Airlaphree grabbed a hold of her arm and glanced down. What seemed to be an IV was implanted in her skin, without hesitation she ripped it out. A strange man with messy hair and sickly colored skin tried to lay her back down. "It's alright," he said, "You're in good hands. "Get off of me!" She shouted and decked the creepy scientist in the nose.
"She's awake!" A familiar face came into the dim lit room. No, two of them! The weird guy left the room holding his face as they were coming in.
"Demora? Dylan?" Air rubbed her eyes. "What's going on? What happened?"
Demora took a seat next to the shivering girl on the bed and put her arm around her shoulder. "Air, there are so many things we need to tell you. Right now you're in Oculite's base "
"What are you talking about?" Air was scared and confused.
" To start, Vector opened a curse that he may have put on you, " Dylan spoke, " It causes you to black out and go crazy."
" I don't understand. Why am I here? What's going on?" Air's heart began to pound against her chest.
Demora looked at Dylan with concern. "Maybe Jaysun would explain things a bit better. She probably would feel better if someone close to her was here."
"I'll text him." Dylan replied. He pulled out a navy blue smartphone and began tapping his fingers on the screen. "He should be here shortly."
A few moments later Jaysun enters and joins them. "Airlaphree," He walked over and gently grabbed her hand, "Are you alright?"
"I Don't know." Airlaphree pulled her hand away from him and balled her hands into fist, causing her knuckles to turn white.
Jaysun sighed and crouched in front of her. "Look, you probably already assume this, but your dad is evil. Very evil. He might have put the Cleo Curse on you. People who get the curse tend to get incredibly powerful and don't remember what happened."
"But, why would he do that?"
"Probably to test it out. Knowing him, he just needed an excuse so he took advantage of the school's situation."
Air leaned back and hugged herself. " I'm so confused."
Demora smiled to reassure her. "That's ok, it's a lot to take in."
"How did you guys know this was going to happen?" Air looked at all of them, waiting for an answer and Dylan spoke up.
"We didn't. Most of us carry a tranquilizer needle, just in case. You never know what could happen with Vector around."
"So, all of you know each other personally then?" Airlaphree stood up and walked towards the door. "T-this is just crazy!"
"Air, wait!" Jaysun called out, reaching out his hand. "Please let me explain everything."
" Yeah, because you're doing a swell job at it already." She turned around and snapped, wiping her arm through the air.
"Your dad is trying to take over this world, and another." Jay took a step towards her.
"What are you even talking about?"
"Your grandfather, Levi, Was a mastermind , a genius. He spent his whole life trying to master dimension traveling, but in the end he failed. When he passed away, Vector decided to continue his work. Lucky for him, he succeeded what his father couldn't. The downfall to this whole thing is he was only able to fire enough juice to go to one dimension, and that place is called Earth. That's where he met your mother, Airlaphree."
"What? Really?" Air sat back down from the overwhelming information.
"Yes, Vector wasn't always a jerk. He was curious, so he roamed around discovering what hasn't been seen by anyone on Ishi before. He met your mom, and they fell in love. His initial plan was to leave his kingdom behind and live here earth with the three kids they had together."
"Wait, is Sapphire one of those kids?" Air perked up.
"No, that's a story for a different time. The oldest was Eugene, next was Demora, and then there was you."
"Hold up." Airlaphree gazed at Demora with tears filling her eyes. "Does he mean, you?"
Without hesitation, Demora leaped into Air's arms and sobbed. "Yes, I'm your older sister. I've been waiting so long to tell you! I'm so sorry I didn't tell you sooner, I was only trying to protect you!"
"It's okay, I'm just glad I know now." Air pulled back. "Wait, If we were born on Earth, how did we end up here?"
Demora took a deep breath. "Eventually Mom and Dad couldn't get along anymore. He blamed her for all of his heartache. One thing they did agree on was to take Me and Eugene back to Ishi, because we didn't fit in with the humans, and you got left behind. Mom's not dead, she's just in a different world"
"That's amazing! Mom is alive and there are more humans, like me! A whole world of them." She then got discouraged when a question entered her brain." How do you fit in to all this?" She asked turning to her dear friend Jaysun.
"Air," Jaysun chimed in, "As you know, I'm an Apolyan. You also know we have duties to protect certain people for certain reasons. I'm supposed to look out for you because you're destined to save the world."
Air didn't say anything. There was already enough news to her, and now there's more? She had so many questions but she knew it was best to let Jaysun finish talking.
"Are you going to be okay Air?" Demora butted in before Jaysun could continue.
