Bright Star

by Grayson Reyes-Cole

  He has never asked who is father is, and there has been no sadness about him. Quiet, yes, sadness no. He just doesn’t seem to care. But then comes Everett. He’s tall and broad and strong and quiet. He’s so quiet that Jacob can think of nothing that symbolizes strength more. He strives to be quiet. He strives to quiet his Energy. He strives to control and to blend and to avoid and to fade into the background. A tiger that slinks into the dark recesses of a cage waiting for the fool who one day opens it. He strives to be tall and strong and quiet like Everett. He strives to instill fear with the merest glance like Everett can. To be a man with no Talent other than an uncanny cruelty that intimidated and cowed everyone in its path. No one knows how Rush idolizes him. Another thing he has learned from Everett. No one should ever know what you covet, admire or love. That is as clear as a written and notarized list of the things that can hurt you. He will never admit to anyone the influence that man has over his life.

  It is more than simple irony when the grade school kids start to call him Rush. He has been so proud of his name, a gift from Everett, that it becomes his name, and “Jacob” is but a fading star. Everett’s family, his mother and aunts and sisters, all of the women who craved a boy for so long, call this one Rush as well. Rush

  And as Bright Star whispered the name, it was as if a rush of air came with it and caused goose bumps to race up Jackson’s arms.

  He had to get out of the tank. His eyes struggled to come open, but the thick hardened gel wouldn’t allow it. He tried to move his arms, but the electrodes and the chemical in his bloodstream wouldn’t allow that either.

  Jackson didn’t permit more than ten seconds of frustration before he centered his High Energy and caused the water molecules in the tank to expand so quickly that they burst it wide open, flooding the small, dark room. Jackson sat up and brushed his hands quickly over his eyes, nose, and mouth. With a wave of his hands, he was dry, clothed, and ready to go home.

  *

  “Have you seen my brother?” Rush questioned Point.

  The woman who never possessed the audacity to look him in the eye or speak to him directly shook her head.

  “Let me rephrase the question. I know what your Talents are, Point. Do you know where my brother is?”

  “I… I…” She couldn’t get any words out, but she didn’t need to. Rush could tell from a quick mental scan that she had not been able to locate his brother either, though she had tried. His face squeezed taut as he tried to untangle the puzzle. Jackson was a strong, Talented Shifter but he did not possess the skill to hide himself from Rush. Rush left her to whatever she was doing and went to seek out Monk. He wouldn’t ask Bright Star.

  “Monk,” Rush barked.

  Monk jumped in his seat then pulled off the headphones that had been perched on his head all evening. “Yes, Rush?”

  “Have you seen my brother?”

  “No,” Monk returned. Then for a moment, he thought. “You can’t locate him?”

  Rush rolled his eyes. “If I could, would I be asking you?”

  “Well,” Monk smirked, “I wouldn’t presume to—”

  “You would, and shut up,” Rush commanded, irritated. He had always had a bond to his brother. He always knew if he was well or unwell. They were always connected. For the first time in his or Jackson’s life, that connection had been broken yesterday.

  The last thing he remembered feeling was a great sense of sorrow. He usually felt this when Jackson was at work or anywhere thinking about their mother. And then, that sorrow had seemed to triple to the point where his own heart had started pounding. Then his brother was gone. Just like that. Rush didn’t know where Jackson was and he couldn’t find him.

  Jackson had been gone for four days when he appeared on the front doorstep.

  “Where the hell have you been?” Rush roared, stepping into his brother’s path.

  Jackson didn’t answer. Instead, he brushed past Rush and headed to the stairs.

  “Answer me!” Rush demanded following.

  For two clicks, Jackson didn’t answer. He paused on the steps and took two breaths. “Sense Dep,” Jackson answered and continued up the stairs.

  “That explains four hours,” Rush gritted more calm now that his brother was responding to him. He started up the stairs after Jackson. “What about the other ninety-two?”

  “I was in Sense Dep for four days.”

