The next day she met up at the cinema with one of her friends from school named Kennedy. They were going to see a horror movie. According to the trailers and what others told them, it sounded like it will be very good, highly suspenseful, with brilliant acting and captivating music. They both were excited to see it for a while now.

  They paid for their snacks as they scanned their FIDs at the control pad of the vending machine. And again, at the doorway of the movie to gain entrance, as they already purchased electronic tickets on their devices.

  They took two seats next to each other, and the usual pre-recorded video clip began. It played every time before watching any movie or episode whether it is at home or in the cinema. At home this is the only part you cannot skip or fast forward. In public everyone is forced to stand-up, and so they did. If anyone refused, one of the Authorities will storm in and pull you out.

  The clip showed one of the Superiors that stood on an outdoor stage with heavy snowfall. Behind was a wall, and a white banner hung from it that had the usual snowflake symbol. A light and dark blue snowflake in the centre of a circle with a black outline on a white background. It’s the symbol of the queen that reigns, since she likes cold snowy winter weather. Gabrielly sees this symbol so often. It serves as a reminder of how great their queen is.

  The Superior droned on about how wondrous wonderful Crystasia is, “…We thank our magnificent queen of everything she is willing to do for us. That she gave us Crystasia Union. A World of might, height, strength and power. She is our heart, our hand, our shield, our sword, and our soul. This will be represented by the snowflake symbol, and for our citizens to work to the best of their abilities of their thankfulness of her. Crystasia is the one and only place humankind can live and survive in. We would be completely and utterly lost without our queen. We shall forever more be grateful to her...,” For this part, everyone was forced to put their right hand on their heart, and solute with their heads bended down while repeating, “For entirety and beyond. Long live the queen,” The clip ended, the audience sat down again, and the movie finally began.

  A while during the movie, Gabrielle felt if she really needed to use the toilet. She wanted to kick herself for drinking so much of her cooldrink. She couldn’t hold it any longer. She quickly glanced to Kennedy, “Kennedy,” She whispered, “I need to go. I’ll be back just now,”

  Kennedy sat on the edge of her seat with her eyes glued to the screen, “Yes, okay,” She responded absentmindedly.

  She hoped Kennedy registered it. She quickly left the cinema, hurried to the toilets, and went into the first open stall.

  Afterwards, as she swiftly made her way back down the passage from the toilets, excited to continue with the movie, she saw something that shocked her to her very core. Surprised her greatly. Made her boiling raging angry.

  Ilene one of the other girls she knows from school was making out with Robert. Robert her best friend since little. Robert her next-door neighbour. Robert who she already began to develop feelings for, but she was always too hesitant to act on it. Didn’t he know it? Couldn’t he see it? Why had he decided to choose Ilene, this whore over her. She and Robert was friends forever. She was never fond of Ilene. Ilene was always short and distant towards her, while being so chatty and bubbly with everyone else.

  They were so busy kissing, that they didn’t even notice her presence. In between Ilene said, “Robert, this movie is so bad…. Maybe we should just ditch it… My brother has such horrible tastes… Too much action, guns, blood and guts,”

  Robert!” She shouted, “I can’t believe you! We were friends for so long! And you chose her!” She stormed towards them, “I had feelings for you! You knew it!”

  They separated with surprised eyes. This only angered her further. They then turned towards her.

  “Gabrielle let’s be honest here. If you really had feelings for him, you would’ve acted on it by now,” Ilene pointed out in a smug snobbish way.

  Robert turned to face her, “Ilene, not now, okay,” He quietly said to her.

  “But it’s the truth,” She feebly tried to defend herself with this pathetic attempt, Gabrielle thought.

  “Gabrielle, I waited for you so long. You never did anything. Since the day of the garden...”

  She was too angry to respond to them. Her heart began to race. She lost awareness of her surroundings. Her power came. Automatically almost. Uncontrollably. It spilled out. Rapidly. Exploded. Too much to contain.

