In the hallway, they passed Michelle's mother. “Good luck. You'd better have a good amount of work done when Cole leaves.”
“Don't worry about us, Mom,” Michelle called back.
They entered the kitchen where a muscular older teenage boy was seated at the table eating a brownie. He shared the family's blonde hair, though it was cut short in a crew cut.
“Hey, Chris,” Michelle said. “You're home early. I didn't even hear you come in. Ah man, is that the last brownie?”
“Yep. And practice was canceled.” Chris looked up at them, and at the sight of Cole cocked an eyebrow. “Who's this?”
“This is Cole,” Michelle said at once. “We're working on a project together.”
A smile spread across Chris' face. “Yeah, I bet. Have fun.”
“Shut up.” Michelle hurried through to the other side of the kitchen.
Cole said a quick hi to Chris as he passed. He emerged in a small room with a couch opposite a desk on which sat a computer.
“Don't mind my brother, Chris. He's just being a jerk. Anyways, this is kinda like our study.” She indicated the desk full of books. “I've got everything set up already. Oh, Chris distracted me and I forgot the snacks. Be right back.” She rushed out of the room, and Cole stood around awkwardly until she returned carrying a plate of cheese and crackers and placed it on the desk. “I hope you like cheese.”
“Um, yeah, thanks.” He took placed a slice of cheese on a cracker and popped it in his mouth.
“Sorry, is this weird? Yeah, it is. I just wanted to be a good hostess.”
“No, it's great, really,” Cole said. “Let's get started.”
“Oh, yeah, of course.” She pulled her biology textbook off the desk and took a seat on the couch.
Cole hesitated, and then took a seat next to her. Michelle flipped through the pages, and when she found the page she was looking for, she slide a little closer to show it to Cole.
“Here, this is the section on mitosis I was talking about,” she said. “Doesn't that work perfectly?”
Cole had to concentrate to read the words on the page as he mentally kicked himself for his pulse racing while being so close to Michelle. “Yeah, no, I really like the idea. Let's do it. Do you have the supplies? And we're going to need more research than this. Can we use the computer?”
“Yeah, totally.” She lifted herself from the couch, flicked on the computer, and sat in front of the screen. “What do you think we should look up?”
Cole stood to the side of her as they discussed research topics while Michelle controlled the computer. Cole was relieved that the session went smoothly, without any further uneasiness. Michelle was bright and together they accomplished a sizable chunk of the project in a few short hours. Chris poked his head in once to ask how they were doing, but when he saw them working he ducked out. To Cole's surprise, he enjoyed his time there enough to push Darryl to the back of his mind. When Meredith arrived to bring him home for dinner, his opinion of Michelle had grown to the point that he thought he might have a new friend. He hoped Amy would be comfortable with that.
As the night waned, his mind wandered back to Darryl and his torment resumed. He didn't know if the news today was good or bad, but then again he didn't know what to consider good or bad anymore. It sounded as if Darryl had a decent chance of recovery, and despite himself, he was almost glad. He was not a murderer, but what would he do if his plan had failed? Losing his mother was a thought his mind could not entertain and he would do anything to ensure that did not happen.
He awoke early the next morning, his nerves preventing him from securing a good night sleep. Aunt Beth was in the kitchen reading the newspaper when he stumbled in, yawning and stretching his arms over his head.
Aunt Beth raised her eyes from the paper. “You're up early. What's the occasion?”
“Not tired,” he said through another yawn.
Aunt Beth cocked an eyebrow and continued reading. “Yep.”
With the deadline fast approaching, Cole had to find a way to Darryl's house sometime today, the sooner the better. He poured himself a bowl of cereal as he weighed his options. The longer he waited, the more likely his mother or Amy would want to steal him away for the rest of the day, and he could not afford to lose that time. If he did, that left only tomorrow and he would not cut it that close. It was time to take advantage of his newfound freedom from being in high school.
“Hey, Aunt Beth, can you tell my mom I went to visit Darryl? I'll take the bus there and be back after lunch.”
