Denise and John

Chapter Fifteen

"DENISE!!" John screamed. Ripping the buds from his ears.
Michael sat straight up startled by the sudden change. Looking over at the girl her head bobbed forward as she regained consciousness. John looked over at his sister and they met each other's gaze. In that small amount of time, Michael had observed so much. Intrigued he sat back and watched the two waiting for their own reactions to the events that had just transpired.
"John… you…" she swallowed hard. "You…. Were…. There?"
"Yea." He answered.
"How? How did you know?"
He looked at Michael. Returning his gaze, he turned toward the girl and smiled.
"I couldn't see him. I could only see John." She looked at Michael with distaste.
Before he could say anything, John interrupted. "I know I saw you too….. Which means he saw you."
Looking at Michael alarmed he finished. "He saw Denise. He knows what she looks like."
As if they were thinking in coalition Denise said. "And we have no clue what he looks like."
Finally interjecting Michael said. "Ok, focus."
Before he could finish, Denise asked. "How did you know how to get Johnny in there?"
"Lucky guess." He stated.
"Yea right." The boy said. Looking over at Michael puzzled.
"Ok look, I will explain everything in due time. Right now we need to gain control of the situation and figure out what we know."
Scornfully the girl said. "What we know is he knows what I look like, he knows Johnny was there and he now knows we are working together."
"Wait what?" The boy reverted his attention to his sister.
Placing his hand up, Michael silenced the boy. "Denise explain. What do you mean?"
"Johnny you were there. Didn't you hear what he said?"
"Oh yeah, he asked about your partner. Was he talking about me though?"
"Johnny he first referred to you as a tumor."
"Oh shit he was talking about me?"
"Yea John what did you think he meant?"
John chuckled. "I thought he meant a tumor."
"Oh my god John, next time pay attention when you're kicking your clumsy ass feet around in his brain."
"Ok there was a lot going on, hard to focus on one thing you shit tard."
"Guys…" Michael interjected. "Seriously focus."
"Ok then, now what genius?" Denise asked him sarcastically.
Honestly he had no idea of their next move. Playing by the moment he said. "First let's analyze the situation ok?"
"How?" asked the boy.
"Well…um…. Let's first go through what you guys saw. We may not have saw him but we got a glimpse of what he can do…. Right?"
They both nodded. "Good… good… see John this is where your abilities come into play. He may have saw your sister but he has no idea what you guys are capable of."
"So I was right? It all does come together?"
"Well… it will." Michael nodded.
"Oh… damn son…" Looking at his sister. "I told ya Denise."
"Whatever." She rolled her eyes.
"Focus Johnny…" Michael peered at him. "Tell me what you saw."
"Well when I got there I saw Denise, and then she ran."
"No John, that's not what I'm talking about. I mean what can he do?" Trying to rephrase it, he said. "Or what exactly did he do?"
"You mean powers?"
"Something like that."
"Well the only thing I actually noticed was his breath."
"Breath?." He asked.
"Yea he like blew into the air… like he was blowing invisible fairy dust or something and a blue streak came up that led him to your location." He pointed to Denise.
"Wait, that's how he found me?"
"Yea. What were you doing back there?"
"Hiding… or so I thought. But then a voice talked to me."
"Wait a minute what voice?" John asked.
"You know that voice I said, like, talked to me at the house."
"Oh shit no way. Really?"
"Yea, and he knew. I don't know he said look down."
Puzzled Michael interrupted. "I never said that. I said explore the possibilities."
"Wait a minute what?" She looked at him surprised. "That was you?"
"Yeah, it's something I learned I can do actually very recently."
The kid's expression went blank. "Surprise." He smiled.
"So, you have super powers?" John asked.
Michael chuckled. "Ok first off get over the super powers bit ok. Abilities."
Facing the girl again he said. "And yes I do. It was me. But what I don't get is what I said. Because I didn't say look down or whatever."
"What did you say then?" Denise asked. "Cause I heard look down."
"I told you, explore the possibilities. So what I'm thinking about this new found gift of mine is I say something and you hear it the way it best benefits your situation."
Looking at her sternly he asked. "Did it benefit your situation?"
"Actually yea. When I looked down I noticed, like, flickers of light coming from Renee's hands. That was her name by the way. In case you were wondering."
"How do you know that?" Johnny asked. "Did you see her name and shit in your brain?" Michael could see the boy was excited by the new found power.
"No Johnny that's what the lady on the phone said before I hung up on her. You fuck tard."
