by Keya Jay
Chapter twenty-one: Skylar Royce
Skylar was not in the mood for visitors but the knocking would not let up. She dragged herself from her mother’s room and shut and locked the door. She cleared her face of all evidence of tears before going to the front door.
“I’m sorry for showing up like this…I just wanted to talk,” Sidney said as she stood on Skylar’s door step clutching a book to her chest.
Skylar moved out of the way so that Sidney had enough space to enter her home before she changed her mind. Sidney had a death grip on that tattered notebook and it made Skylar slightly suspicious as she closed her door and followed her over toward one of the couches.
“I hope this isn’t a bad time,” she said apologetically.
It was always going to be a bad time, Skylar thought glumly. What was she doing here at 9 at night anyways, she wondered but didn’t trust her voice enough to try and voice the words.
Skylar didn’t know how long exactly she had been crying but she could tell by the dry and scratchiness of her throat and the occasional lift of her shoulders to take in deep breaths, it had been a while.
Skylar wanted to ask what it was that Sidney wanted but Sidney didn’t give her the chance as she immediately began talking, Skylar was slightly grateful for it.
“Ryder say’s you know Hank and I want to warn you right now not to trust him.”
Ok my attention is completely hers at the moment, Skylar thought as she got a little more comfortable on the couch.
“He wants this book in my hand here,” she said motioning toward it with her eyes but not lifting it enough for Skylar to see exactly what it was.
“Ok,” Skylar croaked.
“I didn’t understand why…until now,” she said slowly again not letting her grip loosen on the note book.
“There are…secrets in here, secrets that only Aaron knows…and now me but I don’t know them completely they’re in code but I figured some of it out already.”
“What would Hank want with that?” Skylar asked weakly.
“Well I don’t know but it’s obvious whatever is in here is highly important.” Skylar nodded her head to indicate that Sidney could continue. “The only reason I’m showing you this is because you are close to Hank.” Skylar wanted to deny it but Sidney kept talking making no room for interruptions. “So if anyone can get the truth out of him it’s you.”
“How’d you come up with that ridiculous conclusion?” Skylar said, her voice sounding better with every word.
“He’s…afraid of you or something.”
Skylar wanted to laugh at her wrong accusation but again Sidney just kept going as if she just needed Skylar’s ears and not her mouth.
“There’s something about you, Ryder said it himself; you’re different and Hank knows it. If you weren’t so useful to him then he would have never imprinted himself in your path.”
Sidney had a point a point Skylar constantly thought of herself. Ever since that B and E in Hank’s office things just weren’t adding up. No one questioned the fact that Hank wasn’t Hank at all and for those to know that he did indeed die…it just didn’t make sense. Someone had to have known that this wasn’t the real Hank. But the question she struggled to find an answer to is: Who is this man pretending to be Hank and what truly happened to the real Hank?
“Skylar?” Sidney called.
Skylar snapped out of the safety of her own thoughts and looked over toward her worried face.
“I’m almost positive that you’re Alias #7,” she said making not a lick of sense to Skylar.
“Alias #7?” Skylar questioned.
“Yes, Aaron wrote this book in codes so that no one knew the true identities but him but I was able to uncover a few,” she said, and for the first time since Sidney walked into Skylar’s house she removed the book from her chest and held it out toward Skylar.
Skylar peered down at the book and the cover read: Aaron’s book of Secrets. With a hesitant hand she reached out and took the book from Sidney’s hands.
“Page 5, date May 6th and it’s titled Alias #7?” she said as she scooted closer and looked over Skylar’s shoulder.
“Why was that formed as some kind of question?” Skylar asked as she looked down at the page Sidney had indicated.
“Read it and find out,” she said as she encroached into Skylar’s personal space.
May 6th
Alias #6 and I have been wondering around discretely, looking for whisperer’s to recruit. Our females were a little down on number and we needed more so that they’d be able to compete in the Whisperer of Night competition. While Alias #6 scored the lower parts of Coconut Grove I decided I’d go on to score the upper parts. There were surprisingly a lot of people out around this time and so I knew more than half of them had to be wisps. I watched a few of them go on about their businesses as though they were as normal as the ones that surround them and I knew those weren’t the ones I wanted to recruit. I walked a little farther until a woman had caught my attention.
