Demonspawn (14 page)

He ran into the waiting area and started
screaming.

“I need to confess!”

He was so wild the police actually tackled
him to the ground, handcuffed him, and dragged him away.

After he was gone I reappeared outside the
police station and rejoined the normal world of walls and getting
tired when running.

Cindy pushed open the double doors to the
station and walked outside. She kept looking back in. She was still
dressed in her running clothes. When she saw me she stopped.

“That was him, wasn't it? The guy driving the
van? Jesus he just ran inside! The cops beat the shit out of
him!”

I nodded.

“What happened?”

“I'll tell you later. But they won't bother
you again.”

She walked forward and hugged me. She was
calmer than before, but I could tell she wasn't yet over being
pulled into a van and tied up.

“Come on,” I said. “Let's go home.”

We turned around, and I had to stop one last
time. I saw three people standing across the street from the
station. I could just barely see through them.

It was George and his family.

He held his daughter Pam's hand. His other
arm was wrapped around Sharon, his wife. I saw him whisper
something to his daughter. She waved shyly. George and Sharon waved
as well.

Then they were gone.

I couldn't get the smile off my face. For the
first time in my life, I finally felt like I'd done something
really meaningful.

“Alex? You okay?”

“Never better.”

*****

It was a long night. We didn't talk much for
a while. We walked back to her work to get her car. Then she had to
drop me off near the parkway to get my truck. I got there just in
time to wave off the tow-truck guy.

We didn't get to the apartment until nearly
ten o'clock. We didn't even need to say a word. She followed me
inside. I gestured for her to sit down while I poured her some
water. I kept my distance and sat on the weight-bench. It was a
good five minutes before she spoke.

“Please don't tell anyone about tonight.”

I nodded. “Not a problem.”

She was quiet again, lost in her own
thoughts. I turned the TV on just to break the silence. I flipped
through a few channels before I settled on the local news, and was
surprised. News sure does travel fast. The hot news anchor looked
into the camera.

“A twenty-year-old mystery was solved today,
when Tony DeMarco turned himself in to police and confessed that he
and his brother Marcus murdered local businessman George McEllen
and his family in nineteen-eighty-seven. Marcus was apprehended at
the bus station a half hour after Tony gave himself up to
authorities. The two will be held without bail.”

I looked at Cindy. The news anchor saved me
from having to explain everything. Cindy looked back at me with her
mouth open.

“They thought I had the money, didn't
they?”

I nodded.

“How did you know? How did you know where I
was?”

“I, uh,
sensed
it somehow. I saw
visions of you in trouble.”

I was quiet for a minute.

“Are
you
okay?” she asked.

Amazing. Cindy was nearly kidnapped, and she
was worried about
me
. She could tell I was upset. I tried to
hide it, but obviously didn't do a good job.

I was afraid. I was afraid of what I was
gonna find out about myself next. Tony was absolutely terrified of
me. That ate away at the back of my mind.

“I'm fine. Are you okay?”

“I think so. Can I use your shower?”

“Yeah. Bottom shelf in the closet is clean
towels.”

She nodded. She was halfway down the hall
when she turned around again.

“You saved my life.”

I nodded. “You'd do the same for me.”

She didn't hesitate. “Yeah, I would. Well,
except maybe for the turning invisible part.”

She went into the bathroom. As I watched her
I realized I had a small crush on her.

And the guilt hit me harder than ever.

Neither Cindy or I told Alicia or any of our
other friends about what happened that day. Not exactly good
memories you want to bring up. I didn't ask Cindy about any details
of what happened in the police station. Did she report everything?
Would she have to go to court? Did she just wait there?

It took a week, but our somber moods slowly
drifted back to us laughing and making fun of each other. Alicia
actually thought we were fighting for a while.

My crush on Cindy was just that, a crush. I
was smart enough to know it was there, but I knew it would fade
eventually. As soon as she got another boyfriend, I would get it
through my head that there was no way in the world someone as
incredible as her could care about someone like me that way, and
the crush would fade.

