by Sarah Carter
“He won’t let me do what I have planned. I think this is for the best and will be fun. Anyway, it should fix the problem. Should. If not, we will tell your dad.”
That makes Lexi grin. “I think that’s a great idea.”
Her mom grabs her into a hug. “We will take care of this. He will be okay. Otherwise we will get him out of there.”
“He has to never find out about us,” Lexi sighs.
“No, he can’t,” her mom agrees. “But we would figure out something for him.”
She nods. “That’s good to know.”
“All right, get us back before your father gets suspicious,” her mom instructs.
“Okay,” Lexi replies. She grabs her mom, and they are gone.
Chapter 12
“Do you have it?” Lexi’s mom asks.
“Here,” Lexi says, handing over a photo.
Her mom looks at it. “So, you think the stepdad was close to Connor’s mother?”
“Yeah,” Lexi answers. “Why else would he take care of Connor all these years?”
“I wonder if he was abusive to his mother.”
Lexi shakes her head. “I have no idea. I don’t want Connor to know I know. So, there’s no way of finding out.”
“Maybe he will confess it while we are doing this,” Lexi’s mom suggests. “We will see.”
“Connor is going to Derrick’s tonight,” Lexi declares. “He shouldn’t be there.”
Nodding, her mom says, “Okay.”
“Are you sure you want to do this?” Lexi asks. “This is a crazy plan.” She knows it’s not a crazy plan. They just went after Maddie’s rapist, and it worked. She can’t believe her mom is doing this. Lexi can’t believe how much her mom and her are alike.
Her mom comes over and grabs her shoulders. “You know what the plan is?”
“Yeah, of course,” Lexi replies. “Are you sure you want to do this?”
“I’m positive,” she answers. “Should we go?”
“Yeah,” Lexi says. “Dad thinks we are going out to dinner?”
With a grin, Lexi mom replies, “Yes, he does. So, let’s go do this. We need to drive to the park, so your dad doesn’t think something is up.”
“Okay, let’s go then.”
They high five each other and leave the house. Fifteen minutes later, Lexi jumps them to Connor’s house. It’s dark out now. Her mom turns to her. “Is Connor home?”
Lexi closes her eyes and concentrates. Finally, she shakes her head. “No, he’s gone.”
Her mom nods. She grabs ahold of Lexi and absorbs some of her energy. Suddenly, she’s not herself anymore. She’s now Connor’s mom. “Are you ready?”
Smiling, Lexi says, “Yeah, totally.”
With a nudge of her mom’s head, Lexi jumps them inside. They sneak down the hallway. The stepdad is standing in the kitchen. Lexi’s mom shoos her aside, and Lexi hides. Lexi’s mom steps in. “I trusted you,” she says.
The stepdad turns around. He drops his beer, and it shatters on the floor. “Oh...oh...oh my god,” he stutters.
Lexi’s mom puts her hands on her hips. “I trusted you. I trusted you to take care of Connor.” Connor’s stepdad is ashen white, and he can’t talk. Walking forward, Lexi’s mom slaps Connor’s stepdad across the face. “How dare you hit my son!?”
“I don’t...” his stepdad starts.
Slapping him again, Lexi’s mom screams, “I KNOW! HOW DARE YOU! YOU PROMISED!”
A snarl comes out Connor’s stepdad. He grabs Lexi’s mom by the arm. “I don’t know who you are.”
In a fast movement, Lexi’s mom twists his arm and slams him against the wall. “You think you can touch me!”
“You know I never touched you,” his stepdad says.
“Then why do you think it’s okay to touch my son!” Lexi’s mom yells. She spins him around and punches him hard in the stomach. He drops. “How does it feel to get punched in the stomach?” She reaches over and grabs his hair. She whips his head back and wraps her hand around his throat. “How does it feel to be out of control?”
The stepdad starts to look scared. “Who are you?”
“The angel of vengeance,” Lexi’s mom snarls. “You will reap what you sow.”
Reaching out, Connor’s stepdad grabs at her mom. Lexi’s mom punches him across the face. He spins and slams to the floor. “Who are you?”
