Pulse of Heroes (23 page)

Elliot went back out to the car and fetched
Michelle’s backpack, thinking she might want it when she woke up.
He didn’t realize that the backpack was slightly open, and several
items dropped out of it as he walked back up the stairs. So much
for trying to remain quiet, he thought. Elliot listened to see if
he woke anybody up, but when he heard no sound coming from any of
the other rooms he bent down and started collecting the fallen
objects. When he got to Michelle’s cell phone he picked it up and
flipped it open only to see the broken screen. He felt bad about
that, more than Michelle ever knew. There was a small light
flashing on the top right corner above the screen; undoubtedly her
friends had left her messages. On a lower step Elliot picked up
Michelle’s Italian vocabulary workbook. He leafed through the pages
and snickered a bit. Just as he had finished bagging the items and
was about to head back upstairs, he heard the screech of a door
opening. Öndóttr appeared at the top of the stairs and looked down
at Elliot, who motioned to him to keep his voice down.

“I’ll explain things in a minute,” he told
him, and while Öndóttr walked down to the living area Elliot passed
him on the stairs and went back to his room. He quietly placed the
backpack on the chair next to his bed. Michelle had not moved an
inch.

The last time Michelle had been at the school
was when she was still working for the market. After that horrible
scene everyone involved agreed that there was no point in telling
the rest of the students what had happened. They didn't want to
stir things up just as everyone was settling into their new
surroundings. But there was another thing that Elliot had not
shared with the other guys, not even with Xander.

On Halloween night when Samantha’s car had
almost swerved right into theirs, Elliot had used his powers to
bend the tree trunk just enough so as to prevent the collision with
the VW. He most likely saved Michelle's life, because she was not
wearing a seat belt that night, and if the car did crash into the
tree the inertia of the sudden impact would have hurled Michelle’s
body up over the front seats and straight into the windshield, most
likely breaking her neck.

The restriction on getting involved in or
changing the course of natural events was something that everyone
at the school agreed on. Nothing good ever came out of it. But on
that particular night when they were heading into Willow’s Creek
for an early morning meeting with the contractors and engineers
that had been hired to build the new school, Elliot broke that
rule. He never mentioned it to anyone. His instinct had been one of
self-interest rather than saving whoever was in the VW. He didn’t
even think about whether he or Xander would have been hurt. The
only thought running through his mind was the need to prevent any
unnecessary attention. They were new in town, and he was well aware
of the apprehension that the local residents had with regard to the
new school. Elliot knew that even though the crash would clearly
not have been their fault, such a negative event would undoubtedly
be tied to them and the school, and would only give more ammunition
to those who had fought against its opening to begin with. The fact
that his actions most likely saved Michelle was an
afterthought.

But something else happened that night when
he watched Michelle climb up the ravine in her Egyptian queen
costume. There was a seed of recollection, a pause of familiarity.
He should have known better; it was Halloween night after all, and
it was the norm for people to dress up. She was a fake, not a real
Egyptian. He didn't want her anywhere close to him. It was all an
illusion. But then again maybe it was something in the way she
looked up at him from the ravine, wide-eyed, scared and innocent,
trembling and weak. He had to get back into the car because he was
ashamed of his own stupidity and weakness. Luckily, no harm was
done that night and everyone was able to drive away safely.

The next time Elliot saw Michelle was when
she spotted him at the shopping mall. Normally he wouldn’t have
paid any attention to her. For him, girls were just girls, pretty
or not; they had been completely off his radar for many years. He
simply had no interest and that's the way he liked it. He knew that
if he wanted a girl, any girl, he could have her, but his ego no
longer needed that type of reinforcement. Long ago he had sworn off
using women to fill the gaps created by his own insecurities. At
first, when the ailing Michelle walked past them he didn't
recognize her at all, nor did he even register her presence. But
when she slowed down, her eyes, the way they were looking at him,
there was no mistaking them, and he recognized that they belonged
to the little Egyptian queen from Halloween.

