Safe House
Three
It took weeks, two weeks and all Caleb wanted was to get his ducks in a row, he messaged Avery telling her he was okay, at least four people had told him to call her back, she was worried sick. He set aside a time and place to meet with Liam, Nathan, Gavin, and Cassandra to explain himself. If he thought he was living in fear since the fire, it was nothing compared to what it would feel like to face the kids he had grown up with and tell them he would never go back to Cain in a million lifetimes. They were sitting in an empty house, sometimes real estate companies put these decoy houses in empty lots to get potential customers a visual for their future plans. They were flimsy, cheap, and easy to break into.
“I figured it was you,” Gavin said after he recounted the entire ordeal. “he must have really messed up to make you demolish that place.”
“It wasn’t one big incident it was just a collection of little things,” Caleb tried to explain, finding the words, despite the circumstances finding the right way to break it to all of them without dragging Cain. It was very important to him that he would not influence the others in any way, he was not in the brainwashing business at all. “and I want you all to know that I am not telling you to drop everything and stay by me, if you guys want to stay with Cain, I get it, and really I do. I just thought it wasn’t fair to you all, for me to just leave without an explanation. I hate the way I left, I really do, I wanted to say goodbye but it would have just made it harder.” Cassandra mumbled something about her knowing all this might have happened, but she hoped they would work it out. She got a look on her face like she was about to cry, it ripped up Caleb’s heart to look at her, he kept his gaze to the floor. He taught Cassandra to read, helped her with her homework, and sped her to the hospital when she fell off her bike and needed stitches and he always made sure she had him to go to, their form of rebellion was connecting and bonding together. He did not mean to leave her, but he hoped this would make Cain change his behavior, to look within himself and treat the others with some sort of autonomy. Caleb severely doubted it but there was always hope, there a part of him that, thought he would still keep in touch with all of them, at least Liam, who was suspiciously silent through the conversation.
“Liam? You okay, man?” Caleb asked, the boy did not met his gaze. The stubble he was trying so hard to grow covered by his hand as he propped his head on his fist staring out the window. “Liam? Dude?” As a response, the boy just shrugged, not looking at Caleb. He mumbled something that sounded like whatever as he got up and walked through the room towards the door, clear as a bell, Caleb heard what Liam had to say to him.
“Another one bites the dust, I guess,” he grumbled angrily, he might as well have punched the older boy in the face. “You know what man? This is getting fucking boring, I hate reruns.” Without any further explanation, he stomped away.
“Don’t worry about him Cay,” Avery mentioned. “he’ll come around he is just angry right now, just give him time to process,”
“It’s okay,” Caleb amended, “I get it, really, and I don’t blame him.”
“Caleb?” he heard from what sounded like the world’s smallest voice. Despite his best judgment, he looked over at Cassandra, her eyes were glassy, and Nathan was giving an admirably stiff upper lip. “I’m just-thank God.” The little girl breathed a sigh of relief and let a few tears fall, he pulled her into a hug. That easily the dumbest move he has ever thought of, he had to let go, he was going to give himself a jaw problem from gritting his teeth so hard. He let go of his voluntary baby sister and went to face Nathan. “Listen, about Violet,”
“Cass, stop, I want to be surprised.” He cut her off, “wait a second, Violet doesn’t die or anything right?!”
“Oh no, not at all,” Cassandra told him. Caleb turned his attention to Nathan, the little redhead he has known since he was eight and Caleb was twelve.
“So, uh,” was all the kid could say.
“He’s okay now, or at least he will be,” Cassandra told Nathan. “He really did not have much of a choice, and he does not want to tell us anything but trust me it was really bad-.”
“Ok Cass!” Caleb hinted, “If you don’t mind shutting it off for a few minutes please? I’m starting to get used to privacy.”
“Sorry,” she mumbled she then proceeded to give out a sniffle and whimper combination that ripped out Caleb’s heart and used it as a tennis ball.
“Do what you have to CJ,” Nathan began, just as Caleb was about to wince, Cassandra let slip that she had a hard time shutting down her clairvoyance as she interjected what Caleb was too nice to say.
