The Locket (12 page)

“Down here,” he said, flashing that tantalizing smile I adored so much.

Yeah right, you’re not
supposed to fall for him.

Sitting at the small, mosaic table, I stared at the picturesque ocean in front of me. It was so different in comparison to the fluvial waters back home. I made out two children on the shore a couple hundred yards away. They appeared to be collecting rocks. In the far distance, were a group of boats that I assumed was a marina. From this vantage point, the boats looked more like toys rather than vessels capable of skimming gracefully across the choppy surface of the ocean.

Looking around at the trees, I noticed a lot more color on the leaves than there were at home, as though fall stopped here first. There was nothing more beautiful than New England in the fall. Before we moved away, my family would drive the Mohawk Trail from Northfield to Vermont every fall. Making a day of it, we would stop along the way for some apple picking. My mom would always purchase a giant bottle of maple syrup, telling us it was the best thing ever created.

Playing with my food, I considered how to bring up my theory on design. Brent watched me prudently.

“Something wrong?’ he asked, breaking my concentration.

“Who is it, Brent?” I asked him snippily, glaring at him in a way that said I was serious.

He knew what I was talking about, and didn’t attempt to lie, or act like he was confused.

“Reese,” was his only reply.

My heart sputtered. Of course, that was why Reese confronted Logan in the lunchroom. He saw Logan staring at me and decided to mark his territory, laying his claim to me. Stalking with feral intent to Logan’s table, like a buck in the woods vying for the rights to what he thought was his female, attempting to establish dominance. It made me sick thinking that Reese thought he had any rights to me just because some obvious urban legend said he did. And people thought I was the freak.

“That’s not happening. I’m not in love with Reese and I am not going to be in love with him either,” I stated steadfastly. My brain recalled the scientific description of how human attraction occurred and I was sure Reese was carbon and Brent was iron, no matter how things were designed.

“It’s not like that. It’s your seal. You don’t have a choice,” he said adamantly, as though it was the most normal thing in the world to be told you didn’t have a say so in your own love life.

“The hell I don’t!” I shouted, slamming my palm into the table, causing the plates to clank loudly on the uneven tiles. “Seal or no seal, whatever the hell that means, I decide, Brent!”

“You’re wrong, Claire. It’s already been decided. Reese is your seal’s match by design and things are designed with purpose, for a reason. The seal is too strong for you to fight.”

“So, what are you saying? Is this like the whole imprinting thing? We’ll touch and suddenly I’ll be head over heels for him, thinking about nothing else. A fairytale? A happy ending? What a bunch of bull,” I scorned, speaking with my hands and trying to sound harsh.

“Imprinting, Claire? Wow, you really do read a lot. Imprints only happen in paranormal romance novels. In the real world, Reese is your Paramour,” he explained and I cringed, thinking of the dictionary definition of the word.

Paramour [par-uh-moor] Part of Speech: Noun Definition: Lover

“You have got to be kidding? This is completely absurd,” I scoffed. I never even had a boyfriend and now I was supposed to be some “kept woman” with a boy I hardly knew and didn’t really care for. Gross!

Brent threw his head back, laughing his amusement. “If you’d allow me to continue, this will make so much more sense.”

I nodded, shooting him a wary look.
Paramour, shmaramour!

“All human beings are sealed and there is only one other person whose seal is stamped to be an exact match of your own. Seals are stamped to fit together as Paramours, creating the only soul truly compatible with your own. Most of the time seals find each other and come together, forming a bond, naturally. In your case, they had to seek out your Paramour so no time would be wasted. Without your exact match, you can’t gain your full abilities. You’re so much stronger with him, Claire.”

Thinking he was crazy, I sighed, but I was curious, so I asked, “Like how?”

“Like those,” he said, gesturing to the dark handprints on my neck. He slid his chair closer to mine, his expression unreadable.

“I don’t understand.”

“You will. As your Paramour, Reese has abilities too. He’ll make those disappear and any pain or bruising that goes with them.” His fingers brushed my skin unintentionally and like a raging thunderstorm, heat rose between us, pushing the coldness away – the embers of desire he tried to ignore – set fire to my body. He felt it too. He locked his gaze with mine, his jaw tightened, and conflict warped his face.

