Just a writer doing writer things.

[quinlin-blog1]

Blurb from What’s It Like

Axel Fletcher was a nine year old boy. He had brown eyes that were full of life and messy brown hair to match. He lived with his Mother and Father and his two siblings, both were girls.

Axel went to school like any other child would do, he did his homework, he got good grades and he even helped the Kindergartners with their lunches. But like any other child, Axel also got bullied.

It was always during break, Axel had just finished helping the Kindergarten class and he would make his way outside to the playground. Axel’s favorite spot on the playground, was under the slide. Not many kids went there because they were too busy playing on the swings or on the slide itself. All break, this was where Axel would sit, happily coloring in his drawing book, oblivious of the other children.

This obliviousness left Axel when two eighth grade boys came up to him. These two boys were known throughout the entire playground as the bullies and if you see them, you’d best avoid them. But unfortunately for Axel, today, he didn’t see them coming.

Axel was using an orange coloring pen, to color in the bill of the duck on the page, when suddenly the pen was ripped from his hands and a muddy, scuffed boots stepped right on his picture.

“Hey!” Axel exclaimed.

It was in the moment that Axel chose to look up at whoever had ruined his picture, expecting and hoping for it to be a kindergartener, playing around with him like they had done moments before, but not today.

“Watch it Shrimp!” The first boy told Axel as he snapped the coloring pen in his beefy hands.

Axel looked at the two boys, hoping that maybe he could just disappear and they would never see him again.

“Hey! We were talking to you Shrimp!” The second boy exclaimed.

Axel looked around the playground for a teacher, even another student that may help him, but the playground had been deserted. There wasn’t a teacher or student in sight. Now Axel really wish he was invisible.

The one boy watched ass Axel’s glance fleeted to his picture, so the older boy picked up the drawing and laugh a loud, fake laugh.

“What’s this supposed to be? Roadkill?”

Tears jumped to Axel’s eyes and he quickly looked away, hoping that the bullies wouldn’t see him crying and pick on him even more.

But luck, just didn’t like Axel today.

The first boy pulled Axel up by the collar of his shirt and then shoved Axel down to the hard gravel ground again. Axel could feel tiny pebbles sticking into the palms of his hands and his back and bum hurt from the harsh impact, but Axel didn’t cry, not again, he didn’t want to be weak in front of the older boys.

Once again, Axel was picked up by his collar and the second boy hung him on the edge on the railing for the slide, high enough to make sure that Axel’s feet didn’t touch the ground.

Axel thrashed and kicked, hoping that if he moved enough he would get unhooked, but looking down at the ground, it seemed much farther away than it had before and suddenly Axel didn’t want to fall, nor did he want to stay hooked on that railing. The two boys stepped back and started laughing cruelly, really, Axel didn’t see what was so funny. Why would you laugh at someone who’s stuck and can’t get down? But it was the mind of a big boy, as much as Axel tried, he didn’t understand how an eighth grader thought and didn’t think he ever would.

Now Axel was just hanging limply in the air, trying to hold his head up although it felt like his head weighed a million pounds. His legs were beginning to go numb and Axel already couldn’t feel his fingers. His back was getting cold from the light wind, the back of his shirt was stretching awkwardly and to make matters worse, the bell rang.

The bell rang, this meant that the other children would be coming out from wherever they had been playing and would see Axel hanging there. They were bound to laugh at him. He was going to get teased, laughed at and people would never let Axel live this day down.

But one good thing would come out of this, maybe a teacher would see.

‘Maybe they’ll get expelled’ Axel thought bitterly ‘maybe they’ll have to do community service.’

As children filled the school yard once more, Axel became aware of how many students there really were, there were hundreds. And they were all standing there, laughing at him.

Well most of them were, the only ones that weren’t were the ones that thought practical jokes were silly and a waste of time, but these children wouldn’t voice their thoughts, nor would they help poor Axel down from his perch, so really, Axel would remain there.

It was when a teacher came five minutes later that Axel finally got down. For the rest of the day, Axel kept his head down, hoping that his classmates wouldn’t tease him too harshly. The end of the day couldn’t have come quicker in Axel’s mind. As soon as the bell rang, Axel was out of his seat, grabbing his backpack and putting his coat on, soon Axel was running out the front doors of the school, ignoring the other people that were snickering and pointing.

The bus ride home wasn’t eventful. Axel sat in the seat closest to the driver hoping that no one would throw paper wads at him if he did this. But instead, kids just spat spit balls at the back of his neck and called out mean things. No matter how hard, Axel couldn’t shut it all out.

So when the bus reached his stop, Axel jumped up and ran out towards his home.

Axel opened his front door, took off his coat and shoes, dumped his backpack on the ground and ran up to his bedroom. He knew that his parents weren’t home yet, his mother was visiting his aunt in Florida whilst his father was at work. The babysitter was going to be there soon so Axel only had a few moments to himself.

In those moments, Axel decided that he was going to go hide himself in the attic and not come out for the rest of the day. In his mind, it made sense, he didn’t want to be bothered and no one went into the attic anyway, so Axel grabbed his favorite comic books, a few packages of crackers from the kitchen and pulled the ladder down. The attic was dusty, as attics are, in one corner there were boxes of old Christmas decorations that would not be taken out for another few months, in another corner there was a box that was labeled “Axel’s Baby stuff” and there was a clutter of other random boxes around the attic.

Axel found a folder out chair in one of the many boxes and unfolded it next to the grimy window. Looking out of the dirty glass pane, Axel could see the other houses on the street, cars driving, most likely filled with children from school, there were dogs running on the street, cats sitting on fences and leaves blowing from the trees. It was truly beautiful. Now that Axel cared. The beauty of the outside world never really struck Axel and he never understood why his mother was always talking about how amazing nature was.

Huffing, Axel sat back in the chair and watched as the sun slowly went down behind the clouds and down onto the horizon. He could hear his babysitter downstairs, calling for him, telling him that it was dinner, but Axel wasn’t hungry and he was pretty sure that if he tried to eat, it wouldn’t end well.

So Axel stayed in the chair, in the attic, looking out the window, watching as the sky faded into oranges and pinks and yellows, then as sit faded into a dark blue and black. The stars had come out by the time that Axel heard this front door opening, alerting him that his mother and father had returned home and his babysitter was leaving.

Something glittered in the sky and Axel looked up. It was a star, just like the other stars, but this one was special somehow. It was brighter, bigger and Axel could’ve looked at it all night long.

“If you wish on a star, maybe it will come true”

Axel remembered the words his mother had told him when he was young, of course Axel didn’t believe any of that nonsense at the time nor did he now, but it was worth a try.

So Axel closed his eyes, took a deep breath and thought to the star.

“I wish I was invisible. I wish that I was invisible and no one would ever know where I was. I wish that I was invisible so that I will never get teased again”

With that last thought, Axel opened his eyes and looked at his hands. When he realized that they were still there, he sighed.

Axel folded that chair up once more and put it back in its box, making sure that he put the box exactly where he found it, because he didn’t want his mother to be cross with him and then Axel went down the ladder.

“Axel! You didn’t eat your dinner” Axel’s Mother stated as he walked into the sitting room. She’d returned earlier that day.

“I’m not hungry” Axel said quietly.

“The Sitter said that you’ve been up in the attic since you got home from school. Did you need something?” Axel’s father asked.

Axel simply shook his head “I thought I would find my Soldier toy up there, but I couldn’t find him” Axel lied.

“Well I’m sure he’ll turn up. Now, go eat your dinner, I’ve just warmed it up and then go straight to bed” His mother ordered.

So Axel went and sat at the table and slowly ate his cold dinner. The chicken didn’t taste good, the potatoes were dry and his broccoli were mushy, all in all, Axel was excited to go to bed. Once he had finished his dinner, Axel put his plate in the sink, kissed his mother and father good night, then went up to the bathroom to brush his teeth.

As he did this, Axel wondered why his wish hadn’t worked.

‘Did I do it wrong? Was I missing something? Maybe the star needed some food and maybe it would have answered my wish if I had given it some chicken. Do stars eat chicken? Do stars eat at all?’

All these thoughts went through Axel’s mind as he finished brushing his teeth and he climbed into his warm bed.

Grabbing his stuffed bear, Axel closed his eyes and the last thing he saw was the star, before he fell asleep.

The next Morning Axel woke up dreading school. He didn’t want to go and he buried himself deeper into his covers, hoping that the world would disappear and school would cease to exist. But reality came to him when his babysitter called up the stairs to him, saying that it was time to go to school.

So Axel begrudgingly got out of his bed and trudged over to his cupboard, where he quickly got dressed, put on his shoes on, brushed out his hair and grabbed his backpack and ran down the stairs, where his sitter was holding his lunch.

“Turkey and Cheese, with no mayo and extra ketchup” His sitter recited.

Axel smiled a fake smile and took the paper bag out of the baby sitter’s hands.

“Thank you” He said before rushing out the door.

But as soon as he did, Axel felt a sudden wave of dizziness surround him, stumbling for a moment, Axel blinked the spots dancing in front of his eyes away and he continued to walk to the bus stop. He was hesitant when he saw that there were other kids standing there, he didn’t want to be made fun of because of what had happened yesterday, but when he arrived at the bus stop, no one greeted him, no one said hi, or asked him how he was, no one teased him, no one even looked at him. This relieved Axel, he waited at the bus stop in peace, and no one spoke to him, which was alright with Axel because he didn’t really know any of them.

When the bus arrived, Axel was the first to get on, he sat in the front row where no one else joined him.

In wasn’t a very long drive to school, around five minutes if the stops to pick up the other children weren’t long. During this short time, Axel looked out the window and waited to get to school, still dreading what might await him.

But finally the bus stopped at Axel’s school and all the children got off the bus, Axel going last, hoping to get lost in the crowd, but nobody noticed him.

Everything went normally, Axel went to his locker cubby, placed his coat and backpack in it, and then walked to class, where Axel sat at his desk, waiting for all the other children to join him.

Soon enough, the classroom slowly filled with other children and Axel’s teacher began roll call.

Considering the first letter in Axel’s name was A, his name was quite near the beginning of the list.

“Axel” His teacher called out

“Here!” Axel replied like always. But his teacher didn’t hear him.

“Axel?”

“Here!”

But once again, poor Axel wasn’t heard.

“He wasn’t on the bus today. Maybe he’s sick?” One of the other children suggested

“But I’m right here!” Axel protested, getting up out of his seat.

Axel walked over to his teacher and waved his hand in front of their face, but it was like Axel was invisible.

Then the thought hit Axel. He had wished on the start that he could be invisible, he woke up this morning and he wasn’t.

‘But then I got very dizzy when I walked out the front door’ Axel reminded himself ‘Maybe I’m only invisible when I’m not in my home’

This made Axel very happy. He could do whatever he wanted to and not have to worry about anybody seeing him.

Grinning to himself, Axel made his way silently (Although no one could hear him) out of the classroom and down the hall to find the grade eight class.

Inside this classroom, was a grade eight class learning about biology, and the two bullies from the day before were there as well.

Axel slowly walked into the classroom and sat in the teacher’s chair, watching ass the teacher explained bird physiology. Axel played with the things lying on the teacher’s desk, things like tack and erasers and confiscated phones. The class seemed to drag on forever in Axel’s mind and he was sure that some of the other students felt the same way. Some of them were staring blankly at the chalk board, other were napping with their heads tucked onto their desks, while there were very few writing down every word the Teacher was saying, whether it be important or not.

From what Axel gathered, the teacher was both telling a story about a bird and telling a story about his childhood, both were equally boring. Axel looked around the classroom for anything he could mess with and his eyes came into contact with the other chalk board. The one the teacher wasn’t writing on. One this chalk board was the date, the eighth grade lessons for that day, reminders about a math test on Wednesday and an old game of tic-tac-toe. Grinning, Axel made his way over to this board and picked up the chalk board eraser. Axel raised the Eraser and began to wipe away the words and numbers written there. Slightly paranoid, Axel kept looking over his shoulder to see if any of the students had seen him, but no one had, in fact Axel had remained invisible to the entire class.

Soon, Axel had wiped the entire chalkboard clean of the writing and he picked up a piece of blue chalk, grinning a Cheshire Cat grin. Axel put the chalk to the board and began drawing a giant wobbly picture. As he drew, the picture turned out to be a picture of a volcano, a blue volcano with pink lava flooding from the top. Personally, if you were to ask Axel, he’d say it was the best Volcano he had ever drawn. As Axel moved on to draw a spaceship hovering in the sky by the volcano, he realized that he was too short to reach the place he needed to. So Axel walked over to a stack of spare chairs in the corner and picked one up. Looking around Axel realized that surely someone would notice a floating chair being walked across the classroom.

Ignoring those thoughts Axel began to carry the chair to his old spot in front of the chalk board. To his shock, no one saw him.

Shrugging, Axel began to draw the Millennium Falcon from Star Wars.

AS he drew, Axel heard a grunt as one of the students woke up, yet he ignored this noise and continued to draw. Suddenly, the classroom erupted into whispers and chatter and the teacher stopped his droning.

“What is the matter?” He asked

One of the eighth grade students pointed to the chalk board and the teacher looked over and let out a shriek.

The author is sure that you would too if you saw a floating piece of chalk drawing a picture of a spaceship.

“What is this!?” The teacher demanded.

“The classroom is haunted!” One girl cried out

Grinning again, Axel put the chalk down, causing several children to squeal and look around to look for him. Axel went over to one of his bullies from yesterday and began playing with his hair.

“What’s happening!?” His friend exclaimed as Axel put a pencil in the boy’s ear.

As the cherry on the cake, Axel went over to the chalk board with the teachers writing and wrote, in giant letters. BOO!

Everyone in the classroom began to scream and they jumped from their seats out of the classroom, the teacher close behind them.

Axel was doubled over in fits of laughter as he listened to the class freak out in the hallways.

‘That was fun’ Axel thought to himself ‘What should I do now?’

As a response to that, Axel’s stomach rumbled and Axel happily skipped to the classroom, giggling as he passed the grade eight class. In the cafeteria, the lunch lady was scooping things into bowls, getting ready for lunch which happened to be very soon. Axel walked over and grabbed a piece of a turkey sandwich, which had been put on a plate not moments before. When the lunch Lady turned around and saw a sandwich missing she looked around and picked up a cleaver.

“Come here ya vermin, try it!” She then began to run around the cafeteria, trying to find the “Mice” that had stolen the sandwich.

The day went by too quickly for Axel’s liking. During the next few hours, he had thrown cheese strings at the Secretary, Poured water on the head of his French teacher, whom he thoroughly disliked, given flowers to the girl that he had a tiny crush on and sat in the principal’s office, while spinning on the Principal’s chair.

The bus ride home was pretty boring compared to the rest of the day, he stood at the very front, not sat, stood and waited to get off. When he got off the bus, he ran home and stopped at his porch.

‘If I go into my house, will I reappear?’ He asked himself. ‘Well I’ll have to go in sometime’

So Axel took a step forwards and walked into his house.

“Hey Axel” His babysitter said “How was school?” She looked over at his, smiling lightly.

Axel grinned and set his bag down “Oh you know, pretty boring”

[quinlin-blog1]

New Story!

Hi guys! I have a new story available on Dreame, called You’er Who’s Sister? 

https://www.dreame.com/novel/1972288.html

[quinlin-blog1]

Blurb from What’s It Like

Naomi Braxton was an eleven year old girl with a severe fear of heights.

Ever since she was a young girl Naomi has been afraid of heights. Maybe it was because when she was four her older brother died in a plane crash. Planes fly, therefore there must be a reason to be afraid of doing so.

I guess you could say that Naomi was more afraid of falling than she was of heights.

She never let anyone pick her up, she wouldn’t swing on the swing set at the park, and she wouldn’t up the hill behind her house anymore. She didn’t want anything to do with being off of the ground.

But then one day her best friend May went on a plane ride to England, Naomi felt like her fear as silly. ‘Who’s afraid of heights?’ Naomi would think to herself. ‘It’s a silly thing to be afraid of something like that. I can’t avoid flying my entire life.’

So Naomi became convinced that if she ever wanted to get over her fear, she must go as high as she could.

And so, that next day when Naomi’s father took her to the park like he did every day when she returned home from school, Naomi went straight to the swings, something she hadn’t done in a long while.

So naturally this surprised Naomi’s father, who hadn’t seen the girl so determined since he told her that she couldn’t have any ice cream until she finished her lima beans, the only food she wouldn’t eat. He watched as she sat down on the swing and began to move her legs back and forth, slowly the little swing went higher and higher.

But as it did so, Naomi found herself getting more and more scared. She reminded herself to not look down as the sing moved back and the forwards again, but she did.

The ground wasn’t very far away, she was maybe a meter and a half off the ground as she sung at the farthest height.

‘But’ Naomi thought to herself ‘that’s a meter and a half farther than I have been in a long time’ she reminded herself that she hadn’t been up high, or above to ground even, in a long time, which made all this a little bit scarier.

Suddenly, Naomi remembered a story that her cousin had told her. One of her cousin’s friends had gone so high, that the swing had flipped her over the top bar and when she landed on the ground, she broke her arm.

Thinking of this. Naomi felt a little more scared. The farthest she had ever fallen was when she had fallen off of her bike earlier that year, and she had only scraped her knee! What would happen if she went over the top bar?

Feeling a bit queasy, Naomi decided that she had had enough of the swings for that day, although she promised herself that she would return to them to fight back her fears some other time.

Naomi ran to the slide and climbed up the stairs. Naomi had no fear of this play set, because she knew that to fall off, you had to climb over the railing and only silly people climb over the safety railing.

Naomi went down the slide and few times, each time a little less exciting than the first, until she decided that maybe she didn’t want to play on the slides. She then saw something that caught her attention.

The Fireman’s Pole.

Naomi had seen several other older children on the fireman’s pole, but she always been too scared to try it. She felt that it was too far away from the step and she repeatedly thought that she would fall off.

But today Naomi felt a more confident, at least a little bit more than usual. So she got up off the end of the slide, climbed the stairs up again and made her way over to the fireman’s pole.

Her father, seeing his daughter’s actions, walked over to the edge of the pole, ready to hold her hand as she attempted to climb onto it, but Naomi swatted his hand away.

“I’m a big girl Daddy. I can use the Fireman’s pole by myself” Naomi stated quietly as she once again tried to not look down at the ground that seemed to be getting further away.

Her father stepped away, eyebrows furrowed in confusion as he watched his daughter. Usually, she would have welcomed his help, but today she seemed very intent on doing thing herself. For a moment, he felt proud of his daughter, for taking on her fears.

But Naomi was scared. The ground the was only three yards down, but it seemed like it was getting farther and farther away, she felt like either she was getting taller, like her legs were stretching up and she was looking down, or the ground was sinking into itself, making it look further away.

Either way, Naomi began to doubt herself.

‘But it’s silly to fear things like heights, I’m not silly am I? No. So why must this be so scary?’ Naomi continued to ask herself this, but not answer came.

Feeling upset with herself, Naomi stepped back from the fire man’s pole and went down the slide again, her entire mood set back.

The night, when Naomi was tucked into her bed, she was looking through her scrapbooks, looking at pictures taken by her parents when they went on travels before she was born. There were many pictures that were taken from airplanes, looking down at the clouds and distant ground. Naomi couldn’t even imagine what it would have been like to be up there.

“Naomi?” Naomi turned her head and set her book down on the dressed as her mother walked into her bed room. Naomi’s mother went and sat on the edge of Naomi’s bed, rubbing her daughter’s hair and she laid in her bed, blankets tucked up to her chin.

“Your father told me that while you were at the park, you were on the swings, and tried to go on the fireman’s pole”

Naomi looked at her mother “I thought that maybe I could solve my fear of heights”

Her mother just looked at her, Naomi couldn’t tell what her mother was thinking and this startled her a little bit.

“Maybe you should try making a wish”

With those words, Naomi’s mother brushed her fingers across Naomi’s face and brought her hand in front of Naomi’s eyes.

Confused for a moment, Naomi looked at her mother’s hand and saw that on the back of it, was a dark eyelash.

Naomi then remembered the story that her mother had once told her.

‘If an eyelash falls out, put it on the back of your hand, make a wish and then blow on it. Then the wish will come true’

At first Naomi had thought this ridiculous. How could an eyelash make a wish come true? But then her mother had told her another story. She told Naomi about the time when she was young that she had wished for a new bike and ended up getting that bike two days later.

This, of course, could just have been her Mother parents (Naomi’s grandparents)’s doing, but Naomi still deep down inside liked the idea of magic and making wishes on things.

So Naomi closed her eyes and thought about what wish she wanted to make.

She wanted to no longer be afraid of heights, she knew that much, but how should she state the question? What did she really want?

‘I wish for a way to overcome my fear of heights. I wish for a way to not be afraid. I wish to not be afraid of heights anymore.

I wish to fly”

After the last thought, Naomi opened her eyes again and blew the long eyelash off of her mother’s waiting hand. The eyelash flew off and twirled in the air for a few moments.

Naomi’s mother turned away so Naomi wasn’t sure she saw, but she knew that she did. The eyelash twirled in the air a few times and them it stopped. Just stopped in midair. Then it turned into a small puff of smoke and soon that was gone too. Nothing left of the little eyelash anymore.

Nothing, accepts the wish.

The next morning Naomi woke up in her bed and was looking forwards to the next day.

The first thing that Naomi did was go to her parent’s room and open the doors to the balcony. She stepped out, feeling more confident than she ever had before then. She thought that she could do it, she could look down at her father leaving for work, wave goodbye to him and not be petrified with fear of being up high. She felt so proud of herself, prouder than ever. She thought of a few moments later when she could run downstairs to her mother and tell her that she was no longer afraid of heights and that her mother could take her to the park on the swing set and the fireman’s pole and she wouldn’t be scared anymore.

But as she walked over to the edge and leaned over the railing, Naomi found herself terrified. The ground seemed to sink into itself, falling further and further down, Naomi saw herself falling to the ground, she saw herself falling into an infinite abyss of darkness and felt that it was never ending.

Never in her life had Naomi felt so scared.

And because of this she as disappointed, why hadn’t her wish come true?

Naomi trudged back inside, shaking like a leaf from the terror that she had experienced, closed the doors, semi-slamming them and then she walked down the stairs to the kitchen, where had mother was making omelets and fried ham for breakfast.

But Naomi didn’t want to eat anything, she felt that her stomach had been turned upside down from being up so high. Her hands hadn’t stopped shaking, her head felt fuzzy and she didn’t feel like doing anything, not sleeping, not going to school, not eating breakfast lunch or dinner.

“Morning Mimi” Her mother greeted her with her old nickname.

Naomi didn’t respond to her mother, she just sat down at the table, folded her arms and then put her head in her arms, not looking at her mother as she set a plate down in front of her.

“What’s wrong sweetheart?” Her mother asked her.

Naomi shook her head “The wish didn’t work”

Naomi’s mother didn’t respond for a moment, but then Naomi felt a hand land on her shoulder in a comforting way. “Maybe” Her mother started “it did. But just not in the way that you expected it to”

This made Naomi lift her head to look at her mother, her eyes filled with curiosity.

“What do you mean?”

“Well, maybe your wish did come true, but sometimes things don’t happen in the way we expect them to.” Her mother paused for a moment “Why don’t you stay home today, yeah? Try and figure this out”

Naomi nodded and picked at her breakfast.

Later, Naomi found herself sitting in her bedroom playing with her dolls, quietly and peacefully like she did every other day. Her soft brown hair falling in front of her eyes as she looked down at the figures. Annoyed, she roughly pushed the hair out of her eyes.

Tired, she put her dolls down and laid back on her bed. She couldn’t understand what went wrong when she made her wish.

‘Maybe I spoke it wrong. Maybe I forgot to do something. There has to be something wrong with it’ she thought to herself.

But when she thought about it, she couldn’t remember herself doing anything wrong. She tried and she tried but nothing seemed out of the ordinary. She’d made wishes like that before. Although they had been for small things like the newest Barbie doll when she was five or for chocolate muffins to bring to school when she was eight. Small, little, insignificant things, but they all came true.

But perhaps that was because her parents had done those things for her, not the universe or God or whoever made wishes happen.

As Naomi thought about this, she started floating up into the air. She didn’t notice her back and legs leave her soft duvet, the air acting as a pillow to her. She kept on thinking, her eyes closed, completely unaware that she was getting closer and closer to the roof.

Until she hit it.

Her head hit the roof with a soft thump, causing her eyes to shoot open.

Thinking back to that day, Naomi didn’t really know what she had expected to happen. But she certainly didn’t expect the roof.

“What the-“ she started, but never finished.

She poked the roof with her finger and found herself drifting around her room in mid-air.

‘I must have fallen asleep. I’m dreaming’ she thought ‘And in dream, you can’t get hurt’

Smiling, Naomi willed herself to sink through the air and she pushed the air in front of her, propelling herself forwards. She reached her hand out and grabbed the doorknob, she twisted it and opened the door. She propelled herself forwards into the hallway, floating down the hallway almost like she was laying on her stomach. She grabbed the handle of the balcony doors and opened them, feeling the wind on her face.

Naomi forced herself forwards, over the edge of the balcony and she didn’t drop, she didn’t fall, she was perfectly fine. She looked down at the ground and when she did, she wasn’t scared.

Naomi knew that she wasn’t going to fall. She was flying! Of course she wasn’t going to fall! And besides, even if she did fall, in was dream and you can’t get hurt in dreams.

But Naomi had no fear of falling, she didn’t fear hurting herself if she went too high, in fact, she wanted to go higher.

And she did.

Naomi flew up into the air, her arms out at her sides like she had seen in the movies.

