by C. C. Lynch
Finally, I got to the control room and stared at a soft aqua light surrounding a large door. The type of large door that someone puts into a building that just serves as a big red sign saying “there’s important stuff in here, break in!”
I gave it three loud knocks and yelled into the door, “it’s Ovolina.”
Loud steps were coming from behind me and the silhouette of a man was barreling towards me with a purpose. The aqua light shimmered off a pair of glasses and I banged on the door harder. “Let me in now before this creeper gets me!”
The door opened and two delicate hands pulled me in quickly before closing us in the room.
A light was dancing in the air just below the ceiling, illuminating Miranda’s face.
“Where is everyone?” I asked Miranda.
Her giant blue eyes were glossy and rimmed with red. “Abrielle is dead.”
My heart skipped a beat. I could not believe that she was really gone. I sure would not miss her save-the-world attitude. That’s not really true. I liked that about her. I just did not like the threat of mortality hanging in my face.
“Yeah, and that’s screwing up our timeline. Where are we at?”
The sound of fists slamming on the door startled us for a moment before she shook her head and said, “he can’t get in, not for a little bit at least.” I rolled my hand in the air, telling her to hurry up with the answer to my question. “Oh,” Miranda nodded, “right. Um, Lena took care of the animals and Connor took care of scary dude’s dad, we turned off the alarms in this part of the building and turned the fire alarms on in the other part so the regular workers would evacuate, I just smashed the controls so that none of the rooms are containing gifts, and the wiring to that pad out there is destroyed.”
I pursed my lip and raised my brows, annoyed. “So the only way to get in and out of the control room is through this door? The one with the crazy guy on the other side?”
“Well, Luka is still running around somewhere and Al has popped in and out a few times.” She pointed at the televisions streaming live footage. The only thing I could see were shadows moving around, except for a few seldom rooms with windows. “One of them will get us out of this predicament.”
I shook my head, completely annoyed with her. “Well how about you let me know which black screen to look at and I’ll do just that.” My stomach dropped as her words sank in. “Wait, none of the rooms can contain gifts right now?”
“Correct,” she smiled.
“How dumb can you be? Did all that bleach rot your brain? We needed the big room to be controlled. That was part of the plan.” I dug my fingers into my hair and tried to control my rage.
A large boom sounded and the door began to shake and rattle.
Miranda jumped towards the screen and pointed at one of them. “Time to hit the lights!” The moment she said that, all the lights in the building came on. The frantic people on the little screens stopped looking like deer in headlights just before rushing off to an actual destination.
The banging sound became louder and more intense. “Was that your genius plan? Letting them see the door better?” My heart began to flutter and I was panicking.
Miranda’s face was more relaxed. “That was my call for help.”
I looked down at the screen to see Luka charging down the hall and into a stairwell. He did not even bother opening the door, just pushed through it like it wasn’t even there. Solid objects were like clouds to him.
He barged towards the three men outside the door who were so busy trying to get into the control room that they never even saw him coming. That was when he did something straight out of a horror movie. He slid right under one of the men’s feet, knocking the guy down and another toppled on top of him. Luka grabbed the two men’s legs and thrust them into one another. He pulled his hand away and the pair began writhing, one was convulsing. The other man ran away while this was occurring. The man, whether smart or cowardly, got away before Luka could ruin his day.
Luka walked through the door and waved us out, “come on ladies, but please avert your eyes.”
We followed Luka, unable to look away from the tangled mess he left in the hall. I had no idea what his next task was, but without any sign of Aiden, I had to move onto the next part of my to-do list.
I ran up the stairs, passing a few monkeys on my way. I couldn’t help but laugh, thinking about how they were following some orders Lena had given them. Miss Peppy probably sent them to go blow balloons up or something. That’s not fair of me. Lena had good ideas and actually tried to bring some sunshine into that basement. She had drawn that wacky dog on the board with the idea that the animals could be given a task to help take down the place. I thought that was pretty creative, something the wackos would not expect.
“Where are you going?” Miranda called behind me, slightly out of breath.
I looked to see her and Luka running after me. “Didn’t you guys have something to do besides follow me?”
“Finished my list,” Miranda called back between breaths, “what do you have,” she took a deep breath, “to do?”
I sighed, annoyed, “I’ve got to block the path to the ‘tree house’ from the rest of the building. Everyone is out except for wackos and us.” I started swinging my arms for momentum to get up the stairs quicker. “Got to make sure the humans are safe.”
20
ABRIELLE
“Abrielle.”
I heard Vlaine speak my name. His voice sounded as though it were under water. “Fight.” His voice was louder, but still garbled as though he was calling to me underwater from the other side of a pool. “Come back to me, Abbs,” his voice began to fade.
Everything was dark and I could not push my eyelids open. I had no energy, nothing left to give.
Aiden’s voice came through, just as muddled as Vlaine’s was. “Draxe, Josnic, it’s your time. You’ve got to manipulate my gift. Now!”
Everything around me was quiet and dark. Listening to their voices was exhausting, being present was exhausting. I wanted to fall back into the silence where I could rest. It was so easy resting.
