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Peridot
Chapter 5
My room was filled with an assortment of testosterone production units. And I stood there, more shocked than Edward Delacroix, too soon?
"I've known you since we were kids." I looked at Charlie. My mind grew murky and I attempted to step back and away, bumping into the glass wall behind me.
"Yeah, I've been watching you." He smiled at me as if it were funny.
"Am I supposed to find that funny? Romantic even? You could've saved my parents. Why didn't you?" I could feel my rage brimming; stretching the elastic fibre that held my temper in place.
"Your parents?"
"Yes..." my teeth were crunched together and my fists were charged with static.
"Yo, what happened to your parents?"
"Who the fuck let him out the bathroom!?" I snapped at my progressively silent audience.
"Babe, don't be like that." He walked towards me and I disintegrated whatever had kept my rage in check. I punched him in the chest; blasting him across the room.
I turned to Charlie; his features flickered in and out as the building was plunged into darkness. The silence that had so loudly tried to deafen me before was replaced with thunder.
"Stop!" Charlie squealed as I sucked the air from his lungs. I fed on his life force and savoured the passing milliseconds.
I felt hands on my back, trying to separate me from him; I fought ardently to stay on him, I wanted him dead. I wanted the salty air that coursed itself through him.
"Samuel Victor Richard Tempest!"
"He could've saved mom and dad!" I screamed, clawing at Charlie's face.
"For fuck's sake, Peter, help them. Please." Another set of hands gripped my abdomen, pulling me away from Charlie.
My sister's face breathed itself into view as a cohort of men held me down to my bed.
"Maybe you should leave?" she nodded at Charlie. "Take that unconscious one with you. Peter, help him."
"No! Let him stay. Lemme blast him to fucking smithereens!"
"How about you explain to me, why you just had four guys in your room?" I immediately stopped thrashing as she sat poignantly on my bed. "Or why, most of them are in various states of undress?" she faced the window and my temper dissipated instantaneously.
The lights came back, but the storm remained outside.
"That's not the point Jess. He could've saved mom and dad." I noticed that Worth stood to the side, stoic and still, staring out on the terrace; I feared he might turn gray and bird poop would rush in on him. March however, was a mix of awkward and weird; moving between touching himself sensually, running his hands along his abdominals then idly through his fiery hair.
"How, Samuel?"
"He could've..." I paused, not knowing how to proceed, I allowed my eyes to rest on March.
"He could've?" she repeated, a slight tone of irritation peaked through what I viewed as a plaintive appeal.
"He could've stopped their ship." My voice lowered, whispering my words, avoiding her glare.
"How, Samuel?" she moved closer, taking my hand in her own.
"He could've saved them." I repeated. My voice still low, but my eyes moved from March to the blonde statue by the glass wall.
"No one could've saved them. It was their time. You need to accept that. Or this," she gestured at my half-dressed followers, "will only get worse."
"It's not what you think."
"What am I thinking?" she touched my cheek and forced me to make eye contact.
"You think I'm a slut. But it's true. I-I don't care though." I got up and moved away from her.
"I've barely spoken to you in a week. Everything is so different with you. Ever since that guy." I assumed she had made the connection with her very dramatic pause. "Hey. Wait a minute. You're the blondeshell! Goddamn, how could I forget those tattoos."
"Why thank you." Worth's accent rolled out like a red carpet, luxurious and smooth; his words wrapped around Jess like thick ropey vines, I could hear the blush in her laugh as he took her hand in his own and kissed it.
"You're welcome hun," she got up and walked towards me. "Sam, what happened to you? Have you been eating? You haven't been ordering anything, I don't see you in the buffets, where's your phone?"
"Here," I pulled it out of my pocket and threw it behind me; listening for any sound that would tell me it had landed safely or connected with the ground or a wall in a cataclysmic explosion that was notorious of its brand.
"Why'd you leave school today? Evan told me they found you passed out in the gym. This is the second time in less than 3 weeks. Mohamed said you were fine, but maybe we should get you to a specialist."
"No." My voice was firm and resolute.
