Avenging Amethyst (Immortal Eyes) (7 page)

Felix ran his
hand through his hair. "Rema said Daryn and Ashli aren't doing very well.
The rest of the trainers have taken on their classes and are completely
full."

"What did
she mean about them not doing very well?" I cut in.

Riley frowned
and shook her head sadly. "Lovac become trainers when they turn
twenty-five if they haven't gone completely crazy yet. Most Nesmyr won't hire
anyone after that age if they haven't found a Dimidium so it's the only job for
them. They help train the younger Lovac but they deteriorate very rapidly at
that age. Daryn has been barely hanging on. He's almost twenty-seven. And poor
Ashli. She's barely twenty-five. They were both incredible fighters at one
point."

The way Riley
talked so casually about this situation shocked me. Two good people that they
both knew were losing their minds and going crazy. She also seemed very casual
about it happening to her too.

"None of
this seems to faze you very much," I said.

She shrugged.
"It's part of who we are. We've lived our whole lives knowing we would
probably die in our mid-twenties. We learn to accept it."

"The sooner
you learn to accept it too then better your life will be. Just try not to think
about it too much," Felix said.

"Easier
said than done," I muttered as we continued our way back down the stairs.
This was all too new to me and I still didn’t fully believe I would go
crazy in a few years. I didn’t think I would ever be able to accept it.

"Hey, did
the adoption get settled okay?" Felix asked Riley. I forgot that that's
where she had been.

"Sort of.
I've never witnessed a tie before. It was a little rough and Mr. Vancil walked
away with a bloody nose. The Kruskal's finally took him home. Mrs. Vancil was
devastated. It was sad to watch."

I wanted to say
something about it being wrong and that they should adopt him out to the most
qualified family, not the richest, but I bit my tongue. I kept reminding myself
that I grew up in a whole different culture than them and I needed to respect
their ways.

Once we were on
the floor where Lovac slept, Felix led me to one of the many doors and pulled a
key out from above the door frame. He explained that only unoccupied rooms kept
the keys above the doors and that I would have complete privacy.

"I have
some errands I have to take care of but make yourself at home. You can order
food from a bookmark on the laptop in the room and watch as much TV you want.
If you need anything, start knocking on doors. I’m sure everyone will be
more than willing to help you. We’ll start training tomorrow."

He didn’t
even give me a chance to reply before walking back in the direction we came
from. Riley and I both stood and watched him walk away. She had the same
confused expression that I had.

"Does he
always act that strange?" I asked her.

She shook her
head slowly. "I’ve known Felix all my life and he’s never
been the kind of person to run away from something. Lately he’s been
acting stranger and stranger though. He’s only twenty-one but I think the
darkness is already starting to take control."

There was a
slight ache in my chest for Felix. Part of me hoped I got a chance to get to
know him before he went crazy and another part of me didn’t want to get
close to him at all, in case he lost his mind soon. I didn’t think I
could handle watching a friend slowly lose their mind.

"Did Felix
tell you anything about me?" Riley asked. I was grateful for the change
of subject.

I shook my head.
"No. He didn’t mention any names when we talked in the coffee
shop."

"But he
told you about our unique powers, right?"

I nodded.

"I have the
ability to see the future. It’s not always clear but one thing I know for
sure is that you’re going to be a great asset to our ranks. You’ll
also find your Dimidium."

I wasn’t
sure why she was telling me this but I noticed the sad look in her eyes had deepened
and I started to understand something. "Why does it seem like finding a
Dimidium is rare?"

She smiled sadly
and said, "It is. It wasn’t always but over the past twenty years
it’s gotten worse. Rema was the last Lovac to find her Dimidium. One
year, it just seemed like all of the Dimidium disappeared. Most Lovac think
we’ve been cursed. I have a feeling you’re the one that’ll
break that curse."

"How
accurate are your predictions?" I wanted to believe her but I
didn’t know how I would be able to help.

"Well, the
future can always change but most of the time my predictions come true. The
good ones anyways. The bad predictions are the ones we try to change."

"Well, I
hope that prediction comes true. I don’t want to go crazy."

"No one
does. Do you have anything in your car that you want to bring up? I know Felix
isn’t being a very good host but I can help you out for a little
bit."

"I
don’t have much but I could use the company."

Riley
didn’t say another word before leading me back down the stairs and out to
the parking lot. She explained a few important details that Felix never
mentioned like how most Lovac and Nesmyr schedules are different from humans.
Since Nesmyr and Zhulik don’t go out in the daylight they’re awake
during the night and sleep during the day. I’d probably have to be on the
same schedule and when Felix said we’d start training tomorrow, he
probably meant later tonight, when everyone would be waking up.

It was still
early in the morning for me, but to the Nesmyr and Lovac community, it was past
their bedtime. They had only stayed up late to have the adoption ceremony.

Riley carried my
backpack, while I carried the trunk and once we were back in my room, we threw
them both on the bed. She explained how to use the provided laptop to order food
and watch free movies and TV shows. There was a staff that worked twenty-four
hours a day if I needed any technical support.

After she went
through the basics with me and made sure I was comfortable she gave me a quick
hug and went to leave.

"Most of the
doors on this floor have a name plate on them to let you know where everyone
is. If you need anything, don’t hesitate to come find my room or even
Felix’s. I don’t mind if you bug him."

