A Hidden Element

by Donna Galanti

  "Don't listen to her, Charlie." Caleb pulled at him again. "She can't love anyone. She's a Destroyer to the core. She has no emotion except to care for herself. She only wants power."

  "Caleb's right. I follow the leader. And neither of you are it anymore. Goodbye Charlie." She laughed then moved toward him and pressed her warm lips to him. He hated himself for letting her kiss him but he did.

  He stood frozen but Caleb didn't. He shoved her away from Charlie. "Wench. Leave us alone. Go be a whore somewhere else."

  She stepped back, her eyebrows in a line of lightning. "At least I'll be at the top. I won't be trash at the bottom like you two freaks."

  That last word slapped Charlie like a whip. Her hair spun in the candlelight like a golden web as she turned toward the door. Her slender figure moved away with grace. But his hate grabbed her back. He sunk his mind into hers. She grabbed her head and cried out.

  "Don't ever call me a freak. You bitch."

  She let go of her head and turned to face him. "I am stronger than you, Human."

  Pain splintered through Charlie's brain. His neck snapped back like a baseball bat had hit him. He grabbed his head and sank to his knees, pleading with her in his mind to stop.

  "No." Caleb ran to her.

  Candle sticks flew from the walls and bludgeoned Charlie, adding to his pain.

  Leah smiled at him as she killed him. "You can't hurt me, Charlie."

  "But I can," Caleb grabbed her arms.

  The bell tolled the half hour. Two thirty. Where was Caleb? Something had gone wrong.

  Laura sat down, frustrated and out of breath. She had been moving objects in her room but couldn't get the door lock to budge. It had a long, heavy handle on the outside that slid into place. She wiped the sweat from her neck and brow.

  She stood again and pulled her robe tighter around her thin waist. It felt strange to not have Benny inside her. Soon she would have him in her arms. Her breasts ached thinking about his needs. She squeezed them to shut out her sorrow then flung her arms in the air. She strained her muscles as energy flowed through them. Let my powers return!

  The bell tolled three a.m. Where was he?

  She reached for the lock in her mind. She envisioned it easing across, slow and steady. Inch by inch. Smooth steel sliding against wood.

  Move, damn it.

  Minutes passed. Sweat trickled down her spine.

  Click.

  She rushed to the door and placed her ear to it. Silence. She turned the handle. The door popped open. She grabbed it so it didn't creak and let out a huge breath. She peered through the widening crack. Shadows filled the corridor from dim lights that lined the ceiling.

  She unfolded Caleb's map. She traced the way to the nursery. Left, left, and a right. Three halls away. Fortitude filled her—and fear. She pushed it deep down inside her. She would hide it until she needed it to fuel her ability to face whatever she might be tested with.

  She stepped out into the corridor feeling more naked and vulnerable than she had with Caleb. She tiptoed along the wall, praying she didn't encounter any Elyons. The dark stretched forever. She passed door after door. She slunk on, feeling braver. The community was tucked away for the night.

  After another minute she faced the nursery. The lights glowed softly. It looked like any nursery in a hospital ward. Like the one Charlie had been in. Peaceful and full of new life. One woman nursed a baby in a rocking chair in the corner.

  Laura took a deep breath and strode through the door toward Benny. Her heart raced. She almost had him. She reached in the crib and pulled him to her chest. She peeled back his bunting and checked. His heart birthmark branded him with her love. He was her Benny, not Adrian's. She smelled his sweet hair. He opened his sleepy yellow eyes and gazed into hers. She lost herself in her son.

  "What are you doing?" The nursing woman stopped rocking and stood up, the baby latched to her breast.

  Laura held Benny tight. "My breasts are full. I need to release my milk."

  The woman moved closer. "You're that human, aren't you?" She put her baby in its crib.

  Laura shook her head. "Of course not. I'm nursing this one in my room. Goodnight." She turned away, but the woman ran up behind her and grabbed her arm.

  "Stop! You are that human." She touched Benny's head. "And this is your baby."

