“Okay, look,” I say, pointing a finger at him. “You need to tell me who is after me and what they want with me. It’s only fair. You’ve been stalking me and scaring my girlfriend, and now you’re telling me that my life’s in danger, and you can’t just explain—?”
“You need to calm down.” Stevens stares at me, scared, and takes several steps back.
“You’re not giving me clear answers.”
“Trust me; you don’t want to know the whole story. All you need to know is that, right now, you have to be careful who you trust. You need to steer clear from that girlfriend of yours; she’s trouble for you. You’ll need your abilities to protect yourself, if it comes down to it. You have to develop to your full potential; that’s the only way you’ll be safe.”
“Wait, what does Livia has to do with this?”
A knock on the door startles Stevens. He peeks out the window. “It’s your friend. Why is he here?”
“He drove here with me.”
Stevens shoots me a wary look. “You should leave now.”
“You still haven’t answered my question: how do you even know about my abilities? And what about my father? Where does he fit in all of this?”
“I’ve told you what you need to know for now. I don’t have much time left. You know what you need to know for now—anymore and it will just put you in more danger. I’ll come looking for you when I think it’s safer, and maybe we can talk again. Just stay away from the girl, or she’ll lead them to you.”
He rushes over and opens the door for me to leave.
Kyle and I drive back to town, and my head is spinning.
Kyle keeps glancing at me. “So are you going to tell me what the guy said?”
“He didn’t explain anything. He said there are people looking for me, they know about my abilities. He told me to stay away from Livia; he said she was trouble, which doesn’t make any sense.”
“Man, this guy sounds nuts. What about your father? Did he explain that?
“Not at all. Something about ‘the less I know, the safer I’ll be’.”
“I think you’re giving this guy’s word way too much credit. We don’t know if there’s any truth to what he’s saying.”
“Yeah, but he knows about me. How does he know?”
Kyle huffs and gets defensive. “I’ve never told anyone. Who would believe me, anyway?”
“I know, but somehow, someone other than us knows.”
“I’ll tell you what.” Kyle looks at me. “Let’s head to Matt’s tonight, play pool, and relax. Then you can think over this with a clear head.”
“I need to go see Livia.”
“I’m pretty sure you’re going to.”
We get to Matt’s house and there’s a crowd of people there. I hurry inside and scan the place, and I don’t see Livia. I glimpsed her at the practice, but left before I could talk to her. I thought it would be a long talk, and I was in a hurry to find Stevens—but I wish she were here now. This is the time to have that talk; I need to tell her everything and I need to know what kind of trouble she’s involved with.
“I don’t think she’s coming,” Brianna says, coming up to me. “After your practice, she was pretty upset with you. You just disappeared!”
“I had things I needed to do.”
Matt appears at my side and hands me a drink. “Hey man, glad you made it! Here, this should make your day better.”
“I doubt that,” I say, but I take the cup from him anyway.
I sit down on the lounge chair, watch the guys playing foosball against the girls, and sip my drink. It sure doesn’t make me feel any better. Stevens’ words are hammering in my head and I can’t seem to be able to make sense of any of them. And the insinuation from that day in the hospital, that my father isn’t my real father, still lingers. Tears are fighting to spill beneath the pressure, but I blink them away. None of this is true; Stevens is messing with my head—he has to be.
“Hey, you!” I look up and I see Lindsay coming closer. She smiles a little too warmly and lounges on the edge of my chair.
“I’m kind of busy, Lindsay,” I retort, but she leans closer.
“You don’t look busy,” she chides. “You look bored. We could go someplace more private and I could make this night more exciting.” With each word, she bends further over me until her face is inches from mine. She rakes her hand through my hair and bites her bottom lip, giving me that sexy gaze. She tilts even closer, so close that I can smell her peachy lipstick. I am craving some attention, but it’s not hers.
“Not interested,” I answer quietly.
“What was that?” She doesn’t move, so I put my hands on her waist to push her away, and I see Livia; behind Lindsay, looking straight at me.
I stand up and Lindsay grabs me by the arm. “Come on, Adam, let her go!” she says, and I jerk out of her grip. But when I turn to find Livia, she’s already gone.
I rush out the door and I see her running into the woods, towards the beach. I follow, picking up my pace as she starts running faster. I try to catch up but she keeps a good distance between us. I don’t hold back, I let my feet hit the ground as fast as they can go, and yet I can’t reach her. I slow down when I realize she’s heading for a cliff—“Livia!” I shout and she must have heard me because she comes to an abrupt stop. I reach her now, before she even turns to look at me. When she finally does, she’s breathing heavily and her eyes are wide open—she looks confused.
“It’s not what you’re thinking,” I gasp. “Nothing happened with Lindsay.”
She’s fixing her eyes on mine, and I notice there’s no trace of anger. “How did you follow me here? How did you run this fast?” she asks.
And with that question, realization sets in—I was running fast, as fast as I can, but I still wasn’t able to keep up with her. I was right, and it’s all starting to make sense now. She’s still starting, trying to make sense of what is going on.
