The Break (The Aesir Saga Book 1) (2 page)

              Gabriel awoke the next morning as the sun crept across his bedroom.  Being the typical seventeen year old boy, his room was covered in pictures of different models dressed in bikinis or less. His computer desk was covered in empty soda cans and candy bar wrappers. Next to the desk was his TV stand, an older thirty-two inch flat screen sitting on top with two Xbox controllers resting in front. His dresser drawers were in various stages of openness, clothes sticking out from all sides. Pictures of his family, and of course Amber, sitting along the top. Next to his bed, on his nightstand sat the bane of his existence, the one thing that would keep him from being the lazy person he wanted to be, his alarm clock. It showed the current time of 7:59. 

“BEEP, BEEP, BEEP, BEEP!”

          Gabriel rolled over, smacking the clock, staring at the time. “Not today, I quit.” He muttered to himself as he rolled back over. This was when the smell of burnt fabric jogged his memory to the events of last night. “Oh shit” Gabriel sat straight up in bed, ripping his shirt off. He fingered the burn holes, and then went to his closet mirror to check himself for any marks. He looked the same he did every morning. His short red hair a mess from a rough night’s sleep.

His blue eyes examined every part of his body, yet nothing about him looked like he had been standing right next to an explosion the night before. He decided the clothes from last night were unsalvageable, balling up the t-shirt and jeans, throwing them into the small wastebasket next to his desk. Despite the copious amounts of garbage that littered the room, the trash can now had its first two items.   

          He walked down the hallway to the upstairs bathroom, turned on the shower and hopped in.  For his entire shower he kept replaying the previous night in his head, trying to figure out why the car exploded, and how he was completely unhurt. He toweled off, went back to his room and changed into another pair of jeans and his favorite blue hoodie. He walked downstairs to find his mom in the kitchen, cooking breakfast.  “Hey mom, whatcha makin’?”

         Gabriel’s mom Patricia, stood five foot seven, with chestnut hair and bright green eyes. She kept herself in good shape, working out regularly, and took running the house as her full time job. 

“Morning sleepy head, about time you got up.  You were awfully quiet last night. Eggs?” She asked, indicating the pan she was tending.

“Sure. And I was really tired last night; you know how the last week of school is.” Gabriel shifted in his chair nervously; hoping his mom wouldn’t notice his uneasiness.  

“So what do you have planned for today honey?” she asked as she handed him his plate of eggs.

“I’m just going to hang out with Amber at the mall, check stuff out, that sort of thing.” He began scooping his eggs into his mouth quickly, anxious to get out of the house before more questions came. 

“What are you two going to do about next year? She’s going to college and right now I think your plans amount to sleeping in and playing on your computer.”

He gulped down his mouthful of food. “Mom, can’t I at least have the summer to enjoy myself?”

“I’m just saying you need to think about your future, that’s all.” She turned back to the stove, giving Gabriel the impression the interrogation was over.

“Morning baby.” Gabriel’s father Mike walked into the kitchen, grabbing his wife around the waist and kissing her gently on the cheek.  “What do you have going on today kiddo?” Mike

Daniels was dressed in his usual work attire. As the manager of the city bank branch he wore a black business suit, even though he was much more comfortable in shorts and a t-shirt. 

“Hey dad, can I borrow the truck, I’m going to the mall with Amber today.”

“Just make sure you’re back for dinner.” His dad reached into his pocket and tossed the keys to his son.

“Thanks dad, bye mom, see you guys later.” Gabriel was out the door as fast as he could, not wanting to see any more of his parents’ show of affection. 

“Well,” Mr. Daniels whispered into his wife’s ear. “Looks like I need to borrow your car today."

          Gabriel pulled the black pickup into

Amber’s driveway. She was already heading out the door to meet him. Whenever he saw her it made him think of how lucky he was to be dating her. Amber was one of the more popular girls in school. She was in a bunch of clubs, did drama and acted in the school plays. She could have made the cheerleading team, but was far too busy with her other obligations to have time for practice.

Her sense of style was also something everyone noticed. Today they were just going to the mall, but she had on a tight pair of jeans, wedges, a designer bag, and a flowy top that showed off her toned stomach. Her blonde hair was the same as always, up in a ponytail. She opened the door to the truck and slid in. 

