Illumine (8 page)

relatively easy for me to handle, especialy when I had already read

al of Shakespeare's works in 6th grade out of sheer boredom.

"We're going to continue with our look into
Othello
today,

"We're going to continue with our look into
Othello
today,

so open your tombstones under your desks," the teacher muttered

darkly. It was a never-ending joke with her class that she caled the

textbooks tombstones since they practicaly weighed as much as

one.

As I reached underneath for my copy of the book I felt a

stab in my stomach. Automaticaly I sat up straight and breathed,

the hot-knife feeling only growing worse.

"You okay?" Abigail raised her eyebrows at me. I gave her

a little nod and slowly reached back down for the book under my

chair. Another stab sharper than the last hit my stomach again, the

pain spreading into my chest with a burning sensation I'd never felt

before. I doubled over and pressed my forehead to the cool

desktop.

From the back of the classroom I heard Kayden. "Essalie

doesn't look too good."

The teacher shot took one look at me and panicked. "Oh

no no no, I am not having another kid get sick in my class. Abigail,

take her down to the nurse, quickly."

An arm slipped around my shoulders and hoisted me out of

my seat. It was al I could do to keep my lips pressed tight from

screaming at the pain. "Get her things. She's on fire, I can feel the

fever coming off of her in waves."

Wait, that was Kayden talking, not Abigail. Kayden was

the one carrying me out of the classroom, and into the hal, and

down to the nurse. I wanted to spit in his face, maybe even set him

on fire in front of everyone for a little show. I was getting sick of

him trying to play hero to my slips and fals.

him trying to play hero to my slips and fals.

Eyes closed, I felt him carry me out of the classroom and

down the halway, Abigail right by my side. "She was fine this

morning," I heard her say. "Hel she was fine two minutes ago.

What do you think happened?"

"My theory probably isn't the one you want to hear,"

Kayden replied truthfuly. He lightly adjusted his arms to hold me

up better. "She wouldn't like me to spread my ideas."

Too true. Letting everyone know I could potentialy engulf

them in flames if they looked at me crossways would probably put

a damper on my mood. "What, do you think she brought

something with her from New York? Like a Typhoid Mary of the

modern era? Bad ass."

"Not quite, but sure, we can go with that," Kayden

laughed.

"I'm right here, you know," I whispered through tight lips.

Pain was driving down into my bones, stabbing like milions of

scalded, jagged blades into my skin. He turned into the infirmary

and folowed the nurse's directions to set me down on a cot in the

back room while Abigail explained everything in the other room.

"It's happening, you know," he whispered in a low tone.

"Nothing is happening," I managed to snap back at him.

"It's just a reaction to lunch. I haven't been handling food wel.

Must be coming down with a bug."

He shook his head. "If she takes your temperature, it's

going to show you should be dead. Your powers are coming in,

like it or not. What happens next is how you handle it."

I raised my head off the pilow as much as I could manage.

"How about I just set you on fire and get it over with?"

"I hope you're stil this feisty when the fever wears off,"

Kayden said, the corners of his lips twitching.

"You haven't seen a fraction of it yet," I laughed despite

myself and let my head back down onto the pilow. Sweat beaded

and trickled over my skin, suctioning the pilow and flimsy sheets to

me like glue.

The nurse stepped in with Abigail and immediately shooed

Kayden away from me. Both hung back as she ran one of the new

thermometers over my forehead and waited for the reading. When

the results came up she shook her head and reset it before running

it over my head again. But the results left her face just as ashen as it

had the first time.

"Can't be right," she smacked the device in her hands a

couple of times. "Let me try again before I get the old one."

"What did it say?" I asked in spite of myself.

She laughed, nervously almost. "This new technology is so

temperamental. It said you have a fever of 120 degrees, but there's

just no way that's possible. You'd be dead." The reading flashed at

her again and she jammed it into her pocket. "Now it's saying 122

degrees. I'm getting the old one."

I felt my stomach drop, the pain flaring through my body

again. She turned around and sent both Abigail and Kayden back

to class but not before I had a chance to steal a look at Kayden.

His eyes were shining like polished coal, his lips curved into a tight-

lipped smile.

lipped smile.

After seven different attempts with both the old and new

thermometers the nurse finaly caled Jayson to pick me up and

take me home for the day. She stressed that ice baths, ice packs

and cool rags would surely bring the fever down and break it

within the day. He led me up to my room and made sure to bring

rags in every half hour soaked in borderline frozen water. Nothing

was bringing the fever down.

Between hazes of the fever and pain that forced me into

blackouts I had fitful dreams. Creatures of al shapes and sizes

continued to reach out to me as I used the fire to burn them past

my path. By the time I would wake up the fever would be spiking

higher, the pain so intense I'd throw up.

At one point I managed to drag myself to the tub and turn

on the faucets, shoving myself in with my clothes stil on. The water

felt worse than the stabbing pain inside me, and I screamed. Jayson

had run upstairs to pul me from the water and back to my bed, but

he said my fever seemed to have gone down from the bath.

I felt like I was dying. Nothing wanted to work, from my

legs to my heart, it al moved like an animal on its last leg. Each

breath felt like I was putting al of my energy into it. Giving in

suddenly seemed easier, plausible.

Jayson knocked on the door, startling me from my haze of

thought. "I need to run out for a few hours. Are you going to be

okay?"

