Chapter 9
“Why did you have
him leave?” Angel asked after he had turned the corner.
“Does it make a
difference?”
“Not really,” she
answered. “But he is Caleb’s best friend.”
I noticed she didn’t say anything about
wanting Bret to stay, but I thought she didn’t care which one of us went. Besides, I wasn’t sure what the relationship
between those three would be when all was said and done. “Well, I really don’t want to spend the night
here, so let’s go get him.”
Maybe she thought
I enjoyed the look of the place, but I didn’t really want to stay there all
night either, and my man was waiting on me.
Angel opened the door and we walked inside. There wasn’t a whole lot of light in the
warehouse, but there was plenty of light due to the vast amount of windows and
the moonlight shining through it.
Visibility was not an issue here.
As for the
warehouse itself, it had the smell of rotten cardboard and dust. I could understand the reason for the smell
of cardboard because there were a considerable number of stacks of cardboard
boxes that reached the ceiling, and there was no telling how long they had been
there. They were all over the place, and
I wasn’t sure how anyone could walk around let alone drive a forklift around
all the stacks of boxes, and I could see why there were a lot of places to hide. There were
so many stacks Caleb could possibly hide here for a whole day of school and no
one probably would have found him. There was a staircase that went up
three-quarters of the way to the ceiling leading to a catwalk that stretched
the inner perimeter to some offices at the top of the warehouse. Now if the smell of old cardboard made sense,
the overwhelming smell of dust was out of place. Even with all of the cardboard boxes, the
place looked clean, or least as clean as it could look in the moonlight.
“Why don’t we
split up?” Angel asked.
“Sure.” It was actually a good idea. “I really don’t feel like spending half of
the night looking for someone who obviously doesn’t want to be found.”
“What?” Angel
said. “It was your idea to look for
him.”
“Actually it was
Bret’s idea,” I corrected her. “Do you
really want to walk home?”
“It wouldn’t be
the first time,” Angel answered. She
didn’t elaborate any further, but instead started walking in one direction while
I went the other. Walking around all of
these stacks of boxes was starting to make me feel like a mouse walking through
a maze trying to find the block of Swiss cheese. I kept turning one corner after another, but
I wasn’t sure if I was making any real progress. The stack of boxes just kept on coming, but
after about twenty minutes of walking around clueless, I ended up in what
looked like a clearing with no boxes. I
looked around and it seemed that I was in the center of the warehouse. It was a lot darker her then it was near the
door, however, I could see a lot more clearly than I had any right too. It was almost as if I was seeing through
someone else’s eyes.
Before I could
decide where I wanted to go next, I heard Angel’s voice coming from the
distance. “Caleb? Where the hell are you? You’re being a jackass, as usual.”
Talk about being
counterproductive. I was sure Caleb
would just come running right out of his hiding spot after being insulted. Sometimes that girl just amazed me.
“What are you
doing?” I could hear what sounded like some
kind of a struggle. “Let me go.”
The commotion was
coming from behind me, so I slowly turned about one hundred eighty degrees. Before I had completed the turn, I could see
what was happening out of the corner of my eye.
Caleb was dragging Angel out from between the cardboard boxes like a rag
doll. He was not at all gentle, but she
wasn’t coming along willingly and was putting up quite a fight. Of course being that he was so big, he took
care of her the easy way and just dragged her across the floor. That was an attractive way to treat his
girlfriend. I’m sure girls would just
flock to him after the two of them broke up.
Oh wait, he really wasn’t worried about that. I just stood there, watching them. He stood her up so that she was standing
straight, and he had produced a pretty wicked hunting knife and had it inches
from her neck. He was sneering
manically, and it was almost like we were all in some kind of really bad horror
movie.
“Ok, the joke is
over,” Angel said. “This is so. Not.
Funny.”
That didn’t stop
Caleb from laughing. “Sure it is. I know how much you hate losing, and it makes
this even more hilarious.” He was
sweating quite a bit, so Angel must have given him quite a workout while
dragging her out here. He finally
addressed me by asking, “Val, why aren’t you laughing?”
“You are more
pathetic than funny,” I answered.
“I’m pathetic?” he
asked. “I’m not the one with a knife to
my neck.”
Angel actually
laughed at him. “I bet that thing isn’t
even real. It looks like my little
cousin made it, and he’s four.”
“Are you sure
about that?” he asked. If he was trying
to pull off a menacing act, he was doing a very good job of it. When he spoke, I actually shivered from his
creepy tone. “How about I show you how
fake it actually is?” He then lowered
the knife from her neck, but that move didn’t lower any of the strength that he
used to hold her with. She struggled,
but she couldn’t move him at all. With
his free hand, grabbed her left hand and brought it up to the knife.
“Ouch,” she yelled
as Caleb cut her hand with the knife. It
wasn’t a particularly big or deep cut, but it did bleed, though she probably
wouldn’t need stitches. I thought he had
made his point. “You sick bastard.”
He just laughed at
her. “You can keep talking about how
fake this knife is, if you want,” he said as Angel bled. “It will just give me more opportunities to
make you bleed.”
“Funny. I wouldn’t have pegged you to be a sadist,” I
said. He didn’t respond but just looked at me, and I decided to get to the
point. “Did your brother, Scott, give
you that knife?”
That actually
surprised him. This was the first time I
had broken the mental control that he had over himself. I actually thought that he was going to try
and surprise me with that. I had to do a
little more for it to actually make much of a difference.
“How did you know
I had a brother?”
“How do you
think? Someone told me.” I had to let
him know that he didn’t scare me at all, but I also couldn’t let Angel get
hurt. “Obviously, I didn’t find out on
my own.”
“No really,” he
said acting shocked. “I know you’re not
that smart, no matter how much you try to act otherwise. I want to know who told you.”
Oh, he was going
to go the insult rout, and I was totally fine with it. He would lose. Plus I thought the more that I kept him
talking the more likely that he would make a mistake, or better yet, give me a
chance to turn the tables a bit.
“What can I
say? I have friends in high
places.”
The fact that I
wasn’t just cooperating with him seemed to really piss him off. I guess he thought just because he put a
knife to Angel’s neck that I was just going to just become a doormat. I wanted him to keep underestimating me. It was the same thing that got his brother
into trouble.
