by B D Grant
“That’s fine,” Cassidy tells her rushing by. She says under her breath, “I didn’t want to eat lunch anyways.”
We enter the hallway as Uncle Will turns the corner walking toward us with two men on either side of him. John is right behind the men. Cassidy smiles at Uncle Will and his guests. The two men turn their attention to greet Cassidy as we pass. As soon as the men look away from Uncle Will he gives me an exaggerated frown. When they look back he’s smiling warmly.
Once we’re a good distance away from them I tell Cassidy, “He’s doesn’t seem to be enjoying Family Day.”
Cassidy smiles. “Don’t let him fool you. He wouldn’t have it any other way.” She continues down the hall as I turn to go to the cafeteria. Cassidy doesn’t bother telling me bye so I don’t either.
In the cafeteria they’ve added more tables and seating for the visitors. I give up on trying to find Ashley in the mass of people and take the closest empty spot. Lunch is on point. If you ask me, it shouldn’t take families coming to visit for cafeteria food to be good. Everyone around is enjoying the food too. They’re laughing, having a good time catching up with their loved ones. It reminds me of large families’ Thanksgiving dinners that I was never able to experience.
I’m imagining myself in my house at the dining room table. Jake is arguing with me. Aunt Beth walks into the dining room from the kitchen. To my delight she gives Jake a strong look causing him to stop arguing with me.
“Taylor, come help your mother,” Dad calls from the living room, where Uncle Will, Uncle Chuck, and Cassidy are listening to him talk about his obnoxious new C.E.O.
Jake’s right on my heels as I get to the kitchen. We each grab as many dishes as we can balance. He points out that he can carry more than me.
When we’re all sitting around the table it’s my dad that leads us in prayer. We are all happy, even Cassidy as we stuff our faces. We all laugh at Jake’s corny jokes.
I know this is an unreasonable dream that will never happen but I wish it could. I push my tray to the side and lay my speech out in front of me. I get a pen from my bag. I spend the remainder of my afternoon anxiously practicing and editing my speech.
The time has come, I glance at the enormous audience then drop my head down to the speech resting on the podium. I swallow hard to push down the lump in my throat. I face everyone reluctantly.
“Hello, my name is Taylor Jameson. I was asked to share my story with you all today. My uncle is the principle here. I met him for the first time this year right after my birthday, in fact. But that’s not important.” I need to stay on track. I find Ashley seated only a few rows from the front. I focus on her so the mass of people in front of me blur. “What brought me to finally meet my uncle is what’s important.” Crap, I didn’t need to say that out loud. “My father, my friend Jake, and both of his parents were kidnapped in their front yard, in broad daylight. I watched it happen. It was on that day that my mom told me I was a Seraphim, a Veritatis. Until that day my parents had never told me that there was a name for my gift. They raised me as a regular kid. My built-in lie detector was something we kept secret. Jake was raised along side me with the same life of normalcy as me. My parents and Jake’s never let on that they had any abilities while we were growing up. Jake and I were given a chance to live without fear; all the while our parents lived everyday knowing that at any time it could fall apart. It did.
We weren’t the only Seraphim wanting to live a regular life. Our neighbor as it turned out was also a Seraphim. He was the one that stopped me from chasing after my dad the day he was taken. He probably saved my life and I didn’t get a chance to thank him.”
I take a quick inventory of the crowd. Most are barely paying attention. Uncle Will’s in the front row looking at me with an affirming smile. Some of the audience in the back has begun talking amongst themselves. I try not to get mad. I know my speech about finding out that I’m part of this secret community and what I’m thankful for in the face of turmoil and the unknown is super lame. They want to hear about it as much as I want to stand here in front of them telling it. I fold the paper in half, covering up my writing.
