Chapter Two
I'm floating. There's nobody here but the dead. How do I know they're dead? I don't know, but the pale white souls drifting by me are all dead ones.
And somehow I can sense their presence.
I'm in the same vortex that I've been loads of times. Every single time I die I go here. I suppose these are the souls that got to stay.
"Hope?"
That's my mother's voice echoing through the vortex. My mom died over a hundred and fifty years ago. Why is she here, now? Shouldn't she be farther in death?
"Honey, why are you here?" she calls. A bright white light, another soul, floats towards me. It flashes once, and then takes the form of my mom. She looks beautiful.
"Mom," I gasp.
"Yes, Hope, it's me," she says softly. She never spoke this tenderly when she was alive.
"Where am I?" I ask.
"You're in the next dimension," she replies. Her whole face looks at ease and she stands calmly. The vortex of space ripples by us.
"I'm dead, aren't I," I reason. "That's why I'm here."
"No, Hope," she says. "You're alive still; only your consciousness remains here."
"Why?" I ask.
"You're an Eternal, Hope," she whispers. She says this as if she regrets it, like she doesn't want it to be that way.
"That girl told me that," I recall. "What does it mean?"
"'That girl' will have to explain that to you," she chuckles. "But because you are the right Eternal you can speak to me."
"Speak to the dead?" I cry. "That's impossible."
"You're already immortal," she laughs. "There's a reason for that."
"How do you know that?" I ask. "You always told me the devil's sins were in me, and those would live forever."
"Hon, I only told you that because I had to," she says. "I knew there had to be a reason for it, but I would've been shunned for defending you. Looking back on it, it was harsh, I realize that."
"It was," I agree, yet somehow I forgive her. "I…so I can talk to any dead person?"
"Yes, when you sleep," she tells me. "But you're waking up now."
She's right. My vision's going hazy. Mom's fading away. "No!" I yell. "No! Don't go! I still need answers!"
She waves goodbye before everything flashes and she's gone. All that's left is a white, orb-like, milky soul that floats away from me. I try to reach out and grab it but I can't move.
Everything dims, and then, everything's gone.
I bolted upright.
I was lying in a soft, white bed. More beds lined the walls, going left and right. None of them were occupied. Shelves were also around, filled with beaker and vials. I couldn't tell what was in the beakers, but they looked medical.
An infirmary. That's where I was.
Nobody was around me, so I stood up, ready to fight anybody that got in my way. I was going to leave. I wasn't going to stay here, wherever here was. This place was obviously established, and I did better on my own. Plus, that girl that I had killed, the one who was like me, she was probably here.
And I wasn't sure I wanted to see her again.
Also, my mom was on my mind. My dream was strange. Maybe it had something to do with the fact that girl had drugged me. I was deluded.
My mom had never been that nice.
She'd never be that accepting.
I crept along the wooden floor slowly, keeping myself low. There weren't any windows, but I didn't want to take any chances. I stepped slowly, trying not to make the floor creak. Luckily, I was successful.
The door wasn't far. I crept over to the handle, turning it so slowly it took me a while to get it all the open. Without a sound, the door swung open. When I stepped out of the door, I found myself in a little room. Growling in a bit of frustration, I opened the door directly in front of me. If I was in another room I'd kill somebody.
Anything could be on the other side. Death. Mayhem. Rainbows and sparkles. Whatever it was, I wasn't sticking around.
I was also getting extremely hungry. The energy my death had given me was gone and I needed food. Fast.
As soon as I stepped out, I changed my mind.
I was in a large field. The grass was green, smelled fresh, but it stretched out as far as I could see in every direction, like it was never ending. I could smell the scent of the ocean in the air, something I've always loved. There were some trees, and the smell of pine was something else I loved.
Why was I in the city? Don't know. Didn't seem important.
Four buildings were in the clearing, all of which amazed me. They formed a sort of plus sign, one on each cardinal point. The building to the north was tall, narrow, and was made of stone. To the east, there was a building identical to the last one, but it definitely had less stories. To the south was a more decorated one – it had gold patterns all over it, and quite a few mottos saying things like, "Eternally protecting," or "Forever dying." The last one looked like any regular house – a big, mansion-like house, but it had a normal roof, normal siding, and definitely normal appearance.
I had just come out of the mansion-like house, the one to the west. So…the infirmary was in that house? Was this some sort of village? A high-tech village…but wait. I'd missed the most important thing.
In the middle of those buildings were several odd things – small wooden sheds, targets, and the weirdest of all, four normal-looking teenagers sitting on a picnic blanket.
