“The superhero off of 1930’s radio. His superpower was hypnosis. He could make people not see him, in effect turning invisible,” he answered promptly.
“What evil lurks in the heart of men? The Shadow knows!” I said in a deeply dramatic voice. “You do know him, then?”
“Of course, I do, but how do you know about him?
“Why can you know about him, but I can’t?” I asked.
“Because I’m into that type of thing, and you’re not,” he said calmly.
“You’re into science fiction! Ha! I wouldn’t have figured you for it!” He didn’t rise to my teasing, just waited patiently. I hated that tactic. Mostly because it worked so well. “I went through a phase where I listened to nothing but old radio broadcasts. The Shadow was one of many programs I liked. That was also when I fell in love with Jazz and Orson Welles.”
I waited for him to make some kind of teasing comment, to continue our banter, but he didn’t. His eyes had gone distant and strange, our conversation obviously not his top priority. The others had pulled ahead of us, leaving us to the solitary company of the pool. I knew we were going to be late to our next class, but I wasn’t worried. Being late to class wasn’t exactly new to me, and Daniel’s expression – a far-away stare – was something I’d seen him doing a lot. It made me curious. I had shut off a lot of the questions I had about in him in lieu of being his friend, but I couldn’t shut them all down. He was still a curiosity.
I stepped closer, totally engrossed in the play of emotion in his eyes. I hadn’t registered until now, how strange, otherworldly, it made him look. A familiar swirl of inky black swelled up and covered his green irises for a long moment. A vein throbbed in his temple at whatever he was thinking about. His eyes cleared, and he turned abruptly. He opened the pool house door with a jerk, the metal groaning in protest at his touch.
“Get in!” he demanded, his free hand clenching into a ball.
“What?” I balked at the door, not understanding. I’d never seen his face so intense…so terrified.
“For once, don’t argue with me!” he said fiercely.
Angry at his tone, but aware of his fear, I walked through the door. “What’s your problem?”
The words were barely out of my mouth when everything went from mildly strange to incredibly deadly. Without warning, a ball of fire surged towards us from directly outside the door we had just entered. It was coming out of nowhere and fast. I gasped in astonishment. My brain stopped working. I knew I should move or try to duck, but the shock had me frozen in place. How did fire come out of nowhere?
Before I could react, Daniel reached forward and wrapped one arm around my waist. My hands slid around his waist in reflex, my heart pounding harder at his touch. The fire roared at us, shattering the glass. Running out of space, Daniel threw us backwards into the pool. We hit with a loud splash and all the air surged out of my lungs. With Daniel’s added weight, I sank to the bottom very quickly. His hand under my head was the only thing that kept me from hitting my skull on the hard concrete.
I didn’t move for a second, dazed, my mind trying to catch up. Awareness came with a flood of panic. I struggled against the weight and the panic. Water rushed into my mouth at my frightened scream. I tried to kick back to the surface, back to air. Daniel held me down, though, not allowing me to kick off. More air bubbles escaped with my curse. Was he trying to drown me? Even as I struggled, I knew I couldn’t fight against him. He was too strong. I felt his strength as he held my arms. His eyes met mine, and he pointed up for an explanation. The top of the pool was completely on fire. We had no other options.
I looked at him, pleading with my eyes for him to help me, instinctively knowing he could. Even though the pool was chaos and the chlorine made everything fuzzy and distorted, I could see his eyes clearly. They stood out like a beacon of light. As my plea reached him, they softened.
He moved closer, pressing his body into mine. He leaned even closer and gently pressed his lips against mine. Air surged into my mouth as our lips met. I gasped, not because he was acting like a human air tank and I could suddenly breathe, but because of the visions swirling around my head. I closed my eyes and let him give me oxygen, the visions demanding that I watch.