"Then what do I do? I come here to check on you, only to find you shacked up with a bunch of male models! Tell me? Where do I go from here?"
"Am I adopted?"
"What?" I could smell the anxiety pumping through her pores.
"Adopted? Am I not your biological brother?"
"Yes, we're siblings." She looked away and started to exit.
"What're you hiding?" I followed after her; grabbing her hand, I looked into her eyes, razing the plains of her mind, looking for answers.
"Nothing. We're related. Just let it go." She shrugged me off and left the room.
"Maybe we should go check on Ryan?" Worth's slow voiced perked me out of the obvious funk my sister's dismissal had left me in.
I looked at him, then March, "put on shirts, will you?" I walked to where I had clothes and fetched two of Evan's shirts; do not ask me why I have them, you never know; threw the shirts at them and we took the stairs to the lobby.
Maybe I should've spoken to the guys or I could've just let them talk to each other, I heard them mumbling behind me; but I didn't want to interject, I didn't want to eavesdrop either. I just wanted to be left alone, but I wanted to solve my own mystery first.
"Parking lot, that's where they are." I turned to March, his voice sounded like sex, dirty and erotic; I hated it.
"How do you know this?" I asked as we idly walked about the lobby looking for my possibly still unconscious schoolmate. I was pretty sure after I shucked him across the room he wouldn't want anything to do with me.
"That's where his truck is, and that's where I sense the Hydr-Charlie." I looked at him for a moment, we weren't around anyone; and it kinda creeped up on me that I had superpowers. I wasn't doing a great job at concealing them outside of being friendless.
We moved towards the lot and I wasn't surprised that he was right, but curious as to how he sensed him now and not before. I made a mental note to ask him the next time he sensed something.
As we walked towards the truck I noticed that Peter was still there.
"Shortman! You certainly did a number on your friend here." He looked at me, not really smiling, but his eyes held sunny warmth. I leaned into him and hugged him.
Charlie however just moved away and stood at an odd distance.
"It's okay now Charlie, I'm not mad anymore. I still find what you've been doing to be fucking creepy however." I called at him.
"I see you're going to be busy working out your harem issues." Chuckled Peter as he began walking away.
"Wait a second. Peter. You and? Oh My God!" I looked at him with widened eyes. March and Worth just stared absently at the truck where Ryan lay in the passenger seat unconscious.
"Yes, she and I. But don't tease her. I really want it to work out this time." He smiled back at me.
"I hope you guys actually make it to bed this time. You can't keep living outside her pearly gates." His face visibly reddened and he laughed walking away.
"I love you too Sammy." He called back.
"He should have woken up already." Worth remarked.
"How sure are you?" I asked, uncertain as to whether we should seek medical attention.
"Not very, but his breathing is weird." He responded. I walked over to Ryan's shaky form and truly felt sad.
"Maybe we should get him to a hospital?" Charlie and March said, simultaneously. It was eerie having them all together, it was infinitely possible that they were all going to vie for the attention of a once, despite the changing, average me.
"Probably. I can't believe I did this to him. Ugh. He's going to hate me. And you know I just started to like him." I said it to no one in particular, but clearly Charlie's reddening face had taken it somewhere I didn't intend for it to go, or further cared.
"We shouldn't mix mortals in our affairs anyways." And there was Charlie, voicing his two cents like I was investing in it.
"Mortals? Um, how about we not. I'm pretty sure we can die. Right?" I looked at the others as March and I got into the back seat with Ryan in my arms.
"Not technically." March whispered.
"Am I supposed to beg you to continue?" I blasted him with the most caustic tone I could muster. He looked out the window, I could almost see his fire sealing his lips shut, secluding himself into a silence.
"We are more like energy constructs." Worth dipped in.
"Explain? Because the more you guys fill me in is the more you leave out."
"We all are crafted in these mortal forms, but we are essentially energy beings, fused with elements then placed in these bodies." He continued.
"So, we're not born?" I placed my hand on Ryan's chest, hoping that some of what Worth was saying would enable me to save him. I was trembling within, focusing on anything inside me that could blow life back into him.
"Yes, we can be born, or we can birthed."
