Tompkin's School (For The Extraordinarily Talented Book 1) (24 page)

“What the…?" His frightened voice trailed off as he attempted to wrap his brain around what he was seeing.

“Not so quick with the tongue now when the tables are turned, eh?” Kain hissed.

“How is this possible?” Chuck asked, not believing his own eyes.

“It’s only fitting,” my brother’s growl shook the floor, “you held me bound for answers. Now you have them. Give me the journal.”

“You’re insane,” he spat, “even if I did know what you were talking about, I wouldn’t tell you anything.”

While I watched the two of them bickering like children, I let my thoughts wander. My ears seemed to tune out everything that was being said and all I could hear was a familiar voice. She spoke with such kindness, but there was no sound sweeter than the beating of her heart and no smell more intoxicating than the blood flowing from it.

Izara,
Kain’s thoughts interrupted my daydream.

I shook my head, trying to snap out of it and realized I was no longer in the cabin. How did I get here?

Where did you go?
Kain demanded.

I’m not sure,
I answered, honestly,
I’m not sure how I got here.

Get back here now!
He ordered.

You have that situation under control,
I thought,
I must take care of this other matter.

We have to do this together!
Kain growled.

No,
I replied,
we have a higher calling. A bigger purpose than just revenge. Don’t you feel it?

Yes,
Kain thought,
but I won’t be controlled by whatever this is. We can’t just blindly do what our instincts are telling us to do! We need this journal. We need answers.

And I need this heart,
I thought.

I felt Kain’s heartbeat attempting to pull me back, but I pushed through it. He couldn’t stop this. We had made a mistake ignoring our instincts once before and something inside me knew that our inaction would have consequences. I stretched my hand out, letting my fingers brush through the tall, wild grass as I headed towards my victim. This early morning was busy for her, I could sense her rushed state, but soon it wouldn’t be so. I flew over the barbwire fence and landed gracefully on the other side. I walked straight through the backdoor and entered a cluttered kitchen with what smelled like burning oatmeal on the stove. I listened for footsteps and quickly heard movement above me. I left the kitchen and soon found the stairs, making my way up to the second floor. The heartbeat grew stronger and I knew I was close. I walked towards a half closed door and could just barely see movement pass by inside the room. I heard her footsteps get closer to the door and I stopped as she came through the door, arms full of laundry and a cell phone braced between her ear and shoulder. Her entire body froze when our eyes locked and I could sense her fear rising.

“Did you miss me?” I taunted, knowing that she could just barely recognize me.

“What’s going on?" Her voice quivered.

“You have something I need,” I replied, slowly gliding forward, “don’t be afraid. This will go quickly.”

“What, what happened to you?" She asked, backing up.

“You ask the wrong question,” I said, “you should be asking what’s going to happen to you?”

I heard a voice on the other side of the cell phone trying to get her attention and I flew forward, snatching the phone out of her hands and breaking it in my fist. She let out a loud cry and I knew it was time. I smelled the blood running through her veins which verified that she was the one it wanted. I didn’t know who or what was calling the shots, but whatever it was would have its way. Kain would soon learn what needed to be done. I stretched out my fingers and I could see her eyes go into shock as my hand broke through the skin and wrapped around her heart. For a moment I felt human again, I felt afraid of what I was doing, and tried to stop myself but I no longer had control over my body. I blinked and the feeling was gone. I couldn’t give in to weakness. I pulled the heart out and caught her empty body with my other hand before it hit the ground.

What to do with this?
I thought to myself.

Without delay, I flung her body over the railing and watched as it fell to the living room below. I suddenly heard another heartbeat and I flew through the nearest window. I couldn’t risk being seen by any of the living. I flew into the woods to gain coverage. I wasn’t too sure what I had heard, but I definitely couldn’t waste any time. I still had her heart in my hands! I needed to get to a place where I could take what I needed. I weaved through the trees and branches with unimaginable speed. Soon I heard a river and I had a pretty good guess of where I was. At that moment I felt a familiar heartbeat join mine and I knew who it was.

Izara,
Kain’s thoughts came rushing in.

Don’t bother me right now,
I demanded,
this has to be done.

I know,
he growled
, the problem is you abandoned me.

I fumed inside. I couldn’t always be by his side, especially if he was going to ignore all of our responsibilities.

I had to let Chuck go,
Kain thought.

What?!?
I hissed.

He didn’t have the journal,
Kain replied
, but he did have some sort of old map. I took it from him and left him back in his dorm after knocking him out.

