Finding Me (21 page)

What I witnessed here, however, was not comical at all. These were real people, not actors. Dehumanized. How sad for them. My heart overflowed with grief for these afflicted people.

I eyed my hand engulfed by Chris’s. The sight of our hands entwined caused a jolt of electricity to shoot from my hand to my heart. To reign in my thoughts and compress my feelings as much as I could, I bit my lower lip.

It didn’t work. What’s wrong with me?

We finally stepped out from under the cover of the subway station and my heart leapt at the beauty of Tierra. I sprinted forward, out of Chris’s grasp, and threw myself to the ground. Remembering the no emotion rule, I surveyed the area to find not one person from Tierra was near us. We were totally alone.

The others seemed to walk in slow motion to the spot that I’d flung myself to the ground. No matter. I peered from where I sat at the beauty that was Tierra.

Gone were the gray, gloomy colors in the station a moment ago. We had emerged to a tree-lined street with beautiful fully-grown maples that contained leaves of every shade imaginable. I inhaled deeply. In the air, the sweet aroma of pine, cinnamon, and cloves radiated. But the air possessed another element. Some other sweet-smelling perfume of some sort.

The newly fallen leaves sprang out at every corner my eyes took in and the pine trees expelled a wonderful scent that reeled of Christmas. The violet sun peeked through the trees, casting a perfect twilight shadow over the entire scene and creating a path to paradise. I kneeled on the ground, soaking in the beauty of this foreign place. A beauty far removed from my New York City, Upper West Side upbringing.

I gathered a handful of leaves from the ground and rubbed them softly across my face. Even the leaves were swathed in the strange perfume. Quite possibly this was the most beautiful place I’d ever seen. I could barely contain the impulse to skip and run about the immaculately clean cobblestone street. I took another gulp of the air, savoring in the heavy fragrance.

Hands reached for me. They pulled me backwards with force. My feet and hands flailed , fighting to stay surrounded by the beauty of nature, but they continued to draw me back, away from the street with its splendor. I couldn’t fight them. It felt like I’d been dropped in a giant bowl of jello. My limbs moved with exaggerated slowness. They were much too strong. I relented.

Heavy tears stung my eyes. I’d hoped my tears would move them.

It didn’t.

They laughed at me. And as much as I didn’t want to take my eyes from the scene on the road, I had to look away. I had to stop them from stealing my beautiful moment. They stared at me. Their faces turned up mocking me. Laughing at me.

“What?” I yelled. “Why are you harassing me? I wanna look at the pretty flowers and trees. Nature is so wonderful.” I wrapped my arms around myself, ready to cry at the beauty that surrounded me. “I’ve never seen anything so pretty,” I explained through my tears.

“Look at yourself,” Raja said. She laughed and shook her head at me. She produced a mirror from her bag. They continued to laugh. I couldn’t fathom why. I snatched the mirror from her hand and glanced at my reflection.

My head was covered in red, gold, and brown leaves. They stuck to my face, with my tears and the sticky moisture in the air supplying the gluing power. I had put on mascara and my idiotic crying had caused it to smear. So I had two large black circles around my eyes and streaks of black ran down the length of my face. My hair, thrown about, resembled a perfectly coiffed haystack.

I looked like a psychotic, frightened raccoon.

Angry and ashamed, I glared at everyone. They managed to find the humor in this peculiar situation. Even Sam, who was supposed to be my friend, howled with laughter. A rage boiled inside me. Left with no choice, I did the only thing I could think. I broke the mirror. Shards of glass lay at their feet. I glanced up at them with indignation and promptly stuck my tongue out. Outnumbered by seven powerful supernatural beings, even in my angry state, I knew I couldn’t have fought them all.

“I don’t wanna go,” I announced in a stern voice. I sat cross-legged on the ground with my lip poked out. “I wanna go home.”
There.
That’ll teach them to laugh at me.

“No, you don’t,” Chris said. He bent and plucked me up easily from the ground, despite my attempt to fight him off. “Here, put this on. It’ll help.” I looked at what he handed me. It looked like a gas mask.

“Why in the world would I put that on?” I asked. I tossed the small, thin, black plastic mask back to him. “You on should put it. I no wanna mess me hair more.” I ran my hands through my hair to untangle it. It was useless. I gave up after a couple seconds with one large knot in the front. I stumbled to the side but grabbed Chris’s arm to steady myself.