Aunt Beth peered up at the clock. “So early? It's not even nine in the morning.”
“I know. He's an early riser and I wanted to get in a full day with him and Amy later.”
“Okay, whatever, have fun.” She went back to reading.
“Oh, um, can I have money for the bus?”
Aunt Beth placed the paper on the table and gave him a death stare before getting up to retrieve her wallet.
Cole's heart was pounding on the bus ride to Darryl's house. One way or the other, he had to resolve this today. He fully expected no one to be home, in which case he did not know what he would do. He could wait around for a while, but eventually he would have to leave. Perhaps he could find out where Darryl was and pay him a visit, though he had no plan of action beyond that, nor even how to find him. This plan was worsening by the minute.
The bus let him off a few blocks from Darryl's house and he sprinted the entire way. His gasping lungs distracted him from his predicament and relieved his immediate anxiety. As he neared Darryl's house, he squinted towards the driveway and, miraculously, there was a car parked in it. He slowed to catch his breath and plan his next course of action. Before he came to any definitive conclusions, Darryl himself opened the front door and walked down the path to his mailbox. He looked not only alive, but healthy.
Cole's breath caught in his throat as a sinking feeling constricted his stomach. He was oddly relieved at Darryl's recovery, but whatever relief he felt was overwhelmed by fear for his mother. He knew he had to act now. This might be his best and last opportunity. He had only seconds while Darryl sifted through the mail, but he had no idea what to do.
Maybe I do need the voices. As much as he hated and feared the thought, he was backed into a corner and had nowhere else to turn. Just this once. Just a little bit. He lowered his mental guard bit by bit, permitting the voices to seep into his consciousness. All at once, without doubt, he knew what to do.
“Hey Darryl!” Cole said as he approached.
Darryl ceased his rummaging through the mailbox and turned towards the unexpected voice. Puzzlement spread across his face. “Cole? What are you doing here?”
“Come here, I need to show you something,” Cole said automatically. He beckoned Darryl towards him, and in his confusion, Darryl followed.
“Wh-why...” Darryl started.
“It'll only take a sec,” Cole said. “Trust me. You're going to want to see this.” He led the way towards a forested empty lot a few houses down, which his subconscious must have registered because his conscious mind knew nothing of it. He ducked behind a fence, out of view of Darryl, and picked up a fist-sized rock.
18
Darryl rounded the bend, took one step into the lot, and stopped. His eyes narrowed suddenly as a thought struck him. “How did you know where I -” At that moment, his eyes caught sight of the look on Cole's face and the rock in his hand. “What the...”
Darryl turned to run, but Cole grabbed his arm and yanked him to the ground. His head hit a rock, and through his dimmed vision he saw Cole upside down, leaning towards his face.
Cole saw the terror in Darryl's wide eyes as they came back into focus, but with the strength lent him by the voices, it caused only a negligible sense of guilt. Cole swung the rock back, preparing for the repeated blows to the head that would end Darryl's life, when he was unceremoniously sucked once again into Travis' memory.
Travis was dealing cards to Darryl who loo
ked the same age as he did now.
“So what are your future aspirations?” Darryl said.
“Aspirations?” Travis said. “Are you asking me because you just learned that word?”
Darryl laughed. “Maybe.”
“What does that mean?”
“It means what do you want to do when you grow up? I'm gonna be a standup comic.”
“Is that so? You'd better think of a fallback.”
“Very funny,” Darryl said with mock resentment. “I guess if that doesn't work I'll be a scientist. It would be cool to cure something. Maybe even cancer. Oh, I'll also volunteer at a soup kitchen. I always wanted to do that.”
“Noble. You've really got your whole life planned out.”
“You have to have some idea what you'd like to do. Come on, anything.”
Travis paused. “I guess I could try being President.”
Darryl laughed so hard he gripped his sides and it was thirty seconds before he could speak. “Good luck with that. So politics, huh? That's cool.”
