Joss the Seven

by J. Philip Horne

  Mara knew I was there. How? And why was she keeping it a secret? I glanced around and saw the cameras again. Was she being watched? Could I trust her? What would she do if I tapped her shoulder? How had she seen me? What was going on?

  I’d followed her here because I thought she’d been out to get me, but none of this made any sense. She didn’t act like a bad guy. She acted more like a prisoner. Time to roll the dice.

  I maintained my blend, but drifted up until my feet were on the floor and released my ghosting. I reached out, hesitated, and tapped her shoulder with a finger. Mara didn’t acknowledge it. She kept on eating the sandwich, talking to Isabella, and writing her grocery list. Below 2 lbs ground beef she wrote, meet me in the bathroom, we need to talk.

  Mara finished her list and tore it off the notepad. She folded the paper and stuck it in her pocket, then finished eating her sandwich. The whole time she chatted with Isabella in Spanish.

  My mind churned. Nothing made sense. Nothing. I must have been wrong. Or was Mara playing me? Would it be dangerous? I was starting to get tired, but I knew I could blend and ghost a while longer, so not even a gun could hurt me.

  Mara got up and headed toward a hallway off the living room opposite the kitchen. I guessed it went toward the front of the building. No time to think. There never was. I followed her.

  Three doors stood off the hallway, two on the left side, and one at the end. All three were open. A quick glance said the rooms were a bedroom, bathroom, and then another bedroom at the end. Mara breezed past the bathroom and went in the far bedroom. Now what was she up to? I slunk forward and looked in.

  Mara stood in front of a dresser on the near wall and pulled out a set of clothes. Jeans, shirt, the rest. Then she turned and came back toward me. I wasn’t ghosting, and didn’t really want to yet. It felt safer to save what energy I had for the unknown, so I stepped back down the hall as quickly and quietly as possible.

  I got past the bathroom door just before Mara was going to run into me. She turned into the bathroom and closed the door behind her. A moment later, I heard the shower start. It all clicked. Bathroom. Fresh clothes. Shower.

  What the heck. But she’d told me to meet her in the bathroom. I ghosted through the door. Mara was barefoot in front of the shower and rolling her yoga pants up to her knees. The shower curtain was pulled back, and the shower head was aimed at the tiled wall so the tub itself was only being hit with a light mist.

  Mara stood up and and tilted her head up. Her nostrils flared, like she was trying to smell something. After a moment she looked in my direction, nodded toward the shower, and stepped in.

  Fact number one. Mara knew I was there, even though I was invisible. Fact number two. She wanted to stand in a running shower with me. Fully dressed. My life was so weird.

  I stepped into the tub. I had let go of the ghosting, and didn’t try to step lightly. My shoes made some noise as I stepped, and the tub creaked under my added weight. Mara pulled the shower curtain closed.

  “You can let go of the blend,” she whispered. “It’s safe here.”

  Chapter 18

  BEHIND THE CURTAIN

  EACH DECISION, EACH small step, had made sense. The end result, though, was insane. I stood fully clothed in a shower with Mara, the shower head blasting water into the tile wall to the side.

  I took a slow breath and released my blend. Mara’s eyes immediately locked onto mine. “How’d you know I was following you?” I asked.

  “Shhh… keep it down,” Mara said. “Look, when a teenage boy works out for four hours and then hides in a small car, I don’t need my eyes to know he’s there.”

  I kept my voice low. “I smelled bad? That’s how you knew?” I couldn’t believe it. There had to be a Seven talent to suppress funky body odors.

  Mara shrugged. “I figured you were in the car. I mean, there’s only one guy at Battlehoop who can make himself invisible, so when I smelled that lovely teen-boy aroma…”

  I shook my head. I’d put so much effort into walking silently, when what I’d really needed to do was take a shower. Which was ironic, given I was standing in a shower. “So what’s going on? Why should I trust you? And what’s with all the cameras?” Mara held up a hand to stop me, but I kept going. “And who’s Isabella? Or that big blond dude downstairs?”

  “Joss, slow down. Take a breath.”

