Chapter 6:
"So you didn't have a dream?" Inquisition just happened to be Olive's strongest trait.
"No."
"You mean you didn't have the crow dream? Or you didn't dream at all?" Did she ever not ask questions?
"None at all."
They both walked down the street in the direction of the park, a pleasant silence surrounding them as they reflected on Sonny's dream. Olive had suggested they go for a walk around the park and although Sonny objected, like always, here they were on their way.
Olive stepped off the sidewalk in front of Sonny, checking for cars she hopped across the street and stood waiting beside the sign marking the corner of Bonneville Rd and Fourth St. She was wearing a pink and blue flowered shirt with tan capris and brown sandals. Her slender figure reflecting against the rising sun gave Sonny a warm happiness. She wore aviator sunglasses every day, she must have had twenty pairs. Sonny smiled at the ones she wore today: gold with blue mirrored lenses. Nothing she wore could ever make her look bad. It was true ever since he'd met her back in 5th grade, she had a style that looked natural and easy. He wondered how her feet would feel after walking a couple of miles to the park, around it, and back in those sandals. Realizing he'd simply stopped walking and was standing there in a daze, he jogged in his jeans and white sneakers to catch up with Olive.
Nudging his shoulder with hers, Olive joked, "What are you tired or something?"
"All that no dreaming has me wiped out."
Olive giggled, her soft, delicate voice mesmerizing Sonny. She had sang in the musicals and choirs at their school which became the only after school programs Sonny would attend. He once accompanied Olive to a singing audition for one of those competition shows. She naturally blew everyone away. A short, stocky, foreign man with a wicked curly mustache had stood in applause before her last note had even left her lips. He judged her saying, "your voice makes me believe in miracles again." Sonny was the only audience member who had laughed at his exaggerating praise of Olive's beautiful song. Most people shot him dirty looks when he erupted in laughter, but after when Sonny had apologized to Olive she said it was all she could do to not roll her eyes at him and laugh too.
That was also the only time Sonny could remember feeling any amount of sadness while around Olive. Her parents had told her they would not sign the waivers to let her go to Los Angeles to partake in the show, reasoning they didn't want her to miss that much school. Sonny wondered why they even let her audition in the first place as anyone who'd ever heard Olive sing could have told them she would win.
She cried , her tears faintly cascading down her cheeks and onto Sonny's blankets that covered his bed. "They uh ah don't uhh support me. It's auah not eeee fair." Olive could barely get the words out. His heart ached that night knowing absolutely nothing he could do would take away her devastation. Olive quit singing and Sonny never questioned her nor did they ever talk about it. He secretly missed the tender passion she sang with and the way her voice made people stop and admire her, but Sonny would never tell her that.
The park caught their view up ahead which delighted Sonny and Olive due to the giant oak trees that would grant them some shade for a while.
"You need to come with me!" Out of nowhere, a guy a little older than Sonny, but much more bulky in the muscular area, grabbed his shoulder, turning him so they were almost touching faces. He wore a button down blue shirt with a tan undershirt, gray pants, and a black watch. His features were sharp: his chiseled jaw sported a slight 5 O'clock shadow and his small bluish green eyes were scrunched alerting Sonny to his anger.
Olive noticed too and panicking, she screamed and began yelling for help towards the park. "HELP HELP!" The shrieking in her voice was so high pitched she could have shattered windows if they were close enough.
Instinctively Sonny pushed the guy backwards, surprised by his own strength. "Get away from me" Sonny shouted trying to sound intimidating.
The guy grabbed Sonny again, "This isn't a game! You need to come with me now if you know what's good for you." Keeping hold of Sonny, he turned toward Olive whose screams were bellowing toward a few people playing frisbee nearly a quarter of a mile down the road at the park. Throwing Sonny to the ground he walked in Olive's direction. "Enough" the boy shouted, snarling he raised his hand out and instantly Olive became quite, ceasing to scream, she sat down on the curb as if in a trance.
"Now," he turned back toward Sonny with a freaky grin on his face that worried Sonny.
