Chapter Thirty-Four
Memories of my own life begin flowing through me, some recent and some from long ago. The next one that slows down enough for me to see it completely is a recent one.
I open my eyes and I'm shocked to see the obstacle course in my paradise. Then, I look closer and a light smile comes to my lips. The course is made to train the animals I've been changing into. There's a level above for flying animals, one really small for animals like rats and snakes and rabbits, and another two or three levels for the larger animals.
Deciding that this will be the perfect practice, I turn into a hawk, the first bird I had changed into originally. It's best to use an animal that's similar to my normal form, meaning one with wings.
Taking to the air, I get used to being small and having smaller wings for a bit. Once I feel I'm ready to get going, I start flying in and out of hoops, up and down in rolling hills through hoops, zigzagging between poles that are pretty close together. Then I start flying up high and adding in steep dives that I pull out of at just the right moment so that my talons are gliding over the grass.
Finally, I slip out of hawk form and into snake form. I spend a couple of minutes trying to move forward, but I just can't figure out how to move in this form. Hissing in frustration, I stop moving, close my eyes, and try to remember what Victoria once said about snakes.
Unable to remember how they move, I try to let my instincts take over me so that I can learn. Once my mind stops thinking and lets the snake into it, I begin slowly moving side-to-side. By letting the snake take over, my body adjusts to the movements of a snake and quickly picks them up.
Letting my mind come to the front of it again, I just follow the movements my body is using. While that happens, I adjust in my own mind to how I'm supposed to move in this form.
When I'm finally used to it, I go towards the obstacle course right near the ground. Slithering around the poles, moving up some hills and through underground-tunnels, and lifting myself up off the ground so that I can get through lifted hoops, I adjust completely to my snake form. By the time I've run the course twice, I don't even have to think to do anything in this form; I can just do it.
Changing from the snake to a rat, I begin getting used to the idea of being short and with a long tail. I run the same course as the snake, getting used to being a rat much faster than a snake as a rat runs on four legs just like a wolf or a cougar, though it is different.
After the rat, I turn into a bear so that I can get used to having the extra weight on. After that, I train with my monkey form, which is a lot of fun as I'm very agile, light, and moveable; plus, it's just plain fun.
Once the monkey is trained, I move onto my fox form. After I'm done with the fox, I quickly start changing just so that I'm used to my other animals: Housecat, dog, horse, owl, raven, tiger, cheetah, rabbit (which I actually need to train a little with), and lynx.
When I'm finally done training all of them, I start to have some fun.
I start out as a wolf, begin the course for an animal that's larger and on the ground, and suddenly change into a lion in the middle of an obstacle. I finish the course and start it again as a lynx, switching into a cheetah and then a cougar at different parts of it. Then I do it again with the bear, monkey, and horse. I go a final time starting as a dog and then switching to a tiger before suddenly becoming an owl and flying up to that course.
I do the aerial course, switching between my owl, raven, and hawk forms for a while before suddenly diving as a hawk and switching into a rat just as I reach the ground, doing the smaller course. I do that course as a snake, fox, housecat, and rat before going into my avian-hybrid form and doing the larger ground course and then switching into the aerial one.
By the time I'm about to wake up, I'm smiling, breathing a bit heavily, and I've had so much fun.
That's how you train to use different animals.
Smiling as I remember that night, my mind tells me I'm switching between every animal I can become before finally ending in my normal form. Knowing that I can still shape-shift while in this tank is something that relaxes me slightly. Unfortunately, I tense up again as I realize what the next memory is.
I wake up slowly in my shape of a ball, my body curled in as tightly as I can make it, from my normal nightmare again. Looking around, I make no move to uncurl myself or sit up, knowing that I'll just hit myself on either the top of the cage or the bars of it if I move more than just slightly.
Chains covered in dried blood are hanging from the wall to my right, and I take in the scent that has become one of the only things I ever smell now. At first, the smell of blood that old, in that amount, and never leaving had made me sick over and over. In fact, I can still smell my own sick from the first two weeks or so I had been in here, about five months later.
