Aiden Bennett and the Reality Shifters Part two of Part one: Montauk

After hours of sitting and reading, I look up and see that it's almost seven. I put my book facedown on the rug exactly like you're not supposed to do because it messes up the spine. 

I try to teleport downstairs this time, but it doesn’t work. I just end up invisible, which is cool, but it doesn’t help me get down Mount Everstairs. I decide it will be worth it just to surprise Casey.

I find her seat empty, which means I am probably early. I invisibly slide into her seat and wait.

She comes down the stairs at 7:05. “Sorry I was late, everyone.” Then she notices my absence and smiles to herself.

She walks over to her chair and I become visible and say, “Don’t sit on me, mate.” in a British accent.

She appears across the room. “Argh! Don’t do that, hobo!”

“Hobo? That hurts.” I say, getting up from her chair and walking to my own.

Jackson and Zoe snicker.

“Alright, enough.” Caleb says, but I think he’s suppressing a smile. “It looks like you figured out how to use your powers?”

“Not entirely,” I admit. “I was trying to get down here but I turned invisible somehow.”

“Progress.” Caleb decides. “Now, I want you to try and create some mashed potatoes.”

“Why specifically mashed potatoes?”

“Because I forgot to make them exist on your plate, and I could just do it myself, but it could be a learning experience for you.”

I put my hands palms down on the table and take a deep breath.

Mashed potatoes mashed potatoes mashed potatoes, I chant over and over in my brain.

Then I open my eyes and those mashed potatoes are the most beautiful thing I have ever seen.

“You did it!” Caleb actually sounds surprised. Thanks, Caleb.

“I guess so.” I say.

This puts away any doubt: I am one of them.

Jackson says, “We will remember you as the Summoner of Soggy Potatoes!”

“I-” I start to say. “Thanks.”

As titles go, I would rather be the Summoner of Soggy Potatoes than the Summoner of Green Beans or Baked Beans or any other kind of bean.

Then it strikes me. “What did she do first?” I ask, pointing at Casey.

She pales, which I take as a sign that it’s embarrassing. I rub my mental hands together. Good.

Jackson looks at Zoe. “Do you remember?”

“Hmmm.” Zoe says, scratching her chin. “It was...oh, I know! Yams!”

I raise an eyebrow. “Yams, you say?”

Casey puts her face in her hands.

“Okay.” Caleb says.

And then we eat.

This is the biggest meal I’ve had in years. Ham, green beans, mashed potatoes, steak fries, and fried brussel sprouts.

I soon realize everyone has stopped eating and is watching me eat.

“I’m sorry, guys. I haven’t had this big of a meal in years, nor have I sat at a table with people in years.” I blush and look down. I put my fork down, and go up to my room before anyone says anything.

I throw myself onto the bed. This is the first real bed that I’ve been able to call my own since the fire.

I hear a knock on the door. I don’t answer. I go invisible, which is amazing that I’ve been able to do it on command. 

“Aiden?”

It’s Jack. I exhale, and become visible. “Come in.”

She appears on the bed next to me. “We weren’t staring at you because of the way you were eating.”

“Why, then?”

She draws in a breath. “I can't tell you. Sorry.”

I look down.

“It’s not because we don’t trust you.” She says. “It’s because you’re not ready.”

There are a lot of things I could say. But I chose to say nothing.

Then Jack hugs me.

Now, I’m not a hugger. I don’t like hugs. On the street, if someone looked like they were going to hug you, they most likely were trying to tackle you and take what little you had left. 

But Jack's hug was warming. I melted right into it, because today, I really needed a hug. My brain was about to explode.

Jack let go. “Go take a shower. You smell like blood and trash.”

And she left.

Yep. I took the shower. Because I believed her. I probably did smell like blood and trash.

Then I went downstairs to apologize to everyone. But I heard them talking in semi-hushed whispers.

I guessed this was not for my ears, so I turned invisible and got closer so I could hear.

“-turn invisible? No one’s been able to do that since…” Casey trailed off.

“This could be it. This could be the prophecy.” Caleb says.

