The Immortality Price

five

               ● dedicated to pando18 for being a reader ●

               picture of quenton

f i v e

               Holden’s stoic demeanor never changed, and I was fifty percent relieved and fifty percent annoyed by that. And being even fifty percent annoyed by that made me a hundred percent annoyed at myself.

Days passed and I received more and more answers and got more and more training. Each day, I was getting closer to my goal of rescuing my mom, one school day at a time. By the end of the week, Brent and I were comfortably settled in.

We were chilling in the small garden that was basically a circle clearing with delicate fencing and long, stone benches placed by the fences. The garden was hidden in the woods behind the giant school and Brent and I found it a day ago when we went exploring. Our mini expedition was cut short when the headmaster’s secretary, the woman who first met with us when the plane landed, came running out of the school, yelling at us to not go farther than the garden as the woods was not as guarded as the school. 

The secretary, who I recently found out was Ms. Alessi, was quite protective of us. Not in the parental way, but more of an if-she-lost-us-she'd-get-demoted way.

I was plucking flower petals off the buds and showering them on Brent’s dirty-blonde hair with my mind.

Brent was lying face-down on the stone bench and moaning about his lack of powers. “I don’t belong here, Brooke.”

With a small flick of my wrist, the cord of ivy unwound itself from the fence behind the bench Brent was on and smacked him in the face. “Stop that negative talk,” I said, sitting up straight.

My brother pulled a face and shook the flower petals off his head as he sat up, too. “I’m serious.” he said, his voice laced with frustration and worry, “It’s been a week. Nothing’s changed.”

“It will change. Your powers will manifest. You belong here as much as I do.” I said stubbornly, looking him straight in the eye and hoping my stare looked strong and commanding. The more Brent worried about him not truly having powers, the more I believed. Then I would snap out of it and tell myself that it had only been a week since I got mine, so we should just be patient and wait.

Also, I was emotional at the time.

It was like flipping the light switch on in a room as dark as the pits of Hell. 

Of course! Why didn't we think of this?

Brent noticed the change in my eyes, but at least I managed to withhold the smile. “What?” he asked warily. 

“Nothing, just... thinking about Dad...” I responded casually, checking Brent’s expression. His face had paled slightly and he turned his face away, but not before I caught the hurt frown on his face. I hated hurting him like this, but I knew this was what he had to do. An emotional trigger must do the trick. It worked for me.

Telling myself this, I pushed on. “Why do you think he hasn’t come to see us yet? I mean, it has been a whole week. Do you think maybe he left us, not only because he had powers and thought it was dangerous for us, but also because... he actually wanted to leave us?”

I knew I had pushed too far as soon as the words left my mouth, and I sucked in a sharp breath. The thought of Dad leaving us because he thought his powers put us in danger was a thought Brent and I had entertained, but the fear behind Brent’s voice whenever we talked about it was evident, which meant he kind of thought our dad chose to abandon us. I, personally, didn’t care for the matter. He left us, and that was that. Not angry, not happy - just neutral.