Through The Ascension Room***Book One COMPLETE***

CHAPTER EIGHT ~PART TWO~

CHAPTER

                             Eight

I’m woken out of my deep sleep by Valde shaking me by my arms. "Cliff diving." He whispers to me as he sees my eyes open. He looks around to scan the dark room making sure he hasn't woken anyone else up. Standing next to him is an eager looking Tristis and Cynthia who looks as if she is sleeping standing up at this point.

"Come on let's go!" Tristis whisper yells.

I rub my eyes clearing the blur from them and sit up in bed. Cynthia plops down next to me and leans into me, arms crossed. Her head falls onto my shoulder and it feels comfortable.

"We’ll meet you love birds outside!" Valde says as he and Tristis giddily sneak through the room and out the door.

"Do you ever think about what life would be like if we never came here?" Cynthia asks readjusting her position in a more comfortable, cozy way.

Her question is hard to answer without being off putting. Truth is, I think about it every day. I think about sneaking out sometimes for the night and visiting Aubri. That would have to be something that I always lived with. The regret of not being with Aubri. Thinking of her makes this position Cynthia and I are in very uncomfortable, real fast. She must sense it because she lifts her head and sits up straight no longer leaning on me. I give her a smile, "let's go; before Tristis and Valde both kill each other."

She returns the smile and we both stand. I scan the room making sure that there is no one else awake, especially Percy. He’s a stickler for the rules and he would turn us in to the instructors in a heartbeat. I grab a sweatshirt from my clothes case and we sneak out of the sleeping room through the door Tristis and Valde left through. We make it through the building without being detected. Tristis and Valde must have left the lock undone for us as the door is left flapping in the ocean breeze. We walk through the door. I swing the jacket over my shoulder and put my arms through it. Cynthia quietly closes the door the rest of the way.

The cold, crisp sea air fills my lungs and it tastes like home. This life, here by the ocean has become my home. Cynthia, Tristis and Valde have become my family. I pull the zipper together on the front of my jacket and zip it up to lock out the chills. The full moon above is bright and sheds illuminating light cascading over everything allowing me to see every detail of the night.

Cynthia and I walk over to the steep cliff embankment where Tristis and Valde are goofing off wrestling in the sand. Valde lifts Tristis into the air with his control of gravity and drops him onto the cool sand. Tristis stands readying himself to tackle Valde when Valde swipes his hand across his body immediately turning him invisible to the naked eye. Tristis grabs a handful of sand throwing it Valde's way as the direction of the sand bends and wraps around what seems to be nothing, almost like a tornado forming. Valde appears holding his hands to his eyes stumbling backwards, "agh... Cheap shot Tristis. Cheap shot."

Tristis then lunges at Valde tackling him hard to the ground. Tristis could be considered the underdog here, so I clap in a congratulatory way as they both come up brushing the loose sand off of their bodies. "Tristis got you good!" I taunt at Valde.

"Shut up Briggs, you’re up first. Chop-chop!" Valde spits back at me.

I don't really like going first, let alone going at all. In not a big fan of heights and we are still growing our powers so one wrong move, one slight miscalculation and someone is getting seriously hurt. But I guess that's why we do it. For the rush. To feel alive after being locked up in a building for most of the day. We don’t get to blow off steam very often, so we milk it for all its worth when we can. I walk over to the base of the cliff side and look up observing my intended route up its face.

The process of getting to the top is a combination of climbing and floating. Cynthia and Valde, left at the bottom, use their powers to move me up the wall as I grab ahold of anything and everything I can to pull me up. They begin to focus their energies on my body and I start to float up the side of the cliff.

I shove my foot into the cliff side for some stable footing as I climb. The dirt crumbles, where my foot now sits, falling down on the others. "Come on man! Watch the dirt clods!" Valde yells to me.

I near the top as the root I'm holding onto rips from the side of the cliff throwing me intensely off balance. A panicked yell escapes my throat as I begin to slide down the wall. I'm slammed hard against the side and pressed roughly into the dirt walls. I'm not falling anymore but instead I am being pushed upwards towards the top. My body scrapes hard against the dirt and rock protruding from the cliff side. I reach the top and am thrusted over the edge and onto the top of the ridge.

"Thanks Valde." I yell over the side of the cliff.

"Anytime." His reply comes echoing from a good hundred or so yards below.

I stand trying to calm the shaking taking place in my legs. That near fall rattles me a bit. I pace the ridge taking in deep breaths.

    "Any day now," Valde is growing impatient with me.

    One last breath and I lean over the side of the cliff. "Ready?"

    "Been ready."

    I spread my arms out to my side and lean over the side of the cliff. I let gravity do the rest. My free fall fills me with a dose of adrenaline. My body begins to do somersaults in the air as I plummet closer and closer to the beach sand. I hear ‘whoops’ and ‘Hollers’ getting louder through the muffling wind. My clothes flap rapidly against my body as I fall. My hoodie beats intensely on the back of my head, catching pockets of air as the sandy floor grows closer.

    My fall then begins to slow and my body is set up right, feet down, head up. Slower and slower I begin to fall till I'm only a few feet from the ground and cruising at a snail’s pace downward. My feet place gingerly on the soft beach sand and it’s over.

    My heart is racing and chills creep up my spine. There is nothing that quite compares to this rush.

    Cynthia makes her way to the base of the wall not even waiting for our help she begins climbing the cliff side, "I'm next." She says.

    Me and Valde in a combined effort focus on her body. Tristis sits this part out because we're all too afraid he might accidentally blow us apart trying to focus on us. We ease her up the wall little by little till she is over the ridge and she stands on top. "Ready?" She asks.

    "Ready."

    She moves back past the ridge disappearing from our sight and then returns leaping off the ridge like a bird taking off in flight. Her descent looks graceful and beautiful as she falls. Valde and I again focus on her body wrapping our energies around her slowly easing up on her speed. Slower and slower till she is safely standing again on the beach.

    Tristis goes next. He, out of all of us, enjoys this the most since he can't simulate any type of flight himself without risk of exploding. He relies on us to simulate it for him.

    We send him up the cliff side. He jumps. We catch him and that's it. His face is red with adrenaline pumped blood. He stumbles a bit before finding his footing. “That was incredible!” He dances around on the sand before falling backwards to the ground, where he proceeds to make a sand angel.

    Valde is the last of us to go. We raise him up the side and onto the ridge. He doesn't even wait for a ready signal before he jumps, barrel rolling off of the cliff. He flips and tumbles on his way down as me and Cynthia focus to catch him. I can sense Cynthia struggling for some reason as I can see her from the corner of my eye. Her body is pulsating the same way mine was the night I was taken by the cops. Dr. Finley informed us that that is what happens to us if we are unable to contain and focus our powers. This can’t be good.

    The next few seconds happen almost as if in fast motion. My attempts to take up Cynthia's slack throws Valde into the cliff side exploding dirt and rocks from the impact. Cynthia's pulsing grows stronger and stronger until it blasts outward throwing me and Tristis hard to the ground. I lose my concentration on Valde as he falls free of my grip sending him spiraling downward in an accelerated descent.

I make a desperate attempt to catch him before he hits, but it’s no use. Valde's plummet downward is ended hard and abrupt by the unwavering ground.