Desired Life

Chapter 5: Accepting the Truth

Chapter 5: Accepting the Truth

  With barely four and a half hours of sleep, I am sitting in the kitchen table, eating my breakfast. Today is the day my finals start. I eat and then leave for school. When I arrive, I sit in the floor, waiting for someone to open the door. When finally someone opens the door, Hansel comes in.
  I stare at his face in wonder.
  “Dude, what happened to you?” I ask.
  His face is swollen with bruises and all bloodied and stained. His cheek is prominent, coming out a bit farther than it usually does. His brow is scarred, the trace of a cut lying a bit farther up where it is visible. His lips are swollen to the point of almost bursting with blood.
  “Nothing,” he says calmly.
  “Seriously, your face looks like a tumor, dude,” Dean declares as he enter the room.
  “It’s nothing to worry about,” Hansel answers.
  I look into his eyes and I see pain. A vision attacks me all of a sudden: Hansel stands helpless in a dead end street. About five men in suits near him and start striking with batons. Hansel squirms on the floor as he is beat to his present state. But then, light bursts from inside him and all the men fly backwards, crashing into the walls around him, falling limply on the street. Five dead men thrown in the dead end is enough to freak Hansel out and send him running.
  I come back to. My friends stand around me, looking down worriedly at me.
  “Are you okay?” Ken asks me.
  “Yeah, it was nothing,” I reply.
  “Nothing? Dude, you were screaming for more than ten minutes,” Dean responds.
  “Was I?” I inquire.
  “Yes. We couldn’t start the exam with you screaming and unconscious,” Hansel says, finally uttering something.
  “Well, I’m fine now. Let’s get going,” I answer.
  “Seriously? You stopped shouting after ten minutes. But you still were unconscious,” Dean conveys.
  “Well, what about the exams?” I ask.
  “You wouldn’t wake up. They are over. It’s nearly 10 AM,” Ken mutters after checking his watch.
  “What?! Oh, crap!” I interject.
  I stand up but with no success. I instantly fall back to the floor. My legs feel like they’re made of lead, my whole body throbs with pain, and I’m feeling dizzy.
  “It’s a miracle you woke up. Don’t exert yourself. Not yet,” Hansel whispers.
  “Dude, I’ve gotta get going. My parents are outside waiting for me,” Ken says and waves goodbye as he runs.
  “So do mine,” Dean claims and he leaves.
  For the first time, I notice my surroundings. I’m in the infirmary again, lying across the bed. The doctor stands a few feet away, talking with Grindel again. I try to move and Grindel catches my sight. He walks into the room with the doctor.
  “Luke, do you know what’s happened?” Grindel asks Dr. Luke.
  “Not certainly. Could be a seizure, but I don’t think so. This boy is as healthy as a boy at his age can be,” the doctor responds.
  I decide to stay quiet and wait until the doctor and Grindel leave. When they leave, frustrated by the empty answers, I look at Hansel, who still stands by my side.
  “Why didn’t you tell me?” I voice out.
  “Dean entered when I was going to tell you,” he responds. “What did you see?”
  “I saw how it happened. And a burst of light, if I am correct.”
  “How did you see all that?”
  “I don’t know. I just can do that sometimes. It happens without warning. Where anguish and pain present themselves, I can see everything.”
  “Well, I don’t know what’s happening. This isn’t normal. It’s just not something I expected would happen. It has been happening for the last couple of months.”
  “Months?! Why didn’t you tell us?!”
  “Because I knew you’d react this way.”
  “Maybe at that time, but not now. Why do you decide to tell me until now?”
  “What do you mean by not at that time?”
  “Answer me first.”
  “Okay. I think you’d leave me out and, well, that you’d all act weird.”
  “We are friends for a reason.”
  “Yeah. I know. Now, mind answering my question please?”
  I regret having to tell the truth, but it is something I can’t help doing now. Accept the truth, my mind tells me.
  “Well, you see, Hans, you’re not alone.”
  “What do you mean by that?”
  “You’re not the only one with powers.”
  “Really?”
  “Yes; I, for starters, are like you. I have powers of my own.”
  “Like which ones?”
  “I can teleport, and I have telekinesis. I can also transform into animals, you know.” I make it known, knowing that I can’t hide it any more. At least not with someone who shares my qualities.
  “You can?” Hansel asks hopefully.
  “Yes, I can. I can teach you. If only I could stand,” I respond, trying to get up.
  “Oh, leave that to me.” Hansel touches his index finger to my forehead and all of a sudden, my whole body feels liberated of any weight and pain.
  That’s when the sudden thought strikes me. “Wait, what was your last name again?”
  “Jameson, why?”
  “So it’s true,” I say, more to myself than to Hansel.
  “What’s true?”
  “I want you to hear me clearly and with no interruptions. Questions until the end.”
