by C. C. Lynch
After a few circles of skipping I sat back down in front of Vlaine and pushed my fingers between his and prepared to try again. Just because I was able to get one memory did not mean it was going to happen any easier.
He squeezed my hands and stood up.
“I need to keep practicing. Where are you going?”
He sighed and pulled his phone from his pocket. “I need to do something. Let me get you a tutor for about an hour and then I’ll be back once your lunch block is over.”
My thrill deflated. Vlaine did not seem proud in the least that I had made such a momentous accomplishment. Anger bubbled as he walked away dialing someone. I reached into the same lobe that I had found the last memory and dug around again. The wall was up and impenetrable once again.
He was pacing on the phone and a few minutes later Draxe walked into the gymnasium. My heart fluttered as I watched him walk towards us.
“Looks like I’m taking over for a while,” he smiled and opened his hand towards the spot where Vlaine and I usually sat. “Shall we?”
I looked over at Vlaine nervously as he hung up the phone. I thought I had done well, so why was he acting so strange?
Draxe is going to take over for a while. Try and have your clothes back on before half past noon. Vlaine’s voice rang clearly in my head.
I looked at him and grinned, Green looks terrible on you. I would never break your heart like that.
Vlaine chuckled, “I’ll be back in a bit. Good luck.”
“Let’s get started,” Draxe smiled and sat down where Vlaine typically took his seat.
I took my place in front of him hesitantly and watched as he extended his hands forward. As soon as I began to put my hands towards him I retracted them. What if he could read the dreams I was having about him? I would seem like a complete freak and I would absolutely die if he could tell how infatuated I was with him.
His eyebrows furrowed, “is something wrong?”
“Yeah,” I scooted my butt further away from him, “it is kind of strange to explain. I just don’t want you to read me, but I know you will be able to when I put my hands in yours if you are not able to right now.”
He chewed on his lip then smiled, “how about I teach you how to engage a psychic barrier? It takes a lot of time and practice to learn, but we have a few hours if you don’t mind cutting lunch short.”
“Yes, I would really like that,” I bounced back closer to him.
“Okay Abrielle,” my name sounded so nice as it flowed through his lips, “clear your mind and think about absolutely nothing.”
I twisted my lips and tried as hard as I could. A black wall formed in my mind and I tried my best to simply concentrate on it. “This is really hard,” I admitted.
“Like I said, it takes a long time to master this stuff. Vlaine has been working on it since he was six years old.” Draxe scoffed, “you really freaked him out by finding a weakness. He was not actually expecting you to find one, he was just trying to get you to fine tune your focus.”
“That’s not insulting at all,” I mumbled. “Okay,” I inhaled deeply, “blank space. I am looking at a black wall of nothingness.”
Pushing my shoulders back I closed my eyes and cleared my mind. Just as I began to relax Draxe’s breath drew closer and I opened an eye to see his hand stretching out towards me.
“I am not as strong with telepathy as I am with other things. I am going to need to take your hand to try to monitor your progress.”
My chest tightened. Of course I wanted him to take my hand. I wanted to touch him so badly it hurt. His eyes were sincere and as they bore into me above those perfectly chiseled cheeks my stomach did flips. The prospect of him finding out that he was in my dreams was terrifying. Although I had no control over subconscious thoughts, I still felt like he would judge me somehow.
“Um, so listen,” my voice was shaky and devoid of confidence, “I understand that there is no getting around working together on telepathy without you finding something out.” I shook my hands nervously.
He leaned back, “Did you do something wrong? Did you hurt someone?”
“No, nothing like that,” my defenses rose. How could anyone think I could hurt another living creature? “Do you promise not to freak out if you see something?”
“I can promise to try not to freak out.” His expression was genuine and thoughtful.
“Since I was a little girl I have been having this dream,” I steadied my breathing.
“Oh, right, I asked my father about that.”
“Wait,” I stopped him, “I need to finish this thought or I will never let you help me. Since I was a little girl I have been having this dream and in it I see you.”
“What do you mean?” Draxe’s interest was piqued.
I grabbed his hand, “let me show you.”
The same thing I had shown Vlaine was what I shared with Draxe. His face remained serious from when I first held his hand until I finished. There was nothing degrading or demeaning in his expression and he did not run in the other direction away from the bizarre girl that has been dreaming about him for years. Quite frankly, I would have been terrified if someone had shown me something like that regarding myself, but Draxe was calm and attentive.
He brushed his knuckles against his jaw ponderingly then leaned forward. “Do you mind if I do a bit of searching on my own?”
“I just shared the most embarrassing thing with you I could imagine. Yes, by all means my mind is open.”
Draxe adjusted his seating and squeezed my hands. His eyes were shut tightly and lips pulled in a thin line. The seconds passed slowly as I waited for him to say anything regarding the visions.
Finally he broke the silence. “It is not unheard of for telepaths to see into the future. You have a connection with the mind of others and you can see into different parts of time. When you combine parts of your timeline with that of another, it creates a vision. The strange thing is the vision was reoccurring.” He looked down at our intertwined hands, “my best guess is you thought about it enough to recall it often in your sleep or perhaps your subconscious did not want you to forget the image.”