"What's the difference?" clearly he didn't realize that I wasn't into the cliff-hanger conversation business.
"On Gaia we each have our kingdoms so naturally we are born through them. With Florians, whomever carries the energy-"
"Whomever carries the energy? Is this like some gay marriage stuff?" I hadn't meant to interrupt him, but his thoughts sparked way too much interest to ignore. It sounded as if men on the home could carry a child. Or at least its energy.
"Yes and no. We do not carry the same social constructs as humans. Two men or two women or three men or two women and a man; it does not matter. There is a union ritual and the energies are put into a host who carries it as it merges into a new entity or entities. The gestation period varies with each pregnancy. When the time has come, the host Florian will either merge into the ground or a tree and once the child has been fully conceptualized through the element, they are born from rock, earth or wood."
"Wow." I looked down at Ryan, noting that he wasn't shaking as much as before, my own trembling had eased as well; I could feel that whatever was restricting him before had eased off and he was breathing better.
"It's glaciers or water bodies for my people." Added Charlie.
"Lava, concepting pyres or a bolt of lightning. I was born from a bolt of lightning." Smirked March.
"How does that last one work?" I asked him, and based on how everyone made a quick look in his direction, they seemed interested as well.
"Well, lightning conceptions are the rarest from my people. I'm the first one in over a hundred years. And I think that's only because I'm the prince and my parents wanted to really exemplify their nobility. So, when my mother was nearing the end of gestation, she was carried to Skyfall, where the rain never ends."
"But what about being born in your own kingdom?" I quipped.
"I'm getting to that. They use a device; it makes the lightning come violently from the clouds and tethers it to one spot. And into it my mother walked. Lightning-borns are only minutely quicker than someone born of the air."
"Is there a reason why you have numerous elements to be born in? Or is this just like a different hospitals thing here?" I looked at March, who in turn burned his gaze into me, forcing me to look away.
"I was born in a tree, on Skyfall, so I am believed to be more gifted with plants and wood than with rock and minerals." Worth stated, digging his own ocular roots into me.
"I'm no good with ice, if you were wondering. I was actually born where the rain never ends as well." Charlie slowed down to look at me, chilling me with an icy grimace.
"So why were you two born on Skyfall? That's what I want to know. Instead ya'll are staring me down. Like I should know."
"You're the Tempest. We're all the heirs to our kingdoms." Charlie said this as if I were supposed to understand.
"Okay, but what does that say exactly? Other than you guys were born on Skyfall territory?" I was rolling my eyes at this point, just hoping that someone would be less cryptic.
"It means that we were born there to wed the heir of Skyfall. I was born on Skyfall as well." Worth finally let the secret out and I was even more confused, just as I had predicted.
"Am I supposed to officiate this ceremony? Is that why you guys need to go back home? Or am I just here to send you all home or something? I'm still not understanding." My own need for independence was peeping through the gaps made by my button up. It needed to know if my future was sealed with one of these guys, it needed to know if I didn't actually have a chance, a choice, any true independence. It needed to know if it was about to cease to exist.
"The Tempest is the heir of Skyfall. We are your suitors." Worth looked me in the eyes, his one brown eye and the other green, held me mystified, not just because he stared at me but because he could drive without looking at the road.
"I'm betrothed?" I whispered.
"Not really. You can choose one of us, or all of us to mate with. But you have to officially be with one of us." He continued.
"Why? Exactly?" I could feel my silly temper trumping itself up again. I could feel my autonomy being threatened and I didn't know how else to respond but like a child inexpressibly throwing temper tantrums.
"Things have not been particularly civil on Gaia."
"And so I need to get married off?!" my voice was rising in decibels. "How does this solve anything?"
"You don't really have a choice. You were born into this duty." March said, smiling at me as if he didn't understand what was at stake.
Before I opened my mouth to tell him off, Ryan coughed. I looked down at him. He looked up at me.
"Hey babe. Glad to see you're feeling better." He smiled up at me and I fucking cringed.
The windows in the car shattered and the truck swerved off the road.
Time did not slow down. That did not happen. It does not happen, stop telling people it's a thing.
