Kafka’s grip loosened, and I fell to the ground. On all fours, I coughed and continued to gasp for air. I couldn’t help looking up at the final throws of the brutal scene.
Now several paces away, Jeremy held tightly to the handle of the screwdriver, which ripped out of Kafka’s neck as he collapsed to the ground and bled out. A double-edged dagger with a golden, jewel-adorned hilt, slipped out of his open hand.
The only sound left was the screeching wind. I stared intently at the dead body. Released from my asphyxiation, every breath burned its way down into my lungs. But it was the greatest feeling in the world.
Desiree pushed herself up to a seated position and leaned against the railing.
Jeremy remained standing over the body. With no more need for the bloody screwdriver, he dropped it into the spreading carmine pool. Stepping away, he continued to cry, which didn’t help my composure in the least.
Jeremy, Desiree, and I remained in our separate corners of the roof for a long time. The sky was growing darker by the minute. Increased shadows slowly censored the carnage from us. But the buildings didn’t sleep. The lights would never fully go out. And Kafka’s body would never fully disappear into the night.
I looked from the stars to Jeremy, who took a seat against the railing. He remained fixated on the body. To the sound of sniffling, I turned to see Desiree limping toward me. She greeted me with a painful smile and mascara-streaked cheeks. I got to my feet, and she carelessly threw herself into me, tightly wrapping her arms around my bruised neck.
“Are you okay?” she asked. Her windblown hair smelled like honeysuckle and berries and teasingly caressed my cheeks.
“Are you?”
“I am now,” she said, nestling her body into mine.
“How did you find me?”
“I got some help…from a mutual friend.” She let go of me and stepped back.
I reached out and took hold of her hands. “I’m just relieved you’re all right.”
She didn’t pull her hands away, and I felt mine begin to perspire, but I didn’t want to let go.
“I’m sorry I wasn’t able to do more,” she said, breaking her gaze.
“Do more?” I gave her hands a slight squeeze. “You did everything. If it wasn’t for you, both Jeremy and I would probably be dead. You diverted his attention at exactly the right time. It was brilliant.”
She looked up at me with flushed cheeks. “Really? Don’t tease me right now.”
“I wouldn’t do that. I’m just so happy you’re—”
Before I could finish, she kissed me. I was so thrown off guard that it took me a moment to kiss her back. I tried to drop her hands and embrace her fully, but she wouldn’t let go. My lips and tongue went numb, and my stomach fluttered in pure ecstasy. Her continued kisses were soft, careful, and deliberate. I didn’t want to let her go. I wanted this moment to last for as long as possible. But, too soon for me, Desiree broke our union and lingered with her forehead against mine. I couldn’t take my eyes off her moist lips as she continued to breathe heavily.
“I’m sorry,” Desiree whispered.
“I’m not.”
“Don’t let me look over the edge, okay?”
“Why not?”
“I’m afraid of heights, too.”
“There’s so much I still don’t know about you.”
“This coming from the mysterious Oliver Lorne.” Desiree leaned back to her original position and wiped her cheeks, regaining her control and composure. She gave me a crooked smile.
“How’s Jeremy?” she asked after a moment’s rest and reflection.
“I don’t know,” I said, looking over at him.
“I think he needs you,” she said, nudging me toward him.
“You don’t know what he did.” I wanted to feel angry, but ended up feeling sad seeing Jeremy as a tear-stricken crumpled heap on the ground.
“He defended you and saved your life.”
“No, he saved himself after sending me to the slaughter.”
“How are you still so negative?”
“Let’s see...” I started. “I was hit by a car, learned my entire life has been a lie, betrayed by my brother, and nearly murdered by my so-called uncle. I’d say that’s a pretty lousy day.”
“Let’s see...” Desiree mimicked my tone. “You found an amazing new world, had a miraculous recovery from a car accident, discovered you have a greater family history than you could have ever imagined, your brother saved your life, and you survived the plots of your scheming so-called uncle. You beat the bogeyman. I’d say that’s a pretty special day.”
