Missing Time (313)

by J. David Clarke

  *****

  In the lab, after Simon finished telling them his recollections of the bus, Heather put her arms around him. "Everything's going to be okay," she said.

  He turned toward her. "I remember you said something happened to you."

  She nodded. "It did. Something amazing!"

  She placed her hands on the sides of his face, and her hands rippled, hair sprouting from them. Her body shifted, becoming apelike, with black matted hair and sharp teeth.

  "Heather?" he said.

  "I told you," she said. "Everything's going to be okay."

  They kissed, and for the first time, Heather believed it was true.

  *****

  Heather lost her footing and plunged into a deep pool of water. She sank like a stone, striking the bottom. She tried absorbing the properties of the base of the pool, but it was covered with plaster, and she couldn't touch the stone itself. More of the hardening paste poured down on her, and she couldn't break free. Eventually, a light turned on, and she could see men looking down on her.

  One of them gave a command, and the others aimed hoses downward, into the pool, and they poured gallon after gallon of the stuff down on her. Finally, the last of it poured over her face, and she lost all sight.

  Simon! Help me! was her only thought.

  *****

  Heather helped Simon off the table. Brandon took his other arm.

  "C'mon, buddy," Brandon said. "We're getting you out of here."

  There was a yellow flash behind them.

  They turned to see Zachary, standing next to a girl with spiky blue hair.

  "This one," Zachary said, "once I woke her up she burned the drug out of her own system."

  Yellow energy flared from Mia's eyes and hands.

  "WHERE AM I?" she screamed.

  She brought her hands up, and threw them forward. A cascade of energy blew the tables apart and knocked them all to the floor.

  CHAPTER FIVE

  MIA

  "That girl's crazy and everyone knows it."

  "I heard she stabbed some kid."

  "Shh, she'll hear you."

  Mia ignored the whispers and kept walking.

  "She beat up a teacher."

  "...started screaming for no reason..."

  "...threw a brick right at his head."

  She passed by the lockers in silence, head down, trying to ignore them. Shut them out.

  "She's crazy."

  "I heard she's crazy."

  "Like, super-cray crazy."

  "Don't even talk to her."

  "CRAZY."

  She stopped in her tracks, and turned to face the last one. Brock something or other, six foot five, umpteen hundred pounds. Mia Lozano was five foot two, spiky blue hair. She was a skinny little thing, not even a hundred pounds.

  Mia stepped up to him and looked him in the eye.

  "You got something you want to say?"

  His eyes widened. "Um, no...no, I... No."

  "Well say it."

  He just shook his head.

  Mia turned and scanned the other kids in the hall.

  "Anyone got anything to say, now's your chance! HERE I AM! CRAAAZY MIA!"

  Silence.

  "That's what I thought."

  "Mia," a timid voice said from nearby. It was Dr. Coulson, her science teacher. "Everything ahhh...okay, here?"

  She looked at him, then back to the other kids. "Ask them that." Then she turned and stalked off to class.

  Brock turned back to his friend. "Fucking told you, dude. That girl is crazy."

  *****

  Mia clutched her head. A pain was building there, at the base of her skull.

  She leaned her head back against the seat of the school bus, and rolled it back and forth. There was a jolt, and the bus swerved.

  Mia sat up. A throb ran around her head, and the back of her eyes stung.

  There was a strange sound coming from outside the bus.

  *****

  "Enough of this!" Mia shouted.

  The others turned from Heather and Simon, who were still sitting on the floor together.

  Mia stepped forward, her hands pulsing with energy.

  "This guy just wants to keep us talking long enough for them to get here! They're getting reinforcements and when they're ready they're coming in here to kill us!"

  "She's right," said the guy near the door, the one with the handsome face and jet-black hair. He walked back and forth, never taking his eyes off the doors and wall. "They've gotten some heavy artillery, and they're talking back and forth with somebody. Pretty soon, I'd guess, they're coming."

