Ventus

by Jonathan Dakin

Chapter Seven

  Grandpa didn’t get discharged from hospital that afternoon; instead he was released the next day, at around lunchtime. I was relieved, because I wanted to begin using my powers correctly, instead of expelling my lightning energy into the back garden, hoping that I didn’t kill any of the local cats. Grandma and I went to pick him up, and as soon as he was outside of the hospital, he wanted to use my new mobile to call Sigwald, which he did.

  “The meeting will take place this afternoon!” he informed me, and I didn’t know if I was excited or anxious, or somewhere in between the two.

  Now there is something that I must mention about Ashbourne. I’ve already said that it is a small town in the middle of Derbyshire. What I failed to talk about was the fact that it is almost constantly raining, and is grey, overcast, and miserable. In the morning, a low foggy mist hangs over the roads, creating an eerie and creepy haze that makes it hard to see. It reminds me of one of those scary zombie computer games, and I often worry when walking through it that a cannibalistic creature will jump out and attack me. Usually this fog is only in the mornings, and disappears once the sun has risen, but on the day we were going to see Sigwald, the poor weather meant that the fog remained well into the afternoon. Driving down a country road at 2 o clock in the afternoon with the fog lights on, ploughing through sheets of icy white cloud, is incredibly frightening. I’m just glad that Grandpa was used to it, because it didn’t seem to bother him. He whistled away to some old War song as he steered through the mist, which seemed to linger around our car and never leave. I watched out of the window as the tips of the rolling moors peaked out of the snowy sea surrounding them, and couldn’t help but think that I was now entering a horror movie. Luckily for me, horror movies rarely have main characters with super natural powers, unless it is the villain, so I knew I was safe. Unless, of course, I was the villain…

  I shook that thought from my mind. I wasn’t going to be a baddie. I would be a hero: honour and justice for all, or something along those lines. Grandpa continued to whistle, and I fidgeted my legs around, trying my best to keep the circulation flowing in them. Although I was happy that I now had long legs, I was quickly discovering that being tall has its downside, especially when you are crammed into a tiny car.

  “Almost there!” Grandpa exclaimed excitedly, beaming out into the choking cloud in front of him.

  “I don’t even know how you can tell where you’re going in this weather!” I added, leaning my left hand against my cheek to keep my neck perched upright.

  “I know all the roads around here off by heart! I used to walk them every day: to school, to church, to the shops, to my friends’ house… Oh, did I ever tell you about my good friend Frank? Now, he was a lad that just had to…”

  Grandpa stopped, abruptly, squeezing his eyes tight, and staring into the nothingness.

  “I think this is it,” he said, suddenly turning the steering wheel rapidly to the right, spinning the car to the left and making my knees slam hard against the window. He then braked abruptly, causing my knees to smash into the low passenger glove compartment. I rubbed them, feeling the throbbing tingle down to the base of my spine.

  “Here we are! Houghton Abbey!” Grandpa pushed the car door open and jumped out, slamming it hard behind him. I pulled the car door handle towards me and stepped my feet onto the gravel floor. The pressure from my knees sprang up to my thighs, and made me wince in pain. I stood, closing the car door behind me, the fog enveloping me. I turned and looked straight ahead, directly in front of the car, and saw it. Houghton Abbey. The dark grey brickwork stood out against the hazy white, the tall spires jutting above the mist. The colourful circular stained glass window sat high above the double door entrance. The building was massive, and looked as if it was falling apart; the roof had completely collapsed. It definitely looked like the sort of place you would see in a horror movie, and a part of me secretly hoped that it really was haunted.

  “Come on,” Grandpa chirped excitedly, rushing towards the ominous wooden doors. I followed him hesitantly, continuing to assess the looming Abbey. It seemed as if it was perched on an island in the middle of a lake, and that no one had visited it for years. The gravel underneath my feet crunched loudly, and my knees continued to hurt. Finally, we reached the old double doors. Without hesitating, Grandpa gripped onto a circular steel door handle, and tugged it towards him with all his might. The door groaned open. I jumped back, staring into the darkness behind the doorway. Grandpa turned and smiled at me.

  “Wait until you see what’s inside!” he reassured. Without any hesitation, he then walked straight inside. I followed him, cautiously, pulling the door closed behind myself.

