The Surge

We settled on the couch and started watching a movie, but I wasn't really paying attention as I felt a strange tingling, slightly painful sensation in my head. It got progressively worse as the movie went on and finally I couldn't take it anymore. I got up and walked over to the sink to get a glass of water and then the pain burst out and through my body. I collapsed on the floor and hugged my knees to my chest as I heard Dexter get up and rush over from the couch to see what happened. "Legacy! Legacy, are you ok? Can you hear me?" But I was so focused on myself that his voice started to fade away.

Dexter POV

I saw legacy on the ground and I panicked, I picked her up and took her into my bedroom and laid her down on my bed. I went back out to the lounge, grabbed my phone and called Saracen. "Hey Dexter, what's up?" He asked in a casual voice, but I had no time for that. I needed to know something and since he claimed that his power was that he 'knew' things, he had to know what was going on with Legacy. "Legacy just collapsed and I don't know what's happening, can you use your thing and tell me please?"

Saracen recognised the serious tone in my voice and respected it in his reply. "She's going through the surge. Wait, how old is she? I thought she was too young to be going through the surge…" his voice trailed off in thought and I listened intently. "Look Dexter, you should call Ghastly and tell him what's happened. I know it could be awkward but you need to do it. It's never a good sign when people go through their surges early. They have either had something really traumatic happen to them recently or their power is so strong that they can't not develop it and let it out."

I agreed and hung up the phone, calling Ghastly. "Hi Vex, what do you want?" He asked when he answered the phone, probably not very happy with me as only a couple of hours ago he had found out that I was with Legacy. "Legacy's going through the surge; you'd better get to my place." Ghastly hung up straight away, and I knew that meant he was on his way.

After Ghastly got here with Tanith, we all waited. All we could do was wait until Legacy woke up. I went in to check on her every five minutes or so because I couldn't bear not to see if she was ok. I knelt down by the side of my bed and brushed her hair out of her face. I noticed that her skin had a lot less blemishes on it being almost completely smooth. It wasn't like that before. I had heard that the surge could change your appearance a bit and sometimes even your personality but it hardly ever happened. I had never in my hundreds of years alive, ever met someone who had such a thing happen to them, but the Sanctuary has documentation on it so I guess it has to be true, (not that I would completely trust everything that the say/write/document).

Legacy stirred and moved from the position she had been laid in four hours ago when I had picked her up from the kitchen floor and brought her in here. That meant she was waking up, and that it was over. I was so glad that it was over. She moved closer to me at the edge of the bed and whispered my name. "Dex." She said, her voice sounded a little softer than before, and her hands that reached for me were cold. "Legacy, can you open your eyes for me?" I asked, hoping to see that she was ok, wanting to see reassurance in her eyes that she hadn't changed. I liked her just the way she was. I loved her just the way she was.

Legacy POV/ Golden light and swirling emotions

I opened my eyes to see that Dexter was sitting in front of me, but he was sideways. Then I realised that I was lying down so I sat up, fast. Too fast in fact, because my head rushed with dizziness and I had to grab hold of his arms which were hovering around me as if he thought I would fall and break, so that I could steady myself. I felt a tingling sensation all over my body and had the sudden urge to look in a mirror. I felt relief flood through me, but what was I relieved about? I looked up at Dexter and found that the look on his face perfectly described the relief that I was feeling. That was curious.

I went to stand but instead was swept off my feet by Dexter who was so happy to see that I was ok, that he was hugging me. I started to feel happy too laughing along with Dexter, but didn't know why as being swung around was making me dizzy and disorientated. Then I felt a presence enter the room, then another. Dexter put me down and sat me back on the bed when he had realised what he had done and looked at me with concern. I could feel his concern radiating off him like a heater.

When my eyesight could focus once again I looked up at him and smiled when I saw what I could only think to be his aura. It swirled around him in golden hues and was mired by blue and red. I wondered what the colours meant as I stared avidly at them. They moved around his body in random waves and swirls that were too pretty not to look at. Then I saw a hand wave in front of my face and the aura was gone. I look up to see Tanith staring at me as though she had asked me a question and was awaiting the answer.

"Pardon?" I said, as I was still staring at the space on Dexter's body where the aura had been. "I asked you if you were okay Grace. Are you?" She asked again and I contemplated my answer. I felt different, in some way, disconnected and disorientated but I still felt like me. I still loved Dexter and I still missed my parents and hated Sanguine. The most troubling thing about the change I felt in myself was that all of my emotions were less conscious than the one's I could feel emulating off of the others in the room.

