The Hidden Ones

Chapter 1

Chapter 1

The Uber driver waved cheerfully as she peeled out of the shoulder and headed back towards the bridge to the mainland. Rob raised his own hand in a weak imitation of the gesture. He dropped his hand to adjust the backpack slung across one shoulder. Deep breath, in and out. The sun was low, but a few hours of sunlight remained. He eyed the dunes warily. Tufts of pale grass listed lazily in the wind. Sturdy wooden steps bridged the soft curves of sand.

Motionless, Rob took another deep breath, eyes closed. This was the right place. He knew it would be. Still, the confirmation that ran through his bones was a welcome feeling.

Exactly how he knew wasn’t something he had the answer to. It was a sense, something that came as naturally as breathing. He mentally added the how to the list of questions he planned to ask, should he get the chance. He’d travelled a long way. It would crush him to walk away empty handed as he had so many times before.

He squared his shoulders and stepped decisively onto the first step. The wood felt good beneath his sneaker. Strong, solid. Emboldened, he kept going until he reached the top of the dune. He looked out at the length of beach before him. Low, lazy waves of blue grey crashed against white sand. There was a scattering of blankets and umbrellas, but most of the vast stretch of sand was vacant. June was barely halfway over. Not quite tourist season yet.

The stark white paint of the lifeguard stand stood out against the dull sand. Rob glanced back over his shoulder. It wasn’t too late. He could message that Uber driver. She had been nice enough. She would pick him up, take him somewhere else. Anywhere but here.

The brief mental debate wasn’t a true struggle. Rob hadn’t waited all this time to turn tail now that he was so close to others. Others like him. Others who might know what the hell was wrong with him. They very well might send him away, but Rob was committed to see things through until the end.

Besides, the Uber driver had been too nice. Her wide smile and flirty giggles had set Rob’s nerves on edge. She had not been his type, but he had certainly been hers, and it had taken every ounce of his willpower to reign in his…whatever it is that he had, and not influence her into liking him even more than she already did.

Rob sat down at the top of the stairs and unlaced his sneakers. He pulled them off, along with his socks, and stuffed them into his backpack. He paused to roll his shoulders and stretch out his spine before he shifted the bag back onto his shoulders and made his way down the rest of the stairs.

A slow sigh of relief shuddered out as his feet touched the sand. He burrowed his toes and inhaled deeply to absorb as much of the crisp, salty air as he could. This was not his beach. His beaches were filled with uneven, gravelly sand, and guarded by high, rocky cliffs. His beaches had low, harsh waves that slammed against the surf like careless fists. For as laid back as Northern California was, her beaches were rough and wild.

New Jersey’s beaches were softer, calmer. A small child jumped happily in the shorter waves without threat of being toppled over by their brute strength. The sand slipped between Rob’s toes like granulated silk. These supple edges were not his beach, but they still felt like home.

His chest swelled with hope as he started his trek towards the lifeguard stand. He felt drawn to it, knew somehow that it housed what he was looking for.

He stopped in his tracks as a figure leapt gracefully from the stand and began to walk towards him without hesitation. Rob took another step, but paused again as the figure raised one hand slightly, palm facing outwards in an obvious “halt” signal.

Rob tried to shift his weight into a casual slouch, but soon abandoned the effort. He had never been cool in his life. There was no point in making an attempt as this late date. Instead, he straightened his stance and squinted slightly as he sized up the approaching figure.

It appeared to be a woman, curves hugged by a red one-piece Speedo bathing suit. Dark red hair was pulled back tightly into a knot at the top of her head, which was adorned by a Driftwood Beach Patrol visor. Tanned arms skimmed her sides as they swayed in time with her gait. For all her relaxed posturing, there was an edge of something dangerous in the way her eyes flashed as she got close enough for expression to come into view. The bright smile on her face did nothing to make Rob feel at ease. He got the feeling it wasn’t meant to.

The woman stopped a few feet away from him. Her eyes drifted down his torso in a dispassionate way that he was clearly meant to notice. “Hey there, stranger.”

Her voice was deeper than Rob had expected, warm and thick, though he was sure the playful greeting was not meant as a true welcome.

Rob cleared his throat and flashed what he hoped was a winning smile. “Hello,” he answered. “I’m Rob Wilson, and I, um—”

“What’s your angle?” the woman interrupted.

Rob’s jaw dropped in surprise. “I…What?”

The woman smiled in a way that was more polite than friendly. “You don’t seem very bright. I can read you like a flashing neon sign. So let’s skip the cryptic back and forth, yeah? You’re not going to be good at it. Who sent you?”

Her smile widened as Rob gaped at her, thrown off by the insult and the brashness. “I, um, was looking for—”

“Didn’t ask who you were looking for,” she interjected lazily. “Don’t care why you’re here. I asked who sent you. Pay attention and answer what you’re asked. The why’s don’t matter if the who’s are wrong.”

Rob had met others like him before, and they had always been confusing, but this was pushing his limits. “Um…I don’t know who sent me.”

