Preternatural (Worlds & Secrets) (14 page)

“The perfect example of Time-Morphers, or Chronokinetics, would be the Wittles over here, Tantrus’ family,” added my grandfather.

“
So, what are we – actually wait, I want to ask what my mother can do because she turned glass into flakes and there were these people who sort of flew straight at us and she stopped them in mid-air?” Jaden babbled incoherently with the look of a confused child.

“
Your mother, Jaden, like your sister, is a Hybrid. They both have the gifts of telekinesis and telepathy and I, too, possess it,” granddad mentioned as he stood up calmly. Jaden and I looked at Jade and rolled our eyes, then giving her dirty leers as she fiddled around with her hair that was now its original length again.

“
So, I can move things with my mind and read peoples thoughts. Is that what you’re saying?” Jade asked curiously.

“
Well, I guess that’s one way of putting it. Nevertheless, you will soon learn that whatever the mind controls or does,
you
can control,” granddad sighed. “But only with a certain degree of training.”

“
What about me? What can I do?” Jaden asked, pointing to himself curiously.

“
Remember that high pitched sound you heard, Jaden?” granddad reminded.

“
Oh, how could I forget?” Jaden reached for his ears, recalling how painful the noise had been.

“
That’s an animal feature, hearing high-pitched noises,” my grandfather hinted.

Jaden sat there thinking, until the answer came to him
like a smack in the face. He gasped and exclaimed: “Shifftocastan!” and granddad smiled weakly.

“
Now, down to business –”

“
Wait, what about me? What can
I
do?” I asked, left on the edge of interest. Everybody stared at me strangely, Jade and Jaden looking at me without a care in the world, already knowing what they were capable of and I bet contemplating on ways to use their powers against me.

“
Here’s a tip, Aden – take it as a piece of advice: just because you were able to conjure flames, doesn’t necessarily mean your ability is solely related to fire,” granddad replied dully to me.

“
Wow
, granddad, that was amazingly…unhelpful,” I said with a sarcastic, bubbly aura of happiness. Jade and mum stretched over and smacked me on the back of my head again!

“Ow! Quit it, already!” I exclaimed

“What about Robbie and Tammy, what are their abilities?” Jaden asked inquisitively.

“
I thought you would have figured that out from the lucid dreams,” granddad said plainly. Well, sorry, we aren’t geniuses.

“
Tammy can see past, present and very seldom futures. She’s now developing her skills in mind-mapping,” Anne answered.

“
Mind mapping; what’s that?” Jade asked, ill-informed. She sat there silently as Tammy stared at her with bright eyes.

“
It’s the ability to make your thoughts pop out and visualise things as if they were being projected out of your mind,” she answered after what looked like she was
reading
Jade.

“
What about Robbie?” I asked

“
Robbie can –”

“
I can alter matter,” he answered for himself, cutting off Tantrus.

“
So you should be a god!” replied Jade enthusiastically. Robbie chuckled.

“
Yes, it does look like that, doesn’t it? Unfortunately for me I can only change the foundation of things but not change its actual nature of what it’s meant to be.”

“
I’m lost,” I replied.

“
For example: see that door?” he said pointing to the metallic door behind him through which we had entered. 

“
Yes, what about it?” asked Jaden.

“
I can alter it and change it into wood, cotton, maybe even water if I tried hard enough and other materials. But I can’t change the door into…let’s see – a book! I’m no way near strong enough. I can’t even create objects out of nothing yet, but I can change their shape. Oh, and I can also change things into what they truly are – like that archway. I changed it into the entrance of this tunnel. Well, that’s because that’s what it originally was. Call it a gift of revealing. Also, as you may have noticed, I can open wormholes to other dimensions or planets but I have to have gone to them first or know what they’re like in order to open one to them.” I couldn’t speak. I was merely left gaping subconsciously. How could someone so young at an age of fourteen, like me, be so powerful and look and
act
so mature? He and his sister were bizarre at most and I definitely felt intimidated. I mean, the ways with which Jade, Jaden and I pronounced our words were perfect and flawless, we didn’t mumble or omit any consonant sounds (mum had made sure of that), but there was something about the way the Roxeths comported themselves that seemed, ironically, out of this world.

“
Mum, you seem pretty timid,” Jade pointed out. Mum looked at her, a fragment of fear in her almost transparent eyes.

“
It shouldn’t be hard to read your mind, should it? I just have to concentrate, right?” Jade said, somewhat threateningly.

“
No! No need. Besides, my telepathic force-field would be too strong for you to penetrate,” mum retaliated suspiciously. I could tell she was trying hard to keep her suspicious behaviour under wraps. She really seemed doubtful and apprehensive. Suddenly, all faces except Jaden’s, Jade’s and mine began to look doubtful.

“
What is it you’re all hiding?” I asked everyone. You know those instances where everyone in a room seems to be aware of your deepest, most shameful secret and yet you have no clue that they know? This was one of those moments. See, I wouldn’t necessarily mind being lied to – but this was an exception. This was about
all
of us.

“
Look, now’s the time we’re all revealing things. Whatever it is, you can get it out in the open,” Jaden said, as annoyingly wise as usual.

“
Should we tell them?” Anne mouthed to mum. I saw mum nod weakly, but from the impression on her face, I understood that she didn’t want
to agree.

“
The Barons,” she uttered plainly whilst fiddling with a piece of paper, deliberately avoiding eye contact.

