Wicked Revenge

by Gladden, DelSheree

  She doesn’t have to finish her thought for me to remember the morning I told Annabelle I loved her for the first time, how seconds before that we’d been on the verge of taking our relationship to a more physical level. Until we realized neither of us had thought far enough ahead to have any form of contraception. Apparently, Annabelle doesn’t want to run into that dilemma again. Suddenly, I don’t feel all that tired anymore.

  Chapter Eighteen: The Others

  (Vanessa)

  My body feels stiff as my brain attempts to wake up. I squeeze my eyes shut and tell my brain to bite me. There are thoughts hovering at the edges of my consciousness I don’t have to be fully awake to know aren’t going to be good for me to think about. That’s where they need to stay.

  Ketchup’s arm tightens around my middle, as if he can sense my half-awake turmoil and instinctually tries to distract me from it. I’m happy to let him. Bits and pieces of last night’s events swim in my mind, though. No matter how hard I try to banish them, they’re relentless in poking at me. Every time I physically flinch from their attack, Ketchup pulls me closer. Normally that’s enough. Not today.

  Sucking noises startle me and my thoughts. For a few precious seconds, my head is clear. Not sure where the noise is coming from, I force one eye open and search the unfamiliar room, from my position on the floor, until I spot Joshua grinning at me. Even with his face squashed against the mesh sides of his playpen, he’s managed to get his fingers in his mouth and is slobbering all over the place.

  “Ba,” he whispers.

  Smiling back at him, I can’t bring myself to shut him out. I vaguely remember playing with him last night. He asks for the game every time I see him. I hadn’t even meant to do it the first time. Emily’s second day at the school, she got pulled away and asked me to watch Joshua for a few minutes. As soon as he was in my arms, my power reached out for him and Joshua lit up with joy.

  My work with Cynthia and Cat has improve my ability to move my power on command tremendously. That was all I intended to do when I started pushing my power through him. He loved it, so I kept going. He even seemed to sense or see it, and would follow its path with his hands, babbling and squealing the entire time. Only when I realized I’d poured too much into him and tried to pull back, did my power resist. I couldn’t take it back into myself, yet it seemed happy to escape his body as easily as it escaped mine.

  So…I gathered the power to his center, his favorite place to hold it, and sent it bursting outward. He fell over, laughing so hard, I was afraid he couldn’t breathe properly. As soon as he recovered, he started begging, “Ba! Ba! Ba!” He’s too adorable to refuse, so we played the game three more times before Emily came back.

  Even though Joshua seems to understand others are sleeping and he should be quiet, he’s just as insistent now as he was the first time. “Ba. Ba. Ba,” he pleads. No one else seems disturbed by his noise. Oscar and Emily are buried beneath a blanket, while Ketchup’s breathing tells me he won’t wake for a while yet.

  Feeling less than myself after last night, and enjoying the game almost as much as Joshua, I’m sure it will help me recover my strength and senses. Ketchup resists my movement, but I slip out of his grip and quietly pad over to the playpen. Joshua pulls his wet hand from his mouth and reaches up for me to collect him.

  It occurs to me before I leave the room that waking up to find their son missing will set Oscar and Emily off in a panic. Ketchup will most likely react similarly to find me gone. Stepping over his sleeping form, I grab a piece of paper off the top of a stack of notes and books that looks as though they were abandoned there in a rush. It’s like playing Pick-Up Sticks trying to extract a pen from the haphazard pile without knocking it over, but I eventually get it and scrawl out a quick note saying I’ve taken Joshua to the gym to play before I need to start getting ready for school.

  After folding it like a tent and setting it on top of the tower of papers and books where it won’t be missed, I slip out of the room. The moment we’re in the hall, Joshua begins babbling. I haven’t been around many babies, any babies, really, but my little nephew seems unusually perceptive for his age. Maybe it’s just his closeness to his mom that he knows when to be quiet and when it’s okay to be loud and silly. I’m not sure, but every syllable of nonsense he utters lightens my mood considerably.

