by C. J. Lloyd
“V, you okay?” Samantha asked.
“Yeah, I … um … It would be better for us to see the whole city, don’t you think?” She flashed a glance at Jen. The girl’s eyes frantically searched the city.
“Got it.” Samantha nodded slowly, but her eyes still showed worry.
With every step, they avoided chunks of buildings and overturned vehicles. Rotting fish and stale seawater plagued the streets and tainted the air. Gone were the streets that were once busy with construction workers fighting to restore Boston to its former glory. Gone were the clothing stores, the restaurants, the libraries. Gone were the universities, the high schools, the elementary schools, the daycares.
All of it was nothing but rubble.
Nothing more than crushed stone, twisted metal, and putrid smoke from dying fires remained.
Violet turned to see the hill, or lack thereof, where Duskton High once stood. Just a pile of debris, not even a remnant that the school once existed.
“Sorry. I … I just wanted to go to a place that I remembered.” She fought back her tears, steadying her voice so it didn’t break by the sight of it all.
She looked up at Jen. She seemed stoic at best. Her emotions were calm too. It frightened Violet. How could Jen be at peace, seeing the city like this? Knowing that people died here?
“Come on. This isn’t even the center. We have a few blocks to go before we get to where we need to go.”
As they moved through the city, the place came alive with the rumbling of bulldozers, cranes, and construction equipment. Thousands of first responders blanketed the place with police, firefighters, Army National Guard … You name it.
They moved past a few soldiers who immediately saluted Sam. “Sergeant … Furego, is it?” Sam squinted, looking at the name tag. “Anyway you boys can get us a ride close to the hypocenter?”
The soldier gave a terse nod. “Are you sure you want to go there, ma’am? They’re still doing recovery there, if you know what I mean.”
Sam looked back at Violet. Violet saw something fearful in Samantha’s dark-brown eyes as if they were gesturing Violet’s next decision could be her last.
Violet swallowed and looked over at Jen, who continued to scan the area seemingly oblivious and nodded. “Let’s go, Sam.”
The soldiers brought them to a vehicle. One hopped inside and crawled up to a seat with straps. He took hold of a massive turret while the other soldier Samantha was talking to jumped into the driver’s seat.
The soldier in the driver’s seat told a third soldier to stand by, and they’d be right back. The engine grumbled as they rolled through the city. Violet realized they were no longer driving on streets but thick mud mixed with crumbling pavement, crushed stone, and chunks of building. She shivered in the seat at the sight of the sky. Towers and skyscrapers should’ve been there.
When the part of the world that once towered over her was nothing more than crumbling piles of debris to drive over, Violet felt the strength she tried to build up give way. She focused on the front of the truck.
Massive tents took up a lot of area. There were hundreds of them. Green, sandy-brown, some blue, others white with red crosses draped over them. With the mass of tents and the number of first responders that flooded the area, it almost didn’t seem real.
“The sky has been gray the entire time,” the soldier yelled over the engine’s roar. “I feel like the sun’s never coming back. Like it’s afraid to show its face. It’s like this massive thick cloud is just sitting over the city.”
Violet looked over at Jen, who tapped at the window of the vehicle. The glass was so thick, there was no way a bullet could break through. They pulled up to a massive tent blocked off by a makeshift fence constructed of wood, cement barriers, and massive containers.
“Thank you, Sergeant. This is a good spot,” Samantha said. “Hopefully, I don’t get you into too much trouble. Tell them a full bird hijacked you for an important mission.”
The sergeant nodded, tapping his helmet. “You got it, ma’am. Appreciate that we could help in any way. It’s a mess, isn’t it? Hard to believe they think some kids did all this. What do you think, ma’am?”
Samantha looked back at Violet and Jen. “You’d be surprised.”
They jumped out of the vehicle and followed the rows of containers down to a massive collage of different tents. That soldier was right; the sky was a deep gray. During the battle, it was pitch black as if night had fallen. In Violet’s eyes, it still shined in a way.
