Savior Part 2: Son of Eden (The Savior Series) Read online

  “Oh, so now you believe in fate?” Reaper questioned, smiling as he looked over to me.

  “I don’t know,” I shrugged. “Sometimes. I just don’t think it’s a coincidence that you saved that girl and then happened to run into her like that. Who knows, maybe there’s something there.”

  “I didn’t think about it that way,” he replied.

  “Yeah well, it’s pretty obvious that you’re already madly in love with her so you might as well give it a shot,” I chuckled as I shifted gears and drifted into the left lane.

  “Madly in love? Are you kidding me?” Reaper jokingly protested. “She’s pretty hot but I wouldn’t start throwing the L-word around,” he continued, smiling from ear to ear as he spoke.

  “Well, you could have fooled me the way you were so transfixed that you almost didn’t notice your best friend was seconds away from getting his ass kicked,” I joked. Reaper and I laughed aloud for a few moments before the car fell into silence as I continued to drive onward. I could tell that he was still thinking about the “girl from the bar” as he sat in the passenger seat and tapped his fingers on the door. Though he would never have admitted it at the time, he was clearly smitten, and even though I always thought Monica was cool I couldn’t help but hope that Reaper would pursue this new girl. Despite his best efforts to hide it, I could still see the pain and agony that he felt for leaving Monica behind every time he looked at me. He probably didn’t realize it yet, but the few minutes that we spent talking about the mysterious scarlet that had swooped into his life were the first moments in a while that I had looked into his eyes and noticed nothing but happiness. The usual anguish that lingered in his expression was suddenly replaced by a joyful light that I hadn’t witnessed since the days that he and Monica were together.

  “So, are you going to call her?” I asked as I steered the car onto the freeway’s exit ramp.

  “Yeah, I’ll call her,” he admitted, still smiling and tapping his fingers on the door.

  “Good deal,” I said as I nodded my head in approval. “Like I said, you’ve got to move on at some point—and if she knew how miserable you were, Monica would probably want it this way anyway,” I offered as Reaper continued to think of the girl at the bar while mulling over the idea of moving on.

  7. TOUGH LOVE

  MONICA:

  “I JUST HOPE HE HASN’T MOVED ON,” I MUTTERED IN A WHINY voice as I stared into the concerned eyes of my best friend, Nina Delgado. We were both freshman at Knightsville State University at that point and she had just come over to check on me after she realized that I had missed all my classes for the second day in a row.

  It had been two years since Reaper suddenly walked out of my life and though nearly twenty-seven months had passed since I had last seen him, I still missed him just as much as I did on the day that he left me. At first, I thought I understood it—I understood that he was leaving me because he wanted to make sure that I was safe from the danger that was sure to follow him after he joined the fight against the mysterious terrorist known as The Righteous. His rationale made perfect sense for the first few days that he was gone but as the days became weeks and the weeks became months, I slowly started to realize that it was possible that I would never see him again. It was then that I began to question if he had truly left me behind to protect me or if he simply wanted to get rid of me now that he had discovered his true greatness. After that there were days where I wouldn’t even eat. I’d just sit in front of my computer for hours on end searching through an endless amount of online articles looking for any sign of him that I could find; a thwarted Stranger attack, an alleged Reaper sighting—anything. I truly would have settled for any sign of him but more often than not, there was nothing. Nothing but unfounded rumors and conspiracy theories that only served to remind me of the devastating truth—The Reaper that I knew and loved was gone. It was like the government agency that he had joined had erased him completely from existence.

