The Lost Prince

by P. G. Shriver

  There had to be someplace else… someone else he could trust to hide him from his uncle’s entourage. Who though? There were no friends, no adults, there was nobody. Maybe he should head out to the farm, try to get Neka’s attention. She could help hide him. There were many buildings on that property. He knew because he searched them all with the force. At that time, his uncle was searching for the pendants. Now he was waiting until the Gifted Ones all joined together on the farm for the final piece of their mission, the final piece of the prophecy. What had the Captain of the force said he wanted from them? Their powers, but for what?

  What was it? What was he up to?

  John opened the closet door. Hanging there were clean jeans, a clean shirt, all the necessities of a fresh new day. After removing the clothes from the hanger, he felt the pockets. He squeezed every seam and hem, feeling every square inch of every article of clothing, finding nothing.

  Next he picked up the new shoes, pulling up the lining, checking for cracks in the soles, anywhere a tracking device could have been planted.

  Nothing… he found no bugs or devices that would track his movement. Not one hem held embedded wires or tiny buttons. His head spun with the danger of his situation, and the irony. He didn’t know who was on which side anymore. Perhaps the faction brought these clothes to him. Some of the faction on the inside had infiltrated the force in anticipation of intervening for the Gifted Ones. Hopefully it was the faction. They knew the consequences of a failed mission and they had joined to make sure the twelve didn’t fail. How many new members did they have now? John had been asked to keep his distance for the sake of the operation and only received messages when necessary.

  How many may have turned? Could he trust anyone at the hospital at all? And what if any of the upper level faction had turned and were playing dual roles? His uncle was a powerful and persuasive man, so he’d heard.

  John knew of at least two of the faction that had turned because he’d accidentally overheard some of his uncle’s men talking while they searched the vast outbuildings of the farm for the teens. At that time, that’s what his uncle wanted to know, where the teens were, whether any had arrived yet.

  And when the first two teens arrived, he’d set his trap for the others to draw the rest to the farm.

  Who else can I turn to? John pulled the door open a sliver and glanced both ways down the hall before spotting the nurse’s nod of safe exit. He slipped down the hall, spotted the lost and found desk, and inquired about his blue hoodie, size large.

  “Oh, yes, we have it right here!” The candy striper pulled the folded jacket from the shelf below.

  John almost laughed at the simplicity wondering how many blue hoodies they acquired weekly.

  He rounded a corner scanning for cameras and staff.

  Nobody.

  He pulled the hoodie over his head; the hood hung low enough to shade his features. Next he located a supply closet, dug some scrub bottoms and shoe covers from the waste can, and pulled them over his own clothing and sneakers.

  When he was certain he was disguised, he exited the hospital through the emergency doors, casually headed to the apartment building across the street, hands buried deep in the hoodie pockets, hunched slightly forward to hide his features, and slipped inside the building, just another intern going home to his lonely apartment for a nap.

  “Neka! Neka! The truth must be told. You know the truth. See it. Tell the others before it’s too late. He’s coming for you, Neka. All of you!”

  Neka had been tossing in her sleep, each time waking and dozing off again, but this last dream awakened her.

  An icy sweat kissed her forehead and she sat up wrapping herself in a shivering embrace, rubbing her arms for warmth. Even the touch of Cheater’s calf to hers did not bring warmth.

  Her mother’s voice. Again, her mother reached out to her in her dreams talking about the truth. What truth, Mom?

  Briefly, she thought about Thad, the pendant in her own pocket wrapped in a note, Thad’s hand in his pocket, his quick changes. She glanced at her jeans hanging over the chair. It was the first time she’d taken them off before going to sleep. It was the first time in a long time she’d felt safe enough to sleep like a regular girl.

  She wondered about John. Was he safe? He had saved her and her brother. Where was he, now? She didn’t even know if they could trust him. Was he the twelfth Gifted One? Was Thad a traitor?

  The truth? Is that what Mom wanted me to see, that one of them was a traitor?

