The Tainted (The Tainted Series Book 1) (4 page)

“My, my, my, what do we have here?”

Rebecca turned to see a tall, green-uniformed figure towering over her. The man’s dark, malicious eyes concentrated on hers, and a satisfied smirk curled up the side of his mouth.

“Take her,” he barked.

Out of nowhere, a gloved hand pressed over her mouth and pulled her into darkness.

Rebecca flung herself up to a seated position in bed. Sweat dripped down her face and covered her body, causing her to rip her tangled covers away. She swung her legs over the side of her bed and leaned her head down between her knees, struggling to slow her panting lungs.

It had felt so real. She could still see the man’s evil face, feel his hatred for her. Rebecca gripped onto the sides of her head, willing the images to go away, to stop haunting her, but she couldn’t shake them.

In a rush, her door swung open and Ingrid came racing in, still in her nightgown.

“My dear, are you alright?” She raced over to the bed and sat down next to Rebecca. She placed a concerned hand on Rebecca’s back and began to rub it slowly.

Her head still hanging between her knees, Rebecca struggled to keep her panic at bay. Why was she like this? What was wrong with her?

“It’s ok honey, it’s alright. Just breathe,” Ingrid whispered, while continuing to rub Rebecca’s back.

Finally, Rebecca sat up. She could see the sun rising outside her window, as the world slowly came to life. “I’m sorry I woke you,” she whispered, not looking Ingrid in the face.

“Not to worry. I’m old and I don’t sleep much in the mornings anyway. I was just about to get up when I heard you screaming.”

“I was screaming?” Rebecca finally looked at Ingrid and it pained her to see the worry etched across the old woman’s face.

“Yes, but you’re alright now and that’s all that matters.” Ingrid offered her a smile, but Rebecca still couldn’t find the strength to return it.

“Come, I was just going to head downstairs to make scones for breakfast. Why don’t you help me?” Ingrid stood up and looked down at Rebecca.

She still felt sweaty and shaken from her dream, but Rebecca wanted nothing more than to forget it all. Standing up, she towered over little Ingrid and nodded.

By the time they were pulling the scones from the oven, Rebecca had been able to push aside the images from her dream. Ingrid had done her best to distract Rebecca, jovially talking about the garden and the plethora of vegetables they were soon to receive. It helped to speak of other things, to divert her attention, but Rebecca knew the dream was still there, haunting the back of her mind.

The moment the smell of fresh scones wafted out of the oven and began permeating the house, Thomas appeared at the kitchen door. “Scones? My favorite,” he said with a smile as he sat down in his chair at the table.

As they ate, Rebecca could tell that both Ingrid and Thomas were going out of their way to be happy and cheerful in an effort to calm her. She smiled and laughed at their jokes, doing her best to appear alright, but she knew there was only one thing that could truly calm her.

As soon as they finished eating, Rebecca pulled on her trainers, told them she’d be back before nightfall, and slipped out into the forest. Today she didn’t run like she usually did. Instead she walked slowly, working to clear her mind.

It was so peaceful amongst the trees. The world around her seemed to glow green as the light filtered in through the leaves. Birds called their songs from the branches above, and every once in a while a chipmunk would come racing across her path, cheeks bulging with nuts.

She was almost to her clearing when she heard a noise that made her freeze instantly. A loud crashing sound was coming from the woods to her left and was heading toward her at an alarming speed. Rebecca threw herself behind the closest tree trunk, trying to ignore how much this situation resembled her dream, and waited.

As the sound grew louder and louder, Rebecca’s curiosity got the better of her and she peaked her head around the side of the trunk just in time to see a giant figure come racing through trees, heading almost directly to where she was hiding. It wasn’t until the figure was less than 20 feet away that she recognized it as Maverick.

Rebecca almost threw herself out from behind the tree before she noticed something about him that held her back. His face looked panicked, almost frightened. Every once in a while he’d chance a look behind him as he ran, never slowing his fast pace. He sped right past her and darted into the trees on the other side of the game trail.

