Jumper: Cent's Story
Okay, sorry about the wait once again, I'm still trying to get myself to write more chapters. Anyway, my friend, GeekyZoee, will be playing another big role for this chapter as it focuses on a very important scene between Cent and her character, Zoe. I would like to thank GeekyZoee for allowing me to use her for my story. It was an honor to use her for my story and create a character based off of her. Thank you GeekyZoee!
I'm not sure how many chapters will do done for this story, but I think we should be able to reach chapter thirty or maybe even over that. I think I got a conclusion that I believe will end this storyline on a satisfying level. And don't worry, Travis Shaw and John will have their little action time against each other. I love adding a little violence to romance stories. ;)
Anyway, Cent is forced to reveal her secret to Zoe. Shaw's plan for revenge finally becomes more dangerously real.
Just read and enjoy my next installment to my Jumper story.
And just a reminder, I own nothing!
Chapter Twenty-Six:
The Game Begins
Cent:
Cent had forgotten the time as she talked with Zoe at the Starbucks restaurant. She had never been able to talk like this to anyone before, except for John.
It had been so long since Cent was forced to leave her best friend. And now she was given a second chance to explain everything to Zoe and show her the longest keep secret in the history of their friendship.
Some part of Cent found it hard that they made it this far. It seemed like yesterday that they were young and innocent little girls. Now they were fully grown teenagers, moving on with their lives.
Zoe was now going to college, being so far from home. She was learning so much about relationships and seemed to be doing pretty well for herself. As teenagers go, Cent would have to give her an A plus for the right choices. They may have been hard choices to make, but Zoe was capable of making the right ones and was a very strong girl. It was one of the many reasons that Cent and her were friends. They both were sweet and innocent, but they were also strong on the inside. They had what it takes to survive in this world.
Cent was learning to fall in love with someone and give the relationship everything she has. And John was giving it all he has too. But not only that, Cent was allowing herself to be vulnerable and free to her emotions. She spent most of her life turning her back on her feelings that she never once took a moment to actually enjoy them. John was able to help her with that.
Both girls were going through strange times, but at least they had each other now.
As their conversation continued, Cent just ignored the time and just enjoyed her moments with her best friend.
"I do have to ask," Zoe got excited. "Who is this John Bale? And how in the world did he manage to steal my best friend's heart? I want to know everything there is!"
Cent smiled and said, "John is the most amazing guy I have ever met. I mean, he such a romantic! He took me swimming off the coast of-" She almost got lost in her words.
Zoe smiled and leaned forward on her side of the booth.
"Off the coast of where?" she asked. "Miami? Hawaii?"
Finally, Cent answered, "Italy..."
Zoe's eyes widened.
"Italy as in Italian Italy?"
Cent nodded, wondering what she had just done.
Zoe kept her huge eyes and her mouth dropped.
"Wow..." she was at a loss of words. "Is he rich or something?"
Remembering back to when John mentioned that his parents had a small fortune, one that could support him for a long time to come, Cent decided to use it. Besides, it was the truth. He was somewhat rich.
"His parents gave him their small fortune when they died," Cent explained. "You could say he is rich. But not super-rich or anything. He can like support himself for almost a full lifetime with that fortune, if he's careful with it that is."
"Wait, his parents died?" Zoe was now being shell-shocked with what Cent had said. "That's horrible!"
"I know," Cent bushed her hair back. "But he is super sweet and nice. The guy was like born to love a woman to death. In a way, he reminds me of my dad... only better. He listens to me and talks with me. We have never once argued and he is always taking my side. Not to mention that he has a smoking hot body too."
Both girls giggled.
"But that isn't why I fell in love with. I fell in love with him because I just know he is the one true love for me. And to make it better, he is completely in love with me too. He never once dated before and I know he is telling the truth. He's one of those guys you can just tell if he is lying or not. He makes me feel special. I've never felt this way around anyone before. Not even Jack. It's like I was meant to be with him. Like no matter what, distance can never separate us. When I look at him, I feel this love for him and I cannot help but want to be with him. I love him with all of my heart. I hope we get married one day and I have a child that has his eyes and face. I want to have a part of him to have with me all the time. I just... love him."
Zoe had tears falling from her cheeks as she reached over and took a tissue from her purse.
"I'm so jealous of you, Cent," Zoe joked as she wiped the tears away. "I hope I fall in love one day too. I want that feeling that you have. I want to find a man who is like John. I just wish it could come now."
Cent smiled and put her hand over Zoe's.
"You will," she reassured her best friend. "One day, you will meet a great man and fall in love with him. You will marry him and have children, grow old, and watch your family grow up too. You will spend the rest of your days with that special person and never be alone. And trust me, it may take a while for it come, but it will. You just need to look for it and keep looking until the day you finally that perfect man of your dreams. The world says that love is impossible, but they don't understand or know what love is. How can they? They haven't even experienced it. Trust me, you will find it one day."
