There was a sudden surge of movement, and I awoke with a start. At first, I panicked as I realized I had fallen asleep, but as I looked around, I found I wasn't in that cramped white van. Instead, I was in some kind of swanky private jet.
The cylindrical cabin I was in was short and narrow and had eight large beige seats running in twin rows on either side of the center aisle. Whoever had designed this had embroidered each of the soft padded leather seats with golden thread. Each had small, almost hidden details embossed on its surface. I ran my hands along the armrest and could just make out the shapes of what felt like diamonds. They similarly adorned the rest of the cabin with rich, almost tacky looking accents. Wooden paneling was a common theme along the edges of surfaces and along the walls of the cabin. The floor outside the aisle was a mess of white shag carpet.
My hand went up to my chest, where I found myself strapped into my seat. Unlike a standard seat belt, this restraint had six belts all coming together in the center. I looked out the window to my left and saw that we had just taken off and were rising steadily into the air. I had never flown before. As the gray clouds streaked past the window, I began staring. The plane shook slightly as we passed some turbulence and we flew past the clouds and into the blue sky.
"You're awake." I turned, almost startled, and watched as Lucian walked from somewhere at the rear of the plane to the seat ahead of me and sat down, swiveling to face me. "I had wondered if you might sleep through the night, but it's already well past noon." Lucian said, smiling at me. "If you had bothered to wake a few minutes earlier, you would have saved my aid the effort of carrying you aboard. Sleep well?"
I gripped the belt that held me and looked away from him. "How are you still alive?"
He nodded. "Do you remember when I told you I host a camp for troubled youth? Well, it is much more than that. The organization to which I belong believes that the care and protection of gifted gems is paramount."
I looked over at him with weary eyes. "Gems?"
His blue eyes glinted as he continued to smile at me. "All in good time, my friend, but to answer your question, I will say this: I am not without gifts of my own."
My eyes narrowed. "What are you talking about? And where are we going?"
"First, we have to pick up another student, much like yourself, who will join us at our little camp. She'll be waiting for us just west of here and then we will make the trip to camp Whitestone, where you'll be spending most of your time these next few months."
I frowned at that. I didn't like the idea that I'd be stuck in this place for so long. Though the thought that I had fallen asleep last night and no one had died gave me some small sliver of hope. "Where is this camp, anyway?"
"It lies nestled within the Rocky Mountains, just a few hours' drive from a place called Denver."
"Isn't that in Colorado?"
He nodded. "The city is rather bustling, but the camp itself is well off the beaten trail. I think you'll find it lovely this time of year, with all the leaves changing color, and in a month or two, the ski season will start."
"You make it sound like I'm going on a vacation."
He leaned back in his chair. "Please understand you are not being punished. I just want you to remember that there is more to life than darkness and loss. Camp Whitestone is a place of healing, but despite having spent time among many troubled young students, I will not tell you I know how you feel. I will not say I 'understand' what you have gone through because I could not. You have lost so much and are going through things that are unique to your experience. There is work for us to do, of course, but it is my hope by bringing together you and your peers, you will all find some measure of balance."
I met his glance for a moment before looking away again. I couldn't say I was sure about any of what he said. In the days since that monster tore apart my father, it really felt like they had branded me a killer. I'd spent weeks being carted off from one asylum to the next and being held prisoner because of something I couldn't control. After that, I really had no expectation that things would ever get better. This was the first time anyone actually saw me as a victim of what happened and not just the cause. I sighed. "Is there any food served on this flight?"
He smiled at me again. "We have a few essentials. What can I offer you?"
"I would kill for a hamburger right now, and maybe, like, a soda? Anything with caffeine in it would be great."
***
It didn't take long before we stopped to pick up the other student. Watching from the window, I saw two police cars pulled up on the tarmac. Lucian had gone out to meet them. I couldn't help but stare as the police reached into the rear of one car and attempted to pull out a young woman as she kicked and screamed, fighting them. Lucian shouted at the officers, and eventually he talked the girl out before anyone got hurt.
I didn't know what she had done to make them so angry, but the police seemed glad to be rid of her and soon they took off. Lucian and the girl stood out there on the tarmac for a long time, and I could tell he was talking her down. Even from a distance, I could almost feel her anger, her resentment of the situation. Even without knowing her story, I imagined it would sound very similar to my own.
Before long, they walked onto the plane, and I got my first good look at her. It seemed like her entire outfit looked to be layer after layer of fashion statements. She had torn and faded blue jeans tucked into a pair of tall, uncomfortable-looking boots. Above these was a white tank top with some K-pop band logo on it, with a sheer mesh top over that. She rushed past me and I saw her cling to a black leather jacket as she headed to the rear of the plane.
I kept my distance and did my best to not eavesdrop as Lucian made sure she was comfortable and eventually we took off again. Things were quiet for a long while then, and we just flew ever westward. I found the eraser in my pocket and just stroked my thumb along its rough, familiar surface. Normally I didn't mind the quiet, but after the first hour I couldn't help myself and unbuckled. I walked to the rear of the plane and sat down across the aisle from her. They set this entire cabin up like first class, so we were far apart enough that I hoped I wasn't invading her space. At first I kept to myself, but eventually I looked over at her and tried to break the ice.
"We don't have to talk." I said.
"Good." She didn't even look at me.
