Barcode: Cavern of Youth (20 page)

My objective was to motivate Ms. Colt to kill me. If I could get her to unleash her anger properly, she’d likely find the courage to stand against her father and Malik. But if she does it here and now, I’ll consider that mission a failure. Vincent still has his foot on her throat and I’ll be damned if I let Malik have her.

“Who are you?” she murmurs with trembling hands and a wounded voice. “Answer me,” follows after I breathe deeply a few more times. I try my best to hold onto my consciousness. “Answer me!”

I think the color in my eyes are fading.

“Why’d you save me? If you killed them, tell me
why
? But if you’re him...”

Angie’s pressure weighs against my chest while my other eye dims. The most beautiful girl in the world converts into a demon. Sekhmet reappears a split second before I’m completely blind, and Angie punches the floor.

I open my eyes, but I can’t see anything. At that moment, I hear her scream.

I hysterically search for the area she punched. The hole should be directly in front of me, but I can’t find it. My breathing becomes frantic and my body shivers involuntarily.

Voices in my mind tell me to give up, but I can’t. I slam both of my hands on the ground and shoot them forward until I scratch my right palm.

That’s it!

Releasing a faint force, I’m able to pry the floor open. I prepare to dive in, but my hands feel something. A glass water bottle?

I remove it and try finding the top, but the glass shatters. Angie’s still raging, attacking me.

Fragments of the glass shoot into my face. Both hot and cold water tingle on my skin. The remainder falls on the ground. I extend my body onto the floor and roll in the fluid, sipping some of it from the ground. Suddenly, I feel as though I’m being lifted by a cloud. It’s converting into fog.

Joyfully, I inhale every bit of it. A chill shoots through my body and goosebumps break out across my flesh. It’s as though I were laying down in the cave. With incredible pleasures stretching through my blood, I passionately sleep.

Sixteen

Blurry images and very little color slowly merge into my world. Sadly, the first thing I hear is the most terrifying sound of all.

Hayley bursts through the hospital doors and that’s a bit difficult to do. Most of these barriers are a very heavy glass material and they automatically slide to the side. Obviously, she couldn’t wait.

Dennis runs in front of my large hospital bed. Carmen and Richard are still glaring at my motionless body.

They continue complaining about Malik until Hayley explodes, “Get out of my way, now!” Instantly, their eyes focus on the demon before them. She’s ready to slice through Dennis and it shows.

“He’s still not up.”

“He’s about to be!” Hayley jerks and stands upright. With a softer tone she asks, “Wait. Did he recover?”

“That’s the crazy part. The bandages were killing him last night, but like I told you over the phone, he jumped out of the bed and we found him in Casey’s classroom almost completely healed.”

“
Has he recovered
?” she angrily spouts one more time.

“Yes.”

That’s all the confirmation she needs to shove Dennis to the side and approach my gigantic bed. It’s so big, she has to crawl on it to reach me in the center. This spectacular cloud of delicious goodness was massaging my back, but even it senses the danger approaching. Once she reaches me, it shuts off.

An inch away from my ear she blares, “Get up now!” Hayley remorselessly grabs my cheeks with both hands and pinches them wildly. We both scream together as she lifts me from the bed. “Are you out of your mind? Who in the hell told you to jump off of a mile high building?”

“Fifty yard course,” I cry.

“Don’t give a damn. Are you out of your mind?”

“I’m sorry.”

“You’re sorry? Do you know, I was worried sick about you all night? Then I find out this morning that you got out of your damn bed and crawled down the stairs!”

“I took the elevator.”

“Shut the hell up.” Hayley throws me back on my pillow. She completes the assault by punching me in the leg. Each of her knuckles provide me with an incredible amount of pain. “I can hurt you now. Good!”

Dennis tries to reach for her, but she turns around with a menacing glare that causes him to back off. “He just woke up,” he mutters with his hands in the air. “Maybe you should give him a second to—”

Hayley thumps my ear and pain sketches across my entire body. I’m starting to wonder if she can hurt me because of the bandages, or the tattoos on her thumbs that she’s pumping all of her energy into. She uproariously informs me, “I just got on a plane to handle some business about Helios.” She pauses as I raise my eyebrows. “And don’t you dare think or search for any information on him. If I discover any of Seth’s computers or your own have even looked for Helios’ name I will pinch your cheeks until they bleed.”

