The Zeuorian Awakening Read online

  Her mom ran out from behind a tree trunk, breathing heavy. She clutched Lexi’s hand and pulled her toward their house. Not once did her mom slow down. She didn’t stop until they were safe inside the house and the front door had been dead bolted.

  Her mom bent over to catch her breath and asked Lexi, in between gasping for air, “Are you alright?”

  But Lexi wasn’t alright, far from it. Tears welled up in her eyes and she choked out, “He thought I was the spawn of the devil.”

  “He’s crazy, honey.” Her mom hugged her. “You’re not the devil.”

  “But he thought I would destroy everyone with my powers.”

  Her mom pulled away from Lexi and stared at her with wide eyes. The color had faded from her face and she swallowed hard before stuttering, “H-he k-knew you can read others minds?”

  “Yes. He saw me guessing cards with a boy in the store.”

  “Why didn’t you mention before you told a boy you can read minds?” Her mom grabbed her shoulders and squeezed them tight. “Lexi, how many times must I warn you, it’s not safe to tell anyone what you can do?”

  “But why?”

  “There are too many people like that man who can’t handle it and consider you’re a threat to them.”

  “They think I’m dangerous because I can read their minds?” She couldn’t believe it.

  “Yes and they’ll do anything to feel safe again, even kill you. I don’t ever want to lose you because other’s twisted fears.” Her mom hugged Lexi tight and kissed her forehead. “So please promise me to never tell another person about what you can do.”

  Lexi nodded her head and bit her lower lip until it bled. “I swear. I won’t ever tell another living soul about what I can do.”

  Oh, man, she regretted showing off her telepathy to the boy, but she never thought someone would actually try to kill her for being able to read minds. She won’t make that mistake ever again.

  Lexi steadied her trembling hands and continued to say to Angie, “I know there are people who would think what I can do is cool, like you, probably more than half the population on the world if I had to guess. But there are still a few who don’t. The more people I tell, the more likely those people will find out. I like to avoid another psycho trying to kill me. So for now, I prefer only Irene and you know what I can do and no one else.”

  “But what about—”

  “Especially not Tyler. I’m not interested in dating him and don’t want to share something that personal with him.”

  “I still think you should tell Tyler. He could be the one.”

  Lexi shook her head. Angie didn’t know when to give up, but she knew away to make her stop. She changed the subject. “Anyways, can you probe Tyler tomorrow and see if he saw me glowing in the water and knows my appearance changed?”

  “Okay,” Angie said with a sigh. “So how long are you going to ditch school?”

  “Maybe forever.” That sounded like a good idea at the moment. “I may graduate early and go to MIT. I already have enough credits and had been accepted to MIT this fall. I checked the college schedule and school hasn’t started yet. I should be able to get in this semester.”

  “And if you’re aunt doesn’t let you graduate early like she had this summer, when will you come back to school?”

  Angie had a point. She should consider the possibility Irene may refuse to let her attend MIT again. “I guess if that happened, I’ll wait a week and say I had a boob job and a makeover for my birthday. Hopefully by then Tyler would’ve forgotten what I had looked like when I walked by him on the beach.”

  3 STRANGER

  “Wake up. You’re late,” Lexi heard Irene shout from the hall. She lifted her head from the desk and rubbed her eyes. Tyler’s Facebook page was still on the computer screen and there were no messages from him.

  Yes! He hadn’t noticed her glowing or transformed, but a part of her wondered why there were no posts from him. From what she could tell on his Facebook page, he normally responded immediately from his cell phone after someone posted a message to him.

  Well, whatever the reason he hadn’t posted a message yet, it gave her time to discuss her plan to attend MIT with Irene and leave town before anyone knew about her transforming. She already packed her bags.

  She cleared her throat and called out, “Hey Irene can we talk?”

  “After you get ready,” Irene said outside her bedroom door.

