Level 13 by Virginia Lang (ebook e reader TXT) 📖

LEVEL 13:

The Stone Whispers

By N.S. Tanner

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Chapter one: Kitty

The sky was a perfect mixture of colors, warm and exciting. My heart pounded in my chest as I stepped forward into the lush greens of the clearing. The trees were swaying with the breeze and the sun was casting a warm blanket over my skin. Casting a feeling of safety around me as I raced through the high grasses of Greene Orchards…

DING-DING-DING.

"Okay class, I hope you all have a wonderful weekend, I will see you on Monday, and please...don't forget to practice, and OH your papers are due Tuesday!"

Of course, Mr. Reyburn's voice always carried off through lala land. I shut my notebook closed as other students around me gathered their things together and mobbed out of the classroom. Perfect days, sunny blankets of safety and blue sky's would just have to wait until another lifetime.

The rain patted onto the grounds of Arealynn Academy, it was curious to watch the oh so wondrous student's scurrying around the grounds screaming and trotting off in every direction to get out from the dampness. Don't get me wrong, I like the rain, but at the rate it rains here, I could honestly say if you said it would be sunny all day long tomorrow, I wouldn't believe you. It was hardly ever ALWAYS sunny here at Arealynn. I've been here since my seventh birthday, when I amorously found out I was able to camouflage myself into anything I was next to. Almost like being invisible, like how I felt around him...

"Katrina." Pulling my gaze from the dampening grounds, I turned my attention to Mr. Reyburn. His eyebrow was raised; an expectant expression filled his features. We sat like that a moment until my gaze shifted around the room. Everyone had left, apparently I had drifted away in my own mind again. With a clearing of my throat I , excused myself and continued out of the classroom with my apple green backpack riding over my left shoulder, lightly bumping back and forth on my mid back as I made my way down the hall of the west corridor of level 3. It seemed dead at the moment, like an episode of Twilight Zone, you know, the old black and white television show you used to watch when you were sick at home sitting on the couch with your favorite blanket, a bowl of soup, and your mother prodding your mouth with that glass thermometer that you were always afraid to keep in your mouth hoping it wouldn't break.

I made a right, deciding to head down to the basement where I usually felt safer from the rest of the students. A clicking noise stopped me from continuing on unfortunantly. I should have continued on with my destination, but my curiosity got the best of me. Backtracking about four strides and a halt I landed myself in front of the stairs leading up to the next level. Level four didn't have classes in the evening, which is why my curiosity caught me in the moment. My hand grasped the brass knob of the door, turning it after a short intake of breath. The door squeaked open as I slowly pushed it in. The stairwell was dimly lit, not giving me much visibility. There it was again, the clicking, I shifted my gaze upwards...it was coming from above. I should have just gone back but, I am Katrina Frenntt, I explored a bit more than I should have. Curiosity didn’t scare this kitten, nope. Not me.

The door clicked shut behind me as I let it go and stepped into the stairwell. The concrete walls surrounding the vertical square pathway caused a claustrophobic atmosphere, which I didn't like. My foot stepped forward onto the first step to the next landing and I continued my way up.

"Hello?"

No answer. Passing the fourth landing, the fifth, the sixth, the seventh, the clicking got louder but I couldn't find the cause of it. It got louder, and louder and louder, my heartbeat racing faster and faster, my feet hitting the steps less and less as I quickened my pace up the stairs.... and then it stopped. Total, silence. I stopped, now the only sound I could hear was my heart beating and the breath admitting from me. I couldn’t tell which one was more deafening.

"What are you doing here?"

I whipped around, the sudden appearance of another life form in the area caused me to stumble backwards hitting the railing of the landing and landing on my bum. Well if that wasn’t more embarrassing then this should top it off. As I turned my head upwards, my cheeks were tinted with pink. Jack Kresht was standing over me with a raised brow.

"Are you going to answer me?"

My mouth opened and closed a few times, the words not coming through my lips, just incoherent sounds. Jack's eyes rolled and he lent a hand out for me to take, I hesitated a moment. Finally I took a hold of his offered hand and he pulled me up to a wobbly standing position. I in took a breath, finally speaking.

"I could ask you the same question."

His eyes traveled upon my locket hanging loosely around my neck, the light silver heart shaped locket that my brother had given me for my birthday when I was 8. Dani, he was such a wonderful person, He was a year older then I, Level 5 in his ability. My locket contained two pictures, one of my brother and one I had taken of the boy I had liked since we first arrived here at Arealynn. My hand mindlessly moved to touch the locket on my chest, my fingers grazing it lightly.