“High places?” He
said mocking me. “I know you aren’t
talking about Angel here. I wouldn’t
consider her to be ‘high places.’”
“Don’t bring me
into this,” Angel said. “I didn’t know
you had a brother. I don’t have anything
to do with this.”
“I know you
didn’t, but you have everything to do with this.”
I really didn’t
know what he was talking about here. He
must have really gone over the deep end, even more than putting a knife to his
girlfriend’s throat deep end. Angel had
just as much to do with Scott’s death as my mother did. Of course, Angel, having no clue as to what
he was talking about, must have been going nuts right about then.
“Dude, what the
hell are you talking about?”
“It’s simple
really.” His ability to stay calm while
raging mad was, at the same, time admirable and quite creepy. He hadn’t raised his voice since we’ve been
inside the warehouse. He was finally
being himself for once. The problem was being
a real nut job wasn’t at all likeable. He
continued on. “I’m making you a part of
it. Why, you ask? Well, because I’m sick and tired of you. I’m tired of you being loud, obnoxious, and,
most of all, I’m tired of you insulting me all the time, and treating me like I
have the IQ of a doorknob.”
As much as those
were valid reasons to break up with her, they weren’t good enough to be holding
a knife to her throat. Why did he stay
with her so long in the first place? I
was sure I would have my answer soon enough.
“Caleb, if you wouldn’t act like a person with
the IQ of a doorknob, than people won’t treat you like one.” That definitely wasn’t the response that
Angel needed to give him. Not if she
wanted him to remove the knife from her throat.
As a matter of fact, after she had said that, he moved it closer. However, Angel continued on. “I’m not saying you’re stupid, as a matter of
fact, I know you’re quite intelligent.
However, you can’t get all mad when you put on the dumb guy act, and
people start to treat you like you actually are dumb. Sooner or later they are going to believe it,
so this is all of your own doing.”
Again, when she
started to actually say something that actually had a chance of helping, she just
had to turn around and ruin it. The last
thing Caleb wanted to hear was that he was to blame for anything that was
happening right now. I was going to have
to keep her quiet because she wasn’t helping her own cause here. It was too bad my magic didn’t have the
ability to silence her because I would have definitely used it.
It wasn’t
necessary at the moment because he basically ignored her and spoke to me. “You haven’t answered my question. Who told you?”
“I don’t really
understand why it matters all that much,” I said determined not to answer his
question. “I was going to find out
anyway. As a matter of fact, you were
going to tell me.”
“I don’t care
whether or not it matters.” Again, even though he was becoming more and more
agitated from my lack of being accommodating, he remained calm. People like him were the worst to deal with
because they always appeared calm, so they didn’t give much feedback due to the
lack of their facial expressions betraying their thoughts. “See, you are mistaken in the assumption that
this is negotiable. I’m calling the
shots here. Now who told you?”
I didn’t respond
right away. I was still trying to think
of a way out, hopefully without using the magic. He seemed to know a lot of things, but as of
right now, he didn’t know that. I had
planned on keeping it that way, at least for now.
“I’ll make this
easy for you.” The voice was very
familiar voice, one I wasn’t sure I was happy to hear. I figured it wasn’t all together bad, so I
should have been happy to see him. It
didn’t make matters any worse. “I told
her.”
Caleb turned and looked
at Solorio; and, of course, was instantly confused. The detective must not have a habit of
stopping at his house, or calling him on his cell phone. “Who the hell are you?” He was more amused than he was angry. It was at that moment I started to suspect he
was, in a sick sort of way, enjoying all of this.
The good detective identified himself, and he
went out of his way to say he was in charge of the investigation into his
brother’s death, but he didn’t show his identification, which I was sure should
have got him some kind of reprimand after all this was over. However, he didn’t need to because no one
doubted that he was telling the truth.
He had that kind of presence going, and it was something he hadn’t shown
in any of our two previous meetings. He
was trying to assert himself here in a way that was not needed before, it was
successful. He also wasn’t dressed in
his normal suit and tie get up. It was a
different look and it suited him, even though he did clean up well regardless. He was another one of those who aged
well. My mother sure had some
genetically blessed friends. If he had a
weapon on him, I couldn’t tell from looking at him. He looked very much like he was going to head
to a movie with his wife in jeans and a button down white shirt, but he wore no
wedding band.
Caleb was actually
excited to see him, and said. “Oh you’ve
been following Val, so you figure out how she killed my brother.”
“No.” It was
actually rather comical to see Caleb’s smile disappear from his face after Solorio
shot that down. “I was following
you. Trying to figure out why you sent
your brother after her in the first place.”
That stunned
Caleb, not to mention Angel. However,
before Caleb could respond the detective directly spoke to Angel, asking her if
she was okay. Her response: “I’m okay,
except for the bleeding hand, thanks to this bastard.”
Solorio sounded
really sincere when he said. “I’ll get
you out this without any more harm.”
“That would be
this psycho’s last mistake,” Angel said.
“He had better kill me because if he doesn’t, I’ll castrate him.”
“That can be
arranged,” Caleb said.
The detective was
taken aback by the exchange. However, he
didn’t respond to the two of them directly, but instead turned to me. “Is she always like this?”
“Unfortunately,” I
said. “That is vintage Angelica
Hernandez you are experiencing. She’s
normally a barrel of laughs, but very counterproductive in hostage situations.”
“Why is
that?” Solorio must have wanted to keep
the mindless conversation going for as long as possible.
“She doesn’t know
when to shut the hell up.” Caleb
said. “And most of the time there isn’t
a reliable connection between her mouth and her brain.”
Despite the serious situation, everyone
except Angel was cracking up. Caleb, however, quickly dropped the humor.
“So did you find
out what you were looking for?” he asked.
“I have an idea,
but right now I’m not worried about that,” Solorio said. Caleb was skeptical and to be honest, so was
I. “Let Angel go, and I can help you.”
That was an interesting
tactic, and I was quite curious as to how he could help him. Caleb?
He was still skeptical. “How are
you going to help me? You don’t even
know me.”
“I know you better
than you think.” Solorio’s tone was
steady. He wasn’t the least bit frustrated,
and it was even weirder that it seemed as if he knew exactly what he was
talking about. “I know what you’re
feeling, and I can get you through it.”
