The Telepath (The Viral Superhero Series Book 2)

by Bryan Cohen

  20

  When Ted crashed through the window, he could tell that most of flames were coming from the upstairs hallway. That's when he heard the cries of his mother. She was saying his name over and over again, though her voice was much weaker than usual. Ted flung his door open wide with his mind and saw her lying in the middle of the fire, which had engulfed the doorframe to Ted's bedroom.

  "Mom!"

  Ted attempted to control the fire that was surrounding his mother and climbing up the hanging quilt in the hallway. Seeing her in pain sent his emotions off the chart. His efforts to move the fire only made it worse.

  "Damn it!" He took off through the air and grabbed his mother out of the fire with the flames lapping at his clothes.

  He ignored the heat and pain as he landed on the ground floor. She screamed as she dropped to the ground, rolling out the patches of fire on her pajamas. A hiss of air and foam zipped through the air and Ted turned to see his father using the extinguisher to get the last of the flames that were lapping at his wife.

  "Dad." It was all Ted could get out when he looked at them.

  "I was downstairs for a snack when I heard it." Ted's mother yelped as his dad tried to cradle her.

  Ted used his powers to open the front door. "Take her. I'll–"

  Mr. Finley put his hand on Ted's shoulder and handed him the extinguisher. He picked up Ted's mom and walked out the front door. While Ted had flown too fast for his clothes to catch fire, he noticed a deep, stinging sensation on the back of his hand. Ted shook off the burn and flew back upstairs. The fire had spread from the hallway to both his room and his parents' room. Ted released the contents of the extinguisher, which emitted a hissing sound and took out the fire with ease.

  When all the flames were gone, Ted saw several pieces of metal lying just outside his room, indicating where a bomb had detonated. He kicked a hole through the wall before he noticed Erica standing at the top of the stairs.

  "The ambulance is here for your mom."

  Ted was about to fly down and out the front door when he saw Erica's outstretched arms. He stopped and let himself melt into them for a few seconds. He knew he'd be in front of television cameras soon, but this was a place where he could show his true emotions.

  Erica ran her hand down Ted's back. "It's gonna be OK."

  Ted nodded against Erica's shoulder. "You'll tell Dhiraj?"

  Erica put on her best possible smile given the situation and nodded. Ted gave her one last look and bolted for the ambulance.

  Ted and his father rode to the hospital. The EMTs had given Ted's mother something for the pain, and she was breathing calmly. The medics said the burns weren't life-threatening, but the wounds Ted could see on his mother's arms and torso looked ghastly.

  "They were trying to get me." Ted looked at his father. "They saw my car in the driveway and tried to kill me in my sleep."

  His father grimaced. "We don't know that for sure."

  "Dad. This wouldn't have happened if I–"

  Ted's father took his hand. "We love you, Ted."

  He gripped his dad's hand and let his eyes well up with tears.

  The EMTs were right about his mother's burns, and it didn't take long for the doctors to tell Ted and his father that she'd heal with very little scarring. As Ted had the small burn on his hand examined, Sheriff Norris came walking up with a grim look on his face. Erica had seen him enter from the waiting area and followed close behind.

  "You alright, Ted?"

  Ted did his best to look strong. He'd been practicing the face during the many photographs and videos the media had taken of him in the last half hour.

  "I'll survive. My mom will survive. It could've been worse."

  The sheriff crinkled a document in his hands. "There's... We've got a lead on the bomb."

  Erica asked the nurse to excuse them. Ted shifted on the hospital bed and the paper beneath him noisily moved to accommodate.

  "You don't look happy about it." Erica put her hands on her hips.

  Erica was right: the sheriff looked downright uncomfortable.

  "Natalie Dorner's phone was found at your house. Prints on the phone match the ones on the bomb."

  Ted pounded his fist on the bed and the curtains that surrounded them fluttered upward as if a gust of wind had gone by.

  "I knew it. There's no way she would've hung out with those GHA dicks unless she was brainwashed like Beth."