In hindsight, Elliot realized that his
mistake was allowing their eyes to lock. He should have looked away
and not given her the chance to see something more in him than he
cared to share with her. Even Xander, taking notice of their
passing exchange, had reminded him that if he looks at other people
in the eyes, some would sense the anomalies rather quickly. It was
just that no one ever knew who could and who couldn’t.

Öndóttr remembered the sick looking girl at
the mall. “Yeah, how can I forget? She was running a pretty high
fever. I felt it when she walked by.” Elliot came clean about what
took place when Michelle fell over the wall and he helped her get
back to the other side. He also told his friend about the time she
showed up and tried to take a photo of the bottle and ended up
losing her job.

Öndóttr shook his head in disbelief. “All of
this happened while we were playing basketball outside?” He
couldn’t believe that they hadn’t heard the commotion.

“Must have been a good game,” Elliot
joked.

“It was,” Öndóttr assured him. Despite
everything that Elliot had told him, Öndóttr still didn’t
understand why he was sharing all this with him. He didn’t see any
harm done by Elliot preventing the car crash, and he was sorry that
the girl had lost her job and all, but that was part of growing up
in this world. You break the rules, and most likely they will break
you too.

“Maybe he’s not telling you everything,”
Kahl’s voice was heard from the upstairs balcony. He joined his
friends downstairs and sank down into one of the empty couches,
resting his feet on the ottoman. He then dramatically pretended to
look at his watch, which he was not wearing, and added, “It’s 2:46
am. Perfect timing for small talk, no?” He looked at Elliot with a
mischievous smile and asked, “And why are we discussing her
now?”

Elliot took in a lungful of air, then exhaled
deeply and stated that Michelle was upstairs asleep in his
room.

“What?” both Öndóttr and Kahl asked together.
Kahl stood up from his comfortable couch and sat closer to the
other two. “You mean to say that the girl that sent you the glass
from Leta Memmia’s brooch is upstairs?”

When Elliot heard Leta’s name mentioned it
always pained him, and this time was no exception. “Yes,” he
answered solemnly.

No one was supposed to be bringing anybody
from the outside so close to them. It was a rule, and Elliot was
the one who had fought the hardest to establish it. Any human
interactions needed to be minimized, and always conducted far away
from
Hekademos
Learning Center. Ironically, he was the first
one to break it. Elliot told them about what had happened earlier
that day, and how Michelle almost drowned and that he needed to
bring her to the school because there was no one to watch over her
at her home.

“You saved her?” Öndóttr asked.

“Really saved her?” Kahl wanted to know.

Elliot couldn’t face his long time friends
any longer. He got up and walked around the room, fidgeting with
the paintings on the walls as if they needed to be
straightened.

“I saved her. All the way.” All the way,
those three words were the code that meant that one of them had
brought somone back from cetain death. Basically, without their
intervention the person or creature in question was sure to
die.

Elliot felt ashamed and didn’t know how to
explain his actions. He couldn’t tell them that for some stange
reason he cared about Michelle, because he hadn’t admmited that to
himself yet. And he had no idea how to explain his presence up
north at Fort Bragg either. The last time Elliot cared about anyone
was almost a hundred years ago. And before that, it was as far as
2000 years ago. He rationalized to them that he didn’t think
Michelle would remember anything since she was in shock and had hit
her head pretty hard. “She will undoubtedly suffer from memory
loss,” he added, and he was going to take her home as soon as she
woke up and be done with it. But Kahl was not convinced in the
least, and just shook his head at Elliot, who looked away from
him.

