The stress made Val’s leg muscles shake. Standing was too much for him. A weak gesture, he pushed out at them with his tiny little power. The exertion caused him to fall back, having to catch the tables for support.
The two beings looked at one another, and in simian, loping movements that were somehow dignified, they came over what was left of the door, using the sloped curve as a kind of a ramp.
He couldn’t resist them. Even if he picked up the chair and tried to use it as a weapon.
Valentine. Come with us.
They didn’t speak. The words were in his head. He blinked at them, from one to the other, and then back again, but they favored him with those secretive little smiles and those deep dark eyes, like pools to nowhere.
The corner of the table jabbed into his kidney, and he very slowly relaxed himself off it, not willing to look away from those beings that shouldn’t be. One of them pointed at him with one of its three fingers, it felt too much like the movie E.T. and Val stifled a giggle.
Come with us.
It echoed in his mind, resonating like the hum, an omnipresent thing he couldn’t control.
“No,” he said, his voice still sounding out of place.
You don’t need to speak out loud.
“Can you read my mind?”
Only when you direct something towards us.
He wondered if they were lying or not.
Come with us.
He couldn’t tell which of them was speaking at any given time; their resounding mental voices sounded too similar for him to tell them apart.
You can’t stay here, their voices chorused, bouncing around the inner places in his skull. Val brought his hands to his temples, a familiar movement since the onset of the hum.
Come with us, we can keep you safe.
“I want to stay here,” he said, meaning Earth.
The little smiles flattened out into frowns. You cannot stay here. This is not your home. They made an unpronounceable sound, and added a possessive to the end—men will be back soon. It wouldn’t do to have them find us here.
“Men? Is that the Space Puma?” He felt stupid saying it, but didn’t remember the real name Felix gave it. He didn’t think it was the same thing. Nor did he think Space Puma had a squadron of men.
You know him as your friend Felix.
“And what do you call him?”
They made the sound again, and Val gave up.
They come now.
Let us take you.
What else was he going to do?
Out of the frying pan, into the fire.
“Okay. Let’s go. Take me home. I want to go home.” He wondered if they would listen.
They advanced on him. Where were they going? Did they have a car? Felix used cars...these guys were a little less incognito than Felix, though. Strong, knobby, three-fingered hands clamped down on him, and time collapsed in on itself.
It felt like he was being pulled all directions at once, and as soon as the white room went black, he was in the sun. He covered his eyes, aware the aliens weren’t touching him anymore. The hum was on him like an anvil, pressing at him, resonating in his head. He gasped, not exactly in pain, but surprise or maybe shock.
He was in his driveway. There was his truck, there was Kate’s car—was Maria still in the trunk? He hoped not, but couldn’t imagine how or when Kate could have dealt with it on her own.
“How—?”
We master our environment. As you are part of us, you can master yours as well.
He cleared his throat; cast a glance at the house. He didn’t want Kate to look out and see.
You hold the trinity within your DNA. The Tylwyth Teg have searched for one like you. You must not go with them.
Val resisted the urge to parrot the alien’s words back at them.
We wish to bring you with us, back to Ye’Tunatal, to keep you safe from them.
“That’s a planet?”
They nodded their smooth gray heads.
He would be the alien. The rest of his life in a cage. The rest of his life in a cage.
He must have thought it harder than he intended the second time, because one of them spoke in response. It won’t be like that. Our people will see you are a feeling, thinking being, as we are. We will do our best to make you a useful member of society, as your kind like to be.
His head spun, and the hum rode it like a tilt-a-whirl.
32
Kate let the shower go cold as she rinsed her hair. It stung her with icy needle droplets but it also felt good, cathartic and punishing all at the same time.
Three days with no word from Val. Three days. Last night she’d even gone to look for Rich, to see if maybe he knew something—either as a cop or a kidnapper. Or a killer. His house had a vacant look to it, and even though she spent ten minutes knocking, on and off, standing in his nice upper class neighborhood, she knew no one was home.
She swung by his station, on route 82, and all the troopers were cool and wary of her. Hadn’t seen him. He didn’t show up for work today. Spence put out an APB on Val, on top of all of this he’d missed his parole meeting.
Val was fucked.
One more day. Tomorrow at dusk she was going to pack it in. It wasn’t as though she’d be hard to find, both Spence and Val had her number. But she couldn’t be here anymore.
She reached down to add some hot water to the mix. The shower curtain exploded around her, wrapping her in a slimy, mildewy bear hug. The curtain caressed her face and she inhaled it, screamed, swung and kicked as a sharp pain shooting into her knee—the kind that made her nauseous and her eyes water—made her stop. She felt her weight slipping in her kidnapper’s grasp as he fumbled and nearly dropped her. It allowed her a good feel for his size, and she called out his name. “Let me go, Rich!”
He didn’t. Not right away. They turned some corners, her head banged off a doorframe, and she tried to keep stock of where they were. Definitely still inside. Then he picked her up a bit. And dropped her onto the fake hardwood floor. She landed on her hip and elbow. After the clobbering her head had taken, she could taste shampoo, mildew and blood. She spat, clawed at the shower curtain and pulled it off her head.
