Leech 01 Caleo

by James Crawford

  “Wake up, you have been asleep for too long.”

  Caleo groggily opened his eyes. As the room came into focus, he saw his grandmother standing over him.

  “Grandma,” Caleo said surprised. “How did I get back here?”

  Caleo was trying to decide whether he was dreaming or not. He went to sit up and a sharp pain from his skin pulling and reopening the wound in his chest made him fall back to the floor. Not a dream! Definitely not a dream.

  “Just lay still, you don’t want to rip those stitches,” Caleo’s grandmother said, calmly pointing to a bandage just above his right nipple. “You know I was told what you did.” She handed Caleo a cup of water and a pill. “Dr. Neely said you saved their lives and I’m proud, but you need to be more careful. You look as though you were chewed up and spit out, then ran over by a truck a few times … but you survived, and although I've heard the stories of how, I would love to hear it from you.”

  “I—” Caleo started but was cut off.

  “Not now, I’m not done. Haven’t I taught you anything? It’s disrespectful to interrupt someone when they are talking, really now. There are a few things you need to do tonight.” Caleo groaned and his grandmother shot him a mean glance. “You’re not going to have to move, I just need you to talk to Jack.” Caleo raised his head in surprise, as he remembered Jack running away.

  “Is he—?”

  “He's fine. I tried to explain everything to him and Bradley helped. He knew about Bradley having his gift I just think you surprised him when you showed yours and he didn’t have a clue.”

  “He wasn’t the only one surprised.”

  Caleo’s grandmother smiled softly. “Well, I think you should talk to him. Now, as for this town you have created, you have returned with a village full of people and for some reason they all keep asking about you. I keep telling them how much trouble you got into at school and about that time you nearly burned down the house.” She brushed Caleo’s hair back and winked at him.

  “That was five years ago. I was a cooking you breakfast, and it was only toast burning.” Caleo smiled up at his grandmother as he pictured her spreading rumors that he could start fires with a flick of his hand just to keep the cave to herself.

  “I must have forgotten to mention that fact. Anyway, everyone has agreed to let us keep the cave for our family. I guess you're their leader or something now. They have set up tents and are working on more permanent shelters for themselves.”

  Started setting up permanent shelters? Caleo tried to look out the cave entrance to gauge the time, but his grandmother was in the way. “How long have I been sleeping?”

  “Nick came running up early this morning. I would say around eight hours. Bradley went down and floated you and Nolan up here. They’ve torn up the truck’s trailer and are using the metal siding to make their shelters and Nick stashed the truck down the road about six miles. Dr. Neely told me to wake you up around noon and give you this pill before the other drugs wear off. So you better take it now.” She looked at her watch in the glow from the entrance. “I’m a few hours late.”

  “Who is Dr. Neely?”

  “She was one of the people you rescued,” Grandma said, as if it were common knowledge.

  Caleo swallowed the pill, then asked, “How is Nolan?”

  “He's worse than you, but I was told he'll make it, too. Now go back to sleep and get your rest. I have to go give Nolan his pills.” Grandma kissed Caleo on the forehead, then got up and walked to the other side of the cave.

  Caleo watched as she knelt down and gently shook Nolan. “Wake up!” she said harshly.

  Nolan sprang up like a Jack-in-a-box. “Caleo, where is Caleo!” Nolan yelled, turning his head as if looking around the room.

  “He's right there,” Grandma explained, confusion evident in her voice, pointing in the same direction Nolan was facing.

  “Is he all right?” he pleaded.

  “I’m okay,” Caleo said, feeling the drugs pulling him back to sleep.

  Nolan fell back down allowing his own pain to take over his body.

  “I don’t know what you're up to, but if you hurt my grandson so help me I'll find a way to kill you,” she said, anger flooding out of every word. Then she sweetly added, “Now take your pill, dear.” She placed the pill in his mouth and held the cup of water to his lips so he could drink. “Now sleep, I don’t know how much help you two will be tomorrow, but I have other things to do than to take care of you two all day, so you'll need to at least be able to fend for yourselves.”

