by Darby Cupid
“Of course, I reported it to my head of department, who told me I was more or less delusional. He suggested I look into it independently.” He pauses for breath and shifts amongst the cushions, wincing slightly. “So, I followed the coordinates I’d pinpointed and found an unusual metal contraption. I arranged to have it moved to my lab so I could investigate further.”
Jordan pauses in his pacing up and down the length of the lounge, his face wracked with concentration. “Then what?”
The tension in the room is high and my heart pounds with nervous energy. Out the corner of my eye, I glimpse Crystal, still silent by the door.
“Well,” Oakstone continues, “I was running tests on the object when someone broke into my lab. They knocked me out and left me for dead. When I woke, I managed to crawl out, just before the explosion.”
The room spins a little and my stomach clenches. We’re in too deep. Linda has already been assaulted and now it’s pretty clear we’re dealing with murderers. I open my mouth to suggest we call the police.
“Did you see who attacked you?” Linda asks from where she’s sat, huddled with Sera.
Oakstone nods. “He had a balaclava on, so I couldn’t see most of his face, but he had extremely unusual eyes. They were an orange-yellow colour. Like flames.” He shudders at the memory.
Linda blows out her breath and relaxes back in her chair. “That’s not the guy who attacked me. His eyes were green.”
“What?” Eddie roars. “You were attacked?”
I step toward him, but Jordan reaches him first, placing a hand firmly on his shoulders. “Focus, mate,” he says calmly. “She’s fine. We’ll fill you in later.”
Eddie huffs, staring between us all for a moment, before throwing his hands up in resignation.
I turn my attention back to the scientist. “Is there anything else you can tell us about the man who attacked you?”
“There is one thing,” Oakstone begins, his brows knitted together as he recalls the incident. “You honestly won’t believe me if I tell you.”
I think about everything we’ve seen over the last forty-eight hours. “Try us.”
Oakstone looks at each of us in turn before continuing. When he does, he fixes his gaze on a cut on his forearm. “There was a crowbar. It lifted up into the air, like a bizarre magic trick. The guy was nowhere near me when he knocked me out, I could see him on the other side of the room. Perhaps there was another attacker behind me.”
My breath sticks in my throat and I turn to Crystal. As I turn, I realise everyone else has made the same connection. We all watch as Crystal finally steps into the room towards the bloodied scientist. I step to the side, allowing her to come to a stop in front of him.
“I have answers for you,” she says, “but I need to know for sure you’re telling the truth. Will you let me access your memories so I can see what happened for myself?”
Oakstone’s eyes practically pop out of his head. He opens his mouth to ask a question, but Crystal cuts him off.
“Head first; answers second.”
He stares at her, his eyes narrowed before giving a small nod of acceptance. I tense as Crystal reaches forward and places her hands on either side of his head.
“You’ve got to think about last night, Doc!” Jordan hisses.
The room is silent as we watch, and I remind myself to breathe. Every muscle in me is tensed as I watch Crystal, her eyes closed and her fingers lightly touching Oakstone’s blood-stained hair. If she flies backwards again like last time, I’ll be ready to catch her.
She doesn’t. After a moment, Crystal lifts her hands from Dr. Oakstone’s head and flops down on the nearest sofa. Relief floods through me and I perch on the arm of the chair Linda and Sera are huddled in, waiting for her to centre herself. Oakstone’s face is the picture of confusion. If this whole situation wasn’t so damn serious, it would be pretty funny.
Crystal takes a deep breath and turns to Oakstone. “My name is Crystal Akinara. I am the daughter of the King and Queen of Starlatten. My ship was attacked, but I was fortunate enough to escape in one of the maintenance pods. That is what you found.”
I watch Oakstone’s face as he processes this information. Instead of asking the intense scientific questions I’m expecting, his mouth twitches and a burst of laughter escapes his lips. He claps a hand over his mouth. This is all too much for him. He’s snapped.