“Yeah, well, that's if the crazy doesn't get to me first. If I don't get committed for having voices in my head, I'll probably just lose my mind completely in the next ten years.”
Darryl's smile was gone, replaced by a dead-serious stare. “That won't happen to you. I swear, I won't let it.”
Travis let out a nervous laugh. “You're always so protective of me.”
“We can work through your ability together. I've got your back. I've told you a hundred times, I won't ever let anything happen to you. I'm serious.”
The scene seemed to pause in a freeze-frame, and then Cole was back. Only a few seconds appeared to have passed since he entered the memory. Darryl was up on his hands and slowly backing away. Cole was vaguely conscious of the rock in his hand. With his other hand he brushed his face, and found it was wet with tears. As if in a trance, he let the rock slip out of his fingers, and collapsed into a sitting position on the ground.
Darryl regarded him, now with half fear and half curiosity. “What's happening?” he asked as he took a step backwards onto the safety of the sidewalk.
“Get out of here,” Cole said, his voice a deathly whisper. He blocked out the voices in his head, leaving behind an eerie quiet. “Please don't report me to the cops. I swear to you, you won't ever see me again.”
Darryl took off, leaving Cole behind, but after a second he ran off as well, afraid Darryl would bring back his parents, or the police. His legs carried him all the way to the bus stop without his conscious effort. Nothing crossed his mind. In his shock of what just occurred and his terror of what was to come, he blocked out everything. As his mind attempted to process the overwhelming impossibility that was his life, one thought crept into his mind over and over.
“Fuck you, Travis!” he shrieked at the top of his lungs, not caring who heard him. “Stop screwing with me. Why'd you have to do that?” He collapsed to the ground, sobbing, knowing without thinking that there was only one option left to him. It had to work. There was no alternative.
He recovered by the time the bus arrived, now needing more than anything to talk to his mother. He barely noticed the looks his jittery legs drew on the bus. When the bus neared his house, he was at the door before it came to a stop, and sprinted from the bus to his house and burst in the door.
“Mom?” he called. “Mom?”
Aunt Beth came in the kitchen. “She's still sleeping. Keep your voice down.”
He ran past his aunt to his mother's bedroom and flung open the door. “Mom. Mom. Wake up.”
She stirred and blinked hard, bringing the room into focus. “Huh?” she said thickly. “What's wrong?”
“I need to talk to you now. It's an emergency.”
Meredith sat up in a panic, wide awake. “What happened? Is everything all right?”
“Not really. It's a long story.” He closed the door to prevent his aunt from hearing. “Have you ever proven for sure that you can't cheat an instruction?”
“Well, yeah. Why? What did you hear?”
Cole's heart threatened to burst through his chest but he forced himself to keep his head. “No, no. How do you know? Can you tell me with one hundred percent certainty that an instruction will always come true? How many times have you tried to oppose it?”
Meredith recalled the painful memory through her groggy mind. “Only once. It came true and I was always too afraid to defy it again. Cole, you're scaring me. What instruction did you get?”
“It was earlier this week. I had to... kill... Darryl or...” He struggled with each word, unable to make eye contact with his mother.
“Or what? It's okay, you can tell me,” she said, rubbing his back.
Cole squeezed his eyes shut. “Or it would be... you. You were the penalty.” His mother's hand faltered for a second in its circular motion across his back. “Just like with Dr. Stern and Amy. It happened again. Why did it have to happen again, and so soon? This is so not fair.” The tears resumed and would not stop. “I don't want to lose you but I can't kill him.”
“Shh, shh, it's all right.”
“No, it's not!” He stared at his mother, suddenly furious. “Nothing about this is all right.”
“I would not ask you to sacrifice an innocent young boy for my life. He has so much more life to live, and I would be selfish to say that my life is more important.”
“So what are you saying?”
“Let's try to beat the system.”
“Really? Do you think it can be done?”
“Like I said, I only tried once and my mother never mentioned anything about these types of instructions. So who knows?”