  “What?” Rush whispered. That was impossible. People had been documented to start eating their own flesh after being in the Service Sense Dep after six hours. It was little more than an inescapable torture chamber. “They wouldn’t have let you.”

  “They didn’t have a choice,” Jackson returned with a yawn and a shrug. He continued up toward his room. “I masked myself when I went in. I kept them out. I didn’t give a fuck so I controlled it. For four days. I barely thought I had it in me. Got the idea from those two little bastards, God rest their souls.” His voice was wry and cruel.

  “You—”

  “Learned that from Bright Star,” Jackson answered the question before it was posed.

  Parameters of Shift 101

  “Why would you have gone in there for that long? What the Hell were you thinking?” Rush questioned his brother with pinched brows. Jackson had slept for two days straight. And even in his dreams, Rush had been unable to penetrate his thoughts, though he tried. When he’d awakened, he went directly down into the kitchen and eaten everything he could find. He’d never been so hungry.

  He stood when Rush entered. Felt himself squaring off against his brother. Rush was angry. Jackson was angry.

  Jackson said nothing. Instead he gave his brother a long and lethal look. There was a hardness to the gaze that dared Rush to comment on it. It dared him to do anything. Jackson didn’t just seem ready to pounce. The Energy rolled like steam or heat waves off of his body into the room.

  Emitting.

  Undirected High Energy.

  It was transparent and only visible in that it warped the very air supporting it.

  “Jackson, you’re emitting,” Rush stated. His words were quiet and measured with little fluctuation in tone. He put his hands up in a declaration of peace.

  “Am I?” The words were clear and even. They were menacing.

  Parameters of Shift 101: To emit meant to leak concentrated levels of High Energy subconsciously. Emission was as uncontrollable as it was rare. High Energy was not meant to be built and stored. It needed an outlet. It needed to be used. If Jackson didn’t use it soon, he would get sick from it.

  “You don’t have anything to say?” Rush asked his brother quietly.

  Jackson grinned unpleasantly. His expression could only be described as insulting. He was daring Rush again.

  Rush’s eyebrows were raised. His warm face went a dark and splotchy red in the jaw. His neck seemed to darken as well. He gritted his teeth. But then, then he did something he hadn’t yet done: he looked at his brother.

  Jackson, always hearty and hale and bursting with an optimistic confidence appeared starved and feral. He looked how Violence looked at birth.

  Rush considered this, and qualified it. Jackson seemed taller. He had shed some added weight to make his already strong body lean and predatory. His hair was darker though still tipped in dirty blond. His skin had taken on a darker tan.

  His eyes were brown.

  Rush didn’t know how. But Jackson, somehow… Somehow, his brother who had only seemed to be his brother in his heart… Jackson had started to look like him.

  “You knew, didn’t you?” The voice was deeper, too. Rush had missed the gravelly bass tone before.

  “Knew what?” Rush asked.

  “Don’t play dumb, Jacob,” Jackson spat with venom as he called his brother’s given name. “You could read my mind. You can see into the future and in the past. You probably already knew this conversation was going to happen. You can take this whole scene away from me if you want to. If it doesn’t go to your satisfaction.”


  Bright Star put her head around the door and looked at them both. Her eyes seemed to widen and blaze when she looked at Jackson. Her mouth lolled open. Sensing the tension, she came in and stood just to the side and back of Rush.

  Jackson gritted his teeth.

  “I wouldn’t do that,” Rush mumbled.

  “What was that?” Jackson asked with edge.

  Rush took a step back. “I wouldn’t take your memories away from you again. I shouldn’t have done it to begin with, but I thought… I thought…”

  “Rush, I know what you thought,” Jackson interrupted. “You thought that if anyone found out about you then you would have to go through what I went through. You would be poked and prodded from birth. You would have scientists babysit you—”

  “You were a very happy little boy,” Rush countered quietly. “You were happy.”

  Jackson contradicted him outright. “I was alone in this world and you didn’t care.”

