The Secret Read online

  Reed put his hand on Marsha’s shoulder, a loud laugh barking out of him. “They don’t think they can talk about it…with us.” He turned to Jake, his laugh getting even more hysterical. He grabbed his stomach and doubled over in laughter.

  Rob’s jaw tensed and his eyes flitted to Karen. “What?”

  Karen’s dark eyes were sad. “All we know is that there were seven. And…now we know that five of the seven are dead.” Looking at me, she asked, “Your dad is dead, right, Lanie?”

  Taking the coin from Rob’s hand, I nodded, the shock of it all beginning to sink in. My dad’s coin?

  Rob grabbed it back, gripping it in his fist. “No!” Turning in a circle of rage, he threw the coin across the room.

  “Rob!”

  Glaring at me, he looked possessed, his hair sticking up and his glasses crooked on his face. “He was there, Lanie. That proves he was there… He was there. He knew what Luth was doing to you.”

  Swirling silver and black began to move around me, and loud white noise started to ring in my ears. No, no—it couldn’t be. Rob held my eyes, the heinous truth trickling down my neck and wrapping swirling red hands around my heart.

  Rob nodded. “Dad. It was dad’s coin.”

  Episode 7: The Foundation – Part II

  “No…Dad always carried his coin with him.”

  Rob dropped his head, redness instantly forming around the edges of his eyes. “Yes…he did.”

  Shaking my head, I felt like I’d been sucker punched.

  Rob clenched his jaw and stepped forward, pushing Jake in the chest, hard. “You’re a liar. I don’t believe you.”

  Jake took the hit, moving back a few steps.

  Reed stepped forward. “Dude!”

  But Jake put his hand up. “It’s fine.” His voice was low.

  Marsha shoved her way toward me, face suddenly before mine, but her voice was soft, accusing. “You’ve got your powers—we don’t.” She glanced at Jake. “Why do you think that is?”

  I shook my head, feeling the energy come back into me. She thought I had something to do with this?

  Jake stepped back toward us. “Come on, Marsha.”

  I pushed forward, getting in Marsha’s face as she had done to me, tired of her accusations and anger. “You don’t know what happened to me in there, Marsha. Back off!”

  She roared back at me. “Our powers disappeared the night we tried to help you. Poof—they were gone!” She pointed at me. “You were there, and then all that was left was that crummy coin. So you tell me. Where are our powers?”

  I rocked back, suddenly dizzy.

  “Go!” Jake roared back at Marsha, moving in closer to help me stand upright. “Give her some space.”

  My throat felt like it was closing. “I don’t have your powers, Marsha.” I could hardly get the words out. “I don’t.”

  “We don’t know it was his…” Rob looked at me, defiant. Then he quickly walked to the front door, gruffly opening it and slamming it shut behind him.

  I turned for the door to go after him.

  Reed huffed and gave me a little push out of the way. “I’ll go. You stay here and talk to Jake.”

  Marsha silently followed him.

  Worried, Karen looked at me. “I better go with them.” She scampered after Reed and Marsha, shutting the door more softly.

  Before I could even attempt to follow the others, Jake stepped in front of me, blocking my path. We were alone now. His eyes were sad, yet fierce. “They won’t let him leave, don’t worry.”

  Frustrated, I turned away from him and sank down onto the couch. “What, Jake? What do you want?” I couldn’t think. This didn’t make sense. Nothing made sense.

  Jake sat down across from me in a red wicker rocking chair. “I’m sorry, Lanie.”

  I looked across the room where Rob had thrown the other coin, thinking about my father. The only thing that had kept me going through those months with Dr. Luth was knowing that my father would kill him when I got out.

  I shuddered, feeling hopeless and thinking of that night…the blood all over my hands.

  I shook my head, looking into Jake’s eyes. “I don’t believe it. My dad wouldn’t have left me in there. He wouldn’t.” Anger poured through me and my stomach knotted. “I just don’t believe it.”