Then Alicia broke up with Shawn, hey
boyfriend.

She called me after work on a Monday. There
was no drama, no cheating or anything crazy. Apparently he just
wasn't happy, and he broke it off during the school day.

She tried not to show it, but she was
devastated, much more than I'd seen with any of her other guys. She
came over the apartment nearly every night that week. She actually
cried on my shoulder, which she had never done. We were close, but
stuff like that always went Cindy's way.

She was starting to seem a little better when
I got that strange phone call at work. I was loading a truck when I
heard my supervisor calling my name. I looked over to see him with
a pinkie to his mouth and thumb to his ear. I went to his office
and grabbed the phone.

“Hello?”

“When you gonna get a cell phone?” Alicia
asked.

“As soon as I become a movie star. What's
happening?”

“When you get out of work stop by the
house.”

“Everything okay?”

“No.”

“What's going on?”

There was silence for a moment. “I don't want
to talk about it over the phone. Just get over here after work. I
have to show you something.”

She hung up.

As I walked back out to the dock I could only
think of one thing.

Alicia was pregnant.

I tried to keep calm. I had no clue as to
what was going on. But I knew it was bad. I'd never gotten a call
like that from Alicia before. Nothing was ever important enough to
call me at work.

As soon as I punched out I drove straight to
my old home. The house was completely quiet. No TV, no music,
nothing. I went into the dining room to see Alicia sitting at the
table, staring at the wall. She looked completely out of it.

“Alicia?”

She looked at me and smirked. Then she looked
back at the wall.

“What's wrong, sis?”

She took a deep breath. I had to cut her off
before she started.

“Wait just a sec. I have to ask. You're not
pregnant, are you?”

“What? No! Damn, Alex, I'm not stupid.”

“I know, I know.” Relief washed over me.
“Okay then, I think I can handle anything else.”

“Don't be too sure.”

Now I was afraid. I sat across from her.
“What's going on?”

“I was looking through Mom's clothes. I
wanted to borrow a dress for the next time we all went out. You
know, gotta impress the guys now.”

I nodded.

“Well, I guess I'd better just show you.”

I followed her upstairs to Mom's room. She
opened the closet and grabbed a folder full of papers in the
corner.

“This is right where I found it.”

She handed me the folder. I skimmed through
it, not quite knowing what I was looking at. A lot of legal
documents, it looked like. Not exactly surprising, since Mom's a
lawyer.

“Look at the last thing in there.”

I flipped to the end. The last document was a
little easier to follow. It was a certificate of adoption from the
state of Pennsylvania. It had my name on it, along with Gary and
Joan Teague, who I thought were my parents.

I was wrong.

I was adopted.

I stood there staring at it for a minute.
Alicia was quiet. I looked up, and my eyes fell on a picture of
Alicia, Mom, and me, when I graduated high school, sitting on the
dresser. It was so obvious that it hit me like a ton of bricks. I
didn't look like Mom. I didn't look like Alicia. I always guessed I
looked like my father, who I didn't remember.

“Alex, what does all this mean?”

“Well, I guess there's only one way to find
out.”

I reached for the phone on the dresser and
did a very stupid thing.

“Who are you calling?”

I didn't answer. The phone rang seven
times.

“Hello?”

“Hey, Mom.”

“Alex? Hey honey, how's it going? I can't
talk long. I'm having lunch with the team right now.”

“Mom, am I adopted?”

There was a long silence that seemed to
stretch forever.

“Ah, okay. I guess that's my answer,” I
said.

“Listen, honey-”

“Nah, Mom. It's cool. I gotta run.”

I hung the phone up. A harsh thing to do, and
I regret it.

“She said yes,” I told Alicia.

We were quiet for a minute.

“This doesn't change anything,” Alicia
said.

“This changes
everything
, Alicia. I
mean, who the hell am I?”

“You're my brother.”

I closed my eyes. That suddenly sounded so
alien to me.