  Ted expected to see the same look of realization on Erica's face. Instead, she looked embarrassed.

  "Actually…."

  "Actually what?" Ted asked.

  "I kinda, sorta... sent Natalie undercover to infiltrate the GHA."

  Ted laid his head back onto the bed and groaned. "We just had a whole conversation about you being more honest with me!" Ted sat up and scowled at Erica. "You give me a cake, you ask me to go to prom–"

  "Did he say yes?" Sheriff Norris asked.

  Erica nodded.

  "Oh, congratulations."

  "Thanks." Erica let a momentary smile escape before turning back to Ted.

  "Ugh. Where's Natalie now?" Ted was hoping for a more positive look from the sheriff.

  "She didn't come home after school. There was a GHA meeting tonight, but they're denying that she was there."

  "Ted, I'm sorry about Natalie." Erica touched the side of the bed. "We're going to find her."

  Ted caught the sheriff's eye. "I want to see him."

  The sheriff folded the document and put it in his pocket. "I don't think that's such a good idea."

  Ted scooted himself to the edge of the bed. "I want to see Cobblestone and I want to see him now."

  21

  Dhiraj was halfway to the first part of "early to bed, early to rise" when he received word about the bombing via a text message from Erica. He took the neatly folded clothes sitting on the top of the dresser and changed into them without a second thought. Dhiraj switched off the loudest alarm clock in the country and remade his bed, dollar-bill comforter and all. He had a nervous feeling in his stomach.

  There'll be no sleep tonight.

  By the time he turned on the TV, they were already pegging Natalie as a potential suspect. He tried to get in touch with her via phone and social media, but there was complete radio silence.

  After his text conversation with Erica, the first person Dhiraj called was Jennifer. She told him she could give him a lift to the hospital, and he was happy to take the ride, given his current level of sleepiness.

  Dhiraj told his father where he was going and lugged his stuff downstairs. He opened the front door just as Jennifer was about to come in. The two of them hugged for a full minute.

  "I'm sorry, Dhiraj." She was breathing heavier than he expected. "She's going to be OK."

  Dhiraj hated the fact that the comforting from Jennifer made him feel aroused. He decided to blame it on teenage hormones instead of a sick mind.

  "Thanks. I know she will."

  They packed Dhiraj's stuff into the car. He noticed a large cooler in the back. "What's with the cooler?"

  Jennifer fidgeted with the car keys and almost dropped them before she responded. "In case the hospital food is terrible, I brought a few meals."

  Dhiraj could tell Jennifer was uneasy.

  Did the bombing really make her that nervous?

  The first thing Dhiraj noticed about Jennifer's car was the clutter. A few folders and school assignments, as well as a field hockey stick, littered the back. The vehicle smelled like a concentrated burst of the Norris household, which made Dhiraj's heart race.

  As Jennifer pulled out of Dhiraj's neighborhood, she put on a classical station and drove on the empty road.

  "Are you alright, Jen? Between the other day and now, you seem a little on edge."

  Jennifer let out a quiet laugh. "I've been out of it lately. Still trying to get my head on straight after Erica... and Ted…."

  Dhiraj put his hand on Jennifer's shoulder. "I totally understand."

 
; Jennifer let out a deep breath. "I think I'm moving toward a solution, though."

  Dhiraj yawned. His typical sleeping plan tended to take a hit during these late night encounters.

  "Excuse me." Dhiraj rubbed his eyes. "That's good. You know, you can always talk to me."

  "Thanks, Dhiraj."

  Dhiraj yawned again. "Except for right now. Do you mind if I take a little catnap?"

  Jennifer chuckled. "Not at all. I'll let you know when we're there."

  Dhiraj leaned back against the comfortable seat and let sleep wash over him.

  When he woke up, the faint hint of light left in the sky was gone. Dhiraj could swear he saw a sign for a town in New Jersey. When he glanced over at Jennifer, she stared straight ahead with a slight lean forward. It was as if everything in her mind and body had focused on what was coming.

  "I think you missed the turn."

