Radium Halos: Part 2

by May, W. J.

  I gagged, scrambling over the tie to throw up. Again and again. My body racked with spasms long after my stomach had emptied its contents. “Rylee!” I moved back to my friend, trying to remember everything Dad had taught me about first aid. Don’t move her body. Don’t pull the metal out.

  Shaking from cold and fear, it was next to impossible to get my fingers to press against Rylee’s neck for a pulse. My gut knew it was in vain. Her blank eyes started up at the sky and her mouth hung slightly open. I covered my face with my hands. Who would do this? It –”

  “Zoe!”

  I jumped at the sound of a male voice. While focussed on Rylee, I’d somehow managed to tune out every sound.

  The evergreen branches shook, sending snow dust flying like sand against my face. Kieran emerged and stopped dead in his tracks. “Holy shit.”

  Sounds I’d closed off came flooding into my ears, each one racing to get in faster than the other. My sobbing and heavy breathing, Dad talking to someone to get a stretcher, a loud siren now steady as the vehicle was now obviously parked, other people talking and being directed to where Rylee and I were, a policeman trying to get others to stay off the tire tracks, and so much more noise. It was overwhelming.

  Kieran raced over to me and pulled me away from Rylee’s body. “Let’s move away so the medics can help her. You shouldn’t be here.”

  “Sh-Sh-She called. I c-c-couldn’t let her go t-to the mine by h-h-herself.” My eyes widened as I remembered why Rylee said she needed to go. I went rigid in Kieran’s arms, unsure of what to do. Trust him? Run?

  “She called me, too. I’ve been running everywhere trying ta find you.”

  “Zoe?” My dad shouted as he pushed past several paramedics just ahead of him. He smiled with relief when he saw me, then turned to Rylee. “Jeez, no.” He shot a look at Kieran. “Get her out of here.”

  “Yes, sir.” Kieran wrapped his arm tightly around me and gently forced me to walk back toward my car. “It’s okay,” he whispered.

  I pulled out of his grasp. “No. It’s not! Someone did this to Rylee. Then took off.” I squinted at him, thinking about Rylee’s last words to me. “Or fled ‘cause they were scared. Someone hit her on purpose.”

  Kieran fidgeted and didn’t meet my gaze. “It could’ve been an accident.”

  “Then the hit-and-run would have stayed. Called the police. Done the right thing.” Was I accusing him? My chattering teeth seemed to think so. A strange coldness had seeped into my core.

  He clasped his hands together and brought them to his forehead. “We need to talk. Not here, with all these people. Let’s go sit in the Bug.” He pointed at my mouth. “You need to warm up.”

  He led the way and opened the passenger door for me, then walked around the front of the car and settled into the driver’s seat. Once the car started, he cranked the heat and turned the vents on me. “Do you have a blanket in the back or anything?”

  I shook my head, absently watching two paramedics run back to their ambulance to grab a gurney and something black. Kieran couldn’t have done this. He’s not responsible.

  My dad came into view in front of the headlights. He walked around and tapped on Kieran’s window. When Kieran rolled it down, Dad bent forward and looked at me. “You okay, Zoezey?” Without waiting for my reply, he turned to Kieran. “Can you step out a minute?”

  Kieran tensed and then relaxed. He patted my knee with one hand and rolled up the window. “Sure.”

  They must have forgot I could hear them talk, probably too distracted with the horror scene behind the ugly Spruce tree. Would Dad interrogate Kieran? What else would he want to talk about out of normal earshot?

  “How’re things, sir?”

  Dad sighed as he rubbed the back of his neck. “Bad. Terrible, actually. Rylee… she… she didn’t make it.” His voice dropped a few decibels. “They’re going to take her body out now. I don’t want Zoe here. Her car is parked in full view of the back of the ambulance.”

  “I’ll take her home.”

  “Thanks. I’m going to be here, then at the hospital, and then talking to Rylee’s folks. Can you bring her to her mom’s house?”

  “Yes, sir.”

  “Thanks. You’re a good kid, Kieran. I appreciate it.” Dad shook Kieran’s hand and then came around to my side and opened the door. The cool air felt like a slap compared to the quickly warming little car. He squatted down and hugged me.

