In Too Deep

Chapter 23

After everyone had done as I had asked, they all started to make somewhat of a semi-circle around me. A few people were still chatting amongst themselves but after a few minutes everyone was seated, and all attention was on me, it felt a little unnerving having an audience, but this was my idea.

My stomach twisted as I worried what everyone would ask, guaranteed there will be questions that I won’t want to answer, but I promised them the truth and that’s what they will get. I looked around at all the faces, they all looked expectant and I had no idea where to begin.

“I knew she wouldn’t tell us anything.” Jimmy said harshly.

“I was just merely thinking of where to begin.” I said to him calmly. Violet and Lucas came and stood by my sides, resting their hands on my shoulders to show their support.

“You don’t have to do this Freya.” Violet said to me softly.

“It‘s fine, I intend to keep my word.” I said and she nodded.

“You blew up our house so we could all get away without any more people dying didn’t you?” Julia, Violet’s mother asked me and I nodded. “Won’t the neighbours down the street call the police after they heard the explosion?” She asked.

“No, I used magic so the only people that could see and hear the blast was us and the guards, I couldn’t let anyone see your house being blown to pieces otherwise it would look suspicious when I restored it. Which I have already done, by the way.” I told her and she looked surprised.

“You managed to restore it from this distance away?” Sophia asked me and I nodded. “That’s pretty impressive.” She added.

“Especially for a mind reader. So what actually are you?” Jimmy asked me, out of the corner of my eye I saw Violet look at me with wide eyes, she remembered what I had told her, and she knew how important it was for it not to get out. Her look didn’t go unnoticed by her father.

“Violet, you know don’t you?” Jimmy asked her but she said nothing, looking down at the ground. “Oh my, you do.” He added after a moment. I saw Smithy look at me and I didn’t need to read his thoughts to know what he was thinking, I had told Violet before him, and I had known him for years. No doubt he felt a little betrayed by that.

“My power, will not be something any of you would’ve ever heard of.” I began whilst I looked around at all of the curious faces. “The best way that I can explain it is that any super naturals I come in to contact with, whatever their power is, I can use.” I said to them, trying to keep my explanation simple.

“So you take other people’s powers?” Jimmy accused me. This guy was seriously not on my side.

“No, the person with the power remains unaffected; I can use their power anytime I want without them knowing.” I said and everyone looked shocked, and a little confused as this information sunk in.

Lucas and Violet’s families shared a look, but stayed silent, I was surprised they didn’t have a comment to add.

“So you essentially have hundreds of powers?” John, Lucas’ father asked me.

“More like thousands now she’s been to Fair Lake.” Sophia said.

“This explains so much.” Smithy said. “So the day I met you, that’s how-?” He left the question hanging and I nodded.

I could tell that Lucas was curious about something but he didn’t want to question me about it in front of everyone else. He hadn’t seemed to have taken offence to the fact that I had told Violet and not him.

“Go ahead Lucas; I did say that I would answer everyone’s questions.” I said to him, he looked at me, asking me with his eyes to make sure that I was certain. I nodded.

“What was that house that you drew in art class? We were supposed to draw our homes, and when I asked you about it you just avoided the question.” He asked me.

“What house?” Smithy asked me and I sighed. I held my hand out, palm facing up, and conjured up the canvas that I drew the house on in class. When Smithy saw it he looked at me questioningly, he of course recognised the house straight away, but had no idea why I would draw that as my home.

“Violet, do you remember when I told you about the family that adopted me?” I asked her.

“The ones that were killed by rogues?” She asked and I nodded.

“Well there is something I didn’t tell you about when they died.” I told her.

“Surprise surprise.” Jimmy added sarcastically. I ignored him and continued.

“The people who killed them, weren’t after them, they were after me. They fought to protect me, they distracted the rogues so I could escape. My family knew that they wouldn’t win the fight, they knew they were going to die.” I said, I stared down at the ground for a moment, remembering their bravery.

