Forgotten (Reject High: A Young Adult Science Fiction Series Book 3) (6 page)

Sasha gave us the address of the house. “It’s the green and white one, up the long road. I’ll turn off the alarm for you two.”

Her inflections indicated to me that she still had hurt feelings over what happened with Selby and our breakup. I forgave her for it, after all, it was hardly her fault. But I had moved on and there’s no apologizing for that, either. I was where I needed to be.

“See you.” Esteban said before wisps of green mist indicated they had gone.

Holding Rhapsody tight, I took to the air. In less than a minute, we landed at the front of our destination. It smelled like a florist’s shop. Round hills of freshly-mowed green grass stretched out. We pushed open the gate that surrounded the grounds. We kept invisible, in case the Collective or King was monitoring the area. After all, today was the fourth anniversary of my mother’s death. They had to figure I’d show up to pay my respects at some point.

However, I had come for another reason.

From a distance, it appeared as if there was someone in front of my mother’s grave. At our current distance and because of the slope of the hills, we could not tell who it was without getting closer.

I stopped. Rhapsody’s hand lingered at the small of my back. She thought we needed to go forward. She was right. The person could be harmless. Or it could be King, waiting to spring a trap on us. Who else besides me would want to visit here but Aunt Dee? The silhouette of the person was too tall and slender to be Aunt Dee and she was living across the country anyway.

From a few yards back I heard sniffling. Might’ve been his allergies. I fought back the urge to sneeze, myself. According to his stature, the visitor was a man. Further details of his identity were obscured by the shadows cast by a towering tree. He wore a blue or black suit. In a flower cup was an arrangement of Peruvian lilies and baby’s breath – my mom’s favorite. It was similar to the bouquet I'd found at her grave when I first visited it months ago. Okay, not similar, exactly the same. King was screwing with my mind, and this time I’d kill him for it.

I cracked my knuckles.

That’s when he started talking. “I miss you, Annie. Junior misses you, too.”

Ray? It was his voice or someone impersonating him.

The only time I didn’t hate being called Junior was when my mom did it. She pronounced it sweetly. Most other people said it like an insult or a punishment. We continued eavesdropping. This was the end of a long conversation we had missed. He openly wept again. I’d only seen my father cry twice, once when we were putting her into the ground and again when Julia, my new stepmother, was dying from knife wounds. This marked the third.

“I wish…just…if you could say a word to me. Something. I feel like you’re here.”

I wondered if he really meant that, or was he talking about us? This felt wrong, but usually the only feelings coming from Ray were coldness and anger. I needed to see him bleed emotions, for all the times he’d hurt me and acted like it was nothing.

Rhapsody tugged at my hand. I could hear her thoughts, urging me to talk to my father. My mother no longer had that ability to do so, even if she wanted to. I should bury the hatchet with Ray.

I squeezed back. I’d do it.

“Ray.” I called his name softly, hoping not to startle him. He whirled around anyway.

His eyes were red and he wiped them with a handkerchief. “Champ?” His voice broke in and out. “I thought your discharge was supposed to be after your birthday. I would’ve come to get you.”

The display of kindness was unusual. I’d have suspected it was Taylor pretending to be him, if she weren’t dead. Sparing him the details of the truth, I glossed over it. “Got out early.”

He squeezed me into an awkward hug. “What’s with the wetsuit and scrubs?”

I patted his back, forgetting about what I was wearing. “Uhh…”

“It’s okay. You know what, son? I’m a lawyer. It’s better if I don’t know what you do.” Ray and I hadn’t seen each other since I left him outside the police station. That is, unless he visited me while I was in my coma. But I knew better than that.

“How’s Julia?”

He sniffed, using his monogrammed silk handkerchief again. “Nerve damage in the neck, you know. Recuperating. Slowly but surely. How’s Deb? You’ve seen her?”

Man. Both of my stepmothers were crippled because of me. He hadn’t heard about the hospital fire? It blew up more than an hour ago. “How long have you been here?”

He checked his expensive timepiece, a gold Rolex submariner watch. “Not too long.” I saw through his lie. Spending time at my mother’s grave? Clearly, this had to be an impostor. A faint wind blew at our backs, rustling the tree branches above us. I stood next to him. To the right of mom’s grave was a gray headstone for Grandma Barbara. She died in 1982. I never knew how. My parents wouldn’t tell me.

