by Laura Winter
The guy stopped at the end of the concrete hall, unbuckling the keys from his belt to unlock the door. He slid out of the way as Glitch and Nate came charging forward. They hesitated when they saw Luci and I just standing in front of them.
Glitch didn’t break stride as he wrapped Luci in a hug while Nate’s eyes locked on my arm. I was still holding my key necklace in my right hand, with a bright blue scar visible on my left arm. He caught sight of the man again and lunged forward, slamming him into the wall. As he pressed his arm into the guy’s neck, I saw Nate had the same cuff on his wrist as me. So did Glitch.
“Who the hell are you?” Nate growled.
The guy didn’t fight back this time. “If you would stop throwing me against the walls, I’d think about telling you.”
I slid my necklace back on and walked forward, yanking the keys out of the guy’s hand. I found the key that worked on my cuff and unlocked it before taking Glitch’s off. Nate still held the guy pinned to the wall as we traded places. He unlocked his cuff as I glared at the man, digging my elbow into his chest as I held him against the wall.
“I may not be the Cold Soul, but I still have a cold streak when someone crosses me. Without that cuff, I can use my powers, so you better consider your next move carefully.”
“Cold Soul?” Nate looked at me, his face fading from anger to confusion.
The guy grunted underneath my pressure as he caught his breath to speak. “I thought she was the Cold Soul.”
He tried to wiggle free, but I just held him tighter. It felt harder to hold him up than it should have, but I was angry and I needed some revenge for earlier.
“Answer us,” I demanded, trying to dig through his head without luck. Maybe it was the concussion. “Who are you? Where are we?”
“My name is Jackson. I’m a descendant of the Original Complex.” He let out a ragged breath as I loosened my grip in surprise. “This is what my family rebuilt after the Cold Soul destroyed their home and killed everyone they knew.”
18
Nate
Clara released her grip on Jackson as we stared at him in disbelief.
“You knew about Kinsie and Isaac?” Clara asked, rubbing her wrist. She smeared small streaks of blue blood where the cuff had cut her. While no one was looking, I shoved mine into my pocket. I might have to use it later.
“How can you know them?” Jackson asked back, confused.
“It’s kind of a long st—” I was cut off as Luci shouted.
“Would someone please explain what the hell is going on here?” I could see her shaking. Glitch tried to reach out to her, but she pulled away. “No, not until you tell me what just happened and who you people really are.”
Every part of Glitch’s body sank, hurt by her words. He looked over to me. “I got this. We’ll catch up later… maybe.” He turned to Jackson who pointed him down the hall.
“I’ll take you somewhere out of the way,” he said, eyeing them carefully.
Clara turned and watched as Jackson led Glitch and Luci around the corner. I caught a glimpse of blue blood dried on the back of her neck.
“Are you okay?” I lifted some of her hair to check on the cut. It was small and seemed to have stopped bleeding. I hoped she didn’t have another concussion.
“No. That asshole knocked me out, used the cuff to block my powers, and then pinned me to the ground. I want to beat the shit out of him,” she grumbled, turning back to me. It took her a moment to focus on my face. “What about you? Are you okay?”
Yeah, she definitely had a concussion.
“I’m fine. What the hell is happening?”
She shook her head slowly. “I don’t know who this guy is. He thought I was the Cold Soul and now Luci might have powers. She said she felt funny when she woke up but she doesn’t remember touching the power source.”
“Do you think that’s how Glitch got his powers too?” I pulled her hand away from her wrist and held it.
“It’s possible. If Luci can’t remember touching it, maybe Glitch doesn’t either. Maybe people at The Complex remember it because they are around power sources their whole lives.” She started walking down the hall and pulled me with her.
“Where are we going and what are you planning on doing?” I asked, trying to keep up with her. Even dizzy, she moved with an agenda. “You have a concussion, C. We need to be careful.”
“I’m going to figure out where we are and probably punch anyone who calls me the Cold Soul again,” she said, gritting her teeth.
We turned the corner and saw Glitch and Luci at the other side of a giant warehouse-style room. Luci was sitting while Glitch ran his hand through his hair. She looked extremely overwhelmed and confused. I didn’t envy Glitch right now. That’s probably how Clara had felt when she was trying to explain everything to me that first night in the gym. At least Glitch had some of the answers, but he didn’t know what she was going to go through with her unknown powers. None of us did.
Shipping containers were piled around the rest of the space, connected by ladders and platforms to move from one space to the next. It looked almost like an underground community. People poked their heads out of the containers, watching us closely. It almost looked like they were afraid of us.
Clara leaned in closer to me. “Nate, something is wrong with me. I can’t read anyone’s thoughts and I can’t reach out to you in my head.”
You can’t hear me right now? I looked down at her, but she kept her eyes trained forward and didn’t answer. I felt like it had worked, but she wasn’t acknowledging me.