My stomach growls lightly, exactly as I was expecting it to. Whenever I first wake up, my stomach forgets that it isn't supposed to be hungry until half an hour later. After that amount of time, the hunger pains go away and my stomach stops growling. I had learned long ago that I have to live with food only once a week, and very little of it at that; usually it's stale bread and a half-full bottle of water.
A dry throat makes itself known now, adding to the pains from my stomach. I've given up trying to fight the dryness of my throat, knowing nothing would make it go away except liquids.
Closing my eyes as my vision starts to spin from lack of food and water, I take in deep breaths, trying to use air to replace the missing nutrients that keep a person alive. When my dizzy spell is over, I ease my breathing and open my eyes again, looking around the room.
Slowly moving one leg, I feel the grime covering my body from months of no baths, the slime that had already been on the cage, and the dust that develops in this room. Sighing, I bring my leg back up to my chest and slowly move both of my arms, stretching them out between the bars of the cage, after they're at my chest again, I stretch out my other leg.
Done stretching for the day, I close my eyes and do the one thing I can actually do: Sleep.
Just before falling asleep, I think about my sister and friends. A single tear escapes my closed eyes as I let my sadness and loss overcome me, lulling me to sleep.
I cry for the terrible life I've had, that room being one of the worst parts of it. The starvation had almost killed me, and no one cared enough to stop it. My nightmares take place in that room more than any other room that I've ever been in. That one room is going to haunt me for the rest of my life.
I sigh through my tears as the next memory is a kinder one.
Opening my eyes alone in my paradise, I slip into the lake and begin swimming. It's very boring in my paradise alone, so I usually swim in it when I can.
Holding my breath, I duck under the water and go as far down as I can, trying to reach the bottom of the lake. Sadly, just as I finally catch sight of the bottom of the deepest part of the lake, I feel my lungs begin to burn and I have to kick up to the surface.
Taking in deep breaths, I groan internally, wishing there was a way for me to get to the bottom without using my ability to manipulate my paradise.
Closing my eyes while floating on top of the water, I feel the sun on my body. Thinking about my wish to be able to reach the bottom, I think about my force field. My eyes snap open as I realize what I might be able to do.
Concentrating as hard as I can, I try to make my force field appear around only my nose and mouth. After a good bit of time and work, it finally happens. In fact, it took so long that, by the time I finally had it, the sky was changing colors. Giving it up for tonight, I let myself wake up.
The next night when I appear in my paradise, I immediately make my force field around my nose and mouth. Once that's done, I work on trying to make two force fields at once. I want to be able to have one around my nose and mouth while I have another around my eyes, but I don't want my entire face covered in a force field. Plus, being able to cover certain parts of my body would be useful in the future.
It takes me another three nights before I'm able to hold two force fields for any good length of time, but it finally happens. Instead of doing what I had originally planned, I spend another two weeks making it so that I can make five force fields appear at random parts of my body with just a thought, all of them appearing in one breath.
With that finally done, I make a single force field around my nose and mouth before finally beginning my original plan. For the next month, I spend all of my nights working on making it so that my force field will take water and leave out the hydrogen molecules, leaving only the oxygen ones; I had learned the terms from the scientists.
When I finally get it, I put a normal force field around my eyes and my special one around my nose and mouth. Ducking underwater, I smile as I can breathe and see easily for the first time.
Swimming down deep into the lake, I finally reach the bottom, breathing the air my force field is providing. Once I'm down there, I begin walking along the bottom, just enjoying the fact that I've finally succeeding in a task I've been working on for almost two months; that sort of accomplishment just gives a person a sweet feeling.
The last thought as I realize I'm waking up is that this is going to be so much fun to use at the next shared dream.
I feel my pride come back as I remember how hard I had worked to succeed at that and finally done it. It had been tough, but I never gave in. Of course, the next time I shared a dream with the others had been hilarious.
Snickering lightly, I push Erik into the lake. He turns to glare at me, but I just smile innocently at him. To my surprise, Erik suddenly smiles and nods. The next thing I know, I'm in the water and glaring up at Kyle, who had just pushed me into the lake.
