I was back in darkness; the same place I had my last vision.
This time my breath was shaky. I knew I wasn't in a definite place or room, but rather a limbo state. I wasn't dying. I wasn't dreaming. I was just being.
The same voice sounded behind me. With just one word, I shivered.
"Soon."
That's when I opened my eyes to the same hospital room I was in just days earlier after my placement exam. The only difference was that it was dark outside and the only light came from the radiance of the moon and a light peeking out from the bottom of the door. I could see shadows fading in as soft words are being spoken in the room behind it.
"This is the beginning," A voice I recognized as Galen said.
"The prophecy says six, but only five of them are here with no other reports coming from the outside. The other is still out there in a place with no Seekers," Another, Sophia, said.
"They'll turn up soon enough. Right now we must deal with the others."
"Have any of them woken up yet?"
"No. I expect it shouldn't be too long. She might have all the power but not enough to kill them all just from the Marking." Galen was quiet for quite some time before speaking again. "Cole Trainor. Alexander Carpenter. William Phillips. Leona Carter. Taylor Buckley... Who is the sixth?"
That's when the room faded out once more.
_____
The next time I came to, it was bright. My eyes blinked, slowly adjusting to the sudden light as a pair of arms wrapped strongly around my body.
"I was so worried!" Claire said while holding me. "Are you okay? How are you feeling?"
She pulled back and I could see that her eyes were red and bags lined the bottom. For a girl who spends ample amounts of time on her appearance most of the time, I knew she must have been here all night.
"I'm fine," I mumbled. "What happened? Where are Alex and Cole?"
"Alex woke up a little bit ago and is being looked at by one of the nurses. Cole is still out." She bit her lip. "There's two others that came in just like you guys. I don't know what's going on, they won't tell me anything. But..."
I raised an eyebrow. "But what?"
"I'm not allowed to say. Galen warned me and said she needed to be the one to show you all--"
She was interrupted by a nurse and Sophia walking in. She looked well put together, despite knowing she was up and about last night too. Apparently the witch can't look tired because it's a sign of weakness or something.
"Good," she said while crossing her arms over her chest. "You're finally up. Sit tight and we'll be having a meeting when everyone's awake."
"What's going on?" I asked but she shook her head.
"Have some patience. You'll find out soon enough," she said and turned to leave the room. Before completely exiting, she stopped and looked over her shoulder at me. "Welcome to the beginning of the end, sweetheart. It'll be a long road coming."
She finally left but I sat there in complete confusion and fear. What's going on? What even happened last night? What the hell am I?
Claire sat there quietly, something I would have otherwise thought was impossible, while the nurse gently took my vitals. She asked me to lean forward, which I did, and when she lifted up my shirt, my friend gasped. I peeked up at her and her gray eyes shined in disbelief at what she was looking at on my back.
"What?" I asked her while the nurse gently prodded at my upper right shoulder making it sting in the same place that was burning yesterday. My friend only shook her head quickly and averted her eyes downwards.
I was about to say something else but I heard some yelling in the room next door. Claire's head bopped up and she gave off a small sign. "That must be Cole up. Mind if I go check on him?"
"No, you go on," I said and she practically ran out of the room.
The nurse continued checking up on me before gently wrapping my shoulder and back in dressings. It was tender to the touch and while I recognized the familiar feel of Healers doing their thing, the pain was never lessened. Was what happened to us truly that serious?
After the nurse tried and failed to heal me, she sat there to ask me some questions about how I feel and other random things such as how my time at Supernatural Abilities has been. After quite some time of awkward small talk, Galen walked in and the nurse scurried off.
"Can you please come with me, Taylor?" She asked and I nodded, getting out of bed while feeling the dull ache from my back and shoulder.
She walked pretty fast and I struggled to keep up. We went through the hospital in SA to a room that I had no idea was there. It was obviously for conferences or something similar, with a large table in the middle and chairs lining its outside. There I saw Sophia, Cole, and Alex all sitting there in silence with two others, a girl and boy whom I have only seen but never talked to also joining us. I took the empty spot next to Cole, both of us sneaking confused looks towards each other, while Galen took the head of the table, Sophia on her right.
"Last night, all of you faced the same problem," She started out, carefully measuring her words. "You all were hit with a burning pain that was so incredible that it forced you to pass out. This was to be expected for some of you, but not all, and definitely not so soon.
