Pulse of Heroes

by A. Jacob Sweeny

  “You told him! How dare you?” she yelled at James.

  “I didn't know it was meant to be secret,” James said, now completely confused at Michelle’s level of anger. Even Michelle was asking herself why she was so upset. The answer came to her as soon as she finished the thought; she was embarrassed that Tim might think she's insane. Then she felt even angrier with herself for caring what Tim thought to begin with.

  “Fine,” Michelle said. “But from now on nobody talks about this to anybody, nobody!” she added, looking at Tim for the first time.

  There were stacks of rolled up newspapers leaning against the door of Michelle's neighbor's house. It was obvious that nobody had been home for a while. So the four of them crossed through the neighbor's backyard without a problem and were in the woods in no time. Once in the woods they spoke only in whispers. Michelle was leading the way with the three of them directly behind her. Every once in a while Tim would try to catch up with her, but when Michelle felt he was in her periphery she would walk even faster. Suddenly, they heard a loud crunching sound up ahead of them and they immediately stopped in their tracks. They stood there listening and they heard it again. Tim took a few steps forward and made his way to Michelle's side. As much as she didn't want to admit it to herself, she did feel a little safer with him there so she didn't say anything. They heard the sound one more time, and Michelle pointed out that it was more to the left rather than up ahead of them.

  “Girls, stay here. James and I are going to go check it out,” Tim said, taking the lead.

  “I'm coming too,” Michelle said out of pure determination.

  Naturally, Samantha didn't want to be left there all alone. “What am I supposed to do, just stand here by myself?” she protested. Just then they heard more of the sound and it was getting closer to them. None of them could breathe. There was a movement not too far ahead, and they saw a deer emerging from the woods and crossing the path in front of them with a small fawn in tow. They all burst out laughing, releasing all the tension of the last half hour.

  After another few minutes, they reached the premises wall. It stood roughly nine feet high. Michelle noticed right away that tall floodlights had also been erected since she had last been there. Floodlights? That was not a good sign. The whole thing was starting to remind her of jail walls, like the ones around San Quentin. Samantha followed Michelle’s train of thought, and she could sense that Michelle was having second thoughts. “We don’t have to do this, Michelle,” she said quietly.

  Michelle wasn’t sure what she should say, because she was stuck midway between doubt and determination. They gave her some space to think. “How about a vote,” she asked. “Who’s for or against it?” Samantha immediately announced that she was against climbing up there, arguing that the lights wouldn’t have been installed if there wasn’t a problem with the students escaping. James wasn’t sure yet, but the glare Samantha gave him helped him to make up his mind.

  “The lights are not only pointing to the inside of the wall, but they’re also pointing in our direction, to the woods,” James added, in proof that he did think for himself.

  “Ladies and gent’s,” Tim said, “You two thought it was a serious enough matter to wear concealing outfits, and we have already come this far, right? I say we take a quick look and then get the hell out of here, what do you say?” Tim turned towards Michelle. Why did he have to be such the leader-type, Michelle thought, and why did he have to be so handsome? Tim gave her the confidence she needed to continue.

  “Yes,” Michelle said, “Lets do this.” She was no coward.

  “Fine,” Samantha said, “but I’m not going up there.”

  Michelle and Tim searched for a good spot to climb up the wall, but there wasn’t one. So Tim held his hands together to give Michelle a place to set her foot on. James did the same, and once Michelle was propped up, she rested her elbows on top of the wall and surveyed the scene.

  To the left there were two large moving trucks with several figures unloading items and carrying them in the direction of the building. There were another two figures off to the side talking, and she suspected that one of them was Xander because of the lengthy and slim silhouette. She asked for Samantha’s binoculars to try and get a closer look. Michelle needed a better angle, she thought, so she decided that she could stand on one of the tree limbs that were arching over into the property. “I don’t think that’s a good idea,” Tim said, noting the less then adequate circumference of the branches. Michelle argued that if she stood on them for a few seconds she would be fine. Just in case she did fall, Tim climbed up on the wall too, directly underneath. James and Samantha were standing under the tree as well, ready in case Michelle fell in their direction. Michelle used her arm strength to pull herself up. She carefully stood up on the branch, with one arm holding on to a branch above it. With the other hand she held the binoculars against her eyes.

