Connor (4 page)

“I am amazed and impressed. A man who knows how to get the job done,” I said, feeling a little better.

He stopped walking, smiled back at me rubbing his chest, and said, “Well, I try.”

I pretended to hurl.

After walking maybe a hundred feet, we stopped at a large room to the right even though the tunnel continued forward. As interested as I was to know how far the tunnel went or where it took you, I was more interested in the here and now. There were three others standing in the middle of the room waiting for us, but no one from my school.

“Welcome to the cave,” Tony said as we entered.

The room was decorated with old pictures on the walls, burgundy drapes draped over no windows that I could see, two burgundy leather couches, three black leather chairs, and a cherry-wood coffee table. The room was lit with candles and old cast-iron lanterns, lighting the room quite nicely. It was definitely a female's touch.

“Hello, everybody, this is Connor. Connor, this is Cheyenne, Willow, and Byron.” He pointed to each of them as he called their names.

They all said hello in unison.

Willow actually gave me a hug and smiled from ear to ear. She was a cute brunette, wearing curls down to her shoulders, and had big brown eyes. She was endowed in the chest department and had an inch or two over me. She wore a fuzzy pink sweater, a knee-length plain black skirt, light pink-colored tights, and black three-inch-heeled Mary Janes. Not my style, but it seems to suit her. She looked so bubbly sweet standing there, grinning as if I was her new puppy. I bet you could probably catch a cavity just by hanging out with her.

Cheyenne, on the other hand, stood there, observing me with indifference, gave me the once-over in slow motion. She was a tall, leggy girl with shiny, straight jet-black hair to her waist. She was gorgeous, and her brown almond-shaped eyes were distinctive. She wore dark jeans that fit her to a tee (how is that possible), a black tight-fitting sweater, and black boots. Her clothes fit her so perfectly, you would think they were painted on her. She must not have any girlfriends who would trust her around their man.

Byron shrugged and said hello, standing next to Willow with his hands tucked in his pants pockets. He had a low buzz cut and a nice smile. He was the handsome type, tall, maybe five ten, with broad shoulders. He wore khakis with black suspenders over a plaid shirt. His shoes were the preppy type and, I am sure, expensive like all of their outfits.

They looked like models right out of a magazine called
Perfect Preppy USA
, if there was one. I, on the other hand, had on my favorite tattered jeans, some geeky shirt, and my zip up that I now refuse to take off. They didn't look real with their perfect hair, makeup, and let's not ignore their expensive shiny accessories.

Tony said, “So she is the one I have been telling you all about. Connor.”

“Hello,” I said with uncertainty. All I could do was stand there on display.

“These are the others I have mentioned to you before, Connor,” Tony said.

I waited patiently for him to say more, but his mouth didn't budge as I stared at him, hoping he would explain who these people are and why was I brought here, but not a peep more came from him.

We five stood there, sharing polite-enough looks until I couldn't take any more snide glares from Cheyenne. “Okay, so what is going on?” Why was I grinning so hard?

With her arm tightly folded, Cheyenne spoke up first. “So did you tell her about us, Tony, any of it?”

“Yes, I did tell her about us, just not a lot,” Tony answered, wringing his hands. He acted nervous about something, but I don't know what. “Only that she was not the only one. I thought she would take it better from a group rather than one person, Cheyenne. That way she wouldn't think I was a crazy person or something.”

“Oh, this is exhausting.” Cheyenne whipped her head from Tony to me and said, “You're a freak like the rest of us, okay?”

“What?” I asked. “What did she just say?” Obviously, I was not the only one surprised by what she said because Willow's mouth fell open, staring at her, and Byron walked off, shaking his head.

“Thanks, Cheyenne. That was great, just freaking awesome,” Tony said, sounding not too pleased with her.

“Anytime,” she said with a smirk on her face, then sat comfortably in one of the chairs.

He raised his brow to her, then said to me, “You can do things, right, besides not be seen—like run fast, able to hear a great distances, mentally move things, physically lift a house, right?”

Did he just say lift a house? It's official, I am crazy. I stood there dumbfounded and bewildered. I heard everything going on around me, but I felt stuck and unable to move.

“I told you this was a bad idea,” Willow said, pacing back and forth, sounding like a mouse.

“Connor, Connor, what's wrong?” Tony said, waving his hands in front of me. “She doesn't even look like she is breathing, but her eyes are open and she is still standing. It is the strangest thing I have ever seen.”

I felt cold, numb, locked inside my body. This feeling felt like it went on forever, until I finally gasped for air as if holding my breath underwater. I grabbed the closest thing next to me, which was Tony, or he grabbed me. Either way, with his help, I made it to the couch.

