“Hel—” I managed to shout before Lucio’s hand clamped over my mouth and they started to move, rushing me towards their dormitory room, the rest of the beds along the way deserted as the other students completed their chores. My face flushed red as I reached out with two force points, ripping a shower curtain away from the rod and flinging it over Darian, who swore as he struggled to remove it while the metal hooks clawed over his skin. Next came the collection of shampoo and body wash bottles, spraying over Lucio and the floor as Darian struggled forward, now slipping over the layer of colored soap coating the tiles.
Stumbling, he dropped me as he fell forward, and I slid on my back over the gel until I struck the far wall with the back of my head, my vision flashing as I raised a dazed hand. A stack of toilet paper rolls pelted Darian like machine gun fire as he recovered, and with my other hand, I prepared to rip the toilet stall doors straight from their hinges. But then Lucio threw the ripped away shower curtain over me like a net, cutting off my vision as Darian whipped me around like a rag doll inside the folds of the plastic, bundling me tighter than a burrito as he hoisted me over his shoulder.
Without my vision, I could no longer see objects to launch at them, and I groped out at random as they dashed away. I heard the sound of bunks screeching as I pulled them towards us, then books being ripped off of the provided study desks, and chairs toppling onto the floor. Then my ankles smacked against the door frame of their room, Darian unrolled the shower curtain like a carpet, and I tumbled on the bed.
“Don’t you even!” hissed Lucio as I reached a hand upwards, immediately taking hold of a lamp with a force point and flinging it towards him while struggling to sit up, but he ducked out of the way.
“We’re trying to help you, you idiot!”
“I should have never trusted you in the first place,” I shouted back and launched myself from the bed just as Darian raised a hand, and I slammed into an invisible wall that domed over the top of me. Tiny ripples spread away from my point of contact as I fell back onto the mattress, the springs rebounding me upwards to smack against the invisible wall again as Darian grimaced.
“Hold still!” he commanded, but I punched upwards, my fist striking the wall in an explosion of pain, the sensation of the material the exact same as the bubble that encapsulated the facility. Then I reached outwards, pulling a broom that had been leaning against the doorway over the barrier so hard that the handle snapped, splinters scattering around the room.
“SC, it’s no use, cut it out. Like Lucio said, we’re here to help,” continued Darian, his voice slightly muted. “Keep quiet, or we’ll have more trouble on our hands.”
“You’ll have more trouble on your hands!” I answered. “Let me out of here! Stay away!”
For an instant, the wall disappeared, only to be replaced by one that was smaller, giving me only a half foot of space to move. The barrier was now so close I could feel my exhalations striking the inner top of it, and the hairs on my neck pricked as Lucio moved in closer. My breath came quicker, my chest heaving up and down as I pushed against the invisible material, my thoughts giving way to panic.
And I felt myself doing something familiar, something I hadn’t done in quite some time, something that happened more out of instinct than intention.
My index finger found its normal resting place between my thumb and palm, and with a flick, I snapped space downwards, a black orb forming directly above me. Light spiraled into the sphere and I fed my own shirt into it as it gained stability, the fabric splitting apart at the thread level as the sphere gained weight and size, the sheets underneath me rushing to jump into the orb as well.
“What the Hell is that?” exclaimed Darian, his deep voice still managing to portray calm as his eyes widened and the dark sphere moved upwards to meet the invisible barrier. At the edges, the wall glowed purple as the sphere approached, neon sparks flying away as the two entities met. And then the sphere broke the barrier, the wall swirling inwards to join it like water down a drain. I laughed as the outer edges of the dome receded into the orb and Darian created a second barrier, only to have it disappear into the orb as well.
“Lucio, a little help!” cried Darian, sweat pouring down his forehead.
“Right!” shouted Lucio and leapt forward, his hand coming down over my forehead, “but this isn’t going to be easy! I would apologize, SC, if you weren't being such a prick – but this is going to hurt.”
Then I smiled, the world before me dimming as I entered a daydream, a memory more fresh than reality. There, just in front of me, Arial floated, smiling as the wind caught hold of her hair and streamed it out like a cape, the setting sun behind her illuminating each of the individual strands with a golden halo. A creek bubbled just off to my right, and green meadow stretched into the distance on the left, meeting snowcapped mountains a few miles away.
“I’ve always wanted to show you this place,” she said as I relaxed, taking in the scenery. It was beautiful, just as beautiful as she was as she stared at me, her pupils dilated, her face lit by a glow that drew me in. “Remarkable, isn’t it?”
I nodded, my mouth slightly open, my brow furrowed as I tried to remember where we were. Nowhere near the city could I find somewhere like this, not even when I took the bus into the outskirts. Maybe she had flown us here.
And as I fought to remember, I felt something at the back of my head. Not outside my head, but inside it, like a worm burrowing through soil. And Arial disappeared in a burst of color as singing filled my mind, singing so loud that my hands covered my ears and I could practically see the dancing notes. They moved in front of me, becoming more distant as they pulled away, the feeling similar to floss being pulled through my teeth and out from the back of my throat.
