Seasons Within Box Set

by Lele Iturrioz

  “You won’t.” Donovan stood up and walked towards Edan. “Even if you leave, there are still five of us here… So, what are you going to do?”

  “Nothing. We’ve come too far to lose everything.”

  Donovan nodded, “I’m on it.” He gave a high pitched whistle and Icarus glided back to him.

  “Donovan.” Edan stopped his friend.

  “Yes?”

  “Double the guard. She is a disaster.”

  Donovan smiled delightedly. “I’ll let the others know.”

  Chapter 6

  The Broken Necklace

  PRIYAM SLAMMED HER BOOK against the classroom’s table. “That’s it. I freaking hate math.”

  G highlighted some of the information from her notes. “You love math,” she said while continuing with the mundane task.

  “Yeah, that was before I had to quit my life and study half a book for next week’s midterms.”

  “You already know the book,” said G without looking away from her notes.

  “Would you just let me complain?!” Priyam moaned and stretched out. “It’s Friday and we’re stuck here in the library without food or water or love.”

  G faced her antsy friend. “Would you rather study at the orphanage?”

  Priyam snorted and placed her legs on top of the chair next to her. “There’s no such thing as study, or anything that requires concentration or quiet time, at the orphanage.”

  “Then stop complaining and read.”

  “You are no fun,” she said peeking at G’s notes. “Why… What are you doing? Mr. Blau explained this today.”

  “I had problems understanding it the first time,” G lied since she had avoided the class completely. It’d been a week since her talk with Mr. Blau and it ended so awkwardly, she still had no idea how to face him. Unluckily for her, the school’s principal, concerned about G’s attendance, had already talked to Miss Brown. There was no way G could afford to skip more.

  “Now that I think about it… you haven’t even been to his class lately. First it was a stomachache, then a headache, then... wait! Are you avoiding Mr-”

  “Do you want food?” G opted to distract Priyam before she could realize there was something odd about her behavior. “The cafeteria’s still open. You can go there, get the food, and I’ll go to the machine downstairs to get some chips, since the cafeteria never has any.”

  “Best idea ever!” Priyam took her purse, and they both left for their missions.

  G went downstairs and bought half of the machine’s chips and some candy. Her mind was clouded by Mr. Blau and the many other questions she had. Why is he so damn difficult?

  G had trouble speaking to any guy. They found her strange and didn’t know what to say to her. The first boy she liked refused to talk to her: he said no girl of twelve years old should have a tattoo. Try explaining to him that I don’t even know how I got it, she thought as she caressed the five circles under her right wrist. When she was fourteen, her first date broke it off after seeing her helping a mistreated school plant to calm down. But the plant was in a panic, it needed talking to. And at fifteen, her awkward first kiss was interrupted when a dog attacked her date (aka, the principal’s son) after he groped her more than she wanted.

  Since then, G made an effort to avoid contact with guys. But this time was different. She wasn’t looking at Mr. Blau for romantic purposes, she just needed information. It shouldn’t be this hard.

  POP! A light bulb above her exploded. G gasped and dropped the snacks on the floor. Damn it... She bent down to pick them up but the place was too dark to find them. She took her phone out of her back pocket and turned its lights on. Leaning closer to a package of cookies, her hand slipped on something warm and sticky. What the… G looked at her hand and found it was smudged with what appeared to be blood.

  Her senses tingled. Something was wrong. The school was too dark, too empty and too… quiet. She wiped her hand on her jeans and walked cautiously through the corridor. “Priyam?” she called in a loud whisper. No one answered.

  A painful wave passed through G’s head. She cried out, but the pain was gone in an instant. Disoriented, G scanned her soundings. She noticed that an odd amount of light bulbs were broken. She walked next to a fallen bulb. Bits of glass cracked under her shoes. She headed directly to the last flickering light. The more G stared at the darkness, the more she felt there was someone there. Someone staring back at her.

  A chill went through her as if her body was begging her to run, but her instincts told her it wasn’t wise to turn her back to the darkness, at least not yet.

