“I’m going to check it out,” Nolan whispered, slipping out from the picture frame and onto the bed. “Wait here.” He disappeared out of the room and returned a few minutes later. “There are six guards outside. It looks like they are setting up camp for the night. So we have to get out of here before the main party gets back. If we head out the back and go straight through the woods, I think we can make it.” He looked around at everyone for a second. “Now, let’s go.”
“Kylie dear, wake up.” Kylie stirred, smiling as she looked around at all the people.
“Good morning!” Kylie said, smiling excitedly.
“Shh, we need to be quiet.”
“Is Zoey sleeping?” Kylie asked softly.
“Yes, and we're playing a game, it’s like hide and seek. We're all going to run as fast as we can and not make a noise,” Kylie’s mom answered.
The group quickly fled the room and followed Nolan down the hall to the back door.
“Now run straight out from here as fast as you can. Get as far away as possible before you slow down. Don’t cross any roads or go towards the city. Now go!” Nolan opened the door and the group filed out. Caleo was supporting Jack in the rear of the group.
“I got him,” Nolan said, lifting Jack off the ground and laying him over his shoulder. “Hold on. This is going to hurt,” Nolan told Jack before he nudged Jillian and Caleo out of the house with his free hand. “Run and don’t look back!”
Jumping out the door, they ran for the woods, heading straight for an opening in the brush. The trees seemed to fly by as Caleo ran between them. He could see his grandmother struggling in the distance to keep her near-walking pace with Miss Farns, who was carrying her baby in one arm and Kylie’s hand in her other hand as she ran.
“We need to find a place to hide!” Caleo said, glancing over at Jillian as he tried to keep pace with her.
A few minutes went by and Caleo almost thought she hadn’t heard him. He was about to repeat himself when Jillian glanced over. “The cave?”
“It’s miles away!” Caleo replied, shaking his head.
“It’s perfect! It’s far enough from the house and it’s against the side of a steep cliff so no one can sneak up on us! It should be big enough to hold us all,” Jillian said, huffing for breath and Caleo could see sweat beading on her forehead.
Caleo shrugged. “Okay, but you need to get to the front of the group and lead the way. I’ll help Grandma.”
Jillian nodded, picking up speed effortlessly and leaving Caleo to tend to Grandma, who was gasping for breath and staggering from tree to tree to use each as a support as she went.
“I got you.” Caleo ran up behind her and wrapped her arm around the back of his neck for support. She was breathing hard and sweating more than Caleo thought possible. Caleo looked and could still see the group of people getting smaller in the distance.
“Okay, you guys, let’s go. This isn't a walk in the park,” Nolan said, appearing behind them.
“You … know … what … young man?” Grandma said, gasping for air between each word, her voice raspy and dry. “Back … in … my … day ... I … whoa! Put me down you big, stupid oaf!” Grandma said scornfully as Nolan picked her up by her waist and tucked her under his arm as he ran. Caleo smiled as Grandma kept scolding Nolan as he barreled through the woods: Jack over one shoulder and Grandma dangling under the other.
“I don’t have to carry you, too, do I?” Nolan turned back to Caleo who was standing stunned by Nolan’s strength.
Shaking his head, Caleo sprinted to keep up.
Roughly a half an hour later, Caleo and Nolan caught up with Kylie and her mother, who were now walking through the woods. Kylie was complaining about her feet hurting.
“I think we're far enough in that we can slow down,” Nolan said, placing Grandma back on her feet. She muttered something under her breath as she straightened out her dress, but Nolan didn’t seem to notice, he just continued to walk. “Let’s catch up with the others. They're at a stream up ahead. We should be there soon.”
“I don’t see a stream,” Grandma said, squinting at the trees up ahead.
“It’s there, just about seventy yards away,” Nolan said, not looking back.
Caleo exchanged glances with his grandmother before turning to follow Nolan. He felt his shirt snag on something and pulled it, only to find that Kylie was the source.
