Hadrian's Wall (64 page)

Delilah opened the desk drawer and pulled
out a clipping from the UWallpaper’s Today. There was a picture of
a wrecked car, suspended by a winch-truck. In silence she waited
for me to read the story.

I finally understood what Sally Benson meant
when she said “after the accident.” The text spoke briefly about
how the driver of a vehicle with Michigan plates lost control on a
tight curve. Luckily, there weren’t fatalities.

“We were calmly following the road from
Saint Paul to Hadrian’s Wall when I saw...” She took a deep breath.
“Please don’t judge me before I tell you everything.”

“Saw what?” I asked impatiently.

“I saw a huge shadow flying in our
direction. The closer it got the more I realized that it wasn’t a
helicopter or a big bird. It had huge wings! The deformed body...”
Delilah swiped a trembling hand across her forehead and then she
turned away from the desk. “I should have screamed! I should have
alerted my parents, but I couldn’t speak. I think I was in shock or
something. I just watched while this thing came closer and closer.”
She broke off, staring into emptiness.

She wrapped her arms protectively around her
body before proceeding in a whisper. “I remember my mother was
dozing and my father was focused on the road. They couldn’t see
what I saw because it happened so fast. That thing had eyes...” She
couldn’t say it out loud.

There was a long silence.

“Eyes glowing red like two balls,” I
completed her sentence without thinking.

She looked at me, astonished.

“I’ve seen the same creature—in my dreams.”
I forced myself to explain. “But it’s a long story. Go on.”

She took a deep breath, apparently feeling a
little more comfortable. After all, I hadn’t rejected her version
of the events.

“When I finally found my voice to scream,
the thing did a flyby and hit our car, but something unexpected was
coming from the opposite direction and smashed into it It was
black. He clung to the creature in a way that both became just a
blur.

“I didn’t see what happened between the two
creatures because the impact caused my father to hit his head on
the steering wheel and pass out. Our car went off the road, flipped
a few times, and spun away. I thought I it was going to fall down
the hill, but when all seemed lost, it stopped with the front
wheels spinning in the air.”

“I remember my body was
thrown forward on impact. Because we were wearing our seatbelts, we
sustained no major injuries, only some minor cuts caused by shards
of glass. The airbag covered the dashboard where my parents were
lying unconscious, but I could see everything that was going on
from where I was sitting in the back. The car began to right
itself. I looked through the rear window and that’s when I first
saw him.” Recalling the memory made her smile. “Tall, strong...he
was holding our car by the bumper, preventing it from plunging down
the hill... using only
one
hand!
"

“Stephen,” I guessed.

She nodded. “I’d never had seen such a
spectacular man before! I know that the word is out of fashion, but
there’s only one that fits. Stephen cannot be described with words
as banal as cute, sexy or awesome. Oh, he really is sexy...

“Though it seemed like an eternity...for a
very small moment while he lowered the rear of the car on the
roadside, our eyes met. My eyes were shocked. His eyes
were...yellow. He looked at me surprised and upset at same
time—like someone caught in the act of committing a crime. I think
he wasn’t counting on my presence in the back seat when he saw my
parents ‘drowned’ by the air bag.”

“He didn’t look at me again while he was
moving around the car. He grabbed the driver’s door which was
totally demolished. With his jaw tight, more because he was angry
than from physical exertion, he tore the airbag and then my dad’s
seatbelt as if they were paper. He pulled my father from his seat
so fast that I only saw the blur of him leaving and coming back in
a heartbeat. He then walked around the car, pulled open the
passenger door and pulled my mother from her seat and did the same
maneuver.

“I had no time to think about what I was
seeing. Half a second later he was back. This time his face
appeared at my window. I was cringing in the opposite corner, ready
to give him a good kick in his face if he tried to get me. I was
terrified.

“Stephen gave me a stern look. It goes
without saying that anyone who could lift a car with one hand, tear
doors open and shred airbags and seatbelts would have no trouble
grabbing me, but he made an effort to soften his approach. I heard
him take a deep breath and try to smile. It occurred to me at that
moment he didn’t do that often—smile, I mean.

“Extending his hand, he
said gently
‘
I’m
sorry this happened to you
.
’

“Intuition told me that Stephen didn’t mean
to hurt me, so I held tight to his hand. That was scary too because
it vibrated in a weird way, but it wasn’t a bad feeling. It was
nice.” She smiled mischievously.” I think he felt it too because
his eyes were black and he suddenly looked...well, hungry!”

“So Stephen tore my
seatbelt and carefully pulled me onto his lap. I almost cry just
thinking about it. In a flash, he was climbing the hill beyond the
road as if he had super springs in his feet. It was impossible for
any machine,
much
less a mere human being!
So I was
sure that he couldn’t be human.

“Stephen was jumping from rock to rock. He
looked like a battering ram. Everything around us became a green
blur. When he finally put me on the ground, we were in another area
of the same road, only much higher up the hill. He pulled out his
phone and called the rescue squad.

“Suddenly, I saw my parents lying on a
blanket on the shoulder of road. I immediately recognized that
blanket! He’d gotten it from the trunk of our car. Do you have any
idea how fast he moved?”

“I didn’t know what to do or to say. Below
us the car was smoking or steaming, I couldn’t tell which. My
parents still were unconscious and I feared that something more
serious had happened to them. I felt so lost, but then Stephen put
his hand on my shoulder. He assured me that they had suffered no
fractures or internal injuries. Something told me that he knew
exactly what he was talking about, so I trusted his word without
hesitation. I still had not assimilated how someone could carry two
unconscious adults up a steep hill wrapped in a blanket, make a
detailed examination of their physical condition, and return to
find whoever might still be in the car, all within seconds.