“But why didn’t you fight with them? I’ve seen how you fight, you could’ve taken them.” Katherine, Lucas’ mother asked me. “And you are very powerful, and even if your only power was mind reading at the time that still would’ve given you an advantage.” She said.

“I was young when they attacked, there were hundreds of them and I was a lot less powerful then, I was still figuring out my powers. Even with my help, we wouldn’t have stood a chance.” I said. “So, leaving them behind, I ran. I had no idea where I was going, just that I had to get away. When I thought that I was safe, I looked for a place to stay.”

I looked down at the canvas in my hand, my eyes travelled over the drawing, and my thoughts drifted back to that day. I remember the smell of fear and determination coming from the people who had quickly become my family. They were willing to fight for me, fight to the death. I remember them fighting for my life, whilst I just ran. I remember the battle cries, the blood, the smell of death. But what I remember the most, is that it was all my fault.

“This quickly became my home, no one was likely to stop there for the night in passing, it wouldn’t be a place that anyone would suspect that I would stay, and that made it perfect for what I needed.” I said.

“But what did you do for food?” John asked me.

“I hunted animals in the forest.” I said simply.

“How long were you there for?” Lucas asked me.

“Five years, maybe more. I’m not entirely sure about the time frame; I didn’t really keep track.” I said to them.

“Why were the rogues after you?” Ryan asked me, speaking up for the first time since we got back.

“I have no idea, I have been trying to find out, but I’ve found nothing.” I said.

“So what made you decide to leave?” Violet asked me and I laughed at the new memory that came to mind.

“Well that was when I first met Smithy.” I said and looked at him.

“We were looking for a place to have meetings where we wouldn’t be interrupted, and wouldn’t be found easily. There was a leak in our organisation at the time. We thought it was the perfect place, an abandoned house out in the woods, we presumed no one would be living there because of the state it was in.” Smithy said.

“We certainly got one hell of a shock when we went inside.” He added.

“I was upstairs when I heard the door open, and then footsteps on the creaky floorboards.” I said.

“We were scoping the place out to make sure there was no one squatting there.” Smithy added in.

“Your people were very noisy.” I said to him remembering that day.

I traced a large rectangle with my finger in the air and brought it to life as if it were a TV screen. I joined mine and Smithy’s memories together so the others could see what happened. Smithy said a few things as the memory went on, to explain what was happening.

“Half of my team went upstairs and I was with the team patrolling downstairs. We declared the downstairs as clear but the half that went upstairs didn’t respond when we contacted them on their radios. I went upstairs and all of the rooms were completely empty! I had no idea where my team had gone, they had completely disappeared.” The memories played like a film, it showed everything that Smithy was explaining.

It showed Smithy turning around so he could leave the room, I had been hiding up on the beams on the ceiling and I jumped down behind him and attacked him. I knocked his gun out of his hands and within a few seconds I had Smithy kneeling on the floor with his hands pinned behind his back.

By then the rest of his team had realised that something was wrong and had ventured upstairs, they came in to the room where I had hold of Smithy. I pulled him up so his body shielded mine, in case they tried to shoot me.

“Don’t shoot! I’ll kill him before you get the chance.” The much younger me said to Smithy’s team as I wrapped my hand around his throat.

They had pretended to go along with it, but I could see the amusement in their eyes. I read their minds and they presumed that Smithy was faking it, and that they didn’t need to worry because surely their leader would be able to take down a little girl. A vicious snarl left my lips in result of their thoughts.

“Don’t underestimate her; she’s already taken out half the team.” Smithy warned them.

“But she’s only a child.” One of them stated in reply and I growled fiercely at him.

“Shut up Chris.” Smithy said to him. “Look, we don’t mean you any harm.” Smithy told me.

“Oh really? The weapons say otherwise.” I hissed.

“Drop your guns.” Smithy said to his men, they hesitated for a second but then did as they were told.

“I said weapons not just guns, for instance the blades that you all have hidden in your boots, and whilst you’re at it, get rid of your radios and phones as well.” I demanded. The men looked to Smithy and he nodded, instructing them to do what I had said. I leant down and chucked Smithy’s radio, knife and phone to the side of the room.