Zoe gasps. “But, you said-”

“I know what I said. And I’m disregarding it. I was wrong. Aiden’s the one we’ve been waiting for.”

“I don’t know why we have to wait for this stupid prophecy to pass. Why don’t we just go now and get it off the table, done with?” Casey asks. 

Caleb says, “That would be a good idea, Casey. However, fate would not have it. Something would prevent you from getting to the cave.”

“But we’re Reality Shifters! Can’t we change things?” Casey asks.

“Not things fate has a place in. If you made it to the cave, and a rock fell over the entrance, you would be unable to move it. Because it wasn’t time.”

Casey sighed.

“We will speak of this further tomorrow. Everyone, to bed.”

And everyone disappeared, and I was standing in the dining room, alone.

I eventually made it back up to my room in a daze.

Prophecy?

No one else can turn invisible?

The one they've been waiting for?

What is that supposed to mean?

I finally crash on my bed. It’s been such a long and weird day, I fall asleep before my head hits the pillow.

Suddenly, I am standing in front of a cave. Rain is drenching me, plastering my brown hair to the sides of my face.

“They think they can shelter you, young hero.” A voice says. 

I look around, and there is no one.

“But you can feel the storm. Your shelter is not working.”

I look at the looming cave.

“I will see you soon enough, young hero.” The voice says, and the cave dissolves.

I wake up the next morning feeling only half rested. The dream...that cave had to be the cave that the Shifters were talking about.

But who was there?

What was in the cave?

Clearly whatever is in the cave is important, if the Shifters and that person are both trying to get it.

But why did they need me? Was it the prophecy? Was I supposed to be a key of some sort?

I look at the clock. It's nine AM already. I decide I won't go to training until they tell me what's happening.

I roll over, and at 9:15, I get a knock at my door. I pretend not to hear it.

“Aiden? I know you’re in there.” She stops, probably remembering I have the ability to teleport. “Well, I don’t know for sure you're in there. I hope you're in there. I just wanted to let you know that we have training today. It started at nine.”

“I know.” I say, momentarily forgetting to act like I don’t exist. “I want to know the truth, then maybe I’ll come. Tell Caleb that.”

“Fine, then.” She says. “I didn’t really want you there anyway.”

“Then why did you come up to get me?”

“Uhg! I was voluntold!”

“Sure.”

“Uhg!” and she stomped down the hall.

Ten minutes later, Caleb knocked on my door, which surprised me. I didn’t think he would actually come.

“Aiden?”

I crept out of bed and turned invisible, in case he decided to come in here.

“You're right. You deserve the truth. I just can’t tell you.”

I need to test these “teleportation” powers of mine. I imagined standing behind Caleb, and hoped really hard that it would work.

When I opened my eyes, I was in the hall. Still invisible. I gave myself a mental high five.

Caleb sighed and teleported downstairs. I concentrated on where he was, and the next thing I knew I was standing next to him again.

We were in a room that I guessed was the training room. Grey cement walls with slashes and burn scars in them. Sandbags hung on chains from the roof. A pile of leaking and burnt ones sat slumped in a corner, ruined.

Casey had summoned a pair of knives and was dodging and hacking away at a sandbag. Zoe had a bow and arrows and was shooting targets that were high up in the rafters. Jack was working on changing an apple to a banana, then to a cup. I realized she was doing the alphabet.

“He didn’t come?” Casey had stopped mutilating the sandbag. 

Caleb shook his head.

Casey looked disappointed for a minute, but then she got her determined expression again and kept hacking at the sandbag.

“What did you tell him?” Zoe asked.

“I told him I couldn’t tell him. I don’t even know if he was in there.”

“Why don’t you just summon him here?” Casey asks without looking away from her sandbag.

“That seems like an invasion of his privacy.”

“Fine. I’ll do it.” Casey closes her eyes and concentrates, and I am whipped to her side, but still invisible.

“It didn’t work.” Jack notes.

“Maybe it did.” Casey closes her eyes again. I’m afraid she’s going to find a way to disarm my invisibility. Instead her voice speaks in my mind. Are you here invisibly?

