by Sharon Sant
Her eyes flicked to the ground where her brother lay watching, his expression one of sadness and calm acceptance of the fate that awaited him. She drew her hand in readiness…
Alex twitched and woke. Drawing a deep breath, she lit the room and rolled onto her back, staring at the ceiling. Not for the first time, she was glad of the ability she had discovered to shut her mind off from her uncle while she slept, sure that he would have something to say about her dreams. She got up and moved across to the chrome-framed mirror over the basin, standing before it and rubbing the tears from her eyes. She peered from beneath their red rims and observed their colour: a troubled, cloudy grey. That was something else she was going to have to master, and quickly. Makash was steadily tightening his grip and she needed to keep some part of herself hidden.
After rubbing some water over her face and through her short hair, she returned to the bed and sat moodily on the side observing her surroundings. The floor was honeyed marble, warm and smooth and, at first, she had loved to walk it barefooted. The walls were complementary shades of purple; shiny mirrored furniture and a king-sized bed dominated the space. She had modelled it herself, on a classy hotel she had once been inside at home. Home… where was that now? She didn’t even know what home meant anymore. When she had first been brought to this place, a location that was still a secret to her, she had thought herself lucky and clever that she could make it anything she wanted to. Now it just felt like a prison, no matter what she did with its appearance. Her resentment of Jacob grew daily – he had brought her this by searching her out. She was doing just fine before he arrived and messed it up; she had a boyfriend and friends and a life - maybe not that successful, but at least it was hers to steer as she wished. He had given her powers that she didn’t want and had led their uncle right to her. She owed him nothing but her hatred. So why did this dream continue to plague her?
It was early when Ellen arrived at Jacob’s house shortly after dropping Tommy off at school breakfast club, but she knew that Maggie and Phil would be up. Alfie had not returned overnight but she hadn’t been concerned by this fact. He was likely holed up with some friend or other. He often went missing for days and his friends’ parents were mostly tolerant of his presence at their homes; he had probably gone to school from one of their houses. She had no idea what he was telling them about his home life, but she was certain that it would be something creative and sympathy inducing.
Maggie answered the door. ‘Everything alright? You look tired.’ she said, immediately noting the dark skin beneath Ellen’s eyes.
Ellen raised an eyebrow as Maggie stifled a yawn. ‘I could ask you the same thing.’
‘Didn’t sleep well.’ Maggie gestured for Ellen to go through to the kitchen and closed the front door.
In the kitchen, Phil was in a crisp white shirt and fastening his tie. Ellen halted in the doorway and stared. ‘You’re going to work?’
He gave her a small sideways smile. ‘Don’t look so shocked. I haven’t just pulled a rabbit from a hat.’
‘It’s just…’
‘I know,’ Maggie cut in from behind her. ‘We had a little talk last night, and we decided that a few things needed to get back to normal.’
Ellen took a seat at the table and Maggie crossed over to the worktop to pack some sandwiches. Ellen’s thoughts turned, momentarily, to her own plans for university, the ones she had put on hold. As if reading her mind, Maggie interrupted her musings.
‘You should think about it too… getting back to normal, that is. You’ve been a rock for me lately and God knows how I would have managed without you, but…’ she handed Phil his lunch and took a seat across from Ellen as he packed his briefcase, ‘maybe it’s time you started living for yourself instead of others.’
Ellen reflected on her words. She had been this way for so long she didn’t think she knew how to live for herself anymore. ‘It’s not just Jake… there’s Tommy and Alfie…’ she faltered.
Maggie sighed, a tinge of sadness in her expression. That was something Ellen was going to have to work out for herself.
Phil bent over to kiss Maggie. ‘I’ll see you later.’ He turned to Ellen. ‘I’d better not see you later; otherwise it means you’ve been here too long!’ He winked at her. She always hated it when men winked at her but, somehow, when it was Phil, it was endearing. She smiled.
‘I’ll try not to be.’
