Branded (The Branded Series) (19 page)

Rachel gasped
and covered her mouth. I just stared, captivated by the story.

“Yeah, it was
pretty bad. Mom thought I had the flu so she sent her boyfriend home and spent
the night nursing me back to health, although I felt a hundred percent better
the minute he left our apartment.

“The next day,
I went down to the police station and started asking how I could check on
someone’s history. They turned me away, telling me there wasn’t anything they
could do, but before I left, I gave a picture of this guy to one of the
officers and told him his name, and left my cell number. I got a call two hours
later from a Constable Henderson—Claudia’s dad. Turned out my mom’s boyfriend
was wanted in Nova Scotia on sexual assault charges. Claudia’s dad was on the
case in Nova Scotia and when he read the report about how I was acting on just
a hunch that I had for this guy, we got to talking and I confided in him about
the weird things that happen to me when I meet someone that I don't like. He
was the one who recognized my gift and got me in contact with a local Seeker.
And he was the one who introduced me to Claudia that first year of camp. Crazy,
eh?”

We all stared
at Nick, mouths open. Claudia held his hand and gave it a little squeeze. She
was proud of him.

“Man, what a
story,” I finally said.

“Yeah, well, I
gotta say, I'm really glad my gift was finally recognized by someone. It really
sucked to think I was so different from everyone. Like a freak.”

“I wouldn't
say that you're
not
,” Claudia teased. Nick reciprocated with a forceful
kiss on her forehead, nearly knocking her off the bench.

“Well, Noah
and I don't have cool stories like that. Rachel and Ms. Peters sort of just
cornered us.” I laughed as I nudged Rachel.

“But did you
have any idea that you were gifted before you found out?” Nick asked.

Noah answered
first, “Not really. I was in French immersion since kindergarten, so that
explained my knowledge of French. And I was never around any other languages,
so I never had a chance to figure it out.”

“Bor-ing!”
Nick teased before turning to me. “Jake?”

“Other than
never having had any broken bones, which I think is pretty normal, right?” I
looked to the others for consensus.

“I’ve had
broken bones,” Noah said.

“Me too,”
Rachel added. “These three fingers.”

“I broke my
leg when I was ten,” Nick said.

“My arm when I
was eight.” Claudia nodded.

“Okay then. So
apparently it’s not that common. But anyway, I never put much thought into it.
But it makes sense now. I never bleed profusely. I don’t scar. I guess it
should’ve been more obvious.”

“Well, if you
don’t know what you’re looking for, it’s hard to find it,” Claudia pointed out.

“Rachel,
what's your story?” Noah asked, turning his attention to Rachel.

“It's not that
interesting, actually,” Rachel said.

“I'm sure it
is,” Noah pried, sounding a bit too obvious about his feelings toward her.

“Okay.” Rachel
crossed her legs and got comfortable on the bench. I feared it was going to be
a long one. “So I grew up around gifts. My mom is gifted with Wisdom and has
been a Seeker ever since I can remember. She often had me tested for the
various gifts, assuming I would follow in her footsteps. I knew she was getting
disappointed that I wasn't showing any signs of anything. Then, just a few
months back, I woke up in the middle of the night screaming. My mom came
running into my room and I told her about the nightmare I had—we were driving
along the highway that we took every morning to get me to school, and just as
we were approaching an overpass, chunks of concrete began falling from it. We
weren’t able to stop in time, and the overpass collapsed on top of our car, killing
us both. It was horrible.

“Anyway, I
cried in my mom’s arms and begged her to let me stay home from school the next
morning. She thought it was a manoeuvre to get out of my math test, so she
didn't buy it. We left that morning for school, but were a few minutes late
because of my stall tactics. Anyway, when we started approaching the overpass,
I saw it. It happened right before our eyes. The whole freaking thing
collapsed, crushing, like, a dozen vehicles underneath it. Mom was able to stop
and pull over in time to avoid the massive pileup that followed. We both sat
there staring at the mess in front of us. At a time when you'd expect someone
to scream or cry, Mom just sat there with a silly grin on her face as she
turned to me and said, ‘You're gifted with Prophesy!’

“So it was
like that. For the most part, my visions come to me in dreams, but I have been
working with a trainer to be able to see things while I'm awake too. But mostly
I only see glimpses of things. Still learning,” Rachel finished.

“Wow. That's a
great story, Rachel,” Claudia said. “So you really had no idea up until that
day?”

“Not really. I
mean, looking back now, I used to have those sick feelings about stuff before
they happened. Like, I remember one time I was in the cafeteria eating lunch
with my friends, and I got this really nervous, sick feeling like something bad
was going to happen. I didn’t want to go out on the playground, but my friend,
Becky, begged me to go with her. So we went and when we rounded the side of the
building, there was a big group of people standing around. We knew it was a
fight, so we walked over to see who was fighting. And there was Amanda Moore,
waiting for
me
in the centre of the ring,” Rachel finished with a
shudder.

“That’s awful.
Funny how you had that feeling though,” Noah commented.

“Yeah, stuff
like that used to happen to me all the time,” Rachel said.

“So the real
question is,” I interrupted, “who won the fight?”

Claudia kicked
me. “Jake!”

“What? I was
just curious.” I laughed.

Rachel snickered,
“Did you have any doubt? Look at these pipes.” She flexed her arms as we all
laughed.

“Oh!” Rachel
jumped in her seat. “You know what I just learned recently? You know when you
get déjà vu? Like, you know what you’re going through has happened before?”

We all nodded
in unison, waiting for the secret to finally be unveiled.

“Well, my
personal trainer told me the other day that the reason you feel like something
already happened is because you’ve already dreamed about it,” Rachel said
excitedly.

“Come again?”
I asked, feeling my forehead crease.

