Chapter Seventeen
Peter
I notice her wandering eyes, her tired face, the droplets of sweat accumulating on her forehead- but it's probably just because of the workout we did this morning. I ignore it for the time being and turn to the next person, Albert, who has taken his place in the center of the room.
This group is becoming stronger than I had expected it to be at first, even Igetis's protection team who have settled down as a fence around my house seem to be genuine.
The only thing that troubles me is the night; when my worries come alive, my nightmares take over my brain and my eyes and envelope my body, overtake my senses. Sometimes, I wake up with tears streaming down my cheeks, my head resting on Ester's lap, his hand stroking my hair.
Times like this make me think about everything he used to do, his lashes- both physical and verbal- and I ponder over who he actually is. Is this the man my mom fell in love with?
There are no words either of us can exchange during this time, and I know he hasn't told anyone about these episodes except perhaps William, who's ears are as reliable as mine.
The days pass slowly; five, ten, twelve, and a swell of pride washes over my body every time I think of how well we are pulling this together- the planning, training, idea's- everything.
Thud. I blink hurriedly, trying to get back into reality. Catherine is fallen on the floor, the rest of the guys surrounding her, calling for water or checking her pulse. Kabir, a smart brown boy who I haven't met before, sits at her side, waving his hand over her face, then her heart.
According to the parts of this meeting I was actually paying attention to, he can heal the wounded and his powers come to very good use right now. I know I should get up and move over to her or atleast get something to help her, but my position on the chair seemed too comfortable to move from and I find myself deliberately stuck on it. If anyone notices, they don't say anything.
-
Catherine wakes up as soon as Kabir fixes her and we carry her to the room to lay down for some time. We settle down once more, eager to continue our displays, Albert next up. I feel guilty about not tending to her. I'll try figuring out what happened as soon as Albert finishes.
Albert once again takes his stance in the middle and looks up to see us all. His eyes are shining, and it looks like, for that moment, he is transported back to his youth. He then says excitedly, "Well, y'all know my first one- that is reading minds. Would a demonstration be needed?"
"No, Albert, go ahead. Though don't mind me saying, you look rather enthusiastic, what's up?" I ask him casually.
"Oh boy, ooh, my second power. Now now I know I haven't used it for some time but, oh my are y'all gonna be shocked!" He smiles.
"Go on then." someone says from the other side of the circle. Albert nods and then positions his right foot in front of the other, in somewhat of a half- side, half-front stance, balls his hand up in a fist, putting them both on either of his sides. He breaths in calmly. His face is sewed into concentration.
I blink patiently, my chin resting on my hand, my elbows on my knees. And in that nanosecond, he was gone. I jump up in shock, "What the hell?"
I look around frantically at the rest of the audience. Some of them are as surprised as me and some, Ester to be specific, is holding his sides and laughing. "Where the hell did he go?" I scream. "Ester? What did you do?"
He continues mocking the rest of us. "Oh boy," he laughs, "hey do you remember when I was asking you the same thing some time back?" A shudder ran through my back. Sara.
He realizes what he said a minute too late. "Sorry." He murmurs. And then, "Open the door, he'll probably be standing there." What has gotten into this man?
"Out the door, Ester? Have you lost it?"
"Don't speak to me like that boy."
"Well if you say something like that, so will I."
"Peter." Harry says from behind me. A sudden shock of wind enters the room.
"What Harry, what's wrong? And shut the door!"
"Peter. Look." Behind him, at the doorstep, stood Albert, grinning madly.
"No way, locomotion? And you didn't tell us all this time?" My anger is slowly dissolving, my eyes turning back to sapphire from orange.
"I wasn't sure if I could still do it after all these years." He walks inside. "Ester here helped me practice." I look at Ester sideways, my arms folded. "An apology is in order. I'm sorry for shouting."
He nods and gets up, "'Twas funny isn't it?" He asks, looking around at the others, "The boys' eyes turned red, live lava!" He grins and slaps me on the back, leaning in for a moment he says, "Boy, we're all in this together." And more than the second time in these last two weeks, my step-father accomplished trying to prove something.
2 days before The Heist
We had put 'Deciding the Plan' as one of our top priorities (and so it should be) on the list when making our schedule for these two weeks. So, with two days to go, there was nothing to do but wait.
