Strength (The Descendant Trilogy)

by Theresa M. Jones

  “Umm.” I said after taking a deep breath. “I had a bad dream,” I told him.

  “A dream? Sam that wasn’t a dream. About ten minutes ago you started shaking like crazy, and your body went completely…dead. I couldn’t wake you up, but you were still shaking. I lifted your eyelids, but your eyes were like, in the back of your head. I started seriously freaking out.”

  He took a deep breath and placed his hand on the side of my face. My eyes closed and my head moved of its own volition, pressing closer to his hand. Its warmth and affection offered me security and peace.

  “That was a vision, Sam,” he told me softly. I opened my eyes, shocked. A Vision? Only really Powerful people get visions. And, yeah, I’m super Powerful, but I’m still young. Then I remembered that Andrew has already had a vision and he descended from less than me.

  But if it was a vision, than it was true. I so didn’t even want to consider that.

  “It can’t be, it changes every time,” I told him, thankful for the changes now.

  “How many times has this happened?” He looked shocked and something else too, but I couldn’t tell what.

  “This was the third time I’ve had that dream.” I emphasized the last word.

  “Three times? Why didn’t you tell me? Have you told your mom or David?” he demanded.

  “No, why would I tell them that I was having bad dreams?” I asked, appalled at the suggestion.

  “You can’t seriously think it was a dream. It had to have felt different, like you were being sucked into a black hole. It scared the shit out of me that first time. You should have told someone.” He chastised me. “Now tell me what happened.”

  “No!” I almost shouted the word at him, though I didn’t mean to. He had that same strange look on his face again, and I finally realized what it was. I hurt his feelings.

  I put my knees down, and put them under me, so I could sit on my feet. Looking at him then, only a couple of inches apart, I placed my hands on his face and looked at him. I’m sorry! I told him. And then I pulled him into a hug. He wrapped his arms around me and pulled me closer.

  I am here for you. I want to help you. Let me! Don’t shut me out! Confide in me… I could hear him pleading with me. I wasn’t sure if he was doing it on purpose, or if I was just more attuned to his thoughts now.

  So I did, I told him about each of the dreams. And he held me as I cried and promised me that he would never let someone hurt me. And even though I knew he couldn’t stop it, it made me feel better.

  As he walked me back to my quarters, I realized I had stayed out the whole night and my parents were never going to let me go on a date again. At the elevator we parted ways. I didn’t want him to have to face my parents wrath.

  As soon as I opened the door, they were on me, asking question after question about where I was, what I was thinking, blah blah. I walked to the couch and sat down as they kept fussing at me, waiting for them to stop.

  Finally David asked me, “So what do you have to say for yourself?”

  “Well, first off, I am sorry I stayed out. I was in the old library down on B2 with Andrew…” I really had wanted to say more, but then my mom freaked out. She started talking about sex, and the risks and blah blah. Not like I haven’t heard this before. It’s kinda a sore spot for her though, because she got pregnant with me super young and now she thinks I will too, or something. Little does she know, I’m smarter than she thinks and wouldn’t do that.

  After they fussed at me a while more (mostly just mom this time) I finally got to speak again.

  “Okay, so please let just explain all this before you yell at me again. Please?” I stopped and waited for them to agree.

  “You have no right to ask anything of us right now,” my mom said.

  Then David added, “But, we will listen to you.” Secretly he was always on my side and I loved him for it.

  “Okay, so all four of us came back by ten last night, like we were supposed to. But then…” Crap, I really didn’t want to admit the whole eavesdropping on the meeting thing. “So, I’m gonna admit to something right now, and I really hope y’all don’t freak out on me. If you do freak out on me, that’s fine, just let me finish first though.” I took a deep breath before continuing.

  “So, when we came back, y’all weren’t at home, and I kinda eavesdropped a little on the Council Meeting. I’m sorry, I know that’s bad. Anyways, then I got kinda freaked out, and scared I guess. And I just didn’t want to come home yet.

  “So then Andrew took me to the old library so I could just calm down before coming back, but then we fell asleep. I swear that’s all. We didn’t do anything else, and I obviously understand the consequences of teenage hormones.” I told her, emphasizing with my hands that I was said consequence.

  “Also, before you yell at me some more, I need to tell you about something else. Something I haven’t wanted to tell you, but Andrew made me promise to.” I took another deep breath, tried to build up some courage, and told them about my dream-vision things.

  And they kept their promise as they listened to me explain everything that had been happening. It felt good to finally get it off my chest and tell the two people in this world that I knew would do everything they could to protect me.

  I still got grounded though. Lame.

  Chapter 14

  Arguments

  A week later, things hadn’t changed too much. I was still grounded, which meant no fun. Only classes, then back home, unless I wanted to do chores for people. Lame.

  So I was stuck cleaning the cafeteria, just so that I wasn’t stuck in my room. At least this way I could see my friends.

  “I still can’t believe you had a vision, and didn’t tell me about it first!” Amber said. Again.

  “Yeah, yeah, I know.”

  “And your parents think it’s true, even though it changes?” she asked again.

