No ordinary hero (Keepers of justice # 1) (16 page)

He stares at me from all over the room. From each corner. Smiling.

Stretch.

Pictures of Stretch.

The room is filled. Everyone is here, dressed in black, sitting with their heads down as Dad’s about to make his speech. The coffin is at the front of the room, closed. Flowers rest on top of it.

I can’t believe he’s gone. Can’t believe I didn’t see it coming, that I didn’t do anything to prevent it. He didn’t have to die—we’d be celebrating right now, partying because the Blades are done. But no. We sit here, mourning the death of a guy who didn’t deserve this.

Why hadn’t we thought things through? Why did I let him go? Why was he so determined to be the hero? Why, why, why?

Dad clears his throat. He’s at the podium near an enlarged picture of Stretch standing on an easel. I can’t look into his eyes, those
green eyes that less than twenty-four hours ago were filled with fear and dread. Did he know what was coming? Did he know those were his last minutes in this world?

“Last night, we lost someone very dear to us,” Dad says. Pauses. Looks around the room with eyes so sad they’d make even the happiest person want to crawl into a ball, hug his knees, and cry until there are no more tears left. “Andrew Mason—Stretch—died a hero.”

Furball, who’s sitting with the triplets in the row behind me, sobs loudly. Her friends wrap their arms around her quivering shoulders. Stretch’s adoptive parents are sitting in the row I’m at, crying. Stretch’s dad holds his wife against his chest as she drenches his suit with her tears. It feels like I’m drowning in a stormy ocean as I watch them, and I quickly turn away before my eyes fill. Stretch wouldn’t want any of us to cry over him. If he were here right now, he’d drop some kind of joke to make us all laugh so hard our stomachs would burst.

“Fourteen years ago, a baby was discovered on our doorstep,” Dad continues, his voice flat like he’s trying to hide his emotions. “This had never happened before. Why would someone abandon such a beautiful child? As I held the crying baby in my arms, I realized there was something about him. He wasn’t an ordinary human. He was special—one of us. His biological parents were afraid to love this child for who he was. I took him in. I vowed to care for the boy, to find him parents who would love him and nourish him and raise him to be the wonderful boy he grew up to be.”

Dad stops, takes in a gulp of air. His shoulders tremble. “Anna and David,” he addresses Stretch’s parents. “You have been fantastic parents to Andrew. You’ve raised him to be a courageous, honest, caring young man. You came to me for guidance and assistance, but it was the two of you who shaped him into the Andrew we loved and now miss. I know...” Dad’s voice chokes up. “I know he’s looking down at you now, proud to call himself your son.”

Dad’s gaze lowers. He stays like that for a little while. No one says a word. The only sounds in the room are sniffs.

Without meaning to, my eyes survey the room. Everyone is crying, except for me. Believe me, I want to. I just can’t. Maybe my tears have dried up from last night. I didn’t sleep. Just tossed and turned.

X still hasn’t showed up. I thought he’d be standing by the doorway, but it’s empty. Why won’t he come to his best friend’s funeral? Yeah it’s hard, probably one of the hardest things he’ll do in his life. But he should be here. I know I shouldn’t get mad right now, but I can’t help it. He’s not the only one suffering.

“Andrew always put a smile on my face,” Dad continues with a small smile, lifting his head to roam the audience. His eyes are wet. “Always an optimist. He gave us all hope, when we needed it, when we didn’t, when we thought we didn’t.” Dad’s smile disappears. “We won’t forget how he died—by trying to protect those he cared about.” His eyes land on me. “Andrew was a good friend, the best friend to my son, to everyone. We mourn him now, we’ll mourn him forever. He didn’t die in vain—he died the hero he was born to be. We sit here together, united against those who wish to hurt us. His death doesn’t weaken us. It strengthens us. Yes, we have lost, but we have also won. We stand proud.

“Andrew will always be in our hearts. In this Tower. Wherever we go. His portrait.” He points to the picture near him. “Will hang in the
foyer, to give us hope, encouragement. Andrew, we will always remember you and your courage. Rest in peace.”

