See How She Runs (6 page)

Once we had both finished eating, he took
our plates to the small sink and rinsed them off leaving them to
wash later. He returned, gesturing for me to follow him to the
living room.

“Before I explain anything, before you will
believe anything I try and tell you, I am going to have to show you
something. I was hoping this day would never come, Iz. I never
wanted this life for you. I need you to look at me closely, Iz.
Really pay attention. When you feel like looking away, look a
little longer. Do you understand?" he asked timidly. I just nodded.
I was too curious to say anything else.

He nodded once and then muttered, “A
bhidse.”

He kept saying things I did not understand
and I kept watching him. Then suddenly the air around him started
to shimmer and he expanded outward and upward. At the same time
dark bluish-black ink swirled about his skin in intricate patterns,
starting at his neck and wrapping itself under his shirt and down
his arms and God knows where else. The air settled, and there stood
a man that I did not know. I could not comprehend how this could be
the Kennan I knew.

K.O. was tall, yes, but this man before me
was 6 foot 7 at least. He was almost as broad besides. He was
chorded with strong muscles. Not like a bulky weight lifter, but
the kind of muscle that had come from seriously throwing his weight
around with manual labor. The inky pattern had settled into some
sort of Celtic scroll design that looked older than anything I had
ever seen.

I got up from the sofa and went to where he
was standing by the fireplace. I studied him carefully and then
finally looked up into his face. His jaw was clenched, and his eyes
looked blankly ahead as if he were waiting for me to scream. I saw
him there, lingering in his eyes. There in his eyes was my best
friend and the man that kidnapped me. So I did the only thing I
could think of. I poked him. He looked down at me surprised.

“What no screaming?” he asked.

I shook my head, still too stunned to say
much. But somehow this felt right. I felt as though I was seeing
the Kennan I had been catching glimpses of recently. That same
place in my gut that told me to avoid mister CEO was now telling me
that this was the man that I had known for the past two years.
There just seemed to be more of him than before.

“How did all of this fit into that?" I
asked, honestly curious.

For the first time in what seemed to be
ages, he relaxed. A smile danced on his lips, which seemed to be
much fuller and so very appealing. Holy cow, hormones, let’s just
put that on the back burner and come back to it never. Trying to
distract myself, I moved back to the sofa and plopped down.
Standing next to him was giving me a size complex.

“Do you mind if I sit down to explain this?”
he asked as he moved my way.

I shook my head and he took the cushion next
to me on the sofa.

“Okay, so, how to explain this? It is kind
of like magic, but not. I can convince people that they see
something that is not really there. It is a mind trick of sorts.
Like at the gas station when no one noticed us go into the
bathroom. I can project it onto other people as well. I sort of
project myself in a way that is more socially normal than the way I
really appear. I know I am not making any sense.”

“What are you?" I asked simply. The most
complex question that came to my mind was "what are you?" Like he
was going to tell me he was a werewolf or vampire. I needed to cut
down on my novel intake it would seem.

“What I am is the same as you, just a little
different. I am a Guardian, a sworn protector of the Seers. I am
your Guardian to be more precise. I am sworn to keep you safe from
those that would do you harm. Hence, I kidnapped you to a cabin in
the middle of the Olympic National Park wilderness. I thought we
were safe in Chicago. I honestly did, and then he found you. He has
been looking for so long. But I am getting ahead of myself. Are you
following me so far?"

I nodded in encouragement. I was afraid if
he stopped I would not be able to get him talking again.

“Your mom is a Seer as well. She can predict
the future outcome of events. She can even predict various outcomes
of a situation based on the different choices that can be made. She
is amazing. She can pick out when a natural disaster will happen
within the second. She can even predict winning Lotto numbers if
she really wants to focus her attention that way. I have never seen
anything like her before. She is the best of all of the Seers
throughout history, and you are predicted to surpass even her." He
said this with a look of awe like it was a good thing.

“You keep saying she is. Kennan, she is
dead. She has been for a long time," I said with an obvious air of
confusion around me.

“No, she is not.”

With those four little words, he had
successfully flipped my world on its ear. If my mom was not truly
dead, then where had she been all of these years? Was she really
talking to me in my dreams? Suddenly an immense panic began to wash
over me threatened to pull me under. I felt like I was trapped in
an elevator in between floors. I was unable to catch my breath as
the cold sweat spread over my body. She was not dead. I could feel
myself start to lose consciousness, as if my brain was not equipped
to handle anymore crazy. Just as I started to fade I felt two
strong arms scoop me up.

**********

“
You can’t let him find you my love," my
mother said to me somewhere in the fog.

“
Who is he? Where are you? Are you even
really talking to me?” I asked the fog, even as I realized I was
dreaming once again.

“
Kennan will watch over you. Trust him,
trust no one else. And for the love of God do not come for me.
Whatever you do, you run. I have tried for so long to keep him from
you, but I am fading my love. So you stay alive, and don’t you dare
let him catch you.”

The fog started to lift and I saw her, for
the first time in more years than I could count. She was lying
there in front of me. She was strapped to some sort of hospital bed
with so many tubes coming out of her. There was something attached
to her head like a crown. She was not the strong lithe woman I
remembered. In her place there lay a frail, sickly looking woman
bearing an expression of anguish.

The closer I got, the more horrified I was.
How could I not look for her? How could I possibly leave her like
this? Just as I approached the bed, she opened her eyes and stared
at me. Then she opened her mouth and screamed.

“
No, you can’t be here. You have to go.
Please, go now!" She looked around her frantically as a dark shadow
started to seep in from the background.

I heard another voice. It was not as clear
as my mother's, and it seemed to originate from the inky blackness
that now surrounded her body.

