by W. J. May
I heard it again, this time louder. “Help!” someone was shouting.
“What is it?” asked Heidi.
“Someone needs our help.” I circled, trying to locate the cry. “Badly.”
“Which direction?” Brent bent down and touched the ground.
I closed my eyes again, focusing on the plea. “That way.” I pointed to the right, off into the woods.
We all tore off running in the woods as fast as possible. I couldn’t hear the person cry out again and I feared the worst. The last cry had been faint, even for me, and we were all out of breath after our run. I hoped we got there in time. I prayed I was leading everyone in the correct direction.
Seth shouted, “I smell something!” He veered slightly to the left and we all followed him through the woods. “It’s a woman!” He leapt over a tree stump. “I think she’s being attacked.”
As we got closer I heard the sounds of struggling and a woman crying out, followed by a scream. “Come on!” I sprinted as hard as I could.
Brent and Seth were the fastest, neck and neck for the lead.
“I see her!” Brent called out.
The woman was a distance away, running in the opposite direction. Away from us.
“We’re here to help!” Seth called out to her. “Are you all right?”
Suddenly the ground gave way below us. Screams pierced my ears as we fell and I covered my ears with my hands, but my head felt like it was going to explode from the pure noise, all up close. Then pain exploded in my head and everything went black.
Chapter Seventeen
Kieran
The feeling came suddenly, sending my body into a cold chill. The vision appeared suddenly, warning me of Zoe’s imminent danger. I tore myself away from my laptop, knocking it to the ground with half of the papers on the bed. I didn’t bother to pick them up as I grabbed my shoes and raced out the door.
Zoe was in trouble. All I cared about was getting to her.
They were in the woods, I knew that for sure. All of them had run right into a trap. Where in the woods, I wasn’t sure, though. Nor could I see who set the trap. “Bloody hell,” I muttered as I strapped on my motorcycle helmet. I was going to need help on this one. Who in Elliot Lake could I even go to for help?
I didn’t have to think twice. I turned down the road to Zoe’s dad’s office. As far as his daughter was concerned, nothing was more important. Hopefully that meant he would listen to me and help me without asking questions about whether or not I was a crazy lunatic.
I sped through the streets and parked the bike in a doctor’s marked parking spot near the front before I raced through the front of the building toward her dad’s office.
His nurse-secretary lady wasn’t there, so I headed straight toward the back, to his office. Shouting, “Doc? Hey! Zoe’s dad?” I opened the door without knocking.
He looked up, shocked. A pair of Beats earphones covered his ears. He must’ve been dictating or something. “Kieran,” he said, pulling the earphones off. “What the h—? What’re you doing here?”
“Zoe’s in trouble,” I said, nearly smiling that he caught himself from swearing. “Don’t ask me how I know because I can’t explain it. But she’s definitely in trouble. Big trouble.”
He paled and then grabbed his keys. “Where is she?”
“By the mine.”
He raced out of the office, quickly locking the door. I led the way down the stairs and into the parking lot.
“We’ll take my car,” he said when he noticed my bike.
I followed him, focussing on trying to sense anything else about Zoe. I couldn’t and it was driving me nuts. “Oye!”
“Pardon?” Zoe’s dad unlocked his car and we jumped into it. He tore out of the parking lot and headed toward the mine.
“Nothing, sorry. Just frustrated.” Part of me wondered why he believed me and why he wasn’t taking me directly to the police.
“You have the same ability as the others?”
I stared at him as houses whipped by. “Um… no?” When had Zoe told him? Or had he known all along.
He glanced at me from the corner of his eye. “Your bloodwork showed nothing. Did it occur later?”
I shook my head. “I switched my blood that day.”
“Really?”
“Just a hunch I needed to.” I shrugged and we drove in silence the rest of the way.
Zoe’s dad drove to the edge of the woods to where Brent’s car and the Beetle were. As soon as the BMW was in park, we jumped out.
“Shite!” I swore. “I don’t know these woods very well. I know she’s in the woods, but that’s it. Damn it!”