She flew up and into the clouds, which, even though they looked very fluffy and cuddly like she had always imagined they would be, they were filled with water and Naomi came out the other side of the cloud soaked. Her hair fell into her eyes and it took her a moment to pull it out of her sight, but when she did, her eyes widened at the sight of an air plane heading right towards her. Without thinking, Naomi dove out of the way of the plane, before the pilots could see her and she hid inside a cloud.

As the plane went past, a rumble filled Naomi’s ears and the wind picked up dramatically. She thought it to only be the plane and she thought that when it went past her, the sound and wind would go away.

But then something flashed behind her. She only saw it because it illuminated the entire sky, making the clouds light up different colors of yellow and pale purple. Fearfully, Naomi turned around and saw the behind her, there was a wall of dark, almost black clouds, coming right for her.

Naomi quickly remembered the weather forecast she had heard the night before.

“Heavy rain coming in late tomorrow afternoon, thunder and lightning storms” She remembered.

Now, she was up in the air, the wind pushing her so much that she found herself drifting backwards, the rain, which had started only moments ago, was pelting down so hard that it hurt Naomi’s head. Thunder boomed again, ringing through Naomi’s ears, causing her hands to shake in fear and she counted the seconds until the lightning struck.

“One. . . Two. . .  Three. . . Four-“

And suddenly, there was a streak that went through the sky, flashing a pale yellow and purple, zig-zagging through the sky all the way down to the ground where it came close to hitting the roof of an unsuspecting farm house.

The rain came faster, the wind grew stronger and the thunder soon came again, followed closely by another strike of lightning, but this time, it almost hit Naomi.

Naomi could feel the hair on her head stand on end as the lightning flashed, but quickly disappeared as fast as it came. Honestly she had never felt so scared in her life. No amount of heights or falling could ever scare her this much.

But she knew that if this was only a dream as she suspected it was, nothing bad could happen to her.

And if nothing bad could happen to her, Naomi could do anything.

This included, helping to save the plane.

You see, after the first lightning strike, the plane had begun to circle around, looking for a place to land, but the plane would not last much longer out in the storm, for the lightning was unpredictable and there was no telling where or what it would strike next.

So Naomi flew over to the plane, not quite sure how she was going to save all the people that were on said plane, but she had to try.

So, pushing herself forwards, Naomi grabbed the tail fin of the plane and began to push it.

The plane was heavy, the wind was harsh and the rain was falling so fast that Naomi could barely even see her hands, which was straight in front of her. She felt almost completely useless.

But none of that would matter in a moment.

The thunder rolled again and three seconds later the lightning struck. . . Hitting that right wing of the plane.

Naomi could hear the people inside scream in fear, terrified of the imminent death that was awaiting them. So Naomi flew over to the right wing, abandoning her position at the tail fin and her did her best to hold up the tail fin, using the wind to her own advantage and let it help her hold the wing up as she pushed it forwards.

Looking back on that day, Naomi thought she was a little bit like Supergirl, which made her feel proud of herself. But in that moment, it never occurred to her.

Soon, the plane made it out of the worst of the storm and found its way to the landing pad, where, even though it was a bit of a bumpy landing for the people inside, no one was hurt and the plane was left mostly undamaged.

Naomi left as quickly as she could, feeling cold and hollow from the rain, but proud and confident. She’d helped save those people! She only wished that she could tell her mother about this day, but if she did it would be a lie because this was a dream.

And dreams don’t really happen.

Only, Naomi didn’t realize that she didn’t know how to land. She knew how to stop in mid-air, how to go, how to lift up and lower herself, but she didn’t know how to land. But landing was crucial, Naomi had to land at some point, so the sooner she figured out how to, the better.

And as she flew up to the balcony of her house, now seemed as good a time as any. So, as gently as she could, Naomi let herself down, slowly and carefully. And when she was a foot off the ground, she let herself drop, she stopped flying like she had turned off a light switch.

Unfortunately, Naomi’s little feet were so cold and brittle from flying in the cold hard rain, that they had become numb and brittle themselves. And when they touched the ground, shots of pain flew through her feet, up her legs to her tummy and in that moment Naomi knew.

She hadn’t dreamt anything.

[quinlin-blog1]

The Stutter

Cold. That’s the first thing that he remembered. As far back as he remembered. When he thought back, he remembered the cold of the rain water, left over from the downpour the night before, having flowed down the uneven ground into a large puddle. And it was in that puddle that Abraham found himself. Being nine years old was tough, being nine years old and having no body strength was tougher, but being nine years old with no body strength and a name like ABRAHAM took the cake.

It wasn’t that there was anything wrong with the name, in fact it was a great name, a noble name. It had meaning and it rolled off the tongue. But it wasn’t the name was fit in with a kid. It was the name you gave to the face of an older man, maybe in his forties or fifties. Not a kid. There were some names that you just imagine a child having. And there was nothing wrong with the name itself, but names like Gertrude and Linus were names that when you imagined them, you saw the face of an older person.

So you see the problem that Abraham had? Little kid, no strength to defend himself with, an unfortunate stutter and an old man’s name. Obviously he was going to get picked on.

He remembered coughing, the air had been knocked out of his lungs when he had fallen backwards into the puddle. There was a laugh heard from above him, several in fact. There was a pudgy faced boy above him, twice his size in both length and width. He looked like he could eat Abraham and have room for seconds, maybe thirds. His teeth were yellow –despite most children’s teeth tending to be yellow, his were brightly so- and crooked and he had bad breath. His shirt was pristine and white, like nothing had touched it and his shoes were perfectly shined. He looked like he could have been the son of a nobleman. His name? Kurt.

“What’s wrong? Have you f-f-fallen over?” He had taunted.

Abraham glared up at him and made to get up to wipe himself off, because that’s what any sane person would do in his situation. They would get up, dust themselves off, come up with some great comeback that would have children like Kurt reeling and then walk off, maybe with a bit of swagger in their step.

That’s not what happened.

What happened was Abraham tried to get up only to receive a swift kick to his stomach that left him breathless. He held his stomach in pain and even to this day, he remembered that pain.

There was another kick, then another, and another after that. His stomach felt on fire, like it was collapsing in on itself. The children around him either laughed or whispered to their friends, but no one made a move to help him, who would want to?

“Puh- Please!” Abraham wheezed.

Kurt laughed, doubling over in obnoxious peels of joyous laughter. A taunting laughter.

“He can’t even speak right!” Kurt spat at Abraham.

His groupies, cronies, whatever you want to call them, laughed behind him. It wasn’t the same laugh the Kurt had, it was a more reserved kind, one that belonged to people who didn’t really understand what was so funny, but didn’t want to be left out of the joke. It was pathetic. But if you tried to say so, you’d end up like poor Abraham.

Abraham tried to sit up, the first step to standing up and then he might he stood a chance. He was put down, of course.

Then she came. Like a shooting star she came out of nowhere, burning brightly and causing awe as she went. Though, that might have just been him.

“Hey! Leave him alone!”

Kurt turned his head, facing away from Abraham. The girl waved her hand slightly at him in a gesture that he didn’t understand.

“Excuse me? What did you say?”

“I said, Leave him alone.” She repeated, making the small gesture again.

“Who asked you?” He turned his full body away from Abraham, but he was too transfixed on the conversation to move.

“Nobody, I’ve got this problem with getting involved in other people’s business, it’s a pretty bad one.” She was so smooth!

“Get lost.” Kurt said, not finding anything else to say, and he couldn’t very well hit a girl. There were many things he could hit, but girls weren’t one of them. Morals, ya know?

“See I would, but there’s this thing I got to do.”

“Get it on with then! I have people to beat!”

The girl stepped up in front of Kurt, and punched him, right across the jaw. Her hand reeled back and she held it to her chest, flexing her fingers. Kurt stumbled to the side, caught by his “friends” and they held him up as he held his jaw and cried. Not so tough now.

The girl reached her other hand down –the punching hand held tightly to her chest still- and held it out for Abraham to take. He hesitated for a moment, wondering if the girl was going to punch him too, but he eventually took her hand and let here help him up.

“Th-thanks.” Abraham said, brushing himself off.

“I technically should be thanking you. I’ve been wanting to hit him all week, you’ve just given me to opportunity to.”

The girls name was Maggie. She was a tall girl, taller than Abraham was, with broad shoulders and big legs. Most that didn’t see her face thought her a boy.

From that day on, Maggie and Abraham were friends. Best friends. The outcast boy with a stutter and the boyish girl who wasn’t afraid.

When Maggie was asked why she was so upfront and ready to fight all the time –years later of course, after Maggie had gotten into a particularly nasty fight and Abraham was patching her up- she had replied with.

“I grew up with four brothers. Will has long hair and wears a lot of jewelry, Marshall isn’t comfortable in men’s clothing and likes to wear women’s dresses, Carter had a reputation as a generally bad kid, always causing trouble and getting others into trouble as well and Pete was scared of everything that crossed his path, shadows, spiders, dark forests, snakes, you name it. I had to learn to fight off bullies really young because no one was going to tell my big brothers how they have to behave. They were allowed to be who they wanted to be and I wanted to give them that opportunity.”

People often questioned why they were friends, as Maggie could have been friends with any one, but she chose to stay with Abraham, which he would never stop being thankful for.

[quinlin-blog1]

The Lost Island ~ Chapter Eight

*Shockingly enough, this is the final chapter of The Lost Island. Yeah, I didn’t really write much, and although I did have a second book, it got lost when my previous computer was dropped. So much for that book. Either way I really hope you’ve enjoyed! 

One Week.

Two Weeks.

Three Weeks.

A month.

I Guess I didn't realize how far away Miuros was.

Let me tell you that is wasn't a simple stroll in the park.

We've crossed lakes, Climbed Mountains, passed through valleys and we did it all while trying to stay out of sight of people.

It's probably why we had to do all these things, stay out of the main town areas and we ended up having to take quite a few detours. And I don’t think that when we started this trek, how big the island actually was.

“Mommy!” Dill cried. I rushed to go see what happened.

Though, I don't think I was fully prepared for what I saw.

Dill seemed to have somehow, hung himself from a branch on a tree, above one of our tents.

“How in the name of whoever is out there, did you manage to get up there?” I asked.

“I don't know,” Dill said innocently

“Bets!” I shouted.

“Yeah?” She replied coming closer to me.

“How did Dill get up there?” I asked.

“Well you see Delly. He was trying to be a sloth, because the other sloths were teasing him that he couldn't climb the tree, He just appeared there. Like a fairy appearing in a puff of smoke!” Crystal informed me. Well, at least she's getting back to her animal obsessive-ness.

Wait, did she say puff of smoke?

“Yes Delly. I said puff of smoke,” Crystal replied.

Damn It! I thought I stopped that!

“Well you didn't,” Porter said, appearing out of, literally, nowhere.

“For God’s sake!” I said as I jumped back in shock, causing Crystal and Porter to laugh.

“Ha-ha hilarious!” I scowled.

“Mommy! Hewp! Helwp!”  Dill called.

Well at least it's a good way for me to practice my abilities.

I watched as my hands and eyes began to glow golden, I was watching myself, outside of my body.

“Alright Dill. Jump,” I told him.

He shook his head at me.

“Dill. You have to jump!” I provoked him.

He nodded and jumped out of the tree. My dis-embodied self caught him and pulled him over to where my embodied self was. Then as my hands and eyes stopped glowing, my dis-embodied self disappeared.

I looked at Dill, who looked back at me.

“Mommy! The fairies taught me how to Poof!” He exclaimed

“Is that so?” I asked.

“Yup! Dey said that I'm gonna be fwiend to Dem. Dey taught me to Poof!”

“Show me your Poof,” I said.

I set Dill on the ground, he stepped about four feet away from me before putting on a very concentrated face. (He looked like he was constipated), and he suddenly disappeared, leaving a trail of smoke and smog in his trail.

“Wow,” I said.

“Did you see mwe?! Did you see mwe?!” Dill shouted from behind me.

“I did see you and it was amazing.” It was also good to have a great get away trick.

Dill seemed extremely happy at my pride and approval.

“Dey said dat dey can teach mwe more later,” Dill told me.

“Really? They did? When did they say that?” I asked.

“Earlier, Dey said dat dey like mwe,” Dill explained briefly.

“Well they seem nice.” I said. You may possibly be thinking that I'm insane for encouraging such behavior, but you saw what he did just then, those things don't just come by themselves.

If Dill said it was the fairies then the fairies it was.

“Dey said dat dey like you too Mommy! Dey like all of us!” Dill stated.

“Do they now? Well I'm glad we made a good impression on them. Do you like them?”

“Uh-Huh! Dey nice!”  

“Well I'm glad that you made some friends. But try not to Poof into a tree next time” I responded.

    The next day, was, I will admit, extremely cold. I could have sworn that I saw frost on the bases of trees as we trudged through the forest, I'd say that now, we were two thirds of the ways there. Not too bad. But we could have been closer.

I had wrapped Dill up in my cloak that Carmen had lent me. Crystal had on her purple leather jacket and Porter was wrapped in two different green cloaks. It was just that cold.

“Damn sloths! Making it cold!” Crystal cursed.

“I don't think Damning the sloths will help our situation Bets” Porter pointed out.

“Well it's all I can do,” Crystal said.

“Dell, are you sure that we're going the right way?” Porter asked.

“Yes, why do you ask?” I wasn't used to leading, that was usually Catherine and Crystal kind of thing, but Crystal had wounded herself by trying to be a sloth so I was stuck in the leader position.

“Because we past that bush that looks like Darth Vader's helmet four times already” Porter point to the bush that I had indeed stated, looked like Darth Vader's Helmet. I sighed and buried my cold nose on the top of Dill's head.

“Well, what route should we take this time?” I asked

“I think we should take that scary looking path!” Crystal piped up, pointing down into the end of the forest that looked just as friendly as it sounded.

“How about no” Porter said.

“Well it's the only way we haven't gone yet,” Crystal told us.

As much as I wanted to disagree with Crystal and say that we should take the safe route, now that I thought about it, it really was the only way we hadn't gone yet.  

“Nope, I'm not going down there,” Porter protested.

“I thought that you were supposed to be loyal to the orders of the Alpha and the Beta?” Crystal inquired.

“Yes, but we don't follow your every wish and demand. If I see a problem with what you're saying, it's my job to point it out to you.”

“But there's a point in time where you have to just follow along.”

“Not now! That's a bloody death trap! There's no way on this Earth that you're going to get me to go into there,” Porter said.

So, I let them continue their pointless argument, I went down the right path, no matter how scary it was, they'd have to follow the guardian, they had to follow. Dill was still shivering slightly, but he was almost asleep. I wished that I could be the same. With the combination of cold, worry and slight fear, I was suffering from insomnia.

I wondered for a moment how Catherine was holding up.

How had they been treating her?

No better than they would you or any other person.

Had she given them what they wanted?

Knowing Catherine, she probably would have spit in their faces.

Did she know that we coming for her?

She's probably denying it, but she knows we wouldn't abandon her.

Is she still alive?

Yes!

What if she isn't?

She has to be.

That all depends on how stubborn those people are and how much she denied them.

Well now you're just not helping.

Did you expect me to?

Sometimes, I hate my brain.

“Well too bad for you Sissy, you're stuck with it and us.” Not helping Cal.

“We're not trying to help. You’re fun to mess with,” Arrow teased

I focused hard and heard a loud thunk that echoed through the vaults of my mind.

“OW!” They all exclaimed.

“That's what you get,” I snickered.

“That ain't nice Baby sis,” Zell stated.

“Yeah, but it was fun,” I said.

“Now that, I ain't gonna deny,” Zell told me.

“Hey! Zell! You're supposed to be on my side!” Arrow exclaimed.

“Yeah but he likes me more than any of you,” I smirked.

Arrow gasped “Zell! How could you! I thought you loved me! That's it! We're over!” Arrow yelled.

”I knew it!” I shouted, making Dill look at me. “Sorry.”

“Knew what?” Tori asked.

“The romance Tor! Can't you see the love?” I teased.

“I can!” Cal stated.

“Totally,” Tori agreed.

“I hate you all,” Arrow pouted.

“Everyone loves me Arrow,” I told him.

“It's not just him. I hate you guys too,” Zell pointed out.

“Don't be like that guys,” I said.

“We can be however we want to be and you can't say nothing about it,” Arrow said.

“How much wood could a wood-chuck chuck, if a wood-chuck could chuck wood?” Cal asked.

“I'm not even sure how that became a part of the conversation,” I blinked.

“Me too,” The others replied.

“Are you guys always this loud?” I heard Crystal ask.

“Yes. Did you guys finally finish arguing?”

“For now.” Porter said simply.

“Can you hear them?” I asked gesturing to my head.

“Only just now, Carrie connected us for a moment so I could understand why your facial expressions go too rapidly from grumpy, to happy, then serious then confused, then laughing and back to serious again.”

“I'm not that bad!” I defended.

“Yeah you are,” The others said.

“Shut up,” I grumbled.

“What? We didn't say anything,” Porter told me.

“Not you,” I said.

“Me?” Crystal asked.

“NO!”

I pointed to my head, where Cal and Zell had just gotten into a fight. From what it sounds like, it's a fist fight. Great.

“Would you Stop IT!” I yelled. Making everyone, including Porter, Dill and Crystal stop.

“Us?” Crystal and Porter asked while Dill looked at me.

“Sorry,” Cal and Zell said.

“No, Cal and Zell got into a fist fight.”

“Who won?” Porter asked excitedly.

“I did!” Cal and Zell said.

“They did,” I repeated.

“No I did!”

“No, they did,” I repeated.

“Uh-uh.”

“Uh-uh.”

“Don't be mean!”

“Don't be mean!”

I think by this time I had thoroughly freaked out the others.

“Quickly, quietly get the brain surgeon,” Crystal whispered to Porter.

“Or maybe a Psychiatrist” Porter replied quietly.

“Why not both?”

“I can hear you!” I shouted.

“We weren't doing anything!” They shouted and I rolled my eyes.

“And I don't need a brain Surgeon or a Psychiatrist!” I told them.

“Are you sure?” Bets asked me.

“OK, maybe I might need a psychiatrist. But I don't fancy the brain surgeon,” I cringed.

“Neither do we.” They replied.

“You guys Awe weird,” Dill said.

“Thank you,” I said drowsily, my eyes drooping down.

It had been a while since I had a good night’s rest. With staying up as look-out and watching over Dill and Crystal and Porter, really, I didn’t get much sleep.

It wasn't even a moment later that my eyes started drooping and I was pretty much sleep walking. Poor Dill probably got a fright.

“Delly!”

“It wasn't me!” I was lucky enough to be able to dodge the tree I was heading for.

I heard snickering and turned to see Porter really trying his best to not laugh at me. Key word, Trying.

OK, I really tried to look angry, but really, I was confused so I gave up on that and looked in front of me just in time.

All emotions washed away when we came upon a city that wasn't there in our time. The entire thing was in ruins, yet it looked intact. It looked old and abandoned, it may have been old, but there was life there.

It felt cold, but not the cold you get from snow or the wind. No, I wished it was that cold. It was the cold that you would identify something that was undead and ghostly.

“The Lost City,” I muttered as I looked at Crystal and Porter. The wind howled by our ears in an eerie fashion. Even Dill seemed to not like this place.

 “The Lost City.” They repeated. Taking the first step into the unknown City.

[quinlin-blog1]

How To Phone Home - Free Novel by QuinlinWillow

This thing was her father. Her father in a disgustingly ugly suit of skin that hung off him like poorly made clothing. As the thought came, Rosie wanted to cry out to him, to talk to him, to scream.

[quinlin-blog1]

Subway

The subway was filled with people, trains going in and out of the station and everyone was going about with their own day. You wished you could do the same, really you did, you wished that you could say that you were going about on a completely normal day, sitting in the subway station, waiting for your train. Maybe you'd have headphones in, listening to your favorite music, or a movie that you had uploaded to your mobile earlier. Or maybe you'd be lost in your own world, thinking to yourself about something random that had caught your attention. Or maybe you were running over your list of things that you needed to do, the mental list of everything from toilet paper to dish soap. Or maybe you had to get some clothes stitched. Whatever it was, it was simple, it was normal, it was mundane.

And it wasn't the reason you were in the subway station today. Your coat was drawn tightly around you, despite it not really being all that cold out. The sound you shoes made against the hard tiled floors was muffled by the sounds of everyone around you, but you tried to focus on the noise anyway, getting rid of the anxiety that filled you. You didn't want this, this was the last thing that you wanted.

"Hey! Hey! You there!"

You turned your head -a regrettable choice in hindsight- and saw a man standing not too far away from you. Your eyes went wide a little bit. You sped up your walk a bit, pushing past people as they came in your way. Some looked back at you as they were shoved, others tried to yell at you, but you were gone before they could. Other didn't even bat an eye, because getting pushed in a subway station is natural. But this wasn't.

"Hey! Hey!"

You pushed yourself to go a little faster, to get around everyone else, but there were some that were too stubborn to move and you had to go around them. This was what led to to be caught.

The man grabbed your arm. Swiftly, your fist came around, hitting him in the side of the head and knocking him sideways. Nobody blinked.

In fact, it seemed that everyone around you, all the people, had stopped moving entirely. It was like someone had paused a movie. Some big, eternal being being had paused the movie of Earth to go get more popcorn, and would return in a moment to press play again. Only, you were moving, and the man in front of you was too.

You watched as he stumbled to the side, and you quickly moved in front of him again, catching him around his neck as he stopped. Your hands were held behind his neck and your forearms rested on his shoulders. You brought his face down harshly into your knee, bringing it back up, only to bring it down again. You didn't want to fight him, you really didn't. But it seemed you weren't in control of your actions anymore.

You let him go, reaching into your jacket for the object that you had kept hidden so easily from the people around you. The metal of the gun felt cold in your hand as you brought the gun to the man's head.

"Stop! Stop!" The man pleaded "I'm just a messenger! Haven't you heard the saying? 'Don't shoot the Messenger'? It's a thing I swear!"

"I've heard the saying" You snapped "I just don't care for it in this particular moment."

"Please. They- They say they're coming for you. You should hide, run!"

You shook your head.

"You wouldn't shoot me, the good guy never shoots."

You looked at him for a moment, before sighing and turning your head.

The sound of a gunshot, was what brought the world to a start again.

[quinlin-blog1]

The Lost Island ~ Chapter Seven

Darkness.

That was the first things I was greeted to when I woke up. I opened my eyes, expecting to see my lines of bookshelves and Alex's yelling at some sort of video game. But I wasn't.

I was in a room that I didn't recognize. The walls and floors were stone. It was cold, ever for the early spring. I then realized something.

I wasn't at the school.

This was not how I intended to spend my Friday off.

I wondered what Adriana, Crystal, Porter and Alex were doing right now. I hoped that they weren't going to try and find me. It was the last thing that I wanted. If they got captured too it wouldn't be helpful, to anyone. If I was just stuck here then I could find a way to get out myself, but if I had to worry about Adriana, Crystal, Porter and Alex, I'd probably go insane.

I was knocked out of my thoughts when the metal door to the room I was in opened.

“Where am I?” I demanded.

“Now, how do we know you’re not a telepathic? We wouldn't want you contacting a rescue team, now would we?” The woman asked.

“If you had done your research properly then you would know that telepathy is not my major or even my minor. Which goes to prove that your sources suck,” I informed her.

“Considering that you're at my mercy little girl, so perhaps you should be mindful of your words.”

“If I’m at your mercy, then what do you want? No one kidnaps a person just to have them under their complete control.”

“Good assessment, I assume that you've heard about the children that have been getting kidnapped and have their Abilities taken away therefore their genetic code dismantled and slowly and quite painfully I might add, disintegrate while the person is still alive, causing them to die?”

“No, cause they're stupid enough at Cartemen to not tell us these things” I said sarcastically. Great! Adriana has rubbed off on me.

“Well you see” The woman continued without listening to my comment. “Sket, the man who is responsible for these occurrences, has been struggling with these new powers, because they were not made or genetically encoded for him, therefore they are not compatible. But He needs an ability that will enable him to have these abilities run on the same frequency all together so that they will encode with his genetics.”

“So, you need someone that has a power in those terms,” I said slowly.

“Your powers could do that. Cath no matter what don't let them do anything. You can’t tell them anything” Bloom warned me.

“That's exactly what we need. Now. You are the smartest at Cartemen. Do you know of anyone with these abilities?”

“No,” I said bluntly.

“Are you sure? Maybe you should think just a little harder.”

I put on a fake thinking face and pretended to stroke an imaginary beard.

“Nope” I said.

The woman huffed and left. I sighed to myself. I was in deep trouble now.

  Adriana’s point of view.

  “Are you sure that they were sighted here?” I asked Porter, who nodded exasperated.

“Positive. One Carmen Donna, age fifty-three, saw two men and one woman carrying a young girl with pale blonde and purple hair around the age of thirteen. Doesn't that match Alphs' appearance perfectly?” Porter raised his eye brow at me.

“Point taken.”

We approached a small village and I was taken aback by how, for lack and want of a better term, under developed it was. It was like going to one of those strange medieval times conventions.

“Does anyone else feel like we're a bit out of place here?” I asked

Crystal and Porter nodded absentmindedly at me. They seemed to be in a trance at the sight of the village that we were in. I had to admit, it had a certain beauty to it. The small houses weren't the generic block and brick houses, no, they seemed to be made a wood, like old fashioned cottages. The beauty of it all over-whelmed me. Surely, we hadn't traveled back in time? Though perhaps it wouldn't be such a bad thing if we did, it was, indeed, very nice here.

“Do you think it's possible that we've gone back in time?” I asked slowly.

“On normal conditions I would say no, but seeing this now, I believe that assessment would be inadequate.” Crystal said.

“Since when do you use words like “Assessment and inadequate”?” I asked.

“Since now,” Crystal shrugged.

“Right. So. Let's find Carmen Donna.” Porter said.

“I say we split up, we'll cover more ground that way,” Crystal instructed.

