“Mr Blue, what’s the matter, have you finally grown a conscience?” she bantered evilly to herself without so much as a laugh, smile or anything showing she had a soul.
“No, Miss. I –” I stammered sickly, raising my pale head with my eyes looking completely dead; drooped, sagging skin beneath them and dark bags of fatigue that contrasted with my skin that had begun turning a sickly green.
“Sit upright when you speak, boy!” Miss Strottman barked again. I sighed and struggled as I adjusted my posture.
“You know what, stand up and speak – I’m sure we’d all like to all know why you are like this, this morning.” It seemed like she was deliberately singling me out to torture me. She grew a tiny evil smile. I stood up shakily, suppressing my weight onto the table.
“Well?” she asked, the whole attention of the class now inevitably on me. Suddenly, all I heard were the sudden gasps of people and a sudden hard thump at the back of my head. Ah, that’s why – I fainted.
My eyes rolled around in their sockets before opening to the view of the bright white ceiling. I was laid down on a bed next to a window with sunlight streaming through. My head felt light and strangely, almost volatile, like I could fall into some sort of coma just by blinking. But the mental pain I felt was gone. Looking at the time, I had been out for an hour and several minutes – it was now first break.
I sat upright and looked out of the window. I thought the sky was common. Beautiful maybe to Earthlings (I was becoming so prejudicial against humans), but common nonetheless. It was a simple light blue, patted in starch white cartoon-looking clouds over a hiding sun. The rain probably ceased due to me being unconscious.
“Listen,” a voice suddenly sounded next to me. I turned my head swiftly and saw my doppelganger kneeling beside my welfare bed with more emotion and worry imprinted on his face than ever. I could hear the distress in his voice. He was wearing the school uniform because I was, but as usual it was all in black.
“You’ve got to go,” he instantly said, shaking his head and trying to avoid eye contact with me. It’s not like I could see anything in those jet black eyes of his in any case.
“What?” I replied dizzily.
“To the Cavern doors,” he swiftly answered. “You’ve got to go – now!” My heart instantly skipped a beat. I wasn’t sure if he was trying to help me or was just luring me to my death as a clever scheme. But he wasn’t. He couldn’t be.
I didn’t even trust him.
But then again, he did save me from the Grinner.
I wouldn’t have needed saving if he didn’t call them in the first place!
This dilemma was killing me. I was wide awake so I could now sort out the nonsense in my head from the real and true stuff.
“Listen, you’re confusing me –”
“That ache you had was me in your head. I had to make a separation because for some reason…my mind has bonded with you.”
I sighed. He definitely was on my side. Or maybe I was just being stupid.
“But, how do you know?”
“The Barons will be out sooner than Christmas. A lot sooner. You need to gather Aemilia, Jordan, Tarmo and Mychaela – warn them and close the cavern doors as soon as possible,” he spoke.
“Otherwise, they’ll come for you. Do not take this lightly when I say they are hungry for you, Aden. I don’t know what it is about you that makes them tremble in fear. They don’t just want to kill you. They are obliged to. You are the prime target, the number one person that absolutely has to disappear – there’s no alternative…and if you don’t do as I say, you will be destined to die.”
He was so sincere. Either way, this event was going to happen. I didn’t want to doubt him. And I was also better now which meant I would be fit to close the doors. I didn’t want to wait for my death to come to me.
“Aden, are you okay?” Jade immediately asked, bursting in with the others. I looked beside me and he was gone. I swiftly got out of the bed.
“It was a warning.”
“What are you on about?” Jojo butted in.
“The illness I felt; it was a warning and it’s just been confirmed. They’re going to break out of their prison much sooner.” I was so sure now – but how was I to prove it? They wouldn’t believe the fact that I had a doppelganger. There was a minuscule chance Tammy may be able to detect something, but I was strongly doubting she’d fully be aware of him. He was a strange being.
“Aden, how do you know?” Jade asked. She seemed so keen.
“Let’s just say a little bird told me.” I sounded so unconvincing.
