Preternatural (Worlds & Secrets) (17 page)

“
That’s it just –” Anne was suddenly interrupted as I was sent flying over her head – Jade had concentrated too hard. I was about to fall head first against the concrete path leading to the house, until a series of vines whipped and snapped their way out of the ground. They rushed up to me like pouncing snakes and cocooned my upside down body, keeping me suspended in mid-air. My hair was tilted over my head, and my face slowly began to darken to red as blood rushed to my head. Everybody else rushed to me and stared at my face, which, from its colour, looked very much like a swollen plum.

“
Your hair’s brown again!” Jaden exclaimed.

“
And your eyes are so green! They’re like emeralds,” Jade added. I had air trapped in my lungs as my blood hurriedly raced to my head. Finally, I exhaled with a deep breath. As I did, my hair quickly coloured itself blue again and so did my eyes. The vines retracted themselves back into the earth and I fell to the ground.

I turn
ed my head and looked at the baffled crowd gathered around me.

“
Robbie?” I asked in wonder, finding difficulty in breathing normally.

“
That wasn’t me,” he said. Jade crouched near me and her hair dangled on my face.

“
Urgh, get it off!” I muffled as I tried to spit out the strands of hair touching my mouth and tongue disgustingly.

“
Oh, sorry.” She tucked her hair behind her ears.

“
Are you okay? Sorry, I went a bit out of control there.”

I groaned and inhaled. The damage wasn
’t brutal. I slowly struggled to get up, but once on my feet, I felt better.

“
I’m fine,” I said calmly.

Jade stood a couple pac
es away from Anne and Tantrus when Anne leaned over to her husband.

“
His powers can’t handle this anymore,” she whispered to him harshly. “His fascination and excitement for Vernaesce is provoking his abilities to surface earlier than we thought; it is a matter of time before they are totally revealed. Or have you forgotten that he’s standing on ancient ground? Of
course
his powers are going to try and come out – they recognise their planet, Tantrus!” he grinned guiltily.

Jade stood
there, disordered and lost, as voices ran haywire through her head, but one
word was more audible than the entire clamour:
Totakinetic
. She needn’t look up the meaning. Jade just knew
.

“
A.J., I know your ability,” she yelled excitedly as she ran over to me. I looked back at her with a whip of my neck. Without thinking, I jumped to her swiftly, hopping at least a whole four metres across the grounds and landing steadily.

“
What is it?” I asked, practically pouncing on her.

“
You’re a Tot–”

“
Jade, don’t!” exclaimed Tantrus. Anne hid her face behind her hand and shook her head disapprovingly. Jade looked back and saw Tantrus staring at her with wide open eyes and moving his hand across his neck, vigorously telling her to cut her sentence. I looked at them in disappointment.

“
Aw, come on!
They
get to know their ability. It’s a bit unfair, don’t you think?” I said. I was so
desperate to know what I could do. I just found this unbelievable of the adults. Eagerness had left me. It was jealousy I was feeling now. I was aching
to know what it was. Who wouldn’t want to be able to mindlessly try and attempt to control certain things? Incidentally, the sky began darkening into grey as rainclouds rolled in. Anne and Tantrus looked up and back down at Jade and me, letting out a sigh of surrender. Tammy, Robbie, Jaden and Jojo walked over to us supportively.

“
Are you sure you can’t just tell him?” Jojo asked defensively. Anne looked up at Tantrus and raised an eyebrow at him. Tantrus returned her gaze, looking perplexed.

“
What?” Tantrus asked, lost.

“
It was
your
idea,” Anne said.

“
Really
,
Tantrus! I mean, really! It was
your
idea to keep me in the dark about my kinetic ability,” I jested overdramatically.

“
Your father and I were like brothers and I had the perception that you would have the same ability. You know, hybrid parents, three kids –
one
of them is bound to adapt a parent trait,” Tantrus defended. The interrogating made him uneasy. He sort of raised his voice defensively when he tried to convince us otherwise. We crossed our arms and looked at him piercingly.

“
You’re not fooling anyone, dad,” Jojo stated. Tantrus inflated his cheeks and exhaled.

“
Fine, you’re a Totakinetic,” Tantrus said disappointedly. I squeezed my eyebrows in non-comprehension at him.

“
Elemental manipulation,” he said plainly afterwards. I smiled widely out of excitement, but my smile turned upside down and my eyebrows remained furrowed.

“
Well, how lame!” I complained.

“
You don’t get it, do you? You’re a hybrid; you get to control all
four
elements. Everyone else can just control one,” Anne answered. I was left to ponder on my ability and the things I would possible be able to do as Anne walked up three stone steps to face the door. The double doors were colossal compared to us. They were a creamy magnolia like the walls, had Celtic patterns engraved on them and had rare, glistening, sleek chrome handles – but something just occurred to me that I had not noticed: there was no division in the doors to make them open. It was actually just a wall with two handles, which didn’t make any sense.

“What the hell is this?” Jaden asked
, bizarrely looking and feeling insulted as we were made to look at the wall with handles. Anne grinned.

“Just wait,” she replied. I noticed that underneath the two handles, in between both of them, was a circular den
t that was made in the magnolia-painted wooden wall – it couldn’t have been a door. When I looked up, I noticed that the wall we were facing was at least five metres high. But this
had
to be the entrance; there was nothing else. The dent beneath the entrance was a ring not bigger than a jam jar’s lid, but its circumference was quite thick.