“Chloe.” Chris grabbed me and pulled me closer. “Trust me, please. I need you to put this on right now.” He looked really serious. And handsome. Gosh he was so handsome.
Sexy.
His lips were perfectly smooth, plump. I reached up and ran my index finger across his full bottom lip. He closed his eyes and sucked in a breath.

I pushed forward and tried to kiss him, forgetting about being upset. All I wanted was his lips on mine. I didn’t care if everyone else waited. They could wait.

“Chris, love you I do. You make me heart go pitter-patter all the time. I met anyone like you never before. Will you please be mine? Need you, please,” I pleaded.

Now all I needed was his lips on me. I wanted the electric current that passed through us every time he touched me. But he backed away with a hurt expression on his face.
What had I done?
No.
Don’t walk away. Come back.
But I didn’t say anything.
What’s wrong with him?
Sam walked over to him and put a hand on his shoulder and said something that I couldn’t make out.

Chris walked back to me. But he kept his distance this time. He pulled the gas mask up and over my head with one quick motion. He grabbed my head from behind and held it in place. My hands flailed wildly, trying to get him to remove it. He didn’t. His hand was inches from my face, so I pushed forward – pulling the gas mask up enough to clamp my teeth onto his wrist. He jumped back but managed to grab hold of my hip and pull me back to him. His hands were back at my head in an instant pushing the mask back down. It was securely in place despite my feeble attempts to rip it off.

After another moment, I realized it was no use fighting him. I relaxed my muscles because they spasmed painfully. I allowed him to keep the stupid thing on me.

As soon as his hold on me relaxed, however, I took full advantage of the opportunity. I whirled around wildly. Set to return to the subway station and back to Earth and everything that was normal and familiar to me.

As soon as I spun around, it felt as if someone had knocked my legs from underneath me. I stumbled backwards. And I could see the periwinkle and blueberry of the sky overhead. I was falling. My body felt like a giant glob of Jell-o as I floated in the air. I tried to catch myself, to prevent the pain I knew would be unavoidable from such a fall.

Instead of feeling the gravel on my rear, someone had lifted me to safety. I looked up and into Chris’s saddened face. I rubbed my hands across his cheeks and along his jawline as he cradled me to him. He held me as he would hold a child.

Without warning, my eyelids grew heavy and flitted closed, though I tried to keep them open. I drifted from everyone’s voices and the wonderful intimacy I felt at Chris’s touch.

I floated away into nothing, and the darkness held secrets.

But it wasn’t telling.

Chapter 18

I woke with a start, unable to catch my breath. Wet. Everything was wet. Water converged on me from all sides.

I was drowning.

The water sucked me under with its heavy current. I resurfaced, stretching my arms up over my head. My eyes popped open and salty water stung them shut. Panicked, my arms thrashed wildly in the water. I was a great swimmer, but I couldn’t stop my frantic movements, a result of instinct. Something warm and soft smacked my outstretched arm.

Someone’s hand reached for me. Someone was trying to rescue me from certain death. I dared open my eyes again to accept this aid.

Gasping for air, I pushed forward. I grabbed the outstretched hand. They hauled me up, and in no time, I was free of the murky water.

Once on land, I looked over at my rescuer, intent on a grand thank you. But my search drew a blank. No one sat beside me. I was alone.
Where has my hero gone?
Alarm set in. What happened to him?

“I’m here. Calm down,” a voice called from behind me. Relief poured over me. I stumbled to my feet. I turned to greet my new hero. Confusion twisted within me as I greeted my rescuer whose face I couldn’t see.

“Um…thank you for saving me. I…don’t know you. Do I?” I peered hesitantly at the person wearing jeans and a black hoodie that hung low, shielding their face from my view.

“Of course you do, silly,” came the response. My rescuer dropped the hood of the jacket to reveal her face. I stumbled backwards and landed on my rear.

I looked up and I stared back stunned.

It was me.

I sat bolt upright in bed. Confused.
What was I doing?
I leaned back and closed my eyes. I tried to shake the feeling of disorientation.
What was up with these dreams?
I slouched forward and rubbed my temple.

I’d better get up and get dressed for school, I thought lazily. Still, I didn’t move. I kept my eyes closed, welcoming a few extra minutes of rest. I’d been working hard on producing more abilities and was mentally and physically exhausted.