“What happened?” Byron asked, sitting next to me, taking my pulse. “You seemed to have gone into a catatonic state for about three minutes.”

“A what?” Willow asked before I could.

Byron explained, “It is like a lack of movement or expression. It is when your body goes completely still and rigid.”

“I have never done that before. I couldn't move, as if I was frozen. I felt trapped. It was weird,” I said as he listened to my pulse. Willow sat on the other side of me, holding my hand.

I watched him, wondering how he knew what to do. He explained he helps with his grandfather, who is ill, and took a course in emergency care.

“Are you better now?” Byron asked, “Your vitals seem to have gone back to normal. I swear, for a minute, you didn't have a heartbeat.” Once again, he answered my question before I could ask. “Your heart rate decreased significantly—well, below normal range. I say if that keeps happening, you should go get checked out.”

“Okay, thanks, but I feel much better. I am sure it was just a fluke,” I said. At least I hope it was.

“Now that the patient is better, Doctor, can we get back to the matter at hand?” Cheyenne said. Byron slowly glanced over at her but didn't respond. He turned back to me, smiled, then motioned for Tony to continue with a nod.

“Listen, Connor, what we are trying to say is we all have certain abilities to do the unthinkable. The other day outside, I approached you, thinking you were looking for me, remember?” Tony said, sitting across from me. “You asked how I could see you when you thought no one could. We have a glow about us that only someone like us can see.”

“Show her, guys.” All three of them vanished where they sat even before Tony finished asking them to. He was right. They all emitted a faint bluish color. “Maybe we do that so we can see each other,” Tony said.

“Last year, Cheyenne and I found each other at a football game, and then a few months later came Byron, followed by Willow,” Tony continued. “I'm figuring this didn't appear until your birthday, right?”

I had to think back. “Umm… yes, my birthday was a few months ago, and it came shortly afterward,” I said.

“Well?” asked Willow. “Well, what?” I asked her.

“What can you do?” Cheyenne asked.

“I have only been able to disappear, but only twice so far. How or why is this happening, do you know?” I asked no one in particular.

“We are all still trying to figure things out. From what we gather, it occurs around your sixteenth birthday. Well, at least it did for the rest of us. I can also run really fast,” Byron explained, then proceeded to run around three times, lifting up enough dust to choke a horse. He was so fast, it looked like he simply moved on from one place to another in a blink. He looked goofy when he was finished running around. He wasn't even out of breath.

Choking and waving the dust out of her face, Willow chimed in, “Um, thanks, Byron. I can electrocute, but only when electricity is available. If there was electricity in here, I would show you, but…” She trailed off, sounding upset, then spoke up again. “I'm not sure if I will be able to produce it on my own.”

“Well, I can see through most objects, even flesh, and see well in the dark,” Cheyenne added, clearly sounding bored. “Maybe she is broken or a half breed of some kind if invisibility is all she can do,” she said, waving her arm haphazardly at me, checking out her nails.

I was about to say something not so nice to her when Tony interrupted me by cutting me off. I had just about enough of her as she sat there with a grin on her face, pleased with herself.

“Ignore Cheyenne. She will warm up to you eventually. She is always skeptical at first. Mine is strength. So nothing else then?” asked Tony.

Tony clearly didn't know me at all if he thought I cared if she warmed up to me or not. I can tell you right now being friends with her is not on my to-do list. I take back what I said earlier. It's not that she didn't have girlfriends because of the way she looks; it's because she is a witch with a capital B.

Taking my first breath after her rude statement, I decided to ignore her and turned my attention back to Tony. “No, but are we all just a bunch freaks of nature or something?” I asked.

I'm not delusional and can no longer take this lightly. I'm here in a cave, by way of an underground tunnel, under my school with people whom I don't know, and it is real. I couldn't make this up if I tried. When it was just me, I could deal with things or choose to ignore things the way I wanted, but with other people involved, I'm forced to deal with the unknown because this is much bigger than me, and I had a feeling that it was much deeper than we even knew.

Byron explained that he doesn't think this happened by chance since we all have one ability in common, but this is all still new to them. “We each have researched our families to see if we are somehow related, if our mothers were exposed to some form of radioactive experiment, or if they took the same drugs when pregnant with us, but nothing has turned up so far.”

They even went as far as trying to ask their parents about strange family history, hinting to the possibility of having abilities, but each parent turned the tables and started questioning them about taking drugs so they backed off, way off.

Why do parents always pull the drug card? As if they could not possibly screw us up on their own.

“My dad even threatened to take me to a psychiatrist,” Willow said.