A comfortable silence hung over the entire house except for the cutlery clashing and the occasional game of football in the halls.
12:37am
"Boy, personally I think we should speak to those guards Igetis sent for us. They should know about the fact that we are leaving and that Catherine, Albert and I are gonna stay back. Maybe, you know, they'll wake up and be more vigilant after this long period of home isolation." Ester comments as we were watching a most intriguing game of football.
I have learnt to take his opinions more importantly, even respect him more, after everything he has done for us, and more specifically for me, and so I wait it out until he finishes before I speak. "Ester, there's no way we can tell them where we are going especially since they are his guards, I mean..."
"Well, we won't tell them where we're going, but we should tell them the house ain't empty right?" I sense an unfamiliar trace of fear in his tone.
"Ester, nothing's going to happen to you. Either of you'll. Between you three, you guys can make it through half a day together I'm sure." I lower my voice. "Catherine's parents didn't have powers of any sort. They were an easy target to just try and scare us off."
"I see what you mean boy." He says, but his face still reflects curiosity and as much as I have found out about his caring nature in the last few days, I still can't blindly trust everything he says and so I ask, "Go on, tell me what it is. What are you thinking of?"
He looks around the room and then pulls me off the couch. I follow him wordlessly. We walk till the end of the passage, on the furthest side of the house until he lets go of my hand. My eyes turn a shade of honey, what's wrong with this man?
"Nothing's wrong with me, boy. But I must say, there is something wrong with these people of To Sotos, don't you think?"
I furrow my eyebrows. "Ester, if this is about Catherine still being here, there's nothing wrong- I trust her completely and so should you."
"This ain't about your little girl. Everything ain't about her." I ignore that. "These people from To Sotos, they ain't got no powers and yet, and yet almost forty percent of the time, they're able to stop us from completing our assignments. How?"
"Ester, why are you bringing this up now? There's no connection."
"Just hear me out boy. Okay, see, Igetis sent those two random men to her house posing as her parents while they were actually here, correct or not correct?"
"Correct. But how do you know about this?"
"I read minds boy." He rolls his eyes, emphasizing on it. "Anyways, how did Catherine know they weren't her parents? How did she manage to kill them so easily?"
"Ester. She knew they weren't her parents because she's not dumb. She could kill them easily because the only way I agreed to this plan was because they weren't allowed to lay a single finger on her- just watch her whereabouts.
"You said this wasn't about her, but her name is the only one you've talked about in the entire conversation. I'm leaving. I do not want to talk about this, okay?" I turn to leave, my eyes turning orange.
"Boy, boy, listen to me."
"No, Ester. I did listen to you and now you're done." I exit into the hallways shaking my head.
-
Ester's words are replaying in my head, again and again and again, and no matter how hard I try to shut them out, every time I blink, I imagine the bloody scene at Catherine's house after she killed those two men from Oi Alloi and I know that Ester is looking at me and he knows what was going on in my mind and it kills me- knowing and thinking about all this stuff behind her back- but I am sure I couldn't tell her, at least not yet. We- Ester and I- would have to do some scratching of our own.
William comes up and joins me at the table, disrupting my isolation. I lift my aching temples from the asylum made by my upturned palms. "Hi."
"It's no secret that I have powerful hearing."
I groan. "You heard what Ester was saying."
"I did, and we need to speak about that, but not now. What you said was right, we can't waste time pondering over that right now."
"So what is it?"
He lowers his voice, his face serious. "While you were over here, sulking and wondering about whatever just happened, my hearing senses were still awake and aware." I sit up straight at this. Something from the outside. What has he heard? I wait for him to continue. "You know how we can hear those guys outside right?"
He waits for a reply. "Yeah, they eat straight out of the cans and take shifts to sleep." William nods solemnly, "Yeah, and how many of them are there?" I think about it. "About seven when I focused last night."
It is true, the chattering and scuttling around indicated fourteen feet- seven pairs. He nods again and leans in to me to come closer, "Okay then Peter, now take a minute and focus on it again."
"William, just tell me."
"No, no, I can't be sure. You check." He said unsurely but fast, almost spitting out his words. I sigh. "Okay." I look down towards my lap and close my eyes, my fist clenched simply. This would be much easier, natural rather, if not for the blaring sounds coming from the TV and the cheers from the men on the sofa. Listen. I tell myself, force myself. What is out there?