***

The speeches are done. Dad, Mr. and Mrs. Mason, and some other Elites, have gone to the cemetery to bury the body. I’m still sitting in my spot, staring at the floor, trying not to think or cry. Dad asked me if I wanted to speak after the Masons. I told him no, because I didn’t know what to say. I don’t think it’s possible to summarize what Stretch meant to me in just two hundred words. We grew up together, were pretty much like brothers. And no words can describe that.

Before Stretch’s parents left, they came over to me to thank me for being such a good friend to their son. We hugged, and I couldn’t stop apologizing for all the trouble I caused. They told me not to worry about it and not to feel guilty. I nodded, though I know I’ll feel guilty for the rest of my life.

There’s some noise from the row behind me. Furball and the triplets are huddled together, weeping. “I didn’t get a chance to tell him how I feel!” Furball moans, her face buried in Earth Goddess’s shoulder. She pats Furball’s head, biting her lip. “Why didn’t I
tell
him?”

“It’s okay,”
H
2
O murmurs.

“It’s not. I had so many opportunities! I’m so stupid.”

“Sh...”

“And I have
no
idea if he liked me back.”

I can’t stand her crying like that. Can’t hold it all in. I’m going to completely lose it. I need to tell her the truth. So I turn around and say, “Kelly, Stretch was in love with you. You’re all he thought about and spoke about. He just never had the nerve to ask you out.”

“Kale!” Kelly cries, jumps to her feet and hugs me over the back of my chair. “I’m so sorry. He was your best friend!” She squeezes me tight. “I’m so selfish crying here when you’re hurting ten times more than me.”

“No, no. Don’t think like that,” I tell her. “He was special to all of us. In different ways.”

Furball nods, sniffing. Then she gives me one more squeeze before going back to her friends. I don’t know how many details they know about the death. And I don’t want to be the one to tell them. Maybe it’s best they don’t know.

Where’s X? I still haven’t seen him. I check behind the door.
The halls. Nothing. He’s not here. Why couldn’t he be there for Stretch one last time?

I take the elevator up to X’s room and thump on his door. It swings open. The place is in chaos. Papers, posters, CDs, notebooks, and his laptop clutter the floor. His mattress is halfway off the bed, pillow slashed, the feathers scattered. The dresser is smashed, the drawers hanging open, his clothes torn and crumpled.

X sits in the corner behind his broken bed. The Rubik’s cube is in his hand. His hair hides his face, and his jeans and T-shirt are rumpled like he slept in them on the floor. I step inside. “Hey.”

He doesn’t look at me.

“Why weren’t you there?” I ask.

“Get out,” he mutters.

I don’t get out. I move closer until I’m standing near the mattress, right in front of him. He’s got some serious explaining to do. “You couldn’t pay your respects? You think it was easy for me to go to his funeral?”

His eyes flash up to me. “Get. The. Hell. Out. Of. My. Room.”

“You think you’re the only one in pain? You think I was able to sit there with his face smiling all around me while everyone talked about what a great person he was?”

“I’m warning you.”

“Sometimes you can be so selfish, man.”

X leaps to his feet, dropping the Rubik’s cube, and shoves me. I fall back, but gather myself and crash into him. We’re punching and pulling. X’s fist pummels my stomach. I go for his jaw. He gets my lip. I feel and taste the blood drip into my mouth, but that doesn’t stop me. I push X against the wall, but he’s much stronger, and flips us around so it’s me with my back on the wall. He strikes my left eye.

Gasping for breath, I stop and slide down to the floor. X, breathing heavily, slides down too. We sit there against the wall, not saying a word. I feel my eyes glass over and I wipe them with my sleeve. My lip’s throbbing. Maybe I deserved it. For sending Stretch to his grave. I should have stood up to him, put my foot down and told him there was no way he was going to put his life at risk. I’m so mad at myself. At X, Dad, Lightning, Scar. The world.

“I was there,” X says in a low, hoarse voice. He clears his throat. “Saw it all from right here. I would never miss it.”

I turn to him. His gaze is on the floor. Eyes are a little wet. “Sorry,” I say. “For going off on you like that.”

X doesn’t say anything.

Silence.

