Elite: The Calling

[Amber]

This isn't really fan fiction. Like "Shadowed Memories", it's just plain fiction. Only this is going to be much longer, I think. I'll seperate chapters by posting them in different posts. The basic summary of this is-

It's about a group of "Elite" witches and wizards. They're elite because there are only thirteen of them, and they are the only people in the world who can use magic. But that has to change, soon, because someone is trying to wipe them out. They have to somehow get other people able to use magic, before they're all dead.

Elite: The Calling
Chapter One

Let me start off by telling you this- I’m no hero. I never have been, and I never will be. At least, I never thought I could be. Things have changed over the past few weeks, though. Everything has changed.

A few weeks ago, no one would have given be a second glance. I don’t actually think anyone ever has, unless it was to mock or annoy…or both. It never mattered though; I don’t care about any of their opinions, nor their lack of respect to anyone with an IQ above ten.

Having learned to block them out, year after year, I had grown immune to their thoughts, jeers, and constant whispering behind my back. Maybe the fact that they never stopped was the fact that had helped me become so very immune to it all.

My school was like any other high school on the surface of the Earth. Your typical cheerleaders and jocks, nerds and geeks, preps and delusional amateurs who flung paint at the wall and called it a “masterpiece”, and themselves the “artist”. I rolled my eyes at the very thought of it. If that could be called a “masterpiece”, then there were no words to describe the famous pieces we have come to known and love created by people such as Leonardo Da Vinci and Vincent Van Gogh.

My life was nothing quite as marvelous as their paintings; It was more like one of our “best pupil’s” “finest work”, which consisted of a man who’s face looked like it had bitten by rabid dogs several times and sneezed on by a troll. To put it simply, my life was a mess. A very dull mess, but a mess in at least one sense of the word.

When I was very little, my odd behaviour had already begun to surface. I assure you, it wasn’t by choice that this behaviour persisted. If I had had a choice, I would not be in the unique position I am in to this day. I can’t seem to recall whether this would have been a good thing or a bad thing, but that didn’t matter now. What is done is done, and there’s no rewind button, no backspace. Once you have committed an action, it is forever kept in history as yours and yours alone.

I am sure you have thought at least once now that I am a complete nutter. I thought so too, at first. Now, though, I have embraced my destiny. You see, my “odd behaviour” wasn’t temper tantrums, nor highly elevated states of glee or depression. No…my behaviour was magic.

These are literal terms, and I will say it again if it did not go through to you; I possessed the power of magic. Few do, but that will be explained later.

My parents had seen it from the very start…how whenever I had cried for a bottle of formula that had seemed to gone missing or that I could not reach, they came rushing to give it to me…to find out that I had, somehow, already procured it without making so much as a move. Stranger still, sometimes when they would check on my in the middle of the night, I would be floating inches above the safety guards of my crib, sound asleep.

Of course, I never remembered this. I was told by the person who found me and told me some of things I am telling you now. As you may have guessed, my parents abandoned me. They dropped me off on the doorstep of an adoption agency before ringing the doorbell and running out of sight. By the time someone had come to the door, they were zooming off, and I was crying at the poor woman’s feet. She looked down at me sympathetically, and picked me up, saying a few comforting words. Hardly comforting to an infant, who couldn’t understand a word of it, but she tried her best.

I have reason to believe that the reason my parents abandoned me was because they were afraid of what my powers could do, or what me having the powers would mean for them. I had an inkling that they might be frightened of me as well. If I had ever gotten mad at them for not getting my way, who knows what could have happened? They, certainly, were not going to take any chances.

The adoption center was where I grew up. My parents never visited me, and I have not seen them since they dropped me off there. I don’t remember them at all. Maybe that’s a good thing.

But as I was getting to say before, over the course of just a couple weeks, I find myself in a strange position. One day, I was sitting in class, doing the same thing that I do in every class- pretending to listen to the teacher’s nonsensical blabbering about how we aren’t quiet enough, we aren’t well behaved enough. Well, frankly, we know this. What we don’t know is what the teacher is supposed to be teaching us, and when she, or he, begins to do so, I will open my ears and hear what they have to say.