“Carry me!” Kylie demanded, her big brown eyes pleading. Caleo put her on his back and brought up the rear of the traveling party. After a few minutes of Kylie touching Caleo’s face and her nonstop questioning, he was overjoyed to see Bradley sitting on a rock just up ahead.
“Hey there!” Bradley yelled, standing up and dusting off his pants.
Nolan nodded as they approached.
“Where are the rest?” Grandma asked, walking up to the rock.
“Up about ten feet and around the corner.” Bradley pointed up the cliff to a small opening barely visible from the ground.
Nolan climbed up the rock face to the hole, where he placed Jack on a small lip at the opening. Then he crawled through, only to return a moment later.
“It will have to do,” Nolan told Bradley. “Let’s all get inside and get situated.” He extended his hand to Grandma, helping her up the steep cliff.
Once inside, Caleo sat on the rock floor with his back pressed against the cold wall. Jack was sitting in a rundown recliner left there by teenagers who frequently used the cave for parties. Jillian was perched on the armrest next to him with Grandma sitting on the other side in an old wooden kitchen chair. Jack looked like he was about to pass out. To Caleo’s left the Hispanic couple were leaning against the wall. Kylie was playing with some rocks in the light coming from the opening of the cave. Kylie’s mother was leaning against the wall, rocking the baby back and forth in her arms, whispering a song. The cave in whole was about the size of a small, one-car garage, with a low ceiling that was about five foot tall.
“What is this place?” Grandma asked, looking around at the mess of beer cans and crushed red Solo cups.
“It’s just a place kids come to hang out, Grandma,” Jillian softly answered.
Grandma’s head snapped towards Jillian. “You better hope to God you’re not one of those kids.” She shook her finger at Jillian to emphasize her point. “If your mother knew she would—”
Jillian rolled her eyes at the implication. “Oh please. Mike brought me here once and five minutes later we left!”
“Mike’s a minute man?” Caleo asked playfully. Jillian’s eyes darted across the room to Caleo, locking him in a death glare.
Jack snorted and started laughing as he held his side, wincing from the pain, but unable to stop. “Stop it, please stop it, oh it hurts!”
Jillian smirked devilishly. “Now, Caleo and Jack come here all the time to party with their friends.”
Grandma shot Jack and Caleo a venomous look before Jack said, “Honest, Grandma, we don’t. Caleo hasn’t been invited to a party since kindergarten. You know damn well he doesn’t have any friends.”
“Jack!” Grandma chastised. Caleo stood up and walked to the other side of the cave, away from everyone else, and sat with his back against the cold cave wall. He could hear everyone talking, but didn’t care to hear their words. It’s not like I didn’t know I have no friends. I just thought Jack was different. Caleo whispered to himself, “He's a jock and I'm a nobody. A friendless nobody.”
Caleo went quiet when Nolan put a hand on his shoulder briefly, as if to comfort him, then walked to the middle of the cave. “Okay, everyone get some rest. I'll keep watch to make sure we weren’t followed.”
11
Caleo looked around at the graffiti written all over the bathroom stall. Why do guys always draw penises? You’d think they would draw the female anatomy. The familiar screech of a window being closed interrupted his thoughts. I’m at school? Peeking through the crack between the door and the wall, he saw Mr. Thomas straightening his tie in th
e mirror, then walk out of the bathroom. “I’m in the bathroom at school. Oh God. Steve!” He took off running for the door. “I’m not going to wait around for him to show up this time.” Caleo pulled open the door and ran right into Mr. Thomas, who was standing on the other side with his ear to the door.
“You're supposed to be with the other children.” Mr. Thomas grabbed Caleo by the shirt and pushed him against the door.
Caleo smiled happily, he had evaded Steve. “I just needed a smoke. You know how it is.”
“Oh, you did, did you?” Mr. Thomas grimaced. Caleo had seen him smoking and knew Mr. Thomas could get into worse trouble for smoking on school grounds than he could. The two stared each other down for a moment before Mr. Thomas said, “So, if you're done, you should be on your way, right?”
Caleo didn’t wait to be told again. He wanted to get as far away from that bathroom as possible, so he took off running towards the pool yelling, “Yes, sir,” over his shoulder.
