by C. C. Lynch
I sat in silence for a few moments as anger began to rise. “Headmaster Josnic,” I began.
“Please, in this room we are partners. Call me Osiris.”
Though he meant it to be respectful, it only angered me further. “Osiris, I feel that it is incredibly repugnant to ask for my assistance but not tell me what events have led to my assistance being necessary.”
“Very well,” Osiris opened a panel in the wall and removed a folder placed it in front of me. “In the past week thirteen of Glaston Academy’s students have gone missing and two were killed in an altercation. Given the nature of the abilities these students had, trust me when I tell you it was no normal quarrel.”
I opened the folder to view the files and pictures of the missing students. A paperclip held a small stack of photographs together. Mangled body parts were strewn about from an apparent explosion. Bile rose as I studied the repulsive images.
“How did the students go missing?”
“We were attacked,” Vlaine spoke this time. “A group of men came onto the property at night and just went through the dorm rooms attacking people. Either the thirteen students they took were planned or they took them looking for you.”
I could feel my face twisted in disgust. “Where was I when this happened?” Sleeping and useless was the answer.
“We had you underneath the school. There is a small infirmary under there and we kept you hidden until just a few days ago.”
“Liz is still here.” My four words held innumerable questions.
Osiris offered me the best answer to my question. “Yes, your room was one of the first ones they breached. She heard the commotion in time to become undetectable. It was particularly upsetting for her when she recognized some of the intruders.”
“What does he want with these students?”
“Power, success, financial gain, unlimited resources, world domination, you name it.” Draxe shrugged and looked at his father. “We’ve all thought about how much easier life would be if we could use our particular talents for financial gain. Imagine a team of us with different gifts put together.”
“Then,” Vlaine added remorsefully, “imagine a replicator on your team.”
“So this Jeremiah character is looking to nab me as a special weapon? Why not you, Osiris? You have the same gift as me and I am sure yours is much more developed than mine.”
“Jeremiah and I worked at the Hagan Think Tank together. I know his radical tactics and he is well aware of my position. Because my skills are more developed, he would not be able to sway me in such a way that I would side with him. You, on the other hand, are just a child; easily threatened and easily swayed.”
I ignored his condescending statement regarding my age, though it was not easy. “Hagan Think Tank?”
“A group of gifted individuals created our own little research base in Hagan, New Mexico about seventy years ago. My father was one of the men to create the organization. It exists solely to improve, study, and further understand our abilities. The Hagan Think Tank does this in a respectable manner and we set down strict moral principles. It has its very own governing system, as do most businesses.”
“The academies were created as a stepping stone for the think tank.” Draxe stood up and went over to the white board and added Liz to the list of individuals. “Students work at one of the schools afterwards, others move on and get normal jobs, but the best and most trusted ones are offered a position at the tank.”
“Why is Liz on the list?” She may have been a particularly moody individual, but I hardly thought she was capable of anything nefarious.
“She was captured by Jeremiah before. Just because she acted scared does not necessarily mean she is. She could be as deep as Horicon for all we know.”
Draxe had a point. There was no telling what actually happened when Liz was held captive by Jeremiah.
“Okay,” I pushed the folder of missing students towards Osiris, “is there anything else we need to cover in this meeting or shall I go on looking out for suspicious activity, working on my gifts, and trying to not get captured by unknown assailants that could be any particular individual at this school or otherwise?”
“I know it’s not a lot to go on,” Vlaine’s voice was kind and calming, “but it is really important that we keep you safe. We are not completely sure what Jeremiah intends to do with you or any other students but we do know that he’s a contemptible man that enjoys seeing people suffer.”
Osiris shot a dubious glance at Vlaine. The brief moment when the expression replaced his typical placated was unsettling. “Abrielle, please allow me some time to speak with my sons. Go ahead and begin working on your assignments, one of them will be with you shortly.”
I fell onto my bed in an exaggerated manner and something hard jutted into my rib. “Ow,” I grunted rolling to the side to see what I had landed on. Lying there on my bed was a box wrapped in blue paper. Though my fall hadn’t dented the box, a corner of the wrapping had been torn. My name was written in cursive on the box, but there was no indication of who had left it there. It was certainly out of the ordinary. Should I open it or ask one of the Josnic men before doing so?
Liz walked into my room in the middle of my contemplation. I asked her if she knew where the box came from and she shrugged in response and plopped onto her bed, not giving me a second glance. Her exterior was solid, but she was still just a girl beneath that tough shell.
“I’m so sorry Liz, I heard what happened. I cannot imagine how awful reliving those terrible experiences must have been.” I truly felt horrible that anything could have happened to anyone at the school because someone was trying to get to me. I tucked my legs underneath my body and softened my voice, “I don’t know what I can do to help, but if there is anything I can do please let me know.”
She dropped her books on the floor and turned towards me. “What would you have done to help if you were lying in that bed, even if you were all healed? There was nothing you could have done because you wouldn’t have known what was happening. You being away saved my life.”
Her words stung, but they were true. I would have most likely froze and been in a confused panic. “You’re right,” I shrugged, “but tell me what to do if it happens again so I know you’ll be safe.”
