The Lost Prince

by P. G. Shriver

  “I don’t care about my mother! I pushed her out of my head! I want her out of my life, like she’s supposed to be and should be. She left me! So, she needs to leave my head, too!” Anger slurred her animated words and the palms of her hands pressed into the sides of her head.

  “I can bring one at a time,” Cheater shrugged.

  “It’s too taxing on you. Maybe five of us?” Jaz lifted a shoulder to ear in a half shrug.

  “Fine! One of them knows why this is happening, has the answers to the Spiral, the truth of this mission and us, maybe they all do. There’s too many ‘what-ifs”. We need all of them at the same time just in case, and we need Carmen to ask the questions,” Simon spoke up, “because her mother is still alive.”

  Carmen turned to him.

  “What?”

  “She didn’t leave you,” Simon began.

  So he knows, too? John thought.

  “Knows what?” Jaz asked John.

  Simon looked Carmen in the eyes. “Your mother was taken. By him…”

  “What?” Carmen almost screamed.

  “Simon’s right, Carmen. How he knows is another problem, but your mom is alive in a cage, chained like an animal. She didn’t leave you. I was there, when the force took her. They searched your apartment— trashed it— looking for you, but you were gone.” John shook away the shame and turned from them.

  “I remember. I was in the car, in the trunk, with her. I didn’t know who she was at the time. I thought I was dreaming, because, you know, the concussion thing. I passed out so many times before they threw me out of the car and into the streets. I don’t even remember if she was in there the entire time.”

  Carmen stood up. “She didn’t leave me? The spiral on the fridge was her then? I thought it was from my da… You! You were there? You were in my apartment when they took her and you didn’t stop them?” She ran at John’s back, fists clenched. Jaz— who was first in Carmen’s path to John— caught Carmen around the waist and lifted her kicking and screaming body off the floor.

  “It was his job, girl! Calm down! He had to do it for the mission!” Jaz struggled to hold her up as she fought the invisible monster in front of her.

  “Put me down!” Carmen ordered once she was calm.

  “That’s why it has to be you, too. Your mom’s alive… you can ask the questions. Can you find her?” Cheater touched her shoulder.

  “I’ll try. Still, I don’t know what to ask. I don’t know what to do!”

  “That’s right! You’re just a kid.” Simon was getting tired of her angry opposition.

  “Stop it, Simon!” Carmen moved toward him, fists ready. He wrapped his arms around her, tightening them until she calmed. “Can we count on your help, then?”

  Carmen stepped out of Simon’s big brother embrace. “How am I supposed to remember everything? How am I supposed to know what to ask them?”

  “Here, we’ll use the notes on the phone. Each of us will add a question and hope they answer. Come on!” John ordered.

  He opened the notes app and typed the first question.

  The chained woman looked up when the guard entered. A smirk played across her lips, tainting her beauty with an ugliness the boss would appreciate. “He must have lost them if you’re returning. I have nothing to tell you. I don’t know where they are. Like every other time you’ve come to me, nothing. I don’t have the power… my daughter does.” Her hatred for the officer soured her features as unshed tears stung her eyes. She wouldn’t let the tears fall, show her weakness before this idiot, never!

  Allowing her head to rest forward, as if weariness had once again taken her spirit, she closed her eyes, tightly forcing back the burn. Mentally talking herself to calmness— all those years of yoga and meditation filling her body and mind— the tension left her shoulders, her back, her arms, limbs that could not completely rest because of the chains. Limp against the cold steel and shackles, she blanked her mind and began to hum.

  “Come on, lady! Enough with the new age crap. He’s gonna kill you if you don’t cooperate.” A touch on the officer’s shoulder forced him to turn, reach for his weapon. “I’ll take it from here,” the gruff command reached into her state of unconscious comfort, drawing her from her safe place.

  “Yessir.”

  “That’ll be all.” The officer nodded toward the steel barred door. He pointed a remote control toward the cameras that surrounded the room, then turned his attention to the woman in the cage.