“Your class is in the auditorium!” Mr. Thomas yelled, but Caleo pretended not to hear him and picked up speed knowing that if he could just make it to Jack everything would be … normal.
“Normal,” he said aloud, willing it to happen. No Leeches, no Blessed, and no end of the world as we know it, he thought, as he burst through the double doors to the pool. He searched for Jack in the pool, but he was nowhere to be seen. Panicked, Caleo ran to the locker room and put his ear to the door. Maybe he's getting dressed.
“What are you doing?” Caleo froze as a deep voice echoed through the room.
Looking around, he saw no one.
“Well?” the voice came again.
This time Caleo recognized the direction and looked up to the diving board to see only Jack’s head peering over the side.
“You look like a deer caught in the headlights. An albino deer,” Jack said, making a reference to Mike’s joke earlier that day. He burst out laughing as Caleo gave him the finger with a smile.
“Go get your suit on!” Jack stepped to the edge, getting ready to dive.
Caleo’s mind fell back to the incident in the locker room.
“I don’t think ... ” he stopped as he was struck with a thought. What were they doing in the locker room? He ran for the locker room door. Carefully, he pulled the door open and slipped inside, where he looked around the corner to see nothing. He was almost disappointed until he heard Mike’s voice coming from the shower. Caleo crept closer.
Steve’s voice came from behind, freezing Caleo in his tracks. “You really shouldn’t sneak up on people like that.”
“Steve, what the hell do you want?” He turned, annoyed to see that Steve had still found him.
“Hey, Caleo! Who’s your friend?” Caleo turned to see Bruce poking his head out of the shower.
Oh great, and I thought the first time was bad. This is going to be ten times worse. Caleo rolled his eyes. “He's no one.”
“On your shoulder, you have a little friend.” This time the voice was Jillian’s, but it still came from Bruce’s mouth.
Caleo snapped out of his dream to see Jillian standing right in front of him, her hand outstretched to something near his face.
“What did you say?” he asked, still dazed by the dream.
“You made a little friend.” Caleo followed her hand to see that a small kitten had curled up beside his ear while he was sleeping.
“Why hello there, little buddy.” He gently rolled his fingers down the cat’s back, causing the cat to stretch without waking.
Jillian scooped the kitten up and cradled it in her arms. “Nolan asked me to come get you.”
“Of course he did. It’s always when you’re asleep that someone wants to wake you up,” Caleo mumbled, climbing to his feet.
“I can’t wake you when you’re awake.” Jillian shook her head then smiled down at the kitten and addressed it like a baby. “No you can’t, can you?”
Caleo exited the cave and joined the others by the stream. Jillian trailed behind him, cradling the kitten in the crook of her arm and scratching its belly.
Caleo smiled when he saw Jack notice the kitten. For the first time since this began a smile spread across his face as he nodded toward it. “Oh, I see you found dinner.”
“You wish,” Jillian said playfully, holding the cat out to tease Jack, only to clutch it to her chest and turn away when he reached for it.
“Grandma, tell Jillian to share her food with the rest of us,” Jack whined and made another snatch for the cat.
“Caleo.” Caleo turned at the sound of his name to see Nolan motioning for him to follow him away from the crowd and into the woods.
Caleo hesitated and looked back over his shoulder at Jack, but he was busy teasing Jillian. Well, if he was going to kill me he would have already. He slowly made his way to the woods after Nolan. Once they were out of earshot, Nolan turned to Caleo.
“We need to go back to the house tonight. I left something very important in your room.” He looked right at Caleo and it was then Caleo noticed that Nolan’s eyes were gray; it wasn’t the whole eye, but just the irises, giving it a hollow, haunting look. “And while we're there, we need to pick up some supplies. We need to leave soon, so we can get as much done tonight as possible.”
“But I don’t think my grandma can make it there and back tonight. Maybe someone can stay behind and make sure she stays safe?” Caleo asked, trying to come up with some excuse to stay behind where it was safe.
“Bradley will see to them,” Nolan stated simply.
