Kai's POV:
When I got home. Sleep was the furthest thing in my mind. Yet it was like I was drawn to it. As I entered my bed, I entered paradise. Full with a kaleidoscope of colours and light.
The light shifted from a bright light to a pink and intimate one. I found myself sat on the side of a table. It was enriched with mahogany with engravings on the side. I knew this table. I've sat on this table.
It was home. I was at home in Opentam. I couldn't see anything in the distance. It was as if the world was dark and there was a spotlight on me.
"Hello!" I called through the darkness. Where I was looking, there was supposed to be columns of chairs. 8 specifically.
The sound echoed through the empty space.
"Anyone out there?" I screamed
Nobody answered.
I could move my fingers yet I couldn't move my legs. I tried getting up but I couldn't. I was paralysed. Holding onto the table, I tried pulling myself up but my legs refused.
Besides, the table was wet and leaking.
Now I started to panic.
"What is going on?" I muttered to myself. Yet the words echoed, made it sound louder, emphasising the raw fear in my voice.
Creak. I heard a noise. It was tiny but I heard it. Another noise. A scraping. Something scraping. It started getting louder and I felt my body itching. I hate noises like that.
It got louder and louder and ended with a crash. I know it sounds stupid but the noise among silence was terrifying.
Something flew across the table. From my view it just slid horizontally. Don't panic, don't panic.
The light started getting brighter and harsher and I could make out the debris on the side of the table. It was wood.
Another thing went just above my head. I think it was a chair. No I know it was a chair.
I could see now. The chairs across me, that were normally placed perfectly alongside the table were ruffling against the floor as if it was being shook.
The chairs started getting pulled to the
wall- like it was being attracted. Each one levitated, only to crash itself against the wall like the birds that killed themselves earlier.
Me though, I was stunned. Couldn't even say a word. I just had my hands on the table.
I could feel it getting denser like it was- holy crap it was melting.
How did wood even melt? It was turning into this shimmery silver colour as the aqueous puddle spewed along the floor. I still couldn't move my legs.
I had nothing to hold my hands to and my legs were motionless sticks. Be brave. Be brave.
All I could now do was look. Look through the
reflected liquid. It was a beautiful silver that glistened. If I wasn't too panicked, I would be in awe yet I dwelled on the table. It was so less yet meant so much.
The silver liquid was so shiny that I wouldn't not notice something move through it.
I saw something. Someone. They had a cloak.
"Who- who are you?" I spluttered as the figure creeped behind me. I could feel it's breath upon my neck.
"W-what do you-" I stuttered, as I could feel my body curling up in fear.
It remained silent.
Yet I could see the reflection. It's face was hidden but I could just feel the darkness coming from the cloak. Slowly it approached me. It stuck its palm out, which glowed like two lighting rods.
"Please." I cried.
Yet it continued moving. I could feel it's breath near me yet the reflection made it look so far. Heck, it could've moved a lot faster.
It was teasing me.
I knew what it was. I also knew what was going to happen.
I tried moving. Banging the chair against the floor. I then felt something drip along my face and I saw something fall into the shining puddle, giving it depth. I cautiously looked up only to be drizzled with water all over my face. Be brave. Be brave.
It was icy cold and I was shivering uncontrollably. All this happening, while the cloaked figure moved towards me.
"S-top." I gurgled, as water slid into my mouth
But it didn't listen. It was so close that I could feel the heat pouring from its palm. The light bounced against me and suddenly, I felt a burning blaze against my skin, scalding it. It was painful and it stung. Screaming in pain, I opened my eyes to Ember.
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Ember's POV:
Kai's eyes were a pale white with crimson streaks branching from his cyan pupil.
He was breathing intensely and sweating profusely.
"Mghh." Stiles groaned in his sleep. "Shushhh."
I lept upon the bunk bed and grabbed him from his collar, causing him to squeal.
"Get the others now!"
After a few minutes of waiting, the others came marching in the room. Kai was still hyperventilating and he was shivering.
Carol sat on the side of the bed and held his face towards her. "What happened dear?" She whispered gently.
The cheek of this bitch.
She didn't even say hello when she came in the house yet she's going to play mother Theresa.
Kai widened his eyes and I swear I could see a wave splash inside his pupils.
"The- Marker." He got out.
Carol gasped.
