“Right. Thanks, I must’ve forgot or something. Thank you,” I squint at her name tag. “Chelsea. Thanks a lot.”
“You’re welcome! Have a good day! Tell Mrs. Harrington I said ‘hello’.”
“Will do!” I turn around and head back to my car.
“This just got interesting,” Sheya says.
“Yeah, for you. She’s been lying to me for an entire month. No wonder Dad was confused when he found out I wasn’t seeing her. He must’ve known.”
“Exactly. And if she’s not home, where is she?”
“Can you find her?” I ask.
“What do you mean?”
“Well you can move shit with your mind and control people and stuff. Maybe you can find her?”
“Who knows? Let’s give it a go.”
I drop my barriers and allow Sheya to merge into my mind. It’s getting easier each time we do it. Once the process is finished, we close our mind and try to think of our mother. We have no idea what we’re doing, but like Sheya said a few days ago, can’t learn if we don’t experiment.
There.
We pick up the essence of our mother and it’s almost like a tugging in our chest. If we knew we could do this, this would have saved us a trip. We drive towards a new housing complex called Sterling Heights, and our heart picks up pace as the intensity of the pull increase. We pull up to a gate, and with just a thought, we force it to give us access. We take an immediate right, and our heart drops with the sight of our mother’s car outside of a modern single story home.
Maybe she’s here to visit a friend? But even as that thought entered our mind, we know that it is wrong. Because the vibe coming from the house is highly sexual.
Lord no.
We park behind her car and hop out. Walking to the door, my heart is breaking with each step. Mom is definitely here. And one other person. Without thinking, we unlock the door and step silently into the house. We don’t want to find Mom in the act, but we also don’t want to look too crazy if what we’re picking up is the entirely wrong thing.
Lord knows we wished it was entirely the wrong thing.
Sprawled out on the plush light blue rug, surrounded by light grey sofas, lies our mother. And the guy that grinding into her is not our Dad.
“Working late, huh?” we say. Mom and the guy yell out in surprise. He jumps up and spins toward me. One glance at his slightly rotund stomach, bald head, and dull brown eyes, we’re already even more disgusted by her scandalous ass.
“Now wait a minute! Who are you?!” he bellows.
“Sleep,” we say, and he drops to his knees, head bouncing off of the sofa and then landing on the floor. Mom lets out a girly scream that sickens me in ways that I have yet to understand.
“Renee? What’s going on, baby?” she ask, sounding more frightened by the mystery man dropping than me catching her in the act.
“Mom. How could you cheat on Dad?” we ask.
“Baby, what did you do to Henry?” she asks instead.
“Fuck Henry! How could you do this?! You’ve called in your vacation days and you’ve been with this man for a week! We haven’t seen you in a week!”
“We?” she looks at us puzzled. Her curly afro is squished to one side of her head, the side she was lying on. Her light brown eyes are wide with terror and her light brown skin is flushed with shame. Or fear. Who fucking knows.
“Never mind that. How could you?”
“Renee, you have to understand. Things haven’t been good between your father and I for years. He’s never around!”
“So you cheat on him?!” we yell. The house starts to shake and the lights begin to flicker. Our body heat begin to rise. Mom looks around, and she scurries back on her butt, moving away from us.
“Re-ren? Baby? Your eyes.”
“Dad doesn’t deserve this! He deserves more than you being a slut and cheating on him with this old ass man!”
“Now wait a damn minute. You will not talk to me that wa-,”
“Sleep,” we say. Mom drops to the floor, unconscious just like her lover. We don’t know how long they will remain asleep, but if it’s anything like the mind control, it won’t last until morning. We remain bonded together as we leave the house and get in the car. We remain bonded for the entire ride home. Because if we didn’t remain bonded, we’re sure that Renee will fall apart from grief.
And we can’t have that right now.
Once we’re in the house, we release the bond and I crumble to the floor. My back slides along the doorframe and strong sobs wrack my body. I can barely breathe as the pain of what I saw rips me apart. How could she do this to Dad? To our family? To me?!
