The Innates (Book #1)

Chapter 28

I ran past the student dorms on my way to the campus building. Luckily, adults only roamed the lobby, since the students normally rush inside their classrooms at this time. As I stopped running and hid at a plain sight, I sink down through a few floors down until I reached my desired destination. My heels land on the rock-hard flat floor, I fall on my rear.
"Jess! What a surprise!" Mr. André greeted as I try to stand up on my two numb feet.
"Yeah, hi." I said.
"You look good." He said.
"Thank you, sir."
"Okay... since you're probably gonna try to catch up on what we're doing, but really, you're not left behind. We were actually about done before the, uh..."
"Really? So when is the test?" I asked, not letting him finish his sentence.
"You're just in time for it." He sets his hand on my back and escorted me to a straight line of students (tallest to shortest) facing the dummies. I looked straight forward as I stood at the very middle
"Now, time for the instructions." He said.
"Okay... you're ready for this, Jess. Even if you missed lots of days of reviews." I whispered to myself.
"Rules are simple, we know fear is our enemy right?"
"Right!" Said the students, except me.
"Fear manipulates us and makes us do things we will surely regret. Who owns our own fear?" The looked at each other. "Anyone?"
I raised my hand and answered without Mr. André looking at me or calling my name. "Ourselves, sir. We own our fear, and we are the only ones who can control our fierce controllers."
"Outstanding!" He shouted. "I'm sure you'll pass the test." I smiled.
"I won't fail you, sir. Nor myself." I say confidently.
"Mr. Mckidd is correct, everybody, we control our fears. So..." I shifted my eyes to my right as he walks over to the table filled with test tubes, syringes and knives. He grabs eleven syringes containing seaweed-green liquid that occupied a quarter of it.
"These are the Multipliers' liquids. I'm going to inject you this substance that causes you to multiply."
The last boy at my right who has fiery red hair raised his hand.
"Yes, Dominick?"
"How many times do we multiply?" He asked.
"Just once-- this liquid is mixed with a very unique chemical that separates your personalities and project them to somewhere else, in this case, your clone." The amused students murmured in small excitement.
"You're gonna fight yourselves. " The students gasped. "Let's begin... unless you're too afraid to face what makes you're afraid of."
"No, sir!" All of us shouted.
"Okay." He softens his voice into a monotone. He plunges a new needle on every student on their forearms. He stops infront of me and took my right arm. The needle made its way inside my vein. I frowned as he pulled the syringe out quickly. I wiped off a small drop of blood peeking out of my swelling vein. I, momentarily thought that one of my contact lenses fell out, but my vision really went blurry. It's possibly a side-effect of the injection.
"Close your eyes, eveybody." He didn't have to tell me that, gravity did its job already. "You might feel a little dizzy, that's perfectly normal--One more thing, your fear comes with all your aggresion and urges, your id... now, open! Fight starts now." Why so abrupt?
"Hey! Open up, Jess!" I hear a voice similar to mine yell close to my ear. Wow, chemistry can achieve so much. "Hi." I said. Somehow, I feel lighter and free. But my alertness didn't waver. I know he's infront of me, I could feel his heavy breathing. I opened my eyes. Same body mass from last month, same glasses with teary-eyed hazels, same dark hair, it's true, I look like a loser. Look at him, he's upset, angry and depressed. Looks like he's going to explode.
"Fight starts now, Jess! You too, Jess." Mr. André commanded.
He was only three feet away from me. Jess prepares to fight, and so did I. I throw a kick to his stomach and my guts felt like they obliterated. He backs up and I throw a middle punch at his chest. My heart races fast, throbbing against my ribs and sternum. Next, I strike his face with my hard knuckles. Suddenly, my nose started bleeding non-stop. As I looked at my bloody finger, he punches my jaw and he held on to his. He falls down and whined in pain. Weak, I thought. But there's one thing that caught my attention: I hit him, I get hurt, he hits me, he gets hurt--but I get hurt as well. I should surrender, I thought.
"Come on, you can do better than that, Jess. Make me bleed from more than one place in my body."
"Okay..." He raised and bent his leg forward and axe-kicked my forehead. He gets dizzy and falls, stupid me. He's still not caught up.
