The Power of The Merge (Book 1 of the Daearies series)

(Chapter 5) KIT

I left the training room at exactly six minutes past three to wait for Emmie outside. I didn't acknowledge her on my way out, for the sake of not looking suspicious. I started to re-think this whole plan. What if we were caught? What if Emmie was caught? I could handle whatever they wanted to do to me but what if they hurt Emmie. I tried to focus on the reason why we were doing this. I had to find out more about the merge, about Emmie.

I looked at my watch and right on time Emmie exited the training room at ten past three and joined me in the hallway. I hoped that nobody saw us leave or suspected anything if they did. We nodded to each other before making our way past the sleeping quarters, past the food hall, and down towards the infirmary. I could sense she was nervous so I focused on my breathing to keep my nerves steady in an attempt to calm hers. I stopped before an empty room next to the infirmary and looked around for any sign of people before opening the door. Emmie followed behind me. I closed the door and placed a chair underneath the handle to bide us some time in case anyone tried to enter the room while we were in the vents.

I pulled another chair in the middle of the room, directly beneath the vent, and stepped onto it to inspect the vent. The opening was large which meant there was enough space for the both of us to crawl through. However, the vent was bolted shut and there was no way I could unscrew it alone. Suddenly I was glad Emmie was with me, with her power alone she could rip the vent door from the ceiling if she wanted to. I stepped down from the chair and Emmie knew what to do. She raised both her palms to the ceiling and a crimson light flowed around her hands. I could see her concentrating on the bolts and one by one the bolts unscrewed and fell to the ground. Then she slowly lowered the huge vent door to the ground. She closed her hand and the red light disappeared. Her eyes turned from red to sapphire blue and her skin glowed, as it usually did when she used her power and I had to stop myself from staring. I pushed a table underneath the vent and climbed on top. I offered my hand to Emmie, she took it and  stepped onto the table. I held on to her hand a little too long, I haven't been this close to her in a long time, I can feel her heart pounding against my chest. I dropped her hand and crouched down holding out my hands to give her a boost up. She grabbed onto the side of the vent and lifted herself up as graciously as she could.

"Urghh! Remind me to never go climbing into vents with you again." I heard her say as she vanished into the vent. I smiled holding back a laugh and took one last look around the room before reaching up and pulling myself into the vent behind her.

We crawled through the tight space on our hands and knees as quietly as we could, turning a few corners with great difficulty. We stopped to peer through a few vents looking for a room that looked similar to the room we were merged in. We came to a dead-end and the room we were looking down into was empty with no sign of any merge taking place. Emmie complained that she couldn't breathe and that I was taking up to much space and squashing her.

"You are too big for this vent, I should have just come alone." She said.

"You are too dramatic" I replied.

"Shhh, I hear something." She whispered nudging my arm.

A door swung open and in walked two adults wearing long white coats closely followed by a small child around the age of ten. We both stilled at the sight of the child and Emmie leaned in closer to get a better look. The two adults made small conversation with the child; the door opened a second time and in walked another child accompanied by another adult in a white coat. The two children, a boy, and a girl were stood in front of each other. They smiled at one another but I could see the fear behind their eyes.

"What's going to happen?" The small boy asked the woman who stood to his left.

"We spoke about this. You are both going to become very special members of the golden army. This is a great honor." The woman said smiling down at the boy.

"My mummy told me the merge is very very dangerous." The little girl said.

"Your mummy is not here anymore. Your mummy would want you to do this. Your mummy would want you to serve your country. It is a great honor." She repeated.

The little girl bowed her head and began to weep.

"Now this is not a time for tears," The woman said staring down at the girl.

"I want to see my mummy," the girl said with tears streaming down her face. They ignored her.

"I want to see my mummy now!" The girl demanded. The girl held her hands together and cobalt light poured from her palms swirling around her little fingers. A gush of wind rushed around the room and the boy stood back in disbelief.

"Kit." I heard Emmie whisper.

"She has power before the merge," I noted the shock in Emmie's voice.

"Stop that right now" The woman demanded grabbing hold of the little girl's arm and lifting it into the air. The light vanished and the girl dropped her head.

"Now when you are ready, you are going to use your power to merge with the boy" The woman instructed the girl.

The girl seemed to realize there was no evading the inevitable, she wiped her tears on her sleeve and held her head high as she approached the boy. In that moment she reminded me of Emmie when she was a child. She held out her hands to him, he reluctantly placed his hands on hers and a beam of white light flowed from her chest and into his. This is it. This is the merge. After what seemed like a long minute, the girl pulled back her hands and they both fainted to the floor. Two beds were wheeled in and the children were carefully lifted onto them. One of the adults, a tall guy with glasses placed his hands to their temples, and an emerald light emitted from his palms and swirled around their tiny heads.

"They won't remember anything." He said before they all left the room.

I heard Emmie gasp and when I turned to her she started sobbing. We made our way back through the vent, a million questions running through my mind. Emmie used her power to put the vent door back in place and sealed it shut. She turned to leave and I reached for her wrist. I didn't know how to console her after what we had just witnessed but I needed to do....something. She turned without looking at me and placed her head on my chest and hugged me tightly, like she did when we were young. I wrapped both my arms around her searching for the right words to say.

"Kit? We have to do something." Her voice was shaky.

"I know." Was all I could manage to say.