She demonstrates her power by gripping the most painful parts of my cheeks—the area under my bandages.

“Okay. Okay!”

“I told you to shut up,” she hisses.

“But you have to tell me something about the trip or I’ll go crazy. Please.”

If it were physically possible, I’m sure steam would come out of her ears right about now. Hayley’s face turns solid red. “Have you heard of the HATS?”

“That’s how I knew Helios was going to attack this school last year.”

“They’re on the move again.”

“Which means he’s ready to take over.”

“Shut up!” She finally remembered that this time was meant to abuse me. “I’m on this flight and find out that you’re in a race I knew nothing about.” If looks could kill, I’d have to ask Hayley to revive Dennis because she shoots him a nasty evil eye. Carmen and Richard giggle, but she snaps on them too, “And you both were in it. Do you know how much you could get hurt?”

Carmen practically whispers her response, “But we’re gladiators.”

“Yeah,” Richard adds. “And my dad’s all about—”

“Who said either of you could talk?” Hayley growls with her index finger pointed at them, but her eyes are glued to me. “What were you doing in that race?” I don’t respond because she told me not to speak. Is this a trap? “Answer me,” she screams with her eyes closed.

“I...I was trying to win...for...to pick my team.”

Hayley’s skin color is beginning to match her red hair. Her pain slowly reveals itself. The deep breaths she takes while clutching her chest lets me know she’s really concerned. The little lady lunges forward and throws her arms around me. I don’t think I had enough of the daughter’s water because my body still aches.

“Kode. Baby. Why am I trying so hard to convince myself that you’re my real son? I’m pathetic. You killed Spencer and here I am worried half to death and unable to let you go. Why?” She sobs lightly and hiccups between breaths. The honesty hurts so badly I can hardly move. “Because the first second I saw your face, I loved you. You walk and talk like John. Mean and rude, but loving. You hide behind this tough mask, but you’re this big softie. I hate to love you because you remind me of him, but you do. I know you’re my son. I couldn’t love someone else this much.”

“I love you too, Mom.”

Releasing me and grabbing my face she says, “Dammit Kay. You said you can hear everything. You can read my mind too?”

“No. You said it.”

Shaking her head, she asserts, “I didn’t. I really didn’t.”

I grab Hayley’s head and bring her closer to me. Then, I search her scalp between her red wires until I find the small drops of tears that have turned into barcodes.

“These are activated. Think of something you don’t want anyone to know.”

“No. Hell no. Wait, I’m thinking of it. Don’t think of John laughing at my lingerie and calling them granny-panties. Don’t. Oh. Writer. What did I learn in Psychology class? Think of something else. Blue bear. Blue bear.”

“Mom! Next time think of something like where you hide your money.
Come on!
”

“Sorry,” she pouts and lifts her head.

“Okay,” I project and turn to the others. “Who heard the blue bear?” Everyone shakes their head. “It seems that you have some telepathic connection with me.”

“So you can hear everything I do
and
read my thoughts?”

“Yes. But it doesn’t feel like reading your thoughts because I can
hear
them. I can’t tell the difference from when you’re talking or thinking at this range. Maybe it’ll go away if we separate.”

Dennis waves his hand. With his eyes glued to Hayley, he cautiously utters, “We don’t have time for experiments. I was waiting on you to announce your team. It’s second period right now and we can take you downstairs to have you choose them.”

Hayley pokes out her bottom lip and wraps her arms around me. She’s sits up and leans me against her legs. It’s like she’s trying to protect me from Dennis.

“I already know who I want. Can’t I just tell you?”

“No. Tradition states that you have to choose them out of a lineup.”

“That’s pretty funny,” I laugh at the thought of my classmates standing in front of a height chart as I point to them through tinted glass. “What does it really say?”

