A Changed Man (Altered Book 1) (18 page)

"I'm not sure, maybe just try and bend a few? See how it affects you." Jackie answered. She was getting a little nervous, she wanted to help him figure out what was going on with him, what he could do and how to learn to control it, but at the same time it scared her. No one should be able to do what he could. "Wait, Let me grab a roll of paper towels, just in case."

"Okay, here goes nothing." Remington picked up a nail from the small pile on the table where he had emptied the box. He held it up to his face and concentrated. He started to feel the warm burn in his veins and his pulse speed up. The next thing he knew the nail he was holding had been bent completely in half.

"Holy shit" Jackie whispered.

Remington looked over at her. "What? It's just a nail, you've seen me bend bigger things."

"Look at the pile on the table." She said, her eyes as big as saucers.

Remington looked down to the pile of nails he had left on the table, every one of them sat bent in half the exact same way as the one he was still holding. There must have been fifty of them.

"Whoa." He said looking back at her.

"You're not bleeding, how do you feel? Are you tired? Anxious?"

"No, I feel okay. I got the normal heart racing thing and a small amount of adrenaline, but nothing like before. Maybe because they’re so small." Remington opened up the box of the biggest nails, skipping the middle length ones all together, and dumped them out on the table as well. He picked one up and again tried to concentrate on just that one. He stared at it hard and blocked out everything else in the room. All the same feelings came back and he watched the big nail fold itself in half while still in his fingers. He looked down and all the other nails he had poured onto the table were still straight, untouched.

"You’re bleeding." Jackie ripped off a paper towel and handed it to him.

Remington wiped the couple drops of blood from his upper lip and just like that, it stopped. "That wasn't too bad." He said looking at Jackie. "It seems the harder I concentrate, the more of a toll it takes on me, but still nothing like before. I don't even feel tired yet." He faced the nails on the table again and without picking any of them up, he focused on them and watched as they all bent in half at the same time.

"That’s amazing." Jackie said walking over to the table and picking up a handful of bent nails. "See if you can lift them."

Remington returned his attention to the table; he focused all of his energy on the one hundred or more bent nails lying on the table. He could feel the blood moving through his body, could hear his heart beating in his ears. Every nail on the table lifted into the air and just hung there. "Are you seeing this?" He asked Jackie while still concentrating on the floating nails.

"I see it." She said softly.

Remington turned to face her with a surprised smile spread across his face when loud clinking noises filled the room, every nail fell from the air and hit the table, some falling on to the floor. "Oops." He looked like a kid that just saw superman for the first time. They both started laughing a bit nervously.

"Okay, I think that’s enough for a while.” Jackie said. "You're still not bleeding, you should rest a bit. You feel ok?"

"Yeah! I feel good! A little tired, but not like before."

"Good, I'm going to go take a bath. Then later I'll make us a nice dinner and we can try again after you eat if you want to."

Remington loved the way she was already telling him what to do. No one has ever cared enough about him to give him any kind of direction. She didn't come off bossy; he knew when she told him something it was because she cared. She seemed protective and being cared for was a wonderful feeling. "Sounds good." He said smiling at her.

Jackie paused before walking down the hall. "Oh, and clean up this mess." She winked at him and headed toward the bathroom.

"Yes Ma'am." Remington waited for Jackie to disappear out of sight and went into the kitchen and retrieved a large plastic bowl from one of the lower cabinets. Going back to the nails that were strewn all over the place, he concentrated on the ones on the floor first. Within just a few seconds they had all risen off the floor and laid gently back on to the table. He then focused on all of the bent nails as a whole and with little effort he was able to lift every one of them off of the table at the same time. He grouped them together until they resembled an almost solid metal sphere, and while hanging in mid-air he was able to straighten them all back out. Still hanging over the bowl, he let them drop one by one.

Remington put his hand up to his nose to see if he was bleeding, he wasn't, not a drop. He still felt a bit tired but nothing that required he take a rest. He still couldn't believe what he could do. What kind of technology could make a person develop a power like this? What kind of operation? What the hell did they do to his brain? The more he thought about it, the more he thought it would have had to change his DNA. He had heard of a lot of crazy experiments performed on humans; the Nazis conducted some of the most ghastly ones during the holocaust. They attempted things like bone, muscle, and nerve transplants to immunization and sterilization experiments and a lot of other operations that left the victims mutilated and in agony. He wondered how many in the cavern weren’t as lucky as he was; how many operations that failed and the victim’s lives cut short by the greed of power hungry faceless men. He remembered one face though. He knew this Mr. Smith wasn't the only one to blame for what was going on in that cave, but he was the one haunting Remington’s nightmares. Just knowing that others were still being held there and having to endure whatever hell those fuckers decided to subject them to was enough to make his blood run cold. He had a target and he would eliminate him. It's what he was good at. He would find a way back in and do what he could to help the poor souls unlucky enough to find themselves waking up in that sewer and he would kill whoever got in his way.

                         Chapter 13

Jackie and Remington had replaced both front and back doorknobs and deadbolts. They spent the rest of the afternoon talking about his powers and possible reasons he could be useful to an undercover government agency. There were a million reasons really. What military wouldn't want someone who could manipulate metal, Or an army of people who could? Remington told Jackie about wanting to find his way back where he had escaped from when he could get a hold on his new power. He needed to have complete control before attempting any kind of rescue, and although Jackie understood why he wanted to go back, she didn't like the idea. She knew she couldn't let him go in alone; she had to help. She kept that part to herself for now, knowing he would have no part of it. There was no way he would take her with him and risk her safety, so until she could figure out a good reason he wouldn't be able to argue with, she stayed silent.