Something was different about this class, though. It was…off. Not because the teacher changed her plan to lecture us on how to raise our hands and not speak when other people are speaking. No, she still did that. I just had a strange feeling that somehow, something was going to happen. I looked around at all of the other students, some of who were paying attention, some who were fiddling with their fingers, erasers, or other objects on their desk. Nothing was different there. I looked outside- it was a bright, sunny day, not a cloud in the sky. So why did I have this feeling…this mixed feeling of complete joy and absolute dread?

My question was answered almost as soon as I asked it. A bird, which looked to be hawk, was suddenly on the windowsill outside of the classroom. I furrowed my eyebrows. I had never seen a hawk. Not really; only in books and pictures. That might be odd, but it was a fact.

The instant I saw the bird, the door to the classroom burst open, stealing my attention from the bird to the intruder. It was a man, who looked to be in his mid-twenties. His hair was a light brown, and he was very tall. Everyone in the room looked startled, I think, except for me. I had known, somewhere inside me, that something like this would happen. That didn’t stop me from looking intrigued, though.

He didn’t say a word as he scanned the room…and stopped at me. My eyes widened. It was not that I was afraid…not really. Surprised, but not frightened. Barely anyone knows me to begin with, and this stranger had come here and not only noticed me…but it appeared as if he had been looking for me in the first place.

Advancing toward me, no one made a move to stop him. No one said a word. He reached my desk and I looked up at him. He was not a particularly tall man, but if you were sitting in a desk as small as mine, you would have to look up as well. Silence filled every particle of air in the room, until it seemed that the only people in it were this strange man and I.

This illusion was broken when my teacher, or lack thereof, began in a surprisingly calm voice, “You can’t do this. You can’t barge into my school, and-”

She was cut off by the man, who turned from me to face the teacher, “I was under the impression that this was the headmaster’s school, and you are simply employed,” he stopped for a moment, before smiling, “Which as you might know, can be easily changed, Rebecca.”

Though I was startled by the use of her name, my teacher, somehow wasn’t. This confused me, and as the class watched on, they continued their, for lack of a better word, argument.

“Tylas, you know very well that she is not an adult yet. You cannot take her,” my teacher, or as I will now call her- Rebecca- said in a steady, calm voice.

This is where everything began to get strange and muddled to me; These two people, one of whom I had been around for the better part of this year, knew each other, and were talking to each other as casually (if you do not count the fighting part of their chatting) as they would any other person that they saw everyday. And oddly enough, they were talking about me, the class freak.

What intrigued me more was the fact they were also talking as if they knew the purpose of all of this. I tried to keep my attention elsewhere, so I began to doodle on my notebook, ignoring what they were saying. This grew more and more difficult as their voices rose, and I noticed something- something odd.

Looking around, while hearing to the yelling in the background, I observed what the other students were doing; Or rather, what they were not doing.

They weren’t doing anything. At all. No matter how hard I concentrated, I could not notice a single movement, or hear a small breath. It was hard though, seeing as there was a heated argument going on a few feet away from where I stood. I caught words and phrases, some of which were “not ready”, “talented”, and something along the lines of “you idiot”. Until they started discussing maturely, I was not going to listen to them. I pulled my attention back towards the class.

They were frozen. There was no other way to put it. Not frozen as ice. They weren’t cold. No, they were frozen in time. It seemed as though there was a remote controlling them, and someone had pushed the “pause” button. Of course, I know now what had actually been happening. But at the time, that was my only theory, as ridiculous as it might have been.

“You cannot tell her that she’s a witch!”

It had been yelled, and loudly. I was trying to block them out, but it was as if Rebecca had screamed it at the top of her lungs. Shock filled my entire body. Had I heard her right, or had she really called me a profane word that I had chosen to interpret differently in my mind? My expression must have shown my inner reaction, because in a few moments, both had their eyes on me- staring. I stared back. It was the only thing that I could think to do. Before I realized it, my mouth was also open in shock. They looked back at each other, and the man named Tylas said, “I think that you just did.”

My eyes widened. I had heard right. A witch? ‘That isn’t possible!’ I told myself. It was only in the next few hours I learned that yes, it was.

