Untouched (3 page)

Kiernan froze.
“Anymore?”

“It’s not like that,” Dez said. “Kale grew up at Denazen—but not like you’re thinking. I told you back at the house; he was held there. Captive. They used his ability to hurt people. It’s what they’ll do to you if they get the chance.”

“I’m a human chameleon. What could they possibly use me for?”

“Don’t,” I said. The word came out a bit harsher than I’d intended, but if she knew what she was asking… “Don’t ask. Don’t even entertain the thought. Trust me when I tell you, you do not want to know.”

“Oookay then,” Kiernan said. After a moment, she pointed to a large structure that looked a lot like a boat. “How about the Pirate Ship? I love that ride.”

The next thing I knew, Dez was tugging me forward, toward the back of a short line.

“Ahoy!” the man at the end of the line greeted us. “Arrg! Ye be ready to set sail?”

Kiernan stomped her foot and saluted the strangely dressed man. I hoped I wouldn’t be expected to do the same.

We were herded forward and shown to seats. There were four people per row. Kiernan was seated behind us, and since we were the last two in line, we were given the last seat alone. Finally. I had Dez to myself.

As if able to read my mind, Dez leaned close and whispered, “I know this isn’t exactly what we had in mind…”

I pulled off my right glove and took her hand. “It’s okay. This girl needs our help.” I leaned close and nuzzled the side of her neck. “And I have you to myself right now, don’t I?”

“You do. Now all we need for everything to be perfect is for someone to turn off that annoying music.” She covered her ears, grinning.

She laughed and said something else as I pulled the glove back on, but I didn’t catch it. A blur in the crowd beyond the ride had my attention. It was there and gone in the blink of an eye, and the same uneasy feeling I’d had at Kiernan’s house was back. I pulled away and surveyed the area. Kiernan was in front of us, lost in conversation with the three boys she was seated next to. In front of her was a mother and what I assumed to be her three small children. One was screaming and pulling the other’s hair, while the third simply sat there, arms folded and breath held.

When I didn’t see anything out of the ordinary on the ride with us, I turned my attention back to the lot beyond. The crowd had thinned in front of the ride, and all I could see was an elderly couple on the bench directly across from us; a group of kids, younger than we were; and a man.

The man.

His back was turned so I couldn’t see his face, but his meticulous black suit and silver white hair made the breath catch like tar in my throat. I squeezed my eyes closed and took a deep breath. When I opened them again, the man was gone.

“What’s wrong?” I heard Dez whisper.

“I—sorry. There’s a lot to see here. I was just overwhelmed for a moment.” A lie. Something I didn’t do—not with Dez. But what could I say? That I thought I’d seen… No. What I thought I’d seen was impossible. Denazen was desperate to get me back and to get his hands on Dez, but there were some lines even he wouldn’t cross.

“I hope it was a fun kind of overwhelmed.” She laughed.

I kissed her. Warm skin. Soft lips. Rushing pulse. Euphoria in its simplest form. Every inch of me was alive when I touched her. It was like I walked through my life in a haze, only waking when we were close—when she set my senses on fire and made my heart pump faster.

She pulled away a few inches to look at me. Other people’s scrutiny sometimes made me uncomfortable, reminding me of my days at Denazen. How Cross would parade agents and new Residents past me like I was some kind of exhibit. Not Dez, though. The spark I saw each time our eyes met made me feel like I could do anything.
Be
anything. All I wanted in that moment was to drag her closer and kiss her some more.

But she pulled back and let out a loud hoot. “Better hold on!”

The wind kicked up, and for a moment I thought it was getting ready to storm, but then I realized it wasn’t the wind that was moving—it was us. And it was amazing…

I tried to sit up, but whatever it was that had broken our fall was making movement difficult. Dez had dragged me up a long set of stairs for a ride called The Cyclownian Slide. Once at the top, the man—also wearing an annoyingly colorful suit—made us sit. Dez wrapped her arms and legs around me—that had been the best part—and suddenly we were moving. Gliding downward along a smooth, narrow surface. Smooth but not level. We dipped low, then to the right and left. At one point, we’d been moving so fast, I was sure we’d fly over the edge. When we landed, it wasn’t on solid ground like I would have expected, but in a pile of…spheres. Colorful ones.

