Shine: Season One (Shine Season Book 1)

by William Bernhardt

  Memphis walked ahead of me. He held the scrap of paper, glancing at it now and again. I followed, listening to the sounds of our footsteps to keep from thinking of anything else. The silk lining of his jacket felt smooth on my skin. I remembered when Memphis had first asked me to help him.

  I’d been an idiot and tried to escape the Shine facility using a makeshift rope made from my prom dress and bed sheets. I’d almost made it when I started falling. He’d shown up and saved me from a gruesome, painful death. I remembered how he’d held me, his heartbeat close to mine, a sound that calmed me.

  I’d never understood why I’d fallen for him after he’d captured me. I’d heard of Stockholm syndrome, when victims of trauma sympathize with their captors, but I didn’t think that had happened to me. What was it, then? His looks? He was handsome in a mysterious, dark sort of way, but nothing out of the ordinary. If I’d met him on the street, I wouldn’t have given him a second glance.

  The full moon shone on a group of barrel cacti as we passed, making their spines shine with a dim luster. Memphis walked ahead without speaking. He walked with a purpose, his heartbeat a drum in my ears.

  His heartbeat.

  He had a slight heart murmur, which I’d always found odd. I’d never heard anything like it, a whispering of his heart that sounded more like an echo than a murmur. Was it his unusual heartbeat that drew me to him? I couldn’t be sure.

  Whatever the reasons for my attractions, I knew I had better reasons not to like him. He would rescue his sister and go back to New Orleans. I would never see him again. My stomach sank at the prospect. I attempted a smile as I fell into stride beside him.

  “I think we’re almost there,” he said. “Are you okay?”

  I pulled his coat closer as goosebumps prickled my skin. “Just a little cold.”

  “You look worried.”

  I raised an eyebrow. “No, I’m fine.”

  “You’re sure?”

  “Yes, I’m sure.”

  He gave me a second glance, as if I hadn’t convinced him, but then turned to the path ahead. “Entrance Three is what’s marked on this map.”

  “Entrance Three?” I asked. “Does that mean there are more entrances?”

  “If there are, I don’t know where.” He studied the paper. “Look what’s written on the edge. Sous la grande ombre.”

  “What does that mean?”

  “Under the tall shadow, I think. My high school French is rusty.”

  “Tall shadow? Is that where the entrance is?”

  “I’m not sure.”

  The desert stretched ahead. The sand glowed bright silver under the moonlight. The lonely desert reminded me of my sister. A feeling of guilt gnawed at me. I’d never wanted to leave her, but I think she knew that I had to do this. She knew it more than I did. Katelyn had always been the wiser one.

  The gentle patter of Memphis’s heart calmed my anxiousness. I’d grown so accustomed to that sound over the past few days. How would I feel when I couldn’t hear it anymore?

  “How long have you known about your Shine ability?” he asked.

  I glanced at him, not sure why he wanted to start a conversation. He didn’t seem the type who enjoyed idle chit-chat. But talking would help get my mind off other things, so I played along.

  “I don’t remember how old I was when I heard the first heartbeat. I do remember hearing my grandma’s heart a couple days before her heart attack. It sounded wrong to me, too quiet, like there wasn’t enough blood pumping through it. I told my parents. They didn’t believe me at first. But they got pretty freaked out when my granny had her heart attack.”

  “Yeah, I guess that would scare them. Is that all you can do?”

  “That’s basically it. My powers aren’t much to brag about.”

  “You’re sure about that?”

  “Pretty sure.”

  He narrowed his eyes. “It’s weird. But whenever I’m around you, I feel calmer, less anxious. Does that sound crazy?”

  I eyed him. “Maybe a little bit.”

  “Do you think it has anything to do with your ability?”

  The wind picked up, whipping a strand of hair across my face. I tucked it behind my ear. “It could. I really don’t know.”

  “Can you manipulate heartbeats?”

  I eyed him, not sure why he pressed the issue. Should I tell him the truth? Would any harm come from admitting the extent of my powers? He already knew I was a Shine.

