Closing the car door carefully so as not to alert anyone in the house, he eased away from the car and began his long walk home.
“Well, well, back to stealing cars I see.” The crunch of tires rolling up next to him stiffened his spine.
John froze at the stop sign as the car stopped. He knew the voice, and he cringed every time he heard it.
“So, how’d it go?”
John thought about lying, but he knew it wouldn’t do any good. Without his pendant, he was left wide open and couldn’t trust anyone at work. He would have to really get into his role now.
“Great! Dropped them off just as requested. They’re all together now. All twelve of them.”
“Good, get in. Boss wants to meet you. He has something special for you to do since that Indian chick took such a shine to you.”
John blacked his mind. Nothing. Think about nothing. Nothing but blackness, darkness. Nothing at all. His spine popped as he straightened further, “Sure.” He moved behind the car to the passenger side watching the taillights as he passed. He wouldn’t put anything past this man. Safely making it to the door, he pulled the handle and seated himself. Tugging the seatbelt from right to left, he snapped it in place.
“Seat belt? Really? Since when?” The driver’s stare sent a shiver down his spine.
“Hey, I’m an officer of the law, right? Lead by example and all that crap!” John threw in a manly chuckle to conceal his real feelings.
“You are one strange kid. I bet you were bullied to no end when you were little. What the hell is so special about you that you are one of us? What can you do that I can’t do? Why did the boss take to you the way he did? Tell me!” The driver ordered as he checked the intersecting street for traffic before making his turn.
“I don’t know what I did.” But John did know the truth.
“Huh. Couldn’t be that you’re like… family?”
John’s tension rose. Nobody knew. How did he find out? Did everyone on the force know? The fear became reality. He was finally going to meet the man who brought him to this place in his life. He was finally going to meet the one who sent for him when he was younger, his estranged uncle, the one who hated his family so much that he had them killed. He was coming face to face with the monster who destroyed everything in his path, every person who loved and trusted him, every city he’d led. He was coming face to face with the man in his nightmares.
“Does that scare ya’ kid? Us knowin’ the truth about you? That scare ya’? ‘Cause it should.” The driver sneered as he floored the gas pedal climbing the speed up beyond the limit. Faster the car sped up the highway to the unknown location of John’s uncle as the nearer John grew to his fear, his nightmare, maybe his death.
He glanced at the driver, his twisted grinning face as oncoming headlights lit his features. John could see the potential for playing chicken with those oncoming cars. He could see the risk this man would take to please his uncle. The man was psycho. John questioned whether or not his meeting with his estranged uncle would take place at all. From the look of the cop next to him, this would be John’s last few minutes of life.
He couldn’t believe the force all knew.
He was in danger beyond that of his dream, of their dream, the Gifted Ones.
Tonight—he was certain—he would die.
“Come on, kid! You’re a little young to be on the force. You didn’t think we’d figure it out? Hell, you’re still wet behind the ears. But tonight, you ain’t gonna get any older!”
John swallowed hard and stared at his lap. He thought about Neka, beautiful Neka, and her brother. Had Nashota made it to the house? He never saw him, except that silhouette in the mirror. Was that him? What power he had to hide himself that way!
John would never see Neka, again. He hoped the Gifted Ones could handle what was to come.
“Yeah, she was a purty one, huh?” The driver began to laugh at John. John’s face grew hot with rage. He gritted his teeth, angry breaths flaring his nostrils. His head came up, “Look out!” He crossed his arms in front of his face.
A man stood in the middle of their lane on the highway.
The driver slammed on the brakes, pulled the wheel to the right, and cut it left in the ditch to gain traction, but the loose gravel kept the car on a straight path to a tree that impacted the driver’s front fender. An air bag pushed John’s arms into his face. He tasted blood from his upper lip. His arms, neck, and back hurt from the impact, but his side of the car was left untouched by the accident.
The passenger door opened from the outside and a hand gripped John’s right arm. “Come on out. Called 911. You’ll be fine.”
John looked up through swelling eyes, but the one who had helped him was gone. Where? Who was it?
Darkness filled John’s vision and his body crumbled beside the cop car.
John woke up in a hospital room uncertain how long he’d been there.
A card on the bed tray was the first thing he noticed. Stiffly he moved to lift it.
John
Nothing else on the front. The envelope was unsealed. Carefully he separated the two ends of the card to check inside. Just writing.
He pulled it free from the envelope to reveal the cover
Get Well Soon
You did good kid. Proud of you. I was going to have him removed from the force anyway. Heal quickly. We’ll finally meet after all this time. I will protect you from my followers. Don’t worry. We have too much to do together for me to risk losing you.
Uncle J.
John closed the card, tentatively placing it back into the envelope. A tear escaped the corner of his eye.
Why didn’t I just die? He thought.
Death would be better than what he had to face, the planned betrayal, the fate of Neka.
How did his uncle know about the plan to kill him? Was that him in front of the car? Was it he who had stopped the car? How could he do that? The powers he must already have, powers he’d stolen from them, powers stolen from betrayed love, powers turned to greed, hate, murder!
