The Chosen Ones: Red Smoke

by Mitchelly Melo

  He walked up to me with a look that a predator would give his prey. I felt my stomach turn and my breathing became heavy. He walked slowly; he was shirtless and had a crooked smile that made me dizzy. When he got close to me, he took my face in both hands and kissed me. He kissed me like the world was going to end there. As if it was the last kiss we would have. I wrapped my arms around him, pulling him closer and kissing him back as if it really were.

  "Now I don’t want to go," I said as I caught my breath.

  John smiled.

  "Go and have your coffee. I'll meet you down there.”

  I left the room with my legs starting to fail, but I managed not to fall on my face, which was a victory. I had a cup of coffee and immediately went running in the yard. There was almost no one awake, so I ran silently through the green landscape to the sound of birds. Not long after, John joined me.

  At lunch, Torim visited us. After John, Zal, Maena and Isys showed up and we all trained together. We were all sitting on the loungers eating when he arrived with a woman. I didn’t remember ever meeting her before.

  Her wavy hair didn’t past her shoulders. They were gray, but her face didn’t look old enough for that; she didn’t even look 40 years old. It was as if it were really her natural color. Her face looked serene as she watched us.

  "Boys," Torim said, nodding as he arrived. “Aster.”

  Maena cleared her throat suggestively and Isys and I smiled.

  "Girls," he said, rolling his eyes.

  "I'm sorry, I don’t think we've met officially yet," the woman interrupted, taking a step toward me. Her hazel eyes stared at me. "I saw you at the hotel, but I never had the opportunity to introduce myself. Taking care of a hotel keeps you occupied. I'm Liath.”

  “Liz. It's a pleasure to meet you,” I said and got up to shake the hand that was extended to me.

  "I'm sorry for what happened to you," she said, squeezing my hand lightly.

  To my surprise, it took me a few seconds to figure out what she was talking about.

  "Thank you," I said when I realized. "I was lucky to have such a good protector."

  John still didn’t accept his role in what had happened; I could tell from his expression whenever anyone mentioned the hunter's attack. This time it was no different. He just nodded quickly.

  "Our Chosen Ones are really special." Liath smiled at him.

  "That's why we're here," Torim continued. "The Council has been talking, and we need you to examine the place where Niko was found."

  I felt the tension coming from everyone, but, as was to be expected, especially from Zal. He rose, suddenly getting restless.

  "I thought the hotel was in confinement," Isys said.

  "No one leaves without necessity, it is true. But every other time you went through the crime scene, and this time you didn’t have that opportunity," Liath explained.

  "Before Niko, people would leave the hotel in peace knowing that only the Chosen Ones were in real danger," Torim said. "Now every person who goes out to work leaves the hotel with fear.”

  "We know it's a shot in the dark, but we can’t do nothing, either. Our people grew tired of living in fear," Liath said in her calm voice.

  "The only places where we really can really discover a solid lead are the crime scenes," Torim added.

  They were right, I thought. We couldn’t let this go on. We couldn’t live in constant fear of even leaving the hotel. I looked around, probing if everyone agreed with my thinking, and they all stood up to answer my question.

  "I think that's a yes," I said.

  “When are you going?” Torim asked.

  "We can go right now," Zal said. “Right?”

  We nodded and took our plates.

  "Be careful," Liath said.

  "We always do," John replied with a smile of excitement on his face.

  He was clearly eager to get back into action.

  Torim and Liath left and everyone took their plates and began to return inside the hotel. John and I walked quietly behind the others who talked intensely.

  For some reason, I was annoyed. I knew it wasn’t the mission itself; in fact, I was anxious to try to help. But soon I realized. I was afraid that John would insist that I wouldn’t go with them. Because I knew I would go anyway.

  We talked about it, but I know he always puts my safety first. I didn’t want to make him worried or upset. That was what bothered me. When we got to the door he stopped and turned to me. He pulled me by the waist and kissed me.