Slowly I nodded. "Sleeping it off," I said.

He brought my cel phone over to the bed and rested it

under my hand. "Just dial if it gets any worse and I'l be home in a

under my hand. "Just dial if it gets any worse and I'l be home in a

heartbeat. I'l make sure to pick up more ice on the way home." He

closed the door behind him. I gave into the waves of pain I'd been

fighting back and fel into a dreamless sleep.

Sometime in the night I startled awake. My bedroom light

had been left on, a bucket by the side of the bed, rags piled onto

my nightstand. Curiously I didn't feel like I had a fever and the pain

inside my body had vanished. Slowly I rose out of bed, ungluing

myself from the sheets that had been soaked in water and sweat. I

had only one thing in mind; water.

I tip-toed past Jayson's room in case he was asleep, down

the steps and to the kitchen. My favorite cup I brought from home,

a Jack Skelington mug, sat in the drainer with a couple other plates

and silverware. I filed it with a little tap water and took my time

sipping it, gazing out the window above the kitchen sink.

The cup half-slipped from my hands as I spotted a figure

standing in the backyard. Against the glassy night the silhouette

seemed almost impossible to spot. I reached for the basebal bat

under the sink when I stopped and stared at my hand.

I opened the door and stepped outside in the stil-soaked

clothes I'd been wearing earlier, but the air felt soft and almost

warm on my skin. Smal snowflakes hung in the air, leaving little

trails as they fluttered to the ground. My feet stepped onto the frost

covered ground as I walked slowly, hands at each side ready to

strike. The figure never moved, only stared straight at me as I came

closer.

"Get off my property before I cal the police," I warned the

figure. I stopped walking to leave a smal chunk of distance

figure. I stopped walking to leave a smal chunk of distance

between us. "You won't get a second warning."

"What if I want a second warning?" The voice asked as the

figure smirked, gleaming white teeth revealing themselves.

"You have got to be freaking kidding me," I swore aloud

as my eyes adjusted to the dark, painting Kayden into my sight. He

stil had the same clothes on from school, stil the same short spiky

black hair, and stil the same ridiculous smirk on his face I wanted

to cut off with nail clippers. "
Kayden what the hell are you doing

on my lawn?
"

"Waiting for you, what else am I supposed to do?" He

shrugged and came over to me, tilting his head on one side. "Stil

feeling like you're on death's door?"

"In the middle of the night no less!" I screamed louder and

threw my hands into the air. "You've got more than just a few

issues here, you know that right? There's just no way I can't

explain this to my brother in the morning."

"Brother?" He questioned, and I nodded. "Huh. Weird.

Warlocks usualy only adopt one child."

"What?"

"Nothing, never mind, never mind." He puffed out his

cheeks for a moment. "So, are you ready to finaly accept it?"

I roled my eyes and sighed despite myself. "Realy,

Kayden? I feel like I nearly die and the only thing you want to

know is if I'm ready for your little game stil? You get old fast." I

turned around and started the walk back to my house. Kayden

caught up and fel in silently by my side.

caught up and fel in silently by my side.

"And here I thought maybe feeling your insides burn up

would make you curious about the new unbridled power running

rampant through your veins, but hey, that's just me," he said

sharply.

I turned to say something to him when I tripped and fel

onto the ground. A sharp pain shot up my right elbow as I felt the

skin scratch itself apart. I got back up to my feet easily and took a

look at my elbow. Fresh blood bubbled out of the scrapped skin

staining the skin and my sleeve.

"Go figure I spend a whole day convulsing to death and

don't have a scratch on me, but then I step outside and manage to

hurt myself around you," I grumbled stiffly under my breath. I

turned to look up at Kayden but he vanished into thin air.

"Kayden?"

The air around me rippled and before I knew it something

was hurtling towards me. I crossed my arms and covered my face

before screaming. The rippling grew with force then suddenly

stopped just as a burst of bright light iluminated the backyard.

I waited for whatever was going to hit me, only it never

came. I opened my eyes slowly and moved my arms down, but I

definitely wasn't ready for what I saw.

The entire backyard was cast in a soft, angelic white light.

Kayden stood across from me, his face contorted and twisted with

the horns and scales of the face I had first seen. His mouth was

open and growling, showing his razor-sharp teeth. Only his eyes

held the tiniest shred of humanity as they bled a color of melted

gold through the onyx. He didn't step closer to me or make a

gold through the onyx. He didn't step closer to me or make a

move, but his eyes stared al around me as if something was right

beside me. That's when I saw them.

Two long, see-through crystal wings arched around me,

their shimmering glamour eerily hypnotic. Both wings spread out,

spanning nearly the whole backyard. It was then I realized that they

were what had protected me from whatever had tried to attack

me. I wanted to thank the creature, the angel that had saved me,

but when I turned around I saw no one. I spun back to look at

Kayden who stil stood unmoving across the yard, a knowing smile

spread sickeningly wide across his face. Carefuly I reached behind

my back and stopped in horror as I felt the extension of something

from my back. The wings were mine.

My eyes roled into my head and I blacked out.

E I G H T

Cold. Everything was cold. I couldn't shake the feeling I

was under water. My skin felt wet, slick with the chiling liquid that

roled over me in swalowing waves.

Another wave hit. "Wakey wakey, Ess-uh-lee."

My eyes snapped open and came into view. Kayden held