* * *
I walk the well-lit deserted hallways down to Clara’s office. Her door is closed, so I peer around the edge of the glass window of the door. She sits at her desk, talking to someone on the phone and, unabashedly, I read her lips.
“I’m not comfortable with that. This will put our slowest in too much danger. Yes, he’s right here, hold on.” Clara extends the receiver toward what looks like an empty room. From out of my range of vision, Chris pops up and moves over to the desk. His back is to me as he speaks on the phone. Clara spots me through the glass and holds up a finger to indicate, “Wait a minute.”
I move away from the door and rest my back against the wall. Soon the door opens and Chris walks out. He seems stressed. I look up at him and smile a little. His eyes lock onto mine for a second, then he turns and walks past me. I enter Clara’s office as she pushes her arms into her extravagant coat.
“Calli, good—you remembered your shirt. Most kids forget and I have to send them back up to their rooms. Come with me.”
I follow her out into the main foyer, where she turns and says, “It’s vitally important for you to follow every direction I give you.”
“I will.”
We exit the front doors into the bright floodlights and crisp mountain air. She leads me toward what appears to be a toolshed at the edge of the property, where we stop beneath another floodlight.
“Calli, the Shadow Demons are found in absolute darkness after sunset. They are drawn to people with powers because they themselves once held powers. For some reason they are trapped in a suspended state of, well . . . hell. These lights are the only thing keeping us safe. Around the corner it’s completely dark. That’s where we’ll find the Demons. Stay in the light,” she admonishes, checking my face once more to be sure I’m taking her seriously.
We walk to the edge of the shed, keeping beneath the bright floodlight.
I peer into the darkness. “I can’t see anything.”
“Regardless, I know they are there. Many people with powers have been devoured by them. Now, I will demonstrate what happens if you wander into the shadows at night. Hand me your shirt.”
I give my shirt to her and watch as she pulls out one of her own and wads the two together as if forming a snowball. She then tosses the wadded shirts into the shadows.
I gasp in terror at the sight of the unnaturally suspended shirts being shredded in mid air. The only thing I can hear is the woven cotton being ripped apart. The eerie sound reminds me of when my mother tore old sheets into rags. I stare in utter amazement as Clara’s shirt is ripped into a small pile of confetti-sized pieces of cloth, which glide softly to the ground. My shirt has been torn into a few long strips and is already on the ground.
“What was that?” I cry out. “Was that a trick? What happened to our shirts?” No logical explanation can account for what I’ve just witnessed.
“Our scents on the shirts were enough to provoke the Shadow Demons to attack. Lesson number one: stay out of the shadows, or that will be the last thing you do. Oh, and that pile of shredded cloth is more than what would remain if they got their claws on you.” She looks intently at me, appearing satisfied that I’ve gotten the message. “Let’s get back inside.”
She doesn’t have to tell me twice.
Once inside the safety of her office, she begins to tell me more.
“A Runner’s ability is the only power that surfaces during puberty, and is the only power-emergence a Seer can foresee. The other superhuman abilities can show up at any point in life and sometimes manifest slowly. We try to have a representative of the Runners’ Clan present when a new member’s power emerges. I was there for you. Other people with powers are not so fortunate, and aren’t taken under someone’s wing and taught about the Shadow Demons and how to avoid them. However, one consistent element with all people with powers is they are afraid of the dark. It’s as if they can sense the danger awaiting them. Their instinctual hesitation actually saves their lives, but sometimes incapacitates the individual, leading to the development of nyctophobia—a severe fear of darkness. There are therapists, who are also people with powers, who help the patients by introducing them to their appropriate clan.
I think to myself for a moment, wondering about my mother. Many of her patients are deathly afraid of the dark. Wait! Does my mother know about the superpowers and Shadow Demons?
“But Calli, there’s another reason I was present at your track meet. I was there to prevent you from being kidnapped.”
“What? Kidnapped?”
“There’s a splinter group that broke away from the Healers who call themselves Immortals, in reference to an ancient legend of clansmen who couldn’t die. Almost everyone else refers to them as the Death Clan, due to the fact they can bring about your death merely through thought. Some call them the Death-by-Thoughts or DBTs. As a group, they constantly heal each other’s infirmities, keeping each other alive longer than nature’s laws allow. They can’t heal themselves, the same as a Healer cannot heal himself, so they need to have another Death Clan member around to make sure if anything happens they will live on. As for bringing about the death of others, they have one major restriction to their abilities: they need to see you to be able to kill you.”
“Are they really immortals?”
“That’s a matter of perspective, I suppose. Most of their group is over two-hundred years old. Try not to confuse the definition of immortal with invincible. I think they could be killed if they were separated from one another. Well, if they didn’t kill you first,” she amends.
I ask, “Why would they want to kidnap me?”
“The fact is, the DBTs have a history of capturing emerging Runners and forcing them to be their slaves—to use the Runners’ abilities as if their powers were their own. When another person with powers holds hands with a Runner, the running ability is passed on to the tethered person. We’ve lost more than a few clan members to the Death Clan and also to the Hunters.”
“Hunters kidnap Runners too?” I ask. “Why don’t Runners just run away from the Immortal-Death-Dudes or Hunters?”
“The captives are restrained to prevent escape, and are killed if they try to flee. Quite often they are threatened their loved ones will be harmed, so they stay put to save their families. You would obey, too, if you thought one wrong move would threaten your parents’ lives. The Death Clan also kidnaps people from the other clans, using whatever emotional control they can find to keep them from fleeing.”
