Discovery (11 page)

“For years, we have watched over Grace and when her time finally comes, we lose her,” the Council leader's voice slowly escalated. “With all our vast resources, we can't find one tiny girl!” The Council leader was now standing at her seat, her eyes cutting into Tom like scalpels. “If you don't want the Anti-Powers taking control, if you don't want human life to end as we know it, I suggest you and your brother … go … find … her!” she bellowed.

The room shook and Tom could almost see her anger rolling through the air, across the long table and slapping him right in the face.

“Yes, Madam,” Tom whispered, unable to take his eyes off his leader.

“You are excused.” She harshly dismissed Tom with a wave of her hand.

Tom bowed and quickly strode to the large wooden double doors leading to the hallway.

“And Tom,” the Council leader called after him.

Tom stopped and slowly turned around. “Yes, Madam.”

“Tell your brother we want to see him. Now!”

• • •

It was dark. And she was moving. As Grace slowly regained consciousness, she was only certain of these two things: darkness and movement. She was lying on her side curled up in the fetal position, her back against something pliable. Her head pounded and she could not think. Where was she? Where was she going?

She tried to focus her eyes out of the darkness but it was too hard.

Try harder.

She blinked a few times but all she could see in front of her was black. Nothingness.

She turned her head slightly upward. Instant pain. Why did she hurt so much? It even hurt to breathe, much less turn her head. But she needed to see. There was something up there.

Slowly squinting upward, past the pain, she saw sparkles.

What was sparkling? What were those lights over her?

Focus, Grace. Focus.

Stars. The lights were stars.

Blink. Blink.
Focus. Focus.

It was a sunroof. She saw the stars through a sunroof.

Focus. Focus on the stars.

The stars ripped through Grace's darkness. She knew these stars. And these stars were moving with her. These were the same stars she saw last night and the night before and the night before that. But tonight was different. Tonight she needed these stars. Tonight, these stars, these familiar stars moving with her, would keep her sane.

So focus on the stars, Grace. Focus on the stars.

Too afraid to move, Grace forced her mind to process as she stared at the stars. She was in a car, more specifically the back seat of a car. And the car was moving. And it was night.

Process your thoughts, Gracie. Process. Look at the stars. Focus.

She could not see over the front seat. Who was driving? Who else was in the car?

Quietly, she slid her hands down her body. She was not tied up, her feet were not bound. She was still wearing her red satin dress from the birthday party, but she was barefoot.

She silently felt around the back seat. Her hand brushed against something hard. Her shoes. She found her shoes on the floorboard. She continued to silently search. There. Her purse. Slowly, she eased the small satin purse along the floorboard, closer to her. When it was right below her head, she used one hand to open the clasp while the other hand cupped over the purse, muffling the clasp's sound.

Where were they? Grace's fingers silently weaved through the purse's contents.

There. Her keys. She found her keys. Her keys with the novelty keychain Ben had given her. The keychain with the monkey on it. The monkey with the LED lighted nose.

Grace softly placed her purse back down on the floorboard and held one hand over the monkey's nose while she pushed the ‘on' button with the other. She aimed the monkey's LED nose toward the floorboard and faintly made out a Mercedes symbol. It was either that or a peace sign. Grace always got the two confused. No, it was the Mercedes symbol. Grace was in the backseat of a Mercedes.

Grace scanned the rest of the floorboard with the monkey's nose. Nothing else. Her shoes. Her purse. And the Mercedes floor mats. That was it.

Grace was afraid to shine the light any higher. The car's other occupants might see it. As she tried to place her keys back into her purse, her hands started their mysterious tingling again and, in the darkness, she clumsily missed the purse opening. The keys fell down onto the Mercedes floor mat, their tinkling sound breaking the car's dark silence.

The car slowed down.

Grace frantically fumbled around the dark floorboard. The keys. She needed her keys.

The car stopped.

Where were the keys? Panic amplified the tingling in her hands and almost rendered them useless.

