Preternatural (Worlds & Secrets) (12 page)

He was ta
ll, had broad shoulders and a long neck. The man’s rich black hair (which seemed as wavy as water) was slicked back in gel. His eyes were large and were a darker purple than Jade’s. He wore a crimson waistcoat over a long-sleeved midnight-black shirt, a tie tucked underneath his vest (matching his trousers) and as footwear a pair of classy, pointed-tip snakeskin shoes. His nose was long and his face was thin and smoothly shaven. However, his Caucasian skin seemed close to a pale grey.

He took
one
step towards us and the sound of his soles resonated throughout the room. It was made more eerie as they made a tiny splash against the puddle of water on the floor which made my skin crawl. Jaden and I stepped back. Our hearts had stopped as he adjusted his tie.

“
How did you get in here? Who are you?
What do you want
?” I asked, shyly backing away in my own timidity. The man tilted his head at us and looked at Jaden and me with his enormous, puzzling purple eyes.

“
Those are quite a lot of words for a pleasant hello. But I can understand if you want to get to the
point
,”
he said, his voice transforming into a gritty, raspy, hollow tone towards the end of his sentence. Jaden and I were trapped, frozen at the spot in our own fear. We moved closer to each other in order to protect ourselves. Suddenly, mum walked in and stood timidly in the doorway. We turned our heads back to the man swiftly.

Reality became a nightmare. He grew a long, wide grin that stretched from one ear to the other. His perfectly aligned teeth became rows and rows of jagged, long and serrated fangs.
We noticed that his neck began to glow orange. Inside him, a flickering amber light like blazing fire shone and lit up his face. All of a sudden, parts of his face started to tear and burn, as his flesh singed open to reveal the glowing, hot, red fire from within him – and his eyes…

H
is eyes were a completely filled void black of which I could see nothing beyond.

Jaden and I
slowly backed away to mum and the man stood there dauntingly; as he gently took paces towards us.

“
Don’t touch them,” mum snarled as she hurled herself in front of us. All of a sudden, I heard loud footsteps growing louder with each knock on our staircase. Jaden and I looked back only to see another man that looked similar to the one mum was protecting us from.

Except he wore
a crimson shirt and a black tie, waistcoat and trousers. He had the same basic physical structure as the first one. His black hair was shoulder-length and seemed wet; the tips skimming his lapel. Suddenly, after taking a good look at us, he began grinning; his eyes darkening and parts of his burning flesh letting off smoke from the hellfire residing in him.

The man
in the corridor flew over to me. Mum didn’t see what was happening as she was facing the other way, guarding us from the intruder in the bathroom. The man advanced his hand towards me. I moved my head backwards in a heartbeat. As I edged away, his hand lightly scraped my chest and he had gotten a hold of me. He was now standing an inch away from me as he rested his hand on my hard-beating heart. I gasped for air but I just couldn’t attain it. I felt glacial. My blood was a sub-zero liquid searing through my veins like burning lava yet numbing ice and bringing with it an unbearable cold. I felt my muscles and tissues contract as my chest collapsed on itself. I wasn’t respiring. As soon as he had physical contact with me, I turned pearl white and black veins started to rise to the surface of my skin.

I could feel myself slipping away into eternal sleep; death. T
hat was until my bedroom door burst open and flung towards the long haired man in front of me, hitting him away. With the quick hint of green I saw, I made out two figures emerging from it. A boy and a girl, both of which were quite tall

“
Jojo?!” Jaden exclaimed.

“
Hey, isn’t that –”

“
The guy from our dream,” finished Jaden. 

Mum was still gua
rding us from the man that was in the bathroom. The boy turned out to be Robbie Roxeth. Jojo disappeared, leaving behind her what looked like glowing green embers – somewhat resembling ashes. The man who attempted to kill me arose again from the distance.

Jojo
suddenly reappeared closer to me, emitting the same green ember-like sparks. We stared at the man, charging towards us hurriedly. Jojo stormed to him and released a fury I had never witnessed from her. She was as swift, strong and skilful as a martial arts student, but from everything I could see, it seemed he was stronger.

“
Jaden, Aden – duck!” she yelled.

