Emotionless: (Prototype: Zero book 1) Read online

  “Class crashing isn’t really your thing,” He said jokingly.

  “I wanted to have dinner with you and Nixon and Donte,” I stated in a hushed tone.

  “You never participate in family meals.”

  He wasn’t wrong. Whenever they asked me to sit with them for dinner, I would usually cringe on the inside and revert into the peaceful bliss of my safe haven. The bedroom. I was an unexpected guest for dinner and only came out when it pleased me or if Hopper was home. He would then carry me out and plop me down to sit with everyone at the table. It wasn’t a thing I enjoyed because my twins seem to enjoy pranks when least suspected. It made dinner exciting for them and was traumatising for the rest who wanted to eat their food in peace.

  “I want to.”

  “Alright,” he smiled warmly and released his head pat. “I will make sure I leave work early to cook something nice.”

  “Dragon eggs,” I suggested.

  “No.”

  Slumping shoulders, I looked away, and Isilies softly laughed when he stood. He went to the stragglers who were flustered and distressed over the ordeal with crystals. Simply put it, the ones who aren’t that great but take the class because it is mandatory.

  “Can I take yours?” a girl beside me, one I haven’t seen before sat in the open chair beside me. Her eyes looked everywhere but at me. “You’re a middle grader. Scary.”

  I see. I didn’t sneak into any class. What I snuck into was the age thirteen class Isilies was teaching. I could blend in, considering that I am incredibly small and slender. However, my name and face are unfortunately wildly known.

  She has long black hair tied back into a ponytail, straggly pieces that were sticking out from the sides of her ears. She has a button nose, leering eyes of a snake, very squinty and high cheekbones and narrow jaw. She looked different. It wasn’t an ugly different or a bad different. She was utterly different in her own way. She kept glancing at the stone on the stand and then at her not so great one. Hers is clumpy, uneven and unrealistically horrible. A four-year-old who was chiselling with one hand only could do better than this.

  “No cheating, Maya,” Isilies said with his back turned to the blackboard. “You will be evaluated honestly with an honest creation.”

  “I am going to drop out,” she mopped. “I am not good at anything!”

  “Not with an attitude like that,” Isilies said with a grin. “You’re young. Your magic will come to you. Be patient.”

  “Patience is not the key when you’re a mage. It is what gets you killed.”

  “Maya!” Isilies furrowed brows with irritation, but she already jumped out of her seat and ran for the door before she could get a lecture. “Students these days. Giving up before they can get started.”

  “She took my crystal,” I said dully.

  “Only because you let her,” Isilies said. He was in his annoyed teacher mode.

  “Is it wrong, giving someone false hope?” I casually asked while I drew a rune on the table.

  “In this world, yes. . . Moreover, what is with all this talking? Not that it isn’t a good thing.”

  With a shrug, I swung the pack over my shoulder and let Isilies clean up his room. The bell chimed just in time for class to end. Yawning, I walked the packed halls, students were coming out in groups and was pushing and shoving as they talked adamantly. Some even walked with throbbing white veins and blue runes that are vibrating to life on their body. Tugging on my sleeve, I weaved through the groups as if I was invisible. Slipping through tight spaces with my head bowed down, no one knew who I was, as I glanced up at the stairs. I wanted to see if the man from the organisation was there, but instead, I stepped down into the cafeteria with the others. Charlie called me over, and I complied.

  “Hey, Frosty, your brothers have been quiet all morning. Maybe you can snap them out of their funk!” Charlie spoke cheerfully. I looked at Donte and Nixon, and they looked in another direction. They haven’t touched their food as well. Charlie must have noticed the awkward tension because she tried to bring up a conversation. “I learnt of memory potions today in class. It was epic!”

  “Yeah,” Lolli perked up. “I used to love potions class with memories. Are you up to creating a memory potion?”

  “Small dose,” Charlie nodded. “A potion that lets you remember anything from the day before.”

  “Childs play,” Nixon snorted, and Donte nudged his shoulder.

  “I bet the both of you have stronger memory potions. Don’t you?” she asked. Donte and Nixon nodded slowly and looked back towards the table. “What kind of ones? Are there any that they will teach in class?”

