My mouth popped open with a puff and I could feel my face blister. The skin tight jumpsuits left nothing to the imagination and I was horrified when they insisted we put them on immediately. I went up a size to try and give myself room, but it didn’t help. They clung to the body like second skins. Mel explained it was for thermal protection. I had no clue why that was important. It seemed a moderate summer so far.
Earlier, when I walked out of the girl’s wing and saw Trip in his suit, I gulped. He was gorgeous, angles and muscles, perfectly sculpted. My tummy flipped a few somersaults and warmth spread across my shoulders. He looked at me with an intensity that was flattering and a bit frightening.
I swallowed a scalding bite of soup and choked.
He turned his emotive eyes onto me and rubbed my back. “You okay?”
I nodded and slurped down half of my water, my eyes stinging. “It’s hot.” I fanned my face.
“That was just what I was thinking.” He grinned.
I choked again while he chuckled.
Okay, maybe now was a good time to start being frank. “Listen, Trip, I don’t really do this—” I waved my hand back and forth between us, “kind of stuff. I’m not that girl.”
His face grew somber and he gazed steadily into my eyes. “Don’t worry, Kate. I’m not that boy, either.” He leaned in to whisper. “I just thought we should accelerate things, considering the orientation advice.”
“Oh.” I set my spoon down. “Yeah.”
Strategy. He wasn’t just flirting, he was planning out our survival. I should have known. No one had ever so blatantly made advances to me before. He wasn’t interested in me like that, he just wanted to break the ice. I suddenly lost my appetite as a boulder settled in my stomach.
“So, instead of teasing you relentlessly, why don’t I just ask questions? Better?”
Ugh, not better. I grimaced, but nodded.
“So, why are you here at this juvi jump camp?”
“Well, the abbreviated version?” I gnawed on my lower lip and glanced around the table to make sure no one was listening.
“Okay.” He shrugged.
“Dad left mom for home wrecking witch. Mom got sad, checked out. We moved in with grandparents. I got anxious and started hanging with the ‘wrong crowd.’” I held up my fingers in quotation signs. “Wrong crowd liked to decorate neighborhood with spray paint. Cops caught us and stupid friend had a joint in his pocket. We all got drug charges slapped on us. It was my first offense, so mom got to choose my program. Charming country village turns out to be freaky-secret-quantum-jump camp. That’s my story.”
“Are you any good?”
“Huh?”
“Are you any good at neighborhood decorating?” He borrowed my quotation marks.
“Oh…uh so-so.” I wobbled my hand back and forth.
“Then what are you good at?”
I frowned. What was I good at? That was a really good question. Nothing came to mind. No outstanding talents, no great athletic abilities, not a brainiac or anything. “Nothing, really,” I mumbled into my soup.
“So you’re the pretty girl.”
“What? No.” I blew an exasperated breath. That was ridiculous. Pretty was not a word I would use to describe my chicken legs, straight dark hair, pointy features, puffy lips and pale skin.
He laughed at my reaction. “Pretty and doesn’t know it. Interesting.”
This conversation was not going the way I had imagined it. I decided it was time to change the subject. “Why are you here?” I shoveled another attempt at nutrition into my mouth. Mom would be proud.
Trip got still and his face sketched a vulnerable pose. His jaw worked back and forth and for a long moment, I didn’t think he was going to answer me. Then an expression of steel determination crossed his face and in a husky and fractured voice he said. “I uh…I killed a man.”
More choking. That was it, no more food for me tonight. He patted my back again and cut a worried look at me.
“You have to let me explain.” His face crumpled into despair and fear that I wouldn’t.
“Okay,” I whimpered. Great. Of all the cute boys, I picked the murderer to stumble into. Nice, Kate! I pressed my hands flat against the table and turned my head toward him desperately trying to erase my expression of shock.
He leaned over to whisper again, but stopped and glanced around the table. All eyes were riveted on us. They had been listening after all. So he spoke up.
