Crystal Fire

by Jordan Dane

  Kendra was beyond listening. She pushed him away and turned her back on him, saying, “Please don’t look at me. I can’t do this if you’re looking.”

  “It wasn’t your fault.”

  She stared into her past in a daze, saying anything that came to her mind.

  “The police never found her...or her body. Daddy finally bought a coffin and we buried it empty so people would quit asking about her,” she told him. “But he stopped...loving me. That’s when I left. I knew he wouldn’t care anyway. I only reminded him...of what I did to her.”

  Rafael wrapped his arms around her and pulled her to his chest, respecting her wishes not to look at her. When she stopped sobbing, he whispered in her ear, “It wasn’t your fault. You have to quit blaming yourself, Kendra. You were a kid.”

  He rocked her and kept saying the same thing until she got quiet.

  Guilt was a terrible thing. Rafe had a lot in his life that had been out of his control, like the father he got, and even how Benny had found and changed him forever. He saw the same things in Kendra. Whoever took her sister, they were to blame for what happened, not a little girl who was too young to be responsible for the evil in others—or a father working two jobs who couldn’t afford day care.

  He had to find a way to forgive himself for what happened to Benny, just like Kendra had to feel worthy of a second chance. He felt closer to her now than he ever had before, but when she pulled from him, she looked worn out and sad. Broken.

  “Do you blame me for what happened to Benny?” he asked her.

  “No, of course not. The Believers did that.”

  She held his hand. Her skin felt good next to his.

  “I’m glad you said that, because then maybe you’ll believe that what happened to your sister isn’t your fault either. Someone else took her. Someone bad.” He held her face in his hands. “We can’t keep doing this. We’re living in the past. I’m tired of feeling bad all the time, but I don’t feel bad when I’m with you.”

  He didn’t wait for her to say anything.

  “If you forgive me and I forgive you, maybe one day we can look in the mirror and forgive who we see,” he said.

  She smiled, in that fragile way that always broke his heart and made him love her more.

  “No more secrets between us,” he said. “That’s a good start.”

  “A start?”

  Rafael tucked a strand of her hair behind her ear and grinned.

  “Yeah, like starting over. Help me finish our garden,” he said. “We got good soil here, don’t you think?”

  New tears rolled down her cheeks, but Kendra didn’t look sad anymore. Rafael wasn’t stupid enough to think that one brave confession and a good cry would stop the hurt, but it was a start—for both of them.

  25

  Rayne had told Lucas where Mia lived. He’d gotten the information from her and avoided sounding as if he was interested in reaching out to their older sister, but he knew that day would come. It had to.

  That moment was now.

  He stood outside her home across the street and watched her move through her living room. She’d become colors and motion through slated blinds. The room was dark. The only flicker of light came from the TV. When he got closer, he saw that she had a small bowl of popcorn in her hand as she’d settled onto a sofa.

  Gabriel had dropped him off and he’d made plans to rendezvous with him later when he was done. Luke hadn’t told Rayne. He knew she’d want to come, but confronting Mia for what she’d done to him had always been personal. This wasn’t about disintegrating their grieving family. It was about a big sister making devastating decisions for a younger brother she believed to be mentally unstable.

  If his sister called the cops to have him arrested, he didn’t want to risk Rayne’s freedom for something he had to do on his own. Lucas stuck to the shadows and went around to the backyard. He found a darkened window that was open a crack. He felt like a criminal as he crawled into his sister’s home, but he didn’t trust her to greet him like long-lost family. In her mind, he’d be a mental patient on the run.

  As he walked toward the faint noise and the light from the living room, he felt his heart race. He didn’t know what he wanted to say to her. Only anger welled inside him. In the darkness, he wanted to picture Mia as the girl he’d grown up with, but he couldn’t.

  Too much had happened and she’d nearly gotten him killed.

  When he couldn’t stand it any longer, Luke blurted the first thing that came to his mouth.