Porter and I nodded and we split up.

I walked down the cobbled-stone road. This day just kept getting weirder and weirder. The people were giving me strange looks, I realized that I was wearing jean and a star-wars tee. So much for a good impression!

A tall, well-built building stood at one side of the town, I assumed that this was a hospital, and there was no way that they would take Catherine in there. I looked to the front of the village and saw a large castle. It looked like it could easily be half the size of the village itself.

I saw an elderly lady, around the age of seventy or eighty, sitting by a stone bench with knitting needles it her hands and a long scarf made of yarn in front of her. I began to walk over to her, slowly to make sure that I didn’t scare her.

“Excuse me? I asked politely.

“Goodness child! You startled me! How can I help you?” I woman replied gently, setting aside her needles to the bench.

“I'm looking for Carmen Donna.” I told her softly.

“Whatever did Carmen do this time?” The woman asked.

“Oh, she hasn't done anything. She's my great-auntie. On my father’s side, He told me that I should come and visit today” I explained, although I was lying through my teeth.

“Oh! I had no idea that Carmen had any family relations left! Oh, she will be pleased!” The woman exclaimed. I smiled.

“She lives another block over and two doors down. The only green house in the area” She informed me.

“Thank you for your kindness,” I thanked.

I walked to the directions that the elderly woman had given me, getting slightly distracted by the scenery around me and I saw the house that the old lady mentioned. It seemed that this Carmen Donna was very different from any one else in this village. The house was big, bigger than the average house, but not as big as the hospital, its green paint was vibrant but peeling off, the doors were old and creaky looking but they were pretty none the less. The windows weren’t grimy or dusty which meant someone had been cleaning them often. All in all, the house looked well kept.

There, as I approached the house, sitting on the porch, was Carmen Donna. Her black hair was slightly graying, the gray eyes were duller, with less light of youth in them, but there was a mischief about them. As soon as she saw me her eyes widened and she gestured for me to come in.

Was I expected?

I hesitantly walked up to the house and followed Carmen in. What I saw when I walked in, was something I most definitely didn't expect.

The entire house, was from the modern day. From house phones, to a micro-wave and electric fans to a radio.

“Alright! If I wasn't extremely confused before about time traveling then I most certainly am now!” I said as I walked to the sitting room where Carmen was.

“It's about time you got here Adriana. I've been waiting for weeks!” She told me as I sat down.

“How do you know my name?” I asked.

“Like I said, I've been waiting for you.

“What do you mean?” I asked.

Carmen sighed, muttering about how it was going to be a long day. “I am what you would call a Psychic. I see into the future. I was sent back in time when I was eighteen years old, I have been living out my life here, but these things from the future keep appearing once every few months or so a new piece of technology appears.  As I grew old, people just began to think I was going crazy. So, I just kept to myself. Until three weeks ago when I began to have visions about you coming in search of your friend.”

“Yeah. People said that you had seen two men and a woman carrying her?” I asked.

“No I didn't. No technically. I saw it in a vision.” Carmen informed me.

“So, do you know anything?” I asked desperately.

“She was taken the town Miuros. And trust me when I say this. That is not a nice place to be.”

Taking in the information I took a moment to speak again. “How do I get back to my time?” I asked.

“You can't. I have been trying for forty-two years and I haven't found the answer yet. I fear that you will be stuck like myself, until the end of your time” Carmen said sadly.

I didn't believe it, I couldn't. I had to get back to my own time. Although I didn’t understand how I got here in the first place, so how was I going to get back to my own time?

“This makes no sense! How is it possible for you to see us in an entirely different time-line?!” I asked incredulously.

“Maybe because it's not happening on your time-line.” Carmen pointed out.

“W-what?” I said.

“You saw that castle up there? That is Cartemen, before it became the school. This is where Sket and his men were taking those children. Maybe that's why your sister and everyone else could never find the ones who were doing it, because they weren't even in the right time-line. This entire Island is out of sync with the rest of the world. Something happened in the 1500’s to knock the Island out of sync with the rest of the universe. The universe is moving through Time and Space, but something happened that knocked this one island out of sync with the rest of time and space. Just this island. No one knows what happened.  There, it’s just a normal day. But it was thousands of years before now, and people still haven’t figured out what happened”

“So, they would need to have someone who can stop and control time. So, I don't need to get back, I need to stay here. Find Alphs here on this time-line. But, wait-” I turned to Carmen “How would I get back after? How are four thirteen-year-old kids supposed to save humanity? Would anyone remember if we did?” I asked.

“I do not know. That has not been revealed to me yet. But know this. You're not alone. You're never alone.” I was confused by the elder woman's words, but nodded to them anyway.

“Thank you” I said sincerely She nodded and smiled softly at me.

“You know. I was friends with your grandmother when she was young. You remind me very much of her. Well, all accept the hair and the attitude” Carmen smiled, I hadn't known my grandmother very long before she died. But we did get along very well.

“Wait!” I heard Carmen yell before I left. I turned to her. “Beware of the Lost City. No one knows who lives there.”

“They built a school on a Lost Island. The Lost Island. Where they built a school for people with different specialties.” I pointed out.  

Carmen let me out of the small, yet big house and waved me off.

Now all I had to do was hope to find Crystal and Porter before they do or say anything stupid. Which with my luck they already would have. I went around to the old town square where Crystal and Porter were sitting. Well Porter was sitting with his head in his hands, while Crystal was preforming some sort of gymnastics presentation. Could have been worse.

“Bets! Porter!” I exclaimed.

Crystal looked at me, mid-handstand and twisted out of it. Porter had reached me in half this time and was looking at me anxiously.

“Bets said that we could distract the town’s people while you figure out stuff” Porter told me.

“Glad you did” I said.

“Did you find Carmen Donna?” Crystal asked.

“Yeah,” I said, trying to figure out how to tell her.

“And?” they said together.

“I figured out the reason that Olive has never been able to catch them”

“Why?” they urged.

“Because they were going back in time before they could be caught. Carmen was brought here forty- two years ago.  She still hasn't found her way out yet. But we don't need to go back to our time! Because they brought Alphs here. They took her to the town of Miuros. But apparently, it's not a very nice place. But what other choice do we have,” I stated.

“Do you think that they'll have her sedated or something?” Porter asked.

“I highly doubt that, they'll probably have her awake because they've want her to answer some questions.”

“So where is Miuros?” Crystal asked.

“South. A little bit due east of here, but mostly south” I informed them shortly.

“It that all?” Porter asked as we walked out of the town, heading south.

“Whose turn is it to cook?” Crystal asked.

“Yours,” Porter and I said.

“Damn, I walked right into that one,” Crystal stated.

“You should have known better Bets.”

“Shut up Delly. Be lucky I don't have any food poison” Crystal threatened.

Though I knew it was an empty threat, I could not help to admit that I was the tiniest bit scared. But I wasn't going to tell Crystal that.

  Crunch!

Snore!

Crunch!

Snore!

Crunch! Snap!

“OK Mother Nature thou definitely suck-ith” I grumbled groggily under my breath as I laid on a sleeping mat. Crystal was snoring, and Porter was tossing and turning. I was awake listening to all of it.  

I jolted when there was a sudden rustle in the bushes. Silently I sat up from my sleeping roll and I grabbed my pocket knife from underneath of my pillow and, being careful that I didn’t make any noises, I went to check it out.

“Why always with the violence Ads,” Tori asked me.

“You can't very well blame me for being cautious Tori, anything could be out there,” I stated.

“You do have a point, but they ain't gonna be hurtin' ya Ads,” Zell pointed out.

“How do you know?” I asked as I looked around again.

But before Zell or Tori or Arrow and Cal could answer. The rustling in the bushes became louder and louder until the bushes parted and it approached me. There, causing all the noise and making me cautious and nervous, was a three-year old little boy with giant hazel colored eyes and scruffy dark brown hair. His face was covered in dirt and he had small cuts and scratches on his arms and legs, his tunic and trousers were torn and burnt. I had to admit, it broke my heart a little more to see this sight.

The little boy stared at me, then at my knife and then at me again.

Though the second time, his look was fearful. I raised a curious eye brow and then realized the problem.

“Oh. No sweetheart! I'm not going to hurt you!” I stated reaching a hand out, only for the small boy to recoil.

I raised the hand that had the knife, the boy stiffened in fear, I then dropped it and kicked it back towards our camp, and I heard a soft thump, followed by a groan, signifying that it had hit Porter.

It took a few moments, but then the little boy quickly ran into my arms, shaking and weeping in fear. I wrapped my arms around him and re-assured him that he was fine.

“Mommy?” He asked looking up at me.

“Me?” I gestured to myself. He nodded and stuffed his face back into my shoulder, quivering with fear. I, still shocked, carried him back to the camp.

The fire had long since gone out, leaving only embers behind. I quickly re-ignited it when I realized that the poor shaking boy, was shaking half out of fear, then half because he was cold. As I did this, the small boy refused to even let me put him down.

Once the fire was raging once more, lighting up the cool night air, I turned to the boy in my arms.

“Mommy,” he said, though I think it was more of a statement than anything else.

“What's your name?” I asked.

He looked confused at me.

“I'm Addy, you are-?” I started.

“No! You mommy!” he stated indignantly.

“Alright, I'm Mommy.”

He smiled. “Dill” he stated.

“Dill? That's you name?” I asked and Dill nodded.

“What happened sweetheart?” I asked.

“The bad guys came, dey took pweople, and dey had big things that hurt pweople” Dill said.

“And they killed everyone?” I finished and Dill nodded.

I looked sadly out to the forest where Dill must have been wandering for days. How hungry was he? In reply, the young boy’s stomach rumbled. I smiled slightly and attempted to put him on the log next to me. But, of course, my efforts were fruitless. He was like a mini-koala. Just . . . Less vicious.

I sighed. “Dill. I need to get you some food. You need to sit down” I said gently.

“Uh-uh.” He denied “You leave mwe too” Dill said, tears filling his large puppy-dog hazel color eyes.

“I'm not going too far, just over there” I said gesturing to the spot where we had stored our food and other supplies.

Dill hesitated then let me go. For a small, starving, three-year old boy, he had a good grip.

I walked to the small storage box that we had set up and grabbed out some bread, chicken and carrots. It wasn't much, but we still had to go and re-stock up tomorrow.

I walked back over to Dill, where he was sitting next to the fire, like he was watching a ghost that was going to forever haunt him. Though seeing the destruction of his town and his real family probably did the same for him.

“Dill?” I said quietly, careful not to wake Crystal or Porter.

Dill turned to me and rushed back into my arms as soon as I sat down.

I gave him small bits of chicken, which he ate whole-heartedly I reached and grabbed my canteen, which was sitting next to my bedroll and handed it to Dill.

“Mommy?”

I sighed, that's going to take a long while to get used to.

“Yep?” I replied.

“Where we going?” Dill asked.

“We're going to Miuros. Alphs, Or I guess she's your auntie now is there and we need to go get her”

You probably wondering if you read that right, well you did.

I intend to keep Dill.

Why you may ask?

Because his parents and village were killed in a fire fight and he has nowhere else to go.

So, I might as well choose the more responsible out of the four of us and make Catherine his godmother. Well sort of, I don't really think the government has (Or will have given my current situation) Regulations for this sort of thing.

“So, we go find Auntie Awphs?” Dill asked.

Am I the only one who's have a cuteness over dose?

OK you'll have to pardon my outburst just then.

But you can't really blame me for having it.

I may seem cold and heart-less. But I still have a giant weakness for baby children. Well technically Dill isn't a baby.

But he's still small and you can't blame me for having a girly, child-like outburst.

“Yes, we're going to get Auntie Alphs. But for now, you need some sleep”

“But Mama! I don't want to!” Dill protested.

“Don't make me tickle you” I threatened.

Dill gasped. “No!”

I gasped, “Yes!”

Dill tried to run away, but I swiftly caught him and wrapped my legs and arms around him, tickling him.

He squealed and laughed. I tried shushing him, but it only made him laugh louder.

I look back on that moment now and think ' How did Crystal and Porter not wake to the sound of a laughing three-year old boy?'

Well apparently, Porter had a stroke a genius and put ear plugs in his ears to keep the sounds of Crystal’s snoring out. Crystal is just immune to all noises while she's sleeping.

The tickling carried on for another good five minutes. I was enjoying myself, Dill seemed to be happy as well. I don't think that any one has ever done this before, not just the tickling, but the overall love and caring that he was receiving.

I had Twilight, I had Catherine and Crystal, but there was one thing that was always amazing, was the over whelming love that comes from a toddler.

I had something like that with Maya, but it was different.

Just different.

   Catherine’s point of view.

  Ow!

Ow!

Ow!

 OK, so as you can obviously tell, I'm in pain. But it's a confusing pain.

The pain that I'm in isn't physical.

No.

That would be so much better than the pain I was experiencing.

This was mental pain.

Images driven into my brain, of death and war. Hatred and Anger.

It was enough to drive a normal person mad!

But I think that they know that. For a simple fiften year old girl I had a very strong will power and they were using that to their advantage.

I had yet to tell them about the simple fact that the one that they had been causing all this pain to, was the one that they were asking about.

Ironic huh?

If they saw the irony of it, they would probably be mad at both me and themselves.

At me for completely making a fool out of them.

They for letting me make a fool out of them.  

I could just imagine their faces if they found out.

But, even if it would be highly amusing, I couldn't tell them. They would kill me, and kill everyone else.

That doesn’t sound appealing.

“So” And there's the voice I wake up to and go to sleep to every day and night.  “Are you ready to tell me?”

“Hmm. Well let's consider the pros and cons of telling you who it is. Pro's first. First, you won't kill me, or maybe you will.” I paused dramatically “That's about it. Con's now. First, you'll most likely kill me. Second, you'll kill my friends and family. Third, you'll get world domination.” I paused again, pretending to mull over my choices. “No, I think I'll keep it to myself,” I smirked.

I knew that I'd probably get into trouble for that, but I still did in anyways.

‘Good thinking Alphs, Good thinking.’

 So, in hindsight, that wasn't the best idea.

I really turned into Adriana just then.

Speaking of that devil. I wonder where and how they're doing right now.

“Bloom. Any updates?” I asked.

“Well, you're officially an aunt,” Bloom informed me.

“Wait. You’re joking, right? You have to be joking because you don’t actually think that Bets would adopt a child to you?” I asked.

“Yes. I do. And in fact, it was Dell who has apparently adopted a young three-year old boy named Dill. She found him after his village was pillaged and burned to the ground. Apparently, he thinks she's his mother, so she's taken him in. Never really expected for her to do something like that. That's more like something that you or Bets would do. Not Dell.” Bloom cleared up.

“That's so typical of Dell! Her little children obsessed side came out.” I stated. Well not really, I my mind I did, considering it's a mind conversation.

“Really? “Typical Dell?” Warm heartedness is not like Dell at all” Bloom stated.

“It actually is though. Anything else?” I asked

“Other than the fact that Alex is now top of her class and Dell, Bets and Porter are on their way to find you then no, nothing else new.”

“I'm so proud of Alex. But you said that the others are coming to find me. Where exactly am I?” I tried. I’d been asking this question the entire time I’d been here, but I had been unable to get a proper answer out of Bloom.

“You're in a place called Miuros. It's small town off the south side of the island, a bit more to the east than directly south, but you know what I mean” Bloom informed me.

I let out a puff of air, and wasn't really shocked about the fact that I could see my breath.

“How am I supposed to get out of here Bloom?” I asked. Wow, I was asking a lot of questions today.

“I don't know Cath. I really don't know. But you must think positive right now, there's nothing else you can do.” Bloom told me sadly.

Well.

That's just dandy, then isn't it?

It looks like I'm going to be here for a while so why not get comfy?

Pfft! On what!

[quinlin-blog1]

The Lost Island ~ Chapter Six

Currently, school was going to be held off. The only things that we were learning right now were specialty control and self-defense. I was feeling much better now, my cold was gone, but after that Catherine and Crystal got sick, but we got over that too.

Another thing was bugging me as well. Crystal was hiding something from us. She came around less and less, she wasn't obsessing over baby animals like she used to, and she rarely ever spoke to us. This was different from Crystal’s usual behavior, usually she always had something to say, even if it had nothing to do with what we were talking about. I could always rely on her to brighten the mood if she needed to. But now, she just couldn’t and I really wanted to find out why.

Catherine and I stormed up to the animal guru's living area. We opened the door, to see Crystal cornered by, what seemed to be the entire group of them. Catherine and I cast each other an unsure look and we crept closer, deceivingly quiet. But we weren't prepared for what we heard.

“You know. My sister used to have a clown fish as a pet. Maybe you're related!”

“Come on funny one, tell us a joke!”

“Maybe you should just leave!”

“We'd be better off without you”

The insults were flowing from everyone. Catherine and I looked at each other, our eyes were completely filled with anger and understanding. We now knew why Crystal had been acting so weird.

“Hey!” I shouted. Grabbing the attention of everyone if the room. Crystal seemed to become paler when she saw us standing there.

“Maybe you should leave her alone and pick on someone your own size,” I yelled at them.

The biggest one of the group came out and looked at me. He towered over me, he must have been at least six foot. Much taller than me, even though I was quite tall.

“Who are you to tell us what to do?” He sneered, he most likely expected me to back down.

“I'm me and that should be enough. Now leave my friend alone before I make you,” I replied.

“Make us! Ha! You can't make us tiny!”

“And why should I waste my time on people like you?” I challenged, not really feeling the need for violence.

Catherine was pulling Crystal out of range while everyone was distracted.

“Excuse me?”

“Why should I bother with people like you? You’re not worth my time!” I laughed bitterly, without humor “You are all horrible people. Torturing someone who’s different from you? Taunting them because you don’t like them. That’s low.” I stated.

“Two months,” A voice piped up. Though it came with no context, I understood what they meant.

“Two months? That’s how long this has been going on? Why would you do that?” I asked, my voice filled with venom and pity.

No one answered.

“Any one?” I asked.

Nothing.

“If there was no reason to it, then why would you do it?” I think I was terrifying them right now.

“If I catch this happening one more time. You will wish you never came into my path” I warned, my voice lowering. They nodded hastily. “Now, if you'll excuse me. I now must have to deal with a broken girl. Off you trot”

I waved them off and made my way to Crystal’s room. I heard Catherine in there and sniffling, so I could only assume that this had hurt Crystal more than anything before. Sure, we’d been through things, like when Bets fell out of the tree and sprained her ankle, she cried then, and she cried when Agent Coulson died in the Avengers, but I don’t think that this was like those times.

I knocked and went in. Crystal was a little worse for wear, maybe more than a little. She looked terrible. But don't tell her I said that.

“Hey Bets,” I said softly, sitting next to wear my friends were.

“H-hey D-Delly” Crystal stuttered. Trying to wipe the obvious tears away.

“Bets why didn't you tell us?” Catherine asked.

“I didn't want you to be disappointed in me. I was afraid you'd see me as weak and judge me. I'm not supposed to be bugged by these kinds of things, but it hit me too close to home. I didn't say anything because I was worried that you wouldn't think the same of me anymore.” She sniffled.

That literally, almost broke my little black heart. I didn't know what to say and it appeared that Catherine didn't either. I simply blinked at her. But Crystal only assumed the worst.

“Well?! Say something!” She shouted

“Bets. You should have told us. We wouldn't have thought of you any differently than we already do. I hurt slightly that you'd expect us to.” Catherine said

“Yeah Bets. Telling us before would have been much healthier for you. Looks at what's happened! Look at what you've done to yourself! If you had told us before all of this could have been avoided,” I stated.

“I'm sorry I didn't tell you earlier. I was just scared”

“Well next time, if there even is one, tell us first,” Catherine said.

“Yeah. I could knock a few heads sooner,” I joked and Crystal giggled slightly.

We're OK. We're going to be OK.

And if there was any time when I have more jinxed us, I’d be worried.

“Where is she?!” I bellowed as Crystal and I were sitting in Olive’s office. Catherine had been kidnapped in the middle of the night. I was even awake at the time! How could I not have heard? She would have had to have made some sort of distressed noise, Catherine was one of the lightest sleepers I know, surely, she couldn’t have slept through her own kidnapping.

“We're doing everything we can Dri.” Olive assured me.

“Well it’s not enough!” I shouted.

I’d always felt that it was my job to make sure my friends were safe, as an older sister I’ve always felt like it’s my job to protect and help my family and friends. How can I do that now? Catherine is gone, maybe if I’d been there to help her she would be safe.

But there was no real way to know that and deep down inside I knew that it wasn’t really my fault, but I still felt that way on the outside. And due to these feelings, I was acting very short tempered.

“Delly. They're doing what they can. For now, you and me need to go tell Alex and Porter,” Crystal told me.

I looked at Olive, who stared back at me, her expression unchanging. I felt a sudden surge of hate towards my older Sister in-law. I hoped for a moment that maybe she would say something more, but she turned away from me.

Crystal helped me up and we went back to my rooms, a quiet, lonely walk where neither of us spoke because we didn’t know what to say, neither of us really wanting to talk. We walked into Catherine, Alex and my shared living room, where Alex was just waking up. She looked at us as we walked in and I could tell by the look in her eyes that she knew something was wrong.

“Addy, Crys. Where's Cathy?” She asked

My breath caught in my throat as I tried to fit the words in my head. I took a breath and began to speak.

“Cathy was . . . Kidnapped. They're doing what they can to find and help her, but we don't know where they took her,” I stuttered.

Alex was speechless. Her mouth opened and then closed again. She repeated this motion several times before tearing up.

“How did it happen?” She asked.

I looked pleadingly at Crystal to explain, I knew that I couldn't. As Crystal began talking I found myself unable to listen to the story again, so I went into my room.

I threw a punch at the wall, feeling my hand contact the bricks, although I didn’t punch hard, I could feel the bones in my hand shake. I looked over at my closet, retracting my hand. I ran, my hand closely cradled to my chest as it throbbed, threw some t-shirts, jeans, toothbrush, mobile and my pocket knife. If Catherine was gone, it was my responsibility to find her. I grabbed my medicine kit (Which was significantly smaller than Catherine’s but it still worked) I stuffed my back-pack with my stuff and headed out of my room.

Really, I knew that I was acting rash, I mean, where was I going to go? Where was I going to look? I hadn’t the first clue as to where they would take Catherine, but my body was acting faster than my brain could think and soon, I found myself completely ready to launch myself into danger to find Catherine.

“Where do you think you're going?” Crystal asked from where she sat on the sofa with her head in her hands. Her voice cracked a tiny bit when she spoke but her face was clear of tears.

“I'm going to find Alphs. It's my job to look after you guys and that's what I'm going to do,” I said.

“You can't go by yourself! You'll get yourself in the same pace as Alphs did!” Crystal told me.

“What am I supposed to do?! Sit here and wait?!” I shouted, but my words came out and my voice cracked at the end.

“It's all you can do! All we can do! But risking yourself isn't going to help!” Crystal yelled back.

“Who put you in-charge!?”

“Alphs did when she told me that it was my job to lead you guys when she wasn't around!”

“Well Alphs isn't here and she may never be here again if someone doesn't do something!”  

“What can we do? We're just kids! We can't go up against a maniac!” Crystal pointed out

“Well it's better than nothing,” I huffed.

“And what do you think that you’ll end up doing? You’ll be completely alone out there! You heard what Olive said, fully grown men have gone out there and never came back. You can’t go out there by yourself! I don’t care how strong you think you are, you’ll get taken in seconds” Crystal yelled at me, waving her arms all over the place.

Deep down I knew she was right, a little bit above that I was shocked by her words, but all over I was too angry with whoever had taken Catherine, with Crystal and mostly with myself, to see Crystal’s reasoning.

“What do you expect me to do? I can’t sit here and just wait for them to kill Alphs. I can’t even stomach the idea of what they could possibly be doing to her right now! How can you expect me to sit here and do nothing?”

“I don’t expect you, but I hope that you’ll see to reason. You can’t go out there. How long do you think that you’ll last when you leave the school grounds? You won’t even make it to the night time Delly! What are you thinking?”

Having had enough of the seemingly pointless argument, I stormed towards the doors.

I felt Crystal grab my arm. When I turned back to her she was looking down at the floor. Her hand was shaking violently and her foot was tapping to the ground, which told me that she was irritated, but upset.

“If you're going. At least let Porter and I come with. You can't do this on your own,” Crystal asked me.

“You're not going to drop this, are you?” I sighed.

“Nope” Crystal said bluntly, not even using her usual happy tone, which showed me that this was more serious than I admitted to myself.

Feeling defeated by her, I sighed again and nodded. Crystal smirked triumphantly, knowing she had won and ran to pack. Shaking my head, I went to Porters room, which was down to hall from my own rooms, and I knocked on the door, careful to not wake up anyone else.

One of his roommates answered.

“Um . . . Yeah?” He asked, obviously, a little bit surprised to see me.

“I need Porter,” I said simply.

He nodded and went inside. I waited for about two minutes before Porter came out looking half asleep.

“Yeah Dell?” He asked rubbing drowsily at his eyes.

“Alphs has been kidnapped” I muttered to him, hoping that his roommates, who were standing in the background, wouldn’t hear us.

Porter suddenly jerked awake. “You’re serious?” He asked, all traces of sleep gone from his eyes.

I nodded. “Bets and I are going to find her. We need you to come too” I said, still talking quietly so that no one else could hear.

“Alright give me five minutes,” Porter reassured me before he went inside. I went back downstairs and waited for Bets and Porter.

A thought came to me. I'll leave a note addresses to Roxanne, explaining where we had gone to.

I grabbed a pen and paper and began to write.

 Professor Olive.

 You are probably wondering why Crystal, Porter and I are not in class today.

The answer is simple.

As you know, our best friend Catherine was kidnapped late last night. I can't help but feel that it is my fault.

