by Davis, Jarod
Kayla felt her lungs tighten as she squeezed the steering wheel. She wasn’t supposed to be violent, but the urge hit something scratched through her skin all the way to her bones. It was a pool of anger or heat or fear that just wanted out.
Empty cars surrounded her when Kayla pulled into the student lot. She turned off the engine and touched fingers together. “Please help me get through this. I didn’t do anything wrong. I don’t think I did anything wrong.” That part stung the most because she didn’t know where her conscience was supposed to lead her. He tried to hurt her. She almost killed him. That couldn’t be right, but maybe it was, or it wasn’t. Nothing made sense.
Two months ago, she would’ve gone to Alyssa. They would’ve talked about it, and Kayla’s friend would’ve been there for her. Now it was silence, a few angry glances, maybe something snide and whispered just on the edge of what everyone else could hear, “bitch,” “slut,” maybe “liar.” Erin was still a friend, but Kayla didn’t want to bring her into something like this. They weren’t close enough for something like this.
Thinking about people in her life brought Kayla back to Seth. He said this would be over. He said Tristan wouldn’t press charges. Maybe not, but he’d talk. He’d tell everyone what happened, but Kayla couldn’t explain everything. Some fear induced frenzy might explain how she hit him.
That solved everything, but it wasn’t true. She saw something. She saw the energy and air in the room and, with a wave of her hand, she shaped those forces and beat him against a wall. When he tried again, she smacked him back a second time.
Kayla parked and tried to center herself. No matter what happened, she’d do what she could. That’s what He expected, and that’s what she’d do. This was the first time she couldn’t talk to anyone else. Kayla swallowed, pushed the door open, and went out to face whatever her school could roll at her.
After skipping breakfast, Kayla had twenty minutes before her first class. There weren’t that many people clustered around their home room doors. She thought about hitting the library but decided against it. Instead, Kayla wandered until she saw someone.
Erin waved, turned and ran across the hall. “Hey, did you hear?”
“What?” Kayla felt her that hole in her stomach stretch and widen. “Hear what?”
“That guy, Tristan. He had a seizure or something. They had to call an ambulance.”
“Seizure?”
“That’s what the paramedics said. Rumors are going crazy now.” She flashed her phone, “About twenty texts. Everyone wants to know what happened to him. It’s like his brain melted down.” She pulled her phone back and thumbed through another message.
“Has he said anything?”
“That’s the weird part.”
“What’d he say?” This would be it, the moment that ruined her life because word would burst through every phone and laptop. Kayla wanted to keep her voice strong and even, but she felt it shrink in her throat.
“That’s the weird thing. He was crying when the medics found him.”
“Crying?”
“Yeah, going off about all this stuff he did. Like he was saying he date raped a bunch of girls or something. It was weird. Crazy-zombies-overrun-the-world-weird.”
“He confessed?”
“I don’t know if anyone’s going to believe him, but yeah, he was going on and on about how much he did and how he was sorry.”
“You’re kidding.”
“No. The guy totally cracked. If anyone comes forward and it turns out he really did it, yeah, he’s going to be in so much trouble. Seriously, you’d look at him and think he was a good guy, but now?”
“Yeah.”
“I guess you didn’t talk to him for very long.”
“No. We just had some pizza and I had to go.”
“Family stuff?”
“Yeah,” Kayla said, “Family stuff.” Erin gave her a quick look of sympathy that promised she felt bad before bouncing away, her phone between both hands. Kayla resisted the urge to pull out her own phone and see if there were any news reports. Some kid losing it and confessing to a bunch of crimes might’ve ended up on online.
It would be good, but it didn’t make sense. He wouldn’t confess like that. Part of her wanted to say that it was conscience. After all of those girls he hurt, someone fought back, and that made him realize what he did was wrong. He finally understood that he was hurting people. But she doubted his mind would work that way.
