The Difference
Chapter 8
Logical Problems
(Marco)
Knock knock knock!
... No answer.
Knock knock knock!
Marco, just relax, said Tobias. She's getting up. Sarah, it's Marco. You better get moving. There was a pause, then Tobias laughed. I'd be stringy, just to spite you. Several thuds and one loud curse - at least it sounded like a curse- later, the front door opened. Sarah blinked at me with bleary eyes and wrinkled her nose.
"Do you have any idea what time it is?" she asked.
"Apparently way too early," I retorted. "Even though it's 11 am."
"Shanka caei," she muttered. "It is still too early, but what do you want?" This was the hard part. At the risk of sounding like I was losing my mind, I still had to ask her. She knew the three that we had had the pleasure of meeting the week before and I had some questions about two of them.
"It's about two of the girls from last week," I said, choosing my words carefully. "The ones that weren't there and then... were." She held up her hand and sighed.
"All right, I see where this going. You want to know where they came from?" I shook my head. Not quite...
"No, they were there the whole time. I could see them... sort of. It was weird but... they were there." She was silent a moment, then narrowed her eyes at me.
"Nakeita nui...?" She chewed her lip in thought. "Marco, come inside please. There is something... I want to try, first, before I answer your question." My paranoid instinct went off a little - we still weren't entirely sure she wasn't a Controller. But she gave me a pleading look, like it was the most important thing in the world to her and I caved. It was hard to refuse a pretty girl and Sarah was definitely pretty. As I walked into the house, she stepped back to give me room and motioned to the basement. "I am not sure if my... parents are home, so the basement would be the best place. Let me put some clothes on and I will meet you down there." I waited until she disappeared into her bedroom before laughing. She had no idea how that had sounded, she couldn't have, or she wouldn't have said it. It gave the impression that she had answered the door without clothes on, but she had, in fact, been wearing a nice little red nightie thing. Okay, so I liked Sarah. Not as much as I liked seeing her in the red nightie, but I liked her a lot, more then a friend... most of the time. Sometimes she was just plain scary and other times she was really... irritating.
She emerged from her room in black pants and black shirt, carrying a brush and a hair band in one hand. As I followed her down the stairs, she pulled her hair up and tied it tightly. The only other person with so much hair was Rachel and hers wasn't half as thick as Sarah's.
"Sit somewhere," she instructed when we reached the floor. It was a nice, finished basement, with several couches, chairs, beanbags, small tables, and pillows strewn about, with candles on pretty much every table. It would have been a great place to hold the meetings, if Ax wasn't an Andalite, Tobias wasn't a bird, and Sarah's foster parents weren't Controllers. Still, a nice place, albeit a little stuffy...
I chose the middle of a dark green couch while Sarah looked around and finally found a footstool to drag over. It was a large maroon thing that looked like it had seen better days, but was somehow still holding itself together. She pushed it to right in front of me and turned it sideways, straddling it and looking me over again.
"Give me your..." She thought a moment and held out her hands in front of her. "Um... right hand. I think that is what it is called. This one," she said, holding up her left hand. I didn't say anything, it was too easy, but held out my left hand to her. "Veraha," she said absently. I took that as a kind of thank you. "All right, two things. One, what those two - they are called Emily and Sadie, by the way - what they did is called Casting. It is a power that they use to control and manipulate the four elements of the planet. I have small amount of ability, not very much, and I used all of it last week to try and hold back the fog they created." She shook her head. "I did not last long enough. But, that is beside the point. Now... let us hope I have gotten enough energy back to do this..." She spread her hands and held them about a quarter of an inch from my one hand that I was still holding above the footstool. Not quite touching, but not too far away either.
I looked up from our hands and accidentally locked eyes with her. I don't think I've ever seen anything quite like what I saw that day - her eyes just drew me in and I was drowning without even moving. Then I heard a gasp and a thud and my vision cleared to find Sarah laying on the ground with the footstool toppled over beside her.
