The Pendants and the Mystery of the Wozniak Five Part I

by Stephanie Steele

  She lay down for a while and thought about everything that had happened. She allowed herself to feel relief knowing that she was going to live, but almost immediately she felt a surge of regret and guilt for having that feeling, knowing the only reason she was going to survive was because Trent was going to die.

  Carson had slept for a little while, but Valie was sure that most of the night as he laid on the ground, that he was awake. His back was to her, but she knew.

  As soon as the sun started to rise, Valie stomped out what was left of the fire, nudged Carson, and told him it was time to go.

  They started to walk, Valie at a much quicker pace than Carson, which she soon realized was a mistake because she didn't know where she was going.

  “We need to go this way,” he said solemnly. Valie didn't look at him to acknowledge it.

  He let out a long, irritated sigh, “Can you just stop?”

  Valie spun around and looked him in the eye, “What?”

  “You can't still be mad at me.”

  “You're unbelievable, you know that? I can be as mad as I want,” Valie huffed and then stomped away. “I'm not mad either. I'm livid!” she yelled over her shoulder.

  With their rapid pace, they made it back to the cabin in about an hour. Valie was walking down the same path the night Phaedra had brought her, she couldn't help but think how much things had changed since her first walk towards the cabin. As soon as they approached the door, it flung open.

  Phaedra ran out, hugged Carson, and thanked God that they were back. Valie noticed that Phaedra looked different, her hair was tied up in a hectic bun, the purple circles under her eyes were darker, her skin was gray and she somehow looked thinner.

  Phaedra held Carson's face in her hands and kissed his cheek. She looked at Valie and her smile slowly faded.

  "What's wrong?"

  Valie didn't say anything, neither did Carson.

  Valie stepped past them both and went inside. Jackson was sitting on the couch and stood when he saw her.

  “I'm glad you're back,” he said with a grin.

  She nodded, “Are you okay?”

  “Yeah, are you? What did Decker say?”

  “Nothing, he wasn't able to help us.”

  Jackson's face molded into a dejected expression.

  Phaedra rushed in, “Jackson, could you excuse us for a moment?”

  He looked at Valie, as if to make sure it was okay that he left her alone with Phaedra. Valie gave him a nod and he left.

  As soon as the door closed behind him, Valie turned to Phaedra, “I already know what you're going to say and I don't want to hear it.”

  “Sit!” she said forcefully enough to make Valie listen. She sat on the couch.

  Phaedra pulled up a chair and sat across from her, “Carson told me what happened.”

  “I see that.”

  "How are you feeling?"

  She shrugged.

  "You know, Valie, Carson hasn't lived an easy life. His father was a good man, but a terrible father."

  Phaedra rubbed her eyes and brought her hands to her temples as if she was trying to stave off an impending headache. "Did Carson mention his brother to you?"

  Valie told her the only thing Carson really offered was that his brother lived in Boston and added that she wasn't really in the mood to hear what ever justification Phaedra conjured to explain why Carson decided to give Trent's life away, but Phaedra continued anyway. And as she did, her stern tone faded into a sad one as she started to talk about her relationship with Carson's brother, Asher. Valie could tell right away that it was something that she didn't like talking about, she could see it in her face, like it literally hurt Phaedra. She and Asher fell in love when they were 16. Right away she got close with Asher's family. Carson became like a little brother to her. He was only 10 when she and Asher started dating. Phaedra's parents had always been unfit, they were in an out of jail since before she could remember. Mostly for drugs and theft, and then finally when they were both locked up at the same time, she didn't have anyone, so Ambrose took her in. Phaedra recalled, with a faint smile, that not many parents would let their son's teenage girlfriend move into their home, but he did. Asher proposed to her the day they graduated high school. She said it was the happiest time of her whole life. A week after their graduation, Asher found out the truth about his brother, he learned that Carson was one of The Wozniak Five. Asher was seven years old when Carson came into the picture, but always believed that he was his biological brother, meaning that Talia Fontaine faked a pregnancy to explain Carson's arrival to Asher. Asher learned that his father and his mother were a part of the team. Asher was so upset about it, he left the state.

