Chapter 7: The Void
The crisp January air bit at Jordan's skin as he walked towards the towering doors of Blackridge Academy from dorms, he had miraculously managed to sneak back into school using Naomi's ability. The sun hung low in the sky, casting long, lazy shadows across the pavement. The usual morning chatter of students buzzed around him—laughs, greetings, the shuffle of boots on salted sidewalks—but Jordan barely registered any of it. His hoodie was pulled up over his head, shielding his face from the curious stares of classmates who noticed the bruises on his jaw and the faint, fresh cut tracing his cheekbone.
But it wasn't the bruises that caught the most attention. It was the fact that Jordan Carter—who was practically born with wheels under his feet—was walking. No skateboard. No tricks. No gliding through campus like he usually did.
Just him, quiet and worn.
Leaning against a pillar near the entrance, Amara spotted him immediately. Her sharp, observant eyes narrowed behind her signature shades. She pushed off the pillar with a graceful swing of her shoulder, her oversized hoodie swaying over her baggy pants as she made a beeline for him. She wasn't the type to fuss. In fact, she hated fussing. But something about the way Jordan moved felt wrong. Off. Heavy.
"What the hell happened to you?" she demanded, stepping into his path with one hand on her hip.
Jordan barely lifted his head. "Skated into a wall," he muttered without meeting her gaze.
Amara blinked. Then scoffed loudly. "And I'm the Queen of England."
A ghost of a smirk tugged at Jordan's lip, but he kept walking. "Didn't know you had royal blood, Mara."
She rolled her eyes and matched his stride, folding her arms. "For real though. You look like you got jumped in an alley after school and then lost the fight. Where's your board? Why you walking like somebody canceled your birthday?"
Jordan didn't respond right away. His eyes flicked toward the hallway, then down to the ground. "Just had a rough night, alright?"
Her smirk faded. For a second, Amara caught something shift in his expression—something darker, like guilt or fear—but before she could press him further, someone caught both of their attention.
Naomi.
She stood a few feet down the hallway by her locker, flipping through a book with an eerie calmness that felt too… precise. Too placed. Amara's eyes narrowed. She had barely spoken to Naomi in the two days since she arrived, but she wasn't stupid. She saw the way Naomi looked at Jordan. The way Jordan looked back. Like they were tuned into the same frequency no one else could hear.
Amara clenched her jaw.
Without a word, she turned and stormed straight toward Naomi.
"Amara—yo, wait!" Jordan started, but it was too late.
Amara reached Naomi, grabbed her wrist, and yanked her around the corner of the hallway, away from the crowd. The noise of students faded behind them as the tension surged between them.
"What are you doing with him?" Amara snapped, eyes narrowed.
Naomi blinked at her, unfazed by the sudden aggression. "すみません."
Amara frowned. "What?"
Naomi corrected herself, barely blinking. "Oh. Sorry. I meant—excuse me?"
Amara let out a dry laugh. "Don't play cute. You heard me. What are you doing with Jordan?"
Naomi tilted her head slightly, the way someone does when they're trying to decide whether the person in front of them is a threat or an insect. "I'm not doing anything with him."
Amara's grip tightened. "Don't play with his feelings. If you're messing with him, I swear—"
Naomi pulled her wrist free with a sharp motion. "You don't know what you're talking about."
"Oh, I know enough," Amara said, stepping closer. "You show up outta nowhere, and two days later Jordan shows up lookin' like he got jumped by a demon. And he's walkin'. Jordan Carter does not walk."
Naomi's eyes hardened. "Then don't trust me."
"Oh don't worry, sweetheart," Amara said, voice dripping with sarcasm, "I don't."
Naomi opened her mouth to reply, but before she could—
Something shifted.
A strange, almost electric sensation rushed through Amara's body. Like something inside her was being unknotted. Unraveled. Her fingers tingled. A faint glow pulsed around them—barely noticeable, but it was there.
Naomi's eyes widened in alarm.
Her own hand was glowing too.
And then—
Everything vanished.
---
The Void
Silence.
Not just quiet. A complete, soul-deep absence of sound. The kind of silence that swallows your heartbeat and thoughts and makes you feel like you've been erased from existence.
Amara blinked hard. Once. Twice.
