Half and half

chapter 11

Chapter 11

After I finished, Ethan just stared at me. “I’ll prove it to you!” I exclaimed before he could call the nuthouse. He lifted an eyebrow. “Give me your hand. I’ll teleport us to the Principia.” He cleared his throat, “that place with the creepy girl with golden eyes and white hair?” I nodded. He extended his hand, “knock yourself out.” The thing is, seeing it and doing it are very different. To the naked eye, the only thing Hunters did while teleporting was grip your hand. I grabbed Ethan’s hand. Nothing happened. I closed my eyes and pictured the Principia. Nothing. I imagined myself tumbling through the universe, and suddenly, we were. Appearing somewhere on command is different. There you just appeared. Here, you traveled at the speed of light. And I had to control it. Uh-oh. I thought, as I hurtled through cities. Suddenly, I slammed into a tree so hard, I knocked it over. Ethan and I dropped to the ground far below, both of us yelling. We hit a snow-covered bank and sank into it. I clawed my way to the surface, I was vaguely aware of Ethan doing the same beside me. We came up for air, panting. Ethan’s mouth was gaping and his eyes were glazed over. “Told you.” I smirked. I was worried either Ethan would think of me as a freak or that he wouldn’t be able to handle the news. But when a crazy grin took over his features, I thought he’d gone insane. “This. Is.” He started slowly; “AWESOME!” he yelled it so unexpectedly loud, I fell off the snow bank into the deeper snow below. “What is your problem?” I asked, sticking my head up from amongst the snow. Ethan began laughing and I realized I had hat made from snow. About a foot of it. I shook my head and the stuff flew everywhere. Ethan gasped and ducked, narrowly avoiding a large clump. “Why did you say awesome? It’s not awesome. It’s creepy.” I felt a significant weight in my jeans pocket. They had appeared into every single black outfit. They were every color, shape and size. Ethan eyed my pocket warily. I sighed and took out the large black dagger that matched this outfit. I rolled my eyes at Dimitri’s overwhelming desire to match every fashion outfit. Ethan scrambled backward, away from the weapon. “Whoa dude! I won’t say anything!” he thought I was going to gut him. I grinned and tossed him the weapon. Out of reflexes, he snatched it out of the air. He was wide-eyed as he studied the blade. I could see it as he would. He would see the intricate designs carved into it. He would see a wicked sharp edge. He tried to touch it. “No!” I yelped. Too late. He trailed the lines of his hands with the blade before I snatched it from him. “Stupid.” I sighed, holding out my hand. “What?” he asked, leaning back and propping himself up with his hands. I pointed. He glanced behind him and saw a circle of red surrounding his left hand. He yelped and lifted his arms. The blood trailed closer to his sleeve. “Stop it.” I commanded. I held out my hand. He gently placed his on top of mine, palm up. I examined the thin trails of knife slashes. I grabbed his wrist and plunged it into the snow. He yelled in pain and surprise. “The snow will clear the blood from it. I need to see the cuts to heal them.” I told him. He stared at me, then nodded reluctantly. I slipped his hand out and saw the nearly invisible slashes. I concentrated, and a moment later, there were three parallel scars. I released his hand. He stared at his palm for a moment and then grinned, “that dagger’s a bitch.” I laughed. Suddenly, I heard a rushing noise. My past experiences made me duck in time, but no such luck with Ethan. A green blur tackled him, sending them both over the edge of the bank. They landed tangled together. “Get off me!” Thaila shrieked. “What is your freaking problem?!” Ethan yelled. I watched them, torn between laughing and helping. I settled for the former. “Stop laughing!” Thaila yelled, trying to wriggle away from Ethan. Unfortunately, they managed to untangle themselves and stand up. Fortunately, that’s when Dimitri made his entrance. A blur of black shot past me, barreling straight into Thaila and Ethan, sending the three back to the ground. “You’re squashing me!” Thaila gasped. Dimitri disentangled himself in a matter of seconds. Finally, they wriggled away from each other. Ethan’s dark blond hair was sticking up everywhere. Thaila’s