  “I did it once,” I admitted. “Back on the boat with the Revens, I made Slash get so agitated that he had to sprint out of the room. But it only happened once. I don’t know if I could do it again.”

  His eyes stayed on me, watching, as if he were trying to see inside me. “That’s an ability that would come in handy.”

  “I guess. Sometimes it feels more like a curse. But then I think about the other girls who have unusual abilities like mine. I wouldn’t understand what they went through if it weren’t for my ability. It helps me understand them better. I’m grateful for that.”

  He eyed me, as if seeing me for the first time. “You know, you aren’t really what I expected.”

  “What makes you say that?”

  He shrugged. A cactus grew up ahead, taller than any of the others. Memphis stopped as he reached it. He held his little scrap of paper, stood in front of the cactus, and then turned back the way we came. I stood with him.

  The lights of the mansion glowed faintly at the edge of the horizon. I looked up. The moonlight fell over me like a blanket, illuminating my hands and arms. But it didn’t reach Memphis. He stood in the shadow, in the darkness.

  “The shadow,” I said.

  He turned.

  “Under the tall shadow. Could this be where the entrance is?”

  He stared up at the cactus. “You’re right. This may be the entrance.” He backed away from the cactus when his foot scraped over something. Something metallic peeked through a thin layer of sand. I knelt beside him. We brushed away the sand to reveal a hidden doorway. A latch had been worked into the metal. He looked up at me and grinned like a little boy. His expression caught me off guard.

  “We found her.”

  “We only found the entrance, Memphis. We still don’t know where she is. It could be a maze down there, more guards than we can handle.”

  He ignored me as he brushed sand off the latch.

  “How do you plan to get past the guards?” I asked.

  “I’ve already told you. You’re a Shine. I’m a Reven. I thought it would be obvious.”

  “Just so you know, I’m not very fond of being the bait.”

  “I understand. I promise I’ll never do it again. I’ll go back to New Orleans. You can go back to your life in New York. It’ll be like I never existed.”

  He grabbed the latch. The sound of sand grating inside metal gears filled the air as he rotated the handle. I heard a loud click. He looked up at me. “You ready?”

  I hesitated. I didn’t know what to expect when we got down there, although I doubted this place would be as comfortable as the facility on Green Wood Pointe. “As ready as I can be.”

  He pulled open the hatch. We stared into a tunnel. Gray light seeped from fixtures on the bottom floor, barely illuminating a ladder that was bolted into the wall. In chipped yellow letters, the words SHINE FACILITY 8 had been painted onto the chipped concrete.

  The quiet coming from the tunnel unnerved me. This all seemed too much like a trap. My heart sped. I’d always thought I could escape capture. But Memphis had outsmarted me more than once. I couldn’t go with him. Not until I knew the truth. All of it.

  Memphis crawled toward the ladder.

  There were so many things I didn’t know about him. Too many unknowns. How had he gotten away from the military? What was the loophole he’d spoken of? Why had I never heard a heart murmur like his before? Was it a medical condition? Or was it something else? I’d needed answers from the beginning. This might be my last chance to get them.
r />   “What was the loophole?” I blurted.

  He stopped. He stared at me, brows knit with confusion.

  “You said the military let you go because of a loophole—what was it?”

  “Now’s not the best time—”

  “But when is? You always say that, but you never tell me anything.”

  He only stared, as if trying to sort out what to say.

  My throat tightened with my increased anxiety. “I have to see my sister again. I can’t get caught. Promise me I won’t get caught. I can trust you, can’t I?”

  He stood, and then crossed to me. He hugged me tight, my cheek pressed to his chest. We stood there, his arms around me, until I felt my heart rate slow from a loud clamor to a gentle beat.

  “It’ll be okay,” he said softly. “You’ll see her again.”

  When I pulled away, I felt the wind brush my face. Why were my cheeks damp? “How can I trust you?”

  His heart sped a tiny a bit. It wasn’t the reaction I expected. His uneven heart rate made me realize something that had nagged me since we’d escaped the security guards.