“Calm down.” Zoe’s dad put his hand on my shoulder. “Push your ability and search again.”
“It’s complicated.” I jerked away from him. “No offense, but you wouldn’t understand.”
“I’m the only one who knows. They’re all sense related. What’s your power?”
I didn’t have a choice. I’d pulled him out to the mine and he’d followed without question. He either thought I planned to kill him, if he believed I’d hurt Rylee, or he believed the bloodwork. The science. “Psychic,” I told him. “I can see the future. But my power is a lot weaker than theirs. I only see bits and pieces. I can’t control it at all. I saw Zoe, Brent, Seth, and Heidi walk into a trap and now they’re in danger! I know they were in the woods. I think they were wearing some sort of athletic gear or something.”
“Zoe told me they were going on a run in the forest,” he said. “They don’t have athletic suits, though.”
“They were bright red,” I said. “The school’s maybe?”
“Must be. At least we can find them easily.”
Both of us started hurrying toward the woods.
“They would have turned back at the mine,” Zoe’s dad said. “Let’s start there. We might be able to find something.”
Even though we made decent time, I had no idea if it was good enough. I hadn’t had another vision. They could be fine or they could be slowly being slaughtered. I couldn’t have anything happen to Zoe. I would die without her. Just where the hell were they? “Zoe?” I shouted.
Her father called out and looked around, hoping someone would respond as much as I did.
When we reached the mine parking lot, I noticed several sets of footprints. “This way!” I pointed at them. “Thank bloody goodness for fresh snow!” I broke out into a run.
“Hold up!” Zoe’s dad cried, lagging behind me. “I’m not as young and fit as you are.”
“There’s no time,” I called back over my shoulder. “Who knows what’s happening to them! You’ll catch up.”
He nodded, gasping for breath.
I broke into a hard sprint, leaving him further behind. I looked around for any sign of red clothing, but I couldn’t see anything. Then the ground took a sharp dip and I slipped, sliding down, and landing in a pile of leaves.
I stood and looked up to the sky, too far up to crawl out. I dusted the leaves off me and swore under my breath, “Bloody hell!” Zoe’s dad was going to have to go searching for them till I figured a way out.
“Kieran?” a voice whispered faintly.
I swung around. “Zoe?” I followed her weak voice and dropped down beside her. “What happened?”
“You found me.”
“Of course.” I tucked a strand of hair behind her ear and pulled a dried leaf out of it. “That’s quite the red suit.” I glanced down and then ran my eyes over her stomach again, almost missing the blood because of the darkness and the red. I didn’t even notice the others in the pit. All I noticed was her. “What the hell happened?” I lifted her shirt and saw the gash. I stood, looking for something to press against the wound.
“You’re what happened, you son of a bitch!” Seth tackled me from the side, knocking me to the ground. Sharp pain hit my elbow but I ignored it and got to my feet, swinging a punch at him. I didn’t have the training like the others did, and Seth had size and a
thletics on his side. He easily avoided me and pulled me into a headlock. “Why’d you come back?” he hissed. “Why the hell did you trap us? Wasn’t it bad enough you took Rylee?” He kicked me in the groin and I groaned before doubling over.
“Seth, stop it!” Zoe cried. “He didn’t kill Rylee!”
“Shut up, Zoe,” Seth spat. “I know he did.” He kicked me in the ribs as hard as he could. “He’s a damn monster who’s going to pay for what he’s done, one way or another.”
“I didn’t kill her!” I groaned, gasping for breath. “I’d never do that.”
But he ignored me and kicked me harder.
“Seth,” Heidi said, grabbing his arm. “Stop it.”
Seth hesitated and looked at her before looking at me and growing more enraged. “He trapped you in here, too,” he said, pulling his leg back to kick me again.
Suddenly, Brent came out of nowhere and tackled Seth to the ground, punching him in the face. “Lay off, man,” Brent hissed. “You’re not helping anyone right now. We’re stuck here, he is too!”
Seth held his nose.
“You’re only upsetting Heidi, not Kieran.”
