Supernormal

by Caitlen Rubino-Bradway

  It wasn’t like he’d kept it to himself, after all. He’d told the police chief, though cops were usually pretty good at keeping things to themselves. And Ashley. But Ashley was a friend—a client—no, that was a bad word for it. Different. Ashley was different. He could trust her. Where was she?

  Tyler gave up first, barely clocking a cursory minute before letting go of the wall and kicking up to the surface. Cam watched his feet disappear as he pulled himself out of the pool.

  Cam looked up through the surface of the water, at the wavering prism of sky above. It was peaceful down here, if he ignored the chlorine stinging his eyes and the lack of air. His lungs began to itch, but he pushed it aside. It was quiet here, and getting quieter every moment, as kids gave up and surfaced. Cam watched their kicking feet overhead as they paddled their way to the ladders. An abandoned inner tube bobbed along the surface, and on the bottom of the pool there was a lost pair of goggles.

  His lungs started to burn. Liz and Danny were eyeing each other down, both still going strong. Cam pushed off the wall and snagged the lost goggles before kicking to the surface.

  From the silence of the water to noise. Screaming, shouts, cheers. The kids were ringed around the edge, chanting Danny’s name. They were packed so tightly that Cam couldn’t get out and instead had to hang onto the side. Tyler had to push through—“Hey, dude, move it”—and eventually just jumped into the water next to him.

  “Did Meg tell you?” Cam asked.

  “She talked to Chief Rios before you came in, about how you used to talk to the cops back in your hometown. Word got around,” Tyler told him. “Rhoda, the secretary down at the station, ‘overheard something.’ Just for future reference, Rhoda overhears a lot of things, so if you want to keep something quiet, don’t mention it around her. It was a little mysterious,” he added. “You pick up and move here, all of a sudden. Meg said you’re signing up for Sugar Beach Community, so it couldn’t be for college.”

  Cam nodded. Only Danny and Liz were left in the pool, Liz’s hair drifting up around her like a pink and yellow cloud. A gawky girl with pigtails held a stopwatch. Someone shouted, “Is she going to beat him?”

  And a gap-toothed boy yelled, “No friggin’ way!” His mom shushed him.

  Even as he said it, Liz gestured to Danny and pointed up to the top. Danny grinned—Cam could see his white teeth even through the water—and looped an arm around Liz’s waist, pulled her in for a long hard kiss.

  “That’s not fair!” someone shouted. “That’s cheating!”

  The kiss went on, until Cam looked way. He caught one mother covering her son’s eyes, and then Tyler groaned. “See what I mean? It’s disgusting, the way they’re so…happy and together. I swear, if they ever get married I’m going to need fucking insulin.”

  “You won’t,” Cam predicted absently. How long could the human body go without oxygen? He wanted to say four minutes, and they had to be well past that, but he wasn’t sure where he got that number. He could be making it up. The pool lifeguard was keeping an eye on the contest, but he didn’t look worried. Cam paid more attention to the crowd of kids, who’d started chanting Danny’s name.

  Liz let go of Danny and surfaced. The kids cheered as she climbed out, water sheeting off her. “How long?” she gasped.

  The kid with the stopwatch yelled. “Seven minutes!”

  Liz held up seven fingers and, at the bottom of the pool, Danny nodded. He flashed eight fingers back at her. Then he waved at Cam.

  “Shouldn’t somebody…do something?” he asked.

  Tyler snorted.

  “Nine minutes,” Liz announced.

  It was hard to be frightened when no one else was. With everyone excited and shouting and the girl with the stopwatch calling out each passing minute, Cam had trouble giving into blind terror. Ten minutes. Eleven. Twelve. Okay, whatever the number was, humans could not stay under water for twelve minutes without irreparable brain damage.

  Tyler stopped him when he would’ve gone back under. “He’s going to drown,” Cam said. He looked at Tyler. “Isn’t he?”

  Tyler grinned.

  Understanding came slowly, with each tick of the clock. The dull fingers of panic lost their grip and slipped away. He really was an idiot. Of course. He hadn’t really ever thought he was the only one. Hell, there was Ashley. There had to be others.

  At fourteen minutes, fifty seconds, the crowd started counting down dramatically, then burst into whistles and applause as the last second ticked away. Danny took a dramatic bow, and swam up to the surface with one smooth kick.

