Essence

Chapter Five

Broken.

That was the one word I found to describe the people in front of me, lying still on the white hospital beds. Both Jeanne and Black looked broken, Jeanne more so than Black.

Sentinel Black looked horrible and in deep pain. His body was shaded in various tints of dark purple to a yellow-blue, most of him was swollen. The sight was nausiating, as was the knowledge that I was the cause of this.

At least he was fixable. Jeanne, on the other hand...

Jeanne was an entirely diffrent sight from the one Black provided. She was silent and frozen, her fair skin had a blue-ish shine to it. Besides from her hallowed eyes and deathly complexion, one would think she was merely sleeping.

On the outside, she was perfect as she's always been. It was her insides that were scarred and shattered. She was a broken doll.

I decided to take on Black first, due to the fact that Jeanne'd be too exhausting. If I started with her, I'd have no energy for Daren Black.
I really hope this works.

Inhaling deeply, I touched the silent man's hand. His skin felt rough and unnatural, but I forced myself to keep hold of it.

Concentrating, I focussed solely on fixing his broken state. The cold trembles started slkwly at first, creeping up my arm and into my spinal cord. From there on the trembles spread through the rest of my body, and as it did it slowly turned from frozen worms to intensely hot fire.

Pain. Pain and fire from Daren Black transferred itself onto me. In him, it was hopefully replaced by the lively buzz that was ripped from my being.

After what felt like an eternity of suffering, I was able to release my hold on Black and found myself on the floor. Sweat beaded my skin and a nasty headache hammered at the back of my mind.

That was truely unpleasant.

Breathing, I gave my body chance to recover. It took a few minutes, maybe half an hour, befpre I was able to stand and turn to Jeanne.

I still felt unwell, but I needed to do this. Attempting to transfer certain things from Jeanne onto myself, proved to be much more of a challange than it was with Black. This time, I think I nearly passed out from the overload of pain and suffering.

It didn't start with cold trembles, but with a fiery hot flame that lateron turned cold as it spread through the rest of my being.

I last did this in preschool, the day I met Kingston and Dwayne, which also happened to be the first clear memory of my childhood. Life with my parents, outside of the many Able schools and communities, were a blur. I was young when they sent me away, because they were frightened of my abilities.

Most humans feared the Able, even if they didn't recognize the emotion as fear.

After my untimely acquaintance with the two boys that easily became my best friends, we vowed to keep my true abilities a secret. Dwayne and King knew more about the Council ways than I did, and if they said I was best kept secret - I believed them.

Even over the years, I didn't attempt to learn more about the Council. I was much more interested in other things; such as the Kings of Emerald.

Uncountable minutes later, I sank to the floor, panting from the strain of using my born abilities for the first time in years. I felt hot and uncomfortable, like there were foreign sprouts inside of me. I didn't think that was the case though, it was just an aftermath of the transference.

I called it transference, beacause that's what it felt like. Honestly, I had no idea what this ability was or how it affected the world about me.

Gradually the pain and discomfort left me, leaving a bit of an empty hole in me. When I was able to stand without wanting to throw up, I dared to look onto my victims for the first time since I started this....thing.

Daren Black had visibly healed, almost completely. His skin was nearly back to the tan colour it'd been before his injuries, and there weren't many traces of the swelling. He seemed fine.

I turned my back to him to inspect the one I'd actually come to heal. Jeanne, to my utter frustration, only had minor changes.

Her eyes weren't quite as hallow as it'd been before and the blue shine to her skin had slightly dimmed. That was it.

I couldn't help the disappointment. I was so sure it'd worked!

"If you can hear me," I stared at Jeanne, "I tried. Sorry."