Chapter 7- Murderous Flowers

“So what was all that about?” Zephyr asked immediately after barging in.

“Nothing much, just planning out our coup d’etat. Y’know, the usual.” I answered.

“No, seriously, what did she want from you?”

“She was just asking how I managed to break her shield.”

“Oh, that makes sense,” Celeste said, “How did you break her shield, anyway? That thing is supposed to be near unbreakable, yet you somehow stroll in and put a hole through it. Are you hiding something?”

“Of course not,” I lied, “I told you I still have no idea how I did it.”

“Okay, then. Anyway, we should probably go to Rutkins’s office, he wants us to pick our classes.”

“Oh yeah, I forgot this is a school. Let’s go.” I said.

“But wait! Are you sure your arm is healed? Shouldn’t you rest or something first?” Zephyr remembered.

“Nah, I’m good, it’s only a scratch.” I replied.

“Only a scratch? Have you seen the state of it?”

“I’m telling you, I’m fine. Let’s go.”

“If you say so…”

No need to worry them any more, I thought. My arm felt like it was about to burst with how much it’s throbbing, but I can suck up the pain for now.

***

“Wow, this school is fancy,” Zephyr said with a mouthful of sushi, “The only thing we had at Krax was peanut butter and jelly.”

He was right. Leave it to the richest school in the country to be able to serve sushi and caviar to hundreds of kids.

“We should really be getting to bed soon, it’s getting late,” Celeste said worriedly, “we don’t want to be late for our first classes tomorrow, we’re already two days behind.”

“But…there’s still so much left!” Zeph wailed.

“Goodnight, Cel.” I said while half dragging Zephyr away from his food.

“G’night” Zeph mumbled.

His mood seemed to have lightened considerably when we reached our room, seeing as we found two king sized beds there. Who the heck is funding this school?

After brushing my teeth and changing into my pajamas, I slid into the mountain of blankets on top of my mattress. Calling it comfortable would be an understatement. I haven’t felt comfort like this since I was in my mother’s womb. I slowly drifted off to sleep to excited thoughts of my classes tomorrow and the possibility of discovering the truth about my strange powers.

Then it felt like my arm was plunged into molten lava. I jolted up but found myself in some kind of large cavern. Immediately, I noticed the vast amount of dead bloodbeasts around me, and feared that I had once again accidentally activated my Chaos rune. However, after a moment of thought, I recognized this place as the dungeon where Leo was killed. How did I get here?

I slowly started climbing up the rocks jutting out of the wall when I fell. Oh yeah, my arm, I remembered. With nothing else to do, I started calling for help, praying there would be someone around.

“Nobody’s gonna hear you, kid.” a deep voice sounded in my left ear. I quickly turned around, hitting my arm against another rock, and curled over in pain.

“Wow, you really did a number on your arm. How’d you manage that?” the same voice taunted.

Looking up, I saw the mask. The same mask I saw ten years ago in this very same dungeon.

“Nightshade,” I scowled, “I’ll kill you.”

“Wow, jumping straight to the point, are we? Not gonna ask how you got here or what I want with you, just ‘i’ll kill you’? Sorry, but you aren’t nearly strong enough for that.”

“Shut up.” I snapped. “You’ll pay for what you did to Leo.”

“Heh. Haha. HAHAHAHAHA. You think that YOU can defeat ME, when you can’t even control your own body? How foolish.” he sneered.

“Kill?” the voice in my head resounded. Yes, I responded.

Once again, I was met with the sensation of anger and an unknown force taking over my body. But this time, I accepted it. Embraced it. This entity is a friend, helping me dispose of my enemies. I took the back seat, letting it take full control of my body.

I heard a crack, then felt myself falling. As I lost consciousness, I heard cackling, and then…

“Kai? You okay?” I heard my friend saying.

“Zephyr? What are you doing here?”

“Uh…what do you mean? This is our room. You get hit in the head or something?” he replied.

