Reckoning (11 page)

T
he
bang
of the shot stops me flat. “No!
”
I scream as I run toward the sound. “David!”

Elaine follows.

“Go back,” I say over my shoulder. “Go back!”

I close my thoughts and slam into the attacker’s mind. His shield gives way and his emotions fill me. Shock followed by rage. In moments, he falls to the ground. Unconscious.

David grabs his left arm, crimson liquid oozing over his hand.
Get out of here,
he screams through my thoughts.
Go! I’ll find you
.

He stands and walks toward the assailant. The Glock peeks out from under the frozen body of the gunman. David kicks it aside, grimacing in pain.

David?
I fight the urge to run to him, to help him.

No!
His voice is low and dangerous in my head.
Get out of here,
he growls.
Take Elaine and go.

I hesitate and he pushes further into my mind. My body turns without my permission. Torn, I acquiesce to his will and run back to where Elaine hides.

My breath comes in short pants when I reach her. “Come on,” I urge as I drag her away from the scene and back toward the Juice Bar and my car.

Everything is too loud, too overwhelming. The streets are chaotic as neighbors wrestle with the destruction of the myth of safety in this no-longer-quiet town. I block out the bombardment of voices and sounds that filter in and out of my restless mind. No relief. My senses heighten further and I’m aware of each breath of wind in the air, the slightest of variations in temperature and scent. My skin prickles with energy, sending waves of both excitement and dread through the whole of me.

Elaine and I make it to the car before I can settle my thoughts. I reach out for David and find nothing but a mental wall separating me from him. I push against the invisible barrier, struggling against the distance he’s created between us.

Go,
he says. His voice is so real that I turn, expecting to see him behind me. Water stings behind my eyes when nothing greets me.

“Where are we going” Elaine finally asks. Her face is ashen, her eyes made wide by the excess of adrenaline pumping through her veins. “Wh . . . Who was . . .?”

“Shh, don’t try to talk. You need to settle down. You’re in shock.”

It’s a feeling I understand; one I seldom discuss. Shock had overtaken me after my parents disappeared. Shock fueled my rage when Josh died. And shock drowned me in numbness after the confrontation with my father.

Elaine inhales too-fast breaths, gulping for air as though she is suffocating.

I push her into my car and scan the landscape before I slip into the driver’s seat. “Focus on your breathing,” I say. I maneuver the car onto the street and drive to the only place I can think of. “Try to slow the world down. Take longer, deeper breaths.”

“I . . . can’t . . .” Elaine’s hands shake. Her breath continues to come in panicked spurts.

I grab her hand in mine. “You can do this. Like me, inhale slow and deep. Exhale.”

Elaine mimics my breathing patterns. In. Out. In. Out

“Again,” I say.

She follows my rhythm and her breathing slows. Her eyes lose their shine as her pupils relax. Her hand no longer shakes in mine. The color rises in her cheeks.

“Good. Very good.” I release her hands and return my focus on the road. “You’re okay. Safe.”

“How can you say that?” Elaine’s shock gives way to bitter anger laced with fear. “None of us are safe. That guy had a gun. He wanted to kill you. Kill both of us. If David hadn’t—”

“I know. But he’s gone.” I can’t have this conversation with her. “You’re safe now.”

Nothing I say calms Elaine so I opt for silence as we weave our way up the familiar hill. The sun is covered by a thick layer of clouds, casting the landscape into a stormy gloom. I have no doubt our stalkers are watching my house. I won’t go back there. Not with her. Elaine’s house is close to mine, but not too close.

“Where are we going?” Elaine asks. “My place?”

“Just for now. You said your parents were gone for a few days?”

“Yeah, until next week.”

“Good.” My mind scrambles for a plan.

“What if those people come looking for you? For me.?” Her voice quivers.

“They won’t come here. At least, not right now.”
I hope they don’t.
“To be safe, I’ll leave in the morning. Early.”

Elaine nods absently and retreats back into her own world. A light rain taps on the windows as the clouds break open. We wind around the streets, twisting our way to her house. It’s risky staying the night, but I can’t leave her in this state. Especially since it’s my fault this happened in the first place.

Why did I come home?

We pull into the driveway as lightning streaks across the sky and the rain begins to pour. Thunder crashes around us. Elaine reaches into her purse and retrieves her phone. Tapping several buttons in rapid succession, she replaces her phone just as the garage door opens as several lights in the house come on.

“Now what?” she asks as I park the car.

I have no idea.

The rest of the day passes in a blur. David still has not contacted me and his absence increases my dread.

Silence eventually gives way to small talk as Elaine’s adrenaline finally abates. “Can I ask you something?” she asks, her eyes fixated on some imaginary spot in the distance.

