“The only way I’ll sign it is if you let all of them go, too,” Charlie said. He didn’t want to sign the contract, but if it saved his parents and his friends, he would have to. He had gotten them into this mess, and it was his responsibility to get them out of it.
“No!” Naomi screamed before being silenced.
“That’s not part of the deal,” JP said.
“Then make it part of the deal,” Charlie demanded.
“Whoa! Somebody ring the tough guy alarm,” JP said. “Unfortunately, it’s non-negotiable.”
“Then there’s no way I’m signing it.”
“Good. Very good,” JP said, genuinely content. “That’s exactly what I was hoping to hear. You’ve just made your bed, which happens to be a coffin. And now I can’t wait to watch you lie in it.”
The line went dead.
Charlie’s mind raced. He hadn’t expected the negotiations to end so abruptly. Had he played his cards wrong, and in doing so, doomed himself, his parents, and his friends? There was no way to know for sure, and no way of going back. All Charlie knew was that time was running out if he was going to save his friends and most likely himself. He wasn’t dealing with minutes or hours. All he had was seconds.
Charlie reminded himself to try to control what he could control. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath. He let go of the doubt that had recently arisen, and then focused all of his thoughts on the present and on getting better. As Charlie squeezed his eyes even harder, concentrating all of his energy, a faint golden light began to emanate around the outer edges of the scab on his wrist. The radiance grew and grew as it enveloped the wound.
◆ ◆ ◆
JP approached the two holdover Beasts. He pointed to a faint sparkle up on the hill where Charlie was holed up. “See that little light? It’s the cell phone. He’s up there. Bring him to me alive. And don’t screw it up this time.”
The two Beasts took off.
JP clasped his hands behind his back and casually strolled over to the group. “And now the fun begins,” he exclaimed. He nodded to Saloth, Joseph, and Leopold. “They’re all yours. Bon appétit, my friends!”
The three Beasts removed their sunglasses in unison. Their eyes pulsed with bright orange flames. They slowly crept in on the tied-up orphans and dropped do to one knee, getting eye to eye.
“As long as you believe in yourself, they can’t hurt you,” Antony reminded the others. “Eliminate any doubt.”
“That’s great in theory,” JP said, “but much harder in practice. I doubt”—JP giggled as he stressed the word—“my friends will have a hard time finding yours.”
Antony shook off JP’s snide remark and stared right into Leopold’s eyes, challenging him. He saw the sparks shooting across his corneas like cobalt solar flares exploding from the sun. He repeated the serenity mantra to himself to keep his mind calm.
Eddie craned his neck to avoid eye contact.
Joseph grasped Eddie by the temples and yanked his skull straight ahead. Their eyes locked.
Eddie smiled through the pain. “I’m not an optometrist,” he said, “but you might wanna get that checked out. It could be astigmatism.”
Joseph’s eyes pulsed brighter, like a freshly stoked fire.
“Seriously,” Eddie said. “It’s not normal.”
Chills shot down Naomi’s back and goose bumps popped up on her arms and legs as Saloth ran his hand through her hair. She tried to remember everything she had been taught, but all she could think about was that this was all her fault. If only she wouldn’t have followed JP, they wouldn’t be there. The regret and blame continued to swell up insider her before turning into anger. With one hole popped in the dam, many others soon followed.
Saloth grinned. He could see Naomi’s anger morphing into doubt. He leaned closer and peered deep into her eyes.
Naomi felt a tinge of pain in the center of her brow. The more attention she gave the pain, the sharper it got. More pins added to the prick in bunches, until it became too much for her to take. She screamed in tortuous pain.
“One down, two to go,” JP excitedly proclaimed.
CHAPTER FORTY-ONE
“You’re gonna be all right. Everything is gonna be all right,” Eddie shouted to Naomi. “I promise. Just look at me.” He turned to face her, intending to reassure her with his eyes in addition to his words, only to discover that the thin, clear gel had already begun secreting from her eyes and was floating toward Saloth with the blue sparks of electricity swirling circles around it.
