by C. G. Cooper
“What’s wrong with her?” I asked, fresh tears running off my chin and onto Dad’s shirt.
“Let’s go for that walk and I’ll tell you.”
I nodded and then put my head on his shoulder, the joys from earlier in the day swept away by the continued howls from my mother.
Chapter 10
Tortured
I asked Dad to put me down as soon as we stepped outside. It was a cool night and I could smell the lake coming in on the gentle breeze. Out there everything seemed so peaceful, a total contrast to what I’d just seen.
“Let’s go around back,” said Dad, taking a pebble path that cut across the front lawn. Once we’d been walking for a couple minutes, Dad said, “I’m sorry you had to see that, buddy.”
“It’s okay,” I said, not really meaning it, but isn’t that what you’re supposed to say? “What’s wrong with her, Dad?”
He stopped and looked up at the sky, the stars twinkling overhead. “They did something to her.”
“What did they do?”
“They hurt her.” I could hear the pain in his voice and knew he was blaming himself. “I won’t tell you the details, because they don’t matter, but these men, these monsters who took your mom, they did things to her that…” His hands and teeth were clenched. “Luckily I got to her in time, and the healers put her back together, but some scars aren’t so easily healed.”
I knew that when soldiers and Marines went off to war, sometimes their minds hurt more than their bodies when they got back. Was that what was happening with Mom?
Dad started walking again. “What you just saw was the second time it’s happened. She becomes someone else, like her body’s possessed. But they’re working on it. I’m sure she’ll be better soon.”
He didn’t look sure. In fact, he looked as unsure as I had ever seen him. That was totally not my dad. The dad I knew never let anything get him down. But here he was, telling me everything, the pain pouring out as we walked under the summer night’s sky.
I did the only thing I could think of, what adults do when a conversation gets too hard to continue. I changed the subject.
“Why did you bring all these kids here, Dad? You said it was training, but it’s more than that, isn’t it? I mean, there are locks everywhere and I even saw video cameras in some places.”
Dad nodded. “You’re right, it’s not just the training. It’s also for their safety.”
An old conversation with Kennedy popped into my head. He’d said that they were trying to recruit newly gifted kids. He’d even said that bad guys like Jacee were trying to do the same thing. Was that what dad was worried about, gifted kids going to the bad side?
“Earlier this year there were a few…disappearances. We’ve been in the process of finding gifted kids and coming up with a way to get them here for just over a year. Well, in January, a couple of the kids went missing. The next month a couple more.”
“Did they go with the bad guys?”
Dad shook his head. “Not in the way you think. Yes, there are kids being recruited for the other side, but the kids I’m talking about were taken. One minute they were there and the next they weren’t. We found out what was happening and pushed up our timelines to get everyone to safety.”
I had so many questions, like how did they find the gifted kids, how were they tracked, and who told them they’d disappeared if the parents weren’t supposed to know about their gifts?
Dad probably saw the confusion on my face because he said, “There’s a lot that goes into what we do here. It’s really like running a big corporation. It’s part of the reason we moved all the time and why mom and I traveled so much. Even though we didn’t use our gifts, we were still very involved in the running of our community. There are certain things I can’t tell you because I’ve sworn an oath of secrecy. I hope you understand that.”
I nodded.
“I’ll tell you what I can though, I promise.”
I wasn’t expecting everything, after all, I was still new and just a kid, but I did want to know more.
“What are they doing to the kids they take?”
Dad shrugged. “We’re trying to find out. That’s what your mom was doing when she got caught. They could either be holding them somewhere, or doing something worse.”
“Like what?”
Dad frowned. “We’ve heard rumors that they’re doing experiments.”
That sent a shiver up my back. I imagined being transformed into the Borg like in Star Trek. Maybe I didn’t want to know the details.
“Dad, why aren’t you telling the other kids the truth about why we’re here?”
He stopped again and looked down at me. This time he actually smiled.
“Not every ten-year-old is like you, buddy.”
“What do you mean?”
Dad laughed and went down to one knee.
“Ever since you were born, I’ve told your mom that you’re an old soul. Do you know what that means?”
I shook my head.
He smiled. “For once something you don’t know. Having an old soul means you’re more mature than your peers, that you understand things which may take them decades to figure out. You’re ahead of your time in so many wonderful ways. It’s not just that you’re smarter, it’s that you’re in tune with the world around you. You know what makes people happy and sad, not on the surface, but in a deeper, more insightful way. You’re level-headed in situations where other kids, even adults, would freak out. Like when you took on Jacee and saved Kennedy’s life.”
“You know about that?”
“Of course. Kennedy told us everything.”
“And you’re not mad?”
“Why would I be mad?”
“I don’t know,” I said, my eyes now focused on my feet.
Dad lifted my chin and looked me in the eye. “I am so proud of you, son. Everything you’ve done up to this point has shown me the man you will become. Your courage and thoughtfulness will be your lasting legacy. Mark my words, Benjamin, you are something special, and I wish I could be just like you.”
Since I could remember, I always wanted to be like my dad. He was athletic, cool, had a good sense of humor, and everyone liked him. One of the best things was that he treated me like I was older, never like I was a little baby. I liked that. It was one of the only normal things in my life.
