by C. C. Bolick
I shrugged. “He’s an agent. So far, he hasn’t told me wrong. Would you be looking for us in this car?”
“No, but I’m not a secret agent. Your logic doesn’t make me feel better.”
Leaving everything she knew was tough. I’d lived through the separation months ago after leaving Florida, but Travis was there to keep me from regretting my decision to stay with Dad while he resumed his job as agent. Had I made the wrong decision? Yesterday Erin was interviewing for a job and today… “Will you be okay?”
She bit her thumbnail. “You’re asking me? I should ask you the same thing.”
“Should we take you back to Chicago?”
“It’s a little late for that. Do you think Sylvia will erase my memory?” Her voice filled with worry. “Do you think she’ll have me arrested?”
“I don’t know. This is my first time leaving the base. If you want to go back to Chicago—”
“I’m not leaving you alone. Until you find this Van… or whoever it is you’re trying to call. I don’t know about these streets, but Chicago was no joke.”
“Then you stay with me for now.”
Erin remained silent until the highway widened and signs for Richmond appeared above us. “Do you think I’ll get to see Tyler again?”
“Do you want to see him?”
“When I heard he died I shut out everyone,” Erin said. “Every day was about my job, about the research. About saving people. Now I know the truth.”
“Do you still want to save people?” I asked.
She turned to me. “I have no idea what I want. I don’t know where I’m going or who I was fifteen minutes ago. All I know is I’ve got to see him.”
“Grab the phone,” I said. “Call the number again.”
Erin took the phone and hit redial. With the speaker on, ringing came across the line… once, twice, and then the same weird clicking and beeping. Also, a screeching that forced Erin to turn down the volume.
“That sounds like a fax machine,” Erin said. “Are you sure this is the right number?”
“Don’t think I’ve ever called a fax machine. It really makes that noise?”
“We still use fax machines at the hospital. If you call the number, you hear the beeping and screeching.” She ended the call and stared out of her window. “How am I ever going to face everyone at the hospital again? Management thought I took a leave of absence to sort out personal issues. I never told them about the job interview.”
“Are you thinking about going back?”
“I don’t know what to think. Sure you don’t want me to drive?”
“Driving takes my mind off going back.”
“So, that’s your secret?” Erin folded her arm under her head and leaned against the window. “If you fall asleep and flip us over in a ditch, don’t bother waking me.”
Her words haunted me long after she began snoring softly. I didn’t want to die in a wreck like Mama did. For the first time since leaving the base, I let myself feel the full weight of her lies.
Our conversation replayed as the traffic thickened, but I kept the Honda safely between the lines. Despite her insistence, Louis wasn’t my father. The man who raised me, the man who she left Louis to spend her life with, was. Why lie?
What bothered me most wasn’t the fact she lied to my face. It was her description of the darkness. I’d experienced the same darkness when my heart stopped. Travis’s voice led me back to my body, back to breathing, and my heart restarted.
The doctor seemed surprised; people who died and came back described a white light or seeing loved ones long dead. No one mentioned darkness. Mama seemed to think this had something to do with her power. A power we shared.
She’d died the night of the wreck and existed in total darkness before returning and eventually taking over the body of Bethany Kruger. What if next time I wasn’t able to find my way back?
Was the darkness waiting for me?
* * * * *
When I pulled into the hotel, I shut off the car and shook Erin. We’d stopped a few times along the way for gas and to stretch our legs; Skip insisted we take it slow and stay under the speed limit. Once a cop got behind us and my heart raced. With a quick glance at my palms, my heart calmed. No blue. He passed us and disappeared into traffic ahead.
Erin rubbed her eyes as she stared at the flashing sign next to the office. Only a third of the parking spots in the lot were filled. “Tell me this isn’t our hotel.”
The hotel had two floors; concrete steps led to the second floor. Each room had a door that opened to the parking lot. Next to each door was a single window with blinds. Most windows were dark, but a few glowed as shadows moved inside. This place was nothing like the hotels where Travis took me either of the nights we stayed together.
“Check the address,” she said.
I looked over the paper where Skip wrote the address. “This is it.”
“Remind me not to let him book a hotel again.”
“He said we’d be off the radar here.”
“Yeah, but if we’re murdered during the night, who will find our bodies?”
I laughed and climbed from the car. “Let’s check in, unless you want to eat first.”
Erin shook her head. “I think a bed is all I need.” She followed me inside the small lobby. It was nothing more than a room with a counter and a table that held coupons for local restaurants.
I gave the man at the desk Skip’s name. Would he ask for any kind of I.D.? I had managed to bring my driver’s license.
He checked the computer and typed a few strokes on his keyboard. “Room for two,” he said with a strong accent. The attendant handed me two key cards. “No phone. Checkout at eleven.”
I nodded and pocketed the cards. Erin gave him a cursory look as we left the office and walked to our room.
“That was weird,” she said. “He didn’t ask for an I.D. or license plate. What kind of place is this?”
“The kind where we can hide,” I said.
