Experiment X

34 | The Meadow

Phase 8 | The Haven

34 | The Meadow

The flames twist up into the thick dark night, dancing with a warm radiance glowing against the faces of all gathered around the campfire. Hope sits near the center upon the long, hollow Manu found and brought from the wooded area to the forest-bordered common where they have taken reprieve for the night; but they do not have to worry about being found out now, with the illusion of them not being there at all, and this reality is just beginning to sink in for all of them, especially Teresa.

Beside of her rests Manu with Sera, upon the other side is Reina, and the others including Teresa, and Gil sit and listen to the sounds of the night wildlife, and Hope talking to them. She smiles down at Streak, who is at her feet, patting him. She had only told them she had sent him, the dog, to protect them specifically.

“You really did? Did send Streak?” Sera asks, her eyes getting big.

“Yes,” she says, “Orana, back within the Haven, she can speak to animals…And we’ve began collecting the strays that come across our land, and tell them to help find and protect the escapees like yourself out there…And lead them to the Haven, when we ourselves can’t be there. But fortunately, we could be here for you all now.”

A silence falls, and then Manu asks, “Can you tell of us how your powers came to be? I know I asked earlier…It’s just I’m a little confused on it still…” They all are, at this point.

“Well, you see,” she says, her face shadowed by the firelight, “it was fifteen ago, when Father Lius—”

“Father Lius?” Teresa speaks, concerned. “You mean of the Father?” Her eyes blink, confused.

Hope nods. “Yes, of him exactly…You see that is his name. But he wishes no one to know this because he wishes no one to have control over him…That is his name.”

“How do you know this? About us, everything?” Manu adds, curiously.

“Um, no offense intended, Manu,” Hope says, “but I was getting to that exactly. Let me begin with when Dictator Lius, for that is what he is nothing less…He’s fooled this nation of being anything more, but anyhow…When was just gaining power, both my brother and I were both seventeen…We are twins; and, at that time we were living with our parents in what used to be known as Wyoming…And we had been camping that night; when our parents were asleep, we decided to go hiking out into the woods together, just for fun…But as we both recollect upon it now, it was senseless, because of what ended up happening.

“We had been talking by a lake, watching the stars together, and my brother, Lenaeus, told me wait there, because he thought he saw something, and wanted to check it out. So, I let him go. I wish I hadn’t though, but now there’s nothing I can do about that…He had been gone a long time, so eventually I started calling him…Then still nothing. So I got up, and went looking for him. Before I knew it, someone—now I know one of the Shadows had suffocated me, then injected a needle into me causing me to faint…

“When I woke up again, I found myself in a blindingly white cell, and Voice spoke to me, telling me of these strange powers I now possess and that I had to use them to defend myself in a violent Tournament where I had to fight to survive, to be the last one standing…There were twelve others like me, with other powers, and Lenaeus was one of them…We ended up having partners…And fortunately enough Len was mine…What was the first clue something was terribly wrong was that this Voice told us we had traded our memory for a temporary time for these powers, eventually I regained my former memories, but now they are fragmented and some are completely lost…

“Blurred here and there, but anyhow, I had been gifted with the ability to speak within others dreams…This was how I first connected with Phanen and Davel,” she goes on, gesturing to Davel who sits near Gil, upon the grown, his wrists reposing his wrists upon his knees, smiling, “and my brother’s ability is that his knowledge capacity is overwhelming, far superior than that of a human, knowing past, present, and future, although the future for him is only as constant the will of those who make decisions, and as their decisions change, so does the future…And it was him, who already knew what was going on…But it took awhile before we could escape…And it had been a boy named Hamen; he had the ability penetrate minds and control them, and together we escaped but…Hamen had sacrificed himself to save us…So…I tell you this, because this is what Emberly is experiencing as we speak…” She looks to Teresa’s whose eyes are lost in her own world of disparaging thought, and feeling.