Zoe sniffled and smiled.
"Thank you," she said with happiness. "I've missed these conversations with you. Remember when we would always sit together for lunch, class, under the trees after school? Just like good old times. Now we are moving on with our lives. Living life as it comes along. No longer little girls. Funny how life can be like that, huh?"
"Yeah," Cent smiled. "I just wish things turned out different when I left so suddenly. But then again, I think it was a good thing. I mean, we are now living in the same city again."
Zoe smiled and said, "True." Suddenly, her eyes widened with excitement. "In speaking of disappearing without a trace, you still owe me an explanation for what happened to you and to your family. Why did you guys leave? Who were those guys?"
Cent's heart raced as Zoe brought up the subject. She knew she needed to tell Zoe about her secret. A secret that she had kept from her since the day they met so many years ago.
"I will tell you, but I think it is better if I show you outside," she said. "Away from public. I want to share it with you. In fact, I've been dying to share it with you since the day we met."
Zoe got excited as she grabbed her purse and got up from the booth, grabbing Cent's hand.
"Well, come on," she dragged her up on her feet. "If this needs to be done outside, then lets go. I want to learn your darkest secret!"
Cent smiled as she grabbed her purse and allowed herself to be pulled towards the door and outside.
They both giggled together as they ran down the street.
"In here," Cent said as she pulled Zoe into a dark alleyway. "Okay, now no one can see us."
"Uh, Cent?" Zoe was getting nervous. "Why are we in a scary alleyway? I was thinking you wanted to show me something that involved outside."
Taking a deep breath, Cent jumped.
She appeared behind Zoe, who stood frozen where she was.
"Behind you," Cent said.
Zoe shot around, eyes big with shock.
After a few seconds of silence, Zoe finally spoke.
"How did you do that?" she asked, showing shock in her voice.
Cent looked towards the ground and said, "My parents and I have the ability to teleport anywhere in the world. We call it "jumping". We even came to call ourselves "Jumpers" as well." She jumped again, just a few feet from where she once stood. "I've wanted to tell you since the day we met. It killed me that I never got to tell you before, but my parents were so strict by how we shared our secret. I'm so sorry Zoe. Please believe me when I say that I've always wanted to tell you. I truly did."
Zoe remained still for some time and didn't move a muscle. Finally, her eyes widened again. But this time... with excitement and wonder.
"That is so cool!" she exclaimed. "How could you keep this from me?!"
Cent smiled and asked, "You aren't mad... or scared?"
"Scared?" she said like it was a stupid question. "How could I be scared? This is so awesome! I do admit, I'm a little angry that you never told me before! We could have jumped to other places around the world together! Like Paris! Or England! Or even freaking New York City! I do have to ask, are there more of you out there? Does John know?"
Cent swallowed and said, "Yes, there are more of us out there. Not like a ton of us, but there are more of us out there." She paused and swallowed again. "Zoe... John is a Jumper too. It was how I even met him."
Zoe's eyes widened even bigger this time.
"Wow... just... wow..." she shook her head. "Sorry, Cent, this is hard to process all at once, but I think I can manage. Now, my second question, who were those men who can after you?"
Cent explained the situation from so many years earlier, long before she was even born. Her father, David, had discovered his ability and used it to ran away from home at the age of seventeen and robbed a bank in order to provide for himself, stealing three million. She then went into detail about how her mom met David and their struggle to keep everything secret with his ability and also their relationship. But the government had discovered David and managed to use Millie in order to force him to work for them. She then explained that another organization kidnapped David and brainwashed him to do their bidding, while Millie discovered her own jumping ability and used it to save David and go into hiding with him, using the three million to stay hidden in Canada. How she, herself, came along and discovered her ability and how they moved to Seattle to start a new life. The rest of it was pretty easy to put together for Zoe.
Cent even explained more about John and the new organization known as Syndicate and their play with the murder of John's parents. And also Travis Shaw too, which was the most scary part of the conversation.
"So, Syndicate hunts Jumpers for the government, who happen to be top secret and John is the only one who ever escaped them?"
"Yeah, or at least from Travis Shaw," Cent explained. "Travis wants John dead because if the agency find out, then there will be a huge problem for Travis to figure out. The only reason they haven't found me and my family yet is because Travis is keeping everything covered up. He wants to kill John, including me."
"Why?"
"Because John is in love with me," Cent explained. "Travis feels that John has become less concerned with playing the game of hide and seek and that he's losing his awareness. Travis wants to kill him, but he also wants to do it in a way that proves he is better than him. John has beat him at his own game almost a million times and Shaw wants to kill him in a fair fight. Threatening me or killing me will set off John on a road for revenge."
