Chapter 23 – Watching You
Rica and Ford leaned over the computer scrolling through the files. On second glance it looked like most of it was still being compiled. “We have to delete this.” Ford said.
“Slow down,” Rica commented. “I have good news and bad news for you, which do you want first.”
“Good news.” Ford replied his eyes not leaving the computer screen. By this point he had taken the mouse from Rica and was going through everything. He felt violated and it worried him. There were some pieces in here about Levi too. It seemed that until the samurai attack yesterday, they weren’t sure who the Sage was. It was weird seeing it in writing on such an official document.
“Okay, first stop obsessing,” Rica took the mouse from Ford who tried to grab it back but she hit his hand. “Why do you want the good news first?”
“Cause I really only care about the bad news.”
“The good news is…turns out Ms. Atwood is as bad a spy as she is a teacher. I mean come on, who would leave their laptop in an unguarded classroom. So, we have the upper hand there.”
“Well, I don’t think she thought there was a super hacker at this school.” Ford replied.
“True, and the bad news is…I can’t delete it from here. It’s connected to some super server. Which I can track and we can go all commando on it.” Rica explained hitting a few keys and a file about her popped up. Rica’s eyebrows raised and she looked at the threat level bar on the side. It read low risk and she scoffed.
“Yes, let’s do that. “ Ford glanced at the screen then back at Rica. “This has articles about my friends, about my family. I can’t put them in danger like this.”
“Okay, okay,” Rica nodded. “Let’s figure out…what we are dealing with first. Cool? It’s never smart to run in blind.”
“Rica, I appreciate the help but you really don’t need to get involved in this.”
“Yeah? And you can hack into computers yourself.” Rica stared at Ford’s blank face then nodded, “Thought so. Whether you like it or not, we are friends now.”
***
Ford lay in his bed looking at his notes about his dream. He was trying so hard to put all the pieces together. He had the gist of it, the world was ending, it was horrible. But there was more to it. There were symbols, signs, things that he needed to figure out. Levi lay next to him reading a book for English. Levi shut hit bed and reached over scratching Ford’s back. The jock nuzzled his nose into Ford’s cheek and licked Ford’s neck.
Ford fell over and laughed as Levi quickly crawled on top of him. “You wanna?” Levi looked Ford in the eyes, hungry and turned on. Ford reached up and kissed Levi but shook his head no. “All right, what’s on your mind?” Levi rocked his him pushing into Ford. They were both fully clothes but the touch and stimulus definitely turned Ford on.
“I just…” Ford shook his head. Ford couldn’t help but feel watched. He looked out his bedroom window into the darkness. Something was watching him. He didn’t know if there were cameras in his room or what. That file really freaked him out. “Come with me,” Ford slid off his bed and led Levi to the bathroom. He shut the door and turned on the shower. Levi quickly took off his shirt and started to take Ford’s off.
“Wait,” Ford looked at Levi, his muscled body built up a little more for the football season. Ford couldn’t help but be a little turned on. He hoped the water would distract from any noise or bugs that were spying on him. “Rica and I found this file.”
“A file?” Levi questioned.
“The government is spying on me and…it looks like the intense tracking started after we got back from Miami. But, they have their research.” Ford went on. “I don’t know what they plan to do…but, they know. I can fight monsters and Sages, but I don’t know if I can take on the government.”
“Right, okay, well…is there anything I can do?” Levi said as the bathroom started to become steamier. The jock’s chiseled chest rose and fell with each breath and Ford shook his head.
“I just wanted you to know.” Ford walked over to turn off the water but Levi wrapped his arms around him and held Ford tightly. He lifted Ford’s shirt off and slowly turned him around kissing him in the steam. Ford felt suddenly relieved, peaceful, his worry seeping from his mind.
Levi drifted his hand down Ford’s stomach unbuckling his pants and having them drop to the bathroom tile. Ford looked into Levi’s face and smiled. “I love you.”
“I love you too.” Levi dropped his pants and the two stepped into the shower. It was magical, the water raining down on them as they made love, their hands slowly caressing each other and lips finding new places to touch. Ford placed his head in Levi’s chest and felt the warm water hit his back. He never wanted this feeling to end.
***
The following school day had ended; it was a warm September day, as the summer sun hadn’t quite given into fall yet. Both Rica and Ford waited by the staff parking lot. Most of the teachers didn’t acknowledge them except for Ms. Royce who waved to the two as she loaded some freshly made pottery into her old car. A warm breeze picked up by the time that everyone else had left except for Ms. Atwood. Then, she exited the backdoor carrying her book bag and spotting the two students by her car. Rica could almost read the word shit from her lips.