“
I beg your pardon?” Jaden countered. Mum sighed.

“
That’s how your father died. He was killed by the Barons of Corlévati,” mum said clearly, still fiddling with the edge of the paper she held.

Jaden and I inhaled lightly and exhaled. I felt like I was in an emotional rut. I didn
’t know how to describe this feeling. I hadn’t known him my whole life so how was I supposed to understand sadness in that way? Although. I
did
in a way feel sorrow and sadness because he
was
,
then again, my father.

“
Well – why did they kill him?” Jade stuttered.

“
They’re not exactly – how shall I put this…human,” Robbie answered. Jaden and I looked at each other almost automatically, both of us with a look of perplex in our lost eyes.

“
But neither of us in this room
is
,” Jaden answered.

“
No, I mean they’re extremely different. They don’t have the ordinary abilities a Vernaescian is usually vested with. Their powers are dark; evil, you might say,” Tammy explained, her voice and face losing its previous perkiness and vibrant colour.

“
Maybe they’re hybrids – and are you okay? You seem really ill,” I asked. She seemed disgusted.

“
Aden, you don’t understand. They’re despicable and no, they’re not hybrids. Their leader Trailian, is a Necrokinetic.”

“
All I know from that sentence is that it has something to do with death,” Jade uttered.

“
Yes. He can inflict death on anybody he chooses – whether with a stare or a touch,” Tantrus continued.

“
Bloody hell
…” Jaden and I exclaimed undertone. “He must be really powerful then,” I continued.

“
He is. And they all
have their own dark ability,” said Robbie.

“
Well,” I gulped “where is he now?”

“
He’s trapped with his fellow Nobles in a prison. A prison of darkness and nothingness that we call the void. But, on the dim brighter side, being trapped in that prison has dreadfully weakened his supreme Necrokinetic abilities and so we deduced, that the only way he would regain their full control was by killing off the most energetic and differentiated kinetic possessors – hybrids,” he added as  Goosebumps scaled over my body.

“You s
ee, long ago, there stood a revolution between him and another monarchy. I was there; a soldier – but something happened. To this day, we don’t know what it was, but an
extremely
powerful force of energy ripped open a chasm in the ground and took out everyone in the war. I was able to teleport out at the last minute; luckily…but your father was already dead. And what strikes us all as odd is the fact that that energy should have spread much further than it did – but something stopped it and imprisoned the Barons, keeping them trapped in a prison. We later found out that
that
thing that bound them was from a weapon our monarchy had launched. With it, they could control all manners of darkness,” Tantrus started.

“
They could make voids,” Jade stated plainly, with a lost look in her purple eyes. Anne smirked.

“
I just
love
how her intelligence is rising,” she said. “And kids, I must also quickly chip in that by being alien, your physical development advances more quickly but will start to slow down at one point until it freezes for a good three or four hundred years. At which point ageing will gradually resume until you peak at about eight or nine hundred and then die – unless you’re killed way beforehand. You hybrids tend to live longer. Your grandfather is at least between eight hundred and nine hundred. Not too sure,” Anne finished, leaving us all startled.

“I’m eight hundred and sixty-four,” he grumbled indifferently with a leg crossed over the other as he fiddled with a ring on his finger.
We sat, jaw-dropped, at what we heard. We were practically close to immortality and eternal youth which was blissful music to my ears!

“
As I was saying – as the revolution raged, even though we, the warriors, didn’t stand a chance – the void filled the sky and began closing in on us.
All
warriors were either sucked into the depths of the darkness or fell into the pit. So in other words –”

“
– you’re the only one who survived,” Jaden and I finalised solemnly. Tantrus nodded almost unnoticeably and his glassy eyes glistened. As he carried on speaking, we sensed like he was holding back his anguish.

“
I could never find your father’s body, I’m afraid. As the void closed in, it trapped the Barons in another realm – the realm of shadows. It has been a
mission
to find it. You have no idea. But, being different, the void didn’t kill them like it killed the others. No, you see…they’re
much
stronger than that,” Tantrus finished quietly.

“
But now of all years – and we do not know why, because they could have done this at any moment – the void is tearing. It’s slowly ripping apart. Rest assured that when the fabric which makes the void is finally destroyed, they’ll be unleashed,” Tammy said, fiddling with her pendant.

“
Wait! How bad are they?” Jaden asked shyly.

“
Let’s just say that you wouldn’t want to be alive during their reign,” Tammy blatantly said. I sighed hollowly, now unsettled and anguish easily read from my face.

“But I don’t get it. What would they want with us?” Jaden asked. At that split second, mum froze and was stopped in her tracks. She looked up at Anne and Tantrus from the corners of her eyes and they returned the shockingly questionable glance.

“We’re not saying they would want anything with you per-se. We’re just making sure you were aware of the circumstances,” mum shadily replied with doubt interwoven in her words.

“
Again
, this is a lot to take in,” Jade repeated.

“
Aden, Jaden, Jade, listen closely: you all need to be careful. As the void expands and tears, it allows more and more to pass through until finally the Barons
can get out. But there was something
Tammy left out,” we looked at Tammy suspiciously. “Maybe about certain grinning demons.”

The looks of d
oubt we gave Tammy made her feel very uneasy. Finally, she gave in with a deep exhalation.

“
I didn’t want to get you too
worried, but the void has already been punctured. The Lurkers can now weave their way out and now the void is large enough for them to call Demon Grinners.”