by Blair Drake
“How do you know they didn’t make it to the other side?” Reese asked. “Maybe they’d made it out.”
Endel pierced him with a glare so strong it made Reese’s insides shiver. “You keep on believing that, boy. Just keep on. You’re going to end up like them. Do you want to take that chance? Because I know Raven doesn’t.”
“Listen to him, Reese,” Raven urged.
“Raven has lasted longer than all of them. She is still here for one reason. She listened to me. Until tonight, that is, when she brought you to my shop.” Endel turned to Raven. “I told you to trust no one. You didn’t listen.”
Raven’s shoulders sagged and she shrunk down on the crate. Reese didn’t know whether to be angry with Endel for scolding her or at himself for being the cause.
“Okay, I’m listening. Why are we here?”
“Because you’re practically glowing with energy and you don’t even know it,” Endel said. “There’s so much energy flowing through you that is unharnessed that there is no way you’re gonna get a block past my shop before somebody flags you as a mutant.”
“A mutant?” Reese chuckled. “That’s a new one for me. No one’s ever called me a mutant. Not even my stepfather.”
Endel rolled his eyes. “That mouth again.”
“Okay fine. I’m glowing. What does that even mean?”
Endel ignored Reese. He got up from the stool and hobbled back over to the metal cabinet with the drawers and began searching through the wide lower drawers until he found what he was looking for.
“Ah,” he said, pulling out what looked like a rolled-up poster. “I knew I’d put it in here somewhere.”
Endel unrolled the thick paper as he walked to the table. As he got closer, Reese could see that it wasn’t actually paper. It was thick fabric that had been yellowed with age.
“Bring the crate over here, Raven,” he said, dropping the half-unrolled fabric on the table and then easing back onto the metal stool again.
“You, too. Stand or sit if you can find something. You need to study this.”
They both did as they were told. Reese didn’t want to piss off the old guy again. But he was also curious what secrets the fabric held as Endel spread it out on the table.
“What is this?” Reese asked, leaning over the table.
“A map of the underground city. At least, it’s the latest map that I’ve ever been able to get my hands on.”
Raven’s eyes widened. “You’ve never showed me this before.”
Endel shot her quick glance. “You weren’t ready. If I had showed you this, you would’ve run off like the others. I couldn’t risk it, child. You’re still here, which means I made the right decision in not showing this to you.”
Raven seemed to shrink inches in front of them. But she quickly recovered.
Endel pointed to a spot on the map. It was faded and the sections that were creased were almost too worn-out to make any sense of. “This is where we are now. The old energy room.”
Curious, Reese quickly studied the spot on the map and squinted his eyes, trying to make sense of the tiny details. Then he glanced around the expansive room. “That little dot is where we are now? How big is this city?”
“Hard to say,” Endel admitted, rubbing his beard. “It’s been a long time since I felt strong enough to venture deep into the city villages. There are a few. But things change constantly. What once was safe, may no longer be. There’s been a lot of construction on the other side of the city since I was there. That was…a long time ago. The city has expanded beyond anything I imagined it could be when I was a boy.”
“How do we know that this map is even valid?” Raven asked. “It could be totally different.”
“No. It took a lot for me to get this information. It’s not current. But there is enough here that I’m sure you’ll be able to chart a course through the city fairly safely to get to the portal. It shows most of the tunnels that are safe and the stairways where you’ll have to enter and exit the city to get to the bridges.
“They’d moved the energy source long before I was born. We sit on the edge of the ancient part of the city. Most people who live in the center of the city don’t venture down here that much. There’s much more going on deep into the city. But you won’t see most of it. You’ll be traveling by tunnel then.”
“How is this place powered?”
“Years ago, far too many years before I was even born, it was fueled by wood. That was when the city was quite small and it was easier to manage the smokestacks to vent the smoke and bring in fresh air. The city grew too large and it made it nearly impossible to keep the city hidden. They turned to steam. Great powerful engines run by steam were built and fueled by the underground water tunnels. There are aqueducts all over the place. Most you won’t come near because it’s too dangerous.”
Raven leaned into him. “Some believe that the city was started as an aqueduct and then became a secret tunnel for people to hide.”
“That’s right. Most don’t believe in the portals. They’re very suspicious of people who do. The challenge for you, yungin’,” Endel said, “is learning control, something you’ve already demonstrated you have great difficulty with.”
A spark of irritation knifed Reese with the reprimand, but he fought it off and replied, “Right. Control.”
Endel got up and went to the back of the room and turned a few switches on the wall that seemed to do nothing.
“You’re much more powerful than you even know. And much more dangerous because of it,” Endel said. “You can use it to your advantage and actually make it to the portal. Or you can ignore everything I teach you here and die. Your choice.”
Reese remained quiet as Endel made his way back to his metal seat.
Endel’s eyes widened. “Suddenly something’s got your tongue? I’m waiting. What’s your choice, yungin’? You make it now or I send you back down that tunnel to spend the rest of your days.”
“I’m not going back down that tunnel,” Reese said. “I don’t belong here. Wherever here is. If there is a way to get out, I’m going for it.”
