#bsiris

I blink awake as the cool sun streams through the blinds of my room. I shut my eyes tightly, not wanting to go back to reality just yet.

I sigh when I only see the black goo that covers my mind. The room is dark even though the sun silently makes its way to each corner of the room. I pear out of my window; cold and grey, yet the sun is still shining. I make my way into the bathroom and shower before I check out the closet. It’s small, but just slightly larger than the one I had at home. There are only a pair of loafers, a black jacket, and the grey and white school uniform in it.

When I exit my room a smell of toast fills my nose. On the table I see a plate of toast with butter and jam and orange juice next to it. As I move closer to it, I see a note reading “Eat” on top of the plate. I slightly smile.

“Told you he’s nice.” Abigail mutters.

“He just toasted some bread for her. Not that big of a deal.” William grumbles.

“Better than nothing.” Abigail smirks as I begin to spread butter onto the toast. It tastes burnt.

“Now then, in leaue of it being the start of Remembrance Month, today we shall read about the Legend of the Lost Couple.” Mr. Evry sparkles as he quickly writes the title and page number on the board. My mouth parts in shock to hear Mr. Evry’s surprisingly seductive, deep voice. Another person I can hear, I think. The class goes into an uproar of what I can only interpret as groans.

Hikaru groans next to me. I turn my head to look at him. “What's Remembrance Month? What’s the legend about?” I ask him.

“Oh!” Mr. Evry gasps when he hears my voice. He quickly smiles and almost seems to dance his way towards me. “I’m so happy you asked Ms. Vivienne!”

“Now you did it.” Hikaru mutters as I hear my classmates give out similar hollers. I look at Hikaru questioningly, but then turn my attention to Mr. Evry waiting for him to answer me.

Mr. Evry smiles as he begins, “Remembrance Month is to honor and remember the first civil war of our kind. The legend is a tale that has been told throughout the ages. It's a love even stronger than thee Wiliam Shakespeare could have wrote! A long time ago when the discovery of magic and abilities first existed there were two lovers. The male came from the human world and the female came from the land of the Gods.

These two happened to meet at a ball designed for the beings known as the Elements because, you see, the two of them had similar elemental powers-“

“Ice and water.” Hikaru interrupts.

“Yes, ice and water.” Mr. Evry glares at Hikaru before continuing. “Because of their type of powers, experts believe that is why this couple ended up falling in love with each other. No one really knows. But, after the second ball of the Elements known as the beginning of the Dark Era the couple suddenly disappeared, vanished into thin air!” Mr. Evry uses his hands to help visualize them ‘vanishing in thin air.’

“There are some theories to what happened to them.” Mr. Evry starts.

“Of course there are.” William snorts. ”That we died. Were in hiding and died. A Power found us and killed us. Yadda, yadda, yadda.” He mimics Mr. Evry trying to emphasis the point that all the historians believed the couple died, he was right. Everything that William stated, Mr. Evry states with a dramatic tone.

“But,” Mr. Evry smiles, “there is also one theory... that the two of them were killed, yet saved somehow inside of the man’s friend. It was a well-known fact that his friend was actually the last dragon. And a dragon holds very mysterious powers that even scientists nowadays can’t understand. I prefer this theory.”

“Why?” I ask as I listen intently to his story.

Mr. Evry stares at me. He shows me a small, sad smile. “It means somehow, somewhere they are together alive and living happily with one another.”

I descend back into the goo of my mind when Mr. Evry finishes. I neither hear nor see anything. I stare silently at the three in my mind. The couple and the friend.

There is no bell that sounds the alarm, but the school’s halls fill with students heading towards the cafeteria. I slosh along with them. As soon as we walk into the cafeteria the lunch vending machines are attacked by hungry students. I get passed back and forth until I reach one of them. I push another random button, still not able to read the haze of words. Not caring what I got, I jump into the line of students heading to find a seat.

I feel a hand pull on me and lead me out of the line toward a row of lunch tables. As soon as the person and I escape the crowd I’m able to see it is Ichi pulling me.

