Dark Mind (The Dark Mind Trilogy Book 1) (26 page)

26

At the sound of his voice, Cole froze, the anxiety creeping up, seizing control of his body.

“Who is it?” Amy called to him.

“Nobody. Stay there.” He pressed his face to the crack between the door and the frame. “What do you want?”

“I know our confrontations never end well but you need to hear me out. I swear, I’m not here to hurt you. I want to help.”

“Really? Today? What idea just randomly came to you, huh? Why today of all days?”

There was another pause. “I think Amy might need help.”

All the breath was sucked out of Cole’s lungs as if he had been kicked in the gut. He coughed, trying to get the air back in them. “Yeah, from you maybe!”

Amy appeared in the doorway. “What’s the commotion? Is that…
him?”

Cole nodded weakly. “Get out of here!” he shouted through the front door. “I’ll call the cops, I swear to God.”

“Wait, wait,” Travis said. “I’ve been working at understanding and developing the connection between us.”

“So you were the one who put that in my head?”

“No. But I heard it.”

There was a silence. Cole looked at Amy, who was watching the door in confusion and alarm.

“What is he talking about?” she said.

“How can I believe you?” he shouted to Travis.

“You can’t, except why would I warn you ahead of time?”

“To trick me into letting you in?”

“I’m the one who should be afraid of you. You tried to kill me. All right, look, I’ll go stand out in the front yard in public where the whole world can see us and you can come out and talk to me. No tricks.”

Cole looked at Amy who shrugged.

“Your call,” she said.

“Give me a sec,” Cole shouted through the door. “Go wait on the front lawn and don’t move ‘til I come out there.” He tugged Amy away from the door and looked into her eyes. “The bathroom is the only room without windows. Go in there and lock the door. You should be safe. I’ll come get you when it’s all clear. I’m going to go deal with him.”

Amy was not about to argue with his dead-set determination. “Be careful.”

“I’m not the one in danger today.”

“You don’t know that.”

“Fair enough. I’ll be careful.”

Amy wrapped her arms around him and, at her touch, a brief vision flashed across his mind of her lying on her back, staring lifelessly up at the sky in a pool of her own blood that was seeping out of her chest. It was gone as fast as it came, before Cole had a chance to completely comprehend it, leaving behind a sickening feeling of dread. He shook his head, trying to clear it, and hugged Amy tight.

Amy retreated to the bathroom while Cole peeked out the front window to see Travis on the lawn, kicking at the dirt. He surveyed the area as best he could, then stuck his head out the front door and checked in all directions. Seeing nothing suspicious, he strode out to meet Travis, stopping about ten feet away.

“I don’t trust you,” he said, “so I’m going to stay here. Now tell me, why are you here? I don’t believe it’s to help. Why would you help me, your enemy, so what’s your real motivation?”

“To be honest, I hold no grudges against you
, but regardless, I’m not actually here for you. I’m here to help Amy. She has nothing to do with our game and I couldn’t stand the thought of an innocent person falling victim to something that she’s not even involved in. It wouldn’t be fair.”

“And I’m just supposed to believe that you’re here out of the goodness of your heart, to help someone you don’t even know?” He took a menacing step forward but his interest was piqued, and he was afraid of scaring Travis before getting any answers, so he stopped. “Tell me this, how did you even know about it? Can you read my mind now?”

“No, I can’t read your mind, only your agreements. I was looking for a way to end the game and so I spent a long time concentrating on our connection. Gradually I became more attuned and aware until eventually I could hear your side and could locate you wherever you were.”

“That’s creepy. Was that supposed to make me feel better?”

“No, I’m just being honest with you. I’m sure you could establish the same connection with me if you tried.”

“Fine, let’s say I was to believe you,” Cole said. “What were you going to do to protect Amy? Do you know what’s supposed to happen to her?”

“Not exactly, but I can usually sense when something related to the agreements is about to happen. I was hoping I could figure out enough about it to prevent it.”

“Did you see the vision?”

“Yes.”

There was a silence. Everything about Travis’ words and body language seemed sincere. Cole hated to admit it to himself but he was beginning to believe him, even to feel sorry for attacking him. Yet there were still some loose ends that didn’t add up and he composed himself, reminding himself not to underestimate his enemy, not to fall victim to gullibility.

“Explain this one,” he said. “I’m one side of the competition and you’re the other. Since my agreements are always about saving or helping people, then yours must be about hurting them. You’re the evil side of this game so how can I trust anything you say?”

“Why does there have to be a good and evil side? Who said my agreements were about hurting people? Maybe we’re just two opposing sides.”

“That doesn’t seem likely,” Cole said. “What, do both of our agreements help people? Yeah, right.”

“I think we need to work something out before we can get anywhere.” He took a seat on the lawn but Cole remained standing, on alert. “First of all, I don’t blame you for attacking me. You were scared and angry and desperate.”

“No way, you started this deadly war. That was retaliation for burning my house down and almost killing my mom and me. I wasn’t gonna sit around while you took another shot at our lives.”

Travis scrunched up his face. “I have no idea what you’re talking about. I didn’t burn your house down. What made you think that?”

“Oh yeah, if you didn’t do it, who did?”

“I did.”

Cole spun around at the sound of the unexpected voice to see a woman emerge from around the corner of the house, wearing a loose black hoodie with strands of frizzy blond hair sticking out in all directions.

“You did what?” Travis gasped. “Mom, how could you… What were you thinking? You tried to kill them?”

“Well, just him,” the woman said, coming forward. “The mother I could have cared less about. I figured that would be the cleanest way to finish this whole business. Travis, Honey, this kid is a danger to you. I couldn’t let him hurt you, like he did. He could’ve killed you.” As she talked she edged ever closer to Cole.

