Return To Pandora: Book 1 in The Pandora Series (15 page)

His eyes sparkled as he saw the power I wielded. I successfully closed off my mind from him so he couldn’t get in and it appeared he did as well. So here we were face to face with an ability we both had and we both had figured out how to outsmart each other. Whether the others were ready or not, he sure was. I was on my way. I just couldn’t use all four elements at the same time. I didn’t feel so bad, a little weak yes, but not dying weak. I may have a fighting chance after all.

Zack swung out his arms as if to send me flying backward. I felt the force it caused my shield, but it didn’t budge. I sent some wind out towards him to take him away. He got swept up in a tornado and taken all the way across the yard. When I let it go he fell to the ground and I continued my assault on the other three in front of me.

My mother came at me next sending anything in her way towards me. I read everything she thought as she tried to send it towards me but it just couldn’t penetrate my shield. I smiled at her failed attempts.

Derek and Olivia tag teamed against me and I sent Derek flying across the yard. He landed beside Zack and shook his head. Olivia and I had an unfinished match from four months ago that got interrupted by the sudden appearance of fire in my hands. She cut off her thoughts as she tried to get through the shield. I sent the water out towards her and made it swirl around her in an unfriendly manner as opposed to mine.

She sucked in a deep breath and swung her arms out towards the middle of the water and sent it back towards me. I used my arms and flung the remnants out towards the others. She came charging at me and I went towards her as well. Letting my shield go I sent it out towards her engulfing her in the three elements I had used as my shield.

As soon as I let them out over her I fell to the ground on my knees. Letting them all go out at once was draining my body. I released them feeling a little more energy come back to me. I tried to surface my healing power, I didn’t know exactly how that one worked, but I tried it. I healed myself and rose to my feet with a huge smile on face. I defeated all four of them. Granted if this was a real battle they would have gave their all, but still.

“Nice job Jackie,” my mother said, sounding more enthusiastic than I would have imagined possible.

“I know when I get weaker,” I said to them walking towards my mother to help her stand up. “It happened when I sent it all out towards Olivia. Using one to attack my opponent is fine, but as soon as I let them all go out towards you I get extremely weak. I figured out how to use my ability to heal myself and used it to heal my weakness. That was how I stood up. This looks like it is turning around in our favor,” I said, grinning from ear to ear at the group in front of me.  

This past month I have trained against the carbon copy of Christina every day and I finally got the bush away from her. I learned how to control all four elements around me and use them to my advantage. I also learned how to heal others. I used my power to heal Zack after I accidently broke his arm during our training session with the carbon copy. He was surprised and relieved that I was able to heal his broken bones.

The Last Month

We were all practicing for the last time at the field and were all pretty much where we wanted to be, but we wanted to leave the real abilities we all carried to ourselves. John spoke to the group on my behalf stating that we were all welcome to continue practicing for the next few weeks, but we were where we were expected to be. We were cleaning up the last of our weapons when I felt the cool breeze that accompanied the carbon copy.

I didn’t have time to ready to myself, because she flung Josh up against the tree and had Zack pinned against the fence. I didn’t think, I just reacted. I flung my arms out and sent her flying back. Leah used her powers to try and grab the sword out of her hands and almost got it out, but the Queen was stronger, she would not let it go that easily.

I hated that I didn’t let on about my extra abilities because I could beat her with them. But with her mind distracted she loosened her hold on the boys. Josh and Zack quickly ran towards her with their swords drawn and I sent her flying back further. Josh seemed to be enjoying himself and I knew the reason why, he enjoyed inflicting pain on people. Even though this wasn’t a real person he would still enjoy hurting her, it’s who he is.

Zack reached Christina and they started fighting with their swords. Since this was just a drill there weren’t any of her minions here to help distract all of us, so we stood and watched as they faced off with their swords. When she went up with the intent to make the final blow I snatched the sword out of her hand and clutched it firmly in mine.

The shocked look on her face was proof that she wasn’t expecting that to happen and if she had her minions with her it most likely wouldn’t have. When Zack had the blade of his sword at her neck she disappeared and I relaxed.

“That was awesome!” Elizabeth exclaimed.

I couldn’t help but smile at her enthusiasm. If only she knew.

We ended our last training on the field and went home to have pizza. Josh and Leah left before we could even offer to have them over and I was thankful for that because I didn’t want them there anymore than they would want to be there.

****

It took a lot of effort and I still got very weak when I over exerted myself but I could control all of my powers and I was strong. I remember that I almost took the roof off of our house when I was training in the back yard. Olivia and I thought it was funny, but my mother didn’t see the humor in it.

“How am I supposed to sell the house without a roof?” She had yelled at us.

