by Laura Winter
Of course she has to be engaged. Caden thought as the RA continued on.
I looked up to see him watching me. Great, he still had a thing for me and this was not helping. I let go of him and held my wrist to my body as I followed him to his room. I was surprised the lights were on in Caden’s room as he opened the door. His roommate was watching a movie on his computer and looked up at us.
“Nice,” he smirked. “I’ll finish this downstairs.” He tried to give Caden a fist bump as he left but I growled, making him nervous as he hurried out the door.
Caden pulled out a stack of notebooks and set them on the bed. “Here’s everything I have.” He watched me take them, uneasy about having them in someone else’s hands.
“It’s okay, I’ll give them back. I just want to see what he was working on. We’ve been doing our own research to figure out how to find my uncle. He isn’t hiding where we’ve seen him before.”
I sat down on the bed and struggled to flip through the notes on top. My only working arm was not the most dominant.
“If you want to find someone, try this notebook,” Caden said, pulling out a book underneath the stack. I traded books with him, carefully opening the binding so I didn’t tear any of the pages.
I let out a breath. Caden’s grandpa was brilliant. For not knowing anything about The Complex or power sources, he actually had a lot of things figured out. Energy signatures, people with powers… he believed in all of it, even though he could never find proof. No wonder Caden was so upset. He was sitting next to all the proof his grandpa would have needed. Me.
I turned the page and froze.
“What?” Caden asked, looking over my shoulder. “Was he on to something?”
My smile was growing. “Caden, the man was a genius. I’ve been trying to figure out how to create a beacon to find power sources, but this is on another level.” I stood up and shoved the notebook into his hands. “I thought this whole time I would have to create an object to detect energy signatures.”
“I have no idea what that means,” Caden said, shaking his head.
I didn’t respond right away as I paced around the room. This was how the doctor at The Complex was planning to track the Cold Soul. They had a beacon, but so did we.
“The beacon isn’t an object. Your grandpa’s research was focused on people. The energy signatures are found in people, and the objects just bring them out. Jackson wasn’t tracking that yellow stone when he found us, he was tracking Luci’s signature. It was changing because other signatures, mine, Nate’s, and Glitch’s, were around her. The beacon isn’t an object, it’s a person.”
We could find Jackson. We could stop him.
Caden looked at me like I was speaking another language.
I just smiled. “Caden, the beacon is Madeline.”
56
Nate
I felt something cold press above my eye and groaned. Where was I? I tried to orient myself but wasn’t ready to open my eyes just yet. The last thing I could remember…
“Big monkey!” I shouted as I sat up to a spinning room. Oh, bad idea.
“Easy,” Finnley said, wrapping her arms around me as she lowered me to the bed. It’s okay, you’re safe. We’re all fine.
“Okay, what the hell does big monkey mean?”
I knew that voice. Wait, that was Caden’s voice. What the hell was Caden doing here? I tried to make a noise but nothing came out.
“It’s what I called that guy when I was high out of my mind in the crazy house,” Finnley replied, placing the cloth back over my eye. Why was she telling Caden about all of this? What happened? I felt Finnley lean in closer. “I’m telling him because he saw us rescue you from big monkey. It’s okay, he helped us. We can find Jackson.”
“What?” Caden asked, clearly confused why Finnley had answered the silence.
“Dude, what part of mind reading do you not understand?” Glitch groaned. I didn’t need to see the room to know he had rolled his eyes. “Plus they have this unfair telepathic advantage over us because of the Blue Soul.”
“My head hurts,” I groaned, still refusing to open my eyes. “What happened?”
“Yeah, sorry about your head. That’s kinda my fault,” Finnley said, lifting the cloth to brush her hand across my face. “I ran at big monkey and he dropped you. It wasn’t pretty.”
“I swear, if he hurt you…” I sucked in a breath. I wasn’t in any shape to get angry or I’d puke.
“I’m fine,” she replied, unconvincingly.
“He broke every bone in your left hand,” Luci said, calling Finnley’s bluff.
“I’ll heal,” Finnley snapped back.
“He broke my ribs, but it’s fine,” Glitch grunted.
I heard Caden groan from the other side of the room. “How are you all so calm about this?”
“We’ve seen some shit,” Finnley said, pressing the cloth back onto my head. Just rest. Our parents will be here tomorrow.
You said you could find Jackson. How? I could feel myself slipping back into blackness, but I wanted answers.
“Not now. We can talk about it tomorrow,” Finnley whispered as everything faded out.
* * *
I twitched and Finnley shifted in my arms. Shit, I had passed out. But my head didn’t hurt as bad as I focused on the buzzing feeling with Finnley wrapped around my side. I opened my eyes slowly, hoping I wouldn’t be dizzy. Nothing bad, but I was pretty sure the weak light hurting my eyes meant I had a concussion. Glitch and Luci were asleep on her bed and Caden was using their comforter as a pillow on the ground. Great, somehow the guy who had the hots for my fiancée was going to be around more. I don’t even know how he got involved in the first place.