I didn’t fully agree with her logic, but I couldn’t keep from appreciating her optimism.
“Go on,” she said and nudged me again.
I hesitantly walked up to Jeremy. He didn’t look up at me. I looked down at the body with its halo of blood. Without the presence of life, it was now just an empty vessel.
“I didn’t know,” Jeremy said, wiping his face with the palms of his hands.
“You were working with him the whole time?” I asked.
“Yes. But it wasn’t about delivering you.”
“Then what was it about?”
“It was about bringing our family back together. Kafka said he desired unity. He wanted us to help him achieve that. I did want to become a Lorne. I’m not gonna lie. I remember all the preferential treatment you got as a kid. You were the world to Nicholae and I was baggage. I just came along with my mom. Do you have any idea what it’s like to be completely in the shadow of someone else?”
“You’re telling me about things I have no memory of. But what I do remember is spending my life in your shadow. You seem to be able to do anything. You’re the hero and I’m the bumbling sidekick.”
Desiree, standing behind me, placed her hand gently on my back.
“I’m sorry I led you here. I never meant for this to happen,” Jeremy said.
“Is the stuff you said about my father true?” I asked, not ready to hear the answer. I had just gotten him back and it already felt like he had been taken away again.
“I think so. I never got the chance to see him. I believed Kafka when he told me your father was the renegade, and our help was requested to reunite the family. Luring you with the hope of seeing your father was the easiest way to bring you to Kafka. He knew his reputation to us was that of the bad guy and wanted to postpone your judgment until he had a chance to explain. Everything got so fucked up.”
Desiree and I sat down with Jeremy and talked a little more. Desiree leaned against me, shivering, and I put my arm around her. We were so drained from all that had happened. We needed each other for support. We were indebted to each other for life.
There was so much more I still wanted to know. I wondered if my father was still out there somewhere. I wondered if Mom would believe any of this, if there was anything we could say to trigger a lost memory. Would she even want to remember my father?
I remembered when life was simple, when the majority of what I worried about was bullies at school and a ghost in my closet. Who knew I’d find a long-lost world and a long-lost life beckoning me to rediscover it.
Desiree leaned against me and Jeremy sat across from us. I no longer felt alone.
“What do we do now?” Desiree asked.
“I don’t know,” I said. “There’s so much here and I want to find my father.”
“I think we should go home,” Desiree said.
“I don’t know if I can,” Jeremy said.
“Your parents are worried sick. You owe it to them to return.”
“I guess you’re right,” Jeremy said, sounding less than enthusiastic.
“I just want to sit here a little while longer,” I said, rubbing Desiree’s back, then sliding my arm in and around hers.
Everyone agreed. No one wanted to get up. We knew we had to do something soon, but at that moment, we weren’t yet ready to face the next chapters of our lives. We needed to rest, prolong the inevitab
le, and catch our breath. And we did that, for another hour, maybe two.
When we finally got up, we stood around Kafka’s body and felt an overdue sense of peace and closure. No one was crying anymore; we had no tears left. We gazed upon the body like it was just another one of life’s little miracles, filling us with gratitude to still be alive.
“How are we going to explain the body?” I asked.
“We’re not,” Jeremy said and was the first to walk away.
Desiree and I followed Jeremy down the two staircases, back to the main living area of Kafka’s royal condominium.
When we got to the foyer, we saw a frail older woman put on her jacket and sling her purse over her shoulder. I could only assume it was the housekeeper Kafka mentioned earlier, Glenda.
“Thank you. You will never fully know what you’ve done here today. But thank you. I am free to go now,” she said and touched Jeremy’s hand before walking through the door.
I turned to Desiree. “We heard you in the foyer earlier, didn’t we?”
“I was trying to hide in the closet and bumped into something,” she said with a guilty grin.
