Abel Hayes and the dark phoenix

'Shu-what?'

Cain explained. 'Inhumans have different abilities. Shura types usually have enhanced durability and strength. They are unmatched in deadly combat.'

'Really' I replied, trying to look as surprised as possible with the sole purpose of insulting them.

Seth sneered. 'Can't believe it?'

'Nah, its just I think you are right Cain. One of ny powers just awakened, I can literallly smell stupidity.' I said as I pointed at Seth and his entourage in shocked.

Cain snickered and seth growled. 'We got something to show you Smartmouth.'

'My name is Ab-.'

'Whatever. Just come with us. It'll be fun.'

'Seth –' Cain warned slowly.

'Dont tell me you're going to defend your new puppy? Why dont you ket the kid carry his own weight. Isnt he a big, strong monster killer?'

Cain's frown deepened, but he didnt stand in Seth's way as he lumbered towards me.

And as scared as I was right now, I was grateful for that show of respect.

Because there was thing about myself I respected: I relied on no one!

I balled my fist and stepped up to 6'7 giant in front of me. I'll admit, it wasn't my brightest idea.

Because within moments Seth had me by the my collar, lifting me up effortlessly with one arm and laughing as he paraded me around.

The other inhumans didn't just laugh, they pretty much cheered. Most of of them had seen the racket and had come down from their various ilses to cheer Seth on.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Esme peeking through the gaps inbetween her fingers.

Seth pulled me through the rows of crystal statues until we came upon the ugliest one.

I didn't even know what this one was doing here.

For one thing it was made out of metal, not crystal, old rusted, dirty metal. To top it all of it was a statue of an ugly boar.

Seth stopped in front of its rump. I noticed that its butt had been bent open in a weird way, almost like someone had shoved something way to big into it again and again.

And the space imbetween was just large enough for someone's head.....

Cold sweat broke the surface of my neck. 'Why did I have to run my mouth in front of these people? They are all f*cking psychos.'

Realising this, I syarted kicking and punching as hard asI could. But Seth laughed like all they did was tickle him.

He grabbed my belt and held me like a battering ram, it was very demeaning.

Then he put my head next to the boar's a** and prepared to shove it in.

The rump of the statue smelled just like the real thing, and I was thinking – 'Wonderful, It's realistic in all the wrong ways'.

Everyone who wasn't me was laughing, and I was stuggling as hard as I could, begging for the strength I had used to kill the burrunjor, but I just couldnt find it.

'To think Acacius thought he was a true blood,' Seth said as he pushed my head against the boar's rump.

'Yeah, right.' His friend laughed as he pressed my head against the smelly openeing in the metal.

Then Seth syarted pushing my head into the dark hole without any exposure to sunlight. It reeked horribly like rusted metal, and well, what comes out of a boar.

I struggled as much as I could. My miraculous strength still didnt come, but sonething else happened.

I got angry.

I had been angry many times before, but not like this.

The truth was: even though I was trying as hard as I could to be calm, my mother had died yesterday.

I had feelings of guilt, rage, and other emotions I couldn't define.

I wanted so badly to hut something, to make it hurt as much as I was hurting.

Everyone laughed as Seth forced my head into the barrow space. I could feel my skull begin to faintly change shape.

Then the anger inside me exploded.

I shouted, expelling energy in shosckwave from my body like a grenade.

Seth and his friends were thrown off their feet from the sheer explosice force, and every crystal statue around us reacted to my rage, immediately shattering into million pieces.

Then I was sprawled on the ground. The metal boar was no more, I had blasted it into scraps.

There was a buzz in my ears and Seth was screaming behind me.

I turned to see cyrstal fragments levitating in the ear, harshly vibrating in response to my rage.

One of them struck seth so hard in the gut that he crumpled on the ground. His fiends suffered the sane fate: beaten down by pieces of crystal.

Now I alone was worshipped by a thousand crystal fragments singing in the air as chimes did while the audience which was meant to laugh at my humiliation stared in awe. I'll admit, it was kind of cool.

Cain hadnt left. Fortunately, he hadn't been hurt either. He was standing in place, surrounded by the nenacing fragments of crystal with same shocked expression as the other inhumans.

Now, that the danger had passed I freaked out a little, my rage became confusion and panic as alk the crystals fragments fell back onto the ground.

I remembered Cain saying that this was a special grove, and the statues were sacred to them.

I stood up, my knees buckling. And I saw that there were no longer any cheers, everyone was looking at me in horror and outrage.

Amongst them was my little crush: Rachel.

I don't know why her glare was more piercing than the others, but it just was.

Cain began, 'How did you…'

'I don't know.'

He walked me back to the tenth isle while telling the other Inhumans to back off.

After a while, some of the other inhumans from Seths Isle carried him off.

I was on the other end of Cains prolonged stare. And it reminded me of the way I'd look at Vere when he turned his eyelids inside out in the sixth grade.