"You five all are of different elements. Taylor Buckley with the Mind. Cole Trainor with Fire. Alexander Carpenter with Water. Leona Carter and Earth. Then William Phillips with Air. All of you show immense strength in your abilities and have probably discovered that you are much stronger than your peers."
Galen then took a deep breath and bowed her head, as if to think about what she was the say next. While I know that Cole and Alex are very strong, I still had a lot to learn. I couldn't even think of a time that I saw this Leona or William fight so I can't vouch for their strength.
"This is not a coincidence," She continued on, her head still down. "You all are the strongest of your particular elements and all found yourselves in pain last night. That was the beginning of a great war, much larger than the one we have already been fighting. But you all are the heads of it, the only ones able to put an end to decades of death and fighting with the Catchers."
Her head then rose up, catching my eye in particular before scanning the others. Her next words went deep; beginning the chaos that I knew would ensue.
"You are part of the Big Six," She began. "The only ones who can kill the leader of the Catchers."
Of all the things that went through my head, the one thing that made an appearance the most was: What the hell does that even mean?
I looked over at Cole and he seemed perplexed in his thoughts. Galen gave us a moment to think about what she had said before continuing on with nonsense that seemed more like a two AM sitcom than my real life.
"There have been old Supernatural relics and prophecies from centuries in the past and they have all had a way of coming true. This was the last one, pertaining to a group of six individuals of different abilities who must overcome the leader of the Catchers. She is overwhelmingly strong and not only has the ability to make an entire army of reprogrammed Supernaturals in the form of Catchers, but also has possessed all five of the elements that you know. Last night, she gave you the Marking that signifies who you are. The pain was a signal to you, naming you as one of the Big Six to everyone. She has the ability to get in your thoughts, but after the Marking, there is no way she is able to hurt you from afar."
I thought back to the so-called 'visions' of the darkness and the voice. They must have come from the Catcher's leader.
"Once our meeting is over, you can go back and view your Markings in private," she told us. "However, one of you seems to be missing. After all, you're all deemed the Big Six, but there are only five of you and five known abilities."
"So you're hinting that there's something we don't know?" William asked, a surprising accent lining his words.
"Surprise, surprise," Cole muttered from next to me, leaning back further in his chair. "Another thing we had to idea about? Wow."
"We didn't want to enact fear without knowing when this was going to happen. It could've happened ten years ago or centuries in the future. We had no idea," Galen told Cole who didn't say another word. She then continued on with what she was saying before the interruptions. "The last element is Electric, meaning the user is the only one able of conducting electricity for his or her power. They have not been found or brought in but there is a good chance that they will soon because the Marking has been placed on them. It's easy to hide a power, but not so easy to do that with your Marking."
"So how is everything going to change?" Alex asked. "We all have the Marking now, are we just placed in an all-out brawl?"
Sophia is the one who chimed in now. "Katherine likes to play cat-and-mouse. She'll tease you, but will want you to go to her to fight. You will train here, learning more abilities and growing stronger, while she waits for you to come."
"Katherine?" I found myself asking and Galen shot a look towards Sophia.
"That's the leader's name," Galen sighed. "What we haven't said yet, is that years ago, Sophia and a few others were sent out to find Katherine and her home. She is the only one who came back."
For the first time since I got here, Sophia's tough girl act faltered and I saw sincere sadness on her face. She masked it quickly and crossed her arms over her chest, holding her head high.
"When the Electric turns up, we'll send two of you out to get them depending on their location. We want it to be a quick, easy trip but we expect a lot of hiccups along the way. But, as said, Katherine is waiting you out, growing stronger herself, so we can't wait too long until you're all sent out. This is a mission that could not only cost all of your lives, but possibly thousands of others as well if you fail."
Well, that definitely doesn't calm my nerves.
"We will tell the public tonight. Please keep it under wraps until then and we'll see you in the conference hall at four. Until then you can have all the privacy that you want. I'm sorry you all have been dragged into this, but you must understand that you are our only hopes for survival. Without you, we will all be killed."
The meeting was adjourned and the five of us all walked out in silence while Sophia and Galen stood there. When we got outside, Claire was standing by a tree and immediately threw her arms over Alex, asking a million questions that none of us could answer. Leona and William left the group first, going to their separate ways without a goodbye. The rest of us went to the dorms, Alex and Claire stepped into his room immediately, making Cole turn to me.
