I open the door and Trish jumps off her bed right away. "What happened? Are you okay?"
"I'm fine," I say, "but Beast is a little roughed up."
"What happened to him?"
"His uncle came into the infirmary and attacked him."
"Uncle? I didn't think Beast knew his family."
"He doesn't, his uncle just showed up and started yelling at him. Beast didn't know what to do."
I start to walk over to my bed and Trish says, "I see your ankle is better."
"I managed to heal it in the panic of trying to help Beast."
"Is he alright? What happened to his uncle?"
"Beast's in his room resting, and his uncle was detained and will be taken off the premises."
Trish's shoulders relax. She lays down on her bed. "That's terrible."
"It's all over now," I reply. "He'll be resting for the remainder of today."
"Are you okay?"
"I'm fine, I just wish he didn't get hurt on my behalf."
Trish sits up, "Zoe it wasn't your fault."
"If I hadn't hurt my stupid ankle, he would have been safe."
"Not necessarily," Trish argues.
I look at her with frustrated confusion.
Trish moves over to my bed and sits beside me, "See, if you didn't hurt your ankle, then the uncle would have broke into the training room. Knowing our group, we probably would all be in the infirmary or resting in our rooms right now. We would have all tried to protect Beast, and all gotten hurt."
"You're saying it's okay that only Beast got hurt?"
"No, I'm saying—"
"It should have been me," I say softly.
"Zoe," Trish says my name sternly.
"What?" I stand, "I should have done something! I'm such a screw up! My idiocy caused Beast to get injured."
"Zoe you didn't cause Beast's uncle to want to hurt him."
"I caused him to get hurt!"
"No!" Trish stands, "No you didn't! Stop taking the blame for things you couldn't control!"
"I can't!" I shout. Silence ripple through the air, "I can't," my voice cracks. Trish looks disappointed in me. I can tell she's done with me right now, so I say, "I need a walk."
"Go ahead, I'll meet you at the arena for the fight," She walks to the bathroom and I walk out of our room.
I shove me hands in my pockets and look to the floor. What is wrong with me? I know Trish is just trying to help. I know she just cares, but I can't accept it. Is it because I don't believe her? Maybe I just don't like acceptance.
Maybe I made the wrong choice going here. If I had just stayed home... I wouldn't have dealt with all this. It's ridiculous that I even tried making my life better.
Someone suddenly checks me and I lose my balance. I find the wall quickly and I'm able to stable myself. "Hey," I shout, but once I look back I realize I shouldn't have. "Jack..."
He looks back at me, and I see anger in his eyes. I start to back up, really not wanting to be near him alone. He opens his mouth and I expect to hear a curse, but instead he says, "Your brother is looking for you."
"What?"
He sighs, "Your brother, Phillip? Yeah, he's in the office, about ready to come find you."
"Uh..." I say awkwardly.
He turns around to continue walking but then, me being stupid, I call to him, "Why are you telling me?"
"So you can wipe the tears from your face. He seems really protective and I don't think he'll like seeing you sad."
I take his advice and use my sleeve to wipe off my eyes, "Thanks."
He nods and continues to walk. That's concerning. Was he just being nice because he has no one to show off to? Last time I saw him, he wanted to beat my face in for being what he called, 'A Royal.'
I start walking again, but Jack doesn't leave my mind.
I get to the office just as Phillip walks out. He spots me right away and says, "Hey, Zoey!"
Mr. X follows him out, "I was just catching him up on the event earlier."
"Did he need to know?"
Phillip frowns, "Of course I needed to know."
Mr. X smiles politely, "Excuse me, I need to make a phone call."
We nod, and then Phillip walks to me, "Come on, now that my meeting with Mr. X is over, show me around. I want to get to know your life here."
I sigh, "Well right now is lunch. I don't feel much like eating but I'm sure we can catch up there."
"Sure, sounds good. That's probably where Maud found himself anyways."
I lead the way and Phillip follows me. "So how's the Shadow compound?"
"It's been well. I've really gotten to know a lot of our relatives."
"I'm sure they all are cool."
"Most are strict actually. I haven't gotten our grandma to like me yet."
I laugh, "You act like I remember when Grandma you are speaking of."
"Kristina, the one that crowned you the heir. Yeah she doesn't like me at all."
"About that..."
"Zoey, listen, I overreacted to you. I know you were just trying to look out for me and trying to figure out why they suddenly started caring to begin with. I was just so clouded with judgment about your talent I couldn't see past my own ego. I'm sorry."