  Michelle immediately recognized the faces as the same ones from the mall. The guys were moving in boxes after boxes, nothing out of the ordinary, but what she thought was odd was the way they were carrying the furniture. These were large pieces, very nice wood and upholstery, yet each person was carrying one item at a time. One guy was carrying a whole couch above his head. Another had a huge wooden table. “Wow,” she said in shock.

  “What is it?” Samantha wanted to know.

  “They’re carrying furniture,” Michelle answered.

  “That’s not too surprising. I mean, they are moving in,” said James.

  “No,” Michelle continued. “They’re lifting huge pieces by themselves, with no help.”

  Tim struggled to see for himself as he inched up, looking in the direction of the trucks. When he did see someone lifting a decent-sized armchair he boasted, “I could do that, no problem.”

  Michelle switched her view towards the standing figures. She was right about Xander; he was holding a sheet of paper that obviously had a list of some sort and he was crossing things off as each item went past him. When she recognized the other person as the boy with the strange blue eyes she almost lost her balance, but righted herself. She brought the binoculars to her eyes again and now Xander was alone. The other guy must have stepped out of view; she felt frustrated. The branch underneath her began making light cracking sounds and everyone agreed that it was time for her to come down. But just as she turned to head down, she caught sight of another armchair being carried out of the truck. “Holy mother of…” she whispered.

  “What is it?” James asked, alarmed at the tone of her voice.

  “Nothing. I thought I saw something but I didn’t,” Michelle answered. What was she supposed to tell them; that she had seen the very same armchair before in her dream, the one that had a pearl on it, on the beach?

  Another crack from the branch and Tim ordered her to come down before she hurt herself. But at the same moment the boy with the strange eyes walked back out into her field of view and was standing in a perfect position for her to get a good look at his face. She ignored Tim and continued looking. My God, she thought, he was beautiful. Way beyond handsome, he looked like those Greek or Roman statues she had seen on the History Channel. Only he wasn’t white or cold like marble; he was like one of them had come to life. Light brown hair with streaks of golden blonde fell in waves framing his face, strong jaw line and full lips that seemed almost rosy, a perfect straight nose, masculine and not too thin or turned up, and large eyes with thick dark lashes under dark brows. He was perfection. Suddenly, his eyes rose to look right at her, huge, blue, with golden green emanating from the pupils. He was looking into her eyes through the binoculars. She felt bewitched, fixated. Was that possible? Could he be looking at her, could he really see her so far up in the tree? She wondered, but in that same split second the branch underneath her gave out, sending her straight down. Tim reached to grab her, but it all happened just a little too fast. Michelle gave out a cry as she fell past, trying to grab his reaching arms. Samantha gasped. It was too late, M
ichelle was on the other side of the wall, and she was in pain.

  Michelle was on the ground massaging her left leg while quietly whimpering to herself. Samantha was crying on the other side of the wall.

  “James, I’m going to lower myself down and grab her. You hold my legs,” Tim said, visibly shaken, but trying to take charge. Both James and Samantha held on to Tim’s legs as he leaned forward with his arms outstretched. Michelle looked up at him, and without a word understood the plan. She wasn’t sure that standing up on her legs was a good idea, and anyway she would be more conspicuous then. So she crab-crawled over to the wall and reached out to Tim’s arms. While holding on to him she began to raise herself up, and eventually stood. But the pain was very sharp, so she had to keep all her weight on just the right leg. Tim assured her that if she just put one leg against the wall he would do the rest and pull her up. She had no choice; it had to be the left. She painfully raised it while she tried to use the muscles in her right leg to push herself upwards. Tim began pulling, encouraging her to take just one more step. Michelle felt the pain, but she also felt embarrassed and scared. She was almost to a point where Tim could reach down and grab her from under her arms, but just then a loud siren started blaring.

