Gift of Death (Gifted Book 1)

by Lin Augustine

Chapter 3

  By the time I leave the tent, the sun has risen. There are four other tents pitched in a circle near this one on a small patch of gravel. No one else is outside yet besides Valeria and me.

  “Do you know where Jayden is? I need to ask him where my friend is,” I say to Valeria, who is walking away in front of me.

  She turns back. She looks me dead in the eyes with her lips pursed. I break her gaze.

  “She’s still in the truck,” Valeria says.

  “How do you know that?” I say, slowly bringing my gaze back to hers, but this time Valeria is the one looking away, sort of past me into the distance.

  She shrugs. “I think Jayden mentioned it.”

  “You seemed pretty shocked earlier when I mentioned my friend though, like it was the first time you heard of her.”

  “It wasn’t the first time. I was shocked you wanted her to come with us.” She points behind me. “The road isn’t far from here. Just go straight that way and you should find it.”

  “But why—”

  “You should hurry. I’m going to wake everyone up now. Then we’ll pack up the camp. If you aren’t back by the time we’re done, we’ll leave without you.”

  Valeria speaks in a dead tone, and her face looks dead too. Weary.

  I turn away and head into the forest. Best to just leave her alone. She looks like she doesn’t like being questioned, and honestly, I don’t like it either. Especially when it’s related to my “gift.”

  I walk quickly, anxious to see Ron again.

  After walking for five minutes or so, the truck comes into view. I can see Ron passed out inside on the wheel. I can also see that the whole front of the truck is crushed in a bit, but there’s nothing we could have hit here on this narrow dirt road that would have done that kind of damage. That boy Jayden probably did something to make us stop.

  I keep walking toward the truck, but the soft padding of my footsteps on the dirt and the plants and trees caressing me as I walk past fade as I get lost in my thoughts.

  This is my first time coming into direct contact with other people like me. I’ll finally get the chance to get real, reliable information about us and it’s kind of exciting. Everything I know is pretty much what everyone normal already knows too. Most people have heard about various “gifts,” like the ability to turn invisible, to read people’s minds or emotions—those kinds of things. Every now and then, it pops up on the news: “Gifted invisible girl steals jewelry.” “Gifted Florida man beats up rival gang member using telekinesis.”

  It’s never good. And they make sure to plaster “gifted” all over the article, big and bold, so everyone knows the perpetrator wasn’t anyone normal.

  I don’t think people should use their gifts for bad things. However, normal people do bad things all the time too, but when it’s someone gifted, oh, that person is rotten to the core, overwhelmed with greed and power, cocky from their gift. But most gifted people aren’t like that. It isn’t something we can choose. If I had a choice, I never would have chosen this.

  I rub my hands vigorously over my face, trying to break free from my thoughts. I’ve reached the truck. I can’t get lost in this rabbit hole right now. I have more important things to worry about, like Ron.

  I open the passenger door, fighting with some small birch trees.

  “Ron?” I call, stepping inside and sitting on the seat.

  Nothing. She doesn’t even stir an inch.

  I look down at my palms. I’m going to have to touch her, aren’t I?

  I swallow hard and peer at her. She doesn’t seem to be injured, but she could have a concussion.

  “Ron?” I say louder, into her ear. “Oh god, please wake up, Ron. I don’t want to touch you…”

  Still nothing.

  How long would it take them to pack up the camp? It’s probably been seven or eight minutes already since I left.

  I reach into my jeans pocket and pull out a pair of black cotton gloves. I put them on, trying not to look at my hands as I did. I don’t like the look of the gloves. Plus, the summer heat is already making my hands clammy. I probably don’t even need them, but I wouldn’t feel comfortable laying a hand on Ron without them.

  I grab her bare shoulders and heave her up off of the steering wheel so she’s sitting up. I shake her shoulders lightly.

  “Ron! Wake up!”

  Her head flops down in front of her, bringing her back off of the seat, hovering and swaying slightly.

