Chapter Twenty-Six
Yuri woke me once we had landed back in California. The four of us got our things and headed inside of the airport to get our luggage. Since James was away with family, we had to catch a taxi. It was a good thing because I had no idea how I was going to explain to him the reason I’d come back early from vacation. I mean I could rope a lie, but James was the one person in my life that I never wanted to lie to. My mother, I had no problem telling her a couple of Pinocchio’s.
The whole ride to my house, everyone was quiet. The exercise from the mission had finally caught up with us, and we were starting to feel the burn. While my body no longer ached from my head injury earlier, there still was a bit of tiredness to it. The taxi pulled up in front of my house as the driver gave a whistle. “This is a nice place. All of you live here?”
The girls climbed out of the taxi as I reached in my purse and pulled out his fee. Handing it to him, I gave him a sweet smile. “Now why would we tell you that?”
The driver’s mouth fell open as I climbed out the cab and shut the door in his face. I scanned us in through the gates and hurried to enter the security code before it alerted James, or worse my mother. The girls followed me up our long driveway as I led them around towards the back door. I unlocked the door and opened, allowing the girls to step in first. Since Yuri was always at my home, she had no problem walking over and entering the pass code to the alarm system while I locked up behind us. Taylor and Kerry stood in the middle of the room as I went to turn on some light. The light came on showcasing our large modern style kitchen.
“Come on. I’ll show you to your bedrooms.”
I led them through the cold dark house and up the stairs to the second floor. It felt weird to be in the house without James. I imagined this is how it really would be if he wasn’t around. I showed Kerry and Taylor to their rooms, and Yuri went to the room that James had set up especially for her. I entered my room and tossed my luggage down on the bed. The ringing of my cellphone made me pause my unpacking. I pulled it out of my pocket and froze. James was calling. Clearing my throat, I answered in a normal tone. “Hello.”
“Autumn is everything alright. I just saw on the security feed that you were home.”
I slapped myself in the forehead. I forgot James had told me he would be updating the security system so he could get alerts while he was away for the holidays. I blamed the stress and tiredness from the mission for my reason of forgetting.
“Autumn?”
“I’m here. Sorry I forgot to call and tell you that I decided to come home. I think choosing to spend thanksgiving in the New York was a bad idea.”
“Don’t worry. I’ll catch a plane and come home and make you an excellent feast.”
“No!” I said too quickly. “I mean it’s fine. I’m here with Yuri and two more of our friends from school, so I don’t mind cooking meals for us. You just continue to enjoy yourself. How’s your family?”
“Well we lost a family member during the break, but other than that, we’re all stronger than ever.”
“Oh I’m sorry to hear that James. Who was it?”
“It was just a distant cousin of the family. We weren’t that close, but some of the family members are shaken by it. I’ve been doing the best to keep everybody motivated and in high spirits.”
“Well then of course you can’t come home. Your family needs you more than I do right now. Help them through the difficult times. We’ll be fine.”
James and I exchange some more words before I disconnected the call. Tossing my phone on the bed, I pulled my arms over my head and stretched my muscles. Walking over to my dresser, I reached in and grabbed some clothes before heading into the shower. I was so happy to get the smell and feel of the sewer off of my skin. We had used some wet wipes at the airport to get rid of the smell, but we were still a bit tart. I really felt bad for the cab driver that had taken us to the airport. He peeked in his mirror several times to look at us before going into a fit of coughs. I think he even broke the speed limit trying to get us and the horrible smell out of his car.
Once I was done with my shower, I climbed out and dressed in my clothes before heading downstairs to the kitchen. The girls were still in their rooms and I take it they were probably washing up and relaxing as well. Going to the fridge, I pulled out some things to make us a quick meal. It was three in the morning, but I’m sure the girls didn’t mind eating any leftover shepherd’s pie and corn. James always cooked a whole bunch of dishes just in case me or my mother decided to come home. My mother hated that about him. She always liked to fuss about the fact that he was wasting food. But the things we didn’t get a chance to eat he gave away to the food shelters.
While the food was warming up in the microwave, the girls came downstairs.
“What are you making?” Kerry asked climbing up on a stool.
“I’m heating us up some leftover shepherd pie.”
