Eternity (8 page)

“Instead of
getting into such details today, I would like to start at the
beginning, before these gods were even born. In fact, I will go
back a thousand years further.

“There’s a
separate plane from this one on which the spirits of the dead live.
They don’t wander the earth like many people think. They can watch
what happens here, yet they can do nothing to change it aside from
being born again, but by then they remember nothing.

“Eventually the
spirits came up with a better plan. What if, instead of sending a
spirit back into the physical world on its own, they joined spirits
together to make a more powerful person? Would that person not help
humanity more? This plan had flaws, but many liked it. One of the
important problems was that spirits liked to be themselves, and
they knew that if they merged they would become a new person, which
was a terrifying idea, much like dying permanently. Still, they
managed to find almost two thousand spirits who would be willing to
do it. Then someone came up with the idea of adding a few animal
spirits, with the hope that the person would receive the good
qualities of those animals.

“Finally, the
new spirit was completed, and the other spirits could tell that it
was a great and powerful one. They sent it into the body of a
newborn baby boy the next morning. As they watched the boy grow,
they realized that they had made a mistake. He was an amazing
child, and he learned quickly and was very intelligent and
powerful, but the spirits of the animals within him caused
something unexpected and horrible to happen. The boy needed to
drink blood to survive. He was, of course, the first vampire,
Kalinor.

“Though the
spirits on the other plane realized their mistake, there was
nothing they could do about it, and they watched with horror when
Kalinor created other vampires, and some of them turned out to be
evil. Luckily, most were not, and they quickly dealt with those who
used their powers to harm. This gave the spirits some promise that
they could create a being that was better than this one if they
used only human spirits, since they believed it was the animal
spirits that caused the problem.

“It took the
next thousand years to amass enough spirits to make two new ones,
each created from a million individuals, all human. It was a
massive sacrifice, but it turned out to be worth it in the end. The
two new souls became the gods we know of today. They were born at
the same time on the same day; one in what is now Kenya, and the
other on the island of Crete in Greece. The spirits had made two so
that they would never be lonely, because they would always have
each other. It would certainly have been lonely for them to have to
live forever without anyone to share eternity with.”

“Do you think
that more gods will ever be born?” a student asked.

“It is
certainly a possibility, but one that cannot be predicted. There is
also the possibility of gods having children, but they can only
reproduce with each other, and our current gods have never had that
kind of a relationship. They have always only been friends.”

“What do they
look like?” Melissa asked.

Ms. Coleman
laughed. “They certainly don’t look like you and I. They are said
to be incredibly beautiful, though I’ve never met either of them,
so I couldn’t promise you that.”

“Hey, maybe
you’re a goddess!” Jack whispered to me. “You’re definitely the
most beautiful person I’ve ever seen.”

I rolled my
eyes at him. “I’m sure that if I was a goddess I would know
it.”

People asked a
few more questions, and then it was time to go. I said goodbye to
Jack and hurried off with Heather to our next class, which was
Skills Development. I thought that name was actually quite telling
as to what we would be learning, and I can’t say I was looking
forward to the class. I felt like I knew everything there was to
know about my ability.

My hypothesis
turned out to be right. The class was centered on helping us
develop and control our individual abilities. Mr. Ramirez, our
teacher, explained to us that we would be doing a lot of individual
work and also working in partners. We didn’t get to do anything on
that day because Mr. Ramirez liked to talk, and didn’t stop until
the class was over. During most of this time I was wondering what I
would be doing during the class, since I already knew how to use my
ability well enough.

When I was on
my way out of the room at the end of class, Mr. Ramirez held me
back a moment to tell me that Omeye, the ability reader, had agreed
to meet with me, and he was coming later in the day. He said I
should be able to talk to him before supper time. I still didn’t
think that there was anything he could discover, but I agreed to
give it a try.

Chapter
11

Physical
Defence sounded like a really fun class, so I was excited for it.
Of course, since it was the first day, and only an hour, we didn’t
get to do anything. The teacher, whose name was Victor, was young,
very fit and tall, and he had long brown hair that was pulled back
in a ponytail. He told us that we would be learning how to defend
ourselves from attackers, so it would be a very physical class. We
would learn aspects of different types of martial arts. Victor said
it would be difficult and tiring, but the school thought it was a
necessary class because “people fear what they don’t understand,
and if someone sees you use your powers, they probably won’t
understand”.

I wasn’t
summoned to meet with Omeye until I was in psychology, which wasn’t
nearly as interesting as I’d hoped. It was Mr. Ramirez who came to
get me, and he led me to an empty classroom on the second floor.
Inside, already seated, was an ancient looking man with dark,
leathery skin and thick glasses that magnified his beady little
brown eyes. When he turned his eyes on me I was rather surprised by
how strong and deep his gaze was.

“Come, sit,” he
said to me. His voice was very quiet, yet clear. I sat in the chair
that he indicated, and Mr. Ramirez sat beside Omeye, who was across
from me.

Omeye held out
his palms and asked for my hands, which I placed in his. His skin
felt soft and delicate. He closed his eyes, and sat there for a few
minutes like that, just holding my hands. Finally, his eyes
opened.

“I sense a lot
of power hidden deep within you, but it is too deep for you or me
to reach, so I will not dwell on it. I also sense that you have
three distinct abilities, which is very rare. Most heroes only have
one. Do you know what any of them are?”

“Yes, sir, I
can see auras,” I told him.

“Yes, and I
don’t doubt that you understand their meaning well. You do not know
of your other abilities?”

“I know of
other things that I am good at, but I wouldn’t call any of them
magical.”

“Ah. Well then
I guess I must tell you. You also have the ability to draw the
future. Have you ever spent much time drawing in the past?”

