The Gifted

By Jay Crouch

"Well, let's just say I've been through a lot of things that should have put me in the grave a long time ago. And everytime I get hacked, shot, thrown off a building, burnt alive, blown up... I just get better. You see these fangs I got." Savage put his hand on Orbit's shoulder and showed him his menacing teeth. "Well, a farmer took a baseball bat to my face and knocked them and every other tooth out of my face when he thought I was killing his calves. Right after that he put a shot gun to my face and pulled the trigger. I don't know about you but most people don't look like me after something like that, let alone be walking the earth. That's why I hope this Michael doesn't put my blood into the wrong hands."

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse
• Release date: Apr 9, 2012
• ISBN: 9781468574210

Jay Crouch

Jay Crouch was born November 8, 1977 in Innisfail, Alberta, Canada. He now lives in Red Deer, (twenty minutes away), with his wife and four boys. The Gifted is his first novel.

Book preview

Prologue

T here is hope, Ezzer. Remember those words. Remember my thoughts towards your son. Remember my thoughts towards you. I will never change.

The old man looked upon the sunrise. His emerald eyes soaked in its warmth. He was a picture of beauty in a world of hurt and confusion. He stood tall against the rising sun.

Ezzer sat down on the grass. The weary man lay his head on his knees. He began to cry. He expected Bein to tell him to stop. Instead he placed his hand on his shoulder briefly to comfort him and then stood up.

This is all my fault… I raised him. Everything he is… it’s because of me.

You speak the truth. He gestured with his hand as if to stroke the sunrise. If only more parents saw it that way. You are blessed to admit that, Ezzer. And now you are a new man. A different man. His eyes glowed like emeralds, delighted and excited.

You are mine.

Do you know the future, Bein?

Bein gave a kind of look, showing he knew what Ezzer was talking about.

Don’t be troubled.

Ezzer stood up. His tears sparkled in the brightening day. I want to know what’s going to happen to my son. Please Bein, tell me.

Ezzer… do you trust me?

Yes.

Bein said no more. And without explaination the sunlight turned to green, Ezzer felt his blood warm, and Bein was gone.

Dreamer

A frozen wilderness after nightfall was what Dreamer was faced with. Who knew how long he could survive in this death-trap. His only clothes were a dress shirt, corduroy pants, and running shoes. The stars and moon were cloaked by what looked like snow clouds. Still, he could see easily enough with the reflective light of the snow on the ground and the little light that still made its way through the snow clouds. What troubled him was the question of how he got stuck in this predicament.

How did I end up in this place?

All he remembered was lying in a snow-covered field. No noise, no persons, no signs of anything, except tracks of what might be a bear. He knew one thing now. He desperately needed shelter.

The relentless cold of the north wind was gathering strength. He peered into the night and saw the wind at work. Snow was being lifted off the field like unpredictable sways of the sea, inevitably coming for Dreamer’s face. The flakes of snow spiraled around him. The skin on his face started to ache in the night air. His vision was almost blinded. What he guessed to be snow clouds turned out to be so. Now he was faced with ground-blowing snow, and snow from the sky. Flakes began to come down. He looked into the darkness, confused as to what he saw. The flakes became so big and constant that he spent half his time blinking, trying to get rid of the snow as it came into his eyes, slowly melting inside. The storm created a wall that blocked moon and starlight. He was almost inclined to keep his eyes closed. He tried to warm his hands under his shirt. His freezing ears tormented him. He wondered if they would go numb. His toes felt the same. He moved them as he walked, hoping to gain some warmth in his socks and shoes. All in all, he was a speck of draining life in a domineering wilderness of winter.

Suddenly he thought of a time when there was a beautiful quietness on a starry winter night. He fell to his knees and dumped his head to the ground.

Blackness draped over his mind and he fell asleep.

He woke and was glad and surprised to be alive. He looked around and was filled with life and hope. He saw the same field. It was calm! Something else was different and that was a change in the light. The landscape was tranquil and warmed with illumination. His ability to see was so good that he noticed an outline of trees to his left. Looking up, he saw a sky crammed with stars.

Caracal

In some other place in the world where no snow, cold, or wilderness was, there was a young, beautiful woman named Caracal. The heat stood still in the metroplitan buzz of Los Angeles. Caracal loved the heat. It never made her uncomfortable. She had to live one year in New York as a teenager and could not bear the winter. Horrible sickness kept her inside most days while she watched the people through her bedroom window.

She had brownish tan hair and large caramel eyes. Her skin was white but always tanned whether she exposed herself to the sun or not. She was cutting her nails on her balcony as she looked at the people below. She loved to watch people. She didn’t like cutting her nails though. They grew almost daily back to same strange formation. She cut them, afraid of what people would think or say. They formed into a sharp point if she let them grow long enough. There were plenty of things that made her feel different from other people. It was in her teens when she began to notice. One time after school she was walking home with her boyfriend, Michael. They walked down the same street like every other day, taking them to her house where their walk would end. But on this particular day Michael said, Let’s take the alley.

Caracal went as he was inclined. As they strode down the alley holding hands, Michael suddenly stopped, tightening his grip.

What’s going on? Caracal asked.

Come on Caracal, he said