  “I want my life back.” He stepped out of the shadows of a darkened hallway. “I’m tired of running from my own sister.”

  Mia jumped at the sound of his voice and she shot to her feet and turned to face him.

  “Lucas?” His older sister’s eyes grew wide and her gaze darted to the cell phone on her coffee table. “Are you...?”

  “Am I stable? Is that what you wanted to ask me?” He didn’t wait for her to answer. “I was always okay. I was just different. You never understood that.”

  What he’d said had hurt her. He saw it in her eyes. She’d always been tough. Confident. Tonight, with her scrubbed face and hair in a ponytail, she looked small without her high heels...and worn out.

  “You forgot how it was with you. You kept saying you saw our dead parents. That’s not right, Luke. You needed a doctor’s help. You were hallucinating things that didn’t make sense.”

  “To you maybe, but to kids like me, it makes perfect sense. Ever hear of a Crystal child...or an Indigo? Look it up on the internet. We’re psychic. We feel things differently than you do, but that doesn’t make us animals or something to be afraid of.”

  When he stepped closer to her, she backed away and her body tensed.

  “I won’t hurt you, Mia. Not like you’ve hurt me...and can still hurt me.”

  His sister crossed her arms and in the dim light, he saw her eyes filled with tears. He didn’t know what to expect from this confrontation, but her crying wasn’t it.

  “I thought I’d done the right thing...for you...for us as a family. I didn’t know what else to do. I was practically a kid myself when Mommy and Daddy died. I had to do what was right. I love you, Lucas, but even now you scare me.”

  “You scare me too. What happened to you? You turned on me and Rayne, all for that lame church. Do you know what they do to kids like me? They’re killing us...torturing us with their weird experiments...in the name of their twisted religion. You’re a part of that, Mia. You chose them over our family.”

  “I don’t know what you’re talking about. Killing? Torture? I’ve never heard or seen anything like that.”

  “Open your eyes, Mia. I’m your brother. I’ve seen what they do. You almost got me sent to Ward 8. They would’ve killed me there.”

  “I didn’t know. I swear.”

  “So who do you believe? If you don’t trust me, we’re done as a family, but I intend to fight for my trust fund money in court if I have to. I need to move on with my life. I’m with Rayne. We’re okay...if that still matters to you.”

  Tears flowed more easily now. When she wiped her face, he watched how her fingers trembled.

  “I won’t fight you, Lucas. The money is yours. I’ll see to it.” She sighed and chewed her lower lip. “I quit my job at the church. Something didn’t feel right about the way they were searching for you. I trusted your doctor, Fiona Haugstad. I thought she would help you, but I was wrong.”

  Mia clutched her arms tighter across her stomach and inched closer to him. Her eyes were wary, but he felt something had changed in her.

  “I tried to get in touch with you and Rayne on her cell until her voice mail got full. I don’t know how to make it up to you...and to Rayne.” She shook her head. “I want us to be a family, but I don’t know how to do that. Maybe it�
�s too late.”

  For once Mia didn’t have all the answers. Lucas considered that a good start. She looked fragile, like a bird with a busted wing.

  “Come here.”

  When Luke pulled Mia to his chest, she let go. She sobbed and collapsed into his arms. He couldn’t remember the last time she’d touched him. Luke had no illusions that they could be a family again.

  He only knew that for the first time, he wanted to try.

  Stewart Estate

  The next morning

  Drinking tea and sitting atop the parapet of the tower in his jeans and a T-shirt, Gabriel watched an unusual glow move closer to the gates of the estate. He straightened his slouch and narrowed his eyes toward the horizon. In the dawn’s pale light, the headlights of a caravan of cars looked hazy in a morning fog as thoughts raced through his head.

  The Believers had found them.

  He set down his cup on the ledge and ran for the tower door and down the spiral stairs with the sound of his boots echoing off stone. Uncle Reginald’s suite wasn’t far. Gabriel prayed that he was wrong about the unwanted early morning intrusion when he pounded on his uncle’s door.

