by Aaron Slade
“What?”
It was clear Adam didn’t know how to tell me. “After the story about your parents hit the papers… the town went crazy.” He shook his head in disapproval. “They knew you were hiding out in the house, so they decided… to burn it down. Randy Alcott led a group of people to destroy the house and dispose of you. Some people think you burned in the house.” Adam tossed me a rolled up newspaper. “The Military’s propaganda was really effective.”
I smoothed out the front page of the paper, reading the front headline and staring at the family picture with my half-smile, as Evee referred to it. The same picture ran in the paper after Dad had been made principal, but it hurt to see the picture of my family used to disgrace our name.
VANCE FAMILY CONSPIRES AGAINST MILITARY
My fists clenched as I imagined Randy, the dumb giant, torching the only home I’d ever known. I felt foolish for ever being civil to Randy. I threw the paper down to the floor, not bothering to read the article. “If they burned down the house with me in it, how am I still alive?”
Adam gave me a brave sort of grin. “That’s where I come in,” he said. “When I heard what they were planning, I teleported to your house to save you. I found you unconscious in the living room. I packed a few of your things and got you out of there. You’ve been in and out for the last three days. I’ve gotten you to wake up long enough to eat and drink, but nothing else.”
“Three days?” I asked in disbelief.
He nodded. “I’ve been hiding with you. When my parents read the paper, they told me I couldn’t be friends with you anymore. Suddenly they care about what I do.” I could see he held his tongue on what he really thought of his parents.
It hurt that Adam’s parents would turn their backs on me. I never saw them much, but I always believed they liked me. But if they didn’t even show Adam affection, what could I depend on them for? “What happened with the town registration?”
Adam passed by me to look out the window, standing on a box to reach it. “When the Military didn’t find the flyer, things started to fall apart. Fallon’s on lockdown, Casper. Nobody in– nobody out. The Military’s desperate to find the flyer. Zana’s team set up a perimeter around the city. Look here.” He gestured out the window with his head.
I raised myself up to the tiny, dirty, glass frame, barely able to see out of it. At first, everything outside looked normal, but then I noticed the faint red glow on the ground. I looked up at the sky. Instead of seeing the astonishing desert-blue sky, I saw a scarlet wall spread over the town. It was a translucent ceiling hundreds of feet high. I could just barely make out the cloud wisps on the other side of it.
“What is that?” I asked.
“The perimeter,” Adam said. “A body can’t cross it, and a teleporter can’t go through it.”
“What’s doing it?”
“Someone with a powerful extra-human trait,” he responded. I remembered Evee saying that people with shield abilities helped secure the continent’s coastal borders. How could they stop teleporting, though?
I sank down from the window, realizing that the situation was bleak, but at least I survived the fire– thanks to Adam. I sat on the cot and buried my face in my hands. My family was gone, and now I was trapped in this town without them. I’d told Evee to leave. So much of this was my fault. It wasn’t fair that for a moment in my life everything had been perfect only for it to all come crumbling down.
“How did my life get more complicated than it already was?”
“I guess that’s what happens when you grow up,” Adam said.
“I don’t want to grow up,” I whispered.
“We don’t have a choice about growing up,” Adam said. He reminded me of Dad– with all the authority of the principal. He moved closer next to me on the cot. “But… we do have a choice in the decisions we make once we grow up.” His tone was suggestive, as if he knew what the next step would be.
“What are you talking about?”
“I left school, Casper,” he said. He stared at me as if I didn’t understand the full impact. “To come and rescue you. Now I’m hiding out withyou. My parents haven’t seen me for days. The school has probably already told them that I’ve disappeared.” He paused, taking in a deep breath. “And my parents will know that I chose you over them.”
I couldn’t let Adam be associated with me. He still had a chance for a normal life. “I can’t let you do that, Adam.”
“I’ve already made my decision, bro” he said. “I’m not a little boy that my parents can control anymore. I’m not going with Zana after graduation. I’ll spend my whole life running if I have to. I deserve the freedom to have my own life. I don’t belong to Zana or the Military. I’m a man. And so are you. We can fight– tell the town the truth– and rescue your parents. There are people that will help us once they know the truth.”
“No one is going to help us, Adam. We’re just kids. Teenagers.” Saying it aloud made me feel helpless.
“You just said that you wished you hadn’t grown up,” Adam barked. “So which is it? Are you a child or an adult?”
I didn’t know how to respond. His game of logic and semantics wasn’t appealing to me. I didn’t care enough to challenge him or agree with him. “There’s no point in even trying to fight the Military,” I said. “We would die trying.”
He shrugged in a typical-Adam I don’t care way. “You would give up, while your parents rotted in that prison?” he asked insultingly. “I would rather die trying to save them than leave them there. They’ve given both of us everything. I owe your parents, and I’m not gonna give up on them.”
I recalled the dream of my parents growing older, but never opening their eyes. Adam had a point, but I couldn’t fight. “Even if I wanted to fight, I don’t have control of my ability. I’m too scared. You should know the feeling.”
He had spent the last month terrified of Zana and his future with her. Even when I had control of my ability, his aura remained invisible like it did now.
