Outsider: The Flawed Series Book Two Page 4

  He coughed and spluttered and screamed curses, grabbing his eyes. Alex fled back to the mouth of the alley, then she jogged back to find the others at an agonizingly slow “normal” pace.

  Take that, jerk.

  ~

  At first there was nothing but pain. The spray seared Nic’s eyes as if it were burning through his corneas and directly into his brain. With eyes squeezed shut, he tried to blink, but it was impossible to open his lids. Nic swiped at his face, but it only made the burning worse. He screamed and heard the strange echo of his own voice ricocheting off the buildings.

  He had to get his eyes open, despite how much it hurt. He had to find water.

  Even after blinking vigorously a few times, the entire world stayed black. Was he blind? The question crashed through his mind, threatening to destroy his complete sense of self. It couldn’t be true. He yelled, this time with fury, the roar rumbling through his chest.

  Then he remembered something.

  Bottles. There had been several half-empty water bottles near the dumpster. He just had to get to them.

  Pushing himself off the gritty pavement with his hands, he stood, but the surge of fire through his eyes kept him doubled over. He swept his arms in front of him, hobbling forward like a wounded predator. After a few steps he kicked something, heard it tumble and roll away—the bottle.

  His hands grappled air, then pavement, then finally touched something plastic. Grabbing the bottle, he wrenched the cap off with his shaking fingers. The sloshing inside made him cringe with the thought of what bacteria he might be submitting himself to, but he still trembled with anticipation of relief. Sucking back the pain, he threw his head back toward the sky and poured the liquid over his face.

  The fire turned molten. Acidic, the liquid scorched his eyes like flowing magma. Nic fell to his knees screaming and threw the bottle down. A sickly sweet syrupy odor invaded his nostrils, and it hit him: it was Coke, not water.

  Balling his hands into fists, Nic struggled to his feet. He touched a brick wall and followed it. After several paces, the rough surface turned to cool metal—a door. He felt for a handle, grasped it, and wrenched it open.

  The threshold tripped him, but he caught himself and pulled the door shut behind him. He had to focus past the pain. Sounds rang distantly—dishes clattering, a low hum of people talking, and the clashing of metal. Nic took several hesitant steps forward, but stopped when a barrage of smells hit his nose. Food, bleach, grease. It was a restaurant, and likely he was in a utility room, based on the strong chemical scent.

  More steps brought him to a counter. He felt the cold surface, discovering a deep sink like those for mops. Hands shaking, he felt for the faucet.

  With the water running, he stuck his head under and let the cold liquid surge over his face. Even after several minutes, the pain didn’t lessen. Nic was hunched over with the rush of water in his ears when a growling voice behind him made him jump, and he hit his head on the faucet.

  “What are you—?”

  Nic whirled around and blinked the water away, but still couldn’t see.

  “Nic?”

  He recognized the voice. “Biff?”

  “What are you doing?”

  “Eyes,” Nic mumbled, gesturing at his face. “Pepper spray.”

  Biff growled under his breath. “Come with me.”

  A hand grabbed Nic’s arm and wrenched him away. Nic heard the water shut off. His legs felt like gelatin, stumbling to keep up with the upper part of his body as Biff dragged him into another room. The smell of bleach was even stronger here. The door shut and clicked.

  “What have you gotten yourself into?” Biff asked.

  “Girl…sprayed me. It burns!” He cringed. “Help me, Biff!”

  Biff snorted. “You were working the streets, weren’t you? You know this is my territory. I should have you taken care of.” Nic could hear him pacing. “But I’ve been working, too. I need to get out of here.”

  “Just get me a first aid kit or something!” Nic said.

  “I might be able to help you. For the right price.”

  “I’ll give you whatever you want!”

  “Cold, hard cash speaks loudest.”

  “Anything. I’ll pay you whatever you want.”

  “All right. But we gotta get out of here fast.” More pacing. “If you got pepper-sprayed, they’re probably calling the cops, right? You need to split as much as I do.”

