The Riser Saga

by Becca C. Smith

  “I don’t see anything dead I can use,” I said to her just in case that was her plan.

  “Chelsan, come here with me.” Elisha sat crosslegged on the floor of the carpeted van.

  Ryan’s hand held me back. “Don’t.”

  “I have to. He’ll kill Jill and Elisha if I don’t.” I kissed him on the cheek and sat across from Elisha on the floor. “What do you want me to do?” I asked without actually wanting to know. Last time I listened to her advice I boiled some corpse’s blood and his skin slopped to the floor.

  “I’m not certain if this will work, but it’s the only thing I can think of,” Elisha said to me as she reached over and took her hands in mine, and from the gleam in her eyes I could tell she was lying. I just wasn’t sure what she was lying about. Was it the fact that she knew whatever she was about to tell me was actually going to work or that it was the only thing she could think of? Either way, it made me nervous. But one look at the terror in Jill’s face and I knew I had to try. “I want you to concentrate on the magnet.”

  I looked up through the open sunroof and stared at the slab of metal linking us to its surface. But that was it: nothing dead, no black swirling holes.

  “I don’t see anything,” I admitted.

  “Try to see the dust around it and in the van,” Elisha’s voice was calm and commanding.

  I could feel our speed start to slow down. We were coming close to our destination. As if in unison to my thoughts I heard Bill say, “Population Research Center up ahead.”

  “Don’t listen to him, listen to me. Can you see the dust?” Elisha brought me back to the task at hand.

  SWOOSH!

  I saw tiny black swirling holes everywhere, like thick black snow. “Yes, I see the dust.”

  “Good, now I want you to look even closer than that, but inside the magnet itself. Smaller than the dust: millions of times smaller. Can you do that?” Elisha couldn’t hide the excitement in her voice. Just like with the boiling blood guy. Like my powers were some kind of thrill for her, but I did as she asked.

  Nothing.

  “I can only see the dust in the van’s cabin.” I tried to calm my nerves as I felt the Clean-Up truck slowing down even more. We were getting close.

  “Concentrate. You can see this, Chelsan, I know it. Just focus on the magnet and look for the black holes. They’ll be so tiny you might just miss them, but focus.” Elisha tried to hide the condescending tone from her voice, but I could hear it loud and clear. I certainly had heard enough of it from Jill over the past four years. If it’s so easy you do it, I wanted to say, but I knew for all our sakes I needed to do as she asked.

  I concentrated as hard as I possibly could on the magnet.

  I stared at it so intensely that everything around me started to disappear. What was I supposed to be seeing? What’s smaller than dust? Cells? Molecules? Atoms? Seriously?

  VOOMPSH!

  Black.

  So black, nothing could penetrate it. And yet it was moving. Like a hurricane of utter darkness. “I’m blind,” I managed to sputter out.

  Elisha’s voice was somehow reassuring now as she whispered in my ear, “Can you see the way it’s spinning?”

  I don’t think anyone heard me. I WAS BLIND. Completely blind!

  “Don’t panic, Chelsan. We need you. Can you see the way it’s spinning?” Elisha repeated.

  I tried to focus on the movement of the blackness. It appeared as if the swirling darkness was going every which way, but when I calmed myself down, I could sense more than see the direction it was going. “I see it,” I said not sure even then what I could do about that information or what exactly it would mean for our escape.

  “Good. That’s good, Chelsan. Now I’m going to need you to make the blackness spin in the opposite direction. Can you do that?” Elisha’s voice was my only anchor in the darkness.

  I was focusing so hard on the spinning black that my head started to ache uncontrollably. I knew I needed to make this happen so I pushed aside the pain and with all my might I concentrated on making the black fog swirl in the other direction. Slow at first, then faster and faster, I made the blackness spin in the opposite direction.

  KER-KLUMP!

  “We’re free, you did it!” I heard Elisha say and felt our hover-van speed off.