  Jennifer didn't even look over at him. "I know exactly where we're going."

  Dhiraj felt himself go from sleepy to alert in the course of a few seconds. The same Jennifer who wanted to skip school and make out with him on a whim was driving them to an unknown destination.

  "We need to see Ted's mom and how everybody's doing."

  Jennifer gave a quick glance over to Dhiraj and then back to the road. "We've got something more important to do."

  Jennifer's tone had more bite to it than Dhiraj had ever heard escape her mouth.

  "And what's that?"

  Jennifer moved her neck to the side. Dhiraj could hear the joint crack to relieve some tension.

  "Retribution," she said.

  22

  Natalie woke up the next morning on the cold, hard bed she'd curled up on the previous night. There was a wool sheet on top of her that made her body warm enough to sleep. It also caused her to itch like crazy, but contracting something from a communal blanket was the least of her worries.

  After a short stretching routine and a few dozen pushups, she walked over to the tiny view through the locked door into the room. There were two new guards stationed outside, each of them brandishing batons and pistols. Last night, she'd done everything she could to plead with them. She said she didn't even want to get out. She just wanted to know if Ted was OK. Aside from the plate of food they'd tossed in when she'd dozed off, they'd completely stonewalled her.

  "Good morning, sheep." Natalie made the tiniest of waves when one of the guards looked through the window.

  She stalked around the room for what felt like the millionth time as she looked for potential ways to escape her prison cell. The room was bare except for one hopeless escape route: the door to the hallway.

  Natalie had been given the grand tour during the previous GHA meeting, and since her captivity she'd deconstructed exactly how she'd escape. If she could just get into the hallway.

  As she stood at the opposite end of the room, a guard unlatched the lock and slid in a tray of food. Before Natalie could even plant her feet for a mad dash, the door was already closed and locked. The apple and buttered toast didn't interest her nearly as much as the newspaper on the other side of the tray. She took the items back to her bed and chomped on the apple as she scanned the front page. It didn't take long for her to lose her appetite. The Treasure Tribune, a paper that had listed her accolades since middle school, now cited her as the primary suspect in the bombing. The article sported a picture of Ted's house on fire and described the injuries of his mother. Natalie's muscles tensed and her brain told her it was time to punch somebody.

  That's exactly what they want. No more getting jerked around.

  Natalie thought about her call to Erica, asking to be of some assistance to the cause.

  "You've been distant." Erica sounded mad over the line. "I bet the kids at school think you hate him right about now."

  Hearing Erica's voice say "kids" made Natalie think about just how many lifetimes the girl had led.

  "I'm sorry." Natalie had known it was a bad idea to call.

  "No." Erica's tone brightened. "It's perfect actually. Would you mind having people hate you for a little while?"

  Natalie smiled. "I always play better in away games. I love it when they boo."

  The girlish laugh on the other end made Natalie hopeful.

  The prisoner didn't expect she'd be this hated, though. She could picture the town dividing into two. On one side, there would be the teammates, coaches and friends who knew the real Natalie. On the other would be the GHAers and people who believed everything they read or heard online. She hoped the one side would be louder than the other, but just in case it wasn't….

  Natalie took out the paper's advertising section. She tested the hard, sharp edge of the paper before she used it to slice open her palms. It took a few tries, but before long, she had a faint trickle of blood running down to her wrists. Natalie had learned not to let pain get to her during years of knee-to-knee collisions and semi-intentional eye gouges. As she squeezed her hands, she watched the blood rush through the small lacerations.

  "This oughta get their attention."

  Natalie crept up to the door, staying low enough to avoid the guards' gaze. When she'd pushed enough blood out of her cuts, she rubbed it all over the window. Natalie wiped the rest on her shirt and screamed the highest pitch sound she could muster.

  One of the guards spied the blood and opened the door. As soon as his leg crossed the entrance, Natalie kicked with all her might. His leg made a cracking sound as the heavy door smashed into his knee. He shrieked with pain.

  "Your scream is way better than mine." Natalie kicked the door again in rapid succession until the guard had collapsed and wedged the door open.