We climbed the stairs and found our room at the end of the walkway. Our door was to the left. In front of us was another door. To our right, a door stood open. Inside, two men sat on a bed smoking. The air held a sweet smell and a haze seemed to drift toward us.
I glanced in the room, but Erin shoved me toward our door. She slid her card in the lock and pulled me inside, slamming the door behind us.
“Next time keep your eyes to yourself.”
“Why?” I asked.
“What they were smoking isn’t legal in any state.” She glanced around the room with a heavy sigh. “At least we have two beds. The room looks clean, though I’m wondering if I should sleep on top of the comforter.”
I pulled back the sheets on the closest bed. The floor was vinyl instead of carpet, which made me feel better about taking off my shoes. “I’m not afraid of germs.”
Erin dropped onto the other bed. “Good. The last thing I want to see tonight is a nuclear explosion.”
Smiling, I pulled the comforter over me. She didn’t realize I had full control of my power. No need to worry about blue sparkles during the night. I fell asleep with the light still on.
* * * * *
“Help me,” a woman screamed.
I sat up on the bed. In the other bed, Erin groaned and rolled away from me, tugging the comforter over her face.
“Help! They’re going to kill me!”
Erin jerked out of sleep and sat straight up. “What the hell was that?”
“A woman screaming.” I ran to the door and peered through the peephole. The two men who were smoking earlier stood outside the door to their room. They pounded on the door and the woman screamed again, this time with a screech of pure terror. “The guys who were smoking are trying to get into their room.”
Erin stood and pulled on her jacket. “We’re getting out of here.”
I put on my shoes as she made the quickest trip to the bathroom I’d ever seen. When she emerged, I reached for the bathroom door
.
She grabbed my arm. “You don’t want to go in there unless you’re truly fearless.”
The woman screamed again, her cries begging those men to stay away. Erin walked to the door and peered through the peephole. “I see why your boyfriend wanted me to tag along.” She took a deep breath. “We run together. Are you ready?”
I nodded. She opened the door and I followed her into the hall. The two men held battery operated drills. They were driving the screws out of all three hinges. When I stopped to look on in shock, Erin looped her arm in mine and almost dragged me down the stairs.
Every spot in the parking lot below held a vehicle. Beyond the lights that cast halos in the damp night was an empty street. Above us, not a single star glittered in the murky darkness. Where did all these cars come from? There were black cars and SUVs with people sitting inside. To our right were four men dressed in black. Two other men and a woman, also dressed in black, stood with a dog in a harness to our left.
Something was wrong. These people weren’t guests of the hotel. They were agents. Sylvia had found us. My heart pounded in my chest. I glanced down at my palms but no blue.
Erin grabbed my hands and forced my palms closed. “This isn’t the time for a meltdown.”
We reached the bottom of the stairs and I froze. One of the agents looked my way. He was wearing a bulletproof vest and a ball cap. We were busted. There was no more running; my escape had lasted less than a day.
I took a deep breath and pulled my courage together. Sylvia wouldn’t intimidate me or Erin. I jerked my arm away from Erin and walked up to the agents. “Tell Sylvia I give up.”
The agent in the ball cap gave me a look of surprise. “I’m sorry. Who are you?”
“You know who I am.” Around us, the other agents stared. “I’m not afraid of her.”
The agents exchanged a glance. “I’m not sure what’s going on here,” the first agent said. “But there’s been a misunderstanding.”
“Time to move,” came over the radio in his hand.
“Roger that,” he said into the radio. To the other agents, he said, “Are we clear?”
Erin pulled me back. “I don’t think they’re from the agency.” She pointed to a group approaching the other set of stairs, guns drawn. “They might actually be F.B.I. A drug bust.”
“On my command,” the agent said. He approached us. “Is there something I need to know?”
“Yes,” Erin said. “We’re staying on the second floor, room two-sixteen. Across the hall, two men are trying to take the door apart with a woman inside.”
“We’re not that kind of police,” he said. “But we’ll get the right folks involved.”
“We’re going somewhere safer.” Erin turned me around and shoved me toward the car. Behind us, the team headed for a room on the first floor.
At the car, she held out her hand and I tossed her the keys. She opened the door and slid behind the wheel. I dropped into the passenger seat.
Erin cranked the car and drove us out of the parking lot before I could process what just happened. “That was close.” She glanced in the rear-view mirror. Empty road stretched behind us. The clock on the radio showed two-twenty-five.
“They weren’t there for me.”
She snorted. “You mean you’re not the center of the universe?”
I swung my head around. “That’s not what I meant.”
With a deep breath, she exhaled. “I’m sorry. Waking up in the middle of the night doesn’t agree with me. What I meant to say was, ‘Sylvia didn’t send those agents.’”
“It was a coincidence?”
“Appears that way. I wonder if any restaurants are open at two a.m.”
“What if those men hurt that woman?”
“Those agents will take care of them. I bet they were F.B.I.”
“Where are we going now?”
“To a place Skip didn’t book. I’ve got my I.D. and we’ve still got cash.” She glanced my way. “You worried me back there when I thought your hands would turn blue.”