“That could be misleading, A.J. – we are marked for death after all. Wouldn’t it seem probable that all means of us dying would be carried out?” Jaden rebutted calmly. If I was truly marked for death, which I knew I definitely was thanks to my double, I’m sure he wouldn’t have told me. He would have found some other conniving way to get me to go to the Barons and watch me be slaughtered. But he didn’t. He warned me. This was the part of the conversation I was least looking forward to; the proof. But suddenly, just when I was on the verge of opening my mouth to speak, she beat me to the punch.
“I believe him – we need to gather the others,” Tammy spoke. She looked at me with narrowed eyes and looked as if she knew something about me, but deliberately didn’t tell me. I knew Tammy would sense it. She did, after all, tell me on Samhain that she knew who I’d been seeing. Her eyes merely flashed a bright luminescent pink.
“Remember when Tammy told you there was someone only I could see?” I added.
The others looked at each other and thought hard – but it was Tammy. Her astonishing powers had never before failed them. They then sighed, forced to believe me.
“When do we close the doors?” Liam asked.
“From what I heard, I would say as soon as possible,” I quickly replied.
“But, Aden, our journey might trail off into night. What if my mum, dad and Angelina all get worried?” Jojo asked. I was stunned for that one. I had just been delivered this news and just regained consciousness. You can’t expect me to have figured out a plan for all of it just yet.
“We’ll think of something. Right now, we’ve got to focus on getting the others aware – Aemilia, Tarmo, Jordan and Mychaela,” Jaden answered.
“But where do they live? We know about Mychaela but the others are a mystery – we only met them one night,” Liam spoke.
“But it won’t be impossible to find them,” Tammy began. Jade was lost, she didn’t know how using telepathy would help them find the others.
“What makes you say that?”
“Their parents work at the Supremacy. If anything, Lina, Anne or Tantrus have their contacts,” Liam finished.
“It’s like I don’t even exist,” Tammy interjected, pointing out the obvious fact that she would know where they are.
“Fine, but how do we now sneak out of here without getting caught?” I asked, troubled. Jojo rolled her eyes.
“You worry too much,” she mumbled, before pulling us all together in a flash and immediately disappearing into a burst of green embers.
With a sudden whoosh, we were in a district of neat, orderly houses. The sky was bright blue and the sun appeared as a dazzling jewel in the sky; we could hardly see its outline. Even though the residential district we stood in was basking underneath the daytime glow of the sun, I couldn’t shake off the feeling that the street was dead. Either everybody was cooped up in their homes or nobody was present.
A large, classy, Tudor-like house stood boldly in front of us. It was a dark brown and magnolia (strongly resembling a house made of chocolate flakes with vanilla walls) which emanated warmth when hit with the sun’s golden rays.
“Whose place is this?” I asked, taking off my black, heat-absorbing blazer. The others immediately followed uniformly.
“It’s Tarmo’s house,” Tammy responded.
“What makes you think he’s home? He could be in school, you know,” Jaden pointed out.
Tammy scrunched her face as she pondered on the possibility, before replying with a firm “no.”
We marched on forward to the door and rang the bell. Not moments later, we were faced with Mark, wearing khaki trousers and an azure, V-neck, knitted jumper.
“Oh, hey, guys,”
“Good morning, Mr Tandon. Is Tarmo home?” Robbie asked politely.
“Yes, he should be upstairs. He seemed to have decided to skip school today. Said something about the energy he felt being too bad to venture into.” We artfully turned our heads to each other to give ourselves suspicious looks without Mark’s awareness. There was trouble all right. Tammy looked back at us with a smug smile and half-shut eyes which told us all too well “I told you so”.
“Come on up,” Mark gestured kindly. The house’s interior was very spacious and elegant. The sleek and noiseless wooden stairs spiralled upstairs into a brightly sunlit room. The whole of the second floor was in white and everything reminded me of nature; the art, the portraits, the decorations. Our midnight black uniforms were the only things that were making us contrast with the appearance of the upstairs corridor.
“He’s right in there, I should believe,” Mark spoke quietly.