So, Crystal, Porter and I decided that, and don't take offense to this, that your scouting and assurance was not enough, so we set out to find her ourselves.

You and I both know that you have no way of tracking us, and you don't know where she is. Neither do I.

But we are going anyway. Make sure that Catherine's little sister Alexandria understands our reasoning and is in good care. I am counting on you to do this.

Sincerely Adriana.

  I heard Crystal and Porter come down. I nodded at them and we left out the common area, I quickly turned and stuck the note to the door. We walked out of the school and off the grounds. I looked up at the school, thinking of what things were going to become while I was gone. This was going to be a long trip.

[quinlin-blog1]

The Lost Island ~ Chapter Five

It was now mid-July. Beautiful summer weather and slight breezes. Everyone was happy for the break of school work. We had July and August off. So, guess how we are spending it? We were spending those months soaking up as much sun as we could. Sure, we had a little bit of summer homework, but really, we did not care. Right now, we were starting to build our tree forts.  

“Come on Port!” I exclaimed, jumping onto Porters back.

I might have forgotten to mention, after our talk with Porter, he had become one of our best friends.

“You know. For someone who eats as much as you do, you’re surprisingly light” He said as he jogged to catch up to where we were loading stuff into wheel-barrels to take into the forest for out tree houses.

“It's a blessing given to me by whomever may be out there!” I said dramatically.

We approached where Catherine and Crystal were loading things up. We had informed Mary of our idea, apparently, she thought it was great because she allowed us access to the shed that all the building supplies were stored in. I had drawn out all our ideas and made them into blue-prints. We each had our own, Even Porter. He had decided to make his like a rocket, with glass at the top so he could see the stars. Porter let me down lightly and we walked the rest of the way.

“How can we help guys?” I asked.

“Well, we just need get all the stuff over to where we decided to set up. Probably going to take us the entire day to do so” Catherine told us.

“Porter. Do you think you could fly some stuff there?” Crystal asked

Right, that was Porter’s Ability. He can fly. He has unfold-able bat wings under his arms and can consciously turn into a bat, although he didn’t really like to show them because he was insecure.

“I- er- I guess I could,” Porter said nervously, fiddling with his fingers.

“No need to be nervous Port, we're all friends here” I reassured him. Porter nodded and unfolded his wings.

I smiled. He hooked two large packages of supplies to his feet, with the help of Catherine, and flew off into the forest.

Three days ago, all four of us had gone out looking for the best place to have our Houses. It took us about two hours to find the perfect spot.

The tree had been melded together over time. Four trees that had grown into one giant one. It was pretty amazing. The trees were twisted at the trunk and the leaves were sprouting out of everywhere. We had decided on the trees that we wanted, I got the tallest, Catherine got the thickest, Crystal got the one with the most animals living in it and Porter got the one that had a bit more of an open top. We all got the one that we needed. I wheeled two wheel-barrels containing large quantities of supplies in them. I skipped along the path, singing the wizard of Oz song along with Catherine and Crystal.

It wasn't a long walk into the forest, but it was deep enough in for no one to attempt to find it. By we reached our stop we were all but shouting out the song we were chanting. Porter looked at us like we were insane, which we most likely were.

“Let's start off with this. When we run out of supplies we'll make another run back,” Porter suggested.

“Bets” I started “Do you think that you could request some of the animals to help us? Just with getting things up there and all,” I asked, knowing that Crystal could at least try.

“I definitely think that I could. I can only request. Perhaps some birds, stronger ones, maybe a few larger animals like monkeys-”

“Monkeys? Where are you going to find monkeys?” Porter asked incredulously

“They're all around. All animals are always around, some just chose to be in this or that place. If you call to them and they feel like they want to help, they come” Crystal said before walking into the lush forest and disappearing from my sights.

Moments later Crystal returned, a slightly dazed look on her face. Followed by herds and flocks of several different kinds of monkeys and birds. From eagles and hawks to blue jays and robins. From baboons to spider monkeys. They had all come to help us.

“Well. Bets I must say. I will never underestimate you or your abilities ever again.” I said in awe.

“Agreed” Catherine said

  SPLASH!

“Porter! I'm going to kill you!” I screamed

Porter had decided it would be funny if he threw me, fully clothed, into the lake.

So, I was now freezing, wet and angry. Well not so much angry as freezing and wet.

I climbed out of the lake, shivering and shaking, Porter, Catherine and Crystal were laughing like there was no tomorrow. Apparently, they had found this quite funny.

“Oh Port,” I sang. Porter looked at me. My face was sickly sweet. “Come over here and give me a hug” My voice was soft and sweet. Porter got up and struggled over to me, like he was fighting my force of persuasion. But it wasn't going to work. My eyes glowed golden as I made my force stronger.

An acorn hit my head, knocking me out of my trance and letting Porter go. He ran away and I ran after him. Catherine and Crystal following in our wake. Porter ran, trying not to run into kids on his way. I, on the other hand, was literally jumping off the roof and walls. The powers of probability do have their up-sides. I finally jumped and landed on Porters back, toppling us both to the ground, Catherine and Crystal following in our lead. People were looking at us like we needed a mental hospital.

“OK. I know that Dell doesn't weigh much but all of you together sure do” Porter wheezed out from under us.

“Oh, come on Port that hurts, right here,” I said gesturing to my chest . . . on the right side . . . Again.

“Wrong side moron,” the others said.

I quickly switched sides, causing my friends to all laugh.

“Hey Dell? Did you get to show Lily, Lysander, Uriah and Maya your abilities?” Catherine asked.

“No, Olive said I should wait until Christmas. I'd have a better understanding of my specialties then” I sulked slightly

“It makes sense. I'd want to wait to show Alexandria, if she didn't already know,” Catherine compromised.

“How's Alex doing by the way?” Porter asked.

“We haven't seen much of her. She has made lots of friends her age.” Catherine said.

I gasped, getting the attention of the other three. “I have an idea” I said

“Uh-Oh.” Catherine and Crystal stated.

“Let's have another ice cream war” I smirked as Catherine and Crystal’s eyes widened.

“What's that?” Porter asked

Crystal quickly explained the rules and the basic outline of the game. All through this explanation, Porters eyes grew wider and wider.

“Why hasn't anyone suggested this before?!” He asked incredulously

We quickly ran to the kitchens, getting extremely large tubs of ice cream. But this time, we were throwing at in suspecting people.  Like the ones from the pink palace. They're the ones that focus on mostly shape-shifting into other people. Like I had said before, nothing to doing with Designers.

“Three . . . Two . . . One!” I yelled and we ran out, throwing ice cream at unsuspecting sun-bathers, joggers, even people who were trying to hide from us.

After a while of sneaking up behind people, they started to play with us. De'linco, Dunchra, Harget and Olive came out to see what the screams were. Thinking the worst of course. When they got out, Dunchra slipped on vanilla ice cream, causing her to crash into Harget and De'linco, who all went flying into the lake. Olive was completely busting a gut and when they re-surfaced, so were De'linco and Harget. Dunchra looked less than amused. She turned her stern look to Catherine, Crystal, Porter and I, turning it into a harsh glare. We were in some serious trouble now.

That was until De'linco and Harget grabbed some ice cream off a stand that some of the younger kids had set up and began throwing it at Dunchra too. Soon enough there was an all-out war, between the teachers and the students. Crystal and I were hiding up in the top of a tree, hitting people as they came into view.  

Catherine and Porter were tag-teaming people. Throwing ice cream at anyone who dared come near them.

De'linco and Harget seemed to find this as a good test for the children, taking the skills that they'd learned in class into the outdoors in a way that was fun for everyone.

Dunchra seemed less than amused and refused to even participate in the battle. Though she got very angry when someone hit her.

Olive had no external reason or excuse for taking part in it. But she apparently remembered the times when I was younger that we used to have snowball fights. It seemed to re-deem her inner child.

All in all. It was fun. I nailed the pink palace pretties. The four of us seemed to be making them extremely mad. Whelp! Good for them!

    “OK- Achoo! - Mistakes were- Achoo! - Made” I sniffled. Catherine rolled her eyes at me while Porter and Crystal chuckled silently over my child-like complaining.

“Shut- Achoo! - Up!” I tried to sound angry, but my sneezing really didn't help, if anything it made it worse.

“You know- Achoo! - You're- Achoo! - Going to get-Achoo! Oh, I give up!” I yelled exasperatedly.

My friends were full out laughing by this time.

“Meanies. Achoo!” I sneezed again. Silently cursing to idea of the ice cream war. It was obvious that someone would have to pay, but why me? What did I do? OK so I may have invented it but that's not reason to punish me. I sniffled and grabbed a tissue, blew my nose then threw it at an unsuspecting Porter

He screamed girlishly and threw it on Crystal, who did the same thing, throwing the tissue into the garbage. Catherine and I were laughing, well Catherine was, and I was trying not to blow my head off. Which was a surprisingly hard job. The nurse, Gezel had told me that morning that I was to stay in bed all day, she had given us four the day off so that they could help me and then left muttering about how silly we were throwing ice cream at each other.

But even most of the professors saw it as a good way to test us. Even if it was messy. Literally, the grounds were completely covered with stick. I was sure that some of the water bending people helping to cleaning it.

Porter scowled at me as Crystal scowled at him.

“What was that for?” He asked irritably.

“For laughing at me, because I'm sick” My Aussie accent coming through strong as I sniffled.

“You're going to block up your nose even more if you do that,” Tori warned.

“Yes, I know Tor, but I can't help it when the snot is about to drip down my face,” I said.

“That's disgusting!” Arrow exclaimed.                                                

“I know! I'm the one who has to endure it!” I stated.

“Poor sick Ads. Do you need a tissue for your issue?” Arrow teased.

“I will snot you. I will find a way,” I warned.

“Oh yeah? Come at me,” Arrow taunted.

By now Porter was looking at me like I was insane, while Catherine and Crystal were completely ignoring my speaking with Arrow.

“I know I'm fabulous but it's rude to stare,” I said to him.

“Two Addy, other people, still zero,” Arrow tallied.

“Still tallying?” I asked.

“Of course. Every time you burn someone ads another point,” Arrow explained.  

I sneezed again and cursed.

“You know” Porter said, “In the two months that I've known you, I've probably learned more curse words than I ever will in my entire life”

“It's good to know these things. I spent quite a few years of my younger life learning different languages, though not many stuck I remember most of the swear words. Now I can curse anywhere and no one will know what I'm saying” I said happily before sneezing.

Porter tried his hardest not to laugh. “It's really hard to take you seriously when your voice is like that and you're sneezing all the time”

[quinlin-blog1]

The Lost Island ~ Chapter Four

It was three days before Lysander’s birthday and five before Maya's.

 My school work as piling up, after being here for a month. I found out that the two subjects that I am good at are specialty control and Fighting. No surprise there. I had convinced Olive to let me go home for their birthdays. Catherine, Crystal and Alex were staying though.

“Are you sure that you'll be OK Delly?” Crystal asked.

Ever since we learned some more things about our abilities and fighting, we were being hunted more. I had discovered that I can control Probability and have the powers over persuasion. Literally. Like when I was mad At Dunchra and I lost my control, yelling at her to tell us what she meant and my eyes glowed, then hers did and she did what I said.

Catherine’s ability is vibrations. She can control frequencies.

Alex had sonar hearing to make up for her eye sight and can control sound waves.

Crystal’s Ability was a bit complicated. She could speak with animals, but I think we already knew that one, another thing she can do, is make someone laugh uncontrollably, it was quite entertaining to watch her do it to someone and they were so confused afterwards as to why they were laughing. Though it sucked to be on the receiving end.

“I'll be fine Bets. Dunchra is going to transport me to my house. They still have people around there to keep my family safe. I'll be one hundred percent safe” I said putting some clothes in a single carry-on bag.

 I'd only be there for a week, only enough time for my mother and father to completely maul me about my grades, though they have been good, they could be better. Also, enough time to play Lego, Play mobile, Hide and seek, Do art, maybe I could show the kids my abilities.

That would be cool! I think that I'd show them my ability to control probability. Practice throwing rotten apples at a board. My eyes and hands glow when I do it. I'm still struggling to do it for long periods of times.

“How are you guys going to survive without me, for only a week,” I sighed jokingly.

“We know! We have school and things! We have a social life to keep up with and Stuff!” Catherine said.

“I know Alphs how are we going to survive?!” Crystal stated.

“By the way Bets. How are things going with your group of animal gurus,” I asked?

“They're really awesome. They're teaching me to speak penguin, it’s a bit complicated but I think I'm getting the hang of it,” Crystal said, her voice wavering a little bit at the end, which confused me, but I left it.

“Yeah. Professor De'linco is teaching me some really cool stuff” Catherine stated, her fingers completely still the words moving through and past her lips.

“Yeah I bet she is- Wait. Did you just-,” I stuttered.

“Yup.” Catherine smiled.

“And you can-?” Crystal started.

“Uh-huh.” Her smile got bigger.

“Oh, Alphs this is awesome!” I shouted running to me best friend and hugging her tightly.

“I know! My voice is a little off from un-use, but I can hear! Professor De’linco gave me these hear aids things, but their enhanced.” Catherine said, tears filling her eyes.

Well she did have good reason to cry. Catherine is not deaf anymore, she can hear! It is an amazing thing.

“But how?” Crystal asked joining in on our hug.

“I can use my vibrations to hear things, with the help of the hearing aids of course. It’s a little tiring at times, but it’s worth it.”

  Light travelling was not something I am used to. Dunchra didn't even look at me before I left. She just held her hands out to me and flashed me and my carry-on away.

 I fell on the steps of my home, with the combination of the heat, the dizziness and being taken off balance, I landed my carry-on, which turned out to be very uncomfortable.

Hearing the loud thump outside the door, Lily came to the door and opened it.

“I can explain,” I said.

“I've learned not to ask,” Lily smiled.

“Probably for the best,” I agreed.

Lily helped me up and I pulled the shorter person into a giant hug.

“Still short, are we?” I teased.

“I'm not short you're just tall,” she stated.

“Yeah, maybe. So how are you guys doing?” I asked

“Good. Maya ripped your Hercules book yesterday,” She said.

I fake gasped. “No?!” I asked incredulously.

Lily copied my gasp. “Yes!”  

Laughing, I walked in.

I was almost instantly attacked by Lysander, Uriah and Maya. I laid on the floor and hugged my little siblings that had apparently missed me over the past month and a half.  After about five minutes of them all talking over each other, telling me about the month. I got up and gave them individual hugs. My mother and father came next and completely smothered me again.

“If this is the greeting I get after only being gone for a month and a half, I'm definitely scared about Christmas.” I joked and my family smiled. Everything is going to be perfectly fine. And I can't wait to show them my specialty.

 Catherine’s point of view.

  After Adriana left, Crystal went back to her guru's and Alex and I decided to have a sibling’s night.

What sibling’s night is, is just a night that we spend together. Doing whatever we want to. Eating ice cream, telling each other stories, baking, maybe occasionally playing pranks on people. This was the one time that we had to be alone with each other. Having sister-to-sister moments like these are very rare.

“Cathy?” Alex asked as we sat on my bed, painting our nails.

“Yep?” I answered, not looking up from my hand.

“What's it like to see?” I froze. How was I supposed to explain what it's like to see? Even further how do I explain it to a blind person?

“I don't know how to explain it” I stated shyly, putting the nail polish brush into the bottle.

“Just try. Please?” She begged.

“Alright I'll try. To see, it can be hard sometimes, blurred by winds and water, but the colors and shapes are beautiful. Your eyes are a light, light gray color, almost white. Ads' eyes are bright, vibrant, green, Crys' are a deep brown color, mine are Amber colored. Ads' got Brown hair that she dip-dyed blue. Crys' hair is black and she dyed her roots pink. My hair is a boring pale blonde that I got the front bits dyed purple.

To see is to just survey to world another way. It's to observe things differently. It's an easier way for some people. But most people don't get to live the life that you or anyone else that's blind does.

You’re other senses like hearing, touch, smell, taste. They're kicked into over-drive to account for the loss of sight.

When you see something your eyes, most of the time, register at about sixty frames per-second, but it can go up to one thousand. Um, this isn't helping at all. Let's try something else.

Um- It's hard to explain what it’s like to see because when you do it your whole life, you don't consider what it's like.” I paused and looked at my little sister, I didn't know if I was helping or not.

“When I heard something for the first time, it was an entire new sensation to get used to. Loud noises hurt my ears, quieter ones are harder for me to hear. I'd suspect that it would be the same for a blind person. Bright lights could hurt your eyes, but they're amazing in their own way. Darker things would be hard for you to see until the night-vision sense of sight kicks in. Then things are even more amazing. Hearing for the first time, or seeing for the first time, is a new experience for you to have” I explained. I thought that it must have worked because Alex nodded and smiled at me.

“Thank you. That really helped” Alex said.

I smiled back at my little sister, even though she couldn't see it, she knew I was. Her sonar has been getting much better. It was not new to her, in a way she had been doing it her whole life.

 Crystal’s point of view

 I was walking down the halls to my room. I had told my friends that I was getting along with the people I was sharing a group with. But the truth was that I wasn't.

They saw me as a joke. Literally, just because of my abilities they don't take me seriously and they taunt me. I didn't feel like I belonged.

I wondered if I could take the test again. If I could be placed somewhere else.

No, it couldn't be wrong. I was stuck there for now.

What would the girls do?

Well I know what Adriana would do. Completely flick them off.

Catherine would ignore them or go speak with a superior.

But I am not them.

I do not have Adriana’s confidence or her sarcastic attitude.

I do not have Catherine’s smart remarks or her wit.

I'm just me. And I cannot do anything about that.

I sighed as I approached the doors. The guard that was there to look out for us, looked at me.

“Are you OK Crys?” He asked

I had made good friends with Car-non. He didn’t move much, but he was good to have a conversation with and he told the best stories.

“Yeah I'm fine. I was just thinking” I lied

“Don't think too hard” He smiled and let me in.

Instantly I was greeted by taunts and jests. Things like:

“Hey Useless! My brother’s clown canceled at the last moment, I told them you could do it!”

“You and your disfigured pigeon don't belong here!”

“Why would you be placed here? You aren't like us!”

“Yeah! Leave and don't come back!”

“Go join the circus! You'd be more welcome there!”

“I bet that your mother married a clown fish to have you!”

I quickly ran up to my room before they could see the tears that were flooding down my face and tease me about that.

I was not going to do anything rash if that's what you’re wondering. I just sat on my bed and cried. Sparkle looking at me, almost pitifully, how he was looking at me.

“What! They taunt me every day for a month because I don't belong here! I can't tell my friends about it because they'd be disappointed in me. Telling a professor wouldn't make it any better. And the jests are getting worse and worse! I'm aloud to cry! I have good reasons!” I shouted through my wailing.

Though all Sparkle did was stare at me with the same look. That same withering look.

I wanted to tell my friends, I wanted to tell them so badly. But All I can see in my mind when I'm about to is their disappointed faces, the way they would look at me if I told them. The words of disappointment and unbelievable pity. I didn't want them to take pity on me.

But I also did not want to be alone on this. It was the being alone part of it that made me feel small. Small, useless, a joke. Everything that they said that I was.

I wondered if my friends thought that I was too.

Would they have put up with me if so?

No, they don't think of me like that.

They love me and I them.

“That's why you need to tell them,” Carrie told me.

“I know. But what will they think of me then? I'm not supposed to be bothered by anything but here I am crying about some pitiful bullying” I replied, my voice cracking as I finished

“I realize sweetheart. But sometimes we have to take those risks”

  Adriana’s point of view

 “Happy birthday to you!

Happy birthday to you!

Happy birthday dear Lysander and Maya!

Happy birthday to you!”  We all sang as Maya and Lysander blew out their candles on their individual cakes. We all cheered and smiled at the two small children. Even though their birthdays were three days apart we celebrated them together. It made more sense in most ways.

We went to open presents and Lysander was thrilled to see that my mother and father had gotten him a bike. Maya had gotten a new teddy bear since Lee had fallen in-love with her old one and torn it up.

Lysander and Maya were both extremely thrilled with all their presents. My now nine and two-year old little siblings were sitting on the couch and floor playing with their things. I excused myself to go call my friends, I hadn't spoken to them in a few days. I rang Skype and waited for a few moments before Catherine and Crystal answered.

“Hey-o!” They exclaimed together.

“Hey guys! How's everything going?” I asked smiling.

“We have so much homework it's to be unbelievable! You're lucky you got off just in time!” Crystal stated.

“Yeah. Though De'linco and Harget do seem to miss you”

“Only because I can take a good hit” I said.

“Yeah! Remember when they tried to use that other girl. Oh, what was her name . . . Um . . . Katrina! That was it! And Harget had barely touched her before she was blubbering on the floor” Crystal reminded me.

“Oh yeah. That had to be the highlight of the day” Catherine said.

“So, nothing new has happened?” I asked.

“Well. Alex asked me what it was like to see-”

“Yikes” I cringed that must've been hard for her.

“And I can finally speak dolphin!” Crystal exclaimed, but her happiness didn’t seem genuine.

I looked curiously at my best friend. She was lying. I knew it.

“I need to talk to you when I get back and you’re not getting out of it,” I stated.

Catherine looked at me weirdly while Crystal looked down, embarrassed. I quickly signed Catherine while Crystal was not looking.

“She's lying”

“About what?” She asked.

“I can't tell. Something important” I stated but before Catherine could ask anything Crystal looked up again.

“So, we don't have our hide out anymore so why don't when you get back, Delly, we make a new one,” Crystal suggested.

“That's a great idea. It'll be an easier way to get away from everyone and do our homework, maybe even just get some time to ourselves,” Catherine agreed.

“Do you want me to bring the old tree house plans from here? I mean we could use the base structure the same, but there are probably so many different things we could do,” I said.

“Yeah. I was thinking we make a giant hammock in-between all three houses. Like the main area,” Catherine stated.

“Yeah! I want to make mine completely open for animals to come and go in them,” Crystal told us. Her eyes flickered over to the corner of the room, then to the other like she was looking for something.

“I think I want to make mine completely lined with bookshelves. I can move my collection into there!” Catherine said, her voice laced with excitement.

“I want to make mine like a pirate ship!” I said.

“Why?” Crystal asked.

“Because it's something different that not many people consider doing,” I replied.

“It's a cool Idea. But yeah. Bring the old plans. They could still be used. Even if they need to be updated” Catherine giggled slightly.

Yes, I knew that most of these plans were pipe-dreams, but I think that it was nice to have something to look forwards to.

“Yeah, remember all the defects on our first houses?” I asked.

“Yep, really glad we were able to fix them,” Crystal said.

“Adriana!” My mother called.

“OK guys I got to go, talk to you later,” I smiled at my friends.

We said our quick goodbyes and hung up. One thing that was still running through my mind was. What was Crystal hiding?

    “Dell/Delly!” I turned just in time to see two blurs of blonde and purple, and black and pink ramming into me.

“I'm glad you guys missed me so much” I joked as they pulled back.

But they did not joke around. They only looked gravely at me.

“What happened?” I asked.

“Katelyn was taken and killed three days ago,” Catherine muttered. Almost like she was too afraid to speak any louder.

I gasped, I had gotten along well with Katelyn. She was very nice and sweet. She had welcomed us to the school with open arms.

“Her brother Porter is in our group as well. He was pretty beaten up about it.” Alex, who had just arrived, stated.              

“So De'linco wants us to go talk to him. Maybe we can help him through everything. I mean we've all lost someone before. I, my grandma, Alphs and Alex, their uncle, you, you're godmother. We have an experience with losing someone close to us so we might be able to help him,” Crystal explained to me.

“Looks like we've got a job to do then” I said grabbing my carry-on and dragging it towards the school.

The school seemed to be a bit duller. More and more children, of all ages, had been taken. More and more families were losing their children, siblings, cousins. It was a terrible thought. But it was a though none the less. We had to be careful this year. Someone had to do something about it.

We approached the living area, to see it empty, except for a single boy. He had brown hair and yellow eyes that were gazing at the rug, as if waiting for it to swallow him into a different place. I looked to Catherine and Crystal, who nodded. This was Porter.

“Porter?” I asked softly.

He grunted in response.

“I'm one of Katelyn's friends. I didn't know her as well as I would have liked, but Professor De'linco thought I should talk to you,” I said gently, sitting on the floor a little way away from him.

“Why?! Because she wants you to pity me? Well sorry! I have no interest in your pity-party!” He snapped.

“No” I said, keeping my calm demeanor. “I lost my god-mother last year. Catherine lost her uncle two years ago and Crystal lost her Grandpa four years ago. We know what it's like to lose someone. We just want to help”

“Have you ever lost a twin?!” He asked.

“No, I haven’t but-“

“But I have” Bets said, not looking up from the ground. I looked over at her with confusion written all over my face.

“Wha-what?” He asked.

Even Catherine looked confused. Neither of us had heard about this before. Which is surprising, because we all thought that.

“Yeah I have. Her name was Skylar. She was two minutes younger than me but we were identical. I took it upon myself to look after her most.

When we were five years old, we were playing out in the streets, using chalk, playing hop-scotch like any other five-Year old group of twins would do. I did not see the van coming up behind us, but Skylar did. She pushed me out of the way and jumped in-front of it. The driver tried to dodge her but it was too late.” Crystal was crying as she said her story, tears dripped violently from her face, down onto her legs. Porter, Catherine and I were not too far along from it.

“She had ruptured all her internal organs and had serious internal bleeding. Blood was flooding her lungs and before the ambulance even made it there she died in the street. I wasn't the same after that. Until I met these two.” Crystal gestured to Catherine and me, the both of us not sure what to do with ourselves. “So, I understand what you are going through and I just want to help, we all do” Bets said.

I was trying to control my tears and breathing. I shook off my crying and hugged Bets closely.

