The Awakened Ones

Dee has finally begun to show her true self to me and Sarah. Yeah, the girl hasn’t been pleasant to us since she entered our school, but now it’s just getting ridiculous. She’s taken it to a whole different level. Her being with Xi is starting to look pretty good. Just today, as I walked out of History class, she literally pushed me out of her way then gave me the dirty look. I gave her a look back and apologized to her and continued down the hall to my next class. As I got closer to my classroom, I saw her stop Quint in the hallway to talk to him.

More jealousy filled me. But why was I jealous? This was Dee.

Whenever she got close to him, he’d move away and whenever they actually talked, he never looked her in the eye. Actually- to think about it, Quint never looked anyone in the eye except me. My feet stopped walking and I leaned on the lockers to watch them and wait for Quint. I watched him look away from her, obviously not in the mood to talk to her, but Dee grabbed his chin and turned his face back to her. She whispered something to him and his eyes dropped away from her piercing gaze.

I straightened up from the locker and continued to my class. I was slightly smirking at the realization that Quint only looked me in the eye and wanted nothing to do with Dee. As I walked past them, I noticed Quint look over at me and tell Dee he had to go. She watched him as he left her side. He joined my side a moment later and ignored Dee when she called after him.

“What was that all about?” I asked, looking up at him.

“Nothing,” he answered, glancing down at me.

I guess I pouted then because Quint put his arm around my shoulders, smiling at me.

The rest of the day was nice after I saw them in the hallway. Dee was finally avoiding me and Sarah, and after twelfth period, Quint invited me over.

We sat in the back like the first time I was on his bus and remembered he used his shield to hide us from Xi’s sight. That was one thing I wanted to learn to do. I waited till we got into the house to ask him about his shield.

“That was sort of a gift, if you want to call it that,” he answered, joining me on the couch downstairs. “A friend changed it the way it is now,” he added.

“Which friend is that?” I asked, “Is it the friend who gave you these guardian stones?”

He smiled at me as his answer then turned his attention to the TV after that. I did too, but I was still curious as to who his friend was. After a while, Quint looked back at me. “Jillian, take my hands,” he said, turning his body to me and putting his hands out for me to take them.

I hesitated at first then took his hands. I was then instructed to close my eyes and think of nothing. I kept my eyes on his for a moment then followed. A figure slowly began to form in front of me. The brightness around it began to fade away and a face began to form on the figure.

It was Dru!

My soul called out to her, but it was like she couldn’t hear me.

Her voice entered my head:

It’s time-

“Time for what?” I called out to her.

Time to fight- my friend…

“Dru-!” I called out again.

My eyes shot open and the only person I saw in front of me now was Quint.

“You okay?” he asked.

“I saw Dru… But she couldn’t hear me…”

“Partly my fault. You were channeling through me to see her.”

“She spoke to me though. She said it’s time to fight.”

“Maybe she’s right. The only way to defeat Xi is to fight him. We’re not training to just sit around anymore.”

“But fighting Xi won’t change anything. Even if we win, Sarah and I will still be looked at for our powers by another soul and Dru still won’t be here with us.”

“Do you want to feel as if you’re going to be attacked everyday by Xi?”

“But how do we know if we’re strong enough?”

“You are strong enough. Your power is still harbored within you. Put a little faith in yourself, Jill, and this fight will be a piece of cake.”

I let his words sink in –he was right. In order to feel safe again and have my life back to normal, we needed Xi gone. “How?” I asked.

“We’ll have to lure him.”

Quint explained that we would meet in the park down the road from the school and set it up that we would practice our new fighting skills. We would let Xi sense our powers and when he appears we will surprise him and begin the fight. Of course I was nervous about the plan, but we needed to do this.

I mean, even Dru said it was time.

The next day in school, I finally got a chance to sit with Sarah in the cafeteria before the advisory bell. After how long? She was totally for the idea of luring Xi. She said we are strong enough to fight and that when Xi does appear we’d kick his ass like we had been fighting like this for years. I laughed at her, but maybe she’s right. Maybe Quint was right… Still though… I had an uneasy feeling about this.

In History class I decided to take a nap. After reading pages in our History textbook the substitute assigned us to do, I dropped my head to my desk and closed my eyes. Once my eyes closed, I had a vision. It was nothing like my dreams… this was more like a premonition. A prediction of this fight with Xi.

I was at the park, staring off into the woods, then turned around. On the ground, I saw Sarah and Nick dead. I went to their bodies and knelt down to them. I heard nothing, but me in my vision did because I swung around to what it was. There I saw Quint fighting a dark figure. As I ran to him, he fell…

I tried to force myself awake during the vision. I didn’t want to see it anymore. Just as Quint was struck, it was then that my eyes shot open. Me agreeing to “luring” Xi tomorrow after school was not going to happen. If that vision was true, it didn’t look like we were going to win.

After class I walked out of the room and met up with Quint. He put his arm around my shoulders like he always did and greeted me. I quietly said hello back, still freaked out by that vision. Quint noticed my tone and asked what was wrong.

I looked up at him, “Something’s going to happen during this fight. Something bad.”

He laughed, “Nothing’s going to happen. We’re going to fight and win.”

“No, it’s not going to be easy. Quint-!” I slipped out from his arm and faced him.

He looked over at me, seeing the fear in my eyes. “How do you know this?”

“I saw it last period. A vision of the fight. Something’s going to happen to all of us, including you.” I walked forward and wrapped my arms around him.

Quint’s arms wrapped around me and rest his cheek on my head. “Nothing will happen to me, I promise,” he said, then hugged me tighter, “to you either.” He pulled away to cup my cheeks and smiled at me. He kissed my forehead after that.

After that, I had to admit, I felt a lot better.

Later that day, Quint and I met up after gym class and he walked with me to my locker. As we walked, he apologized for that Brooke girl harassing me at lunch the other day.

“Brooke had no right to do that,” he said, then added, “If I wanted to ask you to go out with me, I would. But right now, my feelings for you are already screwing up my fight mode and I think you understand.”

“So are you saying after this whole Xi thing, you’ll-” I said, a small smirk appearing at the corner of my mouth.

“Yeah, but I’m not going to ask,” he teased, “You’ll just have to remember that once Xi’s gone you’ll be my girlfriend.” He smirked at me, making my stomach flutter with butterflies.

We headed to the buses after that and left each other’s side for the day.