  With a running leap, Natalie sprung out of the room and into the other guard before he could draw his weapon. Both of them toppled to the ground and Natalie could hear an alarm sound. She looked up at a flashing red light.

  "No time for finesse."

  Before the guard could fully recover, Natalie kicked him squarely in the crotch and ran for the exit. She didn't even look back to see him crumple to the ground as she pushed her way through a door and out of the hallway. She ignored a cramp in her side as she used memory and instinct to move her from one room to the next.

  "Almost there."

  When Natalie reached the foyer of the building, she saw the door that would bring her freedom. She'd never run as fast as she ran right then, until she felt the bullet hit her in the back. She'd been moving so quickly that when she fell forward, her body skidded several feet on the painted cement.

  The pain from the projectile was excruciating. When she reached back to feel for blood, she was surprised not to find any.

  "Rubber bullet," Travis said. "Cobblestone says he's not quite ready to kill you yet."

  As much as it hurt to move, Natalie turned over to a sitting position and attempted to melt Travis' face with her eyes. She wondered if someday that trick would work. Natalie expected that Travis' face would be villainous and cruel. He actually looked more hurt than angry.

  "Shooting someone in the back is kind of a dick move." Natalie tried to inch her way closer to the exit door.

  Travis kept pace-for-pace with her, gun drawn and pointed directly at her head. "So is pretending to be someone you're not."

  Natalie growled. "I think bombing a classmate and injuring his mother wins the psycho contest." Natalie stopped a few inches short of the door. "So congratulations to you and your hateful organization."

  Travis fired another shot. This one whizzed by Natalie's ear and ricocheted off the door.

  "I'm not afraid to shoot you again."

  Natalie pushed past all the pain in her back and stood up. "You may not be afraid to shoot me from point blank range, but you are afraid. Afraid of telling the truth."

  Travis cringed. "The truth doesn't matter."

  Natalie stood as tall as she could manage. "You've got a room full of people who are going to cheer for Ted's mom getting injured. If they knew the truth–"

  "It's
too late." Travis’ face began to twitch. "You're going back in the cell."

  "You know what happened to the Torellos. You know that Ted is a hero." Natalie noticed the two other guards enter the room. "You're a good guy, Travis. I know you'll do the right thing."

  Natalie watched Travis' gun hand shake while the other guards used a plastic tie to bind her wrists. Even when they kicked her in the back of the knees to send her to the ground, Natalie never took her eyes off Travis. When the guards pulled her back to the cell, she saw her classmate over her shoulder, continuing to stand in the very same position. She wondered if getting to him was her only hope of making it out alive.

  23

  Erica took careful steps into Beth's hospital room, which happened to be only a floor up from where Ted's mother was recovering. The room was sterile and smelled of rubbing alcohol. Beth looked directly at her when she walked through the door.

  "Oh my God, Erica!" Beth squealed. She emphasized almost every other syllable she spoke. "What is going on? You have to help me."

  The hospital staff had bound Beth's wrists to the bed to keep her from trying to escape. Erica knew she'd have a hard time convincing the nurses to let her loose after 24 hours of raising hell.

  "Hey, hun." Erica gave her friend a hug. "I'll see what I can do. How you feeling?"

  "How am I feeling?" Beth did her best to gesticulate without the use of her hands. "I have doctors coming in every two hours treating me like a crazy person. I'm tied to the bed like some wild boar." She jerked her head to one side of the room and the other. "And I haven't even touched Facebook for two straight days. My life is the worst."

  Erica sat down at the chair beside her bed. "I'm sorry." Erica forced a smile. "At least you'll probably drop five pounds from the terrible hospital food."

  Beth started to cry. Erica did her best not to hate all teenage girls at that moment.

  "You know, before your boyfriend got superpowers, everything was fine." Beth wiped a few tears on her hospital gown. "You were there to hang out with me and play 'Who Wore It Best' in the hallways. We were all everybody cared about. Now, everybody just wants to see Ted hover off the ground."