Destinata (Valguard)

by Nicole Daffurn

  “I knew it! I knew something was wrong with half the people in this town! But Charlie, you’re one of these Valguard?”

  “Half Valguard! Half!”

  “Ok then Half Valguard! That explains the glowing eyes at least.”

  “Yea, sorry about that, I didn’t even know it would happen.”

  “Don’t worry about it, I was more worried about what was wrong with you then anything else. So these Valguard’s are going to start a war?”

  “That’s not exactly clear yet but a war will be started, we just don’t know who will be the one to start it yet.”

  “And Charlie has to stop it? How? She’s an eighteen year old girl for god sakes.”

  “Gee thanks for the vote of confidence Ford!”

  “Sorry but they can’t expect you to stop a war Charlie and if they really do, I will be there alongside you the whole way.”

  That small commitment made Charlie’s heart burst with pride and love for the person sitting across from her and a small smile escaped her.

  “Good, because she is going to need all the help she can get.”

  Charlie wandered home later that day, leaving Ford and Zane to work on war strategies and to come up with a plan to bust Eva out of her cell under the Town Hall. She found El’ and Matt huddled on the lounge, El’s face red and blotchy from crying.

  Charlie’s voice broke as she uttered a lame ‘sorry’ and hugged her best friend. She wondered for half a second whether she should fill her and Matt in on what was going on over at Zane’s place but decided against it before the thought had even fully formed. Ford had handled the news of the impending war and Charlie being a half Valguard rather well but she didn’t think it would be the same for El and Matt, they were too closed off to the idea of other beings being out there. They had both scoffed at Ford when he told them his fears about the town for all these years, Charlie didn’t want to run the risk that her best friends might turn their backs on her, that they might look at her in disgust every time they saw her after she told them the truth. Not yet anyway. She knew the time would come that she would have to tell them but today wasn’t going to be that day.

  “You ok? Sorry, stupid question.”

  “It’s ok. I’m as good as can be I suppose. The hardest part is not being able to say goodbye.”

  “I know. But Ford’s back right, that’s something at least.”

  “Charlie, you know he loves you right? He didn’t come back for me, he came back for you.”

  “That’s completely crazy El’! You’re his sister, of course he came back for you, he came back to look out for you.”

  “Yea, that’s why he couldn’t stop worrying about you the whole time he was here.”

  “That’s not… He’s just…”

  “Yep, just completely and hopelessly in love with you. Just go Charlie. I love you too and I know you want to be over there right now, so just go. I’ll be fine ok.”

  “Matt. Look after her.”

  “Will do.”

  Matt was the complete opposite of Eloise, where she was loud and overbearing, he was quiet and withdrawn. Hardly anyone ever heard him speak, preferring to keep the peace at all times and taking everything that came his way in his stride. Matt was brought up with an Autistic sister, whom he loved with all his heart and would do anything for, but living with someone who constantly needed more attention than he did, he started to withdraw into himself from a young age. The teachers at school would think him stupid because he never participated in anything, always thinking that there was someone else that needed the attention more. He was far from stupid, at just nineteen he held a master’s degree and ran his own business from home that exported computer software all over the world. Matt’s parents don’t agree with the relationship he has with Eloise and kicked him out the moment they found out that he had feelings for her. This was the reason he had needed somewhere to live at the same time Charlie’s mom had been taken away and El’s mom had died. Although he didn’t say a word of this to either of his housemates until after he and Eloise had officially started seeing each other. He never put up a fight or voiced his opinion on what he really thought about his parents, he just packed his stuff when they told him to and left. In some ways – most actually – Charlie was glad that Matt had come to live with her and El’. He acted as a buffer between the two stubborn friends who had grated on each other’s nerves since childhood.

  Back over at Zane’s, they were still discussing tactics. Charlie didn’t feel it necessary to step in with her worries and suggestions, they sounded like they had it all sorted so she roamed around the house quietly not really paying attention to anything until something on the side table under the house phone caught her eye. It was just an ordinary letter sized piece of paper but something about it drew her attention. What she found was anything but ordinary, it was a handwritten letter addressed to Zane. The letterhead was what had drawn her attention; it was a bright blue perfectly rounded circle – the same blue as her eyes – and had the letters LC embedded in the center of it. Charlie started to glance over the letter; something about it was screaming for her to start reading, so read she did.

  Dear Mr. Cooper,

  I’m writing to you to address the situation at hand. As you are well aware, you are employed by Lucas Corp. to collect and provide information on the town of Tole and its inhabitants. It has come to Mr. Lucas’s attention that you have not been fulfilling your duties as an employee of Lucas Corp. As such you are now required to return to base of operations effective immediately for questioning. If you do not return, another operative will be sent in to extract you personally. If you have since fulfilled the duties required of you, please disregard this letter.

  Sincerely,

  Harlem McNeish

  Vice President of communications, Lucas Corporation.

  Stamping her way through the old house to the living room where Zane and Ford still sat in deep discussion Charlie waved the small paper in Zane’s face angrily.

  “What the hell is this?”

