Unseen Read online

  Unseen

  A Prequel for The Faders Series

  E. G. Bateman

  Contents

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Author’s Notes

  Copyright © E. G. Bateman 2018

  The right of E. G. Bateman to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by her in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, transmitted, or stored in a retrieval system, in any form or by any means, without permission in writing from the author, nor be otherwise circulated in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without similar condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.

  All characters in this publication are fictitious and any resemblance to real people, alive or dead, is purely coincidental.

  Please see the back of this book for details of how to join my Reader list for access to bonus material.

  Chapter One

  Place: Hilltop Academy, Oxfordshire.

  Time: Now

  I entered the classroom, unhappy to be there again.

  ‘Ah, Jenna. Take a seat.’ Said the teacher.

  I looked around at the eight children already seated in their tiny chairs. They were all aged ten or eleven. They giggled and turned to watch as I attempted to squeeze myself into one of those chairs.

  I stood.

  ‘Could we have a little chat?’ I asked the teacher. I could feel my face redden.

  He walked over to me.

  ‘Look, Jenna. I know you’re not happy to be here, but you’re just going to have to suck it up today. We need to get through this lesson.’

  ‘But you promised me I wouldn’t have to come to these lessons anymore.’

  ‘That’s usually fine. I’m happy for you to learn with your friends when it’s possible to do so.’

  ‘But you promised.’ I said, punctuating my words with prods of my finger towards him.

  The lights flickered, and a popping sound came from the TV. The screen went dark.

  The teacher pinched the bridge of his nose.

  ‘Well, now no one’s going to be having the lesson.’

  ‘It’s your fault.’ I spun around and marched out of the classroom.

  I was supposed to be learning to control my temper and the strange things that happened around me when I lost control of my emotions, but I just couldn’t seem to stop it.

  Outside in the sun, I stopped and took a few breaths.

  ‘That was fast.’ Said Marcus. ‘Are you done already?’

  Marcus was one of my few friends at this new place, this academy. He was tall, strong, had gentle eyes and very cute dimples.

  ‘I’m about to be summoned to Helen’s office. I might as well just go straight there.’ I said.

  He looked at me sadly.

  ‘Oh dear. I guess you lost it again.’

  ‘Well deduced.’ I replied.

  Marcus walked me over to the building which housed Helen, the Counsellor’s office.

  ‘I wouldn’t wait. I think I’m in trouble.’ I said as I turned to walk in.

  I looked from the window of the Counsellor’s office watching the younger kids play in the courtyard outside. I was annoyed at missing the sun. Britain pretty-much only had two seasons now; winter and the rainy season. Today was likely going to be the only decent day of the year. Summer had fallen on this day, and I was here in Helen’s office as a punishment for trying to ditch another one of those tiresome 101 lessons.

  It’s not that I wasn’t interested in learning about this world of Faders. Those monsters had already taken so much away from me. I had resigned myself to being at Hilltop Tracker Academy. In fact, I really did want to be able to do the same as the other kids do. They can just blink their eyes to engage the extraordinary sight which enables them to see the invisible monsters, that’s how they can track them. I just didn’t see the point in making me learn it with a class of ten-year-olds. It was embarrassing.

  Mere weeks ago, my whole world had turned upside down in the space of 24 hours. First, I had Awakened. This was the strange ability which allowed me to see Faders; monsters which masquerade as humans and can make themselves invisible. Then I experienced such a devastating loss, and I’m still reeling from it. That day I was brought to the Academy. This “Awakening” usually happened to kids much younger than me. If it had, I would have been trained to control the Sight by now and learning how to be a Tracker. I wouldn’t be expected to sit in beginner classes playing catch-up.

  I thought the teacher and I had come to an arrangement, but this was the third time he’d insisted I must be present for the actual lesson. He kept going back on his word. Dad would never have done that, but Dad had been a much better teacher than this moron.

  As I looked through the window, for a moment, it wasn’t the children I could see out there. It was the Military Policeman who came to tell me that Dad had died in a gas explosion. Then it was the Headmaster of this academy, Professor Abbot, giving me a very different story.

  ‘Jenna?’ Said Helen.

  The Counsellor was standing right next to me. My vision was blurred. I blinked away a tear and felt it roll down my face.

  ‘Sorry, miles away.’ I turned back into the room, forcing her to move the arm she had placed around my shoulder.

  ‘Let’s sit.’ She said.

  ‘I am truly sorry.’ I said as I sat in the armchair. ‘I didn’t mean to lose my temper, but he did say I wouldn’t have to sit in the kids’ class again. I didn’t mean to bust the TV.’

  Ever since I had Awakened, I seemed to be able to make electrical equipment go haywire, not intentionally. It happened when I got upset or angry. Even at this strange academy, they didn’t understand what was happening to me.

  ‘You have to learn to control your emotions, Jenna. Someone could get hurt. I know you don’t want that.’

  ‘I’ve been trying to control it. The others say that their vision goes monochrome when they blink-in. That’s what happens to me sometimes when I get upset, so it must be connected to the Sight. I’ve been trying to blink-in when I’m not upset, but it never works. I close my eyes, I tell my brain what I want from it, I open them, and everything’s just the same.’

