Dust started to fall on his head as Roman began to lose consciousness. Then he heard the door of the home open, Nadine racing in.
“Careful,” he whispered, transferring his power to the floor and hardening it so she wouldn’t fall on top of him.
“Down here!” Casper shouted in her tiny voice. “We’re in the cellar!”
“Fuck,” Roman said as he tried to press off the platform he’d created for himself. “Help!” he finally shouted, giving voice to his pain. “Help!”
“I can help you, mister,” said a voice from the shadows. A young boy stepped out from beneath the stairs, his hair blond, a faint yellow aura glowing around his hands, his face and body covered in blood.
“Don’t touch them!” Nadine said as she came down the stairs, her wrist guard trained on the young boy.
The kid hovered over Roman’s wound, the light moving from his hands to Roman’s bloodied ankle and swirling around his room.
“It’s okay,” Roman said with a gasp. “Seriously, Nadine, lower your weapon. He’s… healing me.”
“He’s the healer?” Nadine asked just as Coma charged down the stairs. Celia followed her, and Nadine had to jump in front of both of them to prevent the two dolls from swarming the young boy.
“Just relax,” Roman said, wincing. “I’m fine!”
It was miraculous, really, the way the kid was able to heal him.
The blood had already dried up, most of it reabsorbed into his skin, the sound of cracking bones and sinewy discharges not quite music to Roman’s ears but good to hear nonetheless as his leg reshaped itself.
The final sound, which threw Roman off guard, was a slurping noise coming from a space just beneath the boy’s palm.
“You’re it,” Nadine said as she approached the boy. There were tears in her eyes as she wrapped her arms around his neck, hugging him. “More exist. At least one more exists,” she told Roman.
“How does it feel?” Casper asked. The tiny doll stood on the ground, her hands on her hips as she watched Roman rotate his ankle.
“It feels like it’s always felt,” Roman finally said.
He swiveled and brought both feet to the ground, where he lightly tested to see if he could put weight on them. Sure enough, everything felt the same way it had felt a few minutes ago, before he’d fallen through the floor.
“What happened out there?” Nadine asked the kid, her hands on his shoulders.
“I’m sorry,” he said with a sob. “I’m just so sorry.”
“It’s not your fault,” she told him. “What happened? What happened to everyone?”
The kid swallowed hard, wiped his nose with his sleeve and held Nadine’s gaze for a moment. Finally, he bowed his head, his blond hair falling into his face. “It wasn’t supposed to happen. It never happened like that before,” he said in a soft voice.
“We should probably go,” Roman told the pair. “We can sort the details later.”
The boy looked up to Nadine, his eyes now glassy. “But where will we go?”
“Away from here, maybe even to Centralia,” she said. “I don’t know. I just don’t know.”
“Centralia?” Roman asked. His mind was connecting the dots as she said it, wondering why Nadine would prefer to take the child to his country rather than keep him in hers. Something didn’t seem right.
“Come on,” she said as she grabbed the boy by his hand, turning to the stairs.
“I don’t want to see it; I don’t want to see what happened up there,” he started to say.
“Okay, give me a second.” Nadine glanced around the room until she found some stored food. On top of one of the glass containers was a black rag, which she tied tightly around his eyes. “How’s that?” she asked him.
“It’s fine,” he said with a sniff. “It wasn’t supposed to…”
“It doesn’t matter now; we have to go. People are coming here to get you. And I’m not going to let that happen.”
Nadine made her way up the stairs, and a few seconds later, Roman heard her feet on the floorboards above. He transferred just a little bit of power to the ceiling to keep her from falling through any more holes, and when she’d cleared the door, he dropped his hand to let Casper crawl into his palm.
“Back in the pocket,” he told her, bringing his hand to his chest.
“You know, soon enough I’m going to be full-sized, and you’re not going to be able to just put me in your pocket and boss me around.”
“Would you prefer to walk?”
“Hmmmm… nope,” she said, sinking deeper into his pocket.
“Are you okay?” Celia asked Roman, coming into his arms. He held her for moment, then noticed Coma standing nearby as well. Roman naturally opened his arm to her and she too fell into his embrace, all three of them hugging.
“Well, isn’t this cute,” Casper said with amusement.
“Come on,” Nadine called from above.
“You heard the lady.” Roman moved away from the two dolls, still taking precautions with his newly healed appendage. He took the stairs, making sure each step was reinforced. Once he got to the top, he again strengthened the floorboards that led to the door.
He could see Nadine outside, her eyes locked on the horizon. She had already found new clothing for the boy in one of the homes. The kid stood off to her right, changing into the new clothing, a dark look on his bloodied face.
“Back to where we came?” Roman called to Nadine.
“Exactly, they’ll be here soon…”
“How do you know they weren’t already here?” Roman asked, looking from Nadine to the small, blond-haired boy.
“Trust me, they weren’t.”
“Then who did this?” asked Celia.
“I did,” the young boy said, his blindfold still pulled tightly across the bridge of his nose. “I’m the one who did this.”
“You?” Roman’s eyes went wide. “But how?”