“I’m in control.”
“Let me know if you ever feel like you can’t handle… I take that back. I don’t know what I’d do if you lost control. Definitely not stop a nuclear bomb.” With a tired laugh, Erin pulled the car into a drive-thru. “Burger or chicken?”
“Burger and a coke.” I watched Erin in amazement as she pulled to the speaker and ordered two cheeseburger combos. We’d just run from agents after waking to a woman screaming and she acted as if nothing had happened.
“Thanks,” she said and pulled the car around. Two cars sat between us and the window.
“You never told me how you got out of the base,” I said.
Brake lights flashed across her face. “I didn’t?”
“You told me about your past on the way up here, but nothing about how you got out. Travis gave me directions, but how did you escape?”
Again, she chewed her thumbnail. “You’re going to think I’m crazy.”
“After everything that’s happened, I’m the one people will think is crazy.”
“The truth is, I have no idea.”
“No idea because someone told you? Did Travis leave you a message?” I pushed back thoughts of Travis trapped in that room on the isolation floor. Of what I’d do to everyone with a hand in putting him in a coma. Starting with Sylvia Greene.
“I remember us talking in the elevator,” she said. “I went back to my room and thought about leaving. I laid across the bed and went to sleep. Next thing I knew, I was waiting for you at a table in the airport. I don’t remember getting dressed or buying that bottle of water I was drinking.”
“Wow.”
“I told you I might be crazy.”
My mind reeled as I thought about someone taking over Erin’s body, forcing her to enter the elevator and walk through the airport. This someone would have to know the agency’s procedures including finding a way to access their security.
I could think of at least one person with those abilities.
“You’re not disagreeing with me.”
Would she understand if I explained about Mama’s power? Could Mama have helped her escape so I wouldn’t be alone? “I’ve seen enough strange stuff at the agency. I don’t think you’re crazy.”
We moved up to next in line for the drive-thru. The smell of potatoes frying filled the car and my stomach growled. Erin’s hands relaxed on the wheel. “Good. At least one of us thinks I’m sane.”
A siren sounded and we watched as a fire truck sped down the street in the direction of the hotel. “Looks like we got out just in time,” I said.
“Are you worried about your boyfriend?”
“Why do you ask?”
“You’ve barely mentioned him,” she said.
“He’s in a coma. There’s nothing I can do for him until I get back to Atlanta.”
“You want to go back, don’t you?”
I’d asked her the same question about Chicago. “Yes and no.”
“Admit it. You can’t wait to get back and see… sleeping beauty.”
“Please, don’t,” I said while stifling a laugh. There was nothing funny about Travis locked in a room on the isolation floor. But imagining him as sleeping beauty—she had a point.
“Do you think he’ll wake up if you kiss him?”
“He might kill me in the process.” I touched a hand to my lips as I remembered the day my fingers grazed his arm by accident. Within seconds, huge red welts appeared. “Touching him will burn a person’s skin.”
“Have you ever—”
“Once by accident. It wasn’t fun.”
The car in front of us moved and Erin pulled up to the window. A man in a yellow uniform reached for the twenty she held. He handed her the change and closed the window. Behind the glass, he made our drinks.
“Do you think Tyler wants to see me again?” she asked.
“Skip said he went to your hospital.”
“You said you met him.
How did he look?”
“Like an older version of Skip.”
“When is the last time you saw him?”
“I’ve only seen Tyler once, a few weeks ago in a restaurant with Van.”
Tiny tremors filled her voice as she fought for control. “Why would Tyler be with him?”
“Sylvia made Tyler leave the planet after the gold heist. He and Travis were partners and Travis nearly died trying to stop him during the heist.”
“He and sleeping beauty were partners? I can’t see it.”
“Travis grew up with the agency. I don’t get the feeling he opens up to many people. Since they both had a power, maybe they understood each other.”
“Will Tyler ever be able to come back to Earth?”
The loneliness in her voice echoed what I felt inside. With Travis locked away, we were all alone. There was no one to help us and Van wasn’t answering the phone. Again, I thought of Mama, of what she said about the darkness. I looked at the darkness outside of the car and blue light began to sparkle along my palms.
“Not now,” Erin said. “This isn’t the time for you to find another fear.”
The window opened and the man swore. His hands shook as he held out the drinks.
“L.E.D. tattoos,” Erin said. “It’s the latest craze.”
He stared at my hands for several seconds before slamming the window.
Erin popped a fry into her mouth. “Bet you don’t have many friends. We’ve got to work on your social skills.”
* * * * *
After sleeping until eleven in an Erin-approved room—she even sweet-talked the man behind the counter into giving us a one o’clock checkout—I felt refreshed.
Neither of us knew where to go next, but she decided heading for the coast might help us think straight. We could spend the night in a hotel on the beach, something she’d never done.
I took a shower and put my dirty clothes back on. We’d have to stop and buy something new on the way out of town.
The parking lot was almost empty when we walked to the car. The afternoon sunshine warmed my skin. As we reached the car, two men ran up to us. One was holding a gun.