She left with a
smile and that was the happiest I had seen her since we met. She always seemed
to look sad and I wondered what her story was. Then again, seeing the future
might be part of it. Seeing glimpses of what could happen would take a toll on
anyone’s emotions.

I closed the
door to the room and finally got a good look around the room. It looked like
what I imagined a dorm room at a college would look like. It had a twin sized
bed, with boring white sheets, a small desk with a laptop, a closet and my own
personal bathroom.

I unpacked my
clothes, hanging them up in the closet and threw the empty backpack in the
corner. I shoved the trunk under the bed and hoped it would be secure there.
There weren’t many hiding places in the tiny room and it was the best I
could do.

I sat down on
the bed and my exhaustion caught up with me. I wasn’t physically tired,
but with everything that had happened in less two days, I had no mental energy.
I looked around the room for a clock, finding one on the nightstand that read
eight in the morning. Even though I knew it was still early, I had lost track
of time. Days, hours, minutes, they all seemed to run together now and were
seemingly unimportant. It felt like months since I was Wyoming, living with my
mom.

I also felt like
I had aged years in the past two days. I learned so much about myself and my
future and taken on a lot of responsibility by agreeing to learn to train. I
barely had a chance to grieve about my mom but I felt like I didn’t even
have the energy for that anymore. I felt guilty about it too. My mom was gone
and here I was, moving on with my life.

That's what she
would have wanted though. I learned to be tough by her. She never let any
stress or drama get to her. She lived day by day and always told me that's what
I had to do too. And that's what I would do.

After learning I
only had maybe seven or eight years left to live before going completely crazy,
I really did need to live in the now. Unless a miracle happened, like Riley
seemed to think it would, I had no choice.

I had only been
awake for a few hours, but if Riley was right about Felix planning to train
later tonight, I would need as much sleep as I could get. I was never the
athletic type and I knew I was going to have difficulty trying to learn to
fight.

Luckily, the bed
was comfy and inviting. I didn't even bother to change into pajamas and instead
just took my jeans off and slept in my t-shirt. It took a while for my brain to
shut off; I was still trying to process everything that happened, but
eventually I drifted into sleep.

I don't know
when the nightmare started but I know it interrupted my peaceful sleep. I
wasn't in the forest anymore. This time, I was at my house back in Wyoming,
except it was old and abandoned.  All of our belongings were still there
but they were torn and scattered around. There was a thin layer of dust
everywhere and it smelled stale. The windows had been broken and there was a
cool breeze running through the house.

It was also
dark.

I was in the
living room, staring at the top of the stairs. A dark shadow was motioning me
to follow it. My instincts told me to fight the urge to follow the figure but I
couldn’t. I slowly crept up the stairs, every step creaking as I went.

The shadow led
me to the door of my room. It was closed but the shadow was able to go through
it. Its hand appeared back out to encourage me to come in. I kept telling
myself not to go through that door but my body ignored my brain. I turned the
handle and opened the door. It was pitch black in my room and I refused to move
any further.

Come in
, a voice whispered from
inside.
We need you, we want you, you have to come in.

It kept urging
me to step into the room and my body started to move on its own again. It felt
like a magic spell was pulling me forward. No matter how hard I tried to stay
where I was, my body was trying to move forward. My body finally won. I took
one step into the room and fell.

There had been
no floor past the door to my room and I fell into the darkness. I couldn't see
anything but I felt the wind flying past me as I went down. I expected to hit
the bottom soon and splat onto the ground somewhere, but it never happened. I
just kept falling and then a voice was laughing. A malicious laugh resonated
from the pit I was falling into. My fear rose and the feeling of falling
started to make me sick.

"Wake
up," I told myself. "Wake up! Wake up! Wake up!"

I was sitting up
in my bed back at the headquarters, covered in sweat and breathing
heavily.  My exhaustion was so strong that I passed back out moments
later. I didn't want to think about these nightmares. I only wanted to sleep.
The nightmares stayed away the second time around and I was only woken up by a
loud knock on my door.

I pulled my
jeans back on and opened the door with groggy eyes. Felix was waiting impatiently
for me outside.

"Time to
start training," he said. He was smiling brightly but he had dark circles
under his eyes. I wondered if he slept at all. At least he looked more willing
to help me train than he had yesterday.

"What time
is it?" I asked, yawning.

"Four in
the afternoon," he said. Which means I had slept for a good nine hours.
It was the longest I had slept for a long time yet I still felt tired. I blamed
the nightmares.

"Wait, why
are we getting up before the sun has even gone down? Riley said you’re
day doesn’t usually start until later at night since Nesmyr can’t
go out in the sunlight."

"Training
starts early and ends late. We need to get as much training in as possible to
catch you up. Your whole day is going to be filled with training from now
on."

I groaned. I
didn't know I was signing up for boot camp. I shut the door in Felix’s
face to quickly throw on some clean clothes and met him out in the hallway a
few moments later. We walked down the hall in silence for a while and I noticed
that he was still tense. So not as willing to help me train as I had thought.

"Where are
we training at?" I asked, breaking the silence once we were back on the
main floor.

"The gym.
If it's nice enough outside, we might go out there for a little bit."

The gym was the
same room where the adoption had been held yesterday but it was completely
empty today. All of the bleachers were pushed back and the chairs were all
gone. The stage had been dis-assembled and it looked like a normal high school
gym.