“You know what?” I slap my hand down lightly on the paper. “I’m not thankful.” That gets some of the talkers’ attention. “My parents may have had the best intentions to try to protect me, but my ignorance has been a handicap.” Something cold inside me bubbles up. “If anything, it would’ve been nice to know people were out there somewhere hunting us instead of my mom wasting time, warning me about online predators.” The bubbling overflows. “I’m not weak! And neither are any of you! Why are we hiding?!”
“Taylor,” Uncle Will says trying to get my attention. He starts to approach the podium, probably with the intent of taking over, but I’m not going to give him the chance. My speech isn’t done.
“A smart old man once told me we’re here to help others make the world better. That sounds great, but how can any of us help other people when we’re refusing to help ourselves?” A few people nod enthusiastically. Someone in the back claps. Uncle Will is at the side of the stage but he’s stopped at the stairs watching me. “There’s no stopping Rogues from winning.” The clapping stops abruptly. “All this running and hiding has allowed them to win. I, like most of you here, have done NOTHING to stop them. The rest of you haven’t done enough.” The cold inside me turns hot. “My father may be dead but we are fools if we think he’ll be the last if we don’t do anything about it. I agree with many of you. I think this battle should never have started. However, I’m not going to follow in my parent’s footsteps. I refuse to run! I will fight to ensure that Seraphim like me will be here long after I’m gone. I will fight so that Seraphim fulfill their roles as protectors and not dictators.
We all have a choice. We can be the people who let this nightmare continue or we can be the people who ended it!”
Students begin cheering. Most of the visitors are giving each other looks like they can’t believe I’m saying this.
Out of nowhere, Uncle Will grabs the microphone, placing his hand over it. “I think you’ve said enough.” I look at the audience one more time. I don’t smile or bow. I take my paper from the podium, ball it up, and chunk it at the audience. Some of the students cheer louder. As I make my off the stage I hear Bryant laughing as the cheers begin to die down.
Uncle Will thanks me before calming the crowd down. He starts talking about the school and what a wonderful turnout today has been. On the side of the stage, people nearest the front are still watching me. I fight the urge to yell, “What are you looking at?” I leave, deciding it’s best I don’t hang around for the butt chewing that I’m sure is coming to me once Uncle Will gets done.
The few girls whose families couldn’t make it have been trickling into the dorms for at least an hour by the time Ashley knocks on my door. When I open the door she walks in hastily.
“Wow,” she says kicking her shoes off as she crawls on my bed.
“I know.” I climb on my bed next to her. I roll a ball of paper to her containing one of my original speeches. She rolls it back. “You killed it.”
“No, I lost it in front of hundreds of witnesses. Your family sure left early. Did they leave because of me?”
“They haven’t left. Principle McBride dismissed us but my parents and a bunch of the others stayed. They’re having a big meeting.”
I grit my teeth. “That’s great.” He’s cleaning up my mess. I wonder if anyone asked him if his sister was a crazy drama queen too.
A smile crosses her face. “Chill out it wasn’t about you. Some of the parents, including mine, demanded it. Before I was shoed out of the room it sounded like you gave them a healthy dose of fear.”
We keep rolling the paper ball back and forth silently for a bit. Eventually we talk about our day. She tells me about her parents and I tell her about what I heard Cassidy and Uncle Will arguing about. Ashley departs only after it is announced that room checks are under way.
1
4
T wants to go
I meet Dream Walker in my sleep following my speech. She asks me silently about Family Day. I allow her to see how I yelled at an auditorium full of Seraphim. Surprisingly, she’s proud. She goes back to my view of the audience at the end, before I threw the paper at them. “You rallied them,” she says.
I don’t respond trying to do my best to give her the cold shoulder. When your minds are connected that’s as difficult to do as keeping your diet while working in a bakery.
“Don’t go after them,” she says after probing my mind.
I hadn’t realized that I had made up my mind until she says that. She found something I hadn’t consciously thought much about. I want to go if there’s a chance Dad, Jake, Aunt Beth, or Uncle Chuck could be found. I just have to somehow find a way to be a part of the attack Uncle Will is planning against the Rogues. Dream Walker telling me not to go does nothing but light a fire of determination inside me.
