Balancer's Soul

by Jr H. Lee Morgan

  He still stared outside and answered the question without emotion.

  “Ok, Mr. Connor. How do you tell time?” “Please, I hope someone in here tells it like I do.”

  He replied. “You’ll laugh like everyone else.” He took a deep breath to steady himself. “I use nature as my time keeper!” And everyone in the class actually laughed at his honest answer.

  Sarah sighed after finally finding the rare dying treasure, a person who can tell time without modern conveniences. And he abruptly looked away from the window and started scanning the room. “Wow he heard me sigh during everyone’s vigorous laughter, he has good hearing. And the way he is scanning everything, he has the eyes of a hunter searching for his prey. Let’s test that theory.”

  Sarah moved forward, barley a half step and finally saw the color of his eyes through his hair. Hazel eyes zeroed in on her instantly and her heart jumped in fright. “Yes, he defiantly has the eyes of a predator, but there is something else too… What is it?” She continued smiling and asked politely while feeling like something highly dangerous sat in the class. “Can you give some examples?” Everyone in the room became eerily silent.

  “What’s so shocking? Does anyone like this kid? Is he an outcast or something?” She looked at his table partner Mark. “He seems to be the only one encouraging Connor.” That’s when their eyes fully connected and she felt a massive sensation flow through her body. “Whoa, who is this kid? He is not like your typical student in this day and age. Also what in the world was that feeling?”

  He looked away again and that allowed her to take another breath. “Thank goodness, I couldn’t move while his raptor like eyes were zeroed on me like some helpless prey. Yes, he defiantly has the eyes of a hunter. Now that I look closer, he looks slightly older than these other kids.” Could he have been held back? Connor finally answered in his strong masculine voice. “The sun and the moon reveal day and night…” he then continued his moderately length explanation with perfect clarity that it gave her chills. “Ok one thing is for sure, he’s been raised well. At least he tells time like the people of old did, like I still do. I have found someone who thinks like me. It’s rare to find anyone like this anymore, especially at his age.” Then he truly surprised her by adding the last two sentences.

  It felt as if lightning struck her whole being.

  “Who in the world is this kid? He spoke of balance like he knows of what I am. Connor might be too dangerous to my family. I have to know for sure. This will not be pleasant, but I need to know who he is or if he knows about me.” For the first time in many months, she used her limited powers. Sarah dove deep into her mind to concentrate and then pushed out with her special innate sense with all the will she could muster and without being obvious to what she was doing. Then just before Sarah’s power reached Connor’s mind it felt like colliding into a brick wall at a full run. “Why can I not read his mind?” Then a thought came. “Maybe I’m not at my best and my powers aren’t working properly again.” The whole time she was conversing with herself, Connor barely stared like he felt something.

  Trying to change the mood and flow of the class Sarah broke contact with Connor and walk up to the chalkboard. Writing on the chalk board she said to the entire class, masking her worry quite well “Everyone please read chapter nine, section six and answer question seven. Then turn your answers in at the end of class.” Finishing writing she thought. “Ok, now I need to get Connor out of my head and think of a solution to this problem… Oh man here it comes.” Just as she started to sit down, the migraine hit with the power of an air horn on a hangover, inside her head. Pain throbbed behind her eyes and the back of her neck knotted to make the consequences known. It was truly painful, but not a surprise anymore. “This is the always the cost of using my power without being balanced with a mate.” Sarah always chastised herself after using her abilities.

  Sarah noticed Connor caught her unconsciously glancing at him so she looked away and closed her eyes until the migraine went away just a little bit.

  The bell rang suddenly like only a handful of minutes passed, but her mind remained elsewhere. As everyone left they put the papers on her desk. Her last thought was “I’d better tell Father and see what his opinion is about this kid I couldn’t get a read on.”

