by Kevin Ryan
In her slowed dreamtime, Liz wished for powers like Max's. He would be able to fight that thing, whatever it was. Liz had powers of her own, but now they seemed like a cruel joke: They would merely allow her to see her best friend die twice. She could also sometimes move objects with her mind and release energy as well, but she couldn't do either on demand. And she had almost no control.
There has to be another way, she thought, looking behind her. The creature was close behind them. The problem was that the balcony was just ahead of them and then it was at least thirty feet to the floor.
For a moment, she wanted to grab Maria so they could turn and fight. It was what Max would do, even if he knew the fight was lost from the beginning. Liz might have done it, too, except Maria was going too fast and was too close to the balcony for Liz to stop her now. She was going to go over, and Liz was going to watch her…
For the second time.
Liz felt a moment of helplessness, and then realized
that, while she didn't have Max's powers, it didn't mean she was powerless. And she didn't have to stop Maria. Of course, there was only one chance, and even if she succeeded in what she wanted to do, there was no guarantee that she or Maria would survive. Well, there were never any guarantees. She had learned that three years ago when she was shot at the Crashdown. A miracle had brought her back, and since then she had been living on borrowed time.
Liz Parker saw her one chance and took it. They were just a few feet from the edge. The only thing that pushed Liz to take action was that, in this instant, she was more afraid for Maria than she was of anything else.
Reaching out with both hands, she grabbed at the back of Maria's jeans, getting a tight grip on the denim. Then Liz took one step to the left and pulled with all of her might as she threw all of her weight to the left. The result was just what Liz was hoping for: They were still moving forward, but angling to the left. A fraction of a second later, Liz saw that Maria was going to miss the railing.
Instead, both girls were barreling toward the large, curving staircase. Liz felt a momentary rush of satisfaction. She had prevented her vision from coming true. Maria did not go over the balcony. But she and Liz were now racing over the edge of the staircase. Then they hurtled over the edge, and Liz felt her feet leave the floor.
She had a single clear thought as she and Maria launched themselves into space: It's a long way down.
Max woke up slowly. The closer he came to consciousness, the more he felt the pain in his head. For a moment, he
considered allowing himself to slip back into darkness. At least, it hadn't hurt so much when he was there.
No, there's something I have to do, he thought.
Then it all came flooding back: the house. Isabel gone. The creature at the top of the hill. There was danger to his friends… to Liz.
Max tried to push himself up and found that his body was not cooperating. He sent the commands to his arms, but they moved sluggishly and didn't push him hard enough to sit up… let alone get up.
He took an inventory of his pains and realized there were cuts and scrapes and a significant pain in his left shoulder, but the worst, by far, was the pain in his head. Slowly, he reached back with his hand and felt for the back of his head. When his fingers finally got there, they found his hair matted and wet. No, not wet, slick.
He was bleeding pretty heavily. He knew a blow to the back of the head could be serious and that there might be a concussion. He needed to take care of that before he did anything else, but his mind was slow, mushy.
Not a good sign, he thought. But his friends were depending on him…
Michael, he thought. Michael had fallen with him. Max tried to lift his head to look for his friend, or to call out, but his physical responses were off.
Definitely not good, he thought.
He would have to heal his himself first, at least his head. It was hard to concentrate, but he forced himself. Max kept his hand on the split in his scalp.
Summoning his powers and reaching out with his mind, he saw the split in the skin. That would be easy to
repair. But there was something else: His skull was cracked as well.
Focusing his energy, he willed the bone to heal. Then he brought the skin together, keeping his hand there to eliminate the swelling and any other damage in the area. After a few seconds, his head cleared and it was like waking suddenly from a deep sleep.
Max was alert, which made him even more conscious of the pain coming from half a dozen places on his body. He brushed them aside and got to his feet. His right knee protested slightly, but it held.
"Michael!" he called out, but there was no response. Looking around, he saw a tree behind him, which had a dent in the bark and a dark spot. That must have been where he'd hit his head. Looking up, he saw that he was maybe thirty yards from the top of the hill. He could see the path he had taken down when the creature had… what? What had the creature done to him and Michael? It had pushed them off the top, but it had never physically touched either of them. Did this thing have powers like his? Well, Max wouldn't be caught by surprise twice.
A few feet to his right, he saw what must have been Michael's path down the hill. There were broken saplings and flattened brush. Michael had come to a rest just above Max, maybe ten yards closer to the top. Max found the spot at the end of the trail. There was some blood there, but no Michael.
Just when Max thought Michael had gotten back up the hill on his own, he saw another path through the brush. This one was smoother and more regular. Suddenly, Max was sure that the creature had come back and dragged
Michael to the house while Max lay unconscious.
But why? And why leave Max? Too many questions and no time to answer them. Max started up the hill and felt his knee twitch. He ignored it, as he ignored the other cuts and scrapes… except the one on his left shoulder. That one was bad and made it hard to move his arm. He knew that soon he would have to fight. He couldn't afford the handicap, so he used his good hand and covered the area.
