The Abnormals: Book One

by Isabelle Sorrells

  A thought occurred to him that caused his heart to skip a beat. Where were the others? Alex fought against the wind and peered through the storm. Not even their silhouettes were to be seen. Alex opened his mouth to call out for them, but his voice was lost. Amid his panic, the force of the wind shoved him into the trunk of a tree. The roar of the wind was drowned out by silence as his vision was clouded black.

  In what seemed like a few seconds, Alex’s eyes fluttered open but struggled to keep from closing. Alex frowned in confusion as he realized that he was still floating. He remembered he had lost consciousness, so shouldn’t he have been lost to gravity by now? His vision was still blurred, but he was able to hear the muffled sounds of the wind and thunder. Alex brought his hands almost effortlessly to his eyes, expecting to struggle against the wind. He rubbed the last of the dirt out of his eyes, and his vision was suddenly clear.

  He examined his surroundings to find all of his friends floating unconscious around him and surrounding them all, himself included, was a purple luminescent square. Alex shot into an upright position to discover he was not flying. Something was forcing him to float. But what?

  A grunt from behind him caused him to spin around. Jack was facing the luminescent wall of the strange square that encased them. With his arms spread wide, Jack’s hands were outlined in the same light purple of the square. A few beads of sweat formed on his forehead and slipped down his cheeks. He grunted through his gritted teeth from the effort. Alex forced his body to fly across the distance between the two.

  “Jack? Where are we? What’s going on?” Alex asked once he was directly behind him.

  “Oh good, you are finally awake. How are the others?” Jack ignored Alex’s question.

  “They are still unconscious, but you didn’t answer my question. How long was I down for?”

  “We are in the middle of the storm Winona created. I am attempting to shield us, but it is excruciatingly difficult. We have to get to permanent shelter, but through all this wind and dirt I can just barely make out my own hand. And you were not under for long. Maybe ten minutes or so.” Jack winced as a strong wind struck the wall in front of them; it was quickly followed by two more gusts. A large crack began to form within the luminescent glass. “This is causing to much strain for my magic.”

  A crackling sound rang out through the small enclosed square as a piece from the wall broke off and fell into the dirt storm.

  “If only we could—” Alex’s mouth snapped shut as a sharp pain ran through his head. His eyes went wide in astonishment as the world became almost colorless except for the light blue line outlining each object. Alex looked at the black outlined shape of Jack’s concerned face in utter confusion. Though he looked concerned, he did not move from his position.

  “Alex? Is everything all right?” Jack asked.

  Alex only managed a nod as he turned back to the wall ahead. His head began to throb and he squeezed an eye shut from the pain. That’s when he noticed the strange outlines he could see beyond the wall. He mostly saw trees, but as he focused he realized that just ahead of them was a mountain. Eroded just inside of it was a cave.

  “We need to go,” Alex muttered, not taking his eyes off the cave.

  “I know that, but where?” Jack asked as he watched the top of Alex’s head through the corner of his eyes.

  “You said we needed to find shelter, right? There is a mountain just ahead of us and in that mountain is a cave. We can find shelter there until the storm ends.”

  “How would you know that? I can’t see a thing.”

  “I’m not really sure. I can see it but I can’t. It’s just black outlined in a bright light blue. It’s not far, it’s only about a mile away. We can make it if we fly fast and without stopping.” Alex continued to stare at the outline of the opening. Defined outlines of leaves and dirt crossed between his vision and his head throbbed harder. Each speck of dirt and everything else around him was clear, visible, and well defined. Every animal, every gust of wind, every leaf, every stick was in his sight. Nothing could pass him without being noticed. The sight before him wavered and he lurched in pain. Alex shut his eyes and turned away, pinching the bridge of his nose to stop the horrible migraine. Jack turned his head to look at Alex with a raised eyebrow.

  “What’s wrong?” Jack asked.