Anne lifted her right wrist delicately and spirals of green embers formed
around it instantly. They solidified to form a sleek, smooth, silver bangle that was the same thickness as the ring in the door. She removed it delicately and slowly placed it inside the dent. It fitted perfectly like a puzzle and Anne let go as we stood back and observed in awe. The silver, perfectly-circular bangle was absorbed into the dent with a set of mechanical clicks as it rotated its way in. We treaded further back to get a better view of the wall-like entrance to this magnolia palace.

Loud
er series of mechanical clicks began to sound around the compound. Suddenly, as the bangle was further absorbed into the depths of this large wall (leaving behind it a hollow black ring), a set of straight-lined dents began to spread around the ring, similar to how the sun would be drawn by a child in a cartoonish manner. The long, straight-lined dents spread far across the wall to all the Celtic intricate spirals and interlocked with them. As the mechanical clicks and clunks progressed more hollowly, the straight-lined dents that had intertwined with the patterns retracted to the centre of the then hollow ring and in the process, pulled the patterns with them smoothly. The patterns moved fluidly and suddenly aligned in the middle of the wall, elongating to one, long and thick hollow stripe. The stripe seeped into the wall and entrenched itself, forming a division in the entrance we faced. With a loud, echoing, reverberating knock, the stripe became a gap and the freshly-made doors glided open –
magnificently
.

“Oh – my –
goodness,” Jade muttered.

“Key,” Anne simply stated with an outstretched hand.
The bangle in the door flew out of the dent and floated back to wrap itself around her wrist. She then waved her hand over it and it defragmented into a series of emerald green pixelated pieces and disappeared.

“I teleport it to somewhere
safe – just in case,” she said with a light smile.

The only assumption I got from
this…well, was that we were rich. I had no idea what kind of paying job Tantrus, Anne and mum had – but it must have been extremely revered and important. My eyes glistened; I almost started tearing up. My jaw was aching more now, on the verge of unhinging, as my mouth stayed dropped in awe. Jaden, Jade and I subconsciously huddled together and interlocked arms in amazement as we faced the enchanting building in front of us.

A smile brightened my somewhat
dim face. The three of us climbed the steps after Anne and everybody else followed. Robbie, Tammy and Jojo all seemed unmoved by the fact that they had a house that looked like the pearly gates. We three siblings entered, still pressed to each other with our arms still knitted together. In front of us all, was a wide, long, white marble staircase with gold railings that climbed upstairs in a straight ascent as if it was a ladder to heaven. The corridors upstairs led both left and right and was decorated entirely with minimalist sculptures and paintings.

On my left was the
sitting room and it had no door leading into it; there was a wide arch dividing it from the hall. The living room was immensely wide and contemporary, playing with shades of white, black and dark brown wood. There was a large flat screen, 3D television that hung on the wall and a stand underneath it, stacked with TV guides and remote controls. There was a vast collection of DVDs packed inside a small glass shelf beside it. Two, white, chalky columns were placed on the left and right sides of the living room arch entrance. On my right was a long open dining hall. The only door in the room was at the back and it most probably led to the kitchen. The dining room was equally contemporary.

Robbie and Jojo ran
up the long staircase hurriedly; Robbie departing to the left and Jojo to the right.

“
May I?” Tantrus offered Jaden and me to carry our luggage. Jade eagerly held her belongings, so awestruck by what surrounded us.

“
Follow me to your room,” Tantrus enthusiastically commanded.

“
Room? You mean us three have to share –”

“
Actually, the boys share a room and the girls share another,” Tantrus interrupted as we ascended the resplendent and dazzling flight of stairs. Anne lightly tapped Jade on the shoulder and hinted to come with her by soft hand gestures. They diverted to the right as Tantrus, Jaden and I took to the left.

“
Won’t sharing a room be uncomfortable?” Jaden asked. Tantrus grew a petty smile. Obviously he found something amusing
.
He repeatedly left our questions unanswered.

“
You’re actually serious? We’re all sharing one room?” I intentionally repeated; exasperated. Tantrus sighed briefly and turned to us, having his back to a white door with decorative carvings engraved in it.

“
Save the questions, boys. See for yourselves.” Tantrus pressed down on the smooth chrome handle and pushed the door open. Jaden and I reflexively brought our arms up to our heads to scratch them mind-numbingly. The room emitted a substantial amount of light. As we blindly treaded in, Tantrus closed the door behind us and let us absorb the splendour we were amidst. The whole house had a pattern of minimalistic and contemporary interior design running through it. We unhurriedly lowered our arms. The mere feeling of being in this room was too much to take in; we advanced in and looked directly at the back of the room.

It was incredibly w
ide and luxurious. The floor was layered with a soft, woollen, cream carpet. We walked in and turned to our left, almost leaning against the wall behind us. From where we stood, as we faced the back wall, was a long and wide horizontal glass window that stretched from the ceiling to the floor. It had a long silver telescope sitting in front of it on a silver tri-stand.

Apparently, the room was
wide enough to fit four double beds; two against the wall on our left and another two against the one to our right. Each one had their own well-polished wooden bedside table on their right with lava lamps placed delicately on them. The bed furthest to the back on our left had a green bed sheet and blue duvet, topped off with one blue pillow and another green one.

The bed next to the blue and green one –
on the left and closer to us – had white sheets and pillows and a black duvet. The pillows had black designs just like the ones on our arms and the black duvet was contrasted with white patterns.

The third
bed – opposite the blue and green bed and furthest back on our right – was black and blue. It had a white bed sheet, with a black duvet and black pillows which were finished with electric blue patterns on them. And the final bed – opposite the black and white bed and the one closest to us from our right – had a plain white duvet and two plain white pillows, all adorned with dark brown outlines.