My ears transport me to the outside, as if I were there myself. I hear the escalated breathing from the person opposite me, chattering of the bugs on the leaves outside my front door, they hear the slight wind that bangs against the sturdy walls of the house. Listen. Behind the house. At the fence, I command my ears.
And slowly, the muttering of the men from Oi Alloi come into focus. They speak softly, in whispers. The conversation flows ahead cautiously between a man. He is instructing two others who grunt in agreement to what he says. Three men.
My ears move on through the bushes. A gentle snore, two men gulping down beans from a can. Three more. My senses work ahead, now directly behind the house. Shuffling feet, loading of pistols. Concentrate! I urge myself. How many men? I give myself a moment more to figure out. Three.
I move further on. Three men giggling, one talking hurriedly into a tiny wireless black box. Four over here. I open my eyes, stunned into silence for a second. William looks at me with a mixture of pride and worry on his face.
"What do you think it means?" He asks.
"I- I- I don't know." I say giving into the comfort of my hands once more. I need time. I need more space to think.
"I'll be back in five minutes. Should I gather the rest of them?" He questions, getting off his chair.
"I think we should keep this within us two before we say anything to anyone." My worries and problems just seem to be increasing and I don't think the same would be good for the rest of the team just two days before we go out to fight.
I sigh and close my eyes, waiting for my brain to think of some solution. "Think think think think think..." I murmur repeatedly to myself under my breath, unaware of time and hunger and just about anything else.
"Hey! Hey! Have you lost your head?" A soft, mocking tone pulls me out of my trance. I turn to see the owner, though obviously I recognize the voice. Catherine.
"Hey." I say dully.
"What are you going on about?" For a second, it occurs to me that Ester is right. That they have some power that we are unaware of. But the thought slips away almost as soon as it comes.
"Nothing." Think think think think think think think think.
"I heard you speaking to yourself." She fakes laughter but her eyes bore into mine.
"Where were you?" I ask her.
"You're changing the topic!" Another round of fake giggles. Think think think think think think.
"I'll get to it." I wait. My eyes knowingly blank- black- like empty pits. Think think think think. "Where were you?"
She seems to understand that I won't go ahead unless I get an answer and so she tilts her head back, her hair flowing behind like a small dark waterfall, her knees balanced on the seat of the chair heroically, and says to me, "Well, not being a very big fan of footy, I borrowed a book from your selection and was reading in my room. I finished a couple of chapters and decided I needed a bit from the kitchen and so I got up."
She's playing it safe. I nod. Think think think think think.
"When did you hear me?" No, too direct. Damn it.
"Weeeell, I heard you from the hall. Well, first I could see your lips moving and then as I came to the doorway for the kitchen, I heard you. Why?" Ha. Not very smart.
"Was I really that loud?"
She hesitated and twisted in her position. "Erm... You know, I'm kinda hungry. I think I'm going to go grab something."
I don't know what to think. Was Ester right all along? Is only Catherine or is everyone from To Sotos keeping something from us? I pout at the table.
This day just keeps getting worse.
I relocate my thoughts back to the increase in the number of men outside. Okay, I say inside my head, why would they increase the number of men? We need more protection.
Then, almost immediately, I say, but there are ten of us here- we dont need more protection. No. Change your line of thought. Okay, what else. Why would we need more protection? Something's going to happen. I look up. And they know it. Or, I manage to butt into my thoughts, They're going to attack us.
I jump off my chair and run into the hall, waving my hands above me ridiculously, trying to block out the television.
"Guys! Guys! Stop." They obey meekly. "Something's going on. The number of men outside has increased." I wait for it to settle down. It doesn't really seem to affect anyone except William, whose idea it was in the first place.
I roll my eyes and climb onto the tea table in front of me. "This isn't a joke. I need a few people to volunteer to come out with me to speak to them. If," I hold Williams eyes, "that's what we decide to do."
I step off the table and give them a few moments to discuss. From my right ear, I can just about make out the soft sound of a door shutting quietly. As I take in a sweep of the room, Ester stares back at me, his eyebrow raised. He knows what I heard. And I know what he is thinking about.