Chapter Six
"Michael found out... a while ago."
"Why didn't you tell us sooner?" Isabel closed the door quickly and rushed to the bed and sat down beside Maria.
"I wasn't ready for you guys to find out... "
"This is... amazing Maria." What are your powers?"
"I can... make people see things that aren't there... or not see things that are... I can heal a little..."
"That's why you told Alex you would deny it isn't it? That he couldn't prove it, because you wouldn't have any bruises." Maria nodded slowly.
"He knows about me, Alex does. Since we were little. One of the times he found me, and my powers were freaking out, and, Alex saw it... I had to explain it to him."
"Alex knows?"
"Only about me." Isabel seemed to be in shock. A human, knowing about one of them.
"How would he react if he found out that.. that I was like you?" She asked cautiously.
"He loves you Isabel. He would love you no matter what. Just sit him down and talk to him." Isabel smiled a little and squeezed Maria's good hand.
Isabel was nervously chewing on her lip as she waited for Alex to get to her house. He came around the side and was taping on her window a second later and she jumped up to her feet. "Alex!" She yanked open the window and let him in.
"What is it Isabel? You sounded really weird on the phone." And she was acting even weirder in person.
"I need to talk to you about something."
"Okay..."
"You may want to sit down." Alex sat down on her bed never taking his eyes off her.
"What is it?" Alex had never seen her like this, and he was really worried.
"You love me right?" She asked.
"Of course."
"You'll never leave me?"
"What is it Isabel? Please just tell me, you're really worrying me." Alex had these terrible scenarios running through his mind. She cheated on him. She was pregnant.
Isabel reached out and rested her hand against the curtains hanging over her window. After a second they went from white lace to a dark red silk, and then back again. She looked at Alex who was staring at her open mouthed. "I'm like Maria. We're... the same. And you still care about her, even after you found out what she was, so... you have to still care about me, right?" She had never felt so vulnerable in her entire life.
"You're like Maria." He said still staring, and she nodded slowly. "Why didn't you ever tell me?"
"I was afraid you'd be scared of me. That you would think I was just some freak." Alex closed the distance between them and kissed her softly.
"You're not a freak, no matter what, and I love you Isabel. This doesn't change that." He wrapped his arms around her tightly and Isabel clutched to him, as relief coursed through her body.
Maria sat on the couch at the Evans' house. Isabel was sitting at the other end of the couch and Max was standing behind the chair. "You're like us." Maria nodded.
"Isabel walked in and found me playing a CD... without a CD player."
"And you said Michael knew? How did he find out?"
"It's been a while ago... I was taking out the trash at the Crashdown, and some guy came out of the shadows and demanded money. When I told him I had none... he stabbed me."
"What?!" Isabel asked in alarm.
"I went back inside, and Michael heard me. He..." Maria paused finally the realization of what Michael had done dawned on her. He risked exposing himself for her. "I was trying to heal it, and he put his hand on mine, and we healed it together."
"So you can heal?"
"Nothing big... just little things... but with Michael's help we managed to heal it. It wasn't that deep or anything, and it was still a little sore for a few days, like a really deep bruise, but... yeah, I guess so."
"Why didn't you tell us before?" Max asked and Maria shook her head a little.
"I wasn't ready for people to find out." She shrugged a little. "Do you guys... have the dreams?"
"Dreams?" Isabel asked. "I can go into people's dreams."
"No, I mean... dreams about our past?" They both shook their heads.
"You do?"
"Yeah... I remember everything."
"Really? Tell us!" Isabel got suddenly excited.
"Max... was the King, and Isabel, you were a princess." Maria paused for a moment. "You were brother and sister on Antar too."
"Antar?"
"It's the name of our planet..." Before Maria could go on the front door opened.
"Hi kids." Diane Evans smiled as she walked into the living room.
Maria was busy changing out of her uniform she was in her own little world. So much had been changing lately. She was living with the Valenti's she had something really close to a family. They sat down together for dinner. They didn't hurt her. They protected her. Kyle had easily slipped into the big brother act with her, and she loved it. She'd always had it from Alex, but it was different, because she actually lived with them. She still hadn't spoken to Michael for weeks. Isabel and Max knew her secret now, but neither had the dreams like she did. It didn't make any sense to her.
She finished yanking her T-shirt on and gasped when she saw Max standing there. "Oh, you scared me." She shook her head a little and grabbed her sweater and pulled it on.
