The Secret (5 page)

I couldn’t breathe. Staring at the spot above her left ear, the shiny, silver, raised
mark
seemed to call out to me.

After that it all happened so quickly—the clanging of forks dropping, Jake slipping one arm under my shoulder, Karen taking the other, Reed swearing at Marsha to get to the parking lot.

“We were gonna tell her anyway.” Marsha’s boots kicked the exit door open and my stunned paralysis started to wear off.

“Stop!” I screamed at the top of my lungs.

Jake covered my mouth, and the others instantly formed a walking barrier between me and Jake and the school yard. “It’s not like that, Lanie.” His breath was hot in my ear; pain ripped through my head at his touch.

Reed opened the door of the Mustang and Jake pushed me inside, with Karen and Marsha flanking me.

Cold fear spread through me—were they taking me back? Trembling, I tried to speak. “Just…just let Rob stay. Please.”

I didn’t cry out for help. I didn’t really see the point—no one would hear me.

Jake opened my backpack, extracting his chain from one of my inner pockets and holding out the coin. “Lanie, don’t you see…you were meant to find us.”

Episode 5: The Power

“Meant to find you?” What was he talking about? I was the one running…HIDING. I wasn’t meant to do anything.

Marsha smashed closer into the side of me as Jake peeled out of the parking lot.

“Slow down!” Karen looked out the window, worried. “I don’t think anyone even knows she’s here.”

“What are you talking about?” I said aloud, frustration and anger erupting inside of me. Did they all have the mark? “Who
are
you guys?”

Driving way too quickly, Jake pulled onto the highway, heading out of town.

Anxiety radiated through me. Would they take me back to him? “Where are you taking me?” I tried to keep from screaming it.

Reed leaned forward, punching the button on the radio. “Oh chill out, chica.”

Music blared through the back speakers.

“Turn it off!” Jake and Marsha both yelled at the same time.

Reed laughed, but complied. “Ha, ha—jinks—you both owe me Cokes.”

Pulling my hands off of my ears, I tried to think. Where were they taking me? If this had been a part of some plan—whose plan was it?  Glaring at Jake through the rearview mirror, I tried to speak evenly. “Let me go. I don’t know what you’re talking about…but I wasn’t brought to you, or sent, or anything. Rob and I are just trying to live our lives in…in peace!”

Karen started patting my arm and I turned, glaring at her. Pulling both hands up in surrender, she looked at Jake. “We don’t even know her power yet. She might be dangerous.”

Reed snorted. “Yeah, she’s so dangerous—she’s been hit by a car and kidnapped in the last seventy-two hours. I don’t think she has a power.” Looking back at me, he raised his eyebrows pitifully.

My power?

Then surging, blinding anger erupted through me. Dangerous? He didn’t think I was dangerous?

Elbowing me hard in the arm, Marsha turned to me. “Don’t look so shocked. You’ve never been safe.”

I glared at her, feeling my breaths start to slow. They wanted to see me angry? They wanted to see me use my power?

Pointing my finger at the seat in front of Karen, I drew a gun, a simple 9mm, just the way Dr. Luth had trained me.

“What are you doing?” Marsha yelled at me.

They couldn’t see it—of course they couldn’t—but I could. Touching my fingertips together in front of the gun, I then flashed my fingers open, commanding the gun into being and grabbing it quickly before it could fall to the floor.

I put the gun to Jake’s head, the old, familiar power coming alive inside of me. “Ya scared now?”

Jake started to lift one hand off of the steering wheel, but he didn’t slow down. “Lanie.” His voice held disbelief.

Staring at the gun, Reed fist-pumped the air and started whopping loudly in sheer excitement. “Yeah—Dog! Now we’re talkin’!”

Gasping for breath, I turned my full anger on Marsha. “Is this what you wanted, Marsha?
To see me angry?”

Astonishment stared back from her wide eyes, and her mouth gaped open.

“Lanie.” Karen’s voice was calm…and afraid.

Wrenching around to look at her face, I couldn’t see her—my hair in the way. I kept the gun to Jake’s head.

Hysteria started to pulse through me and I laughed, feeling the rush that came from using my power.

“You don’t want to do this, Lanie.” Jake spoke slowly. “We are not your enemies.”

His blue eyes held mine, and for a second I wanted to believe him. The cold metal of the gun started to feel heavy.

“Yes, you are.” If they were marked, it meant they were working for Dr. Luth…it meant they wanted to take me back.

And I wasn’t going back.

Cocking the gun back, I focused, the ease of handling a gun returning to me with sharp clarity.

Now Reed was sober, reaching his hand out to take the gun from me. “Give me the gun, Lanie. We all know how powerful you are—we won’t mess with you anymore.”

Looking at Reed, I laughed again, realizing how funny it was that he was afraid of me too.  The high of it all seemed to circle around me, like waves of black and steel. “No!” Grasping for the gun, it blurred in my hand. “No!”

“Take that!”

Jarring pain ripped through my head and colors swirled together until all that was left…was black.

“Why’d you hit her?” Jake’s voice was an angry whisper. I didn’t open my eyes, trying to remember what had happened.

“She was going to kill you.” Marsha didn’t try to whisper.

“Shhh.” I heard Jake sigh, then quick footsteps and a door shutting. Their voices were too muffled to make out what they were saying.

Bracing myself for the pain, I mentally felt around in my head. But there was none. Slowly, I opened my eyes, still waiting for pain. Still none. Checking for a bump, I found one, on the top left side of my head. It was a little tender, but there was no other pain.

