Starcrossed

by Josephine Angelini

  “Len, he’s really worried about you, they all are.”

  “I gotta get out of here,” Helen stammered. She ran a hand over

  her face and turned for the window.

  “Where are you going?” Claire asked, trying to block Helen’s path

  with an outstretched arm. “I’ll tell him to go away if you want, but

  you have to let me know that you’ll be okay.”

  “I’m just going home. Promise you won’t let him follow me,

  okay?”

  Claire promised and gave Helen a hug. Then Helen jumped out

  the window, transitioning states in midair. She heard Claire gasp

  as she flew away. A minute later Helen was landing in her front

  yard and heading right for the stairs to take a shower and warm up.

  He was waiting for her behind the front door. He swept her feet

  out from under her before he even bothered to slam the front door

  shut. Everything went completely dark, darker than any night, any

  blindfold, or any closed room that Helen had ever experienced. She

  was enveloped in a disorienting blackness that made her feel dizzy

  and cut off from the rest of the world that she couldn’t even remember

  the layout of her own house anymore. Where were the

  stairs? The furniture? She didn’t know. It was as if she had fallen

  into a black hole.

  Helen was so shocked she didn’t have time to roll over before she

  felt a very large man cover her from behind. He took her head

  between his hands and wrenched it to the side, trying to break her

  neck. She grabbed on to his wrists and pulled them outward, trying

  to get him to release his grip, but he had leverage on his side. Her

  neck muscles strained dangerously, and she felt herself start to

  panic for the second time in an hour. But it was that recent brush

  with death that informed her as she kicked and struggled. The

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  thought of using her lightning made her stomach turn, but she

  knew she had no choice.

  Helen felt the current start in her belly. It was naturally trying to

  arc out of her toward the ground, and all she had to do was release

  it. Untrained as she was, she let the bolt go, and it shot down her

  legs uselessly, causing her to convulse. In her desperation, she got

  the last few volts to run up to her hands and jump across her skin

  into the man’s wrists.

  For a brief moment the blue spark lit up the room with a flash,

  and she saw his eyes widen in surprise. Then she felt him shake

  with the current, and heard him scream as he was electrocuted.

  Helen smelled burnt hair and ozone like a calling card from her

  darkest childhood nightmare. She felt what must have been half

  her body’s energy empty out of her, leaving her as weak as a kitten.

  The burden of the large man on top of her grew intolerably heavy,

  and she knew she had to get out from under him before he recovered

  or she would be no better off than she was when he’d had

  her by the head. While her attacker was still shaking, she managed

  to kick some of his weight off of her, and as the barest amount of

  light was allowed to creep back into the room, she finally got a look

  at him.

  The gleaming blond curls and the thick body were Hector’s, and

  for a moment she feared she had killed him while he might have

  been trying to teach her a lesson. She leaned right over him to see

  if he was still breathing. Hanging inches away from his face in the

  regular darkness of night, she saw it was Creon, but it was too late.

  The moment she recognized him he opened his eyes and grabbed

  her to his chest in a deadly bear hug.

  Helen screamed and struggled. She reached down into her belly

  looking for the current, but all that was left was weak static. She

  had already discharged all the voltage stored up in her muscles.

  The release of all that energy had left her weak and vulnerable. Her

  arms and legs had no strength, and she crumpled under Creon’s

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  renewed attack like a paper bag. He fell on top of her, pinning her

  to the ground as he pulled a bronze knife out of his belt.

  “Such a shame, preciosa. You’re the most beautiful girl I’ve ever

  seen. Almost too perfect to cut,” he grunted into her ear. “But

  Atlantis . . .”

  She squirmed her neck away from his lips, shivers of disgust running

  across her skin. Then he pushed off of her, raising his knife up

  high over his head. He paused, and for a brief moment Helen

  thought he wouldn’t do it, but she saw his eyes harden. He brought

  it down directly over her heart.

  Creon’s knife made a dozen pinging noises as it shattered and

  scattered off of her skin. He had just a moment to register what

  had happened before a foot connected with his head and sent him

  flying off of Helen.

  Lucas jumped on Creon with a vicious snarl, and the two of them

  began to fight so fast Helen could barely see their hands move.

  They punched and grabbed and gouged at each other, both of them

  changing from a rapid-fisted boxing to some kind of strange wrestling

  in which they tried to bend each other’s joints in the wrong

  direction. Helen barely had time to roll onto her knees before it

  was over. Cornered and still weak from having been electrocuted,

  Creon cloaked himself inside an eerie shadow and ran at top speed

  out of the house as soon as he could put even one inch in between

  himself and Lucas, who chased him halfway across Helen’s lawn

  before turning around and coming back inside.

  “Are you okay?” Lucas practically shouted.

  “Yeah, I just can’t . . .” Helen said as she tried to stand and then

  fell back down on the ground with a woozy thump.