“I could ask you the same thing, but I think I already know the answer.” I take a step closer to her, but she puts a hand up, telling me to stay put.
“What are you talking about?” she asks, almost as a whisper.
“I’m talking about your ability to run faster than you should be able to, your ability to heal extremely fast, which is called rapid cell regeneration—I looked it up. It’s online. Even though they say it’s just fiction, you make it real.”
She lets out a long breath. She leans against a tree and slides her body down until she reaches the ground.
“I have a share of abilities myself, Livia. Haven’t you ever suspected it? How do you think I could keep up with you at PE the other day? How do you think I can swim in the lake’s cold water? We are the same, we share the same secret—unless…” I let the word hang as a thought forms in my mind. “You already knew that, and you didn’t want me to find out about you. Is that it? That would make sense, that’s why he said you’re trouble.”
Even though it all makes sense in my mind, I can’t bring myself to believe that Livia is involved with whatever Stevens was talking about. I rub my face, trying to clear my head. When I open my eyes, Livia is standing in front of me, her eyes searching mine for answers; she’s even more confused than me.
“He who?” she murmurs. “What’s going on here, Adam?”
I walk to the edge of the cliff and I sit down. The bay in front of me looks so calm and I try to match my emotions to the rhythm of the water below us. She sits next to me and I take a deep breath in. “I met with Stevens today, the guy you saw at Fort Casey the other night.”
“So you do know him?”
“The first time I saw him, he was at the hospital looking for my dad. Then, on the day you hurt your leg, I overheard a conversation between the two of them. He was insinuating that my dad had traded babies and I was not my father’s son.”
“What? You believe him?”
“I confronted my father before, and he flat out lied about everything, so it can only mean that he’
s trying to hide something.”
“So that guy is your father?”
“No!” I run my hands through my hair in frustration. “I don’t think so. But he knows about my abilities, he knows I’m different and he said my life is in danger, and there’re people looking for me. He told me to stay away from you, that you’re trouble and would lead them straight to me.”
“And you think that I knew about you and I’m involved with whoever is after you?” She asks in disgust, shaking her head. I grab her arm before she can get up.
“I’m sorry, Livia. I don’t think that, I’m just confused. It’s all so weird, and now I have a feeling that I’m being watched on top of everything.”
“Maybe it’s him following you, like he’s done before.”
“This might sound crazy, but I don’t think he’s lying, and if people are after me because of what I can do, then they must be after you too.”
Livia immediately closes her eyes as if she just realized something. She stands now, taking a few steps away from me. I see her face changing as millions of thoughts pass through her mind. I stand up, and hesitantly touch her hand before pulling her into my arms.
“Don’t worry. We have each other; we’re going to figure this out. I won’t let anything happen to you.”
Livia lays her head on my chest for a fraction of a second, and then pushes me away. “I think we should stay away from each other until we figure this out. If what that guy told you is true, then I’ll be putting you in danger if you stay close to me.”
“Livia, that’s crazy,” I protest, but the look on her face is resolute.
“Adam, I’ll talk to my uncle. I’m sure he knows this guy, Stevens, and I know he knows more than he’s telling me. He’s hiding something. Maybe he can help us, but until then, I want you to stay away from me.”
She starts walking away, back towards the house. “Livia!” I shout. “That’s not going to happen. I’m not staying away from you.”
She stops. “I’m not giving you a choice.”
With that, she runs. I tried to catch up with her, but by the time I reach her, she’s already inside of her car, her tires squealing as she drives away.
26 Livia
I can’t stop thinking about the fact that Adam and I are the same, and that I don’t have to hide what I am from him anymore. But it doesn’t feel the way it should; it doesn’t make me relieved and happy. I think of the nightmare I had with Adam in it, where he was being tortured. I can still hear his screams in my head. It felt real, like a warning—now this Stevens guy is telling him to stay away from me. He’s trying to protect him. He knows what’s after Adam. I wonder what else he knows. What does my uncle know? He feared for my life, too; Uncle Henry knows someone is looking for me, and it’s not just a reporter looking for a story.
* * *
This morning, I decided that I need to get out of town—I’ve been meaning to visit Grandma for a while now, and I need to see Uncle Henry.
I turn onto Grandma’s street and pull in her driveway. This place looks exactly the way it did seven years ago. She lives in a subdivision made particularly for senior citizens. She moved here after Grandpa passed. The land along the streets is well-wooded and there’s a clubhouse for entertainment. Grandma used to take me to play bingo every Wednesday night during my summers with her. She took the game, which gave away big prizes, seriously. She won an oven once.
Before I can knock on her front door, Uncle Henry opens it.
“Hey!” he says, and gives me a hug. “She’ll be happy to see you!” His unconcealed emotion tells me he’s relieved to see me and to know I’m safe.
We walk inside and Grandma is sitting in her favorite wooden rocking chair. It used to belong to my grandpa. She says she feels closer to him when she sits there.
“Livia!” Grandma stands up. I rush to her side, and she hugs me. It feels so good to be with her—she’s so happy to see me that I feel bad for not coming to visit her sooner.
