“Baby, you’re home!” She shouted. “Come inside. I’ve been so worried about you.”
Lucas stood there for a moment just looking at her.
“I promise I’m not mad at you anymore,” she went on. “Come inside and I’ll fix you some tea.”
Lucas looked as though he was about to step onto a tightrope over the Grand Canyon.
“Come on in, baby,” She went on. “Don’t be scared. You’re not in trouble.”
Lucas crossed the patch of brown grass and opened the door. When he got inside, his mother was standing by the dining room table, which was heaping with different salads, steamed vegetables and a pot of her special herbal tea. It smelled especially bitter and earthy, nearly burning the nostrils.
“I just had this feeling,” his mother told him, “that you would be coming home this morning and you’d be hungry. Go ahead, sit down,” she said.
After Lucas took a seat, she tucked a cotton napkin under his chin and brought over a platter of seasoned, steamed kale. “I was up late last night,” she said. “I’ve been cooking since then just in case you came home.”
Lucas didn’t say anything. He just looked at her and let out a sad smile. “I thought you’d be mad,” he told her.
“Of course not,” She said. “All I wanted was my baby to come home.”
She brought over the pot of herbal tea and set it on the table between them. It smelled much stronger than usual, like boiling earthworms.
“I can’t stand seeing you like this,” She told him. “You don’t look well. I’m your mother and it’s my job to take care of you.” She poured him a cup of her homemade tea. Then she opened a small tin containing dried white flower petals of some kind. She minced them up in her fingers and dropped them into Lucas’s tea, where they disappeared to the bottom.
“This is for your immune system,” She said. “You probably picked up all kinds of things being out all night.”
“Will it make me sick?” He asked her.
She looked shocked. “What a thing for my son to say to me,” she told him. “I spent all day picking the best petals for you, just so you’d feel better.”
His mother poured herself some tea as well but left the white flower petals out. She sat down across the table and waited for him to get started.
“Would it be OK?” Lucas started to ask, “if I had some olive oil for my kale? I’m starting to like it with oil and salt.”
Lucas’s mom smiled with her mouth but her eyes were as wide and vexed as he had ever seen them. “Of course,” she said with her smile frozen. “That would be perfect. I’ll get us some.” She got up from the table and opened the cabinet to look for the olive oil.
While she was turned, Lucas took their teacups and switched them, so that the white-petal-infused drink became hers. She came back with the oil and set it down on the table without noticing her son had made a switch.
“Go ahead and drink your tea,” she said.
Lucas sipped the broth, which tasted watered down, and told her he liked the flavor.
“You know,” she said, staring at him across the table, “you remind me more and more of your father every day. You have his face.”
She sipped her tea.
As soon as it hit her lips, Lucas’s face went still. He reached for his cup and, with his hands trembling, he took another sip.
“Am I like him?” He asked.
“Yes,” she said. There was a distinct look of disgust on her face. “He scared me just like you do. And just like you, after I gave him everything, all he wanted was to leave.”
“Mom…I…”
“Stop it,” she said. “No more lies. No more manipulation. I don’t want that kind of relationship with my son.”
As soon as Lucas took another sip of tea, she did the same.
“Just like him,” she went on, “I thought you were different, that you weren’t just another piece of scum, just another man.”
“I’m sorry.”
“Just like him,” she added, “you don’t have any loyalty.”
Lucas took a gulp of tea, asking her, “What are you going to do to me?”
She smirked the way one would at a bested enemy. “It’s done,” she said. “You’re a man just like any other.”
At that moment, she tried to get up from the table. However, the dizziness hit her immediately and she fell back into her seat. She picked up her teacup and swirled the liquid around. Then the cup fell out of her hand.
“What did you do?” She asked, trying to reach out to grab him across the table. “What did you do to me?”
The tears seemed to freeze in Lucas’s eyes. He stepped away from the table as the tea spilled onto the floor. His mother tried to lunge at him but she collapsed back into her chair.
“How could you?” She asked just as blood started to drip out of her nose. “You’re dead without me. Do you hear me? You’re already dead!”
She tried to grab Lucas but she fell onto the floor this time. Unable to get up, she tossed around on the floor dry heaving. “I wasn’t going to hurt you,” She told Lucas before she gave up trying to move.
“You were trying to poison me. You’ve been poisoning me my entire life.”
She laughed until it turned to coughing. “I was trying to make you better than the scum men on this planet,” She said.
Lucas took a step toward her body on the floor, telling her, “You were going to kill me.”
“I was going to put you out of your misery.”
Lucas cried and starting to shake. “Should I call the ambulance? Maybe a doctor can help you.”
“You think I would use a poison that just some doctor could stop?”
“I guess not,” said Lucas as he got down on his knees a safe distance away.
“Come closer,” she said.
“I can’t,” said Lucas with tears overflowing from his eyes. “You’ll hurt me.”
“Promise me something,” she told him. “Promise me you won’t be weak. Promise me you won’t let anyone else do to you what I’ve done.”
“I don’t understand this. I don’t understand any of this.”