I saw a small boy, no more than five, wandering the streets of New York – a different New York then the one I knew. It was dirty and dank, the glass buildings and outrageous high-rises nowhere to be seen. The tiny boy begged and stole in order to survive. He was very good at surviving; a master of thieving and telling lies. He was a creature of the streets, a product of abandonment and abuse. My heart clenched at the idea of so young a person facing the harsh violence of streets so indifferent and cruel.
I saw the same boy, a little older, fighting to protect his friends who were getting beaten up for their food. But he was unable to save them – he was too small, too weak. I saw him become bloodied and bruised as he was beaten almost to unconsciousness. A tall woman with auburn hair that framed her round face perfectly appeared on the dirt street like a shimmering mirage of hope. The boy stared at her even as the other boys kicked him brutally. His eyes begged her to help him. She came closer, her appearance scaring the older boys off. The boy noticed her eyes darken at the sight him lying there, but the darkness cleared as she caught eyes with him again. The woman smiled at the battered boy and whispered reassuring words as she picked him up from the ground. She didn’t see his friends hiding in fear around the corner as she walked off with him cradled to her chest.
Her words promised the boy a new life. She kept her promise. The boy flourished under the woman’s loving attentions, his days on the streets ending as suddenly as daylight in a cave. It was a time of peace, the sort of peace he had never found on the streets.
I felt his heartbreak when he got word that a boy he knew on the streets, a boy he had thought of as a brother, had been murdered. The boy had grown, but he was still young, still close to his life on the streets. The darkness threatened to engulf him. He wanted retribution. He wanted blood.
Was life only pain?
The vision disappeared. I opened my eyes blearily, trying to focus on my location. Was I in the past or the present? Daniel’s face blurred in and out of my vision. His eyes were the same eyes of the boy I had seen. The faces merged in my brain. I blinked again and cleared away the confusion.
The pool was in ruins. The door and its connecting wall had fallen from the blast. Rubble lay everywhere. Daniel and I were on the face of the pool, our bodies bobbing in time to the water. He was no longer breathing for me, but I felt tied to the rhythm of his breathing as if he still was. He was gasping heavily, harder than I was. Patches of the water still danced with fire, but he had brought us up in a clear spot next to the edge. He forced me to take hold of the edge, which I did out of instinct.
How long had we been down there? Seconds? Days? Years? The visions swirled around my brain. I felt again and again the pain and the fear, the longing and the regret. It was like a knife cutting into my heart. Not able to help it, I started crying. I’d never been one to cry. Being serious and dependable meant not crying or acting like a baby when things went wrong. I’d learned to fix problems rather than worry about them. It had toughened me. But now, I let the tears come, feeling a sense of release around the pain in my chest. It almost felt good, as if being out of control wasn’t as unbearable as I thought it would be.
Daniel wrapped one arm around me and pulled our bodies together. I resisted at first, not wanting to see those visions again, but he carefully kept a layer of fabric between us.
“I’m sorry. It was the only way…It was the only way.” he whispered into my ear over and over again.
I couldn’t answer, I was too busy crying. He rested his chin on my shoulder and let me cry.
I sniffed into his wet shirt and asked, “Was that you?”
He pulled away slightly, so he could look into my eyes and gauge my reaction. “Yes.”
What did I say to that?
/> I heard the sound of screaming, and pulled away from him to find the source of the noise. Through the destroyed wall, I saw kids from our gym class, as well as various teachers, running across the grassy slope towards us. I pulled away for another reason. I wanted Daniel to kiss me again, and I didn’t like feeling that way. Not when he’d just thrown a whole pile of weirdness at me. He released me reluctantly.
Sighing, he pushed against the edge of the pool and lifted his body out of the water. Water dripped off of his clothes and hair on to the cement ground, the sound incredibly loud to my alert ears. His eyes moved to the woods surrounding us, and his face contorted with anger. I was too tired to focus on his anger. I would think about it later. I would think about everything later. Wanting to get out of the cold water, I tried to climb out but discovered my arms had turned to jelly.
