Marking Territory: An Awakened Novel (The Rising Storm Book 1)

by N. L. Paradox

  “He’s all right,” Ashley assured the woman with a smile before wincing when the little boy gave her hair a pretty decent yank. “Ouuuuch,” she said in a voice that was playful instead of painful.

  “You know you’re not supposed to run away like that,” the woman chastised the little boy gently, clearly struggling to hold back the worry she was obviously feeling.

  “Pretty hair Mommy,” the boy, Gabe, told his mother in an odd sort of cadence. He started out normally, but when he said ‘Mommy’ his voice suddenly changed in pitch to sound unnecessarily louder while also having a tone that made me think he was starting a new sentence. Turning to look back at Ashley, he grinned happily. “Pretty princess dress,” he said while lightly stroking her long skirt before repeating, “Princess.”

  By this point, I knew something was clearly off with this kid, only I didn’t have a clue what it was. His speech pattern didn’t say five or six-year-old, but more like maybe a two or three-year-old. When I looked over at Kitty in confusion, her initially wide-eyed and now saddened look clearly said she knew exactly what was going on with the boy. Obviously, it wasn’t anything that posed something even resembling danger, but I made a note to be very careful how I spoke to the kid and his mother before I knew exactly what was going on with him.

  “Why thank you,” Ashley said, her voice going even more musical sounding than normal. Whatever this kid was doing, it was clearly bringing out that Disney princess persona that was such a core part of our lovely friend. “Do you really think I’m a princess?”

  Without hesitation, the boy nodded eagerly while making some kind of mixture of a giggle and a sigh as he grinned up at her. “I’m sorry,” the boy’s mother said as she carefully disengaged her son from Ashley’s skirt, “he’s a runner. Gabe,” she said with a quiet firmness. When he continued to just look just to the left of Ashley with kind of a blank stare she said, “Gabe, look at me,” while touching the tip of her nose with her finger. “Gabe, look,” she repeated in a calm, patient voice that only increased in firmness infinitesimally.

  That very slight change in her tone seemed to be enough to get his attention, and he looked up at his mother still with that somewhat blank expression. “No running away,” she told him in a rather precise manner, “and no grabbing people.”

  “Bu-bu-but… princess Mommy,” he argued, again in that odd tone of voice that just didn’t fit with his apparent age.

  “I’m sorry,” the woman said with a sigh as she offered Ashley a helpless smile, “he’s…”

  “Autistic,” Kitty finished, causing both the woman and I to look at her in surprise. “I recognize the signs, the speech pattern,” she explained.

  While her attention had been diverted by our genius friend’s rather impressive insight, Gabe once again wrapped his arms around Ashley’s waist and started bouncing on his feet while giggling happily. “It’s all right,” Ashley assured the mother as she turned back with a look of mild chagrin on her face. Lowering once again so she was eye to eye with the little boy, she mimicked the mother’s movement and touched her fingertip to her nose. “Gabe,” she ordered in a gentle voice, “look.” This time, the boy’s eyes locked directly onto Ashley’s without any hesitation. “You can’t run away from Mommy,” she told him in the same, concise manner the woman had used before, “it scares Mommy.”

  “Oh, okay,” Gabe replied almost immediately as though there was no confusion in his mind about what he’d just been told. “Sowy Mommy,” he said, looking over at his mother with a smile.

  “Oh you little scamper butt,” the woman said affectionately, scooping the child into her arms and giving him a tight hug before setting him back on his feet. “I hope he didn’t bother you,” she said to us.

  “Not at all,” Ashley assured her, “he’s so sweet. How old is he?”

  “Five,” the woman said unsteadily as Gabe tried to climb back up into her arms.

  “He’s quite vocal,” Kitty observed in her scientist’s voice, earning a reproachful look from Ashley.

  “He’s come a long way with therapy,” the woman explained as she worked on disengaging the child from her and limited his contact to holding her hand. “Last year he was only speaking in one or two-word chunks and only on occasion. He’s starting to use more complete sentences now. His issues are primarily speech and comprehension,” she told Kitty.