Rachel
continued, “Okay, so on average, you have around thirty dreams each night,
whether you remember them or not. And the dreams that you don’t remember are
premonitions of your future. Things that are meant to happen.” She looked
around for some sign of understanding.

Claudia spoke
first, “So when you have déjà vu, it means that things are unfolding as they
should?”

“Exactly!”
Rachel exclaimed.

“That’s a neat
theory,” Nick said.

“Yeah, kind of
makes a lot of sense actually,” Noah agreed.

“Where did you
say you were from, Rachel?” Nick asked.

“Irvine,
California. We just moved here recently after I had a dream about Jake and Noah.”

“Yeah, about
that,” Noah said. “What exactly did you see in your dream about us?”

Rachel looked
down at her hands and I noticed that she chose her words carefully, “I saw that
there were Gifted Ones in Halifax and that they were vital to our cause. That's
all, really. Mom decided we needed a change and it all worked out well for
timing.”

“Did you leave
any family behind?” I asked.

“Not really.
I'm an only child and my father lives in Brazil.”

“Your mom said
you had a boyfriend or something?” I asked, deliberately, for Noah's benefit.

“She did?”
Rachel looked annoyed and concerned at the same time.

“Well, sort
of. She just said that you had a boyfriend who took it kind of bad when you
broke up with him.”

“Yeah, I
guess.” Rachel was obviously not going to give any more than that.

“What about
you, Jake?” Claudia asked, changing the focus. “You don't have a girlfriend?”

“No
girlfriend.”

“Why'd you ask
James that question then?” Nick asked.

“Because there
was a girl, but I can't be with her, so there is no girlfriend.” I thought it
was obvious. Apparently it wasn't. Why did they keep talking about it?

“Sorry to hear
that,” Claudia sympathized.

“Yeah. She's
something else. But I'd rather her be safe, so I had to let her go.” I fought
back the lump forming in my throat.

“Smart,” Nick
added as he stretched and yawned. “I'm beat. We have a big day ahead of us
tomorrow, boys. Let's hit the sack.”

We got up,
stretched, and slowly walked back to our cabins for a short, but good night's
sleep. It wasn’t until the early hours of the morning that my body sat up
straight in my bunk, nearly smashing my head on the roof rafters. It was that horrible
nightmare. I shook my head to try to rid it of the black headless horse and the
perfect angel being swallowed by darkness. I had a sickening feeling that it
was Anna in my dream. I took a deep breath and convinced myself that she was
fine. I wasn't a prophet. It wasn't a vision. It was just a dream.

The unforgiving time
of seven
thirty came too early. The sound of the bullhorn echoed throughout the
campground, followed by tired groans from our cabin mates.

As we headed
for our first class of the day—strength class—I began daydreaming about Anna
and wondering what she would be doing right now. Probably still sleeping, lucky
thing. Actually, it was Saturday morning, which meant she was probably at
kick-boxing. She'd be wearing her black yoga pants. The ones with the pink
stripes down the side, and her matching tank. She'd have her hair pulled up in
a high ponytail, and she'd be grumbling about how early she had to get up to do
it. But self-defence was something her parents insisted on since she didn’t
have older brothers to protect her. And I had no doubt that she looked
absolutely stunning as she pounded her tired fists into that bag.

Strength class
was held in one of the smaller buildings next to the mess hall. We walked
through the door and into the open room. The other guys from our cabin were
already there and sitting around on the floor. We took our places with them and
waited for the strength trainer to come in and show us his stuff.

“Who is the
strength trainer, anyway?” Noah asked Nick.

“Sam Conrad.
Gifted with Faith,” Nick told us.

“Is he the
strongest Gifted One? Is that why he teaches the class?” I asked.

Nick laughed,
obviously amused. “Yes, Sam is probably stronger than any of us here.”

A moment later
I realized Nick's amusement. The door opened and in walked Sam Conrad. Or, I
should say, Samantha Conrad. She was just shy of five feet tall, and couldn't
have weighed more than ninety pounds. It appeared she enjoyed making an
entrance like this and watched the shocked expressions from the newcomers.

“Good morning,
class,” Sam said with a wide smile. “I'm sure you're all wondering why this
puny, little lightweight is your strength teacher.” She paused, walked over to
a tower of chairs by the wall and lifted them effortlessly with one hand. “It
could be the faith, or it could be the discipline.” She put the chairs back
down on the floor and continued, “I'm here to teach you how to have both. You
don't need to be gifted with Faith in order to believe something. So, let's
begin.”

Sam circled
the group, eyeing up a candidate for her first volunteer. Her eyes fell on each
person, playing a visual game of Duck, Duck, Goose, before she chose her first
contender.

“You there,”
she said, pointing to Noah.

“Me?” Noah
gave a quick glance over his shoulder, making sure he was the intended target.

Sam laughed.
“I don't bite, kid. I might be able to throw you back to your hometown, but I
won't bite.” She laughed along with the rest of the group. “Stand up, please.
What’s your name?”

“I'm Noah.”

“Welcome,
Noah. Now show me what you can do.” She threw a large ball at Noah. He put his
hands up to catch it at his chest, but was propelled ten feet back into the
wall, crumpling to the floor.

I jumped up
and ran to see if he was okay. Noah lay on the floor, gasping for air, with a
cement-filled ball pinning him. I tried to lift the ball off of him, but it wouldn’t
budge.

“Move!” I
heard Nick's voice as he shoved me to the side. He picked up the ball, threw
it, and then helped Noah up and ordered him to breathe. A minute later, Noah
was breathing normally, although still quite shaken.

“What the hell
was that?” I yelled, directing my accusation toward Sam.

“A test,
actually. And you both failed, just so you know,” she said matter-of-factly.