The door unlocked, but Dark Flame held it shut with his mind. Soldiers pushed at it, but he ignored them and launched himself upward and tore through the roof. Looking around, he found himself hovering in the middle of the Naval Shipyard.
I was right, they didn’t have a chance to move me very far.
Alarms rang out beneath him, but he paid no attention to the calamity below and became invisible.
He flew toward the employee parking lot near the prison and searched for Alex’s car, but since most of the cars were covered in snow, it required a closer inspection.
I don’t know why I am doing this. Why do I care about what happens to Alex?
At last, he spotted a blue car and brushed away the snow from the license plate with his mind. It read Yoda.
Perfect. I care because when I take over The Order, I’ll need people with access who are loyal to me.
Looking around the dimly lit parking lot to make sure no one was watching—which he couldn’t be sure of because of the unusual military presence on the island—he jumped onto the roof of the car. Then, reaching out with his mind, he levitated himself and the car straight into the air until he was at least one hundred feet up. Still invisible, he moved forward with the car, carrying it over the shipyard and Kittery until he lowered it into an empty parking space near his condo.
There, now you can go home.
Then, he flew around the building and landed on his snow-covered balcony. When he opened the door, he startled Alex, who had fallen asleep on the couch.
“It’s done,” Blake said.
“That’s awesome, thank you so much. Um, why do you look like shit?” Alex asked.
“When they figured out what I was doing, they ambushed me in the barracks at the third conduit. I also learned that their stun guns are called TaseBolts and they really like using them against me.”
“Do they work? Wait, stupid question. What happened?”
Blake explained how they used the TaseBolts to capture and imprison him until he broke out. He left out the part about how he incinerated the soldiers because he suspected Alex was squeamish.
“Wow, that’s intense. So, not to change the subject, but do you mind if I…”
“You can stay the night, but I brought your car over from the island for tomorrow,” Blake replied, anticipating the question.
“Thanks. I know I told you I don’t have my car and the storm is too bad for my boyfriend to risk driving to come get me.” Alex froze, then looked at Blake. “Wait, did you just say you brought my car over? Over what?”
Blake smiled. “Over the island, the river, and into a parking space outside.”
“Holy shit.”
Yeah, I figured you’d think that was pretty cool.
“So, you don’t mind if I stay? The roads are pretty bad and…”
“It’s not a problem. You can sleep on the couch or there’s a second bed upstairs.”
“I’m okay here, for now. So, um, do you want to watch a movie?”
Blake looked at Alex with surprise. It had been several months since he hung out with someone and chilled, let alone watch a movie with a friend…not that Alex was a friend, but he was here and the opportunity was in front of him. In fact, he hadn’t watched a movie with someone since he and Quinn broke off their friendship.
“Sure,” Blake replied, fighting a smile. It was nice to socialize again, and he didn’t realize how much his life had become focused—obsessed—with The Order and his mission to take it over.
Why am I doing that again?
A fleeting but heart wrenching emotion tugged at his soul and for a moment, he missed his friends and Quinn. He shook his head and pushed away the momentary confusion, scratching the back of his head. “I need to shower and get into some comfy clothes. I’ll be back in 15 minutes.”
“I’ll be here,” Alex said.
Blake pointed to the kitchen. “There’s microwave popcorn if you want to make some.”
“Awesome, thanks.”
Blake went upstairs, turned on his shower, and stripped off his sneakers and purple tights. When the shower water was warm, he stepped under the stream and washed away his battle with the soldiers on Seavey Island. His thoughts briefly turned to the present moment.
You know, when I’m not angry at the world or Quinn…I feel like my old self a bit. Alex has shown me something I didn’t even know I was missing.
After, he dressed in comfy clothes and went downstairs to pick a movie with Alex.
❖
At first, there was nothing, only darkness. Then, there was a powerful, exhilarating sensation…then another…and another.