  As Sarah hesitantly pulled into the driveway of the new house for the second time, she looked up and knew only a few hours remained of daylight. The new residence will be called home for the next five years or so. Sarah and her family choose wooded areas mainly for her because not only is it quieter, but no one can really see them if they do anything out of the ordinary. Turning off the ignition, she stepped out of the car and walked inside, through the garage. She sat the keys down on the counter and took off her shoes.

  The migraine still throbbed, but not as severely.

  On her way inside, she found her father as he sat in the living room. The two of them moved here to get things setup before her mother eventually arrived. That’s the worst problem, she isn’t here. When Jillian gets too far away from Jack he becomes imbalanced, so he drinks heavily to alleviate his sorrow and pain. Drowning in liquor wasn’t the best substitute, but not much else is. They have been together for over seven hundred years. Also when he is really mad or upset, he can become hostile to everyone around him. As Jack saw her enter the living room he slurred “Meet anyone more plain or annoying than you, Girl?”

  She replied timidly to keep him from jumping into a blind, drunken rage. “Yes, Father, some new faculty seem pleasant enough and a few surprising students.” It was best to leave him alone when he’s like this.

  “Surprising to you is Muck to me!” He said in an angry manner, not his usual relaxed state, and is always frightening to witness.

  Sarah looked over to the table in front of him and saw that he had downed an entire bottle of whiskey since she left to teach this morning or was that his second? “Well he’s drunk, I had better not tell him about what I felt from Connor…” She then looked at her father and apparently he was using his powers to read her mind. Too late! He exited the chair with inhuman speed and stood right before her and the burst of movement forced Sarah to take an involuntary step back. He grabbed her shoulder as the empty bottle shattered on the ground and yelled while staring her eye to eye. “Who the hell is Connor!? And why couldn’t you read him?” Struggling, she somehow broke free of his grasp. He followed as she tried opening the door to put as much distance between them as possible. He seemed to have gone mad. Once she finally managed to open the door she tried running, only to fail. “Who or what is Connor!? If he is a threat us, you know I will have kill him.”

  Stumbling out the front door, Jack watched as she fell. Sarah tried, but wasn’t able to get back up from under his murderous glare. All she could say in a calm voice was “He is just a child. I simply could not read his mind. All I know is he is not a threat to us…” Just then Sarah faintly heard an odd sound coming from up the road… squeaky wheels? It was an odd sound. Her father suddenly helped her up, angrily as he heard the same thing and knew well enough to not cause a scene. Even drunk, he knew they couldn’t reveal their true selves to outsiders.

  “It must be that Big Mule pulling a little girl in a wagon again.” He said, answering her quizzical thoughts. Then Sarah caught sight of the Mule, as her father put it, and instantly recognized who ran. Her eyes went frightfully wide, almost flying out of their sockets.

  Connor was running at an unbelievable pace while pulling a wagon with a little girl and not make any sound while running. Sarah guessed it was his sister. It was an odd sight that one doesn’t see these days with automobiles readily available everywhere. What was even odder was that Connor was breathing normally while running at a rigorous pace. He has amazing stamina for a boy his size. Connor slowed his stride when he caught sight of Sarah and her heart sped in response.

  He had a worried look cross his facial features.

  Two choices were the only ones available to Sarah. Either i
ntroduce her drunken father and hope he doesn’t put the pieces together, and who is currently in the mood for blood, or run away into the woods. She took off running towards the woods with her father demanding “Girl, get back here!”

  Connor stopped completely as Sarah turned around to look at him before she ran into the woods. His expression became even more worried than before. She smiled at him, knowing he couldn’t possibly see her do so from the distance they stood apart, but in her head she said “I’m more worried for you than you should be about me. I can’t bring you to harm. You’re innocent.” She broke through the tree line of her property and disappeared, leaving as little of a trail as possible. None could follow from her skills.