  Physical pain swept across Jake’s face and he stood, moving to the couch and sitting next to me. “I wish I could have helped you that night.”

  My thoughts garbled. I paused, thinking of his voice coming through the door that night. Looking at my fingers, I suddenly wanted to cry. “I waited. I waited for you until Dr. Luth took me.”

  Jake pulled me out of my thoughts. “What happened?”

  Heaving out a breath, I stood, feeling that dark, locked place inside of me wanting to open—afraid that if I let it, I wouldn’t be able to shut it again. “Um…”

  Jake didn’t move.

  I stepped to the pool table, picking up one of the balls that lay in the side pocket. “I don’t know how long I waited, but…Dr. Luth came. He told me it was time for me to have another round of training.” I turned the ball, the smoothness of it soothing. “This usually meant I would have to study weapons—all types, all sizes. He would make me draw very detailed images. Then bring them to life and use them.” Feeling self-conscious, I looked at Jake, then continued when I couldn’t read his face. “If I refused to, well…he had his ways of motivating me.” I put the ball back, turning for the large window. My mind floated back to Jake’s voice that night and I turned to look at him instead. “But that night he had me draw a portrait of a little girl, over and over.”

  Pulling his eyebrows down in sadness, he stood and moved next to me, touching the hand at my side. “Why?”

  I looked at his hand, wondering at the softness of his touch. “I don’t know. But, that night did save me, in a way.”

  Squeezing my hand, Jake searched my face. “What do you mean?”

  It made sense now, this immediate attraction I felt to Jake. He’d been the one from that night, and I must have known, somehow, all along. “That night, Dr. Luth shoved me into a box.” My voice faltered, but the deep blue in Jake’s eyes kept me talking. “He’d done that before, using it as a way to get me to comply…anyway, that night was the night I realized I could draw…without a pen or a pencil or anything.”

  The side of Jake’s lips turned up in approval and I felt my heart start to flutter. “That’s cool.”

  I shrugged nonchalantly, even though I was grateful he thought so. “But the best part was…I realized I could escape.”

  Scrunching up his face, Jake cocked his head to the side. “How come you couldn’t escape before?”

  I wiped a tear off of my face with my other hand. “He wouldn’t leave anything to draw with: pens, pencils, paints…a crayon. He wouldn’t leave anything with me. And then, when he would come making requests, he would bequeath them to me like they were fine jewels.”

  Jake scrubbed his face with his hand and shook his head. “Why didn’t you take one of the weapons he made you sketch and use it on him?” His voice was soft.

  I’d never talked to anyone about this. Not even Rob. After we got away, we just focused on the future. Closing my eyes, I shivered. “He…he would show me video feed…of Rob…locked in a room.”

  Jake squeezed my hand and I felt his anger.

  Cringing at the memory, I exhaled.

  Jake’s eyes held storm-like clouds. “And your father didn’t know Rob was being held, either?”

  I cleared my throat and unconsciously reached for the raised mark behind my ear. “Rob was supposed to go on a foreign exchange for a year. And we knew dad would be focused on my mom. She…” I dropped my eyes, staring at the floor. I couldn’t talk about my mom. “B
ut maybe my father knew. Maybe he knew both of us were there.” Pain formed in the center of my stomach and I felt my head start to throb.

  Jake nodded, but didn’t say anything.

  I looked up, wanting to explain more to him—wanting to trust him. We stood facing each other. He was beautiful. That’s the only way I could describe him. I thought of his voice that night and felt goose bumps on my arms. Maybe there was more to this connection I felt toward him.

  “What about your mom? Why didn’t she help you?” Jake squeezed my hand gently.

  I felt my eyes start to flutter. “Um…my mom…well, she was having problems.” I could still see the vacant expression in her eyes before I kissed her head, and my dad patting her hand resolutely. “My dad said she needed to go to a treatment center here in Colorado, and I would go to The Foundation for just a year. He said Dr. Luth would help me develop my power. Before that, mom had always insisted I keep it hidden from everyone.”