Joseph was more than happy to let Eddie observe. He wanted him to watch. He knew that by witnessing his comrade’s demise, Eddie would soon start to doubt himself as well. After he determined that Eddie had seen enough, Joseph cranked Eddie’s head back to face him. He sneered and then went to work on the rattled teen.
Antony kept his focus on Leopold. He watched the flames dance in the Beast’s eyes, confident that he still had the upper hand. Unlike Eddie, Antony had consciously blocked out Naomi’s screams. Not because he didn’t care about her pain, but because he knew he couldn’t at that moment. There was nothing he could do about it, and getting angry or sad wouldn’t do either of them any favors.
While Antony had successfully suppressed the screams, he couldn’t help but pick up the snapping and crackling in the background. Its unexpectedness allowed it to sneak into his eardrums. It reminded him of the shocks he used to get from walking on the shag carpet and then touching the basement doorknob at his childhood home. It sparked a strong curiosity in Antony, one that he tried to shake. He knew he needed to keep his focus on himself and nothing else.
“Ahhh!” Eddie wailed.
“And another one bites the dust,” JP gloated.
The snapping and crackling doubled in intensity, and so did Antony’s curiosity, which finally got the best of him. He turned to check on his friends. He saw Naomi’s soul latch onto Saloth’s eyes, while Eddie’s was just beginning to drain. Antony jerked his head back to face forward and blinked his eyes hard, trying to forget what he’d just seen, trying to dig up that tiniest seed of doubt that had been planted in his brain.
JP was just as swift to act, attempting to add water to the seed to help it grow. He hovered behind Leopold, taunting Antony. “The pressure is all on you now,” he said. “Can you do it? I don’t think you can.”
Leopold took a more direct approach. He forcefully twisted Antony’s head to face him and gazed into his eyes.
Almost instantly, Antony felt a pinch in the center of his brow. At first, the pain was mild; however, it was still strong enough to distract Antony as he tried to clear his mind. And then the aching began to build, exponentially, like a snowball that started at the top of a mountain and soon became an avalanche. Antony could feel his corneas expanding from their sockets. The burning was unbearable. His body writhed. He howled in agony. His vision blurred as his soul began to seep from his body.
“Three for three,” JP giddily exclaimed as he watched the orphans suffer. “All we need now is for Charlie to join the party.” He shifted his attention to the hilltop, hoping to get some indication that his Beasts had fulfilled their duty. The smirk was instantly wiped from JP’s face as he discovered that the speck of light that had helped JP pinpoint Charlie’s location hadn’t disappeared—it had grown.
No longer merely a flicker, it had amplified into something significantly more substantial, about the size of an adult human, and continued to grow still. When it appeared that it couldn’t get any brighter, the bulb of light burst, sending rays and energy shock waves shooting in all directions. The trees shook, shutters rattled, and the train station’s bell rang from the rippling aftershocks.
JP’s skin goosed as he felt the warm breeze wrap around him. “What the hell was that?” he said. He didn’t get more than a second to contemplate what he had witnessed before he felt a second gust. H
is eyes turned up toward the source of the breeze and were met with a dark blur in the sky that was nosediving in his direction.
JP leapt out of the way at the last second, tumbling across the platform. When he picked himself off of the ground, he found Charlie, with massive, white-feathered wings protruding from his back and his staff raised and ready to strike Leopold down from behind. “No!” JP shouted.
Charlie planted his staff in the back of Leopold’s head, driving it all the way through until it burst out from the Beast’s forehead. The once-burning coals in Leopold’s eyes extinguished immediately, turning jet-black. Antony’s head whipped back as his soul was shot back into his body.
Charlie ripped his staff from Leopold’s skull, and the motion yanked the Beast’s head back and up. The brilliant beam emitted from his brow lit up the night sky above. The spirits fled their confines, save for one. The stray solitary spark broke from the group and floated down in front of Antony, where it hovered for a split second before going supernova.
