Outside, the world was quiet apart from the erratic noises of early morning traffic, and even that was muted in the dense fog. I shied away from the bench where Shailene and I had sat last night, and instead made my way to the far side of the courtyard, where a massive blue gum tree towered over the waist-high brick wall separating Gam-Lam from the street. The wall was uneven in parts where the massive roots of the tree had displaced the ground beneath it. I often heard people complaining about how the sidewalk outside was a tripping hazard because of it, but I didn’t mind. I loved that the tree had made itself comfortable here.
I placed a hand on the tree trunk and breathed in through my nose, letting myself savor the scent of it for just a moment. I loved the way this tree smelled, sort of minty with a hint of honey. We had a ton of eucalyptus trees growing on our property in Everett; the previous owner had planted them as a windbreak. They reminded me of home.
I stared up, focusing on the budding white flowers high over my head, the peeling bark in the upper branches, and the waxy blue baby leaves clustered among the deep green grownups. Then, slowly, I closed my eyes.
Concentrate, Laura. Be at peace. Be Aang. I tried not to snort at the thought. I was definitely not an Aang—I was a Korra, through and through. But, hey, I reminded myself, Korra made it in the end. Saved the day, got the girl. Be Korra if you need to be.
Eyes still closed, I stretched my mind, trying to focus on the feeling I’d had the night before, just before Shailene cut me off. Think of the cheerleaders. Think of the girl on the skateboard, or the one on the scooter. Think of green eyes, red lightning, trains moving so fast…
Nothing. I sighed, opening my eyes and leaning back against the gum tree. Maybe this was too advanced for me. Even Shailene hadn’t been able to find the girls after they’d vanished. Maybe—
I swallowed hard, not wanting to follow the path my thoughts were wandering down. There could be a million reasons why Shailene couldn’t sense the missing cheerleaders. It didn’t necessarily mean that they were no longer on this mortal plane. They’d just been taken out of range, that’s all. Been beamed up to the mother ship.
I’d try a different tactic. Maybe the missing girls weren’t on Earth anymore, but Anesidorans were. Their sentries were all around, hiding in plain sight. If I tracked them down, maybe I could follow them to the missing girls. I just needed to find one of those bug things, or maybe—
Unbidden, the man in the black trenchcoat popped into my mind. I shuddered, remembering the way his skin had oscillated rainbow colors in my dream like a damn disco ball.
And then there it was. Bam. It wasn’t quite like radar; it was more like that feeling you get when someone’s been staring at you across the room and you suddenly notice it. Just like that, I knew he was there. I knew where he was.
Before I could think twice, I was off. I dashed out from under the eucalyptus tree and through the gate, running down the sidewalk, jumping nimbly over the uneven section behind the tree. My mind was completely blank. I was afraid that if I let myself think of anything else, I’d lose my slippery grasp on this feeling and then I’d never be able to find him.
The wind whipped past me as I ran, mist swirling in my wake. I felt like I was moving faster than normal, though maybe it was just an illusion because of the fog. I was almost on him now. I could feel him on the next street over, standing right in front of—
I barreled around the corner and nearly slammed into a couple standing on the sidewalk. I skidded to a halt, losing my balance on the stupid wedge heels on my black leather boots. My hands flailed in front of me as I teetered, struggling to keep from falling. “I’m sorry, I’m sorry!” I blurted.
“Whoa, are you okay?” a guy’s voice asked, and a tan hand reached out to brace me, just grazing the side of my arm long enough to steady me.
“Yeah, I’m fi—Ana!” I gasped, finally looking up long enough to notice who was standing in front of me.
The world seemed to screech to a halt as I gawked at the two of them, my mouth flapping open and closed soundlessly like a fish. In what felt like slow motion, I looked back and forth between them and the house we were standing in front of, a stucco behemoth that displayed typical frat house slovenry: a worn-out couch on the roof, perfect for viewing Mariner football games without leaving the house; tied-up black garbage bags sitting on the front doorstep, probably from last Friday’s mixer, waiting for someone to give up and take them out to the dumpster; and the copper letters Beta Eta Beta mounted over the front door, half-oxidized into a sea-green patina that I’m sure the designer thought would look cool but just seemed to give the impression this was less a house and more an abandoned tenement that college guys had wandered into like rats, slapped some rusty letters on and established residency in.
