Awake by Nightfall - Emilia Sherman (i read book txt) 📗

cause suspicion. “Well, for now, yes.”

“I want you to watch her at school.”

I was taken aback. I had not planned her to suggest this. Seekers in a high school were not unusual, since most of our jobs involve finding unique humans that have powers identical to ours. But since this wasn’t our mission, it seemed useless to waste time in a high school.

A thought just hit me. No one has ever succeeded in finding Leon because maybe they were searching the wrong spots. The Radiant sent Seekers to find him as a regular human but he was my age. If anything, I bet he would hide in a regular high school like most descendants. He wouldn’t use his powers though. He would just act like a normal teenager.

“Perfect.” Aria said in a cheerful voice. Both her and Tamara were eavesdropping on our conversation. “I always wanted to go to a human school. We could learn a lot from humans.”

“In high school. The young humans do not have a clue on anything. They care nothing but their social life status. They suffer in high school every day.” Tamara added with a sly smile. “Let’s do it.”

“Looks like we will take you up on your offer.” I finished.

“I will take care of everything. You will start school Monday like the rest of the students.” She gave us a short nod. She waited until we each nodded back then replied. “Follow me.”

We followed after her, our black cloaks flowing at our feet. We looked like body guards for Cassandra. The doctor didn’t even try to stop us, which I think Cassandra was planning all along. She led us down a leading passageway from the main waiting room. We went into an elevator, and let her control the elevator. We left there and into another hallway. She finally brought us to a patient room. She waited until we were all in and locked the door behind us.

“You know you can’t keep us in here.” Tamara warned.

“It’s not for you. That doctor wasn’t too happy, watching all of us come in here. He’s calling security.” Cassandra smiled. She walked up to a white curtain and pulled it away, revealing the girl.

The girl had been cleaned up. She was curled up into a ball, maybe for protection from the nightmares. Her wavy, light brown hair was covering her pale face. I noticed her fingers twitched at the sound of the curtain being pulled away. She was still sick, though, almost as scary-looking as us. Her heart monitor showed even breaths so, she was at rest.

“Why did you bring us here?” I questioned Cassandra.

“To meet my son.” As Cassandra said that, a boy entered from a side bathroom.

I stared at him, and smirked. “Impossible. He’s human.”

The boy came in with a firm attitude. He had to be human. Stating the fact, that he had no similar features like Cassandra. His hair was mud and eyes were a bore. There was simply nothing appealing about humans. The personality was almost a match to Cassandra though. She probably got him young. Him growing up with her, at a young age, would make him feel a certain attachment to Cassandra. Some notes to take before I work with them.

“I don’t see why we need them.” The boy muttered in an unpleasant tone.

“Gabe-”

“No.” I snapped at Cassandra. I walked in front of the boy. I was going to enjoy messing with him. “You should know well boy that we are here to help. But know this, you should be frightened.”

The boy didn’t stand down. “I know everything about you Seeker. I also know there is a way to kill you, and I will be the one to find it.”

“It’s impossible to find.”

“Really? Because-”

“Gabriel!” Cassandra stopped him. “They do not want to hear about your silly research.”

“Actually, I am quite interested on what he has to say. Please continue.” I pushed a chair towards him.

He stood there, momentarily and then burst into laughter. “I know you don’t have any special gift, Seeker.”

I took a step back. No one knew that I didn’t have any powers. Not even my fellow Seekers. A dear friend of my mother told me that I do have a power but having problems triggering it. I was a reject or I guess more of a late bloomer. But how could a mere mortal know this before anyone else could? Maybe he was more than he appeared to be, I must have missed it by his pure human awkwardness.

“He studies the Fallen ever since I told him the truth.” Cassandra explained. “He can tell right away by examining your necklaces or any pendants that you might have. We know that you have a Healer, and a Water Manipulator. I knew since you didn’t have anything symbolizing yourself except an Attain, that you must not have been born with one.”

“This boy wouldn’t know the difference between fiction and real.” Tamara said in a too loud of a voice.

“I am afraid that there are a lot of things that we still don’t know about ourselves.” Cassie added prophet like.

“We might as well just get into introducing ourselves fully. My name is Darien Cross, and I have a gift, I just need something to trigger it.”

“Like do you need to get angry, like the Hulk.” Gabriel suggested, mocking me.

“I have no idea what this Hulk thing is and I have no clue on how to trigger mine.”

“Enough of that. I’m Aria Griffin, a Healer and also the nicest one of the group.”

