two
thurs. 29 december, 2011
…
I woke up with a bubbly stomach of sour bile throating to come out of esophagus, Dad's door was wide open when I sprinted past into the bathroom. After releasing my stomach into the toilet, I brushed my teeth, I went downstairs with a horrifying sense of emptiness. Glancing at the clock it was pretty early, just ten minutes before sunrise.
I rubbed my eyes as I poured a cup of coffee, "yeah, just a bit of a hangover," my sentence was drawn out by a belly deep.
Hungover and sore.
Dad hums, "I grieve with you kid."
I turned to the front door opening as I stirred sugar and creamer into the black, bitter liquid.
"Hey, ol' man you up?" I was a bit shocked to see Harry Clearwater there along with Billy behind him as they turned the hallway to the kitchen.
"Hey, yeah I'm up. Finishing up packing the lunches for the boat."
I turned to back around to my coffee.
"Good morning, Serg." Billy greeted, I can hear the smile in his tone.
"Good morning, Chief," I greeted back, smiling as I lifted my mug to my mouth leaning back against the counter. "Good morning, Harry." I greeted, yawning.
"Do you want come with?" Dad asks his head turning to me, he did a double take when I met his gaze. His face turned bright red, "what the fuck is that?"
His tone scared the fuck out of me, I've always been a daddy's girl and grew up here since Renee left when she had my baby sister after a year of her birth. I never liked Phoenix, and I was never a troublemaking child, I was known as a goodie-good. I've only seen him get this mad when I used to come home crying because of being bullied and to threaten my first boyfriend.
"What?"
"What the fuck is that on the side of your neck?"
I felt blood rush to my face after it started to cool on my chest and up to my neck, I know exactly what happened to me with Seth. Oh goodness I can't even think about it, the event was extremely vivid that the touch is still there. My heartbeat was in my ears.
"Huh?" I asked, playing dumb, my eyes wide.
Dad's face darkened.
I quickly placed my coffee mug down and turned to the kitchen table, "night terrors, if you're assuming the bruise, I can get them everywhere."
Please let this be over, in a room full of my most important children men and a younger boy that I was always considered blood. I know Jacob came after the whole ordeal was over.
"Anyways, I'm gonna look at this file and try to come to a discuss. Let me know how the ," I sat down my cup of coffee on the kitchen table, I had to wait for them to leave if I wanted to run to the corner store for a pack of cigarettes.
They left not too long afterwards Dad was finished making sandwiches, I bought a pack of cigarettes at the corner store, a building so small it would overcrowd with ten people inside of it. The owners daughter whom was three years older than me is working a double, I sat on the back porch lighting up the menthol cancer stick. I'm not one to smoke them everyday, every now and then and this morning I needed one so bad, I put the cigarette out as I stared down at the vanilla files a couple feet away on the grass. I had no leads and just like the file I didn't have enough information on them. The more and more I studied the file the more I was frustrated, all the way up till noon I studied the file, cleaned my guns and hid some around the house.
I looked at the clock on the wall when I heard someone knocking on the door, I walked up to it and looked out the peephole. I froze upon the sight of two federal agents I know from the Corp. with a thirteen year old boy, I know that boy. I opened the door before I registered I did it.
The boys face lit up when he seen me, his dark brown eyes brighter than the day…
Memories that were shoved into my subconscious resurfaced as he smiled at me, memories of other kids his age and women my age and older. Pets, torture victims, kidnap victims. We were the only ones that survived, I remember being confused about this boy and what happened to me the day I first woke in the medical room. They said they'll escort him to me when he woke up, when he recovered from his wounds, they told me that he told them everything he could muster in his condition. He told him that his mother wanted him with me at all costs, her last words. I didn't hear these words since I had been fighting off mythical creatures, I remember having the boy tied to my waist with a rope he was also tied at the waist with a rope. He was smaller than I remembered.
"Good afternoon Serg.," One of the agents saluted me.
