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  She saw the truth that was in his eyes. With a deep breath, she knew she needed to make a giant leap of faith. Caitlyn was not one for taking leaps so blindly. “So, where do I go from here?”

  “Well, that is up to you. We suggest that you take time out of your real life to absorb all of this and to train. The Trust is very well funded and will pay for your sabbatical. But of course, there are others who feel they cannot do that for personal reasons, and we don't force it. But whatever you decide, I will stay where you are, guiding you.”

  Again, furrowed brow. “Trust Corporation?”

  Garrett shook his head and winced a little. “Ah... I can see I am going about this all wrong with you.” He rubbed his forehead. “Sorry, I've never mentored anyone before and well, apparently, I need a little finesse. Let's do this. Remember that beach you took me to a week ago?”

  “Yes.” That was the day that Garrett had opened up to her, telling her about his childhood, his virtually non-existent father, his compassionate mother, and being an only child. Caitlyn wondered now with frustration how much of his past he had made up and had manufactured to get in her good graces that afternoon.

  “Everything I told you that day was the truth. I may have left things out, but I never lied to you.”

  The words rang clearly and loudly. She was startled. She had been staring at Garrett the entire time and his mouth had never moved, never wavered even. He looked at her with an amused expression. “Telepathic, remember? You don't know how to block your thoughts yet, so I could hear yours unintentionally, just like you can hear mine now. Don't worry, I am big on privacy, so it will be one of the first things I will teach you. I hate people that try to pry, and in the Trust, it's important that you know how to block thoughts. There are certain factions that would love to get the information that is stored in here.” He pointed with his index finger to his head.

  “Factions?” she thought. She could not believe she was communicating telepathically. This was insane.

  “We will get into all of that later. There is so much information for you to learn and I don't need my student getting sensory overload on the first day. That would go over great with the Council.” He commented dryly. Caitlyn was surprised when he stated that last part out loud.

  “Shall we?” When Caitlyn still hesitated, he thought to her, “I promise you can trust me.” He extended his hand out to her.

  Sighing, she placed her hand in his as he pulled her to a standing position. She was going to have to have faith in him. She just hoped the trust was not misplaced. They walked over to his truck and climbed in.

  Chapter 3

  They drove to the beach in relative silence, leaving Caitlyn to digest everything that had happened over the past few hours. If Garrett could hear her thoughts, he kept it to himself. Having him hearing her thoughts was the least of her worries at the moment.

  Caitlyn did not know what to make of all of this. On one hand, she was terrified that something was happening to her that she could not control. Caitlyn liked being in control, knowing what was happening at all times. The fact that she felt so completely helpless to what was occurring was frustrating to say the least. On the other hand, it explained so many things. She had felt for so long that there was something more to her, something she could not fully explain. She no longer had that feeling. Beneath all the nerves, she had to admit to herself that she was a little excited to find out what she was capable of, what made her special.

  The blonde Potential repositioned her body in the direction of the man who could show her exactly that. Garrett’s aura, for lack of a better word, was barely there. It was a light blue, almost clear. She wondered if everyone who was like them had the same aura, or if it was unique to him. She noticed for the first time how confidently he carried himself, how he stood just a little straighter than other people, even in the relaxation of his vehicle. His eyes, though focused on the road, still held the constant mirth they always did, but she also noticed they held something more, something deep. Pain? Anxiety? Caitlyn was not sure she would ever find out, but she wanted to. She had a feeling that it might solve part of the mystery that she felt was Garrett Stevens.

  They pulled down the familiar dirt road just as they had a week ago. Garrett got out of the car, opening her door. He bowed dramatically, and she could practically feel the excitement radiating off him as he exclaimed with a flourish, “Let the training commence.”

  “Wait.” She said. Caitlyn did not budge from the passenger seat, her mind racing as it tried to figure out exactly how she should proceed.

  He paused, watching her carefully. “Okay. If you aren’t ready, I understand completely.”

  She shook her head. “Yes… I mean, no, I am really not ready, but I want to learn. But before I do, I think I need more answers. There are a lot of questions that have been running around in my head.”

  “Of course you do. I would be worried if you didn’t.” He offered his hand to her as he helped her climb the rest of the way out of the gray truck. Garrett motioned for Caitlyn to follow him as he walked to the front of the car, sitting down on the bumper, his hands resting on either side of him, looking straight ahead over the cliffs into the dark night. “What would you like to know?”

  “I need to know if you are telling me the truth… about all of this. I need to know if I am going crazy, or hallucinating, or if this is really happening to me.”

  He turned away from the ocean. “I promise, it’s really happening and you are not crazy. This isn’t something that you are expected to accept the very first day. You have every right to question things. Just know that I want you to feel like you can ask me anything. If I can answer it, I will.”

  For what seemed like the hundredth time that day, Caitlyn took a deep breath. The scent of saltwater and seaweed clung heavier in the air than was normal for low tide. She attributed this to her newly heightened senses. “Okay, what is the Trust and what does that have to do with being an Actual?”