“He does not like that anymore,” Cassandra told Nathan, “we are all going to have to stop calling him that.” The nickname “CJ”, came from a friend of Cain’s who went in to see the camp and how the old man was getting on, apparently he saw a lot of potential in Caleb and as a joke called “Cain Junior” or “CJ”. Caleb never minded it, at the time he was only twelve and was almost proud to be compared to Cain, who was a God to the boy. New people thought it was initials, except Caleb’s full name was Caleb Asher Prinz; not a J-word in sight. Cain had the same power that Caleb did, but he was missing a key point; patience. There were a lot of times when Caleb had to explain to a store why he needed a new desk the last time Cain had one of his “moments” and decided to light up one of the desks in the office because Caleb had forgotten to call back someone really important. When asked about the damage later on, he had blamed Caleb.
There was a famous story, about how one time Cain was at a pool party when he was in his early twenties, saw his girlfriend at the time flirting with another guy and before he even processed what he planned on doing to the guy, he had turned the cool water into a Jacuzzi, eventually turning it into steam until he was standing alone in what looked like a cement, blue vinyl covered, cereal bowl. Caleb had heard that story at least ten times, a month. It took at least six of those months before he stopped laughing. While Cain chuckled away at his territorial jealous streak, how he had terrified several people and nearly boiled his girlfriend to death. At first he just chalked it up to stories that were only funny because no one got hurt in the end. But now that he thought about it, it just shows the kind of lack of control he really had over his power.
“Sorry, Caleb,” Nathan corrected, his pale skin blushed to match his red hair, making it look like his whole face was a thermometer. Caleb just shrugged, there was no touching, there was no affection, and Nathan was his Comrade in Arms and nothing more. Caleb thought back to the time Avery had held his hand and it took the two of them a minute to realize they could do that and they would not be stopped or penalized. He put his hand on Nate’s shoulder and as predicted it took the other boy a second to process it was going to be okay. Nathan took a step closer to Caleb and lowered his voice. “Will you let us know where you end up?”
“Of course, I can trust you guy’s right?” Caleb assured, he did not mean for it to sound like a question, however he would be lying if he was not afraid of what would come to them if they lied for him or worse turned on him, which he could understand, he was abandoning ship.
“That’s what we do man, you don’t have to worry, he does not scare us,” Cassandra mentioned, obviously lying about shutting off her power for his sake. “Oh what? Can you blame me? I’m just worried!” They wrapped it up quickly for Caleb’s sake, and if it was not uncomfortable, Liam storming off made it unbearable. This was everything he was worried about, especially with Liam. He hoped that he was just angry at the situation and not him, coming back to him to contact Caleb to explain.
For someone like Rowan Cain, control was a big deal, it was almost paramount to him and his self-esteem that he knew every move everyone around him was going to make. It was important that he knew what Caleb was studying, he could never bring Violet to Branches unless he was away because Cain thought she was less than him, what with her being an Extraneous. Outsider’s thought that it was just Cain acting like a protective father figure, but it was so thinly veiled the boy wanted to scream at their stupidity. The older Caleb got, the less he could control. Suddenly he was only allowed to leave the camp for a few hours a day, not counting school. The rest of it, he did not want to think about. The sooner Cain became a distant memory, a bad dream to him, the better off he would be in the long run. When he came to Violet’s house, it was the last time he got a good night’s sleep and he was convinced it was because of the whiskey Avery had slipped him, at the very least it made him too tired to remember the dreams he was having.
Now was not such a case, it felt like every time he shut his eyes he was dreaming about his mattress being on fire at the hands of Rowan. He was a shadow of himself by day three, it was agony not being able to sleep. If he was not dreaming about his mattress a blaze, he was dreaming about Rowan hiring goons to have him and Violet killed. He thought his worst fears were confirmed when he was having dinner with Violet’s family and there was a knock at the door. For the past few weeks, Caleb did not even recognize himself, every phone ringing, knock, drop and sudden move meant Cain was coming for him. So when he froze, reflexively shaking off Violet’s touch who somehow seemed to look surprised every time he had that response. When Violet’s father opened the door, a policeman was in the doorway.
“Good evening sir,” the cop started. “I was wondering if you knew a Caleb Prinz?” At the mention of his name, Violet’s mother’s candles suddenly lit and the flames shot up to the ceiling, miraculously not damaging the paint.
