Chapter Six - Training Day

As I slowly opened my eyes I felt something on me. When they finally adjusted to light and focused I noticed Paige was in the bed with me, lying on my chest. I stared for a moment, not sure if it was actually happening or if it was just a dream. Once I finally decided it was real I chose to ignore what I had thought about the night before and placed my arm over her, cuddling closer to her before closing my eyes and picturing all that went on between us the previous day. Maybe it was going to be a lot of work. Maybe we'd have to continue hiding it. Maybe there would be quite a few times where we'd be doing things and be interrupted but I felt happy with her and perhaps that's all that really matters in a relationship. However, I still didn't know exactly how she felt about me. For all I knew I could have been nothing more than a time killer or a toy to her but I assumed I would find out soon enough.

Shortly after Paige also began to wake. Wiping her eyes and stretching before pausing, obviously forgetting where she was for a moment. A few seconds later she smiled before resting her head and hand back down on my chest. "Morning Lukey." she said lightly. "Ehh..morning." I replied, still a little unsure as to how she got in the bed without me waking as I was a rather light sleeper usually. She leaned up and looked at me. "Yeah. You're a little surprised to find me here I guess." I looked back at her. "Just a tad." I responded. "I was hoping you'd still be up by the time I was finished but when I came in you were sleeping like a rock and looked cute so I just carefully hopped in with you. Hope I haven't really scared you or anything. She lay back down clinging to me tight. "No," I responded. "I've been a little confused and shocked but I'm starting to get used to it quite frankly." She chuckled slightly. "I'm sorry. I've been worried. I wasn't sure how to go about all this, I tried my best not to scare you off but I'm really struggling to keep away now.." I remained silent for a short moment to decide if I should go along with it or be blunt. "Do you like me?" I asked. "Like properly?" There was an long and awkward silence as I waited for a response. She then moved herself to lie on top of me and leaned her forehead against mine, wrapping her hands around the back of my neck. "No, I don't like you." My heart sunk completely for a minute in disappointment and confusion. Before she then said, "Luke. I love you." I suddenly felt the love and happiness pour back into me. Just before I could speak she added, "I know we've literally known each other for barely even 2 days, but I knew from the second I heard about you that I was going to like you, a lot. I don't see why I can't love you after only a short time. Sometimes you just know and I believe I know." She kissed me and I kissed her back, wrapping my arms around her. "Well..I think I also know. I love you too Paige.." She smiled, blushing as she did. "You look really cute when you blush." I told her. Which made her blush even more. Before clinging to me tightly. "You have no idea how relieved I am to here that. I was really concerned about what would happen." I laughed a little before simply lying in silence with her for a little while as we both took in the moment.

"I have a question though." I stated. "Do we have to keep hiding it from everyone? Because that's worked out pretty bad so far.." She chuckled. "I know. I'm sorry about all of that. Of course we don't. I'm aloud to love whoever I like thank you. I just didn't want anybody to know about it in case things didn't go according to plan and you ended up being scared off. I don't want people thinking I'm anything like my sister." I sighed in relief. "Thank god. That makes everything so much easier." I replied. She laughed again saying, "Oh, you're so cute." She snuggled up, burying her face into the side of my neck. "I wish we could lie here all day but your training is important and the sooner you can manage your powers the better." I had got so caught up in the idea of Paige and myself together I'd almost forgot what I was really here for. "Oh yeah, I forgot about that. Well, if it makes things any better I don't want to kill you as revenge anymore." I said. She smiled deeply. "I'd certainly hope not." she replied, snuggling even more.

As I sat up to get out of bed she tugged on my arm. "Nooo, please. Just a few more minutes." I smiled, cuddling to her and kissing her head. "Okay okay." She looked so content, I hadn't seen her like this before but it was nice. Feeling like I was the reason for someone being so happy made me happy too. "So. What 'powers' do I supposedly have?" I asked. "Well. That I don't know. I can sense you have them and strong ones at that, but not what they are. It will be an exciting moment when we find out." she replied. "What can you do?" I queried. "A few things. Mine are mostly based on natural elements like lightening, earth, water, fire and so on." I paused for a moment picturing the moment she lit up the trees in the forest. "That's pretty cool." I said. "Although slightly predictable." She looked at me and poked my face harshly. "Hey. That's not fair. I can do loads of things you'd never expect." I smirked back rubbing my face. "I was only kidding. Calm down." She blushed lightly before saying, "Sorry Luke."

