The Pendants and the Mystery of the Wozniak Five Part I

by Stephanie Steele

  At first, she didn't want to check, she was scared. Carson told her to touch it. Reluctantly, she brought her hand to her forehead. He was right, there was nothing there.

  Trent put his hands out, "Okay, so if what you're saying is true, then how come our doctors didn't notice that something was up? Valie and I have gotten physicals every single year.”

  Trent looked to be standing a little taller as he proudly pointed out the flaw in Carson's mind-numbing theory.

  Carson thought for a moment, "Who are your doctors? Fontaine, right? Dr. Ambrose Fontaine?"

  And just like that, all the air went out of Trent's chest and his shoulders slumped.

  Valie almost wanted him to be wrong, just for Trent's sake, but he was right. She and Trent had both been going to the same doctor for checkups their whole lives. The doctor's office was two hours from their house, but it was always the same man. Not a very friendly doctor, but he was one of the best in his field and every checkup both Valie and Trent could tell that he genuinely cared about them as patients.

  Valie stuck out her hand and asked Carson to see the picture in his wallet again.

  He handed it to her. She inspected it carefully, bringing it close to her face, squinting her eyes to look at the man that Carson identified as his father. Valie ran her fingers across the picture. It was him. The man was their doctor, a much younger version, yes, but it was him. Valie handed it to Trent, but he waved it off.

  Maddy piped in, stating that she always got her checkups when she came to the states, too. Dr. Ambrose Fontaine.

  "There is just one problem with your theory," Trent announced, standing back up, shoulders back, chest out. "Unless you suddenly forgot how to count...you would notice that there are only four of us in this room, yep only four." Trent held up four fingers and waved them around as if to emphasize his point, "Four, not five. They were called The Wozniak Five, not The Wozniak Four! There are only four of us here!" He sat back down and slumped back, "Only four, not five," he repeated.

  Carson only shrugged, to him, it proved nothing. "Someone's just missing."

  Like clockwork, Valie started to cry. She sat back on the couch and out of the corner of her eye, she saw Maddy scoot a little further away from her. Trent sat next to her and put his arm back around her, with a displeasing scowl on his face from all of the news. He wanted to be there for his cousin, but he was trying to absorb everything that had been thrown at them.

  “Gimme a break,” Carson mumbled under his breath. It was a shot at Valie, because of her second crying outburst.

  “Hey, pardon me if I'm not handling this as well as you, okay? You've had how long to...try and make sense of all of this? We've had 15 minutes!”

  Carson set his jaw and looked Valie up and down. “Yeah, okay.”

  Valie made the decision that she wanted to talk to Trent alone. It wasn't that she didn't trust Carson or Maddy, but things were tense in the cabin and she still didn't know them very well.

  "Excuse us for a moment," Valie whimpered, grabbing Trent's hand and leading him out the door.

  "Where are you going!?" Maddy nearly shouted.

  Valie assured her they would be right back. Stepping out into the darkness, Valie regretted that choice immediately. It had gotten colder. She brought her arms tightly across her chest.

  "Valie, what are we supposed to do?" Trent sounded like he was on the verge of tears himself.

  "You studied The Wozniak Five...you and your dad believed it was true." It took everything in Valie to keep her chin from chattering as she spoke.

  "Yeah! I know that I said I believed it, but not really! I mean it's like when you're little and you say you believe in the tooth fairy. I mean, yeah, you can say it, but at the end of the day you know that it's a big fat lie! Ask me what I think of the tooth fairy now!"

  "Trent! Get a hold of yourself! Your dad believed it because he was a part of it...it has to be why Lewis was talking about it to me yesterday. He probably told Lewis hoping that he would tell me."

  "My dad never told me anything that we didn't already learn in school."

  Valie looked down; she didn't really remember what Lewis was saying, except for one thing.

  "Lewis told me that your dad gave him information for a speech he was writing and he told me that when The Wozniak Five turn 18, they'll...expire. They'll die." That last bit put a lump in her throat.