  As I spiraled deeper into my despair most of my friends abandoned me, but Nina was the one person who remained by my side ready and willing to nurse me back to health every time I allowed myself to hit rock bottom. If it wasn’t for her I’m not sure what would have become of me. I certainly wouldn’t have even thought of applying for college, but Nina had insisted that doing so would be the first step toward taking control of my life and continuing the process of moving forward. I was skeptical at first but having her there certainly helped a lot. It wasn’t easy but I had gotten to a point where I could pull myself out of bed on a somewhat consistent basis and put on a face that seemed happy enough to adequately hide the grief-filled zombie that I felt like on the inside. Though I had made a significant amount of improvement since we began our first semester of college, there were still quite a few bad days—days where no matter how hard I tried, nothing could stop me from wondering about him. Nina knew these days all too well, and she could tell that this day was one of them as she sat at the foot of my bed in my small, one-bedroom college apartment.

  Nina was a tall, dark-haired, somewhat slender girl, but she was endowed with a decent amount of curves that she never had problems showing off in relative moderation. I always thought she wore bright colors better than anyone I knew and her current outfit of choice was no exception. She had matched one of her many floral print miniskirts with a stylish pair of buckled platform sandals along with a formfitting white tank top and a sleeveless denim biker jacket. I, on the other hand, was still wearing my pajamas, my hair was a complete disaster, and I was still lying in bed with the covers pulled all the way up to my neck.

  “Monica Stripling, you have got to be kidding me!” Nina groaned as she shook her head in disbelief.

  “It’s not as easy as you’re making it out to be, Nina. I can’t just forget about him,” I pouted, hoping she would feel sorry for me and stop the ‘tough love’ session that she was getting ready to drill me with.

  “Well, it sure seemed pretty easy for him,” she snapped.

  “He hasn’t forgotten about me,” I whined, trying in vain to hide the pain caused by her remark.

  “Monica, it’s been two years and you haven’t heard from him at all,” she replied as her expression softened, no doubt due to the obvious pain that her previous statement had caused.

  A part of me wanted to listen to her and simply get up and move on with my life, but another part of me couldn’t help but lie there and hope that he was still out there somewhere—thinking about me as much as I was thinking about him. Nina was the only person that I had told about Reaper after he revealed his secret the night he saved me. To everyone else in our tiny hometown of Lexington, Florida, Adam Reaper was just a ghost—one of the many ill-fated students that died the night The Suspect and The Strangers attacked our high school on prom night. A part of me felt guilty for telling Nina about Reaper’s secret, but another part of me felt relieved to finally have someone to share it with.

  “What am I supposed to do?” I asked softly as Nina continued to stare at me with her expression soaked with pity.

  “I know it hurts to think about it but you have to forget about him. Look at everything you’ve given up for him—everything you’ve let him get away with.”

  “But I love him, Nina! I can’t just forget that!”

  “Well, you’re gonna have to try. Otherwise you’ll end up killing yourself. Just look at you, Monica! You lost nearly thirty pounds! How am I supposed to explain to Dr. Kate that I let her only child kill herself because of a boy?” Nina exclaimed.

  “I’m not going to kill myself, Nina,” I said solemnly while diverting my eyes away from her gaze. I sighed and sat up and glanced at a mirror to the right of my bed and shuttered at the sight of my face. On my “good days” I was still somehow able to garner quite a bit of attention from guys whether I wanted it or not, but I certainly couldn’t understand why. The girl staring back at me in the mirror in that moment looked absolutely sick. I couldn’t see why anyone would want to spend time around
someone who looked as hopelessly depressed as I did.

  “Yeah, my mom would probably lose her mind if she saw me like this,” I admitted as I studied my sunken cheeks. “Did I ever tell you that for most of her life she was told that she couldn’t have kids?”

  “No, I didn’t know that,” Nina answered.

  “Dad always called me his little miracle,” I said as my eyes became heavy with tears. “For years they were told that they couldn’t conceive and then out of nowhere my mom, against all odds, became pregnant with me. Dad always said that finding out he was having a daughter was the happiest moment of his life. I can’t just throw that away. I owe it to him to live. I owe it to him to find a way to move forward,” I continued as I wiped the tears from my reddened eyes and looked to Nina who was still silently gazing at me from a few feet away.

  “Maybe you’re right,” I finally said causing Nina to smile and breathe a sigh of relief.