Endel sighed slowly. “You literally have no idea what you have at your fingertips. You don’t know how to harness it. And you don’t know how to make it work for you.”
“But you can show me, right?” he asked with a little grin that he knew worked on some of the girls at school but wasn’t going to work on an old crust like Endel. He glanced over at Raven and caught the smile that she tried to hide. Score.
Triumphant, he glanced back over at Endel and found him glaring again.
“Turn the lights on for me,” Endel commanded.
He glanced over his shoulder at the wall with all the switches. “I thought that’s what you just tried to do.”
“All I did was turn the electricity in the room on. There’s energy here. You can do the rest.”
“How am I supposed to do that?” Reese looked around for another plug on the wall or some trick that Endel must be pulling on him.
“What time does it say on your watch?” Endel asked calmly.
Reese’s stomach clenched as his hand went over his wrist. “It’s broken.”
“I know that,” Endel said with irritation. “I asked you what time it says, not if it works. I already know why it doesn’t. Do you?”
“Because watches hate me.”
Endel scowled.
“Wrong answer?” he asked, trying not to sound flippant.
“I don’t really want to get into a conversation about how the watch is an object and it cannot possibly like or dislike you. Agreed?”
“Agreed,” Raven said, flashing a warning at Reese.
Reese shrugged.
“Objects can be disturbed by your powers though. Like the watch, there are a lot of objects in this room and you have the power to either energize them or destroy them without even touching them. That’s why your watch doesn’t work. Of course, I have no idea why you would even bother to wear a watch knowing i
t was broken.”
Reese hadn’t really thought much about it. It had been his father’s watch and it was the only thing he had other than memories. He recalled the day he’d taken it from his mother’s room after his father had left. Reese wasn’t sure if his father had left it behind or if he’d forgotten it all those years ago when he’d left in the middle of the night.
Reese had always been fascinated with his father’s watch. At one time it glowed. The big face would light up when his dad pressed a button. And when he’d sneak into the bedroom and put it on his wrist, the big bright face seemed gigantic to him. The only time he could touch it was when his father showered. It was the only time he took the watch off. Reese would try it on his wrist and look at it, mesmerized by the size of the face. His wrist was too small and it would flop around and sometimes fall off. As soon as the shower turned off, Reese would put the watch on the dresser and run from the room.
After his dad left, Reese’s mother would catch him playing with the watch, get upset, and put it back in her jewelry box, or shove it in a different dresser drawer to keep him from finding it. The fact that she didn’t have much in the way of clothes or jewelry made it a whole lot easier for Reese to find the watch the next time he went looking.
She always knew he’d been there. Maybe he’d been too clumsy and moved things around too much. But if she didn’t catch him, she never said anything. At least not until the day he’d gone to the Cliffs and she’d finally given the watch to him.
“I like it. It’s a cool watch.”
“It’s a broken watch. Or is it?” Endel asked.
The old man was messing with him, and Reese wasn’t sure he was intrigued or should be pissed off. He felt a little of both. Still, he wondered if Endel knew something about this watch that he didn’t.
“Are you going to fix it?” Reese asked.
“You’ve got yourself in a whole big mess down here in the underground world and you expect me to fix your watch?” Endel tapped a finger against his head. “I think you have your priorities a little messed up. Could be how you ended up down here in the first place.”
Reese had no good answer for that. He didn’t have a clue how he’d ended up down in this underground world.
He remembered talking to Jasper about some girl who’d just transferred to the Cliffs. It was odd because it was the end of the school year and why would anybody transfer into the Cliffs so late in the year? Jasper said she was cute, probably the kind of girl that Reese liked.
But, hell no. He wasn’t getting hooked up with someone at school. Once he graduated he was out of there and he was never coming back. He didn’t exactly know where he was going. But he wasn’t hanging around for a girl.
The next thing he remembered was being on the rooftop deck and the wind was howling and, no, he thought. They had been in the headmaster’s office before they’d been on the rooftop deck. Lalane had slipped something into his pocket. Yes, it was the pin with the stone. Except the pin with the stone hummed. The pin he always wore on his blazer never did anything freaky like that.
Reese slipped his hand into his blazer pocket and pulled out the pin. It started to glow again. First it was white, and then violet, and then blue! Then it went dark again as if it had never lit up.
“What the… Did you see that? The thing just turned blue,” Reese said.
“Congratulations,” Endel said. “Put it back in your pocket before you break that, too. No, let me see it for a second. Give it to me.”
Reese pulled the pin out of his pocket and handed it to Endel who took it in his palm and inspected it.
“You were given this for a reason.” He handed the pin back to Reese. “Put it in your pocket and keep it until later. Right now you need to pay attention to me, not changing colors on your new toy.”
Reese shoved the pin back into his pocket. Why would Lalane give him something like this? Why would Endel even know anything about a school pin? He thought back to when the headmistress walked around the room. Reese wasn’t the only one who’d gotten one. No, he’d seen her slip one into Jasper’s pocket, too. Then Melissa and Annalise and Alex. Who else? Dylan was there, and Elijah. Had they all gotten one of these pins?
