Preternatural (Worlds & Secrets) (24 page)

“
You see those,” Mr Leery gestured, “every organism has a pattern.”

“
Like DNA?” Jaden quickly wondered.

“
Precisely,” Mr Leery coursed his hand through his hair again. “Only, DNA is different for
every
organism. With this, it’s every different
type
of species that has a different pattern.”

“
Do they have a name? They
must
have a name.”

“
They’re Transmarkers.”

“
I’m still a bit lost, Mr Leery. How am I meant to form these patterns, these
Transmarkers
myself?” Jaden seemed extremely eager to commence studying his kinetic ability; to master it and let
him
be the controller. Mr Leery sighed with a weak slapped smile across his mouth.

H
e gently moved across Jaden, standing in front of him whilst calmly raising his thumbs and pressing them against Jaden’s temples.

“
Do you feel those muscles?”

“
Yes, but –”

“
I want you to flex them once.”

“
Mr Leery, how will this help?” he impatiently interrupted.

“
You’ll find out, after you do it,” the tutor replied sassily. Jaden sighed heavily but then did as asked. He flexed his muscles once. Nothing much had changed, due to the fact he had his head down.

“
Look up at me and tell me what you see,” Mr Leery said to him. Jaden slowly lifted his head. Mr Leery seemed taken aback at Jaden’s peculiar venomous-yellow eyes. As soon as Jaden saw his tutor, he was unsteady. His eyes were moving everywhere as he tried to see more than he could take in. His head was drawing back in shock and fear but Mr Leery quickly grabbed a hold of his head to calm him down. He could see the outline of Mr Leery’s body as a silhouette. Mainly, he saw dozens of golden Transmarkers rushing around his body, taking the shape of what seemed to be a stick figure where Mr Leery’s heart should be. The Transmarkers would come undone in their glowing golden form, float wildly around Mr Leery’s body and then go back to their stick figure state. The process continuously repeated itself.

“
There are…millions of them,” Jaden said, dazed.

“
Do you see any in me?” Mr Leery asked casually.

“
Y-yes,” Jaden replied, somehow awestricken.

“
That’s one disability we have. We can see the pattern for life similar to man, such as Vernaescians and humans themselves, but we can never mimic it.” Jaden let out a sharp breath of air.

“
Look at your Celt symbols on your arm,” Mr Leery instructed. He removed his thumbs from Jaden’s head as he slowly brought his arms up to his eyes. His body was flowing with golden Transmarkers. And from what Jaden could see, his body was a dark silhouette (practically an entity of night-black mass) with the Transmarkers keeping it lit; his Celtic patterns glowed with a low hum. Like my vision, it changed from one yellow tone to another as he looked at them from different angles.

“
Now, look at the Transmarker for the Griffin. I want you to halt all movements of yours, and command them to take form of the Griffin’s.
Use your mind
,” Mr Leery urged. Jaden tried as hard as possible not to give into his dazed and discombobulated body. He looked at the book. He could still see everything perfectly, except for the things that had life in them. However, the plants were still ordinary in his vision.

Jaden stared,
wide-eyed, but trying not to fall into what felt like a coma. He made it seem so difficult
to stay awake and in one piece. He wasn’t yawning, but he found it an impossible mission to keep his eyes from drifting and from his body collapsing – he simply couldn’t pay attention. He then saw the Griffin’s Transmarker: a wavy line with several short lines attached to the longer one underneath with curled tips. Jaden quickly looked to his Celtic patterns before he
knew
he would black out. Suddenly, a tingling sensation ran loosely all over his arms. He forced his mind to mimic the patterns…and before he knew it, the Transmarkers were stable. His Celtic patterns were no longer there but instead, the Griffin’s wavy Transmarkers had replaced them.

Suddenly, all the dizziness Jaden was whelmed in disappeared in one free thought. At that point
, Jaden actually felt that there were two parts of him into which he could easily change. He didn’t know how, but he just knew he could.

“
Mr Leery, I feel so –”

“
Willing? Light-headed; like you could do anything?”

“
Yes, but how do I change now? My vision’s still the same and I have the pattern,” Jaden asked worriedly. The man chuckled.

