Chapter 5: Chapter 5 - Corinne

Corinne descended the stairs, taking two steps at a time until she stood on the landing. She was dressed in jeans and a loose, gray t-shirt. Now that John could see her, he saw that she was perhaps twelve or thirteen years of age. She was much shorter than her mother, though she had her mother’s dark hair and creamy complexion. She owned her father’s eyes, a unique color somewhere between hazel and brown. A pencil and notepad clung to her right hand. She scanned the room, studied John for an uncomfortable moment, and then waved slightly at him. He got the impression that she analyzed everything. She blinked and then walked to her chair.

Once everyone stood behind their chairs, Diana joined them on her husband’s left, next to Donovan. She sat down, and everyone else followed suit. They linked hands and closed their eyes, and Christian said grace.

For a split second, John looked around. It had been a while since he had heard anyone praying in public. Corinne’s eyes were closed, and she clasped her hands together in front of her, as did the rest of the family, except Donovan. John met Donovan’s eyes questioningly. They both waited and closed their eyes at the last moment before Christian finished.

When they all lifted their heads and opened their eyes, Donovan leaned over and whispered to John loud enough for Corinne to hear, “She’s homeschooled. I think you can tell.”

Corinne rolled her eyes at her brother. “Unlike some people, I like to learn instead of flirting all day,” she said to John, conspicuously not looking at Donovan. Donovan sat back in his chair, obviously feeling satisfied with his teasing attempt.

“All right,” Christian said, “You two, settle down.” John looked at the food Mrs. Durham had prepared. Chicken parmesan lay in the middle of the table, surrounded by green beans and macaroni and cheese. He decided he couldn't take the wonderful smell any longer, and he placed a large helping of the macaroni and cheese on his plate.

The others in the family looked at John as though he were an alien.

“What?” he asked, hand still holding an empty spatula. A string of cheese still connected the spatula to his plate.

Diana smiled. “We do things with proper etiquette here. You need to wait for the head of the table to start. He’ll pass the food down the table. You’ll get some when it’s your turn.”

“Oh, okay, ma’am,” John said. This would take some getting used to. He decided to go with the flow.

“So, John,” Christian began after chewing his chicken carefully, “Sam said you took on a vampire today, and Donovan here says you fought well. Coming from my son, that’s high praise.” Christian beamed at his son. “Donovan’s going to be one of our best.”

Donovan beamed at the compliment, though Corinne looked down at her food.

John cut the piece of chicken. He made sure he put the fork and knife in what he hoped were the correct hands. It smelled so good, he wanted to put the whole thing in his mouth. “Yes, sir, although I don’t know what I would have done without Donovan there. He killed it before it could finish me off.” John paused as he concentrated on cutting the chicken. “Sir, Mr. Franklin said he’d be here to explain some things.”

Corinne dolloped a plateful of macaroni and cheese on her plate. “He’ll be here in a little while. . . He said something about baking a pie.”

There was a moment of silence as everyone began to eat their meal.

“So, ah,” John began, “Mr. Franklin said something about me being Gifted to kill monsters. What is a Gifted person?”

Christian nodded and took a swallow of milk from his glass. “I don’t know what Mr. Franklin’s already told you, but we’re talking about the supernatural ability to fight monsters.” “Normal people can’t fight monsters?”

“Oh, they can. It’s just a lot more difficult. Normals can’t take as much damage, they don’t heal as fast, and they definitely can’t move as quickly as us. Trust me, you don’t want to go up against monsters without some sort of abilities of your own.”

“So, I have superpowers or something.” John touched his head where it had hit the partition earlier. “I guess that explains why I don’t have any bruises.” He gulped down a large bite of spaghetti. “How many kinds of monsters are there?”

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“Not as many as you’d think. Let’s see. There are vampires, of course. They’re the most common. There are also werewolves along with the other rarer and nastier creatures.” Christian said, “Vampires are dangerous, but we’ve hunted them down to manageable numbers. Some say they’ll be extinct in a couple of decades. Sam and I are hunting a nest here in Battle Axe.”

“Werewolves are the deadliest,” Corinne said through a mouthful of mac and cheese, “And their infectious bite makes it easy for their numbers to grow. Luckily, they don’t like to be around people, and none of them are hard for the Gifted.”

“Corinne,” Diana chided, “Don’t speak with your mouth full.”

Corinne gulped down her food. “Sorry.”