“I told you, vengeance. I’m back from the dead. I’m going to put you in your place.” She kicks him hard in the side. “You touch my son, I touch you.”
“Stop!”
“No!” Her mom screams back. She kicks him again and then drops down and punches him. “You will think twice about touching my son again!”
Connor’s stepdad cowers and folds up into a ball. “Please, stop.”
Grabbing him by the hair again, Lexi’s mom says, “How often did he beg you to stop?”
“I won’t! I won’t hit him again!”
“Why have you?” Lexi’s mom asks. “Why would you hit him?”
His stepdad looks up at her. “It’s what my dad did to me. It toughened me up.”
Lexi’s mom slams his head against the floor. “You don’t seem very tough now. You touch him again and I will break every bone in your body.”
He grabs his head and rolls over. “You’re dead.”
“I obviously can come back and I will! If you ever think of touching my son again, I will kill you. Do you understand me?” She screams.
Shaking his head, Connor’s stepdad stutters, “I won’t. I won’t touch him again.”
“You will treat him like gold,” Lexi’s mom seethes. “You will treat him well.”
“Yes, I won’t hurt him again,” Connor’s dad cries.
She punches him again. “I will come back and do everything you do to him. I promise you that. Angels of vengeance know. I will know if you touch him again. You even think about hurting him and I will come back. I will come back every time!”
His stepdad is crying now. He’s crying hard. “I won’t. I won’t touch him.”
“You better not.”
He looks up at her. “I loved you.”
“You obviously didn’t. You obviously don’t know what love is.”
“I did. I’ve taken care of him.”
Her eyes widen, and her mom looks shocked. “Yeah, I see how well you’ve taken care of him.”
“I was trying to toughen him up,” his stepdad yells. “He needs it.”
“I will hurt you. I will hurt you and destroy your life,” Lexi’s mom seethes. “Trust me. I will watch your every move.”
Nodding, he whimpers, “I get it.”
Lexi’s mom shoves him to the floor. “I will be watching. Be mindful of that.”
“Yes,” Connor’s dad cries, still huddled into a ball on the floor.
“Don’t make me come back,” she instructs harshly. With that, she leaves the kitchen. Lexi’s mom quickly finds her and whispers, “Get us outside.”
Lexi jumps them to the backyard. “Do you think he will listen?” she asks.
Her mom shrugs. “I would think so, but we won’t know for sure. We are going to have to keep an eye on him.” She shifts back into herself and reaches her hand into her pocket and takes something out. She grins and walks over to the kitchen window. Peering inside, Lexi’s mom sticks a tiny dot onto the window. It’s barely visible to the human eye. Sneaking back to Lexi, her mom says, “That’s a camera with microphone. We can monitor him now. I have it set up to my computer.”
“You know how to do that?”
“I know some people who know some people that are good friends,” her mom replies, winking. “Some people who may hide things from your dad. The house is being monitored now. We will know.”
High-fiving her mom, Lexi cheers, “Yes!”
“Now, are you hungry? I’m hungry. Let’s go celebrate.”
Lexi beams. “Mom, have I ever told you you kick ass?”
“Not recently, but I kno
w,” she replies. “Now, let’s go eat something. Doing that makes me hungry.”
“All you can eat Chinese buffet?” Lexi suggests.
“Oh yeah,” her mom draws out. “Egg rolls and fried rice.”
Agreeing, Lexi says, “Yes! Let’s go see how much we can eat and freak people out.”
“Goals,” her mom replies, with a nod of her head.
*********
Lexi awakes to her phone ringing. She clumsily grabs it. It says “Connor.” Quickly, answering it, Lexi says, “Hey, it’s early.”
“Yeah, but I wanted to know if you wanted a ride to school?”
She sits up in bed. “If I wanted a ride?”
“Totally, my stepdad got me a car yesterday,” Connor states.
Her jaw drops. “Your stepdad bought you a car?”
“Yeah, totally weird,” he replies. “But, he did. I have no idea why. Usually he’s an asshole to me. He very well can take it away tomorrow, so yeah, want a ride?”