  "He left his father, his brother, and he left me. That was eight years ago now and we haven't heard from him since." A tear rolled down her cheek and she wiped it away quickly like she was ashamed of it.

  "But, why? Why did he leave? What made him so mad?" Valie had suddenly become interested.

  "Aside from finding out he'd been lied to his whole life, Asher was born with a muscle disorder. He'd never learned to walk, he's been in a wheelchair his whole life. I guess that was Ambrose and Talia's motivation for creating Carson, the perfect child, one that didn't have a bunch of medical problems, at least that's how Asher saw it. He never felt good enough, so when he found out the truth, it all but confirmed his feeling of inadequacy, so he left."

  Valie felt sad for Carson, how awful to just lose your brother, to suddenly become a part of a one-sided estrangement when you literally did nothing to warrant one. “I didn't know all that.”

  Phaedra nodded.

  "Why did you stay?"

  "I stayed because they were the only family I had, the only family I'd ever felt apart of and, as painful as it was to be around them without Asher...I couldn't walk away. Ambrose helped me pay for college. I went to college in Illinois, graduated, and got a job in Chicago. I kept in touch with Ambrose and Carson. Every Christmas I would come home to them. When Ambrose reached out to me a couple of weeks ago for my help, of course I said yes. He knew he could trust me because I already knew the truth about the mystery of The Wozniak Five. I've never told another living soul."

  Phaedra moved next to Valie on the couch and put her hand on her back. "Carson didn't do this to hurt you, Valie. He did it to save you. He cares about you, I can tell. He hasn't lived an easy life, after his mother died he didn't have a parent. Ambrose didn't know how to be a father, his brother was all he had and he just left. Carson was barely 12 when he did. He looked up to his brother so much. Asher was his hero and he just disappeared one day. I don't think Carson allows himself to care about people. It's easier for him to keep a wall up, but I'm guessing with you he didn't really have a choice. He didn't chose to care about you, but he does. He doesn't know how to lose someone else that he loves and that's why he did it. I love Ambrose, he's the only man I've ever considered a father, but he was something of a shell of a man he had once been. He wasn't a good father to Carson. So, I understand how Carson thinks, when someone you love leaves you, whether willingly or unwillingly, it hurts...a lot and when you care about someone that much and they're suffering right in front of you, you'll do almost anything to make them okay.”

  Just then, Carson walked back into the cabin, stood there for a couple of seconds, and then walked back out. Phaedra patted Valie's knee and went after him.

  Valie sat there and thought about what Phaedra had said. Ambrose Fontaine had another son who knew the true identity of his brother.

  Jackson came back in and Valie brought him up to speed on everything that had happened since they parted ways back at the train station. Including the part about Maddy not being one of The Wozniak Five. Jackson didn't look as surprised as Valie thought he would, but Jackson's face, although it wasn't emotionless, still didn't seem to give away too much of what he was thinking.

  He and Phaedra weren't able to find Maddy's pendant. They were able to slip into the mansion that Magnus Pier
ce owned, but they barely made it out without being seen. It was too dangerous, but he did say that one person saw them.

  Vincent.

  “Vincent? The traitor Vincent?” Valie asked, recalling her conversation with Decker Beckett.

  “Yes. He made a deal with us.”

  “What kind of deal?”

  He looked at her with his worried eyes and was about to speak when Phaedra and Carson stormed back in.

  “No! Absolutely not!” Carson shouted.

  “What's going on?” Valie asked, rising to her feet.

  Phaedra looked at Carson. He shook his head and mouthed the word “no.” She took a step towards Valie. “When Jackson and I went to Magnus' we ran into Vincent Palmieri, the man from the team that went rogue after you all were created...”

  “Okay...” Valie said obviously, Jackson had already told her that much.

  “He offered us Trent.”

  Her eyes widened, “Really? He's alive? He's okay?”

