6. Training

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CC -

After about 3 long hours of swearing and sweating, it doesn’t seem that the girls and Ashley are any closer to being able to control their abilities. Actually, I’m still not ENTIRELY convinced that the have special powers at all. The others have retreated to the bus but the girls have such cute Australian accents and it sounds funny when they swear. I’m sitting on the ground looking up at the strange scene before me. I’m fairly sure Ashley hasn’t moved a muscle since the last time the crazy Russian scared the shit out of him. He’s just standing there with his eyes closed, muttering to himself. The girls are being more lively. They are chatting away while they try to set stuff on fire and control shadows. They look like they are having a heap of fun. Cait(It’s not how I would have spelt her name but during one of her allowed rests she told me how to spell her’s and Aniissa’s) is sweating and laughing and... Not swearing. She hasn’t said a single swear word. She is sitting on the ground playing with an piece of grass. The Russian dude is looking over her shoulder, whispering to her. If I had any control over the situation, I wouldn’t have let the guy near the teenage girls.

“I did it!” Cait screams and Aniissa whizzes around to face her friend. The little blade of grass is on fire. It had just burst into flames. It was fucking awesome.

“I was so close!” Aniissa digs into the pockets of her jeans and hands a $10 note to Cait who is still sitting cross legged in the middle of  the huge open space..

“I win! HA! Suck on that!” Cait giggles and kisses the note dramatically.

“Very good,” Russian Dude murmurs. “Now why can’t you do anything?” He glares at Aniissa and reaches out with his hand. Is he going to slap her?! Before he can strike her a small patch of darkness seeps up from the ground and wraps around Russian Dude’s arm pulling it away and down behind his back. He gasps in pain and Aniissa takes a few huge steps back. She pulls the shadow back and puts her hands on her knees.

“That... Was so fucking awesome!” I shout and leap up from the patch of grass I have claimed.

"You were going to slap me!" she points at Russian Dude accusingly.

"That was so cool," Sammi says, making her way out of the bus. She whispers something in Ashley's ear and he finally opens his eyes. He turns to me.

"Tell me what just happened!" he demands.

I stare at him. What is he talking about? What just happened? I try to remember but.... The memory's gone. The crazy, homeless, Russian guy is going to teach Ashley, Anissa and Kate to you use their 'magic powers'. Yes, that's what just happened. I tell Ashley what I remember and he let's out a cheer, punching the air.

“I don’t understand Ash... What’s so amazing about that?” I ask and he closes his eyes again.

The memories come flooding back. How the hell did I forget all of this!? The sitting, the waiting, the fire, the shadow.

“Very impressive...” Russian Dude drawls (I really need to find out his name). He goes over to Ashley and leans in very close, inspecting his face. He mutters something in Russian, whispers in Ashley’s ear and stands back.

“You think I can do that?” Ash asks sceptically.

“We’ll never know if you don’t try,” the Russian dude taps his foot impatiently.

Ashley sits down on the soft, squishy grass and closes his eyes. He still has his warpaint on, but it’s smudged and starting to rub off. He frowns in concentration and opens his eyes, turning to stare at Cait and Aniissa. They both frown right back at him and Aniissa staggers a bit, almost loosing her balance. Ashley nods slightly and squeezes his eyes shut. He stays perfectly still for what seems like forever and when he finally opens them again he seems very unsettled.

“What is it?” Cait asks him, putting a hand to her head.

Ash turns to Russian Dude, “they don’t remember a thing.”

Cait -

It had felt so weird. Ashley had stared at me, and I felt him in my mind. Faces of people I know and love appeared in my head, along with faces I didn’t really recognise.They came and went and I felt light headed.

I had shaken the faces from my mind and concentrated on what was going on. Ashley was sitting very still in front  of me. He is still there.

I still feel dizzy and everything seems to be slightly out of focus. I squeeze my eyes shut for a second and when I open them, Ashley is looking very concerned. I ask him what is wrong and he ignores me completely.

“They don’t remember a thing,” he tells the crazy guy.

“Can you be sure?” Russian Dude (CC gave him that name) asks. “Make sure”

Ashley pulls out his phone and throws it to Aniissa. “Call your parents.”

Aniissa dials the number and holds the mobile phone to her ear. “Hey Dad, it’s Aniissa” she says. She pauses and frowns. “ It’s Aniissa,” she says again and after a brief moment of silence speaks again. “Aniissa! Your daughter!” She is shaking. “This isn’t funny!” She screams into the speaker, her voice breaking.

As Aniissa hangs up and hands the phone back to Ashley he ask her what happened.

“How the fuck did you do that?” She doesn’t sound upset or angry anymore, just confused.

“I’m not entirely sure, I’m just glad it worked,” Ashley sighs in relief and leans back on his elbows.

“What worked?” I ask.

“They don’t remember me...” Aniissa says, the smallest of smiles creeping across her face.

“Who doesn’t? Ashley, what did you just do?” Jake crouches down on the grass next to him and we all look around, surprised to see the other guys walking over to us.

“No one,” Ashley mumbles. “No one remembers the girls.”

“WHAT DID YOU DO!?” I scream. Unlike Aniissa I love my parents to bits.

“I changed their memories! You can’t just tell them that we are off finding a demon! Its all so much easier if they don’t know you exists!”

There is a long silence. No one knows we exists..... what about school? Will we just be able to pick up where we left off? Will I finish year 12? I can’t not complete high school! If I don’t become a famous author I would like to have something I can fall back on.

Aniissa seems a little shocked. She must have assumed that it was only our parents who had forgotten us.

Andy opens his mouth to say something, but no words come out. He plops himself down on the ground and starts picking at the grass.

“Once you find Phyra and kill her, you can change it back to the way it was,” Russian Dude says as if nothing has happened.

“What are we going to do?” Aniissa asks me softly and tugs on my sleeve.

“I don’t know,” I say. I am dangerously close to tears. I suppose we will either have to go get our stuff while no one is home or just go on a shopping spree. If no one remembers us, I wonder what explanation my parents have for all of the stuff in my room.

“You must kill the creature before it is too late,” Russian Dude starts scratching at the back of his hand. “ You have to find the object that contains her soul and destroy it! Only then will you be able to defeat Phyra.”

“The demon has a Horcrux?” I get a few eyebrow raises at the Harry Potter reference.

Russian Dude ignores me. “It will look something like this,” he pulls a crumpled piece of paper out from the pocket of his filthy coat and scribbles something down. He forces it in CC’s hand.

I fold my arms across my chest and the man looks at me, his eyes widening as he reads what is written on my shirt. It has three Daleks in red and says ‘Obey the Supreme One’. I’m surprised he hasn’t read it sooner. Non-awesome people usually have no idea what it is a reference to.

“Why do we have to obey the supreme one?” he asks loudly, taking a few steps towards me. “Are you from some freaky cult? What happens if we don't obey? You'll kill us won't you? WON'T YOU?!" he screams and screams. Then he’s gone. He had been just standing there.... and now he is nowhere.

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