by Lola StVil
“Very subtle, Apex,” Aaden says under his breath. I am relieved to hear him say Apex’s name. That means he knows that this world is made up. He knows that he has a real world that he has to get back to. But why is he playing along with the little girl?
Because she’s his daughter and even a simulation of her is better than not having her around at all.
My heart aches for Aaden. He knows deep inside that this whole “perfect” life thing isn’t real, but it hurts too much for him to walk away and not take part in it. I could kill that asshole Apex for making him face such a heart-wrenching past.
“Sparks, you know that I can’t stay with you, right?” Aaden says in a pained voice.
“Yes, you have to go on a mission,” she replies.
He kneels down in front of her so that they are eye to eye. “It’s kind of a mission, yes. And I will have to leave you. But I love you and I will always keep you with me in my heart. I promise.”
“Can you stay with me for a little bit?” she asks as her eyes start to tear.
He looks up and sees there are now four joggers. He knows he is down to only four minutes. “I’ll stay as long as I can. But I need your help. Have you seen a key around here?”
“Here, it’s my favorite, but you can have it,” she says as she opens her backpack and takes out a colorful sticker with a key on it.
Aaden grins and thanks her for the gift.
“Can you come to class with me? Everyone wants to meet you, Daddy! You’re their favorite Noru,” she begs.
He pulls her in and embraces her once again. He wipes away her tears and tells her that everything will be okay. “I don’t want to leave you alone. Is there someone who will take care of you?” Aaden says, knowing how strange it is to ask that in a world that doesn’t really exist.
Sparks gathers herself and tries to be brave. “I will be okay, Daddy. I’ll make friends in my class,” she says, trying very hard to sound mature.
“I’m sure you will. You’re so smart and so pretty. You’ll have a lot of friends,” he says, trying like hell to keep it together.
I swear to Omnis I’m gonna kick Apex’s demented ass!
“Dad, don’t worry. I’ll be fine. I’m a big girl. I flew to the store all by myself once.”
“You did?” he says, pretending to be shocked.
“And I picked out my clothes too! Just like today!” she proclaims.
“You are a very big girl, then. And I don’t have to worry about you at all, now do I?”
“Nope! I got this, Dad,” she assures him. My heart is breaking right along with Aaden’s.
“Dad, the train is here. It’s here for you!” she says.
Aaden turns and finds a three-car train has appeared a few blocks from the school. The joggers pass by; there are three of them now. Aaden does his best to end the visit on a good note; he kisses her cheek and embraces her.
“I love you. I love you. I love you,” Aaden vows as he holds his daughter for the last time and strokes her hair. He has done better than any of us could have expected. He woke up knowing as soon as he saw her, he’d have to let her go.
“I have to go. Class has started. Here, you can have this picture we took at the open house. You can take it with you on your mission,” Sparks says as she takes out a wrinkled sheet of paper and hands it to him. Aaden gladly takes it, stands up, and says good-bye to his child.
“Dad! Run! The train is leaving!”
Aaden looks and sees the train is flashing, signaling it’s ready for departure.
Aaden takes one last look and then starts running for the train. As soon as he heads for the train, his wings disappear. It doesn’t matter because I am confident he can make it to the train on foot. As Aaden darts down the street, he takes a quick glance at the picture Sparks gave him. It’s a photo of her and some other kids standing in a group in front of the school. There is a banner draped across the front of the school that reads:
“Welcome to the Center (School for Angel Reconditioning).
Founded by Professor Colton Bishop.”
Oh. My. Omnis. Aaden has just surrendered Sparks to the Center! Aaden stops dead in his tracks and turns back towards Sparks. She’s being yanked into the school by guards I recognize from when the Center kidnapped me. Aaden runs back towards Sparks at speeds I can’t begin to comprehend.
He calls out her name and curses the guards. He vows to kill them all if they don’t let her go. But they continue to pull her and drag her kicking and screaming inside. She drops her backpack in the struggle and kicks off her boots. She cries out and begs for her daddy, but the guards have no mercy.