That could be a mistake,
I thought.

Yeah,
he conceded,
it definitely could be.

Was that you that I heard come to the house?
I asked.

What house?
he asked.

I heard another heartbeat...
my thoughts trailed.

I haven’t been anywhere else besides the cabin and the school,
his thoughts replied.

Then whose heartbeat did I hear? It couldn’t have been an animal’s...and it didn’t feel quite human at the same time. Just then I heard something behind me and I whirled around in midair. My eyes scanned the woods for movement and listened. I heard the blood dripping from the heart in my hands, I heard leaves blowing in the breeze, and then a faint heartbeat in the distance.

“Who’s there?” I hissed.

I saw a black shape move in the distance that disappeared before I could make out what it was. I felt the strange heartbeat getting closer and closer. Where was it coming from?

“What do you want?” I demanded.

It was as if I was speaking to the howling wind. I heard something moving through the brush and I backed up, turning around towards my actual destination. I wasn’t going to wait around any longer. A chill shivered through my bones as I felt someone’s breath on my ear. I spun around in shock. I knew I was not alone.

“Show yourself!” I cried.

Out of nowhere something suddenly grabbed me and I was being flown through the air Even when I tried to break free, I couldn’t seem to shake whatever was holding me. My wings thrashed as I tried to push away the invisible force. It felt as though I was glued to whatever it was. I couldn’t get away! Suddenly, my body began to tremble and I felt my claws begin to retract.

Not yet!
I thought to myself.

Apparently the full moon did not wait for anyone and before I knew it my wings were crawling back into my spine. I let out a cry as the pain became unbearable.

Kain!
I thought, using all the energy I could muster to push my thoughts to my brother.

What!
I heard him growl, I knew he was going through the same torture.

Something has me in the air,
I thought
, if I finish transitioning back I will fall.

I knew he sensed my fear as clearly as I could feel the pain he was going through. I knew he didn’t know what to do and that he felt helpless. Before I could do anything else it happened. I was falling fast to the ground. I tried to move what was left of my wings to slow my fall, but soon my wings were gone and the last thing I saw was the world disappearing in darkness.

I felt something drip on my cheek as I began to regain consciousness. My whole body ached with unfathomable agony and I grew tired of living in this state of constant transitioning between forms. How much more pain did we have to endure? I placed my hands on the ground and braced myself as I picked myself up, but I did not feel my bed below me. Instead I felt damp earth and sharp twigs. I opened my eyes and realized I was still outside somewhere in the forest! Had I ever made it home after transitioning? I felt something wet hit my cheek yet again. Bringing my hand to my face I tried to remove whatever was dripping on my face. When I saw what it was on my hands my insides trembled with fear. I looked up and saw a heart stuck in the branches above me. I sprang to my feet, afraid of what this meant. What did I do? The previous night seemed so far away, the details blurred. I remembered something startling me while I was flying away. I remembered transitioning back to my human form while still in the air. But what was I rushing away from? I needed to find Kain, perhaps he could help me piece together what exactly I was missing here.

Maybe.

I wasn’t sure if I even wanted to know. I brushed myself off and took a deep breath. I could just leave all of this behind me and return to school as if nothing had happened. I didn’t know how I was going to be able to bottle this one up, but I knew I had to find a way. I also had to find a way to get back to the school without anyone noticing the caked blood on my hands. I took in my surroundings and tried to use any power I had left to find my way home. I heard squirrels scampering off, birds chirping, and rushing water in a river not too far away. I headed in the direction that the water was coming from, knowing that there was a river not too far away from the dorms. If I could just follow the river in the right direction I might be able to find my way back. I looked back at the spectacle I was leaving behind. It was horrifying to look at, the morning mist cascading through the trees as a heart tripped. The sound seemed to echo in my ears and I wondered whose heart it belonged to. I obviously didn’t even get a chance to use it. Why was I like this? Who was the puppet master controlling us? Because of this another innocent person was dead and I had lost yet another day of my life. I could paint the world with all of my unanswered questions. I finally made it to the water and I began to wash my blood drenched hands. My eyes watered as I tried to remember what I had done, but I could only see bits and pieces. How could I not remember the face of the person I had just murdered? My vision blurred as the tears came rushing down. The blood twirled in the stream as I tried to scrub my hands clean. But no matter how much I washed and scrubbed, the blood seemed to stick to me like glue. Stuck behind my fingernails, in the deep crevices of my skin, all proof of the hideous thing I had done.