  Lexi jumped from her chair, knocking it over, and rushed to the door. Irene disappeared behind the wall and started down the stairs, “Can we talk now?” Lexi asked. “It’s important.”

  “I said after you get ready.”

  Lexi opened her mouth and closed it. It wouldn’t hurt for her to take a shower and get dress just in case Irene decided to let her go to MIT.

  She ran into the bathroom next to the hall, tearing off her camisole and bikini underwear. She jumped into the shower and turned it on. A few minutes later, she stepped onto the rug and rushed into her room with the towel wrapped around her body.

  She grabbed a pair of worn jeans from a drawer and pulled them on, grunting the entire time as she tried to squeeze her new curved figure into the unforgiving denim.

  “Hurry up,” Lexi heard Irene shout from downstairs.

  “One more second,” Lexi replied, squeezing a frayed T-shirt over her large breast.

  A cool breeze brushed across her skin from the air entering her poorly insulated wood frame window. The weather already felt like fall, but what did she expect living in the northwest. She slipped on her worn hoodie, warming her chilled skin before rushing out of her room and down the stairs.

  “You’re not going to believe this,” Lexi started to say while entering the kitchen. “I actually transformed last . . .“

  Her words trailed away as she stared at the kitchen table where Irene should’ve been sitting. In her place was a morning newspaper open to the funnies, a half-eaten bagel and a small present with a note next to it.

  She lifted the note from Irene, “Sorry sweetie, there was an emergency at the hospital and I had to go back to work right away.”

  Seriously. Lexi gaped at the note. Irene couldn’t wait five minutes to talk to her. A car engine revved close to the house and pair of headlights beamed through the kitchen window. Oh, Irene hadn’t left yet. Maybe she could stop her before she drove away.

  She tore open the kitchen side door and rushed outside, taking the sidewalk toward the front of the house. The fog swirled around the driveway and grew thicker the closer she came to the road. Irene’s SUV pulled away from the curb and Lexi waved to her, but she continued toward the corner of the block and disappeared into the fog.

  Dammit. She missed her or maybe not. She rushed back inside and grabbed her cell phone sitting on the counter. After the first ring, Irene answered the phone. “What’s up,” she said.

  “Can we talk?” Lexi asked. “There’s something important I need to tell you that had happened to me last night.”

  “What happened?” Irene’s voice sounded alarm. “Did someone hurt you?”

  “No, no.” Lexi said, calming Irene down. “No one attacked me, but something happened after I jumped off the large rock island.”

  “You mean the rock I forbid you to go on after you broke your arm jumping from it last summer.”

  “I know, but—”

  “Yes you do know better,” Irene said, anger radiating off her voice. “I understand yesterday was tough being the second anniversary of your parents passing, but recklessly jumping off a twenty foot rock into the ocean for some type of thrill will not help you get over their loss. It’ll only end in you getting hurt or dead. You may have little regard for your life, but I don’t. Now promise me not to go on that rock again.”

  Lexi wished for once Irene would understand she hadn’t gone to the rock to get a stupid adrenaline rush by jumping off it. She went there to remember her parents and everything they had enjoyed doing together. For some odd reason the rock ma
de her seem close to them, but when Irene wanted her to promise not to do something, she knew it was a waste of time to fight her over it.

  “Fine,” Lexi said with a hint of annoyance in her voice. “I promise not to jump from the rock again. Now can we discuss what had happened to me?”

  “Yes. Oh, darn. I got another call on the line.” Irene placed Lexi on hold for a minute before picking up her line. “I have to explain a procedure to an intern. We’ll talk after I get back from work.”

  The line went dead. Lexi stared at the cell phone in her hand, blinking several times. She couldn’t believe Irene hung up on her. She debated going to the hospital and talking to Irene, but a couple of doctors and nurses saw her the other day and would know her appearance had changed.

  Double dammit. She slammed her cell phone on the counter. Irene gave her no choice. She had to wait until Irene got home to tell her about transforming.

