Twenty two minutes later, Karis walked up to the training room door feeling over exposed in the loaned outfit even though it covered her entire body. It was so tight that every curve of her body was visible. She was wearing a black body suit made out of Kevlar and faux leather that made her feel like a seal from her neck to her ankles. The body suit had some kind of built in protection on the elbows and knees that Karis liked because it was still very flexible for being protection.
Then Jessica had wrapped some kind of dark forest green corset with a Celtic knot etching around her midsection. Jessica told her that the design meant the power was never ending just like the knot. The corset was made out of thick real leather with some kind of Kevlar metal chain in the middle that she said would be similar to a bullet proof vest only with blades. It had shoulder pads that snapped onto it, making it look like renaissance armor. The vest had the same leather Kevlar metal chain the corset had on it.
The boots were just plain black leather boots that lace up to her mid-calf with a built in boot knife sheath. Jessica placed a boot knife in each boot sheath. To Karis's surprise the whole outfit including the boots was unbelievably lightweight. She could move in it freely with no problems.
Karis's hair was pulled back in a tight French braid and she had a little waterproof makeup on her eyes. At first Karis thought she had too much makeup on, but she decided it would be best not to argue with Jessica about that.
Karis opened the training room door and walked in as quiet as her boots would let her. Her eyes widened when she saw how huge the room was. It had several concrete pillars that supported steel beams on the ceiling that had chains and ropes hanging from them. Karis noticed that some of the pillars had chunks of concrete missing from where it was hit by a blade of some kind. The left side of the room displayed full length mirrors that lined the entire wall. She wondered what training usually took place in here. This room couldn't be a typical weapons training room. The large mirrors would certainly cost a fortune if they were broken during training. She could certainly understand why Mr. Carson was so concerned about more damages to the school. This must be where they practice martial arts. Karis shrugged her shoulders at her inner thoughts and walked farther into the room.
Moving farther into the room she noticed on the right wall there were several undamaged targets. The wall around them had several holes and gashes in it. Karis figured this was where they practiced throwing knives and other blades. The far wall had two large steel doors. In the middle of the doors were three different size locks. The locks required a key as well as a code. In the center of each lock was a key hole with four buttons located under the key hole. Each button had a symbol resembling either Greek or Latin letters. On the walls beside each door was a panel with buttons arranged in a row numbered one to five.
There was a large cedar beam on the right side of the room that protruded out of the floor and was close to eight foot tall. It had several perpendicular 4X4 wood boards with thick padding different levels. Apparently, these perpendicular beams rotated on a swivel. It looked like something a medieval knight would have practiced with for sword fighting.
On the left side of the room there were different heights of balance beams that reminded Karis of a gymnastic room. She hoped that she didn't have to know how to tumble or flip because that is one thing she had never cared to learn. She loved heights, but she always had a balance problem.
"Are you worried about the training?" A familiar voice said behind her. Karis whipped her body around to see who startled her, even though she knew Kaleb's voice anywhere.
"Don't do that, you scared the crap out of me. How long have you been standing there?"
"Not long. Wow!! Jessica really knows how to dress you up for training. Are you going to be able to move around in that get up?" Kaleb exclaimed as his eyes shifted up and down her body.
"Oh shut up! Does it look that bad on me?"
"NO! I'm just not use to you wearing stuff like that. It looks really good on you. It actually makes you look older. You're the spitting image of your mom and remember, I think your Mom's hot."
Karis started to tear up when Kaleb mentioned her mom, but she clenched her teeth to push the sting away from her eyes. She folded her arms over her chest and shifted from one leg to the other nervously. "Did you want to talk to me about something? I know it wasn't about my outfit either."
"Are you ready for training?" Kaleb asked while looking around the room, stalling for time so he could find the right words to say.
"I guess as ready as I could ever be."
"This is a pretty cool training facility, huh. We're going to learn a lot of awesome moves here, not to mention the weapons training." Kaleb said walking towards Karis, making karate moves with his hands.
"Yeah, I'd rather get the force power and use it like my mother did. I mean does."
Kaleb put his arms down and leaned against one of the pillars in the room. "Karis, your parents are going to be so proud of you when we get them back. You're being strong and keeping me in line. I tell you, that's a job in itself."
"Oh Kaleb, I'm not strong." Karis cried out, tears slowly falling down her cheeks as she backed up against another pillar and wiped the tears away with the back of her hands. "I've been trying not to cry. I hate crying, I don't want to cry! Dang, this is so stupid, can't you see Kaleb, and I'm nowhere near strong."