"You ready to eat?" Jackie called to Remington from the kitchen. He was in the living room relaxing on the couch watching TV. They agreed he would try a few things bigger than the nails he had bent earlier after dinner. She didn't want him low on energy, so she ordered him to the living room to rest.

"Yeah! Let me set the table." He answered getting up and walking toward the kitchen.

"No, I already got it." She said. "Just have a seat and enjoy."

Remington sat down to a huge bowl of chili, cornbread, and a side of sour cream. "Wow, this smells delicious."

"Thanks! I hope it's good, I haven’t made cornbread in a couple of years. You want a beer?" She asked moving toward the refrigerator.

"That would be great, thanks." Remington put a big dollop of sour cream on top of his chili before taking a big bite. "Oh my god, this is probably the best chili I have ever eaten." He said sitting back rolling his eyes, like he was just hand fed ambrosia by Aphrodite herself.

Jackie came back to the table and set their beers down. She pulled out her chair and sat wondering if he liked it that much or was just trying to be nice. "So it's good huh?"

"Jack, I'm telling you, it's delicious." He answered taking another bite. "You should enter this in a contest or something cause wow!"

Jackie giggled at him as he kept on spooning in mouthful after mouthful. "Well, I don't know if I'd go that far, but thanks."

"You did a great job on the cornbread too, it's perfect."

She smiled at him. His praise seemed genuine and that made her pride soar. Her grandmother had been an excellent cook and Jackie had learned everything from her. Still, she would have never put herself in the same league.

"Is there more?" Remington asked scooping up the last bite from his bowl.

Jackie couldn't believe he finished it already; she had only taken a few bites. "Uh, yea! There’s a whole pot. I’ll get you some more." She went to stand.

"No, I can get it. You eat yours." Remington got up and refilled his bowl grabbing another big slice of cornbread and sat back down at the table.

"You have a big appetite tonight, I don't think I've seen you eat so fast before." She looked at him through the steam rising from his bowl. "Is it from earlier? Did it take a lot out of you?"

Remington set his spoon down. "No, I'm fine, I promise. It's just really good! I'm not bull shitting you, this is the best chili I have ever had."

Jackie couldn't help but take the compliment with a huge smile. "Well thanks. I'm really glad you like it."

Remington started to eat again. "So, earlier when you said I should try to bend something bigger, what did you have in mind?"

"Oh, I don’t know. The shed is full of stuff you could practice with. There’s a couple old rusty bikes out behind the house and when you get really brave a broken down tractor!"

Remington laughed at that. "A tractor huh? We'll see."

"I still want you to take it easy though, really pay attention to what your body is telling you."

"Oh Jack I've been doing that since the day you found me."

There he goes again, saying things like that to her. Jackie wondered if he had any idea of the affect he had on her. She tried hard to keep a straight face but holding back her grin was almost impossible. "Haha. You know what I mean. Pay attention to your energy level, if you feel dizzy or get hungry, and pay attention to your heart."

"I've been paying extra attention to that lately." He winked at her and got up from the table. "You finished?" He asked.

Still in shock from his bold flirtations she couldn't find her voice right away. "Uh, yeah. Yeah, I'm finished." She finally stuttered.

Remington walked to her side of the table and leaned down toward her. "You cooked. I'm cleaning, and I don't want to hear a word about it." He picked up both of their bowls and took them to the kitchen, then returned for the rest. By the time he had loaded the dishwasher, cleaned the kitchen, and put away the leftovers, the sun was starting to set. They had maybe forty-five minutes or so before it would be completely dark. A few minutes later they were outside pulling open the door to the tool shed. Jackie walked in first flipping on the light switch.

"Man, there is a lot of stuff in here." Remington said. "I didn't really notice how much before, guess I was pretty out of it.

"You were." Jackie said looking around. "You still don't have any idea how you got in here?"

"No, I woke up in here just as surprised by you as you were by me. I can't remember."

"It's barely been a week, maybe it will come back to you."

"Yeah, maybe." Remington walked further in to the shed looking at all the stuff lining the walls. This shed had everything, tools, a generator, gas, heaters, and canned food. You could live in it if you didn't mind sleeping on the floor. "So what do you think we should start with?"

"Hmm, how about that big screwdriver?" Jackie pointed toward the pegboard where numerous hand tools hung. "Lets grab some stuff and take it back to the front porch. That way if something happens we're close to the house."

"Good idea." Remington said still looking around.

Jackie and Remington looked around the shed each grabbing a few things. Jackie got the screwdriver, a large wrench, and an old handsaw. Remington found a crowbar and large chisel. "Where did you get all this stuff?" He asked in awe of the collection he was surrounded with.

"I didn't. These were all my grandmothers things." She answered still not understanding herself why her gram would have massed such a hoard.

"Was she a master builder or something?"

Jackie laughed. "Yeah right. Have you seen the place? There’s still a lot of work to be done."

"Well maybe it was a hobby, some people just collect weird shit."

"I guess, though that doesn't seem like her. She was never that sentimental over possessions. I mean she kept a few photo albums but that’s about it."