Tylas was looking at me, before proceeding to approach me with caution. Why was he being so careful? Was I a threat? His hesitation told me that it was possible.

“Evelynn, I should-”

“What did you just call me?” I asked. I had never heard that name before, and it certainly wasn’t mind. He gave me a strange look.

“I called you by your name…,” he told me, with a look of surprise on his face. He turned to the woman he was arguing with just seconds, or perhaps a minute, ago, his expression very angry, “What name did you tell them to give her?”

Told them to give me? What was this nonsense? Who were “they”? So many questions swarming in my head, and I couldn’t think which one to ask aloud. Confusion invaded me.

“I…I didn’t think that…Well, she shouldn’t…,” Rebecca was searching for a way to tell him…whatever it was that he wanted to know. She took a small, yet deep, breath, before continuing, “I didn’t think that she should know her real name, until she was ready.”

My face was blank, but my blood felt as though it had reached an extremely high temperature. It was boiling, “What do you mean, my real name?! Emily is my real name! What are you talking about?”

They gave each other a look, as if asking one another telepathically if they should tell me anything. Of course they were not really asking each other using their minds, but looking at their faces made me think that. It also made my rage grow.

“Stop doing that! I want to know what’s going on! Now!” I was yelling now, and loudly at that. I couldn’t help myself; They were aggravating me, and if they didn’t want to tell me the truth, I would find a way to make them. Fortunately, it didn’t take much force. It was only the force of my voice that managed to convince Tylas, and quickly.

“Evel- …I mean, Emily-” he began, but I chose to cut him off.

“Seeing as I told you I wanted to know what’s going on, I want the truth,” I ordered him, seething, “And if Emily is truly not my real name, call me by the correct one. Calling me by a lie will only make me exceedingly angry,” I was surprised by my wording. I was only sixteen. I sounded like a grown adult. Tylas didn’t show surprise. That was probably because he didn’t know me well enough. Instead, he tried again to tell me the truth.

“Evelynn, you are a witch. Your powers have always existed within you, but since you seemed unable to control them, we have been trying to control them for you,” he said, and paused, allowing the information to sink in.

It wasn’t sinking. This was too fast. Ten minutes ago, I was sitting in my desk and listening to my teacher’s (I had doubts that she was actually a teacher, now) lack of a lesson. Now this stranger was telling me that I had special powers. If I had been a piece of technology, there would be a large flashing box on my screen telling the reader “Does not compute.” My face must have been priceless, and it may have amused an onlooker, but I wasn’t finding any bit of this amusing. Finally, I found words. Or, well, one word.

“No.”

The man standing in front of me looked at me as if I were mental. How ironic, seeing that every word he had said made no sense whatsoever, and my answer was perfectly logical. He attempted to convince me, still.

“Evelynn, you must believe me. The Elite must join. All of us must join. Otherwise, everything we have ever believed in will shatter into a million pieces.”

“Everything you ever believed in? What do you believe in? Leprechauns and unicorns? What kind of mixed up world did I wake up in?!” I screeched, and then came to a conclusion, “Of course! This is a dream. That explains it. Now, if I can just find something to wake myself up…” I said to myself, and began pacing the room, searching for an object that would cause enough “pain” (though I wouldn’t really feel it, because it was a dream after all) to push me back into consciousness. Before I could find one, though, Tylas grabbed me by the arm and looked me straight in the eyes. His expression was completely serious.

“This is not a dream. This is reality. If you are willing to risk millions of lives in not joining us by trying to ‘wake up’, be my guest. Enjoy watching the rest of the world crash down around you,” he said sternly. This was not a joke, and nor was it April first. As he turned around to walk out the door, I looked at him with intrigue, and worry. Just as he was about to exit, with Rebecca looking from him and back to me with tear-filled eyes, I decided to speak up.

“Wait,” was the only thing I said, at first. It was enough to stop him from leaving. Good. He turned around, and I continued, “What do you mean by millions of lives? The world crashing down?”

He grimaced. It was as if he was relieved to see that I cared, if only a little, but also upset at what he was about to tell me. He had reason to be, “If we do not complete our mission, millions, eventually billions, of people will die.”

I stared at him, “This is ridiculous. That can’t possibly be true. I’m not a witch, and if I don’t come with you, nothing is going to happen.”