“
Jaden, all that’s left is to follow your body now; follow the pattern,” Mr Leery spoke softly. Jaden clamped his mouth shut and furrowed his eyebrows as his eyes rolled to the top, just like he was trying to remember something.

“
Hmm…” Jaden thought hard about the words Mr Leery spoke. He took a couple of paces back and suddenly, he flipped himself into the air a few metres off of the ground. As if he were a long, outstretched piece of elastic, he twisted and bent into the same pattern the Transmarker was, tracing it with his body like thread. After a second of severe and complicated morphing, Jaden
landed sturdily with his claws buried in the ground. Mr Leery clapped his hands and threw them up in the air in delight.

“
Fantabulous
!” Jaden looked at his tutor from a higher up perspective. A low growl continued to roll itself at the pit of Jaden’s throat as Mr Leery began stroking Jaden’s mane.

“
How do you feel?” Suddenly, Jaden screeched loudly. Mr Leery immediately raced his hands up to his ears and winced. Then, as abrupt as it was let out, Jaden’s screech instantaneously ceased.

“
Sorry, I’ve been keeping that in for too long.”

“
Well? How
do
you feel?” Mr Leery repeated.

Jaden trotted over to the hill side and spread his wings broadly.

“Sort of strange. It feels like a relief though. The wings feel like extra limbs. It’s hard to explain but their just like another set of arms that you can feel.” Jaden’s voice was by far
deeper, vibrating the ground as he spoke.

“
To turn back is simple,” Mr Leery began.

“
Why’s that? I can feel it. It’s like something’s pulling me to come out of this state.”

“
Simply put, your
own
Transmarkers can never leave you. It can
change
, but never leave you. So when you Shifftocast, imitating the species’ Transmarkers is what will allow you to transform, but it will still be
your
Transmarkers that makes the figure. Therefore, you’ll have two life forms in one
Transmarker and thereby making it as easy as clicking your fingers to morph from one to the other.” Jaden let out puffs of air.

“However, I must add:
never try to change from one creature to another without changing to your normal self first,” he said a tad gravely.

“Why?” Jaden grumbled.

“There’s a phase; a process we call the Blending Process, which is quite painful and unbearable. Even if you tried, your body would reject it and wouldn’t allow you to make the change. I can easily do it because I’ve had my blending and I’ve endured all the necessary pain I needed to – it’s simple for me to change from a creature to another now. But you’re not ready yet.” Jaden threw him a puzzling look. 

“
You’ll get used to it,” Mr Leery quipped.

With one sharp and solid thought, Jaden twisted and morphed himself back into
his humanoid state. He had a head full of shaggy, disoriented chestnut hair. But as he shook his head quite like a dog would, his disordered black and white hair came back into being. He flexed the muscles in his temples once more and instantly his eyes dimmed to their natural hazel shade. His eyesight was normal again and he didn’t see any other life forms as silhouettes.

“
That was –” he paused and panted, supporting himself by resting his hands on his thighs.

“
– That was truly amazing,” Jaden finished with half a smile across his face.

“
Want to keep at it?” Mr Leery asked. Jaden took in large breaths between each of his phrases.

“
Yes…let’s.”

With another explosion of soil, Tobias and I were shot back out of the Earth. Dusk was almost present as I paced over to Jaden.

“
I had the most amazing time. I know how to use my kinetic abilities now – well, one at least,” I told him gladly. Jaden gladly concurred.

“
But it’s super difficult. Where’s offspring number one?” I then asked. Jaden looked around. “I’m guessing
she’s inside with mum.” Tobias strutted over to Mr Leery and greeted him pleasantly.

“
Is there any way to make the hill less steep?” I asked Tobias.

“
I could straighten it for you, if you’d like.”

“
Please,” I agreed. Tobias walked back to the edge of the mountain and sighed. “Aden, stand back,” he calmly warned. He suddenly stretched his arm out and with his green eyes glowing like precious stones, the earth roared as we endured the descent of the mountaintop. Wind raged as we embraced the bizarre sensation of hovering on a moving world. Soon, the mountain became more sloped and less of a skydive for anybody that wanted to descend.

“
That better?” he asked, grinning towards Jaden and I.

