“Just try one!” I complained.
Phoenix glared at me but chose a key and shoved it in the opening. When it didn’t turn he tried the next one and the next one. “It’s not on here,” he said, tossing the keys towards me in disgust.
“You didn’t try them all!”
Phoenix rolled his eyes. “I tried all of them but the car keys, but be my guest if you don’t believe me.”
I frowned and pushed him out of the way so I could try them, anyway. A few minutes later, I was just as disappointed as Phoenix.
“Wait a minute! There’s a locked compartment in the desk drawer, and it sounds like there’s something in it. Maybe one of these keys opens that.” I jumped to my feet and yanked open the desk drawer with the secret section.
Phoenix got up and wandered over to Anders’ bookshelf while I was trying keys, his eyes gazing lustfully at Anders’ model car collection. “This one’s crooked,” he said, pointing at the blue and white-striped Shelby Cobra.
“Why do you care? Your whole room is a complete disaster.” I poked another key into the hole and scowled when it didn’t turn.
“But Anders is a neat freak.” Phoenix picked up the car and started fiddling with it.
“So what?”
Phoenix didn’t respond, just poked at the model.
“Don’t break it!” I whisper-shouted as Phoenix held the model up to his ear and shook it.
“So, it was straight yesterday morning, which means he moved it since then.” Phoenix popped open the engine compartment.
I sighed and stared pathetically at the last key on the ring. “Who cares? Maybe he likes to get them down and look at them.”
“Or maybe he hides things in them. Like keys.”
My eyes bugged out as Phoenix fished a key out of the trunk and held it up.
“Holy shit, Phoenix!” I rushed to his side and grabbed the key from him, marveling at it and my usually-clueless brother.
The key turned effortlessly in the hole, and the drawer slid open. Inside was another keyring, and a small handgun. We both gasped, and I reached gingerly around the gun and lifted the keys while Phoenix stared at the handgun.
“Don’t even think about it, Phoenix. You have no idea how to use that. If you try to use it, you’ll probably end up killing somebody.”
“If I try to use it, it’ll be because I want to kill somebody.”
I scowled at his comment, but he didn’t reach for the gun, so I turned my attention back to the access panel. A few seconds later, the lock clicked open.
Phoenix and I both startled at the sound, and my already-revving heart started racing like the engine of one of Anders’ sports cars.
“Let’s do this.” Phoenix came barreling towards me and reached for the handle.
“Wait!” I held out a hand in front of him.
“Wait for what?”
“I don’t know! Let’s just… stop and think for a minute!” Sweat beaded up on my forehead, and my limbs started trembling.
Phoenix glared at me. “What’s there to think about? This is what we came here for.”
“Yeah, but we don’t even know what’s down there! What if it’s a trap? What if Anders catches us? We need a plan!” My voice wobbled.
“We won’t know anything till we open the door and check it out. And how the heck are we supposed to come up with a plan if we have no idea what we’re getting into? We’re just gonna have to think on our feet, bro.”
That might have been Phoenix’s MO, but it certainly wasn’t mine. I always thought everything through a dozen different ways, and the few times I didn’t were the times I got in trouble. But Phoenix was right, this was so out of the ordinary, there was no way to anticipate what might happen when we crossed that threshold. We were just going to have to hope we were smart enough to deal with it.
I took in a deep breath and let it out slowly, staring at Phoenix, and when I was ready, I nodded. He yanked open the door, revealing a wooden ladder descending into blackness.
23
Holy secret passageway, Batman! I stared at the creepy wooden steps that disappeared into a black hole, and the pizza I had for lunch curled up into a greasy ball and backed up into my throat, trying to make a run for it. All of a sudden, going down those stairs was the last thing I wanted to do, even if there was a freaking leprechaun with a pot of gold down there.
I waited a second for my brother to put up another argument, a good enough one that would allow me to back out of this idea without looking like a pussy, but he didn’t say anything else, just waited for me to take the first step off the ledge. Eventually, I sucked in a deep breath and let my feet lead the way into the darkness.
