by Davis, Jarod
“Hear anything else?” Kayla asked.
Erin shook her head. “Nope. Same stuff as before. We probably won’t learn anything else till after school.”
Isaac shook his head, “We should have seen this coming. He wasn’t a gamer. You can’t trust people who don’t play video games.” Kayla shook her head, but she had to remind herself that they didn’t know. For them, Tristan was a rumor, something to distract them from the prison of high school.
“I thought they were supposed to make you more violent. Not less.”
“No,” he said as he unwrapped a sandwich. “Common misconception. People think that because you run around gutting bad guys that you must be violent too. But it’s kind of like watching movies. You spend two hours eating popcorn and watching some serial killer chop up some coeds, but it’s fun and you feel better when it’s done. It lets you get out all that darkness.”
“I don’t know if I like that idea.”
“That you carry something evil?” Isaac rolled his fingers on the air. “It’s true. Something could be inside of you. Something evil. And one day, it might take over.” He grinned. It was a joke, obviously. But Kayla still felt something squirm inside of her. Without thinking, she flashed on Tristan. He must have noticed the twisted expression across her face when he added, “C’mon. It’s just a good way to relax.”
“By killing things?”
“Imaginary things.” Isaac stretched his arms over his head and so-not-subtly wrapped one of them around Erin who snuggled against his chest. They were really cute, the kind of cute that made other people feel just a little nauseous. “Besides. They’re bad guys. Usually.”
“Usually?” Kayla had out her half sandwich and a bag of chips she’d pulled out before heading to school.
“That’s the joy of modern video gaming. Half the time you get to be the bad guy too. Because c’mon, everyone wants to slaughter some civilians every once in a while.”
“You’re kidding.”
“Nope. War crimes are the new way to play.”
“That’s gross, really, really gross.” Kayla thought about some of those scenes she saw in what her brother played. Half the time he went around and slaughtered bears or goats. She didn’t want to think about him leading an army to cut down a bunch of regular people.
“Maybe,” he said. “But how can you know good without knowing evil?”
“You can.”
Isaac stopped for a second, “You think so?”
“You can. If you look inside of yourself. Or pray.” Kayla didn’t like bringing up that second part. All of her old friends, former friends, the kids at the other table, they would’ve understood. They all knew each other through youth group. Prayer was a given, but Kayla knew a lot of people didn’t understand. They didn’t have that kind of relationship with God. That’s why she kept it vague, “If you know where to look, you can find goodness anywhere.”
“If you say so.” He held up his can of Coke in a toast that he probably didn’t believe.
“Don’t be mean,” Erin said when she looked up from her phone. “She believes what she believes and you shouldn’t judge her for it.”
Hands up like he wanted to surrender, “Hey, I’m not judging.”
Erin held one hand over her mouth, “He totally was.”
“I heard that.”
“I know,” she said and grinned back at him. “You were meant to.”
“Hey guys,” Kayla said as she rolled up the last bits of her lunch. “I have to go study for a little while in the library. I’ll see you around.” She pulled her backpack over her shoulder and headed outside. She thought she felt her ex-friends staring or at least notice her leave, but she didn’t turn around to check. She didn’t think she wanted to know either way.
Cold air hit her with the first step outside. Heavy clouds hung on the air like a panting. Maybe it wouldn’t rain, but there wouldn’t be any sunlight for a while either. As she looked at the sky, Kayla really wished there would’ve been some light. She imagined warmth along her face and down to her skin. She thought of bright colors rather than the pallid gray and blue that seemed to filter out any chance of excitement. Winter used to be okay, but with everything else that was happening, yeah, she really decided not to like it.
One leg crossed over the other, Seth leaned against the wall. Arms over his chest, he had his eyes on her like she’d been expected. “Last night. Did you just fight him off?”
Kayla stopped, stared ahead for a second, and said, “I thought nothing happened.”
When he pushed away from the wall and came up on her, Kayla could see the irritation that lined his face. It was the special kind of frustration that came from someone who thought this should’ve been a lot easier and a lot quicker. “You didn’t just fight him. Did you?”
“What else could it have been?” she asked. After Cyrus, Kayla didn’t know who she should trust. Seth wasn’t her friend even if he might’ve helped her last night.
“Did something else happen last night?”
“Just Tristan.”
“How’d you knock him into the wall like that?”
“Adrenaline?”
“Bull. Something else happened. Something completely different. That’s why Cyrus was here. That’s why he came and spoke with you.”
“You know about that?” Obviously, but Kayla didn’t see how he could have. She and Cyrus had been alone in the hall.
“People saw you. They talk.” That wasn’t much of an answer, but Kayla knew he wouldn’t tell her anything. There was something about the way he looked out at the rest of the world, something about how he spoke and walked. He didn’t look like everyone else. Something pressed down on him, she realized, with no idea of what that might’ve been.
“Cyrus said that I’m different. He said that I threw Tristan against a wall.”
“With your mind?”
Kayla couldn’t admit it, “Something like that.” Telling the truth sounded like a great way to get into a mental institution. “But that’s not possible.”
