Dark Visions Trilogy

Dark Visions
Author(s)	L. J. Smith
Language	English
Series	Dark Visions
Genre(s)	Horror, Fantasy, Romance, Young-adult fiction
Publisher	Simon & Schuster
Publication date	1994 - 1995
Media type	Print (Hardcover & Paperback)

Dark Visions is a trilogy of young adult fiction by L. J. Smith written in the mid- 1990s. The story follows the protagonist, Kaitlyn Fairchild, as she attends, uncovers a plot, and ultimately defeats the Zetes Institute, a place where she went to learn about her own psychic powers. Kait and the four other psychics at the live-in Zetes Institute are the most powerful psychics in the country in their age group. They come from all areas of the U.S. and become best of friends.

The trilogy was published as one book in Trade Paperback and eBook format on September 8, 2009.^[1]

In October 2010, L.J. Smith announced that she has planned out a sequel to the trilogy, titled Blindsight.

Plot summary

The Strange Power

Kaitlyn, is a teenager who is psychic. Her power is seeing the future. She is able to draw her premonitions, but she often can not interpret it until it is too late. After seeing a child get hurt (something she foresaw but could not make sense of) she agrees to go to the Zetes Institute with four other teenagers who have powers of their own. While at the airport and her first day at the institute, Kait is attacked by a man who says she needs to learn. And the housekeeper Marisol also says the same thing, after which she has a seizure and goes into a coma. After which she and Rob inspect a room that is usually locked. They find a file that says Project Black Lightning with terminated printed on it, leading the two to believe the first psychics Marisol mentioned are dead and the same could happen to them. When Gabriel warns them of Mr. Zete's coming, he inadvertently creates a psychic bond between the five, and the only way to break is for one of them to die. After hearing Mr. Zetes talking with Gabriel and inviting him back to his home, she invites herself. Mr. Zetes reveals himself to be power mad and has a crystal that is supposed to give or take tremendous power. After trapping Kait he takes a part of the crystal to Gabriel's forehead, causing great pain and knocking him out. The others use the psychic bond to track them and when Joyce reveals herself to be on Mr. Zetes side, Gabriel awakens from his pain-induced unconscious state and knocks Mr. Zetes, his brutal attack dogs, and Joyce unconscious. The group escapes and they all contribute some of their own life energy to help strengthen Gabriel. (who was severely weakened from his exposure to the crystal and his attack on Mr. Zetes and Joyce).^[2]

The Possessed

The second novel of the trilogy is essentially a journey to an unknown place that the group has dreamt about, but each member has heard something different. They believe that this place will be able to help them find a way to break their telepathic web and fight Mr. Zetes. They manage to get a van and supplies from Marisol's brother, who is upset and suspicious that Mr. Zetes is the cause of his sister's mysterious coma. For his help, they tell him they will do whatever in their power to get Marisol out of her coma. The group begins to travel north searching for this place with only clues from their dreams. Meanwhile, Gabriel has discovered that he has to drain people of their energy to survive. When Kaitlyn discovers this she offers to give her energy so he won't attack innocent people. Meanwhile the group realizes that Mr. Zetes is using psychics to try to break the group. A psychic trap causes Kaitlyn to crash their van and forces the group to hitchhike their way to Anna's family home in Washington State to get help. They are picked up by a girl named Lydia who appears to be harmless. However, Kait feels suspicious of Lydia without knowing why. Once they arrive at Anna's family home, Anna's parents assume that Lydia is one of the psychics', and invite her to stay the night, however during the night, Kait receives a drawing telling them that Lydia is with Mr. Zetes. Lydia confesses that she is the daughter of Mr. Zetes, and hates every minute of it. They stop by a hotel and Rob finds out what Gabriel needs and that Kaitlyn has been helping all along. They tell the group and Gabriel becomes more determined to find The People of the Crystal because he believes they could help him. A few days later they arrive at the place and discover The People of the Crystal, who are ancient and also have a crystal similar to Mr. Zetes but it's pure. The people admit that the only way to break the bond is for one to die, and say they are a peaceful people who have no intention of fighting Zetes. After an attack by Mr. Zetes and his psychics, Timon breaks the crystal, dying in the process, telling Kaitlyn it can destroy Zetes crystal. Gabriel, after losing faith in The People he runs away with Lydia to Mr. Zetes in search for power.