  Trent closed his eyes and put his head down. "Please, one ridiculous thing at a time, Valie. I don't believe that."

  "We should say something anyway; maybe that's why we're here."

  "No, Valie, we can't. You don't know if it's true, it can't be. There's no way my dad wouldn't tell us. That's why I can't believe it; my dad would never do that to us, he would never do THIS to us. Right?"

  Valie felt uneasy and the cold was biting at her cheeks. She wiped her tears away. She didn't think her uncle would do this to them, he cared for them, he loved them. He wasn't even going to let Valie go out of state for college; he would never allow them to be put in any kind of danger.

  "Let's just stay and wait for Phaedra to come back," Valie said, guiding her cousin back into the cabin.

  Trent resisted, “I don't think you're appreciating the enormity of this, which frightens me a little.”

  “I'm trying not to jump to any conclusions until we talk to Phaedra.”

  Trent turned his head, looking down the path; Valie knew what he was thinking. He was deciding whether or not he wanted to leave.

  Valie brought her hand to his arm, “Let's go back in.”

  He hesitated and finally nodded.

  Carson was sitting quietly in his chair, playing with his Swiss Army Knife. Maddy was sitting on the edge of the couch and looked to be rubbing something on her legs. Trent and Valie went back to the couch and waited.

  The four of them sat there with their different personalities, their different energies, each thinking about their lives and trying to figure out what they were now. What did it all mean? Was it possible? Valie was still clinging to the hope that it was somehow some big misunderstanding, she hoped, but in her heart, she knew. Sometimes there are things that you just...know.

  Sitting there waiting, Valie was specifically thinking about going to the movies with Trent the previous weekend. They had gone to see a scary movie, but had so much fun laughing together and just being teenagers. It was such a simple and almost routine thing for them to do. They went to the movies almost every single weekend. She began to wonder if they would ever be like that again. Simple, carefree. The thought caused Valie to start to miss the people they were just a few short hours ago. Would they ever be those people again?

  Chapter 7

  Vincent Palmieri was a man of many talents, none of which he used any more, with the exception of one. He was a scientist, a brilliant one at that, and he excelled in nearly everything he had done throughout his life. Now, at 43 years old, he was something of a shell of the man he once was.

  He strolled down a dark hallway made of concrete, dimly lit by low-burning torches bolted to the walls. His dark hair, brushing past his shoulders, his face defined, his eyes sunken and dark. His inner anguish surfacing, despite his efforts to conceal it, his pain was all too evident in the frown lines made permanent around his mouth and eyes. Vincent Palmieri was no longer the man he once was.

  He walked down the hall, eventually coming to a heavy wooden door. He pushed it open with great effort and entered a round room, also made of concrete and lit by the torches on the walls. There was a large red rug was in the center a room, under a long wooden table. Two men stood in the room, one of was older, nearing 50, he was short and stocky with only patches of hair on his head and a red leather jacket zipped up to his neck. His name was Brutis Rule. The younger of the two, much taller and much better looking, stood there looking furious. This was the young man his acquaintances referred to as simply “Hunter.”

  “Well?” Vincent asked in his low voice.

  “None of them,”
Brutis said, barely moving his lips. “Not one.”

  Vincent chuckled. “Perhaps we should have sent the others to capture them.”

  Hunter stepped forward, “The others are nothing compared to me, they could not have completed this job.”

  “You couldn’t complete the job either. I'm failing to see how killing five teenagers is at all difficult for men with your apparent capabilities.”

  “You don't understand!” Hunter growled turning and driving his thick fist through the cement wall behind him. Chunks fell from the force. “We almost had one, but that...woman intervened.” Brutis said.

  “What woman?” Vincent asked curiously.

  “We don't know who she was.” Brutis said.

  “Which one did you almost have?”

  “The Revels girl.”

  At the name, Vincent felt a stinging sensation in his chest, one that he quickly tried to force away. “You had Valie Revels and some unknown woman intervened...and took her? That's what you're telling me?”