“My sister was six years old and my step dad an angry drunk. I had seen bruises on my sister for years and suspected he was the cause, but she would never talk and I couldn’t prove it.” He threw his bread down disgustedly and balled his fists on the bench at his sides. “One day I came home early from ball practice and found the son of...” He slammed his lips together. “Found him doing foul things to her. When I jumped him, he slammed me into a mirror. Shards and blood, everywhere. He went right back to her and picked up right where he left off. She screamed out for me to help her. I was gushing blood all over the floor from a spike of the mirror.” He held out his arm, pulled back his sleeve, and showed a long scar lining his forearm.
“I will never forget the pleading in her eyes as she screamed my name as that jerk…” His voice broke. “I lost it. I pulled the shard out of my arm and plunged it into his jugular.” He motioned a jerking motion at his neck.
“I passed out and my sister called 911. With the dispatcher’s help, she wrapped the sheet around my arm and held pressure until the ambulance came.”
My stoic face had morphed into horror. His expression was so torn. His jaw clenched and unclenched several times as he ground his teeth. I reached down and twined my fingers through his and squeezed.
I whispered, “I am so sorry, Trip.”
He pierced me with his sad eyes and held my gaze for what seemed an eternity. I could almost see the face of his sister there, so present was the memory.
He took a deep breath. “Anyway, that’s my story.” He turned back to the others at the table and squeezed my hand.
The table was silent as we took in Trip’s story and unflinching candor. No one moved for several minutes, we just stared into our soup bowls, stunned.
Corey sat across from us and seemed to recover first. He cleared his throat and began his story. Released from the attention of the others at the table, Trip leaned down and whispered in my ear.
“Katie girl, do you still want to be my friend? Knowing what I am.”
“You mean, do I want to be the friend of a hero, who saved his little sister?” I touched his face. “Yes, Trip, please be my friend.”
His face crumpled again. “I didn’t save her. Her innocence was stolen and I couldn’t get to her quick enough.”
“You saved her life. She has a chance to heal, now.”
He drank in my assurance like a man dying of thirst. “Thank you, Kate.”
I decided to break my own ice. I leaned forward and kissed him on the cheek. He smiled and wrapped his arm around my shoulder.
“…my parents in Italy. So I came here to sort through things.” Corey finished his story. Crapola! I really wanted to hear why he was here, but I missed the whole story.
That was the end of the stories. No one else seemed ready to share. A fight broke out at the end of the table between a chunky kid and a black guy. Donnie rushed to break it up.
At some point we ended up on the screen porch taking inventory of our survival packs. I wasn’t that impressed, really. Mine had a fresh jumpsuit vacuum sealed in plastic, water, crackers and cheese and a large iron key that seemed ancient and tarnished. I held it up with a confused expression.
“Evidently I am going to unlock the secrets of the universe,” I quipped.
“Cool,” Caitlyn took it and turned it over in her hands. “I have a weird spray can, mace or something.”
I rolled the can in my palm, shrugged my shoulders at a loss for what it could be.
“What is your extra item?” I turned to T
rip.
He held up a small vial that appeared to be made of blue glass, cut like a gem stone. It had a stopper in the top and sloshed with fluid.
“That is really pretty.” I admired the way the glass scattered the light in a prismatic fashion.
“I guess.” He leaned back in the hammock the three of us were sharing and kicked his feet to rock us.
I stuffed my items back into my pack and leaned back with him. He wrapped his arm around my shoulders and pulled me close to his side.
“I’ve been thinking, Katie girl.”
“Yeah?” My heart skipped a beat as his lips brushed my face close to my ear.
“I think we should stick together.”
“Of course.”
“No, I mean, I don’t think we should be out of each other’s reach.”
“Ever?” I turned my face to his. Our noses were nearly touching.
“Well, bathroom breaks. But other than that, I don’t think we should take a chance that a sphere will separate us.”
I thought of the way Pinky and—I learned the names of the other two—Kail and Tara had been right behind us and then ZAP! They were gone.
