"Cory," Julia called out, and then oddly paused. She looked to be trying to gather the right words. "How do you . . . feel?" she asked more with her hands than her mouth. Her voice cracked mid sentence. Now she scratched her head, looking for a better angle to start with.
"I feel great, why?" Corinth smiled as he spoke with an oddly adult tone.
"What do you mean ... why? I always want to know how you feel, honey," she said tentatively. I could see her mind working. She wanted to ask him those dreaded questions. What happened when they came for you? How were you treated? Did they hurt you? And any other possible scenario involving him needing support of any kind.
"I can feel you’re fear, dad," Corinth said to me abruptly.
It took me by surprise. His tone inferred that he knew exactly what I was feeling, but decided to give me the opportunity to say it for myself. Exactly how far did the reach of his new powers extend. Could he hear me thinking my thoughts?
"I can. But I'll stop if you don't want me to."
My jaw could have hit the floor. He spoke those words inside my mind, just like before. So effortlessly. This was getting weirder by the second. I've heard of telepathic people. They’ve been sought after for all of time, but none of them could use the gift as easily as Corinth.
They could see some cryptic images of the future and maybe make good sense of the past. Things that no one could know unless they were present in that era. Some could even move semi-large things with their minds, even reject the use of a wand or llave, and simply cast spells with their mind as the conduit. But-their abilities had very specific limitations. They didn't just enter people’s heads and do what they willed.
The picture was starting to shape up. It seems someone in the Gente Peligroso knew things about our son that we didn't. Julia and I had no idea of Corinth's ability to do these spectacular things. It was about that time now, we needed to get some information from our boy about his abduction and his abductor.
"Corinth, do you know anything about the people who took you?" I hesitantly asked him. He still wore that smile on his face, but it fell as I opened up this dialogue.
"No," he said flatly.
Julia moved closer, with a bewildered look on her face. "Cory, how is it possible that you don't know who they are?" My thoughts exactly Jules. "I mean, you've been speaking to your father and I in our minds all this morning and yesterday as well. You surely saw something notable in the past two years, honey?"
"I'm sorry, okay!" he shouted and put his head down on the table. His mood took a drastic turn in one immediate flashing instant.
"No, honey, don't be," Julia said quickly as she put her hand on his back and rubbed in some much needed comfort.
"It’s just that ..." his head popped up, while his voice steadily stuttered. "I just woke up last week in that factory and I—”
"Wait!" I jumped up out of my seat in absolute shock. "What's the last thing you remember before you woke up at the factory?" I urgently asked.
"Well, you left my room after we ate our chocolates, and then it gets really fogging from there," he said through streaming tears.
I have to admit, I'm kind of glad to see him cry. For a second, I wondered if he still had human emotions. His tone had been somewhat robotic up until now. Julia looked up at me in question when Corinth brought up our chocolate indulgence, but thankfully, he continued with his explanation.
"You said goodnight, then you turned off the light and clicked on my night light. I started to fall asleep and I dreamt about some weird looking hooded man appearing in my room. He came in a blue and gray puff of smoke. It lit the room up brighter than my night light for a second. He stood over my bed for a little while, and just looked at me with his big scary blue eyes. They were even bluer than your eyes dad." He looked over to me with that little face, and I couldn't believe that he had to go through all of this. After a massive deep breath, he kept on with his recount of the events between now and then, in a much more timid tone. "So . . . I just put my head under the covers. Then like a minute later I pulled them back, to check if he'd went away. But instead of being in my room, I was in the factory staring dad in the eyes."
"Did your father do this, Corinth?" I couldn't believe what I just heard, Julia accused me of being Corinth's kidnapper!
I shouted loudly. "What! How could you say something so idiotic and hurtful?"
"Is it idiotic, Cris? You were the last thing he saw before he went to bed and the first thing he saw when he remembers waking up. Your eyes are blue,” she pointed in my face,“mine aren't, buddy!" She was out of her mind. She always seemed to blame me for his disappearance, but not like this.
"No, if you were listening you would have heard him say that the last thing he saw was a hooded man!" I was belligerently shouting and Corinth couldn't take it. He ran from the kitchen through the living room and into the bathroom on the opposite side of the first floor of the beach house.
"Corinth, don't run away,we're sorry, it’s just that—" It was too late. He'd already slammed the door shut. Once we both made our way over, I could hear him sobbing on the other side.
"I'm sorry, Cory, please come out. I’m not going to yell anymore, I promise." He seemed to be even more fragile than usual.
"You see, he's scared of you," Julia said with a smug look across her face. I can't believe she's taking a stance like this.
"What's going on with you?" I asked her. "Are you that desperate to blame someone that you'd accuse me? That beautiful boy's own father and your husband. For crying out loud, think before you speak, Julia!”
She looked down in shame. "No, I don't want to blame you, but I can't trust you either. You didn't even want to help me put this place together. Do you know how much energy it took to bring this about?" She had a point, but I regretted my first opinion of her idea ever since those goons took me on that joyride, of sorts, to the docks.
