The Riser Saga

by Becca C. Smith

  I could see from his whole demeanor that the thought of Jill hating him was tearing Max apart. He really liked Jill. Jill! It actually made me feel happy, especially after everything Jill had been through with her parents dying and Bill rejecting her. To be honest, I had no idea how Jill would take the news. Max was less than five months old. Talk about an age difference! I knew that was unfair to Max, but Jill was a funny bird to say the least. She might care less, or she might be okay with it. It was impossible to say.

  “I honestly don’t know, Max.”

  The look on his face showed that Max was resolved to his fate either way. He started to leave. “I better go.”

  “Do you want me to tell Jill or do you want to?” I asked.

  Max stopped, but kept his back to me. “You tell her.”

  “Okay,” I said quietly.

  Max walked down the grass street until I could no longer see him.

  I watched him go, not sure of how I was going to tell everyone about this. I knew Elisha was messed up, but this took the cake.

  Poor Max.

  I even felt a little sorry for Eva. Nope. Never mind. I’d have to keep an extra eye on Eva for Bill’s sake. He always saw the best in people and falling in “love” or “like” with a coo-koo-head could cost him his life.

  After a minute or two I made my way back into the house and joined a very depressed looking Jason on the couch. “Nancy still pissed at you?” I asked. I couldn’t help but feel for the guy.

  Jason just sighed in a dramatically exasperated way.

  “She’ll come around, but seriously, what were you thinking inviting Joan to the prom?” I still could not believe he’d do something that stupid.

  “I wasn’t thinking apparently. Joan’s dad is very important…”

  “Yeah, yeah, yeah,” I interrupted what I assumed would be a rambling explanation of why he felt his decision was perfectly logical.

  Jason wasn’t offended that I cut him off. He just slumped even lower on the couch, and I didn’t think that was possible. He practically looked like a turtle with its head tucked into its shell.

  “I have something that will cheer you up, although it really shouldn’t, but I know you too well,” I said. Telling Jason about Max, Eva and Elisha would put him in a great mood, which was kind of horrible if you think about it. But I had grown so used to Jason perking up at all the misery in my life that sometimes it actually made me feel better to see him so excited. At least someone could enjoy the nightmare that was me.

  Jason immediately sat up like an eager puppy.

  See?

  I told him everything Max had revealed to me.

  Jason’s eyes were round with interest and I swear I could see the gears spinning in his head like a couple of out-of-control Ferris wheels.

  Before he could respond verbally there was a knock at the door.

  Vianne yelled from the kitchen, “Could someone get that? George probably forgot his keys again.”

  I jumped up and hurried to the door. George usually came home with a bunch of prototypes from his work that he let Ryan mess with. George was fascinated by Ryan’s brilliance. And seeing how Ryan could take an ordinary invention and turn it into something extraordinary was one of George’s favorite pastimes. I’d have to tell him that Ryan wouldn’t be up for his amusement tonight. Not with that headache.

  I opened the door ready to help George with all his things.

  Not George.

  I couldn’t hide my complete disbelief as I stared into the eyes of my grandfather, Vice President of Population Control, Geoffrey Turner.

  I kind of just froze.

  I mean, it’s not like I hadn’t seen the guy before. But it had been so long, and it was when Roberta died in his arms.

  “Are you going to let us in?” Turner stared down at me with annoyance.

  That’s when I noticed he wasn’t alone.

  A man about six feet tall walked into view.

  Turner introduced him, “This is Dr. Johnson. He’s a specialist I brought for Ryan.”

  I was so relieved I thought my knees would give out. I never thought Turner would bring help, let alone come himself. I guess he took my voice mail more seriously than I thought.

  “Yeah, come in.” Saying those words were foreign to my lips when concerning Gramps. Aside from the fact that Turner repeatedly tried to kill me when we first met, personality-wise, he was also kind of a dick.

  “Where’s Ryan?” Turner asked. To my surprise, he actually sounded concerned.

  “Upstairs in my room. He was sleeping when I left him,” I told the doctor who was now looking at me for a response.