  “Does he have a particularly favorite toy or activity?”

  “I’m sorry,” I said, stepping into the conversation, “our friend is something of a budding scientist and doesn’t always realize not everyone likes to give out personal information in the name of science.”

  “What do you mean ‘budding’?” Kitty grumbled.

  “No, it’s okay,” the woman said with an easy smile, “it’s not like we keep it secret that he’s autistic or anything. The fact is, he’s been glued to his tablet watching YouTube videos every since he was about a year old when he figured out how to use it. It’s actually a pretty big part of his improvements with speech.”

  “Why is that?” Ashley asked through a smile as she and Gabe wiggled their fingers at one another.

  “He memorizes the videos he watches and then mimics them while reciting the video back word for word, especially when it comes to Cars.”

  “You mean like Hot Wheels?” I asked curiously.

  “Like Disney Cars, the movies,” she replied with a smile, giving Gabe a small tickle that had him giggling. “He’s absolutely obsessed with them. The truth is, he’d be perfectly happy without any other kinds of toys except Cars.”

  “I bet you line them up and have all kinds of races,” Ashley said to Gabe, switching to the kind of voice one typically heard people use when the talk to babies or very young children.

  Once again, Gabe had that slightly odd, blank look on his face as he stared at nothing in particular and quietly called out, “McQueen is fading, McQueen is fading, fading fast, eeeeeeeeeerrrrrrrrrrr!” The last part was unmistakably a tire screech, which had me looking at his mother in confusion.

  “The Cars 3 trailer,” she explained with a smile. “He watches it over and over and over, even after he saw the actual movie.”

  “Mommy, is gonna get a su’prise?” the little boy asked with such seriousness it was simultaneously hysterical and heartbreaking at the same time.

  “Maybe,” she told him firmly, “but you have to be a good boy.”

  “Okay,” he readily agreed before wiggling down out of her arms and returning to Ashley’s side and lightly petting her skirt.

  “Gabe,” his mother told him, reaching over to take his hand, “we need to get going and finish our grocery shopping.”

  “No, no, no, wait, stop!” the little boy cried, reaching out towards Ashley as he was being drawn away. Even not being the tender heart Ashley was, I could still feel my own quietly break a little at the way Gabe reached out to our kind and lovely friend.

  Clearly, Ashley was affected even more strongly than I was because I swear I could see tears forming in her eyes before she quickly went over to the pair. “You know,” she said quickly, “we still need some more groceries ourselves. We can walk with you if you’d like.”

  “Oh, I wouldn’t want to trouble you girls,” the woman replied, looking pointedly at Kitty and I.

  Before the gorgeous brunette could even think of replying in the negative, I quickly stepped forward and offered her a happy smile. “Oh it’s fine,” I assured her, “no trouble at all, right?” I asked Kitty, giving her a very pointed look that clearly said I would happily kick her ass if she didn’t back Ashley and I up on this.

  Whether or not she had already been on the same train of thought as I had been, our resident genius readily nodded with a smile. “Absolutely,” she agreed.

  With that matter clearly settled, Ashley stepped over to the mother and offered the woman her hand. “I’m Ashley Flynn,” she said by way of introduction. “That’s Aiden Connors and Kitty Blake.”

  “Very nice to
meet all of you,” she said, shaking each of our hands while Gabe once again glommed onto Ashley, “I’m Erin.”

  ****

  “Oh my God he was so sweet,” Ashley gushed as we unloaded our groceries from the trunk of the taxi.

  “I still can’t believe you actually offered to babysit for him,” Kitty said in disbelief while shaking her head. “How are you going to manage that between classes and powers training? Not to mention any extra-curricular activities that might come up.”

  “I’ll make the time,” the redhead said primly as we all started towards our dorm, “especially for Gabe. Considering your background, I’m surprised you didn’t offer.”

