“Hello, Paola,” they all said, including Luca, who giggled while doing so. Tammy Watson shot Paola a dirty look as she said her hello.
“Why don’t you tell us a bit about yourself, Paola?” Ms. Autumn said.
Paola went from jaded to shy in seconds, “I dunno, I’m 12. I’m from Warson Woods Missouri. And I like hanging out with friends, going to the mall, and playing video games. Well, I did, anyway.”
“Welcome to our class, Paola, we’re glad to have you,” Ms. Autumn said as she sat. “Now, let’s begin with our morning prayer, shall we?”
Paola gave Luca a weird look as he folded his hands and closed his eyes. He didn’t remember the prayer, but he kept his mouth moving as though he knew every word. He peeked over at Paola, grimacing through the prayer, and smiled. She opened her eyes and caught him, then furrowed her eyebrows in playful anger, which made him almost giggle out loud.
He closed his eyes, since he didn’t want to erupt in a laughing fit and get in trouble.
As Ms. Autumn began talking about the day’s lessons, Luca found his mind drifting to Will, and wondering if he was okay. Luca hadn’t seen Will since he left two days earlier, in real life or in his dreams. He hoped he was okay.
Though Luca was sad Will had left, things had been running smoothly at The Sanctuary ever since.
Desmond and Mary told John and Brother Rei that they would stay at The Sanctuary, a decision Luca knew they’d been fighting about, from the snippets of conversations, and thoughts, he’d overheard, though he never intended to eavesdrop. Once they made their decision, they were all given new clothes like the rest of the people wore.
Now that they were officially part of The Sanctuary, Luca noticed that people were thinking less bad things about him and the others. They were starting to accept them, though some people, like Tammy, didn’t care for them at all. Tammy, Luca had discovered while accidentally tuning into her thoughts, was jealous of Paola’s beauty. Luca thought it was odd, considering that Tammy was pretty. But she was blonde and pale, and secretly craved to have Paola’s olive skin and dark hair. Tammy’s nastiness was almost an obsessive string of thoughts. Thankfully, Luca was now learning to tune out people’s thoughts.
When Luca first began hearing other people’s thoughts, the voices poured through like a whole bunch of radio stations all tuned in at once, and it was too much. Now, when he wanted to, he was able to tune out everyone completely and stay in his mind with his own thoughts. He didn’t like the constant chatter and negative thoughts of others. Now, however, Luca was tempted as he watched Paola doodling on a piece of paper and ignoring Ms. Autumn, to get in her head and hear what she was thinking.
Things had been weird between them since he started talking to Rebecca, even though Paola had no idea that Luca was hanging out with her every night in the little trips he took outside his body. Nobody but Will, and Rebecca, knew he could do that.
Things had already been weird between them since he saved Scott. Once he grew physically so much older than Paola, she started acting different. Maybe she sensed he had a crush on her, and wasn’t sure how to respond. He was, after all, really eight, and not the 16 years his body now appeared. The whole thing was weird, and Luca noticed how even Mary and Desmond looked at him different, like they didn’t want him being friends with her anymore. They were afraid he’d have sex with her. While Luca’s knowledge of sex was extremely limited, he couldn’t deny that the body change caused him to think about girls a lot more. Not to mention, he was always “popping boners,” as Jimmy had called it.
Last night, when Luca and Paola were joking after dinner, Luca heard Mary’s thoughts, even though he wasn’t trying to eavesdrop.
Don’t you dare make a move on my daughter.
Luca heard the thought, clear as if it had been his own. He turned to Mary, and caught her staring at him. A moment passed between them, and she quickly turned, as if she knew he’d heard her thought.
He left her head, but not before he felt something. It wasn’t in words, but rather an emotion — fear . . . of him.
Luca liked Mary; he thought of her like a mom, almost. So her fear of him made him sad. He didn’t want to be the target for her Mama Bear rage, and was offended that she felt that way about him, like you might an outsider. They’d known each other for months, and Luca thought he’d earned more trust from Mary.