  It’s so early, only the barest hints of the approaching dawn filter in through the high windows of the gym. Not nearly enough light to see clearly. Flipping on just one set of the lights, I take Joshua over to the mats and set him down. Full of energy even at five in the morning, he tips forward onto his hands and knees and investigates his new surroundings. He seems captivated by the squishiness of the mat. For several minutes, I watch him meander across the mat, blocking out all thoughts not related to him.

  That gets easier when he lifts his knees and makes a valiant attempt at standing without falling on his nose. He tries several times to lift his head and chest without toppling his balance, but ends up on his backside every time. Finally, he looks over at me with an almost comically serious expression and says, “Ba!”

  Chuckling at him, I send my power into his little body all the same. A smile lights up his pudgy cheeks, but he goes back to work instead of wanting to continue the usual game. He surprises me by making it to standing on his next attempt. Oddly enough, he doesn’t seem surprised at all and claps his hands at his accomplishment.

  “Look at you, cute boy,” I say as I move closer to the mat and sit down several feet away from him.

  Emily mentioned earlier that he had yet to stand without something to pull himself up on and hadn’t taken his first steps. She’d asked Cat if it was normal that he hadn’t begun walking yet, and was relieved when she told her that Verity hadn’t walked until around fourteen months old. Part of me feels guilty that Emily and Oscar aren’t here to see this, but I relish sharing the moment with him.

  “What do you think?” I ask Joshua. “Want to try walking while you’re still on your feet?” I motion my outstretched fingers for him to come to me and am immediately rewarded with a grin.

  Wobbling ensues as he tries to lift his foot without tipping over, but he eventually snaps one foot forward, then the other. I think that’s as far as he’s going to make it. He surprises me by launching forward and stumbling into my arms. As soon as he smacks into me, he starts giggling relentlessly. I smother him with proud kisses before he wriggles out of my grip and begins crawling toward the edge of the mat. I reach for him, afraid he’s going to misjudge the three-inch change in elevation and conk his head on the floor, but he stops at the edge and sits with his feet on the linoleum.

  As soon as he settles, he point in front of him and says, “Da!”

  Not sure what he wants me to do, I cock my head to the side and ask, “You want to play the game?”

  Pointing again, he repeats his request and kicks his feet up and down. He keeps it up until I get up from the mat and stand in front of him. His arms and legs kick again and he grins excitedly. “Da! Da!”

  It takes me a moment to remember this same reaction from yesterday when Ketchup showed him a video of me dancing. “You want to see me dance?” I ask, incredulous.

  When he reacts immediately, clapping and babbling, a bubble of fear springs to life in the pit of my stomach. I haven’t danced since coming back from the compound. As much as I love it, his too much a reminder of David, of what he taught me and how much I connected with it. Joshua’s innocent request pulls at me. It reminds me that dance didn’t always used to be something David twisted into more training. It was what convinced Chris to work with me, try to protect and prepare me. There was a time it was my only form of release, the hunger and power I struggled with so much back then pushing me to excel to heights I had never managed in any other area of my life.

  Once, dancing brought me peace.

  I need that now more than ever.

  The possibility of beginning, and falling back into thoughts of training and Da
vid, scares me. So much. It calls to me as well, whispers maybe this is what I need. I’ve enjoyed training with Cat, but Tai Chi isn’t enough on its own. I need more, need to feel the connection between heart, mind, and body only dancing has ever been able to fully give me.

  “Okay, cute boy,” I say quietly. I have no idea where my phone ended up last night, but I don’t need it to have music. Mom’s love of classical music imprinted those melodies on my mind long before I started dancing. Joshua quiets as I begin humming the music for the “Dawn” dance in Coppélia. It’s not the most technical or challenging piece I know, but with all the hops, extensions, and movement, I think it will be fun for Joshua to watch.

  Some of the positions and movements are a little trickier in bare feet instead of pointe shoes, but as soon as I begin the first series of steps, my mind shifts from entertaining Joshua to feeling my way through each movement. My stiff muscles strain against even simple movements. Power trickles into them with barely a conscious thought from me. It’s become second nature. The more I push, the more my body responds. The small hops choreographed into the dance reach higher, my pace pushing past what the music allows for. I reach the end of “Dawn” and keep going, each piece more of a challenge, requiring more effort, more power, more concentration.

