Ravens (23 page)

“Randal,” she muttered.

He exhaled. “Let me guess, his voice?”

Kendra averted her focus. “He’s not in
my head anymore.”

“So, are you taking the first choice?”

“You don’t want to know.”

He lifted her chin and turned it to face
him. “You keep saying that, yet I keep asking for it.”

Kendra tucked her chin down. “I’m a
girl, a traumatized one at that. You don’t want me to dole out all of my
crazies at once, do you? You’ll run off terrified—”

Randal lifted her chin again. “I can
handle it, and I’m not running anywhere.”

Kendra moved away, retying her shorts,
and took her plate and a glass of juice. She moved onto a barstool at the
counter. Randal rolled his eyes and followed. He ate with her as she picked and
nibbled her food.

“You promise?” she asked after several
silent minutes without meeting his gaze.

“I promise.”

She hesitated at first. “I found Julie
and Liam.”

Randal almost choked. “Say what?”

“You promised!”

He held his hands up in defense. “I’m
not running off.”

“Listen, I’m just going to ramble it all
out, and you put it together. Otherwise, it’ll never get past my lips. There’s
a parallel world where some of us don’t exist, like Julie, Liam, and me, and
there are portals that open up in random places. They got sucked into a portal
ten years ago where they exist now as super humans with cool powers and the
whites of their eyes are black, and the colored parts are white.

“Liam’s eighteen and has an extra
ability that enables him to communicate with me and create illusions. He’s been
transmitting to me in these intense, realistic illusions, but not as a kid, as
a man, as what he would’ve been today. He showed me what happened to him and
Julie and then told me where to go so that
I
got sucked into the portal,
and I woke up in
this
apartment! Except this apartment in his world is
his
apartment that he shares with my sister.

“Julie’s sixteen and dating a gangly guy
named Mark. They have super strength and these wicked electric energies that
can blast houses to nothing! Well Julie got captured for experiments by humans
who they call hunters, who actually hunt down the people who passed through the
portals. Humans call them Ravens because of their black eyes, you see? Julie
and I had a connection too, at least in that world, and I knew where the
hunters held her so I helped Liam and Mark and their friends find her.

“But she didn’t recognize me, she didn’t
even remember me, she had amnesia and didn’t remember anything about this
world. I got so mad at Liam for using me and not telling me any of it, then to
top it off, it wasn’t supposed to be possible for me travel back to this world.
Of course, when I went through the portal, I had no idea that would happen. I
just hoped I came back here.

“So I waited around for the portal to
open, and what do you know? I met parallel world you! He was nice, but a math
teacher. Then I found the portal and came back here, woke up like I passed out
and never went anywhere, but I had.”

She watched Randal who froze in mid
bite, the fork of pancake halfway to his mouth. He stared at her. She narrowed
her eyes at him.

“I know.” He placed his fork down. He
clenched his eyes and shook his head. After gathering his thoughts, he erased
any expression of concern and said, “I promised.”

“You still think it!” Kendra jumped to
her feet.

“Wait.” He grabbed her wrist. “I never
said it.”

“What do you think? That I’m crazy? That
I’m high? That I never had the emotional control and imagined everything?”

“So, Liam was really in your head all
that time giving you headaches, trying to keep me away from you?”

“Yes.”

“But he’s not there now?”

“No.”

“So he got what he wanted, for you to
help him, and now he’s left you alone? He won’t come for you again? I don’t
know what I think, Kendra. I know you’re not crazy, and you don’t get high, but
it’s an outrageous story. Can you prove anything? Can you go back there? Can I
go with you?”

“No.”

“To which question?”

“All three.”

“I see.” Worry spread across his face.

“Does this change things between us?”
She was vexed. She regretted it already. Why did he need proof? Why didn’t he
just have faith in her?

“If by ‘change’ you mean this barrier
between us is gone, then I hope so.”

She sighed. What a weight off her chest!

He took her hands in his. “So what are
you doing today? I have private sessions all day.”

“That’s all?” she asked incredulously.

“They’re
all
day, it is a real
job, believe it or not.”

“That’s not what I meant.”

“I’ll ask questions when they come up.
The only one I have right now is if you want to go home, hang out here, or come
to my sessions? But I’m afraid if you come with me, you’ll end up schooling me
and I’ll lose all my students.”

She smiled. “I’ll probably go home. So,
how much do I owe you for last month’s sessions?”

“I’m not your martial arts gigolo. You
know our arrangement: private sessions twice a week in exchange for dinner.”

“The dinners that you insist on paying
for? Doesn’t seem fair.”

“I’m patient.” He grinned.

At any time, Kendra expected to hear
Liam’s taunting and ridiculing voice in her head:
blah, blah, blah, there’s
that line again, I’m so patient, willing to wait for you. He’s a man. He only
wants what I want.
But, the voice didn’t emerge.

“I suppose I’d better spend some time
with my parents before they think I went off the deep end.”

Randal flinched.

It wouldn’t hurt Kendra to spend more
time with her parents if they backed off. Whatever they bickered about the
other day passed. They were happy to have her safe. The heavy grief in their
hearts lifted. This was just a passing episode with the passing anniversary.
They naturally returned to their routine of persuading her to get a job or go
to college, believing it would help her to get her mind off the past.

