The Orphans (Orphans Trilogy Book 1) (10 page)

CHAPTER NINETEEN

Charlie scanned the
street from his bedroom window. He had expected to find Terry’s Bentley waiting out front; however, he didn’t. In fact, he didn’t spot any cars, including the blacked-out
suv
that was still parked a couple houses down and out of view.

The slight relief that Charlie gained from the absence of the Bentley was quickly negated by the uncertainty that it left in its wake, as well as the realization that it could very well still be Terry and his men, hoping to surprise them.

“Just wait here for a second,” Charlie said to Naomi. “At least let me make sure it’s safe.”

“Fine,” Naomi reluctantly agreed.

Charlie slipped off his shoes and crept down the stairs in his socks, careful to not make even the slightest sound. He didn’t want whoever was waiting at the door to know that he was coming.

Charlie had made it down the stairs from his bedroom and was halfway down the flight that led to the foyer when the doorbell rang four times fast. As jarring as the rapid-fire ringing was, it was the sound that Charlie heard next that set off his nerves like Fourth of July fireworks.

Charlie had detected a faint and foreign chatter as he passed by his grandfather’s second-floor bedroom. He recognized the racket as one of the many Korean game shows the old man watched on a daily basis and thought nothing of it. He immediately regretted his indifference right after the doorbell stopped ringing, when the muffled chatter unexpectedly jumped what felt like a hundred decibels. Charlie’s eyes shot up toward his grandfather’s room, where the door was now wide open, and Grandpa Kim was already halfway into the hall. Charlie emphatically swatted the air, trying to get his grandfather to go back into his room.

“You get the door, then! You get it,” Grandpa Kim demanded as he waved back at Charlie.

Charlie bit his lip, squinched his face, and shook his head, suppressing all of the things that he wanted to scream at his grandfather. Instead, he gave Grandpa Kim one last firm shoo.

Grandpa Kim finally obliged and returned to his room and closed the door. The noise was once again muffled, but the damage was done.

Charlie turned back to the front door. He was certain that his cover was blown; whoever was at the front door had heard the commotion his grandfather had caused. The more Charlie thought about it, the more his heart raced. By the time he had reached the front door, his heart was pounding so hard that he not only heard it in his ears but also felt the throbbing beats in his fingertips.

Charlie took one last nervous gulp of air, held his breath, and then lifted himself up onto his tiptoes to peek through the peephole. He never could have guessed whom he would spy through the fisheye lens, in part because he had never seen her before.

Waiting outside was a young girl with long black hair and dark brown skin, her head impatiently oscillating back and forth between the door and the street.

Charlie estimated that she couldn’t have been much older than eleven, if that, even. Regardless of her age, the fact that it wasn’t Terry instantly put Charlie at ease. He exhaled every last molecule of oxygen that he had been holding in his lungs. Figuring the little girl was probably just a neighbor selling Girl Scout cookies or something for school, he undid the locks. He intended just to tell her to come back later, but as soon as he opened the door the slightest crack, it burst all the way open, and the tiny girl barreled through with the force of an
nfl
linebacker. Charlie was sent slipping backwards on his sock before coming to a tumbling stop.

“Sorry about that,” the little sparkplug of a girl said as she looked down at Charlie on the wooden floor, “but we need to hurry.” She didn’t say another word; she just sprinted toward the living room and disappeared inside.

“Slow down,” Charlie said as he picked himself off of the ground. “What the hell are you talking about? And who the hell are you?”

“Malika Prakash,” she replied as she scurried out of the living room and went straight for the dining room without otherwise acknowledging Charlie.

“Well, Malika, I don’t know what makes you think you can just barge into people’s houses like you own the place. But you need to leave.”

After a brief moment, Malika popped out of the hallway next to the stairs and back into the foyer. “That is exactly what I was intending to do. Where are the others?”

“They’re upstairs,” Charlie said reflexively.

