She started looking through the dresser. In the third drawer, hidden under socks and bras, she found a lined notebook. It looked like a diary. Her hands trembled as she lifted it and opened it to the first page. Tianna Moore was written across the top. Her heart began beating rapidly. At last she would have some answers. She had only begun writing in it two days before—the same day she had enrolled in La Brea High. She stretched out on the bed when a sound made her stop. She held her breath and listened.
Stealthy steps quietly crossed the wood floor downstairs. Someone was trying hard to hide their footfalls. That made her alert. A parent or sister wouldn’t need to sneak around.
Her hands went cold and she set the diary on the nightstand, careful not to make any sound.
The person was climbing the stairs now. She thought she heard a furtive whisper. She stood and walked silently to the door, paused, and listened, trying to hear what they were saying.
The steps halted on the other side of her bedroom door. A hand brushed against the wood, and then she heard someone squeeze the doorknob. She froze as she watched it slowly turn.
Always trust your instincts. The words came to her suddenly. Who had told her that? No matter. She frantically looked around for a place to hide, then walked back to the bed and slid under it as the door opened.
If the person turned out to be a parent or sibling, she was going to feel very foolish. The comment about paranoid tendencies written on the nurse’s computer screen rushed through her mind. Perhaps this was what the notation had meant. Then another thought came to her. Maybe paranoia was sometimes a sane response to what was going on.
She held up the edge of the bedspread with the tips of her fingers and watched as two guys entered the room. They looked about sixteen, not much older than that. The first guy was tall and thin with jagged scars on his bony face. He wore black wire-rim glasses, but the glasses couldn’t hide his spooky eyes, which looked piercing enough to penetrate steel. Three silver skull earrings hung from his left ear, and his face was a pincushion: three rings in his nose, two in his lips, and a barbell through his eyebrow.
She felt a shudder of recognition. He was the same guy she had seen in her flashback this afternoon after the ball slammed her face. He looked human enough, but there was also something supernatural about him.
The second guy had the same intensity in his eyes, but he wore a scraggly goatee. A green snake was tattooed on his broad neck, and his dark hair was streaked with orange and yellow. He remained at the door while the bony-faced guy continued into the room.
He stopped near the bed. Her heart lurched. Had he sensed her presence?
Suddenly he leaned over and picked up her backpack.
She banged her head on the thick carpeting, angry at her stupid mistake. How could she have forgotten her backpack?
He lifted the bedspread, and their eyes met with full recognition. She knew him. He wanted to kill her, but she still didn’t know why. Her heart beat fiercely.
“Hello, Tianna.” He spoke in a sweet, silky voice, as if they had known each other for a long time. His blue eyes sparkled with yellow lights and seemed to bore into her head. His lips curled, but not exactly into a smile—there was too much hate and contempt in it.
“I knew we’d catch you one day, Tianna, I just never expected it to be this easy. You always gave us such fine combat and chase.” He seemed truly disappointed.
Instinct told her not to look in his eyes, but it was hard to pull away. Then she realized he had made one big mistake. She smiled, enjoying his sudden confusion. His face was too close to the toe of her boot. She edged her foot back, but something stopped her. Was he controlling her? She didn’t think so. It was more a feeling that she couldn’t attack, she could only defend. Where had that come from? Some mysterious force inside her seemed to have taken control.
“Come out now.” His hand reached for her ankle, and in a flash she made her decision. She knocked his glasses off with the tip of her boot, then kicked again, batting them away. While he was patting the floor, searching for his glasses, she scrambled out the other side of the bed, jumped over it, grabbed her backpack and diary, and ran toward the door.
The guy with the snake tattoo blocked her exit. “Where do you think you’re going?”
There was no way she could get around him. He was enormous, like a football player. She glanced at his face. His eyes held hers, and his thoughts pushed right through her skull. She blinked and shook her head, but she couldn’t get rid of the feeling that he was still inside her mind, telling her to go back and sit on the bed.
He laughed at her struggle.
“Sorry,” she whispered as she made her decision.
“Sorry?” he repeated.
She brought her leg back as if ready for the goal, but at the last second the mysterious force held her back again and kept her from completing the kick. Instead, she pushed him hard, knocking him off balance. That gave her enough time to dart around him.
He lunged for her like a nose tackle, arms stretched in front of him, and fell flat on his stomach behind her with a loud oof as he grabbed her ankle. The table in the hallway skidded and a crystal vase on top rocked back and forth.
“I knew I could count on you to make this fun, Tianna, you always do,” the one with the snake tattoo said as he squeezed her ankle tightly.
“Do I know you?” she asked, trying desperately to kick off her boot.
A startled expression crossed his face. “You don’t remember, do you?”
“Remember what?” she yelled back with a surge of adrenaline.
“Justin,” he shouted. “She doesn’t remember.”
“I told you, Mason.” Justin’s excited voice came from the other room. “You said you hadn’t been able to take anything from her, but I knew you got her Tuesday, and you did.”
Mason was distracted for an instant, and he loosened his grip. That was all she needed. She yanked back and as she did, her hand accidentally batted the table. The crystal vase tumbled and hit him hard on the top of the head.
