Lightning Lost

by Miranda Hardy

  We see a sign stating we are nearing Chassahowitzka Wildlife Refuge. We’ve reached the mid-west coast of Florida, and dock in Homosassa Bay. The rain slows to a soft drizzle, but we are already soaked.

  “Do you have any money?” Aunt Mirela asks Emilian.

  He reaches into his pockets, pulls out his wallet, and hands it to his mom. He then searches through a container and finds a windbreaker to cover his bare chest.

  Vadoma jumps onto the dock and ties the boat up. “Let’s go, then.”

  “Where?” I ask.

  Aunt Mirela points to a diner across the street. “Let’s dry off in that diner. We need to get out of this rain and figure out where to head.”

  “Can’t you stop it for five minutes?” Emilian complains.

  “We need to regroup here. Get our shit together and find out how we are going to get anywhere.” Vadoma leads the way across the street. We all follow.

  The fresh roasted coffee invades our senses when we step into the diner. The sizzle of eggs frying on the grill makes my mouth water.

  “Get caught in a storm?” the waitress asks.

  “Something like that.” Vadoma smiles.

  “This way.” The waitress seats us in a booth. “Do you want coffee?”

  Vadoma, Aunt Mirela, and Emilian nod.

  “Can I have some water, please?” I ask.

  She turns to leave.

  “How much money is in there?” Vadoma asks. “Do we have enough to buy bus tickets?”

  Aunt Mirela places two twenties on the table and hands Emilian back his wallet. “Not likely.”

  “I’m going to the bathroom,” I say. The rain pelts the windows next to us.

  Emilian groans. Exhaustion lines his face and he places his head down on his arm.

  Another waitress passes, looking at me from head to toe. I want to slap her disapproving face. It reminds me not to judge others so harshly by appearances. You never know what someone may be going through in life.

  The bathroom light flickers over the sink. I look like a drowned rat. Using paper towels, I wring my hair out into the sink. There’s not much I can do for the circles around my eye or the purple bruise on my cheek. I take a moment to breathe, clear my head, and concentrate on a more touching moment in my life. I wish Colin were here to help.

  Focus, Elysia. Dad’s voice makes its way into my head. You aren’t doing anyone favors by allowing your emotions to control your gift.

  “Fine, Dad.” I say to no one.

  After some controlled deep breaths, the rain stops.

  Returning to the booth, I see the steaming cups of coffee and my water, but Vadoma’s missing.

  “Where’s Vadoma?” I scoot next to Emilian.

  Aunt Mirela points outside at a payphone. “She’s calling a friend for help, because we are out of options.”

  Vadoma returns and slides into the booth across from me; her eyes are glossy. “I didn’t know whom else to call,” she frowns.

  “Who did you call, Vadoma?” I ask.

  “Kyle.”

  Chapter 4

  “Who’s going to say what we’re all thinking here?” Emilian asks.

  Thunder rattles above us as we wait outside the diner, but the rain stays away.

  “I don’t think we’re all thinking the same thing,” Vadoma says. She paces the sidewalk.

  “You’re controlling your emotions,” Aunt Mirela rubs my back. “That’s good.”

  Emilian combs his fingers through his hair, making it stand in a mess on top of his head. “You called the guy whose mom was killed by Colin and his dad killed—”

  “Emilian!” Aunt Mirela cuts him off. “That’s enough. No use in bringing up the things we all know. There’s nothing we can do about it now.”

  “Why did you call him? He will probably show up with a gun and kill us all.” Emilian’s gaze follows Vadoma.

  “Look!” Vadoma kneels in front of Emilian. “We have no money. We have no ride. Our clothes make us look like a raggedy bunch of beggars. The Hunters, who now may have someone in their arsenal that’s able to find us within hours, are tracking us. So even if Kyle shows up with an AK-47 and hoses us down, we’d still be better off than we are now.”

  Bile rises in my throat thinking about them having Nadya. Her gift can track us in little time, especially since she knows us so well, but the Hunters wouldn’t have known that when they stormed the beach. The Hunters know what I’m capable of, but somehow they knew we were powerless at that exact moment.

  Emilian clenches his jaw. He leans back against the bench, looking up at the gray sky.