  "See?" She said, approaching the scientist on the floor. "You think we're stupid, don't you? You think you can fool us." Energy crackled from her eyes.

  "Mia, I'm not your enemy."

  "DON'T talk to me like that!" She grabbed his lab coat and hauled him to his feet, the yellow energy pouring off her fists and sending waves around her body.

  Kevin moved to stop her, but couldn't get close. The energy couldn't hurt him, but he couldn't push through it, either.

  "I am not stupid. I'm not a child," Mia said, lifting him up and pressing him into the wall. "And I am not crazy."

  *****

  "Shh!" Amber tried to quiet her, but Mia couldn't stop giggling.

  Amber unlocked the door to the instrument room, and the two of them slipped inside. The band instruments were kept here, but no one would be here at this time of day. They had it all to themselves.

  Mia closed the door behind them, and turned the light on.

  "No," Amber said, "keep it off!"

  Mia laughed and hit the switch. "Oh you want it dark, eh?"

  "Mm hmmmm.." Amber leaned close to her, and their lips met in the dark.

  Mia giggled again.

  "Um, excuse me? Are you laughing at my kisses?"

  Mia laughed. "No, your kisses are dead serious."

  "Then." Kiss. "Why." Kiss. "Are." Kiss. "Yoooou.." Long giggly kiss. "Laughing?"

  "Because, I don't know. The two of us. It's just funny, no one else sees me the way you do." Mia was glad the light was off now, so that Amber couldn't see her blush.

  "Yeah because you don't let them. You're too busy being Crazy Mia, the... what did you call it?"

  "Angry Man-Hating Lesbian Stereotype." Mia said in an official tone.

  They both cracked up for a moment.

  "Shh!" Amber put her hand over Mia's mouth.

  "Okay," Mia said, pulling her hand away.

  "What was it you really did? You stole something?"

  Mia told the lie with casual smoothness. "I stole a book. A stupid book, it was silly."

  Amber laughed, and held her tighter. "Such a bad girl."

  Mia was silent in the dark. She would never tell the truth. She couldn't.

  They kissed, but Mia pulled away.

  "Ow! Ohh..." Mia put a hand to her head.

  "Headache again?"

  "Yeah," Mia said. A sound had begun to fill her ears. A whine or squeal, and when the sound came the pain emerged from the back of her head. Eeeeeeeee!

  "Ever since the bus crash," Amber said worriedly.

  "Yeah." The sound grew in intensity. Mia winced. EEEEEE!

  Amber sighed. "You need to go to the nurse. You need to get checked out again."

  "No."

  "Why not?"

  "Because I DON'T WANT TO," Mia said angrily, then flushed. "I'm sorry. Sorry."

  EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!

  "It's okay," Amber said, a little warily. "I love you."

  "Love you too." Mia kissed her softly.

  Mia opened the door a crack, and peeked out. No one around.

  They stepped out, and as they left, Amber looked back, puzzled.

  "Do you have a cell phone now or something?" she asked.

  "No, why?"

  "I could have sworn I saw a yellow light in there."

  *****

  Mia looked outside the window, and saw... Sh
e wasn't sure what she was seeing.

  The school bus drove through a sea of madness.

  There were faces in the trees, and accusing eyes in the clouds.

  All of them were staring back at her.

  She jumped back, away from the window, but the sound followed her. The sound of their terrible keening filled the bus. The bus swerved again, and Mia's head felt as if it would split open.

  She covered her eyes with her hands.

  *****

  Mia brought up one of her glowing fists and plowed it into the wall over the scientist's head. The wall cratered, sending bits of plaster and drywall flying.

  "I can do that to your head, you know," she said.

  "I know," he said.

  "So TALK. Start talking."

  Kevin tried to press forward but the energy kept him at bay. "Mia! Stop this!"

  "NO!" she screamed. "This guy knows all our names! He doesn't need us to tell him anything!"

