Chapter 3

Warning: Swearing ahead.

October, Year 2039

The summer months passed by far too quickly for Iris's liking, all the freedom and the fun of those warm two months was soon behind them as was Iris's 17th birthday, after September the 3rd came and the teenager found herself abruptly launched into her final year at Liberta Academy. September too, melted away swiftly, the days wilting and falling, like autumn leaves from trees. With September and the early school days gone, October took it's rightful place with it's usual chilliness and day to day routine.

 That was how Iris found herself sitting cross-legged on the soft carpeted floor of the school's east library hall along with the rest of House Virgo, listening absently to their House Head, Ms. Burnes - a middle school science teacher, prattle on about the upcoming house competitions and how imperative it was that they win them all this year. It was the first house meeting in October and everyone from as young as three years old (for those were the youngest in the school) to as old as 18 years old (Iris's classmates) seemed raring to go. It seemed as per usual, Ms. Burnes' speech was serving it's purpose and riling the usually very friendly members of House Virgo up. Every member was ready to go and take home the gold. That was everyone, except Iris. Unlike her housemates, Iris Fawners sat detached, the words floating past her ears unheard, her hands were clasped tightly on her lap and her large bright blue eyes, a stark contrast to her olive skin, were staring into one spot, not really seeing anything at all. The girl that sat beside Iris sighed, rolling her brown eyes  and shaking her head, sending her blonde curls swinging. This was happening far too often for her liking. Heidi Lanes, Iris's closest friend since childhood, snapped her fingers right in front of the other girl's face forcing her to snap back to reality. Seeing Iris run her hands through her short ebony hair as a nervous habit, Heidi fixed Iris with a serious gaze.

"Iris, the heck is wrong with you? You were zoning out again."

Iris blinked confused and still a bit rattled from being jerked out of her thoughts abruptly.

"I was?"

"Big time. How come? Are you that bored? I mean, you're usually one of the most fired up people at these meetings. What's going on Iris? You have dark circles under your eyes, girl. Is something up?"

Iris waved a hand to show that she was fine and managed a tired smile, trying to reassure Heidi, knowing that if she did not now Heidi would never let this go.

"I'm fine, Heids. We're having a family lunch soon so I'm just really tired from all the preparations that have to be made. You know how it is with my family."

Heidi nodded in understanding, giving a low whistle. Iris's family was indeed rather large and preparing for family lunches was definitely tiring considering they had to cook and prepare room for how many people was it again? Heidi scrunched up her nose in confusion, turning to Iris who was frowning again.

"Hey, Iri, who's coming to this lunch? How many people?"

Iris threw her a "why do you want to know?" look, but shrugged and slowly began to count in a whisper.

"Well, there's my dad's brother and his wife with their two kids and one son-in-law. Then there's my mum's sister, Naomi and her husband, Taichi, with my three cousins - Takumi, Ben and Mihail. My grandma, Alexandra, is coming too and so is Grandmother Claudia and Grandpa Fred. 'Course then there's Ren and his wife with their two kids, Daisy and her husband, Ivy and Wendy live with us so that's easy, so that just leaves Mum and Dad, Heather, Aster and myself. That should be 25 people. Oh and Great-Aunt Tatiana might be coming so that makes 26. "

Heidi's eyes bulged: that was a lot of people. And since she'd been present at one of these lunches as a guest she knew how much food had to be prepared as well as how much cleaning up had to be done afterwards. Iris's family was a very diverse one. Iris herself was a quarter Japanese, half British and a quarter Russian. It showed in her features. Iris's father, James, was of the Afro-American ethnicity while her mother, despite having a Russian name- Katerina, had more of Japanese blood within her. Iris, however, was born with large blue eyes inherited from her Russian side, olive skin that definitely had the touch of her father's genes and dark ebony hair that she'd inherited from her mother. Despite her looks and despite the way people looked at her, Iris held her head high and carried her mixed blood proudly. She'd never been ashamed of her multiracial family, she loved each and everyone one of them with all of their insane quirks and habits. Heidi gulped, staring at her best friend in horror.

"And how often do you have these 'little gatherings'?!"

Iris chuckled, swatting Heidi on the arm.

"They're not that bad, Heids and it's only once a season. Though I am" she paused to yawn "dead tired with school on top of all that. "

"Yeah and it shows. Do you--"

Iris swiftly cut across her friend, hurrying to decline her offer.