  She’d been here three days with the Gifted Ones. She’d been here all that time and not talked about John since the first night. All three nights her mother warned her of the truth, and then again, tonight.

  “He’s coming for me… us,” She whispered.

  Cheater sensed Neka waking up and wiped her eyes clear of sleep. “Okay, I’m guessing your mother again, right? But what is she talking about? The truth? What do you have against Thad? I mean, yeah, he’s been acting strange since we arrived, but what do you know that you haven’t told us?”

  Neka turned wide eyes on Cheater. “I should admit, we’ve been a little nervous about you because we haven’t seemed to join with you like we have the others. I mean, we know each other’s every thought, every dream, every emotion and word; we share powers, but you, your thoughts are scattered and dreams are few. Now this dream? Again? Who exactly are you, Neka? Who’s coming for you?”

  Cai pushed open the bedroom door and stepped in, next Rebecca and Carmen. The boys offering to crash in the living room, minus Nashota who had not yet made an appearance in the three days since John had dropped them off.

  “What’s all the noise? Is something happening?” Carmen yawned, stretching her arms toward the ceiling. “It’s too early.”

  “I’m not sure, but there may be a traitor among us,” Cheater had left the bed and moved closer to the others, eyes on Neka.

  “No! I can explain! I should have told you already, but— I don’t know why I didn’t.”

  She rose from the bed, reaching for her jeans.

  “Wait!” Cai beat her to the folded pants on the chair and hugged them to her chest. “What do you have? What’s so important about them? You’re wearing pajamas.” Cai backed toward the others as Cheater closed the bedroom door, shutting the girls in. Cai patted the pockets, found the wrapped pendant and removed it.

  “Please! I’m not a traitor! I just… I don’t always make the best decisions, that’s all. Yes, my mother warned me the past three nights.” Neka turned to Cheater in the dimly lit room, streaks of moonlight filtering onto the latter’s face. “She’s been trying to warn me, but I don’t know what she means. The pendant, it’s not mine, not my mother’s. John gave it to me to hold onto…” Here it was, the time for truth. Is this what her mother meant?

  A knock at the door interrupted Neka’s thoughts. “Hey! Am I missin’ somethin’?” Lena eased the door open and ducked her head beneath the frame to peer into the dimly lit room. “Need some lights!” She reached with her large hand to flip the switch behind Cai’s head.

  Everyone in the room blinked against the brightness.

  “What’s goin’ on?” The guys filtered upstairs.

  “Not so fast there, guys!” Lena blocked the door.

  “I guess we’re getting up, now?” Carmen yawned and sighed. “Ugh! We’ll meet you guys downstairs.”

  “Yeah, it seems like somebody in this room has something to tell us all,” Cai added.

  Neka lowered her head. Why was she always getting herself into trouble? Where was Nashota when she needed him to help her out of trouble this time? Where had he gone?

  “Okay, wait. So this John… he’s one of us, too?” Simon placed hands on hips. “That makes thirteen, so that means...”

  “There’s only twelve in the story,” Rebecca reminded him.

  “Exactly!” The rest replied in unison turning toward Neka.

  “Look, I don’t know the answer! I’ve done the math and I’ve b
een wondering the same thing you are now. Is John telling me the truth?”

  “Or, is it Nashota? We have yet to see him.” Jaz peered around the room and shrugged at the others.

  “Of course Nashota is one of us! He is! He’s my twin brother. If he weren’t, then I wouldn’t be either!”

  “Alright, so what about this?” Cai dangled the necklace before Neka. “Is this some kind of tracking device or something? What is it? Why is it so important?”

  The look Neka gave Thad was not lost on anyone in the room and they all turned to Thad.

  Cai moved into Thad’s personal space, face to face with the young man she thought of as a brother, “What do you know?” Sensing nothing from him, her eyes followed the length of his right arm to the hand hidden in his pants pocket.

  “Stop!” Thad stepped back away from her hand. “It’s mine. I’ll take it out!” His hand slipped from his pocket and from his fingertips dangled an identical pendant.

  “Where’d you get that?” Nathan moved closer.