The explosion of light shook Antony from his haze. The world around him slowed to a near halt. In the cosmic glow that shined before him, Antony watched all of the lost memories of his father replay as they reentered his consciousness. He finally remembered his father’s smile, his laugh, and his voice. He remembered how much his father cared for him, and how much he wanted him to be happy. He remembered every hug his father had ever given him, and every little piece of advice. He remembered how dedicated his father was to him, and how he fought to give him every opportunity he could. Antony remembered it all.
Its duty fulfilled, the supernatural energy collapsed on itself, returning to just a tiny electric spark. It rejoined the other lost souls that had been stolen by Leopold and shot up to the heavens.
Everything returned to normal speed for Antony. His eyes readjusted just as Leopold combusted into a pile of ash, leaving Charlie, a look of pure determination on his mug, standing in his place. Antony was overcome with extreme emotion. He began to tear up.
“Breathe,” Charlie reminded Antony as he went to free him from his bind. “You need to focus.”
“Right,” Antony said. He took a deep breath and exhaled, regaining control of all of his senses just in time to spot JP putting the finishing touches on his biggest fireball yet. “Behind you!” he warned Charlie.
“Too late,” JP snarled as he hurled a flame the size of a volleyball right at them.
Still on his knees, Charlie spun around to find the flame from JP’s staff barreling right toward them like a Major League fastball. Charlie flexed his muscles and prepared to leap, but he knew simply diving out of the way wasn’t an option. While it would save him, it would only expose Antony to a fiery end. There was really only time for one option, and Charlie wasn’t even sure that it would work.
Charlie sprung to his feet, spread his wings, and flapped them with all of his might. The force it created was so powerful that it extinguished the flame mid-flight, and the continuing gust sent JP sliding backwards across the platform like a cable-news reporter caught in a hurricane.
Charlie quickly finished freeing Antony. “Here,” he said as retrieved two extra serpents from his hip pouch, and then handed them to Antony.
Antony took the snakes and turned them to staff form.
JP was beyond livid. “You can finish with those two later,” he screamed to Joseph and Saloth, who were still in the process of absorbing Naomi and Eddie’s souls.
Both of the Beasts’ eyes flickered as they released their hold on Naomi and Eddie. The ooze shot back into the teens’ bodies. Naomi slumped, unconscious, her binding the only thing keeping her upright. Eddie’s head rolled from side to side. He was awake, but in a daze.
JP shot off another fireball, right in between Antony and Charlie, who dove for cover in opposite directions. It was exactly what JP had intended, to separate them. “Get him!” JP ordered as he pointed his staff at Antony. “You, too,” he said, gesturing to the two holdover Beasts that had just returned.
“That’s not fair,” Charlie said as the four remaining Beasts moved in and surrounded Antony.
JP glared at Charlie. “I don’t care,” he said. “I want you all for myself.” JP grunted furiously, flexing every muscle in his body. His face went flush, and the veins in his neck bulged to the point that it looked like they might burst. However, the only burst came from behind JP, when his scapulae broke free from his back. They tore through his skin and clothes, expanding nearly ten feet wide. Wings to match Charlie’s. But there was one key distinction between them: JP’s feathers were black like those of a raven, almost blending in with the surrounding darkness.
“Thanks for showing me this was even possible,” JP gloated. “Without you, I would’ve never even imagined it.” JP whipped his wings and took off toward Charlie like he was blasted out of a cannon.
Charlie flicked his wings and thrust himself upwards, letting JP whiz by. He fluttered his appendages, hovering ten feet off of the ground.
JP looked up toward Charlie with a devious grin. “It looks like we’re gonna have to take this to the sky,” he said, and then shot diagonally for Charlie.
Charlie avoided this second attack by zigging to JP’s zag and climbing even higher in the air. They continued this game of cat and mouse, which almost resembled JP chasing Charlie up some invisible fire escape, while they made their rapid ascent. Eventually, they settled on the same plane, nearly one hundred feet in the air and about twenty feet apart.