  Hunter growled again, this time instead of hitting the wall he only clenched his fists. His responses were almost animalistic.

  Vincent chuckled again, “Does Magnus know?”

  They didn't answer. Vincent took that as a no.

  “And what do you think he'll do to you when he finds out?”

  Again, they said nothing.

  Vincent scoffed and began to walk away, “You, Hunter, are a disgrace to science. You are a disgrace to Magnus and Brutis, you’re pathetic.” Vincent stopped and slowly turned back to Hunter. “If they get those pendants before you...I don't think I need to explain the outcome.”

  “We haven't forgotten,” Brutis said.

  “Then do your jobs and do not bother me again.” Vincent turned to leave.

  “It is to be assumed,” Hunter said after him, “that you had nothing to do with the Revels girl getting away?”

  Vincent slowly turned back to Hunter, with unmistakable hatred in his eyes. “Never question me, boy. If not for me, you would cease to exist.”

  Chapter 8

  Valie had fallen asleep on Trent's shoulder and the slam of the door jerked her awake. For a second, she had forgotten where she was, then she remembered and the rock in her gut returned.

  Phaedra stepped in with her glamorous presence. Her hair, makeup, and outfit were still neatly put together. She did not look like she'd been kidnapping teenagers all day, but she looked tired. Her eyes had purple circles under them; Valie could see it now in the light.

  "Finally," Maddy complained as they each stood to face Phaedra.

  Carson stepped towards her, "Phae, what's going on? Why did you bring us here?" He spoke to Phaedra in a different tone than he spoke to the others. His voice was softer, kinder.

  Phaedra took a deep breath, "I'm hoping by now, you've figured out your connection," she looked at each of them, "or maybe you're not as smart as I figured you would be."

  "We're The Wozniak Five.” Carson answered.

  Phaedra confirmed it with a nod.

  "No!" Trent stepped in between them, "I don't care what proof you think you all have. I call coincidence on everything. I believe that there is a reasonable explanation behind all of this!"

  "Look," Phaedra started with her palms up, "I get that you're all probably confused and angry. I would be too, but there's nothing I can do to force you to believe me. You just have to. I don't have all the answers. As much as Ambrose trusted me, he still didn't tell me everything. There were some things that only your parents knew."

  "Okay, well let me ask you this then," Trent huffed. "If we are what you say...you know, The Wozniak Five, then why are there only four of us in this room?"

  He just couldn't let it go, it was the only thing left, in Trent's mind, that was unexplained that could indicate they weren't them.

  Phaedra blinked hard, as if it would give her a much needed jolt of energy.

  "There's one more...I've been trying to find him. I almost had him once, but he's fast. His name is Jackson Bromwell."

  The name wasn't familiar to Valie.

  "When can we go home?" Valie asked, "I think that if I can just talk to my uncle, he'll tell us everything. I need to hear it from him."

  Phaedra looked at her and hesitated, "You're not going home...”

  The words stole Valie's breath and her knees buckled.

  “...at least not yet. You have something to do first."

  Valie started crying again, muffling herself by holding her sleeve over her mouth, trying not to further annoy anyone else.

  "I'm sorry, but this is the reality of the situation, guys. You don't have time to go back home. If I didn't take each of you when I did, they would've. They almost got away with Valie."

  Trent asked her who "they" were with a worried look.

  "They…they are trying to kill you," she said flatly, like it was nothing. Like she was calling Bingo numbers. "Let’s just call them the enemy." That was all she knew, she said. She didn't know their names, why they were trying to get to them, or where they came from. She didn't know how they found Valie, but she wasn't surprised. "Ambrose, Carson's father, and I had an arrangement," Phaedra explained. "Each of your parents set out yesterday evening and if I didn't get a call by noon today, I was supposed to gather the five of you and bring you somewhere safe."

  Valie wiped the tears from her face, "Where are our parents? Where is my uncle?"