“He’ll explain as we walk,” said Nadine. “We need to hurry. We’ll take shelter in the woods tonight, then grab Lisa in the morning. This next part is going to be tricky.”
Chapter Forty-Five: Leverage or Subversion
“We’ll get as close as we can to Brattle, and then we’ll set up camp,” Nadine reminded them. “Try to keep up, Eli.”
It was almost dark out, the sun now set, the moon in the sky, a few black clouds on the periphery blocking out the stars. Walking behind Nadine were Roman, the two dolls, and Eli, the young healer, who had cleaned the blood off his face hours ago. Casper was there too, occasionally making quips from Roman’s pocket and napping in the meantime. The tiny doll really liked to sleep.
“I’m getting hungry,” Eli told Nadine, not quite a whine but getting there.
“We’re out of food. Roman ate the last pie.”
“Sorry,” Roman called over his shoulder.
“But don’t worry, we can set up camp shortly and look for food then. We’re nearing the city.”
“How do you know?” Roman asked.
Nadine used a light on her wrist guard to illuminate a tree, showing him a green marking that only responded to her device.
“The trees are all marked?”
“Yes, and that’s how I know.” Nadine smiled at Roman and his naive question. She had to keep reminding herself they were in her home territory and there was a lot Roman didn’t know about the East.
Another message came in from Oscar, Nadine’s contact in Centralia: You disobeyed a direct order, the mental message said, regardless of the leverage you claim to now possess. I wish I had a better answer for you. Maybe it would be a good idea to pay a trip to the border. I can do more for you from there…
Nadine stopped, a halo from her wrist guard now shining on her feet, providing light.
“Is something wrong?” Roman asked.
“No. Let’s… let’s just keep moving.”
Nadine knew exactly what Oscar was suggesting. It was a crazy idea, too, but it wouldn’t be very hard for them
to get through the border if they made their way west, at least on the Eastern Province side. The border wasn’t very well protected, and with Roman’s power…
The trouble they’d eventually run into would be on Centralia’s side, but then again, there could be a workaround. She didn’t know the extent of Roman’s ability to burrow, but that was definitely one solution.
It’s a fine idea, she finally thought back to Oscar. They were using a telepathically encrypted channel, so she knew it would be a while before he responded. But his suggestion had given her some hope, especially with the leverage she now possessed.
Nadine looked back at Eli. The blond-haired boy was no older than ten. He was tired, dragging his feet as he walked, trying his best to keep up.
And to think he caused all that damage, she thought as she returned her focus to the path ahead.
He was a healer, all right, but Eli was a rare type of healer that held all the damage he’d taken in until he could no longer contain the power. A ticking time bomb of sorts, and since he had no control of when he unleashed his power…
Nadine was impressed with how well the kid was handling the fact that he’d killed all those villagers, his family and friends included.
From what she’d pieced together, he’d simply exploded, igniting the entire village.
The explosion would have killed him as well, but Eli healed himself just as quickly as the energy left his skin, and by the time Roman, Nadine and the dolls had arrived on the scene, he had gone into hiding.
Hiding from what? she thought as they made their way up a steep incline.
It occurred to her that he may have been hiding from anyone coming back to the village to find its destruction. This made sense to Nadine; there were likely a few people away, as the people who lived in these mountains tended to travel from encampment to encampment.
“Can we stop?” Eli asked, his arms hanging at his sides. “We’ve been walking for so long. I usually ride.”
Nadine glanced at Roman, and before she could say anything, he lifted a four-legged creature from the soil made of roots and fallen branches. The headless creature’s body solidified as he added more twigs. It didn’t look like the most comfortable ride, but Eli happily mounted Roman’s creation and gave him a thumbs-up.
“Thanks, mister,” Eli said.
“Not a problem. Just try to stay awake,” Roman said as his creation started walking. “I don’t know how stable it is.”
“Had I known you could make those…” Nadine commented.
“I never really tried before,” Roman said as they continued along the path with Nadine at the front of their group, Roman and the dolls in the middle, and Eli at the back.
“You’re really lucky, you know that?”
“I can try to make you something, but I don’t want to overextend myself,” he said with a glance down at the device on his wrist. Nadine had noticed him checking this out from time to time, assuming it was some type of power gauge.
“I’m fine walking. It’s good for you.” Nadine took a deep breath in, noticing a subtle change in the air as they got closer to Brattle. It was the smell of burning coal and wood, which meant people were gearing up for a cold night.
She too could feel the breeze moving up from the south, but her body heat made it bearable, and besides, they didn’t have much further to walk.
It took them another thirty minutes, but once they found a comfortable location, Nadine told the group this was where they’d be camping for the night.
“You know what to do,” she said to Roman, who merely nodded at her as she provided light.
They’d talked about it along the way, and once the two dolls were sitting on the ground motionless, Roman went to work. He brought his hand up and raised stone from the ground, pulling up the roots of several trees and using the excess wood to solidify his structure.
“Aren’t you just a little show-off?” Casper said.
