There were a few takeaway boxes littered about the small space and her bedsheets were a tangled mess because she had spent most of her weekend there.
“I was wallowing,” Kiara admitted as Hallie walked by her and started picking stuff up, so she could throw it in the bin. She was wearing a massive backpack, which was unusual for her. Shoulder bags were her thing, or just carrying what she needed in her pockets.
“What’s in there?” she asked, pointing at the backpack.
“Research,” Hallie replied.
“About what exactly?”
Hallie rinsed her hands in the sink to get the sweet and sour sauce and pizza crumbs off them, then sat on the edge of Kiara’s bed.
“About everything that’s going on with you, of course. What do you think I was doing all weekend?”
“I don’t know really.”
Hallie looked concerned now. Despite everything that Kiara had been through, she was usually more put together than this.
“Come, sit,” she ordered, tipping the contents of her backpack onto the bed and fanning them out.
There were a couple of big books with sticky notes marking pages throughout, a bunch of print outs, and her own notes. When had Hallie had time to sleep?
“How did you find all this?” Kiara asked, picking up one of the printouts.
“It turns out that googling freak accidents brings up a lot of crap. Put that together with palm readings, future, and/or prophecy, however, and you start to get some stuff with a little more substance. Obviously, there was still a lot of stuff about wackos who believe that they were blessed by whatever deity to roam the earth immune to death, but when I delved deeper into history, I found that there’s myths and legends about people who couldn’t die -- until they did.”
The piece of paper Kiara had chosen was an article from an old newspaper, back in 1921. It was the life story of a Jameson Holt. He was supposed to have miraculously saved the lives of several men, women and children around New York city, a sort of vigilante, until his untimely death by heart attack. Jameson was only 25 when he died and was a picture of health.
“There’s stories like that one dating back to the first and second century, and those are just the ones I found in two days. Who knows how long this sort of thing has been going on,” Hallie said, showing her another couple of stories, then a few pages from one of the books.
“How do we know they’re not all fake or blown way out of proportion?” Kiara asked, unsure what she believed about all this.
“We don’t, but how else are we supposed to explain what happened to you in the days following Mindy’s palm reading? It is like the universe is yelling at us that something weird is going on here.”
Kiara had been so wrapped in her mortality that she hadn’t thought about it that way. Maybe she shouldn’t have let it get her so down, but what else would most people do if they were told they were going to die? There had to be some time to process. Hallie had decided to process everything for her.
“How are we supposed to figure out if this is real?”
“Well, I thought maybe we could take all of this stuff to Caleb, see what he thinks,” Hallie suggested.
“Maybe he’ll have heard other stuff too, he knows so much about history after all,” Kiara added.
“That’s more like it,” Hallie said, glad to see that Kiara was willing to see if any of this made sense. “But first, you definitely have to have a shower. No one needs to see you with two-day old bed head.”
“No one else, you mean,” Kiara snorted, slapping Hallie with one of the articles.
“I speak for everyone in this case, you look much purdier without cheese stuck to your vintage tee.”
Kiara looked down and laughed when she found out that Hallie wasn’t joking.
“Okay, jeez, I’m going, I’m going.”
~
Caleb was finishing his last class of the day when two faces appearing in the doorway caught his attention. He hadn’t heard from either of the girls after Saturday’s events. If all went to plan, everyone would let it go and get on with their usual business. Eventually, the death-defying events would slow down, and Kiara would be able to live life like any other person. Hopefully, to the fullest.
Things rarely ever went to plan, though, not with so many unknown variables.
It seemed Kiara managed to keep Hallie from barging straight in before everyone had left, the pair of them only coming in once they were alone.
“How are you feeling?” Caleb asked Kiara first, showing genuine concern.
“I had a bit of a lazy weekend--”
“Understatement,” Hallie interrupted, earning herself a poke.
“But I’m doing better now. How about you?”
“Yeah, fine,” he nodded, not about to go into his own festering guilt spiral of a Sunday. It had been difficult to plan classes when he was so torn over his decision.
“I, on the other hand, am sleep deprived because of all this,” Hallie announced, opening her rucksack to show him a tree’s worth of books and papers.
“Getting a head start on that assignment on gender roles during wartime, huh?”
“No, something much more important.”
Caleb and Kiara followed Hallie over to one of the benches where she proceeded to take everything out of her bag and spread it out for him. He wasn’t comforted by the headlines he saw. They were exactly the same sort of thing that had come up when he started looking up the stuff from his Mom’s journals back in the day.
“What’s all this?” he asked, feigning ignorance. He had already lied to Master Mahmid, he wasn’t about to come clean now.
“You see, I started thinking that maybe the fluke accidents weren’t flukes at all. Especially after what that psychic, Mystic Mindy, said to Kiara. I started looking into it and it turns out that there are other people in the past who have defied death on more than one occasion. I’ve never seen the word miracle mentioned more than I have in the last 48 hours.”