The man was now seething as I had been either, “You’re wrong! You foolish child! If you don’t come with me, everything will happen! This depends on all of us!”

I rolled my eyes, and proceeded in moving toward the exit of the door. As I reached for the doorknob, I heard “You idiot!” yelled at me violently from behind me. This made me angry, but I did not turn back. I backed away from the door, though, trying to decide what to do. His muttering continued, and my anger grew. It just kept growing, and growing…

The door was blown up. I jumped, startled at the sudden explosion. I looked back at Tylas and Rebecca, who were smiling, “I…what just happened?!”

Rebecca stepped toward me, and for the first time since Tylas had arrived, it seemed as though she was happy, “Your powers surfaced themselves. They have many times, but it seemed as though you had more control over them. After all, you did want to leave.”

I had no reply for this. I looked from my teacher to the person that I had met only a short while ago. I shuddered as I realized that he had not been lying. I was a witch.

[Amber]

Chapter Two

Everything was happening entirely too quickly. An hour ago this had been a normal school day. Now I was walking towards some unknown destination with a complete stranger? What was happening? I felt as if the world was already crashing down around her, even though I had followed Tylas, who had said that wouldn’t happen as long as I followed him. It felt as if he had lied about that; But it wasn’t the world that was crashing- it was my world. Everything I had ever known.

Once we had left the school, Ms. Sanderson had unfrozen the class (that was apparently her doing), and continued on teaching- or whatever it was every day for forty-five minutes- as Tylas took me away from the school. If anyone asked where I had gone, a heavy emphasis on the if, Rebecca would simply tell them that I wasn’t there at all today. It shouldn’t be too hard to convince them of that; They barely noticed me unless they planned on torturing me.

Tylas said that he was taking me to see a group called the “Elite”. I guessed that they were…well, to state the obvious, elite. A very small, close group. And apparently, I was going to become one of them. Or I was already one of them…let me just say I was very confused as to what was going on, and nobody was explaining much more than had already been explained to me. Probably because the only person there was someone who seemed to be terrified of me. For what reason, I did not know. I was sixteen, and he was over twenty. What was there to be frightened of? Shaking the thought away, I continued to follow him.

That was another thing that I could not seem to understand. Why was I following this man that I had only met an hour before? It made absolutely no sense, but I also felt as if I was doing the right thing…had I mentioned that I was confused?

We were slowing down, because Tylas had stopped walking so fast. We were in front of an abandoned building. He came to a halt at the entrance to it, opening the door and gesturing me to walk in first. I gave him a look, and said, “I’m trusting you enough to follow you, not to walk into a creepy-looking building at the point of a finger. How about you go in first?”

He just shrugged, and walked in himself, not even bothering to hold the door open any longer. Oops. I guess that he was actually being polite. I didn’t feel guilty long, though, because there was no reason to be. This guy had walked into my life and change it, so I thought I had every right to be nasty to him.
The building didn’t look any different on the inside than it did on the outside. Even more confusion seeped into me as I looked at the walls, chipping with the paint, and the old, rotting pieces of furniture in the main room, “Why are we here? This place is empty.”

Tylas didn’t answer. Instead, he looked as though he was searching for something. Not just anything, but something specific. He wandered around the room for a few minutes before a smile appeared on his face, and he motioned his hand as if he wanted me to go over where he was standing. I did.

What he was standing in front of was a painting of an old house. I glanced at him, and wondered for a minute if he was insane. He simply said, “Look,” and pointed at the painting. My gaze dropped from him and back to the pointing, and I noticed what he was trying to show me.

I could see lights coming on in the house. I blinked a couple times, to make sure I wasn’t imagining things. But why would I have been? I had just found out that I was a witch, so nothing should come as much as a surprise to me now. Yet somehow, it did. Curiously, I leaned down to look closer to the painting…when Tylas walked right through it, disappearing.

Surprised, I jumped. The painting now had the image of Tylas standing there, arms crossed, waiting for me to follow his example. After taking a couple deep breaths, I followed him, and soon found myself spinning until I landed in the painting. I looked around and gasped. This was impossible…but then again, so was being a witch. Yet I still was one.