  “What did he do to you?” Lucas asked, his voice high-pitched

  with worry. He picked Helen up and tried to balance her so she

  could stand on her own. “Are your legs broken?” He suddenly reclaimed

  her weight as he frantically assessed the damage.

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  “No, I just . . . Hector said to use my bolts to fight, and I did, but

  they went the wrong way, I think,” she mumbled. She was confused

  and seeing spots.

  “Why can’t you stand?” Lucas asked as he tried to get her to take

  her feet again. Her heart hurt from seeing Lucas’s beautiful face

  and smelling his body and feeling his hands on her. She had a

  vague sense where the ground was, but the whole world was falling

  over, and she was too tired for this crap. She just couldn’t do this

  anymore. She needed a nap.

  The next thing she knew, Helen could taste something sweet on

  her tongue. Honey. She opened her eyes all the way and saw that

  she was sitting on the counter in her kitchen with Lucas standing

  between her knees, holding her head up and tilted back as he

  drizzled honey from a plastic bear.

  “There you are,” he breathed through a small smile when she

  looked at him. He looked back at her with so much tenderness

  Helen had to remind herself that Lucas wasn’t really interested.

  For the thousandth time she wondered what had happened to

  make him push her away the way he had.

  “Hi,” she said, h
er voice cracking like she’d just woken from a full

  night’s sleep. “How’d you get here?”

  “Cassie got a glimpse of Creon’s attack, but she didn’t know

  where it was going to take place because all she could see was darkness.

  I took a guess,” he said, brushing her hair back from her face

  and placing a long lock behind her shoulder. “Sorry I was late.”

  “Don’t sweat it,” she said, her voice still shaking with fear. She

  took a deep breath to steady herself and pulled herself together.

  “You messed him up pretty good. I’ve never seen Creon bolt from

  a fight like that before,” Lucas said with admiration.

  “I just softened him up for you.” She couldn’t resist smiling at

  him, even though she knew she’d spend hours rethinking and regretting

  it. “Did I miss anything while I was out?”

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  “Just a trip from there to here,” he said, pointing over his

  shoulder then to the counter. “And a quick call to Jason for

  backup.”

  “Lennie!” Claire shrieked frantically as she barged through the

  front door. She gasped at the knocked-over furniture in the foyer.

  “In here. Don’t freak out, I’m all right,” Helen called out to Claire.

  Then she saw Lucas’s questioning look. “It’s okay, she knows some

  of it,” she told him. She pushed him back so she could jump down

  off the counter. Claire came in first, followed by Jason, who looked

  like he was ready to strangle her.

  “Sorry, Luke. I was at her place looking for Helen when you

  called. I tried to come alone but Five-Two latched on to my arm

  and wouldn’t let me go without her,” Jason growled, nearly tearing

  his hair out in frustration.

  “Um, excuse me? But she’s my best friend and I could tell

  something was up,” Claire snapped at Jason. “How could this have

  happened? You just flew out my window, like, two seconds ago.”

  Claire grabbed Helen in a hug.

  “You know about . . . stuff?” Jason asked, surprised, not sure how

  much he should say.

  “I told her,” Helen admitted as she pulled out of Claire’s enthusiastic

  hug and rubbed her sore neck.

  “But I’ve always sort of known. I just thought she was undead or

  something,” Claire said with a dismissive wave of her hand. “Believe

  me, I’m much happier you’re all part Greek god instead of

  part something disgusting like bat or wolf or mosquito.”

  Jason and Lucas shared a look over Claire’s head. Helen explained

  what had happened as quickly as she could while Lucas

  took Jason outside to look at the tracks, but it was too late to try to

  follow Creon. They came back inside with grim looks on their faces

  to find Helen and Claire had switched the lights on to assess the

  damage in the entryway.

  “Are those pieces of a knife?” Claire asked.

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  “Yeah. He kinda stabbed me in the heart,” Helen said tentatively,

  not knowing how Claire would react.

  “You can still do that? Stop blades?” Claire asked, unsurprised.

  “What about the lightning thing? Can you still do that, too?”

  “How do you know all this about me?” Helen sputtered. Claire

  sighed.

  “After I pushed you off the roof . . .” she began.

  “After you what?” Lucas yelled.

  “It was when we were seven! And she wasn’t hurt!” Claire yelled

  back. “Anyway. I knew about the knife thing because, well, I tried

  to stab you once, too,” she continued bashfully. “But I already

  knew you’d be fine because of what happened with Gretchen and

  the scissors in second grade. Remember?”

  Helen grimaced. “Oh, yeah! Gretchen and the scissors! She really

  was trying to kill me, wasn’t she?”

  “Yeah, she was. She was crazy jealous of you. But I never wanted

  to hurt you, I just had to be sure I wasn’t losing my mind. It was

  scary, you know?” she asked apologetically.

  Helen smiled, forgiving her instantly.

  “I guess I can’t blame you. But how’d you know about the

  lightning-bolt thing?”