  Phaedra shook her head with a saddened expression, "I don't know. I don't know where they are. What I do know is that you have to finish what they started."

  "Which is what?" Carson asked, rubbing the back of his neck with angst.

  "I gather you all learned about The Wozniak Five in school, but something you never learned because no one ever knew, except for your parents, is that in four days, when you all turn 18, your bodies will quit on you. There's a price you pay for having the bodies that you do. Think of yourselves like a car, running on empty now, running on fumes. You need fuel or...you'll stop running."

  Trent and Valie exchanged a worried glance. Lewis had been right.

  "There is an elixir that was created for each of you when you were made and if you don't take it by your birthdays...game over. You'll die. Your bodies will literally just stop working and the only thing that will save you is that elixir."

  Valie brought one hand to her heart and the other one to Trent's shoulder.

  Phaedra started to pace slowly, "They called them the pendants.”

  When she said it, the words started to echo in Valie's ear.

  “The elixir is supposed to be inside a cylindrical piece of glass. Find them, find the pendants and use a needle. Inject the elixir into your arm. Either arm, doesn't matter, just get it inside of your body as soon as it's in your hands. Don’t wait. Your parents were forced to hide them because they had made certain enemies that wanted your existence wiped out. The only choice they had was to hide them; you could not have taken the elixir too soon before your 18th birthdays because it would've overwhelmed your systems, most likely incapacitating you in some way. So, the pendants were hidden. They couldn't risk people finding them and destroying them because there is only one for each of you. If it was ever destroyed, there's nothing you can do. The pendants cannot be duplicated. That's why they were hidden, so no one could ever find them." She put her head down, clearly exhausted.

  Then it came, the question of where they were. Phaedra didn't know. Ambrose didn't tell her. All she knew was that Ambrose said that they would "figure it out, that they had to follow the signs."

  "The only other thing that I know...is that the pendants are buried. I'm guessing in different places across the country because each of your parents got on a plane yesterday, leaving from the same airport and that must've been where they made the mistake. They wanted to retrieve the pendants and bring them back to you. I don't know what went wrong; all I do know is that Ambrose never called, so something happened. There's someone out there that they've been hiding from
. Whoever it is is probably linked to the men that tried to kidnap Valie tonight."

  Just like that, in a matter of a few hours, everything that Valie had known about her life had changed. They were going to die if they didn't find those pendants.

  Valie stood there wondering how her uncle, the man she'd loved and looked up to her whole life, could hide that from her and Trent. That night, standing in the cabin with their worlds turned upside down...finding out they were The Wozniak Five, the fact that her uncle had lied to her was the harder truth to accept.

  Phaedra didn't stay much longer. She brought them some food-- sandwiches, and little bags of chips. Carson asked her why she wasn't staying. She said she had to go after Jackson and get him somewhere safe and then she was going to try and track down their parents. Valie didn't want her to leave. She wasn't much older than they were, but Phaedra felt like a parent when they all needed someone to look up to and guide them.

  Phaedra told the four of them that she would meet them all back at the cabin on their birthdays. They had four days to find their pendants, to start and finish a desperate search. Phaedra wrote down a phone number to use, only in an absolute emergency, she stressed, and told them not to call anyone. She made each of them promise out loud that they would not try to call anyone and they would not try to go home.

  They all said it out loud, each sounding less enthusiastic than the last.

  “Don't even think about going home,” she instructed once more with some edge in her voice. Valie felt like somehow that comment was aimed towards her. Valie could sense that Phaedra wasn't up for saving anyone else's life that night.

  No one could know where they were. All they had was each other; Phaedra was going to leave them a car and $1,000 in cash. Carson had his wallet. So did Trent. They weren't supposed use any credit or debit cards, nothing that could be tracked. She told them that she brought a blazer with temporary plates so it wouldn't be easily tracked. The car had license plates that would show up registered to an alias that Ambrose, Carson's father, had set up. Along with the cash, she handed each of them a fake driver's license.