Extraordinary Mistakes II - Blood Ties

I was there that day

"Shouldn't it be cooler already? It's late October!" Alex complains.

"No one forced you to use that suit." Diego rolls his eyes and laughs.

"You're the one who wanted to walk instead of driving... pure torture." Alex groans, "it's torture that we have to go around looking for buildings, when we don't even know what exactly we are looking for. The key word is suspicious. What does that even mean?"

Diego shrugs and ignores him, keeps looking around. They were disguised as two white, middle - aged men. It's almost six in the afternoon and they decide to head back through the park while watching the sunset.

Their interaction is never forced, they have this easiness to them. It's never awkward to be in silence. And whenever they feel like breaking it, it's with some nonsense, a light topic, lighter than most conversations they had with everyone else.

Diego cracks a joke and Alex laughs. A genuine smile that is interrupted. A sharp pressure amounts on his head.

No.

The pain takes him back to several years before. He and Rachel had an argument, probably the ugliest they've ever had. Out of spite, Rachel absorbed his mental control and read his mind. That pressure. One that he now recognizes again.

Diego cracks another joke but notices Alex's gray eyes and the whiteness in his cheeks.

"Qué passa?"

Alex ignores him and looks around. Focusing on each person. First, the couple that is nearby, then the family strolling peacefully, and finally the young woman reading by herself.

Where are you?

He closes his eyes, trying to block it. Diego touches his shoulder, and the concentration is gone. Alex pushes him away and closes his eyes again, redirecting his memories, forcing whoever is in his head to stay away from any compromising memory.

They know where I am. It's too late.

He grabs Diego's phone and his and breaks them on the floor before throwing them into the lake nearby.

"Que rayos haces?" Diego shouts.

"Run, Diego. Run!"

They start running and avoid anyone that crosses their path. Alex's head keeps getting heavier and heavier. He falls to the ground.

Diego grabs him and Alex hugs him.

"I'm taking us out of here," he whispers in Diego's ear.

Alex's head explodes with millions of thoughts. He takes a deep breath, focuses on Amy's house, but once he tries to teleport, the million thoughts overcome his head and he can only teleport them to a tree nearby. The couple there runs off screaming for help.

No... no... focus.

The pain grows and Alex knows that it means they are getting closer.

"You can't take us both. Leave me!" Diego shouts.

"Never!" Alex grabs Diego's face, "nunca!"

Alex tries again, and once more the thoughts overcome him and they teleport against a food stand.

Diego loses control over his ability and their appearance change back to normal.

"Terrorist!" the worker shouts and runs to grab the security corps.

Alex slowly gets up and helps Diego get up as well. He notices Diego's face and his body.

"Vamos!" Diego grabs Alex's hand and they run to hide behind a tree. "Leave me... save yourself," Diego pants.

"Shut up! I won't leave you," Amy. He sees her face instead of Diego's.

"Alex... leave."

"Never, brother!" Alex grabs Diego's face, "never."

"I don't deserve it."

"Shut up..."

"I was there that day. When they killed Amy..."

Diego takes off Alex's hand and looks away.

"I know!" Alex grabs him and tries to teleport them. Failing once more.

They are on the floor, people watching them in terror. Running away.

"I read your mind when you arrived. I've always known... what you did," Alex pants and helps Diego get up. "I also know how you feel about that. I forgave you. Please forgive me now, too."

Alex grabs Diego's head and erases everything concerning the house, Ánh, Abigail, and Emily. He grabs his head after and does the same.

Two darts hit them on the neck. They feel their legs numbing and fall to the ground, still conscious but unable to move. Four people run there and help them get up, move them to a bench nearby, call an ambulance and the paramedics arrive and take them in.

"We have the targets," one of the paramedics says.

Alex and Diego's heartbeat is shallow. They hear everything around them but can't move a single muscle, including on the face.

They see the ambulance driving under a bridge and the paramedics take them out of the stretchers and move them to an SUV. Inside, the four people that helped them before getting up are back, this time heavily armed. The paramedics put the bracelet on their wrists and activate it.

"All set," one of them says and the SUV leaves with Diego and Alex inside.

***

Ánh keeps checking the clock on her computer. It's almost dinner time. She starts tapping her food. Rachel comes down the stairs and sits next to her.

"Is everything okay, Ánh?"

"Diego and Alex aren't back yet," Ánh gets up and paces back and forth, "according to my calculations, with the route that they were taking... it would take..."

Ánh's thoughts are interrupted by a beeping on her computer. It says no signal.

"Are those their phones?"

"Yes, I tried to track it down after they didn't answer me."

"Ánh, I'm sure that nothing-"

"From their last position to here... they would be here already. If anything went wrong..."

"Ánh... nothing went wrong..." Rachel asks her to sit down.

"Why didn't Alex teleport them? Brought them here? Rachel!" Ánh shouts.

Abigail runs downstairs, startled with Ánh's voice.

"What happened?"

Rachel's head falls to her hands. She takes several breaths and gets up.

"Are you sure, Ánh?"

"Rachel..."

"Abigail, go upstairs and pack a bag. Tell Emily to pack a bag. I'll get Megan."

"Rachel, what happened?" Abigail keeps switching between looking at Rachel and Ánh.

"Diego and Alex haven't returned. Their cellphones are off. Something could've happened. We have to be prepared for the worse. If they were made, it's only a matter of time until someone shows up here uninvited."

***

Downtown, not that far from the park, Megan follows the young woman with the red shoes. She finished her day at the university and is walking home.

The sun has set and the young woman takes off her dark shades, her dark brown eyes fixate on the fallen leaves that fill the street.

Megan's phone rings. She answers.

"Diego and Alex never came back. Come home. We have to prepare for war."

She hangs up the call, turns around, and walks away. The young woman turns around and sees a shadow disappearing from her sight.