My eyes focused on Finnley now, her left arm draped over my chest. Her wrist was black and blue already and her fingers were swollen. Shit, big monkey really had broken every bone. That meant he had drugged me. How was he so damn strong?
He has powers. Finnley pushed her head into my shoulder.
He broke your wrist. I’m gonna kill him when I’m able to stand again. I took a breath. My head hurt too much to keep up with this.
“My mom should be here soon. She’ll heal you,” Finnley whispered and sat up, moving her arm gingerly. I tried to sit up, but she held me down with her right arm. “Don’t. Just wait for a bit.”
“It’s a concussion; you’ve had one before,” I said, frowning.
She smiled and leaned down to kiss me. “Yeah, and I regret all the moving around we did together that next day.”
“So, how did we get away? You said you could find Jackson. And why is Caden here again?” Apparently I missed a lot while I was passed out.
“Let’s see. Teamwork makes the dream work, Caden followed me when we tried to find you and saw everything, and yes, I know how to find Jackson. At least I think I do,” she said, biting her lip as she watched me sit up.
“You knew I went missing?” I asked, reaching out to hold her wrist.
She winced. “Madeline called to warn me. But I think we can use Madeline to find Jackson. Caden’s grandpa was on to something,” she said, brushing her fingers over the cut on my head.
“Wait, Caden knew about powers before this?”
“Not exactly,” he said, sitting up on the floor. “My grandpa, as Finnley so eloquently put it earlier, ‘saw some shit’. We thought he was crazy because he talked about seeing someone touch a… what did you call it?”
“A power source,” Finnley replied, moving her right hand to hold mine. “His grandpa basically did all the research without knowing about The Complex and powers and stuff.”
“And how does this help us find Jackson?” I asked.
“His grandpa had a different perspective. He thought that it was people who tracked energy signatures, not objects. It’s not about the tracking, so to speak, but it’s about seeing the signatures. And guess who sees energy signatures?”
I groaned. “I don’t know. Don’t make me think with this conc
ussion, just give me the answer.”
“Madeline,” Finnley replied, excited. “She sees people’s energy in the form of past, present, and future. That’s how they were going to track the Cold Souls from The Complex. They had Jeanie, even though she was getting confused because the Cold Souls were us.”
“So Jackson has someone who can kind of ‘see’ energy signatures like Jeanie and Madeline?”
She shrugged. “That’s my best guess.”
“But Madeline can’t get her head on straight. How are we supposed to drag a five-year-old into this mess when she can’t focus her power? That’s a lot to handle.”
“Jeez, you haven’t gotten to the best part yet?” Glitch struggled to sit up on the other bed as Luci helped him.
“Nate, I have another theory,” Finnley said, scrunching her nose in thought.
“Another?” I asked. If I could have rolled my eyes, I would have.
“Our powers complement each other as the Blue Star, right? Well, your black hole can take powers away. My theory, or my hope, is that I’m more than just an exploding supernova.” She took a breath. “Nate, I think I can give power, or at least energy. The Blue Soul only transferred in response to people with my power, and that’s why you have it too. Madeline says she sees better when she’s around me, and I think this is why. If I can focus her energy, she can locate Jackson.”
“No wonder she always acts better around you,” I said. “That’s partly what Jackson was talking about when he said you didn’t know what you were capable of. I pull energy, but you can direct the blow. Holy shit, you’re a genius.”
“What happened to teamwork makes the dream work?” Glitch laughed, regretting it immediately as he groaned dramatically.
Luci rolled her eyes. “I can’t wait until your mom gets here to heal him, Finnley. How did you ever put up with his shit?”
“Okay, seriously. You guys are handling these situations way too well,” Caden said, shaking his head.
Finnley shrugged. “Hey, just because we got kidnapped and locked in a mental institution against our will doesn’t mean we didn’t belong there in the first place.”
57
Finnley
We were all crammed into the hotel room as we explained everything that happened. Madeline had done her best to calm our parents down on the way up, but as soon as they saw what we looked like, it spiraled out of control. I made sure my mom started by healing Nate and Glitch first. By the time she got to me, she was pretty tired. I didn’t have the heart to tell her that my wrist was still really sore.
Madeline hung on Nate’s neck while his parents were on either side of them on the couch. Glitch, Luci, and Caden were on the bed with me while my mom sat down on hers to rest.
Angie’s voice was distant as she stared at me. “Trouble seems to follow you wherever you go.”
