Equinox Academy: Dark Prophecy

Chapter 3

Glowing...

Shit...

My eyes are glowing...

    I turn to face the two-way mirror and stare at my reflection and sure enough, my eyes are lit like a LED light bulb. My eyes are weird on a good day but now they are freaking glowing like a glowstick at a rave. Panic seizes my chest and my already shuttered breathing hitches. The feeling in my chest worsens when another pulse behind my heart radiates out causing my skin to warm as if someone set a fire under it. Before my eyes, my skin begins to glow, and I hear both Nick and Lee gasp. 

"What the f**k is going on?"

"This isn't normal is it?"

"I don't think so."  

I meet their eyes in the mirror and see the pure terror on their faces. And coming from two people who don't shy away from a fight and train as if the war is still happening this makes my already racing heart skips several beats making me start to question the science that supernaturals can't actually die from a heart attack. I lift my hands to my face because despite seeing the evidence in the mirror I need to confirm that what I'm seeing is actually happening in reality. 

Fuck it's real...

They are actually glowing...

What is happening to me...

My pulse begins pounding in my ears and the noises surrounding me begin to muffle and distort. I can tell someone is shouting but I can't seem to move, hear, or sense anything other than the little fragments here and there.

.... CAN'T LEAVE...

KASS...

No...NO!

    My skin begins to feel hot as the golden color gets brighter around me and I feel someone try to touch me then hear a muffled yelp. Another pulse seems to focalize right over my left breast as searing pain makes me grind my teeth to stop from screaming. My chest feels like someone is branding my skin. My legs begin to shake like a baby deer and I lock them to keep them from falling to the ground. I plant my hands on the counter to steady myself and lock eyes with my reflection again only to spot the agony filling them. The heat under my skin becomes unbearable like liquid lava as it pulses out with each heartbeat. Despite my trauma, I'm still stuck watching my reflection almost in awe of the light surrounding my body. It's taken on a darker hue almost like it's blacking out anything surrounding me and creating a void of darkness while the outside looks like a ring of pure light. Then it dawns on me I seen something similar.

It looks like a black hole...

I'm surrounded by a black hole...

I am a black hole... 

    I feel shifting under my feet as if an earthquake was rattling the bar. I grip firmer because every jostle causes pain to flash up my spine. My senses are filled with the strong fragrance of wet earth like just after heavy rain and abruptly the shaking stops. Just as quickly as it came the smell vanishes only to be replaced by the smell of saltwater. It's as if the Atlantic ocean washed into the bar and brings the briny smell flooding my lungs to the point that I taste it. I hear muffled screaming and footsteps but I can't move. I hear my name being shouted but is muffled because wind rushes past me carrying away any sound. My hair begins to whip around as if I'm standing in the middle of a hurricane. I've been told the eye of the storm is beautiful but the burning sensation under my skin makes appreciating it much harder.

    My eyes finally close because the burning sensation reaches an all-time high ripping a piercing scream from my throat that burns like I tried to swallow a whole bottle of 180 proof alcohol. My skin warms past the point of sunburnt to the melting acid level and I whimper in agony again. I smell burnt firewood and wonder if it's real or all in my head. My body begins to convulse and I can no longer keep standing. I fall hard to the ground and my body seizing harder from the damage taking place inside me and I can no longer feel where the pain starts or ends. I can hear panic screams close by but everything is so overwhelming that I can't tell if it's someone else or if it's me. The pain in my chest feels like my heart is going to rip out of my ribcage and blackness is creeping into the corner of my vision. Suddenly I hear a familiar voice that is gravely and has a slight accent. 

Balance...

    As if the voice restarted my working brain cells I realize that I need to try to get control over this before I destroy everything and everyone around me. The power is coming from me so there has to be a way to get control or balance out what's happening so I can minimize the damage. I know that I have been through worse pain mentally and emotionally. I can overcome anything as long as I am still living and breathing. The first thing I need to do is clear my mind like I did during Caitlyn and Brian's torture sessions and retreat to that dark place where I learned to block out the pain. I take a cleansing breath gritting past the fire in my lungs. I focus on retreating to my dark place where pain can't reach me. I slowly slip further under and the pain lessens until it's completely gone. However, something seems different, my dark place looks slightly brighter and has color. I see peridot green that dances like flames, emerald green that sways like a tree in the forest, sky blue that swirls like a tornado, a teal color that looks frosty but sways back and forth like an ocean wave, and the odd one out is a giant ball that has silver and gold flecks that shimmers like glitter. The glittery ball seems to be surrounded by a black ring and a white-gold ring. 

Find the balance...

    The voice seems a little more urgent this time and I begin to focus more on the glittery ball and look at how compact and controlled it is, how the outer rings seem to be keeping it stabilized even though they are thin. 

Balanced...

It looks like the ball is balanced...

I need to figure out how to balance the other colors like the ball of glitter...

    As if on cue my right hand begins glowing a white gold like the outer band surrounding the glitter ball and my left-hand sparks with what looks like black fire. I cringe expecting it to burn but a slightly warm sensation engulfs my hand and it's pleasant rather than painful. Following my gut instincts, I approach the frosty teal mass first. The briny smell of the ocean fills my nose again and I hold my hands toward the mass and picture the icy wave shape in a large bubble made of equal parts of the gold-white light and the black flame. Instantly both energies in my hand shoot out towards the mass startling me and breaking my focus. The energy fades quickly and a sting burns my palms. I clench my teeth past the pain and I refocus my efforts. I push my energy towards the mass a second time and finally get a bubble around it but the mass breaks through it easily snapping the energy around it and causing another sting in my hands. 

"Shit.."

I flick my eyes towards the glitter ball again and observe it more closely. The glitter is moving freely around inside the ball but it's confined and compact almost like it's inside an orbuculum. 