I feel a pull on my leg and look down just in time for Erik to pull me under the water and further out into the lake. Smirking evilly, I decide to get revenge as Erik lets go and kicks up to the surface.
Making my force fields, which I haven't had the chance to tell the others about as we've only been here for an hour or so, I swim deeper into the lake and out of view unless they actually know where to find me. Once I'm in place, I wait, watching the surface to see when someone is in my view.
After about five minutes of waiting, I see Kyle swimming above me, his own force field covering his eyes so that he can see more clearly.
Seeing that sight, my eyes widen in shock. I had forgotten I'm not the only one with the ability to use force fields. That means I might be able to teach Kyle how to make his own special so that he can breathe underwater, but first…
An evil smile on my face, I wait until he's far away from me and then swim after him, using my ability to manipulate my paradise to move faster through the water. Coming up behind him, I grab both of his ankles and pull him deeper into the lake. Kyle spins around, sees me, and his eyes widen in surprise and shock.
I put one of my hands over his mouth and form a force field that will allow him to breathe still over it. While I may not be able to hold the force field unless I'm really close to his mouth, it will at least allow him to breathe; it's the best I can give him for now.
My power over my paradise drags us deeper into the lake until I say we're far enough and put both of my arms around his neck, actually scaring him for a moment before he realizes I'm doing it so that we have a force field that surrounds both of our heads so that we can still breathe as well as talk.
"What in the world is this?" Kyle demands once he figures out that I can hear him.
"I've been playing around with the force field," I inform him gesturing to the one around us with my head as I talk. "This will allow anyone with it on to breathe underwater."
"How the hell did you actually get it to work like this?" Kyle is looking at the slightly shining force field around us, which is more visible to anyone with the power than to someone without it.
"Almost two months of work to make multiple force fields and this type of shield. This one alone took at least a month to perfect." I smile a smile that shows a bit of pride in it, as this shield was a really hard one to make.
"Wow," he whispers in awe. "How exactly did you make it do this?"
"Concentrate on making your force field let only oxygen in, not the water, instead of nothing," I tell him, giving him the only advice I can. "Otherwise, you have to figure this out on your own, sadly. We think differently, so getting it to work will be different for the two of us."
Kyle nods in understanding. "It makes sense. Well… why don't we go freak everyone out?" I match Kyle's mischievous look with one of my own.
"Let's," I agree before putting one hand over his mouth and making a force field there before recreating the ones around my eyes and my nose and mouth.
Keeping my hand on his mouth, I let go of him and use the water to push us up towards the surface and where Erik is. Sharing a smirk with Kyle, we each reach out and grasp an ankle each, pulling him down under the water. My paradise pushes us deeper, and Erik has already managed to look down at us and glare for a moment before he notices the force fields I'm holding up for us and stares in shock and surprise.
I eventually push all three of us up and drop all three of the force fields, moving my hand away from Kyle's mouth.
Snickering, Kyle and I just enjoy the look on Erik's face, knowing that in the future, when Kyle learns how to do it, we're going to have a bunch more fun with this way to use our power.
I snicker in the tank as I remember the look on Erik's face. More memories of Kyle and I using that part of our force fields zoom through my head, though none as funny as that one. The first time is always the best, though Kyle and I had truly figured out some great ways to use that and scare or surprise the others.
Thinking of funny situations, another from when I was really young comes back to me.
"Hey, Erika," Alexa whispers into my ear softly, trying not to be heard by anyone, "can you put all of us into one cage and leave it like that until a scientist comes in and sees us?"
Turning to face my older sister, I see that while her face is completely relaxed as if she hadn't just asked me that, her eyes are shining mischievously. I smile innocently and tip my head forward ever so slightly so that she knows I'll do it. Grabbing onto my shoulder, Alexa speaks.
"Hey, guys," she calls out to the others, getting their attention. "Erika is going to move us all into one cage so that the scientists will come in confused when they bring us lunch in about ten minutes."
