“We’ve seen another one,” Desiree said.
“The closed-mouth wolf-head belongs to the Royal Guard. The process for them is a little different and they don’t hold the same prestige, but they are not ones to underestimate.” Mr. Gordon looked nervous for the first time that I could remember.
“What does all this mean?” Jeremy asked.
“It means Oliver has done something only one person I know of has ever done—he’s conquered and fused with his mirror without knowing it was possible. Every Lorne family member was instructed by Kafka to do so, a challenge they were required to accept in order to be initiated, but it was something they were specifically told was possible ahead of time. They just needed to find out how.” Mr. Gordon turned to Jeremy. “Oliver did it on his own. I never discussed this with him.”
“So what does it mean?” Desiree asked, mimicking Jeremy’s question.
“It means, Miss Behring, that Oliver isn’t coming home,” Mr. Gordon said matter-of-factly.
Our jaws dropped a few inches, mine furthest of the three.
“What do you mean I’m not coming home?” I gulped. My newly found confidence wasn’t ready for that kind of revelation.
Mr. Gordon looked past me, toward the hospital. “Let’s walk, shall we?”
Mr. Gordon led the way, paralleling the highway. One of the side streets leading to the hospital loomed a few hundred yards ahead of us. Cars drove in and out in regular intervals. I watched each one, waiting for a car to stop and someone looking for me to step out.
“Oliver, I told you a while back that there is an invisible barrier that Kafka and your father can’t cross. That barrier is the transition from this plane to the one below, the base plane. The barrier stops those who’ve fused with their mirrors from passing down, which again, was why you were hidden in the base plane, out of Kafka’s reach. Now that you’ve fused with your mirror, you are prevented from transitioning down by the same barrier.”
“What now?” I asked. “We can’t stay here.”
“No, we can’t,” Mr. Gordon answered.
As we approached the side street, a gunmetal hover car stopped against the curb. My heart leapt into my throat as I wondered who was waiting for us. But Mr. Gordon didn’t slow down. He walked up to the car and opened the driver’s door.
“Get in,” he commanded.
It wasn’t until then that I realized I’d seen the car before—it was his. The inside of the car was empty.
“Wow,” Desiree exclaimed as we all piled in, she and Jeremy climbed into the backseat. “It just came by itself to pick us up? It’s like the Batmobile!”
“Not quite as cool, but yes,” Mr. Gordon said and accelerated away from the field, the river, and the hospital. He handed me the tablet. “Your friend, Darius, gave this to me to give back to you. He said you knew the password.”
“Yeah, it was his friend’s—Logan’s tablet.”
“Why does that name sound so familiar?”
“I don’t know.” I shrugged. “He went to Eastman. Maybe he was in one of your classes.”
“And he knew Darius in Provex City?” Mr. Gordon looked intently at me. “He could be another hidden Lorne child.”
“What did you say Cornelius’s son’s name was?”
“Langdon, I think?”
“Logan’s not that far off,” I said.
“You’re right,” Mr. Gordon said. “Where is Logan now? He may be someone we should talk to.”
“I don’t know.” I thought back to the day I’d found the tablet in the locker room. “I haven’t seen him since I found his tablet. He’d forgotten it in the locker room after gym.”
“From what Darius said, Logan didn’t forget it. He gave it to you. There’s supposedly a letter for you inside.”
Desiree leaned forward in her seat, draping one arm over my shoulder. “That was the one you showed me at school, right? The one you stole? Whose was it again?”
“Commodore Chaos.”
We drove an hour farther out of the city and up into the surrounding mountains. Once we were alone on the road, Mr. Gordon pressed the red button by the steering wheel. The orange grid of the automotive network vanished and he began physically driving the car. We wound through back roads and dirt roads—extraordinarily smooth in a hover car—until we came to a wood-paneled house that looked like a fancy log cabin. Off the road and down a steep driveway, the house was mostly hidden in the pine trees.
“I acquired this as a safe house several years back and it looks like it’s going to finally come in handy,” Mr. Gordon said, leading us inside.
The furniture inside was covered with an assortment of different colored and patterned bed sheets, which we immediately began removing so we could settle in.
“Is there cable?” Jeremy asked, trying the television remote.
“Sure.” Mr. Gordon sounded amused. “If you can tap into it, then you can watch it. Though I don’t have an actual cable box.”
Jeremy frowned and placed the remote back down on the coffee table.
