The Orphans (Orphans Trilogy Book 1) (11 page)

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

Charlie dangled above
the backyard patio, his fingers tightly wrapped around the lowest rung on the balcony railing as he held on for dear life.

As soon as Charlie had heard the bedroom door creaking open, he hopped the railing, carefully closed the French doors, and then lowered himself down so that only the tops of his hands were visible from the bedroom. While it had put him in an incredibly vulnerable position, it had also bought him time that he desperately needed, and was much better than the alternative.

Charlie searched the sky for Malika as he hung. She was nowhere to be seen. He cursed under his breath. He could hear Cain ransacking his bedroom, foraging for any clues that might tip off their whereabouts. The clangor increased as Cain got closer and closer.

Charlie knew that it was only a matter of time before Cain noticed him hanging there. By the same token, he also knew that there was only so much longer that he could actually support himself. What Charlie didn’t know was which unpleasant scenario would occur first. The answer came much sooner than Charlie would have liked, as he realized that his body was already starting to give out. It started with his hands. The muscles burned like they were holding onto hot coals and not the metal railing. Then, the searing sensation travelled down his arms, over his shoulders, and across his back. Charlie fought to hang on, but the blaze became too much. He lessened his grip to allow fresh blood to flow to his fingers and hopefully ease the pain, but, in doing so, Charlie lost hold of the rail. Once his fingers started to slip, there was no turning back. Charlie let go of the railing altogether.

Charlie’s arms and legs flailed as he plummeted to the ground. He prepared for the pain he expected after his legs broke. He’d broken a leg in third grade after falling from the monkey bars. It had hurt so bad that he cried for most of an hour afterwards. He expected this to hurt much worse.

Charlie was so close to colliding with the ground that his mind had already begun to manifest the impending pain when Malika swooped in and caught him. The tips of Charlie’s feet skidded across the patio brick as she hauled him away.

Malika and Charlie landed on the James’s roof, reuniting with the others. With all of the orphans safe, Malika folded her wings like a Swiss Army knife and then retracted them into her back. Her open skin closed over the exit points, healing instantly, and the sparkling halo faded from her head.

Eddie hesitantly ran his fingers across Malika’s smooth shoulder blades so that his hands could confirm what his eyes had seen. “Yep,” he marveled. “That just happened.”

“After that, and everything else,” Naomi said, “I’m a little more inclined to believe the whole Devil and Beasts stuff.”

“Same here,” Antony agreed. “I’m also inclined to believe that Charlie was right about our parents, too. They were killed.” He turned to Malika. “I’m gonna go out on a limb and guess that you might even know why.”

“I do,” Malika said, “but we do not have time for that. We need to keep moving.” Malika went to leave, but stopped when she realized that her footsteps were the only sound and the orphans weren’t following her.

“None of us are going anywhere,” JP announced, his arms extended to hold the others back, “until you at least tell us who you really are. You’re obviously some kind of angel, but who are you?”

“Yeah,” Charlie agreed. “If you want, you can keep it brief. But you need to tell us who you are.”

Malika took a deep breath and sighed. She approached Charlie, grabbed his hands, and held them in hers. “I am your guardian angel. That is why I was watching you. That is why I came to protect you.” She gave Charlie’s hand a gentle squeeze and then let it go.

“Where are the rest of our guardian angels?” Eddie asked.

“For real,” Antony said. “Where are they?”

“I promise to answer all of your questions in due time,” Malika said. “But right now, my main objective is to keep all of you safe. Okay?”

The orphans said nothing, showing compliance in silence.

“Great,” Malika said. “Then follow me.”

The orphans did just that, taking off after Malika as she raced for the fire escape off of the back of the house.

Halfway across the rooftop, Charlie came to a sudden halt. There was something that didn’t sit right with him. He searched his mind, trying to figure out exactly what it was. As soon as he found it, he turned around and sprinted back toward the street side of the roof.

Eddie was about to take his first step down the fire escape when he noticed Charlie bolting back across the rooftop. “Where’s he going?”