Rebecca felt stunned and confused, but it wasn’t long before she heard a new crashing sound coming from where Maverick had dashed through the trees only moments before. She looked toward the direction of the sound, searching desperately for any hint of who or what might be chasing him.

When the figure burst into view, Rebecca froze, terror gripping her body. It was a tall, slender man, in a green, slim-cut, military-style uniform. The man ran at an alarming pace, even faster than Maverick, and his face looked angry and determined as he pounded forward. Within a matter of seconds, he’d run straight past her and into the trees where Maverick had gone.

Rebecca remained motionless for a moment, not quite sure if she believed what her eyes had just seen. She was absolutely sure the uniform the man wore was identical to the ones she’d seen so many times in her dreams. But what did that mean? How could she have dreamt that?

A loud yell from the trees ahead interrupted her train of thought. It sounded like Maverick. He was in trouble.

She wasn’t sure why, but she had an impulse to run, to try and find him. Rebecca took off in the direction she had last seen him. She wasn’t sure what help she could offer Maverick, but she couldn’t just allow him to be harmed.

Rebecca stopped at the edge of her clearing. Maverick stood in the center, facing the uniformed man, his hands held up in closed fists. The uniformed man stood still, his own hands calmly hanging at his sides.

With a loud growl, Maverick threw his right fist straight at the man’s face.

In a swift movement that was almost too fast for Rebecca to see, the uniformed man swung his hands up and toward Maverick. As if in response to his movement, the wild grass grew instantly longer. Fluently, it weaved itself into two ropes, which tightly wrapped themselves around Maverick’s arms, wrenching them down to his sides.

Maverick struggled against his bonds, but no matter how hard he fought, he couldn’t break the grassy ropes’ grip.

Taking his time, the uniformed man pulled a small dagger from a sheath on his belt, and relishing the moment, held it in front of Maverick’s face, making sure he could see the polished blade.

A wave of panic washed over Rebecca, and before she realized what she was doing, she leapt into the clearing, yelling “Stop!”

The uniformed man started to swing his head around to look at her, but suddenly froze. It took a second, but Rebecca soon realized that she too had frozen solid--stopped in place, mid-run. It felt as if the world around her had come to an abrupt halt. She even seemed to be processing her thoughts far slower than normal.

To her great surprise, however, Maverick was still moving freely, completely unaffected by whatever was happening. She watched through her cemented eyes as he kicked out, catapulting the knife from the uniformed man’s hand. He bent down to one knee, allowing some slack on his hands, and caught the dagger by the hilt as it flipped through the air towards him. With two quick swipes, he cut away the grass ropes. Then he threw himself forward and plunged the blunt handle of the dagger into the side of his captor’s head.

As suddenly as everything had slowed, it now blurred back into action. Rebecca, bursting back into her full-out run, had to quickly slam on the breaks to avoid colliding with the collapsing body of the uniformed man.

Staring aghast at the motionless man in the grass, she took a quick step backward as she tried to come to grips with everything she’d just seen.

“Who…who is that?” Tearing her eyes away, Rebecca looked up at Maverick, her shock and confusion quickly turning into fear. “What was that? What just happened? You did it, didn’t you? You…you…” Her voice faded as she realized she had no idea how to describe what had happened.

Rebecca continued to slowly retreat backwards from Maverick as she spoke. Cautiously he began walking forward, which only caused her to pull back faster.

“I’m sorry,” he implored. “I didn’t mean for you to find out like this.”

“Find out?” Rebecca shook her head. By this time she was nearly to the tree line at the edge of the clearing. “Find out that you’re some kind of freak?”

“Rebecca, listen to me. I can explain this to you. I can explain all of this to you, including your dreams.”

Rebecca stopped immediately and stared at Maverick, more shocked than ever. “How do you know about that?”

Maverick took a few tentative steps closer to Rebecca, nearly catching up to her now. “I know because I’m like you.”

Rebecca’s face fell and her shock and confusion were instantly replaced with anger. She glared at Maverick, making no effort to hide her disgust. “You are nothing like me.”

Without another word, she spun on her heels and raced off into the trees as fast as she could. She didn’t care where she was going. She just wanted to get as far away from Maverick as she possibly could.