Besides, Luca didn’t even feel the same about Paola anymore. Not since Rebecca, anyway.
Even though Rebecca was locked in the box outside, he felt as if she’d been by his side nearly every night.
Over the course of the past few nights, they’d journeyed to the mountain, his home, a lake she used to swim in, and even Disney World, or at least the version informed by TV and painted by Luca’s imagination. They even went on rides, and though it couldn’t possibly have been real, it felt real to them. Though Rebecca was locked in a cold box with barely any food or water all day, she was having the time of her life when she closed her eyes at night.
Luca felt like they’d known each other for years, not days. In many ways, Rebecca, at 13, was closer to Luca’s age, than Paola, who seemed way older than her 12 years, and was growing more jaded by the day.
Rebecca would be freed from the box after her week was up, and Luca couldn’t wait to finally see her in person. But he was also afraid. Once she got out of the box, her mother, and the others, would surely be keeping a close eye on her. If she even talked to a boy, let alone Luca — the outsider — they might both wind up in boxes.
Luca tried not to think about the stuff that would stop him form enjoying his time with Rebecca. Even if they had to spend the next year together only in their connected dreams that weren’t really dreams, it was a lot better than nothing. Luca wasn’t sure what romantic love was like, or if it was possible to feel it so quickly for someone — someone you technically didn’t even know in person — but he felt something for Rebecca. If it wasn’t love, it had sure fooled his heart.
So why am I still wondering what Paola is thinking?
I have to listen in. Just one more time..
He closed his eyes, and tuned into the voices. But he didn’t hear Paola’s.
Instead, he heard Black Pieces, the voice he hadn’t heard since they came to The Sanctuary.
“Hello, Luca. I missed you.”
“Black Pieces?” Luca thought, excited and a bit nervous that his old chess-mate had resurfaced.
“Yes, I’ve been looking for you.” Black Pieces said, his voice today like Cheshire Cat’s from Alice in Wonderland, but with a bit of a hiss at the end of his words.
Luca felt a chill. “What do you want?”
“He’s here, isn’t he? The Man in The Center, Man in the Middle, whatever you’re changing voice is calling him today. I feel him with you.”
“Yes,” Luca thought, “But he’s not like he was in the dreams. He’s not killing people.”
“Not yet, but you know the dreams can’t be changed, right? Because they’re not dreams.”
“Yes, they can. I can change them.”
“Do you even remember what happened in the ‘dreams,’ Luca?”
“No, not everything. I haven’t been having them lately. I thought maybe they wouldn't come true. Maybe things would be okay.”
“Yes, I see what you’ve been doing, but I wouldn’t get too attached.”
A vision flashed before Luca: Rebecca’s dead eyes staring up at him. She was skinny, and her skin blue, as if starving and cold.
“No,” Luca thought. “She’s not going to die!”
Dark Pieces laughed.
“She’s already dead, silly. Heh-heh. She died two nights ago. You’ve only been imagining that she’s still alive. Tsk, tsk, you’re even more messed up than they said you were. Poor Luca’s first love is a dead girl.”
“No!” Luca thought. Or thought he thought, but then realized, by the stares from his classmates, that he’d shouted it out loud.
“Are you okay,” Ms.
Autumn asked as the kids up front giggled. Paola stared at Luca, concerned.
Luca’s heart pounded, and he felt short of air, sucking in deep breaths, his thoughts a jumbled mess.
No, she can’t be dead!
Luca got up from his desk, heart pounding in his throat, and said, “I don’t feel so good,” and raced from the classroom, into the hall, and out of the house, headed for the Box of Shame.
* * * *
LUCA HARDING: PART 2
Luca raced from the women’s house, toward the courtyard where the Box of Shame stood in the morning sun and last night’s four inches of snow.
He could feel eyes on him: workers at the church, a couple of men in front of the barn, Brother Rei and John, who were standing in front of the hangar, and surely the men in the guard towers over each of the houses. He heard snippets of thoughts, people wondering what he was doing. One man wondered if he should shoot Luca.