Crystal seems unfazed by his hysteria. Instead, she slips down off the sofa and stands at his side. Reaching up, she places her hand above the dark red wound on the back of his head. Oakstone takes a second to acknowledge her, but when he does, the laughter stops immediately. A calmness seems to come over him and he closes his eyes, relaxing back against the chair.
After a few minutes, Crystal steps back. “Your head is not completely healed, as I’m not well practised at large wounds. The bleeding has stopped though and it should feel a lot less painful.”
Oakstone hesitates before reaching a hand to the back of his head. As his fingers find the healed wound, his mouth drops open.
“Cool, isn’t it?” Linda grins.
“So,” Oakstone ventures. “You’re an alien.”
Crystal gives him a tight smile. “It depends which way you look at it.”
“I guess that’s true,” he laughs. “This must be a very confusing experience for you.”
“It’s not been easy,” she admits
Oakstone sits forward, resting his forearms on his legs. “I’m afraid there’s not a great deal left of your ‘pod’, as you put it. Do you have any idea why someone would want to destroy it?”
Crystal shakes her head. “What concerns me more, is you were attacked by someone with an amulet like mine. It’s the only explanation for the floating weapon.”
“It must mean you’re not the only one who made it off the ship, Crystal!” Jordan interjects. “Right?”
“If they escaped, why would they want to destroy the pod?” I look at Crystal for confirmation. “Surely it would be their only way of getting home?”
“No,” Crystal says. “I’m fairly certain the pod can only be launched from another space craft. It wouldn’t be able to take off from Earth by itself.”
As this information sinks in, I realise with dismay I thought the pod was the answer to her problems. From the moment we found out the scientist had it, I was sure we had an end goal. A solution. If the pod is useless, how will she get home? I’m such an idiot. I wish I could find a solution for her, but I can’t even begin to fathom a way to get her home from Earth. I don’t even know what solar system she’s from. Or is it galaxy? Universe? Jeez. I’m not even sure I know which is bigger.
“Maybe they were covering their tracks,” Eddie suggests, breaking the silence. “They don’t want people knowing they exist.”
Oakstone nods thoughtfully. “That’s a possibility. They might not want the entire planet looking for them, but why try and destroy the pod? Some of it is still there. Surely you’d steal it instead?”
“What if it’s not the pod they were looking for.” The words form on my lips at the same time as the thought and my stomach flips. “Perhaps they wanted to know who arrived in the pod.”
Crystal looks at me, her brown eyes filled with fear, as we try to arrange the information we have into something that makes sense. There are just too many unanswered questions.
“Where does Linda’s attacker fit into this then?” Sera asks.
Linda nods. “We need to find him.”
“Like hell you do!” Eddie booms.
“Whoa!” I shoot him a warning glance and motion to Jordan who’s chewing the end of his pen. “Let’s put everything we know together to see if we’re missing anything. Jordan? Do you want to give us a summary?”
Jordan clears his throat and flicks back a couple of pages in his notebook. “Crystal landed on Earth and we found her. She has an amulet that gives her powers.” He glances at Crystal for confirmation.
“More or less,” she smil
es.
“Dr. Oakstone finds the pod and takes it to his house. Someone with an amulet breaks in, attacks him and destroys the pod,” he continues. “A guy watching Dr. Oakstone’s house, also possibly with an amulet, attacks Linda, but he’s not the same guy. Does that sum it up?”
Disappointment swells in my gut. I had hoped a summary would make things clearer. In reality, all it’s done is make it abundantly clear, we know absolutely nothing.
I look at Eddie, who’s still stood, arms folded. “Sorry mate, but Sera’s right. We need to find the alley guy.”
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
Jake
Perched on the edge of my bed, I rub my fingers over the deep, swirling green stone. It’s soothing and I find myself entranced by the way it seems lit from within. I should be sleeping. After being up all night, the smart choice would be to take advantage of however long Uncle Cas is out of the house, but I can’t sleep. My brain is wired.
