Lumen

by Joseph Eastwood

  “I just need it to stop.”

  “Why? What’s more important than a good catch up?”

  “That girl, Mia, she’s phoning me.”

  “Phone? Well, haven’t you gone up in the world,” Jac laughed. “I’ll just try and do the opposite of what she said then, and pull away.”

  Daniel didn’t speak back. He felt the phone vibrate several times in his hand before it finished, and then started up again.

  “Hey,” he said, answering the phone.

  “Daniel, come back again. I need to see you,” she said, sucking back a sob.

  “Mia, what’s up?”

  “It’s my dad. He woke me up shouting, and rambling about how I needed to adapt to the city or he’d send me – to – to one of them homes where parents send their children if they don’t like them,” she seethed.

  “He wouldn’t. That would be stupid. Does he drink?”

  “I don’t know. I pushed him away. And I was crying. And he told me how much of a disappointment I was,” she said between sobs and breathes.

  “He did? I’d come over…”

  “Will you?”

  “But I can’t. These people are strict, and they know that someone has been going off the island. You know I can be killed for that, right? And you will as well. I don’t want that,” he said.

  “Me either. Keep safe. I don’t want you to die.”

  “Just avoid him and finish school. And when I finish school I’ll know so much about what I can do that we can go somewhere they can’t find us,” he said, smiling to himself.

  “You know, I’d like that,” she sniffled.

  “And if anyone asks you if you know me, you have to say no.”

  “I will do. I should really be asleep, my dad will be extra mad if he comes back in, unless he wants to apologize for acting like that,” she said.

  “Okay then. Phone tomorrow, even if I’m asleep, I’ll answer the phone,” he chuckled, “just don’t let him get to you. But if he acts like that again, I’ll come visit you.”

  Daniel hung up and pulled the phone from his ear. He didn’t know what to do. He was stuck. She was stuck. He contemplated on trying to talk to Jac again but what he wanted more than that was to see Mia and make sure that she’s okay. He bit into his lip and winced as it bled.

  “Ow,” he moaned, tonguing the cut in his mouth.

  He turned to face the window, but the storm was quieter now. He sat on his bed and trudged the duvet up and around him, settling in them for the night.

  A soothing voice swept by as he bordered the edge of sleep. “Hush. Don’t let it get to you. She needs saving, and of course you could just go there now and take her in your arms, take her and bring her here. But then you’ll both be hung by the peak of the Trident Mountains. Wait it out, and you’ll both be saved, but don’t wait too long, Saturn.” It was soft and serpentine, spinning him to sleep.

  Chapter Twenty

  The campus had been quiet for about a month, there had been no dramas, or scuffles, and Daniel had been restricted to his dorm room and classrooms; it was in his interests apparently that he stayed out of the way.

  He woke to his phone buzzing in his hand; he pushed it up to his face and winced at the blinding screen. “Hey,” he answered, trying to wipe the sleep from his eyes.

  “Good morning,” Mia said with a pinch of cheer.

  “I don’t even need an alarm clock,” he chuckled, flicking the rest of the sleep from his eyes.

  “It’s the afternoon now, well nearly 3 p.m. I thought you’d have been up already.”

  “Wait. What. Three?” he asked and leapt from his bed.

  “Yeah, why?”

  “Shit. I’m meeting with the principal at nine,” he said, grabbing clothes from his closet and throwing them on his messy bed.

  “Are you in a rush?”

  He hummed and grit his teeth together. “Yeah, but I’ll phone you right back when I can,” he said, resting his phone on his shoulder and up to his ear as he tried to jump into a pair of jeans.

  “Okay,” she said and hung up.

  Daniel dropped the phone on his bed and hurried into his clothes. He shoved it in his jeans pocket and flipped the hood of his jacket up before leaving.