  “Lecia, can you hear me?” He whispered so as not to be heard outside, sympathy punctuating each word.

  Silence.

  “Lecia?” No answer.

  “C’mon, Lecia. Don’t play this game with me.”

  Hmph! Her body jerked in response. She shook her head. “Games? You want to talk about playing games you jack…”

  “Stop!” He held up the remote. The pain in his eyes deepened when he saw the new bruise across her left cheek. “Why don’t you just cooperate? The kids can handle themselves. They have the powers to do so, Lecia. Please. I didn’t mean for this to happen— not to you.”

  “Aren’t you afraid you’re going to get caught in here, alone with me? He’ll kill you.”

  “He’s not here. Matter of fact, he left me in charge. Most of those who are here right now belong to the faction.”

  “Then let me go!” She stood as far as the chains would allow. “I need to help her! Help them!”

  “Lecia, I can’t. How would I explain that to him when he returns?”

  “Then kill me. I won’t spend another moment with him. His groupies won’t touch me again! Kill me, now! That’s what is supposed to happen, anyway! Tell him I attacked you. Beat me to death! I don’t care!”

  “Lecia, you know I can’t— won’t do that. You know I still…”

  “Don’t you dare! After everything I’ve gone through to ‘help the mission’, don’t you dare! If you really loved me, loved your daughter, you would kill me now. Let me go to her in death as is prophesied. Do you know the things he’s done to me? The torment I’ve endured? Please… just kill me now. Better you than anyone else.”

  “I would rather die than kill you.” His pained features at her request had no effect on her own feelings.

  “Then let me go and you can die.” The hate in her eyes cut like a knife in his chest. Tears stung and his features twisted with hurt.

  His phone pinged in his pocket breaking the torment.

  Now. Do it now! Clear.

  Zeke’s timing was impeccable. He couldn’t believe the message he read, the fact that he was here, speaking to her right now at this very moment. The fact that they had just talked about this very thing.

  Fate did play a part in their lives; this choice was not his.

  “Lecia…” he pulled the key ring from his belt as the retractable line zipped her attention to him, “…it’s time.” He opened the cage door with tears in his eyes. It had been the one thing they argued over, the one thing he never wanted to happen. This, of course, and losing his daughter. He’d joined the faction to keep them alive, but now, here he was, having to fulfill their destinies.

  Her head bounced up and a smile almost lifted her lips, her eyes, before she saw his expression. She swallowed hard, tears building.

  “You are going to kill me.” More a simple statement with the impact of a roar than a question.

  “For the mission. Not me. I can’t, ‘Lecia. If you had only left when I told you to go… taken our girl away…”

  She swallowed her words as he keyed open the shackles. How could she leave him, Carmen, at that time? If she had known when she took on this mission all those years ago, she might have said no. If she had known this would be the outcome, she might have refused, but there was the prophecy… and almost sixteen years from conception to death with her daughter. “I love you, sweet Carmen,” she whispered. “I know you are angry at me, but in death I will come to you. Please trust that I did not leave you.”

  “I’ll tak
e you out. They will take you to a room, provide a weapon, and when you’re ready, you can do what you are supposed to do. I love you.” He wrapped his arms around her one last time, kissed her forehead, lips, stared into her eyes.

  “For Carmen’s world,” she nodded. “Let’s go. I’m ready.”

  “No!” Carmen screamed as the others attempted for the third time to bring their late mothers to them.

  “Carmen, I know it’s not working, but, come on. You can do this.” Simon displayed open palms of support in answer to her outburst.

  “No, it’s not that. I broke through. I can see her, my mom. In chains, but a man just unlocked her. He is moving her. He’s leading her to another room. I can’t see…”

  “What? What’s wrong?” Simon placed a hand on Carmen’s shoulder. “He took off her chains, gave her a gun, and he turned around… It’s my dad! No! No! Mom, stop!