“Really,” Caleb
said. The manic laughter had returned. “What
ever. You’re starting to bore me. I’d rather talk about Val’s fire starting
abilities. That is way more interesting”
I think I might
have been the only one who wasn’t surprised by that. “You are seriously deluded,” Angel said. “No one knows what you’re talking about.”
“She does.”
The detective shot
me a confused glance, but before he could respond, he suddenly slump over,
falling to the floor. He was starting to
bleed from the back of his head, and standing over him was Blaine.
“I figured now was
the time to make my entrance,” Blaine
said. He dropped the crowbar he had used
to clobber Solorio, and the noise from it hitting the ground was
excruciating. He looked at me. “You
don’t seem so surprised to see me.”
“Well, I’m
surprised,” Angel said.
“Why should I be?”
I asked him. “I was wondering what was
taking you so long to show up.”
“I’ve always
wanted to make a dramatic entrance.” Blaine
joked.
“You’re not really
good at trying to be a badass. That was
never a strong point for you.”
Surprisingly, it was Caleb who had said that, and I couldn’t even
imagine coming up with the look that would compare to the evil one Blaine gave Caleb. I had to admit it was outstanding, albeit a bit
out of place. Weren’t these two supposed
to be working together? Caleb just
laughed at him, but Blaine
ignored him.
“So you knew?” Blaine asked me.
“Of course, I
knew,” I said. “How else would Caleb
have known about the fire?”
“How did you know
Angel didn’t tell him?”
“You can’t be
serious.” I looked at him
pathetically. “Angel has her fair share
of issues.” I shushed her with a hand
when she started to protest and continued, “Everyone does, but being disloyal
isn’t one of them. Add the fact you’re
the only one who had seen me use the fire, even though I didn’t know what was
happening at the time, it wasn’t hard to figure out you were the one who told
him.”
“Here I thought the
mind reader had told you.”
“And you would be
wrong,” I said to Blaine’s
shock. “I figured you had told Caleb about
the fire only after he mentioned it a couple of minutes ago. Don’t get too cocky because I know you have
been telling him a lot of things. The
only reason she didn’t actually tell me was because by the time we had the
conversation, I had already figured it out.
She did tell me that you had talked to her.”
He didn’t attempt
to deny it. “Yeah, I did. After I followed you to her place, and then
to the park in La Jolla, I went in to see
her. She didn’t contradict my
suspicions, but she was more interested in talking about me and wasn’t very
helpful otherwise.”
“I’m sure that
annoyed you,” I retorted. “I know how
much you hate talking about yourself.”
He responded with
laughter. “I guess I deserve that.” I still didn’t understand why he was even
here. From the look he gave Caleb, he
was holding some resentment. “She told
me you would figure things out eventually.”
“Well, you made
some mistakes, I said to him. “You were
way too eager in trying to figure out how Bret and I were getting along. Then you made one big mistake, just the other
day. When talking about Caleb and Angel,
you said that you agreed with Bret’s assessment, but you said they should be
together. If you agreed with Bret, then
there was no reason they should have been together. You were hiding what was really going
on. All the time you were telling
everything to Caleb while doing only God knows what else with him.”
“He asked me
too. I didn’t really know why, and he
didn’t explain.”
“So you just did
it?” Angel asked. “God, talk about
stupid.”
“I had my reasons,
but most of all, the fire intrigued me.
However, I didn’t know he had sent his brother after Val. Hell, I didn’t even know he had a brother.”
“It was something
I was good at keeping from everyone.”
Caleb was kind of basking in how he swindled everyone. “He’s only my half brother, but my dad hates
him. I’ve always gotten along with him
just fine, but my dad really didn’t want me being around him.” He paused to let this sink in for everyone
else. I guess getting kicked out of the
Navy for being an unapologetic racist and having a rap sheet a mile long would
make any dad feel that way. “I figured
he would jump at the chance to try to scare you senseless of seeing Bret, so I
talked him into arranging a rendezvous with you. He didn’t disappoint. He called me after he saw you at the gas
station, but I didn’t really think he would catch up to you that night. I also didn’t think he was going to end up
dead afterwards. It didn’t matter that I
didn’t like him all that much. I’m the
only one who is allowed to mess with him.”
I couldn’t argue. I felt the same
way about my brother. I’m the only one
who is allowed to beat him up.
“It’s funny,” I
said. “I also wouldn’t have pegged you
to be a closet racist.”
“That’s because he
isn’t,” Angel said finally figuring out what the three of us had all ready
known. “It’s a totally different kind of
closet.” She made the connection when it
became apparent that Caleb and Blaine were actually still talking to each other
and were hiding it from her. “How could
you do that to people?”
Caleb wasn’t at all
impressed. “Don’t try to act all high
and mighty. What you actually mean is
how I could do this to you.”
“I guess the rumor he was spreading about you
was actually true the whole time.”
“I’ll save you the
trouble,” Caleb said relishing in the idea of actually being truthful for
once. “The whole thing was my idea.”
I looked at Blaine.
“That was another one of your mistakes.
Your account of Caleb’s reaction contradicted Bret’s. Of course this time, it was an outright
lie. You said Bret kept Caleb calm. However, Bret said Caleb wasn’t even worried
about it and that didn’t make any sense what so ever. Despite whatever was going on between you
two, I’m more inclined to believe Caleb’s best friend’s account over yours, and
I don’t know any straight guy who isn’t going to get a little upset, if someone
spreads a rumor that he is gay. The fact
the two of you were supposed to be friends would have made the whole thing even
worse.”
Angel looked
almost sick. If she was trying to put up
a brave front after what she just found out, she was failing miserably. “I can’t believe this after all we’ve been
through.”
“Aw,” Caleb
mocked, “Don’t get crazy about all the sex we’ve had, and it was good stuff. As a matter of fact, it’s the reason why I
kept you around for so long, and it made keeping up appearances a lot
easier. Besides, sex is not really a big
deal. Just about every species in the
world does it except for asexual amoebas.
Humans are the only ones who put some emotional attachment to it, and
look at all the problems it causes.”
