Recessive Gifts Read online

  When Zena finally went out of her little world of wonder, she ventured into her tent, feeling like she was being watched, which it gave chills down her spine. It was like eyes were peering through her tent and seeing through her clothes. If she let her guard down once, her watcher would sneak up on her.

  ‘Maybe I’m just paranoid,’ Zena thought to herself. She was the only person out in the middle of nowhere. From a couple of sweet tunes and reading comics, she was able to go to dreamland. As she slept an invisible pulse emerged from her body like a sonic wave. A small light blinked in her like a star twinkling in the night.

  In the distance, shadows watched Zena from afar. Their eyes shined with the moonlight. They were drawn, almost like a magnet, to the pulse of energy coming from her.

  “She smells tasty,” Eagerly spoke a grating male’s voice. “I never smelt a human whose scent is like this. I want to eat it so badly.”

  “Yes, she smells terrific,” replied an elegant male’s voice. “But I can also sense something from her. It seems like she has hidden powers even she doesn't know about.”

  “She’s one of the ‘recessive gifted’ humans then?”

  “From what I feel she is. How much of the gift she has, I can’t tell; either way, we can use her. She is cute and could be useful as one of our candies.”

  “It would be good to have a little chocolate in the mix of our servants.”

  “Indeed. It’s been a while since we had it. I’ll send out people to find info about her. As for now, we can keep an eye on her.”

  Chapter 2

  The sun blazed on Zena as she packed, ready for her next destination. Grabbing her atlas, she mapped her next route. Even though she could have used her phone, she opted not to. Zena was amongst the few in her generation to know how to get around using a map. She only uses a GPS when she was in a big city. Her father taught her that technology was not always reliable.

  “Grand Canyon here I come,” Zena mumbled to herself, as she made a mental map of her destination.

  While looking at her map, Zena froze from a spine-chilling howl that sounded off in the distance. What type of animal could make such a horrifying sound! She swiftly hopped into her vehicle and stepped on the gas, getting the hell away from there. The eyes of the endless desert watched her while she drove away.

  Her drive was long and lonely to her destination, and when she arrived, she noticed people in groups or as couples walking around, which made her chest tight as the feeling of loneliness became even more apparent. For her, this was the leech that drains her soul. Her lips curved into a frown, thinking about her friendless situation.

  She had friends, but she didn’t have a true friend, just many acquaintances that made her believe they were her friends, which is why she never does anything with anyone.

  Zena wasn’t a mean person, didn’t start fights, nor talk bad about someone either to their face or behind their back, especially if she cared for them. She wasn’t perfect by any means. No one in the world is perfect, as humans always have flaws. No matter how many times people try to live untainted lives, human emotions always found a way to get the best of them. Greed, jealousy, and judging someone will always attach to a person. Zena was no different, but she always tried to treat everyone she cared about, like how she would want them to treat her. She was honest, loyal, and caring. Always willing to help her friends and family when it was needed, but if she notices that she was being taken advantage of or someone asked way too many times of her help, Zena will not do it.

  Zena sometimes is either awkwardly silent when she was around people or awkwardly chatty, which she only did it when no one kept a long flowing conversation, or she had no idea how to start one. She had a presence that drew people to her, but over time they would pull away.

  As she stood in the middle of the four corners, Zena thought about all the years she had looked into the eyes of her so-called ‘friends.’ It damaged her knowing half the friends she had only talked with her because they pitied her for always being alone, while the other half couldn’t tolerate her most of the time because of her personality and how so different she was from everyone. Over time, people began to ghost her, ignore her, and even stood her up. She began to learn from people’s facial and body reactions that they were getting bored or sick being around her. She learned if someone didn’t reply to her after a certain amount of days, they were brushing her off, which became easy for her never to message that person again if they didn’t want to reply to her. Over time, she stopped wanting to be around people in fear of being lied to again, thinking that she has a real and honest friend.

  The loner stopped caring about having sincere and honest friends. She gave up trying to have a weekend at a friend's place, having a BBQ or sports game viewing party, and no more wishing to have a girl’s night with lady friends. Gazing around the scenery in front of her, she could see shadows of the could be ‘friends’ that could have tagged along with her while she tried to discover herself. ‘Why should I bother with doing stuff with anyone if they don’t want to do it with me,’ Zena thought to herself. She realized if it wasn’t on their time, then a person didn’t want to do anything with her. Everyone wanted her to make time for them. No one wanted to make that same effort for her or even attempt to make a compromise, though Zena would request time off from work or work around her schedule to do something with someone when asked to come over or invited out, which any adult would do for a friend. Not even her own family wanted to do that for her. Don’t even get her started about romantic relationships. Zena used to wish for all of those things, but not anymore. If one person made the same effort, she would do for someone, then she wouldn’t feel self-conscious that there was something wrong with her.