“Where is she?” Rich asked. His eyes were bloodshot. Was he on something? She didn’t think so. This was what Rich looked like when he was bereaved. It happened when their foster father died in a truck accident. He devolved into a zombie. A violent zombie on autopilot. That time Rich tracked down the SUV driver who veered into Jim’s truck, it had been Val, she realized, who got him down. He even convinced the yuppie not to press charges. Kate pulled her arms free, keeping herself covered with the shower curtain. It had once been white, but was now a thick brown color. Better that pressed against her skin than let Rich see her.
“Where is your fucking lowlife? It ends. Here. Now.”
“I haven’t seen him in days.”
“Bullshit.”
“I thought you had him.” Kate eyed her bag, not ten feet away, her clothes in it. Then she saw a sparkle under the bed. Maria’s knife. If Rich saw it, she was done. She should’ve sucked it up, done something with the car on her own. She never would have remembered the knife, though. Val, how could you leave me like this?
With a loose fist, Rich punched her in the temple.
White spots spun in her vision, and her stomach bucked. So this was what they meant by seeing stars.
He sunk his fingers into her wet hair and pulled her up. She lost her grip on the slippery shower curtain and it dropped as he pulled her to her knees. Rich made a sound of revulsion—oh thank god—and shoved her towards the bureau.
“Get dressed, you fucking slut. We’re going to find him.”
She pulled on jeans and a tank top fast, no time to worry about a bra or panties. He kicked her in the back while she was bent over, right on her “Valentine” tattoo. Fine. She could deal. She could deal with a lot when she had to.
“Where is he?” Rich asked again. “And where’s
my wife? Where’s TJ? He took them all.”
In the span of a few days, Rich’s world had fallen apart.
Kate grabbed one of Val’s button-down shirts just in time as Rich clamped onto her upper arm. He pulled her out of the bedroom and into the living room. The back door hung open, a bright patch of sunlight in the dark hallway.
She scanned the place for anything she could use as a weapon. Her hands were free, as she was lucky he hadn’t cuffed her. He stank, and she hated herself for pitying him. Maria was a bitch, but they had a strange sort of mutual love. They meant a lot to one another. What would she be if she lost Val? Like if he was really gone? The thought sucker punched her, but the sight of the frying pan on the dish drain, where she’d left it after cooking herself some eggs for breakfast, gave her hope. She hadn’t eaten them, but the cooking gave her something to do. As he shoved her again, towards the door this time—watch the step down, she reminded herself—she used her free hand to grab it and swing. Too bad it isn’t cast iron, a cheap thing from Wal-Mart. It clanged against his crew cut, denting the pan then clattered to the floor. He let go of her arm and she ran, sprinting for the back door but he was on her, missing the waist of her jeans but snaking a hand around her ankle instead. She fell, but caught herself instead of smashing her face into the floor.
“You want to play, little bitch?”
He yanked her back up, and resumed their trajectory to the front door. “You’re going to take me to him.”
Rich picked up her car keys from the counter as they passed and thrust them at her. Oh no, not in her car. He would know the smell...oh no. She could use the keys and claw at his face, maybe hit an eye, but he was fast and he was inevitable. He was family and she deserved him.
He got a hold of her hair and kicked open the front door. Together they hop-stepped down into the dirt driveway.
And there was Val, his back to them. What was he wearing?
She opened her mouth to call to him, but another sound caught his attention and he turned and looked back at the house.
33
There was a sharp crack from the direction of the house, and Val turned to see Rich, coming out of his house, holding Kate, using her hair to control her. He whipped back to the aliens, but they were gone. Did they see?
“Val, run!” Kate cried. Her face was red and puffy, she’d been crying, and it looked like she had a bruise on her forehead. That fucker had hit her.
Before Val could charge, Rich reached down into a holster and pulled out a little silver pistol. He pointed it at Kate. Instead of speaking, he smiled. A very final smile.
Val made a stupid, empty, fish-out-of-water sound.
He could manipulate his environment. He could visualize Rich’s heart. A fist-sized hunk of throbbing muscle…and the fat veins leading to it…
“You gone stupid, boy?” Rich crowed, leering at him over Kate’s head.
Was there blood on her hairline? In her hair?
Val sucked in a great heap of air and squeezed.
Rich’s eyes bulged. Now it was his turn to gasp. He struggled to disentangle his hand from his sister’s hair, the side of his face twitching, the color leeched from his face. Once free, Kate bolted, and Rich clasped at his chest.
When Kate came to him he didn’t move, he had to keep squeezing, keep the pressure on. How long could the brain go without blood? The blood carried the oxygen, so the real question was how long could he go without air?
The strength left him in a non-tangible whoosh, and he crumpled.
Through the hum and a high-pitched whine in his ears he could hear Kate’s questions: Where were you? How did you get here? What’s wrong? Are you all right? But he couldn’t find words for them.
“Is he dead?” Val managed to ask, squeaking the words out, feeling like he’d run for ten miles.