  His eyebrows scrunched. “Where is she now?”

  I winced, thinking of my mom sitting in the treatment center all by herself, only lucid for short periods of time. I couldn’t tell Jake. I was telling him a lot, but I couldn’t risk her safety. “She’s dead. She…she died.”

  Instantly, Jake pulled me into his arms, hugging me tightly to him. “That’s terrible, Lanie.”

  I inhaled deeply, smelling the fresh, earthy smell of him. I swallowed the lump in my throat and focused on him. His chest was solid. It felt good to be next to him. He gently propped his chin on my head, running his hand down my mass of hair. It felt like all of my emotions were swirling in a mixture of blue and green and yellow around us.

  He pulled back, searching my face. “So how did you get out, Lanie?”

  I hesitated, then heaved in a ragged breath. “I knew I was being watched. So I waited until it was late. I don’t know, probably two or three in the morning. And then I drew two weapons.”

  Jake stood there, listening.

  “I knew I only had seven minutes. That’s the longest the weapons would last.”

  Jake nodded. “Like the one in the car…it disappeared.”

  “Right.”

  He leaned forward. “Why?”

  Shrugging, I turned and walked to the window. “I don’t know. That’s part of the reason Dr. Luth was running so many experiments. He actually discovered that the more accurate my drawing was, the longer it would last. When I first went in—the longest anything would hold shape was between two and three minutes.”

  Jake squinted. “And it’s anything. You can draw anything and it will…come to life?”

  I hesitated for a minute, wondering if I should answer. But he already knew so much. “Yeah. Pretty much. Dr. Luth had me try almost everything. But most living things lasted at most four minutes. He couldn’t make them last any longer.”

  Jake acted like he was digesting this. “You…you can make people come to life?” His voice held an edge of wonder.

  “No.” I backed further away from him. “No.” I felt myself start to shake. “Dr. Luth tried that. But when I would touch a portrait…all that was left was ash. Bringing people to life is not possible.”

  Running his hand through his hair, Jake nodded. “Then why the portrait? Why was he having you draw a person?”

  I thought of the little girl—her dark, puppy-brown eyes, her feather-cropped hair. She was beautiful. “He was just experimenting with my power.”

  Jake circled the room—thinking. “I know he’s alive, but you must have shot him to get away?”

  I bit my lip. “When I blew the lock with one of the guns I had made…my dad was there.” I thought of that day. And it all began to make an awful kind of sense. “He told me he’d come to get me. That he hadn’t realized what was happening. He wanted me to give him the gun.” Collapsing my head into my hands, I felt anguish wrapping around me. Had my father knowingly let Dr. Luth hold Rob and run experiments on me?

  “Lanie.”

  “Dr. Luth wrenched the gun from my hands and shoved me to the ground. He and my dad struggled. I tried to get in position with the other gun…and then I heard a shot, and…”

  Jake stilled, ceasing his pacing a few feet in front of me.

  The familiar anger surged through me. “I don’t know. I can’t remember. Everything seemed to blur and go into slow motion. I must have blacked out because, when I woke up, Dr. Luth was gone…and my dad was covered in blood.”

  Jake stared at me. “So you shot him?”

  I shuddered. “No. No, I didn’t shoot him. I never pulled a trigger. It…it had to have been Dr. Luth.” Tears started down my face and I wiped them away angrily.

  Compassion flooded Jake’s expression and he reached for me again, pulling me back to him. “Shh—it’s okay, Lanie.” He rocked me gently back and forth. “It’s a miracle you escaped. But…how did you find Rob?”

  I thought of Rob’s body, curled into a ball on that mattress. “I started checking the rooms next to mine. He was down the hall.” My heart ached at the memory.

  “And…then?” Jake’s arms tightened around me.

