Untouched (Denazen #1.5)(2)

The girl sighed, lips twisting into an unfriendly smile, but pushed the door open and gestured us forward. As I was about to step inside, a chill ran down my spine and I could have sworn I saw something move out of the corner of my eye. A white and black blur. I turned back to the street, scanning the area to the left and then to the right. There was nothing in sight except several parked cars and a man walking a very small dog—neither of which were black or white. As the door closed behind me, I tried to bury the uneasy feeling.

The feeling that we were being watched.





2


“I don’t have anything to offer you, so let’s get on with it.” The girl settled on the couch, watching us with cautious eyes. She knew what Denazen was. I could tell from the slight twitch in her eyebrow when I’d mentioned it on the steps. Body language could give you more answers than actual conversation if you just knew what to look for.

“We came here to warn you,” Dez said, sitting down on the chair across from the girl. I stood to her right. “You are Kiernan, right?”

“Maybe,” was her only response.

Careful not to get too close, I pointed to her wrist. A thin silver chain with a shiny plate in the middle had a single word etched into the finish. “Kiernan. Your name is right there.”

A grin split her lips as she raised her hand and gave the bracelet a jiggle. “Well, I guess the saying isn’t true. Not all the pretty ones are stupid, huh, pal?”

“Kale,” I said, annoyed. “My name is Kale.” I’d been referred to as a number for most of my life. I had a name. I wanted it used.



“I’ll get right to it,” Dez said, leaning across to the table between them. She picked up a small tile, then scanned the area looking for something else. A moment later, she was out of the chair and across the room to pick up what looked like a small pad of paper. “We’re like you. Different. We can do things.”

She’d been practicing. Mimicking at least two items every day. It was getting easier and the pain was laughable now—or so she claimed—but there were always those few seconds of hesitation. I could see it in her eyes. Fear. The memory of years of pain that had come with using her ability. I envied her strength. I’d seen what mimicking had cost her in the beginning, and it took a strong person to push past that. She was determined to condition her body to deal with the effects. It seemed to be working so far. Yesterday she’d mimicked an order of something called jalape?o sticks into cheese sticks. That had been one of her best mimics ever…

As Kiernan and I watched, the edges of the paper twitched and rolled. A moment later, Dez was holding two identical blue tiles. She held them both out for Kiernan to see.

“Holy shit!” Kiernan exclaimed. She slowly rose from the couch and leaned forward, taking the paper-turned-tile from Dez. “That’s some wicked trick.”

Dez smiled. “It has its advantages… So what about you?”

Kiernan’s face turned stony. “What about me?”

This was wasting my Kale time. I decided it was best to just be blunt.

“You know what Denazen is,” I said. If need be, I could knock her out—without doing any serious damage, of course—and call someone from the hotel to come get her, but Dez might think that a little too extreme. She said I lacked subtlety sometimes. I didn’t lack it, though. I just saw no point. “They’re coming. Here. You don’t want to be around when they arrive. They use people like us.”



Her eyes narrowed, but I could see a spark of fear in them. “Use? For what? And what’s your bag?”

“My bag?” There was still a lot I didn’t know, but men didn’t carry bags from what I’d gathered. It seemed to me she should have known that. “I don’t have one.”

Dez stifled a giggle, and I realized my mistake. It was an expression. “She’s asking what your thing is. Your ability.”

Why not just say that? Was I the only one who found it disturbing that people rarely said what they meant? There was an expression for going to sleep and one for eating. There were sayings used if you wanted to leave a place or when you arrived.

Kiernan and Dez continued to talk, Dez arguing her case for Kiernan to leave with us and Kiernan denying she had any idea what we were talking about. I listened to them for a few moments but found my attention drawn to the window. That same uneasy feeling was creeping up my spine again. Suddenly I didn’t want to be there.

“I understand you probably don’t trust us,” I said, making my way back into the room. Dez wouldn’t be happy with my approach, but I wasn’t comfortable here anymore. I wanted to leave. “If anyone understands distrust, it’s me. But I know you know who Denazen is. They are not to be taken lightly. Think of the word monster, then multiply it by a thousand. They will take everything until there is nothing but a shell where your soul used to be. It’s what they do.”

Dez paled. “Kale—”

But I kept going. I wasn’t trying to scare the girl—just be honest. She needed to know exactly what she was in for if she stayed here. “They’ll starve you, beat you, and use everyone and everything on this earth that you care about to manipulate you into doing things that your imagination can’t even comprehend. You’re not safe here anymore. You need to get your family and leave this place.”