Seth looked at Heidi, saw she was crying and went still. I realized that I was more out of the loop than I thought with my friends. My gut told me they were falling for each other, just hadn’t admitted it to themselves or each other yet.
Zoe hobbled over to me. “How did you find us?”
I sat up, my head spinning and my side aching. “I sensed it,” I mumbled. “You okay?” I reached for her, trying to check her side but the spinning had me reaching for air. “What happened?”
Seth mumbled, “You know.” Brent kicked him in the side to warn him to shut up.
Zoe shook her head. “I don’t know.” She grimaced as she shifted to reach for my hand. “One minute we were jogging. Then we heard someone cry for help. We rushed over and the next moment we fell in here.” She looked around at the clearly man-made walls and the tarp covered in brush and snow that had fooled them into thinking it was solid ground. Part of it must have originally been a mine tunnel. The top cover having been done recently. A classic trap. “I guess maybe that person wasn’t in as much distress as we thought.”
“Zoe-zey?” Her dad’s head appeared at the top of the hole. “Are you kids okay?” he called down.
“We are,” Zoe called out. “Slightly bruised but everyone’s okay.”
“I’ll run back to the car and grab the cables and rope.”
I laughed. “You have rope in your trunk?”
“I’m a doctor.” Zoe’s dad squinted into the dark. “I have everything. Seth? You down there?”
“I tham.” The sound came out very nasal.
“Should I call your dad?”
“I’m othay,” Seth mumbled and had to repeat it so Zoe’s dad could hear.
“Did you break your septum?”
“Huh?”
“It sounds like your nose is broken.”
“Oh yeah.” Seth glanced at Brent. “It happened when I fell.”
No one spoke as we waited for the rope to climb out. I tried to ask what happened but Seth refused to let anyone talk. I didn’t argue. I had to prove myself to him and Heidi.
After Zoe’s dad helped all of us out of the hole, he took one look at our injuries and declared that all of us were going to his office immediately. “When we’re there, you can tell me what the hell’s going on.” He pressed a towel on Zoe’s glaring red cut and tossed the other to Seth.
“It’s not our fault, Dad!” Zoe tried to explain.
“All I know is that Kieran isn’t as innocent as his blood results made him out to be.”
I blushed slightly at that statement. I guess Zoe hadn’t told him that I switched the test results. That wasn’t going to be a fun conversation. Right now he didn’t want to kill me. I didn’t know how he would be after I told him. If I told him. He might hate me as much as Seth did.
“Let’s go.” Her dad tied the rope and walked slowly as we made our way back to the car. “Zoe, you’re driving with me. Brent and Kieran can go in your car. Seth, I need to set your nose. It’s going to hurt like hell but I have to do it before we drive back.”
Brent and I reached for the driver’s door at the same time.
“Right.” I nodded and strode around the car to the passenger’s side. Zoe tossed him the keys but I didn’t miss the long look she gave me, even though I pretended not to notice. Her dad was ticked, I wasn’t about to piss him off any more.
I heard Seth grunt and cry out when Zoe’s dad set his nose as we pulled out of the parking area.
We drove the first bit in silence. No music, not talking. Brent kept tapping his thumb against the steering wheel and I was near ready to break it.
“We were here yesterday. Zoe and I.”
“You were?” I swung around to look at him. Why hadn’t either of them told me?
“We found the car.”
“You’re shittin’ me.” I had a super sixth sense and it didn’t let me know that? The one thing I’ve been focussing on the past two months?
Brent shook his head, keeping his eyes on the road. “Zoe took pictures but it’s been abandoned. And cleaned. Someone made sure there was no evidence left inside of it. We did find a burnt license plate that might be related.” He swallowed, his jawline tight. “And a key.”
“What the hell?” I punched my knee. “Where’s the key?”
“At my place.”
“Let’s go get it.” Why hadn’t they told me this? “Why the hell did you think it was a good idea to go running by the mine, the day after you went digging for evidence? How stupid are you? It doesn’t take common sense… unless you were planning on having Seth and Heidi find the car by mistake?”