“Sure,” Lexi answers. “Pick me up in an hour.”
“Sounds perfect to me,” Connor says. “See you in a bit.”
Smiling, Lexi replies, “Yeah, see you in a bit.” She ends the call and holds the phone against her chest. “It worked,” she whispers. “I hope that it really worked. We will have to wait and see.” Smiling even more, Lexi gets out of bed to get ready.
An hour later, Lexi sees a car pull up to the house. She opens the door and steps outside. Connor is in a blue, VW Passat. Happy, Lexi hops down the steps. She swings open the door. “Oh my gosh, this is so cool.”
“It’s no Mustang Shelby,” Connor snorts.
“Shut up,” Lexi squeals. “You have a car. What year is?”
“2014. Almost brand new,” Connor declares, with a huge smile. “Unreal, right?”
She shakes her head. “What prompted this?”
He shrugs. “I have no idea. Like I said, he is usually a major asshole to me. Like major. He will probably take it away tomorrow, but I will live it up until then.”
“Awesome,” Lexi cheers. “Let’s go to school.” Connor smiles and starts down her driveway. “So, this is a cool car.”
“I know,” he agrees. “It will be nice to finally be able to get around.”
“And we aren’t going to be bugged,” Lexi says. “I’m always afraid they will overhear us in my car.”
Connor looks at her. “Then it’s probably better if I drive.”
“That’s what I am thinking,” Lexi says. “We don’t need them to find out.”
With a look of concern, Connor asks, “Did anything weird happen lately?”
“Nope,” Lexi answers. “I really want to catch one of them.”
“But if your powers don’t work, maybe you shouldn’t try to start something,” he suggests. “What if they can do something to you?”
Biting her lip, Lexi shrugs her shoulders. “Wouldn’t they have done something already?” She offers. “I mean, they’ve been around me multiple times. If they were going to do something and could affect my powers, wouldn’t they have tried to get me already?”
“What if they are waiting,” Connor says. “What if they are going to kidnap you?”
“I have a tracking device in me,” Lexi declares. “My dad can find me anywhere in the solar system.”
His jaw drops. “No way. The solar system?”
“And a ways outside of it,” Lexi replies. “We are an alien race.”
“True,” Connor agrees, nodding his head. He smiles. “That’s still crazy, though. I mean, this whole thing still blows my mind. I woke up yesterday thinking maybe I was insane.”
“Well, you are,” she teases. “But no, we are aliens. From a planet called Jiub.”
He shakes his head. “I just still can’t believe it.”
Lexi smiles. “I would show you a ship, but there’s no way for me to get you past security.”
“Where are the ships?”
“We have fifteen large ships and thirty smaller ships,” Lexi replies. “I’m not going to give our alien secrets away. Our largest ship is in Alaska. In the middle of nowhere.”
“How many people can you fit on a ship?” Connor asks.
Shrugging, Lexi says, “I have no idea. Our largest ship can house like a few thousand families.”
“That ship must be massive,” he gasps. “Oh my gosh. Do you have enough space for all your people?”
“If need be,” Lexi replies. “We are trying to build more ships with the materials on Earth. Our population is growing.”
“Where are you building these ships?”
She raises an eyebrow and scoffs, “Why would I tell you that?”
“You can erase my memory.”
Lexi shakes her head. “Most of our people don’t know. I am sure not going to tell a human. It’s a secret.”
“Damn, that’d be cool to know,” Connor snorts. “So, do you think it will turn to war if the humans find out?”
“I am hoping it will be a while before that happens,” Lexi replies. “But, honestly, I am not sure. It may start a war. Humans lash out when there are things that they don’t understand. They lash out at things that scare them. So, what are they going to do if they learn an advanced race of shapeshifters has been living amongst them for hundreds of years?”
This time Connor shakes his head. “I’m not sure. You’ve obviously never done anything.”
“But they very well may blame us for stuff. Who knows? Global warming? They could blame our ships. They could blame us for a lot of stuff.”
“That's true,” Connor agrees.