White. Endless white stretched out in every direction. No horizon. No sky. No floor. Just an infinite, bone-chilling expanse of pure nothingness.
She spun around, heart pounding like a drum. Naomi stood beside her, arms slightly raised, face pale but calm—far too calm for someone who had just been yoinked out of reality.
"What the hell—?" Amara breathed.
Naomi exhaled slowly, looking around. "This… is the Void."
"The what?"
"The space between dimensions," Naomi said, turning in a slow circle. "Earth. The Spirit World. The Ethereal World. The Elemental World. The Energy Realm…" Her voice dropped an octave. "And the Forbidden Shadow Realm."
Amara looked around wildly. "Okay, cool. Sounds like some Dungeons & Dragons nonsense. What I wanna know is—how the hell did we get here?"
Naomi hesitated. "Our abilities. They're… connected somehow. When you grabbed me—"
"Oh so this my fault?" Amara interrupted, raising a brow.
Naomi sighed, ignoring the attitude. "Not fault. Reaction. My phasing is spiritual. Yours comes from navigating the line between physical and ethereal. The Void exists between both. When we touched, something triggered."
Amara threw her hands up. "Fantastic. So now I gotta watch who I grab or I'll teleport to the Twilight Zone?"
Naomi gave a soft shrug. "Possibly."
"Girl, I swear to God—" Amara started pacing. "I got detention on Tuesdays. I ain't got time to be gettin' lost in interdimensional limbos with girls I don't even like."
Naomi cracked the faintest of smirks. "You think I enjoy this?"
Amara stopped pacing. "So what now? We just… vibe in the white void 'til we starve?"
"Maybe not." Naomi closed her eyes, focusing. A faint light began to glow around her body like a halo. Calm. Centered.
Amara frowned. "What are you doing?"
"Trying to attune to the energy that brought us here. If I can isolate the resonance, maybe we can phase back."
Amara gave a skeptical look. "You makin' this up as you go, aren't you?"
"Do you have a better idea?"
"…No."
Naomi's glow grew brighter. Without realizing it, Amara's hands began to shimmer too, reacting. Mirroring. The energy between them pulsed, synchronized. The whiteness around them warped slightly, like reality bending inward.
Then—
They were back.
---
Back to Reality
Amara gasped, stumbling backward into a row of lockers. The hallway buzzed with the same students. Same noise. No time had passed.
Naomi exhaled shakily, steadying herself with one hand against the metal. Her glow had vanished, but her pulse raced.
Amara looked down at her hands. Normal again.
No Void.
Just the real world.
"What the hell was that?" Amara finally said.
Naomi met her gaze, serious. "Proof."
"Of what?"
"That this is bigger than just Jordan. Bigger than you. Bigger than me." Naomi's voice was quiet but firm. "You're involved now. Whether you want to be or not."
Amara tilted her head, giving Naomi an aggressive side-eye. "I'm involved in what, nigga?"
Naomi narrowed her eyes. "Look—I don't like you. You don't like me. That's fine. But I'm here to protect Jordan. That's what I came to do. It's my mission, and I won't fail. If you're not gonna help, at least don't get in the way."
The usual calm in Naomi's voice was gone—replaced with steel.
Amara stared at her for a long moment.
She loved Jordan. Maybe more than she let on. And she didn't like this interdimensional, secret-mission, shadow-realm business. But if Naomi was telling the truth…
She had no choice.
Amara clenched her fists, nodding once. "Fine. I'll help with your little magical girl power plot or whatever, but only to make sure you don't do anything shady to J."
"That's fine by me," Naomi said with a cool smile. "As long as you stay in your lane."
Amara sucked her teeth. "You so lucky I don't throw hands."
Naomi's smirk grew. "You'd end up back in the Void."
Amara squinted. "Try me."
Then the tension broke—barely—but enough for Amara to exhale.
"So… are you gonna tell me what actually happened yesterday?" she asked. "I got first period free. Might as well hear the tea."
Naomi hesitated. "If you're going to help us, you need to know what we're up against."
Amara raised an eyebrow. "Wait—we up against something? I thought y'all just got roughed up by Mateo's lackeys."
Naomi gave her a look. "It's a long story."
"Well then," Amara said, sighing and adjusting her bag. "Let's go find a free classroom. I got snacks. And you got answers."