Ray noticed I had shifted my attention. “Yup, Barb never liked me. Before we got together your mom used to date a cop. His name was…Antwaan, Anvil, something weird like that. Your grandmother thought your mom should have married him instead.”

I was interested. “Why?”

“Who knows?” Ray blew his nose and chuckled. “Barb loved that guy. When Anna dumped him for me she probably had to confiscate Barb’s shoelaces and belts.”

The joke made me laugh. I knew nothing about my grandmother, except for some old holiday cards in her handwriting that I’d found buried in my closet. On each envelope was a twenty-five cent stamp. All of them were addressed to “Mrs. Anna Lee-Champion and Anna’s husband.” I never understood why until just now.

He put his hand on my shoulder. “I’m parked in the lot. I’ll give you some time.”

I remembered the radioactive aquamarine in my left hand. Waiting until Ray disappeared over the hill, I knelt down and wrapped my arms around the headstone, careful not to squeeze and crush it.

Closing my eyes, I said everything I wanted to say without saying it out loud.
I hate the difficulty of my life. The rage blackouts, even though I haven’t had one in a while. Being homeless instead of living in our beautiful, three-level home. With you. Fighting two-hundred-year-old, immortality-seeking sociopaths. The same immortality-seeking sociopaths whose radioactive stone slowly killed you and my girlfriend’s father.

A part of that stone now rested in my left hand. My tears fell onto the smooth-faced rock.
My loved ones are constantly being kidnapped or threatened. On a regular weekday night I’d be making out with Rhapsody or playing Xbox. Instead, I’m flying around the west coast hiding and coming up with survival plans on the spot. I’m tired of hiding. A part of me wants to give up, let them take as much blood as they want and do whatever with it. Give me advice, Mom. Anything, and I’ll do it.

I released the headstone and punched a hole deep into the earth with my left hand. I pushed the aqua-marine down as far as I could. Courtney told me what it would do. Even I, Captain Obvious, could pick up breadcrumbs that obvious.

How quickly would it happen? I stood and backed up from the gravesite. Reaching into my suit, I clutched the aquamarine on my necklace and prayed for it to happen. I wished, almost chanting it, that it would do for Anna Lee Champion what it did for Taylor.

That my mother would come back from the dead.

CHAPTER SIX

rhapsody vs. sasha, round two

Rhapsody rejoined me at the top of the grassy hill. Strange as it may sound, I introduced her to my mother. “Mom, this is my girlfriend Rhapsody. Rhapsody, my mom.”

She nervously waved her hand at the copper-colored headstone. “Hey, Mrs. Champion.”

Her awkward pause gave me a moment to ask a question that had been on my mind since ghosting onto the freeway. “What was that at the hospital?”

“I don’t want to talk about it, Jason.”

Rhapsody bit at her nails. That meant she really didn’t want to talk about it. It wasn’t good enough for me, but I dropped it for now. I led her to the parking lot, where Ray was leaning against the passenger side door of his silver Cougar XJ and making a phone call. The car looked better than ever. No one ever known I’d thrown it across a parking lot.

Whoever he was speaking to, there was yelling and some cursing involved. When he saw us coming his way, though, he disconnected the call. “Rhapsody,” he said with a smile. “Hey, Champ, where’s Sasha Anderson?”

He didn’t know we had recently broken up. While morganite and cheating on me with Selby was a short explanation, it wasn’t a story to tell your father.

“Her parent’s beach house upstate,” I said. “We’re headed there now.” Ray’s eyebrows raised. “For the weekend? Joyce will be there?”

The mention of Sasha’s mother made me recall the last time I’d seen Joyce. Passed out and lying on her stomach. He’d approve of that as a chaperone?

“Uhh…no,” Rhapsody answered honestly.

I crossed my arms, expecting some sort of parental backlash. Ray dug his hands in his pockets and bowed his head. “I see,” was all he said about it.

It’s not like he could ground me from going. All he could do was disagree. He wasn’t my legal guardian and donating half of my chromosomes to my existence didn’t suddenly entitle him to an opinion.