“Yes, but can he do that?” I asked, dousing the flame with my question, though I still felt the burn beneath my skin.

“You are so stubborn. You don’t understand, Claire. Your seals are drawn to each other with a force you can’t resist,” Brent urged. My mind wandered back to my magnet analogy – annoying me – while Brent continued. “You can’t fight it. Look, Reese will be here tomorrow. He’s relocating your aunt so that she’s safe. You’ll feel differently then. I promise you.”

Continuing an argument I was sure to lose, I asked, “So, you’re saying no one ever lives a happy life with someone that is not stamped exactly the same?”

“Sometimes people don’t find their match, and yes, they still find love and make do with someone else. But deep inside, they’re always missing a piece of themselves, just as you would be if you don’t accept Reese as yours. Only for you, Claire, it’s very dangerous.” I watched his face twist with concern when he said the word dangerous.

“Well, you’re wrong. He’s not my soul mate, Paramour, or whatever else you want to call him. I feel absolutely nothing for him and I’m not going to just because you say I’m supposed too,” I snapped, scowling at him, my hands firmly folded together in my lap.

He sighed, shaking his head, jaded with my response. “You will, Claire. You can’t fight your seal. You’ll need him more than the air you breathe.”

That hurt. That hurt a great deal, because right now I felt like I needed Brent that much.

“How can you say that? Can you honestly say that you don’t feel anything for me? You’re a liar, if you can,” I chastened.

He looked at me exasperated, smacking his palm on his head.

“I do, Claire. You’re right, okay? But it doesn’t matter. I’m not supposed to and it can’t happen. Something is off with everything. How I do feel about you for starters. How I fell asleep or didn’t recognize Logan was a danger to you, and I didn’t feel your pain when Logan was in your room.”

“Wait,” I interrupted, “Logan was in my room? I thought that was a dream.”

“No, he marked you and to do that he has to touch you. An Adherent can only hurt you through the human Anchor that entertains them,” he replied, shaking his head as though he was trying to lose the image.

“Oh.” The thought of Logan in my room made me feel physically ill. “This is still so confusing, Brent. I don’t understand who Kace is or why he wants me dead.” The word dead rolling off my tongue made me shutter.

I sat, slowly picking at my eggs with my fork, while Brent started to tell me everything.

“Do you know anything about the spiritual world like ghosts, hauntings, souls, those kinds of things?” he asked. He took a large swig of orange juice and waited for my reply.

“You mean like supernatural stuff? Not really, but my dad and I used to watch ghost hunting shows on TV. They were so ridiculous. I can’t believe people actually think that stuff is real,” I laughed, before considering my situation. I felt like I had just been smacked and I had, really hard. Reality was sinking in and I had a strange feeling the rumors about ghosts at my aunt’s house were about to be more than town gossip. My fork slipped from my grasp, clinking noisily as it hit the plate. I elected to give up on eating for now.

“Well, I agree the shows are a little outlandish, but much of it is on point. We are Ghost Hunters, Claire. We don’t use special methods or equipment that measure PSI, nothing like that, but we are designed to hunt down lost spirits, ghosts.” Brent put it out there for me to examine.

I gulped. Did I just hear him correctly? “How is that even possible?”

“To start, a human life comes to an end. When this happens, their soul is released in the form of an apparition to The Appa-Realm. We refer to it as The Realm. You may have heard the term Astral Plane on one of the shows,” Brent questioned.

I nodded and he went on.

“The Realm is a world that exists above the physical world. Doyens are apparitions that control The Realm. Each has a specific job and gifted abilities to complete those jobs. Some of the Doyen’s are Agents. They are in power, if you will, like Royalty.”

“What do they have to do with us?” I asked.

“Once an apparition arrives in The Realm, an Agent determines if they are able to move beyond The Realm to whatever higher purpose they were designed for. The human life is somewhat of a training period, helping to prepare them for that. Humans need to live, fall in love, make mistakes and learn from them so they can serve a higher purpose when their human life ends. When a human dies, and has not completed their purpose in the physical world, they can’t move beyond The Realm. Sometimes the Agent has to physically return them. Such is the case when someone is brought back to life. Other times, the apparition has to complete their purpose in their current form, which is a great deal harder. However, it works and most of the time apparitions are able to complete their purpose and successfully move on to the next life.”

