Evanescent (12 page)

Sam shook her head. “Show-off.” She chuckled.

I dropped down with my ass hitting the soft mattress of my old bed, still smiling. Sage almost jumped right on top of me to give me a hug. One memory was evident, she and I were bonded by the same ordeal, our kidnapping by the Zulu king – witchdoctor.

“So glad to see you, girlfriend,” I said, my words automatic, like I knew what to say and how to say it; not to show any clash within my personality was suddenly a need. I hugged her back. Soon Sam joined in as we rolled off the bed and onto the wooden floor with giggles and loud thumps. In that instant, the door flung open, and I buried my head between Sam’s and Sage’s intertwined arms.

“Would you knock first?” Sam yelled.

“Lesbos,” Sonya huffed.

“Yeah? You want in?” Sage bantered.

Sonya paused and just before closing the door, looked up at the sunroof. “It’s almost curfew. Close it. Now.”

“Yes, sir!” Sam mocked.

“Whatever.” And she left, finally, silently closing the door.

I almost couldn’t control my laughter, letting out a squealing giggle.

Sam attempted to pinch me as Sage untangled her arms and legs from ours.

I laughed looking at Sage, her light hair a pale glow from the street lamps outside.

“Shhh! You’ll get us killed!” Sam reprimanded in a loud whisper.

“Just like old times,” Sage mocked.

My grin was huge as I sat in front of my old bed, my feet crossed over the insipid rug. I knew it was my bed, but I had not one single memory of me in it.

“Why are you here?” Sage looked directly at me, crystal-blue eyes vibrantly waiting for me to acknowledge that I needed their help.

“She needs a reason?” Sam asked defensively.

My face quickly soured.

“You are changing,” Sage said, her voice hollow and tinted with despair.

She lifted her hand, palm out, when I shot her a look.

“Yes, I might have some of my ability back.” Pride colored her face with this bit of news.

“What!” Sam exclaimed, pinching Sage on the arm this time.

“Stop that!” Sage yelled, and pushed Sam to the floor.

“Guys, come on!” I pleaded, suddenly feeling the sky fall on me all over again.

Sage stood, handing me a pair of clean, dry short shorts and a long sleeved, white top with our school emblem. My fingers trailed over the badge out of habit. I quickly peeled off Troy’s soaked and torn clothes. Sage stepped into the bathroom, and the incinerator switched on.

“Umm, Sage?” I called to her. “Those were not my clothes.” I bit down on my lip.

“Neither are they any of ours,” she said on her way back into the room. “If the Keepers find them, we will be persecuted.”

I sighed loudly, dropped my face into my hands and told them about everything that was happening to me. That I hated being responsible for how badly things were going to get for us all now. I explained to them how my memories came in bundles, about abilities that had a mind of its own. I told them about the tainted water, the food, and that most likely everything we had been given by the school, the Council, was a way of monitoring and controlling us. Sam’s face gave nothing away.

Sage swallowed hard, then said, “I thought it was just me, but things have been changing back to the way they were before my disappearance. I’m not affected like the others, though. I can see them changing back; pale, cold, distant stares. And I am afraid that the change from and back to, has been very subtle. I have no idea if anyone even noticed what it feels like to truly experience and feel things, like we have.” When she finished, she was looking down at her hands.

“The reason you are not affected is because they don’t want you to be. Your human emotions are what guide your abilities,” I said to her.

Sage nodded like she had known all along.

Sam snickered. “You guys are crazy. I know what it is – the witchcraft you were both subjected to in the Zulu kingdom – delusions and paranoia. Besides, you both have the Changed gene, but it’s okay because you made it, right? You are still here.” She smiled. “Things only felt different because Ava was changing and it affected us. That is why she had to leave, her change would trigger more of the mutant genes in others,” Sam concluded, but it was not for our benefit, something shadowed her face, a thought sparked and I saw it.

I looked at Sage, her pale-blue eyes were scrutinizing me. She was starting to suspect something about Sam, too. I closed my eyes, and pushed an image into Sage’s mind of how I looked in the reflection of the white, glossy wall when I had shifted inside the general’s place. I had no idea if it would work, but it did. She nodded, and then tried to read me; to look into my future to see what it was I would become, and if we could find a cure for my Shadowing disease.