“I don’t know,” Naomi said, “but he’s almost at the edge. They’re gonna be able to see him from there.”

“What are you doing?” Antony called as he led the charge after Charlie, who had already made it to the edge of the rooftop and didn’t so much as flinch at Antony’s instruction. “They’re gonna see—” Antony’s words and feet stopped as he made it close enough to Charlie to match his gaze.

The others did the same. Through one of the Kims’ second floor windows, they all observed what had absorbed Charlie’s attention: Max was forcing Charlie’s grandfather out of his bedroom. Max wrenched Grandpa Kim’s arm behind his back as he pushed him toward Terry, Cain, and the three unnamed Beasts.

“Noooo!” Charlie screamed.

Antony restrained Charlie, covering Charlie’s mouth with his hand to muffle his screams. “Stop it!” Antony ordered through gritted teeth. “You’re gonna get us busted.”

When Antony sensed that Charlie had given up fighting him, he removed his hand from Charlie’s mouth, but kept hold of Charlie’s arm to keep him close.

“They’re gonna kill him,” Charlie said.

“No, they will not,” Malika said. “He is old and of no use to them. Most likely, they will just let him go.”

Malika was right. No more than a couple seconds later, Max released Charlie’s grandfather with one last shove, and then he and the others started to leave.

Unfortunately, while Malika had correctly predicted Terry’s response, she failed to anticipate how Grandpa Kim would react. Prideful war veteran that he was, Grandpa Kim was not satisfied with just letting Terry and his men go without a proper retaliation.

The orphans watched as Charlie’s grandfather gave everything he had left in his aged body and attacked Max.

Max just laughed off the old man’s weak blows. He waited for Grandpa Kim to tire himself out. After a couple more harmless swings, the punches slowed to a complete stop. Max grabbed both of Grandpa Kim’s clenched fists and spun him around.

Cain flipped his sunglasses onto the top of his head and approached Grandpa Kim, staring deep into his eyes.

Even from all the way across the street, the orphans could clearly make out the flames forming in Cain’s eyes. The bright orange and red blaze throbbed.

“W … T … F … ” Eddie said in complete awe.

While he and the others were unable to discern the way that Grandpa Kim’s eyes swelled with each pulse of Cain’s, the tortuous pain it inflicted was more than evident to the group as they witnessed Grandpa Kim’s body convulsing in spastic fits.

Charlie ripped his arm free from Antony. “We need to help him,” he pleaded. For all of their differences and disagreements, his grandfather was still family, and Charlie couldn’t stand to let him suffer. “We need to do something.”

“There’s nothing you can do,” Malika said.

“Then you do something. Fight them.”

“I am not able to.”

“Well, we can’t just let them have their way with him,” Charlie said, tears forming in the corners of his eyes.

“We do not have any other choice,” Malika said. She put a comforting hand on Charlie’s back. “I am sorry.”

Charlie brushed Malika’s hand away. He wiped his tears and returned his attention to his grandfather. Charlie could only watch as Grandpa Kim’s body turned rigid.

A thin, clear gel began to secrete from the old man’s bulging oculars. Blue sparks of electricity snapped and crackled as they circled around the mysterious ooze, which stretched through the air toward Cain, gradually closing the distance between the two men before latching on to Cain’s fiery orbs.

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

The strange fluid
continued to flow from Grandpa Kim to Cain, the flames in Cain’s eyes growing brighter and brighter as they absorbed the liquid. Grandpa Kim’s body went limp as Cain consumed the last drop with a blinding flash, like a star that went supernova before imploding directly into his eyes.

Max released Grandpa Kim. His body fell flat on the floor.

Cain lifted the old man’s head, smirked, said something to him, and then let his head drop back to the ground.

Max pulled Grandpa Kim up to his feet, turned him around, steadied him, and then gave him a little nudge.

Grandpa Kim stumbled back to his bedroom, took a seat on his bed, and stared blankly at the wall.