  “That’s called cheating,” Cam said when Danny paddled over to the edge.

  “Yeah,” Danny agreed, grinning.

  “You could’ve just told me.”

  Danny shook his head. “This was much more fun.”

  Later, when the courtyard had emptied out, they sat at the edge of the pool and kicked their feet in the water.

  “So you really are Aquaman,” Cam said.

  “Yeah. Well, not really. I can’t talk to the animals. And, uh,” Danny leaned in as if telling a secret, “I’m black. Looking forward to that hook-hand, though. I mean, I know he got his regular hand back in Brightest Day, but I’d keep the hook. Hooks are cool.” He paused. “And the trident. And the whole ‘being complete and abject ruler over the merpeople’ thing. I’d have to give up sushi, though, which would suck, but it’d be too weird. You know—swimming around, chatting with the fishes and the porpoises and, um, the assorted sea-dwelling denizens of the deep—”

  “‘Denizens’?” Tyler echoed.

  “We have conferred about this at length, Mr. Lopez; there is no need to be covetous of my erudite and accomplished vocabulary.”

  “You gave me shit last week about using ‘ardent.’”

  “‘Cause nobody uses ‘ardent’ outside of romance novels,” Danny said. “And, you know, Thud.”

  “Is everyone here special?” Cam asked.

  “You should know better that that, Cam,” Liz said. She was stretched out on a sunny lounge chair with her eyes closed. “We are all of us our own unique snowflake.”

  “You mean are we all superheroes?” Danny asked. He was the only one still in the pool, treading water.

  “Yes,” Cam said.

  Danny nodded, and dipped under the surface.

  “Not everyone,” Tyler said. “Like Sneaky Pete. He’s just very into ninjas. But there’s lots of you here.” He started ticking them off on his fingers. “Fast Peter, for one. Tom, at the hair salon. Ruby Stuart, the really tiny brunette who works down at the shake place.”

  Danny popped back up in time to catch the last part. “Yeah, but she’s heading off to the ABC in September.”

  “It still counts. She lives here now and she can do that heat thing. Mr. Tanner, chemistry teacher over at SBHS,” Tyler went on.

  “No way. Mr. Tanner? Seriously?” Danny asked. “I thought he was just a vegan.”

  “He can be both,” Tyler said. He glanced at Liz. “Who am I missing?”

  “Jimmy Pope,” she said.

  “Jimmy Pope,” Tyler repeated, “that’s right.”

  “We don’t hang out with him a lot,” Liz told Cam. “He smells. Literally. That’s not his superpower,” she explained, smiling at Cam’s expression. “He just hasn’t worked out how to shower.”

  “How did you know about Mr. Tanner?” Danny asked. “I didn’t know about Mr. Tanner. I know all the superheroes here.”

  “Maybe if you didn’t skip half of chemistry, you would’ve known,” Tyler said. “And that’s not even half of them,” he told Cam, holding up a hand to shade his eyes. “Not to mention all the ones who haven’t, uh—”

  “Come out of the Batcave?” Danny suggested.

  Tyler shook his head. “That doesn’t make sense. Batman doesn’t have any superpowers. He just has a ton of money and PTSD. But there’s a lot of you people here.” (“What do you mean by ‘you people’?” Danny objected.) “I don’t k
now what it is. People like you tend to gravitate to this place.”

  “It’s like that island from Lost. You know, pulling everyone in, polar bears,” Danny said.

  “Not really,” Cam said after a second.

  Danny grinned. “Nah, man, not really. You just…hear about it. You know, message boards, friend of a friend. Mom did her research, you know, after we realized what was up with me. She thought it’d be easier for me if I was around others. It can get lonely out there,” he said frankly, “if you think you’re the only one.”

  The sun was hot, which was why Cam slipped off the edge and ducked under for a second. The only reason why. “Ashley?” he asked when he surfaced.

  “Yes,” Tyler said.

  “No,” Danny said.

  They looked at each other.

  “Yes and no,” Danny said. “Ashley—”

  “Whatever Ashley is or isn’t,” Liz interrupted, “that’s for her to say, and not for us to gossip behind her back.”

