The Affliction

by Wendy E. Marsh

  “Hmm, no I guess you wouldn’t need the quadratic formula to solve your kind of problems,” I replied, though that wasn’t all I thought. My brain followed more along the lines of oh, crap, I never learned all that history and I just barely scraped by in my math classes. I can hardly add in my head, let alone do percentages.

  “What formula?” Isaac asked, confused, not noticing my internal dilemma.

  “Quadratic. But never mind, you apparently don’t need it…umm, so about the history and stuff…I never learned that.” I said apprehensively.

  “Well not our side, but you’ve already got all the outside stuff down better than any of us. At least you won’t have to sit through outside trivia lessons, they’re so boring.” He rolled his eyes like he suggested that this particular subject should not be a part of their curriculum.

  “Well, Mystic History was one of the topics Moraine put on the list.”

  “Yep. You’ll get to that soon probably, but I think she wanted to focus on your actual abilities first like she wanted to get you to do as much stuff before Adam…” I thought about Adam as he said this, and suddenly it felt like someone had stabbed me in the stomach. “…got home so that everyone would know that you’re doing well and…” the figurative knife now twisted inside me and a familiar unease shot through me, like adrenaline, but not with the same effect.

  “NO!” I screamed suddenly, my hands flying to my head as though I had just hit it on something rock-solid. Isaac looked at me in bewilderment, then seemed to review everything he just said to see if there was anything offensive in it.

  “Aubrie, what’re you…?” But I now rocked back and forth, eyes closed, fingers clenched in a death grip around my now short hair. I couldn’t speak anymore, as I was lost for spoken words. Something had verbally paralyzed me, though I was still able to move my body.

  Everything had been fine, me talking casually to Isaac, and then out of nowhere, something was wrong, very wrong.

  Chapter 22

  I hadn’t caught the end of what Isaac had said about Moraine and my training because just then it had hit me, a powerful sense of horror.

  The blackness consumed me, and I felt that if I relaxed my hands, then I would surely fall into the dark hole that opened up before me. What was going on? I had to let the others know something was wrong, but I couldn’t speak. I felt the sweat breaking out on my skin, felt my epidermal sheath flaming hot.

  I tried to speak telepathically, to someone, anyone, but I realized quickly that I was already using all my power, how could that be? And then I knew how it was possible. This thing that consumed me was my intuition…my intuition warning me that something was horribly out of balance.

  I faintly heard Isaac outside of my personal cage, confused at first, and then worried, and then there was no denying it, I heard pure fear as he called for the others to come.

  The pain I felt during training was nothing to what I was felt that day. It more reminded me of when I searched for Headquarters; except the feeling wasn’t only challenging but vicious, too, trying to hurt me as well rather than just keep me out. I felt like someone dropped me into a stock pot over a scorching fire, my viscera boiling inside me, the red flames all around me, threatening to turn me to dust at any second.

  I noticed my body trembled, when had that development started? I was not in control of myself anymore. I had to curl up, protect myself, and hold myself together. Someone screamed, was the sight of me that frightening?

  The second Isaac had shouted for help, Mariah darted to my side. I felt her grab my arms, trying to pull them away from my head. “Aubrie, Aubrie,” I heard her strong voice say, “let go you’re going to rip your hair out.” No, I thought, no letting go, I want to stay here. “Aubrie, what are you feeling, what’s going on? For Heaven’s sake stop screaming!”

  That was me? The screams didn’t stop when I realized they were mine, the agony was too much. The rest of the chapter surrounded me. Mariah was scared, too, but she didn’t talk to me as though I were in danger of imploding into nothingness, as I felt I would at that moment. I heard respect and awe in her voice as well.

  I heard Isaac cussing beside me, wondering why the hell Tobias and Moraine had to be away.

  They looked to me, for me to tell them what would come, because they realized before I did that I was seeing something that charged for us, and judging by my actions, it wasn’t exactly Mary Poppins floating down by her umbrella.

  “Aubrie,” I heard Cyrus’ husky voice, but I finally managed to speak before he could continue.