“Tamara Flores or Tammie. I am a Water Manipulator.”

“Nice to meet, all of you. I am Cassandra Striker but Marina knows me as Aunt Cassie, and this Gabriel or Gabe.” Cassandra motioned Gabe to stand up. “We must hurry and find you a place to stay while you are here.”

“The doctor might have called in some back up.” I wasn’t really concerned but, might as well and try to draw less attention to us. “And I still have questions.”

“Gabe can answer any questions that you might have while you leave. I will deal with the doctor and any security.”Cassandra opened the door.

Gabe leads us through a different hallway. He walked fast, trying to show off most likely, but he underestimated how fast we were. Especially, Aria. We passed him without any effort. Aria was like a little kid hyper on candy, can’t sit still for too long. She twirled all the way down the corridor.

“Are you leading us a back way?” I asked Gabriel, since the path he was taking us in was taking longer than the other one we just arrived in.

“Just through a hallway outside the Emergency Rooms. The hallway leads to the parking lot.”

“Do you think we will see any sick patients?” Aria tilted her slightly, making a puppy dog face.

“No. We don’t have time.” As those words slipped through my mouth, a door leading to a hallway burst opened.

We all stepped out of the way as some nurses pushing a gurney by us. A man chasing after them crashed into me with such a force that it caused me to fell down. I saw Gabriel reaction to my clumsiness and didn’t even concentrate on his facial expression. As I recollected myself, I peered over my shoulder to catch the idiot who made me fall. The lucky bastard had disappeared already. He left a stinging sensation on my left shoulder and my Attain necklace had a little warmth to it. Not enough to lead me to the guy but a thought just accrued to me. Was that Leon?

Did Leon have his own Attain necklace? Is that why he was here? Did his necklace led him to this hospital and to only find out that we were already here, so he ran? Gabriel did say this was a back passageway to the parking lot. Maybe, Leon had the same idea. Was he really forming an army against the Radiant?

Aria yanked on my arm, and pulled me up. I let the Leon thoughts disappear as we exited the hospital. We finally made it outside. The warm breeze felt welcoming here. Gabriel led us to the car. I stopped him before he got in the passenger side.

“Gabriel, I wanted to know if we are to tell Marina anything about us.”

“What are you nuts? Only me, or my mom, will give her some facts about it, no one else. She needs to be in the dark. She can’t know too much or they will find her.” Gabriel opened his door to get in. “Look, it’s like a family thing. I think she would rather hear about who she really is from a close family member than a couple of strangers. Don’t you have a family.”

“Yes, but the way we find out about ourselves is different. We are automatically thrown into learning how to control our emotions and gifts. To learn about ourselves.”

“Oh, sounds… uninteresting and lonely.”

I shrugged and thought aloud. “So, right now, she doesn’t know anything.”

“Not a single fact.”

“What about her gift?”

“It disappeared after the doctors gave her some medicine.”He got into his seat and slammed his door.

I nodded. The poor girl would have no idea what was coming. If that was Leon, than there might be possibility that others are looking for her. Cassandra did say that the plane crash wasn’t an accident. What if someone knew about her powers and tried to kill her? And if they knew she was still alive, would they come back? What were we getting ourselves into?

And what about this Gabriel and Cassandra? Could we trust them like they trust us? Gabriel, is doing research on us, so he must know something about how to kill us? There has to be a lot they are not telling us?

In the dark

. I felt like that girl wasn’t the only one in the dark.

At least, I had one thing that could cause all these questions to disappear. One thing that I know for a fact, is way different from our world. In our world, knowledge was the upmost importance. Down here. Not so much.

 

Chapter 04: Puzzle

Marina

“Miss Stonehart, I will ask you again. Please give us any information you might remember from the flight.” The old, police officer asked.

He was maybe in his mid-thirties. He had a shiny, bald head that look a lot like a big bowling ball. I would laugh at him but he seemed like one of those tough cops, that I didn’t dare smile. He never smiled or showed his eyes to me because of the sunglasses that hid them. I didn’t get who would wear sunglasses inside a building. Although, maybe, he hated how the white walls made everything bright in here. I hated the color white. Everything in the hospital seemed to be white.
From the walls, to the doctors, to the pudding they keep giving me. I was sick of white.

I was also sick of all the repetitive questions. I already told them I didn’t have a clue what happened on that plane. But every time the doctors said I made progress, the police came in right away. I stared at the ceiling again, trying to avoid his cold stare before I answered.