Secrets: The Hero Chronicles (Volume 1)

by Mettey, Tim

  I looked down beside the bed, and my lamp was shattered into hundreds of tiny pieces.

  “Lie still and let me check your arm.”

  The stinging feeling was a gash from hitting the lamp. The warm sensation was blood running down my arm. She held my arm tight, picking the pieces of the lamp out of the cut.

  “Doesn’t look like you need stitches. Now you stay still until I get something to clean this cut.”

  I watched Cora glide out of the room. It was 10:00 p.m. I sat up.

  “Where do you think you’re going? I have to clean it out,” Cora said, coming back in holding a first aid kit.

  “It’s fine. I have to be somewhere.”

  “No, you don’t. That cut needs cleaning and it’s a school night.”

  “Cora, please understand. I have something very important to do. I have to be somewhere. May I go?”

  “Does this have to do with a certain girl that wasn’t speaking to you?”

  “Yes, it does.”

  “Okay, I will still need to clean this first and then you may go.” She quickly cleaned the cuts and put a bandage on it.

  “Okay, Nicholas, you’re all set, but please don’t be too late.”

  I was going to have to run fast; it was already 10:15.

  “Nicholas, one more thing. We are going to have a talk about those dreams because there’s something I need to tell you about them. Also take the truck tonight. I don’t want you to be late.”

  “Thanks, Cora, and yes, we will talk.”

  I ran down the stairs and grabbed the keys off the kitchen table. The rain had stopped, but I could still hear and see the distant thunder and lightning. The humid spring air formed a thick fog, making it hard to see. Luckily our truck had fog lamps. Without them, it would have been faster to run than to drive in this fog. The drive took longer than usual, which gave me time to think about what I was going to say to Elle. I parked a couple of houses down from hers.

  All of the lights were off in her house, making it invisible in the fog. I walked to the back of the house, ducking under each window just in case her parents were still up. I saw some light cutting through the fog—a light from her room. The window was open. I maneuvered my body through the small opening and landed quietly in her room. The familiar smell of vanilla was in the air and it calmed my nerves.

  I turned to see that none of her lights were on, just a nightlight by her bed. That was the light I had seen from the backyard. She was sitting in her round chair in the corner of her room. She was wearing pink pajamas and a pair of fuzzy purple socks. I wanted to tease her about her socks but held back because I was sure this wasn’t the time for that. Even in her pajamas she was still breathtaking. Her hair was pulled back with two sticks that looked like fancy painted chopsticks, holding it up in a bun. She also was wearing her glasses. I had only seen her in glasses one other time.

  I walked slowly to her, but she didn’t look up. What was I supposed to do? She sat still, never making any movements or acknowledging my presence. I wanted to say something, but I was not sure what to say or do to make this better. I knew that I had to make her understand everything, but this was not the time to do that. She needed more time to deal with everything. She would speak to me when she was ready, and I was prepared to wait. I sat down next to the chair and leaned my head against it. Time moved fast, even in the silence of her room.

  She stood up after two hours and walked to her bed. I stood up quickly. She got into bed and looked at me. Her eyes told me it was time to go.

  “Can I come back tomorrow night?” My heart pounded, anticipating her answer. It seemed like an eternity before she nodded yes.

  “Goodnight, Elle, and thank you for letting me come over.” I pulled myself up through the open window.

  The next night was exactly like the first—mostly just sitting in silence. I was happy being near her, even if we didn’t talk. If this was how it was going to be, I would happily accept it just so I could be around her. Cora didn’t stop me from going to Elle’s house, and she never brought up my dreams either.

  I arrived at Elle’s house at 10:30 on Thursday night. Her parents were still up watching TV, so I took more time sneaking around the windows before sliding down through her open window.

  “Why did you keep those secrets from me?”

  I spun around, surprised to see Elle right in front of me instead of in her chair. All of her lights were on, and she was still dressed in the clothes she had worn to school. She had been crying.

  “Nicholas, before you answer me, you’d better tell me the truth from now on because you have only one more chance.” She sat down on the edge of her bed.

  “Please, Elle, I know that there are going to be parts that you will want to ask questions about, but you have to let me tell you everything first.”

  “Okay,” she said.

  “Before I start, my football injury was fake.” I quickly continued before she could respond. “When we were at the restaurant, someone recognized me. It was Tina, out of all the people to see me. Tina McBride was one of the people that I pulled out of our collapsing school during the 10-10 Earthquake. When she saw me, of course she wanted to talk to me, but all I was trying to do was escape so that my secret would stay hidden. You see, for the last five and a half years I have been taught to avoid being the center of attention, taught to blend in. That is why I had to fake my injury, because I was getting too much attention on the field. You may know the part of my past that everyone seems to think they know, but I’m going to tell you what really happened that day during the earthquake. I have never told anybody this, not even my Aunt Cora.

  “I was in fifth grade. It was October 10th, the day the earthquake struck the New Madrid Fault Line. Everyone remembers where they were when it happened. A couple of students and I had just been called in from recess to Ms. Rush’s class when the quake hit. There was a loud sound like a train running into a brick wall. I can still hear it now. The walls and windows began to shake, and the ceiling started to fall in. I managed to run through the falling debris and make it outside, but when I realized that Mark, Tina, and Ms. Rush weren’t behind me, I ran back into the collapsing school without thinking.