“Why won’t you come off?!?” I cried in despair.

I let myself collapse on the ground next to the water, completely exhausted. My back throbbed and I had bruises in places no normal person would get because no human could have survived the fall I had taken. I should have died. Maybe I already had. Each transition felt like death, but instead of peace we were reborn each full moon in the form of some heartless, flying, demon. I knew I should just pick myself up and not dwell on all of this. I had to get back to my brother. But the sad part was I knew it would happen again and there was nothing I could do about it. Suddenly, I heard sirens in the distance and my heart skipped a beat. I was sure that was for whatever I had done and despite their efforts they would never find the one who did it. I picked myself up and headed upstream towards the school. I hoped I had washed enough of the blood off of me so that I could at least get into my dorm room without any suspicious looks. I hadn’t even asked Kain how his talk with Kia went. I had completely forgotten about it and then we transitioned. In transition you don’t really feel empathy...or really anything at all actually. You just feel the urge to kill. Why could I remember how I felt and not remember what I had done? It seemed like this was a regular thing. Doing something terrible, forgetting that it ever happened in the first place, only to have the memory triggered later on by one thing or another. Perhaps my mind was protecting me from these traumatic events, but why did these memories have to come back to haunt me later on? It was a strange sort of torture. I’d rather deal with them immediately or not at all. I finally saw the dorms and quickly snuck around to the back entrance of the girl's dorms. I heard girls leaving for breakfast and guessed that it was at least after nine o’clock in the morning, which was the time the cafeteria opened on Saturdays. I ran up the stairs to my room, keeping my head down hoping that no one would notice that it was me. I quickly ducked into my dorm room as a group of girls were headed my way. I spun around to grab my shower things when I ran into Kia.

“Izzy?” She asked.

Her eyebrows rose once she got a better view of me. I’m sure I looked just fabulous.

“Yeah, hi,” I replied, brushing past her to get my stuff.

“What happened to you?” She asked.

“Nothing,” I responded, not wanting to make something up.

“Why didn’t you come back last night?” She continued, “Are you okay?”

“Yeah, I’m good,” I confirmed, “I just need to shower.”

“But⎼” Kia began.

“How are things with Kain?” I interrupted, trying to distract her.

“Things are actually really good between us now,” she smiled, “that’s why I tried calling you, but you left your phone here. By the way, Lee has called like twenty times in the past half hour.”

“Great,” I said, grabbing my phone, “We’ll talk later?”

“Yeah, okay,” Kia replied,crossing her arms in confusion.

After gathering my shower things I ran to the bathrooms to freshen up. I could only imagine how terrible I smelled. As I change I stretched my free hand ever so slightly towards the shower faucet causing the hot water to begin to rush out of the shower head. These powers weren’t always terrible to have. Being able to do little things like turning on the shower without having to touch the faucet almost made me forget. Forget the torture of having to transition each month, of the bruises that went bone deep and would never heal. All of this made having this power just not worth it. When I got back to the room Kia had already left. It was better that way anyway. I didn’t have time for normalcy yet. I had to find Kain and find out what he knew. I couldn’t hear him so I wasn’t sure if he would hear my thoughts right now. I pulled on some jeans, a black tank top, and a hoodie. I needed to be comfortable after everything that happened last night. I wasn’t sure how I was able to walk, but I was thankful that I was able to move and find my way back to the school. I checked my phone and saw that I had missed a call from Kain while in the shower. What was going
on
? I decided to text him as I made may out of the dorms and towards the main campus.

Izzy: What is it?

I hardly waited a minute before he responded.

Kain: You need to get down here. Main parking lot. ASAP

Well this was getting weird. What could be going on? I couldn’t even imagine what it might be so I just picked up the pace down the dirt path. Suddenly, my head began to explode with a pain that felt like fire. I grabbed my head as I fell to my knees, my eyes watering from the agonizing torture. I heard footsteps and I squinted up to see brown curls. That was all I needed to confirm who it was. Amadeus.

“What do you want?” I cried, “Why are you doing this to me?”

