has my healing powers, so she simply healed herself.”
“So then Journey needs you to heal him,” I said.
“I’ve never healed a person before, I told you that,” she hissed at me.
“We’ll I’m sure you can do it if I can,” I encouraged.
She looked nervously at Journey and then back at me.
“Maybe you should try it. It worked so well on your own arm,” she said to me.
“She’s not touching me!” Journey barked taking a step backwards.
“Alright, alright,” Nova chimed in. “I don’t care who does it but we need to do it quickly. We need to get back to the Center! We’ve been out here way too long.”
“Journey, please let her try. I’m scared that I won’t do a good enough job and we only have one shot at this. Please let her try. I’ll never forgive myself if I hurt you,” Sparrow pleaded.
I’d never seen her look so scared. She was always so bright and confident. What did she mean we only had one shot? If I screwed it up would he be stuck with a stone hand forever? Why was she afraid to heal people? She healed the tree just fine. I stood there watching Journey’s face twist as he fought back his emotions. He was obviously upset that Sparrow was so frightened, yet he really didn’t want to let me try out my newly acquired healing skills on him. I couldn’t say I blamed him, but I was pretty sure Sparrow was going to win this one.
I was right. Journey stormed over to me. “You better do this right,” he growled.
Sparrow was by my side. “You can do this. Just concentrate, okay? I’ll be right here,” she said as she took my hand in hers.
I took a deep breath and swallowed hard as I slowly grasped Journey’s awkward stone fist and closed my eyes. I had no idea how this happened, but I truly hadn’t meant to harm Journey. I liked him. He was one of us. Whatever us was. He was helping me learn about my powers and I’d be damned if I was going to let a little thing like this ruin my chances of learning more about myself. Somehow I knew that I was going to need Journey in my quest, and I needed him whole, so that meant two working hands.
Sparrow’s tightening grasp startled me and my eyes flew open. I looked down at Journey’s hand. My hand was gripping his newly pink flesh.
“You did it!” she said sobbing, as she flung her arms around me. “I knew you could!”
“Thanks,” said Journey, slipping his hand through mine so he could examine it better. I wasn’t quite sure how I’d managed to heal Journey so perfectly, but I didn’t have a chance to find out.
Nova gave us all a stern look and said, “Now let’s go.”
14
It was a silent walk back. We all moved single-file through the forest at a brisk pace. I had my eyes and ears alert to all the normally hidden sounds of the nocturnal forest. It seemed I couldn’t turn off the hunting power that Journey gave me. Instead of it heightening my awareness, I just felt like it was congesting my head. What happened with Journey’s hand tonight? How did I do that? Why did he try to turn my hand to stone? Did he think it was a joke? He had to have known that Sparrow might not be able to heal it. So why did he take such a reckless chance with me? And what was an Echo?
Tonight did not go as I planned at all. I had more questions than ever before. I was brooding mad when we reached the edge of the forest. The sun was threatening to overthrow the night sky. Nova was right, we had been in the forest much longer then we should have, but I refused to take another step until I got some answers.
“I’m not going back,” I said.
“Quit playing around, Tippy. We need to go right now,” Nova said.
“No! I need answers. I know there’s so much more you’re all not telling me and I’m sick of it!”
“We have to go, Tippy. Please! We can’t be caught out here,” Sparrow pleaded.
“Tippy, please don’t make me force you to go back. I promise you that we’ll keep doing this. We’ll all come out here every night and you’ll get your answers, but we don’t have any more time tonight. We have to go back, now! Right now, Tippy, I mean it.”
I could hear Nova’s voice loud and clear in my mind, but instead of entrancing me as he usually did, he only made my blood boil. I glared at him as he spoke to me like I was a toddler. How dare he say he would force me to go back! He promised he’d never use his mind bending on me only last night and tonight he was already threatening to go back on that promise. How was I supposed to believe any of his promises? And Sparrow and Journey were so frightened by me tonight they’d probably never go back to forest with me. What if they were so scared that they told Greeley about me? No, no I couldn’t go back. I wouldn’t! Not without learning more. This could be my only opportunity to learn the truth. My eyes narrowed and my hands clenched. I could feel my heart thundering with anger in my chest. My fury boiled over and something took over me. I heard a scream escape my lips that sent a chill down my spine.
“NO!” I screamed.
