Rihanna Douglas, “The Seven Crystals”

Artwork by Rihanna Douglas

THE SEVEN CRYSTALS

Rihanna Douglas

She was at school that day, September 30, 2019. “Aliyah Howard, please take your stuff and come to the main office.” Everyone turned their heads around to the back of the classroom and their eyes watched her like a hawk as she slowly got up from her seat with her stuff and walked out of the classroom. As she got to the main office, she was greeted by her counselor with a big hug. Aliyah looked to the left to see her mother Janet’s face as tears started to flood down it. “I’m so sorry to tell you this awful news, but unfortunately your father has passed,” her counselor said. Her entire body froze. It was like she couldn’t feel anything. Then, she started to feel dizzy, and her eyes blurred as tears slowly started to fall from her face. She didn’t say a word. Not to the counselor, not to her classmates, not even to her mother. She walked out of school without saying goodbye. Not knowing that was the last time she would see them. The car ride home was awfully quiet until Aliyah finally said something. “How did it happen?” “Um he—heart attack.” Aliyah was confused as to why she stuttered, she never stutters. But she never thought much about it. She was too numb to think about anything at all. “I packed our stuff.” “What why!?”

“Cause we’re moving, don’t question me. As soon as we get home, we’re gonna take everything we got and leave this town behind us.” “But what about dad?” “He’s going to be cremated.” “Why can’t we have a funeral!?” “I SAID DON’T QUESTION ME.” After that, she took a long pause.“This is what he would’ve wanted, okay?” She looked over at Aliyah in despair. Although she wasn’t around her father much, she knows how much love Aliyah had for him. Aliyah stayed quiet the rest of the car ride home. She was filled up with so many emotions that she felt like she was gonna burst. “We’re here, get your stuff,” the mother said. As soon as she steps her foot in, she breaks down knowing she’s gonna leave all her memories of her dad behind and that life will never be the same again. She finally brings herself to get all of her things and unload them in the truck. After a long threehour and forty-five-minute car ride, they reached their destination. She felt uneasy the entire time but never thought much of it. Aliyah and her mother stepped out of the car and stood in front of the new house. The air was pure, the grass was fresh, and everything was more spacious. The house was pretty big for just the two of them. But they had to get used to this; this was their new life. They finally entered the house and started to unpack their things. “Sorry about the way I acted earlier, I’ve just been so stressed out about everything,” Janet said. “It’s fine Mom.” “No really, I shouldn’t have yelled at you the way I did.” “It’s ok, Mom.” “I let my emotions get the best of me and took it out on you. I especially shouldn’t have did that because you just found out about your fath—”

“MOM I GET IT.”She ran upstairs with so much anger. She didn’t know why she felt like this. She locked the door behind her and stayed in there for a while. “I’m going out to get some groceries, be back in 20,” her mom said. As soon as the mom left, Aliyah got out of her room and started to look around. She found a box with her father’s stuff in the corner of her mom’s room. “Why was this hidden?” As she opened it she saw a bunch of his old stuff, books, and magazines. She looked underneath all that stuff to find the crystal he wore around his neck every day. “I don’t remember it being this dark of a green,” she said in confusion. She decided to put it on. As soon as it was around her neck, it started to glow. Suddenly, it becomes so windy as if a tornado was in the room. Books and magazines start to fly all around the place due to how windy it was. She got so scared she didn’t know what to do, so she stayed there on the ground with her hands over her head. Finally, it stopped, everything fell on the floor, and the house was a complete mess. She heard a loud knock on the door. She can’t be home already, it’s only been five minutes. KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK. It gets louder with every knock. “Hey is everything ok in there?” she sighed in relief. It wasn’t her mom. She went to see who it was. “Hey, um, I’m Diana, your next door neighbor. My mom told me to check what was going on here since, you know, there was a lot of noise. Everything okay, you need help or sum’?” “Uh no, I’m good. Everything is fine.” She looked behind her to see the mess she created, and she began to sweat uncontrollably. “Are you sure you don’t need any help?” She looked at her with suspicion. She leaned to the side seeing the mess and started to look concerned. “You know what actually.” She slowly opened the door, revealing the big mess she made.

“Oh shit,” Diana says. “I have less than fifteen minutes to clean this all up. You really think you can help?” “Uh, you can get started and give me a sec.” She ran over to her house to get as many cleaning supplies as she could, and went back to Aliyah’s house to help her. Aliyah worked on the stuff that got scattered all over the place while Diana worked on the spills. Eight minutes passed. Ding ding. Aliyah ran to her phone. “I just got a text from my mom, she’s on her way.” She rushed to put all the boxes away while Diana helped her. “DIANA, LOOK OUT.” She looked up to see the box slip off the ledge of the shelf. Aliyah ran and reached out her hands. Next thing you know, the box is floating in mid-air. Both of them look shocked and confused. Diana steps out of the way of the box and the box falls on the floor. “YOU GOT POWERS BUT I DON’T, SO UNFAIR.” “What powers? I’m confused as to what I just did.” “Listen, what you just did was telekinesis. It’s where you can control things with your mind.” “Yeah I know what telekinesis is but why am I able to do it?” “I researched all about this. Do you really not know anything about where your powers come from?” “OBVIOUSLY NOT, JUST EXPLAIN!” “Alright geez, so basica—” Knock knock knock. “Already!? Here, take this, hide it somewhere, and act natural.” Aliyah handed her the crystal necklace. “OH wait, the box!” “Just push it in the corner!” She opened the door for her mom and helped her bring in the groceries.

