The Family

She had to do a double take. It isn't possible, she thought. But there was absolutely no mistaking the walk and streaks of gray hair of which she caught a flash. Leanna felt her heart lurch. He had been dead for two months now, died right in front of her eyes. She pushed the memory of that horrible day from her mind, the day when she thought she had lost it all.

On an impulse she followed him, still telling herself that the person she was following was not truly Chris, the boy she had grown up with, and the one she had loved beyond all reason, that she was just seeing ghosts of him again because she missed him. Though for some reason she could not explain, she had been expecting to see him again, like she knew with some part of herself that he wasn't actually dead. But how could he be, he had died in her arms.

Leanna followed the man who looked like Chris for a while, growing more and more convinced that it was him. Not only did he have the streaks of gray in his hair at the temples, or the walk of one completely confident in his every move, he was wearing his favored black trench coat. When he turned to make sure no cars were coming so he could cross the street, the man was wearing what looked to be the same sunglasses she had given him last Christmas. She was positive they were the same because she had to find the just right brand, and it had taken her forever to find them.

But.... how?, she wondered. Leanna was about to run forward grab him and demand the answers to her questions, where have you been? Why didn’t you come find me? When he stepped into the street and crossed it into a hotel disappearing through a revolving door. Only now did she stop and take stock of where she was. She had followed Chris towards the north side of town, the old warehouse district. Not a very friendly part of the town, she should be careful.

As that thought crossed her mind, she jumped. Her cell phone was going off in her pocket. Checking the ID, she saw it was her sister, Ah.... oops, she’s going to have my head, I'm late. Cringing she answered the phone.

"Hi Sis," she said with forced cheerfulness

"Do ya know what time it is? You’re supposed to be here now, mom is going to kill me if anything happens to you. Where are you?"

"Uh...." Leanna did not want to lie to her sister, but what could she say, her family was already worried about her mental condition after Chris died, she did not want to add to their worries, so she said, "Uh, sorry I lost track of time, I had had time before coming home so I stopped off at the mall."

"Fine, stay there and I’ll come pick you up."

"Nah, I’m on my way out now, I will be home shortly, and it’s not as if mom’s here, we are in a completely different state after all."

Her sister grumbled something through the phone that she could not quiet make out, and was not sure she wanted to. "Fine, but hurry up. Mom should be calling anytime now."

"Sure thing. See you soon," Leanna said with relief and hung up. It looked as if Chris was going to have to wait. She made a note of the hotel and street so she could find this place again. What are you hiding Chris? Why are you hiding? I will be back to find out, so don't go anywhere, she thought sadly. Softly she said, "I love you," and turned to hurry to her sister's apartment.

*****
Inside the hotel, unknown to Leanna, Chris heard her as clearly as if she had been standing next to him. He was shocked she had found him, and if she knew where he was, she was in danger. He hated what he did to her, but there was no choice if he was to keep her safe.

While he was brooding over what to do, now that Leanna had found him, there was a slight tapping at Chris' hotel room door. With a sigh, he got up to answer it, and was not surprised to find Mia on the other side.

"Mia," he said in exasperation, "what are you doing here?"

"Came to check up on you, of course," she said as she batted her eyelashes at Chris. Rolling his eyes, Chris let her into his room.

Mia was skinny to the point of being bony, with dyed black, spiked hair. She had an indomitable spirit, like Leanna, but unlike Leanna, Mia also knew of her gifts and was well trained in their use. Just like Chris was becoming, and what he was becoming, he had no desire for Leanna to learn.

"So who’s next?" he asked, even though he could have picked the knowledge right out of Mia's mind. That would have been considered rude, especially between two comrades in arms.

"A girl named Leanna," Mia said with a shrug. "Apparently she’s staying with her sister, therefore we will take her sister first. That way she’ll be alone, and more malleable to our persuasion for her to join us."

Mia did not seem to notice how Chris froze at the mention of Leanna's name. NO he wanted to scream. Then he had the small hope that it was not his Leanna, not his love. After all Leanna was not that an uncommon name. But what if it was her? What would he do? She thought he was dead, well she had anyway until she saw him in the street. He would have had to face her at one point anyway, explain about his "death", but he thought it would be on his own terms, to warn her away from him and to be on her guard. Maybe he still could.

"By when does the objective need to be taken?" he asked in the calm voice Mia expected from him.

"The higher ups want her in their hands in two weeks, no later," she said with a shake of her head. "For some reason they want this one fast. None of the usual persuasions first. Just skipping to the finish to get her. Apparently they think she will make a great addition to the Family with the level of power she could achieve." She shook out her short hair and shrugged.

Doing some quick calculations in his head, Chris figured he need to find her in the next couple of days. Their kidnapping of Leanna's sister would be in at least four days, to make her malleable to any suggestions given to her, to make her want to give her own life over for that of her sisters.

