The Innates (Book #1)

Chapter 14

Jackson, Ace, Sarra, and Robert lured me down to the training room. I questioned them on why I had to wake up at 3 am and why I had to wear stretchy pants and a plain tank top that kept on slipping off my shoulders. I yawned as I repeatedly pulled up my noodle sleeves.
"Why do we have to be here in the middle of the night?" I ask them in the midst of my yawn.
"It's morning, you know," Sarra said.
"Too early for... everything."
"Well it's not too early for a practice fight, is it?"
"What?" My eyes glisten, watery even. "Isn't it too early for violence?"
"For your information..." Robert said. It took him a while to continue his sentence as he took his time approaching the octagonal podium and sitting on it. "fighting doesn't always involve violence, you know." I tilt my head in confusion.
"Sometimes you just gotta protect yourself from danger," said Jackson, settling next to Robert.
A silver knife glimmered in his hand as he playfully twirled it in his fingers. He grinned at me.
"What?" I said.
"Pick a weapon from that wall over there," he said.
"Why?"
"Just stop being stubborn and get a weapon, please?" He cracked a smile, exposing six rows of white teeth.
As I walk across the vast vicinity, all the knives flickered at the reflection of the lights above me. Silver, coldsteel, iron, copper, gold--there's everything here you can craft weaponry with. I reach out for the knife with a bronze hilt, like it was calling for me. Its touch was cold, tickling me as I wrap my fingers around it.
"Come here on the podium," said Robert. "Quick. Come on, chop-chop!"
I hurry down to the podium, kicking dust off the concrete floor. The blade swung as I ran, slicing the air. The longer I hold on to this weapon, the less I feel the weight on my shoulders. I leapt upon the structure they were sitting on, literally skipping three feet just to get up there. I walk behind them and waited until they turned.
It was more like a boxing ring where everybody can see you without sitting on the higher seats. I can imagine a the people planting their eyes on me, monitoring my every move--every error I make.
Jackson stood up, as if it was a warning call for a hurricane. Robert did as well, which made me feel like I should stop, drop, and roll. With two sequoia trees standing infront of me, I feel like such a stump.
"Weapons, Robert?" said Jackson, raising both his arms. From his right side, two weapons come straight flying towards him, as if they were magnetized. A kukri sword for him with a golden hilt and a silver sickle for Robert.
"Guys, that just doesn't seem fair," Sarra chimed in. "Two people against one? How brave of you two to pick on some rookie."
"That's why you're here, hot-head," Jackson said. "Get up here and fight, Seeker."
"Fine. I'm fighting with Jess out of sheer pity."
"Gee thanks. That's real motivation, Sarra," I said.
She climbs the podium and readied next to me.
"Ready?" she said.
"What, no weapons?" Robert said.
"Nope," she smiled in nonchalance. Her body temperature radiates so much I could feel the heat waves rise from her hair.
"Everybody settled?" Jackson said.
"I just have one more question, though," Robert lowered his sickle.
"What?"
"Isn't this too advanced for Jess I mean, he's only held a knife for only a short while. Maybe he should practice hand-to-han--"
"Well that depends on what Jess decides on--Jess?" I shrugged, and then remained silent after. They switched looks.
"It's about what you want, Jess."
"Well I'd be glad with what you guys want, I don't mind." I kept my hands to my sides, palms sweating.
"Jess, we're asking you for what you want."
"This is too small for me to be asked about. It's fine, really."
"Jess. This is not just about you, you know. It's about the others too. You gotta take a stand at some point in your life, man. Stop being so overly passive and do what you want once in a while--Wait scratch that, always do what you want to do. That's why this place is built for a reason," said Robert.
"It's too short, dear," said Sarra. "Life's has too many limits that you'll snap at any second now. It's better--"
"to have your joys reserved for future preferences when in times of trouble," Ace continued. He was sitting with his legs crossed below us, examining our every motion.
"So what now, Jess?" Jackson looked at me in the eye. "You're in charge."
"I just..."
My head is empty, amd maybe that's a good thing for now. More space, space for ideas, ideas for escape, escape the world. A world for my own I long for. I'll come for you. And I will create you, my world.
"I honestly just want to fight you guys with no weapons. I want to do it my way."
"But your way of fighting involves no fighting," Ace chuckled. "But whatever, do whatever's on your mind."
"Well, I was thinking..." I proceed.
"Jess!" I stifled my voice as Jackson interrupted my mid-sentence. "I have an idea."
"I'd like to hear it." He dropped his weapon down the podium, the knife's tip stabbing through the hard wood.
His hands strike through me, clutching my wrists like tightened handcuffs. I couldn't escape his eyes, his emeralds shone against my cataracts. The stinging sensation flood through the vessels on my head, brightness burning through my veins. A patch of light engulfed my vision. The warmness of his touch remained in me, that's how I knew he was still controlling me.
I blink my eyes repeatedly. I found myself in a different environment.