…
"How are you feeling, Michael?" I asked the boy sitting across from me at the kitchen table with legal paperwork of the boy placed in my custody. I was now officially his new mommy for life, "do you want anything? Are you hungry? Thirsty?"
This felt so strange to see this boy sitting across from me, not just any boy, the only other one that survived. The only one that fully trusted me with his life like his mother had. The more I looked at him, the more my anxiety rose and the more hidden memories resurfaced. He shook his head as he finally looked back at me from memorizing the kitchen with such scrutiny, his eyes were still bright but a lot of emotions flashing in his dark eyes. He reminded me of someone, and I didn't want to think about him right now, his words and actions were still freshly battering my ego and self-esteem.
"I am somewhat famished," his voice thick in a southern accent from Nashville, Tennessee.
He ran his hand through his thick black hair.
I smiled and chuckled softly, "okay, I'll fix something up." I stood up, "make yourself at home."
"Yes ma'am."
I know that this conversation with Dad is going to be one hell of a conversation.
I was expendably excited when Dad, Billy and Harry walked in smelling like fish, the cooler was filled with fish wrapped in paper bags. By their faces they are very excited about their fishing trip, I noticed the two others when I heard Michael calling my name and standing in between Seth and Jacob as they parted and looked down at the boy. Dad, Billy and Harry looked at Michael and back at me as Michael sheepishly waved and smiled.
"Naomi-."
"This is Michael Cron," I said cutting Dad off, "Michael is one of the only other whom survived overseas."
Michael looked up at Jacob and Seth, his gaze holding Seth's longer than Jacobs, Michael looked at the three older men and back to me, "I was sent here by the Corp. They wanted us to stay together."
Dad looked back at me, "I didn't know that he survived too. Why didn't you say anything?"
I held my gaze with Michael before glancing over at Dad, "I didn't know he survived till a half hour ago. I didn't say anything because I didn't know if he survived recuperating."
It was silent for a moment before I remembered the pot of mashed potatoes I had been making until I heard it pop, I spun around and turned the heat off and stirred the contents.
"Do you have any family, kid?" Dad asked as I glanced at Michael to my right, standing close to me.
I could sense his anxiety, I caught his dark brown eyes filled with anxiety and nervousness, I put a hand on his shoulder as I moved the pot to cooler burner.
Michael shook his head, "No sir," I seen the room full of men's faces change at his thick Southern tone.
Michael looked at me looking for a silent confirmation, my intuition telling me he was going to bring up our captivity.
I nodded once in confirmation.
He looked back at my Dad, Dad's body language changed witnessing our silent conversation. Dad looked at Billy and Harry as they both shifted at different times realizing something traumatic was going to be spoken.
Michael took in a shaky breath before quickly glancing at me and looking back at my father, "My dad was killed trying to protect me and my mother from captivity in Tennessee by Lycans, unfortunately there was nothing we could do, nothing worked. Not even my daddy's infamous rifle… Naomi was there when we arrived…," he glanced at me again. "She wasn't the only one there… at least fifty other women and children there…"
"Son, it's okay," Billy affirmed in that caring, strong paternal tone of his.
Michael drew in another shaky breath, he edged closer to me be an inch, he was just a baby still.
"Everyone was dead or dying, including Miss Naomi and I. I remember when I arrived the demons revealed themselves as Lycans and Ghouls, just like British and Arabian mythology. Flesh eating demons of indescribable supernatural powers, they were feeding and torturing… They…," I put my hand on his shoulder, "they about to feed on my mama and I when.. Miss Naomi saved us, my mama passed. Her last words of me being with Miss Naomi until I until the threat of the demons was gone, until I was ready to leave."
Questions were reeling in their minds, I can see it blatantly on their faces.
"Miss Naomi is someone that we have stories of in my family."
I looked back at Michael, his story was a little unnecessary in my opinion and I couldn't pick out his line of statement here.
"Guardian. A superhuman."
