Jelly Cooper: Alien

Finally, he starts. I try to control the trembling in my bones and concentrate on what he’s saying.

“Like I said, Cal and Maurice went all over, looking for people with special skills. Three years after Maurice rescued Cal, they found a girl called Eustasia Mayers. Her father was a business tycoon, a hard man; grabbed any opportunity to profit. Not many people liked Winston Mayers and he was happy to spend most of his time at his office. Eustasia was alone and lonely. Locals said that she was aloof and a snob, so they ignored her.

Only there was something else that was different about Eustasia. She would sit in her window and look out at the grounds and feel a storm coming. She could never explain it, how she knew that bad weather was on the way, but she was never wrong. Other times, she would rush to answer the door before anyone had knocked, or answer questions before they were asked.”

Thorn shrugs.

“Anyway, she hid her weird ability well, but sometimes she’d let something slip and the house staff would talk. In time the rumours made their way to the villagers and eventually found their way back to her father. Winston was a solid, down to earth man. He didn’t believe the gossip, but still felt the damage that his daughter was doing to his business reputation. He started planning to send Eustasia away. He had no living relatives that he knew of and no friends that he could send her to, so he arranged to have her committed to an asylum.”

Thorn’s mouth turns down at the corners.

I know that I need the full story, but it’s driving me nuts sitting here listening to a tale about people I don’t know, people from the past; people who can’t help me. I shut my eyes and deepen my breath. Things can get out of hand these days when I get over excited or nervous, or annoyed. I need to gain more self-control.

“Jelly, are you alright?”

I open my eyes to see Thorn staring at me with concern. I force myself to smile. It’s a bit wobbly, but it’ll do.

“Not much sleep last night. Sorry.”

Humphrey’s at my side in a heartbeat.

“Another nightmare?”

I shake my head.

“No, it was worse.”

I sketch out the dream for them, not dwelling on the despair and terror, though I’m sure the tremble in my voice gives me away.

“Oh my God.” Thorn whispers.

Four heads turn to look at him. He stares at me with wide eyes.

“You dreamed of Eustasia’s vision, but as Cal saw it! That’s, that’s incredible!”

He breathes the last word and looks at me like he’s about to get down on his knees and start worshipping.

“I didn’t know that was possible! I’ve never met anyone who could do that before!”

Humphrey rolls his eyes.

“Well, duh! You’re on Earth. How many people are there that can do the things Jelly can?”

Thorn grins.

“More than you think.”

He puts his hands out and closes his eyes. I see silver tendrils snake towards Humphrey and wrap themselves around his body. Quickly, Thorn lifts him into the air. Agatha squeals.

“Wow.” Rhiannon whispers. “He can do it too.”

“Put me down!”

Thorn chuckles and lowers Humphrey to the ground. “Sorry, couldn’t resist.”

This is fascinating, but I need to move things along.

“What did you mean, Eustasia’s vision?”

Thorn looks into my eyes and it’s captivating. It’s like looking at Javoria, or myself. I feel a sense of calm and I wonder if that’s a power that Gregory Thorn has that I don’t; the ability to influence people’s emotions.

“Right, so Winston was planning to put Eustasia in an institution. Eustasia knew what her father was plotting without ever being told. She packed a small bag and left. She walked for days and then stumbled onto a small camp. The fire was out, but the ashes were warm, so she sat down for a rest. Maurice and Cal returned and found her sound asleep. Cal delved into her mind and discovered that their sleeping visitor had something to offer them and their quest. When Eustasia woke, she was offered a new life with two strangers, travelling the world seeking out people like herself. She didn’t hesitate.

Maurice and Eustasia fell in love and had two sons; David and James. David Thorn later married a woman from the Kavalrion group and had a son called William. William is my father.”

I’m way confused now. “But that doesn’t explain the other stuff, like that thing that you did with the shoes and the vision of Javoria, how did you do that?”

“And the eyes,” Agatha says. “Your eyes are the same as Jelly’s. I mean exactly the same. I noticed it yesterday when I was bathing your head.”

Thorn holds up his hands.

“I’ll get to it, don’t worry.” He checks his watch. “We still have forty minutes. There’s still plenty of time. It’s not like Jelly can do any training here at the school anyway; she’d give herself away.”

“I’m not interrupting, unlike some people.” Rhiannon says, smiling prettily at Thorn.

Once a vamp, always a vamp.

Thorn looks at me and raises his eyebrows. My eyes widen.

You can hear my thoughts all the time?

Thorn smiles.

Only when I’m trying to! Shall I continue, or are you going to leave me at the mercy of the vamp?

I growl and Humphrey, Agatha and Rhiannon turn in shock.

Thorn chuckles and lifts his arms in surrender.

“OK, OK, the story. They travelled together for years, scouring the country. Along the way, they picked up six others with varying talents. Then Eustasia fell pregnant with my grandfather. Maurice refused to travel any more; he wanted to set up a home for his new family.