“Whoops,” she said, even though she knew it couldn’t be her fault. She scooted backward, then got up and ran.
He was too large and awkward. She was already at the top of the stairs when he finally stood. At the front door she heard his footsteps thundering behind her. She swung open the door and it hit the wall with a bang. She reached back and closed it, hoping to stall them for precious seconds.
She bounded down the front steps.
A loud crashing sound made her glance back. They had knocked open the door and were following her, eyes glowing.
She tasted fear, her mouth so dry she couldn’t swallow, and then she felt their combined mental attack. Against her will she slowed her pace. What kind of creatures were they? She tried to run faster, but her legs begged her to stop. She didn’t know how much longer she could fight them. She wanted to surrender and stare into their compelling eyes.
Already she could hear their heavy breathing. They were too close. She was not going to make it.
CHAPTER EIGHT
AT THAT MOMENT Tianna spied a skateboard. Her hand acted on its own, and before she knew what was happening she had grabbed the board, sent it rolling, and jumped on. Two strokes with her right foot, then she pumped, moving her knees from side to side. She curved down the front sidewalk, bumping over the bricks, and just before reaching the front steps, she turned a high ollie and landed on the thick iron banister. She tailslid down the rail, then bent her knees to cushion her landing and kept going.
“Awesome,” she breathed, impressed with herself.
She jetted down the middle of the street, the breeze rushing through her hair. She dodged around traffic and eased up on the sidewalk and back out into the street again.
When she was a mile away, she slowed. She didn’t know where she was and she didn’t care. At least she had gotten away, and apparently she had gone far enough so their powerful mind control couldn’t reach her. Why would they want her
? There was nothing special about her.
She continued past a parking lot and a taco stand, then looked up and saw that she was at the crossroad of Hollywood Boulevard and Vine. Kids in front of a bar started an impromptu rap. Pedestrians hurried around the hat the kids had set on the sidewalk for tips. She passed a tattoo-and-piercing parlor, a movie memorabilia shop, and a doughnut stand.
Tianna turned the skateboard and wove through tourists gathered around a pink granite star embedded in the sidewalk. She hopped off the curb and sped down the middle of a side street, pumping. She glanced back. No one was following.
When she faced forward again, a black Oldsmobile was racing toward her, engine roaring. She jumped and rode the board over the top of the car, down the back windshield, and off the trunk.
The car screeched to a stop.
She did a one-eighty, whirling around to face the driver and see what kind of damage she had caused, then she did a wheelie stop near the back of the car.
Mason stepped out and grinned at her.
She grabbed the skateboard and heaved it at him, then ran. She ducked behind a line of parked cars and scurried forward, her breath coming in rapid gulps. She scrambled across a parking lot as the sun balanced on the horizon, then crouched low behind a delivery truck. She felt as if she were drowning in her own fear.
She peered from behind the bumper. She couldn’t see either of them, but she had an inexplicable feeling that they were close. With a shudder she understood why. An eerie prickling sensation rolled inside her head, and she wondered if they could send out brain waves like some kind of mental radar, searching for her. She knew that she needed to get farther away.
She dodged into an alley that smelled of rotting garbage and kicked through newspapers and broken beer bottles, then climbed a Cyclone fence. The gate swayed back and forth like a snake trying to shake her off. She jumped from the top and landed in the trash that had swept against the bottom of the wire mesh.
She sprinted past a rusted Dumpster and stopped, then twirled around, the stench unbearable. She had boxed herself in. She heard a sound and turned. Justin had the toe of his shoe in the wire mesh and started to climb the fence.
“Hi, Tianna.” Mason stood beside him, casting a huge shadow down the alley.
CHAPTER NINE
JUSTIN GRINNED AT HER as his hand reached the top of the gate. She let out a sigh. This was it. She wished the mesh in the fence were too small for his feet.
Abruptly he slipped. He slid down the front of the fence and landed on the ground. He looked back at her, surprised, then over at Mason. “I thought you said you got her.”
“I did,” Mason explained.
“Well, then, did she get her memories back?” Justin asked.
Mason cautioned him to be quiet. “Shut up!” He scowled and looked back at Tianna.
Justin tried again to push the toe of his shoe into the mesh, but this time it didn’t fit. “We still have you,” he shouted angrily.
“She has to come out this way,” Mason agreed, and motioned to Justin. They walked back to the entrance of the alley.
“We’ll be waiting for you, Tianna,” Justin said, taunting her.
She knew he was right. That was the only way to get out, and already she could feel their thoughts piercing through her mind, telling her to surrender.
She took refuge behind the Dumpster. Those guys weren’t ordinary people, but then she smiled to herself. She was beginning to think that she was no ordinary girl. For the second time today, she had thought something and it had happened. She hated to think that she had actually broken Michelle’s ankle. That had never been her intent, but she had desperately wanted the mesh to become smaller, and it had. Could it have just been a coincidence? She hoped not.
She leaned against a brick wall and studied a stack of old newspapers next to a crate of blackened lettuce leaves. In her mind’s eye she pictured the edges moving.
She watched in wonder as the stale newsprint fluttered.
