“Hold up one second. You, want us, to go where?” I asked the governor. Me and my friends, Lily Norris and Missy Black, are in the government authority office. It is about as big as the White House on Earth. Except it’s about twice its size, and has paranormal/hybrids (as you might call them) working as guards or explorers. The ones that go between Mars and Earth are called Realm Walkers because they have to go in another realm/world to get to Earth quicker. No, it’s not time travel, that was figured out in the year 2833 by the first hybrids on Mars.
“Let me say it again. I want you and your friends to go to the Mindchanger tunnels. I want you to see if there are any creatures in there or if there is another dimension in the tunnels.” He looked me straight in the eye as he said it. I felt my eyes widen and my jaw go slack. The last time someone went in there, they never came back. All they found was human skulls surrounding the entrance to the tunnels. We’re not sure where the skulls came from, but they looked really, really old. But they had no cracks in them. “Your families have already sent your things over and are ready to say goodbye to you.” When he said this it made everything that he told us snap into place. We could die when we get there. Heck, we might come back many years later. “Goodbye and good luck,” he said as he saluted us.
“Katri, what are we gonna do?” Missy asks me nervously. I look at her and see that her short, black, wavy hair has fallen over her eyes.
“I don’t know, but we’ll figure something out. I just don’t know what yet.” I look at Lily and see her curly, blonde hair in a high ponytail. Worry clouding her dark-brown eyes. She is skinny, and always has been since we met in the military academy at age eight. A few are chosen from each colony to go into the academy. I was chosen from the eighth academy, Missy from the fifth, and Lily was chosen from the first colony. It’s rare for someone to be chosen from the first colony, but after 32 years, they decided to choose her. Her father and mother was glad to see her go. They thought of her as a nuisance. They only cared about her younger brother because he never got into trouble and he also claimed that Lily beat him, so her parents beat her. When she met me we became instant friends. Missy came from the same situation, except she’s the youngest and it was her siblings who beat her.
I don’t talk about my situation, but I’ll give you a few hints along the way. We go out of the office and into the whipping whirlwind of Mars. Sand flying everywhere and ice breaking slowly under our feet. Each colony is different.
First colony= humans
Second colony= witches
Third colony= ghosts (abandoned)
Fourth colony= vampires
Fifth colony= nymphs (Fair folk)
Sixth colony= demons
Seventh colony= werewolves
Eighth colony= hybrids
These are the colonies. These colonies are mostly Earth government experiments that the humans brought here. They were hoping to see if they would kill each other. But that’s not what happened, they were helping each other to live and survive. The third colony was humans, but there were so many souls transporting thereafter they died that they had to abandon the colony. The scientists are still trying to figure out why the souls are attracted there.
I’m still zoned out when I feel my back stiffen and hear a long, deep howl right behind me. I feel the piercing eyes of my mother and hear my father slowly getting quiet. I feel my gift flare up and feel my body getting warmer each second. I close my eyes and take deep breaths. My head starts to spin and throb. I feel a hand squeeze my shoulder and I open my eyes to see Lily looking at me calmly. I nod my head and she walks away. I turn around and plaster a fake smile onto my face as I see my parents.
“Mom, dad, so good to see you,” I say as I go over the routine that they taught me. My dad transforms into his human form and comes over and pats me on the back. He only does this to show affection. It means goodbye and good luck this time. The only other time he did this was ten years ago when I left for the academy. I can see the hate in his eyes but not in his jaw. If I didn’t know him, I would think that he loves me. Me! For the first time in my my life I actually might think he loves me. I about burst out laughing at the thought. I look at my mom and see her actually smiling without force behind it. A thought that brings total disgust with it pops into my mind. She thinks that I might die on this quest. That they’ll find my head on the entrance to the tunnels. It takes all of my effort to stop my face from showing my disgust.
“Katri, so good to see you.” My mother says, just as practiced. She was able to hide her wings and her bright red eyes from the government from this long, and she’s still acting like the demon she is.