"Kai show me your arms." Demanded Aunt Carol. She pulled his sleeves up and grabbed his arm. "Nothing- there's nothing there." she sighed in relief.
Kai's eyes started glowing into a concentrated cyan colour. "It burns here." He said pointing towards his legs, right before he started puking water.
Lexi quickly comforted him, she looked at Carol with her eyebrows raised "What's going on, Aunt?"
Jess went up to Kai, who was shivering in his bed. He had this face of pure fear. His eyes were squinted and he was constantly flinching. It was intimidating. She pulled his socks down like she knew what it was. Upon his ankle laid a faded arc. The same one as me.
"What this mean?" Lexi asked.
We were all speechless. I looked at the print and it was identical. I couldn't help to feel mine tingle on my hand.
"I don't-know." Said Aunt Carol. She took a split second to think and she snapped her fingers. "Come on guys bed."
Although she had this tough face, the shakiness of her voice said otherwise.
There was no dissuading her.
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The next day had came. The sun was a dimming bulb and the moon barely hung by a thread. I stayed by Kai throughout the night. I know how it feels to be marked. Yet I already had mine as a birthmark. His was brand-new.
He didn't sleep that much. I don't blame him.
"Kai." I looked over to him. He was lying down. I knew he was awake.
"Kai how are you?" He turned over. He looked at me. He looked...weak. His face was pale white and he looked sickly.
"I feel sick." He replied. I also felt sick. It was probably the fact that we both barely had slept.
"Come on Kai, let's go. We have to go."
I grabbed his hand, attempting to pull him up. He wouldn't budge. So I went without him.
Everyone was waiting in the living room. Everyone except Carol and Kai. Carol was tending to Kai. Someone had to be with him.
Jess was walking up and down the room.
"I guess schools out of the option..." She said angrily.
"I think we have got better priorities hunny." Snarled Lexi, as she swayed her hair to the right.
"Of course you would say that Lexi." Bitched Jess, who had a scowl on her face.
Sparks started flying off Lexi.
"Bitch you wanna go?" Hissed Lexi, as her nostrils flaired.
"Try me- hoe." Sneered Jess. She had never done this before.
They were both getting closer and closer, head on head pushing towards each other on the verge of fighting. Like a Cobra and a mouse. A scary mouse, that is.
Stiles went in between them. "Guys stop."
I have never seen them this angry. Except once.
"Come on. Please we have got better things to do. Show me one of those books Lexi." I walked over to her. She had the books in her hands.
The books, from the rift-house.
Jess gave Lexi one more dirty look before preceding.
"They've got nothing in them though. No writing. Nothing except a stupid map." Added Jess. "Literally every single book in that library, back in that building had blank pages."
"So then why take them?" Spat Lexi, as her fingertips wiggled in sass.
Jess snapped her head back. "BE-cause of the hard casing. It looked more important than the others."
She was right though. One of the books had a hard leather casing with gold conscriptions. The rest of the pages were empty except one which had a map.
The "map" was a map of Earth, specifically Marol(the area of our home; Earth 1). I didn't really know how I knew this, but it looked familiar. Like that feeling you get when you eat a food you haven't ate in a long time.
"What does that cross mean." I said while pointing towards the map. It was a cross in the middle of these big puffs, which I assumed were trees.
"I guess we are about to find out." Lexi said while getting her coat.
"Are you serious? We can't just go wherever we want." I added sternly.
Lexi flicked her fingers. "Why not? Carol is with Kai and she's distracted. Plus I imagine that this marker cult thingy isn't going to just stop with you too- and I do NOT want to ruin my skin." Said Lexi as she grazed her face. She was wearing eyeliner and a full set of makeup.
"Jess?" I said, trying to get her to back me up.
She tilted her head and gave me a look that said 'she's right.'
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"So how do you know that the map starts from here?" Asked Lexi.
We were not too far from our house. A few miles from it, there was a couple of trees that looked perfectly normal. However grouped together, they sheltered a whole colony of tantalising trees. We thought never too of it as Carol dissuaded us otherwise yet Jess seemed adamant that this was the woods from the map.
I felt weird. I felt- uneasy. I wanted to curl up in a bed and just distance my self like Kai. It was strange.
"I'm positive!" Confirmed Jess. "It cannot just be a coincidence that the rift was nearby and besides these are the only woods in the area."