The sound was coming from me, but the voice sounded so foreign it startled me. It was low, and guttural. It sounded more like the growl of a tarcat than a human. Suddenly there was a burst of bright blue light. It was like lightning, only it started from directly above my head and spanned out quickly in a ripple. I stared up at it, thinking it looked just like the little rings that follow after you drop a pebble into a puddle, spreading wider and wider until they disappear. Everything seemed so calm and quiet as the light spread slowly away from me. I lowered my gaze to find Nova and the others. They seemed frozen. They were all staring at me with expressions of surprise, or maybe it was fear. I wanted to ask them why they weren’t looking at the sky. It was so pretty, I couldn’t believe they were missing it, but every word I formed seemed to be swallowed up before it could roll off my tongue. Every movement seemed to be drenched in molasses. I could barely move. It seemed like I was in a dream world of slow motion. I focused on Nova and I could see his eyes were animated, tracking me, but he was still locked in his awkward stance. I forced a step toward him and then felt a searing pain in my head. Suddenly the light ripple retracted at lightning speed. It rewound rapidly, sucking its blue light back into itself and disappeared with a final blinding burst of blue light and a whip-like crack above my head.
Blackness.
15
I woke up in my cot bed rubbing my head. My eyes were out of focus when I opened them and everything seemed brighter than it ought to be. I sat up and rubbed the sleep out of them. When I pulled my hands from my face I was startled to find Sparrow staring back at me.
“Are you alright?” she whispered.
“Yeah, why?”
She just stared back at me. I caught movement in the corner of my eye and turned to see the yell
ow and white checked curtains of Miss Breia’s nurse room billowing above me.
“What? How did I…? But…” I stammered.
“Shhhhh….” Sparrow hissed. “You’ll wake her,” she said motioning toward the door to Miss Breia’s office.
“We brought you here last night, do you remember?”
I thought back, I remembered our trip to the forest, and all the things that Journey taught me; including the not-so-fun turning my hand to stone trick and everything turning to chaos. Then I remember being really mad that it was time to go because I wanted more time and more answers. Then there was that blue light in the sky!
“The light,” I said quietly.
“Yes, the light. Good, you remember.”
“I didn’t think you saw it, you were all just staring at me and I wanted you to see it. Then I, I….” I let my voice trail off because the rest was fuzzy. “How did I get here?” I asked Sparrow.
“Nova redirected the Grifts so we could sneak you back in. Journey carried you to Miss Breia’s, saying you woke up in the middle of the night complaining of a headache and asked for her before you passed out. She was nice enough to let me stay and wait for you to wake up.”
“But, I don’t remember any of that. I only remember that weird blue light and everything seemed like slow motion, and then there was a horrible pain in my head, then a cracking sound. What was all of that? I’ve never seen anything like it.”
“Neither have I,” she said solemnly, with a look of concern that was uncharacteristic of her usual chipperness.
“What’s wrong?” I asked nervously.
“Tippy, you did that. You made the light. You froze us all.” She paused waiting for me to understand what she was saying before she continued. “It’s called a fissure and it’s a way to stop time. It’s very dangerous and I’ve always thought it was sort of a myth. No one has ever seen a fissure like that,” she said with her eyes brimming with tears.
I could feel the fear she was emoting, but it wasn’t for her self, but for me. She was afraid for me. She was afraid that my powers would hurt me. This frightened me more than anything. I never thought of it like that. I thought it was an amazing gift. Some sort of reward for putting up with the rough life of an orphan with no friends. An answer to my prayers, something good. But what if Sparrow was right? What if this was all too much for me? What if I couldn’t control it? Maybe I would hurt someone or myself? I didn’t even know what a fissure was or that I could do it. What else didn’t I know about myself? Was this more than I could handle?
I felt her fear wash over me. I absorbed every ounce of it and it shook me. My eyes welled up and I reached for her hand. She took hold of it and squeezed.
“Did I… Did I hurt you?”
“No, no. It’ll be okay. We’ll help you. We’ll figure it out.”
“Please… Please help me.”
Then we collapsed into a sobbing heap on the cot bed.
16
The bell chimed, signaling… wait what was it signaling? I had lost track of time again. I didn’t know if it was the morning bell or the breakfast bell or if it was time for lessons already. Before I could ask Sparrow, Miss Breia bustled in with a tray of fruit and porridge answering my question.
“Good morning, Janes! I was hoping you’d be up, 65. I brought you some breakfast. 42, you had better run along so you don’t miss out on your own meal.”
“I will, Miss Breia. Thank you for letting me stay with her.” Sparrow smiled as she patted my hand affectionately before turning to leave.“Meet me for lunch. We all need to talk,” she telepathed.
I nodded at her and she left me to my breakfast. I was suddenly in a rush to get back to my room. All I wanted to do was get ready for lessons and grab my journal. I wanted to write down everything I could remember from last night while it was still fresh in my mind. I gobbled down my food and finished my juice in three giant gulps, wiping my mouth with the back of my salty hand. I thanked Miss Breia and ran out of her office before she could detain me.
When I got back to room 13 it was deserted. The rest of my year was enjoying meal in the dining hall by now. I quickly changed and grabbed my books. I instantly felt like I could breathe easier when I laid hands on my journal. I checked to make sure my enchantments still worked and then headed down the hall to Reading and Writing. I knew I would be early, but I wanted to avoid everyone and get some alone time to work on recounting last night.
