The pain was gripping as I came back to Reality. Though I had no injuries, it felt like I was bleeding everywhere. An intense mourning swept over me, and I couldn’t hold back the tears. On a visceral level, I knew what had caused this: Nightworld was gone now.
“Nez!” Jax hollered, standing beside my uncles. All eyes were fixed on the roof. Nez was still up there. He was on all fours, sobbing, shaking, and bleeding. Bensimhon kicked him to his side.
“Sweet Nez,” she cooed. “Your chord to Nightworld has been severed, hasn’t it?” Nez was grimacing, clutching his head. “The pain must be excruciating,” she said, raising her knife. “But I’ll gladly end it for you. Say hello to Kiki for me.”
No, it couldn’t end this way. When I clenched my fists, I realized my body was working normally now. And glowing to boot. Wait, what? Did I have my Waker powers right now? Bru tapped my shoulder. Her pretty hand had turned into a meaty claw. My uncles were gaping at us, totally speechless.
With a thought-burst, I removed my earpiece and pitched it near Nez. It sparked into flames, and a small wall of fire wrapped around him. I kept it contained so Silver Heights and its residents remained unharmed. However, the barrier kept Bensimhon away from Nez.
“Impossible,” Bensimhon called out, stepping away from the flames. “You’ve retained your Waker abilities.” With wide eyes, she pressed a hand to her forehead. “A physical fusion of both Waker and Real selves upon the destruction of Waker World. That must be the reason.” Bensimhon then mindfully examined her gloved hand. “What does this mean for me?” She looked down at the pool while raising her arm. A chunk of water lifted into the air. With a hearty laugh, Bensimhon used it to douse the fire near Nez.
For a moment, he hiccupped into translucence. My blood froze. “Now this part I predicted,” Bensimhon said. She placed her shoe over his flank wound and pressed down. “When Waker World disappears, so does everything born within it.”
Was my father wrong then? No, he had said Nez had a possibility of living. Did I really not consider the other possibility— that Nez would disappear? What if I couldn’t save him from this fate?
But what if I could. When I asked them to, my uncles lowered me to the ground. They called out to me and Bru as we climbed up to the roof using the latticework. This was something I had to do, even if I failed. Even if I wasn’t able to protect my loved ones…
I’ll still fight until my end. No one said it better than my dad.
I leapt onto Bensimhon’s back, and she staggered backwards. Both of our hands were gripping the glass vial. Bru took the opportunity to slash her leg with a claw. Bensimhon yelled out in pain, shielding her eyes when I lit up. A wave of pool water rolled up to the roof. Bensimhon slipped, and we both toppled over, still clutching the glass vial. The water enveloped me and Bru, trapping us inside of a liquid box. To our horror, we weren’t able to breathe underwater.
With a swipe of her arm, Bensimhon lifted the rest of the pool water from its concrete container. The police force, as well as my loved ones, were consumed by her water. Like me and Bru, they pounded on their liquid boundaries, struggling for breath. Bensimhon threw her head back, laughing.
When I had reached my limit, my water box began webbing golden streaks. It broke apart as if someone sliced it into two pieces. With a splash, Bru and I collapsed onto the shingles, gasping for air. Below, everyone had dropped to the cement, drenched and breathing heavily, but also freed from their water traps. Nez was in front of me. His hand was pressed into a puddle of water, golden eye aglow.
Enraged, Bensimhon launched a water wall at Nez. But it seemed to strike an invisible dam, and quickly became gold-laced. It was like a replay from what happened in Nightworld. A weird rooftop version.
“Just die already!” She spat. “You useless mistake— think of all the people who’d still be alive if it weren’t for you.” Strangely, the gold veins suddenly thickened into bands. Nez was bleeding and still fluttering with invisibility, but his steely eyes were fixed on her.
“No,” he said. “They’d be alive if it weren’t for you.”
And the water wall rolled back onto her with ferocity. Bensimhon screamed as the glass vial soared through the air. The adrenaline rush was beyond real. I ran and leapt to catch it. Everyone on deck was holding their breath.
And there it landed, in my palms. It was still intact and no one blew up. After taking a deep breath, I rushed over to Nez’s side. His form was beating erratically with invisibility now. Jax climbed the lattice to help out. We tried to lift Nez up from under his shoulders. But too often he ghosted through us and collapsed back onto the roof. Ms. Kazuya brought out blankets and pillows for him. Uncle Mason threw them up to us. We did the best we could to make him comfortable. After that I sat beside him.
“We did it,” he breathed. I brushed the hair away from his face.
“Did you have doubts?” I asked shakily. “Come on, this isn’t our last adventure together. Stay with me.” Jax placed a wash cloth on his forehead and he winced. Please Nez. I don’t know how to save you. And what’s worse—
“I’m out of time,” he whispered. “I can’t stay.”
“No,” I said, failing to dam up my emotions.“I’m sick of loss. From now on I’ll only carry people with me.” While I messily wiped my eyes, Nez smiled weakly.