Tylas grabbed my arm and pulled me toward the house. The creepier-than-the-building house. I gulped, wondering who, or what, was inside. I didn’t have the chance to ask, because he opened the door and entered, dragging me along with him. If anything dangerous was in the house, they would know that we arrived. He had shut the door a little too loudly.

Not a sound was heard. Nothing jumped out at us and yelled “Boo”. While I was relieved, I had just realized something. All my life, I had felt as though I was a bit…well, insane. I always sounded it. Right now, however, I felt as though my mind was completely intact; as if I were a normal teenager. I would have to ask about that later.

Finally someone came up to us. I wasn’t surprised to see someone, especially because of the shadows I had seen while out of the painting, and the fact that I had heard them coming from down the hall. The person was an elderly woman, and her eyes looked up as she saw me, and then turned to Tylas, “So this is her?”

Tylas only nodded, and the woman beamed at me. This was getting weirder by the second. Not only was I a witch…but I seemed to be respected by the people in this house, or painting, or whatever it was. I smiled sheepishly at her, and she turned around, leading us into what looked to be a dining room. There were twelve seats on the sides at an oval-shaped table, six on either side, and one distinguished seat at the very head of it. People were filling the seats as they walked into the room, and chatting casually. As soon as the three of us walked in, though, it got deadly silent. It was almost as if these people had been frozen as well, even though they had not. They might as well have been, because it didn’t seem like they were breathing. They were all staring at us with a mixture of fear and utter joy…just like the feeling that I had had earlier, sitting in the classroom.

I was led by the elderly woman and Tylas to the head of the table. The woman sat on the left side of the bigger chair, and Tylas indicated me to sit on the one to the right. He took the seat at the large chair, and everyone was looking at us. I couldn’t help but feel as if they were judging me, somehow. At first, I thought it was the fact that I was so young, but with another glance around the table, I saw that there was a boy quite a bit younger than I. This was getting very curious. It was not until Tylas spoke that a single noise was made.

“Hello, and welcome to the first meeting of the Elite in two centuries. It is by luck that the group has reappeared. Our ancestors broke away from one another a long time ago, giving up on their beliefs. Eventually they had grown so hopeless that they could no longer continue their work. This is why we must pick it up,” he said, and paused as much murmuring around the table occurred, and slowly died down, “Though I am sitting at the position of power’s chair, it is not mine to sit at. You all, of course, know who this chair should truly belong to.”

More murmuring, and before I knew it, all eyes were on me. For what reason, I didn’t know at first. But when it hit me, it hit me hard. We’re talking meteor crashing down to earth kind of thing.

“I…um…what?!” were the only words that I could manage to get out before looking to Tylas, who was looking back at me. The entire room was silent, as if someone had died. Actually, if someone had died, I wouldn’t have noticed just then. I was too busy having my own stroke.

“You belong here,” he told me. I rolled my eyes. This was getting more than a little ridiculous.
“Thank you, Captain Obvious. Anything else you want to tell me that I’ve already figured out?” I admit, it was a little mean. He was only telling me well, what I had asked. Still, I think that when everyone started staring at me expecting something, I knew that it was me. For what reason, I was about to find out, because he just ignored my comment.

“You are the last descendant of the founder of the Elite. The rightful leader,” he stated simplistically, as if I should have known this.

Okay, that made sense. Sort of. Though, I don’t see why he would expect that I knew about it. I didn’t even know my parents, let alone my entire ancestry. I ignored this for a moment. The fact that I was a teenager remained.

“Shouldn’t someone with more experience be in charge?” I asked, not remarking on how insane all of this was.

“You have more experience than you know,” he smiled a secretive smile, like he was in on a private joke. Like they all were. Everyone but me. No one else was in the dark. I knew this because no expression flickered or changed at all in the past few minutes. Not in surprise, that is.

I groaned. This was ridiculous. He wanted me to take charge, be the leader, when I hardly knew myself. I suddenly realized I didn’t know what they were fighting for.

“I need to think.”

Not wanting to give them a chance to react, I walked out of the room. So far, no one was following me. Good. If anyone did, I probably finally know how much “experience” I’ve had.