Dream Walker knows my current feelings towards her. She hasn’t forgotten about the way our time together previously ended. She pulls back in my mind while managing to maintain our connection. She gives me space to go over her options as to improve the rift between us. She’s in a dark place herself. We’ve been looking at me and my day since she joined me in my sleep. I haven’t cared enough to look at what’s going on with her.
Out of curiosity I halfheartedly push. All I get from the weak attempt are her emotions from the day. It isn’t good. With the heavy amounts of sadness and ache she’s experiencing she must’ve lost someone recently. Karen, the woman Dream Walker screamed for the people in lab coats to leave alone, is the only person she’s shown me that she cares about. She doesn’t tell me if I’m right or not.
“Actions will always speak louder than words,” she tells me.
My mind is flooded with images. Dream Walker shows me three different babies. Their chubby faces are linked to a wealth of love. They’re her children I’m guessing since she says nothing. If she thinks showing me that she loves kids will make me trust her, she’s wrong.
She shows me a memory of her at a tattoo parlor. Dream Walker’s watching a artist closely work on a man’s arm, not giving me the face of the artist nor the person getting the ink. The artist wipes away the excess ink. It reveals an intricately done tattoo of intertwined letters S and K on a muscular arm. The next image is of Dream Walker walking up to a body bag. The bag is unzipped and the sheet inside the bag covering the body is lifted exposing the same tattooed arm. Seeing the arm, her heart jumps to her throat with fear for her own life. If he could be taken down she believes no one stands a chance.
She fast-forwards to a moment when she’s feeling heavy with the weight of a decision she knows she has to make. In the memory she’s thinking of the same baby faces that she first showed me. The decision’s made and I feel her heart breaking because of it. She won’t being seeing their faces again.
Her thoughts of babes disappear and I’m thrown into the midst of Dream Walker’s adrenaline. She’s running from a burning building. Her heart no longer feels as weak as it did looking at the man in the body bag or saying goodbye to the sweet babies. “They had found me,” she tells me, reminding me that she’s choosing what she’s showing me. She’s running away from a burning house. She shows the tattooed arm in the body bag again. I put it together without her help. The person in the body bag had been found too but unlike her he wasn’t able to get away.
“Rogues?” I ask.
“Who else?”
The sound of a child crying out in pain is next. Dream Walker’s emotions attached to this one are as hard to experience as the others. I’m surprised when Clairabelle, my Clairabelle, appears in Dream Walker’s memories like a ray of light. Seeing how young Clairabelle is in her memories she’s known her much longer than I have. Clairabelle is young, vibrant, and like the Clairabelle I know, full of positive vibes. Dream Walker doesn’t say it but Clairabelle’s a link to her and I. Dream Walker relaxes as I put it together. Dream Walker knows Mom and Uncle Will. She’s the reason Clairabelle came into their lives when they were children. But, if Clairabelle was moving Mom and my uncle to Aurora after Rogues were chasing Dream Walker than that means Rogues were around way earlier than everyone’s let on.
Softly she says, “They weren’t known as Rogues at the time.”
Now that she’s not showing me bits of her past I feel how worn out she is. I’m not sure if the trip down memory is the cause or if it’s from whatever she went through today that has left her in mourning. I want to ask her so much more but she’s drifting off. “Show me how to connect to someone in their sleep and you can keep showing me stuff.”
“It’s not something I can show you,” she says, fading quickly. Before she falls asleep and we lose connection she gives me one more clip from her memory. The image of the infant, like the babies earlier, is surrounded with love. The kind of love you have for someone that you would gladly die for. The last image is of a cute toddler that she would die to protect. There’s no way I shouldn’t trust her after seeing the toddler because the toddler is me. She has unconditional love for me. This consuming emotion must be how my mom feels about me when she’s gushing about how proud she is of me.
Thinking of Mom takes my mind off the questions I have for Dream Walker.