  “Remember when we were nine, we were going off island on the

  ferry to see the Boston Aquarium, and that creepy guy with that

  huge gut kept trying to talk to us? Remember how he kept ‘accidentally’

  bumping up against you and stroking your hair?”

  Helen did remember, even though she had spent a lot of time trying

  to forget. There had been that horrible smell of burnt hair, and

  the empty look in his eyes. Helen nodded, shivering at the thought,

  and dreading where Claire was going.

  “Remember how he just disappeared suddenly before we docked?

  Well, he didn’t just disappear. He tried to grab you, Len, and I saw

  an electric spark jump from you to him. It blew him right off the

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  deck of the ferry. It looked like lightning, except it came out of

  you.”

  “I think I killed him,” Helen whispered, needing finally to admit

  what she had done.

  “Good! He was a child molester! You should probably get a

  medal,” Claire insisted. Helen looked at Claire’s earnest face. The

  man probably did mean to do something terrible, but did that justify

  frying him?

  “First, you don’t know that you killed him. Second, it was a reflex.

  Whether he deserved to die or not isn’t the point. You

  shouldn’t feel guilty about something that was done in self-defense,”

  Lucas insisted. He touched Helen’s shoulder. She moved

  away from him uncertainly, not knowing how to feel. Luckily,

  Jason changed the subject.

  “So you’ve always known she wasn’t entirely human,” Jason said

  to Claire with a wry smile. “Didn’t that ever bother you?”

  “I was a little worried she might try to drag me off to hell and

  drain my essence at some point, but I figured that was still better

  than having Gretchen for a best friend,” Claire said with just

  enough honesty to get a laugh. “Plus, I don’t know if you’ve noticed

  or not, but this island is full of white people. Not exactly easy growing

  up Japanese here. But with Lennie around I always knew no

  matter how strange I was, she would always be way stranger. So

  that was nice.”

  “And you never told anyone else over all of these years? You never

  mentioned it to someone when you were little, even by accident?”

  Lucas asked skeptically.

  “Come on Lucas, I’m not stupid! I saw E.T., you know, and I

  know what the men in the white coats did to him and Elliot,” she

  replied with a disgusted look on her face. “I’d never tell on Lennie.

  Or you, for that matter.”

  “Thanks,” Lucas replied, a little confused by the alien metaphor.

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  He and Jason shared another look, and this time there was obvious

  admiration in their eyes.

  “You know what I don’t get?” Helen asked, changing the subject.

  “Why can she be around when I do Scion stuff but it doesn’t affect

  me? All of these times she saw me use my powers over the years,

  but I don’t remember ever feeling pain in my stomach.”

  Helen explained her mother’s curse to Claire, but no one had an

  answer to
her question. They turned their attention to cleaning up

  as best they could before Jerry got home. Claire offered to stay with

  Helen for the night, in case she was too freaked out to sleep alone,

  but Jason nixed that idea right away.

  “And what are you going to do if Creon shows up again? Throw

  your pocketbook at him and give him a piece of your mind?” he

  said shaking his head. “Uh-uh. I know you two are like sisters, but

  you’re not staying here.”

  “I’ll stay. You take Claire home,” Lucas said, quietly assuming

  control before Claire could start another argument with Jason.

  “Let me know if you see anything around her house.”

  “Right,” Jason said with a nod as he guided Claire toward the

  door.

  He didn’t seem surprised that there might be something dangerous

  lurking around Claire’s house, but Helen and Claire were.

  Helen lifted her arm to stop them from leaving, suddenly terrified

  again. It was night and any shadow could have Creon inside it.

  Sensing Helen’s fear, Lucas intercepted her hand and held it

  tightly.

  “Jase can handle it,” he told her confidently.

  “Wait, what do you mean, my house? My parents are home,”

  Claire said, her anxiety resurfacing as well. “You don’t think the

  guy who did this . . .”

  “Don’t worry,” Jason said with a sensitivity he usually reserved

  for everyone in the world except Claire. “I’m not going to let anything

  happen to you or your parents.”

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  “Thank you,” she said slowly, looking a bit surprised that she had

  any reason to say those words to him.

  She turned and waved at Helen, who thought to herself that the

  impossible had just happened. Claire had finally run out of nasty

  things to say to Jason. Helen shut the door behind them and took a

  deep breath. Then she glanced over at Lucas, and prayed to a pantheon

  of gods that looking at him would get easier someday.

  “You look tired,” she said, realizing it was true as she said it.

  “So do you. I hear you’ve been having a lot of nightmares,” he

  said back, completely unashamed to admit he was asking his cousins

  about her.

  “Why do you care? Please, Lucas, just go away,” she begged, rubbing

  her face with her hands.

  “I can’t. I won’t,” he said, moving forward and pulled her into his

  arms.

  She felt too fragile to fight him off. She melted into his chest and

  rested there for a few moments.