  No way. I was just getting started. I tried to stay quiet, but I was feeling intense. “Why are you glad when I fail? And why are we standing in a running shower to talk? Who are the bad guys?” I looked away from her for a moment, but there was nowhere else to look. “Where do you stand?”

  Mara frowned and looked down at her feet. We stood there, the shower running, steam rising, for a full minute. When she looked back up, she seemed more confident, like she’d made a decision.

  “What I’m about to tell you may make a bad situation worse, but I don’t know what else to do.”

  “Okay.” What else could I say?

  “No mystery here, Joss, just brutal reality. Jordan’s a Mocker. He’s using you to make a ton of money. Just like he’s using me. It’s what Mockers do.”

  It was like the words entered my ears and just bounced around in my skull. Jordan. Mocker. Money. Using me. I took a slow breath in to the count of four, held it, and then released it to another count of four. Then did it again. The words stopped bouncing around and came to a rest.

  “If Jordan’s a Mocker, what does that make you? And why are we talking about this in a shower?”

  “I think it may be one of the only spots in the house not under surveillance. I’m pretty sure my car is bugged. My phone is tapped. I don’t have many options for a secret conversation.”

  Mara sounded sincere. And she was going to ridiculous lengths to have this conversation with me. Maybe she was telling the truth. “All right. Can you start at the beginning?”

  “The beginning? No, but I’ll give you the highlights. Two years ago, I was in my junior year of college. I was in the US on a student visa. My parents… I was told by relatives back home that they were killed in a car wreck.”

  Mara’s eyes looked heavy with moisture. I looked away. “I’m sorry,” I said. It sounded lame.

  “Before I could grieve, or get on a flight home to Mexico, Jordan found me. He had Isabella. There’s no way he could have moved that fast. He must have been involved before their deaths.”

  “You think he was involved, like, he planned the whole thing?”

  “I do,” Mara said. “He’s evil, Joss. All the Mockers are. I’ve met a few. Hard men. Deadly.”

  “So what’s he doing with Isabella?”

  “Leverage. He’s held her for the past two years to control me. He knows I could escape easily. I mean, I’m a shifter. But I can’t leave her. I’ve tried to get us out. Early on, we almost made it, or so I thought. He caught us. He beat Isabella. To make sure I didn’t try again.”

  “I don’t even know what to say,” I said. “And this whole setup? The cameras? The guys downstairs?”

  Mara nodded. “Isabella’s prison. And mine. Oh, it’s a nice prison. They don’t want us desperate to escape. That would make their job harder. Heck, the apartment next-door is like a mini-gym, and we’re given cash when we need it, but it’s a prison. We don’t go anywhere without Jordan’s thugs on point. Well, I do sometimes, but they hold Isabella closely.”

  “So what about me?”

  “I’m getting there,” Mara said. “I think Jordan targets Sevens that aren’t in the Guild. My family was all about me learning to be a Seven, but it was all based on family traditions and stories based on my birthmark. I sort of found my own way and learned, but I was hidden from the Guild. I’m not totally sure, but I think a lot of families with Sevens don’t really trust the Guild. Anyway, once Jordan got me, he had me stealing stuff. Spying. That sort of thing. It’s all about data he can sell. The Mockers have this network that provides a marketplace for illegal data. I did all right, but ever sin
ce I met Jordan, it was obvious I wasn’t what he wanted.”

  It made sense. “He wanted a Thief.”

  “Yeah, and Jordan’s good at piecing things together. He somehow figured out me, and he had me steal bits of information from the Guild. Eventually, he knew what he was looking for. The butterfly birthmark of the Sharif family. I was traveling the country for a few months, spying on your extended family, trying to find the butterfly birthmark. Jordan was still looking for other families that might have a Thief, but then I found you.”

  I slowly connected the dots in my head. My butterfly birthmark, which no one ever saw because I always kept a shirt on in public. Mara spying on my extended family. Mara discovering my butterfly birthmark. I could feel the heat of my cheeks turning red.

  “You saw me…” I couldn’t continue.

  “I saw enough to know you were the one.”