“Do you trust that we don’t wish to harm you now?” Smithy asked me.

“No.” I said bluntly.

“I don’t know anything else we can do to prove to you-“

“Why are you in my house?” I interrupted sharply.

“We didn’t know you lived here, we thought it was abandoned.” Smithy said to me, trying to calm me.

“Who sent you? Why are you rogues after me?” I asked them.

“We are not rogues; we are the police.” Smithy said, trying to reassure me.

“I don’t believe you.” I stated.

“My badge is clipped to my belt.” He said simply. I reached around him and grabbed it; I studied it closely before replying.

“Could be fake.” I said.

“Well I’m sure you have some way of finding that out yourself.” He said and I tensed. Did this mean he did know who I was? He seemed to know that I was a mind reader, so he must know the rest as well. “Calm down, I can sense that you’re a mind reader. We have no clue who you really are.” He added. So that was all he could sense? Unless he was lying.

“You should leave.” I said bluntly.

“Let us help you-.” Smithy started.

“I don’t need your help.” I almost growled.

“We could help you find your family.” Smithy said and I paused, caught up in my own thoughts. Keeping one of my hands around his wrists behind his back, I wrapped my other arm back around his neck.

“My family are dead.” I said in a harsh whisper. As soon as the words left my lips the air seemed to grow colder, I could sense magic building around us.

“Sir, enemy approaching.” One of his men said to Smithy, I could feel him tense at this new threat. I released Smithy and turned towards the six people who just transported in to the room and growled at them.

“We have been looking for you for a long time.” The leader of the new group said to me, I recognised him from one of my visions, he had ordered the attack on my family. They were all shapeshifters, and had large builds with muscles the size of my head.

“Congratulations, you’ve found me. Your reward is death.” Just as I said that I lunged forward and sliced my extended nails across his throat, slicing deep, cutting in to his artery, he fell to the ground bleeding out. I attacked the rogue nearest to me, taking him out as well. I killed three more and was just turning around when I heard a shout.

“Look out!” I turned and saw that Smithy had grabbed hold of one of the rogues just before he could slice my head off with his sword. He gripped each side of his head, and twisted it sideways, snapping his neck.

“Thank you.” I said to Smithy. “But I had it handled.”

“I’m sure you did; do you believe me when I say that we don’t mean you any harm now?” He asked me.

“You may not, but your people will try and use my powers against me.” I said to him.

“We can work something out. I’m not just going to leave you out here with no protection.” Smithy told me.

“I don’t need your protection.” I said stubbornly.

“Clearly.” Smithy stated with a smile.

With a click of my fingers the screen vanished and everyone’s attention came back to me and Smithy.

“So what you’re saying is, she’s always been difficult?” Ryan joked, Smithy laughed and nodded.

“What did you do after that?” Violet asked.

“Well I could see the fear in her eyes when we mentioned taking her in to civilisation, no matter how hard she tried to hide it.” Smithy gave me a pointed look. “So we made sure she always had guards there to protect her. I worked with her to adapt her powers and when she was older we introduced her to the city where we worked at the time.” Smithy explained.

“So you’re telling me, that she managed to overpower you?” Jimmy asked Smithy.

“That is correct.” Smithy told him.

“But she looked about seven years old! And you’re a vampire.” Jimmy couldn’t believe it.

“Yes, I never really did understand how she could be so strong. But she was never very forthcoming with information.” He explained with a smile at the memory of how difficult I was. “I finally know how she did it now. You can also use a vampire’s strength against them can’t you?” Smithy asked me and I nodded.

“So why did you draw that as your home?” Lucas asked.

“After that I moved around a lot. It was the longest I had ever stayed in one place. As odd as it may sound, it’s the last proper home I’ve had.” I said.

“No.” Jimmy said and I looked up confused, realising I had missed a secret conversation going on. I saw Jimmy and his wife glaring at each other.

“But she’s told us so much, it’s the least we can do.” Julia said to him.

“I said no.” Jimmy said bluntly.

