Endeca (The Escapism Series) (6 page)

“Edric is doing some stalking of his own it seems,” I revealed, on a side note. Everywhere I looked now, there he was.

“Admissions is that way?” Edric asked, pointing as he walked past us disorderly. I nodded, steering him in the exact direction.

“Now I could do without him on my tail,” Nicholas scorned.

“Oh? But I meant Orion in your case.”

“Well, they’re brothers after all,” he muttered dismissively. “At least Orion is useful to us. Which brings me to some good news. He may have a lead to temporarily seal the portal.”

“Really? That’s amazing! What is it?” I asked, impatiently.

“He didn’t reveal much.  We had a brief exchange of words but he said he’d be in touch.”

“This is our only lead and it rests in the hands of Orion. Dear God,” I uttered in antipathy.

“Has Kiran dug anything up?” he asked, shiftily.

“He’s been pretty scarce since Corlissa…” I grimaced, pausing mid thought.

Nicholas twirled a strand of my hair between his fingers, while his cool, well-defined grey eyes embarked into the depths of my own, however falling short of my fragment—something unusual. “She didn’t seem very
sisterly
at the summoning,” he said, shedding light on the obvious. His hand entangled in my hair as his fingers grasped the back of my scalp, gently massaging.

I struggled to breathe, fighting to finish my train of thought. “It was a stressful situation and then being reunited with his sister on top of it all, I can’t imagine what he went through.”

“That’s rough,” he said, changing topics again. His gentle hand untangled, distancing itself.
Why’d he stop? What did I do?
“Have the others approached you?” he asked, recoiling.

“I met Viola—the source of my restless nights,” I cringed.

“Hmm, we need to find you a new source,” his enticed lips sharpened into a devilish grin. My face paled at the thought.
Oh Nicholas, you have no idea.
  “Ah. Yes, the eyes.  With the open portal, she must be searing quite readily.”

“You think they’d be showering me with gifts after I apparently reunited everyone.  Instead, they’re trying to drive me insane—what gives?”

“This is them being friendly. It could be worse, trust me,” he cautioned, suddenly appearing taking us both by surprise.

Nicholas nodded in salutation to Kiran. I slapped his arm, annoyed by his trickery. Who knows what else he had listened in on without us knowing.

“As it turns out, you’re not the only one holding Endeca back,” Kiran said, raising his brow.

“That’s a relief,” I sighed, confused, “You mean Daisy?”

“No. Corlissa is…
dead
.  Without her, we can’t unite Endeca,” he explained, somberly.

“But she was at the grand summoning,” Nicholas remarked, confused.

“Whatever has inhabited her body is thriving off of our union,” he said, visibly bothered.

“Could she be an E-SOM spy?” I asked.

“Not likely. Nyxta would’ve been able to detect something as fishy as that,” he clarified continuing, “This thing that’s possessed my sister’s body must be very old.”

“It must predate Nyxta even,” said Nicholas, his eyes wide with wonderment. “It can’t be…”

“What’s wrong, Nicholas?” I asked, petrified. An alarmed Kiran stood by me, and I placed a hand on his shoulder, bracing for the unknown.

“It’s been right in front of our eyes this whole time,” he muttered, dazed, “I know what’s inhabited Corlissa.”

“What is it? Tell me!” A hostile Kiran shouted, on edge.

“
E prote
. It’s in the scripture. She, the enlightened one, is to come forth upon the ascension in the sacred vessel…Corlissa must be it,” he stuttered in disbelief.

“The first will bring forth the new age of awakening,” Kiran translated in recollection.

“What’s the new age?” I asked, waiting in limbo. Both Kiran’s and Nicholas’s disturbed expression mirrored one another’s.

“A mass transition…
evolution
,” Kiran explained, his eyes faraway.

I seized the horror that overcame their faces. All I could think about was how pointless it was of me to try and salvage any normalcy when sooner than later, life would no longer be normal for anyone.

