Black-Eyed Kids: The Complete Series

by Miranda Hardy

  It’s my therapist.

  26

  ASTID

  MY HEAD THROBS from reaching. I can’t locate Maverick anywhere. His mother remains resting in her bed, and she’s almost asleep. He’s not at Marcus’ house, and neither is Marcus. I scan the whole neighborhood, but Maverick is gone.

  Did they catch him? Does Kren have him somewhere, waiting for me to find him? If Kren did capture him, I’m sure my brother would have let me know by now. Maybe Maverick and his friends went back to the barn to try to get more answers about Tarick.

  I don’t have any other ideas, so I decide to go towards the barn. My defenses are up, and the only life I’m detecting are the wild animals all around me. I know I’m getting close to the barn, and I can already detect several energies just at the edge of my reach.

  These minds are strangers to me, but it’s still too soon to tell. I approach cautiously, and with each step I take, I’m more certain that I’m sensing agents searching the area.

  My conclusions are confirmed when I spot the two dark vehicles blocking the dirt road. I decide to go around them and stay hidden in the woods.

  I start toward the barn, but then my senses become overloaded the closer I get. I slow my pace and remain at a safe distance. The human minds I’m touching tell me all that I need to know. They are searching for us, and their thoughts are full of determination and anger.

  They’ve come for me. They know we are near, and they have weapons that will subdue us. I see them. I know them. These people are far worse than any others on this planet. Level 6 has come to take us back.

  Maverick is hiding nearby. My mind is able to touch his. He’s watching the agents, but he stays just out of their reach, thank goodness. Lisa is in the woods, and she’s the furthest one away from the barn. I can sense Maverick crawling away on his stomach, retreating back towards Lisa’s position. Marcus and Cadence, however, are getting too close.

  Maverick? I send my thoughts directly to him. Get out of there now. Do not let them see you.

  Astid? Where are you? We came here looking for you. His mental voice reaches me, and I feel him retreating from the agents’ position.

  I’m close by, but I need to leave here. They will kill you and do worse to me. I sense that the urgency in my words alarms him. Fear emanates from his mind.

  Maverick pushes away his panic. The others. Where are Marcus and Cadence? They should be around the barn. Can you reach them?

  My mind stretches outwards, and I dread giving Maverick bad news. No, it’s too late. They’ve been caught.

  27

  MAVERICK

  THE WIND PICKS up and crashes through the treetops. A pinecone falls nearby, and Lisa muffles a scream with both hands.

  “We need to move back.” I reach out and take Lisa’s hand. “We’re too close.”

  They are sending out others to look for you. You need to hurry. Astid’s panicked tone penetrates my mind, and I break out into a full sprint.

  Lisa remains silent and matches my pace. The pine needles and wind mask our sounds, but we stay in the wooded area, away from the road. If we continue in this general direction, we should hit the main road soon.

  Where will you go? Astid asks.

  I’m not sure. Talking to her in my head seems easier now. We can’t go to my house, and I’ll have to get Lisa home. Marcus has the keys to his car. Who were those people? They will let Marcus and Cadence go, right?

  A million other questions pop into my head as I’m running, and they jumble together like the letters in the alphabet soup my mom likes to heat up on cold nights.

  Honestly, I’m not sure what they will do to them, Astid answers. Maverick, those people are far worse than what you imagine.

  I shudder at the thought. One of them was my therapist. Lisa trips over a root that sticks out of the ground, and grabs onto me for support. “Are you okay?” I ask her.

  “Yeah. Where are we going?” she whispers to me as she regains her balance. “Where are Cadence and Marcus?” Her breathing becomes labored, and she grabs her chest.

  I continue our frantic pace. “We can’t stop. The people back there caught them.”

  “Oh my God, what are we going to do?” Her feet start to drag, and I’m practically yanking her across the grass. “Can we stop and figure out all this stuff?”

  Astid’s firm voice fills my mind. No, you need to keep moving and beat them to the street. Cross over it and head back into the woods.

  “Oh crap, did you hear that?” Lisa asks and holds her head. “Is that...her in my head?”

  Astid must have sent her urgent thoughts to Lisa too.

  I stop to look her in the eyes. “It’s Astid. She knows who those government agents are, and she’s freaked out about them, so they must be bad news. Let’s go, we need to get away.”

  Lisa starts ahead of me and kicks up dirt in her wake. It’s impressive that she didn’t freak out too much. Astid’s mind-speak takes some getting used to—it was really weird at first—but I’m getting better at it.

  A branch rakes across my arm, but panic replaces the pain. Astid, there’s a tree house a half mile from my home, in the northern woods. Will they find us there?

  No. The agents only plan to search the woods in the general area of the barn. Get there fast, she replies.

  My lungs burn, but I command my body to keep moving. Meet us at the tree house. We need answers, and it’s time you give them to us. The sternness in my thoughts remind me of my father. Astid, I don’t know what’s going on, but all of this is freaking me out.

  I understand.

  I mentally ask her, Do you need directions to the tree house?

  Not necessary, Astid replies. I know where it is from touching your mind.