“I'm sorry. I guess I just . . . Most people say that they understand what I'm going through, but they've never gone through somethings like this before themselves.” Porter stated, slight embarrassed by his outburst.

“It's alright Porter. We know.” Crystal said.

[quinlin-blog1]

The Lost Island ~ Chapter Three

Today is the day! We were taking our stuff out to our family’s large van.

But it was a slightly depressing day. Lily and Lysander have insisted on following me anywhere, like I was going to just disappear without saying goodbye, Uriah insisted on playing action figures with me all morning, and Maya refused to let me put her down, no one else could carry her but me.

“Addy!” Lysander little voice cried.

“Yeah Buddy?” I asked.

“You won't be here for my birthday,” he told me.  I had already thought this through.

“Ah-ha! Being the amazing older sister I am, I've already gotten you your present, but you have to wait to open it.” I handed him a pre-wrapped present.

“But it won't be the same without you Addy,” he said tearfully

“Come on E.T It won't be that bad!” I said using his nickname “Maybe I can even convince the headmistress to let me come home for your birthday,” I offered.

Lysander hugged me and kissed my cheek.

“Ew! Brother Germs!” I exclaimed as he had done several days before.

The drive wasn't too tediously long, but in my point of view it was too short. It was only about ten minutes.

When we reached the port, and walked in I turned to my parents and family, close to tears.

“I'm going to miss you,” I choked out.

“We are too. But you can visit on birthdays, Christmas and spring breaks, always write and video chat. You'll be fine” My mother soothed, pulling be into one of her famous bear-hugs.

I then turned to my father, neither of us said anything but we hugged each other. Completely silent. No words were needed.

After I let my father go, from what seemed to be ages. I turned to my youngest brother. Uriah looked up at me, eyes brimming and over flowing with tears.

“Addy? Where're you going?” He asked innocently, though I had already told him several times.

“Addy has to go away for a while” I said speaking in third person “But Addy's going to be back soon OK?” I told him.  I wiped away the tears that were streaking his face and pulled the small, five-year old boy into a hug.

I now turned to Lysander, who was still clutching the wrapped present tightly to his chest.

“Now remember, don't open it until your birthday, alright?” I asked him.

He nodded and hugged me. I picked him up slightly as I wrapped my much larger arms around the small Eight- year- old boy.

I didn't even have enough time to look at Lily before the ten-year old girl threw her arms around my neck, sobbing into my shoulder. I knew that I shouldn't have, but I felt guilty for leaving.

“I need you to hold the fort down alright? I'm relying on you to take care of everyone, be my informant. Make sure Maya doesn't chew CD's, that Lysander is playing nice and that Uriah is brushing his teeth OK?” I asked her as she silently nodded to all my words, still crying into my shoulder.  

I took Lily a few more minutes to gather herself. When she did I reached behind my neck and unhooked one of the necklaces I was wearing. It was a simple chain with a small, glittery hair-bow that I had been given when I was five years old. I hooked to necklace around my little sisters neck a kissed her forehead.

During the goodbye, Maya had let Mum hold her, now my mother handed the small baby to me. A single tear ran down my face as I looked at the girl. Instead of me wiping away her tears like I had done for Lily, Maya reached up with her small hand and wiped away the tear that had made its way down my cheek. I think my mother want to picture us but didn't bring the camera. Personally, I am glad that she didn’t take a picture.  I really didn’t want to have this sad moment documented for the rest of my life.

“Now. Be good for Mother and Father. Don't tear anything up. And behave. Listen to Lily and I'll be back for your birthday. I promise.” I said. My breath was catching by the end of it.

Maya, to my surprise, nodded like she under stood what I had told her. I hugged her close one last time and turned to see Catherine and Crystal saying goodbye to my parents.

I gave Maya to my mother. We all stood back and waved. This was it. We were leaving.

  By the time we were settled on the boat, we were exhausted.

We were all in my room, preparing to just relax.

Alex was laying sprawled on the floor, already asleep.

Crystal was playing with Sparkle, her penguin.

Catherine was doing more research on the school.

And I was playing angry birds on my mobile. Soon enough we fell asleep. Not knowing what tomorrow would bring.

 I awoke to the boat rocking uncontrollably. I got up shakily and looked out the window to see lightning striking the water close to the boat. Too close to the boat for my comfort. I went over to Catherine and Crystal, falling over onto the floor next to them as I did so. I shook them awake and they looked around sleepily, but then the boat lurched again and they were startled into full awareness.

The first thing we did, without even thinking was run to the front of the ship, trying to find the captain. Many other people had had the same thought.

All around us were families, couples young and old even crew members, freaking out, trying to grab onto the railings of the boat as the waves crashed onto the deck.

The three of us watched horrified as people were washed away by the water and pulled under the boat. I had never seen anything like this before and I knew that Catherine and Crystal had not either, probably since the only time we had ever been on a boat was the time where we had gone on speed boats with slides on the end with my family.

 I turned around to see Crystal leaning over the ledge, throwing up, while Catherine had finally found the captain and was trying to get something out of him. I turned in three complete circles before I finally figured out what we were missing, or in this case whom. Alex had gone missing, so was Twilight.

“Alphs!” I said smacking her on the shoulder to get her attention. She looked at me.

“Alex is gone,” I signed to her. The captain looked at us curiously.

“Go find her. I'll meet you at the boats with Bets,” she instructed me and I nodded then ran.

I ran, yelling for Alex, trying to find her. Helping a few different families along the way. People were struggling, throwing up, freaking out or running. I saw a group of screaming, rampaging people in the dining hall.

“HEY!” I screamed And They all turned their heads to me.

“You all need to calm down! Stop running around like chickens with your heads off isn’t going to help, and screaming until the people around you are deaf and your voice is lost is the worst possible thing to do!” I shouted at them and they looked guilty and extremely insulted.

“And why would we listen to you!?” One raged voice from somewhere in the crowd asked

“Because I'm obviously the only one with the slightest brains about our situation!” I snapped back.

“But you’re only a child! Why should we listen even if you have brains?!” another asked.

“Because I can keep my head around things in the worst. I've lost my friends sister and I should be looking for her! But instead I'm stuck here arguing with you! So get to the life boats!” I could feel my eyes tingling and my eye sight was clouded over by a golden film, exactly like what had happened a few days before, once I was able to see I noticed that all the people filling the room or most of them at least, had the same golden color filling their eyes, then they looked around began to do exactly what I had told them to do, despite their reservations. Strange….

“Sissy! Check the arcade!” Cal suggested.

Why didn't I think of that before!

I ran towards the arcade, calling out Alex's name. When I arrived, I saw Alex with two other boys who looked to be around my age.

“Alexandria!” I shouted.

Alex turned to my voice, and ran to me. The little blind girl jumped into my arms and held onto me as I hit the wall from the boat rocking. Twilight scrambled towards me nudging me affectionately with her head.

“Thank you,” I stated to the boys that were looking after her.

“Don't worry about it. She had lost her way. She told us she was blind and we were trying to help her when the boat started rocking. What's happening anyway?” one asked.

“My friend, her elder sister is figuring that out, she's talking to the captain right now.”

“Cathy's OK?” Alex asked hearing my words.

“Her and Crystal and going to meet us at the life boats. Bets is a little sea sick but their otherwise OK. I would have been here sooner, but the dining hall was filled with morons,” I said.

The boys chuckled. I walked over, still holding the little nine- year- old girl.

“Adriana, but I prefer to go by Ads or Addy,” I put my hand out as I introduced myself.

“Sean. That's Dylan my younger brother.” Sean introduced himself and Dylan.

The boat lurched and the lights went out, the only light was what was coming from the lightning outside. I gestured for them to follow and we ran towards the life boats, Twilight following closely in pursuit.

 Catherine’s point of view. When Adriana left.

   I was speaking with the captain. Correction. Trying to speak with the captain.

We had to have Crystal come and translate for us after she finished hurling.

Adriana just told me that Alexandria was gone and I felt my world shift, though I kept my strong facade, I was worrying about my baby sister. Adriana had assured me that she would find her, if there was anyone that I would trust to run that through, it would be Adriana.

After my five minute long struggle to get something out of this idiot that was the captain, people started rushing up and they pushed me out of the way. Being deaf I couldn't hear what they were saying. So, Bets helped me up and we headed towards the life boats. I did not understand how small rubber boats were going to save us until I saw one. They weren't actually life boats, they were six person, little submarines! But they weren’t really submarines, although I never did find out what they really were. They were small enough to be about the size of a large van when they had gone under all the pressure. I was assured now that they would work. Thank who ever may be out there!

I tapped my foot on the ground waiting for Adriana and Alex to come back.

When they did, they had two boys with them.

“That's Sean, that Dylan. They were helping Alex” Adriana explained briefly, trying to tuck her soaking wet brown/blue hair out of her face. I nodded and smiled at them. They waved and Adriana told them something and they nodded understandingly.

“My name is Sean that's Dylan as Adriana told you” Sean Signed to me. Dylan seemed to be a bit shy.

“You know sign language?” I asked.

“I was bored as a child,” he said simply.

I turned to my little sister and hugged her. It was hard for us to communicate because she was blind, so since she could hear and I could see we used a special code that we made. Though Alex can see by using her hearing.

After I let Alex go, a little reluctantly, I went into the submarine, it had a small auto-navigational system, thanks who ever made it for that. Adriana led Alex in and helped her buckle in, Sean and Dylan got in next, buckling themselves in quickly, asking if any help was need.

“Just stay safe and help Dell” I said simply. Crystal was fiddling with some buttons next to me.

I looked back to see Adriana tucking Alex on to a bench, she was close to sleeping. The boat surged and lunged I quickly unlatched us and we started to free fall, when we hit the water the auto system took over. Adriana had closed the hatch and we were going under water. I felt lucky in that moment that I did not have to do much in the way of driving because I did not think I’d be able to if I tried for months.

“That was a rush,” Adriana stated breathlessly.

“No kidding,” Sean stated.

“What even happened?” Dylan asked.

“From what I got out of the Captain, the storm interfered with the systems and knocked everything out of order. The lightning struck the helm of the ship and knocked everything to bat poop. The waves began to get crazy and so big that they rocked the boat.”

“It's amazing how fast thing escalated. When I woke up it was calm and quiet. Dylan and I went to the arcade to play a few games when the boat started shaking, that’s when Alexandria came into the room she explained to us that she was blind and we waited there trying to figure out what was wrong” Sean explained to us.

I watched from out the window at the waves.

About fifteen minutes later I saw the boat that we had only just escaped from drop all the subs and only moments later did it become over taken by a wave and slink into the ever-lasting oceans that we were in. My eyes widened as did they others, we were all silently hoping that everyone had made it off the rocking death trap.

“This is going to be all over the news,” Dylan stated quietly.

“It probably already is. Our parents are going to freak out,” Adriana stated. Her lips were moving slowly, as she was making sure that I could understand what she was saying. 

I wondered how my mother was feeling about this. My mother may be a little cold hearted. But she is my mother and she loves both Alex and me.

I could only imagine what Elena is feeling right now. She probably worried sick about Crystal.

And then there’s Adriana’s parents. They probably would have told Lily, Lysander and Uriah by now. I could only imagine how there feeling. Poor Maya.

I swiveled my chair around to see Crystal trying to hack into something using her laptop. I could hear the keys on the keyboard going tick tick tick tick tick.

“It's no use Delly. I’m not going to be able to do anything without signal, we're in the middle of the Indian Ocean and I can't do anything,” Bets said softly.

That did it for Adriana. She screamed out in rage and threw Crystal’s laptop at the wall, it bounced and landed on the floor, smashed. She continued to hit the wall, screaming out to, lord knows where and crying.

I was shocked. Adriana never cried. She always said she doesn’t like crying in front of people, she thinks that it makes her seem weak and vulnerable.

But here she was, completely breaking down at the mere thought of never seeing her family again.

Adriana’s crying knocked me out of my thoughts.

I quickly checked on everything and went over to where she was balling. She was screaming on curse words through her cries, her Aussie accent came through most when she yelled. Crystal and I both walked up to her and wrapped her up in a hug.

Sean and Dylan were trying to figure out what was happening, then decided to go to the front to monitor things. Alexandria was still asleep, though how she slept through Adriana's rage fit I have no idea.

Adriana was whimpering between Crystal and myself. I did not know what to do. Crystal was already on it.

“Delly? It's OK to cry,” she said softly. “I can't tell you that I’m feeling the same way. But I know that you are broken up about it, but we're going to make it out of this alright? You are going to see then again and when you do you'll see that I was right. I promise that everything will be fine. Catherine and I are here for you. We want to help you. You can cry, scream, punch, whatever you like! Just know that we're here for you. We love you Delly” Crystal comforted.

Adriana looked up at us, I almost made me cry. She looked so afraid and small, frail and fragile even. She threw her arms around our necks, hugging us tightly. Repeating “Thank you” Over and over again, mumbling it so quietly that I could barely understand it.

“It's true Dell. We'll always be there for you. And we will get out of this.” Although I wasn't sure of my words.

Adriana looked up, smiled, wiped the tears from the face and reached for her bag.

In that bag laid her laptop.

“Now's not the time for games Delly,” Crystal joked

Dell rolled her eyes and put on the maps.

“So, if we estimate that we're about here,” Dell signed, pointing to a place in between Australia and Europe. We were closer to the coast of Australia than Europe.

“Then we have a choice to either go back to Australia, or find that school. Where exactly is it Alphs?” Adriana asked.

“It was somewhere off the coast of Europe, the site wasn't very helpful when it came to exactly where” I sighed. It was true! No matter where I went, the websites never said where it was located, it was much less than helpful.

“Well that's less than helpful,” Crystal sighed.

“But if the school's expecting us then we'd better go. They'll be able to contact our families from there. It'd be better if we went,” Dylan reasoned.

“I agree.”

I walked over to where Dylan and Sean were sitting, trying to sort out the dry supplies from the wet ones.

“Need any help?” I asked. I couldn’t hear my words, I knew they must have been slightly messed up. It took a long time for me to learn to talk properly, a shorter time to learn how to read lips. Instinctively, I moved my fingers and hands to form the words that I was speaking. 

“No, we got this. Go get some rest. We'll wake you in a couple of hours,” Sean reassured me. I guess I came out clear enough. 

I nodded and smiled at them before laying down next to Alexandria and going to sleep.

  Crystal’s point of view.

 We had been on the sub for almost a week. Adriana had taught Alex all the card games that she knew, Sparkle, Dennis (Catherine’s bunny) and Twilight were always running around, though there wasn’t much room to do so. I tried to keep the mood happy. But as the week progressed my efforts were fruitless.

I heard a scream and I quickly got up and looked at Catherine who had screamed. I, too, then scream in surprise.

There, in the middle of the slightly deformed sub, was a woman, about five foot nine. Greying blonde hair tied up in what looked to be a painfully tight bun. Her face was wrinkled and worn, her brown eyes were dull and strict.

“How the Devil did you get in here!?” Adriana demanded.

“Language young lady, we do not tolerate that sort of language at Cartemen.” It took me a moment to realize that that was the name of the school. She worked there.

“Pardon my French,” Delly said sarcastically. Signing it too so that Alphs under stood.

“Excuse my friend” Catherine took over, her hands moving to make words like they usually did when she spoke. “But we're a bit confused as to how you got into this submarine. We've been stuck here for a while trying to get to your school”

“I know. I am here to take you there. I am Professor Mallora Dunchra, I am the headmistress of Cartemen.”

“How did you get in here?” Adriana repeated her question.

“We will have a lot to explain to you once we get to the school. I assume that you are Catherine and Alexandria Towle, Crystal Bray, Adriana Langster and Sean and Dylan Hook?” We all nodded “You have pets with you?” Catherine, Adriana and I nodded “Well then. I will take Sean, Dylan, Alexandria and the animals first, then I will return for you three” She said simply and suddenly with a blinding flash, that made Adriana, Catherine and I cover our eyes, Alex, Sean, Dylan, Twilight, Dennis and Sparkle were gone. We uncovered our eyes and blinked away the spots dancing in front of our eyes.

“Who the Hell was that?! How the Hell did she get in here?! And where did she take them!?” Adriana bellowed/signed.

“I don't know Dell, I really don't. But I think we should follow her,” Catherine stated.

“Well I don't like her,” Adriana pouted crossing her arms.

“Either way we have to go,” I stated.

“I wonder what'll happen to this place after we leave. I want to keep it. I wonder if she'll be able to transport it to where ever we're going so that it can be there if needed.” Catherine told us.

“It would be nice, we're familiar with all the controls already. We'll have to ask,” I suggested.

It was a few minutes before Professor Dunchra returned in another blinding flash of light.

“What will happen to the sub?” Catherine immediately asked

“We will leave it to drift where-ever it may,” Professor Dunchra shrugged

“You can't just do that! Not only is it a waste of perfectly good technology! It's littering! It'll eventually deteriorate leaving the ocean with random circuits washing around!” That statement the Professor made had an impact on Catherine, she was always the one that was against littering and pollution, she had a lot of knowledge about it too, and it was her passion to try to help people see things like this.

“They will deteriorate like you said,” Professor Dunchra said simply “What's any more going to do?”

Is it just my extremely over-active imagination or was Catherine just about ready to pull out her power point presentation and give lecture? Damn the otters and back if we were going to let her, we would be here for ages and I wanted to get out of here.

Hmm... Otters. I don't think I want one any more. I mean their cute and all but I must admit the obsession is very pointless.

But obsessing over baby ferrets isn't! I mean they are so cute and they are really smart! Who would want one!

“I want a baby ferret,” I said.

Catherine and Adriana looked at each other and shook their heads while Professor Dunchra looked confused.  

Without another look, the professor shook her head and we were sucked into something and I felt sick.... Again.

  Adriana’s  point of view.

  When we were pulled out of the light thingy ma-bobber, Crystal ran over to the nearest fountain (Which coincidentally was only a couple of meters away) and threw up into it. Crystal always did have a sensitive stomach and going through that felt, well, strange. 

Catherine was trying to get her bearings and I was looking around, but before I could do so any longer I was knocked down by Twilight, who proceeded to lick my face affectionately.

“Gah!” I exclaimed as I tried to push her off me. I lifted myself up and patted her on her head.

I turned to Professor Dunchra for an explanation. I lifted my eye brow at her and saw, out of the corner of my eye, that Catherine and Crystal were doing the same.

“Care to explain?” Catherine asked.

“Haven't you noticed those people around your neighborhoods?” Dunchra asked.

We nodded.

“They're there to protect you! There are other people that want kids like you!”

“What do you mean kids like us?” I demanded.

“Those people were looking after you! The school of Cartemen is to teach young people like yourselves about these people!”

“What do you mean by like us? None of this is making any sense. Will you stop being so vague and get to the point?” I challenged.

The next thing that happened surprised us all.

My eyes began to glow a vibrant golden, like they had on the boat when those people were freaking out. Soon Dunchra's were the same.

“All the students at the school are like yourselves, but they are different. Everyone different things that they do, for some people they move water, for others they are completely made out of rock.  Dunchra blurted out

“Like magic?” Alphs inquired.

“Kind of. The first thing that comes to mind when you think magic is, a wand, a word, element bending, and things like that. We're different from people are used to. Your abilities come from inside you. They are your DNA. Your abilities are what make you, you. Normal people's DNA encode their genes, that's what makes them who they are, what makes them have either blonde or black hair. Your genes aren't like that. They are literally made up of your abilities. If someone were to take them away from you would die because that's what you are made up of”

My friends looked at me, though I tried not to look at them. I was just as confused as they were, instead I looked at Dunchra.

“Don't you think that maybe telling people about themselves before you randomly abduct them?” I asked.

“I did not randomly abduct you! You are going to my school!” Dunchra faltered when she said that. I looked to Catherine and Crystal, knowing they were having the same thoughts as I was, they nodded.

“She's lying. She's not the Headmistress,” Tori told me.

“I think that I figured that out all by myself,” I commented quietly.

“You can't be trustin' 'er Ads,” Zell warned.

“What do I do?” I asked.

“Go along with her, Bloom and Carrie are informing Bets and Alphs as we speak.” Even Arrow sounded grave, that was bad.

“Do not lower you guard Sissy,” Cal warned.

I nodded without even thinking, making Dunchra look at me.

“Lead the way Dunchra,” I stated.

“Professor” She corrected, but this I ignored.

“I take it you still don't like her?” Catherine stated as we walked behind Dunchra, far enough away to not be heard.

“Nope, I just have even more reason to now,” I told her.

So, we walked along some sort of dirt path, though I had been on many paths some-what like this before, I could not help but feel a bit unsafe, considering I already knew that Dunchra was lying to us and we had no idea as to where she was taking us.

“I don't trust her Delly, Carrie said she was lying,” Crystal whispered to me.

“She is. Arrow, Cal, Tori and Zell told me the same thing. We need to be careful”

Little did I know that Careful wouldn't be enough.

  I woke up. Jolting forwards, but something held my stomach down. I look around the room, figuring out that I did not know where I was.

‘Way to state the obvious Addy’

All I remembered was walking down some weird path with....

Dunchra!

That lying, sneaky, devil spawn of a cockroach!

“Easy Ads. We did expect this to happen. Trust us that we know about this and you are safe no matter what. We won't let anything happen to you or the others,” Arrow comforted.

That reassured me. But the fact that I was tied down still made me feel uneasy.

I looked around and saw Catherine looking at me. She raised an eye brow and I quickly signed to her, struggling against the weight of the restraints.

“It's OK. They know and we're safe. They won't let anything happen” I told her what Arrow told me. I struggled a little bit to preform some words, due to being tied down, but I think I got the point across. 

She nodded and made a small gesture to Crystal who was still asleep, Alex who was also asleep and Sean and Dylan who were looking at us.

I shrugged. “They got to come in some time,” I stated.

As if on cue. Two people I did not recognize walked in, Dunchra following.

“Told you so,” I said.

“Yeah,” Catherine signed back, although she was struggling with her words due to her arms being held down as well “But what do they want?”

“I know just as much as you,” I told her.

“Well I can't bloody well talk, I'm deaf remember!?”

“Oh Yeah! That's the reason we're signing to each other” I responded sarcastically

“What’s with the jazz hands?” One of the men asked in a gruff voice, crudely imitating our finger speech.

“My friend here is Deaf. She can't hear us so I must use Sign Language to speak with her. Moron,” I rolled my eyes.

“You better watch your tongue little girl. We aren't afraid to make you”

“But you won't” I stated. “You’re not allowed to, something your boss said?” I asked innocently. I’d watched enough cop shows to know little bit about these sorts of things. At least I could hope that I did.

“How did you know that?” He demanded.

“A little birdie told me” I smiled coldly.

The man rolled his eyes and turned to a sleeping Crystal. I looked over to Catherine.

“Try using your abilities,” I provoked.

“I don't know how!”

“Well you’ll have to figure it out soon and fast because I don't think they’re going to be waking Bets and Alex up nicely,” I told her.

She looked wide eyed at the men and then turned to her belt that was tying her down. I do not know what she did but soon it made a faint clicking noise and she was free. Slowly she turned to me and fiddled with the lock of my restraints for a moment before they softly clicked open.

Once I was out, Catherine and I slowly walked along the dark edges of the room, remaining hidden from the eyes of the people who had captured us, until the very last moment when the first man raised his hand at Alex. Catherine lunged forwards, reaching out to grab his arm and hold him away from her little sister, but before she could encounter him, the air in front of her rippled and the first man was shot backwards off his feet into a wall.

The second man came at Catherine while her back was turned and I jumped onto his back, causing him to stumble and cry out in shock. This reaction gained Catherine attention and she turned to us. The second man stumbled backwards, not used to my weight on his back and rammed us into a wall, knocking the air out of my lungs. As he stepped forwards, I jumped down and shoved him forwards. He tripped and fell to the ground.

But this did not last long. Soon he was up again and ready to take a swing.

“Igroff! What did I tell you? You are not to harm them,” a loud, shrill voice came through.

“But they escaped!” Igroff stated.

“Yes, I can see that. But that just means that they are strong,” the voice replied.

The next thing I knew was I was gently being lifted off the ground. I saw a sweet looking lady approaching me from the doorway that Dunchra and company had come from.

“I am very sorry about them and our means of bringing you here. My name is Carmella De'linco. Professor Dunchra is indeed a Professor at Cartemen. But she is the logistics professor so she is not there all the time. I am the One that will be teaching you how to use your abilities.” She said to me. Something inside me told me to trust this woman, but after Dunchra I wasn’t so sure.

“Why did you bring us here?” Catherine asked obviously feeling the same as I did.

“As Professor Dunchra has already told you, there are bad people in this world that are trying to find us. The world does not know we exist, only few trusted people know who we are and where we are, but there are people out there that want to use people like us as power.

There is a man like you or me, he went to the school, even taught for a while. His abilities were to bring story characters from books to life. But that was not enough for him.  As he taught, he met others that he thought to be better than him, He was intimidated by them, he wanted to be like them, we tried to convince him otherwise but nothing worked.  He was driven mad and he left. Later on, we discovered that he was taking other people Abilities from their genetic codes”

“But Professor Dunchra said that our genes are made up of our specialties. If they were taken then-,” Crystal added groggily as she woke up.

“You would die. You would have nothing to be made from and you would simply disappear. But there is no coming back after being killed that way. It is the worst way to go. No coming back, not even in another life,” De'linco explained gravely.

“How - how many have gone?” Catherine asked shakily, I was barely able to make out the words her fingers were trying to form as her hands shook.

“Too many. Several dozens of people that had tried to free others that were captured disappeared soon after they left. They're hunting us down. We've set up protection around the school so that no one without a Professor or a cleared person, are allowed in. We bring new students here then take them to the school from here. It's the safer way. Their radars can't track us since we're underground.”