  “No,” Donte scoffed, and it made Nixon tweak a smirk. “And we only have one. It shows you your forgotten memories, but if you have forgotten a lot of memories, there are side effects.”

  “Like?” Kent asked.

  “Vomiting. Internal bleeding. Coma. That sort of stuff.”

  “Why do you have it?”

  “Why wouldn’t we?” they countered.

  I rolled my eyes and done something unexpected when we finished eating. I decided to follow Charlie around for the day. She was excited to hear and cheerfully dragged me down halls, up and down stairs and made sure that when I went to her class that I sat next to her and Lollie. It was nerve-wracking to be around a large group that wanted interaction. It made me realise how much I missed my classroom dearly and was counting down the hours until midnight.

  Unfortunately, I said an idiotic thing today and wanted dinner with the family. Hopper, flustered, was demanded to sit and not move a muscle while Isilies and I cook. By cook, I mean create a catastrophe because I have never cooked a day in my life. I had magic runes, crystals and potions to do that along with a wonderful house and an older brother as well as Hopper. While Isilies kneaded the dough for pasta sheets, he told me to spice and herb the mince for meatballs. Staring intently at the spices, they all sounded foreign to me. I lifted a red powder one, popped the lid, took a sniff, and it tickled my nose. It was burning.

  Maybe this is hot.

  With the bowl filled with raw red mince with blood that was slipping down to the bottom of the glass, I tipped the powder, the lid puffed off, and half the powder spilt inside. Puffing cheeks, I looked to Isilies but he was obliviously kneading dough and Hopper couldn’t see what was going on, even if he did crane his neck. Wiping brow that ran with sweat, I grabbed this herb thing and shook some flakes in and tried to conceal the red powder by squishing it with the mince and green things. Isilies then showed me to the board with small bowls with onion, garlic and some raw vegetables that needed chopping. Glancing at the board, I lifted the knife by the handle and waved it around casually as I grabbed for the garlic. Hopper, with a strangled cry, instantly appeared from behind me and grabbed my wrist.

  He looked distraught. I haven’t done anything wrong, so I was confused as to why he has stepped in all of a sudden. I have then been pushed aside back to the meat so that I could roll them into balls. Hopper chopped, and Isilies flattened and created. By the time that I rolled the meatballs and placed them into the egg and then crumbs, Donte and Nixon came home. The laughter was gone from faces and darkened circles under their eyes.

  “Good afternoon! Do you want to help make dinner?” Isilies chirped.

  “Uh . . . we don’t . . .”

  “Please,” I looked up for a second while I held the bowl with some mince stuck to the sides. My hands seemed glued together, disgusting and cloggy from all the rolling. Donte had a resigned look in his eyes, and I turned back to go to the sink and murmured, “Thank you.”

  I find that the more Donte and Nixon change into the quiet brothers, the more I miss their antics they always got up to. It was weird, but they are behaving more like me, and I don’t like it.

  “Oh, Eileen, can you get the roasted pumpkin and potatoes out of the oven please,” Isilies spoke. He craned his neck around to say it before he played with the individual pieces of shell pasta.

&n
bsp; Nodding, I wiped my hands after washing, moved around Hopper who was over the top and to the side of me who was stirring the sauce with the meatballs in it. The onions burned my eyes.

  I opened the door, and heat wafted in my face and singed eyebrows. Leaning inward, I clamped hands on either side of the tray handles and regretted it. Stiffened jolts tightened around the tray and heat peeled at my hands as I stood. Hopper glanced to my side and shouted my name. He surprised me, I let go of the roasted vegetables, and they clattered to the floor. Oozing bubbling oil sleek and shiny washed over the tiles, and then I have suddenly been pushed aside. Hands lifted and a worried Hopper before me was staring at my red raw hands. They had a red line of the tray that went along palms. One was mingling with my old scars from the wrong rune.

  “Why didn’t you use the mittens!” he exclaimed.

  Mittens?

