Son of Lazarus

Chapter 19: Time to Awaken

   "Was that...my father?" Lily asked, her voice shaking. She stared at Zack and could have sworn she saw her father staring back at her through his emerald green gaze. He stood there in those tight white pants and that white tank with the number nine sown on in a dark crimson color. He looked as confused as she felt but she could also sense concern. She was certain the man in the...memory was her father. She recognized his hazel colored hair, deep sapphire blue eyes and that strong jawline of his. Lily had been so focused on the man in the memory that she hadn't even recognized the woman in the background.
   "What do you mean?" Zack asked, bringing her back out of her thoughts. "That's my father. And the woman in the background was my mother."

   The woman in the background. Lily hadn't paid much attention to her. She'd been too focused on the man in the foreground with the boy. She shook her head and placed her hand on her chest. "He's my father." She insisted, her own mind wandering to the past. She remained still for a time, remembering Zack's own memory with the feather trick. That was what her father showed her. Almost as though reading her thoughts, the ground cracked behind her and another memory surfaced from it. While Zack merely looked up, Lily turned around and watched through teary eyes the day before she'd lost her dad.
   "Alright, Lily." He'd said, gazing at the young girl at his side. "You ready, honey?"
   "Mhmm." She'd said, a grin across her face.
   "Okay. Go ahead and concentrate on the feather."

   Lily watched herself gaze down upon the red feather from the cardinal they had saved. "Give it a little blow." She did just that and when she did, the feather sailed up into the air, earning a childish laugh from the girl at his side. Lily's heart ached. How she wished she could have those days back. But she knew she never could. Her dad was dead and only God knew where her mother was.
   "Honestly, Mike," began a woman's voice, "you really shouldn't encourage her."
   "Oh, Helen. Don't make me do this again." Lily closed her eyes for a time, unable to watch as a woman stepped out from the background, her arms crossed over her chest. The woman's hair was black and her eyes were a deep emerald green that seemed to shimmer in the light.
   "I refuse to accept that both of my children bear the same curse that you do."

   "You really think being a Telepath is a curse?" Lily looked back up, tears blinding her, as she watched her father rise from where he had been sitting. "It's not a curse, Helen. It's a gift and one I want both of my children to know about. They deserve to know what their old man can do and what they can do."
   "They can't do anything!" Helen shouted, throwing her arms into the air. "She's just a child and Zachary, well...we'll never see him again because of this! You heard what the doctors said."
   "And they're wrong to take him away from us!" Lily couldn't bear to watch any further. She hated it when her parents bickered, though she barely remembered this fight. She always had a knack for knowing when to step away and she assumed that's what she did during this fight of theirs.

   "Stop!" Lily shouted, her voice echoing loudly around them. She threw her hands up to her ears, covering them effortlessly. As if on cue, the memory faded back down into the crack, the floor sealing it away. She sat there, trembling, for what felt like an eternity. She only looked up when she felt a hand touching her shoulder. It withdrew after she shifted to look at who had touched her. Zack stood directly behind her, his eyes full of confusion though he said nothing. She could see it in his eyes: he was collecting his thoughts.

   After a little while, his shoulders raised in what she could only assume was a breath. "Lily, was it?" He asked first, stuffing his hands back into his pockets. Lily nodded, confirming that was her name. "I think I might be able to break our confusion." She watched as he shifted his feet and licked his lips as though they were dry. "If your mother's my mother, and your father's my father..." A hand rested on her shoulder and he soon gained a soft twinkle in his eyes. "And we bear the same feather memory...I do believe that I'm your older brother." Lily's confusion only worsened.
   "That's impossible." She declared once she'd found her voice. "Mom said I was an only child." Zack chuckled and ran a hand through his black hair, pushing it out of his face.