Superluminary Read online

  She focused all of her efforts on shifting her concentration to the here and now, pushing the barrage of sensations aside in order to absorb what was happening around her. Because her wobbly limbs were so sluggish when she struggled to get up, she only managed to lift her head enough to see Helen and Ryan, a good twenty feet ahead. They stopped on the sidewalk while looking back at her.

  Looking in the wrong direction.

  As a black Mercedes was careening around the corner, Chris opened her mouth to shout a warning. She only managed to force garbled noise from her throat so she gritted her teeth and focused on moving ahead. To crawl if she had to.

  But when she finally changed position, her momentum defied reality. It surged, carrying her across the twenty feet of sidewalk and separating her from Helen in the blink of an eye.

  What the … Chris thought, flabbergasted by the speed of her movement. She couldn’t tell whether she was hallucinating or not, but Helen’s widening eyes told her that she wasn’t imagining it.

  The screech of tires finally pulled Helen and Ryan’s attention to the oncoming vehicle. Helen’s milkshake dropped to the ground while she and her boyfriend stood frozen, too startled to react.

  At the same time, Chris’s consciousness filled with feedback from senses that weren’t her own. She made a frantic attempt to process them all: the driver’s slow reactions to his own vehicle, Helen’s heartbeat pounding in her chest, the sound of the roaring car engine less than ten feet away.

  Just before that final explosion of flesh and material, Chris lost herself in a burst of energy with her at the center when the car collided with that energy in a shuddering burst of force. Pieces of flesh and car flew through the air in a momentary slow-motion, defying physics and logic.

  The deafening impact shocked Chris when she realized it had barely jolted her body. Some unknown force absorbed the brunt of the collision when the burst of energy extended around her, tapping into her essence to protect her. And not only her. It reached farther somehow from her to Ryan, and maybe Helen. Chris couldn’t tell for sure because too much happened at once to grasp it all.

  When she regained control of herself, she saw how two energy spheres—one around her and another around Ryan—stood out like transparent shields, warding off crash-induced debris and grime. There were thousands of small shards of glass and metal, littering the ground in a three-foot radius around them. Trailing rivulets of amber and black fluids coursed around their feet, also stopping an arm’s length away. The car wreckage fenced them in on two sides, as though it had been bent around a telephone pole that didn’t exist. A lifeless arm was dangling from the shattered driver’s side window.

  Chris failed to piece together exactly what had happened, or why, or how. Still, she instinctively felt that she’d done … this. Whatever this was.

  She looked over at Ryan. Suspicious amounts of a wine-colored substance were suspended in the air, splattered over the far side of the energy sphere surrounding him, but he didn’t look hurt underneath it. He stared down at the sidewalk at a mangled, bloody doll wrapped in something which looked like the color of Helen’s clothes. His features were so devoid of expression that he barely looked alive.

  Chris sucked in a gasping breath. She was aware of the broken body that had been

  her sister

  a person just moments ago, but she couldn’t look too closely. If she did, she’d scream. She focused instead on a small section of sidewalk a few feet away from the carnage, where a silver Harvard pendant lay alongside its broken chain. The little coat of arms was proudly displaying its message of truth amid a backdrop of horror.

  After what felt like an eternity, but was only seconds, she ripped her gaze away. She wanted to say something, an apology, an explanation, a question—anything—but she only managed to force a ragged sob from her throat.

  She turned to face Ryan, outstretching her hand so she almost touched his arm. Somewhere in her mind she was aware that she could dismiss the energy field, but she didn’t want him to get all that blood and grime on him when the sphere collapsed.

  “Ryan? Are you okay?” Her voice sounded small in her own ears.

  He didn’t respond. She was about to repeat her question when his body folded in on itself and he dropped to his knees. Then he was crouching beside the bloodied doll, rocking back and forth. His face was twisted into a grimace of black despair, and he looked so unlike the friend she knew that the sight of it cut deeper than anything else. She wished she could have shut out the heartrending moan that escaped from his throat.

  “Ryan? I’m … I’m … sorry. So sorry. I’ll make it … good. I’ll make it be okay,” she stammered, barely recognizing her own voice. “Ryan? Say something, please.” Her hand was still outstretched in the air, reaching out for his forgiveness.

  Some cars were stopped in the road now, their doors flung open as concerned drivers stood in the street, cellphones in hand. A number of pedestrians clustered around the parking lot entrance, staring at the wreckage with blank faces.

  After what felt like an eternity, Ryan looked up. “What did you do? She’s your sister!” His voice broke on the last word, so raw and ragged that it was barely comprehensible. His reaction hit her with the force of a sledgehammer. His eyes were full of confused agony as they fixed on hers.

  Chris didn’t have a response. What could she say when she couldn’t remember what she had done and when none of the things she remembered made any sense? “I’m sorry,” was all she could manage.

  His next words sounded lost and far away. “So you’re one of them now.”

  She still didn’t know what to say. A police siren whined in the distance, condemning her in its own way. Her hand dropped from the air, and she wrapped her arms around herself instead. Whatever just happened, it didn’t look good for her. Even if the Covenant didn’t show up to nuke her out of existence, her parents would do something along those lines. Her mother was only just beginning to overcome the emotional and mental collapse that she suffered after Dylan’s sudden death.