“Stay with me, boy. Confusion is something you’re going to have to learn how to control as well since it sets off sparks.”
“Sparks?”
“Did you see the lights flicker?” Endel asked, lifting his attention from the map to Reese’s face.
“I saw it,” Raven said.
“That’s because you pay attention. If this yungin’ continues to let his mind run off like that, I can guarantee you someone else will take advantage of the weakness and that will be the end of his days.”
“Do you know why I’m here? Do you know what’s going on?” Reese asked cautiously.
“That’s not for me to know. Or tell. I only know that you’re here now and you won’t be here for very long if you don’t shut up for at least five minutes and let me teach you the very basics of what you’re going to need to know to get through this maze of tunnels and stairways.” Endel slammed his finger down on the map in front of him. “But first you need to concentrate!”
“What the hell do I have to do? I mean, you’re talking in riddles. I have no clue what you’re saying half the time.”
Endel leaned forward and squinted an eye. “Tell me, this watch isn’t the only thing that you’ve touched in your life that hasn’t worked, is it.”
He wasn’t really asking a question. Endel assumed that Reese had broken the watch on his wrist. Not that it was already broken when his mother had given it to him.
“I don’t know what you mean.”
“Sure you do. You touch things that are working one minute and they don’t work anymore the next minute. Does that sound familiar? Is that clear enough for you?”
Reese stifled a sigh. “My mother says I’m hard on things. Things break. It happens. I was a kid.”
Endel shook his head. “From this moment on, I want you to know that things don’t just happen. Do you understand me? Things happen because you make them happen. That’s your power.”
“I didn’t make myself come down here,” he argued. “Believe me. If I could do something like that I would have wished myself someplace a hell of a lot better.”
Endel seemed more pleased than annoyed with his put down. “As I said before, I have no idea why you’re here or how you got here. I’m sure if you think on it long enough, you’ll be able to figure it out yourself. All I know is that you’re here and you shouldn’t be. That means you have to stay hidden, which I think is rather impossible given your magnetic abilities. Even hidden, you’re going to need to learn how to survive. If you shut your mouth long enough and open your ears, I’ll teach you what you need to know. Teach. I can’t do it for you. Do you understand me, yungin’?”
“Why do you keep calling me that? My name is Reese.”
Endel’s eyebrows lifted slowly. “Is that so?”
Raven elbowed him. “Listen,” she whispered.
Reese nodded as fear settled in the pit of his stomach. “Where do we start?”
Once again Endel put his finger on the spot on the map. “As I said, this is where we are. I want you to make note of it. Memorize what is around it.” He moved his finger just a fraction. “I have a feeling you came in somewhere around here.”
Reese leaned over the table at the same time Raven did. For a girl who’d spent who knows how long hidden in the underworld, she smelled nice. He wasn’t exactly sure what it was about her. Berries? Something. But it didn’t smell musty or old like that tunnel did.
He forced himself to pay attention to Endel instead of how close Raven was to him. He didn’t want to notice little things about her. Like the fact that her hair was jet-black or that she had eyes that pale blue and reminded him of water. He’d noticed her slight upturned nose right away. But now that she was sitting so close, it taunted him.
“Got that?”
Reese blinked. His mind had completely shut down looking at Raven and he didn’t hear the last things Endel had said.
“Yeah, sure.”
His pulsed raced. He didn’t. He had no idea what Endel had just said or if it were important. But satisfied, Endel had moved on to talking about energy.
“I’m sure you had some schooling in science, right? Did you ever experiment with magnets?” Endel asked.
Reese straightened up. “Yeah, sure. But I’m not all that great in science. I’m more of a runner. I like to run.”
“Runner. Well, that will serve you well. But you need to know the science too. Specifically, the laws of magnetic power and energy. Because you, my boy, are full of magnetic energy.”
“You mean like magnetism with the girls?” he asked, glancing at Raven and giving her a grin.
She rolled her eyes, but he still caught her smiling. “Don’t flatter yourself.”
“Hey, he’s the one that said it. I was just agreeing.”
“Cool down, magnetic man,” Endel said. “Before all your ions start switching off in the wrong direction.”
Reese’s jaw dropped. “Can… Can that happen?”
“If you paid attention in science you would already know this.”
Raven snickered, hiding her face with her hand.
Endel pointed a finger at Raven. “You might want to pay attention, little girl. Because what he doesn’t remember, you’re going to have to. And I have a feeling that might be a whole lot.”
Raven sobered up quickly. “Yes, sir,” she said.
“As I said, this is where we are, this is where I think you came in, and this is where you will be leaving.” Endel moved his finger across the entire map to the other side.
“You’re shitting me,” Reese said looking at the distance he was going to have to travel to get out of here.
Endel looked at him with disgust and shook his head. “That mouth.”
“Sorry.”
Thinking about how far they’d walked to get to Endel’s shop and the short distance it represented on the map, Reese felt defeated. The school wasn’t that big. How could it be there wasn’t a stairway that would lead up to the surface somewhere?
