The Fortress

Chapter 6 - Nightmares

"HEY GUYS, MEET Jared, the newest extraordinary in our midst," Jamie called for the attention of everyone as he approached them. They all stared at Jamie with a numb expression on their face.

"Hi! Jared," One of the girl said, grinning widely and waving her left hand.

"Hi!" Jared waved back and put on a smile.

In few minutes, they had all crowded him, offering handshakes and hugs. He felt relieved until he noticed a girl among them withdrawn from the crowd that surrounded him.

"Who is she?" He asked Jamie barely whispering and without taking his eyes off her.

"Oh, She?" Jamie traced the direction Jared's eyes was pointing to and gulped hard.

"Well...uhm, she's Ruby, that's how she is, kind of saucy. Just ignore her." Jamie said and walked away.

Jared didn't take his eyes of her until she almost caught him staring at her, he quickly tilted his head and pretended he was looking at something else. He stole one more quick glance at her before he felt someone nudging him from behind.

"What are your abilities?" Santiago asked as soon as Jared turned to face him.

"Well, I don't really know but i can hear numerous sounds all at once..but I recognize you from yesterday, you've got wings. Where are they?"

Wong grinned and yelled. "Everyone, let's go to the lawn and show Jared what we are capable of."

He ran out of the building and pulled Jared along, everyone followed.

Wong took of his jacket and let his feathered wings spread. Jamie suddenly appeared running along side a lady who seemed to be double or even triple. She was the lady that had first said hi to Jared. Dawn was her name, he also recognized her from the day before.

"Hey, Jamie, you have any idea why we are running?"

"Let's go to the wild forest guys," Wong yelled hovering above all five of them.

Jamie appeared beside Jared. "You might want to keep close, the forest is filled with different mysterious creatures." Jamie warned.

"Jamie did you lead everyone into the forest?" Alex asked with his eyebrows knitting together.

Jared had sustained a cut at his elbow and had dislocated his ankle at the forest. While they were all at the forest, a giant bird attacked them. He thought Jamie was exaggerating when he said; mysterious creatures.

He was completely dazed when he saw it, he lost balance, fell and all the numerous sounds started resounding in his head again. Since the incident, he had not gotten a hold of himself and couldn't keep the sounds out, the way Alex had taught him, he had to put on his earphones. Thanks to Jamie, the moment he noticed he had fallen, he quickly grabbed him and they appeared at the laboratory where Alex was.

"No!" Jamie replied and disappeared almost immediately.

Jamie appeared back to the forest and realized the rest of them had taken down the bird. "What did I miss?" He yelled at Wong who was hovering over the large human sized bird.

"Nothing really, Dawn created several doppelganger of herself to distract the bird while I knocked it out with just one punch." Santiago the boy with super strength and the ability to cover long distances with just a jump spouted.

"Yeah, I didn't get to do anything." Alessia added.

"Let's get back, Alex would be very mad at us," Jamie said.

"What about Jared?" Wong asked as he landed to the ground.

"He has a minor cut on his elbow and dislocated his ankle."

"That's really bad," Alessia said.

"Yeah, it will be worst if we don't get out of here right now." Jamie disappeared.

One more look at the sketch and Sarah was impressed with herself and wondered why she ditched drawing. She had sketched out a picture of the bearded man she saw when she transitted in Ian's campervan. She was also in good spirits and had the urge to begin her writing on the extraordinaries but she had no idea in what form her writing should be. Maybe she could put it on her blog or feature it on a newspaper or even write it in the form of a story. She was indecisive.

As the evening drew close, Sarah made some finishing touches to her writing and put it on her blog. She also made up her mind to get it published on the newspaper. She was about getting up from the chair she had been sitting all day when flashes of a tavern came to her. The tavern looked familiar but she didn't know where she had seen it. She suddenly remembered it was the tavern she had seen after transitting to the scene of the accident where a family car had tumbled. She realized the tavern was somewhere around. Apart from it being familiar, it was somewhere she had been to before. The flashes came again and she saw the name of the tavern clearly, she headed out.

"This is going to hurt a little but trust me, you will feel better," Alex warned.

His warning was followed by a cracking sound. Jared yelled in pain.

"It's okay, the bone is in the right place now. It will be better by tomorrow."

"How come those kind of creatures exist?" Jared asked impatiently.

"I also can't tell, but there are several creatures that haven't even been discovered by humans yet," Alex replied as he stood straight from squatting after administering Jared's dislocated ankle.

"Never seen anything like that my whole life, the bird was as tall as two humans and as large as a building."

"It's the least of dangerous creatures in the forest Jared. You shouldn't go there, it's very dangerous."

"Wow! When Jamie said mythical, he wasn't even exaggerating then."

"You are stronger than every creature in there, you just have to work on yourself."

"Hmm, you think so?"

"I don't think so, I know so. Get out of my lab."

