“Wait, what time was it?” Rebecca interrupted him.
“What time? What would that matter?” Spencer snapped at her as he tried to catch his breath as they continued to move through the trees. They finally all stopped moving when they reached the lake in the middle of the woods. The sound of rushing water from its streams felt safe. Ironically, it was in this very lake not too long ago that Rebecca and Spencer had abandoned Donna when she’d first transformed. Boy, how the world had changed since then.
“The time matters because this afternoon Paul’s handmade tablet turned on on its own, and a virus uploaded from it. Something he must have programmed months ago to upload by itself in case he was … ” Donna could tell it was hard for her to finish, “ … gone. I have no idea what the deactivation code could be, but the virus uploaded somewhere before I could even move to stop it or understand. All I could see from the code is that it uploaded via the internet to a server north of town.”
“North of town as in the power plant?” Donna asked, as another piece of the puzzle began to soar into her average, not genius smart head. Rebecca, like Paul, thought like a genius.
“Yes, all I can understand is that it either opened, or tried to shut down something’s systems.”
“Shut down, as in made way for something to escape?” Spencer breathed before Donna tried to speak and she wondered how he could know.
“Possibly,” Rebecca nodded as Spencer ran his fingers through his hair and looked like he might pull it out of his scalp. He was dripping with sweat, obviously overwhelmed.
“Not possibly, definitely. I don’t know what the odds were that this could happen, but this kid …” Spencer started to speak as Donna’s mind flashed to the little boy, and she was about to interrupt, but Spencer spoke over her, and that’s when she realized he was talking about someone else.
“A little girl ran out into the road, coming out of the woods right behind the plant. She didn’t care that I was in the middle of the road and coming straight toward her. I tried to stop my car but I couldn’t, and as I hit her, the most messed up impossible fiasco happened! Again!” Spencer continued to tell them about how he swore he saw a child, no older than twelve, turn into a liquid puddle of water. It sounded like the most unbelievable thing, and yet they all knew it was real. Then he described how the little girl’s body restructured, becoming human again, unhurt as she ran away into the woods.
This was all too much. How many more abilities could people like Donna possibly have? “So the girl is gone?” Rebecca was asking Spencer.
“As far as I know. Once she took off I had the feeling it wasn’t smart to stick around.”
Then it was Donna’s turn to tell what she had seen. Rebecca and Spencer stood there overwhelmed as Donna retold her whole story.
“Well Merry ‘F’you’ flipping Christmas to us,” Spencer finally piped in when Donna was done. “Is it too much in this freaky sci-fi hell hole to have a normal day?” he went on and complained.
“You’re sure they didn’t see you in that store when you caused the power to go out?” Rebecca asked Donna.
“If they did I wouldn’t be here,” Donna said as an evaporating tear left her eye. She felt so bad for not being able to help that boy. I should have been able to do something, her mind hammered. The next moment, Rebecca’s tiny hands were around Donna. Somehow, again, Rebecca had transformed into something strong, and now she was giving Donna strength.
“So a super powered water girl escapes,” Spencer went on talking with his comic book terms. “And a microwavable teleporting boy is taken. You don’t think she’s the sister Randy was talking to Lynn about?” Spencer asked as he seemed to be comprehending in his own mind the gravity of Donna’s story.
“It would make sense that she would be,” Rebecca chimed in when Donna didn’t answer.
“Oh and that’s the tree topper for us here, not only are the jock princes of this town, the Applegate boys, super freaks, but our town’s way too hot evil cheerleader is one, too,” Spencer reminded them. Donna wished he wouldn’t refer to Lynn’s over obvious hotness when so many scary things were erupting around them.
“The little boy, before they took him, said that Randy’s dad couldn’t keep taking kids, that they were all going to be let loose. What does that mean?” Donna asked Rebecca desperately as her own mind seemed to be clicking. It flashed with every missing or runaway child case her dad had a file on. All those people, and Donna’s brother, they couldn’t be the ones the boy had been talking to Randy about. But then her imagination was shaking her, giving her the new possibility that her brother had never run away at all. Maybe Mr. Applegate had taken him. Donna felt sick.