Yes. I reply.

“He’s here!” She announces, making her look a lot more impressive than she actually was.

“Can you come visible?” Caleb asks.

“Not until I actually know what’s going on.” I say. “For real.”

“I can’t tell you that. I swore an oath. They all did too.” Caleb points in everyone's general direction.

“Fine. Then I’m leaving. And not coming out of my room until I know.” 

Are you still here? Casey asked.

No. I’m back in my room. I lied.

“He left.” Casey says. She actually sounds disappointed, which surprises me.

Zoe looks at Caleb. “We have to tell him.”

“No. We cannot. He isn’t ready. We all swore not to tell until he was ready. If he won’t come to training, then he may never be ready.”

“But he won’t come until we tell him.” Jack says.

“We’re caught in a Catch 22.” Casey says.

Caleb sighs.

“I’m going to tell him.” Casey says. “And you can’t stop me.”

“Casey-” Caleb starts.

“I don’t want to hear it!” Casey yells. “You say this person is the key to our future? Why are we cold shouldering him? If he has a destiny, why don’t we just tell him?”

“Telling him his future now could put his present in danger.”

“How? I want to know.”

“If he doesn’t like it, he may go to unseen lengths to prevent it.”

“If. It’s a big if.”

Zoe and Jack’s heads are bobbing back and forth like they're watching a tennis match.

I realize I’ve been doing an unsettling amount of spying the last few days. From yesterday afternoon to right now.

Casey storms off and up the stairs, seeing to forget that she can magically appear at the top.

I teleport up to my room, because I feel like that’s where she will be headed.

However, she doesn’t come knocking.

I know you were there the whole time. She speaks in my mind.

You’re wrong. I say.

You’re a bad liar.

I don’t answer.

You know about the prophecy, I’m guessing. She says. But you don’t know what it entails.

You’d be right.

I can’t tell you the whole truth. But I can tell you some.

I want to at least know something. Even if it’s just a half.

Okay. There’s this prophecy. It talks about a boy whose past is smeared with ashes. He either saves the world with his Shifter power, or destroys it.

A past smeared with ashes? That could be me. My parents died in a fire, and of course, I did see the occasional warehouse fire in L.A.

But first that boy and a chosen companion must go through a series of trials. Quests, tasks, whatever you want to call them. The first one is in New York. The final challenge, where the boy makes the decision, is in a cave somewhere.

So when are we going to New York? I ask.

What? 

Oh, cut it out. You know I’m the boy of the prophecy, and you know I’m going to choose you as my companion.

I did not!

You are such a bad liar.

Hmph. Fine. I’ll meet you outside your door at seven tomorrow morning.

I don’t have an alarm clock.

Make one, dummy!

Oh.

So we’re leaving for New York tomorrow morning? I thought it would take more convincing than that. She seems to feel comfortable here, whereas I feel out of place, like a rubber duck in a row of china sculptures of ducks.

I decide to read for a while, but as I’m pulling out my book, my brain starts to throb like someone’s repeatedly whacking my head with a mallet. I scream, and I see Casey appear as I am pulled into an unknown darkness.

“You are going to start your rise, little hero?” A voice says. It’s the same voice I heard in my previous dream.

I open my eyes, and instead of being in front of the cave, I am in front of a wall of living shadow. I know if I don’t move, in about three minutes I will be swallowed. I struggle to move away, but yelp in pain. My hands and ankles are imprisoned in red hot chains that are clamped tightly closed. I smell a gross smell, like when Dad would drop hamburgers in the fire on accident when we were camping. I realize my wrists are burning, the flesh becoming an angry red.

“You are stuck, hero. Accept your fate. Your darkness and anger and pity will swallow you, and before you know it you will be fighting at my side. What the girl didn’t tell you was that the boy of the prophecy will face betrayal. Will that be your own betrayal, or someone else's? Only time will tell, hero. For now, enjoy your ignorance. Do not go to New York. Enjoy your friend’s company while you still have a chance. We will meet soon enough, little hero.”

And the wall of shadow consumes me.