I looked at her in a way that could only be classified as, ‘I don’t know nor do I care.’ I’m lucky that we had people over, because that would have been a hell of night between me and my mother fighting and me doing everything I could to not lose my temper and use my powers on her. I know she could handle it, but to an extent. If I lost control over the abilities I was using on her I could do some serious damage.

Just thinking of the carbon copy that I destroyed made me wince at the power that I have now. If I used that on a loved one, even if I wasn’t trying to hurt them, there is no telling what could happen to them.

Zack grew stronger too. I realize that we were connected in some strange way and his powers were mine and vice versa. He couldn’t control the elements like I could, but he was stronger than the rest of the group. The good thing that I had noticed was, the stronger that I got, the stronger he got. He was as tall as his father now and he was already tall to begin with. He had those monstrous hands that his dad had as well and I couldn’t help but flinch the day I noticed that he grew over night. I thought he was playing a trick on me. But apparently we both grew into our adult bodies overnight and that scared the ever loving hell out of me. My so called visions didn’t show us looking like this, but I guess we managed to change the future, for now anyway.

I was still scared that Leah and Josh were going to back stab us, which was why I hadn’t tried to be around them. Even the other two noticed that something was wrong and came to join us. If it was a ploy to get our trust we would have had a vision by now and we hadn’t. So I accepted their friendship with open arms and let them into our secret world. 

When we weren’t training we were gathering things that we were going to take with us. My mother sold our house and we were now staying with Zack and his family. Olivia and Derek also stayed there with us, since they gave up their apartment so they wouldn’t forget to do it before we left. Zack’s house was on the market too, so as soon as they sold it we were leaving, whether it was time to leave or not.

We used Zack’s back yard as our training ground for the carbon copy and we both still trained with it on a regular basis. It was the only thing that helped me contain my nervous energy. We spent most hours training with Elizabeth and Shanieza and we tried to include Josh and Leah on those too, but we refused to let them in on everything.

By the end of last month I realized that we could trust Liz and Shanieza and we told them our theory about Josh and Leah. They seemed to agree with us and agreed that they wouldn’t say or do anything to compromise our plan.

We included them in our trainings with the carbon copy and they were surprised, to say the least, about my extra abilities. I didn’t tell them everything about me, because I still didn’t want them relying fully on me, but they knew enough to know that we had a fighting chance in this battle if they stuck to our plan.

Now all we had to do was wait. We trained daily, but not at the field, Josh and Leah thought it was because we were all ready to fight and even though that may be true to an extent, it was because I didn’t want them knowing what everyone was now capable of. Elizabeth’s parents and Shanieza’s parents agreed to fight alongside us as well, which meant we had more powers and more strength.

We had three houses for us in Pandora, Derek’s, Olivia’s and the abandoned one that one of my mother’s followers obtained for her. We are going to be giving the abandoned one to Leah, Josh and their parents, while Derek and Olivia’s houses would hold the rest of us.

I was outside in Zack’s back yard. The battle ground paint was successfully removed and now it looked like a normal yard. The realtor was coming today and all of the kids were forced outside. It was snowing, not a lot, at least not yet, but enough to stick to the ground. It was January and all of the snow was just starting to come. Last year during this time we got a foot of snow.

I was wearing my black combat boots and long black cargo pants. They weren’t the warmest pants, but my mother assured me we wouldn’t need them to be warm in Pandora. It never snowed there. My coat was red and white and short, stopping at my waist. I had my hair down in a warm hat with my hood pulled up over it. Zack had a similar coat in the same colors, but his coat didn’t have a hood. He had black jeans on and his black combat boots. His hat was red and had ear flaps.

The girls had black combat boots but their coats were blue. They were similar to mine with the length and hoods. They were wearing the same black cargo pants as me and they had the same hats. We went on a mini shopping spree and declared teams. Although pairing Zack and me as a team doesn’t give them much of a fair chance. I didn’t voice my opinions, but we all got matching outfits with coats, hats and gloves. Their hats are obviously blue along with their gloves and Zack and I had red hats and gloves.

We were all antsy waiting to sell the house so we could leave. It was relatively empty apart from the things we were all taking with us. Olivia and Derek were going to take us to our houses with our stuff so they would be making two or more trips. Josh and Leah were going to be last, just to make sure they didn’t hear or see anything we didn’t want them to.

I liked that I had become close with Shanieza and Elizabeth again, but I was afraid that it was just going to kill me more if something happened to them. If I couldn’t protect them and they ended up dying because of it, I would hate myself more.

As we sat along the wall at the back of the yard we talked about what was in store for us. These girls had way too much faith in me, but I adore them dearly for it.