“I am Caleb Prinz,” he told the cop as he concentrated on putting out the candles.
“I have a charge here for you,”
“For what?!” he demanded.
“Theft,” the policeman responded. “I have an accusation from an undisclosed party saying that you stole money, and devices.”
“Look around, my bag is over there by the couch, search it, I don’t give a shit,” now Caleb was all kinds of angry. If this ‘undisclosed party’ was trying to scare him by accusing him of stealing he was nothing short of livid. Caleb knew better than to steal a pen after he left. It was preposterous, anyone who knew him knew that it was ridiculous. “Show me, I’m not an idiot, where is your search warrant? Or your probable cause. I know if you got a call this morning it would take at least two days to get one, so show me, go on, and take it out.”
“We don’t have a warrant,” the policeman sheepishly admitted, impressed by the boy’s gusto. The anger bubbled in Caleb as he put his hand on the brass doorknob to settle himself to keep from lunging at the policeman and instead of attacking him with fire, beating him with his bare hands.
“Then you were bought for real cheap.” Caleb spat, trying not to kill the messenger. The doorknob was suddenly glowing red, causing the cop to jump from the heat and look at Caleb with a terrified look on his face.
“Shit you’re Arma aren’t you?” the cop asked him with a twinge of fear on his eyes, wondering if he should do his job or Cain’s bidding it was hard to tell. The cop looked like the boy was about to breathe fire and Caleb was angry enough to do just that, or cause another inferno.
“No, I just Home Alone’d you, and there’s a red poker on the other side. Yes I am Arma.” Caleb bit with the utmost sarcasm, Violet’s father chuckled behind him as the cop made a run for it. There were a lot of people who thought Arma meant you were dangerous, it was unbelievable the ignorance on some people. Normally, Caleb would take this opportunity to educate someone who did not know anything about Arma Children to calmly represent his own kind. Today, however, at the very moment, he was very close to just lighting up the cops badge just to make a point. He was genuinely trying not to shoot the messenger, but he had to try something.
“Caleb, stop it, you’re boiling the fish tank!!” Violet screamed, he stopped, he needed to calm down as the pool story replayed in his head. After letting go of the doorknob, which was still smoking he took a few deep breaths before his next move.
“Officer,” Caleb began. “Why are you wearing your sunglasses? It’s eight o’clock at night, not to mention you are inside.”
“I just want to keep them on,” the officer replied. Caleb still had his suspicions so he decided to continue is impromptu experiment. He hated doing this, he had to do it one other time and swore he never would again. He outstretched his hand for the officer to shake, acting of his own accord, the officer took the boys hand before he could complete one shake, Caleb pulled the man close to him and got a grip on the back of his neck right where his cerebellum is supposed to be.
“Take off your glasses,” he commanded, to his surprise, it worked the officer did so and Caleb saw the pupils, sideways like a cat’s eyes. Mentis Imperium the thought made him sick, it was mind control, only to be used in life or death situations. Caleb wished that he could say that he was surprised, he would not put it past the man to take every measure possible. Including puppeteering an innocent cop. “You will leave me alone, you will leave my girl alone and her family. Next time Cain tells you to do something you will report to me before you make a move. Tell him I’m alive, I’m pissed off, and he is a world class coward.”
“Right away sir,” the officer responded as Caleb let him go with the enthusiasm he would give his commanding officer. It was at that moment he realized that he could not stay there any longer. He finished dinner, kissed Violet goodnight and waited until everyone was asleep as he very quietly, packed his stuff up and snuck out of the house. Who’s the world class coward now? He said to himself, as he threw the stuff in his truck. Once again, he was leaving without telling anyone and he hated himself for it, once again. Violet had really enjoyed playing the housewife and nurse, coming home to him every day, trying to stitch him back together. Ready or not, off he went, for the second time. I’m still protecting her, he rationalized. He wants me, and he is going to go through every one I care about to get to me, I cannot do that to Vi, I won’t.