His coldness was staggering
to all three of us, and if there was any chance that any one of the two of them
were going to forgive him for any of this, it was gone. Blaine was just as pissed as Angel was
starting to get. As expected, Caleb
wasn’t really worried about what the two of them thought because the person he
really cared about wasn’t there.
However, when he turned and looked at Blaine, he softened a bit, but
only a little.
“Come on,” he said
to Blaine, “You
knew how I felt all of this time. This
should have been no surprise to you.
We’ve even talked about it.”
Blaine, however, was having none of it. “Even if that were true, it doesn’t change
the fact that you used everyone who cared about you, and not even for a good
reason. You used me. You used Angel and your brother, and for
what? It wasn’t like getting Val and
Bret to stop seeing each other was just going to magically make Bret fall in
love with you. Oh, wait! I guess you took the position of, if you couldn’t
have him then no one could.” Blaine didn’t attempt to
hide his disdain. “But the most cowardly
thing about all of this was you couldn’t even be man enough to do any of it
yourself. You had to have everyone else
do your dirty work for you.”
“Well, of course,
he did.” I said. “He had a reason for it. He knew he couldn’t convince Bret on his own that
I was such a horrible person. It would just
alienate Bret, possibly to the point of ruining their friendship, and Caleb
would lose him totally. Now, at first,
he didn’t have to do much because I was very skeptical of Bret, and for very
good reason. Bret didn’t exactly put
forth a very good first impression, and there was a chance Caleb would have
gotten what he wanted by just keeping his mouth shut. What changed, however, was that Bret had
noticed his playa act wasn’t working the way he thought it would and he changed
his tactics. Then the baseball game
happened, and the two of us had such a good time that night and had grown so
much closer that it changed everything. Caleb
had to have talked to Bret pretty soon after that night and came to the
conclusion that he had to do something.
As I said, he wasn’t going to convince Bret, so convincing me was Caleb’s
only option. Unfortunately for him, and his
brother, he seriously underestimated me, and it had disastrous results.” I turned and looked at Caleb. “That’s about right, isn’t it?”
Caleb still hadn’t
lost his manic smile. “I see you have
everything figured out.”
“Not.” I said to
him. “I still don’t know why you went
through the whole purpose of trying to fool everyone else about your sexual
orientation. Why start a rumor no one
was going to believe anyway? It seemed a
little like overkill to me.”
“Because you
really don’t know what is going on.”
Caleb said. “There were only a
few people I had to worry about. Some,
unfortunately, talk outside of school and have some connections with my parents. I
didn’t want anything to get back to my dad.”
“Your dad,” Angel
said in disbelief. “Your dad was the
last person you had to worry about. He is
a television producer. Being homophobic
isn’t an admirable trait in the industry.”
“As usual, you’re
running your mouth with no clue as to what you’re talking about.” I could tell Caleb was starting to get a
little frustrated because he was losing control of everyone. He wasn’t able to use everyone who cared
about him like he could probably just the day prior. He continued on. “It isn’t the same thing. My being gay isn’t exactly the same as
someone who isn’t blood related to him being gay. People always act different when their kids
are involved.”
As crazy as Caleb
was starting to turn out, no one could really contradict that point. I had said the same thing when it came to
interracial relationships just last week.
It didn’t mean that Angel was willing to cut him any kind of slack.
“So you go all
narcissistic on everyone?” Blaine said, and if Caleb
was looking for any sympathy from the other gay person there, he was hugely
mistaken. However, I wasn’t sure
narcissistic was the word Blaine
wanted there. “You would make the
perfect A-list celebrity, so I guess it makes sense you want to be an
actor. You’ve made an art of using
people for your benefit, and to honest I’m quite tired of it. Now it seems everything has crumpled around
you and you have no one. I can’t deal
with getting that one physical pleasure without the emotional attachment, as
you so well put it. You can find someone
else to treat like hell.”
If there was any
question as to how deep the relationship between those two were, it was
answered right then. Caleb, however, was
again not impressed. The one thing
Blaine had forgotten, or didn’t know in the first place, was that Caleb didn’t
really respect him to begin with, so if Blaine was expecting what he said to
have an effect, he was seriously mistaken.
“Who cares,” Caleb
said. “I’m a little tired of all
this. I want to see the magic.”
“Oh great,” Angel
said. “I guess we are back to Caleb, the
nutcase.”
Caleb wasn’t fazed
at all. “I don’t care. I want to see it. I’ve heard a lot about it, but I have no
reason to believe it’s true. I want to
see it.”
I was trying to
avoid this. I didn’t want to use the
magic unless I was using it for a valid.
He was trying to force me to use it in a way that would not necessarily
benefit me. However, I still wanted to
do it, to basically show him what he was actually dealing with. I had a suspicion he didn’t really think of
me as being much of a threat, even though he knew what I had done to his
bother. I think he was a little bit in
denial, and I was more than a little willing to mess with his head a little
more.
“I want to see it
too,” Blaine
said.
“Why?” I asked
him. “It’s not like you haven’t seen it
before.”
“Okay,”
Angel. “I guess everyone has really lost
their damn mind.”
We all ignored
her, which was quickly becoming common place.
“I know it was an accident,” Blaine said. “I don’t think you really knew what you were
doing, so I want to see it.”
“Fine,” I said
coming to a decision, and before anyone could say anything or react, I brought
the fire. I did it in the same way I did
in the previous situation with Caleb’s brother.
However, the effect was a little different. Not in the spell itself, but in everyone’s
reaction to it. Surprisingly enough, Blaine was a fast
one. He quickly moved out of the way of
the fire ball, and the fire passed by him crashing into the stack of cardboard
boxes behind him. Of course, as before,
the fire grew as it hit the boxes and quickly engulfed all the other stacks near
it. All of them went up in flames,
totally destroying probably hundreds of dollars of Xerox paper.
“Who would have
thought,” said a surprised Angel.
Even though using
the magic had the desired effect on all three of them, it did have some
unforeseen consequences. Due to the
burning ash, the whole warehouse started to fill with smoke, and the
temperature started to rise dramatically.