Brent’s jaw muscle twitched right on the spot he’d been tightening a moment earlier. “I just wanted to run. We weren’t looking for the car.”
I dropped back against the seat, folding my arms over my chest. “We need to know what that key’s for. Is it a car key?”
“I’ve got pictures of it on my phone.”
Did the guy not know the difference between a house key and a car key? I shook my head. “Let’s go check it out.”
Brent sighed. “After. We need to head to Dr. Landers’ office first. I’m not raising any flags or causing any problems there.”
Don’t want to ruin your chances with Zoe? I bit my tongue and held the words back. The freakin’ guy had no clue. Absolutely no clue.
Neither of us spoke the rest of the drive to the doctor’s office.
Zoe’s dad waited until all of us were in his personal office before he shut the door. “What in Sam’s name is going on with you kids?” He turned to me. “And when did you get back into town? Or did you never leave?”
“We heard someone calling for help,” Brent said, laying down on one of the two checkup tables. “Or Zoe did, really.” He closed his eyes and rubbed his forehead. “Hey, I’m feeling a little dizzy. Is that normal?”
“You might have a concussion. You shouldn’t have driven.” Dr. Landers came over to check Brent. “Does anything hurt?”
“I’ve a headache and my arm does,” Brent said.
“Take off your jacket. You probably got banged up in the fall.” He lifted Brent’s arm and turned it to look closer at the inside of his elbow. “Zoe, take your jacket off.”
“Uh, okay.” Zoe pulled it off and winced as she did so. I reached over to help her.
Dr. Landers checked her arm and shook his head. “Heidi, Seth, let me see yours.”
I watched them all, trying to figure out what was going on. So was everyone else.
Each of them had identical wounds in the crooks of their right arms.
“What the hell have you guys gotten mixed up in,” he whispered, grabbing antiseptic wipes and bandages.
“What’s going on?” I asked. “What is it?”
“These aren’t cuts from the fall,” Dr. Landers said, wiping
his daughter’s arm first. “These are pinpricks made by syringes. Someone’s been taking your blood.”
I ripped my long sleeve off and stood shirtless in the room. I heard Zoe’s breath suck in as I checked my arm. Nothing.
“What?” Zoe asked, her voice an octave higher than usual. “What type of sick and twisted person would do that?”
“Have any of you told anyone about your powers?” Dr. Landers asked. “Is there anyone any of you can think of that might possibly know about them at all. If so, you need to talk now.”
All of us shook our heads, Seth took a moment to throw a glare my way.
“No one,” Zoe confirmed. “As far as I know of. Do you think someone found out?”
“Why else would they go through the effort of trapping you?” Dr. Landers said. “Do any of you remember being knocked out? Or remember someone taking blood?” He looked like he was grasping at straws. “Did any of you feel it? Drawing blood isn’t just a simple pin prick.”
Rylee. Whoever killed her wanted her blood for her powers. “Could our powers be transferrable by blood?” I asked.
Dr. Landers shook his head. “I’ve no idea.” He gestured to the ground. “In the lab below us, I’m trying to isolate the uranium strand, but it’s next to impossible. It’s like a halo.”
“A radium halo?” The term seemed so familiar to me now.
“I’ll have to run some tests to see, but I have no idea how I’ll go about it.” He sighed. “I’ll find out.” He finished bandaging up Zoe’s cut on her side and checked the small bump on her forehead. “Get some water, honey,” he murmured before turning to Brent. “You need to stay hydrated and rest for a while too.”
“I’ll go grab us some water from the kitchen you’ve got at the back.” She headed out of the room, looking dazed.
I considered following her but Dr. Landers called for me to sit on the table beside Brent. “You look pretty beat up. You’re next.” I glanced at Seth but said nothing as I sat down on the gurney table.
Brent winced when the antiseptic cloth touched his skin. “Whoever set this up, is Rylee’s killer. I’m sure of it.”
“That should be easy,” Seth mocked. “Since he’s sitting in this room right now.”