We didn
’t see why, until what seemed like an enormous ball of black flames hurled towards us, obliterating an entire wall. Jaden and I swiftly crashed to the ground. Things were hectic; much too swift and complicated for us to be asking questions.

“
What’s going on?” Jade asked, stepping out of her room, completely unaware of world war three that was progressing in the corridor.

Suddenly all attention was on
her. We
all
stared at her. The man Jojo fought quickly inhaled deeply and opened his wide grinning mouth. He suddenly breathed out blazes of strong black fire that sent an unbearable heat wave through the hallway. Concurrently, Jojo disappeared and reappeared to where Jade was, teleporting her away from the inferno.

“
Jojo, what’s all this? What did you just do?” she questioned in a terrible stutter of fear.

“
Jade, I can’t explain now. Go to your mum and your brothers,” Jojo hurried her. She was so casual about all this, as she dodged and evaded deadly strikes by the intruders whilst somersaulting, back-flipping over them.

Jade rushed to mum, Jaden and me
. We felt terrorised, like our childhood had been stolen and we were forced into a world of panic. Mum was still blocking the entrance though, protecting us from that man in the bathroom and keeping us in the corridor.

“
Guys, this way!” Robbie yelled to us whilst Jojo fought off our attackers.

“
Who are you? And how did you do that?” Jade asked.

“
Robbie, Robbie Roxeth. And how did I do what?” he answered.

“
It was as if you hacked into our dreams and I saw what happened to you and that girl,” I replied. He started panting and his eye contact wasn’t focused on us.

“
Um – I’ll answer that later, right now I need to go!”

Robbie raced out
of the door and threw himself into the battle Jojo was so immersed in.

“
Stay in there and whatever you do…DON’T…COME…OUT!” he yelled to us grimly.

“
Robbie!” Jojo called out. He jumped over to her as she stretched out her hands. Jojo caught him by both hands and swung him around, knocking the grinning man into the distance. I was spellbound at what I was witnessing.

After minutes of staring at
her awkwardly and being blocked by mum, the man made his move. Mum countered all of his physical attacks but everything was happening too fast to focus on. We heard a loud combustion coming from the bathroom and mum suddenly sprinted out to us.

“
Jojo, Robbie!” mum shouted.

Jojo took Robbie’s arm and disappeared with a flash of green embers and suddenly reappeared next to us.
The man Jojo and Robbie fought against stood in the back viciously with his endless grin, which then turned into a wide scowl spread across his face. The first man from the bathroom emerged and they both speedily jumped across the room to us.

I flinched, turning my head away. I didn
’t hear anything for a few seconds. I gently lifted my head and saw mum with her left hand hovering in the air and a few inches from it, both the grinning men hung helplessly in mid-air. I watched as they retracted their wide demonic grins and as their faces slowly became normal again.

I all of a sudden felt scared o
f my own mother. She pushed the two monstrous men away with her hand still pressed against the air. They all flew backwards and crashed into the walls down the hall (the force being so strong the face of the house was torn away with it).

“
What are you all
?” Jade asked, so bewildered she looked as if she was about to faint. Mum stretched a hand out to Jade but she instantly avoided it with a terror-stricken look in her eyes as she stayed huddled next to Jaden and me.

“
Not now, sweetheart. Robbie, would you please?” asked mum. Robbie nodded and strode on over to the doorway. Holding both sides of the doorframe. I was mesmerised at how he pulled them together as if it was a sliding door. Then, as though there was never an entrance, the two frames merged into one another to form a plain wall.

“
Jojo, get your parents!” mum commanded. She disappeared out of the house immediately, leaving her usual green embers floating behind her and in time, they dissolved into the air. In an instance Tantrus appeared but Jojo wasn’t with him.

“Tantrus,” mum said, a relieved look flooding her previous sombre expression. Anne suddenly appeared in a shower of green embers.

“
Are you okay? All of you?” she asked us.

“
We’re
fine
but we just need an explanation to all this…” Jade was fumbling and didn’t know what words to use.

“M
adness!” Jaden and I concurrently replied.

“
Exactly
that,” Jade added. I was slowly becoming unhinged and I feared that I would fall apart if I didn’t get an answer to any of this lunacy and insanity. These people must have kidnapped all of our family and friends and replaced them. They could not do all these bizarre things.