  While she didn’t say it outright, it was pretty clear that she thought Kitty would have wanted to study Gabe to further her understanding of autism. It was a reasonable assumption considering the way our scientifically-inclined friend seemed to pay rather close attention to the little boy’s speech and mannerisms while all of us went through each grocery isle. What surprised me was the accusatory tone Ashley used without bothering to even try and hide it.

  Clearly, Kitty was surprised by this too, because she blinked at our friend in shock. “And just what is that supposed to mean?” she fired back defensively.

  “Just that we all know how interested you are in the human mind,” our redheaded friend continued as she unlocked the front door and stepped inside, heading directly for the kitchen. “I doubt you’ve had the chance to really flex those mental muscles of yours, and Gabe certainly gives you the chance to do that.”

  Before I could even think of saying anything, the bags Kitty had been holding were on the floor, and she was across the room in a blink. Grabbing the diminutive girl by the shoulder, she spun her around and was immediately nose to nose with her. “Just what the hell are you trying to say?” Kitty demanded.

  “You’re a smart girl,” Ashley informed her hotly, “I think you can figure it out.”

  “What the fuck is your problem Ashley?” the brunette practically shouted angrily.

  “I don’t have a problem,” the redhead fired back with barely controlled fury, “I actually try to help people instead of dissecting them!”

  By this point, I was just staring at her in open-mouthed shock. This was not the sweet, kind-hearted girl that I was proud to call my best friend. Whoever this mean-spirited bitch was, it wasn’t Ashley. The way she was snapping at Kitty was starting to borderline on cruel. It was almost as though she considered the brunette some kind of a mad scientist who…

  Idiot! I berated myself harshly. How could I have missed this? The signs had all been there for almost the entire time we’d spent with Gabe and Erin. While we’d gone from isle to isle picking out groceries, Ashley had constantly placed herself directly between Gabe and Kitty. If there had been an item she wanted that would require her to abandon him, she asked me to get it for her. I thought she was just being typical Ashley and wanting to stay with Gabe, since the kid was practically hanging off of her the entire time. Now that I realized what was happening here, I remembered how Kitty would frequently glance over at Gabe whenever he started talking about something, typically repeating some kind of skit from his tablet according to Erin. I hadn’t noticed it then, but our genius friend did get a kind of speculative look on her face like she did when trying to solve a scientific problem. It wasn’t done maliciously; I knew that. It was just how the girl’s mind worked. She was part genius neuroscientist, after all. When presented with an established problem regarding the human brain, it interested her.

  But then, why would Ashley take that perfectly normal interest Kitty had and twist it like that. She knew that the girl would never do anything even close to what she was suggesting. It was almost as though…

  “Stop it Ashley!” I snapped, shoving myself between the pair of them before I consciously knew what I was doing. “She’s not Taylor and you know it!”

  The sharp, horrified gasp that came from behind me told me Kitty hadn’t even considered that possibility. “Jesus Ashley,” she whispered, “do you really think…”

  “You’re a scientist aren’t you?” the redhead demanded furiously. “Dissection is part of that isn’t it? Why wouldn’t you want to cut into his brain and see how it worked?” she demanded, her voice ratcheting up to the level of a wild, panic-stricken scream. “And I won’t let you do it! If you so much as lay a finger on that sweet boy…”

  Her brilliantly green eyes narrowed with more fury than I’d ever seen. I didn’t think it was even possible for Ashley to possess so much anger within her. If that had been me, I would have already exploded into rage form and started tearing the place apart, along with everyone in it.

  “…I will rip apart every cell in your body,” she finished in such a dark, threatening voice my wolf actually snarled at her as though she was an enemy.

  At the moment, that might not have been too far from the truth. If there was one thing that was as constant as the rising sun, it was how Ashley felt when it came to using the part of her healing ability that could kill someone by literally ripping their body apart with nothing but a touch. She was so terrified of that aspect of her power that I actually thought she’d erected some kind of mental block to prevent herself from ever using it. Now, she was threatening to use it on one of her two best friends. That was so outrageously out of character for her that I had to wonder if she had actually lost her mind. Unless…

  “Shit!” I hissed before grabbing Ashley and wrapping my arms tightly around her. Even as she struggled to free herself from my grasp, I whispered in her ear over and over, “It’s okay Ashley; it’s okay. No one’s going to hurt Gabe or you, I swear. You’re safe. She’s having a panic attack,” I quickly told Kitty while the brunette stared at us in bafflement.