  He’d become lazy, but more active at the same time. He was trying to master the art of teleporting, probably why there had been less trouble around the school, yet people still knew who he was, and his family roots were definitely still being talked about. Reuben insisted that Daniel stay at the school and learn, although he could have benefited from one-on-one teaching and not being shoved to the back of the room where he still had to endure the people in front of him calling him names into sly coughs.

  He teleported right outside Reuben’s office door and took a deep breath. He didn’t know what Reuben thought of him, everyone else had made it clear that he was hated, and sometimes he could see it behind Reuben’s eyes and beneath the intent in his voice. So he had to worry when Reuben had specifically requested that Daniel visit him.

  He knocked twice on the thick office door, the sounds bounced around while he waited, grinding his teeth. A different door opened slightly, it was to Reuben’s personal quarters, the door opened fully and Reuben ambled out straightening his tie with one hand and clutching his walking aide with the other.

  The office door swung open with a wave of Reuben’s hand. “Go on in then,” he said ushering Daniel into his office. “Just running a little late today.” He passed Daniel and pushed his office chair with his stick to sit down; he comforted himself and pulled in to his desk.

  “You wanted to see me?” he asked, holding his hands behind his back so that he didn’t fidget or stare down at them.

  “Nervous?” Reuben grinned.

  “Ask if I can visit?” Jac asked, popping Daniel’s ears and wobbling him.

  “No,” he said, holding his nose and popping his ears.

  “Good, there is no need to be nervous here. I just have a few questions,” he said.

  “Well I’m going to come and visit anyway, just wanted you to ask,” Jac said.

  Daniel nodded and Reuben continued. “How has your first month been? Good?”

  “I’d be lying if I said so. I’m—I’m scum to these people,” he said, taking a deep breath to continue.

  “Ah, I know about this, and I’m sorry that it’s happening. You’re a threat to these people because they don’t understand the concept of power, it doesn’t come from wealth or where you’ve lived or studied. It comes from those who have a pure heart.”

  “Pure heart? What’s he been drinking? Is that what the water does to you up there?” Jac laughed.

  Daniel nodded again. “I think the people around here are jealous that you are late bloomer, and when you bloomed, everything about you burst, unlike some people who have yet to learn how to teleport or even dabble with the Divides, let alone learn about them,” he explained. “I know that you can teleport, and I know that you can create and tamper with the fine bonds of fire. You should really be in the advanced classes. Which brings me to my next point; you didn’t join any clubs, why not?”

  “You join clubs to make friends, and I can’t make friends. They said that my mum was unfaithful, and—and,” he gulped and took another deep breath, “and it’s stupid that they say stuff like that.”

  “Who? You never told me! Well I did teach you that invocation stint, just use that, you might be able to frighten them, ”Jac snapped, causing Daniel to stand abnormally straight.

  “That’s their jealousy, but I propose that it will all end, like I know it will. I’m setting up a group. A select group. There’s not going to be a list out in the hall for people to join. Only the best and brightest students, including my nephew, Jasper,” he said, leaving Jasper’s name to ring through his mind, of course that’s why he thought he owned the place, because his uncle did. “It’s going to be held on a Tuesday morning, and of course you don’t have a lesson, because you didn’t pick up any extra-c
urricular.”

  “So it’s his nephew then. That psychopath, the one who wanted to kill you, bet you’re glad you didn’t out him when he tried to then, aren’t ya,” Jac said.

  Daniel hummed, thinking over what they’d both said. “Okay. What’s the class about?”

  “Natural energies and stones,” he said, first glancing down to the paper on his desk and then back up at Daniel. “You're the only first year attending, so best not brag, or that could earn you some more unwelcome attention.”

  It was easy for Daniel not to brag, because he had no one to brag to, except for Jac, but everything Daniel heard and sometimes saw was relayed to Jac.

  “So, what do you say?” Reuben asked.

  “Sounds great,” he said.

  “Lies! I don’t know what you’re thinking, but I can feel it!” Jac shouted.

  “It starts this Tuesday then?”

  “Yeah. Do you have any personal matters that you’d like to discuss?”