"Wait what did you do to Olive?"
The guy, now in possession of Sonny's arm squeezed and pulled him to follow. "I shut her up."
"Hey, no, hey what did you do to her?!" Sonny panicked, now frantically trying to release himself from the guy's superhuman tight grip. His fright turned to anger as he moved farther from Olive. Why wasn't she moving….why wasn't she doing anything at all? "STOP!!!!" He shrieked and instantly as if a bomb went off between the two they blasted apart, the guy slamming into the ground with a thud, yet Sonny softly scooting backwards, undamaged by the explosion. The guy rolled onto his stomach and pushed himself up.
"Aaah!" The guy seemed almost unharmed. There was not a single scratch on him. All he sported from the blow was some dirt that he quickly dusted off his pants. "They told me you didn't know of your powers yet. Ugh it's fine! I guess we'll have to do this the hard way." Walking towards Sonny he cracked his knuckles in his palm, readying himself for a fight.
Sonny looked around, seeing only a trash can and potted plants, but nothing to try and defend himself with. He didn't even want to fight. "Wait please, let's talk about this." Crack. Sideways Sonny's face spun, a fierce pain spreading from his jaw upwards towards his eye. He stumbled backwards, unable to absorb the powerful punch. The guy landed another one before Sonny fell to the ground, curling up in a ball, hoping to avoid any further strikes to his face.
Still the punches came, striking him on his side close to his kidney, his back, and his ribs. Sonny screamed out in pain as another punch wounded his already pain ridden ribs. He grabbed for his side, leaving his face wide open. Spotting the boy's fist flying directly at it, he stuck his arms up to shield. To Sonny's surprise the guy's hand ricochet off his arms in a forceful burst which sent him off balance toward the ground. Sonny stared in shock at his arms wondering how that just happened. Sonny slowly got up, feeling the pain of his ribs and dreading what might happen next.
The guy too got back up, but this time he looked angrier than before. Fearful Sonny turned to run backwards and instead ran straight into the body of a tall, burly man, who stood next to a little girl who simply smiled at him. The man spoke to the boy in a deep booming voice, "Get out of here! You know what I'm capable of."
Before the man had even finished his words the boy took off running and soon disappeared out of Sonny's vision, much to his delight. "Are you ok?" The man looked at Sonny examining his wounds with his hands.
Sonny pushed his hand off his swollen cheek, wincing with pain almost everywhere, "No. No, no I'm not. I am not ok. Who are you?! What, what is going--"
"Woah slow it down," the man spoke calmly. Sonny tried to steady his breathing while the man continued, "I get it you probably have a lot of questions and they will all get answered, but you gotta just relax Sonny."
How did he know Sonny's name? He pressed his hand to his forehead, feeling slightly lightheaded for a minute. Suddenly he remembered Olive. "Oh no, Olive!" He spun around to the curb where she had been banished to and saw the little girl talking to her.
"Quinn's taking care of her. She will be alright." The man said. "And I'm Walter, but everyone calls me Stone." He held out his hand to Sonny who shook it awkwardly still in a daze from the recent events.
"I'm Sonny," he whispered, finally able to catch his breath. "Oh but you already said my name. You knew that. How did you know that?" Before Stone could answer, Olive and Quinn had appeared next to them.
Sonny turned his attention to Olive, concerned for her safety. "Are you alright? Are you hurt? Do you feel okay?"
She smiled and nodded, "yes, yes, and...yes. I am good. Whatever that guy did, she made it go away."
"Does he know about us Silver's yet?" Quinn piped up, such a strong voice coming from such a tiny little girl caught Sonny off guard. She couldn't have been older than 8 Sonny thought. He looked at her tiny features from her pointed nose to her freckled cheeks. She was so young, yet carried herself in a very mature way. He imagined she even did her own hair- it was elegantly pinned back so the curliness of her blonde hair was tamed slightly.
Stone responded, "No Quinn." He directed his next words to Sonny, "Ok I know there's some things we need to talk about, and we will, but first we need to get out of here."