Maggie rose from her seat. ‘I’ll come and see you off.’
They left the kitchen together and were missing for some time. Ellen could just make out the low hum of conversation coming from the front door. She guessed that Maggie was fussing over him more than usual and Phil was telling her how it was all fine and not to worry. But Phil, out of all of them, had been the most faithful presence at Jacob’s bedside during the past two months; despite his bravado, Ellen knew that the separation from Jacob, even for just a few hours, was going to tear him up.
When Maggie returned her manner was brisk. ‘Let’s get the kettle on,’ she chirped. ‘I’ve got some fabric swatches and paint samples I want you to look at.’ She crossed the kitchen to the tap, and then suddenly bowed her head, her shoulders shaking.
Ellen leapt up from her seat and went to place an uncertain arm around her, gently taking the kettle from her and putting it down. She said nothing, but pulled Maggie to her shoulder and let her cry. There was nothing that she could say that would make it better.
‘I’m sorry,’ Maggie finally croaked, lifting her head and reaching into her pocket for a packet of tissues. ‘It’s just getting to me, all this.’
‘Of course it is,’ Ellen soothed, now biting back her own tears.
‘I don’t know how much more I can take,’ Maggie continued. ‘When we talked last night, work wasn’t the only thing we discussed,’ she said, drying her eyes and moving back to her seat at the table.
‘And?’ Ellen asked, following her.
‘We just don’t know what to do with Jacob. We have no idea whether he’s ever going to come round. We can’t carry on like this indefinitely. It could be years,’ she gulped, ‘God forbid, but he could outlive us all still lying in that bed. Then who would care for him?’
‘What are you saying?’ Ellen demanded, panic rising in her.
‘I don’t know…’ Maggie began to sob again.
‘Listen to me.’ Ellen’s voice hardened. ‘He is not like you and me, and he will come round, you just have to have faith.’
Maggie looked up and stopped crying, clearly shocked by Ellen’s tone. ‘But how can you know? You’ve told us about these… abilities he has. But is that enough?’
Ellen bit her lip. Was this the time to finally tell the whole story about his people, who he really was?
She slowly drew breath to speak, but before she had managed to utter a word, there was a loud crash from upstairs. They both stiffened in their seats and turned their faces to the ceiling, and then to each other.
‘What was that?’ Ellen whispered. Maggie shook her head, staring at her. ‘Phil hasn’t come back for something, has he?’ Ellen asked.
Maggie rose from her seat. ‘Phil?’ she called in a shaky voice. She went out to the hallway and Ellen followed as she called up the stairs. ‘Phil… is that you?’
Receiving no reply, Maggie and Ellen climbed the stairs. Maggie poked her head round the door of her own bedroom and a quick glance told her that the noise had not come from there. Exchanging worried looks, they crossed the landing to the room where Jacob lay and Maggie slowly pushed open the door.
Jacob was silent and lifeless, his state unchanged from the last time she had checked on him. But down on the floor, beside the bed, his lamp lay in hundreds of tiny pieces.
Six: The Strongest Bonds
‘I’m telling you, Luca, it was just the freakiest thing.’ Ellen pulled her coat tight and folded her arms to keep the heat in. The wind picked up a loose lock of hair and whisked it around her face; she pulled the rogue strands behind her ear and gazed
out across the lake.
‘And there was nothing else?’ Luca shot her a sideways glance. ‘The lamp fell off the table… and that was it?’
‘I know, I know…’ Ellen turned her face to him. ‘It sounds stupid now. The lamp fell off the table…’
‘No,’ Luca corrected quickly, ‘I don’t think it’s stupid. I just don’t know what to think.’ She shivered. ‘You’re cold?’ Luca asked.
She gave her head a tiny shake. ‘I’m fine.’ Her attention turned to the lake again. The banks were littered with fallen leaves. It was strange - the park was still shaded by the lush evergreens that populated the majority of it and Ellen wondered vaguely where all those leaves had come from. ‘There’s something I can’t quite put my finger on, though,’ she mused.
