Dreams

Ignatius

Chapter Two: Ignatius

Elias opened his eyes. He was standing in a dark room, only a little bit of light coming from the slits in the large metal door behind him. He blinked, trying to get his eyes to adjust to the darkness. He saw a figure of a girl, on her knees, her gaze cast down at her hands, fingers curled against the cold, stone floor. She looked older than Elisa, and he also noticed she wasn't wearing the typical orange jumpsuit. She wore a mint green hospital gown. Her dark hair was long and matted, covering half of her face. Her shoulders shook silently and Elias heard the faint sound of water hitting stone. He saw tears streaming down the girl's pale cheeks. Elias stepped forward, his hand outstretched to the girl. "Are you okay?" he asked her. Before his hand could reach her shoulder, the soft sobs grew louder until they weren't sobs anymore. They had morphed into a deafening laughter that made Elias cringe with fear. The laugh was too familiar. The girl raised her head, a huge, mad grin on her tear-stained face. Elias found himself staring into a bright jade green eye as the laughter echoed around him. Elias threw his arms in front of him, as if warding her off and he closed his eyes, screaming. Elias fell out of bed and hit the floor hard. He felt the wind rush out of his lungs with a quiet whoosh. He sat up, gasping for air as he looked all around him. The boys in his room were still sleeping. Through the curtains, he could still see the stars twinkling blissfully against the vast night sky. Aislin really did live up to her name. That face would haunt him for a long while, if not forever. Elias untangled himself from his blanket and crawled back onto his bed and closed his eyes. He quickly fell into a restless sleep. The next morning he trudged to breakfast, his jumpsuit rumpled and dark circles under his eyes. He didn't even bother with his hair, sticking out every which way. Even his bandanna was looser around his neck than normal. Elisa studied him silently. Elias noticed, but didn't bother to say anything. He was too tired, and restless. His fingers drummed nervously on the table and he bounced his leg up and down. Elisa finally managed to say something in her typical soft and delicate voice that always made Elias feel better. It wasn't anything like the voice he'd heard in his head. That one was more mysterious than calming. "Are you alright Elias? You don't look like you've rested too well." Elias just moaned and closed his eyes, wincing from the painful sting of sleep-deprived eyes. "What's wrong? You know you can tell me." Elias looked up into her deep red eyes. The color was unnatural but somehow comforting to him. Elisa actually made the color look delicate with her long white hair and pale white skin. Very few of the students here actually had natural colored hair. Most had natural colored eyes, but there were still a few, like Elisa, who had strange colors for their eyes. Elias was one of the very few with natural colored hair and eyes. It's funny how out of place a normal-looking person could feel here. Elias sighed, looking back down, away from Elisa's eyes. "It was just a nightmare. A terrible, terrible nightmare." Elisa just nodded and an intrigued Emi looked at him with her eyes wide. Elias sighed again, resting his head against his fist. "It was a nightmare about Aislin." Elisa's eyes actually grew wide and Emi gasped, covering her mouth. Elias reached across the table and put his hand on her shoulder. "It's okay Emi. It was just a dream, nothing more." Elias looked at Elisa. They shared a look of understanding and Elisa nodded. They would talk later, when Emi wasn't around. She may have only been a year younger than Elias, but she was extremely sensitive and didn't handle bad news or scary things very well. Elias took his hand back from Emi's fragile little shoulder. A group of guards escorted a young teenager with fiery orange hair into the room. He was a little older than most of the students and wasn't wearing an orange jumpsuit yet, which signaled he was a new arrival. He stepped away from the guards, grabbed a tray of food and scanned the tables for a place to sit. He must have seen Elias staring at him because he locked his gaze on the empty seat next to Elias and began walking towards them. He gave Elias a nervous smile before asking if he could sit there. Elias nodded and the kid sat down. Emi smiled brightly at him. Elisa gave him a small smile, just enough for him to feel welcome, but not quite big enough for it to be considered an emotion. "Hey. I'm Elisa, that's Elias, and this is-" "Emi!" the little girl shouted excitedly. She giggled, bouncing up and down. "What name were you given?" she asked, curiously. The boy smiled charmingly. "They call me Ignatius, meaning 'fire'." He held out his palm and the three friends watched a small flame dance around on his palm, like a candle. He closed his hand into a fist and the fire sizzled out. "Fitting, don't you think?" Elias looked at him in amazement. "Wow, they're already on 