Leaning back against the wall, I tuck the amulet back under my shirt and take a deep breath, trying to block out the thoughts pinging around my head like lightning bolts. What were those kids doing? How did that tent flap lift up by itself? What will Cas do when he finds out I’ve got no real information.
My bedroom door flies open, ripping me from my thoughts. Uncle Cas stands there, tall and tense, his amber eyes burning with an almost red gleam as he glares at me.
“Get up!”
I jump to my feet trying not to wince as his bark echoes around my barren room. “Sorry, Uncle.”
“Anything to tell me?”
My heart thuds like an all-consuming baseline inside my body. “Some teenagers came to the house. They were snooping around. One caused a distraction and,” I pause, weighing up which is the worst option: explaining the weird tent lifting or leaving it out, “this girl seemed to make the tent around that metal thing lift up, even though she was nowhere near it. Of course, it might have been wind or…” My words trail off as something strange happens to Cas’ face. I stare at him, unable to read his expression.
He advances toward me, his eyes like two coals as they burn into mine. “Did I not make it clear to you?”
I edge backwards until my back slams against the wall. He’s so close, his angry breath hot on my face. Even though he’s not touching me, his presence presses against my chest, crushing me against the wall.
It takes me a moment to realise my feet have left the floor and another to realise that the all too familiar sensation of his hands around my throat is missing. How am I off the ground? I start to struggle against the invisible force holding me up against the wall, but I can only flail like a fish without something to grab hold of.
“I want those kids found and I want answers!” he hisses.
In an instant, gravity claims me, and I fall to the ground. My legs buckle and I collapse in a heap at my uncle’s feet.
“You lost them,” he says, standing over me like a boulder waiting to smother me. “You find them.”
My head spins as I scramble to my feet. Cas doesn’t move, and I force myself, trembling, to meet his burning gaze. It seems like an eternity we stand, almost nose to nose, as his flaming eyes sear into my soul.
Then he’s gone; the sound of the door slamming echoing around my room. Ignoring the exhaustion clawing at my eyes, adrenaline pushes me forward as I grab my jacket from the chair and head downstairs.
My mind is in pieces as I break into a run. I don’t stop until I’m at least three streets away, but I know no matter how far I run, I’ll always feel those eyes boring into me. It’s like he can always see me. I shudder and slow to a walk, head down, my hands in my pockets.
What does he think these kids know? Or have? I don’t think I’ve ever seen him so worked up about something. I stop as my mind finally processes what I’ve been trying to push away. He lifted me up off the ground without touching me. A cold shiver runs down my spine. What on earth is going on? My mind is screaming, but I will myself to keep moving forward.
I try for the millionth time to remember life before Uncle Cas. To remember my parents. It’s like a brick wall in my mind. I spoke to one of Cas’ ‘associates’ about it once, years ago. He was a scarred and gnarled older man called Dave. He’d looked out for me, and for a while he was the closest thing to family I could ever remember having. Dave said it happened sometimes when people survive severe trauma. Repressed memories, he’d called it. Self-preservation. I miss Dave. He was a terrifying beast of a man, but he always had time for me. One day he went on a job and didn’t come back. No one told me anything. He was just gone. I swallow the lump in my throat and keep walking.
I have no idea where to start, so I go back to the alley. Perhaps there’s a clue there. I consider asking the police if they took any details from the teenagers, but I really don’t want anyone to know that I’ve been here. Instead, I return to the place where I caught that girl, hoping against hope that there’s something there. Maybe something fell out of her pocket. Something. Anything.
I’m almost on the verge of crawling along the floor to look for clues when I hear a noise. I flatten myself against the wall, moulding myself between the frame of a side door. It’s voices. I close my eyes so I can focus on them.
“So, what now?”
“I guess we take a look down both ends of the alley and try to find this guy.”
“Is this where he attacked you?”
“I’m pretty sure it is.”
“What the heck are you taking photos of?”
