The Zodiac Trials: House of Earth

Chapter 14: Reeve

My stare bore into the petit box that lay on my nightstand. I haven't had the want or need to open it up. Or even move it. A slight knock on the door had me jumping up.

"Hey, some people from Water are here." I cocked an eyebrow. of course, I had become familiar with Ronan and dare I say Calypso. I refused to acknowledge Isadora. She seemed sweet enough, very outgoing and opinionated, but nice. There was just something about the way she acted when Denver wasn't around. 

"Uh..yeah coming give me a minute!" I hollered. I didn't move until I heard Denver making his way down the stairs. I shoved the box into one of the shelf drawers and wandered out of the room. 

I paused in the cramped hallway when I heard people talking. There was only one other boy living here, Echo, and occasionally another older boy Hawk. but he usually kept to himself and only stayed for a bit. Echo knew him well though, so I trusted him.

I quieted my breathing, trying to hear the conversation. "There's no way to get in touch with them. I checked." A female voice said. I straightened at the noise, she sounded unfamiliar. I assumed she was from water. 

Taking a breath, I walked in my eyes scouring the room. I saw familiar faces; Denver, Ronan, Isadora, and Calypso. Echo kept his distance in the corner his eyes trained on Ronan, something worked in his jaw until his eyes wandered up to mine. There were also two other people present. A tall boy sat on the couch, his foot propped up on his leg. Next to him, a girl sat her focus stayed on the papers scattered around the coffee table. Something about her reminded him of Veronica. 

"This is Reeve Virgo. He's from the Earth House." Denver hopped up at my entrance coming over to me as he gestured to the two new people. The girl finally looked up, her dark eyes gave me shivers. Both of them had such serious facial expressions that made me want to run the other way. 

"Good to meet you, Reeve. I'm Hayden and this," he gestured to the girl beside him who looked him up and down. "This is Eve. We're Scorpio."

"Water," I muttered earning a nod from him. I looked back up to Denver. 

"We're talking about the trials. Eve over here noticed something in our training." I nodded, pulling up a crappy beaten-up chair that Echo had brought home with him one day. It creaked under my weight. 

"The training you received. It was all academics." Eve explained, her voice surprisingly low and rich. "Do you two remember anything else from it."

Denver and I looked at each other. "We would have these times that our father called linking sessions. Denver tensed at the mention. I paused remembering that he and Cole would get bad reactions from them. He gave me a slight nod telling me to continue. 

"They would put us in the state of preparation. It was all in our minds though..." Eve furrowed her eyebrows as I took a pause. "The sessions would be half an hour to two hours long-"

"Two hours?" Isadora exclaimed. 

I nodded. "They were like meditation getting our minds so far out of reality that whatever they put in our minds felt real."

"So real." Denver breathed. 

"We would be given tasks in our minds. Sometimes it would be as simple as thinking of yourself in a yellow room. Then someone else would try to link into their minds and go where they were."

"That's insane," Ronan said. Echo nodded in agreement. 

"I agree." Eve rested her head on her hands. "Did you ever succeed?" I nodded once again looking to Denver. 

"Tell them," I told him.

"Once." He began as he leaned back into the chair. "Truth was asked what her worst fear was... she was taken there. In her mind, it all feels so real, especially in such a vulnerable place. She was so far gone." He shook his head at the memory. "Instead of waking her up themselves, they told me to get her out."