  After a few hours of running she had come to realize that not only was it getting very dark, but she didn’t know where she had come to find herself. Worse yet the stars were being blocked by clouds. “Great now I’m lost! I’m going to be in for a very long night.” Sarah collected some dry twigs and sticks that were scattered along the ground and put them together, and had no choice but to use her power yet again. Summoning up what energy she could spare, she created a very tiny flame inside the tender bundle. Luckily the collection of dead plants took the flame and she made a small fire to keep her company, keep warm and keep unwanted creatures at bay. Sarah worried about spending the night alone in a foreign forest, but at least Connor wasn’t harmed by her drunken father.

  ***

  The middle aged man with silver haired yelled “Girl, get back here!”

  Connor caught the sight of Sarah running away, almost as if her life depended on it. She stopped by the trees and then turned around to look at him, and at no one else, to smile, but it was her that eyes said ‘I’m trying to protect you, Connor.’ She turned away and burst through the tree line of her property.

  The silver haired man turned sharply and went back inside his house and he staggered in. “Drunk? Great she has a drunkard she has to live with.”

  Kara grabbed Connor’s attention “What was that about?”

  “I’m not sure, but I don’t like it. I’d better get you inside, Sis.” He answered her while feeling unsure and worried for his teacher.

  “I trust your instincts, Brother.” She said in the same tense manner, while looking worried herself. Kara got up and out of the wagon and went inside. Connor quickly put the wagon in the garage, and sat down on the front step, waiting for Sarah to come back. Looking up to the sky, he noticed how the clouds were moving and building. “If Sarah doesn’t come home in three hours I’m going to track her down to see that she is alright.” Looking up again he said to himself. “If she doesn’t, it’s going to rain in about six hours.” It was time to be patient and wait. Not something many were good at, but he excelled.

  Three and a half hours went by and it began getting very dark and the clouds were building just as predicted. Connor hadn’t moved from the front step since he saw Sarah flee into the woods. The front door slowly opened up behind him. Light flooded from the living room all around where he sat on the porch step, looking like a large black rock with sandy blonde hair. Kara stepped around and into his line of sight to say “Brother? You’re worried about her huh?”

  Replying to her question felt easy. “Yes, Kara, I am very worried.”

  Kara kicked his shin gently saying “Go track her down then! You’re the best there is and she is probably lost if she hasn’t come back by now. This isn’t the city, Brother, there are animals out here capable of making a snack out of someone like her. I’ll be fine.” His sister wanted him to go.

  Before he took off after Sarah, Connor called Mark’s apartment quickly, knowing it was his night off. “Hey Bud, I have to go do something. Will you come over to my house and keep an eye on Kara for me while I’m gone? Our neighbor drinks and it wouldn’t be good for my sister to be home alone.” And Mark seriously replied “Sure, no problem. Just inform me on what’s going on later, ok?” Connor said that it is more than fair.

  He hung up the phone and Kara felt thankful for calling Mark over. She didn’t think of the neighbor while he ran into the woods alone. Connor then put on the outdoor hiking boots again, knowing the terrain isn’t the best and can be treacherous at the best of times, especially at night made everything worse. He still wore his black long sleeves and black pants and there wasn’t time to change into a new pair of clothes.

  Walking into the garage, Connor grabbed Kara’s poncho from her bag and stuffed it into his pocket. He also walked over to his work bench and grabbed Tool. It is an outdoorsman’s necessity. It is a tool that has a hammer on one side and a sharp hatchet on the other. It is made of solid metal as is its shaft. Sliding the shaft of Tool into his pants belt loop, he thought. “I hope that I don’t need this, but just in case I’d better keep it close. Thank goodness I sharpened it last night and…” Connor looked into the bleak and cloudy sky becoming more engorged once again and thought “I need to get going before it’s too late and her tracks wash away.”

  Finally he was off. Connor raced silently across his own yard, crossed the road and ran to the exact spot where he last saw Sarah in just a few moments. When he found where the leaves of a tree had broken from someone violently pushing through, he took off following her footprints as quickly as he could without losing her trail.