A shiver pressed through her spine. Shoving it aside, Kayla headed for her homeroom. She was safe. He wouldn’t tell the cops, and even if he did, it was self defense. No one could deny that now. She should’ve felt better, but nausea and this tight sickness clamped around her stomach. It wouldn’t go away.
Half way to her first period class, Kayla noticed Seth again. Both juniors, they probably saw each other every day, but she stopped. They passed in the halls, the cafeteria, and had occasional classes together. A couple heartbeats ticked by as she watched him. He was talking to his two friends. For Kayla, Seth was pretty tall with five or six inches on her. The two guys laughing with him were even taller. Both had short black hair and thick muscles. They looked like wrestlers, football players, or some other kind of athlete, but she never saw them on any team or in any uniform. If they worked out, it was just for fun. They definitely didn’t look like the kinds of guys who’d end up at a gamer party. Then again, Kayla didn’t think she would’ve been there either.
Kayla tugged at the straps of her backpack, balled her fingers, flexed them, and decided she’d do this. She walked up to Seth and his friends. “Can I talk to you?” He looked up. His friends smiled at her, neutral. They wouldn’t be nice. They wouldn’t be mean. “Alone?”
Seth nodded at his friends, a signal for them to leave. She expected them to tease him about her or give him a hard time. Guys didn’t usually walk away. They always had to prove who was strongest or in charge. On cue, they walked away like soldiers obeying orders. “What?” Seth asked like he always expected his friends to do exactly what he said.
This question made it real again. She swallowed and asked anyway. “What happened last night?” She kept her eyes on him. This time she wouldn’t look away.
“Nothing happened.”
“That’s not true, and you know it. Why were you at my house? What do you know about Tristan?” His name tasted like something squishy and gross.
Seth watched her for a few more seconds. But it wasn’t like last night. This was something different. He examined her. She could feel him trying to figure out what she knew and what he should say. But it seemed that it wasn’t much, “Kayla, nothing happened.” He smiled a little, but there wasn’t any joy in it. He looked like a hunter, some predator who decided that this prey was too small.
“You’re lying.”
“No. I’m not. And you know how you can tell? You don’t have any proof. Sure, people saw you at that party, but no one noticed you with Tristan. And even if you went and talked to him, he wouldn’t have anything to say.”
“What does that mean?”
“It was a really bad seizure. Wiped some of his memory and opened his eyes.”
“That couldn’t have happened. It doesn’t work that way.”
“This time it does.”
Seth shook his head and headed back to see his friends who were waiting a hundred feet down the hall. They didn’t look at him. Instead, they scanned the rest of campus like they were waiting for someone else.
Before he got far though, Kayla let it slip. “He tried to hurt me.”
Seth stopped. His shoulders tightened together. “I know.”
“You did something.”
“You didn’t deserve that.” He still didn’t look back.
“Tell me what happened,” Kayla caught up with him. Closer, she reached out, and put her hand on his shoulder like he’d try to run away.
He shrugged her free and turned back. All of his sympathy and feeling disappeared. “Again, nothin
g happened. He’s done. You don’t have to worry about him. Don’t think about anything else, Kayla. Go back to your happy life with your friends and your religion, your faith and your hope. Enjoy. Be happy knowing that the good guys win, evil loses, forgiveness is possible, and life doesn’t suck.” Before she could say something else, he was back down the hall.
If he wouldn’t say anything, Kayla couldn’t force him. She watched him go, wishing she could get the truth.
Through the next two hours, Kayla tried to pretend nothing changed. Part of her wanted to run and find Erin and see what else filtered through the rumor lines. Despite that urge, Kayla stayed quiet. She didn’t want to do anything unnatural. Besides, she knew she’d see Erin again anyway.
When the bell rang for third period, Kayla pushed her way to class and sat down. Right before lunch, their teacher was usually too tired to care much about people texting or passing notes. They didn’t have to do as much work, and he usually let them go early. It was even better because it was the class she had with Erin. For sixty five minutes each day, anyway, she could sit next to someone who didn’t want to freeze her out.