“Only you,” I said. “Very stealth.”
Jeremy led us back to his condominium, so he could retrieve some of his belongings and—I believed—to say goodbye to the luxurious life he had recently grown accustomed to.
Desiree and I waited in the parlor, looking out over the magnificently lit city.
“It really is beautiful here,” she said, and almost like clockwork, we saw fireworks far off in the distance begin to shoot up between the buildings and explode in a celebration of crystalline colors. “Promise me we’ll come back.”
I did and was about to put my arm around her again, but stopped myself, unsure if it was still appropriate. We were back to awkward silences. Luckily, it didn’t take long for Jeremy to join us, and we all left together.
In the lobby, everything was business as usual. The employees behind the concierge desk greeted Jeremy by name again and wished us all a good evening. No one knew what had happened upstairs. I envied their unawareness and knew that if we came back to this place, it wouldn’t be the same.
Passing through the front door, we welcomed the boisterous city nightlife like a gang of misfits. We came, we saw, we conquered. We had new knowledge and a new awareness to take home with us. We had a new confidence in a world where we didn’t feel quite so small.
“Are we ready to go?” Desiree asked.
“Let’s go home,” I said and put an arm around each of them.
20
The Return Home
Jeremy and I found Mom on the floor of the living room, with Frolics curled up by her side. All the lights in the house were off, but moonlight poured in through the exposed windows. I was quick to notice a familiar glass in her lap, cupped with both hands. She stared intently at the glass, which was nearly empty.
Frolics lifted his head. He must have heard us enter the side door, but he had stayed right at our mother’s side. The only one who didn’t leave her.
“Mom?” I said.
Frolics sprang to life and charged us, wagging his tail and grunting. It seemed to be Jeremy he was happiest to see, but I knelt to his level.
Mom slowly looked up, and I could tell she didn’t trust what she was seeing. The sight before her couldn’t possibly be real. She stared at us with extreme skepticism.
“Mom, we’re home,” I said.
“Oliver? Jeremy, is that really you?” she asked, her hands shaking.
“Yes, Mom. It’s me,” Jeremy said, still standing awkwardly beside me.
With a sudden flood of emotion, Mom clumsily jumped to her feet—dropping her glass on the carpet—and pinned us into a double hug. She didn’t scold us or ask questions. She simply broke into tears. Our family was coming back together. Christmas dinner would not have those two empty chairs.
Mom was in no condition to drive, but she wanted to take Jeremy to see Richard as soon as she got over the initial shock of having us home.
So Jeremy drove instead.
We all stood around Richard, still lying motionless in the hospital bed. The smell of antiseptics and the rhythmic beeping of the equipment were becoming quite familiar to me. Jeremy was almost as still as Richard, standing between Mom and me, noticeably moved and amazed by all that he had missed.
“When did this happen?” Jeremy asked, not taking his eyes off Richard.
“Well over a month ago now,” Mom answered. We stood silently for a long time after that.
When Mom finally took a seat against the wall, I nudged Jeremy. “I want to talk to you for a minute,” I said and led him into the hallway.
The nurses’ station, on the far side of the hall, had the only visible activity.
“We’ve gotta do something,” I said, leading Jeremy away from the door.
“Like what? What can we do?”
“Can we take him to that other place, where you took me? What was it called—Provex City?”
“I don’t have the abilities you have. I could barely get through myself, let alone bring someone else through.”
“But we’d be doing it together—like how we came home. We can do this,” I insisted. “Richard needs our help.”
“I won’t go back there. I can’t do it.”
“Not even for Richard? You saw what they can do. They could heal him just like that.”
“Do you remember what happened there? I can’t go back. How about all that stuff you’ve been working on with Daniel? You could do something. You could do something right now.”
“I dunno,” I said, feeling more confident with my suggestion.
I knew Mr. Gordon could do something, but he too had left it up to me. The kind of help Richard needed was all around me, but there seemed to be nothing I could do about it. And now, even Jeremy was giving up.