I can’t breathe. I’m almost certain that two of the voices are the brother and sister from before. I’ll have to find some sort of god to thank later, because this is beyond luck.
“I’m looking for clues!” the new voice says.
“I just want to find this guy and get some answers,” the brother says. “Come on.”
“Relax, Eddie,” the girl says. “We can take a minute to look for clues.”
“Whatever,” Eddie grunts.
After a tense pause, the girl says, “Why do you have to be so angry all the time? It’s not like you were the one who got attacked.”
“Guys, guys,” the other voice soothes. “Let’s just take a breath.”
“There’s no time,” Eddie says. “We need answers and if we mess around here, we might lose the only chance we have of finding him. Our best option is to keep looking.”
“Okay, okay,” the girl sighs. “Let’s go looking.”
Footsteps head my way and I squeeze myself as flat against the door as I can. If I’d known they were going to come this close, I’d have tried to hide somewhere else, or perhaps made a run for it, but it’s too late now. I cross my fingers and hold my breath as they trudge past within a meter of me. The boys disappear around the corner, the girl a fraction of a second behind them and I slip a foot forward, ready to follow.
The girl stops. I freeze. I’m pretty sure I made no sound. Watching carefully, she takes her phone and starts pressing buttons. I frown. Is she just using her phone, or did she hear me? The silence of the alley seems deafening as I try to breathe as quietly as possible. I decide I have two options: run and try to lose them or confront her and attempt to get the answers I didn’t before. I have no idea which option to choose.
The girl puts the phone to her ear, and I swear I can hear the ringing she’s so close. I wonder if I can swap my hiding place. I close my eyes for a second to calm myself.
“Trying to become one with the door, huh?”
My eyes fly open and I find the girl staring right at me. My mind screams at me to run, but I’m frozen to the spot.
She tucks her dark hair behind an ear and gives a nervous grin. “We’ve been looking for you, Green Eyes.”
I raise my eyebrows, my surprise quelling. “Green Eyes?”
“Well, you didn’t exactly introduce yourself last time,” she shrugs.
Pushing myself off the door, I step down off the stoop towards her, my right hand poised ready to grab my knife. Her eyes take
in my stance, but she doesn’t flinch. Why isn’t she scared?
“So now you’ve found me,” I take another step, darting a glance down the alley to check it’s clear for my escape, “what are you going to do?”
“We need answers,” she replies, backing away from me as though she might run too.
I sneer, taking a final glance at my escape route. “Why would I give you answers?
“Because we know about your amulet.”
My body freezes, one foot already outstretched to take my first running stride. I turn to face the girl once more. “Amulet?”
“The one you’re wearing right now. The one with the green stone.”
My hand flies to my neck, my fingers touching the copper chain. “What about it?”
What on earth is an amulet? I step closer to the girl and in the slowly encroaching dusk, I can see she’s not quite as calm as she seems. Her breathing fast, she’s scared. She’s just very good at hiding it.
“I have a friend with one very similar,” she explains.
I know it’s highly unlikely they could tell me anything about a weird necklace I found hidden in my uncle’s house, but curiosity eats away at my better judgement. Either way, I need answers. Perhaps playing nice with these guys might be the best way forward.
“My name’s Linda, by the way.”
“Jake.”
She grins. “Not Green Eyes then?”
My laugh surprises me. “No.”
“So, Jake,” Linda sighs. “Let’s cut the chit chat. We know you’re from another planet and my friend needs answers. Will you help us?”
Laughter rises in my throat again but comes out as a strangled sort of cough. Another planet? This Linda has a twisted sense of humour, but she’s not laughing. Her face is a picture of absolute seriousness. In fact, she’s looking at me like I’m crazy.
“Look, Linda,” I hold my hands up. “I know there’s some weird stuff going on right now, but I’m definitely not from another planet.”
“Oh, really?” Linda screws up her nose and looks me up and down. “Well, your amulet certainly is.”