The Awakened Ones

Getting up for school the next day wasn’t as hard as I thought it would be after staying out till 1AM. My first three classes dragged by and when I left Math class, I felt almost grateful. As I walked down the hallway, I felt someone walking with me. I looked to see Quint who was smiling at me and asking if he could walk with me to AIS. I didn’t mind, I mean, why would I say no?

“I had fun last night,” he said, as we headed down the stairwell to B floor.

I smiled up at him, “Me too.”

“We should all do that again.”

I agreed with him and walked into AIS with him.

“Come on,” he said, tilting his head to the back of the classroom.

My eyebrows scrunched down at him and I followed him to the back of the room. He made the excuse that he needed help with his homework and we sat at the round table in the back. He actually did take out some papers though and after two problems put the papers back, stating that he was bored. After a few minutes of just sitting there, I noticed that Quint seemed a little nervous about something.

“Are you alright?” I asked.

“Y- yeah,” he answered, “It’s just kind of hot in here.” He rubbed his left arm.

“I guess,” I said, giving him a weird look then said I’d be right back and left for a bathroom break.

When I came back, Quint was fidgeting with his rolled up sleeves. Once I sat down, I noticed slash marks on his arm that went up past his sleeve. They looked pretty new too and I only knew this because they were bright red and swollen looking.

I gasped at the sight, “What happened?”

He looked up at me, startled, “Oh, nothing,” he began to roll down his sleeves. “Bored?” he shrugged.

“Bored?” I took his arm and looked closer at the sores, “You don’t do this when you’re bored, Quint. I’ve seen you bored!” I gave him a stern look.

He shrugged again and changed the subject.

When I got home, I thought about Quint’s arms. I took out that library book and started searching for something about the slash mark mystery. As I searched through the book, I found a few pages that I must’ve looked over the last twenty times I looked through this book. I started to scan through the page and found that it was about the helpers that Xi had. There were two of them and he had been with them in each of his lives. One was always the closest to the awakened ones – even during all their past lives when they were definite enemies, then there was another who was like a backup in case the other failed, which seemed to always happen. I read more about this, feeling a connection, just then my suspicious thoughts about what I was reading was settled.

“If one of the helpers disobeyed their master, they would be punished. Usually by a whip on either the back or limbs…”

Limbs of the person-?

Limbs of… Quint.

His arm flashed in my head, those certainly looked like whip marks and Quint was awfully close to me and Sarah. He was even close to Dru.

Oh my God!

Quint is Xi’s helper!!

How could I have been so stupid?

This all explains why he can see me astral project and why he knows so much.

Quint lied to me about everything.

I went to school the next day not sure if I was going to hide this information from Quint or yell at him. The whole day was kind of weird because I think Xi knew I figured something out. He was in almost every hallway I entered. He was definitely watching me and flickering harder than before because of my guardian stone on my hip. I didn’t see Quint until after math class and when I did, I guess my mind was made up about what I was going to do.

I walked out of class and felt him next to me. “What?” I said.

“Just walking with you to AIS,” he answered, “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing,” I answered, staring forward.

He leaned forward to look at me, “Nothing? Something’s definitely wrong.” I shook my head and found myself being moved to the wall. Quint put his arm up on the lockers to keep me from escaping. “Jillian.”

I looked away from him before answering, then crossed my arms. “You’ve been on Xi’s side this entire time?” His eyes widened, giving him away right there. “I thought you were supposed to watch over me,” I said, “Protect me from Xi!”

“I am,” he answered, defending himself.

“You can’t be on both sides, Quint!” I slipped out from between him and the wall.

“Jillian, listen to me,” he said, going after me, then grabbed my wrist. “Listen. I dropped Xi the moment I got to know you more. The day I explained everything to you, I knew I couldn’t help Xi anymore! I’m done with that- you have to believe me.”

“But you lied to me,” I shouted, ripping my hand free from his hold, “You’ve known me longer than that Quint – long enough to know how this would feel.” My hand grazed my guardian stone and I looked down at it, “This is probably a lie too!” I ripped it off my belt and threw it at him. After that I turned around and began to walk away, but then added, “Oh and do me a favor? Don’t bother talking to me either, I know how much that bothered you in the past.” And with that I walked away.

