by C. M. Fenn
I look at all the watches. Two are obviously men’s watches, and one looks sporty and could be worn by either a girl or a guy. From the two remaining girls’ watches, I choose the one with the brown leather band. It’s stylish and looks more like a cool bracelet than a watch.
“I’ll take this one. So is it like a cool spy gadget? Is there a micro-camera in here or knock-out mist?” I tease. Sam reaches across the table and puts the watch on my left wrist.
“It’s cool, but not THAT cool,” Ember laughs. “It works as a pager. It’s a way for us to alert you if we can’t get you on your phone. Green alert means your presence in Chaos is requested but not necessary, in case you can’t get away at the moment. Yellow, you need to come to Chaos as soon as you can. Red alert, drop whatever you’re doing and get your ass to Chaos pronto!”
“It also displays three time zones: one for our L.A. base, one for where you live, and one for our London base,” says Sam.
“What do you mean ‘base’?” I ask, thrilled that I’m finally getting answers.
Sam explains it to me. “We have two bases Earth-side. Each Realmwalker has the option to live wherever they please or to move to one of the bases. Having a base on each half of the world helps us make sure there are Walkers inside Chaos at all times. When it’s night in England, it’s day in California. Get it?”
“Yeah, that makes total sense. Does everyone live at a base?”
Sam answers, “No, not everyone. Ben, Mel, and Timothy live at the London base right now. Lang-hao sort of bounces back and forth between the two, depending on where his job takes him. Crank and I are the only ones at the L.A. house right now.”
Ember pipes up, “Not for long though! As soon as I graduate, I am so there. I’ve already been accepted to UCLA and everything!”
“That’s awesome, Ember! It must be fun living with friends like that,” I say dreamily. “I’m surprised Crank is in L.A. He’s really young, right?” I ask Sam.
“Yeah, he’s fifteen. As soon as he came to Chaos and learned about the L.A. base, he moved his mother and him up from Paraguay,” he tells me.
“It was so sweet!” Ember croons. “It was always her dream to come to America. He bought her a beachside bungalow and a scarlet macaw named Big Red.”
“Whoa! How did he manage that?” Having a grandmother in Glendale, I know how expensive real estate can be out there. Especially oceanfront.
“Here’s a really cool part about being a Realmwalker,” Ember says, rubbing her hands together a little maniacally. “All of the cool things we learn in Chaos usually help us here in our daily lives. For example, we call Ben ‘The Wizard’ because he’s been able to really expand his knowledge. He is really, really smart. Like Einstein smart! He uses his smarts Earth-side and has all of his earnings from his inventions deposited right into the Walker account.”
“Wow, that’s really generous of him. So everyone lives off his money?” Somehow this doesn’t really seem fair to me.
“No, it’s not like that at all,” Ember says, shaking her head. “See, imagine decades, centuries even, of Realmwalkers using their talents to earn huge sums of money. Some invested and some left the majority of their fortune to the Walker account in their wills. After a while, it really adds up. And don’t feel bad about using the money. We all end up paying it back eventually. Before The Wizard made any money, he borrowed hundreds of thousands of dollars to fund his research.”
“Hundreds of thousands?” I exclaim, perhaps a little too loudly. Embarrassed, I look around to make sure no one’s looking at us weird. “How much money is in this Walker account?” I ask in awe.
“More than you could spend in your lifetime,” she says casually.
I stare into space. I’m aware my slack-jawed expression must look stupid, but I can’t wrap my mind around it. All that money? And I have access to it?
“Which brings us,” Sam says as he pulls his wallet out of his back pocket, “to this.” He takes out a plastic card and hands it to me. I turn it around in my hand. It looks like a debit card. There’s no name on it, just a series of numbers.
“This is only a temporary card. It has a three-thousand-dollar limit per day, so try not to go over that. This will have to hold you over until one with your name on it comes in the mail. There are no limits on that one. The PIN is thirteen forty-eight.”
I stare at the card in my hand. It feels like it weighs a hundred pounds. I can vaguely hear Ember in the background telling me about the significance of the PIN and how it’s the year of the earliest record they have of a Realmwalker.
