Fearless

- Chapter Two -

Lucky for us, Jen's gift was telekinesis. Just as the floorboards gave out, she quickly pieced them back together, saving us from impending death.
Cole pulled the cord again and the blacklight turned off, the room returning to its softly lit state.
"What kind of a sick joke was that?" Jenny sounded more angry than anything else.
I shook my head, my heart pounding.
"Could be one of the students playing a prank." Cole suggested, his tone way too mellow.
"A prank? We could have died, and would have were it not for Jenny!"
He shrugged, apparently out of ideas.
"Let's just get out of here." Jen started down the stairs and I followed. The creaking of hinges indicated Cole had closed the door and started down after us.
We started back toward the academy, all the while debating on whether or not we should tell Miss Gooding about what we had seen and the strange attempt on our lives. In the end it was two against one. I voted we tell her, Cole and Jenny voted against it. Miss Gooding would not be told, at least for now.

We returned to the academy just in time for the afternoon classes. Mornings were spent in regular schooling, while Miss Gooding set aside some time in the late afternoons to train us to better use our gifts.
While on our way to the classroom we found Miss Gooding seated at a chair in the living area. She was immersed in some kind of book, not pulling her eyes from it until we stood there a good ten seconds or so.
I still thought we should tell her about what we saw---my heart was still racing from the whole ordeal---but Cole and Jenny kept throwing me these threatening looks, like they'd kill me or something if I told her, so I kept my mouth shut. Honestly, I didn't even know why they were so against it. What harm could there be in telling her? Unless of course one or both of them had been involved in the "prank"... I was still contemplating that possibility when Miss Gooding slammed the book shut, sending me about an inch off the floor. "We'll be training outside today." She glanced behind us. "The others are already waiting. What took you so long?" Her icy blue eyes held a look of skepticism as they trailed from face to face, as if she were sizing us up.
My face filled with heat and I probably would have spilled the beans right then and there if Jenny hadn't spoke up and said, "We lost track of time. We're teenagers, what do you expect?"
At least Miss Gooding was used to Jenny's snarkiness. Had I been forced to provide an answer I'd probably be bawling at her feet right about now.
Miss Gooding tossed the book onto the chair beside her. "Whatever. Follow me to the backyard." At least she'd never been one to probe.

We followed her out the back door, down a stone path, under a rose trellis and finally into the large, fenced in yard where we always did our outdoor training. The ten students aside from us were already waiting just as Miss Gooding had said, and they quickly formed an orderly line upon our arrival. The three of us joined the line, Miss Gooding taking her place in front of us.
"Let's have a recap on what I taught you yesterday." While Miss Gooding paced in front of us relaying every little minute detail of what we'd learned the day before, I found myself studying each of the students in turn, trying to determine who, if anyone, would have been capable of pulling off such a prank. There were the twins, Avery and Emery, their personalities were complete opposites, but despite that, they were both pretty laid back. Avery was about the last person who would play a prank on someone, and Emery, while he was a jokester, I couldn't see him ever wanting to hurt any of us. He did have the gift to deconstruct things, but again, this just wasn't up his alley. Avery's gift would have been useless in such a prank, so that pretty much crossed her off the list as well.
There was always Jared, the academy prankster, but his pranks had never gone that far, and there was one thing that didn't add up were he the one to have done it. Jared had a positively ginormous crush on Jenny. He would never do anything to hurt her in a million years. And then there was Ruth. The youngest student at the academy. There was no way little Ruth could have done it.

The loud clearing of a throat snapped me back to attention. Miss Gooding was piercing me with a not-so-friendly glare.
I bit my lip, dropping my gaze to the grassy lawn beneath my feet.
"Miss Brady, would you be so kind as to play some music that fits the mood? Something action-packed."
I sighed, walking away from the group and toward my music stand made up of a hodgepodge of instruments. This was the extent of my training. To play a song that helped get the other students motivated for their training. That was it. I was nothing more than a human jukebox. I think Miss Gooding was fairly certain I had reached my full potential and had nothing more to learn.

When the training was finished I traipsed up to my room, my mind exhausted from five rounds of John William's Theme From Schindler's List. Miss Gooding made me play it over and over because she swore Tommy's gift of enhanced speed was a fraction of a second faster when it was playing, and that Molly had never been more connected to nature than when the song was at its climax. Miss Gooding was insane.