“Okay.” My voice carried the trill of fear that ran down my spine.
“You and me, Katie girl, together to the end of this crazy quest,” he hummed.
Honestly, it sounded great to me. I didn’t know why he chose me to hang with. If I was him I would have been looking for someone with a chance of surviving this thing. I looked around at our team mates. Actually, any of them would be better than me. Even Caitlyn, with all of her feminine curves and shiny make up, had street cred. I would not want to have to fight her. I would bet money she could kick some bootie if she wanted to. The only other girl besides Pinky was Tara, with a lean muscular frame, an Amazonian princess meets super model. She probably had all kinds of skills. Anyone else would have been a better partner choice than me, they were either smart, athletic, or strong.
“Why did you pick me? Out of all of these people, why do you want to stick with me?”
“Hey, I didn’t pick you. You ran into me, remember? I can’t help it if I am a sucker for a pretty face.” He chuckled and ran his hand over my hair while tucking the other arm behind his head.
“Oh, heh, yeah, I forgot.” I turned my face away embarrassed. This guy was evidently blind or a very good liar. It didn’t really matter why he picked me. I was just glad he did. If I was caught in a sphere alone, I would probably just sit down and wait for it to be over.
“What is that?” Caitlyn pointed up the hill.
We sat up and watched two small lights bump closer until a golf cart buzzed up to the cabin.
“Pinky!” I jumped up and ran out of the screen door and eight people followed me. One caught up to me and grabbed my hand. I looked up and saw Trip.
He wrapped his fingers through mine, locked them there and gave me a scathing look.
“Sorry, I forgot.”
Tara, Pinky, and Kail climbed out of the cart with Mel. They didn’t look so great. Pinky’s eyes were glassy and wild and darted around warily. Kail’s lips were pressed tightly together, and he kept clenching and unclenching his fists. Tara seemed agitated as she flinched away from being touched by the press of people around her.
“What happened?”
“Where did you go?”
“You have to tell us everything!”
Voices chattered around them until Mel held up her hands. “Okay, okay! I know you are all curious about the first jump, so everyone take a seat around the fire pit and we will have show-and-tell.”
We all gathered in a circle around the fire that Corey, Donnie and some of the boys built. I sat next to Pinky and held her arm in my lap and stroked her forearm gently. Trip leaned his shoulder against mine, and Caitlyn sat on Pinky’s other side.
Kail started the story.
“Well, the sphere dropped on us and we were engulfed in a maelstrom of water that seemed to suck us down into the ocean. When the sphere vanished we were stranded out in the middle of a sea, waves pounding us toward a craggy shoreline. Tara is a life guard, did you know? Pinky is a really good swimmer, too.” He cut an appreciative glance toward my new friend.
“They practically dragged me to the beach. I don’t know how we missed the rocks, there were so many of them. Anyway we found ourselves marooned on this tiny island. There was only sand and rocks and a small palm tree. You could stand under the palm tree and walk ten feet in any direction and hit water.”
Pinky shuddered and I wrapped my arm in hers. I glanced at Tara and she was staring into the fire.
“It was night when we arrived and I guess the swimming wore us out, we pretty much collapsed under the tree and slept until morning. Might have gone right on sleeping, too, if the water hadn’t been so cold. As the tide moved in, the beach shrank away and we ended up wrapping ourselves around the top of the palm tree and holding on for dear life while the ocean beat us to death.”
“We really didn’t know what was going on, being fresh out of that ridiculous orientation.” Pinky interjected and turned a scathing glance back toward the terminal building.
“Right. So we floated around the palm tree at high tide and sat on the small strand of sand and rock during low tide. We did this for three days and nights…”
“Three days?” Trip interrupted. “You were only gone a couple of hours.”
“Really?” Kail croaked.
Tara looked up startled.
Pinky snapped her eyes to mine. I nodded. “Three hours, tops.”
“That’s really weird. So I guess the jumps have very little to do with normal space and time,” Corey inferred.
