Preternatural (Worlds & Secrets)

by Lloyd Harry-Davis

  “Won’t sharing a room be uncomfortable?” Jaden asked. Tantrus grew a petty smile. Obviously he found something amusing. He repeatedly left our questions unanswered.

  “You’re actually serious? We’re all sharing one room?” I intentionally repeated; exasperated. Tantrus sighed briefly and turned to us, having his back to a white door with decorative carvings engraved in it.

  “Save the questions, boys. See for yourselves.” Tantrus pressed down on the smooth chrome handle and pushed the door open. Jaden and I reflexively brought our arms up to our heads to scratch them mind-numbingly. The room emitted a substantial amount of light. As we blindly treaded in, Tantrus closed the door behind us and let us absorb the splendour we were amidst. The whole house had a pattern of minimalistic and contemporary interior design running through it. We unhurriedly lowered our arms. The mere feeling of being in this room was too much to take in; we advanced in and looked directly at the back of the room.

  It was incredibly wide and luxurious. The floor was layered with a soft, woollen, cream carpet. We walked in and turned to our left, almost leaning against the wall behind us. From where we stood, as we faced the back wall, was a long and wide horizontal glass window that stretched from the ceiling to the floor. It had a long silver telescope sitting in front of it on a silver tri-stand.

  Apparently, the room was wide enough to fit four double beds; two against the wall on our left and another two against the one to our right. Each one had their own well-polished wooden bedside table on their right with lava lamps placed delicately on them. The bed furthest to the back on our left had a green bed sheet and blue duvet, topped off with one blue pillow and another green one.

  The bed next to the blue and green one – on the left and closer to us – had white sheets and pillows and a black duvet. The pillows had black designs just like the ones on our arms and the black duvet was contrasted with white patterns.

  The third bed – opposite the blue and green bed and furthest back on our right – was black and blue. It had a white bed sheet, with a black duvet and black pillows which were finished with electric blue patterns on them. And the final bed – opposite the black and white bed and the one closest to us from our right – had a plain white duvet and two plain white pillows, all adorned with dark brown outlines.

  In the far left corner were two bookshelves stacked with thick books and opposite them, on our right hand side were two, sleek, black and white wardrobes, next to a door that lead somewhere else. No gaps could be found in between the books and there was an awful lot of literature in there; many seemed close to worn out. Right next to us on our right and facing the wall we were leaning against, was a computer desk and a state-of-the-art desktop computer perched atop it.

  Jaden and I looked to the wall on our right. A flat plasma television was hung up. A glass cupboard stood underneath it with a game console in one compartment, surrounded by an extensive collection of DVD’s similar to downstairs. At the end of the room, pressed against the right wall was a plain white door – the one next to the wardrobes. Its silver doorknob reflected off light from the majestic window. Jaden and I dumped our suitcases on the floor and went to see where it led to hotfoot. The bathroom.

  My eyes gleamed! It was spotless – perhaps too clean for my brother and me to manage. I didn’t want to see this gorgeous haven turn into a custard-stained dump. I’m not exactly the cleanest guy you’ll come across. I was beginning to think that my mother’s jokes on our tidiness was making more and more sense as I grew up. There was one shower with opaque glass around it and a hot tub in the middle of the room. There were two sinks on each side of the room with a broad mirror for each one.

  “This is amazing,” Jaden uttered.

  “No, it’s too clean for my liking,” I quickly answered.

  “Shut up, A.J., it’s amazing.”

  Jaden and I turned around, only to find a person standing in the bedroom’s doorway. My blood froze and my heart came close to a painful stop. The way we were stared at was enough to render us dead. He was uncommonly tall. I would say almost as tall as the doorway. His skin was somehow a cross between Jojo’s mocha complexion and Robbie’s warm chocolate tone. His short, precise and perfectly outlined afro seemed to stand on edge as if burdened with static. His eyes seemed to be as large as mine which looked even more ominous. Even though narrowed, one could tell his irises were a stunning sapphire blue (more defined than mine) because they were the brightest thing in the room. They were quite piercing and very menacing. The young man couldn’t have been older than sixteen years old, yet he threw off that extreme maturity and grandeur that Robbie and Tammy emitted. He was wearing a plain black, long-sleeved T-shirt; a pair of knee length Burberry shorts and a black pair of Dr Martens boots. He was rested on the doorframe with a leg tucked underneath the other with his arms crossed, jaws clenched and stood completely still.