“Them?” Caleo questioned.
“It’s just you and me going, the more people who come along, the more likely we'll be noticed.”
“But—”
“No! You and I need to do this. It’s to protect you and your family,” Nolan growled.
“Caleo, you listen to the man. He knows what is best,” Grandma said, seeming to magically appear from behind a tree. “There are things going on that I don’t fully understand, but my gut is telling me you need to trust him.”
She turned to face Nolan, then said, “I know what you are, and if I find out that you have hurt my grandson in any way, you won’t have to worry about the Blessed finding you. I'll kill you myself.” When she finished, she was only inches from Nolan’s face, looking fiercer than Caleo could ever remember.
“You know?” Caleo asked, surprised. “Why didn’t you tell me?”
“I didn’t want you to be part of that world. So I hid it from you. You’re different though, special somehow.”
“But how?” He paused as a thought occurred to him. “Are you a Leech?”
Grandma let out a laugh. “Heavens no, I’m too old. I knew because of your tattoo; my daddy had one just like it. His was more of a grayish color though.”
“Your dad was a Leech?”
“Now is not the time. I'll answer your questions when you get back.” She turned back to Nolan. “There's a purple rose bush beside my bed. If there's room, please bring it to me. It’s a family heirloom. Please keep him safe above all else. If he doesn't come back I'll have you brought to my feet, so I can stomp the life out of you myself!” she said with such conviction that Caleo knew she was telling the truth, but he had no clue how she would do it. Without waiting for a response, she closed the discussion by turning and walking back to the stream.
Caleo slowed his pace and looked back over his shoulder to make sure they weren't being followed. He saw Jack staring after them as they started for the woods, but that was about fifteen minutes ago and he hadn’t seen him since.
“He isn’t following us. Your grandmother told him to stay at the cave.”
Another five minutes went by before Caleo couldn’t handle the silence anymore and decided to get some answers. “What did Grandma mean when she said she was too old to be a Leech?”
“A Leech doesn't grow old like everyone else, we all look to be somewhere in our twenties or early thirties. It usually depends on when you become
a Leech. I was told that we age slower - a lot slower - than normal people. Some of the oldest Leeches I know said that they are over a hundred years old. However, they look the same as they did the day they became a Leech.”
“But if I age slower, than how come I look my age?”
“Well, that we don’t know. You see, there’s not really a science to this. No one knows why you don’t age as quickly. There's no chemical in our body that's different from a normal person, at least not that they've found. You might find this bit of useless trivia fun: this guy once told me before he was a Leech, his blood type was A positive. After, he had a blood type of O negative; he drove the doctors nuts for months. Later, he found out that all Leeches have O negative blood. It’s just one of those strange things.” Nolan smiled over at Caleo. “There are a lot of strange things about us.”
I wonder what other strange things. Then a thought occurred to him. “What did you forget at the house?”
“Did you know that to stop a Leech from using their power it just takes passing a jolt of electricity through them? It takes less than a Taser jolt to do the trick.”
Caleo stopped in his tracks when he noticed Nolan’s dodge. “Okay, but what did you forget at the house?”
“My pants, for one.” Nolan smiled down and exposed his bare leg up to his thigh.
Caleo could feel his cheeks start to burn and he shook his head to hide his embarrassment. “We're risking out lives to get your pants?”
“And to burn down the house,” Nolan said absently.
Caleo stared at the large man before him thinking he must have heard him wrong. “Excuse me?”
“We need to get rid of any evidence of you living there so they don’t come looking for you. Pictures, videos, anything that might lead them to finding out what you are.” Caleo was dumbfounded at how Nolan made this sound like something he did on a normal day.
“Why is everyone making a big deal about finding me?”
“My brother didn’t tell you?” Nolan seemed surprised. “You aren't just a Leech, you are the Angel, the most powerful of all the Leeches in the world. It’s said you might even have more power than the man claiming to be the Angel now. They're scared of you. They'll want you on their side of the war, and if you aren’t, they'll want you dead for a chance at your power,” Nolan explained.
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