The Proposed Prophecies
Chapter 15: FORGET NORMAL

“Everything has been cleaned up out there,” Joann whispered as the kids were asleep after crying for nearly an hour. Liv felt calmer but the flashbacks were hard to erase from her mind and her hands were still trembling. It had been less than an hour since Carlotta’s body had landed on the cold tiles of the kitchen.

“Jake wants to talk to you,” Joann added and Liv managed to get up from the chair despite her lack of energy and the sudden migraine. She thought her tiredness must be a result of the profound fear she had felt. She looked at Joann, who was covering Tommy and Ashley with a blanket. They both slept on Ashley’s bed, holding on to each other. The machines that monitored Ashley’s heart and breathing were turned off. “Is this safe?” Liv asked Joann who smiled a little. “She is getting better and I think that is as a result of being unhooked from those machines. Or maybe it’s just a miracle,” she added and glanced at Ashley and then back at Liv again. Liv felt relieved. The thought that Ashley would be a healthy kid again was by far the best thought she had had in the past few months.

She exited the room and slowly closed the door after her. Jake was sitting on the sofa in the living room and he had a bottle of scotch placed on the glass table. “Please join me.” She sat on the sofa across from him. There was enough space on the sofa next to him for her to have sat next to him, but it somehow still felt strange to be so close to him. She wasn’t used to being around him for longer than few minutes.

“You know you could have sat next to me… I don’t bite.” He glanced at the table where she had left her grandfather’s diaries. She suddenly remembered the time he was in her room searching for the diaries and for a moment she thought he didn’t like the fact that they were on the table. But he sipped from his glass of scotch and looked at her instead. He was staring at her and this made her blush again. She felt like the biggest idiot for blushing after such a traumatizing morning and seeing Evan again. His expression made him look frustrated and she remembered what Jason had written about the Alter’s ability to read people’s minds. She wondered if Jake was unable to do so because she was a hybrid or if he even knew what she was. He was looking like he was a child whose candy was stuck in the vending machine and he couldn’t reach it

“I have to leave again soon and this time it will be for a month,” he said suddenly and she felt panic begin to build inside. “What if more infected people get inside? Am I supposed to keep killing them until I run out of the ammunition? I don’t even know how to shoot. I don’t even have a gun”

Jake stood up and moved towards her, slowly sitting next to her. She felt her heart racing and her hands became clammy. He kept staring but he continued to talk, as if his eyes and mouth did not belong on the same face.

“I need you to listen to me very carefully.” He leaned closer and his voice was lowered. She wasn’t really sure why he was so close or what he was about to say but it made her feel a bit uncomfortable.

“By the time I will be gone, the number of infected people will rise and that’s a fact not an assumption. Each big city in the world is going to have a deadlier version of the virus released within it. Miami already has the virus and I need you all to stay in the house.” His words were the stuff of nightmares. She remembered what Amy had said about one of Jason’s stories in which the virus mutated over time and she realized it was really happening. “You all should have been somewhere safe but unfortunately things turned out differently to what had been planned.”

He laid back and placed his hands on top of his eyes and slightly rubbed them as if he was tired of the situation. He recommended she invited Carmen and Tiffany to stay there as they had a bigger chance of surviving as a group. He said he would bring wood and all the windows would be covered by his military team outside in the truck. He stared at the ceiling. “My military team will also bring you food each week so don’t be worried about this.” He turned his head towards her. But food was the last thing on Liv’s mind. “So what happens after you come back? Will you stay here with us? What about my sister? And mom?” In saying “mom”, Liv was reminded that her mom was an Alter. She felt his hand on top of hers.

“They are going to be fine,” he said and smiled a little. Liv thought he must have known about her mom being an Alter which meant he would probably know about her too. But he didn’t say anything about that and continued to whisper.

