The Mysterious Door

Chapter 6

I get dressed, eat breakfast and meet my group in the hallway, joined, for the first time, by everyone. The latest group (consisting of Margarete, Misaki and Veronica) are all wearing yellow. Seeing that they're only three, I suppose Axel would have been in their group as well.

Feeling better today," Cindy asks Anthony, "You seemed on edge yesterday."

"Sorry about that," he scratches the back of his head, "I didn't mean to take my anger out on you. It's just hard to control sometimes, especially when everything seems to provoke you."

"I guess we're all a bit stressed lately," Jasmine says, catching up with the conversation once we reach her cubicle, "You have more reason than any of us to be, since you've been here way longer than any of us."

"Well," I say, "We just need to look out for each other from here on out. Maybe ease up on the teasing."

"I guess I haven't been the best friend," Cindy says, "I tend to get carried away sometimes."

"I know you mean well," Anthony says, smiling at her, "You just hit a sensitive spot. Kids at my school used to make fun of me and bully me because of similar accusations. I guess it still bothers me."

"I didn't know," she says, examining the floor intently, "I'm really sorry. I won't do it again. But just so you know, if it were true, I would never judge you."

"Thank you," he says. They hold each other in what must have been the most awkward hug ever, causing one of the orange group's teleporters to bump into them. After a quick apology we walk to the other side of the room, where Brandon is waiting right outside the death-door.

"Are we playing dodge ball again," Cindy asks excitedly, "I could go for a rematch."

"Unfortunately not," Brandon says, his face still friendly, "Today will be your last official lesson. After today you will have learnt all I have been told to teach you."

"So what will happen after today," Anthony asks.

"We will have to wait for all the other teams to go through the course" Brandon smiles, "And then the tests will begin."

"Fabulous," Jasmine says, irritation lining every word, "I hate tests."

"Don't worry about that right now. The tests are not that hard to survive, you'll just have to stay focused and listen to everything I tell you."

The way he used survive makes me fearful, but nothing's going to stop me from getting back to my parents. Not even the Instructor and Gustav will be able to stand in my way.

"Right then," Brandon walks to the side, standing on a set of mats in the corner of the room, "Today's lesson will be to teleport through pictures. It can be a very useful skill to have." He indicates a few photos pinned to the wall behind him. Each of us walks to one and wait for him to explain.

"The trick to mastery will be to see the picture as a doorway to your destination. You'll want to see yourself standing inside the photo, feel yourself bending space, moving through the picture to reach the place that it shows."

"These photos were taken across the room," Jasmine says, confusion on her face, "Wouldn't it be easier to just teleport by sight, like on the first day?"

"It would," Brandon says, still in his friendly voice, "But that would defy the point of this exercise. Just imagine the possibilities that this would hold for you. You would be able to teleport to the other side of the world in the blink of an eye if you only had a picture of where you wished to go."

"So do all pictures allow you to step through them," Anthony asks.

"Normally, yes. But there are some photographs that might have become too old to use. The tests we did showed that photos normally become unusable for teleportation after about five years." I touch my locket instinctively, mourning a hope I didn't even know I had.