John closed his eyes to the sound of beeps and buzzes coming from a room down the hall. “We lost him!” A doctor shouted. “Better let the boss know.”
“Ouch!” Jamie drew back his finger.
“What is it? What happened?” Lena looked over his shoulder as he shook his hand before squeezing the tip of his right index finger. “Sliver.”
“Yikes! Batman has a sliver? Is it like kryptonite?”
“Wrong superhero,” Jamie rolled his eyes. “Give me a hand so we can get this board loose.”
Crowbar in hand, Lena pried the tip into a gap between two weathered boards and pulled with all her strength to pop the top of the board loose. “I don’t know what we are supposed to be looking for, but I sure hope we find it soon. My arms are getting sore.”
“I didn’t know farms could have so many buildings hidden on them.” Cai grinned at Nathan.
“What do you think it is? I mean, the thing they want, what we’re looking for?” Neka glanced at the others working at taking down boards as she moved beyond them to peer through another crack. If Nashota were here, she could get in. Where was he?
The board Lena pried on finally popped free from the wall, “Got it!” Carmen shined a flashlight into the darkness. Another empty space.. it was just another building with nothing inside, like all the others. Why were all of the buildings empty? This was a farm. Didn’t farms have equipment?
As she pulled the flashlight back from the opening, the light flickered across the ceiling. Something in that brief wave of light was familiar to Carmen. “Wait!” She shoved the flashlight back through the opening and directed it to the ceiling; she bent forward at the waist and angled her head to get a better view. Simon stood behind her trying to look inside over her head.
“Holy…” Simon’s jaw went slack.
“Crap!” Carmen finished. “It’s the spiral! This must be the place!”
“What spiral? What are you ta
lking about?” Several voices questioned as they moved nearer, taking turns to peer into the building.
“This has to be it, what we’re looking for,” Lena added quietly.
“What do we do now?” Cheater asked.
“Tear down this door! Make an opening. Let’s get in there and see what the big deal is!” Jaz answered.
“But, what if they are still looking for this place, too? There weren’t any tire tracks around, nobody has driven to this location. What if they didn’t find it when they were here, and they’ve just been waiting for us to find it?” Nathan pointed out. “Maybe they’re watching right now.” Nathan whispered suspiciously.
“Right.” Simon nodded. “Maybe we should act like it’s just another empty building. Walk away. We could come back later. We’ll need an opening we can get through and cover back up so they won’t know how to get into this building. If Nathan has nails, Carmen’s pretty good at building things.”
Carmen punched Simon on the arm, “Yeah, outta cardboard boxes, plastic and newspapers!” She corrected him.
They laughed. “Simon’s right. We need to be able to get in there and seal it back up from the inside. For now, let’s put this board back up, and go to another building. We’ll take down the boards at the other buildings to make it look like this one. That way they won’t know we found anything. Then, we can come back here and fix the hole up so it looks like it’s still closed up, but with an opening big enough for us to get through.” Cai tugged the loose board back into place and moved to the left of Lena while Jaz hammered it up.
Later that night when they returned to the dilapidated barn, eleven teens slipped through the opening to prepare a fake wall in the barn. Pulling the makeshift door into place, they followed the flashlight beams to the center of the barn. The place was completely empty. Nothing hung on the walls, no equipment rested on the dirt floor.
“Hey, did you hear that? Put out the light!” Rebecca froze.
Splash squeezed through a low opening where the dogs had burrowed beneath to make a hole. The farm dogs followed him.
“Whew!” Carmen let out her breath and moved forward before switching the light on. Above her, light spread and reflected from the spiral, as if she were under a spot light. “What the…?” She looked up.
“Don’t move!” Thad panicked. “What if it’s rigged somehow? Like if she moves it will blow up the barn and us, too?”
“You’ve got some imagination, Thad!” Cai tilted her head upward and moved around Carmen slowly. There was no need for the flashlight, so Carmen switched it off.
It had to be motion detected lighting. But who put it there? And why? Cai walked carefully outward around Carmen, stopping and catching her breath as a light fell on her. “I think they’re meant for us. Each of us has a light. Watch! Thad, come here.”
Cai pointed the others to positions beneath the spiral until each of them stood beneath a cone of light devised to switch on when a certain one of them stood below it. Eleven teens stood beneath eleven cones of light. Eleven lights glowed downward creating a spiral of inverted light funnels, encasing each in sparkling dust swirls.
Eleven?
“Where’s Nashota?” Cai turned to Neka who glanced around the dark barn beyond the lit spiral. She hadn’t noticed the halt of whistling. She hadn’t noticed Nashota’s absence. When had he disappeared?
“I don’t know,” She shrugged.
“Don’t you have some kind of control over that brother of yours?” Lena shook her head.
“Eh, not really. He’s my twin, but he’s always been an exact opposite of me.” Neka peered toward the moonlight shining around and through the cracks in the walls.
“Nothing’s happening,” Simon looked up. “Except all this glowing dust.” He waved his hand into the dust watching the pieces part temporarily where he placed his hand, as if polar opposites, and then the dust returned to the circling flow of its destination.