This was bad. It appeared both of the girls had begun to buy into this theory. Of course, it seemed plausible after what they had seen and experienced. But they couldn’t be allowed to believe it if he wanted to keep this under wraps.
“Do you think it’s possible that this is a real thing?” Kiara asked.
“People being told that they have so long to live and the universe, sort of, preventing them from going before that time,” Hallie clarified for her.
Caleb took another few moments to look over the stuff before shaking his head, uncertain. At least, to them he appeared uncertain. In his mind he was going straight to the bad place for telling so many lies.
“I don’t think so. Things like this usually get over exaggerated, hyped up by the media to make them seem sensational in order to sell more papers. As for the books, they’re probably talking about instances people couldn’t explain back then. Like when adrenaline kicks in and people can do the sorts of things they couldn’t usually do without that fight or flight reflex.”
“What about what happened to Kiara though?”
“A spell of equally horrifying but ridiculously good luck? It can happen.”
Both the girls looked disheartened about him shooting down their idea. It had been one thing lying over the phone, but doing it to their faces…
“I’m sorry, but based on other things I’ve read, it doesn’t seem possible,” he said, trying to console them.
“It’s okay,” Hallie said, stuffing all the papers back in her bag. It didn’t sound like it was okay, not in the slightest.
“Do you think there’s any truth to what the psychic said?” Kiara asked, looking directly at him.
“No, probably not. But I think the sentiment behind what these psychics usually say is true, you should live every day like it’s your last. Cherish what you have, because the next moment it could be gone.”
Kiara nodded your head. “Yeah, makes sense.”
Caleb had to give her something. Hopefully she wou
ld take it to heart.
“I’ll see you in class on Wednesday,” Hallie said, taking Kiara’s hand so that she could steer her out of the room.
“Bye!” Kiara called back as they rounded the door and disappeared.
Once he was sure they were gone, Caleb slumped against the bench and buried his head in his hands. With any luck, that would be the end of it so far as Kiara and Hallie were concerned. He wanted to put it behind him as well. It would be simple enough to see out the rest of the year and then say he was transferring to another college, probably one stateside. There was one thing he wanted to know before he left though, to satisfy his curiosity if nothing else; who the hell was Mystic Mindy?
Chapter Six
Despite the way it looked when they left Caleb’s office, Hallie wasn’t ready to give up on her theory. She had spent too much time trying to make this craziness make sense, it had to be something other than dumb luck.
“I don’t think he’s right,” Hallie said as they walked out the main doors.
“How are we supposed to know?” Kiara asked.
Hallie scratched the top of her head in thought, slowly coming to a stop in the middle of the path.
“We’ve got to find some way to test it out. If you survive for a third time, then it must be true.”
They went back to Kiara’s place to throw ideas around while they tidied up and ordered a fresh set of takeaway food. One large Hawaiian pizza and a lot of internet searching later, they had a plan.
A period of hot weather like the one they had just had was always followed by a crazy thunderstorm. They checked the weather forecasts and started working out exactly how they were going to test out their theory without getting Hallie killed in the process. Once they were settled, they went to bed, but neither of them got much sleep. The nervous anticipation was too much for them.
It took two tubes, a train, and a long walk to get them far enough out of the city to find fields. All the while, dark storm clouds were bubbling up overhead, threatening to release all their fury on what lay below.
“I think it’s going to start soon,” Kiara told Hallie as they both made their way out into the middle of one of the fields.
There were no trees around for the lightning to catch, just some small hedgerows all the way down the other end of the field, and Kiara was a couple of feet taller than them anyway. This should work, so long as she could get the lightning to strike where she was standing. They weren’t sure what was going to happen exactly, but they were both willing to try it in order to prove that Kiara couldn’t die.
They both heard their first rumble of thunder as they neared the center of the field. Another quickly followed.
“All right, I think it’s nearly here,” Hallie said.
She got down on the ground, so she could flatten herself against the earth and take herself out of the running as a target for the weather.
“Here goes nothing,” Kiara nodded, making sure to get some distance between her and Hallie.
“You’re going to be fine, babe, you’ll see,” Hallie called out to her, confident in herself and her assumption.
A bright flash of lightning nearby made them both start. Hallie counted how long until the rumble of thunder; only two Mississippi’s. It was almost upon them.
Another thirty seconds passed before they saw a spectacular fork of lightning hit a tree in a field across the road from theirs. If it didn’t happen in the next minute or so, then it probably wouldn’t happen at all.
Hallie was close to giving up hope when all of a sudden, she saw it. With the loudest bang that she had ever heard in her life, the sky around them erupted with light. The bolt of lightning crackled through the air, splitting into four bits before it hit the ground, each one narrowly missing Kiara as she stood there, frozen to the spot.
As it faded away, both of them remained absolutely still just in case another struck right away.
“That. Was. AMAZING!!” Hallie yelled at the top of her lungs, scrambling to her feet so she could go over and hug the crap out of Kiara.
It took Kiara a few seconds to hold her back, still stunned that she hadn’t just been fried to a crisp.
