The Exclusive One

Chapter 15

Day 12.

7:00 a.m.

Parker:

Ryan and I had a restless night and as soon as the sun came up, we began our walk home. We didn’t talk to one another both having the same worries about entering the house.

Thankfully, Ashton, Ryan, and I will be moving today we just have to get our stuff into the vehicles and drive over to this place Thomas found for us.  

When we got home Ryan immediately went upstairs and although I wanted to follow him and let him know that I’m here for him I knew that he probably needed the time alone.

I go to my room being careful not to look towards the kitchen. I lie on my bed and find myself unsure of what to do.

I can’t stand to be alone.

Every time I’m not busy her face comes into my head. The image of her body in the kitchen; all I can remember is the red of her blood.

When I’m not seeing Bella then I’m seeing Nikki.

Her grinding her teeth trying not to scream as her neck was being disintegrated.

Her head rolling in our direction.

The dark red blood in contrast to the white snow.

I try to think of what else I can do.

I walk down to our basement so that I could do an intense work out, but when I open the door, I hear a scream.

As I start to walk down the stairs, I hear another blood curdling scream making me cringe.

Who could be in here anyway?

I am about to run down the rest of the way when I feel my arm get yanked back. I look up at Ryan as he hisses, “Parker.”

I look at him and his face expresses his sadness and his pain for what we are hearing. We hear another scream and I wince and look at Ryan while asking, “What’s happening?”

He sighs as he looks behind me and then back into my eyes and says, “He’s already doing it, Parker, you can’t stop him now.”

I look back down the stairs and ask with what I hope sounds like determination, but I’m pretty sure sounded like desperation, “What’s happening?”

Ryan looks at me with pity in his eyes, “He has to tell you that, Par.”

I cringe at the sound of another scream and when another scream comes right after that one I sigh, “I can’t stand this.”

With that I yank my arm out of his grasp and run down the stairs to see the strangest thing imaginable: Ashton is on his knees with his hands chained to a chair that’s in front of him screaming in pain, but coming out of what I think is his back, but it could be his chest is a stream of orange and red colors and they are all traveling to the floor. I walk hesitantly over to where Jasper and Thomas stand which is at least a good ten feet away from Ashton and this flowing stream of light. They don’t seem to notice me, so I walk behind them and over to Ashton.

I walk near Ashton and continue to watch the colors before I look down at his face. I have never seen him in so much pain before and I know he hasn’t seen me yet since his eyes are clenched shut. I’m not able to bear his screams any longer so I decide to try something.

I put my hand over his mouth.

At first, he resists me doing this and his screams are muffled against my palm, but once he stops screaming the flow of lights stop and whatever it was going into snaps shut.

Thomas and Jasper both look at me; stunned; while I walk to the center of the room and pick up what looks to be a small charm that you would put on a necklace. My eyes widen at the creativity of it and I look at Jasper and ask, “Did you make this?”

“Yea-yeah.” He stutters. I nod slowly as I continue examining it and comment, “It’s incredible; beautiful work.”

It is in the shape of a triangle the middle of it is like an open circle where there is this red and orange energy swirling. It looks; magical.

I look up at the boys then down at Ashton as I ask, “Why is Ashton chained to a chair?”

Tom quickly unchains him and doesn’t respond to my question. I roll my eyes and continue to hold the charm and Jasper grabs it out of my hand and says, “I’m glad you like it, Parker, now since I know you do I can make a special one just for you.”

“What did you make it for?” I ask feeling skeptical of the whole situation.

“It was just an experiment.” He says as casually as he can, but I can see from his body language that he is nervous.

I nod slowly and look over at Ashton who is now trying to stand up and I ask, “Are you feeling ok?”

“Yeah, why wouldn’t I be?” He asks sounding very out of breath.

“You look kind of pale and you were just screaming as if you were dying.”

He gives me a blank stare making me ask again, “Are you feeling alright, Ash?”

I walk up to him and feel his head to check and see if he has a temperature. He is burning up so I grab his hand and say, “Come on, you need to get some rest. You’re burning up.”

I put my arm around Ashton and let him put most of his weight on me as I help him up the stairs and take him to my room. I drag him in there putting him on my bed. I set his cell phone next to him and inform him, “If you need me just text me or call me, ok Ashton?”