As he walked, he reached out with his powers. There was a deep puncture in his left shoulder that probably was from a broken branch. It healed quickly, which was a pleasant surprise. In the past, he had found that it was harder to heal himself than to heal others. And it usually required greater concentration.
A year ago he would not have been able to manage it that easily. His powers were growing, developing. And right now, that meant only one thing to him: He would be in a better position to save his friends.
It's my fault it has them, he thought. He had insisted they come here to hide from the Special Unit. He had allowed Isabel to sleep in her own room. And he had agreed to separate rooms for the rest of them because he had wanted to be alone with Liz.
He had failed his sister and Michael, for the second time. Just like he had failed them and everyone else on their home planet. And he had failed Liz and Maria and Kyle, who depended on him to make the right decisions, whether or not he wanted the job of leader. Well, he might not be fit to be king, but he was fit to fight this creature, to make up for some part of his failures.
He was up over the top of the hill and down the side
quickly. By the time he was in the open field, the pain in his body had receded from his consciousness. All he could think about was Liz and his friends in the hands of that… thing. Well, ghost or not, the creature was going to regret messing with them tonight.
He ran across the field, looking up at the moon, which was now much lower in the sky. He must have been out for a couple of hours at least. Plenty of time for anything to happen to his friends. Max pushed the thought aside. It wouldn't help them, and he needed to focus on what he had to do. And he had to do it coldly, without getting lost in his feelings.
His knee throbbed at the stress of his sprint across the field, but he ignored it. There was no time to heal it now. When he reached the house, he was not surprised to see the metal basement doors open. The light was on inside. He headed down the bas
ement stairs quickly and came to another open door and another staircase.
Max knew his friends and that thing that had taken them were down those stairs. He also knew that this was some sort of trap. Well, the creature may have thought it had him, and it had caught him by surprise on the hill, but there were some things it didn't know about him… things that Max would show it soon.
Max bounded down the stairs, careful of his injured knee, and stepped through a door that revealed a short corridor brightly lit with strong fluorescent light. At the end of the corridor was another heavy door, which he reached in seconds. As he opened the door, he felt ready for anything as he stepped into the next room. The creature was standing at the end of a large room, waiting for
him. Max lifted his hand, ready to blast the thing with everything he had when he took in the rest of the room. For a moment, he was too stunned to move.
"Get out of here!" Liz screamed.
"Run!" Isabel said.
Max didn't move. He looked at his sister and his friends. They were each restrained somehow in open semicircular glass chambers on each wall. Isabel, Liz, and Maria were on one side, Kyle and Michael on the other. There were at least a dozen empty chambers on each side as well, all closed. There were computers and pieces of household electronics that Max recognized. And there was other equipment that Max had never seen before. The combination of the two made the place look thrown together. For an insane moment, he had the feeling that he was looking at Dr. Frankenstein's laboratory.
"Go ahead and blast me," the creature said, "but if you do, your friends will die."
Max felt his head swim. There was something going on here that was stranger than ghosts and evil spirits. He shook off his doubts. Whatever the thing in front of him was, it was real, and that meant it could be hurt… or killed. Max got the feeling that that wouldn't be hard to do. The creature was literally falling apart. And its labored breathing and croaking voice told Max that the thing would die soon, whether or not Max did anything to it.
"Maxwell, get out of here," Michael said. Max resisted the temptation to look at his friend. From his voice, Max could tell that Michael was in pain. His peripheral vision told him that Liz and the others were alive. That would have to be enough for now. He kept his eyes on the creature and
demanded, "Who are you and what is this place?"
The creature gave a short laugh and said, "You haven't figured it out yet, Max? I'm not surprised; you never were very quick…"
The thing looked at him, and Max recognized something in its eyes, despite the ruined gray flesh around them.
"… Zan."
A flood of realization hit Max. It couldn't be. It made perfect sense, but it was plainly impossible.
"Oh, my God!" Isabel cried.
16
It can't be you," Isabel said. For a moment, she couldn't say the name. When she finally did, she spat it out: "Nicholas."
"In the flesh, as it were," he said. Then he stepped closer to Isabel and smiled… at least the one side of his face that still had lips curled upward. "After all we've been through, I'm glad to see you recognize me."
Isabel couldn't believe it, but it was Nicholas: She could see the shadows of him in his ruined face and in his voice. "You should be dead by now," she said.
"I really should be," Nicholas said. "All the others are dead, thanks to you all. And this husk is way past its expiration date."
"Isabel, you know this guy?" Kyle asked.
"We all do," Isabel replied. "He was one of the Skins in Copper Summit."
"Not just one of them, my dear. I am Kevar's voice on this planet," Nicholas said. "You should show some respect. Kevar is your king."
"Just kill him, Max, and let's get out of here," Michael said.
To Isabel's surprise, Max raised his hand and seemed like he was about to do just that.
"Don't do it, Max," Nicholas said, raising one hand in the air. He was hiding a small remote control of some kind.
"If I die, your friends die," Nicholas said.
"He's bluffing," Michael said. "Do it."
