by C. G. Cooper
“That’s where you come in.”
“Me?” Again the weight of the world seemed to be pressing down on my tiny frame.
Sybil nodded. “You may not think you’re ready to lead, but you must. Older generations have had their chance. Now it’s time for children like us to show the world what we have to offer, that we can make a difference.” She reached out and held my hand. “You’ve been given a very special opportunity, Benjamin. You may be the last of your kind. After the early times, there’s only been one other with all four gifts. You are the second. The days and years ahead won’t be easy, but you have to trust in yourself and be surrounded by those who believe in our mission.”
“But I don’t know how to do that! Where do I start? What do I do? I don’t even know what to call us!”
Sybil squeezed my hand. “The last one’s easy.”
It took me a second to understand. When I did, my spirits perked up. “You mean what to call us, the gifted?”
Sybil nodded. “We’ve had many names, but one seems most fitting considering what we’ve been put on Earth to do, to guide and protect mankind, to provide them with knowledge and wisdom when needed, and to help preserve humanity for future generations.”
I waited, my brain working overtime, running through every Latin or Italian word I could remember. It had to be something cool, right, like The Paladin Guard, Protector Magnus, or something?
Sybil looked into my eyes, her gaze twinkling in the fading sunlight, and said, “We are…The Keepers.”
Chapter 20
Clarity
The Keepers. The name cycled through my head, gaining steam, settling in like a long lost friend. It fit. It was right. It was me. I was a Keeper. I knew that now.
When I finally came out of my daze, Sybil was in the same place, watching me with those inquisitive eyes that felt both parts familiar and distant. She was, after all, just a ten year old kid with the abilities of someone much older. Would I ever be that way? Goose prickles assaulted my legs and arms at the thought. I didn’t want to change. Sure, sometimes I wished I was big like Roy or cool like my dad, but more and more I’d come to realize that being normal wasn’t so bad. But that was over for me. I wasn’t normal, far from it actually.
“We should talk to the others,” Sybil suggested, getting up and dusting off her dress.
“What are you going to tell them?” I asked, following her back the way we’d come.
“Not me. You’re going to talk to them.”
“What? Why?” The old panic threatened to slow my steps and turn me around.
“You’re one of them. They’ll listen to you.”
I doubted that. Roy, the twins and even Xander did more talking than I did.
“I don’t know what to say,” I said, shuddering and staring at my feet as they scuffed along the leaf littered rainforest floor.
“Don’t worry, you’ll know.”
“How?”
Sybil shrugged and skipped over a fallen branch. She didn’t look like someone who was going to die.
“You just will. Look, Benjamin, I won’t lie to you, this isn’t going to be easy.”
I snorted out my anxiety. “Which part, the acting the leader thing or the saving the world stuff?”
“All of it. You’ll have moments of complete clarity, like you’ve somehow tapped into all the knowledge in the universe, and the next moment you’ll be left standing alone, blind and lost.”
“Sounds like loads of fun.”
Sybil stopped and I almost ran into her. We locked eyes and she said, “Benjamin, you must have faith. There is more inside you than you’ve ever dreamed. I know how you look up to your parents, but this is your time, not theirs. Don’t forget that, okay?”
I nodded meekly like I’d just been scolded by my English teacher. We walked the rest of the way in silence, well except for Sybil humming a song I didn’t recognize. Too quickly we were back at camp. The others were sitting around the fire when we arrived. Roy spoke up first.
“Everything okay?” he asked.
Sybil smiled and sat down right next to him, even leaning against Roy like she’d known him forever. “Benjamin has something he needs to tell you,” Sybil said.
“What’s going on?” Lily asked.
“Yeah, what happens now?” Jasmine asked.
The words wouldn’t come even though Sybil had promised they would. See, how was I supposed to do anything if I couldn’t even open my mouth and say a few words? Great. Just great. Benjamin, The Failure of the World flops again.