"I wanted to talk to you."
"About?" She asked looking at him. Something felt off, but she wasn't sure what it was. He moved closer to her and she took a small step back, and bumped into the lockers.
"Michael said you'd helped him remember. From... before."
"Some things, he remembered." Maria nodded a little.
Max reached out and wrapped his hand around her wrist gently. "I want to remember."
"It's all about focus Max... you just have to concentrate."
"You were mine." He growled suddenly and Maria looked at him in alarm.
"What?"
"Ava. My wife... That is how it is supposed to be."
Maria laughed nervously. "Max, we're on earth, things are different now, you're with Liz, you love Liz."
"You belong with me." His grip tightened around her wrist and she stared up at him.
"Max, let me go."
"Maria!" Isabel yelled as she walked through the swinging door. Max dropped her wrist but she didn't tear her eyes away from his face. "Come here, I need your help with something please?" Isabel smiled cheerily and headed back up front.
Maria looked at Max, and then quickly moved away from him. "I'm not yours, Max."
"Oh, so you're his." He hissed.
"I'm no ones." Maria said before pushing through the door.
"Surprise!" Maria gasped as she stared at her friends. A pile of gifts was set up on a table, there was a large cake on another, with drinks set up. Everyone was standing there smiling brightly, except Michael who had taken up residence in an empty booth and was just watching her.
"You guys... How...?"
"How do you think?" Alex laughed and hugged Maria. "Happy birthday, baby girl." He kissed her forehead and gave her another squeeze.
"How does it feel? Seventeen?" Isabel smiled and hugged the smaller girl.
"Open presents!" Tess laughed and grabbed a brightly colored bag and thrust it towards Maria.
Maria was completely dumbfounded. She'd never had a birthday before. Alex had always bought her something for her birthday, but a cake, a party? Presents? Tears stung her eyes. "You guys... Thank you so much." She whispered looking down at the gift in her hand. "You have no idea... how much this means to me."
Kyle came up and gave her a tight hug. "Hey, none of that... we are your family, your friends, you think we would skip it?"
Maria smiled at them and sniffled quietly. "Thank you." She said again before digging into the bag. Inside she found an expensive blouse. Her jaw dropped. "Tess... wow... this is..."
"I hope it fits! When Kyle and I went to Albuquerque last weekend, I saw it and thought of you, and I just really hope it fits, if not... girl trip." Tess smiled and took a drink.
She made her way through the presents, CDs and some more clothes, and some jewelry and beads to hang in the doorway to her room. The final present was in a small box. "Who is this from?" She asked and everyone shrugged. She lifted the lid and gasped at what she saw. A small gold necklace with her name written in a script. "Oh my god..." She stared at it. "This is... beautiful." She whispered quietly as she looked at it.
"What is it?" Isabel asked trying to get a look. "Oh, wow." She gasped out.
Maria looked up and saw Michael staring at her from across the diner. In that instant she knew who gave it to her. It wasn't much later, after Maria blew out the candles, that they started up the music, and the girls were having a great time dancing around the diner. Maria walked over to the booth where Michael was sitting and tossed the box on the table. "Take it back." He blinked at her. "I don't want it. I don't... want anything from you." She told him in a hushed voice. "I just want you out of my life." Tears stung her eyes and she quickly made her escape to the bathroom.
She was hunched over dabbing at her eyes with some tissue when she heard the door. She spun around and saw Michael coming in. "Get out." She yelled in a hushed voice.
"No, not until you tell me what it is I did that got you so pissed off at me? What did I do Maria? Why are you mad at me? Why do you suddenly hate me?!"
"You want to know? You really want to know?" She yelled and jabbed him in the chest with her finger. "Fine... Courtney. That stupid slut! I get it Michael, I got it when I saw you with her in the library. She's rich, and pretty, and... I'm neither. I'm that okay looking girl from the wrong side of town, with the abusive father. Dating her would ruin your image. I get that. So you stay with me in private, hide all our kisses, the hand holding, hang out when no one is around. But in public... you flirt with her, you joke with her... you touch her! But it doesn't work like that Michael. You don't get both of us, so I'm making this easy! You get her. Date someone that is actually worthy of being with you, that is good enough to be with you. Because I'm not." She shoved past him and stormed out the door. Michael went to follow her but she had already made her way over to Alex and was talking to him quietly.