  "I know your names, yes," the scientist said. "But only because of the files."

  "What files?" she asked.

  "I...I don't know everything about it."

  Mia pulled him away from the wall and threw him into the corner. He struck the wall and sank to the floor again, clutching his shoulder.

  "You're LYING. Okay, fine."

  She advanced on him, the light streaming from her eyes.

  "I can get the truth out of you."

  *****

  They were watching her again as she walked down the hall. Always watching.

  Mia raised a hand to her temple. Her head throbbed. The keening drifted in and out.

  "Shh."

  eeeeeee

  "Heard she was setting fires."

  eeeeEEEEEEEE

  "Some kind of freak."

  Mia's breathing became heavier as she approached her locker. She tried to dial the combination, but couldn't focus.

  EEEEEeeeeeeEEEEE

  Finally she got it open, and rummaged through it, looking for the book she needed.

  "I'm not afraid of you," said a male voice.

  Pain seized her skull, and boiled into her eyes.

  EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

  Mia looked around, wide-eyed, ever so slowly, to find Brock standing behind her. Her breath came in a low growl.

  "You...what, now?" she said.

  "I'm not..." He hesitated. Her eyes, there was something in her eyes.

  "You're not WHAT?"

  "Afraid of you," he said.

  Mia brought one fist up, and swung it past him, into the facing locker bay. There was a crash, and a flash of yellow light. The locker door was bowed in like it had been hit by a sledgehammer. Traces of energy emanated from her hand, pushing Brock backward.

  "The fuck?" he said.

  Mia turned to him. Yellow light had begun to leak from her eyes.

  "You were saying?"

  "You're crazy," he said, backing away. He turned, pushing a couple of other guys along. "Let's get out of here."

  Mia looked around at the other kids.

  "WHAT?" she said, raising her hands.

  They turned away.

  "Yeah, that's what I thought! There she goes! Crazy Mia!" The other kids started filing away from her. "Better be careful! Don't talk to her!"

  The hall was empty now.

  "THAT GIRL'S CRAZY AND EVERYONE KNOWS IT!"

  *****

  "Maybe we should, I dunno..." Amber's voice sounded hesitant over the phone.

  "Should what?" Mia said. She was lying on her bed, phone cord wrapped around her hand.

  "They said you were hitting people or something, banging up the lockers."

  "I hit one locker. Call the police!"

  "I dunno, Mia. They said you were acting..."

  "THEY? Oh, please, what did THEY say? Tell me more about THEM."

  Amber was silent.

  "I'm sorry," Mia said. The pain was still there, the noise subdued.

  "Look, my mom doesn't want me hanging out with you. For now."

  Mia was silent for a long time. "Your mom."

  "Yeah."

  "We can still see each other at school though, right?"

  Silence on the phone.

  "Amber...? I didn't...I hit a locker. A locker!"

  At that moment, her father opened the door. "Mia, I need you to get off the phone and come out here."

  "DAD! Now is NOT a good time!"

  "Honey, there are some men here. Some police officers. They want to talk to you about what happened at school today."

  eeeeeeee

  "Are you serious??"

  A police officer entered her room. "Miss, I need you to step out here and talk to me for just a minute, okay?"

  "You can't come in here!" she shouted.

  "Mia..."

  "No! Dad! They need to GET OUT OF HERE."

  eeeeEEEEEEEEEE

  "Young lady," the officer said, with a serious tone. "I am not a high school boy. You don't scare me."

  Mia's fingers clenched, the phone forgotten.

  EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

  "I don't scare you, huh?" she said. Yellow energy crackled from her fists. Mia stood.

  "Mia, what-? What are you-?" her father stammered.

  The officer seemed unsure what to reach for, or whether he needed to reach for anything at all. He braced his feet, but held his hands forward as if he might have to grapple an animal.

  Yellow light seeped from inside Mia's eyes as she said, "We'll have to talk about that again later and see if you changed your mind."