"Julia,you were right. Corinth is in a danger that I'm not sure we can protect him from." She seemed slightly relieved by my compassionate tone. "I should have been for this plan from the start. I wasn't thinking clearly, I didn't want to create more problems that could put us at an even greater risk." It seemed she was taking me at face value. Underneath it all— I don't think she truly believes me.
"Let's just ask Corinth about it and see how things go," she suggested through clenched teeth. The lid on her emotions is ready to pop off, letting out a fury of rage. Things were going down in flames fast. Too fast for me to keep up.
"Okay, let's do it… if we must."
"We must!" she threw back at me.
I turned back to the bathroom door. "Corinth, please come out. Mom and I need to ask you a very important question, okay?"
A couple of seconds went by, and I started to wonder if he was ever going to come out of there. Then the knob slowly began to turn. Cory opened the door with weary eyes and some tissues in his left hand. We took him over to the couch in the living room and sat him down easy. We both seemed to want to take it slow, to keep him calm and available to us. We really needed to clarify a few things.
"Corinth, in your opinion,” she hazily glance over to me as she spoke,“do you believe that your father could have been the man in the hood?" She intentionally stared at me now from her knelt position in front of him. Her eyes were even wilder than back at the hospital. She looked more deranged than the cheetah girl that attempted to impersonate her at the abandoned factory. We both looked to him as he started to mouth a few inaudible words.
"We can't hear you, dude. Could you speak a little louder for us?" I put my hand on his shoulder, trying to reassure him.
"I d-don't k-know, for sure," was his final verdict.
I can't believe that my wife and son both feel like they have reason to believe I was involved in taking him from the serenity of his bedroom. If that were the case, then I have no recollection of it. How could I have done something and not know? And for that matter, where has Corinth been for nearly the past two years. I haven't
seen him in almost as long as Julia. This was all too ridiculous to take. "I need some air," I said while getting up from the couch beside Cory to walk outside, but Julia blocked me from doing so.
In my deep state of thought, I hadn't noticed that she pulled out her llave. The situation went from uncertain to downright dangerous in a matter of seconds. She's always too abrupt in her actions. She doesn't even know if her powers are fully regenerated. Best bet is that she has a quarter of her normal strength, better yet the abilities this new World of hers will eventually grant. She'll need to rest a long while before they'll be available to aide her. But then again, I’m out of luck as well if this turns into a showdown. I sacrificed my llave to get into this place. I guess Julia didn't trust me to begin with. I still held one saving grace, but hesitated to use it with her pulling Corinth behind her.
She turned around and bent over to give him a kiss on the cheek. "Go into your bedroom upstairs, your father and I need a moment alone to talk, all right?" Corinth didn't hesitate, he did as instructed. I guess his telepathic powers weren't working so well right now, because even I could see right through Julia. 'Talk,' really meant fight.
"Dad, I don't want—” he looked up at the ceiling a moment,“to believe it was you ... it's just—" he stopped himself while standing in the middle of the staircase.
"Just go, Corinth," Julia said as gently as she could.
He looked sad and tired. Drained from the influx of emotional strain he’s been through. Still, I wanted him to know I believed what he said. "That's good to hear, buddy. I'm just glad you’re home. Go grab some rest and we'll see you a little later, okay?"
“Okay," he wiped his eyes like a little kid and off he went.
However things go between Julia and I, I'm so amazed and thankful to know that he barely experienced any of the pains of a normal abduction. Horrible experiences like that can leave scars on a child's mind. But he would be spared most of that conflict. He must be so lost for time. He probably thinks he's two years younger than he actually is, considering what he told us he remembers. I couldn't help but think his mental gifts had something to do with what shielded him from the things that took place in the time between his bedroom and the abandoned factory.
"I think it's time you go, Cris," said Julia with an eerie calmness. "You can retrieve your llave from the keyhole on the other side, once you've left this place.”
"Julia, you can't keep me away from my son. That isn't fair."
"I don't care about what's fair anymore!" her voice was getting shaky. She was blocking the exit while simultaneously telling me to leave. I was afraid that this power would be too much of a strain on her mind. She wasn't headed the Aurora way. She seemed to be falling into the trap that all the others from the Great Eight fell into. Insanity!
"Julia, I am saying this with the utmost respect; but are you sure you're in your right mind?"
"What are you getting at?" she shouted, standing just a few feet from the screen door. "I'm the one who's protecting Corinth! You would have given him right back into the hands of the Gente Peligroso, wouldn't you?” It seemed to me she was breaking with reality. "You never wanted a child or a family did you? You were a perfect bachelor before I came along!" her shouting kept Corinth from following the plan. I noticed him peeking out from the top of the staircase. "You and Evan always got what you wanted. Any girl you could scrape off the sidewalks in the wee hours of the morning was up for grabs. If I hadn't forced you to commit, what then? This isn't your family anymore, buddy. Corinth and I don't want, nor do we need you here!" She sparked up her llave for an attack. "Ser Luz!" she shouted, as a sharp beam of green light force its way out of the golden key’s rotation.