Clearing his throat, Jack gave an irritated sigh. "I was smoking."


----Story break, Into Third person-----

Her eyes darted up to look at Jack. "I didn't know you smoked."

"That was kind of the point, no one does, not even my brothers." he stated quite clearly, and he intended to keep it that way. "Tell anyone and I'll make your life hell."

Kitty nodded casually. Like she would tell anyone, she hardly talked to anyone he would most likely know, her best friend was Kareena, and her brother Dani. Another chill shot through her body as he opened the door behind him and started to walk in. Kitty didn’t think she would see him again after this, seeing as he was popular with his brothers in the Academy and she wasn’t. Man did he prove her wrong; Clearing his throat again he waited for her to do something, when she didn’t move he rolled his eyes and let out sigh that had a hit of irritation from moments ago within it.

"Are you coming, or what?"

If the air wasn’t already cold she would deffinantly say it sure got cool fast. She crossed her arms around her chest; the bag on her back following behind as it continued it’s bouncing on her mid-back. Three long strides and she was through the door, passed Jack Kresht and into the hallway of level 9. The floor looked the same as all of the others below them. This was the West wing of campus, North wing was a Girls dormitory, East wing was Staff and other personnel headquarters and living space, and also basic training was held on level 4 of the East wing, South wing was a Boys dormitory. It was all confusing for the most part, but living here for a few years they got used to it. No one knew anything beyond their level and the levels they've passed already. In the West wing, they didn’t know anything beyond level 9, this wing was the school building, their training, classes, and control practices.

Looking beyond the dim lit area, she could see the covered, once used windows of level 9. It was dead, the whole floor, level 9 had stopped being used due to the accident last summer when a student at the academy had gone missing. Honestly all she could think about right now was where the person went, how does someone disappear? This was level nine; there were no other levels above.

"Didn't someone die here?" Jack asked, his voice trailing along uneasiness and curiosity. Kitty turned her head, seeing his outline, his hands in his pockets, his gaze had wondered onto her face.

"They disappeared," she corrected him. "No one found a body, therefore no one knows if they died or not."

Jack rolled his eyes at her correction. "It's the same thing."

"No it's not." Kitty snapped.

"Cool it kitten, no need to claw my head off." He took a step to the side and walked around her.

"Well if you weren’t being so stupid..."

"...Shh." he hushed her. there it was again, the same clicking noise that had Kitty shuffling up those flight of stair in the first place. Her eyes widened and she snapped her head to look at Jack.

"I thought that was you."

"I thought that was you." he reciprocated. "If that wasn't you, and it wasn't me..."

Kitty stood herself straight in her standing position. "There has to be a source to that noise."

The clicking got louder, causing Jack to jump a bit.

"Scared?"

Jack shot her a glare. "No!"

"Okay.." she said unbelievingly as she concentrated and blended into the wall. The noise sounded like the clicking of oldies style heels that secretary women would wear. Jack bit back a squeak as he was pulled against the wall by a hand and he shut his eyes. The clicking became unbearably loud for their tastes, and the hand clamped around his arm tighter, and then, it stopped. It disappeared and the hand around Jack's arm loosened. It took a moment or two for him to regain his senses, finally pushing off the wall and a body following with him. He turned to face Kitty, who let her hand fall from its current grip on his arm. She faded back into her normal form, opening her eyes but seeing no one.

"Jack...?"

"What."

Kitty furrowed her brow, lifting a hand to what she couldn't see and felt it touch a solid form of a chest. Realizing he had used his ability he closed his eyes, her hand still resting on his chest. He left his form of invisibility and became visible again, reopening his eyes.

"You're ability is-"

"-Invisibility." he finished. "Yeah."

Kitty pulled her hand back and crossed her arms with a charming smile. Jack returned it slightly, which turned into more of a smirk.

"So, you are what, a chameleon or something?"

Kitty shrugged with a grin. "or Something."

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Chapter 2: Jack

It took a while for the sun to rise and push the moon out of the way to the other side of the world. So I took the time to star out at the sky from the window of the girls dorm I shared with Kara. I don't know how long I’ve been sitting here but the black splatter painted sky of stars slowly started to turn to gray, tinted with its navy blue contrast of the ocean. Grabbing the tiger fleece blanket Kara had gave me for Christmas the previous year, I pulled it over my legs, tucking my feet under