Jump Line (Book 1 - Jump Line Series)

Chapter Eight

Chapter Eight

As I walked back toward the meadow, the sound of Theo and Samuel talking grew louder. Rounding a small curve in the pathway, I saw them standing within feet of one another, their arms outstretched in front of their bodies as if they were professional wrestlers dancing around each other in the ring. Theo was hunched, like a panther ready to pounce on its prey, as he prowled stealthily around Samuel.

Samuel mimicked Theo's walk, lunging toward him every few seconds to see if he could catch him off guard.

"C'mon. Stop dancing around me and actually try to hit me." Theo huffed, slamming his palms against his thighs, his narrowed eyes making it look like he was squinting.

"Like how Esa hit you a few minutes ago?" Samuel chuckled, and then he put his two palms together and slowly pulled them apart, revealing a ball of electricity. "By the way, how's your jaw doing? It looked like she got you pretty good," Samuel said as he threw the ball straight up into the air. It passed the few meager clouds that lingered and came back down as five smaller balls.

Theo tugged at his medallion and disappeared, only to reappear several seconds later on the other side of the meadow.

"Nice try," Theo retorted, turning and bringing out what looked like a large boomerang that glowed from with electricity. It arced around the meadow before flying back to Theo's hands. I hadn't noticed, but Samuel had disappeared.

He reappeared standing next to me. "Glad you decided to join us Esa."

"I thought about taking off and running from this place, but then realized I have no clue where I'm at or how to leave."

"Good point," Samuel said.

"What are you guys doing?" I pushed up the sleeves on my white top. It was getting warm and the soft fabric was itchy against my skin.

"We are practicing," Samuel said.

"For what?"

"In case we get attacked. We always need to be prepared. The new robots are getting faster and more human-like, but they still can't do some of the stuff we can."

"How are you able to disappear and then reappear?"

Samuel looked over at Theo. I watched as they both stared at each other. Theo then nodded his head forward as if to give Samuel the sign that it was okay to talk with me.

"Esa, you are my only sister, but if we find out you are working against us, then I won't hesitate to kill you," Samuel said. "However, I don't think you are plotting anything against us. I really think something happened to your memory. That's why we have decided to freely talk about things in front of you. I just hope you don't prove me wrong."

"I won't. I've told you nothing but the truth," I said.

"Esa, the medallion is your life line. It's what opens the Jump Line." Samuel held out the disk attached around his neck.

"That's not possible. My medallion doesn't do anything. Trust me. I've always wondered why I had this thing and couldn't seem to take it off." I traced the medallion's familiar surface. It had been my safety net for so many years.

"Slightly tug on it." Samuel lifted his hand up to his medallion. "Maybe something happened to it while you were in 2010."

I wrapped my hand around my own medallion. I felt my hand release a small bolt of electricity into the disk. The soft vapor rings from earlier reappeared in front of me.