“And Kace refuses to do that?” I assumed.

“Yes, centuries ago Kace decided he wanted to remain in The Realm and haunt humans. Our kind has been hunting him ever since. Many apparitions have joined him over the years. They have the ability to freely come and go from The Realm, without an Agent. Apparitions only appear spirit-like when it’s dark. During the day they look like any other human. Our kind has the ability to not only see but communicate with them in the Physical world. ”

“Mediums,” I interrupted.

“No, Claire. Most Mediums are human, some with a minute ability and some with none at all, but they only communicate with the dead. There are a few of our kind with real abilities that choose to live as loners, working as though they are mediums, and they make a nice living doing it. As long as they don’t abuse their gifts, the Agents allow them to do so. Our kind is abettors to the Doyens. We’ve accepted our design as Chasers, half human, half apparition and the gifts that go along with it. We have senses and abilities to track apparitions or lost spirits, trap them, and return them to The Realm.”

“I don’t understand. How can we be both human and apparition?” The idea seemed completely impossible.

“When a life is saved, an apparition returns to physical form, and some cling to their human counterparts longer than others. If humans mate during that time, and there is an off – spring, depending on how strong the spirit is at conception, we are born.”

I remembered the story of a horrible accident my dad was involved in, at the mill where he worked, because the structure was old and run down. He almost died and the mill closed shortly after.

“My dad?” I asked knowingly.

“Yes, and your mother as well,” he explained. “She had fallen down the stairs shortly after your dad’s accident. The Agents returned her so quickly she thought she merely passed out. Three weeks later, you were conceived.”

“I had no idea,” I admitted.

“That is why you are special. The Agents have abilities too. Some are fated. The fated ones reviewed our future and determined that a Locket child would be born within the year, with abilities much stronger than the rest of us, inherently able to hunt and remove Kace. The child would come from two parents whose physical lives had been spared. There were six such children born before the end of the year. Agents found each child their Aegis, pairing them all. Once they determined who The Locket child was, the Agents would find that child’s Paramour as well.

“You and Reese?” I confirmed.

He nodded.

“How did they know?” I asked curiously.

“The Agents measured the connection in our seals. I was the one who was most loyal and protective towards you. They knew I was your Aegis. Reese pulled towards you loving and affectionate, so it was determined he was your Paramour.”

“Oh,” I said, not convinced I would ever have feelings for the sandy haired boy from the lunch room, though I did blush when he smiled at me.

“All of the children’s parents knew and understood the importance behind who their child might be, and how important it would be for them to be hidden and protected if their child turned out to be The Locket,” he continued, moving quickly past Reese as a topic.

“So, how did they know it was me?” I questioned, still trying to piece it all together.

Brent told me how our kind got their abilities as they aged. We were strongest in adulthood. The Locket child would display one or more of the abilities around age four, lose them a short time later, and then gain them twice as strong in adulthood. He told me I was about four, and was riding in the car with my parents. We had passed a cemetery, and I was waving and saying hello to people. My parents had turned to me and then to the cemetery. It had been empty other than headstones and trees.

Remembering it very clearly, I was waving and saying ‘hello’. The people in the cemetery were warm and friendly. My dad had asked me who I was waving to. “The people,” I had told him.

I dreamed about it many times since then, passing cemeteries full of people, but in my dream the people were distraught. They waved and begged for my help. I woke often, restless with an internal need to help those people, but as reality had set in I knew it was a dream, and my anxiety went away. Recalling the people at my father’s funeral, and my curiosity with their distance, I knew now, they must have been apparitions.

Brent told me my mother had known immediately. “Your father hadn’t been so sure. He thought it was mere coincidence so they took you straight home to discuss it with an Agent, and it turned out they were both correct.”

“But how can that be? How can they have both been right?” I asked.

He continued explaining that all human children have some abilities. “They fade long before adulthood except for our kind. It’s not uncommon for a small child to see apparitions. This is why children have more nightmares than adults. The Agent determined that it wasn’t enough to say that you were The Locket child but they wanted to test it.”