He nods slowly, and his eyes are already starting to close. I kiss his forehead before walking out of my room where I see the others are all sitting at the kitchen table. I ask as I cross my arms, “What was that about?”

“Well…” Thomas starts to trail off before he hesitantly tells me, “We got a call from Hunter while you and Ryan were at the cabin.”

The hairs on my neck start to stand up at the mention of his name. I look up at Thomas and nod for him to continue, “He told us that if we gave him your powers then he would give us back the girls.”

I yell as I slam my hands on the island, “But he killed one of them!”

Thomas nods, “I know that, Parker, but we have six more days or well five more starting tomorrow to give him powers or Lorelei is going to be dead too!”

“He wants my powers?” I clarify.

“Yes.” 

“So, how do we get rid of mine?” I ask without a doubt in my mind of what I have to do.

“We don’t.” Jasper spoke up.

“Then what will happen? I’m not willing to let Lorelei die as well!” I tell them so quickly that I start to stumble over my own words. I run my fingers through my hair feeling desperate for her life.

“Ashton gave up his powers.” Ryan answers me solemnly.

“He did what?” I ask harshly.

Everybody remains quiet for a moment before Jasper speaks up, “He gave up his powers for you.”

“Why would he do something like that?”

“Because if you are as powerful as we all think you are then if Hunter got a hold of your powers we’d all die.” Thomas tells me and I immediately ask, “Why do you all think I’m so powerful?”

Ryan answers, “You’re the Exclusive, Parker.”

“Okay, I hear you all say that a lot, but I don’t know exactly what it means so will someone please explain?”

Jasper speaks up, “Basically the Exclusive is the only one that is powerful enough to beat the Aberrations.”

“How do you know that?”

Ryan stands up and grabs my hand and says, “Come on, Parker, let’s talk.”

I groan as he leads me to the basement and we walk down the stairs. Ryan sits down on one of the couches and says, “Years ago everybody that had powers worked together to fit in and to get along. We called ourselves the Originals and then some of the Originals started to get ideas on how to take over the Earth to where we wouldn’t have to hide anymore because it would only be us living on Earth. Everybody talked about it, but overall, we all disagreed. They started an uprising against their own kind and called themselves the Aberrations. When the Aberrations rose up against the Originals, we had to work extremely hard to keep everything under wraps; they were about to exploit us to the whole world. We discovered that Nikki had multiple powers and we called her the Exclusive. We all believed she was out only chance of winning the upcoming war.”

He sighs heavily and looks down as if he’s discouraged and continues, “We believed that as she got more experience she would take over as our leader. She was the only one more powerful than Hunter. Hunter and the other Aberrations goal is to turn the Exclusive over to their side. Nikki chose death and now you seem more powerful than she ever was. If they were able to turn you then the rest of us are doomed.”

He sighs and looks at me to see how I am taking this and then continues, “Thomas says the Aberrations had actually been dormant for years. They thought the problem was over… then Nikki was born. Since the day she was born some activity had been occurring. It had never been enough though to really get anyone concerned; then Nikki started to grow up and date. We were thankful she was dating an Original, but Nikki and Jack were constantly in a breakup-make up relationship. But they never dated anybody else then one day that changed, and Nikki started to date Hunter.” He glances over at me. I had never heard of Jack and I don’t remember Nikki ever dating Hunter.

Ryan sighs, “He was the only guy any of us thought she would pick over Jack and none of us would have ever thought he was an Aberration not to mention the leader of them.” He scoffs and shakes his head.

“We were so stupid to not see who he was. Hunter’s done some bad things, Parker, as you know. If we ever were to capture him, I can honestly say he’d probably be executed immediately for the crimes he’s committed.”

I nod slowly and ask, “You all think I’m the Exclusive just because I have multiple powers?”

He laughs, “That and you don’t get tired after using them. You never talk about being tired. In fact, I’ve watched you Parker and you seem to get energized from using your abilities.”

“So, what if I am the Exclusive? What does that mean?”

“Then be prepared.” He says standing up and I look back at him and ask, “Be prepared for what?”

He doesn’t say anything as he walks up the stairs leaving me by myself with questions swarming and overflowing my mind.

What do I need to be prepared for?

Am I going to have to sacrifice myself the way Nikki sacrificed herself?

Will I have to leave Ashton?