Rebecca was absolutely dreading first period on Monday morning, but to her great surprise Maverick never showed up. In fact, throughout the entire week Maverick never came to class, nor did she see him walking around the halls or anywhere on campus.

By the end of school Thursday, Rebecca was actually beginning to worry about what might have happened to him. She knew that one uniformed man had been after Maverick, which likely meant there were others. She didn’t know anything about these soldiers other than what she’d seen in the woods and in her dreams, but both experiences told her they were dangerous, extremely dangerous.

Something else, however, weighed even more heavily on her mind. Maverick had somehow known about her dreams. He’d told her he could explain them and, while she wasn’t sure she could trust him, a large part of her wanted, possibly needed, to hear what he knew.

She’d always had the dreams, but over the last six months they’d been growing steadily worse. Some nights, they were so intense they almost felt as though they had taken control of her body. She fought against them, ripping herself from sleep whenever the dreams grew too much for her, but it left her feeling hollow and torn. Now, it seemed, her dreams were occurring in the real world. There had to be some correlation between the uniformed men in her dreams and the one she’d seen the other day.

“You alright?” Emily’s voice shocked Rebecca back to reality. It took her a second to remember where she was.

“You’ve been staring motionless into your locker for the last five minutes…” Emily looked Rebecca over questioningly.

“I’m fine,” Rebecca closed her locker and lifted her book bag over her shoulder. “I was just making sure I wasn’t forgetting anything.”

“Uh huh…I’m sure,” Emily knew her friend well enough to spot the lie, but she didn’t push the matter any further.

The pair walked down the hallway and out to the parking lot in silence. It wasn’t until they’d both sat down and Emily started the car that she broached the subject again.

“You seen Maverick around at all this week? I haven’t seen him anywhere, and I mean the guys pretty much impossible to miss.”

“No, I haven’t.” Rebecca tried to hide the worry that crossed her face.

“I wonder if he moved away or something. It’s a bit strange isn’t it? I mean he’s going to have a hell of a lot of homework to catch up on if he keeps this up.”

Rebecca just nodded in agreement and continued to look out the window. Her brain was too busy with her own thoughts to make conversation, so she sat quietly while Emily continued to talk about goodness knows what.

By the time the car came to a stop in her driveway, Rebecca had made up her mind. Cutting off Emily midsentence, she thanked her for the ride and rushed out of the car. As the Geo pulled away, Rebecca threw her book bag onto the porch and set out at a sprint into the woods.

Leaping over fallen trees and weaving through the dense undergrowth, Rebecca only gained speed as she made her way through the forest. While she wasn’t sure how, she knew exactly where she needed to go.

With a final push, Rebecca burst through the tree line at the edge of her clearing and slowed herself to a stop about 10 feet away from a seated Maverick.

He smiled up at her but made no move to stand. “I was beginning to think you weren’t going to come.”

“Have you been waiting here for me this whole time?”

“No,” Maverick laughed, “I’m not that desperate. I’ve just been stopping by when I thought you might be here. It really is a beautiful place, so calm and relaxing.”

Rebecca suddenly felt very protective over her clearing. The thought of having someone else coming here made her uncomfortable.

“Anyway,” Maverick’s smile faded as his face grew serious, “will you listen to what I have to say now?”

“Yes, but…” Rebecca started, but Maverick raised a hand, cutting her off.

“There are no ‘buts’, either you’ll listen, or you won’t.”

After a long moment, Rebecca finally nodded and took a seat in the grass, though she made no effort to get closer to Maverick.

“Alright. What I have to say is going to upset you, and I won’t blame you if you choose not to believe it. But I need you to promise that you’ll listen to it, all of it. When I’m finished, feel free to ask me any questions or, if you so choose, you may leave and never speak of any of this again. Do we have a deal?”

Rebecca waited to answer. She searched Maverick’s eyes for a hint of deception, but found none. Whatever he was going to say, she could tell he believed it full heartedly.

“I promise,” She finally answered.

“I’m an orphan as well.”

Rebecca’s struggled to hide her shock. Not only did Maverick share something in common with her past, but somehow he’d known about her background.