  Laura pulled away. Her heart wouldn't stop pounding in her chest. Benny began to cry.

  The woman glowered at her, tightening her hold on her arm. "You can't take him. He belongs to the community. I'm calling the head nurse."

  Laura smiled at her. "All right." The woman looked surprised and her grip eased.

  "Come with me." The woman turned away, heading toward the door.

  Laura followed. She held Benny with one arm and swiped a glass bottle from under an empty crib. The woman saw her movement and jerked around. Laura smashed the bottle on the edge of the crib, shattering it. Benny cried from the noise.

  "What are you—"

  Laura shoved the jagged glass into the woman's neck.

  She pushed it in deep. Anger fueled her force. Exultant fury exploded in her and her heart raced, not from horror at what she did—but triumph.

  The woman staggered back, tried to scream, but blood spurted from her sliced artery instead of a sound. It splattered across Laura.

  Benny's cries grew louder. Another baby cried out.

  The woman fell to the floor, twitched, and was still.

  Laura struggled to drag her off to the corner with one arm and dropped her next to the fridge. Heaving for breath, she wrenched it open and grabbed four bottles of breast milk from the shelves. All she could fit in her pockets. She hoped it was enough.

  Benny's cries softened. "Shh, my sweet boy." She buried her face in his neck. Her pulse slowed. She had never thought herself capable of hurting someone. She had never murdered someone before. But her child's life depended on it.

  She turned away from the bloody woman and pulled out the map with one hand. It was damp from the cold bottle and ripped as she shook it open. She quickly assessed where Charlie's room was and fled from the slaughter with her son.

  One more son to rescue.

  She was running out of time.

  Pain stabbed Charlie's head.

  Leah's figure struggled with Caleb's. They hovered over him in a blur.

  He hugged his knees to his chest, wanting to die. The world became black. He drifted away. Through the darkness a high-pitched scream cut through his brain. Leah's. And then silence. Was he dead? Smoke drifted across him. Did they have candles in heaven? Was his real dad there, too? His eyelids felt so heavy, like blankets protecting him.

  He slowly opened his eyes. The pain receded. White swirled in the sky light above. He struggled to get up.

  Caleb lay on his side, moaning. Candlesticks were strewn about. And Leah. She lay sprawled by the altar. So still and quiet. He stumbled to her and knelt down. She had no breath, no life. He touched her fair hair, her face. He wanted to see her eyes one more time. Sobs filled his chest, trapped. He refused to release them.

  "Caleb, help me."

  Caleb moaned, stretched out his arm. "I—I can't. She drained my powers. Too weak."

  "You killed her," Charlie whispered.

  "She was killing you." A coughing spasm racked his wounded body.

  "How can I save her?"

  "Maybe she still lives. Do what I taught you."

  Charlie moved his hands across Leah's still body. He had hated what she did, but he couldn't let her die. "It's not working for me. You've got to help me!"

  Caleb pushed himself along the floor to Leah's body. A gash oozed blood down his face. He placed a hand on her leg and closed his eyes. His hand shook then he sank his head on the floor.

  "Caleb!" Charlie shook him.

  "Sorry…"

  "I'll heal you. Bring back your powers."

  "You can't bring back powers from a mind killing attack. My energy must restore them on its own. It's fate."<
br />
  "Fate?"

  "For her to die. She would live to wreak more pain on others for power."

  "What are you talking about?"

  "There will always be someone like her. Like my father. Like Tollen. I must stay and make sure it doesn't happen. For my sons."

  But Charlie didn't listen. He kept working on Leah. He caressed her face with shaky hands, kissed her cheek. He willed life back into her body like Caleb had taught him. He used his mind to heal her, as he had healed his dad with his mom a thousand years ago at home.

  Home.

  He let the sobs go then. He was only fourteen. Just a kid who needed his mom and dad. But his dad was dead. And soon Adrian would be dead, his mentor who looked like his true father—had become his true father. And now both fathers were gone. If he saved Leah it would be something good out of all this bad.

  "Leah, come back to me. Don't go. I don't hate you." He forced his powers into her, willing her broken body to mend, but she remained still.