  I buried my face into his shoulder and made no effort to stop the tears or running nose. Kieran opened the driver’s door and sat down. He bounced his thumbs idly against the steering wheel. “Daddy, sh-she called m-me. I came out t-to get her… it was too late, wasn’t it?” Ironic. I could hear everything but right now, even though I knew the truth, I wanted his racing heart, his uneven breathing to be wrong, the words I’d just heard to be a bad dream.

  “Shhh…” He stroked my hair. “This isn’t your fault. There—”

  “Doctor Taylor?” A paramedic called out by the trees. “We, uh, need your help.”

  Dad leaned away to shout back. “I’ll be there in a moment.” He squeezed my hand and spoke quietly. “Kieran’s going to take you home. Will you be okay?” His voice cracked.

  My superman-dad; torn between doing his duty and protecting his daughter. I wasn’t hurt – at least physically. “It’s fine. I’ll be all right. Just really shaken up.” I shuddered and pulled my hand from his and lightly pressed my fingers against my throat feeling my heart beat against my skin. It made me think how Rylee’s heart would never beat again. I swallowed hard. “I don’t think I’ll ever get the image out of my head.” In a shaking, halting voice I added, “There’s no way this was an accident. We need to find out who did this.”

  Kieran coughed. Tapping of his fingers against the steering wheel began to grate on my ears.

  “The police will.” Her dad stood. “Let me do my job and let’s talk as soon as I get back from the hospital. Kieran’s going to drive you to Mom’s.”

  Numb, I nodded and let him lean in to click the seatbelt around me. Kieran revved the engine and slowly pulled the Bug around the ambulance. I stared blankly out the window and watched my dad turn and head back to the paramedics and police standing by the evergreen.

  The tree was massive. It had to be at least fifty, sixty years old. I blinked, not sure why I would focus on it. My brain seemed scattered all over the place. I couldn’t think straight. “Do you mind if we drive around for a bit?” I needed to concentrate, clear my head.

  Kieran flipped the heat on full. “Sure. Where do you want to go?”

  I sighed. “I don’t care. Maybe somewhere open, where we could walk. I need silence and fresh air.”

  Kieran shifted in his seat and drove slowly. When he cleared his throat a second time, I looked over, but he said nothing. He darted several glances in my direction but quickly turned back to focus on the snowy road. I stared at his profile. Rylee said he was responsible for everything. I didn’t believe it, I couldn’t believe it. And yet… I straightened and my body forgot how to breathe. No, it wasn’t right. He didn’t have it in him.

  “This okay?” Kieran rolled the car to a stop and let the engine idle.

  Huh? I glanced out the window and realized he’d driven down the road which led to the mine. Of all the quiet places. “It’s good. Perfect, actually.” He understood my need for silence, out here there was only nature, no city noise. I opened my door and stepped into barely enough snow to cover the ground. In the open field, the wind must have blown the snow so little accumulated.

  I walked around to the driver’s side of the car and then continued on, following the path of less snow. Kieran walked quietly beside me, his hand stuffed deep into his pockets. I turned to check if the headlights for the Bug were still on. Just before they automatically shut off, I caught a glimmer of something steel. I paused, letting my eyes adjust and squinted into the darkness. My stomach dropped. “Is that your bike? What’s it doing here?”

  It
took him too long to reply.

  “You bastard!” I turned in disbelief. “You did this?”

  Chapter 16

  The silence grew deafening. I covered my ears in the hopes of drowning everything out. Impossible. The truth screamed louder than any super-sonar sound I’d heard since that stormy night in the mine. It felt like déjà vu to be standing just outside of it now.

  Whatever shock I’d felt moments ago flew out the window. Sadness settled all over me. I wished I could just squeeze my eyes tight and pretend it was all a bad dream. I whispered, finally peering at him through my eyelashes, “Rylee knew... she tried to tell me… how could you?”

  “Does it matter?” Kieran stood stock-still, not even blinking. The mine behind appeared to be laughing. At me? At him? Or both of us?