“You can swoop in with your crazy element powers and carry the enemy away,” Liz said looking at me awe struck.

She still hadn’t gotten over my added abilities, the ones I shared with them anyway and she always suggested that my powers were going to save everyone.

I laughed as I got up and demonstrated on her how I would carry away my enemy. The wind came swooshing down from the trees and encircled her. I used it to lift her up and carry her around the back yard, making it go fast then slow and fast again. She squealed out what I believed was a shocked squeal as I released my hold on the air and let it carry her down to the ground so she landed on her feet. Her hat fell off of her head leaving her hair a tangled mess.

“You do know that if I was to use this power on an enemy I wouldn’t have them land gracefully on their feet right?” I asked her as she straightened her messy hair.

She had a big shit eating grin on that told me she loved the power even more.

“Yes, but it is super cool when you use it like that.”

Before I was to demonstrate with her again Zack’s parents came out and trailing not far behind them was the realtor. The guy was about as tall as John, but he didn’t have the monstrous arms and hands. When he looked at me I swear he was looking straight through me. I felt something from him, something bad, and I guessed I wasn’t the only one because Zack came and stood by me in a protective manner, blocking the other two girls from the view and any potential attack.

My mother came out in time to see us take up a battle stance and she wasted no time swiping the bastard out of the way with a flick of her arm. He landed on the ground with a thud and by the time he got up all of the adults were outside taking various stances to get ready for a battle.

How did he make it through the whole house and no one noticed? I thought as I called on the wind. Keeping it a safe distance away from me and any one in particular, I let it circle him. He couldn’t tell who it was coming from and I wasn’t about to give up the element of surprise. I let it take him, wrapping around him so tight and spinning him so fast it was hard for him to breathe. When I let the wind stop he was knocked out, but not dead. John and Zack rushed to him and as they bent down they held their hands up to keep us back.

They didn’t have to tell me twice, I was more than willing to stay far behind. I held my arms up keeping the girls at bay. They had curious looks on their faces and I had to wonder if they were going to die the first day there. I wouldn’t let that happen, but they weren’t making it easy.

“He’s out cold, but he will come to very soon. We need to take him out now before he wakes up and heads back to her,” John said standing up and taking a dagger out of his belt that I hadn’t noticed was there before. He didn’t even hesitate when he sent it into his chest. The guy never made another sound, he was killed instantly.

“They found us, we need to go now.” Derek said taking Olivia’s hand and leading her into the house to grab our belongings.

“But what about our plan?” I asked in an attempt to avoid going to Pandora a little longer. My nightmare that I did the best to forget about came crashing into my thoughts and all I could do was see and feel Leah twisting the knife in my heart and hear her laughing as she did it. I tried very hard to forget that damn vision and I was doing well at it. That is until the mention of us leaving now.

“I know you are scared, but if we stay here we are sitting ducks and I don’t want all of our hard work to be for nothing,” Olivia said coming to me and calming my frayed nerves.

“I’m not scared,” I lied.

I was terrified. Zack knew it instantly and shook his head in my direction for my cowardice at not telling the truth that I want to park my butt right here and never leave this spot.

“I just need a minute to clear my head. I’ll go in and grab my stuff when I’m ready,” I said, giving her a small smile to replace my nervous scowl.

She didn’t buy my lie, which I knew she wouldn’t, but she allowed me to calm down before heading back inside and starting our trip to our impending deaths. Hopefully we win, but I’m too scared right now to think of anything else other than dying.

Zack came over to me and took me into his arms. He gently rubbed my back and just held me. He didn’t say anything, just stood there holding me while I got myself under control. I was grateful for the silence. I knew I would be able to tell him how I felt no matter what, but I didn’t feel like talking about it. That would be the worst, because then it would mean me crying and taking longer to get my ass out of here.

After what felt like forever I was calmer and able to go and join my group of friends and family. Zack gave me a quick kiss on my forehead and took my hand to lead me to the group.

My mother had her two luggage bags and a box of pictures and miscellaneous items she had collected over the years. That was all, no big items that she was determined to take with her, not her vanity or big comfy bed, just pictures and whatever else fit in that box. That’s what the last sixteen years came to, two luggage bags and a box.

Me, I had my iPod, with as many of the songs that I couldn’t live without, my journals and a luggage bag of clothes. I was already wearing the important battle gear, apart from some weapons that were hidden in the bottom on my box. That was all that my life here consisted of. Our whole life shoved into three bags and two boxes. I was skeptical about not bringing anything else, but until we had an actual place of our own, we were sharing the small buildings that my aunt and Derek owned. Zack and his parents were about the same as us, a few bags and a box. Elizabeth and Shanieza and their families had the same as well.