by Kim Cormack
Lexy scowled down at Zach’s expression of agony and said, “I bet you’re not turned on right now?”
Kayn looked at Melody as they both thought in unison, Oh Zach, don’t say it. This was not the time or situation for his dirty mind. Angry Lexy was definitely not the audience for his shenanigans. Kayn glanced at Grey as he moved his head slowly from side to side, ominously hinting for Zach to say no.
Lexy interrogated him, “Well?”
Zach bit his lip and whispered, “I’m afraid to say.”
Grey started waving his hands in the air from behind Lexy. “No,” He silently mouthed, “Don’t you say it.”
Lexy pushed down on his shoulders again and glared at him enraged by his refusal.
Zach was obviously in excruciating pain but he was still a teenage boy. He looked up at Lexy and said, “I’m sorry, I don’t know what’s wrong with me.”
Lexy hissed, “You frigging pervert.” She socked him in the stomach but smiled as she walked away from him.
It took giant balls to flirt with Lexy. She openly despised Zach because he’d killed her on the day he ended up with Ankh. Zach had grown on Lexy. She secretly liked him.
Lily addressed the group, “Let’s break off into pairs and try out what Lexy just showed us. Melody, you take down Grey. Zach…You can be with me. You really shouldn’t be pushing your luck with Lexy. She is going to be training you for the next three weeks. Kayn, you can try to take down Frost.”
Why in the hell did Lily pair her with Frost? He rarely acknowledged her existence. Frost wandered over to her and smirked. He quite clearly didn’t think she had a hope in hell of taking him down. Oh... It’s on. You superficial, cocky, douche.
Frost opened his mouth and pretended to be mortified at what had floated through Kayn’s mind.
She really had to gain some control of her inner dialogue.
He teased, “Well…Come on then Froggy. Show this superficial, cocky, douche what you’re made of.”
Good, the condescending nickname. Kayn sparred, “Was that your best attempt at smack talk Frost?” Kayn noticed out of the corner of her eye that Melody had already pinned Grey down. After a year with Trinity, she’d better be able to pin Grey down.
“This is a battle you can’t possibly win Princess,” He jeered.
“Watch me,” Kayn sparred as she darted around the hunky douche of an immortal. He chuckled as he spun around, narrowly avoiding a few of her well-timed leg sweeps.
Frost laughed as he retaliated, “Don’t you go and get all pissy with me. It’s not my fault you have the coordination of a drunken moose.”
The others had gathered around them, they were cheering and chanting her name as Frost cockily ambled around her like he wasn’t even the tiniest bit concerned that she could take him down. He was in trouble now. She was taking this asshole down even if she had to think up a two by four and smoke him across the side of the face with it. She swung her leg and attempted to trip him again.
Frost chuckled as he maneuvered out of her way and jeered, “Having problems, Princess?”
What would Lexy do? Kayn took him by surprise. She made a motion like she was going to sweep his leg but instead, she launched her whole body at him, knocking a totally stunned Frost flat on his back. Then she pinned him the same way she had pinned Zach and added a little more Lexy to it.
Frost looked up at her, winked and teased, “Why… You’re not really a princess at all, are you Froggy? I’ll be the first to say good job.” He tried to get up and Kayn pressed down on his shoulders with her knees. She would show him who was boss. Frost shook his head at her and grinned.
Lexy walked by and said, “You took down Frost, very impressive. Frost would never just let you pin him down. Would he Grey?” Lexy glared at her Handler. Grey shrugged and winked at Melody.
Melody scowled and complained, “I want a rematch. I knew that was too easy.”
Kayn let Frost stand up. He leapt to his feet, still grinning at her. Why was he smiling like that? She was feeling pretty damn proud of herself. She had kicked some ass and taken some names. She had actually put that cocky asshole in his place. She looked over and noticed the others saying their goodbyes.
Before he left, Frost walked up behind her and whispered in her ear, “Next time remember you’re not wearing any underwear.”