  The smell of something rotten made her gag. She stopped right in front of the ledge between the light and the pitch black darkness. Then she saw them. Two eyes, red as rubies. Her head hurt again, but this time it was more like sonic waves against her skull. Not now, not now… she begged. The pain only increased.

  G could hear the soft growling of an animal, but her head was hurting too much for her to react. The beast took a step forward. G saw it clearly this time: it looked like a six-foot werewolf walking on fours but its fur was made of thick rusty needles protruding from his rotting skin. The needles vibrated each time G made any type of movement. She could see the bleeding pierced flesh, the spikes coming out of its elbows and its sharp claws.

  G tried to move but her head pounded again, only this time stronger.

  Stressed, she jerked her head and the flickering lightbulb exploded. The horrendous beast took a step back and snarled… RUN!! screamed a voice inside her.

  Not wanting to find out what would happen if she stayed, G ran as fast as she could until she reached the street. Without thinking about it, G lifted her arm and pointed her palm to the darkness but nothing happened. G stared at the back of her hand, confused by her own instincts to raise it.

  A loud growl, followed by a terrifying cry, came out from the beast’s direction. For some reason, G felt safe again. The adrenaline that had been pumping through her body slowed down, making her body shake and her legs gave out.

  As she fell to the ground, G’s headache multiplied by the second. This headache wasn’t like anything before. The pounding of her head created waves of pain as if the pressure of her brain would make her whole head explode.

  “G!!” Priyam ran towards her, “What’s happening?!”

  G heard her best friend, but she couldn’t answer. She grabbed her head and bit her lip in order to feel pain somewhere elsewhere. Her teeth pierced her lip and blood began to flow. The taste of iron grounded G for a moment, but the headache zapped once more.

  Before Priyam could reach G, Mr. Blau appeared from the darkness. “Gaia!” he called out running to her. He knelt in front of her and covered her eyes with the palm of his hand while hugging her with his other. The pain left her body the moment he touched her. “Are you ok?” He noticed the blood on her knee. “Is this yours?!”

  “No, it’s not.” G opened her eyes and saw Mr. Blau caressing her cheek. She was so confused, not over the beast or her headache but by the fact that Mr. Blau was petting her face. – Is that... blood on his neck? G thought as she lifted her hand to clean it. The moment their skin connected, Mr. Blau flinched and G saw the image of the little boy in her dreams. They both had the same light brown hair, same cut on their forearm and same worried green eyes.

  Mr. Blau stroked her hair slowly. “You?” she whispered while looking at him. “In my dream…”

  In a matter of seconds, Mr. Blau snapped out of his ‘nice guy’ trance and let go immediately making her head hurt again.

  His face went pale and the hand that had stroked her hair began to shake. “Miss Singh, please take your classmate to the campus health center.” And with that, he left.

  G placed half of her weight on Priyam as she helped her make the walk across campus. For the first time, G was glad her headache was so strong. It kept her from thinking about what had just happened with Mr. Blau.

  * * *

  Back at the house, Willo
w paced nervously around the living room. “He should already be here,” she said checking the window once again. “I’m getting worried.”

  “So? You’re always worried,” Veter pointed out while smoking his usual vanilla cigar.

  “It’s not funny! He said it was urgent.” She wrinkled her freckled nose while moving her hand to fan the smoke away. “Can you please stop smoking? You’re killing the air here.”

  Veter lifted his hand and flicked it towards Willow forming a whirlwind. The whirlwind spun and hit Willow making her fly off the ground.

  Willow screamed. Before hitting the ceiling, she pointed both hands towards the floor. A tree’s root pierced the foundation and curled around Willow’s waist. Once the whirlwind passed, the root pulled Willow back down to the floor.

  “Too much air?” asked Veter, while he and Donovan burst into laughter.

  Willow climbed down off the root and fixed her pale blonde ponytail. “Why do you have to be such an idiot?!”

  “You should both stop messing up Edan’s house or he’ll kill you,” Shui said while cleaning her transverse flute. “Veter, put out that cigar and stay still.”