"Nice one!" Kyle calls while rolling on the floor of his cage laughing.
"I have to agree," Jen says through her own laughter.
"Me too," Brandon and Shawn agree through light chuckles.
With agreement from everyone else, I concentrate on Brandon's cage and appear there. He grasps my other shoulder and I take us to Shawn's cage as he's the only other one somewhat calm. Shawn puts his hand on my arm and holds it a bit tightly.
Going to Jen's cage, the four of us wait until she's calm enough to grab my left arm, the one Shawn hadn't grabbed before. We finally end up in Kyle's cage, where Kyle is still chuckling lightly.
Everyone lets go of me, and we all find a spot in the medium-sized cage. It's a bit cramped, but in the end, I'm leaning against Alexa, who's sitting beside Brandon. Jen and Shawn are sitting with Jen in front of Shawn while Shawn leans against the bars. Kyle is leaning on a bar between the two groups.
By the time the scientist comes in with lunch, we're all laughing at something Kyle had said. The look on the scientist's face when he sees us all in one cage just makes us all laugh even harder.
That had been a really good day. I'm laughing my head off in the tank as I remember all of that. Other funny memories from that time of my life using my teleportation come back, including my kicking Kyle again. Once those are done flashing through my mind, another memory that's funny now but wasn't when it happened comes back.
"Hey!" Erik exclaims when he sees what's on the lunch tray for today. "They've given us at least three dozen cookies today!"
"Oh man," I groan under my breath to Victoria. "Please, help me keep him away from those things."
"Sure," she whispers back, her face worried as, even though she hasn't been here when we have cookies in this place, she can tell that Erik and sugar will not mix.
I hurry over to his side of the cage where the food is and take the box of cookies from him. He turns to grab them from me and I throw them to Victoria, who catches them and puts them behind her.
"Give me those!" Erik yells as he shoots himself towards Victoria, who screams and throws them back to me.
"Only after you eat the rest of the meal, and if you make sure to share," I tell him as he spins around but doesn't launch himself at me for some reason.
"Fine," he groans he realizes he won't win this round with two of us in the cage.
Nodding, I teleport into the farthest cage, my old one, and leave the cookie tin in there before teleporting back into the shared cage to eat lunch. When we're all finished, Erik turns to me with an expectant look on his face.
Sighing sadly, I teleport back to the cookies and pull out nine, three for each of us. Teleporting back, I hand Victoria hers and then Erik his.
"Three?" he exclaims. "I want more than three!"
"Erik," I groan. "You have to remember what happened last time you had more than three cookies."
"Nope," he replies after thinking about it for less than a second.
"Ugh…" I groan before going back and getting him three more. "There; that's all you're getting."
Erik quickly eats all six of his cookies while Victoria and I eat three each. Even though he has double the amount the two of us do, he's done before either of us.
"Can I have another one?" Victoria asks me softly. I nod and teleport to the cookies again, but this time, Erik grabs onto my shirt and comes with me, grabbing the tin before I can and only throwing me two before devouring the rest.
I stare at him in shock, and I can see Victoria doing the same from the other cage, as he eats every single crumb in the tin. Shaking myself out of it, I teleport back to Victoria before Erik can grab onto me again. With that many cookies in his system, we're going to need to have that distance between us.
As we both eat our last cookies, Erik's sugar rush kicks in and he starts talking without even taking a breath. When he realizes we're not going to bring him back to the cage or talk to him, he starts moving all over the cage he's in. We both have to hold in snickers as we watch him doing push-up and sit-ups in his cage before sitting on his knees and practicing punching against the bar of the cage.
He continues to do these sorts of things for the next hour or so before the crash suddenly hits and he collapses, falling asleep without any warning whatsoever.
"That's why you wanted me to help you keep the cookies away, isn't it?" Victoria asks, speaking for the first time since Erik had eaten the cookies, as she stares at his sleeping form.
"That's the reason," I agree before teleporting and bringing him back into our cage so that he can sleep.