“In your bedroom?”

“Yeah.”

Malika immediately took off up the steps.

“What are you doing?” Charlie called after her.

Malika didn’t respond. She just kept flying up the stairway.

Charlie watched her from the foyer. He was completely caught off-guard by the audacity of the preteen. But even more disconcerting than her brazen behavior was Charlie’s sudden awareness that she had specifically mentioned “the others.” How did she know that anyone else was there? Had she been watching them? Still pondering the answers to his questions, Charlie halfheartedly called to Malika once more, “Hey, I told you to leave.”

Even if Charlie had screamed at the top of his lungs, Malika would not have heard him. She had already passed through the door to his bedroom and was more than halfway up the stairs.

Charlie shook his head. “This doesn’t make any sense,” he said to himself, and then raced after Malika.

Charlie made it to his room just after Malika had finished informing the other orphans that they had to leave.

Eddie looked to Charlie for answers. “Do you know this crazy little girl?”

“No,” Charlie said as he struggled to stuff his feet back into his tied sneakers. “She just stormed in here.”

“As far as I’m concerned, she can storm back out,” JP said. “There’s no way some short-stack is gonna boss me around.”

“It is for your own safety,” Malika said, “so I would learn to get over it.”

“I like her already,” Naomi said with grin.

Antony was the only one who had seriously heeded Malika’s warning. “What’s going on?” Antony asked her. “Why do we need to leave?”

“Terry and his men are on their way,” Malika said.

Upon hearing this news, Charlie went catatonic. If Malika mentioning “the others” had been a jab that stunned him, her very utterance of Terry’s name was the equivalent of ten knockout punches. There was no logical explanation as to how this little girl could possibly know about Terry, or that he was on his way.

Naomi noted the look on Charlie’s face. “Who’s Terry?”

“I’m gonna go out on a limb,” Antony said, “and guess he’s the guy that killed Charlie’s parents.”

Charlie nodded. He turned to Malika, equal parts confused and suspicious. “How do you know he’s coming?”

“Because I’ve been watching them,” Malika said. “I’ve been watching them ever since they came to your house.”

“Who are you?”

“I do not have time to explain. Terry and his men will be here any second. You need to trust me. None of you are safe. We really need to hurry.”

There was an honesty in Malika’s eyes that Charlie couldn’t deny. While he still had plenty of questions for this mysterious child, he no longer questioned whether or not they should accept the validity of her urgency. He looked to the others. “We need to listen to her. We need to—”

Charlie was cut off by the sound of screeching tires just outside of the house.

Naomi rushed to the bedroom window and gazed out onto the street. “This Terry guy doesn’t happen to drive a sick blacked-out Bentley, does he?”

“Yeah,” Charlie said.

“Then he’s already here.”

Charlie joined Naomi at the window. The others huddled behind them. Out on the street, Terry, Cain, and Max were already out of their car and storming for the house. Three additional Beasts that Charlie had never seen before—but at the same time looked strangely familiar—cut across the yard diagonally as they hurried to join Terry and his bodyguards.

All of the new Beasts were of medium height and build; however, they carried themselves as if they were much larger. They each had their own distinct features, too. The one leading the way sported a jet-black pompadour with a bushy mustache to match, the Beast just behind appeared to be of Southeast Asian descent, while the last—and clearly the oldest of the group—had snow-white hair and a long beard, and looked like Santa Claus might if he had won a reality weight-loss show.

“Looks like we won’t be leaving out the front door,” JP said as he peered over Charlie’s head. “Or probably any other door on the first floor, for that matter.”

“Does this stupid window even open?” Naomi said as she searched for some kind of latch.

“No,” Charlie said.

“It’s too small, anyway,” Antony said.

“Great,” Eddie groaned as he threw his hands in the air. “We’re trapped up here, and those Blues Brothers wannabe thugs are about to come get us. This is awesome.”