“
I’ve got to run. I’ll see you next time or maybe at Samhain,” I heard him say, before viciously being absorbed into the earth and leaving the soil to re-grass itself. Jaden and I looked at each other, confused as to what Tobias meant by
‘Samhain’
. We both turned to Mr Leery, still bearing an expression of perplexity and complication. Mr Leery merely stared back with his arms folded. Jaden and I opened our mouths, on the verge of speaking.

“
You want to know what Samhain is.” He beat us to the punch.

“
Precisely that,” Jaden answered. Mr Leery sighed, looking reluctant.

“
I’m not sure whether it’s my place to tell you – after what just happened to you, Aden.” I sighed exasperatedly.

“
Is there
more
you haven’t told us?” I was on the brink of becoming annoyed and my hair lightly tinted to a dark shade of purple, not fully turning red but mixing with the blue.

“
Nothing to do with that, it’s just –”

“
– just,
what
,
Mr Leery?” Jaden pressurised. We both suddenly folded our arms and looked at him suspiciously as if we were about to devour him. Our elastic bodies lengthened to their full height and we piercingly glowered at Jaden’s tutor. We took one step closer. Finally, he gave in with a disinclined sigh.

“
Samhain is the Celtic day of the dead.”

CHAPTER 9.

Samhain

Jojo had
placed her bangle in the dent of the grand front entrance and we watched as the magnificent door came into existence by the Celtic swirls. We walked in with our messy uniforms and our bags hanging off our shoulders. The girls rushed upstairs but we boys stayed down for a while. Thankfully, Liam had recovered and had recharged himself. His ashen skin had returned to normal – of course, he had to spend about half an hour a day near a socket to get good jumpstarts for his circulatory system. But just for a few days.

“
How did school go?” mum quickly asked, dropping the newspaper she was busily reading.

“
It was fine,” I plainly answered.

“
You’re sure?” mum began again, now approaching us. “Were there signs of anything peculiar? You’re sure nothing happened?”

“
Yes, mum – we’re fine. No need to carry on babying us,” Jaden added, which was exactly what I was thinking. Liam began looking uncomfortable; a bit suspicious. He clenched his fists and electricity encircled it rigidly.

“
Liam, are you okay?” Jaden asked, all attention now on him. Liam began looking doubtful and uncommonly queasy.

“
Fine,” he answered unpromisingly.

“
I’ll be right back,” he continued, heading off upstairs in a hurry. Mum sighed and tussled her sons’ hair. Jaden’s hair looked cooler than it already did when tussled, since it was naturally a black and white silky explosion of fur. Mine however just looked like a freshly coughed-out hairball when disoriented. I rolled my eyes. I shook my head viciously; my hair exploded into red – tipped and highlighted with brilliant flames as my hair let off steam and quickly straightened to its previous wavy texture, before dimming back to its casual electric blue. Robbie suddenly looked down at the doormat and became fascinated by whatever he saw. Three, average-sized, white envelopes were gently resting on it. He bent down and cautiously picked them up.

“
Lina,” he started worryingly, wary of the three suspicious letters as he picked them up. One stated “The Blues”, the other, “The Wittles” and the third and last envelope had “The Roxeths” written on it, all delicately handwritten in what seemed to be the most elegant cursive handwriting incorporated with Celtic swirls to make it seem part of the extraordinary script. The letter clearly stating “The Blues” floated into mum’s hand as she gently used her telekinesis to pick it up from Robbie’s hand.

“
What are they?” Jaden asked curiously. Mum didn’t look worried, but rather just as intrigued as Robbie was.

“
I don’t know, but they’ve got the royal seal on it,” Robbie pointed out in his usual aristocratic, well-spoken voice. The letters were kept sealed by a Celtic cross, encircled with intricate Celtic patterns. At that point, mum was ready to open the letter. She reached over to the coffee table, inches away from her, and enthusiastically reached for her letter opener. She then handed it to Robbie as she extracted a pale cream card. Jaden and I watched as Robbie and mum skimmed through the letters enthusiastically in their minds; their lips moving rapidly as they mimed whatever they read undertone.

“
It’s an invitation,” mum said, looking rather glad. “Look,” she added, handing the card over to Jaden and me.