  She turned and walked out of the cave pushing a blanket that was hung over the entrance out of the way. Light flooded in for a brief second and Caleo saw Nolan was bandaged up like a mummy, the bandages stained red where the blood came through. The blanket fell back into place over the entrance and the room was dark again.

  After a moment Caleo asked, “You okay?”

  “I will be,” Nolan answered. “How about you?”

  “I feel like shit,” Caleo admitted.

  “I’m sorry,” Nolan replied with sadness in his voice.

  “For what?”

  “Some bodyguard I turned out to be. Couldn’t do it with my sight so why would I be able to without it,” Nolan said, his depression clear in his voice.

  “I don’t understand. Why are you my bodyguard?” Caleo asked, trying desperately to stay awake as the medication slowly took control.

  “I don’t know why, I’m just doing what I’m told.”

  “So ... So … ” Caleo said, but fell asleep before he could finish his question.

  

  When Caleo woke up he had a sour taste in his mouth. He slowly looked around the cave, but only saw Nolan sleeping on the other side of the room. He gingerly sat up, wincing from the pain in his chest.

  “Hello, anyone there?” Caleo yelled, looking around the room.

  Nolan sprang up straight. “What’s wrong?”

  “Nothing, I’m just thirsty. Go back to sleep,” Caleo said, looking for a way to signal someone outside.

  When he couldn’t find anything, Caleo gave up and laid back down staring at the cave ceiling. “How long do you think we've been in here?” Caleo asked, trying to come up with a conversation starter.

  “Not sure,” Nolan said, sounding tired and out of breath. “Wait here, I’ll go ask.”

  Caleo turned his head to see Nolan was already up and walking towards the entrance of the cave. He was limping, but he strolled on, not showing an ounce of pain on his face. His chest was wrapped in blood-stained bandages and his right thigh had a single bandage barely visible out of the bottom of his makeshift shorts that were cut from his sweatpants. They were cut so high they barely reached the middle of his thigh.

  “What are you doing?” Caleo tried to sit up, but his wound screamed in pain, forcing him to lie back down. How can Nolan be up and moving after being hit by so many cuffs, and I can’t move without hurting.

  “You said you were thirsty,” Nolan said, not even bothering to turn his head in Caleo’s direction. “Besides, if I don’t get up, then I won’t get any better.”

  “How’s that work?” Caleo asked, smiling because he thought it might be a joke.

  “As long as I don’t overdo it, and I stretch my muscles some it will hurt less and less. It’s like surgery, you got to get up and get moving before it can feel better,” Nolan said, his oversized body silhouetted in black by the light pouring in from the entrance as he drew the curtain back.

  Caleo slowly sat up, fighting through the pain with every movement. When he finally managed to fully sit up, Nolan was gone. Caleo looked around the cave weighing the choice of pushing through the pain and going outside or sitting here alone in the dark empty cave. Minutes passed as Caleo watched the entrance of the cave for a sign that someone was coming to check on him.

  “I thought Nolan was going to get some water,” Caleo grumbled to himself, then sat there for a few more minutes. I can do this.

  He sl
owly crawled up the wall, keeping his right arm still and his chest as straight as possible trying not to move his wound around. Once he was standing, Caleo looked towards the cave entrance and shook his head. I don’t remember it being that far away. He pushed his body forward and navigated around the cave to the entrance using the wall for support. Hunching down and walking like a duck he walked through the entrance.

  It took a few seconds for his eyes to adjust, but when they did he was surprised to see that everything had changed. Where a day ago there was just a small river, there was now what seemed to be the start of a small village. Sure, it looked more like a couple of junk piles, a few tents and a few fire pits placed next to a river, but it was a start at rebuilding. Caleo could see that a large section of land down river, about ten feet away from the riverbed, was a small garden where his grandmother was helping a few men and Jillian plant seeds in the freshly tilled ground. On the other side of the river there were piles of branches and thorn bushes creating what looked to be the start of a makeshift wall. There were four men that Caleo could see standing just inside the wall holding a bow with an arrow fitted and held as if ready to shoot. Then Caleo spotted Jack emerging from the woods pulling a large twisted bush, a machete sheathed in a cloth case hung from his waist.

