The shivers finally subsided after twenty minutes under cool running water. The cold feeling of the water was no longer present as though my skin had gone numb. I knew I had to get out of the shower lest my skin would start to get pruned, but I was in no mood to get up. The emptiness after having an episode was all that filled me now. It felt like I had been under the water for hours, but annoyingly due to my constant use of time related magic, my brain could now keep track of every second. I knew I had only been in the shower for twenty minutes. I also knew that it was now 8:03:24pm. I knew the time down to the very last second and it only kept ticking in my head. Thankfully I could ignore the internal clock.
'Kevin,' I had a faint voice calling in my head. 'Kevin,' it went again growing louder this time. I almost paid it no heed when it screamed, 'KEVIN,' it was Ciara.
'Ouch, hey Ciara,' I replied rubbing my forehead to soothe the newly introduced headache.
'Where are you?' she asked.
'I'm home,' I replied.
'Really, okay, I am in your room,' she said making my blood run cold. I looked towards the door that I have no doubt closed, but hadn't locked. Rushing so fast I barely noticed that I used my powers, I turned the key and locked the bathroom door. 'Uh, Kevin. Did I get you at a bad time?'
'Oh no no no. It's just that ….. I … am in the shower,' I said. My revelation was greeted by silence a faint sense of magic. My guess was that she had teleported out of my room immediately. I opened the door by a bit and took a look around to see if she was still there and thankfully she wasn't.
I got myself ready and went downstairs for supper hoping everyone else was done. But to my dismay, they were all still seated at the dinner table. I served myself and sat at the table with them, "Good evening family," I chirped up.
"Good evening, Kevin," my mom and dad replied. Gary on the other hand remained quiet and did not even seem to notice I had arrived. I had not had time to think of what could explain the presence of magic in Gary's room and yet here he was acting even stranger than today morning.
"What's up Gary?" I said to him snapping him out of his thoughts. He had twirling his untouched spaghetti for a while and didn't seem like he would start eating anytime soon.
"Nothing Kevin," he said taking a bite of his meal. Mom and Dad were already done with their food and seemed to be heavily immersed in a conversation before I came down the stairs. My guess was that Gary was being held here against his will. He normally finished his food before any of our parents. This only cemented my suspicions. Something was wrong with my brother.
"Kevin, why were you late?" mom asked completely overlooking the manner of which I entered the house. It would have been my first question if I was in their situation, but I guess there are things my parents could let slide. If you ask me, they were being way too easy going with us. They let us do a lot and still kept us knowing that they would step in if we let the freedom get to our heads.
"Long story," I summarised with a tone that said 'end of story.' My biggest concern right now was my brother regardless of what I had also been through less than an hour ago.
"Honey, why won't our children tell us anything?" mom began turning to dad for help on this issue. They usually teamed up on things such as these to get us guilty.
"I don't know why they won't tell us anything honey?" dad replied getting into character, "perhaps they think we are now too old to hear their teenage issues." He said with a smirk on his face. He was going hard on this.
"I doubt it. Gary doesn't talk to me either," I chirped in trying to get out of their scope of focus and in turn increasing the pressure on Gary so he would tell us what was going on with him. He had zoned out again and snapped back to reality when he heard his name. He got his plate and took it to the kitchen without a word. We stayed silent as he went upstairs and we heard his door close shut.
"Does he really not talk to you?" dad asked me.
"No, he doesn't talk to me these days," I said sighing in defeat.
"And you. Do you talk to him?" mom asked.
"I haven't heard much to say in the past few days to be honest," I said.
"I know you have been dealing with a lot the past days, but he is your brother. He might not be talking to us, but it should be different for you two," I knew what my parents were getting at. I just had to finish my food first.
"So what about you?" dad asked, getting my attention.
"What about me?" I mirrored his question clearly displaying ignorance.
"Are you okay?" he asked, "from the way you came in…"
"Hank," mom raised her voice stopping dad from his obvious confrontation.
