Son of Shadow Hero of Light

by C. Louis S.

After another nap, Leon woke up to a surprising guest. Sitting where his parents had sat was Micaela. Her mom was standing next to her, looking around the room.

  “Micaela?” Leon stuttered.

  “Hey there. How are you feeling?”

  “I’m, ya know, hanging in there. I can’t believe you’re here. Hi Mrs. Sol.”

  “Hello, Leon. I hope you are recovering quickly.” She wore a white dress with flower print and held her wide brim hat in both hands in front of her. She was not tall or thin, but she stood elegantly. She wore an inviting, bright smile on her puffy cheeks.

  “Yes, m’am. I’m getting better.”

  “I heard what happened and I just wanted to stop by to say hi,” said Micaela.

  “I didn’t think we were still friends after what I said at Randall’s house.”

  “I came to the shadowball game with you, didn’t I?”

  “I thought I guilted you into it,” said Leon. “I thought that I insulted you for not having any powers and all that.”

  “Well, that’s actually why I came here.”

  Micaela looked up nervously at her mother. Her mother nodded as if to give her courage.

  Leon whispered, “Oh no. You’re not allowed to hang out anymore?”

  Micaela chuckled nervously. “What? Oh, no, it’s not that, Leon. It’s just ...”

  “Oh, I gotcha,” said Leon with a knowing smile. “You were worried about me. Thanks, Micaela. I’ll get better. Don’t worry. You’ll see.”

  Micaela looked at her mom with a hint of fear and a cry for help.

  “I think you brought a book for him, didn’t you, dear?” Her mother calmly prompted.

  “Yes, thank you. Leon, I wanted to give you this. It’s a book about my group … err … it’s about The Avalon. But a group that I belong to believes it.” She picked at her nails and then straightened her headband nervously.

  “Believes it? Your group?” Leon asked. “Who doesn’t believe the stories about The Avalon?” He glanced over at Kali whose eyes darted away. She was grinning mischievously, but Leon didn’t understand why.

  “We go to this group and we just made a building and it’s beautiful and we read this book and it really helps us. Maybe it will help you, too.” Her stubby hands were trembling. She straightened her headband again.

  “I’m not sure if I understand, but thanks for the book. I love the stories about The Avalon.”

  She laughed nervously again. “Yup. Everyone does. Well, I hope you get better, Leon. Bye.”

  “Bye, Micaela.”

  Mrs. Sol did not turn to go even as Micaela was reaching for the door. She smiled and stared right into Leon’s eyes. She leaned in ever so slightly and almost whispered, “I think she’s trying to say that this book might be what you were looking for when you were trying to learn about the Dark Void.”

  Leon’s heart stopped. Micaela must have told her mother. She’s going to think I’m a bad influence on her daughter.

  He tried to think of something polite to say, but nothing came to him. He just nodded. Mrs. Sol nodded slowly and then walked out of the room. Leon didn’t even say goodbye until they had already left.

  He looked down at the book, but before he could open it another visitor slipped into the room. It was Mrs. Crespo. Her hair was unkempt and there were dark bags under her eyes. They looked worried and afraid.

  Leon’s heart now raced. Anger, hatred, and disgust replaced the feelings that Mrs. Sol had left behind. Why did she come here? I don’t want to see her. What was she thinking?

  “I’m sorry. I should have known you’d have other visitors. This is probably a bad time. You need to rest, I’m sure. I’m sorry for just coming without calling beforehand,” she said quickly. “I just wanted to apologize … for Randall. He’s terribly sorry for what he did. He didn’t mean to—”

  “He didn’t mean to beat me up with his gang of lackeys?”

  “He wasn’t thinking.”

  “If he’s so sorry, why didn’t he come here himself to apologize?”

  Mrs. Crespo was speechless.

  “That’s what I thought. He’s not sorry. Give him a message for me. Tell him to watch his back, because I will get revenge. He’ll see.”

  Nearly in tears, Mrs. Crespo turned and fled the room.

  Leon looked over at Kali. She was shaking her head.

  “What?”

  “Ya know, you’re a big jerk lately,” said Kali.

  “Hey!”

  “Now that you’re feeling better, I’m almost glad you got beat up.”

  “You’re not very nice either,” said Leon.

  “Dad, Micaela’s mom, Randall’s mom. They all just wanted to be nice to you and you were mean to all of them.”

  “They were not trying to be nice. I’m finally something better than a lantern and no one’s happy for me. They’re all just jealous. Don’t they see I’m in a hospital? Maybe they wanted Randall to kill me.”

  Kali just shook her head.

