Chapter 42: Earth

A tall man with dark hair walks past me and my heart races until I realize it's not Declan. When John heads for his car, I suppress an urge to hide in the bushes while I wait for Jesse. When my big brother finally comes down, it’s closer to five-thirty.

We walk toward the bus stop, but my steps speed up incrementally until we’re practically jogging.

“Whoa, there. You seem jumpy.”

“I saw Declan yesterday, in this shopping center. Coming back here and sitting around for an hour and a half wasn’t good for my mental health.”

“I think it was,” he says. “If it really was Declan, and he knew you were here, wouldn't he have caught you by now? You've been here all day.”

I want to believe him, but I can't help biting my lip and looking over my shoulder, from the time we reach the bus stop until we hop off at the movie theater. I insist on using my tip cash to pay for nachos, a piece of pizza for each of us, and Icees. Then for good measure, I order a large popcorn, too. We head in to watch the newest movie by that guy who left Saturday Night Live. It's just as dumb as every other movie he's ever made, but that's the point, I think.

We have a fun time tossing popcorn into the air to try and catch it. Of course Jesse’s tosses all go right into his mouth while mine scatters all over the ground.

We duck into a second movie about a cataclysmic earthquake as soon as the ridiculous comedy ends. We have to wait a bit for the previews to start, but it gives us a chance to chat.

“I’m going to dig into this Declan character,” he says. “See what I can find out about him. Maybe you should call Danica and ask her if she has any relatives who might have filled in for her or something.”

I sigh, but I don’t argue. By the time the movie ends, it's twenty minutes until midnight and we're both exhausted. “No work tomorrow, though, right?”

“True,” he says. “I've only been working a normal job for two days, and I'm already looking forward to sleeping in on Saturday. Pathetic.”

We sit through the credits and let everyone else filter out so we don't have to wait in a line just to shuffle out of the room. Plus we have fifteen more minutes until the last bus, so there's no rush. “You do like the job, though, right?”

“I love it.” It's dark, but even in the low light, I know he’s smiling.

When we stand up to leave, only three other people are left in the theater. It's still so dark, I can barely make out the steps in front of me, much less what the three people on the front row look like, but when I walk past them, I glance over.

And freeze.

I claw frantically at Jesse's hand. Jesse may have only met him once, but I can tell from the look on his face that I'm not being paranoid.

It's him.

“Declan Rosenbaum.” My voice is flat, emotionless. But inside, inside I’m reeling. Terror, hatred, and the tiniest bit of relief that I haven’t been imagining him.

He smiles, but his eyes are resolved. The other two men with him stand up, and I spare a glance for each of them. One is taller, even, than the massive Declan. He's wearing a black jacket and dark blue jeans. In September. In Houston. The other man is short, but wide, like a moveable brick wall. He even has a blocky face. The reddish hair cropped close to his head doesn't help.

“You came with goons? Strange that Washington's social services would send you three, and on a Friday night, no less.” Jesse sounds flippant, but the wobble in his voice belies his confidence. “You need three grown men to bring in two truant teenagers?”

“We aren't here to bring you in,” Declan says. “That was never the goal.”

“Then why are you here?” I ask.

“Why don't you follow us outside, and we'll tell you all about it while we take a little drive,” the guy in the black jacket says.

“I'd rather not,” Jesse says, “but thanks for the offer.”

The blocky guy grabs Jesse's arm. “We aren't offering, kid, we're telling.”

“Easy,” I say. “We'll go with you. No reason to rip his arm off.” I glance at Jesse and then back at Declan, but I think Jesse understands.

He shakes his arm free and begins to walk down the last few steps toward the exit. The men allow me to walk ahead with Jesse, but the second our feet touch the ground floor, we sprint to the left and out the exit that takes us behind the theater. We've had to run before, when someone noticed we snuck into a movie.

It was a pretty good plan. We should've escaped. It was only three minutes until midnight, and we'd have just made the bus, too.

Except for one thing.

Declan is telekinetic. Not just on Terra, but here on Earth.

His power is weak, nothing like mine there, but I'm not accustomed to watching for it here, and I have no powers on Earth to counteract his. I don't turn back until Jesse cries out. Declan’s eyes are still glowing, and I realize that he knocked my brother to the ground.

His bodyguards are closing in.

“This is going to be fun.” The blocky man rubs his meaty hands together.

“Remember, your directive has changed,” Declan says. “The girl is our target now, not him.”