“How did you know to find us? I mean we were under water,” Dylan asked, looking around the room with curious, yet still droopy, eyes.

At first, there wasn’t much of a response, De’linco simply gestured for us to follow her out of the door.

Glancing around the room one more time, I helped Catherine get Alex up and followed them out with Crystal next to me.

“We knew that you were on that boat, so when it crashed we searched for you, yesterday we got Intel on where you were, so I sent Professor Dunchra to get you. We were relieved when she got back with you,” De'linco informed us as we walked through a tunnel.

I wasn't sure. I trusted this woman but I wasn't sure about the people we were around. Dunchra was definitely on my “Nope” List, along with Igroff and the other woman that tried to attack us, but on the other hand, I really was curious as to what they had to say to us.

“Are any of the other students at the school yet?” Catherine asked.

“Yes, they arrived four days ago. We told them that we had seven other children coming. You can introduce yourselves once you get there. We don't like to make a show.” De'linco told us.

                                                       Blargh!

I sat down at my bed that had been given to me. It was still early and we were due to be relocated into new bedrooms in about five minutes. Catherine looked extremely nervous fiddling with her fingers, Crystal looked- well, like Crystal really, she was walking around the room muttering to herself about something. I was a bit unsure. Alex was sitting on the couch, her empty unseeing eyes pointed to the windows which she sadly couldn’t see.

“What if we get separated?” I asked, knowing that I was speaking the question that everyone was thinking.

“We don't know that we will be.” Catherine stated.

“I hate to admit it girls, but we're not the same,” I said sadly  

“But we never know,” Crystal said.

“As much as I don’t like it Bets, Dell has a point. Even if we do get separated we'll still be together. Just in different rooms.” Catherine said.

“Yeah. Aliens only know that sleepovers would be a weekly thing” I smiled, trying to lighten the mood.

But unfortunately, it didn’t work and we all found ourselves in the same places we were before.

A knock on the door got our attention. I went over and saw Dunchra, who looked no different than she had earlier that day, her face was completely void of any emotion, but in her eyes, anyone could see the irritation.

“It's time,” she said unemotionally and led us out of the room.

I glanced at my friends nervously and followed.

 The school it was easy to say, was a pretty decent size.  

 As we approached one of the rooms, I saw De'linco next to a giant machine with ragged wires. There was beeping noises emitting from the main mechanism, metal pipes and tubes were sticking out of all sides. Some had sharp pointed ends, others blunt knobs. De’linco was running around it, twisting levers and pushing buttons. The main mechanism made groaning noises, like a weak protest as she finally turned to us, holding out a head piece with needles on the inside.

Nope, Nope, Nope, Nope, Nope! Uh-uh! Nada! No way! I am not going in that thing!

“Oh, yes you have to be Adriana”

My head came up to look at her, and it took me a moment to realize I had thought aloud again. Before I could respond, De’linco started talking again.

“Now Adriana I want you to go first since you're so keen and just remember to keep your mind clear. After that everything will be perfectly fine”

“One question. Who would be crazy enough to go on their head?”

“You” Crystal, Catherine and Alex said together.

“OK, Point taken,” I said as I hesitantly stepped up onto the platform the machine was located and sat down on the creaky metal chair.

De’linco took the helmet and put it on my head. I winced as I felt the needles scrape lightly against my skin, like little sharp feathers. But then De’linco started twisting the knobs at the end of the needles and I felt them enter my skin and puncture through my skull, but nothing hurt. I could feel something go through my head, something I had never felt before, it was like a wave of energy surging through the inside of my head. I could not tell what was happening, but soon, De’linco started talking.

“Your abilities are of none that we've ever had around her before. It seems to me that your abilities run off your mind. I cannot tell you anything about yourself or your abilities, that is for you to figure out, but I think that we will relocate you to the Mind.” 

I sighed in relief, knowing that it was over. I felt the needles retract from the inside of my head and as soon as the helmet was off, I jumped from my seat. When I got out, I turned to Catherine and led her to the machine and then stood back.

We had to wait a few moments for De’linco to talk, Catherine winced like I did when the needles went into her head and I felt sorry for her, I wanted to help her through it, but I knew to stay away.

 “You have a very special ability about you. You use your hands and your mind. This makes relocating you a tricky subject, there’s no way to tell in which you belong. But, of course, I must take in the fact of your- er Drawback- I think that you should be with someone you trust. So, we’ll relocate you to the Mind with Adriana,” De’linco said to Crystal, who was quickly translating the words into sign-language.

“Ads, Addy, Ana, Dri?” I offered in place of my name, but I was swiftly ignored.

Catherine quickly got up and ran over to where I was and wrapped her arms around my taller frame, her arms shaking lightly. I wrapped my arms around her and watched as Crystal eagerly sat down, her face not even changing as the needles went into her head and then De’linco started talking again.

“Well you're a funny one! Quite literally as a matter a fact. So, I see you love animals, especially baby ones, that’s not exactly a telling feature. Right then it's quite easy to see you with the Communication section. It’s an entire section filled with children who can communicate in different ways, or with different things.You’ll fit right in.” De'linco said smiling as Crystal got up and walked towards us, she looked slightly upset, but also happy.

“It's the best place for me! And I’m sure that Sparkle will love it too!” She said happily.

We watched as Alex climbed slowly and cautiously into the strange contraption. She sat down wearily. Catherine, Crystal and I gave her thumbs up and smiles. She smiled back at us and let the Professor put the helmet on her head, she bit into her lip when the needles went into her head and I saw Catherine become tense out of the corner of my eye.

“Well, you have a disability like your sister. Being blind has definitely been an obstacle for you, your entire life. But I see you've already discovered part of your abilities! That's a good start. I don’t think that we have a place to relocate you my dear. Why don’t we try you in the Mind, if you do not fit in, we will try again.” Alex smiled, jumped off and ran over to us.

So now that we all knew where to go, Catherine, Alex and I were walking to our new room, for convenience we were all put into the same room. We would be here, together, in this room, for the next three years. That was a long time looking at it from this place.

“Well, this is it guys. We're about to meet the people we have to spend the next three years with”

I wonder if I'll like them. I asked myself as we walked through the door.

But when we opened the door, I found myself appalled and in denial.

We had to have gone through the wrong door! Please don't tell me this is where I'll be stuck for the next three years!

The entire room . . .

Was pink! Neon pink! Bright Pink! Dark Pink, Pink, Pink, Pink!

Not one corner of the room was any other colour.

“Excuse me” A sickly sweet voice came. “Are you new? This is the place where designers go to, and, judging by your clothing, you don’t belong here.” The voice told us, but I highly doubted that this was actually for designers.

“Oh, Thank God we're in the wrong place!” I stated and pulled Catherine and Alex out.

“That was terrible!” Alex stated, her fingers moving to form the words so that Catherine could understand as well.

“I'm going to have nightmare for weeks!” I said.

We walked for a little longer until we finally reached the right door and walked into the room.

It was very nice. Decorated with, red, Blue, Green and White. Everyone seemed either really laid back like Catherine and Alex, or, well, like me, always doing something.

“Hello People of Earth! We come in peace!” I shouted and signed so that Alphs would know what I'm saying. Everyone looked up at us, but none of them looked anything less than friendly, which made me feel more at ease. Catherine and Alex smiled, knowing that we'd be alright here.

“You must be Adriana, Catherine and Alexandria. I'm Katelyn, it’s nice to meet you,” a girl introduced herself.

“Nice to meet you,” I translated for Catherine who smiled and said Hi!

Katelyn looked confused.

“Oh sorry. Catherine here is deaf and Alex is blind,” I explained.

“Oh, that’s alright. Anyway, your room is up there, meals are brought in here to the main room and classes are starting in one week,” Katelyn smiled and walked off.

I looked at Alex and Catherine and we all nodded. Alex jumped on my back and we walked up stairs.

The room had one sofa, a long coffee table and some chairs. This room led to five doors. When we looked, we found two bathrooms, one with a bathtub and the other with a shower. And then three bedrooms.

“Dibs on the one with the most windows!” I stated and ran off the search the rooms.

The first one I found was lined with bookshelves and had a four-poster bed right in the middle. This room, I thought, should go to Catherine.

The next room I found had lots and lots of pillows on the bed and on the floor, which I will admit confused me. But before I could look for long I as pushed back by Alex.

The last room I found, I knew I would have to take, but I didn’t have a problem with this. One wall had a large window that reached from the ceiling to around knee level. The bed was against the wall to my left, long twisting wooden headboard against the wall covered in a fluffy looking green and blue blanket. There was a little desk table in front of the bed and an old looking wardrobe across the room.

I opened my one suit case and took out my folding water sacks, they are like bean bag chairs but with water, I laid them out around in one spot of my room, a dragged the table in front of them and set my Laptop, which was more like a desktop, on the table connected to a USB stick to the port.

I set out my photos of my family, I had taken them the day before I left. Each one was of them doing something they loved, whether that was, playing video games, baking, making Lego things, Playing play mobile. Whatever. I smiled at them.

I should call them. I really should. I have been “dead” for a week, they really deserved to know that I was not really dead.

“Can I?” I asked the “Others”

“There your family Ads. Of course you can,” Cal told me.

“But you have to be careful about what you tell them” Tori warned.

“Tor Ye be worryin' too much. Ads ain’t goin' t' tell 'em nothin'” Zell told Tori.

“Yeah. They already think She's dead, it is good for them to know” Arrow stated, but this led to more arguments.

Alright I'm just going to call them. I thought to myself.

 Sat in front on my lap top. I was fiddling with the hem of my top. I was wondering how they would react.

“Hello?” Lysander answered.

My heart stopped for a moment, he looked terrible. The rest couldn't be any better. My fingers twitched to fix his hair as I looked at him.

“Hey E.T” I smiled softly as he looked at me.

“Addy?” He asked

“Hi” I said, mentally face palming. “Hi? Really? Is that all you have to say?”

“The-they said you died,” he said. By now the rest of my family had joined and were staring at the computer screen with confusion and surprise written on their faces.

“The boat sunk yes. But we all managed to make it out, saving a few lives as well. We're at the school now, they found us, took us in, made sure we were taken care of, we just got settled and I just wanted to call, say that we were alright,” I said nervously.

“S-so, you guys are alright?” Lily asked.

“Would you like to see Cathy and Alex?” I asked.

I beckoned for them to come over and they popped their heads next to me, I saw them all relax a little.

“What about Crys?” Uriah asked.

“She's in a different room. But we're all fine and everything's dandy. I’m still coming home for Lysander’s birthday” I smiled.

“How's everyone there?” Catherine asked, her fingers moving for them and my mother spoke her question.

“Dry, boring. Everyone was a bit depressed that you had died. Elena has been so sick since we got the news. Even Delilah was upset to hear about you girls,” my father told us.

“Life must be boring without us,” I smirked.

My family smiled and chuckled slightly. Which made me feel a little bit fuzzy on the inside, like I had already missed the sound of her laugh.

“Yes, it was.”

“Addy!” Maya cried as she toddled over to the computer screen, reaching out to try and grab it through the camera.

“Hey Maya! Who's a good girl, have you ripped anything yet?” I asked.

“No” She smiled innocently.

I eyed her carefully, then smiled. I had missed my family so much that I was smiling till my cheeks were hurting.  

“I'm glad to know that you guys are OK,” I said

“Shouldn't we be saying that to you?” My father asked.

“Hey, I'd worry about you guys even if I was dead” I stated and everyone laughed.

   After speaking to my family for a few more minutes I hung up.

“Alphs. Do you want to go meet the headmistress?” I asked my friend who was reading . . . Again.

“Yeah, I'd like to at least be acquainted with the woman supervising us for the next few years of my life,” Catherine joked.

“Makes sense.” I paused. “I have this feeling though” I said.

“What do you mean?” Alphs asked.

“I don’t know, I get this feeling when I think about her or meeting her at least. It feels like I already know her,” I stressed as we walked out.

“That's not possible Dell. You can't possibly have met her already. You would remember.”

“Yeah I guess. Do you think maybe we should ask Professor Harget where the office is?” I offered as I realized we didn't actually know the way. Professor Harget was my personal favorite of all the professors that we had met. He taught sciences and fighting. Fighting was a new one because we had learn to defend ourselves. It's logical if you ask me, especially if there’s a person trying to kidnap children. But He's also very laid-back and willing to let us do our thing, I just get a good vibe from him.

We approached Harget's office and knocked. A soft “Come in” Sounded from inside and we walked in to see the professor in a tutoring session.

“Oh. Sorry to interrupt Professor but we were wondering where the headmistress' office is?” I asked.

“Ah yes. Her office would be two more floors up and four doors to the left,” He told us.

“Thanks professor.”

“Oh Adriana. Would you mind helping demonstrate during classes. Professor Dunchra informed me that you have experience in sciences?”

As this took me by surprise, I found myself unable to form simple English words. “Um-Sure, no problem professor.” I nodded and Catherine and I left.

I quickly explained the directions to Catherine and we went to the office.

Though it was not hard to find. It seemed the headmistress had a bit of a liking for lizards. The door was decorated with intricate designs that looked like dragons and lizards.

We knocked and went in after. Climbing yet another stair case to get into the large office. As I reached the top I stumbled and fell over my own feet. As I hit the floor and pillow appeared under me, breaking my fall.

“You always were extremely clumsy Dri.” I'd recognize that nick-name anywhere. I looked up from my spot on the floor, staring in shock at who the headmistress was.

I was right before when I had said that I had met her already.

Remember when I said that I had an older brother? Well when I was five he got married. And guess who his wife is?

Ding! Ding! Ding! If you guessed the woman dressed in a long old fashioned dress in front of me then you were right!

“O-O-Olive?! What the bloody devil are you doing here?”

“Language Dri, you are at a school now” Olive pouted.

“Do I get brownie points for being your sister?” I asked teasingly.

“Nope. Hello Catherine” Olive greeted, and then she turned back to me.

“Actually Dri, No one can know I'm you sister. When we’re not alone or with your friends, meaning Catherine, Crystal and Alexandria, you have to call me Professor Olive.”

“Well alright then.” I said, “Well we just came to get better acquainted, but it turns out that the headmistress is my sister in-law.”

Well this is a shock. Perhaps I will get something good out of this.

[quinlin-blog1]

The Lost Island ~ Chapter Two

And as I suspected, it wasn't. I was stuck in between Catherine who was dressed and Crystal, who was scrambling to find her pink shoes that matched her dress. Catherine and I were seated on my bed, Catherine reading a book she had found on my bedroom floor while I was playing with an old Yoyo, let me tell you, I wasn’t very good.

“I knew there was a reason I never used that thing” I grumbled to myself.

“It’s all about practice Delly, my Mom can yoyo really well” Crystal stated as she found her shoes.

When Crystal was finally ready, I ran down stairs to be greeted by a rampaging Alex who knocked me down.

“Addy!” Alex both yelled and signed “You've been gone for ages! I haven't seen you in like forever!” She said dramatically

“I know! Crys trapped me in her fluffy pink dungeon! It was torture Al! Torture!” I said crying out, dropping to my knees for effect.

Alex fake gasped “Crys! How could you?! Come on Addy! I'll save you!” Alex pulled me into the living room. Where Logan and Keira were deciding on a movie to watch.

“Alex! Come on! We're going to watch a movie!” Lily told Alex

“What about the magic show?” I asked

“Oh! Uriah’s got the chicken pox so we have to wait until he's over them to do it” Lily said

“Alright then”

 So now we were watching Toy Story. Crystal’s mum, Elena, was going to be here any moment.

Thump! Thump! Thump!

Right on que! I went to go open the door and I was surprised by what I saw.

Not only was Elena there, but Catherine’s mother Dalilah was right next to her. Though she preferred to be called Ms. Towle.

“M-Ms. Towle! I didn't expect to see you” I said.

I turned sideways, gently pulling a frozen Catherine out of the way. She mostly went to my house to escape from her mother, not that she didn't love her, but because she was so overbearing.  

“Hello Adriana” She greeted in the finger language so that Catherine could understand us, but also out loud, so that Alex may hear us as she appeared on my other side. Ms. Towle dragged in seven extremely large suitcases and four smaller ones. My head finally clicked around what was happening.

“Mother?! What are these for?” Catherine asked, for the leader and smartest of the group, she did have her moments.

“You, Catherine and Alexandria are going to go to that boarding school. I-” Alex interrupted her mother.

“I thought I was too young?”

“They have a special program for younger children, I have registered you both already” Her mother replied irritably.

“What about our- Er- Disabilities?” Catherine questioned, her fingers shaking slightly.

“They are perfectly fine with taking you both in, they are going to help with it. So, as I was saying before. I have arranged with Adriana's mother, that you two will be staying here for the remaining how ever-many days until you leave for your school. You will be coming back here for both Christmas and spring breaks. I will be in contact girls.”

And with that, Ms. Towle kissed both Catherine and Alex's heads and left out the other door, giving Bets and I slight nods.

I looked over at Alex to see that she was elated. But when I looked to Catherine, she was pooling with emotions. Joy, Happiness, Sadness, Anger. Like she didn't even know how to feel.

“Well girls! Let's get going!” Elena said cheerfully. The apple never falls far from the tree. This was going to be a long night.

   THUNK!

 I threw myself on my bed. I had been correct. It had not been a rough night, just tiring. Fun none the less.

“You know one of these days you're going to do that and break your bed, it’s only wood after all” Catherine pointed out to me, not even looking up from her book. Nerd.

“Nah! It's just metal painted really well to look like wood” I knocked my fist against the base of my bed, causing several clanking noises. “See?” I said to her

Catherine merely rolled her eyes.

“Dell?” Crystal asked in an extremely sweet voice. Uh Oh...

“Yes?” I said cautiously

“Can you draw me an otter?” She said using the same tone.

“Why?” I asked

“Because you draw best out of us. And I NEED one”

I sighed, but nodded anyway, making Crystal squeal with joy.

So, a grabbed my large art bag and opened it to grab out my stuff, I had a lot of art supplies. Art was one of my major hobbies, I had everything from water-color pencils to oil pastels.

Soon enough Catherine and Crystal were on the bean bags watching a movie.

A loud thump knocked me out of my concentrated drawing. I looked over my sketchpad, to see Catherine on the floor, asleep.

“Can he be pink?” Crystal asked from where she was playing (Or as I like to call it “Babying”) with Lee.

“I didn't know otters could be pink” I stated.

“Well this one can.”

I watched as Crystal babied Lee and I rolled my eyes.

“You guys baby her too much.” I mused.

“You tell me every time, but she loves it” Bets said airily

“What?” I asked incredulously.

“She loves us all very much and loves it when we “Baby” Her” Bets told me

I chose to ignore this, with Crystal, you never know what's going to come out of the girl.

“And- Done!” I said, finishing the shading and coloring on the pink otter.

“I knew you could do it! I hereby make you my official artist!” Crystal exclaimed happily.

“Oh, I thank thee, thy highness. Mine humblest thanks and gratitude!” I said.

Crystal and I looked at each other for a moment then burst out laughing. Yeah, my friends and I were weird, but they were my weirdos and I was theirs. Catherine groaned, sat up, threw a pillow at us, and laid back down again.

After this, Crystal and I continued to pelt each other, and Catherine, with pillows until we collapsed, with the movie playing in the background.

      CRASH

  I jolted up from my sleeping stated, the sound had been muffled by two floors, but me being the light sleeper I am, I woke up. I cautiously slid off the bean bag chair that I had fallen asleep on. Grabbing my slippers and putting them on, while I walked upstairs.

What I saw when I walked into the living room, made me drop to the floor, unable to contain my laughter.

Lily had her lower abdomen and legs tangled in her blankets on the couch, while her upper half was on the floor. While Alex on the other hand, had caused the crash because she literally did fall to the floor. With her blanket covering her.

Once I composed myself, I lifted Lily’s heavy body, fully onto the couch, before turning to Alex and doing the same. I almost fell over because I lifted her up too fast.

After that incident, I went upstairs to check on Lysander, Uriah and Maya.

Uriah had gone into my mother and fathers room, like he did every night, Lysander was sprawled out, all over his bed like normal.

Maya was sitting awake, on her bed, chewing on a plastic teething ring.

“Addy!” She cried out happily as I stood in the doorway.

“Looks like someone’s up early” I said to her, smiling as I did so.

“Duck!” She said. Holding out her favorite rubber duck

“That's right! Duck! And what does the duck say?” I asked

“Quack!” Maya imitated.

“Good job” I praised as I picked her up and carried her down stairs.

I peeled her a banana (Yuck), and peeled myself an orange. I sat myself down on the couch and watched as Maya played with her dolls.

Fifteen minutes later. Maya and Twilight were having an all-out battle. And me being me, I decided it would be a good idea to leave them alone while I went to take a shower. Boy, was I ever wrong.

“OK Maya, I'm going to go shower. Be good, don't destroy anything, make sure that Twilight doesn't tear up the couches, don't go outside and eat anything off the ground, don't go bug your brothers, leave Lily and Alex alone, no playing in Mobius’ and Iggy's litter box, no climbing the curtains, no taking the videos and books off the shelves, no tearing book pages and no messing in the kitchen” I said to Maya who only looked at me “Yes I know that you can't understand me, just bear with me”

Yes, Maya had done all that stuff and much, much more. So, I wandered up the stairs to the bathroom and turned on the hot water and had a quick shower, not really wanting to leave Maya alone for too long.

  Oh, I knew that that was a bad idea. I walked down stairs completely dressed for the day and it was quiet, too quiet.

I walked into the kitchen, where I heard giggling and barking. Bracing myself for the worst, I opened the door and my eyes widened to the size of saucers at what I saw.

Maya was standing on the counter, throwing dog treats and cat nip for both of our cats, Twilight and Lee.

I watched as she threw a hand full, looked over at me, hid the dog treat she had in her hand, behind her back and look at me with her “I'm innocent” look that works on everyone, including myself.

“Promise me you'll only use your powers for good” I told her as I approached.

“Quack!” Maya exclaimed as she threw the last bit of cat nip and dog chews for the dogs and cats.

I carried Maya downstairs to where Catherine and Crystal were sleeping. I put Maya next to Crystal’s ears and told her what to do. I then ran to grab a large bucket of ice water to throw on Catherine.

“One... Two... Three!” I counted and I threw the water onto Catherine, while at the same time Maya stuck her wet fingers into Crystal ears.

They both screamed away and I grabbed Maya and we ran.

  Maya and I were outside, watching the birds in the sky, drawing with chalk on the sidewalk and playing with Twilight.

“Dell!” Catherine called.

I was still a little unsure if Catherine and Crystal wanted to get revenge on me, so I cautiously yet casually walked into the house, where Catherine was dressed and waiting.

“Your mum needs us to go to the store,” Catherine told me

“But I don't want to!” I whined

“Well you have to,” Crystal said

“Is this your form of revenge?” I asked

They looked at each other for a moment. “Yup” They said.

I sighed, went to grab my bag and my mother handed me the list and money, then we left. On the way, I handed Catherine the money and the list.

“You guys do realize that going to the school is going to change things forever” I stated bluntly, bringing up the topic that we were all avoiding.

“I think that's the point Delly,” Crystal pointed out to me

“Is one of them, telling you that?” Catherine asked me

“No. But do you ever get those feelings that something really important is going to happen? That's what I've been feeling for the past four days,” I told them

“I agree. I just wonder what's going to happen,” Catherine asked

Half way to the store, I started to see some very weird people, and if you take that offensively then that's your choice. But these people were down right strange. It was verging on summer weather and some of these people were wearing winter jackets and boots! I swore one of them even had gills!

“Am I the only one seeing this?” I asked

“You mean the strange people, with wooden limbs and lava rock hands?” Crystal asked

“I see them. But it's rude to stare guys!” Catherine scolded as we approached the super market.

We walked in and we were instantly greeted with a wave of coolness that was the store. I sighed in relief and looked to Catherine.

“We need Apples, Oranges, milk, Sugar, Coffee-.”

“Blech!” I exclaimed

“-Chocolate chips, eggs, baking powder and cinnamon,” Catherine said ignoring my comment

“And Ice cream!” I stated

“Yeah!” Crystal agreed

“No! No, ice Cream” But Catherine was interrupted by Crystal and I both running off.

This was how trips to the shop usually went, Catherine would tell us what we needed, Crystal and I would decide on an extra treat, then run off before Catherine could tell us off. Poor Catherine.

“Strawberry, Mint, Raspberry, Chocolate, Vanilla, Orange, bubblegum and cookies and cream,” I said as I picked them out.

“Ice cream time, Ice cream time! Time to eat ice cream!” Crystal sang.

We walked back up to the cash register, where Catherine was setting out the things from the list.

“Cookies and cream?” She asked, not even bothering to scold us for running away.

“Yep! We've got enough for an ice cream war,” I stated.

“What's an ice cream war?” Catherine asked, her eyebrows furrowing in confusion. The cashier was giving us weird looks for only speaking in sign language.

“It's when each of us get one tub, because these things are huge, and we separate into teams. Then we have a battle, where we throw ice cream at each other, last person standing wins,” I explained briefly.

“Why haven't we thought us this before?” Crystal asked incredulously.

“I know,” Catherine agreed.

We may be fifteen-years-old, but we can still be as childish as seven-year-old. It's not our fault.

We grabbed our bags and walked out the door. Once again, I noticed the strange people. The one with gills had gone, but was replaced with on with a robotic eye. OK... Are we going into a robot war, and why wasn't I told?

“Am I the only on seeing this?”

“If you mean the weird people again then no, I see them too,”” Catherine reassured me.

“What are they?” I asked

“Dell! That's rude! They're a “who” Not a “what,”” Catherine scolded

“Alright then, who are they,” I corrected irritably

“I don't know. But I think it's strange that we've been seeing them now-.”

“And every time we've seen them before we don't remember them and we see them most when we're-“ Crystal continued.