"Ok, calm down." Michael could sense the heat rising. "Back to the flickers of light, what were they?"
"That was her ability."
"Oh shit." Johnny said. "The explosions."
"Yea."
"Oh my god." Johnny met Michaels gaze. "Dude you should've seen it. That ability was bad ass."
Staring back at the girl Michael asked. "Ok so you were utilizing her ability?"
"I guess so."
"So then that's something we know. He tracks his victims by their ability."
"Actually I think that's how he finds them in the first place." She stated.
"Yea I got that." He interrupted. "But I think that he can also track them if they use it." Looking over at Johnny he finished. "Hence the blue light."
"So if I never would've used it he never would've found her?"
"Ok don't say that Denise." John interrupted. "You couldn't have known that. Besides you didn't go that far he would've found you I can guarantee that."
"I didn't go that far because I didn't think he would follow, honestly I thought he would've kept going. You know like the movies and shit."
"Ok you two we are getting sidetracked. Now there's nothing we could've done about that, but we learned something about him which is good."
"Yea maybe" The boy stated. "I just don't see how it's going to help us though."
"Well I think one thing that will help us. We need to utilize what you two can do."
"What do you mean?" Denise asked.
"Well, we are going to need to explore both of your gifts to their full potential. The more we know about him the better, but besides learning about the offense, we need to have an equally good defense."
The kids looked at each other in agreeance. Feeling confident he won over their affection he began planning their departure. That's when he noticed.
"Shit."
Turning furiously he looked over the tables and under. "Where's Ben?"
"Oh shit. I totally forgot." Johnny said as he jumped up to help.
Handing Denise his keys he said. "Go to the front, we will meet you there."
She headed out quickly as Michael proceeded looking through the layer of book shelves for the boy who disappeared.
"John you start at the opposite end I don't think he got far." Pointing to the other side of the long hallway towards the children's section of books. "We can meet in the middle."
The books were layered meticulously in order so, unless the boy left the area completely, this shouldn't take long. As far as Michael could see there were only a couple areas in complete darkness that would hide the child, sending John on the opposite side, toward the front of the shelves, would eliminate that hiding spot.
Coursing his way through the shelves, Michael quickly found the child sitting with his hands in his lap palms up, motionless.
"Perfect." He thought.
Making his way to the boy he looked up the isle to find Johnny was in the middle of his own hiccup. Standing in front of John just three shelves away was none other than the grungy wanna be blues brother. The very same guy he had seen at "Grahams" place.
Seeing the boys were engaged in conversation he quickly headed over there leaving the boy where he found him. He was sure he wasn't going anywhere.
"John?" He said interrupting them in hopes Johnny didn't disclose anything unnecessary to someone who didn't matter.
"Yea, sorry I was looking down the aisles, I accidentally ran into him."
"Hi." Said the boy in a soft meticulous voice.
"Hey." He said greeting him quickly and ushering Johnny away. "I found Ben so we need to get going."
Jerking his arm away Johnny said. "Oh yea." Heading toward the grungy boy he quickly picked up his MP3 player Michael hadn't noticed dropped. The boy as well did the same thing.
"Ok you ready?" he asked.
"Yea sorry. I dropped this when I ran into him." Handing it back to Michael, figuring it served its purpose.
"No John, you keep it. I made the play track for you."
"Oh shit, really? Thanks."
Before the boy could place it in his pocket Michael grabbed the small device. "Wait a minute."
Noticing there was only two songs on the device he made his way to the boy that was currently walking in the opposite direction. "Hey… buddy."
The boy turned around in surprise.
"I think this one is yours." Handing the player to the kid.
Removing the other player from his pocket he looked down at it. "Yea it is. I don't have that many songs on mine."
Exchanging the devices, Michael asked. "What's your name kid?"
"It's John." The boy smiled. "John Boss."
"John Boss?" Johnny said from a distance. "Cool name."
"Interesting." Michael concluded. "Nice to meet you."
Taking his own John he headed back to the child waiting in the isles. The boy didn't move, he still sat there as motionless as when Michael left him. Johnny made his way by the boy's side.
"You okay buddy?" As he reached to touch the child Michael quickly interceded, although he wasn't sure why. John looked at him puzzled.
"Remember, autistic." He said though he knew that wasn't the reasoning behind his actions. Honestly he wasn't sure why he didn't want John to have any physical contact with the boy, he just knew that it wasn't a good idea.
Picking the child up he and John quickly made their way to the front of the library where Denise patiently waited.