“Hi baby,” she kissed him on the cheek, “ready to go?”

“I thought you’d never ask.” Gabriel replied as he put the truck in drive and pulled out onto the street.

          During their drive, Amber kept looking back and forth, from the road to Gabriel, hinting that she wanted to talk to him about something. Finally realizing that Gabriel was not going to ask what she wanted, Amber spoke up. 

“Hey honey?” she said, turning to look at him as he drove.

“What’s up?” Gabriel said without taking his eyes off the road. 

“Did you see the news this morning? They found a cop car torched in the middle of the street. I bet it was one of those Aesir freaks. Now they’re probably running loose in our town.” 

           Gabriel already knew how Amber felt about the Aesir; he had heard this same argument every time something happened. Her beliefs were heavily influenced by her parents. With their ties to the NGC, they held the company line that the Aesir were a problem for society. While this was the message that was played through every news broadcast and political message, there were some who didn’t think they were that big of a threat. People were starting to grow eager for the end to all the restrictions, and with new Aesir popping up every day, it was harder to find someone who didn’t have a connection to one.  “Well,” Gabriel cleared his throat. ”Uhh, why do you think it was an Aesir? Maybe it was just an accident.”

“What?!” she spun in her seat to face him. “We know what these people, if you can really call them that, are capable of. You see it on the news every day, one of
them
, robbing a bank, killing people.  You can’t trust any of them.” 

              He could see the hate in her eyes. “I hope whatever they are doing with them keeps them locked up and out of society forever. The world will be better off without them.”

“Maybe you’re right, but we’re here now. We can finish this talk later.” He said, hoping to end this conversation.

“Fine” she huffed, letting him know she was mad about having to cut short her tirade.               

         Gabriel spent the next few hours wandering around the mall, watching Amber try on twenty outfits in each store. He hated having to stand there, telling her how everything looked great on her. He told himself this was the price he paid for having her as a girlfriend. Gabriel just didn’t understand trying on all those clothes and ending up with one shirt to show for it. With her torturous search complete, Amber wanted to have lunch, so they headed to the food court, where she got her usual salad and bottle of water, and Gabriel made the easy choice of his favorite Chinese food, General Tso’s chicken. 

“Oh great.” Gabriel looked up just in time to see Jacob Ballard making his way across the food court, coming right toward them. 

         Jacob was the quarterback at their high school. He had a full ride scholarship to the same school as Amber, and had been trying to make his move to snatch her up.

“Hey there beautiful. Excited to start college next fall?” Jacob hopped onto the table they were sitting at, positioning himself between Gabriel and Amber. “Oh, hey hot rod.” Jacob had started calling him that when they were freshman, because of his bright red hair. Gabriel hated that name; it always pissed him off when he heard it, and since Jacob was very popular, he heard it a lot.

“I can’t wait; college is going to be so much fun!” Amber always perked up whenever he was around. Gabriel got the feeling that there might be something between them, but he brushed it off, telling himself he was just being paranoid. 

“Hey Jacob, we’re trying to eat lunch here, do you mind?” Gabriel said, waving his hand over the trays of food. He hated Jacob and his arrogance, Gabriel could feel his anger start to build.

“Not at all dude, go ahead." Jacob said turning back to Amber, dismissing Gabriel's attempt to shoo him away. "So Amber, doing anything fun for the summer?” 

Gabriel could feel his face getting hot, growing madder every second Jacob the tool was around.

“Oh my god baby are you ok?” Amber was staring at Gabriel, a look of concern on her face. “Your face is all red.”

“Whoa dude, you might want to cut back on the Chinese food for a little bit. Anyway I gotta go, see you around Amber.” He gave her a wink and took off into the mall. 

              Gabriel took a deep breath, feeling his anger subside with each step Jacob took away from them. “You ready to go Amber?”

              Gabriel dropped Amber off at her house and headed home, ready to be lazy and relax. When he pulled into the driveway he raced inside and started up the stairs. 

“Gabriel, can you come down here a minute.” his mother called, just as he made it to the top stair. 