  I sigh. Why won’t she wake up? How much time has passed?

  Then it hits me. Jayden woke me up with a slap. I’ve never slapped anyone before, but maybe that’s the only way.

  I push her up against the seat again and put my hand by her cheek. I tap her cheek a couple times.

  “Ron? Hello?”

  I’ll have to do it harder I guess. My hand hovers there. I sigh again and close my eyes.

  Just do it. Just do it.

  I reel my hand back and hit her across the cheek, the impact silenced by the gloves.

  Ron gasps and opens her eyes.

  “Did you just slap me?” she asks, blinking rapidly.

  “Yes, and I’m sorry, but there’s no time. We have to go now. I found them! Amaryllis!”

  “The magic camp?”

  “Yes, they aren’t far but we have to go now or they’ll leave without us.”

  “Uh…” Ron rubs her temples. “Listen, Chrys, I…”

  My heart sinks.

  “I’m not like you, like you guys,” she says. “You know that.”

  “So?”

  “Well, don’t you think I might not be welcome there?”

  “I asked and they… they said you might be able to stay.”

  “Might.”

  “Yeah.”

  “And if I can’t?”

  “Well… if you can’t, then I’ll leave too.”

  Ron shakes her head. “Chrys, you’ve been dreaming of this. Just go and forget about me.”

  “I could never do that!”

  Ron sighs. “Honestly, I don’t want to go there. I’m kind of scared, you know?”

  “I’m scared too. That’s why I want to go with you. We’ll have each other.”

  She looks down at my hands, still in the black gloves, so noticeable against my bare forearm.

  “What is your power?” she says quietly.

  I pull off the gloves, breathing out shakily. I tuck them back into my pocket of my jeans.

  “You can’t even tell me,” she says.

  “It doesn’t matter because it’ll go away soon, once I get to the camp. So just come with me and I’ll get this thing erased and then we can leave together.”

  “What if that’s just a rumor though? What if it can’t be erased?”

  “It has to be true. It has to.”

  “How about this then? I’ll hang out in that small town nearby and when it’s all done, you come by and give me a call and we’ll head out together.”

  “But you can just come with me.”

  “I can’t, Chrys. I’m sorry. But I’ll wait for you, okay? If things get hot in that town, I may have to leave but I’ll try to stay close by. You can always give me a call and I’ll let you know where I am, alright?”

  I frown.

  “Alright?” she says.

  “Fine…”

  “Good. Now go back there before they leave without you.”

  “Ron, can’t you just—”

  “Go. I’ll stay here for half an hour or so. If they’ve left, then come back here.”

  She has that stern, motherly look in her eyes. Nothing I say can convince her, not when she looks at me like that.

  Blinking back tears, I step out of the truck and push past the trees into the forest. I don’t close the door. I don’t look back. I don’t
look back because if I did, my already heavy legs would become rooted to that spot and I’d stand with the trees.

  Chapter 4

  The walk back to the camp felt long, but everyone is still there, fortunately. Valeria is sitting on the ground with a large backpack leaning up against her. She has her eyes closed and is rubbing her temples. Jayden is nearby stuffing a sleeping bag into his backpack. Three other people I don’t recognize are in various stages of packing up.

  I walk over to Valeria and sit down next to her.

  Jayden looks over at me with a smirk. “Minus one friend, huh?”

  A tall, chubby black boy near him snickers as he stuffs snack wrappers into his pack. “Nice one.”

  His voice sounds familiar, like the one I heard last night right before I passed out. Jayden mentioned he was out hunting with someone named Tam when they sensed me. Maybe he’s Tam.

  “Let’s head out in five, okay? Make sure you’re all ready by then,” Valeria says in a loud, authoritative voice.

  “Yes, ma’am,” the others chorus.

  “Are you in charge here?” I ask as the others seem to forget about me and continue packing up at a faster pace.