Adrenaline, coursed through my veins, I felt my power readying itself; coiling about me like a muscle.
Instinct flushed itself outwards driving my senses into overload. I moved faster, thought faster, reacted faster.
The car catapulted about as it tumbled through the roadside brush. My body tensed itself as the vehicle rocked slowly, resting on the roof.
The frame that housed us was slowly caving under the pressure; the metal screeched, urging me to get out. I looked around to see if the others were alright. March seemed unconscious as his body hung upside down, suspended in my power.
The cocoon of air that had generated, cushioning us relaxed and disappeared; I on the other hand refused to sit still as the framing screamed about.
Ryan was right behind me as we crawled out through the driver's window. Worth on the other side had noted March's dishevelment and pulled him out of the vehicle. Not a moment too soon as the truck collapsed on itself.
I dusted away shards of glass, looking about to spot what had caused the derailing of our journey. I looked at the road and rather ominously, a figure stood there in full white robes that draped along the ground, just facing us.
"Guys, do you see that?" my senses were still on edge, tingling as I took the form in.
"What babe?" I looked up at Ryan, as he smiled down at me; and just as quickly he gripped his throat, flung himself back into the dirt, flattering on the ground for air.
"Ryan!" I cried as I kneeled to help him.
"Get that thing!" I cried at the others.
"What exactly am I gettng?" Charlie moved to be beside me and stared at the road as if he couldn't see the obvious white robes on black tar.
"Tha-" I pointed at where the figure was and like every shitty horror film I'd seen, the hooded figure was gone.
"There was a hooded figure there. Dressed in white." Charlie looked at me as if I had spelled the words out.
"White? Hooded? Like a hoodie?" he asked as the others, even March who looked as if he wasn't just unconscious, crowded about me, looking at the road where I still for some reason pointed to.
"No, whatever it was wearing white robes that pooled about it on the road there. I think it totalled the truck. Which I'm sorry about Ryan."
"I'm fine babe." He said, still rubbing his throat, he maintained his previous smile, despite having just lost his car and being choked by some random interdimensional terrorist; he looked at me as if I was the best thing since Betty White.
"White robes? Are you sure? That's not a good sign." After just turning about in a metal death trap, my irritation piqued with their inability to realize how ignorant I was to their world.
"Why isn't it a good sign March?" my fangs laced themselves with sarcasm and I loved it.
"White robes are what Zephyrans wear. We wear green, brown and grey, the Hyrdants wear various shades of blue and the Magmite hold orange, red, yellow and black." I looked at worth and he stared back.
"So is there another Zephyran? Cuz, you guys said there was only four of you." I pulled Ryan and myself up and dusted us off.
"I don't think so, Tempest." I looked at March, his tone had slipped back into the robotic frequency it had had earlier. He was seemingly more relaxed the past couple hours. I wondered if he had slipped back into a default self-defense mechanism since we had been attacked.
"But something attacked us. Or someone." I said alternating between looking at where the figure was and looking at them.
"Or your powers are in dire need of restraint." I eyed Worth suspiciously.
"Um. Did you just call me a liar?" I knew I was jumping to conclusions, but if I was what they thought I was, then he wouldn't challenge me. Even if I was irrational about it.
"No, Tempest. Worth, is just saying that, if your powers were trained better, you could have tracked the figure." March was clearly a quick thinker, covering for his friend in the beat of a finger snap.
Told you they wouldn't challenge me, not that I want to be this thing, but I'm talking to myself too much.
"Okay, well I agree. But what are we going to do about this?" I asked gesturing to the metal heap beside us.
"Ryan, can you report it stolen?" Worth looked at him, a smirk creeping across his face.
"My insurance covers that." He nodded back.
"Wonderful." He replied. "Step back, Tempest." I rolled my eyes at the formality. I mean, come on. They say it at the weirdest times.
Worth walked towards the truck, stopping just a few feet away. He dropped to a knee and punched the ground, rather dramatically I must add.
I think he was showing off for my benefit. Thick green vines the sized of fire hoses erupted from the dirt, the ground cracked apart angrily; widening its maw as the vines pulled the car inwards. A column of dust flew up and the earth seemed to belch as it sealed as if nothing had happened.