She shrugs her shoulders. “I guess we will never know until it happens.”
“Well, I found out and am cool about it,” Connor points out. “Maybe other people would be cool.”
Her eyes turn to him and she gives him a look. “Could you imagine Jackie finding out?”
Tilting his head to the side, Connor says, “That’s true. That’s very true.”
“She would freak out and say we were all trying to eat her or something,” Lexi snorts. “There’s no way she wouldn’t lose her mind.”
“That’s a good point.”
“People would see us as a threat,” Lexi replies. “So, we stay in hiding.”
Connor looks over his shoulder to change lanes. “It’s probably a good idea.”
“Yeah.”
He looks in the rearview mirror. “Huh.”
“What?” Lexi asks, turning to him.
“I think that’s the car from Saturday,” Connor says. “Two cars behind us.”
Lexi turns around but tries to hide behind the seat. She notices the car. “Yeah, I think you are right. If it is the same person, they must be watching my house. You just got this car yesterday. How would they know we would be in it?”
“I have an idea,” Connor says. He suddenly makes a right hand turn and goes down a side street. Then he immediately takes a left turn, another right, and then he floors it. They speed down the street. Finally, Connor pulls over into a parking lot. He parks among a few other cars. They duck down and wait. A few seconds later, the car drives past them, slowly. “Try. Try your powers now.”
She does. The car stops suddenly and shuts down. “Let’s go,” Lexi exclaims. She and Connor jump out of the car and race over to the stopped vehicle.
The driver gets out and looks at Lexi. “I would stop if I were you.”
Connor and Lexi slow down. “Why should I?” Lexi counters.
“I know who you are and what you can do,” the driver says. “My name is Yosiv.”
“Great, nice to meet you,” Lexi sarcastically returns. “Now, what do you want?”
“We are watching you,” Yosiv declares.
Lexi waves her hands. “Good for you, but why?”
“We can stop you,” Yosiv says. “We wanted to warn you.”
“How could you stop me?”
Yosiv shuts his door and walks around the car. “We have ours ways. We wanted
to warn you to be careful.”
“I have never once done anything bad with my...abilities,” she whispers the last part. “So, what are you warning me about?”
“You can’t be discovered,” Yosiv says.
“No shit,” Lexi retorts. “Now, who are you?”
He shakes his head. “I can’t tell you.”
“Well, I don’t show my powers openly,” Lexi states. “The other night my life was at stake.”
Looking at Connor, Yosiv nods his head. “He knows now.”
“Are you Neturu?” Lexi gasps. “Did my father send you?”
Yosiv shakes his head. “No, your father knows nothing of us and no we aren’t Neturu.”
“Then who are you?” She emphasizes.
“We are human,” Yosiv says. “We watch over the Neturu.”
Her jaw drops. “You’re human and you know about us? Why haven’t you told anyone?”
“It would do no good,” Yosiv says. “The human race isn't ready for this kind of news.”
“You know, we were just talking about that,” Lexi states, pointing to herself and Connor. “But, how do you know?”
He puts his hands behind his back. “We have known since the beginning. We are around in case something bad happens. If you get out of hand. We can stop the Neturu.”
“How?” Lexi snaps. “We are so beyond advanced compared to the humans. How could you possibly stop us?”
“There are things that can stop you that have nothing to do with technology,” Yosiv says. “Things you don’t know about.”
Lexi laughs. “What? Like kryptonite?” Connor laughs, but Yosiv doesn’t flinch. Lexi’s jaw drops. “You have kryptonite.”
“We have the means to stop you,” Yosiv says.
“Then why don’t you stop us?” Lexi counters. “Why do you let us do what we do?”
Yosiv shakes his head. “You haven’t done anything yet for us to be concerned about.”
“Then why are you following me?” Lexi replies.
“You are special,” Yosiv explains. “You aren’t like the others. You could destroy the planet. Both Neturu and humans.”
Stuttering, Lexi says, “I have never once done anything aggressive. The other night I had a gun pointed at my head. I didn’t even hurt the guy. I definitely didn’t kill him.”