  As soon as I turned, I saw the beautiful stone archways cascading into the sky above me. I gasped in shock. The rocky frame of the Abbey held strong, and without a roof, it looked like a giant park surrounded by a huge wall. Grass grew where it probably shouldn’t, and large chucks of rock cluttered the expansive empty space. I looked down, noticing large slabs of brick underneath my feet, which were covered in writing. They were graves.

  “Grandpa…” I uttered, pointing down at the gravestone underneath my feet. He turned, continuing to smile.

  “Special people were always buried inside the church.”

  “They were buried into the floor?”

  “Of course! Or their bodies were down in the crypt, which was a room in the basement that stored the corpses.”

  I grimaced, thinking about dead bodies rotting within a church. Grandpa looked at me, wryly.

  “Don’t turn your nose up! That’s just how it used to be! Now come on, Sigwald is waiting for you.”

  Grandpa turned, making his way towards a large boulder, and I gulped. I didn’t like the idea of standing on someone’s grave! Just thinking about it sent a shiver down my spine. I followed him, treading carefully, making sure to avoid the graves, if possible.

  “It’s just down these stairs…” Grandpa informed me. He walked behind the large boulder, and disappeared. I approached it too, walking around it quickly. As soon as I got to the other side, I saw a hole in the floor, with metallic stairs leading downwards into darkness.

  “Come on!” His voiced echoed. I breathed shallowly, telling myself that I was safe. I was with my Grandpa. He wasn’t going to let anything bad happen to me. And, if worse came to worse, I could always use my electricity to defend myself.

  Just as I was about to tread onto the first step, I heard a small whirring. My head span around, and I instantly locked my eyes onto the small CCTV camera, which was pointed directly at me. The lens flared in the damp sunlight, but it didn’t move. They were watching me. Waiting for me. I wanted to turn and run, but I couldn’t leave my Grandpa. He might be in danger. I calmed myself down by rubbing my shaking hands together, and took the first step into oblivion.

  Once I was at the bottom of the stairs, I saw my Grandpa standing next to someone else. They were both in front of a large metal door. The light was dim, as they were only several small LED lights dotted along the floor, leading a pathway to the entrance. They both heard me approach, and almost as soon as I was next to them, the metal door clunked open, and I was ushered inside by the other person.

  I gasped in shock. The room looked like the villain’s final lair in one of the old James Bond films. Catwalks ran above a large rectangular room, which contained all sorts of machines, vehicles, weapons, and an array of meeting spaces. People milled around restlessly; some holding notebooks, others having conversations, people delivering items to their colleagues. In one corner of the room were a group of men and women practising martial arts against one another. In the opposite corner were scientists discussing something serious as they dialled digits into a huge computer. The noise was almost overbearing, and the lighting was bright and sterile. I felt like I was in a different world. Most of the people wore strange uniforms that were a light grey, and everyone looked like they had something important to do. I continued to soak in my s
urroundings, not knowing where to look first. It was very impressive, and I wanted to jump down into the middle and explore. The only thing I didn’t like about the room was the fact that it was underground, hidden away from the sunlight.

  Grandpa crept up behind me, and put his right hand firmly onto my left shoulder.

  “So what do you think?” He asked eagerly.

  “It’s amazing!” I gushed stupidly, wishing I had replied more intelligently. Being amongst all these clever looking people made me feel stupider than I usually did.

  I walked forward, coming to the edge of the balcony that overlooked activity below. I rested my hands against the solid railings, and continued to watch the martial artists practising. One woman had another pinned to the floor underneath her leg. The woman wrestled helplessly against her victor. I wanted to learn how to fight. As long as I could practise outdoors…

  The other person with my Grandpa stepped forward, the strips of metal under my feet vibrating violently with his heavy footfall. He stopped behind me, and my Grandpa pushed my shoulder gently, indicating that I turn towards him.

  “There’s someone I’d really like you to meet…” Grandpa insisted, as I turned to face the tall man behind me.

  He was taller than me, but thin, and had a long skinny face and a large fat nose. His eyes were dark brown, and his curly white hair sprouted wildly out of his head. His smile was wide and genuine, and he seemed a lot younger than his greying hair indicated. He thrust his right arm towards mine, eagerly.