  I start telling Hansel everything that Grindel told me on the Safe House and the Warehouse (that’s how I ended up calling the storing room where I practice with Grindel) about what the Outsiders were and how they started, and what Orson told me about the types of Outsiders that there are. A few minutes after I had finished, Hansel kept looking at me awestruck. I nod and Hansel nods. He then shakes his head and says, “So, does this mean...my family...and yours...we are masters of...I am the master of Light?” His eyes glint with hope.
  “I’m guessing that’s how it is.”
  “And you would the master of Berserker?”
  “Master of Berserk, more properly, but we dropped the master title since we are quite uncertain of what we actually are. I’m a Berserker, first since the 1700s. You would be the master of Light, which would actually explain why you suddenly blasted light. What else has happened to you in last few months?”
  “I kinda learned to turn lights on. I can’t turn them off, somehow. I can also control the light. When it’s night is the only problem. And then...when I was ambushed, that light push, my healing powers, and I also think I can...you know...I tried waking the men, but when I touched their chests, they were dead. And so I tried to revive them, because, you know, nobody likes killing people, and, when my hand touched their chests...John, I’ve got the ability to bring people back to life. Souls and all.”
  “Wait, why didn’t I see that part?”
  “I kinda blocked your memories when you reached that part.”
  “How did you know I was seeing inside your head, though?”
  “I felt it. I felt you inside my head. And, I just blocked that part out.”
  “Are you telling me that, basically, our minds are somehow connected?”
  “You might say, John.”
  “Charming,” I mutter under my breath.
  After a few seconds of silence, Hansel asks, “John, what where the other families again?”
  “Grondie, Plyeron, Lawson, Keating, Harrison, and Morgan; why do you ask?”
  “You really think they are like us? All of them?”
  “Well, I know about us two, the Morgans as well, and...Diane...Diane as well.”
  “Diane? Diane Keating? She’s one of us? Holy.”
  “Kinda found out yesterday, actually. After the movies, you know. We grabbed hands, yes, we did,” I say as Hansel looks at me with bewilderment and starts laughing. “Well, she kinda burned my hand. But I wonder...I understand why you’re the Master of Light and why I’m a Berserker, but, what about Diane? She’s supposed to be Mistress, in her case, of Hiding, and, I don’t think fire powers will help her hide, will they?”
  “I don’t know...could be...And what about Ken and Dean. You seriously think they could have powers? You think they are Outsiders like us?”
  “Grindel told me once that when you are a developed Outsider, you learn to sense who is an Outsider with just a look. He said he saw something in Dean. I don’t really know about Ken.”
  “What about Harrison, Lawson and Morgan? Who do you think they are?”
  “Well, Harrison and Lawson, I’m afraid, would probably be Maia and Annabelle. Morgan...there is one boy named James Morgan. But...I don’t think it’s him. He’s already been classified as Seer. Apart from that, he doesn’t sound able to be the Master of Souls. A Master of Souls would be darker and scarier. And it could be a woman as well.”
  “Does James have any sisters or brothers? It could be another Morgan as well.”
  “I don’t think so. Now that I come to think of it, I actually think I heard Grindel mention another Morgan...Penelope, I think it was. Said she ran away to Canada, last they heard. Could be anywhere though; though we don’t know what her powers are. Think it could be her?”
  “There are possibilities...”
  Silence falls again as we both stare into the empty space, deep in though.
  “You think...if our friends actually are the Masters and Mistresses, do you think they would accept joining us?”
  “Why wouldn’t they?”
  “I don’t know.”
  And again, silence permeates the air.
  “Hey, you said you were creating your own army of Outsiders, didn’t you?”
  “Yeah, I did. Why do you ask?”
  “Why don’t we find the missing Outsiders, trigger their powers, and then, we could be the primary army if you want.”
  “That’s actually a good idea,” I admit.
  “Yeah, it is. More comfortableness and stuff.”
  “Yeah. Though wait, we can’t exactly trigger their powers, can we?”
  Surprisingly, Hansel breaks into laughter. “You wouldn’t believe how easy it is to trigger others powers. I’ve done to a couple of people. For their sake, of course.”
  “How do you know they can be triggered?”
  “I don’t know. My mind just knows that they can. And well, it has worked, hasn’t it?”
  “I haven’t got proof it has, but I’ll decide to trust you this time, better.”
  I check the clock on the wall. 11:35 AM. Shit, the bus must’ve left already. Oh, crap. Now I’ll have to wait ‘till 3 in the afternoon...Wait, I’m practicing with Grindel today! I can just ask him for us to leave! Thank God! My mind shouts.
  Hansel’s parents pick him up, and so I am left alone. I tell Grindel about our training and he tells me to wait a bit. I wait by the tree in which I always sit until Grindel gets to his car. I run with my stuff and haul them into the car. And then, we leave the school.