  Another officer was trying to enter from behind but was bottlenecked in the door. Mia brought up a fist and unleashed a bomb of yellow energy on the first cop, blasting them both back into the living room. Her father was hit from the side and slammed into the wall. He sank to the floor.

  Mia picked up the phone. "Amber, are you there?"

  The line was dead.

  "I'm coming for you," Mia said into the silence. "I'm coming for you."

  The pain was gone. Her head was still now.

  As she stepped out of the room, one officer stood and tried to stop her. Mia backhanded him, the yellow energy sending him cart wheeling through the air. He shattered the sliding glass door on his way to her back yard.

  The other officer reached for his radio.

  Mia walked out the front door without a backward glance as he called in.

  "Officer, ungh...Officer in need...of assistance."

  *****

  The voices called out to her from the woods.

  The bus sped up, and went out of control as it entered the bridge.

  Mia clutched her head and screamed, but her screams were lost in the sound.

  As the school bus struck the railing, there was an explosion of yellow light outside.

  The bus sailed into the yellow light, and it chased them into the water, surrounding them.

  *****

  The patrol cars turned to form a V, blocking the street. Officers stepped out of both cars.

  "Put your hands in the air!" called the officer nearest her.

  Mia obliged, bringing up her fist. A ball of yellow energy exploded out, knocking the officer back and flipping him over his car.

  The officers on the other side of the cars pulled out their guns.

  Mia swung her left fist, backhanding the air in front of their car. A wave of energy threw the car against them, rolling it over and over before coming to landing on its roof.

  A floodlight illuminated her in the street. Mia looked up. A police helicopter was overhead, shining the light down on her.

  Mia stepped up to the first car. She reached under it, and the energy buoyed it up over her head. With a shove, she sent the car hurtling into the air. The helicopter veered to the side, avoiding the car, but only just. As the car landed in one of the yards across the street with a loud crash, the helicopter spun. Its pilot tried to regain control, with limited success. The helicopter sank at an odd angle, bouncing once on the cement
before coming to a shaky landing.

  Mia kept walking.

  When she reached Amber's house, she pounded on the door.

  No one answered.

  "Amber!" she shouted. "I know you're in there!"

  She heard muffled voices inside.

  Mia brought her palms against the door in a slap. Energy knocked the door off its hinges and it fell to the floor. She walked inside, her eyes illuminating the house with an eerie yellow glow.

  "Where are you? I know you're here!"

  She found them huddled in the living room: Amber's parents, holding Amber behind them.

  "Please," her mother said. "Don't hurt us."

  Mia was shocked. "HURT you? I wasn't gonna hurt you! Amber, come on!"

  Amber shook her head.

  "Come ON! I LOVE you, you KNOW that!"

  "Please, just leave us alone," Amber's father said.

  Mia reached out and grabbed him by the shirt, hauling him in the air. She tossed him across the room like a rag doll.

  Amber screamed.

  "I'm not gonna hurt you!" Mia shouted at her. The yellow light flooded the corner and lit their faces like ghouls.

  "You're crazy," Amber said. "You're crazy!"

  Mia felt hot tears on her cheeks. The light in her eyes died, leaving them in a room that seemed dark under the lamplight alone.

  "No," Mia said. "No...You don't say that. You don't say that to me."

  "Crazy," Amber said, burying her face in her mom's breast as her mom clasped her with both arms in a protective stance.

  "Noooo." Mia said, the word sliding out of her throat and hanging in the empty air.

  She turned and walked slowly out of the house, feeling lost. There were sounds behind her, of mother and daughter rushing to pick up father from the floor. They huddled together on the floor and cried as Mia shambled away.

  On the lawn, police had gathered.

  Mia looked around at them, but barely heard the voice over the speaker telling her to surrender. She saw their guns raised and ready. With a glance back toward Amber's house, she raised her fists, and allowed the yellow light to rise.

  Shots rang out, and Mia collapsed backward.

  *****