“Thank you,” Tammy responded. We were left to stare at one of the large doors ahead with a silver reflective handle. Jaden advanced and carefully twisted the doorknob. With one slight push, it swung open quietly. The room was empty. The minimalistic design was definitely something that would reflect on Tarmo’s personality. The room was white throughout, well-organised and tidy. There was a simple bed there and a large plasma television hanging off the pale walls. The room wasn’t all that large but was rather spacious due to lack of clutter.
Further back were two glass doors leading to the balcony that had both been opened. Their thin, white, silk curtains billowed in the wind softly and a view of the Tandon’s green garden was easily seen. I sighed as I looked around sluggishly.
“Where is he?” I asked, frustrated, but giving Tammy a smug look that told her I was right and she had been wrong. I loosened my tie’s choke grip from around my neck.
“Maybe he snuck out. I mean, the doors to the balcony are wide open,” Robbie suggested.
“Hm,” I considered. “It’s possible.”
“I didn’t sneak out,” a voice suddenly sounded from above. Before any of us could look up to see whose it was, Tarmo came somersaulting down and landed on his feet sturdily.
“I was meditating,” he concluded.
“HA!” Tammy exclaimed to me as I rolled my eyes arrogantly. A lock of Tarmo’s thick, inky black hair fell over his face, as usual, in some sort of spike. His cloudy, almost transparent light-blue eyes stared back at me with a canine-showing grin as the sun hit his light mocha skin.
“Were you on the ceiling?” Liam asked, looking more confused than ever.
“Yep! Why? Much curious, are we?” Tarmo replied sternly.
“We haven’t got time for jokes at the moment, Tarmo, but I’ve been warned.” His tone of happiness disappeared and the rose from his cheeks immediately dried up to paleness.
“It’s time, isn’t it?” he asked. Worries seemed to overshadow him. I nodded hesitantly. He walked over to me with vicious stomps. I almost thought he was going to attack me as I backed away. He stared at me directly in the eye. All I could see was the mist circling his iris.
I gulped as he immediately retreated.
“Well, checks out. He’s telling the truth. So what are you guys going to do?” Tarmo asked curiously.
“Warn the others, make sure they’ve been alerted and go to the doors as soon as possible,” Jade spoke. We held hands, about to teleport.
“I’m coming with you,” Tarmo immediately interfered.
“Won’t your parents mind?” Robbie asked.
“Please,” he advanced towards us, joining in the teleportation circle. “I’m practically a descendant of Harry Houdini. By the time I’ll be back they wouldn’t have even noticed I was gone.” And with that, we were swirled into the depths of Jojo’s green embers.
We were standing on an oval-shaped green patch of grass in the middle of what seemed to be a running track. There was some sort of calm and noticeable breeze floating around us.
“Tammy?” Robbie asked.
“I tried to lock on to Jordan, but evidently –” she drifted off into a disappointed silence. The bleachers were all empty even though they stretched all around the enormous track.
“Hang on,” Tarmo said with a suspicious look encrypted on his face. He slowly advanced towards the tracks. Every now and again he’d see an extremely faint, yet conspicuous, twitch that blurred in and out of existence.
“What is that?” he wondered. We began to see it too. Jojo advanced next to Tarmo. The blur twitched again and didn’t reappear until another five seconds. Jojo narrowed her eyes, almost as if she were timing the arrival of the glitch-like blur.
“Every five seconds, eh?” Jojo whispered to herself. She counted lightly.
“What is she doing?” Jade and Liam asked undertone.
“Three –” Jojo continued. We wondered.
“Four –” We stared at her, on edge, as she remained focus on the track.
“Five!” Jojo immediately shot out her hand towards the racing track as she pinpointed the blur exactly. But it was no blur. It was Jordan, stuck in suspended animation whilst running. There were green embers floating around her, keeping her frozen in time. Her hair was a dark blood red and her eyes were more orange than anything I’d ever seen. She was wearing an ordinary white tank top with leggings and trainers. Then, Jojo relapsed time on her. Jordan stopped running and looked at us, plucking out the earphones from her ears.
“Hey, you guys,” she spoke, panting only lightly and hardly breaking out in a sweat as we stared at her, gobsmacked.
