Fragments - Book One of the Missing

Chapter 15 - Taniel

The words in front of him blurred and danced. His mind couldn't register a single one. Instead, all he could think about was why he lied. Now he was worse than a delinquent, he was a liar too. A real catch.

He turned the page mindlessly.

The dream had never been more real. It revealed far more than what he had shared. It set the stakes, of what and who they had to lose. Rowan's sister was slated to go Missing — well only if the dreams were any indication. Was it worth telling Rowan and worrying her? Maybe the dreams meant nothing. Maybe there was something they could do about them. It's not like he even understood them. Edie herself mentioned that the gift was rare.

Still. He left that piece out. Only the most important aspect of the story. The guilt shamed him, but he pushed the darkening thoughts to the back of his mind to deal with later. For now, he needed to distract himself.

"Rowan, where are your parents?"

Silence reverberated throughout the loft for a few moments. Even Scooter stopped rustling around the kitchen.

"At home, I suspect." She shrugged. "They never leave the apartment anymore."

"Why would you come with us then?" A pregnant pause until he hurried to finish. "It's not that I mind..." Stars, why did he have to be so awkward?

He heard Scooter snicker across the room. He reminded himself to kick Scooter later.

Rowan paused and looked up from the book she was reading. He noticed she didn't wear her gloves, although she seemed so careful with them earlier. "I ran away. My father tried to hand me over to the Officials. Apparently he had been paying them off for years in return for some protection. And of course, in his mind I am a danger to society." The venom was just barely noticeable in her voice, but just barely. She must be accomplished at veiling her emotions if someone groomed in the Underground and at St. Andra's like him could hardly tell. Was she feigning strength? He would have been devastated if his father had done that to him.

"Oh right, you definitely look like a terror to me," Scooter teased, trying to lessen the tension. "Watch out — Rowan the Tiny is out to destroy the city!" Taniel couldn't help but laugh. She looked the opposite of dangerous with her petite frame and freckled face. He felt himself warming to her, wanting to protect her even, despite what he knew. Even though it couldn't end well for either of them.

But if anything, Scooter's comment sent fissures cracking through her ice, her face no less cold. "I hurt people. I can't control it." She ignored Scooter and looked directly at Taniel. Those bright green eyes held him captive, and goosebumps emerged on his arms and the back of his neck. More words bubbled out as if she has been waiting to unload them for some time.

"I don't know how it started, or why, but when I touch something..." She stopped mid sentence, her face frozen. She realized what she was doing, and clamped her lips shut.

He put down his book as Rowan started putting her gloves on.

"When did you find out you had this gift?" Pressing her for more. He didn't want her to clam up just yet. He had to know.

She whipped her head up to glare at him. "A gift? You would call this a gift?"

"I don't know what it is. But it certainly doesn't mean you are dangerous. We can learn how to control it together." He gestured to the walls already covered in his dreamscapes. "I'm still figuring out what all this means, and I've been getting them since I was a boy."

She seemed to consider his proposal, and confession. "I found out when I was young, too. The day we found out, my father bought me gloves and the rest was history. Nobody ever treated it like a gift, just a curse."