“I can’t read you, Ava,” she said nervously.

I searched her eyes, but she wasn’t lying. I pulled my wet hair into a pony tail and twisted it into a knot. I heard Sage gasp first, then Sam was standing beside me. Even though I could not feel them, I saw them touching the back of my neck in the reflection of the large window. We all fell to the floor, careful not to be seen.

“What is it?” Sage asked.

Sam shook her head. “Some kind of mark.”

“This is no tattoo, Ava,” Sage said gravely, coming closer. The two girls were so close, I could smell their breaths. I tried to feel it, to run my hand over the mark, but only the tiniest of pins and needles gave way under my touch. Clenching my jaw, I pushed and pushed my mind to feel something, but without triggering a blood-shift it wouldn’t work.

“Does Troy know any of this?” Sage queried.

Sam clicked her tongue, like we had said a forbidden word.

I shook my head and heatedly said, “No!”

“What are you scared of?” Sam asked. She knew me well.

I turned, their hands falling from my neck and back. Sam pinched me, and I kept staring at the spot on my arm as the skin bled from white back to pink.

“You really can’t feel it, can you?”

I shook my head.

Sage kept her eyes on me.

My chest felt heavy, saying it out loud was no relief at all. “He suspects something, and I’m not sure if he will like what is inside of me. I can’t lose him.” I swallowed.

“Something like what?” Sam hissed.

My jaw felt tight, throat thick with words that stuck. I was about to tell them what I was truly experiencing, important to my food cravings; my loss of skin sensation, the honing of my sight and hearing. That sometimes I felt like a hunter, the twist of my thoughts, of how being near Troy dissolved the darkness. I was about to tell them who I was, or rather, who I was not when the room shook. We stared at each other and I wondered for a moment if I was doing it, if I truly had no control over my blood-shifts, but another shake of the room, this time so much bigger told me otherwise. Sam yelled loudly, and Sage’s shrills ripped through my chest, reverberating in my mind. Total and utter darkness engulfed us, followed by the looming glow of a fire coming from outside. I could smell the smoke immediately.

We ran to the window. “Oh crap! Oh crap! Oh crap!” Sage kept yelling. “It’s happening, it’s really happening. I didn’t want this one to be true!” She held on to her head, shaking it vigorously. Her hair flailing wildly in the flickering, orange light.

“What’s happening Sage?” I grabbed her shoulders to calm her down and for a moment, her eyes turned inky-black and she looked possessed.

“Spit it out, Sage. You saw something?” Sam asked calmly.

“I hoped it was a dream, my visions don’t come the way they used to.” Her eyes met mine gravely. “They are coming for us,” she said.

“The Council?” Sam whispered.

“No.” Sage shook her head.

She touched my head, and the symbol etched itself behind my eyelids.

“No way.” I swallowed. “We need to move.”

Sam and Sage scattered about, grabbing their things in loud shrieks.

“Stop panicking!” I yelled. “Leave everything!”

I looked for a way out. Through the window, flames climbed clouds and smoke blanketed the moons’ rays. Then a loud explosion rattled the building so fiercely, my reflection in the window blurred out of focus from the trembling. More explosions broke into the sky. I moved closer to the window. Not only were there flames engulfing the entire city, a storm was brewing and heading our way, a big one. It eclipsed the night with disaster and danger – it
was
happening! It was my time to panic.
Keep calm, keep calm
.
If Troy was here
… But before I could get hold of my thoughts, another loud explosion tore through the air, crackling like a beast, our screams becoming lost in the echoes of terror. Loud crashes came from every direction, enclosing us within its catastrophic claws. Flames so high and wide, we were about to be devoured within the jaws of the fiery creature. I didn’t give myself the time to hesitate for a second longer. I grabbed my two best friends, and hurled them down the stairs. The door came crashing in as we hit the bottom floor; Robert and David came tumbling through it, smoke sweltering up behind them. There were no alarms to warn us, which struck me as very odd at first. I waved my hand before my face trying to see through smoke and dust. The fire came from next door, and radiated through the walls. My panic echoed in the grave expressions on the boys’ faces as they came toward us. Briefly, I heard girls in the other dorm shriek, cough, cry, and their loud footsteps as they came hurtling down the stairs like mad banshees, pushing against us, turning to push back, my voice got lost in shock and fear.