  “They have done a lot better than I thought they would.”

  Surprised, Caleo turned to see Nolan leaning up against a rock right beside him.

  “I’ve been told that your grandmother sure runs a tight ship.” He pointed towards her with a nod of his head.

  Caleo followed his lead to see his grandmother pleasantly, but loudly, instructing a few of the men about what they were doing wrong, waving her arm around in clear frustration.

  “That’s Grandma, polite even when she’s mad. She usually becomes more friendly and sweet the madder she gets, until she blows. Right now I’m thinking she's told the guys twice what she wants done, and they just aren’t listening. Just wait, she's going to take the shovel and tell them she'll do it herself and try and make them feel bad for making an old lady do anything.” Caleo smiled, looking back at Nolan who was holding a plastic cup of water.

  Caleo took the cup and looked at the water with distaste when he saw particles of dirt floating around in the bottom.

  “Its not bottled water, but it won’t hurt you,” Nolan stated.

  Caleo started to drink the water, gagging at the thought of the dirt, but when he realized that he couldn't taste anything different from regular water, his stomach settled and he finished the rest of the cup.

  “So what’s really going on? I know you're here to protect me, but why and from whom? And who were those people at the store?” Caleo handed him back the cup and leaned back against the wall.

  “This is complicated. First, as I told you, Thorn told me to protect you. Why you? Well, you are a lot more important than you know.” Nolan stopped and faced the sun letting the bit of information stew for a bit. “The Angel is the most powerful Leech out there. Your family is the only one that can trace its history of Leeches back for thousands of years. The Angel is supposed to be the leader of the Blessed. The story goes, only one Angel can be alive at a time and when he dies the next child born in the bloodline becomes the next Angel. The Angel is the most powerful Leech alive and has the power to stop all Leeches. Your grandfather is the current Angel, or is supposed to be the current Angel, because the Blessed are the supposed followers of the Angel.” Nolan stopped and ran his hand in front of Caleo’s face to draw his attention away from his grandmother and back to the story. “Not that grandfather. I was told he's the one on your father’s side of the family.”

  Caleo looked back at Nolan more confused than ever. He knew very little about his father, first his father was an orphan and grew up in an orphanage and second his father despised him, and according to his grandmother’s stories, even tried to kill him until God stepped in and intervened. Caleo felt as though he was just kicked. No, not God. Me.

  “I killed my mother,” Caleo said as the realization of all the stories people told him growing up about how his parents had died in a frozen room sank in.

  Nolan placed a hand on Caleo’s shoulder. “Your power did what it had to do to protect you. From what I was told your grandfather was a great man. It was about eighteen years ago that we guessed he died, that’s when Thorn found you in a car during that bad snow storm we had that year. It was the same night he found me floating in the river,” Nolan said, feeling a load of weight lifted off his shoulders.

  “Wow,” Caleo replied, not knowing any other word that could sum all of that up. “You became a Leech the day I was born?”

  Nolan nodded slowly. “That only answers part of your question,” Nolan said flatly, turning to Caleo smiling. “So, your majesty, would you like to hear the rest?”

  A loud explosion filled the air and Caleo looked up as the make shift wall exploded apart.

  The people in the camp started to run for cover when someone yelled over the chaos. “Who is in charge here?” An oversized man stepped out from the woods with a group of eight uniformed men all carrying guns. A golden ring insignia was on their right arm and they followed in step behind him, aiming their guns at people as they assessed the threat. Nolan pushed Caleo back towards the cave entrance, while slowly moving in front of it to block Caleo from anyone’s view.

  “I am!” Caleo froze when he heard his grandmother answer the man. “What can we do for you?” Caleo pushed past Nolan and watched, unable to react as the man laughed, pulled the gun from his belt, and fired a shot at Grandma’s head.

  Caleo screamed and surged forward only to be caught by Nolan’s outstretched arm.

  “She's okay,” Nolan whispered softly.