The rickety ladder groaned and creaked under my feet, and the light of Anders’ office was quickly blocked out by my brother’s body behind me. When I reached the bottom, I shone my phone light around till I found a chain dangling from a light bulb. I yanked on it, illuminating a stone-walled room crowded with cardboard boxes and dusty castoffs. The air was cool and damp, and it looked like your typical basement storage area, but I wasn’t fooled for a minute. Anders wouldn’t have gone to so much trouble to hide the keys to a storage room.
There was an old, wooden door in the corner labeled, “Danger: Boiler Room. Keep Out,” so, of course, I headed right for it.
The door was locked, so Griffin started trying keys, and a few seconds later, the lock snicked open. I braced myself for something exciting, but instead, the room had exactly what it said. A large, black boiler took up most of the room, dusty pipes coming off of it in several directions, but the machine sat silent, a leftover relic. I had just about convinced myself that we were wrong, that the prisoners were somewhere else, when Griffin opened a door behind the boiler that I hadn’t even noticed.
He gasped, and I rushed to follow him. Behind the door was another room, but this one didn’t have abandoned junk or outdated HVAC systems, it held jail cells. There were three on each side, six total — four were filled, and the other two were empty. Our mother was in one of them. My heart did a somersault and landed in my stomach.
If I thought it was bad seeing her on TV, it was ten times worse seeing her in real life. In the fuzzy video image, the shape of her face was instantly recognizable, but in person, a decade of stress had aged her into a woman who looked old enough to be our grandmother. Wrinkles puckered the skin around her eyes, and her long, dark hair was dull and streaked with grey. Her body used to be curved in all the right places, but now she looked way too skinny. A deep ache pinched my chest and made my body feel impossibly heavy.
The prisoners came alive at our presence, rising up to stare at us. I expected them to beg for help, but instead, they just looked curious. Shouldn’t they be begging us to help them?
We walked slowly, gawking at them, as we made our way to the cell where our mother was. Memories of her holding us, laughing, her long hair swinging around her face came rushing back like a slideshow — a million images I had forgotten but immediately recognized.
“Mom? It’s me, Griffin, and Phoenix,” my brother said, reaching a hand through the bars to touch her, his voice cracking. She recoiled, and so did Griffin.
“Who are you? I don’t know you.” The sound of her voice quelled any doubt I had about who she was, but her words squashed my hopes for a happy reunion.
“We’re your sons. You’re Stacy Easton,” Griffin said, a pained look on his face.
She shook her head. “I’m Stacy Foster. I don’t have any sons. I’m not married.” Her face got even more twisted with confusion when she said that, and so did mine.
“Yes, you are. You’re married to John Foster. But you changed your name to Easton, and you had me and my brother. You raised us till we were six, then you… disappeared.”
She shook her head, but her eyes told a different story. Something resonated with her but she still didn’t know us. Had she been brainwashed to forget us?
“You look… familiar.” She moved a little closer
, tilting her head to stare at us.
“We look like our father.”
She bit her lip, her eyes darting back and forth between us, and I could practically hear the gears in her head grinding as she tried to make sense of this.
“Why are you in here?” I tried a different tactic.
Her face relaxed as she answered. “I broke the rules. I defied the council.”
“What did you do?”
More confusion.
“Are you a Catalyst or a Conduit?” I knew the answer to that, I could feel the electricity sparking between us, but I wanted to see if she knew.
She smiled. “I’m a Catalyst.”
“And what’s your specialty?”
This one I didn’t know. She’d never revealed her powers to us before.
“Mind control.” Griffin and I exchanged a glance. So that’s where he got it from.
“Do you use mind control in here?” I asked her.
She pinched her eyebrows. “I’m not sure… I think so, but I can’t remember. Everything’s foggy…” She rubbed her forehead.
“Who’s your Conduit?” Griffin asked.
