by Lane, Styna
The Elementum Trinity
Book Tw☼
The Violet Awakening
This is a work of fiction. Any reference made to real events, real people, or real locales are used fictitiously. All other events, locales, and characters in this publication are a work of the author’s unhealthily-overactive imagination, and any resemblance to real events, or to real people, living or dead, are entirely coincidental. However, if you do happen to have the ability to manipulate elements, you may want to talk to someone about that. Like a talk-show host. Or a psychologist. Definitely not Al, though. He’s not real. Didn’t we already go over that?
Copyright © 2014 Christyna Lane Whatman
All rights reserved, including the right of reproduction in whole or in part, in any form.
Edited by Ryan McDonald
For Mom.
Thank you for always encouraging me to be creative, and to follow my dreams.
I love you.
Chapter One
Trance
Chapter Two
Good People, Bad Things
Chapter Three
Damp
Chapter Four
Precedence
Chapter Five
Presidents
Chapter Six
Presents
Chapter Seven
Dandelions and Rainbows
Chapter Eight
Tiny Evil Devil
Chapter Nine
Shackles
Chapter ten
Silent and Unseen
Chapter Eleven
Break
Chapter Twelve
Alone
Chapter Thirteen
Aberration
Chapter Fourteen
Monster
Chapter Fifteen
Linger
Chapter Sixteen
Trespassing
Chapter Seventeen
Blood
Chapter Eighteen
Choices
Chapter Nineteen
Vertigo
Chapter Twenty
The Sounds of Silence
Chapter Twenty-One
Coping Mechanism
Chapter Twenty-Two
Shmangela
Chapter Twenty-Three
Awakened
Chapter Twenty-Four
Clouds
Chapter Twenty-Five
Crunch
Chapter Twenty-Six
Revenge
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Pull the Trigger
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Glow
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Changes
Chapter Thirty
Lavender and Sunflowers
About The Author
Kickstarter Backers
Special Thanks
Chapter One
Trance
A lot can happen in a day. Within the course of twenty-four hours, I had been abducted, beaten, and freed from the prison in which I had spent my entire life. I had bonded at the core of my being with my soul mate, whom I had just physically met for the first time. I had been taken to a village that somehow survived at the bottom of a lake. An overload of information as to who and what I really was had been dumped into the crevasses of my brain, and all the lies I grew up believing were replaced by truths far too vast for me to fully grasp. All of this, without so much as a bathroom break. It was overwhelming. Overwhelming to the point that it had rendered me incapable of doing much, other than gazing blankly at the bruised face that was staring back at me from the mirror of Lily and Al's washroom.
In all the hype of escape, we hadn’t stopped to heal my injuries. The adrenaline had been masking the pain, and it took realizing how badly I needed to pee in order to remember that my nose was broken.
I stared at my disaster of a reflection, wincing at each prod of the swollen black rings beneath my eyes. I looked like something out of a cheesy horror film that had spent its entire budget on corn syrup and red food coloring. Instead of hiring a proper make-up artist, they had lured in the bum from outside the local gas station with empty promises of sandwiches and fresh underwear, stuck a palette of dark eye shadow in his hand, and said, ‘have at it!’ I had never seen myself so damaged, yet it gave me a sense of relief. It made me feel... human—so fragile, but with an inexplicable knack for surviving.
I dipped a rag in the basin of water on the counter, ignoring the stabs of pain as I wiped the dried blood from my face. Al had told me not to try to heal the wounds myself, that the break would need extra care. At first, I was a little offended that he thought I was unqualified to heal a simple broken nose. It didn’t take long for me to realize that I was unqualified. I had never dealt with a broken bone, and the thought of potentially ending up with my nose permanently squished against one cheek was enough to tame my stubbornness.
An unfamiliar feeling crippled my gut at the sight of the raw, stinging skin on my wrists. My arms were too bare. I had grown so accustomed to the presence of my Electro-Cuffs, it almost felt as though a part of me were missing—a toe, perhaps. Or an ear.
With a heavy sigh, I dropped the rag into the bloody water. Leaning against the cool, stone wall of the bathroom, I slid down to the floor with a thud. I had never been so free, and now that I was, I didn’t know what to do about it… What an absurd dilemma. Cradling my knees against my chest, silent tears warmed my cheeks; tears I could only place somewhere between optimism and disorientation.
“Angie? Are you ok?” A gentle voice permeated the bathroom door, relieving all of my uneasiness within the first syllable.
Drying my cheeks as I pushed myself to my feet, I opened the door to see Lakin's worried face. A smile crawled across my lips as I gazed into the eyes of my soul mate. I was far too happy to acknowledge how disgustingly girlish I felt.
“I am, now,” I whispered, resting my head on his shoulder as I wrapped my arms around him.
I welcomed the warmth of his returned embrace, though my first instinct was to flail my fists in pain when his shoulder accidentally bumped against my nose. My connection with Lakin forced the rest of the world to melt away, leaving us in a place where bad things couldn’t happen, where bad things had never happened. The past and future mingled around us in a state of total nothingness, and it was wonderful. It was safe. Until Al felt it necessary to intrude on the moment of utter gooeyness that we were enjoying in the middle of the narrow hallway.