And, oh god, one of them was that girl. I hadn't been able to make out her features clearly before, in the dark, but I just knew it was her.
Her hair was black, glossy, and her eyes were chestnut brown. She saw me from where she was sitting, but she only raised her eyebrows and then resumed laughing and talking with the other three people there, so I assumed she wanted to see what I'd do.
I didn't even bother to look at the other three kids.
No, instead I growled slightly and marched right over to the picnic area. The three kids I didn't recognize all started at my sudden appearance, but the girl didn't appear surprised at all.
She didn't flinch until I slapped her in the face.
She snapped her head back, a slow grin spreading up her face. "Hey, now, girl," she laughed, "you've got strength."
"Who the fuck are you? Where the fuck is this?" I shouted, slamming my foot into the ground. I felt power coursing through my body – most of it was probably adrenaline, but hey, it was working for me.
"Relax!" she chuckled. "Haven't changed since we last met, eh?" She sighed, and then stood up, brushing dirt off her jeans. Now that I saw her in the light, she was quite pretty.
"Just answer the questions," I snapped. "I'm really tired of your games. You've been playing me this whole time. You killed me once, and then you drugged me with god knows what."
She scoffed, but then she sighed, as if relenting. "I got ya here. I do have to explain, don't I?"
One of the guys piped up, "Clara, she's one of us." He wore square glasses around his warm, chocolaty eyes. Standing up, he offered me a hand. "Pleased to meet you. I'm Jonah."
"Hope," I said, but I didn't take his hand. I was too pissed off. He shrugged indifferently and sat back down.
"Dani," another girl said. She had jet black hair with one red streak in it, probably dyed. She sized me up and down with her electrifyingly blue eyes. Her hair was definitely dyed, then – it brought out her eyes.
"And I'm Fane," the last boy said. His green eyes brought out his short brown hair. "That's Clara." He gestured to the girl who'd shot me.
"'Kay," I said. "Now Clara's going to explain."
"Yeah, I know," Clara sighed. "Follow me, then." She turned around, heading back to the house I had just come from, the mansion-like one. I grumbled, but then Jonah motioned for me to follow her, so I did.
She walked right inside, not caring if I was following or not. I caught up quickly, just as the door to the infirmary was closing. We entered the small room and she went up one level instead of straight.
The room we were standing in had nothing in it save for a large map in the middle of the floor, held up by a stand.
Clara wasted no time walking across the floor to the map. I didn't even care about where I was or anything like that – I'd been in worse situations of location – I just wanted to know who she was and why she knew I'd never die.
I liked to think I'd done a good job of keeping myself hidden through all the years. I'd never revealed myself to anybody, never really opened up. And that's been fine.
So how did she know?
My stomach growled. I was getting tired, and I was starving, but I couldn't ask for food. That would be strange.
Clara reached down, and when she began tapping the map repeatedly, I found that it wasn't a map, it was an electronic interface of some kind. She flew through the options so quickly, I couldn't even tell what she was doing.
Finally, she stopped as a hologram sprung from the interface. I was slightly shocked by the technology, but I quickly became accustomed to it as fascination and curiousity began to set in.
The image showed a young boy, with tousled brown hair and sea green eyes that held much knowledge for his young age. "This is Joel. He was born on January 1st, 1200," Clara explained. "He was the first to find that being born with the new century, gave you…different abilities."
I was born with the turn of the century.
By the way she said that, she was too.
"Anyways, he found that he would never die. He would never age, either, once he hit sixteen. And…he saw the future."
Everything she had said made sense, until she came to that part. "That's impossible," I said quietly. I didn't want to sound too ferocious and make her stop explaining.
"No, it's not," she said. By the way she didn't sound exasperated, she'd had this conversation before. "He was gifted by some higher power we don't know about yet."
"Re-run that sentence by me again."
She gave an involuntary sigh, but nevertheless she continued, "Ever heard of gods?"
"Yes."
"Well, a god exists. We don't know who they are, or why they did what they did but they're the reason we don't die." I nodded. Honestly, that idea wasn't too upsetting. It was kinda nice having somebody to blame.
"So anyways, he saw the future. And in future, he saw us," she said. "He saw this place being built, and he foresaw the role we would play."
The image on the display changed from Joel to an aerial view of the place we were in. It was current, because the other three teenagers were still having their picnic in the picture. "He didn't know what the role would be, exactly, but he knew it would be important. He had to keep us safe, so he set up this camp. He knew we'd all find it."
"Safe? Safe from what?" I asked. "Do you mean those Raze people you mentioned in the alley?"
