The Gemini Reign
: Chapter 4

When we finally got home, he became “Justin the jerk” again, dropped me home, and left. I didn’t know or care where he went.

Sure, you don’t. I ignored the stupid voice in my head. I went up to my room and was shocked.

My clothes were everywhere. My mattress turned and cut open. The once neat and clean room looked like a hurricane had passed through. I panicked; whoever was here could still be here. I slowly backed out of my room and turned around. I saw something or someone move out of the corner of my eye. I didn’t have a phone, so I didn’t know what to do. I ran down the stairs, but before I got out the door, everything blacked out.

I slowly woke up to hushed voices. I could feel the blood rolling down my cheek and winced as pain shot through my neck when I straightened my head. My vision turned black for a few seconds, then it all came back, although fuzzy.

The mattress.

My clothes.

Blacking out.

I looked around and saw a few people in a corner. Two men and three women. I was in a secluded room. It had metal shelter-type walls. The floor was concrete, and I was in the middle of the room, bound with zip tights to a metal chair.

I yelled, “Hello? Where am I? Let me go! Please…”

It was like they were in a trance. The people just kept on talking, repeating the same hushed words.

Then I realized that I could be dreaming; what if I fell asleep in the car with Justin. But that probably wasn’t true because of all the details I still remembered. I looked around the room again and noticed no exits: no windows or any doors. I craned my head to see if there was a door behind me, but I couldn’t tell if there was anything. Just seconds before I was about to yell again, my vision blurred. I squeezed my eyes shut, trying to get past the ringing in my head.

The pain stopped.

I opened my eyes to a different room; it looked the same but bigger. The room had the same cold, sterile look. I shivered from the breeze, the vents on the walls blasting cold air. Suddenly, I heard someone call out.

“Avery?” It was Rebecca. Why was she here? I looked around, trying to replace her.

“Rebecca!” I called out. She didn’t answer.

Someone walked up to me. I furrowed my eyebrows; where did he come from? I looked around for an entrance. He was so wide, I couldn’t see around him.

The man was very tall (abnormally, in my opinion) and buff. His shoulders looked almost three feet wide. His bald head shined under the blinding lights. Wearing a dark blue Armani suit, black sunglasses, and a black cowboy hat, he said with his rumbling voice, “If you want to see the other girl, show me your tricks.” He had a weird accent as if someone mixed a French, Russian, and German accent together.

“What are you talking about?” I said, confused, “What tricks? I’m not a magician.”

“I know your kind; you lie to protect yourselves.” He said, sneering. His voice vibrated through the room.

My kind? Was he insane?

Did he mean…

“Do you mean…you’re not human?” I couldn’t believe I had said that.

This time he was the one furrowing his eyebrows, “Human? You are not human.”

What?

He was definitely delusional. Whatever, I would play along to anything he said to get out of here.

“Okay, just tell me what to do, and I will do it. What trick do you want to see?” He looked skeptical.

“I don’t care which one you do,” he said, still suspicious of me.

“Umm, I need my hands to show it to you…” I gulped, not knowing what I would do even if he took the binds off my wrists.

“Use them.” I didn’t know what he was saying.

“My hands are tied back,” I said uneasily. Not sure where the man was going with this.

“No, they are not.” I was confused by his words. I pulled my hands and….

My hands were untied! My shock must have been evident as the man looked annoyed. “Don’t act like you don’t understand.”

I didn’t know what to do. “I have no—”

Screech!

They dragged her in the metal, scraping the stone. I winced as the sound continued. Goosebumps spread across my body at the horrible noise.

Rebecca was unconscious. “Rebecca!” I screamed. Then I glared at the man, “What did you do? Let us go!”

“Nothing yet, but we will hurt her if you don’t comply.”

Anger burned through my veins. I grit my teeth and say, “I don’t know if you’re insane or just plain crazy, but I have no idea what you are talking about, so let me and my friend go. Please, you’ve got the wrong person.” I pleaded.