Jeremy searched my face for an answer.
“I guess...I could try to do something,” I said.
“You made it through the transition all by yourself. I have faith that you can do this, too.” Jeremy threw an arm around my neck and gave my opposite shoulder a squeeze. “All that training has to be good for something.” He flashed another irresistible grin.
“I’ll see what I can do,” I said, and we both went back into Richard’s room.
Jeremy sat next to Mom against the wall.
I dragged a chair next to Richard’s bed and sat down. I didn’t know if I needed to have physical contact with him or if my thoughts themselves would travel through whatever space to get to where they needed to go. I laid a hand on his bandaged arm just to be safe. Closing my eyes, I thought about what I wanted. To get the family I knew back together. Thoughts of Nicholae entered my mind and I brushed them away, trying to stay focused on the task at hand. I wanted answers, but this was what I needed to do now. Maybe we could have all of our seats filled for Christmas dinner.
And then I felt Richard’s arm move.
I jumped out of my chair, causing a chain reaction of startled family members.
“What happened?” Mom asked.
“Richard—he moved!” I said.
Mom and Jeremy ran to the bed to see for themselves.
Richard’s arm moved again. And then his leg, beneath the blankets. And then his head tilted to the side a little.
“Jeremy, get the doctor!” Mom insisted, and Jeremy rushed out of the room.
If only Mr. Gordon had been here to see this. He would’ve been so proud. But now knowing his close connection to my family, I guessed he always had been here. And on that thought, Richard finally opened his eyes.
Mom was in tears again, but she looked so happy. She was in such ignorant bliss. I couldn’t see her wanting to leave this place. “Honey, don’t ever do this to me again.” She fell to her knees beside the bed, wiping her eyes and sniffling uncontrollably.
“I’ll try my best,” Richard whispered.
Jeremy ran back into the room and stopped beside me. �
�The doctor’s on his way.”
“Jeremy, is that you?” Richard asked, sounding soft and hoarse.
“Don’t worry about me, I’m not going anywhere. Let’s focus on getting you better,” Jeremy said.
“I’m already better,” Richard said and closed his eyes again.
It was a long time coming, but our family was back together. The world around me looked different after seeing it through another plane of consciousness. It helped me to see what was most important: family and friends. And my family was right here with me.
The next day was taken as a sick day—a family day—for Jeremy and me. It felt good to sit home and do nothing. But it also gave me too much time to think. And whom I kept thinking about was Desiree. I hadn’t talked to her since we parted ways last night. So, after dinner, I decided to walk to her house.
As I crossed Santa Clara, I saw Anna, Eli, and Desiree all sitting on the curb. Anna was the first to see me and stood up. We hadn’t ended our last conversation all that well, and I had never called her. Even though I had a pretty good excuse, it wasn’t one I could easily explain. I feared my incoming welcome.
As soon as I got close enough, Anna threw herself into me, hugging me tightly and laying her head gently on my shoulder. “Desiree told us what happened. It must have been so terrifying,” she said.
I looked at Desiree, wondering what she had told Anna and Eli. “It was...terrible,” I said. “How much did she tell you?”
“Just that you two were on your way back to the cemetery and got attacked by a couple guys in the ravine. Either of you could’ve been killed!”
“Yeah, we were lucky.”
“I’m sorry about what I said the last time I saw you. Desiree is my best friend and I trust her completely. And I know how much she trusts you, Oliver. You deserve the same from me.”
I couldn’t say anything.
Anna let go of me, turned to face the others, and pulled my arms around her waist. Eli and Desiree were now standing. Desiree mimicked Anna’s stance, entangling herself in Eli’s arms.
“I wish you guys wouldn’t take that way to get to the cemetery anymore. I understand why you might want to go, or feel like you should. I really do. But let me or Anna drive you guys or something. We could all go sometime,” Eli said.
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