“You don’t know?” She raised one eyebrow delicately.

“No.” Rob felt off kilter under her burning gaze. Guilty, like he was hiding something, though he told the truth. “He didn’t tell me his name.”

Her other eyebrow met its mate at her hairline. Neither of them spoke. Rob wasn’t sure what to say. He needed to explain the situation, but had no idea where to start.

The woman’s eyes narrowed. “You’ve got to know something.”

“I don’t know.” Rob shrugged his shoulders helplessly. “He said…he was like me. Like you, too, I guess.”

“No one’s like me,” the woman said with amusement. Her smile seemed genuine now. “You’re definitely not like me.”

Rob scowled. His excitement was quickly waning as the woman’s teasing increased. “Whatever. Look, I haven’t met a lot of us. Me. People like me. I can…you know.”

“I probably do,” the woman agreed. “But you’re going to have to elaborate. I’m not a mind reader.”

Rob doubted that was completely accurate. He took a step closer and leaned in. “I can—”

“Not here!” she snapped. Her casual demeanor slipped into a more defensive stance as she looked around surreptitiously. Rob fought the urge to roll his eyes. The few families that had braved the June chill were too far away to hear anything.

The woman sidled up next to him. “What’s wrong with you?” she hissed. “Don’t you have any finesse at all? You’re too old to be this green.”

“Am I?” Rob asked angrily. Most people took him to be somewhere in his mid to late twenties. This had been the case for longer than it should have. His hands reached up to curl tightly around the straps of his backpack. “I don’t f*****g know, because I don’t even know what I am! And none of you ever tell me anything!”

“Whoa, there.” The words were smooth and soothing. “Simmer down.”

Rob bristled. “Don’t tell me to simmer down—”

“Simmer. Down.” The soft words cooled into ice. “Didn’t I tell you to pay attention?”

Rob pressed his lips together and bit back the snide remarks that had bubbled up. This woman might be prickly, but she hadn’t sent him away yet. He forced his shoulders down a bit from their hunched position. “I’m…I’m sorry.”

The woman shrugged and stepped backwards. “Wasn’t asking for an apology. I will ask again. Who sent you?”

Rob made sure his words were clear and even as he answered. “No one sent me. I found you on my own. I heard about you in Santa Cruz. Northern California. A man, or…someone like me.”

He eyed the woman carefully for the first time since they’d started talking. She was striking, with bold features and heart-shaped lips, but that was to be expected. If he had to guess, he’d say she was just past thirty. “He was about your age, maybe older. Or, well…I don’t know how to, you know. Calculate. Or um, guess at ages.”

The woman remained quiet, unblinking. Rob decided to take her silence as encouragement. He ran his fingers along his backpack straps and continued.

“Anyway…He wouldn’t tell me his name. He was a white guy, tall, built. Blue eyes, blond hair. He didn’t want to tell me anything, but I guess he took pity on me. I asked him where I could find others like me, who could help me with…He told me to look for someone named Alex. Said last he’d heard, Alex was hiding out in some place called Driftwood. Then he left. Didn’t tell me anything else.”

The woman showed no sign of recognition at the name Alex. She seemed to be waiting for Rob to keep talking, but Rob wasn’t sure what else he could say without getting lectured about sticking to the questions asked. He stared back at her defiantly. After a few minutes, she nodded once, slowly.

“That’s all you got?” she asks.

“I don’t know,” Rob says helplessly. “I mean, I could tell he was…you know, like me, but that was by…feel, not by sight.” Rob fished around for anything else he could add to flesh out his story. “He was pretty nondescript. I mean, he was good looking, but…I don’t think that’s out of the ordinary for…”

“Awfully full of yourself, huh?” The woman donned an amused smile as she let her eyes rake up and down Rob’s slender body once more, this time with great exaggeration.

Rob felt his cheeks redden. “I’m not! I wasn’t saying I was…I was just…”

“Calm down,” she said merrily. “I was teasing. You’re a cutie. Own it. It’s not like you’re wrong.”

The suggestive smile made Rob’s face flush with heat. He didn’t even go for women, but the confidence rolling off the redhead was intense. He looked down at the sand for a moment to regain his bearings.

“Um…right. Anyway, I’ve been researching for a while now. Took a chance and headed here. So…yeah…” Rob trailed off awkwardly, not sure of what else the woman wanted to hear, and reluctant to ask any questions of his own.

The woman tilted her head expectantly. Rob cleared his throat again. “I…don’t know what else to say.”

“Then don’t say anything,” she said lightly.

Rob didn’t bother to stop the eye roll this time. To his amazement, the woman let out a chuckle of amusement and linked their arms together.

“Come with me,” she said in a tone far more receptive than any Rob had heard her use thus far. “I’ll take you to Jack.”

Rob let himself be pulled along the sand towards the lifeguard stand. He wanted to ask why he was being taken to whomever Jack was, rather than Alex. He considered the possibility that this woman was Alex, and he’d been too dim to pick up on it. He sincerely hoped not. That would be too much awkwardness for one day.