"Good news people..."
Everyone turned to see Miss Wade as she stood by the entrance of the bus, they looked at her with happy faces.. they were all looking attractive with their clean, well organized uniforms. She noticed it and smiled cheerfully filling the kids with excitement of what was to come.
"I can't believe it.." Sandy whines. "We are really doing it."
"What's that?" Neil asked adjusting his ears to hear Sandy.
"We're finally going our on A trip." Sandy yelled. "This is by far the coolest thing that is gonna happen to me this year."
"Sandy...." Miss Wade called out softly.
"Huh.... Me?" Sandy gawked.
"Cool it " She looked at him devilishly.
"Eeeeeeeee...." Sandy screeched.
Miss Wade smiled before letting out a light laugh that made her tilt her head to the right, Neil observed her gesture for a while before turning his attention to Sandy.
"Relax... She was just kidding." Neil said.
"Phew.. Guess she got me pretty good then." Sandy smiled. "Guess being a psychic is magnificent."
"Why say so?" Neil asked.
"Cause you get to know what someone is actually thinking..." Sandy grinned. "Without them telling you."
"That's one hell of a crime." Neil looked at him. "Invading one's privacy."
"For real?" Sandy asked.
"Imagine me knowing everything in your head without the permission to." Neil evaluated. "How'd you feel?"
"Messed up I guess." Sandy smiled. "But fun though."
"If only you knew what I meant." Neil thought.
"Alright everyone...." Miss Wade called out. "Let's go."
He watched Sandy smiling before turning his head towards Miss Wade, he didn't know how or why but...
"I have a bad feeling about this trip." Neil thought.
.
.
.
The town looked noisy and busy that afternoon as the sun shined with all its glory, giving the town bright colours as her citizens continued with their daily routines. Noe and Nara had just gone for a little shopping and was heading straight for their transport that was few meters away. Nara hopped down the road with her package in her left hand with Noe's left hand and her right. Noe most of the times would smile at all Nara would say even though he understood less than half of everything, but he decided to play along so as not to upset her... He's not very good at calming kids down.
"Dad.... We've had a great time today..." Nara laughed.
"Sure... Good thing I decided to spend my holiday with you." He smiled with his eyes closed.
Like a massive rush, Noe felt a very intense energy surge. He opened his eyes really fast and searched around the area, the surge full of almost tangible killing intent, and it was unmistakably aiming for him.
The environment suddenly went dull and the skies became blood red as ravens crowded around, like he was in another dimension... Or in some kind of trance that he just could not comprehend... He turned around slowly to see a shadow amongst the moving crowd. The shadow had a dark and deadly aura, eyes trained on Noe as they walked towards him.
They were lifting their head up for Noe to see when he felt a tap on his shirt, it was continuous and he looked down to see Nara's face. She was getting scared and was written on her face, he knew he had made her scared so he decided to make her feel at ease by smiling at her.
"Are you okay dad?" Nara asked.
"Yes..." Noe said. " am fine honey..."
He looked back again but the shadow is gone, he looked around to see if he could find it again but... Nothing...
The sudden disappearance sent chills down his spine.
"Let's go..." Noe gestured Nara into the car.
They both went into the car and left the area though Noe had worry written on his face, he was in deep thought on where he had felt that surge before but the clue just kept evading him.
Few seconds later he remembered the exact location he had felt it before. The recollection did nothing to abate his fears, instead, the chill in his soul got even stronger.
"Oh no..." Noe gasped. "Neil."
.
.
.
"This is sure taking a long time... Am bored." Sandy complained.
"You should try get some sleep." Neil adviced.
"Eventually..." Sandy turned towards him. "You've said that few minutes ago and I heeded your advice... Not this time bro."
"Fine... If you say so." Neil smiled.
They had been on the journey for a long time and it seemed like they were traveling forever, everyone had prepared themselves so they don't get bored on their adventure to the unknown. Sandy walked his way to the back to meet up with Jayden and Reece, they looked at him as he grinned.
"Who's up for some card games?" He smiled.
"Bring it on man."
"I guess I don't mind." Reece said.
Sandy began to shuffle the cards as he sits close to them, while Lyn brought out ladies magazines.
"Do you think this bikini would look good on me?" Lyn lhowed it to Glen.
"What the hell..." Glen thought as he went red. "Not again."
Cheryl had joined Zoe, Freda and Chiyo in the front row; though they were discussing but Cheryl never stopped with her manicure and even sometimes stopped to observe the beauty on her fingers. Most times Zoe and Chiyo would praise the colours, Freda on the other hand just watched her in awe and disgust.
Jade and Delia challenged themselves on a subject they both studied, Ned and Clint spoke more on philosophies and plants with Rory as some sort of referee they talked and argued.
Neil looked at the newly made up arrangements and smiled, he looked towards the drivers seat to see Miss Wade looking serious as she went through the routine in her hands. Neil decided he had to give himself the job of resting, he buried himself inside his seat and closed his eyes and ready to drift off.
His felt a vibration on his leg and knew his cell phone was alerting him of an incoming call, he clicked on his phone to see who's calling his phone.
