***
Sarah asked an average good looking boy with silver eyes and jet-black hair the same question and he answered with “My Tablet!” and everyone giggled. “I have found another class clown.” Walking around the obvious jokester she saw the next participant. “Now let’s ask the big guy staring out the window.” His shaggy hair covered most of his feature and his eyes were hidden. He was wearing a black long sleeve shirt with black jeans. “Black on Black? Not too many people can pull that off, but he can. His sandy blonde hair makes a good contrast to his outfit. He looks like he is avoiding me for some reason.” To see if it was true she asked him “What’s your name, Sir?”
He still stared outside and answered the question without emotion.
“Ok, Mr. Connor. How do you tell time?” “Please, I hope someone in here tells it like I do.”
He replied. “You’ll laugh like everyone else.” He took a deep breath to steady himself. “I use nature as my time keeper!” And everyone in the class actually laughed at his honest answer.
Sarah sighed after finally finding the rare dying treasure, a person who can tell time without modern conveniences. And he abruptly looked away from the window and started scanning the room. “Wow he heard me sigh during everyone’s vigorous laughter, he has good hearing. And the way he is scanning everything, he has the eyes of a hunter searching for his prey. Let’s test that theory.”
Sarah moved forward, barley a half step and finally saw the color of his eyes through his hair. Hazel eyes zeroed in on her instantly and her heart jumped in fright. “Yes, he defiantly has the eyes of a predator, but there is something else too… What is it?” She continued smiling and asked politely while feeling like something highly dangerous sat in the class. “Can you give some examples?” Everyone in the room became eerily silent.
“What’s so shocking? Does anyone like this kid? Is he an outcast or something?” She looked at his table partner Mark. “He seems to be the only one encouraging Connor.” That’s when their eyes fully connected and she felt a massive sensation flow through her body. “Whoa, who is this kid? He is not like your typical student in this day and age. Also what in the world was that feeling?”
He looked away again and that allowed her to take another breath. “Thank goodness, I couldn’t move while his raptor like eyes were zeroed on me like some helpless prey. Yes, he defiantly has the eyes of a hunter. Now that I look closer, he looks slightly older than these other kids.” Could he have been held back? Connor finally answered in his strong masculine voice. “The sun and the moon reveal day and night…” he then continued his moderately length explanation with perfect clarity that it gave her chills. “Ok one thing is for sure, he’s been raised well. At least he tells time like the people of old did, like I still do. I have found someone who thinks like me. It’s rare to find anyone like this anymore, especially at his age.” Then he truly surprised her by adding the last two sentences.
It felt as if lightning struck her whole being.
“Who in the world is this kid? He spoke of balance like he knows of what I am. Connor might be too dangerous to my family. I have to know for sure. This will not be pleasant, but I need to know who he is or if he knows about me.” For the first time in many months, she used her limited powers. Sarah dove deep into her mind to concentrate and then pushed out with her special innate sense with all the will she could muster and without being obvious to what she was doing. Then just before Sarah’s power reached Connor’s mind it felt like colliding into a brick wall at a full run. “Why can I not read his mind?” Then a thought came. “Maybe I’m not at my best and my powers aren’t working properly again.” The whole time she was conversing with herself, Connor barely stared like he felt something.
Trying to change the mood and flow of the class Sarah broke contact with Connor and walk up to the chalkboard. Writing on the chalk board she said to the entire class, masking her worry quite well “Everyone please read chapter nine, section six and answer question seven. Then turn your answers in at the end of class.” Finishing writing she thought. “Ok, now I need to get Connor out of my head and think of a solution to this problem… Oh man here it comes.” Just as she started to sit down, the migraine hit with the power of an air horn on a hangover, inside her head. Pain throbbed behind her eyes and the back of her neck knotted to make the consequences known. It was truly painful, but not a surprise anymore. “This is the always the cost of using my power without being balanced with a mate.” Sarah always chastised herself after using her abilities.
Sarah noticed Connor caught her unconsciously glancing at him so she looked away and closed her eyes until the migraine went away just a little bit.
The bell rang suddenly like only a handful of minutes passed, but her mind remained elsewhere. As everyone left they put the papers on her desk. Her last thought was “I’d better tell Father and see what his opinion is about this kid I couldn’t get a read on.”
