Normality, Thy Name is Lynette

Chapter Five

Darian was there when I woke up. He said sadly, “I am so sorry Lynette. This is my fault. I can’t believe that I dragged you into this.”

I still felt hazy and didn’t truly know what was going on. “Darian, where am I?”

“We are at the Warren.”

“Isn’t that rabbit tunnels?”

“They aren’t very good at naming things. Hell, they call us a cloister. That’s the same thing as an abbey.”

“What did I do? Why am I here? Where is here?”

“Slow down. I can’t answer your questions if you don’t stop to let me, but I am not allowed to answer that last one. You didn’t do anything. You know too much. You found out about us… about the cloister. You are here because outsiders aren’t allowed to know. We actually aren’t even supposed to associate with anyone but the cloister.”

“Then how did I even end up in your group?”

“You were Piper’s roommate. She had a feeling that you would end up having a hard time making friends. Rain checked it out, and sure enough, you would have continued the year without a soul to talk to. We took pity on you. Enide, Jamie, and Thom didn’t think it was a good idea. Ace agreed with them because he has to follow the rules as leader. Rain didn’t care one way or another. The rest of us… kind of...”

“Felt sorry for me?”

He nodded.

“But didn’t you know it would end up this way?”

          “Rain tells us that the future isn’t certain until it happens. It’s just extremely probable.”

          “What is this cloister anyway? It still confuses me.”

          “Hold on.” He nodded his head once or twice and then turned back to me. “Okay, I am allowed to tell you. We are a group of… psychics. All of us have known for most of our lives because most of us were born into the cloister. One or two of us get our powers and are then taken away by the cloister. That’s how Rain and I got here. Everyone else knew already.”

          “What happens if you are taken by the cloister?”

          He sighed, “Your parents’ memories are erased. They don’t remember you or each other. They usually try to make it look like accident and blame it on amnesia.”

          “Is… is that going to happen to me?”

          He said sadly, “Yes, that is what they have decided. I tried, I really did. I couldn’t get them to realize it was my fault. They can’t get rid of me though… so they have to you.”

          “I’m going to forget everything?”

          “Everything. Your whole life. Your parents. Your brothers. Your friends from home. Me. Keegan. Piper. The rest of us. I think this time it’s that you fell out of tree and hit your head. You will be out for the rest of the school year and next year you will have a new roommate and won’t have any classes with Keegan or Jamie. None of us will talk to you. The people who knew you and I were dating will be confused why I don’t talk to you, but I will put it off as we had a bad break up right before the accident.”

          “Why could I have just kept my nose out of things?”

          He said sternly, “This is not your fault. This is mostly my fault, a bit of Piper’s and Keegan’s, but mostly mine.”