I don't know whether to turn around and try to free Jesse, or to run for help.

As if he senses my indecision, Jesse yells, “Alora, run!”

I sprint about ten steps before an unseen force yanks on my leg. I sprawl face first onto the concrete. We were idiots for running out the back where no one could see or hear us.

I struggle, but my leg won't budge. I can't sense the Binding, but I know it's there. Declan reaches my side, leans over, and grabs the back of my shirt, releasing the Binding and hauling me to my feet. “I don't know why I bother bringing those idiots along at all when I always have to do everything myself.”

He spins me around, his enormous hand digging into my back, and shoves me toward Jesse. He pushes me down, and I cling to my big brother as though somehow he's less helpless than I am.

“Grief didn't work when your parents died. Terror from your sister's attacks at the group home didn't crack you either. Each time, it was like, with the two of you to protect each other, you weren't quite desperate enough.” Declan’s eyes are bright, almost mad.

What’s he saying? He was behind my parents’ deaths? And the group home?

“We hoped that the fear and trouble from running away might Wake your brother.” Declan hisses. “But then when it didn’t help, we went to round you up again. . .and you disappeared.” He swears under his breath. “A year and a half down the drain before we located you again.” Declan circles us slowly, tapping his lip with his finger. “Please try to remember that we made every effort to do this in a gentler way before we wound up here. It's not like we went straight to extreme measures. The problem is, you feel stronger together, like you can take on the world. To Wake, you must feel powerless. You can’t have any options at all. Utter despair and terror are the only things that work.”

I look up at him. “What are you talking about?”

He laughs bitterly. “I thought you knew.”

My breath hitches. “You’re Devlin Rochester.”

“Precisely.” He peers at me closely. “My source was correct. You are her. I can't recall you at all, of course, since men don’t dream of Terra, but she assures me you’re the Warden.”

“Who?” I ask. “Who assures you?”

He tsks at me. “A magician never reveals his secrets. Or is it a journalist that never reveals his source? Either way, I can't tell you how I know. I just do.”

“You Lift here?” Jesse’s eyes are wide. “On Earth? It’s all real?”

“Oh, I'm much stronger on Terra, and even that is a fraction of what's coming once we get things squared away.” He eyes me again, his eyes tracking up and then back down.

Jesse pushes to his feet. “What do you want from us?”

Devlin turns toward him, as if just remembering he's there. “I don't need anything from you. You're just leverage. I'll admit, you were our target at first, but that's all changed now that we know the truth of who your sister is.” He rubs his hands together.

“What does that even mean?” Jesse asks.

“I'm getting ahead of myself. We've been patient, but it's time to Wake you up. No more playing around.”

“Wake me up?” I ask. “I'm wide awake.”

“No. You aren't asleep, but you aren't Awake,” he says. “We're wasting time with idle chit chat.” He pulls out a gun and shoots Jesse in the foot. It happens so quickly that I can't quite process what happened.

Jesse falls back to the concrete, blood slowly forming a circle around him. He screams and screams, hunched over his foot. My heart breaks in two. I crouch down next to him, frantic to do something, but I have no idea what to do.

“No? Not enough?” Devlin aims his gun at Jesse again, this time at his chest.

I leap in front of it. “No, please, please don't shoot. I'll do anything.”

“Just do it already.” Devlin lowers the gun and grabs my shoulder. “Wake up!”

Tears stream down my face. I can't look away from the blood gushing out of Jesse's foot. Will he ever walk right again? How bad was the damage? How will I get him to the hospital? “I have no idea what you're talking about. I'll do it, anything, just tell me what to do!”

“That's the problem with the Isis pansies.” He swears. “If you don't tell someone who they really are, how can you get away with acting superior and holier than thou? Isn't lying just as bad as any of the other sins in this world?”

My mind spins senselessly. I want to wake up and discover that it’s all a terrible nightmare, my very first one. He keeps telling me to wake up, and I've never wanted to listen so badly in my life.

“Perhaps we should try another angle,” the man in the black coat says. “Maybe we should focus on her. Perhaps injury to her brother isn’t enough of a threat to her personally. Did any of the other children in the orphanage ever succeed in doing any. . . specific damage?”

Devlin looks at me, lying on the ground with my arm around Jesse, and then back at the man in the black coat. He's quiet for a moment, but then he nods. “She'll hate us, but I'm not sure that can be avoided at this point.”