  I keep hold of enough of my focus to keep peeking at Joshua, who sits completely enraptured on the mat, his bright eyes following my every movement. He exhibits no hunger that anyone else can feel, but there’s no doubt in my mind he feels it in us. Maybe he enjoys the dance as much as he does following the power, I’m not sure. As I share both with him, my muscles hum with the power coursing through me, my hunger alive and devouring the strain I’m putting my muscles through, both working together until the effort finally wins out and exhaustion claims victory.

  Breathing hard, I slide my bare, filthy feet into fifth position and allow my arms to come back to a resting position. Joshua doesn’t giggle or clap, only stares at me with a peaceful, calm expression. “Was that what you wanted, cute…”

  The vision hits me simultaneous to a wave of pure heat flashing through my body.

  “I don’t like this place,” a young, dark-haired girl says. “Being underground makes the pain worse.”

  A girl of similar age, with pale skin and warm brown eyes gives her a sympathetic look. “Being underground doesn’t matter. You’re just upset about your sister, and that’s making the pain harder to manage.”

  The girl’s eyes drop to her sandwich to hide the tears pooling there. She flinches when the clattering of a dropped plate announces additions to the group. “You don’t like it here?” A sneering voice asks. This girl is older by a few years, maybe thirteen. “Poor baby. How sad that you don’t like living underground like a rat. Not like it’s your sister’s fault we’re all stuck here, right?”

  She laughs harshly, a boy and girl taking seats to either side of her joining in. Her focus stays pinned to the girl. “Poor little Sonya, so sad her traitor sister failed. What a loss. She couldn’t even just fail once and spare us all. No, she had to fail twice, betraying us in the process. Ivy deserved what she got,” the hateful girl says. “You’ll do no better. Tainted blood. You’ve always been a loser, weaker than everyone else, slower, stupider, a disappointment to everyone…especially Isolde.”

  “Shut up, Callie,” Sonya’s friend snaps.

  The table explodes into motion as Callie lunges forward and grabs a fistful of Sonya’s hair. Her friend tackles Sonya’s friend when she tries to help her, and she flinches when Callie slams Sonya’s head down to the table. The terrified girl gasps when cold steel presses against her neck. She doesn’t resist or try to get away. Dark desire swims in her eyes, hoping Callie will just do it and end her miserable existence.

  “Whatever special something Isolde thought your sister had, she was wrong. When we attack their pathetic school, I wouldn’t be surprised if Isolde left you behind. Your call isn’t strong enough to tempt any of the Roth’s, not even the crazy one. Ivy was nothing, and so are you.” She shoves her back, knocking her off her chair and onto the floor. Standing over her, she glares down at Sonya. “Don’t ever forget that.”

  Callie grabs her plate and spins away, smirking at the watching Isolde as she walks to another table.

  “Ba, ba, ba,” greets me as I suck in a lungful of air. Something is tapping on my leg, but I can’t move. Muscles locked up, I can’t even get my eyes to focus for a few seconds. The tapping continues with the sounds, and my brain tells me it’s Joshua, but I can’t respond yet.

  My spasmodic gasping for air finally begins to slow after a few seconds, loosening my muscles. I think that’s a good thing until they begin to tremble, my knees buckling. I’m not in control enough to do anything to stop my fall. I cry out when hands grab me from behind, but Oscar’s voice follows soon after, telling me it’s okay and to calm down.

  Supported by my brother, I struggle to do what he’s asking. It’s taking longer to recover from this vision than previous ones. That scares me, but as a second set of hands slide around my waist, the effects retreat more quickly and my eyes focus to find Ketchup in front of me with Joshua on his hip. Worry crowds his features while Joshua smacks his palm to my cheek.

  “Joshua,” Emily scolds. She reaches in to take him from Ketchup, but I latch onto him and shake my head. Emily hesitates for a moment, then steps back with a smile.

