by SM Olivier
“We used to watch White Christmas when we decorated the tree,” Sierra said as she began to put hooks in the new ornaments.
I sat down next to her, afraid I might get dizzy again or my limbs might want to give out again.
“Our family watched Die Hard,” Gavin laughed.
“Die Hard is not a Christmas movie!” Jemmy said in an offended tone.
“According to Google it is,” Noah said smugly.
“Bull crap!” Jemmy exclaimed.
“If we had service, I would totally show you,” Gavin said with a smile.
“My family liked to watch It’s a Wonderful Life,” Kade said with a trace of sadness.
I wanted to hug him, but I wasn’t certain if he would want the attention right now. Holidays were hard for people, especially in the beginning. I remember when my dad died. Each holiday had been a struggle for years. If it hadn’t been for Ella, I don’t think I would have ever left the funk I had been in.
“Hah!” Noah yelled out. “Told ya,” he held his phone out to Jemmy.
Jemmy quietly read for a moment. “Lies! Lies, I tell ya.”
“Okay, are we done gabbing?” Jaxson laughed. “I’m getting ready to push play.”
“Push play.” Remy chuckled as he opened a box of lights and started to unwrap them.
I looked around at my new family and smiled to myself. We were all busy at work, unwrapping the lights, hooking the ornaments, and opening up the boxes. I loved all these new memories we were making.
“Okay everyone, look my way,” Jemmy yelled out as she stood on a chair with her selfie stick extended out. “On the count of three, everyone say Christmas cookies,” she demanded. “One, two, three… Christmas Cookies!” she yelled.
I smiled up at the camera and wondered if she got all of us in the picture, and if I looked as crappy as I felt. I shrugged self-deprecatingly, not all memories had to be staged.
Sierra popped up. “I forgot the stockings,” she loudly whispered to me. “I should decorate them to since I have a gazillion of them.”
“Do you want us to pause it?” Jace asked as he moved towards the remote.
She waved at him. “It’s okay, I’ve watched this a thousand times. I’ll be right back.”
“Do you need a hand?” Jemmy asked.
She smiled and nodded. “Sure!”
They both left, and I was happy to see how well they were getting along. Not too long ago, Jemmy nearly despised her. I looked over and saw the same bemused happy expression on Gavin’s face.
“Are you okay?” Sierra whispered as I tried to sprinkle the glue on the stocking.
On our shopping trip weeks ago, we had gotten red and white jumbo stockings. They were over three feet tall. We got one for everyone in our immediate circle. Sierra had suggested that we put the names on them with glue and glitter. The checkout person at the arts and crafts store had teased us about the amount of glitter and glue we got. We might have went slightly overboard with the color selections.
“Fine,” I said breezily. “I think I’m going to get a drink. Want anything?”
“No thanks,” she smiled.
The Christmas tree was decorated. The living room lights were off, and only the small overhead light was on in the kitchen for Drake and Ella. It was beginning to look, taste, and smell a lot like Christmas.
Jemmy, Sierra, and I were stretched out on the floor decorating the stockings. Drake was currently waiting for the first batch of cookies to come out of the oven, with Ella in his lap at the dining room table with a view of the television. Everyone else had found seating in the living room. Will had given Micah and Kade permission to run and get the oversized bean bags that they had purchased for the kids.
I found out that they had the apartment beside us with a room for each of the children. Alex was the only one not excited by the new room situation, but Micah still let him sleep on his bottom bunk every night, rectifying the situation.
Will had finally convinced Paul to let us use the unutilized space more effectively. Especially with their plans on continuing to recruit the gifted to the base. He knew most of the gifted wouldn’t want to come if they were forced to sleep and live in cramped conditions. He asked Paul to take over the housing situation and even had plans on revamping the living conditions for everyone else. He believed all the men and women here should have some level of privacy. The dorms didn’t give that to over half of the people residing here.