  Her cell phone buzzed and she answered it right away. “I’m so glad you called back. We have to talk now. It’s life or death.”

  “What are you talking about?” Angie asked.

  “Oh, it’s you,” Lexi said, her shoulders sagging forward.

  “Thanks a lot.” Angie huffed. “I gather you hadn’t spoken to your aunt yet about changing?”

  “No. I have to wait until she gets off work. That’s if she doesn’t rush back as soon as she arrives home.” Lexi leaned against the kitchen table wondering if today will be another sixteen hour work day for Irene. The longest she seen Irene the past week had been a couple of hours at the most.

  “You can come to school and talk to Tyler,” Angie offered. “Then you don’t have to worry about getting hold of your aunt.”

  “I already told you—” Lexi’s muscles clenched when she noticed something moved outside her kitchen window. “I-I think someone is outside my house,” she said, slowly walking toward the sink and leaning over it to look out the window.

  The morning fog obscured her view. There appeared to be someone standing by a small tree in her front yard. Her mouth went dry and breathing slowed. Maybe her instincts had been correct and Tyler knew she had changed and told someone who couldn’t handle her being different. Now they came to kill her?

  Her head jerked toward the living room when the wood floor creaked. Someone was inside her house. Scenes from different episodes of Stalked on the ID channel flooded her mind, all of them ending extremely badly for the poor unsuspecting girl.

  “I have to go, someone’s inside my house,” Lexi whispered into the cell phone microphone.

  “Meet me at school,” Angie said, her voice shaking. “S-so I-I know you’re safe.”

  Lexi hung up her cell phone and slid it into her back pocket while backing up toward the kitchen door. All the while she kept an eye on the opening to the living room, hoping and praying no one would appear.

  Carefully she stepped into one of her hiking boots sitting next to the door with caked on mud from hiking in the woods the other day. Then she stepped into the next boot. Not once did anyone appear in the doorway, but she could hear the floor creaking as if they shifted their weight from one leg to the other.

  Quietly she removed her car keys from her backpack front pocket. Slid the backpack strap on her shoulder and turned the door knob. The floor stopped creaking and she had a bad feeling they were preparing to do something to her. She tore open the door and rushed outside without looking back.

  The fog appeared thicker than a few minutes earlier and made it difficult to see past the two tall bushes on the side of her house, but from what she saw, the coast was clear.

  It took her a few seconds to rush down the small paved path to her black 1970 Chevelle, or “Black Beauty,” as her father had called it.

  Then she slipped into the driver’s seat, gripped the steering wheel and turned the key in the ignition. The eight cylinder engine came to life, purring with a deep rumbling noise. She threw the car in reverse and tore out of the driveway.

  After shifting into first gear, she glanced over at her house. A shadow of a figure stepped away from the pine tree and disappeared into the fog.

  Damn, they must be preparing to chase her. They can try, but she wasn’t going to make it easy for them to catch her. She tore out of her neighborhood at ninety-five miles per hour, traveling north on highway 101 along the S curved road.

  4 FOLLOWED

  Lexi’s eyes drifted from the highway toward the rearview mirror. A pair of headlights beamed through the thick white mist and disappeared behind the mountainside.

  Damn, they were determined to keep up with her. What did they want with her? Did it have something to do with her glowing and transforming? Or were they just an average day psycho and they had no idea what had happened the other day. Either way, it couldn’t be good if they were chasing her.

  She pressed harder on the gas pedal. The ocean cliffs morphed into a blue blur as she hugged the curve a few inches from the mountainside. The headlights in her rearview mirror faded into the distance and continued until only white mist swirled along the deserted highway.

  Fifteen minutes later, she slowed down a mile from school and entered the parking lot. The only spot left was in the back. She pulled in, killed the engine and looked toward the road. Not a car in sight, but she had a feeling they were still on her tail.