I’m thinking about what this money could mean. My dad’s pension is all we’ve had for a source of income for the last four years. When the money started to run out and things were getting tight, Mom took a part-time job at the post office. Now Jana’s in college and my mom is under-qualified for any decent-paying job. We’ve been living with the fear of poverty looming over us. And now this? Unlimited funds, in the palm of my hand.
“Hey, Addy. Are you with us?” Ember snaps me out of my trance. I blink and a couple tears escape my eyes. I still can’t seem to look away from the card I’m holding.
“Ember, let’s give her a minute. Besides, I’m hungry again. Let’s see what they have here.” Sam gets up and motions for Ember to follow. I’m grateful for the minute alone, but all I can think of is I don’t deserve this money. I haven’t done anything to earn it. These people, these Realmwalkers risk their lives every night. They deserve it, not me.
But to be able to relieve my mom’s stress? That’s so tempting. I wonder if this means I’ll have to tell her. Maybe I can come up with some way to get her the money she needs without her finding out where it came from.
I glance around the rink and watch people skating. A father’s teaching his son to skate by pushing an upside-down bucket around. A couple holds hands as they skate, and it makes me think of Mel and Ben holding hands last night. I smile at the memory. I wonder if any of the other Walkers are in a relationship. All of a sudden an enormous tray of nachos is plopped down in front of me.
“Hope you’re hungry!” Ember says. My stomach growls as I stare at the food.
“How can I be starving already? We had a huge breakfast and it isn’t even lunch time yet,” I ask, a little embarrassed by my appetite.
“Get used to it,” Sam says. “We need to keep our bodies fueled. We burn a lot of calories in Chaos. Dig in.”
After a minute or two of munching on nachos, I try to continue our previous conversation as politely as I can while still eating.
“So, about this Walker account. Would I someday be able to help my mom and sister out?” I ask the two of them.
“Someday?” Ember says and gives me a weird look. “Why wait?”
I set the card down and slide it away from me. “I haven’t done anything to earn this yet. Maybe someday, when I’ve contributed enough or risked my neck enough to deserve it.”
Sam slides it back in front of me. “Trust us. You’ll definitely earn it, so stop worrying. Honestly, Adelaide, you could spend a million dollars and no one would even blink.”
I choke on a nacho and have to cough a few times before I manage to speak. “That’s an obscene amount of money. I can’t imagine ever needing to spend that much,” I say adamantly.
“Of course you don’t NEED to. No one NEEDS to spend a million dollars,” Ember tells me. “Relax, Addy. Have some fun! You need to remember something. The Realmwalkers’ unofficial motto,” she pauses dramatically, “we work hard, we play hard!” I shake my head in disbelief. “Come on, spoil yourself. The first thing I did when my card came in? I went and bought myself my own car.”
“How did you explain that to your parents?” I ask her.
“Oh, I told my mom about Chaos. It’s not a big deal. She doesn’t care about anything,” she says off-handedly. No matter how nonchalant she says it, I can still feel pain in her words. I move the conversation along to help get her mind off it.
“
So, how would I be able to help her? I mean, it’s not like I can drop a huge amount of money on her lap. She’ll probably think I robbed a bank.”
Sam nods. “That’s why we have ‘The Walker Foundation.’ It’s for the Walkers who choose not to tell their families about their double lives. We set up this foundation that makes donations for whatever reason we can think up. For you, it will be easy—a donation to the surviving family members of a fallen officer.”
“Oooo, we should get on that,” Ember says around a mouth full of nachos.
“I bet there are a lot of people out there who think this Walker guy is pretty wealthy,” I say as an afterthought. Ember and Sam chuckle a little.
“Forbes Magazine has been trying to hunt down the allusive Mr. Walker for ages,” Ember tells me.
“Thanks guys. I can’t tell you what a relief it will be to have my mom taken care of. She’s done a lot for me and Jana.” I can imagine her face when she gets the donation. I can’t wait for that moment.