  My heart started to race. It was still dark. I was going to be stuck in this blindness forever. I felt Ryan’s arms pull me up into him and I grabbed onto him for dear life. “I can’t see!” I cried out into his chest.

  I felt Elisha’s tiny hand touch my arm. “Disconnect from the blackness, just like you trained yourself to do with the dust. It’s the same process,” her voice was soothing and I calmed down.

  I made myself visually zoom out of the dark space, like I did with the dust.

  I could see again, though black swirling dust still surrounded me like a rain storm.

  One more zoom.

  I re-focused again.

  The dust was gone.

  I could see normal once again.

  Everyone was staring at me with concern.

  Even Jill.

  “I’m okay, guys,” I said though no one looked convinced.

  I could see out the window that we were moving faster than I’d ever gone in a hover-car. We weren’t even in a sanctioned lane: the driver obviously didn’t want a repeat of what just happened, so he was driving above the seventh lane. I guess Havenville was next on our stop. No one was arguing against it this time.

  Gramps almost had me. Again. And I wasn’t exactly sure how I even got us out of there. It terrified me at how little I knew about my gift. But it terrified me more at how much Elisha seemed to know.

  “What did you make me do?” I asked her directly.

  Elisha was still next to me, but she sat back in her seat across from me with a smile. “You reversed the polarity of the magnet.”

  I what?

  “I’ll explain everything to you once we’re in Havenville.” She pointed up toward the sunroof. “You never know who might be listening.”

  She was right. That was exactly the sort of thing Turner would do. If we did somehow manage to break free, he’d definitely try and plant something behind to listen to our every word. Once we landed, they could get rid of the van and we could talk freely.

  Elisha’s words repeated over and over in my head. Reversed the polarity. Whoa. That’s like… whoa. I was stunned. I’d written myself off as zombie girl, but now the scope of my powers was becoming a little overwhelming for my taste.

  “We’ll be there in about ten minutes,” Doris broke the silence with a half-hearted grin. She was obviously still frazzled at being magnetized to a Clean-Up truck, then freed by a circus freak like me. Seeing her so stressed out took the edge off of my anger toward her and Elisha for blowing up my school. Well, maybe not. I wanted to confront them both about their behavior, but felt muzzled by the possibility Gramps might be listening in.

  No one spoke after that.

  Ryan leaned his head on mine while he held me and I clung to him for support. In all this craziness it was a relief to have someone I could count on unconditionally. My head still throbbed, but being next to him somehow stemmed the pain.

  I didn’t like the way Elisha kept on staring at him though.

  Really gross and disturbing.

  Ryan just ignored her, but I couldn’t keep my eyes off of Elisha.

  We landed a few minutes later in a large grass field overlooking the small Christian Coalition town of Havenville. After exiting the car, I admit that the scene looked like it was out of a fairy tale. Standing on rolling hills of bright green grass, below us were ten rows of clay-shingled houses made of zigzag patterned brick with arched windows lining every wall. The houses were almost identical in three specific designs from what I could tell. Havenville was only a few square miles in size, and it was crowded. I could see the inhabitants bustling about, going in and out of their houses and near the middle of town, which looked like a shopp
ing area.

  But it was the dead center of town that was the crowning jewel. There stood by far the most stunning building I’d ever seen in my life. I could only guess that the building itself was made entirely of stone because of its grey color, but the intricacies built into the walls were breathtaking. The base was a large rectangle, but as the walls grew up they all ended in triangular spires that stretched to the sky. Even the arched windows were a sight to behold with the stained glass and stone carvings intricately patterned. In fact, the masonry was so detailed that the whole building looked like stoned lace. Only at the very top spire, towering above the rest, was there anything simple: a metal cross. If we were going to stay in this town that was the first building I wanted to check out. I truly had never seen anything like it.

  “A cathedral, am I right?” Ryan asked Elisha and Doris.

  Elisha responded with a smile. “That’s right. It came from Italy.”