  Her only hope of avoiding them—She had to hang out at school. Nowhere in town would be as safe as there. Although, should she go inside? ‘Cause if Tyler told whoever broke into her house about her being different, he could’ve told other people too.

  She didn’t need another psycho chasing after her from him gossiping about her glowing and appearance changing. One was enough.

  So her only option, she had to keep everyone from recognizing her. But how?

  A smile formed on her lips when she picked up a pair of sunglasses from her dashboard and slipped them on. No one would know it was her if they couldn’t get a clear view.

  Once she tucked her hair under an old baseball cap and pulled her hoodie hood over it, she flung open the car door and made a beeline to Angie standing next to the entrance dressed in a designer outfit.

  Angie’s short brown hair whipped around in the breeze as she threw her arms around Lexi, pulling her into a tight embrace. “I didn’t think I would ever see you again.” She let go of Lexi. “So did you see who was inside your house?”

  “No.” Lexi grounded the toe of her hiking boot into the sidewalk. “I rushed out of my house before I had a chance to see them and I only saw an outline of the person standing outside my house in the fog.”

  Angie gave her the look, the one questioning if she overreacted again. “So you never actually saw anyone inside your house or outside for that matter. Is it possible you’re mistaken? Because if someone truly wanted to get you, they would’ve done something to you right away.”

  Angie had a point. “Okay, maybe I assumed someone had been inside my house, but I’m not mistaken about someone standing outside.”

  “Are you sure? You do, um, let your imagination get the best of you. And I totally understand why. Who wouldn’t be a little paranoid after all the horror movies you’ve watched and, well, after what you went through. Honestly, I couldn’t stop thinking about that man trying to kill you last night.” Angie shivered. “But you don’t have anything to worry about. There’s no psycho’s living here.”

  “Just because Brookings isn’t big enough to have a mall, doesn’t mean it’s too small to have psycho’s. Actually, our town is more dangerous than a large city since tourists pull over to check out our beaches everyday while grab something to eat and maybe an unsuspecting victim to go. The guy who tried to kill me had been visiting the Redwoods when he saw me showing off my telepathy to the boy in the grocery store.”

  “Despite scaring me to death.” Angie eyed a boy walking by as if he might jump her any second. “Could you have mistaken a shadow of a tree as a person?”

  “No.” Lexi huffed. “Whoever was outside
my house also followed me to school.”

  “Yeah, that would’ve been me,” Tyler said, behind Lexi. “Why did you run from me last night?”

  She hadn’t expected him to come by her house and wait outside. She just assumed a psycho learned about her transforming and came to kill her as ridiculous as it seemed. It could happen. She freakin’ transformed the other night and what were the odds of that happening?

  “So,” he said, urging her to answer him.

  “I-I thought you were some weirdo and freaked out.” She kept her back toward him while blocking him from seeing her face. “Um, so why were you waiting outside my house this morning?” She hoped it had nothing to do with her glowing and changing.

  “I wanted to see how you were after I saved you from drowning. I knocked on your door and no one answered. I saw your car in the driveway and knew you had to be home so I decided to wait for you to leave, but you took off instead.”

  Damn, Tyler had saved her from drowning. Had he seen her glowing and know she changed? She better find out.

  She turned toward him, keeping her head angled down and hair covering her face. “I guess I owe you an apology for freaking out and assuming you were some psycho stalking me.”

  “Well, I’m glad to clear that up. I hate for you to think I’m some type of stalker.” He brushed his hand across her face and removed her hoodie. “Because you may take this the wrong way if you did. I can’t stop looking at you. You were always beautiful, but now,” he smiled, “it’s hard to believe how much you changed.”

  Changed? She scooted away from him. Oh, no. Did he know she transformed? “Exactly what do you mean by changed?”

  “How your looks changed over the summer as well as your figure.”

  Her cheeks warmed at the mere mention of her body. She turned away from his hungry gaze, but she couldn’t stop smiling, since he had no clue she transformed or ever would figure it out.