“If you all have question, you will need to address them in study hall.” Ms. Atwood pulled out her car keys.
“Cool, well lets start study hall then,” Rica said.
Ford motioned his hand and a gust of wind brought the car keys to his open palm. Ms. Atwood smirked then in a quick motion dropped her books and pulled out a gun pointing it at Rica. Ford’s wings burst from his back and he threw his hands out sending a gust throwing Ms. Atwood to the ground and ripping the gun from her hand. Ford made a circular motion with his hand and a small tornado lifted the three to the school roof.
Ms. Atwood sat up scowling at the two, “what do you want from me?”
“Come on, don’t play dumb. We know you are a spy,” Rica adjusted her baseball cap and sat on one of the vents.
“Fine,” Ms. Atwood stood up and smoothed the wrinkles in her skirt out. “I work for Valiant. We are a subsection of the United Nations, specifically trained and tasked for dealing with all the shit people aren’t ready to know about.”
“So, you guys fight monsters too.” Ford said, it making sense now that he never saw anything like that in the news.
“To a point, if anything gets out of control.” Ms. Atwood explained.
“And what do you want with Ford?” Rica interjected, getting to the real reason they cornered their fake US Law teacher.
“That’s confidential,” Ms. Atwood spat back glaring at Rica.
“Okay lady, we already hacked your computer.” Ford retorted.
“You hacked my computer but that was…” Ms. Atwood dropped her face in her hands. “Why did they assign me to babysit a teenager? I am not good at field work.”
“Clearly, Valiant. That’s a dumb name,” Rica rolled her eyes. “You all are not good at computers.”
“Yeah I’ve had to fight so many monsters, why do you even need Sages?” Ford questioned.
“It’s like cops trying to prevent every evil in the world.” Ms. Atwood explained. “We do what we can. Plus, we are not strong enough to fight everything: we are a small unit, our weapons aren’t as effective, etc.”
“So where is your backup?” Rica said
“I sent for them, they are coming soon.” Ms. Atwood admitted and held up a blinking keychain, clearly a distress signal.
“Soon enough to save you from a fall.” Ford moved his hand and a small tornado lifted Ms. Atwood over the edge and dangled her there. Ford was only bluffing, but he was hoping she couldn’t tell. “Tell me what Valiant want from me.”
“Okay, okay, just put me down!” Ms. Atwood begged and Ford lowered her gently back to the school roof. “I’m sure you have been having the dreams, and by what I saw in Miami, you know about fighting the other Sages…so you know of the prophecy.”
“Get to the point,” Rica was now standing her hands firmly on her hips and eyeing Ms. Atwood. “I read all that in your files.”
“Well, we can’t stop this evil so we’ve always tried to help the Sages out. We weren’t sure, who the Sage was when we first started tracking you. We knew it was a teenage boy in Denver after the prom. Then after the incident in Miami, we tracked the flights and the police statement describing the boy. We narrowed it down to you or your friend Levi.” Ms. Atwood explained.
“Boyfriend, get your facts right, we are official now.” Ford corrected, then as an aside to Rica, “It took us a long time to get there.”
“Right,” Ms. Atwood continued, “so we unleashed two monsters we captured to test both of your skills. You succeeded.”
“Wait, but Levi…he never encountered a monster.” Ford paused knowing Levi would have told him if something came up.
“Oh, well his has an invisibility power. It’s probably been tracking him the past two days, learning his skills.” Ms. Atwood’s eyes grew large. She had put a civilian in danger.
“Levi! Keep an eye on her.” Ford moved his hand and some wind blew the gun that was knocked out of Ms. Atwood’s hand into Rica’s.
“Now, let’s talk about changing that syllabus.” Rica mentioned as Ford jumped off the roof and flew to the gymnasium.
***
Bursting through the locker room doors, Carter and a few others exited from football practice. Ford hurried inside looking in between the rows of lockers and finally found Levi.
“Levi!” Ford hurried up to the jock as he slid on his shirt.
“Hey babe, were you waiting for us to be the only two in here?” Levi had a sultry smile creep onto his lips.