Cole didn't know whether to feel relieved or terrified but he exuded confidence to convince himself he felt it. “Yeah! Let's do it. It's this Monday. We'll show those stupid voices who's in control.”
Meredith put forth a weak smile, but it was clear she was shaken. Even so, with his mother behind him, Cole felt his confidence growing. It was ridiculous to think some mental instruction could take his mother from him. Together, they would beat the system.
Cole spent the rest of the morning convincing himself that everything would be fine. Amy came over after lunch, and they retired to the library to chat and gossip. Lying next to Amy and staring into her eyes, he was able to push all of his fears aside and enjoy the present.
“How'd your little work session with Michelle go?” was one of the first things she said.
With much greater things to worry about, this minor detail caused him no distress. “It was fine, actually,” he said. “We legitimately just worked the whole time and got a lot done. You've got nothing to worry about.”
“Who said I was worried?” Amy said, smirking and poking his nose. “Just glad to hear you got work accomplished.”
“Yeah, I bet.” Cole gave her a quick peck on the lips.
“So, new subject. I'm going to ask your aunt that question. About where she gets her money from.”
“Oh, wow. I forgot all about that. Now?”
“Yeah, why not?”
“No reason,” Cole said, standing up. “Good luck. I've got your back.”
“You've gotta stop being so scared of her.” She got to her feet and crossed to the door.
“I'm not scared of her. I just generally avoid really awkward conversations that make her hate me.”
“She won't hate me.” They emerged into the kitchen where Beth was once again reading, a magazine this time. “Hi.”
Beth looked up, a mixture of annoyance and confusion on her face. “Yeah, what?”
“I've got a question,” Amy said. “I notice that you don't work and yet have sufficient money. I was wondering where it comes from.”
Beth's eyes narrowed. “You ever hear the expression, 'curiosity killed the cat?' You shouldn't be so nosy. It'll get you in trouble one of these days.”
Cole thought for sure that at this point Amy would give up.
“Come on,” Amy pressed. “What's the
big deal? I won't tell anyone if that's what you're worried about.”
“No, I'm not worried about anything.” She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. “This had better not be the start of a trend, you asking me questions all the time.”
“No, it's not, I promise.”
Cole was shocked to see Beth's resolve melting away.
“If you must know,” Beth said, “about twenty years ago, I wrote a song. Ghostwrote really. It was fairly popular at the time and nowadays it's used in commercials so I still get royalties.”
“You wrote a song?” Cole said with awe and shock.
“That's so cool,” Amy said. “Can we hear it?”
“Should have expected you'd ask that,” Beth said. “I'll give you a copy to listen to, but I won't listen with you. I'm so sick of it, you can't imagine.” She retrieved a cassette tape from her bedroom and Cole and Amy took it into the library to listen on the old, decrepit cassette player. Having never used a cassette player before, Amy hesitated, but if there was one thing Cole knew well – thanks to his mom's limited funds – it was old-fashioned equipment.
The song was a catchy cheesy early nineties song, but was entrancing by the fact that Beth had written it. They listened on loop for over a half hour, smiles plastered on their faces.
“Y'know, I think it sounds familiar,” Amy said. “I wonder if I've heard it before. It's not half bad.”
“This has to be a good story,” Cole said. “One day I'll ask her how she got into the music industry.”
“Yeah, but maybe not today. I think she had enough questions for one day.” Then, without warning, Amy's smile disappeared and she grew dead serious. “Cole, I've been thinking a lot about this, and I want to let you know how grateful I am for everything you've done for me. I don't feel like I ever properly thanked you. You got me through some rough times both before and after the... incident with my parents. Not to mention saving my life.” Her eyes watered up. “So, thank you.”
Cole blinked away a tear. “It's the least I can do. I don't need your thanks. Just having you is enough.”
There was a silence while Amy sniffed and wiped her eyes. “That's really sweet. I'm so glad to have met you, and to have you.” She kissed him. “I don't think I could have gotten through everything without you.”
Shadows Within (The Dark Mind Trilogy Book 2) Page 14