Chris’s face popped into my head as if someone had pushed a photo into my eyes’ path. The best part of school was seeing him. Not even Melissa and Emily were enough anymore. Why couldn’t he have found me sooner?

I stretched once more, still sluggish. Then I pushed the blanket off and opened my eyes. I scanned the room sleepily. But I wasn’t in my bedroom.

I leapt from the bed.
Where am I?
I wasn’t in my house. Why would I be asleep here, in a strange place? This was extremely puzzling. My head spun from right to left, trying to find something familiar, anything to help me make sense of my surroundings.

I was in a large robin’s egg blue-colored bedroom. I looked around wildly and tried to recall how I’d gotten here. Noticing the chandelier above my head, I flicked my hands up once. Light cascaded from the dull fluorescent bulb.

The decor was feminine. The mahogany bed had an ocean blue and chocolate brown blanket and pillows. Pictures covered every inch of the shortest wall next to a window and a large brown and blue print of a flower hung directly over the bed.

I walked to the wall of pictures and immediately recognized the people in the photos. Many of the pictures were of me, or someone who looked identical to me because I didn’t remember taking them. “It must be the Great Eight.” I said aloud. There was an abundance of them on the wall.

I laughed at the name I’d just made up. Another laugh sounded behind me.

I spun around. My hand poised to strike the laughing person, but it was only Chris.

“You okay, princess?” Chris asked. He kept his distance, peering at me with an amused expression.

“I hate it when you call me princess. Have I ever told you that?” I asked. I was annoyed with him but not entirely certain why.

“No, but Amanda has many times. I wondered when you’d say it, too.” Joy was evident in his eyes that I’d exhibited behavior similar to Amanda’s.

It made me cringe.

I shook my head, rolled my eyes, and turned back to the pictures on the wall. It was surreal to see photos with Amanda and everyone else. She was my identical twin…or perhaps me, as everyone else believed.

Chris looked over my shoulder at a photo that captured my attention. “This was the first time Amanda and I visited our spot here in Tierra. So of course we wanted to capture it on film. We weren’t dressed in appropriate Tierra attire, but the dress code wasn’t as heavily enforced back then,” he explained.

Amanda and Chris stood on the same mountaintop he’d taken me to a few weeks ago. Chris wore orange and blue swim trunks and Amanda had on a two-piece red bikini. It appeared as if they’d stepped out of a pool and popped in for a quick look at the mountains.

“We did…just pop in, I mean. It was spontaneous – we didn’t think about it. We just did it,” he said. There was a hint of sadness in his voice. He sighed heavily. “Do you remember why you’re here?” He gripped my hips and turned me around to face him.

“I don’t even remember where here is.”

“Your mother. Tierra. This is her house.” He pulled me to him so that he could run his hands through my tangled hair. Trying to make me look presentable, I assumed.

“Oh God, that’s right! What happened to me? Did something go wrong when we left my room? I don’t remember anything after that.”

Raja and Sam walked in the room then. “You were drunk,” Sam said, laughing her usual soft chuckle.

“Drunk,” I said, scrunching my face. “I don’t drink.”

“Not that kind of drunk,” said Raja. I noticed she was not using her usual no-nonsense voice. “Well, in a way it was. It’s the air here. It contains a foreign agent, a toxin scientists have not been able to identify. The toxin has the power to influence people’s emotions. Like alcohol. Tierra was not always the way it is now, peaceful–”

“And over-flowing with robots,” said Sam.

“It was stock full of emotional basket cases,” Raja continued, “and the government could not fathom why. Researchers were able to detect a chemical toxin they named Zoriyah in the air. The name is derived from the scientist that made the discovery. This chemical was the cause of the people’s unruliness. After the discovery, Doctor Zoriyah patented a new drug, which he named Zoriatex. If given immediately after birth, the drug prevents the reaction that the brain has to the Zoriyah in the atmosphere.”

“Even after the government discovered the drug disabled certain emotions, they didn’t discontinue its use,” Chris said. “Instead they decreased the dosage and have been using it ever since. The only people not affected by the Zoriatex are the UG’s. We think there’s something in their blood that prevents it. We never knew what affect not having it in our systems would produce. I guess we know now. We’d be sloppy drunk.” I grimaced.