I was able to deal with the smoke easily enough by creating a wind spell,
without anyone else noticing, carrying all of the smoke out of the open window
near the entrance to the warehouse. It
didn’t really do much to lower the temperature, and the place was quickly
starting to feel like an oven, but at least I didn’t have to worry about
choking to death. Also, I had
inadvertently triggered the sprinkler systems, and in seconds I was soak and
wet. All of the water, coupled with the
heat, started to create a steamy mist that floated in the air throughout the
warehouse. Of course, setting off the
sprinklers meant the fire department would show up within minutes. The police were probably on their way also,
if Detective Solorio hadn’t called them before he had entered the warehouse,
which was a lot more likely.
I looked for the others,
and despite the fact my ability to see clearly should have been hampered by all
the steam, I could see perfectly. It was
weird and a little disconcerting because even though I wasn’t at the time using
the magic, I could still sense it in my ability to see through the steamy mist
I had created. I saw no one. Blaine
must have gotten scared and ran out of the warehouse. What a coward. On the other hand, Caleb and Angel were still
in the warehouse, and as with my ability to see, I could hear the two of them a
lot better than I had any right too. It
was almost as they were standing right in front of me and shouting, and from
what I could hear it was Angel, predictably, doing most of the shouting. From what I could gather, Caleb had used the
little bit of confusion with the fire and smoke to drag Angel away. I was surprised he didn’t just let go of her,
and I bet he was wishing he had. I could
hear her struggling, and yelling at him.
In a span of five seconds she had called him every derogatory name she
could think of, and none of them had anything to do with Caleb’s just revealed
sexual orientation. People said what
they wanted about her, but no one could say she was homophobic. I decided to let the shouting lead me directly
to their location. It didn’t take
long. I had found the two of them in
about thirty seconds. As I expected,
Caleb was dragging her around like a rag doll basically because she was being
too difficult for him to do otherwise.
They didn’t notice my presence, so I had to clear my throat to get
Caleb’s attention. He swung Angel around
so forcefully that both of her feet became airborne during the turn.
When the two of
them were facing me, I said. “Thought you could get away from me huh?”
Caleb just
snorted, which was seriously unattractive.
I mean a guy that looks like him snorting. Ew. Even
for gay guys, who have higher standards than most women, that was not a
turn-on. “That’s okay. I’ll be rid of
the two of you soon enough.”
“What are you
going to do?” Angel said. “Kill the two of us.”
“Why not?” He
asked. “She killed my brother, and you
would be the jealous person who wanted her boyfriend. It is payback, baby.” He went a lot further, but he obviously wasn’t
going to be a fiction writer, and should basically stick to acting out things
other people wrote. His story had so
many holes even a five-year-old could have seen through it.
“You know,” Angel
said to me, “Why don’t you just burn his ass and be done with it?”
Caleb laughed at
her. “She would end up hitting you
first.”
He was really
starting to annoy me. “You really have a
lot to say about things you know nothing about.”
“What is there to
know?” he asked with confidence. “Its fire
and we are all wet, not to mention the sprinklers are still running.”
As much as I hated
to admit it, he was right. I couldn’t
use the fire with the sprinklers still running.
It seemed like Angel’s heart sunk after she heard that.
“So what are you
going to do now?” he asked taunting me.
He then laughed and he looked incredibly menacing with his hair being
all wet and flat on his head. He moved
the knife closer to Angel’s throat.
“I’ll just repeat
myself,” I said. “You seem to talk a lot
about things that you know nothing about.”
“You say it like
it’s some kind of warning.”
“Take it as you
choose.”
“Well,” he said
considering. My tone seemed to catch him
off guard, and he really started to think about what he was saying. He didn’t do it nearly long enough. “I think you are the one who has no idea what
you’re talking about.”
“I don’t?”I
asked. I laughed, effectively mocking
him. My tone made it clear to the two of
them I knew exactly what I was talking about.
Despite that, I said, changing my tone, “Okay, I don’t know what I’m
talking about.”
I folded my arms across my chest, and fixed my
eyes on him. “You have other things to
worry about.”
He again laughed
at me mockingly. “What could I possibly
have to worry about?”
I looked at him
quizzically. “You tell me,” I said. “Aren’t you starting to feel a little cold
right about now?”
Both were confused
about my last question, causing them both to look like a deer caught in
headlights. However, I kept my focus on
Caleb.
“Um, Val,” Angel
said. “What’s wrong with you? It’s like a hundred degrees in here.”
That was actually
inaccurate because the cold water from the sprinklers had dropped the
temperature a bit, but not enough where cold would have been an accurate
description.
“I wasn’t asking
you,” I said to her, but my eyes never left Caleb.
However, he could
not answer. Caleb, at my suggestion, had
started to shiver. It was very little at
first, but soon he started to shiver so bad he had dropped the knife, and it
landed harmlessly on the floor. Because he hadn’t shaved, icicles had started
to form around the hair follicles on his face and upper lip. The spell I had cast on him was doing a real number
on him, and the fact that he was soak and wet wasn’t doing him any favors. He still was able to keep a hold on Angel,
but not for long. He had tightened his
grip on her after he had dropped the knife to keep her from running away. However, when he made the mistake of touching
her uncovered arm, she left out a loud scream.
His touch was that cold. She
quickly and easily twisted herself out of his grasp. She was beside me in an instant. I then switched gears and broke the spell I
was casting, and quickly cast another one.
It took a little more time than I anticipated for the spell to
appear. Caleb was able to stand up right
and look around like he was trying to see who had playfully smacked him on the
back of his head. The extreme cold had
left him, but before he could get his bearing, a hurricane force blast had
picked him up and carrying him about fifty feet and smashing him into the
warehouse wall. That had to hurt, and he
landed on the ground in a crumpled heap.
I had purposely taken quite a bit off of the spell, but even it didn’t stop
me from grimacing when he hit the wall. My
effort was going to at least produce a couple of broken ribs.
I instantly turned
and left him there. My first concern was
for the Detective, and Angel had decided to follow. I guess she wasn’t really that worried about
her ex at the moment, if at all.
“That was
interesting. I’ll have to remember not
to piss you off,” Angel said with tentative laughter. I didn’t respond so she continued. “I have one question?”
“What?” I wasn’t sure I was really in a talkative
mood at the moment.
“How was Blaine able to dodge that
fireball?”