Cal remembered the debt that he owed Maurice. He agreed that they would find somewhere to settle and set up an office, which Maurice and Eustasia would run. So, Kavalrion planted roots in a small village on the border between England and Wales and Cal built himself a house not far away. He travelled a lot and the house was mostly empty, so Maurice looked after it for his friend while he was away.

Shortly after the birth of Maurice and Eustasia’s second child in 1916, a massive storm broke. Eustasia hadn’t seen it coming and she was frightened. Cal had called at their home and was trying to calm her down. He explained that the birth of the child may have temporarily weakened her senses. Gradually she calmed down and slept. Maurice invited Cal to stay the night. The storm was raging outside so he agreed and bedded down on the floor in front of the fire.

He woke in the night and saw Eustasia stood by the window, her eyes wide open, staring out across the valley. Cal took her arm gently and tried to lead her back to her bedroom, but she wouldn’t go with him. She stood, statue-like and looked out at the storm.

Cal was about to go and fetch Maurice when she turned to him and grabbed his arm.

“She’s coming,” Eustasia whispered. “She’s coming to you.”

Cal questioned her, but she would say no more.

The next morning, Eustasia couldn’t remember what had happened. Cal pushed the whole episode to the back of his mind and focused on finding a way to return to Javoria.

Eight months after the storm, Cal was at home, working late, when he was interrupted by a knock on the door. Stood on the doorstep was a young woman. She collapsed in the doorway before Cal had the chance to say one word. He took her in and looked after her, much in the same way Maurice had looked after him back in 1896.

Megan became Cal’s saviour. Six years after she turned up on his doorstep, they had a child; a little girl they named Ellie.

Megan knew who he was: what he was. They spoke of it often and wondered about little Ellie, with her piercing green eyes. She soon confirmed that she was her father’s daughter.”

Thorn smiles and his whole face lights up. It’s quite remarkable.

“What?” I ask.

“It’s just so wonderful to re-live the story that’s such a part of my life with you. I’ve been waiting for so long.”

He pushes on while I blush.

“Ellie’s skills were amazing. Her mother had no abnormal gifts, but Cal had passed down every one of his skills to his daughter. Though they were never as developed as his own, Ellie had inherited a Javorian bloodline. She could read minds, levitate, run, jump and climb. She could project visions, like I did back there with you, Jelly, and she even turned invisible when she needed to hide, just like –

“She what?”

“Agatha, shush! Thorn, what do you mean, she turned invisible? You’ve got to be kidding me.”

“Jelly can turn invisible?”

“No, Humphrey, I can’t turn invisible.”

Thorn turns to me. “Of course you turn invisible when you need to hide or your powers are exhausted. It’s a defence mechanism used as a last resort when you are too weak to fight, or to run. At this point you hide. You didn’t know that?”

“You didn’t know that?” I mimic in a squeaky voice. “No I didn’t and I don’t believe it for one minute. How do you know that’s true anyway? Did you ever see Ellie do it?”

“Many times. Ellie Sakiiri is my mother.”

“Come again”.

“Ellie is my mother”.

“The math doesn’t work”, Agatha says with a frown on her face.

“It doesn’t seem possible, I know, but it is. Trust me, I’m living proof. Ellie was born in 1933. Two years later, David Thorn and his wife, Betsy, had William. Ellie and William were inseparable; a bond which developed as they grew older. They married in 1955 when William was twenty and Ellie twenty-two. They waited for ten years before trying for a child so that they could work for Kavalrion full time. I came along in 1965, just in time to catch the swinging sixties.”

He laughs at our faces as we struggle to make sense of the math.

“That makes you over sixty.” Agatha scrunches her nose. “You don’t look over sixty. You look the same age as my dad and he’s only forty.”

“You wouldn’t look your age with parents like mine either. Jelly, that’s something you can look forward to.”

“And you knew that Jelly was here because...”

Is it me, or is Humphrey’s not warming to Thorn like the rest of us?

“Ah, that’s back down to Eustasia and Kavalrion. I felt Jelly’s presence the minute she landed on Earth. Descendants of Sakiiri are all linked, we can feel each others presence.”

“But I couldn’t feel you. I didn’t have a clue who you were.”

“I had an advantage. I was expecting you.”

“You were expecting me?”

“Uh-huh. Three days after Ellie’s tenth birthday, Eustasia had another vision.”

“Go on.”

“It was in the middle of another storm. That year, the summer had been unusually hot and the ground had hardened and cracked. Eustasia went missing and Maurice went to Cal for help. They agreed to split up and search the surrounding fields.

Cal remembered a premonition made on another stormy night, long ago. Calming himself, he closed his eyes and focused. He sensed Eustasia and headed towards her.

Battling against the storm, he made slow progress; picking his way across the uneven ground. When the sky exploded with each bolt of lightening, he set his course.

When he reached her, Eustasia was lying in the wild grass, muttering under her breath. Her body was rigid and frozen, though the air was dry and hot. Cal knelt over her and gently tried to bring her round. Her eyes were open, but she didn’t see him. She was chanting the same thing, over and over. He moved closer until he could make out the words:

The Hunters are coming, the Hunters are coming, the Hunters are coming.

