I peer through the dark windows into nothingness. It’s a slab of concrete…barren and empty. With my new shiitake-night-vision powers, it’s as clear in here as if it was daylight. They didn’t leave a chair, a table, that crappy lamp…nothing. I turn the doorknob and it snaps open in my grasp.
“Cool!” I enter the dank room and look around to be sure I’m not missing anything.
The secret government spies had covered their tracks well. The only thing in this room is a rat scurrying in the corner, and I’m pretty sure he’s got nothing to say.
“Shiitake!” I scream, as if it’ll help.
I rub my temples, hoping to bring back my lost time and memories.
Holy crap, it worked!
Or maybe it was the act of opening the warehouse door that triggers a sudden thought. All BEKs can’t just barge into someone’s home to feed. They have to be allowed in by the prey. Agent Bitch-Lady had told us that.
I close my eyes and allow the movie inside my head to continue to play.
WHEN THE DRUGS began to wear off, I woke up in a dingy hotel room with Cadence standing over me…her black eyes no longer seemed odd to me. I wasn’t scared anymore.
She smiled, but it wasn’t the normal Cadence-smile that turned me on. “Get up, Marcus. We’re home.”
“What the hell?” It felt like little fish were swimming inside of my head. “Where the heck are we?”
“We’re at a hotel, just in the center of town,” Cadence replied.
Without knowing for sure, I felt like a lot of time had passed. One minute I’m in a hospital room with Creepy Lab Coat Dude, the next minute I’m in a hotel room with Cadence. I felt more than violated. I felt betrayed, angry, and downright pissed beyond belief.
I also felt very different. At first, I couldn’t figure out what was wrong with me.
“We have work to do,” Cadence said. We have people to take care of and it’s time to do it.
I jolted out of bed when I first heard her voice inside my head and not seeing her lips move.
You’ll get used to it. She grabbed my arm and pushed me toward the door.
At that moment, whispering voices started to swirl around in my head from all directions. People’s thoughts began to invade my mind like how an ant colony devours a picnic lunch. There was no way to stop hearing all the voices.
I grabbed my head and backed away. “What the…”
Marcus, I know they gave you extra doses of the drugs, but snap out of it and get with the damn program. If we don’t cooperate, we will be killed, and that’s not acceptable to me. Cadence turned me toward her. Her grip hardened, but I could tell it wasn’t on purpose.
She had superhuman strength or something. She loosened her grasp. Isn’t it awesome? Cadence stared at her hands, in awe of her new abilities. I could actually feel her excitement.
“It helps to try to focus on one person at a time and block out all others,” Cadence said out loud. “See how you just did it?” You knew exactly what I was thinking and feeling. It’s the most unusual and awesome feeling I’ve ever had.
“It’s freaking weird.” I continued to keep my attention on Cadence, and the other people’s faraway voices disappeared. “Still have a big-ass headache, though.”
Cadence’s grin looked a little creepy, and I wondered if she was hopped up on something. She shook her head. “No, I’m not on drugs, but I still have a hard time with the telepathy-thing. It’ll get easier with time.”
Tingling sensations began to erupt inside of me, and then an explosion of pain shot through every inch of my body. My insides were being fried to a crisp, and I collapsed onto the cheap carpet. I turned to Cadence for help, but she had gone down, too…really hard. She hit the back of her head on the dresser and screamed.
The door swung open and the pain gave way to feeling numb. Completely numb from my head to my toes. I couldn’t move.
Bitch-Lady walked in. “Good to see you up now.”
The agent held a device in her hands. Without asking, I knew Bitch-Lady had used that gadget to fry our insides. I didn’t know how she was able to shock the hell out of us with just a push of a button, but I realized why she had done it.
Bitch-Lady needed to control us. At the very least, she had to have some way to make sure I couldn’t hurt her. Cadence had murder on her mind, and I didn’t need to be a psychic to know that. She wanted to kill Bitch-Lady right there and then.
Kill her…that’s exactly what I wanted to do. I wanted to watch her wither under my gaze. I had a new kind of craving, and taking Bitch-Lady’s life was the only way to satisfy that hunger.
