Banished To Earth Book One (21)

    “Or on your way to the rest home to get your mother?” Beth asked, “Because it’s not that easy. You can’t Portal Shift everyone to make them believe, or force Pry to put on a little alien vampire show to convince them. Your mother is too sick to move, and you’re not a doctor. I can go on if you want. And how about drawing too much of the wrong kind of attention to you and Pry?”

   “You still have me wrong Beth. I’m no saint. The last time I went to see my mother, she spat in my face and called me every dirty name in the book. Oh, she’s sick, but not too sick to cuss me out. If she had Alzheimer’s or something, it would be a whole ‘nother thing. But she’s not sick in the head. Her body has diabetes and her heart,” he paused and stared out to sea, “her heart is just a chunk of coal.” What if, way deep inside, I don’t want to save her? Truth is a little bit of me just wants her gone.”

   “That only means you’re still just as human as the rest of us. You think I’m worried sick about what might happen to Nick?”

   His eyes softened as he turned and looked at her, “You should be, but …”

“Yeah, but.”

“I know you still worry about Nick, and I’m still worried about Mom.”

    “Well maybe the thought of him being torn to bits by some monster doesn’t thrill me, second thought, it does a little, alright, not really. But how much can either of us actually do? Do you know where or when the beasties are going to pop out of nowhere? The hills may well be the worst place to head. Staying put could be the right move. Chase, stop trying to be more than you are, or know more than you can know. Tomorrow’s not ours, and you’re not God.  You can’t hold up the sky or carry the world on your shoulders; it’ll just mash you flat.”

   “So we just sit in the sun and watch our girls play,” Chase mused, “enjoy the quiet while we can, the warmth before the winter.”

   “Our girls?” Beth asked half-teasingly.

    “Maybe that came out wrong.” He felt his face turn red. He had for a moment come to think of Beth in a way he had yet to think of Pry, as another grown-up, as another earth person, as someone he felt a nice comforting old Earth commonality with. 

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    She took his hand, “I like the way that came out.” She looked down at Pry, splashing water at her giggling baby girl.” She sighed, “I find myself thinkibut love her, Chase. There's something so sweet but so powerful about her. She’s so adorable, maybe it’s the alien thing? Has she cast some spell on me? I don’t think so. Thing is I, I don’t think of you as a brother or even a hero, super or otherwise. You’re a friend, Chase. Someone I can talk to, someone I stupidly mistook Nick for, once upon a time. But he turned out to be a phony. You’re not.” She caught herself staring into his eyes and wanting more than she knew she had the right to want.

    Beth slid her hand from under his, looked down and was relieved, if also dully disappointed to see his hand pull away.

   Neither spoke for a while. They sat, waved at Nikki and Pry as they played a futile game of keep away, from waves that would never stop coming.

Chapter 15

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    Grant stared at the bloody remains the Crychee had left behind. ‘That could be me…’ he thought, but even as he swatted blow flies away from his face and tried to tune out the stench of their rotting flesh, with his new abilities. Odour control was clearly not one of them; in fact, his change had only enhanced his sense of smell.    

   He reminded himself that the portal's energy signature was fading along with his only chance of tracking down this monster, his one-way ticket to Godhood. The promise of that bright future shone down on him like the sun. It recharged his resolve and pointed the way.

   And as he stood before the fading portal, he reminded himself that they had made him Hunter. What could be made could also be unmade. If they were testing him, he knew he must not fail. The crychee had to die, die by his hand. He dare not fail his Gods. For truly, they were Gods. His obedience and faithfulness would surely win their trust and his reward, Earth and deity.  

   He tasted superhumanity; he would do anything to keep it, even die. Going back to being a sniveling nobody, even without the monster threat, would be worse than dying. Besides, if the crychee’s shift portal dumped him somewhere bad, he could always shift somewhere else, somewhere safe.

    His cowardice neatly packed away, he ran his fingertips across the portal's subtle energy crease, being careful to trace it perfectly so as not to disrupt its fragile state. Finally, his right index finger completed the circle or circuit, as it were. The old portal opened exactly as it had before, ensuring he would step out onto the exact spot the Crychee fled before.  

   With his right index finger poised to swipe a new portal, he stepped off the rocky lake shore and onto the black, muddy sand just over a mile from Chase's little beach house. Cool air swept over him; he heard seagulls in the distance and the sound of waves crashing.

   With both hands raised and his head bowed, he scanned the area for his prey. Somewhere up ahead, his quarry waited. Was it watching? Was this a trap? He could shift ahead but feared he’d overshoot his target.

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   No cover here. He peered ahead. Saw nothing then trudged on, knowing that his prey could sense his presence as easily as he could sense theirs. Which is exactly what happened

    “A Hunter, a hunter’s coming.”

   “What?” Beth jerked up from her lounge chair, raced across the deck just in time to see Pry scoop Nikki up and leap from the beach onto the deck. “So soon, already?”

  “ ‘Fraid so Beth, you know what to do.” Chase reached out to Pry as she handed Nikki off to Beth. “Grab your go bags.” Beth ran through the door. Nikki was crying. But there was no time to comfort her.

     “We scared her, Chase.”

“Can’t be helped,” He pulled her to his chest, hugged her tightly, and kissed her hard.

“I’m staying with you,” Pry said coldly, pushing him away.

    “No. You are not. They need you. This may well be a lot more than an early Hunter. If this is the Fall, it’s your job to keep them alive. Get them to my old house.” Chase softened his voice, “Please. If things get bad, you can ditch the car and shift them away in an eyeblink. And you can fight for them too. Now go. I love you. Beth loves you, too. Keep our baby safe.”

   Pink tears rolled down Pry’s cheeks. “I, I will.”

“Hurry.”

“How can I hurry away from you?”

“I will see you later. Promise.”

 Pry kissed him, turned and disappeared into the house…

    They were pulling into the main road when Chase spotted a small black dot far down the beach. It would soon grow into Grant Stayner.

   He had to fight the urge to run and get this confrontation over with. However, he knew every slow, deliberate step was buying them precious time.

    Still, he felt a little goofy walking down the beach with the fiery sun settling into a flaming nest of clouds and sea behind him.

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