Maria was at work, they weren't that busy, but there were a few tables, including two men that had been arguing since they walked in the door. She was currently busying herself with refilling the sugars, trying to ignore the looks she was getting from Michael in the kitchen. The bell over the door went off and she glanced up and saw Max walking in with Isabel and Alex. Ever since her birthday Max had sort of weirded Maria out. She watched as Alex whispered something in Isabel's ear, which she laughed at and they both turned and quickly left the diner again.
"Hey Maria, I was thinking, girls night this Friday? You, Isabel, Tess and me, a few chick flicks, lots of ice cream?" Liz smiled.
"That sounds great." Maria nodded. She liked having friends, and a family. She was actually happy. She stood up and picked up the tray that had the sugar dispensers on them and started carrying them around to set them back on the empty tables. She saw movement out of the corner of her eye and saw the two men who had been arguing knock everything off their table. She rolled her eyes and started to set the tray down when one of them pulled out a gun. "Liz!" She screamed.
The sound of the gun exploded in her ears and she stood frozen for a moment as the two men suddenly ran from the diner. Maria turned and watched Liz falling backwards. "Liz?" She asked and ran to her side where she fell to her knees. Blood was pouring from the wound in her stomach. "Liz?" Her voice cracked and she pressed her hands tightly against the wound. There was no way she could heal this. She didn't have the strength for it. Tears began to roll down her cheeks as she watched Liz's eyes glaze over before slipping shut a moment later. "No, no, Liz, wake up! Open your eyes Liz!"
A moment later there were sirens blaring as they came closer to the diner. Maria hadn't moved, her hands still pressed against the hole in her friends abdomen. "Maria." She lifted her head up and saw Michael standing there, staring down at her.
"She's dead Michael." She whispered.
Sheriff Valenti burst through the front door and forced his way through the crowd of people. He felt an immense relief when he saw Maria was unharmed. "Maria." He said and she turned to look at him. He knelt down and felt for a pulse, but it was obvious that the petite brunette was dead. "Come on." He said carefully taking Maria's arm and pulling her to her feet. "Come sit down." He sat her down in an empty booth and knelt in front of her. "Look at me." Slowly she lifted her head to look at him. "Are you okay?"
"She's dead."
"I'm sorry, Maria." He told her.
Maria was still sitting there two hours later, they had come and taken Liz's body, and they were questioning everyone in the diner. Michael had sat down across from her in the booth, and watched over her, and she didn't bother to tell him to go away, or to yell at him. She just sat there in silence.
Michael stood up after a while. "Come on, let's go get you cleaned up." He said when he realized she was still covered in blood. Her hands and the front of her uniform. Without fighting him she let him lead her into the back room, where he got a wet washcloth and began to wipe up the blood.
She just watched him as he worked. Before long the blood was off her hands, but her uniform was still stained. She watched as Michael walked to her locker and grabbed her clothes and walked back. "Why don't you change." He said handing them to her, but she still didn't move.
"Why didn't Max heal her?" Maria asked softly.
"What?" Michael asked looking at her again.
"He didn't heal her." Tears began to roll down Maria's cheeks once again. "Why not? She's dead Michael." She began to sob softly and Michael went to her. He wrapped his arms around her, and she didn't fight him she just held onto him as tightly as she could while she cried.
"Maria, baby, he couldn't have, there were too many people. They were all watching, they would have all found out." Michael tried to tell her. Even though as he said it, he knew, had it been Maria, he would have been at her side in a heart beat. As Michael thought about it, he realize Max had simply watched. Stood on the other side of the counter and watched his girlfriend bleed to death in the arms of her friend.
After a while, Michael pulled back a little and looked at her. "Why don't you go and change?" He offered again and she looked at the clothes forgotten in her lap and then nodded. She stood up and headed for the bathroom and changed out of her bloody uniform and back into her regular clothes. When she walked back into the break room Michael was standing there, and so was Kyle.
"Dad wanted me to make sure you got home okay." Kyle told her and Maria shook her head.
"I don't want to go home right now."
"Don't worry about it Valenti, I've got it." Michael told him.
"No, you don't, Michael." Maria shook her head at him. "I want to just be alone right now."
"That's probably not a good idea." Kyle told her.