  “Shit,” Isilies stopped what he was doing and ran the cold water for me. Hopper placed my hands underneath, and the burning sensation washed over and made me feel better. “Here, I will go –”

  “We can,” Donte and Nixon came out to take in everything. “Come here,” Nixon grabbed my arm softly and released me away from the water. The burning tingling feeling came back and was burning worse than ever.

  Taking me into their lair, Donte was already in a cooling fridge with various racks of potions that were lined with sticky labels. Nixon wanted me to sit down on his bed, but I refused, as I stared at the crumbling messy ball of sheets that were in a lump. Instead. I stood in the centre where it looked the safest. It was evidently the only space that was the cleanest, while piles of clothes and weird ornaments that had lingering magic residue were placed in areas that could potentially cause mass destruction.

  “Eileen, have you been alphabetising our fridge again?” Donte asked.

  “No . . . why?”

  “No reason,” he spoke while he stared into their potions fridge.

  “Hopper flipped out so bad,” Nixon chuckled, a sound I haven’t heard in days.

  “Hmm, yeah. Reminded me of that time Eileen hurt herself in the park,” Donte agreed as he lifted up a test tube and swirled the darkened green colour and frowned. “Poison or healing?”

  That is worrisome. Placing my life on the line for brothers who don’t know what their potions are.

  “I hurt myself?” I asked while Nixon put cooling aid on my hand.

  “Yeah. You broke your leg falling off the playset in the park so grandfather and . . .” he narrowed eyes for a second and a pained expression for a moment came before it let up to the worried brother look. “Grandfather rushed you to the hospital. Hopper didn’t seem as if he cared less that Donte spilt the potion on me accidentally while I tried to aim for Isilies.”

  “I said sorry, brother!” Donte whined, launched himself at Nixon and gave him a bear hug. “I would never hurt you intentionally. You are my strings. You hold me together with our masterminds! I wouldn’t be Donte without a Nixon!”

  “Never going to forget,” Nixon said dramatically.

  What I fear for their relationship is beyond brotherly affection. However, that is how Donte and Nixon have been since birth. Donte was correct. There wouldn’t be a Donte without a Nixon involved.

  “Why are you quiet around others?” I asked.

  Glancing at one another, Nixon crawled closer and tended to my hands while Donte stared into my eyes. The strange silver liquid was warm and swirled inside.

  “We aren’t safe to be around at the moment,” Donte replied. “We try to keep quiet so we don’t instigate any drama that can involve the family. Especially you, Eileen,” he murmured. The red heat was climbing up his cheeks as he stared intently at the potion in his hands.

  Nixon who was tending to my hands glanced up a moment at Donte before he rolled his eyes. “So, fucking boring doing nothing,” Nixon mopped. “78 times I could have tormented mages today and 4 times I could have caught Hopper.”

  “You’re telling me,” Donte dragged a hand through hair and exhaled dramatically. He gave Nixon the special potion I hoped he deemed wasn’t poison. “But we have to.”

  “Why?” I persisted after Nixon rubbed the cooling liquid on and then bandaged them up. “I don’t want you two to change. It is nauseating.”

  “Eileen!” they wailed.

  I wasn’t expecting it. How they launched towards me with adoration. I went rigid and raised hands, and it happened again. It was something that resembled the gears of time, as it warped into focus. My brothers stopped in mid-air, the gleam of diabolic mischief was resonating off of their faces.

  Sidestepping, I blinked slowly, time sped up, and they both thumped on the ground.

  My brothers are demons. I thought bitterly as I left the room.

  Chapter 21.

  Eileen – Frost family.

  The more I want to learn more about my grandfather the more I am thrown for a loop. Not safe, the word I have heard from my brothers, Donte and Nixon as well as Lawliet. Spiralling out of control, I decided to fix the problem beforehand, and that is to figure out why everyone is rigid and tense when I see them as if they can’t say things aloud because someone is listening. I find it somewhat frightening and do believe that somehow, somewhere, someone was listening into conversations and was trying to pin something horrific together with a needle and thread.

  I have to find out before the calamity hits, and I stand in the centre of a broken storm under knowledge, confused and was having no recollection as to what has happened and how.