"No. No makeup, ever. No concealer even. Hate all that fake paint. Besides the lunch is today so I'll have all the time in the world to rest afterwards."

Heidi huffed, but put her hands up in a sign of surrender. Iris had to be one of the most stubborn 17 year olds she'd ever met and her refusal to put on even a touch of makeup was another thing that made her peculiar. She said she hated how fake it made her feel and given Iris's character Heidi could grudgingly understand that. Iris was one of those people who did their best to live true to themselves, not hiding anything and living every day to the full. Iris seemed to have taken the "You only live once" thing very close to heart. Heidi was about to ask Iris another question when she was cut off by Ms. Burnes clapping her hands together to draw their attention to her once more.

"Alright, my sweets, one last thing of note and then you're heading off to your lessons. Quiet down."

Slowly the general hubbub died down and silence settled over the students. Ms. Burnes nodded in approval. 

"Lovely. Now, we all know about the sparks coming from Stromboli in Italy, correct?"

A small girl's voice piped up to clarify.

"Ms. Burnes, is that the volcano the news lady was talking about on the net?"

"That's the one. Well, as you all know while it hasn't erupted yet it has affected the atmosphere so we may have a blue moon soon enough. Isn't that exciting? That doesn't happen often. Now we should have the first quarter of the blue moon this week..."

Iris didn't hear what the science teacher said afterward that because suddenly her heart gave a painful thump and her world came to a screeching halt, the sounds disappearing just like they had the evening of the Rewind Festival in June. Her mind brought back the memory of that night, the night she had spent all summer forgetting. The last of the words on the whiteboard sprang to mind: "Be ready, we shall begin upon the first quarter blue moon". Iris shook her head, trying to inject some logic into her mind which was steadily inching towards panic. No, that was stupid, impossible. She didn't know and couldn't begin to explain what had happened that night, but it was obvious that that warning couldn't have been referring to this. Stromboli had only begun sparking in September and she had been warned in June. It was impossible to predict a "blue moon" (a phenomena that occurred when there were enough red particles from volcanic influence scattered in the air) that early on. However, the fortune teller's word floated through Iris's mind, almost laughing: "A creature not from Sol has risen, five from Terra it has bidden."  Aliens? The very idea of anything supernatural and the such was preposterous, this was nearly the middle of the 21st century for crying out loud, they'd know. But...There had been five of them in the room, hadn't there? The weird way Mr. Carol had been acting was unexplainable and then...Iris thought to the member's themselves. She herself had the blood of people from Russia, Japan, Ireland, Kenya and England, Ella Rocherforte (her hostile classmate) had said she was French by blood, Matthew Ilves (her other new classmate from that night) had said he carried both Finnish and Irish blood, she knew from the previous year that Jacob was born in the U.S and both his parents carried mixed blood and then that left William Knight. She didn't know him and he was her only hope that the last line was wrong. However, the last name Knight should have been a clear enough indicator for her as to who he was. By the current year there were very few families in the world that had pure blood and were dedicated to keeping it that way, but the Knight Family was one of them and with it's wealth it could practically do whatever it wanted. Unless Iris was sorely mistaken, William Knight carried pure English blood. Iris buried her face in her hands as another line of the fortune teller's creepy poem sprang to mind: "Five from all corners of the world shall have to lose all they dear hold." Iris shook her head, bluntly refusing to even think about that. It wasn't preposterous and even entertaining the notion of any approaching danger was ridiculous. She was safe, aliens did not exist and she and the four others could continue to ignore each other as they'd been happily doing since the school year had started. That evening in June was a hallucination of her mind, it did not happen, end of story. Full stop. Heidi's voice broke her out of her thoughts again and she found herself walking through the corridors, guided by an exasperated, but resigned best friend.

"Hey, Iri, have you seen the way Mr. Carol looks lately? He looks like he's about to collapse"

"What do you mean?"

"Behind us. Look at him."