  Before I can voice my concerns, a large, black SUV pulls up in front of us. My breath catches when Kyle exits. His wheat-colored hair is combed back and less wild-looking than the last time I saw him. My heartbeat races. He pulls off his shades to reveal his topaz eyes.

  Vadoma stands in front of his vehicle. The color drains from her face. “Thank you for coming.”

  “You look like shit,” Kyle says. “Werewolves?”

  Vadoma nods and walks to him, flinging herself into his unopened arms. His forehead furrows. He unfolds his arms and wraps them around her; his face turns crimson.

  Kyle’s gaze catches mine. His eyes glisten. He mouths ‘hi’ to me.

  I mouth ‘I’m sorry’. Tears well and thunder cracks above us.

  Everyone looks at the sky, and then at me.

  Vadoma pulls out of Kyle’s arms, and I see a vulnerability I’ve never seen in her before. Even when she hugged Bo on the island, she was solid and foreboding. Here she looks young and scared. She wipes her eyes.

  “We need to go. We’ve been here too long.” Vadoma sniffles. “Kyle, this is Emilian, our cousin. You know my Aunt Mirela and Elysia.”

  Kyle nods at Emilian and Aunt Mirela.

  “Are you okay?” he asks me.

  I shake my head. The urge to run into his arms as Vadoma had bubbles inside me. He shouldn’t be the one who asks if I’m okay. It should be me asking him.

  “Are you going to tell me what’s going on?” Kyle’s eyebrow rises. “Where’s everyone else?”

  Vadoma stares at our exchange. We’ve never talked about Kyle since the day at the hospital when I asked where he was. “In the car,” she says.

  Vadoma and I reach for the front passenger door at the same time. Vadoma’s eyes widen. I pull back and get into the back seat after Aunt Mirela. Emilian gets in on the other side, behind Kyle. Fresh leather, mixed with the new car scent greets us. It’s a shame our dingy bodies may taint the interior.

  “New?” Vadoma asks.

  “Just bought it.” Kyle starts the engine. “Where are we going?”

  Vadoma pulls out a yellow piece of paper. “We need to get to Atlanta.”

  “You shouldn’t be coming with us, Kyle. This isn’t your war.” Aunt Mirela scoots up, looking over the front seat at the paper in Vadoma’s hand. “Can I see that?”

  “Can you drop us at the bus station and maybe buy us tickets?” Vadoma’s voice cracks. “I don’t want you to get any more involved with this than you have.”

  “What’s the address?” Kyle punches some keys on his navigation system.

  “Kyle,” Vadoma touches his hand. “Bus station.”

  “Do you want to continue wasting time or get to the destination as quickly as possible?” Kyle asks. “You all need my help and I’m here to give it. I’ll get you there.”

  Vadoma curves her hand around his and squeezes. “Thank you.”

  Aunt Mirela reads the number and street address to him. “Gildi Archord? She has two children. Hedji and Tamas. And the address. That’s it. Do you know who that is?”

  “No, but we are about to find out.” Vadoma pulls the visor down and looks into the mirror. Our eyes meet for a moment. She looks back at her image and frowns. “Is there any way we can stop and freshen up at some point?”

  “My thoughts exactly.” Emilian leans to his side, places his hurt hand in his lap, and closes his ey
es. “We are going to stink up his new car.”

  “Let’s get a few hours north. It’s harder for Nadya to find us when we’re on the move,” Aunt Mirela says. She chokes up. “If she’s still…”

  I rub her back. “She is,” I recite the instinctive comforting response, but I’m not sure if Nadya made it or not.

  “I think it’s time for you to tell me what’s going on,” Kyle says, as he pulls onto the road. “What are we headed into?”

  Vadoma tells him about the last day and how the Hunters found us; what happened with our powers, and where we’ve been living the last six months. I drift in and out of sleep as the vibrations from the window soothe my aching head.

  Car doors open and the engine hums.

  “Let her sleep. I’ll stay here,” Kyle whispers.

  “Are you sure?” Vadoma asks.

  “Here, take my card and get what you need,” Kyle says.

  I keep my eyes closed, hoping to lull my senses back into the dark abyss they woke from.