‘Like what?’
‘You know how we’re connected? I can pick up bits here and there from Jake… at least, when he’s normal I can.’
Luca gave a wry smile. ‘When was that guy ever normal?’ She elbowed him playfully and he grinned.
‘You know what I mean,’ she chided. ‘That’s just it, though. Earlier today, when the lamp fell off the table, I felt something.’
‘What was it?’
‘I wish I knew. It wasn’t for long.’
‘You don’t think you imagined it?’
‘Maybe,’ she conceded.
‘What did his mum say?’
‘She was pretty shook up, to be honest. I don’t know how much more stress she can take.’
‘So you didn’t get to tell her? About the Astraens, I mean?’
‘No. I’m glad I didn’t now. But that’s the other thing about it. Don’t you think the timing was a bit… perfect? I’m about to spill the beans and, upstairs, Jake’s lamp falls off the table in an otherwise still and silent room?’
‘Coincidence,’ Luca replied with more conviction than he felt. ‘So we stick with the story they already have?’ he pressed.
‘Maybe it’s enough, for now. We’re lucky that Jake has always been a bit… odd. Saved me a lot of explaining.’
‘One minute Jake is right as rain and his dad about to die, the next, Phil’s all better and Jake’s catatonic. You’d have to be blind not to see the connection there.’
Ellen nodded. ‘We stick to that, then. That he has special healing powers, and we don’t mention the alien bit?’
‘Dunno. Where would you start explaining that one? It was pretty hard for us to swallow at first, and we saw him in action.’
‘They already had a sense that there was something different about Jake. Don’t forget, they reared him. You don’t spend that sort of time with someone and not get some idea of their potential.’
‘Not to mention the freaky eye thing,’ Luca agreed.
‘Luca! Be serious.’
‘I am!’ He shot her a wounded expression. ‘It is freaky; even you have to admit that.’
She tutted. ‘It is not. Well… not always.’ She smiled sadly, her look suddenly far away. ‘Remember when we used to hang out, over there by the shed?’ She pointed out to the far shore of the lake.
‘I’m not sitting in that grass now, if that’s what you’re hoping,’ Luca grimaced.
‘Don’t you miss those times, though?’
‘What, nearly having my arms ripped off by a psycho, slap-headed alien?’
‘Not that time,’ Ellen laughed. ‘All the times we messed about before then, just us three. It was fun.’
‘Yeah…’ Luca agreed, ‘it was. But then Jake had to go and uncover his superhero alter ego and ruin it all.’
Ellen sighed. ‘It does feel as though the world has been upside-down since then.’
‘Well,’ Luca’s tone was blunt, ‘my impression of the world has certainly changed. Not to mention the fact that there’s a lot more out there,’ he gestured to the leaden skies, ‘than I ever thought possible. Sometimes I wonder whether I ought to be taking up astrophysics, not medicine.’
‘Yeah, but the girls on the physics courses don’t get to wear nurses’ uniforms,’ Ellen said, prodding him.
Luca grinned. ‘You’d be surprised what puppy-dog-eyes can do to persuade any girl to don a nurse uniform.’
‘You’re impossible!’ she giggled.
‘That’s why you love me.’
‘I do,’ she said, the laugh dying in her throat. ‘I do love you. You’re the only person in this whole world that makes me feel normal.’
He circled an arm around her shoulder, drawing her close. ‘I know. But it’s not the same for me as it is for him, is it? If you were totally honest, it’s always been him.’
She rested her head on his shoulder and turned her gaze once more to the lake, where the white matchstick masts of the boats bobbing at their moorings on the far shore stood proud against the tumbling mass of grey clouds. ‘I wish I could say something different.’
‘You don’t need to. I could never compete with what he has, and I wouldn’t want to.’
Ellen twisted to look up at him. ‘You are amazing, though. Just in a different way.’