None of this, incidentally, is meant to be a disparagement of frat guys. Tonio was a Phi Kap, after all. It’s just an unbiased description of their living conditions, which, undeniably, are more often than not completely atrocious.
You’d never know it from looking at the guy standing in front of me now, though. He looked like a model for Abercrombie & Fitch. He had to be a full foot taller than me, and his perfectly square jaw was clean-shaven, showing only the slightest hint of neatly-groomed stubble. His thick black hair was styled in a way that reminded me of ’90s boy bands—loaded with gel, not a hair out of place. He was possibly part Asian; apart from the dated hairstyle, he kind of had the look of a K-Pop star. I could smell his Acqua di Gio from five feet away. He wore a trim camel hair coat, but his broad shoulders indicated that he was probably pretty buff under those long sleeves.
And his long, tan fingers were entwined in Ana’s.
“Laura,” Ana said. She was totally blushing, but her dark complexion hid it well. I’d always been jealous of my full-Pinoy relatives about this. With my mom’s pale-ass skin and my dad being white, I never stood a chance. I go redder than a tomato at the drop of a hat. “What are you doing here?” she stammered. “Usually you sleep in on the weekend.”
“I had a headache last night, so I went to bed before nine,” I lied. “Figured I’d get up early and get some jogging in.” She stared at my very-jogging-inappropriate motorcycle boots in confusion. I quickly changed the subject, looking up at the giant Beta before me. “I don’t think we’ve met. I’m Laura, Ana’s little in Gam-Lam.”
“Oh, sorry,” Ana said hurriedly. “Laura, this is Damien, my…”
She trailed off, looking uncertain, and he grinned, showing off a mouth of perfectly straight white teeth. “Your boyfriend, right?”
Ana exhaled, smiling sheepishly. “Yeah. My boyfriend.” Damien laughed and put his arm around her shoulder. My stomach twisted ever so slightly.
“Anyway, Laura, it’s so great to finally meet you,” he said, sticking his right hand out for me to shake. “Ana’s told me so much about you.”
Stiffly, I took it. “Really? That’s a surprise, considering that she’s told me absolutely nothing about you.” As soon as I said it, I regretted it, but there was no taking it back. Damien’s face fell like I’d slapped him across the face. Ana looked down at her feet. Flustered, I tried to recover. “I mean, not like she’s had a chance. You guys haven’t known each other that long, right? Makeisha said you met at the mixer last week.”
“Well, not quite,” Damien said. He smiled in a more cordial—and forced—way than he had a moment ago. “That’s when I asked her out. We’ve had class together before, since we’re both bio majors.”
“Oh,” I said awkwardly.
“Damien wants to be a veterinarian, too,” Ana added, cheerfully trying to cover up the disaster I’d made of this encounter.
He wanted to be a vet. No wonder she liked him. I smiled in a way I hoped seemed friendly. “That’s great. Ana loves animals. This one time a stray dog had puppies in the service alley behind our house, and she sneaked her and the puppies in and managed to keep it a secret from our house mom for a month until she rehomed all of them.”
Ana laughed. “Well, I still think Claudia knew about it and just kept her mouth shut. They were so cute, I couldn’t just leave them.”
Damien was beaming at Ana in a nauseating way. I gnawed on the inside of my cheek. Why did I have to run into them now? I had more important things to do this morning than watch this wannabe from a teen drama circa before I was born macking on my big. Every minute that I wasted here, Trenchcoat Guy was getting farther away.
As if my thoughts had summoned him, suddenly I sensed him again. And he wasn’t farther—he was closer. Just a few blocks away. I couldn’t lose him now.