She looked at a quiet Rebecca and Spencer, desperately waiting for them to say no, that it was way too unlikely. They didn’t say a word as Donna’s mind was filled with memories that were gray in color. They cleared for a moment and she remembered through a child’s eyes seeing her dad fall apart when he realized her older brother wasn’t in her home. Donna should have been too young to remember, and yet she always had somehow.
As her grandmother rushed over to watch Donna while her dad and the whole town searched, someone else had shown up on her dad’s doorstep before he’d even had a chance to call the police. Her father’s best friend, Mr. Applegate. That was the first day she had met her godfather’s son, Ryan. He was Donna’s age and played with Donna every day while her father left their town to search for her brother.
She remembered being hypnotized by Ryan’s bright blue eyes and perfect child looks, even when he was a young boy, and even on the day her brother had disappeared. Ryan had filled her world like a miniature sun, and he had let Donna fill his world back then. From that day they’d been inseparable; and she’d always over the years had asked him as she watched her father fall apart, “Do you think they’ll find my brother?”
“I know they will,” he would tell her.
His words and the revelation that her godfather had showed up so quickly crushed Donna all over again. It was one sick truth that they had powers and were bad. It was another to think that her whole life turning out like this, even the reason her dad had first brought her to the city where the terrible thing had happened, was all because of the Applegate’s lies. All this time it was a possibility that Ryan, Randy, and their dad knew where David could be.
Donna felt something inside her burn, and then she couldn’t control it, she turned electric as her brain fought with what she was trying to remember, and every memory was tinted gray. It was her own head’s way of dealing with fear, it always had been before Donna had discovered she had powers, and she hated it.
“Wow, Donna, calm down for a second!” Spencer tried to come to her, maybe calm her down and hold her the way he had after Paul’s death. Donna had gotten used to holding his hand in school as they pretended they were a couple, but Spencer couldn’t help her now. She’d shock him if he touched her.
“You need to calm down so we can figure this out,” he tried to tell her.
“I cannot calm down anymore,” Donna spoke through her electric body. This was it, finally her breaking point. She felt all her fear burn into something angry.
“Holy crap! Donna it’s too freaky when you talk and your body’s like this,” Spencer rambled.
Ignoring Spencer she turned to Rebecca. “I need you to figure out if it could be true. Please figure out for me if all this time it could have been the Applegates who took my brother, and if he could still be alive.” Donna was talking like her father, a mad man who still prayed his son was out there somewhere. It was a whole other Pandora’s box compared to their problems right now, but Donna selfishly didn’t care.
Rebecca just nodded. She and Spencer both seemed almost afraid of Donna right now. Of course, they always did a little bit when she was in this state. The only one who hadn’t been afraid had been Paul, and he was gone.
And then Donna was taking off with her electric speed, running through the woods, using all
her electric energy until it was gone.
* * *
Spencer
Spencer watched Donna, an electric transparent ghost with no form, jet off. Watching her was like looking at an alien whose home wasn’t from here, and yet somehow she was still their Donna, a lost teenage girl. And then she was gone, her bright light finally disappeared as she ran away.
Spencer himself was terrified and in wonder of what possibly could come next. He had to act like a man here, even as he sweated pathetically and had no idea what to do. Rebecca stood next to him, the smallest and yet smartest person he knew out of anyone. Her body language was like his own, like she was trying to get a grip, and probably wishing she was far away from all this. That she was on a beach in Florida. No, those were Spencer’s own thoughts and prayers.