“It’s crazy here in lunch time, huh?” He laughs as he pulls us toward a table housing four people. We stop in front of the table and I’m able to see that the four people are Hikaru, the two people that helped me yesterday, and a man I don’t know.

Ichi smiles at the people before he places me in the seat opposite of them. He sits next to me as he introduces everyone. “Everyone this is Vivienne. Vivienne you already know Hikaru.” He motions his hand as he shows me Hikaru. “The boy next to him is Christopher Gibbons and the girl is Chrys Anne Grunwald. Both of them are your age and same class. The guy next to them is Gerrit Lukas Grunwald. He’s part of the college department with me.”

All of them, except Hikaru, wave and smile at me. All of them say things to me, but it only comes as jumbled noise. I cringe in distaste with what the goo is doing to me.

I see Ichi stare at me before he motions to the three to stop talking. All three of them stop before Hikaru laughs. “Still useless?”

“Hikaru!” Ichi snaps at him.

“What? It’s true isn’t it? She can’t hear anyone and you still can’t even see in that gunk. Whenever I look at her, she seems like a mindless zombie.” Hikaru bites into a meat bun. “She’s completely filled with that nasty gunk just because her family died! So, what? She’s not the only one who’s lost their family. Just get over it!”

“Hikaru!” Ichi yells louder at Hikaru.

I bite my lip and finally look at the food that I chose: pancakes, my sister’s favorite. I feel the tears forming as flashes of memories of my sister fill my mind.

“Don’t cry, Vivienne.” William coos to me.

“Mistress, please don’t cry.” Antoinette’s eyes begin to water as she tries to soothe me.

I cross my eyebrows as I dig into my meal, trying to savor each and every bite. The pancakes are warm and fluffy, filled with a delicious maple syrup. As usual, the center is the softest and the best part.

“It tastes salty.” I murmur, mainly to myself.

“I’m sorry he said that.” Ichi places his hand on my shoulder. I look at him and see his eyes looking deep inside of me. He must have seen my thoughts, I think as I look around the table. Only he, Gerrit, and I are left at the table.

“Hikaru left and the others went after him. He’s a really sweet kid. It’s just ever since his power awakened he’s constantly on edge. And for some reason he’s been even more aggravated recently. So… sorry.” Ichi sweetly smiled, trying to let me know that both of them really meant no harm.

I simply gave a small nod and look back at my now empty plate. “Do.. do you know what’s aggravating him?” I ask as I point to his head, asking if he’s seen anything in Hikaru’s head.

He shakes his head. “Hikaru’s mind is almost like yours. It’s too thick to find the real problem. Something is always blocking me from seeing everything in that vast mind of his.”

I bite my lip and then remember that Gerrit is still with us. I look up at him. “So, what’s your ability?”

He smiles and responds to me in a murmured mess. I pout and look at Ichi for his response.

“He said he doesn’t have one.” Ichi looks at Gerrit before looking back at me. “But, he’s basically waiting to see if his will awaken anytime soon. He and his sister, Chrys, were brought here seven years ago. Her powers awakened and since they’re twins the Superiors believe that he should somehow get a similar power, but others say she may have gotten all the power capability out of the two since he hasn’t shown any sign of power activity. So, just like you, he’s here to wait and see if any powers will pop up.”

I look at Gerrit. He notices my gaze and smiles at me. “Wait. He’s a twin with Chrys, but isn’t he in the college department?”

“Ah. Yes. Even though he looks like an easy-going, down-to-earth guy, he’s actually extraordinarily smart. So he was able to jump… 5 years?” He looks at Gerrit for his agreement. Gerrit nods. “The principal of the school lets him stay because of his intelligence and helpfulness to the school. Also, the principal likes it when there are siblings or family members coming here. It helps bring a more ‘family feeling’ to the school. His top priority is to have the students be comfortable and happy.” Ichi smiles as he takes my plate and puts it on his. “Come, we don’t want you to be late for class.”