We didn't know what we were looking for. That didn't stop us though. We needed to get out of the house. The more we stayed there, the more the fear intensified and the more we recollected everything that happened over the last weeks.
"We've been walking for hours." Moaned Lexi
She was right. It was getting dark. Real dark.
We walked and we walked, seeing nothing. There was no guideline except the map that didn't even match.
We were following Jess and we happened to see an exit between a couple of trees. We went through it.
"Great. We're back at the exact same spot as before." Huffed Lexi as she threw her satchel on the ground. She was right. We were back at the start. Free cardio.
"B-ut how?" SaId Jess, who clenched on the paper, examining it.
"We must've walked in circles." I sighed as I held my forehead. My head was hurting. Like not just hurting, pounding. I didn't know what was going on.
"Like this?" Spoked Stiles, as he circled the spot like a sugar-phased child.
Don't have children.
"We can try another time. Let's just go home and check on Kai." Added I, as we started to make our way back home.
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At home it was the usual. Kai was still induced with fear and paranoia from the dream. In fact it took him at least 4 days before he could actually start talking properly. Meanwhile Carol was extra strict with school, therefore we couldn't go check on the woods. It's like she was punishing us but what was she punishing us for? Taking the car and driving illegally to a random place. Maybe but she didn't even know.
It had been one week exactly when we could try again and that led to a failed attempt, which ended in a fight breaking out between Lexi and Jess again.
Finally a week later, we finally hit something.
"What is this. Another house?"
Lexi looked it up and down, judging it. As she slowly regretted coming here.
Stiles touched his head. That's when you know he's confused. Actually scrap that. Stiles is always confused.
"All this way. For a house?" He grunted.
It was a raggedy house anyway. It looked worse than the other one with all the books. Instead it was wooden with nails splinted on the outside. It had a cobblestone roof that was unevenly slanted and one big window placed right on the side of the walls.
"For a house!" Repeated Stiles angrily.
He had every right to be angry.
There was nothing in the house. Nothing at all.
"Are you kidding me!" Yelled Lexi. "I spent hours scrummaging through millions of bloody bastard-ass trees FOR THIS! It's not even chic."
She stamped her foot on one of the tiles, breaking it.
"Are you sure this is the right place?" Added Kai turning to Jess.
"It has to be-" Said Jess, who was flipping her map. "See the alignments match and it's surrounded by all these trees."
I scoffed. "Yeah. Which look monstrous by the way."
It was getting twilight dark out there and we would rather take our chances in the tiny house than that mischievous woods. Last time we walked in the woods in the dark, it didn't end well. We never left them. Anyways that was a long time ago.
We laid there on the raggedy floor which was surprisingly pretty clean. It just wasn't comfortable.
"Are you sure Carol isn't going to notice?" Queried Jess worryingly.
"Oh please. She's probably just came back from work and is going to pour herself vimto before going to sleep." Said Lexi as she rolled her eyes. "She doesn't care about us."
That was enough to keep us silent. I thought about what she said and it was warranted for her to say that. Carol wasn't exactly the motherly material. She was a guardian and that was really it.
In the cold, we slept. Laying as wood rubbed against our backs. Yet while one slept. The other dreamt.
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Jess' POV:
First of all I don't know why the hell I get the shortest POV. I would accuse racism but- that wouldn't make sense. IT IS discrimination though. I don't care. It's a discrimination to nerds.
You know how for some, when they sleep, it's instant. For me, I didn't like sleeping. I liked to think and when I sleep, I can't think. Yet this time, it was rapid. I just sort of fell into the dream.
It was hazy but I remember opening my eyes and being stuck in this thing. Like a block of slime.
I tried moving. Fiddling out yet I couldn't. It was like jello and I was in a life size cube mould. A square of lilac gelatine.
That was it. Pretty much. I was stuck and I couldn't do nothing. I knew what was going to happen though. I mean it was sort of anti- climactic. But unlike the others, this was very slow. Nothing else happened but it was torturing. I couldn't do nothing but wait to get branded like an animal.
It felt like hours and all I could do was just stand in a cube of jelly. I didn't even notice, when something grazed my leg.
But the pain. The pain. It was horrible. It burnt and stung all at the same time. I couldn't even scream to let it out. I just gave up.
I had given up.