I stared at the fire instead of looking back at my friends. “I…uh, it’s time to go home.”
Sybil nodded her agreement. “It’s time,” she said.
As soon as she said it my brain flipped a switch and I knew what she meant. Like a scene in The Matrix, the world slowed. I watched, completely transfixed, as my companions looked to the canopy above. Jasmine pointed and said, “What’s that noise?”
“It’s a helicopter,” said Roy, standing as if doing so would give him a better view.
The fluttering pounding of helicopter propellers got louder and I knew it was directly overhead. Then came the sound of something falling through the leaves and higher branches of the tall trees overhead. Four figures, all in black jeans and matching t-shirts, dropped down to the ground. Like superheroes in movies, they came down to one knee, heads bowed, even though I knew they didn’t need to.
Sybil grabbed my hand and stood next to me. It was soft and warm, tiny compared to mine. I squeezed it and we shared a sad smile. We both knew what was coming. I tried to pack as much love into my gaze as I could. She was only ten, had only lived a decade on Earth, and yet she was braver than any adult I’d ever met, possibly than I ever would meet. I would remember her forever, my white angel.
“Well, well, looks like we’ve interrupted the kiddy campout,” came the world-famous voice of Jacee Trevane. His companions, three rugged looking men who were probably twice Jacee’s age laughed. “Hello, Benjamin.”
I nodded, the clarity in my brain stilling my nerves, enabling me to meet the pop star’s cocky glare. In that moment I saw what he’d become, a twisted Destructor just like the ones Sybil told me about who’d lived in Ancient Rome. For some reason I felt sorry for him.
“What do you want?” Roy asked, stepping forward, the leader of our small band.
“It’s been a while, Roy. No shotgun this time?” Jacee asked with a smirk.
Roy’s jaw clenched. “We’re not coming with you.”
“I don’t want you anymore. I want her.” Jacee pointed at Sybil.
“You can’t have her,” Roy said, taking another step toward Jacee.
Roy’s size and determination didn’t faze the good looking media mogul.
“How did you find us?” asked Lily, stepping up next to Roy.
“Why don’t you ask Xander,” Jacee replied, crossing his arms over his chest.
The heads of Roy and the twins all whipped around to look at Xander, whose head was downcast, face pale.
“What did you do?” hissed Jasmine.
Xander looked up, pulling his hand out of his pocket and dropping a small square device on the ground. There was a red button in the middle. “I didn’t know you…they said—”
“You lied to us!” screamed Jasmine.
“No! I just, I wouldn’t…” stuttered Xanders, tears coming to his eyes.
It was like déjà vu for me, like I’d seen it all before. My heartbeat in a steady rhythm, not fast, but slow like I’d just woken from a nap. The pieces had already been played. The only thing I could do now was watch.
“Take the mystic up to the chopper,” Jacee said to one of his men, who nodded and approached us. Roy stepped in his path.
“It’s okay, Roy,” said Sybil, letting go of my hand and walking forward. She turned just before she reached the man and said to me, “I believe in you.”
I nodded. There was so much love and hope stuffed into those four little wo
rds.
“It’s good to see someone knows when they’re beat,” Jacee said, throwing a wink to the rest of his crew. “Let’s go, Xander.”
Xander was crying, his quiet sobs shaking his body.
“Oh, come on! Stop being such a baby,” Jacee said. “We’ve got a ride to catch.”
Xander didn’t move, but he did look at Roy, and then the twins, and finally at me. The others stared daggers back, but not me.
“You don’t have to go with him,” I said, the words flowing from my soul as something in the depths of my being told me to forgive him, that it wasn’t his fault. “Stay with us.”
He looked as shocked as the others.
“Okay, enough talk. Either you get on that helicopter or this gets ugly,” growled Jacee. The man holding Sybil took that as a cue and floated skyward, Sybil not saying a word as she went to meet her fate. I knew she would be safe soon.