As Sarah hesitantly pulled into the driveway of the new house for the second time, she looked up and knew only a few hours remained of daylight. The new residence will be called home for the next five years or so. Sarah and her family choose wooded areas mainly for her because not only is it quieter, but no one can really see them if they do anything out of the ordinary. Turning off the ignition, she stepped out of the car and walked inside, through the garage. She sat the keys down on the counter and took off her shoes.
The migraine still throbbed, but not as severely.
On her way inside, she found her father as he sat in the living room. The two of them moved here to get things setup before her mother eventually arrived. That’s the worst problem, she isn’t here. When Jillian gets too far away from Jack he becomes imbalanced, so he drinks heavily to alleviate his sorrow and pain. Drowning in liquor wasn’t the best substitute, but not much else is. They have been together for over seven hundred years. Also when he is really mad or upset, he can become hostile to everyone around him. As Jack saw her enter the living room he slurred “Meet anyone more plain or annoying than you, Girl?”
She replied timidly to keep him from jumping into a blind, drunken rage. “Yes, Father, some new faculty seem pleasant enough and a few surprising students.” It was best to leave him alone when he’s like this.
“Surprising to you is Muck to me!” He said in an angry manner, not his usual relaxed state, and is always frightening to witness.
Sarah looked over to the table in front of him and saw that he had downed an entire bottle of whiskey since she left to teach this morning or was that his second? “Well he’s drunk, I had better not tell him about what I felt from Connor…” She then looked at her father and apparently he was using his powers to read her mind. Too late! He exited the chair with inhuman speed and stood right before her and the burst of movement forced Sarah to take an involuntary step back. He grabbed her shoulder as the empty bottle shattered on the ground and yelled while staring her eye to eye. “Who the hell is Connor!? And why couldn’t you read him?” Struggling, she somehow broke free of his grasp. He followed as she tried opening the door to put as much distance between them as possible. He seemed to have gone mad. Once she finally managed to open the door she tried running, only to fail. “Who or what is Connor!? If he is a threat us, you know I will have kill him.”
Stumbling out the front door, Jack watched as she fell. Sarah tried, but wasn’t able to get back up from under his murderous glare. All she could say in a calm voice was “He is just a child. I simply could not read his mind. All I know is he is not a threat to us…” Just then Sarah faintly heard an odd sound coming from up the road… squeaky wheels? It was an odd sound. Her father suddenly helped her up, angrily as he heard the same thing and knew well enough to not cause a scene. Even drunk, he knew they couldn’t reveal their true selves to outsiders.
“It must be that Big Mule pulling a little girl in a wagon again.” He said, answering her quizzical thoughts. Then Sarah caught sight of the Mule, as her father put it, and insta
ntly recognized who ran. Her eyes went frightfully wide, almost flying out of their sockets.
Connor was running at an unbelievable pace while pulling a wagon with a little girl and not make any sound while running. Sarah guessed it was his sister. It was an odd sight that one doesn’t see these days with automobiles readily available everywhere. What was even odder was that Connor was breathing normally while running at a rigorous pace. He has amazing stamina for a boy his size. Connor slowed his stride when he caught sight of Sarah and her heart sped in response.
He had a worried look cross his facial features.
Two choices were the only ones available to Sarah. Either introduce her drunken father and hope he doesn’t put the pieces together, and who is currently in the mood for blood, or run away into the woods. She took off running towards the woods with her father demanding “Girl, get back here!”
Connor stopped completely as Sarah turned around to look at him before she ran into the woods. His expression became even more worried than before. She smiled at him, knowing he couldn’t possibly see her do so from the distance they stood apart, but in her head she said “I’m more worried for you than you should be about me. I can’t bring you to harm. You’re innocent.” She broke through the tree line of her property and disappeared, leaving as little of a trail as possible. None could follow from her skills.
After a few hours of running she had come to realize that not only was it getting very dark, but she didn’t know where she had come to find herself. Worse yet the stars were being blocked by clouds. “Great now I’m lost! I’m going to be in for a very long night.” Sarah collected some dry twigs and sticks that were scattered along the ground and put them together, and had no choice but to use her power yet again. Summoning up what energy she could spare, she created a very tiny flame inside the tender bundle. Luckily the collection of dead plants took the flame and she made a small fire to keep her company, keep warm and keep unwanted creatures at bay. Sarah worried about spending the night alone in a foreign forest, but at least Connor wasn’t harmed by her drunken father.
Balancer's Soul Page 4