“No, I never
really did. I had other interests.” I had barely even coloured as a
child since all of the coloring books at Pembrook were scribbled
over, and I had never taken art class in school.

“You should try
it sometime. You may be surprised. Your third ability is that you
are resistant to fire, which is always handy. If you know someone
with a fire ability you can practice with them.”

“My roommate
does, and I’m sure she wouldn’t mind.”

“Good. It might
be a little frightening to try at first because it’s hard to allow
yourself to be burned, but I assure you that you will not be. The
flames should lick harmlessly against your skin, whether you
concentrate or not. It isn’t something you need to practice, but
it’s good to get an idea of what it feels like.”

“Is it a common
ability?” I asked.

“No, I can’t
say that it is. The only abilities that are truly common are those
involving control of the elements.” He stood up slowly. “I hope I
have been of help to you. You seem like a remarkable girl.”

I told him that
he had been helpful, though I still had a hard time believing that
I actually had three abilities instead of just the one that I knew
about. We parted ways, and Mr. Ramirez led me back to psychology,
talking the whole way about others he had met with abilities like
mine, though I wasn’t listening.

Later I ended
up being the first one in the room for calculus. There were still
five minutes before class started, so I got out a pen and a blank
sheet of paper. I had no idea how to start, so I just kind of sat
there with my pen hovering over the paper. Finally, I brought the
pen to the paper without having any idea what I was going to do,
and something strange happened. It was like I had lost control of
my own hand, so I just let it go so I could see what happened.

I was quite
absorbed with what I was doing, so when I finished and looked up, I
was surprised to see that the classroom was full, and the teacher
was about to start class.

“That’s quite
the drawing,” the person who had sat down beside me said, and I
nearly jumped a foot in the air. I glanced quickly over at him and
confirmed that is was, indeed, Adrian. He was leaning back casually
in his chair, but his eyes were serious.

“Not really the
subject matter I was expecting,” I commented, examining the
picture. It was clearly a drawing of Melissa, who was holding a
rose and smiling. It was actually a much better drawing than I was
expecting since I had no experience, and it was quite
realistic.

“You didn’t
know what you were drawing?” Adrian asked, sounding confused.

“No,” I
answered. I didn’t have time to explain because class started
then.

Calculus ended
up being the only class in which I had to do any work that day. The
teacher handed out assignments at the beginning of class to test
our previous knowledge of the subject, and told us to work alone or
in pairs. I chose to work alone. I figured I would get less done if
I was working with Adrian, though he continued to distract me
anyway. He asked about the drawing, and I told him about my
ability, though I neglected to tell him that I had two others.

“That’s odd,”
he said. “I thought you were a witch.”

“Why would you
think that?”

“Actually, I
don’t know. You just seem perceptive.”

“Well, I
thought the same about you, and you’re a werewolf. Isn’t the full
moon coming up soon?”

“Yes, it’s in
two days.” He wasn’t happy about that at all, but he tried to hide
it. Of course, he didn’t know just how much I could see.

“Do you enjoy
it?”

“I enjoy being
a wolf, but I don’t think I’ll like being locked up beneath the
school for a whole night when I could be running free in the
woods.” For some reason he was lying about both. I could usually
tell when people lied because I could see their guilt and fear.

I didn’t
confront him about his lie because he probably had reasons behind
it and I didn’t want to offend him. I lapsed back into silence
again so I could work on my assignment. I ended up being the next
one to break the silence anyway. I couldn’t control my
curiosity.

“Why do I never
see you around school?” I asked. It was true that I had not seen
him anywhere other than at the ball, even though I saw everyone
else I knew regularly.

“I eat in the
dorm. I don’t like noise.”

“If you don’t
like noise, then why did you go to the ball?”

“I was hoping
to see you there.” He looked straight at me as he said this, and he
wasn’t lying.

“When did you
see me before then?” I asked. “I didn’t see you before that night.
I would’ve remembered if I had.”

“I saw you in
the library with Leewood. I didn’t expect to see anyone in there
before classes started, but there you were, poring over old books
like there was something you desperately needed to know.”

“There was
something I needed to know, and I never found it.”

“Then perhaps
the library is not where you need to look.”

“There’s
nowhere else I can look. It doesn’t matter anyway. I don’t expect
to find answers.”

“How badly do
you want them?”

I frowned. “I
don’t really know. I want the truth so that I don’t have to
question it anymore, but I’m worried that the truth isn’t what I
want or expect it to be.”

“What do you
want it to be?” Adrian asked softly.

“I want it to
be nothing. I want to find out that there’s nothing wrong with me
at all, that I’m perfectly normal.”

He looked
surprised. He hadn’t known what answers I was even looking for, and
it wasn’t what he expected. “Why would you think there’s something
wrong with you?”

“It’s kind of a
long story,” was my answer.

Class ended
then. Adrian collected his things and then smiled at me before
quickly departing. I headed to the cafeteria, since it was time for
supper. When I got there, the first thing I saw surprised me.
Melissa was standing in the corner talking to Mrs. Espenas, and she
held in one hand a single rose. It was exactly like in my drawing,
which shocked me. I actually stopped in my tracks, though I was
standing in the doorway. Someone cleared their throat behind me and
I realized I was blocking the way.

When I sat down
and Melissa joined me, she explained that the rose was from her
last class, which was Botany. She had just been talking to Mrs.
Espenas, who was the teacher of the class, who said she had a lot
of talent with caring for roses, which was what they had spent the
class doing. She was really excited about it, so I listened to her
talk happily about it during the rest of the meal, all the while
pondering my newfound ability.

Chapter
12

The next day in
Skills Development we actually got to practice using our abilities.
I was kind of glad that I actually had something to work on. Mr.
Ramirez told us to get in pairs, and I ended up partnered with
Melissa, who was eager to get started.