The Deviant Underground (Time Bandit) (8 page)

Charge reached over and gently took her hand. “Tell me,” he squeezed her hand. “What do you think happened this afternoon with Derrick?”

Kathryn was perplexed. This was not what she thought they had to talk about. She did breathe a sigh of relief, however. It was clear this conversation was not going to be about her.

“Um, I don’t know. That’s why I asked you earlier.”

Charge leaned into her and squeezed her hand harder. “But tell me what you
think
happened. Even if it seems completely impossible.”

Kathryn looked at him, and then she turned to look at Susan. Both of them looked back with anticipation, as if the next thing she was going to say was of the utmost importance. She took her hand back, interlaced her fingers, pressed them up against her mouth, and thought for a moment. The first thing that came to her mind was ridiculous, but it was the only thing that she could come up with based on what she thought she saw. And smelled.

“Well,” she exhaled sharply and put her hands back down on the table, “I know this is going to sound crazy . . .”

Charge smiled at her reassuringly. “Crazy is okay.”

Kathryn shrugged to apologize for the thing she was going to say next. “Well, it sounded like Derrick got shocked. You know, like with electricity.”

She waited for Charge and Susan to burst out laughing at the ridiculousness of her statement. Instead, Charge turned to Susan and said, “See, I told you she knew.”

“Knew what?”

Susan looked at Charge as if to encourage him to speak. Charge grabbed Kathryn’s hand again. “You are right, baby,” he said earnestly. “I did shock him.”

Kathryn shook her head as if to clear her mind so that she could hear better. “What?”

Charge pressed his lips together before repeating, “I did shock him. On purpose. But he was being such a disrespectful asshole.”

“You should have shocked him more!” Susan piped in.

“I know,” Charge growled. “I really did want to kill him but we were outside, people were around, you were there . . .” He squeezed Kathryn’s hand. “Besides, it would have been rather messy.”

Kathryn drew her hands sharply out of Charge’s warm grip. “What the hell are you two talking about?” She looked back and forth at them. “Charge, what is going on?”

“We are
different
, Kathryn,” Susan spoke up. “Charge and I.” She leaned across the table eagerly, a sparkle in her eye. “We can do things that other people can’t.”

Kathryn’s mouth suddenly felt dry, and the blood drained from her face. She opened her mouth to speak, but no sound came out. Her heart pounded against her chest, and she felt like she was going to pass out. She managed to find enough breath to rasp out one word. “What?”

Susan sat back smugly. “Show her, Charge.”

Charged raised his arm; it burst into a cobweb of electricity. The blue and white sparks popped and hissed as they traveled haphazardly up and down his unscathed arm. The air in the kitchen was permeated by the sharp, acidic smell of flowing current. It was the same smell Kathryn had caught a whiff of outside.

Kathryn jumped back in her chair and clasped her hands over her mouth to stifle a scream. Her pounding heart moved from her chest up to her ears, filling her head with pressure and stopping her breath.

Concern flashed across Charge’s face. As suddenly as the electric display started, it stopped. He reached out the same hand to touch her; Kathryn recoiled in horror. “Don’t touch me,” she whispered.
Her mind raced. What did I just see? What the hell is going on?! This must be some kind of trick—some kind of magic trick. This can’t be . . .

“Kathryn.” Susan’s voice interrupted Kathryn’s wild thoughts. She looked over at Susan’s worried face. “Don’t be afraid,” she said softly.

“What . . .” Kathryn croaked. “What are you?”

Charge looked at her with his soft brown eyes. “What do you think we are, baby?”

Kathryn shook her head back and forth. She couldn't speak it. It was just not possible. “No,” she whispered.

“Yes, girlfriend.” Susan sat back in her chair. “The media calls us ‘deviants,’ although I hate that word. But there it is. We are
‘deviants.’
” She looked pointedly at Kathryn. “Just. Like. You.”