Paralyzed, my body rigid and my muscles tensed, I watched the music depart, the sounds leaving a burning sensation wherever they touched, reaching backwards as they fled and trying to catch my thoughts, to hook themselves back into my mind. But they were cleared away by a sweeping motion, like a squeegee over a window, letting no remnants remain.
I opened my eyes as Darian and Lucio stood over me, both of them tense and staring as I spoke, my body shaking as the memories of the last few days came flooding back. But it was as if I were rereading a book several years after the first time, the meanings of sentences altered on the second rendition, my more matured mind picking up parts that had been previously been hidden between the lines.
“My God.” I whispered, looking up at them. “Arial.”
Chapter 36
“SC, when you’re finished, I’m going to need some help here,” said Darian from above me.
I retched again over the side of the bed into a box that had been full of books just a few moments before, graciously provided by Lucio as soon as my face turned green. With each beat of my heart, my head pounded, the sensation rushing from the outer edges of my skull inward, and I winced with each pulse.
“What?” I managed to ask and looked upwards to where Darian stood, his hands two feet apart. Caught between them was the black orb, hovering in place, and as I watched, a pen from the other side of the room zipped towards the center like an arrow, only to be consumed into the mass.
“Oh, that,” I said, feeling out for the orb where I had left it during the memory daydream, and feeling Darian’s mirrored presence holding it in place. “Let go, I’ve got it now.”
With a sigh, he released the orb, pulling his hands backward, and I took hold of the sharp depression in space. Slowly I opened it, releasing a stream of light that danced around the room, illuminating Lucio’s and Darian’s faces. Then, with a small pop and flash of light, the orb ceased to exist, dust floating to the ground from where it had been, while the two spectators jumped back in shock.
“Telekinetic, my ass!” said Lucio, pointing a finger at me. “That girl Arial wasn’t lying on that first day of class with Linns! What are you?”
“Well, before we get to that,” I said, staring into the mess accumulat
ing at the bottom of the box, feeling my stomach lurch again. “What did you do to my head? I thought you said you couldn’t alter memories. And what’s going on? I feel all muddled.”
“Until you can speak properly, we’ll go first to fill you in. But then you owe us or else I’ll broadcast this power over the entire facility. Something tells me they would be eager to find out about it,” answered Darian. “Lucio, want to explain?”
“You’re right, I can’t modify memories,” responded Lucio. “Provided that they are actual memories. Your problem is that Siri implanted her songs into your head – they’re near memories, so I can’t alter them either, but I can find them and remove them. It’s like cutting away brambles stuck to jeans – I couldn’t help it, some of them will make you bleed. But they needed to be removed.”
“Thanks,” I said, the word all I could muster as I remembered the sensation.
“Since day one,” continued Darian, “Lucio has been removing the singing from my head each morning. And while I’m nowhere near as skilled as he is, I can emulate his power enough to remove a day’s worth of singing from his head. Much more than that, though, and I would be useless. Siri’s song has to build upon itself – multiple days are needed for it to really take root. They have to be layered.”
“Not entirely true,” said Lucio, raising a finger. “From what I can tell, she could enchant someone in a single session, but it would be dangerous. Basically, she would have to rip open their subconscious, and at that point, she would have far less control of the outcome. It’s much safer to gradually take root.”
“But even if it is safer,” interjected Darian, “you can still tell who has been altered by their mannerisms. She has to be careful – after some of the stronger nightly sessions, the recipients act out of their minds. SC, we watched you try to write on one of Linn’s quizzes with an eraser for ten minutes once before you realized it made no marks. Another time, getting changed after physical practice, you took the same pair of pants on and off five times. It’s as if you’re concussed – the brain needs time to recover.”
“It sure does,” I said, closing my eyes, the world swimming. “God, we need to find Arial. They’re talking about giving her a full-on session.”
“She’s gone for the day,” said Darian. “I saw her leave. But how, exactly, would you know that?”
“I’ll need to start from the top,” I answered. “But if I tell you this, you have to keep it a secret.”
“Hey now, you were the one that was about to run blabbing to Siri!” insisted Lucio. “I think Darian and I are more trustworthy in the secrets department.”
“Fine,” I sighed. “But first, tell me – am I really scheduled to fight Blake and Fino at the end of this week? Lucio, tell me that’s one of your memories.”
“Nope,” he answered, shaking his head. “Like I said, the singing makes you crazy. And in your case, plain stupid. At least more than normal.”
“Damn,” I responded. “That’s going to hurt. And why did you use the daydream of Arial to calm me down?”
Lucio chuckled, a sly grin forming on his face. “I didn’t. I just planted the seeds for happy thoughts, fantastical ones. But for the future, that’s good ammunition.”
“Damn again,” I groaned. “As if you need that.”
“Not like it wasn’t obvious already,” Darian stated. “Now focus, SC. You owe us a story. The others will get back any minute. Wait, hold on – Lucio, let’s clean the best we can before they see anything! Hurry!”
And when they returned, I started, my voice low so others couldn’t overhear.
“There’s a reason why you didn’t recognize my power,” I said, pushing the box of vomit away. “It’s because, to my knowledge, I am the first of my kind. And the only.”