I sit and stare out the window of our classroom. The math teacher has caught a flu, so our class is doing a self-study session even though most of the class decided to take this time to chat and hang out with friends. All I can hear from them is a murmured mess, so I decided to sit and listen to the sweet songs coming from the bird nest next to the classroom’s window. Hikaru is missing, but Christopher and Chrys are studying silently together. Chrys spots me looking their way and smiles. I give a simple nod back and look back at the birds.

“It was raining yesterday, but it’s so sunny today…” I mumble to myself.

I close my eyes and listen to the sweet harmony the birds make. A silent humming starts to entangle with the bird’s song. Deep, sweet, and calming. It begins to fill my entire head as I begin to hum along. I smile as I finally see William humming to me. He smiles back at me as he shows me a slow dance. Step, step, twirl, step.

He closes his eyes as he glides through the frosted goo in my head. His hair glistens with each twirl he makes.  He stops and suddenly looks past me. His mouth parts open. “…No.”

“Open your eyes, now!” Abigail screeches at me; it sounded almost as if she was standing next to me. I quickly wake up and take huge gasps of air. I look to the birds and see that the tree branch they are on is completely iced over. I can see each breath that I take forming a slight fog as I try to calm myself. I look back into the class, no one else has noticed. I get up from my desk and head to the door. As I reach the door, it slams open.

Hikaru stands in front of me short of breath. I notice three black and red earings shining brightly on his right ear. He looks down at me, his eyes burning with fire. “Was it you?” He talks to me through his teeth. “Did you hear me? Was it you?” He yells at me and throws me back.

I cringe as I feel my spine harshly makes contact with the ground. “Ah!” I gasp as Hikaru lifts me up to his face by grabbing my collar. “Did you use that power?” He stares intently into my eyes, seeking answers that I am too confused to answer.

I scream as I jump out of my seat. I bend down and scream into my knees, holding my hands to my ears to help get rid of the images popping through my head. Quick, fast, and burning. My mind is burning. I see the fire, my house. It is burning and everything inside is burning as well. I scream in my memory and I scream as I remember this memory. My family, they are all gone, but I was saved. I am safe, but I did nothing to save them.  Why am I here? What is my purpose? My mind is screaming with the fire.

“Mistress.” I hear the three of them whisper in the back of my mind, back where the darkness is. Trapped, they are trapped just as I am trapped in this horrible reality with no family. I am alone, alone as I watch the people I love burning to death.

“Vivienne.” A voice sooths the fire inside my head. “Vivienne.” I awaken as the darkness replaces the fire. My eyes fixate to see the boy with the burning-coal eyes in front of me. I stare into his eyes, and everything feels better. He stares at me with a worried face before he hears a voice behind him and moves. It’s Ichi, Dr. Nakamura’s assistant. He bends down where the boy was and gently opens my eyelids wider and flashes light into both of them.  He whispers something to the boy and he starts telling his classmates to go outside. He returns and kneels beside him. “So, what was that?” He asks in a whisper.

“It must have been a panic attack. She probably remembered something and panicked.” Ichi says as he takes out a pen and paper and begins scribbling in it. My eyebrows jump in surprise as I finally hear his voice. I bite down on the inside of my lip as I watch them both exchange words I couldn’t follow. They both look alike, except Ichi has a mysterious gray color to his eyes.

“Ms. Vivienne.” I jump again when I hear his voice. It’s not scary, just unexpected for me to hear someone other than the boy. He continues, probably thinking I wouldn’t reply anyway,” Do you remember what triggered your attack?” He waits and just scribbles into the paper. After I don’t respond he asks, “Was it something you were doing? Or perhaps something you saw?” He pauses again.

The boy sighs as he looks at Ichi. “You’re not going to get anything out of her. You already told me that her mind is pitch-black. Not even you, the number-one-mind-reader could even crack through that goo in her mind.” He sits up and goes to the window. I look over to Ichi, who is still waiting for a response.

What does he mean mind-reader, I ask myself.  What does this boy mean, I look back at him. I suck on the blood pouring out of the gash in my mouth before I open my mouth. “What is your name?” I ask as I cock my head. He’s been here ever since I was living in the hospital and he’s been everywhere I have so far, yet I still don’t even know his name. It really disturbs me.