It made me feel uncomfortable.

'What is it?' I demanded. 'Are you mad at me too?'

'No,' He said, 'I just realised that I want you on my team for the war games.'

Word of the crystal incident spread soon enough.

Wherever I went, campers inhumans pointed and murmured. I jad become the center of attention hours after waking up...

How f*cking wonderful.

i was at lest greatful to Cain for not acting any different. He continied my orientation like nothing had happened and showed me all the other places.

The spirit ponds where spritws of different kinds olayed happily along with the laava obstacle courses.

Finally we returned to the Naiad ponds which sat at the base of the prime ilse, the access point to all the other ilses. 

Herr I decided that I had seen enough.

'You havent shown me the exit yet.How do I get back to the normal world'

Cain frowned. 'Don't you get it, Abel? For you this is the normal world. It is the only safe our kind.'

'Inhumans' I said distastefully.

'So I'm stuck here,' I said. 'That's it? For the rest of my life?'

'No, you might recover your freedom to leave eventually,' Cain said. 'A select few of us only stay until we are powerful enough to survive in the outside world. If you're a beta class inhuman ,you're probably not a really big threat.

Most demons might ignore you for the bigger challenges, so you might be fine with a year or two of advanced training and choose to live in the mortal world the rest of your life.

But for most of us, that'd be suicide. We're stuck here.

In the mortal world, we attract demons once we awaken, and they are relentless. They sense us. They come to challenge us. Most of the time.

Those of us who end up being fortunate never awaken. Believe me, if I told you some names, you'd know them. Most know they are different but cant really figure out how. But very, very few are like that.'

'So demons can't get in here?'

Cain shook her head. 'Not unless they are summoned, no.'

'Why would anybody want to summon a demon?'

'Practice fights. Pranks.'

'Pranks?'

'The point is, the physical entance to the dreamtime is only accessible by our kind. From the outside, mortals explore the mountain and find nothing awry.'

'So… you've been here youre whole lfe?'

Cain nodded. From under the collar of his sweat shirt he pulled a gold necklace with a runestone it.

'I've been here since I was eight,' He said. 'This is a veterans rune for those who have hit the ten year mark.

Cain showed me the way back to the isle of the lost.

'Found you a room,' he said. 'And here, I stole you some apple pie from the bakery.'

I couldn't tell if he was kidding about the stealing part. He probably wasnt.

I said, 'Thanks.'

'No prob.' He sat next to me, pushed his back against the rail. 'Your heads spinning isn't it?'

'I don't belong here,' I said. 'I don't even believe in any of this.'

'Yeah,' he said. 'That's how we all started. We didnt want to believe it too..until we had no choice.'

The sadness in his voice surprised me, because thus far he seemed like a guy who had everything under control.

'So why are you in the ilse of the lost?' I asked.

He pulled a dagger out of his back pocket, and for a second I thought he was going to gut me, but he just tapped the blade with his index finger. 'Less craziness on this side, most here are young and naive, haven't seen the messed up world around us yet.

I figured being the alpha of this ilse wouldn't be soo bad.'

I realized it want Cains intention to call me weak. He seemed to be thinking about alot.

'So do you know your celestial ancestor?' I asked.

'No, none of us do. But I suspect...'

I waited, but he didnt continue.

I took the memo, he didnt want to tell me.

Cain finally looked up and managed a smile. 'Don't worry about it, Abel. All of here understand eachother, and we're mostly good people too.

We take care of each other. After all were family.'

He seemed to understand how crazy all this was to me, and I was glad that atleaat someone did, because he didn't really have to be nice to a nobody like me.

But he had always be warm and welcoming, and the most 'human' person I had met so far.

He'd even stolen me some apple pie, which no one before him had the common decency to do.

I decided to ask him my last big question, the one that had been bothering me all afternoon.

'Seth, from before, said something about me being a true blood.... What was that all about?'

Cain put his dagger away. 'Nothing good.'

'What do you mean?'

He scowled. 'Recently demons have been breaking out from hoth into the mortal woeld at an alarming rate. And the magical fog blinds mortals from their own suffering.

But the deomns wont stop and it wont be kong before even the fog cant hide the death toll.

We would normally be tasked with ending them but its become too dangerous for even us.

Many of us are not content to stay holed up here though, but Acacius and Marmoo will not allow anyone to leave.

They say its because of an acient prophecy that curses any quwst to end the monsters to fail unless it is taken by a true blood. So every who wants to leave has to wait until that one special inhuman arrives.'

'Why would anyone think that could be me?'

'Don't worry about it, kid,' Cain said.

'For now just relax and make yourself at home. Dinner's at six thirty. Someone ought to show you the open dining pavillion.

 I've got somewhere to be,' Cain said flatly.

'You're leaving me?.'

'Yes.' He said unapologetically, suddenlly grinning. 'Ive got a date.'

....

.....