“I'm gonna go. I'm gonna borrow this folder.
I'll call later.”

I left the house without saying another word.
I drove around for a while before heading back to the apartment. I
didn't bother eating. I unplugged my phone and sat on the patio
outside my living room.

I had a sister that I was very close to. I
had a best friend that looked out for me ever since grade school. I
had a mother that had raised me to be the person I was, despite all
the obstacles she faced. With all that, I'd never felt so
alone.

The sun was nearly gone. I still leafed
through the folder from Mom's closet. I couldn't make any sense of
the legal jargon. All I knew was the name of the adoption agency,
Heavenly Heart, and their address in Blossom, Pennsylvania.

I heard the sliding glass door move behind
me. I turned to see Cindy standing there, looking hot in her
business clothes.

“Hi.”

I smiled, but didn't say anything. I honestly
wasn't sure whether I wanted her company or not, but I didn't
object when she sat in the chair next to me.

“Alicia's been trying to call you.”

“I unplugged the phone. Not really in the
mood to talk. I guess you've talked to her?”

“Yeah. She told me what was going on. She
wanted me to check on you.”

“I'm okay.”

“Liar.”

I didn't say anything.

“I guess it should have been obvious. You're
ugly. Alicia's cute.”

Not the best timed joke, but I smiled. “Yeah.
I should have known.”

“My parents used to joke about it whenever we
talked about you at the house. About you probably being adopted. I
never thought they would be right.”

“What do you and your parents say about
me?”

That caught her off guard, and she changed
the subject. “Don't worry about it. But tell me what's up.”

“I'm freaked out. I can walk through walls,
talk to ghosts. Now I find out I'm adopted. I...who am I, really? I
think it's just everything happening at once, you know?”

That's all I could say. My thoughts were so
jumbled. But I think that about summed it up. There was also the
fact that my sister wasn't really my sister. My mother wasn't
really my mother.

“Alex, is there anything I can do for
you?”

I shook my head. “Nah. I'll be okay, really.
I just have to soak all this in.”

“Okay. I'll leave you alone. But if you need
me, you come get me. I'll do anything for you. You know that,
right?”

I smiled. “Yeah, Cindy. I know. Thanks.”

She slapped me on the back and left.

I didn't sleep at all that night. I had so
many crazy thoughts. What if I was some kind of government
experiment that they let loose? What if I was part alien?

I had a past of some kind, before my
adoption. According to the paperwork, I was adopted a few days
after I was born. Why did my birth parents give me up? What
happened to them? Why was I able to do the things I could do?

There had to be answers for me. But I
wouldn't find them moping in my apartment.

I had to go to Pennsylvania.

I put in for a week's vacation the next day
at work. It was short notice, but my supervisor was okay with it.
When I got home I packed up a suitcase of clothes. I printed some
directions to the adoption center from the computer. It was a very
quick decision to make, but I knew I had to do it. It wasn't like
me at all to do something completely spontaneous, like leaving the
state. I just needed to know more about who I was.

I drove over to Alicia's to let her know what
was going on. I hadn't talked to her since the previous day. I
wanted to let her know I was okay, that she was still my
sister.

When I opened the front door I heard Alicia
talking to someone in the dining room. I walked in and saw another
blond head at the table. Totally a surprise.

“Mom.”

“Hi, Alex.”

I was speechless for a moment. “When did you
get home?”

“A few hours ago. Alicia picked me up at the
airport.”

“But your case in California?”

“They can live without me for one day. I fly
back out tomorrow morning. But I had to talk to you.” She looked at
Alicia. “To you both.”

I looked at Alicia. She looked worried for
me.

I sat at the table. Mom looked down for a
second. I saw her hands were actually shaking. I reached out and
grabbed them. That seemed to calm her.

She pulled a picture out from inside her
jacket.

“That's my ex-husband, Gary. Alicia's father.
A year after we got married, we decided we wanted a child. But the
doctors told me that wasn't possible. There was a problem with my
eggs, and I couldn't have children.”