“On the third morning, just as the sun broke over the horizon, I saw some movement in the water. Not wanting to alarm the girls unnecessarily, I didn’t say anything until it passed right next to us.”
“What was it?” Caitlyn whispered.
“Oh, just a freakin’ slithering sea serpent!” Pinky spat out.
“It started circling our island, closer and closer.”
“I don’t want to go through it again.” Tara jumped up and strode into the cabin.
“Then what?”
Kail watched Tara stalk away and his eyes burned with the memory.
“She was amazing.” He nodded toward Tara. “A real fighter, thinks on her feet.” His smile faded into the memory.
“What happened?”
“She saved our lives,” he nearly whispered. “More than that. She made me realize how much I wanted to live.” His eyes fell to the ground.
The fire popped and crackled in the silence, sending sparks wafting into the air. Kail’s eyes seemed to be made of fire, he was so intent.
“The serpent grabbed Pinky and started taking her out to sea. Tara grabbed his tail, climbed up to his head and attacked the monster with a pocket knife thingy, rammed it straight into his eye and green smoke puffed out of him. Then, Tara rescued Pinky from the ocean and did this awesome life guard CPR stuff right in the water.”
“A sea serpent?”
“It doesn’t seem possible.”
“You’ve got to be kidding?”
“No way! You must have been hallucinating.”
“They didn’t all hallucinate the same thing, dufus.”
Silence fell. All eyes turned to Kail.
“So how did you get back?” Joey asked.
“Another sphere appeared over us and dumped us in the terminal, gate Chartreuse 52,” Kail mimicked the terminal voice. “Then we were probed and prodded by some medics, rammed through a car wash contraption, given new clothes and packs, psychiatrically cleared and Mel came to get us.”
“So that is what a jump is—a trip to a deserted island?” Caitlyn purred and her eyes landed on Navarro, a tall reedy kid with bronze skin and long black hair. I grinned at her and she bobbed her head and swayed her shoulders.
“No.” Donnie shook his head. “They are all different, you’ll see.”
&nb
sp; “It wasn’t exactly a vacation!” Pinky snapped. “The pain was real, we could have died.”
I leaned my head into hers and hugged her arm. Caitlyn dropped her eyes, then sent an apologetic expression to Pinky.
The reality of the danger of the jumps pressed in on us and Mama Ty’s words to open up and share weighed heavy on my mind. Evidently, I was not alone in those thoughts. One by one, those who had not yet shared their stories began opening up and telling their heart wrenching tale. Each story spoken challenged my preconceived mindset about the story teller. I began to see them as individuals. Something wonderful started happening between us. A bond was forming, encircling us in a mutual string of need and a common thread of sorrow. My feelings for the people in the circle seemed to bloom as I watched the firelight dance in their eyes and tears spill down their cheeks.
While everyone shared, the circle drew tighter around the fire pit. Hands reached out to comfort and souls knitted together until all the words were spoken and silence gathered us together to share in the kindled warmth of friendship.
“So what now?” Trip softly spoke and sat up to rest his arms on his knees. I noticed how muscled his arms were and how prominent the veins stood out. I wanted to run my fingers over his arms. I laced my fingers together until my knuckles turned white. Get a grip, girl.
“I think we need to get them to the Scriptorium sooner rather than later,” Mel said to Donnie.
“Yeah, it doesn’t seem like we’re gonna have time to train them. Four more spheres fell in the camp since our group left.”
“Four!” Mel started. “In the last three hours?”
Donnie nodded.
“Jeez!” She bolted up and slapped the dust off her pants and barked. “Okay, everyone, get your packs, stick together and follow me.”
Mel set out on a brisk pace and we scurried behind her trying to keep up. We marched past the tennis courts and behind the main village, skirted the pumpkin patch and descended into the valley toward the heart-shaped lake. We got to the edge of the lake, and Mel started dragging a boat to the edge of the water.
“Come on, pile in the boats, everyone, we need to get to the center.”
The Torn, Book One of the Holding Kate Series Page 3