He further explained that he hypothesized that it was extended from actually encountering the people in the dream. What he said made sense and the relief that I felt when I found that he held no judgments was extraordinary. The only thing I wondered was why I felt so strongly about him after having the dream. Perhaps he was my savior for whatever was to come and I felt love for my rescuer.
“Have you ever had visions?” I was hopeful that perhaps he shared the same one as me.
“No,” he looked down and shook his head, “I’m not a very strong telepath. I’m not a very strong anything actually.”
Glancing at his muscular physique I let out a loud laugh.
He jumped in surprise, “what?”
“Sorry,” I blushed, “I may not completely understand how to decipher another person’s gifts but physically you look really strong.”
“I’m the headmaster’s son and I failed out of Glaston. Just because I can lift a few weights doesn’t mean I can amount to anything in our world.”
“Our world? This is still Earth. So we happen to be at a college where the students can do things that scientists cannot explain yet. You’re still superior to 99.9% of humans. You’re kind, smart, strong, and you have, wait… what are your gifts?”
“Same exact ones as Vlaine,” he shrugged.
“Vlaine never told me his,” I thought about the two that I knew he had, but other than that he had never mentioned what his particular gifts were. Come to think of it, no one at Glaston Academy spoke about their gifts. Liz and Will told me because I had asked them. I guess they assumed because everyone else seemed to have a particular detector for these things.
Draxe chuckled, “You two spend like twenty hours a week together. I would have thought it would have come up since you guys are friends.”
“Vlaine has friends?” I laughed and co
mbed my hand through my hair nervously. “He tolerates me at best. Your brother is an incredibly patient teacher but as a student it seems pretty clear he wants nothing to do with me.”
Vlaine and I certainly were not hanging out in pajamas eating pizza and watching terrible movies together, but in a school full of people terrified of the man, I trusted him completely. He was the first person I would go to if I had a problem and the one person I looked forward to seeing every day.
One of Draxe’s fingers twitched and I realized my left hand was still in his and he could “see” everything I was thinking at that moment.
He sucked in a breath and straightened his back. “I know everyone here thinks that my brother is evil and a vicious murderer. For the most part they would be correct, but he doesn’t skin-walk for just anyone and he definitely does not punish people for being mean to other people. In fact, he usually gets a thrill out of the backstabbing that happens here.”
I shrugged. Vlaine was a topic that I was consistently baffled about. When I was in my ISE class he was wonderful. The patience he had was incredible and he did everything he could to motivate me to prefect my gifts. Outside of my skill class he was hot and cold. He pushed me away, but he did not ignore me like he did with other students. I suppose in a strange and deranged way I was friends with Vlaine.
I looked at Draxe and tried to push away any thoughts of Vlaine and soak in every second I had in this small proximity with Draxe. He smelled like grass with a slight musk, a dimple burrowed into his right cheek enhanced his all-American boy smile. He was so kind, perfectly kind. There was no reason he should have accepted my visions like he had and he treated me like a human being, unlike anyone else at Glaston. But that physique and that face, it was perfection. Oh God, I hoped he couldn’t see what I was thinking.
“Anyway,” I wanted to drift from any secretive thoughts I had of either brother, “let us practice my psychic shield.”
He complied happily and we devoted the class to my concentration and shield. I needed to find a way to protect my thoughts, especially if Professor Horicon was able to see them. Providing a shield was uncomfortable and there seemed to be no way for other thoughts to stop popping up in my head, especially with my hands in Draxe’s.
Petrichor. Just as exhaustion began to overtake me I smelled my favorite scent. How could Draxe suddenly smell like it had just rained? Melancholy washed over me and I opened my eyes.
Someone was watching me and I turned quickly to face Vlaine. As soon as I saw him looking towards me I retracted my hands from Draxe’s. Why would I feel strange about that? Draxe was helping me; he was my designated substitute so there was no need for me to withdraw my hands so quickly.
“Draxe was teaching me how to put up a psychic barrier.” I smiled.
Vlaine stood there tapping his thumb to his ring finger. “Abrielle you get to go home early today. I’ll take your initiative into account and the early day will not affect your grade. I will see you tomorrow.”
“Two hours early?” I stood up and walked to Vlaine.
“Yes,” he nodded, “two hours to get a head start on some homework. Go make some good impressions Abbs.” Vlaine then turned to face his brother and gave Draxe a distinct look that made it clear the conversation they were about to have was between them, and only them.
I did not want to leave the gymnasium. The building was my secret hideout from the rest of the school. It was the one building no one seemed to use aside from me. At least I was the only person there after ten in the morning. For all I knew between nightfall and dawn an orangutan led circus put on a spectacular for hundreds, but during the afternoon it was mine and I felt like I was being shunned out of the one place that felt comfortable for me.
“I’m going to take a shower,” I lied to the twins standing in close proximity to me, “I’ll let you two talk.”
“Abbs,” Vlaine shook his head, “I can read you.” He lifted his shoulders as if I was ridiculous to think I could get away with any sort of white lie. “Just go back to the dorms. It is not that big of a deal.”
