Page 92 of Sundowners
“Why should we go with you?”
He tilted his head to the side again, and I swear I saw his pupils dilate.
“Because it’s what I desire you to do. Or, we can try this.”
In a split second, I saw Emmanuel with a rope around his neck hanging from the rafters of the exposed-beam ceiling in my auntie’s living room.
I gasped and shot up out of my seat but…my hand was still on Emmanuel’s abdomen. He was still beside me with that blank expression.
“Or, perhaps this will get you to move?”
The man was suddenly at Bernadette’s side with a huge knife, which he used to slice open her belly and release her innards onto the floor.
I cried out, but then she was still next to me, breathing normal, and when I squeezed my eyes shut and opened them, I realized it was all visions. They weren’t real. The man was still standing where he’d been the whole time.
“You must be Stephen,” I said, my heart pounding in my chest, though my limbs felt sluggish. Creed had said he could put images into someone’s head. God, what a terrifying power to have.
“It’s very nice to meet you, Professor. But we must go.” He held his hand out, and Bernadette and Emmanuel pushed past me.
Creed had never said anything about the power of suggestion, or any sort of brainwashing like this, but then, he’d been away from this man for fifty years. Perhaps Stephen had new tricks up his sleeve that Creed wasn’t aware of.
I still had command of my senses, so at least I knew that I could protect my aunt and cousin, but I didn’t like the idea of getting into a car with them. I followed Bernadette and reached into my pocket to hopefully hit the call button on my phone. I didn’t know if it worked, but I figured it was the best I could do.
They walked us out the front door, and I hoped to catch the eye of someone on the street, but there was no one around, which seemed odd. Vanessa’s neighborhood was usually a happening place, with lots of nosy neighbors working in their yards or sitting in their open garages watching the goings on. Emmanuel complained about it frequently, especially when the neighbors would rat him out to his moms for driving too fast, or when he’d bring girls over while his moms were at work. Perhaps Stephen was masking the fact that others were around. If I couldn’t see them, could they see us?
They led us to a Maserati, which I was surprised I hadn’t noticed on arrival. No one on their block would drive such a fussy car. This was strictly a sedan and small SUV street.
The guy with Stephen held open the back door for us, and Bernadette and Emmanuel slid in. I made eye contact with Stephen over the roof of the car. He knew he had me. There was no way I was going to let him take them without me. Still, I remained rigid. My body fought me, swaying toward the car, but I kept my feet planted.
“You don’t want to do this,” I told him. “People with more power than me will come down on you like a tsunami. You won’t get out of this unharmed.”
“How very matter-of-fact of you. I know full well what I’m dealing with, and your people do not compare. Get in. Let’s go.”
This is crazy. Neither of them appear armed. I could grab my aunt and cousin and run for it.I had to try. I reached in for Bernadette’s hand.
“Tita, we need to go. Emmanuel.”
She yanked her arm back and started screaming, staring at me as if I was the boogeyman coming to take her away. She clung to Emmanuel for help, and he too seemed afraid of me.
“They’ll see whatever I want them to see. Trust me. Get in the car, Roman.”
I climbed in, seeing no way around it, and as I sat back, the two men in the front seats turned around and shoved cloths in our faces. Chloroform, most likely.
The last thing I remember was Emmanuel’s frightened cry, Stephen’s chilling smile, and then darkness.
I wokeup naked on the floor in a dark room with a single bare bulb hanging from the ceiling. This was way too cliché, but I knew I was in trouble. My ear was ringing so loudly I could barely hear anything. The door opened, and I scrambled to my feet and into a defensive pose, but immediately I was knocked back and held against the wall by an unseen force.
Stephen entered, followed by a person draped in layers of red fabric.
“This is Professor Roman San Angelo, and he is a companion of Learner Creed.”
The figure glided forward and lifted their hood from their face and exposed a…kind expression upon an attractive face. Their hair was shorn nearly to the scalp and their bright blue eyes were so wide, their pupil merely a pinprick of black. They were slender and only about as tall as Vanessa, but I knew better to discount anyone’s strength because of height.
The hair rose on my arms in an unpleasant way.
A kind expression does not equal a kind being. And being was the right word. It didn’t feel right to consider them human.
“What do you want? Where is my family?”