  “The Trust is an organization that has been around for centuries. We can date it back to around 1125. Basically, a very select few started evolving beyond the average human. At first, it was just reading others thoughts and perhaps levitating small objects. There were only a dozen men and women on record as having the ability back then. The founders all thought that they were possessed by some devil or cursed. It wasn’t until they naturally gravitated to one another that they began to realize that this was a gift, a blessing, and they should be proud of it and not ashamed. Imagine how difficult it was, despite living hundreds and in some cases, thousands of miles apart, that they still somehow found each other, in Ireland of all places.”

  Caitlyn imaged what their journeys must have been like; the sacrifices they must have made in their travels, all on a hunch that there was something waiting out there for them. She pictured the relief they probably felt when they realized that they were not alone, that there were others just like them, others that understood their struggles.

  Garrett continued. “The ones who did not keep their talents secret were publically persecuted, ostracized, and in many cases killed. The remaining few, decided to keep their talents concealed but remained close, working on their abilities together, learning what they were really capable of. They protected each other from detection. That is when the Trust was officially founded. It was very much a secret society for centuries. Midnight gatherings, special rites of passages, and a hierarchy. Over the centuries, our numbers grew. We contribute this to being that some families passed down the gene, generation to generation, since the beginning. There are eight of these families. Their families are simply known as the Descendants. Those families have strong abilities and are revered among Actuals. Are you following so far?”

  Caitlyn shifted her weight on the hood of the car in an attempt to get more comfortable. “Yes.”

  “Until about the early 1920’s, the number of Actuals stayed fairly consistent. There were never more than about one thousand in any given time in t
he world. It seemed to be a gene that was largely dormant. In the following ten years however, the number of Actuals close to doubled. The Descendants consulted with the Council-”

  Caitlyn held up her hand. She was confused with all the new terminology being thrown at her. “Wait. Council?”

  Garrett shook his head. “Sorry. In the Trust, there are three essential different levels. The first is your everyday Actual. The second is the Council. These are respected members of the Trust and they make most of the decisions regarding the Trust. They are our governing unit essentially, and there are several different Councils around the world for geographical purposes. Then there is the Descendant Tribunal. The Descendants as I mentioned, are the originating families. The majority of them are Council members or involved in some way with the Council as well. But if there is a consensus among the designated Head of Household for each Descendant family, then they override what the Council approves. The Tribunals decision is always the final word. At least, that was the way it used to be.”

  “Used to?”

  Garrett smiled slightly. “I’ll get to all of that in a minute. So in the 1930’s, the numbers almost doubled. They were faced with a situation they had never encountered before. After much deliberation, the Council and the Tribunal decided that we needed to remain a secret for now. The world was in chaos with Hitler and World War II brewing. Adding in the existence of the Actual population would only have divided the world further and made the world more volatile. So the Trust took a large initiative and spread across the world in search of Potentials. It was at this time that they began to assign a mentor to the Potentials when they awoke. They took them in, trained them, and made sure they were of the same mind-set to keep this secret under wraps at all costs. This was largely a success with few exceptions. Each and every person was required to pass the Threshold.”

  Before Caitlyn could speak, Garrett held up a finger indicating that he knew what she was going to ask. “The Threshold is our oldest tradition and is sacred. The Threshold is a test of your strength, your abilities, your fears, and your will. Once you pass that, you are officially accepted within the Trust and your evaluation within the Trust is complete. Until then, you are one of us, but still an outsider.”

  “What if they don’t pass?”

  Garrett shook his head. “It’s not exactly like that. Not everyone has the same capability, but it is a test of yourself, your character. It is not something you can exactly fail, but the Trust can determine that you are not ready to join the Trust yet and will ask that the mentoring process continue. That itself is rare. Your mentor is the person who determines when you are ready to take the test, not anyone else. Some people complete this within a year, others take longer.”

  Caitlyn couldn’t help but hope that she fell in the prior category, not the later. She pushed her hair away from her face as a warm breeze blew by. “So, there are approximately two thousand people in the world right now that are Actuals?”

  He laughed. “A little more than that. Over the following years, the numbers have been increasing by a little less than one thousand every decade. We are currently at approximately ten thousand Actuals.”

  She whistled low. “Wow.”

  “Yep.”

  “How were you able to keep all of this a secret?” Everything was captured on Smartphones, security cameras, and other emerging technology.

  “It has not been easy, and lately, with all the differences in how we should proceed as a group going forward, we have become more divided, which has made it difficult to keep it a secret.”

  “Are you referring to the factions?”

  Garrett turned his head and she could tell by his face that he was pleased that she was paying attention. “Yes, I am referring to the factions. Around nineteen sixty-one, various people in the Council and the Tribunal began having severe disagreements. There were several members that felt that the Trust should go public, that we should not be in hiding anymore. They fought for years internally about this, until a young man whose family was one of the Descendants, decided he had enough. In nineteen eighty-seven, Nathaniel Livingston convinced many members of the Trust to leave and start up their own organization, with their own rules. Approximately, twenty five hundred Actuals left the Trust, and started up an organization called the Cine Tofa.”

