The Watchers (16 page)

I looked at him, pleading with my eyes for
him to help me, instinctively knowing he could. Even though the
pool was chaos and the chlorine made everything fuzzy and
distorted, I could see his eyes clearly. They stood out like a
beacon of light. As my plea reached him, they softened.

He moved closer, pressing his body into mine.
He leaned even closer and gently pressed his lips against mine. Air
surged into my mouth as our lips met. I gasped, not because he was
acting like a human air tank and I could suddenly breathe, but
because of the visions swirling around my head. I closed my eyes
and let him give me oxygen, the visions demanding that I watch.

I saw a small boy, no more than five,
wandering the streets of New York – a different New York then the
one I knew. It was dirty and dank, the glass buildings and
outrageous high-rises nowhere to be seen. The tiny boy begged and
stole in order to survive. He was very good at surviving; a master
of thieving and telling lies. He was a creature of the streets, a
product of abandonment and abuse. My heart clenched at the idea of
so young a person facing the harsh violence of streets so
indifferent and cruel.

I saw the same boy, a little older, fighting
to protect his friends who were getting beaten up for their food.
But he was unable to save them – he was too small, too weak. I saw
him become bloodied and bruised as he was beaten almost to
unconsciousness. A tall woman with auburn hair that framed her
round face perfectly appeared on the dirt street like a shimmering
mirage of hope. The boy stared at her even as the other boys kicked
him brutally. His eyes begged her to help him. She came closer, her
appearance scaring the older boys off. The boy noticed her eyes
darken at the sight him lying there, but the darkness cleared as
she caught eyes with him again. The woman smiled at the battered
boy and whispered reassuring words as she picked him up from the
ground. She didn’t see his friends hiding in fear around the corner
as she walked off with him cradled to her chest.

Her words promised the boy a new life. She
kept her promise. The boy flourished under the woman’s loving
attentions, his days on the streets ending as suddenly as daylight
in a cave. It was a time of peace, the sort of peace he had never
found on the streets.

I felt his heartbreak when he got word that a
boy he knew on the streets, a boy he had thought of as a brother,
had been murdered. The boy had grown, but he was still young, still
close to his life on the streets. The darkness threatened to engulf
him. He wanted retribution. He wanted blood.

Was life only pain?

The vision disappeared. I opened my eyes
blearily, trying to focus on my location. Was I in the past or the
present? Daniel’s face blurred in and out of my vision. His eyes
were the same eyes of the boy I had seen. The faces merged in my
brain. I blinked again and cleared away the confusion.

The pool was in ruins. The door and its
connecting wall had fallen from the blast. Rubble lay everywhere.
Daniel and I were on the face of the pool, our bodies bobbing in
time to the water. He was no longer breathing for me, but I felt
tied to the rhythm of his breathing as if he still was. He was
gasping heavily, harder than I was. Patches of the water still
danced with fire, but he had brought us up in a clear spot next to
the edge. He forced me to take hold of the edge, which I did out of
instinct.

How long had we been down there? Seconds?
Days? Years? The visions swirled around my brain. I felt again and
again the pain and the fear, the longing and the regret. It was
like a knife cutting into my heart. Not able to help it, I started
crying. I’d never been one to cry. Being serious and dependable
meant not crying or acting like a baby when things went wrong. I’d
learned to fix problems rather than worry about them. It had
toughened me. But now, I let the tears come, feeling a sense of
release around the pain in my chest. It almost felt good, as if
being out of control wasn’t as unbearable as I thought it would
be.

Daniel wrapped one arm around me and pulled
our bodies together. I resisted at first, not wanting to see those
visions again, but he carefully kept a layer of fabric between
us.

“I’m sorry. It was the only way…It was the
only way.” he whispered into my ear over and over again.

I couldn’t answer, I was too busy crying. He
rested his chin on my shoulder and let me cry.

I sniffed into his wet shirt and asked, “Was
that you?”

He pulled away slightly, so he could look
into my eyes and gauge my reaction. “Yes.”

What did I say to that?