“What?” I looked around, seeing our dorm, which is several times too large for two people. “No, I was just in the dungeon, I was about to…”

“Dude, what dungeon? I wake up and see you flailing around in your bed, sweating up a tsunami, and saying something about nightshade. Isn’t that a type of flower? Are you nervous for a date or something?” he joked.

“Shut up,” I grumbled, “what time is it?”

“It’s four in the morning. We still have two hours before breakfast, so I’m going back to bed.”

“Not a morning person, huh?” I quipped, but he was already out cold.

There’s no way I can fall asleep after what just happened to me, though. Was that all just a dream? It felt so realistic though…

So I can’t even beat him in my dreams. I have to learn how to control Chaos as quickly as possible, in case the next time isn’t a dream. But how am I supposed to learn something I know next to nothing about?

“Try some meditation or something,” Alma’s words echoed in my mind. I mean, I have nothing better to do, I might as well give it a shot.

About ten minutes in, I gave up. There’s no way people think this stuff helps. There’s too much going on in my brain to be able to ‘relax’ and ‘clear my mind’. How can I overcome something that comes from my own brain? I’ll just go blow up some training dummies.

***

“Did you guys sleep well? I was out like a log in that bed, it felt like I was sleeping on a cloud!” Celeste exclaimed over breakfast.

“Oh yeah, I slept great until this idiot woke me up. Flopping around in his bed like a fish, spouting nonsense about botany.” Zephyr complained.

“Flowers?” she asked.

“It was nothing, I just had a weird dream.” I responded.

“Well, alright then. This breakfast is so extravagant, right! I didn’t even know eggs could be cooked this many ways!”

“You don’t know lots of things.” I joked. That one earned me a smack on my already injured arm.

***

“Eternal energy and Void energy are some of the biggest mysteries of our time. They seemingly randomly choose sorcerers to have the unique ability of ‘controlling’ them, but not without repercussions. It is said that, similar to overuse of Life aura, abusing these energies can lead to the reduction of your lifespan.” my new Time and Space professor, Mrs. Katz, said, “However, only one or two sorcerers per generation can attain this level of power, even after mastering all types of aura, and mastering these cosmic powers is even harder. The last person I have heard was bestowed with a cosmic power was our very own Neil Vikatra, just fifteen years ago. I’ve never known a boy as bright as that one, if anyone can master their power, it’s him.”

Neil Vikatra. Seems like he really was someone special. I wonder if I’ll ever be that strong…

***

“So, did you practice what I told you to?” Alma said.

“I mean, I tried…but I kinda got bored.”

“Got bored? You have the chance to control a cosmic power, the strongest one at that, and you got bored?”

“Well, I tried meditating, and it just didn’t work.”

“Fine. We can do this another way.”

She put a finger on my forehead and I suddenly felt a wave of murderous intent go through me, like some kind of predator looking for its prey. I need to kill something, anything.

“Fight it.” her voice was like a splash of cold water, pulling me out of this trance I was in. She’s right, I can’t just succumb to my emotions, or any foreign thoughts put into my brain.

So I fought it. It took what felt like an hour, but I didn’t kill anybody. Through sheer willpower I managed to overpower the murderous intent and get a hold of my emotions.

“Okay, you can handle that much. Let’s try upping the power a bit.” She repeated the drill, but this time it felt like it was clawing at my very brain. Hungry for murder. For death.

But then I felt another force leaking out.

NO! Go away! I shouted at it internally. I will not let it take control again.

“More anger and frustration will do the opposite of what you want,” Alma said coolly.

I took a deep breath. Calm down, I told myself. Relax. Stay grounded. I looked at Alma’s green eyes. I thought of Zephyr and Celeste. I cannot let myself hurt them. I have to do this.

Slowly, the Chaos rune receded back into whatever crevice of my body it resides in. I did it.

And of course, I fainted.