Her mouth dropped open. She whirled around. Grey, Lily and Frost were already walking away together. Frost glanced back, winked at her and they disappeared into thin air.
Lexy stood before the trio of newbie immortals, she cleared her throat a couple of times to make sure she had their full attention before she announced, “This portion of the training is a brain exercise. The Testing will tell the third tiers if you are a viable second tier, long term. A second tier’s biggest weakness is that their brain is trained to respond to situations as a human being. We have the ability to heal everything but your psyche. In order to have the ability to run full force into the center of a hurricane, you have to be able to shut down the need for self-preservation. You will need to fully accept the fact that death is not a permanent state. The human brain has a little self-preservation switch. It wants to turn off once it’s been wounded. It needs time to reboot. Some call it shock, others say it’s a blessing, but your brain wants to protect you from prolonged agony. You break a limb and your brain shuts off the pain until the shock wears off. Our brains need to be able function in those moments after serious injury. Just because we can heal your body, that doesn’t mean your brain will allow you to operate it.”
Kayn could read the disclaimer at the bottom of this page. This portion of the training was going to epically suck. They followed Lexy obediently through the endless desert. There was a flash of light and the scenery changed. They had to stop cold as they were now standing right on the edge of a vast clay ravine with no greenery.
Lexy stated, “The three of you are only as strong as your weakest link. Hold hands.”
Kayn and Melody each grabbed one of Zach’s hands. They stood on the edge of the rocky bluff. Were they going to have to stop themselves from falling? They already knew how to do that. What was the big deal about this exercise? Kayn leaned forward so she could peer over the edge. They wouldn’t have much time to work up the adrenaline to stop. This wasn’t thousands of feet. When they entered the in-between it was usually from just above the cloud line. This drop would be fast and it would hurt like a son of a bitch if they didn’t manage to stop themselves.
Lexy addressed the trio, “This game has only one rule. No matter what happens, you can’t let go of each other’s hands.”
Kayn looked at the other two. That sounds easy enough.
Melody squeezed their hands and stated, “Don’t let go. Let’s do it on the count of three. One, two and jump.”
“So, we’re jumping on three then?” Zach confirmed.
Melody took a deep breath as she answered, “I don’t think it will matter. You are in the middle and we have your hands, so when we jump you’re coming along whether you like it or not.”
Melody began to count, “One, two and jump.”
They sprung off the ledge together without any fear because they knew they could stop. All three of them reached up one hand in an attempt to slow their decent and it didn’t work. The first time she’d dropped into the in-between with Kevin. Someone had hollered the words, ‘Let go or you won’t be able to stop.’ Oh, Crap! The order was…Do not let go of each other. So they didn’t. Kayn squeezed her eyes shut a second before the brutal impact and cursed, “Shit!” There was an explosion of excruciating soul altering pain, followed by nothing for an instant then trailed by a steady humming sound. She felt heavy, weighted to the clay floor.
As she began to vibrate, she heard Melody’s voice echoing in the distance. It sounded like it was coming from the end of a tunnel, “Kayn, Zach, wake up.”
Kayn choked a deep breath of air into her lungs and gasped. Her chest felt like it had been scalded from the inside with
boiling water, all the way down her throat. It was on fire. It was burning. She took another breath and it slowly began to subside and normalize. Shit, did that ever suck. Someone groaned beside her on the ground. It was Zach. He was writhing around, also in excruciating pain.
He squirmed on the ground and thought back to her, You can say that again.
Kayn agonizingly rotated her head, so she could look at him. She noticed that Melody was already standing up. She was fine. Why couldn’t she be a Healer instead of this Conduit bullshit?
She heard Zach’s feeble attempt to choke out the word, “Ditto.”
Kayn began to feel a little more normal. The sick feeling subsided; she attempted to sit upright on the blood-splattered clay floor. She turned to look at Zach, he was sitting beside her.
Zach glanced around the thirty-foot radius of their blood splatter and remarked, “Now, that’s just upsetting.”