“Can’t this be a good thing? I mean, if everyone evolves, there’d be no reason for us to live in secrecy. We’d all be the same,” I spoke in a higher pitch, once more, hopeful.

“You’re not grasping the entire picture, Xenia. We’ve evolved over centuries. These humans would evolve radically. We can’t foresee the end result, especially something of this magnitude. They could very well die during the process due to the surge of energy and complex molecular changes,” Kiran explained, keenly.

“We could possibly be facing extinction of the human race,” Nicholas added, astounded.

“This is way over my head. We need to speak to Orion, on our terms, and find out what he knows about a temporary seal.”

“I’ll bring an ancient volume on the ascension that I salvaged long ago—it might be of use to us,” Nicholas added, mystified.

“I’ve got to run, but let’s VT later tonight? Maybe we could pop by Orion’s and catch him off his rocker,” I proposed, preemptively.

“That’d be best. The less Orion knows, the better,” Kiran said, worriedly.

“Same goes for your
house guest
, Xenia,” Nicholas derided.

My jaw dropped and my cheeks flushed by his unexpected caveat. I looked away, sheepishly.
It’s not like I didn’t expect him to find out but his threatening tone was surprising—foreign even.
I cleared my dry throat, contributing what I could.

“Orion has volumes of ancient scripture and texts in his study. There may be more for us to research there,” I added, without consideration.

Nicholas snorted, looking up from his Cyclopod. “Spend a lot of time there?”

“Not really, but I recall seeing his study,” I whispered, shyly. My phone beeped twice, signaling a text message from Calliope.

Calliope: Lunch? Meet me at the student center?

Xenia: OK! B there soon

“I’ve got to go,” I said, motioning to my phone, “Lunch date.”

We each walked away, parting like traces of spilt water from a broken glass.
Could you blame us? Who wouldn’t be fazed by something as serious as evolution or extinction?

Although I knew the remaining three exclusive members wouldn’t threaten me in public domain, I still felt on edge. It was a hard feeling to shake and I was feeling it quite often since the summoning. My nerve endings were on fire and my vision was blurred, and on occasion, I was overcome by dizzy spells. All of which I had to mask, as best as I could, from my dear friends and parents. I didn’t want anything to change for them, for them to view me in a way that wasn’t the real me. The Xenia they had known for nineteen years—the Xenia I had known myself as. As long as my loved ones stayed in the dark, I could salvage the life I knew. Why should the walls crumble when my life was only just beginning? If the walls crumbled, it’d be a catastrophe. I couldn’t live with myself if that ever happened. I was hoping for a miracle to work in my favor.

Instantly, I felt a heavy arm around my shoulder and my heart stopped.

“What’s goin’ on, Z?” Landon asked. Ever since he and Marla started dating, he’d been in the best of spirits.

“You know, the usual,” I said, imitating a smile. “I’m excited for the carnival actually. Can’t wait to dunk your ass like a hundred times.”

“A hundred tries is how many times it’ll take for you to even dunk me once, if you’re lucky,” he muddled.

“If I were you, I’d bring a few towels. You’re gonna need them,” I beamed at the prospects. I was never one to shy away from a challenge, for the most part.

Landon mocked an open mouthed silent laugh.

“There’ll be plenty of guys to dunk, Xenia,” Marla said, caressing Landon’s arm. He embraced her first before she swiftly climbed onto his back for a piggy back ride.

My phone beeped twice—it was a VT from Calliope.

Walking
a tad late. See you bitches soon

“Did she just replace running with walking?” Landon asked, bemused.

“Yeah. Cal officially hates running and refuses to even say the word,” I chuckled.

“So she gets to rephrase common expressions and expects that everyone else will be cool with it?” he asked, in disbelief. “Because I’m not. And since I’m already speaking in this high register, I’d like to ask why it is that only us guys are being objectified at the dunk tank?”

“To spare ourselves the lame pickup lines from guys,” Marla replied, diligently.