“How fast have you clocked yourself?” Robbie asked, in a tone that sounded half scared and half intimidated.
“Uh –” she broke off into silence as she pondered. “My record’s two hundred and seventeen laps in a minute.” Our jaws all dropped.
“Why is your hair red?” Jade asked.
“I can control and generate energy, remember. I can create it perpetually which is why I pretty much have infinite stamina and stability. When I produce and burn off energy, my hair goes red like this and my eyes darken,” she spoke as we watched her hair streak itself to its original blonde colour whilst her irises carefully coloured back into pale hazel. I scoffed exaggeratedly.
“I see you’re still as tall as holy hell, huh, Jordan? Suddenly I don’t feel so special anymore,” I said.
“Maybe it runs in the ‘Jordan’ name,” she joked, lightly hitting me on my arm.
“No, no; I’m pretty sure it’s this whole planet. There’s Mirabelle, Tiki, Vala –”
“Yeah, why are you guys here?” she swiftly interrupted. We gulped, dreading having to tell her the bad news.
“It’s the Barons, we’ve – well Aden’s been warned and we need to get the others as fast as possible.” Jordan became still and turned pale with fear, just like Tarmo had done.
“Okay, I’ll come. Just let me change.” She dashed out of here in the blink of an eye with her super speed and came back looking casual, perky and flamboyant with her long, sandy blonde hair let down, wearing a pair of denim-jean shorts on top of black and white ringed leggings, a pair of black Converses and also had a grey hoodie on top of an Adventure Time T-shirt.
“Wow, spontaneous,” Robbie bantered.
“Shut up,” she silenced him. And then we disappeared.
“Who are we getting now? Aemilia?” I asked.
“Yes,” Tammy spoke. We were back in London, facing a school. Evidently break must have clearly just finished, as the students were now being hoarded back into the building. We then skilfully broke in – if you want to call teleportation that.
Aemilia strutted down the hallway in her uniform into the girls’locker room. She looked aro
und deviously to make sure no one was there with her. She pulled out a drink in a plastic bottle and casually blew on it, expecting no sudden pop-ups or visitors. Frost scaled all over its surface and a glacial temperature diffused throughout the room unintentionally. Anyone to walk in would be fooled to think there was an air conditioner there.
“Hey, you,” Jordan calmly spoke. Aemilia jumped as she immediately saw us all cosily nested in the depths of the coats in the corner of the cloak room, almost as if we had been there the whole time. Aemilia looked around, her back-length blonde hair swaying over her shoulders as she did so.
“What are you guys doing here? You could get in trouble!” she hissed as she walked on over to us.
“You’re one to talk, freezing the whole room with your Cryokinesis,” Robbie countered. Whilst Aemilia rolled her eyes.
“What are you guys doing here? Don’t get me wrong, I haven’t seen another Hybrid since the ball but –” Aemilia’s sentence faded into silence before releasing a low-toned ‘tut’ sound. Unlike the others, she was already wary of our arrival. Tarmo was with us, Jordan was with us and the rest of us were in school uniforms, almost as if we broke away from school in a hurry to go and seek out our other rag-tag hybrid friends.
“It’s happening, isn’t it?” she asked, her smile slowly receding and her stunning blue eyes staring back at us like the polar ice caps. The expressions that quickly printed onto our faces were enough to answer all her forthcoming questions – so she didn’t bother. She sighed and ran her fingers through her hair in a disorientating manner.
“Where’s Mychaela?” Aemilia asked. We exchanged glances, confused. Aemilia had just brought to our attention a very important point – where was the princess of Vernaesce?
“My goodness, you’re absolutely right. How did you guys get a hold of her last time?” Jade asked, her hand to her mouth in worry. Jordan jumped down from a ledge she was upon near the ceiling.
“Aemilia and I were already at the ball when she pulled us aside,” she spoke.
“Tarmo, Tammy, what about you guys? You claimed to have been in contact with each other for ages. That you were all practically monitoring the movements of the Barons.” Tarmo and Tammy looked at each other.
Preternatural (Worlds & Secrets) Page 32