"Well then, if that is the case, do we not have plans we need to make?" he said with the small smile that was expected of him and a light tone of voice.

* * * * *

"I'm home!" Leanna called out a little breathlessly from the kitchen door. "Sorry I lost track of time, Brea. There was this new book series I am interested in trying out. The book really got me hooked as I test read it," she continued as she brandished her new book in her sister's face as she walked in from the living room.

Glowering at her younger sister, Brea grabbed the book and raised a dark eyebrow. "Don't you ever read anything real? All you read is the fantasy stuff. Anyway, mom hasn’t called yet so why not make a snack? Dinner wont be for a while. Drew is coming over again anyway."

Drew had been a friend of Leanna's back home before he moved out here suddenly a few years ago. While she was glad to see her old friend, tonight of all nights she did not want him around. She wanted to see if she could call the hotel and get Chris on the phone, find out what happened. Or was it just wishful thinking that she saw him today? After all he had died in her arms that night.

It had been her 21st birthday and he promised to surprise her with something. When she got to his place, dinner was on the table, there were a couple of rented movies on the t.v. and Chris lying in a growing pool of blood, struggling to keep breathing.

When he saw her, he had reached out to her, whispered her name and closed his eyes. After that she lost track of all that happened. Leanna vaguely recalled calling for the paramedics but after that she had just held onto him until she heard him breathe in his final breath, just before the paramedics got there. Though when she came to think about it later, Leanna did not remember seeing a wound from which the blood was flowing.

After talking to her mom, which consisted of reassuring her that she was alright and not being too much trouble for her sister, Drew came over and had dinner with the sisters. They sat around talking for a while after the meal was cleaned up, when the phone rang.

"I’ll get it," Leanna said. "Hello?"

"Leanna. Meet me outside the mall tomorrow night around eight," said a voice Leanna never thought to hear again.

"C…Chris..? I…Is that you? What happened?"

"Just meet me. I'll explain then, I've got to go for now."

"But... " Click. Leanna just looked at the phone, stupefied. How did he know I wanted to find him, much less where I was? What the heck is going on? Leanna wanted to scream.

Well, one way to look at this, Leanna told herself, is that I’m hopefully going to start getting some answers soon.


The day just could not go by fast enough. No matter how hard she tried not to think about the coming of the end of the day, the further away it seemed. With it being a weekend, and Brea home from work, Leanna had a hard time trying not to show her anxiousness. Brea knew something was up with her sister and tried to distract her by taking her shopping and to a movie. She was afraid that Leanna was starting to obsess about Chris again. How little she knows how close to the truth she is, thought Leanna tiredly.

By the time 7:30 rolled around, she had finished her book earlier in the day and two new outfits courtesy of Brea. They were still strolling around the mall when Leanna thought she heard someone calling her name. Quickly looking around for the source, she didn’t see anyone.

“What is it?” asked Brea when she stopped to look around.

“I thought I heard someone call my name. I must be imagining things again.”

“Well, anyway as I was saying, Drew wants to drop by again tomorrow. I need to go out of town for a couple of days on business. Will you be alright?”

I’ll be alright once I find out what the hell is going on with Chris, Leanna thought. Just as she was about to open her mouth to give a verbal reply however, Leanna “heard” Chris. He was nowhere in sight but she could swear that she heard him clearly and the world seemed to momentarily fade.

Leanna… Christ, I have to stop them from doing this to you… warn you… I love you…It is almost time to meet her… Will she come…’course she will…What…? Shit…

Then his voice seemed to fade, like a volume turned way down all of a sudden, or muted. Quickly glancing at her watch, Leanna realized how close she was to missing the meeting. She needed to get away from Brea, who was looking at her with concern.

“Yeah, I’ll be ok,” Leanna said realizing that she hadn’t finished answering her sister. “Hey, I think I will head to the bookstore for a while. After finishing that book earlier, I need a new one. Why don’t you go on ahead? I won’t be long at the store,” Leanna suggested, knowing how much her sister did not like waiting around in a bookstore for her.

“Ok, just don’t take forever. If you’re going to be longer than an hour, call me.”

“Will do. Be careful going home.”

“You too, call me when you are on the way.”

Nodding Lilary turned and walked away towards the bookstore keeping an eye out for Chris. Suddenly, as she was about to walk into the store, a hand landed on her shoulder. Turning around she looked up into the gray eyes she knew so well.

“Chris…” Leanna started to say, but Chris stopped her by putting a finger to her lips and saying, “not here.”

• ****

On her way out to the car, Brea could not help but worrying over Leanna. It had been two months since Chris had died and Leanna seemed to be doing better. But it still seemed as though she would have odd moments of silence where she would be lost in memory. Granted loosing someone you cared for deeply would take a while to get over, but peace would eventually come.