I read aloud:
“
You have so affably been handpicked by His Majesty himself; the king of the Monarchical Region, to attend his Royal Masquerade Ball of Samhain, at his Winter Castle, on October the thirty-first – when time stops
.” Jaden and I were extremely
perplexed. What on Vernaesce was this?

“
Aden, buddy, you pronounced it wrong,” Robbie pointed out.

“
Pronounced what wrong?”

“
That.
It’s not pronounced Samhain. It’s spelt that way but its pronounced ‘
Sahwin’
.” At that specific moment, our eyes lit up.

“
That’s what Mr Leery said yesterday! Samhain. The Celtic day of the dead, was it
?
” Jaden said.

“
Yes,” mum answered simply, “and we’ve all been invited.”

“
Now, why’s that?” I demanded.

“
Well, because Tantrus, Anne and your mother work for the Supremacy. I’m pretty sure the majority of the other staff received invitations,” Robbie hastily pointed out.

“
You see, Aden, there’s working for the government, and working for the Supremacy – which is working
with
the king in the High Court of Vernaesce. And when I say Court, it is not like a tribunal or Council, but more like a network of sectors that deal with all things relating to Vernaesce’s well-being and the realms affiliated with it,” she pointed out.

“
So they’re secret?” I asked keenly.

“
Not necessarily secret. People know about the Supremacy and that it exists, but what goes on in there is top notch stuff –
that’s
what’s secret. Everyone in the Supremacy knows everything concerning the Nobles and it has been their job for ages to make sure the history never gets out. And to top it off the pay is outstanding,” Robbie once again pointed out.

“
But what does Samhain have to do with all this? What is it, really?” Jaden asked. My blue eyes glowed mildly. The bright sky outside dimmed to a dirty ash and the winds became much more full of moist. Mum looked at Robbie. I didn’t notice, but he nodded at her softly. What was going on? As usual, we were kept in the dark.

“
Come and sit down first,” mum commenced politely. Jaden and I sat ourselves down, eagerly waiting for what seemed to sound like a very interesting explanation.

“
Samhain, also known as –”

“
– The day of the dead –” Jaden and I simultaneously spoke, continued with a high-five in the air whilst hardly glancing at each other but at mum instead.

“
You two have got to stop doing that; it’s creepy,” we heard Robbie say as he sat himself down next to her. Jaden and I sniggered for a slight moment and got back to listening attentively.

“
As I was saying – Samhain, the day of the dead, is celebrated on the thirty-first of October and first of November,” mum began. We were already indulged into a deep ensnaring feeling of interest as the story started.

“
That’s Halloween,” Jaden pointed out with a smile.

“Clever boy, you are,” I mumbled, keeping my eyes fixed on mum.

“Samhain is a Celtic celebration and one of our beliefs is that on this day, the dead would rise and roam. In the olden days, the Celts and all other believers used to wear costumes to remain hidden. Many feared meeting ghosts, especially those that would come and beg for food from door to door, due to their starvation in the afterlife. So people would leave food outside to please them but it would also be to prevent ghosts from entering their homes.” Jaden and I had the same feeling of surprise.

“
That’s how trick or treating came about,” Jaden quickly figured out. Know-it-all.

“
Yes,” mum continued, somehow sternly, “and that’s why the witch and skeleton costumes are the most famous.”

“But think about it: this is isn’t a Masquerade ball for nothing. There’s a reason we’re asked to wear masks,” mum added.

“It is said,” Robbie took over in explanation, “that Samhain is of the element of air. The veil will be so thin
between all the other realms during Samhain that we’ll be able to see all of them with emerging ghosts. But until then, as the veil softens, there’s a period of time where only the Aero-Capers will be able to see them, being able to control air and all,” Robbie ended. The sky was dimming progressively, reaching a desolate and dismal complexion as thunder roared through it. As the sky darkened, our eyes began to stand out with strange focus. But the thunder sounded muffled, probably from being so far up above the clouds.

At that point, my mind became fixed on something Robbie had said. Only the Aero-
Capers would be able to see the ghosts. I was
part
Aero-Caper, being able to control air. Would
I
see them?

“
I’m sorry, Robbie, but what
exactly
do the ghosts of Samhain look like?” This was a curious question because I had not forgotten the army of people dressed in black marching towards me straight after the Demon Grinner at school tried to drag me away.

