The Essence of Water

NEW VERSION Chapter 29

  When I slip unconscious I'm not sure if I'll wake again. Oddly the prospect of death doesn't shake me. In fact I almost welcome the thought of an undisturbed rest. Maybe at last I will have some peace. But eventually I do wake. I'm lying down in the backseat of an SUV and Aiden comes into focus behind the wheel.

"Aiden?" I ask, my throat is dry.

He takes a quick glance behind him and looks at me. "Hey," he says turning back to the road. "You're finally awake." I push myself to my elbows and look out one of the window. We're on the highway headed east, the sun rises before us.

"What happened?" I ask looking back to Aiden.

"Give me a second. I'll pull off the road and we can talk. I could use a break anyway," he says and I lay back down and watch Aiden drive. A few minutes later he pulls off at an empty rest area and opens the back door for me and helps me down.

"How are you feeling?" he asks and leads me to a picnic bench and sits down next to me.

"My head is throbbing," I say honestly and look down at the tear in my shirt where Aiden had stabbed me. There's nothing but a pink scar and old blood left from the wound. "I'm assuming you healed me?" Aiden nods. "And Steven?" I ask quietly. He shakes his head without saying a word and I look away toward the sunrise that is breaking through the tops of the trees. "I barely knew him," I say. "The last time I saw him we were just kids and yet..." I shake my head and brush the tears from my cheeks.

"I'm sorry," Aiden says and I know he's not talking about Steven. I turn back to him. He sits at the edge of bench away from me. His hands are folded together and tight.

"For what?" I ask. "You did exactly what I told you to."

"I could have killed you," he says. "I would have, if he had told me to take his gun and pull the trigger I would have." Aiden breaks and I watch his shoulders slump. He does wipe the tears from his eyes or try to hide them.

"We don't have to worry about him anymore," I tell Aiden. "You're in charge of yourself now."

He shakes his head. "I'd do whatever you said too, you know," he admits.

I laugh and he looks at me surprised. "Me? I don't think so," I laugh. "You've been a stubborn mule since we first set out together. You wouldn't leave me when I wanted you to and you wouldn't let me kill you when I wanted. You're your own master Aiden. You just haven't realized that yet."

"I stabbed you," he protests.

"Because I asked you to trust me," I shake my head. "Not because I ordered you to."

"Adie, you can't trust me around you," he stands up and I stand to block him.

"Stop," I tell him. "Of course I trust you. I might be a little mad that you threw me off a cliff but I trust you with my life and nothing is going to change that."

"You deserve better," he tells me quietly.

"That's my decision to make. Now, sit down and tell me where are we going and what happened," I push him back toward the bench and he sits down.

Aiden tells me that everyone inside the building was unconscious when he went in search for the serum. When he returned to me Steven was already dead and I was bleeding out in the grass. I wouldn't wake up though, even after he stopped the bleeding and the wound closed so he did the only thing he could think to do. He released the prisoners.

"I gave them their freedom but I'm not sure if any of them will take it," he shrugs.

"You did the best you could," I assure him. "All we can do is hope that some of them will make it."

"I buried Steven, I figured you wouldn't have wanted him left behind," he offers softly.

"Thank you," I reach out and take his hand. He doesn't recoil. Instead his fingers tighten around mind.

"What did you do, Adie?" he asks. "How did you know that you'd be alright if I stabbed you? How did you take down all those people?"

"I'm not entirely sure," I say honestly. "But I had this feeling in my gut that there was one last gift from my parents and I was right." I shiver when I recall the memory my father left behind, those were his last moments and now I am burdened to carry them forever. "He passed on the discovery of being able to connect to non-Misfits and not just through the connection with water but at any time. You told me once that we have a sort of telepathy with water but my parents discovered it was something more than that."

"But look at you, you passed out for an entire day and I couldn't reach you even when I tried," he says worried.

"I'm not saying it wasn't hard, Aiden. I'm just saying it's possible and who knows, maybe with time and practice it will get easier like my ability to control water. The simple fact is that we have a new way of defending ourselves."

"It didn't save your parents," he tells me.

I think about what Henry said to me when I left and repeat it out loud for Aiden, "We're still human. So where are we headed? You never said."

"Oh, right," he shifts underneath me and pulls out a folder underneath his jacket. He opens it in his lap. "I found this in Mr. Handler's office," he says. "It's a notice from a group of Handlers in another district. Apparently, they've had trouble with a particular Misfit and were requesting any additional information that his facility might have to aid them."

There's a square photo clipped to the inside of the folder and I pull it free to get a closer look. The man staring back at me has a black eye and a split lip. He stares straight at me as if he's about to dose me in lighter fluid and set me on fire through the photo.

"What does his paperwork say?" I ask him curiously.

"That's the thing, when I read some of his reports they didn't make any sense," Aiden leafs through the paper and pulls out a particular report. "I read it five times just to make sure I was reading it correctly." I take the paper I read over the short report and like Aiden I reread it a couple of times.

"I don't understand," I tell him. "How is that possible?"

He shakes his head and shrugs. "I mean I guess it makes sense, if we can control water what's to say that someone else can't control fire?" he asks.

"We have to find him."

"You asked where we were headed," Aiden reminds me. "Now you know. They have the last known location listed so I figured we'd start there."

I look back to the man in the photo. He's a Misfit according to his file, but unlike me or Aiden the report claims that he has the ability to manipulate fire.

"I love you," I tell Aiden looking at him. I feel it's important to tell him this now, while I have the chance and we're both alive and well. I don't know what our lives will bring but I do know that right now I need to know that Aiden understand how I feel.

Aiden looks at me and then leans over and kisses me. His lips are warm and assuring and gentle, "And I will always love you. "I hope you realize that whatever happens nothing will ever change that."

Aiden and I sit together and watch the sunrise. I lean my head against his shoulder and we listen to the birds and the sounds of the cars on the passing highway. Aiden wraps his arm around my shoulders and holds me close, reminding me that whatever may come he will be at my side, always.

End of Book One.