Preternatural (Worlds & Secrets) (31 page)

Finally
, we were face-to-face with him. He had Jaden’s face and my eyes. The ghost figure of our father blinked once and knelt, though he hardly smiled. Jaden and I held one arm out to him but we passed through him with a sensation of our hands being buried in dust. We now knew where we got our staggering height from, but our father was much more physically built – like a warrior.

“
Jordan, Mallory, Hayden,” he began, calling us by the names he had given us at birth. “You’re all in grave peril,” he spoke simply. He kept his hand hovering against the cheeks of Jaden, unable to touch him.

“
How did you know?” Jade asked him.

“
It’s hard to explain, but more than you can imagine goes on in our realm. You want to go to their Reincarnation chamber, don’t you?” he spoke again.

Jade looked astounded at how he knew so fast.

“Y-yes,” Jade stammered, “but how did you know? Nobody knows yet, we only just spoke about it upstairs.” Dad grunted lightly.

“
I’m can’t tell you much –”

“But please, dad. Tell us. We don’t want to die; you could save us,” Jade pleaded, her eyes on the brink of opening a dam of tears.

“No, sweetheart. I really can’t,” he soothed gently. His voice was deep and sounded like rushing waters but was simultaneously raspy like grating rocks with a strong Irish accent I never knew he had. It was a surreal moment to actually be facing him now. I never in a million years imagined this would happen. “The realm and dimension I’m resting in has my tongue bound to time. I cannot reveal anything. Simply witness. But listen to me, when you do go,
don’t
let your curiosity get the best of you – especially you, Aden. Time will reveal so much to all of you, death will knock at every single door and it will attempt to divide you. Just know, each and every one of you, that when it does come, it is what will strengthen and
bond
you. Never forget that. The friendships you start this very day and in the upcoming future are of vital importance. Your destinies have just started and intertwined with more others than yourselves alone and ahead, you will all face a road of despair, trouble and challenges. But stand your grounds,” dad spoke numbly. Everything he said was beginning to disturb me. Destiny? Death – looking for us? I breathed heavily. So this was the only moment we would have with our father…and he was speaking to us of our death? The ashes began falling plentifully.

“
The ghost period is getting heavier. More are coming,” he spoke. A thrilling sensation of gladness swallowed us.

“
So, you’re staying?” Jaden began growing a smile. But dad merely sighed and remained emotionless.

“
No. I’m of different existence.” All of our faces dropped.

“
Also, you may never see me again. On Samhain, ghosts roam, yes. But not as they do this year.
Never
. None of us warriors that fought in the revolution should have been unveiled to Vernaesce again. We were supposed to be gone for good. But a glitch in time has shown us the future and has caused a blind spot for our short arrival,”

“
Dad, you could –”

“
– but I cannot tell you,” he interrupted Jade. “I’m bound, remember. Never doubt yourselves or anything I have told you. Know that if you should ever see me again, the figure before you will be a lie. Our being here, today, this year, of all the centuries…is strictly impossible. Things will occur.”

Dad stood back up straight again and just when we thought we were glad, sadne
ss had found us again and mercilessly devoured our hearts and souls. He looked up at mum. She took off her mask and stared with shimmering eyes as he blew her a kiss.

He looked down at us and uttered “the Sovereign is coming,”
before dissolving into the dark grey ashes.

Jaden, Jade and I huddl
ed, pressed against each other, all of us in silent tears of despair as the ashes of the dead glided to the then dirty snow from the Samhain sky, whilst we stared into the distance to the many chains of hills that stood sentry underneath the silver night of misery.

I stood with My
chaela and Liam as the others wandered about the ballroom. The ghosts had disappeared after a few minutes of our father’s disappearance.

But something was bothering me which the others
were unaware of. Ever since the arrival of the ghosts, two guests in particular had had their eyes on me, staring away as if I were a portrait hung on the wall. They always stood side-by-side, stealing obvious glances at me when they spoke to other guests.

They made me unsettled and quavering. They
were very
tall men – however not the tallest in the room. They were identical twins with heads full of luscious void black hair. In fact, its darkness made it look fake and unreal.