“Get away from me,” Cole said, taking a step back. “I’m not going to hurt your son again.” He looked sidelong at Travis, keeping an eye on the mother. “Are you seriously saying you had no idea she tried to kill me?”

“Not at all,” said Travis, who was staring at his mom. “Mom, what are you doing here? How did you know I was coming here?”

“You’re my son. It’s my job to know everything you do.”

“Why did you stop after just one attack?” Cole said. “Why did you leave us alone?”

“I never wanted to hurt anyone,” she said. “I was afraid for Travis’ safety but
I'm not a violent person. I regretted it and couldn’t bring myself to do anything again so, after you little bastard snuck into my house, I figured the only solution was to move away where you couldn’t find us. Apparently that wasn’t good enough, Travis. You had to come back.”

“I couldn’t let an innocent become collateral damage in our game. I tried telling you but you wouldn’t listen.”

“She knows about the game?” Cole said.

“Yeah, I told her.”

“You told her?!”

“That’s your biggest problem,” Travis said. “I don’t know why you feel the need to keep this a secret. I flaunt it. I was proud of it for a while. It’s nothing to be ashamed of. It’s a power that no one else has, a gift in a way. What were you afraid everyone would think you were crazy? When I first told my mom, she obviously didn’t believe me. But then when I predicted future events time and time again, she had no choice. You should’ve tried it. It’s useful having someone on your side, someone to confide in, someone to drive you places –
” He blocked part of his mouth with his hand and whispered so his mother wouldn’t hear. “-even when it has nothing to do with an agreement. Your own personal slave.” He lowered his arm, his voice resuming normal volume. “I’m sure you could’ve used that every now and then.”

“What did you just whisper to him?” Travis’ mother said, narrowing her eyes.

“It’s nothing, Mom. Don’t worry about it.”

Travis’ mother opened her mouth but Cole cut her off.

“So, hold on a sec. You said you could predict the future well enough to prove it to other people?”

“Yeah,” Travis said. “You can’t?”

“Not at all. Usually I don’t even know what the agreement is for and when I do it’s always really vague. Only recently have I even heard what the subject of the agreement was.”

“That must be because you’ve only recently developed an intuition for interpreting the agreements. The ability has always been there, you just needed to pay more attention.”

The implications of Travis’ words hit Cole like a ton of bricks. His whole life he could have had more control, could have helped more people, if only he had learned how to control his ability. He had always been ashamed of it, terrified that someone would find out and think him insane, and it made him crush the ability into the back of his mind, never thinking about it unless he was fulfilling an agreement.

“I really can’t…You can’t be se-“

“All right, that's enough,” Travis’ mother cut him off. “Come on Travis, we’re going home.”

She strode over to him and grabbed his arm but he pulled free.

“I can’t, Mom. I told you, I need to stay.”

She gritted her teeth and let out an exasperated sigh. “Why do you care about some little bitch so much?” she said.

“Don’t you dare call her a bitch,” Cole said menacingly, clenching his fists and taking a step forward.

“Stay away from me, kid. I’m warning you.” Travis’ mother lifted the right side of her jacket and let it drop back down, revealing for a half second the holster of a gun sticking out of her waist.

Cole’s eyes went wide with fear but Travis had his back to her and didn't notice the gesture.

“I have a confession,” Travis said. “There is one more reason why I’m here.”

“W-wh, I don’t care,” Cole said. “Listen to your mom and get out of here.”

“Why the sudden change of heart? Whatever, I’ll go in a minute but I just needed to tell you that I think I figured out a way to end the game.”

Cole was intrigued and momentarily disregarded the threat. “Yeah?”

“Travis, we’ve been over this,” his mother said. “Why are you playing around like this, giving him options that he doesn’t deserve? Why don’t you tell him the truth?”

“But, Mom. I don’t know…” Travis said.

“What truth?” Cole said, feeling the draw of curiosity pulling him in.

“Tell him, Travis. Enough games.”

Travis closed his eyes, took a deep breath, looked up at Cole and began. “How do you know what the consequences of your agreements will be? How do you know which side you’re fighting for? Have you ever actually
known
the exact outcomes of winning and losing?”

Cole hesitated, thinking back to all of his agreements over the years. “Well, no, I guess not until recently. But I’ve been able to figure out most of them. I mean it’s usually pretty obvious.”

“Is it though?” Travis’ mother said.

“Let me finish, Mom,” Travis said. “Let’s take something recent for example. Did you happen to have an agreement pertaining to the train?”

“Yeah…How did you know that?” Cole said.

“That was around the time that I was figuring out how to read into the agreements and I could sense there was another side of it.”

“All right, so what of it?”

“All I know is that my agreement told me that it was to save the people on that train. I succeeded, for the most part, but I could feel a strong force opposing me. Do you think your agreement was to save them, or to kill them?”

“This is ridiculous,” Cole said, as chills ran down his spine. “It was to save them of course.”

“Are you sure?”

There was a pause. Travis looked up at his mother, who was glaring at Cole in hatred, and then back at Cole, seemingly at a loss for words.

Cole felt himself sinking as the world became fuzzy around him. He thought back to all the agreements he could remember, thinking, wondering, questioning. “I don’t believe you,” he said.

“Look, kid, you’re the evil one,” Travis’ mother said. “Get over it.”

Travis continued. “All I know is that, since I've tuned into my ability, I’ve always had agreements about helping people and yet, for each one, I’ve felt an opposing force. I mean I don’t think that makes you bad. You didn’t know what you were doing.”