The driver's door opened and closed.

Grace's shaking fingers finally found the keys. She remembered from her high school self-defense class that she could use her keys as a weapon by entwining her fingers between each key and making a fist with the keys sticking out between her knuckles like spikes. There. She did it. Fist and weapon ready.

The backdoor opened and the car's interior light glowed over the back seat.

The cool night breeze rushed in, temporarily clearing her head. She took her makeshift weapon and forcefully plunged her shaking fist toward the breeze and outside into the darkness.

But the darkness sharply seized her wrist. Her fingers sprang open and her weapon fell apart. The keys rattled back down to the floorboard of the Mercedes and out of Grace's reach.

Her hand went limp and she started to cry. Then the darkness clutching her wrist fell soft and moved up to caress her hand.

Grace looked out toward the darkness.

“Shhh,” the darkness said. “Gracie, don't cry. It's me. Ben.”

“Ben?” It was still too dark to see outside the car.

“Yes. I'm here. Everything's going to be okay.” Ben bent down into the car's interior light. “Come on, Gracie. Can you sit up?”

Grace pushed herself to sit up, but even that small movement caused her head to split right open. The pain combined with her confusion to make her nauseatingly dizzy. She swayed on the seat. “Ooh,” she said as she leaned her head forward into her hands and closed her eyes.

“What's wrong?”

Grace pointed to her head.

“Your head hurts?” Ben leaned in and softly put his arm around her drooping shoulders.

Grace tried to nod but the pain was too much so she simply whispered, “Yes.”

“Okay, Gracie.” Ben looked around. “Sweetie, we really need to get going again. I promise to make this right. Just lie down and sleep some more. Maybe your head will feel better in the morning.” Ben gently lay Grace down on her side and she curled back into the fetal position on the back seat of the Mercedes.

The last thing Grace remembered was the car moving again through the night. More movement. More darkness.

• • •

Grace woke early the next morning to the thump-thump-thump of the car's tires on a concrete bridge. She was still moving but the darkness was gone. She slowly turned her head and was blinded by the sun's rays trying to tear through the tinted sunroof.

Blink. Blink.
Focus. Focus.

It was all coming back to her now.

Gregory. Her birthday party. The room's swirling colors. The darkness. And Ben.

“Ben?” Grace whispered as she slowly sat up in the back seat of the Mercedes.

“Hey, sleepy head. How are you feeling?” Ben's tired eyes smiled at her through the rearview mirror. His hands gripped the steering wheel at the ten o'clock and two o'clock positions.

“Head hurts.” Grace rubbed her temples and closed her eyes. The bright sunlight was not helping her pain.

“Are you hungry?” Ben's eyes flickered back and forth from the road in front of him to Grace in the backseat.

On any other day that would have been such a simple question to answer but Grace's mind was cloudy. Something was not right and it had nothing to do with her hunger.

“Wait,” Grace whispered. Her mind struggled. “Where are we? What's going on?”

Ben stared at the road in front of him.

“Ben?” Grace pressed. “What happened? Did I drink too much at the party? Please tell me I did not embarrass myself. Where's Annie? Where's Gregory?”

“Whoa,” interrupted Ben. “For someone with a headache, you sure are asking a lot of questions.”

“Just please tell me I did not embarrass myself in front of Gregory.”

“No,” snapped Ben. “You did not embarrass yourself in front of your precious Gregory. Geesh, Gracie. Is that all you care about? If you'd look around, you'd see we have more important things to worry about.”

For the first time since she woke up, Grace looked outside at the scenery flying past her back seat window. Gone were the pine trees of the flat South Carolina landscape and in their place were lush, green, rolling hills filled with maples and oaks, trees as wide as they were tall. There were no landmarks. No signs of civilization. Just trees and a two–lane road stretching between them, weaving in and out of the rolling hills. Nothing looked familiar. Not the hills. Not the car. Just Ben. Ben was the only thing she knew.