"Exactly," she agreed. "He saw those too." The image changed again, showing the most disgusting thing I'd ever seen. It's head was that of a large praying mantis – large, beady eyes, and two long antennae coming out of its head. Its mouth dripped some sort of venom, and its skin looked hard and shelled. Its body was no different – all hard like an insect, but it had human shaped hands, and it walked on two legs like a human did.
"That's disgusting," I said, just as the image changed again. This time, it showed another insect creature that looked exactly like the other one, except its skin was brown and its eyes red.
"That's the female," Clara explained. "The eyes and skin tell them apart."
"So they want to kill us," I said. "How do they do that?"
"We're not invulnerable, contrary to what you might think," she said. The image changed again, this time showing four different vials all filled with liquids. "There are four poisons that can seriously harm us, and when they're all brought together, then they kill us and we don't come back. The death is slow. Painful. It takes a while, but when it strikes, it's harsh."
I looked at the vials. They were all labeled, and a chill ran through me as I realized these poisons were incredibly common. "Arsenic," I said, "cyanide, ricin, and mercury."
"Yep," she said. "Raze have arsenic in their venom, and mercury in their claws."
"But you said together they kill us," I asked, confused. "What does just one do?"
"Cyanide knocks you out cold for three hours. Arsenic makes wounds heal normal speed, ricin can block your powers – returning to your body and such – for days, and mercury infects cells with a toxin," she explained.
"Okay…," I said, "so the Raze were going to come after me in the alley."
"No, they were going to come after me," she corrected. "They only know that I'm an Eternal, and they know about Dani. You, Fane, and Jonah are all still hidden."
"And if they saw you with me then they'd know I was an Eternal, or whatever," I finished for her.
"Exactly."
"Okay, so what is an Eternal, really?"
"Well, you already know that an Eternal is immortal. Unless those four poisons are mixed, we can live forever. There are always five Eternals. If one is killed by the Raze, at the turn of the century another is born," she began. "That's how Joel foresaw it and that's how it will always be."
"That's why I was born on January 1st," I said. "You all were?"
"Yeah, in different centuries. Fane is so old, he was born in the 1600's," she said. "He's stayed alive all this time."
"That's impressive, actually. But what's the point?" I asked. "Why are we here? What purpose do we serve?"
"We're supposed to protect the world," she said. "We've done a shit job, though."
"Yeah," I agreed. "The world's not that great."
"Anyways, each Eternal has their own powers," she said. "I'm known as the Nature Eternal. Basically, I can control the Earth element."
"That's why you called me the Death Eternal," I realized. "Because that was my…power?"
"Yes," she agreed, seemingly pleased I was catching on so fast. "You are the Death Eternal. What year were you born?"
"1800."
"So the last Death Eternal was killed sometime in the 1700's. And then you were born. Since you're the Death Eternal, you have powers related to Death, and a few various ones."
"Powers related to Death?"
"For one, you can come back to life in record speed. For me and the other Eternals it takes a full nine minutes and twenty-two seconds. For you, it takes a minute," she said. I thought I detected a slight hint of jealousy in her voice, but I couldn't be sure. "You can also hold something we call Séances, where you contact the dead."
"My mom," I realized with a sharp inhale. "When you knocked me out, I had a dream about her. I was in the vortex place, where you go when you die, and she was there…but she's been dead for over a hundred years."
"I suppose when you sleep spirits that you know visit," Clara suggested. "It would make sense."
"Okay, so I'm a huge super-freak," I sighed. "And you four are like me."
"Yeah, if you wanna put it like that," she snorted. "I'm the Nature Eternal. You're the Death Eternal. Dani is Time, Fane is Matter, and Jonah is Mind. Oh, I forgot. Here, take this."
She handed me a small vial, exactly the same as the one she'd knocked me out with. "What's this?" I asked.
"It's cyanide," she said. I was about to drop it, but she stopped me. "No. That's how I knocked you out. It's actually pretty helpful."
I didn't know what to say, but I pocketed the cyanide.
"So what now?" I finally decided on.
"Well, you have to stay here," she said. "We need you."
"Why?" Don't get me wrong here. I wanted to stay. To be with people like me, people that wouldn't discard or judge me…it was a dream come true. Maybe I wouldn't want to die.
But why did they need me so badly?
"Our god is supposed to finally come down and meet us when we get all five Eternals together," Clara explained. "For the first time, we have all five Eternals."
"What are they going to do when they come?" I asked.
"Nobody knows."
"Great."
A long silence ensued.
Finally, Clara turned off the display and looked me up and down, fully appraising me for the first time. "You need to see the camp," she said. "Follow me."