  “I saw Mark first. He was on the floor with a large cut on his leg from concrete that had fallen on him. I managed to get him up and outside. The earthquake had stopped for a moment, so I ran back in to find the others. I couldn’t tell where the classroom was because of the extreme damage that the quake had done. I yelled for Tina and heard her crying under part of a fallen wall, which was braced up by some desks. I got down on all fours, crawled in, and saw Tina trapped and covered in blood. I pulled her out from under the wall using all of my strength. Her screams sounded like she was dying, but I dragged her free.

  “When I got back outside, some of the teachers and students were coming over toward us. Then the first of the major aftershocks hit. People were yelling and screaming again, but instead of fear, I just thought of Ms. Rush still trapped inside. I started to run back inside, even though everything was still shaking. I think some of the teachers closest to me yelled for me to stop and even tried to stop me, but I went in anyway. This time the partial walls that were still standing were swaying from the aftershock. I was yelling for Ms. Rush, but heard no answer. I spotted her large wooden desk covered by parts of the ceiling. I made my way around the twisted metal and fallen walls. I saw her leg sticking out from under her desk. She must have ducked under it when the earthquake hit. She was lying there motionless. I reached under the desk and pulled her out. I couldn’t drag her over the debris because she would have gotten hurt worse. I didn’t want to leave her to go get help because, with the aftershocks, I was sure she would probably die. So I reached down and picked her up.

  “I’m not sure how I had the strength to do it, but I did. The school began to shake from another aftershock, and I knew it was about to collapse. I moved swiftly through the broken school. Right as we cleared the building, it caved in on
itself. There I stood, holding Ms. Rush in my arms in front of what used to be our school.”

  I paused for a moment to catch my breath, and then I continued. “That morning, there were strange looking lights in the sky, which everyone had been taking pictures of before the earthquake. I later read that those lights are called earthquake lights. They sometimes form before large seismic events. So someone who had been taking pictures of the lights took a photo of me holding Ms. Rush. Cora and I still don’t know who took it, but that picture changed my life and sent me into hiding.

  “No one at the school realized how big the earthquake was at first. I didn’t know yet that while I was getting them out of the school, thousands of other people were dying, including my mom and dad. I spent most of the day waiting at the school for my parents to come and get me, but my Aunt Cora showed up instead.

  “Several news people showed up at my house when they heard what I had done and saw the picture of me holding Ms. Rush. They asked me why I ran into the school, and I answered, ‘Because I had to save them. It was my responsibility.’ I had no idea what I was saying. I was only ten years old. The next thing I knew, the picture was everywhere with the caption, ‘Alex Taylor, the 10-10 Hero.’ Then reporters from all over the world wanted to talk about what happened and about my mom and dad. The world became obsessed with making me a hero, even though thousands of people died and there were hundreds of other heroes out there.

  “A week later, my Aunt Cora woke me up early and took me to visit my parents’ graves, and then we disappeared. She told me that she wanted me to have a normal life and my mom and dad would have wanted that too. So for the past five and a half years, we have moved every year to a different town and school in order to protect me and keep my identity hidden. That’s why I used my middle name and my mom’s maiden name.

  “But things changed when I got here. Everything just clicked for me. All of a sudden, I was good at football and I made actual friends. Then there was you. Cora and I would have normally moved after all of the attention I was getting, but I didn’t want to leave you. I knew that I would eventually have to move away and never see or speak to you again, but I was selfish. I did everything in my power to postpone moving just so I could be with you longer.”

  I wasn’t looking at Elle. I was looking at the ground, scared to look up. “Elle, I am so sorry for not telling you the truth. You are the last person I would ever want to hurt. You are the reason why I am still here and why I confronted the reporters. I couldn’t imagine not seeing you.” I looked up and her eyes were filled with tears.

  “Nicholas, I am the one who should be sorry. I was the selfish one. The things you have gone through are things I could never have done.”

  “So does this mean you forgive me, Elle?”

  Crying and laughing at the same time, she threw her arms around me.

  FIRST DATE

  CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

  “Cora, I have something to tell you,” I said while getting ready to leave for school.

  “You don’t need to thank me. I knew she would come around. If not, I would have gone over there and straightened her out.” She did a small curtsy.

  “No, it’s not about that. It’s about a secret I have been keeping from you.”

  She looked at me with an expression that said, “Please, I know everything, even if you think it’s a secret.”

  “I have been attacked two times since we’ve been here.”

  Her expression changed to panic. “What do you mean attacked? By Oliver?”

  “No, there’s a truck that has been following me around ever since we moved here. The first attack happened on the practice field, and the other one was outside our house when I was waiting for Eric.”

  She didn’t move. “You mean the fallen tree outside the house?”

  I nodded.

  “Why didn’t you tell me sooner?” she asked.

  I didn’t answer because it was obvious—I didn’t want to leave Elle.

  “We will talk about this later.” She disappeared upstairs.