He drove around for days, slept in his car, wrapped himself in a blanket in the bed of his truck and slept under the stars on hot nights. One night he parked in front of what he thought was a car garage and slept across his backseat. He awoke to fervent tapping on his window, he looked up to see a man standing outside with his arms crossed. Caleb could not exactly place it, but the man looked vaguely familiar to him from somewhere. He spoke with a sort of drawl that he could not place.
“Hey, kid, you look familiar.” The man told him reading his mind.
“I figured it was you,” Gavin said after he recounted the entire ordeal. “he must have really messed up to make you demolish that place.”
“It wasn’t one big incident it was just a collection of little things,” Caleb tried to explain, finding the words, despite the circumstances finding the right way to break it to all of them without dragging Cain. It was very important to him that he would not influence the others in any way, he was not in the brainwashing business at all. “and I want you all to know that I am not telling you to drop everything and stay by me, if you guys want to stay with Cain, I get it, and really I do. I just thought it wasn’t fair to you all, for me to just leave without an explanation. I hate the way I left, I really do, I wanted to say goodbye but it would have just made it harder.” Cassandra mumbled something about her knowing all this might have happened, but she hoped they would work it out. She got a look on her face like she was about to cry, it ripped up Caleb’s heart to look at her, he kept his gaze to the floor. He taught Cassandra to read, helped her with her homework, and sped her to the hospital when she fell off her bike and needed stitches and he always made sure she had him to go to, their form of rebellion was connecting and bonding together. He did not mean to leave her, but he hoped this would make Cain change his behavior, to look within himself and treat the others with some sort of autonomy. Caleb severely doubted it but there was always hope, there a part of him that, thought he would still keep in touch with all of them, at least Liam, who was suspiciously silent through the conversation.
“Liam? You okay, man?” Caleb asked, the boy did not met his gaze. The stubble he was trying so hard to grow covered by his hand as he propped his head on his fist staring out the window. “Liam? Dude?” As a response, the boy just shrugged, not looking at Caleb. He mumbled something that sounded like whatever as he got up and walked through the room towards the door, clear as a bell, Caleb heard what Liam had to say to him.
“Another one bites the dust, I guess,” he grumbled angrily, he might as well have punched the older boy in the face. “You know what man? This is getting fucking boring, I hate reruns.” Without any further explanation, he stomped away.
“Don’t worry about him Cay,” Avery mentioned. “he’ll come around he is just angry right now, just give him time to process,”
“It’s okay,” Caleb amended, “I get it, really, and I don’t blame him.”
“Caleb?” he heard from what sounded like the world’s smallest voice. Despite his best judgment, he looked over at Cassandra, her eyes were glassy, and Nathan was giving an admirably stiff upper lip. “I’m just-thank God.” The little girl breathed a sigh of relief and let a few tears fall, he pulled her into a hug. That easily the dumbest move he has ever thought of, he had to let go, he was going to give himself a jaw problem from gritting his teeth so hard. He let go of his voluntary baby sister and went to face Nathan. “Listen, about Violet,”
“Cass, stop, I want to be surprised.” He cut her off, “wait a second, Violet doesn’t die or anything right?!”
“Oh no, not at all,” Cassandra told him. Caleb turned his attention to Nathan, the little redhead he has known since he was eight and Caleb was twelve.
“So, uh,” was all the kid could say.
“He’s okay now, or at least he will be,” Cassandra told Nathan. “He really did not have much of a choice, and he does not want to tell us anything but trust me it was really bad-.”
“Ok Cass!” Caleb hinted, “If you don’t mind shutting it off for a few minutes please? I’m starting to get used to privacy.”
“Sorry,” she mumbled she then proceeded to give out a sniffle and whimper combination that ripped out Caleb’s heart and used it as a tennis ball.
“Do what you have to CJ,” Nathan began, just as Caleb was about to wince, Cassandra let slip that she had a hard time shutting down her clairvoyance as she interjected what Caleb was too nice to say.
