Chapter 15
The Power Within
I finally get a good night's sleep that night. No nightmares, no encounters with Lord Vulcan, nothing. I wake up relaxed and ready to take on the day now that I finally had a decent night's sleep. When I wake up, I look around for Armani. He's going through my closet, tossing stuff out all over my room. I groan, rubbing my eyes. Now's not the time to ask me about fashion advice.
"Armani? What are you doing?" I ask him, standing up.
"Apologies, Cassidy. I was searching for some clothes, I feel as though I should be wearing something. Everyone on earth is covering up their body so I feel I should do the same," Armani explains, shifting through my T-shirt's.
I gasp as I realize he's close to my bras, and I really don't want him to see those. I hurriedly rush over to my closet to stand in front of him. "Whoa Whoa. Armani, you're not from earth, so you don't have to wear anything, only if you want to I mean."
Nodding, Armani says eagerly, "Yes yes, I'd like to! Do you have anything suitable for me?" He asks trying to look behind me.
"Um..."I say, trying to think if I have anything remotely appropriate for a guy to wear. Then I remember I have a few short sleeved shirts that are quite long. I keep them around because they're comfortable. "Wait right there, I think I have something," I tell Armani. He nods at me, smiling and I turn around to dig through the mess that's now my closet.
After a few minutes of searching, I finally find something for Armani. It's a blue short sleeved shirt that's meant to be worn alone. It's a size small, so I'm hoping it'll fit him well enough, "Here, try this," I say, tossing the shirt over towards Armani. He catches it, and looks at it uncertainly.
"Are you sure this will be good?" He asks me, still holding up the shirt.
I giggle as I stand back up and look at him, "Yes, Armani it's fine, try it on silly." I watch as he slips the shirt over himself. When he puts his arms through the sleeves, he goes over to my mirror to examine himself.
"Yes, I think this will do just fine," Armani says happily.
I laugh and clap my hands together a bit, "Awesome, I'm glad you like it. Now, come on. I think we should go see how Griffin and Rhea are doing."
Armani nods and says, "Yes, agreed. With that, he reaches for my hand, but suddenly I start to feel strange as soon as I get closer to him.
My head starts to throb and it feels like there's so much pressure in it that I can't think. I try to focus on Armani, try to act normal, but he's blurry and seems to be changing shape when I look at him. I want to ask him why he's doing that, but my vision begins to turn black, and I can't make any sound come out of my mouth. Then, things get even more strange.
Suddenly I feel cold, and I don't remember what happens much after that. My vision begins to darken, and I feel my hands burning as if they're on fire beside me. Briefly I wonder, why are my hands on fire? I try to shake them to make the pain go away, but they keep burning, a searing pain scorching through my body.
When I glance down at my hands, I notice that there seems to be something coming out of them. It almost looks like flames, but I can't be sure with my eye site this bad. I stumble around in my room and mutter something about how someone better put out my burning hands, or else it won't end well. All of a sudden, I feel very light headed and I begin crashing down onto the ground, falling. I realize that I'm passing out, then eventually everything I see turns to black.
"Cassidy! Cassidy wake up please! Are you okay?"
I groan as I hear Armani's voice in my head. Everything sounds muffled to me and I can hear other voices but I can't quite make out what they're saying. A loud ringing pounds in my ears as I struggle to gain consciousness.
"Cassidy? What happened?" I hear someone ask. I think it's Griffin.
I muster all of the strength I have left to open my eyes. They flutter open slowly, and I feel beads of cold sweat on my forehead. The palms of my hands are still burning as if they've been dipped in fire. I force myself to wake up so I can check on my hands.
"Griffin? Armani? What-what happened to me?" I ask, my voice quivering a little.
Griffin shakes his head, "I'm not sure. You were fine one minute then the next, your hands were on fire or something. Then you passed out. That's what Armani says. Rhea and I came inside your room just in time to see you collapse," he explains.
Slowly, I start to prop myself up. My head is hurting so bad. It feels as though someone took a hammer and smashed it against my head a million times. The ringing in my ears is beginning to dissipate, but not fast enough.
"Did...did my hands catch on fire or something?" I ask.
Everyone gives me a blank stare for a little while and I start to get anxious. What if I'd just experienced had really been fire coming out of my hands? But...there's no way any human can do that; there's just no way. It's not possible.
Armani speaks first, "Cassidy, don't get upset, but yes...you exhibited some strange ability. You can produce fire out of your hands. I did not know humans have the ability to do this," He says, voicing my thoughts.
"Join the club, Armani. I didn't know I could do this either," I tell him.
"I just do not understand. This should not be possible. But if that were the case, then that would mean...no. No that cannot be true."
We all turn our faces towards Rhea. I can hear her babbling about something in my mind. I try to focus on what she's saying but my hands still burn and it makes it hard for me to concentrate.
Rhea is looking at her fingers as if she's trying to count something. She keeps mumbling to herself and I can hear her in my mind. Finally, Griffin says, "Rhea, what is it?"
There's silence for a few moments as Rhea figures out what to say. She takes a deep breathe, thinks a little more, then finally, she says, "Well, by my calculations...it appears that your fire abilities can be traced back to our ancestors, the very first Armanian's who discovered our planet and brought our race to fruition."
I'm on the edge of my seat as I listen intently to what Rhea has to say. She speaks slowly and carefully, and I can tell she's not trying to upset me. So what she's saying is probably very important. "Okay, what does that mean?" I ask her.
Rhea takes a deep breath, then after several long minutes of silence, I begin to get annoyed and I'm about to ask her again. But suddenly, she says very clearly, "Cassidy, the only way you can possibly have this ability is...if you had Armanian blood in your veins."