We finish the nachos and Sam goes to get us some drinks.
“So let’s see. What else should you know?” Ember taps her fingers on the tabletop while she thinks.
“I was hoping to learn a little more about the other Walkers, if that’s okay,” I suggest.
“Oh yeah, that’s right! Okay, where should we start?” she asks me as Sam gets back with the drinks. I grab a water bottle and think about the Walkers.
“Why not start with the last person to enter Chaos, besides me, and then work backwards?”
“That’s a good idea,” Sam says.
“So that would be … Timothy! Oh! This is great!” Ember starts laughing hysterically.
Sam shakes his head and looks annoyed. I decide to rescue him. “It’s all right. I’ve already heard this story. Mel and Crank told me all about how Timothy used to sleep in the nude.” As I say it, I find it harder to keep a straight face than I thought it would be. Ember’s still laughing though she’s struggling to get control of herself. “So he’s from Scotland?”
“Yes,” says Sam. “Timothy Fairweather is twenty-nine years old. He answered the call about ten months ago. Timothy’s an expert marksman. While he prefers guns, his precision applies to any type of projectile. He’s good with a bow and arrow, a crossbow, and throwing knives as well. He’s also our weapons specialist. He can build and upgrade any piece of weaponry you can imagine, literally. If you can think it up, he can build it.”
“Oh, so that explains why he was strapped with all those guns last night.” I picture the tall, orange-haired man with a friendly smile. “Yeah, I didn’t recognize any of those weapons.”
Ember’s calmed down enough to contribute. “He’s also working on making us some armor. It’s still in the works, but I’ve seen his prototypes and they’re amazing.”
“Right now, Earth-side, he has a few contracts with some weapons manufacturers. He helps upgrade models of weapons that soldiers use in the field.”
Ember looks serious now. “He could be making millions outfitting the world’s armies with new and advanced weapons if he chose. Once I asked him why he doesn’t, and he quoted Robert Openheimer after he invented the atomic bomb. ‘I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds.’ He says he doesn’t want to give them too much destructive power and then be responsible for the misuse of it.”
“Wow,” I say. I let that sink in. I guess Realmwalkers can have a bigger influence on the world than I’d ever imagined. It’s a good thing that most of the Walkers seem to be really good people.
“Next is Oscar Torres,” Ember says, “or, as we tenderly call him, Crank.”
“Why do you call him that?”
“Oscar,” Sam says, “is our resident mechanic. He builds and maintains our vehicles. He collaborates with Timothy on the weapons and defense systems on each vehicle.”
“So he made all of those Big-Bikes? He knows how to make them fly?” I ask in awe.
“Yep. And he’s not only a mechanical genius,” Ember brags. “He can also control and manipulate water.”
“Oh, that’s right! I saw him do that last night.” I picture him pulling water from the fire hydrant.
“Before Crank, came Kira Sato,” Sam goes on. “Kira’s nineteen and from Japan.” I think of the sweet girl with dimples and long, perfect hair. “Kira uses a katana when she fights, but she doesn’t really need to. She’s a mixed martial arts world champion.”
“I thought she looked like she was in really good shape,” I say. I remember her fighting in Chaos. She moved so fast I could hardly follow her movements with my eyes. “What’s her ability?” I ask Sam.
“She has two. First, she can manipulate the flow of time.”
“Whoa,” I interrupt. “She can time travel?”
“No, it doesn’t work like that. She can only slow time down around her in little increments. Or speed it up. So for example, if a Shade’s charging her, she can slow its progress down while speeding herself up.”
“And they don’t stand a chance,” Ember says, holding her head high. “She’s all about girl power! We’re lucky to have her.”
“Kira’s also a sealer,” Sam says. “That’s a really important ability in Chaos. She puts the protective wardings on our Calms to keep the Shades out. She also seals the tears that the Greater Shades make in the fabric of Chaos.”
“That does sound important.” I think how we Walkers would be pretty useless without a sealer.
“Who came before Kira, Sam?” Ember asks rubbing her temples.