Cadence wanted to tear the woman apart and drink her blood.
Wait, not drink her blood, but consume her entire being.
“One of these days, you won’t have that thing to save you,” Cadence said.
I finally had control of my body, and it took all my strength to stop myself from lunging toward Agent Bitch-Lady, but she held up that device as a warning, like she knew exactly what we were thinking. Could she also read minds? I didn’t think so. Her mind didn’t work like Cadence’s or mine. Not after what they did to us.
I still didn’t know exactly what those scientists had done, but I didn’t have the time to think about it too hard.
Cadence turned to me. She’s going to get it one day, and I’ll be the one to do it.
I’ll enjoy watching it, I responded mentally. It was the first time I spoke to her with my mind, and it would take some getting used to.
“Cadence, you’re fortunate to be alive right now, so count your lucky stars,” Bitch-Lady said.
“Who are you anyways?” I asked. “Some kind of government goon who does whatever the hell she wants to people?”
Bitch-Lady was silent for a moment, but I could read her thoughts. The woman was for sure a government goon who could do whatever the hell she wanted to people. Even to two teenagers.
“You can call me Agent L, but who I am is not important. You need to worry about yourselves right now. Your lives are in your own hands.”
Agent L Bitch-Lady sat down at the one chair next to the tiny table in the room. Somehow, I knew that two other goons were standing right outside the door, rather bored with their assignments. I was starting to understand how Cadence was so excited about her new powers.
“You both have a very unique opportunity before you. You can live forever,” Bitch-Lady said. “But you have to do a few things for me first.”
I pushed another thought to Cadence: Agent L my ass. She’s always going to be Bitch-Lady to me.
Cadence laughed out loud, but Bitch-Lady ignored it.
Cadence and I searched the agent’s mind for her hidden agenda. Either Bitch-Lady had the ability to block our efforts, or we weren’t very good at our new psychic powers. One thing was for certain, Bitch-Lady was telling the truth about us being able to live forever.
That freaked me out. I was waiting for the hidden PUNK’d cameramen to show up, but this wasn’t a reality show, and I wasn’t being punked. This was real.
Cadence wasn’t freaked out, though. She was intrigued. The thought of living like a vampire and roaming the earth forever young and pretty appealed to her. I thought she was crazy for even considering working for Bitch-Lady.
Cadence caught my thoughts, and she turned her attention to me. She grabbed me by my shoulders and swiveled me around to face the big mirror on the wall.
That couldn’t be me that I was staring at. My eyes widened. I backed away, slamming the back of my leg against the bed. I blinked and rubbed my eyes, hoping the creepy black contact lenses would just pop out, but they didn’t.
These jackasses had turned me into a black-eyed kid.
I turned away from the mirror, and I let my hate for Bitch-Lady boil. But I couldn’t do anything. She still held that remote control-thingy, and the second I tried something, she’d cook me from the inside out.
“Yeah, and what exactly do we have to do?” Cadence asked.
&n
bsp; Bitch-Lady let her mental guard down for a second, and that’s when Cadence and I got a mental image of a whole bunch of black-eyed kids. They had been prisoners at Level 6’s secret base.
“The other BEKs have escaped,” Agent Bitch said. “We need your help getting them back.”
She wants us imprisoned with them, too, I mentally say to Cadence.
Cadence shot back, She won’t be getting that part of the deal. The black-eyed kids got away, and so will we.
“And don’t think that you’ll have your freedom.” Lady Bitch held up her remote control. “You won’t be able to just walk right on out of here and help your friend.”
Maybe this woman could read our minds, too.
Bitch Lady stood up and stared into our black eyes. “Besides, what kind of friend leaves you behind?” She turned to Cadence. “What kind of friend allows your boyfriend to just…die?”
Cadence’s mind flooded with memories of Tarick, and she imagined him dying in the mud, all alone.
“You might think Maverick Ashe is your friend, but he’s not. He abandoned your boyfriend, Cadence.” Bitch Lady stepped over to me. “He abandoned you both. It’s his fault that you’re even involved with this whole mess.”