"Why? Why am I not allowed to be alone? I just watched my friend die! I want to be alone!" Maria yelled at them and then sprang to her feet and rushed out the back door. Once she was outside she fell to her knees and started to cry. She hurt everywhere. Why was all of this stuff happening to her? All of these bad things. Spending Thirteen years with Hank. Being the outlet of his anger for ten. The guy she had loved didn't want to be with her, but rather the rich pretty girls. And now, one of her friends, and she only had a few was dead.
She didn't move for a long time. Just rested on her knees as she tried to calm herself down. Finally she pushed herself up to her feet and began to walk away from the diner. She never wanted to go there again. Ever. She didn't want to go home. And she didn't want to deal with any of her friends. She walked until she found herself at the trailer park, her old home. The trailer was still there. Sheriff Valenti still hadn't found Hank, and Maria wondered what had happened to him. Had she done something to Hank? Or was that just wishful thinking? She pushed open the door and stepped inside.
It was completely torn apart, and there was blood everywhere. Her blood. The realization made her sick to her stomach and she ran for the bathroom and lost her lunch. She walked back down the hallway and stared at the living room, willing herself to remember what happened.
Maria stared at Hank as he tried to push her jacket off her shoulder. She slapped his hand away and he grabbed her thigh. "Get off me Hank!" She yelled and hit him as hard as she could. He laughed and slapped her across the face. She stumbled to her side, knocking over the small table by the door. She looked up at Hank and saw the anger in his eyes. "Hank, stop." She cried softly.
"Stupid bitch." He growled and grabbed her arm and yanked her back to her feet. He shoved her as hard as he could and the side of her head clipped the edge of the coffee table. She cried out loudly and grabbed for her head when she felt the warm blood trickling down the side of her face.
"Stop it Hank!" She screamed. But he didn't. He hit her again, and again. He pulled her to her feet again and dragged her to the kitchen. "Hank! Get off me!" She screamed as she tried to fight back. But she felt so dizzy, she didn't have any energy to fight him. Maria grabbed onto the edge of the kitchen sink, trying to hold herself up. She glanced at him and through the blood in her eyes she saw him pulling a knife out of the drawer. "No." she whispered.
A second later all the furniture in the trailer was hovering a few feet off the floor. "What the hell?!" Hank roared in confusion looking around the room. Then he looked back at Maria. "You freak!" He yelled and advanced on her again. The knife nicked her side and she cried out in pain.
"Fuck you Hank." She ground out and slipped off the counter. Her wrist slammed into the ground and she groaned in pain. Everything that had been hovering began moving, slowly, around the room. The kitchen table bumped Hank into the refrigerator before he tried to escape.
He made it halfway across the room when the recliner he always sat in slammed him to the ground. Then the coffee table fell on top of him. Maria watched and tried to pull herself to her feet. She made her way to stand in the entry way to the kitchen and watched as Hank fought to get back to his feet. He glared at her.
"Nothing but a freak." He muttered looking for his gun.
"I hate you." She whispered and held her hand up. All the pent up rage, and fear and pain exploded in that instant. Hank flew in one direction across the living room while she flew the other, her back slammed into the cabinet in the kitchen and she fell to her knees on the floor. She saw Hank laying on the floor haphazardly across the room before she blacked out.
Maria gasped softly and looked around the room. But how did she end up in the closet like they said? And where was Hank? Quickly Maria left the trailer, suddenly feeling afraid of herself. She didn't know that she could do that. She was still feeling a little weird when she arrived back home, at the Valenti's she walked inside and Jim was sitting at the kitchen table, apparently waiting for her.
"We need to get you a cell phone. I've been worried sick."
"I just needed some air." She told him, suddenly feeling guilty. No one had cared before.
"We found Hank." Maria opened her mouth, and then snapped it shut again.
"You did?"
"Yeah."
"He in jail?" Maria asked walking over to sit across from Jim at the table. He shook his head and she wrapped her arms around herself. "Why not?" Her voice cracked.
"He's dead, Maria." She just stared at him.
"What?"
"We found his body out in Frasier woods. There wasn't much left of him."
"Oh god." Maria whispered. Had she done that? And she just didn't remember yet? Had she killed him? She buried her face in her hands and bit back the tears that threatened to surface. She didn't want to be a murderer.
"Hey, hey." Jim stood up and gently pulled her into his arms. "This is okay, no one thinks you did it. That bastard deserved even worse than what he got."
Maria wrapped her arms around him and just clutched him tightly. Hank being dead was just one more thing added on to it all. She couldn't deal with this.