  “But I can’t see!”

  “Doesn’t matter. We need to make a run for it. I can get you there. I have a car—can you run?”

  “I don’t know.” Nic tried to straighten, but the pain flared white hot. He grimaced. “I can try.”

  He heard Biff’s phone dialing. “Sharkie, change of plans. Meet me with the car.” Biff rattled off an intersection several blocks down. “And watch out for pigs.”

  Biff grabbed Nic’s hand and clamped it around his own arm. “Stay with me and you’ll be fine.”

  They flew through the building, Nic catching his free hand on a corner. Outside, they made a run for it. It took all Nic’s focus to make his legs work with the pain still burning through his head.

  When Josh returned to the front of the theater where Chloe and Cam were standing, Alex was nowhere in sight. He was just about to ask where she’d gone when she came jogging up to them.

  “I got him.” She was breathing hard. “Pepper-sprayed the dude and got my phone back.”

  “What? How’d you find him?” Josh asked.

  “Cam told me—” Alex began.

  “I was taking a picture and the flash triggered Cam’s déjà vu,” Chloe said.

  “I saw exactly where he went,” Cam said. “And Alex took off after him—like a bullet. That’s some speed you got there!” Cam grinned at her, then turned to Josh. “She ran so fast she was a blur! Like almost see-through. Did you see her?”

  “No, I was—”

  Cam whistled, his attention back on Alex. “That’s a pretty sick skill.”

  Chloe smiled. “She’s like us, Cam: special.”

  “You knew about her?” Cam asked.

  She beamed. “Yep. Pretty cool, huh?”

  “Are the cops on their way?” Josh asked.

  “Should be here any time,” Chloe said.

  “Right. Well, I’m glad everything’s under control.”

  “So where’d you disappear to, Josh?” Chloe asked.

  “Nowhere,” he mumbled.

  Later that evening when they were hanging out in Chloe and Alex’s apartment, Cam was still raving about Alex. “She was amazing!”

  “You had no idea about her skills, huh?” Chloe said. “I’ve known since our trip to California.”

  “I’m just ticked the jerk got away,” Alex said. “They searched all through that alley and all the buildings surrounding it and didn’t find anything. You’d think it’d be hard for someone to get away after they’d been pepper-sprayed.”

  “At least now they know who to look for, after all that time questioning us.” Chloe said.

  “So, Josh.” Alex turned to him, paused and looked him over for a minute with a serious expression. “What’s your super power?”

  Cam guffawed. Chloe giggled. “Oh, he doesn’t have one. It’s just Cam and I who are the freaks.”

  As if it was a curse. Didn’t they realize they were special? He’d give anything to be like them. When he felt all their eyes on him, he tried to shrug it off, smiling half-heartedly as if to say, “What can you do?”

  “Oh. I’m sorry. I just thought…” Alex trailed off, her eyes skimming the room uncomfortably. After a few moments her hands started tapping in that same, weird rhythm the way her feet had earlier.

  “Guess I silenced the crowd.” Josh cleared his throat and stood. “Anybody want anything from the fridge?” When no one answered, he walked to the tiny kitchen, only ten feet away. While getting himself a soda, he peered out at the group from under the hanging cabinets suspended over the bar. The c
onversation resumed almost immediately.

  All his life he’d felt like an outsider. He didn’t have an ability or even a job to be proud of, let alone a girlfriend. He wasn’t even in a band—in a freaking band, for Pete’s sake!

  He reentered the living room and plopped down in the armchair.

  Chloe stretched and got up. “Well, I’m heading for the shower, guys.”

  “You and your two-hour nighttime ritual,” Cam said. “Still the same old Chloe.”

  “Being this good-looking doesn’t come naturally.”

  “I bet you’re glad you don’t have to share a bathroom with her anymore,” Cam said, glancing Josh’s way.

  “You have no idea.”