  “Like her, it was my mom’s.” Thad nodded toward Neka. “She told me to keep it secret when she gave it to me. She said it… it blocked… it made…”

  “Thoughts? Made you normal?” Cheater’s look of betrayal sent a shiver down Thad’s spine.

  “She told me to keep it secret. My mother…” Tears blurred Thad’s vision.

  “And you’ve been using it to block your thoughts from us? The truck ride? Since we’ve been here? How long have you had it?” Cai quizzed. “You,” she turned to Neka, “you I can understand. You don’t know us. But you,” she turned back to Thad, “you?” Pain of betrayal filled her eyes.

  “I’m not a traitor!” Thad yelled before running out the front door into the predawn darkness.

  “I’ll go after him!” Jaz turned to follow.

  “No!” Handing the pendant back to Neka, Cai pushed open the screen door and disappeared.

  “Great! Now I don’t know who to trust!” Carmen eyed them all, hands on hips. “I thought those people were bringing me someplace safe. Man! I’m outta here!” She took the stairs two at a time to collect her belongings.

  “No, stop! There is a way we can find out the truth!” Cheater called, stopping Carmen on the landing. Carmen turned slowly.

  “We’ve been so caught up in figuring out what was here, what the men who took over the farm were looking for, that none of us have had a reason to contact our mothers and ask the questions we have,” Cheater shrugged, elbows bent, palms up.

  “We can talk to our mothers? Wait, I can talk to my mom?” Neka, Carmen, Simon, Jamie and Lena asked in unison.

  “Yes, we can. We can talk to all of them. We can learn the truth about everything,” Cheater smiled at Jaz.

  “Yeah, we can. Well, we can when Thad and Cai return. Do you think we can bring them here… our mothers… together? At once?” Jaz asked.

  “Well, eleven of them maybe,” Cheater frowned.

  “There’s only eleven of us right now, and doing that would help us determine who is not one of us,” Rebecca reminded.

  Suspicion shadowed their joy as they searched the wary faces around them.

  “Thad, stop! What is wrong with you?” Cai stretched her arm forward, stumbling as she grabbed Thad’s elbow. She balanced herself before spinning him to face her. “What is your problem?”

  “I… I don’t know. I didn’t want to tell you… anyone. I don’t know… I just… I don’t trust them.”

  “Them? And by them, you mean me? How can you say that? Who do you trust then? Him? The faceless creature in our nightmare? The man who did this to you? To us?” Cai shook him hard, releasing his elbow from her grasp in disgust. “If you truly are not a traitor, then come back to the house. Sort this out. Tell the truth. If you are, this is your chance to walk away unharmed before I beat the crap outta you!”

  Thad took a deep breath, looked at the toes of his shoes as he exhaled, then faced Cai. How could he tell her? How could he trust her?

  “You don’t trust me. Okay, go!” She turned toward the house, “and don’t ever come near me, again.”

  Thad stared at the middle of her back until she was twenty feet away. He had to stay. He couldn’t leave now. “Wait!”

  Cai stopped, but she didn’t turn around.

  Thad stepped cautiously toward her, “Wait, please. I didn’t mean to hurt you. I’ll tell you everything… or, what I know anyway.”

  “I can’t believe you, Thad! After all the time I’ve protected you.”

  “Yeah, well, my dad protected me, too… once.” Shame filled his eyes, and the look softened Cai’s heart. The big sister to the little brother she had grown to care about, “Come on. You might as well explain to everyone.”

  “Listen to me! Things are getting really bad here. America won’t be the same. We will leave for the Middle East next week! That’s final!”

  “I’m not leaving my home, my family. What about Thad’s schooling? He’s in one of the best private schools available. No, we won’t go. You go if you are so afraid of what is coming, but I won’t.” Thad listened through his bedroom door to his parents’ argument. With his back to the door, he stared out his window as the argument continued. His mother was right. Thad didn’t want to go to his father’s birthplace. Of course, his school wasn’t all his mother thought it was. If they were to ask Thad, he would tell them it was a waste of their money. He wasn’t learning anything of value. Most days he felt brain-washed into believing ideals against his heartfelt beliefs. Just yesterday, their test had been over some new societal changes coming that would ruin America’s democracy. His classmates agreed with the positives presented by their teacher, but Thad saw the whole picture. Thad saw the truth behind the lies. He said so in his essay question. He knew the teacher would fail him, but he didn’t care. He was a freak to his classmates.