  She couldn’t deal with people’s political, religious, and social views anymore. Matter of fact, she was just sick of people in general and their stupid labels. Why did people need labels?! Woefully, there was no getting away from it, no matter how much someone might deny it. If there was no getting away from it, Zena thought, why can’t people just keep it simple with no more than three labels. She sometimes felt like some people were belittling her with all their fancy labels and their “knowledge” about different or alternative lifestyles. Sometimes people overreacted when she spoke an opinion she had or a straightforward truth, even in her community. Her views of everything made her feel unwelcome, invisible and ignored.

  Witnessing the people around her having fun together made her feel lonely and sad, even though this was her choice to forgo all human interactions. Loneliness was one emotion that would never go away, no matter how much she tried to make herself content. That dark cloud will be forever attached to her. There was no running or hiding from it, along with the other emotions that came with it; depression, sadness, and yearning. Leeches that she was familiar with and hated their company.

  The lonely young woman stood in place as people walked her view, not even giving her the time of day while she observed them. Zena watched how some of the people were taking pictures. Listening to some of their conversations, her body cringed from the stuff they were doing and saying. Rolling her eyes from being annoyed, the loner got tired of watching people and decided to get out her camera and have a look around.

  The Grand Canyon was grand for sure. Vast land dropped down to an abyss. It was breathtaking. Anyone could get lost without knowing where they were going. Hell, people have died from taking one wrong step. It could be a perfect place to hide things or do something illegal.

  Instantly, Zena’s mind sparked to life, imagining what if supernatural beings used this natural place to hide and live. There could be caves that even the rangers didn’t know about. Glancing at the brochure that was given to her, Zena tried to figure out where she was going to journey first. There were hiking trails and other activities that led down to the canyon floor. People could even go rafting at the bottom. There definitely could be supernatural creatures hiding and could easily make a meal out of an unsuspected hu
man. If it wasn’t anything supernatural, there could most definitely be illegal activities if done right. Smirking from her overactive imagination, Zena’s mind theorized different types of supernatural things that could be happening under the human eye.

  With her mind racing all over the place, Zena descended to the bottom of the Grand Canyon as everything looked like they were growing in size. People above got smaller and smaller until she couldn’t see them anymore. Before she finally reached the bottom, Zena sensed she was being watched and had this nagging feeling that she should turn around and head back to the top where everyone else was. Trying to ease this feeling, she searched around. Turning her body, she noticed a path where she could have sworn was a wall of rock.

  “Ok, Zena…” She took a deep breath, as she spoke to herself, “You must be overthinking this. Maybe it was there, and I wasn’t paying attention to it. You know you tend to zone out, girl.”

  Zena examined the path in front of her. It appeared narrow, and with one wrong move, she could fall. As she looked out in the distance, she could see a cave. Unhesitatingly, she walked to it, knowing as a woman who was traveling alone, she shouldn’t be going off into strange caves. If anything happened to her, no one would know it. Though why should it bother her? She already left home without a word. No one knew where she was, so why is going into a cave going to matter? She was starting a new life, and whatever happened, she was going with the flow.

  The cave was so silent that anyone could hear if someone whispered. Zena’s heart thrashed as she thought she could hear her heart beating out loud. For some reason, the air seemed different. Everything just felt different. Even though this was her first time in a cave ever in her life, Zena could feel that there was something about the cave that was extraordinary. She had to take pictures. While taking pictures, the young adventurer saw everything going black, as her body crashed to the ground.

  ********

  “How could she find this place?” asked a husky voice. “She shouldn’t be able to see this cave.”

  “As I expected, there is something about her that makes her different from other humans,” replied that same elegant male’s voice from the night before.

  “She is not an ordinary human or has some sure luck to find this place.”

  “It seems like a little bit of both.”

  “Gifted or not, she should not be able to get through the barrier.”

  “Well, it happened, and we need to figure out what is slumbering inside of her. It seems like something that would change a lot of things. Something that could be useful for us.”

  “She’s waking up!! She shouldn’t be waking up! Not this soon anyway.”

  *******

  Groaning in pain, Zena lifted her head as she began to wake, the veins on her temple throbbing roughly. It felt like gravity was keeping her on the ground. The taste of dirt and something unknown attacked her taste buds. Her lips felt chapped as she became dehydrated suddenly. Standing to her feet, she noticed she was covered in sand and dirt, along with her clothes disheveled, but from the way her clothes appeared, it didn’t look like she was undressed or taken advantage of. Nonetheless, she felt like she was drugged or at least waking up from a hangover.

  Confused and alarmed, Zena searched around, trying to figure out where exactly where she was. Her mouth dropped as she looked at the walls of the cave. It appeared people used to live or at least have gatherings there. There were designs on the walls that she wouldn’t even know how to describe or name. Zena wanted to take a picture, but her camera was busted. Not wanting to pass the moment, she used her cellphone to take pictures instead. When she was done, she put her cell away.

  From nowhere, Zena was tackled by an unknown animal; with no time to think, her adrenaline kicked in, telling her she had to fight to get the hell out of there. Zena and the animal both rolled around the ground. The animal’s claws slashed at her at random places. As Zena struggled to keep from being devoured by the animal, her eyes began to shine like flames coming to life. When she shoved at the animal, a force pushed it off her body.

