Part 3.

My eyes grazed upon the new faces in the bus. They were at least forty individuals, all looking excited and ready to take on the world.

There was one male at the back of the bus, long midnight black hair that disappeared at his shoulder blades. He appeared at least twenty four or five, gloomy and eyes...on me.

An unexplained chill spiraled through my chest, ending up at the bracelet, causing a sharp sting.

"Ouch!" I groaned letting my eyes fall on my hand. There was a slight burn under the bracelet that had never been there. It even looked fresh. Could a bracelet burn the skin?

"Sit down, the bus is about to leave!" The driver yelled with all the authority.

Feeling confused and clueless, I sat next to Carlos who was talking to the girl at his other side seated by the window.

Just as the bus was about to drive off, the circle things attached at the roof of the bus hissed simultaneously and a white gas flooded the entire bus.

I saw the driver put on a gas mask, which could only mean that whatever was being released would affect the rest of us.

It took only three seconds of breathing that gas to make my world spin anticlockwise. Slowly, the darkness closed in and I was floating in it.

     As I was in that dispersed state, I saw flashes of memory that never existed in my head. Or were they a form of dreams?

There was a baby in a crib, crying and tossing about. It was the only thing I could see in the darkness.

"Hello little one?" I whispered leaning down to stroke its adorable forehead. It looked like a girl, but telling apart toddlers at such an early stage of life was difficult.

         "I wonder what you're doing here!"

It stopped crying and reached out its tiny hand to my face.

With all the good intentions at heart, I leaned further in the crib and allowed it to touch me. Its hand was soft and velvety, warm and assuring.

I allowed myself to drown in the warm emotion sparking between us, even though I knew deep down that it was just part of my brain dealing with fear. The baby was an illusion to make me feel happy and safe.

          "Remember!" A scratchy voice that sounded like two people speaking at once screeched my ears out of nowhere. Then I was tugged, being pulled away from the crib till I felt like I was falling in the air.

I landed on something soft, before my body jolted up in a deep gasp to fill my lungs with air.

My head whipped around in confusion, my eyes darting from one corner to the other in whatever room I had been locked up in.

      There were at least three other double-deckers, each positioned at a corner in the room. The middle was empty other than the dark carpet lying there quietly.

I could see that the beds were occupied, so I struggled to get off the one I was lying, a lower bed thankfully.

Slowly, still feeling like I had taken a hit by a train, I pushed myself to the next bed, then all of them. These faces were familiar, oh! Right! They were the same faces at the pick-up point. They were from Oakshire.

  I took a little pause just to regain my stability, all while I continued studying the room. Our suitcases were placed on the tables between the deckers, labelled, just like the beds.

How had they managed to get all of us off the bus and in there?

             After a minute, I felt like I had gathered enough energy. But the second I took a step forward, I drifted off in the darkness again.

                       ***

A cold chill caressed my skin, making me shudder just before my eyes could open.

   I felt someone watching me in the darkness, felt eyes boring through my soul.

But it was too dark in the room to spot anyone, so I just pulled myself to sit.

      "Carlos?" I called straining my eyes to penetrate the darkness in that room. "Carlos?" I called again swinging my leg out of the bed.

I must have slipped because I rolled off and thudded on the floor like a log.

"Ivy?" Carlos'voice floated to my ears. "Open your eyes!" He said.

    "It's dark!" I whispered. "I think someone is watching me."

"Hey?" I felt his breaths on my right ear. "Your eyes are still closed... How about you open them and join us for dinner, hm?"

What was he talking about? My eyes were open, it was just too dark.

     "Okay, I'll help you!"

I felt his fingers on my eyelids, assaulting them till he managed to crack my left eye. Light from nowhere flooded my twins as the eyelids parted. "Wasn't so difficult was it huh?" Carlos taunted helping me off the floor.

"What just happened?" I wondered while giving my eyes a soft rub to chase away the fatigue.

"It must have affected you deeply. We found you on the floor when we woke, and here you were again, on the floor."

    I stretched my arms, moving my head in a circular motion to give my neck a nice work out.

My mind registered the absence of the rest of the roommates. And we're we to share this room, both females and males?

     "Where-"

"In the dining hall... You got to come, this academy is too awesome to let you get bored."

My eyebrow lifted, "how have you found your way back here?"

His eyes travelled to the open door near my bed. I couldn't see whatever he was seeing, but there must have been someone standing on the other side.

"Come on!"

Carlos led the way and I followed.

      He was there! Standing like a soldier in his combat uniform. The same man from the bus, the golden-haired one.

His eyes were an icy blue, never really looking at us yet I felt as if he was watching us as we walked past him and into the hallway.

"Who's that?" I asked once we were a safe distance from his hearing range.

    "One of the trainers, they call themselves the Handlers while they call us trainees the Novices."

"Sounds cheesy," I voiced my opinion.

"Sounds creative actually." Carlos defended as we continued branching hallway after hallway till we were out of the building.

The sun was heading west more and more. Lawd! I had been unconcious for hours.