“Jump in the Cougar,” he offered, opening the passenger door. “Rhapsody, you too. I took a day, so there’s no need for me to check in at the office. I’ll give you a ride to Sasha’s.”

I pointed to the sky. “Got a ride.” A much cooler ride.

Ray sucked his teeth and sighed. We weren’t getting off that easy. “Before you take off, can I have a word? Rhapsody, a minute please?”

She checked with me. I was about as unsure about it as she was. “Okay.”

My father walked me to the unfinished corner of the parking lot, a pile of gravel and mud. I braced myself for the longest, most hypocritical lecture of all time. After years of ignoring me, he finally wanted to parent me? No thanks. I’d make it without him.

He kicked at a stray patch of gravel. “Your mom was always a better parent than me. She coached me before I talked to you sometimes. When she died…I fell back into old habits. Your grandfather rode my back until I left home at sixteen. So, I was hard on you."

We all lost our way after she died, including me. It made sense, though. Times when I got in trouble at school, he’d say things to me like he’d seen an afterschool special on it.

“Call it what it is, Champ – an excuse. You start off as a dad with the best intentions.” He wrung his hands. All of his pauses between sentences were driving me insane. “You swear you’re not going to do what your folks did. It started off that way…then little stuff slips in you can’t help. Sooner than later, you’re doing exactly what they did.”

I couldn’t help but ask. “Did he treat you like you were damaged?”

His face darkened. He did that to me. When my diagnosis for ADHD and rage blackouts came back he kept trying to fix me – Concentra, Adderall, antidepressants, extra IEP check-in meetings, therapy, whatever would get me to shut up, act right in class, and be like the other kids.

“I’m dyslexic,” he admitted to me. “He beat me to make me read correctly. When that didn’t work, he beat me more. So I shut down and stopped talking until your grandmother got me a tutor.”

You’d think after being treated like that, that he’d be easier on me.

He waved his hands like he was erasing an invisible whiteboard. “What I’m trying to say is…a woman came to see me, blonde hair, bushy eyebrows. You know her?” He then crudely described Courtney’s curvaceous shape. Ray was terrible with remembering people’s names. “Christine? She told me what you did.”

Using the scarlet emerald, I scanned the thoughts at the forefront of his mind. I flipped through images of me getting into the pit and saving the Collective from certain death.

“Almost anything I tell you about life now, I mean, look at what you’ve already survived, and you’re fifteen!” Again with the hand wringing. “As long as you’ve had these abilities…I can’t begin to comprehend. Each decision and action has monumental impact.”

Honesty. I hadn’t gotten that from him in a long time. He needed to get to the point though, if there was one. “We’re not safe here. We should go.”

We firmly shook hands and he pulled me into a hug. “Right. Come see me in a few days,” he said into my ear. “Julia and I have a birthday present for you.”

“What is it?”

Ray laughed at my impatience. “Your birthday is on Wednesday. You can wait.”

I tried not to smile over his shoulder. I’d have to survive whatever was coming for us just to see what it was. He hadn’t gotten me a gift since Mom died. I should warn him he and his wife were in danger. It was the right thing to do.

Rhapsody approached us and tapped her right wrist, though she wasn’t wearing a watch. Time was up. Staying here any longer was dangerous for all of us.

I left my father’s embrace. “Listen,” I said, patting him on the shoulder. “Go away for a while. Take Julia. Europe or something. I’ll be fine, and Aunt Dee has Zachary.”

His eyebrows scrunched together. “What? That’s against the custody agreement.”

Right. Ray, the lawyer, was back to normal. “You’re in danger, Ray. Leave town.”

“Why? Christine said that guy was dead.”

I glanced away. If I had killed "that guy" we wouldn’t be having this discussion.

Rhapsody jumped into our conversation. “Yeah, he is. Sort of.”

“So what’s the big deal? Besides, all the hospital bills have got me crunched this month. I’ve got a court date on Tuesday, a couple of briefs to file …”

“Someone is after me, Ray. That means they’ll come after you, too.”

This time when he paused it was a good thing. He’d taken what I’d said seriously. Or at least I thought, until he said, “I can’t do that.”