Jen looked around at all the destruction. “What are all these tents and containers for?”
Samantha cleared her throat and guided them into a tent. Beneath the tent was a trailer, tall, about the same size as the truck they’d just traveled in with the set-up of an office. Samantha knocked on the door and waited.
A woman with tangled dark-brown hair, thin as a coat rack and as pale as moonlight, opened the door. She had massive bags beneath brown bloodshot eyes. Violet wondered if the woman had just finished crying. Her shirt was stained red in some areas and was a darkening brown in others.
“Colonel Rice? Is that you?” The woman squinted hard, and it made her cheeks slouch even further.
Samantha nodded and went in for a hug. “Grace, you know you can call me Sam. How have you been?”
A smile finally broke from the long sorrowful cheeks of the woman. “My goodness, it feels like I haven’t seen you for months.” The woman hugged her.
“It’s been a little over a week, but in forensic time, months makes perfect sense.” Samantha turned to Violet and Jen. “Grace, I want you to meet Violet and Jennifer.”
The woman nodded. “Nice to meet you both. Well, please come in. Don’t mind the mess. I finally just got my first stint of sleep.”
The office was tight, barely big enough to fit another person besides the four of them. The walls were a depressing gray, and a small window just big enough to allow in fresh air faced the cluster of tents outside. The office had a steel desk with a single laptop resting on it. Beside it, a filing cabinet with a drawer ajar spewed papers onto the floor.
Grace sat back on a swivel chair and scrunched her face a little as if trying to straighten the wrinkles of worry from her forehead. “Can I assume the fact that you brought children to a gravesite means these are the same children that everyone has been talking about?”
Sam exhaled. “The same.”
“What can I do for you three?”
Sam lifted a brow and pulled the shades from her face. “For starters, I want you to tell them who you are, what you do, and what you’ve been doing here in the hypocenter.”
Grace’s brows scrunched together. Violet could see she was searching for some kind of rhyme or reason as to why she needed to do such a thing. A queasiness came over Violet as a lot of things began to make sense.
Gravesite.
The feeling of cold, the smell ... Everything so still and quiet lacking life. All she felt was death all around her.
“Well, I’m a forensic scientist,” Grace began. “My job is to use science to analyze physical crime evidence to utilize in court. I guess for the second part, my purpose here in the hypocenter is that I’m the one leading the team of medical staff and other forensic specialists to identify bodies and to understand the total loss of life.”
Violet stumbled back at the thought of such a job. Caught up in the horror and disbelief, she hadn’t realized the sadness and anger wasn’t hers alone, but Jennifer’s as well. Jennifer’s eyes were glossy like a pool of gold. She was barely able to hold her tears back. But she did.
“Your job is to count all the ones who died?” Jennifer asked.
Grace shook her head. “No, it’s more than that. What we do is identify those lost. We help give their families some kind of peace. Sometimes there are a lot of things worse than death. Like not knowing if someone you loved has moved on to the next life or thinking they could be lost forever. It’s a painful job, a dark, tiring, breaking job. But kn
owing I bring people peace keeps me going. And I owe it to those lost, too, to give them some form of peace as well.”
Tears streamed down Jennifer’s face as they did on Violet’s.
Grace meant every word. As broken as she was inside, she was driven by her love to help those around her and the people that passed on. Violet could see it inside her.
Grace walked them through the hypocenter. They called it that because it was another name for ground zero, a place of absolute devastation. Grace believed the hypocenter was far worse than the damage done to London and from it would be an economic, social, and possibly even a moral collapse the likes of which the world has never seen.
Grace guided the three of them throughout the site, explaining that each container was a freezer, holding the remains of those lost. She even went as far as to say that she had identified the remains of men, women, and children.
They came into a tent where two women had their backs turned. One looked to be scribbling away in a notepad. Grace left them at the entrance and crept behind the women.
