Psych Investigation Episodes: Episode 1 (A Young Adult Scifi / Fantasy) (22 page)

“
You know why I couldn’t report him,
Paro. Why I still think this is a bad idea.” She walked away from
Paro. He was sitting casually in his leather chair. Turning away
from him, she lowered her voice to a distant whisper.

“
Sebastian still hasn’t found
him.”

Paro shook his head, dismayed to have this
brought up again. “We can’t bring him home, Alana. Not yet.
Sebastian can take care of himself, and besides, he knew very well
what he was getting into when he decided to take on an
Unrestricted.”

Paro knew why she turned around—she didn’t want
him to see her tears.

“
He comes home maybe once every few
years, Paro,” she sobbed. “Jack barely knows him. How long has it
been now? He’s been chasing this man since before you were even
part of the organization, so you couldn’t possibly understand. If
that man ever came to the discovery of Sebastian’s child, if he
found out about Jack … Do you have any idea what I would do if
something happened to my baby?”

“
I do understand, Alana. But you’ve
actually endangered him more by not telling me about him. And not
just himself, but you’ve put at risk everyone around him that could
have been hurt by his abilities.”

Alana sobbed into her sleeve. Wiping her eyes
with the cuff of her black shirt, she whipped around and faced
Paro. It was as if not a single moment of sadness had just crossed
her eyes. She resumed her typical playful expression.

“
Anyway, you’ve got him registered
now, yes? I assume that means I can take him home? He’s missing
school today, and I’d like to have him back for tomorrow’s classes.
The longer he stays here, the more he’s going to think he’s allowed
to ditch school. Let me tell you, Jack does not like going to his
classes. I have to fight with him some mornings to get him out of
bed.”

Paro laughed. “Trust me when I say that I
believe you completely. I’ve only known him a short while, but I
already think I know how his mind works. Of everything that I have
said to him, of all the shocking revelations I’ve made, I think the
one thing that’ll remain on the top of his mind, even above all
other things, is that I told him he’d be here for a few more days.
Seeing that fight with Melissa, I can tell he’s got a pretty good
idea of what all this is about, and I don’t need to keep him here
any longer. But I can only imagine how disappointed he’s going to
be when he finds out he’ll be back in school on Friday, bright and
early in the morning.”

Alana joined Paro in smiling and walked over to
playfully ruffle his dark hair. “Well, ya definitely got that
right, Paro. He probably thought this would drag on and last him
until next week. That’s definitely the way he thinks.”

A knock on the door snapped them both to
attention, and Paro stood up to open it. “Melissa, please, come
in.”

Melissa entered, wearing the same devilish grin
Paro was used to seeing on Michael. “Hey, Mrs. Harris, it’s nice to
see you again so soon. Sorry about lying to you the other night, I
didn’t exactly have much of a choice at the time. ”

Alana waved her hand at the remark. “Don’t
worry, hun. It’s perfectly fine. I’m happy to see you too. My son
has a crush on you something fierce, but don’t tell him I said
that, because he’d lose it.”

Melissa blushed and ignored the comment.
“Anyway, Alana, do you think you could give me a ride back today? I
don’t feel like waiting on the team, and they’re going to be held
up for a while.”

Ok,
Paro thought.
Here we go. This
part is critical. We need to keep her close to
Jack.

Alana’s face lit up. “Oh, of course! It will be
lovely to have you. I’d be glad to give you a ride home. There’s
more than enough room in my minivan, and we can have some
girl-talk. Just give my son a slap on the back of the head if he
tries to interrupt us in one of his many God-awful superhero rants.
Did he ever try that with you?”

Melissa beamed with the shared experience. “Oh,
like thirty times, Mrs. Harris.”

“
Please, call me Alana.”

“
Okay then, Alana. So, where was I?
Oh yeah, you’ve got no idea. He spent twenty minutes trying to
teach me about some war that took place with spider-man or
something. Anyone know what I’m talking about? I think it was, ‘A
Crisis on Earth’ or something ridiculous. Paro?”

Paro shook his head—he didn’t have a
clue.

“
It’s actually kind of cute, Alana.
He’s even got these cards that have like, strengths and stuff and
he fights other people’s cards. It’s amazing what some boys are
into.”

Alana nearly doubled over with laughter. “Oh
yeah, that’s his ‘Magic the Gathering’ game. You don’t know how
much money he gets me to spend on those silly little pieces of
cardboard. And it’s confusing, too. He tried to show it to me once.
He was all like, ‘Hey, Ma! You can’t summon that one. It’s a
four-four flying trampling beast-thingy.’ I’ve got no idea what
he’s talking about when he and Adam are up to that nonsense. Oh,
and that’s going to be an issue too. We’ve gotta make sure he keeps
his mouth shut.”

Listening to them speak of such, Paro felt a
small pinch of anxiety. Jack was among the least-capable liars Paro
could envision. In fact, Paro wouldn’t believe that Jack was
capable of fibbing his way out of Jury Duty. But Jack had given his
word that he wouldn’t mention anything about their current case to
his mother, and Alana had no reason to be suspicious. As long as
Jack kept his mouth shut—which was the dangerous part—they’d be
fine. Jack was quite the troublesome individual, but despite it
all, Paro believed that deep down Jack wanted to end these killings
as much as he himself did. Paro was certain the boy would make a
real effort to prevent anything from slipping, and due to his
easily distracted nature, he’d probably forget what all of this was
about the first time a song he liked played on the
radio.

