Chapter 19
A shell. The only way I can explain my hollowed out body as it falls to the ground, down to the ash-covered field which is nothing more than a deserted wasteland, absent of all life and patched with fires that send thick black smoke high into the blackened sky.
Before me lies the college, a silhouette that’s barely visible, shielded by a cover of mist. Much like myself, the building is an empty frame, a shadow of its former self. In punishment, I force myself to look at it, hoping it’ll ignite some sort of feeling deep inside me, but I feel nothing.
How long I’ve remained here motionless, I am unsure of. Have I entered into the afternoon or is it evening? There’s no way to tell anymore as all light has been blocked out, unable to penetrate the Earth after I scorched the sky.
That’s when my eyes are pulled to the three sets of footprints before me. Nothing is left, not even the remnants of a body where once stood my friends, pleading with me to stop and show compassion; a trait I no longer had. I count them over and over. One. Two. Three. Confirming the number of lives I’d taken. Minimal compared to the number of lives lost in the building behind. So why do I keep my focus on these footprints? What is this hold they have over me?
A teardrop falls freely from my eye but this is not due to sadness, as I’ve forgotten what that feels like. Creeping to the edge of my cheek before breaking away, the tear hits the heated ground, sizzling for a moment before floating away in a puff of white steam. How has everything around me burnt away to nothing, yet I remain, unscratched and unmarked. The lucky one, they’d say, a lone survivor, but they’d be wrong. I’m a killer. An evil, twisted killer.
My thinking begins to slow, maybe it’s night time. I could easily sleep, my body is drained to a point I’ve never experienced before. Even the thought of moving doesn’t seem possible, nothing does anymore. I should give in, allow my eyes to close, but I’ve become fixated with a single blade of grass slowly disintegrating in the wind, turning to ash as it mixes with the air. How I too, wish I could burst into a million pieces and be blown away from this life that causes nothing but pain.
“Mitchell?” a voice sounds. “It’s me, Talia.”
Her! She knew what I was, what I was capable of, yet she let me leave that night all those weeks ago. Since then, I’ve heard nothing from her, yet she chooses to contact me now after countless lives have been lost by my hands.
She continues. “I know what you must be thinking, but Mitchell, haven’t you figured it out yet? You’re stuck in one of your dreams!”
Something begins to rush over me, something I’d forgotten, it’s relief, mixed with distrust. “How do I know you’re telling the truth?”
“Mitchell Harper! You’re meant to be the smart one. Hasn’t there been something in the back of your mind, something nagging you and telling you this isn’t right?”
I think back over the day which has become somewhat of a blur amidst the fire, misery and personal torment. She’s right. Riley and Aimee being that comfortable with each other, Miah turning up, but strangest of all, Matthew acknowledging me.
Lifting my heavy head from the ground, I watch as the barren field I’d created slowly loses what little colour it has until it turns white and fades away from my vision and in its place, the lush green grass of Shellbourne gardens materialises around me. Finding myself perched upon a wooden bench in the winter section, I take a moment to look up at the sun, something I feared I’d never see again and breathe in the fresh clean air to rid my senses of the lingering burning smell. “That’s better,” Talia proclaims, making me flinch as she appears from nowhere.
“Why!?” I demand. “Why did you leave me there until now?”
“Me?” She gasps. “None of this has ever been me. This! That! It’s always been you.”
“It’s my power, isn’t it?”
She nods slowly.
“Which means it’ll come true?” I ask, planting my face into my palms.
With her hand placed on the back of my head, she begins awkwardly petting me like a dog. “There, there,” she says, staring at me with her big round eyes. “Yes, Mitchell Harper, you are a dreamer. But like all dreams, they’re symbolic and can be interpreted. Some of the things you just saw will play out to you in a different way. Example, Riley and Aimee’s new found relationship could be an indication of what’s to come. Will they be as terribly annoying as they were in your dream? Probably not. But will they be together? Probably.”
“So, I might not wreck the college with everyone inside of it?” I frantically ask.
“Oh, Mitchell Harper!” She laughs. “You and I both know of the evil within you.”
“The… Evil?” I question.