I nod and a tight knot forms in my throat.
“We employ other people with powers, as do the other clans. We don’t kidnap them and force them to do our bidding. Their abilities are respected and they’re compensated for their help.”
“So you were there at the track meet because I’d been ‘seen’ ahead of time?”
“Yes.”
“You prevented me from being kidnapped and protected me from the Shadow Demons?”
She nods her head.
“Thanks for that.”
Clara smiles.
I have to wonder how many times she receives thanks for the job she does. I change the subject. “Clara, what exactly do you do around here?”
Her perplexed expression tells me she doesn’t understand the question.
“I mean, generally speaking, normal people get up and go to work, or go to school or something. Their lives revolve around jobs and schedules and events. But what do people with powers do?”
Clara sits all the way back in her chair and rests her head on the plush headrest. She takes a deep breath and exhales. “Well, they live life as they know it, the same as anyone else. You have described what normal life is to you, but what do the members of the aboriginal tribes of Australia do from day to day? How about the African tribal communities—what do they do? Consider the people in Thailand or China or Norway. What do they do every day? Are you following me, Calli? Your question is a matter of perspective. What’s normal for you isn’t normal
for others.”
“Oh.” Wow. I’ve never thought about life from that perspective before. I guess I’ve never really looked outside my own narrow world. Caught up in my own life and viewpoint, as Clara so eloquently points out, my life naturally feels normal for me. I decide to be more aware of other human beings and their daily struggles. The discussion brings a different question to mind. I say, “What do you think the percentage is of normal humans to people with powers worldwide?”
“At present, it’s estimated there are around one million people with superhuman abilities.”
“That’s a lot!”
“No, not really. With seven billion individuals populating the world, people with powers averages out to be only one in every seven-thousand. I believe seven thousand is around the population of your hometown. Imagine if you were the only person in your whole town with powers. Our clan is the only one that can keep an accurate count of new members because of the fact that Seers can foresee when someone’s power will emerge. For whatever reason, we’ve seen stagnation in the number of new Runners over the last ten years. I fear we’re on the decline. But that’s beside the point.”
I say, “Clara, you said you’re a Runner. Do you ever go on assignments?”
“I don’t run assignments anymore. There’s still new blood coming into the clan, younger blood who can run the assignments. I chose to help at the compound. I’m an instructor and administrator along with the other adults. At some point you’ll have to make the personal choice to step away from the elite group of Runners and either help here at the compound or return to the life you knew a few days ago, forever keeping your ability a secret.” Her voice doesn’t hold any enthusiasm.
I don’t want to press what appears to be a sensitive topic for Clara, so I change the subject. “What does your husband do?” I ask.
“I’m not married.”
“You’re not? I’ve heard people call you Mrs. Winter—” The realization hits me that she must be a widow. Oh terrific! Open mouth, insert foot.
“I was married, but he discovered my ability and left. I keep the name because we never officially divorced. So, I guess I am technically married.”
I pick up on her bitterness. “I’m sorry. It wasn’t my place to ask.”
“No, it’s fine. I guess my advice would be that if you decide to get married, find someone with abilities in order to avoid heartache later. It’s hard enough to stay married without the extra challenge of having powers.”
“I bet. Marriage is a long way off for me, but I’ll keep that in mind.”
“Sometimes it’s closer than you think, Calli. Many girls your age have already met the guy they will eventually marry.”
“Well, I’m not the kind of girl who goes looking for guys, and they certainly don’t come begging for me,” I scoff at myself with a chuckle.
“I don’t believe you. You’re a beautiful girl, Calli. You’ll be fighting off the boys with a bat, but I need to remind you that promiscuous behavior at the compound is not allowed.”
“I can totally imagine myself smacking boys with a bat,” I laugh, “but not because they’re interested in me. And as far as promiscuous behavior goes, well, you don’t need to worry about me.”
“Good. Now I’d like to tell you what to expect tomorrow. Whenever we are given a delivery assignment, a leadership trio is selected to carry out the task. Time trials determine the fastest and the slowest of the clan, and then those two decide together who the third member of the team will be. My approval of the trio is needed. Often a team of protectors or running companions is selected to go with the trio if the mission is dangerous. There will be an accompanying team with this mission because of the fact our last trio came up missing. The fastest and slowest from tomorrow’s competition will hand-pick the team. No breakfast will be served before the trials, and once the trial is completed, the selected team will be quickly outfitted and sent off.”
I figure she’s telling me this because she knows I will be the fastest and will be going on the assignment tomorrow. I appreciate the heads-up. “Clara,” I say, “some of the others suspect this delivery is connected with the missing Runners. What do you think?”
“The timing is right. Anything’s possible.” She stands, giving me the cue our session is over for the night. “In the morning, dress in the workout clothing Stella will give you. The trial begins at eight o’clock sharp.”
I stand as well.
“Calli, do you still want to go home?”
“Not at the moment.”
“You’d better go on up to bed to get a full night’s rest.” She smiles knowingly.
Yep, she knows I will be on the delivery team. I leave her office and head straight up to my room. Beth is already asleep, fortunately, so I don’t have to endure the torture of her attitude. Thank God.
Tomorrow will bring a new adventure my way. Like my parents encouraged me to do, I am going to go down this road and see where it takes me.