This time, there was no fighting it. Kathryn barely made it to the bathroom before her dinner made its reappearance. She gripped the toilet as her body quivered with the force of her heaving. Her head pounded, and tears flowed from her eyes. After her dinner was all gone, her body continued to convulse as if trying to purge the conversation as well. Exhausted, she finally collapsed and weakly sat up with her back pressed against the side of the tub. The doorknob rattled. Fortunately, she had locked it.

“Kathryn?” Charge’s voice was strained. “Please open the door.”

She was too weak and overwhelmed to reply. Instead, she put her head between her knees and cried silently. She couldn’t even begin to process what Charge and Susan were telling her.
They are DEVIANTS?! How is that possible?
All this time she had known them, she had never suspected. She might have thought that they were playing some kind of cruel joke on her if she hadn’t seen Charge’s fireworks display in the kitchen.

“Kathryn!” Charge’s voice sounded even more pressing. “Open the door, baby.”

“Come on, Kathryn.” Susan was a bit calmer. “We need to finish our conversation.”

“I’m done talking,” Kathryn responded weakly. “No more.”

“Kathryn!” Charge boomed. “Don’t make me break this door down to get to you. Now please open it!”

There was something about the tone of Charge’s voice that made her pull herself off of the floor. “Okay,” she said. “One minute.” She brushed her teeth and splashed water on her face again. She looked at her haggard reflection. Her face was puffy, and her eyes and nose were red. She looked a mess. She ran a comb through her hair and blew her nose. It didn't help her appearance any, but it made her feel a tiny bit better. She then took a deep breath and opened the door.

Charge and Susan were standing right outside it, looking concerned. “Are you okay?” Susan asked.

“No.” Kathryn headed into the living room. She needed to sit down. “I am not okay.” She lowered herself onto the couch, and Charge sat next to her. Susan sat in the chair across the room. They both looked at her without speaking. Kathryn wished that someone would fill up the silence with words, but she didn’t have the strength to do it herself. Besides, she didn’t know what to say.

Charge gently stroked her hair. She let him. After a few more moments of silence, he was the first one to speak. “Talk to us,” he said gently. “What are you thinking about?”

“Nothing. I-I don’t even know what to say.” More silence drifted throughout the room. Kathryn looked cautiously at Charge. “Why are you telling me this?”

The expression on Charge’s face was one of confusion. His fingers stroked the back of her neck. Normally, she found this gesture comforting but not now. “Because,” he said carefully, “we want you to know that you are not alone.”

Tension gripped Kathryn’s body. She had never, ever told anyone about her status. Not breathed one word of it. Sure, there was the accident with the tree branch, but no one had come after her. The police didn’t show up at her door. How could they know that she was a de—that she was “different?” There was absolutely no way that they could know. No way.

She swallowed audibly a few times. “I-I don’t know what you are talking about.”

“Kathryn,” Susan spoke from across the room. “It’s okay. We know.”

Kathryn continued to play dumb. She was not going to out herself. “Know what? What are you talking about?”

Susan continued, “We know that you’re just like us.” Kathryn’s heart thudded. “There’s nothing to worry about. You’re safe with us.”

“You can talk to us.” Charge took his free hand and gripped hers gently. “Don’t worry. We would never tell anyone. To do so would be to out ourselves. It's okay, baby. You aren’t alone. We’re here now.”

Kathryn wanted to say something, but she didn't have the courage. To speak the truth was terrifying, so she just sat there, paralyzed by fear. “I—” She could not go on any further. Instead, she just shook her head.

Charge looked at her eagerly, encouraged by the one word. “Yes?”

