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Chapter 13:

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"Caleb Danvers?" an officer said, peering into the cell to find the boy in question. "Your mother is here to see you. She requested to speak with you privately."

In seconds Caleb was on his feet and at the door, waiting impatiently for them to unlock it so that he could see her.

They clapped handcuffs on his wrists and led him to one of the vacant interrogation rooms. His mother was already waiting on the inside, a cigarette held up to her lips and an empty ashtray set on the table before her. She hugged her son gladly, and the policeman let them be.

"A mother could only hope they never have to see their child in handcuffs," she said gloomily, as Caleb took a seat across from her.

"I'm sorry, mother," Caleb said earnestly. "I did all I could to stop it, believe me."

Evelyn Danvers nodded, her expression coarse and pensive, and leaned in close to her son.

"Speak softly with me now," she said. "In case they can hear us."

Caleb nodded understandingly.

"Pogue's lost his Power," Caleb explained.

"Of course," Evelyn nodded in agreement. "Any Son who has discharged has."

"You know why this is happening?" Caleb asked anxiously.

"It's why I came, son," she explained coolly. There wasn't much that could surprise his mother; he should've known.

"It's not recorded in the Book of Damnation, but I think there's something about it in the Chronicles of Paganism. It's called the Curse of Ipswich. It's an extremely rare, very difficult curse that could only be cast by a fellow Ipswich Son— and only if there was turmoil in the midst."

"Tyler and Reid have been kind of going at it lately," Caleb stated thoughtfully. "Not to mention my blowout with Chase."

"It was supposed to be drawn on for disabling further Use of the Power if the Covenant was breaking from the inside out. If you Used while the curse was upon you, your Power would then spring out of you, such as in an explosion, and go into another entity for temporary safekeeping."

"Who or what is the 'entity'?" Caleb asked, but Evelyn shook her head and took another lungful of her cigarette.

"The head chooses someone outside of the Covenant. But listen closely now, Caleb," his mother whispered intensely, flashing a look of warning. "It's a very dangerous thing to have all of the Covenant's power in a single person. If someone finds out who or what the entity is, they could cast a spell to draw all the Power into themselves."

Caleb frowned in unease. If Chase knew about this… the consequences would be fatal to them all.

"I appreciate this, mom," he said in a normal tone.

"I'm trying to post bail," she promised in an equal voice volume to his. "I'll get you out soon. Beatrice has already wired bail for Pogue, though she didn't seem happy about bailing him out again, so I spent a long time trying to explain it all too her, Putnam fiasco and all. I'm still trying to track down Meredith to send money for Reid, but you know how hard that can be. As for Tyler, we're still trying to find out where he is."

"You don't know either, huh?" Caleb asked with concern.

"They said he's under government quarantine," she explained. "We're all outraged-- the poor thing… Who knows what they're doing to him in there…"

-

"Mr. President," said a doctor in a white lab coat, shaking the older man's hand in greeting. The president glanced at his nametag, which read 'Robert Sablove, M.D."

"What have you found out about these 'witches'?" the President asked attentively.

"Sir, all our neurological and craniological results are coming up negative," Doctor Sablove explained. "The boy is one hundred percent human. There's nothing abnormal about him that could explain his abilities. The only unusual thing we found was this."

He showed him a paper with a few numbers and strange words on it.

"These are the results of a scan of the eyes. As you can see here, we found an abnormal amount of melanin in the retinitis pigmentosa behind the iris of his eyes. He also has a few extra nerve endings here, which swell when a certain part of the--"

"What are you trying to say, Doctor?" the President interrupted impatiently.

Dr. Sablove put his paper of statistics down.

"The boy does contain the scientific ability to make his iris's turn black. It has never been heard of in a person before, so you see how this arouses concern…"

"Mr. President?" a man in a blue suit tapped the old man on the shoulder. "It's time to go to the press conference.

"Keep me posted," the president commanded Dr. Sablove. "I have to go straighten this mess out."

