A Human Element (34 page)

"Yeah, okay. But not
at
anyone. I wanted to feel better. Not so…angry." He gripped the counter and bit his lip. "But Brian didn't take the bus either, he followed me. Him and his stupid friends. He hit me first, Mom."

"I believe you."

"I let him hit me. I told myself he's inconsequential, like you told me to think. I
did.
I tried to keep on walking and ignore him, but then the others started hitting me. It wasn't fair. Three of them against one." He clenched his fist, looked at it, and shoved it in his pocket. "I laughed at Brian and told him he's irrelevant."

Laura suppressed a smile.

"He didn't even know what it meant. What a dummy. So I told him to go find a dictionary. He hit me again and I hit him back. I tried to do it light, I swear, but—"

"But what? What did you do, Charlie?"

"I think I broke his nose." He blew out a giant breath. "Blood came out everywhere. I didn't know a nose had so much blood in it."

"Oh, Charlie." Laura stood up, pressing a hand to her back, and walked over to him.

"I hate myself." She took his strong hands. He stood tall over her with a child's heart trapped in man's body.

"Don't say that. I love you. Dad loves you."

"Why am I like this, Mom? I don't want to be
special
, okay?" He pulled his hands away. "I didn't want to hit him. I swear. You can have a doctor make me fingernails and toenails. Can a doctor make me normal, too? Take away these things I can't control?"

He jerked away from Laura and got a drink from the fridge. The phone rang. Laura sighed. It could only be one person.

Brian's mother.

CHAPTER 3

Charlie snuck back out to the woods after his mom got off the phone with Brian's mom. His mom acted so cool and calm about what he did. He wished he could be more like her and not like her at the same time. Did that make sense?

She left then to do errands and his dad was still out on some wildlife photo shoot in the mountains. She didn't say he couldn't go out to the woods so it didn't feel like disobeying. He just needed to get out his frustration. No Brian and his stupid friends. Charlie replayed the moment again where he had embarrassed Brian. Pants down. Butt in the air. Girls laughing. Awesome. But he did feel bad about hitting him so hard. He really, really hadn't meant to.

He needed advice and he hoped Ghost Man would be there. He had called him that since he first saw him at seven. The man said he was Charlie's special secret. As Charlie got older he felt odd not telling his parents, but how could he explain he'd been seeing this guy all these years?

It would make him even weirder. His dad would think so. He never understood him. He wanted him to be normal. He wanted him to have the nail surgery.
I'll never be normal! Why can't he accept me for who I am?
Because I'm not good enough, that's why.
The main reason he didn't want the surgery was to defy his dad, even to spite himself, and so he remained the freak he was born to be.

His dad's words remained burned in his brain from that night a couple of years ago when he'd heard his parents talking
.

"If only he weren't the way he is," his dad had said. "He'd have a normal life. He'd be normal."

"Don't ever say that," his mom had said. "I love him just the way he is."

"I love him, too, but…it's hard."

"Love always is, Ben, but you don't ever give up."

"Sometimes I want to."

Charlie had turned back to his room then after those last words from his dad. He hadn't wanted to hear anymore. That day the wall grew between them. He would never be the son his dad wanted.

But Ghost Man treated him like a son. Charlie wanted to keep him all to himself. Ghost Man understood him and helped him figure things out. He said he should embrace his anger and be himself. Charlie felt conflicted about it, but sometimes it felt so good to be angry and destroy things. And Ghost Man helped him practice his destroying powers. But never on people. Or animals. He still felt guilty about Romeo. If he did such a thing then, what power did he have now? It scared him to think about it.

He walked deep into the woods on the narrow path. It used to be a deer path that became his path as he trudged over it through the years. He liked knowing the animals made it before he came along, and now he kept it going. Gloom settled under the tall pine trees. Their great branches shaded all below. These woods soon blended into the national forest.

He stepped out from the trees into a sunny meadow. Often, when he was drained from practicing his powers he stretched out on the soft green waves. He wanted to lay there forever and be invisible. Invisible was good. Then he couldn't be called a freak. If his parents saw what he did here they would think he was a freak, too.

He touched his cheek. It throbbed still. He sat down on the ground and waited. He hoped Ghost Man came today. The meadow had become their spot. It's where he first met him when he got lost in the woods at seven. His mom and dad had been terrified and called the police, but Ghost Man directed him back home. It was the first time he kept a secret from his parents.

"Had a fight, I see, Charlie-boy."

Charlie jumped up. Ghost Man shimmered before him.

"Yeah, jerks. Called me a freak."

"I saw. Nice work breaking that kid's nose."

"I didn't want to but—"

"You needed to. I understand. I can show you ways to hurt him without touching him yourself. No one will ever know."

"My dad wouldn't understand."

"Yes, well, your dad doesn't have your special abilities. He's ordinary. You don't want to be ordinary like him, do you, Charlie-boy?"

"I don't want to be like him, but I don't want to be me, either." He tapped his foot, frustrated at being stuck in his life. He had nowhere to go, no one to talk to, and no one who understood him—except Ghost Man.

"Your dad is ignorant to the kind of abilities you have. And in his ignorance lies weakness. He knows you're a stronger man than he'll ever be. It's why he keeps you down about yourself, Charlie. He's your biggest oppressor."

Charlie had heard these words before, seeping into him for years building the wall brick-by-brick between him and his dad. But now Ghost Man's words hit him in the gut—they twisted there and formed the truth inside him which all made sense now.

