Book of Names

by Slater, David Michael

  “Wait,” Dex said. “So, Quinn didn’t go to Purgatory?”

  “I don’t think so. I don’t think there is such thing as Purgatory. I’m pretty sure I’ve read that many groups don’t think it’s a real place. I don’t think Mr. Brown told us the truth about what they were doing. He said they could also have tried to use The Book of the Living to send one of us to Purgatory if they had it, but he kept making excuses not to help you get it back, and none of the Colors seemed interested in it back there. They only came for us.”

  “So where is Nora?”

  “Heaven, I think. That’s where Quinn went. He sort of woke up, but they said he was still there and gave him another shot—He said—he said—”

  “What Daphna? What did he say?”

  “When you were in Heaven—was there a particular book you were attracted to?”

  “What? How—? Yes—”

  “Dex, those books house our souls. Did you see the letters flowing through the book Dead Face opened? Those letters are DNA. Something came out of that book, some kind of—Quinn said there was a dragon there. I think it came out of that book. It’s burning books up there. Burning souls!”

  “I shouldn’t have destroyed it!” Dex wailed. “I should have just let him erase me so I could get her myself! Let’s go!” Dex suddenly said.

  “Where?”

  “Back to Mr. Brown. He can do the operation on me.”

  “But Dex,” Daphna warned, “I told you, he’s been lying. We have no idea what he really wants or where he’s actually trying to send us. We don’t even know if this Book of Creation is real. We need to figure this out ourselves. Like always!”

  “But we have nothing to go on!”

  Despairing, Daphna hung her head, but then she suddenly looked up.

  “Wait!” she cried. “There is one more thing I haven’t told you, though it might not mean anything. Mr. Brown’s group—we heard them talking about some kind of painting, something that must somehow jeopardize their search. They bribed or threatened the artist about it, so maybe we could find out who it was. I don’t know if it has anything to do with the exhibition back there at the—”

  “A painting is missing,” Dex said. “From the Last Supper room, a really long and narrow one. But if it’s such a big deal, I’m sure they destroyed it, unless they didn’t have time with all this—”

  “I know where it is!”

  CHAPTER 45

  the smuggler

  “It’s in Mr. G’s house!” Daphna cried. She was already back on the scooter. “In a wardrobe—in his basement!”

  Dex didn’t bother asking how she knew this. He moved to climb back onto the scooter, but Daphna stepped back off.

  “Hold on a sec,” she said, fumbling a wad of paper out of her back pocket. “We found a map of the tunnels,” she explained as she unfolded it. “All of them.”

  Dex leaned over to see the rather large sheet Daphna was holding up to the headlight. It looked like a jumble of scribbles and dots. He got on the scooter and started the engine.

  “Hurry, Daphna,” he urged.

  Daphna scanned the crisscrossing squiggles. It looked like chaos—but she could see the grid in the midst of it all. That was downtown. She closed her eyes and tried to recreate the turns she and Dex had just taken to get away from the museum. If she was close, she thought looking back at the map, they’d be somewhere around—

  “Okay,” she said, folding the map again and tucking it away. She climbed on the scooter behind her brother and said, “You drive and I’ll navigate. Go straight.”

  Dex went straight.

  “When we turn,” Daphna said into his ear, “we lean together. The better we do that, the faster we’ll go. Can you see okay? LEFT!”

  They took the turn perfectly. Not a wobble, not a weave. Dex increased the speed, already feeling more comfortable.

  “So these tunnels do go all over town?” he asked over his shoulder.

  “I think so,” Daphna said. “Right!”

  They took the turn easily again, and Dexter increased their speed some more.

  Daphna gripped her brother as she had Quinn just hours earlier. She was beyond happy to have him back and determined never to separate from him again, even if circumstances demanded it.

  Quinn.

  She couldn’t think of him. But she couldn’t not think of him, either. What if the riots had spilled into the little operating room? What if Dr. Lewis and Mr. Brown had succumbed to the rioting themselves? Was Quinn in Heaven? Was he now suffering like everyone else there must be? Their mothers! Was he in this mysterious realm? What was this dragon?

  “Right!” Daphna cried, having lost her concentration. Dex cut the turn hard, but they did not skid or slide.

  “How do you know which way to go just from looking at that map for ten seconds?” Dex asked. But he wasn’t surprised.

  “Left!” Daphna hadn’t memorized the map, but she was sure they were heading in the right direction. She never needed exact directions to get where she wanted to go.

  Dexter didn’t really need an answer. He was sure Daphna was leading them to Mr. G’s house. He’d long thought that if there was a gene for sense-of-direction, she’d gotten the whole thing. But he’d already forgotten the question, anyway. Now that he wasn’t worried about getting shot again, he was able to take in what he could see of the tunnels, though that wasn’t much. It was actually somehow better that way. Streaming past the headlight were what looked like wooden supports. The walls were earthen and gave off a moist, thick smell. How could all this be under the city his whole life? Would there never be an end to secrets in this world?

  “Dex,” Daphna said. “If we get separated again, even for ten seconds, we call each other. Okay?”

