by Emmy Oakes
Chapter Four.
Alexia woke up the next morning with a headache. Her head had been trying to process all of this crazy new information. Alexia sat up and yawned. “Was I dreaming?” An annoying tune sounded out. It took Alexia a few seconds to realize it was her cell phone. She scrambled out of bed and searched on her cluttered desk for the phone. Once she found it she quickly answered. “Hello?” Alexia’s voice was croaky.
“Alexia, you don’t sound very good.” Ronda’s voice was cheerful as usual.
“Oh I’m okay,” Alexia lied.
“I was just calling to see how you are. You know after yesterday,” Ronda said sympathetically.
Great, Alexia thought. I wasn’t dreaming. “Yeah I’m doing okay. How come you aren’t at school?”
“I was. It’s four in the afternoon.” Alexia looked at her alarm clock.
“Wow I’ve been asleep for ages.”
“That’s understandable. Hey I don’t want to stress you out or anything, but old crook threw your portrait into the bin today,” Ronda told her.
“She what?”
“Just biffed it away in front of everybody. She’s an old coot, Alexia. It isn’t your fault.”
“I worked so hard on that,” Alexia said angrily.
“Sorry I shouldn’t have told you,” Ronda apologized.
“No, I’m glad you told me. Was Karla at school today?”
“No, apparently she was at the hospital with Price last night. He seems to have lost some of his memories, he can’t remember the last two years.”
“The last two years…”
“Yeah, hey wasn’t that when he started getting into trouble.”
“So I hear. Hey I better go, I had no idea it was so late.”
“Sure, you can call me anytime you know, if you need to talk.”
“Thanks, Ronda. See you later.” Alexia hung up the phone. She stood up and walked quickly into the bathroom to brush her teeth and wash her face.
The house was quiet, making Alexia feel uneasy. She couldn’t stop thinking about Lacier and the eerie words she had spoken at the lake. “Sian,” Alexia said the word out loud feeling a pang of excitement as she spoke. “Mom? Are you home?” The house stayed silent.
Alexia dressed quickly feeling bad that she woke up so late. A folded piece of paper greeted her on the table next to the stairs. Alexia picked it up and read it;
Hi,
I have gone to pick up Gina. I will be home around five.
See you then,
Love Mom.
Alexia scowled. After all that had happened she would still have to contend with Gina for the whole weekend. “Great, just great.” Alexia flicked the letter back onto the table and walked into the kitchen.
A stack of pancakes sat on the kitchen bench covered in plastic wrap. The sight of them made her stomach growl. Alexia placed them into the microwave and waited for them to re-heat. Suddenly Alexia felt a presence in the room. “Alexia,” a wispy voice startled her. Alexia spun around to see Lacier standing behind her. “Told you I’d be seeing you again soon.”
“You weren’t lying,” Alexia agreed inspecting Lacier’s fascinating clothes. She wore metallic purple clothing with a hooded cape made out of material that seemed almost transparent.
“We need to finish our conversation. Alexia you aren’t a normal girl. You are in fact very powerful.”
“How? Why?”
“You come from a long line of Sians. Sians are very powerful women who are the only people who can stop beings like Temorvick from taking over every single planet in existence.”
“Are you talking about aliens and magic and stuff?”
“There are millions of worlds out there, Alexia. It’s naive to think that Earth is the only planet with any life. And just because the people here choose not to acknowledge magic doesn’t mean that it doesn’t exist.” Lacier looked toward the microwave which was beeping.
“Okay, so say I believe you. What now?” Alexia took the pancakes out of the microwave and set them down on the bench.
“I must train you and help you to take control of your powers. You see when a Sian turns fifteen they are able to use their powers.”
“What sort of powers?”
“We can control the elements and objects.”
“Elements…” Alexia saw images of Price burning.
“Yes you did set Price on fire,” Lacier said, seeming to read Alexia’s mind.
“I didn’t mean to!”
“It was self defense. Temorvick had Price under mind control. The shade that took over Price’s mind grew bored with watching you and tried to kill you.”
“A shade?”
“They are minions of Temorvick’s. They take over beings and control them. They were once souls of serial killers. Temorvick takes their bodies once they die and extracts their souls.”
“Nice to know that’s been following me around for two years.”
“How do you know it was two years?” Lacier sounded mildly impressed.
“That’s how long ago Price changed. I just thought he was showing his true colors.”
“In this world one must never assume.”
“Duly noted.”
“I’m going to throw a glass of water into the air,” Lacier took a glass off the bench and held it into the air. To Alexia’s amazement the glass filled up with water before her eyes. “I want you to concentrate on this glass. Once I throw it you must stop it from falling to the ground only using your mind.”
“That’s impossible,” Alexia complained.
“I don’t want to hear that word from you ever again,” Lacier scolded. “Begin.” Before Alexia could object Lacier threw the glass of water into the air. Alexia thought hard but couldn’t stop the glass from falling to the ground and smashing. “Again!” Lacier promptly took another glass from the bench and filled it with water and threw it into the air.
For a brief moment Alexia managed to hold the glass in the air. This moment indeed was very brief as the next thing she knew the glass was broken on the floor. “Better, but still rubbish,” Lacier commented. “This time think about the water and imagine it floating in the air.” She grabbed another glass, filled it with water and flung it into the air. Alexia concentrated hard. The cup was upright in the air, the water floated out of the cup and stayed in the air as the glass crashed to the ground. The loud sound of glass breaking broke Alexia’s concentration sending the floating globule of water to the floor.
“Wow!” Alexia said excitedly. A large smile was plastered to her face.