Lexy’s voice called out from her perch on the cliff above them, “Well! What are you waiting for? Get your butts back up here and do it again!”
“Oh, you have got to be frigging kidding me,” Zach groaned.
Melody squeezed his shoulder and said, “There must be a way to do this. We just have to figure it out.”
The three of them thought themselves back up to the top of the cliff. Kayn looked at Lexy and implored, “Come on, just give us a hint.”
Lexy replied, “If you learn a lesson the hard way, you’ll never forget it.”
They hesitantly took each other’s hands and grimaced in unison. Kayn’s mind yelled, what in the hell are you doing? They stepped off the ledge and began to plummet towards the ravines unforgiving clay floor. It ended with blinding pain and a revolting accumulation of visual blood splatter. They tried a few more times but there was no stopping their descent. Once again, they were ordered back to stand on the ledge.
As they stood there ready to leap to their excruciating demise Zach whispered, “Is she trying to actually kill us, because I think it’s working.”
Kayn took his hand and replied, “Yes, she quite obviously is.”
Melody added, “I would say that’s her plan.”
They stepped off the edge. She had ceased to count the number of times a while ago. What was the point of counting? There was no preparation needed for this insanity. Kayn closed her eyes in the second before impact and once again there was an explosion of soul altering agony as the trio splattered at the bottom of the unforgiving ravine’s floor.
The humming sound was back again, then the shaking sensation. She felt just a little bit too warm this time. As she came to, Kayn attempted to suck in that first breath of air but her scalded lungs were barely functional. She struggled to lift her body. The landscape around her wavered and she could only look straight ahead for a moment. Son of a bitch that bloody hurt. Kayn struggled to lift herself up with her arms. Her mind began to scream at her, what in the hell do you think you are doing? She eventually managed to turn only her head towards the other two. Melody was standing up already but Zach was struggling as much as she was to regain his bearings. Zach managed to stand up first. He took her hand and pulled her up with him. They wobbled on their legs for a minute before they looked up at Lexy and thought, No... No, not again. Please don’t make us do it again.
Unmercifully Lexy hollered from her perch above them, “Let’s try that again!”
The morbid accumulation of brain matter and clumps of meat that were splayed across the floor bordered on a ‘Texas Chainsaw Massacre’ level of visual gruesomeness. From far above the landing site they could see what they had left behind. It was intimidating to say the least.
Melody whispered, “Our bodies are in tombs. This is a test, just jump.”
Once again, they smoked the clay floor and painted it red. They never let go of each other’s hands. After an even longer span of time went by attempting to recuperate, they struggled to their feet with their minds ringing and their lungs an inferno of torturous fire. Over and over again, the trio stepped off of the ledge. She made them keep doing it until they could no longer rise at the bottom. Their minds were screaming in unison, No More! Even Melody could no longer rise to her feet.
Lexy jumped off the ledge and stopped herself from falling easily because she was alone in her descent. She stood above them and ordered, “Stand the hell back up! You bunch of babies!”
Kayn tried to, but after being squished a couple dozen times with no decent amount of recuperation time between each jump, her mind would not allow her body to move. She could not even wiggle her toes. After a minute or two passed, she was able to twitch her fingers on the clay of the ravine floor. Her fingers twitched but the rest of her would not budge. She’d felt this way once before. This time she knew she was indestructible. Well, only temporarily destructible. There wasn’t the urgent need to escape. It was the opposite. She needed five minutes before she killed herself again. They were attempting to do something meant to be impossible. Kayn was pretty certain that there was no way to stop without letting go of each other’s hands.
Lexy crouched down and in an ominous tone she threatened, “Either you stand up or I’ll think up something incredibly terrifying to come and eat you all. Will that help you Brighton? Will that help you find the urgent need to stand back up?”
Damn her inner dialogue. Melody was up; Zach was trying to get up. Kayn was willing her body to move but it wouldn’t. Her fingers were barely twitching. She was giving it everything she had.