  I looked at my hands which I had balled into fists on my knees. I relaxed them.

  ‘It can take months to control. Don’t worry, Jenna. It will come.’

  ‘I dream about it. About when I Awakened, and the Fader was there. Everything was black and white except the shape of him, a bright yellow mist. I thought I was hallucinating.’

  I shook the thoughts away. ‘I’ll apologise to the teacher.’

  ‘Jenna, because the lesson involved watching a film, you wouldn’t have been able to do it yourself. The easiest way to get it done was just for you to go to class.’ Helen picked up a USB stick, ‘I have a copy of the film so you can watch it here. It’s not long, but it’s an important part of our history. It very often gives people a sense of perspective when they don’t understand just how big all this is.’

  ‘Is there popcorn?’

  ‘I don’t imagine you’re going to have much of an appetite when you watch this.’ She said sadly. ‘Jenna, do you remember me telling you that your Grandfather died in a Fader attack? This film is a documentary about that attack.’

  I had no words. Death seemed to surround me these days.

  She positioned her laptop, plugged in the USB and pressed play.

  The video was grainy and seemed to show a lecture theatre. There was a table in the middle of the room on which stood a machine with an eerie flashing light coming from it an
d a wheel jerking around.

  ‘What’s that?’ I asked.

  ‘It’s a slide projector. It’s what was used long before running presentations from laptops and USB sticks.’

  The camera moved around the room, and sure enough, there was a torn screen with charts and words flashing by, but I couldn’t make them out. The whole thing seemed strange. The scene changed, and the camera panned along a row of long black shapes. It took me a few moments to realise what they were. Body bags, rows of them. The first few were quite long, adult length. Then they were chillingly short.

  The narrator began ‘A fine, warm day in July 1978 at the Tracker Academy in Washington State…’

  Chapter Two

  Place: Upstate New York

  Time: July 1978

  Vanessa stood at the kitchen sink washing up the dishes from dinner. Tom, her husband, would usually help with the dishes but he was packing for a conference at the Washington State Academy. As she finished the last pot, he wrapped his arms around her and planted a kiss on the nape of her neck.

  ‘Hmm. Remarkable timing.’ She said.

  She wriggled around to face him and kissed him on the end of the nose.

  ‘Have you been standing there waiting for me to finish up the dishes?’

  ‘Maybe.’ He said, with a cheeky smile on his handsome face.

  ‘Are you all packed?’ She asked.

  ‘All done. Are you sure you don’t want to come?’

  ‘I can barely move from one room to another without throwing up. The thought of travelling from the East Coast to the West Coast makes me feel sick to my stomach. I’m afraid Junior’s voted, and he wants to stay put.’

  ‘He?’ Tom put a hand on her swollen belly. ‘Don’t you listen to her Sweetheart. I know you’re a girl.’

  ‘When will you be back?’

  ‘Four days. Then I can start to paint the nursery… pink.’

  ‘Blue!’ She said.

  ‘No chasing down Faders while I’m gone.’ He said.

  ‘All I’ll be chasing down is a jar of pickles.’ She said.

  ‘Have you tried dipping them in ice cream?’

  ‘Hey, I’m the pregnant one. Keep your weird ideas to yourself.’

  ‘I’ll see you in a few days.’

  He kissed her on the lips, then a peck on the nose and he picked up his case.

  ‘Did you forget something?’ She called, as he reached the door.

  He turned back, rolled his eyes and picked up the case of slides.

  ‘At least half of the delegates will be disappointed that you reminded me to take these.’

  ‘You’ll do fine. People love your presentations. Admittedly, the topic is dry, but you bring it to life, everyone says so. Have you got your pills?’

  In reply, he shook his jacket pocket, and it rattled. He said goodbye and left their little bungalow.

  He climbed into the waiting jeep and drove away from the family housing section of the upstate New York military base.

  Chapter Three

  Place: Washington State

  Date: July 1978

  I sat squashed up next to the hairy brute with his arm around me in the cabin of the pick-up truck as it wound its way through the quiet roads between Vancouver and the isolated town of Ireland.

  ‘You girls sure live a long way out.’ Said the brute as his fingers played with my hair. ‘I hope you’re gonna return the favour when we get there.’

  His breath stank of whiskey and cigarettes. In fact, his whole body had a pungent, unwholesome aroma to it.

  Alice had the right idea, sitting next to the driver who had to keep at least one hand on the wheel. Alice and I turned to each other, smiling and giggling, I knew from her eyes, she was thinking the same thing, hitching a lift from these guys had not been a good idea.

  ‘The boys too. We go to the same school. It’s a boarding school.’ Said Alice, as she tried to look through the back window at the two boys holding on for dear life on the back of the truck.

  Thug number two moved his arm to stop her from checking on the boys, but we both glanced the rifle on the gun rack behind us. We should have waited for the bus.

  ‘I can’t believe I was so close to Steve Tyler. He’s amazing.’ Said Alice with a sigh.