  Okay, that’s weird, but there’s no time to dwell on that. We reach the paved road, and the sign to Bella Terra stands south of us.

  “Are we going to your house?” Lisa asks.

  I stop to catch my breath. “No, I don’t think that’s a good idea. Mom thinks I’m with Marcus, anyway.”

  The road appears calm, with no vehicles in sight, and we dash across it and merge with the tree line on the other side.

  “Then where are we going?”

  My tennis shoes seem louder as they wade through the rougher foliage. “We’re meeting Astid at the tree house just north of the development.”

  “We’re meeting Astid? How do you know where she is? The cops can’t even find her.” Lisa smacks her arm. “Damnit, I’m getting eaten by giant mosquitoes.”

  “First of all, those weren’t cops back there. They’re probably something else like the CIA or FBI. Secondly, I know where Astid is because I’ve been using my mind to communicate with her the whole time time we’ve been running. I told her to meet us there.”

  “Talking with your mind?” Lisa quivers. “How is it I heard her once, but it seems you ‘hear’ her more?”

  It’s harder to connect to her mind, Astid says to me.

  “I don’t have many answers for you, yet.” Talking to two women at the same time is wearing on me.

  Astid, why is it that a hundred more questions pop up when you answer just one?

  She replies, Because you are a curious person, and a bit of a closed-minded one at that. I’m already at the tree house.

  “Well, I think you’ve opened my mind up a little here recently,” I say out loud.

  “What?” Lisa shoots me an annoyed look.

  “Sorry, I was talking to myself.” I spot the old wooden tree house from a few hundred feet away. “Look, there it is.”

  A dark shadow looms at the top and moves back and forth.

  “That’s her, isn’t it?” Lisa’s voice falters. “Are you sure this is a good idea?”

  “It’s the only thing we can do.” I turn to her to give her my best reassuring look. “I appreciate you helping me.” Her hand feels sweaty within my grasp.

  We approach the tree house, and I can’t help but think about my childhood. My fath
er and I spent a great deal of time building the simple wooden structure before he moved to Indiana. I shake my head loose from those thoughts. Those days are long gone.

  Astid jumps to the ground with the grace of a cat leaping from a tree. Lisa squeezes my hand and jolts backward a bit. The light buzzing sound in my head grows the closer we get.

  “Astid, this is Lisa. I believe you saw each other once before.”

  Astid nods. “Sorry…” about scaring you.

  Lisa’s unable to speak, and I wonder what she’s thinking. Is Astid tuned into all of our thoughts?

  Yes, I can hear all of your thoughts, she answers.

  “Let’s start with the obvious question,” I begin. “Who were those spooks at the barn, and what will happen to Marcus and Lisa?”

  The woman you thought was a therapist is one of the agents who are tracking us down and killing us if necessary. She works for Level 6. It’s a secret government group who manipulated and tortured us for a very long time, until our escape.

  “I’m lost…therapist?” Lisa asks.

  “Yeah. Dr. Wilson was back at the barn. She just happened to take over for my old shrink after Tarick’s disappearance.” Some of the pieces are starting to come together, and Lisa nods in understanding. “It’s obvious now that she’s not a real therapist. It was all a set up.”

  Lisa fires away question after question towards Astid. “So, the government knows about the black-eyed kids? They’ve captured you before? Kind of like the aliens from Roswell or something, right?”

  Level 6 created us, Astid replies with her mind.

  28

  ASTID

  THEIR MOUTHS DRAW open. Their many questions swirl through their minds, and I’m not able to focus on any one idea or thought either are having. It’s a jumbled mess.

  Please, please slow your thoughts down. Focus on just one thing at a time. I can’t answer everything, as I’m not sure I even know the answers myself.

  “Sooo...” Lisa begins.

  “What...” Maverick breaks in at the same time, and Lisa stops to allow Maverick to speak. He turns to Lisa. “Sorry.”

  Lisa shrugs her shoulders.

  Maverick continues with his question. “What you’re telling us is that the government created you and the other BEKs, and then you escaped, and now they are searching for you? So, you were created in what? A secret government lab in Area 51 or something?”

  I pause to collect my own thoughts. Yes, I was born in a lab, but the scientists always referred to the site as Level 6. My mother was the first test subject, which is why I was treated like royalty among us. However, they also took several other people from the outside world and transformed them into our kind. Those of us born this way were treated differently. We were considered pure. Up to that point, we were important to the scientists until…

  “Wait.” Lisa holds her hand up and pulls on Maverick’s hand. “I need to sit down.”

  Maverick points upward into the tree house. “We can go up there.”

  He helps her climb up and follows closely behind. Lisa shivers from the cool night air as she goes up the ladder. From above, Maverick looks down at me with doubt still in his eyes, and he’s trying to settle his thoughts. Once they sit down on the wooden floor inside, I venture up and sit across from them. Maverick is thinking about his father building this tree house.

  Maverick purses his lips together. “In the dark, it’s hard to see your eyes. From here, you look like any normal person.”

  Lisa jabs him with an elbow. “Don’t piss her off.”