  What? I just got done telling her that I had been attacked twice, and all she said was, “We will talk about this later”? That seemed to be her answer to everything now.

  **

  Cora still insisted that I should ride different buses to and from school. She said she wanted to make sure that the media didn’t find out where we lived, but I had a feeling it had more to do with the pair of killers, which we were supposed to talk about but never did.

  Another small wrinkle that came up after my impromptu meeting with the press was the amount of mail being sent to the school. I didn’t think about how many letters would flood the school for me. Every day there were thousands. Cora did her best to keep up with them; she tried to answer as many as possible. Superintendent Spears made sure to tell me how much the letters were costing the school. He threatened to make us pay a handling fee, even though just a couple of days before he had been willing to lock down the school with extra staff, security, and police on my behalf. I guess the cost of that was fine, but not extra mail. I told him to call Cora and take it up with her, which he, of course, never did.

  My celebrity status had died down at school. People still wanted to say hi, but it was nothing compared to that first day when the media showed up. Eric was still my biggest fan and campaign manager. Oliver had disappeared. After the fight between the two of us, he vanished into thin air. He was better at hiding than I was.

  Elle and I were still eating under the stairs by her request.

  “Elle, will you go out on a real date with me?”

  “Was our first date not a real one?”

  “Well, I don’t count that one as a date, because I spent the whole time worrying instead of concentrating on you as much as you deserve. This next one will be free of any stress. So how about tonight?”

  “Sounds good, but could I meet you somewhere else besides my house?”

  “Elle, is everything okay?”

  “Everything is great . . . it’s my dad.”

  “Oh, your dad. I bet he’s not my biggest fan right now.”

  She was looking down at a run in the carpet that she was helping along.

  “Elle, say no more. I don’t need to know.”

  “No secrets, Nicholas.” I was hoping that she would keep this secret. I didn’t want to hear how much her dad hated me. “My dad just isn’t sure if I should be spending so much time with someone who has so many secrets.” She hesitated, then looked up and smiled. “But don’t worry about him. I can make up my own mind about who I go out with.” She reached over and squeezed my hand. Her soft warm touch filled me with reassurance.

  “So where do you want me to meet you for our first official date?” she asked, still holding my hands.

  I pulled away so I could regain some composure. “Meet me at 8:30 at Hunters Green Golf Course.”

  “Where?”

  “Hunters Green Golf Course. Do you know where that is?”

  “I do, but this is going to be a date, right?”

  “Yes, Elle, one you won’t forget.”

  **

  I walked over the small hill at Hunters Green Golf Course, which overlooked the clubhouse and the parking lot. The only car in the lot besides my truck was Elle’s little blue car. She was outside leaning against it. It had been a warm April day, but the evening brought a cool breeze. Luckily, there was no rain today. Elle was wearing a white shawl over a pink blouse. Her long flowing skirt danced in the wind. After almost a year of seeing her on a regular basis, I was still in awe of her. She saw me and ran to meet me halfway.

  “Are we allowed to be here?” she said in a hushed voice.

  “Yes, don’t worry. The staff left at 7:00.”

  “Wait, let me guess. Someone’s parents own the place?”

  I laughed. “Yes, Eric’s parents.”

  “For a guy who has only been here for eight months, you sure have a lot of connections,” she replied. I smiled.

 
The stars had started to come out. Elle grabbed my hand and I led her through the course. We walked through a small wooded area toward a large clearing.

  “Where are you taking me, Nicholas?”

  “You’ll see.”

  We walked out of the woods onto the fairway of one of the holes. “Are you taking me out for some late-night putt-putt?”

  I pulled her toward the seventeenth green, where the flag was waving in the breeze.

  “Oh my goodness, Nicholas.” She dropped my hand and went running to the green. Earlier, I had set up a blanket and scattered a dozen candles all over the green. The closer we got to the hole, the brighter the candles seemed to shine. I had taken a couple of daisies and put them in a vase next to the blanket, along with some food and drinks.

  “I can’t believe you did all of this for me.” She walked around to each candle, looking at each one as if they were all different presents waiting to be unwrapped.

  “I wanted to show you how much you mean to me, Elle.” Once I said those words, butterflies filled my stomach.

  “Nicholas, it’s so beautiful.”

  The backside of the seventeenth green sloped down dramatically. Farther past the green was a clearing, which revealed the lake that the course was built around. The moon was reflecting off the lake. I sat down on the blanket. Elle sat down right next to me.

  “The lake is so beautiful. You are so wonderful to do this for me, Nicholas. Just when I think I’ve got you figured out, you do something like this.”

  “Is this a bad thing?”

  “No, absolutely not. This is the nicest thing anyone has ever done for me.” She laid her head on my shoulder.

  “So what’s it like?” she asked.

  “What’s what like?” I whispered back.

  “Being a hero.”

  “Well, I don’t really think of myself as a hero.”

  “Well, you are. Those people would have died if it weren’t for you.”

  “A lot of other people died, and I wasn’t there to save them.”

  She took my hand and turned my head to look into her eyes. “There was nothing you could do about them dying. It was not your fault. Your parents are proud of you. I am sure of that.”