“What are you doing?” he asked, refocusing on me as I pulled my exhausted body towards the small rung of stairs at the other side of the pool.
“I can’t pull myself out,” I said irritably.
The feelings which had been forced on me were starting to fade. Worry, and my own fear, crawled up in my chest, making it feel tight and hard to breathe. That feeling made me irritable.
“That happens too.” He offered me his hand to take. I looked at it, not trusting what our touch could do. “It won’t happen this time. I’ve got it under control.” I still didn’t take his hand. “Trust me?”
His emerald eyes were impossibly vulnerable. In those eyes, I saw the boy I had befriended rather than the mystery of what had just happened. I reached out and took his proffered hand, hoping my instinct was right. He pulled me out, his arms barely contracting with the effort. There were no visions this time, but our touch created a spark of electrical feeling between us. I dropped his hand as people started to swarm through the broken wall shouting questions and contradicting orders.
“Clare, do you like me?” Daniel whispered.
“Is this really the time for that discussion?”
His face was serious, but I could see a hint of his boyish smile. “It’s important.”
“Do you like me?” I countered, not wanting to answer.
“I asked first,” he said.
“Why are you asking at all?”
He leaned towards me, talking very quickly. “Because I’m going to lie my ass off, and I need to know that you like me well enough to lie with me, or at least keep your mouth shut.”
“I have questions,” I warned.
“So do I,” he retorted, mocking my tone.
I made a motion like I was zipping my mouth shut and locking it. Then I handed him the pretend key. He pocketed it.
The others had finally reached us. Their questions were immediate.
“What happened here?”
“Are you okay?”
“Did a bomb go off?”
Daniel had his best charm smile on. He looked up through his long lashes – a look he knew was attractive – and the people surrounding us stopped talking to listen. With his voice full of just the right amount of fear and excitement, he started to explain. “We didn’t see what happened. We just heard this noise, and the next thing we knew we were in the pool.” He gestured down at his wet clothes. “I think the blast knocked us back. It probably saved our lives.”
Jennifer forced her way to the front of the crowd. “But what blew up?”
Daniel shrugged. “We just felt the blast. We didn’t see what did it.”
I nodded. I didn’t have to lie to agree with him on that. Whatever had caused the fire had come out of nowhere.
“Come on, let’s get you guys out of here,” Coach said, his tired voice not even excited.
“An ambulance is on its way, Coach!” Mark yelled as he ran up. He held a cell phone in his hand. He was enjoying the drama – almost as much as Jennifer.
“We don’t need an ambulance!” I protested. “We’re not hurt.”
“You just got blown up!” Jennifer argued. “You need to be checked out!”
“We weren’t even touched!”
“Don’t argue,” Daniel whispered into my ear.
“But…”
“Don’t. Argue,” he said spacing his words so they became a command.
I clamped my teeth together and glared at him. I would make him pay for taking that tone with me. But would I? Would I continue our friendship? I wasn’t ignorant to the many things in this world that were strange and peculiar but I had never heard, nor seen, anything like what had just happened. Fire coming out of thin air, Daniel breathing for me, those visions, the way his skin had felt; they all added up to something other. And in my world, ‘other,’ meant danger. He was dangerous.
I was overwhelmingly thankful he had saved my life; that he had risked his own life to save mine, but at what cost? Would there be consequences? Was he like me? If he wasn’t, what was he? If he was like me, did I have to start running again? Was anywhere safe?
Chapter 8
The paramedics gave us blankets and told us to sit on the front steps of the school until the deputy sheriff said it was okay to go. After a thorough examination, and many incredulous questions, they were convinced we weren’t about to die. I was glad. Dying wasn’t on my to-do list. Although, neither was getting blown up or having my new, but intense, friendship tested by said explosion. The paramedics had told us we were lucky, that whatever had burned up had been hotter than anything they’d ever experienced. I had nodded in bemused agreement, knowing luck had nothing to do with it. As we waited, emergency workers, faculty members, and students swirled around us in a strange dance of activity. I had trouble focusing on any one thing in particular, my eyes not cooperating.