He looks back at me, his eyes showing bewilderment. I look back at Ichi. “Do you know?” He is shocked as well. Ichi as well as the boy have always been by my side since I have gotten here. But, only today have I found out Ichi’s name, but I still don’t know the boy’s.

Ichi breaks the silence as he begins laughing. “For three months you have been here at this academy and the first time you speak is to ask his name? Oh, this is great!” He continues to laugh and jerk his leg. “Oh really, sweetheart. If only I could just swim through that gunk in your head, I wonder what kind of mysteries I would discover.” He smiles as tears of laughter stream down the right side of his face. “Well, you going to answer her, lil’ bro?”

The boy walks to us and kneels down in front of me. His eyes searching mine as his lips part. “Hikaru Ren.” He glares at me. “And I control fire.”

“Now, now.” Ichi pushes Hikaru away from my face. I began to dig my teeth into my mouth skin again. Fire. So much fire. Ichi tilts his head and places his hand on my face. He smiles. “It’s okay.” He coos. “I’m Ichiro Ren. I’m in charge of the patients of Doctor Nakamura. My ability is to look inside people minds as well as various other things. You will be alright, Vivienne.” He removes his hand and scribbles more down.

I look at him before moving my eyes back on Hikaru. He was back staring out the window, at the sun which faded behind the clouds. “Ability... What’s my ability?”

Ichi continues to write on the paper as he speaks. “We don’t know.” He simply states. “Tonight you won’t be sleeping in the hospital anymore. You will be in the dorms with the other students.” He changes the subject. “You’re roommate will be Hikaru.”

“What?” Hikaru yells. His eyes burn red as the temperature begins to rise in the area near him.

“You’re the only one we can trust and you also are the only one in the dorms with a vacant roommate space. So, we discussed it and she is moving in with you. Not like you’ll do anything, right?” Ichi chuckles, either completely ignorant of the fact that his brother’s hands are on fire or just so used to it he doesn’t mind anymore.

Fire. More fire. I crease my brows as my chest begins to thump loudly. The goo melts away to the house again. To the night breeze that should have a soothing feeling but is only doused with the heat coming off of the house. I must help them. Why am I here? I should be inside with them. I need to help them. Help them. Help.

“Viv-“  William tries to call after me.

“Vivienne.” I jolt back to see that the flames have left Hikaru’s hands. Both he and Ichi stare at me with concerned eyes.

Ichi sighs as he writes something else down. “Of course. It’s the fire. Fire is giving you panic attacks. Well, you did have a traumatic experience with it. Of course you’d be scared. Or course.” He mumbles as he stands up and walks toward the door. “Ah. Take her to the dorm room, Hikaru, will you? You and she don’t need to attend for the rest of the day.” He leaves before Hikaru could answer.

He sighs. “What a horrible roommate they chose for you, then. Especially since you can’t stand fire.” He gives a hard laugh as he finished the last word. “Come on.” He nods toward the door. I stay sitting and stare up at him. “I know your feet can move. Come on.” I stand up and follow him. I follow him by watching his back, ignoring the blurry images surrounding us.

He shows me to a room that is split into two different directions. One way is to his room the other is to mine. The kitchen and the living room are in the middle of both rooms. He explains that we have our own bathroom connected to the room. “So, other than breakfast and dinner you will not see me. You might not even see me during those times.” He looks away from me as he talks to me. “And make sure you don’t accidentally go into my room. Don’t even do it on purpose. Just make sure you don’t go into my room. If you do, I’ll make sure to leave you with an even worst memory with fire than the one you already have.” He raises his voice before he stomps toward his room.

“But, what is a worse memory than losing your family right before your eyes and being powerless to stop it?” I mutter before he opens his door. He stops before his throws his door open and leaves into his fortress.

