The Story Of Sarelle: The Immortal Years »

Chapter 34

5th May 2048

"You have to think beyond anything you've done before, Sarelle," Kate spoke calmly but with purpose. We both knew how important it was for this to succeed.

I felt the familiar electricity dance in my muscles. Come and play, it whispered.

"OK, take my hand," I breathed as the tingle's ferocity built. Through our past tests we had learnt that Kate's gift could act as an amplifier to my own.

"Remember we just need to be in the future for a second. Just long enough to exist there for a moment." Kate's eyes locked mine as she spoke. I could feel her gift spark to life as the electricity in me surged.

I nodded as I tried to push my mind beyond the furthest place I'd been, "Just a second."

It was an incomprehensible thing to think of a time and a place you'd never been before. Somewhere you weren't even sure existed. On the few occasions I'd accidentally jumped to the future I had never stayed for long, but now I used these times as reference points. Pitstops in my mind to jump off from. That's what Kate and I had been doing these last few days. Laying down points in time, further and further from now, that I could reach forward in time from. Each time had been less tangible than the last. Now I needed her gift just to stand a chance at becoming whole when I landed. My attempts without using her gift had all being futile.

"Do you have our last jump in mind?" She asked, her eyes closed in concentration. Another pulse surged through me.

"Yes," I hissed against the vibration building between us. "But remember, no peaking." I smirked as the world exploded around us. It had been my one rule. Regardless of where in the future we went we couldn't look. Whatever we saw could never be unseen.

I focussed on the place we had chosen as our marker in time. We had used the same one for every jump so far. It was far from civilisation so the risk it would ever be built on were low. At the very least this would mean I wouldn't need to worry about jumping to a town centre.

Icy air hit us first. The wind howled around us, protesting at our interruption in this pristine place. I felt Kate's hands grasp mine as we tried to solidify in time. I could feel the pull of where we had been still tugging at us to leave this place and go back. I tried to envision amplifying my gift, drawing energy from the world around us but it wasn't enough and we snapped back to 2048 like an elastic band contracting. The sudden force knocked Kate from my reach, throwing her against a nearby tree. A sharp crack sounded as it splintered.

I doubled over, the pain in my eyes pulsed, radiating down through my body. A growl rumbled in my chest as I ground my teeth against the pain.

"Are you OK?" Alice asked softly, stepping from her place of safety at the edge of the clearing.

"I'll be fine," I righted myself as the pain ebbed into the ether. It felt like the pain was just a warning, something the force that ruled this world inflicted when I strayed too far from my path. Except now I didn't have a choice so this battle had become one of wills.

"Kate?" I asked as I saw her stretch and twist, fixing whatever damage had been done.

"I'll survive," she said, examining the tree behind her "I don't think this oak will though." Her fingers traced the crack running up its centre. "What happened? It seemed like you had it but then it all fell apart." She turned to me, her silvery hair slipping over her shoulders like silk ribbons over skin.

"I'm not sure." I dragged my hands through my hair, a crackle of static bounced of my skin. "Can you see anything, Alice?" I asked although I knew the answer would more than likely be same as always.

"Nothing, just darkness," her voice was laced with frustration and disappointment. As the past few days had ticked by Alice had become a quiet unsure version of her former self, and every time I asked her the same question I felt like I chipped away a little more at who she used to be.