'i'?" Ignatius nodded. "A large group of us from an orphanage came in last night. We'd all been on the run for a while. We didn't want to be taken away from our freedom and put in some lab to be experimented on." Emi flinched. "But, I guess this place isn't too bad." Under the table, Elisa held Emi's hand to comfort her. Ignatius began eating his food like he'd never had a hot meal in his life. Then again, when you're on the run, there wouldn't be much to eat that was hot. Elias rubbed his eyes, trying to stay awake as he picked at his food again. Ignatius took a break from stuffing his face to say something so quietly, that the three friends had to struggle to hear it. "But, I've heard there's a place not too far from here- just a mile or two to the west- that gives homes and good food to escaped mutants." All three of the kids flinched at the word "mutants". None of them liked being called that. No one here did. It was becoming obvious that this teen- how old was he? Sixteen? - wasn't very sensitive to people's feelings. Ignatius stuffed his mouth full of food again. "So, what're you guys' powers?" Powers? That was a new way to put it. Most people just called them "special abilities". Elias summoned his dual blades and showed Ignatius. "Whoa, dude! That's sweet." Elias watched his daggers vanish from his hands as he looked at Elisa. She had a pretty cool power. He'd like to see it in action sometime, but she didn't like to use it because the guards didn't like the students using their abilities. They even made telepathic students wear a special headgear that blocked thoughts from transferring to another mind. Elisa kept her face emotionless and her back straight as she spoke, her voice and appearance flawless as usual. "I can create and control psychic matter." Ignatius's eyes grew larger, begging for more information. "Whoa, that sounds awesome. What exactly is that?" Elisa kept her expression the same, as if she were used to people getting intrigued by her ability. "If I can think of an object, I can create it and control it with psychic matter. My brain can bend space to form an object. Theoretically, I can create anything out of thin air." Ignatius laughed. "Wow! That's amazing. Can you show me?" Elisa just shook her head and went back to eating her breakfast. Ignatius pouted a little and muttered under his breath before turning his gaze to Emi. He honestly didn't know what to expect from the little girl. She seemed so innocent. Her power was probably healing or something non-lethal like that. But, she didn't seem like she was paying attention to anything. Her eyes seemed distant, locked onto something that he couldn't see. He noticed her delicate bone structure was trembling. Ignatius looked to Elisa, who was trying to comfort the little girl. Elias seemed to be just as concerned about her as well. Ignatius was just confused, but he didn't have time to ask as a loud bell rang through the hallways, signaling it was time for the students to go to their first class, You and Your Ability. Elisa, Elias, and Emi all rose as one. Elisa and Emi walked off down the hall while Elias stayed back to show Ignatius to the dorm and where all the classes were. Elisa held Emi's hand tightly as she pulled her through the slow moving, crowded hallways. Emi had tears streaming down her face and she sniffed, trying her best to pull herself together. Elisa stopped outside of the classroom and took one long look at Emi before embracing her in a warm comforting hug. "It's alright, Emi. I'm here. No one can hurt you. You're safe." Elisa gently stroked Emi's hair and shushed her until the crying quieted. Elisa pulled back and smiled at Emi, who was wiping the tears off of her face. "All better?" Emi nodded and Elisa led her into the classroom. The rest of the day went by like normal for Elias until the third and final class of the day, History. Yes, even though they were mutants outcast from society, they still had to go through the daily grind of learning about past wars, uprisings and dead leaders that had absolutely no significance in their life. Most students just dozed off in the class because grades really weren't important. It's not like their parents would ever find out, or even care. Elias heard the voice inside his head again. "Daniel, I know your true desires, as well as Ignatius's. Trust him and his plan and all will work out perfectly." Elias blinked; his mind was now completely tuned out of class. Was he going mad? Whose voice was that? Was it really Aislin and did she send him that dream on purpose? How did that voice know his name, his sister's name, and Ignatius? What plan was she referring to? Elias's head swarmed with unanswered questions. He was scared, honestly. He didn't know what to do. Was he going to end up like Aislin, in a metal and stone cell, laughing like a maniac and banging against the door? Would both guards and students fear his laugh and tremble at the sound of his name? Elias heard a soft chuckle in his head. "Let your head rest, little Daniel. It will all make sense soon."