Chapter 5

The next day, Aliyah picked up Sasha and together they walked to school. It was again a sunny day with barely clouds on the horizon. Sasha told some weird legend about some guy who founded a clan in commemoration of Leif Ericson who discovered America ages before Columbus did. Aliyah tried to look deeper into the story, there was obviously some sort of underlying message but Aliyah couldn’t find it. Maybe later, she thought.
Their first period, Sasha was introduced to the class. It was surprisingly quick because no one expected a new student. There were barely some questions. Sasha had nothing against that. On the contrary, she felt it was safer if she didn’t have to make up any lies about her parents or her life in general.
After the introduction, the lesson went on. Mr. Fitzroy, the history teacher, was acting strange this time. He didn’t go on with the original chapter but went on with a story about some clan that was created two decades ago. An American traveler went to Scotland and retrieved information and learned of their tactics in battle and their way of fighting. When he returned, he formed a small group of friends who he passed this information onto. They practiced fighting and became one of the most feared groups in the east of America.
‘The reason not many people know about them or that they’re not mentioned in your books is because of a treaty their leader made with the government. They didn’t want to go down in history. No one knows why he wanted this but the government agreed with the terms. Only a few people, including me, know about this group. I thought it was time I told all of you about it. After all, it happened about 200 years ago.’
Mr. Fitzroy walked towards his desk. He was finished and everyone was already busy packing their bags. Mr. Fitzroy opened a file that was laying on his desk and quickly glanced into the class to see if anyone was watching. Aliyah noticed this mysterious behavior but only thought about it for a few seconds after stuffing her pencil bag in her backpack.
‘Class dismissed!’ Mr. Fitzroy quickly closed his file, ‘Miss. May and miss. Mathew, I’d like to speak to you for a moment.’
Claire, who was sitting next to Melissa behind Aliyah, giggled. She whispered something in Melissa’s ear and she joined in with the giggles. Aliyah knew what they were saying but she didn’t mind. They were her friends.
Sasha grabbed Aliyah by the arm, ‘Shall we go?’
Aliyah nodded and as everyone left the classroom, Aliyah and Sasha walked towards the desk of Mr. Fitzroy.
Mr. Fitzroy, dressed in a checkered shirt and brown pants, stood up. He had taken his file and vaguely pointed at the door.
‘I think it’s better if we go somewhere else. Don’t you agree Miss. Mathew?’
Sasha nodded and reached for her bag but was stopped by Mr. Fitzroy’s hand on her shoulder
‘Not here.’ Were the only words said by Mr. Fitzroy.
Sasha nodded again and followed the teacher to the door.
Aliyah hesitated for a moment but she trusted the both so she decided to follow anyways. As they were walking towards Mr. Fitzroy’s office, Aliyah noticed the concerned expression on Sasha’s face. Aliyah couldn’t help but wonder what Sasha was thinking about.
Mr. Fitzroy opened the door to his office after checking the hallway was completely empty.
‘I’m sorry, Miss May, but I can’t explain much. We’re in danger and Elijah is missing.’
Aliyah let out a gasp. She knew Elijah hadn’t shown his face the past week but that he was missing, was new to her.
‘Do you know what happened?’ Aliyah was genuinely concerned. Why? That stayed a mystery.
‘No. Yu-Lin went there for her monthly visit, but he wasn’t home.’
Sasha pulled Aliyah into the office.
‘Maybe it’s best if we discuss this issue inside.’
Mr. Fitzroy nodded and followed the two into the small room. The only furniture in it, were an old file closet, a large desk and a small table filled with files and reports. There were three chairs, one belonging to the desk.
‘Sasha, I think you know what you have to do. I will open you for Miss May.’
‘Of course. Any special additions? Just the usual talk?’
‘Yes. Thank you.’
The conversation made no sense to Aliyah. They were talking about something that had to be done, but what, stayed unclear.
Suddenly Sasha turned around and ran into the wall. Aliyah was baffled because suddenly, it wasn’t Sasha anymore, but a large door. Aliyah’s mouth dropped to the ground. What just happened?
‘Quickly Miss May. We don’t have much time.’
Mr. Fitzroy opened the door. And gestured Aliyah to walk through it. Aliyah was still confused but there was no time for thinking. Mr. Fitzroy almost threw her in the door opening with only darkness behind it.