Slowly, Blake pieced together the sensations he felt; rushing cool air, his hair flapping in the breeze, the extended fingers of his outstretched hand cutting the air like the nose of a supersonic fighter jet.
I’m flying, holy crap, I’m flying! But…I can do that already…
He opened his eyes and saw the horizon in front of him, the green forest below whipping past.
Wait, I’ve had this dream before…I know how this ends…I think.
It was daylight, and he was flying through the air. Laughing, he rolled, soared, and executed various tricks in the air, always bringing himself back to level flight. His super vision provided clarity of sight and he saw the earth beneath him in exquisite detail, but suddenly it was black, charred, and dead.
What the hell happened?
And then, far in the distance, he saw the faintest hint of red light.
Quinn!
Blake accelerated and tried to catch up, only to find himself tossed about by violent winds that didn’t exist, as if something was pushing him away, keeping him from getting to his best friend. The air around him became thick like Jell-O, and it took all of his strength to push through.
A horrible sense of dread descended upon him when he realized the red light was flying toward him.
Oh shoot, that’s not Quinn. I need to get away from…whatever that is…I’m pretty sure it wants to kill me.
He turned and flew in the opposite direction, moving away from the thick air toward open darkness.
Ahead of him, he saw a familiar blue light.
Quinn! I have to get to Quinn…I need his help.
“Quinn!” he shouted.
He checked behind him and saw the glowing red light was gaining on him. Blake poured on the speed, but it seemed to have no effect.
“Quinn!” he shouted again, but the blue light kept moving away.
Then, like the first time he had a version of this dream, he was pulled to the ground. The red light behind him was almost on top of him, and the sense of death and dread made Blake’s stomach churn with aggravated nausea.
Come on, dammit, fly! You can do this, you’re not new to flying any more.
Behind him, maniacal laughter caught his attention. Realizing he would never make it to Quinn, he decided to fight whatever was coming at him, so he spun around to face the oncoming attack.
“Blake!” a man’s voice yelled, but it was distant and far. The voice did not belong to Quinn.
Blakes eyes widened with surprise when he stared at a Ghost Rider-like burning skeleton head attached to a man in a tattered black super suit who glowed red. The demon-man screamed an awful, earsplitting, and disgusting scream and then reached out to him with ragged, bony, claw like fingers.
“You’ve always been mine,” the demon-man cried out, his voice thunderous and deep.
“Blake!” The distant voice yelled again.
One of the demon-man’s extended fingers touched Blake’s chest and sent a wave of excruciating pain through his body. Losing control of his flight, he spun and fell, the charred earth and dark sky spinning wildly in his vision. He shut his eyes and yelled when the ground rushed up to meet him, expecting a painful end.
“Blake, wake up!” the distant voice yelled a third time, pulling him from the nightmare.
Blake yelled in surprise and sat up, clutching his bedding wit
h terror. His eyes blinked at the bright light coming from the hallway where a silhouetted, unclothed man stood in the open doorway of his bedroom.
“Who the hell are you?” Blake asked defensively.
“It’s me, Alex,” the man responded. “Remember? I’m sleeping over tonight because of the bad snowstorm. You were having one hell of a nightmare.”
“Yeah,” Blake said.
“You’ve been yelling and thrashing for the past ten minutes, and it woke me up. I finally decided to wake you up.”
“Sorry.”
“No need to apologize, but it must’ve been one hell of a dream. You’re all sweaty.”
Blake looked down and dragged a hand across his chest. Sure enough, he was soaked and felt like he had just come in from a 10K run in humid and hot July weather.
Gross.
“I guess I’ll, uh, take a shower and dry off.”
“Okay,” Alex said. “Have a better night’s rest.”
“Yup. Thanks.”
Then, Alex shut the door behind him and Blake crawled out of bed and made his way to the master shower. When he finished, he climbed into the other side of his bed and settled in, wondering why the dream changed and introduced such a scary element.