Kathryn’s eyes darted about the room. She refused to look at them and desperately wished she could be anywhere except where she was, having that conversation at that moment. Suddenly, she began to feel that peculiar feeling in the pit of her stomach, and her entire body began to tingle.
Shit!
Keep it together! Focus!
She knew that if she didn’t stop the sensation now, she would disappear from the room and end up . . . god only knows where. There was the time that she found herself in the alley, and then there was the time when she reappeared in the middle of the street and almost got hit by a car. Even when she just ended up in the adjacent room, she landed on her ass.
Please no, not in front of them. Not now
, she silently begged. She closed her eyes and focused on the sound of her pounding heart, trying to slow it down. After what felt like several minutes, the peculiar feeling slowly began to go away. She breathed a quiet sigh of relief.

“You have a great gift, you know.” At the sound of Susan’s voice, her eyes popped open.

“What?”

“Your gift,” she almost sounded in awe, “is amazing.”

“It’s not a gift!” Kathryn snapped back, instantly horrified at what she had said.
My god, what have I done?
Charge gripped her hand passionately.

“It
is
a gift.” His eyes flashed. “You have an extraordinary power. I’ve never met anyone who can do what you do.”

“How . . .?” Kathryn’s voice trailed off. She didn’t even know what question to ask or how to phrase it.

Susan spoke her question for her. “How did we know about you?” She smiled. “We’ve known about you for a while now. We have a friend whose gift is to be able to tell who’s special and what special gifts that person possesses. She told us about you.”

Kathryn could tell from Charge’s face that Susan was telling the truth, but her statement raised more complicated questions. Before she could begin to formulate one, Charge said, “Can you show us, baby?”

Kathryn raised her eyebrows. “Show you what?”

Charge chuckled. “I mean, we know you did it in the kitchen, but we kind of missed the whole thing.” He eagerly sat back on the couch. “So show us again.”

“I can’t . . .” Kathryn let the shaking of her head finish the rest of the sentence.

“Sure you can,” Susan encouraged her. She then got up and went into the kitchen. She returned with the vase full of tulips. As soon as she walked into the middle of the room, she dropped it.

Kathryn gasped at the unexpected move, and the entire room froze—Susan and Charge included. Instead of panicking this time, Kathryn took a moment to digest what was happening. It was clear that they knew about her. And it was also clear that they, themselves, were also different in some way.
Is it possible that the two people who I care about the most are also like me?
Kathryn’s mind reeled at the thought. She put fear aside for a moment and calmly stood up, plucked the vase out of the air, and unfroze the room.

Susan jumped to see Kathryn standing next to her. Charge had been looking at Kathryn when Susan dropped the vase. Now he was staring at an empty spot on the couch, and his neck snapped around the room before his gaze settled on her. A huge grin lit up his face. “Aw, man. We missed it again.”

Susan took the vase out of Kathryn’s hands again. “Just freeze the vase,” she instructed. “Not us.”

Kathryn looked at her before making a brave statement. “I can’t control it like that,” she said quietly. “Sometimes it's just one thing. Sometimes it's everything.”

Charge jumped off the couch. “You can do it. Just focus.”

“Focus on what?”

“Focus on the vase.” He took the vase from Susan and held it up toward the ceiling. “This will give you a little more time. I’m going to drop it in three. Are you ready?”

Kathryn took a deep breath. She didn’t know why she was playing this game, but both Charge and Susan seemed eager to play it. “Okay.”

“One . . . two . . . three.” Charge let the vase go.

Kathryn followed it with her eyes and concentrated. The words, “just the vase” echoed in her head. A few inches before hitting the floor, the vase stopped.

Charge and Susan stood in awe, their mouths open. They were so still that for a moment, Kathryn feared she had frozen them again. Susan broke the silence. “Wow,” she whispered.

“That was amazing.” Charge reached out for her and engulfed her in his warm embrace. “I knew you could do it.”

Susan squatted down to take a better look at it. She even waved her hand all around it as though to check to see if there were strings attached. “How long will it stay there?”

Kathryn shrugged. “I don’t know.” Her sense of horror and embarrassment slipped away. “I’ve never tested it.”

“Can I touch it?” Susan asked eagerly.