Page 35 of Akarnae

She flinched when a different voice spoke in her other ear.

“Drink this,” whispered Bear, and a vial was pressed into her hand under the table. “It will feel a bit weird, but try not to move much.”

Jordan being invisible—transcendent—she could understand, but Bear too? She decided to worry about that later and instead knocked her pen off the bench, giving her an excuse to bend and retrieve it. While she was under the table she quickly swallowed the contents of the small vial—which tasted faintly of strawberries—before sitting back up in her seat and holding as still as possible.

It only took a few moments before she was overcome by the oddest sensation. Her flesh began to tingle as if she had pins and needles, while her heartbeat throbbed loudly in her ears. Her temperature spiked feverishly and the warmth expanded slowly outward from her body, growing like a tangible presence as it pulsed in time with her heart. Even her clothes were pulsing outward, only stopping after they had risen about half a centimetre above her actual self. As she looked closer, she realised that her expanded figure wasn’t completely solid, but it was still convincing enough to get by. Just like the copies of Jordan and Bear studying up the back of the room, Alex now had her very own copycat illusion.

“Are you ready for this?” Jordan whispered once the pulsing finished.

Alex nodded again and his grip tightened on her shoulder. One moment she was grounded, sitting in her seat, and the next she felt like she was soaring through the outer atmosphere. She closed her eyes as the feeling washed over her, enjoying the floating sensation.

A moment or two passed before the feeling began to fade. She still felt like she was soaring on a cloud or floating in water, but she also had a better idea of where her feet were and how to use them. She opened her eyes and blinked a few times, trying in vain to clear her vision. It was like a shower screen covered her eyes; she could still see everything, but it was all slightly blurred around the edges. No matter what she did, her sight wouldn’t clear, and she realised it must be a result of whatever Jordan had done to her.

“Let’s go,” Jordan said quietly, keeping a tight hold on her arm and pulling her up from her seat.

She was about to protest—surely Luranda would notice the movement—but she snapped her mouth closed as she watched her body step out of the replica, leaving the copy in her seat. Her decoy didn’t move much; she just stayed looking towards the front of the room, blinking.

No one noticed that there were two of her in the classroom, and since she could now see Jordan and Bear perfectly while everything else around them was still blurred, she guessed that Jordan must somehow be covering her with his gift.

“How—?”

“Shh!” Jordan interrupted. “I’ll explain outside.”

With one hand on her shoulder and the other gripping Bear, Jordan led them straight towards the wall.

“Jord—!” Alex didn’t even get a chance to finish whispering his name before he thrust all three of them into the wall.

Or rather,throughthe wall.

Oh. Right. She’d forgotten he could do that. Instead of slamming into the solid barrier, she felt as if her body had been sucked into a vacuum and spat out the other side. Real pleasant.

Steadying herself, Alex looked at her new surroundings. All she could see was, well, nothing. It was still pitch-black.

“Let’s try and get outside,” Bear said from somewhere to her left.

She couldn’t see either of the boys, but she was comforted by Jordan’s hand which was still on her shoulder. He pushed her forward once again, and all she could do was trust that he knew which direction they were heading in—or that they’d again be able to move through anything solid in their path.

Walking blindly through the dark hallway was eerie, and Alex was relieved when she felt the vacuum sensation again, which meant they were moving through another solid object. Light soon pierced her eyes, and even though her surroundings were still blurry, she could easily see that they’d entered another classroom. A Chemistry lab, to be specific, and one that was currently in use.

Alex crept with her friends towards the other side of the room, hoping neither Fitzy nor any of his students would sense their invisible presence.

“But why is it necessary?” one of the boys in the class asked. Alex recognised him from her Equestrian Skills class, but she couldn’t remember his name.

Fitzy either didn’t hear him or didn’t care to respond. Unlike Professor Luranda, the Chemistry teacher wasn’t staring out the door of the lab into the dark corridor beyond. Instead, he was at the head of the room, writing frantically on his board.

“Fitzy?” the boy tried again.

The wacky man turned at the sound of his name and seemed to realise that he still had a classroom full of students.

“What’s that, Wilson?”

“The Lockdown, Fitz,” the boy—who she now remembered was named Ryan—seemed exasperated. “You were telling us about the Lockdown, remember? Why is everything dark out there?” He indicated with his hand towards the corridor.

“Oh! Lockdown, you say?” Fitzy straightened his glasses and squinted towards the corridor. “That’s not good! Why didn’t anybody tell me?”

He hurried over to his desk to pick up his Communications Globe, but Alex didn’t find out what happened next because she was pulled through another wall into the darkness beyond.

And then another.

---