light blond hair was in tangled disarray. Dimitri and I were laughing our heads off, but I stopped when a snowball smacked me on the face. Dimitri began laughing harder, but he stopped short when a snowball the size of a small truck hit him in the chest, sending him flying backward. I smirked. Thaila high-fived me and just like that, the teams were made. Ethan and Dimitri sidled closer to each other. “Separate. Hide in the trees and hit them both with normal and magical snowballs. When they’re far-normal, close-magic. Ok?” Thaila gushed. I nodded. She was more experienced in battle-strategy. Thaila wore her usual pastel colored dress, this time green. I thought she would stand out real bad with the surrounding snow, but the moment she stepped back, she merged with the trees, disappearing. Ethan was wearing a white jacket and normal jeans which were covered with snow, so no problem with him. The real problem was Dimitri and I, who were wearing black. I'm sorry, did I say Dimitri? The moment he stepped back, he merged into the shadows. So there I stood, in plain view, wearing a black outfit without knowing what to do. Suddenly, Thaila yelled, “begin!” and the snowballs came. Ethan was the quarterback in our football team, so he hit everything he set his eyes on. But… he didn’t have magic. I imagined putting on a huge white shield around me. The snowballs were deflected and in a couple of minutes, nobody threw at me. Which gave me a huge advantage. Thaila was like a graceful dancer. She merged with the forest so well, it was nearly impossible to spot her. Then you saw a flash of golden hair and thwack! You were hit. But Dimitri was deadly. Nobody saw him, because the darkness seemed to swallow him whole. If there were shadows, bam! There was Dimitri. He moved in blurs and I don’t think anyone hit him for the entire game. In an unspoken agreement, I went after Dimitri and Thaila against Ethan, who she had a grudge with and don’t ask me why; I have no idea. We moved all over the small forest, merging, running chasing and generally having a great time. The game ended when I was chasing a suspicious shadow I thought was Dimitri and burst into a yard filled with children. Apparently, Dimitri didn’t see them, because he threw in my direction an avalanche of snow. “No! Thaila cried, spotting the gaping children. She burst from the forest with Ethan at her heels. The avalanche was either going to crush the kids or drown them. So I did the only possible thing in my situation. I stood in front of them and spread my hands out. I didn’t think that would do much good, but I tried to stop it anyway. I threw a shield of magic between the rolling snow and the kids. They screamed and tried to run, but of course they wouldn’t be able to. Meanwhile, I struggled to hold off the massive avalanche. I started sliding backward from the sheer pressure. Dimitri tried to stop it, of course, but it had too much momentum. It was going to penetrate my shield. Then Thaila was there. She grabbed my hand and a rush of energy poured from her into me. I yelled and pushed back with all my energy, and all of Thaila’s. After a horrible minute, the avalanche stopped. I let myself fall backward, sinking into the snow, panting. Thaila dropped a few feet to my right. “Dylan? Where are you?” Dimitri asked, emerging from the shadows. I frowned and waved. I thought I’d be pretty noticeable with my black outfit lying in the middle of all the white snow, right beside a girl in a green dress. But Dimitri’s eyes passed over me without stopping. I sat up and waved my hand in front of his face. “Dylan, stop it!” he said, exasperated. He turned to Thaila and Ethan, who was helping her up. “Where is he? The avalanche didn’t swallow him did it?” Dimitri asked, annoyed. Thaila frowned, also looking around for me, “I don’t think so.” All the kids had run into the house. The sound of the front door shutting penetrated the thick silence. They looked around. I looked down at my body, thinking I must have gotten covered with snow. I didn’t have a body. I yelled. Everyone nearly jumped out of his or her skin. Ethan leap back two meters. Dimitri took out six daggers from who knows where. Thaila fell on her butt. Meanwhile, I was staring at the place my hand should be. “I'm not here!” I bellowed. Everyone reacted differently. Thaila screamed and threw an arm