  It couldn’t be any more perfect of timing, as my brothers got sick from eating the meatballs. Mouths were burning, and eyes sprung with tears. All three stood, excused themselves and pushed and shoved each other to the bathroom while they screamed, ‘It was delicious, Eileen’. I found it to be horrible and probably the only one, as Hopper sat, back straight and ate the meatballs whole. He seemed to enjoy it without lying. That or he has a brilliant poker face.

  While they agreed to not go to school and sleep after dinner, I snuck out near midnight. Walking silently down the flight of stairs, I noticed the sudden drop in temperature from inside the home that had the warm fireplace that flickered away and resonated heat. It was a comforting warmth I didn’t want to step out of but had to. I have to know what Lawliet intends to talk with me about. At this second, I doubt it has anything to do with my grandfather and more of the lines of where he has been and possibly, why my brothers have been so quiet lately.

  Standing at the entrance to the cafeteria, I blinked slowly, noticed the greyish blurs lift from the ground, walls, and roof, as if they have been waiting for me. Swallowing hard, I stepped inside and felt the presence of death all too clear as I walked to the other side of the room. The ghosts moved in a floaty way and were shimmering in and out of focus. Their eyes that are filled with so much despair that it was suffocating.

  Throat clamped up, but then I remembered what Mika told me, how they wouldn't hurt me, they just want me to understand them. I Murmured my apologies and paced myself as I moved fast until I got to the other end. Turning back around, I noticed them in passing as they shrunk through the walls and floors. However, one, in particular, stood in the centre, the same one who came to me the first time. The one Lawliet calls ‘stalker’.

  Hissing a soft breath out, I went up the stairs and stood in the hallway that one of the organisations minions was at earlier this morning. It seemed darker. I realised that it was because no green light bobs in the middle as per usual. Only the slither of silver light was coming from the open door of the classroom. That is suspicious as well. The door closes after it is open by itself. For it to stay open, wide open, it doesn’t feel right to me.

  Shuffling forward, I stared directly at the moonlight when a shadow walked past. Going rigid for a second, I leant forward, almost at the door. Taking a deep breath in, I sucked in the crisp cold air and was about to call his name when I rounded the corner but froze in time.

  I rarely show any type of expres
sion or at all. Therefore, for the air to exhale harshly, shoulders to drop and face slackened, I took a step backwards and wanted to run because I didn’t want to believe.

  Inside the room, the curtains billowed and flapped in the wind. Chairs and tables pushed alongside the back wall and were neatly stacked. The ground shunned a vibrant blue and swirled with unwanted magic I wanted to break and disconnect. As inside the circle and was brimming with power is the last person that I expected to see. Their faces hard as stone, eyebrows narrowed and were withering with determination. Jaws were tight and eyes shined silver, as they both stared intently at me as if I was the intruder.

  Chapter 22

  Eileen – anger.

  Ever since I could understand and comprehend sentences, I have known my mum and Dad would disappear for lengths at a time and that I shouldn’t be sad because the reason they’re gone was to keep us safe. It is what kept me going when students whispered their rumours of broken family, abandonment and so and so. That Mum and Dad are gone to protect their family from breaking. I forgot when I stopped believing what I was saying. I suppose it was with the many missed birthdays, how empty I felt, even knowing I was surrounded by adoring brothers and Hopper. Maybe it was because they promised to keep my family safe but didn’t look hard enough for grandfather when he went missing. It could even be when I broke a body part, and they walked past having no recollection that I was even there.

  I tried. There was no denying how much I tried to convince myself that my parents were doing this to make us happy. That one day they will come home and never leave again. It was wishful thinking, as every time they came back, I would believe that they would stay. Days or weeks, never months will pass, and their bedroom door would be open, sheets properly tucked in and made, and they will be gone. It was inevitable, so when I stopped caring when they left or when they came back, was when I could walk past that room without the emptiness and sadness.

  However, this time I was surprised. Not because my parents were here, but because they were in my classroom. Surprised because they activated a rune in the centre of the room, a bad one that is illegal. Surprised because in that rune with them was Lawliet, and he was on the ground asleep while my parents shifted through his memories. One sliver of a detail at a time.