“I bet I can get you wet,” I said, in demonstration.

“When they should really be saying, ‘Don’t worry, it’ll be quick and over before you know it,” Marla added, giggling.

Landon snickered like an immature teenager, “
Wet
.”

“Really? That’s all you got from this?” Marla snapped.

“Whaaaaat? I’m a guy. I fixate on whatever my…” he paused, looking down, “
imagination
likes.”

Marla shot him a disapproving look.

“It’s a guy thing. There’s too much X and not enough Y here—where’s Nicholas?”

“He’s busy with
work
.”

“Hey, that’s what you get for dating a TA—I’m just saying,” he jeered.

I rolled my eyes, walking toward the cafeteria. I joined the annoyingly long line. “Feeling for some Thai today.” The smell of food was making my mouth water.

As I awaited my turn, I felt a cold breeze pass through me, sending me shivers from head to toe.  I had felt this before—someone was watching me. I looked around the perimeter casually so as not to scare the perpetrator away. I looked through the crowd of students on the main floor and no one, out of the ordinary, stood out. I carefully dropped my wallet, bending down to grab it, while craning my neck. On the terrace stood a tall, gaunt shadow of a man leaning over a rail, his forearms dangled. He stared vehemently, cracking a smile after sensing my instant alarm. He quickly turned, veering out of sight.

“Excuse me, can you hold my spot? I’ll be right back,” I anxiously asked a guy who stood behind me and he politely nodded.

I ran up the stairs frantically pursuing a shadow of a man.
Which one was he? Maybe he was a figment of my imagination.
With no sight of the mysterious, lanky man, this did not hold credence to my sanity whatsoever.

I returned to the line to find I had lost my spot
. Shit.

“Sorry,” said my spot holder, shrugging his shoulders indifferently as he walked past me, biting into a spring roll. I sighed, lining up once again in a much longer line. Marla came to join me with her food in tow.

“Yummy,” I said, snagging a few fries and quickly devouring them.

“Please, help yourself,” she said, snidely. “Weren’t you closer in line?”

“Nature called and now I’m back to square one. You guys start without me.”

“Okie-dokie,” she sung, floating over to join the rest.

My stomach grumbled loudly as I placed my large order: Thai soup, chicken pad sew and two spring rolls. I devoured a spring roll along the way, joining my friends. They were deep in conversation about the carnival.

“This isn’t funny.  I still need to hire two clowns,” Marla wined.

“Don’t sweat it, M. There’s one sitting in front of you,” Calliope teased, while Landon feigned a chuckle before throwing a fry at her. She swatted it away, playfully.

“Ugh. Clowns. They give me the heebie-jeebies,” I replied, shuddering.

“I’m with you on that, Z. They freak the shit outta me. There’s something about their smile,” Landon said, demonstrating his version of a creepy smile.

“There’s something wrong with the both of you, that’s what’s wrong,” she exclaimed, continuing, “I’m going to make sure this is the best carnival thrown by a freshman yet.”

“Hey, there’s no doubt in my mind. It’ll be a killer event,” Calliope reassured, glaring at me first before kicking my shin.

“
Ouch
, I mean, yeah. I so can’t wait for all the cotton candy, cheesy games and even the creepy clowns—it wouldn’t be a carnival without ‘em,” I smiled wide, flashing my teeth.

“I just want you all to have fun,” she said, exaggerating a sigh.

“Speaking of fun, look who just walked in,” Calliope leered at Orion.

“Him? The dude is ancient,” scolded a jealous Landon. “He’s not even attractive.”

He was
dead
on about one thing
.

“He’s not ancient, he’s mature, sophisticated and more importantly, hot,” replied Calliope. “Please enlighten us, Landon. What kind of guys do you find appealing?”

Landon gaped, rendered speechless; he took a bite of his burger, looking away.

“I heard he’s married or something,” I said, attempting to dissuade Calliope from this particularly creepy clown.