“Thank Goodness because I was starving.”
I laughed at Taylor. I glanced over at Yuri who was standing at the kitchen window looking out. I turned back to Taylor and Kerry who were giving her worried looks. The microwave finished cooking our food, as I served it up on some plates along with some lemonade. Yuri finally left the window and came to sit down with us. The four of us ate in silence as we scarfed down two plates of the shepherd’s pie and corn.
“Are we going to talk about what happened now?” Taylor said pushing her plate away from her.
“Taylor.” Kerry said. She elbowed Taylor in the side. It was clear the two of them had been discussing something before coming down.
“Look, I know I said I wouldn’t say anything, but I lied. We can’t sit here and act like we didn’t witness what Yuri did. I’m sure she wants to talk about this.”
“Actually I don’t. In fact I would like to forget that any of this ever happened.”
“Well too bad you can’t. I won’t let you!”
Taylor began to go on about how it would help Yuri to talk about what happened as Kerry insisted that we do what Yuri said and just forget everything. I placed my hand on my head as I felt a headache coming on. Remembering that I’d bumped my head, I reached back to check my wound. I must have moved my hand around that spot several times before I pulled it away.
“What’s wrong?” Kerry said noticing my expression. Yuri and Taylor stopped talking and turned to look at me.
“The head injury I’d gotten at the museum. It’s gone.”
“What?” Taylor slid off her stool and made her way over to me. She maneuvered through my wet hair as if maybe I’d been mistaken. But after a while she finally stopped. “Maybe it wasn’t that big.”
“It was big. I felt it. When I touched it, my hand was covered in blood, and now I can’t even find the wound.”
Taylor walked back to her seat as we all sat in silence.
“Maybe it was the painting.” Yuri suddenly said quietly.
“You think the painting might have healed me.”
“It’s a possibility. I mean look at what it made me do.”
Yuri had a sadness to her voice and I wanted nothing more than to fix what had happened to her. I blamed myself. I always looked out for her, but this time I slipped up. I should have been the one to receive the dark end of the curse and I should have been the one battling with the turmoil she felt from killing Mark. Yuri was a strong girl, but she wasn’t strong enough to deal with this. This reminded me of the time when Mark had first started to put her down. She never told me exactly what he said to her, only that it was enough to make her crawl into bed for two whole days and stare at the wall. I had wanted to go pummel his face, but she stopped me assuring me that she would take care of it. She never did, until now.
“Yuri, don’t beat yourself up about this.” Kerry said. “We all touched the painting just like you. We might not be showing any symptoms yet like you are, but I’m pretty sure that we will
be soon. And when we do, we need to be ready for it.”
“Kerry’s right. You were just caught off guard. Now that we know that there could be a chance that we’re cursed with dark powers, we’ll be more able to handle it.”
“Not to mention your healing powers.” Taylor pointed out. “So what are we like super heroes now? If so, I have a nice idea for a costume.”
“We’re not superheroes Taylor.”
“We’re villains.” Yuri said. “A superhero wouldn’t have done what I had to Mark.”
“Look Yuri, I know you don’t want to hear this, but Mark had it coming.”
“TAYLOR!!”Kerry and I both shouted.
“Don’t Taylor me. You guys know it’s true. If Yuri hadn’t taken care of Mark, then Autumn would have. I mean he killed your father Autumn. Do you really think you would have let him walk out of there alive?”
I turned my head away from them not wanting them to see the answer in my eyes. Taylor was right. If Yuri hadn’t done anything, I probably would have given into my anger and killed him myself. But I know I would have been regretting it like Yuri is now. No matter how torn I was about my father’s death, that didn’t give me a right to go out and kill people. My father wouldn’t have been proud of me if I had gone through with something like that.
Turning back to them I said, “Mark may have been a betrayer and God knows what else. But that doesn’t mean he deserved to be killed. I couldn’t have done that.”
“I could have.”
I ignored Taylor. “And I don’t blame you either Yuri. I couldn’t imagine what you were feeling. You were the one that was betrayed the most. He used you as a cover.”
Yuri gave me a weak smile and lifted her glass to drink some more of her lemonade. I knew it would take a lot more convincing before she finally believed what I said.