“He probably felt you use your abilities. If you don’t know how to hide them, others can track you by them.” Seth was looking off now. “Did he ask you about anyone else?”
“Like you?”
“Yes, like me.”
“No. He just wanted to talk to me.”
“He’s a mercenary. You should be careful around him.”
“Mercenary? Mercenary doing what?”
“He tracks down people like us.”
“For who?”
“No one you want to worry about.”
“That’s not an answer.”
“No,” Seth said, “But then I don’t really trust you.” Kayla thought she heard something else in his voice, some little hesitation. She couldn’t be sure, but Kayla thought she saw some flicker of fear when he asked, “How’d you do it?”
“I wanted him to stop. He wouldn’t. I got scared and angry,” Kayla kept it short and simple. Anything else would’ve been too hard. “I threw him. I did it when I moved my hand.” Kayla made the same motion, though nothing happened.
“I want your help.”
“Help you?”
“I want you to help me understand what we are.”
“You can push things too?”
“In a way,” he said. “But I don’t know why. I haven’t been able to figure it out. I’d like your help.”
“I’ll have to think about it.”
Seth smirked, “That’s good. You probably shouldn’t trust me.” He stuck his hands in his pockets and walked away. She wanted to ask him why not, but Kayla guessed he wouldn’t answer. She was going to get to the library. At least it was warm there, but their school’s electronic bell pinged and the halls crowded with currents of students.
Kayla heard her voice and turned back to see Erin waving for her attention. She waited for her friend and they started walking for their last pair of classes. Two more and they’d be done. Anyone else would have been
happy. No one else had to hear her parents.
“Seth?” Erin asked with a nod back at Seth’s retreating form. Across the entrance to the school and half way through the parking lot, he headed for one of the cars at the back of the student lot.
“Yeah.”
“He’s going to get caught.” Erin shook her head, and Kayla saw she was right. Two hall monitors stood at the entrance to the parking lot. One of the district police cars was parked across the street. Definitely a bad time to cut class. “What’s he thinking? They’re right there.”
Kayla watched Seth as he got into his car and drove up to the parking exit. One of the monitors swaggered up to his car and motioned for him to roll down the window. Erin smirked, “Think he’ll make a run for it?”
“I don’t know,” Kayla said as she watched. The monitor said something. Seth said something, and the monitor stepped back and waved him through. “He probably has a note.”
“Lucky,” Erin said before she jumped into getting nervous over her next chem quiz. Kayla listened along and made all of the right listening noises, but she didn’t think he had a note. She didn’t know what he had.
Chapter 3: Class Prayers
Tuesday was a bad day for a test, but her teacher laughed and said that he wanted his students prepared every day. Good and bad things could happen on any day. He made it sound like a priest’s most profound wisdom. Kayla just wanted the four sheets of photocopied paper so she could get it over with.
“Like always, I give you two minutes of silence. Pray. Review. Meditate. Call on your maker for those last bits of information to make yourself ready.” Most of the class just sat there and waited for the seconds to run out.
Spanish 3 meant tests on conditional and subjunctive verbs, ideas Kayla read about a hundred times and still didn’t really understand. Those two minutes of silence weren’t for asking about the irregular conjugations. Instead, Kayla closed her eyes and drifted through everything else. That was probably her favorite part of prayer.
It didn’t need a goal. She could be still for a few minutes and feel herself, feel God, and feel whole. No matter what else happened, she could be okay inside of herself because she knew she’d never be alone. As she sat at her desk, she didn’t think any words. She didn’t worry about anything, because she knew she was loved and protected.
“And your two minutes are done.” With that, their teacher passed out the tests. Students flicked through the pages to gauge how well or badly they thought they’d do before putting pencil to paper. “Good luck. I’m sure many of you will need it.”
Through the next forty minutes, Kayla wrote out her answers as she translated, rephrased, explained, and defined. By the last question, she could feel her head pounding a little. Every test and quiz stressed her and she could feel herself tighten at the thought of any more Spanish. But eventually she was done, flipped over her test, and just sat there. Her main goal was to not think about the test she just took.
Besides, she realized, there was already enough to worry about. Her parents would be fighting tonight. They were both off. If they weren’t shouting, there’d be the quiet of everyone waiting for a fight. Lots of kids’ parents were divorced. It had always been like that since kindergarten, but Kayla never know how messy and loud they’d be. She never thought she’d sit with her little sister and try to talk to her, say anything, so they wouldn’t hear the voices of their parents from four rooms away.
Seth said that she shouldn’t trust him. He looked at her and asked her for help, but she said she’d think about it. No offense, no hurt, just the acknowledgement that they couldn’t trust each other. Kayla should have been irritated, but she couldn’t help but wonder what happened to Seth. Even if they didn’t know each other, Seth looked like he didn’t trust anyone. Who hurt him? What broke him?
And the more she thought about it, the more Kayla wondered what he did last night. Tristan turned himself in and refused to say anything about her. Right after, she bumped into someone. On her way out, she bumped into Seth. He could’ve gone in and done something. Threatened Tristan? Convinced him he deserved punishment? Kayla couldn’t believe that Tristan would feel guilty on his own.