Her face twisted up again. “I… I don’t remember.”
“Where’s Dad, Griffin?” I asked, scanning the other cells. His head jerked around at my question.
There was a door on the other side of the room, and it caught both of our eyes at the same moment.
Griffin reached for her hand again, this time managing to touch her. “Mom… Stacy… we’ll be back in a minute. We’re going to get you out of here, but we need to find the others.”
Griffin headed towards the other door, and I followed him. “Everyone in this room is a Catalyst. Anders must keep them separated from the Conduits so they can’t overpower him.”
Sure enough, the next room held another six cells, four of them filled with Conduits. They started murmuring as soon as we entered. The woman who looked like Lexus was next to our father. She called out to us, but we ignored her and the others for a minute and rushed to him. Like our mother, the last ten years had aged him, but he was still recognizable. He walked up to the bars and tilted his head at us.
“Dad, It’s Griffin and Phoenix. We’re here to help you.” My brother’s eyes pleaded with him to recognize us, but he had the same blank look as our mother, and the knife in my chest twisted deeper.
“Do I know you?” He asked, staring quizzically with crystal grey eyes identical to ours. This was really starting to get annoying.
“We’re your sons, damn it! Why can’t you remember us?” I shook the bars of his cell, frightening him.
Griffin put a hand on my arm. “Phoenix, that’s not helping.”
I turned and scowled at the woman in the next cell. “You did this, didn’t you? You made our parents forget their own children. William said you could wipe memories.”
She backed away from the bars and stared at us, but her face looked guilty. “How do you know William?”
“Through your daughter, Lexus,” Griffin said.
She gasped, and her hazel eyes flicked back and forth between us. “You know Lexus?”
“Yeah, and we’ll take you to her. We’ll help all of you. But you have to give our parents back their memories first.”
Her face fell, and it looked so much like Lexus, it tore my heart into little pieces. “I can’t,” she said.
“Why not?” I growled, and she shirked back.
“Mind control, Phoenix.” Griffin shook his head. “Don’t you get it? Anders uses Renee to wipe their memories so they forget who they are and everything that matters to them. And he uses our parents to make them obey him. That’s why they’re all so… complacent.”
“So we have to convince our parents to set their minds free.”
Griffin nodded.
“Okay, well, let’s start by getting Mom and Dad together. Maybe they’ll recognize each other better. Please tell me one of those keys opens the cell doors.”
Griffin started trying keys while I looked around at the other prisoners, wondering who they were. One woman resembled Jaxson. Was she his mother?
“Yes!” Griffin said when one of the keys opened the lock, and my heart galloped to life. He pushed the door open and grabbed our father.
“Come on, Dad.” He led him into the previous room where our mother waited with the other Catalysts. Their eyes widened when they saw each other, and hope exploded in my chest.
“Yeah, you recognize each other, don’t you? You’re John and Stacy Foster, husband and wife, you’ve just had your memories wiped so you don’t remember. Griff, open Mom’s cell so they can touch each other.”
When the door swung open, our parents walked slowly towards each other, their faces reflecting the same jumble of emotions. Mom reached out a hand, and Dad took it, and the sparks that crackled between them were so strong, I could feel them radiating around them.
“I know you, but can’t I remember you,” my mother whispered, and my father nodded.
“Listen, Anders has been using you to control all these people. If you set them free, everyone can escape, and Renee can restore your memories.”
They tore their eyes apart long enough to glance around at the other prisoners.
“Please! Even if we let them out, they’re still compelled to obey Anders. You have to release them from his power.”
Their eyes met once again, and they slowly nodded at one another. My mother spoke in a soft whisper, “Set them free, John.”
Electricity ignited between them, and the others jolted to life, suddenly aware that they were being held against their will. Their concerned voices echoed off the concrete walls of their cells.
“Griffin, let Renee out.” He dashed back into the other room and opened her cell, then quickly started unlocking all the others.