I picked one up, turning it over in my hand several times. “What are these things?”

“They’re…” Dez was having a problem maneuvering herself through the stuff. Each time she tried to stand, the spheres would hamper her balance and she would topple sideways. Why would they put these things at the bottom knowing people came down here? “…balls. The slide empties into a ball pit.”

“A
ball pit
?”

A familiar hoot, faint at first, then louder, filled the air as Kiernan appeared. She landed in the balls beside us, screaming and waving her arms in a frantic motion. At first, I panicked, thinking something was wrong, but then I realized it was just excitement. She was excited. To be rolling around in colorful balls.

Dez tried—and failed—to climb to her feet again, waving both arms and legs in an attempt to struggle upright while laughing hysterically. “Yeah. You remember. Like the one we saw when we spoke to—umf—Katy Macnamara. That Six in Fenfeild?”

Our second stop had been to warn a Six with the ability to speak with animals. We found her working at an odd eating establishment whose spokesperson was a rodent with a hat and shirt. On our way out, we observed children playing in what resembled an oversize tub full of colorful plastic balls. The kids bounced and laughed and admittedly I’d felt a little jealous. It had looked like so much fun.

What
had I been thinking?

I pushed my foot down, trying to find the floor. After several tries, it finally hit solid ground. “You said this place was supposed to be fun, but I’m not sure that’s completely accurate.”

She laughed. “Just trust me on it. It’s cooler than it looks.” She was finally wading successfully through the sea of spheres.

Kiernan came up beside us. She tossed one of the balls in the air, then let it fall to the floor. “Not a fan of the ball pit, huh?”

Dez laughed again. The sound was enough to make me forget about my irritation with the impossible-to-maneuver spheres. “He’s not a ball pit kind of guy.”

Kiernan waggled her eyebrows. “Well, tell me. What kind of guy
are
you? What’s your idea of
fun
?”

I thought about it for a minute. No one had ever asked me that question. What kind of guy was I? My idea of fun was Dez. My eyes found hers. Spending time with her, holding her…kissing her. Just being close to her. These were the things I enjoyed. The things that made me feel most alive. I believed without a doubt that my heart began to truly beat the day I met her.

She cleared her throat and looked away, blushing. It took a moment for me to realize why. She’d been thinking of kissing. I’d told her just last week kissing her was my second favorite thing to do. The first—well, she told me that was something we should keep between us. I didn’t understand why exactly. Everyone should know about something so amazing, but I took her word on it. She knew the ins and outs of society far better than I did. Probably better than I ever would.

“Something with a bit of a challenge,” Dez said. “Oh, maybe a table game. A first-person shooter or something?”

“No way. I’ve got just the thing!” Kiernan hopped from the pit as a pair of screaming children came cascading down the slide. “Follow me.”

Ten minutes later, we’d walked across the park—passing more of what Dez called
mandatory eats
. By the time we arrived at our destination, I’d eaten two corn dogs and something called fried ice cream. Dez said she was impressed because no one she knew could stomach more than one corn dog. I took this as something to be proud of, promptly informing the man we bought a soda from. He didn’t seem overly impressed, though. In fact, he apologized and then, for some reason, directed me to the bathrooms.

We stopped in front of a small crowd gathered around a large red and yellow wall. They were cheering and yelling as two men struggled up a thick-knotted rope. The first made it to the top, jumped down, and proceeded to drop to his belly and crawl through a plastic tube. When he reached the end, he hopped onto a narrow beam hovering over murky-looking water.

The second man was still trying to climb the wall.

“What’s this?”

Kiernan laughed. “This is the Podunk version of
American Gladiator
. Jeeper’s Jungle. It’s a guy thing.”

Other than the fact that it was a guy thing—which I assumed meant I should do it if I wanted to fit in—it looked fun. Watching as the first man crossed the finish line, my eyes traveled back over the course. I saw at least ten ways he could have cut his time in half.

“Okay,” I said, stepping forward.

Dez’s nose wrinkled in confusion. “Okay, what?”

