by J. D. Hale
“Hey Cal,” She smiled.
“Hi Marie. I’ll have my usual.”
“Triple grande white mocha, no foam?” She beamed, and I was reminded of a super-dependent child, smiling up at her mother after doing something good.
“Like always.” Cal told her.
“And for you?” She asked me, her smile instantly fading.
“Marie, she’ll have a double iced grande skinny vanilla caramel macchiato.” Cal said, holding my gaze the entire time.
“It’s been a year and you still remember my coffee order?” I glanced at him, suspicion in my eyes.
“Of course. The only girl who’s ever meant anything to me, and you would believe that I wouldn’t remember what you used to drink everyday?”
The girl behind the counter scowled at me, but continued doing her job.
“I guess I should be impressed.” I couldn’t help but smile a little. He had always been too charming for me to resist.
“I hope you’re excited.” He grinned when our coffee was handed to us. Cal, always the gentleman, handed the barista one of his many credit cards.
“What do I have to be excited for?” I was still trying to figure out what his plans were. I took a sip of my coffee, and the wave of flavors hit me. It had been a while since I’d had my favorite drink. I had mostly been living without any stimulants – besides, of course, my natural adrenaline – and it was great.
“Well, I know that I’m taking you to do something you used to love.” He was told me excitedly.
Forced to ponder that for a moment, I was lost. In the past, I had done so many things, from flying spaceships and racing jets to simple things like touring ancient villages or scuba-diving. So many things I had absolutely adored. It strange for me to be truly clueless, completely unknown to whatever crazy plan Cal has.
He opened the door for me, and we walked out into the California sunset.
June 19th 6:51 pm
LA, California, USA, Planet Earth
Cal held my hand in his as we walked towards wherever he was taking me.
“Turn left up here,” Cal said, nodding towards a street that seemed to reflect the orange light of the setting sun. We were almost right on the beach, sand blowing up onto the street, creating even more of a glow. The perfect blue, foaming waves were splashing chilled air towards us, blowing around the salty smell. Tourists, natives, and people just visiting walked happily across the white sidewalks, laughing and enjoying the laid back life of the Californian.
“I’m jealous that you get to live here.” I sighed. We were walking closer to the waves, and I let go of his hand to take off my shoes.
“You should see the island I live on. It’s beautiful. There’s this great rock arch that’s forty feet tall, thin so you could walk on it like a sidewalk. There are waterfalls, just like the ones on your home planet, and rain forests, all on these gigantic cliffs and rock faces. I can’t wait for you to see it.” He had his eyes closed, like he was picturing it in his head.
We passed a green trashcan plastered with unreadable graffiti, and I threw out my coffee cup.
“Over there,” Cal said, pointing towards a dock, “that’s where we’re going.”
I watched the dock for a minute, waiting to figure out what was so exciting about…
Then I heard a noise – specifically, the sound of a large yacht crashing through the waves. I refused to look, knowing it was Cal’s. I couldn’t help but groan, knowing that Cal was bound to have a ridiculous, flashy plan. We were almost up to the dock now, and I trotted up a set of steps, and we were suddenly staring at the silhouette of a big boat against a sunset. The boat was sleek and white, tinted windows around an upper deck. It was exactly the kind of thing that Cal would own.
“Like it? My dad bought it for me when he told me he was marrying my most recent, and youngest, step-mother.” Cal, as I had always known, despised his father’s constant remarriage habits.
“Again?” I almost laughed, “How many is this now?”
“Seven. And I swear this girl is only a few years older than I am.” He sighed.
“They say a person can only fall in love six times.” I reasoned.
“I would believe that.” He shrugged, “Now come on, we have to leave at seven.”