“You didn’t hear me just now?” I asked. She looked up and shook her head. “What about your telekinesis?”
She stuck her hand out and flexed her fingers but nothing happened. “Shit, no. Why isn’t it working? I don’t have that cuff on. Can you use your powers?”
I could see her getting more uncomfortable. I looked down and moved my shadow with ease.
I reached out to hold her left hand, tightening my grip. “Do you think they did something to you?”
Before she could answer, Jackson made the unfortunate mistake of walking up on Clara’s right side. She shot her right hand up, punching him straight in the cheek with her fist. He stumbled back as she tried to yank her left hand out of mine. I pulled her back into me as she tried to keep fighting him. I wanted to let her get some more punches in, but we needed answers and that wasn’t going to happen if she kept pissing him off.
“Let go of me, Nate,” she grunted, struggling against me as I wrapped my arms tighter around her. Usually she was stronger than me, but without her powers, it was easier to hold her back.
“I’ll let you kick his ass if he doesn’t start giving us some answers.” I got a tighter grip and locked her arms at her side. She didn’t exactly give up fighting against me, but she wasn’t flailing as much anymore. I looked up at Jackson. “You better tell us what you did to her, or I’m going to let go.”
Jackson flexed his jaw a few times, glaring at Clara. “It’ll wear off in an hour or so. The guy that knocked her out can weaken powers. We thought she was the Cold Soul so we took every precaution to protect ourselves. She’ll get her power back, don’t worry.”
“Good, then I’m going to kick the shit out of you,” Clara hissed, finally breaking out of my grip. She folded her arms and glared at him as she scooted back into me.
“And you wonder why we thought you were the Cold Soul,” Jackson grumbled, annoyed at her. “We couldn’t risk you getting out through your shadows.”
“My shadows?” Clara looked at him like he was an idiot.
Jackson shrugged. “Black hole, shadow, whatever you call it. The Cold Soul creates destruction and steals powers with a black hole, but I thought you already knew that. You weren’t surprised when I mentioned the Cold Soul.”
I raised my eyebrow. “Yeah, we’re the ones that stopped the Cold Souls.” I didn’t really feel like telling him we were also the ones to release them. “But you got it wrong.
I’m the one with the black hole, shadow power.”
Jackson hesitated. “Wait, did you say Souls? And what do you mean you stopped them?”
Clara growled. “I’m getting real sick of you asking all the questions. You talk first. What is this place?”
“We call it the Imperium. Power in Latin. Seemed less conceited than ‘The Complex’, but now that I’ve met people who know the Original place, I realize it sounds just as bad.” Jackson frowned. “How could you know Kinsie and Isaac? You two are way too young.”
Now I was getting frustrated. “No, you don’t get to keep asking questions. You kidnapped us and dampened her powers. Keep talking.”
Jackson rolled his eyes. “You entitled teenagers,” he grumbled under his breath. “My grandfather was just a teen when Kinsie became the Cold Soul. She destroyed the place, but somehow my grandfather made it out alive. Everything he knew was gone. He built this place, started a family, and we’ve been collecting power sources ever since. I don’t know what happened to the ones that were left back at the Original Complex. When he went back to get them years later, they were gone. Anyway, I was tracking that yellow one when I ran into your group. I picked up on three additional energy sources, but I guess I got them a little mixed up with who had what power. All I know is I recognized the black hole and assumed I had run into the Cold Soul.”
“What source were you tracking? Our friend touched it. What’s going to happen to her?” Clara shifted in her stance.
“I don’t know that for sure. No one does, but that one has been difficult to track. Its signature is always changing, which makes it difficult to follow. Bottom line, I don’t know what exactly it’s going to do to her.” Jackson shrugged, clearly not really interested in Luci’s potential new abilities. “Okay, now it’s your turn to start answering questions. If you didn’t get that black hole power from the Cold Soul, what power source did you touch and how could you know about all of it? How could you defeat the Cold Souls, plural, when it died with Kinsie ninety years ago? That means someone used the source. I’ve been trying to find it for years so no one else could use it.”
Clara groaned. “I’m going to start printing out flyers to hand to people when they ask us these questions.” She leaned into me and I wrapped my arm around her.
I wasn’t sure if we could trust this guy yet, but he had explained himself. We owed him some answers, especially when the Cold Soul was responsible for destroying his past. He and Clara were more alike than she probably wanted to admit.
Clara took a breath and started from the beginning.
19
Clara
I was starting to regret my annoyance at Angie when she was trying to document our past. It would have been easier to just hand out books for people to read when they asked us about the Cold Souls. I had hoped we were done with all of this power crap, but now we were right back in the middle of it. At least this time we weren’t battling some evil twin or family member.
Jackson took us back to his shipping container so we could talk in private. Luci sat a good distance away from all of us as she listened to me talk. I followed the timeline carefully, explaining how Nate and I had our powers when we were born, just like Kinsie and Isaac. That’s why Jackson had thought I was the Cold Soul, worried I was Kinsie all over again. He had just mixed the signals about who had what power in them.
