by Marx, J. A.
She shoved her hand into a crevice. “You’re missing the thrill, Kiko. Do you fear the height or the potential failure?”
Over-aged tomboy. “I call it good sense.” He thumped her with the rope again. “Grab on.”
“At least I dare to climb.”
If he made a noose, Akiko could lasso her head. “And what if this is your last climb ever?”
She repositioned her foot on a shelf. “Then my tombstone should read: Queen Amnesia. She died trying. Whoa!”
Her foot slipped, and Akiko sprained a nerve.
Dangling by her hand stuck in the crevice, Hope reconnected to the wall with a quick burst of strength—and Wild-Man-like bravery.
Glancing over his shoulder, Akiko spotted the safetyman. Crud. “What would Dr. Caedis say?”
“Who?”
She has us all under a spell. Akiko gave her a fierce look. “This is gonna tick Isaac off.” He jumped up to intercept his friend.
Near the anchoring tree, Isaac dumped hardware out of a bag and tossed the harness to him. “You rappel first, bro.”
Akiko inched one leg into the harness, taking his time. “Awesome day for repelling, isn’t it?”
“Excellent.”
He conjured up excuses for why Hope was dangling at the precipice of death. A tsunami was coming? Loch Ness appeared in the bay.
After attaching the carabiners and belay device, Isaac marched to the cliff.
Akiko clenched his jaw, bracing for the conniption fit.
Happy whistling filled the air. “You coming, or not?” Isaac tugged on the rope.
Hurrying to him, Akiko peered down at the beach.
Sabio, Jase, and Hope waved up at him.
She’s trying to make a fool of me. Akiko would not let this witch outdo him. His double agent role took on a tailor-made feel.
Chapter 29
Sweating and famished, Isaac ordered his friends into the shade at the base of the cliff. The past two hours of rock climbing had all but left him convulsing with anxiety. He took a swig from his canteen. “Food!”
Miss Champ rock climber doled out lunch as quickly as her hands could unpack it. Smirking.
Bumping Isaac’s shoulder, Sabio whispered, “Bossy. Just like you were as king of the jungle gym in elementary school.”
“She was showing off.” Isaac straddled a felled palm tree and unwrapped a ham and Swiss. Hope’s daredevil techniques replayed over and over in his mind.
Reclining against the log, Jase took his time with lunch. “I say we just play the rest of the afternoon.”
Isaac shoved the last quarter of his sandwich in his mouth. “No swimming. No climbing. Just playing.”
“Yes, sir.” Hope’s sassy, exaggerated salute coerced snorts from his friends.
No respect. Isaac marched into the trees and relieved himself, trying to reclaim levelheadedness.
Sabio intercepted him near the seagrape tree on his way out. “You holding up okay?”
I’ve had saner days. Isaac picked at the trunk’s smooth, blotchy bark. “Why?”
“You’re our only EMT.” His friend’s gaze reflected concern. “You’ve been dramatic since Hope almost drowned.”
Isaac crossed his arms to mirror the scholar. “I got a bit upset. So did you.”
“Upset is an understatement. You’re not yourself.”
It’s her fault. A patient in crisis stressed him out. He thumped his chest. “I take my responsibility seriously, Sabio.”
“Maybe you should examine your feelings.”
“Feelings? About what?” His breaths came in short puffs. He quieted his furiously beating heart. “What are you insinuating?”
Sabio shrugged.
“Then we’re heading back. Now.” Isaac marched over to the lunch site, bruising the beach with each step.
Riki had not lost her aggression. Lord Vétis gave her climbing and rappelling performance a B+. He would have upped that to an A had she helped one of the mongrels over the edge of the cliff, plunging him to his death.
After hours of crouching behind the hedge of lizard-infested vegetation bordering the stony beach, he rose. What he wouldn’t give for a fresh set of clothes, some incense, and a pillow.
Beauty alighted upon his shoulder as if sent to relieve him. With the utmost gentleness, Vétis presented his finger to the Zebra Longwing. The butterfly climbed aboard, her wings expanding a full ten centimeters.