My dad is a full-blooded werewolf, but my mom is a demon, nymph, and a witch combined all in one. I am a spitting image of her, but I have my dad’s bright green eyes and blackish-blonde hair. I have my mom’s petite face and her features. That’s it. That’s all I have in common with them both. My attitude is the total opposite of theirs. But I can get angry when I have to be.
They start to walk away after they say goodbye and I feel my jaw clench, I feel a rumble in my throat, and I see a wave of red go across my vision. I feel hands envelope my wrists in that instant and I see my dad morph into his pure black alpha-like wolf. My mom flies up above him while he runs on all fours.
I keep my eyes trained on them until they vanish out of site and their smell slowly dissipates. I feel myself slowly sliding to the ground and my strength leave me, but I still feel the faint sensation of the rumble that left my throat just moments ago. I close my eyes and let the darkness enveloped me into its gentle and soothing hands. I stay like this for what seems like hours. I feel the hands that were holding tightly to my wrists let go hesitantly and hear whispers all around me. I feel myself lift from my body and just float there. I never know what I was seeing until I opened my eyes.
******
I was seeing the entrance to the tunnels, my parents holding me as a little infant in their arms. I heard a voice coming from the tunnel and I couldn’t understand what it was saying. My mom’s voice had a tremor in it when she answered the booming noise coming from the tunnel. Younger me looked up at her and started laughing. I saw a glint in my dad’s hand. I saw that it was a five inch knife. My mom held out her free hand and my dad put the knife into it. She set me on the ground between them and raised the knife high above her head. She said a weird incantation and thrust the knife downward.
******
“NO,” I screamed and I sat bolt upright in bed with Lily and Missy sitting beside it fast asleep. I sigh as I fall back onto my pillows. I feel the same gentle hands engulf me and I have a dreamless night.
I wake up to the smell of smoke and the crackling of fire. I sit up and look around. Lily and Missy are gone, and there is a ring of ashes around my bed, some still burning bright red. I look around and see no source to them. I take my broom and start to sweep them into a pile and go to my security camera that I set up to see if something would happen. I replay it and see that as my hands get brighter, a circle of flames start to encircle me. My eyes widen in what I think is fear. I hear myself gasp and I throw the camera at the wall. I start running my hands through my short hair and start to pace my room.
“What’s wrong with me? first the dream and then the whole hands on fire. What’s up with that?” I keep repeating to myself. I do that for the next hour. After that I start to pack some things for the trip to the tunnels. I carry my small, one strap bag on my right shoulder. I meet Lily and Missy outside the office and start to put the supplies into the back of the transport car. I see them share a look, but I ignore it.
“So, are you okay?” Missy asks me. Worry clouding over her face.
“I’m fine, really. It was just one of my attacks,” I tell them. They know it wasn’t an attack. But they go along with it because if I wasn’t fine, I would be on the ground, twitching with my eyes pure black. So, I’m fine.
We go inside and get into the pod that will transport us to the small town known as Little Bigfoot. I know, funny name, but it’s what the first colony named it. It’s the one colony used to live. It looks basically like a ghost town on Earth. Except one thing, you can actually see and talk to these ghosts without that much trouble.
As we walk through the town, ghosts wave at me but don’t really speak to me unless I talk to them first, and I think that’s their decision if they talk to me or not. I go straight down the middle of town to our motel, with Lily and Missy right behind. I slow down with the I see it's a werewolf spirit/ghost wearing a doorman suit.
“This way Miss Katri, Miss Lily, Miss Missy.” He says to us and then walks away, I start to follow but Lily grabs my hand.
“Are you sure we can trust him?” Lily asks me, suspicion in her features and her tense body.
“It’s fine Lily. Missy, can you reassure her that everything is going to be fine.”
“Yeah, we’ll catch up to you later, Katri.” Missy tells me, so I run to catch up to the doorman.
“Your room is 10B, your bags are already up there in your rooms. You can get your roomkey from the front desk. When you are about to leave, ask for Benjamin, not ‘the doorman’ or ‘door wolf’. Are we clear?”
“Yes, and thanks, Benjamin.”
“You're very welcome, Miss Katri. I will send your friends up when they get here,” after he says this, he turns and goes sits by the doors to wait.