  “I haven’t had a chance to tell you…” Carmen spoke as if she stood before her mother, then her silence filled the barn as an afternoon Christmas Eve storm rumbled overhead.

  “Carmen?” Rebecca silently asked.

  “She’s gone… by her own hand.” Like the rain trickling down the cold steel walls seeking the dry earth, Carmen’s tears fell. The only movement from her statuesque body were the tears rolling down her cheeks. “I don’t see her anymore, which means…” Her overflowing eyes met Simon’s in the dim light.

  He pulled her to him in a tight embrace, as a protective brother would a heart broken sister, but this time his tears joined hers.

  The loss of their mothers still fractured their hearts each time they remembered, and this time, the memories ripped their hearts in two. Eyes glistened through the barn, tears for Carmen as well as themselves.

  Cai sought strength in Jaz, the only two whose eyes remained dry. Anger lit the path of their view and their breaths quickened with each heartbeat. As if every motion in the universe worked against them, both of their spines stiffened against the fight ahead.

  How did that monster know we needed her? Cai narrowed her eyes at Jaz. Jaz turned his attention to John, who was already typing into the cell phone.

  WTH? They just killed the woman in the cell?

  Can’t talk now.

  The betrayal in John’s eyes thickened the tension in the barn. Zeke was on his side— their side— wasn’t he?

  Their only hope, their only possible answer for the ending, for instruction, the only mother still alive was gone.

  Carmen’s guilted grief roared into the thunderous drumming rain that dripped through holes in the roof above them to form dark circles of mud on the earthen floor.

  The interior of the barn lit brightly and all eyes turned upward.

  “No!” The roar shook the interior of the dark sedan as rain pelted the closed sunroof. “This is not supposed to happen. I’ll kill those kids! I swear I’ll make each one of them suffer for the delays they’ve caused me!”

  “Sir, none of them controls the weather,” Zeke, third assistant in rank, raised a brow at this latest tantrum, eyes watching the torrent of water running down the windshield as it increased in volume.

  “Shut up!” The monster violently punched the window of the limo on his right.

  Zeke glanced at his phone. “She’s gone,” he reported to his boss in the back seat.

  “Such a waste. Such a beautiful waste. The connection’s broken, then? The girl should be devastated, but more importantly, she can’t run off to find her mother now as the prophecy stated.”

  “Yes, you’re right, as usual.” Inside, a tremor of anger passed through Zeke. He abhorred feeding this monster’s ego.

  “That should cause a much needed delay. That young lady is emotionally charged. She angers quickly, more so than the others. The lack of truth will keep her in turmoil. It will take time for the others to bring her back around. My timing must be exact.”

  He glanced down at his expensive gold watch. Another couple of hours and they won’t be able to defeat me.”

  “What about the dozers, Sir?” Zeke swallowed his desire to shoot the man in the back seat and changed the subject.

  “What do you think, idiot? They’ll be ineffective in this downpour. They’ve no use to me, now! Cancel them. The girl will seek me out now through the touch of my nephew, and once she does, the connection will work both ways. I’ll know exactly which building they’re in. Send all the men home. They’ll be celebrating great success soon.”

  “Yessir.” Zeke sent a text message. He could almost feel the tension of his brothers in arms in the faction. Had they done enough, provided enough help, guidance?

  “You, too. Go!” A grim smile darkened the monster’s features. “I’ll wait here alone. Nobody can help me fulfill the final part of the prophecy.”

  “Yessir.” Gladly, Zeke thought as he opened the driver’s door and popped up the umbrella to block the deluge of icy water seeking his head and shoulders.

  Standing with his back to the tinted window, a moment of paranoid fear brought a shiver with a vision of being shot in the back by the man behind him. It passed through his mind, but no shots followed his movement.

  He closed his eyes, taking in the sound of the pelting rain, the distant thunder, the water droplets as they raced and puddled. He whispered a desperate prayer while he walked toward the only patrol car left on site.