I stand there for a few minutes before deciding to see the room that is mine. It’s a plain room, but big. It has a full bed, garnished with a black quilt and black and white sheets. The walls are painted light blue and dark blue. There is a desk with a lamp next to the door that I assume is the bathroom. On the other side is a door to a closet and next to it an armoire. I collapse into the bed, it jiggles. “Oh.” I hold myself. It’s a water bed? I get off the bed and examine it further. No… I poke the bed; it feels like a regular bed. I can’t find a tag and decide to give up. I jump back on the bed, and it jiggles less than the first time. Much better, I think as I sink into a deep sleep.

There is humming inside my head. I smile as I listen to a familiar song. William is humming to Antoinette and Abigail. He smiles and it almost seems like it is directed at me, but of course how could that happen? He is merely some strange figment of my imagination.

I stare emotionlessly at the people in front of me; their eyes open wide as if seeing a brand new toy. I hear words running around the room yet I hear none of them. I slowly bite the inside of my lip, trying to feel the pain but only end up with the taste of iron and flesh. The man known as Mr. Evry takes my shoulders and pushes me to a seat next to a boy. I look up as I notice that he was the boy I saw at the hospital. Black hair and eyes the color of burning coal. I get pushed down into the seat as Mr. Evry goes back up to the front of the classroom. His voice only vibrates through my ears like the buzz of a bee. I stare at Mr. Evry, his hair is a dull blonde, but his skin glimmers like a pearl.

I sigh, yet not aloud as I begin to suck on the broken skin in my mouth.  The voices in my head become clear again. It is three people talking in a deep conversation. I sit patiently as I listen to them.

“I told you I didn’t do it on purpose! It just happened! How could I just let her lay there to burn?” A male with platinum blonde hair yells. His eyes are a crystal blue that could almost reflect off his marble colored skin.

“She wouldn’t have. She just had to WAKE UP! I really did not see the reason why you had to propel her out of her bed with an ICEBERG!” A brunette female yells back at him. She rubs her temple as she uses her reptilian green eyes to look at the girl on her right. “Am I wrong to think this? It is his fault that the order is messed up. He messed up everything that we have had planned in… in HUNDREDS OF CENTURIES!”

The girl on her right is a golden blonde with warm blue eyes. She smiles at both of them. “But, Abigail, if William had not done that our Mistress would have died. She was already unconscious because of the air. She may not have made it out alive and then where would we be?”

“HEY!” I jump as I see the boy with the burning eyes in front of me. The room behind him has already cleared out. I stare at him and question to myself, why is he glaring at me? “It’s time for the next course. You’re supposed to go to the hospital for more checkups.”  He looks at me and almost seems to roll his eyes before he walks out of the room. Slowly I sit up and grab the bag that I never even thought to open.

Slowly I walk through the halls of my new school. All the halls are empty and I am able to view that the building is very modern. Unlike my old school this one is indoors and has almost three stories. It’s grey and has many windows, like the Japanese ones I used to view in some movies and TV shows. I open the door to the hospital. Dr. Nakamura smiles at me as he pats on the seat in front of him. I do as he instructs. He talks and talks, but his voice is just like Mr. Evry's and my classmatess muffled noises, except the boy’s. Why was he glaring at me, I question again.

“That doctor sure is annoying. He keeps trying to pry into here. “ The brunette established as Abigail hisses as she sits down watching the doctor from inside my head.

“It’s not him though, right? Isn’t it the assistant that’s sitting at the corner of the room?” William says as he plays with the blonde girl’s hair.

“Yeah, but it’s because this darn doctor wants to know what this girl is thinking. Which is nothing right now!” She yells at the assistant and doctor, who both cannot hear the conversation occurring in my head. She hisses and falls back onto the black nonexistent floor inside my head. I turn my head to the side and look at the assistant. His eyes jump in surprise and he simply smiles as he comes up to the two of us.

He bends down and whispers into Dr. Nakamura’s ear as he hands him the clipboard he was writing in. Dr. Nakamura says my name and tries to tell me something, but I cannot hear him. I shake my head horizontally, upset that I can’t follow him. I want to tell him this, but my mouth can’t move.