I get my key and go to my room. If you have ever seen a motel or a hotel room on tv, my room looks basically like that. Except instead of everything white or blue, it was red and black. My room was the very back one of the motel room 10B. I sat down on my bed and found the tv remote. I’m sitting there flipping through channels when Lily and Missy arrive. I turn the tv off and raise my eyebrows asking, ‘What now?’
“Well,” Lily begins saying. “We’re supposed to look for new creatures and see why people disappear and reappear from that tunnel.”
“That’s it?” I asked them both. They look at each other and just shrug. “Okay. Do we know what weapons to use?” I ask them to see if the governor told them what we are supposed to bring the new creatures in with.
“He gave us some transport cages and some Ultra-violet bullets.”
“Okay, I can work with those.” Transport cages are little boxes that you throw at a creature, it envelops it, and transports it back to the lab. It also paralyzes the creature until the user removes it. Ultra-violet bullets are when you put a rule or a command into it and it will seek out what you want it to do. You can even put a mind link on it and think about where you want it to go. It’s pretty cool when you see it in action. It just flies from your hand and does mostly what the transport cages do, except instead of paralyzing them, it kills them instantly. that means the governor wants one dead and one alive. Maybe more.
I got up and started to sort the weapons and traps that they sent us. I separated the Ultra-violet bullets from the transport cages. Their hard to distinguish from one another, but the Ultra-violet bullets have a blue glow to them when activated and have a hole in one side so you can put the venom or poison inside of them. The transport cages have a red glow to them when activated and they have a little needle attached to one end.
I did this until there was no more in the bags and I separated them equally between the three of us and then we started to suit up. We wore a black jumpsuit with a belt that can hide the weapons way to easily and we each had a set of long swords on our backs and Lily and Missy pulled their hair back into high ponytails and I left my hair down because it was to short to pull back. We each had on a pair of black combat boots that could hide the knives that we wore in case these things could melt our swords. Believe me, you can’t even count how many have destroyed swords in the past. that’s why we had the witches put spells on the knives to be protected from that sort of thing happening again. The swords are too big for them to put the spells on them. Just in case you were asking.
When we was done the time was 11:00 at night and the sun was just starting to go down. The days on Mars are about 36-40 hours each. Depends if it's winter or summer. We go outside and feel the wind has calmed down way too much and there’s no one out on the streets. I go back into tell Benjamin something before we go.
“Benjamin, I hope I get to see you again. You have been the nicest werewolf that has ever been like this to me.” I say to Benjamin as we go out the door to the cold and deserted streets.
“And I to you Miss Katri, I wish you all good luck.” Benjamin says as he locks up the doors for the night.
We look at each other and then start to head up the street to the road toward the tunnels. We might not be back bye morning, but we can sure as heck try to survive the night bye then. Because I hope to get revenge when I back to the office. They have done so much to me during my years at the academy. Combining that with what my parents did to me, I don’t know what I’m going to do in the future, but as of right now, I have a job to do. And that’s seeing what the heck is down in those tunnels.
I go into my head and think of the dream that I had and pure hatred goes throughout my entire body. I don’t know why. I just know that I should hate what they did even know it’s not real. I want to know why I suddenly had this dream when I saw my parents and then I remember when I was five, the same thing happened to me and that’s when my father and mother started to hate me. When I had a dream that a man was going to come to our house and tell them that they had to go to the eighth colony and live there. About a week later the man came and told them that. They were afraid to come near me for the next month after that and I thought that I stunk or that I did something wrong. They thought that I was a freak and they put me in the basement instead of my old room in the house. My parents took all of my possessions and sold them and took my bed and left me a blanket on the floor and one small locket. I always wore that locket because it hid the scar that was there.