  Caleb raised his head and struggled to sit up. "I thought I might have loved her like Rachel. She fooled us both. She had the true Destroyer seed of hate festering in her. She grew strong on it. Like my father. She would never stop spreading her evil."

  "She can change. If we save her. I don't know who Rachel is, but I need to save Leah!" He put his ear to her chest. Nothing. He rested his head on her, trying not to cry.

  "I used to pray to your god. He has abandoned us in this place," Caleb said. "There is only suffering here and death."

  "I don't want this anymore," Charlie cried upward to the stars in the skylight. "I can't be a Destroyer." Saying it out loud made his old life and all he had lost well inside him. "It's too late. I don't even know where my mom is and my dad died because of me. Now Leah." He looked down at her as if she might respond.

  "I know where your mom is."

  "I don't believe you." Charlie wiped his cheeks. Heavy despair weighed him down, suffocating him in grief. All he had was gone. His family. His home. This girl he cared for. He stood and picked up Leah in his arms. Her hair fell like a silky sheet. He placed her on the altar and smoothed down her robe then folded her hands over each other, as he had seen done in the movies when a loved one dies.

  Caleb stood. "We've got to go. The community will awaken soon. And I made a promise to your mother."

  "There is no promise."

  "Yes, there is. I promised her to bring you with me. To help you all escape. Including your father, Ben."

  Charlie stepped toward him. "Stop it!"

  Caleb placed his hand on his shoulder. "It's true. I dug him up. I gave him life again."

  Charlie shoved him back. "You're lying! You and Leah told me it's not possible to bring the dead back. Maybe it's you who wants to be in charge, isn't it? I thought you were my friend, my family."

  "I am, Charlie. Let me help you. We are family."

  "No. I have no family. I have nothing." Charlie punched him in the face.

  As the adrenalin urged him on he realized he liked hitting far more than mind killing. The feeling of fists slamming into flesh felt good. Caleb stumbled back but kept his hands at his side. Charlie jabbed his fist into Caleb's stomach. He bent over in pain but still did nothing.

  "Come on, hit me," Charlie yelled.

  "No, Charlie," Caleb said, gasping. "We're all we have. We need to get your mom and Benny now. And Ben."

  "Lies. I have no one." Charlie crumpled to the floor. "I am no one."

  He remembered his mom hugging him. He remembered his dad carrying him to bed as a kid, when he'd pretend to be asleep just to be in his dad's arms.

  The years flashed through him of time spent with Adrian. Of meeting him in the field where he had guided him, been there for him when he had no one—and all this time he had been leading him here to the dark side.

  Then the truth hit Charlie like a thunder bolt—why he and his dad had never gotten along. He thought it was because they were so different, but it was because Adrian had been turning him against his dad for years.

  And in that truth he understood he had never truly known his dad.

  His dad—who had come to rescue him and died doing it.

  His dad—who had faced Adrian's power and didn't back down.

  His dad—who was more a hero than he had ever imagined.

  His dad—the sort of father he had always wanted. He'd had him all along.

  How could he have followed Adrian? Been so brainwashed to want to kill and like it? He couldn't go home and he couldn't stay here. His rage fled and self-loathing replaced it. He swallowed hard, tasting his own bitter self-hatred. He had no good in him anymore. And there was only one thing left to do.

  He drove a dagger into his mind. Fire blasted hot.

  Stab. Stab.

  Let there be pain then let there be nothing.

  He closed his eyes and fell to the floor.

  "Charlie, no." Caleb grabbed him. Shook him. "Stop!"

  But he didn't want to stop. The nothing took him.

  CHAPTER 40

  Adrian awoke and stared at himself in the small, cracked mirror in his cell. Dried blood painted his face in ceremonial marks. The taste of the female still covered his tongue. She had paid for his rage. Now he would pay for what he did, according to Elyon law. Tollen had proclaimed it. He would die by stoning after sunrise. Clarity of thought came with the release of his crazed anger over the female. He had to escape this place, but he had no powers. Tollen had taken them away by drugging him. He remained naked and his chest itched with caked blood as he stretched.