Jenny followed me up the stairs, not looking the least bit fatigued. I was pretty certain she had reached her full potential with her gift too, so why couldn't she help out with the music from time to time? Oh yeah, because Miss Gooding had actually suggested that one time and Jenny's attempt at playing the cello sounded like nails on a chalkboard.
I sighed with exhaustion, shoved open the door to our room and fell inside. Jenny tiptoed around me, pulling the door shut as she entered. "What's with the face?"
I pulled my face, which hadn't even been facing her, from the floor to give her a menacing glare. "Face?"
She shrugged, running a nail file across her nails. "I mean all of you. You act like you just died."
I pulled myself into a sitting position. "If I had died I wouldn't be moving and talking and breathing, now would I?"
She tossed the file aside and unscrewed a bottle of black nail polish.
"Why are you so calm?" I pulled my knees to my chest, my back against the bed.
Her eyes didn't leave her nails as she slathered them in the black polish. "Why shouldn't I be calm?"
"Um... hello? Blacklight? Strange words? The floor giving way beneath us? Remember any of that?"
She lowered the bottle of nail polish, her eyes finally meeting mine. "Of course I remember, but..."
"But?"
"Well... it happened, and we're not dead, and it's over with, so... shouldn't we just move on now?"
"Move on?" I rose to my feet. "Jen, what is wrong with you lately? I mean you were acting pretty darn scared back there, and now you're saying we should move on? When in all of our time here has anything like that ever happened before?"
She paused a moment, actually thinking on it. "Well... never."
"Exactly. Never. And now you think we should just brush it under the rug?"
She finished with her nails and began blowing them dry. "Why not?" She said between blows.
I sighed, plopping down onto my bed. "Just forget it." A few seconds passed. "You didn't have anything to do with it, did you?"
She tore her gaze from her nails to glare at me. "What are you talking about? You honestly think I had something to do with it?"
"No. Just forget it." I stood from the bed, heading for the bathroom. "I have to get ready for dinner."
Dinner was a formal affair at Gooding Academy, the girls being required to wear dresses or skirts and the boys a suit and tie. I don't know why Miss Gooding was so particular about these things, but I guess she wanted to be sure everything had order to it. For the most part, all of the students actually abided by this rule. I threw a look toward Jenny, shook my head, then headed into the bathroom for a quick shower.

That night I slept restlessly, haunted by strange dreams of glowing messages written on floorboards and me pleading with Jenny not to go through the gate.
I awoke with a start, covered in perspiration and my pulse soaring.
A creaking sound, like rusty hinges, drew my gaze toward Jenny's bed. The bed was empty, the covers thrown back.
I sat up quickly, my heart pounding. She wouldn't have... I hurried from my bed, slipped my feet into my boots and slung my arms into a cardigan that had been discarded at the foot of the bed. I searched in the darkness for the flashlight I was sure I had stashed away somewhere, but came up empty handed. I threw a glance out the window. There was a full moon, so it would have to be good enough.
I tiptoed from the room, careful to close the door as quietly as I could, then started down the long staircase. Sure enough, the front door was unlocked. I bit my lip, shaking my head. "Jenny... why would you do this?"
I slipped out, the Spring night was cool, a gentle breeze caressing my skin and sending a chill down my spine. I descended the porch steps and started down the stepping stone walkway that led to the garden. Though we were told never to go through it, I knew exactly where the gate was located.
The trail wound through a portion of woods and I paused a moment as a critter scurried by in the leafs. My heart raced, then I sighed, shaking my head. "Probably a mouse." I continued my walk. Soon the stepping stones ended, a narrow, worn path in the dirt the only remains of a trail to the garden. I followed it until I reached the stone wall, covered in vines and overgrowth from years of abandonment. I slipped through the gate---not the gate---and into the small enclosure that was once a beautiful garden, flourishing with life. Now, in the moonlight, the twisted branches and overgrowth looked haunting. The wind blew the leafless limbs of a gnarly tree, its branches resembling spindly, crooked fingers. I sucked in a breath of air, redirecting my gaze straight ahead, where beneath the branches of a rosebush long dead and surrounded by vines and creeping ivy, sat the gate. Sure enough, it stood partially open.