Alias #7
Alias #7 isn’t oblivious to the things she can do and she embraces them as if it’s second skin. The only thing stopping me from approaching her is the fights I’ve witnessed happen. She evoked a lot of them, some were done out of complete and utter justice but then others were just because. Something about her was different she was…powerful very much so. She moved a bit unskilled like but she held her own.
I decided to test Alias #7 before I made my presence known. I’ve been watching her now for a week and there was something off balanced with her reactions and movements. I sent out one of my best Wisps Alias #4 to see just how skilled or unskilled she was.
Alias #4 was to approach Alias #7 but not to egg her on to do anything harmful to him or herself. I watched as she watched Alias #4 reach a bystander that Alias #4 had mind controlled to be oblivious to what was happening around him. Bystander #1 just so happened to be Alias #7’s focus of the day. She watched Bystander #1 as if he were a school project and that was Alias #4’s cue to go in.
Alias #4 approached Bystander #1 and made it seem as though he were harassing the Bystander #1 and because of the look of bewilderment on Alias # 7’s face I thought it was time for Alias #4 to make his move and attach Alias #7 needless to say it didn’t turn out nearly how I expected it to.
Another Bystander saw what was going on and decided to make a move as well. We hadn’t planned there being another Bystander so we had no time to control him. Alias #7 used the distraction Bystander #2 created and attached Alias #4. Bystander #1 was still under control and hadn’t made a move because he wasn’t instructed to and then the weirdest thing happened Alias #7 controlled the body of Alias #4, lifted the mind spell on Bystander #1 and assured Bystander #2 that everything was all good. I had never seen anything like it.
For the next couple of Days Alias #7 spent most of her time in the house taking care of her mother. Only at night did she step outside of her house again.
Skylar had no clue how to feel about a grown man watching and recording her every movement, she though as she skimmed over all of the pages that didn’t involve Alias #7.
“There’s only one more page that mentions you,” Sidney said. Skylar had totally forgotten that she was still sitting there.
“What makes you think this is about me?” Skylar asked her curiously.
“I’ve only seen you for three days and yet it seems as though that entry describes you to the T. Minus the fighting and things like that I only knew that was also you because of the way Ryder talks about how much your different. I can literally feel power radiate from you, he also told me about what happened between you and the twins,” she answered.
“The twins?” Skylar questioned
“Nico and Carter,” Sidney answered.
“I had no clue they were twins.”
“They’re not but they act like it, that’s just how some of us categorize them.”
“How can you feel power radiat
ing off of me, you’re human?” Skylar asked trying not to pass judgment but finding it hard to not do so.
“Well I’m not so sure about that anymore. I’ve always been able to see, hear and feel what others can’t. I don’t even have to lay my hands on it I could just feel it in my bones you know?”
No Skylar didn’t know but maybe the book did. Skylar flipped through some of the pages and skimmed over the words. Anything titled under battle wouldn’t have Sidney mentioned in any of those so she was looking for something that didn’t entirely fit.
“I think I know which one is about me,” she said as she flipped through the pages and stopped at one titled June 14th. Skylar read the entry over and over again trying to figure out what any of it meant.
“Well I guess it’s pretty obvious that there’s a secret you were supposed to know but—”
“He died,” Sidney cut in.
“Well yea, that.”
“So how am I supposed to find out now?” she asked in a winy voice.
“You should ask your mother maybe she’ll tell you.”
“She hasn’t told me yet so I don’t think she’s going to anytime soon. Besides I’m pretty sure she’s alias #13 and she didn’t seem too happy with my dad after he announced that he was going to final tell me the truth, a truth I should have known a long time ago might I add.”
“You never know maybe now is different.”
“What do you feel when you are around Hank?” Skylar asked curiously.
“I don’t know I feel…anger…vengeance. His aura is a dim gray-ish red so—”
“You see Auras?” Skylar asked cutting her off.
“Yes,” she answered simply.
Skylar got up from the couch and walked up stairs to her room. When she came back she sat the laptop down on the coffee table.