“That’s why we have to bring the fight to them this time. We can’t just keep waiting around and reacting. It happened with Richard, it happened with the Cold Souls, we underestimated Jackson the first time…” I trailed off, pulling my knees into my chest.
Tom frowned. “And you think Madeline can help you find him?”
“Finnley can help me make sense of my head,” Madeline said, turning around to sit in Nate’s lap. “She’s like Jackson, but only because she can look in people’s heads.”
“What does that mean?” Nate asked, looking down at her.
She shrugged. “Jackson went in our heads to find our memories. Finnley can do that too. But my head is full of future things, which is how she can find him in there.” She jumped off Nate and ran up onto the bed with me.
“Mads, I don’t know how to do that. Even if I could, wouldn’t it hurt? Nate and I were in a lot of pain when he was digging around in our heads.”
“Jackson was mean. You’re not. Besides, you’ve done it before,” she said, squeezing my hand.
“I’ve done it before?” I asked.
Madeline nodded, smiling. “You do it sometimes when you read minds. You see the pictures. This time, you just have to hold on to them and dig deeper.”
So that’s what was happening when I saw people’s memories. Especially when emotions were strong, I could picture it more than just hear it. “You promise you’ll tell me if I start hurting you?” I asked, tucking some hair behind her ear.
“It won’t hurt me. I know it doesn’t,” Madeline replied, her eyes locking on mine. You’ll see stuff that will hurt you, but I’ll hold your hand. I promise.
I frowned. What stuff was I going to see about her that would hurt? How she was taken away? What they did to her in the psych ward?
Tom interrupted. “I’m not really thrilled about the idea of you all running off to take on Jackson.” Angie nodded in agreement.
Nate looked between his parents. “We have to. We can finally end this.”
“Yeah,” Glitch said. “And then we’ll make sure Finnley doesn’t have any more relatives on her dad’s side of the family.” Luci smacked him on the arm.
Nate looked over at me. “We need to get the Cold Soul back before Jackson does something stupid and releases it. We have to try this.”
* * *
Madeline and I sat on the floor facing each other as I took her hands in mine. I felt uncomfortable with everyone watching, but Madeline squeezed my hands and helped me relax. “It’s okay. Just keep focused on my head and the rest will come,” she said, smiling as she closed her eyes.
I took a breath as I focused on blocking everyone’s thoughts and opening up to Madeline’s. Her mind was racing, and I tried to catch just one thought to hold on to.
Find one and grab it. Focus on every detail of the thought and let it grow in your head.
I followed Madeline’s voice and latched on to the first thing that was clear enough to hold.
We were in the common room of the psych ward. My vision kept bouncing, like I was skipping around, but something wasn’t right. I was seeing things from a different angle, and looking up at everything. Then I saw myself, well, Finnley, crouched behind the couch as Nate walked in, arguing with the nurse.
I was watching things from Madeline’s perspective. Her thought crossed loud through my head.
‘Finnley’s not gonna talk to him and he won’t notice her. They have to know each other. I have to do something.’
I sprinted up and slid in front of myself, er, Finnley, crashing into the couch so Nate would turn and see purple hair.
The pictures were rushing by and I worked hard to pick one and dive in.
I woke up with arms wrapped tight around my side. I wasn’t in my own bed, but it was familiar. Slowly, I slid out of the arms and looked down. Aidan stirred slightly, but stayed sleeping. I felt my heart start to race.
“Finnley, you’re stuck in your own head. You have to come back to mine,” Madeline called to me, but I couldn’t look away.
It was that first night with Aidan, when I woke up not remembering what had happened. I was sick to my stomach, and the last several hours had been a blur. Then I was in my room, waiting to make sure I wasn’t actually pregnant. Relief washed over me as I hid the evidence. If I couldn’t remember staying with him, and couldn’t be sure what we had done together, he must have been using his powers on me. I wasn’t safe anymore.
“Finnley, come back,” Madeline’s voice echoed. The distraction was enough to pull me away.
I was sitting in front of myself back in the common room of the psych ward, so I must have been Madeline again. I watched Finnley rock back and forth slowly, staring out into the distance. I was so out of it, I couldn’t even see Madeline sitting directly in front of me.
“It’s okay, Finnley,” Madeline said. “I’ll protect you until Nate gets here. You don’t need the voices because he will find you. He always does.”
Big monkey walked over with Jackson as Madeline hid behind the TV. They leaned in front of me, Finnley, and tried several times to get my attention. Even a slap across my cheek couldn’t pull
me out of the trance.
“Such a waste. Who knew that the smarter version of herself was actually insane? The Cold Soul did a number on her,” Jackson said, standing up to look at Madeline behind the TV. “What a shame. Your friend here has already lost her mind, and we barely touched her. Enjoy this empty shell of a person while you can. She won’t last much longer.”