“Together.” I finished.

“Well. I don't know about you guys, but I don't want to be caught in some sort of X-Men, mutant war. It's not giving me a good feeling,” I told them, shuddering.

“I don't think we're looking at this the right way Delly. Don't get me wrong, I don't want to get caught in an “X-Men mutant war”.   But I'm sure that there's got to be more to this,” Crystal stated

“What do you mean?” Catherine asked

“Well, think about us. What if they’re here looking for people like us?” Crystal pointed out

“Like us?” I asked

“Out of all the people in the world, there has to be more people like us. It's just common logic,” Crystal continued

“I guess. But why would they be looking for us?”  Catherine inquired

“Maybe there not looking for us, but protecting us. There are bad people in the world too”

This made sense to both myself and Catherine. If the world could just be full of good people, where would they learn from if the world was full of people with no mistakes? Some people may wish for the world to have peace and be perfect, but if it was perfect how would we learn to do anything?

“Makes sense,” Catherine spoke

“It does. Since when did you get so wise Bets?” I asked

“I guess I'm just trying to keep an open mind about things,” Crystal shrugged

We walked through the doors and I called out to the kids.

“Ice Cream!”

“Ice cream!”

“Stampede!” I cried out and we ducked for cover. Even Catherine, who couldn't hear us, ducked knowing from experience.

I held up three fingers counting down and when I reached zero we jumped out and ambushed the kids. Pelting them with ice cream. The kids screamed as the frozen treat hit them.

I tossed Alex a tub and we ran outside to where my mother and father had set up the sprinklers and the pool. Ice cream was being flung everywhere, I ducked behind a tree, climbed up it and started tossing ice cream at people from the branches. Catherine had hidden behind a stone wall that separated the top part of the yard from the bottom part.  Crystal and Lysander were using the pool as cover, though when the ice cream hit the water it splashed up and got them wet.

Catherine ducked out from where she was hiding and hit Crystal from where her head was just barely poking out from where she had been hiding. I quickly jumped from my tree and threw a giant glob of ice cream at Catherine, which hit her in the back of the head and sent her tumbling face first into the pool. Only for me to be tackled in by Lily and Lysander. Then for Alex, Crystal and Uriah to jump in after because everyone else was doing it. We stayed in the pool, swimming around, for a good fifteen minutes before Catherine, Crystal and I got out to get change out of our soaking shorts and t-shirts that were now so wet that they were sticking to our skin. So, it was a race to see who could get to one of the two bathrooms to shower first.

 As Catherine and Crystal ran upstairs, pushing each other for the larger bathroom, I went to the basement for another shower. I grabbed warm, dry clothes from my dresser before jumping into a cold shower, and I was in and out within Five minutes.

                                                            *

  It was four hours later, Catherine, Crystal and I had done nothing but sit in the sun chatting. I was sure that Crystal had fallen asleep. Catherine was sitting there talking to me as we discussed the strange people. I know, it's a continuing topic, but it's an important one. I feel like there is something more to it.

“Alphs, I feel like there’s something we’re missing,” I said

“I know what you mean. Think about it, how often do you see these weird people?”

I tried to think for a moment, I knew that we had seen them briefly as we walked by today, I remembered seeing them the other day on the way to school when I saw one of them standing in the middle of the road. I tried harder to think of other times where I had seen them, I wondered if I had ever had a conversation with them, maybe I had once asked them for directions? Maybe Crystal had asked them if they had any baby animals.

But no matter how hard I tried I couldn’t think of any times I had spoken to the unusual people. Not one.

“I mean, I don’t really know. I have seen them around, by school, out front of the store, maybe out by the park. But I can’t remember ever having a conversation with them” I told her

Catherine shook her head “I think- I’m not sure, but I think I’ve talked to them once. When I was younger. It’s blurry, like there’s a fog over the memory. I remember walking down the street, everything seems bigger so I must be younger, I remember seeing one of them, she has a monocle, but her other eye is black, like completely black. For some reason, I found this cool and I wanted to go talk to her. I think we had a conversation, a small one, but then she took out this device, almost like a remote and then. . . I don’t know, that’s all I can remember. It almost hurts to think about it” Catherine explained.

Listening to her talk, hanging on her ever word, I wondered how long they had been watching us for. If they were even watching us at all.

“Do you think they’ve been here since we were kids?”

“Well technically we still are kids. But I get what you mean. It is a possibility. I don’t remember that far back. I don’t think I’ve ever had a proper conversation with one, other than that one time. I’m not too sure that that one time even happened”

“Alphs, how often do you see them? Like more so when all three of us are together?” I asked

Catherine looked at me with her eyebrows furrowed and thought for a moment “I think so. I mean, I remember seeing them more often when we are together. Do you think the voices know?” she questioned

I shook my head “I think that they know something. Arrow kept talking about “The Big Guy” and Cal spoke almost like she was afraid of whoever this big guy is”

“So, if they've been here since we were kids-,” Catherine started

“And have some sort of tech that can erase memories-,” I continued

“And they show up more often when we’re together-,” Catherine pointed out

“And they are possibly somehow connected with the voices in our heads-”

“That have something to do with an even bigger scheme of things, but they won't tell us because-”

“Of the so called “Big Guy” That's controlling them and telling them what to do-”

“Or what to say. So, there's only a limited number of things that they can tell us-”

“So, we have to figure out how to get these people to talk to us-”

“And figure out why they're here and what they're doing with our memories,” Catherine finished

“Well” I same dragging out the word. “We're screwed” I stated

“Definitely,” Catherine agreed.

“So, until the time of such screwing happens, what do you want to do?” Catherine asked after a few moments

“Let us go and see what Alex and Lily are doing, they're being too quiet for their own good” I stated and we went quietly inside to check on the silent children.

And it turned out that I was right. Lily and Alex were not up in Lily's room where they had been staying, but no they couldn't be where they were supposed to be, they were down in my room.

When we found them, they were filling our pillow cases with whipped cream and hiding stink bombs under beds.

“And what do you think you are doing?” I asked using both forms of words.

“Uh- We were just uh- You see we- We got to go,” they said running out of the basement.

“Looks like we're going on a stink bomb hunt and are getting new pillow cases,” I stated to Catherine who only chuckled.

 Over the next twenty minutes, we found five stink bombs underneath of our beds, in our dressers and some even in our suitcases. We had emptied our pillow cases of the whipped cream and were putting new ones on. But we left Crystals’ alone. Who doesn't like surprises?

“Bets isn't going to be happy,” Catherine said to me

“Nope”

“And you don't care?”

“Nope”

“What do you plan on telling her when she finds out?”

“It goes like this and I repeat.” I cleared my throat “Alphs did it!” I cried out

“Thanks! Throw me under the bus will you”

“What would you expect from me?” I asked

“Nothing further from that.”

“Well you can't blame me!” I exclaimed

“Yes, we know. You were dropped on your head as an infant” Catherine teased me, with a small smile on her face.

“Hey! I was not dropped on my head, I feel off the swing set!”

“Alright. You fell off a swing set. My point is that you are weird.”

“Weird doesn't even begin to describe it. I have my own category of weird.”

Catherine rolled her eyes at my silliness “But, thinking back to the beginning of the conversation, how do you think Bets will react?” I asked eagerly.

“Oh, there's probably going to be a lot of screaming, yelling, cursing the otters. She may even swear for the first time!” Catherine said.

“That'll be the day Dell. You know we’ve made quite a few memories here in our home town,” Catherine said after a moment.

“I think the best time was Bets trying to climb the tree and her falling off, then cursing the were-rabbits that had put a curse on her. That was when she made her platform,” I recalled.

“Ah yes! That was also the day I fixed my first sprained ankle and the reason the first aid kit is still there.”

“We'll have to go there in the next few day to take all of our stuff out as well,” I said sadly.

“Don't be sad Dell. I read that the school is surrounded by forest. If we wanted we could make a bigger one there that we could live in instead of the school.”

“Think we'd anger the headmistress by doing that,” I pointed out.

“Well she doesn't need to know. But think of all the space we would have if we made it there. We'd have our own homes, kitchens, living spaces, bedrooms. And we won't have to room with anybody we don't know,” Catherine pointed out.

“With our luck, we'll be roomed with our enemies or something”

“How do you get your dorms anyway?” Catherine asked.

“I have no clue. Apparently, they have” I shuddered “Uniforms I think it's like a “Let's judge this kid by the way that he/she dresses and acts and place him/her with the other kids.””

“Well then. Do you think we'll be separated?”  

“I don't think you and I will be. You're just a bit quieter than me, being deaf and all, but I think that either we'll all be together or Bets will go to some place different.”

“I wonder if they even have a place that Bets would qualify to go to.”

“There have to be at least another fifty kids that are like her. We can at least hope I guess.”

“We'll definitely be together though. I have this feeling though.”

“What do you mean?”

“I think we're going to find our Gamma there.”

“Yeah. Our last member. Could you imagine that?!” Alphs asked.

I guess I should explain.

What we mean by our ‘Gamma’ is the last member of our group. They, the Gamma, would be the person whose advice was respected, and they can maintain order during chaos.

It’s kind of silly, referring to ourselves as a pack rather than a group, but the three of us agree that a pack is closer than just a group, a pack is family and they take care of each other. I guess in the beginning we all agreed that we should have nicknames the represent our ‘Ranks’ in the pack, Catherine got the highest one because, even though she wasn’t exactly bold, both Crystal and I knew that she was brave and that she would fit best in the highest leader position.

Crystal got the second highest rank because Catherine thought that she would make the best ‘Second in Command’ even though she may not look or act like it, Crystal is very smart.

And I got a semi-lower rank because I don’t do well as a leader, despite what the others may tell you, I chose to be the one who is the voice for the rest of the pack, and, if necessary, I would lead the others if I needed to.

“I hope it’s a boy. I don’t think I could survive another girl. Especially if they're anything like Bets. She's a handful at the best of times.”

“I have to agree. So, is that the last of them?” Catherine asked referring to the stink bombs and whipped cream pillow cases.

“Yeah I think so. It's hard to believe that after six years of knowing each other and practically living with each other, that we must leave now. It's just so hard to believe you know?” I asked.

“I know. It's just strange to think that after all this time, we'll be going to some new place. New people. New Ways of life. New everything It's just not right,” Catherine stated.

“I agree.” Zell and Arrow chorused.

“Alright. So, do I have your guys' attention?” I asked.

“Yep” They said.

“Good. Do those people have anything to do with the school?” I asked.

“Yup,” Arrow said.

“Are they like me?” I tried.

“Not Bein' exactly like yer-self, but ther' close enough,” Zell stated

“Alright will you stop beating around the bush and tell me!” I snapped

“It's important that you know that we can't tell you everything,” Tori told me

“But we can tell you some things,” Cal Informed me.

“Like the fact that they are in fact protecting you,” Arrow stated.

“And that they be under strict orders not to be goin' near ya' or yer friends,” Zell said.

“So, if I went to talk to them, I'll get more out of them.”

“Most likely,” Zell and Arrow said

“But we could get in trouble!” Cal reminded us.

“Yeah! She isn't supposed to know these things! If master found out we told her-,” Tori started.

“Ye be worryin' too much Tor. We didn' tell Ads anythin' she shoudn' know,” Zell stated.

“Yeah, she figured it out herself,” Arrow pointed out.

“I'm just smart like that,” I smirked.

“I’m not getting into this,” Cal said.

   It was six fifty-four in the evening. How would I know that? You can always count on Tori to know the time. Like to the millisecond. Catherine and I were hiding, waiting for Crystal to come down to bed.

“When is she coming?” I whined to Catherine who was about three meters away from me. She’d been keeping an eye out for Crystal for the past ten minutes.

“Now! So, shush!” She hushed me and I stuck my tongue out at her.

As soon as she did this I heard footsteps coming downstairs, I instantly quieted down like I was instructed to. I saw from where I was hiding, I saw Crystal coming down the stairs. She went to her bed and threw herself down. Releasing the whipped cream that had filled her pillow case and covered her face. She squealed as the foam touched her face. She stumbled over to the cupboard where the stink bombs were hidden. As the light hit them they were set off and they blew up in Crystal’s face. Catherine and I covered our faces as the literal green cloud of stench came over to us. Bets coughed through the stink and stumbled onto her bed and fell into more whipped cream pillows.

Catherine and I were stuck in silent fits of laughter. Laughing was the only time you could hear Catherine. But we were trying to be as silent as humanely possible. Which in this scenario was not easy.

Though no matter how much we laughed, it was drowned out by Crystal screaming.

Due to this, Catherine and I began to laugh and unfortunately, we were not very quiet about it.

“Ah Ha!” Crystal shouted as her whipped cream covered face came into our view.

Catherine and I scrambled to get out of the way of Crystal who was trying to make us give her a hug.

“OH, Come on! You know you want to!” She called out as we ran upstairs and hid up the jungle gym/slide house thingy. We were panting from both running and laughing. Crystal looked through the window of Lily and Alex's room and scowled at us. We could see from out place in the tree that both Alex and Lily were laughing that their prank worked on at least one of us.

“They seem happy that their prank worked on someone,” Catherine told me.

I nodded, trying to catch my breath, while looking around to make sure that Crystal wasn’t approaching us before I slid down the slide, which I was much too big for, Catherine following me closely. I turned to Catherine with a grin.  

“Whelp! It's almost dinner time and I'm craving Soup and Garlic bread”

“Warning! It's going to be an amusing dinner,” Arrow warned.

   Thank The Epic Arrow for that warning because he was right.

About five minutes into the nice peaceful dinner I started to think that he was lying.

But Then My dad started cracking Star Wars toilet jokes that included but were not limited to “Luke Pull up Your Shorts” in a Ben Kenobi voice.

I was extremely disturbed.

It was currently nine forty-three in the morning. The next day if anyone is confused and I had pulled an all-nighter.

Reason being? I spent the entire time listening to music on my radio while sorting through all my stuff. I didn't realize that I had so much stuff until I had collected it all from around the house. Out of the toy bins, my stuffed animals, my aquarium, my novels, my action figures that I had collected, my old laptop, my old clothes, my art supplies, jewelry, my old kids camera, any old notebooks or paper related things that I had.

Considering that I was leaving in two days I figured that I would go through my stuff figure out what was going to charity, what I would give to the Kids and what I would take with me. I didn't intend for it to take all night. I only had intended for it to take an hour. But an hour turned into the entire night when I looked at my bed and floor stacked high with all my stuff on it.

I was sitting on my bed and I was almost passing out from exhaustion Catherine was in the half awake, half asleep state. While Crystal was completely snoring.

I had seven boxes that were going to charity.

Twelve that were going to the kids, each kid getting different things.

My two suitcases that were going with me were completely stuffed. I had three carry-ons as well. It was going to be a heavy load.

All of Catherine’s stuff fit into six suit cases and one carry-on.

All of Crystal’s stuff didn't even fit into my two and three plus Catherine's six and one. She had so much stuff that her mother was shipping half of it to the school itself! I don't know how one person could have as much stuff as Crystal did.

I knew one thing. This trip was going to take it out of me. The same was going to Catherine, Crystal and Alex.

    That evening Catherine, Crystal and I set out to go find one of those people that Zell, Cal, Arrow and Tori told me about. Honestly, I didn’t think that we’d find anyone, but that might have been my sleep deprived brain.

“I don't think that we'll find just one of them. From what I've seen they travel in groups of four of three. On occasions, I'll see them in pairs of two but never one,” Catherine said.

“Maybe we'll get lucky!” Crystal chirped. Yeah . . . I highly doubt that.

It seemed to me that Catherine was having the same thoughts.

“Hey look! There's two there! Come one!” Crystal shouted as she ran.

“Bets! No-” Catherine didn't even finish her signing before Crystal was half way to them.

“Don't you find it a bit curious that we're out here for not even five minutes and there's already two of them there like they're waiting for us?” Catherine asked.

“Or the fact that they look extremely familiar?” I added.

But out thoughts were useless to the fact that Crystal had already cornered them.

“Excuse me? We have some questions if you wouldn't mind,” Crystal was saying as we approached.

“Um . . . Sure,” One said.

“You've been here since we were little, and show up most when we're together,” Crystal started.

“Not to mention that you have some sort of ability to take our memory of you” Catherine continued by signing, but they seemed to understand, this made me a bit more suspicious and cautious.

“But let's forget that for now and start with introductions. My name is Adriana, that is Catherine, and that Is Crystal. So, what do you have to say for yourselves?” I asked.

“Carter, Conner.”  They introduced themselves. Carter had skin made of lava rocks, Conner seemed to be completely made of glass.

“So back to our questions. You have technology that can erase or block memories?” I asked.

“You - you aren't supposed to know all this,” Conner stuttered.

“Well for fun and giggles, let’s say we do. Is it true?” I asked.

“Yes,” Carter admitted.

“So, you have been taking them?” Crystal said.

“Yes”

“And you’re here protecting us?” Catherine stated.

“Yes.” Came the same answer.

“But you're not allowed to show yourselves?” Crystal said.

Nods.

“And now you'll be in a lot of trouble for speaking with us”

“Yes but-”

“And you can't take our memories again. It won't work anymore” Catherine reasoned.

Without even a second glance at us Carter lifted his hand, revealing a strange metal object that fit in his palm, connected with long, spiked cords that looked to be implanted into his fingers. Catherine was right, it did look slightly like a television remote, but it was smaller.

“No!” The others shouted. “Don't let him. It'll cause severe brain damage,” they told me.

Something clicked in my mind. Once I knew the danger, my mind took over. I lifted my hand and my eyes turned a deep golden that clouded over my vision as my fingertips turned that same color. Carter and Conner's eyes soon turned the same and Carter lowered his hand.

I didn't realize the effort that small little gesture took until I felt like I was in a dream, unable to feel my body and my vision clouded.

  Catherine’s point of view.

   I watched as Adriana fell and Crystal caught her, though Crystal struggled to hold Adriana up. Suddenly I didn't feel so safe around these people, but I pushed those thoughts away. I turned to them, faster than ever.

“Did you ever think, with those tiny little brains of yours, that stealing memories could cause brain damage!? You’re completely irresponsible!” I shouted. Suddenly something shot out of my chest, something like a shock wave that sent them flying. Crystal stared in shock as I panted. What did I just do? I looked down at myself, looking for something that could have caused the shock-wave thing, but I couldn’t see anything, which made me more confused.

We had to half carry-half drag Adriana l home. She didn't weigh much, but she was taller than us so it was a bit awkward. I was glad that Adriana’s family and Alex had gone out for Lily and Alex's choir practice. We walked through the door and had to throw Adriana on the couch. The breeze that was coming through the windows was not warm and I realized that Adriana was shivering.

I ran to the closet with spare blankets and grabbed a fleece one and threw it on Adriana.

“How did you do that Alphs?” Crystal asked me with a look of wonder on her face.

“I don't know. I just acted on instinct. I think that Dell did too.”

“What can I do?” Crystal wondered.

“I don't know try,” I urged.

Crystal screwed up her face slightly, something she did often and I burst out laughing. I didn't understand what I was laughing at, or what was so funny, I was just laughing. Crystal looked at me, slightly offended.

“What's so funny?” She asked.

“I really don't know” I said once I had calmed down. Crystal pouted slightly and that alone sent me into another rib breaking fit of laughter.

“What!” Crystal asked offended.

“I- Don't- Know!” My fingers faltered to get the words out properly.

“Meanie,” Crystal said.

Once I had calmed down I looked curiously at Crystal.

“OK what now,” Crystal asked, irritated.

“I don't understand why I was laughing. Nothing funny happened. But I was laughing like Dell had just taken a pie to the face,” I told her.

“I don't get it either!” Crystal pouted.

I heard Adriana groan and I looked to see her trying to sit up. Crystal ran and grabbed her a glass of water while I sat down in front of her, helping her sit up.

“Well that sure was f-,” Adriana started,

“Delly!” Crystal warned.

“Fun! I was going to say fun!”

“You alright?” I asked.

“Yeah. What the hell happened?” she asked.

“We don't know” I said.

“Well. When in doubt, jump about! Pizza party!” Adriana exclaimed and the fun was back.

[quinlin-blog1]

The Lost Island ~ Chapter One

**Just a quick note. This is one of the first ever books I wrote. Disclaimer being that it’s going to be cringe-y at the beginning but it does get better** 

The warm May sun beams, joyfully, almost playfully, through the window of a tall house at the end of a quiet street. Children cheerfully ran playing up and down the road and skipping ropes at the local park. From inside the house, a girl of sixteen could see her little siblings as they rough-housed in the front yard. The sun came through the window, illuminating her bright green eyes and shining on her long soft brown hair, with its teal dip-dyed ends tumbling down to her lower back.

That's me. My name is Adriana Langster, I have five siblings, four of which are younger than me, and one is older. I live in Australia, though I won’t say where exactly.

My head was resting on my palm, my other hand sketching the scene in front of me. I found myself smiling as I thought about my little siblings, but then, the smile dropped.

I will be going away soon. My mother is sending me to a finishing school for girls on faraway island. I won’t see my friends or family for three years. My baby sister will be starting school, with my brothers and younger sister.

Flashback:

I was in my backyard, playing With Maya, my baby sister.

"Adriana!" My mother, Lana, called.

"Coming mum!" I called back and set Maya on the sun chair, and ran inside. My mother was sitting on the couch, looking absolutely elated.

"What's up mum?" I asked sitting in my favorite chair, swinging my legs off the edge of the arm.

"Remember how when you were younger, you said you’d like to go to that finishing school that our neighbor Olive went to?" She asked me. Yes, I remembered, but why was she bringing this up now? That was eight years ago.

"Uh-huh?" I answered hesitantly. ‘Wow, really elegant Addy’ I thought.

"Well. Guess who was accepted?" She asked eagerly with a huge grin.

"Lily?" I asked hopefully. ‘Oh No, I don't want to go!’ I begged inside my head.

"No silly, you! They have accepted you in! Isn't that great!?" Mum shouted as she tackled me with a hug.

"Uh mum?" I asked. How was I supposed to tell her?

"Yeah?" She asked, smiling like a goof.

"You do realize that, that was eight years ago right?" I started slowly.

"Yes, time flies huh?"

"I don't think I want to go anymore mum" I told her.

She looked confused. "Why? When Olive told you about it you were begging to go" She pointed out to me.

"Yeah but, I've changed since then. I've made friends, I have a life now. I'm enjoying myself here. That place is a school to teach girls how to become proper ladies. I don't really think I belong there" I told her.

"That's why you're going. Because you need to learn to become a lady."

"If that was your plan to send me there, then why not send me earlier?! Why would you wait till now, when I’m happy and comfortable here?" I snapped.

“Sweetheart your name has been on that list since you first showed interest in going! Olive made sure of it!”

“I know mum! But I've changed from the little girl I was then!”

“Don't think that I haven't noticed.”

“My point is! I've changed, I don't want to go to that school any more. I'm happy with  the one I’m going to now!”

"I'm not sending you because I want to ruin your life, I'm sending you because it's better for you and will give you more opportunities." She said.

I shouted in exasperation and stomped upstairs to my bedroom.

End flashback.

  As you can tell I didn't take it so well.

Someone banged on my door, knocking me out of my thoughts. I went over and opened it. No one was there.

"Addy!" A little voice cried.

I looked down to see Maya hugging my legs. She couldn't pronounce my name right, none of them could at that age. I leaned down and picked her up. Since Maya was born, we’ve always had a very special connection. I sit down on my bed and bounce her on  my knee. Maya loves this. She also find's it funny when someone sneezes. Seriously, it's like the funniest thing in the world for her.

"Addy's going to have to go away soon" I told her. Tears coming to my eyes. I hated the idea of abandoning my baby sister. She needs me and I need her. Maya tilted her head slightly. Her small hand reached up and touched my cheek lightly.

“Why?” She asked me quizzically.

I didn’t want to answer the question, so instead I brought up another subject.

"Are you hungry?" I asked her.

"Yes" She replied. Of course, she’s always hungry. I smiled down at her.

I lifted Maya up and put her on my shoulders. She giggled as I bounced down the stairs. Her small arms wrapped tightly around my neck as she hung on.

I haven't been on very good terms with my mother since that conversation. Though we still speak it's not as carefree as it used to be. When I reached the kitchen. Lily and Lysander were taking large drinks of water. They had bruises and slight scrapes on their arms and legs. I smiled and shook my head slightly.

"Hi Addy,” Lysander said.

"Are you coming to our magic show tonight?" Lily asked. They were always putting on magic shows and performances. The two of them were almost like twins, even though Lily was a few years older than Lysander.

"Of course. Why not?" I told them.

 They smiled. Uriah, my youngest brother ran in, holding his superhero figure out with his arms spread wide open.

"What time is your magic show?” I asked. Peeling an apple and cutting it into quarters. "Ow!" I exclaimed when Lysander bumped into me making me cut my finger.

"Oh! Sorry Addy!" He stated.

"It's alright" I said, running the cut under cold water.

"The magic show is at six o'clock. Here's your ticket" Lily stated, handing me a piece of paper with my name and a big six on it. I smiled at my sister and kissed Lysander’s head.

"Ew! Sister Germs!" He yelled and ran away. Lily chasing after him.

"Addy? Can we watch a movie?” Uriah asked me.

"Of course, let's go" I said, Picking Maya up off the counter and carrying her into the living room where Uriah turned on the T.V. Backyardagains was playing. Uriah plopped on the floor in front of it. I sat on the couch with Maya curled up on my lap, gnawing on an apple slice. Eventually I fell asleep listening to the cheesy songs from the show and Uriah’s laughing.

I was awoken abruptly, when the family dog Lee and my dog Twilight ran into the living room, wanting me to take them for a walk. Twilight was huge, being part Dane part husky, I often put Maya on her back and let her ride Twilight. Lee, on the other hand, was just a tiny little thing. We rescued her a few years ago when she was two years old and she still looks like a puppy.

