The Arena (5 page)

She raised one eyebrow at me. “You are not getting off the hook that easy, Jackson. Tell me just exactly what you were looking at when I was bent over.”

My voice was still stuck in my throat. I didn’t know what to do. I tried to up the ante. I pulled out all the stops and laid down a smile and a shrug. Just to keep making it more awkward, I also started to turn furiously red.

This time I did not get a smile or a raised eyebrow, but a small punch to the shoulder. “Come on, Jackson, we talk about everything, so if you were checking me out, just say so. It’s not like tomorrow you won’t have a job and be friendless. You might be if you don’t talk to me, though.”

I stammered for a few seconds and then sucked in a deep breath. Well, this would be the day she knew I’d finally lost it. The first person to know I was totally insane. “I wasn’t looking at your butt, Alby.”

This earned me a pretty big frown. I was kind of surprised; I thought maybe she would have a little relief, or maybe she was just mad because she thought I was lying. I didn’t know how to say what I needed to, so I just blurted it out. “It’s not that you don’t have a great butt, Alby—you do, not that I was looking, mind you. But for the last year, I have been seeing things and I swear I see some kind of roots or something following your spine. Sometimes I forgot I am pretending not to be crazy, and I just stare when I see them. I have been trying to figure out if it’s real or if I am just imagining it.”

At the same time, I felt relieved and totally exposed. I took a deep breath, waiting for her to tell me I was crazy. To tell me that she never wanted to see me again. Maybe she could just hit me again and tell me to man up and just admit I liked her ass. I didn’t know what I was expecting, but it was definitely not what happened.

She reached out and grabbed me by the arm, hard. Her grip was harder than I would have thought possible. I could feel her fingers digging into my flesh. “What are you?”

I looked at her with pure confusion. She was starting to scare me, and the grip on my arm only grew tighter. “What do you mean, what am I? I’m just your friend. It’s me, Jackson.”

I felt her grip on me slightly relax, and let out a big sigh of relief. Her eyes were searching my face, looking for any kind of deception. “You really don’t know, do you?” She continued to watch my face, and must have believed what she saw there. Alby finally released my arm, but I could tell her body was still coiled with tension. It was like she expected me to attack her.

“What should I know, Alby? What are you talking about? Is what I am seeing real?” I grasped desperately at the smallest glimmer of hope that what I was seeing was real. It would make things easier just knowing that I was not crazy. It didn’t matter to me that I might not ever be able to tell anyone what I saw; I just wanted to know it was real.

It was like she became a different person. “Of course what you are seeing isn’t real. God, I’ve been your friend for so long, and instead of just telling me you like my ass, you come up with some crazy story. What is your damage, Jackson? Seriously.”

With that, she walked out of the store and left me standing there confused and alone. I tried to call her cell, but it just went to voicemail. I couldn’t bring myself to leave a message. The next night when I showed up for work, she wasn’t there. Before I left in the morning, her uncle came into the store, which was odd. I noticed he had the same markings around his neck, but I made sure not to look at them.

He called out to me when he noticed where I was. “Jackson, can I see you in my office for a minute?”

I knew something was up. I had worked here the entire summer and had maybe seen Alby’s uncle one time. When we got into the office, I knew my day was going from bad to worse just by the look on his face.

“Jackson, we have decided to stop running the shop overnight. I’m just going to rotate one of my morning and afternoon people around to stock supplies. I hate to do this to you on such short notice.”

I didn’t say anything; what was there to say? I lost my best friend and my job all in one night, all because I decided to open my big fat mouth. I just looked back at him with a bit of shame and frustration on my face.

He finally took pity on me and started talking again. “Alby wanted to make sure you were taken care of. She knows you need this money for college in a few weeks. God, that girl has a way of getting what she wants. First she talks me into hiring you, even though I only need one person working, and then she has me pay you for the rest of the summer when you won’t be working here anymore.”