  That sounded more like the brother Rush knew. He sighed and took a step forward. “Jackson, grow up and be a little less dramatic,” Rush snapped, losing his patience. “You were never alone. I was there. But more importantly, Mom and Dad were always there for you. You were their pride and joy. It’s not as if you suffered—”

  “So is that what this is all about?” Jackson demanded, his voice rising in pitch. “It’s all about the fact that I got their attention when you didn’t. They didn’t care enough about you to share their love?” The edge was gone and the voice broke. “Is that why you hate me?”

  Rush’s eyes narrowed. This wasn’t making any sense. He tried to slip into Jackson’s mind as he always did. He was in for another shock. He could not get into Jackson’s mind! Rush couldn’t understand any of it. But there wasn’t time. He wouldn’t think about that. He challenged him gently, “I don’t hate you, Jackson. I have never hated you. It didn’t matter that Mom and Dad didn’t shower all of that attention on me. I wouldn’t have been comfortable with it. Besides, what attention they gave you was half what you gave me. You have always been my best friend. You know I don’t hate you. Tell me what’s wrong.”

  “Read… my… fucking… mind,” Jackson bit out angrily.

  One of Rush’s eyes blinked, just one. Then, he turned his face away. “Okay,” he said finally, then proceeded to try again to do as his brother asked. This time it worked. Rush wasn’t foolish enough not to know that this time he only entered his brother’s mind by invitation. His eyes widened. His mouth opened but he didn’t say anything. He took a defensive step back but found himself pressed against Bright Star. God, he’d forgotten she was there. He immediately separated himself from her again and tried to think of a way for her to avoid witnessing what was coming next. He could send her away, but that would only make her more determined to return and he didn’t know if that would be effective.

  “Parameters of Shift 101,” Jackson started without regard for their uninvited guest. “It’s one of the first things you learn. What you can and can’t do. Who you can and can’t be.”

  Rush could feel her behind him. She was stepping closer. Her ears were straining. Her whole being was compressed and tight like a box spring as she waited anxiously to find out what had caused the discord between the brothers. And what was worse: the High Energy Jackson was still emitting was beginning to reach out to her like air tentacles. The waves caressed her body and disappeared inside of her. Rush held up a hand, palm out, in front of him. The waves started to divert themselves into him.

  “Jackson,” Rush breathed. “Let’s not do this now.”

  Jackson ignored him, “Stupid of me for never questioning it. I mean, why would I trust that they knew everything there was to know about Shift if I, the Precocial, was a blaring anomaly? But, brother, we know that there are no anomalies.”

  Rush started to say something then thought better of it. Instead he ran his hands over his face, gave his brother one last glance, and left the room. Jackson hadn’t expected that, was surprised really. What didn’t surprise him, though, was that Bright Star followed this brother almost immediately out of the room. But as she tripped along behind Jackson, she stole peeps at him over her shoulder. It was almost as if she couldn’t help it. She just couldn’t seem to keep her eyes off him. If he were any other man…

  *

  Jackson walked out as well, following them. Following that pair of light cobalt beams. He stopped her in the hallway. “Bright Star,” he called.

  She turned with a curious look on her face. She had never regarded him with more interest than she did in that moment.

  “You understand leakage probably better than anyone.”

  “Don’t do this, Jackson,” Rush was nearly begging his brother.

  “Energy,” she corrected him patiently while smiling invitingly. Rush’s hand came out to circle her upper arm, but she didn’t seem to heed the warning in that gesture. She didn’t even turn away from him to look at his brother.

  “The residual affects a powerful shift has on those involved,” Jackson offered as a truce. His voice lowered again. Even to his own ears it sounded alluring. “It’s not like the excess returning to the Shifter with Perma-Shift. It’s like a mist that sinks in to all around.”

  Bright Star nodded, her succulent lips still slightly parted. Soon Jackson couldn’t see her because Rush was standing in front of her again.

  “You don’t know what you’re doing,” he pleaded with Jackson. The emotions he usually guarded were open to his brother. There were dark smudges under his eyes and dark grooves in his cheek. His chin and jaw were covered in thick stubble. He looked tired.

