The Immortals

Chapter 8

“So Nessa, I didn’t want to mention it in front of your mom, but have you had any other incidences with your power?” Kelsey asked while she absently sketched in her notebook. All three girls were sitting in the living room, but doing their own thing.

     “Honestly I haven’t really thought about it. I haven’t even had any dreams the last few days. I guess I’ve just been so focused on everything else.”

     Kelsey grinned. “You wanna see what you can do?”

     “Um, should I be worried?”

     Kelsey jumped up excited. “C’mon, it’s time to put these powers to the test!”

    Kelsey grabbed a reluctant Vanessa and led her into the kitchen and had her stand in front of the island. From there, it was a clear shot through the small dining room, and into the living room. It was the largest space length wise in their apartment. Curious, Tiffany followed the girls in the room and jumped up on the counter to watch.

    Kelsey ran through the house grabbing random objects. Tiffany raised her eyebrow at Vanessa who just shrugged. She was used to her friend’s antics by now and just went with it.

    After a few minutes, Kelsey came back in the kitchen and started to line different objects up on the kitchen island. It ranged from water bottles, notebooks, a stuffed animal, socks, a wallet. Basically anything that was relatively soft and shouldn’t cause too much damage.  

     “Ok, let’s see what you can do.”

    “What do you want me to do with this stuff? Just see if I can throw it?”

    Kelsey shrugged. She had a notebook and pen and began writing a chart. “We can start with that. I want to see if you can control it better, but if you want to start with throwing go ahead.”

    Vanessa closed her eyes and focused on the tennis ball in the middle of the island. She was still not completely sure how the power worked, but unlike before she seemed to be able to access it a little easier. Vanessa tuned everything else out of her mind except the tennis ball and taking a deep breath lifted her hand up, palm up, UP! She thought. Vanessa still wasn’t sure if it was the thought or the hand motions that caused the objects to move so she was still doing both.

    The ball flew up off the table and slammed into the ceiling. It nearly crashed back down on the island but Vanessa thought FLOAT! Just in time, and the ball hovered about two inches off the table.

     “Damn, I don’t know if I can ever get used to that,” muttered Tiffany.

     “Great job, Nessa, can you maybe be a little less aggressive? Maybe try pushing it, like you did with the book and with Ryan. But not as hard?”

     Vanessa gave her friend a dirty look as she pulled a hair tie off her wrist, putting her curly hair up in a messy bun on the top of her head. “I don’t exactly know what I’m doing here Kels.”

     “Ok, well what are you doing to make it move?”

     “I’m not even sure. I think about the object, picture it in my mind then I yell inside my head whatever I want it to do. I’m doing the hand motions too, but who knows if that’s doing anything.”

     “Ok, so instead of yelling the command. Say it in a normal voice. See if that makes a difference.”

    Vanessa looked at the ball again, that was now resting on the counter since she lost concentration. Picturing it in her mind she thought in a more calm voice thought Move. The object still flew across the room and crashed into the wall, but at least it didn’t shatter or dent the wall.

     “Alright! Now keep going!”

    The girls spent the next hour playing with all of the objects trying to see exactly what Vanessa could do. She seemed to have a little more control by the end of the hour, but she still managed to put a couple dents in the wall as well as completely destroy her water bottle. But by the time they were done, Vanessa had successfully floated each object as well as toss them across the room. For some of the smaller, more compact objects, like the ball, she even managed to have it float to both Kelsey and Tiffany so they could catch it. And by the last time, it was a soft enough maneuver they could grab the ball while it was still floating in the air without having to worry about it breaking their hand from the force.

      But, after a while Vanessa was exhausted and needed to stop. This really wore her out. “Honestly this was the most fun I’ve had in days, but I am beat. I need to rest. This takes a lot of strength.”

     “That makes sense because you’re using your full force of power every time. You’ll need to learn how to control it.”

    Vanessa glared at her friend, “Ok Professor X, and how do you expect me to learn to do that?”

     “Honestly, I think that Caleb guy from your dreams.”

    Tiffany scoffed, “Really so incredibly sexy but creepy stalker guy who we know nothing about and have no idea where he is or who he is, is supposed to what? Teach her to be a super hero?”

     Vanessa didn’t say anything, but she knew Kelsey was right. She felt it too. “Well he’s not here right now, and I’m tired so I’m going to take a shower and then a nap. We can resume later.”

      “Ok perfect, I want to review my notes anyway. I wonder what else you can do?” Kelsey began to write furiously in her notebook. “The possibilities are endless.”

     “Alright well you work on that. I’m going to shower and nap.”

    Kelsey waved her hand absently totally absorbed in her notes. Tiffany, however, looked over at Vanessa concerned as she walked into the bathroom to shower. Her friend was tough as hell but she knew she was taking this hard and she was not ok despite the face she put on.

    Tiffany went back into her room and opened her laptop. While she hadn’t mentioned anything to Vanessa or Kelsey, her and Ben had been secretly searching for this Caleb Black. And getting nowhere. Ben had admitted to Tiffany that he saw him in the bar on that night but didn’t make the connection.  They had been searching everywhere. Tiffany was a computer science major and thought she was pretty good at finding people online. Everyone had an online profile. It was impossible to be completely clean. Yet, it seemed he was. They came across other Caleb Black’s of course, but the trails all turned up cold. They knew it was possible he was using a fake name but wasn’t getting anywhere with that. Ben even had his friend Nick try to search him off the record, since they promised Vanessa they would not tell the police about him. But the search came up empty.

     Tiffany didn’t know what she would do if she found him. Part of her was pissed as hell at this mystery man. It was clear her friend was deeply connected to him, and even though Vanessa didn’t act like it bothered her that he left before she woke, Tiffany knew that it did. And those f*****g letters? What was that? She had never seen anything so cryptic in her life. It seemed like he cared for Vanessa and her safety but then didn’t stick around to make sure she was ok. And how the hell did he even know who she was? Why was he following her? If she ever got her hands on that guy…

     Sighing, Tiffany continued her search. She would find him, if he didn’t show up on his own first.