Wait. That scar. The scar! that is what made it. My mom with the knife. I remember looking at it in the mirror of the school bathroom and tracing it. it was about three inches long and smooth. Not a jagged cut that an inexperienced person with a knife would make. I look at the necklace at the base of my neck and think back and tried as hard as I could to remember the dream and see where the knife had hit me but I couldn’t remember it clearly, barely at all now. I felt the hatred flare back up tenfold now. I felt my hands start to burn and I saw a blurry wave of red and orange and yellow go across my vision and I felt the heat not just inside of me, but all around me. I tried to bury the flame inside of me, but that only made it burn brighter. I tried as hard as I could but nothing would work. Maybe, I started to make the flame burn brighter, bigger inside me. That made it extinguish faster and I open my eyes when I feel the tears all dry up. I find a frozen Lily Norris and Missy Black staring at me.
“What?” I asked them but neither moved, neither even blinked at me either. They kept staring at me and then finally Lily moved.
“Katri, how long have you been able to do this?” She asked me carefully. not taking a step toward me. A little fear in her eyes.
“I just figured it out today, right now,” I tell her, she has some disbelief in her eyes, but she goes along with it today.
We keep walking but they stay a distance away from me. I go into my head and think of what we might encounter way out here. We start to go downhill and then back up on the huge dunes that’s in our way. I want to know what that voice was saying to my mother and father and if it was a dream, a memory, or a vision of the past. I also want to know why they did that to me if that is true.
When we get there, I’m so quiet and inside my mind that I don't see the tunnels until we’re right on top of them. They have human skulls lining the entrance that’s gotta be at least 30 feet high and 50 feet wide, at least. The color of the rocks are not red, they're actually black with white spots, those spots, are the skulls. The tunnel is made up of two large side rocks and then a carved rock curves upward toward the sky. The skulls are on pillars that look like they should be in a museum. It starts out small and the pillars get taller each time they get closer to the mouth of the tunnel. We don’t know why someone l called this, tunnels. The three rocks that are behind the pillars, slowly go down into Mars at an angle. So the tunnels are going into the core of Mars.
“Enter. Katri Allardyce, we meet again I see,” a loud, booming voice that sounds like a woman’s comes from deep in the tunnels.
“Katri?” Lily says. That means for me to start talking. I look at her with my eyes wide and mouth, ‘I don’t know’, to her. I look back to the mouth and see two dark shadows inside the tunnel entrance. I take a step forward and they come out into the light.
The creatures are three headed and a mix of dog and cat. They have huge eagle wings that have a thirty foot wingspan at full length. Their shoulders are about ten feet off the ground and have huge manes that glimmer in the light. THey have jet black fur and have snake like fangs on the sides of their jaws. Their eyes are like molten rock mixed with metal, with a white pupil. White, not black.
We stand there for a while just staring at each other. It seems like they break out of a trance all of a sudden. They growl and split up, one to each side. They cross behind us and put their heads down in unison, baring their teeth and showing their claws that’s as long as both of my knives combined.
“Come,” says the voice and we hear the creak and groan of gates being open after a century of no use. We look at each other and I nod. I start forward and the two creatures stand on either side of me. My friends following behind us. We walk down a large tunnel big enough for the griffin hybrids, (that’s what I’m going to call them).
We reach the gates that open when we’re about twenty yards away and we don’t even have to break stride. As we go in, the griffin hybrids are lined up to see the new desserts. When they see me they close their eyes and bow. One leg bent under them, the other straight in front of them.
I see small ones with huge eyes staring at me and it seems like whispering, to one another. We get to the edge where it splits off at two sections. I look over the railing and see a whole nother dimension. There are huge homes that seem like mansions that whole towns can live in. There is a huge castle that is about twelve white houses combined into one. The castle is white and the houses are made out of trees and bushes and vines. The walkways are made out of gold and silver looking rock. There are some humans walking with the creatures, talking with them. I see that some of the people are the ones that has disappeared. They stop and stare as the two creatures lead us to the huge castle that´s in the middle of the town.
We head down the streets and the humans that has stopped and stare at us have their eyes wide. Some of them bow at us and some just stop and stare. I look up at the castle and see that there are diamonds and rubies lining the entrance to the castle. I feel my jaw drop and my eyes go wide in wonder. I look back and see that Lily and Missy have the same expressions on. I look back just as the gates start to open. We go inside and we are met by these creatures that look like a mix of birds, humans, and an alligator. The one with the red wings offers me some sandwiches and some cheese on a platter.