I followed Desiree to a sliding glass door that led to a wooden deck. The landscape outside dropped dramatically, so that with just a few rows of trees deep, we were almost level with the tops of them. I put an arm around her waist and kissed her on the cheek. She cocked her head to meet me on the lips. My head still swam with how our relationship had evolved in a few short hours.
“Hey now, there will be none of that,” Jeremy admonished us from behind.
Desiree and I looked each other in the eyes and laughed.
“Okay, you guys hold tight. I will be back shortly,” Mr. Gordon said.
We all turned to face him.
“It’s time to start setting things in motion. Oliver, I’m going to pay your mother and Richard a visit—and try to explain our current situation. Then we’ll go see your father.”
With my journey to find Desiree, I hadn’t thought of my father for a while. I had begun to think of our reunion as a lost cause, so I’d pushed it to the back of my mind. But the thought of finally being able to meet him floored me. What would I say? What would he say? Did I want to listen to the explanations of his absence for all these years? Did I want to tell him off? Did I want to have anything to do with him? But even with the flood of questions and negative emotions, I was dying to talk to him on one level because he had answers to questions that I’d never be able to get from anyone else. He was my best chance to finding out who I really was.
“I’m going to finally meet my father—Nicholae?” I asked meekly.
“Yes.”
“Should I be excited?”
“Your father loves you very much, but he’s a Lorne. He may not express himself in the way you’re hoping for.” Mr. Gordon’s eyes osculated between the three of us. “A friend of Nicholae’s and mine will be here soon to look after you until I return.”
“Great, a babysitter,” Jeremy griped.
“A friend,” Mr. Gordon reiterated, and left us to ourselves.
Jeremy plopped down on one of the kitty-cornered couches and sat Frolics on the end table between them. Desiree pulled me along to join him. If we were all in this together, we might as well sit together.
“So what’s the message to you all about?” Desiree asked, folding her legs on the couch as she sat sideways beside me.
I powered on Logan’s tablet and noticed a file titled, “Grain.” It’s amazing what you miss when you’re focused on other things. I tapped the file and a document popped onto the screen, addressed to Oliver Grain. My eyes widened.
“What does it say?” Jeremy asked.
It took me a moment to reply as I tried to finish the letter. When I was done, I looked up and out into space, digesting what I’d just read.
“He’s going further underground and wants me to take over as Commodore Chaos,” I said, not even believing the words I’d spoken.
The afternoon turned to evening as we discussed this new development. I caught
Jeremy up on what had happened to me over the past week, and he told us what had been happening back home. Jeremy had been staying with Mr. Gordon since a few days after I’d left. He said that Mr. Gordon was protecting Mom and Richard from the agony of another one of their children disappearing.
“How?” I asked, and my attention drew to the front door as it faded to a transparent opening.
A light-skinned man with a bald head, large nose and ears, and dressed in a dark suit walked gingerly into the house. His face pulled tight into an awkward smile and he breezed up to the edge of the L-shaped arrangement of couches.
Jeremy and I recognized him immediately, and Desiree tightened her arm around mine when she felt me tense up.
“Hello, children,” Cias said. “Daniel asked for me to look after you in his absence.”
Epilogue
By the time Daniel pulled up to Oliver and Jeremy’s house, the sun had already dipped behind the trees that lined Wheeler Street. The courtyard was dark and uninviting. No lights were on inside the house.
He parked along the curb and walked up the concrete steps that cut through the inclined front lawn, opening the courtyard gate and sauntering up to the front door. Upon reaching the raised tile patio, the hanging lantern overhead illuminated. Daniel opened the front door without incident and stepped into the sleeping house.
The foyer light burst to life. The house was silent, which he’d expected. Daniel continued into the living room, lights turning on as he entered like they were all on motion sensors. But of course, they weren’t.
Helen was seated on the couch with the family’s golden retriever lying beside her, his head on her lap, and Richard sat tall in his recliner. Both of them were focused in the direction of the empty, black screen of the television. All three members of the family seated in the living room were frozen, resembling lifelike mannequins.
With Daniel standing in the center of the room, the inanimate family members suddenly came back to life. They looked around in utter confusion, and were startled by Daniel standing before them. The dog leapt off the couch, kept a safe distance, and barked furiously.
“It’s okay, boy,” Daniel said, leaned down, and offered his hand for the suspicious dog to inspect.