“
You must choose them from a lineup
. Team finals are rare, but I knew you’d need the help with the bandages, so I reinstated them this year. In the past, winners of the race and free-for-all brawl were allowed to choose up to five team members. Those that choose less people got more privileges. There are some other strange rules for the tournaments, but we’ll get into that in a few months.”

“We didn’t have a brawl.”

“Yeah. I pretended not to see that part. There was no way I was going to put you in a fight right after receiving those,” he says while pointing to my black bandages.

Hayley fumes, “At least you did something right. I’ll go easier on you when we’re done here.” She actually exits the massive bed before I do. “I’ll let you go, but I’m making you and Carmen dinner tonight.” She points at Richard. “Are you coming too?”

“Hayley Keller! Your food is legendary back home. Are you cooking?”

“Yes.”

“See this?” He pats his stomach and leans back in his seat. “It would never turn your food down.” Hayley laughs as she leads us out of the hospital room.

Carmen rushes to my side while mumbling, “No girls!”

“What? You’ll have to repeat that for me. I can hear everything, but sometimes people say strange things that I enjoy listening to more than once.”

“I don’t want
any
girls in your team.”

“I’m not sure how long it’s been since you’ve checked, but let me assure you that you often creep on my side of the bed and rub certain feminine parts against me...You’re a girl.”

“You can’t pick me either because I’ll just lower your scores. But I don’t want you practicing and getting close with girls.”

“You are deathly insecure of one particularly sexy mulatto woman that you still think I’m interested in.”

“I know you are.”

“Look, I don’t blame you. She’s hot. Her butt definitely puts yours to shame,” Carmen elbows me in my ribs, “but I have other plans for her. Don’t worry.”

“I don’t care. I’ll kill you and bring you back to life if you put a girl in your crew.”

“With these bandages on, killing me should be the easy part, but how will you accomplish the final goal?”

“My kisses heal wounds, what do you think can bring you back to life?” She wraps her arm around my neck as we walk down the hallway.

We all ride the elevator. Though most of the honey is gone, I point to a small piece on the door. “They missed a spot.”

Once we’re off, Dennis accesses the PA system through his tablet and articulates, “Will all demigod and god-level students join Professor Weston’s classroom on the battlefield? Thank you.”

Our group walks directly between two double doors that lead to the field.

Professor Weston has his hand raised. All the students are frozen in their tracks. He has an incredible gift that causes muscles to tense up if he tightens his fists while raising it in the air. He uses it whenever he wants our attention. It definitely works.

Once he lowers his hand, the small and thin professor commands the students to line up against the arena walls.

George Weston was a great gladiator, not long ago. Just three years back, he suffered a spinal injury that wasn’t fully repairable. For two years he traveled the world, trying to find an arena that would take him in as a gladiator, but none would accept. Rumor states that he spent one full year in solitude training, trying to cope with his loss. He returned to Colt as a first year professor in August.

As other students emerge from the gym gates and double doors, Dennis pulls Monte and Patrick from the crowd. He brings them next to Hayley and me until everyone quiets down.

Dennis proclaims, “In a minute, I will have your times read off and you all will be reorganized from fastest to slowest. I apologize for the mishap that happened underground, but there’s no way to change your numbers. You’ll all be grouped at the end of the line and can only hope that you’ve proven yourself in some other way.”

Many of the students grumble as Hayley takes over and begins reading the results from her large tablet. Swiftly and aggressively, she moves the students around to get in order.

Time trickles by with Monte and Patrick looking just as impatient as me. Ten minutes later, the final students are clustered together. I release a burst of laughter when Hayley announces the large group’s time, “Not applicable due to explosion.” Dennis lowers his eyebrows to communicate his lack of humor. Hayley clears her throat to hide her smile.

She returns to our group and broadcasts, “The third fastest time was by Patrick Gibson at eighteen minutes and nine seconds.” Students cheer loudly for him, especially Selena and Addison. “The second fastest time was Monte Payne at sixteen minutes and fifty-two seconds.” Another group of students cheer for him, though not as loudly. It seems my brother lost many of his fans this year. “And the best time and new record for three laps around the course goes to Kay at fifteen minutes and forty-seven seconds.”