Before I could see him, I heard him, “Avery, Avery, Avery,” It was a chant. After a moment, he said some other things that he would never tell me. Then I realized I heard his thoughts.
Wait! His thoughts. How was that even possible?
Then everything around me faded, and I was in some sort of room or cavern. It was all white, and it blurred as I tried to look further. Then I saw him, faintly at first, then…he was there!
“Justin!” I ran and jumped into his arms, wrapping my arms around his neck. He squeezed me, his arms tightening. The tears I didn’t realize I was holding back came spilling out. “How?” I managed to say through the tears. We slid down so that we were on our knees. His arms loosened, and he pulled back and held me at arm’s length. His eyes were hard. I had forgotten his behavior these past few months. I just wanted him to take me home. I flinched, scared he would yell or tell me I should stay away.
“What happened? Why are you crying? Did they hurt you? I am going to hunt th—” His mouth went slack, and his eyes glazed over, and he stared blankly into the distance. “Justin?” I tried to wrench myself from his arms, but even as his grip lacked at the moment, I couldn’t seem to maneuver myself out of his arms. He looked irritated, and his eyes refocused. He pulled me back into his arms and hugged me. Behind him, I saw another figure; it was getting bolder and bolder before.
“Are you okay?” She surged forward into our hug and wrapped her arms around us. Justin pulled away and let her hug me thoroughly. It was our principal.
“Umm…” she pulled away at my awkward response.
“Where are you?” She demanded. I looked at Justin, and he just repeated it, “Where are you?”
I told them that I didn’t know. That I just woke up and was in a weird room, then another odd room. But when I told Justin and principal Selene about the light flashing, they looked at each other nervously.
“What?” I snapped, unable to rein in my frustration.
“We don’t have much time. We are already fading,” principal Selene said.
I was still confused about the fact that she was here. (They seemed to have forgotten that fact.) But she was right, I could see them, but they were getting fuzzy like a bad connection. Principal Selene turned to Justin, and he nodded. She put her hand on my arm, and she started to chant.
Et spiritibus senties essentia valentior dat aditum
For some weird reason, I understood what she was doing. Even though I had never heard this language before, I knew. I looked at her and gasped. Her mouth wasn’t moving, and her eyes were glowing bright gold before the chanting stopped, and her eyes went back to their same blue. Her red hair that was once in an elegant braided bun was messy and falling apart.
She looked me in the eyes, and electricity shot through my veins, leaving goosebumps in their wake.
“We are leaving,” she said assertively. She looked back at Justin, and before I could protest.
They were gone.
The white cavern suddenly blurred, and everything turned black. “Wake up, girl!” A gruff voice pierced through the black surrounding me.
“Don’t touch her!” Rebecca! It was Rebecca. Everything was still black, but then I realized my eyes were closed. My eyes were slightly crusted over, and I had to force them open.
Was that because of Justin and the crying? How did that transfer here? Was I just dreaming?
My head ached with all the questions that circled in my head and with different exhaustion.
I sat up. My head pounded, and my vision blurred. I squeezed my eyes shut then practiced opening them slowly before looking around. I was in the same room, sitting on the couch, except that the guards were around us now and more filed in. The first man in the suit was here, and so were the two identical goons that supposedly broke Rebecca’s arm.
“Are you okay?” A boy’s voice rang out in the silence. What?
He looked about my age or older and had scruffy blonde hair. It had dirt or sand mixed into it, making it look darker. He had icy blue eyes that were eerily similar to mine, which was not usual. I looked at him and our eyes locked.
I gasped. The breath left my body, and something that I never knew wasn’t there clicked back into place. I could see that the boy felt it too. And I looked at him again, and once again, the breath left me in a shocked gasp. My eyes widened. I was so confused.
“What?” The same deep, gruff voice gritted out. I followed the voice and found a large man in the crowd surrounding us. He was abnormally buff and too tall for an average person. His coarse voice matched his rough features. He looked at me with contempt, and I was taken aback by the color of his eyes.
They were gold, not like pretty gold but more of a sick yellowish gold. Looking at the man sent shivers through my body.
“Nothing,” the boy replied, reluctantly turning to look at the large man. His voice was nervous, and once again, it felt as if a missing part of me was back where it was supposed to be.
What was wrong with me? And more importantly, who was he?
“Nothing,” he repeated, this time looking at me. His voice was confident. He seemed to want me to keep quiet about our interaction. No problem there, except could I trust him?
Like there weren’t enough questions swamping my head.
“What’s wrong with her?” The man who had taken me to this room spoke, seemingly cryptic. He narrowed his eyes at me. When the boy didn’t answer him, he scowled and then turned to me.