  "Come on," I said as we parted.

  "Aren’t you going to try to convince me to stay here?" I asked.

  "Liz, I meant it when I said I knew things would change," John said, serious. "I certainly don’t like putting you in danger, but I'll have to accept it."

  I smiled and kissed him as I felt the weight disappear from my shoulders.

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  We were in the car and everyone seemed very focused on the task to say a word. John was driving and I watched the view from the passenger seat. After the conversation with Torim and Liath we all went back to our rooms to change. I had trained for a long time, so I took a shower. I suspect everyone else did the same, as we met at the entrance to the hotel almost an hour later.

  After we passed the weapons cabinet, we got into the car. Since then everyone has been silent.

  "I can’t believe we're going back to that place," I heard Zal's voice suddenly. I wasn’t trying to listen, which made me jump in fright. John took my hand quickly.

  “What happened? Are you all right?” He asked.

  ‘I just...”

  I sighed deeply before answering.

  "Did you hear someone's mind unintentionally?" Maena said. "Been there.”

  "I think that was all that silence," I explained.

  "Sometimes our brains like to play tricks on us," she said.

  I turned back and smiled at Zal, — as if apologizing for invading his privacy, — and he returned the smile.

  “Are you okay?” I asked him.

  "No, actually," he said. "I didn’t think it would be so hard to come back here."

  "You can stay in the car, Zal," John offered. "We can handle this.”

  "Thank you, but you don’t have to. I owe it to Niko.”

  John nodded. A few minutes later, we parked and started walking. Just one street later, we came to where Niko was found. It was a narrow alley with no way out. There were not many people walking down the street and — obviously — no one in the dirty alley.

  "This is where we found Levvy, too," Isys said.

  "He decided to go out alone one night," John explained. "We found him here after his parents told us he hadn’t come back."

  "How did you find him?" I asked.

  "We traced his cell phone," John said. “We've installed an app on everyone's cell phone to know exactly where they are.”

  "Speaking of which, we have to install it on yours," Isys said.

  “What did you do?”

  "We retraced his steps," John went on. "We saw that he had spent the whole night in a bar, so we went there. We didn’t find anything. The waiter said he drank alone all night and left making out with a girl.”

  "And what should we do now?"

  "I don’t know exactly what we can do," Zal said, starting to look annoyed.

  I looked around and wondered what we could do. The alley had no way out, so the hunter could only have come the same way we did.

  "That diner," I said, pointing to the diner that had a clear view of the alley.

  “What about it?” Zal asked.

  "Well, the hunter attacked Niko here, didn’t he?" I felt bad for having to talk about this in front of Zal, but there was no other way.

  "Yes," Isys confirmed.

  "And he couldn’t have surprised him from behind, because the only entrance is this one, through the street. And if someone just stood there looking over here would draw attention, right? You guys or someone else would have noticed.”

/>   “Who are you?” Maena joked.

  Zal told her to shut up, invested in my line of reasoning.

  "So, look. That diner is the only place that has a clear view of where we are. It would be a good place to stay and watch over a person, or people,” I finished.

  They looked at me suspiciously.

  "Again, who are you?" Maena said.

  "I watch some cop shows," I explained.

  "Liz's right," John said, staring at the diner. "If someone were sitting at one of the tables in front of the window, they would have the perfect view.”

  "But how would that help us?" Maena asked.

  "An establishment nowadays that doesn’t have security cameras is very rare," Zal replied.

  "Exactly," I said.

  "Come on," John said.

  We crossed the street and entered the diner. There were not many customers and only one person taking care of the place. A tall, thin guy stood on the counter, wiping a cloth vigorously from side to side. We sat at a table by the window and watched.

  “And now?” Isys said.

  "The office should be back there," I said, glancing at the door behind the counter.

  "Look," Zal said, looking up.

  We looked up and saw two cameras, one in each corner of the diner. At that moment the guy saw us and came to our table.