  I looked at Ryan for more and he smiled at me. “About two hundred years ago when the religious sects branched off from the rest of the public, they wanted to bring their places of worship with them. The Christians and the Catholics decided amongst their organizations which building would go to who. Then they dismantled them brick by brick and had them reassembled in their respective towns. These buildings, they’re called “Cathedrals.” They used to be all over Europe and there were even some in the States, but they have been rebuilt in the Christian and Catholic towns across the world.”

  I didn’t even know Catholics had towns of their own, or that any other religion did, either. Or to be perfectly honest, I didn’t really know what exactly a Catholic was. I only knew about Christian Coalition towns. I guess because they were the ones that made the segregating legal and formed their own nation.

  I probably should have been impressed by Ryan’s knowledge of all this stuff, but it didn’t surprise me. Ryan’s brain pretty much retained everything that went into it. If he casually read about something four years ago he could recite it back as if he had just finished reading it two seconds ago. It was one of the reasons why Turner wanted Ryan so badly.

  “Are we all agreed that you’ll be staying awhile?” Doris asked tentatively.

  We all exchanged glances and nodded in agreement. “Yes,” I spoke for everyone.

  “Oh good, I’ll show you to your houses then.” Doris appeared visibly relieved. I think she was expecting another fight. At the moment, though, none of us had any fight to give. After our school exploding and escaping the magnet clutches of Gramps, all we wanted to do was collapse into blissful rest.

  Doris spoke up again, “Don’t worry, we’ll contact your parents and let them know you’ll be here for a while. For your own safety.”

  I was glad to hear that (if it were true: the jury was still out on Doris and Elisha) but if the ‘rents were worried at least they’d know where we were and not have to wonder if we’d died in the school explosions.

  We made our way into the town proper and I could see that almost every other person in the town was pregnant. It was a very surreal feeling, walking amongst a bunch of women pregnant with essentially kidnapped babies. I was probably the only one of our group who had actually seen a pregnant woman in person before now. Living in a trailer park, women had babies all the time. But my rich friends, whose parents and friends all went to the Baby Center, they had never been exposed to the sight.

  Nancy seemed the most fascinated. She outright stared at most of the women walking by.

  Then I nearly stopped in my tracks.

  I suddenly noticed that a handful of these people were old.

  And I mean old.

  Their faces were crinkled and wrinkled and sagged.

  It was terrifying.

  I thought Gramps looked old, but by comparison to these people he was a young man.

  Everyone else had stopped as well.

  Jill looked like she was going to vomit and Nancy clung to Jason’s arm as if he’d protect her from the wrinkled monsters.

  I knew I shouldn’t be thinking that way, but it was hard not to.

  Their shrunken, bent bodies looked grotesque in person. I had only seen pictures before, but nothing like this. The media obviously hid the true reality of age from the general public, and I suddenly felt very grateful.

  “Oh goodness, they’re younger than Jason. Show some respect.” Doris sounded angry at our obvious discomfort in the presence of the elderly.

  “I’d look older than that?” Jason blurted out and it took Nancy a good few seconds before she elbowed him accordingly. She had obviously been thinking the same thing.

  “Sorry.” Bill seemed embarrassed and guilty for all of us.

  “Let’s just get to our rooms,” I said, knowing that Doris was right.

  It was rude to stare in horror at anyone, and I should know. People used to do it all the time to me just for existing at Geoffrey Turner High and it made my life miserable. I didn’t want to do the same to these people. I had to keep reminding myself that they chose this life on purpose. They didn’t want to take Age-pro and they seemed very happy by their decision.

  I focused on the town itself to try and keep my mind and my eyes off the people in it.

  The roads themselves were made of cobblestone and reminded me of the streets outside of my old job, Mel’s Ice Cream and Soda. The stones ranged in all shades of grey giving the streets a faded salt and pepper pattern. Most of the buildings were indeed houses, but, like I thought before, as we reached the center of town the buildings that surrounded the cathedral were all shops. From what I could see, though, there were no pay stations, so I could only assume that everyone shared their goods here. It was actually quite nice.