"Might I ask," the doctor called after him before he exited. "What you're going to tell America?"

"I'm a good president, Dr. Sablove," he replied with a heavy sigh. "I'll tell the truth."

"Which is?"

"That we have four, very gifted, very abnormal, very dangerous boys in our midst."

-

Elle grabbed her TV dinner in her dark and empty home, having a sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach like she had eaten a rock for lunch. Her own cozy little home in which she had grown up now seemed to be the most eerie place in the world, since her father had left. She turned the TV on for the background noise. She hated watching the news, which is what her dad always left on.

She dug around the sofa for the remote, and finally found it (along with about eleven cents in change). Absentmindedly, she pointed the clicker at the screen and pressed the button. Nothing happened, so she pressed it again.

It was only then she realized that she was changing the channels, but the same thing was on every station.

"Police investigate similar explosions happening…"

"Trying to uncover the truth behind…"

"Boys are being held in custody until…"

"The President encourages us that steps are being taken to ensure…"

Elle froze like a statue, her eyes glued to the screen. A visual image of the Snider Lake House exploding in half appeared on the screen, and she gasped. Another station had an actual videotape of the boys inside the lake house.

"Be cautioned, what you're about to see may disturb you:"

The video was taken from the outside of the house, shot through a window. It showed Aaron first, pulling his gun on Reid. Faint shouts of Aaron calling him a freak was heard, and Elle relived those moments when the gun was pointed at her.

When Aaron was about to pull the trigger, suddenly the gun disintegrated in his hands, much to his surprise. The camera turned to Tyler, whose eyes were black and his hand was outstretched. All too soon he dropped to his knees, and the camera zoomed in closely to him.

It was no wonder they were taken in custody. No doubt the police would come knocking on her door for information next. Elle grabbed her purse and jacket, and headed out the front door.

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Pogue and Reid looked up as the cops escorted Caleb back into the holding cell with them. They were alarmed by the look on Caleb's face, which was one of deep emotional strain. Something was definitely wrong.

"What'd your mom have to say?" Reid asked.

"She's trying to get us out," Caleb replied sullenly, returning to his seat on the cot.

"S'about time," Reid muttered.

"What else did she have to say?" Pogue urged him on worriedly.

Caleb rubbed his hands over his face, something he did only in the most stressful of times. He repeated to them what his mother had warned him about, and soon their faces matched his.

"And no one knows who the entity is?" Pogue pressed. "I would think someone who just got three sets of Power in them would be pretty easy to find, seeing as they would be Using like crazy."

"They're just a temporary holder, Pogue," Caleb said. "They probably don't even know it's inside them."

"Well, that sucks," Reid remarked. "What do we do?"

"We concentrate on getting out of here first," Caleb replied. "Then we find this 'entity' before Chase does."

"You make it sound so easy," Pogue mumbled with contempt.

"Well, aren't you boys popular today?" an officer said, suddenly appearing again in front of the barred door with a snotty expression. "You have another visitor. It's for Phone Call Boy."

Reid rolled his eyes at the name and dragged himself over to the door.

"Who in the hell--?" Pogue muttered, his curiosity making him crane his neck to see who was coming for Reid.

They spotted Elle making her way through the bustling FBI station in long, determined strides. Her face had a look of single-minded courage, having one purpose and setting out just to do that. When she arrived, she did a once-over of each of the boys. Satisfied that they seemed to be in good health, she opened her mouth to speak.

"I told them the only way I would tell them anything was if I talked to you first," she explained to Reid in a low voice. "But I don't have a lot of time."

Reid sighed happily and just nodded with an obnoxious grin, relieved that she seemed all right and was just thankful to be in her presence.

"Get that stupid grin off your face," she commanded. "I'm not here because I'm worried for you. Far as I'm concerned this is just where you belong. Behind bars."

"So why are you here?"

"I wanted to make sure you guys were okay."

"So you were worried about me…" Reid guessed with a taunting smile.

Elle gave him a contentious look.

"Don't ruin it."