“You’re just delaying the inevitable?” JP snarled.
Charlie couldn’t deny that he was delaying. He had every intention of stalling JP as long as he could while Antony battled the Beasts below. Charlie glanced down to check in on his friend.
On the ground, Antony was doing more than holding his own. He defended a joint attack from Joseph and Saloth, slipped past them, and then delivered a lethal blow to one of the holdover Beasts. The luminous beam from the dying Beast blasted into the atmosphere, cutting right in between JP and Charlie.
The very second that the final flicker faded, JP charged through the air at Charlie. He unleashed a barrage of strikes.
Charlie blocked half of the blows with his staff; the other half were absorbed by his rib cage. While each direct hit sent a burning jolt down the corresponding side of his body, they did nothing to wound his confidence.
JP screamed like a samurai as he used both hands and a downward swing to unload his most powerful strike yet.
Charlie defended the blow, but there was such force behind JP’s swing that it sent Charlie tumbling backwards through the sky. Charlie righted himself just in time to thwart the first shot in JP’s new wave of attacks. He smiled. He was feeling more and more comfortable with his staff and protecting himself against JP’s blows with each passing second. Charlie countered the next five strikes before JP finally connected with one. But even the shot that landed was partially obstructed, and more of a graze than a clean hit.
JP took note of Charlie’s rapidly advancing skills and was determined to do something about it. He attacked high, low, and everywhere in between. All in quick succession, each one right after the other.
But Charlie successfully blocked every attempted strike, not letting even a single shot slip past his defense.
JP huffed and puffed, his frustrations mounting. He raised his staff above his head with both hands, intending to register another powerful blow. But before he could begin his downswing, another beam of light flashed up from the ground. The rays clipped one of JP’s wings, severing the tip. “Ah!” he screamed as he faltered, falling away from the light and from Charlie.
Charlie used JP’s injury to quickly check in on Antony again: He was down to just Saloth and Joseph. Charlie turned his attention back to JP just as he was regaining his balance. Charlie prepared to protect himself. He was sure another attack would be coming as soon as the brilliance disappeared
.
Only it didn’t.
When the last little speck of light whizzed by, JP didn’t charge at Charlie. He merely began to swirl around him with a wicked grin on his face, as if he had something else in mind. “Looks like you’re not as worthless as I thought you were,” he sneered. “Maybe you do have some of Terry in you.”
“No, I don’t,” Charlie said.
“Well, even if you did, you wouldn’t for much longer.” JP jetted toward Charlie, this time opting to use his staff to engage his opponent instead of attacking him.
Their staffs locked as they tussled in the air, spinning around, with each of them taking turns trying to overpower the other.
“You’re gonna need more than that,” JP said with a shove.
“So are you,” Charlie said, then gave a thrust of his own.
JP glimpsed at the ground where Antony was about to land a direct shot on Saloth. He turned back to Charlie. “Don’t worry about me,” he said with a smirk. “Worry about yourself.” He made a sudden move, shoving Charlie while disengaging at the same time.
Charlie flew backwards, away from JP and right into the center of the tunnel of light as it exploded into the sky and enveloped his whole body.
CHAPTER FORTY-TWO
Charlie’s body convulsed as it absorbed all of the celestial energy. The radiance illuminated his skin. His eyes turned into two white-hot orbs.
JP watched eagerly. The buildup was strikingly similar to the one he had witnessed before Malika’s explosion, and JP intended to savor every second of it, especially the grand finale. “Bye, Charlie. It’s been a blast,” JP said, emphasizing the last word and timing it so that it coincided with the final ray of light and what he expected to be the end of Charlie.
But much to JP’s chagrin, Charlie didn’t detonate like JP had hoped. While Charlie’s whole body pulsed like it had gone radioactive, it remained shockingly stable. “What the hell’s going on?” JP grunted, a slight tremble in the tail end of his words. “That should have killed you.”
The Orphans (Orphans Trilogy Book 1) Page 27