I had to admit it
was a fair question and deserved an answer.
“He didn’t dodge it.”
“So you missed?”
“No.”
“Okay, that
doesn’t make any sense,” Angel pressed. “Either
he dodged it, or you missed. It’s one or
the other.”
I stopped walking
and turned and looked at her. “Like I
said, I don’t miss.”
“That is not what
you said the first time,” Angel countered.
“You originally said you didn’t miss.
It’s not the same thing as saying you don’t miss which implies missing
isn’t possible.”
“Let me make this
easy for you,” I said turning to completely face her. “I don’t miss. When I use the magic, I never miss, and
dodging the attack is not possible.”
Angel thought
about that for a second. “So you’re
saying you missed on purpose?”
She sounded like
the possibility was totally inconceivable, and I had to laugh. “That’s one way of putting it. If I hadn’t purposely missed we would have
one dead body on our hands.”
“Only one?” Angel
asked turning back to look at Caleb.
I turned and
walked away. My only response was a
“We’ll see.” I knew she wouldn’t have
understood why I did what I did, so I didn’t bother to explain further. I had purposely aimed at the boxes that were
behind Blaine
without making him my actual target. I
had wanted the fire to come as close to him as possible without actually
hitting him, and I wasn’t exactly sure it was going to work out exactly the way
I had wanted. The fact that everyone had
thought that I had missed was just icing on the cake.
When we had
reached the detective, the sprinklers had finally stopped pouring out water,
and the sirens could be heard. It took
them long enough. We ignored them, and
focused on Solorio. He wasn’t looking
too good. There was a pool of blood
under his head, which thankfully wasn’t too big and wasn’t growing. Then again, I had never been bashed with a
crowbar, so I no idea of the seriousness of his injuries. Angel knelt down and took his pulse.
“For once, all
that CPR and First Aid training we went through is getting put to good
use.” She looked up at me and
smiled. “Well at least he is alive and
breathing. I’m not sure for how long
though.”
It was interesting
because I really didn’t need her to tell me.
It was something that I could feel, and I wasn’t entirely sure it had
anything to do with the magic. My enhanced
visual and audio capabilities had inexplicably vanished a few minutes back.
“I hope the fire
department gets in here soon,” Angel said.
“It would be such a waste if he were to die here. He’s too cute.”
I couldn’t help
but laugh, despite the seriousness of the situation. “Too cute?
He’s probably old enough to be your dad.”
“How do you know?”
“He’s friends with
my mom, so he’s too old for you.”
I was quite
worried because something was telling me I couldn’t wait. However, I wasn’t really sure as to what I
was supposed to have done. I wasn’t a
doctor, no matter how much I wanted to be.
I sat down next to his lying body and looked him over. I could tell he was breathing, but it was
taking him a lot of work just to do that.
Sitting there helplessly staring at him started to frustrate me. Of all of the things I could do, I couldn’t
believe there was nothing I could do to help him.
I told you that
you are going to have a decision to make.
If you remember everything that I’ve told you, you should be fine.
The thought had
come into my head from out of no where.
It was what Debra had told me earlier in the day. Obviously, she knew I was probably going to
be sitting there next to the detective in that exact moment. She had probably known from back when we
first met. I frantically tried to remember
everything she told me during our conversations. I came up with nothing, but I figured I was
trying to hard. I took a deep breath and
thought back again starting from the moment that we had first met.
The second thing is that if the magic allows
you to one thing, you usually can do the opposite.
The thought had
hit me like I had just struck myself with lightning of my own making. It was something that was easily missed initially
probably because at the time, I was too busy making jokes and being
difficult. There, however, was my
answer. I had to just think of Debra’s
own abilities for the proof. Debra could
read the mind of anyone she came into contact with. That in itself wasn’t the most important
part. She also could see that person’s
past, and that must have been her main ability.
The mind reading was just secondary and probably came with the
territory. Going by that logic, the
opposite of being able to tell the past, was to tell the future. It was something she was able to do in
spades. Using the same logic, my ability
was to use magic to destroy or damage things, even to the point of causing
death to living things. Did that mean I
could use the magic to heal? According
to the logic in question, that should be the right answer. However, Debra had also told me that magic
didn’t always work in ways that would make logical sense. As a matter of fact, she gave me a hard time
about it. However, there was one thing
that made me think I had stumbled onto the right answer, and it was she had
went out of her way to make sure she had told me I could probably perform the
opposite of what was the main ability.
It wasn’t a topic of the discussion that was already taking place when she
had brought it up. She had told me for
a reason, and it had to have been just for this moment.
I had nothing to
lose but to try, and I sat there for a couple of minutes trying to will the
magic to work to no avail. It was a
pathetic display really.
“Val,” Angel said
effectively breaking my focus. “I don’t
think this is really the time to go into a psychotic trance.”
“You know,” I
sighed. “Could you, for once, just shut
up?”
She quickly shut
her yap, but what she said was actually quite helpful. She had, in patented Angel fashion, had let
me know I was trying to hard. I wasn’t
really giving her that much credit because she was actually saying it to be a
smartass. It just happened to let me
know what I was doing wrong. I had never
been able to get the magic to work by putting a lot of effort into it. The one thing about the magic itself that
always baffled me was it was so easy to use.
It didn’t take much thought or concentration, so putting a lot of
thought and energy into it was not going to work. It hadn’t worked before, so why would it
now? Keeping that in mind, I used the
magic as I had done in the past, putting in little effort.
At first, I wasn’t
sure if it was working. There wasn’t any
kind of light or anything I could see that was giving me a sign that I making
any kind of progress. However, after about
thirty seconds and with me close to giving up, the Detective suddenly opened
his eyes and quickly lifted himself up into a sitting position effectively
scaring the two of us.
“What?” he
asked. He was confused and kept looking
back and forth at us. “Why are you
looking at me like I should be dead?”
“Because you
should be,” Angel answered him.
Solorio, learning
quickly, ignored her, and started to stand.
“I don’t think
that is very wise,” I said to him.
“Why not?” The Detective got to his feet with no problem
and turned and noticed the blood sitting where his head had just been. He seemed to put things together and rubbed
the back of his head. His remark, “Damn,
I’ve got blood in my hair. That’s going
to be hell to get out,” was quite funny.