Aaden gets to her and snatches the guards off her. He picks them apart one by one, casting them off left and right. But the more of them he takes on, the more guards appear. Sparks is sobbing and begging for Aaden to save her. She calls out for him again and again. Each time is like a dagger in Aaden’s chest.
“Daddy! Daddy!” she shrieks at the top of her lungs.
“GETOFFMYKID!GETOFFMYKID!I’LLKILLYOU!I’LLKILLYOU!” Aaden rages as he picks one of the guards up over his head and slams him down onto the sidewalk. Aaden kills the guards faster than I have ever seen done before. But they manage to get Sparks inside the school grounds.
“Take her to the White Room!” Bishop says as he walks towards them with an evil smile.
“Give her to me now, or I’ll kill the rest of them!” Aaden says between blows.
“You should have listened to me. You should have stayed away in order to protect the ones you love. Better yet, you should have just died. But no, you tried to make a family. You tried to be normal. You are a curse on all their lives. Anyone who loves you pays dearly. Including the girl,” he says, signaling towards Sparks, who is now passed out and being prepped for the White Room.
Aaden starts throwing guards into the building and using their bodies to break through windows in an attempt to get in. Sparks is calling out for him again. He tries to get to her, but there are hundreds and hundreds of guards. And for some reason, his power isn’t working. From the corner of his eye, Aaden sees the last jogger run past the front window.
Shit! Time! We’re out of time!
The last jogger means the last minute. Aaden has sixty seconds to make a run for the train or he will never come back to the real world. Aaden doesn’t care; he barrels his way inside the school. It may look different on the outside, but inside, it’s the Center. Aaden makes it past hordes of guards while they beat down on him.
They kick him in the ribs, bash him over the head, use large pieces of shattered glass to stab him—nothing can stop him from getting to Sparks. We hear the train announcement from inside the building as if it were right next door.
“Safe Haven Express is leaving for the Black Forest; all passengers please get on board.”
Aaden makes it to the White Room, and although he’s bleeding and very broken, he manages to reach Sparks. But try as he might, he can’t unlatch the Samson string that holds her hostage. He fights with his daughter’s restraints as if he is fighting for his life.
The guards now have backup—demons, lots of demons. Before Aaden can stop it from happening, the White Room becomes a battlefield of Powerballs, blood, and mayhem. And still he can’t summon his own powers or untie Sparks.
“Daddy! Please! Please!” she begs again.
Aaden is crying and shaking as he begs for Omnis to please help him.
“The Safe Haven Express will depart for the Black Forest in thirty seconds; all aboard!”
“Aaden, you have to go!” I shout at the device. I hate to tell him to leave his baby girl, but she’s not real and he can’t give his life up for an illusion. But even as I cry out, I know in my heart Aaden is never going to leave her in a place like the Center. He’s never coming back to the forest, back to us.
“Aaden, please,” I beg him. Dylan urgently points to his watch.
Fifteen seconds.
Aaden keeps struggling with the ropes,
and they refuse to give in. He gets down on his knees and holds his daughter’s hand. He bows his head in defeat and tells her he’s sorry.
“Daddy! Listen to me! Please,” she says. But before she can tell him what she wants to say, the demons tie her mouth. She struggles and tries to break free. Aaden holds her hand tighter than before and looks at her tiny fingers. He looks closely at her nail polish and finds that each finger has a letter on it, just like she said. He didn’t pay attention before, but now he places her fingers together and reads the message.
“L-E-T” is written on the first three fingers.
“G-O” is written on the last two.
Both hands have the same message:
“Let Go.”
Although Sparks can’t speak, it’s hard to deny the compassion in her eyes. She silently assures her father that leaving is the right thing to do. Aaden nods and does the hardest thing he’s ever had to do in his life: walk away from his kid. Every step he takes hurts him in ways I can’t put into words. He makes it out of the room and runs into the hallway.