“If you don’t then I will.” Sophia said, clueing in to the conversation that I still knew nothing about.

“What’s going on?” Violet asked but no one said anything. “Mum? Dad?” She asked but they wouldn’t even meet her gaze. She turned to Sophia. “Grandma?”

“The Academy thinks that your friend is evil.” Sophia told Violet.

“What? Why would they think that?” Violet asked shocked. Sophia looked at me.

“They found out about you years ago when they found a rogue who was searching for you. They tortured them for information but the rogue said you constantly changed your name and appearance. They followed a trail but it only got them so far. They hired private investigators to try and find out more, and to steal the book.” Sophia explained.

“The book they stole from us?” Smithy asked and she nodded. “But what has the book got to do with Freya?” He asked confused and that got me thinking about something that Bastien had said to me. ’You don’t know what’s going on, you haven’t read the book’. He had said, I have gotten part way through it but I have only found a few spells so far.

“Have you not read all of it?” Sophia asked me and I shook my head. “Ok, I guess I will just have to tell you the importance of it then.” She cleared her throat and began.

“The book details information about a coven of witches, centuries old from what anyone can figure out, but no one knows when or where they actually originated from. They are the most powerful witches known in our history. They were often hunted down and killed, too powerful for anyone to allow them to live.” Sophia explained.

“What made them so powerful?” Ryan asked. I closed my eyes for a brief moment, knowing exactly what she was about to say.

“They could use the powers that belonged to others, this made them dangerous, and unbeatable.” Sophia continued. “They were isolated from the other covens, no one trusting the bloodline that had such an uncommon ability. Even their looks set them apart from any other witches, their eyes the colour of blood.” I looked at her wide-eyed, this wasn’t good.

I saw Smithy look at me out of the corner of his eye, remembering Mr Jackson questioning him about my eyes.

“How were they killed, if they were so powerful?” Violet asked her grandmother.

“There was always a great war, undocumented by humans of course. There were many deaths each time. The other supernatural races used various tactics to try and kill them, Runes, Crystals, various spells. But the coven was never wiped out entirely, they were too difficult to beat. After other supernatural beings kept coming after them, they went in to hiding, wanting to live peacefully. But if anyone ever did find them, they would be killed.” Sophia explained, looking at me. “If the Academy is correct, which from what you’ve told us I believe they are, then that book is your ancestry Freya.”

“How have I never heard of this?” I asked her.

“You weren’t raised by witches, you have never had anyone to tell you about them.” Sophia said. “The witches in the book, they’re called Siphons. That’s what your power is Freya, you siphon abilities from those around you.”

I stayed quiet for a moment, trying to process all of this information.

“But that’s impossible! You can’t be a descendant of an ancient witch coven.” Violet said and then she looked to me. “Freya, that’s impossible, right?” She asked, I didn’t know what to say. Out of the corner of my eye I saw Smithy looking at me, I met his eyes.

“Mr Jackson said something about your eyes. I know I said that I didn’t need to know what it was but-“ Smithy began.

“It’s fine.” I interrupted him. I raised my hands to my face, and began removing my coloured contacts. Once they were removed, I kept my gaze down so no one could see. I looked up and heard several gasps as I revealed my red eyes to them.

“So you are one of them.” Katherine said shocked.

“It seems likely.” I replied and then I remembered something. “But Sophia, you said everyone thinks I’m evil. Just from that story alone they can’t think that surely.”

“They fear your powers Freya, and after all the stories it makes it easy to paint you as untrustworthy. As evil. They also know that you fight and kill rogues.” Sophia said.

“They’ve been investigating you whilst you’ve been investigating them.” Smithy realised. I nodded.

“It does seem that way. Attending that Academy, I played right in to their hands.” I said.

I couldn’t believe it, I was so sure I knew what I was doing, I always go full steam ahead. How did I miss this? I tried to rap my head around this new bit of information about myself that everyone seemed to know about except me.

“We figured you already knew.” Sophia said gently.

“So how many people actually know about this?” I asked her and she hesitated before answering.