  One of my hands found its way to the side of my face, my fingertips pushing against my temple. His words bounced inside my head. Did it matter? He couldn’t take anything back, so why should it? “If-If you brought yourself in… you could…” I didn’t know what I was trying to say, or even how to say it. “Y-You could get h-help.” Deep down you’re not bad. I dropped my arm and intertwined my fingers, like they were trying to pray.

  Kieran brought his hand to my face. His thumb rubbed lightly against my cheek. Staring me directly in the eyes, his shoulders rose and fell. His voice came out soft, almost regretful. “Not everyone can be helped. Some of us are just too damaged.”

  My heart melted, just a tiny bit. “No you’re not.”

  He laughed. It came out sarcastic… bitter. “You don’t know me.”

  “I thought I did.” Boy had I been wrong. Could I be in the way of his agenda now? I stepped back, glancing toward the Beetle. There was no way I could run over, climb in, get it started, and pull away before he would catch up. The horrid mine was my only other option.

  “You thought you knew me?” He shook his head, sweeping his free arm wide. “Everyone’s senses got mashed that night and, not for one moment, did you even consider me? I was brushed aside like a useless git.”

  “No…” I wracked my brain but he was right, in a sense. “We just figured, five senses – five of us.” I pointed at him. “You never admitted it that night at PHP, when all of us did. You said it was ‘cause we all grew up here. Why didn’t you tell us?”

  “I never knew!” He crushed his fingers through his hair. “I had the bad headache, but ’ow was I supposed to know I’d inherited a freaky-strong sixth sense? I didn’t believe it meself.”

  “But…” My brain couldn’t wrap itself fully around this. “You did bloodwork. My dad never said anything.”

  “He couldn’t have. I switched it. The front desk lady never saw me.” He tapped his head. “It was so easy knowing how with this.”

  “When did you figure it out?” I thought back to the first day I came to his house. A thought struck me. I closed my eyes a moment and then met his gaze. I couldn’t believe how I’d missed it. “I think I know. The day I met your dad, and almost knocked over your mom’s Scottish thistle. You reacted before I barely thought about touching it.” More memories crowded my mind. His perfectly timed smiles, the way he seemed to know exactly what I was thinking, or what to say. The night at the water tower. He knew I’d make it down. Then how he knew the hyperbaric chamber would work. Bile filled my throat, and I swallowed in disgust. He’d known and never told me, even as we grew closer. “All of this… me and you… was just a game to you? Try and see how fast you can get the blond to fall for you? I—”

  “You were never a game.” He stepped toward me, which only made me cringe. He swore under his breath. “Shite!”

  It shouted loud and clear in my ears. His heart hammered at car-wrecking speed. I waited while he inhaled long, deep breaths. That incredible body, I’d dreamt so many nights about, composed itself – inside and out.

  His voice came out quiet and steady. Deadly. “One mistake.” He lifted his pointer finger to the sky. “Me dad gets his sorry-ass drunk, an’ I git in his way.”

  I pressed my lips tight together. My stomach dropped with the fear of hearing his next words.

  “Did you know ’e was in the British Army? Undercover ops. All the terrorist shite after nine-eleven. When me mum died, he was gone. Not working, just gone. Didn’t come back till four months after we buried her. I,” he jabbed a finger at his chest, “had to bury her alone. At eleven years old. The bank took the house. Everything! Then I had to stay with neighbours. The bloody neighbours!” He began pacing, his body becoming tense again. “You know what he did to me that night?”

  I stared as he walked, too shocked to speak. You lost your mother to cancer and your dad didn’t come back?

  “No, he didn’t,” he said, sensing my thoughts, “and when ’e finally did, ’e couldn’t even look at me. Spent every minute with his hand wrapped around a damn bottle. Unless he was trying to wrap it around my neck. Couldn’t face up and be a man. He just ran away and ended up ’ere.” Kieran stopped moving and turned his head sharply to gaze at me. “Tha’ first night after training, an’ I went to git my bike, he came after me. Twisted me arm and held a gun to my head. Drunk bastard shoved me in the trunk of his car and drove me out to the mine. To here! He was gonna execute me. He said I killed his wife.”