“The virus is going to mutate gradually and in a month it will cause aggression in anyone that has it and chaos. The second stage of the virus makes the infected people attack anyone alive. It won’t be pretty I can assure you. I will try to come back and get you all into a ship that will take you to a safe place, these bunkers.” She knew what he was talking about because of what she had read in the diaries but just the thought of having so little time until this happened was frightening.

“What if you don’t make it back in a month?”

He exhaled deeply which was unsettling. “I will leave you guns and a lot of ammunition. And I will show you how to operate the gun. I still have two days left until I leave… we can practice.” Liv laid back and pulled her hand from underneath his. She looked at the small round lights on the ceiling.

“How about Eve?” Liv lowered the sound of her voice when she said her name, like it was a prohibited or a bad word.

“You don’t have to worry about her at this moment,” he said. She hesitated. “Is Eve the same Eve written about in my grandfather’s diaries?” She looked at him and he nodded his head. “Yes. Eve and your grandfather used to be close once upon a time.” It felt strange to know that. Eve and Jason had been a couple. She exhaled.

She continued to look at Jake, who was sitting so close his knee was touching hers. She started to wonder where he was about to go and what would he do. She secretly wanted to know everything about him, every single detail. She couldn’t explain why. His close presence made her feel as if she was drunk and the room was spinning, except she hadn’t drunk any alcohol. Scenes from the past hour suddenly popped up again in her mind, which brought her back out of the strange zone that Jake had pulled her into.

“Why do the infected people keep hitting their heads?” The knocking noise of Carlotta’s head against the kitchen counter still boomed in her head.

“The virus is hosting in the brain and it causes pain you can’t even imagine. I think, the infected people are trying to get it out and they don’t really feel any physical pain any longer as the one inside their brain is so compelling that they feel nothing else but that pain inside.” He shifted his position so he looked more relaxed on the sofa. His knee was still touching hers.

“Whatever happens, I want you to know that I will do anything to get you all out of here alive.” He gently grabbed her hand again and lifted it up. He examined the mark on her hand. His hand felt warm, almost burning, and his touch felt good. She wondered if he knew why she had that mark there. He must do, she thought.

“You can’t even imagine how hard it is for an Alter not to be able to read someone’s thoughts. It is like an obsession, a drug addiction,” he said suddenly. His eyes were still fixed on her marked wrist, holding it gently.

“I read about it. I also know about my mother. She is an Alter, which makes me some type of freak.” Jake laughed. “You are not a freak. Your mother Helena is an Alter but she is not your biological mother. Alters can’t conceive children on their own. That ability is taken very early on in an Alter’s life to avoid over population.” She realized he didn’t know the truth after all. She stood speechless and she felt as if she was unable to close her mouth. Perhaps Eve didn’t know the truth either. His smile turned suddenly serious and he sat up straight as he realized.

“Wait… Is it true…?” He said and looked down onto the floor and then back at her. “I heard rumors about hybrids but I never knew they were true.”

Liv sat up straight too. She wasn’t really sure what was happening and what it meant now that Jake knew the truth.

“This is amazing.” He said and touched her face with his hand. “Do you feel anything different?” He placed his hand back on the sofa. “Everything feels normal. Well, except the current situation we are in right now.” Her voice felt shaky. “Interesting.” He smiled and suddenly paused before standing up. “What’s wrong?” she asked as he placed his hands on top of his head and walked slowly to the window. “I just wonder if Eve knows about you.”

“What would that mean if she did?” She stood up and walked to the window too stand beside him. She remembered that Eve was the one to send Evan with the diaries. She must have already known the truth, she thought.

“I am not entirely sure. But it would not be a good thing.” He rested his hands next to his body again. “I am going to check on Tommy and Ashley. Go get your friends. We need to start practice shooting and prepare the house.” He walked towards the hallway where she spotted Tommy crying and still in his pajamas, asking what had happened to Carlotta. Jake picked him up and took him back into Ashley’s room. Liv suddenly had a bad feeling. Perhaps she shouldn’t say anything further about what she had read in the diary. But then he might help her with Eve. It was hard to trust anyone. She had trusted Evan and that hadn’t ended up well. She exhaled and looked at the Christmas tree. “Merry Christmas to us,” she said out loud as the holidays were about to be disastrous.