❖
“So, um, not to be nosy but I was bored while you were infiltrating the facility last night and I saw all of the stuff on your dining room table,” Alex said, holding a cup of steaming coffee in his hands. He was still wearing Blake’s clothes and his hair was rustled from sleep.
Blake glanced over at the table. “Yeah?”
“How did you get all that…sensitive information?”
“You know what it is?”
“Yeah, I’m the librarian, remember? I know and catalogue many things because I archive them for posterity or whatever the Archimandrion does with it. I don’t really ask questions.”
“Before I answer your question, tell me how you got the Librarian job.”
“I’m a history buff and I was at the top of my class. The Order recruited me just before I graduated from Saint Anselm College. I wanted to be an archivist, but the post-graduation job they sold me with was way more interesting.” Alex sipped his coffee.
“Ah. Well, how I got my hands on this data is…a long story. The short version is that Victor sent me on a wild goose chase to learn about the world, but what I discovered is a criminal organization that masquerades several layers deep within The Order. I had some of those people interrogated and the information they shared is spread across my dining room table.”
Alex’s eyes widened. “Radoslav.”
Blake shrugged. “Maybe.”
“That’s the kind of information we don’t want the Feds to find out about. If they figure out the identities of the Archi…”
Blake waved his hand dismissively. “I’ve already eliminated most of the council.”
“What?” Alex exclaimed. He became visible unsettled.
Blake lowered his voice and spoke with an ominous tone. “Things are changing, Alex. I will be taking over soon and it would do you well to remember that.”
Alex swallowed nervously and nodded. “I see.”
“Don’t worry, as long as you don’t get in my way, you’ll be fine. Continue to document and catalog or do whatever it is you do, but be ready for when the tide turns. Victor won’t be in charge much longer.”
Alex looked uncomfortable and shifted on his feet while scratching his face. “Uh, Okay. Um…thanks for the heads up. I’m um, gonna shower and change back into my dry clothes and go home. Thanks again for putting up with me, I really appreciate it.”
Blake nodded, eyeing the notebooks and paperwork on the dining room table. “No problem.” Maybe I should have you help me fill in some of the gaps one day.
After Alex left in the early morning, Blake decided the meaning of his strange nightmare meant he should take matters into his own hands and prevent people from coming after him. He knew from watching movies that the best way to confuse his enemy and throw them off guard was to lop off the head of their leadership. He decided to finish what he started with Chief Applegate and take out the DHS agent he had seen a few times.
If I move quickly, they’ll never see me coming and they won’t have time to alert Quinn. Once I’ve taken them out, I can figure out who’s in charge on the island right now and eliminate them, too. Then, The Order can move back in.
After changing, Dark Flame flew to police headquarters and landed on the steeply pitched roof of one of the nearby snow-covered buildings, hoping to catch Chief Applegate on her way in or out of the building. For twenty minutes, he watched officers and civilians walk in and out of headquarters, going about their daily business.
I need another plan, I could be here for hours. I don’t even know if she’s in the building.
He was about to take off when he spotted Chief Applegate exiting the building. He smiled at the stroke of luck and watched her approach a police cruiser. She climbed inside and then drove away. Jumping off the roof, he flew low over buildings and trees and followed her across town until she made her way onto the northbound lane of the Spaulding Turnpike.
Traitors and enemies of The Order must die…that’s what Victor…what I would want. If I take her out, there’s a good chance that DHS guy will come out to investigate.
Dark Flame flew over the chief’s cruiser as she drove up the Spaulding toward Dover at about sixty-five miles-per-hour. Cars traveling in the opposite direction flashed their lights and beeped their horns. I’m going to lose the element of surprise if she figures out what’s going on.
He waited until she started passing a tractor-trailer traveling in the right lane and then pushed himself out in front of her car about thirty feet. Then, he abruptly stopped, landed, and turned around, grimacing at the chief through brightly glowing orange eyes.