“Who’s your friend,” the mom said. They looked over at each other. “Uh—” “Oh, I am Diana, your next door neighbor, I just came to greet you guys since you’re new to the neighborhood.” “Well I was going to get dinner ready, do you wanna stay and maybe you can invite your family?” “Great idea, I’ll get them.” She went back to her house and invited her family over as the mother started to prepare dinner. As her mom prepared dinner, it reminded her of all the times her dad would teach her how to cook when she was younger. “They’re here Mom.” The mother went for the door while the daughter set the table. “Hi.” “Hey, I’m Marsha.” “Hi, I’m Janet, come in.” “So nice to meet you all. I thought you guys were crazy people with all that noise earlier but you guys seem pretty sane to me.” “What are you talking about?” Janet looks back at Aliyah in confusion, and Aliyah and Diana look at each other. “What is she talking about Aliyah?” she asks in suspicion. “Uh, I was bringing up some of my stuff to put away in my room and some of it fell over.” “Oh ok,” Janet said. They heard a knock on the door and Diana got it. “Am I late to the party?” “I thought I told you to stay home. Guys this is my douchebag twin brother.” “My name is Teo. So good to meet you all.” “Well is that everyone. Yes, okay let’s take our seats then,” Janet

says. They begin to have dinner and get to know each other. Marsha talks about the do’s and don’ts of the neighborhood and they all start to bond. They finished dinner and began to clean up. Teo sensed something about Aliyah. But he couldn’t quite put his finger on it. He lured Aliyah upstairs by asking for the bathroom. They were upstairs by themselves. “Well, here’s the bathroom,” she said. As she turned around to leave, he lit his lighter and threw it at her “Aliyah look out!” she frighteningly turned around and stopped it from burning her by reaching out her hands. “Well I was right about you,” Teo says. “What the hell was that about!” “Just wanted to test my theory, and I was correct.” “How did you know?” “You see, when two people that have powers come in contact with each other you can sense it.” “Wait, you have powers?” “How did you think I lit that empty lighter?” “Uh-uhh, wait bu—” “TEO, we’re heading out.” “I should get going, we could talk more about this tomorrow; and hey, let’s just leave this between you and me. Seriously, you can get into danger if the wrong people find out.” “Yeah, okay.” As they all say their goodbyes for the night she begins to go look for her father’s crystal. She finds it and puts it somewhere safe so no one can find it, then gets ready for school in the morning. Her mother goes into her room, “I can trust you right?” she says. “Yeah, what happened?” “Nothing, no secrets ok?”

“Okay.” “Night, love you.” “Love you.” She finally went to bed for school in the morning. She woke up the next day very nervous to go to school. She wasn’t good at making friends, but at least she had Diana and Teo to hang around. Besides that, she wanted to make a good impression. She didn’t want to be known as the quiet antisocial weird girl this time around, she just wanted to be normal. So she decided to do some light makeup, straighten her hair, and put on the best outfit in her wardrobe. Was she overdoing it? Maybe just a little, but at least it would all be worth it in the end, or so she thought. Her mom called her down to drop her at school cause it was getting late. As she entered the school, there were many kids, but then she had made eye contact with Teo and Diana. Diana runs up to her with a big hug. “So we have twenty minutes before class, and I will explain everything I know to you.” She grabbed her hand and brought her upstairs to an empty classroom and shut the door. “You’re not the only one with powers here. About a handful of students have powers in the school. You can either have telekinesis, firepower, airpower, telepathy, ice power/waterpower, healing, and dark magic. If you are lucky enough to be the chosen one, you get all seven but the regular amount you get is two. Basically, these powers come from the seven crystals that were founded by a man long ago named Zhang Wei. He only planned on looking for the healing crystal because his pregnant wife Daiyu was sick and there wasn’t a cure for the sickness. But instead, he found all seven. The power didn’t work, though. The wife had a miscarriage and he went into depression. A few days later he started to feel uneasy. So he went to wash his face. That’s when the water froze and he realized that the powers started to work. A few years later bad men came looking for him and the crystals. All of the crystals shattered and ended up all over the city, that’s why only some people have powers. You have to experience some type of loss for the powers to actually work. Did you experience a loss recently?”

“Yeah my father,” Aliyah said. “Oh I’m sorry.” “It’s okay, I just don’t know how to work my powers.” “I can help with that,” Teo said with a smirk on his face. “Where did you even come from!?” Diana says. “I was here the whole time, you didn’t see? Oh never mind. I forgot I turned invisible.” “Gosh I hate you.” “Anyways, you guys should get to class. Aliyah, if you wanna learn, come to our house after school.” “Mmhmm,” she mumbled. She was on her way to class when she saw a group of four girls. They were beautiful, had the best clothes, designer bags, everyone would watch them as they walked down the hall. She got lost trying to find her class and accidentally bumped into one of the girls, spilling her drink all over her. “What the hell!” “I’m so sorry, let me help you clean it.” Aliyah said. “NO! Get away from me. Who even are you? Actually, I don’t even care.” The group of girls laughed at her as they walked away. Maddy turned around and used her powers to make her trip, already embarrassing her on the first day. She ran away in embarrassment and found her class. As the students started coming into the classroom, she got a headache.

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