  “Hello, Niyol. I’m Sigwald. It’s a pleasure to finally meet you.”

  I shook his hand. He had a strong grip, so I squeezed back, firmly.

  “Hello,” I replied politely, not quite knowing what to say.

  “I don’t mean to be rude, or weird, or strange,” he added, his low voice rising and falling excitedly, “but I have waited a very long time to meet you.”

  I removed my hand from his as fast as I could. “Oh,” I responded slowly, “that’s odd.”

  Grandpa could see that I was pulling a face, and nudged me gently in my side. Sigwald didn’t seem to notice or care. He remained delighted, which was creepy.

  “It’s just, you see, well, my whole life I’ve been preparing for this. I’ve been waiting to meet the new Ventus for, well, ever since I can remember. And meeting the Ignis Ventis… Well… It’s totally cool.”

  I didn’t like it when older people tried to be ‘hip’ by speaking how they thought young people did. It was really false. But I could tell that he was trying his best not to use lots of mumbo jumbo with me straight away. I had a feeling that by the end of the day, my brain was going to hurt. I knew I had a lot to learn about all this Ventis stuff.

  I smiled back at him reassuringly.

  “Thank you. I’m just here to learn how to use my lightning properly.” His face dropped. He looked concerned, scared even.

  “Lightning…?” He repeated, fumbling around with his belt. He unclipped a walkie talkie from it, and pulled it close to his face. He pressed a button on the side of it with his thumb, and spoke into it rapidly.

  “Valeska, could you please meet us on the catwalk at the Abbey entrance as soon as possible please?”

  A female voice responded, and Sigwald shoved the walkie talkie back onto his belt. It clicked into place, and he glared at me worriedly. I began to grow concerned, and afraid. What was he going to do to me? My body tensed, and my Grandpa began to rub my shoulder with his hand.

  “Don’t worry Niyol, Sigwald isn’t going to hurt you. He’s here to help you.”

  I had seen enough movies to know that ‘help’ from scientists meant conducting painful tests, and I didn’t want that to happen to me. I turned to Grandpa to escape Sigwald’s gaze, and stared into his kind eyes. Grandpa would never let anyone hurt me. I turned back to Sigwald.

  “Let’s just get this whole thing over with,” I commanded impatiently, “I want to know exactly what is going on.”

  “Generally, or just about the lightning?”

  “Both!”

  “Well,” he replied, rubbing his stubbly chin slowly, “how do I explain this…? Have you read the book?”

  “Yes,” I snapped, “but I didn’t really understand it. My sister tried to explain it to me, but…”

  “Okay!” Sigwald interjected, clapping his hands together decidedly. “I’m not going to baby you, just because you’re a teenager! I’ll give it to you straight! The reason why I am concerned about your lightning abilities is because you are relying only on your secondary skills…”

  “My sister already mentioned that we all have a second element within us, or something,” I interrupted.

  “Okay,” he considered, “but she didn’t tell you about how in every Elemental group, one person relies more on their secondary power, at least to begin with. We call this person the Secondus. The Aquas have it, and of course the Terras do too… It can cause problems sometimes, and usually the Primus Elemental never develops this way… I’ve never heard of a Primus Ventus being the Secondus…” He smiled at me warmly. “Oh well, at least you’ll keep us on our toes!”

  I shook my head in despair. It still wasn’t sinking in. Either he was going too fast, or my brain was going too slow.

  “What’s wrong?” He enquired, Grandpa pulling me towards his chest.

  “Aquas? Terras? Primus? I don’t know what the hell you’re going on about!” Everything had once again begun to overwhelm me, and my frustration was causing the anger in my chest to rise up. I pulled away from Grandpa protectively, because I didn’t want to hurt him again. He let me go, and I felt the emotions fill every part of my body. I felt like I was losing control, and the room was spiralling around me. I felt dizzy and sick, and angry at myself and everyone else. Why couldn’t I just understand what was going on? Why was everyone trying their hardest to piss me off?