  “Hurry up,” James said from down below. Unfortunately, the deafening sound had startled Michelle so badly that she jerked away from Tim rather than towards him. Tim stretched over as far as he could; it wasn’t easy using his arm strength to hold up a person that was pulling away from him. But it was too late. Michelle was back on the ground. Tim looked shocked and pained.

  “Come on Michelle,” he pleaded. “Quick, let’s do this before they come around.” But Michelle was exhausted and in even more pain.

  “You guys go on, get out of here. I’ll hide over there,” she pointed to a bush on her right. “I’ll get myself out later.”

  “No, I’m not going to leave you here alone,” Tim said, still begging for her to reach out to him.

  “Go!” Michelle yelled at him. “And get Sam and James out of here. It’s not worth all of us getting in trouble. This was my plan. Please, I’m begging.” Michelle pleaded with her eyes and Tim could see that she was not going to change her mind. Frustrated and sad, he straightened himself up and started lowering himself down the other side.

  “We’ll be back, I promise,” he said before his face disappeared behind the wall.

  Michelle was already crawling towards the large bush when she called out to them. “Run!”

  Samantha, Tim and James looked at each other in shame and confusion when they heard Michelle yelling at them. “What do we do?” Samantha asked, still crying, “We can’t just leave her.” Then they heard other voices from beyond the wall and instinctively took off running into the woods. Once out of breath, each of them found a large tree to hide behind.

  Michelle was well-hidden between some bushes when she saw two figures, well actually just their legs, approaching the area. The alarm had been turned off and suddenly it was amazingly quiet. She was afraid they would hear her breathing. Her leg was still hurting, especially after falling to the ground a second time, but she held her own, biting her lower lip to avoid making any sound.

  As the men got closer she recognized one as Xander, but not the one he was talking to.

  Xander was speaking in a low voice. “It seems the alarm was tripped here at this segment.” He moved towards the wall and looked at a section of fine wire sticking out of a small groove. The other person sounded younger as he moved closer to examine the tiny wire. From that angle Michelle could see their faces clearly. It was the Asian guy she saw at the mall. He was also very handsome. He had a sharp angled face that was pale but not sickly. His eyes were fierce, like a warrior she thought, and his shiny jet-black hair was cut short with a few strands hanging down across his right eye.

  “What do you think, Haneul? Is it a malfunction? Did it just fall out?” Xander asked.

  “No. I can see them running. Three of them,” Haneul said while looking straight into the wall as if he could actually see through it. “Too fuzzy to see the faces,” he continued.

  Michelle couldn’t believe the conversation that was taking place mere inches away from her. There was no way she had heard what she thought she heard. Xander told Haneul that he was going to send Elliot over and walked away. A few seconds later the guy with the blue eyes appeared. So that’s his name, Michelle thought to herself. Elliot… nice. She tried to follow him with her eyes as he walked but Elliot was already standing up on top of the wall. He didn’t jump or climb; it looked like he just took two steps and walked right up. Before Michelle had the time to digest what she saw, Haneul was standing next to Elliot, both of them looking towards the woods. They were talking to one another, but Michelle couldn’t hear them from where she was. And in another instant, they were back on the ground. Haneul looked distraught, while Elliot stood there thinking. “Should we call the authorities and let them deal with the intruders?” asked Haneul. No, Michelle was praying silently, don’t call the cops. Elliot said that he didn’t recognize the two boys, but that the girl’s face looked familiar. Michelle was scared for her friends, but also very confused at the situation unfolding in front of her. How the heck could he have seen what they looked like? Didn’t they run away like she told them to?

  “Yes, I’m sure of it. It’s the same girl,” Elliot declared with satisfaction.