"It's unfair you have to live in my shadow. I just wish I could do something about that."
"Mr. X told me there's a match today. Were you planning to go?"
"Yes I was going to go with Trish."
"Trish?"
I turn to look up at my brother, "She's the other girl in my group. She's also my roommate."
"Cool, good to know you've made a few friends."
I sigh, "Well you can tag along with us." We turn one more corner and find the cafeteria doors. "Here we are."
"It's loud. Is it always this loud?"
Phillip's right. The kids seem a bit more wild. I cautiously open the door and emotions hit me hard. I step back to analyze the room.
There's kids everywhere. Running around, screaming. There's a blob in the center of the cafeteria, kids are chanting names. Phillip gently pushes past me and I already know what he's thinking.
We get closer and the chants still sound like blurs. Everyone is screaming out things. Phillip and another trainer manage to get into the center and I follow through the break Phillip creates in the crowd. There we find one of Jack's guys and Maud, no surprise.
Maud's on top of the kid, shouting words I didn't think he used. Right away Phillip grabs Maud's hoodie and yanks him off the kid. The trainer pulls the kid off the ground, but he tries to attack Maud. The trainer manages to hold him back while he yells, "Everybody go back to your seats! Now!"
The kids eventually disperse and we are left with the five of us.
"Maud," Phillip pushes him down in his seat.
Right away Maud says, "He attacked me first."
"Verbally or physically?" Phillip questions.
"Both!"
"Freak," the kid mumbles.
The trainer scolds him and turns to us, "He's my student, sorry for the trouble."
Phillip nods, "No problem, this one doesn't know when to stop messing around."
"Seriously? He attacked me!"
"Maud," Phillip says sternly, "Enough."
"Unbelievable," Maud slouches back and crosses his arms.
The trainer responds, "I'll take mine to the discipline office, I know he's in the wrong. Sorry to cause trouble, I hope he didn't ruin your visit."
"Not at all, sorry for the disturbance."
The trainer leaves with the kid and Phillip sighs.
"I wasn't doing anything."
"You expect me to believe that?" Phillip replies incredulously.
"You never believe me," Maud says sitting up.
"You never tell the truth!"
"Guys," I say softly.
"You really think I would cause trouble here? You think I'm stupid enough not to know what that displays? How that looks?"
"I don't know. You clearly don't seem to care."
"It's not my fault! People just naturally want to bother me."
"Learn how to not react."
Maud scoffs, "I don't react."
"Then how'd you end up fighting this time?"
"Phillip," I say touching his shoulder. He shrugs me off.
"He pulled me from my seat!"
"Phillip stop," I say.
"Zoey you have no idea how many times I have to break this kid up from a fight."
"He didn't start it," I say defending Maud.
"You weren't here."
"Neither were you," I respond.
"Then tell me how you know," Phillip asks irritated.
"I can see he is telling the truth, now stop scolding him so much. This is supposed to be a fun visit right?" I ask both of them. They reluctantly nod, "Good, now let's calm down and be civil until the match."
"Match?" Maud asks.
"The fight that's being held today. You guys are getting close to the end of it, aren't you?" Phillip turns to me. He sits down beside Maud.
I nod, sitting across from the two. "There are like two more match days then the second to last round starts."
"When does your group fight?" Maud asks.
"Two days." They both smile. "What?"
"We'll still be here."
"Cool, you get to see me fail at fighting."
"I'm sure you'll be fine."
"Thanks bro," I say sarcastically.
"I'm going to go get a water," Phillip says. "Want one?"
Maud nods but I decline. Phillip gets up to leave.
"So Zoey," Maud says casually, "How's your friend?"
"When did you hear about it?"
"It's all over." I frown at him and he smirks. "You don't notice?"
"I guess not."
He leans in closer, "Close your eyes, and relax." I humor him and do so. "Good, now take a deep breath in and clear your head."
I try my best, then ask, "What now?"
"Now, I want you to just notice. I've seen you've been getting a lot better at this, but I know you can improve. Usually you want to avoid places like this right? Loud, emotionally overloaded, too much to see?"
"How'd you know?"
"Because I'm the same way just with a few different reasons. Is your mind still clear?"
I sigh, "Yes, now what?"
"Don't try to block your surroundings, adapt to them. Take in everything, and then process it. Hear it all, now. Hear the chefs in the back, the spoons and forks hitting plates. Hear the talk about everything and everyone. You picking up what I'm saying?"