The Passion

Kaitlyn, Lewis, Rob and Anna are on the run. Gabriel has joined Mr. Zetes but still has feelings for Kait. Gabriel tries to attack Kaitlyn and the others one night and Kaitlyn finds out that Gabriel is holding back when he attacked her. She tries to infiltrate The institute, by using Gabriel's feelings for her. She finds Gabriel after he helps her when she is attacked and almost raped by a man. She lies to him that she left everything for him and that she wanted to help him. Gabriel brings her to the institute, and she is settled in with the new psychics that Mr. Zetes has rounded up, the previous experiments for the project "Black Lightning", a project that plans to use the psychics as a strike team. Kaitlyn passes a test by stealing $20 million dollars. After the test, she sees Gabriel on the balcony and talks to him. Gabriel gets suspicious and tells Kaitlyn that if she gets in his way of getting power, he will kill her. However, Kaitlyn did not care what Gabriel thought and covinced everyone that she was a friend of theirs. But when she finds out where the crystal is, she gets caught and put into a isolation tank where Mr. Zetes hoped that she would become insane.. Gabriel reaches out for her when the others were not with him, and helps her through the time in the tank, where they both confess their true feelings for each other. The others plan to attack the institute and destroy the crystal, which has driven the five psychics from the previous attempt at Black Lightning insane. They succeed, and during the time when the crystal was destroyed, Mr.Zetes is killed. After that, Rob goes to Gabriel and grabs his arm, saying he feels something. Gabriel struggles with him but Rob wins. When they all look, they see that Gabriel's arm is badly injured. Rob asks Gabriel what happened and Gabriel says that it happened when the crystal broke. Rob helps to heal Gabriel's arm and tries to probe his mind to find out the real reason. But before Gabriel has time to break away, Rob has already found out and says that Gabriel was injuring himself to stay in contact with Kaitlyn. He asks Gabriel if he loves her and he says yes. Rob gives them his blessing. Kaitlyn gives Anna a blessing with Rob and tells Anna that she (Anna) and Rob should be together. Frost and Jackal Mac run away while Bri and Renny decide to go with Joyce and Tamsin to help rebuild a new place where they can be safe. Joyce offers Kaitlyn, Gabriel, Rob, Lewis and Anna the scholarship money, but they decide to go with Tamsin. At the end they all have a picture taken by Lewis on his camera, and it ends there with Gabriel, Kaitlyn, Anna, Lewis and Rob all being linked laughing with each other.

Characters

Kaitlyn Fairchild

Kaitlyn Brady Fairchild, known as Kait, is the 17 year old protagonist of the series. Her psychic talent is that she (usually subconsciously) creates drawings that are premonitions. Her inability to understand the drawings until too late drives her to attend the Zetes Institute. Her psychic powers and strange appearance make her different and disliked by her fellow classmates in Ohio. Even though she is considered beautiful people believe she is a witch. Because of this, she is strong-willed, stubborn, defensive and dislikes boys in the beginning of the series. As she moves to San Carlos, CA and joins the Institute, she begins to soften. She even falls for the sweet hearted boy Rob, but later on falls in love with Gabriel and they get together and Rob gives them his blessing. Kaitlyn is described as having long red hair, fair skin, and smoky blue eyes with darker rings of blue around the pupil.

Kait's Group

• Rob Kessler (also seventeen) is a North Carolina native and another attendee of the Zetes Institute. His power is the ability to heal by manipulating life energy (also described as chi or "qi"). He discovered these powers after a hang-gliding accident when he was fourteen, which left him in a coma for some time. He then attended another psychic research facility in Durham, NC, where he originally met Gabriel Wolfe. The accident also seems to have taken away Rob's awareness of "girls", and at the start of the trilogy, he is unable to conceive of anything beyond a platonic relationship with a girl. However, by the end of The Strange Power, he and Kait are romantically linked. Rob is described as having blond hair and golden eyes. His aura is warm, bright, calm and good.

• Gabriel Wolfe (also seventeen) is the ambiguous character that eventually joins the light side. He comes to the Zetes Institute from jail, having previously killed by accident and in self defense. He is a telepath, and when he uses his power on minds that are weaker than his, he drains those people of their life energy. He later has to drain peoples life energy to stay alive (the Passion and the Possessed) Kaitlyn helps him by giving him her energy, although no one from the group knows about this yet. His power is described as the most powerful of the group.^[3] He is antagonistic towards Rob and is indifferent to the others in the group, besides Kait. As the series progresses, Kait's romantic feelings gradually shift from Rob to Gabriel. Gabriel also has romantic interest in Kait but tries to deny it. Gabriel is described as having black hair, pale skin, and dark grey eyes. His aura aggressive, mysterious and dark.