Looking around slowly, I took in the heavy quilt draped over me and the high ceilings of what looked like a building the size of a warehouse. Scanning the walls, it looked like I was probably in Marsha’s bedroom. Pictures of chic models in front of the Eiffel Tower, Empire State Building, and Taj Mahal were tacked up on the walls. They were all blonde and probably size zeroes. A vanilla scent wafted to me and I saw a burning candle on a white bookshelf next to a canopied queen-sized bed.

Sitting up slowly, I looked at a clock next to a window that opened to thick, green trees and a mountain. The little ballerina-sized leg ticked around a tutu. I paused, thinking that the clock didn’t seem to fit the room. Then I noticed the time.

3:30!

I panicked, sitting up. Rob! He would be looking for me. And where, exactly, was I? Going to the window, all I could see was a gravel road that led to this very tree-covered and secluded side of a mountain. I listened, hearing what I thought could be a stream. I needed to get out. I needed to get a message to Rob. Fear elevated my pulse, sending me into action. I thought of what I’d done in the car and the shame of it gave me pause. Sitting on the bed, I felt momentarily paralyzed. Why had I done that? I’d made a vow…and I’d broken it…again.

Seeing my shoes next to the bed, I slipped them on, wondering if they would try to stop me. I scaled the walls with my eyes, seeing there was no way out except through the front door. Perhaps I would get to see their powers? My heart sped up at the thought.

Flinging open the door, I heard talking coming through the dark, make-shift hall. My footsteps echoed.

“Lanie?” Jake met me as I stepped into a large room. I stopped, feeling the urgency and worry in his gaze. I didn’t think he would try to stop me.

I looked around. Light flowed in through giant windows. A large deck pushed up against sliding doors that backed to the mountain I’d seen earlier, and a stream flowed down a thick, green-covered rock area next to the deck. There was an impressively large kitchen with silver appliances that took up the other side of the room.

I turned to what could loosely be called a living room. There were two or three sitting areas; one with couches and a flat screen, another with large tables and a pool table at the end. Yet another was facing the mountain, a map the size of one of my bedroom walls tacked up with red dots covering it.

Rob stared at me, standing next to the map.

Baffled, I bypassed Jake and started toward my brother. “What are you doing here?”

Wearing his usual black Boston sweatshirt and ratty-knees jeans, he laughed, looking relaxed and comfortable. “Lanie, it’s okay.”

“How did you get here?”

Karen answered, staying next to the map and smiling at my brother, with a look of…admiration? “I called him.”

She called him? She had his phone number?

Rob smiled at Karen and handed her iPad back.

Frowning at him, I stopped, searching his face. He was usually the overprotective, trust no one type. What was going on?

Laughing, he opened his arms for me to hug him. “I heard you got hit.”

I stopped in front of him, feeling like something was
very
wrong. What had they done to my brother? Maybe there was some personality turning power I didn’t know about.

He laughed again, pulling me into a hug. “It’s okay, Lanie. Everything is fine—better than fine.”

Pulling back from him, I searched his face. “Talk.”

Rob looked behind my shoulder, then back to me, uncertainly. “Let’s let them tell you.”

My heart was still racing and I was on edge, still not trusting this definite change in my brother’s personality. I searched his eyes, looking for any signs of mind control.

Smiling, he sighed, pushing his glasses back onto his face. “This is good, Lanie. I promise…this is good for us.”

They’d all gathered around, standing on the edges of our little conversation.

Jake stepped forward. “Let’s all sit down.” Calmly, he gestured to the couches.

“Just talk, Jake.” I said, glaring at all of them, and not forgetting that they’d abducted me earlier. Meeting Marsha’s eyes, I found her looking at me with a little defiance and glee.

Anger flashed inside of me again. I should show them what else Dr. Luth taught me.

Rob shook my arm, having followed my gaze. “Lanie?”

I looked into his face…and felt instant shame for my thoughts. What was happening to me?

Jake cleared his throat, looking uncertain. “Lanie, we have something to tell you.”

I waited.

“We all have a mark too.”

Widening my eyes, I nodded. “I kinda figured that, Jake.”

“Get on with it!” Reed slapped the edge of the chair, looking agitated and annoyed. “Just tell her.”

Looking back to Jake, I braced myself…ready to see the powers I would be up against.

Jake frowned. “We’re not after you, Lanie.”

“Just tell her.” Reed raised his hands and walked in a circle.

Rob put his hands on my shoulders and I glanced up at his smiling face.

“Lanie…The Foundation hasn’t sent us to take you back,” said Jake. “The Foundation…
kicked us out
.”

Episode 6: The Foundation

“Kicked out?” The Foundation never kicked out anybody. Well, not the gifted kids—in fact, they were the whole reason it existed. All the other rich kid classes were an elaborate front to hide us. But the school churned out only the brightest and the most connected kind of students.

Flinging her arms out, Marsha gave me a ‘duh’ kind of look. “We lost our powers!”  She turned from the room and ran down the hall to her room. “Who cares about
her
?”

I watched Marsha run down the hall, the whole thing muddling around in my brain like colors blurred into a deep shade of brown on my painter’s easel. Lost their powers? Lost
their powers?
How? “What is she talking about?”

Reed stepped forward. “They’re gone. My strength, Marsha’s healing, Karen’s smarts, Jake’s compassion. They’re just gone.”

I was confused. “What?”

Reed looked annoyed and pointed his index finger at me. “Just because we can’t make weapons doesn’t mean we didn’t have powers.”

Hope suddenly sprang into my heart. You could lose your powers? This was what I’d been looking for. I tried not to look too interested, but glanced at Rob, trying to gauge if this was why he was acting so happy. “Really?”