“I’m glad you mention that.” Taylor said. “If Yuri was Mark’s cover, than that mean this all had to be planned a long time ago. Mark’s been at our school since freshman year. Why was he planted at the school that early when your father died just a couple of months before we decided to steal the painting?”
I had forgotten about that. Mark had been a freshman the same year Yuri and I had enrolled. I always joked about him being older than a freshman, but I just often chunked it up to good eating habits.
“Are we sure Mark was our age?” Kerry asked looking around.
“He always seemed a bit older to me.” I said as Taylor agreed. Yuri looked off to the side as I saw her contemplate whether or not Mark was truly the age he claimed to be. It would be another lie he’d told her, and another nail in her heart.
“We can always find out.”
“How?”
“I can hack into the school records and get a hold of his file. I’ve done it before with Karen’s file so it wouldn’t be that hard.”
“Do it.” Yuri said suddenly. She turned to Taylor. “Dig up whatever you can find.”
Taylor hopped off the stool and ran upstairs to get her laptop. Kerry and I stared over at Yuri as she ran a hand through her blond hair.
“Are you sure about this Yuri?” I asked. “We don’t have to dig any further.”
“Of course you do Autumn. It’s the only way for you to get some answers.”
“I can find another way if you ask me to. I don’t want you hurting more than you’re already hurting.”
“Don’t worry about me. I’m fine.” She said with a smile.
Taylor came back into the kitchen with her laptop and the painting covered in plastic. She tossed it over to me as I caught it. “You need to keep an eye on that. We’re not out of the woods yet. People are still after this painting, and I’m sure they wouldn’t hesitate on breaking down the door to your home in order to get it.”
She was right. I would have to keep my eye on this at all times until I got back to school where I could hide it in a safe place. At least until I figured out what the next step would be.
We waited for Taylor’s laptop to boot up. Once it was finally up, Taylor gave a crack of her knuckles before her hands started to hit at the computer keys in a ridiculous speed. Within minutes she was inside our school’s computer system. She tapped around before she pulled back in shock. “This can’t be right.”
“What?” I asked trying to peer at her computer.
“One moment.” She tapped some more on the keys before pushing away from the computer in frustration. “It’s not there.”
“What’s not there?”
“Mark’s file. It’s gone. As a matter of fact, there is nothing in the computer to show that he was even a student there.”
“What about his school photos and all the clubs he was in?”
“Gone. Anything with mention of Mark Stevens no longer exists.”
We all sat there in silence as we let it sink in. Was it possible that Mark had erased his file before coming to Paris? Maybe he knew there was no way that he could show his face in school after trying to steal the painting from us. But even as I thought that, I knew I was wrong. This felt like something done by the Invisible Spider. He was erasing all traces that Mark had existed. But how was he going to explain it to all the students at school who knew Mark. What about Mark’s friends? Surely they would know if their leader went missing.
“Okay let’s not panic.” I said raising my hands. “It’s simple. When we get to school, we’ll ask around about Mark. And if that doesn’t help, we’ll search his dorm for some information.”
“But if they removed his files and photos, wouldn’t they take care of his room as well.” Kerry asked.
“I don’t think they would be allowed to enter the campus and take anything without anyone noticing.”
“I don’t know Taylor.” I said. “Mark was able to enter the campus and pretend to be a student. There’s no telling who all is involved and just what exactly these people are capable of. We’ll have to be very cautious when we return to school after break.”
“What about this Invisible Spider?” Yuri said. It was the first time she’d spoken in a while. “What do we know about him?”
“Not much.” Taylor said digging into one of her ponytails. “But let’s see what we can dig up.”
Taylor dug around for anything on the Indivisible Spider but came up blank. I don’t know why I thought we would be able to find something on him when we couldn’t even find anything on Mark.
“Well that goes that.”
“So what do we now?” Kerry asked.
“I have an idea!” Taylor hopped down from her stool and ran over to the kitchen counter. She searched through the drawers until she found what she was looking for. Turning to us, she gave us a sneaky glance before taking the sharp knife and cutting her hand.
“TAYLOR!” We shouted.
“What on earth are you doing?” Kerry demanded getting up. She walked up to Taylor and took the knife out of her hand.
