by Laura Winter
“You just went through a crazy two-day headache explosion. Can’t you take a night off? Pretend to be normal for one night,” I said, sliding my fingers across her thigh.
“The two day explosion is the reason I shouldn’t take a night off. What if this happens again in a few days? What if it happens again tonight?”
“Then I’ll be there to help you. Plus, you already agreed.” I picked up the hem of my shirt hanging off her shoulder and poked at the tattoo on her side. I remembered it from the book she threw in her bag on our first day of school. “Purple hair, destructive, and tattoos. Maybe you are trouble.”
I sat up and swung her around so she was in my lap. I kissed her neck as she giggled.
“Seriously,” she said, pulling away. “If I could just figure out how to use my powers to stop these headaches…”
With perfect timing, my phone buzzed. I reached over to see the text from my dad. “Dinner in an hour.” I set it back on the nightstand and turned to see Clara holding in a laugh. “Now what?”
“Do you think he’s gonna know you were actually my overnight guest this time?”
She couldn’t hold it in any longer and burst out laughing as my cheeks flushed. “Why is this always so funny? Also, it’s the middle of the day. Also, also, please never use the phrase ‘overnight guest’ ever again.”
Clara leaned forward and kissed me through her laughter. “Nope, that’s the only phrase I’m using from now on.” She rolled off the bed to change. “What do I need to be prepared for tonight?”
“Maybe talk about college? Dad kept telling me I would find a new relationship once I got there.” I had one leg through my pants when my shirt hit me in the face. Clara leaned out of the closet, her nose scrunched in a frown. “Sorry, it was right after we broke up.”
“Why do I have to go to college? Technically, I don’t exist,” she shouted from the back.
“At least pretend you have a plan to go,” I replied.
I finished dressing and watched Clara pick through the knots in her hair. She had my old sweatshirt on again, her key necklace swaying with each movement she made. Eventually, she gave up on the last knot and walked out.
“Okay, one night of normal. Then library tomorrow, and we’re hiring Glitch to help,” she said, folding her arms.
“You know he’s going to be paranoid about midterms next week. He’s not going to be much help.”
Oh, crap. Glitch, the nosiest person about our relationship, was definitely going to find out about this. He could always see right through me.
“Yeah, you get to handle that one,” Clara laughed at my thoughts, sticking her hand out to me. “Come on. Your dad already hates me so let’s not be late.”
Thankfully I had driven the car so we made it back home in plenty of time. As we stood on the porch, Clara hesitated.
The last time I was here was after my outburst.
I stuck my fingers through hers. “C, it’s okay. Normal relationship, normal life. I’m here now.”
She sighed. “Nate, we are anything but normal.” She gave me a kiss on the cheek before we walked through the door.
Dad was in the kitchen but heard us come in. He poked his head around the corner. “Oh, good. Glad to see you’re feeling better, Clara.”
I told him you had a headache. At least I didn’t lie. I squeezed her hand.
“Yes, sir,” she replied with a half smile. “They get pretty bad.”
We walked into the dining room to see a plate of lasagna and bread already set out. My dad was setting down the last glass of water at the table and motioned for us to sit.
“You should get those checked out,” he said, watching Clara as she fumbled to use her fork with her right hand. Crap, I forgot that she was left handed but had a bandage over her palm. That wouldn’t help our case with my dad’s suspicions about my injured shoulder. Plus, how could we explain the blue blood?
“Sorry, get what checked out?” she asked, finally settling on a grip that didn’t look terribly awkward.
“Your headaches. Do they run in your family?” he asked, watching how clumsy she looked trying to pick at her food.
“Oh, I don’t think so. Just me.” Clara dropped her fork and reached for her water instead.
Another uncomfortable silence fell.
“Well,” Dad said finally. “I’m sure you don’t want to talk about headaches all evening.”
If anyone couldn’t stand uncomfortable settings more than me, it was my dad. At least I knew where I got that trait from.
The rest of the dinner went off without a hitch. Dad asked all about school and college and our shared interests. Luckily, Clara had an answer for everything without hesitation. Though she wasn’t completely confident on calculus, she was pretty sure she could ace the rest of her tests. We rambled on about movies and music, which I think surprised my dad to hear she was a fan of Star Wars. As for college, she wasn’t sure what she wanted to study just yet but figured there was still time. I think by the end of dinner, he was finally satisfied with the girl I was dating.
We cleaned up the dishes and I got the keys ready to drive Clara home. My dad stopped us before we made it to the front.
“Clara, if your parents wouldn’t mind, I have a work party next Friday evening that I’d like to invite you and Nathaniel to.”
I could feel her grip tighten in mine. She was barely tolerant of making plans for the next few hours, let alone a week away. We didn’t know if or when her headache would come back.