Distantly, I heard rap music start to play. A cell phone ringing. Not mine, though. I closed my eyes, trying to block out the sounds of the world around me, focus on the man I was tracking.
The park. That’s where he was heading. For a brief instant I could see the duck pond in my mind, the art deco architecture of the children’s museum, the bronze glint of the flame on Firebelle Tower peeking over the trees. He was waiting for someone.
“Laura?”
I blinked as the sound of Ana’s voice snapped me back to reality. “What? Sorry, I spaced for a second.”
Damien had moved a few feet away from us, holding his phone to his ear.
“I said we’re going to get breakfast when he’s off the phone, if you want to come?”
“Oh. I—that is—”
And then my breath caught in my throat as I finally sensed who he was waiting for. A petite, dark-skinned girl with braids pulled back with a thick scrunchie. She was close. And she was walking right into his trap.
Erikka. It was Erikka Johnson. And if I didn’t get to her before he did, she’d disappear, too.
“I’m sorry, Ana,” I blurted, barely registering the surprise on her face. “Maybe another time? I mean, really. I’m not just saying that. I really do want to. I just—I have to go.”
“Laura?”
I ducked my head, fingers to my lips in apology. “Seriously, I’m sorry! I’ll text you!” Before she could react, I was off again, tearing past Damien, who lowered his phone away from his ear for just a second to look at me in confusion. I thought I heard him say my name, but I didn’t answer.
I had to hurry. Erikka was moving toward the park fast. If I didn’t get there first, there was no telling what would happen.
Run, Laura. Faster. Like you know you can.
The muscles in my legs pumped, but it still wasn’t fast enough. Not Anesidoran fast. Just human fast. Come on, Laura, you can do this. You have to do this.
I focused on the man in my mind, the girl moving toward him. I let the thought of them consume my entire brain.
And then I ran.
I thought it had seemed like I was moving too fast before, but now I knew I was. The street blurred past me like I was in a car, but it was just me, running on the sidewalk. I wondered if anyone could see me, what they would think if they could. But then I remembered the girl on the skateboard, the one only I could see. Maybe it was like that, like Shailene had said. No one can see them because they don’t want to be seen.
I could only pray that was true.
Lillian Brown Park was a sprawling sea of green in the middle of a concrete jungle, a small valley nestled in between the rolling hills that the City had been built upon. At over five hundred acres, it was the biggest park in the east ward, and second biggest in the metro area, matched only by its twin in City West. Dozens of walking trails crisscrossed in between massive oak and eucalyptus trees, lush gardens and picnic pavilions. It wasn’t too busy yet, this early in the morning, but the sun was starting to burn the fog away, and scattered joggers and power-walkers dotted the sidewalks.
I dodged to avoid them as I ran. People didn’t seem to react to the blur racing past them, but I wasn’t sure if I could still collide with them—and at this speed, I didn’t want to take the risk. I felt off-balance, weaving in between throngs of pedestrians. It was like trying to slalom ski when you’ve only ever been on the bunny slopes. The motorcycle boots weren’t helping, either. I should have stuck with sneakers.
As I zigzagged around a pack of marathon trainers, a sudden wave of nausea struck me. I was flagging, big time. I’d never run this far this fast, and it was catching up to me. Hang in there, Laura, I thought. I was almost to the duck pond. If I could just…
And then my ankle rolled.
I fell hard, face-planting onto the sidewalk and half-skidding, half-tumbling off the path into the bushes. The shock of the impact knocked the wind clean out of me. I lay there in the mud for a moment, panting, as my muscles tingled like sand was running through my veins, and speckles shimmered in front of my eyes.
“Whoa, are you okay?” a girl’s voice asked. She ran over and crouched beside me. As my vision swam and cleared, I realized it was Erikka. I blinked. Just over her shoulder, I could see the branches of the willow trees that grew at the pond’s edge.
“Erikka,” I said, my voice ragged. I wasn’t too late. I could still save her.
She stared at me in bewilderment for a moment, and then recognition dawned on her. “Laura Clark. What are you doing here? We’re not—”
“Erikka, listen to me,” I said. “You have to be careful. It’s a trap. He’s—”
“There you are.”