Ten seconds remaining…
The demons have multiplied and have no intention of letting Aaden go. They chase him down the hall as he races out of the building. He makes it outside and bolts down the street; there are only seven seconds remaining. He gets to the platform, but there’s a demon who has managed to keep up with him.
The demon blasts Aaden with a series of Powerballs. One lands right on Aaden’s back. He cries out as the pain nearly cripples him.
Five seconds…
Aaden reaches out for the closing doors of the train, but the demon yanks him back onto the platform.
Four seconds…
“Come get me, asshole!” Aaden yells. The demon sneers as he heads straight for him. Aaden moves out of the way swiftly, allowing the demon to plow headfirst into the lamppost. The demon gets back up quickly, but by then Aaden is already reaching the door.
Three seconds…
The demon doesn’t give up. He hurls a Powerball at Aaden’s head. Aaden dodges it, but not quickly enough; he gets hit in the shoulder.
“Fuck!” Aaden says as the pain rips into his flesh. The hit causes him to lose his grip on the train doors.
Two seconds.
The train doors are closing.
One…
Aaden lets out a primal scream as he hurls himself onto the train and lands face-first on the train floor. The doors close; the train takes off. The world around Aaden quickly dissipates, leaving him on the forest floor a few feet in front of the red door, his daughter’s gift in his hand.
The team is overjoyed to see Aaden and to know that he survived. Aaden doesn’t say anything. He doesn’t make eye contact with anyone. He gets up from the ground, wounded and bloody. He marches towards the front of the castle, where Apex stands a few feet from the dining table.
“Well, I must say Penny and I are surprised you made it out, Silver! We never thought—”
Before Apex can finish his statement, Aaden takes the nearest butter knife on the table and jams it into his chest.
Apex is so shocked his eyes are as big as saucers. Aaden angrily thrusts the knife deeper; blood spills from Apex’s mouth like water from a spring. He falls to the ground in a bloody heap. Apex, aka the Architect, is dead.
Without saying a word, the team goes over to the glass pentagon, with mere seconds remaining, and each places their key in the lock. The blue liquid dries up; they take the vial of ashes out of the safe and behold it with wonder.
Finally, the weapon to destroy Malakaro is in hand.
I don’t know if it was wrong or right, but when Dylan and I watched Apex die, we cheered almost as loud as the humans did in Chicago when their favorite baseball team won the World Series. Normally we can’t conceive of a reason to cheer at the death of an angel, but this time, that bastard had earned it. And if Aaden hadn’t killed him, I’m pretty damn sure I would have. Dylan and I rejoiced like never before, and it felt glorious. We were so loud, at one point the Healer came in to scold us. We promised her we would keep the noise down.
“Is that the team texting you?” Dylan asks once things quiet down.
“Yeah, they said they’d be back here shortly,” I reply as I walk over to the window for the millionth time. The dark sky has no mercy in it and certainly no Alexi.
“Still nothing?” Dylan asks.
“No. I was hoping after all they’ve been through, when they came back, I’d have something good to tell them, but I don’t. The only thing that made watching Aaden say good-bye to Sparks in such a heartbreaking way all right was knowing that Summit might be here. But they’ll be back soon, and I have no good news for him,” I reply as I cross my arms in front of my chest and look at the sky yet again.
“I’m sorry. How can I help?” Dylan asks.
“You’ve done enough already. Thank you,” I reply as I embrace him. My cell goes off; I rush to take the call. It’s Mrs. Maybelle.
“What? When? How do you know? Okay, I’ll be right there. Don’t worry. I’ll take care of it,” I reply into the phone right before I hang up.
“What’s going on?” Dylan says.
“Mrs. Maybelle, Nix’s caregiver, says Malakaro is making contact with him right now!”
“He broke out of his prison?”