  I looked down at my hands to see sparks of lightning scattering out. Sigwald leaned forward, which made me feel even angrier. To him, I was just a lab rat: something to be prodded and poked. He didn’t care about me, just my powers. I looked up at him belligerently, the crackling tongues of electricity lashing out like strings of white fire shooting away from my hands. Sigwald jumped back as the lightning grew. I was glad: he should be afraid. Afraid of how dangerous I could be…

  My mouth snarled. I wanted to hurt him. I wanted to throw the lightning right at him. I wanted to watch him suffer…

  I began to smile, wickedly, walking towards him slowly, the glowing light brightening within my palms. It was as big as a football now and growing bigger and I was managing to keep the energy in place around my palms. Sigwald began to walk backwards, slowly down the catwalk, Grandpa following next to him. They both kept their eyes on me, and raised their arms defensively.

  “Niyol, stop this,” Grandpa pleaded, “Sigwald is my friend. You don’t want to hurt him.”

  But I did want to hurt him. I wanted to take the anger from inside, and hurl it into him. I wanted him to feel the pain within me. The darkness. The fury.

  Although Sigwald was scared, he twisted his head slightly to speak to my Grandpa.

  “He’s really developing quickly. I’m very impressed.”

  Even though it was a compliment, it didn’t abate my wicked desire. I continued to walk towards him, preparing to release my lightning at him. The spluttering and popping of the lightning cupped in my hands was as big as a beach ball now, and it was ready to leave me. I could feel all the eyes in the room on me: they had stopped what they were doing to watch the Ignis Ventus do what he was born to. I raised my hands slowly, pointing them towards SIgwald. I brought them close towards my body, preparing to thrust them forward, and hurl the lightning ball at him.

  “Don’t do this!” Grandpa screamed, “Niyol, this isn’t you!”

  I continued to flex my muscles, readying them to lash out. I was going to enjoy this…

  “Stop this! Stop this at once!” Grandpa’s voice was firm and authoritative
. He was ordering me not to hurt his friend. No one tells me what to do. No one.

  I stepped my right leg forward, and drew my hands right into my chest, ready to throw the blinding lightning ball at Sigwald. I had to do it, and I was going to. Just as I was about to strike, a woman jumped in front of Sigwald. She held both her arms up, stretching across Sigwald and Grandpa and cried out, desperately.

  “Don’t do it!”

  As I caught a glimpse of her terrified face, the anger disappeared, and I spun around, throwing the energy away, towards an empty coffee table in the middle of the room. People screamed and shouted as the lightning exploded over the table, flashing light snapping and frizzling around the room, causing chaos. Luckily, everyone seemed to avoid being hurt, and workers began to crawl out of their hiding spaces, watching me in fear.

  The anger disappeared, and suddenly guilt washed over me. I felt like myself again. All the thoughts and feelings that were so unnatural to me had vanished. I felt physically sick. I couldn’t believe that I had almost killed someone because they were ‘annoying’ me. That wasn’t me. I dropped to my knees, and began to sob in fear. I didn’t want to have super powers, not if they made me do horrible things. I didn’t want to feel angry, and I didn’t want to hurt anyone. Maybe I was the villain after all: not the hero.

  Grandpa rushed over to my side and hugged me, pulling me up to my feet and pushing me tightly into his body. I sobbed into his shoulder, and he rubbed my head and patted my back at the same time.

  “It’s okay…” he whispered into my ear in his most soothing tone.

  “No it’s not!” I cried out, continuing to sob, “I don’t want to be like this anymore!”

  I opened my eyes to see Sigwald, and the attractive woman, standing there, watching me. My tear filled vision was blurred, and my Grandpa’s shoulder was beginning to get moist. I looked Sigwald straight in the eyes.

  “I’m sorry!” I sobbed, the strings of watery spit bursting across my mouth as I spoke. “I didn’t mean it! I’m sorry!”

  “It’s okay,” Sigwald answered sincerely. His eyes looked at me sadly. He had waited his whole life to meet me, and as soon as he did, I had tried to kill him!

  “Let’s go and sit down, have a cuppa,” Grandpa suggested. I nodded. We then began to make our way along the catwalk, to a set of metal stairs.

  “I guess we can’t sit at that coffee table,” I whispered, pointing at the burnt remains of the table I had attacked. Grandpa laughed, my head bobbing up and down in rhythm to his heaving chest.

  “I guess not!” he replied, as I let go of him and straightened up.