We walk into the kitchen, and on the table is lunch: it looks like Uncle Henry went out and bought everything he saw.
“So, Livia,” Grandma says, “tell me about your new house, your new school, and your friends. I heard you even have a boyfriend now.” She puts a few pieces of cheese on a napkin and places it in my hands.
“Oh, I love the island and I do have a couple friends. But not a boyfriend, not anymore.” I feel the pain deep inside of me. I haven’t seen or talked to Adam since Friday.
“What happened, dear? Why was it over so soon?”
“I just didn’t feel like I could be myself around him.” I look at my uncle when I say that, and I know he understands what I mean.
“Oh, that’s no good. You will find someone who will love you for who you are, and that’s the only way, Livia. You have to always be yourself.”
Grandma and I hang out together while Uncle Henry makes sure she has everything she needs before we leave. He’s coming home with me because it’s closer to the airport and he needs to be back in New York in the morning. I hear him while he goes over the list for the fifth time.
“Mom, please listen to the nurse and don’t skip your meds. It’s important that you take them every day, on time.” As he tells her, she winks at me.
“Don’t you worry, son. I’ll comply with everything, if I want to be around for a good long time to annoy you!”
Too soon, we say our goodbyes, and I promise to visit again before long. “It was great seeing you, Grandma.”
“And it was wonderful to have you over, Livia; you are as beautiful as always.”
I kiss Grandma goodbye, and Uncle Henry and I drive back home.
In the car, after listening to him chat about our current president and the economic crisis, I can’t take it any longer.
“Uncle?” He is driving and won’t meet my eyes. “Last weekend at the country store, the man you were talking to in the parking lot…” His emotions begin to shift, so I trail off. I can tell this is a sensitive subject, which only proves that there is more to it than what he admits.
“What about him?”
“Do you know him?”
“No, why?” He’s too quick to answer.
“He followed me and Adam that night.”
“What? What did he tell you?” His overriding emotion, which he is trying to shield, is an intense anger.
“He was trying to get Adam to talk to him, but Adam sent him away.”
“Livia,” he sighs.
“What aren’t you telling me? I empathized with the guy. He didn’t seem to be a bad person. He had a strong need to protect Adam. He feared for his life and Adam’s. And he was hurt; his eye and his hand.”
“Then he was probably trying to protect Adam.”
“But why would he need protection?”
“I don’t know what kind of trouble Adam is involved with, Livia. Maybe you should stay away from him.”
“The last time you were in my house, you feared for my life—you, too, wanted to protect me from some kind of danger.”
“The convent incident concerned me. People were asking about you, and they shouldn’t have been. That has nothing to do with Adam or this guy.”
“So you think there are people after me?” I ask, trying a different approach.
“I don’t think so, but it won’t hurt to be careful.”
“Why don’t we just tell the police?”
“There’s nothing to tell; nobody has threatened you in any way, and besides, what would we say? That someone might be looking for you because they know about your abilities?”
“Who would be looking for me, though? And how would they know?”
“Livia, there’s no one looking, okay? I think you’re reading in too deep.”
“I think you know more than you’re telling me.”
“I’m not keeping anything from you,” he says calmly, as if he’s trying to pass off an aura of serenity that isn’t present within him.
He is just feeding me mo
re lies, and as horrible as it is, I don’t feel like I can trust him either, so I don’t say anything about Adam and me sharing the same abilities. I know he’s trying to protect me from something or someone, but I don’t want him to think he should protect me from Adam.
If anything, I could have to protect Adam from my uncle. I don’t know what his reaction would be if he knew, and that scares me.
“The other day, at my house,” I start again, “why were you trying to keep my father from helping me?”
“That’s ridiculous!” he snaps. “I just don’t want to see your father frustrated by leads that don’t take him anywhere. He’s a busy man already.”
“My DNA changing doesn’t seem like a dead end to me.”
His hands tighten around the steering wheel, and it’s a long moment before he replies, “I understand that you’re going through a difficult time, Livia, but that doesn’t justify you throwing stones at someone who has always been there for you.”
I don’t say anything else for the rest of the way home.
* * *
It’s Monday and I’m dragging myself out of the house to go to school. That’s the last place I want to be right now. I don’t want to see Adam or be close to him; it scares me to think that I might be bringing danger into his life.
As I drive to school, I decide to stop the car in a dead end road and wait for the first class to be over. That way I avoid seeing Adam, and I don’t have to attend to Ms. Creepy’s class. The face of Ms. Johnson flashes in my mind and a cold sensation follows suit, crawling up my spine. Could she be the one who is after Adam and me? That would make sense; she’s always shielding her emotions. Anyone doing that consciously must probably know about us.
I get to school right as the bell rings and I hurry to get my book out of my locker. As I’m locking it back up, Ms. Johnson passes by me, giving me her usual piercing stare; she points her index finger at me. “You weren’t in my class.”
“Uh, yeah, I’m sorry. I woke up late.”
“Is that so? Well then, you can make it up to me at detention this afternoon. Be here at precisely two forty-five.” She walks away before I can complain.
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