“No. He’s projecting himself into the room. But I don’t know how,” I admit.
“He’s using astral projection. He’s still trapped by Time, but he’s amassed enough power to will his spirit somewhere else,” Dylan says.
“We have to go and protect Nix. Malakaro can’t get to him,” I reply as I start getting ready to leave.
“I don’t think you have to worry. Normally, a being can’t touch anyone in that state.”
“Dylan, there is nothing normal about Malakaro. He has powers no one else does. Even if he can’t reach out and touch Nix, it doesn’t mean he hasn’t figured out a way to sap Nix’s strength and use it for himself. I can’t take that chance.”
“You’re right, but you can’t go. Call Diana and the team. They can take care of it.”
“Look, my team has just been through their own custom-made hell. They have done enough.”
“Pryor, you can’t go off and face Malakaro by yourself!”
“I’m not facing him. I’m facing a hologram of him. And all I’m going to do is talk to him. If things get out of hand, I’ll figure something out.”
“No, you shouldn’t go.”
“Dylan, I don’t have time to argue with you.”
“What if Alexi comes in the meantime?”
“Alexi will follow me wherever I go. It’s what they do.”
“And you want Alexi to find you while you are interacting with the greatest evil that ever lived?”
“No…”
“Then stay here.”
“I can’t sit here and do nothing. It’s just not in me,” I confess.
“I have an idea,” Dylan says as he tinkers with the Eagle Eye device.
“What are you doing?” I ask.
“Eagle Eyes are preset to a certain frequency. If I can find the frequency that Malakaro is on, I can match it and project a replica over to him. You would be projected into the room along with him and Nix, all the while keeping you right here in this room.”
“Can you do that? Seriously?” I shout.
“If I have to come back in that room one more time, I’m turning off all the lights and making everyone go to sleep! I mean it!” the Healer calls out from the hallway.
“Sorry!” Dylan and I say in unison as we lower our voices.
“Your body will remain here, but it will go limp. It can be very taxing for you physically, so you only have a few minutes to get in there and find out what Malakaro wants with Nix.”
“I already know: he’s trying to suck power from his son so he can free himself sooner.”
“Well, you have a few minutes to convince him not to do that. Hurry.” Dylan takes the device and a
ims it at me. Suddenly everything around me starts to blur. I hear Dylan’s fading voice; he’s begging me to please make it back before Silver gets to the clinic.
Mrs. Maybelle’s home soon comes into view. Every inch of her house is right out of a Southern comfort magazine. I love this place. I enter and see Mrs. Maybelle guiding the other kids away from the room with Nix and Malakaro. I signal to her that I will handle everything; she looks worried but agrees to let me enter the baby’s room.
There is a mural of humans, angels, and Quo kids playing together. Mrs. Maybelle even added a few “happy”-looking demons because she hates when kids are excluded. The room is cheerful and sunny. In the center is a crib where Nix lies bundled up and sleeping. Standing over the crib, reaching out for him, is the astral projection of evil incarnate.
“Don’t touch him!” I warn.
Malakaro looks over at me and smiles, very pleased to have me in front of him. He pulls back and doesn’t touch Nix.
“Well, what a time for a family reunion,” he says.
“Get away from him,” I insist.
“Why? He does belong to me, doesn’t he?”
“The hell he does. He belongs to his mother,” I correct him.
“Ah yes, the former Kaster. Tell me, how is Ruin?”
“Her name is Diana. And she’s just fine. But if you don’t step away from her kid, you’ll regret it,” I promise him.
“I won’t hurt him.”
“Why should I trust you?”
“You shouldn’t. However, that does not change what I just said.”
“Why would you spare him?”
“Oh no, that’s not what I’m doing at all. Today is the last day for humanity. If you and his mother want him to be alive long enough to watch the world end, then so be it. However, I find it rather…cruel.”
“Well, you could give up this whole ‘end the world’ thing. Then he’d be just fine,” I suggest.