"How'd you do that?!" He asked.
"I didn't do anything." I said.
"You're gonna learn something very, very important here, students." Mr. André announced.
"What, enduring pain?" I asked. He walked away and didn't say a word.
"Take your opponent down!" He yelled. The other students were afraid, fear has taken over. But not me.
"How is this even possible?" Jess asked, still whining. I said no word and kicked his thigh, he bends down, thinking I was done. He holds out his index finger, signaling for me to stop.
"I'm not stopping!" I said, even though numbness took over me.
"How come I feel what you're supposed to feel?" He asked.
"That's just the way it has to be." I grabbed his head, held my breath and headlocked him. I tightened it, I can feel myself becoming homicidal. He gasps for air. Then I realized that, hurting other people is actually just hurting myself. Like shooting something bulletproof and watching the bullets ricochet and penetrate my organs.
"Stop!" He wheezed.
"Wait, you can feel it?" I exhaled, no feeling.
"No, duh." He said.
"Alright then."
"Great job, Jess. You're good, you're good. Keep fighting!" Said Mr. André. "You're battling yourselves, you're terminating. Change." There's many things you do when you fight, punch, kick and most importantly... think. And that's what I did. Change, I thought. All I need to do is change. That's why we have to terminate ourselves, we have to change in order to win. Now, I am truly sorry about electrocuting Jackson, jumping off the mountain, being self-absorbed and the fact that I can't change at all. I'm so sorry for everything. I wish I could be forgiven by everyone. That's the purpose of being a Seeker, change is good. You can change somebody's life, you can change yourself for the good and you can change your entire world by changing. Change is good, change is good.
Jess gets up and throws two punches from both hands, I grabbed his forearms and swiped my leg across the back of his shins. As he lies down hopelessly on the floor, I pinned him down by stepping on his neck. He's incapable. But a strong tidal wave of regret rushes through me. I guess I got the whole point partially. If I want to change who I am, then I have to change my entire self.
Entire.
All.
Everything.
His glasses were soaked in his sweat and tears. I lightened myself up and took off my foot from his purple neck. I stand up straight and looked at him. He stood up and held up his fists. My hands were on my side with my fingers spread throughout my thighs. I slowed down my breathing and stared at my eyes.
"Aren't you gonna punch me?" I kept quiet and shook my head. For a moment of serenity, he looks bewildered. He lowers his fists and I pushed myself to him with my arms wrapped around his back and under his armpits. I set my chin down his shoulder and sighed.
"What is--?"
"I'm sorry, I hated you, Jess." I said. "Please try to forgive yourself, for our sake." He pets my back and embraced me. "Remember one thing and one thing only; change is good."
"It's my fault." He said.
"It was not your fault, stop hurting yourself. Please?"
"But I held the gun."
Clare.
"It was not your fault, somebody switched the guns. There's fingerprints." Cold tears drenched my shirt more than my sweat.
"Everyone hates me."
"No, they envy you because you're capable of many things."
"They do?"
"You're capable... I'm capable... we're capable..."
"Thank you, for your forgiveness." He said. I felt myself phasing through my clone, then my eyes close and I fall on my chest. Everything made much sense. I wasn't afraid of change, or hurting others or failure, I was afraid of me. For there was fear right infront of me, then it was gone. Away from this place.
I could still feel my swelling heart throb against my ribs. My throat feels like I swallowed a live bird. My feet were tired, especially my thighs. I could feel the blood flow from my arms, ears and nose. I'm limp, but I did it, no fear exists.
"Jess!" Mr. André's voice echoed slowly and peacefully. He turns me around and squeezed my face. "Wake up, you passed! You passed the first test!"
"First test?" I whispered breathlessly.
"There's a second one after this, an Altruism Test. Don't give up just yet."
"I won't." I coughed hoarsely on his face.
"Just rest for a while, sit against the wall."
"Yes, sir." I said.
"Can you stand?"
"Yes, sir. I can manage." I galloped across the brawling students.
"Great job, Jess!" He said. I let myself hit the wall as I sat down. Now that I'm done, I could rest. My eyelashes made it harder for me to keep my eyes open. "It's okay..." I told myself. "It's okay..."