Maybe I need something more sturdy...

Going with my gut again I lift my hands and picture a thin crystal ball surrounding the mass and push my energy out through my palms. Before my eyes, I see the orb form around the frosty teal mass and solidify. Concentrating on making it smaller I press my hands together trying to make it compact like a ball of glitter. I feel the burn in my hands but I ignore the sensation and make the ball collapse to the size that matches the glitter ball. I release the energy and wait but the frosty teal mass seems to settle in the ball and the wave movement calms to what looks like gentle lapping rather than full-blown Gail force wind waves. A dizzy sensation takes over me making me sway but I push past it and move to the next three applying the same logic as the first one. Strangely enough just like the teal frosty mass as I approach each color I get varying sensations and smells. The peridot mass looks like a massive wall of flames licking out in all directions and smells like burnt wood and smoke, not in a bad way almost like a cozy log fire in a fireplace. Burnt cedar fills my nostrils reminding me of the last time Lee and Nick took me camping. The sky blue mass looks almost like dandelion seeds and smells similar to the flower. When the dark and light energy touches it I feel the gust of wind almost like I'm in a tunnel with my head stuck out of the window. The emerald green mass seems the calmest and solid. The swaying tree-like mass seems to just be waiting for me to balance it. When my energy touches it I smell the damp earth and tree bark like being in Lee and Nick's back yard surrounding by the pine trees. 

    Once I finish I step back and nearly topple over as a strong wave of dizziness overcomes me and I blink to clear my vision. Once I stabilize myself I can feel my hands ache but I can feel the surrounding darkness stabilizing and notice that there is a golden light surrounding the darkness similar to what I saw when I looked at my reflection. I glance over at the glittering ball and curiosity gets the better of me so I make a move towards it but the energy in my hands begins to brighten and burn. The voice whispers to me again.

Another time...

    I nod to the blank space around me and silently thank whoever seems to be assisting me. I focus on returning the energy in my hands and feel it travel back up my arm and into the spot right over my left breast. It burns but it's much less than what it was before. I realize I need to go back but I'm terrified I remember coming back after the Spencer's torture sessions and the after-effects were crippling. However, I resolve to face the world because I can't just stay here even though the thought is extremely tempting. I close my eye and draw in a centering breath to force my mind back to the conscious level. 

    The first thing that registers is the pain. My limbs burn as if I was doused in acid. A light sheen covers my entire body and I can feel it quaking with overexertion. I take a breath and immediately regret it as I choke out a grunt as another searing wave of pain course through me. I know I have to check the damage and make sure everyone's okay but the grittiness behind my eyes is painful. So I decided to focus my energy on listening. First, all I hear is the ringing in my ears but as it dies down slowly and I hear sobbing close by but I'm not sure who it is. Resolved to open my eyes I push past the grit and tears and slowly open them. Confusion hits me first as I stare at what looks like the night sky but as I focus I begin to recognize that the fairy lights on the ceiling but they are melted in places and hanging limply in others. I see smoke floating around me and embers on the wood surrounding me crackle and drift around like fireflies. I smell the overwhelming scent of burnt wood and alcohol and feel liquid soaking into my clothes and skin. 

    I try to lift my head but the pain sparks through me and causes blackness to creep into my vision. I must have made a noise because after a slow blink both Lee and Nick are in my line of sight. Hovering slightly above them is the stranger with the peridot color eyes. Lee has tears and soot covering a large portion of her body and Nicks's face shows signs of fresh wounds that are already beginning to heal. The stranger seems relatively unscathed but it is clear there is concern and something else in his eyes. 

I did this...

I'm dangerous...

    Lee reaches out to touch my face but I flinch more out of concern for her safety than pain but it's evident in her eyes that I hurt her feelings. The blackness creeps in further and my eyes lock with the strangers and I stare into their depths looking for something I'm not really sure I can name at the moment. The tug in my chest flares again and I see his brow furrow and his arm flinch. I can hear Lee whimpering and Nick struggling to compose himself but my sole focus is on those eyes. I feel something calling to me from them but I'm not sure what and it's clear he seems to know it too. Lee's voice breaks whatever trance I'm in with this stranger.

"Baby are you okay?"

I snort a laugh because umm really my body feels like it's been run through a meat grinder. Laughing is better than crying because that's exactly what I want to do but I refuse to have this beautiful stranger see me as weak. I immediately regret that decision as the excruciating pain courses through my chest. I bite past the pain but when I try to answer nothing comes out but a rasp. I try again but nothing seems to help. The stranger disappears for a moment then reappears with a chipped glass with a small amount of liquid and a straw. Nick gently tilts my neck towards the glass and I whimper through the pain as I wrap my dry cracked lips around the straw and pull a small amount of the liquid into my mouth letting the cooling sensation soothe the burning in my throat. Exhaustion rears its head but I need to ask the one question that's been burning in the back of my mind before I let the darkness take me back under. With monumental effort, I focus all my energy and look my parents in the eyes and ask. 

"What am I?"

Nick looks at me with warring emotions ranging from sorrow, fear, and worst of all pity. When he speaks I can hear the emotion clogging his throat and the tremor in his voice.

"Kassie baby, I don't know.."

My eyes sweep between my parents then lock back with the beautiful stranger still standing above us. The darkness seems to be forcing me back under again and I try to fight it. However, it's a losing battle as those beautiful peridot orbs begin to fade. I feel the tug in my chest at the thought of not seeing him again but just as my mind finally gives up the battle I hear the voice in my head whisper softly to me.

Rest, beautiful...

And despite the beautiful tragedy that is my life hearing those comforting words causes a small smile to crosses my lips and I pass out.