Shadowforce

CHARLIE

The spell back at the cave had drained me a lot of my energy though I managed to escape with Catherine. I felt terrible to have left the others behind. I had a very bad mood as I entered Octave, went directly to the cockpit and activated the 'underground' mode. Because it was absolutely obvious that Rancour would send his vipers in search of us and I was in any mood to fight. I just wanted to be alone for a while. The 'underground' mode enabled Octave to sink into the ground, the most ideal hiding place.

Catherine herself also seemed terrified, as both of us directly went to our respective rooms completely ignoring each other. I was actually sure that Catherine would think I was responsible for the traitor... and to be honest I thought that too. It was because of me that Josh had been able to infiltrate the school for about six years... I was an idiot, and I wouldn't blame Catherine if she could or would no longer trust me.

You can't even imagine the heart break that I felt when all the six years memories with Josh shattered in few seconds. No I am not gay, it's just that he was like a brother to me... the only brother I had after my elder brother died in an accident. I really trusted Josh... I trusted him the most to be honest of all the people I knew in my life but then well, you know what happened.

So many thoughts were filling up my mind when the pain started again... for the fifth time that day itself. But this time the pain was really intense as I soon found myself in the floor on my back taking in deep breaths. It got hard and hard for me to breathe as I slowly became sure that Rancour had put a curse or spell on me with the help of Josh, which would be the death of me.

And then the pain just vanished with a *puff* and there I was lying on the floor absolutely confused as to why it was happening to me. I was even worried that Rancour may have had put a spell or curse on Catherine as I instantly got up with a jerk and went out to look for Catherine.

I searched for her in her room but she was not there. I thought maybe she was in the cockpit but she wasn't there as well... then I noticed that the radar of Octave showed that there were about forty to fifty vipers right above octave,

"Please don't be outside... Please don't be outside" I repeated to myself as I went to the kitchen in the hope of finding Catherine.

Because as much as I knew Catherine, there was about 75% chances that she may have had gone outside to fight those vipers, all by herself. In the kitchen's table I found Emma's laptop... still on. Seeing that I almost thought that Emma was back and alive but then I felt a breeze pass by me... and looking back I found Catherine behind me, waving a bat around crazily everywhere!

"Whoa! Watch it1 are you trying to killing me!?"

"Who is this!? I know you are in this room... but where are you!" with that Catherine resumed her 'waving the bat crazily' and she did not stop doing that until she hit me six to seven times,

"Hey! Hey! Ow! Are you kidding me!? Where did you even find a bat! You... stop it! Stop it! STOP IT!" I practically shouted, knocking her down, at last succeeding in taking that bat away from her.

"Charlie... is that you!?"

"Who else is it supposed to be!? And... are you crying!?" I asked Catherine confused... of the many years I had known her it was the first time me seeing her cry...

"Of course not!" she protested.

"I didn't know you were a crybaby..." I said not doing much to hide my smirk.

"Ok Charlie, where are you now... I know that you knocked me down, threw that bat away, and I am pretty sure that you are smirking like an idiot right now. Come on show yourself or else..."

"What are you talking about...? I mean yes I knocked you down, threw that stupid bat away with which you were hitting me and um... I am not smirking (I boldly lied). But I am standing right in front of you!"

"No you are not...oh... that means..."

"What 'oh'? Catherine!"

"Nothing... It's like you are invisible."

"Please stop joking with me there is no way that I can be invisible because I m not professor Invisible and I don't TEACH CHEMISTRY!" then I took a look at my arm, saw that I couldn't see my arm and freaked out, "Where am I!? What's happening to me! Why m I turning into that boring..."

"Calm down, shut up and listen."

With that Catherine explained to me that there might be a possibility that our curses and powers were being activated sooner than we anticipated. This was a reasonable reason as to why I being all invisible. I may have been freaked out at first, but then I really started liking it, I made faces to Catherine, made fun to her and had a great time,

"Hey are you even listening to me? Why aren't you replying?"

"Oh... yes, yes... please continue." And so I decided to make fun of her later as I had to concentrate on other stuffs.

"So as I was saying, there are five folders in Emma's laptop without any lock. And each folder contains some information about the five of us, i.e. Josh, Brittney, Scott, you and me. See here..." She continued pointing towards the laptop, "It says that pain is a symptom that our curses have been activated."

We both read it thoroughly trying to find as much as information as we can,

"Whose file are we reading again?"

"Yours" she said with great confidence.

"Why are we reading mine? What about yours? Let's read that..."

"I already read it, oh and look you are visible again and which is a shame since you looked so handsome when I could not see you..."

"Ya, ya... I will definitely take that as a compliment, but first... if we do have our curses and powers activated then we should use it as an advantage against Rancour, Alice and Josh..." I took a deep breath before continuing any further," And what is your power anyway Catherine?"

"Oh... turns out I am a telepath... and so Charlie boy, it seems we have a plan." Catherine said... I mean announced, in my head, smiling at me.