  “There's a catch,” Carson sneered, shooting a look to Phaedra, one that surprised Valie. She was surprised to see him act disrespectful towards Phaedra.

  Phaedra continued cautiously, “He offered Trent to us, in exchange for a conversation...with you.”

  Valie felt her knees buckle.

  “With me? For what? Why me?” she questioned, looking at the others.

  “I don't know.” Phaedra said. “He didn't tell us why.”

  “Did you make the deal? Did you say yes?” Valie pressed.

  Jackson answered for her, “We didn't tell him anything. He gave us a time. 3PM. To be at the gates of the mansion. No one else will be there, he assured us. Phaedra, Carson and I could go in, get Trent and get out.”

  “I'll do it.” Valie had never been so sure of anything in her life, only because she wasn't thinking about the consequences. She didn't think about all of the potentially dangerous things that could happen if she went to Vincent, she had to believe that he just wanted to talk, nothing else.

  “This is not happening,” Carson countered, “We're not going to let you go off with this Vincent person, who knows what he would do to you.”

  “It's my choice. Trent's my family and I want to do it.”

  “She's right, Carson,” Phaedra looked at him sorrowfully. “It's her decision.”

  Carson stormed out of the cabin. Phaedra looked at her, “We won't let anything happen to you. I don't know why he wants to talk to you, but he said it's only a conversation.”

  “I think it'll be okay, Valie,” Jackson assured her.

  As they prepared to leave, Phaedra was running different scenarios by Valie. She showed her some basic self-defense moves in case Vincent tried to hurt her and reminded her that she didn't have to do this if she didn't want to, but Valie did. She had to get Trent out of there, whatever it took.

  Phaedra showed Valie how to break someone's nose by thrusting your palm upward, how to maneuver your way out of being strangled with some fancy arm trick, and how to throw a good punch. Jackson offered himself up as a test dummy, to which Valie said, “thanks, but that's okay. You may heal fast, but you'll still feel the pain,” Valie said almost sarcastically.

  “I won't feel it.”

  “Well, I think you'd feel it a little,” Valie said defensively.

  Jackson chucked, “No, it's not that...it's just that, I don't feel pain.”

  Phaedra and Valie exchanged a glance, “Um what?” Valie asked.

  “I don't feel pain.” He repeated in his same level voice.

  “How do you not feel pain?” Phaedra asked, completely flabbergasted at his admission.

  He shrugged, “I just don't. I never have.”

  “Isn't that dangerous?” Valie said cautiously, “How would you know if you're ever hurt?”

  “My...dad, he hit me a lot when I as a kid. He left marks, but I never felt it. He didn't know that I couldn't feel it, I never told him.”

  “Jackson, I'm so sorry,” Valie said reaching out for him.

  “That's terrible,” Phaedra said, shaking her head.

  “It's all in the past now,” he said with an unconvincing smile.

  “Is that because of being a Wozniak?” Valie asked, looking back and forth between him and Phaedra. Surely, between the two of them, one had to know.

  Neither one knew.

  “Nevertheless, I'm not using you as a test dummy Jackson. I don't think that this Vincent person will even try to hurt me.” Valie said confidently, although she didn't fully believe it herself.

  As it got further into the day, after Phaedra, Jackson, and Valie had finished with their little self-defense training, they sat and waited for Maddy.

  It didn't slip past Valie's mind that it was getting later and later and Maddy still wasn't there. And as the time for them to leave drew near, Valie only felt angry at herself for turning Maddy away. Maddy was alone and vulnerable.

  "Listen," Phaedra began, "I can understand that you probably feel betrayed by Maddy right now...but we can't leave her out there by herself."

  “I'll go after her,” Jackson offered.

  Valie carefully explained to him what Maddy looked like and what she was wearing, down to her ridiculous ruffled white socks.

  After Jackson headed out, the others followed suit. Valie, Carson and Phaedra would make the trip to the home of Magnus Pierce, the man who started the war.

  Jackson volunteered to go after her, while Carson, Phaedra and Valie would make the trip to the home of Magnus Pierce, the man who started the war.