So when he said he was proud of me, suddenly I felt like I could do anything. Even though my mom was sick, and the world might end at any moment, I knew that as long as I had my mom and dad, everything would be okay. The Dragons would fight off the invading army and cast them back into the abyss.
Chapter 11
Night Games
Dad took me back to my room and gave me a hug before sending me back to bed. “Thanks for our talk,” he said.
I nodded and wondered if sleep would ever come. There was too much to think about, too much to send me spiraling into worry, but at least I knew I was safe with Mom and Dad around.
I climbed into bed as quietly as I could, smiling at the gentle rumble of Roy’s snores. It might bother the others, but to me it sounded like a bull mastiff lying by a crackling fire, just happy to be off his feet. I settled in, still thinking about my conversation with Dad. I’d asked him on the way back why one of the Healers hadn’t been able to totally fix Mom and he’d explained that our gifts were limited to the physical properties of the world around us.
“It’s like being a Destructor. Just because you want to turn a boulder into a cup of water doesn’t mean you can. We don’t have a magic wand. Being a Healer is the same. Sewing someone up, mending a damaged organ or meticulously removing cancerous cells is completely different than altering someone’s mind.”
I tried not to let my disappointment show because I’d already had in my mind that maybe I could help Mom with my Healer powers. But Dad’s words killed that option.
What his words did do, as I stared up at the dark ceiling, was make me think about what we, “the gift
ed,” couldn’t do, our limitations. We were, after all, still human, so we could die like anyone else. I couldn’t fly too high or I’d freeze and lose consciousness because of the lack of oxygen thousands of feet in the air. I bet Growers couldn’t just make a plant grow if there was no seed to help out.
My mind wandered and slowly my tired body started to fade with it. I started what was now the familiar dream, all about flying. My body skimmed the surface of Lake Como and then rocketed toward the mountain that towered behind our villa, Monte Legnone, as the Italians called it. Dad said that all the tunnels led there, that it was the perfect place to hide our training facilities.
For some reason I woke up just as I got a better view of snow lingering on the mountain’s highest peak. My eyes opened and I wasn’t sure if it was a dream or not, but I felt like I was flying. Not flying, floating. Panic made my chest seize as I wondered if I’d used my gift in my sleep. I looked around and saw that it wasn’t just me flying. I was still on my top bunk, but the bunk was floating in the air. It had detached soundlessly from the bottom one.
I looked back to where the bed used to be and Roy was still snoring away. But a flicker of light caught my eyes and my gaze snapped that way. It was Xander. He had a small flashlight held under his chin, throwing light up his face, making him look like a ghoul.
For the second time that day, I used my gift to do something I probably shouldn’t have. After taking control of my bed and setting in on the ground, I focused my attention on Xander, who was now making silly faces with his stupid flashlight. Something inside me snapped and I used my mind to throw him back against the wall with a thud. He was pinned there like a human-sized insect that had just splatted against a car windshield. To make sure he didn’t make a sound, I locked his mouth shut too.
I felt the rush of power flood through my mind and then down to my arms and legs, filling my chest and resting in the pit of my stomach. Because of everything that had happened since, it seemed like ages since Xander had tried to mess with me during the trials. That thought, along with how I’d seen Mom, made me angry, like I wanted to do something, anything, to take the pain away.
“You think this is a game?” I hissed, moving closer, talking slowly. “You have no idea. You don’t even know why they brought us here.” I growled under my breath. “For my whole life bullies like you messed with me, told me I was nothing, shoved me into lockers and ripped my book bag out of my hands. But not anymore. You mess with me again and I’ll—”
“You’re hurting him,” came Roy’s voice. I hadn’t even noticed that he was awake. When I turned to glare at him, I saw that the twins were up too. One of them flicked on the lights. They looked more curious than concerned.
“He’d done messing with us,” I said, trying to retake control of the situation.
“Let him go, Benjamin,” Roy said, getting out of bed and walking toward me.
I shook my head. I wanted to hurt Xander, put him in his place, punish him for every other kid he’d probably bullied and for all the kids who’d bullied me. But when I looked back at Xander and saw the look of fear in his eyes, the same look I’d seen in my mother’s eyes, the wall of anger came down. I eased him onto the bed and I sat on the ground.
Roy sat down next to me.
“You okay?”
I nodded, wanting to go back to my dad. Roy patted me on the back.
“What did you mean when you said he didn’t know why we were here?” asked Lily, she and Jasmine bringing over their comforters and laying them on the floor, taking a seat across from me.
I shook my head, angry at myself for opening my big fat mouth. “It doesn’t matter.”
“Come on, we know something’s going on,” Jasmine said. “We’re not dumb, you know.”
Even though I wanted to tell them, I couldn’t. Dad would be really mad. I turned the question back.
“What do you think is going on?” I asked.
Lily and Jasmine looked at each other and then shrugged at exactly the same time. Lily said, “I think there are people on the other side who are looking for us.” Roy nodded his agreement.
It surprised me that she was so close to the truth. I wanted to know what else they thought.
“And why would they do that?”