Rebecca’s bright green eyes instead were turned on and there was a spark in her he hadn’t seen since before Paul’s death. “We have to figure out what kind of virus Paul planted, and what he’s doing right now.” She spoke as if he was still alive, giving Spencer the chills. “What his computer program is doing I mean, and these kids, where that little girl could be, and if Donna’s hypothesis about her brother could be correct. If it is,” she breathed the next words they’d all been trying to figure out, “it could explain why she has abilities, and why Paul believed she was our only hope.”
Oh, God. Spencer took a deep breath, wondering what title wave was about to come down on them now.
* * *
Donna
Donna didn’t know what she was doing, she couldn’t think. Nothing made sense anymore, and her head and emotions throbbed. I’m losing it. Yet she had to know, did the Applegates take her brother and had Ryan known about it this whole time, throughout their entire childhood friendship?
Nothing seemed more vile and awful if this could be so. Donna didn’t know who Ryan was anymore, but as she thought about the gifts he’d gotten her for Christmas, gifts that could have been derived from guilt, Donna’s imagination was telling her this could be very true. She was sure, with the right look, if she pretended to be clueless and asked Ryan about her brother this time, knowing what she did now, maybe she’d see it on his face. See a yes somewhere in his eyes. That he knew possibly where her brother could be. Or please, God, maybe this was all wrong.
Like a lamb walking up to a lion’s den, Donna didn’t know where she found the courage in her hands; which looked normal and human, but were filled with electricity inside. She knocked on the Applegate’s giant door as she forced herself not to cry.
After a moment, Daisy answered. She smiled when she saw Donna until she read that something was very wrong. Of course Daisy, the Applegate’s maid, could sense true emotion. She was the most human and humane of any of the Applegates, because she really wasn’t an Applegate at all.
“Donna, what’s wrong?” Daisy asked her as her arms fell around Donna in a comforting hug.
“I just, um, need to talk to Ryan. Is he here?” Donna asked her as an old memory fell into her mind. He had to be here.
“I’m afraid he’s been dealing with a small Christmas emergency at his father’s business. Here, come inside and I’ll call on the intercom and see if he’s back,” Daisy told her as she lead Donna inside and left her alone for a minute. Yeah, Christmas emergency, as in taking children with impossible powers prisoner. Donna found her eyes exploring the giant mansion like she never had before. For once, she was sick of keeping her head down and being a shy nobody when she came here. This large, lonely castle was void of any Christmas music or homey smells of cooked food and cheer today.
No, today her eyes were exploring every nook and cranny. It was ironic how Mr. Applegate kept this place seeming so ancient and yet Daisy had to try to locate people by intercom. That’s when it occurred to Donna that no doubt this place was full of cameras and she was being watched. She wondered if it was Ryan, Randy, or her godfather on the other end.
She closed her eyes for a moment, forcing herself to look with her electric sight. The whole place went black in her mind like a photo developing room, and that’s when she saw millions of cells of electricity come to life. Donna could see the hidden cameras and microphone pieces everywhere. Every inch of where she stood was covered with something electrical. It was like a den of recording secrets, and Donna wondered where in this den the secret that lead to her powers and her brother was.
* * *
Ryan
Ryan was in his father’s den with his father behind him and Lynn beside him. Lynn was studying a file on the brother and sister that had escaped today. In Ryan’s entire life of living here, he’d never heard of an intruder breaking into the power plant or escaping. Yet both things had happened now with the Electrolite and now these kids in a short time. Something was majorly wrong and it was written all over his father’s face. Could a program some hacker implanted in their system in moments really do all this? Lynn seemed highly elated at the opportunity for an extra mission, even if it was just catching kids to make sure they were safe, she was psyched like a lab mouse wanting to perform.
“I ran around every inch of this town and the towns around us twice with my speed, and nothing,” Ryan was telling his father.