  “Thank you, Kyle,” Vadoma says.

  Two car doors shut and silence fills the space until the hatch opens. Kyle rummages around and then closes it. My door opens, he covers me with a blanket, bringing warmth to my cold skin. I breathe in a grassy scent. My eyes flutter open. “Thank you.” I sit up and look at the parking lot of a discount shopping center.

  “I didn’t mean to wake you,” Kyle says. “You looked cold.”

  I scoot over and pat the empty seat. “I don’t even know why you’re being nice to me. Why are you helping us after all that happened?”

  “I’ve done a lot of thinking over the last several months.” Kyle pauses. “Mom always had a soothing nature about her. She always made me feel better, even after a rough day at school or work, or when Dad gave me a hard time. She also calmed him down, too. He’d be angry one second and completely tranquil the next. I asked her about it once. She said it was a gift. It wasn’t a gift. It was a curse, and she died because of it.”

  Colin had said she could manipulate thoughts. “I know.” I run my fingers over the plush leather seat.

  “When Dad became obsessed with hunting the werewolves, he wasn’t the same father to me. Without Mom there to calm him, he became an overbearing tyrant. I wonder what she saw in him at all.” His fingers twitch on the seat. I want to pat his hand, but I’m afraid to. “He would have killed Colin and any one on that beach to get to him.”

  “I’m sorry, Kyle. I’m so sorry about what happened,” I look into his dull blue eyes.

  “Don’t.” He moves his hand over mine. “I’ve forgiven you for…”

  “Aren’t you afraid of me? Mad at me?”

  “No. I’m not.” His mouth sets into a hard line.

  “Why?” I bang against his chest.

  He pulls me into his chest and rocks me as I cry. “Shh.”

  “I lost control.” It starts raining. “I’ve killed so many people because I couldn’t control my emotions.” Thoughts of storms, hurricanes, and blizzards form in my mind. Kyle’s dad was the first man I struck with lightning, but many others have died because of me.

  “Elysia, I didn’t mean to upset you. It’s not your fault. You were born with this curse, just as Mom was. I won’t let what happened to her happen to you,” Kyle moves his hand down my hair.

  I breathe deeply, trying to reign in my emotions. I back away from him, breaking our closeness. “I’m sorry. I’ve been losing it a lot lately. I hate that. Makes me feel weak.”

  He opens his hand and balls it into a fist, as he pulls away from me. “It feels strange being here with you. I didn’t think I’d ever see you again. I was shocked when Vadoma called me.”

  The rain stops.

  He points to the sky, and raises his eyebrows.

  “Yeah, my emotions have calmed,” I say. “Are you freaked out?”

  “A little. I’m not sure I can get used to that. I guess they always know what kind of mood you’re in.” He half-smiles.

  “What have you been doing the last six months? Have you seen Roger and Abby?” I wipe my face off with the blanket he gave me. “I left without saying good bye. I’m sure they hate me.”

  “Roger said to tell you hello. I was at the diner when Vadoma called. I told him you had a family emergency and had to leave the country. He was upset you didn’t tell him yourself, but he understands. He’s happy he no longer has to pay Colin and his friends.” He shifts in the seat to face me.

  “You’re still working there?”

  He shrugs. “I don’t have much else to do and I enjoy it.”

  “You’re driving an expensive SUV and you’re still working at the diner?”

  “Dad had a trust for me. I sold his house and moved closer in town. I prefer the small town feel, rather than the coast. The stars are nicer away from the city lights.”

  My ears start ringing and an empty feeling sinks in my stomach. Like a rubber band snapping back after it’s stretched, I lose the connection to nature again.

  Chapter 5

  “We need to leave.” A sinking feeling burrows into my chest.

  Kyle reaches for my hand again and I pull away. “What’s wrong?”

  “I’ve lost it again.”

  “Your power?” A light flickers in his eyes as recognition dawns on his face. He gets out of the backseat; he surveys the parking lot and reaches into the glove box, pulling out a gun that he tucks into the back of his jeans.

  I pace next to the SUV, waiting for Aunt Mirela, Emilian, and Vadoma to come out. If I felt the break, I know they did, too. “Did you name it, yet?”