  This area of the mall shook with the energy of an earthquake. But she stood solid, fixed on the ground. Parts of it broke. She smelt flame. Next there was an extra-ordinary strong rapid wind. She caused it all. In the far distance people screamed, shouted and ran away. She felt herself collapsing. Her legs gave in. This bought her back to her present.

  She slowly looked up. She noted the excessive destruction. Tears filled her eyes. She began to cry intently. Her body shook. She was incredibly weak. She felt too faint to stand up. All she could do is sit amongst the rubble. She was fully surrounded by many Authority members. Every one’s FIDs were directed towards her. A light electric blue beam came out of their devices that formed a semi-transparent shield with many hexagons. This barrier is what protected them from her.

  “This girl must be locked up instantly,” One of them said.

  “The Superiors must be notified at once for intervention,” Another one said.

  “Or maybe even the queen herself,” A third said.

  Someone stepped forward that she instantly recognised, “It’s okay,” He said from behind the impenetrable circle of Authorities and their shields, “I’ll take her,” While the Authority members are dressed in navy-blue, the Superiors dressed in silver, he was dressed in a black uniform. The same circular snowflake badge was pinned to the top right of his shirt that the Authorities and Superiors also had.

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  “Are you sure? She’s dangerous,”

  Her brother is working alongside them. She can’t believe him. Is this what he was up to this entire time. She’ll never be able to forgive him. Trust him. He was never on a journalism apprenticeship program, or at the Centre. After all this time he did this. Her gut feeling hasn’t deceived her. She was right. She knew it.

  “Corban, what are doing here? Why?”

  He glanced at her, and then again at all the Authority members, “I don’t know what this girl is talking about. She’s probably confusing me with somebody else. I can handle her. Let me take over from here,”

  The Authority members tapped their FIDs with their other hand in unison. All the beams and shields retracted back. As soon as the barriers was gone, he came closer, pulled out a syringe with a light yellow almost white cloudy milky content, and injected it into her, “Gabrielle, I’m sorry, but I have to do this,” He whispered in her ear.

  This caught her by surprise. The effects of the substance appeared instantly. A great tiredness consumed her. She might have been able to fight it if she was stronger. If she hasn’t let out so much of her powers. It left her no choice but to surrender and drift to sleep.

  ***

  She woke up from a deep sleep. She still felt drowsy, as if she wanted to sleep more. In the background, she heard a faint smooth hum along with the subtle smell of leather. She slowly opened her eyes and took in her surroundings. She lay spread out across a back seat. She can’t remember how she ended up there. Her mind was blank and disorientated. It took her a while to trace back her steps.

  She now recalled the last thing that happened. Her brother injected her with a strange, milky substance. She didn’t know if it was from the substance or the sudden realise of power, but she felt numb and partially paralysed, as if moving would be difficult.

  Although she struggled, she slowly and steadily sat up. It took a lot of energy. She fought against the remaining effects. Her head spun, heart raced and sweat crawled down her back from the movement.

  “You’re awake,” Her brother said from the front, “It warn off surprisingly quickly,”

  No, it hasn’t. You don’t know how hard this was, she thought. Everything in her mind screamed to lie back down and go to sleep. But she can’t. She needed to know what’s going to happen to her. And besides, she doesn’t want to appear as weak.

  She now realised she was in a sky-glider. They come in many sizes, and it’s the main mode of transport the Authorities, Spies, and Superiors use. This one is smaller, with a long seat at the back for three people and two singular front seats. This is where her brother sat by the control panel. It contained a touch screen, along with many bottoms, dials, and switches, which seemed incredibly complicated to operate.

  As its name suggests, it glides in the sky above the trains, buses, and trams that the regular citizens use. It is also much faster and connected to all the indestructible cameras throughout Crystasia. She always wanted to ride in one of those when she was younger but never had the opportunity to. So, she needed to make the most of it. After taking a break from sitting up, she shifted over on the cream leather seat to the nearest window. She gazed out at the scenery from above.