"Is that healthy?" I asked him as he walked back over to us.
"It will be broken down. Feel with your other senses; the ground is quivering beneath us."
I looked at him, hesitantly about to try and open my senses. The way he had said 'quivering' had done something to me, it made me want to try. To actually focus and use my powers, I'd done it earlier in the day, maybe I could have the same luck now.
"Yo, how about we focus on getting home?" I didn't bother to try, I gazed at Ryan and his admired the way he sounded different from us. I walked towards the road.
"I was home, but I was concerned and tried taking you to the hospital." I ran a hand through my hair, yes. Hair. It was growing back.
"You can fly home, we'll ensure that Ryan gets home, Tempest."
"I can't fly at the moment, and March, please stop calling me by my surname."
"Yes, Samuel." Too many weird men in under a day. I needed to get home.
"Take him. Do what you must. I'll see ya'll at school tomorrow." I put my hands in my pockets and started to walk back.
"Maybe I should come with you? Keep you safe from the hooded figure?" And there was Charlie trying to get his ticket punched.
"No. Go home."
"Babe? Not even a good by kiss?"
"Good evening Ryan."
"Yo, you just afraid. You don't want these punks knowing that once you go black, you don't go back. To your original planet." He laughed rather raucously after that; I'm certain to the detriment of the others.
"I will be checking in on you." Worth had his say; it was only a matter before March would too.
"I will too, Samuel!" and there he went. I wondered if Charlie planned to chip in as well, I counted to 30 and was shocked when I heard nothing.
I turned around and was pleasantly surprised to see that they'd vanished. It irked me that I couldn't vanish either. I looked at the empty road and tried to focus again like worth said.
I closed my eyes and tapped into the void that welled inside me. I touched into the endless void, seeing stars, burning brightly; I touched the sky and let it flow through me. I felt a tingling in my scalp and my limbs felt light, almost transparent. The sky swirled about me, and I could hear everything. I could feel everything. I opened my eyes and looked up.
I said I couldn't fly before, and I stood by it. My body felt lighter, I knew gravity still held sway over me but, I refused to relinquish the power building in me. I touched the eye of the storm brewing inside and leaped.
I swished through the air, dancing, moving, going.
Something told me to keep home in mind... and that I did. The world had moved at my implicit asking; and I complied with what she asked of me. (I wasn't sure yet)
It wasn't long before my feet touched down; my eyes fluttered open like little butterfly wings and, if it wasn't sinking in before, it was now deep in me that I was changing. I was different.
I had not flown, but I'd managed to re-appear in my room. I had wanted to vanish so badly, that maybe I had done it. Maybe I had removed myself from the road and reintroduced myself in this hotel room.
Sitting out on the balcony, I watched the sun set. I meditated; I found myself wanting to understand more, but knew that stepping forward would be stepping away from the glorious life I lived here.
I couldn't do what I'd done before; I couldn't move the earth, or move myself outside of doing the one-two step with my feet.
I sat in a white lounge chair, overlooking what I could. Noting how different this side of the city was, the little suburbia I inhabited before was something entirely different, something not this alive; the air felt different, tasted different.
I was seeing the same old world, with the same old eyes, but I'd been granted new vision, awarded new sights, given vivid imagery for nothing more than being misunderstood; being different.
"I know you seek not my council, but, you look better with your native hair."
"Worth, why does my hair grow back so swiftly?"
"You would have to ask Charlie, his people have a similar tendency towards extensive hair."
"Where's March?"
"With Ryan." A slight panic crept into my blood, dropping the temperature like a coming front.
"Doing?"
"Samuel, I should not have to scar you with the details." My heart attempted to sink; but I felt unnerved at wanting to lay claim to two strangers.
"Fuck it, I'm cold. Come warm me up. Lose the shirt too." I scooted forward as he slid behind me. Tossing the shirt and intoxicating me in his earthy aromas.
I leaned into him, basking in his abdominal wall masked as flesh; drowning in the warmth he now fed me. I turned to look at him, and then tossed my own shirt.
