The Mysterious Door

Chapter 3

The Instructor's voice wakes us the next morning. I roll off the bed, get dressed and eat breakfast. The group starting today is said to consist of Daniel, Tristan, Jason, and Sabrina (not that I know who they're supposed to be). I always thought that when you have a set of names and a set of faces it wouldn't be too hard to put them together, but I think the opposite is actually true.

The doors slide open and, like the sheep they think we are, we walk among each other: my group joined by the black haired boy with the dagger across from me, the red haired boy in his neighboring room, a strong looking boy from between Anthony and the sickly boy and the girl with bob black hair that asked a question the first day.

"Get any sleep," Anthony asks in general.

"I actually slept quite well," Cindy says, "I suppose I was more tired than I cared to admit."

"Yeah," I say, "Teleporting did seem to take a lot out of me. I don't even remember my head touching the pillow."

"Maybe they put something in our food to make us sleep," Jasmine says, "That way they can come and go in our rooms without waking us."

"You don't think they would do that," the girl (obviously Sabrina) says, startling us.

"They should try it," the dagger boy says, "I will cut them down with my eyes closed and my left hand tied to my right foot with a cable tie."

"That's, oddly specific," I say, immediately regretting it when I'm greeted by the most venomous look I have ever received. It was like he was ripping my soul apart with his eyes.

"Try me," he spits the words, "Against you I won't even need my knife."

"Back off," Cindy says, "We're all in this together."

"Yeah," Jasmine adds, "We can't start turning against each other this early, maybe that's exactly what they want."

"Just stay out of my way," he says, "And I won't be forced kill you before they can."

"Daniel," Sabrina says, "That really is no way to act. Father would be terribly disappointed in you."

"Yeah? Well, Father isn't here right now, is he?" They're siblings? Yes, I don't know how I didn't see this before. Their thick hair, angular faces and superior attitudes. It must be terrible for their parents, losing both children to this unnecessarity.

"I hate it when you get like this," Sabrina says, storming off ahead of the rest of us, followed closely by a submissive looking Daniel.

In the training room we split up, they join their helper at our previous station and we join ours at the mats across from it. The station is very similar to the other one, the only difference being a roof high slab of glass splitting the mats in two.

"Okay," Brandon says, "I hope you all got enough rest to shake off the residual lag from yesterday's teleporting. Today we are going to move on to something a little harder. Yesterday your only goal was to teleport and your only obstacle was the air around you. Today you will be going the extra mile, teleporting through this here thick slab of glass."

I can do this, I think to myself, it's not such a big deal. What difference could it possibly make to teleport through glass? It's not like I want to teleport into the glass itself. I close my eyes, pushing everything, all the possible distractions, out of my mind. I start to feel the familiar vibration all around me, feel the energy becoming part of me once more, and feel it entering my lungs with every breath. I open my eyes, seeing the feint outline of the figure through the glass. This is it. Here I go. I feel space bending at my command, time slowing down, warping to my desire as I move closer to the figure until...