Angel was just as
amused as was I. “Dude, you got
clobbered on the back of the head with a crowbar,” she said. “You should be lucky there isn’t brain fluid
leaking out of your head.” This last
episode didn’t teach her lessons about being vile.
He shot her a
questioning glance and then turn to me.
“Why are the two of you so wet, and where’s Caleb?”
“If you hadn’t
noticed, you’re not exactly bone dry,” I answered.
“Yeah, Sleeping
Beauty,” Angel continued for me. “You
missed all the fun.” She started to walk
away saying, “I’m going to go check on Snow White back there.”
Solorio looked at
me after she was out of sight and said, “What in the hell is going on?”
I had no intention
of giving him an answer. “Follow her and
you’ll find out.”
With that, I
turned and started to retrace Angel’s steps.
He reluctantly followed. He was
quickly caught up and was right beside me, and if he had any effects of the
battle with Blaine
and the crowbar, he didn’t show it. He
was walking normal, like nothing had happened to him. I must have healed him totally, and for that,
I was quite glad, and relieved. However,
I still had a question for him.
“Detective?”
“Yeah,” he said.
“You said you knew
Caleb better than he thought.” I asked
him, “What did you mean by that?”
He let out a
breath before answering. “I knew exactly
what he was going through.”
“How?”
“I’ve been through
it before myself,” he explained. “Of
course my handling of it was a lot different then his.” He paused.
“Stop looking at me like I just told you that your mom died.”
“I can’t help it,”
I stammered. I wasn’t expecting that at
all. “Does my mom know?”
He laughed at my
question. “Does she know?” he said through giggles. “She knew before I did.
“Your mom and I
had always got along well, even though she was a few years older than me. I once wanted to ask out her youngest
sister. I think your mom was in college
at the time, and I wanted to make sure I wasn’t wasting my time. When I brought it up, you mom just laughed at
me and said something like, ‘Jose, you don’t want anything to do with
Joyce. You really want to be with
Anthony.’ I really didn’t want to be
with your uncle, but she had made her point.”
I could help but
laugh, because Mom would definitely say something like that. However, we didn’t talk about it further. We found Angel kneeling at Caleb’s side. I promptly left the Detective and knelt down
on the other side of Caleb, directly across from her. I didn’t say anything, but, instead, looked
at her. She seemed hesitant to touch him
and just watched him, her long brown hair covering her face and eyes. The silence lasted so long I wasn’t sure if
she was aware of my presence.
Finally, she
spoke. “You know,” she started. “Deep down, I think….I think, I had always
known.” It was tough for her to admit
this, and after looking at her a little more closely I could see tears running
down her cheeks effectively ending the strong girl act she had putting on for
so long. “I didn’t want to believe it
was true, and I kept denying it enough that I started to believe he wasn’t,
even though deep down I knew otherwise.
I would think that what I had was too good. How could he possibly not want me?” She
finally looked up at me, but kept talking.
“I think that was why I had gotten so mad at Blaine last spring.” She looked back down at him and continued,
“He had basically confirmed what I had known all along, and it really upset me
because he had also confirmed that everything about our relationship had been a
lie. It hurt so much, because it was at
that moment I knew I meant nothing to him, and I needed him. I could have stopped him a while ago just by
accepting the truth, but I couldn’t, and he used that.”
She looked me
directly in the eye. “Val, don’t bring
him back.” Even I was not expecting
that. I didn’t respond immediately, and
I could tell from looking at her that even saying that last thing hurt her, so I
wasn’t sure she had meant what she just said.
“I’m serious. Don’t use the magic
like you did on the detective.”
I glanced at the
detective and he looked dubious. He also
had his gun out. Wasn’t it a little late
for that? He should have had that thing out a long time
ago, not that it would have made any difference. It had to have come out of thin air, because
based on what he was wearing, I couldn’t figure out where he had hidden it.
“Put that thing away,”
I said to him.
“No,” he
said.
“Why do you need
it? He’s unconscious and not waking
up.”
“And what if he does
wake up?”
“That’s not going
to happen,” I insisted. “Put it away. If he was really that much of a danger, you
wouldn’t have let us near him.”
The Detective gave
me an intense stare, and when he saw I wasn’t backing down, he put the gun
away, but not in the same place where he had got it from, just in case he
needed quick access to it. I looked down
at Caleb for the first time and did a quick assessment. It didn’t look like he was bleeding, at least
not from what I could see. He was
breathing but it was rather labored. It
was even worse then when we came upon Solorio a little earlier. He must have had some broken ribs and
possibly more. He was out cold and
wasn’t going anywhere.
“Look, Angel,” I
said gently. “I can’t do what you ask.”
“Why not?”
“To start,” I
said. “You don’t really want that. Look,
I know you’re hurt and angry, but this is not what you want. You don’t want me to leave him die.”
“But he needs to
pay.”
“Who says he
won’t?” I asked her. “I’m sure the good
detective here will make sure of that, but this isn’t the answer. Caleb did some stupid things out of love, as
much as even he would deny it. He
wouldn’t have gone through all of this if it was for anything else. You can’t deny that. Yes, he’s made some mistakes, but those
mistakes were also made out of love. My
mom has always said hate and love are on different sides of the same coin. They both make you do things that are
irrational, things you wouldn’t do under normal circumstances because they both
require the same deep feelings. I
believe that is what happened. He made
mistakes out of love for someone he knew wouldn’t love him the same way. However, love can easily turn into hate
because they require the same exact feelings, and I don’t want you to make the
same mistakes out of hate.”
She looked at me
and said, “You seem to have quickly forgiven him.”
“True,” I
said. “But I have other reasons for
it. I didn’t want to kill him in the
first place. If I had wanted to do that
I’ve would have done it outright.” I
paused and glanced at Solorio. His look
was unreadable, and I turned back to Angel and continued, “But that is not what
the magic is for, or at least not for me. As a matter of fact, it’s not even my
personality. I want to be a doctor. I want save lives, not take them.”
She considered
what I had said for a few seconds. “What
about what had happened to his brother?”
The question was
expected, considering the circumstances.
“Look,” I said. “That was an
accident. I didn’t even know what was
going on at the time. Plus, if anything,
you should know me better than that.”