“I’m not scared anymore, Casper,” Adam said. “I’ve chosen not to be scared, and if you could see it right now, I know my aura is shining brightly in this room– I can’t feel it or see it, but I know I’m not afraid. There’s hope, Casper, and I’m not going to let you lose it.”
He didn’t have an aura, or at least I couldn’t see it.
“There’s no hope,” I said. I wanted to do something, but it’d be suicide with just the two of us.
Adam frowned, but raised his head high. “Even if there’s no hope... I’m going to fight for what I know is right.”
There were no more words left in me. I fell silent. Good for Adam. He’d managed to find a little courage to hang onto, but it wasn’t as easy for me. What did I know about courage? I’d been bullied my whole life and allowed it to go on. I didn’t even try to save my family when the Military dragged them away. I just watched– I let it happen. It was my fault too.
“You have to try, Casper,” Adam pleaded. He raised his voice. “Try to see it. Quit accepting everything that’s happened like it’s final. No one said it would be easy!”
“I’m done trying,” I snapped.
Adam teleported away, returning a split second later with my backpack in his hands.
“What are you doing?” I asked.
He dug in the bag and finally pulled out a journal. “I saved these from the fire. All your journals and your dad’s journals survived.” He held the journal up and opened it. “This is father’s. I’m going to make you see.” He began reading the last page of the journal. “Today I found out that Casper can fly.” He paused before moving on to see if I would stop him. I wanted to hear the rest. I relaxed to hear what Dad had written. “Unfortunately, this also puts Casper in a life threatening situation.”
It was as if I was hearing Dad’s voice through Adam, and it paralyzed me. I felt chills run down my arms. Earnest words in a journal were all I had left of Dad.
“I don’t know what I wou
ld do if anything happened to Casper,” Adam continued reading. “I couldn’t bear to lose my son. I remember how Amanda and I tried all those years for a child. I wanted a son more than anything. Casper’s been a ball of light in my life since the day he was born. When he showed me the picture of him flying, I felt something– it was indescribable. I’ve always known he’s going to do great things. I refuse to let anything happen to him. If my son is taken from me, I will fight whatever battle or war that I must to get him back. I’ll never give up on him. I believe in him too much. He’s meant for something great. I love him more than words could ever express and I have to make sure he is safe.”
Adam quit reading and found my eyes. I couldn’t hold back my emotion. I’d played the part of the coward, when my parents would have been ready to come to my rescue at any moment. I had to be willing to do the same for them, but I was still scared.
“Looks like he wrote this the night before the registration at the school,” Adam said. “You’re his son… act like it!”
I stood up, thinking about what Dad would do. “We’re going to get my parents back.” The dream of them aging, growing old in a cage would never happen as long as I had a breath in my body. I had no clue how we were going to rescue them, but I knew I had to do it. What purpose did life have without the people that loved me? “This is going to be hard without my ability.”
“What’s wrong with your ability?”
I was too embarrassed to tell him that I needed Evee for it to work, but lying wouldn’t help any. “I need Evee. She’s the one who made it possible in the first place.” My ability was never going to be natural to me. It would always be dominated by my emotions, and at the moment, my emotions were out of my control. Unfathomable sorrow weighed me down.
“I don’t believe that,” Adam said. “This is your extra-human trait, Casper. The fact that it didn’t work until Evee showed up is nothing short of tragic. You spent most of your life allowing hate and anger to rule you. You hated yourself. Why would you hate yourself?”
I’d asked myself the same question several times, but there was no good answer. “Before I met Evee, I felt like my life was some cruel joke,” I confessed. “I wanted so desperately to be normal. I know it was childish… but I hate myself for different reasons now.”
“Why?” he asked, stepping towards me in the dark room.
“Because what’s happened to my family is my fault.”
I’d been avoiding saying it. Somehow, I thought if I just didn’t say it, it wouldn’t be my fault. But deep down, I did blame myself. If I hadn’t given them Uncle Jesse’s information during the registration or been seen flying, none of this would have ever happened. It was my fault that they were gone.
“You can’t hate yourself for this,” Adam insisted. “You haven’t done anything wrong, and neither have your parents. Try to get control, Casper.”
“I can’t…”
Adam slugged me in the arm. “TRY!”
I closed my eyes, trying to focus. I wanted my ability back, but would that be enough? It was the only way I would be useful in trying to save my parents. I thought of their faces. The image of them smiling seemed to bring a little warmth back to me. I pictured Mom on the couch, asking me about Evee the day we first met. Breakfast with Uncle Jesse. Dad drinking his coffee and adjusting his suspenders.
When I opened my eyes, I finally saw Adam’s aura. But it turned faint and flickered on and off as if it were controlled by a light switch. I still couldn’t see it entirely.
“Can you see it?” Adam asked.
I didn’t answer. I squinted, trying to concentrate. In the darkness colors began to dance. One was a familiar color. Evee’s eyes, I thought. The cyan cloud that I saw grew behind my eyelids. I made myself concentrate on the remnants of her touch and fragrance in my mind. The unforgettable look she’d given me the first time we met in Dad’s office sent chills through my body. The colors exploded, revealing cyan orbs like Evee’s eyes.