  “I’m just one of the team leaders,” she says with a shrug. She’s stopped rubbing her temples but her eyes are still closed.

  I lean in a bit and say in a low voice, “You know what my power is, don’t you?”

  She nods twice.

  “Are you telepathic?” I ask.

  She laughs dryly. “I wish it were that simple.”

  “Well, maybe since you already know mine, you could tell me yours?”

  She opens her eyes and glances at me, then looks off far in the distance in front of her. “I understand why you don’t want to tell anyone, Chrys. It’s because you fear that if they know, they’ll think of you differently, right? Well it’s the same for me. Once you find out, you’ll become extremely uncomfortable being around me, and I’d rather that not happen.”

  I hug my knees to my chest, but still keep my gaze on her. There’s something about her that makes it hard for me to look away, especially when she isn’t looking into my eyes with that knowing gaze. Maybe it’s because she displays her emotions so clearly with her face and body. Her drooping shoulders, her arms limp at her sides, her furrowed brows and jaws that look as though they’re in a perpetual sigh. I wonder if she lets the world see her like that because she has no control over it, or because she just doesn’t care.

  “So you feel uncomfortable being around me?” I say.

  “No.” She shakes her head. “No.”

  “But you think that if I found out what your power is, that I’d be uncomfortable? I don’t have the right to judge anyone.”

  “You’d pretend like you’re fine with it but deep down it’d make you uncomfortable. Just like how at the surface level, I’m fine with yours but at a deeper level, I’m honestly a bit scared. Just can’t help it, you know? Given what you can do.”

  I let that sink in. On the one hand, what she’s saying is perfectly reasonable. Being a little scared makes sense. My brain knows that logically. But on the other hand, the darkest depths of my thoughts sneer and snap at me.

  See? It’s true. You’re a monster.

  I close my eyes, spiraling down quickly, deep into that heavy darkness.

  I take a deep breath.

  No. I’m not. I love myself…

  Then as I release that breath, I move my thoughts to the feeling of the gravel and dirt I’m sitting on and the close presence of Valeria next to me and the tingling behind my neck. People like me. So many people like me, so close.

  I open my eyes. Valeria is looking at me.

  “I’ll give you a hint,” she says. “You’re not that far off. It’s kind of like telepathy, but so much more. Most people’s gifts are focused through their hands or thoughts, but mine is focused through my eyes. When my eyes are open, it’s like chaos and noise pummeling me from every direction. But when I close my eyes,” she closes her eyes and her face softens a bit, “I can get a moment of relief. The noise is still there, swimming around in my head, but it’s just a little quieter, you know? I can hear my own thoughts. Just barely.”

  “So what if you were blind?” I ask.

  “Then I suspect my gift wouldn’t really work anymore. Of course, I’d still have all that old noise in my head, but I wouldn’t be able to get any new noise…”

  “You think about that a lot, don’t you?”

  She smiles, a kind of sad yet also somehow kind of happy smile. “When I can hear myself, yeah.”

  Then she opens her eyes and stands up. “Alright everyone,” she projects. “Let’s get moving.”

  I look over. Everyone is just about finished. Some are zipping up their packs. Others are putting their packs on.

  Valeria bends over and hauls her pack up and onto her back. As she fastens the buckles and tightens the straps, she says, “You know, I’ve never told anyone that before, so uh, thanks for listening I guess.”

  “Oh, sure. Anytime.”

  She reaches her hand out to me. I stare at it dumbly. She knows what my power is, knows how it happens, yet she still risks offering me her hand? How can she do that?

  “It-it’s fine,” I say. “I can get up myself.”

  She nods, lowering her hand back to her side. I push myself off the ground and dust the dirt off my pants.

  Everyone else has their packs on now.

  “Single file,” Valeria says.

  The others fall in line behind her, so I make my way to the back of the line, behind the boy I suspect is Tam.

  We head deeper into the forest.

