Alik saw the veiled images of two men tackling Cole just as he had finished pulling on a T-shirt. One held him down; the other injected him in the neck. In Alik’s vision, Cole’s mouth was wide in a silent scream.
Another ran to Meg’s room and shot Maze with a dart, no doubt laced with the same drug that was in the syringes. The last Monarch ran into Evan’s room, hitting him with the syringe in the neck as he reached to adjust the temperature of his shower.
Alik saw them dragging the bodies of his family to the living room where a van had been pulled up to the front door. Each Monarch grabbed a body and carried them to the van, tossing them in as if they were bundles of old clothes and not living, breathing people. Creed was loaded last, but the four Monarchs who went to get him from what was obviously the barn were bloody from their efforts. It took four strong Monarchs to take him, even by surprise. All four were carrying him and tossed him into the back on top of the others.
A second van was filled with the remaining Monarchs and both pulled away from the empty house.
Alik walked to his sister’s pool of blood and stared at it, seeing a gossamer version of her overlaid reality.
“I saw everything.”
“What? What just happened to you Alik?” Farrow asked, confused.
“I saw it as though I was standing here in the room while it happened. I don’t know how it worked, but it was like watching a silent movie that superimposed the present. Memories. It was like I…this sounds crazy…”
“Go on Alik. This is probably your gift. Tell us.” Margo encouraged. Alik looked over at his mother and felt such a wave of love for her. Sometimes, he wished he could be like Danny and curl up in his mom’s arms as he used to.
Alik sighed. “It’s as if I can tap into the energy, the vibrations that linger and see what happened. The eidetic memory I’ve always had only used to work on events that directly happened to or around me, things I’ve read or seen. Well, now I can read energy prints and interpret them as my own visual memories. At least, I think that’s what happened.” Alik rubbed his face in his hands and looked up plaintively at his mother.
“What do you mean ‘energy prints’?” Theo asked, putting the squirming Danny down. Once on the ground, his little legs made a beeline to Alik. He was wearing his Sleeper Sleeve on one arm and used it as his pillow as he laid his head down on Alik’s lap. Alik reached out and gently rubbed the toddler’s back instantly feeling more at ease.
“Okay it’s like fingerprints,” Alik began. “They’re everywhere, but you can’t see them without special equipment, right? Well, a person’s energy signature lingers like fingerprints. We just can’t see them usually, but that doesn’t mean their energy prints aren’t there. I don’t know how exactly, but I can see them now.” Alik’s head had begun pounding near the start of the DVD, but after his little walk down memory lane, the headache was coming on with a vengeance. He didn’t want to say anything because he didn’t want to worry his mom. She had enough children to fret over without him mentioning the throbbing deep in the base of his skull.
“Maybe your changed eye-color is a symptom of the changes they went through to allow this new vision,” Farrow offered.
“Did you see anything that could help us find them?”
“How many of them were there?”
“Did you see Arkdone?”
“Wait. First there were seven in the house and four outside collecting Creed from the barn. Plus Arkdone. They were driving identical white vans, both had Texas tags.”
“They could be from anywhere if the vans were rentals.”
“Nothing else, Alik?”
“Well, there is one more thing, but I got this hint from the DVD not the energy print.”
“What?”
“He had a Northeastern accent. Didn’t you hear it? He’s very educated, obviously, but I could hear past his attempt at covering up his dialect. There was a distinct Northeast regional accent when he would pronounce the broad ‘a’ and dropped the tongue when pronouncing ‘r’ sounds. You heard that too, right?”
“Now that you mention it, yes. Brilliant, Alik!” Margo smiled for the first time since they came home.
“I hate to be a kill-joy, but that doesn’t mean he’s taken the family to the Northeast area. He could just be from that region and falling back into a comfortable pattern of speech. He could have them en route anywhere in the world.” Theo’s mind was racing with worry over all the children, but especially his fragile son, Cole.
“He’s right, Mom.” Alik nodded solemnly. “Maybe I can track him.”
“Track him? How?” Theo asked.
Alik shrugged, “I haven’t worked out all the details, but I may be able to use my evolved gift, somehow.”
Chapter 41 Something So Beautiful