  The tone of his father’s voice rose significantly, pulling Thad back to the present. His mother’s voice matched tones and then her scream forced Thad to spin around, reach for the doorknob, and slip quietly down the hallway to…

  To what? He had thought. I can’t go against my dad. He’s hit me before and he’s much larger than I am. What am I doing?

  His mother screamed again just before another sound much worse than a slap, this time there was a thud, and her voice fell silent.

  Thad burst into the living room where his mother lay crumpled at the fireplace, blood staining the rug below her head.

  “What did you do?” Thad screamed at his father before running to his mother’s side.

  Thad felt his father’s strong fingers grip his shoulder, but the movement was controlled, somewhat comforting. “It was an accident son. Go! Pack your clothes. We are leaving this country tonight.”

  “We have to call 911. Get help! Mother will die!” A tear dropped from Thad’s cheek onto his mother’s arm as he knelt by her side.

  “She is already gone. Go! Go now! Pack your things!” His father’s grip tightened as his tone grew firm.

  “No! We have to get help!” Thad stood and whirled to face his father just as his father’s open hand met Thad’s cheek.

  “Do as you’re told or suffer the same fate as your mother!”

  “Yes, Father,” Thad lowered his eyes in respect. Feeling the heat of the slap on his cheek with his own hand, the young man turned down the hall toward his room. Halfway there, his world changed, he lost the present moment and felt a strong wind within the house.

  Thad returned to the present and found himself in an alley a few blocks from his home. Puzzled by the change, he stumbled weakly back to the address of his house and found his home scattered throughout the neighborhood, bits here, boards there, roof tiles in trees, bricks in neighbors’ yards, and at the center was the concrete foundation as if the house had exploded from inside out.

  “Where is he?”

  “Sir, I’m sorry. We lost him at the hospital. The cameras, there’s nobody coming out of the hospital with those clothes on.
We haven’t found him, yet.”

  “Did he take the phone? Have you tried the GPS?” His voice rose in anger.

  “Apparently, it’s not on. We tried tracking it.”

  “Somebody must have seen him somewhere. Something isn’t right about this, him disappearing now. If I could connect with him, speak telepathically to him… if I only had that girl’s power. How did the force learn who he was?” His accusing eyes burned into those of his third ranking assistant. The younger man stood his ground. He didn’t even blink.

  “I don’t know sir.” Inside the man quivered, yet his words were steady, strong. “We’ll keep looking, Sir. Sir?”

  “What is it now?” The angry outburst shook the office.

  “There’s rumors, and I’m sure that’s all they are, that a faction of non believers has infiltrated our precincts.”

  “If it’s a damn rumor, then why are you bringing it up? You’re wasting time! Gather the men at the usual meeting place. I want to talk to them. I will find my nephew!” Fists pounded the mahogany desk before him as he spun his chair to face the window. The roiling cloud filled sky beyond the window brought a sneer to his lips as he breathed, “Damn those kids!”

  “But sir, what if the rumor is true?” The assistant pressed.

  “Raghrrr!” The man in black threw his head back in frustration. “I need those powers! We can no longer wait for them to unite. We must unite them, force them together. With their powers, I will know who is with us and who isn’t. Gather the men to the meeting place.”

  “Yessir.” The assistant backed out of the office pulling the door closed behind him. Beads of sweat formed on his forehead and he wiped them away with the back of his hand. His chest deflated a relieved sigh.

  Where could the nephew be? The faction did not have him. Which of the other LOD’s might have him? Was it possible that he slipped away on his own? Why? Unless that was his solution to keeping the twelve apart… Of course! Yes, he was a smart one.