  “I love it when you’re bossy.” Veter smiled as he stubbed out the cigar in an empty coffee cup. “Don’t you love it when she’s bossy?” Veter asked Hunter, who was sharpening his knife with a stone.

  Hunter glanced at Veter through the strands of hair that covered half of his face and without saying anything he returned to his knife.

  “I know man, I know,” said Veter.

  SLAM! The front door swung open and Edan walked inside. “Sorry for being late. I ran into some complications.” His shirt was slashed and bloody.

  “Is that blood?” Willow ran to Edan and checked his neck.

  Edan took a look at his shirt and noticed it was, in fact, slashed and bloody. “I’m fine. It’s not that deep.”

  “Sit down, I’ll fix it,” said Willow as she opened a big, reddish-brown carved wooden box full of seeds, flowers and nuts. She took one small round seed and placed it in a clay pot with dirt. She lifted her hand towards the pot and a plant grew.

  “What happened?” asked Donovan.

  “Two Trackers were following her,” he said.

  “Two single Trackers left you like that?” Donovan lifted his eyebrow in a smug way, teasing his friend. He knew there was no way two Trackers would leave Edan so beaten.

  “I couldn’t do much without exposing myself. She was right there.”

  Shui stopped cleaning her flute. “He knows where she is?”

  Edan stared at Hunter looking for confirmation. The teen shook his head. “No, He doesn’t. As far as we know, the Trackers made a lucky guess,” said Edan.

  “This was a close one,” Donovan said sitting down next to Edan. “How long until He does?”

  “We don’t know. Hunter was able to sense these two Trackers but hasn’t caught any signs of another yet.”

  “Lift your head,” demanded Willow as she placed the already ground plant on a table next to them. Edan sat down and lifted his head. Willow cleaned it and smudged the plant’s paste into the cut. “It will burn… a lot,” she warned him, but Edan didn’t even flinch.

  “Is it true?” asked Veter. “About her memories coming back?”

  “Yes,” said Edan.

  “Are you kidding?!” Willow stopped spreading the paste on Edan’s wounds. “What are we going to do, Edan? She still has a year until her Resurgence, and at this rate she won’t make it.”

  “She will,” said Edan with a convincing tone. “Her powers are growing faster than we thought, but as long as she has the necklace, it will be fine.” Edan turned to face Veter. “Veter, you are on guard now.”

  Without a word or hesitation, Veter grabbed a brown rucksack, winked at Shui and left for G’s house.

  Willow took the grinder and pointed at Edan’s destroyed shirt. “Your shirt.”

  Edan unbuttoned his shirt so Willow could put the paste on the rest of his wounds. Willow slowly trailed the corners of his chest with her eyes. Her breath became uneven, her skin flushed. She tried to open his shirt wider but he quickly grabbed her hand. His expression was cold. “Don’t,” he growled.

  Edan let go of Willow’s hand, and she returned to applying the paste, thinking how she’d never seen his bare back before. Almost no one had.

  “What do we do now?” she asked, trying to diffuse the tension.

  “This doesn’t change anything. We keep doing what we’re doing,” responded Edan. “We take turns watching over her; and Hunter will continue tracking anything that gets past the border.”

  “Done. You can go change now,” Willow said as she finished putting the paste on Edan’s cut. He stood up, but before he walked away, Edan grabbed her by the arm. “And Willow…stop slapping her with the trees.”

  Willow smirked at the memory of G being smacked on the face by a branch. “Fine,” she said and he left.

  Edan strode to his room closing the door behind him. Once inside, he bent over and leaned against his dresser. With his eyes closed, he ran his hand over his left shoulder and then pulled his shirt to cover more of his body.

  He looked up and focused on the empty calendar. Ripping off the December sheet, he stared at the word January. It had been almost a month since they’d arrived in town, and yet so many things had happened: Trackers, G getting into trouble, constantly snooping around and challenging him, her headaches increasing. “How are we going to make it for a year?” he whispered to himself, hoping things would start to go smoother.