Violet could tell she was talking to them but couldn’t keep her eyes off the table. Grace nodded to them, and they walked off, heading toward the entrance. Violet still couldn’t see the table. She could only make out the edges of a steel frame.
The two women wore masks, light green scrubs, and glasses and were already peeling off their latex gloves as they slipped them into a plastic bag. Covered in blood, they both gave a terse nod as they walked by. Violet gulped as a wave of their emotions passed over her. Grief reigned over them all.
Grace gave a subtle wave to come over. Violet opened her mouth, taking in a gulp of air, held it, then released. The room had a different smell to it now, one she hated, one that made her skin crawl and put her entire spirit on edge. She was on her heels, ready to run. Just in case … Just in case.
They came around the table to see a young girl. She was covered to her neck. Her dark-brown hair, clumped together with drying blood, still framed her face. The left side of her face was misshapen, and her face swollen, but she looked to be asleep.
“No.” Jennifer stepped back from the table. “No. No. I can’t .… I can’t do this.” She started sobbing as she turned and ran out of the tent.
Samantha nodded for Violet to go after her.
Violet was surprised she could move at all. The fact she had the mindset to take orders and bolt out of the tent was a shock even as she chased Jennifer down.
Jennifer didn’t get far before dropping to her hands and knees and throwing up. Between her heaving and deep sobs, she screamed at the top of her lungs. No words, just screaming. If she did get a word out, it was a broken “why!”
Violet was confused. She felt so much inner turmoil. Jen’s brokenness and the way it spilled out of her reminded Violet of Elric the day his father passed. So much anger and bitterness poured out of Jen that Violet thought the girl would explode. She inched closer, then finally knelt at her side.
Jennifer spoke through her sobs. “I know I have to stop thinking of him as the boy I grew up with. It’s hard though. Every time I see him in my mind, I think of the life I used to have. The life where I had parents when I had school, Mrs. Lee … him. Even now when I see him, I keep seeing the little boy who helped me bring my suitcase into my new house when we first moved to Lexington.” Her cries became less hysterical. “What happened, Violet?”
Violet fought back tears of her own, controlling her breathing. She couldn’t stop seeing the little girl’s face. “I think when you and your parents died, it took something from him and opened him up to being used by Calamity. But when he found out about his parents and losing his dad … it sent him over the edge. He couldn’t take it.”
“He wanted so hard to protect me, Mom, and Dad. When he found out about those powers, he was confident, more confident than I had ever known him to be. I could tell he finally had a purpose, a reason to keep going after everything that happened in Lexington. He wanted to be like the heroes in his comic books.” Jennifer wiped her face. “You’re right. All of you.”
Violet gently rubbed her shoulders.
Jennifer struggled to stand as Violet helped keep her steady. Her shirt was wet with tears, and her body convulsed as she struggled to keep balanced.
“Violet, I have to stop seeing him as that little boy, and I have to face him as he is now. The light inside me said the same thing, but I pushed him away. I pushed all of you away. I wanted to do things my way even after Elric tried to kill me. I wanted to stay in a world where all he needed was to see me and he would wake up. I was out of my mind.”
“Jen, before these last few years, I saw myself as this powerful person. Someone who could take on the world. I used to be headstrong and angry, thinking I could shoulder everything. But everything that’s happened broke me. Even now, I feel like a fragment of the person I used to be, and I don’t know when or how I’ll put the pieces back together. I just know I have to keep moving forward.”
Jennifer nodded, wiping a few more tears away with her shirt. A war raged within her, and the only person who could feel it was Violet. At a time like this, she wished she had Sage. Sage would know exactly what to say and what to do.
Samantha and Grace came over a pile of crushed concrete and metal. Violet could tell by Samantha’s guilt-covered face that she had regretted bringing them both to this place. But it was needed. It was a wake-up call. A painful slash to the belly that wasn’t a mortal wound but one that would leave a scar forever.
“You girls seen enough?” Samantha asked, clearing her throat and wiping her damp eyes. “I know I have.”
Violet nodded, and Jen did the same.