  “No,” I whispered, my brows high against my forehead. I pictured him beaten and scared, dragged out of the trunk and forced to his knees. His father just as menacing as the mine. My stomach rolled with the fear he must have felt.

  “I’d always managed to handle him but…” He shuddered. “That nigh’, he ’ad this look in his eyes. I didn’t know what ta do.”

  “Then it was self-defence.”

  Kieran’s eyebrows shot up. “You beautiful, stupid girl.” He came over and gently rested a hand on my shoulder. “No one would believe that. You heard wha’ they said ‘bout the body. It was rage. I hated ’im for letting me mum suffer and die alone. Then I hated ’im more for coming back a shell of the man -- the hero -- I believed ’e was.”

  My eyes filled, thinking of the Kieran as a little boy, so lost and afraid.

  “Iye. Leave the past alone. I can’t bring them back.” He snorted. “No one can trace me back to ’is death.” He tucked a stray strand of hair behind my ear, tracing its outer rim with his finger. “No one knows, ’cept you.” A smile which first seemed a warning turned tender. “I’d never ’urt you. Ever.”

  Part of me believed him. However, the sane part told me to get out of there as fast as I could.

  He leaned forward, his lips brushing lightly against mine before he leaned close to my ear. “You cannit run. I’ll always find you.” His breath, hot against my neck, scorched down my spine. “We’re meant to be together.”

  I stiffened. He didn’t own me. “No we’re not. You killed Rylee. You belong in jail.” I shoved him away and then stuffed my hands into my coat pocket, reaching for my Blackberry.

  “I didn—Don’t dial nine-nine-nine. You’ll regret it.” He held out his hand, his fingers flipping, telling me to give him the phone.

  “I wasn’t going to.” That didn’t officially constitute as a lie. I’d have dialled nine-one-one, not the British emergency number. I paused when a distinct sound in the distance caught my attention. A high revving sound. A vehicle hurdling down the road toward us. Someone else had figured it out.

  Kieran grabbed and pulled me tight, kissing me again on the lips. Rougher this time, like someone scared. Terrified he might not see me again. “I’ll find you. Don’t worry, I will.” He squeezed my hand one last time, then ran over to his bike and jumped on. His helmet disappeared from the handle bar and was on his head before I had a chance blink. “Tell Brent,” He grinned, as if he knew some private joke. “Tell ’im ta take care of you till I come back.”

  I cowered and flinched when his motorbike roared to life. Dirt and grass sputtered from his back wheel as he took off and disappeared into the night. The scream of his engine disappeared in the opposite direction of t
he other car coming toward the mine.

  Then I did what any normal teenage girl would do. I started crying. I fell to ground on my knees and covered my face in my hands, letting the sobs rack through my body. Relief. Rage. Love. Shattered heart. Emotions coursed through my body and all I could do was weep. Wet snow seeped through my jeans but I ignored the cold.

  My sonar hearing audibly told me the car, racing toward the mine, had skidded to a stop close by my Beetle. The driver’s door opened and running shoes padded against the dry grass. I knew the rhythm of those feet.

  Warm, comforting arms circled around me from behind. I heard Brent’s heart and allowed myself to collapse against him.

  “Shh…” He held me tight. “You’re okay. Right? You’re not hurt – physically, I mean?”

  I nodded, turning around to bury my face in his shoulder. He smelled like sweat, Gillette deodorant, and some kind of guitar wax or polish he always used. I loved him for it – for not changing or hiding things from me.

  He held me and never said a word. Just let me blubber away until I leaned back and wiped my nose with the sleeve of my coat.

  “Sorry.” I stood. “No Kleenex.”

  Smiling, he stuffed his hands into his pockets. I could hear his fingers dance against the material of his coat. “He’s gone?” He glanced behind me.

  “Yeah. We won’t be able to catch him.” I sniffed, trying to prevent my wet nose from running again. “No one will.”

  “What?” His eyebrows rose.

  “He’s got an ability as well.” I released a shaky sigh.

  Brent didn’t look surprised, like he’d already figured it out.

  “It’s a sixth sense.”

  He frowned. “What do we do?”

  “Run. Hide. I don’t know.” Realistically, I was the only one who needed to hide. He only wanted me.