I rolled my eyes and walked out of the building. Back at the main building peers were still in classes, others were studying, and a few were sitting on the grass in the field between the buildings. I was headed back to the dorm but decided to lie out in the sun on the field and study. Just as I got comfortable I realized I never did find out what Draxe and Vlaine’s gifts were. I shrugged to myself and planned to ask the following day.
The sun began to sink and the skies became darker. I was nearly done with everything I had due for the week but there was a question I could not quite solve in physics. With any luck the professor would be in his office still, though it was most likely he had gone home for the day hours ago.
I decided to try my luck with finding the professor. As I walked into the building I became too aware of the silence. There were no students around, and no voices that I could hear, and no professors I could see. I made my footsteps as silent as possible and continued down the hallway. Once I reached the end of the second hallways I heard voices and one of them sounded distinctly like Professor B.
I listened intently trying to find the source of the voices. The silence of the school helped me to find a small crack in the wall from which the voices were emanating. I stepped back and studied the crack. At first I thought it was a fault in the design of the building, but the old mansion had no faults. “Old mansion,” I whispered to myself as the possibility of a secret door dawned on me. Most old mansions had secret rooms. I had even seen the headmaster disappear into one before. The clue to open the door had to be around there somewhere.
On the wall were blocks of pearlescent wallpaper sectioned off by hardwood. On each section was a painting of some sort. The painting I was staring at was a duplicate of Vincent Van Gogh’s Portrait of Dr. Gachet. It was upright and perfectly lined; there was nothing to show that there had been movement of any sort of either the painting or the panel it hung on. My eyes searched the top of the wall and the bottom. As I searched the edges of the wall something caught my gaze. On the side of one of the lengths of hardwood outlining the panel was what seemed to be a piece of the wood that had been drilled. Lightly, I pressed my finger against the imperfect area of wood. I was pressing on a button that had very little give. I pressed harder and as I did so the panel popped open ever so slightly revealing a wall behind it.
I looked around to be sure that there was no one near me. When I was sure there was no one in sight or earshot I opened the panel to the wall behind it. The wall had a small sliding door. Slowly I pushed the door to the side to reveal a staircase. Before closing the wall and panel behind me I made sure that there was a way to get out before closing myself into a secret passage. There was a handle on the inside of both and I felt comfortable enough to continue on.
What was I doing? I did not sneak around places, especially ones that were so obviously not meant for students. The better part of my brain told me to turn around and pretend that I had never found the secret space, but the other half wanted nothing more than to explore.
As I silently ascended the staircase the voices were getting louder. I knew three of them, it was Professor B., Professor Horicon, and the headmaster. I was close enough to the top of the stairs to see a room open at the mouth of the steps.
“I think it is in our best interest to contact the headmaster at Valdor,” Professor B. was pacing.
The eloquent voice of Headmaster Josnic replied, “There is no need to contact Peter at this time.”
Professor B. rebutted, “Peter asked us to report to him the moment anything interesting happened. I would say cracking Vlaine months ahead of our projected date is something of interest.”
They were talking about me. Why was there some secret meeting about me? I inched closer to make sure I did not miss a word of the conversation.
It was Professor Horicon who spoke next. “I propose you have Draxe take the classes over. He is softer than Vlaine but his devotion
to you is unwavering. He will teach her and not ask questions. Continue teaching her to build walls to psychic attacks both with telepathy and empathy.”
“Vlaine will continue with the lessons,” Headmaster Josnic said flatly. “How are her grades?”
Professor Horicon and Professor B. began speaking at the same time but Professor B. yielded and allowed Professor Horicon to speak. “She usually scores between first and third in all her assignments and completes all work ahead of time. Macroeconomics is her weakest class and literature is her best. Overall her grade point average is a 3.6 but it has only been a couple weeks. It would have been significantly lower if your son hadn’t pulled that stunt when Tracy Stillsburn tried to take credit for the assignment.” He sounded more disgusted with each word.
“Barry, do you concur with Leonard?” the headmaster’s voice was devoid of any emotions.
“Yes. Her homework, papers and test scores are highly satisfactory and all the work is above and beyond what is expected, especially from a student that still technically has not graduated high school yet. She shows great interest in her school work and is extremely motivated to succeed. In my opinion she is well on her way into the tank.”
“Barry, we are ready for my sons to be part of this conversation. Please retrieve them.”
As quickly and quietly as possible I descended the stairs and searched for the handle to exit the room. I should have taken note where the handle was in relation to the stairs. The seconds seemed like hours as I tapped my hand against the wall looking for a way out. I could hear footsteps on the stairs getting closer. I was out of time and my only option was to hide behind the stairs as Professor B. left and try to sneak out after him.
I watched as he pulled the handle and snuck out of the room cautiously. Counting down from thirty, I wanted to leave enough time to slink out without him in sight but not enough so he would be returning as I escaped. The panel gave a small creak as I slipped out of the room. Professor B. was turning the corner at the far end of the hall but did not seem to notice me.