Randal took it well, though she could
tell he held something back. His reaction encouraged her to tell her parents
the truth, but she had to wait a few days, perhaps a few weeks, to divulge such
information. They deserved to know what happened to her, as well as what
happened to Liam and Julie. They could take comfort in knowing Julie hadn’t
been abducted, raped, and savagely killed. Julie was fine, better than fine.
She was healthy, happy, lived with a protective older brother, and had a
budding teenage romance. Liam was messed up thanks to what his world made out
of him, but he’d never hurt Julie. By all means, Julie was better off than
Kendra.

Chapter Twenty-Two

The sun came and went, and the moon took
the skies only to give them back to the sweltering yellow flames. Days blurred
into one another, fusing into weeks, which slowly amounted to a month. The
cycle started all over again, and another month sluggishly passed while Kendra
returned to a pseudo ordinary life.

Things reverted to normal. Well, as
normal as they could be, void of the demanding voice in her head and the young
man in her illusions. Classes came and went, and the dojo offered Kendra a
teaching position. She had yet to make a decision, despite the enthusiasm of
everyone, including her parents. She knew they didn’t see it as a “real” job,
but it was a huge step in the right direction, a productive direction.

Kendra and her family sat down to dinner
that evening. Her parents didn’t push her to talk, and no one started an
argument. In fact, her mom even made a joke that made her dad chuckle.

“Thanks for dinner, what’s the special
occasion?” Kendra asked.

“Is that sarcasm?” Mrs. Peirce responded
with her own question, leaning over a bowl of veggies.

“No,” Kendra replied. “I love this meal.
You know that. We haven’t had it in a long time. Just wondering.”

“Well, I know this is your favorite, and
this is a special occasion.” Her mother took her seat.

Her father added, “Just to show you that
we love you dearly, and we’re glad you’re home with us. We’re proud of you. You
do know that, don’t you? You are right, sweetie, you’re a great girl, a wonderful
daughter, and we couldn’t ask for more. You know, though you don’t have to give
an answer, that your room upstairs will always be your room and is open for you
if you ever want to move back in.”

Kendra smiled, and her parents
reciprocated. 

The three hadn’t enjoyed a peaceful and
happy meal in what seemed like ages. Usually, one problem or another surfaced,
but tonight was different.

“Do you still want to know what
happened?” Kendra asked. She bit into her taco, the contents spilling onto her
plate.

They froze in place. Her mother leaned
over the table with a spoon of sour cream in one hand and her plate of soft
tacos in the other. Kendra’s father poured water into his glass, but paused.
They placed the articles down, and gave one another a cautious glance before
encouraging her to go on.

Kendra proceeded to tell them the same
story she told Randal, with a little more excitement and lively gestures when
relating the dark eyes and explosions. She even told them about Liam’s
illusions and voice, both of which were now absent. Kendra related the relief
of being over it and finally able to move on because she had closure. They
deserved closure as well.

An awkward silence engulfed them after
Kendra finished. Her mother trembled and her eyes glistened with tears, while
her father clenched his jaw. She expected a better reaction.

“Y-you hear voices?” her mother
stuttered, taking her seat without facing Kendra.

“Only one, but not anymore.” Kendra grew
nervous. She avoided eye contact and stared down at her plate. Her face felt
warm.

“Can you prove any of this?” Her father
maintained a calm tone.

Why did everyone need proof? What
happened to good old faith?

“No. Do you think that I imagined it or
that I’m crazy?”

Ah, there goes that word again—crazy,
loony, psychologically imbalanced with stories of other worlds, ridiculous
abilities, and voices in her head.

“Get the card,” Mr. Pierce muttered to
his wife.

Kendra narrowed her brows. “What card?”

Her parents ignored her. Mrs. Pierce did
not argue with her husband. 

Was this their fear? They lost one
daughter to the unknown, never to see her again and left to deal with the grief
day by day.  

“Is there more?” Her father avoided her
question.

“No,” she whispered.

“Does anyone else know?”

“Why would I tell anyone else? They
probably think what you’re thinking now.”

“We love you, Kendra, and it’s been hard
on all of us. If this is your way of dealing with it, then we don’t want to
make matters worse.”

“So, you don’t believe me?”

“Ah, honey...”

“As long as you don’t think I’m crazy.”
She smiled uneasily.

Her parents returned the awkward smile
and went about dinner without touching the topic again. Dinner moved along in
an excruciating and quiet half hour. Kendra felt more than relieved to get
away. She ducked out of the house.

Her parents waited for her to leave
before making the call.

Kendra didn’t know how she could get to
sleep after the conversation with her parents that night. Fortunately, sleep
found her. Only during sleep did she not have to face her twisted reality.

The compression of weight on the edge of
the bed pulled Kendra from her dreamless slumber. She awoke in the dim light
and shifted onto her back only to jolt awake by the young man on her bed.
Normally, she would have jumped up in self-defense, but from the smoky white
and pink haze around him, she had a good idea who he was. The dragon’s tail
peeked through beneath the snug, gray shirt. He seemed to have a dozen of those
gray shirts in his arsenal.

Kendra’s movement might have gotten his
attention, but he did not stir. He continued to sit hunched over on the edge
with his knees apart. Kendra sat up and leaned back on her elbows. The covers
were loose at her ankles.

A couple of months had passed since she
last encountered him, but the butterflies churned. After so long, he still
thought of her and that alone could make a girl feel lightheaded.

“I thought you said you’d never come
here again.”

“I’m sorry,” he said without turning.

“For breaking another word?”

“For lying, well, technically I didn’t
lie.”

“Awesome apology.”

“I’m sorry for not trying to explain
everything when I had the chance. I got caught up being alone with you…and the
rest, well we both know you wouldn’t have believed me.”