I opened the fridge with shaking hands and attempted to grab a water bottle several times in vain. My fingertips barely moved. I tried my other hand and the results weren’t any better. I pushed the door closed with my hip.
“Are you okay?” Jace asked with narrowed eyes.
I jumped and couldn’t even bring my hands up to my chest in fright. “Jace,” I yelped. “Can you warn a girl next time?” I tried to laugh flippantly.
“Sorry I was just trying to get a drink. Are you okay?” he asked with intensity.
I could feel him wanting to probe but I raised my barriers. “Yeah I’m good.”
“Why did you go in the fridge and not grab anything?” he asked suspiciously.
“I was hoping we had Dr. Pepper, but we don’t,” I lied glibly.
He still didn’t look like he believed me, but he kissed my nose before reaching for the handle of the refrigerator. I took another silent breath in. I couldn’t go back to decorating the stockings, no matter how much I desired to.
I walked back out to the living room. I leaned down to whisper to Jemmy and Sierra. “I’m going to take a break.”
“Okay,” Jemmy said cheerily while Sierra looked at me contemplatively. All these eagle eye people were making it increasing difficult to recover without being coddled.
Jaxson was sitting in one of the recliners, so I made my way over to him and climbed into his lap. I knew he was too absorbed into the movie to notice my withdrawn behavior. He barely spared me glance as he smiled. Than he folded me into his arms and pulled me close into his lap. I tried to find his heartbeat before I laid my head down on his chest. I felt like I needed to feel his heart beat to remind my heart how to work. I was feeling more and more sluggish. It almost felt like I had tar running through my veins and not blood.
I reached for his hand and weaved my fingers through his. The paralysis wasn’t predictable. It came and went for short and long periods of time. I kept telling myself I just needed a little time to recover and I would be fine.
Chapter 28
“What’s wrong with her?” I heard Will mutter as I slowly opened my eyes. The lights seemed really bright to me. I cautiously looked around the room, unclear where I was at first. It took me a moment to realize that I was in the hospital wing.
I slowly looked around the room and saw Remy sitting on the floor next to the door. His hair was a tangled mess around his hair. Jace was standing with his arms across his chest against one of the walls. He looked even more tired than I saw him yesterday morning. Troy was sitting next to my bed as he gently traced the sheet that was covering me. Jaxson was in a chair on the wall with his head thrown back, staring at the ceiling. Drake was on the edge of my bed at my feet. Noah was wildly pacing next to my bed, his face was red and swollen like he had been crying.
I went to reach for Troy’s hand and noticed my hands had IV cords attached to them. I frowned in confusion. The last thing I remembered was falling asleep on Jaxson watching Santa Claus 2. I knew my body was still wanting to recover from getting poisoned, but I didn’t think it would be bad enough to end up in the hospital.
“Yaris removed all the poison,” Greg replied quietly. “Maybe his poison was more potent then what we believed it was.”
“We’ve tried everything,” Troy said wearily. “Noah has even tried to heal her but he says there’s nothing to heal.”
“Can it be her gift?” Drake asked cautiously. “We know it’s been acting like it had a mind of its own.”
“What do you mean?” Will asked despairingly.
“We’ve been noticing instances when it was out of control. Kind of like when Bradford attacked her, and then she had little residual effects of the drug she was given. When we healed Spencer it nearly killed her, killed us,” Noah explained as he rubbed his eyes tiredly. “These other things that we are able to do isn’t normal either. No one has ever reported the things we have been able to do.”
“You mentioned another gift that she had. An eighth,” Jace commented fiercely as he stood up staring intensely at Greg. “What did you mean? We hypothesized that our gifts had always laid dormant in her until we activated them by making our connections, could her not knowing what that eighth gift is and not using it be draining her?”
“We thought it may be something akin to a catalyst, except our boost never goes away because of her,” Drake added.