Admiring her feathery stripes, he cooed at the insect. “Your cousin lives in my display case.”
The creature took flight, presumably disenchanted by the news.
“I’m not a monster, dear beauty. Just devoted to a cause.” Vétis gathered up his crude tools.
Traveling toward his camp, he circumvented the bungalow. As he approached the giant strangler fig, a hutia scrambled for cover in the aerial roots. Vétis wielded his homemade spear and skewered the rodent’s tail. Grasping it by the scruff of the neck, he searched for a stone with which to crush its head. He’d heard these rat-like creatures tasted good, stewed with garlic and nuts.
“How long are you going to hide out here?” Kiko’s disruptive whine vexed his ears.
Preoccupied with the cries of his stomach, Vétis hadn’t detected his pawn’s arrival. He switched hats from high priest to psychiatrist.
Serene Dr. Caedis stood and turned, holding the hutia behind his back. “It’s rude to sneak up on people, my friend.”
“Can’t you help us? She doesn’t remember who you are.”
Bludgeoned with alarm, Dr. Caedis fumbled his bamboo spear. “She knows I’m here?”
“No. But—”
“I warned you of the dangers of telling.”
Kiko shook rigid hands at his face. “Hope. Really. Has. Amnesia.”
Wishing he hadn’t dropped the spear, Vétis stabbed the lad with jagged thoughts. “If she has amnesia, how does she remember her name?”
The Asian opened his mouth to answer but, of course, couldn’t argue against logic.
Sighing, Dr. Caedis sagged his shoulders. “At the risk of violating my patient’s privacy, you may as well know the truth. Hope is a chronic con artist. Constantly in trouble with the law. She seduces people, particularly men, and destroys their lives. Living in the same quarters, she has undoubtedly tempted you, tried to sleep with you perhaps?”
“No … but I’m watching out for that.”
Relieved at the answer, he touched the scarab beetle dangling at his chest and whispered an incantation, barely moving his lips.
Kiko fingered his shirtfront, confirming the second pendant’s location. The tense jaw advertised his discomfort.
“She is a skilled, sly temptress.” Dr. Caedis stretched his energies. “Avoid discussing religion or sex. Understand?”
“Religion has come up once or twice.”
“Oh my.” Worry wrinkled Caedis’s forehead. “Religion is her utmost vexation. Ri—Hope is an infidel on all levels and believes others should be also. She goes to violent extremes to alter people’s philosophies. Are you Catholic?”
The Asian shook his head. “I’m not into religion. Anymore.”
“Nor I, my friend. We have much in common.” Dr. Caedis rewarded him with a smile. “I follow the Left Hand Path. Instinct and logic guide me. You have strong instinct as well.”
“Yeah.” The lad beamed. “But my friends don’t. They can’t see through Hope’s façade.”
“They’re not like you.” Feeling his power and authority increase, he saw himself bringing this generation under submission. With Riki empowered by the indwelling Prince of the Air, she would soon transform humanity. She would become an invincible operative.
She will belong to me.
The hutia-dinner slipped out of his grip and scurried into the undergrowth, shattering his focus.
Kiko jiggled his head and staggered back. “Where are you sleeping at night? Don’t you need food? Water?”
Squeezing the scarab beetle, he stared intensely. “A
s a true blue Boy Scout, camping is second nature. For me, this is a holiday.”
The Asian took another wobbly step back. “I need to at least tell Sabio what’s going—”
Lunging like a wild cat, Dr. Caedis pressed his palm into Kiko breastbone and pinned him against the aerial roots. “You’ll say nothing.” He chanted under his breath.
The lad’s slender fingers curled around Caedis’s wrists. “Why do you talk to yourself?”
“I pray. Constantly.”
Kiko squinted. “But you’re not religious.”
“I implore my own logic in a like manner.” He pressed on the beetle beneath Kiko’s shirt. “Hope’s well-being depends on your silence, my friend. Sabio is not as reliable as you are.”
“But … he’s …” Kiko’s voice cracked. His skin blanched from his collarbone to his hairline. Arm hair stood at attention. Incurably under the prince’s influence.