  “Gabriel? What is it?”

  “We’ve got visitors coming to our gate. Four or five cars.”

  His uncle didn’t ask any more questions.

  “I’ll be dressed in two shakes. Pull the SUV in front. I’ll meet you. We’ll confront them at the gate. Go. Now.”

  Gabriel ran to grab the keys and head for the estate garage. On his way he sent a message to the hive through Kendra, Lucas and Rafael. They’d know what to do.

  We have company. Evacuation plan. Stay put until you hear from me, he told them.

  What? Shit!

  I’m on it.

  Will do.

  The voices of the others filled his head. He didn’t want to send a panic to the little ones—waking them from a dead sleep after the devastating attack in the tunnels had happened in much the same way—but he didn’t have a choice. They might need to take cover and hide in the stronghold his uncle had made of a reinforced panic room. Reginald had made sure to drill them on what to do for emergencies.

  As Gabriel barreled up to the front door in the Navigator, he screeched to a stop for his uncle to get in. Uncle Reginald’s face looked pale, but his eyes were determined.

  “I’ll do the talking. They’ll expect that.”

  “And when they’re done talking, I’ll take over.”

  “Agreed.” His uncle glanced toward him. “Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that.”

  The ride down the mountain jostled his empty stomach as the SUV navigated through ruts in the road and sharp turns down the switchbacks. When they got close enough to see the front gate in the early morning light, four vehicles were lined up in front of the gate with engines running. The silhouettes of people without faces stood in front of blazing headlights.

  “If this was the Believers, they wouldn’t have waited. They would’ve stormed the gate and rushed us, Gabriel.”

  As they got near enough to see faces, Gabe shot a perplexed look at his uncle. “They’re kids.”

  More than a dozen kids stood outside the gate in a line, waiting for them. When Gabe and his uncle got out of the SUV, he left the engine running in case they had to make a quick getaway, but something in the young faces made him more curious than fearful. Their thoughts beckoned and embraced him.

  One girl stepped forward as they approached the locked and secured metal gate to the grounds. She was thin and dressed in sweats and a hoodie.

  “If you’re who I think you are, you won’t find it strange that we’re here,” she said. “Indigos all over are talking about you... What you did.”

  She stared past his uncle, straight at Gabriel.

  “You’re him, aren’t you?” The blonde girl pointed at him. “Your aura, it’s...stunning. I’ve never seen anything like it.”

  “That’s him.” A whisper rushed through the kids, and every gaze turned toward him. “He’s the one.”

  A girl who could read auras explained the eerie sensation he had felt at the assault on his father’s mansion. She must have sensed the negative energy of the fight and his powerful impact on the hive. He didn’t know such a thing was even possible.

  “How did you know where to come?” Gabriel asked.

  “A few of us just knew,” she said. “We’d never felt anything like you before. We came to see for ourselves...to see if we can help.”

  “Yeah.” A young boy stepped forward and his voice cracked. “Like, you woke us up, dude. For real. What are you...exactly?”

  “Good question.” Gabriel smiled.

  He didn’t know what to make of these kids knowing where they were and feeling his presence as if he’d left a signature on the hive collective that others sensed. They had found their way to him because of it. That felt dangerous and risky, but something more hit him.

  Indigos outside of L.A. had sensed the fight. They’d instinctively known what had happened and even knew where to come. The more they pushed the boundaries of what they could do as a collective—together—the stronger the hive could become. Something had happened. They were becoming what they had always been meant to be.

  “I wasn’t sure we’d accomplished much...until now. We took out some of their leaders in L.A., destroyed one of their torture wards at a mental hospital, shredded their computer system and records and we rescued some Indigos. But the Believers are massive, yeah?” After the kids nodded, Gabe went on. “But you being here, that’s amazing. I’ve got to know how you did that.”

