Arcane Awakenings Books Three and Four

Chapter 2

Chapter 2

A curious mix of dread and excitement weighed heavily in the pit of my stomach as I looked at the wrought iron gates barring access to the Wood Estate. A large padlock secured the chain holding the gates closed.

I’d wanted this, was sure the dreams, the earthquakes, everything, had been leading me to this point, yet I hesitated to take the next step. Ethan might need my help, but that didn’t mean he would welcome my arrival in his life.

Still, staring at the gate wasn’t going to help anyone.

I walked up to it, conscious of my family and friends at my back, and tested the give in the chain. There was just enough slack to push the two halves of the gate apart to allow a small person to squeeze between them. Andie, Celeste and I would be able to fit through without any problem, but it would be a tight squeeze for Daniel and Nick.

‘Want me to grab the bolt cutters out of the boot?’ Nick asked.

Daniel moved to stand beside his friend, brow creased. ‘Don’t think the police would appreciate us damaging their property.’ He pointed to the crime scene tape looped through the fence itself.

‘Okay then, on to Plan B.’ Nick returned to his car and parked it as close as possible to the wide brick column from which the right side of the gate hung. He and Daniel climbed on top of the car and shimmied over the wall. Once on the other side, they held the gate as far open as the chain would allow so Andie, Celeste and I could slip through the gap without scraping half our skin off in the process.

None of us spoke as we began the trek down the long winding driveway to the main building. The only sounds came from the crunch of our feet on the bitumen, and the soft chirps of birds nesting in the many trees lining the driveway.

Despite the seemingly idyllic setting, shadows cast by those trees set a shiver racing over my body. I looked at the spot where Andie, Celeste and I made our stand three months earlier. The grass had grown wild, leaving no trace of the tumultuous events that had taken place. It felt almost surreal, like walking through an enchanted forest, one hiding a multitude of dangers to trap the unwary.

The closer we got, the harder it became to breathe. Celeste and Andie took my hands, and I didn’t need to look at them to know they were as anxious as me. But none of our steps faltered.

Hand in hand, with Daniel and Nick at our backs, we marched on to confront our memories.

I wasn’t sure who this was harder for, them or me. Celeste had to be thinking about her mother, not that she ever referred to Dr Wood as such. Andie’s thoughts were sure to be filled with regret. It still pained her to think she’d forgotten my existence. No matter how many times I told her it wasn’t her fault, that she’d had nothing to do with it, she still felt guilty because I’d been locked away for so long.

Daniel also carried a burden of guilt. He’d believed his adoptive parents when they told him I’d died in the fire that killed our mother and father. He’d accepted their reasoning for not telling Andie she’d had an identical twin. To find out fifteen years later he’d been lied to, and to then witness what I’d endured at the estate, made him even more protective now. And not just of me. His innate sense of responsibility had increased tenfold when it came to Andie and Celeste. For him to agree to come here at all was a huge sign of his faith in the three of us and our ability to handle any situation.

As we rounded the last curve in the driveway I caught my first glimpse of the squat grey building with bars on the windows of the top two floors, and a lump appeared in my throat. I hoped Daniel’s faith in me was justified. I had to find Ethan, and help him control his power before one of his earthquakes tore Easton apart.

With a tight grip on Andie’s and Celeste’s hands, I approached the double doors in the centre of the ground floor.

Police tape stretched across the glass, flapping in a slight breeze.

The tape had loosened from months of exposure to the weather, but was still intact. The front doors hadn’t been opened since the police finished their last search for evidence. They’d kept us informed during the initial stages of the investigation, but contact had been limited since then. The young police officer who watched the recording of Celeste being tortured by her mother was the only one who kept in touch with us. Dr Wood’s orderlies had drugged him when he and his partner tried to stop them taking Celeste, Andie and me back to the estate, and I guess he felt responsible for us.

It was Constable Scott Carlton who let us know Dr Wood had taken the rest of the tapes with her when she disappeared. The last time he contacted us was with unwelcome information. Her lawyer had successfully petitioned the Justice Department to have the tapes Daniel and Nick handed to the police destroyed due to the same technicality that saw Dr Wood released.

While on one level I was glad to know the tapes, which showed years of testing of my abilities were less likely to be made public, the thought of Dr Wood’s motive for taking them was a cause for concern. The sole reason for her filming the sessions was to prove her theories were correct. It was only a matter of time before she decided to go public with what she’d discovered, and when she did all chance of a normal life would be lost to us.

But that was a problem for another time.

Eyes closed, I tuned out my inner turmoil and focused on the sensations coming to me from within the building itself. With the extra boost from the reservoir of power Andie contained, I was able to probe further, deeper, searching for any sign of Ethan. I found no hint of him; the rich earthiness I associated with his power absent from the space around me.

I had no trouble picking out the flashes of silver that signified Celeste’s ability to create lightning and manipulate electrical currents, or the shimmering well of energy contained in Andie’s core. Daniel and Nick, though they held no psychic ability, were also easy to detect, their physical presence registering as a flickering flame, so it couldn’t be a failure of my abilities to detect another presence.

Either Ethan had found a way to hide his presence or we were the only people at the estate.