Before I was aware of it myself, I was outside of the house. It was nice to be in the almost fresh air. It cleared my head a little, making my thoughts less muddled. I was feeling better already, but I continued to think about what had happened, what was happening…

…And almost quickly became not enough.

It took me a few minutes, but I found my way out of the painting. I breathed deep. Ah. Much better. Something was still off, though. Or rather, something just became off. Confusion swept through me again.

Looking around, I noticed nothing was wrong. I realized something….the surface had nothing wrong with it. The wrongness was inside of me.

I didn’t feel it before I stepped out of the house- er, painting. My assumption was that someone in there did this- whatever it was- to me. Angry didn’t describe how I was feeling right now. Pissed would have been an understatement. Someone was toying with me, and it wasn’t really turning me into a ball of sunshine.

A noise behind me set me off. I swiveled, raising my arm and pulling it back, prepared to strike. Before I could, whoever it was grabbed my wrist.

“Relax.”

Like that was going to happen. I couldn’t see his face, I only knew it was a man because of the depth of his voice. If not for that, I could have been talking to an eight year old for all I knew. It was so dark.
A light came on. I had no idea where it was coming from, but at least I could see his face. I groaned, frustrated. There he was again.

“You can’t run away like this, Evelynn. You cannot shirk your responsibilities. You have a world to save,” Tylas told me. He looked at me sternly, as a father punishing his daughter would look like.
My head was spinning. I had to sit down, but there was no where to sit down…and it didn’t matter. The floor would do. I slid down to the cold cement, away form Tylas’ grasp. Dizziness invaded me like a poison. This was a dream. I shouldn’t have ever thought it wasn’t. I shouldn’t have let anyone convince me it wasn’t, when it was so clear that it was.

I laughed. Ridiculous as it was, I was finding this…funny. How could this have ever been real, when someone came to me and told me that we were going to save the world? Who does that? No one. No one gives enough of a damn about the world to even begin saving it. But that wasn’t the point. Not at all. What could the world possibly be saved from? The only dangerous enemy to it was humanity, and no one was planning on stopping us any time soon. My laughter continued, until I almost couldn’t breathe. All of this was so crazy; Maybe it was making me crazy, too.

I didn’t look at Tylas’ reaction. I didn’t have to. He thought I was crazy, too. I had come to a breaking point. There was only so much anyone could take of a rush of information before they snapped. I felt like a branch. A stupid, weak, laughing branch. There’s a mental picture for you.

Tylas didn’t do anything. He just stood above me, staring. My laughter had finally stopped, but I was smiling, looking at the wall. Any minute now, I was going to wake up at the Center. I would, and I’d see the people who’d taken care of me since I had been brought there, and everything would be okay.
Seconds passed. Minutes. An hour? I didn’t know. All I knew was that I wasn’t waking up…It was a dream. I knew it was. Nothing this insane could ever be real.

Tylas shook me. That itself felt surreal, like I wasn’t there. I looked at him, and giggled. Everything just seemed so…silly.

“Oh.”

The word escaped his lips very silently, but I still heard it, and I still felt dizzy. He pulled out a cell phone, dialing. He waited for it to ring, and he walked away as…whoever he was calling…picked up. Muttering into the phone, facing away from me…I couldn’t hear a word. Before I knew it, he turned back to me. What happened next, I don’t really remember. I remember a brilliant light in my head, and everything becoming clearer. Less silly, more to the point. I don’t remember details, though.

This was all so bizarre. What was going on? I looked at Tylas as the light faded, a confused look on my face. I didn’t have to ask a thing. He answered my question before I opened my mouth.

“I forgot…You were part of our world before, and we knew what powers that you possessed. We knew that you might try to…tell someone. We had to make you…” he paused, not knowing what to say. Or maybe not knowing how to say it. I looked at him, incredulously. If he wasn’t going to tell me, I would find out somehow. This was a big thing, I could tell. He continued, “…Less sane. That way, if you ever told anyone about your powers, they wouldn’t believe you.”

He looked at me, searching for a reaction. My jaw had dropped, and I was staring at him. My mouth didn’t stay open long, because my teeth clenched together.