“We should’ve made them suffer,” Sheya whispers menacingly.
“That’s still my mom! I don’t want to hurt her!”
“Yeah, well, that man means nothing to you. So what’s holding us back from driving back over there and teaching him a lesson?”
For a moment I allow myself the luxury of imagining torturing that man. Of making him feel the pain that I’m feeling. But even as I picture all of the things I’d like to do to him, I know that it won’t solve anything. No. That man didn’t take vows to my dad. That man didn’t knowingly ruin my family. He had no idea who I was. The one to blame is my mom.
“I don’t know what to do,” I wail. Hearing the helplessness in my voice causes me to sob even harder, and I know I’m making myself sick. But I can’t stop. This is too much. Possibly being an alien, Dad always being gone, the boys only befriending me because of some weird ass job, and now this?! There’s only so much a girl can take.
“You don’t have to handle this alone,” Sheya says. I can feel the anger seep from them, and I know that if I were to allow them to take control, they’ll go back and make that man pay. “You damn right I will.”
“That won’t solve a damn thing,” I sob. “The damage is done. There’s nothing she can do or say that’ll fix this.”
“If that’s the case, stop your fucking sobbing and decide what you want to do.”
“What is there for me to do?” I ask, desperate for a solution that doesn’t involve possibly killing a stranger. Or anyone, for that matter.
“Do you want to tell your dad?”
Did I? Hell fucking no I didn’t. But should I? If I don’t, I’ll be every bit as guilty as Mom. I force myself to stop crying long enough to get my phone out of my pocket and call Dad. He picks up immediately.
“Hey sweet pea!” he says.
“Daddy,” I sob. All of the memories that we had as a family comes rushing to the forefront of my mind and I can’t stop the sobs as they start pounding their way out of my chest.
“Baby what’s wrong? Are you ok? Are you hurt?” he urgently asks.
“N-n-no,” I stutter. “It’s about Mom.”
“What’s wrong with your mother? Is she hurt?”
“I don’t know,” I honestly say, not really knowing what Sheya and I did to them. I’m almost afraid to find out how bad it could actually be.
“What happened to her? Honey, you have to tell me. I’m losing my mind over here.”
“I f-f-found her with another man today,” I sob. “How can she do this to you, Daddy?!”
I expected to hear a lot of cursing and, shit, maybe a little sobbing on his end. But all I got is crickets.
“Daddy?”
“I’m here. When did you find them?”
“Today! About an hour ago,” I say, calming down immensely with the lack of outrage from my dad.
“Where did you find them?”
“At his place,” I answer hesitantly.
“How did you know she was there?”
“She forgot to stop sharing her location with you on her phone.”
“She forgot to stop sharing her location with me on her phone,” I repeat.
He doesn’t answer, but the tapping I’m hearing means that he’s typing on his phone.
“So, she lied,” I hear him murmur.
Uh?
“What?”
“You’re right. Her location is still shared to me as well. She promised me that she was done with him!”
“Wait. What? You knew?”
His sigh is so heavy as he answered. “Yes. I knew. But when you love someone and have been with them for as long as me and your mother have, you don’t just throw it all away.”
“But you knew?” I ask again as my insides slowly start to numb. He knew. He knew and he just… did nothing?
“Maybe that’s why he’s gone so much,” Sheya says.
“Yes, I knew.”
“And this is why you’re never home?” I finally ask.
“Yes.”
“So, while you and Mom run off and live your lives with all of your secrets, you leave me here alone everyday, with no parents and no one to turn to?!”
“Renee, I’m so sorry,” he says, anguish coating his words for the first time during this entire conversation.
“It’s too late for that, Dad.” I hang up the phone. I want to throw it against the wall, but what would that solve?
So Dad knew this whole time that Mom was stepping out on him. And instead of staying home and fixing the relationship like he said he wanted to, he leaves and travels for his job to escape the problem he said he’d fix.