I was about to think of some excuse when she straightened up.
“I would love to, thank you. My uncle will be delighted to hear I’m getting out of the house more.”
I tried to hide my surprise at her description of House.
“Oh,” my dad stammered, fumbling over words. “I didn’t realize—“
“Don’t worry. I never really knew my parents,” she replied with a shrug. Wow, she was handling this perfectly.
“Well, then, I’ll extend another invite to you and your uncle to come over for Christmas. Nathaniel’s mother will be in town and I’m sure she would love to meet you.”
“That sounds wonderful. I’ll check to see what we have planned.”
I closed the door behind us and wrapped Clara in a hug. “Thank you for tonight. I know it’s been a long day for you.”
She squeezed back. “Things are a lot easier with you around.”
30
Clara
I invited Nate and Glitch over after I woke up, just before noon on Sunday. Even though the plan was to study, I figured I could rope them into helping me through the library for at least an hour. We needed to find answers before I had another outburst.
“It’s about damn time you two figured out you loved each other,” Glitch blurted as House opened the door.
“Whatever, man,” Nate said, rolling his eyes as he pushed him through the door.
“Admit it! I’m the reason you got back together after Nate was an idiot,” he said, a smug look on his face.
I shook my head. “How did you even find out?”
“It’s written all over Nate’s face. He gets so nervous around you,” Glitch laughed as he hugged me.
I spun him around and pushed him toward the library. “Go. Study and research time.”
“Ugh, do I have to?” he asked, sagging his shoulders.
“Yes, we both do. I owe her,” Nate said, shrugging. The bruise on his shoulder peeked out from under his sleeve as he pulled his jacket off. I grimaced, knowing I had somewhat been the cause of it and a lot of drama with his dad. He saw me staring and leaned over to kiss me.
“Gross, get a room,” Glitch groaned without turning around. How did he always know what we were doing? I twitched my fingers and flicked him in the nose using my powers. “Ow!”
Nate laughed as we headed off after him. The library had been cleaned up for the most part, but there were still stacks of papers for the books I couldn’t find the match to. I had used my p
owers to mold the railings back as close to their original shape as I could, but it wasn’t pretty.
Glitch sat down at the desk and threw his backpack on top. He must have been serious about studying because it was actually full of books.
After an hour, it was clear Glitch was going to pass all of his exams with flying colors while Nate and I settled on being slightly above average. Glitch kept quizzing us while he fiddled with the desk drawer until he got so frustrated that he gave up on the questions and started yanking on the drawer.
“Do you think I haven’t tried that before? It’s not budging. Even my powers can’t get it open.” I put down my study guide and picked up a library book instead as Nate read over the note I had pulled out of the desk.
“I don’t get it,” Nate said. “Glitch and I never went through these Trials to get powers. We don’t even know how we got them.”
I shrugged. “I don’t think our cases are normal by any means. Maybe we found objects that The Complex didn’t know about?” I sighed and tossed the book to the side, leaning back on the floor to stare at the ceiling. I needed a break from working my brain.
Nate stuck his head in my vision. “Do you think you could have gotten in contact with the Blue Star before the Trials?”
I shrugged again. All of my answers at this point were ‘I don’t know’.
“Hey, where is that Blue Star anyway? I’ve never seen it,” Glitch said, finally slumping into the chair as he accepted defeat by the inanimate desk drawer.
“I threw it somewhere in the training room,” I replied, pushing off the ground to look for it. But something cold pinched my leg. “Shit.”
As I pulled the Blue Star out of my pocket, Nate frowned. “Why do you have that with you?”
“I didn’t,” I said, staring at the little marble in my hand. “I thought I left it in the training room… but wait. Those days I spent in there, I found the Blue Star in my pocket, but it shouldn’t have been in there. I had just woken up.”
Glitch snagged it out of my hand as Nate shook his head. “Maybe we should keep a closer eye on that thing. The voices and headaches get stronger around it.”
I sighed. I wasn’t trying to keep this thing around, it just kept following me.
“Got it.”
Nate and I snapped our heads to look at Glitch as he leaned back in the chair, a smug look on his face as the drawer opened.
“What?” we said at the same time.
Glitch looked at me like I was an idiot. “The Blue Star opened it. Did you really not try that before?”
“Not since it was whole,” I said, running over. I shuffled through the notebooks and papers, handing an old book to Nate who was right behind me. “Maybe the old me used this for protection, so no one could figure out what I was researching. Start reading.”
I sat down on the ground and leaned against the desk to start flipping through the notes. They were all in my handwriting, all signed ‘F’. I wouldn’t care if I never saw or heard that name again, except that it would probably come back with my memories. Either way, this was a step closer to finding out who the old me was.