Jasmine answered this time. “Who wouldn’t want their hands on us? I mean, come on, a bunch of kids with powers. I’ll bet people would pay big money for us.”
“Like who?” I asked, realizing that the money thing had never entered my mind. Maybe they were right.
“I don’t know, like gangsters, drug lords or bad governments?” Jasmine said. If the thought of those kinds of people getting their hands on her and her sister frightened her, she didn’t show it.
“Doesn’t that scare you?”
Again the simultaneous shrug from the sisters followed by Lily saying, “We know how to take care of ourselves.”
We weren’t supposed to talk about our pasts, but suddenly I wanted to know everything about my roommates. The way the twins acted reminded me of a pair of black widows, sneaky and deadly but with the innocent faces of dolls.
“Where did you guys come from?” I asked.
Lily answered. “We’re from Los Angeles. Our dad’s a cardiac surgeon, you know, he operates on hearts. Our house is in Malibu and we’ve always gone to private school. Our mom died when we were little, and Dad tries his best, but he’s never home. He misses mom and tries not to let it show that working all the time is his way of covering up the fact that he misses her.”
There was matching sadness in both of their eyes and Jasmine continued the story. “We get good grades in school, never get in trouble, so Dad lets us stay at home on the weekends when he’s on-call at the hospital.” The twins grinned. “Not too long after we found out about our gifts, we got bored taking things from kids at school, so we decided to do something a little more…fun.”
In my mind, stealing was bad enough. I couldn’t imagine what fun was to the twins.
“The first time we took a cab by ourselves the driver didn’t want to take us. But after we promised to double his fare, he was happy to do it.”
Lily cut in, but you could barely tell it was the other speaking. “That first time we didn’t go far, just down to the docks in San Pedro. The driver didn’t want to drop us off, but we gave him a big tip and he left us.”
“Why did you go there?” Roy asked, as entranced by the story as I was.
Again the mirrored shrugs. “We’d seen something in the news about drugs coming into San Pedro on boats,” Jasmine said, again not showing a hint of emotion that maybe ten-year-olds shouldn’t be doing that kind of thing. “We thought that taking a look might be cool, but what happened next was even better.”
Lily continued. “At first we just sneaked around, sticking to the shadows, trying to find anything. What we found was a boat that was unloading fish. That seemed boring until the guy buying all the stinky fish handed over a stack of money and the captain gave the guy a navy blue backpack. We waited until the buyer put the backpack in his car and then we floated the bag back to where we were hiding and looked inside.”
Jasmine grinned. “There was a gun and four sealed bricks of white stuff. Definitely drugs.”
“You didn’t keep it, did you?” Roy asked, like he was watching a cop show on TV.
“No,” said Lily. “That time we put it back. But when we started to visit South Central…”
“Isn’t that where all the gangs are?” I asked.
Lily nodded. “They don’t mess with little girls though. We were careful and had fun taking their money and helped some of them get caught by the cops. Not a bad way to spend a night out.”
These girls really thought it was a game, but at the same time, they’d put themselves at risk by doing what they’d done. They were just like black widow spiders, or maybe some kind of jungle cat, calm on the sneak attack.
“What about you, Roy?” Jasmine asked. “What did you do for fun back in Texas?”<
br />
“How did you know I was from Texas?”
Both of the twins gave him that look like “Come on, dude.”
Roy said, “I don’t know, nothing as dangerous as you two. I used to help my dad train horses, and I’ve started riding in some rodeos.”
“You don’t think that’s dangerous?” blurted Lily. “You could get killed!”
Suddenly the craziness of the moment made us all laugh, at least, everyone except for Xander, who was just sitting on his bunk flipping his quarter. Here we were, ten-year-old kids, talking about doing stupid stuff that could kill us. It made me realize that, whether it had happened on purpose or not, we’d each prepared ourselves for what we were about to face.
As the giggling died down, Jasmine said, “I’ll bet the adults would be mad if they knew we were talking about this stuff.”
“Yeah,” said Lily. “What’s up with the stupid rules anyway? Don’t they know that the way to get kids to bond is to just let them do it?”
They were right, of course. The more you knew about someone, especially the good stuff, the more you cared for them and wanted them around. It made me want to share my past, but just as I opened my mouth, Xander spoke up for the first time.
“They killed my parents,” he said, shuffling over and taking a seat, completing our circle.
“What?” asked Roy. “Your parents are dead?”
Xander nodded slowly. “Kennedy found me in an orphanage. Nobody wanted me after what happened.” He turned his quarter over and over again between his fingers like I’d seen magicians do on TV.
“Who killed them?” Lily asked, the mood of the room now thick with concern.
Xander didn’t look up. “The same people who want all of us.” My heart almost stopped. “That’s why we’re here.”
“We’re here to train, to learn how to control our gifts,” said Jasmine, now holding her sister’s hand.
Xander shook his head. “We’re here to train, but it’s not for that.” I inhaled, hoping he wasn’t going to say what I wished he wouldn’t. But he looked up at me, not with hate or sadness, just the blank look of someone who didn’t care. Without a hint of anything but flat truth he said, “We’re here because they want to get us ready for war.”