• Anna Eva Whiteraven (also seventeen) is the only other girl at the Zetes Institute and is Hailing from Washington State, . She is Native American and a very peaceful and calm girl who becomes Kait's roommate at the Institute. Her psychic abilities allow her to communicate with animals and control them. She has romantic interest in Rob the whole series but respects Kait's prior claim on him. Eventually she becomes the love interest for Rob, at the very end of the series. Her aura is active and natural.

• Lewis Chao (also seventeen) is from San Francisco and is the last of the group at the Zetes Institute. He is Asian-American and described to be very friendly and funny. He has the ability of psychokinesis, the ability to move (small) objects with his mind; later he uses his abilities to jam radio frequencies, set off telephones, even open hidden doors. He is Rob's roommate at the Institute. He also a interest for Lydia. He doesn't have a aura

Zetes Institute

• Emmanuel Zetes is the villain of the story. He is very wealthy and found the Zetes Institute for research on psychic phenomena. However, it is revealed that the Institute is actually preparing psychics to perform as a special for-hire task force for criminal activities. He is the owner of a "firestone" or "great crystal", which can store and enhance psychic energy.

• Joyce Piper is the parapsychologist at the Zetes Institute. At first, she is very friendly and earnest. However, it is revealed at the end of The Strange Power that she is in on a plot to use the psychics for crime. But later, she turns out that she was good after all.

• Marisol Diaz is an assistant at the Institute and helps Joyce run experiments as well as perform household duties. Marisol worked for the Zetes Foundation before Joyce and was involved in the mysterious pilot experiment that took place before the Kait and her fellow psychics arrived. Early on, Marisol tries to warn Kait about strange happenings at the Institute and ends up in a coma for most of the series.

• Lydia Zetes is the eighteen-year-old daughter of Mr. Zetes. She is sent as a spy into Kait's group in The Possessed and eventually joins, then betrays the group. She is timid and afraid of her father and the dark psychics, but eventually helps Kait in the end.

• The Dark Psychics are the psychics that participated in the pilot experiment that preceded Kait and the other's arrival. They were the best young psychics in the San Francisco area, but their powers proved to be insufficient to withstand contact with Mr. Zetes' crystal. They are described as having been reduced to "insanity and idiocy." However, once Kait's group leaves the Institute, Mr. Zetes gathers these psychics to find the group and destroy the Fellowship. Because of their use of the crystal, they are psychic vampires and need an outside source of life energy (from other people or from the crystal) to survive. The dark psychics include:
  • Sabrina Jessica Gallo's (also known as Bri) psychic power is dowsing, or being able to locate something from afar. She joins Kait's group in the end.
  • Laurie Frost's (known as Frost) psychic ability is psychometry, or being able to determine someone's thoughts and feelings by touch. She has an antagonistic relationship with Kait, partially because of her romantic relationship with Gabriel.
  • Paul Renfew (known as Renny) has, like Lewis, psychokinesis and can move objects with his mind. He also joins Kait's group in the end.
  • John MacCorndale (known as Jackal Mac) has the ability to perform astral projection of his own body and to lead others. He is also antagonistic towards Kait and tries to take life energy from her at one point.
  • Sasha and Parté King (real names unknown) lost their minds because of the crystal. Their powers became very strong, but they are no longer aware or human-like. Mr. Zetes uses them as guards of the crystal.

The Fellowship

The Fellowship are the remaining members of an ancient race of psychics that lived before recorded human history. These members were able to predict the fall of this civilization and went to live in peace and simplicity in Canada. Their civilization used crystals, but unlike the crystal of Mr. Zetes, these crystals were pure and produced no bad side effects. These members have the last remaining pure crystal and are able to live hundreds of years, with the energy of the crystal sustaining them. They are pacifists and invite Kait and the others to live with them and hide from Mr. Zetes.

Members of the Fellowship include:

• LeShan is the member of the Fellowship that makes contact with Kait and tries to warn her of the dangers at the Zetes Institute. He is one of the younger members and is less set in the traditional ways of the Fellowship.

• Timon is one of the oldest members of the Fellowship and a default leader. He is resistant to change at first, but once he senses the evilness of the dark psychics, he realizes that some battles must be fought.

• Mereniang is another leader of the Fellowship (though she defers to Timon). She is the most set in the traditional ways of the Fellowship.

• Tamsin is one of the youngest members of the Fellowship. Her relative youth allows her to leave the protection of the crystal. She is sent as a messenger at times.

References

1. ^ Books - Dark Visions, Simon & Schuster.
2. ^ Smith, L.J. (1994). The Strange Power. New York: Archway. ISBN 0-671-87454-3
3. ^ Smith, L.J. (1995). The Possessed. p. 40. New York: Archway. ISBN 0-671-87455-1