“I was right! I was totally right! Caleb can suck it!” Hallie cheered, feeling like dancing around.
It was a good thing she didn’t.
Out of nowhere, the air exploded again. Hallie couldn’t see a thing as Kiara pulled her tightly against her body and put an arm over her head, the light from the bolt temporarily blinding them both. It was only because of Kiara that they both got out unscathed.
Once it was over, they both quickly crumpled to the floor and lay on their backs, staring up at the dark, angry sky.
“Oh my God,” Hallie choked.
“That was so close,” Kiara said, her voice barely there because of the shock.
“Oh my God, oh my God, oh my God.”
Hallie was freaking out. Adrenaline was pumping so hard through her veins that she felt like she was buzzing from the inside out.
“That was incredible.”
“Yeah, it sort of was,” Kiara looked at her and grinned, clearly feeling the rush.
Now they both understood why people risked life and limb to do this sort of stuff, the feeling that followed was out of this world.
Another rumble of thunder went off further away just as the skies above them opened and a torrential shower poured out of the clouds, making them laugh.
“I love you, you know that, right?” Hallie shouted at Kiara over the noise.
“You bet your sweet arse I do,” Kiara said, rolling over to kiss Hallie.
Hallie caught her before she could pull away and deepened the kiss, revelling in the moment while she could. She didn’t care if they got covered from head to toe in mud, it was totally worth it. This was a moment that they would keep with them for the rest of their lives, however long or short they ended up being.
~
"Uh, Mystic Mindy?"
Caleb honestly wasn't sure what to expect. When the girls told him what had happened the night that Kiara received her prophecy, he couldn't figure out how it was possible. The birth of an Oracle was always predicted by another of their kind. They were registered when they were born, usually visited by Guardians and other Oracles while they were growing up in order to hone their ability to find Chosen, and then they notified the Elders whenever a new Chosen was about to appear. He'd never heard of any living outside the system. Possibly, until now.
"No, but I can get her for you if you..."
The brunette behind the counter trailed off when she looked up. It was like she recognised him. Maybe she did, it might explain a lot. This didn't look like a place that an Oracle would usually keep. It was so tacky, but that could be so that they could hide in plain sight.
"You must have a lot of questions," she said.
"A lot, yeah. You're the Oracle?" he asked, starting with the simplest question that came to mind.
"Sort of," she said, moving to change the sign on the door to closed. This was a conversation they would both rather remained private.
"Sort of?"
"Follow me, please."
Through the back of the shop, things started to look a lot more normal. Walls painted in cream, standard brown coloured carpet. There was a flight of stairs which led to an apartment, hers he assumed. It was bigger than his and better kept. She definitely liked to keep things neat and organised.
"I clean to distract myself from my thoughts," she explained without him asking anything. It could have been an observation that people had made before or--
"Yes, I can hear your thoughts."
Caleb stopped where he was standing, his mind going blank with panic, which made her laugh softly.
"I don't usually listen in if I can help it, I just wanted to see what you were thinking about all of this," she reassured him. "Please, sit."
"I'm starting to wonder whether I'll be able to get a word in edgewise," he tried humour, unsure whether she was st
ill listening.
"I'll let you ask the questions," she smiled.
They both sat down on her very comfortable two-seater, the brunette smoothing out her dress, so it covered her knees. Where should he start?
“What’s your name?”
“Lily,” she said, looking a little embarrassed that she had forgot to introduce herself. He imagined it happened a lot when you could simply read the other person’s mind to find out who they were.
"How is it that no one knew about you?"
"I wasn't born an Oracle like everyone else, it’s just an extra part of what I can do," she explained.
"It doesn't run in your family?"
"Both of my parents were orphaned as children, they had no idea if my grandparents had powers. If they did, they didn't inherit them."
If they all died young, then it was possible that something else was going on.
"How about Chosen, do they run in the family?"
Lily pressed her lips together, leaving him hanging for a minute before nodding. "My brother was one."
"Who was your brother?" Maybe Caleb had heard of him.
"Peter Shaw."
Wait...
"Shaw? Like, Kiara Shaw?"
"Yes, she's my niece."
Caleb was lost. Obviously, his expression conveyed this because she continued without him having to ask another question.
"I was the one who gave Peter his prophecy. It was only eighteen months. Another Oracle must have seen it too because the next day a Guardian turned up at our door to explain everything. Ezra Mahmid was the one who trained him. They spent pretty much every waking moment together for a year and a half. But Peter never told Ezra that he was married. Or that his wife fell pregnant a couple of months before he died. They had been told that this sort of thing could run in families. If their baby ended up being a Chosen, they didn't want anyone to know. While Peter knew that he was doing good, didn’t want his kid to suffer the same fate if it could be helped, he wanted his child to live her life to the full, however long it ended up being."
Lily paused there, partly to let him process, but also because it looked like her emotions were starting to get the better of her.
Chosen_Book One Page 4