When she sat down, Kayla dropped her stuff by her desk and leaned forward before the tardy bell rang. “Do you know Seth Daniels?”
“Loner kid?”
“Yeah, I guess.”
“Not really. I think we had math together, but we didn’t talk or anything. He mostly kept to himself I guess.” That tracked with most of what Kayla remembered of him as well. Even seeing him at a party had been surprising.
“What about his friends?”
“The two big guys?”
“Yeah.”
“Definitely don’t know them. They’re buff though. I’ll give them that.”
“Yeah.” Kayla didn’t know if she wanted to ask something else, but her teacher cut off the chance when he came out from behind his desk. It was the usual activities, questions, and getting ready for Friday’s test. Kayla listened, but like most of that morning, she thought about last night.
With a thought, a wave of her hand, she threw a guy across the room. She knew that happened. That wasn’t a dream. It felt real. She knew that’s what happened and that was how it happened, yet it didn’t make sense. People couldn’t do that. But she did. It happened when she was scared, angry, hurt. Maybe that caused it.
Her teacher had a PowerPoint presentation. It was dark, and she already knew the material. That’s why she put her mechanical pencil on her desk. If this worked, there was something different about her. She could do something. If it didn’t, she promised herself that she wouldn’t try again, it would be over, and she’d let last night pass as a really bad nightmare.
The pencil sat there. Kayla stared at it. Nothing happened. She tried to see those same currents of air and energy as last night. Nothing happened. She pushed her mind against those thoughts, but it wouldn’t move. One more try before she’d give up.
Kayla thought about the tingle in her skin, everything half-numb. She thought about the fear that snaked through her when she couldn’t get up or scream or run. Tristan over her, he leered down, savoring the moment as he held her down and watched her try to scream. The fear of paralysis ached through her, made her lungs tighten and her throat tense. Her heart rate sped and it was harder to breathe, like there wasn’t enough air. Her lips locked together and Kayla started to see silver threads through the air.
When she blinked, Kayla’s vision shifted. All around her, she saw the people, desks, and posters. But she saw another layer. Strands of energy tied the world together. She saw them sway and vibrate, a hundred different colors overlaid on everything else. Kayla blinked looked around and saw it everywhere.
She turned back to the pencil and flicked her finger from beneath her desk. The pencil slid half an inch. She did it again. It moved another half inch. She arched her hand under her desk and heard the pencil hit the linoleum floor.
Terrified that someone saw that or made the connection, Kayla ducked down. When no one said anything, she peeked at her classmates. No one noticed. No one cared.
Someone knocked at the door and came inside. Sunlight sliced across the room, but Kayla didn’t look back. It was most likely just one of the office aides who went around the classes to pick up the attendance rosters. “They need Kayla Knack in the office.” That’s when she turned around. Before she saw whoever said that, she expected a police officer. Erin was wrong. Tristan said she attacked him.
But it wasn’t a cop, or at least he didn’t wear a uniform. Instead it was a guy, maybe twenty or so, who just looked bored. He had on jeans and a suit jacket, probably one of the office secretaries. Their teacher decided the same thing because he just nodded for Kayla to go. “Do I need my stuff?” she asked and aimed for casual.
“Yeah, you should probably bring it.” Kayla tried to hear something in the way he said that. She grabbed her pencil off the floor, tucked her notes into her binder, and her binder into her backpack. Their teacher droned on with his slides, but it felt like everyone stared at her. It felt like they saw something. They knew something about her. She knew it wasn’t true, but the feelings still stuck anyway.
Outside, the sunlight was bright and stung her eyes. It was cold even with the sun right overhead. A breeze cut through her jeans and sneakers even if it didn’t manage to get through her jacket. “Beautiful day,” said her escort.
“Yeah.”
“Any idea what this is about?” he started for the offices on the other side of campus. Kayla never really got why their school needed separate buildings for attendance, administration, and something called educational services.