“You ready to take care of that nose?” he asked, crossing his arms as he leaned against the wall behind us.
I nodded, hesitantly following him to the living room, where Lily was covering the floor near the couch with towels, and humming a perky tune I didn’t recognize. Her eyes glimmered as she looked up at me, though a bit of concern rested at the corners of her mouth.
“Towels?” I questioned nervously, finding Lakin's hand to grip.
“Don’t worry about it.” Al grinned, sitting himself down at the edge of the covered area.
He patted one of the frayed towels suggestively, eyes glittering with excitement. I walked wearily around the aged couch, and positioned myself, cross-legged, on the floor. I instinctively leaned away as he reached up to my nose.
“Is this going to hurt?” I squinted, feeling the comfort of Lakin's hand on my shoulder.
“Yup!” Al exclaimed a bit too cheerfully.
“Do you even know what you’re doing?” I asked, leaning backward into Lakin, before realizing he was not holding me for comfort; he was restraining me.
“Of course I do, I’m a doctor,” he assured with a sheepish grin.
“You’re a psychologist!”
“Just take a deep breath, and stay still. I have to set it before I can heal it.”
I found refuge in the familiarity of Al's eyes, breathing deeply at his instruction. I snorted at the sound that emitted from my face in trying to inhale through my nose, then grimaced at the pain caused by snorting. Healing a broken bone couldn’t possibly hurt any worse than breaking it in the first place... Right?
I clamped my eyes shut, as Al positioned his thumbs on either side of my crooked nose. A slight pressure, and then...
An unusual noise, which sounded not unlike ‘GAHJESUSHELLBALLS!’ made its way past my lips as I yanked myself out of his grasp, clenching at my face while I rocked and cursed.
Al failed to suppress a chuckle. I tried to glare at him, but hot tears obstructed my line of vision. It was difficult to tell which of the three of him I should have been scowling at.
“I’m glad you find my pain amusing,” I mumbled stuffily through red, sticky fingers.
As blood carved paths down my arms, I suddenly understood the purpose of the towels.
“You’ve been electrocuted. Almost to death. This is nothing,” he insisted, handing me a clean rag to wipe my face with.
“Whatever. Can you heal me now?” I asked, finally focusing on the Al in the middle.
“Maybe. Let me see.”
“Maybe?” I shouted, violently dropping my hands to my lap.
He examined my face, pressing lightly against the edges and bridge of my nose. My eyes widened as he shook his head.
“Not yet,” he said plainly, repeating the same motion that had caused so much pain just moments before.
Another curse fell from my mouth, and more blood dripped from my nose, but I was pleased to breathe in cold air without sounding like a drowning elephant. I looked up to Al with hopeful eyes, sighing with relief at his nod. I shifted slightly as he moved his hands back to my face, but I leaned in at the sight of white light emerging from his palms. The room illuminated around us, reflecting dim glares on the dusty windows. Unpleasant crackling noises seemed to emanate from within my skull, but quickly dissipated into pain-free silence. I hadn’t realized how much agony I had been in, until it was gone.
“Better?” he asked, inspecting my features with a final nod.
“Much, thank you,” I admitted with satisfaction, thumbing the straightened bridge of my nose.
With my hand near my face, I noticed the skin around my wrists had also been healed. Unexpectedly, a sense of what felt an awful lot like grief stabbed at my gut. Logically, it was like mourning the coffee stain you had finally managed to get out of your favorite shirt, but it felt as though the only physical proof of my past had been erased. I was no longer a prisoner, or a test subject. No longer alone. I felt uncertain of who I was, outside of The Facility. Fearful of who I could become.
“Are you okay, sweetie?” Lily inquired, a bundle of pillows and folded blankets in her arms.
“What?” I asked, shaking myself back into the reality I had forgotten about. “Oh, yeah.”
The manner in which Lily and Al squinted at me betrayed them. The hints of distraction in their eyes suggested that they were prodding around inside my mind, but I was too exhausted to feel irritated.
“Well, you two should get some rest. You’ve had a long day,” she chimed, laying the blankets and pillows out on the cool floor.
Lakin and I showed no signs of reluctance, yawning and stretching as we stood.
“What do we tell the others?” Lakin asked, helping me pick up the bloodstained towels from beneath my feet.
“Tell them to lay low, but to be prepared,” Al said. “We are coming for them, but we’re not the only ones. It may not take long for William's men to find them.”
“Shouldn’t we just have them come here? I’m sure they could be on planes within an—” Lakin began.
“It will be safest, for everyone, if we go to them. Traveling alone is one of the worst things any of them could do right now,” Al replied harshly, getting his point across.
“But William's people don’t know what any of them look like. They don’t know where they live,” I started, before realization struck me. “They don’t even know their real names!”
