Both boys watched with horror on their faces – Sam because he hated watching his sister suffer, Clint because he had no idea what was happening. Leesha sat patiently with Lexi, stroking her hair. “Breathe in… Now out…”
Lexi just continued to writhe there in agony, moaning quietly and shuddering with the burn.
After what seemed like an eternity of silence, Lexi’s forehead finally smoothed, she sat up and rubbed the back of her sweaty neck. “Ugh. Sorry about that guys. I’m all good now!” and she shot them a winning smile, full of relief.
“What… the heck… was that?!” Clint’s olive skin had still not regained its normal color.
“That, well… That was a flash.”
“But… You’re smiling now. You just looked like you were in the most excruciating pain…”
“Oh, I was. It’s no picnic. To be honest, it pretty much feels like you’re trapped in a flaming barrel of gasoline… But it’s over now.”
“And you’re HAPPY now?”
They all chuckled – all three that were in on the secret joke anyway. Sam checked his watch and noted the time on his notepad.
“Wow, Lex. That one was almost ten minutes! You’ve really upped the production with that one!” He smiled a congratulatory look at her.
“Really? That’s fantastic!” Lexi walked over to check his notes.
Clint shook his head, like he was trying to clear the fog that was preventing him from seeing clearly. “Why are you guys so upbeat about all of this?! It seems to me like she was just being tortured!”
Leesha smiled. “Well, Clint… We haven’t told you the good news yet.”
Chapter Thirty
“Good news?” Clint’s mouth dropped open in utter astonishment. “There’s good news?”
Leesha took a deep breath and braced herself to tell him the rest of the story. “Clint, I know what you just saw was pretty weird.”
“Um… YEAH,” he nodded.
“What I’m gonna tell you now is even harder to wrap your head around. If you think you’ve taken in too much for tonight, we would all understand.”
His square jaw tightened, as if he were trying to summon up the courage to finish this conversation. “I’m fine. Go on.”
“We believe these flashes are some kind of chemical reaction starting in our brain, and is changing the makeup of our bodies. And the abilities of our mind.”
“What do you mean it’s changing the abilities of your mind?”
“Well,” Leesha continued, “it’s different for each of us. My brain was left with the added power of telekinesis.”
“You mean like moving things with your mind?”
“Very good!” Leesha was impressed with his knowledge of scientific terminology.
“I thought that was just comic book stuff…” Clint continued to look puzzled.
“I did too, until it took over my body,” she laughed, and proceeded to give Clint the Reader’s Digest version of her history.
When she wrapped up her story, Clint still looked skeptical. Sam laughed from his seat, shook his head and said, “Yeah, man. I didn’t believe her either.”
Clint looked over at him. “It can’t be possible.”
“I promise, it is,” he grinned back at him, knowing what was coming next.
Clint looked back at Leesha. “Can I see?” he timidly asked.
“Sure! I feel like I’ve been a terrible hostess. Let me get you something to drink,” and her gaze moved from the living room to the kitchen. They all three followed her eyes and watched the refrigerator door open silently by itself, and then a can of Coke was gracefully drifting through the air until it landed gently on the coaster in front of where Clint was sitting.
“Un… believable,” he looked up at Leesha, shocked. “Can you do that to anything?”
“Yes.”
“Any weight?”
“Yes, now. It took a little while to strengthen my ability, but now I can pretty much move anything. I’ve even lifted a car once, just to see if I could.”
“Can you lift living things?”
“Yep.”
“Lift me.”
And suddenly he was floating mid-air, about two feet above where he was sitting. He looked down, and fought the urge to scream like a girl.
Sam laughed. “Good one, Clint! I can’t believe I didn’t think to ask her that.” He turned to Leesha. “Do me next!”
“Take a number, pal,” Leesha smirked as she set Clint back down in his seat.
Clint shook his head again, now believing, but still trying to understand what the group was telling him. “And you think the flashes are making this happen?”
“We do,” Leesha answered. “I wasn’t sure at first, but once I found Sam and saw what he was going through, I was convinced it was connected. That we were connected.”
Clint turned to Sam. “What can you do?”
“My senses are heightened. I can see better. Hearing, taste, touch, smell – all of it is supersonic. And I’ve got a sixth sense – I can read minds, and project my thoughts into the minds of others.”
“Really?”
“Really. Remember earlier when you asked how I could know everything that I did? I was reading your mind.”
“Oh. OH! Oh… Well, that’s kind of rude,” he shot, only half sarcastically.
“I know. I can turn it off when I want to, which is most the time. But it comes in handy. I heard you come into the mall tonight, too. Could hear you repeating my name in your mind, so I knew you were looking for me.”
“That’s why all of you were watching me?”
“Yes.”
Now completely filled with curiosity, he turned to Lexi. “What can YOU do?”
Lexi, in her flair for grandeur, opted not to tell him. She simply showed him. In a flash, she was gone.
Clint’s body jerked back in surprise, mixed with a little fear. He scanned the room, then looked back at the other two. “Where’d she go?”
“I’m over here,” she said from the other side of the room.
“Invisibility?”
“She has the ability to change her body’s matter to be transparent,” Leesha explained, more scientifically.