I take a sandwich and some cheese. I tell him thank you and he starts to blush like crazy. I look at my friends and they just shrug and come stand beside me. I hear three long bells and four short bells after. It sounds like a school bell. The two griffin hybrids start to go down a hallway to my right and I start to follow them, but a small version of them comes up to me.
¨Are you Miss Katri Allardyce?¨ It asks me. I look at my friends and then nod to the youngster. ¨So, are you going to become the next in line?¨ It asks me and I look at my friends who look a bit nervous.
¨What are you talking about?¨I ask him. I hear a growl from the hallway that the two griffin hybrids went from.
¨I´ve said too much already. Goodbye Miss Katri,¨ and with that he flew to the roof and went into a small hallway in the wall. Lily, Missy, and I run to catch to catch up to the griffin hybrids and I about run into one of their wings. I notice that they have gold specks that make their body glimmer. They're not all pure black. The wings block our view of the room, but I can hear some whispering and a glint of white.
We wait there for what feels like forever and then we hear a flap of wings and whoever was in the room is gone now. We hear a set of pads on the tile in the next room and then we hear a grunt and a thud.
¨Come in Katri, Lily, and Missy. I am glad they sent you three for this quest,¨ We hear the booming voice say and then the two griffin hybrids step aside and let us pass.
The room that we entered is huge. It´s made out of silver and more gold like the streets outside. There is a huge room off to the left and to the right is a kitchen. I notice that there is a huge griffin hybrid in the farthest part of the room. This one is the queen, I bet. She's white with a gold necklace that looks like mine. Except it's way bigger and older than mine. She has blue eyes and silver flecks in her fur. We stare at each other for a while and then I have to look away because I feel a tug on my hand. Lily has a questioning look on her face and she keeps looking from my necklace to hers. We look closely at her necklace and see that she has a black line of fur where a scar is under the necklace. Like me, but that has to be a coincidence, right?
She sends the guards away and sees that we're dressed like we're ready for a fight. She looks at our clothes for a minute and then shakes her head.
¨Welcome, welcome. How are you three today?¨ She asks us and we just stand there acting as stupid as can be. We all take a step back when she gets up and stretches with a yawn. She walks over to us and looks me in the eyes. ¨Has your mother and father trained you or was it the academy? I told your parents to train you as best as they could.¨ She tells us and I look at the tiles on the floor.
¨Katri, what is she talking about?¨ Lily and Missy ask me. I don´t look up when they ask me this. I just stay quiet and as still as possible. I imagine myself invisible and close my eyes. They know that I don't want to talk about it when I make myself invisible.
¨Katri, you can't run this time. We will find you.¨ She sighs and then tries a new approach. ¨Katri, you'll have to tell us sooner or later, so why don't you just get it over with.¨ She says and I let myself reappear for them to see.
¨You already know, I told you when we first met. Remember?¨ I ask her and her eyes widen in understanding. I look back at the floor and make myself invisible. I look around after I know that they can’t see me and I see that there is an open ceiling and that the griffin hybrids can fly in and out of the room.
“I can still see you, Katri,” the queen said. “And bye the way, my name is Eliza Draco. I was once a person like your friend Lily here.” When she said that I looked at Lily and saw astonishment written on her face.
“How can that be? No one has been reported changing who they really are.” She stared at Eliza while she said this.
“In this realm, anything can happen. Not just what you do know, but what you don’t know. That is why I chose to stay here. I was the first queen that they ever had, and know I chose a new queen after centuries of ruling. I can live forever if I want to, but I thought that I should choose a new one for the throne.” She stared at me when she said that she chose a new queen for the throne. “The others have chosen one and when she turns twenty years old, she will automatically be transported here and changed like me. And she can have two friends for her guards. The two that brought you here. Were Edward and Gabriel. We were some of the first colony that had settled here. And this is what us three made up.