  “Darn!” Dex said. “My phone! It’s still in the museum.”

  “In that throne room or whatever it was?” They were moving along expertly.

  “No,” Dex said. “I never took it down there. I hid it upstairs before we ever went down.”

  “So you knew what they were going to do to you?”

  “Are you crazy? I had no idea.”

  “Then when did you text me?”

  Dex pulled over and stopped. He turned around on the scooter and said, “What are you talking about?”

  “What do you mean what am I talking about?” Daphna asked back. “Why do you think I came for you?”

  “Why did you come for me?”

  “What? You texted me the word, ‘Help.’”

  Dex turned back around and started the scooter again. Tears were filling his eyes.

  “What?” Daphna asked.

  Dex let a few tears fall, but then he could speak.

  “Nora smuggled it downstairs,” he said over his shoulder. “She only pretended to faint. She texted you curled up on the floor.”

  “Wow,” was all Daphna could say back.

  Dex let a few more tears fall as he drove. Was Nora’s life over? No, he wouldn’t think of it. She’d finally stood up to her father. She, who seemed so weak and ineffectual, was the one who figured out it was him. And it was she who took him on, and all by herself. To save him? To save everyone? And what did she get for it?

  No, these thoughts weren’t helpful, either. He’d get her back if it was the last thing—

  “Stop!” Daphna cried.

  Dex stopped the scooter. Daphna jumped off, so he followed suit.

  The headlight revealed a large, dented metal plate of some kind lying on the tunnel floor. A hole the same size as the plate was exposed in the dirt wall above it. Something was inside—clothes?”

  “That’s the wardrobe?” Dex asked. “In Mr. G’s house?”

  “Yes,” Daphna said. “His basement.” She cupped her hands. “Here, I’ll help you up, then you pull me in.”

  “Okay.”

  Dex got a grip on something inside the wardrobe, then stepped into his sister’s hands. She hoisted him as best she could, which was good enough. Dex scrabbled his wa
y in through the coats.

  He turned, ready to reach for his sister, but before he got the chance, she cried out in pain.

  Dex heard his sister’s body hit the ground, but when he leaned out to see what had happened, someone grabbled his ankle and yanked him in through the wardrobe.

  CHAPTER 46

  reunion (part ii)

  Daphna lay on the ground, dazed. She’d been looking up at the bottom of her brother’s sneakers as they disappeared into the wardrobe when something—someone—decked her.

  “Dex!” she called, but was silenced by a brutal kick in the stomach. It was followed immediately by another. And then another.

  After the next kick, she vomited blood on the tunnel floor.

  “I knew you’d be back!”

  Branwen.

  She kicked Daphna again, this time in the head. She was wild, rabid, completely insane.

  Daphna curled into a ball and wrapped her arms over her head, trying to gather some semblance of thought.

  Branwen kicked her in the back of the neck, then in the lower back. She kicked some more, anywhere and everywhere.

  “Dex!” Daphna screamed. Where was he?

  Branwen had circled round and was now trying to kick her in the face. She wasn’t talking now. She was beyond threats and taunts. She was just trying to kill Daphna, plain and simple.

  “Dex!” Daphna had never felt pain like this, even when she’d been shot.

  One, two, three, four kicks to her arms wrapped over her head. Daphna had no choice but to come out of her curl and try to fight. But the moment she did, Branwen leapt on her chest and grabbed her by the throat.

  Daphna couldn’t call out any more. She could only look into Branwen’s eyes. In them she saw something much more awful than a Pop deranged by grief. They seemed almost to have fire inside them.

  Daphna’s arms were dead weight now. She offered no resistance at all.

  She was finally going to die.

  And it was okay. Her rib was only inches from the earth.

  CHAPTER 47

  reunion (part iii)

  Dex was dragged through the hanging clothes. He hit his head on the sharp corner of some large object in the wardrobe, then fell out onto a concrete floor. Then he was yanked up onto his feet and punched in the face.

  He fell back to the floor, stunned and bleeding from his nose into his mouth.

  Mr. G stood over him, livid.

  “I’ve been cut off completely now!” he screamed. “Do you understand what that means?” He bent over, picked Dex up again, then slammed him back down.

  “All these years! My life’s work! My part in history! MY REWARD! It’s over! All over!”

  Mr. G leapt on Dex’s chest and grabbed him around the throat.

  Dex couldn’t muster any resistance at all.

  He was finally going to die.

  And it was okay. Someone would bury him.

  CHAPTER 48

  this light (part i)

  The darkness was profound. But something was happening to it. It was fading. A light was slowly washing it away. The light, diffuse at first, grew brighter and brighter.

  Daphna knew this light, this living Light.

  She stood inside it now. Her pain was gone. It never existed.

  She waited for her family. They’d show her to her Book.

  But no one came.

  There was a faint sound in the distance.

  She began to walk, and as she moved the sound grew more distinct. Then it was suddenly there, all around her.

  Screaming.

  In the distance, flames leapt up in the Light.

  Quinn! she thought.

  She tensed to run, but someone grabbed her by the arm.