  Doctor Johnson nodded to Turner and left up the stairs.

  I moved to go with him, when Gramps gently touched my arm.

  “Let him do his work. I need to talk to you.”

  Of course he did.

  Always an ulterior motive.

  But maybe it had something to do with my dream of Roberta.

  “You’re not talking to her alone.” Jason had moved his butt off the couch to stand by my side.

  That’s when the thunder of footfalls came rushing down the stairs. Nancy joined me on my other side. “And not without me either.” I smiled at her crazy “Nancy loyalty,” which basically equated to “Mother Bear mode.” Her eyes were slightly red. She had been crying.

  Jason noticed it at the same time and his face fell with guilt. I could tell he just wanted to push me into Gramps and take Nancy into his arms.

  That would have been awkward.

  But Jason did what he always did in situations that were beyond his mental capacity. He ignored it.

  “I don’t have much time, so if you plan on assembling your little gang, I can’t wait for you.”

  Turner moved his way past us into the living room.

  We followed like lame sheep.

  Yeah, we were real badasses.

  After everyone was sitting on the couch, Gramps turned to me and pretty much pretended like no one else was in the room.

  “As much as it pains me to admit it: I need your help,” Turner cringed.

  “Again?” Okay, not so nice, but it was kind of impossible not to be mean around him, trust me!

  Gramps mumbled something unintelligible under his breath, then gave me a hard look. “I’m to be assassinated tomorrow. Is that dire enough for you?”

  Assassinated?

  No one had been assassinated in over a hundred years. What with Age-pro and all, no one wanted to risk getting caught or worse killed. Besides, only a handful of people knew that Turner was evil. The rest of the populous thought he was a hero. Gramps kept the population under control. Little did they know he did it by exterminating the poor and unnoticed. Most people loved him.

  “I’m not behind it, if that’s what you’re thinking.” I suddenly felt under attack. Was he coming here because he thought I was going to kill him? As much as I hated Gramps (and trust me, he killed my mother, I hated him), we had come to a sort of stalemate. He helped me, I let him, but I really didn’t want to help him anymore. I’d had enough of that five months ago and it bit me in the butt. Turner had promised he wouldn’t kill any of the Havenville villagers, but he murdered hundreds of them, just to rescue the twins…

  I shuddered.

  Turner’s nostrils flared. “I know you’re not behind it, that’s why I need your help. I need you to stop the assassin.”

  “How is she supposed to do that?” Nancy interjected with her arms crossed and a scowl on her face.

  Gramps didn’t even acknowledge Nancy. He looked at me intensely. “With your power. If this assassin is who I think it is, she can make anyone have a heart attack by just focusing on them. The kind of energy it takes to do what she does makes a kind of signature, like a rippling in the air. Only you will be able to see it, if you concentrate hard enough. Once you’ve pointed her out, my men will capture her. I assure you, you’ll be perfectly safe.”

  Uh, huh.

  Turner d
idn’t look like he cared either way whether or not I was safe. But I could tell that this assassin meant a lot more to him than just being the intended target. He had history with her.

  Her.

  Obviously a girl with powers like me. But to give someone a heart attack by just looking at them? That sounded terrifying. At least the things I controlled were already dead, I couldn’t kill anyone. Or if I could, I didn’t want to know about it.

  “I guess I can go,” I reluctantly agreed.

  “I’m going too.”

  We all turned around to see Ryan standing there with Dr. Johnson.

  I jumped off the couch and ran to his waiting arms.

  “I’m fine. Dr. Johnson did his thing, and I should be good. Right Doc?” Ryan gave the doctor a look that suggested he wanted him to lie.

  I stopped him right there.

  “Truth.” I pulled away from Ryan.

  “The truth is Ryan is going to need to be hooked up to the machine at headquarters.” Gramps walked over to us with a terse expression.

  “No way,” I protested.

  Dr. Johnson spoke up heatedly, “Ms. Derée, your boyfriend has over a hundred balls of energy, each with its own consciousness, all running rampant in his brain. We need to extract them and I can’t do it here.” He seemed angry at my attitude.