“You…did…what?!” I felt like I was going to explode. All of those years of being called names, of being avoided… “Do you even know what that did to me? People didn’t like to be near me. They really thought I belonged in an institution,” I paused, letting out a laugh of hysteria, “I really thought I belonged in an institution. I always felt so…out of place. And to think the whole time, I could have been normal.”

Interesting. That word felt so distant, and only after an hour or two. I’d only known about this secret for a short time, and normal felt so incredibly impossible. In a way, it felt as though I had known about it for so much longer. I didn’t know why, but I felt so connected to it all. I felt like I had access to the knowledge, I had just hadn’t…accessed it yet. Somehow, I knew that I would, and very soon.

“I’m sorry. I wish it could have been different, but we couldn’t risk exposure. Not at a time like this,” his tone had become grave again. It was worrying, but at the same time, annoying. How long would he use this excuse to get me on board? How long would he continue to remind me that the fates of people’s lives were at stake? I didn’t accept it yet, no. He still didn’t have to constantly remind me. It was very tiresome, and a waste of breath.

“Stop it. Stop doing that. Stop acting like I know what’s going on. I don’t. I don’t even know if I want to join you…” He was about to interrupt as I paused, but I started up again, “You just don’t get it. I’m not from your world. All of this…Tylas, you whisked me away from my life an hour ago. Do you really expect me to understand? To agree with you?”

He didn’t say anything for a while. I didn’t know if he ever would. I knew in those silent few minutes that he had thought that. This was news to him. Good. I was getting too much news as it was, someone else should get it too.

“Follow me.”

He spoke out of nowhere. It startled me, so much that I almost jumped. I looked at him warily. I didn’t say anything, but I think that he knew what was in my gaze.

“I’m going to help you understand.”

Hesitantly, I followed him as he walked toward the painting again. He looked back at me before stepping through. I stared after him…and realized that this was my chance. I had thought that maybe I would follow him, but now I knew that I needed to go away. Anywhere. Someplace safe.

I knew then where it had to be. I sprinted away from the building, away from the insanity.

[Amber]

Chapter Three

The Center. My home. It wasn’t even a façade; It was my real home. Anywhere my parents might be, that was not home. They didn’t care enough about me to keep me. The Center had. I needed to be there, now more than ever. If I had to, I would pretend that none of this had happened, even though I knew it had.

“Alicia! I’m home!”

Alicia, the owner of the Center, had known me since I was a baby. She wasn’t the owner then; The place had been handed down to her when the original owner retired. His name was Anthony, and he still visited sometimes.

There was no answer. There was no noise at all. My eyebrows furrowed. This day was getting even weirder, and scarier. The Center was never this quiet. Ever. Sometimes I had trouble sleeping because of it. This was a house full of children. It should not be quiet. I checked the clock on the wall, to my right. No, it wasn’t even time for their (supposed) naptime.

“Alicia…? Are you here?”

I yelled it as loud as I could, and waited several seconds- still nothing. Not even Maddy- her whole name was Madison, but she favored her nickname- came running up to me, like she usually does when I get home from school. She was an enthusiastic four year old, more so than the others.

My mind tried to figure this out, thinking of anything Alicia might have mentioned about a field trip, going outside…anything. I came up with a blank.

I looked to the left, at the hallway that led to most of the bedrooms, and the playroom. That’s where I was going to look first. Maybe they were playing a quiet game…but somehow I doubted that any of this was a game.

The hallway was dark, but there was a light coming from the playroom at the end of the hall. I breathed a sigh of relief. Everyone was probably in there, and I was overreacting. Still, my steps were cautious and precise as I made my way down the long, narrow space. Closer to the room, I still heard nothing. Either they were really good at this game, or…

I gulped. In front of me, the door stood, a little crack open, and it looked…intimidating. Tempting me to open it…I wanted so badly to resist the temptation, but something in the room was drawing me in. My hand was just barely touching the wood, not wanting to push forward. Throat tightened, I finally moved the barrier and entered the room.

At first, I saw nothing, and relaxed, though my worry did not leave me. It was possible Alicia had taken everyone somewhere else…

“Emmy!”
Or not. I swiveled, to see Maddy run up to me…but something wasn’t right. She wasn’t smiling. The exact opposite- she was crying, tears streaming down her cheeks so fast that if I’d wanted to count them, I wouldn’t be able to. She clutched my pant leg, burying her face in it, sobbing.