Chapter 37
“I still can’t believe you’re from space,” whispered Lucio from across the table, his face alight. “I mean, I believe you, but it’s still crazy! I’d almost believe that you are a Memwriter, not me!”
We were at lunch, Lucio leaning across the table with his palms flat on the surface. The night before, I’d switched rooms, moving in with Darian and Lucio while leaving the others behind, using the excuse that their snores had driven me off. And in the morning, we’d awakened ten minutes early – even after one night of the singing, I felt groggy, as if I had barely slept the night before, and thoughts seemed to stop halfway through my mind. This time, when Lucio reached out to my mind, the process only left me slightly disoriented.
“It’s like the dentist,” he said. “Last time, I had to remove teeth. This time, I only have to polish them. It’ll be much less painful.”
And now, at lunch, Darian put a hand against Lucio’s chest to push him back into his chair.
“Keep your voice down or the whole cafeteria is going to hear,” he chastised. “Don’t be an idiot. This secret is the greatest weapon we have right now – it means we can exit the force field. It means we can escape.”
“Sure, sure,” said Lucio, hesitant. “But you forgot something – SC said he came here on purpose. We can only escape with him, unless you use his power.”
“Which is something you should avoid doing at all costs,” I hissed back to Darian. “Look, I’m here because I’m hiding. I told you about the Hunter – if you use this power on the outside, you’ll draw him in like a magnet. Anyways, how long can you hold on to my power?”
“That’s all the more incentive for you to help us then,” countered Darian. “We saved you, now you save us. Anyways, I can only store a few powers at a time. The stronger they are, the less I can keep – it’s as if I put them inside a box, and the box size is only big enough to contain a few. And they’re always weaker than the original source. But I’ll hold on to this one as long as I need to.”
“I promise I’ll find a way to get you out of here,” I answered, looking directly into his eyes. “But you have to promise me you won’t use my power to do it first. Look – I know you hate Siri as much as I do. She’s planning something, something big – how great would it be to really stick it to her and the rest of the instructors when we leave? And if we do it right, we might shut down the facility by the sounds of their relationship with the police. Besides, if you’re caught escaping now, all that will happen is that the police will bring you back – let’s make sure there is nowhere they can bring you back to.”
“I’d be in for sure,” Lucio said, cutting off Darian. “Let’s start trouble.”
“Fine,” Darian ceded, crossing his hands over his chest. “I promise. But you better hold up your end of the bargain, SC. I’m in this to escape.”
“Like you said, I owe you, so I will,” I answered. “But we’ll need a plan, and right now I don’t have one.”
We fell silent, and I considered potential ideas. Unlike Darian, I was not ready to leave the facility – I still had to learn to fight. Additionally, I still had no solid leads on my mother, but spying on Siri as they became further pitted against the police might help. Perhaps they might have clues on why my mother had been taken, or perhaps I could lead them into investigating why.
I racked my brain for ideas, letting my gaze wander over the lunchroom. There, the Ass Table was still empty, the inhabitants having just reached the front of the line for food. To the right sat the Uppers, laughing as Blake threw an orange into the middle of the Bottoms still in line and they fought each other for who could claim it. I narrowed my eyes as they pushed over each other – in only moments, they would also have food, but something as rare as fresh fruit rarely remained long enough for a Bottom to find it.
I was so busy staring at the Bottoms, I didn’t realize that Blake had met my gaze, his own eyes turning hard as the outer edges frosted into crystal. Within that instant, I knew both our minds were focused on the same topic – the bracket and this coming Saturday.
Casually, and still locked in a glare, he reached for an apple in the center of the table. And he raised an index finger, the edge glinting as
it caught the lighting above us, and sliced clean through the apple to the core with a single swipe. The top of the apple slid away and fell to the floor as juice trickled down his palm, and he held the apple towards me before crushing it in a diamond-encrusted fist.
Swallowing, I looked away before he tossed the mass to the Bottoms, just as Lucio nudged me.
“Hey, SC, look who’s coming! It’s the girl of your dreams – well, our dreams, since I gave them to you! I’m sure you’d love some more, eh?”
“Shut it, Luc—” I started just as Arial sat next to me and placed a bowl of tomato soup on the table. I started, remembering that we needed a plan to expose Siri. And I realized that she might hold the answer.
“Arial, does your father still want information on the rehabilitation facility? If we could find out some secrets, could he share them with the police? Secrets bad enough that we could then leave this place?”
Arial frowned, staring at her soup, a fork in her hand. She dipped the utensil in the thin liquid, the soup drizzling away before it had a chance to reach her mouth, spilling over the table. With a sigh, she tried again with the same result, her brow furrowed when only a fraction of a morsel was actually consumed.
“Arial?” I repeated, and she looked up at me, tilting her head.
“Leave, SC?” she asked, dipping the fork into the soup once more. “Why would I ever want to leave?”
Chapter 38
Arial turned to face me, her eyes meeting mine as chills ran down my spine. For an instant, I could have sworn they were a bright sapphire blue – but when they came into focus, they resumed their normal brown color, the pupils sliding over me in search for a handhold but finding none, as if they looked past my features and I was just a piece of the background.
Star Child: Places of Power Page 12