“Why did I let him do it, Kale?” X whispers. I shake my head because I can’t talk. X gets up and slams his fist in the wall. Curses. “He’s dead because of me.”

I swallow back my tears. “Not just you. Both of us.”

“No.” He hits the wall again. “Me. I pushed him. I wasn’t looking out for him.” Another punch. “I didn
’t see Lightning there. I don’t...I don’t know why.” He kicks the wall. “I guess I was too excited for him to get the key. I don’t...” He covers his face, his shoulders trembling.

I get up and touch his shoulder. “We’re equally responsible.”

“No. You were right. We should have listened to you. He hesitated, but I pushed him.”

“I should have stopped him,” I say. “I was a coward.”

X uncovers his eyes and wipes them. “I’ve done a lot of wrong things in my life. Made many mistakes. This is the biggest one.”
I’ll never forgive myself.

His last sentence rings in my head. Or did he say that out loud? I don’t know. Something’s weird. My head’s been hurting and playing tricks on me all day. I’ve been hearing all these noises and sounds.

“I’ll never forgive myself, either,” I tell him. Never. I can’t. I’ll live with this guilt for the rest of my life.

We sink back down to the floor, staring at nothing. After a few minutes, I go to my room and climb into bed.

I’m at the hospital now, my hand tightly clutching Lindsay’s as I sit in a chair near her bed. Healer told me she woke up a couple of times throughout the night but was so out of it she fell right back to sleep. We’re not sure how she’ll react once she comes to, so that’s why I haven’t left her side other than to attend the funeral and to sleep. I don’t want her to wake up in a room full of strangers.

There aren’t any blemishes on her skin. I’m not
sure if Healer got rid of them or they went away on their own.

Stretch never leaves my head.
As I rub Lindsay’s hand, I can’t stop the memories from flooding in. Like when Stretch and I were five and snuck into the Sim Room while everyone else was asleep. The robots and simulations were off, and we ran around the large area playing tag. Or the time we broke into the security room and fooled around with the cameras, erasing all the footage. Dad was pissed. He grounded us for an entire month.

But that didn’t stop us. Nothing did.

When X came into the Tower, Stretch was terrified of him. We heard rumors about him, and Stretch was convinced he was a psycho. Of course he wasn’t. We kept our distance, because he walked around with this sour attitude, like he wanted everyone to get out of his way and leave him alone. A few months later, Stretch and I were playing video games in the Game Room. X was there, sitting all alone on the couch, watching us. Stretch, mustering up all his courage, asked X if he wanted to play with us. Ever since then, we became best friends.

And now
only two of us are left.

Lindsay’s fingers move.
I jump to my feet and search her face. Her eyes flutter a bit until they focus on me. I give her a big smile, the biggest one I can muster, trying to push all thoughts of Stretch out of my head.

“Billy?” she asks in a dazed voice.

“Hey, Lindsay.” I stroke her cheek. “How are you feeling?”

She studies the room, and I guess the events that happened two days ago all come back to her. “Where am I?” she asks.

“At the Keepers of Justice residence,” a voice says from behind me. Dad. He’s not wearing his mask. Lindsay stares at him.

“Who are you?” Her eyes dart to
me. I give her a reassuring smile. I’m not sure how to handle this situation, so I’m glad Dad’s here to help.

“Samson Zenith.”

Her eyes go wide. I know what’s going through her head:
the
Samson Zenith?

“And you know my son, Kale.” He rests his
hands on my shoulders. “But you know him better as Billy Jack.”

She looks from me to Dad, then back at me. “Kale Zenith?”

My hand hasn’t left hers once. Dad tells me to sit down and pulls over another chair for himself. Lindsay watches us warily and tries to free her hand from mine, but I squeeze tighter. She looks confused. Betrayed. That’s what hurts most, the thing I feared ever since I started having feelings for her—how she’d react when she found out the truth.

Dad tells her everything, goes into
each detail so she could understand it all, focusing a lot on how I felt about her, how conflicted I’ve been all these days because I couldn’t tell her the truth. Lindsay’s attention has been basically on Dad, but moved to mine when our friendship/relationship came up. I study her closely to see if she believes him, that she believes I really love her and didn’t pretend to so she wouldn’t blow up the world. All I see is betrayal.