The orphans’ expressions were just as vacant as they monitored the old man, waiting for what might happen next.

“He’s gonna have a heart attack, isn’t he?” Antony asked.

Malika nodded. “Yes. In the next thirty minutes or less.”

“Talk about an underrated movie,” Eddie said.

Antony shook his head at Eddie.

“What?” Eddie said. “
30 Minutes or Less
was hilarious.”

Before Antony could respond, Naomi spotted Terry and his men exiting the Charlie’s house. “Get down!” she barked as she pulled JP and Eddie to the ground with her.

Charlie, Antony, and Malika quickly followed suit, barely avoiding detection.

They all stayed sprawled on the asphalt rooftop until the sound of the Bentley’s peeling tires, as well as those of a second squealing car, had completely disappeared.

One by one, the orphans returned to their feet. Their attention returned to Grandpa Kim, who was still in the same position as before.

“It would be best to let him be,” Malika said. “Besides, we should really get somewhere safe as soon as possible.” She started for the fire escape.

The orphans immediately followed Malika, in too much shock from what they had just seen to put up any resistance like they had before.

As they crossed the rooftop, Antony noticed Charlie was lagging behind and slowed down to meet up with him. “Hey, I’m really sorry about your grandpa.”

Charlie didn’t respond. He just kept staring at his feet.

After a second, Antony continued, “The way I see it, it’s just one more reason to take them down. Not that you needed another one.”

Charlie lifted his head and sniffled. “Yeah. You’re right.”

Antony dug into his pocket and retrieved the flash drive. “Here,” he said as he handed it to Charlie. “It’s yours. You might as well hold onto it. Now that you actually made it.”

“Thanks.” Charlie let out a half smile and then pocketed the drive.

“Hurry up, you two,” Malika called to them.

“Let’s go,” Antony said. He threw his arm around Charlie and they both picked up their pace to catch up with the rest of the crew.

◆
◆
◆

Malika led the orphans down alleyways and other sparsely used streets until they finally reached their destination.

“This isn’t exactly what I was picturing when you said somewhere safe,” Eddie said as he inspected the rusty chain-link fence before him, which surrounded an old junkyard in a seedy section of East Palo Alto.

Malika and the rest of the orphans waited on the other side of the fence, having already crawled under. “This is only a temporary stop,” Malika said.

“Just hurry up already,” Naomi said.

“Fine,” Eddie said. “But if I get tetanus, it’s on your heads.”

Eddie crawled military-style under the same small opening that the others had passed through. He got up and rubbed his hands on his jeans to wipe the dirt off.

“We need to find a car,” Malika said. She looked at their numbers. “Preferably a van.”

“Where are we going?” JP said.

“Far enough that we need to drive.”

“That’s all you’re gonna tell us?” Naomi said.

“That is all you need to know,” Malika said.

“For how long?” Eddie asked.

“Until all of you are ready.”

“Are we talking a couple days or a couple weeks?”

“However long it takes.”

“But I have three tests and a paper due next week,” Charlie said, still thinking like his old self with his old plan.

“Not anymore,” Malika said, “If you go back to school, they will be waiting for you.” She turned to the rest of the orphans. “The safest assumption is that they know who all of you are and that they will come for you.”

The orphans slowly came to terms with the reality of their situation. “Well, I guess there’s no going back to our old lives,” Antony said.

“There is never going back,” Malika said, “only moving forward. If you need to call your families or friends and tell them that you are okay and that you will be going away for a while, feel free. But after that, we must focus on finding a vehicle so we can get on the road as fast as possible.”

Eddie and JP went off on their own to make calls to their respective guardians while everyone else stayed back.

Antony nodded to Naomi. “You don’t have anyone you need to call?”

“I’m kind of in between places,” Naomi said. “What about you? No family or friends?”

“Just my cousin. But if called him and told him I was gonna be gone, he’d probably just get pissed at me for costing him money. I’d rather just keep him in the dark.”

“That’s probably the smart move.”