Ghastly was feeling worried and guilty. Tanith was feeling annoyed and worried about me and Dexter was really, really happy, relieved and a little bit sexually aroused and that last one confused me but I also found it amusing. I could feel all of their feelings and they over shadowed my own, I couldn't concentrate. I put my head in my hands trying to build a wall in my mind to keep them out but I couldn't.

The feelings all suddenly changed to extremely nervous and I looked up to see why and realised that I was glowing a golden colour that looked similar to that of Dexter's aura before. I stood and couldn't feel my feet on the ground. I tried to move forward and couldn't. I was stuck to the ground, unable to move at all. I wondered what was happening to me but before I could even think about how I could find that out, my mind went blank.

Dexter POV / She changed and then she left

She glowed. She actually glowed a beautiful golden colour that coiled around her body. The surge had made her into something else. All of a sudden her eyes closed and she slumped over a bit. The golden swirls surrounding her seemed to hold her up as if they had a mind of their own. After a few minutes of staring in awe, I finally snapped out of it. I moved forward and tried to reach out to Legacy, to pull her out from the madness that surrounded her. "Legacy, what's happening? Are you ok?" I asked.

I was pushed back forcefully by a tendril of golden light that emanated from Legacy. I looked up at her, hurt by her rejection but noticed that she had never responded to my questions. She was unconscious and wasn't moving. I looked over at Tanith and Ghastly to see that Ghastly was on his phone, calling who I don't know but it seemed that he would be gathering reinforcements. Tanith however, had a different approach to handling the situation. She had her sword out and was in a battle stance. I walked warily around Legacy and over to the door. "Tanith put your sword away, now." I growled. I would not let anything happen to Legacy, even if she was in this state.

We left the room and went into the lounge to see that Valkyrie and Skulduggery were here and looked concerned and curious. "Can I see her please?" asked Skulduggery, in his smooth velvety voice. It had stayed the same when he became a skeleton all those years ago. I nodded curtly and moved from in the hall door way and they both moved forward and into my room, Valkyrie smiled at me as she passed. I had always liked her, she was fun, sarcastic and always seemed to bring the soft side of Skulduggery out and nobody had seen that since his wife and child had been alive more than three hundred years hasn't forgiven China for killing them but that was understandable. I wouldn't forgive anyone who killed the people I loved either. My thoughts returned to that of Legacy and I wished that she was alright. I didn't know what I could do to help her and I hated feeling useless. I was a soldier and I was used to fighting to save people's lives but now, when Legacy was fighting for hers, I could do nothing. I hated myself for being able to do nothing.

About an hour had passed and Valkyrie and Skulduggery were still in with Legacy. I was starting to get annoyed that they were taking so long when I heard a crash and a scream. I ran to my room and I could hear Ghastly and Tanith following me down the hall. I opened the door with a bang and stormed in to find that Valkyrie was sitting on the ground next to Legacy who was now lying down as if she had fallen, the golden coils gone. I saw Skulduggery had shifted in the corner of the room and I turned to look at my friend. His forever smiling skull tilted itself to the side in contemplation.

"She has to learn how to control her new magic. She is a powerful sensitive, with magic that is very rare. She is an empath, which is a type of sensitive who can feel what other people can feel and I think her magic was protecting her because she had a rush of different emotions pressed onto her with no way of how to deal with it. She needs to go to Cassandra and learn how to use them and control them. Valkyrie and I will take her now, if you don't mind." He said firmly and as if he wasn't asking for permission. I understood that she was dangerous if she didn't learn to control her powers but I didn't want to let her out of my sight, my protective instincts kicking in.

I went to speak but I was cut off by Ghastly. "Is she ok though? Will she go back to the way she was before?" Valkyrie spoke next. "She will never be the exact same because being affected by everyone else's emotions all the time will make her different and less emotional herself. She will be unstable until she learns how to control her powers. I know from experience that having that much power makes you drunk with it. You get out of hand and that can be bad. She needs to have no distractions while she learns to deal with this." She looked pointedly at me when she said the last part, knowing of our relationship somehow. But then again, they were detectives so I shouldn't be surprised by this. They left in a hurry and I only got a few minutes alone with Legacy before she left.

"I love you, Legacy. Come back to me when you're better, ok?" I whispered into her ear and hugged her tightly. I kissed her forehead and let Skulduggery take her out of my arms and carry her to the Bentley that was parked outside the apartment building ten stories down. After they had left, I sat on the couch, with my head in my hands. She was gone, and I had no idea when she would be back. I missed her already.