  It had seemed like a simple plan. Sneak out. Get the bus to Portland. Watch Aerosmith at the Memorial Coliseum. Get the bus back. Sneak back in. Wake up in the morning for the last day of the semester and get the bus home for the summer. What could possibly go wrong?

  ‘Hey, Brad’ Said the driver. ‘I’m sure these ladies would like some candy. See what we’ve got.’

  Brad rustled around in the shelf, pulling out a map and empty burger wrappers.

  ‘No candy,’ said Brad, ‘but I did find this.’

  Brad waved a handgun around.

  I froze. I knew how to defend myself, at the Academy, we all did. But this situation was not one that came up in class. Being so close to these big, muscle-bound creeps. I didn’t have the first clue how to handle myself.

  ‘Hey!’ Said the driver.

  I thought he was going to ask Brad to put the gun away.

  ‘Let off a couple of shots over the boys’ heads. Just to scare them.’

  Brad started to wind down the window.

  ‘You can’t.’ I blurted. ‘What if you hit them or they fall out?’

  ‘Then we’ll have you all to ourselves with no interruptions.’ Said Brad, turning around in his seat to get a better position in the window.

  ‘Kim.’ Said Alice, sounding scared.

  ‘Wait up.’ Said the driver.

  ‘Karl, I was almost…’

  ‘Put it away. There’s something up ahead. Cop cars.’

  Brad dropped the pistol below window level. We all looked forward. Karl was almost right. Cars blocked the road, but they weren’t cop cars, they were military police cars.

  ‘I’ll turn around.’ Said, Karl.

  ‘No, it’ll be too obvious.’ Said Brad.

  Brad quickly held the gun up to the back window. Making sure the boys saw it, he tapped it against my head.

  ‘You girls are gonna be nice and quiet, aren’t you?’ He said, wedging the gun into the waistband of his jeans and pulling his plaid shirt loosely over it.

  ‘Why wouldn’t we, you’re just giving us a ride, and we’re real grateful.’ Alice had this way of sounding so dim, I nearly grinned.

  ‘And you’re both eighteen.’ Added Karl.

  We nodded, but no one in their right mind would believe we were eighteen.

  ‘The safety’s off.’ Added Brad, darkly.

  What an asshole. I thought.

  Both guys sat forward a little blocking the view so we couldn’t be seen clearly from the side windows.

  The truck slowed down and stopped. Two uniformed men approached the windows.

  ‘Sorry to disturb you, Sir.’ Said the officer and the driver’s window. ‘Can you tell us why you’re out this way?’

  ‘Sure officer’ Said Karl. ‘We’ve just been over to Portland to an Aerosmith concert, and we’re dropping some friends home.’

  The officer’s torch shone around the inside of the cab. Alice peeked her face forward and gave the officer a dazzling smile.

  The officer sighed, ‘Out you get. You kids will be in a world of hurt when you get back the Academy. Where are the others?’

  ‘Two of them are back here.’ Called the other officer.

  Alice and I both climbed over Brad to get out of the truck. As I hopped out, I turned around to see Alice leaning heavily on Brad’s stomach as she moved past him. Right on top of the gun. He looked like he was going to mess himself.

  The boys had climbed down from the back, and we gathered at the side of the road.

  ‘Thanks for the ride, boys.’ Said Alice, cheerfully waving.

  I just gave them a little finger wave and a smile as they pulled away.

  We were bundled into a jeep and driven back to the Academy. Compared to wh
at we’d just gotten out of, that "world of hurt" was going to be a walk in the park.

  It was after midnight when Alice and I got back into the girl’s dorm.

  Melissa was awake, waiting for us.

  ‘Jeez! I was getting worried.’ She said. ‘How was the concert?’

  ‘He was amazing.’ Said Alice.

  ‘And the rest of them?’ Melissa asked.

  ‘Huh?’

  ‘Nothing. So Steve was amazing. I hope he was worth it.’ Melissa laughed.

  ‘How did they know we weren’t here?’ I asked.

  ‘Mark and Chris piled a year’s worth of clothes under their sheets. Apparently, it looked like two whales were in their beds. The monitor found they were missing just after lights-out and raised the alarm. They searched the whole facility. Of course, then they found you two gone. I’ve been lying through my teeth all night. They only just gave up and let me get to bed about an hour ago.’

  ‘Sorry, Lissa.’ I felt bad. ‘Did they give David a hard time too?’

  David was the last of our little gang of six. Dave should have sorted out the boys’ beds, so they didn’t look so obvious, he was usually the reliable one.

  ‘Wasn’t David with you?’ Lissa asked.

  ‘Us? No.’

  ‘They said he was gone too.’

  ‘He didn’t come with us. He must’ve had his own thing going on. I guess we’ll find out tomorrow at breakfast.’

  Chapter Four

  We made our way down to breakfast at 7 am. Alice was still in a Steve-Tyler-Semi-Coma. Our close call with the rednecks didn’t seem to have made much of an impression on her at all.

  We each grabbed a bowl of cereal and a glass of juice, then sat at our usual table. The boys came in with looks of concern on their tired faces. David wasn’t with them.