  Now wasn’t the time to figure out what animal attacked her. Zena knew damn well she needed to run. The unpleasant sounds that filled the cave gave the young woman shivers down her spine. She began swinging and kicking at anything that came near her, with no idea where she was going. All she hoped was that she could get away from whatever was attacking her and to get out to the open public or find a place to hide.

  The light slowly crept at the horizon giving the frantic young soul a ray of hope that could mean survival. With all her might, Zena quickened her pace, yelling with everything she had. Sunlight blinded her, as her mind went blank, and everything went silent.

  When Zena finally came to, she noticed it was evening, with people and paramedics surrounding her. Coming back into reality, dazed and confused, it took her a while to try to remember what happened. She finally reminisced that she ran out of a cave franticly because she was being chased by something. Someone heard her screaming and came to help. People tried to retrace Zena’s steps but couldn’t find any signs of where she came from or traces of the animal, though it was clear she was attacked by something. People thought that maybe from all the shock, she couldn’t remember what happened clearly.

  “Do you need to go to the hospital?” the paramedic asked Zena as he tended to her wounds. “Miss? Miss?”

  Zena flinched, realizing she had zoned out again. She didn’t notice till someone shook her body. “Oh, no. I’m sorry, I am fine.”

  “Are you sure? Are you traveling with someone? Do you need to call someone to pick you up?”

  A person walked up to Zena, overhearing everything. “I can take you to your hotel if you like?" Her voice sounded soft and caring.

  “I’m fine. Thank you for your help. I will be fine once I get some rest.”

  “You really shouldn’t be traveling alone. Are you sure you don’t want to ride with someone?”

  Zena began to get annoyed as she pressed her lips together. “No, I will be fine. “

  After everything was done and a police report made, everyone who gathered around went their separate ways. Zena became invisible yet again as she sat on a bench. Her stomach told her that she needed food. She hadn’t had anything to eat all day, and it was almost nightfall. Digging into her backpack and pockets, she made sure she still had her wallet, phone, and other essentials. Everything was still there as she sighed in relief. With what had just happened to her, she was fortunate to be alive. Also, she was lucky that it wasn't a person that could have done worse to her mentally and physically. With people going missing lately and disappearing without a trace, Zena needed to be more careful and stay in places with people around. She might have kept telling herself she didn’t care about death or whatever else that came her way, but what person would let it happen even if they want it to happen? Zena didn’t want to die, get kidnapped, or raped or anything else. In truth of the matter, she was scared shitless. Even though she was scared shitless, she was going to keep going down this fearful path she had taken.

  ‘It could probably be a two-hour drive to Vegas. Why not’, thought Zena, ‘Vegas is a place where people do crazy stuff and have interesting memories.’ Maybe she could experience, “what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas.” If she wanted to make sure she gets a hotel and settled, she needed to leave now before nightfall. Trying to find a hotel to stay in at night might make her an easy target, and if she wanted to maybe interact with people just for the hell of it, she would need to make a mental map and scenarios of how to get away from creeps and thieves. So on to the road, Zena journeyed her way to sin city. As twilight crept upon her, a rattling sound escaped her vehicle, and smoke seeped from under the hood, leaving Zena no choice but to pull over.

  “Fuck!” she shouted, banging on the steering wheel. "There goes my chance of getting to town before nightfall, and I'm out in the middle of fucking nowhere. It could take hours for someone to come get me.”

 
Grunting, she hopped out her vehicle. Zena pulled up her roadside assistance app on her phone. The GPS locked in her location as she requested a tow truck to come get her. Rolling her eyes in displeasure, the screen told her it would take about three hours or more before a tow truck could reach her. ‘Might as well check the engine,’ Zena thought as she went to open the hood. Smoke bellowed aggressively into her face. It was so bad that she couldn’t see anything.

  “Well, I guess I won’t know what’s wrong with it till the smoke dies down,” Zena mumbled in utter frustration.

  So here she is, alone on the side of the road in the middle of a desert with no people or cars for miles. If she walked somewhere, it would be hours. Waiting was the only solution. Zena leaned back on her Jeep and laid her head on the window. Some fucking day she was having. First, she gets attacked by some strange animal. Now the only thing that can get her around is down. The money it would take her to fix it would leave her nearly broke. She would have to do an odd number of jobs to continue traveling, or her freelance lifestyle would have to end right then and there if she didn’t do anything about it. It could force her to call her family and back to Texas.

  “Some three days as an independent adult, you have Zena Marie Danvad,” She spoke to herself again, disappointed from how things were playing out. “Three days!” She waved her arms, pacing back and forth. “And you’re already in a bind. Not to mention your dumbass almost got yourself killed. I mean, I know better than to walk alone in a creepy looking cave without a group or something. You have seen many movies which you yell at the bitch not to go in there.” sighing loudly, “Well, I guess I can’t just keep being cautious about everything. If I want my life to be thrilling and have something interesting to tell people down the road, I have to take leaps and risk. If I keep following what I have been told and raised to do in society, then I would end up with a crap-ass lifestyle like the people in my family.”