Their eyes were
a vibrant indigo with slight hints of what looked like grey shards. They were of equal height with extremely pale skin. They didn’t look older than twenty-five-years-old (or approximately a century), though they had stubble on their chins. Dressed in grey and black, they were wearing long cape-like robes over their main outfits, looking relatively
similar to ours.

“
Mychaela,” I tugged her arm. She turned from a conversation she was engaged in and attended to me. “Who are those two – the guys
there?
” I pointed.

Mychaela took a si
p of what seemed to be a vibrant green liquid from a crystal glass as she pondered deeply.

“
Ah!” she exclaimed. “That’s Lloks and Tiah Fenregard. Why?” she asked plainly.

“
It’s just, they’ve been staring at me. It’s quite disturbing,” I spoke as I saw them conversing with another pair of guests. Then it happened again – they stole glances and this time I stared back. They didn’t look away. They merely stared harder with more intensity than they did before. My hair streaked to red and they gulped. But something told me it wasn’t because they were afraid. I let them know that I didn’t fear them by the sombre, narrow-eyed face I gazed back with.

I suddenly felt dazed and I knew by all means it was because of them
.

CHAPTER 11.

The Day of Contemplation

I sat underneath a tree with
my knees huddled to me. Samhain had blissfully left us and we were all left with a traumatic memory of the news Tarmo, Tammy and Mychaela had broken to us.

However
, the hearts of Jade, Jaden and me felt darkened. Perhaps being related to how we were introduced to our father then quickly torn away from him. The only time we actually
saw
him, he spoke to us of warnings, destinies,
bonds
, and again; what I recently cannot seem to get away from: death. It’s a bit disheartening
.

A
few stars were punched into the now normal Vernaescian sky – despite the broad daylight. It was comfortably warm and the sky was a plain cloudless blue with the normal blending of violet. Knowing Vernaesce, that meant it was probably around eleven in the morning. I could still see the faint outlines of the orbiting planets. Even though I sat against the trunk of a tree waiting for Mirabelle, the others had begun training and for the first time without mysteriously disappearing, so had Liam. All of us had to restrain ourselves from letting any of the adults know about our certain
‘conversation’
.
Otherwise our attempts to close the doors to their reincarnation hall – motivated by purely good intentions – would be foiled.

Tammy had begun research in
any books where she would find any information on the location of the reincarnation chamber. She had had to artfully snoop around the minds of mum, Tantrus and Anne to see whether they would know any relatively secret books to help with the occasion. Tammy thought of maybe checking through granddad’s head but we agreed that
that
would be a phone call to suicide. But yet still, after everything, we found nothing. Nevertheless, we had to make sure we behaved as inconspicuous and unobtrusive as possible – otherwise mum would decide to have a peek through our brains and heaven knows what she would find.

However,
I was convinced that the shadow realm was larger than presumed. How were we to find the doors to a reincarnation hall in all of it? A few days ago, before the Samhain ball, Anne and mum introduced classes of psychological practice. They had taken us to one of the empty halls and helped us through stages which would help influence our kinesis.

Robbie had climbed up into one of
the trees and had made a branch thicker, allowing him to sit on it whilst talking to Jaden and Liam who were below. Tammy was sat down, leaning against the trunk of the same tree on which Robbie was perched atop.

Anne and mum came out,
ready to begin supervising. We had managed to convince Anne to postpone psychological lessons for tomorrow so that we could have a double period of free time for training today.

“
So, how long do you think until the Cressile lab is fully reconstructed?” asked Robbie, swinging his legs childishly on one of the branches. Jaden threw him a look of confusion.

“
I’m specifically speaking about when Aden thrashed part of the school with the Demon Grinner and when Liam obliterated the school compound.”

“
Ah,” Jaden began, “well the school has loads of money. They’ll fix it in no time.”

“
I think so too,” Jade said, levitating a few rocks.

“
But you know what really bugs me,” Jojo spoke, teleporting to various places.

“
We’ll have to continue at Cressile
and
do private training along with psychological lessons. It’s gonna be very tiring, don’t you think?”