“I like that,” he said. “I’ll carry you with me too.” My tears wouldn’t stop. Nez was transparent from the waist down now. With a semi-visible arm, he gently touched my cheek. I could feel the warmth from his fingers. “You know what’s better than a dream girl?” He asked. I closed my eyes, shaking my head. No, this had to stop. This couldn’t be goodbye. Nez smiled again. “A real one.” Then his hand, forearm, shoulder… they all disappeared into a puff of mist. And he turned away from me. It was somehow becoming too hard to breathe. I found myself in Jax’s arms.
“There’s nothing else we can do,” he said, stroking my hair. My fists balled up his shirt. Jax had said this before, hadn’t he? Long ago, when we had watched that boy get bullied. Dad had said something important to us. What was it again?
When the popular options don’t work… think of an option no one’s considered yet. That’s right— the third option. That’s what I needed now.
“Lava,” Bru yelled from the pool deck. “You won’t believe what I’ve found. Come down here.” Without hesitation, I pushed Jax away and climbed down the lattice. Bru led me to the resident garden. A familiar smell filled my nose as we waded through a patch of herbs. When Bru pushed a few aside, my mouth dropped.
“The rosemary glows,” I breathed, crouching down beside Bru. “But they dug up the Falconbridge garden when we were kids. How did it—” A touch on my back startled me. It was Ms. Kazuya.
“My plot is growing nicely, isn’t it?” She said. At a loss for words, I gestured towards the glowing plant. She nodded with a smile. “Yes, that was an herb you brought me,” she said. “When you were a little girl. Remember? It looks remarkable, so I regrow it.” Bru and I swapped looks. Was Ms. Kazuya also…?
Wait, there was no time for this. I quickly pulled leaves off the rosemary plant and returned to Nez’s side. Jax was still there with him. “Nez, please eat this,” I said, pressing the leaves to his lips. The rosemary visibly trailed down his throat and into his stomach. Please let my logic be right: if I needed this plant to exist in one more reality state, wouldn’t Nez too?
A misty cloud crawled up Nez’s stomach, erasing the bodily outline until it had swallowed him up completely. He left in a cloud of vapor, eerily reminiscent of the mist surrounding his Seawall castle. At this point, I had somehow reached a level of mourning where I felt completely empty. I was wrong. This really was a loss I had to accept. Dad, why did it happen this way?
Chapter 30
“L-lava!” Jax burst with a shaking finger. “Look.” As if being woven from an aerial loom, a man was being fabricated from head to foot. Right over the roofing where Nez had lain. His skin was tan, hair long
and white. One blue-green swirl stamped his shoulder. His wounds were gone, as was the Fluta; in its place, a jagged scar ran over his breastbone. An invisible force slowly lowered him in sidelying, and Nez’s bicolored eyes sleepily opened. He sat upright, touching his chest and arms as if they were brand new. Stunned, his mouth quivered.
“T-this has to be a dream,” he said, mindfully covering himself with a blanket. Then, in childlike awe, he switched his focus to the sunlight overhead.
“This is Reality,” I clarified, embracing him.
When the show was over, the police taped off the property. A cruiser brought Nez, me, and my uncles to Dr. Miru’s clinic. She was the doctor who saved me from the abduction years ago. She was also the one Dad said would care for Aza. We sat in the waiting room until Dr. Miru cleared us to see Nez. He was running on a treadmill, hooked up to electrodes. An aerial screen overhead recorded his vitals.
“Tip-top shape,” Dr. Miru beamed, waving her hand to access a second aerial monitor. She scrolled through numeric lab values and gestured for me to look on with her. “As you can see, he has the biological makeup of a healthy twenty-five-year-old male.” The treadmill slowed and Nez dismounted, breathing heavily. Another staff member approached to give him a towel and remove the electrodes. “Your father is a miracle worker,” she said. “Even after death.”
I lowered my gaze. “How about Aza,” I asked. “Is she doing well too?”
While my uncles talked with Nez, I walked with Dr. Miru to the next room over. A young woman was sitting in a wheelchair beside an open window. Her arms and legs were so atrophied, the skin clung tightly to each bone. A gust of wind ruffled up her dark hair and she turned to us. Though the face was gaunt and haunting, it was that of my sister’s. She cracked a smile and offered a hand.
I ran over and fell into her lap, crying. While the emotions poured out of me, Aza stroked my back with soft fingers. She began humming the Falconbridge Family Song. The tightness in my shoulders slowly loosened.
For some reason, I thought back to the Enzlo Gem, when it had led Queen Piria and me into the wrong hallway. It was supposed to take me to the place I most wanted to see. Queen Piria had said I probably wished to see something different in my heart. At the time, I didn’t understand. But now I think I did. The place I most wanted to see in my heart was right here: Aza’s room. Was it possible— maybe the flooring the Gem took me to was hiding her room underneath? The room I had seen in Nez’s memories, and countless times in my earliest dreams. The one she must have died in.
“Your sister shouldered 25% of Nightworld stability,” Dr. Miru explained, pressing a few buttons on Aza’s IV pole. “An incredible demand on the human body.” She turned to us and sat on the bed nearby. “After eighteen years, and keeping 75-100% of Nightworld intact, your father’s prognosis would have been bleak.” Dr. Miru rested her hand on my shoulder. “I see your father’s strength in you,” she said. “He, too, looked beyond himself when making hard decisions. And when he led people, he changed their hearts without even trying.”