"Considering that Shaw has already killed his parents, I'm surprised that he isn't going vengeful already," Zoe joked.
Cent smiled.
She loved how Zoe can be so normal in times like these. She could tell that it was her way of keeping her cool.
"John doesn't want to get revenge. Well, he does somewhere inside, but not fully. He wants to honor his parents by not taking revenge at all. But if he loses me, he will lose it and kill Shaw for sure. I saw it in his eyes. He lost his parents and it was hard enough for him. If he loses me, the pain will be too much."
Zoe nodded and looked towards the ground.
"I'm surprised that you are taking all of this so well," Cent said. "I was suspecting you to go all mad on me or something."
"Well, I'm not angry with you, but I do wonder how I couldn't have seen it," Zoe smiled at her. "I mean, now I understand how you managed to beat me to school all the time, not to mention how you managed to be first for lunch."
Cent's cheeks became red from embarrassment.
"I have no idea what you are talking about," Cent joked.
Zoe raised an eyebrow and said, "Uh-huh, sure you don't."
Looking at the time on her cell phone, Cent's eyes widened. It was nearing six o'clock now.
"Oh, shit!" she said out loud.
Zoe frowned and asked, "What's wrong? Forgot you had a date or something?"
Cent looked at her and said, "I did actually. I was supposed to meet up with John about three hours ago. I got to talking to you for six hours straight that I didn't even realize it. I'm afraid I'm going to have to cut this meeting short."
Zoe smiled and said, "No need to apologize, I don't want to stand in the way of true love. But... can you do me a huge favor?"
Cent raised an eyebrow, smiled and said, "For an old friend, sure. What can I do for you?"
"Save me some crash and jump me to the university."
Cent laughed and said, "Of course! I know the area very well." She jumped towards Zoe and held onto her hand.
Zoe took a deep breath and closed her eyes.
"Ready," she replied.
Cent smiled and then jumped away to the college.
Just like that, they arrived at the university grounds.
Cent looked at Zoe and laughed. Seeing that she still had her eyes closed.
"Ride is over," Cent joked. "You can open your eyes."
Zoe opened them and let out a sigh of relief.
"Sorry," she apologized. "I'm not so familiar with the whole jumping thing, but I think I can get use to it over time."
They hugged each other goodbye.
"Promise we will keep in touch," Zoe whispered to her.
Cent smiled and said, "Sure, I promise I will. I'm not letting you get away again."
Zoe frowned, playfully, and said, "Uh, if I remember correctly, you were the one who got away last time, so it is me who should be not letting you go again."
They laughed at her joke.
With that Zoe began to work off to the dorms.
"See you some other time," Zoe called out.
Cent smiled again and said, "See you some other time too."
She jumped back to her bedroom.
By the time that Cent arrived back to her bedroom, she wasted no time as she rushed into the bathroom, closing the door behind her as she started to put on her make-up, wanting to look nice for John. She couldn't believe that she was already running late. She worried that was going nuts over her.
But... while the door was closed... a dark figured appeared from the closet and put it's back against the wall, right next to the bathroom door.
Shaw:
There were days when Shaw hated waiting. But then there were times when he really enjoyed them as well.
His heart raced as he thought about dear young Cent. He imagined so many things that he could do to her. So many things that he wanted to do to her.
He had been waiting for Cent to appear for the last six hours and his excitement was getting bigger and bigger by the hour. He couldn't wait to finally get his hands on her and use the knife to cut her, to make her vulnerable from jumping.
At the same time, Shaw felt anger against Cent, as much as he felt excitement for her. He hated that John became so less interesting by falling in love with her, but yet, he loved how it made him more vulnerable in ways he didn't understand. This game was just getting exciting and so easy. Something that Shaw needed. He was tired of playing the game over and over. He wanted to be finish with John and move on.
Suddenly, just out of no where, he saw Cent appear in her bedroom. She rushed into the bathroom, not bothering to call for her parents or change.
Smiling to himself, Travis exited the closet silently and put his back against the wall, right where the bathroom door was. He took out his knife and prepared himself. He waited and steadied his breathing, controlling his heartbeat.
Time began to slow down.
And just like that, the bathroom door opened and Cent walked forward, not noticing him there.
Making his move, Shaw rushed forward and grabbed Cent from behind. One hand went across her mouth as she tried to scream for help. The other hand brought the night to her arm and he made a small, gentle cut, allowing the chemical to spill into her veins. He cut off her mouth and nose for oxygen and tightened his grip on her. He could feel her trying to jump, but he knew the chemical had already done its work. She was going no where.
Finally, Cent fell still in his grasp and very silent.
Shaw smiled to himself as he laid Cent on the ground.
Grabbing a piece of paper and a pen from the little table, he wrote something on it and then sat the paper at the edge of the bed, making sure it was visible to see.
