Glow (10 page)

If I thought about the vision in terms of what their sons would do, I’d say that it felt like a Christopher thing. It was a grand vision with three possible choices for inhabitees: Dory, Mrs. Knapp and the motorcyclist.

Mrs. Knapp and the motorcyclist were more likely candidates, as they were both injured and closer to death. I didn’t know what had happened to Dory after the vision, but if she’d kept on driving, she was physically fine. Then again, with everyone at church seeing her push her mother into traffic and then flee the scene, I couldn’t be sure that some harm didn’t come to her. Ugh.

It had to be Christopher’s mom. Someone was trying to save three birds with one vision.

We drove over to Claire’s and I’d been right; there was no sign of her parents. Avery rang the doorbell. Normally I would have walked right in, but Claire’s parents had recently installed an alarm system and insisted that she have it on at all times when she was home alone.

I heard her bound down the stairs. She stood on tiptoe and looked out at us through the leaded glass window at the top of the door. “One second!” she said, punching in the code on the keypad. There was a prolonged beep and then she opened the door and ushered us in.

She took one look at my drenched clothing and grabbed my hand, pulling me up the stairs to her room.

“Did you guys go to the lake or something?” she asked.

Avery and I blushed.

“Nope, carwash,” Avery answered.

Claire rolled her eyes. “You guys.”

We went into her bedroom. Claire opened the bottom drawer of her dresser where I kept my spare clothes and then she hopped up onto her king-sized canopy bed. Avery plopped down on the carpet and sat cross-legged.

I took a green t-shirt and some navy blue sweatpants from the drawer and went into her walk-in closet to change.

“I’m sorry about dinner,” I said, pulling the shirt on over my slightly damp bra. “I hope our parents weren’t too hard on you.”

“It’s okay, nothing I couldn’t handle,” she called back. “Of course, now you have to fill me in on what you all were really doing.”

I heard Avery chuckle and mutter “good luck” under his breath.

“Oh, no,” Claire teased. “Is Avery going to die again?”

I stepped into the sweatpants and came out of the closet, throwing my wet clothes next to the hamper in Claire’s en-suite bathroom. “You shouldn’t joke about stuff like that.”

“Please, Zel, you know humor is my defense mechanism. I gotta do what I gotta do.” She patted the space on the bed next to her and I climbed up to join her.

I had to tell her something, I owed her that much. Best to stick to my slightly altered Wes story.

When I’d finished lying to her, she looked at me skeptically. “He didn’t give you any hint where Mildred was?”

I shook my head no.

“Well, that sucks. But this guy Raleigh, he’s going to be fine?”

“That’s what Roger said,” I shrugged.

“Hmm. Aunt Hazel’s been holding out on us! A secret beau in Bend. I wonder how long
that’s
been going on.”

I was relieved that Claire had latched onto that particular aspect of my story. This was going to work.

“It seemed like Roger and Aunt Hazel had known each other forever,” Avery said, grinning at me. “When you and Melody were in the bathroom, he was telling Raleigh all about his last night with Hazie before he got sent to be a medic in Vietnam.”

Claire rubbed her hands together. “Interesting. You’ll have to take me to visit the next time you go.”

I slid from the bed and offered Avery a hand up. “Sorry to dress and run, but I’ve got to get home so my dad can yell at me.” I turned to Claire and gave her hug. “I’ll call you in the morning to chat about the party tomorrow night?”

“Um, yeah, that should be okay. I’ll be around until ten.”

“You mean waking up at ten?” Avery asked, leaning in to hug her too.

She slugged him on the arm. “Nope. I’m helping with the golf tournament. My parents have suddenly realized I exist and are trying to get me interested in the family business.” She snorted. “I believe I’ll be manning the t-shirt booth. Big fun. You guys have any plans beforehand? Jason’s truck crapped out again and he needs a ride.”

“We’re going to the church picnic,” I said.

It was Avery’s turn to give me the incredulous boyfriend look. “We are?”

I nodded my head, but didn’t say anything. We hadn’t planned on going, but I’d just seen us both there, so now we were.

“Yeah, we can take him,” Avery said.

“Cool.” Claire wiggled her fingers at us. “Be gone. I’m going to get ready for bed if you losers aren’t going to hang out. Set the alarm for me, will ya?