Greg sighed and seemed to be battling an internal battle. “There is no doubt that someone like her shouldn’t exist. Generally, it is hard enough for one person to have one gift and master it, with or without a connection. I don’t think our bodies were meant to be able to withstand that much power. It could be attacking her, it’s not the first time a gift has caused the carrier to die of their own violation.”
“All the children I helped create, except for three of them, had died by the hands of their own gifts,” Hazel said wearily as she stepped into the room. Her eyes met mine. She must have noticed everyone was talking about me without being aware that I was awake. “Miranda, Terry Moore, and Imala Hudgens. With Miranda, I admitted I went a little…overboard. I created her using the DNA of several different, strongly gifted people. I imagined this is still a residual side effect of the experiments. Blake shouldn’t exist, but the gift has mutated in her, allowing her to carry eight of them. Her gift isn’t trying to kill her. It’s restless because she hasn’t used it to its full potential.” Hazel sat on the other side of my bed and patted my hand. “She needs to complete her connections.”
I didn’t pull my hand back. I didn’t have the energy or really the desire to. There was something comforting about her. Maybe it was her mannerism or the way she carried herself, but she reminded me a lot of her son. The man I had called Dad.
“Blake!” Troy looked up at me in surprise. He leaned over and picked up my hand and kissed the back of it.
Soon they were all surrounding me.
“How are your feeling?” Jace asked firmly.
I knew better to lie to him again. I shouldn’t have in the first place.
“I feel weak and my joints ache,” I told him truthfully. “What happened?”
“You fell asleep on me two nights ago, then I carried you to bed. When I went to wake you up the next day, you wouldn’t wake up,” Jaxson answered me.
“From all the tests we’ve ran, there isn’t any physical reason you should be feeling this way,” Remy added gruffly.
I looked over at Greg and Hazel. “I already made all my connections. I don’t understand why my gift is unhappy with me. What is my eighth gift, so I can start working on it?”
“When you were younger,” Greg said carefully. “Your gift for compelling was prominent, but your other gifts were already there, including the gift of jumping.” He looked warily at Will and then the guys. “If what you tell me is true, then the only logical explanation for all of this is what Hazel is saying…You need to make your last connection.”
I sat there in stunned silence as the words slowly sunk in. “There’s no way in Hades I have another connection out there!” I stated vehemently. “I love my connections.” I felt tears burning the back of my eyes. “I would feel like I’m cheating on them if I allow another man into our lives. I can’t do it. I won’t do it. Let my gift be unhappy with me. I don’t care. Who cares about this gift of jumping? What does that even mean?”
“Jumping gives you the ability to—in essence—jump into another person’s body. You can feel what they’re feeling. See what their seeing. Smell what they smell,” Greg grimaced as he looked over at me. He must know how volatile my emotions were and didn’t want to be the bearer of bad news.
Too late! I was already freaking out and over this whole conversation. I couldn’t even look at the guys as I began to try and remove the tubes from my hand. I needed to get out of here and fast!
“We’re all feeling it Blake,” Jace said as he laid his hand on my hand, stopping my frantic movements.
“Feeling what?” I asked in confusion.
I watched Will give Greg a pointed look before they both left the room, followed closely by Hazel. I felt sick to my stomach. I had a feeling my day was going to go from bad to worse. I finally let the hot tears spill on my face.
“Our gifts,” Jace continued quietly. “They’re almost nonexistent.”
“Bull crap!” I cried out, angrily wiping my tears from my face. I closed my eyes and tried to focus on everyone’s emotions. I tried to feel how they were feeling, and it felt like when you walked into a room and turned on the light switch, only to have the light bulb blow. I felt like an engine that started to catch but then…nothing.
I opened my eyes. “I don’t care. I don’t have to have my gifts. They aren’t what define me. Maybe I can finally live a normal life. I can go back to Knightstown and continue learning how to play my music, like when I was tired of living the life of obscurity. I’ll find a band and perform on open-mike nights.”