Her eyes became glossy as they began their thousand yard stare. “I heard his voice,” she finally whispered, “I thought it was a nightmare but I heard his voice and I turned invisible right away.”
“Jeremiah?” I clarified.
“No,” she shook her head, “Slade, his right hand man.” Her eyes met mine and fear had taken them over. “Once you hear his voice you never forget it. Under the bed, in the closet, any of those hiding places are suicide positions. They turned over the beds, tables, everything. I heard them in time to run into the hallway. I crouched invisible in the corner by the stairs and hoped they wouldn’t get close enough to hear me breathing. Hiding in plain sight is the best way sometimes.”
I stood up and sat next to her on the bed. Liz was never personal, but my empathetic side yearned to comfort her. She did nothing to push me away so I remained sitting by her side as she continued.
We sat facing each other cross-legged on her bed. “Slade and four of his friends just started barging in the rooms whipping things around. That was when I saw Professor Horicon and three other professors run up the stairs.” She began to rub her hands together nervously, “I thought they were there to help, but they weren’t. Other people must have thought the same thing at first because six people were snatched by Professor Horicon. Poof,” she snapped her fingers, “he would disappear then reappear moments later.” She slid off her bed and started pacing, “and I just stood there in the corner invisible and doing nothing.”
“Liz,” I stood and shook my head, “there was nothing you could have done. They would have captured you or worse.”
She straightened her back and composed herself. “Anyway, the entire thing was over in a matter of minutes.
A few days ago you were placed in our dorm room and Vlaine stayed by your side for the entirety. He slept on the floor and even used our shower.”
She had changed the subject to sway my attention to Vlaine and it had worked. I wanted to know every detail of what happened while I was healing. A fluttery and giddy feeling swirled throughout my chest thinking about how he had remained by my side for days.
Dwelling on my feelings for Vlaine and trying to find hope that he felt the same way in a memory that caused Liz pain was selfish. “I am amazed by your strength, Liz, I would have been frozen in a moment like that for sure. I hope you realize how strong you are.” She said nothing, just moved away from me and back to the comfort of her bed. “I’m not sure how well I could protect anyone right now, but maybe I could see if I can learn to replicate that energy wave thing that Vlaine can do.” I gasped, “Erik!” I had been so distracted with everything else going on that I had completely forgotten about him. “Is he okay? What happened to him?”
“He was a spy, Abrielle. Don’t get so attached to bad people just because you want to save the world.” She flipped her short blonde hair in a haughty manner then began painting her nails. “He was recovering slowly whilst under the supervision of Susan and a nurse that she happens to be friends with. Naïve little thing, she was. Anyway, after you fell from the sky like the little angel you are and your pack of sentries realized you were going to live they gave him one heck of an interrogation and he admitted to transferring just to send back information.”
It felt like she had pressed me with a branding rod. “You know Liz, I’m sorry for whatever has made you so incredibly and practically insufferably astringent. I have been nothing but kind to you and in return you have this way of offering me a microgram of kindness and then burying it with thirteen ounces of bitch.” I leaned against the wall and slid along it slowly onto the floor. “Whatever is going on is bigger than Glaston’s infamous backstabbing routine and you know by now I don’t take the bait for that. I have been polite to you so please cut the sardonic shtick and just try being a little nicer. If it is absolutely impossible then I’ll get transferred to another dorm posthaste.”
She continued painting her nails, her shoulders were tucked underneath her ears as if she were crouched. I stared at her quietly waiting for her to tell me to switch dorm rooms. She finished her nails and by then her shoulders had slouched back into their normal position.
“You know, Draxe was my first crush here at Glaston.” Her cheeks turned bright red and I thought for sure she was going to break eye contact. “I still have a little thing for him. It kind of sucks watching him pine over you.”
The hard-as-stone Liz was jealous and had a crush on someone? “He is incredibly gorgeous,” I giggled.
“Model gorgeous,” she fanned herself with her hand.
“He is so handsome and is just as kind as he is attractive.” I rested my jaw on my hands, “but I really only have eyes for his brother.”
She gasped and sat on the floor in front of me. “You have a crush on Vlaine?”
“Yup,” I blushed, “and if it puts you at ease at all I am positive that Draxe does not have any feelings for me. If he’s in a close proximity for an extended amount of time it’s because I am just an assignment for the Josnic boys. They are supposed to watch me or whatever.”
“You talk in your sleep sometimes.” Liz rested her hands on her knees and her mouth twitched as if she was about to say something else.
“I had no idea, sorry about that.” If anyone would know that I spoke in my sleep it would have been Steph, but she had never said anything about it. I knew that sometimes I would yell or groan when I was having a nightmare, but that was all. Was it a new thing?
“Yeah, sometimes you say Draxe’s name in your sleep.”
I understood why she was jealous, why she thought I had stolen her crush. “Oh my goodness, you were hearing my vision. Give me your hand, I’ll show you.” To my surprise she extended her arm towards me. I held it and envisioned what I had seen thousands of times and then the newer one that had ultimately led to my short lived paralysis.