Luca didn’t stop running until he reached the box. He pounded on the box, his hands hurting in the cold air as his fists met the wood. He cried out, “Rebecca!”
Nothing but silence.
His heart froze.
No, she can’t be.
All those journeys taken together, all their conversations, stories, secrets, and laughs shared in the past two nights, were they all in his head?
He continued to bang on the box. “Rebecca!!”
Behind him, one of the men shouted, “Hey, get away from there!”
Luca could hear footsteps approaching, though he could see nothing but the wooden box in front of him with its heavy wooden bar locking the poor girl inside. He put his hands beneath the bar, andpushed up. It was lodged tight, so he pushed harder, putting his feet into it, but his feet were slipping in the snow.
Please, please, please be alive!
“Hey!” the same man shouted.
“Get away from there!” another shout. It was Brother Rei, racing toward him, John close behind.
Luca looked at them, then back at the bar, giving it another desperate push. He had to get the box open before they got to him. He pushed with everything he had. The bar lifted and swung aside.
Footsteps closed in, and he could hear breathing, and their thoughts:
I’m gonna kick his ass.
You little fucker.
The boy is possessed!
He’s dead!
Luca pulled the door open and his heart stopped. He saw Rebecca inside, eyes closed, skin blue, unconscious, maybe dead. He reached in pulled her out of the box — she was so cold — and gently laid her on the ground so he could try to heal her. A hand caught his hair and pulled tight, yanking him back. Brother Rei.
“Let go!” Luca screeched, trying to break free, and get to Rebecca. “I have to save her!”
“You’re coming with me!” Brother Rei said, ignoring Rebecca who had yet to move and was dead or dying. There were more than 50 adults at The Sanctuary, at least 10 in the courtyard, not including guards, and yet nobody was helping Rebecca.
“Someone, please help her!” Luca cried out, still trying to pull free from Brother Rei’s tight grip on him.
A couple of the men looked down at Rebecca, but remained passive.
“She’s dying!” Luca screamed as Brother Rei’s hands went around Luca’s waist, and pulled him farther away.
“Let go of him!” a voice shouted.
It was Desmond, who’d come running from the barn.
Brother Rei held his grip tight, “He’s going in the hole!”
Desmond dropped to his knees beside Rebecca, then felt for a pulse. A moment later, he began to perform CPR on Rebecca. The crowd of people around them had grown to nearly 20, but only Desmond was helping Rebecca.
“Get him off of her!” Brother Rei commanded to one of the men.
Brother Andre, a big red bearded man, almost as large as Linc, grabbed Desmond by the right arm.
Desmond spun around, gripped the man’s hand, and twisted it behind him hard, then thrust Andre to the ground. Two more men ran toward Desmond.
“She’s dying!” Luca screamed.
“Let God decide her fate!” Brother Rei shouted, holding his hand out to command the others to stay put.
Luca used the slippery snow to his advantage; he spun, dipped down and slipped out of Brother Rei’s grip, then came up and elbowed him beneath the left eye.
Freed, Luca dropped to the ground and scrambled to Rebecca’s side. One of the guards, Brother Terry, thrust a rifle at Luca, “Get away from her, or I will shoot.”
A loud shot rang out and Brother Terry dropped the gun, clutching his bloody, mangled right hand, crying in disbelief, “You shot my hand!”
Luca looked up to see Desmond holding a pistol, and waving away the others. “Back the FUCK off!” he shouted.
“Everyone just hold on,” Linc said, stepping forward with his hands up. “Let the kid help her. I’ve seen him do it before.”
Luca put his hands on Rebecca’s face — so cold — then closed his eyes in search for her soul.
He found her on the mountain, in their spot where the swing and rose bush had been during their first trip. Only now, there was no swing, rose bush, or lightning bugs to light the darkness swirling in the clouds overhead. Rebecca was in a heavy black coat, on her knees in the snow, back turned to him and looking down at something he couldn’t see, her long red hair flowing in the wind.
Her hair is back!