  "Good afternoon," he said, smiling. “I 'm Daniel. What can I get you?”

  "I’ll have some green tea," I said.

  "Coffee," Zal said.

  "Me, too," Isys replied.

  "Same," John and Maena said.

  Daniel left to bring our orders and we started to ponder what to do.

  "Do you think he'd show us the videos if we asked?" Isys said.

  "Of course, Isys," Maena said sarcastically. "Why don’t you go there and explain why we want to see the videos, too?" He'll love to hear all about the hunter.”

  Isys scowled at Maena, but didn’t respond. Daniel came back with our orders and we all fell silent. When he left, John said:

  “We can distract him. There's no one else here, so we wouldn’t have to worry about anyone else catching us.”

  “How?” Maena said.

  "Zal and Isys can sneak into the office while the rest of us keep him busy," I said.

  "Right," Zal agreed.

  We got up ready to distract Daniel.

  “Really?” Maena replied. “Is that it? You don’t have a more elaborate plan?”

  "No," I replied. “Do you?”

  She frowned at me ugly and got up too. We grabbed our cups and sat down on the small benches on the counter. Daniel looked at us and smiled gently before returning to wipe the cup that was in his hand.

  "He likes you, Liz," Maena said.

  “And how do you…”

  I didn’t have to finish the sentence to understand what she was talking about.

  “Maena!”

  I scolded her, but an idea quickly popped into my head.

  "Okay, I know what to do," I said.

  "Liz..." John clearly didn’t like where this was going.

  "Be prepared," I told Zal and Isys, and they nodded.

  I took a sip of my tea and deliberately dropped the cup. Then I bent down and grabbed a piece of the shards and slipped against the palm of my hand. I bit my lip so I wouldn’t make a sound. The blood began to sprout in my skin.

  "Liz, what are you doing?" John chided me with a whisper.

  It wasn’t long before Daniel came to my aid. He bent down and took my hand, examining the cut.

  "Sorry, I'm very clumsy," I said, giving the boy a small smile.

  He looked disoriented, I just didn’t know if it was blood or the flirting. Anyway, it was working.

  “Are you okay?” He asked, still holding my hand.

  I looked quickly at John and he didn’t look happy at all. I ignored him.

  "I'm fine," I said, still trying to flirt. “It’s just a small cut.”

  "It’s not small. Come on, I'll put a bandage on.”

  We stood up and I looked at the others. Zal and Isys were no longer at the counter. Maena seemed to have fun with me trying to keep Daniel's attention. John didn’t look at us anymore. I sat down at an empty table at the back of the diner and Daniel went to get a small first-aid kit from the counter. He came back, sat next to me and began to clean the cut.

  I looked at Maena and she smiled at me, pointing to her temple with her index finger. I focused on her and soon I heard her voice in my head.

  "Keep him there for a while. Zal and Isys have yet to find the recording of the day."

  I nodded and turned to look at the young man who was cleaning the cut in silence. I thought about what to say, and soon realized that I'm horrible at making small talk. I started to feel nervous. If Daniel finished and went back to the balcony, he would realize that Zal and Isys were not there.

  "So," I began. “Do you like working here?”

  He looked at me looking surprised that I had spoken to him.

  “I...”

  After swallowing, he continued to speak.

  "No, actually. But I have to work, so what can I do?”

  "What did you really want to do?"

  Daniel seemed puzzled by my curiosity. Is it so hard to believe that one person really cares about another's life? I moved so Daniel would have his back to the office door.

  "When I was in high school I thought about being a doctor, but I can’t afford to pay for college.”

  "Well, you really do have the gift," I said, smiling and pointing at my hand. "And scholarships exist for that."

  He smiled back and continued to wipe the blood with a liquid that made the cut burn.

  "Sorry, I didn’t even ask your name," he said.

  “It's Liz.”

  "Are you from Heaven Valley, Liz?"