  I couldn’t help it. The doc meant to take Ryan back to his worst nightmare: an I.Q. Farm. Ryan had escaped that fate when he was seven-years-old. It was too horrible to think that his cure would be found there.

  Ryan leaned down and kissed my forehead. “It’ll be okay. I’m going in on Wednesday.”

  Doctor Johnson looked absolutely livid. “You should be coming with us this instant.”

  “I’m going with Chelsan tomorrow and there’s nothing you can do or say to stop me. I can last another day.” Ryan put Dr. Johnson in his place.

  “I’m not so sure about that,” Dr. Johnson argued back.

  “What is that supposed to mean?” I exclaimed in alarm.

  Gramps stepped in with his hands raised. “It means that we’re leaving. You’re coming tomorrow with your boy toy here, and then on Wednesday we’ll take care of his little problem. Deal?”

  Ryan actually nodded to Turner in thanks.

  I didn’t like that one bit.

  “I…” I began to disagree once more.

  “Deal.” Ryan finished for me and gave me a look that begged me to drop it.

  It took a few moments before I could finally take a deep breath and nod.

  Turner’s lips curled in agitation, as if staying one second longer at Nancy’s house was killing him. “See you tomorrow. I’ll send the details to your holo-account.”

  With that Gramps left with Dr. Johnson in tow.

  “Dinner!” Vianne popped her head out with a smile. When she saw all of our dire expressions, she cocked her head to one side in curiosity. “What did I miss?”

  Chapter Two

  Tuesday April 5, 2321

  Tuesday morning came like a brick smashing me in the head.

  I really didn’t want to go to Turner’s rally thing. That’s where Gramps was supposedly going to be assassinated. Some stupid rally for some stupid cause that was probably fake anyway. The location was downtown at the Staples Center, a historical landmark in Los Angeles over three hundred years old. I’d only been there once. It was huge, crowded, and I pretty much hated it. Now, the thought of trying to find one girl amongst a horde of people seemed impossible.

  Ryan was already dressed and ready to go while I was just finishing up lacing my Chuck Taylors.

  Vianne had already called the school, telling them (well, lying actually) that I was sick. Ryan was just skipping. He said he’d deal with his parents later. I was being extremely selfish bringing him with me, but I couldn’t fathom going alone.

  Ryan put his hand out for me to take and I clasped it gratefully as he led me downstairs to the kitchen.

  The whole gang was there, except for Jill.

  “Are you sure you don’t want me to go with you guys? What if he has one of his headaches?” Bill said looking at Ryan with just as much concern as there was attitude.

  “I’ll be fine, thanks.” Ryan didn’t even make eye contact with Bill. He sat down at the table and ate the eggs and bacon Vianne placed in front of him.

  We all sat down after Ryan.

  That’s when I came up with the brilliant idea to tell everyone about Max and Eva.

  And by “brilliant,” I mean idiotic.

  Bill flipped out, literally flipped out. He was immediately on Eva’s side and trying to convince everyone that she wasn’t a complete nutball.

  “Okay, okay!” Ryan held up his hands to stop the shouting match that was ping-ponging between us all. Then he looked directly at me, “You can’t trust Max either, Chelsan. It’s not just Eva.”

  Huh?

  I wasn’t expecting that.

  After my conversation with Max, I actually felt like I could trust him to some degree. But to see the seriousness in Ryan’s face…

  Ryan was definitely not on Team Max.

  “I get that he was basically created by Elisha, but why so adamant?” I asked him.

  It was Bill that responded. “Because getting you to trust Max is exactly what Elisha wants.”

  Ryan and Bill made eye contact and something unsaid passed between them. They were on the same page with this one. A part of me was happy to see them being civil to each other, but the other part was kind of irked that they thought I could be played so easily.

  “You don’t trust my instincts?” I challenged them both.

  “It’s not that. It’s in your nature to see the best in everyone. That’s why I love you,” Ryan responded. “But Chelsan, you said yourself Max’s been trying to bump into your head…”

  “To tell me what was going on without being overheard,” I interrupted Ryan, trying to defend myself.

