This sense of disquiet followed me through a delicious breakfast of waffles with whipped cream and bananas.
It stayed with me as I dressed and then ran at top speed through misty March weather to the warehouse where the Brighthalls trained for their supernormal duties as protectors. Supernormals had as many job opportunities as normals, just with a different slant. Instead of normal police officers hunting normal criminals, my family was a sort of supernormal police force who hunted both beasts and bad supernormals.
The plain gray exterior of the warehouse was as uninteresting as the rest of the buildings surrounding it in Portland’s Central Eastside Industrial District. No one would ever guess that inside the large doors resided Portland’s supernormal training facility, run by my mother’s siblings, Aunt Kate, Uncle Dan, and Uncle Alex, collectively referred to by my cousins as “the ‘rents.”
We were down a ‘rent right now – Uncle Alex was attending a silent meditation retreat for two weeks. His significant ability was empathic healing and he occasionally needed time away from people to regain his balance. It was an impressive ability, giving him the power to heal people by briefly absorbing their ailment before his body healed at a super-fast rate. I often felt it was too bad he couldn’t use his ability to heal mental illness – perhaps he could have stopped Emma from going all dark side.
Zoe and Kevin were already sparring in the boxing ring when I arrived. Uncle Dan nodded at me and pointed at the treadmill. He didn’t say much these days; discovering that his daughter joined Mountain of Ash shook his world, sending him into a dark funk for days. When he came out of it, he was all about training and not much else. These days he built our training sessions as if he was preparing for battle, driving us to train harder and harder. Aunt Kate intervened when she felt he’d crossed the line into crazy town, like the time Uncle Dan wanted to drop us off in Death Valley with no supplies and make us live out there for three days. I’d never seen Aunt Kate so mad. Not only was Death Valley dangerous because of its weather, it was also a safe haven for various supernormal beasts. Uncle Dan lightened up for a week or so after that, but he was starting to ramp up the intensity again. I’d noticed him looking up locations in Antarctica last week.
Uncle Dan’s meek, normal wife, Aunt Susannah, had overcome her awe of the supernormal world and left him, returning to her family in Chicago. She said she wanted to mourn her daughter’s disgrace alone. I felt sorry for Aunt Susannah; because she was a normal, she couldn’t even visit Emma in Ley Prison.
On my way to the treadmill, I saw Aunt Kate bent over her ubiquitous iPad in the classroom area. Taller than my mother had been, she kept her dark brown hair cut short and her face unlined. The light caught new glints of grey threading along her temples, evidence of the strain she’d been in for the past several months.
I hesitated. Should I tell Aunt Kate about the bizarre vision, dream, or whatever I’d seen that morning? I imagined the conversation. Hey, Aunt Kate, I saw a woman’s face in my head this morning. It kind of weirded me out. No, I don’t know who she is.
I didn’t see that conversation going anywhere good.
“Olivia?” Aunt Kate looked at me curiously. “Do you need something?” She sat back in her chair, running her hands over her face. When she lowered her hands, I saw she had dark circles under her eyes.
I didn’t want to worry her with something that was probably inconsequential. “No, I’m good.” I gave her a weak smile. The vision thingy was nothing, just me being tired and overstimulated by all the hunting and training.
“Okay.” She bent back over the iPad, frowning at whatever was on the screen.
I continued to the treadmill, setting the program to a mountain run equal to climbing Mount Hood. Stepping onto the treadmill put me in the line of sight of the large tank that used to be full of water. It was gone now, more evidence of Hugh’s death. One of Hugh’s last training challenges was to learn to hold his breath underwater for extended periods. The tank was where he practiced daily. Uncle Dan emptied it one night and never spoke about it again, but the hollow tank was a daily reminder of my cousin. Like I needed one.
I was just finding my stride when Aunt Kate shouted, “Kids, get over here. Harold called. We’ve got another hunt.” She waved us over while talking rapidly into a headset.
I jumped off the treadmill and darted over to the classroom area, catching the towel Zoe tossed me. I mopped sweat off my face while Aunt Kate pulled up a map on one of the large monitors. Her fingers moved swiftly on the keyboard as she entered an address. Kevin wandered over, keeping his arms crossed and his expression blank, as it had been since his brother died.
“Harold found two of his friends dead outside this empty building on Highway 30,” Aunt Kate informed us, referring to a local homeless man who knew about supernormals. “He thinks whatever killed them is inside the building. He says it looks like a supernormal beast kill. One of his friends’ bodies was stripped to the bone, and the other friend is mangled but still intact.” Aunt Kate frowned. “He’s been tracking monsters again, even though I told him not to.” She shook her head. “Anyway, no time to waste. You’re going to have to run it. Driving would be too slow.”
Zoe tossed me my sword and jacket while Kevin grabbed his weapon. I strapped on the sword with hasty movements, worrying about Harold’s safety. I’d run into him a few times since meeting him last fall, usually when he was helping Uncle Alex heal the homeless folks around town.
“Come on, Olivia,” Zoe snapped. “Let’s go.”
(Continued in The Supernormal Legacy, Book 2: Root, coming in June. In the meantime, check out the other fine offerings from Not a Pipe Publishing!)
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