"Where are we?" I can't hide my ragged breathing. We're not at Capricorn. I'm not at Capricorn. I'm not safe without that school.
"Everybody here?" an eerie voice rang out, not that far, but it echoed.
I couldn't spot any shapes, sizes, or colors. A thick mist devoured the empty spaces of the desolated vicinity.
"Yo!" a male voice responded coolly.
"I'm here," a voice of a female added on, presumably Sarra.
"What about Ace?" Jackson, obviously that was him in the first.
"Yeah? What about me?" I heard him say, unsure wether he's above or below, but he's somewhere.
A series of comments flood my ears and I'm just forced to listen.
"Guys, are you we're inside?"
"Does this look like the training quarters to you?"
"I gotta ask."
"Yeah, I'm sure the thick mist indicates how we're inside his head."
"Wait, what? Excuse me?" I heard myself say, blowing out wisps of my breath.
"Sorry, Jess. Didn't think you'd figure out that fast."
"I didn't figure anything--Where are we exactly?"
"Your mind."
"How can I clear out the fog?"
"Calm yourself, Jess."
"Find a method," Sarra said. "Use your resources."
"Remember: you're in charge," one of the boys said.
My mind's too blocked with confusion right now. I might as well just go with what they're trying to do. But no, I am in charge. It's all too confusing and sureal. Like a...mist.
"That's it," she said. "Jackie, he's doing it..."
"This boy's natural." From afar, I could see the figures that make up Robert's shape.
There is a path I'm standing infront of. A sidewalk, to be more precise. The green hedges coated in morning dew, the stench of the after-rain obscuring my senses--smells like...home.
"I just have a small question for you..." Ace's footsteps proceed toward me, but I whirled in time I suddenly sensed the idea of his question.
"No, I don't miss home," I immediately said. "I'm just stuck in the gaps, for your information."
"Woah!" He raised both his hands in surrender. "You catch on fast. You'll do great in school."
"It's a good thing you know what you want and what's happening," said Jackson, sitting by the curb with Sarra.
"Unfortunately," I said.
"This is why we're here," Robert said. I look for his presence by the sidewalks, but I could only find him hovering above my house.
As if walking on air, no strings, he approached me with paddling feet.
''We're helping you build character," he said.
"Character?"
"We're setting boundaries between what you want to destroy and what you want to create," Sarra said. Her eyes burn as she grinned, but I'm the one who seems to be in hot, searing pain.
"Come over, boy," Jackson patted the damp sidewalk with his fingertips. I did as he said.
The closer I got, that's when they all stood up and assembled around me.
"You guys are creepy, there I said it."
"Why do you think we're pretty popular at school?" Sarra said.
"The weirder you are, the more lethal you get," Ace chuckled, incapable of hiding his grimace.
"I believe the reason why we're here is to not just chat all day, right guys?"
"Sorry, Jackson," said she. Robert couldn't hide his smile as well.
His stare welled up in my weary eyes, same thing he did to get me to enter my own mind.
"Fight me, Jess."