Chapter 2: Havens
Carrying Michi on his back, Hikari followed Joel down the dirt road that led out of that backwater town. The clouds had all passed over and the sun painted the sky orange as it set on the horizon. “Hikari, what’s this thing on your neck?” Michi asked as she fingered the marking, shaped like a horizontal crescent with a flame above it, that was partially hidden under his cloak.
“I dunno, a tattoo?” Hikari replied. “Are you okay up there?” he asked Michi.
“Yup!” she answered cheerfully.
Joel glanced back at Hikari and Michi, frowning. We don’t know anything about him, Joel thought. I can’t believe we’re bringing him with us.
“Hey, it’s glowing!” Michi cried.
“What?” Joel asked.
“The thing on his neck is glowing!” Michi cried excitedly.
“What the–?!” Hikari let Michi slide off his back and flipped the hood of his cloak over his head. “Hikari, what’s up with that thing? What are you?” Joel questioned him.
Hikari grinned somewhat. “I don’t have much strength after the sun goes down,” he said. “I don’t know why that is; but I can’t carry Michi anymore.”
“That doesn’t answer my question,” Joel said irritably, crossing his arms over his chest.
Hikari just grinned in reply, took Michi’s hand, and started walking again. “Let’s find José so we can rest,” he said.
“You mean so you can rest,” Joel muttered under his breath. He took his sister’s hand and yanked her away from Hikari. “Stay away from my sister,” he said harshly as he walked ahead.
By the time they arrived at the small, wooden house outside of town, the stars were already beginning to show in the sky. “This must be it,” Joel said. They climbed the stairs and knocked on the door.
“Joel, my feet hurt,” Michi complained. “Pick me up!” Joel brushed her off irritably and waited for the door to open. “Joel!” Michi whined. Hikari quieted her and laboriously hoisted her over his shoulders. Michi smiled and held on tight. But after another minute or so of waiting, she could feel Hikari quaking under her weight. “Knock again,” Michi told her brother.
“I know,” he snapped, knocking on the door once more.
“He’s probably asleep,” Hikari thought aloud as he stepped out from under the porch awning and looked up at the stars. Michi pulled Hikari’s hood down and stared at the glowing mark on his neck. “What’d you do that for?” Hikari asked. “C’mon, put it back up,” he said, for once looking and sounding a little worried.
“You felt better before you put it up,” Michi replied, “so leave it down.”
Hikari smiled and looked back up at the sky. “Isn’t it pretty?” he asked.
“Uh-huh.”
They heard the door open and climbed back onto the porch. An older man wearing a dress shirt and a pair of jeans stood waiting. “What are you niños doing out at this time of night?” he asked.
“Are you José?” Joel inquired. The man nodded in reply. “Can you tell us about the Gifted?” Joel asked him.
The man’s eyes widened with surprise. “The Gifted...Why do you need to know?”
“It’s important,” Joel replied. “Very important.”
José grunted uneasily and asked, “Don’t you have a home to go back to? I’m sure your padres are worried by now.” When the kids didn’t answer, José reluctantly ushered them into the house. As he closed the door behind them, the mark on Hikari’s neck caught his eye. José stumbled backward and the kids all turned to look at him.
“What is it?” Joel asked.
“Wh–who are you?” José asked Hikari. Hikari turned and gave him a questioning look. José seemed to calm down a little. “I remember you now,” he said. “You’re that boy that wandered into town about a month or so ago.”
Hikari still stood blinking up at him. “We’ve met?” he asked.
“You don’t remember?”
Joel couldn’t help staring at Hikari. Is it happening again? he wondered. Like what happened back in town when he suddenly forgot everything?
José turned up the dim light. “Now do you recognize me?” he asked. “You stayed here for a while before you traveled to town, remember?”
“Oh..Yeah, I recognize you now,” Hikari said, smiling hollowly.
Joel wondered if he was lying, or if Hikari’s memory loss really did have something to do with his attraction to the light. What kind of person forgets stuff just because he’s in the dark? he thought to himself. And that marking...
“Niños,” José called, “follow me.” Joel and the others followed José into a small room with a couple of wooden chairs and a fireplace. José tossed some kindling into the fireplace and lit the fire. He then sat down, and the children followed suit, plopping down on the hardwood floor. “What do you want to know?” José asked.
As Michi curled up and laid down on his lap, Joel replied, “Anything you can tell us about the Gifted.”
“Why do you wish to know about the Gifted?” José inquired.
Joel stared down at the floor. “Our mom is sick,” he answered. “She asked us to find Sky of the Gifted. I thought maybe someone “gifted” could help her.”