  Robbie suddenly nudged himself past this guy. I had no clue who he was, but he alarmed me. Robbie’s presence just made everything more awkward between the stranger, Jaden and me. He looked at the boy, then at us…and then at him again.

  “Wait, haven’t you guys been introduced yet?” Robbie asked. Jaden and I looked at each other confusingly, in hopes that Robbie would find an answer to his question. We merely shrugged.

  “This is Liam, my and Tammy’s older brother,” Robbie answered gently. That would explain his demeanour. I looked at Robbie, forgetting Liam was still present.

  “Is he dumb, you know – mute?” I asked undertone. Liam scoffed and walked away down the hall, laughing maniacally.

  “Hey! Jojo, where did you find him? He’s funny. So he might die prematurely,” I heard him say loudly down the corridor, followed by Jojo’s laughter.

  “I’m scared,” Jaden quickly said with droopy eyes. Robbie scoffed.

  “Don’t worry, he’s like that with everybody. But a tip: don’t touch him. He’s not so good with touching,” Robbie said undertone whilst advancing towards us. Jaden looked at me anxiously and I returned the gaze.

  “How so; trauma, disease, OCD–?” I pressurised.

  “No, none of that –”

  “Headaches, stress, pain –?” I continued.

  “No, just listen to –”

  “Anxiety, mental issues –” Finally, Robbie thumped me on the forehead.

  “And you bloody well deserved that,” Jaden uttered.

  “He’s an Electrokinetic and a really powerful one.” I was just on the verge of opening my mouth to ask what an Electrokinetic was when –

  “He can control electricity, Aden,” Jaden quickly answered, not even bothering to turn to look at me.

  “So, why can’t anybody touch him then?” Jaden asked, intrigued.

  “You see, the problem with Liam is that the electricity flows all over him, both externally and internally, and there’s nothing he can do about it. So touch him and you get the shock of your life,” Robbie quietly said.

  “Would you die if you did?” I quickly asked, growing quite a disturbing grin as I awaited an answer.

  “Only if you’re human. If you’re Vernaescian you tend to be weakened, but it can easily put you in a coma. He accidentally gave a Vernaescian a stroke. It was terrible. Poor guy never recovered.” A smile grew on my face and I gently looked at Jaden evilly as he silently called me sadistic under his breath.

  “But I’m able to touch him since we’re siblings,” Robbie added.

  “What about Tammy?” Jaden asked. Robbie fiddled with his ear before mumbling “no she can’t. Something to do with the X and Y chromosomes in us – I don’t know, really.”

  “Jade, darling, I’ll be back in just one second,” Anne teleported away and returned not moments later with two averagely long, black rhinestone hair sticks in her hands. She handed them to Jade with a sigh and smile. My sister beamed and gladly accepted them. But to Jade’s dismay, by the time she turned around to grab her long length of hair, it had already receded to its original back length. She
groaned out of exasperation and simply kept the hair sticks with her.

  She opened the door gently, allowing herself time to ponder about what she may find inside. It was perfect to her taste. As it turned out, her room wasn’t much different from ours. In fact, it looked quite similar – only, there were three beds all aligned to one wall. On the wall opposite their beds hung a flat screen television identical to ours.

  Like us, bedside tables with lava lamps were found next to each bed. The first bed was pink, the second was lime and emerald green and the last was purple and black. The walls were painted in magnolia like the house’s exterior. Their window, identical to ours, let in a river of light, brightening the room and turning the small cosy place into an ivory sanctuary.

  Three wardrobes were orderly aligned in one corner of the room – all plain white. Not too far was another white door leading to their bathroom. Jade walked in, timidly placing her bags on the floor and seating herself on the bed in hesitation.

  “Well, what are you waiting for, a ticket? Get unpacked!” Jade jumped and looked behind her. Jojo advanced towards her and also sat herself down with a wide grin.