I’m about to open my mouth to tell her how much I love her, but
Dad gently pushes me back. He told me earlier not to interrupt him, but Lindsay needs to know. She
needs
to.

“
You are one of us now,” Dad tells her. “You have an ability. With time, you’ll learn to control it and use it to better protect yourself and the world. Here, you’re with family. I know how much that means to you, to be part of a family. If you choose to live here with us, you’ll always have a home. I hope you choose to stay.”

She’s quiet. Gaze goes from
Dad to me. “This is too much.”

“I
understand. Take as much time as you need to think things through, and please, you are welcome to ask questions.” He pats my hand. “Kale cares very deeply about you, Lindsay. If you ever doubt his love for you, think about one thing: Kale didn’t only save the world. He saved you.” He pats my hand again. “I will leave you two alone. Healer will come in soon to check on you, Lindsay.”

As
soon as Dad’s gone, the room goes quiet. Cold. I now realize that I’m not holding Lindsay’s hand anymore. Guess it somehow escaped mine during the conversation. I get up and sit near her on the bed. “Lindsay?”

Her eyes narrow at me. “Kale Zenith?”

I shrug and laugh lightly. “Yeah, I have no idea what they were thinking when they named me.” But Lindsay doesn’t crack a smile. Man, this is not going well. Will she forgive me? What if she doesn’t?

“I can’t believe this,” she says, rolling her eyes. “The one guy I fall for end
s up being nothing more than a fake.”

“No, I—”

“This was all an assignment for you. I was just an assignment.”

But it’s more than that! She’s more than that. I want her to be my girlfriend. For real.

“Yeah you’re right,” I say. “It was just an assignment, at least in the beginning. But as I got to know you, I started to have strong feelings for you. I really...well, heck, I really love you.”

She snorts. “More lies.”

“No, I swear it’s the truth.”

She pulls the cover up to her chin,
and her eyes get sad. “You know how hard it is for me to trust people. I’ve
told
you how hard it is. And all along you were lying to me.”

This can’t be happening! Lindsay’s sliding through my fingers. I almost lost her, I can’t let this happen.
“Lindsay—”

“I get it
, Billy—I mean,
Kale
. I get that you’re a superhero and that they assigned you to me. And you were following orders. I get it, okay?” She shakes her head slowly, like she’s having a conversation with herself in her head. “I have feelings for you. Strong feelings. But I don’t know what to think now. I’ve been through so much and I don’t even know if I know the real you.”

“But you do know the real me. All along I’ve been myself, except I didn’t tell you I was a superhero. Please don’t break up with me. I want to be with you. You have to believe me.”

She shakes her head, but her eyes soften. “I do believe you. I see how much you care. But you know how hard it is for me. I’m sorry, I can’t be with you.”

It f
eels like she stabbed me in the heart. I want to yell, kick, scream. But she’s right. I had the right intentions and fell in love with her, but I did lose her trust. I don’t know if I’ll ever gain it back.

“You’ll stay here, won’t you?” I ask.

She shrugs. “I guess. I have nowhere else to go.”

“
You’ll love it here, Linds. Being with people who get us, where you don’t have to hide who you really are.” I want to hug her, kiss her. It hurts so much that I can’t.

“I don’t have a power,” she says.

I take her hand and put her palm up on mine. “Concentrate. You’ll see that you do.”

She raises an eyebrow at me. Then a small, reddish flame appears in her palm. Her
entire face lights up in wonder and excitement.

“As long as you work on keeping your emotions positive, nothing like what happened on that roof will ever happen again. I know you’re pissed at me, and hurt
, but it’s very important that you stay positive. Like my dad told you, we’re all here for you.”

She shrugs. “Okay.”

“And you’ll have to see the shrink, but he’s pretty cool.”

She doesn’t say anything. I wish it
could be like old times, where we laugh and have fun together. But it won’t be, no matter how much I try.

“Are you okay?” I ask.

She nods.

“I’m so glad to hear that.”

It gets quiet.