She shakes her head, flicking her dark hair while sighing. “Let us not play dumb with each other, Mitchell Harper. I really don’t like dumb people. We both know what it is I am talking about. Even now I can feel it, begging to be released. It’s your power. It wants its freedom. It wants destruction. And eventually, you will let it destroy everything we see before us.”
I’ve felt it, the darkness the flows within my veins, infecting my entire being until I’m no longer the person I once was. It’s seductive, a feeling I try to resist but find myself wanting more. What if next time I surrender myself fully to it? Is that the day the world will end?
“Surely there’s something I can do to stop it?” I plead.
She scoots closer, pushing her body up against mine and whispers. “Of course, there’s a way. There always is… but.” She cuts off mid-sentence, dramatically turning away from me in the process.
“What!?” I beg.
Her eyes dart from side to side as if she is about to divulge a secret that no one else is allowed to know. “We seal the Nexus-Points. Severing the connection to your power. Binding you.”
“But you said it’s a part of me, that I couldn’t give up my heritage?” I question.
Her body goes rigid for a moment before she lets out a sigh. “I said bind your powers. Please do listen to what I say.” Then she leans in closer, returning her voice to a whisper. “It will not free you of what you are. You’ll always be a Half-Breed.”
Finally, it’s the news I’ve been waiting for since my powers manifested. “Yes!” I cheer, unable to control my excitement “Let’s do it!”
“Calm yourself, Mitchell.” She says with a stern face. “There is more to it than simply binding your power.”
“Matthew’s as well?
She laughs hysterically, forcing the sound out her wide open mouth. “Oh Mitchell, it’s not all about you two.” Then she stops mid-laugh and shakes her head while tutting. “No. It’s more than you two. To seal the Nexus-Points would sever all power to all Half-Breeds. You’d be binding them all.”
“That’s fine.” I calmly answer, thinking of all the good I’d be doing, freeing these burdens from the other Half-Breeds, and saving another unsuspecting person from being forced into the same position I have, with this unwanted gift.
“You’d throw away your powers and those of the other Half-Breeds, just like that?” She questions.
“Oh course!” I shoot back. “I’d be doing them a favour, surely I’m not the only one that struggles with their power?”
Slowly a wicked smile creeps onto her face, and she becomes somewhat giddy, swaying side to side as if music is playing. “Sacrificing the powers of all Half-Breeds to conceal the evil within you. I knew you were a smart one.”
I cringe at the word sacrifice, she makes it sound like I’m trying to save my own skin while throwing every other Half-Breed under the bus. But I can’t let what I’ve seen come to light, I won’t! And if that means a world without powers, then so be it.
Leaping to her feet and spinning on the spot to face me, Talia rubs her hands together like she about to start a DIY job. “Ok! Let’s get this done.” She then explains we’ll need to perform a ritual, one strong enough to seal the Nexus-Points. “It's called the Kalayaan Ritual.” She says in an airy t
one, also informing me that I’ll need to find out the requirements in order for us to complete it. “I do know that it’ll involve me. Rituals cannot be performed on Earth without a Nexus-Being.”
“And how will I know where to start?” I ask.
As if my words have frozen her to the spot, she stops mid-sway, glaring those big round eyes at me cunningly with a look so intense I feel my lungs constrict. Gliding my way, I can only watch helplessly as she begins to tower over me. Then she whispers gently in my ear. “You’re smart. You’ll figure it out.” And with a slam of her fist to my chest, a shockwave fires through my body, winding me.
Throwing my head forward, I release it from the dampened pillow and gasp for air. The room is spinning, but at least it is my bedroom, confirming it was just a dream. Slowly, my eyes begin to adjust to the darkness and I breathe a sigh of relief as cold sweat runs down my face, dripping onto my chest. For me, it has felt like I’ve lived a whole day, but with a glance at the alarm clock, it shows it’s only been a few hours since I retired to bed.
A creak at my door sounds as it's opened slowly and the blue light of a torch or mobile beams in, shining down on the floor in front of a person, its owner. Could it be…
“Mitchell?” whispers Matthew, now shining the blinding light directly in my face.
For a moment, I refuse to believe this is real and begin to wonder whether I’ve fallen into one of my waking dreams, but he speaks again. “You ok?” he asks, switching on the main light and shuffling towards me.