"Huh?" the high pitched tone of confusion had Michael also thinking as he spoke.
"She's the first one since 1807, the one they records of the others seeing in dreams. The only one to activate in the military, the only one to pass out and her powers activating."
"Huh?"
"Miss Naomi don't you remember?"
I gave him a look, "What the hell is a Guardian? What?"
"Wait, wait a minute. A superhuman?" Dad piped in.
Michael and I looked at the group, questions were going to come from every one of them. My mind is reeling right now, I don't remember anything. Was it a total blackout unconsciousness of a subconscious alter ego? Like in manga's or comics?
"Records? Do you have them?" Billy asked, Harry backing up this question.
"Do the Ghouls look like Fallout Ghouls?" Jacob asked, and my body language changed at that one.
Was that one of his videos games he likes to play?
"What happened when she passed out?"
Seth wasn't looking at me when he asked this, I know he knows I'm looking at him. The anger of him leaving without a proper discussion was still boiling, I didn't like being angry with him and I can't believe he would do it with the way he was raised and how far those morals and characteristics made him who I knew he was. The same age as Seth was when I left. I was with this boy for four years, four long years of inconceivable torture in every way expect sexually.
"A superhuman activation consists of supernatural abilities beyond the human capabilities. Extraordinary, she has a lot of powers than the recorded of threes or twos. And weapons, all different kinds but never fire arms."
"Hm."
"Precisely." Michael replies to Billy's surprised and amused hum of brain storming.
"That's a lot of information," Dad says taking in a overwhelmed breath, and looks at the older men. "I'll take that as a no right now."
"Sorry, sir."
"Please, don't call me sir," Dad says running a hand through his thinning hair. "Charlie is fine, I'm sorry I need a moment."
The silence was worse for me. I can feel his gaze on me as I found entertainment in the floor, it wasn't successful. I shifted on my feet from the pressure of eyes.
"Who's hungry?" Dad asked and I blanched in confusion. "Make yourself at home, bud," Dad says to Michael as he shrugged off his jacket.
A chorus of verifications around the room, I just stood there in my new place in the room when Dad gently pushed me aside and starting cooking with Harry, Michael left the room talking with Jacob. I wasn't sure if I was the only one that wanted more information or just dismissed it before of the hidden information. Everything about better left unsaid was not the game I wanted to play.
I looked up to my left to see Seth's head turning to me, I felt stuck in my place. A different kind of stuck, like I felt looser kind a gravity weighing me down but like waves from the crown my head to my feet. His eyes are different, the intensity is the same but the something else is there. This look is new.
I can feel this energy rising within me, crackling in my veins.
"Can we talk?"
My heart went in my throat, I flew up into a sitting position in my bed. My heart is pounding. I rested my back against the bedframe, trying to understand what the hell just happened, to try to calm down enough to think the best I could.
Pinching the bridge of my nose and then I heard it. It was loud.
That shriek.
I rolled onto my side waking up again, falling onto the floor. Gasps of startling people out of sleep. It was pitch black until a warm glow of a table lamp turned on with a startling click, I looked around realizing I was in Dad's living room. Seth was sitting in Dads recliner.
I was having a hard time trying to breathe something in my throat, I grabbed my throat. Seth was at my side in a quick crouch, I wheezed in a deep breathe before coughing up something. Something a dark ink red translucent ball mystified as fast as it was there.
I put a hand over Seth's on my chest removing my legs from underneath me just as he pulled me into his chest. I don't know what just happened or if this was a dream.
I don't know how long it took for me to calm down but the next thing I knew, he was enclosing his arms around me. Trapped but nowhere near suffocating. I could feel my body temperature rising as I relaxed in his arms, you could hear the crickets outside it was so quiet.
Something seemed different about this house. Something was off considerably.
Then like whiplash.
Memories unfolding from my eyes.
Chilling me to core.
The tears fell uncontrollably. Seth just held me as I sobbed like a baby.