Aliyah drifted off into it and for a few moments, she was sure this was the end. Until there was a great bright flash of light and Aliyah fell onto the hard ground. She felt a familiar pair of strong hands help her up. Aliyah looked around and met the concerned eyes of Elijah. They were duller than before, but they were as deep as ever.
‘Are you okay?’
Aliyah nodded and quickly took a glance at the rest of the room they were in. It was a large cave. There were several tables with flasks and bottles with dangerous looking chemicals inside them. Behind one of these tables arose a figure. He was dressed in black sweat pants and a brown leather jacket. On his belt, hung a small dagger and a small pouch, probably with the purpose of keeping an amulet of some sort.
Next to him stood Sasha, as usual dressed in tight black pants and a white shirt. They both looked worried.
‘What is going on?’
Aliyah looked around again but couldn’t think straight anymore.
The figure behind the table, walked towards Aliyah. He reached for the pouch on his belt and took out a small stone. It was bright white colored and seemed to give of a warm glow.
‘I’m Wes. Welcome to my humble home. The stone of light has accepted you. No harm will come to you during your stay here.’
Wes smiled. His blue eyes twinkled happily. As he put back the stone into the pouch, Aliyah noticed that the dagger was not of the usual kind. Instead of being straight, it was almost a half-circle. It was an odd shape for a dagger.
Suddenly Aliyah was overthrown by a dizzying headache and would have fallen to the ground if Elijah, who was still standing next to her, hadn’t caught her.
Aliyah let out a terrifying scream of pain and rolled up in Elijah’s arms. The three other companions looked at each other. Their eyes were filled with worries. No one said anything, but they all knew what had to be done.
Elijah carefully picked the screaming Aliyah up and carried her to one of the bedrooms in the cave. After gently dropping Aliyah in the bed, Elijah ran back to the main room, the screams of terror following him. Wes was already busy making a light blue colored mixture. Sasha didn’t have much to do but watch. Wes quickly walked to the room and gave Aliyah the drink. Immediately the screams stopped and on the bed, was now a sleeping Aliyah.
All three let out a sigh of relief. They were finally able to speak.
‘Do you think this has anything to do with Tegus?’
Sasha was the first to talk.
‘I don’t know. Maybe. I’m just worried it’s going to happen again. If that happens I might not be able to stop it. I used the last bit of sphinx blood,’ said Wes.
‘Is there not another mixture you can use?’
‘I’m not sure but I’ll go check right now.’ Wes stood up and returned to his “lab”.
Sasha and Elijah stayed with Aliyah for a little bit longer. Not much was said. They were all worried about Aliyah. There were several explanations for this behavior and every single one of them was terrible in their own ways.
Eventually, Sasha also left the room. She was too stressed and concerned. Elijah stayed behind. He watched Aliyah’s regularly breathing. It was so weird to see her calm after what had happened but Elijah barely cared. After a while, he also left and Aliyah was the only one left in her bedroom.

The next day, Aliyah woke up to the sound of people talking and plates being stacked together. She quickly got dressed and walked over to the main room. Aliyah had enough time to think about what happened and finally sort it out.
‘Good morning everyone!’
Even though the cave only had one small window on one side, you could see it was bright and sunny day.
The three friends looked up.
‘Ah. Sunshine has woken up.’ Wes smiled and continued grabbing the cutlery from the drawer.
Sasha walked towards Aliyah and gave her a hug.
‘I’m so happy you’re alright. I was really worried yesterday.’ Sasha also smiled and directed Aliyah to the table.
The only one who did not greet Aliyah, was Elijah. He just went on stubbornly with grabbing the cups from the top shelf. It was as if he was mad. Elijah took a piece of bread on his plate and walked of in the direction of his room. Just before passing Aliyah he was stopped by Wes’ deep voice.
‘Elijah!’ Wes put down the cutlery, ’You don’t have any reason to behave this way! What is wrong with you?!’
Elijah turned around, his eyes spitting fire.
‘You can’t tell me what to do. If I want to behave like this, then I will. You are not my mom!’
Wes laughed. ’Do you think I even want to be your mom?’
This was Elijah’s breaking point. He threw his plate, with bread and all, at Wes. All his strength went into this throw but like as fast as lightning he pulled out a small dagger and ran towards Wes. On his turn, Wes ducked to dodge the plate, who broke into shard against the wall, and pulled out his curved dagger.
‘I’m protected by the stone of light, Elijah. You can’t hurt me!’
This made Elijah stop. Still mad but defeated, he threw down his dagger and stomped towards the bedrooms, followed by Aliyah.