The Tainted (The Tainted Series Book 1) (16 page)

Rebecca entered slowly and made her way over to the desk. “Still no luck in the search?”

Etain sighed heavily again, “I keep going back and looking for houses in Florida or Palm Springs. With so many elderly couples there it makes it so much easier to find good options.”

“But Maverick was adamant about staying up north?”

Etain scowled as she focused back on the screen, “Yes.”

It had been a few days now since Maverick’s return, but from the moment he’d mentioned the idea of leaving, the mood in the house had taken a drastic upwards turn. So enthusiastic, Owen and Aeden had already packed their belongings and placed their bags in the front hall.

Everyone had hoped they’d be heading south--somewhere warm and sunny and far away from the dangers they’d encountered up here. However, Maverick squashed their dreams in a hurry. He wouldn’t even listen to their pleas. He told each of them the same thing: For the moment, their work was up north, so that’s where they needed to stay.

Truth be told, Rebecca didn’t mind staying up north. She still missed Emily immensely and, even though she couldn’t see her, living somewhat close to her was comforting. Also, the Northwest was the only place Rebecca knew. She wasn’t opposed to going out and exploring new places. In fact, she looked forward to that…someday. But she had such a deep connection to the woods here that the idea of being stuck for a long time in an empty desert, or at the beach, didn’t sound appealing to her.

Over the last few days, Rebecca had been trying to help Etain as much as possible with preparing for the move. She had just finished putting all the spare upstairs rooms in order, making sure that anything broken had been replaced, and that it all looked untouched. Most of the work that had to be done before leaving involved fixing up the house, but the boys were of little to no help and Faolan had again left to keep watch in the woods. So, Rebecca was really the only help Etain had. Yet, even with all the work Rebecca was doing for Etain, she still had the strangest feeling that Etain was purposefully distancing herself. As if Rebecca had somehow done something to offend her.

“I just don’t understand why Maverick wants to stay around here. I mean, if it’s as dangerous as he’s making it seem, we should be running for the hills, as far away from here as possible.” Etain slumped back in the chair, pushing the laptop away. “I keep feeling like he’s hiding things from me.”

Rebecca felt her heart start to beat rapidly, and she struggled to hide her sudden nervousness. Although she was almost certain that none of the crew had any idea about her relationship with Maverick, she could never be sure as long as little Trysten was running around. She’d seen Etain get angry, and it wasn’t a pleasant sight. The idea of Etain directing that anger at her was enough to chill Rebecca to the bone.

“Have you talked to him about this?” Rebecca asked, working to hold her voice steady.

“Of course, but he pushes the subject away every time. The two of you seem close, has he said anything to you?”

Rebecca smiled and laughed awkwardly, “Us? Close? Hardly! We’re just friends--just acquaintances really, I mean not really, but not more than friends…I mean not more than
close
friends or anything…”

Rebecca’s face fell as Etain’s brows furrowed into a puzzled expression. A long, uncomfortable silence hung between them.

“Well, that was strange,” Etain commented at last. “Either way, if you
do
hear anything from him, let me know. He’s up to something, I know it. And as his best friend, I should be told about it.”

Etain stood up from the chair and sighed heavily. “I can’t do this anymore. I should work on dinner anyway.”

Thankful for the change of subject, Rebecca smiled, “I can help.”

The rest of the afternoon, they worked together in the kitchen. While their earlier awkward exchange seemed forgotten, Etain made little to no effort to talk with Rebecca, and even less of an effort to look at her. Several times Rebecca tried to start a conversation with Etain, but only ever received a mumbled response and then silence.

When the food was almost finished, Etain asked Rebecca to round up the crew while she set the table.

“Trysten is probably out in the garden. Make sure you grab him too,” Etain advised as she began pulling dishes out of the cupboards.

Still confused by Etain’s cold attitude, Rebecca quickly made her way through the house, searching for the boys. She found Aeden and Owen in their usual spots, plunked in front of the large television playing video games, and then ran up to Maverick’s office only to find him passed out in his chair.