  “GABRIEL!” I shouted. Just one word and it shocked everyone, even myself.

  Isaac suddenly flipped out and demanded to know what was wrong with Gabriel. No, I thought, no stupid, it’s not happening to him, I wish he was here, I need him here, now. He would save me. He would hold me and keep me from falling. But he wasn’t coming, I knew that.

  “Aubrie, what’s happening?” Mariah insisted. She held me tight, securing me to the world that I felt I was slipping from. “Aubrie, you’re going to be okay, it’s just a feeling, please tell us what’s going on.”

  Yes. I needed to tell them what I saw, figuratively speaking.

  The challenge was, I had trouble distinguishing what my intuition tried to tell me. I didn’t know why the warning came, the reason behind the pain. And every time I tried to decipher this, the pain heightened.

  I felt as though I were trying to break through an electronically locked door and every time I punched in the wrong pass code an alarm went off, the code changed, and it zapped me. So frustrating, beyond the all but intolerable pain, when would it stop?

  And then something clicked. Not that long ago I had wondered what Tobias meant when the Black Shadow had ways of blocking us. Now I knew. Finally, I realized I had intuited something related to them, but they blocked me. Usually, if my intuition started, I would just automatically know what was about to happen. But I was lost in the dark with the Black Shadow block.

  “The Black Shadow,” I croaked, “not Gabriel.” The person underneath me disappeared, but another caught me. When I was able to tell them something, to get some kind of warning out, everything started to ease. I let go of my hair but grabbed the first thing I touched, someone else’s hands. I realized the screaming desisted and I opened my eyes.

  I partially fell across Isaac’s lap, my hands squeezing his even more tightly than a woman’s to her husband’s while giving birth. Of course, as resilient as he was, he showed no signs of pain.

  As soon as I had mentioned the Black Shadow, everyone but us had moved into action. I couldn’t see Mariah anywhere, but Cyrus had all three boys hanging off him as he ran towards the house, Tate in his arms, Tanner on his shoulders, and Danny clinging to his back like a little monkey. Marielle was gone, too. I wondered briefly if Mariah had picked her up.

  I no longer felt in immediate danger myself, but I still suffered. My actions set the stove to a simmer. Isaac cussed again, throwing in things like perfect timing, only four of us here, Aubrie isn’t ready…He seemed to be in a sort of trance, talking to himself, trying to figure it all out.

  I tried to stand up, and a scream escaped. The movement had stirred the unease inside of me and the blackness threatened to return. My piercing screech had brought Isaac out of his reverie.

  He supported me under my shoulder so I could lean on him as he helped me run to the house. My intuition pounded at me, hitting me saying, hey, wake up, DANGER! I tried, I fought hard to know who was in danger, when, and how? But that door stayed obstinately locked. Mariah met us in the foyer, and she grabbed me by the arms, looking me in the eyes. “Aubrie, what were you thinking when this started?”

  That was a weird question to ask me right now, I thought. Shouldn’t she ask what I felt currently, not before it happened? Oh, well, answer her anyway.

  I tried to remember what had run through my mind when the blade had first punctured my skin, pushing deeper, deeper…I had been talking to Isaac about learni
ng our history. He said that I would but Moraine had been, so to speak, beefing me up for when Adam…I screamed again.

  “Oww, oww…Isaac, don’t let go of me!” I yelled as I clung to him to escape the darkness that would surely drown me. But that had been it, the trigger, what I realized Mariah sought after. Isaac held me tight and Mariah encouraged me to tell them what I knew. “Adam…it’s Adam,” I gasped, feeling my eyes rolling back into my head.

  And once I realized this for myself the intuition swallowed me again, but now I had the pass code and I eagerly punched it in. Adam, why was Adam in danger from the Black Shadow? And why didn’t Tobias see this coming anyway? Surely this would concern him more since he was the Sage retrieving him. Why was I the one to receive the signal?