  “Nothing. I’m fine. But we should get to that cave,” said Alex as he opened his eyes and sighed, relieved that the world was back to normal—in color at least. The storm continued to rage. The throbbing in his head had receded, but a small tug still remained.

  “I’ll send a Shadow out to check,” declared Jack as he turned back to the wall and flicked his eyes up and forward. At his command, a Shadow flew out from the folds of his cloak and into the wall. The wall around the Shadow rippled as it forced itself through and disappeared.

  Alex jumped in surprise as the Shadow returned. The Shadow floated in front of Jack for a moment before dissipating. An expression of surprise and wonderment flashed across Jack’s face, but only for a moment before he controlled himself. Jack turned back to Alex with a controlled, and relief filled expression.

  “So there it is. In order to get there we will have to fly without the force field. I have used too much of my strength, so I am incapable of moving us all while holding up the defenses,” said Jack calmly, as if he had less strain from when he was struggling to hold the shield moments before. “Please, go wake your friends. You do not have much time.”

  Alex did as he was told and after a few tries, managed to wake his unconscious companions. After everything was explained, they all stood ready, preparing themselves for Jack to drop the barrier.

  “I will clear a path by creating two walls that will hold the storm at bay, but I can only do this for four to five minutes at most. If you do not make it to the cave by then, you will have to figure out how to get there through the storm. If you are separated, do not panic and focus on getting to that cave. Am I understood?” Jack explained.

  The teens nodded in response.

  “All right. Be ready and good luck.” With one final nod Jack dropped his arms and time slowed to a crawl. Jack’s arms slowly disappeared within his cloak as it fell around him and hid his entire body. The line of teenagers all leaned their upper bodies forward. Their hair whipped around against the wind and dirt flew in front of them. In an instant the wind stopped and the dirt fell. Immediately they could see the tree trunks scattered in front of them lit up by the moonlight. To their sides, up above, and behind them four giant walls that glowed a light purplish-pink blocked the storm from them. A few leaves fluttered past them and to the ground from the sudden silence.

  Time sped up as they lunged forward and took off into the night. They swerved and ducked and dodged trees and branches as they flew as fast as they could to the cave. It wasn’t very far away, but with everything they had to get through it would take longer than it would in open space. They were halfway there when a loud boom echoed through the air, soon followed by a long ear-splitting crack.

  Without thinking, they stopped and looked around. Above them the barrier cracked and the crack bagan to grow and stretch across the distance that they covered with greater speed than theirs.

  “Hurry up! We have to get there before the barrier breaks! We are almost there!” Jack shouted over the cracking sound.

  They took off once again, desperate to get there before the tip of the growing crack reached them. No matter how far or how fast they flew, the crack gained on them by the second. They all sighed in relief when they caught sight of the cave. Their feet had barely grazed the rock floor outside of the cave when a boom sounded and broken shards of sparkling luminescent shield fell from the sky.

  The force of the blow sent them tumbling into the darkness of the cave. Alex immediately stood up and spun around. He watched as the shards of broken shield floated down, the moon light reflecting off them an
d creating millions of purple sparkles in the sky. It was beautiful. Almost calming.

  The calm soon ended when the sparkles were swept up into the storm as it burrowed through the air, bringing sticks, leaves, and dirt along with it. Alex turned and backed into the safety of the cave as a light purple wall shot up from the ground and blocked the storm from entering the cave. The sudden end of the storm caused an eerie silence to fill the black open space. That silence ended when a faint crackling sound from behind him caused Alex to spin around.

  Two more cracks followed before a light burst forth and flooded the cave. Alex shielded his eyes from the sudden light. Once he was used to the light, he lowered his arms to see Mark and Jack squatting in front of a fire. Jack sat beside Mark and watched him as Mark poked the fire with a stick. Alex sighed and took in his surroundings now that the light allowed him to discern a few yards ahead of him.