I looked up and saw him not too far away just standing there. His eyes looked dead, as though he wasn’t there at all. I saw his lips moving and it was as though he was talking to someone. More like talking to himself. I tried to hear what he was saying, but I couldn’t seem to push through the pain that was ringing through my eardrums. Once his conversation ended the agony seemed to lift and I immediately scrambled to my feet and raced down the rest of the path. I didn’t even bother to look back. Whatever he was involved in, it definitely was not natural and I had enough supernatural in my life at the moment. I slowed down before getting to the entrance of the path and as I did so I heard several urgent voices. I walked out towards the main parking lot and saw a couple of cop cars. I quickly walked closer to get a better look and I saw an officer talking to Lee. When I saw his face I suddenly realized why Kain had told me to get out here. There were no words to describe the look in his eyes. I felt goosebumps crawling up my arm just looking at his cold stare. Our eyes met and I suddenly felt an overflow of emotions. I remembered. I remembered everything that happened last night. My heart sunk as the realization settled in. He had her eyes. I had killed his mother. I had killed sweet Sara Walker! Visions flooded my mind of what I had temporarily blocked from my memory. I saw the look in her eyes right before I took her life. How it felt to have a beating human heart in the palm of my hand. Why didn’t this revolt me? How could I just kill someone and not feel anything? Soon all of our victims began to flood my vision and I wanted it to stop. I didn’t want to see their faces...the faces of the murdered and the slaughtered. These were the faces of innocent people whose blood had been shed. But
why
? How could this happen? The floating bodies hanging in midair or sprawled on the ground as we took their blood...my insides screamed that this couldn’t happen! But it had. So, what did it mean? Did it mean that the things we had established as being inconceivable superstitions were actually
real
? And if there truly was a god, then how could he have created such amazing beings only to allow them to be so cruel? Were we to blame? Had we truly become the demons that haunted our dreams? What sort of evil were we? I saw Lee as he began to walk towards me and my whole body wished that he would just turn around and leave. How was I going to be able to live with myself? If I told him it would just hurt him more, but no matter what happened next I was sure that things between us could never be the same. I could tell that he was using all his energy to just hold back the tears. Tears of a loss I knew all too well. I shook my head, immediately hating myself for even thinking I could relate to his pain. I was the demon that had slaughtered her. My heart broke into a million pieces as I felt his hand take mine and pull me into the saddest embrace I had ever experienced. I suddenly felt his hands reach for my face and his lips touch mine. This didn’t feel right to me, but I couldn’t pull away for fear of causing him anymore pain than he already had.

“Sorry,” he whispered.

There was nothing I could say to make this situation better. I just nodded, hoping the message was received.

“It’s my⎼” he struggled to get the words out, “my mom.”

I held his hand, not knowing what else I could do.

“They’re taking me to my dad” he said, obviously trying to distract himself from all that he was feeling, “I’ll call you when I get a chance.”

“Okay,” I replied.

He then turned away and I knew it was because he couldn’t hold everything back anymore. I just stood there, not knowing what to do or say as he hopped in the nearest cop car. When he looked back at me I felt a tear escape and run down my cheek. I quickly wiped it away and looked for Kain. I spotted him not too far away and I stormed towards him.

“Why did you let me go?” I whispered angrily.

“You aren’t remembering clearly,” he whispered back.

“How could this happen?” I demanded.

“Come on,” Kain replied, “let’s go somewhere else. It’s too crowded here.”

We walked off towards the cafeteria and made our way towards the woods in the back. I crossed my arms in frustration.

“Now, we need to clear some things up,” Kain began once we were out of earshot.

“You can say that again,” I scoffed.

“Listen, Izara,” Kain growled, “stop accusing
me
for your own actions! I didn’t stop you because you just disappeared!”

“I can’t disappear,” I said, “I don’t have that power.”

“Well, you flew off pretty fast,” Kain pointed out, “I understand why you did, I feel the same things you do.”

“Then why was
I
the one who killed⎼?” I couldn’t finish that sentence as tears filling my eyes once again.

“I don’t know,” he whispered, “but I do know that I’ve done some things, too, ya know. Remember winter break?”

I looked down at my feet, remembering all too well.

“But somehow when I’m here,” he added, “I can push through those feelings and focus on finding out who we are. Because I don’t want to be like this forever.”

“I know the feeling,” I agreed.

I took a deep breath, trying to calm myself down. I knew we would get through this. We were good at surviving through the worst that life could throw at us, but this was the first time that we had hurt anyone that we knew. Before I could just distance myself from what happened because I couldn’t even put a name to their face. But this time it was very different. I jumped at the sound of a door slamming shut as several students exited through the back door to the cafeteria. They were probably gossiping over what they thought had happened. I knew it was at least ten times worse than whatever they could come up with.