  And then I knew. Apparently, Adam changed his plan and would arrive on an earlier flight. Tobias knew that much but for some reason he didn’t see the danger coming that I did. The Black Shadow had organized an ambush on Adam as soon as he disembarked; a clean snatch, nobody would notice, and our chapter wouldn’t know what happened until the Shadows had him prisoner at their own base camp, because they forced all their effort into blocking our Sage, Tobias.

  My eyes flew open. Mariah had disappeared again. I found the strength to talk to Isaac while he supported me into the living room and lowered me to the couch. He stood in front of me, looking around like the Shadows would crash through our windows at any second. I didn’t object even though I knew the danger remained in Pittsburgh.

  “They don’t know I’m alive, they don’t know I’m here, they don’t know I’m a Sage,” I breathed heavily, feeling as though each moment I breathed in oxygen, the air sucked from me immediately. Everyone else entered the room with us to listen to my account.

  Isaac just looked at me; sure I was going to continue, and I did, the words all tumbling out in a rush. “Tobias doesn’t know this is happening, they’re blocking him but they don’t know about me. That’s how I can feel it. They’re going to ambush Adam once he gets off the plane, we have to warn them!”

  “It’s okay, we’ll have time, his flight doesn’t come in till tomorrow morning,” Cyrus encouraged. Too bad for him; he sounded so confident, relieved. I was about to ruin his brief sense of security.

  “No,” I groaned, “there was a change of plans; he’s coming in tonight, in about an hour.” Cyrus’ expression froze hard into place like he’d been slapped in the face.

  “Why? When did this happen?” Mariah hissed.

  “Just before the flight left. He got the last seat on the plane because Tobias had seen the Black Shadow pursuing this plan on the original flight. They thought they could deceive the Black Shadow by switching flights, but the Shadows had an Informer trailing Adam, so they knew. And this time they made sure Tobias wouldn’t see it by throwing up a wall. He still thinks they outsmarted the Black Shadow, but he’s wrong, we have to do something!” I had begun quietly but as I went on I spit the words out as fast as I could, my voice a crescendo until by the end I shouted in a state of panic.

  The blood had long since drained from my face. I felt lucid, fragile, and breakable. Revealing the information increased the burning pain, but I had to save Adam. The Shadows had not specifically blocked me, as they did not know that I existed, but they were still very careful about what they let anyone feel. They’re too good at this, I thought.

  Isaac stood even closer to me now, worried by the tone of my voice. He specially respected me, though he didn’t let on about this in ordinary circumstances. He trusted me to know what went on, what would happen.

  He looked only at me and said, “Aubrie, we can’t use phones, you have to warn Tobias telepathically, there’s no other way. Even if Mariah ran there it would be too late.”

  I rather wanted to just lie down and sleep. It would be so much easier than even considering adding more pressure. But of course, I knew that evading the attack was not an option. They needed me or our chapter would suffer.

  “But I’ve only just learned how to do it…I can’t make it go that far,” I protested, having almost no faith in myself.

  “Aubrie, you know how to do it, that’s all that matters. You can, so just talk to him like you did earlier today. It’s only a little different because you can’t see him,” Isaac disagreed.

  “Okay, everyone quiet,” I said, though the warning was unnecessary as even the four children sat silently on one of the long couches. I knew the effort would be hopeless, but I would try anyway. I closed my eyes and attempted to forget about my intuition because there was no way I could focus on two abilities at the same time. I had also worked on turning off my intuition with Moraine and I tried desperately to remember how.

  It was strenuous work. Even when I stopped the flow of intuition, the pain persisted, and I didn’t know how to turn that off. I tried telepathy anyway. “Tobias?” I called. The others looked at each other, and with disappointment, I knew why. They all had heard me. I had spoken to the room, no one specific, and my voice didn’t carry to anyone outside of our walls.

  I began to cry. I couldn’t do it, I wasn’t able to warn my chapter members and they were about to capture our master. Isaac placed his hands on my shoulders and looked me directly in the face. “Aubrie, it’s okay, try again. It takes practice,” Isaac encouraged.