“Again, you lie; this is what happens when people lie,” the man said, enraged. He nodded to the other two guys who dragged Rebecca in. One was taller than the next but other than that. They looked identical with no hair, the same mustache, jeans, and an oversized sleeveless t-shirt. The taller one walked up behind Rebecca, put one hand on her arm, and pulled hard. I heard a sickening pop.

I almost gagged. I felt nauseous, realizing the goons must have broken Rebecca’s arm. Rage blurred my vision, and light exploded through the room. I shut my eyes from the burning brightness.

Suddenly, I was standing, and the man and the two others were on the floor unconscious. Rebecca was awake and looked at me in shock.

“What?” I asked.

She pointed at my body. Her arm seemed magically healed. What if she was faking? What if she was in on it?

I was scorched. Burns on my arms and my clothes smoking. A small fire on my burnt jeans. I yelped and slapped at the fire.

“You! You did that!” She screamed, her eyes wide with fear.

Me? I didn’t do anything? Did I?

Instead of answering, I took in our surroundings. We were in a small room that was empty except for the three men and our chairs. I heard loud footsteps coming from above; there were more. I shivered, not knowing what to do.

I looked for the entrance that Rebecca and the men had come through but couldn’t replace it. I turned toward Rebecca and asked, “How did you get here?”

“Those men th-they—”

I cut her off, not needing to know that at the time. “Not that, here in this room.” I pointed down to emphasize the “here” part.

She looked confused, “I-I don’t remember, I think I was unconscious.” I didn’t know if I should believe her.

Crap! I would need to replace a way to get out of here. Fast. The stomping got louder, and out of nowhere, five more men were in the room. I couldn’t go through this again.

Two started to restrain me, and two went to Rebecca. I yelled, “Leave us alone! We are not who you want.” Suddenly I got an idea. “Money! Money, we have money! If we give y—”

“We don’t want money. you are exactly who we want; you just proved that.” He said calmly, with a similar accent as the other man.

Then I looked at the men who restrained me and saw that they had the same outfits and accessories as the unconscious ones. The same gold ring and a gold tooth. On their right hand’s middle finger was a gold ring that said;

Pietas ad coronam caeruleum

The man who had spoken earlier caught me staring and explained, “Pietas ad coronam caeruleum, it means Loyalty to the blue crown.” I wondered why he didn’t sneer at me like the others.

The other men chanted, “Pietas ad coronam caeruleum!”

I remembered that those people in the first room were saying that—loyalty to the blue crown.

What did they mean by the blue crown?

I was led out of the room, and someone placed a bag on my head. We walked for around two minutes before we stopped. When they took it off, I was in a bedroom.

Oh no…

What if they…No! I had to replace a way out of here. I watched as they brought Rebecca in beside me and knew that this couldn’t be her fault.

The room’s theme seemed to be red. Everything was red, the carpet, the curtains, the bedspread. However, someone skilled had clearly decorated the room as they contrasted the red with white and gold. They sat me down on the sofa and put a crying Rebecca beside me. Nope, this was definitely not her fault. I felt guilty for even thinking that. I looked around the room, searching, but there was no clock. How long had it been since I was captured? Justin has to notice.

.I couldn’t do this again.

There was a T.V over the fireplace. Three of the goons sat behind us on the humongous bed. The leader with a unique accent stayed where he was, along with the other man standing on the other side of the sofa.

I looked more closely at the man with the weird accent. It seemed they had a uniform here because he was wearing a suit and sunglasses, but something about him didn’t sit right with me. Maybe it was the ring or the accent, but I couldn’t put my finger on it.

The T.V turned on, and I saw a symbol. It was two dragons intertwined, one blue and one red. The colors leaked out the dragons and circled them, the colors mixed around the border and turned purple. There was a sea-green mixed into the colors, and it was so mesmerizing and beautiful. Like peace was being embedded into my mind. The symbol was so familiar, the colors magnificent and wonderous.

