Secrets: The Hero Chronicles (Volume 1) (30 page)

**

We were driving through a dark forest, winding through some steep hills.

“We’re almost there,” said Cora. I looked at the clock; it was 2:45 p.m.

“Where are we now?” I asked.

“We are in West Virginia. Nicholas, before we get there, I need to tell you something that I have been keeping from you, something from my past. I was hoping I could keep this from you forever, but now I am being forced to tell you everything, and I hope it doesn’t hurt you the way it did me.” When she spoke it sounded hollow like she was rehearsing lines from a play.

“When I was your age, I fell in love with a boy named Marcus Fray—you may remember him.” I did remember him after she said his name. He had been with Cora at every family event that I could remember.

“He was my true love. We were inseparable. When we both considered colleges, he wanted to apply to the same schools that I did. Marcus and I both got accepted to Vanderbilt. Mom and Dad weren’t too thrilled about me going to the same school as Marcus. They wanted me to be free of him so I could focus on my studies, but they reluctantly let me go off to school with him. Vanderbilt was better than high school for us. We were the ‘it’ couple by our sophomore year. He was student body president, and I was president of my sorority and captain of the dance team. We planned every social event for the school. It was just how I dreamt it would be. Everything was perfect.

“Sophomore year, Mom and Dad died in the automobile accident on Christmas Eve. After the funeral, I stayed with you, Beth, and Joseph for the rest of my winter break. Near the end of the break, they brought me to where I am taking you tonight.”

The paved road became gravel, barely suitable to drive on. The forest was now right on either side of the truck with no room for another vehicle to pass.

“After the break, I went back to Vanderbilt. I tried to forget everything that I saw and learned here with your parents. I focused on making things return to how they had been before, but it wasn’t working. So I decided to dedicate myself to school, just like my parents had wanted me to. I quit my sorority and the dance team, which didn’t bother Marcus at all. He proposed to me on April 12. We were supposed to get married as soon as we graduated.”

Cora stopped and wiped away the tears that were streaming down her cheeks. She cleared her throat and continued, “Marcus was so good to me after the accident. He supported me in every way. He even stepped down as class president so he could be there for me whenever I needed him. I never wanted him to do that, but he did it anyway, as well as making many other sacrifices to be with me.” Cora’s speech became very broken.

“On October 10 of my senior year, the 10-10 Earthquake hit. I left school immediately after I heard how severely it had hit our town. One of my friends from high school, who was a teacher at your school, called. He told me he was waiting with you because Beth and Joseph hadn’t come for you, and he didn’t feel right about putting you on the bus to the shelter. Marcus wouldn’t let me leave without him because Beth, Joseph, and you were like his family too. Marcus’ family had moved back to California a year earlier, so he had no family here when the quake hit.

“When we got close to Mt. Vernon, I was stunned by how much chaos and devastation the quake had caused. It resembled a town that was bombed in one of the world wars, barely recognizable. I was lucky to be able to get to you at the school. There were so many damaged streets. If I hadn’t known all of the short cuts and side streets, we would not have gotten to you as quickly as we did.

“I don’t know if you remember that your house was mostly spared from any significant damage from the quake, so we settled in at your house. That’s when the media started to show up, wanting to talk to you about that picture. I didn’t know what to do, especially when we found out what had happened to Beth and Joseph.” Cora stopped and took in a deep breath, calming herself.

“Then I got a visit from some people. I asked Marcus to watch you while I talked to the people by myself. Marcus wasn’t too happy about them being there, because one of the individuals was Chase Letterby. He disliked Chase because Chase was always trying to get me to dump Marcus, which I would never do. The other two people were Jerry Hill, who just died recently, and Ester Theasing—yes, the same Ester Theasing from Winsor.

“They came to tell me that I had to go into hiding to protect you, and that it had to be just me, no one else, especially not Marcus. Ester provided us with enough money that we would never have to worry about money again. Jerry was responsible for erasing our pasts and creating our new lives. And Chase was, well, always on call, our personal doctor in case we needed any medical help or a quick getaway.

“So that night I started a fight with Marcus while you were asleep. For his own safety, I wasn’t allowed to tell him anything about us having to leave. I told him that I didn’t want to be with him anymore, that we were over. It was the worst thing I ever had to do. I told the love of my life that the only reason I said yes to his marriage proposal was because I had been upset about my parents’ death, that I hadn’t been thinking clearly, and that it was a big mistake. He begged me to change my mind, pleading with me for hours. I went on to say things I will not repeat to you, and he eventually left early the next morning.”

Cora looked like she was on the verge of a complete breakdown, but like before, she took a deep breath and continued. “Three days later, we visited your parents’ graves and disappeared.”

“Why did you do that? I would have been okay. Who cares if the media kept bothering me? That would have been better than you and Marcus not being together. I could never leave like that, especially if someone asked me to leave Elle. I wouldn’t do it.”

“Nicholas, I had to protect you. I had to make that sacrifice.”

“Sacrifice your future to protect me from what? A couple reporters?”

“No, the reporters were just a small part of it. What I had to protect you from was something larger and more dangerous than you know.”

She pulled off the gravel road onto what felt like a newly paved road. The road was extremely well maintained for being in the middle of nowhere. “We are here. I will explain more with a little help once we are inside, Nicholas.”

A house, which was a little bigger than a guardhouse, was positioned right next to a large metal gate. The gate connected to a tall metal fence, which shot off in both directions, disappearing into the woods. Cora stopped next to the house. A side door opened, and a man dressed in what looked like a hunter’s outfit came out. Cora rolled down the window.

“Hello, Mr. Weathers,” she said.

The unkempt man spoke in a frail but friendly voice, “Well, Ms. Cora Keller, it’s been a long time. It’s so nice to see you. And who do you have with you?” He leaned forward and looked inside the truck.

