I See Emeralds

Chapter Fifteen (Mathias' POV)

"Mathias, get off your cellular device and help out," Lukas orders. I sigh and tuck it into my pocket. I hope Tino isn't worried about me. I'm perfectly fine.

"It's called a cell phone," I say. "And you never told me what I should be doing."

"Reading that data off to me," he says and points to a monitor. He's seated on the floor, screwing something onto a small metal box.

I sit on a spinning chair and look at the computer screen. It's got lots of data on it, but one section catches my attention because part of it is written in blue. It's a section titled "Statistics".

"This, right?" I ask and point at the section header. Lukas briefly looks up and nods, then resumes his work.

"Blue: 120. Brown: 80. Green: 70. Purple: 50. Yellow: 20. Red: 1." Lukas nods at each color and turns his wrench so fast I can hardly see what he's doing.

"What does all this mumbo jumbo mean?" I ask.

"How many people can see each color in Mondo High School," he answers nonchalantly.

"How do you have that info? Did you take a survey?" I ask. Emil looks up from the box he and Leon are working on.

"No. We just know. It's not hard to figure out the data for 341 humans."

"But how do you know?" I ask. I have so many questions for these weird brothers.

"I already told you. Magic," Lukas says. He makes a circlular motion in the air with his index finger and then presses it to the box. Blue sparks come out of his finger and surround the box. "Hurry up. It's not going to stay dormant forever."

"Leon, read the data on that computer to me like Mathias did." Emil points to the other computer in the room. Leon gets up and hurries over to it.

"Umm...here we go. Discovered: 159. Undiscovered: 182."

"That means how many people have and haven't discovered their soulmate," Emil tells us. He does the same circle trick as Lukas did, only his magic is a different color that I can't see.

"Good, good. Yes, I think these will do well. Thank you," Lukas says, examining Emil and Leon's box. "But now that you've participated in this, you're going to have to stick with us. You can't talk to any other friends you may have. Not yet, anyways."

Leon doesn't seem particularly crushed, he only gives Emil a high five. But I feel awful. I need to see Tino again. I can't hide from him forever.

Lukas had found me on my way to eighth period, art, and dragged me into a nearby bathroom. Then he zapped us both to this dark mysterious room and told me to start making this box with him. What a weirdo. He could have just asked.

"By the way, what are these for?" Leon voices my question for me.

"Color extraction," Lukas says simply.

"What's that mean?"

"We need to get...volunteers...to give up being able to see a color. When we have every color, we will be able to restore color for everybody. Of course, we're only borrowing it from our volunteers. They'll get it restored too. So it's just a temporary loan. That is, if we finish in time."

These guys are insane! "We're not exactly volunteers, considering that you forced us here," I say.

"Yes, you simply won't do," Lukas complains. "But we need you here because you're our soulmates. You'll have a special role in this eventually. Maybe."

"So, these machines only stay activated for a few months after their creation. If we don't get all the colors by the end of the school year, they'll turn off and we'll have to start all over. And that's torturous," Emil cautions. "It's your job to find a group of soulmates with each color we need by June!" He points to me and Leon with a determined expression.

"Can we, like, have a list?" Leon asks. "I've already forgotten everything."

"Me too," I say and sigh. This is going to be so much work.

Lukas narrows his eyes in annoyance and does the circular motion again. Two papers pop into the air and he hands one to each of us. It's a checklist. "It's okay if you get repeats. For example, if you get a relationship with one brown and one blue when you already found one with two blue prior. As long as you have at least one of each color, you're fine."

"Off you go!" Emil exclaims and leads us out of the room. "Don't fail us." He pats Leon's back with a grin.

When the door is slammed in our faces and locked, that's when Leon and I remember something important. "Wait! How are we supposed to know which color is which? Are we supposed to ask or something?"

No answer.