  He stopped.

  Suddenly he realized a few things after only a few yards. With a quick glance over his shoulder he realized that none could have witnesses how her trail she left behind altered so dramatically. Her strides became too far apart for her legs to be running normally, especially for a girl her size. She was also barely leaving a trail unlike your average person. Then he noticed a seriously big problem. She ran off barefooted, “Not Good!” he said to himself and quickened his pace instead of admiring her running technique.

  He started sprinting beside her unique tracks and thought “Nope, she is defiantly no amateur. No wonder why I had a suspicion about how she walked earlier in class.” He smiled to himself, ready to take on her challenge.

  Sarah didn’t stick to game trails like average people; she cut through brush that would make weaker people cringe, and without barely disturbing the foliage. She ran on top of rocks and tree roots instead of dirt and grass, limiting her impact while trying to hide her trail from any who would follow. Connor knew it was her because the rocks were pressed down into the dirt by something approximately Sarah’s weight, making the soil rise slightly up the sides of the small objects that were traversed upon. She avoided tree branches that would snap and reveal her presence. She clearly was an expert on avoiding being found, that is for certain.

  Connor stopped suddenly when he found a perfect casting of her right footprint in the dirt after several miles of searching. It was pressed deep and most of the pressure of her foot had been placed over the ball instead of the heel. Her footprint announced that she had jumped, and powerfully at that. Looking forward, he noticed a thicket of dense ferns and saw that not one stem or leaf had been recently disturbed in weeks. Nearby tree limbs also remained mostly undisturbed, but some smaller twigs were snapped, all pointing in the same direction. She proved to be very good at avoiding a normal tracker, but normal wasn’t applied to Connor. He followed the trajectory that her foot pointed for her jump. He found where she landed on both feet. She had jumped well over fifteen feet, heavily, and easily cleared the thicket without much of trace. Those broken twigs also told that she had jumped that high as well.

  Darkness grew until becoming pitch black because the fat clouds were still building and the clouds began hiding the full moon, plunging the night even darker. “Little does Sara know I can track during a new moon as well as well as I can during the daylight hours.” Connor’s eyesight and hearing had always been sharp and acute and his mom always said his genes were the best.

  He began running again, following her the faint trail of footprints the rest of the way as safely in the darkness as he dared. Rushing would only serve to harm the rescue and she didn
’t allow herself to be found, even after that impressive jump.

  After thirty more minutes of solid running and tracking, he felt that same comforting sensation on the back of his neck again. Connor’s instinct told him Sarah was nearby.

  A faint orange glow in the trees broke the curtain of darkness just a few moments later, confirming his instinct right once again. He knew that she had a fire going. “Thank goodness you’re ok Sarah.” He finally stepped closer to the fire and to Sarah, very quietly so as to be absolutely certain.

  Fire and Water

  “I can’t believe I’ve gotten myself lost before scouting out the landscape.” Sarah silently rebuked herself while staring into the small crackling fire. “Well at least Conner’s safe from Father for now… It’s so dark now that no one will ever be able to find me out here and I still can’t see the stars to know which direction to go. Have the clouds thickened?” She sighed and grumbled in personal embarrassment once again. Sarah sat cross-legged in front of the small fire while letting its warmth to not only keep her company but to also knock off the chill the wind constantly carried her way. “I still love the sounds of a good fire on a cold, spring night. What I can’t believe is how exposed I am wearing only a thin t-shirt, shorts and no shoes…ugh. How stupid am I?”

  Just then Sarah felt, rather than saw, that someone watched her. It felt like the eyes watching were too intelligent to be from an animal. Spinning around quickly to see what looked upon her, she gasped, nearly jumping backwards, into the fire. Not twenty feet away stood a tall and dark figure coming toward her from the shadows. Her heart began to race with fear from the silent threat the figure casted. What made matters worse is that she didn’t hear the person’s approach.