The Secret of Soul

Deep Trouble

Courtney

I was sitting in the cabin at the kitchen table, waiting for Kara to get back or receive word of what Whitney had decided to do for her punishment. Kara is my sister, and I was horribly concerned on what happened and why she ran off. Finally, Kara emerged through the door, bringing some of the crisp, December air in with her. I rushed up to greet her.

"Kara!" I screeched as I went to hug her. She quickly jumped out of the way. I felt rejected for a moment, but I quickly got over it and tried again. "Oh my god you’re alive! What did she say? Are you nuts running away from Soul like that? You’re lucky the human hunters didn’t get you!" Kara looked at me like I was insane and walked away saying "leave me alone." She slammed the door to the girls' bedroom. 

Sarah walked up to me applauding, "Way to go Courtney! You made her leave the room in less than thirty seconds." I looked at her and smirked. "Shut up Sarah. Aren’t you supposed to be in your coffin?" I asked her. Sarah stabbed at me with her witty remark, "its nighttime stupid. We’re nocturnal remember? “I raised my hand to put a spell on her to make her stop talking. She stopped me before I could, "Don’t even think about it Courtney. If you use magik on me I’ll personally make sure Head Peace Keeper Whitney hears all about it. Now excuse me as I go jog around Soul." I waited until she was at the door before I said anything more. "You’re excused bloodsucker," I yelled as she walked out. She completely ignored me. I silently laughed to myself.

Kyla ruined my happiness with her smart-butt commentary. "You sure know how to clear a room. What are you trying to do? Get all the guys to yourself?" "Shut up Kyla," I told her. I was going to slap her, but Aiden broke up the argument before I could. "Enough. Courtney, go find something better to do than to tick everybody off. We’re a team here, remember?" The tension in the cabin was broken for a brief minute, until Jack, Sarah's bloodsucking mate, walked over to try to start a fight with Aiden. "Taking it as you’re the leader Aiden?" It's something about male dominance between the two. They do the Jacob-Edward thing from Twilight, except Sarah isn't interested in Aiden what-so-ever. Really, I wish the two would stop arguing with each other. Jack pushed Aiden into the wall. "Chill Jack," Aiden told him. I was about to support Aiden completely, due to the fact Aiden is smaller than Jack, when a siren began to go off and Whitney came on the speakers.

"Attention Soul. Please remain in your cabins. If you are out of your cabin, please head back immediately," Whitney's voice boomed. We all started freaking out over whatever was going on, when Jack finally sat down and turned on the news. "What's going on?" Sarah asked as she came in. She was shushed and sat down in front of the TV with us. We sat around the TV, waiting on a sign for why Soul's alarms were going off. Finally, Glenda Norton, the newscaster for channel nine, began the story that changed Soul forever.

"New attacks have been launched by gang members," Glenda began. Footage of a crime scene flashed across the TV. It was obviously not gang violence due to the blood covering the apartment and the unsightly appearance of dead humans.  "Typical. Humans think it’s gang members when it looks like," I began before I was interrupted by a chorus of "shh!" I rolled my eyes and continued watching. "Twenty people have been found dead and drained completely of blood. It appears each victim had two small incisions on their jugular veins. The faces were completely mauled off to where the bone was showing." Kara walked in wondering why the sirens were going off, and then when she was ignored, sat down in front of the TV as well. Whitney walked in, more than likely to explain what had happened.

"Oh you guys are already watching it." Whitney stood behind the ugly green couch and watched the human's news report as well. "Investigators are trying to find witnesses to identify the bodies of the newly found dead citizens of New York," Glenda explained, "but no witnesses have been found yet. In a related story, investigators have had calls of several people missing in the past few days. Dalton Jones has the story." "That's right Glenda. Here at the police department they have been getting more and more calls about missing people. Every five minutes, a person has been reported missing for a month," Dalton told her viewers. "Turn it off," Aiken told Jack. He looked sick to his stomach, so Jack didn't question him. We all waited for Whitney to tell us everything.

"What do you guys think?" Whitney asked. We looked at each other, trying to find the words to describe what we saw. Kyla was the first to speak, "I think the sirens are annoying." Whitney laughed at her. "Sorry Kyla. It was to warn the guards and hunters that something major happened and we needed to have a meeting to discuss it." "What's going on Whitney?" Jack asked.  "Gang violence," Whitney told him, humored by the ridiculousness of what the humans pin-pointed it on.

"Yeah right. That’s Anti-Soul’s handy work," Sarah exclaimed. I think she's annoying. Everything she says is high pitched and yelled across the room for all of New York City to hear. Whitney nodded as I thought about how to get rid of Sarah. Whitney went to the kitchen, grabbed a chair, brought it back to the living room, and sat down in it to explain a few things to us. "You're right Sarah. They openly attacked the humans. We have to fight back. Combat training starts tomorrow night at five. Do not be late," Whitney told us. "What about my punishment?" Kara asked. Whitney smiled at her. "Did you try your powers yet Kara? You’re going until tomorrow night without your powers. Everything else I am dropping. I think you felt bad as it is." "Thank you Head Peace Keeper Whitney," Kara told her.

Whitney got up to put the chair back. "Five tomorrow night. If you are late, you will not get lunch. Understand?" We all nodded and mumbled yes to her. She told us to relax and have some fun before tomorrow. She also told Kyla they would turn off the sirens, which Kyla was grateful for. Honestly, I liked seeing her suffer, but the sirens were getting on my nerves as well. Whitney laughed at Kyla's remarks on her way out the door.

Sarah broke the silence between all of us. "So, you realize this 'combat training' is going to wear us all out." I groaned and realized my perfect manicure was going to get messed up. I made the mistake of exclaiming this out loud. Everyone shot me a dirty look. Aiden was the first to say something, "we’re going to go fight a war with Anti-Soul while trying to hide from the humans and you’re worried about your dang manicure?! That’s superficial. Really?" Aiden scrutinized. "Loser," Deseray told me. I smirked at her and her sisters. Talk about annoying fairies. I wonder if I said I didn't believe in fairies, they would die. I continued looking at my beautiful French tips. "Courtney that just gives you another opportunity to do your nails," Jack consoled. "O-M-G! You're right Jack!" I yelled. Sarah looked at him lovingly, and ruined my newly found good mood.

"You always know the right thing to say," Sarah told him as she hugged and kissed him. "Get a room!" Kara told them. I realized how much I loved my sister right then. She was so much like me. "You're just jealous," Sarah told her. Kara stuck her tongue out at her and Sarah rolled her eyes. Kyla stood up from the couch. "I'm going to the lounge. Who's coming?" "I'll come," Sarah told her. Kyla was shocked, as was the rest of us. Kyla and Sarah were just as bad as Aiden and Jack. "Really? Why?" Kyla asked curiously. "We better start liking each other a lot more. I don’t care if you’re the shape shifter and I’m the vampire. We’re both fighting for Soul. Right?" Sarah responded. We never expected Sarah to be the bigger person, so we all mumbled "I'm ins, "let's go’s, and "why are we still standing here’s. Kyla taunted us with her competitive nature, "You’re all going down in Foosball!" "Bring it Kyla!" I taunted back.

We all played something competitive to help take our minds off of the battle soon to come, but it didn’t really help. We could hear Head Peace Keeper Whitney arguing with Aiken on how to train us for combat and how they will go through the actual battle. Eventually, it was five in the morning, so we all headed back to the cabin to eat dinner and go to sleep. As much fun as we had finally getting a long for once, nothing was ever able to prepare us for combat training the next day.