  “I’d say breakfast is in order.” Uncle Reginald winked at him and opened the gate. “Please...join us.”

  Before the Indigos climbed back in their cars for the ride up the mountain to the mansion, they lined up one by one and shook hands with Gabriel and touched him, telling him their names. No one ordered it. They did it without prompting.

  Gabe’s face flushed with heat.

  “I’m Gabriel. Welcome.”

  They had started more than a fight against the Believers in L.A. and retaliation against his father for what had happened to Benny. With each handshake and smile, Gabe felt tears burning behind his eyes. All the emotional pressure he’d felt over being responsible for his new Indigo family came rushing to the surface and hit him hard. He fought the lump in his throat as the realization hit him.

  They hadn’t just survived the fight. They’d started...a movement.

  Stewart Estate

  Days later

  Despite the energized buzz that came from knowing that Indigos outside L.A. were hearing about what had happened and spreading the word about the success of their fight against the Believers, in the days that had followed the attack, Rayne couldn’t stop the dark spiral that had started when she pulled the trigger and killed Boelens. Each day brought new ordeals. The first few nights had been the worst. When she couldn’t stand to be alone, she’d slept in her brother’s room. Lucas gave her his bed and he slept on the floor.

  The nightmares felt as if they would never end. Flashbacks filled her nights and loud noises gave her the shakes and sometimes brought her to tears. She found it hard to concentrate and there were days she wouldn’t get out of bed. It felt as if she were slowly sinking into quicksand, and very little made her feel better.

  Uncle Reginald offered to take her to a doctor so she could talk it out. He’d offered the same to any of the Indigos who needed help to deal with what had happened, but what could she or any of them possibly admit to an outsider?

  But as time went by, small things became tolerable. Gabriel never gave up on her. He slept on the floor in Luke’s room when she let him and he held her when she needed it. He seemed to intuitively know what she needed and quietly took care of her.

  What helped most w
as him telling her about the others, when she didn’t have to dwell on her misery. He knew she would care and he made her feel a part of the clan they were building. Gradually she filled her days helping Uncle Reginald get the new children settled into a routine. If she had any downtime, the dark memories came. They were never far from the surface.

  Her dark days had kept her from saying goodbye to little Noah. She missed him, but he had a family of his own. Uncle Reginald saw to it that Noah found his way home. He had to do the job discreetly, of course. He didn’t want to be blamed for taking the child, but through trusted friends, he made sure the ten-year-old got home to his desperate parents. There had been an AMBER Alert, but since the Believers had taken the boy across state lines and hidden him in their hospital ward in a basement, Noah’s trail had grown ice cold. Uncle Reginald had to settle for watching the little boy’s homecoming on the television.

  If Noah talked about the magical home in the mountains where he’d been taken by nice people and a dead butler, who would believe him?

  After time went by, Uncle Reginald asked the new Indigos what they wanted to do. If they had families or other places to be, he didn’t want to stop them, but being around other Indigos and learning from each other had made for a strong incentive for them to stay.

  When he had an idea who would stick, he asked her thoughts on homeschooling and Rayne volunteered to help. Whatever hurt she still felt over killing Boelens, she decided to turn it into a positive and help the kids. They were building a haven for homeless at-risk Indigos and she wanted to be a part of it. She signed up to take online courses for the kids and for herself. Kendra offered her time and Debbie, one of the new Indigos, told them she’d always wanted to be a teacher. Her twin sister, Denise, had the gifts of a healer and made a fine apprentice for Kendra.

  With more Indigos reaching out to them in different ways, they’d started a movement that carried its own momentum. They’d become an inspiration to an underground resistance. Fighting against the Believers worldwide meant they’d have to get organized. A group like theirs had started in Canada with another one in Mexico. Who knows how many would follow in other countries? They were developing secret ways to stay in touch online and through the hive collective that was growing, according to Gabriel.