  While my nephew continues to pat my face and poke my cheek with his index finger, Ketchups asks, “What did you see?”

  My eyes flutter as the images from the vision skip through my mind. “Sonya,” I tell him, “and other Richiamos. Underground. Some sort of bunker. They know about the school. Plan to attack us. Isolde was there, watching them, letting some awful girl bully and threaten Sonya. She blamed Sonya for Ivy failing and them having to run.”

  “Any clue where they were?”

  I shake my head. “It was just some room with concrete walls. It could be anywhere.”

  “How many Richiamos?” Oscar asks.

  Flinching, I only now consider how awful it will be to come up against more than one. Zander and I barely survived Ivy. “Five that I saw. Four girls and one boy.”

  Oscar nods. “If you have any other visions of these creatures, I need to know. If we can find them, or they do attack, knowing how many there are will impact our plans.”

  “They’re not creatures,” I say, surprised by the heat in my voice. When Oscar’s hard gaze lands on me, I try not to let it affect me. “They’re kids. Especially Sonya. She looked like the youngest, and she’s scared, and grieving.”

  Ketchup’s brows rise in surprise. “You think she and Ivy had a relationship?”

  I shrug. “Enough of one that’s she’s upset she’s dead.”

  Ketchup frowns, and Oscar does the same. It’s Ketchup who speaks, though. “Who does she blame? If we actually find her, will she come with us?”

  It’s a good question, one I hadn’t even considered. Ivy asked us to save her. What if she doesn’t want to be saved? Until Ivy had to face her own beliefs head-on in the face of her failure and love for Zander, she believed in what she was doing. She would have seen a bunch of Godlings coming to get her as I death sentence, not a rescue.

  “I don’t know,” I admit. “I have no idea what she thinks about her training, but…she’s miserable, and Isolde watched these girls attack her and did nothing. Maybe that will be enough.”

  Oscar folds his arms across his chest. “The rest of the Richiamos won’t come willingly. We’ll have to plan for that.”

  “Wait,” I say, pulling away from Ketchup and stumbling a little before he grabs my arm to steady me. “The others? What do you mean?”

  His thoughts seem to be focused on something else now, but Oscar answers me in a distracted tone. “We can’t leave them for Isolde to turn into weapons, Van. Sonya will be rescued. The others…they will be captured, either when we attack or they do.”

  “And then what?” I demand
.

  Oscar shrugs and forces his attention back to me. “It depends on them. Ivy chose her fate. So must they.”

  Chapter Nineteen: The Rightness or Wrongness

  (Oscar)

  I despise being confused. It feels like I am being lied to, by someone or something…the universe possibly. It feels like bugs beneath my skin. It’s unpleasant and frustrating. My son feels nothing of my internal consternation, giggling as I pretend to nibble on the fingers he has stuffed into my mouth.

  Van has been doing well the last two days since dancing in the gym as Joshua watched. It was his request, which is odd. My experience with infants is limited to Zander and Van, animals I cared for at the vet clinic—for however that might apply. Zander, I don’t remember very well. Too young. Van I remember better. I spent a great deal of time with her, even then. My mind was better as a child, but there were still things I struggled with, and being around her helped.

  As special as Van was, and is, there is something unique about Joshua. Something confusing.

  “Still stumped?” Emily asks as she closes the door behind her.

  My frown is answer enough.

  Emily reaches down and pulls Joshua up from my laugh. Wiggling him in front of her face, she says, “Why won’t you tell Daddy your secrets, huh? Why do you want to be so silly?”

  Joshua giggles, but reaches back toward me and Emily hands him back. “Do you think it would be too dangerous to go for a walk around the grounds?” she asks. “We’ve all been cooped up the last few days. Maybe some fresh air will help clear your mind.”

  I’m almost positive that won’t work, but I nod anyway. Being at the hospital so long, I’m used to not seeing the outside world for extended periods of time. My family is not. Unfolding myself from the floor, I put Joshua on my hip and reach out for Emily’s hand. She takes it with a smile.