“554491?” Avery said, referring to the alarm code.

“Yup.” Claire went into the bathroom and shut the door.

We headed downstairs. Avery set the alarm while I stood on the front porch. He waited for the long beep and then shut the front door behind him.

“So we’re really going to go to the picnic?” he asked.

I shrugged. “I did miss it last year. I mean, you don’t have to go if you don’t want to. You could just pick me up after.”

He opened my car door for me. “No, I’ll go. Your dad will appreciate having you there and the two of us could stand to have some wholesome-type fun for once.”

Avery had a point there. I kissed his cheek and then got in the car. “What, transporting a half-dead body to a secret locale isn’t wholesome?”

He shut my door.

When I got home the house was dark and Dad and Melody had already gone to bed. I was grateful that I didn’t have to cap my stellar day off with an interrogation from Dad. Things between us were cordial at best and awkward most of the time. It seemed like he couldn’t stop himself from thinking and expecting the worst of me and that made me sad. I wasn’t his good little girl anymore, the one that he’d trusted and joked with. The child that was more like him.

I’d accepted my powers and taken on all that meant for me, but I definitely regretted what the change in me had done to my relationship with him. Who knows, maybe it would have turned out like this whether I’d developed any abilities or not? I wasn’t ever going to get to know. I wasn’t ever going to be a normal 17-year-old girl. Neither was Melody, for that matter. There was no one to blame. It was what it was.

I opened the door to the bedroom I shared with my sister, preparing to wake her up to tell her about the vision, when she flipped on the clip-on reading light at the head of her bed.

“How was ice cream?” she asked in a louder than necessary voice.

Oh. I get it. “Good! I had mint chocolate chip and Avery had a banana split. I’m so full.” I sat on the edge of my bed and we both listened for any sound coming from Dad’s room. All quiet on the home front.

“I had a vision,” I whispered.

Melody got out of her bed and came over to mine. “Lay it on me.”

I told her about the vision in as much detail as I could remember, even the part about Dad pulling my dress up over my scar. Subconsciously, Melody slid her hand up the back of my shirt and ran her hand over it. She was just as proud of my scar as I was.

“It sounds like Christopher’s mom,” she said after I’d finished the retelling. “It makes sense that she would try to help as many people as she could at one time after being cooped up in limbo and not getting her Retro on for over twenty years.”

“I agree. So which one do you think she’s inhabited? And how am I going to rewind anything with half the church watching?”

“My bet is on the motorcyclist, which is good for you.”

“How so?

“She’s used Dory and her mom to call attention to their problem and in the process given you a little bit of cover to rewind.” She stood up and tugged me to my feet. “Let’s get under the covers. I’m chilly.” We snuggled in and then she continued. “You have to stop the motorcycle. Everyone’s going to be looking at Dory driving away and Mrs. Knapp in the street, but no one’s expecting or going to be focusing on the motorcycle.” She yawned. “At least that’s what I would do. Aunt Hazel always says to choose a plan and stick with it. I think that’s our best bet. Rewind the motorcycle.”

I brushed back some of her hair that had fallen in her eyes. “You’re getting really good at this whole Lookout thing, you know that?”

She stuck her tongue out at me. “I’ll try not to let it go to my head.”

“Good. That sounds like something the new you would say.” I honked her nose. “Now get out, we’re both way too Amazonian to be sharing a twin bed.”

Chapter Eleven

Christopher stopped the car at a vista point overlooking the Pacific Ocean so they could all talk to Aunt Hazel on speakerphone.

Ben scooted forward in his seat. “So, there’re the three couples we’ve--”

“Three in San Diego, three in Little Rock. Terrible mess...”

Not that Frank and Hazel were letting Ben or Christopher get a word in edgewise.

Lookouts.

“...Obviously, if it is Mildred, she can’t be in two places at once. She has to have other Retroacts or spirits working with her, which is positively disgusting if you ask me. I think we should suspend all further recruitment for the time being. Perhaps that will stop the killing. Mildred’s visions and glimpses are weak, so if we don’t lead her to further potential Retros, hopefully she can’t do any more harm that way. Now, I phoned the two other girls we’d checked up on earlier in the day and both assured me that they were fine. Of course, neither of them have developed powers yet. They’re eleven and thirteen.”

Ben opened his mouth to speak again.

