Valeria - A Short Story Collection

Chapter 3, Part 1 - Aidan finds out the truth

Surrey, United Kingdom

April 29th, 2137.

*

Valeria POV

I closed my locker and strolled out of the large yellow brick building. I had only been in school for the past three months, and so far I had tried to stay as invisible as possible.

Most of the classes were hard since I was so behind on everything. With the help of some extra tutoring, I was finally starting to feel like I got the hang of it.

I got off at 3 PM and walked two blocks over to the primary school where I was supposed to pick up Aidan.

Annie and Lucas were working late, so I offered to pick him up and watch him for the afternoon until they got home.

I heard the schoolbell ring when I came closer, and I squinted my eyes trying to spot Aidan in the crowd of kids running out of the school. My brows furrowed when I didn’t see him, and I stifled a chuckle when I started walking inside the school.

Aidan was probably stuck in the science lab working on something. He had a science project that he had been working on at home and I figured that he lost track of time.

When I reached the science lab, I realized that it was empty.

“Excuse me, can I help you?”

I turned around and saw Aidan’s Science teacher Mrs Jenkins frowning at me.

“Sorry.” I said. “I was looking for Aidan.”

Mrs Jenkins stared at me.

“I’m sorry, Aidan’s parents have been in an accident.” She said. “He left with two police officers less than an hour ago.”

I felt my insides go cold and pulled out my phone. I quickly dialed Annie’s number.

“Hello.”

“Annie?” I asked, trying to keep the panic away from my voice. “Are you okay?”

“Umm- I’m fine, Valeria.” She replied. “What’s going on?”

“And Lucas?” I asked.

“Well, I talked to him at lunch.” She said. “What’s happening? What’s wrong, sweetie?”

My heart pounded in my ears. How could I tell her that her son was missing?

From the corner of my eye, I saw a movement outside the window. I rushed to the window and looked out to see a black van. Memories flashed in my mind of the van they took me away on the day my family died, and I saw two men stand outside and look up towards my window. When they saw me watching, they waved.

“I’m at Aidan’s school.” I said. “Mrs Jenkins sare saying that two police officers picked him up because you were in an accident.”

“What?!” Annie shrieked. “I’m on my way.”

“NO!” I blurted. “Please listen to me. Call Eric. I see a black van outside the window, a Mercedes Sprinter, I think. I can’t see a license plate. I see two men, both blonde with short beard, one of them is taller, maybe 6’1 and the other one looks to be like 5’9. They are both dressed in police officer uniforms. I can’t make out any details.”

Focusing my powers on them, I swept a small breeze over them and realized that they were both armed.

“They both have guns.” I whispered. “Call Eric and tell him that. I’m going after Aidan.”

“Valeria please don’t…”

I hung up before she could finish her sentence and rushed past a bewildered looking Mrs Jenkins down the corridor.

I stormed out the front doors and walked up them.

“What do you want?” I asked and glared at them angrily.

The taller of them raised his eyebrows.

“Wow, you’re a lot more feisty than I thought.” He smirked. “Now come with us quietly, and if I see a single twinkle in your eyes, I will not hesitate to kill the kid. Do you understand?”

The side door of the van opened, revealing a teary-eyed Aidan with a gun pointing at him. I looked from Aidan to the man next to him, and back to the two standing in front of me.

“I understand.” I replied.

“Good girl.” He smiled wickedly and pulled out a gun from the holster on his thigh and pointed it at me. “Now, get in the van.”

The man pointing the gun at Aidan grabbed his arm and pulled him further into the van while me and the other man climbed inside. The last one jumped into the driver’s seat and the van drove out of the parking lot.

“Eyes here, Twelve.”

I looked back at the man in front of me, and I figured that he was the leader.

“Who are you?” I asked. “What do you want?”

“You know, Myers told me about you.” He replied, not answering my question at all.

My heart skipped a beat and it felt like the air was sucked out of me,

“Master Myers sent you?” I gasped.

He chuckled.

“Myers is in the wind now.” He replied. “Thanks to your military friends, we will be surprised if we ever see him again.”

His words almost made me relieved, if it wasn’t for the situation I was in. I never wanted to see Master Myers ever again.

Under normal circumstances, I would have taken them on easily. I knew exactly how to.

But with Aidan there, it was harder. One mistake from me, and he could get hurt.

So I decided to stay put and wait for the opportune moment and keep them talking in the meantime.

“What did Myers tell you about me?” I asked instead.

I clenched my jaw when he reached out his hand and caressed my cheek.

“He told me about your powers.” He whispered. “You were his most prized possession. WIth the right training, you could be more powerful than an atomic bomb. You can wipe out a city with your mind alone.”

I stared at him.

“I-I’m sorry, but I think he lied to you.” I whimpered. “I’m not that powerful. I can move some things, yes, but there’s no way I could do that.”

He smirked at me.

“You’re more powerful than you know, Twelve.” He said. “With the right training, you could become a weapon of mass destruction.”

He leaned forward.

“That’s why you’re here.” He said. “It’s ridiculous how you’re pretending to be some normal teenager when you could be a goddess. I needed to take you away and help you reach your full potential.”

The blood drained from my face.

“But I don’t want to.” I whispered and tears welled up in my eyes. “I don’t want these powers. I just want to be normal.”

“That’s not going to happen.” He replied. “So make sure you accept who you truly are, because I’m not giving you a choice.”

The tears trickled down my cheeks, fully visible to all of them. I purposely tried to act like some scared little child to make them underestimate me. I calculated the distance between me and Aidan, studied the men for any potential weaknesses and glanced out the window from time to time trying to keep track of where they were taking us.

Master Rastin always told me to display my weaknesses and hide my strengths, because that would make them underestimate me and I would hold power over the room without anyone realizing it.

So that’s what I did. I showed them my fear. It was real, but I didn’t let the fear control me. Instead, I used it to make them relax so that I could get an opportunity to strike.

I didn’t know for how long we had been driving, but from what I could tell from outside the window, we were heading for London.

My opportunity to get both me and Aidan out of there presented itself when Aidan let out a sob.

“I’m scared, Valeria.” He whimpered.

I glanced out the windshield and saw the car turn into a bridge. The sun made the water in the river glisten and I realized that this was perfect.

I reached out a hand towards Aidan and the guy put his gun to my head.

“I just want to comfort him.” I whispered. “He’s six, and he has no idea what’s going on.”

I looked over the barrel half an inch away from my face and tried to look as innocent as I could.

“Please.” I whispered.

A tear fell from my eye and he huffed.

“Fine.” He said. “But stay in your seat. just hold his hand.”

As soon as Aidan took my hand, everything happened at once.

I swiftly pulled Aidan out of his seat and he landed in my lap. Both men aimed their guns at us, but I put up a forcefield around us, making the bullets bounce off and shoot back at them. The man holding Aidan got hit while their leader ducked. Before he could collect himself and fire again, I grabbed hold of the van and flung it over the high fence so that it plummeted towards the water below us.