"Right, come on you." I said. "You were the one who said this was important so we should get going." She grumbled before slowly dragging herself out of bed as I did as well. "Fine. I have lots to do today as well." She stated. We both grabbed our clothes, threw them on and straightened ourselves out. Paige walked over to me wrapping her arms around my neck and kissed me. "I'll see you later then. My uncle will be coming to fetch you soon. He'll be working with you, until you manage to get somewhere then I'll take over. Bye bye." I kissed her back, holding her waist. "Alright, see you Paige." She smiled before leaving the room. She really was perfect. I felt like I could be happy with her for a long time. I tidied my hair and cleaned up the room a little to pass some time.

Not long after I had finished, Paige's uncle Torro had arrived for me. "Shall we go then?" He asked gesturing towards the door. I nodded and followed him out. We walked to a large room with weaponry and armor hanging on the walls all around it. "This is our training room. It's mostly used by the castle guards to improve their skills but sometimes we will train groups of villagers to defend and fight here as well." He said. I looked at him listening carefully. "Not everyone around here has powers and those who do are usually low leveled in terms of skills. However, I have been informed that you have very high level potential and basically my job is to see if I can help you to learn how to use your skills at a basic level then my niece will help you after that. It should be easy for you to use them after the first time." I nodded. "Yes. She told me about that." I said. "Good." He replied. "Lets get to work then shall we? What I need you to do is just go stand in the middle of the room, you need plenty of space around you." I walked to the center of the room remaining quiet. "Okay, now you need to completely empty your head, this is the best way of doing it." He stated. This was a lot easier said than done though. After all I had encountered and been through in the past few days it was difficult to simply forget it all even just for a moment. Thoughts kept rushing through my mind no matter how much I tried to relax. "How about looking out that window at the far end of the room." He pointed towards it. "Just focus on the clear sky and it should help you keep a clear mind." Eventually the racing visions in my head began to fade and I could relax a little more. "Good. Now just imagine there is a force of energy surging through you body. Forcing itself through every cell in your body. You'll start to feel weighed down and sluggish but empowered. Perhaps imagine something which gives you a strong emotion. What emotion that is, is your own choice." That only thing that came to mind was Paige. The mysterious girl, the reason I was standing right in that spot, the one who I loved so intensely, yet was still so much like a stranger to me. As I did I felt the exact way Torro had explained to me. "Now just let it swallow you whole!" He shouted. "Embrace it! Take all of it in! Imagine you are unstoppable force! Go with whatever your heart tells you to!"

As I opened my eyes I felt like there was a strong breeze whirling round me. The room appeared to be nothing but an intense bright white light. My body seemed to take over, doing what it wanted and I had next to no control. I heard Torro's words over and over but they were but a mere echo. Suddenly I felt myself lash out and the white light turned into the most vibrant red and orange mist shortly before completely disappearing. As I snapped out of the mood I was in I realised there were purple and black smokey flames covering odd spots of the room I stumbled back a little, unsure of what I had just done. Just then Torro fired are large ray of light from each of his hands which appeared to extinguish whatever I had created. He paused in silence with an extremely alarmed look on his face before running out the door. I panicked, not knowing what had happened and tried to follow him but for some reason he had locked the door. Clearly I had done something wrong but I had no clue what was happening. I sat on the floor leaning back against the wall breathing heavy. I began doubting that I'd be of any use to them after all. Maybe I'd be asked to leave. Maybe Paige wouldn't care for me any more. Maybe I'd end up worse off than I was to begin with. I sighed heavily looking down at the floor wondering what was going on.

After a while I heard the door unlocking, as I looked over to it I saw Torro return with Paige following him. They exchanged whispers then he disappeared leaving just Paige and I in the room. She walked over to me slowly and kneeled down next to me. "Are you okay?" I looked at her, she looked scared and concerned. "Yes. Why..? What did I do..?" I asked. She shifted a little closer to me. "Listen." She said nervously. "The greatest evil there ever was in this world was an ancient called Verin. He killed billions, it took 100 years of wars until he could be brought down. However, his soul was absorbed through the power of a lesser group of demons who thought they could bring him back. They couldn't but what they did was curse a being from your world with his soul they thought that person would obtain his powers. He didn't but we have recently discovered that after generations passed the curse was passed down through that person's genes. Each new being born from that person's family possessed the gene but it had to pass through many many people before it developed any kind of strength." I starred back at her blankly, confused by her point. "What I'm trying to say is, one of Verin's powers was he could produce poison mists which no ones powers could contain so he could wipe out large groups at a time if they could not escape the area quickly. Nobody since had ever possessed that ability..but..you do Luke.. Not as powerful as his was as you can tell, my uncle was able to control it but if you were to keep practicing I believe it would be just powerful as Verin's was.."