"My dad is jealous of me."

"Yes. You're more a man than him. Wait and see. Your life won't always be like this. Your time to shine shall come."

"Like showing those bullies?"

Ghost Man nodded.

Charlie squinted. The sunlight streamed through Ghost Man in waves. "I don't want to hurt anybody, though. I just want them to leave me alone."

"It's your destiny to be powerful, Charlie. Don't you want to know how you're supposed to use your abilities? No one will ever call you a freak again. Not bullies and not your father—for that's what he thinks you are, isn't?"

Charlie nodded, feeling miserable.

"You can control others," Ghost Man said. "I can show you how."

"Control others? Sounds scary."
And awesome.

Ghost Man moved closer. "Life is scary, Charlie, for most people. It doesn't need to be for people like you and me. I am a
powerful
being who others follow, and I can show you how to control that bully. I can show you how you can make him disappear. No one will ever know you did it."

Except my mom
.
She'll know.

"Your father can't show you such power, can he?'

Charlie shook his head and looked down, twisting his fingers in his pockets. He wasn't sure how to feel about controlling someone. His mom had taught him to control himself, not others, and to never hurt anyone. He had to be more responsible than other kids, she said. It wasn't fair. Ghost Man held out his hands to Charlie. His fingers flexed smooth and nail-less like Charlie's.

"I've been waiting for the right time to tell you. You're old enough now to understand. I come from Elyon."

"A made up place."

"No. A real place, where I belonged to a secret underground society. We planned to rule the world with our powerful genes. Others wanted to crush our dreams and almost did once. But we came back, more powerful than ever. We've come here to follow our dream."

"Is Elyon far away?"

"Further away than you can imagine."

"Tell me. Where?"

"In due time, Charlie-boy."

Charlie nodded, not pushing for more. He wanted Ghost Man to remain make-believe. The thought of him being a real person from a real place hung in his thoughts like an unwanted gift.

He held out his hand and touched the apparition before him. Tingling pulsed into his fingers from the fingers that mirrored his own. Rage filled him. He looked around. Alone. As usual. He picked up a rock and threw it hard with a shout. And another.

"You can do better, Charlie-boy." Ghost Man smiled at him.

Adrenalin coursed through him. He commanded his hands. Branches wrenched from the trees. They crashed together. He dragged rocks from the earth with his mind and pounded them into the ground. Sweat ran down his face. It stung the cut over his eye and that made him angrier. He screamed and flung his body about, inanimate objects battling each other. Drained, he sank down on the meadow floor. Ghost Man floated over him, smiling.

"Feel better?"

Charlie nodded.

"I can teach you how to make someone do anything you want."

"Anything?"

"Yes."

Charlie thought about this. "You mean I could make Brian do bad things to himself?"

"Yes."

"So it wouldn't be me hurting him but him hurting himself?"

"Yes. Do you trust me, Charlie?"

Charlie nodded. Ghost Man was his guardian angel. He watched over him and made him feel better. His dad made him feel worse. He didn't want to feel bad anymore about who he was.

Revenge filled Charlie with a sweet rush. "Yes."

~ * ~

A HIDDEN ELEMENT is available in eBook and trade paperback and can be found at your favorite retailer.

Dear Reader,

Adoption and being an only child runs through my book
A Human Element
. I am both and they had a deep impact on my life.

In
A Human Element
three characters have similar lives. Laura Armstrong is adopted and an only child raised by loving parents. Ben Fieldstone is an only child but abandoned to live a lonely existence in foster homes. X-10 is raised alone in a government facility, an unloved experiment. One common thread connects them. They grow up alone and eventually parentless.

Adopted children often suffer abandonment issues and feel like they never belong, that they aren't 'blood family'. Being adopted myself I understood this. But as an adopted child I was lucky. I had a loving family and I learned my heritage (and am
very
glad I was given up). I got married and had an amazing son. In having him, I have my own 'blood' now. I do belong—with my family.

In
A Human Element
all three characters have similar backgrounds, but how are they different? Ben isolates himself, Laura has an open heart, and X-10 hates the world. Is it their genes that shape who they are or their environment? I've found it's a bit of both.

And can environment overcome genes? I believe that our genes do not dictate who we are—and this gives me hope. And without hope change is not possible.

I like to think we can overcome our genes and thrive in an environment that allows us to do so. In such an environment we can conquer our obstacles and achieve anything, but without love we are lost.

Ben's friend in
A Human Element
tells him that love indeed does make the world go 'round. I believe it. Do you?

Donna Galanti writes murder and mystery with a dash of steam as well as middle grade adventure fiction. She is an International Thriller Writers Debut Author of the paranormal suspense novel
A Human Element
, the short story collection
The Dark Inside
, and
Joshua and The Lightning Road
.

She's lived from England as a child, to Hawaii as a U.S. Navy photographer. Donna dreamed of being a writer when she fell in love with the worlds of Narnia and Roald Dahl while attending school in a magical English castle where her dark imagination ran wild in an itchy uniform (bowler hat and tie included).

She now lives in Pennsylvania with her family in an old farmhouse. It has lots of writing nooks, fireplaces, and stink bugs, but she's still wishing for a castle again—preferably with ghosts.

Website:
http://www.elementtrilogy.com

Blog:
http://www.elementtrilogy.com/blog

Twitter:
http://twitter.com/DonnaGalanti

Facebook:
http://www.facebook.com/DonnaGalantiAuthor