I heard the sound of screaming, and pulled
away from him to find the source of the noise. Through the
destroyed wall, I saw kids from our gym class, as well as various
teachers, running across the grassy slope towards us. I pulled away
for another reason. I wanted Daniel to kiss me again, and I didn’t
like feeling that way. Not when he’d just thrown a whole pile of
weirdness at me. He released me reluctantly.

Sighing, he pushed against the edge of the
pool and lifted his body out of the water. Water dripped off of his
clothes and hair on to the cement ground, the sound incredibly loud
to my alert ears. His eyes moved to the woods surrounding us, and
his face contorted with anger. I was too tired to focus on his
anger. I would think about it later. I would think about everything
later. Wanting to get out of the cold water, I tried to climb out
but discovered my arms had turned to jelly.

“What are you doing?” he asked, refocusing on
me as I pulled my exhausted body towards the small rung of stairs
at the other side of the pool.

“I can’t pull myself out,” I said
irritably.

The feelings which had been forced on me were
starting to fade. Worry, and my own fear, crawled up in my chest,
making it feel tight and hard to breathe. That feeling made me
irritable.

“That happens too.” He offered me his hand to
take. I looked at it, not trusting what our touch could do. “It
won’t happen this time. I’ve got it under control.” I still didn’t
take his hand. “Trust me?”

His emerald eyes were impossibly vulnerable.
In those eyes, I saw the boy I had befriended rather than the
mystery of what had just happened. I reached out and took his
proffered hand, hoping my instinct was right. He pulled me out, his
arms barely contracting with the effort. There were no visions this
time, but our touch created a spark of electrical feeling between
us. I dropped his hand as people started to swarm through the
broken wall shouting questions and contradicting orders.

“Clare, do you like me?” Daniel
whispered.

“Is this really the time for that
discussion?”

His face was serious, but I could see a hint
of his boyish smile. “It’s important.”

“Do you like me?” I countered, not wanting to
answer.

“I asked first,” he said.

“Why are you asking at all?”

He leaned towards me, talking very quickly.
“Because I’m going to lie my ass off, and I need to know that you
like me well enough to lie with me, or at least keep your mouth
shut.”

“I have questions,” I warned.

“So do I,” he retorted, mocking my tone.

I made a motion like I was zipping my mouth
shut and locking it. Then I handed him the pretend key. He pocketed
it.

The others had finally reached us. Their
questions were immediate.

“What happened here?”

“Are you okay?”

“Did a bomb go off?”

Daniel had his best charm smile on. He looked
up through his long lashes – a look he knew was attractive – and
the people surrounding us stopped talking to listen. With his voice
full of just the right amount of fear and excitement, he started to
explain. “We didn’t see what happened. We just heard this noise,
and the next thing we knew we were in the pool.” He gestured down
at his wet clothes. “I think the blast knocked us back. It probably
saved our lives.”

Jennifer forced her way to the front of the
crowd. “But what blew up?”

Daniel shrugged. “We just felt the blast. We
didn’t see what did it.”

I nodded. I didn’t have to lie to agree with
him on that. Whatever had caused the fire had come out of
nowhere.

“Come on, let’s get you guys out of here,”
Coach said, his tired voice not even excited.

“An ambulance is on its way, Coach!” Mark
yelled as he ran up. He held a cell phone in his hand. He was
enjoying the drama – almost as much as Jennifer.

“We don’t need an ambulance!” I protested.
“We’re not hurt.”

“You just got blown up!” Jennifer argued.
“You need to be checked out!”

“We weren’t even touched!”

“Don’t argue,” Daniel whispered into my
ear.

“But…”

“Don’t. Argue,” he said spacing his words so
they became a command.

I clamped my teeth together and glared at
him. I would make him pay for taking that tone with me. But would
I? Would I continue our friendship? I wasn’t ignorant to the many
things in this world that were strange and peculiar but I had never
heard, nor seen, anything like what had just happened. Fire coming
out of thin air, Daniel breathing for me, those visions, the way
his skin had felt; they all added up to something other. And in my
world, ‘other,’ meant danger. He was dangerous.