I’d been paying so much attention to my small friend that I hadn’t looked away from her since she said my name. Tearing my eyes away, I looked up. What I saw made me want to cry.

The first thing I noticed was that the half of the room that I hadn’t noticed a minute ago was a mess. No, not even that…it was completely destroyed. Tables were tipped, toys were broken, and parts of the floor and walls were scorched. I stared at the scene numbly.

I then noticed something else- behind the table, something was moving. I quickly pushed Maddy slightly with just enough force to get her to hide behind me. Whoever was moving might have caused this, or done something to the others…They stood up, and I wasn’t sure who it was at first. Their clothes were blackened, and their face was covered in dirt. After staring for a few moments, I could tell who it was- Alicia.

I couldn’t run up to her and hug her like I wanted to, because of the child clinging to me.

“What happened…?” were the only words I could manage just then. She didn’t answer, but I knew that whatever it was, it was bad. Really bad. Alicia almost never cried, and her eyes were filled with salty tears. I looked around the semi-demolished room again, and only saw Maddy and Alicia. “Where’s everyone else?”

Wrong question. Her fists balled up, and she let the tears flow freely. She wasn’t going to answer me. I knew something horrible had happened the moment the crying started. I was so fixated on what Alicia was doing that I didn’t hear what Maddy said. I looked down at the tear-stained child.

“What was that, sweetie?”

“They took them,” on the last word, her tiny voice broke, and she began crying again.

The kids had been taken? How was that possible? Why would someone take orphans from their only home? I suddenly understood why Alicia couldn’t say what happened- why it had reduced her to tears. All of us at the Center were family, in our eyes. Alicia had just lost her kids. Biological or not, it was real, and the feeling was terrible. Indescribably terrible. I found myself crying, too.

No one said anything for a few minutes. It was still sinking in. Everything was so surreal, mostly to me. I found out that I’m a witch, a leader, and now someone had attacked my family. How could something like this be real?

The only distraction while in our trance-like state was a shrill sound- a scream. I jumped, surprised by it. Immediately, I saw that it had come from Maddy- her mouth was still open. There was no reason to ask her what was wrong, because she was pointing.

I turned, and nearly made the exact same noise that Maddy had. I had no time, because it rushed over to me and covered my mouth, looking me straight in the eyes.

It was incredibly frightening, but utterly beautiful. It looked like a man, but he was moving on top of a dark mist, which replaced his legs- but only when he moved, fast. Standing in front of me, completely still, they re-emerged. His eyes were an impossible shade of green- dark, but a true colour. I could tell they were not contacts, because they were so real. His hair was tousled, a dark brown that was almost black. He glared at me angrily, and was about to reach for my throat when his expression softened.

“Evelynn?”

The name startled me. I was still adjusting to the fact that my name wasn’t what I thought it had been. Maddy, who I had almost forgot about when the man was staring at me, was confused.

“Her name’s Emily!”

Uh-oh. Just like I’d almost forgotten her, the attacker hadn’t noticed her. Until then. He looked at her, intrigued, and smiled.

“Oh, I missed one, did I? I suppose I’ll have to fix that,” he stated viciously, and made a step toward her. I blocked him before he could get closer, trying to make myself look dangerous.

“Stay away from her.”

The man did not say anything in return- he only chuckled. His laughter only made my anger strengthen. Advances continued, despite my warning stance. Once, just once, he got a hold of Maddy’s arm.

“I said, stay away from her!”

That’s when I lashed out, but not physically- with my magic. My untamed, seemingly uncontrollable, magic. An invisible force blasted him back, like a shield. He hit the wall very hard, falling to the floor. It had not been hard enough, because he looked back up at me menacingly, “I’m going to come back. When I do, I will destroy you all.”

Just like that, he was gone- vanished, like he had poofed away. ‘More like floated,’ I thought, shuddering and remembering the mist.

Alicia and Maddy were gaping at me, open-mouthed. They were about to learn things that would shock them further. But first, we had to get to a certain painting.