  Caleo could barely see the glare of a bubble around her as she lowered her arms back down gracefully acting like she had not just ducked into them out of sheer terror of being shot at.

  “What the hell!” the man said angrily, before he turned and yelled to his men, “Spread out and find the Leech.”

  He turned his back to Caleo’s grandmother and started to walk around the camp as if she wasn’t even there.

  “Don’t turn your back to me!” Caleo’s grandma yelled when the man saw Caleo and Nolan standing on the cliff’s edge.

  The man ignored her, took aim, and shot towards Caleo and Nolan. The bullet was quickly deflected inches from Caleo’s head.

  The man smiled and said, “I think I found him.” Then he drew a second gun and shot them both at lightning speed. One shot at Caleo and one at Caleo’s grandmother.

  The bullet was reflected away from Caleo, but Caleo’s grandmother fell to the ground landing flat on her face, a pool of blood forming around her chest.

  Enraged Caleo screamed, then surged forward shoving past Nolan only to find that the bubble was still in place around him. He pushed as hard as he could at the bubble and managed to get it to roll off the edge of the cliff, sending him rolling towards the man out of control. The bubble stopped dizzily a few feet short of the man with Caleo trapped inside, looking anything but intimidated he was sitting flat against the bubble where he was pushed by the g-force of the bubble rolling. Caleo sprang to his feet as the other men with guns encircled him. He never took his eyes off the man who had just murdered his grandmother as he tried to figure out how to kill this man while he was trapped inside the bubble.

  The man laughed coldly. Pointing his gun at Caleo he shot again only to have his bullet deflected once more.

  “Look what I found, sir. He had two people drained of life where he was hiding in a tent,” one of the men said, pushing Bradley forward.

  “Oh look, it’s the Carnie. I should have known it was you.” He pulled the second gun back out from his belt and aimed it at Bradley. “Let’s try this again, shall we? So who are you going to save, yourself or the boy?” the man smiled as he pulled both triggers giving Bradley no time to think. Bradley fell to the ground beside Caleo’s grandmother with a hole in his head. />
  The man turned back to Caleo and said, “So why is a known rogue trying to save a boy like yooouuu … ” the man paused as Bradley’s energy was absorbed into his body.

  “Will, stop! He's the Angel,” Nolan screamed from the riverbed.

  “The Angel? Really? Cause I just received my orders from Alix yesterday. There's no way there are two Angels. Tell me, Nolan, is this what Thorn is up to these days, making up stories, trying to rile the Leeches up with a false Angel tale?” the man asked, looking at Caleo who now had tears streaming down his face. Caleo looked into the man’s cold eyes as his own burned with hatred.

  One of the armed gun men fell to the ground in front of Caleo, clutching at an arrow buried deep in his chest.

  Everyone turned to see Jack standing yards away stringing another arrow. Will quickly aimed his gun at Jack only to have Caleo push his gun up into the air just before he could pull the trigger. Will turned, furious at having missed his target, and pistol-whipped Caleo across his already black and blue face, blood erupting from his nose with every hit. As Caleo fell to the ground, Will pointed the gun back at him.

  “No bubble this time, boy!”

  A rock smashed against the top of Will’s head. Furious, Will whipped around. Caleo saw Jillian and a group of people hurling rocks at the guards from the top of the cliff. He turned and shot off a few rounds towards the crowd, killing a few people before they retreated back out of sight. Will turned back to Caleo, whose blood and tears had frozen into icicles that hung from his noise and chin. A layer of frost coated the skin of his cheeks. Caleo could see everyone’s breath in the air.

  Will roared with laughter. “You think a little cold weather can stop a bullet?”

  “Heads up!” Nolan yelled as the river exploded, sending thousands of tiny droplets of water flying towards them. Caleo shielded his face with his arm, not knowing what was going to happen. The second they got within ten feet from Caleo they froze, turning into thousands of tiny little sharp shards of ice which embedded themselves into the armed guard’s faces and other exposed areas of skin. Screams of pain filled the air as the guards dropped their weapons and clutched at the ice splinters sticking out from their faces like little needles.