  “Then make me stop,” Jackson smirked, knowing that his brother was too guilty to do any such thing. Aware that Bright Star was still listening intently, he spoke loudly enough for her to hear him and hear him well, “Imagine what kind of affects that could have on a baby.”

  Even though he couldn’t see her, a faint blue was creeping up behind Rush’s shoulder. Bright Star was a smart woman. She was getting the picture.

  “Imagine if it were an unborn baby that was being saved. A baby with a parent that secretly had High Energy of her own. A baby that one day would have High Energy of his own, that gets the process jumpstarted because his big brother saves his life while he is still in the womb.”

  Jackson did not look directly at Rush. He knew the pain there would only make him immediately regret what he had just said, what he had just done. He didn’t have to avert his gaze for long. Rush vanished. He just went away.

  Bright Star’s eyes ignited. Her mouth fell open again and the word “Precocial” escaped from it. She said it again and again. “Precocial.” Her eyes widened and rinsed the room in an azure glow. Rush had known. Jackson had found out only days ago. Now she knew. She had only ever needed one Follower. Only one, and Jackson had ensured that she knew it.

  “That is beautiful,” she uttered reverently.

  Upon hearing those words, Jackson started to shake his head. “Whatever you are thinking, Bright Star, please know that this is a battle you can not possibly win.”

  She left Jackson there in the hallway, then. She had many, many things to do in preparation. Many things to do.

  I will kill you. I will find a way, and I will kill you, Rush’s voice was so clear and beautiful in her mind that she forgot momentarily her purpose. It came back to her in full force. She continued on her path.

  I have always accepted that I might die, was her unashamed response.

  Shattering

  Jackson spent the entire next week in his room. He stared incessantly at the poster of the Milky Way that Rush had given him just last year. He thought about how quickly he had become nothing.

  Jackson had lived every moment in his life up until the last two years as a special force, as the center of someone’s universe. Whether it had been his mother or the folks at the Service, he had always been treated with reverence. But what the hell did he know about reverence? He winced at the thought. He’d bee
n a fool. Their home, a veritable urban palace now, was overgrown with Rush devotees who foolishly scurried for chairs to sit in when he was around because they knew he didn’t like them kneeling. They took his brother’s clothing and separated it so that each person received a garment to wash. Rush had been near explosion when he found his favorite t-shirt folded and tucked neatly beneath Destroy’s pillow.

  And Bright Star. She had gone back to referring to Rush as “my world.” No, Jackson’s world had been some different dimension altogether. It couldn’t be possible that Jackson had known what being the center of attention was like.

  Jackson recognized his jealousy for what it was. He’d learned to do that in the sensory deprivation chamber. He’d learned to accept all things about him that were true. The facts that he absolutely loved his brother and hated him just a little were now clear. Jackson swallowed. He was thirsty.

  In the kitchen, Jackson found a beer with his name marked on it. Literally. It did little to cheer him. Monk must have left it. As if anyone would have taken the beer. He drank it in one long draught. Then he heard Bright Star. His body tightened. He pinpointed her in the house. Her breathing was slow and deep. Her chest was rising up and down, up and down, up and down. She turned over. She turned again. She drew her knees up beneath her until her hands fisted in her sheets and her bottom was in the air. She turned again, this time on her back with a forearm flung over her eyes.

  Jackson concentrated for two seconds, and he was there. He didn’t even feel the smallest twinge of Perma-Shift. Yet another thing that had changed since he’d gone into Sense Dep.

  Jackson appeared on the edge of the bed, his back to her. He felt her move, heard a rustle, then a sigh. Then, warmth stole across his back. He hazarded a glance. Her dark pink lips were parted over white teeth. He could see her red tongue nestled behind them. Her white arm lay across her eyes. Her hair scorched it in a wild fall. A sheet caressed her naked back and thighs. Her bare feet were exposed to view. Small, round toes stroked the bed, then rested. Her breathing was heavy.