  “Your heartbeat,” I said and stepped away. “Oh my Gandhi, why didn’t I notice it earlier?”

  He raised an eyebrow.

  “Your heartbeat—you knew about it, didn’t you?”

  “What are you talking about?”

  “That’s the loophole! I can’t believe I didn’t see it sooner.”

  My thoughts spun as the pieces fell into place. “When we were in the security quarters you lied to those guards. You lied so well even I believed it. It didn’t hit me until now. The lie detector. The military. You beat the lie detector. That was the loophole. You taught yourself to control your own heartbeat!”

  “June, calm down.”

  “No.” I backed away, thoughts tumbling through my head. “What else did you lie about?”

  He didn’t answer.

  “What else?”

  “Can we have this conversation another time? We’re so close. Please.”

  “No way. I don’t go another step until you tell me everything. Good Gandhi, are we even rescuing your sister? Was that a lie too?”

  He stiffened. His silence spoke volumes.

  “Who are we rescuing?”

  He no longer stood in the cactus’s shadow. The moonlight illuminated his face, his suit, his hands. His eyes focused on the ground. He looked defeated. He clenched his hands into fists, though to me it wasn’t a show of anger, rather of resignation. “I thought if I told you the truth, then you wouldn’t come.”

  “Why? Who are we rescuing?”

  He looked up, eyes silent and pleading, silvery under the moon’s glow. “Alexa isn’t my sister. She’s my fiancée.”

  CHAPTER TEN

  “You lied.” My words came out as a whisper. Dry wind whipped past my face, stinging my raw cheeks. I took another step away from Memphis. I glanced at the mansion’s lights, tiny pinpricks on the edge of the horizon. Could I make it back before he caught me?

  “June, listen to me. I didn’t want to lie to you.”

  “Didn’t want to? What an absurd thing to say!” My hands balled into fists. I’d tried to fight him before and failed. But if it came to it again, I would be ready.

  “I couldn’t have gotten here without you. I still need you.”

  “Then you shouldn’t have lied to me. I won’t help you anymore.” My voice didn’t sound angry, which was odd, because that’s how I felt. Instead my voice came out weak, almost sad.

  “Will you let me explain?”

  I ignored him. “I came all this way. I’m a complete dog biscuit. That’s why you lied, because you knew I would believe it. You tricked me. You knew my Shine ability and tricked me.” The desert spun in my vision. I crouched on the sand to keep from falling over. The world careened around me. He lied to me. He lied. He’s no different from the other Revens.

  “That’s not the reason.”

  “Then what is?”

  He knelt beside me. I looked away. “I lied to you because…I knew how you felt about me. At least I thought I knew. That day I rescued you from Green Wood was the first time I noticed it. You acted differently around me, more guarded. At first I thought you were nervous or frightened or something, but you’re never afraid of anything, and that’s when I understood what was going on.

  “After that, I knew I couldn’t tell you who we were rescuing. So I made up that story about my sister.”

  Numbness replaced my anger. It didn’t matter what he said. I could never trust him again.

  “I regret it now. I realize that I’ve misjudged you. You were the prom queen and the senator’s daughter. In my mind you should have been spoiled and cared for no one but yourself and your own feelings. I thought you wouldn’t come if I told you the truth. But now I realize that I was wrong. You aren’t selfish. You care for your sister. You came all this way because you want to protect other Shines. I was the selfish one. Not you. You’ll always be the better person. You’re strong and smart. You’re beautiful.” His voice cracked. He took a deep breath. “If things were different…”

  He’d called me beautiful, which I might’ve taken as a compliment if I weren’t so angry with him. “If things were different, we wouldn’t be here. If things were different, my little sister would be healthy. If things were different, I would’ve never known you, and…” My heart wouldn’t be breaking.

  He took my hand. I wanted to push him away, but couldn’t find the strength to do it. “I know why you came. It wasn’t to help me. You wanted to stop the Revens, to save Shines. You still can. Those people down there in that facility—they took Alexa. They’ve taken countless others. They’re hurting girls like you.” His hand tightened around mine, warm and desperate. His heartbeats clattered with a reckless cadence. “Help me, June. I can’t do it without you.”