She took me outside again, down the elevator and out of the house. "We were just in the Mansion," she said. "I have no idea why Joel built it so large."
"Is Joel dead?" I asked suddenly.
"Yes," she replied shortly. "Raze got him a couple years ago."
"Wait, just a couple years ago? He was still alive then?" I exclaimed. "He survived…for over 800 years?!"
"Yeah," she said, a touch of sadness echoing in her voice. "He was careful, but he went out to find Dani, and Raze attacked. Dani got here using her powers, but he didn't."
"What kind of powers does she have?" I asked, recalling that she was the Eternal of Time.
"She can time travel," Clara replies, "and she can travel place to place in the present time. Ride the winds of time and all that."
"That sounds cooler than calling the dead," I grumbled. "What can you do?"
"Don't underestimate yourself," Clara commanded, before softening her voice and continuing, "I can heal people – I'm the only one that can naturally heal mercury poisoning – and I can control earth."
My stomach growled again.
Seriously, I felt like it was eating itself. It was just as I had felt on that alley, just before I had heard Clara's screams.
"I really hate to ask," I said, "but do you have any…food?"
"Food?" Clara exclaimed, laughing. "Yeah, of course. C'mon." She laughed again, and then practically skipped to the picnic blanket the other three were still sitting by. What was with her? When I first met her, she was dead to earth serious, and now she was completely lighthearted.
I didn't really have a choice, so I followed her. She sat back down, next to the other three, and made room for me. Hesitantly, I sat down.
"Eat," she said, gesturing to the sandwiches and fruit. Just looking at it made my mouth water.
"Do you always eat out here?" I asked. The sun was shining so brightly it created a façade that everything was alright.
"Unless it's raining," Jonah said. I suppose I should have gotten that.
"Where is this place?" I asked.
"This camp?" Fane said. I nodded. I was a little unaccustomed to asking questions and speaking to people I didn't really know. I was used to just doing things.
"We're still in Canada," Clara replied, reaching for a grape. She plucked it off the stem, and then finished, "In the Rocky Mountains. I can't tell you more. What if you get captured and then you're tortured? You might compromise us. Wait! I shouldn't have told you that!"
"It's okay," I said. No one else had been listening. "I won't tell anybody."
"If you do, I may have to kill you," she promised. Something told me she'd live up to her words. On that happy note, she tossed the grape into the air and caught it with her mouth. "Eat."
I shrugged. She had a point.
And so, I ate. I ate until I wasn't hungry anymore, which is a lot of food. By the time I was done, Jonah was staring at me with his eyebrows raised. He looked like he was calculating my speed or something. Fane and Dani seemed impressed, and Clara shrugged, eating more grapes.
"You're fast," Jonah finally said.
Dani snorted. "Statin' the obvious, there, eh?"
"Canadian much?"
"Hey! We're all Canadian! Just because I spent longer here doesn't mean my "slurred Canadian accent," is bad!" she protested.
"Hon, I spent my whole life in Canada," Clara sighed. "I'm not talking like that."
"Neither am I," I said.
"Yeah, okay, it's fake," Dani said, dropping the accent. "I just like to speak that way."
"There, you see? And sweetie, we're both a hundred years older than you! We know these things!" Clara looped her arm around my neck. She leaned heavily on me, and when Fane pushed her, she fell right on top of me.
"Hey!" I complained, but we were both laughing hysterically. Clara didn't seem to want to move, so I pushed her off. It was her turn to complain.
When we were both composed and sitting up, she looked me straight in the eyes and said, "Shhh. Just relax and eat a grape." She majestically reached her arm back and plucked a grape, and then fed it to me. I bit into it gratefully.
For some reason, we both cracked up again. The others couldn't get us back to a normal state for a few minutes.
And from that moment on, we both became sisters.
When we were done the picnic, which I was informed was breakfast, Clara took me for a tour. The mansion house, creatively called the Mansion, had the Cafeteria (which was never used) the Library (which was only used by Jonah) the "Explanation room" (which hopefully would never be used again) and the Infirmary (which was constantly used).
The other, larger building was the School – the Practice rooms, the Classroom, and the Observatory were all there. I'd go there tomorrow for school. According to Clara, we had school Mondays to Saturdays, and Sundays were free. Today was Sunday, so it made sense.
The large tower was the Dormitory. Each Eternal had a floor, so there were five floor. I had the bottom floor, which apparently was underground. "You have a whole Séance room down there, and spirits like it underground," Clara explained.