I couldn’t help but watch him as we walked. His red hair was almost falling in front of those unfathomable powder blue eyes, clear like windows into his soul, to use a typical cliché. It was almost comical to me that his eyes were like the sky when the sun is first coming up, bright and hopeful, while mine were black as midnight, silver like stars, and harsh like the oncoming storm. My heart fluttered at the simple thought of being with him, just like before. The feeling of his arms around me, our hands intertwined – they were truly the completely priceless moment of life.
“What are you staring at?” Cal smiled when his eyes flickered to mine.
“You.” I smiled back at him.
“We have to jump.” Cal told me shakily. Unlike me, Cal was not a huge fan of jumps and anything extremely dangerous – except his favorite, fighting. There was about three feet of space between the edge of the dock and the boat – an easy jump for me. But I was more than a little hesitant. The last time I jumped a gap, I broke my leg in two places and cracked three of my ribs.
But, as usual, I flew through the air and jumped onto the slippery white floor of the boat. I slid a bit, and, in an attempt to regain my balance, almost fell over into the water. The moment I was on the yacht, gravity seemed to shift, the boat rocking back and forth in the choppy waves. Cal took a deep breath and leapt onto the deck, shaken for a moment, but then his usual cool façade returned.
“Cal,” I said, “where are we going?”
“It would be no fun if I told you, now would it?” H replied, a sly smile glue to his face.
“Alright then. Can I have a hint about what we’re doing? The suspense is killing me,” I smiled, and he chuckled.
“It’s your favorite.” The smile on his face got wider as we got closer to our undisclosed destination.
“I thought you said we were going to do something we’ve never done before.” I said suspiciously.
“Did I? Well, then I lied. We’re going to do something dangerous but exceedingly fun.” He was excited now. I knew it was a small victory to know something more than me.
“So,” I said, attempting to change the topic, “what have you really been up to this year?” Still, I couldn’t help but wonder, even though I felt as if I had already asked him this question a thousand times, but had only received vague, noncommittal answers that didn’t help me at all in any way, shape, or form.
“Well, I’ve spent most days doing what I already told you about.” He shrugged, “I’ve been doing a lot of travelling, trying to relive our glory day, I suppose.”
“Our glory days?” I smiled, “Back in the days when we were literally on top of the world? Why do you look on those days so fondly, even though the both of us knew it was bound to end?”
“Because when we were there, it felt like those days would never end. Haven’t you missed that feeling?” He looked at me, as if into my soul, those crystal eyes of his on fire.
“If I didn’t, would I be standing here right now?” I said, “But you haven’t answered the real question. You’ve been beating around the bush. Something about you is just… different. You seem so calm and relaxed. Where did that boy who got flustered when he kissed me go?”
“I guess I’ve simply grown up, for the first time, more than you.” He told me, and I could tell he was avoiding something major.
“But that’s not it at all. Why won’t you tell me? I thought we always trusted each other, no matter what.” I looked straight at him, and, as a typical guy, he dropped my gaze in a moment.
“It’s like the fighting’s gotten to me. Dad says I shouldn’t be street fighting, says it’ll never do anything for me.” He said sadly, “But I know that fighting can take a person places; I mean, just look a
t where you are. I don’t know what it is about fighting. It’s like it just make a person-”
“Tougher.” I completed his thought, “It makes you see how cold other people can be, and just how much power you can hold over another person.” I whispered, “And I know from person experience just how suffocating power can be.”
“But you now how to deal with it.” He smiled.
“That’s not true. It’s been drilled into my mind since I was a child that power was a necessity, and I had to be strong to survive.” I told him, “I don’t know how to deal with it, I just have to. I was born with power.”
He glanced at me, and then out at the ripping ocean, “I grew up as a sheltered rich boy, living in the lap of luxury. I grew up with normal human values – nonviolence, equality – and all of that. Fighting was wrong, but now it’s my livelihood. Power’s hard for me to deal with. Maybe that’s why I’m less nervous, especially around you. Plus, there’s that whole thing that I spent a year living and breathing and eating and sleeping in the same space as you.” He smiled, “But let’s not spend the night dwelling on our admittedly convoluted past, and let’s just race.”