Her eyes grew wide. “You’ve been seeing his face since you were little?”
“Yes, and to be honest I think I fell in love with him for most of my childhood because it always felt like he was rescuing me from whatever had scared me so much. When I saw him for the first time here I practically swooned. Draxe is incredibly handsome and very kind, but Vlaine is the one that gives me that heart-beating-in-my-throat and stomach butterfly feelings.”
She glanced up at me from underneath her lashes, “Vlaine is super hot in that tortured and rugged bad-boy type of way.”
I tucked my face in my hands in embarrassment over my first vocal acknowledgement of my crush on Vlaine. She started giggling and bumped my shoulder, “I cannot believe we are both head over heels for the Josnic twins.”
I had finally broken the shell of Liz and I had made a friend. It felt incredible.
A knock at the door halted our giggling. “It’s me,” Vlaine called from the other side of the door before opening it. Liz gave me a sultry grin and a quick wink before going back to her bed to continue studying.
“Good,” I stood up and grabbed the wrapped box from the bed, “do you know what this is?”
“Looks like a gift, Abbs,” he smirked.
“Vlaine,” I arched my brow feigning annoyance, “do you know where it came from? If I open it am I going to blow up?”
“There is only one way to find out. I’m just going to step out in the corridor here while you give it a try.”
“Okay, so obviously you know where it came from because you’re being a pain in the butt.” Delicately I removed the paper. Inside the box was the newest model cellular telephone. “A phone?” I looked up at Vlaine confused.
“With everything going on I wanted to make sure you had a way to get in touch with someone at all times.”
It was incredibly sweet but I had no way to pay the bills for the phone. I searched for words of gratitude but he was already reading me.
“Don’t worry, your full boat here at Glaston Academy will pay the bills. It’s your phone.”
“Thank you so much.” I had gotten accustomed to being without any ties to the outside world but the new phone was a sense of freedom and responsibility that I had been missing. I could not wait to call Steph, Nicholas, and my mother. The numbers for Vlaine, Draxe, Osiris, Susan, and the school were already programmed in the phone.
“You’re going to hate this,” Vlaine sat next to me on my bed and sucked in his cheeks, “my dad wants me or Draxe to keep an eye on you twenty-four by seven.”
“Don’t you guys already do that?”
He chuckled and leaned against the wall, “I guess we do, but he wants us glued to your side in the event that there is another intrusion.”
My face was flushed and I glanced towards Liz who was holding back a grin. It sounded like mine and Liz’s dreams were coming into fruition.
“I understand,” I nodded, trying to hide my smile.
“Thanks for being so accepting,” he brushed his thumb against his bottom lip and my eyes lingered there before he began speaking again. “Draxe is going to take the first shift. I’ll see you tomorrow about mid-morning.”
Liz was smirking now and I was trying not to laugh. “Thank you again for the phone,” I held it up and grinned approvingly. “I will see you tomorrow.” He nodded and was nearly out the door before I called to him, “wait!” I walked to him and hugged him quickly, “it means a lot that you stayed with me the entire time I was healing. Thank you for taking care of me.”
He looked over to Liz who just shrugged as if she was apathetic about breaking some unspoken vow. He did not respond, just simply closed the door lightly behind him as he left. The moment that he closed the door Liz burst out laughing.
“Oh my God, this is going to be priceless.” She cleared her throat and put her shell back in place. “Those boys had
better respect the sanctity of my study time because if there is so much as a sneeze when I am studying for finals there will be hell to pay.”
I shook my head and laughed. Was this what a friendship with Liz was going to be like? She was like a cat, poised and distant until she was ready then for a few brief moments she was warm and affectionate only to be replaced with the hard exterior once again.
I tried to separate myself from Draxe and Liz as much as I could by tweaking and perfecting the work I had already finished for the semester. It was in vain, they hardly spoke anyhow. Draxe seemed enthralled in whatever he was reading and taking notes on and Liz was studying. I knew that Draxe was no longer a student so I asked what he was doing to which he flashed a charming smile and explained he was trying to become a professor at one of the schools. It made sense that being the son of a headmaster would gain him favoritism but it was also comforting to know that the warnings that students gave one another were closer to a freshman tale than the truth.
Draxe fell asleep on a cot at the other end of the room and I turned my light off shortly after. Half an hour passed and Liz followed suit. I turned to her and smiled, “thank you for being nice.”
Rolling on her side to face me she whispered, “If it is any consolation I was happy when you woke up.” In a peculiar way it was Liz admitting that she liked me before I explained that I had no romantic feelings for Draxe and before I complained about her bitchy tendencies. “Goodnight, Abrielle.”
22
“Grab my hand,” Liz shouted spreading her fingers out reaching for mine. We were running through the residence hall trying to get to the fire escape door out back. I grabbed her hand as she said then she turned invisible. I concentrated on doing the same and seconds later I replicated her gift. Explosions were rattling the floor beneath us and chaos enveloped me in fear. My knees gave out on one of the explosions but Liz’s strong grasp kept me from falling to the floor.