Phantom

Prologue
Never in my life have I felt so useless. So weak and feeble. I felt like with just one touch I was going to fall into pieces. I didn’t understand why we were just going to run away from everyone we love while our family was somewhere in the world fighting for our lives. Or maybe the fight was already over and they lost because if they would’ve won, they would be here with us.
It wouldn’t be long until it would be our turn and we walked through the gateway like everyone else.
Yes we would be safe at the place we were going to but sooner or later they would find us and safety would no longer be there for us.
I looked up at Nathan and he wiped a tear from my cheek.
Out of Nathan and I, I probably had the strongest ability and someday I would have to use that to hopefully save the both of us but if not, Nathan is going to be the last survivor of the Ashburton family even though he thought it the other way around.
There was no way to get the fact out of my head: they were coming for us.

Chapter 1: Training
“Rise and shine sleepy head,” Nathan whispered in my ear. It tickled.
I tried to hide my smile by turning over so my face was facing away from Nathan. I sighed deeply. I wasn’t sleepy but it was just really cute when Nathan would whisper in my ear.
“I know you’re awake,” he said and chuckled.
“It’s summer vacation,” I moaned. The moan was just an act.
Nathan chuckled and kissed my neck.
“Get back on your air mattress before my dad sees you on my bed,” I muttered.
“Okay, well I’m leaving now,” he sang. “I guess you can watch me train some other time.”
“No!” I said loudly and shot right up front bed. He chuckled.
“That’s cheating,” I accused.
“That’s reverse physcology,” he corrected.
“Thanks again for staying here with me. I wasn’t really in the mood for another one of my crazy nightmares.”
“You’re never in the mood for you’re crazy nightmares,” he muttered and grinned at me.
“You know, you’re lucky my dad actually let’s you sleep over in my room. My dad doesn’t really trust any of my guy friends. He’s so overprotective.”
“Your dad is just being a dad.”
“I know,” I sighed.
“Are you sure you want to watch me do my training?” He asked for the sixteenth time since yesterday.
“Yes, I do. Why don’t you want me there?” I asked as I made my bed. “Is there something you‘re hiding?”
“It’s not that I don’t want you there, it’s just that I don’t want you to see me so… violent.”
“I don’t care,” I said indifferently. I took my clothes from my drawer and walked to the bathroom to change.
When I was finished, Nathan was already waiting in my room as Clarence Ashburton, his ghost. It always put me in shock on how perfect he always was even as a ghost with his beautiful white skin, the same tone of white hair, and his crystal blue eyes. He smiled when he saw me scrutinizing him from the door way.
“Coming?” He asked, pulling me out of my examination.
“Yeah,” I said and walked toward him. I used to ride on Nathan’s back but ever since we turned into a thing, I rode in his arms. It made me feel more secure and less likely to fall off his back while he ran.
Once I was in Nathan’s arms, he jumped out of the window of my room. Nathan ran so fast, I was sure that people weren’t able to see him especially when the day was as bright as it was today but running at nighttime was a dangerous thing to do.
We were at Nathan, Keith’s, and Sarah’s house in less than five minutes. Nathan opened up the door of his beautiful Tuscany villa mansion and set me down once we were inside.
Nathan took my hand and led me up the staircase to the right side for there were two staircases leading up to the second floor.
Nathan and I walked into the office room. I waited beside Keith’s desk while Nathan pulled open the bookshelf at the end of the room on the right wall. When he got the opening big enough for us to fit through, Nathan and I walked through and entered the hallway behind the shelf. The door to the gigantic white room was already open.
“Hey, Keith,” Nathan said when we entered the room.
“Hello, Nathan. Hello Natalia.” Keith was already in his ghost form.
“Where is Sarah?”
“She’s sleeping. She had a long training day yesterday,” Keith responded.
“Even if she didn’t train the day before, she’d still be sleeping until at least two eleven o’clock in the afternoon,” Nathan chuckled.
“Are you ready, Nathan?” Keith asked.
“Yeah,” Nathan said and shook his body.
Keith walked all the way to the end of the room across from Nathan.
“Natalia, get inside the hall and if things get a bit rough, close the door and go downstairs,” Nathan instructed.
I followed his directions and backed away into the hallway.
“Are you ready, Nathan?” Keith called.
Nathan nodded his head and I wondered if Keith was able to sense that.