  I mulled over his words. In truth, he could rescue her without me. He could go down there and save his fiancée by himself. He didn’t need me. Then why was he asking for my help? To use me as bait? Or did he really care about all those other Shines imprisoned down there?

  It didn’t make sense. Nothing made sense anymore. I tucked my knees to my chest. “I wish I would have never met you.”

  “You don’t mean that.” He still held my hand. He was in love with someone else, he knew how I felt about him, yet he held on. It took all my strength, but I pried his hand away.

  “I’ll go,” I finally admitted. “But this isn’t for you. You never should have lied to me.” I stood, walked to the opening, and climbed inside. I didn’t feel fear anymore. I had only one thought.

  I would stop the Revens.

  The ladder seemed to stretch forever. I glanced down now and then to make sure the tunnel had an end in sight. Memphis climbed above me. I focused on descending the ladder. One step down, another, another.

  The air grew chillier. The sound of our rubber-soled boots thumping the ladder’s rungs was the only sound to break up the silence. Something scurried beneath me. A rat, perhaps? I glanced down and saw only a rough brick floor.

  I neared the bottom and leaped off the ladder. Memphis did the same. He stood close to me. I refused to look at him. If only I could turn off my Shine so I wouldn’t have to hear his heartbeats.

  We faced a narrow tunnel, the kind you’d see in a submarine with its low ceiling and infrequently spaced lights. Iron beams supported the arched brick walls.

  “Give me your knife,” Memphis whispered.

  “What?”

  “We need this to look like an authentic Shine capture. I need your knife.”

  I debated on asking whether or not he meant to use it on me, but decided against it. If he wanted to kill me, he would have done it already. I removed my knife from my boot and handed it to him.

  He stuck it in his pocket. “Let’s go.”

  I followed him through the tunnel. The air smelled stale. Dust-covered lights shone above us, glowing with a yellowed haze. Cobwebs hung from t
he corners. Memphis ran his fingers along the wall.

  “This has to be part of the old nuclear bunkers. They repurposed the place as a Shine facility.”

  “Seems like a disturbing place to keep Shines.”

  “It’s not like the other facilities. Blake wasn’t lying when he said Green Wood was a privilege.”

  I didn’t answer. I wasn’t in the mood for a conversation.

  “Alexa’s been to a lot of facilities. She started out in Georgia, got transferred to New Mexico, and then to Washington state. She had trouble following the rules. They wanted her to control her Shine, to turn it off, I guess. But she never could. They threatened to send her to Mordock, but then the Revens tested one of her blood samples. That’s when they took her to one of their own facilities in Alaska.” His voice softened. “I only visited once. I didn’t recognize her.”

  I wondered what would be left of Alexa once we found her. I didn’t mention it to Memphis. The tunnel curved. We followed it. The scent of smoke filled the air. Strange, as we were underground, and smoke was the last smell I expected to encounter.

  Chills prickled my skin the deeper we walked. The air grew thick with a gray haze. I spotted red lights up ahead. We stopped in front of an open doorway. I looked through and found a metal desk. No one sat behind it. Red lights blinked from the walls, casting a crimson glow through the fog.

  We approached the desk.

  “It’s empty. Where is everyone?” I asked.

  “Maybe they don’t use this area anymore.”

  “Maybe.” Beyond the desk, we passed rows of open doors. I glanced inside the small rooms. Most had beds and toilets. Blankets were thrown to the ground or tossed in a heap on the beds, as if the girls had left suddenly.

  We passed more rows of desks that resembled a nurse’s station. Another hallway stretched across from us. The scent of smoke grew more pungent. A cold sweat broke out across my skin.

  Where was everyone?

  A scream came from ahead.

  I held my breath. My heart rate increased, a loud thrumming in my ears. Memphis stepped closer to me. “We’ll go in quietly,” he whispered.