We all turned at the sound of creaking. My uncles and Nez were standing in the doorway. Eyeing Aza nervously, Nez approached us. Then he lowered to his knees and dropped into a full bow. “I’m so sorry,” he whispered, choking back tears. His hands were pressed on the floor, shaking. My sister and I nodded at each other. Without a word, I pushed Aza’s wheelchair nearer to him. She leaned over and touched his head.
“You and your two hearts,” she said. Aza waited a moment before speaking again. “Looks like you found your goodness again.” We stayed with Aza until Dr. Miru wanted her to rest. Then we waited in her office while she made Nez an ID and birth record. Her desk was as messy as my father’s used to be. It was comforting.
Nez and I sat on her couch. He was hunched forward, elbows resting on his knees. “Thank you,” he said. “For never leaving.” For him, this was a first, wasn’t it? I leaned back and stretched my arms overhead.
“I had to repay the favor,” I said with a yawn. Oh it was going to be glorious sleeping tonight.
Nez glanced at me and hesitated. “The Sea Mistress,” he said. “With a bullet wound and a leg gash, she still got away.” Incredible, right? The police just had one job to do…
“They’ll keep looking,” I said. “Don’t worry about it. She has no lab and her career is in shambles.” He stood up and leaned against Dr. Miru’s bookshelf. The sunlight from the window spilled onto his shirt.
“I just have a bad feeling,” Nez said. He shook his head and tightened his ponytail. In an effort to cheer him up, I removed Dad’s journal from my bag. I thumbed the binding and opened it across my lap.
“Check this out,” I said. He reached for it curiously and I gave it to him. “It’s my father’s journal,” I explained, as he flipped through the pages. “It’s how I learned about Nightworld. And about you.” He pulled something out of the backmost sleeve of the book.
“What’s this?” He asked. We examined it together, a piece of ledger covered back-to-front with neuroscientist jargon and formulas. The heading read: How to Construct Waker World. My mouth dropped. These were his building instructions? Nez gripped the sheet with both hands. “We have to rip it up,” he said. “If this gets into the wrong hands—”
“Nez, wait,” I said, taking the paper back. “We should think about this first. I mean, these are my dad’s notes. We can’t just destroy them.”
“Lava, nothing good can come from those. Please just—”
Dr. Miru and Detective Zatorre stepped into the office. I quickly hid the book in my bag. Nez glanced at me before acknowledging Dr. Miru. She passed him a folder. “All the identification information you’ll need for your lifetime,” she said, resting a hand on his arm. “You’re free now.” From Nez’s expression, you’d think he was holding a million dollars. Detective Zatorre took a seat beside me. She gingerly pressed an ice pack to her forehead.
“All of the submerged Wakers woke up,” she said. “Those preservation tanks had enough nutrients to keep even a corpse alive for years… the pathologist’s comment, not mine.” Detective Zatorre sighed and met my eyes. “We found every missing person, Lava. In that lab.” Dr. Miru nodded at the detective.
“It might be best to go home now,” she said. “And nurse that concussion of yours.”
Detective Zatorre laughed, removing her ice pack. “I rest when they’re all caught,” she said. “We still have a criminal running wild out there. Until Bensimhon is—”
“Enough,” Dr. Miru said, her eyes flitting towards me and Nez. She sighed. “I think everyone has had enough for today.” Dr. Miru offered to give Nez a room at her clinic. And he accepted, at least until my uncles had their say. They were adamant that Nez was coming home with us.
“I just got a son today,” Uncle Mason said with a wink, jostling Nez’s shoulder. “Family shouldn’t be separated.” I could tell his words visibly moved Nez. They touched me too. The clinic would’ve felt just as lonely as the waterfall castle did. I think this held true for all reality states: it takes more than a physical structure to make a place home.
My alarm woke me up the next morning. I rolled over to turn it off, vaguely recalling fragments of a dream. My first one in months. Dad was there, telling me to be careful. About what, I couldn’t remember. But that was part of what made dreams interesting.
I stepped out of bed and toppled over onto the body lying next to it. For the love of persimmons. Uncle Hugo had set up a lovely guest room for him down the hall. But clearly that didn’t suffice. Nez pressed his hand to my back and kissed me. The sunlight from the window spilled over us.
“Good morning,” he said. Every part of me warmed up with light-glow.
“Nez,” I said, quickly dismounting him. “In Reality, my uncles are downstairs and school starts in thirty minutes.” I pulled him to his feet and tossed a shirt at him. He threaded his arms through the sleeves.
“It’s cute how you do that,” Nez said. “Light up when you�
��re happy.”
Well, at least one of us thought so.
It was time to get back to life. Back to Reality. Raw, and still nothing less than bizarre.
END of book 1
About the Author
Michaela Hoffman is just another creative spirit. She invites you to harness your own special powers for spreading goodness in the world. After all, there is no other way to change it.
Photo credit: my mother Ann Marie Hoffman
To be on my mailing list, please email me at [email protected]
Wakers: Sayonara Sleep Page 22