  “Cine Tofa.” She repeated, letting the strange name roll off her tongue.

  “The Cine Tofa is a complex ideal. They feel that with our greater numbers, now is the time to take over and go public. They want us to be the protectors and feel that the average human cannot protect themselves. The Cine Tofa feels a moral responsibility to help those who cannot help themselves.”

  “And the Trust does not?”

  Garrett shook his head. “It is not exactly like that with the Trust. The Trust, well, they have more faith in humanity, I guess. The Trust helps, but is very discreet in how they go about it.”

  Caitlyn snorted. “Well, the human race survived fine for all these years.”

  “True. But there are now more things than ever that separate the Trust from the Cine Tofa. About three years ago, there was an alarming discovery. The amount of Potentials that we can see has skyrocketed.”

  Caitlyn raised her eyebrows. She thought it was amazing that ten thousand people could still have a secret society. “How many?”

  “How many people have appeared fuzzy to you over the past month?”

  Caitlyn thought about this and realized that most people she found out of focus were young and just starting their college careers. “About seven or eight?”

  He shook his head. “Now, don’t you find it strange that there are only ten thousand of us spread around the world no less, but yet, there are eight potentials in this one zip code alone that you have suddenly noticed?”

  Caitlyn nodded but she did not put it fully together. “That does seem rather odd. So exactly what are we talking about?”

  “We are talking about a large amount of the younger generation that is going to Awaken. Most people Awaken between the ages of twenty-one to twenty-five. The Trust and the Cine Tofa have been taking random censuses of areas for the past three years, and based on the data, they have estimated that five hundred thousand people in the world’s population are going to Awaken within the next five years. And some consider that a low estimate. We now call this event, the Inception.”

  “Five hundred thousand?” The number was staggering to her. She knew that it was not even close to a half percent of the world’s population, but still. “And I can only guess that number is going to increase.”

  “Exactly. We can only assume that the younger generations are going to follow suit, and this as well is going to pose problems.”

  Caitlyn could imagine all the ramifications that this would cause. The next fifty years of the world’s history is going to be filled with strife and prejudice. “So am I part of this Inception?”

  He shook his head. “No. In fact, you are the calm before the storm. Per a treaty that we established in 1989, The Trust and the Cine Tofa both have designated areas that they recruit new Potentials from in North America. It appears that there will be perhaps twenty five of you that we know of that are going to be Awakening over this next year on the Trust’s side. I am guessing the same on the Cine Tofa’s end, which is a lower than normal number. But in the next four or five years, we know will start to see an astounding number Awaken. This causes a lot of problems on both ends to say the least.”

  Caitlyn thought about that for a moment. “So this must be bringing together both factions to work on a solution.”

  “In some small ways, yes, but in reality, it has divided them even further.”

  She couldn’t picture how it would. They would need to band together. “How so?”

  “Well, both acknowledge that it is going to be virtually impossible to hide our existence. So both factions are using the time now to establish how they are going to handle the Inception. The Trust has taken the stance of sta
ying the course. They have been placing members of the Trust in high levels of Government for the past several centuries. They feel when the Inception occurs, they will have enough influence to avoid conflict. The Cine Tofa, or should I say the head of the Cine Tofa, has been taking a more radical approach, thinking that this is the time they have been waiting for to come out. They feel that that now is the time to position themselves as the guardians of the human race. Protect those who cannot protect themselves. And by protectors, I mean that if necessary, they will take over governments to ensure a peaceful world.”

  Caitlyn was dumbfounded. There was a group basically wanting to take over the world? She tried to imagine why they think they would be great enough to try to take down governments. It was an absolutely absurd idea and a very dangerous one at that. She was not positive what the capabilities were of being an Actual, but she was pretty certain it was not stopping a nuclear bomb. “They surely cannot all believe that.”

  “No, of course not all. But a lot of them have unwavering trust in their leadership.”

  She had another question she had wanted to ask, but it seemed so insignificant now. Garrett read her mind.

  “Ask whatever. There are no small questions when it comes to being an Actual.”

  “How are the organizations able to afford all this?”

  Garrett ran his fingers through his hair. “I didn’t lie when I said I worked for Trust Corporation. The Trust depended for centuries on it benefactors and generous donations from its members. For years that was purely enough to sustain them. In the nineteen fifties, the Council decided that it should get involved in the technology that was coming out. So they got involved in mainframe computers, and with the pull that the Trust had been creating for centuries with governments around the world, they had more military contracts than they knew what to do with. When the nineteen eighties came around, they had enough foresight to move from mainframes to personal computers. The Trust exploded and became the technology powerhouse it is today. The Cine Tofa took the expertise of the Trust and became several smaller corporations throughout the world. While individually, those companies may not make as much as the Trust, together their profits are just as high and they do not need to worry about the public eye to the same extent. Does that answer your questions?”