  I see you perfectly. I’m able to see in the darkness much better than you. Maverick and Lisa exchange nervous glances. I know this is a lot to take in, and that my appearance scares you.

  “There’s just a lot we don’t know,” Maverick says after clearing his throat. “So what were you going to say earlier? You were important to the scientists until…what?”

  Until our appetite for humans became too great. With our growing number, they couldn’t feed our need for human energy fast enough. The test subjects that were created to be like us were different. They weren’t as hungry as the rest of us. The scientists were also able to control them.

  Maverick’s fear returns, and he thinks of the man named Ronald. It seems Ronald knows a lot about us.

  “Control them?” Lisa asks. “What do you mean?”

  That was the objective of the entire project. The scientists wanted to create a new kind of soldier. One that not only had enhanced physical attributes, but one that could also wage psychic warfare.

  Maverick lowers his face into his open hands. “That is just crazy. I can’t believe they can get away with that kind of thing.”

  For those of us born with our abilities, they could not control us in the same way. They could only subdue us.

  Lisa takes hold of Maverick’s hand. “So, if the government couldn’t control those of you who were born that way, did they want to just...get rid of you?”

  We didn’t serve a purpose for their military needs. We were an abomination, like several of their other failed experiments. We were nothing but a means to an end, and they saw us as a threat.

  “Because of how you can control people’s minds?” Maverick asks.

  Of course. But there’s something else about us they’re frightened of.

  Lisa scoots away from me. “And what’s that?”

  They are afraid of our greatest power. Everlasting life.

  29

  MAVERICK

  SCHOOL MAY PROVIDE classes on how the government works, but it failed to teach us about all the other secret crap it does. My head aches with the overflow of new information. This was the kind of stuff you see in the movies or read in a comic book.

  Lisa puts her hands over her eyes and sits in that position for a moment, and then she rubs her temples and looks up again. “I’m…I’m getting a major headache.”

  “So am I,” I say. “I’m not sure if it’s the information that I’m having trouble processing, or if it’s from being next to you, Astid.”

  It’s probably a little of both. Your minds aren’t used to communicating this way, so I imagine it’s taking its toll on you, Astid mentally says. We all release an energy that helps us subdue our...prey. I’m doing all I can to keep that suppressed.

  “I’m not sure I want to hear any more about Level 6 tonight,” Lisa says. “But I’m worried about Cadence and Marcus. What will happen to them?”

  I wish I had the answer to that question.

  Astid looks down at the floor, and I don’t have to be a mind reader to know she’s hiding something.

  “Maybe if they feel Marcus and Cadence aren’t a threat, they will let them go,” I say to keep Lisa from freaking out. “I hope they keep their mouths shut.” I turn to Astid. “Do you think you can hear what is going on with them?”

  They are out of my range at the moment. Plus, these agents have weapons that can put even me down easily. Their biggest asset, however, is information. They know how to get the information they need. For example, the agent posing as your therapist was able to infiltrate you. I guarantee she knows more about you than you think.

  My stomach does a somersault at the thought of me sitting in her office and allowing her to hypnotize me. That’s exactly what those relaxation techniques were, now that I think about it. She put me under so I would tell her everything.

  “She knew about Ronald, even though I hadn’t mentioned his name. She probably knows about him and his group too,” I say.

  “That guy you talked with? The one who has the missing son?” Lisa asks.

  I nod. “He’s involved with a group that is researching the BEKs. But I don’t think Ronald and his band of conspiracy freaks have any clue about BEKs being created in a lab or any of that stuff.”

  Lisa touches my face. “Mav, I really need to get home. I don’t want my parents freaking out if they find me missing from my room in the middle of the night again. Plus, I really need to take something
for this huge headache, and I don’t even want to think about having to go to school in the morning.”

  “Do you think that’s safe? What if Cadence and Marcus snitched on us and the agents are looking for us both?” I swivel towards Astid. “How do we get them back? I’d feel guilty for the rest of my life if my friends were taken and experimented on because they were trying to help me.”

  Honestly, I think Lisa would be safer at home rather than out in the open like this. Astid leans forward. There are other things you should be even more wary about than the government agents.

  Lisa’s eyes widen. “The other BEKs.”

  “Let’s get you home then,” I say. “It looks like we have more to worry about now. Astid, can you please come with us and not run away anymore? If the other BEKs are around, you would know, right?"

  She nods and we climb down the ladder.

  “It looks like we are hoofing it, and the trail to town is probably the safest route.” I start to lead them towards the woods. “I have a feeling we need to stay away from the roads.”

  30

  MAVERICK

  IT’S BEEN TWO days. Two long days since Marcus and Cadence went missing. Despite the optimist in me thinking the government agents would just let them go, my gut tells me that something is very wrong. They wouldn’t just kill a couple of innocent teenagers, would they?

  If Level 6 is willing to create demon-babies in a lab, or turn kids into BEKs and control them like robots, then its capable of pretty much doing whatever it wants.

  Mom also saw that my window was broken, and she just about had a heart attack. It pained me to have to lie to her again. I said that some punks threw a rock through it. I told her that they probably did it because they think I killed Tarick.