“Okay. I’m going to do it.”

“The obstacle course?”

“Of course.”

“Why?”

“Kiernan said it was a guy thing…”

Her confusion melted into a smile. “Another expression. She just meant most girls find it mindless, and yet for some reason, the guys seem to love it.”

“Oh… Well, what do you think?”

“Me? I think it looks awesome.”

“Okay, then,” I repeated. She thought it looked awesome. That was a good thing. And Kiernan said it’s what normal guys did. I wanted that. If not for myself, then for Dez. I wanted to give her normal—at least a little of it. “I’d like to try it.”

“Woo-hoo!” Kiernan yelled, waving her fist in the air. “We got a contender!”

They showed me to the wall where a man in a colorful suit—he must have borrowed his clothing from the Statue Man, too—was standing. He explained the rules. Simply get through the course as fast as you can, making sure to hit all the stations. He also handed me a whistle, saying it was in case I got into trouble. I wasn’t sure what kind of trouble I could get into, but I tucked it away just in case. It never hurt to be prepared.

I was racing against the winner of the last race.

“On your mark…” the man in the yellow suit said.

The previous winner stepped up to the rope. I stayed several feet back.

“Get set…”

The other man grabbed the rope, tugging several times before turning to glare at me. I had a feeling he was trying to be intimidating, but really, he simply looked like he had to use the restroom.

“Go!”

I ran at the wall, leaping and placing my right foot against it. The shoes Dez had bought for me—Vans, she called them—were an excellent source of traction. I was able to scale the wall with ease, grabbing the rope at the top for the added momentum to swing myself over the edge.

From the corner of my eye, I saw a familiar form and a flash of white. Twisting as I neared the tube opening, I glanced out over the crowd but saw nothing. Paranoia. That’s all. When things seemed to be going well—when I felt most happy—that’s when it crept in. Surely something had to be on the verge of going wrong, because someone like me did not deserve this…

I pushed it aside. Through the tube and onto the thin wooden beam. I sprinted forward and across the beam without slowing. From the crowd, I could hear Dez’s voice cheering me on. It pushed my silly paranoia to the back of my mind and urged me forward.

I could see the end of the course. Seven feet. Ten tops. Screams of encouragement drifted from the crowd and it was hard not to smile. Me. They were cheering for me.

The energy of the crowd was intoxicating. So much so that I almost missed the flash of white on the edge of the crowd. I was sure this time it wasn’t simply my imagination. I’d seen it. I wasn’t sure what
it
was, but I’d seen it. I slowed, coming to a stop a few feet from the painted line on the ground that said
Finish
. Frantic, I scanned the crowd but saw nothing on first pass. On the second, however, something caught my eye.

Someone.

“Hurry!” Dez called. “Cross the finish line!”

A quick look over my shoulder, and I saw the other man, huffing and puffing—and a shade much redder than before—lumbering toward me. I took three steps and crossed the finish line to a chorus of cheers and excited screams.

From the right, I could see Dez and Kiernan making their way toward me. Instead of circling to meet them, I passed through the exit and crossed back to the waiting area where I’d seen it. Seen him. It had been a man—that I was sure of. Something on the edge of my mind tugged at a memory. Something that didn’t want to be uncovered.

I turned around just in time for Dez to collided with me, wrapping her arms around my neck and planting tiny kisses up and down the side of my face. I encircled her waist, lifting her feet from the ground, and twirled her once. “I did okay?”

“Okay?” Kiernan breathed. “I’ve never seen anyone move like that! I think I’m in love…”

I squeezed Dez once more, then set her down. I didn’t want to hurt the girl’s feelings, but she needed to know the truth. “I’m sorry…I love Dez.”

Dez laughed and took my hand.

“You—huh?” Blinking several times, she shrugged and waved us forward. “Whatever. Come on. Let’s go check on the Jipsey.”

…

“This is Madame Jewel,” Kiernan said, stepping into the room.

She greeted the old woman—who reminded me a lot of Ginger, my grandmother—with a hug.

“She’s been here forever. Used to work with my mom.”

Jewel gestured to the two seats across from her and sank down into her own. “You’re here for a reading?”