"Honestly, I'm not so sure," I said, "I had small talk with the Purgers." And with that I took my plate to the kitchen had a quick drink and was on my way to Gary's room. I could not help but overhear a few things they said after I had left.
"You think they'll show t to him," dad said.
"I don't know," mom said before I was out of hearing distance.
Knock, knock, knock. That was usually my warning signal before I barged into my brother's rom which had taught him to lock it ever so often these days. I turned the door knob and the door creaked open. Maybe my brother wasn't locking his door because he wanted to be confronted o what was going on from within his room or was it something else. Once again the room was dark like it was earlier this morning. I looked for the switch and turned on the light to reveal a very misty room. The feeling of magic was much more intense now in the room. There was no doubt about it. I didn't even have to concentrate to find it. And it was coming from my brother's bed. I moved closer and saw that he was seated with his arms wrapped around his legs. His chin was rested upon his knees and he only stared off into the space before hm. Magic was rolling off him in waves, but with no specific purpose, it was merely wild magic. "Um, Gary," I called to him, but he did not answer to me.
"Gary," I called louder and he snapped out of his daze to look at me. My brother was two years younger than me. At his age, he was supposed to be a care free child. But the face that stared back at me was that of a stressed teenager.
"Oh, Kevin, I didn't notice you enter. I should have locked my door. What do you want?" he said indifferently.
"Okay. Let me see. Yeah, I want my brother back," I said to him.
"I don't know what you mean."
"Oh don't give me that Gary. Talk to me, like you always did," I said.
"Why do you care? Is it because mom and dad sent you?" I froze at the accusation, "Typical," he said and turned to get comfortable for sleep. I was done with this attitude he was giving me. I grabbed his shoulder and immediately regretted it. The boy was boiling hot it was scary. In that moment he snapped. "KEVIN, LEAVE ME ALONE," he yelled turning with his palm outstretched as if he was about to throw a ball at me.
I instinctively ducked and everything slowed down around me as my abilities activated. I watched as a swirling ball of fire formed within his palm and was launched in the position I had just left. The fireball soared through the air and blasted the wall next to the door leaving it scorched and cracked so bad you could have thought it took a hit from a shotgun combined with a flamethrower.
I turned back to Gary who was backing away from me with a scared expression, "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to." I reached for my brother and hugged him. He struggled for a while against my grip until he gave and just continued sobbing. I was full of questions at the moment, but I had to wait out his tears first while I comforted him. When he had stabilised, I began with the first one.
"So you have magic, huh?" I half asked knowing it was rhetorical considering what I had just witnessed.
"Yes, I do. I'm an artra like you. One of the seven, but please you mustn't tell Ciaraabout this," e said.
"I don't want to be an artra, Kevin. I don't want to," this caused him to cry even more. Something was going on and I was going to find out.
"Tell me everything," I said. He knew what I meant. I wanted to know how he got here. I heard him sigh before he got up and wiped his eyes.
"All I'm going to tell you is not to be revealed to the rest of artras until the right time comes. You must act like you know nothing about it or else it will be for nothing," he said and I nodded, "Right about the same time you met Ciara, I met someone else who is related to her in some way. Dan, a former artra, met with us. He introduced me to magic. Apparently the girl herself had known about magic for a while. The two of us we taken to Armensia when you guys weren't there and we were trained ever since then. We've been improving steadily, but Kevin, we have also been watching you guys. Since we are not allowed to engage in matters concerning the artras, we are allowed to watch what happens."
Tears seemed to be welling up in his eyes yet again, "We receive special training from Dan and Zaraias himself sometimes. Everything was fun, magic is amazing. But then, one day I walked into your room and I found you screaming. I didn't know what to do. It seemed like you were having a nightmare, but the pain was physical. Your skin was turning red like you were being damaged from the inside. I didn't know what to do. So I woke you up and ran. From then I told Dan who told Mr Bergstrom and that's when you were brought to Zaraias' cave and treated. Claire and I asked for the reason why you were in such pain and we didn't like the answer we were given. We had been training to use magic, but we hadn't even taken to realise the dangers of the situation we were in."