With everyone else preoccupied, Charlie grabbed a seat on the mangled hood of a totaled Toyota. He retrieved his Moleskine and studied his original list of goals. He was still coming to terms with the fact that he wouldn’t be returning to school for the foreseeable future, if ever. That hadn’t been part of his plan at all. He had planned on keeping their mission as clandestine as possible so that he could still maintain his regular life and keep working toward everything he had outlined for himself.

While it had been no fault of his own, Charlie didn’t see things that way. As far as he was concerned, he had failed. He flipped to the back of his notebook and added this to his list of failures. He then skimmed over the rest of his list of failures, hoping to glean some desperately needed motivation.

After a minute of skimming, Charlie pocketed his notebook and approached Malika. “So what’s next when we get to where we’re going?”

“If we do not focus on what we have to do now, there will be no next,” Malika said. She checked her pink digital watch and then shouted to JP and Eddie, “Time is up, guys.”

JP finished his phone call and rejoined the crew.

Eddie wrapped up his call but took his time returning. He was busy tapping away on his phone.

“Hurry up, Eddie,” Malika said.

“Sorry,” Eddie said, not looking up from his phone. “I just had a great idea for a status.”

“Let me see,” Malika said as Eddie returned to the group.

“Fine, but I don’t think you’re gonna get the reference,” Eddie said as he handed over the phone.

Malika immediately dropped it on the ground.

Eddie’s eyes went wide. “Whoa! What are you—” Before he could finish, Malika smashed his phone with the heel of her pink Velcro shoe. “Are you kidding me?” Eddie groaned. “I didn’t even post it. Why the hell did you do that?”

“Everyone needs to destroy their phones,” Malika said. “They can track you with them, if they have not already.”

“She’s right,” Naomi agreed. “That’s why I never use them.”

“Mine’s just a burner, anyway,” Antony said. He dropped his phone on the ground and heel-stomped it to pieces.

Charlie was a little more hesitant than Antony but did the same, anyway.

“This sucks,” Eddie whined. “How am I gonna take pics or update my status now?”

“You aren’t,” Naomi said.

“I know,” Eddie said. “That’s what’s killing me.”

“How’s this?” Antony said. “Anytime you have a funny status, you can just tell me.”

“Do you promise you’ll like it?” Eddie said. “You know, give it a thumbs up.”

“Yeah, sure,” Antony said as he rolled his eyes.

“You gotta be more enthusiastic than that.”

“Yeah!” Antony flashed two thumbs and every tooth in his mouth.

“That’s more like it. Still not the same, though.”

All eyes turned to JP, who flipped his phone in his hand.

“What?” JP snapped in response to their stares. “I’m not doing it. I just paid two hundred bucks for this phone. I’ll turn it off, but I’m not breaking it.”

“That is not good enough,” Malika said. “I would have had all of you destroy your phones earlier, but I knew that it would receive this kind of reaction. We did not have the time to argue then, and we barely have it now.”

“I don’t care,” JP said. “And you know what? I’m really tired of being bossed around by a little girl. I don’t care if you are an angel.”

“Little girl?” Malika said. “I was a little girl many thousands of years ago. I only picked this form because I assumed it would be less intimidating. But if you would rather see me in my true angelic form, I can change.”

“Honestly, I don’t know that I wanna see you in any form.”

“The choice is yours. While I am here for your protection, I cannot force you to accept it. Nor can I force you to join us. All I can do is insist that if you choose to come with us, you follow a few rules so that the others are not put in jeopardy.”

“Well, then, maybe I won’t come with you.”

“Like I said, the choice is yours.”

Naomi could tell that JP was actually considering making good on his threat. She grabbed him by the arm. “You can’t seriously be thinking about leaving so you can keep your phone. You can’t go home. Where would you go?”

“Come on,” Charlie implored. “You won’t stand a chance on your own. None of us do. You just need to trust her.”

JP chewed on the corner of his lip like it was a piece of gum as he eyeballed Malika, still trying to decide where he stood: Should he stay or should he go?