  “Maybe it has been too long,” I continued. “And that’s exactly why I was thinking about going after him.” I braced myself for the backlash as Nina’s smile instantly turned into a scowl.

  “Oh my god,” Nina sighed as she smacked herself in the forehead and flopped back onto my bed. “My best friend has officially lost her mind.”

  “I’m not crazy, Nina. I’m just worried,” I said. “With everything that’s happening I just can’t help but wonder if he’s okay. The Strangers have taken over entire cities! If they have that type of power how can I be certain that they don’t have enough power to kill him?”

  “Monica, I’m not sure if you remember but—your long lost boyfriend is kind of a superhero. What kind of trouble could he possibly be in that you could save him from?” Nina asked sarcastically as she continued to lie on the bed and stare at the ceiling.

  “I know what he’s capable of but I just have a bad feeling, you know? And it doesn’t help that I’ve started to have that dream again.”

  “What dream?” Nina asked as she abruptly sat up and turned to me.

  “The dream,” I replied. “The one where Reaper dies and I’m standing at his funeral on Eden.”

  “I see,” Nina responded as she studied me. “I guess that means there’s no talking you out of this, is there?”

  “No,” I replied. “I’ve made up my mind.”

  “Then it’s settled. I’m coming with you,” she insisted as she suddenly whipped out her smartphone and quickly typed out a text message.

  “No way Nina,” I protested. “There’s no way I’m dragging you into this too.”

  “Aww, that’s so cute,” Nina smiled as she continued to type on her phone.

  “’What’s cute?” I wondered.

  “You thought I was asking,” she said with a smile. “You’re so adorable,” she mocked as she looked up at me and flashed her bright yet devious smile at me.

  “Nina, I—”

  “Wait!” Nina exclaimed as her phone suddenly began to vibrate.

  “What is it?!” I asked, intrigued by her sudden excitement.

  “See for yourself,” Nina said proudly as she scooted backward until she was at the head of the bed, directly beside me. My heart thumped excitedly as she extended her hand and I reached from under the covers and grabbed her phone. My jaw nearly hit the floor when I saw a text message from Howie Vargas, one of Reaper’s best friends. I’ll try to reach out to her in a couple of days, the message read. It wasn’t from Reaper himself but I was still excited beyond belief.

  “How did you get him to reply? H-How do you even have Howie’s number?” I asked, still staring at the phone in awe, wondering if Reaper was anywhere nearby when Howie sent the reply.

  “Howie used to do all of my homework in exchange for my lunches back in the day so I still had his number saved to my contacts.”

  “I still have his number too, but whenever I tried texting or calling him, Jason, or Reaper, I never got a response. How did you get him to agree to contact me?”

  “Let’s just say I took one for the team,” Nina said with a silly grin plastered across her face.

  “Wow!” I said, blushing as I scrolled up on her phone and revealed a very provocative picture that she must have sent to Howie. She wasn’t completely naked or anything, but I’m sure that that wouldn’t have been her parents’ favorite picture of her.

  “You like?” Nina asked jokingly as she threw her head back and struck the same pose from the picture.

  “You’re too much,” I giggled as I softly tossed her phone at her. She stopped posing just in time to catch the phone before it hit her.

  “When is he going to call? What am I supposed to do?” I asked. “It’s not like he’s just going to give up Reaper’s location just because you sent him a picture.”

  “You never know. He’s always had a pretty big crush on me,” Nina boasted.

  “Yeah, well Reaper’s his best friend so I’m not sure if that’ll be enough,” I replied.

  “You’re saying I should take it farther than PG-13?” she asked.

  “No!” I replied, embarrassed that she thought I would ask that of her.

  “I was joking!” she said, laughing hysterically as she pointed at my face.

  “Well you looked serious,” I said, relieved that she was only kidding.

  “You know I wouldn’t do anything like that… unless we were talking about Jason,” she admitted, smiling from ear to ear as she spoke.

  “Okay, now you’re doing way too much,” I chuckled.