It took Iris another glance at her friend to notice the concerned look on her usually bright face. She looked over her shoulder to see that Mr. Carol had stopped to talk to Ms. Burnes about something. Iris had to admit that her friend had a point, Mr. Carol looked deathly thin and worn out, dark bags hung under his eyes and they looked listless, no longer shining with the vitality of life they once held. No wonder, Heidi had been worried Iris was worried too. Unexpectedly, Mr. Carol chanced a glance sideways and his eyes and the teenager's met. She saw a flicker of recognition pass through their hazel depths before a worried replaced the faint friendly smile that he had been carrying recently. Iris's heart picked up pace. She'd never seen Mr. Carol look so worried and, dare she say, almost a little afraid in her life and that scared her in turn. Suddenly, he made a few signs with his hands in the silent language all the young people in Liberta were familiar with before bidding goodbye to Ms. Burnes (who seemed to be mulling over whatever he had said) and taking his leave. Iris felt Heidi tugging on her arm, but she didn't move, her mind was still processing Mr. Carol's silent message. She hadn't even aware he knew the student's secret language. He had told her "Be careful." She needed to be careful? Of what? Iris shook her head: she was in her last year, she didn't have time to think about cryptic messaged and whatnot. She had enough on her plate. Enough, no more stupid thoughts. With that decision she chased after Heidi to follow her to their English class.

***

The next half of the day passed rather uneventfully for Iris with the exception of Heidi tripping during P.E and running into Aster in the western hallway. She gently helped her friend into the classroom after lunch as the girl had hurt her leg rather badly when she'd tripped. Concerned, Iris looked at Heidi who was pulling out her Social Studies textbook and notebook.

"You sure you don't want to go to the nurse again?"

Heidi laughed and shook her head in refusal.

"Iri, I'm fine. It's just a big scrape. I've seen you go through worse without a fuss."

Iris frowned and crossed her arms on her chest, visibly unhappy with her friend's retort.

"Yeah, but that's me. You know that I live life this way. I'm used to it. You, however, are not."

Heidi waved her hand at her as an abvious dismissal, a merry light in her almost amber eyes.

"Oh, shut up. My aunt tells me that I'm a prissy little brat enough as it is without you so stuff it. Hey, Iri?"

Iris looked up from her own bag at the sound of her nickname. Heidi was looking curiously at her desk which was next to her's. Heidi raised her eyebrows.

"What's that on your desk?"

"On my desk?"

Iris stood up and turned around, accidentally hitting her knee against Heidi's desk in the process. Wincing, she looked at her desk. Sure enough, on her desk lay a small innocuous white envelope with her name written on it in neat, cursive script. Frowning, Iris picked it up and looked around herself. The classroom was still empty save for her, Heidi and the newly appeared Matthew and Ella who were resolutely ignoring her and more decidedly each other. It turned out that those two could never get along especially when they had to work on a group with other people so the teachers did all they could to keep the two apart. Heidi returned Iris's attention back to the envelope in her hands.

"So, what's it say?"

"Give me a moment and don't be nosy. You're up for answering in class today by the way, since I covered for you last time."

"Fine, be that that way."

Heidi whined, pouting, but did as Iris suggested, starting to look through her notes of the last class. Iris, meanwhile, opened the envelope and pulled out a small folded piece of paper. Setting down the envelope, Iris unfurled the note. A shiver ran up her spine at the vaguely familiar handwriting. Her hands trembled as she read the note. It read:

"My dear chosen flower child,

I hope you enjoyed the holiday I gave you and that you have gathered up your strength for the tasks ahead. My fnoyemir, ah, pardon me - your children of Terra call them friends. Well, my friend told me you didn't quite believe her prediction and it seems you may not have heeded my warning, but I suppose that's to be expected. You, humans, are such fickle creatures and so difficult to convince. Now, our work shall begin whther you want it to or not.

   All humans panic when their plans go awry, when their path is lost - their reactions are always most curious. I have observed that while said reactions vary the response is always linear: try to find a way out. Therefore, I have drawn the conclusion that humans feel lost when aforementioned conditions are met. That said, I wonder how you, my sweet precious flower, along with your Rachi (ah, forgive me once more - comrades is the human word) will handle the Loss Of Direction. Good luck. It shall begin tonight.

Sincerely,

Yfa "

Iris began trembling, fear overwhelming her. She hurried to tuck away the note and throw the envelope into her bag. Throwing all rules of propriety out of the window, Iris sat down on her desk and took deep calming breaths, her hand resting over her frantically beating heart. Heidi looked up from her textbook, curious.

"So, who's it from? Oh, Maker, Iris! You're as pale as a sheet. What happened?!"

If there was one thing Iris was certain of at the moment it was the fact that she's couldn't tell her worrywart, caring best friend the truth. She would never make Heidi worry like that, especially over something like this. It was impossible to believe after all. Iris forced a genuine-looking smile to her face and gave a somewhat convincing laugh.