“The parents of every child that attends Fair Lake.” Sophia said.

“Why would they all know?” I asked confused.

“That’s the reason their child would be attending. Freya, that Academy is to train the students how to kill you.” Sophia explained.

“What?!” Lucas, Violet, Ryan and Smithy all shouted at once.

“That’s what it was built for.” Sophia added. I couldn’t believe what she was saying. An Academy was seriously built just so people could learn how to kill me? Did they really hate me that much?

“They knew the coven wasn’t completely wiped out, they just had to wait long enough until they found someone whose powers matched the description. When they found out about you it didn’t take much to connect the dots.” Sophia explained.

“I showed too many abilities inconsistent with being a mind reader.” I realised.

I ran my hand over my face. How could I be so stupid? I’m usually so much more careful about not revealing my powers that I can’t easily explain away.

“Why did you never tell me this?” Violet accused her parents.

“That was part of the deal; we weren’t allowed to tell you until you were ready. We are really sorry sweetie; we really did think she was evil, and they’ve been searching for one of their descendants since the Academy was built. We didn’t think they’d find one during the time you were there. We hoped anyway.” Julia explained. She turned to me, “I really am truly sorry.” She said sincerely.

“It’s ok.” I said to her.

“No it’s not.” Ryan said angrily.

“Ryan, they weren’t to know.” I said trying to calm him down.

“I don’t care! They still shouldn’t have been a part of this!” He shouted in my face.

“Well if they weren’t then we would never have known about this!” I was shouting now too and he started to see my reasoning. “If it weren’t for them telling us then we would still be in the dark.” I added, no longer shouting. I knew his anger was coming from a place of concern for me.

I had to think of a way to get us all out of this, they wouldn’t just be after me now, they would try and hurt Violet, Lucas and their families, Smithy, Ryan and anyone else who stood in their way. They had been planning this for a very long time, how the hell was I supposed to figure this out by myself?

“Are you ok?” Smithy asked my softly and I nodded.

“Yeah, I’m just trying to figure this out, how am I going to solve this without more people getting hurt?” I asked him.

“I think you mean how are we going to figure this out.” He said looking me straight in the eyes.

“No Smithy you’ve done enough, you all have. It’s time for me to face the music.” I said.

“Freya will you stop trying to be the hero all the time? We’re here for you, we all are. We aren’t going to let you go through this alone. We’ll stand by you no matter what.” Lucas said to me sincerely.

“No, I can’t risk you getting hurt-“

“Why are you always so ready to sacrifice yourself to save others?” Lucas interrupted me.

“It’s what I do.” I said simply.

“But we’re not allowed to do the same for you?” Violet asked. I looked her over, her small delicate frame, and the intense look in her eyes.

“Absolutely not.” I said.

“Is she always this difficult?” Lucas asked Smithy and he nodded.

“She never was very good at working with a team, and when she does she completely takes over and becomes the leader.” Smithy said.

I could tell that Lucas wasn’t going to back down. All of these people, willing to help me. I looked at each of them in turn, Violet’s parents looked apologetic but ready to fight, even her Grandma looked like she was in it for the long run, Lucas’ parents looked exactly the same.

Then there were the three brave fighters: Robert Blake, Simon Hitson and Ron Mikey, who before this day had never met me, knew absolutely nothing about me, and yet were still willing to fight to the death for me if needed.

Then there was Smithy and Ryan, Smithy was the same as usual, stubborn, caring and always in control. Ryan was young, loved the thrill of danger and the adrenalin of the fight, he was a very caring person but a ruthless fighter.

I was standing with a group of people, some that I had known for years, others who I had only known for a few months, and others I had known for a day.

What was it that went through their heads that would make them so determined to help me? I know that I should decline their help, go it alone no matter how much they protested, or maybe sneak off while they’re distracted. But something held me back, it was nice to know that all these people were willing to help me, no matter how different our worlds were, I would need all the help I could get for the upcoming fight, and to be honest, I was a little afraid of what was to come.

A feeling spread through my body, one of dread and weariness, wondering what we faced in the near future.