  “Ahh. Charlie, you weren’t supposed to see that.”

  “Well maybe next time you shouldn’t leave it sitting on the side table where anyone can read it.”

  “It’s not what you think, I’m not working for them. They were my way into town officially. No one knew I was here while I was living with Kara but the time came where I needed to get in. Lucas Corp. owns this town and everything in it, I had to make them believe I was working for them.”

  “And you were never going to tell me that you are supposedly a spy for a major corporation?”

  “I didn’t see any need to since I’m not a spy.”

  “Sure looks to me like you are. And who is coming for you exactly? Is it someone else I need to save this town from? Because you know I don’t have enough on my plate already.”

  Zane looked at Charlie, pleading with his eyes for her forgiveness, red faced and ashamed of what he had brought here with him.

  “It’s Jaramm. But I’ve taken care of it Charlie, he isn’t going to hurt you or me or anyone else in town. He’s gone for now.”

  “Jaramm. You mean creepy stalker, first of the Valguard’s Jaramm? Oh but that’s right, you were talking to Kara about him this morning weren’t you. Even you said yourself her sight isn’t perfect Zane! You can’t be so sure of anything.”

  “For now we can, and Kara will warn us if his course changes, she’s watching him like a hawk.”

  Slowly but surely she accepted the fact that for now they were safe from Jaramm and also for now let the news of Lucas Corp. drop, there were bigger problems at hand to worry about without having the added stress of fussing over a multi-billion dollar corporation who wanted information about the town they lived in.

  “Fine. First things first then. How are we planning on getting my mom out of town hall?”

  Chapter Nine

  Three days later Charlie, Zane and Ford headed out, finally having come up with a plan that everyone was happy w
ith.

  It was pitch black out, the only source of light coming from the glow of Charlie and Zane’s eyes and yet Charlie could see everything as if it were the middle of the day. Well not exactly like it was the middle of the day, the colors at night were brilliant. Everything was tinged with a blue-purple color and all shone brilliantly in her new eyes.

  “Is this how you see at night all the time? It’s amazing!”

  She whipped her head excitedly to find Zane’s face.

  “Yea, pretty much. Beautiful huh.”

  The smile on Charlie’s face answered him, the need for words drowned out by the small gesture that seemed to linger on her face for several minutes longer than necessary given the task at hand.

  “Are you guys going to stand around and marvel at the beauty of the world all night or get on with the mission?”

  “Sorry Ford, it’s just if you could see it…”

  “If I could see it, I would be a Valguard and our town really isn’t lacking in those already.”

  His attempt at a joke struck a chord with Charlie that she would address later. Right now, they were going to spring her mom from spending her life in a dark, dank underground cell. Her emotions mixed, she wasn’t sure whether she should be excited, happy, worried or utterly terrified. The vision she’d had a few days before had been replaying in her head all day and the fact that she was about to face the same place the vision had come on so suddenly didn’t exactly sit comfortably with her. How was she to know that seeing what she had that day hadn’t been a warning for this night? Kara didn’t seem to think so and neither did Zane but Charlie still had her doubts.

  “Ok, let’s get this done.”

  Charlie saw a curtain waver out of the corner of her eye and looked towards her house. Seeing Eloise’s face staring out into the dark she gave her a small wave but instead of returning the wave El’ closed her eyes and the curtains. Maybe she should have told her what was happening but that wouldn’t have helped matters any. El’ hadn’t believed a word of what Charlie had told her about her mom being held captive and even if she had, she would have wanted to tag along and that was one more person for Charlie to feel obligated to save. No this was definitely the best way. She gave another short wave at the window, sure that El’ was still standing behind the curtain and moved on.

  They moved in single file towards the big building looking over the middle of town in the darkness; Ford managing to convince Matt to hack into Tole’s main power grid and shut off power to the whole town, without so much as telling him a single word about what they were doing. It would be hours before they would figure out how to restore power which gave them a good chance to get Charlie’s mom to safety before they restored power to the town.

  The small tunnel that led to the internal closet in the town hall seemed smaller than Charlie remembered from the last time she had crawled through it. She felt claustrophobic this time around and a sense of fear surrounded her that had nothing to do with the horrid stench that was now saturating the air around them. While the smell that had lingered three days ago had reminded her of the musty clutter around Kara’s house, tonight’s smelled as if hundreds of rats had died in there since their departure earlier that day.

  Finally emerging into the somewhat better smelling closet Charlie took her first deep breath since entering the building. No hesitation in her movements this time, she reached for the knob on the inside of the door and burst her way through to the other side, worried that if she stopped too long her visions would return and confirm her fears. They did not however make an appearance and although feeling slightly nauseated it had nothing to do with an oncoming vision and more to do with the uncertainty of what was coming next. Whatever was coming, Charlie was running out to meet it head on. This was for her mom; the woman who had given birth to her, who had nursed her when she was sick, who had wiped away her tears with a kiss and who had been there for her every step of the way. She couldn’t possibly let her mom down in her time of need, she would get her out of there no matter what the consequences.

