The Muse

I took a break from probing Eric’s mind and tried my luck on the girl with the ruby-coated hand. 

Her name turned out to be Adrian Rodriguez from El Paso, Texas. She lived with her mom, a factory worker. Adrian’s Mom was demanding so Adrian kept busy trying to earn her mom’s approval. 

She thought earning a spot on her school’s varsity basketball team as a sophomore would be a good start. Even though she was still a sophomore, she qualified for the varsity team and was close to playing state. 

But the night her team was going to play for the regional championship, she experienced “the change” and transformed into a hybrid. It lasted two hours. Naturally, the doctors were puzzled. 

The school officials thought Adrian was on drugs prior to the game due to her sudden coma, so they kicked her off the team and suspended her for a week. The following week, she found out her team lost 35 to 18 because they were without their all-star player. When she came back to school, many kids bullied her relentlessly. 

One day after school, members of the girls’ basketball team ambushed Adrian behind the bleachers, taunting her. They blamed Adrian for costing them the game. 

But when anger built inside her, she blasted them with a powerful red energy beam, sending the captain of the team flying toward the school. When the captain slammed into the school wall, she was encased in ruby quartz and knocked out cold. The other girls raced away from the scene, stunned by what they had witnessed. 

When Adrian arrived home, it was apparent her mom knew what happened at school, and Adrian’s mom hit her. Adrian relied on her powers to harden her hands, sending her mom soaring through the air to the other side of the room. 

After the conflict, she discovered her invitation to Zen Academy. Feeling like she had nowhere else to go, she packed her things and headed toward the train.

o that is all I got from a boy from Detroit and a girl from a small town, thanks to my mind probing. To quote the popular rock ’n roll song, they took a midnight train going’ anywhere. 

How could I approach them in person? It’s not like I could walk to them and say, “Hi, I’m Maddie. I know we have never met, and we are all on this creepy train to a mysterious school, but I read your minds without asking permission. I know you guys are half-alien like me with dangerous, rare powers. Let us be friends.” 

Wait a minute. Maybe I could l**k our minds together and introduce ourselves.

The plan was to enter both their minds at the same time and connect all three of us like a three-way phone call. It might have been a long shot, but I needed to make some new friends who were like me. 

I sat and closed my eyes while focused on entering each mind. While the train sped along the track, I felt my consciousness entering their minds. 

The process of entering their minds was freaky but liberating. Somehow, I had placed all our psyches in a shared plane of consciousness. I felt weightless while I floated down in a corner of space until I saw Eric and Adrian at the bottom. 

“What the hell?” Eric said sporadically. “Where am I? How did I get off the train?” 

“Who are you?” Adrian said to Eric. “Did you bring us here?” 

“No, I didn’t. I swear,” Eric replied.” I do not know how I got here. 

Adrian glared at Eric with a furious expression and charged at him with all her might. 

Eric stopped her attack, bear hugging her to the point where she could not move. 

“Calm down,” Eric commanded. “I don’t want to hurt you. I didn’t bring us here.”

Adrian struggled to loosen Eric’s grip. She hit him in his stomach, setting her free. “Then who did?” she spat out. 

“I did,” I said to them as floated down to their location. 

“Who the hell are you?” Eric said, curled up from Adrian hitting him. 

“My name is Madelyn North, but you can call me Maddie.” I made my way to the ground. “Don’t freak out, but I brought us all here mentally.” 

“Mentally?” Adrian asked.  “So, did you give me that letter? Did you get us on this train?” 

“No, I didn’t do those things. I swear. I got an envelope from Zen Academy just like you did.” 

“Wait. How did you know we got those letters too?” Eric asked. 

“I kind of…read your minds,” I stammered. 

“You did what?!” Adrian shrieked. 

“I’m sorry,” I said in a shrinking voice. “I just had to make sure I was around people I can trust.” 

Adrian sneered. “Que demon ios le da el derecho spearmen?” 

“Huh? What did you say?” Eric chimed into the conversation. 

“She asked me what the hell gave me the right to spy on her,” 

“You speak Spanish?” Adrian replied. 

“Not before today.” 

 I never took a Spanish class in school. But I understood it because I read her thoughts. 

“Guys, listen,” I said. “I know you don’t trust me and I’m sorry for reading your thoughts. To make it fair, should I show you my memories of how I learned about my powers?” 