The last building brought great sadness to Clara. "That was Joel's workplace," she said. "He was like a father to all of us. You and Jonah…you both will never meet him."
She said that the only purpose for that place now was to see old pictures of him and theories about the "god" that was above us. Apparently a device was there to get out of the camp, too.
"Aren't they supposed to show up now?" I asked. "The five of us are here."
"Supposedly, but it could be anytime," she said. "Or Joel might have been wrong and they won't come at all."
"What happens then?"
"Then, my friend, we are screwed."
Seemed legit.
By the time we were done, it was lunch, and so we ate outside again with another picnic. Everyone seemed to immediately accept me, and the bonds of friendship seemed to grow tighter.
For the rest of the day we all goofed off. Another shed held sports equipment, and we all played kickball, soccer, volleyball, and football. We tried some basketball, but the grass didn't work so well as a court. Clara said we'd use the Practice rooms, but they were closed.
"Who is the teacher here?" I asked. "Or do we teach ourselves?"
"You'll see," she said tauntingly. "He's a bundle of fun."
No one would tell me more.
Clara also gave me a syringe filled with cyanide. "I injected you with this stuff when you wouldn't come with me," she explained. "It's handy, believe me."
I dutifully put it in my belt. Throughout the day, I also received two daggers, which fit my fighting style perfectly. "It's nice that you learned to fight," Clara said. "Saves me a lot of work."
After dinner, Clara said she'd show me my dorm. Jonah said he wanted to finish working out some math problem, Fane wanted to finish his model airplane, and Dani wanted to finish reading her book, so we all said goodbye and parted ways.
I asked Clara why she didn't have anything to "finish." She told me she wasn't the project type.
We entered the dorm building into a small room. A sign said,
CLARA, GO STRAIGHT AHEAD
JADE DANI, GO UP ONE LEVEL
FANE, GO UP TWO LEVELS
JONAH, GO UP THREE LEVELS
MARSHA HOPE, GO DOWN ONE LEVEL
As the others followed directions, going through a door that said "Up," I asked, "Who's Marsha?"
"She was the Death Eternal before you. Joel tried to save her but she was killed. He set this up thinking she'd be the one here," Clara replied. She turned, going through the door saying "Down." I followed.
I couldn't help but wonder what Marsha would have done differently, had she been here.
We went down a staircase, and then came out into a room that was more beautiful than any other place I'd ever stayed in my two hundred year life. The first room was just a sitting room, but the artificial light made it feel like home already. Off of that was a kitchen, complete with food and everything. There was also a bedroom and a bathroom, but the room I loved best was my Séance room.
It was pitch black in there, but for some reason I could see. I supposed seeing in the dark was another "power" of mine. But I'd never been able to before…?
"Clara," I asked, "why can I see?"
"Now that you know who you are and you're with others like you," she explained, "your abilities are just going to keep coming until you're pretty damn powerful, like me."
"How long have you been here?" I asked.
"Ten years," she said, "One of them with just Joel around."
She didn't seem to want to say more, so I looked around the room. Candles scattered the floor, and there were also some on a couple tables. A matchbook lay beside one of them. On the floor was a red star, painted there a while ago. I couldn't say why, but I felt at home there. I felt as though I'd always been here, and I didn't want to leave.
"This is amazing," I said.
"I couldn't say," Clara huffed. "I can't see."
"Oh. Right."
We left the room, closing the door with a soft click.
"So, girl, you better be ready for classes tomorrow," she said once she could see me again.
"I'll give it a shot, but I'm not one to sit still or take direction," I confessed.
She snorted. "None of us are. Why do you think we don't have a real teacher?"
"You haven't told me who this teacher is yet."
"Oh, right," she laughed. "You'll see, then."
I pretended to slap her.
"Night," she said. "Sleep well – in a real bed, in a real place, and not in an alley."
"Alleys could be comfortable!" I protested. "Once you got used to it."
"I never slept in one, so I couldn't tell you," she said.
"How'd you survive then?"
"I pretended to be a sorcerer, using my gifts to scare people. I got whatever I wanted until Joel took me away," she said. "He told everybody that I was a foolish girl playing tricks on them. He's rather persuasive."
"And why didn't the Raze get you?" I asked. "Surely they'd know you were there."
"Sure they did," she laughed, "but like I said, I was good at my powers. They've been trying to kill me for a while. I think I'm number one on their hit list."
"Good luck with that," I scoffed.
"Night," she repeated, leaving the floor.
"Bye, then," I said. I heard the door click shut and I knew she was gone.
I did just what she said.
Content, I laid down in the soft, white, cozy bed.
It was much better than an alleyway.