“Yes, ma’am.” Christian said, “Scientists have been able to locate a gene that only Gifted have. It’s extremely rare. Only a few have the gene, and they pass it down to their children. And not everyone who has the gene has it manifest.

John frowned. “Manifest? What does that mean?”

Corinne looked down at her plate once more. “It means that it doesn’t kick in for some reason.”

“You would know better than the rest of us,” Donovan smirked.

Corinne glared at her brother, but just put another bite of food in her mouth. Christian cleared his throat. “Every so often, we get a Ferus, but finding one has become almost impossible.”

“What other abilities do we have? What all can we do? Are we able to shoot laser beams from our eyes or fly or something?”

“Not anything like that,” Donovan said, but added proudly, “Like dad already said, we’re stronger and faster than the average human. We can also take more damage and heal much faster. One other cool thing is that we can’t get infected by monster bites, like vampires or werewolves.”

“Not even if you wanted to be one?”

Christian frowned. “Who would want to be one?”

There was a knock at the door. “Uncle Sam!” Cynthia and Daniel said in unison. The family turned and saw Uncle Sam in the doorway. He was holding a pie in his right hand and a half-gallon of ice cream in his left. “I hope I’m not too late. I baked you all some apple pie, which I think you’ll like.” The rest of the meal passed without incident, and by the end, John had eaten his fill, had most of his questions answered, and walked home with Donovan.

***

Later that evening, Sam sat in the living room, relaxing at the Durhams’ home while he waited for his food to digest. He entertained himself by playing a game of chess with Corinne. He had taught his niece how to play a few years ago, and she always insisted he play her when he came over for dinner.

Corinne’s dark eyebrows furrowed deeply as she mulled over her next move. Studying his newspaper, Christian sat in an armchair across from the two. Mozart’s symphony no. 42 played in the background. Sam reclined contentedly in his own armchair.

“Well, Sis, I have to say that dinner was excellent,” Sam said to Diana, who was cleaning dishes in the kitchen. Then added with a smile, “And whoever made that pie was amazing.”

“Not to toot your own horn or anything,” she teased. Diana continued cleaning in the sink. Her two youngest children were helping her. One was drying the last of the big dishes, and the other was placing the smaller ones in the dishwasher.

Sam smiled. “Well, be that as it may, I thought everything was excellent.” He paused before taking Corinne’s bishop with his knight. “I especially like our young monster Hunter. He seems very quiet and respectful.”

“Oh, you just like it when they call you ‘sir.’ It makes you feel important.”

Sam smiled at this. “True, true. What do you think, Corinne?”

Corinne continued to stare at the chessboard. “I think he’s got a long way to go. He didn’t grow up in a Gifted family, so he doesn’t know what he’s doing yet, and he could stand to lose a few pounds.”

“I think he’ll do fine,” Christian looked up from his paper, “He could very well be the first Ferus we’ve had in a long time, and he’s got a good head on his shoulders. He asked the right kind of questions today.

Sam nodded. “He could be great, as long as we can keep him away from the Council’s grubby little fingers.”

Corinne snorted. “Those morons wouldn’t know what to do with a Ferus if he walked in front of them and punched them in the face.” She finally moved her queen to the last row. “Check.”

Sam smiled. “Nice move.” He took her queen with a knight. “I think you’re being too hard on the Council. I mean, they might be a little incompetent and addicted to getting help from the government, but they’ve done some good things as well.”

“I don’t know how Aunt Eliza can stand to deal with them,” Corinne said, scowling as she lost her rook to his queen.

“Aunt Eliza realizes the council’s helped us to survive. Without them, our kind would’ve been wiped out. Don’t speak so disrespectfully about her,” Diana scolded her daughter. Her face softened. “Anyway, I think it’s almost time for all of you children to go to bed.” Diana’s two helpers both gave a sigh.

“But Uncle Sam and I haven’t finished the game yet,” answered Corinne.

“Checkmate,” Uncle Sam replied, moving his rook to her side of the board. “You were saying?” His smile was almost ear-to-ear at this point.

“Corinne, listen to your mother,” Christian said. “I want you to apologize to her.”

“I’m sorry, Mom,” Corinne said. She took a deep breath. “Uncle Sam, I need to ask you something on Saturday. It’s about my birthday.”

Sam laughed. “I would be happy to talk with you then. By the way, you’re getting better at chess. It took me a few more turns to beat you. Good night, Corinne. Good night, Cyndy and Danny.”