  Once in the car, Phaedra turned in her seat and said, "We're doing this how it say it, okay? I'm not taking either of you on a suicide mission. Got it?"

  Valie nodded, Carson didn't say anything.

  The car was silent, no music, no one talked. Valie felt inappropriately excited, she wanted to talk to Vincent. He had the answers that she so desperately craved and more importantly, she wanted to see her cousin.

  Valie knew that Phaedra was the only person that any of their parents confided in, or at least that they knew of. She was the only person that talked to one of their parents about The Wozniak Five, she was the only one outside the inner circle that had any solid information. Not counting Decker Beckett who, in Valie's mind, was not reliable. Still, Valie had to wonder, Ambrose either trusted Phaedra or he didn't, he obviously did, so why didn't he tell her where the pendants were? Not that it mattered now, but still...Valie wondered.

  "What do you do anyway, Phaedra?" Valie asked.

  "What do you mean?" she sighed.

  "What's your job? What did you go to school for?”

  "I'm a social worker."

  “Wow...you don't, you don't really seem like a social worker.”

  “What do I seem like?”

  “Like someone who works for the CIA,” she said sarcastically. “You can obviously keep a good secret.”

  “I have a few.”

  “Do you like your job?”

  “I help foster children find good homes.”

  “That doesn't really answer my question.”

  “Yeah, I like my job, Valie. I love children.”

  “Do you have any?”

  She half-laughed and half-scoffed, “No.”

  “Why not?”

  “Valie,” Carson said in a warning tone, as if she was treading in dangerous territory. Valie ignored him. She admired the side of Phaedra's face, feeling that she had gotten a pretty good read on Phaedra, she was there to help them. But as she started to pay closer attention to her, she could see the anguish that she had covered up. When Phaedra was feeling vulnerable, it would be easy to see.

  “You're still not over him, are you?” Valie asked softly.

  Phaedra glanced at her. Her silence was an answer in itself. She wasn't over Asher, Carson's brother.

  “I'm sorry,” Valie said and went back to looking out of her window. At first, Valie wasn't sure why she asked about Asher, but soon she knew that part of it was because Phaedra had been th
e one to expose their secrets and Valie wanted to know hers.

  The drive took a little less than two hours. It gave Valie a chill to know that they had been in hiding from this man their whole lives in the very same state.

  Phaedra pulled the car off the highway and up a gravel driveway. Even before they arrived at Magnus Pierce's mansion, a grim presence had settled over the car. Valie could feel it in her bones.

  They passed several signs, one reading "Beware" another said "Private Property" and the other, quite ominously, said "Turn Back." The gravel drive was very narrow and stretched on for almost a mile. Heavy forestry lined the way, creating the gloomy feel that continued all the way to a large, steel gate.

  Phaedra parked the car on the side of the driveway a little into the woods so it wouldn't easily be spotted.

  They went to the gate. There was a heavy chain around it. Phaedra effortlessly hoisted herself up and started climbing it, showing incredible flexibility. She got to the top and jumped down.

  She looked at Valie from the other side and gave her a look as if to say “get moving.”

  “Do you need help?” Carson asked.

  “No.”

  But really, yeah.

  Phaedra had made it look easy, with several slips and an awkward fall, Valie made it to the other side.

  Carson came over next, just as easily as Phaedra did.

  Valie had a scowl on her face.

  The three of them stood side-by-side and waited, each feeling just as tense and anxious as the next.

  “How did you know where this place was anyway?” Valie asked.

  “Don't worry about it,” Phaedra answered and Valie wanted to kick her. She would've protested that answer, but there was something much more important ahead of them.

  The mansion sat on a hill, both large and foreboding looking. Grass and weeds were overgrown, making it look abandoned; the windows from the outside were diamond shaped with thick steel bars. It looked menacing, like a haunted house. Magnus' mansion, from the outside, looked like a castle. It appeared to be made out of dark wood that had rotted in some spots over the years. To see it from the road would've been impossible.