"I get that, I do, but I was hoping you might help me with something."
She sighed, "Like what?"
"Well, what I mean is, I don't know why you're here, and you don't know who I am, but we're both heading to this stupid camp regardless, right? So I thought we could sort of team up."
Her purple hair seemed freshly dyed with silver highlights throughout and was so bright that the colors bordered on being neon. She looked over at me with incredulous hazel eyes. "Team up?"
"Um, yeah, being the new person sucks, right? So, I figure it'll suck less if we know at least one other person there."
"That's the dumbest thing I've ever heard." She hugged her leather jacket and looked away from me. I frowned and turned towards the window. "My name's Eli, if you wanted to know."
"Damien."
"I don't want to talk anymore, ok?"
"That's fine. Do you want me to go back to my seat?"
"No, whatever, I, I don't care." She frowned and shook her head. "Just… just leave me alone."
***
We flew for what seemed like forever and the view of the world below us, which had been so flat and rural with wide patchworks of fields, slowly grew hillier. Soon much of the ground below us became broken up here and there by sparse, scraggly looking forests and dense rocky terrain. I could just make out the outline of what was most likely the city of Denver. Though the sky quickly overran with thick, gray clouds.
I walked over to where Lucian was sitting. "Are we landing soon?"
"Soon." He nodded, "Though we won't be setting down in the city if that's what you're hoping, as the camp has its own landing strip. I am wondering about these clouds, however… let me check in with the pilot." He got up and headed to the cockpit, and I wandered back to my seat at the rear of the plane.
"Nervous?" I glanced over at the voice and saw Eli was watching me.
I shrugged. "A lot's been going on with me recently and I guess I just want to be still for a while, even if it has to be in some bizarro summer camp."
She scoffed, "You're not still going on about that nonsense, are you?"
"What do you mean?"
"This isn't going to be anything like that. These people are illuminati or some other X-files nonsense. I don't know what your story is, but I exploded somebody with my mind to get invited here! There's no way I don't end up on some government operating table the second we land."
"Huh. You too?"
She blinked at me. "You blow people up too?"
"What? No! I…" I sighed, "Monsters… monsters sort of just… happen around me."
"What? Like, at random?"
"No, just when I fall asleep."
"Well, ok then." She nodded and pulled on her jacket. "Forget just letting them dissect us!" she almost growled. "Maybe, maybe you can go take a nap and I'll try to figure out what I did the first time and blow up the rich dude!"
I blinked back at her. "You want to go down swinging?"
"Hell yeah!" she stood, working her hands into fists. "I'll try not to hit you, too."
"Wait, just wait a second." She turned to look at me. "What if he is telling the truth?"
"What? You mean, what if he actually runs a camp for, for whatever we are?"
"It's not that farfetched, is it? Not when you can blow people up and I have shadow-monster-powers or whatever!"
"You could just be crazy! You probably work for them!"
"Yeah, we could both be crazy, but it's either believe that Lucian is actually true to his word or hijack a plane! And I don't know about you, but I can't fly a plane!" That seemed to make her hesitate, but at that same moment, Lucian cleared his throat.
We both turned and Lucian was standing there at the far end of the cabin, as he had just stepped out of the cockpit. "Am I interrupting something?"
Eli took a step forward. "Tell me what you are! Tell me what's really going on or, or I'll blow us all to bits!"
"I see." He raised his hands slowly. "I had hoped that you would have waited until orientation, but I can explain. I belong to a group known as the Diamantaire."
"Ha! I knew it! I knew you were some illuminati poser!"
"If you would allow me to continue?"
"Fine, just get to the point!"
"The Diamantaire were originally the first guild of diamond cutters founded hundreds of years ago in a place called Nuremberg. My family can trace their roots to that very city, and our wealth and status is because of our skill in diamond cutting."
"So, you are just a rich weirdo, then?" I asked.
He smiled, "Not quite." With a flick of his wrist, a single rose appeared in his hand.
Eli scoffed, "So what? I've seen magicians do that with entire bouquets of fake roses." Lucian then opened his hand, and the flower lifted into the air and the petals fell away one by one. As each petal fell, they transformed into individual roses themselves and these too began to bloom and fall apart. I blinked as the endless stream of roses caught up in a storm. Suddenly the plane was gone and the three of us stood in a grassy field as the petals flew around us in an endless wave. In an instant, all of that disappeared as Lucian snapped his fingers.
He stood there smiling at us. "Centuries ago, an ancestor of mine, a man by the name of Friedrich Klein, had been given a gift by God, or so the story goes. He possessed a power over fire, and he could bend it to his will, but not without effort. Often, the fires he would start would grow beyond his control, and many innocent people would die. This was the flaw in his power, the innate weakness that eventually led to his death. Devastated by the death of his son, Friedrich's father dedicated his life to learning more about Friedrich's strange power. This led to the formation of the Second guild of Diamantaire, one dedicated to looking for these strange, gifted individuals. Ever since then we Diamantaire have fought to protect these individuals, these 'Edelstein' as we call them, and train them to use their powers for good."
"So, you're not going to dissect us?" she asked.
"No sooner than I would dissect myself, I assure you. Now if that has satisfied you for the moment, the pilot has warned me we should expect some not so insubstantial turbulence as we make our approach. So I suggest we take our seats."