  “Okay, you have got to stop doing that,” Jade said, light-hearted.

  “It’s called teleporting. You’ll have to get used to it because I’ll do it more often to annoy you now. I’m only going to say it once – this is Vernaesce,” Jojo bantered. Jade giggled lightly and turned to see Tammy in the doorway in her frilled pink dress.

  “The purple bed’s yours,” she informed my sister with her radiant presence that made everyone feel at ease and relaxed.

  “Yes, I love it.”

  “I’m going to have a look at the boys’ bedroom,” Jade quickly, walking out with a bounce in her steps and almost bumping into Tammy.

  “No, but seriously, Jade – you like the room, right?” she asked my sister gravely with no jokes detected whatsoever, giving Jade a menacing look. Jade rolled her eyes.

  “No. No, it’s disgusting. I mean white carpets, what were you thinking? And seriously, pink; what’s up with that?” Upon the end of those words, she walked out of the room leaving Jojo to digest her sarcasm. Jojo stared at the empty doorway after Jade had already exited. She swiftly turned to Tammy proudly – both of them grinning – and the pair thumped fists.

  “Yeah, she likes it.”

  Liam strolled into the room. He suddenly caught a glimpse of me and walked on over.

  “Aden, right?” he asked. I took a pace backwards, stepping away from all the lunacy he brought to the table. I nodded plainly. I suddenly noticed that he had the same well-spoken, aristocratic voice and vocabulary that Robbie had.

  “High-five,” he said, raising his bare hand in the air. Robbie shook his head and laughed lightly. My eyes widened and my mouth trembled. Was he trying to kill me? Did he not know I knew what he could do?

  “Come on; just a little tap on the hand,” he encouraged. “Come on, Aden – the high-five’s right there. No?” He scoffed and went strolling out the door.

  “Hey, Jojo, scratch that – he’s smart. So he might not die,” I heard him say aloud. His head quickly peeked back inside the room. “I said might.”

  “Get out of here!” Robbie screamed, flinging his arm out – the door sprouted long metallic straps in a nanosecond and locked itself with a loud metallic lock. Jaden and I sighed subtly and found ourselves smiling, despite all the crazy introductions. After Robbie decided to un-barricade the tank of a door he constructed, we walked out into the upstairs hallway as Jade approached us.

  “How’s your room?” she asked with a growing beam on her face.

  “It’s brilliant, yours?”

  “Equally brilliant,” she replied.

  “All right, chop-chop. Let’s get moving,” Tantrus’ loud enthusiastic voice resonated as he jogged up the stairs.

  “Why? Are we going somewhere?” asked Jade, confused of all the new orders.

  “We didn’t tell them,” Jojo looked up at her dad and spoke plainly. Great, another secret needing exposure. What was it this time? We secretly had frog legs and pig tails?

  “Well, the time periods between here and Earth are very different as I have not yet regulated the dimensions – I’m yet to attach our area here on Vernaesce to Earth’s domain so that when it’s night there, it’ll be night here and so on and so forth. So right about now,” Tantrus stopped and looked at his watch, “you should be getting ready for school,” he said with a big cheesy smile. I might’ve guessed that he’d already be prepared to leave. He was supposed to be there before us after all, being our maths teacher.

  “What? How in the blazes is that possible?” I demanded. Tantrus sighed.

  “I just explained it to you. Listen. Your ears aren’t attached to your head simply to accumulate wax, for goodness’ sake. You teenagers,” he bantered with no trace of a joke on his face whatsoever. He was wearing a black and green striped suit with a matching waistcoat underneath. He quickly took out his universal pocket watch and analysed it carefully. Robbie looked behind him. Liam was slowly moving backwards towards the bathroom with an escalating look of suspicion on his face.

  “Why do you look so doubtful?” Robbie asked, perplexed. He gasped as he finally understood what Liam was devising. Liam swiftly turned around and sprinted towards the bathroom.

  “Hey, I called first dibs!” Robbie yelled whilst trailing after him. Jaden and I swiftly followed.

  “No you didn’t!” Liam yelled back.

  “Well, I’m calling it now!”