Being outside this early isn’t too uncomfortable with the humidity not yet in full force. The sun it still behind the trees so it gives a false hope of it possibly being a cool day. This is the first time I’ve gotten up this early since Cassidy and Uncle Will brought me to The Southern Academy. It was easy this morning to get going with what I have in mind. I’m determined to be a part of the take down Cassidy was talking to Uncle Will about. I don’t know exactly what this take down involves but if my mom is going to be there I should be too. No more waiting for bad things to happen I’m taking life into my own hands. All I have to do is talk Dillon or Bryant into taking me.
The track and field coach that tried recruiting me a while back is on the track working with his students. When he sees me walking around the side of the track I politely smile, and wave. He moves off the track to the side I’m coming round on. “I still have room for you, if you’re interested,” he calls.
“Thanks, but I lack the dedication.” I don’t slow down as I pass him.
A student on the track team runs by huffing from his efforts. Through his labored breathing he says to the coach, “I don’t … have... the dedication…either.” He slows as he gets in front of him. The coach looks at his stopwatch.
“If you waste another second you’ll be running for the rest of the day looking for your dedication.”
“Found it!” He takes off running at his initial speed.
“I’m very motivational!” The coach calls in my direction, but my back is to him and I don’t turn around to acknowledge him.
When I get to the front of the teachers housing complex a man dressed in what looks like high-end hunting gear stops me. What he’s holding doesn’t fit with hunting gear or the school environment.
“What are you doing over here, young lady?” he asks me. He has a cool looking helmet of some sort in his hand with a retractable face shield that matches the pattern of his clothing. I am dumbfounded by his question. I should’ve thought of an excuse to be here ahead of time.
“I was told to meet… Dillon Weston here.” That’s a terrible lie. If he's a Veritatis then I'm done for before I've had the chance to do anything. He looks at me carefully before switching the helmet to his other hand. His freed hand goes for his waistband. This movement scares me. I don’t know why, it’s not like he is going to shoot me or anything. The worst he could do is bring me to my uncle, but I tense anyway. His hand comes up with some kind of sleek walkie-talkie contraption that I have never seen before.
He presses the button on the side and holds it to his mouth, “Delta squad, what's your position?"
A male voice responds, "If you mean Big D squadron, we’re
home, wrapping more gifts."
The man lets out a sign and slides the walkie onto his belt strap saying, “That’s why they weren’t allowed to pick their own names.” He starts to walk off.
"So, uhh where exactly do I go?" I ask.
"Rear of the complex,” he replies as he begins to jog to the nearest entrance of the housing complex. I take a deep breath. Not only did I not get in trouble, but I also found out Dillon's location. This is going great!
I've never been on the other side of the teachers’ housing. When I make it around the back I'm surprised to see vehicles parked in a line on a dirt road. I guess it makes sense. If teachers have to leave it is easier to come and go over here versus walking across school grounds, then driving through the barn.
It’s a boring group of automobiles. The school must provide them with guidelines because they aren’t flashy, or cute for that matter. Each of the vehicles on the road are large vans. Each is almost identical to the other.
People dressed in the same fashion as the man I just met in the front of the complex are getting into the two vehicles in the front. They pull away as someone at the rear of the vehicle line says, "Well look what the cat dragged in."
Ben’s at the last van in line, holding one end of a long box. Tony’s on the other end lifting it into the back of the van. I call them “vans” but they’re kind of cooler than the run of the mill vans I’ve seen. If James Bond had a bunch of kids he’d drive this thing. It towers over regular vans by 2 or 3 feet. They’re jet black with windows running the length of them but I can’t see inside from the dark tinting. Bryant walks around the front to greet me as I come up to the van. All three of them are wearing the same getup as the other minus the helmets. Bryant smiles as he says, “I knew it. Ben, you owe me twenty bucks."
Ben pushes the box the rest of the way inside the van. "We didn't make any bets." Tony starts shifting the box to one side. Ben walks over, leaving him in the van.