‘My hair is, that’s for sure.’
‘Yes, Luca, your hair is sculpted by the gods themselves.’
‘Perhaps I come from a special race of beings with fantastic hair…’
‘You never know.’
‘What would my power be?’
‘Managing a force ten gale without the aid of gel?’
‘Oh, I can totally do that.’
Ellen put her head back on his shoulder and snuggled in, savouring his warmth, his musky scent. Being with Luca was so different than being with Jacob. It was like the difference between sunbathing and skydiving. Jacob made her skin tingle, made her feel tense and alive. Luca was the person who calmed her, who made her feel like she could lock the outside world away and stay safe in his arms.
‘Come on,’ Luca said, interrupting her thoughts. ‘I’ll buy you a hot chocolate.’ He jumped from the bench and offered her a hand. She took it and let him pull her up.
‘I am a bit cold,’ she replied.
‘I knew it,’ he said. ‘Just like you to be too stubborn to admit it.’
Inside the ocean themed café it smelt like cinnamon. The afternoon rush had died down and, other than a few stragglers, the place was empty. Luca started towards the counter but Ellen stopped him.
‘Just a minute,’ she said, putting a hand on his arm. ‘As we’re here now, I have something to show you.’
The sudden shyness in her voice surprised him. He followed her to a far wall dotted with canvases and framed drawings. When they were standing right before it she pointed up to a large canvas painted with an impressionistic lilac evening sky over a wide beach, bordered by brightly coloured huts.
‘It’s mine,’ she said, beaming.
Luca turned to her with an incredulous smile. ‘Seriously?’
She nodded. ‘They always buy from the end of year art show at college.’
‘You got paid for it?’
‘Don’t sound so shocked,’ Ellen laughed, ‘I have sold stuff before…’
‘Yeah, but…’ Luca recalled paintings they had hanging in his own house. His mum had bought work from Ellen but he always assumed it was because she felt sorry for her. He dragged her into a hug strong enough to lift her from the floor and swung her around.
‘Luca,’ she giggled, ‘put me down.’
‘It’s just so cool.’ He set her down, his expression one of awe as he gazed at her, almost like he was looking at her for the first time.
Suddenly, the lights flickered, came back on for a second, and then sputtered out, plunging the café into gloom. A murmur of uneasy surprise rippled through the customers. There was just enough light for Luca to make out Ellen’s distracted features, her anxiety more than it ought to be for the situation. He reached to put an arm around her.
‘It’s only a power cut.’
As soon as he had spoken, there was rattling noise followed by a loud bang. The lights came back on. Ellen
’s painting was lying on the floor.
‘Ok, now I’m freaked.’ Ellen shuddered as she bent to pick up the painting. She turned it around to inspect for damage. ‘Seems ok,’ she murmured.
‘Here,’ Luca grabbed the bulky canvas. ‘It’s heavy, let me carry it over to the counter and someone can put it back up.’
Ellen let him take it and waited as he spoke to one of the assistants. He disappeared into a back room and emerged a few moments later without the artwork.
‘They’re going to put it back up when the manager gets here,’ he said as he returned to her.
‘What do you think that was?’ she whispered, scanning the now brightly lit room and noticing that some customers were giving them curious looks.
‘Earth tremor?’ Luca suggested.
Ellen raised her eyebrows. ‘And only my painting fell off the wall?’
‘I don’t know,’ he concluded lamely.
She shook her head forcefully. ‘I could feel some kind of energy. I know I definitely felt it this time.’
Luca took her elbow. ‘I think we need to sit down, people are giving us funny looks standing in the middle of the room like this.’
He guided her to an empty table by the large windows. She sat and shivered slightly as the wind found its way in through a gap in the frame and chilled her neck.
‘You ok?’ Luca asked.
She nodded. ‘Come with me to see Jake today.’
Luca shifted uncomfortably in his seat. ‘I don’t know… it creeps me out to see him like that.’