I couldn’t help but blame Maverick for all of this. I didn’t deserve to be turned into a black-eyed kid. I hated to admit it, but Bitch-Lady was right. Mav did get me involved in the shit-storm.
“We’re unsure why, but the BEKs are attracted to Maverick,” Bitch-Lady continued, “and the black-eyed kids let him go, for some reason. He’s our only chance at finding the rest of them, and that’s where you come in. You can sense them. You know exactly where they will be hiding, and we believe they are still in the area.”
“Are you going to kill Maverick?” I ask her.
Agent Bitch ignored my question. “You are restricted to the city limits. If you go out of bounds, we will find you, and you will lose everything, including your lives.”
Cadence, this seems off. I say. She’s nuts.
“All you have to do is help us find Maverick and Astid,” Bitch-Lady said. “With your new abilities, that shouldn’t be too difficult. Leave the rest to us.”
That’s when Cadence looked at me and the thoughts roaming inside of her head turned to hatred. Hatred for Maverick. Hatred for Astid. Hatred for the BEKs that killed Tarick. She wanted revenge.
“We’ll help you, but after that, we want out,” Cadence said. “We will bring Maverick to you and locate the BEKs, but then you let us go.”
“Done,” Agent Bitch lied. She pulled out a cell phone and tossed it to Cadence. “My number is programmed in there. We expect a call within the hour.”
Cadence stuffed the cell into her jeans pocket and opened the door.
“Start with Maverick’s mother,” Bitch-Lady suggested. “She probably doesn’t know anything, but just in case. At the very least, it’ll draw Maverick out into the open. He’s got a soft spot for his mom.”
I didn’t like what Agent Bitch was suggesting. Before I could protest, Cadence took my hand and pulled me towards the open doorway.
“One other thing I forgot to mention,” Agent Bitch said, holding up a finger. “You can’t just bust through Mrs. Ashe’s door. For you to gain full control of your prey, they must invite you inside. We don’t know exactly why, but we believe it’s connected to the power of free will. Having your prey willingly let you in brings their mental defenses down, allowing you to seize their minds.”
Cadence smiled. “Being invited in is my specialty.”
I didn’t like Bitch-Lady’s use of the word prey.
The two of us left the hotel room, and the pair of goons guarding the hallway let us walk right past them. I could sense their uneasiness. In fact, they feared us. Cadence enjoyed this feeling of being feared.
She loved the power.
Agent Bitch, however, was different. She obviously didn’t fear us. At least we didn’t sense it at all when we were with her. Without her little gadget keeping us in line, however, I bet she’d crap her pants if Cadence went all batshit crazy on her.
Cadence raced down the stairs, and I somehow kept up with her easily. That was really weird because I could never run before. They said I had activity-induced asthma, but I blamed my chain-smoking parents. It probably didn’t help that I lit it up pretty good at least three times a week. But now, not only could I run like a track star, I wasn’t even winded.
Once we got outside, though, it was a chore to block out all of our surroundings, especially all the mental chatter that broke out all around us. Even the stinking birds were too loud. I followed Cadence’s lead without thinking much of the outcome. I figured Cadence would come around and we could talk this all out once we got far away from the goons and Agent Bitch’s electrocution device.
Before I realized where we were going, we were in the old neighborhood. I passed my house. I wanted to stop and go inside and tell Mom I was alive and well, but I knew it was impossible. There was no way she’d understand any of this, and any knowledge of me would probably get her and Buttface killed.
I stopped right behind Cadence, and we were both standing in front of Maverick’s house.
“What are we doing, Cadence? Don’t you think we should talk about this?” I asked.
Confusion flooded my mind with her crazy and wacky thoughts. She thought about Tarick and Maverick and Lisa…but her emotions ran all over the place. I didn’t think she knew exactly what we were supposed to do next. We had no plan, and Cadence seemed to be fueled by pure anger.
Without saying a word, Cadence went up to the front door.