“I wouldn’t say nothing, but yeah, nothing else. Nothing that would answer any questions.” Nathan nodded, following the upward gaze of the others.
“It must take twelve. We’ll have to come back. Hey look!”
One by one the names of the Gifted Ones appeared in the lights above their head, Cheater, Jaz, Rebecca, Nathan, Carmen, Simon, Cai— Thad jumped out of the light before his name could display above his head. “There! There goes Nashota!” Thad lied and ran through the opening.
Neka watched him leave. She frowned. Did he see Nashota or did he have a secret? She watched the others as they followed one by one. Neka glanced up at the light Thad had been standing under. The faint glow dissipated as she squinted to see the name, but there was nothing.
“Where’d he go? Nashota! Come back! We found something,” Thad whispered harshly.
Nashota appeared next to his sister inside the barn.
“Did you…” she began.
“Nope. It’s not me they’re looking for. I’ve been standing here the whole time.”
“Why didn’t you come stand in your place?” Neka moved out of the light, hands on hips.
He shrugged, “I thought I was. Maybe there’s only room for one spotlight in our family, Wild Goose.”
“What? Don’t call me that! You’re the wild goose! How are we supposed to know what happens if you won’t cooperate?” Neka moved to the opening looking left and right for the others.
“We know where it is, now. That’s all we need to know. I have a feeling there’s something more important for us to learn before we figure all this out.” Nashota’s chin lifted in the direction of the others. “Come on.” He moved through the wall next to Neka.
When Nashota remained undiscovered by the others, they sealed up the hole and left for the house. Not understanding Nashota’s absence, though they’d never actually seen him before, their spirits were low. They’d been looking for days for the right building, for answers, and now that they had found the building, they felt they knew less than before.
“Man! I really wanted to light up that spiral. I mean, what else can we do with these powers of ours. We must have something to do with that spiral. We turned our lights on, right?” Nathan kicked at dirt with the toe of his shoe. “What’s wrong with that crazy brother of yours? And how come the rest of us haven’t seen him?”
Neka reached around the back of her head to pull long, black glistening hair to her left shoulder. It was warming up for December. “Look, I don’t know. Maybe there’s something we need to know before we can figure it all out. Maybe it has to do with one of us.” She raised her brows at Thad who’d been watching her since they left.
He swallowed hard, his hand shuffling something in his pocket. Neka frowned, watched his movements, then turned her attention back to the others. “Maybe one of us has a secret that the others don’t know.”
“That’s not likely… we all know what the others are thinking thanks to Jaz.” Cai playfully punched Jaz in the arm.
“Hey, you know what? I think I’m gonna run up ahead! Anybody up for racing back to the house! Loser has to do the dishes tonight!” Thad burst into a sprint as Neka raised her head in curiosity.
“Sh… You’re on!” Nathan nodded catching Thad easily.
“If we don’t race, we don’t have to do the dishes, right?” Rebecca patted Splash’s head.
“Sounds good to me,” Lena smiled. “I’ll walk. When I run, earthquakes follow. Besides, I’m like a bad juggling act when it comes to doin’ dishes. And… running in the dark? Nah! No, thank you!”
Rebecca smiled.
“Good morning, John! How are you feeling?” The shift nurse appeared by his side. John squinted into the light. His head hurt. “Doctor’s coming by to check on you, then you’re outta here. Nothing serious.” Her long blond ponytail fell over her right shoulder as she checked the chart. She raised her eyes to his with a twinkling look of recognition. “Feeling okay?”
“Yeah, I’m fine. Let me guess, you’re on his payroll, too?”
I
nnocence filled her features, “Whose payroll? I get paid by the hospital like any other nurse.” Her grin answered his question. “And… to answer your next question: yes, I was here last night when you arrived.” She checked his pulse sending an electrical charge up his arm. She was dangerous alright.
“Thought so. I remember your hair and those eyes,” John turned on the charm.
“Huh,” she raised her brows. “If you weren’t so much younger than I…”
“What’s age got to do with anything?” John flirted back.
“Well, you’re awake! Good, about time to go home. Let’s see here…” The doctor took the chart from his nurse, “Mhm, mhm, vitals look good. Let’s check those eyes.” Flash of light right, flash left. “Looks good, looks good. How’re you feeling?”
“Great! A little sleepy.” John nodded.
“Yes, you had a rough night there. Well, let’s send you home for some rest. Won’t have any two hour wake ups tonight. Nurse, set up his discharge, please.”
“Yes Doctor!” She winked at the patient.
“You can get dressed now. I’ll close the door. Be careful out there, son. It’s a dangerous world.” The doctor exited the room leaving behind a thick blanket of fear.
Was that a threat? Did I just get threatened by a doctor? John pushed up to a sitting position on the bed. He watched the doctor swing the door closed behind him no longer certain who could be trusted.
When had his position leaked to the lower level leaders and cops? When the meeting was scheduled?
John felt danger. He needed a safe place to wait. The only safe place he could be sure of, the only people he could trust, were the Gifted Ones. But if he went to them, they would all be together… And that’s what his uncle wanted. If that’s what he wanted, then they would all be in danger.
The Lost Prince Page 7