"No, you guys are crazy. There is no way I'm saving any world, not in a million years. It's bad enough I'm still trying to process the fact my mom might be alive, not to mention in another world!" Airlaphree began to pace. "And what's wrong with the world? Why do you think I'm going to save it? Oh, did I forget to bring up the fact that I now have an older sister? What happened to you? Air couldn't sit still.
"Listen," Demora wrapped her arms around the short, panicking girl, "it's all going to be alright. We can take it one day at a time if you want, we don't have to rush this. All we ask is that you keep this a secret so Vector doesn't hurt us. "
"No." Airlaphree strongly stated. "I have to know everything now." Demora guided her to the edge of the bed to take a seat.
"Well let me sum it up for you." Dylan stepped forward. "Avain, the great and powerful Apolyan, had a vision you would save the world. Vector had a snitch among the Apolyan which caused his awareness. He probably felt threatened, so my conclusion is he brought you here, erased your memories and gave you some shit story unto why. "
"I want to meet this Avain." Airlaphree stood on her feet.
"That's going to be tricky," Jaysun said, "My master never leaves home base. He would have been your protector if it weren't for that fact he's the leader of my kind, so he sent me instead."
"Well, I won't be a part of this if I can't meet him." Airlaphree crossed her arms.
"I'll see what I can do but you have to understand your importance to Earth, and to Ishi." Jaysun was very sincere.
"How the hell am I supposed to save the world? Two at that!" Air flailed her arms about. "You do realize I'm just a human, right? "
"Stones." Dylan jumped in. "If we can gather the 16 magic stones and what contains them, we can weaken his power enough to take care of him once and for all."
Air sat back down on the bed. "Well, what am I supposed to do now? I do live with him, and he is my dad. This is a lot."
Dylan sat on the other side of the worried girl and placed his hand on her trembling shoulder. "It's best you continue to stay where you are, unless you feel threatened. We don't want him suspecting anything if you just randomly want to leave. I know you haven't made a decision yet if you want to join us or not, and that's okay because you have a lot to ponder on."
"Does that mean I can go home now?" Air asked. "I just want to go to bed."
"Of course," Dylan stood up and opened the door, "Jaysun, please show her the way."
Jaysun took her through a couple dark hallways and to a sketchy, old elevator. They must have been on the very last floor because it took a couple minutes to get to the main one. The two exited out the back and all Air could see were open fields with flowers and trees lining the back. Once they traveled to the front, Air realized that she was in an old abandoned office building, a couple miles away from town. Jaysun asked if she wanted him to fly her, but she denied like always.
"Air, you don't have to join our group if you don't want to. So if you decide not to, please-"
"I won't tell anyone, Jaysun."
Nothing else was said on the way, except the usual, 'catch you on the flip side.' When she walked into her house she saw Vector frantically pacing back and forth wailing "where's my baby!" Airlaphree just stood there, watching him make a fool of himself. Sapphire stood at the top of the steps with her arms crossed, with a snarky look on her face. When the fire headed ding- ding noticed his daughter was back home, he leaped into her arms. "There you are my darling I was so worried about you! I had the whole city looking for you after you suddenly snapped!"
"Uh-huh."
"Oh you must be so confused! You see, you have a great sickness that causes you to snap out of the blue! I should have told you sooner." His alligator tears were pitiful. " You destroyed the meeting room, and took off!"
"I did?" Air acted surprised. "Wow, that's crazy!" She walked in the direction of her bedroom. "I should get plenty of rest then, goodnight."
"Aren't you concerned?" Sapphire words were like ice.
"I am, everything is just fuzzy and I feel dizzy." Air snapped.
"Then you should go get plenty of rest!" Vector shooed off his pigged tailed child.
Airlaphree was so happy to be in between her cool, silky pink sheets that draped over her small frame. She sunk her face in the pillows and tried to clear her mind, unfortunately for her that was impossible. She cringed at how bad her father's lie was, it made her skin crawl. Turning over onto her back, she gazed at the chandelier that dangled above her head. "My mom could still be alive," she thought, "I have another sister and a brother. My dad wants to take over two worlds because he got his heartbroken. I'm destined to stop him. I have a curse." She repeated herself over and over, hoping it all would sink in. What if she gets caught by her dad? He's so powerful, and bipolar who knows what could happen.
Her phone vibrated her leg, causing her to jump, "Shit!" Air opened the panda decorated lock screen. "A text from an unknown number? That's strange." She opened the attachment but she almost wished she hadn't. It was a Video of her during her Cleo curse episode, with nothing but pure evil in her eyes. "No," tears were dancing down her face, "that's me? He did cause this!" When the video was finished, it was completely wiped from her device.