Psychic Schoolkids - Part 11

The four of us had taken to staying after school. Teachers didn't mind, we were old enough to be left in a study room unsupervised, and I am yet to meet a teacher that is discouraging people to study in their own free time. The fact that we didn't actually do any studying was irrelevant.

Emily sat on the table, a candle sitting in front of her.

"I can't do it." She said. "I can make it warm, I can even start to melt the wax." She gestured to the dribbles of wax running down the candle. "But can I make the thing catch on fire? Nope!"

"Maybe you should touch it? That helps with everyone else's power." Dane suggested from his position by the window. He was watching the sun fade into the distance.

"I don't think touching will help when the point is to make something catch on fire." I added, from the other side of the room where I was looking down at the teacher's offices. All the teachers were gone except for Mr Harding, and unsuprisingly, Ms Ellis, who was almost always at school later than us, and would usher us out on her way home if we hadn't already left.

Ms Ellis had always supported us hanging around at school, and so despite Mr Harding's protests, we were allowed to spend some time in one of the free study rooms provided we didn't burn it down. That would have been okay except for what we were trying with Emily...

"Maybe I don't need to heat things." Emily said. She reached over and picked up a cup of water and took a drink. "I can freeze things okay." The cup and the water inside turned to ice.

"That is pretty cool." Chloe said. "Maybe..."

Chloe kept talking, but I had stopped paying attention. There was something else across the school. The room opposite us was dark, but there was a shadow of a person clearly outlined in the window. I wasn't sure if I was imagining it, whether I was just seeing an odd shadow being cast. Then I felt the panic and the pain.

It was more intense than anything I had ever felt from another person, it was stronger and more overwhelming and before I knew it, I was running.

"Jacob!" Chloe shouted a second before I started to move, but it was pointless, my feet were moving whether I wanted to or not.

The time between noticing the shadow and being at the door to the room I saw it in passed like a blur. Our school isn't small, so it must have taken a few minutes to make it over there, but time was behaving oddly. I flicked the light switch, but there was no response. The lights stayed dark and the shadow stood by the window.

I tried to speak, to say something comforting, since helping the thing would hopefully quieten the screaming in my head, but I couldn't think of anything to say. All there was was pain, and confusion, and I could barely think, let alone come up with something insightful.

"It's different." Came a voice, from what I assumed was the shadow. But it felt like it was more in my head than an actual sound. "Everything is different from the other side..."

"The other side?"

"I know you...you're Jacob." The shadow continued, like it had something it needed to say and wasn't going to waste time answering questions. "You're not supposed to be involved. But you were supposed to find me."

The confusion was gone, the panic was gone. I felt calm, an eerie kind of calm you don't expect.

"I could do things. Strange, wonderful things and I didn't even know how. I was supposed to find Dane, and Emily, and then there would be three. That's how she said it was going to happen. That's why I was here tonight. But they found me first...and now...I think things are different."

"Who found you? What could you do?" The questions came out before I realised that I wasn't actually communicating so much as listening to something, like it was pre-recorded.

"Something is playing a game with people's lives Jacob. They didn't count on you though - you and Chloe weren't a part of their plan. I just hope you can stop them..."

"Okay I'm sick of this cryptic nonsense. Who are you." I walked forward and put a hand on the shoulder of the person. It was straight through, something which I know shouldn't have suprised me but did anyway.

I stopped running again. I don't even remember starting to run, but I was now at the locker bays. I didn't even know you could get to the locker bays at night. Slumped in front of me was a body. Covered in cuts that were thin but looked deep...almost like his body had been slowly ripped apart. His name had been Neil...I think that was all I knew about him except that he was quiet, and I wish now I'd seen enough to know what had happened.

Chloe had been right though...a body in the locker room.

"Well..well...well. If it isn't Jacob coming to snoop about." Came a voice from behind me. Not the kind of voice I wanted to hear either.

"Bit late for you to be at school isn't it?" I replied.

"Things to do, teachers to see. I don't think we'd ever stayed back late like you and your wondergang do."

"Things change." I shrugged, still not wanting to turn around.

"They certainly do." Came a second voice.

I felt myself fly off my feet and slam into a locker. The pain rang through my head. But now I felt the need to turn around before my nose started to bleed and I couldn't manage some kind of heroic face.

"Learned some new tricks have we Chris?"