Samantha turned to Grace. “Well, Grace, take care of yourself. You have the hardest job in the country right now.”
She nodded and looked at Violet and Jennifer.
“I hope you three can bring all this to an end. Please, stop them,” Grace begged.
Tears flowed down Violet’s cheeks, creeping into her mouth. “We will.”
They had to. At all costs.
Chapter 16
What Nightmares
We Will Bring
In a bright flash of light, Jen, Violet, and the others were gone.
Elric still shivered as a few tears broke free over his face. That couldn’t be helped. He raked them away with a curved fingernail and swallowed his bitter reality. But no matter how hard he tried to play it off, he was rattled.
What the hell was this? A girl he had long-buried deep within himself, her corpse the fertilizer for his rage, was alive? Jen’s death and the loss of her parents had pushed him into the shadows. It’s why he ran to Erebus so that he could take the pain away. It was why he’d clung to power and change. Yet Jen was alive and well. On top of that, she was the Titan of Light.
Madness, rage, confusion, and all other emotional and illogical torments tore away at Elric. His cracked, dry lips peeled back as a steady stream of tears dribbled down his chin. He fought with each step to control himself, to hold his emotions back. But the memories were coming now.
Before, those memories were annoying drops tapping away against his skull every so often, and now and then they would pour into his nightmares. But now, they gushed in like a flood, drowning him with despair.
Curving into claws, his fingers and hands trembled. He stumbled to the castle Calamity built and leaned against the wall. Why? Why do I feel like this? He tried to get a grip on his emotions.
Flashes of warm Fourth of July nights on the dock in Lexington nagged at the back of his scalp. Every year, he and Jen stayed up to watch the fireworks together. He remembered the dumb yacht parties she spoke of, the family cookouts, the park, school. Everything, all of it, came rushing back.
Elric fell to his knees and screamed, crying with anguish. Jen’s voice was sweet to him, calling to something deep within that had long been dead. Or so he thought. That’s right. Him. That boy, his humanity. It had to be him. But how could he get to him a
gain?
“Elric, try to relax. It’s okay,” Calamity cooed. “Sometimes the dead come back.”
“Yeah, bro. Everything’s going to be alright.” Enzo helped him to his feet. “I mean, that was the Light Titan, right?”
“Yeah, it was,” Elric spoke with a broken voice.
“How does she know you?” Rai asked.
“She’s someone from my past, someone I thought was dead.”
“You loved her, didn’t you?” Rai asked. “By the way, you’re acting, you still love her.”
A dark stream ripped toward Rai, shattering the water bubble she threw up to protect herself. The stream smashed through her shoulder as she shrieked, struggling to rip it out. It whipped her to the ground, pinning her so she couldn’t attack. Another stream came over and pierced through her left shoulder, incapacitating her.
“Elric, stop man! You’ve gone too far,” Enzo yelled.
Calamity pulled him back, keeping him from interfering.
Elric stood over Rai as she struggled; the darkness kept her powers at bay.
“What the hell’s wrong with you? Have you lost your mind?” she screamed as tears rolled down her face.
“I told you before, do not bring up anything about love again. Didn’t I?”
Enzo’s eyes were wild.
“Just let her go. She’s one of us,” he said with a calm voice.
Elric grabbed the sides of his face, fighting the emotions. Everything was disorienting, all of the emotions in his mind. Jennifer’s voice was everywhere, singing his name. The two streams pulled from Rai’s shoulders as she screamed in agony. Enzo knelt to help her up.
“I’m done with this!” Rai cried, wrapping her arms around Enzo. “I’m done with you.” She took a hard sniff, her eyes a dark blue. “Nobody’s ever made me bleed and lived to tell about it. I don’t care who you are, Elric Blake; you’re dead!”
Elric twitched, trying to focus and fight the balance between the voices and his own emotions. “If you make that choice, just know that you’re going to be on your own. Remember, the entire world is looking for you. You won’t last a week.”