I almost didn’t catch that last part. He was going to pay me for the rest of the summer. It felt kind of wrong, like Alby just talked him into it so she would never have to see me again. I just nodded my head in acceptance. “Alby has a way of doing that, Mr. Jones. Thank you again for giving me the job in the first place.”

He stood up and handed me my last check and gave me a slight pat on the shoulder on my way out. I should have felt worse about getting fired, but I really didn’t. I just wanted to get my friend back. I missed her already, and all I could think about was her reaction to what I had said. There was more to it; I just knew it. I wondered what she was so scared of that she cut me completely out of her life. If I had to guess, it was not because what I said was crazy, but because what I said was true.

It had finally happened: I had left the realm of the sane. Now I was starting to think that the things I was seeing were real. That’s how you finally lose it; one day you know you are crazy, and the next day you think it is the rest of the world.

Still confused about my last conversation with Alby, I kept trying to call her. She never picked up the phone, and I could feel my frustration building. The energy inside of me kept building as well. I was now running twelve miles a day, a freaking half marathon. At the end of the day, I still couldn’t sleep. In desperation, I called Alby one last time, hoping that she might have the answer. She didn’t pick up.

I did the only thing I could do. I went for a run. This time the goal was simply to burn as much energy as possible, to run for as long as I could. Instead of my normal six-mile loop, I mapped out a twenty-mile there and back. Yep, I was about to try and run twenty miles in the hundred-plus-degree summer. If that couldn’t take the edge off, nothing would.

I was about three miles into my run when my cell rang. A quick look at the screen let me know it was Alby. I was half tempted to not pick it up, but God, I missed her. I walked off to find a shady spot and accepted the call.

“It’s good to hear from you, Alby.”

There was a drawn-out silence before she answered. “God, Jackson, could you not take a hint? I can’t talk to you anymore.”

“I know I scared you the other night when I said those things, but please, Alby, you’re my best friend, my only friend.”

There was another long silence. It felt like an eternity before she answered. “I just can’t, ok? I’m sorry.”

“Just tell me why.”

This time there was no pause, which was almost worse. “Cause you are one of them.”

I was starting to feel desperate now. “One of who, Alby? What are you talking about?”

This time she sounded sad when she said it. “Ask your parents.”

The line went dead.

I was left with more questions than answers, but at least I had someone I could ask. Hopefully they would know just what was going on. I still needed the run, but it would have to wait until I found out just what was happening. Hopefully my parents had some kind of answers for me. I turned around and started to sprint home.

The run home was the fastest three miles I had ever run. Thoughts seemed to be springing up from nowhere; they all seemed to be hitting me at once.
What am I? What are you? What the hell is going on?
Each of those questions burned in my mind; each one filled my steps with speed that I hadn’t felt before. I burst through the door and shouted, “Mom, Dad, we need to talk!”

They rushed into the kitchen, obviously thinking something was wrong. They came in so fast, I almost dropped the Gatorade I was pulling from the fridge.

My dad spoke first. “What is it? What’s going on?”

I looked at him and didn’t know what to say; standing there now in the kitchen, this seemed like a mistake. What if Alby had just been pulling my leg, and telling them about what had been happening to me only made things worse? The words caught in my throat. Finally I managed to get them out. I started at the beginning, back when I first started seeing things, and ended with my conversation with Alby.

My parents shared a look with each other that only confirmed my suspicions. They knew what was happening, but why hadn’t they told me? What could they possibly be hiding from me?

It was my Dad who spoke first. “We were never sure this day would come, and if it did, we kept hoping it wouldn’t be so soon. There is a lot we need to talk about, a lot of things we probably should have told you about sooner. Jackson, you are one of the Gifted, born with the ability to control magic.”

Now I knew something was up. Seeing weird things maybe could be hereditary. I thought maybe they saw them too, or maybe we were seeing something that other people couldn’t, like hidden races. But magic? That was a little far out, even for me. I had never done anything magical. Even Harry Potter started before eighteen. “Come on, Dad, you are pulling my leg. Did Alby put you up to this?”

He smiled and put a comforting hand on my shoulder. “So you can see her, see what she really is?”