“No,” she didn’t look at him.
“It’s about last night,” he sounded cheerful and didn’t glance back even when she looked at him, hoping for something more.
“Last night?”
“Last night something happened at a party.” When they came to a bench, her escort stopped and sat down. One leg over the other, he braced his arm against the backrest. “Something happened last night. Didn’t it?”
“Who are you?” He wasn’t a secretary. Kayla would’ve felt really scared again except she saw one of the campus police about a hundred yards down the hall.
He gave a little bow with a sharp grin. “My name is Cyrus, and I’m here to help you.”
“Help me?”
“I know what happened to you last night. I know what you were doing just now.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“You knocked a pencil off your desk.”
“So?” Kayla asked. She didn’t know this man or what he wanted, so she wouldn’t admit anything until she knew he was trustworthy. In the first forty seconds they met, she saw him lie. “Lots of people drop stuff.”
Cyrus nodded like that made perfect sense. “Except your didn’t touch it. You knocked it off a flat desk without touching it. Tell me I’m wrong.”
Kayla couldn’t, so she went with a question instead. “You know what’s going on?”
“I do. That’s why I came to find you.”
“What do you want?”
“To let you know about certain opportunities that might present themselves.” He said it with the kind of smile Kayla usually expected from guys who sold cell phones out of kiosks at the mall. “But right now, I’m just here as a friend.”
“We don’t know each other.”
“Not yet. But there’s a lot you don’t know, isn’t there?” Cyrus asked like he already knew the answer. Kayla didn’t like how he knew about last night. Even if he didn’t know the specifics, he knew about the pencil.
“Okay. What’s going on then?” She’d let him prove himself.
“You’re not human.”
“You’re crazy.” She didn’t know how, but everything must’ve been a lucky guess or something, because he had to be wrong. She had hands, feet, a heart, she’d gotten her checkup, and everyone agreed she was human. Even Alyssa wouldn’t go that far, no matter
what else she might say. “I’m a person.”
“Okay. You are human, but also more than human,” he said like he had to agree with some nitpicking point she just made. “You’ve changed. Something clicked inside of you, and now you’re not quite human. That’s how I found you.”
“Because I’m different,” she finished for him in a tone that promised she still thought he was insane. “What am I then?”
“You’re a nascent, someone with some very special abilities. Judging from the damage you did to that boy, I’m guessing you’re very strong.” Move didn’t sound like the right word. Throw, break, or toss might’ve been better.
“This is real?”
“Very much so.” Cyrus stood up and slipped a thin card from his wallet. “Give me a call once you’ve had a chance to digest this. Whether or not you want more information, you’re life has become just got a lot more complicated. A friendly face and some helpful advice might prove useful.” He gave another little when she took his card. Another smile before he headed for the parking lot. When he whistled, the sounds reverberated through the hall.
As Kayla stood there, the lunch bell rang. Each classroom door shot open and students rushed out, hungry or just eager to get away from their teachers and class work. Kayla drift along with the crowd out between the arts, English, and math buildings, and toward the cafeteria at the center of the campus. Like always, she glanced around at the different groups. Athletes, overachievers, gamers, Goths, and a bunch of other labels hung together as they ate, laughed, and counted through those precious seconds of freedom before they had to be back at their desks. Kayla saw her old friends there.
It always felt weird, seeing them and knowing she couldn’t join them. It wasn’t like before when she could sit down. No, everything from home spilled into there, and now she didn’t have those friends. Instead, Kayla went over and sat down with Erin and Isaac. Despite everything, Kayla knew it could’ve been much worse. If nothing else, this proved who she could rely on.
Isaac and Erin were at the end of the same table where they sat each day. Before they started dating, they sat across from each other and teased each other. All flirting, they played their games back and forth. Now they did the same thing, except they scooted closer and laughed. Kayla kind of had to sit opposite them, so she always got to sit in front of the chipper couple as they teased each other.