Bending down, he moved his arms under Cent and picked her right up. He savored her perfume and make-up she wore, just enjoying her scent. He walked down the stairs and out the front door with her. He had no problem sitting her in his car.
Once he got in himself, he started the Mercedes and drove off, cheering to himself that he finally accomplished the one thing he has been trying to do for a while now. He had finally kidnapped the one person that John loved most.
Now... there was one last thing to do.
Shaw picked up his cell phone and dialed a number.
John:
John had fallen asleep on the couch in the beach house. The small bag that had the ring he had bought was on his stomach as he slept.
He began to sweat as the nightmares returned once more. And with a sudden jerk, he awoke with a sweaty face and threw himself up, right off of the couch.
The bag fell to the floor.
Taking in his surroundings, John calmed down and picked the bag back up.
Looking at the time, he frowned as he saw that it was almost six thirty in the evening.
Cent should have been here three and a half hours ago, he said to himself. Where is she?
Finally coming to a conclusion that she was either spending time with friends or family, he went to the kitchen to make himself something to eat. He figured he would go each up on her at her house if she doesn't come within the next hour.
Almost every nerve in his body yelled the opposite to him. Making him think that Shaw had done something to Cent. But he forced the thought out of his head, not wanting to let his paranoia get the better of him.
Just as he was about to eat a bowl of cereal at the dinning table, his cell phone started to ring.
Smiling, he picked it up and answered.
"Hello beautiful," he said with excitement. "I was beginning to worry about you."
But the voice that he was expecting to hear back wasn't the voice he was hearing at all.
"Aww! You really do care about me!" the evil voice of Travis Shaw sounded through his ears. "What's next? A pair of flowers? Or maybe chocolate brownies? I really do love those."
Anger rose through John's body as he rose from the chair and moved outside on the porch.
"What do you want now?!" John raised his voice.
Travis started to play with him.
"How about a good old fashion surprise? I just love surprises. And better yet, I have one for you. Trust me, this one will completely blow you right off your feet. I just know it!"
"There is nothing that could get me to be surprised with you," John said as he looked towards the sun setting in the background.
"You wanna bet?" Travis laughed.
"Sure," John smiled his fake smile. "Only if it makes you go away. Like forever."
"Okay then, listen to this," his voice was replaced with the sound of heavy breathing, like someone was breathing in their sleep.
Slowly by slowly, John's face fell as he realized whose breathing it was. He recognized it by heart and soul. And it made his heart beat faster and faster as he heard it on the phone. The very breathe that made him sleep better at night was now making him be afraid.
It was Cent!
A tear fell from John's eye as he stood frozen.
"Hello!" Travis's voice reappeared. "Did I surprise you or what?!"
"Don't hurt her," John barely said. "I'll do anything you want. Anything. Just let her go and I'll do anything you want."
"Afraid I cannot do exactly that lover-boy," Travis's voice became serious now. "But I can offer you a deal."
"Anything," John tried to keep himself in control of his breathing and body. "Just name it and let her live."
Travis laughed in the background and said, "Okay, here is the deal, you come to me and you let me capture you. If you do it as a good boy, without making any hasty moves, your girl goes free. But... if you do anything that seems to make me nervous... well... lets just say that little Cent here isn't going to be breathing anymore."
John nodded and said, "Okay, you got a deal."
"I left a note in Cent's room," Travis explained. "It will give you an address and a time to be there and I advise you to listen closely. Do not bring anyone else along. If I think you have brought back-up, then I will kill Cent. So you better listen. Because I am in a mood of slicing someone's throat right now!"
"Alright, I promise!" John said, with sweat coming down his forehead and cheeks like crazy. His heart beating so hard in fear.
"Before I go," Travis spoke again. "I need to hear two little words. Two words that I know will have my full interest in."
"What?"
"I. Surrender."
John swallowed as he forced the words out of his mouth.
"I... surrender..."
"That's a boy!" Travis yelled in excitement. "And remember this, the game begins right now!"
With that, Travis hung up and dead silence took over.
John remained frozen where he was for the time being. He had never been this scared since the day his parents died in front of him. He couldn't lose Cent. Not now. Not ever. She was his true love and he couldn't live without her. She was his life now and Travis had her. He needed to ensure that she lived, even if he died.
Finally gaining control of himself, John jumped to Cent's home.
Oh boy! Who is excited for the finale later on?! I am! I really cannot wait till we finally get to see Travis and John go head to head. I've been planning this moment for a while. I really hope you guys like it.
So, who thinks that Travis Shaw is indeed a great evil villain? ;)
Anyway, I want to specially thank Marie King and Rose for the amazing reviews they have been leaving me. You guys rock! Thank you so much!
Please review on what you guys thought of this exciting chapter. :)