“
Alana, I think its best you take
them home soon,” Paro said.

Alana looked over to Paro. She had a
mischievous, sly glint in her eyes.

“
It’s Friday, yes? It’s not even six
a.m. yet. If we leave now and beat the traffic, I might be able to
get Jack back to school in time for at least half a day of classes.
Oh boy, I’m almost looking forward to seeing the look on his face
when we tell him. Does that make me a bad mother?”

In unison, Melissa and Paro shrugged. They
looked at each other for a short moment, and then they both burst
out laughing. “Melissa and I feel the same way, so we’re just as
bad as you.”

Paro picked up the repaired intercom off his
desk—he was going to enjoy this. “Margaret, wake up the Harris-kid
and send him in, please.”

For nearly ten full minutes, the three of them
struggled, exerting their utmost will-power to keep from laughing
hysterically. The result was that they stood with tight-lips in
silence. By the eleventh minute, the first of Jack’s shouts could
be heard as the sounds of his loud voice neared them.

“I hate you! I’m so damned
tired, just one more hour. Please, just one more hour, that’s all I
want. Fine, then just five more minutes. Get off me, Ahh! Let me go
back to bed. I need sleep. I’ll die unless you give me three more
minutes. I thought you were my friend, Margaret. You’re mean. You
lied to me. You said that if I needed anything, I just had to ask.
Well, I need sleep! Let me go back. Just one more minute, JUST ONE
MORE MINUTE!”

The door slammed open, and Margret entered with
a fierce look of frustration on her elderly face. Paro wasn’t
positive, but she seemed to have double the wrinkles on her poor
face than she did the last time Paro had seen her.

“
This one is your problem now. I
dragged him here, so now you deal with him. I recommend horse
tranquilizer for this one.”

From what Alana had told Paro, the only time
Jack was ever truly angered was when he wasn’t allowed to sleep.
Jack scratched his head, and rubbed his sandy eyes. The boy looked
positively miserable. His usually messy hair was even more so, and
he had sleep-lines on his face. It was comical how miserable and
angry he looked.

Paro cleared his throat. “Jack, good news,
you’re going home, and guess what? You’ve got ten minutes to take a
shower and get dressed. You know why? Because your mom wants you to
make at least half or more of the school day. Isn’t that great,
Jack? You can make it in time for school after all!”

Never in Paro’s life had he appreciated or
liked being yelled at. In fact, it numbered highly on the list of
things he most despised. But for the first time in his (granted)
short life, he felt it was more than worth it in exchange for the
explosion of misery and torment from the Harris-kid.

“Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat? School?
Are you kidding me, Paro? NO! I've got like, magic now. What good
is school anymore? You can't do this to me,
damnit!”

Paro couldn’t help it. It had been years since
he laughed this hard. Melissa looked like she was having an issue
simply remaining on her feet, and Alana had already fallen off
hers.

“
I can handle it from here, Paro,”
Alana said between deep breaths. “Let’s go, mister, and we’re not
stopping home for anything. Straight to school with
you!”

Jack looked like he had just been told the
world was ending. Paro had never seen a look of such discontent and
misery on someone’s face, especially over something so
stupid.

“
I’m not going anywhere!” Jack
protested.

Melissa glowered at him. “Oh yes you are! I’ve
got a test today, buster, and you’re not making me miss it. So I
can either drag you with me and your mom, or you can hurry up,
‘cause if we don’t leave now we won’t make it in time for school.
And don’t even think of using that as an excuse to take your sweet
time.”

Now Jack look confused. “But … it’s only a
short flight. What’s the big deal?”

Jack was not going to like what Paro had to say
next. He was careful not to mention anything about the killings in
front of Alana.

“
Jack, the helicopter is only for
emergencies and extraction. We needed to bring you here quickly,
and we didn’t have time to waste. We don’t just bust out a chopper
every time someone needs to travel back and forth between
Manhattan. Do you know how expensive that is? Gas prices have
skyrocketed.”

“
So, let me get this straight, you
guys. I have to go to school
today
, and I don’t even get
to parachute into class like I’ve always dreamed of doing? You guys
suck, all of you. Leave me alone.”

Jack stormed off, and Melissa chased after
him.

“
You suck more!” she yelled on his
heels, reminding Paro that despite her maturity, she was still just
a kid.

“
Kids,” Alana said.

“
Indeed.”

“
Why?” the dying man
asked.

What a dumb question. The only
why
that anyone should ever ask is
why
people ask
why
. Ruin didn’t have to answer these rodents.
It was his choice, and he had made it. He had decided that this
person’s right to live had been revoked. It was Ruin’s choice to
make—his decision. There didn’t need to be a
why
. People
annoyed him sometimes.

“
Darling, let’s give him a free
appendix removal,” Requiem purred. She placed a soft hand on Ruin’s
face, covering his eyes and letting him see as she did. Within
moments, his sister’s Telepathy projected the images into his mind.
He could see capillaries and the man’s inner workings.

The fool’s screams were intense. Blood dripped
from his mouth while he was torn from the inside-out. Luckily, no
one would be around the park area this early in the morning, so
they could have as much fun with the man as they wanted.

They didn’t bother to find out his name, and
why would they? They were bored and this looked like something fun
to do at the time. Besides, Ruin didn’t like bald people. They
reminded him of someone he despised.

The bald, middle-aged man shuffled side to
side, rolling on the ground and clutching his stomach. “P-please,”
he begged, “no more.”