“He does not like that anymore,” Cassandra told Nathan, “we are all going to have to stop calling him that.” The nickname “CJ”, came from a friend of Cain’s who went in to see the camp and how the old man was getting on, apparently he saw a lot of potential in Caleb and as a joke called “Cain Junior” or “CJ”. Caleb never minded it, at the time he was only twelve and was almost proud to be compared to Cain, who was a God to the boy. New people thought it was initials, except Caleb’s full name was Caleb Asher Prinz; not a J-word in sight. Cain had the same power that Caleb did, but he was missing a key point; patience. There were a lot of times when Caleb had to explain to a store why he needed a new desk the last time Cain had one of his “moments” and decided to light up one of the desks in the office because Caleb had forgotten to call back someone really important. When asked about the damage later on, he had blamed Caleb.
There was a famous story, about how one time Cain was at a pool party when he was in his early twenties, saw his girlfriend at the time flirting with another guy and before he even processed what he planned on doing to the guy, he had turned the cool water into a Jacuzzi, eventually turning it into steam until he was standing alone in what looked like a cement, blue vinyl covered, cereal bowl. Caleb had heard that story at least ten times, a month. It took at least six of those months before he stopped laughing. While Cain chuckled away at his territorial jealous streak, how he had terrified several people and nearly boiled his girlfriend to death. At first he just chalked it up to stories that were only funny because no one got hurt in the end. But now that he thought about it, it just shows the kind of lack of control he really had over his power.
“Sorry, Caleb,” Nathan corrected, his pale skin blushed to match his red hair, making it look like his whole face was a thermometer. Caleb just shrugged, there was no touching, there was no affection, and Nathan was his Comrade in Arms and nothing more. Caleb thought back to the time Avery had held his hand and it took the two of them a minute to realize they could do that and they would not be stopped or penalized. He put his hand on Nate’s shoulder and as predicted it took the other boy a second to process it was going to be okay. Nathan took a step closer to Caleb and lowered his voice. “Will you let us know where you end up?”
“Of course, I can trust you guy’s right?” Caleb assured, he did not mean for it to sound like a question, however he would be lying if he was not afraid of what would come to them if they lied for him or worse turned on him, which he could understand, he was abandoning ship.
“That’s what we do man, you don’t have to worry, he does not scare us,” Cassandra mentioned, obviously lying about shutting off her power for his sake. “Oh what? Can you blame me? I’m just worried!” They wrapped it up quickly for Caleb’s sake, and if it was not uncomfortable, Liam storming off made it unbearable. This was everything he was worried about, especially with Liam. He hoped that he was just angry at the situation and not him, coming back to him to contact Caleb to explain.
For someone like Rowan Cain, control was a big deal, it was almost paramount to him and his self-esteem that he knew every move everyone around him was going to make. It was important that he knew what Caleb was studying, he could never bring Violet to Branches unless he was away because Cain thought she was less than him, what with her being an Extraneous. Outsider’s thought that it was just Cain acting like a protective father figure, but it was so thinly veiled the boy wanted to scream at their stupidity. The older Caleb got, the less he could control. Suddenly he was only allowed to leave the camp for a few hours a day, not counting school. The rest of it, he did not want to think about. The sooner Cain became a distant memory, a bad dream to him, the better off he would be in the long run. When he came to Violet’s house, it was the last time he got a good night’s sleep and he was convinced it was because of the whiskey Avery had slipped him, at the very least it made him too tired to remember the dreams he was having.
Now was not such a case, it felt like every time he shut his eyes he was dreaming about his mattress being on fire at the hands of Rowan. He was a shadow of himself by day three, it was agony not being able to sleep. If he was not dreaming about his mattress a blaze, he was dreaming about Rowan hiring goons to have him and Violet killed. He thought his worst fears were confirmed when he was having dinner with Violet’s family and there was a knock at the door. For the past few weeks, Caleb did not even recognize himself, every phone ringing, knock, drop and sudden move meant Cain was coming for him. So when he froze, reflexively shaking off Violet’s touch who somehow seemed to look surprised every time he had that response. When Violet’s father opened the door, a policeman was in the doorway.
“Good evening sir,” the cop started. “I was wondering if you knew a Caleb Prinz?” At the mention of his name, Violet’s mother’s candles suddenly lit and the flames shot up to the ceiling, miraculously not damaging the paint.
“I am Caleb Prinz,” he told the cop as he concentrated on putting out the candles.
“I have a charge here for you,”
“For what?!” he demanded.
“Theft,” the policeman responded. “I have an accusation from an undisclosed party saying that you stole money, and devices.”