  Daniel hesitated, his heart throbbed in his throat as he contemplated saying anything that could offend him about his nephew or equally anger him to ask him if he could go and see Mia, in fact bringing up anywhere off the island could spark something far worse than anger, but that was only a theory.

  “Don’t do it! But if you’re going to do anything, ask if I can visit,” Jac said, his voice bouncing around Daniel’s head.

  “Sometimes I just can’t control it. And I went somewhere once. And I’m sorry,” Daniel blurted, biting his bottom lip from quivering.

  “I’m not following,” Reuben said, wrinkling his face at him.

  “I was the one. I went off the island that time. I went to a skyscraper somewhere and it was amazing, and then I woke up here again,” he said.

  Reuben smiled, or grimaced, Daniel waited on his lips to move and push something other than the anticipated angry shouting. “I thought so. You seem like the type to have the means of teleporting that far. I think congratulations are in order for progressing faster than any other student here, and even faster than I did,” he said. “I’m a little shocked that you just came out with it, people have been killed, like I told you before. Why did you tell me?”

  “Honestly. I don’t know. It felt right and, and it paid out. Right?”

  “Well now I can cover for you, instead of setting a man hunt for someone who’s heard rumours of the outside world and touched the outskirts of it because that’s as far as they could get,” Reuben grinned, but it could have been a snarl.

  “Did I hear that? He’s talking about pulling some serious shit to let you get away with that. You could have just been killed. Don’t you think. Don’t you consult me anymore?” Jac ranted, aching at Daniel’s brain. “Now ask him if I can come visit.”

  “Power is stronger off the island, there isn’t this blanket over there,” he said gesturing to the ceiling, “that’s how they know when someone goes, because a foreign blimp appears, I can erase that blimp though, but then nobody would know that you’re in or out.”

  “We’re constantly being followed?”

  “Not followed, but watched. And it isn’t just us, it’s the blanket, if you try to take too much then you suffocate yourself, and that’s why people die when they try changing. It is a miracle that you can handle it,” he said.

  “Well that actually makes sense. Why didn’t you read a book with that in? That would be good stuff to sell in the Lowerlands,” Jac laughed, although his voice was quieter, as Daniel pushed him to the back of his head.

  “So what do you have to do?”

  “Just take you off the map. Like you’ve been deleted, but only on the surface of things.”

  “Delete me?” Daniel asked, “and why just me?”

  “I take it that you can still do that wing trick.”

  “Trick? Well, yeah.”

  “Don’t do that over there, if you expose yourself in any nature, then that’s as good as asking for a man hunt over you.”

  “Can I have a pass? Ask him? Go on,” Jac’s mind prodded Daniel, but he continued to ignore him.

  Daniel nodded obediently. His hands loosened to his sides, he wanted to bow to Reuben. The mere thought of calling Mia and telling her that he’d get to see her again sent phantom vibrations from the phone in his pocket.

  “May I leave?” Daniel asked.

  “Of course, but remember, your power is much more powerful there because of the bounds. I should know, I’ve lived there, but I’ll tell you that some other time,” he chuckled and then gestured for Daniel to leave the room.

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Daniel hadn’t heard a word from Jac since he’d left Reuben’s office and walked straight into his dorm room. He sat down on the end of his bed and fell back, he stared at the ceiling for several moments and then burst a teeth clenching grin. He pulled his phone out of his pocket and phoned Mia.

  “Was it bad? Did you get told off?” she asked in a low sympathetic voice.

  “No, no, no. I have some good news, some really great news in fact,” he said, hushing his excitement

  “What is it?”

  “I can visit you. I—I’m allowed to visit,” he said, giggling over the phone.

  “Oh my god, really? How?”

  “I don’t know. I told him, like it was the most natural thing in the world, and he supported it!”

  “When can we meet?”

  “Now?” Daniel asked, biting his lip, he hadn’t forgotten what she looked like, but he was unsure if he could picture her perfectly.