The golden retriever slowly crept up to sniff the back of his hand, finally giving his knuckles a lick. After a moment, Daniel ran his hand down the dog’s neck and patted his back.
“There you go,” he said. “See? I’m not so threatening.”
Daniel rose to his full height and the dog lay down beside him. Helen and Richard looked dumbfounded by the stranger in their house. Daniel searched Helen’s eyes for a glimpse of recognition, but he didn’t find it.
“Is that supposed to make us feel better?” Richard finally asked. “Who are you? And how did you get in our house?”
“Helen, do you have any recollection of who I am?” Daniel asked.
She shook her head nervously.
“I assure you both; I’m a friend, not a threat. I have a lot to explain, so I suggest you remain seated. It concerns your boys, Oliver and Jeremy. It concerns Nicholae. And it concerns you, Helen.”
“Nicholae?” Richard said. “Helen’s late husband?”
“Like I said, there is much to explain—”
“Where are Oliver and Jeremy?” Helen asked urgently. “Did you have something to do with their disappearances?” Helen jumped up off the couch and ran to the hallway leading to the bedrooms calling their names. A moment later she returned, livid. “Where are they? What have you done with them?”
“Helen, please.” Daniel motioned with his hand for her to sit. “Your boys are safe. I’ve known them and you for nearly fifteen years, and I’ve been watching over Oliver for the past ten years.”
“Where are my boys!?” Helen cried.
“You bastard!” Richard rose from his chair, planting his plastered foot firmly on the floor. He cringed, but didn’t let his obvious discomfort slow him down. “What are you doing watching our children! If I find out you’ve—”
“Sit!” Daniel shouted. Helen and Richard were hit by an invisible force and both dropped to seated positions. The dog’s head perked up, but he didn’t leave Daniel’s side. “This isn’t going to be easy, but you will allow me to explain. Your boys are in danger, but it’s not from me. They are—”
Daniel’s sentence was interrupted when the house crashed with a single jolt like it had been lifted off its foundation and dropped. The dog jumped to his feet, barking at the unseen enemy. Everyone else was silent, waiting momentarily to see if there would be more to the earthquake.
“I lost my train of thought,” Daniel said. He looked out the back window and there was just enough light left to see the pool water still sloshing against the concrete edge. There seemed to be no visible damage. “You never know what to expect around here, but that wasn’t so bad.” Daniel turned back to Helen and Richard. “Where were we?”
The Earthquake Felt Around the World
The Los Angeles Times
The earthquake felt in southern California yesterday evening was reportedly felt simultaneously in cities and nations around the world. Southern Californians have come to expect the sudden onslaught of the Earth’s fury, but what was experienced at 7:14 p.m. PST, was a complete anomaly.
The single shock measured an alarming 5.5 in Los Angeles. The epicenter, off the coast of Japan, registered a magnitude 6.3 on the Richter scale. The lowest magnitude was recorded in South Africa, which registered a substantial 5.0. Seismologists are struggling to understand and explain how this earthquake was felt across the globe with similar magnitudes, unlike any seismic event experienced in recorded history…
The Collapse of Modern Civilization
The Provex City Gazette
Everyone from our generation will remember exactly where they were when the crash hit. It was a jolt that shook the very foundation of human civilization. At exactly 7:14 p.m. WST, the world saw what Mother Earth is capable of with one powerful stomp.
The first tower to ever collapse in Provex City did so in the city’s Lower Westside, the first of the modern skyscrapers that has stood through many earthquakes over the past century. But the Topanga Enterprises building could not withstand the 9.2 jolt of yesterday evening, and took down several smaller buildings in its vicinity. The extent of the devastation, damage, and loss of life, will not be fully realized for days.
Even worse is that Provex City is only a diminutive percentage of the damage caused by the jolt that was felt in similar force across the globe…
###
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About the Author
Michael writes YA speculative fiction. He currently lives in Southern California with his wife, kids, and two blood
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When he's not at the computer, he enjoys spending quality time with family, practicing yoga, playing guitar behind closed doors, and listening to as many audiobooks as possible.
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Also by Michael Pierce
THE LORNE FAMILY VAULT SERIES
Provex City (Book 1)
SUSY Asylum Book 2)
Doria Falls (Book 3)
Archanum Manor (Book 4)
THE ROYAL REPLICAS SERIES
Royal Replicas (Book 1)
Royal Captives (Book 2)
Royal Threat (Book 3) — Pre-order now!
SUSY Asylum Page 36