“Look around, my bag is over there by the couch, search it, I don’t give a shit,” now Caleb was all kinds of angry. If this ‘undisclosed party’ was trying to scare him by accusing him of stealing he was nothing short of livid. Caleb knew better than to steal a pen after he left. It was preposterous, anyone who knew him knew that it was ridiculous. “Show me, I’m not an idiot, where is your search warrant? Or your probable cause. I know if you got a call this morning it would take at least two days to get one, so show me, go on, and take it out.”
“We don’t have a warrant,” the policeman sheepishly admitted, impressed by the boy’s gusto. The anger bubbled in Caleb as he put his hand on the brass doorknob to settle himself to keep from lunging at the policeman and instead of attacking him with fire, beating him with his bare hands.
“Then you were bought for real cheap.” Caleb spat, trying not to kill the messenger. The doorknob was suddenly glowing red, causing the cop to jump from the heat and look at Caleb with a terrified look on his face.
“Shit you’re Arma aren’t you?” the cop asked him with a twinge of fear on his eyes, wondering if he should do his job or Cain’s bidding it was hard to tell. The cop looked like the boy was about to breathe fire and Caleb was angry enough to do just that, or cause another inferno.
“No, I just Home Alone’d you, and there’s a red poker on the other side. Yes I am Arma.” Caleb bit with the utmost sarcasm, Violet’s father chuckled behind him as the cop made a run for it. There were a lot of people who thought Arma meant you were dangerous, it was unbelievable the ignorance on some people. Normally, Caleb would take this opportunity to educate someone who did not know anything about Arma Children to calmly represent his own kind. Today, however, at the very moment, he was very close to just lighting up the cops badge just to make a point. He was genuinely trying not to shoot the messenger, but he had to try something.
“Caleb, stop it, you’re boiling the fish tank!!” Violet screamed, he stopped, he needed to calm down as the pool story replayed in his head. After letting go of the doorknob, which was still smoking he took a few deep breaths before his next move.
“Officer,” Caleb began. “Why are you wearing your sunglasses? It’s eight o’clock at night, not to mention you are inside.”
“I just want to keep them on,” the officer replied. Caleb still had his suspicions so he decided to continue is impromptu experiment. He hated doing this, he had to do it one other time and swore he never would again. He outstretched his hand for the officer to shake, acting of his own accord, the officer took the boys hand before he could complete one shake, Caleb pulled the man close to him and got a grip on the back of his neck right where his cerebellum is supposed to be.
“Take off your glasses,” he commanded, to his surprise, it worked the officer did so and Caleb saw the pupils, sideways like a cat’s eyes. Mentis Imperium the thought made him sick, it was mind control, only to be used in life or death situations. Caleb wished that he could say that he was surprised, he would not put it past the man to take every measure possible. Including puppeteering an innocent cop. “You will leave me alone, you will leave my girl alone and her family. Next time Cain tells you to do something you will report to me before you make a move. Tell him I’m alive, I’m pissed off, and he is a world class coward.”
“Right away sir,” the officer responded as Caleb let him go with the enthusiasm he would give his commanding officer. It was at that moment he realized that he could not stay there any longer. He finished dinner, kissed Violet goodnight and waited until everyone was asleep as he very quietly, packed his stuff up and snuck out of the house. Who’s the world class coward now? He said to himself, as he threw the stuff in his truck. Once again, he was leaving without telling anyone and he hated himself for it, once again. Violet had really enjoyed playing the housewife and nurse, coming home to him every day, trying to stitch him back together. Ready or not, off he went, for the second time. I’m still protecting her, he rationalized. He wants me, and he is going to go through every one I care about to get to me, I cannot do that to Vi, I won’t.
He drove around for days, slept in his car, wrapped himself in a blanket in the bed of his truck and slept under the stars on hot nights. One night he parked in front of what he thought was a car garage and slept across his backseat. He awoke to fervent tapping on his window, he looked up to see a man standing outside with his arms crossed. Caleb could not exactly place it, but the man looked vaguely familiar to him from somewhere. He spoke with a sort of drawl that he could not place.
“Hey, kid, you look familiar.” The man told him reading his mind.