  “It’s not gossip if it’s true,” Tyler said. “She’s got a thing about gossip,” he told Cam. “Ever since we were freshman, when Jared Zilecky told everyone she was a dyke ‘cause she kicked his ass on the basketball court.”

  “Didn’t help that Jared was on the varsity team at the time,” Danny said, and he and Tyler started laughing.

  Liz didn’t. “He had his mom tell the principal that they shouldn’t let lesbos play.”

  “Ran to his mommy,” Danny snickered, and he and Tyler laughed harder.

  “You guys are real fucking sensitive, you know that?” Liz said.

  “Relax, babe,” Danny said, climbing out of the pool, and she shrieked as he splashed down next to her. “You gotta be Zen about it. Release that negative tension out into the world. You know, forgive, forget.” He pulled her in for a wet hug.

  “God, don’t you have a towel?” she laughed.

  “You don’t have to address me formally, we’re with friends,” Danny informed her as Tyler rolled his eyes at Cam.

  “Reese?” Cam asked.

  The laughter faded, and there was one of those shared looks. “Yeah,” Danny said.

  Questions crowded his mind. Cam selected one at random. “Do the police know?”

  “Please, this is Sugar Beach,” Danny said. “Of course they know.”

  “Then they need to do something. There has to be a connection, it can’t just be a coincidence. Danny, you could be in danger.”

  “Probably,” Danny agreed, as Liz’s hand tightened to a white-knuckled grip on his arm. “But, hey, so are you.”

  Cam climbed into his aunt’s Jeep and buckled his seatbelt. “When were you going to tell me that this was Superhero Town?”

  Meg eyed him down. “I wasn’t,” she said. “I knew you’d figure it out sooner or later.”

  “Danny told me.”

  “Or that Danny would tell you.”

  “He put on a show for me,” Cam said. “I thought he was going to drown.”

  “I am not at all surprised, honey. And I didn’t tell you because, well, it wasn’t my secret to tell. You sort of happened here, Cam, but for most people on the island, they don’t come here by accident. And most of them here don’t have your modern, forward-thinking full disclosure policy. Believe it or not, a lot of them are worried about what someone might think, or do, if they found out.”

  As Meg parked in front of their house, he asked, “Danny said that Reese was…one of us.” It sounded odd, saying that. Odder still, knowing there was an “us.”

  “Yes.”

  “Do you think that had anything to do with what happened?”

  Meg hesitated, then said, “I don’t know. I think it’s possible. Then again, this is Superhero Town. Just about anything’s possible.”

  Ch. 13

  Santa Barbara was supposed to be beautiful. Ashley couldn’t tell. Brody was keeping them to the back alleys, so the most she caught was glimpses of palm trees arcing overhead and plants bursting with bright, hot color.

  It was a little unreal. It was the first time she’d been off island since—well, since she’d come to the island, and the mix of thrill and fear had a giddy knot of dread jumping in her stomach. They’d been gone for a week. A full week. Cole had to have figured it out by now. And Proom. Ashley kept straining, waiting for that white van to come around the corner and the door to roll open and—

  She jumped when Brody touched her arm. He didn’t say anything, thank god, just nodded her in the right direction and kept walking. He led her to a small house, not far from the UCSB campus, about three stories tall and, judging by the rusty fire escape tacked on the back, cut up into apartments.

  “Top floor,” Brody said and cupped his hands to prop her up.

  “Seriously?” Ashley said.

  “Seriously. Your shoulder—”

  “Is fine,” she bit off and managed to kick off the wall and snag the bottom rung of the fire escape. Okay, the one shoulder ached a little as she hauled herself up, but it was fine. That guy had just gotten lucky. It’s not like it had even been dislocated, or broken, that long, and besides anyone who wasn’t sore after a full week of Brody’s ninja shit, well…they were a robot. She unlatched the ladder for Brody. “See? Fine.”

  “You don’t have to prove anything to me,” he said, and the sun suddenly felt very hot on her neck.

  “Good, ‘cause I’m not trying,” she said. She pulled at the edge of Ian’s T-shirt as Brody climbed up, very aware that she hadn’t changed clothes since they left Sugar Beach. “Maybe we should’ve cleaned up first.”

  “No.” Brody yanked the ladder back into place and secured it.