  Anger replace my embarrassment. “So you violated my privacy, then sold me out to Jordan. Then you came along and lied to me to get me to steal stuff for Jordan. What have I been stealing, Mara?”

  “Corporate secrets. That sort of thing. I don’t know what Jordan makes off one of your thefts, but it’s got to be large six figures. Probably more.”

  “And that last office?” I asked. “The one with the Seven?”

  “A local office of the Guild.”

  Holy cow. I’d been tricked into working for some mobster to steal from an ancient organization of people with superpowers.

  “This is so bad.” I shook my head. “I’m screwed. What about those two who came to my house? They were pretty scary.”

  “The Guild. Joss, the Guild is ancient. It has weight behind it. It is scary, but I don’t think it’s evil. Look, you asked me why I smiled when you failed. Why I was happy when I thought you weren’t a thief. Now you know.”

  I frowned, then nodded. “You didn’t want me to be the Thief. You didn’t want me to fail. You wanted Jordan to fail.”

  “That’s about it. I’m sorry, Joss.”

  “Save your apologies,” I said. I still felt a burning anger in my chest. “You didn’t have to sell me out. You made the choice.”

  Mara’s shoulders sagged. “Joss, Isabella is all I have. I have to protect her.”

  “So that’s it? Just sell people out to Jordan? Let him control you?”

  “It’s not like that. There are four highly-trained men downstairs. There’s four others. They work in shifts. How am I supposed to get Isabella out of here? They never let her out of their sight. We’ve lived like this for two years now.”

  I’d heard enough. I ghosted and stepped through the tub and shower curtain. Mara pulled the curtain back and tried to grab my shoulder. Her hand passed through me, and I felt a jolt. I think I would have known it had been Mara even if I hadn’t seen her reach for me. From her startled expression, I could tell she’d felt the same type of thing. It was just like she’d said it would be. Overlapping another person gave you an awareness. A sense of them. Just like that other Seven who had tried to grab me.

  “Wait,” Mara whispered. She pulled the shopping list out of her pocket and held it toward me. “Take this. The numbers. It’s my phone number. Jordan will know if you call or text, so it’s only for emergencies. And be cryptic.”

  I remembered. 3 tomatoes. 6 apples. Very clever. But I was still angry. I glared at her, but stopped ghosting long enough to swipe the folded piece of paper from her and jam it in my pocket before turning away.

  I blended and ghosted through the bathroom door. I’d gotten the answers I wanted. I almost wished I hadn’t.

  It turned out a smartphone with GPS, a map, and access to a bus route website made getting home by bus pretty easy. I picked up the first bus about a quarter mile from Mara’s apartment, or prison, or whatever it was. I ghosted and blended, stepped onto the bus, and made my way to the back. There were five empty rows in back, so I laid down in the final row, released the blend and ghost, and sat up. I had to hop another bus a few miles later, but that’s all it took. The final stop was about half a mile from Thomas’ house. I checked my phone. It was 3:13. I had time left to talk to Thomas before I needed to head home.

  The whole time I was on the buses, my mind churned. I’d been stealing for the mafia, or something like the mafia. Making money for a mobster. Being used. And the good guys didn’t seem all that nice to me. Luc had been threatening and arrogant. If that was what the Guild was like, I didn’t think I wanted to be part of it.

  But everyone wanted a piece of me. Guild. Mockers. They were all the same. I knew that probably wasn’t true, but it felt true at that moment. I was glad I’d been wrong about Mara, but in reality, I’d only been a little wrong. She’d been using me, too, or at least helping Jordan use me.

  I walked slowly to Thomas’ house, giving myself time to chew on the facts. I had thought it all came back to Mara, but I’d been wrong. Jordan was at the middle, and there were people involved that I didn’t even know. Isabella, for one. Talk about a bum deal. She’d been a prisoner for two years just because her sister had superpowers.

  What were my options? I could try to get in touch with Luc, but I didn’t like the guy, and he probably wasn’t too happy with his rearranged nose. I could go back to Mars Street and see if that other Thief was there. Now that I knew he was with the Guild, what he’d said to me made a lot more sense. Maybe he wanted to actually help me, and not just use me like everyone else.