Renee headed towards a man I didn’t know, but the look on her face told me he was important to her. “Charlie.” She said, smiling, and reached out her hand.
Moments later, the noise level doubled as memories were restored and the prisoners realized what had been done to them.
I knew the minute our parents remembered us. A decade worth of pain and regret flashed across their faces. They rushed towards us, and my mother’s arms embraced me as my father grabbed ahold of Griffin.
In an instant, I was six years old again, and I clung to my mother as tears welled up in my eyes and poured down my cheeks, wetting her shoulder. She was smaller than me now, but her arms pulled me down, crushing me against her. I looked over at my brother and saw the same expression on his face as he hugged our father.
My phone buzzed in my pocket, but I couldn’t let go of my mother long enough to check it. I wasn’t worried, though. We’d accomplished what we came for. We’d found our parents, and all the others.
Suddenly, a gunshot rang out, and Anders’ voice followed it.
24
My stomach twisted in knots as I followed Anders down the hallway, my tennis shoes padding softly while Anders’ dress shoes clicked and clacked on the hard tile. Jaxson was a ways behind me, keeping an eye out. Once Anders had turned the corner towards the cafeteria and his office was out of sight, I hurried to catch up with him.
“Hi, Mr. Grant.” I tried to act friendly and casual.
He whipped his head around, and a smile lit up his face. “Well, hello, Lexus. How’s my star pupil doing today? Are you keeping those boyfriends of yours in line?”
My heart threatened to jump from my throat, and I tried to keep a straight face as I nodded, but I was sure my eyes were bulging. I didn’t think he had any idea what they were up to, but his words freaked me out nonetheless.
“You know, it was obvious from the first day I met you that the three of you had a very special relationship. I’m curious, have you ever tried using your powers with both boys simultaneously?”
His words startled me. “I didn’t know that was even possible.”
Anders chuckled. “Well, I’m not sure it is, but if anyon
e could do it, I’d expect it would be you.” He chucked me under the chin, and I tried not to flinch at the contact.
“You may be our most powerful student, but you still have a lot to learn, Lexus. In fact, shouldn’t you be with Sarah right now, learning about Catalysts?”
I gulped, surprised that he remembered my schedule so well, but I’d prepared a cover story. “Sarah’s not feeling well today, so Mrs. Stein said she could go lie down for a while.”
Anders nodded, a gleam in his eye. “You know, I’d still like to spend some more time watching you work with Conduits. I’m fascinated by your ability to control them without their consent. You truly are remarkable. I don’t have anything I have to do right now. Maybe we can snag a willing Conduit and you can give me a demonstration.”
His words would’ve made me blush with pride and embarrassment a short time ago, but now they soured my stomach. If Anders had kidnapped those other Specials, he probably just wanted to be able to control them better. I had no intention of helping him gain any more power.
“Do you think I inherited it?” I asked instead of answering. Besides distracting him, I really wanted to find out what he knew about my parents. Would he lie to me, or validate what I already knew?
The way Anders cocked his head and contemplated how to answer me, I knew immediately he wasn’t going to be honest.
“I don’t know, Lexus. It is common for children to specialize in the same areas as their parents, but I don’t know anything about your parents. I assume your father is a Catalyst, since your mother is a Normal.”
I nodded, pretending I still believed Jade was my mother. Did he even know that she wasn’t? “Now that I know about Specials, I’m starting to remember some things about him.”
“Oh really? Like what?” Anders’ eyes lit up with curiosity, and I stiffened. Why did he want to know about my father? I felt paralyzed by indecision, worried that any information I divulged would be harmful to my father.
“Nothing big.” I shrugged, playing it off like it was inconsequential, but Anders wasn’t buying it.
“Lexus, what do you know about your father?” His face looked concerned, but I wasn’t sure if it was about me, or about himself. My father said he didn’t know Anders, but what did Anders know about him?
Taking Flight (Teen Paranormal Romance Series) (The Caged Series Book 3) Page 13