The rest of the day flew by in a blur. I journaled all through lessons. Remi gave me some suspicious stares, but I ignored him, scribbling away.
Dear Journal,
Last night was interesting to say the least. It started out rocky, as I suspected. Nova wasn’t happy that I brought Sparrow and Journey along. It was pretty tense for a while, but then we made some real progress.
Sparrow taught me how to fly, well sort of. I was able to bound from tree to tree. It felt like I was flying, soaring above the forest floor. It was so much fun.
Journey was amazing. He has so many interesting powers and he was really eager to share them with me. He is even stronger than he looks. He showed me how to harness my inner strength and channel it. I was able to crush a stone into dust with my bare hands! He taught me how to hunt, as he calls it. I learned how to tune out the apparent noises and distractions so that I could really hear what was going on around me. And he taught me how to see in the dark, it’s some kind of nocturnal vision, I guess like animals have.
Things were going great up to this point. Even Nova seemed to be relaxing and enjoying playing with our powers. Then Journey tried to teach me another power and everything went wrong. He tried to turn my hand to stone, but I turned his hand to stone by accident and everyone went crazy. All the progress we made was gone, Nova was ready to kill Journey, and Sparrow was crying, and then all of a sudden I started healing myself! It was amazing. I guess I picked that power up from Sparrow. Then I had to heal Journey, but he seemed like he didn’t want to trust me. He had to and I did heal him, so that sort of made things better, but Nova had enough and ordered us home.
On the way back I started to feel strange, like I couldn’t shut off the hunting trick that Journey taught me. I could hear everything; every breath and heartbeat of every living thing in the forest. It was so distracting and it made me mad. I wanted to think clearly and I wanted to know more. I didn’t want the night to be over. But Nova said it was time to go, and he was right. I realize that now. I should have listened to him. Why does he even put up with me? Why do any of them? All I do is cause trouble. I brought Sparrow and Journey with me, without telling Nova. I almost got us all into a rumble by accidentally turning Journey’s arm to stone. Then, to top it all off, I threw a temper tantrum on the way back and caused some sort of time-stopping fissure! Oh, and as if that’s not bad enough, I passed out and made my friends carry me back. And, they had to figure out a way to clean up my mess once again.
I’m just really glad we didn’t get caught. And it seems like Sparrow is still my friend, which leads me to believe Journey will be too, or at least he’ll come around to the idea of it if Sparrow says he has to. But what about Nova? He has to be ready to kill me. I need to see him. I really just need to talk to them and get it all out in the open. I need to know what I am and what I can do, before I hurt someone!
Sparrow really scared me when she was talking about the fissure. I could see how scared she was. I could feel her fear. I don’t want to make anyone feel that way ever again.
And what about the Echo? I almost forgot that Journey called me an Echo. I don’t know what that means, but that made him react like Sparrow did about the fissure. He was frightened. Frightened of me.
Did I get any answers last night?
I still don’t feel like I’m any closer to knowing my name or anything about my family, so Question 1 and 2 are still open.
Question 3, I guess I can say that even if I have a crush on Nova, I’m doing a great job at ruining any chances I’d ever have with him
by acting like a crazy, stone-forming, fissure-slinging freak. So that takes care of him wanting to trust me and tell me about his mind bending.
I almost could answer Question 6 – Can I trust Journey? I would have totally said yes before he turned my hand to stone and all that. Now I should revise that question to: Can Journey trust me?
What about being a Parallel? That was Question 9. I think everyone was pretty convinced, because if I understand it right, it means I can absorb a power from someone else and then I’m able to have that power as well. I did a lot of that last night and everyone seemed pretty impressed. But what about Journey calling me an Echo? Was that the same thing as a Parallel or was it a bad thing? Everything else was going to have to take a backseat to that question.
Question 11 – What’s an Echo? Am I one?
Question 12 – Am I strong enough to control all of this?
17
The lunch bell finally sounded and I scurried to the dining hall as fast as I could. I wanted to get my food and get to our table quickly so I’d have as much time as possible to talk with Sparrow and the others. I heard Remi calling after me as I ran down the hall, but I put my head down and kept going, pretending not to hear him. It made me feel bad to ignore him and my cheeks burned with shame.
I was the first one to arrive at our table. Sparrow and Journey joined me shortly, and then Nova. He looked worried, which totally threw me off because that wasn’t what I was expecting. I thought he would be pretty peeved after last night, and I had a whole speech prepared that I was going to telepath to him, apologizing and explaining that I was ready to work with everyone so we could get my powers under control. But this, this whole worried, timid-looking Nova was the last thing I’d expected and it perplexed me. I just stared at him, unsure of what to do or say. We all sat there silently glancing from one to the other. I could feel the uneasiness and it was making me squirm because I knew I was the cause for it.