And then, I understood his master plan. The boat had stopped without my noticing about a hundred yards from a massive rock arch – presumably the one Cal had told me about earlier. It was gorgeous, a great gray and white arch of granite in front of the orange sun. I understood immediately that we were going to scale the archway – and that I was going to win. When we climbed in New Zealand, I had always beaten him to the top, and now he wanted to set it straight.
“Race up the wall and to the edge of the arch. I’ll wait for you up there.” Cal told me. He pulled off his leather jacket, but, for some reason, left on his white t-shirt.
“Not if I get there first.” I smirked, and then dove off the edge of the boat with perfect form, simply leaping over the rail high enough to dive, and swam as quickly as I could to the edge of the rock face. The water was chilling to me, but nice after standing in the sun. My arms pulled me forward, faster than Cal and faster than any Olympian. He tried to pull .ahead; keeping pace with me for a few moments, but then fell back, panting. I stopped and swam back to him with a smile, not even close to out of breath.
“You all right?” I grinned.
“Just…give me…” His breaths were rugged and sounded dangerously painful.
“Are you sure you’re all right?” I was growing worried for him.
And then he looked at me, smiled, and swam away as quickly as possible.
He was far ahead of me when I realized what had happened. Tricked by a move I had taught him. How degrading. But I could still make up the space between us. I thrust my arms out and kicked with such ferocity that someone might have mistaken me for a motorboat. Water splashed all around me, loosening my ponytail and plastering my hair to my face. But I pushed forward and, with tremendous effort, took the lead over Cal just before we reached the great arch.
He was moments behind me as I leapt up and grabbed onto the rocks, rough against my smooth hands. I could feel the rocks cutting into my palms as I scaled the rock face, but I had too much determination to let Cal beat me. But, as I climbed, Cal somehow managed to overtake me, his feet level with my hands. Taking each foot carefully and quickly to try and regain speed, I reached up my left hand to grab a rock that was jutting out from the edge. The moment my hand was on the rock and almost my entire body weight was resting on it, it snapped away and fell out of my hand. I was dangling in an almost classic manner by one hand, about to fall down. I couldn’t find a hold for my feet, so I was simply stuck there.
Terror gripped me as I looked down at the rocks below me, the white water slamming up against the rocks. I was only a few feet from the top of the archway. Cal looked down at me, leaned over the edge and gripped tried to reach my hand, but there was about two feet still in between us.
“Reach for my hand.” He instructed me calmly. My feet groped for a place to stay as I attempted to lunge myself upwards. I missed his hand by an inch and fell back down, scraping the skin on my toes and almost dislocating my shoulder. I winced and tried again. I felt my fingers slipping from the rock, but I took a deep breath and tried to push off with my feet, failing but still getting a few extra inches. I let go of the rock in an attempt to fly upwards. I grimaced and Cal stretched downward and grabbed my wrist before I plummeted to my death. Holding on with both hands, a sense of relief washed over me as Cal hauled me upwards and onto the grass. I took a deep breath and got to my feet. I stood, shaking, as I looked into Cal’s eyes. He wrapped his arms around me and I began calming down.
“Are you alright?” He whispered in my ear.
I nodded into his shoulder and pulled away from him. Looking down at my right hand, I saw that my palm was sliced from holding the rock, and it was searing. Blood pulsed out of the wound at an alarming rate
“My hand…” I whispered.
He cursed, sighed, and pulled off his shirt. Now, I realized why he had kept it on in the first place. Down his chest – from his left shoulder, across his chest, and to his right hip was a long, thick, partially healed cut. And, all across his chest and on his shoulders, just covered by his shirt, were what seemed to be thousands of tiny letters in a language I didn’t recognize, cut into his skin. The letters were made up of loops and whorls, dots in the center of circles.
I stared at Cal’s chest as he wrapped my hands with strips of cloth from his shirt.