“
Don’t worry, all in good time. Now, follow Robbie and Jojo,” answered Jojo’s mother.

“
Wait, where
is
Jojo?” asked Jaden. In an instance, with a rather loud display of bright green, Jojo reappeared.

“
There you are. Right, take them home,” Anne instructed hurriedly.

“
We
are
home,” I replied.

“
Yeah, if you want to call
this
a home, then sure, stay! In any case, there’s no time for arguments. Come with me,” Jojo answered. She then turned to Robbie.

“
Robs, the wormhole,” she said plainly.

“
Wormhole? What’s that?” I asked with attitude.

“
Just wait and see,” Jojo impatiently responded.

Robbie placed his hand
s onto my wall and closed his eyes. I watched eagerly as a circular, hollow space began forming around his palms. It grew larger until finally, Robbie brought his hands back down to his sides. Jaden, Jade and I stared in amazement at the miraculous, glowing white hole that stared at us as the spectrums of dark and bright light reflected off of our faces.

“
Right, in we go, chaps,” Tantrus answered rather cheerfully.

“
You don’t expect us to go through that, do you?” Jade asked frightfully. Robbie merely groaned and rolled his head around his neck exasperatedly, tired of all our complaints and excessive whining.              

“
Well, if you’re not going first, I will,” he said plainly. He walked through the wormhole and was absorbed into it. I could see
nothing
beyond.

“
Jaden, follow,” mum ordered.

Jaden gulped and wal
ked slowly towards the wormhole that so eerily stared us in the face. He stopped just in front of it and looked at it in absolute dread. I slowly crept up behind him and pushed him in. Jaden inhaled a short breath as his heart stopped before falling through. I chuckled, not knowing Jade was standing right behind me. I turned around and looked at her with narrowed eyes. Jade smiled cheekily.

“
You wouldn’t dare.”

CHAPTER 5.

Vernaesce

T
he place was forsaken for sure. But at least Robbie and Jaden were there with me. Everything was covered by murk. There wasn’t a single thing I saw that wasn’t torn apart. Everything that surrounded me was in their utmost obliterated states they could
be in.

The buildings,
the ground and the clouds. The sky – well, that was just a void; an empty, deserted and useless space above us with a bleak and forlorn sun. There were broken and deteriorated buildings with shattered windows everywhere. The domain looked like a bad nuclear war mixed with a horrible zombie apocalypse had unfortunately taken place there at the same time. It wasn’t exactly pleasant to witness. In its shortest terms, this place looked like the home of every and
any
nightmare we humans ever dreamed of – although, I was beginning to question
what
I was now. There was silence here, like a graveyard – and I found the irony side-splittingly hilarious because this place might have as well been one. But all I could hear was my heart faintly beating in my chest. The place just seemed so hopeless, like a fog corrupted in evil was saturating the area with its presence. The bridge behind me had collapsed dreadfully, the ponds had blackened to a liquid so detestably macabre that the mere thought of ingesting it almost brought me to my knees to vomit. The rubble went on for miles and the half-standing buildings (or what was left of them at least) resembled secret entrances to hell. The darkness within them was something I would forever and
ever
steer clear from. Goosebumps scaled all over my body spine-chillingly.

“
Go on, Jade,” Jojo encouraged.

“
Can we both go in at the same time? Because I’m terrified.”

“
I wish we could, but we can’t. Only one person may go in at a time. Now, please hurry! We’re running out of time.”

Jade took a deep breath
and plucked up some courage. She slowly walked towards the wormhole without looking back, striding through and traversing dimensions. She disappeared and reappeared on the other side near Robbie, Jaden and me and was followed shortly by Jojo and her father crossing through simultaneously.

“
Hey! I thought you said you could only go in one at a time.” Jojo chuckled like the maniac she secretly was.

“
Well…um…I lied,” Jojo bantered. “I
had
to get you in one way or another.”

Jade
turned her back to Jojo and confronted the post-apocalyptic hell ahead. Mum was the last to exit our house and to come through the wormhole. Robbie walked over to his portal and spread his hand out in the centre of it. I surveyed keenly as the core of his palm glowed a luminous white, spreading to all corners of his hand. The softest
crystal sound was emitted from the light he projected but was barely audible. I only did because the area was so dauntingly quiet. As Robbie’s hand intensified in colour and light, the wormhole shrunk more and more until it finally closed. His hand dimmed to its original complexion again.