  “What?” Kyle watches the shopping center entrance.

  “Your SUV. Did you give it a name?” My mind buzzes with senseless questions to keep the silence from causing me to break apart into a million pieces. “People name their vehicles all the time. Dad used to call his cheap red Saturn ‘Little Pepe’.”

  Kyle smirks. “I didn’t, but feel free to name it yourself.”

  Emilian emerges first. They race to us, bags in their hands. Emilian may be tall and lanky, but he runs faster than any of us.

  “They’re coming.” I open the back door and the front passenger door. Kyle jogs around and gets behind the wheel.

  “Did you feel it?” Emilian’s brows rise.

  I nod. “Get in.”

  “Can you sit in the middle?” he asks, looking back at his mother. I’d forgotten his strained relationship with her. In the last six months, he has avoided her whenever possible. The only time Aunt Mirela talks to him is either to chastise him or tell him to do something.

  Emilian scoots all the way across the back seat, and I slid in next to him. Once we are in, Kyle backs out and floors it out of the shopping center. He places the gun in the center console. Vadoma stares at it. “I suppose you didn’t bring any others, did you?”

  “Only the one. Always keep it in the car. Didn’t know we’d need an arsenal.” Kyle races down the road, passing in other lanes when he needs to.

  “How’d they find us here?” Emilian ask. “And at the island?”

  Aunt Mirela backs against the seat, tilts her head, and looks at the ceiling. “Who is this Gildi person and why is Bo having us track her down?”

  “All I know is dear old Grandfather has been trying to research the curse and how Lightning Struck there is supposed to stop it.” Vadoma points her thumb at me. “I’m assuming this woman has something to do with it. But the Hunters seem to be one step ahead of us and it’s really pissing me off.”

  “When we were on the island we lost our powers, for what, two or three hours before they showed up?” I inch forward.

  “They showed up close to three hours after we lost them,” Emilian says.

  “Do you think they will catch up to us?” Vadoma asks.

  “We’re moving now and unless they know where we’re headed, we should get our powers back once we are out of range, right?” Trying to analyze this makes my head pound. “You didn’t happen to get a pain
reliever in the store, did you?”

  Vadoma goes through the bags and pulls out a bottle of aspirin. “Got you covered. Also, bought us some new clothes, but we’ll have to wait to change.”

  “Here.” Aunt Mirela hands me a water bottle.

  “Thanks.” I gulp two pills down.

  “I hope you’re right about getting our powers back the farther we go,” Aunt Mirela says. “I wish I knew how they did it. How could they block us all like that?”

  The cool air from the vents hits me straight in the face. I lean back and pull the cover that fell on the floor up over me. Emilian cracks open a box of gummy bears and hands me the orange ones. He knows they are my favorite. Whenever he would go to the mainland on grocery duty, he’d always buy a box and save all the orange ones for me. I smile and lean on his shoulder.

  We remain silent for an hour, with the occasional stiff voice of the GPS chiming in to tell us where to turn. Then, our powers return. Energy surges within me.

  “Feel that?” Vadoma asks.

  “Yes, thank goodness.” Aunt Mirela sighs and leans against the door with her eyes closed.

  “What?” Kyle asks.

  “Our powers have returned,” Vadoma says. “It took an hour.”

  “I feel like a Yo-Yo.” Aunt Mirela rubs her forehead, and holds out her hand. “Can I have a couple pain killers, please?”

  We drive straight through all day, only stopping at one drive-thru for food around 2PM. Every time we stop for gas we all get out and stretch our legs. Mine feel like putty. Emilian, Aunt Mirela, and I nod off throughout the day. Vadoma stays awake, fiddling with the radio. Around 5PM, we drive through Atlanta, reaching the Sandy Springs. All of us wake and watch our surroundings.

  “Where is this place?” Emilian asks.

  “In 100 feet, turn right,” the GPS answers.

  I giggle.

  “It’s a campground.” Kyle pulls past a brown camping sign.

  “That figures,” Aunt Mirela says. “She’s certainly Roma. Always on the move. If she’s not here, I’ll scream.”

  “If she’s not here, we’re out of options,” Vadoma says more to herself than to the group.