Kaleb pushed himself off the pillar and slowly walked up to Karis, holding his arms out for her to hug him. "Come here, Karis. You're not alone and I promise on my life you'll never be alone."
Karis turned into Kaleb arms, hiding her face in his shoulder as tears dampened his shirt. He held her close and took a deep breath. She cried on his shoulder for a minute longer until she realized that her nose had started to run. She pulled away to wipe her nose with the back of her sleeve. As she looked up, Kaleb automatically wiped her tears off her cheek with his thumb.
"You know what? I think your right." Karis said with a little chuckle.
Kaleb sniffed as his eyes were starting to glaze over with tears. "About what?"
"It's a tough job trying to keep you in line."
Kaleb threw his head back and laughed out loud. "Yah, the job doesn't pay much, but you have to admit, it's worth keeping."
"Yes, definitely worth keeping." Karis said hugging him tight as she rested her head on his chest breathing in his spicy cologne smell that she has become so familiar with. "Now, what did you need to talk about with me?"
Kaleb went silent for a moment, resting his chin on the top of Karis's head. "Karis, you know you mean the world to me right?"
Karis raised her head to look up at Kaleb with one eyebrow raised. "Wait, you're not breaking up with me are you?"
Kaleb snorted. "No, silly, you have to be dating in order to break up with someone."
Karis smiled as she laid her head back on his chest. "Then what's so important that you wanted to talk to me in private?"
"There's so much I want to say to you Karis, but when I try to tell you how I feel the words don't come out right."
"Kaleb, before you say anything else, there's something I need to tell you too." Karis pulled away from him and sat down on the floor bringing her knees up to her chest and wrapping her arms around them.
Kaleb sat down next to Karis and put his arm around her shoulder. "You know you can tell me anything."
"I kissed Titanium." Karis blurted out without looking at Kaleb. She waited for him to yell at her in disbelief but he just nodded his head. "I know Ethereal said something about it in the dining area during the fight, but I wanted to tell you myself."
Kaleb's blue eyes glanced at Karis through his long eyelashes making them sparkle as he blinked. "Do you remember when we were in fifth grade? I asked that girl to be my girlfriend when we were out on the playground. What was her name?"
"Yah, little miss Jordan Michaels, how can I forget, you two held hands for an entire week. She use to smirk at me when y'all would walk by the swing set, I couldn't stand that girl."
"Well, the only reason I asked her to be my girlfriend was to make you jealous."
"Whatever, all your friends thought she was the cutest girl on the playground." Karis said goosing him in the ribs and smiling when he slightly jerked away. "Besides, your boyfriends didn't like me much. What did they use to call me?"
"They called you Karis, the baboon." Kaleb chuckled. "But that was only because you were the one girl on the playground that wasn't scared to go across the balance bars and when you did you looked like a swinging monkey."
Karis playful slapped Kaleb on the shoulder. "Did not! Did you have a point to this story?"
"Yes, I liked that girl on the outside, but she wasn't you on the inside."
Karis rolled her eyes. "Thank God."
"My point is... You might do things spur of the moment, thinking that it's what you want at the time, but then later you realize that you did it for the wrong reasons."
"That's the thing, Kaleb, I don't know if it's the wrong thing. I never had a boyfriend. To be completely honest with you Kaleb, I don't know what to feel. I have a physical attraction to Titanium, but I feel something for you too. Is it possible to like two people at once?" Karis rested her forehead on her knees.
"You can have feelings for two people, but your heart will truly only pick one and you're the one that has to figure out who that one is." Kaleb placed his figure under Karis's chin and turned her head to look at him. "All I know is that my heart belongs to you. I should have told you a lot sooner, but I figured we would eventually end up together anyway. I definitely wasn't expecting all this to happen. "
"Oh Kaleb..." Karis started, but Kaleb put his finger on her lips to stop her talking.
"Let me finish. I'm not going to stand between you and Titanium. I respect your decision if you want stay with him and we'll still be best friends, but I do want you to know how I feel about you." Kaleb stood up and started pacing in front of her. "I've liked you from the moment you gave me your last sour apple lollipop in the fourth grade. I know we've been friends since before that moment, but the way you looked at me, how your hair blew in the wind, the way your eyes sparkled in the sunlight, and your smile. Oh Karis, that's when my heart was yours. You gave me a lollipop and you stole my heart."
Karis looked up at Kaleb with a stupor look on her face. "Why haven't you told me this? I have always thought you just wanted to be friends. All those girls at school followed you around like a puppy dog. I thought for sure you must like one of them, you could've dated any of them."