I starred back at her, worried and unsure of what to say. "Luke..your family. They were the ones the demons cursed. Verin's soul is in you.. Which means you have the potential to turn into..quite frankly a nasty piece of work.." I felt a coldness run through me as she basically told me I was some kind of evil villain. "Hey.." I said. "That's not fair..I've not done anything wrong..I haven't hurt anybody..I'm not like that.." She looked at me as if she were about to shed a tear before pulling me close to her chest, cuddling me tight. "I know. I know. You're amazing really but you don't have control over it. At some point..it's likely to just take control of you and there will be nothing you can do to stop it.." I remained quiet in horror at what she was telling me. "I'm sorry. I really want things to be different. All I can do is take you back home.. If you're away from here and not practicing to use your powers the curse might skip you too.." I shrugged off her hugs and looked at her. "That is unfair Paige.. You bought me here.. You told me I had to do this.. You made me care for you.. Now you're telling me I have to go back to the way things were before minus a best friend and minus the girl I love.." She sighed starring down at the floor. "You can't stay..because then it's much more likely it will take you..I'm so sorry for everything but I had no idea of this until now. I want you to stay the wonderful person that you are. That's why you need to go home." I edged back away from her. "There's nothing for me back home now..and you know that." I said. "I don't know what to tell you but you're going home tomorrow." She leaned forward and kissed my head before standing up. "I still love you and that is why you have to go. So you remain the person I love and don't turn into some monster. I know you don't want that either." She walked out the door leaving me close to passing out from my own fear and misery. I couldn't go home, I wouldn't know what to do. How many more things could possibly go wrong in such a short time.

I slumped back up to my room and disappeared under the covers hoping I was having a bad dream and would soon wake up. A little while later I heard my door open and close again. Just as I was about to get out from under the covers they were pulled off of me. It was Paige. She climbed on the bed and lay down facing me, stroking my cheek. "You have no idea how sorry I am." She said. "If I had known I'd never have brought you here. I've wrecked everything for you.. First I take away your best friend then drag you to a strange place only to tell you to leave again. You were right. It is extremely unfair, if I could take it all back and leave you and your friend in peace I would do." As frustrated as I was that she was trying to send me away I still cared for her and so moved closer, leaning my forehead to hers and wrapping my arms round her. "Please let me stay.." I begged. "How do you know for certain what will happen? Things might be fine. I might not even be bad like you say. Why can't I have the same power without having any relation to some curse?" She starred at me with tears in her eyes. "Because it's been so many years since Verin was destroyed and in that time nobody has had that power. All of a sudden you come along. A human. I can feel it. Sense your strength and that is why I know. If you have that power along with so much strength and from your world. It just all adds up." I sighed before turning to face the other way. Paige moved over in front of me again. "Please Luke. Don't act like this. I don't want us to end on a sour note." I looked at her. "You don't even care. If you did you'd let me stay and figure something else out." She kicked my leg hard and I flinched. "Don't you dare say I don't care! Don't you think if there was another way of preventing it I'd do it! There is no other way and I hurts me just as much as it hurts you!" She started crying and I pulled her towards me kissing her nose. "I'm sorry. I'm just angry and upset. I understand there's no other way." I said. "But I will miss you so much and I won't forget about you anytime soon." She kissed me, clinging to my body tightly. "I'll miss you too. You reminded me what love really is and it's amazing. It opens up a whole other side of me that I never knew existed until now. Can we please enjoy the rest of our last day together? I finished all that I had to do today quickly so I had time for you." I wiped away the tears from her face. "I'd like that." I said.

We pulled the covers back over and moved our heads onto the pillows cuddling. "I'd lie here with you forever if I could." She said softly. "Me too." I replied. I took off my shirt to keep cool and threw it on the floor. Paige moved lying on my chest, "This is my spot." I laughed a little wrapping my arms round her. "It always will be." I responded.