Preternatural (Worlds & Secrets) (33 page)

“
Liam, you’re looking out through the telescope,” I pointed out.

“
Yup
.”

“It’s raining.”

“I’m not looking at the rain, A.J. – I’m looking at the
lightning
. Looking for something,” he ended up mumbling to himself.

Suddenly
, in an outburst, Robbie got up from his bed and started jumping up and down out of complete excitement like the sheer idiot he was, disturbing the whole household.

“
It’s out
! It’s
finally
out!” he exclaimed.

“
Robin, if you don’t shut up I will
deform
your backbone,” Liam scowled with electricity running inflexibly over him.

“Robin? Your name’s
Robin
?” I taunted him as he closed his eyes shamefully.

“
What’s out?” I asked dully. Liam seemed to be immune to Robbie’s squealing and carried on gazing through the sky.

“
Beowulf, the remake is out! Well, it will be tomorrow,” he exclaimed again. Suddenly the girls and Jaden came rushing in.

“
What’s the entire racket for?” Jojo asked.

“
Beowulf is out, the remake,” Robbie responded in a much quieter tone.

“
Already?” asked Jojo.

“
YES!” Robbie took a breath and sighed, lowering his head. Suddenly, as though he just had the most riveting idea with a crazed look in his large hazel eyes, he exclaimed: “I want to go and see it!”

“
Well, we won’t be able to go,” said Jojo.

“
Why not?” Robbie asked, rather childishly upset.

“
There is that whole situation of the –”

“
If you’re talking about the Demon Grinners, it’s not a huge deal; they can’t get
into
Vernaesce remember?”

“
I’m quite confused. There are so many realm barriers – I don’t know which one goes first,” Jaden mumbled massaging his aching temples. Tammy giggled lightly.

“
Jaden, if you’re talking about it from the perspective of the Barons –”

“
– Not necessarily. Just the dividing barriers in general –”

“
Well then; when one gets into Vernaesce there’s the Traversing Realm – which we always see as the really grim version of this planet – then a cover cloud that protects us and Earth as parallels; but that’s somehow invisible.”

“
Strangely enough though,” Jojo intruded, “nobody understands the concept of the cover cloud – not even the Supremacy.”

“
Yeah, yeah, yeah
– hey I have an idea. The movie’s showing at one O’clock –”

“Well, yeah that’s reasonable –”

“In the morning,” Robbie quickly interrupted Jojo. “Why don’t we sneak out?” he devised.

“
Well…I could always wake the rest of you up via telepathy. Then, Robbie can open a wormhole for us to get out,” Tammy said, then smiling as if she were the brightest person in the room.

“
But none of this happens until the night we want to see it, of course.”

The sky’s colour was still a mixture of dark and light grey. It continued to pour malevolently outside and we were about to recommence lessons upon the end of breakfast. We, the teens, all walked underneath the circular shaped canopy, with the thick foliage of leaves preventing the rain from entering our domain.

We sat down on t
he crisp, dry grass. Tammy read her books along with Jaden, Liam practised using the electrical energy flowing through and on his skin to make lightning in the sky, Jojo teleported to different heights in the trees, Jade continued to levitate objects whilst I
practised my Aerokinesis.

“
You know, if you do your Aerokinesis properly you can freeze water,” Tammy said whilst focusing on her book. I stopped creating my currents for a while and looked at her.

“
Really? Are you sure?”

“
Yes, but I don’t think many Aero-Capers can do it. You see, you’d be twisting the properties of water, but from an Aero-Capers point of view, they wouldn’t be able to do that. But seeing as you control
all
of the elements, it’s possible you could freeze water,” she replied to me, her eyes still transfixed on the words in her book as she took a bite of a cracker.

“
Okay, I’ll give it a shot,” I said. I peeked out of the canopy, through the tree trunks, at the rain that hailed to the ground and took a deep breath. Then, I shot my hand out, emitting a whole bundle of air towards the pouring rain – nothing happened.

“
Apparently not…” Tammy mumbled to herself, she casually took another bite on a cracker and got back to reading.

“
I wish the whole
of Cressile had been blown up. Then we wouldn’t have to go back for another six months or so. Even then, I
still
wouldn’t go!” I grunted grumpily as I conjured shots of air.

“
Well, I would. But only because of the important subjects I need to take,” Robbie replied with his legs gripped onto a high branch with him swinging upside down.

“
What important subjects?” I was quick to ask.

“
Well, depending on the power you have, taking mortal –”

“
– Mortal; you make it sound as if we’re
im
mortal,” said Jaden with a hidden smile, his head still buried in his book.

“
You can’t exactly say that we increase in age the same way humans do,” Tammy countered quietly. “I bet you we’re not even classified as Homo-sapiens. We’re far more intelligent,” Jojo concluded as she teleported back to the ground.

“
As I was saying, depending on the kinetic ability you possess, it is advisable to take subjects that deal with your powers. It makes a
whole
lot of difference. Trust me, I did chemistry and my power increased –” Robbie snapped his fingers “– just like that.” We halted our movements and silently looked up at his dangling body in disbelief.

“
What? It’s true,” he said as Tammy scoffed.

“
It did
so
,” Robbie complained whilst we continued doubting him.

“Oh, oh, I get it. It’s that Flowing thingumajig, right? Yeah, Mirabelle told me about that.”