“Pretty cool, isn’t it?” she said from yet another corner of the room.
Clint’s head snapped toward the direction from where her voice was now coming, still perplexed by the fact that he couldn’t see her.
Sam butted in. “And she uses her ability to screw with people.”
And just then the group heard the smack and saw Sam’s head fly forward. “Ow, Lexi! I swear… I’m going to put a cow bell on her.”
In a flash, she was back, appearing right next to Clint on the couch. He flinched as she appeared right in front of his eyes. “Yeah, I can see how that would mess with a person.”
They all laughed, then Leesha’s eyes got serious again. “So none of this has happened to you, Clint?”
“No. NO. I’d know if I’d have gone through anything like this. Do you think it will?”
“There’s not an easy way to know,” Leesha began. “Either we can wait for your body to stop growing, which could be a while…”
Sam interrupted, “OR we could find the bastard that did this to us and ask him.”
Leesha got quiet for a moment, thinking. She turned to Clint. “You don’t have any idea who sent you to us?”
“No. Really, I thought it was you guys. I’m as clueless as you are.”
Sam heard the fear run through Lexi’s brain as she caught up to speed with what Leesha was thinking. “You don’t think HE sent Clint to us, do you?”
“Well, that’s the only obvious answer I can think of. I mean, who else would know about us?”
“Who are you talking about?” Clint asked, confused again.
There is so much we need to fill him in on…
“We believe that a man, Dr. Carl Blevins, is the one who did this to us,” Leesha started. “He was an OB on rotation during the time t
hat we were born at Sartori, and we’ve done enough research on his education, experience and – most importantly, his criminal background – to believe that he is the guy we’re looking for. So far, he’s the only one that makes sense.”
“The only problem,” Sam continued Leesha’s explanation, “is we can’t find him. No trace of him anywhere – no trail of him from since after he left prison. So we can’t ask him any of the questions we have in order to get the answers.”
“Well, someone knew that the three of you were together,” Clint said, pondering, then looked at the twins. “I know you two live together, but how do you communicate between the three of you?”
“We mostly try to meet to discuss our research,” Leesha answered for the group. “Between meetings, we email from our computers, and text and call from our cells.”
Clint turned to Sam. “Let me see your phone.”
Sam pulled it out, and flipped it to Clint. He caught it gracefully and in what seemed like a few seconds, had the back off and the whole thing dismantled to check out the internal parts.
“Hey!” Sam said protectively. “I hope you can put that back together!”
“I can, don’t worry.” Clint continued to look through the internal wiring, then in a couple more blinks put the phone back together, turned it back on and flipped through the settings. After thoroughly scanning the contents on the screen, he flipped it back to Sam and reported: “It’s clean. No bugs or tracing devices.”
Lexi’s eyes popped. “Are you serious? You can tell that?”
He grinned shyly. “I’m pretty good with electronics.”
“Check mine,” and Lexi walked over to hand her phone to him. After the same routine, he reported hers was clear of surveillance too. After Lexi’s, he checked Leesha’s phone – which also got a clean bill of health.
“Okay,” Clint started, “we know that he’s not tracing your texts or listening in on your conversations by phone. I can check your computers, too, if you want.”
Sam checked his watch. “Oh my gosh, Lexi! Do you see the time? We’ve got to get home or Mom will kill us!”
Lexi jumped up, and then hesitated. “But we just got started… We’ve got more questions than answers now!”
“What are you guys doing tomorrow?” Leesha asked. “Mom’s gone all weekend. Can you guys come back and spend the day working?”
“Yep,” both twins said in unison.
“Clint?” Leesha asked. “You want in on this? We could really use your help.”
“You got it. I’m in. What time?”
“How about ten?”
“Sounds good,” Sam said. “I’ll bring doughnuts. We’ll need some brain food.”
The group laughed, and Sam, Lexi and Clint headed for the door to leave. As they walked down the stairs toward their cars, Sam noticed for the first time what Clint drove up in.
“Nice cycle, man,” he said enviously.
“Thanks. It’s a ’73 Harley Davidson Sportster. My old man helped me rebuild it last year. I saved for a whole year to buy it and the parts, and it took us another just to rebuild it,” he said, pulling his leather jacket off the back. “It rides sweet. You wanna take it for a spin tomorrow?”
“Can I really?”
“Sure!”
“Cool… See you tomorrow,” and the gang headed off in their separate directions.
Chapter Thirty-one
Sam got to Leesha’s house last, as he stopped by the local bakery to get a mixed assortment of breakfast pastries on his way. When he got there, he saw Lexi’s car in the small driveway, but noticed right away that she hadn’t gone in yet. She was outside standing next to Clint, who was sitting on his bike showing it off. He opted not to tap into her thoughts – he could tell by the way she was standing there, with one hip shifted to the side, she was trying to get his attention.
Ugh. I don’t have the stomach for this so early in the morning.
He walked up the stairs to be greeted by Leesha at the door. Her lips curved up as she nodded towards the two in the driveway. “Most guys are hotter with leather jackets and motorcycles.”
“Shut up, Leesha.” He turned his back to her and walked away as she sniggered.