“Well done,” Lacier looked pleased. “But, I didn’t want the glass to break.”
“I did do pretty well for my first time,” her smile faded as she spoke.
“Yes, yes. But pretty well isn’t good enough,” Lacier picked up another glass. “This sort of trick comes very easily to a Sian. Your sister did…” Lacier covered her mouth with her free hand and gasped.
“Sister? Are you saying Gina or…”
“Have you not listened to a thing I have said? Gina, Sara and Tina are not your real sisters. This should come as a relief in my opinion.”
“So I have a real sister then?”
“I can’t say right now. Please forget I said anything for now,” Lacier looked unhappy with herself for being so careless. “Lets continue.” She threw another glass into the air. Alexia held up her hands and stared at the glass. Amazingly the glass hovered in the air along with the water inside it. A feeling of accomplishment and pleasure rushed over Alexia. Lacier clapped her hands together once. “Excellent,” Lacier smiled. “Now place it onto the bench.” Alexia swallowed hard. She narrowed her eyes in on the glass and thought about the bench. The glass seemed to follow orders and glided swiftly to the bench and landed without spilling a drop of water. Alexia looked at Lacier for approval. She was surprised to see that Lacier looked stunned. “Good work. Moving items is the hardest part. It seems strange that you took a long time to maste
r the easier part of levitation. Looks like you’re a kinetic caster. Very good.”
“That means I’m good with moving things?”
“Yes you could say that.”
“That's lucky, Mom would have been pissed if we broke all of her glasses.”
They were interrupted by a car pulling up in the driveway.
“Mom's home.” Alexia looked out the window. Lacier frowned. Alexia sighed and said, “No, she isn’t my mother…”
“No she isn’t,” Lacier agreed. “I’m taking you to Siania, you have to see your real home.”
“I can’t just leave. M- Cynthia will panic.”
“It’s just for a little while. We leave in two hours,” Lacier said before disappearing.
Cynthia entered the kitchen with Gina standing right next to her holding a pink satchel containing her clothes. Gina's chubby face fixed Alexia with a judgmental stare.
“What’s been going on here?” Cynthia said, noticing the mess of broken glass on the floor.
“I was making lunch,” Alexia couldn’t think of a plausible excuse.
“You’re so weird, Alexia.” Gina’s shrill voice grated on Alexia's nerves.
“Cynthia can I talk to you please?” Alexia shocked her by calling her by her real name.
“Cynthia? Why are you calling Mom Cynthia?” Gina asked.
“That’s her name,” Alexia said coldly. “Can I talk to you alone?”
“Why don’t you take your stuff to your room. I won’t be long,” Cynthia waited for Gina to reluctantly leave the room and turned to Alexia. “What is going on, Alexia? I won’t put up with this type of behavior.”
“And I won’t put up with being lied to. I know that I’m adopted.” Those last two words seemed to hit Cynthia harder than a bullet from a gun.
“Oh, Alexia,” she moved toward her and placed her hands firmly on her shoulders. “How did you find out?”
“I don’t know if I can tell you that,” she said avoiding Cynthia’s desperate stare.
“There’s only one way you could have found out,” Cynthia gazed at the floor. “Lacier has been in contact hasn’t she?”
“You know about Lacier?”
“Yes.”
“You know that I have powers?”
“Yes.”
“I can’t believe you would keep that from me!” Alexia fumed at Cynthia and pushed her hands off of her shoulders.
“You don’t understand. I couldn’t just tell you that you were different. I didn’t know how!”
“You could have tried.”
“I wanted you to be my daughter. Just to have a normal life. Lacier said that you weren’t needed because…” Cynthia trailed off.
“I wasn’t needed?” Tears welled up in her eyes. She had never felt so confused. “I can’t believe anything that you say! Lacier! I’m ready to go!” Alexia yelled at the ceiling. To her surprise Lacier appeared inside the kitchen as though she had never left.
“Alexia close your eyes.”
“Why?”
“Just do it,” Lacier demanded. Alexia nodded obediently and closed her eyes. Lacier placed a hand on Alexia’s head making her disappear. Cynthia was crying. “Cynthia,” Lacier’s voice was gentle. “Don’t take any offense. This is a lot for her to deal with all at once.”
“I dreaded this day. You told me that it would never come,” Cynthia’s voice was trembling.
“Cynthia, Alexia’s twin, Amosa has been abducted by Temorvick.”
“How is that possible?”
“She was on a training exercise on Pluto. We were unaware that Temorvick was there. We never expected that he would go after such a small world. Amosa wasn’t prepared.”
“What does any of this have to do with Alexia?”
“We can’t find Amosa anywhere. Since Alexia is an identical twin we figure she will be able to track her.”
“This is sounding very dangerous.”
“I won’t lie to you. It is dangerous.”
“Alexia has never even spoken to Amosa. Why do you think she will be able to track her?”
“It is very rare in Siania to have a sister. Being a twin is even rarer. I wasn’t prepared to train two girls. That’s why you were selected to give a loving home to Alexia. And we are very grateful for that.”
“Will I ever see her again?”
“If she is successful of course you will. She will always love you, Cynthia. That won’t change.”
“That’s if she ever forgives me.”
“She will. I discovered today that she is very powerful. Once she is trained she will become the guardian of this planet. I will see to that.”
“Really?”
“Yes. She is very skilled. Perhaps much more than her sister Amosa.”
“Tell her that I love her. More than she could ever know.”
“Take care, Cynthia, and thank you,” Lacier gave Cynthia a comforting smile before disappearing before her eyes.