Even more frustrating was the lack of what Dr Wood had termed my precognitive sense, where I would see what was going to happen before an event occurred. I could predict what card would be turned up next with relative ease, and choose a route to take to avoid trouble for others with a fair amount of certainty if I concentrated and was well rested. Yet I’d been unable to see anything about Ethan, or the whereabouts and plans of Dr Wood.

I opened my eyes and faced the others. ‘I’m not picking up anybody nearby. We should split up. Andie and Nick, can you check down the right side of the building? The rest of us will take the left.’

Andie and I would be able to communicate despite the separation, to let the other team know if we found anything. Celeste would be able to translate my words for Daniel if I had no time to concentrate on using sign language.

It was slow going as we headed toward the back of the building. The police had cut open a section of the electric fence that blocked off the back of the estate, but we had to navigate our way through a jungle of overgrown bushes and long grass. I was pleased I’d had the foresight to wear jeans as we fought our way to the side of the building to peer through the barred windows on ground level.

After the tenth time we stopped to untangle ourselves, I let Andie know we were heading straight for the back entrance. Each glimpse through the windows had shown the same thing, furniture upturned in otherwise empty rooms. I didn’t think any of the other windows would provide us with anything different to look at.

Andie and Nick were waiting at the back door when we rounded the corner of the building. I already knew they hadn’t found anything of significance, so didn’t hesitate to place my hand on the door handle and give it a twist.

It failed to turn, which was to be expected. But this door was missing the crime scene tape. Was this because the police had forgotten it, or had it been removed after their last official visit? I scanned the flower beds on either side of the doorway. There was no sign of it, but it could have easily been carried away and discarded elsewhere if someone had used this door to enter the building recently.

I cast out my senses to search for anyone who might be nearby.

I didn’t find anyone, but a weird shiver swept over my body. It felt as though eyes were on me, boring into the back of my head. I twisted and cast my senses out into the unkempt garden that had once been the haven for patients when they were allowed outside for exercise. I was only allowed in the garden at night, with two orderlies watching my every move, after a succession of failed escape attempts.

I found nothing, and reached out to take Andie’s hand to push my senses further.

The impression of someone watching me remained, the slight shiver spreading to envelop my entire body, but all with no sign or sense of who they were.

‘Is everything okay? Is someone out there?’ Celeste moved to take my other hand, and I got the sense of her casting out her own net. I could tell by the shape of her energy flow she had come up as empty as me. If someone was out there, they were able to shield themselves from us.

I turned my back on whoever was watching me and threaded a loop of power into the lock mechanism, twisting the handle and opening the door.

Beside me, Celeste took a deep breath before being the first to step back into the estate. The rest of us crowded in after her, and I made sure to close and lock the door once we were all inside. The thought of leaving it open, at our backs, with an unknown observer out there, did not sit well with me even though I was usually the first to want a door left open.

This was a consequence of being locked up for most of my life.

None of us spoke as we moved through the ground level, travelling as a group. It appeared the others were just as wary of separating as I was while we systemically checked each room we came across.

The estate appeared to have weathered the recent run of earthquakes with minimal damage, small cracks appearing in some of the walls, but nothing suggesting the foundations or overall structure had been affected. The items left behind had not been so lucky.

The doors to the storerooms either side of the hall were open, allowing us to see the chaos within. Boxes were strewn all over the floor, their contents left to spill out. It was the same level of chaos when I reached the common room, chairs and tables upturned, the televisions fixed to the walls with screens smashed, games and books once enjoyed by the patients scattered everywhere.

‘This was not caused by an earthquake,’ said Nick as he surveyed the wanton destruction, ‘and there is no way the police would have done it.’

‘Do you think squatters have been staying here?’ Daniel asked.

Squatters. My pulse quickened. What if they were still inside? I cast out my senses once again, but still found no sign of any occupants, squatter or otherwise.

‘Could have been vandals I guess,’ said Andie, skirting a broken table.

‘Long way out of town to come just to break stuff,’ said Celeste.

‘It was all over the news after this place was shut down. Any number of people could have come out here once the police had done their bit,’ said Daniel.

‘Or the new owners might have decided not to wait to lay claim to the place, and had a little fun throwing things around,’ said Nick with a shrug.

I didn’t care about who else might have been here, vandals or otherwise. I was here for Ethan. I left the common room behind, the others following in my wake, making for the alcove that housed the elevator and the stairwell.

The display above the elevator was blank. Nick flicked a light switch to confirm the electricity had been cut to the entire building.

‘Good thing we brought torches,’ he said with a grin as he pulled one from his back pocket and switched it on.

Daniel did the same as the five of us neared the exit door for the stairwell. Unlike every other door in the place, this one was locked. With no electricity to work the keypad, the door handle didn’t budge when I checked it.

‘Here, let me,’ said Celeste, her voice barely above a whisper as she placed her hand on the keypad.

A soft crackle sounded, and a spark flashed as she sent a tiny bolt of electricity into the unit. The display lit up and the handle moved easily when I tried again. We filed through the doorway, Daniel using the remains of a chair from the common room to prop it open before we started the slow trek down the stairs to the third basement level, torches filling the stairwell with shadows.

This was where my dreams had taken me every night.

Here, I would find out once and for all if there really was something or someone waiting for me.