"Oh, just a note from an admirer that doesn't seem to want to take a hint. He called me his "sweet, precious flower"! It's disgusting. Sorry, if my face doesn't portray my disgust adequately."

Heidi breathed a sigh of relief and chuckled.

"Woah, you scared me, girl. You looked like you'd just received a death sentence or something. Want me to go and tell that jerkwad to bug off? I'll do it."

Heidi threatened confidently. Her dark-haired best friend laughed, but was quick refuse her offer.

"Thanks, Heids. I'll deal with this myself."

"If you say so. So, it was a love note?"

Iris flopped down in her chair tiredly, opening her own notebook to glance over the notes she,d made form the previous class. Somehow nothing made sense to her. Sha gave her Welsh best friend a half-smile.

"Of a kind."

Haiti reached over the divide between the rows of desks to pat Iris on the shoulder, grinning as the classroom started filling up.

"Well, dont'cha worry, Iri. Everything will be a-okay in the end."

Iris looked over her shoulder to see a dark look on Matthew's face as he tucked away a familiar looking white envelope and Ella was shredding something beside a bin, something of a pristine white colour. Iris's heart sank: they'd gotten the note too. That did not sit well with her. She smiled at Heidi.

"You're a weirdo, but I hope you're right. I really do."

Heidi rolled her eyes and tapped her forehead.

"You know I am. Who's the smart one here?"

"Oh, stuff it."

***

That evening Iris Fawners was exhausted, completely and utterly. She had once again just reaffirmed the fact that family gatherings were evil. Despite what she had told her friend that same morning they were that bad. Oh, blessed be those naïve and oblivious to all the hardships that a large close-knit family brought with it. She could hear her cousins running through the corridor, but she really couldn't bring herself to care. When was too tired. Where'd the little beasts get that much energy anyway? She kind of envied them. Iris groaned quietly into her covers as she lay face down on her bed before turning her head to look at her desk. In it, shoved haphazardly into a drawer, the white letter peeked out. Iris didn't care, she couldn't care less right now about some gibberish. She wanted to sleep. Yes, sleep...Sleep sounded wonderful about now. Ah, her favourite time of the day during the school year and most probably her favourite activity currently. But the noise... Iris pushed herself up into a sitting position reluctantly and called.

"ASTER!"

Her 13 year old brother and three smaller boys poked their heads into her room, guilt written all over their faces. The oldest of three was Mihail, then there was Takumi and the youngest, the four year old, was Ben. She glared at the troublemakers.

"It's ten in the evening. Get your butts to bed!"

All four boys frowned and had Iris not been so tired she'd have marvelled at how alike they looked despite her cousins having their Japanese blood far more pronounced than Aster did. Aster groaned.

"Oh, come on, Iri, we were playing pirates and--"

"Don't care. Mum and Aunt Naomi said bedtime so bedtime it is. Or should I tell Uncle John that he can't tell you about his latest archeological trip to the ruins of the Incan civilisation?"

Takumi, who was 8 years old, quickly rattled off something in Japanese and took off, Ben running after him. Mihail sighed, bid her goodnight in proper English before following after his younger brothers. Iris frowned, her mind was barely functioning.

"What'd Takumi say?"

Aster raised an eyebrow and fully came into his sister's room, closing the door behind himself. He looked at Iris in confusion.

"Is your Japanese that rusty?"

Iris huffed and flopped down on her bed.

"No, but my brain doesn't understand human at all right now. Besides, I was always better at Russian than Japanese. You know that, oh wise Japanese whiz."

Aster smirked and pulled a red curl, pleased, but a little embarrassed.

"True enough. He said he'd find Uncle John. Is he really going to tell us a bedtime story?!"

Iris nodded, covering her eyes with her right arm.

"Yeah, he said he would. Now, get your sorry ass to your bedchambers, young man, and you wake me before my alarm does tomorrow and the lot of you are dead meat. Got that?"