Luca stepped toward her, and heard her murmuring. As he drew closer, he saw her pulling petals from one of the roses with a million petals, saying, “He loves me; he loves me not,” over and over.
“I’m here,” Luca said, but she either didn’t hear him, or was ignoring him, as she kept counting the petals, tossing them to the ground. As he circled around her, he saw there must’ve been 500 petals on the ground in front of her splayed blue dress, which flowed over the snow like a blanket.
“He loves me; he loves me not,” she said, oblivious to his presence, her eyes closed.
“Rebecca,” he said, kneeling down in front of her, “I’m here.”
“He loves me; he loves me not…”
He reached toward her hand as her fingers plucked a petal free, and touched her.
Her eyes opened wide, but they were all black.
Luca jumped back, startled.
She kept counting, “He loves me; he loves me not…” only now her eyes — her alien, black eyes — followed him as he backed away.
“Rebecca?”
“He loves me; he loves me not…” she said, ripping petals from the flower, faster now, though her dark eyes never left him.
“She can’t hear you,” a girl’s voice said behind Luca. He turned and recognized the older teen from the pictures Rebecca had shown him at her house — her sister. She wore a long black dress, which blew around her like a tapestry in the wind.
“Alexis?” Luca said.
“She’s gone.” Alexis said, no emotion on her face.
“No,” Luca said, “She can’t be gone. I can save her.”
“Just let her go. She’s better off here, where Mother can’t hurt her.”
“No!” Luca said, “I can protect her!”
“No,” Alexis said, “No one can. It’s too late. Too late for all of you. He’s bringing them all.”
“What?” Luca said, “Who?”
“The Man in the Middle; he’s not who you think he is. And he’s preparing to eat you all.”
Rebecca gasped, sucking for air, then caught her breath as her eyes went from black to blue. They were both back at The Sanctuary, with Desmond holding off an angry mob.
“You’re alive!” Luca said, eyes tearing up as he hugged her.
“Luca?” she asked, her voice thin and shaky, “What happened to you? You look older.”
Luca looked around and saw that everyone was looking at him with wide eyes, shocked into silence.
Desmond looked down at Luca and nodded his head, “You look about 25 now, buddy.
”
Rebecca’s mother, who must’ve seen what happened, came over, practically pushing Luca out of the way, and fell to her daughter’s side, crying, and holding Rebecca, “I’m so sorry, baby.”
She looked at Luca, eyes red, “Thank you.”
Luca said, “You’re welcome,” then noticed something.
Luca saw the movement too late to warn Desmond, as a man slipped behind him, and punched him in the back of head, knocking him to the ground, out cold. It was only after the man picked up the gun that Luca recognized who it was — Boricio.
Boricio looked at Desmond’s gun oddly for a second, as if he’d recognized it or something, then turned it over in his hand and handed it butt end to Brother Rei.
Two pairs of hands grabbed Luca tight around his arms and yanked him away as Rebecca screamed, “No!”
* * * *
RYAN OLSON: PART 1
Elmore, Georgia
February 26
8:17 p.m.
Ryan had hoped to reach Alabama by nightfall, but they’d had to flee the highway five times thanks to the seemingly endless piles of vehicles littering the road. The world around them was pitch black, slowing Ryan’s driving to a crawl.
If the moon was out, it had been choked by the low-hanging churning dark clouds.
Driving on the highway in complete darkness was an accident waiting to happen, as they’d discovered two nights earlier when they plowed into a stalled VW at full speed. If Ryan believed in miracles anymore, he’d consider it one that they all escaped without a scratch. Their Honda Odyssey however, wasn’t so lucky.
Ryan, Carmine, and Gramps found themselves stranded and having to walk two miles, inching Gramps along in a wheelchair, and praying to find shelter before the monsters found them.
Their luck had lasted a little longer, leading them to a hotel just off the highway where they found another van, an older Econoline with a full tank of gas, which is what they were driving now.
Yesterdays Gone: SEASON TWO (THE POST-APOCALYPTIC SERIAL THRILLER) (Yesterday's Gone) Page 42