We were all wide eyed, open mouthed, terrified humans when we first came to this tunnel. We didn’t know what to make of it, but we did know what to do with all of this space. Make a new race and become the leaders to make a new country that was better than what was on Earth, and probably even better than what Mars is know. It was known as The red, lone planet.” She was looking at all of us when she said this. I looked her in the eyes and saw that she had sadness in them and her posture was stiff and ridged.
She comes forward and touches her nose to my forehead. Everything went black for a few minutes and then a vision or a dream, (not sure which), came into focus. It was my fourth birthday and I was eating a cupcake and watching my parents talk in the other room. Their voices was heightened when I say that Eliza was standing beside me. She smiled at me and then looked at my parents. I looked and heard them talking.
“What are we going to do with her, we can’t kill her, she would just come back. She would ask us what happened.” My mother was saying this to my father. Worry was clouding her eyes for the first time, that I could see.
“I don’t know, but we’ll figure something out. I just don’t know what though,” My father was telling her. I heard a voice beside me and knew that it was Eliza.
“She will be figuring out her powers soon, you know this as well as I do, that’s what the prophecy said when she was born. When do you think she will be claimed by the hybrids? When?” She looked at me like I was going to levitate off the ground and fly at her to kill her. She looks at my father and closes her eyes. “How are we supposed to train her? She never told us exactly how to train her to be a queen, or even how to learn how to morph and to change.”
“I don’t know, what do you think, she said to make her mad to get her morph. I’ve tried everything but one method, and I said that I would never do that to her.” He said to my mother.
I walked over to them and looked from one to the other and back again. I look at Eliza and everything went back to what it was looking to in the castle.
What just happened? I ask myself this over the whole time I am going to the kitchen to grab a cup of water. When I came out of the trance that Eliza put me in to show me this faint memory, me and Lily was silent, but Missy was freaking out, waving her arms in the air and yelling and, well, freaking out. She keeps looking at the griffin hybrids glittering fur. She keeps complimenting all of their things and when we went to our rooms she was standing there in awe because of everything that has happened over the past day.
I’m walking through the hallway to the huge room that we were in that afternoon when the two guards, Edward and Gabriel, come flying through the entrance and stand beside me. They look nervous and they’re looking all around like something is going to happen.
“What is it? What’s going on?” Is ask them, but they just shake their heads and start to walk until they see me not moving, Edward starts to swish his tail around and hits the back of my legs. This action makes me fall forward and I know that means for me to get to walking. I start to walk behind Gabriel and Edward walks behind me. I start to get on high alert and I feel all of my senses start to heighten and I feel a set of eyes on me, I look around and see the little hybrid standing behind a door. Looking upward toward the ceiling. I look up and see a black shadow looking down on me. I swear that I see blue eyes, but it keeps moving and I know that it wants something, but I don’t know what.
When we leave the castle’s main room, we go into a place that I know what it is, but I don’t remember seeing this part. I am lead into a set of stairs that spiral down a huge gaping hole in floor.
“Hang on,” Gabriel says as Edward puts me on his back. I grab huge tufts of fur behind his ears and squeeze my legs close to his sides. I feel the ground fall beneath us as we leap into the air and I hear the snap of his wings on either sides of me. I feel the rush of wind push my hair back and feel my body lift slightly from his big frame. I can see the lanterns from the stairs fly past us and I hear the flap of wings behind us telling me that Edward was close behind. We flew down in a blur of motion and I heard a few screams from some humans, and I saw a few hybrids nod their heads as we flew past. I felt the adrenaline pulse through my veins and the rhythm of his wings.
By the time we get down to the bottom, my hair is knotted like crazy and I have a little seasickness. I jump off of his back and look around for any light. There is a few candles lit here and there, but that’s all the light there is. Then I remembered that I could make fire. How do I do that? When did I learn how to do that? I look at my hands and think fire. Nothing. I look at the two guards and see that they have their eyes closed. I look back at their hands and think of what my parents did in that dream I had, I felt my anger flare up and my body grow hotter and hotter. I want them to pay for what they did so many years ago. I close my eyes and focus all of my anger and energy into my hands. I feel a tiny spark in me, but that’s just enough. I see a huge fireball and I open my eyes. I see a fireball floating a few inches above my hands. I pull my hands apart and see that it splits up into two. I look at Edward and Gabriel and their staring at my hands in admiration and wonder.