  He walked to his window and looked outside. A few blocks away, right next to the forest, was G’s orphanage. The house only had a few lights on, but being able to see her place was good enough to give him a sense of peace.

  He knew Veter was watching over her, but he couldn’t stop himself from checking on her as well. Every night, Edan stared out his window hoping she was safe for at least one more day.

  * * *

  That night, for the first time, G had a different dream.

  She was walking through an underground tunnel; the place was dark, full of mud and vines. G walked for what seemed like hours, but still, she couldn’t find a way out. The more she paid attention, the more she realized there was something about the place that looked familiar. It wasn’t the consuming darkness or the place itself, it was the vines and the mud that reminded her of her previous nightmares.

  With caution G bent down to take a closer look at the vine, but before she could get all the way down, the vine lifted by itself and helped G stand up. Perplexed, G moved her hand. The vine followed as if G was the one directing its movements.

  Testing it, she placed her palm in front of the vine. It wove around her fingers, tickling as it moved. G laughed but her laughter was muffled by a thunderous bang behind the muddy wall. She turned around and tried to walk towards the wall, but the vine moved trying to stop her.

  Pushing the vine aside, G reached the muddy wall and lifted both of her hands towards it. As soon as her fingers touched the mud, it crawled all from her hands until it reached her elbows.

  Alarmed, G took a step back and saw how her muddy arms shrank into the arms of a six-year-old. She raised her head and noticed she wasn’t in the tunnel anymore, but in the middle of the war zone she dreamt of every night.

  She looked again at her muddy hands recognizing what part of the dream she was in. “The boy,” she whispered, and the boy with the green eyes ran and enveloped her in his arms. He knelt in front of G, covered her eyes with his hand. “Relax, I’m here,” he whispered into her ear.

  G felt safe next to him, but she knew they were in danger, at least until they reached the palace. She broke the hug in order to run for the shelter, however, the boy wasn’t in front of her anymore. It was Mr. Blau holding her now, and she wasn’t six years old anymore.

  In her dream, G felt a rush of embarrassment. She was muddy and covered in ashes, while Mr. Blau looked flawless in front of her. She
ran her muddy hands down her muddy shirt with the hope of straightening it a little, but when she flicked her palm across her chest, her body turned into flames. For a moment she panicked… Calm set in once she realized the fire wasn’t burning her, it was only drying the mud. The flames extinguished and the mud crumbled revealing a beautiful forest green bustier.

  G swung her body causing the mud to fall off in bits and pieces. Her clothes continued to change. The bustier had long sleeves that looked like golden green leafs hugging her arms and it was cropped a few inches below her chest. The mud around her waist fell revealing a thick green metal belt in a V shape with the fivefold symbol engraved at the very front, cinching in the top of a breathtaking and flowing long skirt.

  Mr. Blau smiled and offered his hand to help G walked through the vines. Before she could reach him, she tripped on a root and fell to the ground. The moment her body touched the mud, the dark warzone turned into a beautiful spring of crystalline water. In the center was a gentle mound housing the First Tree with the four elements floating around it. G looked at her hands and realized they weren’t inside the mud but inside the shimmering lake. Next to the tree, on the grass, with her arms inside the cold water, G felt safe.

  Lifting her hands, a big bubble of water levitated until it reached eye level. It then molded itself into a gorgeous water mirror. In there, G saw her reflection. She looked like a forest nymph wearing the dress. After staring at her reflection for a few moments, G noticed that every time she had a pounding pain in her head, a wave of light emanated from her head and rippled through the cave. Sometimes the light was blue, sometimes white, sometimes red and sometimes green.

  She closed her gray eyes and took a deep breath. When she opened them, her reflection and the water mirror were gone. Instead, she was facing the same beast she saw that morning at her school.

  She tried to run but couldn’t. Her skirt was pinned down by the red dagger, the same dagger she saw cutting Mr. Blau’s arm when she was a child. She tried to wiggle her way out only to find it useless. The creature crept closer. G screamed, but no sound came out of her mouth. She closed her eyes and prepared herself to be attacked, but a whirlwind surrounded her like a protective shield.