"Should I kiss you?" he held me, not with his arms, but cheesily with his eyes.
"Tempest..." he leaned in close to me, our foreheads touched, our lips were showered in heated breaths and I hungered for him. "Samuel, that would not be wise."
His breathe smelled like... home.
I leaned in.
He pulled away.
"Kiss me Worth." I wanted him and would not be satiated otherwise.
"Do not be mad when you wake." He whispered with maple syrup sweet breath, leaning into me so closely that I could feel the heat of his words.
"Awake? Wha-" his lips touched mine, held mine, cradled them. His tongue dove into me, my eyes flickered shut.
Someone was knocking on my door. And somehow I had fallen asleep. Immediately I figured Worth must have dosed me with something. I barely remembered the passing of the hours, much less the lack of dreams.
I wiped my eyes as the knocking persisted.
"It's open." I called.
"Good Morning." Charlie said walking into my room; his confidence was at its peak.
"Why's your hair so long?"
"Whatya mean?" his hair had grown overnight as well, he looked like a lion, his orange- blonde mane puffed itself like a wavy afro of almost matted hair.
"Why is my hair growing out with every use of my powers." I emphatically grabbed at the shoulder length silver tresses I now sported. I wasn't ignoring the darkened tips, I just felt super emo at the moment.
"Oh. That?" he laughed it off and left the room.
"Oh that? Hardee har har." I grumbled as I got ready for school and met him in the parking lot.
"You didn't answer my question!" I looked at him, expectantly as we drove to school. It was the first time I'd seen his car. It was beautiful, sleek and a chromatic blue with everything rippling like the surface of a shallow pond into a shimmery reflection.
He looked at me and giggled, he certainly had changed overnight.
"Why have you changed, physically? How do you do it? Can I?" I looked at him. He was still massive, but his features were more refined, he looked a lot less simple and a lot more stunning.
"This is how I look on Gaia, and our people, yours and mine; we tend to have longer hair. I think it's for dramatic flair. I have noticed that I do sense better with longer hair."
"It's getting in the way." I muttered putting it up.
"You look cute, leave it."
"I didn't ask you."
"Sorry." He whimpered staying silent.
"Fuck. Fine. I'm sorry too. I'm just crabby."
"Why? What's got you down Sammy?"
"I don't know. Let's just get to school. I have PE today, I'm a little on edge. Especially with all this power and being a 'freak' business."
The car came to a screeching halt.
"What the fuck Charlie!" I roared.
He looked at me with the most intense stare, his cerulean eyes.
His cerulean eyes.
Cerulean eyes.
"Evan." I whispered.
"Evan? Which reminds me, my real name is Vose."
"Like the fan people?"
"No. VOSE. And you are not a freak. Do you hear me?" he leaned in close to me; shaking me so I was sure to catch his proverbial drift.
"Listen." I said, viciously. "I let you drive me, I let you cum in my mouth, I let you explain shit to me, but do not touch me. You could have saved my parents. Something tells me you could've stopped their deaths. So don't touch me. Don't tell me how to react." I shook him off and promptly exited the car.
"I'm sorry. Where are you going?" he asked, getting out of the car and following me.
"To school." I gave him a lasting look and moved the earth.
Adrenaline and instinct. What the fuck did I tell you?
To say the least, my powers were porridge. They were unstable, and I couldn't trust them. I reappeared in the nurse's station. It was closed and worse I was naked. See what I meant when I said porridge?
Imagine my luck when I found some odd clothing about the place, I didn't worry about germs or the tackiness, worse the added length in my hair. I rolled my eyes, picked the lock and just continued to class bag and book lacking.
I could feel that this day was going to be suckish.
"Babe!"
"Fuck." I whispered.
And the suck began.
So that was chapter 5
I'm sorry that I haven't stabilized the frequency of chapters. But let me know how you feel about the story, okay? I really appreciate the effort and feedback. Thank you and DONATE TO NIFTY. Chapter 6 and 7 will be up in a couple days! FYI, I got an editor, anyone opting to be my second editor? You'll get a space here to voice your opinion and stuff. :D