Chapter 7- The Practice
#8 of Soul
1
Kayden wasn't sure about doing this but he realizes that Emma's right. He needs to learn to control every aspect of his ability since they're still developing. He walks through a field of grass after school instead of home. The place is pretty deserted. This field is on the outskirts of the city with little to no visitors despite its beauty.
He walk around until he sees an old building that looks like it's no place for a fox like him to visit. Kayden adjusts the bag on his shoulder and carefully walks towards the building. It looks old and crumbly. Stone makes up its walls. The doorframe is boarded up and the windows are all smashed. Probably by bricks.
He makes it to the building and looks around. This is where Don and Emma said they'd be but he doesn't see them. Kayden keeps his distance from the place incase there's something or someone lurking inside and circles the place.
The back side doesn't look any better. A few patches of moss and what looks like poison ivy grow all over the back. The back faces the woods. Kayden looks around but still doesn't see his friends. He looks on the ground for footprints but doesn't see any. Just his own.
He looks around. The wind being the only sound filling his ears. He reaches his energy out but doesn't feel any Auras. Kayden keeps looking and something good catches his eye. Through the poison ivy is what appears to be a doorknob. As for how to get to it without getting poisoned, Kayden didn't know. He gets a closer look and eventually sees the frame of the door behind the numerous amounts of vines. One thing he doesn't see though is hinges. Are they on the inside?
Kayden sets his bag down and looks around. No one for miles it appears. He never resorted to violence before, but then again, he's never changed an Aura to white before. Gotta try new things one. He brings his foot back and kicks hard at the door. Sure enough, it opens.
2
Kayden notices how dark it is right away. However, bravery pushes him into the building. He takes a few steps inside and carefully closes the door incase someone comes for him. Other than the barely bright sunlight, it's dark in here. He can see the silhouette of a table, a doorway, and a fridge but other than that, nothing.
He gets an idea he might regret. Kayden reaches into his own soul like he did before. For once, he doesn't like his own color. It's purple; probably because of how scary it is to come to an abandoned house in the middle of nowhere. As he keeps a grip on his own self, his ears brightly light up the room in ominous purple. Kayden can finally see.
The room he's in appears to be a kitchen. A round table sits in the middle of the room. Counters, a sink and some cupboards surround the wall with the door he entered though. On the right is an ironing board and the fridge. Kayden quickly opens it to take a peek. No food. Just some frozen bugs. He closes the door and explores the rest of the house.
Kayden steps through the doorway and the purple light follows him. This room looks like a grand room. A couch covered in dust sits on the left. A TV stand but with no TV is on the right. What really set Kayden off is the piano that rests in the middle of the room.
It's black, with some swirly designs on it that's considered beautiful to Kayden. The keys are covered. The bench only a few feet away. Kayden swipes his paw over it and for some reason, no dust appears. That's weird, he thinks. For an old house, there shouldn't be a piano here. It makes him think that maybe someone does still live here and that he could be trespassing.
A voice makes him jump but he eventually relaxes when he sees it's just Don. "Hey there. I see you've found me and Emma's hiding spot."
3
Don beckons for Kayden to follow him and he does. Behind the couch is another door. Behind that is a small bedroom with twin beds on either side. Emma sits on one of them, going through her phone and writing in a notepad. She looks up when she sees Kayden and smiles. "Hi," she says.
"Hey," Kayden says. He tilts his head when he sees a baseball cap on her head.
"The excuse I made up to get out of the house," Em says. "I told mom that Don and I were going to the baseball game the next town over. I knew it was a good idea to keep this hat."
"I see. It looks good on you."
"Thanks. So, I'm guessing you're kinda freaked out from this spot." She sets aside the notepad and pen she was writing with and stands up. Kayden nods and patiently waits for an answer. "Well, we can explain that."
"Me and Emma found this house while walking around one day," Don says. "I remember waiting for a while in the woods but no one came in. So, we divided to take the place for ourselves."
"Why the piano?" Kayden asks out of curiosity.
"Well, Emma had piano lessons once and you know how hard it is to practice with six other people in the same house as you?" Kayden shakes his head but understands.
"It's hard," Emma says. "So one day, we found one in front of someone's house with a sign that says 'Take Me' and so we took it."
"The wires inside were a bit frayed so we had to replace those but other than that, it's pretty good," Don says with a smile on.
"I see," Kayden says. "So you have an old house in nowhere land, with a grand piano and it smells like death and you two just like to hide here?"
"Yep. That sounds about right," Emma says. "So, you ready to get started on your practice?" Kayden wasn't sure about this, or how he was going to practice his powers, but he nods anyways.
Emma and Don go to the living room and Kayden follows. Emma sits on the couch. After she quickly couchs from the dust, she says, "ok. Don, go up to take and take each other's paws."
"You don't need to tell me twice," Don says. He goes up to Kayden and carefully intertwines his fingers with his. He can see how nervous Kayden is so he whispers, "it'll be ok." Don kisses him on the nose and turns to Emma.