Cora spoke, “It’s Alexander—”

He finished her sentence, “Nicholas Taylor Keller? Well then, by all means, go on in. The others have already arrived.”

Cora rolled up the window.

“What was that all about? Who was that old man?” I asked.

“He’s the caretaker.”

“For what, a wildlife park?”

“No, for this.”

THUSIANS

CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

C
ora turned around a bend. There was a large, open paved lot, where two helicopters sat on either side of an entrance carved into the side of the mountain straight ahead of us.

“What is this place? Is it a mine?”

Cora got out, ignoring the questions, and walked toward the entrance. I slipped my shoes back on and caught up with her.

“Nicholas, it’s very important that you follow me very closely.” She turned and walked into the entrance. I followed her. A couple of steps into the entrance it became darker than I thought possible. The light from the entrance vanished. I could hear Cora walking ahead of me, but I didn’t know how far ahead of me she was. The walkway started to slope gradually downward, leading us down into the mountain.

I heard Cora counting out loud, “142, 143, 144 steps, then the door.”

Without warning, I was blinded by an intense, bright white light. I squinted through my hands and saw Cora’s silhouette standing in a doorway. The light coming from the door was overpowering.

Still barely able to open my eyes, I walked slowly through the door, holding my hands out to steady myself. Behind me, Cora shut the door with a loud, hollow bang. “We can wait here until you get used to the light.”

A minute passed and I started to see our surroundings. We were standing on a platform that was connected to a steep set of stairs that went down the middle of a large round tunnel. The wall was smooth and white with no visible seams. The tunnel was lit by large lights hanging down the center.

“Nicholas, it’s just a little farther. Once we are there, we can talk.” She started down the stairs. I followed. The stairs went on as far as I could see.

We had been walking down the stairs for what must have been about fifteen minutes when I heard a faint rumbling sound coming from below us. The farther we descended into the mountain, the more the sound grew in intensity. It was becoming so loud that even if I had wanted to talk to Cora, she wouldn’t have been able to hear me. I felt like my ears were going to explode. Then I saw the end of the stairs.

Cora walked quickly down the last couple of steps, and I followed closely. She walked into a room that was a couple of feet past the end of the stairs. The loud roaring sound was muffled once we were inside. The room was made out of some sort of shiny metal. It looked like copper. Straight ahead was a large door with no visible doorknob or handle. On the right side of the room, there were twelve small metal wheels attached to the wall in a straight line parallel to the ground. Each one had a ring of letters surrounding it and a marker, which lined up with a different letter depending on how you moved the wheel.

Cora started at the first wheel and worked her way down the row, carefully lining up each marker with a different letter. The farther she got, the quieter the roaring became. When she made it through all of the wheels, the sound was gone. The only sound now was coming from the door. It was making a series of clicks that sounded like it was being unlocked from within. Then a handle appeared out of the door. Cora pulled the lever and the door opened. She walked in, and I was right behind her.

We were standing in a large stone cathedral cut from the belly of the mountain. The ceiling was high and vaulted like in an Italian cathedral built by the greatest architects of its time, but this cathedral was cut entirely out of stone. All of the ornate decoration and details were carved. The walls were as smooth as glass.

There were twelve individual stone seats cut out of the ground, rising up from the floor at the front of this magnificent cave. Each seat was unique from the others. The front of this stone cathedral had the most splendid altar I had ever seen. It looked like a large stone fireplace, but it took up the entire front wall. It was made out of flat rocks stacked on top of each other; the rocks’ jagged edges stuck out to make a rough finish. Water was cascading down from the ceiling over the front of the rocks. The water disappeared into the ground below. In between the rocks was an iridescent yellowish-white light that illuminated the altar, making it glow.

I looked down and noticed that I was standing in a very shallow puddle. The ground was wet with several puddles. It looked like it had just rained.

“Cora, where are we?”

“Remember in the truck when I said your mom and dad took me somewhere at the end of my winter break? Well, this is that place.”

“Okay, but where are we? Why have you brought me here?”

“We are in the central chamber of the Thusian Vault.”

“The
what
?” I asked.

“The Thu-see-en Vault. The reason I brought you here is for you to understand the changes you are going through on the inside as well as understand your past and your future.”

Chase Letterby and Ester Theasing walked out of a door directly across from where we had entered. Ester came over to Cora and put an arm around her. Cora didn’t flinch; she actually welcomed it, which was completely the opposite of how I expected her to respond.

Chase walked over to me. “Hey, Nicholas, it’s good to see you. How’s that cracked vertebra?” He smiled and patted me on the back. My head was swimming.

“What’s going on, Cora?” I asked, hoping she would wake me up from whatever this was, but Ester spoke instead.

“Nicholas, this is going to be hard for you to understand at first, but please give me a chance to explain what this is all about. Then Chase will speak to you about your dreams and your newfound talents.”

Chase walked over to Cora, and he replaced Ester’s arm with his own. Again, Cora didn’t fight him. She leaned against his chest, using his arms like a crutch. She looked ragged and exhausted.

“Nicholas, I will start from the beginning, just like I did for Cora when she first came here. Roughly 2,000 years ago, the Thusians were created. There were a thousand original Thusians. Their sole purpose was to protect the human race from the evils of this world, no matter the cost—most of the time sacrificing their own lives in the process. They are like guardian angels.

“As time went on, the Thusians’ numbers began to dwindle. So the Keeper—the Thusians’ king—declared that, for the first time, Thusians would be allowed to marry non-Thusians in order to hopefully repopulate the Thusians’ numbers and continue to protect mankind. This plan was very successful, because the Thusians’ numbers grew into the hundreds of thousands in no time, but the Thusians’ ways were not passed on to everyone with Thusian blood.