  Another death in the family Chris hadn’t been able to prevent.

  Now their beloved Helen was gone, too. For a moment Chris thought about sitting down on the pavement to wait for the Covenant to sort her out however they wanted. She knew if she was going to have any sort of chance to make amends with anyone, she had to get away, though. She had to buy some time to figure out what she could do so she wouldn’t feel like some sort of monster.

  Most of all, she had to get away before Ryan gave her another one of those sad looks.

  Chris wheeled around and broke into a run, a superhuman flash of movement along the darkened stretch of road.

  1.2 Mascot

  Averton Beach, Averton, Washington, USA

  Saturday, the 26th of May, 2012

  9:42 p.m.

  When Chris fled the scene of the car wreck, she never had a specific destination in mind. She just ran. Eventually her intense speed slowed to normal jogging pace, and she found herself at the beach, kicking up grass and sand with each long stride.

  Night had long since fallen. The sea had turned black, except for the shimmering silver glow where it reflected the moonlight. The wind that stirred the waves was cold enough to discourage most people from taking a stroll on the beach. The only other people in sight were in a group of four farther up the shore.

  Chris came to a halt on the sand and rubbed the tears from her eyes. She needed a moment of peace before the Covenant showed up, or the police, or, in the worst case scenario, her parents.

  Breathing hard from her run, she trudged across the sand to Founder’s Rock, a looming wall of jagged stone which was one of Averton’s defining landmarks. The sheer size and incline of the rock formation often attracted amateur climbers, but Chris wanted to disappear inside a small crevice she knew about from her childhood. She headed for the narrow opening, which was easy to miss behind a series of boulders.

  Chris squeezed herself into the crevice, settling on t
he damp coarse sand, leaning to rest her cheek against the rock. It felt soothing and cool against her sweaty skin. More than that, it provided her with something solid, an anchor to hold on to while her thoughts whirled around in loops. The life she had known was over. She would never graduate from high school or have any chance to pursue a sports career. The people she used to know would be scared of her now, or else they would hate her like Ryan, and she would miss the dog.

  Chris realized that she needed some kind of plan, but she couldn't muster any motivation. Not for herself, anyway. She had mutated into something that night. Something other. Ryan had given her that look, and Helen … no. Her mind refused to go there. For the thousandth time in the past hour, she felt herself go numb inside when her thoughts strayed too far in that direction.

  Chris heard her lion’s roar ringtone over the sound of the crashing waves after she had been there for a long while. She ignored it until it stopped, listening to the ping of the incoming voicemail message with her face buried between her knees. There was no point in checking it because she didn’t want to hear anything that anyone else had to say right now.

  But it could be Ryan, she realized, raising her head and drawing her knees close to her chest for warmth. She dug the phone out of her hoodie pocket and wiped her eyes again.

  The activity log listed an intimidating number of unanswered calls and new text messages spread out over the last forty-five minutes, including five calls and three text messages from her mother and two calls from her father. The list didn’t end there, either. Two text messages were from José, her sparring partner from boxing. Josh and Luke, her soccer buddies, had sent two messages each. Three of her classmates had sent five texts in total, and some girl she barely knew who wasn’t even in her class had sent a whopping seven messages.

  There was nothing from Ryan.

  She let the phone fall to the sand. Her stomach tightened as she buried her face between her knees again, choking back the ragged sobs grating at her throat. When she felt reasonably sure that she could hold herself together, she picked up her phone and opened her inbox. She couldn’t gather the courage to check the messages from her parents since she already had a pretty good idea of what they were about.

  Chris selected the name of the text-spamming girl to scroll through her messages first.

  From: Ashley, received: 08:50 p.m.

  Oh, wow. Shit Chris, is this for real? Ryan’s dad called my mom and my parents are really upset.

  From: Ashley, received: 08:54 p.m.

  Wanna tell me what’s up? It’s kinda creepy.

  From: Ashley, received: 08:59 p.m.

  Man did u really blow up a car??? What happened???

  From: Ashley, received: 09:08 p.m.

  Ur all over the news.

  From: Ashley, received: 09:10 p.m.

  They say the Covenant is in Averton and it sounds like they’re talking to Ryan.

  From: Ashley, received: 09:11 p.m.

  Don’t get killed OK? I still think ur cool and I think Ryan will say the same.

  From: Ashley, received: 09:13 p.m.

  Ur not gonna make my phone explode cuz I’m annoying, rite?

  Chris’s lips twitched as she read the last message. It was almost amusing.

  If we ever meet again, I’ll buy you a Pepsi.

  Chris lowered her phone, and rubbed her face with one hand. She understood why Ryan hadn’t contacted her, but it still stung. Whatever it was that happened back there, she didn't do it on purpose. She still wasn’t even sure what she had done.

  After a few minutes of dazed hesitation, she selected Ryan’s name from the list of contacts. That was the easy part. Following up with the right word choice would be much harder. After a small eternity, she made her selection. She wasn’t content with what she had to say, but there wasn't any amount of time that could fix that—or fix anything else.