  “We ran. We ran from The Foundation. I called one of my father’s oldest friends.”

  Pulling away, Jake was intense. “How do you know you can trust him?”

  “Stewart? He and my dad served in the war together. He was my godfather. We were really close to him when I was little. He didn’t know about The Foundation or anything.”

  Jake considered this, his jaw clenching. “How long did Dr. Luth hold you, Lanie?”

  I dropped my head, feeling ashamed that I hadn’t been able to get away from The Foundation sooner, and shrugged. “Seven months.”

  I could feel the anger coming off of Jake in waves. “I knew he was behind everything.”

  I frowned. “What do you mean?”

  Walking over to my dad’s coin on the floor, he picked it up. “Lanie, we need your help. We need our powers back.”

  I was confused. “There’s nothing I can do, Jake.”

  Jake took both of my hands into his, the coin pressing into my left palm, and his eyes turned a dangerous grey. “You can help us, Lanie. You can help us draw out Luth.”

  Episode 8: The Chosen One

  “I think you should help them.” Rob turned down the music in his Jeep, pulling up to the curb next to the high school.

  Mondays. I hated Mondays, and now Rob was starting this fight again? “I’ve told you—all weekend—I’m not helping them.”

  Turning resigned eyes at me, he shrugged. “I think you have an obligation to help them. Their powers mysteriously disappeared on the same night they tried to save you. And…your powers became stronger. Don’t you find that to be a little too coincidental?”

  I tried not to start a blinking spree. “Obligation? What are you talking about? I had nothing to do with it—I mean, I didn’t mean to, even if I did.” Folding my arms, I tried not to seethe. “And they are normal!” I threw my hands in the air, hitting the top of his Jeep in punctuation. “We’ve been searching for the last year and a half for a way for me to be normal.” I pursed my lips and gave an exaggerated shake of my head. “No! No way. I am not going to be the bait for Dr. Luth. And you know that’s what would have to happen.”

  Rob tilted his head down and looked at me over the edge of his glasses. It was exactly what my father used to do, and a jolt of pain went through my chest, thinking of his possible betrayal. “I don’t want you to be used as bait.” Rob cleared his throat, then looked away. “But we could tell them about mom. We could tell them what she said…” His voice trailed off.

  “What?” I gave Rob the best ‘are you kidding me’ look I could muster. “We cannot tell anyone about mom. That would be a mistake and you know it.” I poked him in the shoulder.

 
He pulled away from me, but sighed.

  I sighed back, annoyed that we were even discussing this. “Plus, I don’t think mom telling us we need to find ‘the book’ could be considered information.”

  He pointed at me. “She’s reliable. She told us about the Equinox, remember.”

  “She’s crazy, Rob, remember? And how do we know that one of them isn’t a spy or something? Maybe Karen?” He hadn’t said anything about her, but I had a feeling that there was something between them after catching some of the glances Rob had given Karen when we were back at Marsha’s. “Hmm?”

  Rob reddened slightly, but threw his arms in the air. “Mom is not crazy. Would you stop saying that?”

  I held my expression and purposefully let loose on my eyelash fluttering—he hated that.

  Turning away, he grumbled, “You’re so annoying.”

  Watching his face, looking for weakness, I glared at him. I was not backing down on this. I pushed him in the shoulder. “I told you all weekend that I am not helping them get their powers back. Nothing good comes from having powers.”

  Rob shook his head, pulling off his glasses to clean the lenses with his sweatshirt.

  Blowing out my breath, I picked up my bag. “Now, I am going to go and have a very normal day of school. I am going to find other friends…normal friends.” Even as the words came out, I knew it probably wouldn’t happen. In the last year and a half I’d been to six other schools—and I’d never made what could be considered normal friends. “And I’m going to keep gathering information from mom and wait until the Equinox.” I let my breath out. “And then we can move on and be happy. Very happy, normal people.” I pulled the door handle and kicked it open with my foot.