“You know what’s funny,” she said, her voice slurred and distant. “Your father was laying on the very same spot on the floor when…”
“When what?”
“When I stood over him in much the same way, when I watched him die.” A drugged smile oozed from her face. She asked Lucas, “Can you come closer, baby? I want to tell you something before I go.”
Lucas started to get closer but Strix stopped him. The owl lit up, telling him, “Don’t approach her. She’s very dangerous.”
“I need to say thank you,” Lucas told her.
“What for?” She whispered.
“For making me sick. If not for you, I never would have been able to cure myself. You’ve given me the power to be totally alone. You’ve given me the power to do anything.”
His mother just smirked at him before the light went out behind her eyes.
At that moment, Lucas threw Strix on his back and started running, running without direction, running just to shut down his mind. When he felt his heart in his ears like an engine about to explode, his feet stopped and he let his body collapse in an alley blocks away.
Strix told him, “The pain won’t last forever.”
“What did I do?”
“You did what you had to. That’s what a leader does, Lucas.”
“I don’t want that. I don’t want to be a leader. I just want all this to stop.”
“We both know it’s far too late for that.”
“I want to talk to Callista,” he said with his voice cracking. “I miss her. I need her.”
“No you don’t,” Strix snapped. “That’s precisely the kind of attitude that nearly brought your life to an end. You need NO ONE, Lucas. NO ONE! Do you think she’ll understand and still love you? Think again. Look at all the pathetic humans you’ve known throughout your life. Look at what love has done to th
em. Their fire turned on them, Lucas. It always does. You need to be strong enough to never forget that.”
Lucas found a great deal of truth in what Strix told him. The throbbing agony of accepting it nearly made him throw up. “It’s like you’re just trying to hurt me,” he said. “I don’t see how this is teaching me anything.”
“Have you figured out what the glowing map is, what it means, what it has to do with you?” Strix asked him. “It’s the map of life. It shows the rivers and tributaries of consciousness and how they move through us. Most people are merely faint spots barely showing up. Others, you, Morgan and Callista burn like the center of the sun. Not everyone is as alive as you Lucas. In fact, no one is.”
…
That evening, Morgan’s father was cleaning out the boys’ bedroom, throwing his and Brian’s things into garbage bags and taking them out to the curb. The man looked unbothered, perhaps even content, as he cleared the room. There was a certain joy about the way he carried his liquor bottle with him, taking swig like a man at a party.
While he was dragging one of the garbage bags through the yard, Killian heard someone call out from across the street.
“You’re a gutless coward!” Morgan yelled. “It’s time someone told you!”
Nox was standing next to him wearing a gargoyle’s smile.
Mister Battle seemed surprised and even a bit nervous. He backed up toward the house. “You better get out of here,” He told Morgan. “The cops are looking for you.”
“Let them come,” said Morgan. “They’re gonna die too.”
“Go on!” shouted his father. “Take your little friend and your little toy owl and get out of here before I call the cops!”
“Shut up, old man,” hissed Nox. “The cops can’t help you.”
Morgan took a step forward, telling his father, “We’ve got business and it’s too crowded out here. Let’s find a quiet spot for me to beat the hell out of you.”
Mister Battle smirked with just the left side of his mouth. “Stupid kid,” he said, shaking his head. “An ass-whooping would do you some good. Teach you not to talk to people like that. I see you’ve brought Nox from the neighborhood. I’ll teach you some manners too, you little bastard!”
Nox laughed to Morgan, saying, “He’s the one who’s going to learn manners.”
Strix spoke from Morgan’s backpack into his ear. “It’s time,” said the owl. “Have him follow you.”
“I know a place!” Morgan shouted to his father. “Follow us!”
He and Nox headed for the Bastion with Mister Battle following not far behind. They arrived at one of the maintenance doors at the base, an entrance marked for staff and engineers only. The titanium alloy entry door required a thumbprint to unlock it. Nox told Morgan’s father to unlock the door, which he did.
Mister Battle followed them down the service hallway with his right fist clenched and ready to throw. Even though he knew most of the corridors in that part of the Bastion wall, the boys somehow managed to lead him into an unknown area.
The hallway went from a brightly-lit, bustling maintenance area to a dim corridor, vacant of activity. The ceiling got progressively lower as they walked, until Mister Battle had to nearly crouch down to make it through.
“I’m getting bored!” he shouted to the boys ahead. “We better get where we’re going soon.”
“You wouldn’t be in such a hurry if you knew what was going to happen,” Nox smiled.
After they reached the end of the corridor, Morgan and Nox led him into the area with the power turbines. The ceiling opened up until it was indistinguishable in the blackness above. Along the walls, skyscrapers of elevators and catwalks ran all the way to the top of the Bastion.
Morgan’s father was beginning to have second thoughts. It was cold and seemed beyond empty inside the Bastion. It was the first time he had ever been in the abandoned area. He stopped behind Morgan and Nox.
“This is over,” he told them. “I’m going no further. You’re acting crazy and I’m calling the cops.”
Strix whispered something to Nox, who giggled and smiled.