“No,” Ford shook his head. “Have you seen anything weird lately?” Ford then sensed it, something was watching them, and it was the same feeling he got the night before but thought it was about the file. He needed to learn to trust his senses more. Then he saw it, it looked like heat waves in the distance, and something perched on the wall. Ford pushed Levi out of the way and using wind threw a bench at the figure. The bench snapped and revealed a chameleon like beast, black with sharp teeth. It jumped forward but Ford held it tight in mid-air with a tornado. The lockers rattled.
“How do we kill it?” Levi looked as the beast reached out for him.
Ford moved his hands and the lockers on either side of it flew together squishing it. The lizard turned into oil spilling onto the floor. Ford returned the now bent and broken lockers to their proper places. Levi’s white sneakers were now covered in dark thick gooey oil. He lifted up his backpack just in time before it touched.
“Thanks…for saving my life again.” Levi smiled but was clearly a bit shaken.
“No problem, I need to get back to something.” Ford gave Levi a quick kiss then ran out of the locker room and leapt into the air to head back to Rica. Gliding to Rica’s side he looked from Rica back to Ms. Atwood. Quickly, Ford flicked his wrist and the gun flew out of Rica’s hand.
“Here’s the deal,” Ford mentioned. “You all don’t hurt my friends or family. No more of this releasing monsters and stuff and in response…when you do need a Sage’s help, I will help you.”
“We do have a Sage training program…and if you know the other.” Ms. Atwood started but Ford shook his head and she stopped.
“No, you almost just killed my boyfriend.” Ford shouted clearly angry. “I tell you nothing, you guys leave us all alone, do you agree or not?”
“Fine, I agree.” Ms. Atwood held up her keychain and clicked it. It stopped blinking red and she nodded. Ford knew she was just doing her job, but he did not need someone who was supposed to be his ally causing this much trouble. He lowered the three from the roof and watched Ms. Atwood drive off in her car.
Rica pulled out a joint and lit it. She turned to Ford, “So that’s it…we’re done being friends now that the mystery is solved.”
“Not everything always turns out so easy Rica,” Ford explained and put an arm around the girl. “We need to go to a gay club together. Find you a girlfriend.” Ford laughed and watched Rica take a drag from the joint.
“You know,” She held the smoke in and held the joint out to Ford. She was a stoner in all the best ways. Ford wondered if she knew Hudson. Ford nodded and took it. He did need to relax. “Thanks for saving my life, you got me twice.”
“Well, three times.” Ford took a drag and let it out walking behind the school. He didn’t need to have people know he smoked pot too.
“Three?” Rica stopped stumped. “The samurai and the gun, that’s it.”
“And the school bus. I saw you step in front of it. You need to be more careful about that.” Ford started then noticed Rica wasn’t following him. She had lowered her cap to cover her eyes but was clearly crying, “What’s wrong?”
“Nothing I just…” Rica sniffled then wiped the tears from her eyes as she took back the joint and finished it.
“Rica, did you…mean to step in front of the bus.” Ford asked suddenly realizing the look on Rica’s face when she did. It was the same look on his in the mirror that morning. If it weren’t for Levi, Ford wouldn’t have had anything to look forward to the first day
“I just, I got in this huge fight with my family and I didn’t want to come back here and….I felt like there was nothing to live for.” Rica explained and sniffled a little more.
“I hear that, but…do you feel the same now?” Ford asked.
“No, not since I’ve met you.” Rica smiled and walked up to hug her new friend. “Ford, I know we have been calling you a super hero but you are so much more than that. You’re an angel.”
***
The night as Ford tossed and turned in his sleep, the dream was more vivid than it ever had been. He was flying over Denver, but it wasn’t Denver anymore. Monsters roamed the streets and the sky was black with smoke. The building were destroyed and in the distance massive fires burned as whole civilizations burned with them. The smell, he knew what it was now, bodies, the human race dying and the world ending.
Ford flew through some smoke and coughed until he emerged on an island. Dark red waters splashed on the shore and burnt chard land crunched beneath his feet. He stood outside a large circular door carved into the mountain. It was intricate and these were the details of his dream he so hoped to remember. Looking at each small curve and sharp carve the door formed a circle of sacrifice and survival: images of people dying, a prophecy waiting to come to fruition. Around the edge of the stone gate were small circles and each an image. A flame, a wave, a mountain, a tornado, a snowflake, a sword and shield, a tree, an empty circle and one shaded in.
But there were two more, hidden that he couldn’t make out. The harder Ford looked the fuzzier they became. Then suddenly a claw gripped his shoulder and Ford leapt up, waking in a cold sweat. He panted and blinked his eyes adjusting to the darkness. It was just a dream, for now.