  The cracked mirror directed him what to do. He pulled it from the wall and placed it on the floor. One smash of his fist cracked it into dozens of pieces. He took the largest piece.

  A guard's voice called out. "What's all the noise in there?"

  Adrian banged on the door. "I'm sick. Help me." He coughed and gagged, pretending to throw up.

  Silence then a snort followed. "You can stay sick until your death."

  "If I die before then you'll pay the consequences."

  More silence. Then a click. Adrian held his stomach. The door opened.

  The guard held a knife out. "You don't look sick."

  Adrian moaned, doubled over, and fell on his side. He rolled his eyes up in his head. A robe rustled. Breath blew across his face. He focused his eyes on the guard and grinned. The guard's eyes widened. He scrambled for his knife and opened his mouth to call out but not before Adrian reached up and sliced his throat. Blood spurted in a jet. It sprayed across his face and chest, adding to his crimes.

  The male grabbed at his throat and fell back on his haunches. He bled out in seconds. His legs and arms writhed then were still. Adrian removed the man's robe and put it on. He dragged the guard under the cot and peered out the door. The hallway was empty. All remained asleep.

  His chest swelled. Even without powers he was a powerhouse. He had killed with just his wits. Energy flowed through his veins. He could survive and start over. He had lost Laura and her sons…for now. He would find them. They would still be his redemption. His powers would return and he would start a new community. Be almighty again.

  Heaven is my throne and Earth is my footstool. My hand has made both the Earth and the skies, and they are mine. And all shall tremble at my word.

  If only his father could see him now. There would be no well of punishment, no whippings from the heavy hand of his paternal oppressor. He would show him that he was the strong one. Not his brother. Or Caleb. They were weak. They needed love, like these despicable humans. Love didn't bring power, it brought pain.

  He glided down the dimly lit hall, an obscure ghost quiet but deadly. He headed to his tunnel to escape and seek sanctuary amongst the humans.

  Then Manta blasted into his mind from the grave, alive in spirit now.

  There can be love without pain. Her lovely face hovered. Her hand grazed his cheek.

  He shook it off and stumbled. Leave me be. You made me hurt you. You
were leaving me for my brother and bearing Tollen's child. You betrayed me. And you died for it. And I made Brahm pay by stealing the ship and claiming his mission as my own, with my own people.

  You only hurt yourself, Adrian, she whispered. You're still hurting yourself.

  I hurt you worst of all, Manta. He punched himself in the gut, forcing a new pain to replace the emotional one that drove spikes into his heart.

  I forgive you.

  Those words stung hard.

  Why? I killed my wife for you so we could be together. I attacked you, the one woman I loved. I led you to your death, your unborn child's death. I've tried to redeem myself with Laura and her sons, but I can't make her love me. But I will not give up.

  He heard footsteps and stopped. They moved away and he continued on. Not so far now. Soft lips moved on his. You were cruel, Adrian. Hate filled you. It still does. It destroyed your ability to love. You can end the cycle of your father. Don't give in to your genes. It's not too late.

  He closed his eyes and put his hand on the wall. Stop it.

  But she continued to appeal to him from the darkness she hovered in. Her energy haunted him. Her hand held his. So much wretched love. It burned in him anew. He had forgotten the glorious feeling of it—and the agonizing suffering from it.

  Adrian, you can start a new world here with love. Elyons will follow. Don't let your hidden Destroyer element dictate who you are. There is also love hidden inside. Let that dictate what you are. Let it lead your people. You deceived Caleb to bring him here. Let it be for something good. There is more power in sacrifice than ruthlessness. The true strong ones are those who are vulnerable by choice.

  He shoved her hand away and strode faster down the corridor. One more turn and he would be at the storage room. The secret door there led to his safe passage to the woods. It had taken him months to complete. Night after night of working when the newly formed community slept. Pounding through rock and earth with his mind. Inch by inch and foot by foot he had carved his crossing to another life. The day for that was here.