Kaleb stopped pacing and looked down at Karis. "None of those girls compare to you in my heart, Karis. The only reason I'm telling you this now is I finally got my nerve up to tell you how I feel about you. Jessica told me I had better start saying what I feel."
"You told Jessica how you feel about me? No wonder she hinted about you all the time."
"Well we did have a long time to talk on the airplane." Kaleb smiled to himself. "But back to the subject at hand, I'm not pressuring you to make some kind of decision about who you want to be with right now. I'm just letting you know how I feel and that I'll wait until your heart makes a decision."
Karis stood up and took Kaleb's hands into hers. "This is a lot to take in right now. I need some time to think. I do have feelings for you, Kaleb, but I also have feelings for Titanium. I just don't want to hurt either one of you, give me some time to work through my feelings, okay?"
"Take as much time as you need. I'll be here for you." Kaleb said, kissing her tenderly on the forehead then added, "Always."
Suddenly they heard a loud clasp of a door shutting. Karis spun around to see Titanium walking up to them. "Hey guys, where is everybody? It has been an hour hasn't it?"
"We got here early to see what all the training room had in it. This is a nice facility. I'm impressed." Kaleb said as he walked over to the mirror on the wall and started brushing his fingers through his hair.
Titanium looked at Karis in her tight fitting outfit and grinned. "I see Jessica dressed you in one of her first training outfits. I'm glad it's just our little group or none of the guys in the other classes would be concentrating on training."
"Isn't this what everybody wears to train in?" Karis asked, blinking her eyes in confusion.
Titanium chuckled loudly. "No. That's an outfit Jessica got when she first got here because she wanted to look like the actress in the movie, 'Underworld'."
Karis stomped her foot on the ground hard and threw her hands up in the air. "I'm going to kill her with my bare hands!"
"If it's any consolation, I think you look great. Anyway, as long as it's comfortable, I think it is perfect for training." Titanium said as he walked past her towards the doors with several locks.
Kaleb walked up to Karis and whispered in her ear. "You look awesome. Now let's go see what cool things are in this closet."
Karis and Kaleb watched Titanium use three different keys to unlock the huge locks on the door. He had to forcefully pull a lever to open a steal bar that blocked the doors from opening. Titanium typed in a code on the buttons under the key holes.
"Hey Kaleb, you see those buttons with symbols on them in the wall on the other side of these doors?" Titanium asked, pointing to the wall on the other side of the door from him.
"Yah, what do you need me to do?"
"When I say go, push the top button twice followed by the third button once, the second button three times and the bottom button once. The tricky part is we have to do this at the same time, just pause for one second after you push each one so we can be in sequence, if you make a mistake let me know and we can start over. Are you ready?"
Kaleb nodded. "Yah, whenever you are."
"Go." Titanium said.
Titanium and Kaleb simultaneously pushed each button at the same time. When they pushed the last button there was a loud clank sound like metal popping open. Titanium grabbed the door handle and pulled it open, inside was another door that looked like a roll up garage door that you have to pull up on to open. There were several bright blue lasers in front of the door that ran horizontal, vertical, and across to keep someone from reaching in and pulling the door open.
Titanium walked over to another wall panel on the inside right side of the door to type in a password. The laser beams turned off. Titanium reached for the handle at the bottom of the door and yanked upward. The metal door rolled up exposing the inside of a large room filled with hundreds maybe thousands of different weapons.
Kaleb was speechless as he walked in the room behind Titanium and spun around looking at all the different weapons that hung on every inch of every wall. Karis followed Kaleb in the room walking up to a wall that had swords of every shape and size hanging from it.
Titanium walked up next to her with his arms crossed in front of him. "What do you think about our weapons room?"
"Do you really use all these weapons to train with or is it some kind of collection?"
Titanium reached up and took down a short sword, examining it as he rested it on his finger checking the swords balance.
"Most of them are collected over the years, but we're trained on most of them. We don't bother to train too much on the black powder guns due to the time it takes to load them, but we learn to use them just in case we don't have anything else to use. We mostly train with cross bows, throwing knives, daggers, and swords."
Titanium grabbed the hilt of the sword, twirled it around gracefully, then posed as if he was about to strike something.
Karis laughed. "Are you trying to impress me, because that was too dang funny to impress anybody?"
He smiled as he relaxed and started showing Karis the designs etched into the blade. "This is called a Wakizashi, better known as a short sword. It's used mostly for hand to hand combat that involves a large number of people, because it's easy to work with and gets the job done."