I watched Nathan and Keith intently. All of a sudden, Keith wasn’t where he was standing before and Nathan ran away from where he was standing he ran to the left of the room so quick, it only took me a blink of an eye to find him at the corner of the room. He swiftly turned around.
I looked around and tried to find Keith. I spotted him on the ceiling. He was hanging on to on of the large lights hanging from the ceiling. I wondered how he got up there.
Keith was faced toward Nathan and he squinted his eyes very subtly. I looked over at Nathan to see what Keith was doing. Nathan suddenly grabbed his head and roared. Keith was an illusionist! I remembered that Nathan told me that Keith’s singular power that only he had was to put pictures into peoples minds.
Nathan jumped up high toward Keith. Keith jumped off of the light and headed back down. Nathan crashed into the light creating a loud bang as he went head first and fell back down to Earth. He landed on his feet just a couple feet from Keith. His collision with it made it seem like the light would shatter into a million pieces but it just hung there and didn’t even sway.
I watched Nathan and Keith to see what they were going to do next but they were just in a crouch facing each other with their hands curled up into claws. Then Keith shivered and attacked Nathan. They both went flying and they crashed into the cement wall. Nathan has the ability of coldness. He was able to roll cold off his skin. Lately he’d been practicing his ability to make it flow into the air.
Keith was on top of Nathan who was smashed right into the wall. I had no worries to if Nathan was hurt because no matter what they did to each other, there wouldn’t be a scratch because of second hand ghosts ability to heal so quickly.
Nathan pushed Keith off of him and sent him flying through the air. When Keith hit the ground, he rubbed his arms because of how cold he must have been. Nathan stepped out of the dent he was smashed into and jumped onto the floor. I watched as the wounds on his arms and the back of his head healed up and the missing hair grew back. It was disgusting yet intriguing.
Keith stood up and smiled impishly. I looked over at Nathan and he grabbed his head and roared, this time twice as louder as before. He looked awfully mad and he ran so fast toward Keith that I didn’t even realize that he left his spot until his grabbed Keith by the shoulder, spun him and threw him toward the ceiling. Keith was thrown so hard, when he hit the ceiling, one of the lights actually came crashing down to the floor creating a loud sound as it echoed throughout the empty room. Keith jumped down and landed on his back. It was obvious he was now in pain.
I looked over at Nathan who was infuriated. He came at Keith at full speed, jumped and grabbed Keith by the hair and flung him across the floor. Keith slid all the way to the wall and laid there feebly.
“Nathan, stop!” I shrieked, finally regaining feeling.
Nathan ran over to Keith, grabbed him by his arm and threw him back onto the floor. Nathan ran back to the unconscious Keith and put his hands on both sides of his face. At first, I didn’t realize what he was doing but when Keith’s lips started to turn purple just as his skin, I understood. He was killing Keith with hypothermia.
“Nathan, stop it!” I shrieked and ran toward them. I tried pulling Nathan off of Keith. It was ineffectual. “You’re hurting him!”
Keith’s eyes flashed open and he gasped for air. “Natalia,” he gasped as he struggled to get Nathan off of him as well. “Get out of here. I’ll be fine.”
“No!” I cried as I banged my fists against Nathan’s back.
“Nathan, stop it!” I shrieked and pulled at his shoulders.
Keith’s body went absolutely still and I looked at him. His skin was pale white, his lips purple, and his blank eyes were starring right at Nathan. My eyes started to water.
“No…” I whispered.
Suddenly, Nathan rolled off of Keith and fell on his back. I watched as both Keith and Nathan returned back to humans. Keith sat upright, gasping for air and started to rub his skin to regain heat.
I sighed in relief.
“I told you to go away,” Keith murmured, his teeth chattering.
“Do you really think I’d go away while Nathan is… killing you?” I said in disbelief. “Why would you do that, Nathan?” I asked sharply.
Nathan chuckled.
“Why are you laughing? You are so… evil! And repulsive! And disgusting!”
“Natalia, Keith and I usually end our training sessions with things like that,” he responded.
I looked over at Keith.
“We do,” he agreed.
“So when one of you is close to death, that’s when you know you’re done training?” I asked. That was the most stupidest thing I heard in my life.
Nathan shrugged his shoulders. “Pretty much,” he said nonchalantly.
I rolled my eyes. “Boys,” I muttered.