“I don’t believe that girl would leave her brother. Those kids are telepathically linked and strongest when together. She’s nearby, for all we know she’s right outside this room,” Mr. Applegate was saying as he was about to drink a glass of water. He stopped himself and put the glass down, imagining something as he looked at the contents inside the glass. This was because the little girl they were looking for had the ability to morph herself into a watery fleshy liquid. She could travel by sewer or drain pipe. It was enough to make Ryan’s father lose his thirst for a good while.
“I guess I’ll take off and look again, hope to catch her in her human form,” Ryan told his dad as he stretched his legs and readied the animistic part of his brain to take off. His calf muscles shifted in anticipation as he let his senses expand. When he let them do that he truly felt free, free until he heard an extra heartbeat in the house.
“Either way, where we take the boy his sister will follow, I’m sure of it,” Ryan’s dad said with a smart smile, his wits returning to him again. He was never discouraged for long. Like Lynn, everything was a challenge to him.
“Are you suggesting we use the boy as bait to draw his sister out?” Lynn asked, she spoke and breathed strategy.
“Richard,” Daisy’s voice came on over the load speaker as Ryan was already on the move out the door. She was the only one who still called Ryan’s dad by his first name because she had worked for their family since Ryan’s dad was ten.
“Yes?” he spoke through his computer tablet, sending his answers to the kitchen location of their home so Daisy could hear him.
“There is a visitor here for Ryan. Is he with you?” she asked.
Already Mr. Applegate was navigating their house’s cameras with the slide of his finger. With the flick of his wrist, the motion sensor he had in his office projected what was on his tablet to the giant screen on his wall. He flipped through an image quickly of every room in the house, zeroing in on who was here before Ryan could breath out her name.
“Donna Young.”
Donna hadn’t come to his home without her father since she was twelve. Something was off. Ryan instantly felt the pain of the words he well deserved last night upon seeing her.
“Tell Donna Ryan’s leaving for an out of town trip and can’t see her right now.” Mr. Applegate’s words froze Ryan’s feet.
“So we’re still going to transplant the boy then, even if we don’t find the girl by night fall?” Lynn asked Mr. Applegate with a hateful voice as she ignored Donna’s presence and Ryan’s reaction. She would hate Donna even more for this, Ryan could feel it.
“I want to go see what’s wrong,” Ryan interrupted over his father’s answer. His words came out stern and angry, his voice inhumanly deep, surprising himself as he continued to stare at
Donna on the screen. He could sense something was very wrong, everything in his gut told him so.
Donna’s eyes were all over the room and then ironically they stopped right on the camera that was zeroed in on her, as if she could see it even though it was hidden in a wall, and she knew she was looking right at him. That is impossible, Ryan told his imagination. Then suddenly Daisy was by her side, telling Donna Ryan was leaving town. His feet were almost out the door when his father’s own stern voice stopped him.
“Whatever the reason that she is here, it’s a human, normal matter, and you are not a normal human Ryan, never forget that. Your animalistic instincts to constantly protect the wrong person will get them killed. Just like how your brother got Lea killed, so many years ago. You have a mission to do right now, there is someone with abilities similar to your own that needs you.
“Worry only about searching this entire area again and finding that little girl before one of our enemies learns that we had another hacker breach and come here knowing our walls are weak. They could try to kidnap this child and take what we’ve been fighting for.” His father’s tone was stern and final, cutting Ryan like a blade as he continued to watch a very lost and possibly even angry looking Donna walk out of his house, and out of his life.
Ryan didn’t want to watch her walk away on Christmas Day, didn’t want to chase down a child on the run. He selfishly just wanted to enjoy a normal holiday. Then of course, his girlfriend’s words cut the room in half. “Yes, Ryan, for God’s sake listen to your father. Let her boyfriend, Spencer Klingalsmith, tend to poor Donna Young. They are together after all. You need to forget about her,” Lynn hissed. “They’re not like us and they never will be,” she went on as Ryan’s dad’s own heart seemed to skip a beat at the mention of one of those names. It had to be Donna’s because why would Ryan’s dad care about Spencer?