Aster snorted, but quickly nodded and ducked out of the room. Iris sighed. She was glad her father's twin brother, her Uncle John, had taken over the bedtime duty for the boys. The adults would probably keep on talking till the middle of the night, but since most of the cleaning was done Iris could get to sleep. Uncle John wasn't much like the other adults and he and his wife, Aunt Leila, enjoyed telling the kids of their archeological exploits. The boys loved it, it was probably half the reason they came to these family gatherings willingly. She enjoyed it too, but right now a glass of water, a shower and sleep sounded heavenly to her. Iris sat up and slipped her sandals on again before heading downstairs. She wished the chatting adults goodnight, accepted her Grandma's goodnight kisses calmly before heading to the kitchen to find herself some water. However, the moment she stepped past doors leading into the kitchen the world stopped. Again. Her feet were on fire once more. Iris couldn't suppress the faint whimper that fell past her lips as she saw the sole of her sandals glow bright pink. She could almost swear she saw a strange inscription on the floor above her raised foot. She didn't want this, she was terrified, but she had no choice. Her feet felt as though they were having the skin melted off them and it was excruciating. Steeling herself for the worst, Iris took a step forward....

  She opened her eyes to find herself standing standing and shivering from the cold in the school's back courtyard. She was dressed casually and for her warm home so of course, the nighttime cold got to her. She felt the corner's of her eyes sting. Why...Why again? Why her? Iris looked up at the sky and saw a real, genuine blue moon shining in the sky. It was a self-centered thought perhaps, but at that moment Iris felt as though the optical illusion was mocking her. Iris's arms reached up to hug herself and she willed herself not to cry. Crying wouldn't help anything. But still, damn it all! That note hadn't been a sick joke! This was some warped reality! Who the heck was messing with her?! No, Iris realised a small she heard four more soft cracks, she wasn't alone in this twisted reality. Iris turned around to see them: Ella Rocherforte who was actually dressed for the outdoors and wasn't currently cussing loudly and profusely as she too realised the situation, Matthew Ilves who like her was dressed for home wear and was glaring at the moon as though it was at fault, Jacob Jones who was only wearing a coat over his sleepwear and was currently looking hopelessly confused and finally there was William Knight, who was wearing, oddly enough, a suit and a shirt, but no tie, who's clenched hands were the only indication of his emotions as his face was blank. No, she wasn't alone and she didn't know yet if that was a good thing or a bad one. Ella was the first to burst out, anger evident in her voice.

"Okay, who's the little shit responsible for this crap?! 'Fess up."

Matthew, ever the antagonist to Ella, snorted in annoyance, his own voice betraying his irritation.

"As stupid as ever, Rocherforte. It's obvious that it wasn't one of us."

Ella glared at him, her contact glinting in the light of the moon.

"Shut your piehole, Ilves. Someone has to be responsible for this! It's the same 5 people again! And that note! We all got it! This garbage ends now."

Jacob gave a weak, strained laugh, one that was very unlike him. He met Ella's glare with a defeated look.

"What even is this? What's happening?"

Ella snapped her mouth shut, she obviously had no answer. Matthew and William had no answer either. Iris sighed, shifting from one foot to another to gain some warmth. She watched the white cloud of warm air float up before she spoke again an icy calm taking hold of her.

"I'd say it's teleportation. You know, instant movement from one place to another."

All eyes were on her and she shrugged. Matthew rolled his eyes, adjusting a pair of glasses she hadn't noticed before.

"That's impossible. Teleportation isn't even on the drawing board in tech companies. And I sure as heck don't posses such a device in my living room."

Ella made a face, but bedrugingly voiced her agreement with her nemesis.

"I absolutely hate to agree with anything the four-eyed lobster has to say, but, Blue, that's impossible."

That was possibly the nicest thing she'd ever said to Iris. Jacob unhappily shrugged his shoulders, shivering from the cold. Iris didn't really know what else to say, she knew it didn't make any sense if one applied common sense to the problem, but that was what her gut feeling was telling her. To her surprise, she heard William's calm voice pierce the tense silence.

"Foretelling the future is also impossible and yet it happened. Look at the moon. The optical illusion only started tonight and yet, Yfa, knew about it 3 moths beforehand. That should also be impossible."

Matthew looked at William irritably.

"Your point, Knight?"

"My point is we cannot rule out anything at the current junction."

Iris sighed, knowing that William was completely right in saying that. And that wasn't a good thing at all. Ella growled,crossing her arms, her impatience and annoyance once again rearing it's head.

"I hate this! So what do we do then? Is Blue right or something?"

A new voice a very familiar one spoke up from behind the teenagers.

"She is thinking in the right direction, yes, Miss Rocherforte."

The young people whirled around to see the gaunt face of their Vice Head. He smiled at them helplessly. They stared at him. He, meanwhile, smiled sorrowfully as he spoke.

"I wasn't able to find them. I'm sorry... The Loss of Direction begins now."