“Lang-hao Su,” says Sam. “He came to Chaos two and a half years ago.”
“How could I forget?” Ember says as she plays with her smartphone. “Here ya go, Addy. Meet Lang-hao Su.” She passes me her phone. I’m watching the screen when a video starts. Music begins to play and people in flashy costumes start dancing. It’s a music video. I’ve never heard the song but it sounds like something I might like. Then the video shows the singer dancing and singing in what sounds like Mandarin.
“That’s Lang!” I shout. I watch amused as he does incredible dance moves. “He’s really good!” Already the catchy song is in my head even though he’s singing in another language.
“Most of China thinks so too,” Ember says. “He’s huge over there. I mean HUGE!” She spreads her arms out wide. “You should Google his name and see all the cheesy merchandise they have with his face on it. I told him I was going to buy a bed set with him all over it so I could lay my head on his face every night.” We both laugh at that. He’s a really good-looking guy. No wonder he acted so suave when we met the other night. He’s probably used to girls throwing themselves at him all the time. I blush at the memory of him kissing my hand.
“He can move stuff with his mind, right?” I ask, remembering him spinning that cat-like Shade around in the air last night.
Sam nods his head. “He’s telekinetic. Comes in real handy.”
Everyone has such amazing gifts. Each new ability I learn about, though, puts more fear and doubt in my heart. Again I hope I’m able to do something useful like the rest of them. Maybe I could be a Sealer, like Kira. It wouldn’t hurt to have two of them.
I’m a little startled as a group of pre-teen girls sit at the booth behind us. I look around the rink and see it’s starting to fill up with families. The noise level has risen enough that I’m not concerned about anyone overhearing us.
“Before Lang there was Mel. You know her already,” Sam says.
“Yeah, the Aussie, and our age, right Ember?” She nods. “I saw what she can do. She stretches.”
“She can take any shape, large or small,” Sam says.
Ember adds, “She’s a sealer too, like Kira.”
There goes my idea of being a sealer.
“Who was before Mel?” I ask the two of them.
“Frenchie,” Ember says with a sour face.
“Her name’s Simone Renard,” Sam corrects Ember. Ember rolls her eyes and crosses her arms.
“Oh yeah, he
r,” I say flatly as I remember the snooty brunette.
“Simone’s from France and is twenty-six,” Sam says. He doesn’t comment on her attitude or rude behavior. I guess he’s trying to remain neutral because he has to lead everyone.
Ember though, has no such reluctance. “She’s famous too, like Lang.”
“She’s a singer?” I ask her.
“No, she’s an actress. And a model,” Ember says resentfully.
“Hmm, I wonder if she’s in anything I’ve seen before,” I think aloud.
“I’m sure she is, just not the version of her that you’ve already seen.” Ember sees my confused look and explains further. “Frenchie—I mean Simone,” she emphasizes as she glances at Sam, “is a shape-shifter.”
“Like Mel?” I ask.
Sam clarifies, “No, Mel can stretch or shrink her own form. Simone can actually change her form into another’s. She can become another person.”
“That’s why you don’t recognize her. When she acts, she’s Silvia Redding,” Ember says.
My jaw drops. “No way!” Silvia Redding is hugely famous. I’m talking “A list.” In fact, my mom and I watched her latest movie in the theaters two weekends ago. I actually like her!
“Silvia’s a blonde. She looks nothing like Simone!” I say still in shock.
“She looks nothing like the version of Simone you saw last night,” Ember corrects me. “And she also looks nothing like Shay Rendle.” When she says the name, I immediately think of the famous redheaded model from Italy.
“What does she have to do with anything?” I ask.
“That’s also Simone,” Ember says matter-of-factly.
“What? She’s both Silvia Redding AND Shay Rendle?” I ask. Ember nods her head. I look at Sam for confirmation.
“It’s true.”
“You know the magazine that puts out the list of the world’s top one hundred beautiful people?” Ember asks me.
“Yeah, my mom just got that issue in the mail a couple months ago. I think it might still be lying around somewhere,” I say.