She sucked in her breath. Had it only been her imagination? Now she let her mind expand. She pictured the pages opening, and they did.
“Cool,” she whispered, and smiled. “Now dance around the alley.”
The papers wavered, then glided about in a strange collage, flapping like the wings of giant cranes.
She turned away, and the papers fell to the ground again. She saw an apple core. She imagined it flying over the fence and landing at Justin’s feet.
The apple core zipped away. She peeked from behind the Dumpster as it landed in front of Justin.
He picked up the apple core and turned. In the instant their eyes met, he knew.
“Good luck catching me now!” she yelled at him.
He nudged Mason and they both started walking down the alley toward the fence. The air shimmered in front of them with purple heat waves seeping from their eyes.
“Too late,” she said. “You had your chance.” She darted behind the Dumpster. She had heard about telekinetic phenomena. Where she had heard about it she didn’t know, but she knew telekinesis was the ability to move objects by thinking about them. She felt thrilled with the possibilities of her newfound power.
She wondered if she could move larger things, too. She glanced at the Dumpster, narrowed her eyes in concentration, and strained. The side of the Dumpster buckled with a sharp pop. She gasped. Could she bend objects, too?
A noise like rattling chains startled her, and she peered back down the alley. Justin and Mason were shaking the double gate in the fence as if they were trying to break the chain lock. She turned back to the trash piled at the dead end and raised her hands like a great conductor of an orchestra. Soon lettuce leaves, orange peels, coffee grounds, and papers were flying everywhere. With a flick of her wrists, the garbage bounced away from her, heading for Justin and Mason.
Without warning she let everything fall. Trash and garbage rained down on them. She laughed, and even though she could feel the sting of their minds, she didn’t turn away yet.
Windows above her opened and people leaned over their sills, staring down into the alley.
“What’s going on?” a woman screamed.
Tianna looked up. That’s when she saw the fire escape over her head.
When the woman ducked back inside her apartment, Tianna concentrated and willed the iron ladder to lower. It did. She picked up her backpack, swung it over her shoulders, grabbed the rung, and climbed up to the fire escape. She continued up the stairs until she found an open window.
Cautiously she climbed inside a stranger’s apartment and tiptoed toward what she thought must be the front door. She had her hand on the doorknob, twisting it, when a young woman came out from another room, carrying a baby in her arms. She stopped and stared, speechless, at Tianna.
“Oops, wrong apartment.” Tianna hurried out the door, then continued down the long hallway to the fire stairs and outside.
She walked in the cool evening air and took a deep breath, feeling safe at last. She had started to pass a storefront when someone grabbed her arm and yanked her inside.
CHAPTER TEN
TIANNA TURNED, READY to defend herself. “Jimena,” she sighed, and let her hands drop back to her sides.
“Estás escamada,” Jimena whispered, and her eyes darted outside as if she were searching for the danger. “What scared you?”
Tianna shook her head. “I’m not afraid.”
“Mentirosa. Why do you always lie to me? Your fingers are cold and trembling. What happened?” Jimena gazed at her with her witching eyes, all dark and smoldering as if she were working some kind of black magic on her, then the moment ended and Jimena shook her head and scowled. “What’s with you? Don’t you know how dangerous it is out there? What were you doing walking down those streets alone, anyway?”
Tianna searched for an excuse, then drew back. What made Jimena think it was any of her business? “I was just taking in the sights like any tourist,” she lied defiantly.
“Well,
don’t,” Jimena warned her. “Not in this part of town. You don’t understand how peligroso it is at night here.”
“Are you talking about gangbangers or drug users?” Tianna snickered. “I’m not scared of them.” She wondered what Jimena would do if she knew what kind of strange creatures had been chasing her.
“You think I’m talking about some vato loco or a tecato. You don’t even know.”
Jimena’s dismissive manner angered Tianna. She started to say something and stopped. She couldn’t tell Jimena what had really happened, and even if she did, there was no way Jimena would believe her.
“Maybe you’d better rest here for a while.” Jimena softened suddenly.
“Do I look like I need to rest?” Tianna glared at her.
“After the way you played soccer today, you deserve a rest.” Jimena smiled, her charm rekindled, and once again there was something captivating about the way her eyes sparkled. “You were awesome. Come on. You can’t go back out there now. I’ll give you a ride home after.”
“After what?” Tianna asked.
Jimena lifted a heavy black curtain and Tianna looked inside, surprised. She had thought the storefront was vacant, but she was in some kind of performance bar.
Kids were crowded around a foot-high stage. Serena stood there under the only light in the entire room, reciting poetry. She looked beautiful, all in black, her eyes sad and cast down, reading from a sheet of paper, her lips against a mike.
Tianna nudged through the crowd behind Jimena, then squeezed into a seat at a table and shoved her backpack underneath. Graffiti with disturbing messages covered the tabletop.
A girl with multiple piercings and red eye shadow around bleary eyes set a bowl of gummy bears on the table and handed Tianna a menu.
“Go ahead and order.” Jimena sipped an oversized latte. “I’ll treat.”
“I’ve got money,” Tianna lied. She didn’t really have any that she could spare. She needed every dime to run away.