“
Hey, if you’re Robbie and you’re – you know – from my dream, where’s that girl?” I asked inquisitively.

“
Oh, Tammy?” he answered whilst walking towards the rest of us. “Well, she’s –”

“
Robbie, do you have a coin on you?” interrupted Tantrus.

“
Just a sec,” Robbie said, reaching into his pocket to reveal a polished-surfaced, silver coin. On one side it had a “V” which was overlapped with two swords and on the other side was the coin’s value, beautifully embossed in the precious metal. I saw this as Robbie tossed it repeatedly in his palm.

“
Here you go.” Robbie handed it to Tantrus.

“
Right, now, all of you, back away onto the pavement,” he commanded, pushing us back.

The adults – m
um, Anne and Tantrus – were all in front whilst the rest of us remained behind. Mum was facing forward but she whispered something to my siblings and me: “whatever you do, keep completely still.”

“
Why?” Jade whispered back, slightly louder.

“
Just do it,” mum answered calmly.

Tantrus was reciting something but my attention was divided. I
nstead of being completely immobile as my mother had instructed, I was facing another direction. I looked into the distance at the end of the road where the fog seemed to lead into oblivion.

Then
, it may have just have been my traumatised imagination, but I
knew
I saw a figure in the murk. I could only see the person’s silhouette, but from what I saw it was as tall as me and had either shoulder-length hair or longer – I couldn’t tell. That’s all I could identify. However, I was very able to tell that the person was looking directly at me; whilst folding its arms it turned around and headed away into the fog. I shook my head, trying to snap out of my distraction and looked away.

“
Reveal to us the hidden world covered and protected by this realm of shadows
,” Tantrus mumbled, pressing the coin against his mouth.

Suddenly, b
efore I knew it, the sky ripped open with vehement colour. It began renewing itself and the desolate place I was surrounded with became a spontaneous world. Hell rapidly became heaven in the most remarkable transformation of light and wind. The void of the sky began to dwindle as light broke through from the sun whilst the monuments reconstructed themselves. I was out of words; astonished by what I perceived. I couldn’t think of anything that I had ever encountered more remarkable than this.

T
he sky was the most beautiful piece of art I had ever beheld. It seemed too awe-inspiring to be real. I was probably dreaming – maybe nothing of this was real. The heavens were a burst of colours that were combined together, seeming, from the way they were set, to have either been dusk or dawn: rays of violet stretched across, merging with the shades of cyan blue, indigo and azure. From there, the amber, topaz and orange were cleverly fused with the shades of blue. Finally, everything was outlined with a bright fuchsia. What I couldn’t seem to be able to tear my eyes off of were the outlines of the colossal planets hung in this painting of a sky, along with what seemed to be two, half-glowing moons.

The colours were blending in together just like a spectacular work of pastel by an artist of wonders.
There was no sun to be found at the moment, but there were stars. Vast constellations pinpricked into the coat of many colours up above.

We were
surrounded with people walking up and down about their daily business, unmoved by the glory and splendour that captured my soul. It was marvellous. There were real-life fire breathers, breathing out fire from their own throats which would glow red every time they did. People darted through the atmosphere whilst gliding on the air – especially children, who seemed to be racing one another and playing all sorts of unusual games. Some women were influencing immense loads of water with their hands, using them to wash clothes manually, and when they were done, withdrew all the water with gentle hand movements.

Children were running on fields and people were
sprouting abnormally large trees to sit beneath. There were, what looked like, endless fields of lavender. Some people were just appearing and disappearing everywhere, just like Jojo and her family, leaving behind trails of bright green embers. 

There were girls and
boys on roofs practising sword work and you could hear blacksmiths sharpening tools in the distance as well as the violent whirring of the blades. I suddenly began to admire this natural entertainment, walking towards what felt like the heart of this place.

“
Where
are
we? It’s
beautiful
,” Jade exclaimed.

“
Welcome to Vernaesce, guys,” mum responded.

“
Beg your pardon? Ver…I’m sorry, what?” Jaden asked cockily.

“
Vernaesce,” Mum answered with an exasperated sigh.