“This is some twisted shit,” Sheya says.
“Yeah, who are you telling?” I pull myself up off the floor, determined not to let this destroy me. I refuse to mourn for my parents marriage more than them. I stomp my way up the stairs and into my room. My bed never looked as inviting as it does now. Kicking off my shoes, I jump in bed, arms spread out as if I’m skydiving. I land face first into my pile of pillows, leaving my face planted until it feels like I’m suffocating. I curl on my side, staring at my beautiful collection of books.
“So, what? What do we do now?”
“Why should I stay in this house alone with parents who don’t give a damn about me when I have a family that clearly fucking cares? Enough to hire three fine ass men to search different worlds for me?”
“Um, depending on if that’s true. Did you honestly believe him?”
“Why shouldn’t I? And even if they’re lying, what’s the harm and going to see for myself? What can they possibly do to us? They’re Unblessed which means that they don’t even have an Inner Self. You mean to tell me that you can’t beat all three of their asses at once with your hands tied behind your back?”
“Pfft, of course I can!”
“Than what’s holding us back?” I ask, hands clenched in fists that’s pressed between my knees.
“Um, I don’t know? Maybe the fact that the school year has just started and you want to graduate?”
Fuck. “Yeah, you’re kind of right about that. But this shouldn’t take too long, should it? I’ll just go there, meet my family, and come back. I should be gone a week max.”
“Are you sure you want to risk it?”
“Hell yeah, I’m sure! I can’t be here when they get home. I just can’t do it.”
“Alright then. Call the boys up and let’s get this show on the road! I guess we’re going to Relvaria!”
“I guess we’re going to Relvaria,” I mutter back.
16
Renee
The conversation with Caylen went surprisingly well. Aside from him asking what changed my mind, I had no problem with convincing him to take me to Relvaria. I don’t know what I should expect on my trip there, or how we’re going to get there if it’s an actual realm instead of some place in Europe, so I don’t really know what I should pack and how much I should pack.
I decide to stuff my sturdy sports backpack with a weeks worth of underwear, because you can never be too sure, and four pairs of my best jeans. I throw in a nice amount of cami’s, t-shirts, and sweaters and I think I’m good to go. Caylen said that they will be by thirty minutes to midnight. Something about it’ll be easier for me to travel at midnight for the first time. Whatever that’s supposed to mean. I told him to come at eleven, because I kind of want to make sure that Mom is ok before I go skipping into another realm.
“Aren’t you forgetting something?”
“No? I think I have everything I need. I’m leaving my phone here, because I doubt they’ll have any cell service there.”
“What about your friend? The annoying one?”
“Dammit!” I can’t believe I forgot about Cymone! If I leave and not let her know what’s going on, she’ll have the entire SWAT team looking for me by the end of the week. “What do I say to her?”
“Just tell her the truth. She already knows everything.”
“What if she wants to come?”
“I don’t know. Make up a lie. Like humans can’t travel to that realm without growing a face titty or something.”
“You’re ridiculous, you know that?”
“Yet I’m the only one that’s coming up with ideas.”
“Touche.”
I look at the clock that’s by my bed and I see that I only have less than an hour and a half before the boys get here. This call might take longer than I have, but it has to be done. Taking a deep breath, I call Cymone and pray that I can just leave a voicemail.
No such luck.
“Girl do you not know how to check your text messages?! I’ve been blowing your ass up all day! What happened? Why weren’t you in school today?!”
I quickly fill Cymone in on everything. From the talk with Caylen, to the confrontation with Mom, and the giant bomb that Dad dropped. She was, blessedly, silent through the whole thing, until I took a pause to try and figure out how to say what I have to say next.
“So now that your parent’s secrets are out, you feel like you need to go to this Relvaria place and be with people who paid someone to find you?” Cymone surmises.
“Wh- huh? How did you know?” I stupidly ask.
