by S T G Hill
“What’s the phone look like?” he said.
“It’s pink,” Ellie said. She hated pink, but it was a girlie color and she wanted to seem as girlie as she could manage. “Really, I can just run in and grab it. I’ll be in and out.”
“I’m not supposed to…” he said.
“I don’t want to miss the previews! Just let her get her phone,” the popcorn juggler said.
Ellie suppressed a little smirk, turning it instead into a tiny quiver of the lips. “My mom got me that phone. She’ll kill me if she finds out I lost it!”
She started blinking quickly, like someone trying to keep the tears from flowing down their cheeks.
That did it.
Tears were really magic, she knew. When it came to guys, at least. They always crumbled. Would do anything to keep a girl from crying.
Maybe it made them consider their own emotions. Whatever it was, Ellie didn’t care. She only cared that it worked.
“Fine. Just be quick. I don’t want to have to come in there looking for you,” the usher said.
He handed her back her foraged ticket stub.
The popcorn juggler nearly bowled Ellie over when he moved closer.
She went down the aisle past several auditorium doors, pausing at the one marked on her ticket stub. When she looked back, the usher had already forgotten about her, thanks to a large line of moviegoers.
With a bit more spring in her step, she darted down the hall and slipped into an auditorium where she could still hear the preshow playing.
She felt so pleased with herself that she almost forgot about Caspian and his glowing hand.
Her favorite seat was free: last row at the back and next to the stairs.
She sat and let out a relieved sigh. Her shoulders slumped and the padding of the chair cushioned her when she sank back against it.
A movie had been the right choice. It’d let her turn off her brain for a couple of hours. And if it went on long enough maybe the clock would cross over past midnight and it wouldn’t be her birthday anymore when she got out.
The seat next to her creaked.
Another young guy sat in it. Her body went rigid with alarm when, in the twilight of the auditorium, she thought it was Caspian again.
He followed me! she thought.
But then she saw it wasn’t Caspian.
This guy looked about the same age, but was broader in the shoulder and rougher cut in the face. In the reflected light from the silver screen his hair came out as sandy, not black like Caspian’s.
She then realized that she hadn’t seen anyone come up the stairs to her row. And he certainly hadn’t been there when she sat down. She would’ve picked another seat if that were the case.
It was like the guy had just appeared there.
There were plenty of other seats, too. Why did he sit beside me?
The preshow ended and the auditorium dimmed. The trailers started with an explosion of sound.
She fixed her eyes on the screen and shifted her body towards the opposite armrest. Her left hand slid down between her knees, safely hidden.
“I know you have the letter,” the new guy said.
Maybe he’s on his phone, she thought. Though in her peripheral vision she couldn’t see the telltale glowing of a screen.
She pressed her knees against her hand so that it couldn’t escape and go touch the bulge of the letter that rested in her pocket.
“There’s no time for any of this. I know you heard me,” he said.
A guy two rows down turned around to glare at them, then turned back to the screen. A hard and heavy ball weighed down the pit of Ellie’s stomach.
“We need to leave,” he said.
Ellie couldn’t hold it in anymore, “No, you need to leave.”
That same guy down a couple rows turned around. This time his lips pushed, “Shh…”
The sound sort of trailed off, and the man remained frozen in that awkward semi-turned pose.
His eyes glinted slightly in the low light and Ellie realized that he’d stopped blinking.
The fine hairs on the back of her neck prickled up. The air felt weird and different. Still, somehow. Yet charged. Like that sensation of static before lightning struck.
Ellie pushed forward in her seat.
Everyone in the theater was completely still. And then she saw the screen. It was stuck on some image of a car in the middle of a commercial.
And just above her head, in that bar of light that shot from the projector, she saw something else. The little motes of dust that always danced and swirled. Except they, too, were completely still.
“What…?” Ellie said.
“Eleonora, we have to go. You have to come with me,” the guy said.
She sprang from her chair and onto the stairwell, nearly falling over into the seat on the other side.
“How do you know my name? Who are you?”
“That doesn’t matter. You need to come with me,” he said.
He stood up, bracing one hand on and armrest on the other on the back of the seat in the next row. He was so tall and wide.
Ellie knew that if he got out onto the stairwell he could easily block her.
“None of that matters. Just come with me.” Then he reached out a hand.
Ellie’s palm burned. An echo of that weird tingle ran down her spine. She didn’t want that to happen again.
She reached out her hand. Stretched it out so that their fingertips almost touched.
He took the bait. He leaned forward, put himself off balance.
“Get away from me!” she screamed.
With a quick lunge, she darted forward and shoved him backwards. His eyes went wide and he tumbled over an armrest into one of the chairs.
Ellie wasted no time. She hurtled down the stairs, taking them two at a time in the darkness.
She needed to get to that door below the glowing red sign that read EXIT.
She reached it, pushed it open.
It swung outwards, away from her. Or started to, at least. Then it pushed back against her. Pushed hard, like one of the linebackers from her school decided to throw a beefy shoulder into it.