  “Yes, they say different things can affect the outcome. But since I’m still getting them, even though it changes, they really think it’s true. Problem is, we don’t know when, and not even where it will happen. We only know it will be outside of The Compound. So basically, I’m never leaving again, if it’s up to them.” So freakin lame.

  She nodded, “yeah, that does suck.”

  Later that day we went to the artists room to help with the kids. I went in and stood in the back for a while, just watching Gabby. She really was so talented. She was talented at everything, but especially painting.

  She was currently painting a portrait of our mom. She wasn’t looking at anything to guide her, just her own memories. I think she made her nose a little too big, and her lips a little too wide, but overall it was almost perfect. If the brush strokes were a little softer, it would have looked like a photograph.

  In the painting our mom stood in the center of a pool of water, hovering just barely over it, with her purple Power all around her. She looked like a goddess in the painting, with a long flowing white gown, and somehow looked like she was glowing. Almost like how I would picture a saint looking. It was funny to me that Gabby saw our mom as a goddess.

  Finally I walked over to her, mostly just so I could get a closer look at it. The detail in the picture was so amazing. The sky was blue, with a few clouds. There was grass around the pool of water, and the water shimmered as if the sun was shining on it. Or maybe it was the light from our mom.

  “That’s so good, Gabs,” I told her. She turned and looked at me, surprised to see me.

  “I didn’t know you were there,” she said. “I think I made her nose too big, but I can’t seem to get it right.” I laughed.

  “Gabby, it’s so amazing. Practice makes perfect, and it seems like you have been practicing for years.”

  “I heard y’all fighting the other day. I’m sorry you got in trouble,” she said, completely changing the subject.

  “It’s okay. Not your fault. I disobeyed them, so I gotta deal with the consequences.” I told her, hoping she would learn from my mistakes. />
  “I heard y’all argue about me.” She said, more quiet than before. I didn’t really remember arguing about her that night, so I wasn’t sure what she was talking about. But we did argue about her often, so maybe it was another fight she was talking about…

  “I have heard it a few times, actually. Somehow my name always comes up when people fight, like I’m a disease or something.” What a weird thing for her to say.

  “What? Why would you think that? People only want the best for you, and sometimes people don’t always agree on what’s the best,” I told her.

  “But sometimes it seems like some people think I can do something to help. I’m not dumb, I’m not a kid anymore.” I tried not to laugh, because she was so a kid. “I know there are bad things going on outside of here. And I know some people think I can help. But I don’t know how.”

  She looked down and sighed, and I barely stifled my laugh then. It wasn’t a laughing matter, but she looked so serious, and so much like Mom.

  “Gabby, there isn’t anything more any of us can do that we aren’t already doing,” I told her. “Just keep learning and practicing and then you will be ready.”

  “Ready for what though?” she asked, drilling me with a stare so intense it threw me off guard. “I feel like I should be doing something more than sitting around painting a picture.” For a minute, she sounded so much older than eight years old. It was funny, because I felt the exact same way. I wanted to do more. But even more than that, I wanted her to do more. I wanted her to train more, and know more.

  All of a sudden I felt so sure of that conviction. Like it was right. She needed to know. I understood how my parents felt, that she should enjoy her childhood, because she won’t always be a child and the fate of the world would rest on her shoulders. But I also felt like she would be more prepared if she knew what she was fighting for.

  “I’ll talk to Mom and Dad and see what I can do, okay?” I told her honestly. Her smile grew big, and she stood up from her chair and wrapped her arms around my chest.

  “Thank you so much, Sammy!”

  At this time of day, or really night, I figured my parents would be in their offices, working on one problem or another, so that’s where I headed. They always went there after dinner. I couldn’t really decide if I should bring it up to Mom or David though. David would probably side with me, but it was Mom who held the final decision.

  As I walked down the Council hallway, my decision was made for me, since the door to Mom’s office was open and I could hear both of them in there.

  I knocked, even though the door was open, and then walked through.

  “Hey, Sam, what’s up?” David asked.

  “I think Gabby should know,” I said simply. In my head, as I walked here, I had come up with so many different arguments and things to say, and even how to say it just right. But that’s what came out of my mouth, so whatever.

  “We’ve had this discussion before, Sam. I have this conversation every freaking day, so why don’t you sit down and tell me whatever you are thinking so that I can hear you out. But know that my decision will not be changing. She is still too young.”

  “Fine.” I said, and took a deep breath. “I just had this serious conversation with her about how she knows she needs to be doing something different. She knows that everyone is talking and arguing about her, she hears it. And she wants to do more.” I emphasized the word knows, so that they would catch my drift. She is Powerful for a reason. They can’t try to hide that.

  “What do you mean ‘she hears people arguing about her’?”

  “That’s what she said. She said she feels like a disease because at every argument her name is there. And,” I wiped the sweat from my palms onto my pants as I stood up from the chair I had sat in, too impassioned to sit anymore. “She needs to know Mom.”

  I turned to David to appeal to him, “David, you know what it’s like to have a feeling, an instinct. And you are making her fight that instinct instead of working with it.” He nodded, and in that moment I knew he agreed with me.