“
I’m not sure,” Robbie was quick to answer. “No one has ever really seen them before, to tell you the honest truth. What I just told you was a belief; a superstition. But never in the history of Vernaesce has anybody actually seen an army of ghosts. A few loonies, maybe, but it turned out to be nonsense.”

I gulped and reached for a glass of water in front of me. Inches from my mouth, I looked towards the open window. What I
thought
I was seeing was all blurred by the water in the glass’ fancy nature. My eyes and eyebrows grew perplexed and I lowered the glass immediately.

Suddenly, I shuddered and shook. My bo
dy had reacted before my mind and my hands nervously broke out in a reflexive spasm, shattering the glass in my hand to pieces. Before I noticed, I was curled up in the sofa in fear, still staring at them: the crowd of people in black; their eyes looking directly at me only. Mum, Robbie and Jaden looked instantly towards the window and saw nothing – just dirty ash-grey clouds building up in the distance. I suddenly winced as a stinging pain prickled itself into the nerves in my hand.

I looked down at it and
witnessed my pale skin stained with the wine substance that was blood, oozing from the slashes. It wasn’t a drastic overflow, but it was becoming excessive. Some glass pieces were lodged into my palm and other glass shards lay fragmented on the floor.

“
Stand still, sweetie,” mum ordered as she knelt to me. She waved her hand over my palm and the shards of glass painlessly hovered out. Jaden’s eyes flickered to a venomous, toxic yellow and they twitched as he looked at my hand. I caught sight of how he was looking at the blood with a beastly desire in his eyes.

“
They’re animal instincts,” Robbie pointed out. I quickly stretched over and firmly slapped Jaden with my free hand in a way of letting him know that I was not ready to allow anybody getting excited at the sight of my life force. My canines stuck out as I snarled at him. He hardly felt it but it was just to snap him out of the trance.

“
Right, thanks. Sorry,” he gently murmured as he immediately recollected himself whilst his eyes dimmed to hazel.

“
What was it you saw?” mum asked, still waving her hand over my palm, ensuring all remains of glass shards were forcibly hovered out. I gulped.

“
It happened before – when I was being attacked by the Demon Grinner,” I ambiguously spoke.

“
Yes, but
what
did you see?” Robbie seemed eager to know what scared me that much. I looked down at my hand, as my mother continuously waved her hand over mine. The sting caused by the glass cuts was slowly ceasing.

“
I think they’re ghosts,” I slowly muttered. Mum gave a nod of satisfaction, noticing that all the glass debris removed from my hand hung softly in the air as she levitated them mentally. The other broken pieces and shards on the floor immediately joined them, surfacing to their level.

“
What did they look like?” mum pressed. I thought she hadn’t heard me at first, saying that I’d seen ghosts. My eyes drifted from mum and I looked to the window, gulping heavily again. Mum suddenly gasped.

“
They’re still here?” she asked, gently rising from her knees and sitting on the lounge table a centimetre behind her. I smacked my dry lips and nodded.

“
Well…” I timidly began, “their faces are pale, they have no emotions, they’re all dressed in black and their eyes are like voids. There’s no life in any of them. They’re just…
there
,” I said, drifting the rest to myself.

Hang on –
ghosts in black, with black eyes? Could my so-called doppelganger following me be one of them? But if so, how was that possible? I wasn’t dead. I blinked and in a flash, they had disappeared.

“
Don’t worry, Aden, they’re completely harmless. Ghosts of Samhain don’t cause any harm or disturbances whatsoever – I should hope,” mum soothed. I sniffed loudly.

“
What time will Vala be here for my Aerokinetics?”

“
Soon. You better get changed,” mum spoke softly, looking down at her watch casually. On that note I quietly trudged off upstairs.

The sky was a calming fusion of violet and a soft amber-orange. I couldn’t help but admit what a peaceful twilight it was. The outline of the colossal planet in orbit with us was much more visible and it glowed mystical colours as its space dust mystically floated around it in our heavens. Vernaesce’s two moons shone eerily in the bizarre sky; part of it twilight and another part already darkening to indigo. I peeped out of the window, analysing nature and observing the night-falling sky. A sudden light gush of warm air washed behind me and I felt a soft hand press on my shoulder.