  “Which one?” Haneul inquired.

  “She was the one driving the car on Halloween,” Elliot answered.

  “Yes, I remember now. Xander told me about it. Can you imagine if she had actually crashed into you? The whole town would be involved and we haven’t even moved in yet. Even though it would have been her fault, what a great first impression we would have made,” Haneul exclaimed. Elliot was silent again. He was thinking.

  Michelle didn’t understand. If Elliot was talking about Halloween night while Samantha was driving, how did he recognize her face? They had only spoken to Xander. But then she remembered that he had gone back to the car to talk to somebody else. Maybe it was Elliot she saw up at the road, but there was no way that that he could have seen Samantha’s face from all the way up there; it was way too dark. Then Michelle had a scarier thought; if he had recognized Samantha, then surely he would recognize her as well.

  Elliot finally spoke, “We shouldn’t call the cops, that will only prolong all of this. They are just kids. Curious I guess, maybe on a dare. Who knows what they do for fun these days. We don’t want an investigation. The police would have to come here and take down all the details, and then the kids’ parents would undoubtedly get involved. The less they see of us the better.”

  “You’re right,” added Haneul. “They got their scare. They won’t be coming back. There’s nothing here that they saw that should pique their interest, just a school. I’m going back to help the others.”

  Haneul left while Elliot lingered around the area for a while. He went back to the wall and replaced the alarm wire into its proper groove. He then turned and walked directly to the bush where Michelle was hiding. He stood there while Michelle’s heart was racing to the point where it was getting hard for her to breathe at all. She tried to will him away with her mind. She even prayed to whatever gods were out there to forgive her foolishness and promised not to ever do anything so stupid ever again. Then Elliot spoke…

  “So, how do you plan on extricating yourself from this situation, Michelle?”

  Michelle was completely stunned. It was bad enough seeing people on top of walls who didn’t belong there, and others looking through them. It was bad enough that she had been separated from her friends and almost gotten them in trouble, and now the boy that she had been unable to erase from her mind was standing above her and calling her by name. She was so busted, and beyond puzzled. Michelle slowly crawled from under the bush, her face burning red. She was mortified. Elliot looked down at her in disapproval and his eyes looked as if a shadow passed behind them. He closed them,
like a long blink, and when he opened them again they were back to their ordinary brilliant blue. He looked over his shoulder to see if anybody else was coming in their direction, and seeing that the path was clear, he quickly pulled Michelle up to her feet. She instantly bent her left leg wincing in pain. His face softened, and he crouched down and carefully rolled up her pants leg. Michelle just stood there frozen because despite her pain, the most beautiful guy on earth was actually touching her. Elliot found the injury and placed his hand on the area where the pain was most severe. Michelle immediately began feeling a warm sensation like a dull electrical current running up her leg. It transferred to her spine and all the way up to the back of her neck. The pain was no longer sharp, more like a dull ache.

  “What did you do?” she said, jumping back in fear.

  “It’s not broken. It will get better if you rest it,” was all he said, avoiding her eyes.

  “Yeah? But what did you do to me? Why does it feel better?” she asked, more determined.

  Elliot stood up in annoyance. “You are on private property, but you already knew that. I can call the cops and have you reported. But I’m willing to let you go back to your friends.” Michelle began to say something that sounded almost like an apology, but Elliot continued, “You are not to come here and disturb us again. That will only make matters worse for both of us. We moved here to have peace and quiet, and this is what we have to deal with?”

  Michelle couldn’t help but interrupt him, “What is this place? What sort of a school is this? And how did you know my name?”

  Elliot’s anger was growing. “You come here breaking the law and start asking me questions? You should just say ‘thank you’ and leave.” He was staring right at her. Michelle saw his eyes spark; there were flickers of aqua and gold emanating from his corneas just like the blue glass from the ornament. When Elliot noticed Michelle’s fearful expression, he blinked again and his eyes cleared. He lowered his voice.