“
I’m sure enough to say that –” Liam threw his electricity-writhed baton out into the eternal distance and it came flying back like a boomerang.

“
– we’ll get the hang of it soon enough,” he finished off, panting due to his excessive practising. Robbie jumped down from the thick branch up above and landed firmly on his feet.

“
I’m ‘gonna’ get some water. Anybody want some?”

“
Yes!” Jade, Liam, and Jojo screamed out in unison.

“
I’ll just bring a couple of bottles then,” Robbie replied casually. Jojo’s teleporting was making me nauseous. Even though I sat at the foot of a tree trunk, crestfallen, she was making me queasy. I buried my head in my knees. It was as if she was trying to wear herself out – teleporting to the top of trees, then to mid-air, then to the ground before she fell etcetera.

“I think I’m going to practise my terraforming,” I spoke as I treaded away from everybody.

“
How are you getting along with trying to find an entrance to their chamber?” I asked Tammy. She sighed hopelessly.

“
I’ve tried looking through books your grandfather has gotten for me from the associates ring.” I grew confused.

“
The associates ring?”

“
It’s what we call Lappington. The full name of the school is Lappington Academy of the Associates Ring,” Tammy explained. I turned worried.

“
Look,” Tammy softly spoke to me, “we’re going to find it.
None
of us want you, Jaden or Jade dead, A.J.” I smiled softly at her as she at least gave me some reassuring feedback.

The next day, I had my first Hydrokinesis class. I couldn’t help feeling that despite everybody talking about how simple and easy water manipulation was, I would have certain flaws at it. Probably due to my natural charm and flare for Pyrokinesis.

After breakfast
, all of us went outside and generally hung about whilst Jaden, Jade, Jojo and Robbie continued to practise their abilities. I was busy talking with Robbie and Liam during their training when I noticed someone walking up the hill. As the person approached I could start to make out the figure of a young woman with wavy locks of flaming orange, red-tinted hair.

Mirabelle
. Obviously, that meant it was time for me to start my Hydrokinetics class. But she looked different this time. Instead of wearing a dress like she normally did, she wore a white tank top with a pair of skinny denim jeans and a pair of high-stiletto Manolo Blahnik shoes. I couldn’t help questioning what she was thinking
.
We were going for training, not for a fashion show. There I was with a plain grey T-shirt, a pair of black, baggy shorts and a worn out (but extremely comfortable) pair of black Converses whilst she was dressed for a runway.
Her ablaze orange hair was tied down in a long deliberately messy French plait and her hands were dug into the depths of her back pockets.

“
Hey, Aden!” she spoke in her American-accented voice, as she began dragging on my name whilst swaggering herself towards me. She made it seem so easy to balance herself on those thin sticks women called heels. Her voice wasn’t as soft as her appearance led me to believe. It was raspy and authoritative. Mirabelle seemed to be the only American I had met in Vernaesce – possibly in my life. Mum had always been quite protective of Jaden, Jade and me so we never travelled. Funnily enough I had never met any Americans in England before either.

“
Hi,” I calmly responded, looking
up
at her. I am really
going to fall into depression if I meet any more people taller than me. I was tall and so was my brother, but since I met my trainers, I lost my self-confidence. She walked over to the doors and knocked twice, waiting for a response. Anne and mum opened them and their expressions told me they already knew she was here.

“
Hi, Lina, Anne,” Mirabelle casually greeted. “I’m gonna take him to Gapping Gill and we should be back in the afternoon,” I heard Mirabelle say undertone.

“
Okay, that’s fine. Have him back by three,” mum responded.

“
We’ll be heading off to the Supremacy to deal with a few issues on the void,” mum whispered to Mirabelle, who turned around and walked over to me. She, in
some
ways, acted as if I had known her for a lengthy period of time. She locked her arm around one of mine and strode me down the long but smooth hill which Tobias had so amazingly reformed

“
So, have you ever heard of Gapping Gill?” she asked as we strode – or in her case – swayed on the grass-covered hill.

“
No,” I said simply.

“
Do you know anything about Hydrokinesis?”

“
No,” I replied as simply as before. The events during Samhain had really found a way to drain the energy out of me.