"Sarah?" My voice was raw and my throat dry for some reason and when I tried to stand, my legs were weak. "Are you all right?" She was silent as I knelt over her and touched her shoulder. I felt a... a... shock, of some kind, race through me and down my arm to Sarah. My sight blurred and I felt the rush of a major headache that hit me like a baseball bat to the head. I had to catch myself on my hands to keep from falling on top of Sarah as she gave a faint groan and brought her hand to her temple. A scar on the back of her wrist was a bright white, almost glowing, as she massaged her forehead with a look of pain.
"Not enough strength to do it right, but it was done," she muttered. A scar... she shouldn't have had a scar! Every wound and every injury was morphed off in battle, no scars, no marks, nothing.
"What... what are you?" I asked, backing up on my knees. "You're not Sarah!" She struggled into a sitting position and rested her head between her knees.
"Wow... I wasn't warned about that when they taught us how to test..." She looked at me out of the corner of her eye and frowned. "No, I'm not Sarah... well, not the same Sarah, anyway." She stretched her legs out, but kept her head down, her ponytail falling over her shoulder and obscuring her face slightly. "The other Sarah is... gone. I don't know where, but I had nothing to do with it. I only arrived in this dimension last week. Ugh." She heaved a sigh as I sat in a stunned silence. Another... dimension? What kind of crap was she trying to feed me?! I wasn't stupid! "Look, all right, I know it's hard to believe, but it's true. That day, last week, when you all thought I was acting weird, I wasn't. I was scared and lost but... I am not anymore. I will tell you more later, but it is not important right now. Okay." She staggered to her feet and tossed the ponytail over her shoulder. "Before I explain, there is something you need to understand, Marco - you have something inside of you right now, a... a power. Like this." She held up her hand and, without touching it, drew it across the table and up into her hand. Then, to add to it, she tapped the wick with her index finger and I watched, stunned, as a flame sprouted up, flickered, then died when she snapped her fingers. "Now, given, I should not have done that because I am still kind of weak, but..." She narrowed those blue eyes at me and frowned. "This will be bad if Emily and the others hear of it. Now, we have established you can Cast - the next step is to get you grounded before you lash out and really do some damage." I was trying not to look confused, but she was throwing new things at me - Cast? Grounded? - while I was still trying to figure out the candle thing. And what had happened before that. And how it was possible for me to go from asking a simple question to watching Sarah lift and light a candle without the use of any tool.
"Can I... ask a question?" I ventured. She nodded empathetically.
"Ask any questions you have," she replied. "I am the one who discovered you can Cast, so it is my duty to teach you the basics, since I can not haul you off to the Academy... unfortunately."
"Uh, right. Can you do me a favor and start at the beginning? And this time explain everything in idiot's terms? Please?" She blinked, then laughed.
"Kai desdeh," she grinned. "I always jump ahead and assume everyone else knows what I am talking about. What is the phrase Trainer Rosette uses? Shooting my mouth off? Yes, I do that a lot."
Hey, are you still alive in there? I knew Tobias was joking, but it was tempting to answer 'no'. I certainly felt like I had died and gone... elsewhere. Somewhere with a twisted and warped reality. Me? Do what she had done with the candle? Not in a million years...
Sarah must have answered the bird-boy, because he answered back with,'
Marco can what?! Tell me you're joking. Pause, in which Sarah frowned, then made a face. All right, all right, yeah, I know a place. How long are you going to take? Pause again. Okay. I'll be waiting. And Marco, you're really stepped in it this time. Sarah made a face and muttered something while I retorted,
Thanks but you have a human for too, smart-ass. You may have it too.
Marco, you have no idea what 'it' is, do you?, answered Tobias. Sarah giggled, guessing what I had said to gain such an answer from the bird.
... No, I replied. But I mean to find out.
Glossary:
Shanka caei - damn it
Nakeita nui - could (it) be
Veraha - thank you
Kai desdeh - No problem!
