Gravity (31 page)

"I didn't mean
to—" His voice trembles.

"What ever
happened, Gabriel, I've been waiting to feel that again. You have
no idea—" Josh takes a step toward him. Gabriel holds out his hand
to stop him. He touches his chest and retracts quickly. Josh's
breathing has quickened. Gabriel's eyes tear and he says something
I can't pick up. Gabriel suddenly walks away and Josh follows
him.

Where are they going? I keep Gabriel in sight
and follow them as they walk along the side of the house. They go
into the detached garage. What is he doing? I approach slowly,
listening. I hear heavy breathing and things being moved
haphazardly.

Shit!

Heavy petting—sounds that told me to come
back later.

***

Dash

I pace
anxiously, eyeing the garage. Should I interrupt? Should I
wait? It's too embarrassing to knock,
what would I say
?
Hey, stop touching Gabriel?
"Agh, God that's so—"

Gabriel comes rushing out, pulling his shirt
down. He combs through his hair, his face is red and his cheeks are
wet. I swiftly catch up to him as he hastily leaves the property.
Josh leaves after hurrying back to the party without a second
glance at Gabriel.

"Gabriel!" I catch up with him. His expanded
hot aura heats the front of my body like a furnace. I back away.
Gabriel turns around as I try to collect myself from the exciting
state it puts me in. I'm getting better at resisting his auric
pull, but this time his aura is worked up. There's anguish in his
eyes. Whatever he did with Josh is something his aura wanted, not
what Gabriel wanted. He’s his own abuser.

"Sorry." He
mutters
. He stops
walking.

"You don't have
to apo
l—"

"This is
useless. I'm hopeless." Gabriel sobs. "I can't help it. It just
comes out." He walks off again.

"Gabriel
, wait!" I grab
his arm.

He
pulls away, but I hold tight. Gabriel
tries to tug away from me as if I was coaxing him to do it all
again. “Please don’t. I don't want to.”

I
pull him to me, face to face with my
hand clamped to his wrist. "It's okay."

Gabriel
pushe
s me away not realizing
I'm trying to console him, not ruin him.

"Stop!" Gabriel
shouts
. "I know you're
affected by me—you’re around me too much."

"Gabriel, I'm
not affected. Not the way you think."

"Yes you are.
I'm like a virus. I thought we were friends. I thought—" Gabriel
rubs his face in confusion. Is he talking about me or Josh? Maybe
both.

"We are
friends. You are my friend. I'm sorry. I didn't know what to do." I
approach, but Gabriel steps back.

"I can't have
friends. Josh used to be my friend... I should be put away. I
should be alone."

"No. Gabriel you're
perfect."

Gabriel laughs
as tears continue to wet his face. "God, you're brainwashed." He
continues to walk. I follow.

"Don't follow
me." Gabriel growls. "If you follow me, I will hurt
you."

***

Violet

I put down my
book
when I hear Gabriel rush
in and bolt up the stairs to his room.

His stressed
aura leaves a
muddy and dull
trail to his room. I knock on his bedroom door and Gabriel doesn't
answer. When he doesn't answer, I take a chance and open the
door.

"Gabriel?" I
cover my eyes for a moment in case he is changing. But I lift my
hand and find him sitting on the floor in the dark with his back to
the wall. His head is between his knees. I hear him
sobbing.

My heart breaks to
hear such a sound.

I
enter and sit at a safe distance. I
watch his shoulders shake and listen to his weeping. "Gabriel, what
is it?" I want to reach for him and hold him. Rock him in her arms
and give the comfort he so deserves. But that is impossible. He’s
drowning and I can’t do anything about it.

Gabriel doesn't
say
a word. After a while he
stops sobbing and I watch him with my head resting down on the
floor. Gabriel lies down; his body faces to mine. I can see his
precious green eyes glisten from his grief; his eyelids look heavy
and weak. He’s vulnerable lost Gabriel again.

"Do you want to talk
about it?"

Gabriel shakes his
head.

"Do you want me to
leave?"

"No," he
whispers.

We
watch each other until we both fall
asleep.

***

Dash

The music is
still loud.
Alex's neighbors
must be used to it. Who knows what Alex is doing now—or who? I sit
on the curb with the house at his back, wondering if going back to
the party will make me feel better. Watching Alex numb himself,
trying to pretend the other world doesn't exist for a while.
Maybe that's what I need.
And for a while it worked—with
Gabriel.
Who am I
kidding?
No matter what I do,
I always feel like the wrong piece to the puzzle. I don't fit with
Alex, we're polar opposites. I don't fit with Gabriel who now sees
me as another so-called friend who wants to be more than friends. I
don't fit Violet, as much as I want to. She has someone she already
loves—two of them.

Who am I? Alex
summed it up perfectly the first day—
'a kid with an overactive imagination'.
I can't even find anything to help
Red. What good am I to anyone?

I
decide to take a stroll through the
city to help clear my head. I don't want to go home and I don't
want to go to the Sanctuary. I let my feet take me
anywhere.

Tonight they take me to a location I feel is
familiar, but can't place why. The theatre is like any other. It's
flashing lights and the long line to get in tells me it could be
like the one we took Violet the other night. Passing it, I recall
nothing, but it bothers me. Its presence is shouting something. I
try to recall why it feels important. I stop to pass it again and
again. Even cross the street to look at it from the other side.
Nope, it just another music venue. I walk on with the nagging
notion that it means something. Perhaps I've seen it somewhere; the
local paper? I go through the inventory; everything in the
Sanctuary I've taken to memory until I think of only thing I
couldn't.

Dash

I creep into the cabin. Violet and Gabriel
are asleep. The map is in Red's room. I have to see that map. Red's
door is open. Red's bed is empty.

