Avenging You

Chapter 15

Parker

I played games with AJ for a while before we ended up watching a movie before bed. I was exhausted and ended up falling asleep during the movie.

At first, it’s a normal sleep, but then the scenery of my dream changes into the familiar meadow scene Hunter normally orchestrated. I turn around and see him standing across from me and I say his name, “Hunter.”

He looks at me up and down and says, “You look different.”

I nod and say, “As do you.”

“One of my sources say you have a son.”

I lie smoothly, “Nephew. Was enjoying time with him at the park.”

“And by nephew you mean one of your friends’ kids since you don’t have any siblings?”

I nod confirming his suspicion and he begins to pace around me and comes close to me so close that if this wasn’t a dream I would feel his breath on me. He says with a moan, “You’re just as beautiful as ever, Parker.”

I roll my eyes, “Let’s cut to the chase, Hunter, what do you want? What’s with all the destruction?”

“I’m tired of all of you getting in my way so I had to get a little more aggressive.”

“A ‘little’ more aggressive? Hunter you’ve killed so many.”

“You act like me killing is a surprise to you.”

I huff, “What do you want?”

“You and if you don’t come willingly, I will kill every single one of your friends.”

My eyes widen a little in surprise as he’s never been this direct. He says, “If you come willingly, I will never kill them or send any of my people to kill them. I will leave them to live a normal life, but I have to have you by my side.”

I nod in understanding, “I’ll get ba-.”

Suddenly I’m pulled out of the dream and I wake up startled and AJ is standing on the couch beside me with his hands on my head and his brow furrowed in concentration. His brown eyes meet mine and his face relaxes and he strokes my hair as he asks, “Are you okay, mama?”

I nod slowly feeling breathless and he continues to look at me in an odd way as he sits back down beside me and I ask, “What’s wrong, love?”

He stands back up and grabs my head and then focuses on me and I begin to feel my anxieties disappear from me and I ask, “What was that?”

“While you slept the color around your head started turning a dark gray color… I’ve never seen dark gray before, but dark colors are normally bad. So, I made the gray go away. Once you woke up it turned a light orange and you seemed upset, so I made that go away too.”

Huh, that’s interesting. I’ve never heard him mention orange before. I kiss the top of his head and say, “Thank you, AJ.”

“What happened to change the colors, mama?”

I sigh, “It’s… complicated I’ll tell you later.” I glance up at the time and say, “Come on, let’s get you something to eat and head to bed.”

I noticed Ryan and Skye were watching me when that happened, and I groan under my breath knowing that Ryan will want to talk about this too.

Ryan

I sit outside and watch the sun set as I wait for Parker to join me. My mind has been flooded with different things… Skye’s suggestion that I might have deeper feelings for Parker, how AJ said Parker had a dark color around her head- like what does that even mean? And it also changed to an orange color? I also want to hear more about Parker’s time when she was gone.

I hear the hatch open and turn my head to see Parker coming out and I smile at her. She gives me a half-hearted smile and sits down beside me and we watch the sun set in silence.

Once it becomes dark, she says, “I tried to bring him back, you know?”

I turn towards her surprised by her words and I ask, “How?”

She doesn’t look at me she stares at the sky, but I see the tears falling down her face. She says, “I tried a few different ways. They never worked.”

I bite my bottom lip trying to figure out how to respond and she says, “You know Ashton and I kind of manifested Blaze, right?”

I nod, I remember the story. She sighs, “I thought that I could do the same with him. I tried to, over and over, but it never worked. It was like creating a shell. It would look like him… but it didn’t know me. The first time I tried it didn’t have the ability to talk, the second time I tried it didn’t know who I was and tried to leave, the third time I tried it couldn’t even walk… I tried countless times- desperate to have him back in my life, but it never worked.”

“I’m sorry, Par.”

She looks at me with a surprised expression and says, “You called me Par.”

I nod, “Yeah, I did.”

She smiles softly and looks back up at the sky and says, “I wanted to go back in time and change the way everything happened. But Nikki told me that it doesn’t work. Eventually everything will happen the way it was supposed to and that the more you try to prevent something from happening the more heartache it causes you.”

“That must’ve been really difficult for you.”

She nods and takes a few deep breaths and said, “I tried for a year to get Ashton back and it finally got to the point where I knew I needed to move forward with my life. I put all my attention and focus on AJ. He’s my everything.”

“That makes sense.”

Parker

I look towards Ryan. He seems uncomfortable out here with it just being the two of us which I found odd since it was his idea for us to do this in the first place.

He says, “You know, Skye mentioned something interesting to me today.”

“What’s that?”

“Apparently AJ is talking about wanting a dad.”

I laugh, “Yeah, he always is. I hate that he never got to know Ashton it’s like he knows a big part of his life is missing.”

I watch as Ryan nods, but I can tell he’s holding something back and I ask, “You okay, Ry?”

He nods, “Yeah, yeah, I’m fine. I’m glad we’re getting better.”

I smile, “Me too.”

“Do you know what AJ was meaning by there being a dark color by your head? What does he even mean with all this color stuff? He told me a little, but I don’t really understand.”

“Yeah… it’s complicated I don’t fully get it either. But from what I understand he can see every person has a color and if they’re yellow, they’re human. If they are blue, they are an Original and if they are a dark purple, they are an Aberration.”

Ryan’s face scrunches up in confusion and he asks, “But he says you’re blue and you aren’t an Original. You never would’ve had powers if it weren’t for Nikki passing.”

I nod, “I would guess it’s because I don’t use my powers for evil? I don’t really know, I mean AJ is smart and he has explained things pretty well to me, but at the end of the day he is still a five-year-old. He isn’t going to be able to explain his powers to us as well as we can to each other.”

“You got a point there. It’s still pretty cool that he has powers though. But what does the orange color mean?”

I smile, “Yeah, it is, it’s just weird it’s so different than everything we’ve ever been taught. And honestly, I don’t know, I’m wondering that myself.”

Ryan shrugs, “He’s your kid, Parker, and you are incredibly powerful it doesn’t surprise me that your son is as well.”

I look towards Ryan and for a second my eyes get lost in his. He smiles at me and it makes me have butterflies fill my stomach. I look away from him feeling repulsed and betrayed by my own thoughts.

He’s like my brother. He was like Ashton’s brother. I can’t go there.

It’s too disrespectful to Ashton.

I stand up and tell Ryan goodnight and I go back to the bunker. The second I close the door to my room it is like a dam breaks and tears silently stream down my face.

I don’t think I’ll ever be able to move on. I’ll always feel too guilty for being happy with anyone other than him.