“There’s gotta be a way out of here,” Naomi said.

“Over there,” Antony said, noticing the floor-to-ceiling curtains that blended in with the wall at the back of the room. He dashed to the curtains, tore them open, and then tried to do the same to the French doors that had been hidden behind them, but they weren’t so quick to budge. It had been years since they had been opened, and the wood had warped significantly in that time. Antony steadied his foot on the wall and used all of his leverage to rip the doors open.

Naomi joined Antony in peering over the railing of the Juliet balcony. It was a straight, twenty-five-foot drop down to a brick patio. “We jump, we probably break our ankles,” Naomi said. “They get us anyway.”

Antony turned back to the others, shaking his head. “She’s right,” he agreed. “We are trapped.”

Eddie paced the room. “Well, this is fan-freaking-tastic. We’re dead. And I didn’t even get to enjoy a last meal.”

“Enough,” Malika ordered. “I did not want to take matters into my own hands, but it appears that I must.”

“Little girl,” JP said condescendingly, “I doubt your cuteness is gonna stop them from—”

JP stopped short when he saw Malika’s shoulder blades beginning to bulge from her upper back. They moved violently as they pushed against her skin, like two tiny dogs caught under the bedsheets, trying to get out, until the bones finally broke free, tearing through the skin.

“Oh. My. God,” Naomi said as she covered her mouth with her hand. “That’s disgusting.”

The protruding bones unraveled like the supports to a camping tent before locking into place. At their full width, they spanned eight feet, almost twice Malika’s height. Golden feathers bloomed from them and glistened in the light from the window.

All of the orphans were paralyzed by what they saw. Surely their eyes were deceiving them. There was no way that this tiny eleven-year-old girl had just sprouted wings.

CHAPTER TWENTY

Charlie and the
other orphans watched with their mouths agape as Malika’s wings fluttered two times fast, shaking off their rust from being cooped up. Along with her wings, there was a bright, circular aura of gold that hovered over Malika’s head. A halo.

It was obvious to all of the orphans that this girl who had stormed into their world was not a girl at all—she was an angel. Eddie slowly reached into his pocket, retrieved his cell phone, and snapped a picture of the little winged wonder.

The click of the camera caught Naomi’s attention. She scowled at Eddie. “What the hell are you doing?”

“Probably making my last post,” Eddie said, working his phone. “Quick, someone come up with a hashtag.”

“Screw hashtags.”

“That’s kinda funny, but I think we can do better than that. What else do you got?”

Naomi shook her head. “That wasn’t a suggestion.”

“There is no time for this,” Malika insisted. “Which two of you are first?”

“First for what?” JP said.

“I am going to fly all of you out of here. Who is first?”

All of the orphans shook their heads in unison. None of them wanted to be the first to take flight with this little angel.

“Fine,” Malika said. “I will choose.” She turned to JP and Eddie, who happened to be the closest to her, and yanked them up by their belts, lifting them with surprising ease.

In the process of getting hoisted, Eddie dropped his cell. “My phone,” he groaned as he reached for the device.

But it was too late. Malika was already sprinting toward the balcony with the guys in tow. Antony and Naomi parted just before Malika blew past them. She vaulted over the railing and took flight. Malika and the guys shot straight up into the sky, over a hundred feet above the house, cutting through some low-hanging pockets of fog.

“You better make sure someone grabs my phone,” Eddie said. “My whole life is on that.”

“Do not worry about that,” Malika said. “Just keep quiet.”

Eddie peeked down at the world below. He immediately regretted his decision and slammed his eyes shut.

JP glared at Eddie and chuckled. “Don’t tell me you’re actually afraid of heights.”

Eddie opened his eyes just enough to glare at JP. “On a plane or in a building? No,” he said. “But when it’s an eleven-year-old girl with wings? Yes! I’m very much afraid of heights. And I’m not afraid to admit it!”