The tingling sensation vibrated my whole body, sending waves of warm chills through me. I felt my aura grow stronger, but not just my aura. There was another aura in the room too. Adam wasn’t afraid anymore. He had been telling the truth.
I opened my eyes and was nearly blinded by a sublime, pearly white light, casting over my own amber aura. Adam could barely be seen through the powerful hue. It was the same exact shade of pearl as mine and Evee’s combined aura when we touched. I had to shield my eyes to stay in the conversation.
“Can you see it?” Adam asked.
I nodded my head as my mouth remained wide open. “I see it.” I had to lock away the negative emotion in the back of my mind. I battled the memory of Colonel Ford arresting my parents, replacing the incident with good memories of when we were all together and happy.
Adam smiled big in relief. “What color am I?” He’d asked me the question a few times, but I could never answer until now. His aura sent out waves of energy, and I heard the hum of musical chords somewhere in the crowded room of boxes. It was as if his aura trapped me in the glorious, iridescent light the way the darkness trapped me in my dream.
“It’s… white,” I said, “…like pearl colored.” It was the same unique aura I’d seen around Evee and me. It was more breathtaking than Evee’s cyan aura. There was something different about Adam’s aura– an intensity I’d never experienced before. The thick hue shimmered. The energy of Adam’s aura fueled mine, and as I absorbed the waves of light coming out of him, it was easier to maintain my own aura.
“It’s been killing me not knowing,” Adam said. “I was hoping for maybe a red or green, but white is great.” He smiled and looked at his body. I was sorry that he couldn’t see the miraculous spectacle. His aura flowed out of him effortlessly for minutes.
I got so caught up in the moment, I forgot someone was missing. Evee. I’d made her leave my house that night, but I never wanted her to leave really. The lights in the room disappeared as I remembered that I had to fix things with her. I wanted to be the one to protect her and love her. As far as I was concerned, her father didn’t deserve her. He had betrayed her love by committing so many horrible acts. He’d be the reason Evee died, not me. I could save her.
Adam became aware of the serious look on my face. “What’s wrong?” he asked.
“I have to find Evee,” I said. I was worried about her. I wondered what class she would be in right now. My ability would be more in my control once I had fixed things with her. I owed her the land’s biggest apology. I shouldn’t have given up on her so easily.
“Casper,” Adam said. It looked like he had more bad news. “Evee’s father pulled her out of school last Friday. He said they would be leaving Fallon soon.”
Horror spread over my face when I thought I might never see her again. I had to find her. If I could talk to her, maybe I could convince her to leave her father, and come with me. I knew she’d choose me over her father.
“I’ve seen her,” Adam said. “She’s tried to visit me several times.”
“What do you mean tried?” I asked.
“Her phantom body has found me a couple of times, but her image faded in and out and she couldn’t talk,” Adam said. “She hasn’t been able to tell me anything. The last time I saw her, she acted out what she needed to tell me in a game of charades. I don’t think she can effectively send her phantom body through the barrier.” He gestured out the window with his head, looking as if to see if the perimeter was still there. “I think what she was trying to tell me was that her father wasn’t letting her leave the house,” Adam said. “And she tried to tell me things about you, but I couldn’t understand. She’s been worried about you, for sure.”
She said she wouldn’t give up on me. I only hoped she still felt the same way. I had a feeling that I wasn’t just fighting for my family… I was also fighting for her. Colonel Ford wasn’t going to give her up without a fight.
“I think Evee can take care of herself for the time being,” Adam said. Scarlet r
ays fell over his face from the window. “We have to start telling people the truth about what’s really happening. It will be hard to convince people that the
Military has been lying.”
“That’s why we need Evee,” I said. “If people can hear Evee confess what Colonel Ford has been doing, it would make our story more believable. Her father is a high-ranking Military official. People might actually listen to her.” Evee thought the idea would work, and I knew it was our best option.
Adam nodded, impressed with the idea. It felt like a long shot, but it was the best we had. If Fallon wouldn’t listen to us with Evee, it would be ten times harder to make them listen without her. Evee’s strong will and conviction gave me faith that we would succeed. Hope began to return.
“So where are we exactly?” I asked.
It was clear Adam wanted to avoid the subject of our location for as long as he could when he made an uneasy face. “Ummm… We couldn’t leave Fallon because of the barrier, and the only other person who knew the truth about you was Seth. He’s been hiding us in his basement the last few days.”
Panic struck in the instant I knew I was in Seth’s house, and alarms went off in my head to run. “Does his mom know?” I cringed when I thought of facing Beverly Grindle.
Adam nodded, staring at the cement, basement floor. “And she’s not happy…”
SETH
Casper:
For an hour, Adam and I sat in Beverly Grindle’s bleak basement, debating whether to leave or stay. The list of cons far outweighed the list of pros, but Adam refused to leave. I understood there was nowhere else to go, but that didn’t mean Seth’s house was best. I thought we could hide out in my Dad’s office at the school if it was empty, but Adam thought the idea too risky.
“She hates me, Adam,” I reminded him.
“I know, but she’s let you stay here the last few days. She said I could hide you in the basement until you woke up.”