  Letting go of his anger for the moment, Leon looked down at the book that Micaela had given him.

  Kali hopped out of her seat and plopped down on the chair next to Leon. She leaned over the hospital bed to get a good look at the book. Leon nudged her to the side because she was blocking his light.

  “What is it?” she asked.

  “Disciple of Light,” read Leon.

  It was a small, dark book. It was a paperback book bordering on mass market quality. The front cover was a shade of brown that made it look like an ancient text. The title was written in beautiful, gold letters. Leon flipped it over carefully and saw a blank back except for two words at the bottom that read, “True Light”.

  He flipped it back over and slowly opened the front cover. The pages were very thin and Leon was afraid of tearing them just by turning the pages. The first few pages were blank and then there was a hand-written note from Micaela in pen.

  “Ooooo”

  “What?” Leon asked annoyed.

  “Nothing.” Kali just smiled and looked back at the note.

  “Leon, I know this book comes from the True Light. We’ve learned so many things that have made us a happy family from this book. Sometimes I think I can even hear what The Avalon must have heard when he was searching for the Light, even though he didn’t know it.

  “I hope you can find the same peace that we have found in this book. I hope you follow the True Light, too.”

  “What does the True Light mean?” Kali asked.

  “I don’t know.”

  “I get first dibs,” Kali said, snatching the book from Leon and sitting down on her former chair to read it.

  Leon made a move to lunge for the book, but he was stopped quickly by spikes of pain.

  “Ouch. No fair. I’m hurt. Give that back.”

  Kali didn’t look up from the pages.

  “It was for me.”

  Kali kept reading.

  “I’ll be laying here for a while, bored.”

  “I’ll give it to you tomorrow when I’m done.”

  “Yeah right. You couldn’t read that in a month. Give it back.”

  Kali didn’t say anything. She was already flipping to the second page.

  “Fine. Read it and tell me what it says. I didn’t want to read it anyway,” he said.

  No answer.

  Leon had a brilliant idea. With his mind, he slowly began adding pressure underneath the book. Sweat beaded on his forehead. He increased it every so slightly at first and then with one quick move, he yanked it off his sister’s lap.

  “Hey,” she shouted.

  It floated in the air towards Leon just outside of her reach. Kali floated upward, leaving her chair to reach for the book. Leon quickly brought it down to rest on his bed.

  That’s what he tried to do, but instead he overshot the bed because Kali was flying towards it so fast and it landed under some medical equipment in the corner.

  Leon was breathing heavily and his ribs hurt enough that he had to gr
it his teeth and close his eyes. “Look what you made me do,” he said between gritted teeth. “That was a new book. Now I’m too tired to get it.”

  “You’re the one who took it out of my hand, silly.” Kali bent down to pick up the book and calmly floated back to her seat. She sat down and began reading silently.

  Leon was especially jealous of her power to fly at this moment. He was trapped on a bed and here she was floating around. She floated everywhere these days. She was always floating a few inches off the ground everywhere she went as if constantly mocking Aidan. Leon normally thought it was hilarious, but right now he couldn’t stand it.

  That night Kali went home. It was the first time she had left Leon’s hospital room that he knew of. Leon completely understood that she would want to sleep in her own bed and not in a hospital chair. He had been surprised at her devotion to staying with him, and he knew that she left only so he wouldn’t try to take the book from her in her sleep.

  Normally Leon would have used Mother to force her to give him back the book, but he didn’t want to say anything about the book to Mother or Father and Kali used that to her advantage. She blackmailed him without a word, plain and simple.

  She took it home and Leon knew he wouldn’t see it again until he got out of the hospital. Even then he would have to go digging through her room to find it.

  The next day, however, she slipped it under his bed sheets when Mother and Father weren’t looking. Leon couldn’t draw attention to it, but it made him very happy to have it back.

  Kali sat down and closed her eyes. She was asleep in no time. She must have stayed up all night reading it. Thanks, Kali. Leon smiled at her.

  Father drove Mother home and then returned to sit in the chair next to him. Leon didn’t make it very far in the book by the time Father returned. He hid the book under his sheets and greeted Father nonchalantly.

  “What are you so happy about? Is Kali drooling?”

  “Happy?”

  “Yeah, you look happy. Maybe you’re just feeling better today?”

  “That must be what it is.”

  Father continued talking to Leon, but Leon wasn’t really part of the conversation. It looks like he cooled off from yesterday.

  The little that Leon had read was about a boy not much older than he was who was developing his dark powers just like he was. Micaela was right: this was perfect for Leon. He couldn’t wait to see what the boy could do with dark energy.

  chapter 13

  Cade and Leon