“
Gesundheit
,” Jaden and I responded arrogantly. Mum smacked us both on the back of our heads.

“
It’s funny how it can look so magnificent here. This is pretty much one of the poorest areas. You should see the actual cities. I tell you they…are…
awesome
. This is a rural village
just
off the coast of the Hydrotte region,” Jojo said as we walked further.

“
Here we are. Right, stay close,” Tantrus said as we crossed the street. A sudden herd of horses ran before us, almost skimming against our faces, though nobody else around found it a problem.

“
OI, WATCH IT!” Tantrus yelled. “Bloody Shifftocastans,” he mumbled to himself.

We came to a
halt at a red shack. We climbed the three stone steps before it and Tantrus opened the glass door with silver and red framing. The bell rang as we stepped in; Jaden, Jade and I all eagerly observing the establishment.

A long wooden
table separated us from the brick wall at the back. I had a look at a birdcage in the far corner, empty but containing bird seeds that mysteriously disappeared on their own with a strange pecking sound. We walked around the table and were now at the far end of the room.

“
Why have we stopped at a wall?” I asked intolerantly.

“
So impatient,” mum muttered underneath her breath, rolling her eyes and shaking her head out of sheer exasperation.

“
Just calm down and wait,” she said with a stressful look in her eyes.

“
Don’t worry. You’ll soon get used to everything,” Anne reassured with a warm smile and a pat on my shoulder. Robbie nudged himself to the front, coming face-to-face with the front wall.

“
Get used to what?” I asked, but I couldn’t have been answered. Everyone’s attention was on Robbie’s hand, which he was gently scraping against the wall in an arched movement forwards and backwards. Robbie’s eyes then lightened to a brilliant, shimmering gold and as his hand was firmly pressed against the wall, the bricks began to crack and thickly melt. They gradually started to ooze to the floor and slowly climb back up on the side of the wall, carving up into a long arch that descended into an underground tunnel. In the process, Robbie’s hand ended up against mid-air. The bricks re-solidified, now seeming as if they had naturally been shaped and constructed in that shape of a passageway leading underneath the building. The process ended with Robbie’s eyes dimming down to their natural hazel-hinted brown. I. Was.
Astonished
.

“
Whoa!” Jaden flinched.

The not so many steps we descended on were narrowed. Once we were under
ground, Robbie merely touched the wall. With his eyes lightening to hazel again and his hand glowing white, the tunnel’s bricks melted behind us and climbed up to seal itself into a wall. Robbie took a long hard blink after the passageway was hidden and his eyes dimmed again.

Both my left and right
hand sides led to unseen places. They looked like tunnels, but their depths were gates to nothingness; pure darkness. Though, they did
have a series of light bulbs, stretching to their ends. We faced a large, dense, silver metallic door with thick black hinges whose surface was reflective and smooth.

“
You fixed the door?” mum asked as we looked at it uninterruptedly.

“
Mm-hm,” Robbie responded plainly. “Just this morning.”

Tantrus stretched out his hand in
an attempt to knock, but the door swung open by itself to reveal a man, sitting around an averagely large, circular glass table with a girl. She was reading a book aloud to the man whilst he tutored her. He had his back to us but his right elbow was lightly resting on his armrest with his hand gently raised.

“
Good evening, all,” Tantrus said, rather enthusiastically.

“
Okay, Tamzine. Our lesson is at an end. Now, keep reading on the psychic linkages between the caster of the vision and the intended projection and keep practising to establish a further connection. It’ll help you with more efficient mind-mapping. Time to meet the rookies,” Mr Tarchall finished undertone with a gentle wink. Tammy sniggered. Mr Tarchall turned around and greeted Tantrus.

“
Good evening, Tantrus, Anne, Angelina,” he casually greeted in a deep, husky voice. Mr Tarchall was a tall, husky man with a head full of gelled back, mahogany brown hair. His face was as regal as his dressing; he wasn’t severely aged, but one could tell he was older than most. Yet, he still had a youthful look about him which was probably due to his well-groomed brown beard. His eyes seemed to be of the same piercing glacial blue as mum’s which really made me feel like running into a corner and hiding – this
was
, after all, the first time I was ever meeting him. He was also quite tall; a tad taller than Jaden and me…and unfortunately, that was saying something.