  “I mean, it has been a while, Brody. I probably smell really bad. Almost as bad as you,” she tried to joke. He just headed up the fire escape. “It wouldn’t take that long. Quick shower, change of clothes, then we give her a call or something—”

  “You’re not a coward, Ashley. You don’t get to act like one.”

  “Don’t I get a say?” she called up.

  “Yes,” Brody called back. Like it was that simple. And she didn’t like to think that, for him, it probably was. That he’d let her chicken out on the fire escape, if that was her choice.

  She didn’t want to do this. To have to go up there and look Dr. Mac in the eye and tell her that they hadn’t found Ian.

  “Let’s get this over with,” she said.

  They climbed to the top floor, where a single small window was cut into what looked like the attic. Brody knocked on it so hard the glass rattled in the frame.

  There was a muffled shriek, and a second later the faded lace curtain was pushed aside and the window was shoved open by a younger version of the doc, with Ian’s brown eyes. “Oh my god, you guys gave me a heart attack. Are you guys breaking in? ‘Cause this really isn’t a good time.”

  Brody shook his head. “No, ma’am.”

  “I don’t even have anything. I’m a college student—”

  “Miss Reese—”

  “I don’t even own a TV.”

  “We’re here to speak to your sister. Is she at home?”

  “She went to get coffee,” the girl said. “I don’t keep any in the house, caffeine makes me drowsy. Do you want to come in and wait? She’ll only be a couple minutes.” The girl stepped away and held back the curtain as they stepped inside.

  The apartment was a small studio—very small—and there had been an obvious effort to divide the cramped space into rooms: a couch and coffee table in one corner, a bed shoved in another. There was something very young and feminine about the small, sunlit space, with the fluttery curtains and the extensive collection of throw pillows.

  “I have a gun,” the girl announced. She was built like the doc, fine-boned and slim, and there were large stuffed Snoopy slippers on her feet. Her long, honey-colored hair spilled over her shoulders.

  Brody nodded. Ashley could see that he was tired. The lines on his face seemed to stand out. “That’s good. Personal prote
ction is important.”

  “It’s not a real gun. It’s actually a water pistol. But it’s got pepper spray in it. Did you find him?”

  Brody seemed to wake up at that, and he looked at the girl sharply.

  “Ian’s missing and Annie comes to stay for…who knows how long. There’s only one reason a strange guy comes knocking on my window at seven in the morning. You’re Brody, right?”

  “Yes, miss.”

  “Did you—” But she looked at their faces, and didn’t have to finish her question.

  Ashley tried to speak, but her mouth felt like it was full of chalk. Brody said it for her. “No. We didn’t.”

  The young woman took in a hard, bracing breath and pinned Brody with a look that reminded Ashley so much of the doc that she blinked. “Is he dead?”

  “No,” Brody said firmly. “I don’t think he is.”

  “Would you tell me if you thought different?”

  “Yes, ma’am. I would.”

  She let out a hard breath, and Ashley could see relief seep into the girl. “Okay. Okay. I’m sorry. It’s just been hard. Ian—he’s my brother, and I love him, but Annie… She hasn’t been like this since her husband died, and I was just a kid when that happened. It was Ian that pulled her out of that, and if he’s gone—if he’s not coming back, then I don’t…I don’t know what to do, I just make things worse…” She shook her head and then smiled at them. It was a little strained, but it was all Ian. “Sorry. I shouldn’t… You guys want something to drink? Like I said, I don’t have coffee, but I did pick up this amazing locally-sourced yuzu-raspberry lemonade at the farmers market the other day.”

  There were footsteps on the stairs, and the doc came in with a brown paper bag in her hands. She was wearing flip-flops. It shouldn’t have seemed weird, but it was the first time Ashley had ever seen her not wearing proper shoes. It was always heels—expensive-looking and impossibly high—or, once, a pair of hound’s-tooth flats. Her hair was combed and pulled back, but she didn’t have any makeup on, and her shirt was obviously not hers. It was several sizes too big, and it had the Blue Lantern logo on it.

  The doc saw them, and Ashley saw the split-second of hope. But the doc seemed to realize what their being there meant. She went to the counter and set her bag down. “I got you a…a chai, Allie, and they had, um, butterscotch muffins, I thought you might like one. I’m sorry,” she told them. “If I’d known you were coming, I would’ve gotten more.”