  Her mind was still hazed and fogged. She was unable to summon the right feelings of anger and shock that her brother worked alongside these people. This only annoyed her, “I can’t believe you’re working with the Authority members,”

  “Gabrielle, I am not, but the little act was necessary. It was the only way for them to let you go. What I am wearing is an official uniform of the Spies that I unofficially acquired,”

  “Then why were you with them? Why did they allow you to take me?”

  “I can’t tell you this right now,”

  This response annoyed her further, “Where are we going? Or aren’t you allowed to tell me this, too?” She tried her best to put on her most snotty tone in her semi-drugged state.

  “I can’t take you home, as you will eventually be spotted there,” Corban said, “I’m trying to rake my mind for someplace safe and secluded,”

  This would be risking a lot. Now, she felt somewhat guilty that she was so rude with him for so long. After everything she did, he’s willing to sacrifice so much for her, “Why? Why are you doing all this?”

  “You’re my sister, and I won’t be able to live with myself if you got locked up,”

  She again recalled the excessive destruction she caused, “Aren’t you afraid of me?”

  “No, I’m not,” He seemed to speak the truth.

  She was confused. Anyone in their right mind would be very afraid of her, “Why? You saw what I did,”

  “Gabrielle, I’m not afraid as I’m a Sorcerer too,” He plainly and simply admitted just like that.

  “Why haven’t you told me before,” She asked taken aback. Why did he reveal it to her only now?

  “You were so closed off to me. Distant. It never felt right. Before the day at the garden party, I didn’t know you were a Sorcerer too,”

  “Well, do you blame me? You had your ridicules cover up story about the journalism program. You never went there at all, did you. You were at the Centre,”

  “Yes, but now I also work there,”

  Everything began to make much more sense, “So why didn’t you ever visit or respond to anything I sent?”

  “You know why. The Authorities and Spies go through everything. As for visiting, it took me a while to feel up to it, especially with Aunty Ruby’s prodding and probing, and I would hate to lie to you and father,”

  It began to feel like the relationship she and Corban used to have before everything went down, “I want to go to the Centre. Take me there,” She wilfully and confidently requested.

  She was curious to see what’s really going on down there. She needed to find out for herself. And she desperately needed to learn how to control her powers. She never wanted to do anything like this ever again. Although she was raging angry at Robert and Ilene for making out, wanted them to stop, and maybe even had a desire to harm them, she never wanted to cause such immense destruction. She hoped she hadn’t injured or killed anyone. She felt very guilty.

  “I think it’s the best choice. There they will help you,” Corban said, then he changed the direction of the sky-glider, which meant he was really intent for them to live in isolation.

  “Will my family be safe? Won’t the Authority look for me?” A vision played through her mind of the Authority storming into her house against farther and Aunty Ruby’s will, turning everything around, and interrogating them about her whereabouts.

  “Remember, I took you away. So, they will believe I’m dealing with you,”

  “If that’s the case, why should we live in isolation. Can’t we go home,”

  “They will see you, and it will jeopardise everyone,”

  She’s now slowly beginning to connect the dots, “So you acquired your uniform and this sky-glider from the Centre?” Does her father or Maxwell know about the Centre? “Is the Centre almost like a secret network?”

  Corban began to laugh out loud. Such ridicules childish behaviour. She glared angrily at him. He swallowed his laughter as soon as he realised this, “Gabby...Gabrielle, yes, I did get the uniform and sky-glider from the Centre, but if you think the Centre is a secret network then you’re making a giant mistake. You won’t fair very well with that idea.

  “We don’t participate in any form of rebellion anyhow, just to make things clear. The Centre is a place where Sorcerers can train, improve, and control their powers. It gives us tools to cope better with daily living, as well, clearing our perception about life so we can approach certain situations more logically. We ultimately help Sorcerers from summoning their powers when feeling certain strong emotions. Most find Sorcery to be a somewhat straining experience,”

  “But how were you then able to get the sky-glider and uniform from the Centre?”

  “We have these resources on hand to extract Sorcerers such as yourself from troubling situations,” He explained.

  She then realised the sky-glider slowly began to descend.