“Where are we? Where are we going?” Grace asked again. She was now sitting straight up in the back seat of the Mercedes. She looked down at her red satin dress. It had ripped at the side seam sometime during the night, revealing a right leg covered in scratches and bruises. “Ben, answer me. What's going on?” she asked, anxiety replacing the confusion she experienced earlier.

Ben just looked at her with a strange look in his eyes.

“Ben!” Grace beat her fist hard against the back of his seat. “I said, answer me!” Her aching head pounded with her fist's thrust.

Ben stared straight ahead and did not answer.

“Ben!” Her anxiety was now replaced by anger.

“Gracie.” Ben talked to her as if she were a child. “You need to calm down now.”

“Calm down?” Grace punched the back of Ben's seat again. “I'll calm down when you tell me what's going on.”

“I'll tell you what's going on when you calm down!” Ben replied.

Grace sat back, slamming herself and her aching head against the back seat with her arms crossed. She glared at Ben with unmoving eyes.

Ben continued to stare at the road ahead.

Grace looked out her window. The car behind them had moved into the oncoming lane and was accelerating to pass the Mercedes. The car sped by and reentered the lane in front of them, its speed rapidly creating distance between their front bumper and its back bumper. Soon the car had sped over the horizon, but not before Grace had read its license plate.

“North Carolina?” Grace yelled. “We're in North Carolina?”

“What?”

“That car. That car had a North Carolina license plate! Are we in North Carolina?”

“I told you to calm down, Grace.”

“Hmph.” Grace slammed back against the seat again. Her head was still pounding, numbed only slightly by her anger.

The silence seemed to last forever, but the car's clock had only counted out sixteen minutes when Grace said, “Okay.”

“Okay what?”

“Okay, I'm calmer. Now will you tell me what's going on?”

Ben smiled. “For once, I'm glad for your rapid mood swings.”

“Well?” she said impatiently.

“Well,” Ben said. “I'm not sure where to start.”

“How about you start in the bathroom at the Cavern Café because that's the last thing I remember.” Memories of the throw-up session she had endured prompted Grace to reach for her purse and search for a piece of gum. Plopping a piece in her mouth, she continued, “Well?”

“Gracie,” began Ben slowly, “do you trust me?”

“I did until I woke up in stupid North Carolina with you driving this stupid Mercedes.” Grace smacked her gum and looked around the car. “And since when do you drive a Mercedes?”

“I have … resources.” He glanced at Grace through the rearview mirror. “Grace, do you trust me?” Ben repeated.

Grace saw the seriousness in his eyes. “Yes.”

“Well, I really need you to trust me now.”

“What does me trusting you have to do with where we are going and what happened last night?” Grace's voice began escalating again.

Ben shifted in his seat. “Because, honestly, I really can't tell you everything going on. You just have to trust me.”

“Are you kidding me?” Grace shook her head. “You tell me what's going on right this instant or … or,” Grace looked around the car and grabbed the nearest door handle, “I swear, I will open this door and jump out of this car. I mean it, Ben! You know I'll do it.”

Ben's eyes widened. “What if I told you that I can't tell you?”

“Can't tell me what?”

“Can't tell you … anything.”

“Ben, you are making no sense whatsoever. Now, you tell me what's going on or I'm jumping.” Grace's hand was still on the door handle.

Ben pushed a button and locked the doors.

Grace unlocked her door.

Ben locked the doors again.

Grace unlocked her door again. She pulled the door handle slightly, all the while staring at Ben's eyes in the rearview mirror.

“Wait,” Ben said. “You don't understand. If I tell you, they'll take you away. I'll never see you again. Please Gracie, you have to trust me.”

“Who're
they
?” Grace released the door handle.

“The Council,” Ben sighed, his eyes staring at the road ahead.

“Who's the Council?”

Ben glanced at Grace through the rearview mirror and gripped the steering wheel tighter.

“Ben, who's the Council?” Grace pressed.

“You wouldn't believe me if I told you,” he replied.

“Ben,” Grace glared.