“It’s no good,” the guy said. He started down the stairs, good and slow.
Panicked energy exploded in Ellie’s chest. It ran down into her arms and legs in little agitated threads, one heartbeat icy cold, the next boiling hot.
She put her shoulder into the door and pressed both hands hard against the release bar.
The door flung out and then back in like it just hit a large rubber band.
“No!” Ellie said.
“Just stop… Wait!” the guy said, he sounded so close to her.
So close that he could just reach out and put his hand on her shoulder.
More of that energy exploded from her chest. For just a second, the theater came back to life. Conversation murmured just below the level of the audio track talking about car safety features.
Then it stopped again.
She slammed her body against the door. This time whatever held it from the other side snapped.
The door flung open and banged hard against the wall of the alley behind the theater.
Ellie glanced back long enough to see the wide-eyed expression on his face. Then she tripped out into the alley.
The cracked pavement bit into her palms, and they stung when she pushed back up to her feet.
She flung the door shut and grabbed a splintery old wooden pallet she could jam beneath the handle.
The door shook in its frame a moment later, and she stumbled backwards a few steps until she hit the opposite wall.
Just above, the bottom rung of a fire escape ladder hung tantalizingly close. She stretched for it, but still came up short.
The door shook harder. A crack appeared in the steel frame.
Go, run, she told her legs. She didn’t want to move. She didn’t want to believe any of this was happening.
Except she knew if she didn’t move
then that guy would get out here and catch her and take her who knew where.
She turned a quick circle, trying to get her bearings.
It was a network of alleys. The sounds of Linden Boulevard, car horns and brakes and tires, were maddeningly close.
It has to come out somewhere, she thought.
Ellie trotted down the wet pavement, swerving a little to avoid piled bags of garbage, dumpsters, and the rats clumped around them.
She rounded a corner and saw a loading dock up ahead, its big corrugated door shut. That was good, it must mean she was close to the main road.
Then a sleek black car pulled smoothly into the intersection in front of her, its headlights stabbing out into the darkness.
She lifted one hand, “Help!”
The driver’s door opened and her heart blasted triumph against her ribs. Saved!
The driver stepped out.
She recognized that dark hair and those high and pretty cheeks right away.
Smiling, Caspian walked around the hood of the car, then leaned against the passenger side fender.
“Hey, Ellie,” he said.
Her mind vanished in a blank white screen of panic.
The sound of his footsteps brought her back. Caspian stretched a glowing hand out towards her.
“I told you about the easy way,” he said, “But you didn’t want that.”
Ellie took a step backwards. Her heel pressed against half a crumbling brick.
In one smooth movement, she grabbed and whipped it at Caspian. He caught it without slowing down.
For just a second, that light from his hand engulfed the brick so bright it left a purpled afterimage on Ellie’s eyes.
When that light vanished, the brick was gone. A few little curls of grayish smoke waved away from Caspian’s hand.
That sharp, ozone smell of lightning lingered in the air.
“Really? That’s it?” Caspian said.
Ellie spun around, meaning to run the other way down the alley. Her hair whipped against her cheek.
But then the door from the theater exploded outward. The force of it bent and crumpled the thick steel, and it clanged like a gunshot against the opposing wall.
The other guy stepped out into the alley. She was stuck between them.
Monkey in the middle, she thought.
“Just stay out of this,” Caspian said.
“Not happening,” the new guy replied with a shake of his head, “Ellie, you need to come with me right now.”
“She doesn’t and she’s not. Just get out of here before you end up regretting it,” Caspian said.
The new guy closed his eyes and bowed his head forward slightly. He held his clenched fists out to his sides. More static prickled in the air around them. His open jacket started flapping even though the air was perfectly still.
His lips moved, too. Whispering to himself.
“I’m not going with either of you!” Ellie said.
She’d already gotten away from Caspian once. Besides, he seemed to have to touch things to do whatever he was doing. Like with the brick. Or with her hand earlier.
So she ran at him, meaning to dodge around his grasping fingers and go over the car. And hopefully escaping to freedom after that. And then maybe to the NYPD.
“Ellie no!” the new guy shouted.
Caspian just smiled. She wanted to wipe that smirk off his stupid face. But she wanted to get away from them both even more.
He reached out for her. She ducked beneath his glowing fist and nearly bounced off the side of the sleek black car.
Then Caspian whispered something, too. The word echoed somehow. And it wasn’t English.
Some part of Ellie even thought she recognized it.
It didn’t matter. Because Caspian had her. His hand burned against his shoulder. His fingers were like red-hot iron pokers in her flesh.
I got past him! came the outraged thought. There was no way he could’ve gotten to her. It was impossible.
Then all thought vanished. Searing pain replaced it. The kind of pain that wiped out everything you were and replaced it with the agony of an eternal moment.
That stopped when an invisible force slammed Caspian so hard against the car that it skidded a few feet from the impact.