It felt like so long ago that I had lost my memory. I had just gotten used to missing my past, especially because it involved the two people I wanted to forget the most. Nate took over before I got to the dying part. I thought I was probably ready to talk myself, but it was good he jumped in and distracted me. My powers were starting to come back, and, mixed with the concussion, it wasn’t fun.
As Nate talked about bringing me back using the Blue Soul, Luci’s thoughts went from anger to shock. She avoided looking at me, and I felt her mind spinning in guilt.
Clara died? No wonder she didn’t want to go back to the clearing. I’m such a horrible person. All those things I kept asking her about her past. Her dad killed her, and I made it worse by asking a million questions.
I wanted to reach out and tell her it was okay, but I also didn’t want her to know I had been listening to her thoughts. Nate continued, explaining The Complex and running away with the magical book to the Original Complex.
That’s how they knew about Kinsie and Isaac.
Jackson’s thought faded out quickly as I rubbed my temples. My power was coming back in nauseous waves and the combination headache was making it worse.
Nate paused after describing coming back to find the Cold Souls had destroyed The Complex. He saw me swaying next to him and shot his arm around my hips just in time. I felt my knees buckle as I crumpled to the ground, taking Nate down with me.
“What’s going on with her?” Nate asked, his voice panicked and angry.
“Yeah, this next part isn’t going to be fun. I’m going to guess her powers are back which means she’s going to get pretty sick. I’ve heard they kind of crash down on you,” Jackson shrugged. He didn’t really seem bothered that I felt like I was dying all over again. He was probably satisfied that he was getting revenge for me punching him.
“I’m gonna kick the shit out of you,” I growled. Well, I thought I had said it clearly, but everyone seemed confused as to what words had actually come out of my mouth.
“Bathroom is that way.”
I saw four Jackson’s pointing in every direction, but he didn’t get up from his seat. What an ass.
Nate scooped me up, but Luci slid next to me and took over. “I’ve got her. The sooner you finish explaining this to him, the sooner we can leave.” She sounded sad as her words echoed in my head.
“I’ll help you,” Glitch said, taking Nate’s place at my other side. It was a good thing he was offering to help because I couldn’t control my limbs anymore. I’m not sure Luci could have held me up by herself.
My feet dragged behind me as the two struggled to pull me into the bathroom. They didn’t know about my cold shower trick as they leaned me against the toilet. I was fine with this instead, mostly because I didn’t want to walk around sopping wet with a concussion. It worked out better because as soon as my head was over the bowl, I threw up.
As I groaned and heaved again, I felt Luci’s hands pull my hair back and readjust my ponytail. I had used all my energy to throw up so I just rested my head on the seat, listening to Luci and Glitch start talking.
“Luci, I’m really sorry. I didn’t mean for you to find out about this,” he said. His voice came from around the same place as the sound of a sink running.
Luci’s voice was quiet as she responded. “Were you ever going to tell me? About this? About what you can do? What about what Clara and Nate can do?”
He sighed. “I wanted to tell you, but I wasn’t exactly sure how. It’s not really easy to describe powers and what we’ve gone through. Shit, not even what I’ve gone through. Clara died, and she fights every day to get through that. We’re teens who are trying to figure out how to help their best friend come to terms with her own death. I can’t imagine what that feels like to Nate either, watching the person he loves die like that. Because what if that was you? What if you were the one who died? I don’t have the power that Clara and Nate share. I couldn’t have saved you, and that would have killed me too. I didn’t want you to be part of that, none of us did. We thought we were done with it all. We thought you would be safe. But I messed up not letting you in. This is us, this is what we were trying so hard to avoid again.”
Glitch turned off the sink and lifted up my arm, carefully cleaning my wrist before dabbing the cut on the back of my head. I shifted over the bowl, fighting the urge to puke again.
Luci was silent, but her thoughts were racing, making me even more nauseous as I tried to keep up with them. No amount of effort to concentrate would work, and I tried to push their thoughts out of my head.
The toilet rattled underneath me and a few of the thin
gs sitting on the sink counter fell.
“C?” Glitch dropped next to me and wrapped his arms around my hips as I groaned. “C, focus. Do I need to get Nate?”
“What’s happening?” Luci’s voice caught in panic.
I did my best to nod, or make some sort of noise again, but it only caused the toilet to shake again. More things came crashing out of the vanity. It was going to be another outburst, and I couldn’t fight it much longer. I didn’t have the energy to tell them it was their thoughts making me sick. I needed them to get out, and fast.
“Nate!” Glitch shouted, gripping me tighter. “Luci, get Nate now.”
Glitch shifted and pulled me away from the toilet as I curled my knees into my body. He leaned with me against the wall, holding my head against his chest as Luci spun to get Nate.