  “We don’t have time to practice,” I yelled, my voice breaking. Why didn’t they understand? Could they not see what would happen if I failed? No, I answered myself, they could not see, only I could, and I opened the dam that had been holding out the flow of intuition. More information crashed in on me, filling the basin of my mind, and suddenly I knew that the Shadows would not only capture Adam but torture him. They looked for Tobias and Eleanor as well, and the fact that they didn’t care to capture them scared me. I knew my inability to warn them equaled their death. The Shadows were only interested in Adam and the information they thought they could extract from him.

  Fury suddenly flushed through my body and I wished that I was a Silencer, that I had the ability to sneak up on them and rip out their throats. Wow, such violence. That was not me. No, I was a Sage, and my place right then was to warn Tobias of what I had seen. I might not have possessed the ability to act offensively, but I could play defense pretty well. If I could just warn Tobias, then there would be no reason for offense, thank goodness, as Tobias, Eleanor, and Adam were not fighters per se, at least not against an enemy of that magnitude.

  But that was it. I had to get through to Tobias, no matter how far away he was. I had spoken to him telepathically earlier in the day, was able to get a feel for him. The rage flashed inside of me and I shut out the intuition altogether, building up a temporarily unbreakable dam, and thought of how it had felt when I had spoken telepathically to Tobias. I thought just of him, of his mind, and shoved the pulsing yellow light out, not just into the room, but out into the world, to him alone. “TOBIAS!” I screamed at the top of my lungs. Well, would have screamed had it been out loud anyway.

  I didn’t bother to see what the others’ reactions were. I knew it had worked. “Aubrie? What is it? Is everything ok? I can’t believe you’re talking to me this far away.” I heard Tobias say in my head.

  Okay, good, now that I had his attention, I couldn’t hold this up for long, so I needed to get the point across quickly. “Shadows are ambushing Adam now and they’re blocking you!” I hoped that it would be enough. It would have to be because I couldn’t sustain the conversation anymore.

  “Okay, Aubrie, I’m on it, thanks,” Tobias replied, to my delight and relief.

  For the first time in half an hour, I breathed normally, my heart rate calmed. I told them all that Tobias knew and would try to prevent the attack. We all worried because we knew Tobias and Eleanor would have to be quick. There wasn’t much time left before Adam’s plane landed and they would have to sneak in and out unnoticed.

  “I should have gone,” Isaac said, now sitting beside me to keep me from falling over from exhaustion.

&n
bsp; “We couldn’t have known this would happen,” Cyrus said reassuringly. “Nobody should have known Adam was returning. They didn’t see a need for a Guardian.”

  “Yeah, well,” Isaac didn’t finish the sentence.

  We sat in silence and I slumped onto the couch, unable to be anything but limp.

  Though everything inside me was more chaotic than New Orleans on Mardi Gras, I couldn’t hold on to one solid thought. My mind was blank like I stared at a black chalkboard. There should have been something written on it, but there it sat, empty of words or pictures or meaning.

  Some of my senses were askew. Though my eyes were open, all I saw in front of me were shadows of reality, as though I were trying to see everything through dirty lenses. The volume of my hearing seemed lower as I could barely hear the others talking. I didn’t know about taste or smell. But my sense of touch had for some reason shot through the roof. I sat catatonic, imprisoned in my hypersensitive body.

  I could feel every motion in the room, every faint movement of the air. If I could have moved I would have jumped about a foot when Isaac poked my arm, the sensation was so intense. I knew he talked to me, tried asking me questions, but I couldn’t hear him to know what they were, not that I could have answered anyway.

  And then I suddenly thought I would explode, and it took me a few seconds to realize that Cyrus had picked me up. Is he taking me somewhere? I thought. Must be…the air’s moving swiftly around us.

  A couple of minutes passed and then he apparently didn’t hold me anymore as I rolled onto something very comfortable, my bed? And that’s the last thing I knew before I took my last conscious breath.

  Chapter 23

  I immediately noticed the extra body heat, but I knew I was in no danger. No light filtered through my closed eyelids, not even the pulsation of a candle flame. The only noise I heard issued from the hum of the fan in the corner of the room and the song of the crickets outside in the August night. August…my favorite month of the year, with sounds and smells unparalleled to those at any other time.