Draxe’s voice came in a whisper, so quiet I could only hear parts of his words. “Luth.. ge... eph… ry.”
21
LIZ
I did not want to be here again. It was dangerous; especially dangerous for me. The only reason I was not locked up in one of these stupid rooms was because I agreed to help Osiris and Jeremiah. They needed me to get close to Abrielle, to help with their big plan. When Osiris heard that Vlaine had a vision of me and Abrielle, they knew it was pertinent for me and her to be roommates.
As far as I knew, they had no idea Luther was playing both sides. With Luther helping, I actually had a good chance of getting out of this situation. I could be free of the tree house forever.
Then again, if Abrielle ever found out, I would lose her trust. Either that or she would say something like, “I’m so sorry you had to go through that,” and offer some warm pastries and a shoulder to lean on.
I was hiding in the corner of a room, watching chaos ensue. Erik had been positive that Abrielle was coming alone and once the lights went out, that whole façade shattered. Despite what I was told to do, I needed to get to the laboratories. What the rest of the students did not know was how close Replyx was to figuring out what makes us different. Their entire reason for the tree house existing was in a laboratory. The DNA samples, notes, and all the work they had done was hiding in plain sight. That’s the best thing about people like Jeremiah - they think they are untouchable.
It took me nearly twenty minutes to make it to the cafeteria that was near the laboratories. Every time someone went by, I was sure I would be caught. Fortunately, everyone seemed to be focused on Abrielle.
The closets in the laboratories were where people kept their stuff. Most people used the gym in the building so there were going to be bags hidden in the closets. I opened the first closet and there was nothing except a reusable water bottle. Th
e third closet I checked had a bright orange and black gym bag. I dumped the contents out and ran to the room with the replicator research in it.
The notebooks and memory stick were tucked neatly away in a locked cabinet. I nabbed the key off someone earlier when they were distracted during Miranda’s trick of manipulating all the lights.
I pushed the key into the lock and took everything out, not looking at what I was grabbing. There was no time to be picky. Just as I was putting everything into the bag, a melody of footsteps caused me to freeze. Slowly, I put my hand onto the bag, turning it invisible. There were only so many things I could hide, since I was already working on my body and clothes. The bag was about the capacity that I could focus on.
I turned and saw Luka, Miranda, and Ovolina. Ovolina was telekinetically pulling stuff up and into the air, moving it in front of the door that led to the other part of the building. She was grabbing everything she could and blocking the path. Luka pushed his way through the door and what I could see he was working on the other door. My assumption was he was manipulating the lock so that no one could get through that door either. Everyone was now closed in the tree house, with no way to escape aside from teleportation or intangibility.
My heart dropped as I saw Jeremiah make his way towards the group. Miranda froze in place while Ovolina ran the other way. Luka, unaware of Jeremiah’s presence, was on his way back.
“No, Luka, no,” I whispered, wishing he could hear me. If I yelled to him, Jeremiah would find me.
Luka’s gift operated particles and Jeremiah’s electricity power was dangerous; the electric current would transcend Luka’s gift. Luka would be powerless.
Luka was halfway through the door when he looked up and froze, seeing Jeremiah. With the most sinister look I had ever seen, Jeremiah raised his hand and sent a current right to Luka. A horrible and truly traumatizing scream came from Luka just before his body froze. I looked away, knowing what had happened.
Luka was gone. I could have stopped it, but I was too afraid I would be caught; too selfish to save someone else’s life. Nausea erupted and I had to suck in my cheeks to stop from gagging. Next came the smell. The odor of what I had just witnessed came my way. That was it. I knew for sure Jeremiah would find me then. There was nothing stopping me from getting sick. I bent over and got sick, the noise turning Jeremiah towards me.
Tears began streaming down my face.
I was done. “Someone please help me,” I cried softly. I did not merit help. Luka could have been saved if I had just spoke up. There was no one coming for me, and that was the instant karma a despicable person like me deserved.
I closed my eyes and clamped my jaw shut. If I was lucky this would be quick and I would join Luka in some sort of afterlife. If not, I would be right back in one of those rooms.
Two arms wrapped around my waist and I closed my eyes even tighter. “Ask and you shall receive, love.”
I had never been so happy to be surrounded by the smell of tobacco.
By the time I opened my eyes, we were at Glaston Academy. The scene was confusing and it took a while to figure out what was happening. Erik was pacing while Vlaine, Draxe, and Aiden were hovered over Abrielle. She wasn’t breathing. Claire was looking on at the four, but her hand was tucked in some guy’s hand.
Something had snapped in Erik. I had never seen him look so distraught. His fists were balled and he walked to Luther with a purpose. “Take me back to Replyx,” he demanded.
Claire jumped up from her seat next to whomever was lying there. “I’m going too.”
“First,” I turned to Luther and presented the gym bag full of research, “we need to find a safe place for this.”
His jaw dropped and his eyes widened, “brilliant.”