“While these questions swirled inside my
head, I noticed that Stephen was talking on the phone again. His
tone ranged between angry and worried, so I concluded that he
wasn’t talking to ‘rescue workers.’ When he hung up the phone, he
turned and stared at me in a strange way. He also stared at my
parents lying on the asphalt, in the same strange way. The only
sign that there was life behind the mask of his face was his tight
jaw. I had the feeling that his mind was working frantically.
Suddenly, his eyes fell upon a certain point and his face relaxed a
bit.

“Even though I was in shock, I could see his
mood change. I followed his gaze and saw that he was looking at the
bracelet on my father’s wrist; however, before I could examine his
reaction, I saw shadows moving through the trees. I was so scared
that I stumbled and fell on my butt on the pavement.

“‘
It’s okay, girl. They’re
with me
,’ Stephen tried to reassure
me.”

“And that thing?”
I was referring to the creature that caused the
accident.

“He shook his head.
‘
It’s over, forget it!’

“Forget it?
I was almost hysterical. How could he suggest such
a thing? He acted as if he was talking about some little,
insignificant thing.

“All I could do was try to control myself
because people tend to slap hysterical people and I didn’t want to
get slapped by someone as strong as he obviously was.

“I remember at one point, I
asked him, ‘
Who are you?’
I don’t remember if it was before or after he
called the rescue squad. The events of that day are so jumbled in
my memory, like a lot of newspaper clippings that overlap, when I
try to remember them.”

“I remember that I pressed him for some
explanation and that’s when his eyes took on a dark blue tone and I
found myself totally subdued.

“‘
I’m just a friend.
That’s all you need to know
.’

“That’s all you need
know
, he said using a quiet, monotonous
tone as if he wanted to hypnotize me. Just before I felt I was
going under, I averted my eyes and blinked, struggling to keep
myself in control.

“Then we heard the sound of propellers. The
rescue helicopter was approaching, circling the treetops. When I
looked around, I realized that Stephen and the other shadows were
gone. The rest of my memories are very confused. I vaguely remember
that the rescue squad took us to the hospital in Hadrian’s Wall
where we were examined. My parents woke up when we were in the
helicopter. It was difficult for me explain what happened. I had to
edit much of the story. I replaced the flying beast with a rock
rolling down the embankment and hitting the windshield. Thank God,
they believed me.

“Dr. Talbot forced my parents to spend the
night in the hospital under observation. He said that a blow to the
head could be very serious and that in such cases, we must err on
the side of caution.

“A friendly nurse offered to provide an
extra bed for me. Meanwhile I was sitting at the front desk,
without knowing what to think about everything that had happened to
us until l received a note saying there was a call for me.”

“I walked to the payphones, still feeling
like I was in a state of shock. I couldn’t imagine who would want
to talk to me. I thought it was probably my mother’s personal
assistant, but at the time, I didn’t even wonder.

“When I said hello, I heard
someone on the other end of the line ask me,
‘
Are you Delilah Regina
Key?’

“Yes. Who...?

‘And your parents are Reginald Key and
Francine Alexander-Key?’

“They are,
but
...

‘You were admitted to the
University of the Wall...
’ A male voice
recited my data in a monotone, as if reading the contents of a
form.”

“That’s right.
I gave up trying to ask who I speaking
with.

Go to the McPherson
House,”
said the voice.
There’s a room reserved for you. I’m sure your parents will
be alright.
Then he hung up. I was sure it
was Stephen. Since then, he’s kept his distance from me... or
rather, he tries to keep his distance. However, he avoids talking
to me. I saw him a few times on campus when Adrian was there. I was
so intrigued by the aura that surrounds the powerful Cahill clan, I
decided to do my own investigations.

“I know that Stephen is Adrian’s foster
brother and also his private bodyguard. Wherever he goes, Stephen
goes too. While working, he seems like a ghost. Nobody can see him
if he doesn’t want to be seen...so I began to follow Adrian and
some family members, hoping to see Stephen again.

“Meantime, I observed the way they act and I
realized that there are more strange people like them in town. The
more I investigated, the more confused and dissatisfied I felt. I
resorted to the Internet hoping to find details. It wasn’t easy
because what’s there are interpretations about other
interpretations. Many of those texts are so contradictory that I
only managed to extract something here and there to build an
explanatory framework that satisfied me.”

I wanted to ask her what her hypothesis is,
but she kept talking.

“On one occasion when I spied Adrian
entering the hospital, Stephen finally came to me. He was very
rude.

‘What do you want? Why you
are following Adrian all the time?’

“It was naïve of me to
suppose that he would realize that I wasn’t stalking his family, I
was stalking him. All I wanted was a chance to meet him
casually...you know, like a girl who just happens to be walking
some place where her target is also going. Eventually, her target
says: ‘Oh, you’re here!’ The girl then replies, ‘What a
coincidence!’ The target says, ‘Do you want to get a cup of
coffee?’ The girl casually looks at her watch and casually says: ‘I
don’t know if I have time...well, why not?’”

“Well, I should imagine
that with Stephen’s powers, nothing would be casual,” Delilah
observed.
“It is not him, I’m following,
it’s you!’
I told him.

“Stephen was visibly
stunned. I think ‘shocked’ is the more appropriate term to define
the look on his face. If you want to know, Mel, he looked at me as
if he was standing in front of a crazy girl.”

“‘
Why?
’ he asked,
dryly.

“I... I just wanted to
thank you for saving our lives. I’m still not sure about what the
thing is that you saved us from...I’m not able to understand how
you did all that, but I know that we owe you our
lives
.”

“‘
I
didn’t do anything special.’
He
suddenly seemed to get angry.
‘
Anyone would have done the
same
.’