She again
considered my request, taking less time than she did a second ago. Having apparently made her decision, she got
up and stood over next to Detective Solorio, who had to have been losing his
mind right about then.
“Fine,” she
said. “Do what you have to do.”
However, the
decision didn’t come easily for me. I
knew what I should do, but I wasn’t sure I actually wanted to do it. Of all the things I had been through this
past week, had all been because of him, and Caleb lying there with his life
basically in my hands left me with a feeling of power I had never felt
before. Not even using the magic earlier
in the week had left me feeling as powerful as I felt right then at that moment. This was the choice Debra had said that I had
to make, and just up until right then, I had thought it was an easy one. It was supposed to be, but as I sat at
Caleb’s side with the Solorio and Angel standing across from me, I was having
second thoughts. One of the reasons was
because I had not really forgiven him. I
had actually said that for Angel’s benefit, but I could make a different statement
right then and there. If I had let him
die, there would no one here who would doubt my ability, and I would be the
most powerful person I knew. No one that
I knew of would ever be able to challenge me.
I wasn’t even sure where these thoughts were coming from, but they were
there. At first I thought they were just
a side effect of using the magic, but then I realized it wasn’t. It was me, and I did have a desire to define
myself with the magic. It was one of the
reasons I was so intent on learning everything about it. Sure I had made the excuse to myself that I
was just trying to learn to control it, but in reality, that was a huge lie,
and it was a lie that I told myself to make using the magic excusable. I wanted to use the magic because it was
there to use, and I had a secret desire to be all that it would let me be. I was split seconds from getting up and
walking away when I realized the truth.
Sure, the magic was a part of me, but it did not define me as a person,
and the moment that I let the magic make that definition, I was giving up
everything and the magic would totally consume me in a way which I almost
couldn’t imagine. The key word there was
almost, because now I understood what bothered me about that first dream I had
back what now seemed like so long ago.
The delight I had at the end of the dream from using the magic to take
that guy’s life, which had originally made me sick to the stomach, was what I
would become if I had let my second thoughts reverse my initial decision.
“What is she
doing?” Solorio asked Angel.
“You’ll find out
soon enough,” was her response.
So I used the
magic. Again there was nothing in the
visual sense that would have otherwise let me know that the magic was
working. However, I could feel the
change in the energy around me, and after a few seconds, I could see that Caleb
had started to breathe normally. The
laboring in every breath he took had stopped.
After another second or two, I broke the spell entirely. He was still unconscious, but I was confident
he would recover fully. I just didn’t
want him to come totally back and cause a bunch of problems.
I stood and looked
at the two of them. “It’s done. Can we go now?”
“What’s done?”
Solorio asked. “I didn’t even see you do
anything.” He paused and then asked, “Will he be all right?”
“I guess he’ll be
fine after sometime in the hospital,” I answered him. “Even though I’m not sure how long he’ll be
there.”
I was sure he had
more questions, but before he could ask them, the paramedics and some cops had
come inside and took over things. We
each were checked out by the EMTs, declared fine, and sent on our way. That included Solorio, who was going to have
a hard time explaining the blood in his hair.
He stayed behind when Angel and I left the warehouse, and met up with
Bret outside. I don’t think I had ever
seen him so happy to see the two of us.
“It’s about time,”
he said excitedly as he wrapped me into huge hug. It was long time before he would let go and
when he finally did, he gave Angel another hug and said, “I was worried sick.”
“Why didn’t you
stay by the car?” I asked him.
“Because that
detective had me show him where warehouse was,” Bret explained. “He was waiting for me when I got to your car,
and asked where you were. When I told
him you and Angel had gone into the warehouse to get Caleb, he freaked and
asked me to take him to the warehouse.
He made me promise to stay outside while he was gone, but the fact that
he called backup before he actually went inside made me a little nervous. Then seeing that blast, and hearing the fire
alarms, made it hard to stay outside and wait.
I was going out of my mind waiting for the two of you to come out.”
While he was
telling his story, the paramedics had wheeled out an unconscious Caleb,
followed closely by the Detective, and put him in an ambulance. It was something that didn’t escape Bret’s
attention.
“What happened to
Caleb?” he asked.
Angel and I looked
at each other for a second before responding, but it was Angel who spoke. “Bret, give Val her keys. You can drive me
home in Caleb’s truck, and I’ll explain things.
I think Val would agree that this is probably something I should tell
you.”
“And how am I
supposed to do that?” Bret asked, but before he could actually finished the
sentence, she was dangling a set of keys in front of his face. “How did you get those?”
“Let’s go, and
I’ll tell you,” she said. “I really
don’t want to stay here any longer.”
She grabbed him by
the arm and dragged him away, while he looked back at me and shrugged. I just laughed. It seemed Angel has returned to a fraction of
her old self, and it didn’t take long.
While I stood there and watched them leave, Detective Solorio had come
up and stood next to me.
“I thought you’d
be riding with Caleb to the hospital,” I said without looking at him.
“I’ll end up there
eventually,” he said. “There’s an
officer with him, and I need to go home and clean up.”
“Oh yeah, the
whole blood in your hair thing. I
forgot.”
He didn’t respond
to that, but turned and looked at me. It
was a couple of minutes before he spoke again.
“You know, your mom had always said you were special, but I didn’t know
you were that special.”
“You make me sound
like I have some kind of a defect,” I joked with him.
“That’s not
funny,” he scolded me. He then grabbed
my shoulders and looked at me directly in the eyes. “Go home and get some
rest. I’m sure you’re beat. Don’t tell
you’re mom anything. Instead, let me
talk to her.”
“You’re asking a
lot.”
“I know, but
you’re a teenager. You’ll figure
something out. I’m sure this won’t be the first time you weren’t entirely
truthful with her.” He paused and then
said, “Take care of yourself, and I’ll be in touch.” With that, he turned and walked back toward
the warehouse and the officers who were by the front door.
“Detective,” I
called after him. When he turned, I said. “Thanks for everything.” He nodded as I continued, “And I have
something to tell you.”
However, he waved
me off. “I don’t want to know. Just go home.”
He turned and left
without another word, and I for once did what he told me to do.