“Other way!” Dave yelled, and we ran back up the stairs, pushing through smoldering smoke, girls running into each other. I kept pushing them back the way we had come, the chaos felt so unreal.

“Move!” I screamed at them, pulling Sam through the crowd of horrified faces. She was my priority, not the girls who had been so mean to me. A horrible selfish thought that came from a horrible place inside.

“Sage!” I yelled, pushing the girls ahead of me to get to the window before the fire took us.

“We have her!” Dave yelled back.

Grabbing a nearby chair, I threw it at the window to break us out, but it bounced back from the glass and hit one of the girls instead who shrieked, “We are going to die!”

I studied her; she was truly afraid and it was strange, because our kind did not feel fear unless she, too, had the changed gene and was outgrowing the numbing drugs.

Stifling a laugh as she got to her feet, I took a deep breath and felt the faint panic from my friends within me, only mine was starting to amplify into unadulterated fear. That was wrong, I could not be afraid, fear was a crippling emotion. I shut it out, grabbed the chair again and pushed through the terror, felt the dull current of my mind-shift as strength built, trembling through bone and flesh. I released the chair using that fear I had inside of me. I hadn’t yet realized that I was able to draw on the instinct without it triggering the blood-shift, because my mind was solely focused on getting us the hell out of there. I turned, grabbing Sam as it smashed through the large window with so much force the break-free window pane came down, colliding with us in great shimmering chunks. I gasped, and from somewhere within me, I pushed out some kind of shield just before the glass and flames had the chance to peel back our skins. Holding on to Sam, I grit my teeth as I felt each shard hit the shield, sweat started streaming down my entire body in sprays of nausea. Glass carpeted the floor, and I scolded myself for not wearing boots in fear of exposing my blood to everyone in the room. Dropping the shield moments later, I ignored the shocked glares from the other girls and ran back to the window.

“Keep your heads down,” I warned, the flames licking in vicious spirals of yellow and black over the room’s ceiling. The boys pushed through the mob of girls. “I can’t,” Sonya moaned as Dave tried to force her out of the window first.

“It’s the only way!” he shouted, peering down the side of the building with me.

I grabbed her arm real hard. “Look around you – this is real. We are on fire. You need to feel it!”

A blank stare from her golden, brown eyes sent me over the edge. So, I did the only thing I could do to save us all; I pushed her out the window, but unfortunately laughed as she hit the ground with a loud thump. It was either her leg or her life, besides, she too was genetically engineered so there was no way that small fall would kill her.

“This way!” Robert called for the others.

The girls didn’t hesitate after that, and came crawling down the gutters as Rob pushed from the back.

Dave gave me a stern look. “Really?”

“What?” I shrugged.

“You pushed an Untrained out the window.”

“Yep,” I said plainly.

“I can’t possibly jump!” Ilke pleaded, her brown eyes dark with dread.

“Go down the steel pipe now, or I’ll push you, too,” I said brusquely.

One by one, the girls made it down, whimpering all the way. Renatha caught my glare and refused to break eye contact as she cluttered down the drainage system. I kept my eyes on hers, knowing she’d hated heights once, but couldn’t remember why. I smiled as her feet hit the ground, trying to comfort the little humanity she still held. Down below, pupils scattered, yelling in the street. I saw the red bike from the hangar parked across the dirt road, next to the wall bordering the boys’ dorms. I felt him even before our eyes met, his proximity to me had kept me composed all this time. Robert grabbed Sam and jumped down, landing like a cat with a ball of fur between his arms. Dave gave me the go-ahead and reached over to Sage. I jumped from the window, bending my knees as I hit the ground in a low crouch. I got odd stares from the girls as I landed perfectly on a small patch of grass.