“So bottom line, we don't know how or why this is happening to us?” I asked.

“Exactamundo,” Byron said. “I am still looking into some things, but until then, we just have to lie low.”

Lie low, what does that mean? Like I am going to run through the streets shouting, “I am a freak of nature!”

It just registered what Tony said earlier about it being their sixteenth birthday. “Wait, guys, I'm only fifteen. Maybe that is why my abilities are limited.”

“Oh great, there goes one thing we thought we knew for sure,” Willow said, slumped over in a chair like a rag doll. I didn't want to laugh at her, so I turned my head.

“Maybe hers just came early, Willow, and when her sixteenth birthday comes along, so will all her abilities,” Byron said to her. The way he spoke to her gave me the impression they were more than friends.

“So I say we keep looking into our family's pasts and see if anything turns up. You never know, maybe something will pop up. Sorry, Connor, wish we had more answers for you, but now you, being another body, can look into your family's history as well. More heads are better than one,” Byron said.

“True. I want to find out what is going on. Do you think there are others like us?” I asked him.

“If there are, hopefully they will show themselves to us or do something foolish like rat us out somehow, even if it is not done on purpose either way. Be careful,” Byron said.

We all agreed and decided to end for the night. Cheyenne had to talk to Tony about something for a minute before we parted ways.

I had a feeling about them too. Maybe that is why she was giving me the stare down. If they have a thing going on, it is up to Tony to tell me.

We all left at the same time. Tony and I were the only ones that went in the same direction on foot. The other three left together in a nice SUV, a black Range Rover. Byron got behind the wheel, so I assumed it was his car. How nice for him. I cannot wait to turn sixteen so I can get my license, then I could at least drive my parents' car.

We took our time walking and talking not wanting to rush home; at least I didn't, and he seemed okay with that.

“What do you think? Did we scare you off?” he asked. “Surprisingly, I'm okay. For a minute, it was touch and go. I am more curious at this point. Sorry I went all

rigid on you in there,” I said.

“It's cool. I didn't know what to expect. I'm just glad you didn't run off screaming,” he said.

I almost did, little did he know the only thing that stopped me was my catatonic state of mind. I'm still at a loss about that one. I have never done that before. Maybe I had a mini stroke, who knows.

“Hey, how come I've never seen the others before?” I asked.

“They go to a school out of town about thirty minutes away. We are the only two that go to Randell High.”

“How often do you guys meet up?” I asked, curious about their meeting arrangements. “Is this a monthly thing?”

“We meet up only when we need to. By the way, here's my cell number. You know, just in case something comes up,” Tony said, handing me my cell phone back that I didn't notice he took in the first place. He practically shoved it in my hand, then walked up.

I stopped walking, looked at my cell, then back at him. Suppressing a bewildered smile, I caught up to him when he slowed down enough for me to catch up.

“Sure, thanks, but I'm not going to ask how you got it,” I said, stone faced. I attempted to give him my number too, but he explained he had it already. I asked how he got my number, and he said, “If I told you, then I would have to kill you.”

Somebody watches way too many spy movies. “So I guess we will keep prying into things, huh?” I asked.

“Yes, we will. Hopefully, I didn't make things worse by bringing you here first before telling you about us,” Tony said.

I couldn't see his face, but I heard the sincerity in his voice and told him that it was fine. I wanted him to feel better, so I said, “I probably would have thought you were crazy.” In the big scheme of things, now that reality has slapped me in the face, I am glad there are others, and that in itself was comforting.

We walked and talked about other things the rest of the way home. I asked him why I never saw in him in school before this year. He explained I have and that we have had classes together, but I never paid him any attention. He was trying to explain who he was, but I couldn't remember him until he said he was the skinny boy with braces who sat behind Cricket in math class last year.

I laughed so hard tears streamed down my face when I remembered who he was. We used to call him Peewee in elementary school—he was so skinny. He didn't find it particularly funny, but I did. I asked him what he did to get so buff and tall.

“I was this tall last year, thank you, but you never noticed. I got my braces off, finally, and went through a major outward growth spurt soon after I turned sixteen. I work out, but honestly, I didn't do much. I worked on my skateboarding skills, and the abilities came with some added benefits. This year, I came back as a new man,” he said, asking me to feel his muscles as he flexed.

I laughed and apologized, then laughed some more and apologized again every time I thought of how awkward he was. He made fun of himself too. I told him of some not-so-flattering stories of myself too. Before I knew it, I was home.

I thought it was nice that he walked me all the way home. Wow, he is cute and courteous, nice. I still wondered what was up with him and Cheyenne. Maybe I'll ask him the next time I see him, who knows.