Sorrow's Gift

Chapter Fifteen: Noah

Noah pressed a cold washcloth to Parrish's forehead. She'd been out for more than twenty minutes, but her breathing had finally steadied and she was resting.

A drop of cold water slid down the side of her face and into her hair. Parrish opened her eyes and sat up. Any peace she had seemed to find during her sleep was gone, her eyes wide and her head shaking violently from side to side.

Noah gripped her arms and shook her. "Parrish, calm down," he said. "We're safe."

She took in a huge gulp of air and looked into his eyes. "What happened?"

"You fainted." He relaxed his grip, but kept his hands on her skin. It was strange how protective he felt of her these days. He'd always been attracted to her, but now that they were fighting for their lives, he found he was more worried about her than anyone else. What was it that pulled him to her?

Parrish shook her head and raised a hand to her forehead. The washcloth had slid down to her lap when she sat up and she grabbed it now, twisting it between her fingers. "It's too much," she said. "The sickness. The rotters. Now, someone's trying to kill us? Someone's sending those things after us? We'll never be safe again, Noah. What are we going to do? Why is this happening to us?"

"I don't know, but we're going to figure this out together." He looked around at the group gathered in the living room of Crash's basement apartment. "The five of us. There has to be some reason we found each other, right? Some reason we all have these powers we can't explain. Crash said he's been scouring the forums and can't find another instance of someone reporting supernatural powers or incredible strength or anything like that. It's just us."

"Do you think the virus did this to us?" Parrish asked.

"Not directly," Crash said. He stood up from his desk and walked over to stand next to them by the couch. "Sorry to interrupt your conversation, but I think there's more to it than that."

"You don't think the virus somehow mutated us?" she asked.

"No." He looked around the room. "I think the virus awakened something that was already inside of us."

Karmen took her headphones out of her ears and leaned forward. "That doesn't make any sense. Are you saying you think we were carriers or something?"

Crash shook his head. "I know it sounds insane, but I think we were waiting for this to happen. I think we were born with these abilities, but that they didn't activate until the virus showed up and the world needed our help to put an end to it."

Parrish swung her legs around to sit up fully on the couch, and Noah took her hand in his. Maybe the things he'd been feeling for her were not just normal teenage hormones. Maybe there really was something connecting them. Something deeper than any of them could have imagined. There was a part of him that knew Crash was telling the truth. "Maybe we all need to talk about what powers we think we have," he said. "Crash, you've had dreams about the future and you can do incredible things with machines and power. Anything else?"

"Should there be more?" he said with a laugh. "Cause I got nothin'."

Noah shook his head and smiled. "No, I think that's plenty. I just want to get it out in the open. Talk this through and see if we can try to figure out a pattern."

He turned to Parrish, going around the circle.

"Parrish has enhanced abilities with her sword," he started. "Before this started, she'd never even picked one up."

"And she can ninja kick," Karmen added.

Parrish laughed. "I guess that's what you could call it," she said. She brought her sword into her lap. "Something you said, Crash, makes a lot of sense to me. About us always having these abilities and connections. I know it's strange, but when I was a little girl, my parents took me to Japan because my mom had a gig with the Tokyo Opera. We saw this sword in an antique shop and I don't know, I just had to have it. I couldn't explain it. It was like I just knew it was mine. My mom said no way, but my dad seemed to understand that it was important to me. I think he also felt guilty about pulling me out of school all the time like that. So they bought it for me. When we got home, they put it up on the wall as a display, and I never touched it until the day after my mom died. The first time I saw a rotter, this sword saved my life. I knew how to use it and how to move my body in ways I shouldn't know."