Chapter 9 - Derik’s POV
They don’t even bother putting my broken pinky in a brace. It’s just left to heal on its own. Currently, it looks like I’m double jointed. I attempt to straighten it out and bite back a scream of agony. Christ, that fucking hurts, but I manage to get it into a semi-straight position. I look around my room. There’s nothing, literally nothing, that I could use to brace it. Damn. I have to settle for a broken popsicle stick and duct tape.
“Son, what are you doing?”
“Oh, so I’m son now?”
“Watch your mouth, you spoiled brat.”
“You’re the spoiled person in the room.”
“I’ll teach you a lesson about spoiled you—” He raises his hand threateningly and I flinch. He never finishes the sentence, only glares at me in satisfaction. Damn it. I flinched. My flinching seems to give him all he needs and he leaves the room. I watch the door warily for a moment, waiting for him to come back and beat me twice as hard, but he doesn’t.
And I make a decision.
There is a window that doesn’t shut right in my room. It’s been that way forever, even way back when this house wasn’t a wreck and wasn’t home to thirty plus kids, only a family. My family, back when it wasn’t busted up and crazy and- and anything. It was just a normal family.
Now? I don’t even know if my dad is a dad anymore. He’s just a boss.
“Hasta la vista, motherfucker.” I whisper to the door, imagining my dad behind it. No one hears it but me. I push open the door and wince at the slight groaning noise it makes. No one comes in. I take one glance around my trashed room before leaving. I don’t look back after that. I won’t miss the place. Too many awful things happened in there for me to ever miss it. But I know that I’ll never forget it.
It’s very cold outside in November. This I learn as I step outside. I am wearing long sleeves and pants, at least, but with no actual jacket aside from a ten year old sweatshirt, it makes little difference. I have to find Sadie. I have to tell them what’s going on, if they don’t know already. I’ll tell them where Shadow Clan’s base is. I can at least do that before… nevermind. I have to focus. The last time I saw them was at that burger place, so maybe I should start there. Maybe that is where they are now, but if they aren’t I’ll at least be able to pick up a trail. The burger diner isn’t far, only about five miles. I can cover that in a half an hour. I just hope I manage to reach them before anyone else does. Jesus, that would be bad. I have to hurry. Maybe if I push myself, I can get there in twenty-five minutes.
I get there in twenty four. The diner is closed, which I expected, but I can figure out approximately where they went from here.
Man, who am I kidding? There’s no way I’ll get there in time. I mean, there’s no point in really trying. My dad has a car. If he’s desperate, he’ll drive. He can get to wherever they are in minutes, whereas I could take hours. As soon as he figures out I’m missing, he’ll go after them.
It’s time to find a shortcut. I’ve found their trail now. I can smell like a bloodhound.
My dad says it’s a family gift. He has no idea.
See, my dad hates psychics because one killed my mom. He has no idea that his grandma (long dead, I think) was a psychic. He has no idea that psychic lines are passed down through families, usually skipping a generation. He has no idea that I am psychic. That’s why I feel like even more of a despicable person. Not only am I a killer, I’m practically killing my own blood. What kind of person does that? It doesn’t matter if I was controlled, I should have been able to fight it, somehow… Why couldn’t I be like those kids who enjoyed killing, and just didn’t question it? Why couldn’t I be like that? My life would be easier, and maybe my pinky wouldn’t have been broken so many times.
Where could Sadie have gone? At this point I’m running on guesses. I doubt she’s gone to her house, but at least her dad is there. Maybe I can explain to him what’s going on and get his help. My running now has a destination, so I run faster. I know where I’m going. Sadie’s house isn’t far from TSC. Basically, I wasted thirty minutes coming to this diner. Why can’t I use my brain?
Another forty five minutes lost before I get to Sadie’s house. There is no car in the driveway so I already know her and Silas aren’t here. But her dad is. The lights are on in the house. I make sure to flip my black hair over my red eye so that he can’t see it, and then ring the doorbell. He answers almost immediately, obviously hoping I’m Sadie, and his face falls when he sees me.
“Who are you? Isn’t it a little late for selling things.”
“I’m not here to sell things. My name is Derik. Let me help you.” He almost slams the door on me but I keep it from shutting with my arm.
“What do you want? I don’t need any help.”
“You might not, but Sadie does.”
“Alright, Derik. Come in. But you have some serious explaining to do.” He walks inside and I follow him hesitantly. I’ve never been let in to a house before. I’ve either had to break in, let myself in, or I’ve been kicked out. Sometimes all of the above. “What do you mean, Sadie needs help? Is she in trouble?”
“Not yet. Well, sort of. But not yet. She has at least till sunrise if she and Silas don’t do anything stupid.”
“And what makes you think you can help?”
“I know where TSC is.”
“TSC?”
“The Shadow Clan. It’s an evil organization dedicated to killing psychics and currently, it’s targeting your family. Mainly, Sadie.”
“Why us?”
“Because you, Mr. Heathrow, and Sadie are both part of an extremely long and powerful line of psychics.”
“So they know about me, too? How do you know all this?”
“Um… because I’m part of it.” His eyes widen and he looks frozen in place, torn between whether to face me bare handed (not a good idea) or shoot me (also not a good idea).
“Say what now?”
“Okay, I used to be a part of it. I quit-” I look at the clock “-an hour and a half ago.” I hope Sadie and Silas are still alive. I hope I’ve moved quickly enough. “And you might want to call and tell them to come home. Like now.”
“How do they know everything about us?”