Chief Applegate slammed on her brakes, but he left her no room to stop and nowhere to go. He lowered his center of gravity, braced himself, and then the cruiser smashed into him. He saw the airbags deploy as the cruiser flipped up and over him, landing upside down with a crash as it screeched to a stop behind him. Drivers of oncoming cars slammed on their brakes and their cars slid and screeched as they tried to stop. Although road crews had cleared the snow, a thin layer of slush made the roads unpredictably dangerous.
Glancing at Chief Applegate’s inverted cruiser, he smirked when he didn’t see movement. Then, he took off, leaving her injured or dead—whatever fate would decide. Either way, she was out of the picture and out of his way.
Dark Flame flew back to the police station in Portsmouth as fast as he could, landing on his vantage point to watch the people and emergency vehicles below scramble in response to his attack on the chief. He grinned and laughed because they looked so puny and insignificant from above.
No matter what they do, their beloved chief would probably die if she wasn’t dead already.
Using his super vision, he searched the faces of men and women scrambling to get to their vehicles, looking for the man he saw standing with Chief Applegate and Quinn when he woke up in the crater after his first attempt to kill the police chief. He had seen the same man again in Prescott Park leading the DHS troops when he impaled Quinn with rebar, so he assumed the man was responsible for coordinating the DHS agents and had a hand in capturing the naval prison. Either way, he knew taking that guy out would cause more confusion and hopefully put the police and the DHS off his capture. Then, The Order could return and recapture the island from the military.
Several men in charcoal overcoats ran out of the police station and jumped into an unmarked black SUV.
That’s the DHS, but where is the ringleader?
The SUV sped away, so Dark Flame decided to follow it, flying low to avoid detection. The SUV made its way across Portsmouth, but in the opposite direction of the Spaulding Turnpike on-ramps. Eventually, the SUV crossed the Sarah Long Bridge and then turned into the Stoddard Street security gate of the Naval Shipyard.
Holy shit, that’s no small swim. Alex survived crossing that span of water in December at night? No wonder the man was freezing.
The SUV pulled over and a man approached.
There he is. So, they were picking him up.
The SUV spun around and fish-tailed on the partially frozen asphalt before making its way back across the Sarah Long Bridge.
“Not this time,” Dark Flame said to himself.
He flew ahead of the SUV and descended, landing near the middle of the drawbridge. The driver noticed him and panicked as Dark Flame nonchalantly waved his hand and rolled the SUV over the edge of the drawbridge. The SUV smashed through the railing and plummeted into the fast-moving river with a big splash. The tide was coming in which meant the SUV wouldn’t be swept out to sea that quickly.
Whatever.
Satisfied with his work, Dark Flame took off, leaving the vehicle and its occupants to fate.
Now, it’s time to move against Quinn and end this once and for all.
4-17 | I Won’t Give up on Him
Quinn
QUINN WAS LOADING THE DISHWASHER when the evening news switched to the story of the unexpected attack on Chief Applegate and Agent Potter by Dark Flame. Camilla Brenhurst relayed the latest medical update, that both Applegate and Potter had died due to severe complications caused by their unfortunate car accidents.
How did I not know about this?
“Oh my gosh, did Blake do that?” Daddio asked in disbelief.
“I think so, but nobody called me so I’m not sure what’s going on,” Quinn replied.
“Maybe you should go check it out,” Dad said
“But it’s a school night,” Quinn replied with surprise. “You’d let me go?”
Dad chuckled and pointed at the television. “Yes. Something like this is a sure exception to the norms of school night rules, Quinn. I think you know that. Go do whatever needs to be done, even if that means stopping Blake. Just come back in one piece to us.”
Quinn ran upstairs and changed into his super suit and then hurried back into the kitchen to hug his dads goodbye. After, he stepped out the back door, checked his surroundings for nosy neighbors, and launched himself into the air.
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