“What’s wrong with you?” This time he asked not so nicely. I flinched as he came closer so that he was in my face. His breath reeked of barf and rotten eggs, and I had to force myself not to gag. “I ask again—”
“She needs sleep if you want her to be of any use,” the boy answered for me.
“Get out! All of you!” The big man’s voice boomed, and Rebecca and I covered our ears. The men filled out except for two guards and the strange boy. Before I could turn back to look at him, Rebecca grabbed my arm. I looked at her, and she was crying.
I was so self-absorbed that I didn’t even stop to think about how she would feel in this situation. She didn’t deserve this.
“I’m sorry, this is all my fault,” I took her hand. Her eyes widened as I turned back to the boy. “Can you check her arm? They hurt her,” I asked.
“No.”
“You helped me, didn’t you? Now help her,” I said, irritated. Why was I suddenly annoyed?
“I can’t help her. I wasn’t given orders to.” the boy said, his voice worn out as if he had spent hours screaming. “And I do not know how,” he stood up and moved to get out of the room, but I cut him off. Standing up and blocking him.
“Fine! Just tell me who you are and where and why we are here,” he chose to ignore me and walked around me, but I grabbed his hand.
Sensations burst through me, and it felt like I was flying. I looked up at him. He was closing his eyes, and I closed mine too. We collapsed onto the floor. Arms came around me, and suddenly everything in this world was right.
Wait. What nonsense? What was I thinking? This was not me. What in the world was going on?
The feelings of contempt and happiness burst through me, even more potent, and I opened my eyes.
“Who are you?” His voice was relaxed and smooth.
“What are you doing? You can’t go around hugging strangers,” Rebecca shrieked. I came to my senses from the shrill sound. I looked up at her from my place on the floor and pulled away from him. My movements felt slowed as if I was underwater. I got up and moved away from him. But he followed.
“No, no, stay where you are!” I panicked, holding my arms up.
“You felt that! We are not strangers!”
“Felt what?” I feigned confusion.
He narrowed his eyes. “Fine. I don’t need this right now anyway.”
He was about to leave when I blurted out, “Wait!”
He turned around and looked at me, “What?” He growled out, and annoyance and self- irritation ripped through me. What was happening to me?
“Help her, please. We have done nothing to you! The least you could do is help her.” I pleaded.
“The least I could do? You haven’t done anything? Helping you back there with Lorrenzo means you owe me! And it also means I will be punished for you! A stranger! So leave me alone!”
He walked out of the room, and I was in shock. He was going to be punished for helping me? What was I supposed to do with that information? Except feel guilty.
I sat down beside Rebecca, and she said, “I’m okay. It doesn’t hurt. My arm, I mean,”
she looked confused. “Why are we here?” her voice broke as she breathed deeply.
“I don’t know.” I didn’t have the energy to continue acting like I knew what was happening.
“Please, if this has anything to do with you…I’m sorry. Please just let me go.” She sounded exhausted
I was surprised. I wasn’t the only one assuming and accusing. “I’m sorry. I’ll find a way out of here. It doesn’t have anything to do with me.” I hope it didn’t.
Anxiety built up in my chest as I looked back at the bed. Rebecca followed my gaze.
“No,” she said instantly.
How could we sleep, though? I was over here thinking about sleeping. We couldn’t sleep! What if they did something to us while we were sleeping?
“We’ll take turns. You first.” I finally decided.
She shook her head, “But—”
“You’re hurt.”
“You are too!” What was she talking about? I felt great. Not great, obviously. But considering the circumstances, I could be worse.
She pointed to my arms, and I looked down at them. They were burned pretty badly. Except I didn’t feel anything wrong with them.
“You first, you were hurt worse.” After a lot of convincing, she finally went to sleep, and I waited.
The thing was that with all the free time, my head would continue to wander and overthink and worry.
Justin
“Aaagh!” I yelled in frustration. We were searching for hours and nothing.
“Patience, Justin, we will find her.” Selene attempted to reassure me for the hundredth time. And it still wasn’t working. How was she so calm herself anyway? I breathed in and out slowly and tried to calm down. The only way we would find Avery would be if we were thinking clearly.
I scowled at Selene as I realized that she was implanting thoughts in my head. “Stop that! I can’t just sit here doing nothing while your witchy group keeps trying and failing to find Avery!” I stomped out of the house, opening the door and slamming it behind me. I got into my car and was about to drive off when I felt a surge of power-draining me. It felt as if all my blood was stopping, and my veins felt like they were going to explode.
“Aah!” I yelled as my body strained to overcome the pain. What was happening? Suddenly the pain stopped, and I examined the night, not daring to step out of the car. Nobody was out there except me. What was that?
“That was Rage.” A solemn voice called out to me in the darkness of the night. I looked around again, but there wasn’t anyone around. What?