Eric and Adrian looked at each other with puzzled look on their faces before returning their attention on me.

“How?” They asked simultaneously.

“Maybe I can project my thoughts in memories so that you guys can see them. What do you say?” 

They looked at each other and then glanced back at me. “That seems fair enough.” Eric said. 

“Yeah, let’s give it a try,” Adrian said. 

I sat down, pushed back my hair, folded my legs, and closed my eyes to focus on my memories and got as comfortable as possible.

"Okay. Here we go.” 

When I opened my eyes, I began to feel my thoughts take form.

The room mirrored the memories I had since the first time I endured the change, including the vision I had while I was in the coma. 

“Whoa, this is unreal,” Adrian said. “Dang, chica. I thought my powers were trippy.” 

Eric said, “How can this be real?” 

“Wait a minute.” Adrian pointed out, “I’ve seen that pin before.” 

“What pin?” Eric asked. 

That weird star-shaped pin seemed to be a common theme for all of us. The one the secret agent was wearing. 

“That’s the same pin one of the nurses at my school wore the first time I experienced the change,” Adrian said. 

“I’ve seen that pin, too,” Eric said. “I wasn’t sure what it meant, but the lady who took my sister in through the agency wore one too.” 

I said, “That can’t be a coincidence. Who were those people?” 

I was shocked to see the same pin on the nurse who treated Adrian and the director of the children shelter. 

Was every hybrid out there exposed to someone who wore this pin? 

“Alright, this is too much to take in,” Eric said. 

“I don’t know everything yet, but there’s one more thing you need to see,” I stated. 

“For goodness’s sake, chica,” Adrian complained. “What else could be this odd?” 

“Trust me, it’s better if I show you than tell you.” 

I began to remember the vision I had right before I woke up from my coma. I focused on that exact memory. What I did not know at the time was how real this event was for the three of us, soon to be six. 

Eric said, “That’s me blasting that robot!” 

“Incredible,” Adrian said. “I had no idea I could make force fields. And am I flying too? That’s amazing!” 

“But who are those other kids?” Eric asked. “I’ve never met them.” 

“Yeah, we got the whole United Nations over here,” Adrian joked. “Put us together and we would make multi-diverse superhero franchise. By the way, Maddie, unless you did not pick this up while you went all on my brain without asking, I am usually the fun one in my group of friends. 

“I had a feeling about that.” I told her.

“Well, I guess it’s beneficial to have a mind reader as a home girl,” Adrian added. 

“Yeah, too bad none of us have the alien power to wipe school off the face of the earth,” Eric added. 

“Ha-ha,” Adrian laughed. “Cute, but a bit cheesy for my taste.” 

“Like you, Adrian,” Eric replied. Adrian blushed, while folding her arms. It did not take a telepath to know when two people liked each other. 

Being the third wheel was on my resume when I thought I was completely human. Reliving that awkward feeling was normal. 

“Anyway, it looks like we’ll be reaching the academy soon, so I think I’ll close the mind l**k we have so we can meet face-to-face when we get there,” I interrupted.

“Okay, sure,” Eric agreed. “But how do we get out of wherever we are?” 

“Oh, right,” I said. “I’ll separate our minds. See you on the other side.” 

I concentrated on releasing Eric and Adrian’s minds for a minute until I lost concentration and ended the session.  Five minutes later, I opened my eyes and realized I had returned to reality. I was grateful I had a few friends I could trust.” 

The train entered the intended destination the three of us saw as our only chance for salvation. We felt the train begin to slow down and the pressure in the air around us became thinner. The train stopped and the train doors opened. 

A voice announced, “Destination reached. Passengers, please depart from the train.” 

As I grabbed my bags and left the train, I saw a large crowd of teenagers walking around the campus. 

The campus of the school was paved in marble tiling and the school itself was structured like an old mansion. By comparison, it would make Harvard look like a community college. 

We noticed a small robot that looked like a comic book character in the middle of the crest. Then the robot became an eight-foot hologram of a pink-skinned woman with a lab coat and a capital H on her forehead. She also had a beauty mark like I had on my left cheek, only hers were on her right cheek.  

Everyone around the terminal stared at the hologram. “Ladies and gentlemen,” the woman in the hologram said. “Welcome to Zen Academy.”