The Origin (20 page)

“Nah, she wants you to watch,” Felton said and reached his stubby hands into her bra as she tried to wriggle out from under the weight, which only elicited an excited laugh from him. Still, she thrashed about, determined to fight her way out of the situation.

“Let’s make this a little easier.” All of a sudden, she felt his weight lift. He then grabbed her shoulders, flipped her onto her back and straddled her legs. “There, that’s better, don’t you think?” he said, his whiskey breath moist on her face. The
 
tape was ripped from her eyes, but she kept them firmly shut.

“Why don’t you look?” he said, grasping her cheeks and forcing her to face him. “I want you to look at me while I enjoy every part of you.”

His calloused hands raked over her stomach and then she felt them sliding lower, inching towards the waist of her pants. And that was all she could take. She would be damned if she allowed this disgusting human being to violate her further.

“Get away from me!” she screamed at the top of her lungs, her muscles strained for another scuffle. But in the next instant, she felt him withdraw his hands and, to her amazement, his weight lifted off her.

Olivia’s mind reeled with what had just taken place. Her eyes flew open and, after a few moments of adjusting to the light, immediately took in her surroundings: they were at the end of a long hallway and above her was a glass elevator. She had made it a mere two feet away from escape before she’d been tackled.

As she got to her feet, the taller man a few yards down the hall said, “Felton, what the hell are you doing?”

“I don’t know,” the short, stocky man called back, never taking his eyes off Olivia. “Something messed up is going on here.”

With her hands still tied behind her back, she backed against the wall, feeling around for the elevator button and jabbing at it furiously.

“She’s some kind of witch or something, using voodoo on me,” Felton said.

Before she could ponder on the accusation, which didn’t seem at all far-fetched at that moment, the elevator doors swished open and she fell inside.

“Hey, she’s
gonna
get away!” Dane said and started running towards the elevator.

Third time’s a charm,
Olivia thought.
Please let it work.

“Stay right there! Don’t come any closer!” she said with as much authority as she could muster. “Both of you stay where you are!”

To her colossal relief, they complied. She turned to the side to press the lobby button, never taking her eyes off her captors who were still frozen to the spot. They continued to look on in confused horror, seemingly stuck behind an invisible barrier, as the elevator doors closed and she began to descend. Once they had risen out of sight, she leaned against the wall and willed back the tears, unable to comprehend what the hell just happened.

* * * * *

Daniel ran up the stairwell and burst through the door labeled with a silver nine. According to the signboard downstairs, of the thirty floors in the building, only five were vacant. The ninth floor was his third stop.

He zipped around the floor, seeing nothing but empty rooms. He raced through the halls, feeling like a mouse in a maze, keeping her face in his mind’s eyes. Olivia, his piece of cheese at the end.

“She’s not here!” he cried out and punched a hole in the drywall before racing back towards the stairwell.

As he pulled open the door to the fifteenth floor, two men came bursting through, momentarily sending him off balance.

“Hurry!” the shorter one said as they leapt down the stairs.

Daniel debated on whether to follow them or to locate the source of the fire. Since Coral said Olivia would be in the building, he decided on the latter.

He pulled on the door handle and saw a long hallway with doors on either side. Standing as still as his manic body could manage, he listened intently for any sounds, anything that would indicate Olivia’s presence.

Suddenly, a door at the other end of the hall opened and a tall, dark man with a thick ponytail of dreadlocks emerged, looking like someone right out of the past and out of Daniel’s nightmares.

The breath caught in his throat. “Rap?” he said and cautiously advanced.
The man turned around and Daniel felt his heart lift at the sight of the Moore High’s linebacker upright and walking. “I thought you were paralyzed?” He was bigger now, a little older, but at least he had use of his legs.

The man’s eyes narrowed as recognition slowly dawned on him. “I’m not Rap,” he said coldly. “I’m his twin brother, John. Or you might know me as Hook.”

Daniel took a step back. “I didn’t know he had a…”

“Twin? No, why would you?” he said with bitterness in his voice.

“It was just a tackle! It was an accident!” Daniel said instinctively and instantly he was thrown back into the memory of that fateful day, when his young life had veered beyond his control…

“We missed you at the gym today, Johnson,” Fred
Limburgh
, the starting quarterback, said to Daniel as they suited up for the big Friday night game.

“Sorry man. I already went to the gym yesterday,” Daniel said flexing his biceps for effect. What he intentionally failed to add was that he’d managed to max out the weights on all the equipment with high reps and a low heart rate. To Daniel, it was both inexplicable and exciting.

“Johnson, how’s that hamstring?” Mr. Grosse, their coach, called from across the lively room.

“Couldn’t be better, sir!” he said with a huge smile. He not only felt better, completely healed from last week’s injury, but he was rearing to start the game and try out his newfound abilities. He was ready to kick some major Moore High ass.

Once the snap occurred, Fred moved around to look for an open receiver. Daniel, who had already dodged everyone, was open. Fred spotted him at once and the football was sent flying his way.

“Go, Daniel, go!” He could hear the pretty cheerleaders calling his name as he ran with ball in hand. He raced faster to show off and found himself at the end zone sooner than anticipated. Nobody on the opposing team had even come close to touching him. He felt like a god.

The school band began to play the fight song as Daniel ran up to his teammates to celebrate the first touchdown of the night.

“Holy shit, Daniel! That was some Michael Johnson moves you just pulled right there!” someone yelled with a laugh.