I groaned.

"Alright, alright!" I said. Getting up and stretching. My back made a series of relieving popping noises.

I walked to the door and grabbed Lee’s leash. Twilight never left my side. I had rescued her when she was a puppy from some kids that were throwing rocks at her. I took her home, cleaned her and nursed her to health. Since then she has become my best friend and protector. Of course, she was the protector of the entire family. When Maya was born, Twilight looked after her like she was her own. I was Twilight's mother and Maya was the baby sister.

I clipped the leash to Lee’s collar and I opened the door. I was instantly hit by a wave of heat. Even though it was autumn it felt like midsummer.

We walked down the streets, waving to the neighbors, when suddenly I was slammed into the ground, there was a person was on top of me. Catherine.

"You know. If you weren't so shy, I would say to try out for the football team" I groaned sarcastically. She laughed and climbed off me.

Catherine was quiet most of the time, though when we're together she's quite animated figuratively speaking. She had pale blonde hair and amber colored eyes. It was hard for Catherine at first, because her hearing is impaired, we had issues communicating when we first met for a school project, but my mother had taught me basic sign language at a young age.

But, of course, Catherine wasn’t alone. Our other friend Crystal was standing not too far away during these events, holding Lee. Crystal always loved that dog, probably because she was easy to pick up and cuddle.

Crystal was something else to say the least. Crystal is Catherine’s opposite. She tends to be more girly than either of us. Her black hair was cut just to her shoulders, the roots dyed bright. And she tends to be quite random.

Catherine’s purple streaked hair was pulled back into a ponytail, as per always, while Crystal’s was a riot of braids.

I had already told my friends that I was leaving in a few days.

We had been spending as much time together as possible. We headed over to my house to drop off Lee. Twilight will whine if we left without her, so we decided to bring her along.

"Hey mum?! I'm going to go to the park with Crystal and Catherine!" I called up as I left the house on my bike. Crystal and Catherine had already grabbed their bikes and were waiting for me.

We didn’t usually go to the park, unless we had to take the little kids with us.

Luckily Lily was best friends with Alex, Catherine’s younger sister so we regularly brought them to the playground.

When it was just us, we went to our favorite grove of trees on a cliff, overlooking a lake, covered with vast trees. There, we had made our tree houses, three separate from one main one.

No one ever came here, but if they did they wouldn't have been able to find the tree houses unless they knew what they were looking for. Mine, was filled with pictures that I had taken…I want to be a photographer, a video camera and an underwater camera, a lap top for photo editing, my snorkel and mask, books. The main house had a few seats and an extra-large first aid kit. Catherine’s idea, she wants to be a doctor. Getting up there wasn't easiest thing in the world, let me tell you. We had to make it hard to get up so that people won't think of trying. We each have different ways of getting up. Crystal's way is an inconspicuous platform that she can crank up, Catherine’s is a rope ladder that she wove the first day (It took several tireless days to get this all done, in which our parents thought we were out at a science fair) and mine was a simple, "find as many ways to climb up as possible" kind of deal.

We reached the hang out and climbed up to the main house. I looked at my surroundings. Many pictures of past summers, Halloweens, Christmases, Easters, Birthdays and many more different ones, hung up on the walls. We made this tree house three years ago. It made me sad that I would have to leave it all behind for another three. What will change while she's gone? All this would be gone. We would be older. Nineteen, wow.

"Don't worry Dell. We won't ever change" Catherine said as she came in. I must have looked as confused as I felt because Crystal spoke up next.

"You were thinking aloud Dell”

 (Some clarity, my friends call me Dell to stand for Delta, Catherine is Alpha or Alphs for leader and Crystal is Beta or Bets.)

 "Sorry, can't help myself. Think, I won't be able to see you guys for three years, excluding Christmas." I stated sadly.

"I'll see you. My mum set me up to go too. Aren't otters adorable?" Crystal asked.

"Yes Bets, otters are adorable. Then it's just me?" Catherine said

"Why don't you go?" I asked.

"Because Dell, you know my mum" Catherine had a point. Her mother wasn't the nicest person on the planet, she was very stern and had a high shrill voice that could cut glass at the lowest whisper. She didn't like me or Catherine very much so she loved to lecture Catherine on us. This was one of the reasons Catherine was so shy.

"You don't have to tell us we're going. You can tell her that you've given it some thought and decided you wanted to go" I stated.

"I couldn't ask for an otter" Crystal sang happily.

I face-palmed, so it's otters now? Last week it was bunnies, the week before it was sloths. Crystal is obsessed with cute baby animals. She begs her parents for one, they say no, she moves on to a new one and repeat. Catherine seemed to be thinking the same thing because she repeated my actions.

"Are we allowed to bring pets?" Catherine asked. Last month, her parents had caved and bought her a pet penguin that she named Sparkle. Personally, I still couldn’t believe that she had gotten a penguin, we were in Australia for heaven’s sake!

"Yeah, I'll be bringing Twilight." I explained.

We were quiet for a few minutes, each one of us doing our own thing, when Catherine suggested going swimming, to which Crystal and I agreed.

I ran out and ran across the bridge to my house, wobbling unsteadily as I did so. I took out my bathing suit and changed quickly, before climbing down the tree and jumping the last few feet to the ground. I raced to the cliff at the edge of lake with Crystal and Catherine chasing after me. I reached the lake and began to remove my shorts and t-shirt and dove into the water just as Crystal and Catherine arrived. I resurfaced and was splashed by Catherine. Crystal was rubbing sunscreen onto her pale skin on shore since she did not tan well. Catherine and I began to splash each other, laughing uncontrollably. After a while we headed back to shore and collapsed in the sand to relax and tan for a bit.

I was going to miss my girls.

"We'll miss you too Dell" Catherine stated.

I need to stop thinking out loud. I thought.

"Yes, you do" Crystal agreed.

"Dang it!” I exclaimed and my best friends laughed.

"What if your mum says yes? Then we could all go together!" Crystal tried.

"Yeah, I could ask her tonight when I get home" Catherine stated.

"Actually, I was thinking we could have a sleepover tonight. You could ask if that’s ok when you go to get your stuff" I told them. I had asked my dad this morning and he said it was all right. He thought that since I’d be leaving soon we should cram in as much time together as we could.

"Sounds good." Crystal said happily. She's always happy. Maybe that's not a bad thing

I leaned over, making sure that my friends didn't see, and picked up two handfuls of wet sand, balled it up and threw it at them. Crystal screamed and Catherine fell off her chair face first into the sand.

"DELL!" They screech. I ran.

It quickly turned into an all-out sand war. Catherine threw one into my hair and I hit Crystal in the shoulder. Crystal set a timer for one hour, and the sand fort competition began. Forty- five minutes later my fort was done, with walls taller than myself and a foot thick. As the others continued to build up their forts. I began to make ammo.

I had made about twenty sand balls before the timer began to sing the duck song. ‘Really Bets?’ I thought to myself.

Instantly Crystal let out a war cry and began to throw sand bombs at both me and Catherine, who ducked behind her fort for cover.  I ran around them and behind Catherine. Grabbing a handful of sand and shoving it down the back of her shirt. She squealed and jumped up and down, trying to get the sand out of her shirt. I was rolling on the floor laughing until tears rolled down my face. Out of the corner of my eye I saw Catherine stop throwing sand and look at Crystal. Suddenly they both jumped from behind me grabbing sand and shoving it down my own shirt as revenge.

This continued for ages, with us teaming up against each other. Finally, we all collapsed on the sand, panting for air.

"Alphs, what time is it?" I asked.

Catherine reached over to her bag and pulled out her phone.

"Two twenty- eight" She replied.

"We've been here for three hours?" Crystal questioned

"Yup" I answered.

"What do we do now?" Catherine said.

"Well my dear buddies. We, are going to shower, get dressed, then go to my place. My mom wants to take us out for dinner, to celebrate" Crystal stated.

"Celebrate what?" I asked.

"Getting into school. Alphs will have time to convince her mom to let her go before we leave" Crystal pointed out.

"She has a point" I said.

"I guess I can try. It wouldn't be too bad getting out of that place for a while." Catherine concurred.

"Great! Let's head back and meet up at my place around four, mum wants to take us at five thirty" Crystal said happily.

"Then we can have time to get ready for you guys staying over" I said.

"I'm glad we don't ever do these things at my house, last time it was a disaster" Catherine mused

It was true, the last time we had a sleep over at her house was two year ago. Boy we sure learned our lesson. We accidentally burst one of her feather pillowed and stained her carpet and bed sheets with grape juice, her mother was none too impressed to say the least. Mind you we were like ten.

"We'll have the basement tonight, Lily.... Oh no!" I exclaimed.

"What?" My friends asked.

"Lily and Lysander are doing a magic show tonight at six! I won't be able to see it and they'll be upset”

The last time I pulled a stunt like this they whined at me for three days straight.

"Maybe they would bring it earlier if we told them we'd come" Catherine told me.

Lily loved Catherine more than she did me, though I loved Alex, Catherine’s little sister, tons, so it worked out nicely.

"I'll let her know that" I said and grabbed out my phone and turned on Skype. Instantly a message from Lily.

"When are you getting home? Is Cathy coming with?" It read.

"Well that's the thing, Cathy will be coming with me, but can you move the show the earlier so she can be there? Crys’ mum wants to see us at five thirty" I explained. It took a few moments but my phone beeped again none the less.

"Fine, but You have to be here at five" Lily stated.

"Perfect I'll be home soon. The others will be coming too, plus Alex" I could almost hear her squeal.

After saying quick goodbyes, I hung up the phone and turned to my friends with a grin.

"We're good, as long as your there by five and have Alex with you, she can stay over too.

"Oh, she'll love that. She'll probably screamed louder than anything and run to pack for the night" Catherine said amused

"That's why I love her" I said taking my hair out of its bun that was falling to the nape of my neck and shaking it out.

So, we left the beach back to our houses to drop off our stuff and head back to our actual homes. My brain couldn't stop thinking about how much things are going to change when I leave. I would be sixteen where I got back for the summer. I wouldn't be coming back for another summer for three years, Christmas and spring breaks, but nothing else. Then I would have to go back for another three years.  By the time I'd finished the school I'd be nineteen!

 “You’re thinking' too much about it Ads! It won't be as bad as you think!”

I have four voices in my head, two boys and two girls. The girls named Cal and Tori, the boys named Zell and Arrow.

Zell, Arrow and Tori mostly keep a level head about things, while Cal insists on always looking on the bright side. They had apparently been in my head since I was born. I hadn't ever told anyone accepts for Catherine and Crystal, who also had voices in their heads. I had never told my parents, though I had come very close to at many points in my life. Mostly when Cal and Tori were nagging me about something, or when Zell and Arrow were annoying me, or when one of them let something slip that they weren't meant to. I got so caught up in thought that my parents would notice and ask me about it. I always lied my way out of it smoothly.

“I can't help myself Arrow. I'll be gone for so long! Everything would be different!” I replied to Arrow’s statement.

“You’re thinking too much about it Sissy! It won't be that bad!” Cal said to me.

“Oh Sure! Everything is Goin' t' be fine and dandy when she be goin' t' a place where she don' be knowin' anyone, or even know where to be goin' Sure Cal She'll be fine!” Zell said sarcastically.

“This can't get any worse. I completely agree with Zell on this one. I don't know anything about where I'm going or who I'll be meeting”

“You'll be fine Mistress. It's best that you go to this school” Tori spoke up.

“Wait? Do you guys know anything about this school that I'm going to?” I asked.

“Er- No, nothing. We only know what you know” Tori lied.

“Nice try Tor. We be knowin' everythin' 'bout this. We just can't be tellin' you 'bout it” Zell covered.

“Under whose authority?” I said, dignified.

“The boss man! The big guy! The toughie! Think about it Ads. He's the one who doesn't want you to know anything about yourself that you don't already know! Remember that time when you were ten and playing football? There was no way you could have made that shot but you willed yourself to so you did! You saved the game because you did something impossible! I'll bet-” Arrow's monolog was interrupted by a loud smacking sound and his loud call of “Ouch”. Tori or Cal had Smacked Arrow.

“Arrow! You weren't supposed to say anything! We could get into trouble!” Tori scolded a pouting Arrow.

“Well it ain't like we can be leavin' Ads in a rut with no way out, Tor.” Zell pointed out to Tori 

“But the master told us not to tell her anything she doesn't need to know!” Cal reminded them.

This conversation seems to be very one sided.

“And we ain't goin' t'. But we ain't goin' t' leave 'er with Nothin'!” Zell said firmly.

“Yeah! She has the right to know what's going to happen! Or at least a rough edge of it!” Arrow agreed. 

Yep, very one sided.

“Well how do we know she can handle it?” Cal asked.

“Are you kidding me!? It's Ads! Of course, she can handle it!” Arrow exclaimed.

“Are you sure? Because it's this kind of stuff that makes people worry and stress.” Tori pointed out. 

“It's Ads we be talkin' 'bout! O' course she can handle this!”

“Guys!” I shouted, finally having enough. People looked at me weirdly.

“Go back to your knitting!” I told them and they averted their eyes.

“Point to Ads” Arrow joked.

“Thanks. What is going on?”

“What we are going on about Ads, is that the fact that you’re going to the school is important, you have to go. But Catherine and Crystal are going to be there too.” Cal reassured me.

Seems like I have no choice. I thought to myself. As I stepped through my door,. I was instantly ambushed by Maya and Twilight.

Maya riding on Twilight's back as they came romping up and trampled on top of me. Twilight licking my face, while Maya insisted on jumping endlessly on my belly. And I suddenly felt the bile rising in the back of my throat. No, I didn't really throw up. Thank whoever may be out there, for my iron stomach.

“Help! I'm being sat on by a demon baby!” I shouted 

My mother poked her head around the corner to see what was going on, only to roll her eyes, smile and walk back into the living room

“Thanks for the help!” I shouted after her.

“You're welcome!” Came the reply.

I turned back to Maya who was literally making my breakfast come back up.

“OK! OK! I'll make you a smoothie if you get off” I offered, laboring to breathe.

Maya got off and I hobbled off into the kitchen to make myself and Maya a smoothie.

                                                      *

  A loud ringing of the doorbell interrupted my giggling as Maya and myself hid away from Catherine, Alex and Crystal, who were the ones that were ringing.

You see, we were hiding from them, partly because I didn't want to get dressed, but mostly because we were hyper on sugar. It wasn't our fault that mother had left the cake and pies unattended.

So here we were, hiding in Maya's large play house that was in her playroom. We heard footsteps up the stairs and the door open.

“Addy! I know you're in here! I want to hide too” Alex's voice came.

I opened the door and let her into the small house. We giggled and waited for Catherine and Crystal to come up and find us.

“Come on out Dell!” Catherine called.

“Yeah. Either we'll find you. Or the man- eating otters will!” Crystal added.

Que Catherine face palm and Alex's stifled laughter. Crystal and her silly obsession with baby animals. Alex and I were completely busting a gut, so much so that we failed to keep our laughter quiet for much longer.

“They’re in the house!” Crystal exclaimed as they heard us

“No, we're not” I said

“Yes, you are!” Catherine stated

“Can't touch this” I sang quietly to Alex who laughed harder, if possible.

“What did you say?!” Catherine and Crystal asked loudly

“Nothing!” We replied.

I counted down and we busted down the door, running out of the room with Maya asleep on the little bed in the house.

“Can't touch this!” I sang loudly causing both Catherine and Crystal to laugh.

“That's what you said!” Crystal exclaimed.

We ran into my room and collapsed on my bed and floor, laughing too hard.

“W-when do you l-leave?” Alex stuttered out as she tried to calm her laughter.

“In about six days.” I replied, taking in air.

“Cathy asked mother if she could go, I think mother will let her though. I'd love to go” Alex said to me.

“You’re just too young Al. You'll be going soon enough” I reminded her.

“Yeah, I know. Then Lily and I can go together!” Alex said brightly.

“Yeah, we'll be back soon enough for Christmas and then spring breaks.  Three years from now you can go too” I told her.

“I know. But it's going to feel like forever!” She emphasized the “Forever” in the sentence.

“I know!”

“Alright Alex. We need to get Dell ready, so out you go.” Catherine said as they walked in.

“Yeah. Come on, Delly!” Crystal Smirked. This was never a good sign.

[quinlin-blog1]

Sailors

"Toss her over board!"

A scream filled the night air. It was windy, the waves rough against the ships side. Salt water splashed up into the faces of sailors, how gripped the sides of their beloved ship as to not be tossed over the side. Why was everyone out so late? Why were they out in this horrible weather? Well that would be because-

"It's her! It's her fault! This weather's a sign of her evil! Throw her over!"

How rude. It was because the crew of this mighty ship had discovered a woman amongst their ranks, having hid from the smelly sailor men for days on end. She thought it safe to come out of her hiding spot while the crew slept, to get a glance at the beautiful sea before having to go into hiding again until the ship reached its destination. Unfortunately, things didn't go as planned. She'd tripped over a piece of rope that had been strewn across the deck, falling onto the wood and alerting the look out, who called the captain. This isn't a fairytail where the captain in merciful on the woman, or where the lookout changes his mind and tells the captain that it was a mistake, and continues to hide the woman.

She struggles against the harsh grips on her arms, trying desperately to get away from the open edge of the ship, where she'd been dragged to. There were chants coming from every occupant, all of them calling for her to be thrown over. Two more sailors approached her, thick rope in their hands. They tied it around her legs and around her hands, stopping to most of her struggling.

"It's bad luck to have a woman on board!"

"Witch!"

"Leave her for the sharks!"

As she was pushed to the edge, the woman felt the sea spray again her face. For a moment, she stopped struggling to take in the water, to observe it for the first time. it's dark depths that held so many secrets, to white caps on the tops of waves as the crashed, the fish that swam beneath the surge. In the darkness -as there no no moon behind the dark clouds in the sky- she wondered what it felt like. But it wasn't though she really wanted to know. It was more of a metaphorical wondering. Like wondering what would happen if you jumped off the top of a tall building. You knew the outcome, yet you still wondered.

It wasn't as though she had to wait long. The other end of the rope was tied to a cannonball, a heavy led thing that would surely drag her down once in the water.

The captain held his hand up for silence among the crew.

"As you all know, it is against all beliefs to have a woman-" He spat the word like it was poison "-aboard a ship. It is a curse, a curse that leads all to death. Death for all those who occupy to ship, to the depths of Davy Jones' Locker! An eternal torture. The only way to avoid this horrible ending?" He turned to the woman "A sacrifice."

With a wave of his hand and a rough shove from the back and the woman toppled forwards. The cannonball hit the water first, dragging her down heavily. The water was cold. She could hear the splash she made when she submerged in the water. But there was no resurfacing. She struggled and tears flew from her eyes, mixing with the already salty water as she sunk. Fish watched her and swam away from the strange figure. The pressure on her head was almost unbearable as she sunk even further, the light at the surface becoming dimmer and dimmer. Her lungs burned from holding her breath for too long and she wanted nothing more than to take in a breath. Her neck and rib cage stung like her flesh was being torn open and she knew that this was her end. She knew that something was attacking her, though she could not see it. The stinging in her side was almost too much for her. The dress that she was wearing was heavy and billowing around her as she sunk. Something swam right by her head, brushing to side of her face and she screamed, letting out the last bit of air she had. But then, the most incredible thing happened. Well, the most incredible thing in her opinion.

She was breathing.

Water was rushing to her neck and through it, and then out her rib cage again. She continued to sink, but breathed, panted, as she struggled her hands out of their bonds. Once she was untied, she tore open the bodice of her dress and stared down at her rib cage in shock. She had grown gills. She flicked her legs around a few times. Confusingly, they moved fluidly, without hindrance. It was like no weight held her legs down and she could move around perfectly fine.

She looked up to meet the pale grey human-like eyes. It was a woman, gills in her neck and rib cage, scraps of fabric covering her chest and a long tail.

"Finally, we now have an army to lead against the sailor men."

[quinlin-blog1]

Numbers

Numbers. That's what your life had been. For every person you saw, there was a number above their head. Some ranged from ten or two, to fourteen hundred and sixteen. Really it depended on the person.

And you had lived your life, with these numbers, wondering what they were.

One of the theories you had come up with, was the numbers were how far away a person was from their soulmate. Being measured in feet, of course because it didn't seem possible to be two milometers away from your soulmate and not know who they were. You had hypothesized that you could see the distance between two soulmates and for a while it saddened you to see a large number above someone's head, thinking that they were far away from the person that they truly belonged with, that they truly needed. And in turn, it made you happy to see small numbers. You would often try to find people with the exact same numbers in a distance between, trying to think of a way to introduce them, just so you could see two soulmates meet for the first time.

But that wasn't it.

Then, a while after that, you came up with another idea. That the numbers were months, the number of months that you were away from dying. You felt bad for those who only had numbers like two or three, a few times you had almost stopped to talk to them. You never considered telling anyone that you could see numbers over their heads and that they were close to dying, for a few reasons actually. One, being that you didn't really know the reason behind your uncanny ability and two because people might think you were crazy and have you sent away. But you would also find older people, elderly who had numbers like forty and twenty above their heads and you felt relieved that they were live a little longer, love for a while more.

But that wasn't it either.

Perhaps it was the number and years, in that person's opinion, until the world would end. Everyone had a different opinion on that strange question and if you asked around enough, you would find that there was many different numbers. During this time, while you hypothesized this, you had looked at people a little differently. You had looked at the strangely, seeing the different numbers. The lower number, in your own opinion, showed how much faith they had in one opinion, or one doomsday-sayer. Other, who had larger numbers, you wondered in their own ideas, how the world ended. Would the sun explode, thousands of years into the future, effectively burning up the world? Would the Earth's core become unstable and inevitably cause an explosion? Would there be a huge tidal wave, a massive underwater earthquake that flood over the whole world, covering everything in hundreds of feet of water? Maybe we're invaded by alien parasites, like in the movies, that settle in your stomach and then hatch out, slowly killing everyone on Earth? It hurt your mind to think of all the different reasons that someone could come up with, though you knew there were hundreds of ways that people have hypothesized the world ending.

But that -thankfully- wasn't it either.

You noticed, one night while you were laying in bed -where most of your deep thoughts tended to happen- many years into your life, that you had never seen anyone with the number one over their heads. Two's, three's, four's and five's, but never a one. You had wondered why. You'd thought hard about this, coming up with a few different theories that could be, but ended up not being. And it wasn't until years later, that you finally figured it out.

You had been out walking. Just down the street of your town, trying to get to the store for a loaf of bread and maybe some milk -it really depended on how you felt-. You'd been distracted, looking around at the many numbers above people's heads. You turned to cross the street and almost stopped, right there in the middle, where cars could stop and hit you at any moment. You made your way quickly, across the street to the person with the number one above their head. A bright number one, looking like the numbers you'd see on a digital watch.

Then, the person made a face.

Your mind raced, were they about to die? Were they going to explode? Was it something bad? Something good?

Their nose scrunched up, and just then, they sneezed. A quick expulsion, covering their face with their hands and the numbers quickly reset.

You had figured it out. The numbers were counting down to when someone was going to sneeze.

[quinlin-blog1]

Haunted

"Where the hell is it?!"

You went around your kitchen in an annoyed flurry. Where was the cheese grater! You remembered putting it in the cupboard with all your plastic Tupperware containers. Now, of course, like every other time you went looking for something, it wasn't there. You were partly burning the sauce that was on your stove, having to run back and forth between looking for the grater and stirring the pot. You felt a bit stupid, for going back and forth like you were, when you could have just turned the pot down to a low temperature -or off completely- until you found the grater you needed, but hat thought didn't come to you until much later.

You heard chuckles in the corner of the room, they were slightly muffled, like someone was trying to make their laughs quieter, as to not be heard. But you knew him. You knew that he didn't care, in fact he spent half of the time laughing at you anyway. He did this on purpose, just so that something might go wrong for you.

When other people's houses were haunted, they just move out. But not you. You had spent too long there, put in too much time, too much care into the house, to let one single, annoying ghost chase you out. No no. You were too stubborn for that. And it wasn't like the ghost hurt you. Physically anyway. It sure caused you a lot of mental pain and emotional troubles. You liked to think that the ghost was half the reason you have anger issues. Finally opening the pot cupboard, looking for a pot lid, you took the lid out, only to reveal the cheese grater that you were missing. You took it out, straightening up and you turned around, seeing the face of the ghost that you knew too well. He was laughing. Laughing loudly.

A few days later, you were getting ready for a very important meeting with your bosses, you were making a presentation and you were up for a really good promotion. You were stood in front of your mirror, brushing mascara over your eyelashes, dyeing them darker than they normally were. You quickly put on a bit of eye shadow and blush, then turned to your lipstick. You opened the cap up and pushed the stick out. You put it to your lips and began to rub it on, when a hand was suddenly put on your elbow and it pushed your hand across your face. Your eyes widened as you looked at the red streak across your face, leading from your lips to your cheekbone. You heard a snort to the background and didn't need to look to know who it was.

You were asleep, sleeping quite soundly and peacefully, having a nice dream that you didn't really want to wake up from.

CREEK

Even through your sleeping state, you heard the noise, you knew exactly what it was and found yourself trying to ignore it.

CREEK

That time, you were drawn from your dream, you mind becoming less cloudy as you found yourself being dragged to consciousness. You didn't open your eyes, wanting nothing more for the noise to end and to go back to sleep. Damn him. Damn him and this petty war he had started.

CREEK

Your eyes snapped open and you reached blindly for the thing that you kept beside your bed in case of emergencies. Opening it up, you grabbed a handful of salt and threw it to where you knew him to be. He shrieked loudly, disappearing. But before he was gone -for now- you heard,

"Well played"