  Three hours of walking. I’m not even carrying anything but I’m exhausted. The others look fine, though, chatting and laughing quietly in front of me. Tam—I can now say for sure that he is Tam, having heard Jayden call him that as we walked—never looks back at me or talks to me. That’s fine. I hate chit-chat anyway.

  Occasionally Jayden and Tam would hunt together, making the group stop as they captured rabbits. It turns out Jayden can harden the air into some sort of hand. He’d grab the rabbit in his air-hand while the rabbit is unaware and then Tam would walk over and touch it, causing it to fall asleep. The other two behind Valeria would hold the sleeping rabbits in their arms as we walked. I wonder how long that deep sleep would last uninterrupted.

  After a while, the terrain changed a bit. It switched from a sort of sparse forest to a denser, greener one with deciduous and evergreen trees mixed together. It got cooler too, and darker from the shade. Tam and Jayden stopped hunting, so I walked behind them without paying much attention. But I didn’t want to get lost in dark thoughts. So instead I spent the rest of the walk imagining life without my gift. Just me and Ron on the run. Free.

  I’m jolted out of my daydream when I bump into Tam.

  “Watch it!” he says.

  “Sorry,” I mumble.

  We stop but we’re still in the middle of the forest. Valeria goes to a tall tree that looks pretty much like all the others and knocks five times. One, two. Pause. Three. Pause. Four, five.

  “Let’s go in,” she says, walking past the tree.

  “In where?” I ask.

  “Just come on,” Jayden says.

  Once we’re all past the tree, she knocks on it again in the same manner. As soon as she finishes, the others visibly relax.

  “What just happened?” I ask.

  Valeria smiles. “We made it. Camp Amaryllis. It’s a pocket universe, maintained by one of our elders, June. The camp is a bit further in the forest, another hour’s walk. You know, for safety.”

  She starts walking again but this time instead of falling in line, the others separate into little groups—Tam and Jayden one group and those two others whose names I still don’t know in another, still carrying the rabb
its. They’re talking so much louder now. Just me and Valeria are alone, so I speed up to catch up to her.

  “A pocket universe?” I say. “That’s possible?”

  She shrugs. “Everything seems to be possible with gifts. It’s safe in here, but every time someone goes in and out, it puts the whole camp in danger. This pocket universe is technically still a part of the greater universe, in the same exact spot. But right now, we’re separated, like a half step up, so if someone were to go to the camp’s location now, it’d just be the normal forest. But in order to get in or out, it has to completely re-merge with the greater universe, meaning anyone near the perimeter can enter. That’s why the camp is built inside so far.”

  “Ah, okay,” I say, my brain still not really wrapping around the idea.

  Valeria chuckles. “It’s fine. You don’t have to understand how it works. You just have to understand how to use it.”

  I nod. We continue walking, neither of us saying anything. After half an hour or so, I start to feel giddy. I can feel the tingles on the back of my neck intensify fivefold. We’re close.

  Then, I start to feel nervous. What if it’s like Ron said—just a rumor?

  I glance at Valeria, who’s trudging along, eyes dead set in front of her, hands holding the straps of her pack by her shoulders.

  “So, Valeria,” I say. “I heard that… at camp, there’s, uh, someone…”

  “Someone who can erase gifts?”

  “Yeah. Is that true?”

  “Yes. Li can. Is that what you want?”

  “Of course.”

  “Then I’ll take you straight to her when we get back. I need to report to her that you’ve joined us anyway.”

  “Okay, thanks.” My heart feels like it’s jumping up and down in excitement. It really is true. I can have my gift erased.

  A large building made of dark logs comes into view. And then noise. The flow of water, moving, yelling, chatter, life. The others start walking faster now, going past the building. Once past the building, the space opens up to a huge circular clearing with small cabins clustered on the far side and a huge white building on the edge near those. The center is a big, open space. Some kids are sitting down on the grass eating. Others are running around playing various games.