“Did they have any idea who their triggers might be?” Frank interrupted, asking the question Ben was going to ask.

“No, and an unnecessary amount of giggling ensued when I inquired about that.”

Christopher caught Ben’s eye and they both grinned at the comment. Then Ben’s expression fell. He needed to call Antoine.

Ben stepped out of the car and dialed Antoine’s cell. It rang six times and just when he thought he was going to have to leave a voicemail, someone answered.

“Hello,” a male voice whispered. It wasn’t Antoine.

“Hi, this is Ben, is this Marcus?”

“Yes,” the boy gave a sigh of relief and then started crying. “Antoine’s gone.”

Shit.
“Were you guys attacked?”

Christopher got out of the car and gave Ben a questioning look, mouthing, “Antoine?”

Ben nodded curtly and began to pace.

“He...Antoine’s gone. He just...his body is here but...”

“Where are you, Marcus? We’ll come and get you.”

Christopher made the slitting his throat gesture and Ben glared at him hard. Christopher got back in the car.

“I’m,” he sniffed, “we’re, on the top level of the parking garage by the aquarium in Long Beach.”

“Good, okay, I’ll get there as soon as I can. Are you near your car?”

“Yes.”

“Can you get Ant inside the car with you? I’m bringing my Lookout. He’ll know what to do.”

“I...I’ll try.” He broke down in sobs again. “Please hurry.”

Ben opened the driver’s side door and yanked Christopher out by the arm. “I’ll be there in no time, buddy. Just hang on.” He ended the call.

They reached the parking garage an hour later. Ben drove directly to the top, not bothering to follow the arrows painted on the floor meant to guide them in some logical circuitous route. There were half a dozen seemingly empty cars parked on the top floor. Ben went by them slowly.

“There,” Christopher said from the backseat. “You just passed it. I saw the top of someone’s head in the back window.”

Ben stopped the car in the middle of the lane and they all got out. He approached the other car and looked in the window. There, in the backseat, was a teenage boy with caramel colored skin and close-cropped auburn hair slouched against the door, Antoine cradled to his chest. There was blood everywhere. Ben knocked softly on the window and Marcus started, turning around, his green eyes clouded with shock and fear.

“It’s Ben.”

Frank popped the trunk on their car and put the files from the backseat in it. Then he took out some of Ben’s clothes, a packet of baby wipes and a bottle of motor oil. He would use the oil to camouflage the blood that had soaked into the concrete. “I’ll go take care of the surveillance cameras and then get to work on the scene.” He handed the clothes and baby wipes to Christopher and set the motor oil down next to Marcus’s car. “Get the kid to leave his car keys. I’ll meet you at the rendezvous point.” He took off jogging for the stairwell.

Marcus gently folded Antoine’s body forward and unlocked his door. Ben opened it and took Marcus’s hand, helping him from the car. “It’s okay. We’ll keep you safe now.”

He looked at Ben. “I - I need to go home.”

Christopher walked over and put his arm around Marcus’s shoulders. “I’m afraid you can’t right now. Whoever was after Antoine may still be after you. You’re safest with us.”

“No!” Marcus wrenched out of Christopher’s hold. “I have to go home. My dad is going to wonder what happened and...Ant, I can’t just leave him!” Marcus climbed back in the car and dragged Antoine’s body to him.

Ben heard tires squeal one floor down. Someone was coming. He and Christopher exchanged a look.

Christopher stared hard at the boy. “I’m sorry, Marcus. Give Ben your car keys.”

Marcus fished the keys from his pocket and handed them to Ben, who put them under the driver’s side seat.

“That’s good,” Christopher soothed.

Headlights flashed on the wall near the entrance to the top floor. Ben shot his hand out and held the car in place, keeping it from coming any closer. Marcus and Antoine deserved a last goodbye.

“We’ve got to go now. I’m so sorry this happened to you,” Christopher said, focusing his gaze.

Marcus leaned forward, tears rolling down his cheeks, and tenderly kissed Antoine on the lips. “Goodbye, Ant. I love you. I wish I didn’t have to leave.” He placed another soft kiss on Antoine’s forehead and then backed out of the car and closed the door.

Christopher led him to their car, opening the back door for him. He set the clean clothes and the baby wipes down on the seat next to Marcus and then got in the front seat.