“Of course.”

“What did you do to those gunmen?”

A deep silence permeates the space.

“You did something, I know you did. I just don’t know what.” She faces me, her green eyes vacant.

I know that look. Fear. My abilities terrify her.

They should.

“It’s complicated,” I say, not knowing how to explain to her what happened.

“You used your abilities, didn’t you? To stop them.”

I nod and my breath catches in my throat. My chest tightens with new pressure.

“Are they . . . dead?” The last word is nothing more than a whisper. “Did you kill them?” She knows the truth before I open my mouth. Her eyes widen and she turns away.

“Elaine, you have to understand, I can’t always—”

“I get it. You’re like him. The one who had me. David is too. Is this what the experiments were about, turning kids into killers?”

Her words stab through my defenses.

“I didn’t want to hurt anyone” A lie. In this moment, I want nothing but their pain, their deaths. And that’s what scares me most—I like inflicting pain on those who hurt me.

A loud silence stretches between us.

“I’m glad you hurt those men,” Elaine says finally. “I wish you had killed the other one. The psychic one.”

Elaine’s words hit too close. Her fear and her rage are my mirror. I can’t tell her what the attack on the gunmen had cost me. I can’t explain that every time I hurt someone, I’m drawn closer to the realities of who, what, I am. I can’t say that I am the ultimate weapon, trained to kill without remorse or regret.

I can’t tell her that I am an assassin.

I can’t tell myself.

Dakota
. David’s voice comes as a whisper. It pulls me from my thoughts. I mentally draw an image of Elaine’s house and push it toward him.

“David’s coming over,” I say. “You should call Mark. It would be good for you to be with him after today. He’ll want to know you’re okay.”

“I already did. He’s on his way.” Elaine sits on the couch, her mind less fragile than earlier.

Rain continues to leak from the sky in inconsistent rhythms.

“I’m sorry I brought this on you. I thought coming home would hide me, keep everyone safe. I was wrong.”

“This isn’t your fault, Dakota. You shouldn’t have to go back to these so-called experiments if you don’t want to.”

I nod, unable to respond in words. Elaine always knows what to say, what I need to hear. Tonight is no exception.

“What’s the deal with you and David?” she asks just before a loud clap of thunder rolls through the darkening sky.

I startle with the sound of the storm. Or maybe it’s the mention of David’s name.

“I care about him. A lot.”

“That much is obvious.” Elaine wraps her knees to her chest and gives me her best get-ready-for-an-interrogation look “Did you guys meet during the experiments. Is that why you connected so quickly at school? Why he left?”

“We’ve know each other a long time. At least that’s what he tells me. I don’t actually remember much from before we moved here.”

“What?” Her brow scrunches into a thick ridge. “Really?”

“Yeah. My parents, my mom, performed some sort of psychological procedure on me, one that blocked most of my earlier memories.”

“That’s horrible.” Her look of pity is why I didn’t want to say anything.

“Yeah. Last February, my episode. It’s all related. My abilities resurfaced along with clips of a life that made no sense. It was all too much. I felt crazy. I
was
crazy. At least for a little while.” Maybe I still am.

Elaine grabs my hand and waits for me to say more. The silence pushes in, stealing the oxygen from the room.

“David and Josh—their memories were modified too. Except theirs started to come back earlier. That’s why David left. He and Josh were trying to keep me safe. David thought leaving was the best course of action since he knew he’d never be able to keep secrets from me.”

“So that’s why he left?”

“Yeah. And he’s been trying to make it up to me ever sense.”

I feel myself relaxing as I speak. Our conversation feels normal, exactly what I need after earlier.

“So you two got back together? After the funeral?”

“There was no funeral. Josh was murdered, just like you thought. We—Josh, David, and I—were on the run. Josh went to check on something and didn’t tell us. By the time we found him it was too late. I couldn’t save him.”

My eyes fill with water. The living room blurs and morphs, transforming into the shore of the lake. I see Josh’s bulging eyes staring back at me, his bloated face forcing my stomach to churn. I steady my thoughts, not wanting to relive his death. Again.

“Dakota?”

“What? Sorry. David was with me when I found him. He’s been with me ever since.”

Until I left him
.

Elaine remains silent.

“I love him,” I whisper.

“I know. You always have.” Elaine puts her arm around me and I feel more words tumble out on their own. I need to say everything I’ve kept bottled inside.

“He asked me to marry him.” The words fall on silence. A minute is all I can take. “Say something,” I plead, unable to handle my vulnerability.

“That’s big. Huge. And knowing you, that’s when you left and came here.” Elaine locks her gaze with mine. “I’m right, aren’t I?”