What was so difficult about taking a vacation? “Why not?”

“Because if you start running, you’ll never stop.”

He had a point. Rhapsody didn’t seem to disagree with him, either. Arguing against his viewpoint meant he’d debate me into submission and we didn’t have time for that.

My father crossed his arms. “Tell me how to defend myself against these people.”

There was only one way, short of standing guard at his door 24/7, and we had it. Rhapsody produced a palm full of goshenite from inside her suit and handed it to me. The flash and sparkle of the prisms in the afternoon sunlight caught his eye.

“What am I supposed to do with those? Pawn them and leave the country?”

I carefully poured them into his hands. “Focus your thoughts on stopping their powers. Then they’ll become ordinary and they can be killed like anyone else.”

“Gotcha." Ray grinned. He arched an eyebrow. "Sounds too good to be true. What’s the catch?”

Rhapsody nudged me with her elbow. I had to tell him. “They’re radioactive and toxic to you. Long-term use will give you bone cancer and eventually kill you.”

The mention of that specific disease silenced us all. It had robbed us of someone we loved. Ray squeezed his fist around the jewels we’d given him. I didn’t need to read his mind to see his thought processes. They played themselves out across his face. A twinge of hurt, the gravity of death hitting his consciousness, and the determination to survive. He rounded the car and opened his driver’s side door. “Offer’s still open. Want a lift?”

“No thanks,” Rhapsody said as I scooped her into my arms. She tended to her own mask and then mine. My father watched us rocket into the sky and fade to invisibility.

Sasha’s house came into view as we traveled up the coastline. Rhapsody’s fingers tightened around my shoulder. She thought what I thought. The orange sun floating on the horizon, reflecting against the deep blue landscape, sugar white sand – it was beautiful. Real estate up here must cost a fortune, but Sasha’s parents made a fortune between them. A divorce meant someone would get custody of the house, or they would sell it for profit. Such a shame.

The beachfront home wasn’t huge, but twice as big as any house I’d ever lived in. A series of robust concrete stilts served as its foundation. A wooden white porch ran the length of the house’s front and parlayed into walking ramps down the sides. Painted a dull shade of blue, its shingles contrasted against the pure white pointing and trim.

We softly dropped down into the sand. Now visible, I unmasked, loosened my scrubs and kicked them off along with my sneakers. Rhapsody did the same and took my hand. Together we ran into the ocean and splashed around. We weren’t safe anywhere we went, so a little fun couldn’t kill us. Rhapsody splashed me and I playfully pushed water back into her face. The coolness of the water felt wonderful through my bodysuit and against my face. More than that, I didn’t think about anyone or anything else in that moment other than my girlfriend and how much fun I was having.

While we caught our breath from laughing, Esteban teleported us into Sasha’s living room. Sopping wet, I jerked my head back so that I didn’t throw up on Rhapsody. I placed my hands on my knees and slowly inhaled. He could have waited a few minutes for us to come into the house. A wave of nausea rumbled at the bottom of my stomach.

Crap. I had no idea where the bathroom was.

Sasha saw my panic and tapped Esteban. “He’s gonna blow. Bathroom’s down the hall.”

“Got it,” Esteban said, snapping his fingers.

The next thing I knew, I materialized in the bathroom in front of an open toilet. Perfect. I threw up what was left of the pizza I’d eaten. I flushed, washed my hands, and brushed my teeth with my finger and a blob of toothpaste from the cabinet. Rinsing my mouth out, I relished the peppermint flavor lingering on my tongue and teeth. It killed the rest of the queasiness in my stomach for good.

I opened the door and discovered I was down the hall and around the corner from the living room. Here, in the great room, were a giant flat screen television, brown leather sectional couches, and pictures of the Andersons when they were happy. Which, from the looks of it, was a long time ago. Sasha was a little girl and had a gapped-toothed smile and Joyce’s hair was teased up with hairspray. Wesley wasn’t at all the way I pictured him. I thought he might be this breezy, Californian- looking dude. He was a dark-skinned black man who reminded me of the guy on an old cop show Debra used to watch. Sasha’s father was bald with a goatee. His smile was mysterious, like he was hiding something or knew a secret that Joyce and Sasha had no idea about.