  After Chloe left there was a lull in the conversation. Cam and Alex sat on either ends of the sofa watching TV. Alex was drumming on her legs with her palms, seemingly oblivious to her own movement. She must have felt Josh’s stare because after a minute she looked up, blushed, and stopped her hands. Clearing her throat, she scrambled off of the couch and over to a handbag in the corner of the room. She grabbed the bag, plucked a ball of yarn from it, then settled herself back down and began knitting at the speed of light.

  Josh watched the needles fly. “Whoa. That’s amazing. Isn’t knitting supposed to be slow?” He could actually see the scarf on the needles growing before his eyes.

  “It is for most people.”

  “So it’s not just your feet?”

  Cam looked up from the television and eyed them with curiosity. “Huh?”

  Alex smiled, her needles not missing a beat. “I think Josh is trying to figure me out.” Traces of pink still showed through the freckles on her cheeks. Her smile was a little bit brain-melting, making him feel warm and a bit jumbled up on the inside.

  “I was just wondering why you were always moving,” he said.

  “That. Yeah. Something’s always gotta be moving.”

  Cam arched an eyebrow like it was news to him. “Oh?”

  “You know how you keep saying my ability is so super awesome?”

  “Sure.”

  “Well, it definitely wasn’t always cool. It used to be super…lame. And annoying. I didn’t have the speed. All I had was a tic.”

  “A tic?” Cam asked.

  “That’s the downside of my ability.”

  “Is that why you keep tapping?” Josh asked.

  She nodded. “I can’t sit still unless my feet or hands are moving. It’s like an itch needing to be scratched. I feel the urge, and I can’t stop it.”

  “You’ve tried?”

  “Of course. My personal record for being motionless is about three minutes. It was the longest three minutes of my life.”

  Cam chuckled.

  “My hands burned. My feet felt numb. The pressure was crazy. I couldn’t win.”

  Despite Alex’s confession, Josh didn’t see her as a crazy schizo. At worst, her constant tapping conveyed mild boredom.

  “Can anything help?” Cam asked. “Like, I don’t know, a prescription or something?”

  “Problem with drugs is that they inhibit my speed, and that’s not a side effect I can accept.” Alex held up her needles. “This is the best medicine I’ve found.”

  “Knitting?” Josh said.

  “How’d you figure that out?” Cam asked.

  “My grandma taught me to knit when I was twelve. It was the first time I found something besides tapping. I can knit for hours on end, and it’s almost soothing.”

  “You’re like a knitting robot,” Cam said.

  Alex laughed. “Guess you could say that.”

  “So when did your super speed kick in?” Josh asked.

  “Well, to understand that story, you have to know one other thing about my tic. It’s influenced by anxiety and intense feelings. It’s almost like my tic speed was somehow connected exponentially to my heart rate.”

  “Was?” Cam said.

  “I mean, before the transformation.”

  Cam sat forward, eyes all on her now, the TV show forgotten. “Transformation?”

  “I’m getting there,” Alex said. “You’re way too excited about this, by the way.”

  “I just think it’s cool to find someone else like us,” Cam said. “I mean, not like us but…like…”

  “Cam, shut it so she can finish her story,” Josh said.

  Alex chuckled. “One day when I was fifteen I came home from school and found my dad home from work early. He and Mom were arguing in the bedroom, and I could hear dresser drawers and cabinets banging. I was too afraid to go inside so I eavesdropped. I found out he’d been laid off, and Mom was really mad—not at the company, at him. After hearing more than I wanted to, I ran to my room and plopped down in my desk chair, and started my spastic stress tapping. Even with my door shut I could hear them shouting. Before long I was banging my hands hard on the desk. This time none of it curbed my anxiety. My parents bickered sometimes, but this was worse. I couldn’t get relief, my hands kept going faster and faster. My feet, too, stomping out triplets.” With her story, Alex’s knitting seemed to accelerate, faster now than ever. Josh could barely see the silver needles as they flew through the air.

  “The whole time I was staring at this picture above my desk from our trip to Minnesota: the three of us with my first snowman. I was five. Mom stood on one side of me with Dad on the other. We had been so happy that day.”