“You don’t have to go,” I said again to Xander.
“Get over here…now!” screamed Jacee. It sounded more like a temper tantrum than the voice of a collected leader. That’s all he really was, a kid who pretended to be stronger so everyone who looked up to him thought he was mature.
Xander looked at me and said, “No, I’m staying here.”
Jacee actually stomped his foot like a toddler. “I was going to come back for you later,” he said to me, rubbing his hands together, his crew going down in crouches like tigers getting ready to pounce, “but we might as well settle this now.”
There was an awful ripping sound, like a giant tearing the earth open with its massive hands. The ground rumbled and rolled. Without thinking, I came into a hover as I saw Lily fall. Roy helped her up.
“You’re all dead,” Jacee said, the racket of tearing limbs and uprooted trees filling the air around us like the stampede of a thousand elephants.
Jasmine screamed. Roy growled, but I could see the fear in his eyes. Lily cowered against Roy, and Xander kept looking up like the sky was going to fall.
I just floated inches off the ground like nothing was wrong, like the world wasn’t coming apart at the seams. Time slowed. I smelled the moss on trunks of the towering trees. I heard the scampering of tiny animals trying to put as much distance between us and them as possible. I saw each person around our campsite like they were a flickering flame from the fire, life forces facing off against each other.
Without thinking, I floated up and over Roy and the twins, coming to a hovering stop just feet in front of them. I wasn’t scared. I felt every bit of stone, soil and wood around me. It was all mine to control.
A screeching sound cut through the ruckus as an enormous tree split down the middle like a giant banana being peeled. That was Jacee’s doing. I could see him concentrating. His men were waiting for him before they threw their own flying missiles. Half of the tree flew my way, and then the other, Jacee grinning, probably at the look of panic on my companions’ faces.
I saw them coming like someone had just tossed me a cotton ball. Slow and steady they came. It wasn’t hard to stop them in midair, just a twitch of my brain. Jacee’s eyes went wide. He shouldn’t have been surprised; we’d been through this before. If I had to bet, he’d probably been practicing for hours every day on the off chance that we would meet again. Too bad for him that whatever power had given me my gifts had also somehow imbued me with the clarity, focus and control that far surpassed those around me. I understood that now.
As if stopping his weapon wasn’t enough, I then took control of every rock and branch from his team and pinned the three men to the ground.
“Go,” I said, pointing to the sky.
Jacee’s eyes blazed. He couldn’t help but look up. I knew what he was thinking, that I was going to get Sybil. He was wrong.
“Go,” I repeated, ignoring the amazed stares from my friends.
Jacee set his jaw, gave me one last death stare, and shot up into the air, disappearing a moment later through the dense canopy. I released his goons. They didn’t need convincing, following Jacee a split second later.
When the sound of the helicopter faded overhead, and I was sure it was just the five of us, I set every object that had been meant to kill us back on the ground gently, not wanting to disturb the rainforest anymore than we already had.
My feet came to rest on the soft forest floor as I raised my head to meet the eyes of Roy, Lily and Jasmine. I waited for the shock to wear off, along with the wide eyes and open mouths. Jasmine was mumbling something I couldn’t hear, and Lily was hiding behind Roy, like I was the bad guy. It was quiet for the first time since we’d entered the rainforest.
Xander was the first to move, coming around the smoldering fire pit to face me. “Thanks,” he said.
I nodded, and even though he was taller than me, I reached up and put my hand on his shoulder. “I need you, Xander.”
“You do?” Tears sprang to his eyes again, like I’d just told him something he’d never heard before. I could imagine the pain he’d suffered. I saw it on his face.
I nodded. “We’re brothers now. I’m your family. Will you come with us?”
He threw a quick glance at the others, like he was asking me what they would say.
“It’s okay,” I said, just so he could hear. “They’ll come around.”