“Lindsay, I’m really sorry. I wish I
could—”

“I’m tired.”

That’s my cue to leave. “Okay, I’ll let you rest,” I tell her. She nods and lies down, shutting her eyes. I watch her for a bit and again, I wish I could give her a hug. I miss her a lot, and I don’t know how I’ll live in the Tower with her and not be able to hold her hand or kiss her, but Lindsay’s been through a hell of a lot, and I need to put her feelings above my own.

I meet Dad outside as Healer slip
s into her room. “How is she?” he asks.

“Okay,” I say.

Dad sees my face, I guess, because he hugs me. “She’ll forgive you, Kale. Give her time. Be a friend to her now, because that’s what she needs, and in time she’ll trust you again.” He kisses the top of my head.

I’m not so sure. “Thanks, Dad.”

We pull out of the hug. “You have a visitor in my office,” he says.

“Who is it?”

“Scar.”

“I’m not talking to him.”

“Kale.”

“He ruined everything
.”

“Kale,” Dad says.

He continues to talk, but I can’t hear them because my head starts pounding. It feels like static is in there and my ears ring like someone smacked a cymbal into the side of my head. I rub my temples and the pain lessens.

“Kale? Are you all right?”

My eyes snap to Dad. “What?”

“I said Scar has something important he needs to explain to you.”

“No. Something’s wrong with my head. Like, I hear this
buzz buzz
sound. And it’s ringing.”

Dad’s eyebrows furrow. He stares at me. Then his forehead creases with worry.

“Never mind,” I quickly say. “I’ll go talk to Scar.”

When I get to Dad’s office and see Scar sitting at Dad’s desk, I jump at him and wrap my hands around his neck. “What are you doing here? You have the nerve to show your face here after everything you’ve done? My best friend is dead because of you, you bastard!”

What the hell? Why doesn’t he stop me from killing him? He glances down at my hands.
Go ahead
.
Kill me before I have the chance to explain
.

There’s nothing to explain!
my mind shouts.
You lead us into a trap, and because of that, Stretch is dead.
My fingers tighten around his neck. He just sits there calmly.

“Kale,” Dad’s voice says from the doorway. “Let him go. He did nothing wrong.”

“He killed Stretch,” I say through clenched teeth.

Perhaps some therapy for the boy?
Scar tells Dad.

Dad walks over to us and pries my hands off Scar’s neck. “Sit down, Kale. Let Scar explain it all.”

“No.”

“Kale. Listen to what Scar has to say.”

“Fine.” I sit down. Dad takes the chair on Scar’s left. He nods for Scar to begin.

As you are aware, my home was invaded. We fled, for we feared for our lives
.

I grit my teeth. Sure. He only cares about his life and his family’s life. Selfish bastard.

Penetrating Lightning’s shield and learning the Blades’ plans wasn’t enough for me,
Scar continues.
Once I discovered that Vlayne, my arch nemesis, had been the telepath protecting Lightning’s mind, I wished to enter her thoughts, to find information. To destroy her once and for all. But there was a problem. I thought I masked myself well, but I was wrong. Vlayne sensed me inside her head. She learned where I was hiding and that I had protected your minds. I knew she would come after my family. Thus we escaped. The safety of my family comes first and foremost. That is why I retracted my shield on your minds and severed all ties with you.

I look at Dad. He’s sitting there, composed, his hands clasped together. I guess he knows all about Scar protecting our minds.

No, you didn’t
, I say.
You were the one who led us to the Blades’ place
.
You told us their address.

Scar shakes his head.
It was not me
, he says.
Because I had retracted my shield, your minds were vulnerable. Vlayne assumed my voice and lured you to her whereabouts. I was not involved
.

You left my son and his friends with no protection
, Dad says, his jaw clenched.
Why didn’t you tell them you lifted your shield?
He’s trying to keep calm, but I can see the rage in his eyes. If Scar would have told us that he lifted his shield, we would have known not to trust Vlayne pretending to be Scar. We wouldn’t have gone after the Blades.

Stretch would still be here.

I apologize
, Scar says.

That’s all? He thinks he can say those two words, and everything will be okay? I shoot to my feet. “Bastard!”