  CHAPTER 49

  this light (part ii)

  The darkness was profound. But something was happening to it. It was fading. A light was slowly washing it away. The light, diffuse at first, grew brighter and brighter.

  Dexter knew this light, this living Light.

  He stood inside it now. His pain was gone. It never existed.

  He waited for his family. They’d show him to his Book.

  But no one came.

  There was a faint sound in the distance.

  He began to walk, and as he moved the sound grew more distinct. Then it was suddenly there, all around him.

  Screaming.

  In the distance, flames leapt up in the Light.

  Nora! he thought.

  There was someone, just there, just head of him.

  Before she could run, Dexter grabbed his sister by the arm.

  CHAPTER 50

  no

  The twins looked into each other’s identical eyes.

  No! they said to each other. You are not done living.

  Brother and sister took hands, turned round, and dragged each other back into their lives.

  CHAPTER 51

  one punch

  Daphna’s eyes opened. Branwen was no longer on her.

  “Dead!” Branwen cooed. “Teal! Wren! She’s dead! The Wicked Witch is dead! Dead! Dead! Dead!”

  Daphna slowly rolled her head to the side.

  Branwen’s back was to her. She was looking at something in the scooter’s headlight.

  Slowly, silently—somehow—Daphna got to her feet.

  She walked up behind Branwen and tapped her on the shoulder.

  When Branwen turned around, Daphna reared back, then knocked her out with one punch.

  A piece of paper fluttered to the tunnel floor. Daphna touched her pocket. Branwen had taken Quinn’s note, which she’d somehow forgotten about.

  Daphna picked it up.

  It was not a note. It was a photograph Quinn must have taken from the mess in Mr. G’s secret room. It was of Daphna as a young girl standing in the entrance of the Central Library. It took a moment for what she was wearing to register, but now it did: white shorts with white stripes down the sides and a white top. And the little white visor. And the white tennis shoes, too.

  An angel in white.

  Daphna tucked the picture back into her pocket.

  CHAPTER 52

  trophy

  Dexter’s eyes opened. Mr. G was no longer on him. He was there though, at the wardrobe, wrestling something out of it.

  The painting.

  Dex closed his eyes while Mr. G dragged it past him to an open spot on the concrete floor. With his back to Dex now, Mr. G laid the painting down, squatted next to it, and lit a match.

  Somehow, Dex got to his feet. There was a trophy lying on the floor—that gold-plated cup Branwen was going to brain him with earlier that morning. Dex scooped it up, and before Mr. G could touch his match to the canvas, Dex knocked him unconscious with it.

  CHAPTER 53

  the painting

  Dexter staggered back to the wardrobe and collapsed into it, planning to hurl himself into the tunnel, but two hands appeared on the ledge when he reached it. He knew those hands.

  Dex peeked over and saw his sister’s face.

  The twins exchanged smiles they barely had the strength to produce, though Daphna’s fell away at the sight of blood all over her brother’s nose and chin. Dex got to a sitting position and dragged her up into the wardrobe. They lay there together under the coats, trying to recover.

  “Branwen,” Daphna finally said.

  “Mr. G,” Dex replied.

  Neither spoke for another minute. They just lay there, breathing, trying not to hurt.

  After a while, Daphna said, “There are reasons some people won’t riot—they’re all out there rioting, by the way—but not absolutely everyone.”

  “Yeah?”

  “It has to do with selflessness. If you have compassion for someone, like you have for Nora. If—if you are in love with someone—”

  “Like you are with Quinn.”

  “Dex—he’s in love with me, that’s true, but—”

  “It’s fine. It’s good. I think I’m in love with Nora. What’s the third reas
on?”

  “Meditation or—”

  “Prayer.”

  “Right.”

  “Did you say, ‘dragon’?” Dex asked.

  “Yes.”

  “I thought so. That painting is on the floor, by the way. Mr. G was going to burn it.”

  Daphna didn’t reply to this. She hurt too much.

  “I guess that Golden book isn’t going to find itself,” Dex sighed.

  “No, I guess it won’t,” Daphna had to agree.

  The twins sat up, both wincing.

  They sighed, then stumbled out of the wardrobe and over to the painting.

  “Let’s take it upstairs,” Daphna suggested after seeing Mr. G.

  Dex agreed. He picked up the trophy again—just in case—then one end of the painting. Daphna took the other end, though she almost couldn’t manage to lift it, her sides hurt so much. Then, limping and unsteady, the twins maneuvered the unwieldy frame up the steps, through the kitchen, and into the living room, where they set it on the floor.

  Noise outside attracted their attention to the window. The rioting had restarted on the school grounds. Kids and adults were trashing the building, which was on fire.

  A deafening clap of thunder forced the twins to look up.

  There was fire in the sky now, too.

  Dex and Daphna went back to look at the painting.

  The Last Supper.

  They stared at it awhile.

  “I don’t get it,” Dex said after looking over the rendering of Jesus sitting with his Disciples at their table. They all looked decidedly Biblical. “This doesn’t seem like it belonged in that freaky exhibit. It’s totally normal.”