              He sighed and turned around, descending the stairs two at a time. When he reached the bottom, he walked into the living room, where his mother and a strange man were standing. The man had his back to Gabriel as he entered.  “Gabriel, this man wanted to ask you some questions." his mother said, at the same time, the man, who was dressed in a very nice suit turned around. 

“Hello Gabriel, I’m special agent Chris Williams.”

“Do you mind if I take some time to talk to your son alone Mrs. Daniels?” Williams asked as he moved toward the couch. 

“He’s not in any trouble is he?” 

"Of course not. We just had some questions for him about an event that he was a possible witness to." Williams explained as he undid the buttons to his jacket, and then sat down in the middle of the Daniels' family couch. 

     With her fears somewhat pacified, she turned to leave the room. “Let me know if you need anything.” she said over her shoulder, leaving Gabriel alone with the Agent.

“Please sit down Gabriel.” Agent Williams motioned toward the couch. “I have some questions I need you to answer.” He picked up the TV remote and turned it on. Changing the channel, Williams stopped on the news. The broadcast was still discussing the destroyed police car, and currently had four talking heads giving their opinion on how it was an Aesir's fault, and how they were dangerous. 

“You wouldn’t happen to know anything about this would you?” Williams asked, indicating the TV. 

     Gabriel could feel himself start to sweat. “No sir, I don’t know anything about it.” He was a bad liar, but hopefully good enough to fool Agent Williams.

      Williams tented his fingers and brought them below his nose. Gabriel was becoming uncomfortable with the long silence, until Agent Williams finally spoke.  “How about I tell you why I came to your house first, before you just flat out lie to me. I work for the Special Investigations Agency. We see things that don’t add up, for example a torched cop car without any evidence, and we take a closer look. What we found was the dash mounted camera. There wasn't much as far as what happened to cause the car to explode, but there was enough for us to look over. And after we went through the tapes, do you know what we found?” Williams paused, stood, and began walking behind Gabriel. When he was finally standing behind him, Williams leaned down and said almost in a whisper “We found you.”

      Gabriel was having a hard time breathing, it felt like there wasn’t enough air in the room, “Ok," he choked out, maybe if he gave the Agent some info it could buy him some time to come up with a better story. "I was there, but I don’t know what happened. I was just trying to get home from my girlfriend’s house, I stayed out to late and I’m sorry. But I didn’t do anything.” His words running together, coming out in a panicked confession.

“You’re telling me things I already know." Williams was walking back around the couch, his arms folded behind his back. "What I want to know was what happened to
the car
. Did someone show up and blow it up? Did you blow it up?” Agent Williams was back to sitting in across from Gabriel.

     The silence came again, once again broken up by Agent Williams "Well?" as he opened his hands, indicating that it was Gabriel's turn to talk. 

“All I know is they were going to take me in ‘cause I was out past the curfew. The officers were about to put me in the car and it blew up. I was thrown into the ditch; I got up, got scared and ran home. That’s all I know, honestly.”    

Agent Williams didn’t say anything for a while, just looking staring at Gabriel. Finally he reached into his pocket and pulled out a business card. “All right kid, if you remember anything else give me a call. And don’t worry, I’ll be checking in on you.” He handed the card over. It was a plain white card with his name in the center, with the words Special Investigator underneath. In the upper left corner was a symbol of an armored fist, two arrows coming out from either side, each forming a half circle. The arrows met above the fist, the omega sitting atop the two inner arrows. At the base of the fist was the text, SI9, outlined in a square. 

     With that Agent Williams stood and started walking toward the door. “Remember what I said kid, I’ll be checking up on you.” After that he was out the door. 

      Great, Gabriel thought, how am I going to explain this to mom? As soon as he finished that thought, his mother walked in. “Gabriel, what was that all about?” She stood in her authoritarian stance, hands on her hips, a questioning look on her face. 

“I was a witness to a car accident mom, he just had some questions for me.” It wasn’t really a lie, he thought, just not all the facts. 

“All right honey, dinner will be ready in a couple hours.” He left the room as soon as he could, running up to his room; he had research to do on this SI9 group before dinner.