The pain disappeared. Ellie slumped and almost fell, but caught herself against the wall of the alley.
Closer now, the new guy breathed hard. He had both his hands stretched out in front of him, palms out. Slowly, he lowered them.
“You can’t go with him, Ellie. Come on, before he wakes up.”
He looked so imploring, so earnest, that she almost went to him. Instead she turned back to the car, meaning to climb over the trunk and away from whatever was happening.
“You’re still too weak,” Caspian said, somehow already on his feet.
His smile finally disappeared, replaced with a toothy snarl. He lifted his hands up in front of his face and clenched them both into fists.
They both glowed. That glow went down into his shirtsleeves. He turned to face Ellie.
He glowed so hot and bright that she threw her arms up in front of her eyes, squinting hard.
Then he whispered again, combining the word with a strange and sinuous motion of his fingers.
The air around his fists shimmered and wavered with heat.
Then Caspian opened his fists and charged at her.
“No!” the new guy shouted. That odd wind picked up around him again and flung him forward.
His body intercepted Caspian’s touch a bare moment before he could clap his hands down onto Ellie’s arms.
They struggled briefly. But then Caspian grabbed the new guy by the wrists. The new guy went rigid with the pain of the sudden heat, the tendons and standing out in his neck.
Caspian, snarling now, threw that rigid body at Ellie.
The two of them slammed back against the wall hard enough to drive all the air from Ellie’s lungs.
Her vision dimmed, went dark.
When it came back, Caspian stood over them. The new guy groaned. He was dead weight on top of her.
“More fun than I thought I’d have tonight,” Caspian said.
His eyes began to glow with that same off-white light as his hands. When he turned those eyes on her she felt the literal heat of his glare.
With an almost casual gesture, he grabbed the new guy with one hand and flung him away.
Then he reached for Ellie.
She scrambled back against the wall.
“No! Stay back!”
“Yes, because now that you’re helpless I’m going to stop. That makes loads of sense,” Caspian said.
He leaned closer. The air crackled with heat.
Ellie couldn’t bear the thought of feeling the touch of those hands again.
She squeezed her eyes shut and drew her arms back to her sides.
“Stop!” she screamed as hard as she could. So hard her throat burned. Something snapped inside of her, the feeling like a rubber band pulled to its limit and then beyond.
She thrust her arms out at him.
“What…?” Caspian started.
Then the world around them exploded in light so brilliant and white that Ellie’s closed eyes did nothing to diminish.
The ground shuddered. The car flipped onto its side, the windshield and windows exploding in showers of cubed glass. Its horn blared madly.
Ellie’s scream turned to a siren’s shriek. Terrible powers coursed from her outstretched hands.
Then her cry ended and the world went dark around her. She slumped to her side, eyes barely open.
She saw Caspian crumpled against the opposite wall of the alley. His shoulders rose and fell in a tortured breath. Curls of black smoke rose from her body.
Then Ellie slumped farther. Heat pulsed through every fiber of her body, and below that an exhaustion so deep seated she couldn’t fight it.
But I have to run… she thought.
Muffled sounds reached her. Footst
eps. The new guy knelt beside her for a moment. Her eyes twitched towards him, saw a look of mingled awe and fear on his face.
The last thing she remembered was being gathered up in strong arms.
“Don’t worry,” he whispered. She thought about how ridiculous a thing that was to say.
Then she didn’t think anything anymore.
Chapter 3
Ellie woke up in a white room, her body cushioned on a soft and sumptuous mattress.
The disorientation of it only intensified when she sat up. She rubbed at her temples.
When she blinked, she remembered the fight in the alley behind the movie theater.
She saw that guy throwing himself between her and Caspian. She remembered Caspian reaching for her.
Then she recalled that feeling of firing some incredible force from her outstretched hand. A force that left Caspian smoking and twitching against the alley wall.
She also remembered the heat of his grip on her shoulder.
Quickly, she checked her body, knowing that there had to be deep burns in her flesh. But when she pulled the collar of her shirt down only smooth skin greeted her.
How could something that hurt so much not leave any sort of mark?
Once, living with different foster parents over in Queens, she’d reached up and touched the hot element of their gas stove.
She’d only been about four. Most people don’t remember much from when they’re four.
But she remembered the agonizing heat and the awful, angry color her hand had turned right before the blisters came up.
Pain had a way of searing itself into the memory not so different from a hot cooking element did with bare skin.
They’d had little sympathy for her, those guardians. She remembered going to the hospital with them after, in the back of their cramped little car, while they scolded her for doing such a stupid thing.
Some part of her had been aware of the man sitting quietly in the corner, leafing slowly through the pages of some large and dusty tome. She had simply chosen not yet to acknowledge him, hoping this all might be some strange, layered dream.
“They were wrong to say those things to you,” he said.
“What are you talking about?” Ellie said.
She swung her legs over the side of the bed and was pleased to find that she still wore all the same clothes from the alley.