"Mind if I come over for a bit? I don't want to hang out with the couple and don't want to be alone."
I only nodded and brought him into my room. It was left just as before the party happened yesterday with millions of outfits thrown across the floor. Cole didn't look bothered and took a spot on my bed, myself sitting down next to him.
"And I thought last night was going to be fun," he joked around.
"That is exactly why I don't like parties," I muttered and saw a line peeking out from the collar of his shirt. "Did you want to look at the Marking?"
He froze on the spot before relaxing. "Can I see yours first?"
I nodded and turned around, gently lifting to back of my shirt to reveal my back to him. I heard him gasp, just as Claire did in the hospital room and I almost jumped as a finger gently went across my skin.
"Wow," he breathed out. "At least this Katherine chick did a good job."
I situated myself so I could see my back from a mirror on my wall and found myself staring at the right side of my back that was filled with intricate lines that mimicked what a tattoo would look like. However, tattoos looked like they were placed there while the Marking had the appearance of being natural, as if it belonged there, in dark coloring.
I let my shirt fall back down in place and turned towards Cole. "Your turn," I mumbled and turned away in embarrassment as he shed his shirt.
"What?" He asked and I could almost hear the smirk in his voice. "Not like you haven't seen it before."
"And you gave me a hard time then too," I shot back and raised my head when he turned around, exposing his back and newly made Marking to me. His was more masculine, but just as detailed. Just as he did, I found myself reaching out and trailing my fingers down the lines. I expected them to be rougher or bumpy due to welting as tattoos would be, they were just as soft as his skin would be. His back tensed as the initial contact before relaxing as my fingers traveled around.
"This is so weird," I mumbled. "I never wanted a tattoo in my life but now that I have something like it, it feels like it's supposed to be there."
"So you're groping my back because...?" Cole joked and I pushed him away.
"Oh, shut up. You were doing the same thing to me."
He got up and looked at it in the mirror, humming in approval. "I like it, but yours is way cooler. Katherine must have a thing for Brains like you so she made yours better."
I rolled my eyes at him and watched as he leaned back in my bed, making himself comfortable without putting his shirt back on. I felt myself turning red and turned away to turn on the small television in our room to watch some mindless sitcoms.
"It's kind of weird," I said to him while making myself comfortable as well. "I've known you for over a week but yet it feels like longer than that."
"That's because I'm the man you've been dreaming about--" He stopped when I hit his arm. "I'm kidding, but that's how things go around here. Life seems to move twenty-times faster at Supernatural Abilities because who knows how long we all have together, especially now that we're at the frontline for this war."
"Do you think we're going to fail, Cole?" I asked, my voice turning small.
He didn't respond for a bit but when he finally did, he said, "Hey. We're going to train our asses off and you're going to be the best Mind this whole place has ever seen. Hell, you probably already are."
I snorted. "Yeah, right."
"Yeah, I am right. You'll learn plenty of new abilities in no time. Though, I do hope you don't learn how to read minds."
I raised an eyebrow at him. "Oh? Why not?"
He shrugged, a smile lining his lips. "I like to keep some things under wraps, Munchkin. I already have Claire going through my mind and getting into my business so I definitely don't need you doing the same thing."
"If Claire could go through my mind, how couldn't she see that you didn't like Vanessa?" I asked.
"Some things I don't like to think about and block them out as much as possible," He muttered. "She only really butts in when she knows I'm lying about something and I was always pretty good at not letting my emotions show."
"But yet you tell me."
"You're just easy to open up to, I guess."
I smiled at him and found myself laying down next to him on the small bed, but not in a sexual way. More in an 'I'm-so-exhausted-from-all-the-events-that-happened-recently' type. We were quiet for a bit, only watching the stupid shows that we got on the television before I found myself falling asleep to the noises of a romantic comedy and Cole's steady breathing.
__________
Had to keep you guys waiting on that last one :) Hope you enjoyed and thank you so much for everything you do for me.
AND NOTE. PLEASE do not post any spoilers. It's getting to the point that I have to delete so many comments that have spoilers from the original. I have many first-time readers on this story and I would hate for the plot to be ruined for them. Just monitor what you're commenting and posting if you're original fans of the series :)