I couldn't begin to process being attacked by my wife while my helpless son watches. I rolled out of the way from her beam and knocked into the coffee table between the couch and the television.
Ser Luz!" she shouted again and again. She was destroying the very place she built to be a sanctuary for her endangered son. The table beneath the staircase exploded into several smaller fragments as I attempted to run around the back of the couch, passing the staircase and out the door.
I dodged all but one of her beams. She moved inward from the door, tracking me around the living space, so I sprinted for that very door. The Luz hit me on the side of the head while running toward my means of escape. It smacked me right in the temple, knocking me clear through the screen onto the wooden porch. I heard a crack in my left shoulder as it made a dent in the white panels. I felt it, but I’m rather surprised by the lack of power behind the blast. Julia's even weaker than I figured she'd be. I was barely affected after the initial shock.A bit like a rough tickle. I am ticklish, but it’s the impact with the porch that’s got my shoulder feeling darn there dislocated. But better bruised than buried.
Not much physically pain, but I feel so bad inside for all this. She used all her power to ensure Corinth's safety, and she had to do it all alone. Now her mind is being eaten away by the pressures of that power. She must think she has to attack me to protect Cory, just like she thought she had to create this place. Perhaps she was right? Maybe I should just leave them in peace?
Just then, a terrifying scream ripped that thought clear out of my mind.
Julia had lost it worse than I thought possible. She was on a collision course with Corinth. I noticed the roof of the house bulging as I stood up and rubbed my shoulder. The pain started to get to me, but my adrenaline was already running high enough to help me forget it and forge ahead. The scream came from the upstairs rooms. It had to be from his room.
I ran into the house to see that the ceiling above the living room was sunken in. It looked as if some huge weight was pushing down on the floor above. I hung a left to round the staircase and started up the steps, taking them two at a time. When I reached the landing, I discovered what was making the house bulge. The crushing weight pushing down on the floor, it was Julia. She must have gone upstairs to get to Corinth before me.
I suspected this all along. Her ego, it’s bulging outward and it’s reflecting in her appearance. She's turning into a bloated, crazed monstrosity. I couldn't believe what my eyes were seeing. Julia had exponentially grown into a large oversized whale-like version of herself. Her brown hair looked short now that her head was the size of two basketballs. Her fingers are stretching out and she's getting taller and wider with each passing second.
Suddenly, the upstairs floor hit its weight capacity limit. The whole thing came crashing down. The center floorboards splintered, as her massive body dropped with the wicker furniture of Corinth's short-lived bedroom, falling down into the living room. Julia wasn't yet large enough to be in the downstairs living room, and what remained of the upstairs bedroom, at the same time. But from the look of things, she would be soon. I have to move quickly before she can reach us.
I beckoned Corinth over to me. He was standing against the wall, cowering from an ever-expanding Julia when I stepped into the room. She was too busy blowing up to notice that I had entered. Corinth noticed, but stayed calm, not saying a word. Frozen in fear perhaps, but silent no less. Good thing that he hugged the walls. If he'd been a couple of feet closer to the center of the room, he would have crashed down with his mother.
"Come on!” I waved him over with my hands, while idling in the hallway outside the room. I didn't want to put any more pressure on the still standing outer perimeters of the floor. Lest the sides fall down too.“We don't have much time," I told my frightened son, "but be careful. One wrong move and you'll fall down into the living room." I didn't want to scare him anymore, but that's a place neither us want to be right now.
"I can't— I'm scared," he whispered.
"Corinth, you have to find the courage inside of you to do this. This is a serious situation. If we don't get out here before—" I didn't want to think about it that way, so I just shut my mouth. They’ll collapse soonon Corinth’s weight, if he doesn’t move. He was hanging on a hope and a prayer. Still, I
looked at the boards and knew that they were too damaged to keep up while he was fidgeting about. He was too scared to stand still.
He gripped and clung to every ounce of wall he could get his fingers on, while his mother seemed to take a disturbing leave of absence from reality. She continued growing. Her head bounced back and forth without focus slightly below us, and that's where his sight was aimed. But I needed Cory to focus on this, on our own dilemma before the inevitable occurred.
The fall was gut wrenching and unannounced! He jerked while watching his mother, and the twisted up floorboards around him dropped straight through. I helplessly watched him tumble down into the living room below, just evading a collision with a growing Julia. His head hit the downstairs floor hard. The only thing there to break his fall was the debris from the first collapse. It was no soft landing. My only hope is that he wasn't impaled by anything sharp. He laid there unconscious as a seething Julia ferociously snapped to attention. She looked to his seemingly lifeless body, and then to me with a thunderous shout.
Original Souls (A World Apart #1) Page 7