“Check this out,” Nate said. He slid the book across the floor to me. It was in a different language but I had translated things in the margin. In big block letters at the top, I had written ‘Power Sources’ and listed the translations of about thirty different names next to each line. All but three of the objects were crossed out. The Golden Arrow was near the middle of the list while The Ruby was third to last. The final object was the Blue Star.
“I think these power sources are ranked by how much energy they have. Why are some of them crossed out?” I asked, pointing to a few at the top.
Glitch read upside down. “Maybe they ran out of power.”
I flipped through the next few pages to read about the sources but none of them were translated. I kept scanning until I came to the page with the Blue Star. My handwriting was all over the page, filling every white space there was.
But something didn’t look right with the words. The page blurred out of focus, making it hard to understand what I had written. Oh, god, another headache. I squeezed my eyes shut and pressed my palms into my forehead, trying to concentrate. It wasn’t going to be long before I needed to get out of here to protect Nate and Glitch.
“What the hell was wrong with you?” Nate asked as I felt his presence next to me.
“I don’t know,” I grumbled. It felt like the room was starting to spin. “I can’t read it.”
Glitch’s voice pierced my ears. “No one can. These aren’t real words. You wrote complete gibberish.”
“Guys,” I blurted, my stomach lurching. “Headache. Get out now.”
I shoved Nate away from me and tried to hold onto my powers as long as I could. I could feel the floor start to tilt and I instinctively threw my hand to the ground to keep from rolling. Someone grabbed the book off my lap as I curled into a ball, trying to hold the pain and voices as they screamed and clawed inside my head. I couldn’t scream back. I didn’t know if Nate and Glitch were safe.
I heard the book slam shut, as loud as a gunshot, and the headache started to dull. The room slowly settled into stillness… no, my senses were just returning. I could hear and feel papers falling down around me as I opened my eyes.
Nate and Glitch weren’t next to me anymore and the desk was missing. I slowly pushed myself into a sitting position to see the damage. Nate was clutching the book in his arms, sitting against a bookshelf to my left and surrounded by the books that had fallen when he hit the shelf. Glitch was on the opposite side of the room in the same situation. The desk wasn’t as lucky. It was splintered and scattered around the staircase.
I threw my hand over my mouth to hide a sob. Nate and Glitch had just gotten caught in my fire and it was a miracle they hadn’t ended up like the desk. I couldn’t keep them safe from myself.
“That was not fun,” Glitch said, trying to joke as he rubbed the back of his head. He collected a few floating papers as he stood.
“I… I’m so sorry,” I whispered, pulling my knees up into my chest as I buried my face. Every part of my body was suddenly exhausted.
“C, are you okay?” Nate asked, his voice getting louder as he hurried toward me. He pulled me into his arms.
“I’m so sorry. I’m so sorry.” It was all I could say as I let him lift me off the ground and carry me out of the library.
31
Nate
“She okay?” Glitch asked, sifting through the papers and trying to sort them as I walked back in.
I shoved my hands in my pockets. “Yeah, she’s sleeping now.”
Glitch watched me carefully, a concerned look on his face. “Did you hear the voices then?”
My shoulders slumped as I nodded. “Yeah, but they’re just whispers to me. It’s so much louder for her. She couldn’t even hear us when we were trying to get her attention.”
He frowned and handed me one of Clara’s desk notes. “You should read this.”
I overheard my dad talking to Aidan. I think Aidan has been using his powers on me to throw me off their trail. They are getting close to figuring out how to extract the energy from people and replenish the objects, or worse yet, take it for themselves. I suspect they are trying to keep me under Aidan’s spell until I use the Blue Star. They want the power, but they can’t get it without me.
I can’t use the power source. They can’t be trusted with that sort of energy, and if they can take it from me, I don’t know what will be left of me. I fear it only ends badly.
I am stuck with two terrible choices. Let the Blue Star consume me and see if the legend of the Cold Soul is true, or be driven mad as the Blue Star continues to scream at me. Neither ends well. The voices hiss at me during the night and haunt me during the day, making it hard to concentrate on anything. I’m already going crazy with the voices, and it’s getting harder to hold onto reality.
I have set up an escape if necessary, I just hope I make
it to that day alive.
-F
“So this really was her escape,” I said, reading over the note again.
“And her dad and Aidan really are dicks. They want to use her for her powers,” Glitch added as he returned back to the notes.
“Did you find anything about the Cold Soul legend? What does that mean?”
No wonder she thought she was going crazy. The Blue Star was already cold and calling her with the horrible voices. The Cold Soul didn’t sound any more pleasant.