Turning to her, we both sign the exact same thing at the exact same moment. We are never letting him near the cookies again.
We had never let him touch cookies again. I actually remember telling the scientists to never bring them again, and they didn't. It was the biggest relief for Victoria and I not to have to deal with Erik and sugar; cookies are the worst when it comes to sugar with Erik, though.
Still, thinking back on it, I can see the humor in the memory, though I hadn't felt like laughing at all back then.
Suddenly, I begin to relax as another memory takes me over.
Erik, Victoria, and I are led into the arena we fight Erasers in, but this time there are no Erasers or anything else to fight. For the first time ever, the scientists are letting us just fly around.
The scientists turn us loose, and Victoria and I unfurl our wings in moments. This is the first time I've gotten to fly since those two days with the Erasers, and I need to make sure my wings aren't stiff of anything.
Pushing off from the ground, Victoria and I fly in small circles, making them larger as we go, until all of us are sure that I'll be fine. Once that's made certain, I fly down and pick Erik up under the armpits with my arms and fly up again, a bit slower with the extra weight.
A smile comes to my face as the three of us fly over the plains, the tall grass, the lake, and the trees. We all circle around the arena, just enjoying the chance for Victoria and me to spread our wings and fly.
This is one of the few moments the three of us really get to feel at peace in this place. More importantly, it's my first chance to relax in months.
I've never been more peaceful than that except in the air and in my paradise. It was one of the most relaxing days of my life, so remembering it brings back that feeling.
More memories flow through my mind for a long time before I suddenly come to the last memory, one of my most precious.
It's been a week since the last shared dream in my paradise with the others, and Erik, Victoria, and I are about to fall asleep. For some odd reason, I just feel like we're going to share the dream again, but I don't know why.
Either way, when I wake up on my back in my paradise, I'm not surprised. Sitting up quickly, I see that the others are all rubbing their eyes while I just stand up and walk over to Alexa and Victoria, who are sitting up side-by-side. Offering a hand to each of them, I pull them up.
"Is this real?" Alexa asks me, knowing I'm probably the best person to ask.
"Yup," I reply while nodding. "Whenever it's just a normal dream, I don't come here on my back; I'm always standing when I'm alone."
"Sweet!" Kyle calls as she jumps onto his feet, his wings unfurling through his shirt.
"For once, I have to agree with Kyle," Shawn says calmly as he slowly stands up before helping Jen stand while Alexa helps Brandon and Victoria helps Erik.
"I can't believe this is real," Alexa whispers to me as she hugs me tightly, all of us happy and relieved to see each other again.
"Me neither, but it is," I reply, a smile on my face that hasn't been seen in a week.
As we let go, everyone unfurls their wings and takes off into the air, Shawn carrying Erik. We all head to the lake in the distance, smiles on our faces.
Flying in my paradise surrounded by my family, I realize that this is the best day of my life.
That moment in my life is still the best of my life so far. Nothing in my life since then has ever beaten realizing that the eight of us would get to see one another through dreams no matter how far away we are.
Remembering all of my life, of my family's lives, makes me realize that no matter how hard life has been, we've always come out on top of it.
Realizing that makes me sigh deeply, close my eyes, and relax so much that I can actually feel myself fall asleep for the first time, though I know I must have slept sometime during all of those memories.
Nothing these scientists throw at me will beat me; I always beat them. If I need to realize that and relax to beat this test, then I will.
Sleep claims me, and for the first time, I realize it, giving myself willing to it.
Well... Memories are done, I've got maybe a page and a half of the next chapter done, and I'm going to try and write the rest of it today. Including this in progress chapter, I think I have 2-4 more chapters to write and then you all will just get post after post after post. Once I finally get those few chapters done, the finish line is in sight and I'll be sprinting to it (Sorry, cycling reference... The Tour de France just ended like half an hour ago and I still can't believe it's done).
Please, let me know what you think of all the memories. Which ones were your favorites? Are there any that stood out to you? Let me know, please. :)
Posted: 7/25/10 (The last day of the 2010 Tour de France.)