“Sabio will endanger her. And shock treatments aren’t available here.”
The Asian’s breathing quickened. “Shock treatments?”
“They’re essential in my practice. So don’t let your foolish impulses provoke Hope to violence. To suffering.” He churned out a tear. “She was making progress before the accident. Help the poor girl by obeying me.”
Vétis had Kiko where he wanted him. Psychically hypnotized.
Unlike his companions, this mongrel lacked identity. Lacked faith. Somewhere in his past, he had dabbled in a mystic domain, opening the backdoor of his spirit to enlightenment. The Prince of the Air always advanced his army full force into neutral human territory. He never muffled his power—contrary to the enemy forces that foisted superiority by withholding their might in the name of holy submission.
He sent Kiko off under an anesthetizing inoculation. Provided the lad kept the pendant on, Vétis could channel his energy toward anyone in the bungalow.
Tonight’s target. Isaac.
As long as no compassion or sympathy rubbed off from her coffin-bait companions, Riki would still prove fit for her future. Fit to serve the Lux.
The mongrels are no match for Riki Hammad. Future assassin.
Chapter 30
Returning from his visit with Dr. Caedis, Akiko stumbled up the deck steps and landed on his knee. He gagged on the stench of putrid meat grilling out back.
The glass door slid open and out leaned Jase. “Dude, were your legs born yesterday? Burgers are ready.”
“My shoelace came undone.” Akiko tugged on the already-tight strings.
Jase disappeared, and trouble stuck her head out the doorway. “Thought you got lost out there.” Hope winked.
Is she joking or flirting?
This trip was a mistake. Friday couldn’t come soon enough.
Think rationally. Her criminal presence was the problem. Not their vacation. His friends needed his protection. Akiko fastened on his double agent guise, went inside, and took his seat. He bathed his burger in ketchup to neutralize its putridness.
Sabio drizzled on the mustard. “Did she tell you about the textbooks in her flashback?”
“What textbooks?” Akiko studied Hope’s pouty, possibly flirty, expression. Had she been doing stuff behind his back? With Jase?
Predictably polite, Sabio swallowed his food before responding. “Hope thinks someone manipulated her text—”
“Shh.” She glared. Lowering her head, she shielded her eyes with one hand and poked at her burger.
That’s right. Expose her bluff. Akiko reshaped his smile to match the pageant of questioning frowns.
“Hadn’t heard about it.” Isaac picked up the near empty dish of grilled potato wedges. “Anyone want the last few?”
Potatoes vs. psychosis. How could they blow this off? The rest of the meal conversations revolved around swimming and exotic fruit.
Akiko writhed inside. Determined to expose the truth, he summoned his instinct as he’d seen Dr. Caedis do. Seemed strange talking to—praying to—himself, but he’d learn.
After dinner, he neglected his dish chore to trail Sabio into the bunkroom.
His friend strode directly to the pill collection.
Akiko peeked down the hallway to make sure no one followed before he attempted the power of suggestion. “You’re not doing the Bible thing again tonight, are you?”
“Nope.”
Awesome. Self-prayers work.
Sabio opened a bottle. “Isaac is.”
Enthusiasm busted. Akiko bit back a four-letter retort.
“This stuff has purpose. You don’t seem to be getting it.” Sabio’s fixation on the human battlefield and his mission to discern the meaning behind a nobly inspired heart was blinding him. Couldn’t he see the damage she was doing?
“So why the pain pills?”
The scholar swallowed a tablet. “One pain, the rest herbals. The stress from nearly losing Hope hasn’t worn off.” He recapped the bottles. “Try to be civil tonight.”
Picturing Hope in shock therapy, Akiko thought up a different angle. “She’s indifferent. The Bible stuff bores her.”
“Let it.”
I’m the only sane one here.
Hope longed to inhabit today, but she needed yesterday in order to feel normal. Her present condemned the traces of her past. And vice versa. Unnerving. Deranging.
Swedish Fish, beach parties, fun at the waterhole—those things felt too fantastic to be real. The paranoia and the creepy silhouette stalking her day and night like a sniper were the realities she couldn’t shake off. Why was her mind doing this? Was she dreaming things up to escape the amnesia?
