Gifted Connections 4

“And what would you like for your birthday?” Greg smiled.

“I don’t want any gifts, but can we go to an indoor arcade?” Alex asked hopefully.

His birthday was the day before we were scheduled to leave for California. We hadn’t talked about it yet, so I didn’t know when we were going to celebrate it. Now that we were departing next weekend, we would have to celebrate it the Friday before we planned to leave.

I kind of felt guilty for not asking him what he wanted to do, not to mention nearly forgetting about it. I made a mental note to remedy that.

“We’ll have to see if we can find one, but I don’t see a problem with that,” Jaxson smiled. “Other than our family, did you want to invite a couple of your friends?”

“Yes please.” Alex grinned. “I never had a birthday party before.”

The smile on my face died even though I knew he wasn’t saying that to guilt us or garner pity, more like he was making a statement.

“Now you will,” Remy said gruffly. “Who would you like to invite?”

“Shannon.” We all began to laugh, and Alex looked at us in confusion. “Patrick, Nadia, Victoria, and Nick.”

I knew Nick was one of the younger boys that had a father here that was an operative. They had just started to hang out more often.

“We can make some invitations tomorrow,” I told Alex.

“Are you guys coming?” Alex looked over at Miranda, Greg, and Hazel.

“Do you want us to?” Miranda asked in a soft voice.

Alex looked at them with contemplation for a few moments before he finally nodded. “Yeah.”

“Yes,” Megan gently reminded him.

He grinned at her apologetically. “Yes, please.”

Megan almost had the same hang-ups as Pops did when it came to raising children. She didn’t like us cursing. She hated the word ‘yeah’ and ‘nope.’ She wanted the children to say their pleases and thank yous, their sirs and ma’ams. She had a firm hand on them with indulgence mixed in, just as much as Pops did.

I could see the happiness in Miranda’s eyes as she continued to cut up more cake.

“I’ll look into the closest arcade,” Jace stated. “Maybe they’ll have a party room we can rent.”

“Nadia will be here in about five minutes,” Remy stated as he looked up from his phone.

“Yay!” Ella did a happy little jig before digging into her cake.

Note to self. Birthday party planning would be added to the list of things to do tomorrow.

A blackness so heavy embraced me, immediately making my lungs close. Only a small candle in the corner of the room emitted light, but it wasn’t enough for me. The darkness continued to close in on me, and I frantically looked around the room.

> I felt a warmth trying to envelop me, but I ran from it. I didn’t know why; all I knew was I didn’t feel safe, and I wanted to find the light.

“Blake,” I heard two plaintive voices call. I turned, and in the dim light of a door, I could see Alex and Harry standing in the doorway.

I suddenly remembered why I was here. “Alex, Harry?” I asked hesitantly.

Alex nodded as he walked Harry towards me. I remembered now where we were, what we were doing. Alex had opened the door into Harry’s head, and we were currently in here trying to figure out the demons that plagued him.

“Where are we?” I asked.

I looked around and noticed that we stood in a house that looked like it had seen better days. The carpet below my feet was stained, and there was an awful stench emanating from it. The walls had something on them that resembled feces and other unidentifiable stains. Twin size mattresses littered the floor with no sheets, stains on them as well.

“Not nice place,” Harry whimpered.