"Unless you opponent has a Broadsword or Cavalry Sword, then it comes down to the better man wins." Kaleb said as he walked up to stand next to the both of them.
"What kind of swords are you talking about Kaleb?" Karis asked curiously.
"Those types of swords have long blades, so if you are fighting with a sword that has a short blade you either have to be really fast or know what you are doing." Titanium glared at Kaleb. "Your daddy did teach you a lot about swords. Did he not stick around long enough to teach you not to strike another opponent unless you know you have the upper hand? "
"My stepfather was one of the best weapons trainers at his school. I know nothing about my real father except that he was a selfish coward."
"Do you really know your real father?" Titanium asked Kaleb, knowing what the answer was going to be.
"No and I really don't care to." Kaleb walked over to the wall that had a beautiful broadsword that looked like it has just been polished and took it down, measuring the weight of it in his hand.
Karis saw Titanium's mouth twist into a sarcastic smile. "You really shouldn't judge someone if you don't really know them, believe me, I know that from experience. People say bad things about other people out of anger and jealousy. You should get the facts about that person before you place judgment."
Kaleb's features changed instantly as his face contorted with hatred. Karis noticed that his normally bright blue eyes turned a dark blue as he glared at Titanium. "You have no idea about my family, so keep your opinions to yourself."
"Okay guys, let's just change the subject. I see y'all are hitting nerves that need to left alone, so just put down the swords and let's talk about the weather or something while we wait on the others." Karis said trying to break the tension that was forming between Titanium and Kaleb.
Titanium ignored Karis as he taunted Kaleb more and more. "What? Are you mad because your pretty boy life at home was perfect? Let me guess, you probably were captain of the football team and had girls following you everywhere. A perfect little family at home. But it changed in a blink of an eye and that's not to your satisfaction. And to top that off, the girl you really care about likes another man!"
Karis's jaw dropped open when she realized Titanium had pushed Kaleb to his breaking point. Kaleb suddenly lunged forward towards Titanium, bringing the sword over his head and swinging it at Titanium as hard as he could. Titanium moved so fast that all Karis could see was a blur. He brought his sword up and blocked Kaleb's sword. Karis could hear the clank sound of metal hitting metal as their swords hit a couple more times before Titanium twirled his sword around Kaleb's sword preventing him to swing it. Kaleb lost his balance and arched his back to keep from falling backwards. Kaleb's movement resulted in exposing his stomach to Titanium. Titanium seized the opportunity and punched Kaleb in the stomach with his fist. Kaleb dropped his sword automatically and fell to the ground, coughing and gagging.
Titanium took a couple steps back and smiled. "That's why you need weapon's training. Anger can cause serious mistakes."
Karis ran to Kaleb's side and put her arms around his shoulders. She jerked her head up at Titanium and glared at him. "That was low even for you, Titanium."
"What! The boy needed to be taught a lesson. He can't just get angry at someone and believe he can beat them with his anger."
"That's not what I'm talking about!" Karis hissed. "The girl you were taunting him about might not like you anymore."
Titanium's smile turned to a frown. "I didn't mean to make you upset, Karis. I was just trying to make him mad to show him anger can cause problems in a fight."
"There are other ways to teach that and you know it. You were wrong here." Karis said as she helped Kaleb to his feet.
Kaleb's sweaty hair fell into his eyes when he looked up at Titanium. "You got me this time, but I promise it won't happen again."
Titanium snorted. "Please. I wasn't even trying."
Karis opened her mouth to say something when the door to the training room busted open and the rest of the group walked in. Dillon walked up to Titanium, patting him on his shoulder as he looked at Kaleb with Karis holding him up. "Aye man, did ye start the party without us. I thought this was weapons training not dance lessons."
"Nah, I was seeing what training Kaleb has had with swords since his STEP father taught him on the subject." Titanium said, drawling out the word step in stepfather.
Jessica walked in the training room wearing skinny jeans with a tight purple shirt that had the words "Don't Feed The Model, She Bites" on it. She looked at Karis and immediately knew something bad happened but she decided not to ask about it. Instead Jessica changed the subject quickly. "So, I see you guys looked at our training room. How do y'all like it? Isn't the see through mirrors cool?"
Karis looked toward the wall that had the full length mirrors on them. "Those mirrors are see through? Really? So let me get this straight, what you're basically saying is that there is a room on the other side of those mirrors where someone can see and hear everything going on in the training room while the people in the training room only sees the reflection in the mirrors?"