"Alright, Kayden. Do what you always do: read him," Emma then says. Kayden looks his boyfriend in the eyes. His pretty blue eyes. He takes a deep breath and slowly focuses his energy on Don. Deeper and deeper he does, twisting every single thread into his Aura. Suddenly, Don is there but not there at the same time. His whole Aura appears before him. It's completely green with a few dots of purple. The room soon lights up with shades of green and purple, making it brighter than it was when Kayden came in.
"What now?" Kayden asks, unsure of what else to say.
"Change him," Emma says. Kayden only wants to see one color in this whole room and that's green. Concentrating, he rifles through his energy to find green. Surprisingly, it takes a while since he handy used that color in a while. He makes sure the connection between Don's Aura and him and ok and when Kayden sees that it is, he carefully wipes away the purple and gives him the green, filling the Aura to the top.
Don's muscles relax all the way and a smile grows on his muzzle. His tail sways. The purple light in the room disappears, leaving it with only green light. Kayden decides to try something he never did before.
Keeping a firm grip on the Aura in front of him, he searches again and finds the color of affection. Emma sees what he's doing and doesn't tell him to stop. She just sits there, admiring the beauty before her. Kayden slowly wipes away all of the green in Don's Aura. Before Don can question what he's doing, he fills him up with the pink and let's go.
Don let's go of Kayden's fingers, severely damaging the connection but it restrengthens when he hugs Kayden tight and locks lips with him. Kayden closes his eyes and kisses back, murring and rubbing his boyfriend's chest. The room starts to glow pink from Kayden's ears. As the kiss start to turn French, Emma speaks up. "Hey, guys. I know you're enjoying the make out sesh, but we need to keep going."
Kayden feels his energy tug on him for a moment which is why he breaks the kiss. "Are you ok, foxy?" Don asks, concerned.
"I'm ok," Kayden says. His mind swirls and he looses his footing. Don catches him before he falls. "I just... need to sit down." Emma gets up and Kayden slowly lies down on the couch. She presses her palm to his forehead.
"He feels a little warm," she says. "Are you ok?"
"Yeah," Kayden says almost too quietly. He feels his energy stir and weaken. How could this happen? It never has before. "I think... the connection... between me and Don's Aura... might've been severed when he let go of my paws." Don looks at his sister and suddenly looks guilty.
"I'm sorry," he says. He covers his eyes and looks away. "This is my fault. I'm such a terrible person."
"No you're not," Kayden says. "You just... need to remember. I can't... read an entire Aura... unless I'm touching them. My powers... aren't that developed."
"You think you'll be ok?" Emma asks.
"Yeah. I just... need to rest for a while," Kayden says. He doesn't recall at what point sleep consumes him, but it eventually does.
4
When Kayden wakes up, his energy is back to normal. Although, he's a bit thirsty. He could go to the fridge but it doesn't have anything in it. And who knows how the sink is right now. He slowly gets up, his head hurting and his mind feeling as if a thunderstorm is rocking in it.
When his head stops spinning, he looks around and doesn't see Don or Emma. Kayden walks into the kitchen and sees them at the table, munching on takeout from McDonald's. The smell of their pancakes and hash browns fill the room. "Good morning, sunshine," Don says.
"Morning?!" Kayden asks, panicked. He only arrived here at 4pm yesterday.
"Yeah, you knocked out pretty bad," Emma says. "But, we got you some takeout for breakfast."
"Didn't you guys go home yesterday?" Kayden asks. Don shakes his head no and explains a made up story about them going to Kayden's house for the night. Before he could respond, Don reminds him that his parents don't have the number to his house.
"You guys really think of everything don't your?" Kayden asks. He takes a seat next to Emma and she hands him the meal they got for him. A 12-piece chicken nugget with a burger and a large cup of orange Hi-C. Kayden was mostly worried about the drink so he gulped some of that down before he started talking. "So, what happened after I was knocked out?"
"Well," Emma starts out, "after you fell asleep, Don and I knew we were gonna stay the night here. We called our house and we had to call your parents too. Don't worry, they expect you home at noon."
"And you were mumbling something in your sleep," Don says. "And it was kinda creepy."
"Yeah! You kept saying 'The Others are with us'. You said for like a half hour before you went silent." Kayden didn't know how to respond to that. The Others are with us. The only Others he could think of is those from the 5th Wave but that's only a movie.
He told his head and says, "well, I honestly have no idea what that means."
"Nope." Emma sounds a little nervous. Her paws shake a little but she manages to get them under control. Kayden doesn't take this lightly. He ought to make her happy, but she has a reason for being nervous and he wants to know.
"You ok?" Kayden asks, finishing his chicken.
"Yeah. I'm fine," Emma says normally, "I guess I just.... I guess I'm just nervous for some reason even though I have no reason to be. I need to go change hats." She gets up and leaves the kitchen. Kayden's whiskers twitch. He knows better than to believe that everything's fine.
"You alright, buddy?" Don asks.
"No. Emma's hiding something," Kayden says. He motions for him to follow quietly. They silently get up and go into the living room. The bedroom door is slightly open. The boys go up to the door and peek inside. Emma sits on the bed, her tail limp and her paws holding something. Her hat.
"Why me?" she whispers to herself. She gets up and goes to the other side of the room, her back facing the boys, and goes to her backpack in search of her pen. Kayden notices the markings first and gasps.
Light bolt on the right and paw print on the left.
Emma's ears.