“What are you doing?” Sidney asked but Skylar could barely hear her as she came across the document she was looking for. Skylar clicked on it and the truth smacked her in the face. She looked behind her at Sidney and then the little girl on her screen. Skylar only remember seeing Sidney’s mother once but she was almost certain the woman in the picture was her.
Now this just got interesting, Skylar thought to herself as she sat back on the couch so that Sidney could have a look at the laptop herself.
“What is this?” she asked looking back at Skylar and then the computer.
“It’s the truth or at least part of it” Skylar said simply.
“This say’s Hanks obituary,” she said in a shaky voice.
“Yes I know it does just read it,” she said as she watched Sidney’s hands shake on the mouse pad.
Sidney cleared her throat to get ready to read and yet her voice was still shaky as she began.
Obituary for Hank Paul Henderson
September 29, 1969 – May 9, 1996
Miami, Florida | Age 27
Hank Paul Henderson was your quintessential tough guy—strong, hardworking, and self-contained; he was your average Joe. His wife and friends described Hank as being a dyed- in-the-wool conservative. He’s very opinionated but that has never been his problem.
On Thursday May 9th, 1996 Hank Paul Henderson’s life was cut shockingly—and so far mysteriously—short. Hank Henderson was killed without the slightest of remorse. The victim was found in his home surrounded by a two year old girl and a twenty-six year old woman who were both covered in blood and bind with twine at the hands and feet and a layer of duct tape covered their mouths. The perpetrator was without any sign of compunction as he fled the scene. Investigators are still looking into this devastating, yet mysterious murder.
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3 years later
Hank Paul Henderson’s family at funeral see picture here.
Hank’s wife and kid stand amongst others concealed in black and doused in tears as they hover over where Hank Henderson’s body lay in open casket. In the middle of the sermon the little four year old girl declares that she can feel her dad. Mother cries more but doesn’t deny her daughter’s claims. Little girl falls to her knees when told that it was time for her to leave. She claimed that she didn’t want to leave her father. Men had to physically remove the two year old and at that tender age she was diagnosed with PTSD.
Girl and mother go missing:
Doctors claim that the little girl had gone missing while under their care. They say that they do not allow the doors or windows to be unlocked and the girls are not to be allowed to leave the sanctuary of the building without an adult present; so how did that little girl escape? When detective Nolan Royce was put on the case to find the girl the mother was hysterical and claimed she had no clue where she could have gone. 48 hours later and Detective Nolan found the girl in the cemetery.
“Aaron’s not my father,” was the first thing Sidney said.
“No he’s not,” Skylar said hoping that that wasn’t the only conclusion she had gotten to.
“Hank’s my father, but not the man running around pretending to be Hank,” she said to herself seeming to be trying to put this all together. “Hank the fake one killed my father and is pretending to be him,” she said matching Skylar’s conclusion exactly. “But why?”
“That’s what I wanted to know so I did a bit of digging into the real Hank’s life and found out that he is a very well respected Espy.”
“What’s that?” she asked while still staring at the computer monitor.
“I have no clue but apparently it has something to do with the things you said you were able to see, feel, hear and do,” Skylar explained.
“So why was Aaron pretending to be my father for all of these years? I don’t even remember any of those things happening,” she said confused.
“Well that’s something only your mother would have the answers to.”
“Aaron’s still alive,” she blurted with wide eyes. “I heard my mother talking about a location and then she said Aaron’s name. In one of his journal entries he mentioned a boy who had apparently died during battle but he said the boy’s soul is immortal only the shell of his human body had died. What if that’s what I was trying to say in the cemetery maybe I was able to see my father’s soul though his human body was dead.”
“It’s possible but if Aaron was just a soul why would your mother be talking about a location only Espies apparently can see them so he shouldn’t have to hide.”
“No I’m almost certain Aaron’s still alive but my real father’s soul is wondering around somewhere.”
“Don’t get any ideas,” Skylar warned, “You are not about to go wandering around to find his soul.”
“What are we going to do about Hank?” Sidney asked as she turned to face Skylar completely.
“I don’t know,” Skylar answered honestly. “But there are still so many other things needing my attention.”
“Yea I know,” she said softly. “We’re going to need help,” she announced.
“We?” Skylar questioned.