  Ryan, you probably hate me right now, but I swear I didn’t do it on purpose. I don’t even understand what happened. I’m sorry. Chris.

  She wasn’t sure what she would do if he didn’t respond, but just thinking about it was almost enough to break her resolve. She punched the send button with a trembling thumb before she had a chance to change her mind, then slid to her side onto the cold sand and hugged her knees, curling up into a ball. Some submerged part of her mind screamed at her to care about

  Dylan

  Helen, but she just couldn’t go there right now.

  Chris managed to cry herself into exhaustion. It wasn’t quite sleep, but eventually there weren't any more emotions left for her to spill.

  ***

  After what must have been hours, Chris felt steady enough to face whatever the world had in store for her. Her phone had gone quiet, and a quick check of the activity log confirmed that even her parents had stopped calling her some time ago.

  The phone clock told her it was just past midnight. She still felt numb, but it didn’t take much effort to realize that if the Covenant had already deemed her a threat, she wouldn’t be sitting here anymore. If society didn’t want to see her locked up or dead, then they would want to get her hooked up with the Wardens, the ‘official’ US hero team. The hero label was just that, a label, but it redeemed the newly transitioned in the eyes of the public.

  Chris already knew that she would make a pretty shitty hero. She had already proven on numerous occasions that she couldn’t cope with rules and regulations, and, as far as she could tell, that was exactly what the Wardens were about. If she had become one of them, she would have to deal with the media—with people—on a daily basis. Besides, heroes were expected to set examples. And just what kind of example would she be setting for anyone else? Even Kermit the Frog would do a better job than she ever could. At least he made little kids smile.

  Don’t let anyone pressure you into any kind of role. The memory of Ryan’s voice flooded into her consciousness, bringing her back from darker places.

  “Thank you,” Chris whispered, closing her eyes for a moment. She sat still for a while, chin nestled in the crook of one arm while she considered her options. Most of her thoughts boiled down to the same general idea. She couldn’t join the hero team, but she couldn’t live her life like an unwanted monster, either. She had to do her own thing as a person and hope that it turned out alright. If it did, then maybe she’d be ready to face her family. Or what was left of it.

  Once again, Chris forced images of Dylan and Helen from her mind’s eye. They both died on her watch. The Wardens probably wouldn’t even want her on their team with that record, but she still couldn’t accept the fact that she was now some sort of threat to society. All she wanted was to give Ryan and her parents a reason not to hate her, and for everyone else to leave her alone.

  Doing good on her own terms, as an independent rogue, was the only way she could ever hope to make things right. If someone else made the decisions for her, it wouldn’t be the same. She had to take charge of her own atonement. It was the only way to get rid of the demons that were eating away at her.

  A flicker of light in her peripheral vision drew her attention back to the outside world. She let her arm drop from her knees to grab her phone before crawling out onto the beach. As she emerged from her hideout, she quickly surveyed the shore. The foursome from earlier that night was nowhere in sight, and the threat of rain had passed.

  She turned her attention up to the source of the light. A bright shining humanoid figure had joined the stars above Averton, outshining the moon with the sheer brilliance of his outstretched wings.

  Radiant.

  Maybe she should have been scared, but she realized that she was already beyond the point of caring. She was most likely already dead to her parents and to anyone else she ever cared about. But if she went ahead with her plan to strike out on her own, then maybe that was for the best. Any kind of emotional baggage would just get her killed for real.

  Chris looked down at her phone for a long moment, then stepped out onto the wet sand and tos
sed it into the waves.

  Baggage.

  The luminescent figure in the sky didn't make any moves, and he never gave any indication of whether he had even seen her on the shore. It didn’t matter. The Covenant was the highest hero authority, a team of the world’s most powerful Evolved who had been handpicked by the international community. If they wanted to step in, they would. And there wasn’t anything she could do about it.

  The next logical step was to get some real sleep. There were still plenty of hours left before sunrise, and most of her body hurt about as much as it had after her first boxing lesson. If she didn’t crash for at least a few hours, she’d be even worse for wear in the morning. She looked back at the crevice in the rock, but the chill emanating through her body told her it was time to move on. She’d never be able to get any real rest in there.

  A new burst of light drew her attention back to the night sky. The shining figure was gone, but the energy trail he’d left in his wake cast a pale sheen across the rolling ocean below.

  New orders, she speculated. Maybe they got word of something bigger and more threatening than me. It wasn’t a cheery thought, but it made her feel slightly better about her own situation.

  Chris tilted her head back, taking in the sight of thousands upon thousands of stars—all those tiny beacons of light in the darkness. Radiant’s glowing haze still roiled across the dark star-spattered sky, expanding in all directions as it slowly faded.

  Even in darkness, there is light, her mother had often told her when Chris had a particularly bad day at school.

  When her neck started throbbing from stargazing, Chris began shuffling down the sand towards town. Her plan, loose as it was, was to find herself a park bench. Preferably someplace out of the way of former classmates. The local news broadcasts would be airing just about now, warning the locals and spreading word of yet another transition in the USA.