  Nancy chimed in this time. “Now that Max thinks you trust him, see if he asks to visit that brain of yours. If he does, then he’s working for Elisha; if he doesn’t, maybe we can trust him.”

  I didn’t want to believe I could be so off about Max’s intentions, but I knew they were right. How could I even think for a second that I could trust one of Elisha’s “experiments”? At least Eva was straightforward in her hatred. But Max… If Max was duping me, he was more brilliant and dangerous than I could ever imagine.

  “We can all agree that keeping our distance from both Max and Eva is the plan, right?” I made sure Bill looked me in the eye when I said Eva’s name.

  Everyone agreed.

  Except Bill. “I still think Eva is the good one.” He crossed his arms in defiance.

  “Really?” Jason shook his head. “You’re that crazy for this girl?”

  “So what if I am? Even more so now. The fact that the scars on her body are stretch marks! Do you know how painful that must have been? She’s been through more in five months than we have in our whole lives.” Bill was definitely on the Eva train. I knew he was just sympathetic towards Eva and the horrors she had gone through, but it still sounded like he was putting her above the rest of us.

  To everyones’ shock George entered the conversation, “Bill, Eva is working for a monster, and possibly could be one herself, while your best friend has been tortured beyond measure at every turn. I don’t ever want to hear you defend a sociopath over Chelsan, not ever. She’s my daughter now, and I won’t have it.” George never scolded anyone. Anyone. Not even Nancy. And he called me his daughter. My heart sang! In that moment I could care less about Bill’s loyalty to Eva. I just wanted to give George a hug.

  Bill’s face turned bright red. “I…” he stuttered and turned to me, upset. “Chelsan, you know I didn’t mean… I just…” At a complete loss for words, Bill slumped his shoulders in defeat. “I won’t hang out with Eva anymore.”

  Oh Bill.

  Bill genuinely liked Eva and to be told she was a possible homicidal lunatic was m
ore than he could bear.

  Then another thought hit me. “The one thing I can be sure of is the fact that whether or not Max is evil, he genuinely likes Jill.” I looked at Bill with as much sincerity as I could muster. “And Eva definitely likes you. Maybe we can turn them against Elisha somehow.”

  Bill’s face perked up at that. I knew I probably shouldn’t give him hope, but seeing Bill upset always made my heart squeeze with sympathy.

  I turned to George, “And thanks. I think of you and Vianne as my parents, too. I don’t know what I would do without you guys.”

  Vianne leaned down and kissed my cheek. “We don’t know what we would have done without you either.”

  Um, try: you’d have a normal, safe life, free of psycho children and grandparents.

  But I didn’t say anything. I just let George scuff my head like I was ten and really took in the fact that I had a new family now.

  George kind of gruffed at Bill. “No harm, no foul, right kiddo?”

  Bill nodded, relieved that George wasn’t holding a grudge for his comments about Eva.

  Ryan pulled my seat out. “We should get going,” he said, stuffing the last of his bacon into his mouth.

  Okay. I guess we were going. Ryan was in mission-mode.

  “You guys want a ride?” Bill offered almost sheepishly. He was trying to make up for his behavior.

  Ryan didn’t even entertain the offer for a second. “We’re going to take the Hover-Shuttle. Traffic will be a killer with this rally going on.” He turned to me, “You have everything?”

  “Uh, yeah,” I kind of mumbled. I was a little taken aback by Ryan’s need to rush. Maybe he was having another headache and was trying to distract himself.

  Ryan held the door for me.

  I waved to everyone with what I can only assume was a somewhat nervous expression, because Nancy hurried over and gave me a hug goodbye. “You’re going to be fine. Just make sure you think of yourself first. If it’s between Turner and you, don’t get all martyr-like on me.”

  “That, you don’t have to worry about,” I replied. Although it wasn’t in my nature to watch people die, even if they were the epitome of evil. But I didn’t want to tell Nancy that. She’d just get paranoid that I’d sacrifice myself for Turner.