I don’t know what came over me, but I sort of used some kind of Jedi powers to mentally scan the house. Maverick’s not here, I thought to Cadence. Let’s go.
She ignored my plea and knocked three times.
From inside, Mav’s mom stepped closer and closer to the door, and our hunger grew greater with each step she took. The need for energy filled both of us with such intensity. But we could also sense that Mrs. Ashe had become apprehensive, and she hesitated.
I grabbed Cadence’s shoulder and wanted to pull her back. This wasn’t going to end well. I didn’t know what I was going to do once Mav’s mom opened the door. A big part of me wanted to attack her.
Instead, I did nothing. I let Mrs. Ashe open the door, and Cadence looked her in the eyes.
“May we come in and see Maverick?” Cadence asked.
“Cadence?” Mav’s mom asked before turning to me. “Mmmarcus? Everyone’s been looking for you.”
“May we come in and wait for Maverick?” Cadence asked again with more force.
Mrs. Ashe was seized with fear. Despite recognizing both of us, the dread that followed our presence triggered a panicked feeling that overcame her common sense.
Cadence pushed forward, but an invisible force field stopped her from going in further. It was the strangest thing. “Please, Mrs. Ashe. Like you said, everybody’s been looking for us, and we need your help. The people who kidnapped us are still after us.”
Mav’s mom nearly shut the door, keeping it open just an inch. She couldn’t speak. Fear seized her, and her instinct told her to shut the door in our faces. A part of her wanted to help us and reunite us with our families. I felt her internal struggle
I didn’t have the time to think. I stepped forward, but that same invisible shield that prevented Cadence from entering uninvited didn’t keep me from sticking my hand through the door’s opening.
Before I could even say a word to try to convince Mrs. Ashe to open the door for us, Cadence shoved me forward.
Mav’s mom tried to shut the door, but I caught it with my hand and pushed it back. Her bright energy pulled me toward her…like sweet honey tempting Pooh Bear.
I seized control of her mind, despite feeling guilty for doing it. She held her head for a second, but her will bent to mine.
“Invite Cadence in,” I commanded.
Mav’s mom held the door open. “
Come in.”
The invisible wall shattered, allowing Cadence to move in. She nearly knocked me aside as she advanced on Mrs. Ashe. Her hunger was even greater than mine; it was as if Cadence was possessed. I was able to control myself, however.
Mav’s mom fell to her knees, but Cadence pulled her up like a rag doll. The energy flowed from Mrs. Ashe to Cadence, and I could feel her life force being sucked away. Her life was seeping from her, and part of me wanted to shove Cadence aside and finish consuming her myself.
There was still a little bit of my real self left. And that part of me wanted to ring Cadence’s neck and save Mrs. Ashe. My struggle caused a massive ache in my head.
When Cadence was done, she let go of Mrs. Ashe’s limp corpse. The woman I had known was no longer inside that creepy shell. The guilt consumed me, but I was also jealous of Cadence. She had gotten her first kill, and her energy surged. I could feel her growing power, and it scared me.
We stood silently for a long time and stared at Mrs. Ashe’s body. Maverick would never forgive me. Cadence caught my thoughts and laughed at me.
“You have no idea.” She made for the door. The power running through my body is incredible. And I know you want to feed, too. I can almost taste your hunger.
I followed her out. “Yes.”
Cadence stepped out of the house and shut the door behind me. I promise, you’re next.
I CONTINUE to pace inside the dark warehouse, but I stop to stare at the open door. The other black-eyed kids need to get permission to come inside, but for some reason, I don’t. Mom said that smoking weed would destroy my life. I guess in this one crazy-ass instance, she was wrong. Level 6 tried to completely change the entire engine under my hood, but it looks like there’s still some original parts left.
That’s one small victory, I guess.
And maybe it’s why I can distract myself from the hunger. Shoving a few pieces of pizza into my face helps, but I can’t help but wonder how long I can hold out. I’ll probably end up gaining about a hundred pounds, but if that’s what I have to do to keep a little piece of my humanity, I’ll do it.
Black-Eyed Kids: The Complete Series Page 22