  “Too bad for you!” Liam jumped inside the room and slammed the door shut, inches from Robbie’s face.

  I was in the bathroom – the last one to finish getting ready. I subconsciously stroked the lapel of my blazer whilst staring at my reflection. For once I didn’t have brown locks of hair above my uniform, but electric blue hair, hanging on my shoulders. The person who stared back at me had striking and well-defined eyes, seeming like a mix of cerulean and sapphire. Suddenly, my vision started going impaired. My sight was overcome with what seemed to resemble water ripples, wavering everywhere. I shook my head but it progressively worsened. Things became nebulous and indistinct.

  Before I could notice anything else changing, my surroundings seemed blue. I felt too dizzy to stand upright; it was like being underwater and having chlorine thrown into your eyes. I treaded back in shock, having no idea of what was occurring. Frighteningly, I stumbled over and my shoulders upwards was submerged in the water of the hot tub. It was flabbergasting. I touched my eyes, double checking that I wasn’t wearing goggles.

  I found that everything I saw underwater was perfectly clear. In fact, I would say almost clearer and defined than on land. I then quickly pulled my head out of the water whilst my blazer became increasingly wet and my hair dripped water down to my back.

  “Aw no,” I uttered to myself.

  “Aden, you okay in there?” I heard Robbie’s voice. I panicked. My blazer wasn’t clean anymore – it was drenched in water. I treaded out of the room with my shoulders soaked as Robbie sneered.

  “My uniform’s ruined. School won’t go easy on me,” I complained. Why was it always me? But I saw Liam nudging Robbie discretely. I looked at him suspiciously.

  “Oh, right,” Robbie spoke to himself. I slowly drew my head backwards as he advanced towards me. He gently rested both of his index fingers on each of my shoulders. The slightest hint of glowing white lit on the tips of his fingers.

  Suddenly, the fibres composing my blazer were hardened and the water slid right off its surface. Robbie removed his fingers and my blazer returned to its previous state; perfectly dry textile. I looked at my jacket and raised an eyebrow, slowly getting used to all the things that I would be witnessing on a daily basis.

  “Hm…” I lightly mumbled. It then occurred to me that Robbie and Liam were both dressed in the school uniform for their first day at Cressile.

  A loud whistle echoed from outside. Our heads swiftly turned towards the
window. I walked over to see the girls waving to me enthusiastically; Tammy wearing the school uniform and pencil skirt with a pair of black Converses similar to Jade’s.

  “It’s time to go,” I told the others quietly. I looked at my hands nervously at the holes burnt into my palms.

  “Should I bring gloves?”

  “No need. Your features are all hidden when you cross to Earth,” Liam responded. Though this time, he wasn’t squinting and I could see streaks of electricity writhing in his uncommonly large irises.

  “But what about our eyes? I think mine are permanently blue now,” I hesitated.

  “That’s not such a huge deal.” Liam was interrupted by a loud car honk, “I mean, I have blue eyes too.”

  The car honk sounded again and I could have sworn it made the window quaver.

  “Not a huge –?” I was on the verge of retaliating in hesitation when Robbie marched to the window and exhaled deeply. Without warning, I jumped as he shot his fist through the window.

  “ALL RIGHT, we’re coming!” he screamed unexpectedly.

  “For crying out loud, these geriatric monkeys!” he expressed underneath his breath. A rock suddenly flew in through the window and hit Robbie on the head. He muttered curse words and grunted angrily.

  “We heard that!” Tammy yelled.

  “And hurry your little selves down here!” Jojo enthusiastically countered. Robbie scoffed and waved his hands over the shattered pieces of glass as he walked away. The frames and shards quickly re-pieced themselves together and formed the once immaculate window.

  “Come on, let’s go,” Liam finally urged. Jaden and I trotted out with our hands in our grey trench coat pockets. Robbie rushed to open the majestic double doors after we had trooped down the staircase.

  “About time,” Jade complained. “What took you guys so long? You guys are worse than girls, aren’t you?”

  “There were complications,” Jaden answered, slowly turning his head towards me with squinted eyes.

  “All right, we better get a move on,” Tantrus commanded as he teleported next to us with his usual cheesy grin.