Fracted (Book #2)

Chapter 38: Strike Three, Different Guy

"Kid, she's looking at you," Benjamin could not believe it. "And she recognized you."
"I don't know her," I lied.
"Really? Because she seemed to have recognized you."
"I-I...I don't--"
"Who are you, kid?" Benjamin's expression was blank and unexpected.
"He doesn't know her all right?" Jason cuts in.
"Yeah, Ben, he doesn't know her. Period." Patrick added.
"You kids are--I just don't know what--you're Innates!" His voice was loud, but not loud enough to be heard outside.
"No we're not!" I insisted.
I kept my hands raised when he pointed his huge gun at me.
"Jess, stop it!" Clare sobbed. "Just get me out of here!"
"You're not helping!" I said at her.
"Just admit it, kid," Benjamin said. "You're one of them. And you're about to get--"
Jason's boot hits his face, causing him to fall back unconscious. He dropped his gun and Eiffel snatched it. Patrick rushes towards the small entrance, barricading us inside.
"What're you doin'?" Hunter asked. "We need some more time." Patrick said.
"Something doesn't feel right in there!" Hunter shouted from outside, barely heard.
I watch Patrick carefully morph into a muscular man that is Benjamin. His body mass expanded, exactly like Benjamin's.
"It's all right, son!" Patrick said in Benjamin's voice. "Everything's fine. Just go back to the site and tell the others that we're coming in a few hours."
"Okay, dad." I hear his footsteps depart. Finally, we're alone. Alone with the enemy.
Benjamin started moaning in pain. He touches his bleeding forehead. Clare scrambled forward and summoned a blade out of her wrist and pointed it at Benjamin's throat.
"Should we kill him?" She asked.
"No...not yet." I said.
"Who put you in charge?" Jason said.
"There's something about him we have to shake off and find out. He's clearly mysterious." I said.
Eiffel cocked Benjamin's gun and pointed it at his head. Benjamin opens his eyes slowly.
"You start talkin', Ben." She pushed him.
"What the--? What is this? A hostage? You Innates can't do what I can do."
"Oh yeah?" Patrick said, talking as Benjamin. "What makes you think that?"
"Woah! It's...a Shifter!" Benjamin scrambles back in shock.
"W-w-wait!" I said. "How'd you know he's a Shifter?" I asked like an interrogator.
He quivers his lips and mumbles. His breath decreases.
"He knows something," Clare grinned.
"Heck yeah, he does." Patrick morphs back to himself.
"What do you know, Benjamin?" Jason raised an eyebrow to scare him.
"Then talk!" He shoots him in the pinky with the gun Benjamin gave him earlier. He cries out in pain agonizingly. I almost felt bad, but we merely even shook things off him. Good thing the gun had a silencer attached to it, or else the men outside would have heard the gunshot.
"There's nothing you can do to make me talk!" Benjamin screamed.
His left foot springs upward, towards my jaw. I swear I lost one of my inner teeth when I fell back. Benjamin dashed for the barricade, but Patrick and Jason tackled him right before he reached it. Eiffel helps me up while Clare collects all the weapons on the floor even though she was able to summon blades all over her body.
"Patrick, restrain him!" Jason stressfully commanded. He trapped Benjamin in an armbar while Patrick digs through his Benjamin's pocket for a pair of handcuffs.
"You kids are gonna pay," He said, sounding very desperate.
"I doubt that, sir." I punch his hard gut. I squeeze his rough cheeks tightly and looked into his eyes as I bared my teeth. "We're not the ones who will die tonight."
"But, Jess," Clare interrupts. "it's not even close to dawn yet."
"Shut up, Clare. Or another bullet enters your system again."
There's no way I'm going soft again.
"Jess, come on, we need to cuff him somewhere can't escape from."
"That's fine. Just lay him down on his stomach."
"You kids don't even know what you are doing. This is very dangerous." Benjamin grunted.
"Said the guy who's leading a group of men in an abandoned island hoping for lost Innates to enter the island. I guess we both don't know how this story ends."
"Just talk, mister," Patrick panted. "so I wouldn't have to kill anyone for the first time."
"Really, Pat?" Jason said. "The first time?"
"Honestly, yeah."
"Jess, here, hasn't killed anyone either. Isn't that right, Jess?"
Not unless clones count. But clones are fake.
"I haven't...killed anyone." I sat next to Eiffel on the corner with Clare.
For once, this is the first time we spent a whole hour huddled around an enemy. No attack. No anger. We just sat there until it's completely dark. It was cold by then. Everyone just stopped all of a sudden and waited for Benjamin to talk. Looked like he had a lot to say, just didn't know how to put them in order.
"C'mon, Ben," I said. "Just one word." "You kids remind of my son. Especially you, Jess--it's Jess, right?"
Finally, he talked. At last!
"Yes, it's Jess. What's your son like?"
"Well...I left when he was just a baby. I bet he doesn't even remember me."
"I think that kid'll know he once had a dad. And he'll come at some reason." My words were comforting. I've gone soft in no time.
"So tell me about you," He said.
"No, tell me about you. You really think you can get away with things like that easily? But guess what--we're living nightmares, Benjamin. We can go on forever, it's up to you."
I stand up and walk up to him. I felt like it's been a decade since I last stood up.
"The easy way or the hard way?" I hold on to his gun and kept it pointed to his back.
"Jess, I know you're incapable of killing."
In one statement, I lowered the gun.
"Jess, I'm sorry..."
"I'm glad you're sorry about all this."
"No, not that." He sniffled, tears drip from his small eyes.
"Then for what?" I asked him nicely.
It's too bad that they were all asleep to hear all this.
"I'm sorry I left you," Benjamin cried.
I sunk down on my knees, cried with Ben--dad. Dad? Should I even call him that? He left me.
"I'm so sorry," He sobbed louder and whimpered. "It wasn't my first choice. I was looking for someone."
"Oh yeah?" I wipe my nose with my shoulder. "And who might that be? Your new pride and joy? Is that Hunter? I can't believe you!"
The world around me is twisted upside down. All the bad seemed to have turned good. But what if the good turns out to be bad after all? Have I been joining the right people?