“Are you okay?” Daniel asked, leaning close so he could whisper in my ear.
“Define ‘okay.’”
“Not about to pass out or otherwise slide into unconsciousness.”
“I don’t know,” I groaned, thinking unconsciousness would be a welcome relief.
“Do you want to go?”
“They told us to wait,” I said.
“I can take care of that,” he said confidently.
“How?”
He lifted the small rock he had been playing with to my eye level. He made a dramatic motion with his other hand, and the rock disappeared.
“Magic.”
“Show off.” I found his eyes. “It’s in the palm of your other hand, by the way.”
I didn’t want him to think I missed anything, or that I couldn’t see through his magic. He chuckled, and braced himself to stand, throwing the artfully concealed rock on to the ground. He stopped before he walked away and gave me a funny look. “Your hair is longer than I thought.”
I ran a hand through my hair realizing that my normal spiky look had disappeared. It was down to my ears now, scraggly from the weight of the water.
“Oh, yeah?” I asked.
“Yeah.”
“Is that good or bad?”
He shrugged. “Not everything is good or bad, some things just are. But yes, I like it.”
I made a face at him in response, thinking he was teasing me. Another round of tiredness swept through me. I looked up at him, aware that his charm could get the cops to let him do anything.
“I think you’d better hurry with whatever magic trick you’re going to pull.”
He nodded and walked across the grassy lawn with the alien grace that hinted he was more than just your typical hot football player. As soon as he was far enough away, the buzzing started up again, increasing to the point where it was overwhelming. Wanting a distraction, I picked up the rock he had discarded and started playing with it. It didn’t work.
He’s so cute.
I can’t wait to get home and tell everyone about this. I hope they don’t already know…
I don’t see how they made it out of there without a scratch. Bob said the fire was hotter than anything he’d ever seen on the job.
What were they doing down there together, I wo
nder?
Does he like her? How could he like her? She looks like a guy. Well, her face doesn’t, but she’s got short hair. I looked over and saw Jennifer staring at me. The sound of her gnawing on her jealousy would have been funny if I hadn’t been so tired.
If it was me, no one would’ve cared. If it was me, they would have just let me burn. Why couldn’t it have been me? I looked to my other side and saw Amanda staring sadly. Her thoughts were like a punch in the gut.
Two other voices, a man and a woman, swirled up. It was obviously a conversation from…somewhere.
Were you able to find anything out about what killed Ryan, Shawn?
Deputy Greene, Mom. And no, we haven’t found that thing that killed him. We’ve been searching the woods top to bottom.
What does the Sheriff say?
He’s doesn’t have a clue either. He’s got some hunters over from Macon County to search for any signs of the creature, but they haven’t turned up anything yet.
He was a friend of yours right?
Yeah, he was a good man.
More voices and conversations swirled around me. I started rubbing at my forehead, trying to shut them out. “Stop, stop, stop, stop, stop!” I said quietly to the voices. They ignored me.
One overrode the rest. Oh God, she could have been hurt! Where is she? There! Thank goodness!
I looked past Amanda, who was still staring, her thoughts a mess of depression, and saw Alex running towards me. She threw her arms around me when she got to me, hugging me close. “Don’t do that!” she chided.
“Do what?” I started laughing weakly, the voices still dancing in my head.
“Get blown up!”
“I didn’t do it on purpose!”
“I know.” She released me. “Are you okay?”
“I feel drained,” I told her honestly, “but otherwise unhurt.”
“What happened?” Her eyes were a curious mixture of confusion and understanding.
“You know about as much as I do,” I said uneasily.
A lot had happened that I couldn’t tell her. It wasn’t just my secrets I was protecting, not anymore. And I would continue to protect those secrets until I had cause not to.
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