He set his laptop down on the counter, along with the box of doughnuts. Leesha was setting drinks out on the counter when the other two stepped through the front door to get started. They all converged around the box Sam opened and made small talk as they finished off their first round of doughnuts and muffins.
“Lexi, do you still have your powers this morning?” Leesha asked, hoping for a positive update.
“I do! This is the longest they’ve stayed with me!”
“That’s great, Lexi. Good news…”
“So you say,” Sam interrupted. “YOU don’t have to try and talk her out of showing off every chance she gets. I caught her toying with the idea of driving over here invisible – so it would look like her car was driving itself.”
Clint burst into a throaty laugh. “That would be so awesome!”
“I know! Right?”
“Lexi…” Leesha started.
“I KNOW, Leesha. Jeez. You two have to give me a tiny break… I really am more responsible than Sam makes me out to be,” she rolled her eyes. Then giggled again. “Imagine your motorcycle driving down the highway by itself!”
Even Sam laughed at this imagery. While the mood was light, Leesha thought she would test Clint’s overall emotional balance after all they dumped on him the previous night. “Clint, how are you doing with all of this? I know we pushed a lot of freaky stuff on you last night. I’m actually kind of surprised to see you back this morning. And in such a great mood, after everything… You know.”
“Well, I did have a hard time sleeping last night, after the initial bomb shell,” he admitted. “But I think my adrenaline was more amped up after seeing everything I did, and knowing that I could be a part of this. It’s really cool!”
“Did you think any more about how someone could have found us?”
“I still think that it has to have something to do with your computers, and the email trail between the three of you. It’s not hard to get into someone’s email address, and ultimately their hard drive – especially now that everything has gone wireless. It’ll take me close to forty-five minutes to do a thorough search of all three computers – I think that’s where I should start.”
“Sam,” Leesha turned to him. “I was thinking that perhaps we should split up and help out the others. Lexi needs to work on her ability since it’s still here. I can help her with that, as I know what tests I want her to try. With your technical knowledge, do you think you could help Clint check the computers?”
“Sure. No problem.” And to their separate corners they went.
Leesha had Lexi practicing her abilities, first by isolating certain parts of her body. It was not an easy task, and eventually Leesha asked Lexi to shut her eyes to keep her focus, talking her through the exercise. They started with smaller part of the body – fingers first – as that sounded like the easiest route. After about fifteen minutes, Lexi was able to make her entire left hand disappear.
“Lexi, you’re doing it!” Leesha shouted, and Lexi’s eyes snapped open to see her arm stubbed off at the wrist.
“Oh. My. GOSH! That is so weird looking!” They both giggled loudly, which made the boys stop what they were doing in the other room and pay attention. Lexi looked up at Sam and Clint and waved with her handless arm.
“Ew! Yuck! That’s disgusting!” Clint laughed.
“Great job, Lexi! Was it hard?”
“No, not after Leesha helped me focus. I think I can do it by myself now…” and with a look of concentration, made her other hand disappear. Then her legs disappeared, then both arms. She then stood up – though you couldn’t see her legs move, and her limbless torso floated around the room as she walked in circles around the coffee table. The other three cheered and laughed. The boys then went back to concentrate on the laptops.
“Okay, Lexi, now I want to see if you can make something else disappear.”
“What do you mean?”
“Hold this remote control in your hand and see if you can make it disappear with your hand. I don’t think this one will be nearly as hard to do – you’re already kind of doing it in a way.”
“I am?”
“Well, yeah. The way I figure, your clothes are disappearing as your body material goes transparent. It’s touching you, so you must have some kind of control on what you’re touching too.”
“Okay, that makes sense.” Lexi looked down at the remote, thought for a split second, and then both her hand and the remote were gone.
“Great! You’re a quick study, Lexi.”
“Thanks. I promised you I would work hard at this.”
“I know, and you have,” Leesha agreed. “Now, let’s take this one step further. This time I want you to concentrate on making JUST the remote control disappear. Not your hand, just the remote.”
Lexi held her hand out again, paused again, and then the remote was gone, her hand still there cupped as if there was something resting in it.
“Awesome! That’s amazing, Lexi…”
Leesha looked down at her feet. “Do you think you could make your shoes disappear?”
They both concentrated on her feet, and in a flash, her shoes were gone, showing her bare feet – freshly pedicured in pink toenail polish.
“Nice…”
The boys stopped what they were doing to watch. Clint yelled from the kitchen table: “Now take the rest of it off!”
“Yeah right, pervert!” Lexi shot back, grinning, just as Sam landed a sharp punch to Clint’s shoulder.
“Ow! I was just kidding…” he half shrugged.
Leesha turned back at Lexi. “Okay, now I want to try something else. I’m wanting to test my abilities in sync with yours and see if they can work together. You willing to let me lift you?”
“Yes! I’ve been dying to since I saw you do it last night!”
“Okay… First, just let me do it while you’re in full view, so you can get a sense of how it feels.”
“Okay,” Lexi said, setting her feet apart in a ready stance. “I’m ready.”
And suddenly she was lifted six inches into the air. Leesha took her and moved her back and forth gracefully through the living room.