Reid lowered his voice and leaned closer to Elle.

"Listen, I heard about what happened to you the other night," he said seriously. "I didn't touch you, I swear."

She cast her eyes to the floor and bit her lip.

"I know…" she said decidedly. "And I know you saved me from Aaron. After that night, I read up on you all--"

"--Yeah," Reid agreed with a nod. "I found the journal."

Reid glanced over his shoulder at the others to make sure they weren't eavesdropping. Caleb was talking deeply with Pogue, trying to sort out facts and figures on the inner workings of the curse. Reid turned his head back to the girl before him, and leaned his forehead on the bars in defeat. He spoke like the dreaded words had to be forced out of him.

"I'm sorry," Reid blurted out after a moment or two of their silence.

"For what?" Elle wondered, her brow furrowing in confusion.

"For harassing you in freshman year," he replied like it should have been common knowledge.

Elle couldn't fight her grin at this, knowing how hard it was for Reid to admit something like that. She decided to reward him with a declaration of her own.

"I never told you why I fell into that garbage can, did I?" she said with an embarrassed smile.

"Lost your balance?" Reid guessed.

"I wasn't looking where I was going…" she said, then looked anywhere but at him. Her cheeks began to turn a light shade of pink. "Because I was looking at this boy…"

Reid suddenly gave her his full attention, surprise and confusion all over his face, though he didn't say a word.

"I'd had a crush on him for as long as I could remember," she went on. "I'd never do anything about it— I'd just admire him from afar. As I was watching him eat his lunch, I walked right into a trashcan full of Meat-Loaf Mondays. I've never smelled so rank before in my life and of course, he noticed that… and gave me a name that stuck… I think it hurt the most because it came from him…"

Reid began to understand the meaning behind her words, but was still so stunned that he couldn't speak. She looked at him directly.

"You were right. You did change. But I didn't. I tried to, I really did. I wanted to like Tyler… but I should've known my soul was sold to you in fourth grade when you handed me your pencil to use after I broke my own."

Reid snickered at this in amusement, but still couldn't find words to say. Usually he had a response for everything. Not now.

Elle then reached through the bars and stroked his jaw line with her thumb gently.

"I don't care if you don't really love me back," she confessed, her voice beginning to shake. "At this point, I'll take whatever you can give me."

He grabbed the hand caressing his cheek very abruptly, and held it there for what seemed like an eternity. Elle's heart beat so loud she could hear it pulsing in her ears, and she anxiously awaited his reply to all she had professed.

After a minute or so, Reid broke through with an amused smile.

"You 'sold your soul' to me, huh?" he repeated with a smug look about him. "And that would make me, presumably, the devil?"

Elle grinned right back.

"Yeah," she admitted blissfully. "I guess so…!"

Reid nodded in understanding and considered this for a moment.

"I can handle that," he said decidedly, then suddenly reached through the bars and grabbed Elle by the cheeks, locking his lips on hers hard. It was rather difficult to kiss her as well as he meant to when the iron bars held him back, but it was heaven all the same. Her lips tasted like vanilla, and she smelled like something just as sweet. She was 'Smelly Ellie', no longer.

Elle looked a little woozy when Reid finally let her go. The police came in with impeccable timing, and escorted her out. She didn't have the breath to object.

Reid tilted his neck to watch her go as long as the limited sight through the bars would allow. His heart leapt when she looked back one more time before she departed, smiling fondly before leaving indefinitely.

After she was gone, Reid sighed loudly in happiness, swooning before he remembered…

He wasn't alone.

He whirled around hurriedly to see the alarm and confusion on Caleb and Pogue's faces as they looked with shock to one another, and then back to him. Reid quickly fell back into 'bad boy' mode, folding his arms confrontationally and glaring icily at his friends.

"You got something to say, say it," he commanded defiantly.

Caleb and Pogue exchanged glances with one another again, before Pogue finally spoke up.

"Tyler's going to be pissed," he declared.

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Please review.
Signed,
--RedRogue