"Violet?" I walk in. I turn on the light.
She's not here. I look out into the great room and Gabriel's door.
It's closed. I climb the stairs with an ache in chest. I don't
hesitate to go inside. Violet is curled up on the floor and Gabriel
lies on his side under the window. They're both sleeping. I drag a
blanket off the bed and cover Violet's sleeping body. I kneel
beside her so he can memorize her sleeping face. I caress her
cheek. My fingers tingle like they do with Gabriel, but it's very
mild. I want to kiss her, but I'd rather want me too.

I remove my jacket and place it on Gabriel. I
watch him for a moment. If there's anything I can do to fix this
for him, it will be to find Red. He's the one that can help us
all.

I head back down to Red's room and spread the
map out on his bed. I don't remember it quite like this. There
seems to be something different about it. Something's changed since
the first day Violet let me look at it. I'm usually great at
remembering things exactly. I close my eyes and recall the memory
of my first day here. Opening my eyes, I compare the two. The venue
I passed earlier is a location marked on the map. That's why it's
familiar. Now, there’s an extra dot since the last time I scanned
it. Within the information in the paper, I can see signs of an
ongoing process. The map is active.

Red not only marked it, he’s
still
marking it.

Why mark these places? The black ink lines of
his travels trace back to where Red had started. There’s no
particular pattern to it, nor did they point to a certain area. It
must have been marked for a reason. I decide to see for myself what
else besides the theatre is marked. I leave the Sanctuary, to walk
the maps marks. I hope a clue within the alleys and streets
surrounding each location will give me a clue as to why Red flagged
the new location. Nothing speaks to me.

I travel to each dot. A bar, a club,
theatres, another club; places you go for a good time or places you
go to forget. Red doesn't seem to be the type that would drink his
sorrows away or go out for a 'good time', but after leaving Violet
maybe he would. No. Red is not like that. He loves her and was
devastated he had to leave her. Why would he hang around so close
to the Sanctuary and not see Violet?

Grey fits the type.

I recall a journal entry about Red's not
being alright about venturing outside of the Sanctuary with Violet,
but Grey wanted to. After ditching Red, Grey took Violet to a club.
He likes to dance, drink and enjoys music. But why would the map
mark him? What if the marks are someone else? Red is a Hybrid
tracker. Maybe another Hybrid is involved.

Reading the signs on the brick wall doesn't
get me anywhere. I can't pick up anything through the building; it
isn't easy like Red's Sanctuary where the invisible are visible.
The Hybrid way of seeing is easier in the Sanctuary. The human made
buildings are harder. They are just piles of bricks telling me
nothing. I decide Gabriel will have to come with me. If anything,
he'll be able to see what type of energy is in the area.

It’s getting late and I'm exhausted. The need
to finish what I've started is great. I'm no use to Violet sleep
deprived. I turn myself in for the night and go straight to the
Sanctuary the next morning.

I don't want to make a big deal about what
I've found. Pushing aside the events from the night before, I
explain to Gabriel and Alex that not telling Violet is important.
She could become very anxious and make a hasty decision to take
matters into her own hand. We agree to keep our investigation a
secret for now until things are clear.

I want to take a look at the clubs and bars
at night in hopes that something will stand out in the activity. We
start with the newest marking on the map, the venue that had opened
not too long ago; the one that caught my eye last
night—Gravity.

***

Gabriel

The focus to help Violet, obliterates
everything pitiful thing in my life. She stayed with me last night.
She wanted to embrace me. I wanted her to. Her being near me at a
weak moment like last night rests my anxiety. There's something
about her the calms my soul. I want to do everything I can to help
her find Red. I hear a sigh that could only be Alex listening to my
thoughts. He hates that she was with me and he was with someone
else.

"Get on with it," Alex growls.

It makes me smile that I'm needed for my
ability. The sight comes quickly every time I think of who I'm
doing this for. I let my energy rise up to my crown and I open my
eyes. The world changes into a dark world of shadows; man-made
objects become gray mass. Only people and plants glow in intense
colors. Moving and floating in and around the building like strings
of Christmas lights. I have a hard time reading the residual energy
left by so many. It’s a beautiful mess.

"I don't know what I'm looking for."

"Anything unusual," Dash says.

"Everything looks unusual. I've never really
done this outside of the Sanctuary."

"We'll walk and take a closer look," Dash
says. "Are you okay walking in this state?"

"I think so." I swallow.

"Why don't you hold his hand?" Alex
teases.

Dash ignores him and so do I. I'm not about
to lose my cool.

We walk to the theatre, right through the
residual river of energies. I hold my breath thinking it will
affect me. The left over energy is too weak without the actual aura
hitting me. The energy moves like smoke as mine mingles with
others. Alex and Dash's auras stand out among the lights. Alex's
color is a flaming copper, glowing like hot embers. Dash's color is
a shimmering citrine, bright enough to blind like the morning sun.
There's a strange color around them like mine and Violet's. The
strange color resembles close to the color red but it isn't red at
all.

"Hey, your auras are different." I stop
walking.

"I know. We have a weird color around ours
right? We're Hybrid. Look for that, Gabriel. Whatever this location
means have to do with a Hybrid." Dash pushes his glasses up.

"This one is silver and sticky.” I splay my
fingers out in front of me. “I've only seen that color on us. Is it
Red?"

"No, Red's aura is red. Grey is silver
though." Dash brows crease.

"You think it's him?" Alex says.

"It could be another Hybrid with a silver
aura." Dash watches me closely. I walk around the invisible thing,
trying to avoid walking through it. "What do you mean by
sticky?"

"Like thick and clingy, smoky, not like
regular aura energy which moves away like mist. This one’s got a
texture." I wipe my hand on my shirt. "It goes into the venue."

"We need to talk to some of these people and
take a look inside this place." Dash says.