My breath caught in my throat at the sound of his voice. Silky-smooth, almost debonair. Erikka stiffened, whirling to face him, crouched on the balls of her heels.
“Striker,” the man in the trenchcoat said, stepping forward, his arms folded. It was the first time I’d gotten a good look at him. He was older, maybe somewhere between my mom’s age and Lola’s. He had a square jaw, and fair skin that looked almost like porcelain, with narrow green eyes that sparked as he looked at us. “I’ve been expecting you. You always come when I call.”
I furrowed my brows. He’d called her? What was that supposed to mean?
Erikka clenched her fist. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
He chuckled. “They never do. And the explanations are getting tedious, so never mind. It’s time for you to come with me.”
“I’m not going anywhere with you.” She unzipped her jacket, withdrawing something that looked suspiciously like a pair of nunchakus. She was going to fight him.
The man in the trenchcoat sighed. “That’s what they all say. But they all come in the end.”
“Don’t fight him,” I whispered, pushing myself up onto my knees. I still felt weak and shaky, and my hands were numb like they’d fallen asleep. “That’s how the others disappeared. You need to run, Erikka.”
“Strikers don’t run,” she replied.
“Erikka, please—”
Without another word, she sprang forward, whipping her nunchakus around like freaking Bruce Lee or something. Trenchcoat Guy dodged her faster than my eyes could keep up, skirting back through the trees toward the water.
“Wait!” I gasped, struggling to my feet and running after them. Erikka kept advancing, the man expertly evading each of her assaults, leading her forward, across the bridge, farther away from me. She lashed out with her weapons once more, and this time after he dodged, he lunged forward, capturing her wrist in his and dragging her close to him. Before she could react, he clamped his right hand over her eyes.
Lightning struck. k`1`2
I screamed, toppling back into the bushes as the red light blinded me, filling the air everywhere around me and making my vision flash once more. I blinked violently, trying to clear the spots from my eyes.
I heard them before I could see again. “That’s more like it,” the man’s smooth, deep voice said.
I blinked again, and there they were, still standing on the bridge. They hadn’t disappeared this time. Not yet at least. Erikka had dropped her nunchakus, and she stared at her hands now, as if she were confused by their existence.
“How do you feel?” the man asked.
Erikka looked up at him slowly, her head cocked. “Better,” she replied.
>
He smiled, his lips thin. “Good. Let’s go.”
He turned, starting across the bridge once more, away from me. Erikka walked beside him freely, no sign of resistance. They walked slowly, casually, but their movement didn’t match their motions. Each step seemed to take them the distance of ten. I stared after their rapidly disappearing forms, my mind reeling. “Wait,” I said after a moment, my voice hoarse, barely audible. Then I shakily rose to my feet, running after them across the bridge. “Wait!”
I tried to keep up, tried to will myself to find the speed I’d had earlier, but my legs refused to cooperate. They wobbled and shook as I ran, barely as fast as I could normally manage. My breath was painful and sharp, scraping at my lungs with each inhalation.
Within seconds, Erikka and the man were out of my view, but I refused to stop. I closed my eyes, reaching out with my mind. Erikka was gone. It was like she was invisible, like she’d closed me off the way Shailene had last night. But I could still feel Trenchcoat Guy, and I clung to him with all my might. I wouldn’t lose him. I couldn’t.
I was out of the valley now, at the far eastern edge of the park where the trees tapered off, the ground began to slope and the sidewalks turned to steps. The fog was completely gone now, and Firebelle Tower rose above me, a massive concrete torch with bronze flames that burned bright in the sunlight. This was the park’s end; a large retaining wall separated it from the rest of the city, but I could hear the noises from the street beyond. Erikka and the man in the trenchcoat were far past here. They were disappearing into the city.
I pushed myself forward, starting up the steps in front of the tower. I wouldn’t stop. I had to keep going.
Cheerleaders From Planet X Page 6