Lexy directed her next statement to the two that were standing, “All right, just leave her here and you two won’t get eaten.” Lexy disappeared and in an instant, she was standing on the cliff bluff above. Far out of the way of whatever heinous creation she had thought up to devour them.
Melody frantically tugged on her arm and pleaded, “Come on Kayn! Stand up! You have to try!”
Kayn understood the gravity of the situation she’d placed them in. She gasped, “I’m trying, I can’t move! Just get out of here, I can take it!” Whatever it was, it would be over in a second. They weren’t leaving her. “My limbs aren’t working… Just leave me here!” She heard the ominous sound of thundering clicks in the distance. From around the corner came a dozen enormous scorpions the size of buses, running in a spine chilling herd towards them.
Zach bent down, lifted her into his arms and assured, “I have you. Keep trying to move, we’re not going anywhere without you.” Zach swung around with Kayn in his arms and pressed her flush against the clay wall, putting his body between hers and the oncoming herd of terrifying scorpions. Melody stood in front of them both and neither of them left her there to be devoured. They held their breath and prepared for the agony of the claws and stings. The scorpions vanished into mist about ten feet away from them.
Lexy was standing there smiling. She stated, “There might be hope for you three yet…How about a little break?”
The surroundings flashed and they found themselves standing in front of a familiar house surrounded by a meadow adorned with every flower imaginable. It was Granny Winnie’s house. That was just who Kayn hoped she would have the opportunity to see. Kayn sprinted towards the house feeling good as new as she yelled back to them, “Come on you two! This is Kevin’s grandmother’s house, she practically raised me!” Kayn ran through the open door and skidded across the icy floor. The interior of the house was full of ice and snow. Kayn slipped around, struggling to keep her balance. Her breath pirouetted and danced in front of her face. The kitchen cupboards, everything seemed to be either covered or made of ice. She danced from foot to foot on the icy floor. It actually hurt. Kayn called out, “Granny Winnie are you here?” There was no answer. She knew they couldn’t sit down at the table; their butts would stick to the ice. Bare skin on ice was always a bad idea. Kayn dashed back outside, away from the frozen wasteland of Granny Winnie’s kitchen. The second she stepped outside, the warmth embraced her like an old friend. The wood from the front stoop was untouched by the frozen climate that had taken o
ver inside.
Zach leaned through the threshold to get a look inside and said, “This place looks deserted and frozen. I don’t think Granny Winnie lives here anymore.”
Kayn thought of Kevin sitting there with her eating a peanut butter and jelly sandwich on the stoop. Her heart started to ache. She pushed the feelings back down. A frozen wasteland was all that was left of her childhood sanctuary.
Zach held out his hand and without the need for words, she laced her fingers through his and the three of them walked hand in hand away from her past. They kept walking through an endless field of different varieties of white flowers until she noticed one lone patch of purple honeysuckles. Kayn bent down to pick one.
Melody said, “Maybe, just this one time, you should leave that purple clover in the ground.”
She’d been calling them honeysuckles for as long as she could remember. They were called purple clover and it was far past the time to leave them in the ground.
“Purple clover, they are in your past,” Zach declared as he searched through one of the patches of white flowers until he found one he could name. Zach plucked a white daisy out of the ground. He walked over and passed her the flower. Kayn took it from him and smiled. He suggested, “Maybe your future is a white flower, like a daisy? Maybe its even a purple flower but it’s lavender instead of a purple clover?” Zach chuckled, “Maybe, your future love interest isn’t obsessed with flowers at all?”
Kayn started to laugh, “He wasn’t obsessed. It was just a cute story about how we met as kids.”
Zach plucked a daisy from the ground and methodically plucked the petals off as he added, “Maybe the three of us should find something that signifies our bond.”
Melody started to laugh as she suggested, “Cherry Jell-O. That’s my vote.”
Cherry Jell-O sounded wonderful. Kayn sighed, “All right, I vote for Swedish Berries.” She kept walking through the field.