“I don’t think ‘little’ is the word you’re looking for…” Nadine said as she stepped aside, allowing Roman to solidify a wall. She’d seen enough powers to know his was something else.
And the way he used it, too…
There was something almost manchild-like about Roman’s usage of his power. Here was a man who could form almost anything out of, well, anything, and his first order of business had been to animate some sex dolls to be part of his posse.
It was something Nadine still didn’t quite understand.
She also didn’t really understand his relationship with the dolls.
He seemed to be closest to Celia, but Coma was his go-to fighter, his original creation, from what he’d told her. It was odd to think that the white-haired man with the orange eyes, a handsome Centralian if there ever was one, was such a strange guy when it came down to it.
But they were in this together now, and Nadine was going to do what she needed to do to protect him.
That was why they’d left so early in the morning, Nadine disobeying her orders and seriously putting her career in jeopardy.
If not for leverage… she thought as she looked back at Eli, the young healer who now sat on the ground, yawning as Roman worked.
Chapter Forty-Six: Far from Glamping
Roman didn’t want to think about how things would play out.
He had agreed to help Nadine for a variety of reasons, one of which was the fact that she had arranged for the psychometrist named Abby, who would be able to dig deeper into what had happened to his wife’s body.
But now they had this kid to contend with, this destructive little healer who had totally changed the course of their actions.
And really, what had he been expecting when coming here to look into the healer situation? Shouldn’t he have expected to actually come across one?
Roman hadn’t really thought too deeply about it. He had just wanted to be useful. He’d wanted to do something good for once, something less selfish than what he was known for.
But now he wasn’t so sure about the choices he’d made.
Lifeless Celia and Coma sat on a bench he had pulled from the stone wall.
One glance down at his power dial and he was glad he had taken their energies away. Maintaining the yurt-like structure would be harder than he’d originally anticipated.
At first, he thought he’d be able to sleep, but he knew better. He knew he needed to keep an eye on his power dial for just a little bit longer to make sure none of the bars reached their limit, especially the last one.
Then he could fall asleep.
Red is dead, Roman thought as he sat against the wall, his legs crossed. Nadine was next to him, curled at his side.
She was cold, her arm draped over him, her head resting in the crevice created by his thigh and his calf.
“Are you getting tired?” Eli asked. The young healer was in the center of the earthy room, the boy on his knees, staring over at Roman curiously.
“I’ll stay awake for a little bit longer, just to make sure the structure is sound,” Roman told him. “Are you warm enough? I’m sorry we don’t have any blankets.”
“It’s not that cold,” the boy said.
They’d been in the structure for about an hour.
It was buried about a foot into the ground, with not a lot of standing room, but at least it had some semblance of light. Roman had made a hole in the ceiling, allowing for some moonlight to come into the space.
This had been Casper’s idea, who was now asleep in his pocket.
He meant to take her energy away too, but she didn’t seem to be taking up too much juice, so it really didn’t matter.
“Why did you come here?” Eli asked, the boy wide awake.
“Why don’t you go to sleep?” Roman suggested. “Tomorrow’s going to be a long day.”
“I’m sorry for what I did. You’re not going to tell anyone, are you?” the kid asked, his voice dropping to a whimper. “It really was an accident.”
“We won’t tell anyone, you have my wor
d there,” Roman assured him. “And I believe you when you say it was an accident. I can tell you aren’t lying. Has something like this ever happened before?”
“Not in the village, of course,” Eli said. “Last time I discharged it was far away from the encampment. I killed my reindeer the last time, but that was it. The village kept an eye on me too. They always gave me time to unwind after healing. My parents tried to…” the kid sniffed. “They jumped on top of me as soon as it happened.”
“Not your fault,” Roman reminded him.
“It’s just… I wasn’t trying to kill everyone.”
“And it’s not your fault,” Roman said again, not sure how to comfort a kid who had killed everyone around him. “These powers can be hard to control. Believe me.”
“What is your power exactly?” Eli asked, looking up at him with tears in his eyes.
“It’s a long story, but let’s just say I’m able to control most things.”
“If you had been there, you could’ve stopped me…”
“Maybe, but who really knows?” Roman shrugged as best he could without waking Nadine. “It really depends on how your power works, and if you have any warning beforehand.”
“I really have no control over it,” Eli said. “I can heal a lot, but when it’s time to discharge, it’s time to discharge. There is no warning. It really hurts, too.”
“I’m sure it hurts,” Roman said, imagining the child exploding and then instantly healing himself.
What a bittersweet power to possess. On one hand, Eli could help anyone; on the other, he was a menace. Especially if he couldn’t control when the damage he absorbed was released. For a moment, Roman entertained the idea of introducing him to his teacher in Centralia, Ava, but he knew this likely wouldn’t happen.
She’d have to report him in some way.
“So you really can’t tell when it’s about to go?” Roman asked.
“Nope.”
Roman considered this for a moment, his eyes locked on the young boy. “Then you should keep it a secret for now. Going forward, don’t ever let anyone know what you can do unless Nadine or I tell you it’s okay.”
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