to protect herself from the invisible threat. Ethan passed out. Dimitri simply narrowed his eyes and looked around him. Meanwhile, I ran straight to his face, trying to use this to my advantage. “Bleh!” I yelled. Dimitri produced a sound that sounded like a cat being run over by a truck, leaping backwards away from me. I know I should be worried I wasn’t there or anything, but I was having too much fun. I picked up Ethan, grunting with effort. Then I ran around with him, dumping him on top of Thaila. She screamed. I cracked up. “Stop it!” she wailed. Dimitri walked over to her and pushed Ethan off her, helping her to her feet. She cowered against him. Thaila refused to separate from him as he surveyed everything. “Dylan turn visible.” He commanded. “How? I can’t. I didn’t even turn invisible. I’m just not here. I didn’t die or anything, right?” I asked, suddenly fearful I was a ghost. Dimitri frowned. “I don’t think so. Where are you?” I didn’t think that was very convincing but I walked toward him. “Here” I said dejectedly. He jumped at the sound, but Thaila, looked right at me. She pointed, “he’s there.” Dimitri stared at the spot she was pointing at, but he clearly couldn’t see me. “How do you know? Can you see him?” he asked intently. She frowned slightly. “No. I can just tell. You are there right?” she asked. I nodded, and then remembered she couldn’t see me and instead said, “yeah. You’re looking at my hair, though.” She laughed and looked me straight in the eye. “Better?” she asked. I laughed, “yes.” Dimitri started pacing. “We need to take you to Dhaile, she’ll know what to do.” He was going to say more, but he was interrupted my Ethan moaning, “I don’t want a pony.” I then remembered he had passed out and felt guilty. I pulled him to his feet and he staggered, leaning against me. I held him up, barely, but he soon managed to stand without help. “Urgh. Dylan still gone?” he asked. “Yep. Nope. I mean, I'm here but I'm not. Never mind.” I was really frustrated. Ethan just stared at the place where I had spoken. “You didn’t tell me you could turn invisible.” I frowned, “I didn’t think I could. Can you?” I turned to Thaila and Dimitri. Even if they didn’t know I was looking at them and I hadn’t said a name, they imagined the question was for them. “No. And we don’t know anyone who can. We can blend, but not disappear completely.” To prove her point, she merged with the trees, seemingly disappearing. I sighed. Ethan jumped at the sound. “How do I go to Dhaile? I managed to do the transportation thingy before you came, but how will you know I made it?” I asked. Thaila shrugged, “we’ll just hope you do. It’s a wonder you managed to move a human as far as you did. Humans can’t teleport. It kills them.” I scowled, “I would have managed to move him more, but I ran into a tree.” I blushed and Ethan glowered in my direction, rubbing his forehead. Thaila laughed. “Of all places, you had to land on Alaska.” She said reprovingly. “We’re in Alaska?” I asked, surprised. She nodded. “Oh. Well, Ethan, don’t jump, I'm going to grab you, ok?” he nodded. I gripped his arm and he jerked away. I sighed, exasperated. I held on again, for the first time noticing how cold I was. Where I grabbed Ethan, his skin turned blue and his teeth began to chatter. “D-dude, you’re c-cold.” He stammered. “Come on, don’t be a whiner. He can’t be that cold.” Thaila held out her arm and I took it. She gasped and jerked away, looking scared. “Dimitri, touch him.” She whispered. She turned to us as Dimitri walked toward us. “His temperature has always been ten degrees colder than anybody’s. He’s never felt cold in his life. I’ve always had five warmer.” Thaila explained. I grabbed Dimitri’s arm. His eyes widened making the black reflect the snow back at me. His skin was so pale, it turned blue immediately. He didn’t shiver; he just stared at the place my fingers clasped on his arm. I released him, taking pleasure at his wide-eyed surprise, he turned to Thaila slowly, “He was cold. He was cold Thaila. Cold.” He repeated. Thaila looked alarmed. “Come on, grab Ethan and meet us there, Dylan. Try to zoom higher so you don’t hit trees. Spread your arms, It helps. Dimitri, you take me. That avalanche drained me. Are you good to go Dylan?” I muttered a yes and grabbed Ethan, who began shivering at contact. I rolled my eyes and blurred.