I took a step back, my back bumping into the fridge. “What do you mean, what she really is?”

Another look crossed between them, and this time my mom answered. “Jackson, she is one of the Fae.”

I knew they just had to be joking now. I slapped a big grin on my face. “She sure doesn’t look like a fairy.”

This time it was my dad who answered. “Son, are you telling me you didn’t see the marks on her back? She is definitely one of them, and not all of them are fairies with wings. In fact, some of them can be downright scary.”

Now I was pretty confused, but it was starting to sink in a bit. “Why would she stop talking to me if I told her that I can see her?”

Both of them shared another look, this time looking a little worried. My dad spoke again. “Jackson, this is very important: do you think she told her family about what you said?”

Now I was really confused. “Why would it matter if she told them? It was a little strange that her uncle paid me for the rest of the summer after he fired me. I just chalked that up to Alby working her magic. God knows she has done it to me enough times.”

They shared another quick look between them. My mom spoke fast, almost frantically. “We have to go now!”

I was not sure what was going on, but I knew I wasn’t going anywhere until I got some answers. “I’m not leaving until you tell me what is going on!” I shouted back.

My dad reached out and tried to grab my shoulder. I spun around and ran out the front door. I could hear them calling after me, but I didn’t care. I just needed some time to think. I jumped in my car and took off. I wasn’t even sure where I was going until I got there. When I pulled into the parking lot, it was almost deserted. Not too many people decided that going for a hike in the middle of the day when it was over a hundred degrees was a good idea. I checked the back of the car for some water. I had a few bottles tucked away in the corner. They were warm, but they were going to do in a pinch. I poured the water into my CamelBak and then finished off the rest of my Gatorade. That should be enough for what I had in mind. With my gear on, I headed for the trails, hoping that the heat and the hike would help me clear my head.

Once I cleared the initial hill, the hiking trail evened out. This was one of my favorite places to run even in the summer. I started jogging, hoping that I could figure out what was going on. Something in me burst, and I could feel all that pent-up energy fighting to get out. Not knowing what else to do, I ran faster and faster. Nothing seemed to be able to curb the flow of energy coming from my core. I had been running at a full sprint for over ten minutes now, something that should have been nearly impossible. I didn’t know what to do; it was like something inside of me flipped the
on
switch.

Searing pain ripped through my head, bringing my sprint to a stop. I wasn’t even winded. How was any of this possible? The pain ripped through my mind again, this time so strong it brought me to my knees. I looked up into the sky and screamed for it to stop. The pain was unbearable. I felt it start in the rest of my body; there was this tiny little tingling sensation. Then it started to become more intense. It felt like I had a massive cramp in every muscle of my body. All of my muscles went rigid at once. The energy was trying to rip its way out of me. I screamed again and watched as a blue light burst from my body. Then everything went black.

When I came to, it was sometime in the early morning. The cool desert air prickled against my skin. The tiniest bit of humidity hung in the air. The sandy ground was cold except for where my body had kept the heat in. I felt normal again; I felt like myself. I stood up and started to wobble just a bit. My legs weren’t ready to support me. The sprint from the day before had taken its toll on my body. With the endless fountain of energy gone, it was going to be up to me to get back to the car. Every muscle in my body ached as though it had been through the most intense workout ever.

Once my legs started to feel a little bit more solid underneath me, I could finally look around and try and figure out just where I had ended up. Horror movies started like this; waking up alone in the desert without a good sense of direction was never a good thing. I needed to figure out which way it was back to my car. My parents must be freaking out. I had been gone all night without calling, after basically running away from them.

Finally deciding on the direction to go, I let my eyes fall to the ground in my immediate vicinity. There was something wrong with what I was looking at. It just didn’t make sense to me in the slightest. I was standing in a small space of the normal desert ground; the sand was soft, and weeds poked intermittently through the surface. The circle was probably just a little bit larger than how I found myself lying when I woke up. Outside of this circle was where my mind started having problems justifying what it was seeing.