“You’ve been working on your sprints, haven’t you?” Coach asked as soon as the other team called a time-out. The score was 16 to 0;
Westmoore
was dominating thus far.

Coach Grosse pulled Daniel aside and looked up at the stands. “See that man in the blue shirt up there, son?” he said, putting an arm around Daniel’s shoulders. “I didn’t want to tell you guys in case it gave you the jitters, but that there is a scout for the University of Oklahoma.”

Daniel’s eyes widened and suddenly, a life of Boomer Sooner football flashed before his teenage eyes: parties, girls, money, glory. It was everything a high school player in Oklahoma hoped to achieve.

“He couldn’t have come on a better day.” Daniel laughed much too loudly, feeling lightheaded from his good fortune.

Coach slapped him on the back. “I couldn’t agree more. You’re really a sight to see out there tonight, Johnson. You’re running so fast, you’re starting to blur.”

Daniel beamed. “Thanks, Coach.”

“Johnson?” Coach called as Daniel jogged back to the field to join his teammates. “Don’t get all cocky and screw this up.”

Daniel only gave him a confident grin. “Not even possible.”

“Doing okay?” Kyle, the running back, asked as they huddled. “I think defense is really gunning for you.”

“You think?” Daniel said sarcastically, waving his friend away. “I’m fine.”

He was. But if he had been any other normal boy, he would have been reduced to silly putty by now. The other team had not only been relentless, but they had also been brutal. Especially their linebacker, Rap Matera. The kid was built like a mountain and had managed to tackle Daniel a few times already. Rap, it seemed, had been instructed to take Daniel down not head-on, but by the legs, with varying degrees of success.

This time, Rap, you won’t get me
, Daniel thought with determination.

At the snap, Daniel shot away from the group. He turned and saw the football already sailing his way and, with a mighty leap, caught the ball with two hands. Landing squarely on his feet, he ran like the ground was on fire. He blazed through the field, only briefly feeling Moore’s defensive team as they glanced off his shoulders one by one, spinning around like tops.

Daniel was almost home free until he saw his adversary several yards shy of the end zone. It would have been easy enough to go around the human wall that was Rap, but Daniel’s pride sought revenge.

You think you’re strong
? he thought wildly.
Well, stop this!

He hunched down and headed straight for the boy at full speed.

The impact was tremendous, his jubilation complete, as he rolled inside the end zone, the ball still grasped safely in his hand.

Let’s see you get up from that!
Daniel thought triumphantly, standing up to revel with his teammates and receive his acclaim.

“Just a tackle? That was no freaking tackle!” John shouted and launched himself at Daniel, sending both men to the floor. “You severed his spinal cord!”

“It was an accident!” Daniel repeated weakly. He had said it so many times over the years that he no longer knew whether it was still the truth. Had he really not intended on hurting Rap?

John sat on Daniel’s chest and his fists began to fly. “He’s dead, you motherfucker!” he said, making Daniel’s heart skip a beat. “You killed my brother!”

John’s hands were on fire as he beat the crap out of Daniel Johnson, whose face felt like molded metal, but he kept going regardless. The memory of his brother, as well as the pride of his family wouldn’t allow it.

He was furious that, after all this time, Daniel didn’t know what had happened to his brother, enraged that he hadn’t even bothered to check up on the boy he’d maimed. And that’s all Rap had been at the time: a boy. They had only been fifteen when they’d immigrated to Oklahoma from New Zealand, sixteen when they’d both tried out for the football team. And seventeen when John had been benched for subpar grades and Rap had been playing on his behalf.

And this son of a bitch never even bothered to find out what happened to us both!
John thought. “You never even came to the hospital!” he shouted, aiming a bleeding fist straight for Daniel’s nose. But the asshole lay motionless beneath him, simply allowing the pummeling to continue, which added additional fuel to his anger.

“I’m sorry,” Daniel said once more. His instinct dictated that he hold his arms up to cover his face, but he knew he needed to bear this beating. Rap’s twin brother deserved to deliver this vengeance. “I didn’t know.”

John paused, his nostrils flaring as he panted. “You didn’t know?” he sneered. “You didn’t know that your little move on the field not only made him a vegetable but also caused massive organ failure? He died, and you never even bothered to say sorry!”

Dead. Why didn’t anyone tell me?
He had killed Rap Matera. The news hit Daniel harder than anything John’s fist could ever deliver.

He readied himself for more punishment. As it was, the thought of saving Olivia was the only thing keeping him from closing his eyes and slipping into unconsciousness.

“
Liv
,” he said through loose, bloody teeth. His lips were bruised, his jaw felt unhinged, and his nose was definitely broken.

The punching stopped for a moment. “What did you say?” John said.

The name mingled with blood as it came sputtering out of Daniel’s mouth. “
Liv
.”

Suddenly, Daniel felt John’s weight ease off him. He opened his one good eye – the other was swollen shut – and peered up at the man towering over him.

John couldn’t believe what he was seeing. He wiped his hands off on his shirt, looked again, and earnestly began to panic. He didn’t know when the change had occurred as his hands had been clenched into bloody fists, but all of a sudden, his fingertips were becoming transparent. He stared down at his hands and watched in horror as he began to see the carpet right through them.

“What the hell!” he said, stumbling backwards into a wall. “What’s going on?” Not bothering with the buttons, he ripped his sleeve to find that his arm had also become transparent.