“They’ve been monitoring you for two years, learning your schedule.”
“And how’d they do that without being noticed?”
“You know Mrs. Yancy?”
“Yes.”
“You know she’s displayed a lot of interest in Sadie, right?”
“Right.”
“And you know she keeps her after school a lot of the time, right?”
“Right.”
“That means that not only does she know where Sadie is, at virtually all times, she also knows what you look like, what your car looks like, and your license plate number.”
“Damn.”
“Exactly. Now suppose she’s part of an evil organization. Which she is. Now imagine that another member of this organization tracks your car down. That person can find out where you live, where you work, how old you are, and a whole host of other things. It’s amazing what a license plate can do.”
“Um… wow, okay. I’m going to have to change my plate more often.”
“That’s probably a good idea. Is Sadie on her way?” He looks down at his phone.
“I don’t know. She hasn’t replied yet. Is that bad?”
“Depends. Probably not.”
“Probably?”
“Well, if you were a kidnapper, and you were planning on kidnapping and killing someone, you’d want to text something back, like “Oh I’m going to be at someone’s house for the night.” That way, you don’t have people looking for you until the next day, plenty of time to get out.
“Oh! She replied. She says she’s coming home soon.”
“That’s good.”
The doorbell rings.
“Okay, she said soon, but Jesus Christ that was fast.”
“I’ll look and see who it is.”
“Okay. Thanks.” I got up and walked to the door and looked outside. To anyone else, the kid at the door would look like an innocent girl selling Girl Scout cookies. But she’s not. Her name is Sara. She’s a member of TSC.
Fuck. We’re screwed now. I open the door.
“Hi, Sara.”
“Derik? What are you doing here?”
“The business here is done. Go find another job.”
“But-”
“Sara. Please. Do me this favor.”
“Okay…” I slam the door.
“Not Sadie. But I dealt with it. It’s fine now.”
“Okay.” I am just turning from the door when it rings again. This time, it is Sadie.
“Uh… I think you should answer this.”
“Why?”
“Because… Sadie and Silas and the ghost they’re with kind of want to… kill me?” Sadie’s dad gets up with a sigh.
“I’m coming.” I retreat to the couch, out of sight of the doorway.
“I’m home,” I hear Sadie say. “What is it, Dad?”
“Follow me.” Mr. Heathrow leads Sadie, Silas, and Heather into the room.
Sadie stops. Heather walks through her and stops. Silas stops.
“Hi, y’all.”
“What the fuck are you doing here?” Sadie demands. Heather winces.
“Uh… it’s kind of a long story, but I’m here to help.”
“Oh, yeah?” Sadie says bitingly. “You going to kill us? Is that the help?”
“No, I’m going to-” I am interrupted by someone breaking down the door.
“Shit!” Silas screams. He’s the closest to the door, so he sees the gun before we do.
“Screw you, Sara,” I whisper under my breath. “You’re going to pay for this.” A shot goes through Heather and hits the wall. This person also has horrible aim (I’m assuming they weren’t aiming for Heather, because she’s a ghost).
“Let’s get out of here!” I yell.
“Is this your fault?” Silas demands.
“No! Well, sort of… but-”
“Just get out, geniuses!” Sadie screeches.
We run for the door. Shots embed themselves in the walls on either side of us, and even the door in front of us.
I’m the first one to get shot.
“Ah, fuck!” Pain explodes up my calf. “Damn it damn it ow that fuckin’ hurts. Jesus Christ!” I kept running even though every step felt like my last. Silas and Sadie, to my surprise, double back. That is a really stupid thing to do, I think. Run while you can, you noble idiots!
The gunman reached our party of four. I realize with surprise and relief that I know who it is.
“Tobi. Dude. You know me. Please man, don’t shoot us. Let me talk, kay?”
“Derik? What the- never mind. Start talking.”
“I know you shot at Heather.”
“Who?”
“The blonde one.”
“Oh, yeah.”
“And it went through her.”
“Right.”
“Because she’s a ghost. And you, my dear friend, are psychic.”
“Fuck.”
“Exactly. So help us out and don’t shoot us- or, don’t shoot us again.” He looked down at my leg.
“Sorry, mate.”
“No problem.” I wince. “I’ll be fine. I’ve had worse.” I can feel Sadie looking at my broken pinky. “See you soon, Tobi.”
“Yeah.” He walks out the door with the gun over his shoulder. My calf is bleeding badly, and I hope that if The Shadow Clan decides to check out the scene, they’ll assume we’re dead, but I know I’m not that lucky.
“We should get you to a hospital,” Sadie says. “And what happened to your pinky?”
“Long story. I’ll tell you on the way to the hospital.”
“If you get blood on my fucking seats I’ll kill you,” Silas mutters. Sadie glares at him.
“Okay, I’ll grab you a towel,” she says to me. I nod in appreciation. She nods back. Heather is looking at me with a mixture of fear, apprehension, and hate. I really can’t blame her. I hate myself too. But it’ll all be over soon. I just need to get them the address of my house. It’s not a home. It never was, even when my mom was alive. It was merely a place I had to be, like school or the dentist.
“Right. Let’s go,” Heather says as Sadie comes downstairs. Her voice is hard. Why is Sadie being so nice to me? She has nothing to gain from it, so why would she? What’s the point of helping a murderer, a stalker like me?
“Get in the car,” she says to me.
“Why are you helping me?”
“Because I don’t give a fuck what anyone else says. You’re not evil.”
“Are you sure about that?”
“Just get in the car!” I get in the car.