  “Elisha?” A gravelly voice sounded from the steps of the cathedral.

  An elderly woman, shrunken with time and age, walked toward us with the support of a wooden cane. It wasn’t until she came within a few feet of us that I noticed her violet eyes staring at Elisha with tears.

  Her twin sister.

  But she actually looked their age.

  Elisha choked back tears as she embraced the old woman. “Beth.”

  The two sisters held each other, crying into each other’s shoulders. Elisha’s small child’s frame was almost the same height as Beth’s shrunken aged one. But through all the wrinkles; their noses, lips, eyes, face structure were identical.

  “I thought I’d never see you again,” Beth said as tears streamed down her face.

  Elisha’s own tears flowed freely as she clung onto her sister. “Me, too.”

  Yet another moment of clarity for me as I watched the two of them reunite: Turner had managed to destroy another family for his own selfish reasons. I suddenly felt very glad that I’d helped Elisha escape just so she could see her sister again. As much as I distrusted her, I had to remind myself that it was probably the fact that Elisha wasn’t really a child. She was the same age as this woman in front of us.

  And, like the other old people in this town, I still found it hard to look at Beth. I knew it was wrong, but when you live your whole life and the oldest person is thirty, seeing a ninety-eight year old is really disturbing. I tried to imagine what the world was like before Age-pro. There were probably millions of old people walking around with everyone else back then, and most likely no one even gave it a second thought.

  Weird.

  I looked around at everyone else and they were all looking at Beth and Elisha with sympathy.

  But it was Jill’s reaction that was slightly different from the rest. While everyone was focused on the sisters’ reunion, Jill was completely focused on Elisha.

  Only Elisha.

  The more I observed Jill, the more I realized that it wasn’t sympathy on her face, it was suspicion and maybe a little bit of fear mixed in.

  Jill turned to me, apparently feeling me stare at her. And instead of the nasty glare I expected, she gave me a look that clearly said, We have to stick together on this.

  I was a bit taken
aback since I usually only get those looks from Nancy, but I knew I wasn’t mistaken. Jill was keeping on her toes.

  I needed to do the same.

  Elisha pulled away first, and I noticed her eyes glance at all of us briefly. So quick no one caught it, but I did and I didn’t like what I saw. Elisha was gauging what our reactions were. Like this was a set up. Like she wanted us to see this reunion so we’d feel for her. And if it hadn’t been for Jill, I would have missed it.

  I gave Jill an almost imperceptible nod in acknowledgment of her warning look. She nodded back and I felt a strange sensation in my belly. Did Jill Forester actually have my back? I shook my head in disbelief. I must be in Bizarro world. But at this point I didn’t want to jinx it.

  Doris wiped away her own tears, completely engrossed in the drama of the two sisters seeing each other again. “Come on, kids. Just over here.”

  Elisha kissed Beth’s cheek. “I’ll see you in a few minutes. I’m just going to take them to the guest quarters.”

  Beth nodded and pulled out a hankie, wiping away her own tears.

  As we walked away I glanced back at Beth and I couldn’t see any duplicity in her expression. Their reunion was real, and to her it was heart-felt, but to Elisha it was a manipulative act for our benefit. Of that I was sure.

  It wasn’t far until we were past the town square and down one of the side roads reaching our destination. Standing in front of us was a two-level house made of the same zigzag patterned brick like all the others, with clay tiles on top. Up close it was an odd combination, like Victorian meets Adobe, but I had to admit it looked pretty cozy at the moment. I was physically exhausted and could barely think. With our escape and all the astral head butting of the last couple of days, sleep was becoming a prize I constantly fell short of winning.

  Ryan and I led the pack toward the heavy iron wrought door.

  “Hold on, there. This is the girl’s house. Boy’s house is next door,” Doris admonished from behind.

  What?

  Seriously?

  “Why?” is what came out.

  “Because this is a religious town and boys and girls do not sleep in the same bed until they’re married.” Doris’s chest seemed to puff out at this like she was on the band wagon with this one.