  No, it was too risky. The last time I had seen him, he’d been laying on the floor unconscious. I doubted he was very happy with me. Besides, for all I knew, Luc kept an office in that building. That left my friends and my family. But how could I endanger them?

  I arrived at Thomas’ house and rang the doorbell. The door swung open and Thomas waved me in. “Well? What happened?”

  I stepped in and looked around, then closed the door and bolted it. “Your mom home?”

  “No, she’s at some big meeting and then going to some corporate dinner. What happened?”

  “Can I make a sandwich and eat while we talk? I’m starved. Never ate lunch.”

  “Yeah, yeah,” Thomas said and led me toward the kitchen, “but start talking.”

  I told him everything, except the part about Janey finding my mask and threatening to tell my parents everything tonight. That was Morgan business, and I figured I needed to deal with it on my own. Thomas’ face made about twelve different expressions as I talked, from shock to anger to sadness. And I ate a ham and cheese sandwich. I’m not sure which did it, but I felt better when I was done talking and eating.

  “I can’t figure out what to do. I mean, every option has risks, and I can’t tell who I should even be trying to help.”

  “What about Isabella?” Thomas asked.

  “What about her?”

  “Parents murdered? Held prisoner?”

  “Yeah, she needs help,” I said. “Even if I’m still pissed at Mara, that’s not on Isabella. I get it. It’s just a big mess. I can’t figure out how to untangle it.”

  Thomas frowned in concentration. “Just pretend it’s like the biggest prank you’ve ever pulled.”

  I sat up. A prank. Yeah, I could prank Jordan so hard he’d never showed his face again.

  “We need to get Isabella clear,” I said. “Get her away with Mara. Then we need Jordan on the run, or pinned down, or something.”

  “Okay,” Thomas said. “How? You’ve got some freaky talents, but Jordan’s scary. And you said he’s got a bunch of toughs working for him. How do we go up against them?”

  I sat back and thought about it. An idea popped into my head. “We need to bring in more firepower.”

  Thomas raised an eyebrow. “Meaning?”

  I leaned in toward him. “Here’s what we do.”

  Thomas and I schemed for the next hour. My idea was gradually hammered out into workable plan. There were too many unknowns, but it seemed like it might work.

  “So tomorrow morning,” I said, “you send the text,
right?”

  Thomas scowled. “Sure, I send the text, and then I sit on the sidelines while you kick butt.”

  “No, you send the text and then cover for me at Battlehoop.”

  “I get it. You’re the superhero. I’m not even the sidekick. More like the butler.”

  I shook my head. “It’s nothing like that, Thomas. You’re a friend. It’s what I need.”

  Chapter 19

  THE MORGANS

  THOMAS HAD MY bike waiting for me in his garage. The ride home was easy, except for the part where I thought I was going to throw up from the stress. We’d come up with a good plan. A simple plan. But it had steps in it like deal with bad guys that left me terrified.

  When I got home, Janey and Mom were watching some show about remodeling a house. What was next? A show about plants growing? I chatted with Mom for a minute but broke off when I noticed Janey giving me a hard look. The last thing I needed was for Janey to start talking about Luc and the Seven. The next twenty-four hours were going to be complex. I needed her to keep her mouth shut.

  I avoided eye contact with Janey and headed upstairs to grab a shower. Afterwards, I headed back downstairs to talk to her. I had to get her to keep quiet about the mask for one more night. She was still in the family room, reading a novel. Mom had moved on to the kitchen.

  “Can we talk?” I asked, sitting on the couch beside her.

  Janey ignored me and kept reading. I had thought about this while upstairs. The only thing I’d come up with was to let her in on some of my secrets. Not all of them, but enough to hold her interest.

  I glanced around. Mom was still banging around in the kitchen. “I’ll tell you about the mask.”

  The book snapped shut, and Janey looked at me through narrowed eyes. “I’m listening.”

  “Here’s what I’m thinking,” I said. “I think Dad plans to talk to us tonight, okay? You keep quiet for one more day about those two guys and the mask, and I’ll fill you in after he’s talked to us.”