"What things?"
"We haven't got much time. You possess powers that the average human doesn't. You are special. We are called Silvers and you are one of us. Now you got the gist of it, let's go."
"Silvers? Is that why I got attacked? The boy said something about my powers." Sonny was still confused and stared down at his hands remembering what they had somehow done to that boy.
"Yes. And we really must be going."
"You all have powers too?"
"Yes, now for the love of everything, let's GO." Stone said, clearly frustrated with Sonny's lack of urgency.
Sonny grabbed Olive and stood in front of her, as if to block from a potential attack. "And why would we go anywhere with you. We don't know you."
Stone shook his head, an irritating look rising on his face, "Ok number one, I didn't say anything about the human girl coming. And number two, the guy who attacked you will come back, and when he does he will bring more Silvers. You are safe with me."
The human girl? Sonny contemplated punching him right there, but thankfully thought otherwise noting Stone's size advantage. Instead, Olive stepped out from behind Sonny, "Excuse me. Who do you think you are. If Sonny is going to some crazy Silver world, I am damn sure going to be right next to him!"
Sonny gave Olive a mental high five as Stone let out a deep sigh, turning to Quinn, "Remind me to make a point to never work with humans again. They always have to be frustrating." He glanced back to Sonny and Olive, "Alright alright, she can come too. And you have my word nothing will happen to her."
"You're damn right nothing will happen to her! And why would something even happen to Olive? Because of that guy back there?" Sonny screeched, letting his anger rise just a bit.
Stone shook his head, "She is human. Weeeee" he gestured between himself, Quinn, and Sonny, "Are not human…..I think you can gather where I'm going with this. I really don't think it's rocket science."
Olive's mouth gawked open, "Oh you all will kill me. Is that what you're implying?!"
Sonny followed, "Well weeee" Sonny mimicked Stone, gesturing at himself and Olive "definitely aren't going with you. Let's go Olive. We better get home."
They turned to head home, not even getting one step in when Stone jumped in front blocking their exit. "I didn't want to have to do this. I didn't want you to find out like this. But since you are making this difficult….here." He reached into his pocket and pulled out a picture, handing it to Sonny.
The picture, taken in a forest among enormous oak trees, centered around a group of 8 people. They all bore wide smiles and their arms linked together over their shoulders in a symbolic gesture of friendship. "What is this?" Sonny asked. How would this make him trust Stone?
"Look at the woman in the right corner."
Sonny glanced at the woman with her dark hair braided in two and her dark skin glowing. She smiled up at Sonny. He recognized her the instant her smile met his eyes. "My mom? How do you have this?"
"I'm standing next to her. She was a silver, just like you. And...she was on my side. Now…" He said grabbing the picture, "We seriously have to get out of here before they come back."
With no time to process what he just learned, Stone and Quinn had begun quickly moving toward the park, not looking back, assuming they would follow. Sonny and Olive exchanged glances. She smiled, "I guess we should go with them."
"Olive.." He stepped toward her, a worried look coming across his face. He was scared for her. "You...you don't have to come with me. I don't know how safe this is going to be. Everything is so unknown and I want to make sure you're protected and--"
"I'm coming with you whether you like it or not. This isn't up for discussion Sonny Griffin. And plus. Who's to say I'm the one needing protection…..that guy came after you, not me." She reached up, grazing his cheek with her soft delicate hands, "I came out of that without a scratch."
He shuddered. He couldn't imagine what he would've done had Olive's life been threatened instead of his. A pang of rage spiked inside him before he shook the image of anyone hurting Olive. He smiled at her, Olive's hand still examining his wound, "Right. Haha, you've always been the strong one."
A little voice shouted from the distance detaching the two from each other….dang Quinn. "Ay lovebirds. What part of hurry up don't you understand?!" She turned, motioning them to follow. Sonny half expected her to rouse them with the singing of K-I-S-S-I-N-G while skipping toward the park, yet somehow she seemed much more mature than that.
Olive smirked, "guess that's our cue. C'mon we have an adventure ahead of us."