It’s essential in our world; it takes away the power-hungry eyes.

The words rang in my head. The memory felt foreign. My eyes refocused on the T.V, the symbol faded away, and the screen turned black.

Earlier that evening…

Justin

I dropped her at home and drove away. I had nowhere to go, really, but I had to keep up the ruse. I met up with Selene and told her about the evening with Avery and Rebecca.

“Well…at least you have a cover at the school?” She was trying to keep a straight face, and I scowled. We sat in her house’s living room. It was bright with the sun pouring in from her basic white curtains on her white couch and marble tiles. Yes, she had a white floor with white furniture. (If you asked me, she could have put in a little more effort, even if the house was temporary.)

“This is not funny!” I said, frustrated. “Come on, I came here for advice, not for you to laugh at me.”

“You knew there would be complications with this plan,” she said, still struggling not to smile.

I drove back home. But as I was walking towards the house, the lock was broken.

Oh no.

“Avery!” I yelled and ran into the house. “No, no, no, Please, no! Avery! Avery!”

I ran into her room. It was torn apart; the mattress ripped open, clothes scattered everywhere. Her once beautiful bedroom, with twinkling lights around her black leather bed frame, was now broken. Her desk, with the bulletin board hanging on the wall in front of it, was on the floor, with the photo collage on her closet door, ripped apart.

I sank onto my knees. No! Not again. This couldn’t be happening. She was just here. This was a nightmare; I was dreaming. I had to be.

My thoughts spiraled. The memory bombarded me.

“Justin Adams,” I was called out into the hallway, hoping they were finally home. I rushed out, needing to see them.

The hallway was empty of her presence. She would have been here to see me. Maybe she was resting. I looked at the face of Principle Arissa and knew.

She was gone. “No! No, I need her. I still need her! She said she would stay until I didn’t need her anymore.”

“Mr. Adams, we are very sorry for your loss, but we need to talk about your father and sister.”

I pulled my phone out with shaking hands and called Selene; the cops couldn’t be involved. They would just get hurt.

Selene brought five people with her, two women, three men, and some girl that looked around Avery’s age. “They are my guard. They are the witches, and,” she glanced toward the girl and said, “She’s a friend,” Selene said, recognizing my questioning look.

“Excuse me? I am not just a friend. Okay? I am a best friend, family, and I deserve an introduction.” the girl said, offended.

Selene sighed, “Valerie, Justin. Justin, Valerie. She’s the one I told you about. The one who was keeping an eye on Avery at school. I told her to act a bit snobby though I don’t think she needed to try very hard.” I heard a scoff come from Valerie.

“We need to get a head start on this, so Valerie,” Selene turned and scowled at her, “Just stay out of the way.” Then she swirled towards me, “Are you ready?”

I nodded, and we got to work. The witches looked at me and said, “We need your blood,” Crazy enough, they said it in unison.

I panicked. Our blood was powerful. We couldn’t just give it to anyone. I looked at Selene, and she nodded. I took a deep breath and bit into my wrist.

One of them held out a wooden bowl under my wrist. Where the woman got it from, I didn’t know. She wasn’t even wearing a coat, so…

Once she had enough of my blood, I pulled my hand away, and it healed. She must have kept the wound open somehow because usually, it would heal right up. The other woman was doing the same process with Selene, and I watched as the blood dripped into the bowl. Selene was calm, and it looked as if she had done this before. I wondered if she had done it for her—our mother.

Once Selene finished, the men came over and spoke into her ear. While we were giving blood, they were trying to figure out who the kidnappers were, though I had a pretty good idea who.

Selene looked at me, waiting for my confirmation, “Yes, let’s just get this over with.”

“Valerie, we need you now. It goes like this; conectio,” Selene explained.

“Conectio,” Valerie tested it out for a minute.

The chanting started, and the ringing in my head grew louder and louder; I gritted my teeth and thought of her. The ringing became distant as I saw through her eyes at first, then was there with her.

“Justin!”