Cal swore that his heart stopped beating for a couple of seconds.

Eustasia looked at him from far, far away and spoke. She said,

“The Hunter will come again. He will come, searching for the one that matters the most. You must help her and protect her until she is strong enough to fight, for she is the future, Cal. She is Javoria. Teach your children.”

Gregory Thorn turns and speaks directly to me.

“Cal taught his children well, Kamile. We have been waiting for you for a long time”. He takes my hands in his. “We felt your arrival fourteen years ago, but couldn’t pinpoint your location. You could have been anywhere in the world. Then a couple of months ago, I felt an irresistible urge to visit the coast.”

He grins suddenly, his whole face lighting up.

“The first time I saw you, I forgot to breathe. I told myself to keep calm; that we’d had false alarms before, but I couldn’t help feeling that it was the real thing. When I saw you on the track, running like the wind, my heart soared. Then, yesterday, when the three of you were missing from school, I knew that something was up. I spoke to some of the teachers and learned that none of you are the type to skip classes, so I decided to do a little investigating.”

“And that’s when you saw us on the beach and put two and two together.”

A shadow passes over Thorn’s face.

“I wasn’t near the beach yesterday, Jelly.”

“Oh dear.” I cast a worried glance towards the others.

“What? What do you mean, ‘oh dear’?” Agatha asks.

Oops. It dawns on me that I haven’t told anyone about the figure on the cliff top.

“When we landed on the beach,” I hastily explain, “I saw someone standing on top of the cliff, watching us. I thought it was Fletcher, I mean Gregory. I didn’t say anything. I only caught a glimpse of the person, I blinked and he was gone.”

“You’re sure it was a ‘he’?”

The urgency in Thorn’s voice is unmistakable: he’s worried. I nod, glumly. “I’m sure.”

“How much could he have seen?”

A look passes between the four of us. Agatha twiddles the ends of her hair. I lift my shoulder, but can’t quite meet Thorn’s eye.

“Nothing much, just the four of us flying across the sea.”

“Kamile! You should not use your powers in public; don’t you know how dangerous that could be?”

Thorn rakes his hand across his face and up into his tousled hair. Abruptly, he rises and paces around the room.

“OK,” he mumbles under his breath. “The thing is, not to panic. That’s the thing. It could have been anyone; a pensioner even with really bad eyesight out walking his dog in the blinding mid day sun. Yes, that’s feasible. We could be getting in a flap over nothing. Nothing at all.”

That doesn’t fill me with confidence.

“How come I could stop you so easily? If you’re a descendent of Javoria, how did I manage to stop you coming into the room at my second try? And how come the Hunter hasn’t found you?”

“Yes,” says Humphrey, nodding and pointing at me. “Good question. What about that, huh?”

Thorn shrugs. “I’m not pureblood. The Hunter’s blinded by my father’s bloodline. It’s also how you were able to stop me so easily. I’ll never have the same ability as you, Kamile. My gifts are…diluted.”

He rubs his chin.

“That’s not what’s bothering me. You haven’t practiced your skills for very long, have you?”

That obvious huh?

I shake my head, feeling like an idiot.

His smile is crooked. “Then we should have a training session at the soonest opportunity.” He glances at his watch. “I have to go. I have a lesson in ten minutes and none of us have had lunch. We’ll meet tonight, at my place. Here’s the address”. He scribbles on a scrap of paper turfed out of his jacket pocket and hands it to me. “Six OK for everyone? Good. I’ll see you there.”

As everyone rises to leave, Thorn turned to me and says in a low voice for my ears only,

“We may not have much time now. The Hunters are terrifyingly quick at seeking you out once you start to use your skills. Be careful and watch your back. We’ll figure something out tonight.”

He leaves and I stare at his retreating back in a daze.

Humphrey grabs Agatha’s hand and tugs her to the door. “I need food. Jelly, you coming?”

“In a minute, Humph. I’ll see you outside.”

The door closes. I face Rhiannon, awkward in the screaming silence.

“Well,” I say, taking a leaf out of Agatha’s ‘how to deal with an awkward situation’ book and twiddling my hair.

“Yeah,” says Rhiannon, fingering the material of her skirt.

I clear my throat. “Um, thanks for yesterday. You were really cool, in the end”.

Rhiannon brushes away my thanks.

“Don’t stress. It’s not every day that I get to levitate, right?”

We lapse back into silence. God I suck at this!

“So, anyway. My end of the bargain still stands. I won’t mention a word about,…um,…you know, and neither will Agatha.”

Rhiannon nods.

“Oh, yeah. Cool. And don’t worry, you’re secret is safe with me. It’s not like anyone would believe me, right?”

I nod, once.

“That’s that, then. You’re free of the freaks. Phew.”

Rhiannon smiles wanly. “Yeah, phew.”

Half way out the door, I feel a hand on my arm. I look up.

“Six, right?”

I grin.

“Sure. You get the address? Good. I’ll see you there.”

Well, we’re hardly likely to go around arm in arm at school tomorrow. One step at a time, yeah?