  “Sounds like a cute picture,” Cam said.

  “I was staring at it when I heard my dad said he was done,” Alex said. “He was done trying to please her. He said he was done with her criticism. I heard his footsteps down the hall going toward the front door, and I knew he was leaving. My limbs felt like they were on fire. I was trying not to cry, but it wasn’t working.” Alex paused, inhaling deeply. Her knitting slowed as if she were consciously bringing herself back to a normal pace. She met Josh’s eyes, and he could almost feel her buried pain.

  She blinked, and her focus switched to Cam. “That’s when it happened.”

  “What happened?”

  First I heard the sound of it. It was almost a whirring like a helicopter. It took me a minute to realize my hands were making the noise. I blinked away the tears and saw that my hands didn’t look solid any more, but translucent like smoke—they were going that fast.”

  “Wow,” Cam said.

  Josh just stared at Alex, whose gaze was locked on Cam’s.

  “I was a little freaked,” she said. “So I stopped. I let my hands drop and dug my heels into the floor. For a moment I was in shock. When the nervous pressure started to build, my hands itched to move. But this time I waited, feeling the burn. I focused on my limbs, pouring my entire concentration into them. When I finally gave in, I let everything else fade into the background and felt the rhythm take over.”

  Josh realized he was holding his breath.

  Alex continued. “It was all so crazy—my dad leaving and this thing happening to me. Once the shock wore off, though, I was pretty excited. I’d always been, like, some weirdo, but now I could do something really cool.”

  “No wonder you became a drummer,” Cam said.

  Josh felt a pang of jealousy. If only he could have that kind of boost to his musical talents. He would wail on the guitar.

  “Yeah. I asked my mom for drum lessons so I could learn the patterns and coordination.”

  “I bet you were amazing at it, weren’t you?” Cam asked.

  Alex smiled and reddened a little. “I was a fast learner. The fact that I had been tapping my entire life helped. I had already discovered some rudiments, and I have natural timing. I’m like a metronome. I’m not saying that to brag—I’m sure it’s related to my ability.”

  “Cool,” Cam said.

  “Very cool,” Josh said.

  “I quit the lessons after a few weeks. I didn’t want to freak out the instructor with my inhuman speed, and playing at a normal pace was boring. Sorry, that sounds snobby. I don’t feel that way now. I loved playing with
my band back in California.”

  “What did your parents think?” Cam asked. Josh remembered Cam’s own frustrations telling their parents about his new “trick.”

  “Well, my dad bought me a drum set as an I’m-sorry-for-leaving present when he found out I was into drums. But I didn’t tell him about the super speed thing.”

  “I don’t blame you,” Cam said. “Wish I hadn’t told my parents.”

  “Oh really? Bad experience?” Alex asked.

  “Yeah, sorta.”

  “Sorry, that sucks.”

  Cam shrugged. “No biggie.”

  “Did you tell your mom?” Josh asked Alex.

  “No. I tried to hide it—at first. But she was gone so much I didn’t have to worry about her finding out. And also, I love her, but she’s fairly clueless about some things—like what normal drum practice sounds like. She’d get annoyed and pop in her ear buds whenever I played at home, so she never figured it out.”

  “Sounds like you’ve been through a lot,” Josh said. “And without anyone to lean on. Being alone can be hard.”

  “Yeah. Sorry. I didn’t mean to unload on you.”

  “No, I’m glad you did,” Josh said. He was about to say more—to tell her he knew how it felt to be isolated in your own home—but Cam spoke first.

  “It’s cool to find out about other people like us.”

  “So, Cam,” Alex said, “Can you tell me more about your ability? It sounds pretty cool.”

  “Sure. What do you want to know?”

  “Did you always have it, or did you get yours the way I did?”

  Cam’s eyes flashed with enthusiasm. “Well, it all started when I was on this ski trip…”

  “I think I’m gonna call it a night.” Josh stretched and headed to the door without making eye contact with either of them. “See you tomorrow.”