  Understanding seemed to come to the girl immediately, and she didn’t hesitate to step over and join in the two-thirds group hug I’d initiated. “I would never do that to anyone,” she assured Ashley softly while gently rubbing her cheek against her hair, “especially not to a sweet little boy like Gabe.”

  “B-but, the way you looked at him,” Ashley babbled, her voice shifting from intense anger to shuddering fear.

  “I was interested, yes,” Kitty admitted, “only because I hadn’t done much research in the area of autism. All I did was observe. I’m not like Taylor,” she assured Ashley, “I don’t believe in dissecting people to try and figure out how they work. Hey,” she said, lifting the girl’s chin gently so she could look into her brilliantly green eyes, “I scrambled a guy’s brain because he pretty much did that to me and Angela, remember?”

  Sniffling, Ashley reached up to swipe away a few tears before taking a deep, shuddering breath and nodding slowly. It took a few minutes of her breathing this way to regain control of herself before she whispered, “I’m sorry guys, I don’t know what happened to me. The idea of anyone even thinking about doing to that little boy what Taylor wanted to do to me just made me so… so…”

  “Angry,” I finished for her, “angrier than you’ve ever felt.”

  “Yeah,” she agreed in confusion, “but why? I know you’d never even think about doing anything like that,” she told Kitty earnestly.

  “It was the very idea of it,” the brunette told her gently while stroking her hair. “The closeness of that idea and what happened to you triggered your PTSD I think; only this time you went into attack mode instead of flight.”

  Remembering exactly what she’d threatened, Ashley gasped in horror. “Jesus,” she whispered, “I actually said I’d do to you what I did to Dr. Taylor! Oh my God Kitty, I’m so, so sorry!”

  “Shhhhh,” the sexpot genius soothed with an understanding smile. “I know you’d never do anything like that. It was the PTSD talking. I think you should probably make an appointment with Dr. Stanhope though,” she suggested.

  Nodding agreeably, Ashley gently disengaged herself from our combined embrace to dig her phone out of her purse and start dialing. As she quietly made her
appointment, I reached up and gave Kitty’s shoulder a squeeze. “You okay?” I asked her with concern. “You know she really didn’t mean it, right?”

  “Of course,” she replied immediately. “Though it’s interesting that she went the route she did this time. I just don’t know if that means she’s getting better, or worse.”

  The concern in her voice matched what was going through my mind as well. Was her PTSD taking hold of her in such a way that she’d start becoming more aggressive, more violent? With Ashley that was almost unthinkable, but the unmistakable aggression she’d just displayed had me wondering… and doubting. “Whatever it means,” I said firmly, “she needs to know that we’re here for her no matter what.”

  As Ashley hung up the phone and gave us a rather embarrassed smile, Kitty nodded. “Absolutely,” she quietly agreed.

  The Net

  There was a measure of peace in this cold, regimented space, one that the Slow Ones could never possibly understand. Ironically, were anything in The Net capable of actual self-awareness, there was the possibility it would find the world of the Slow Ones fascinating and interesting. With its complete randomness coupled with the process known as ‘emotions’ that the Slow Ones possessed, the world of the Slow Ones would present an intriguing unknown that would surely require examining.

  That was what made Amethyst so unique within this digitally constructed universe known as The Net. She, since the program/fey hybrid was still fully possessed of human faculties and awareness, was happy in this place. Everything made sense and every facet of this universe operated on a specific set of command code. True, these codes could be altered to best suit her whims, but it was all done within a very rigid set of boundaries that were easily gauged and the outcome predicted with pinpoint accuracy. Even when it came to leisure… yes, she known as Amethyst still enjoyed that Slow One operation… she could enjoy herself knowing exactly what would take place coupled with the unpredictable response of the Slow Ones outside The Net.