I cannot sleep here tonight. She walked out to the porch.
“Where’re you goin’, Queen Amnesia?” The jovial musician was right behind her.
“I’m a freak.” She gave him a look then hooked her leg over the railing.
Jase grasped her wrist. “And I’m Elvis Presley.”
Don’t make me laugh. Wanting to scare him away nicely, she whispered in a ghostly voice, “I’m not normal.”
“Says whooo?” He smiled.
Hope withdrew her leg and reclaimed her arm. “I lack a memory, Jase, not logic. Something comes up daily to prove it. If it’s not the stomach thing, it’s the silhouette. If not that, then something else. Now the textbooks.” Why was she defining ‘mutant’ to Mr. Innocent? “I don’t want to know who I am anymore. I was probably a circus reject.”
She started into the bungalow to sneak out the other exit.
Jase blocked the passage. “Everything’s fuzzy for you right now. It’ll make sense when your memory comes back. In the meantime, that doesn’t make you a freak. And if you were, I’d still like you.”
He owned the most convincing expressions.
“Fine.” Hope promised to stick around if he’d give her space to think, and he did. She hung out on the porch, in the twilight, mulling. “Just get through another night,” she told herself.
Hesitation over what the kindness squad was up to preceded her into the bungalow. Their humaneness was growing on her at a frightening pace.
Sabio, reclining on the floor against the far wall, looked as if he was there out of obligation.
She knew the feeling.
Guidebook in hand, Isaac pulled up a chair, half-facing the couch, half-facing Sabio.
Not again. She ambled across the living room and down the dead-end hallway. Turning around at the bunkroom, she shuffled back to the sliding glass door by the eating table.
Go. The raspy voice pressured her to leave.
Stay, a new voice whispered. Or maybe it belonged to her. She could no longer distinguish who was who in her head. These insanely invisible influences were redefining mythology. And religion.
Go.
She’d never admit aloud that God’s alleged message to the world made no sense.
Stay.
At the same time, she longed to understand the secrets within the guidebook that ultimately gave her island mates meaning for their lives. Which she lacke
d.
Go!
Stay.
Putting her mental foot down, she commanded herself to sit on the couch next to Akiko and Jase. A decision she’d probably regret.
Isaac opened the book. “I’m reading out of Luke four.”
Who the heck is Luke? She rolled her eyes.
Go.
Searching for the sixth person, she inspected the vegetative world beyond the glass door. In her peripheral vision, she saw Sabio shaking his head at her pathetic obsession.
Her cheeks warmed. Get a grip, Hope.
“‘The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,’” Isaac read, “‘because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He’s sent me to proclaim freedom to the captives and recovery of sight for the blind. To release the oppressed …’”
Blind and oppressed stuck with her.
Akiko scooted to the edge of the cushion. “That was awesome. Anybody up for a moonlight hike?”
Don’t tempt me.
Seated in the wooden chair, Isaac re-read the passage to himself, letting the message deepen his desires. Anointed to proclaim freedom to the captives and release the oppressed—that was the empowerment he needed. From lifeguard to soul guard. Think of all the victims’ lives he could change if he had this kind of authority.
He pressed his finger on the text. Traveling his gaze over his friends, he hoped they remembered their earlier talks. “This is God’s call for me. For the Foursome.”
Spiritual warfare. The adventure Isaac craved.
Hope’s face puckered. She fit into the passage he’d just read. “God has called you? I didn’t hear a radio bleep.”
The phantom of oppression in her voice sent shivers across Isaac’s shoulders. He silently consulted the Ivy Leaguer for confirmation.
Sabio lugged himself away from the wall, as if too tired to participate but sacrificing for the greater good. Just like Sabio. “God came to earth with a purpose, Hope. Part of it’s written here.” He pointed to the book on Isaac’s lap. “He came in person to tell us the good news. To give sight to the blind. To release captives. And to free everyone who suffers.”
She stared at them with a look of genuine confusion. “So … your God showed up as a mailman, a doctor, a prison guard, and a shrink all in one?”