Brea took out her car keys and was getting ready to unlock her car when she saw a shadow come up behind her. Turning around she saw a skinny woman with black spiked hair coming towards hair with a hand waving in the air.

“Hey Brea, wait up!” the strange lady said as she came closer. “Sheesh, it’s been a while since I’ve seen you. What has it been five years since high school?” Brea must have looked confused because the next words out of the woman’s mouth were, “you don’t remember me do you? Tina, we used to have World History together?”

And just like that, Brea remembered her friend she had lost touch with over the years. “Tina, good god I didn’t recognize you. You dyed your hair didn’t you?” The Tina that Brea remembered had red hair. “Wow, I never thought I’d see you again, and… that… made me sad,” Brea said with hesitancy. “We had fun in World History together… didn’t we?”

She seemed to remember an incident when the teacher was trying to explain about how the only way for there to be world peace was for every nation to be ready for war. If everyone was ready for war, then they would all try and dissipate the need for the war through peace talks. But while the teacher was lecturing, Tina made some smart, funny comment that sent the whole class into fits of laughter that took the teacher a while to quiet down. Funny that it took Brea five years to remember it though. “It is good to see you again,” Brea said.

“Yeah, you too. I know I just caught up to you and all, but I do need to get running. Hey, how about we get together in a couple of days and catch up on what we have been doing these last few years?” Tina asked.

“Sure thing, I am pretty much open, though I do have my sister staying with me for a while. Just give me a call.” The next minute was spent in exchanging phone numbers then Brea got in her car and went home while Tina walked back in the direction she had come.

****
Chris kept looking furtively over his shoulder. He was not sure whether or not Mia had picked up his plan from his thoughts… it had been hard to bury them deeply from her. While it was taboo to use ones powers on a fellow Family member, picking up surface thoughts was not unheard of. Mia was supposed to be off “re-introducing” herself to Lea’s sister as on old high school acquaintance. But it never hurt to be safe.

He pulled Leanna after him outside the mall and into the shadows.

“Chris, what is going on? You… you’re kind of scaring me,” Leanna said in a small voice.

“There is something I need to tell you…” Chris began.

“Well, yeah,” Leanna said cutting him off. “First you are dead in my arms and then I find you in the streets of another city? What is going on?”

“If you would just let me talk…” He tried again.

“Do you know how much it hurt thinking you were dead. The stares, the sympathetic touches and looks I got from friends and family?”

I know, I know how hard it was for you, however, I didn’t have a choice, I was trying to protect you.

“Protect me from what?” Leanna responded, not realizing that she responded to his thoughts instead of his voice.

From the Family, the people for whom I work now. People who want you, now, for your abilities. Don’t find anything about this conversation the least bit strange?

Now forced to stop and think about it, Leanna realized that Chris had not been moving his lips as he spoke. “Wha… What… What is this?” she asked as she retreated a few steps.

“You have the ability to do this too. And the Family wants you for it.”

“I can do what, speak with my mind? Who is this family, and if they are so bad that you wanted to protect me from them, why do you work for them?”

“Yes, you can speak with your mind, even now I can hear some of your surface thoughts. You can do this and much more. You are one of the strongest Psi-abilities that the Family has ever run across. As for who the Family is, they are an organization within the military that has been… ‘collecting’ people with these abilities. They want to use them for research, experiments, and the occasional special ops missions. They found me three months ago. If I didn’t join them, they were going to go after you, to force me to join. I couldn’t let them do that to you, so I joined. I learned what I could, as fast as I could,” he paused.

“I didn’t want them to realize that you had your own potential. I didn’t even know it was there until I over heard your thoughts. You were projecting them towards me rather loudly. That was when I realized that you had the abilities as well. I wondered why they hadn’t tried to take you as well. But it seemed as though I was the only one who could ‘hear’ you at the time.

“As for my death, I had to fake it. You and everyone else that I loved had to truly believe that I was dead. Everyone who joins has to fake their own death, that way they have ‘no strings attached’ and are free to take on new identities as the situation demands.”

Chris took a step toward Leanna, grasped her hands and looked her in the eyes. His eyes were shinning with such love and sadness that she found herself holding her breath.

You asked if I knew what you had gone through after that night, she heard him say in her mind, I can honestly say that I do. I felt every moment of your pain, your suffering. We seem to share some sort of bond, and I have felt and ‘heard’ you through that bond. And all I can say is that I am sorry that I caused you that pain, but I did it to try and protect you, and with that said, Chris looked at Leanna, waiting for her reaction to his torrent of words.

“You have to be kidding me,” Lea said with disbelief, trying to picture herself as some sort of Miss. Cleo, with the multi colored turban wrapped around her head and a Jamaican accent.

Suddenly Chris laughed. “No, you are definitely not Miss Cleo, though, with practice, you might have some of her supposed abilities.”