“I don’t need mine either,” Remy stated with a clenched jaw. When I saw the expression on everyone else’s faces, I had a feeling that they had already discussed this. We had the discussion the morning after we got back. I imagined they revisited it once they realized I wasn’t the only one losing my gift. “I’ll go back to my restaurant; you guys can move in with me or we can build another home for the seven of us.”
“I can go to one of the schools that offered me a scholarship to play football and focus solely on football and school,” Jaxson said quietly. “I’ll come home when I can but I know you guys will take care of Blake.”
“I wouldn’t mind getting back into school and pursuing my career as a surgeon,” Noah added as he leaned over to gently remove the needle from my hand.
“We can’t just give up just like that,” Drake stood up and removed his glasses as he pinched the bridge of his nose. “I don’t like the idea of sharing Blake either, especially to an outsider, but the truth of the matter, is we have a greater purpose. There has to be a reason we were meant to be together.” He gave me and apologetic look but continued. “I know you love us, and we love you too, but I can’t help but feel like there’s a reason for all of this. We already know that Horatio is out there hurting our community. Can we all go home and hope everyone else can finally take care of him? Can we know that the other people we love and care for might suffer because of our selfish desires?”
“They can’t do it without us,” Troy said with conviction. “As inane and conceited as that sounds, we’ve already proven that we’re needed for the mission. Can we honestly pack up our family and think it won’t affect Kade, Micah, Ella, and Alex? That one day they may pay for our mistakes? That they may suffer because we allowed someone else to finally stop Horatio?”
Jace released a deep sigh. “Our gifts are an integral part of who we are. We may not care about them now or a few weeks from now, but eventually we’ll feel like we lost a piece of ourselves.”
There was a knock on the door. Jaxson got up with a heavy sigh. I was pleased to see Kade, Micah, Ella, and Alex, but I wish they would have given us a few more moments to hash this all out.
“When are you leaving us?” Ella said forlornly as she climbed into my bed and cuddled next to me.
“I’m not,” I reassured her.
“But you have to,” Alex stated firmly.
Micah cleared his throat uncomfortably. “We know you’re weak. We also know you have to leave to get better.”
I looked over at Ella suspiciously. “Not all of your predictions are correct. Sometimes things change and our fu
ture is changed.”
Kade handed me the sketch pad that Ella always carried around with her. “She’s seen both outcomes,” Kade explained to the guys.
The first page he opened up was of me and the guys standing behind a rope, like the kind you see in banks or movie theaters. There was a man standing on a red carpet with his back to us. People surrounded us, taking pictures, smiling, and waving at him as he held a hand up as if to wave back.
It had been some time since I had seen Ella’s drawings, and I was beyond impressed. Her detail in the picture was phenomenal. The many dimensions she added was amazing.
The next few pages I turned had me shaking and gasping. There were so many disturbing images. Images that no seven-year-old should ever have stuck in her head.
“They’ll take us away for testing. They will put us in camps. They will kill most of us,” Kade said quietly. “You have to find him, Blake. We can’t have Horatio harm anymore people.
I handed the book off to Jace first as I pulled my knees up to my chest and started sobbing. I couldn’t stomach either one of my choices. I didn’t want to allow Horatio to win, but on the other hand, I didn’t want to sacrifice the happiness of my connections and my own. Drake had once told me we were naturally drawn to our connections, but I felt like it was horribly unnatural for me to love more than one man, let alone seven.
Troy moved next to me and Ella, embracing us.
“Have you seen the other man?” Remy frowned as he flipped through the pictures.
Ella shook her head forlornly. “No, his face is always blurry but he has the same marks as you guys. He’s rarely ever alone and always surrounded by lots and lots of people.”
“What do we do?” Jaxson said in a horrified whisper as he went through the pictures.
“That’s entirely up to Blake,” Noah stated as he stood above my head to stroke my hair.
I shook my head. “I already told you all,” I said sniffing loudly. “We need to make major decisions together. We all need to reach the same one.”
Remy sighed loudly as he lightly punched the wall.