“If you be quiet, I will show you.”
Kerry gave me a curious look as I shrugged my shoulders. Turning back to Taylor, we watched as she looked at the inside of her palm before laughing. Looking up at us, she held her hand up for all of us to see. At first, I was a bit confused on what I was supposed to be looking at. It took me a second to realize that I was supposed to be seeing a cut across her hand. But as I stared at it, there was no slash whatsoever on her hand. I turned to Kerry who looked just as shock as I was, and Yuri just gave her questionable glance.
“How did you—”
“It was an experiment. I kept thinking about what Autumn said about her head healing and I wondered whether or not if I could do the same thing. So I tried it.”
“You idiot.” I shouted. “What if you were wrong?”
“That’s why I only made a slash on my hand. Duh! I’m not stupid enough to try and kill myself based on an inkling.”
I shook my head at Taylor and turned to Kerry who was staring
down at the knife. She had a curious glance on her face as well. Before I could say anything, she had slashed herself on the hand. We watched in amazement as the blood that had leaked from Kerry’s hand slowly backtracked inside the cut, and the cut slowly disappeared.
“It’s cool right.” Taylor said bouncing up and down. “We’re like invincible.”
Kerry seemed to like that idea as she pierced her skin again, watching it heal again.
“There’s nothing amazing about it!” Yuri said grabbing all of our attention. “We’re cursed, not blessed. You might be happy with your little display of powers now, but just what if they transform into something darker like what I could do. You won’t be laughing then.”
Yuri got up from her seat and marched away out of the kitchen. Sighing, I turned around to face Kerry and Taylor. Walking up to Kerry, I snatched the knife out of her hand and threw it in the sink. “Yuri’s right. We shouldn’t be enjoying this. We have no idea what we’re capable of and for all we know, cutting yourself like that could be forcing the other powers to make an appearance. We need to be more careful.”
“Sorry.” Kerry and Taylor said.
“Whatever.”
I turned to the counter to clean up the dishes from our food. Kerry and Taylor gave each other looks before Kerry made her way out of the kitchen as well. Taylor was gathering her computer when I stopped her. “Don’t leave yet Taylor.”
“Look I’m sorry about what I did. You guys are right. Whatever is going on with us is nothing to play with. I’m sorry.”
“I know. But that’s not what I wanted you for.”
I climbed back on the stool I had been sitting on as Taylor did the same. I stared at my fingers for a while before asking, “You said that you can pull up anybody’s file?”
“Are you talking about at our school? Yeah.”
“Good.” I said nodding. “I need you to pull up whatever you can about Micah.”
Taylor eyes widened as she chuckled. “Autumn please tell me you’re not going to be one of “those girls”. I know that he hasn’t returned any of your calls lately, but that’s no reason to dig around for dirt.”
I shook my head. “No, it’s not that. Believe me, I don’t want to ask you to do this either. But I keep getting the feeling that something is off about Micah. I think he’s hiding something from me and I’m just concerned. I just want to make sure he’s okay.” Deciding the only way for me to convince Taylor was to tell her the truth, I opened up about Micah and his haunting past. It was my first time speaking to anyone about this and immediately I felt as if I was betraying not only Micah, but Yuri as well.
Taylor didn’t need me to say anymore. She tapped back into the school’s system and pulled up Micah’s file. She scanned it a couple of times before she slowly looked up at me with a strange look.
“What? What’s wrong?”
“Autumn, I don’t know how to say this to you. Here you read it.” She turned the computer towards me.
Glancing at the screen, I stared at the article that was pulled up. I felt my heart drop as I pushed the computer away from me.
“I’m sorry Autumn.” Taylor said to me.
I ignored her as I climbed down off the stool and made my way away from the kitchen. I felt as if I was going to burst with anger. Micah had lied to me. He’d told me that he came to our school because he was on the run from the mobster Bareli. He told me Bareli had killed his brother and was trying to kill him. But according to the newspaper article, a young boy did die at the scene, but his brother, Adrian Parker died as well. Bareli never made it to jail and he never broke out. He had been killed by the police trying to escape. It was all a lie.
Micah wasn’t Adrian Parker. I had no clue whether or not his name was really Micah Martin. But I was going to find out.