Eyes closed, Kayla thought she could summon those same feelings and maybe tear a hole through the wall. She could swing desks on the air and smash them to the ground. She didn’t know how far it went or how strong she could be.
Cyrus appeared. Seth said he represented someone else. Kayla thought about the government and tried to remember those vague conspiracy theories she sometimes heard about from teachers or when she flipped channels. Seth warned her.
As everyone else scribbled through their tests, Kayla flicked a pencil without touching it. How’d that happen? Comic books, movies, and novels said that special abilities would come from being a vampire or werewolf. Maybe radiation or some magical science endowed them with super powers. She wanted to pretend it didn’t happen. Between Seth and Cyrus, that wouldn’t work.
Seth. They were never really friends, but they used to talk. When he was quiet with pretty much everyone else in English, they’d chat a little before class. He’d ask about her weekend, her family, always interested. He listened the way most people didn’t really understand. She remembered being sad when he started to pull away. After a while, he didn’t sit next to her anymore. They didn’t talk, and he only gave one or two word answers when she approached. Now it looked like they’d have to talk some more.
It was like he could hear her thoughts because someone knocked on the classroom’s open door. Seth stuck his head in, “Mr. Martinez. Mind if I borrow Kayla?” He sounded polite, but of course her teacher would say no. Students couldn’t just walk in and ask for someone else without a good reason or note from the office.
It looked like Mr. Martinez would say no until he tilted his head to the right and forgot about all of that. For a second, Kayla thought she saw something along his eyes, sparks of dark blue. “Okay,” he said with a nod toward Kayla. When she just looked at him, surprised, he waved at her to go with Seth. She scrambled to grab her stuff and get outside.
When the door closed behind them, she leaned over, “What did you do?”
“I didn’t do anything. I’m very persuasive.”
“You’re lying. You are so lying right now.”
“You’re right.” It sounded like he might stop there until he asked, “What did you see?”
“You wanted him to do something. And he did it. He just did it.”
“Pretty much.”
“You can make people do stuff, just like that?” No one could do that. It was like mind control. “You tell them to do something and they do it?”
“It’s a reasonable theory.” Kayla nodded because that’s all she’d get out of him. “But even if that’s true, and I’m not saying it is, there’s still a much bigger question.”
“What?”
“Simple. Why are we different?”
“You don’t know?” Kayla expected him to have some explanation. They were aliens. They were government experiments, something. It didn’t seem fair that he wouldn’t know, especially when Cyrus spoke like he knew what was going on.
“No. As far as I know, no one’s figured it out.”
“But there are more of us?”
Seth didn’t for a couple seconds like he wanted to be sure of what he was about to tell her. “Yes. There are.” Kayla absorbed that, not sure what it meant. “But that’s why I want your help. Are you free after school?”
“I have a Key Club meeting.”
“Skip it.”
“Why?”
“Because I have some associates who’d like to take a look at you.” Kayla didn’t like how that sounded, but he promised, “They’re doctors. They’re completely reliable.”
“How can you tell?”
“I have talents.”
Trying not to look nervous, Kayla licked her lip and said, “There’s something I want to know.” Seth watched her like she could pull a
gun on him or slide a blade across his throat. Kayla wasn’t used to seeing someone with that kind of anger or fear around his eyes. She went ahead, “Why’d we stop talking in English? What happened?”
Seth smirked, but he still didn’t look happy. “You got a boyfriend. I didn’t like him. I stayed away.” Before she understood, he added, “Don’t worry. It’s nothing you need to worry about.” Before she could say something else, “Be ready after school. I’ll meet pick you up by the tennis courts.”
Seth’s car was blank. Most people, Kayla noticed, had decorations, stickers, or at least some garbage in their cars. If someone looked in the back seat of her car, they’d see old homework assignments, random tests, old pictures of friends, and some scraps from different times out. Seth’s car was empty, vacuumed. It looked like a rental, like he wanted to make sure no one could tell it was his. No trace if he ever had to leave.
Right after school, Seth waited for her by the tennis courts. The silence got heavy until she asked, “Can I ask where you went yesterday?”
“No where.”
“You just cut class?”
“I didn’t cut. If you check the attendance records, I was in all of my classes.”
“Right.” That made her wonder where he went. He might’ve just felt like a couple hours off or maybe he went off to rob a bank. When she glanced over at him, Kayla had to admit that she had no idea what he wanted. “You like secrets, don’t you?”
“There’s something different about us. Have you started to think about what that could mean?” Seth kept his eyes aimed at the road. He pulled off to the freeway and headed east toward Davis. “You can move something with your mind. That’s valuable.”
“I could do a lot with it.”
“You wouldn’t be the only one to have that thought,” Seth said. “Look at it this way, humans are fragile. You could kill someone without leaving a trace. You’d be the world’s best assassin. Snap a neck with a thought. If you don’t want to get that messy, twist a blood vessel in your target’s brain and that diplomat or CEO dies. No evidence.”