“Girl, I’m your best friend. Yeah I didn’t know that you had superpowers and an alter ego, but I know everything else there is to know about you. If they didn’t offer you this escape route, you would have come here.”
“Um, yeah. I would have.” I guess I grossly underestimated our friendship.
“When will you be back?” she asks, voice thick from an unknown emotion.
“I have no idea. Maybe in a week? I don’t know what to expect,” I honestly say.
“And you trust those three?”
“Hell no. Not completely. But if they try to pull any funny business, I’ll let Sheya loose and they’ll have them wishing that they never messed with us.”
“I’m almost wishing that that happens.”
“Almost?”
“Ok, I am wishing for that to happen.”
“Thought so.”
“Ok, so what’s the story that I tell everyone?” Cymone asks. It’s a good question, one I don’t have an answer to. At this point, I know that I’m already going to be off of the Volleyball team, and I’m weeks ahead thanks to my many nights of staying up battling Sheya. So what is there to really say that’ll help me?
“Say that I’m sick with something that’s highly contagious and takes a week to go away?”
“Like Mono?”
“Nah, not severe enough.”
“The Bubonic Plague?” she tosses out.
“How about a little something less archaic? Maybe pneumonia?”
“Oh! How about the flu and pneumonia? Girl, they’ll feel so bad, they won’t even mark your absences against you!”
“Let’s be slightly more realistic. Pick the flu or pneumonia, but it can’t be both.”
“Alright alright alright, I’ll come up with something.”
“Thanks Cymone,” I say, getting a little choked up about leaving my best friend. “I don’t know what I’d do without you.”
“Thankfully, you’ll never have to find out. And Ren?”
“Yeah?”
“Don’t forget your promise to me, ok? Take care of yourself.”
“I will. I love you, girl.”<
br />
“I love you, too!”
We hang up and I feel like I’ve just said goodbye to her for good, instead of for a few days. I shake off that feeling of doom, and I proceed to tie four of my favorite hoodies around my waist. No matter the weather, as long as it’s not subzero, I should be fine.
A honk sounds outside my house an hour later, and shortly after my phone buzzes with an incoming text. I ignore all of the missed calls and text messages from my dad, and I open the one from Caylen instead.
Caylen: Hey, we’re outside.
I grab my bag and I rush downstairs. Pausing at the bottom step, I decide that bringing some traveling snacks wouldn’t be a bad idea, especially since I haven’t eaten all day. Using the rest of the space in my bag, I shove four bottles of water and as many snacks as I can fit in it. That should be enough to tide me over until I meet my family.
“If they even exist.”
“We know they exist. Or they did for dream Ren. What if they are real? We’ll never know if we stay here.”
Sheya doesn’t respond, and that’s ok with me. The boys are waiting and I don’t want to risk the chance that we won’t have enough time to check on Mom. I step outside, and parked behind my car is a large, black F150 truck. Without needing to be told, I already know that that is Zavid’s truck. I jog to the driver side, and I can barely see inside. These tints are definitely illegal.
I toss my bag into the bed of the truck and promptly hop in behind the driver’s seat. Titus’ grey eyes greet me as the dome light illuminates the inside of the truck. He’s wearing a long sleeve olive shirt and black jeans. His full lips are turned down in a scowl, and I can’t help but wonder what’s going on with him. I tentatively smile at him and all he does is avert his gaze.
“Oop. This is not going how you imagined it,” Sheya laughs.
“Shut up.”
“Hey Ren!” Caylen says, greeting me from his place in the front passenger seat. The smile on his face seems a little strained, and it doesn’t reach his eyes.
“Uh, hey?” I say, not too sure about what’s going on with them.
“Can you give me the directions to the house you want to stop by? We should get moving now if we want to make it to the portal by midnight,” Zavid says, not even bothering with a greeting. That’s fine by me. I still can’t get the picture of him with that girl on his lap.
The Inner Self: The Prophecy Page 11