  Pulling open the passenger door, his quiet statement, “Let’s go,” punctuated by a rumble from the sky overhead thickened the hopelessness within and brought a pained expression from the female officer driving.

  “We’ve done all we can do, Zeke. I brought them enough food to strengthen their bodies. You’ve provided the information they needed. There’s nothing else we can do. They have to do this on their own.

  “I love you.” Brandy reached across the seat and laid her hand on his arm as she steered the car out the driveway, windshield wipers sweeping frantically at thick rivers of water running down the glass before him. “Whatever happens, I love you,” she repeated.

  Zeke stared at his hands folded in his lap. Would this be the end, or a new beginning for the world he shared with the woman next to him? He turned his attention to her flawless profile, her intense stare at the road ahead, her perky nose turned up slightly at the end and tightened his hold on her hand. “Ditto,” he nodded.

  “Where to?” At the stop sign she turned to him, a sad smile turning her lips up at the corners.

  “We’ll find a place to wait out the rain, but first, let’s head over to the station as planned. The force was sent home. It’s time for the faction to gather and plan the outcome for the worst case scenario.”

  “You’re the boss.” She cast a facetious smile his way, flipped the switch on the emergency lights, and drove toward the station as quickly as the rain allowed.

  Inside the barn, the rhythm of the droplets from the roof sped up all around the outside of the lighted area of the spiral.

  Darkness settled in the sky behind the thick clouds, but the teens didn’t notice.

  Zeke had sent a last text of warning to John, not to touch Carmen, but the phone lay where John dropped it in anger when Zeke didn’t answer.

  None of the Gifted Ones needed the warning, anyway.

  The spiral lighting drew them to their places, feeding their need for knowledge of the future, flashes of memories, pieces of their lives, fitting together in their minds eye.

  “Nashota! Nashota, don’t run off, please!” Neka reached for her flighty brother. More than anything, she needed his hug, the touch of her twin, and his expression complied. She held tight to him as the spiral brightened above them filling their minds and the room with the purest of golden light, dust particles like glistening glitter swirling with the motion of a globe.

  Pain temporarily eased by the spiral’s new development, all eyes turned toward Neka, then upward.

  John, Cai, Simon, Rebecca, Jamie, N_____, Jaz, Lena, Nathan, Carmen, Thad, Cheater.

  Twelve places, eleven
names and one letter. Wide eyes searched each other’s faces, heads shook, shoulders shrugged, then they turned their attention to Neka.

  In the light, sparkles of golden dust shaped itself into a form as they watched. Swirling, quivering golden particles atomizing before their eyes into a boy who held Neka, the twin who previously stood in the place of Neka’s empty embrace.

  “I remember,” Neka sobbed into a golden shoulder.

  Two atomized particle hands gripped Neka’s shoulders, gently putting distance between her face and his. He nodded once.

  “I remembered the truth.” A bittersweet smile lifted her damp cheeks.

  As they watched, Nashota’s form twisted into a speeding spiral of brilliant gold particles. Neka’s arms lifted wide at her sides. Her face tipped upward toward the ceiling.

  The others could not see her upturned face.

  At Neka’s end of the spiral, the tiny golden atoms formed a direct line to her heart and dissolved into her chest; rays of light shot from her outward pointing fingertips, from her eyes, ears, mouth.

  In mere moments, Nashota was truly gone.

  Neka’s hands fell to her sides.

  Her chin dropped to her chest.

  Her knees buckled in weakness from taking in a power she’d never truly owned.

  She inhaled several deep, calming breaths and the power her brother had passed to her provided the energy her body needed to rise. Neka turned a sad, determined expression on her peers.

  “Mom told us to stay together, forever. I was born first, though she told me it should have been Nashota. I should have been given the power to atomize, but it was really Nashota who was supposed to be the royal… a prince, she said. It was rightfully mine, but twins, Mom said… that’s how she explained it to me when I became angry about Nashota being a prince in the story.” Neka rambled, her words having little meaning to the others.