“Let’s go, we haven’t got all day, know have we?” I told them and they started to lead the way, this time I’m beside Gabriel. We go down a long and narrow hallway into a huge chamber that is lit up with huge fireballs like the one I made.
“Hello, Katri. Please, sit down and I’ll explain what we’re doing.” Eliza said from the darkest place in the room. She looks sick and sad about something. “I was hoping that I could have some more time to train you, but the time has come. I need you to do something for me before you start your proper training. Can you do that one thing?”
“It depends, what is it?” I asked her and she looked at me like I was going to bite her.
“I want you to kill the governor.”
******
“Wake up you two, we got a job to do.” I told them and they threw off their blankets to show dresses that show our curves and to hide our weapons. “Remember, we only have one shot each. If one of us miss that’s it, it’s all over with.” I look them both in the eyes as I say this.
“Are you sure she asked us to do this? I mean seriously, why us. We’re won’t be able to get anywhere close to the governor.” Lily asked me.
“Yes, she told me that he knows that they exist, but he needs 100 percent proof of their existence. What would happen if the governor destroyed a whole realm.” I looked at them both and they stayed silent so I went on. “That’s right, he would blame it on us, and, he would have us killed and he would be famous on Earth and on Mars both, for finding the existence of a new creature. He could have anything he wanted and he wouldn’t be able to get to because he would become the wealthiest man on both planets.” I told them and then they each put their right hand out.
“Let’s do this,” Lily says and I put my hand on top of theirs.
“It’s time. Let’s go kill the governor.”
We head downstairs and head toward the ballroom that they built to have fun. We enter and they say our names as we enter single file. The crowd claps for us three and we bow for everyone. As we’re doing this, we’re watching for the governor to see if he’s here in person or in his office up above. Either way, we’re ready. I catch sight of him at the far side of the crowd. I do the little sign that we made if we see him. A little bird call that sounds like a mockingjay. They follow my gaze and look at where he is and I head over to him. I’m about fifteen or twenty feet away from me when he spots me. I wave a hello and walk over the rest of the way to him.
“Hello Katrina. How are you?” He asks me warmly.
“I’m fine, and you know I go by Katri for short.” I tell him and he stares me in the eyes when he glares at me. If looks could kill I would be dead, but I did the same look at him many times before, so hahaha.
“This is the leader of the expedition team that went on the trip to the Mindchanger Tunnels, she was the one who brought back that rogue werewolf that got into some waste. Katri, this is the president of the United States of America on Earth.” He looks at me like I’m going to steal his spotlight. Ha, yeah right.
I turn to him and shake his hand I keep the knife that is marked, (so no blood will be caught on the blade), up my sleeve and hidden under my jacket. I can push a button on the inside of my wrist and it will come popping out of my sleeve. I wait for the president to walk a good distance before I talk to him again.
“I need to talk to you about Lily real quick, can we go into your office before I go talk to Missy?” I ask him so sweetly.
“Sure, come here and I’ll tell you what’s wrong with her. She told me just this morning what’s wrong with her.” He leads the way to his office and tells his secretary do not bother him because he has some work for to do.
“So, what’s wrong with Lily?” I ask him, the plan is going just as expected. We knew his exact whereabouts from the time we got back from the mission. We stuck a transmitter to his neck that will tell us what he’s eating, where he is, and who he’s with. So far, so good. He tells me what I already know and then I look around the room “admiring” his collection of skulls and of nicknacks. But really, you think I’m that stupid, me and Missy disabled all of the cameras about an hour after all of the guards left the room and locked it behind them. It is way too easy to take those things down. Even though their the new version of them.
I look at his knife collection and put a note to put them into my purse. I walk over to him and shake his hand, I ask him to close his eyes and tell him that the present that I’ll give to him will be short and quick. Which it will be. He closes his eyes and swing the knife. He grabs my wrist and twists it behind my back. I look at him and see that he’s admiring my knife.