  The walls of the cave were damp. The low ceiling barely gave Jack enough room to stand. The rocks that jutted out from the ceiling were only inches above his head. An occasional rock stump stuck out from the rough and bumpy floor. Nicole leaned with her arms crossed and her eyes closed against a tall rock that reached from the floor to the ceiling. Darkness remained where the light ended. Only a few shadows could be seen. Sitting next to her, criss-crossed on the ground, was Brooke who stared intently into the growing flames. David was climbing the rock wall but continued to slip and fall as unstable rocks collapsed beneath his feet.

  Out of the corner of Alex’s eye, a flash of black leaped from one rock to another before disappearing. Startled, Alex spun around but, as he expected, nothing was visible.

  “What’s up?” Mark looked up and raised his brow in curiosity as he watched Alex spin around and look deeper into the cave. After a moment of silence, Alex spoke.

  “Nothing. Just a trick of the light.” Alex shrugged it off and sat across from Mark to warm himself with the fire.

  “What did you see?” Mark asked. Alex’s head shot up from the ground and his eyes widened. Could Mark have seen it too? No, he couldn’t have. His expression told him so. Grunts from the other side of the cave filled the air as David fell once again. Jack looked from Mark to Alex before standing up and walking over to David, who continually climbed the wall only to fall and try again.

  “David, what are you doing? Please stop you are going to hurt yourself,” Jack’s voice trailed off as he walked farther away.

  “Did you see anything?” Alex asked casually, regaining his composure.

  “No, I didn’t but—”

  “Then you have your answer,” Alex snapped. Mark threw his hands up in defense.

  “Okay! I was just wondering.” Mark picked up the stick and began to poke the fire again. Alex turned his head away and stared at the ground awkwardly. That’s when he remembered his headphones. Alex looked down to check to see if they were still there. Sure enough, they were still resting against his collarbone. He had completely forgotten that he had brought them. He may have had to leave the rest of his things back at the cliff, but he didn’t care about any of that.

  When he lived in California, he had found his headphones in a dumpster. They were dirty at first but after he cleaned them they were good as new. They were old and only played music from a cassette, but he took what he could get. He only had a few cassettes anyway. Before he found the device, he had never heard music. So of course he thought this discovery was better than sliced bread.

  Alex turned on the music and closed his eyes as all sound was drowned out and he was carried away into the world of music. Alex laid back onto the cold hard ground and chuckled.

  “You know what would be even better right now?” Alex muttered. Mark looked at him questioningly. “Hot chocolate,” Alex laughed. Mark smiled in agreement.

  “You know what else would be good?” Mark asked as he settled down.

  “What?”

  “A warm bed.”

  THIRTY-THREE

  Alex awoke to darkness. His music still pounded in his ears. He sat up and turned his music off before sliding his headphones around his neck. The fire must have gone out. Alex listened for the howl of the wind, but he only heard the faint drip of water falling onto the cold stone floor.

  “David? Brooke? Anyone awake?” Alex called into the darkness. His voice echoed deep into the cave and he shivered. When he didn’t get an answer, he concluded that they must have been asleep. Alex felt around in his pockets for anything that might help him start a fire. He pulled out a piece of gum, a paper clip, a crumpled piece of paper, an eraser, and a battery. Alex kept the battery, paper, and piece of gum and shoved the rest of the contents back into his pocket. He unfolded the gum wrapper and plopped the gum into his mouth. He ripped off a strip of the foil and wrapped the ends around the ends of the battery. As soon as a spark was started he put it on the paper, placing it in the makeshift fire pit.

  His friends were scattered about the floor around the fire and sleeping soundly. Even Jack was sleeping, and he never slept. Alex stood and stretched his back. As he stretched, he watched the shadows dance against the light of the fire on the ceiling. Alex stretched farther back, expecting to see the faint purple luminescent wall, blocking off the outside. What he saw caused him to gasp. Caught off guard, he lost his balance and fell. He immediately scrambled to his feet and stared in shock at the scene before him.