I knew he stood there staring at my backside. But what else was I going to do? Play dumb? Obviously my head had other ideas. I angrily walked downstairs by myself to AIS and when I walked in, I sat down at my desk and right away took out my books.

Quint walked in ten minutes after the bell and looked over at me, then went to the back.

I ignored him for the rest of the day. Screw Quint. In fact, I ignored him for two days straight. Hah! Never thought that could happen. But I was seriously pissed. But I only say two days because that’s how long me ignoring him lasted. I eventually got so fed up with seeing him looking over at me every five minutes, and not to mention Xi being in every corner still, that I dropped my head to the desk. If Quint really was on my side, he would stop me from doing what I was about to do.

I began to project and my soul started to wander farther and farther away. This time Dru wasn’t there, so using her as an excuse as to why I was about to break my soul chain was not going to happen. Quint’s eyes shot right to me the moment my soul stepped out of its temple. It was weird though because he started calling out to me. Last time someone was talking to me, I couldn’t hear anything. I ignored him, my eyes searching within that realm.

As my soul drifted farther away, I felt Quint coming towards me, saying my name again. I continued to ignore him, even when he touched my arm and crouched down in front of me. Oddly again, my soul didn’t shoot back to its temple.

“Jillian, what are you doing?” he asked, then turned my head to face him, “Jillian?”

My chain then snapped, just as I snapped out of my trance. I stared at him with blank eyes.

“You’re cold,” he touched my face, then held my hands, “Jillian, please tell me you didn’t do what I think you just did…”

I didn’t answer.

“Jill-”

“I don’t care,” I quietly said.

He looked away then back at me, “Dammit, Jillian! You should care.”

“Why?” I felt tears fill my eyes, “You didn’t care when you lied to me.”

I saw the pain in his eyes when I said this.

He let go of my hands and dragged his hand through his short hair. “Do your soul song,” he said, looking back at me.

“No, let him take it. Maybe I’ll be with Dru then,” the tear dropped from my eyes.

“Do your soul song,” he demanded, wiping my face from my tears. “I know I lied to you and I’m sorry. But I haven’t been on Xi’s side since I got those guardian stones and believe me, that’s been a while. The last thing I wanted was to hurt you, Jillian. I meant it when I said I’m on your side,” he paused, staring up at me, “Please, do your soul song before it’s too late.”

I moved my arm to feel his touch again, but flinched.

He took my hand asking what was wrong.

“I can feel Xi-”

“Do your soul song now, you’ve already wasted enough time.”

I let my soul song drift through the soul realm and found my soul. Xi was near it and I told Quint what I was seeing.

“Use your powers.”

“I don’t have powers…!”

“Yes, you do. Lesson number whatever- aura blast. Push your energy into your aura. You’re powerful enough to push Xi away long enough to get your soul back to the chain.”

I followed his instructions and pushed those powers he thinks I have into my aura. Sure enough, I watched Xi shoot away and sang my soul song again. My soul shot back into me and I looked over at Quint. The corner of his mouth rose after seeing my eyes come back to life. I dropped my head onto his shoulder, taking in deep breaths.

“What’s going to happen now?” I asked his shoulder.

He held me with his free arm and held my hand with his other. “He’s had a taste of your power now. He’ll be back for more,” he answered quietly. I picked my head off his shoulder and looked at him. He stuck his hand into his pocket and took out my stone, “Do you trust me?” He held my stone out to me.

My lip rose and I took my stone, “I take it Nick’s not a part of this?”

“Only me. I told Nick his mission and he’s sticking with it.”

“What’s going to happen to you?”

“Don’t worry about me. Xi has no control over any of this.”

After the whole thing in AIS, Xi wasn’t in the corners anymore, it was like his plan was spoiled. Didn’t stop one of those weird dreams though. I decided not to put that block up while I slept since I had my guardian stone and I knew how to push Xi away from me now.

During the dream, I could sense Xi throughout the entire thing, as well as another dark entity.