“What happened to you?” I whispered.
“I…” He choked on his words, swallowed, and tried to begin again, “About a month ago, this woman – she looked just like my mom, in face, but nothing else – came into my house and then…then her eyes turned like a cat’s, and her hair turned jet black. There were black letters all over her face, down her neck…all over, just like mine. She told me that she needed me to find you, that you could read the words, and they were a message for you, so she cut the letters into me.” He regained his composure and looked me straight in the eyes, “But she did something to them, and they keep spreading onto my arms. She told me that it was a…a prophecy…for something. Apparently, they’re…instructions or something for the…Xeron theft? That’s what she said. I didn’t know what she meant. She said…she said that you would have to follow these directions or else you’d…you’d die in the tunnels. And there was something about a riddle, and three companions…and…and,” He gasped, and I saw his eyes flicker yellow, but only for a moment, “You have to read the letters. But, the moment you do, you’ll be in grave danger. I’ll have to kill you.” He swayed, as if he could fall over at any second.
I looked at the letters on his chest, “But why would she think I could…?”
June 19th 9:47 pm
Anacapa Island, LA, California
Hours later, in Cal’s mansion, I sat in a locked attic with my brother and Salah. The attic had sloping ceilings and bright white walls. It was the only place I could find in the gigantic mansion where Cal wouldn’t try to look for me.
“What did you just say?” Rowan was in shock as I told him my conclusions.
“You heard me.” I snapped, aggravated by Rowan’s obliviousness.
“But if he’s really…what you say he is, doesn’t that mean we’re all in danger right now?” Salah asked quietly. He was glancing around nervously, those piercing green eyes of his filled with fire as if he felt Cal would walk in at any moment – ready to kill every one of us. We were all tense, and I could feel it in the air.
“That’s crazy talk. We’d only be in danger if I knew what the letters said.” I told him.
“What did you say the letters looked like?” Rowan interjected curiously.
“Like spirals, whorls and circles with dots on the inside. They looked…strangely familiar.” I told him, but didn’t know why he cared.
“Kairee, do you have a pencil?” Rowan asked.
I shook my head no, and he felt in all his pockets. For some weird reason, he had a black
charcoal pencil and began writing on the wall.
I watched in awe as he gracefully drew almost identical letters to the ones on Cal’s chest. Recognizing some of the letters from what I had seen earlier, they suddenly seemed even more familiar to me.
When he was done, the letters looked so strikingly similar to the ones on Cal’s chest that I was afraid Rowan knew what they said. The words looked so painfully close to something I recognized it gave me a migraine just to look at them. I tried to concentrate on where I had seen them before, but I simply couldn’t place it.
“Do you know what this says?” Rowan asked me curiously.
“No.” I was utterly oblivious, and it infuriated me.
“It says ‘The wise man tells the truth, but the survivor lies.’” He said, repeating the phrase he had said to me just this morning. It seemed like weeks ago when I attacked the Prime Minister.
Then it all snapped into my mind.
“It’s in Nalakine?” I was shocked. I went over all the letters on Cal’s body, suddenly recognizing all of them. “Oh my god.”
“Wait…” Salah interrupted, “Nalakine is a language? I thought it was a religion.”
“It is…well it’s both. Nalakine is the traditional Saizian language. I feel so stupid for not realizing this sooner!” I cursed myself for being so ignorant, “We have to get out of here…now.”
“Why?” Salah was surprised by this.
“It doesn’t matter.” I shrugged, “Just get ready to go and I’ll meet you on the driveway in ten minutes. Boys,” I whispered quietly, “if you don’t see me in eight minutes, one of you find me.”
In that moment, I felt Salah squeeze my hand. I was dumbfounded by the most intense urge to kiss him. All of the emotions from the day crashed onto me and there I was, pressing my lips to his. For a moment, no more than a few seconds, I was captured by love. How could I have rolled my eyes at this for weeks?