Michelle opened her eyes and looked up at the
white washed ceiling. Where was she, she thought? She carefully sat
up in bed and immediately noticed that her entire body ached. She
looked around the room. She was in a full-sized bed, covered by a
comforter and a blanket, and everything had a slight odor of salt
and sand to it. She saw that her backpack was on a chair beside the
bed and that reassured her a little. The room was spacious, and
beyond the bedroom area it opened into a large seating area with a
picture window facing the woods. It all started coming back. The
cold water, the panic, and then Elliot showing up. She must be in
Elliot’s room because she remembered riding in the car with him
back to Willow’s Creek.

Michelle smiled a little when she realized
that Elliot had been a perfect gentleman, where others might have
taken advantage of her state, yet somehow she already knew that he
was never going to harm her, although she had no idea why. Michelle
needed to use the restroom and was glad to see that beyond the
seating area there was a small private bathroom. Once she saw
herself in the mirror she realized how bad she really looked, much
worse than imagined. She was pale, had a large gash across her
forehead, and a large black bruise on her collarbone that reached
all the way to above her left breast. She inspected her arms and
legs, and just as she had suspected they were completey battered
and bruised. No wonder she hurt all over. She tried to find her
shoes, only to remember that she had taken them off before climbing
on those deadly rocks.

Michelle guessed that it was early in the
morning because it was still fairly dark outside. She wondered
where Elliot was, but she was too uncomfortable to leave the room
to look for him. So she circled the room looking at various items
displayed in glass cases or hanging on the walls. She noticed that
the glass vase that had gotten her in so much trouble was now
prominently displayed in a small acrylic cube, with a brooch next
to it that had a very familiar piece of glass in its center. How or
where Elliot got a brooch that fit the glass disk exactly, Michelle
had no idea, but at that moment that question wasn’t so important.
So many tears over you, she thought, looking at the small vase. She
then walked over to the door and put her ear to it, listening to
see if anyone else was out there. She didn’t hear anything but she
did smell something delicious, and realized that she was
starving.

Michelle wondered if she should go back to
bed and try to fall sleep. Elliot was sure to return, and she
definitely didn’t want to run into anyone else. What would the
other students think? She didn’t want there to be any
misunderstandings. But her curiosity got the better of her and she
slowly and very carefully opened the door a little bit at a time.
When she was convinced that there was no one in the hallway she
quietly stepped out.

The hallway was long and there were many
other doors; Elliot’s room was at the far left end side of the
house. Michelle made her way to the balcony and looked down into
the living area, but there was no one there either. What she did
notice was that the smell of whatever wonderful thing was cooking
down there got even better the closer she got to the kitchen.
Michelle leaned over the rail, trying to look into the kitchen from
where she was standing. But it was directly underneath her; there
was just no way. Michelle’s body still hurt with sharp stabbing
pains along with the various dull aches, and when she straightened
herself up she couldn’t help but let out a small sigh of pain. She
grabbed the left side of her chest, trying to remain still long
enough for the pain to pass. Michelle didn’t notice Kahl coming out
of his room, and was completely startled when he bid her good
morning.

“Well, actually good evening,” he corrected
himself. “You’ve been sleeping for almost an entire day,” he told
her, still smiling. Michelle felt embarassed and apologized for
looking so disheveled. But Kahl told her not to worry about it and
asked her if she was hungry, suggesting that she join him
downstairs for dinner. Michelle was too self-conscious to ask where
Elliot was. She didn’t want to sound desparate, but luckily Kahl
must have read her mind. “Elliot is downstairs. I’ll let him know
you’re up.” And with that, Kahl disappeared downstairs.

Michelle was still standing at the top of the
stairs when Elliot appeared from the kitchen. He looked up at her
and gave her a small smile. “You’ve already met Kahl,” he said
while Michelle slowly came down the stairs.

“Yes,” she whispered back shyly.

“How are you feeling?” Elliot asked while he
carefully checked the cut on her forehead.

“I feel like I’ve been beaten up by a gang of
giants. Especially here on my chest,” she answered, putting her
hand over her heart. Elliot looked away from her because he didn’t
want to reveal that he’d had anything to do with the large
bruise.