  Zane took the lead once they had reached the main hall, moving towards the door at the back of the large room he motioned for Charlie and Ford to stay close behind him. The door led to a set of steps that Charlie knew used to lead to the dark basement of Mrs. Henderson’s house. Back then she’d had it separated into three parts. One was a living room, one was used as storage (in case of disaster) and one a room for her to sit in peace and read the numerous amounts of books she owned. Now though it had been converted to a stark grey barren place, there was nothing there but nothing. There was only one window set high up in the far side of the wall, no furniture, no flooring bar the aging concrete and no fixtures that could be seen. The only sound was the soft taps of their footfalls. Charlie had the immediate sense that they should turn back but they were too far in now to turn away and besides, what kind of daughter would she be if she left her mom here to rot?

  They realized there was a problem within seconds of being in the room. There were no doors. Maybe they had come to the wrong spot? Maybe there was another way into the holding area where Eva resided. No, they had come to the right place, she could feel it. She couldn’t explain it but she definitely knew that they were in the right spot.

  Charlie started to move around the dark room looking for any other entry points but coming up empty. That is until she tripped over something small on the bare floor. Patting her hands blindly around the floor she finally found what she was looking for. A tiny handle that protruded from the otherwise smooth concrete. She motioned for Zane and Ford to come and help her lift it but was able to pry it open a crack before they could reach her. She felt the air blow out in a rush towards her face and saw with shock that there was a light inside. Obviously they were running a generator for this part of the building but she wasn’t so sure that having a lightened area to move around in was a good thing in this case, though it would certainly make walking a lot easier. The glow from Charlie’s eyes had been growing dimmer and dimmer as the night had passed and was now all but a twinkle – like a flashlight about to go out – and with it went her heightened sense of sight.

  Nodding in agreement with her thoughts Ford moved over and heaved on the small handle to allow passage through the trap door that they hoped would lead them to the cell containing Eva. Ford led the way underground, following closely down the rickety ladder Charlie wondered whether her mom would look as she had in the vision or whether she would be worse than feared. It was almost time to find out, she knew they were close now, she could feel it from somewhere within, like her body was playing a game of Marco-Polo and the shouts were getting closer with each step.

  Taking command once again, Charlie’s ‘feeling’ led her where her heart and mind knew not to go. The conflicted feelings within her waged a war on her body and she felt sick once again. Pausing for nothing, not even the retching that was almost crippling, she pushed on through and made her way around a tight corner of the vast underground. She knew that if she could just walk faster and leave caution to the wind she would be reunited with her mother within minutes. So why was it that the closer she got the closer the feeling of dread became?

  Her heart hammering and her pulse racing, she picked up speed with each step wanting to know what lay beyond the walls that separated her and Eva. One more left turn and they were in the holding room but to their surprise Eva was not in her cell. Her bed sheets were askew and a bed pan overturned in the corner of the small room, a bottle of water, its contents dried up, still lay on its side on the bed.

  No! Oh god no! What have they done with her?

  “Mom. Are you still in here?”

  Charlie whispered the question to the empty room but knew the answer to the question before she had asked it. She knew her mom wasn’t still in the holding room. They had removed her. Somehow, someone had caught on to what they were doing and they had taken her away before Charlie, Zane and Ford even had a chance to get inside the building. But how? They had sp
oken to no one else but Kara about their plans and there is no way Kara would risk her own daughter’s life. Would she? One thing was certain, when Charlie found her mom she would be finding out.

  “Charlie, we have to go. We can’t stay here if they know.”

  “I know, let’s go.”

  The trip back seemed a lot faster than the slow grinding walk into the holding cell and before long they were back at the stairs that led up into the main hall. Charlie moved forward reaching for the handle of the door that would lead through the main hall and out of the building but was caught by Ford who had a strange look on his face.

  “We closed this door. I closed this door.”

  “Yea, so?”

  “So then why is it open?”

  Charlie hadn’t noticed but the door was in fact open. It was only ajar a fraction but it was definitely open which could only mean one thing.

  “They’ve been in here.”

  “Wrong! They are in here!”

  Charlie spun on her heals to face the familiar voice. Mayor Reynolds stood in the shadows at the back of the room making it almost impossible to make out his features but by the glint of the moon now shining in from the small, high set window behind him, she could see that the Mayor held a gun in his hand, the glint reflecting into her eyes and half blinding her.

  “Mayor Reynolds, what are you doing here?”

  Trying to sound innocent and failing Ford stepped forward, shielding Charlie from the aim of the handgun now pointed directly at his chest.

  “I should ask you the same question Mr. Williams, I wasn’t aware that a meeting was held without me to grant you permission back into town.”

  “I wasn’t aware I needed permission to come back to my home Mayor. I also wasn’t aware that I would be shot for doing so.”

  “Oh the gun isn’t for coming home Ford, it’s for meddling where you shouldn’t have been. You know just as well as anyone else around here that the Town Hall is off limits after dark Mr. Williams and trespassers will be shot. Of course if the old hag hadn’t have given the bitch the key to get in, we wouldn’t be in this predicament would we?”