He paused, staring off into space before correcting himself, "Or at least I hadn't noticed the danger. Claire became even more determined to fight for Armensia as if we had not just witnessed a life or death situation. It wasn't the same for me. All the stories I knew about Armensia turned into nightmares. Every time I saw something magic related, I only saw danger. My magic eventually stopped listening to me. Now it takes all my concentration just to keep my magic from running wild and leaking out. I'm tired Kevin. How are you still fighting?" he concluded.
I waited a while to gather my thoughts before I spoke to him, "Remember the first time you asked me to help you train for your first football game," I said to him.
"Yes, I remember. Our team was hopeless. And don't say it like it was a long time ago. It was only last year. I was picked simply because we had no players and my brother was good at football," he replied with a smile flashing back to the past, "though I still don't see how…"
"Well then you remember that you won?" I said.
"Of course, how can anyone forget the big party mum hosted the day after the match. I didn't even know mum had the ability to throw parties that good," he mused over the day the celebration was held at our place. This boy was dodging all the points I was trying to get across but no matter, I was going to get to the point eventually.
"Those were three days, Gary," I said stirring up his curiosity as to what I was referring to, "On the first day, you came to me asking me to train you. The next day, the match was held and using the skills you had learnt from our training, you were able to lead your team to victory as well as coordinate them properly."
"Brother, I am waiting for you to get to the point," he said, "This must be the pep talk in the history of pep talks."
I laughed at his comment before continuing, "Whether you trained or not you would still have to play the football game. By training you made sure you had a chance of winning and that you would not go down without a fight," I said pausing and yet again waiting to see if he had pieced it all together.
"So you're saying whether I train or not, Travas will still attack Armensia," he said finally coming to an understanding, "but Kevin, I do not have what it takes to save Armensia let alone defeat Travas. I am not fitted for this kind of thing."
"So what then? Does that mean you abandon the Armensians and hide on earth where it's safe?" I asked.
"Don't be mean, brother. I did not as for this," he shouted at me. I could tell my brother was running away in fear, but deep down he had to remember what was important.
"Okay then. Did any of us ask for it? We were all chosen because we can do it. Besides, what does happen when you run away? Without anyone to defend Armensia, then what?" I asked letting his imagination fill in the blanks. The artras were the only reason that Travas had not yet taken over the entire Armensia, so if we simply ran away, it would be disastrous for those that lived there.
"That doesn't help brother. I'm too weak to face any of the dark mages," he complained. My younger brother was in tears now. I imagined that to him, it was like I was giving him a death sentence and so I had to proceed carefully. This wasn't something I didn't expect when we had become artras but I also hadn't expected my younger brother to be an artra either.
"Then get stronger, train with Claire and make your magic stronger," I told him. This is when the realisation hit him.
"Your story, you mean if we train hard enough, then we will be able to beat Travas when the time comes," he said quietly and I nodded to confirm, "but brother, this all scares me."
"You would be a fool not to be scared. Never let that fear waver, it will keep you alive. For even the strong without fear can be bested by the weakest of warriors. And one more thing Gary," I said making him look at me, "no one is pushing you. Take your training one day at a time. You'll get there."
"Thank you, brother," he said hugging me tight before his body went limp. 'Wait, what? Did he just pass out?' I put my sleeping brother to bed. His temperature had dropped to normal and his magic was no longer leaking out wildly. He finally looked peaceful and like his old self again. I watched him for five more minutes before I made my way out of the room. I hadn't got the chance to ask my brother since he had passed out the moment he was okay, but I could not deny the fact that he had referred to the artras being seven instead of six like it was something normal.