He nodded slowly, still cowering. “I’d like to come with you,” he said, meeting my eyes with a pleading look of a lost puppy dog. That was the millisecond I realized the power of forgiveness, that everyone deserved a second chance. Love and forgiveness. The thought came to my head like a message from heaven, like the universe was whispering in my ear.
I patted Xander on the shoulder and then turned to face the others.
“We need to go,” I said, the otherworldly clarity waning, returning me to my almost-normal self.
Roy let go of Lily and walked over. He towered above me, but at the moment he didn’t look so big. His eyes scanned my face like he was seeing me for the first time. Then, to my complete surprise, Roy knelt down and looked me in the eye. “Wherever you go, I go.”
Another piece in place. Roy, my first protector, my Praetor. It wasn’t a feeling of power or submission that flowed through my body, it was a grateful glow, the sense of true brotherhood born and bred in warriors and kinfolk alike.
I smiled and placed my hand on Roy’s muscular shoulder. “Thank you.”
Roy nodded and then stood, taking a place next to me like I’d just dubbed him my knight. Two out of four. The twins stood there, identical features except for their respective streaks of colored hair, looks of fright mingled with curiosity.
“You girls coming?” Roy asked, like we were going to the store or something.
They hesitated. I didn’t blame them. Even though my clarity was gone, I could still imagine what they were thinking. Then, after looking at each other, and clasping their hands together, they nodded and joined us.
Chapter 21
Realignment
Roy had us packed and ready to go by the time darkness had reclaimed the sky. The shrieks, barks and growls of animals unseen bid us farewell as we lifted into the sky, once again skimming above the jungle canopy. Roy took the lead and we fanned into sort of a diamond shape with me in the middle. I let my mind wander as we flew, remembering Sybil’s last words, my mom when she left Italy, the tears in Xander’s eyes…
Before I knew it, we were standing on the beach in Manaus, right where we’d departed for our journey into the Amazon rainforest days before. It seemed like light-years to me.
The flight back must have given the twins time to think because the questions came as soon as we stepped off toward our hotel.
“Why did you let Sybil go?” asked Lily.
“She’s going to die…soon,” I said, stepping around a pile of garbage.
“Oh,” she said quietly. “I liked her.”
“She was nice.”
Lily nodded, digesting the news.
“Why couldn’t we take her back to the Heale
rs?” Jasmine asked.
“She didn’t want us to. It was her choice to make, to sacrifice herself so we could get away.”
I’d seen the vision in my head. Sybil wouldn’t even make it back to Jacee’s lair. It was a heart condition, something she’d had since birth. Painless death. Sudden and without warning. She’d be an angel before the next day. I knew I probably should’ve been sad, but I wasn’t. Sybil was special, but she knew her role and she’d played it like The Keepers of old.
“So what do we do now?” Xander asked.
“We go back to Italy,” I said, already imagining the coming storm. There were things to do, plans to assemble, and arrangements to make.
Our things were right where we’d left them in our hotel rooms. Roy called the phone number Rolf had given him. Ten minutes later, a private car whisked us off to the airport. An hour later, we were back in the air, gliding on the metal wings of another luxury jet. I settled in to get some sleep. I knew I’d need it.
+++
Dad looked awful. When he met the two helicopters on the mansion lawn, his smile was strained. The dark bags under his eyes looked worse because of the sagging skin on his face and the week’s worth of facial hair that looked more peppered with gray than I remembered.
“Hey, buddy,” he said, giving me a bear hug. The embrace lingered. I was the one to let go first.
“We need to talk, Dad.”
He cocked his head and stared at me. I wondered if he could tell the difference because that’s how I felt, different.
Dad spoke to the rest of my team, “Why don’t you guys get settled in and then—”
“No, Dad, we need to talk now.”
It took a second before he responded, looking at my four friends who’d joined the conversation. I felt the doubt radiating from Dad, that maybe he should overrule my request and send us to our room. We were kids in his eyes.