22
CLAIRE
The British guy took us back to the Replyx building and my hands shook with the need for revenge. Donny was the nicest person I had ever known and he was just sitting in the building, waiting to be used against me. I had no idea how long he had been there, but he was just sitting in a cage in the event I did not cooperate.
The other guy, Erik as it were, clearly had a destination in mind, but I did not. Emotion had ruled my decision to return and I had no plan. I just wanted to exact revenge.
“Hey,” I called out to the British guy, “what should I do?”
He looked at me and smirked, “you like to throw things, yeah?”
I nodded, not sure how he knew my talent. “Yeah.”
“Why not start throwing some flammables around.” He was incredibly mischievous, but it sounded like a good idea.
“Third floor,” he shouted before disappearing.
“Flammables. Flammables,” I kept repeating, trying to think of what he meant. I ran down the stairs and stopped suddenly when a man in the stairwell was coming my way. His mouth formed an enigmatic ‘o’ before I chucked my body weight into him, pushing him down the stairs. I leapt over his body and continued on.
Down the stairs I found a frosted glass door labeled storage room and pushed my way in. The force was unnecessary seeing how the door was unlocked, but it helped to get out some aggravation. Inside there were rows of shelves lined with different chemicals. One side of the room had powders for different agars and across the room were chemicals, acetone and others with formulas I did not understand.
I began taking the large jars of acetone down until I saw another door at the side of the storage room. I pushed it open and in the back were metal containers labeled chlorine trifluoride. My jaw dropped and I closed the door slowly. What did they even have that for? I turned to the door to go back to the acetone, but stopped when I saw containers of urea nitrate.
“What do they even do here?” I shook my head and grabbed the compound. There were racks of test tubes, stoppers, some gloves. I grabbed them and started pouring it into the tubes. I could just toss the test tubes into rooms and try to get an even distribution throughout the building.
I made the building my new obstacle course. Running through the halls and carefully chucking the compound into the rooms. Anyone that happened to get into my way got a throwing dagger to the knee. It was enough to stop them from chasing me and forced their attention to their joint long enough for me to get away without any gifted repercussions.
I made it four floors before I ran out of supplies and needed to figure out what else to do to help. I had yet to see anyone from the group that Abrielle had gathered, but that did not mean I was the only one here. There was still that Erik kid around, and from what I saw he was ready to take this place down too.
I pulled the piece of paper from my pocket and saw the big red ‘A’ drawn in the weird map. It was where Abrielle was supposed to be. According to the plan, she was bait. If everything had gone right, which it did not, all of the bad people would have gone there to get her and Aiden would have done his magic time thing and stopped everyone. With Abrielle gone, there was no plan and these people would be out for blood after the damage that had been done. It needed to be finished and the only other suitable bait that everyone would go for was Aiden.
Despite my lack of assistance, I decided that going to the place Abrielle was meant to be in would be where I could be the most help.
Whoever the janitor of the place was must have been meticulous because the place was spotless. That might sound like a strange thing to focus on, but when your sanity depends on running, you notice these things; especially when freshly waxed floors affect your footing. The place was also extremely well labeled. That was until I got to the floor with the room labeled ‘A’ on my little map. That floor was ominous and gave off the most eerie feeling, like you get walking into a house that you know is haunted beforehand and you’re just waiting for something bad to happen.
I heard a voice from afar that shook me to the core. I ran under a desk that was nearby and hoped that no one would see me. Rumbling shook the floor and I dared not look at whatever was causing everything to vibrate.
“Go, O
volina, move,” I heard someone shout from down the hall. It was a guy’s voice but I could not put my finger on who it belonged to. “Heinrich, man, stop!”
I peeked my head out to try and see what was happening. Connor was waving his hands, like he was trying to get someone’s attention and yelling at some guy. I’m using the term guy loosely because it was the shape of a man but a completely different matter, like a big blue man of neon.
It was impossible to see what the blue person was thinking, or even trying to do because there was no way to see his eyes. At least with everyone else I had encountered, I could tell whether or not they wanted to harm me.
Ovolina was nowhere in sight, but Connor was backing up defensively, ready to run. The blue guy was heading toward him slowly, but it was too calculated to be benign.
I cupped my hands around my mouth to project my voice and screamed, “Connor, run!”
There was no delay, Connor ran as soon as I screamed and the blue man was looking around wildly, trying to find where the voice had come from. He began walking towards the room I was in and I froze, trying to squish myself harder away from his line of sight underneath the desk.
Connor’s voice sounded from far away in a sing-song voice, “Oh Heinrich, over here Heinrich.”
That was my cue to run like a madwoman out of that room and get someplace safer. I went as quickly as possible, as far from the scary blue man as I could get. I thought of finding one of my tubes and throwing it at him, but I could only imagine that would set the place off like a conga line of explosives. Still, I had to help Connor somehow. I needed to find that British guy, he would know how to stop the blue man.
The bottom of my sneakers slapping the floor was deafening until I heard a commotion coming from near the large cafeteria. I pressed my body against the wall and tip-toed to where I heard the yelling.