I give him a nod while pulling the duvet over my head to hide from the glare. “Just another dream,” I add.
Causing the bed to shake, Matthew slams his large frame down on the mattress then pulls the duvet from my head. “You’re lucky mum wears earplugs,” he sniggers.
“That bad?”
He raises an eyebrow. “Let’s just say you’d have a doctor’s appointment booked first thing in the morning, had she heard.”
And although we talk, I can’t shake this awkwardness between us and find myself going silent whenever he tries to include me in his one-sided conversation, basically catching me up on his life for the past few weeks.
Then he even goes quiet, fiddling with his messy mop of bed hair. “Mitchell, I’m sorry.” He blurts out.
“It’s fine.” I shoot back as if the reply has been programmed into me, lying in wait all this time and readying itself for an auto response.
“No, it’s not.” He protests. “It just all got a little crazy; Talia, powers, other worlds… and you.”
Seeing his wide eyes staring at me, I tell him not to apologise, as he’s still obviously distressed and I don’t know if I can deal with this, not now anyways.
“Let me finish!” he demands, shushing me. “I’ve never seen you act that way. I guess what I’m trying to say is.”
Here it comes, the moment I’ve been dreading since that fateful night in the gardens. The night I became someone else and looked at him as if he was nothing to me, a faceless person in the crowd. The night I can never take back.
“I was afraid of you.” He hangs his head in shame.
It’s weird, for some reason he thinks he’s in the wrong, but couldn’t be further from the truth. He’s nothing to feel ashamed about. This was all my doing, I’m the one with the problem. I caused all this.
“You have nothing to be sorry about,” I assure him. “That night, I can’t even begin to explain to you what happened, as I don’t know. But something is wrong with me, something I cannot control.”
He shakes his head. “And when your brother should have been there for you, he was nowhere to be seen.” He mumbles.
“I said it’s fine.” I sternly confirm.
Throwing himself back lying on the bed, Matthew lets out a loud sigh, then asks me how the past few weeks have been. Keeping my answers short yet honest, I tell him all about my training and Riley’s near miss. “These powers take time to master, don’t they.” He says, displaying his illuminated palm.
Panicked, I dive under the duvet, only for Matthew to pull it off again. “Just watch,” he insists.
With my eyes fixated to the white light, I watch as he brightens and dims it at will. “And this,” he adds, concentrating the light into a fine bullet that fires across the room, knocking my alarm clock to the floor, smashing it into pieces.
“Matthew!” I fume, throwing a pillow at him. “You could have blown up the whole house.”
“Isn’t it cool though?” He beams. “I’ve been waiting to show someone else for ages! And that’s just a little blast, you should see what else I’m capable of.”
He’s right, it did look cool, but I can’t condone such a power and its usage. For I know, first hand, what they can achieve. Fear. Pain. And destruction. “We shouldn’t be using these powers,” I urge. “People could get hurt… they’re dangerous.”
He shakes his head. “You don’t know that.”
“Don’t I?” I reply.
I then explain to him about my second power, the dreams. At first, he’s pretty sceptical and screws up his face at the very mention of them. “That means nothing,” he argues. “You’ve always had dreams.”
It’s not until I mention Miah and her ability to read people that he actually starts paying attention. He even starts planning a trip to Ampsbury, a perfect excuse for me to see Miah again, under the ruse that I’m taking Matthew to meet Darcy. “So, tomorrow after college we’ll go see this Darcy, yeah?” He beams while letting out a massive yawn.
“As long as she’s free.” I reply.
He then leaves, returning me to darkness as my head falls back to the warmed, stuffy pillow. And it’s then while staring up at the white ceiling, that I begin to debate with myself whether Matthew has a right to know about the Kalayaan ritual and its outcome. If so, wouldn’t every Half-Breed then deserve to know? An impossible thought. Besides, he’d probably try and persuade otherwise, as he’s already become well adapted to his new life and from what I’ve seen, he’s very much enjoying his new power.
Regardless, I’ve already made up my mind. I will bind my powers and rid the world of this evil, along with the powers of every other Half-Breed out there. And I don’t care who stands in my way.