“I see,” José murmured. “And your padre isn’t helping her?”
“I don’t have a father,” Joel said bitterly. “He left us.” Hikari turned to look at him; it was the first time Joel had ever seen him frown–aside from the time when he lost his memory. “That’s why we have to find Sky and the Gifted,” Joel continued. “If they can save our mom, then we have to find them!”
José heaved a sigh and glanced at Hikari. “One of the Gifted is with you,” he told Joel.
“What?” Joel and Hikari cried in unison.
“Quit playing dumb!” Joel yelled. “You’re one of the Gifted?! Why didn’t you say so?” He shoved Hikari and bolted up, waking his sister. “You could’ve taken us to the Gifted from the start! You could’ve taken us to Sky!” So those markings... He grabbed Hikari’s cloak and began to yank it off.
Hikari curled into a ball. “Stop!” Hikari cried, his green eyes wide with fear. “DON’T–!” The mark on his neck began to glow brighter. “DON’T TOUCH ME!!!” he yelled.
A cut appeared on Joel’s hand and he pulled away in shock. “WHAT DID YOU JUST DO?” he yelled.
“Joel, stop it!” Michi cried, tugging at her brother’s sleeve.
“TELL US WHERE THE OTHER GIFTED ARE, YOU FREAK!!!” Joel yelled.
“I told you, I don’t know!” Hikari cried. “I don’t remember!!”
“YES, YOU DO!!!” Joel yelled. “DON’T LIE TO ME!!!” He lunged at Hikari and pinned him down.
“I DON’T KNOW!” Hikari yelled, his eyes narrowing with anger as the light from his markings flared up. His fist flew at Joel, who braced himself for the blow. But in the next instant, Hikari’s arm fell. The anger had suddenly left his face, and a tear slipped down his cheek. “I can’t...” His eyes started to close.
“ENOUGH!” José pulled Joel off of Hikari and carried him across the room, finally setting him down carefully several feet away. “Don’t you move from there!” José ordered him.
There was a soft thump, and Michi shrieked.
“Hikari won’t wake up!” Michi cried from across the room.
José strode over to them. Sure enough, Hikari was lying in a heap on the floor. Michi’s big amber eyes were wide with alarm and filling with tears.
José told her, “He isn’t hurt. He’s only tired.” José hesitantly picked Hikari up and dragged him closer to the warm fireplace and its bright orange firelight. Michi followed and stuck her tongue out at her brother as she passed him by. She watched José lay Hikari down, then settled down next to Hikari as José took his seat.
“For one of the Gifted,” Joel grumbled, “he sure isn’t smart, or even strong.”
“No matter how frightening their powers,” José told him, “the Gifted still have all the weaknesses of a human.” He glanced at Hikari and continued, “In this one’s case, he has to be somewhere close to the light, or he’ll weaken, both mentally and physically.”
“So to hide his powers and those weird marks, he wears the cloak,” Joel surmised.
José nodded. “That’s right.”
“How come he acts like he can’t remember anything?” Joel asked.
“I don’t know,” José replied. “It may be caused by his powers. Or maybe..it’s just him.”
Joel glared across the room at Hikari. “Well since he’s no help,” he said sharply, “can you tell us how to find the Gifted?”
José heaved another deep sigh and explained, “The Gifted live in three cities called havens. The nearest of those three cities is known as the Haven of Heaven – which is probably where this one came from. The next is called the Haven of Earth. The farthest is the Sea Sanctuary, which is located on the west coast of Eagle Isle. If this ‘Sky’ you seek really does exist, it will not be easy to find him.”
“The Haven of Heaven,” Joel mused. “Where is that?”
“Though the nearest, it is still a long distance from here,” José replied. “I can give you a map that I made when I searched for the havens myself.”
“You’ve been..to all three?”
José nodded uneasily and averted his eyes from Joel’s attentive gaze. “If you wish to turn back,” he warned, “there is still time.”
“No,” Joel said. “We’re going there. We’re going to find Sky.”
José stood up and started across the room. “Then rest here for the night,” he said. “I will leave you the map and provisions in the morning.” With that, José disappeared down the hallway.
“Michi,” Joel called, “come over here.” He glanced over and realized that his sister had fallen asleep beside Hikari. Grimacing, he stared down at the cut on his hand, which, though it wasn’t bleeding, stung terribly. Joel glared at Hikari and clenched his fist. He’s no good, Joel thought. Suddenly, he forgot his hatred as sleep crept in and overtook him.