  He turned to Mom, and started to speak. But she cut him off.

  “Not you too, babe. C’mon, we’ve had this discussion again and again.”

  “But this is not the Council who wants to send her into the world to fight right now. This is her father and sister who want only what’s best for her.” I knew he would be on my side.

  “I just want her to be prepared for what she has to do. She needs to know.”

  “No!” My mom shouted. “Not yet.” She said a little quieter. “We can discuss this later. Samantha, either you have chores to do, or you can go back to your room. Well talk later.”

  “No!” I shouted right back at her, knowing full well I was gonna be in so much more trouble than I was already in. But I didn’t care anymore. “She needs to know! You can’t keep holding us back. You try to teach us to hold back. To ‘control’ the Power, but that’s not what we need. We don’t need to hold back. We need to unleash it. We need to know how to use it when it comes to that time.”

  I could barely stop to take a breath. “That’s why it always happens in my dreams that I’m on the ground beneath him, because I can’t use my Power. I have it, and I use it, but it’s not enough. I’ve been trained my whole life how not to use it, to hold it back, to not use too much. But when we need it, we won’t be able to use it. And we’ll all die, because of you!”

  As soon as I said it, I wanted to take it back. But it was really how I felt. Things needed to change or we would all be screwed.

  “Go back to our room right now and stay there until I get there. Do you understand me?” She said it so firmly that I was afraid she would explode. Her hair was already lifting off her shoulders as her Power boiled to the surface. Her eyes were flashing purple and glowing like amethyst in the sun.

  I sighed as loud as I could, walked out the door, and slammed it behind me.

  I passed by Christopher as I walked down the hallway, and I knew he was concerned with my behavior, but I didn’t stop to talk to him.

  I was furious and had to get away from her. So I ran, and didn’t stop for a long time.

  Chapter 15

  Fruition…Or Execution?

  When I came to the lobby, I didn’t even question it as I pushed through the doorway. I walked out, ignoring the lifting feeling that came along with leaving The Compound. And I kept running. I wasn’t going anywhere specific, just away from her. From them all.

  I was right. It really is her fault. All of them are at fault. It’s because of how they train us that I don’t ever win against the dude in my vision. It’s their fault Gabby won’t be ready when its time. And it will be their fault when we all die.

  My morbid thoughts pushed me harder, faster. Further.

  I kept running. My old sneakers crunched the gravel beneath my feet. The air was warm and sticky as I weaved my way through the branches and trees on the mountain. It was dark out, but I could still see pretty clearly anyway.

  Even still, I started to get unnerved. I had been running for a while, and really shouldn’t get too far from The Compound at this time of the night. So I stopped. Right there in the middle of the trail, I stopped in my tracks.

  And then everything I feared surged through my mind. I was crying, I wiped the tears away. I had been sniffling, despite being out of breath from running, so I wiped my nose. I dug deep and summoned my Power. This was not a dream. This was not a vision.

  This was reality. This was here and now. And I had to be ready. What a freakin idiot I had been running out of The Compound alone at night.

  I released the full force of my Power, surrounding me in a physical shield that manifested as a plum colored smoke around my body. My hair was flying wildly around my head now. And I knew it was time. This is what my visions were preparing me for. Preparing me like my parents had not.

  “Come out, come out, wherever you are!” I shouted as loud as I could, secretly hoping someone back at The Compound would hear
me.

  Then he appeared before me. One minute there was nothing there, and the next he appeared out of thin air. Fancy little Rising trick he had.

  He was the same. The same black eyes that were too deep in his face. The same black hair that was greasy as hell and in serious need of shampoo. The same nasty odor, like death, rotten eggs and sulfur all mixed together.

  I didn’t hesitate this time. I pushed my Power out of my body and toward him. It went quickly, like a match to a line of gas, as it went to him.

  But he was faster and moved away. He disappeared, then reappeared behind me. I could sense him before anything else, and I ducked just before he attempted to hit me in the head. Been there, done that. Guess he doesn’t have many moves.

  I spun around and tried to punch him, pushing as much Power behind the punch as I could. He dodged, but not quite fast enough. Instead of hitting his face, as I hoped, I hit his shoulder. He fell backward and I moved forward, as quickly as I could and tried to kick him in the face.

  But he caught my leg, and just like in my vision, he threw me. Instead of hitting a wall, I hit a tree. And it hurt. Bad. Worse than I thought a tree could hurt. But I didn’t hesitate, I rolled away and ran to the other side.

  I turned to him and tried a move I’ve only heard of. I reached to his mind to push my Power into it. He stopped his assault, as I found his mind. It was black. Not at all like Order Members minds. When you search for an Order member, their color shows up. But this was like a black hole, lifeless. Dead.

  I pushed my light into him, but I could feel him pushing back. He disappeared again, then reappeared behind me. And this time I wasn’t fast enough. He hit me in my head, just like in my vision, and I fell, just barely catching myself before my face landed in the dirt. He kicked me in the side and I rolled to my back, before he landed on top of me.

  This was my worst fear. It was coming true. I was never falling- this couldn’t be another vision. And I was going to be raped, tortured and murdered.