  “Yes. There’s this coffee shop across from the building. So meet me on the roof and we’ll go there. They make really nice coffee and muffins and cakes and, just meet me okay,” she rambled.

  “Okay.”

  “Wear something warm, it’s kinda cold here. When you get there, just wait for me, I’ll be like a few minutes.”

  “I will,” he said in an excited whisper, and then hung up. He slipped the phone into his pocket.

  He took his hooded jacket off and routed around in the mess of clothes on floor of his wardrobe to find the only jumper that he owned. He put it on and then put his jacket back on. He wore his cushioned shoes; they always kept his feet warm but were surprising loose.

  He stood and looked at a piece of the mirror that had stayed on his wall, staring into his eyes. He closed them and in his mind he pieced together Mia’s face, and then the butterflies rolled in as he recollected the sound of her voice. His skin quivered as tiny electric tendrils reached out of him, and his heart flipped, over and over. Then the cold bit his face, and he took a deep breath.

  “Mia?” he said as he opened his eyes. The sky was bright and blue without the imperfections of clouds or waves of heat. He stood there for a moment, looking over the ledge where he’d first met her.

  “You made it,” she said, seeing Daniel as she walked out of the security door.

  Daniel smiled and nodded. She grinned and hugged him as he wrapped his arms around her. She pulled away and smiled, wiping her fringe from her eyes. “I’m glad you’re here.”

  “Me too. It’s been a while since I’ve been here.”

  “And yet you’re all I’ve thought about since you were here, and since you told me about being you. You’re really special,” she said.

  Daniel’s white cheeks blushed a light pink as he supressed a smile. “I think you’re pretty special as well.”

  Mia slipped her hand into Daniel’s. “Are we going to the coffee shop?” she said.

  Daniel nodded, blushing a deeper shade of pink. Mia grinned and guided him out of the security door to climb down some narrow steps until they got to another door. She opened it and stuck her head out to see if there was anyone outside. The corridor was deserted so they rushed out to the end of the hall where there were 2 elevators.

  “We could just teleport,” he grinned.

  “That would be risky, wouldn’t it?”

  “Yeah,” he said, stopping at the elevator. “They could probably use one
of these where I’m from.” He squeezed her hand lightly, and turned to see her staring into his eyes.

  They were face to face, staring into each other’s eyes and before they kissed the elevator dinged and the doors opened. Their lips touched, but only just. Mia backed away and pulled him into the elevator.

  “I’ve never—I’ve never kissed a girl before,” he said, taking his hand out of hers and wiping it on his jeans.

  Mia grinned at his honesty and then opened her mouth to speak, but smiled instead. They stayed in the comfortable silence, glancing to and from each other until the elevator stopped. They reached the ground floor where they had a clear view of the entrance doors and the cars whooshing past in all blurs of colour.

  Daniel pushed the front door wide open and remained in a state of shock. “These are cars?” he asked.

  “Yeah,” she laughed.

  “They’re so loud,” he said, smiling. “And fast!” his head going side to side as he watched the cars pass him.

  “You don’t have cars either?” Mia asked, raising her eyes.

  “No. But I guess we don’t need them. We have carts, which cars are modelled after, and I did read a restricted book about them once, but there was more black smoke in that.”

  Mia laughed. “They are polluting the air, it’s just invisible.” Daniel continued to stare at them in wonderment. “C’mon, traffic lights are up ahead,” she said grabbing his hand and pulling him.

  He followed her, still watching the cars and the drivers who slammed fists to the horns in their cars. He also witnessed something else, the light above him changed from green to red.

  “Traffic lights. To control the traffic,” she explained.

  “So why are they angry?”

  “Because it’s nearly rush hour, well it’s always rush hour. Everyone tries to get ahead of it but no matter what, everyone else has that same thought, and then some people think that they’re wise not to, and it just makes every hour rush hour,” she sniggered. “A vicious circle.”

  “Yeah. We don’t have anything like that. But you do get a lot of angry people in the market.”