I was sure of Al's presence inside my mind, while I remembered something I had forgotten ages ago; they had all been given new names by their adoptive parents. Within the Energy Room, we knew each other by our true first names; it had never been discussed, only known. Strange, how the Room could allow us such information, yet leave out small details. Like the fact that some of us were siblings, or that we were not alone in the world. You know… just the unimportant things that couldn’t have possibly made any sort of difference in our lives.
“Alfred Martin.” Lakin nodded, raising a hand as if attendance were being taken.
The thought that William would not be able to find the others had caused roots of hope to plant themselves firmly inside of me; roots that were aggressively yanked from the soil of my heart by the regretful look on Al's face.
“There are other ways,” he said.
“But—” Lakin began.
“There will be plenty of time for answers,” Lily said in a comforting tone. “Get some sleep. Tomorrow is going to be a busy day.”
It felt as if we were toddlers, dismissed by grumpy elders who didn’t feel like explaining something that we couldn’t possibly comprehend. I was reminded of my younger days at The Facility, when I was constantly asking why, how, when, but never given answers. I was only assured that everything was ‘for the best,’ and I was expected to blindly follow the people who knew more than I did. It was offensive, infuriating... demoralizing.
Somewhere inside, I knew that Al and Lily really were doing what was best. They may have only been five years older than us, but they were infinitely wiser and more experienced. In mental comparison to them, we were children. They had already done so much for us; they deserved our respect and cooperation, at the very least.
Lakin and I nodded obediently, apparently coming to the same conclusion. Pushing through our newfound reluctance, we situated ourselves within the captivating warmth of the blankets Lily had set out for us. I suddenly realized how exhausted I was, yawning as my head took a direct plunge onto one of the pillows. I tiredly pried my eyes open, prolonging my return to the familiar, white room for just a moment longer. My heart fluttered as my gaze was met by Lakin's, his face only inches away. I felt safe and strong. And, despite waving my hands freely on the roller coaster of emotions throughout the day, I felt whole.
I was barely aware that Lily and Al were extinguishing the lanterns around the house. Ripples of moonlight, distorted by the water far above us, illuminated Lakin's eyes just enough to see them through the dark. Though we would see each other as soon as sleep took over, it was hard to imagine anything being better than our reality at that exact moment. Groggily moving his hand to my cheek, Lakin placed a perfect kiss on my lips. It was perfect, because it was from him. It was perfect, because it was real.
“No funny business, kids,” Al joked from the hallway in a fatherly tone.
Before I could even manage a chuckle, I drifted into whiteness, gripping the hand I thought I would hold throughout the remainder of time.
Chapter Two
Good People, Bad Things
Lakin and I sat quietly, covered in the hands of the foggy-eyed others of our generation as they relived our previous day. For the first time, the comfort and safety of our white surroundings was matched by that of the reality in which I had fallen asleep. It took being removed from The Facility to realize how stifled I had felt while there, and that translated into the Room. The inevitable return to consciousness no longer loomed over me like a death-sentence. I would awake and be just as happy and free as I was at this exact moment.
The others remained silent as their eyes cleared, staring at us in amazement. Lyla, Bryant, and Joseph collapsed into their seats, while Nadia hovered in front of us—a statue on the brink of tear
s. Although the Energy Room had always been a sort of escape for the rest of us, to Nadia it was a prison. She had been confined to its vastness for years, and it seemed we could finally offer her the promise, or at least hope, of freedom.
“Oh, Nadia,” I whispered, meeting her with a sisterly hug.
Her cheerful tears dampened my shoulder, before Bryant came to retrieve her from my arms.
“So, you are coming to get us?” Lyla questioned. Her rigid tone caught me off guard.
“Yes,” Lakin answered bluntly.
“And then what? We just hide out under a lake for the rest of our lives?” she exclaimed, angry, and thrashing, and restrained only by Joseph’s grip.
I had not expected a hostile reaction from anyone, and it took me a long moment to find my words. “Look, I don’t know what happens next. But I guarantee that whatever the plan is, it’s better than William's guys getting a hold of you and locking you up in The Facility,” I said. “Which is exactly what will happen if you don’t come with us.”
“I think I’ll take my chances. I’d rather be on my own, than pent up with a bunch of hippie-farmers on some commune,” she huffed.
Something lingered in her tone that I couldn’t place. I had heard her rant in a blind fury plenty of times before, over things as simple as not getting enough pickles on her cheeseburger, but this was different. She wasn’t just rebelling for the sake of rebelling. Then, I saw it… In the split second that she glanced up through the corner of her eye, like she had done the night after ‘extracting’ herself from foster care, as if she were looking to the heavens for guidance. It was rare, for her, which was why it took so long for me to recognize; Lyla was scared. And she was trying, quite convincingly, to hide her fear with anger.
“What is wrong with you?” Nadia spoke up, her cheeks burning red. “We’ve been waiting for answers. Our entire lives, we have thought we were alone. Now, we get to be with people like us, and you’re turning this all away because... what? You’re a loner? You are part of this group, whether you like it or not. This is who you are.”