“
Tisk Tisk, Little One. You can run, but
you can’t hide forever. Tell that Guardian we are coming for
you.”

I screamed as the inky splotch started
extending towards my body.

**********

I was being shaken, and I opened my eyes to
see Kennan. He was yelling my name and shaking me by my shoulders.
I took a deep breath that felt like the first I had taken in hours.
I stared into Kennan’s eyes as the tears start flowing.

“I’ve got you. I promise, I am not going
anywhere," he whispered into my hair.

How was it that in the past week my whole
life changed? My mother was not dead. My dreams were her, trying to
warn me. There was someone after me for a reason I had yet to
discover. I felt as though the past twenty-four years of my life
had been a lie. I needed to know more. I needed to feel like I had
at least a semblance of control over my life. And on top of
everything, Kennan was being too nice. It was freaking me out. I
took a steadying breath and sat up. It was time I got my head
wrapped around all of this.

“Who am I, Kennan and what are you to me? I
need to know everything. Is my dad alive somewhere strapped to a
bed like she is?” He took a steadying breath and looked my face
over as if he were searching for information.

“Izzy, there is so much I need to tell you.
You are safe here. They can’t reach you. This is one of our safe
houses. But first things first, I need to tell you the histories. I
need to tell you about your parents. I need to tell you about your
Grams, Mike, and me."

He looked at me as if I would bolt at any
second. Which, I supposed if I had any sense at all I would be
doing. But I kept hearing the echoes of my mother’s voice telling
me he was the only one I could trust, so I held firm.

Kennan started slowly, as if reluctant to
rid himself of the secrets that had been his companions for so many
years.

“Your dad and I were best friends, Iz. I
have known him since we were both boys. We grew up together. We
trained together. We were brothers in everything but blood. I would
have died in his place if I could. But none of that matters. What
does matter is that he died trying to save you and your mother. He
protected you when you could not protect yourself. He loved you
both more than I have ever seen any one person love another."

I stared at him, obviously confused. So I
got the whole Guardian thing, but now the whole vampire thing
seemed more plausible. There was no way that Kennan could be the
same age as my father. It was unfathomable. My father had graying
hair and crow’s feet around his eyes from smiling too much. My
confusion must have been evident. The next words out of Kennan’s
mouth confirmed there were things about the story that I would have
a much harder time believing.

“I will explain it all with the histories.
But first you need to know what happened to you and your mother,
and how you came into our protection. Your story really started on
that day, that horrible day all of those years ago, the day of the
wreck. It was a trap set up by Xavier’s people. He had been
searching for your mother for a long time. Your parents thought
they were safe in that hole-in-the-wall town in Alabama. Your
mother learned to hide her talents. Your father took up a job and
an appearance that was completely average. But they found them
anyway. They sabotaged the car. It flipped 5 times before it came
to a rest out in that peanut field. You all survived the initial
wreck surprisingly.”

I could not stand it anymore. His story was
completely different from my own memories.

“I was not in that car Kennan. I was at home
with a sitter.”

His eyes were becoming more withdrawn with
suffering by the moment.

“You were there. I know, because I saved you
and ran. When the car came to a rest, your mother took your
memories of it and replaced them with what you remember. Your
father, in an effort to save you lowered the seat in the back and
put you in the trunk of the car. He sent me a message telling me
where you were. When they came, your parents told them you were no
longer with them. They shot your father and took your mother. When
I got there he was barely alive. But he told me where you were. He
told me where to take you and he told me to keep you safe. They
made it so that once I found you, you would not remember.”

I could not stop the flow of tears as
memories came rushing to the surface. I remembered the crush of the
metal, the sound of my mother’s soothing voice telling me
everything would be okay. The sound of my father telling me he
loved me and that I needed to play the quiet mouse game. I
remembered the small closed in space and how I opened my eyes to
complete silence and darkness. And most of all I remembered
Kennan’s face in a bleary sort of way.

“So what about Grams, and Mike, and you? How
do you fit into this story? Why did they want my mother so
badly?”

“Grams and Mike are part of the safety net.
They aren’t like me, but they have all lost family to the
Corporation. They have both felt the brunt of pain that could have
been prevented. Pain caused to gain profit. So Grams took you in.
She loved you like you were her own. She had the power to mask your
presence, which is why you were kept safe all of the years you were
with her. Mike lost both of his sons to the Corporation. They were
collateral damage. So Mike, much like Grams, kept an eye on you
when I could not. I only came back into the picture after Grams
died because I promised your father I would keep you safe. The
closer it got to your twenty fifth birthday, the more danger you
were in. As much as it pained me to be close to you with the
constant reminder of what was lost, I could not deny the oath I
made to your father. So I stayed, and then you became mine.”

“I don’t understand. Everything you say
brings up more questions than answers. You say that you and my
father were childhood friends. But he was so much older than you.
You talk about this Corporation and how they are run by people like
you. But where does my mother fit in and why do they want me? What
does it mean that I am yours?”

“It is getting late Iz, you have already had
a lot to take in. Are you sure you want to hear all of this
tonight?" He ran his hand down his face, as if he could wash away
the memories that our discussion had brought to the surface.

“I need to know, Kennan. I need to know
everything so that I can figure out what in the hell to do. She has
been talking to me in my dreams. I lied when I told you I was not
having them anymore. She was telling me to run. But I thought it
was just a dream. Just now, when I passed out I saw her Kennan. She
was right there in front of me. She is wasting away to nothing and
they have her strapped to a table like some sort of lab experiment.
How can I leave her like that? And he was there. How did he get in
my dreams Kennan, can he hurt me there?”