  “I’m just saying,” she giggled. “Speaking of Jason… you know how you owe me absolutely everything in the world since I’m the one that’s about to put you back in contact with your long lost BF?” she continued.

  “What do you want, Nina?” I asked, jokingly shaking my head.

  “Well… I’d like you to put in a good word for me with Jason,” she smirked. “But not—I mean… you don’t have to make me sound desperate or anything. Just let him know that I’m interested. Hey! Maybe you should get Reaper to tell him! Do you think it would improve my chances if it comes from one of his boys?”

  “Are you serious?” I asked, not sure if she was joking or not.

  “Heck yeah, I’m serious! Why shouldn’t I have a superhero boyfriend too?” she grinned.

  “I’ll see what I can do,” I said, trying not to giggle. “You still haven’t told me what I’m supposed to say to convince Howie to help us.”

  “That’s easy. Just make him feel bad,” she replied. “I’ve already softened him up by telling him how heartbroken and miserable you were. Just keep that going and maybe pull a few tears and you should have the goods in no time.”

  “You’ve got it all figured out, huh?” I asked.

  “That’s what friends are for,” she smiled.

  “You don’t feel bad about leading Howie on? How do you think he’ll feel if you end up with Jason after we use him to get to Reaper?” I asked.

  “He’ll be fine,” Nina said dismissively.

  “I hope so,” I mumbled as I stared off into space. A part of me felt bad about what we were doing, but I had no choice but to go through with it. I missed Reaper so much that it was making me sick. It had gotten to the point where I was willing to do almost anything to see him again.

  “Thank you, Nina—for everything. It really means a lot to not have to go through this alone,” I said as I looked at her and smiled.

  “Awww,” she cooed as she moved toward me with her arms outstretched. “You know I’ve always got your back,” she said as we embraced.

  “But this is—”

  “I know, I know! It’s dangerous,” Nina interrupted as she pulled her head back and looked into my eyes. “And if it gets all crazy you better hope I don’t die because I will come back and haunt the hell out of you, girl!”

  “You’re so silly,” I laughed.

  We continued to laugh and joke about the next steps of our quest for another few minutes, but in the back of my mind, I couldn’t help but feel that it was selfi
sh of me to involve her. The fact that she so willingly agreed to join me despite the out-of-this-world level of weirdness and the life or death stakes made me feel even worse. It also didn’t help that I had not been completely honest with her about the main reason that I wanted to find Reaper. I had told her about the return of my dream but chose not to tell her the whole story because I didn’t know how she would react if she knew that two days ago I had been contacted by The Righteous.

  8. PROJECT ORION

  HOWIE:

  - ONE MONTH LATER

  USERNAME…..**WELLS**MICHAEL

  PASSWORD...... ********************

  ACCESS GRANTED……

  WELCOME DIRECTOR WELLS……

  PIECE OF CAKE, I THOUGHT AS I STARED DOWN AT THE sophisticated terminal that I had just hacked into. I knew that Wells kept his most precious files off the grid, so I took a few weeks to devise a plan to infiltrate his main office and manually download the info I needed. Getting in was a piece of cake. My clearance was enough to get me into Area 51 after hours; and getting onto Wells’ level was as simple as hacking into the building’s network and tricking the sensors into thinking that certain doors were locked when that wasn’t necessarily the case. For anyone else, this would have taken an entire team and a boatload of equipment, but I had managed to get it done with just myself and a two-year-old smart phone that I had designed in my spare time.

  Wells’ office was nearly pitch-black by the time I made my way to his desk and powered on his main computer. I adjusted the night vision on my smart glasses to account for the soft light that shined from the monitor and immediately got to work when the computer completed its boot-up sequence. Even in the dim light that emanated from Wells’ computer monitor I was still barely visible to the naked eye due to my all-black gear which blended perfectly with the shadows that filled the room. I was also looping footage from last night through the room’s surveillance cameras so as far as anyone could tell, Wells’ office was completely empty.