  The opening to the outside was no longer there and in its place was another passageway that led farther into the black oblivion of the cave. Alex looked behind him to see if he was merely looking in the wrong direction. Unfortunately, he was not. The only entrance to the outside was gone.

  “I should’ve known this would happen.”

  Before Alex could turn to whoever had spoken, a hand rested on his shoulder. Alex turned to look at the hand and slowly observed Jack’s irritated expression. Jack didn’t bother to look at Alex and instead kept his irritated gaze locked on the black emptiness ahead of them.

  “Finding refuge so easily in that storm, I should have realized there would be a catch,” Jack shook his head in annoyance.

  “What are you talking about?” Alex looked to Jack, confused.

  “We are after all in one of the states of Heltiana. You never know what will happen in these kinds of places.” Jack ignored Alex’s question and continued to ramble on. Alex sighed and gave up trying to get more information out of him—information that made sense at least. “We will just have to go forward. If we are lucky enough, we might find another opening. Go wake the others. We should go as soon as we can.”

  “Go where? There isn’t an entrance anymore,” Alex said as he gestured around them.

  “We go forward. It is our only way of getting out of here. Unless you’d like to stay?” Jack raised an eyebrow at Alex and smirked. Alex shook his head and turned to wake his slumbering friends. They certainly were used to sleeping in, he noticed; they were always a struggle to wake up. And nearly two months on an island did nothing to break them of that habit.

  Jack snapped his fingers and a bright ball of purple light appeared in the air. The bright light illuminated the rock around them, showing them the way out. Alex snuffed out the fire and with Jack in the lead walked into the black oblivion. The ball of light floated high in the air, only inches from Jack’s side. As they walked, the ball moved with them. It stayed the same distance away from Jack, never coming any closer or straying any farther.

  They walked in silence, their footsteps echoing off the cold damp walls. The rock path began to slant slightly. They took no notice of it until they were forced to grab onto the walls for fear they might slip and fall.

  “Is the ground getting steeper? I feel like I’m going to fall!” Brooke exclaimed as she clung to the wall,

  “This path must lead underground. Just be careful and mind where you step. It will only get steeper. If you keep your hands on the wall, you will be fine,”
Jack explained. As if to prove him wrong, the ground beneath them became slippery and their feet came out from under them. Their hands scraped against the rocks in the wall as they tried desperately to pull themselves back up, to no avail.

  Jack’s concentration faltered and the ball of light disappeared. They crashed onto the ground and continued to slide down into the dark abyss. Their screams bounced off the wall as they tumbled down and they clamped their eyes shut in fear. The trip down was short. The rock path they had walked on moments before transitioned into sand and they stopped falling, landing in a heaping pile of tangled limbs.

  They waited, refusing to move. No one dared to open their eyes. Alex rolled off his friends, expecting to fall onto the cold hard surface of rock. To his surprise he didn’t. Instead he fell on a soft flat surface. Out of curiosity, he opened one eye to a tan, crumbling floor. Sand! Alex opened the other eye and stood up. His hair was messy and filled with sand, and his clothes didn’t look much different. He looked as if he had undergone a wrestling match at the beach.

  Alex brushed the sand off his clothes. He then realized he could see, and not because of Jack’s light trick. Alex looked up and his mouth flew open in awe. They had stumbled into a large cavern that stretched farther than two football fields. The ceiling and walls were rock while the ground was sand. Rocks and stalagmites jutted out from the ceiling and hung loosely. Ahead of him was a lake that stretched from one end of the cavern to the other. Boulders were scattered throughout the lake. On the other side was another opening with a staircase where light seeped in. The lake cast an eerie light blue. The water was as calm as glass.

  Alex scanned the area for any way to go around the lake but the only way to get to the opening was to go across. His friends soon joined him in his awestruck amazement. Jack walked up to them and took in a deep breath.