#chapter thriteen

Chapter Thirteen – A Veil of Strength

Happy Friday!

Chapter thirteen is up and can be found here.

I actually posted it last night but decided to hold off until this morning to send out the notification. I wanted to think about the content a bit and allow it to settle within me. This was a difficult chapter to write. I knew it was coming but like tax season and cold weather…even when you know it’s coming it doesn’t make it any…

There is a reason that Cain does not normally go to class. The few times he does, he manages to wind up in the most dangerous situations known to nightmares.

  Well, perhaps that was a slight exaggeration, but the sixteen year old has no intention of entering the mind of a human right now. He would much rather sit in the comfort of the radio department where the only potential danger is his eardrums getting blasted to pieces by his fellow radio jockey, Serene Dawson.

  Professor Cabage is still waiting for him to step up and with trembling knees, the boy does.

  “Alright,” Cabage says, plastered on his face what seems to be an encouraging smile. To Cain, it looks like one of those advertisements for toothpaste: extra white, extra shiny and extra intimidating.

  “First, pick a person whose mind you wish to enter.”

  The boy scans the rows of sleeping humans, hoping to find one that looks relatively easy to manipulate. He spots a girl in a corner, around his age. She doesn’t look too strange, not snoring or mumbling like some of the other humans. Nodding to indicate that he picked his target, he swallows the lump forming in his throat.

  “Now, focus your attention to shifting out of your human form. You need to be able to break away from your usual shape. Think of something open, endless.”

  Endless? Cain resists the urge to wring his teacher by the neck. How on Earth is he supposed to think of something endless when a pack of teenage Dreameaters and a salmon tin of humans surround him?

  Focus, a voice in his head reminds him. Had he put that word in his mind or is one of his classmates trying to calm him down? Regardless, he follows the advice, forcing himself to think of the ocean that’s barely a mile away from the school. The sludge coloured waves that ceaselessly crash onto the stony beach usually calm him down.

  That’s when it happens. The boy resists the urge to shriek as his body begins to feel lighter. He cannot feel his limbs.  It’s almost as if he drank so much soda pop that his body is entirely composed of bubbles of fizz.

  “Very good,” he hears his professor’s voice, although it sounds lighter, as if Cabage is speaking to him from another room, “Direct yourself towards your target human as fast as you can. Only then will you be able to pick up enough momentum to penetrate the human’s mind.”

  Cain tries to move, but he gets the sensation of him trying to run in a swimming pool. Something his holding him back and he can feel his lungs (or whatever they’ve become now) burning as he pushes forward. It gets easier as he reaches the glass barrier behind which the humans sleep. To his amazement, he passes through glass as if it was air. He moves faster and faster towards the girl, the world around him becoming a blur. It takes much longer to reach her than he had anticipated. When he does, he zooms towards her head.  He gets closer until he’s a breath away. Passing through her head causes a burst of light to sear his eyes, and he blinks.