“Flowing
Knowledge
, Aden,” Jojo corrected me, “and yes. A learning mechanism we have where we gain full information on everything and every possible subject except those concerning our abilities,” she defined automatically.

“Yeah, alright clever-clogs,” I mumbled underneath my breath.

“But hang on, how else do you learn if you only do subjects that deal with your kinesis?” Jaden asked. Everyone broke out in a series of loud grunts, moans and exasperated sighs.

“
It’s as if he deliberately does it. Were you
not
paying attention? That’s the glitch. You get the knowledge of all ordinary subjects, except the ones which would apply to you most. Simply put: your Flowing Knowledge doesn’t cover subjects that deal with your powers,” Tammy once again answered Jaden’s ignorance. Subsequently, we returned to what we were previously doing.

“So you mean I’ll learn everything about my power and nothing about the other subjects?” Jaden asked again in a perplexed manner.
We broke out in aggressive and impatient sighs again as we muttered loudly. I waved my arm and a tide of rainwater went smashing into Jaden. He was transfixed to the spot and seemed to sit as if he had been frozen to sub-zero temperature. I’m guessing the water was too cold for him to bear.

“H
onestly, stop being so stubborn; it’s not rocket science. You’re supposed to be the genius.”

After some well spent time underneath the canopy, we retreated to our rooms. Yet, after all the time that had passed, it was still pouring. The adults had all gone to work and we were left home alone underneath Jade’s tyranny.

“Liam, where is it that you keep disappearing to?” Jaden asked curiously. Liam sat upright on his bed, instantly looking timid and completely doubtful. The strong change of his expressions intrigued us more and planted in us the eagerness to find out. Liam lowered his voice.

“
I’m – on a quest to –” his voice drifted off and he fiddled with his fingers.

“
You’re on a quest? To do what?”
Robin
asked quickly, looking inquisitive and worried.

“
I’m looking for –” but Liam’s speech was disturbed as soon as the door banged downstairs. He sighed hopelessly.

“
Sorry, mates,” he apologised before running off downstairs upon the slamming of the downstairs door. We looked at each other, confused and dazed.

“
Is he
okay
?” Jaden asked with his thumb gesturing the direction in which Liam had so desperately exited.

“
At this point,” Robbie replied “I’m
just
as knowledgeable as you guys are on this one – basically I have no clue
.
”

“
Boys! Downstairs now, please!” mum screamed.

We immediately began our journey downstairs in haste. The
loud screaming made it believable that we were in trouble. But seeing as the command ended with “
please
”
,
our minds were instantly swayed. My blue hair dangled over my eyes, irritating me a great deal.

We saw the a
dults shaking off all the rainwater off of their coats and then hanging them on the coat rack. Our eyes became fixed on the two mothers, holding large shopping bags of different brands whilst Tantrus swaggered his way to the bar to fix himself a brandy concoction.

“
Here, mum, let us help you with that,” Jojo and the girls spoke, mischievously approaching Anne.

“
Back off girls,” Anne melodiously sang. I watched as the greed and hunger for whatever was in the bags rose in the girls’ eyes.

”
Sit down on the couch, please,” mum’s quickly commanded. Tantrus sauntered his way back in, holding a small square brandy glass with a sparkling aqua-blue blend. He took constant sips and loosened his tie that matched his waistcoat and trousers, as you might expect. The many expensive Vernaescian brands that stared us in the face got us increasingly enthused. It wasn’t Christmas yet so what was with the suspicious gifts? After we were told to sit down, we didn’t think twice about obeying the instruction. In fact we had never been such obedient young hypocrites in our lives. Before we even thought of sitting as we were told, the adults walked towards us, hastily dumping all their shopping bags on one of the contemporary sofas. Instead, we sat on the floor and leaned back against the sofa which was overflowing with bags and bags of careless motherly shopping – or so I thought at least.

“
Right, get seated,” mum repeated again.

“
You’ve told us to sit down a hundred times,” Jaden moaned. Tantrus seated himself on the most comfortable inflated armchair, still sipping from his brandy glass; his face looking relaxed, content and smug. The mothers sat themselves on the dual settee. “Right, we began thinking about your training and on ways to make you all stronger in work –” as Anne spoke my hand
slowly
travelled behind me into one of the bags on the settee, naively thinking they were filled with early Christmas presents. Mum had immediately caught sight of me and clicked her fingers. The bags lifted themselves up, high in the air, out of the reach of nosy kids like me. I blew up on my blue hair, again turning white as it ascended and back to blue as it descended.

“
I
am
an Aerokinetic you know?” I reacted wittily. I stood up and sent a breeze of air to fly upwards and circle the bags as I then tugged on the rope of air to bring the goods down, but they didn’t even flinch.

“
They’re held in a telekinetic barrier; you can always try to fly and retrieve them, Superman – oh, wait…you
can’t
fly yet. So sit down and stop embarrassing yourself,” mum retorted gently, intentionally humiliating me. I then sheepishly sunk back to the floor.

I still had to learn that my mum
was much more advanced in all this Vernaescian stuff than I was. Anne ceased her minor petty laughing and continued to talk.

“
As I was saying, Tantrus had suggested to us – Lina and me – that it would be a good idea to get you guys more prepared and active with your training. You know, get you all equipment that you need to make things easier for your combat. Also, there are some things we didn’t tell you about the school,” Anne stopped and mum took over.