Jared smiled "Thank you Alex." He gave him a hug. Alex sighed and lifted him off the ground.

The cafeteria was situated at the other side of the building and Jared stomach rumbled one more time reminding him he didn't finish his breakfast. He headed for the cafeteria, dragging his slightly hurting ankle along. As he approached the cafeteria, his eyes met with Ruby's eyes who was on her way out of the cafeteria. But, Ruby is quick to withdraw her eyes from his and continued walking. Jared was drawn aback by her beauty. He gawked as he examined her hazel eyes carefully with her pointed nose sitting perfectly in the middle of her face and her full red lips sitting right under her nostrils. He smiled and was about to throw a wave as she walked passed him but was startled by a hand he felt on his shoulder.

"Jamie! I knew it would be you, always appearing and disappearing," Jared snorted, visibly angry by Jamie's act of sneaking up on him.

"Now, she has passed by, I didn't even get to say hi."

"Are you for real? Bro, you need to forget her. Don't tell me you are crushing on her right now," Jamie shrilled.

"Keep your voice down, she might hear you," Jared whispered.

"Listen, Ruby isn't someone you want to hang around with, she's not even going to give you attention anyways. Trust me."

"Why?"

"I don't know. That's probably how she is. She chooses to be reclused."

"I don't know but there's something about her," Jared said as he started heading for the cafeteria taking his steps slowly and carefully".

"There's something about every girl Jared. How is your leg?" Jamie asked with concern immediately after making his statement.

"It's good, just hurts a little. It was a dislocation but Alex fixed that for me already."

"No bandages or anything?"

"Nah, I don't think it was necessary."

"Well, you should get ready for the next class though," Jamie advised.

"Oh! We still have a class? Thought we were done for the day."

"We are not done, the rest of the class for the day comprises of school work?"

"School work?" Jared yelled and stopped walking abruptly.

"Yes. School work. It's just basic stuffs, you don't need to worry about it."

"I'm not worried, i was just shocked. Didn't expect anything like that, we were never informed." Jared sounded more calm and continued his pace slowly.

"We are not expected to stop learning school stuffs just because we are learning how to use our abilities," Jamie shrugged.

"What are you having for lunch?" Jared asked as they entered the cafeteria.

"I don't know, haven't decided yet,"

Jamie replied with a sigh.

"You got your earphones back on. Cool!"

"There's nothing cool about it. Just not focused enough to keep the voices out yet."

After the long day, Jared slumped into his bed and heaved a sigh of relief. And just like the night before, events of the day started flooding his mind. Today had been no doubt an eventful day for him. His ankle felt better now and he felt little or no pain. Ruby's face crept into his mind and he wondered why she was reclusive and why Jamie discouraged him from going after her. The truth was that, he never thought he could actually summon the courage to talk to her about anything. This was his first time he actually felt something for someone not his family. He was not much of a talker but he could feel he was going to be different here. Few minutes of thinking, he finally decided to take off his earphones and practice the drill Alex had put him through earlier in the day. He sat on the bare floor, took off his headphones and tried enduring and at the same time ignoring the sound. He folded his legs and closed his eyes just like he had done earlier at the laboratory earlier in the day. The sounds gradually faded, he was grateful. As he was about to stand, he felt something urging him to push further. He had wanted to hear the flowing lakes and a subtle roaring wind and he did. This time around, he focused on picking a voice. He did not have any voice in mind but albeit, he tried anyway. He heard so many voices until he found a familiar voice, he directed his attention on that voice and focused. He realized it was Alex's voice.

"I will be totally responsible for him and I promise, nothing of such will happen." Jared heard Alex say. He paid rapt attention and focused more and another voice replied him, it was Mrs Bradley.

"How can we know for sure. It's not about you, it's about the boy. We don't know yet what he could turn into. It's best he does not know the full extent of his abilities."

"I'm not disputing that with you, I just want you to know that Jared is a good kid and I will take full responsibility for him."

"Do as you wish but remember I warned you. You just can never tell, Henry was a good kid too." Jared heard Mrs Bradley reply solemnly. It was as if he could read their emotions through their voice. They were both scared but Mrs Bradley seemed more than scared, he could feel she was broken and was consumed with guilt, more of self guilt. He stopped eavesdropping.

He thought about what he had just heard and so many thoughts ran through his mind. He knew the best person to speak to about all these thoughts was Alex. Alex was vouching for him and it's barely three days they met. Mrs Bradley had mentioned Henry and Jared remembered the picture he had seen the night before with the name Henry scribbled at the back. Could Henry be the boy in the picture? He thought. The words Mrs Bradley had said about Henry being a good boy kept ringing in his head. He scanned the room and realized that if Henry had been in this institution, this was definitely his room. That explained the voluminous books in the room and the young adult sized dresses he saw in the wardrobe. He began to wonder what he was really capable of and what Henry was also capable of. He didn't know when he fell asleep as a result of his thoughts. He had a nightmare.