“Remain calm and quiet,” Malika said. “And both of you will want to close your eyes for what I am about to do.”

She didn’t have to tell Eddie twice. He quickly followed orders. JP, on the other hand, refused to heed her advice. Big mistake.

Malika ceased flapping her wings. The three began to plunge back to the earth. Malika used her wings as rudders to flip them around. Now falling headfirst, she gave one last whip of her wings to give them a little more speed, and then tucked them as they made their tailspinning nosedive.

JP’s eyes went wide, both from his own reaction to the rapid descent and from the rush of wind smacking his face. He quickly swallowed his pride and attempted to shut his eyes, but that was easier said than done. The gushing wind, combined with the dryness it had caused, was too much for his eyelids to overcome. He tried to use his arms to help them shut, but the force of the descent had effectively glued his limbs to his body.

JP had no choice. He was forced to watch as they spiraled toward the rooftop of the James’s mansion.

At what seemed like the last second to JP, Malika spread her wings and let loose a powerful flap. The three touched down gently on the mansion roof.

The guys fell to the floor, ecstatic to be back on something solid. “I don’t wanna do that, or anything like that, ever again,” JP said.

“Me either,” Eddie agreed. “And I’m pretty sure I need a new pair of underwear.”

Malika did a quick survey of Charlie’s house. Through one of the front windows, she spotted Terry and the five Beasts making their way up the stairs to the second floor. Through another window, she saw the door to Charlie’s room, which was closed. “Stay down,” she said.

“Works for me,” Eddie said, still hugging the ground.

“And stay quiet, too.” Malika crouched on one knee, lifted her head, and shot back into the sky.

The return flight only took a couple of seconds, since she was able to travel at her full speed. Doing so with human cargo would have made them extremely ill, or worse.

Malika landed softly on the balcony railing. In her absence, Charlie and the remaining orphans had debated which two of them would go next, but failed to come to a conclusion.

“Just go,” Antony ordered Charlie. “I can hold my own.”

“That’s crazy,” Charlie said. “There’s no way you can. Besides, it’s my house. I have to stay.”

Naomi tried to add her two cents. “I—”

“Enough,” Malika snapped, cutting Naomi off. She hoisted Antony and Naomi and prepared for takeoff.

“Hold up!” Antony said as he tugged Malika’s arm.

Malika paused. “What?”

Antony looked to Charlie. “Don’t forget the flash drive.”

“Good call,” Charlie said. He darted to his computer, removed the drive, and threw it to Antony.

Malika lifted Antony up so he could catch the errant toss.

“Why are you giving it to me?” Antony said.

“Just in case,” Charlie said.

“I will hurry back,” Malika said. “Just be ready.”

Charlie nodded.

Malika jetted out the balcony doors with Naomi and Antony. She followed the same flight path as before, rapid descent and all. Both Naomi and Antony listened to her orders and kept their eyes closed for the full flight.

Malika dropped the pair off on the rooftop near JP and Eddie. Her gaze immediately returned to the Kim residence. “Oh, no,” she said as she spotted something unsettling.

“What?” Antony said, turning his head up toward Malika. But it was too late. She had already shot back into the sky.

Eddie crawled over to Antony and Naomi. “Please tell me one of you grabbed my phone.”

“You’re unbelievable,” Antony said. He dug the device from his pocket and then handed it over to Eddie. “Here’s your damn phone.”

Eddie accepted the phone like he had been handed a newborn baby. “Thank you. This is proof there is a God.”

Antony peeked over the ledge of the roof and scanned the windows of Charlie’s house. It didn’t take him long to identify what had caused Malika concern. While he was easily able to place Terry, Max, and the three unidentified Beasts on the second floor, Antony was not able to pinpoint the location of the last Beast, Cain. However, he didn’t need a confirmation to know where Cain was. Antony could clearly see that the door leading to Charlie’s room, which he distinctly remembered hearing Charlie slam shut, was now open.