I was overwhelmingly thankful he had saved my
life; that he had risked his own life to save mine, but at what
cost? Would there be consequences? Was he like me? If he wasn’t,
what was he? If he was like me, did I have to start running again?
Was anywhere safe?

Chapter 8

The paramedics gave us blankets and told us
to sit on the front steps of the school until the deputy sheriff
said it was okay to go. After a thorough examination, and many
incredulous questions, they were convinced we weren’t about to die.
I was glad. Dying wasn’t on my to-do list. Although, neither was
getting blown up or having my new, but intense, friendship tested
by said explosion. The paramedics had told us we were lucky, that
whatever had burned up had been hotter than anything they’d ever
experienced. I had nodded in bemused agreement, knowing luck had
nothing to do with it. As we waited, emergency workers, faculty
members, and students swirled around us in a strange dance of
activity. I had trouble focusing on any one thing in particular, my
eyes not cooperating.

“Are you okay?” Daniel asked, leaning close
so he could whisper in my ear.

“Define ‘okay.’”

“Not about to pass out or otherwise slide
into unconsciousness.”

“I don’t know,” I groaned, thinking
unconsciousness would be a welcome relief.

“Do you want to go?”

“They told us to wait,” I said.

“I can take care of that,” he said
confidently.

“How?”

He lifted the small rock he had been playing
with to my eye level. He made a dramatic motion with his other
hand, and the rock disappeared.

“Magic.”

“Show off.” I found his eyes. “It’s in the
palm of your other hand, by the way.”

I didn’t want him to think I missed anything,
or that I couldn’t see through his magic. He chuckled, and braced
himself to stand, throwing the artfully concealed rock on to the
ground. He stopped before he walked away and gave me a funny look.
“Your hair is longer than I thought.”

I ran a hand through my hair realizing that
my normal spiky look had disappeared. It was down to my ears now,
scraggly from the weight of the water.

“Oh, yeah?” I asked.

“Yeah.”

“Is that good or bad?”

He shrugged. “Not everything is good or bad,
some things just are. But yes, I like it.”

I made a face at him in response, thinking he
was teasing me. Another round of tiredness swept through me. I
looked up at him, aware that his charm could get the cops to let
him do anything.

“I think you’d better hurry with whatever
magic trick you’re going to pull.”

He nodded and walked across the grassy lawn
with the alien grace that hinted he was more than just your typical
hot football player. As soon as he was far enough away, the buzzing
started up again, increasing to the point where it was
overwhelming. Wanting a distraction, I picked up the rock he had
discarded and started playing with it. It didn’t work.

He’s so cute.

I can’t wait to get home and tell everyone
about this. I hope they don’t already know…

I don’t see how they made it out of there
without a scratch. Bob said the fire was hotter than anything he’d
ever seen on the job.

What were they doing down there together, I
wonder?

Does he like her? How could
he like her? She looks like a guy. Well, her face doesn’t, but
she’s got short hair.
I looked over and saw Jennifer
staring at me. The sound of her gnawing on her jealousy would have
been funny if I hadn’t been so tired.

If it was me, no one
would’ve cared. If it was me, they would have just let me burn. Why
couldn’t it have been me?
I looked to my other side
and saw Amanda staring sadly. Her thoughts were like a punch in the
gut.

Two other voices, a man and a woman, swirled
up. It was obviously a conversation from…somewhere.

Were you able to find anything out about what
killed Ryan, Shawn?

Deputy Greene, Mom. And no, we haven’t found
that thing that killed him. We’ve been searching the woods top to
bottom.

What does the Sheriff say?

He’s doesn’t have a clue either. He’s got
some hunters over from Macon County to search for any signs of the
creature, but they haven’t turned up anything yet.

He was a friend of yours right?

Yeah, he was a good man.

More voices and conversations swirled around
me. I started rubbing at my forehead, trying to shut them out.
“Stop, stop, stop, stop, stop!” I said quietly to the voices. They
ignored me.