“That knife was given to you when you got here, wasn’t it? I mean, I can’t believe that you still have it. And in such good shape. That raises my respect for you, but not by much.” He says this as a growl, that never intimidated me one bit, but he still does it to show authority.
“You will learn not to try to attack me again after I’m through with you, but then again, you could be dead. Oh well, no one will miss you, and if they do, not very much. I mean seriously, look at what your parents did, gave you up with not even a hint of an emotion in their cold eyes. You see, the government didn’t pick you, your parents just gave you up. They were thinking of just killing you and dumping you in the desert. But I saved you, and this is how you're going to repay me. By killing me, or trying to, anyway. I know what your parents did, and you know what, I made them do it, do all of it, so they would have no choice but to send you here. That is sad, but for know, I’ll just tell your friends and parents that you ran off and I tried to stop you, but you pulled the knife out on me and attacked me. That you wanted to die rather than do what your world needs you to do.” He smiles a wolfish grin and I feel a pain in the back of my head. I feel the roundness of it and I know that it’s a gun barrel. I remember how my father use to tell me that I was worthless and that I would never be able to kill someone or something with my own bare hands. That I would not be able to protect a whole civilization on my own. I remember that the house start ed to burn a few minutes later and I was so mad that I imagined the flames encircling him and what they could do to him, that they could kill him or destroy him. I did the exact same thing when I was eight, except it was with my mother and father both. They wanted to get me angry like that so I could learn how to use and control my powers, I can still hear them screaming and beating me and saying that I was worthless, that I had no potential. That I would never be accepted into the academy. Well, I proved them wrong, why not prove the governor wrong right now in this very room.
I close my eyes and let the darkness swirl around me, not to comfort me, but to help me. I imagine a bright ball of fire deep inside of me spreading throughout my body and getting brighter by the second. I imagine the fire coming out of my hands like snakes and wrapping around him. Not hurting him, but keeping him away from me. I feel his arms and hands slip off of me and then I can move. I open my eyes and see the snakes of fire, the governor backed up against the wall, him stunned, my hands glowing red, and the vision of the past growing inside of me. Letting all the hatred and stress that this image has caused me out as the fire. I move both flames over to my left hand and walk over to him, I grab his chin with my right and make him look me in the eyes.
“So, you think I’m weak, that I’m useless. Well think again. because I can kill you without my knife, without a blade of any kind. All I have to do is think of you dead and you’ll be dead.” I snap my fingers. “Just like that. One millisecond and poof.” I see the fear in his eyes and let his body fall to the floor as I unwrap my fire snakes from around him.
“Please, please…” he begs me over and over, “Don’t kill me, please.” He starts to cry and I’m glad this room is soundproof. That the cameras were all disabled. I grab my knife and walk over to him.
“You will feel nothing. Just a little pinch and then embrace the darkness. Let it calm you. I know all of your fears, and this, dying, is one of them.” I tell him. He closes his eyes and keeps on pleading with me. I then swing my knife and get it done and over with.
******
Well, a month has past and we’re at the new academy in the mindchanger tunnels. We have started our training for our new positions and everyone knows that they don’t have to be nice to us, or even try to be. They can show how they feel.
I am heading to Eliza’s office when I notice a guard running up to me. I see that it’s Edward.
“Come you must hurry.” Is all he says and then I get on his back and we fly to the castle. When we get there, Eliza is pacing her palace floor. Her white mane hiding her necklace and I can see impatience written all over her face. Her claws are ready for battle.
“Katri, I need you to go stop a war that is going on with the colonies. Round up your friends and the best flyers for the battle, they want revenge. And they want it now.”
******
We all go outside the entrance in body armor and see a sight that we thought we’d never see in our entire lifetime, and then longer.
YOU ARE READING
The Mindchanger Tunnels
RandomThis is a essay that I had absolutely no intrest into when I started, but when it started to get better so many ideas popped into my head. I couldn't have wrote them all down at once in my essay. That's why I'll be adding to it in this book. Let's j...