“Brother!” My body jumps as I turn to see the boy I sit next to at the hospital’s door. The assistant makes his way toward him and smiles. His voice is mumbled as he talks to him. The boy half smiles when the assistant leaves to bring him a boxed lunch.

“Yeah, I know I left it there for a purpose.” He sighs. “Ichi, why do you still... Never mind, thanks.” He smiles back at Ichi and then sees me. His mouth slightly parts before he shuts it, glares at me, and rushes out of the room. I look back at Dr. Nakamura, who I barely noticed has stopped talking. He watches me as I slowly go back into my unfocused world. He breathes in and his mumbles a word that looked like: “Interesting.”

I leave the hospital and go to the next segment of my school schedule: lunch. It’s another different system to my old school. Here the students have to look at the menu and press a button to receive their menu. Not being able to read the blurry mess of letters I push the button closest to me. I receive a type of soup and some crackers. The dining area is humongous; it is used for the entire school I assume because of its size. I am stuck in the flow of students who have just gotten lunch and somehow I end up outside. No one is sitting here, the entire place is wet and dripping in rain droplets from the occurring storm. I didn’t even notice there was a storm happening, I think as I find a bench underneath a tree to sit on. It’s cold and wet, but it feels nice being here alone with only the voices in my head to disrupt the vibrations of the water falling.

“Antoinette.” William coos as he nibbles on some of the blonde girl’s hair. She complies by gently kissing his forehead. Abigail silently sits alone listening to the two mumble sweet things to each other. William breaks the romantic silence as he sits up. “What’s going to happen now, Abbey? Will the Mistress be okay?”

Abigail bites her lip as she almost looks at me from within my own mind. “I don’t know. We’ve seen what this emotional pain is doing to her, what will the physical and psychological pain be like for her when all of us awaken? I just hope that I will awake completely first, before either of you awaken. Because if that doesn’t happen-“

“You won’t be able to numb her mind for the pain that we will spring upon her.” Antoinette looks at her hands as she speaks. William softly places his hand on hers. He looks at Abigail and gives a small smile.

I stare at my now cold soup and begin to slurp it. I look up to see that some of the students have gathered by the window to look at me. Some of them laugh and others give me a look of disgust. I simply stare at them as I drink the rest of my soup. I sit up and turn toward the door; I stop as I see two heads popping out.

They smile and say words that I can’t interpret. They wave and when I don’t move they come toward me. It’s a girl and a boy. The boy has chestnut hair and emerald eyes; his teeth are pure white as he smiles and takes my tray. The girl is petite and her caramel hair almost reaches her knees. Her brown and green eyes smile at me as she grabs my hand softly and gently leads me back into the cafeteria. She mumbles something and leads me toward the black-haired boy who is waiting for them by the trash can.

“Already too troublesome.” He glares at me and heads toward the exit of the cafeteria. The girl and boy follow. I finally realize that they are taking me back to the classroom that Mr. Evry was teaching. We reach the room and I notice the black-haired boy was already sitting down. The chestnut-haired boy and the girl smile as she gently places me into the seat next to the boy.

“He needs to calm down.” William says as he hugs onto Antoinette.

“Well, how did you expect him to act?” Abigail sighs and placed her head onto Antoinette’s lap.

“Well, I thought he’d be a little bit nicer. I mean you are in her.” He says.

“But, we are also in her.” Antoinette says and pets Abigail’s head.

Abigail bites her lip as she turns over. “It’s okay… I didn’t expect much anyway. Not like he was in love with me, it was just me… in love with him.”

Who, I question to myself. The three of them go back into the blackness of my mind that had been blocking me from what I need to know. It’s like black goo that is swallowing my mind and clogging my thought process. I can’t register anything anymore. I need help. Somebody! Anybody! But… of course, no one can hear me, I can hardly hear me.

I awaken from my mind again to see the students in some kind of uproar. They are talking back and forth in that horrible murmur of voices. I look to the boy next to me, he is staring outside. I follow his gaze and see that he is staring at the sun peeking through the clouds. I return to looking at him when his eyes move from the sun to me.