Isle of Sanctum | The Aya Thrasher Chronicles | Book 1 |[Editing]

Chapter Twenty-Five

PART V. - "Congratulations, but it doesn't work for me."

CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

RAYNE

For our first session, Camden took me to the Westercliffs. The air was flowing, and the sun was shining down on my neck. I gazed out at the grass-covered mounds. Beyond the cliffs, there was a body of water, calm and peaceful. 

"Let's get started, shall we?" She spoke calmly.

I looked at her. "What are we doing?" I asked. "Aren't we supposed to be doing a session?"

"See that?" She pointed out toward a large boulder that was standing in the middle of the water. "Move that to the shore," she ordered. Her face was stern when she spoke. She had a sort of tough confidence about her.

For a second, I tried focusing it on it. Normally, it would have been a breeze to move. The dyeing tub was probably a similar weight. But here, for some reason, I couldn't do it. It only worked outside the inner circle.

"I can't," I replied turning around.

Camden put her hands on her hips. "You didn't even try."

"It doesn't work here."

Camden extended her hand forward and closed her eyes. The rock began to levitate just above the water. She reopened her eyes and set the rock down. "See?"

I rolled my eyes. "Congratulations, but it doesn't work for me."

"Prove it."

I thought it was stupid. It wouldn't work. I just had to show her that it didn't, so she would stop nagging me. I kneeled and glanced at the rock. A gentle wind hit the center of my palm. I closed my eyes and focused on sending a pulse through to my body. I focused harder. It didn't work. A stream of sticky liquid dripped onto my shoe. The bleeding was back. The electricity from my power was burning my skin, but not emitting any force. It wasn't working. I had tried to tell her that.

"Okay. Stop," Camden ordered.

"I told you. It doesn't work here," I shouted at her.

"I think it may be you holding yourself back."

I threw my hands up in the air as I paced around a thick patch of grass. How was this my fault? My powers worked perfectly outside of this place.

"How am I holding myself back?" I asked. "Are you blind. I tried everything I could," I shouted again.

Camden shrugged. "I'm not quite sure, but we're going to figure it out together."

"What's the point?" I turned to look at the sea. It was glimmering on the surface as gentle waves washed ashore. There was someone surfing far down the coast. That looked like a lot of fun. More fun than this was.

"Of what?" She asked, confused.

"Of you? Of these powers? Why do you need them to work, so badly?"

"It's not for me," she said. "It's for you."

I ignored her. I wasn't entirely sure what she meant by that. The bleeding was worsening. Drips of red were staining my shoes and pooling around where I was standing.

"We better get that cleaned up," Camden said.

We went to Camden's apartment. It was in the building behind the hotel. I wasn't entirely sure this was appropriate. She was my mentor after all. When we got there, she introduced me to her sister. We sat down in the living room and she gave me a hot chocolate.

"So, tell me about yourself," she insisted. Her demeanor was a lot calmer, less forceful than before.

"I was a senior in school. I'll be eighteen next week," I told her.

"No tell me more. Starting with your childhood."

I didn't know what to say. My life was boring. "I grew up in Texarkana. I was raised by my dad and grandmother, because my mother died when I was three. At eight, my grandmother enrolled me in volleyball and expected me to play competitively." I stopped for a second. It felt like a therapy session.

"It's okay. You can tell me anything," she said.

"I spent a lot of my childhood playing volleyball. I liked it sometimes, but then I wanted to quit to focus more on theatre. I do sets and costumes," I said. "My grandmother didn't approve. She thought volleyball would get me a college scholarship."

"You didn't want that?"

"No. I wanted to go to drama school," I explained. "I didn't get into the college I wanted to go to." I started to get mad. "I would have gotten in, if she had let me go to the auditioning event—I swear—" I stopped myself. "I guess what's done is done." I paused. "I had these friends -- Nova and Zander. I let them down." Anger turned to tears.

"How so?" She asked.

"Zander is scheduled to get executed because of me."

She put her hand on my knee. "It's not your fault. He's the one who initiated the robbery."

"You know about that?" I was stunned.

She nodded. "Well of course. It's not like you put a gun to his head and forced him, right?"

"No, but I should have talked him out of it. I knew it was risky. I just wanted to run away with Nova, so we could go somewhere else. I didn't have any money or anything. And now poor Nova." I wiped my eyes with the sleeve of my sweatshirt. "She's all alone in a cult," I said. "She thought I abandoned her."

"I'm sure she'll understand."

"I was selfish." I started hitting my forehead. "She was so disappointed in me."

"Deep down, she knows you did this for her. To give her a better life." She smiled softly.

"You think so?"

Camden nodded. "I do."

I wiped away the rest of my tears. Surprisingly, she was doing a really good job of making me feel better.

Camden got up from the seat and walked over toward mine. She had a strange grin on her face, almost like a light bulb had gone off inside her head. I didn't have a clue what she was thinking, but it must have been something good for her to be that happy.

"I think I know why your powers aren't working here," she began. "I could be wrong, but I don't think so."

"What is it?"

"Are you happy here?" She asked.

"What's that got to do with my powers?"

"Just answer. Are you happy here? Do you like it better here than back home?" She asked.

I shrugged. "I mean, I guess I do," I said. "It's definitely better than being in prison."

Camden snapped her fingers. "Aha!"

"Will you please tell me what you're thinking?"

"I think your powers worked before because you were angry, and in pain," she explained. "Here, you're calmer. You're rage is diminished."

At first thought, it sounded ludicrous. I had these amazing powers because I was angry? It didn't work like that. 

"You really think that?" I asked.

She nodded her head passionately. "Yes! Exactly! And all the times you used your powers you were angry, right?" She said excitedly. "That says a lot right there. Your powers are controlled by your emotions. We could test this out just to be sure. I don't necessarily know if you need to be mad to use your powers here. Maybe just to activate them, and once you use them, you can do it again."

"How?" I asked. "What are you going to do? Make me angry?"

She nodded again. "See, you're a smart, smart girl, Rayne."

END OF PART III.

EDITED: 01/30/2020