“
Well, then it’s my job to change that,” she chuckled. As we reached the bottom of the hill, my eyes were fixed on something and I was not concentrated at all on what she was saying. That something was an endless field of green grass. The grass being so high, the tips reached my knees. The temptation to run and scream throughout these endless fields like a childish human boy surfaced just a little bit within me, but I was still underneath a cloud of sadness from the recent events which prevented me from doing so.

“
So, when are we actually going to this so-called Gapping Gill?”

“
Now, actually. But I’ve changed my mind – we’re going to the Gordale Scar!” She stood up from the long grass on which she was sitting. She put her right thumb and index finger in her mouth and suddenly whistled a high-pitched sound that almost shattered my eardrums. It echoed throughout the sky, valleys and mountains causing me to block my ears with speed I have never known. Suddenly, a faint figure appeared in the distance – a small bird? I watched, mesmerised, at how the shape of the object enlarged as it came forward. A person, maybe?

It suddenly landed in front of us with a ground-quaking rumble and I fell back on my rear.
I was surprised to see what faced me. I just seemed to be shrinking more and more on this planet because everything seemed to be bigger than me. A snow-white Siberian Tiger with
outstanding
black stripes stood only a few feet from me superbly. It was thrice our size and its furry feline paws were bigger than my head alone. But strangely, it had broad wings, broader than that of a griffins. On the face of its wings were the same stripes that ran all over its body.

However,
on the inner sides of the far-reaching wings, the stripes took the form of what looked like two embedded eyes – somehow like tattoos. The marvellous beast’s eyes were a crystal, watery blue, as if a mouthwash-coloured liquid could just spill and flow like a stream if it took a blink.

“
What
is
that? Is that Jaden?” Mirabelle sniggered.

“
No, this is Tiki, my pet. He’s a Tigrobal – a winged Siberian Tiger, as you may have guessed,” she said then stroking it and pecking it continuously on its cheeks. As the Tigrobal known as Tiki looked away at the alien forest in the distance, I moved closer and stretched my hand out, attempting to stroke it. Tiki harshly turned his head towards me and snarled. Mirabelle spoke in some sort of language to him that sounded like an archaic foreign dialect. Tiki snarled and then gently advanced towards me, and being some sort of big cat of course, it gently licked my cheek with its rough and warm tongue. I couldn’t help but laugh. As he stopped licking the side of my cheek, he let me stroke him.

“
What did you say to him? What language was that?”

“
No – wait, didn’t they tell you about Flowing Knowledge?” I looked completely lost. What
now
hadn’t they told me?

“
Well, Flowing Knowledge is a mechanism in a Vernaescian’s mind that is linked to their area or type of kinesis.”

“
So…what does it –
do
?”

“
Basically, it allows all matter of knowledge to flow into one’s mind automatically whilst growing up. So you could know all about science in just a year. That’s why you’ll find a lot of Vernaescian’s on Earth are big-shots and whatnot – like research scientists and stuff like that.” I ended with a sharp arrogant scoff.

“
And what does that have to do with you seeming to speak foreign languages?”

“
Flowing Knowledge permits you to know all languages known to man –
on Earth
. Vernaescians have the same languages in the same countries here but with slight tweaks.
In case
you didn’t know, we have fundamentally the same countries that Earth has. Only we classify them as whereabouts here.” It now made sense why Mychaela had said Aemilia and Jordan were from the London and Norwegian whereabouts.

I rubbed my blue hair madly.

“So, how come you can speak to animals? Are you part Shifftocastan?” I annoyingly quizzed.

“
Well, some people – depending on the bond you have with your pet – can speak to them.”

“
Then what about the Shifftocastans; does that apply to them too?” I asked, still stroking Tiki.

“
That’s a different story altogether. If Shifftocastans may take the form of a creature, they certainly may take its abilities too. Anyway we’ve been talking too much. Time to go!” said Mirabelle, turning to Tiki and speaking to him in the same language she spoke in earlier. Tiki squatted and I stood there watching like a mannequin whilst Mirabelle was climbing onto his back. She looked at me strangely then grinned.