  "I am," I said, and smiled at the irony of the question. “I work at Joe's.”

  I shook my head and corrected myself.

  “Worked at Joe's.”

  He smiled and frowned.

  "You don’t know if you work there or not?"

  “It's complicated.”

  "Right," he said, but he didn’t seem to be convinced.

  Come to think of it, I wasn’t sure if my job was waiting for me. And honestly, I didn’t know if I still wanted it. I've been through so much since I found out about Pacem. Maybe my priorities needed to change. As soon as we captured the hunter, of course.

  I turned my attention back to the boy. He put a bandage on my hand gently. As his hands moved slowly, I saw a glimpse of a tattoo on his wrist. I tried to see what it was, but there was no time. I looked at the others and saw Zal and Isys hurrying out of the office. They sat on the counter again and began to whisper to John and Maena. I focused on Zal and got some of the conversation.

  "It had no record of the day that Niko was killed," he told Maena.

  "There," Daniel said.

  "Thank you," I said, smiling and getting up as fast as I could.

  I wanted to know what had happened. I went back to the counter and the others were already getting up. John shot Daniel an angry look, and he looked down looking embarrassed. I saw the shards on the floor and remembered the cup.

  "Daniel, I'll pay for the cup," I said as he came up with a small plastic shovel and a broom.

  "No, there’s no need for that," he said with a gentle smile. "The boss won’t even notice.”

  "No, I don’t want you to get in trouble because of me.”

  He stopped what he was doing and looked me in the eye, lightly touching my arm.

  “Liz, seriously. Don’t worry about it.”

  I smiled in appreciation and gave him a quick kiss on the cheek.

  "Thank you," I said.

  He looked bewildered and didn’t have time to say anything before we left. Before I walked through the door, I stopped and turned to him.

  "You know, you should try. It looks like you really want it and I'm sure there’s a college out there that will love hav
ing someone as enthusiastic as you.”

  Daniel smiled in response and I left.

  "Well, that was a complete waste of time," Isys said as we walked to the car.

  "But we got to see Liz flirt with that guy," Maena said, smiling. "And I hate to admit it, it wasn’t disgraceful."

  "It would have been a lot better if we had stayed at the hotel preparing my party," Isys said in a bored tone, getting into the car.

  “So, what happened?” I asked. “What did you guys see?”

  "The recording of that day doesn’t exist," Zal replied.

  I looked at him and Isys in the backseat.

  "How come it doesn’t exist?"

  "It just doesn’t exist," Isys said. “We've looked at it countless times. The recording of all the other days were there except for the day that Niko was killed.”

  “Do you think...”

  “It was deleted?” Zal said.” Yes.”

  "How is he always one step ahead of us?" I asked, but as expected, no one could answer.

  We returned to the hotel in a sweeping silence. The bitter feeling that this would never end would invade and overwhelm my mind. I started to miss and before I even got home, I called her.

  “Are you okay, darling? Are you eating right?” Were her first words.

  “Yes, Grandma. I just missed you, that's all.”

  "What's going on out there?"

  "Not much," I lied, as I have done a lot lately. "We don’t even have permission to leave the hotel.”

  “Are you sure? You sound strange.”

  “I'm fine, I'm serious.”

  John looked at me and saw that I wasn’t fine. He took my hand and kissed it.

  "You need to come visit me. I miss you.”

  “I will, Grandma. Soon.”

  I hung up assuring her I would visit very soon, as soon as we could leave the hotel.

  "We have to report to Torim," Zal said as we entered the hotel.

  “You can go. I'll stay here," I said.

  The others went to the Torim and John stayed behind, sitting with me on the steps of the stairs. It seemed that physically I was unbeatable, but somehow, I still felt worthless. I was angry. The frustration of never getting anything was more powerful than anything else.

  “Are you alright?” John asked.

  "I am," I answered too quickly for it to be true.

  He frowned at me.