“I tried to call my mother later on that day but she didn’t pick up. Part of me hoped that she wouldn’t. I didn’t even know what to say. I was confused and I wasn’t even sure if I was angry or disappointed or both. I called Becky too but her phone went straight to voicemail and it never came back on as I kept trying. Jake was able to connect with my mother later on and she told him that Becky was safe and that’s all I wanted to hear. He handed me the phone to talk to my mother but I refused. Everything still felt so strange. She was an Alter and I was a hybrid, a mistake that should have never existed.

Carmen and Tiffany were already aware from the news that there was an official virus quarantine in Miami when I called them later that day. Neither of them hesitated to come over and remain in Amy’s house once I told them we had guns and Jake offered to show us how to use them. Carmen already knew how to shoot which didn’t surprise me. She said she had had a gun at home since she was fifteen as she had been home on her own a lot. Tiffany was mostly scared to even look at the gun. I never realized how delicate she was until I saw her hand trembling as she was holding the weapon. Joann appeared to pick up on Jake’s instructions quicker than any of us. She seemed so delicate but once I saw her holding the gun, she looked tough and the gun looked really natural in her hands. She was brave and independent like Carmen.

Jake taught us how to shoot. I remember his hands on mine as he showed me how to target the cans in the back yard. My hands didn’t tremble when he touched me. It felt like he was giving me the strength I needed, the focus and the power. We practiced all day in the back yard for the next two days and five people in army uniforms nailed wood onto the windows. They helped the neighbors too. Everyone knew that the end of the world was about to come. That’s how it felt. Carmen said that the stores in downtown were in chaos and most of the food had sold out already as no one knew how long it would be until a cure would be found. I wondered if any of the neighbors had an inkling that the virus would mutate again in only a month. The news showed people falling into a panic all over downtown Miami once they were told the virus had infected ten people in the area already and quarantine had been officially placed on the city.

I remember the day Jake left. Ashley and Tommy were crying and I was on the edge of crying myself. It felt like everything would be harder without him, as we were on our own. For the first two weeks after he left I had been unable to sleep properly. I knew there was no cure for this and each day felt like Russian roulette.

Little-by-little, Ashley was able to walk on her own. It was a miracle, just like Joann had said. She was brave in front of Tommy and I thanked her for this. I knew she was terrified just like the rest of us but she kept her smiling face in front of him. She loved Tiffany and she always said she wanted to look like her one day. Tiffany had brought make-up with her and the two of them used to put make up on each other. Tiffany had know that she would be there for at least a month, but rather than bringing sweatpants and t-shirts like everyone else, she mostly brought fancy clothes and make-up with her.

Carmen seemed to form a bond with Joann. They used to laugh so hard when they were around each other. I had never seen Carmen so happy and I realized that even in the middle of a disaster there was a possibility to replace love. And for the first time, I thought Carmen had found it.

Tommy was fully entertained with so many girls in the house. I think he never received as much attention as he did during those first two weeks.

I was often looking through the small space between the wooden boards in the living room as I waited for Jake. I often wondered if he would ever come back. I felt like a princess from the stories my mother would tell us when we were kids. A princess trapped in the tower and waited for him to save me. The only difference was that I wasn’t a princess but some type of a mistake. I wasn’t even sure what that meant. I wished Evan would show up with another diary for me to read. But of course he didn’t. I wondered what he had meant when he had said that Eve had allowed me to have those diaries back. I wondered if she was playing a game of some sort. But it wasn’t a good thing if she knew the truth about me.

I wasn’t even sure how I would react once I saw my mother again, if I ever would. But I knew that no matter what would happen in the future, I would never be the same as I had been.”