This was too good of a chance to pass up. Standing on her tiptoes, Rebecca crept forward, making as little sound as possible. She rounded the corner of the desk and stood directly behind his snoring form, a mischievous grin spreading across her face. After lifting her hands up, in a single, swift movement she brought them down heavily onto his shoulders, yelling out loudly as they made contact.

Instantly time stood still. But from where she was frozen, she could see Maverick leap out of his chair--nearly up to the ceiling--and frantically begin to search the room for the source of the disturbance. When his eyes finally landed on Rebecca, her wide-mouthed grin affixed to her face and her laughter stuck in her immobile throat, his eyes narrowed to slits and he charged toward her.

The instant he slammed into her, time returned to normal. Swiftly, he lifted her up into the air and threw her over his shoulder.

Between her uncontrollable laughing and gasps for air, Rebecca called out as she beat her fists into his back and flailed her legs, “Let me down! Let me down!”

Maverick, however, said nothing. Instead, he made his way to the small window on the far wall and pushed it open. The cold air rushed in, immediately covering Rebecca’s exposed skin in goosebumps.

“Maverick!” She exclaimed as he began lifting her body toward the window. “Maverick!!”

At the last moment, Maverick pulled her back and held her up in front of him, a devilish grin on his face. “Shouldn’t have done that, huh?”

Rebecca giggled again, “No, it was totally worth it.”

Maverick shook his head, but swiftly kissed her on the lips before setting her down.

“Did you have a reason for disturbing me, or were you just being a pain for the sake of being a pain?”

“Dinner is ready.”

“Alright, thanks, I’ll be down in a second.”

Rebecca smiled and was just about to head out to find Trysten when she glanced down and noticed an ancient looking map on his desk. Different-sized island were sprinkled across the western coast of the surprisingly large map. Most of the terrain appeared to be heavily wooded, but, at random points on the map, circles had been drawn within the trees, each of them holding a strange, twisting symbol she’d never seen before. Beside nearly half of these odd symbols were sticky notes that had X’s drawn on them.

Realizing what Rebecca was looking at, Maverick reached forward and pulled the map off the table, quickly rolling it up. “Tell Etain I’ll be a few more minutes, but to go on without me. Thanks.” He kissed her one more time and then turned away, toward a file cabinet, and began to busy himself in one of the drawers.

Something about the strange symbols on the map felt familiar to Rebecca. She didn’t know how or why, but it was almost like she’d seen them before. It was obvious Maverick didn’t want to talk about it, so instead of pushing the matter, Rebecca left and made her way downstairs and out into the garden.

As she stepped into the brisk air, Rebecca wrapped her sweater more tightly around her. Though there wasn’t any snow on the ground, it felt as if it might start falling at any moment and, in the heavy darkness of the early winter night, the surrounding woods held an eerie stillness to them. She made her way through the garden quickly, calling Trysten’s name and begging him to come out so she didn’t have to spend any more time freezing in this weather.

After about five minutes of trudging around, she gave up and turned back toward the house. Just then, she roughly collided into a solid human form, their entangled bodies rapidly falling toward the ground.

Rebecca was suddenly no longer in the garden. Shocked, it took her a moment to realize it was now bright outside and that she was standing in front of some sort of decrepit brick building. The front was littered with windows that had all clearly seen better days. The one closest to her was broken so badly that half of it was covered in a large piece of plywood. The concrete in front of the building was cracked and, in several places, large weeds were growing up through the crevices. The paint on the front door was sun burnt and chipping away, and it stood slightly ajar, as if its hinges were about ready to fall apart. She could hear the sound of children coming from within the large building, which surprised her since, by the look of the place, she would have thought it uninhabitable.

As she searched around her, trying to figure out where in the world she’d suddenly appeared, she heard voices approaching her from the other side of the door. Rebecca was almost certain this was some sort of strange dream, but, still worried about being seen, she made her way to the edge of the building and hid around the corner.

“He absolutely must leave. I’m afraid I can no longer be responsible for this heathen.”