I focus more, and soon I'm able to pick up things I didn't before. The kids in the corner talking about their trainer being absent. The chefs in the back deciding what to make for dinner. The conversations all around, followed by them eating and drinking and laughing.
"Open your eyes," I do so and see Maud's oddly white toothed smile, "You hear it all?"
"Yeah."
"Crazy right? I knew you would be able too because you're Jen's daughter."
I tense, "I didn't think people called her that anymore."
"We didn't know her by Vision. We knew her by Jen, White Shadow's girl."
I laugh a little. Phillip finally returns and gives Maud his water. "So when is this match thing?"
"After lunch."
"Good, I'm starting to get a bit tired," Phillip states, yawing.
"If you don't want to go, it's perfectly fine."
"Oh I'm okay, don't worry," my brother says confidently.
"Alright," I say looking at the clock at the end of the room, "It's getting closer to the time, you guys just want to go now?"
"Sure," they say together. We get up and leave the cafeteria.
We walk a bit farther down the hall when Phillip turns to Maud, "Hey I forgot to ask you, how did Mia feel about you coming here?"
Maud laughs an uneasy laugh, "Let's just say she's okay with it and worry about her when I get back."
"Does she not like it when you come to this compound?" I ask.
"Not just this compound, Mia's green little head can't stand it when I leave the Shadows in general. Regardless if it's to a compound or to a mall just outside of the region."
"You two are cousins right?"
"In an extended sense, yeah."
"Why is she so protective of you?"
Maud wrinkles his nose, "We've been best friends since the days we had nap time together. I've known her long enough to know she's not protective of me, she's a control freak."
"Okay, but you honestly can't say that she worries about you?"
Maud starts to respond, but he quits.
"How much farther?" Phillip asks in the silence.
"Not far, just up ahead," I say pointing. Suddenly I get a cold chill that flows throughout my body.
I react a little and Phillip says, "You okay?"
"Yeah I just went through a cold patch for a moment there," I respond. I shake my head, "I must've walked under a vent or something, no big deal." Phillip nods. I can't help but make note that there are no vents near us.
We get to the arena, and one of the doors is already open. We all walk in and I start to scan for Trish. I see far to the left of us a girl slouched in her seat, playing with...I focus zoom my eyes in...a water bottle that has only a sip left.
"There's my teammate," I say pointing to her.
"How'd you see her from so far away?" Maud asks. He laughs right as he says this, "Silly question. It would be weird if you couldn't see her."
We walk to her and she spots me. Trish gives me a huge smile and waves, "Hey Zoe!" I feel Phillip cringe at that name. Why does he care?
"Hello," I say back, climbing the stairs to sit by her. "Is it okay if my brother and cousin sit with us?"
"Sure, fine with me," she gets up and introduces herself to the two and then we take our seats. I sit by Trish, and Phillip sits by me, then to his left is Maud.
"When do they start?" Phillip asks.
"Kids will start flooding in once lunch is over. About ten minutes after lunch finished they'll make announcements, and start the match," Trish answers, and Phillip nods.
Trish slouches back in her chair and starts to play with the water again. She holds the bottle sideways, and makes the water ascend the curved sides. Once it gets to the top then it drips to the bottom to continue the cycle. It's sort of boring to watch, but Trish is so focused she must find it interesting.
A few minutes later lunch ends, and kids start flowing in, taking seats all around us. I've never noticed all the side conversations before. I look at Maud and I can tell he hears them all too. I wonder how he does. He's not gifted with my ability, but he's gifted with the sight and hearing of an observational person, and an illusionist. Maybe he's just that, I don't know.
Once the majority of the seats are filled and the ten minute mark passes, X appears in the center of the arena and says, "Good evening my Omegas, I hope you've had an eventful day. Today our match will be between..."
I don't really care to listen, I already know I don't know them. I sit back in my chair as people start to cheer and suddenly get a chill down my back. I tense and cross my arms. This time the chill leaves me freezing.
Phillip notices and asks, "Want my jacket?"
"No it's okay, I'll be fine," I say quickly.
The first match starts but I can't really pay attention. It's so cold why do they blast the air conditioners so much in here anyways? I guess to make sure we don't heat up.
But it's so cold.
I sigh and then I see my breath. As if I was in fifty degree weather. What's going on here? Why am I the only one cold? "You sure you don't want my jacket?" Phillip asks nervously. He knows something's up.
"I'm okay," I say with my best smile. He shrugs and turns to watch the first match. I try to shrug it off, but I can't.
It's just so cold...