"Yah, Duh, that's what a see through mirror means. Not everybody at this school has the sight power, so they built those in order to teach others about different fighting techniques without placing anyone in harm's way." Jessica said as she looked in one of the mirrors to put her hair up in a ponytail.
"Really, that's nice to know." Karis glanced over at Titanium with raised eyebrows. He grinned as shrugged his shoulders and he leaned against a pillar while everybody settled in to get ready for training.
Kaleb pulled away from Karis and bent down to pick up the sword he dropped. He took one last look at Titanium then turned to place the sword back on the wall mount where he got it from. He leaned his hands on the desk next to the wall without turning around. Everybody was quiet until Kenny finally broke the silence.
"What are we going to teach these guys today? Will it be weapons or hand to hand combat?"
"I say ye start out slow and easy, maybe hand to hand combat, but show them different blocks and turns." Taren spoke up. "That way they can work up to the other stuff, strategy before stupidity."
"That sounds good. Everybody pull out some chairs. We'll get started in five." Titanium instructed then walked up to Karis and whispered in her ear. "I'm sorry for the way I acted, can we talk later?"
"Maybe." Karis hissed, without looking at him. She pushed his hand out of the way as he tried to touch her face and walked over to Kaleb. She put her comforting arms on his shoulders. "Are you okay?"
"I will be. Let's just get this training over with. I'm ready to go to my dorm. I just want to get away from him." Kaleb said motioning his head towards Titanium who was in a conversation with Kenny.
"Don't let him get to you. He was just being a prick."
Kaleb turned to face Karis, he eyes furious. "And you like him!"
"No, Yes, I don't know what I feel right now, Kaleb. I need time to think. Titanium was just being a jerk because he knew he could get under your skin."
"You know as well as I do that he was behind that mirror, listening to our conversation. Don't you think that is malicious? He's trying to destroy our relationship."
"He's just trying to get you mad to see what you'll do and how far you're willing to go. Don't let him control you. Nothing is going to come between us."
"Except him!" Kaleb exclaimed, gritting his teeth. Kaleb pushed himself off the desk and walked over to a chair Jessica had placed for him. He sat down trying to get comfortable dreading the next couple of hours listening to Titanium speak. Karis slowly walked over carrying a chair. She sat beside Kaleb and quickly sat down beside him.
"Everything will be fine, just wait and see." She whispered.
"Yeah, I just hope I can contain my excitement for the next couple of hours." Kaleb rolled his eyes which had finally turned back to his normal color blue. "He just better be glad that he caught me off guard when he hit me in the stomach or I would've nailed him between the eyes with the hilt of my sword. I'll be prepared next time."
Karis didn't say another word. She wanted Kaleb to cool down a little before they started training. Dillon plopped down in a chair beside Karis and nudged her arm. "By the way, ye outfit makes ye look like a hot mot. Jessica did good dressing ye in that get up. Ye actually look like the actress that plays in the movie, 'Underworld' with the exception of yer light brown hair, of course."
Karis gave him a pitiful look because he had no idea the story behind the outfit and she was not about to tell him. "Thank you that was the look I was going for."
"Aye, ye nailed it, although I think ye are prettier than the actress."
"Thanks again, but I think you are full of it. Wait a minute; I thought you were going to sit this training out, didn't you have some planning to do? I'd hate for you to plan a boring party." Karis giggled.
Dillon grabbed at his heart, pretending like she hurt his feelings as he wiped a fake tear away from his eye with his finger and smiled. "Aye, ye are talking to the party king. I will have everything perfect, just wait and see."
Titanium and Kenny stood up in front of everybody and cleared their throats before they started teaching the class. Even though Karis and Kaleb were really the only students, everybody else was sitting in chairs to make sure they were comfortable. At intervals, one of them would throw in their two cents in the lecture if they thought they could explain something better. The rest of the class went as planned, with no other problems. Titanium finished the class by telling everybody to be prepared tomorrow for some hands on training. Karis felt embarrassed about the outfit she was wearing. She was way over dressed for a class with only seven people in it. Next time, she decided to make sure she had similar clothes to what everybody else was wearing, a tucked in shirt and skinny jeans.
YOU ARE READING
Wishful Deviltry
Paranormálne javyEach person inherits an ancient genetic code from their biological parents. Unfortunately, not all humans are created equal. For some humans like Karis Kenzie the lottery of genes give some people exceptional powers. Karis and her best friend, Kaleb...