"This controls the electrodes that are attached to your friends' heads," he said, then he thumbed the control and Isabel felt her head turn to fire. She could hear Michael call out as well.
"Okay, stop!" Max said, but he didn't put his hand down.
"See the electrodes on each of their foreheads? They are directly over the cerebral cortex. A mild charge disrupts your special abilities. That's a little trick I learned from your friends in the Special Unit. They know quite a bit about your physiology. Too bad you didn't stay long enough for them to do a proper dissection," Nicholas said.
"You're working with the Special Unit," Isabel said.
"We don't exactly work together, but they've been useful," Nicholas replied.
"You were the one who told them where we were," Max said.
"An anonymous tip," he said. "Like I said, they have been useful. Actually, I had wanted them to save me the trouble of capturing you, but you didn't cooperate."
Isabel felt the beginnings of an idea and decided to keep him talking. He was vain… a braggart, actually.
Maybe he would reveal something they could use.
"How did you find us?" Isabel asked.
"A happy accident. You wandered into the range of my equipment. Really lucky for me. I'm not feeling so well these days. I don't know if I would have had time to grow another husk," Nicholas said.
"You did something to our van?" Isabel said. Suddenly things were becoming clear to her, and she felt a rising anger.
"You were painfully easy to manipulate. When you escaped the Special Unit, a little bright light to attract you to this spot and a little car trouble, and you wandered right into my hands. You humans, even half-humans, are a depressingly simple species," Nicholas said.
"You set it all up. The Bentons? The book? Everything?" she said.
"Actually, my dear, there really was a family called the Bentons, and a crazy old man who raved through these halls for years. Fortunately, he kept this remote house in good condition. Perfect for me to grow some new friends," he said.
The Bentons had lived and died in this house. But how much of what she had felt had been real? She couldn't believe that he had come here, disturbed this house that had been such a good place… a comfortable place. He had brought his evil here, his rotting stink, sullying whatever the Bentons had left of themselves in this house. She wasn't just angry now, she was furious. "That was you calling my name?" Isabel said.
"And you came so quickly. Investigating ghosts, Vilan-dra? You were always flighty but I think you have let these
simple, superstitious humans get to you," Nicholas mocked.
"That's what the plastic is for," Liz said. "And the food. More of the husks."
Nicholas looked at Liz with approval. "Max, it looks like your taste in women is improving."
"Stay away from her!" Max said, his voice booming.
To Isabel's surprise, Nicholas took a step back. He's afraid. He doesn't want to die, she thought.
"You're right. New husks need a clean environment," Nicholas said, then he turned back to Isabel. "I'm growing a special one for myself, something I think you will like. Tall and strapping. Perfect for your shallow sensibilities."
He stared at her as if he knew something about her. In the past, he had claimed that she and he were lovers on their home world. But he had also claimed that she had betrayed her brother and her people, and she had learned that was a lie. "Kill him, Max," she found herself saying.
Nicholas turned quickly to face Max. "I wouldn't, Max. This device has what you might call a dead man's switch. If I let go of it, your friends will get the shock of their lives," he said, flashing his rotting grin. "Now, with your abilities, you might be able to heal them, save one, maybe two, before it's too late. But which ones?"
Isabel saw the pain on Max's face. There had to be something she could do to help. She tried to summon her powers, but found Nich
olas had been telling the truth about them being blocked. And with her hands strapped behind her and attached somehow to the chamber, she could hardly move. Still, there had to be something…
Then there was the beginnings of an idea.
Isabel remembered seeing similar chambers in Copper Summit. The ones holding her and her friends looked different, more crude, but similar. She remembered the day in Copper Summit when she had seen them, when she had first met Nicholas.
"What's your plan? I don't think you're going to last until the new husks are grown. Doesn't that take twenty years?" Isabel asked.
"True"… he nodded… "but I've improved the process. Necessity is a mother, you know. And I don't mind saying that it was tricky with this planet's limited technology. You destroyed all of our best equipment back in Copper Summit. It was like using stone knives and bearskins to create a growth chamber… Still, I did it." Nicholas leaned into her. "Impressed, dear?"
Isabel spat in his ruined face. "You had fifty years to get us the first time. Do you really think another fifty will make a difference?" she said.
"Well, it looks like I won't even need that long," Nicholas said. "It looks like my mission is almost complete."
"Your mission?" she asked.
"Bring the Granilith back to Kevar, and with it, the head of Zan," Nicholas said.
"Well, it looks like you're going to have to go home empty-handed," Michael said, "because you'll get nothing from us."
"Really?" Nicholas said, and then he turned to Max. "You wouldn't sacrifice yourself for your friends? Give me a little artifact to save your sister, your friends and your
new mate? Gotten a little coldhearted over the years, have we, Zan?"
"Don't listen to him, Max. You can't trust him," Michael said.
Isabel could see the pain on Max's face. He would sacrifice himself for her, or for any of them, but she couldn't allow it.
"You think that if you do that, you'll return to Kevar a hero?" Isabel challenged.
"Mission accomplished, and for that I get one of the five worlds to control," he said.