“I don’t know.”
“See if he’s dead.”
“What if he is?”
“Good.”
Val turned away from the look she gave him. She went to the body, touched the throat. His skin had to still be warm.
“He was my brother,” she said.
Good. He was dead.
“He…wasn’t a nice guy.” Val could have said a mouthful on this topic, but Kate’s sad eyes convinced him to leave it at that.
The hum backed off in his head to background levels, and Val wiped at his nose. His hand came away with a delicate ribbon of snotty blood. Moving things with his brain didn’t feel like it was particularly good for him. A parlor trick for special occasions only.
“You used to like him,” Kate said.
Why was she getting into this?
“We need to get out of here,” Val said, struggling to stand.
Kate came back to him, offering her shoulder. Her eyes were wet with tears. Blood matted her hair near one temple, a bruise marked the other. He’d hit her. Did she have a concussion? Her pupils looked okay. Val resisted the urge to spit on his corpse.
“Go where?”
“Anywhere. We need to run.”
“There’s no evidence you killed him,” Kate said. “Did you do that?”
“I’m not worried about the cops.”
“Then who?”
Val shook his head. “This is going to sound crazy. Like my mother.” He paused, scanning the yard. “I have been abducted by aliens.”
“Is that why you can...” she let her voice trail off and she pointed at her temple.
“Yeah. They’ll be back for me. Felix is one of them.”
“Are you all right?” she asked, she reached out and touched his forehead. “And what are you wearing?”
Val looked down at the khaki pants and white cotton shirt, a v-necked thing like an orderly would wear. Both were streaked with dirt.
“These are the kind of clothes aliens give you, I guess. When you and Rich came out, did you see anyone with me?”
“Anyone with you? No. You were standing there, looking out into the desert. How did you get here?”
“They brought me. We...never mind. Let’s get some shit packed and hit the road.”
“What about my car?”
“Shit.” Val rubbed at his face. “I can’t go to the mine. I really can’t handle the thought of going there.”
“What else are we going to do? I’ve been trying to figure how to burn the car up. What if we drop the whole car down the shaft?”
Val chewed at his lip until he tasted blood. Tasted his own contaminated blood. He sucked at it while he thought. “We don’t know what’s down there. It could blow some shit up. And if we did, then everyone would know it was us.”
He glanced up and saw Kate was staring at him, her eyes locked with his.
“We can frame Rich.”
“What?”
“Get his prints on the shovel, put him in the car. I can report it stolen, and they can find it.”
“They’ll know the body’s been in there longer than the car’s been stolen. They can do tests. With the maggots and shit. I don’t even want to look in there to see what shape she’s in.”
“Can we burn it with both of them inside? A murder-suicide thing?”
They needed to decide, and they needed to decide now. The options flitted around his mind like crazed bats, if only one would settle long enough so he could get a good look at it. He rubbed at his eyes. Fuck all of this. When he was in jail, everything was simple. He didn’t have to worry about a thing. Well, about some things. But he was nice, and people generally only tried to kick his ass (or worse) once, so it was mostly only the new guys he had to worry about.
Fucking Felix.
“Let’s take it out to the woods, as deep in as we can get, douse it in gas, a lot on her in the back, so all the stained carpet burns up.”
“Then I’ll report it stolen. Spence knows we’re out of here. I told him three days ago you and I were blowing town as soon as we could.”
“It’s been that long? Are you kidding?” They had him for three days. Amazing ho
w time stretched and flexed. It didn’t feel like that long, but it also felt like it had been much longer. Three days.
“I was worried sick about you. I was starting to think about taking your truck and heading up to Santa Fe without you. Then Rich showed up.”
“Are you all right?”
She started out nodding, but it turned into shaking her head no, then she started to cry, loud braying sobs. Val touched her hair, feeling the blood in it. He wanted to ask “what did he do to you,” but he was afraid to. He didn’t want to hear it, not again. They’d been through this before.
But this time, the bastard was dead.
Val glanced back and saw the body was gone.
No. That was horror movie stuff.
“Fuck.”
Kate looked at him, hearing his tone.
“What?”
“He’s not dead.”
Her muscles went tight, all of them, all at once. She whipped her head around, flogging him with hair. He reached up and stroked it down, out of his face and mouth. Where was he?
“Rich?” Val called, leaving her. “Let’s get this done.” He turned back to Kate. “Get in the truck, let me handle this.”
She looked at him, her face blank. Then she narrowed her eyes. “Fuck you. You wait in the truck. He’s my brother.”
“Or that.”
The driveway was baked in afternoon sunlight, but it still left too many places to hide. Val shielded his eyes from the sun and scanned the brown earth. Where was the fucking Space Puma when he needed it? He could really use those claws right about now.
Rich could be anywhere. He could have circled around behind them by now. Who knows how long he’d been gone? Val turned three hundred and sixty degrees, looking for anything out of place. Crickets chirped, insects droned past his face, and a flock of swifts called from the trees. If only nature would shut up to let him listen. He remembered the quiet in his white cell and took it back.
Trinity Page 20