“I just heard a secret,” he told Mister Battle. “I know who Brian’s father is. I could tell you if I wanted to.”
“Oh, screw this,” said Mister Battle. “I’m tired of this crap. I’m going home and calling the police.”
“Just a bit farther,” Morgan told him, “And we’ll tell you everything.”
That got him to continue following.
Morgan and Nox eventually stopped in front of one of the electrical turbines. The roof seemed to shoot all the way into the blackness of space. Drops of saltwater from leaks at the top were falling from the nothingness.
Morgan’s and Nox’s reflections formed in the black puddle on the concrete.
“So tell me,” said Mister Battle. “I want to know who. Who was Brian’s father?”
Strix spoke up, saying, “Mister Battle, we’ll give you a couple of hints. He lives down the street and he’s just about the only man more brutal than you.”
“It’s my dad,” said Nox. “Me and Brian were brothers.”
Killian Battle looked red enough to burst into a mist of blood. “That scumbag bastard!” He said. “I’m gonna rip off his head and attach it to his ass!”
Nox said, “It was our brother you killed.”
Morgan told him, “You’re not walking out of here. You’re never going to see the sky again, old man.”
“Fine,” said Killian. He put down his bottle of booze and started to take off his leather belt. “I’ll show you what an old man can do to you little shits!”
He took a step toward them, wetting his foot in the black puddle. At that moment, his body went stiff and he couldn’t breathe. Sparks erupted from the puddle to his feet and he collapsed in the water. His body writhed and clenched before turning perfectly still.
Morgan went over to the wall and switched off an electrical switch. He stood over his father’s body. Some part of him felt as though he was looking over his own.
“He’s dead,” Nox said.
“I know.”
Strix lit up the dark space with his feathers and eyes. “Freedom, Morgan. Freedom,” said the owl. “Now there’s just one more thing you brothers need to do.”
…
The rest of the day, Lucas wandered the streets of the surrounding neighborhoods in a kind of vacant nervous breakdown. His feet were moving on their own while his mind strained to shut itself off.
It was starting to get dark and a few stars were shining through the sky. The clearest evening in recent memory had brought a historically low tide along with a gentle surf. The air contained a strange quiet, with the ocean hiss and slapping waves barely noticeable.
“Are you OK, Lucas?” Strix asked from his backpack. “You’re very quiet.”
“No. I’m not OK. And, yes. I am quiet. What am I supposed to say?”
“We understand you’re emotional,” said Strix. “However, this is a highly important time and we need your cooperation.”
“I don’t feel like cooperating.”
“There is no option,” Strix explained. “Everything is in motion now.”
“Good. Then no one needs me.”
“Incorrect,” said Strix. “You’re needed now more than ever.”
For a moment, Strix and Lucas were silent. The air was missing the hums, hisses and growls from the ocean. The only noises belonged to seagulls and people on the street.
“Do you hear that?” Strix asked.
“I don’t think I’ve ever heard the ocean this quiet. It’s strange.”
“The powers of fate are conspiring, Lucas,” Strix went on. “I think you know what’s supposed to happen tonight.”
Lucas cocked his head back as far as he could, taking in the four-thousand-foot wall. “What are we supposed to find up there?” He asked.
“Belasi LaCrone will be waiting for you. He’s been wanting to speak with you. He’s ready to answer your
questions.”
…
Lucas showed up to Callista’s house a little while later.
On her way downstairs to meet him, she knocked on the door to her father’s study. He didn’t answer at all that time. In fact, she realized it had been nearly twenty-four hours without a peep.
She immediately wrapped her arms around Lucas when she opened the door. The embrace nearly took him off his feet.
“I missed you,” She said.
“Have you heard from Morgan?”
“No,” she said, looking as though a terrible secret had been brought up.
He asked the owl, “Strix, where’s Morgan? Is he coming?”
“We’re sorry,” said Strix. “Morgan won’t be joining you today.”
“What do you mean?” Asked Lucas. “He’s part of this.”
“We’re afraid his path has taken a turn.”
“What the hell does that mean?” Lucas asked. “Where is he?”
“We’re sorry, Lucas. We can’t answer your question.”
“You can’t or you won’t?”
“Lucas,” Strix went on, “We have something we need you to do and we’re running out of time.”
Callista took him by the hand. “This might be the only chance we get,” she said. “Morgan will be fine. He’s tough.”
…
Chapter 24
LaCrone’s Island
That evening, the tide was at a historic low and the waves were gentle against the Bastion.
Lucas and Callista, with both their Strixes on their backs, stood in front of the wall. She reached over and took his hand as they took their first steps into one of the maintenance doors. Strix gave them the six-digit code to get inside.
That particular area had no one working inside and the lights were dimmed to save energy. Both Strixes lit up their eyes, creating green arrows on the floor, meant for Callista and Lucas to follow. They walked and turned through the labyrinth of corridors until they were lost and had no sense of where they were.
“There is a special elevator,” said Strix. “It’s only used to reach the top.”
Break the Bastion Page 25