“But if you send him away, he’ll have nowhere to go. He’ll end up on the streets. He could die out there.”

“He only has himself to blame. There’s something innately wrong with that child. If I were religious, I’d be worried he was possessed. Either way, I have neither the time nor the energy to put up with him any longer.”

Suddenly, one of the voices screamed and the other gasped. Rebecca swung her head around the corner of the building and nearly cried out too. Her eyes had locked onto a younger Trysten, who was glaring up at the two women in front of him, his face filled with pure rage.

“Did you see that?” Whispered the woman who was so morbidly obese that all her features looked as if they were slowly sagging off her face. She backed slowly away from him with a hand up over her mouth. “He just appeared…out of thin air! He’s…he’s a monster…I told you…he’s…he’s…”

“Oh, shut up!” Trysten yelled at the woman. “You’re a horrible person and I hate you. I’m glad you don’t want me here, because I don’t want to be here either.”

The other woman, who was probably well into her seventies, was also clearly afraid of little Trysten, but began to shake her head. “You don’t mean that. You can’t leave here, where will you go?”

Trysten turned his rage toward her, “I don’t care. Anywhere is better than here.” In a swift movement, Trysten surged forward and threw his entire weight into the fat woman, slamming her into the ground. Then he instantly disappeared, leaving the two women gawking in surprise.

Suddenly, as if a channel had been switched, Rebecca found herself in a dark alley that smelled of rotten food and sewage. The smell was so strong that it burned her nostrils and made her eyes water. All around were bags of garbage, many partially open with trails of trash spewing from them. It looked as if she was standing between two tall apartment buildings that weren’t in much better condition than the brick building she’d just seen.

She heard rustling further down the alley and turned in time to see a small figure start to slowly make their way towards her. This time, she stood still, not bothering to hide, since she knew she couldn’t be seen.

When the figure finally came close enough to be distinguished, she felt her entire chest sink in with guilt and sadness.

It was Trysten, but he was almost unrecognizable. His clothes were torn, tattered, and absolutely covered in filth. Every inch of his exposed skin was so dirty that it was nearly black, and the shoes he wore flopped open in the front, revealing his horrendously stained feet. He was frighteningly skinny, so much so that his bones were protruding through his ratty clothes, and his walk was slow, as if he were in pain. His eyes were hollow, sunken in with large purple circles underneath--a clear sign of malnourishment. But worse than all that was the look
in
his eyes. It was more than despair, fear, or sadness. It was hopelessness. As if he no longer cared whether he lived or died.

Rebecca wanted so badly to reach out and grab him, pull him into a tight hug, and tell him that everything would be alright, but she knew she couldn’t. She’d finally figured it out. This wasn’t a dream--these were his memories. However, she still had no idea how she’d gotten here.

Without warning, the channel switched again. Rebecca took in a deep breath of fresh morning air. She was in a park this time. From the look of it, a small, inner-city one. The playground next to her seemed brand new, but there was already graffiti sprayed across half of it. The park appeared deserted, but she could hear voices coming from the far side, near the only tree in the entire square.

Rebecca walked toward it, following the voices, and discovered two young boys sitting and laughing at the base of its trunk. She recognized Trysten instantly, and felt relieved to see he looked much better than he did last time. His clothes were still tattered and covered in filth, but his body had more meat on it and there was a light in his eyes that hadn’t been there before.

She didn’t recognize the other boy. He appeared to be about Trysten’s age, though he was obviously a fair bit shorter. His clothes were as ratty as Trysten’s, and his dark colored skin was equally as dirty, but there was an innate happiness about him that she could almost feel. His animated, hazel eyes danced and his arms flailed about wildly as the boy told a story to Tyrsten, who was laughing so hard tears were starting to fall out the sides of his eyes. It was comforting to see Trysten happy again. The image of him near death in the alleyway was still all too clear in her mind.

“And she ran out of the house screaming like a lunatic, her fat ass chasing me all the way down the street.”

“I can’t believe you did that!” Trysten said as he wiped the tears away from his eyes, trying to catch his breath after laughing so hard.