"Dad..." He thought. "What's wrong.?"
He looked at his phone for a split second before answering it.
"Hey Dad..." Neil said. "Good morning."
"Morning... Where are you?" Noe asked.
"We're going out on a tour." Neil answered. "School trip."
"I see..." Noe sighed.
Neil could sense fear from the way Noe spoke to him and it freaked him out. His father was always bold upfront, the first and last time he heard that tone was when his powers manifested for the first time... The day he was nearly killed.
"Dad... Is something wrong.?" Neil asked. "I can sense that you're on the edge."
"Neil...." Noe began.
"Yes Dad.." Was the reply.
Silence.... Not another word from the phone's speaker, almost as if there was no one on the other side..
"Something doesn't feel right...." Neil thought.
"Be careful okay...." Noe said smiling..
"Something is definitely off..." Neil thought. "Dad... What are you thinking?... What are you scared of?"
"Promise me you will.." Noe repeated.
"I... Will..." Neil sighed.
"I will check up on you later." Noe ended the call.
Neil slowly lowered his phone alongside his eyes as he sighed heavily, he could not understand what would make his father so afraid that would make him call just to ask how he's faring.
"Anything the matter?"
He turned to see the concerned face of Jade as she sat beside him, her attire made her even more girlish than she was when on her uniform.
"Nothing much actually...." Neil sighed. "Just some unbalanced situation that I know would fade away easily."
"Oh... I see." She looked ahead.
They were quiet for few minutes, Jade contemplated and thought of what to say to Neil as she tapped her index fingers together.
"Why aren't you with Delia?" Neil asked.
"Well... She seemed not to be too interested in our conversation." Jade answered. "So I decided to let her be."
"Is this how you two often communicate?" Neil asked again.
"Yeah..." Jade sighed. "And I can't change that actually.."
Neil looked towards Delia who sat two seats away from them with her usual blank stare, she looked out of the window as the cool breeze blew some of her hair off her face revealing more of the cold but beautiful face.
Neil averted his eyes towards Jade as she pushed some her hair above her ears, her eyes opened to reveal the beautiful and attractive emerald eyes.
She turned to look at Neil and saw him watching her, she adverted her eyes for few seconds before feeling a tingle on her cheek... After few seconds she returned the favour by staring deep into Neil's eyes as if she wanted to see something inside of it.
It was like the noise around them was fading away that Jade thought she heard her violin playing a slow melody and.....
"Mmmm mm mm..." Jayden coughed.
The turned to meet the angry stare of Jayden who had left his companions and had headed towards them, his comrades burst into a heavy laughter.
"I can forgive everything in this life except...." Jayden barked. "Flirting with my sister. Am I understood?"
"Jayden..." Jade called out in embarrassment.
"Umm.." Neil scratched his head. "Noted."
SCREEEEEEEE...
Nobody was prepared for the abrupt stop as everyone wedged themselves so as not to fall, Miss Wade who was trying to take a quick nap before walked up to the driver's seat to question his reason for halting almost immediately.
"What happened?" She asked the man.
"Am sorry..." He apologized. "It seems that the tires got punctured by something."
Miss Wade turned around quickly to see if she could spot anyone around the area, but spotted nothing but she never dropped her guard for she suspected it to be someone's plan after all. They were in the middle of nowhere, the most
"Everyone...." Miss Wade began. "Be on guard."
The bus driver walked out of the bus and head straight towards the punctured tires. He walked back into the bus and brought out another tire which he rolled out of the bus, Miss Wade walked towards Neil and gestured towards Rory.
"You know what to do.." She nodded.
She began to head back towards the door to help the driver with the tires....
"AHHHHHHHHHHH....."
Everyone euahws out of the bus to see that the bus driver was missing, the only thing left of him was his cap which he wore few seconds ago. Miss Wade turned towards the kids as they wait upon her to give the command on what they has to do.
"Freda... Search..." She began. "Neil.. Rory... Get into position."
Rory sat down, closed his eyes with his hands spreaded over the ground.. Neil opened his eyes to reveal his purple iris, Freda snarled as her eyes glowed golden yellow colours. She sniffed few times before taking off into the jungle nearby, accompanied by Neil and Sandy.
"Delia..." Miss Wade called out. "Join them."
Delia walked for few seconds before dashing into the jungle with them.
"What do we do then Miss?" Lyn asked.
"We wait." Was the reply.
.
.
.
"This way..." Freda groaned loudly.
The increased their speed to catch up with Freda as she dashed even faster, Neil began to sense a negative energy around the forest. He stopped to observe for few seconds....
"Freda watch out." Neil called out.
Freda turned towards Neil as a dark mist appeared out of thin air, about to grip Freda.. ZAP.... SWISSS.. CRACK....
"What just happened?" Sandy asked.
"Seems we're not alone in this place." Neil said.
He had quickly switched places with Freda before switching again in a split seconds with a branch, the mist gripped it and squashed it to pieces... It roared in anger before retreating into thin air.
"Guess we're facing something stronger than the usual." Delia murmured.