by Matt Ryan
Mom and Niles made their way to the statue, where Bridget and the other students had gathered a large supply of stones. It looked like several pallets. How long had Mark and I been in there?
Dave was sitting strapped to an office chair next to the pallets.
“That was crazy foolish, coming in after me,” Mark said. “But thanks. I almost lost it in there.” He closed his eyes and rubbed his temple.
“You could have told me you were a special,” I said, tilting my head, trying to see his eyes.
“I know, and I wanted to so many times. But we aren’t alone much, and when we are, I don’t really want to talk about alchemy, or even talk in general.”
I sighed and thought about the few times we had been alone. “You can tell me anything. Is there anything else you’re hiding from me? Do you have a wife?”
“Yeah, I’m seventeen and married. I have a mortgage and two kids back in Baker. Oh, and I’m bald. This is a rug.” He pointed to his hair.
I smiled. He pulled me to a stop and kept tugging my arm gently until I faced him. “I promise to not keep anything from you ever again.”
I hugged him. It felt better than words, and I really wanted a physical connection. His body flexed against me as he held me firm.
“Come on,” Mark said. “If I’m right, your mom has a brilliant plan for this place.”
She did, and soon we had gathered all the materials and had set the barrel next to the statue. It was a shame that such a beautiful thing had to be destroyed, but what had happened inside that globe couldn’t go on.
“You know, we could leave this place here, maybe even find a way to use it,” Leo said.
“Oh, please. Do you really want this sham of an academy to keep existing?” Jackie said.
Leo drew a breath. “Maybe there’s more here to find. Maybe there’s stuff hidden here. It just seems a waste to blow it to hell.”
“Really, Leo?” Jackie said. “You’re trying to stop the awesomeness of this bomb?”
Leo folded his arms and stared at the barrel.
“The reason for getting rid of this place,” Mom said, “is that Verity and Axiom most certainly put trackers on it. I wouldn’t be surprised if they were on their way here right now. They could snatch this place up, move it, disguise it, put new students down here and get this place back into production mode by the end of the week. No, it’s far safer to destroy it.”
Leo huffed but didn’t say anything more.
“Wait. What about the teachers you locked in that room?” I asked.
“I was hoping to leave them in there,” Jackie said.
“I’ve got another portal stone,” Mom said. “I can send them to one of the cages I have around the world for just this type of people.”
Then she jogged across the hub and pull the door of the teachers’ closet closed behind her. After a few minutes she returned.
“Okay. We all set?” she asked.
We were, and I was ready to leave this place.
Mark was holding a large roll of thin copper wire we had found. Two wires lay on the floor and fed into the packed barrel. He walked backwards to the elevator door, feeding the wire out of the spool. We had packed the elevator with every book and stone my mom wanted to save. Once we were all inside, including Dave in his rolling chair, I nodded to Bridget to push the detonator button.
Our only fear had been that the wire would break on our way up, but it unspooled like a kite in a mighty wind. Mark held the spool tight as it spun. Finally, the elevator doors opened and Mark walked out sideways, holding on to what was left of the spool of wire.
“I knew you’d take us here,” he said.
I smiled and looked up at my tree fort. I had spent many hours up there, hiding from Janet and Spencer, but mostly hiding from myself. I escaped into that small space and gotten lost in other worlds, imagining I might be part of something special. Now look at me. The whole world had become magical, and I had Mark and my mom to share it with.
“Is there a house anywhere close to this location?” Mom asked.
“Not too close. You think they’ll feel it?” I asked.
Mom laughed and kept following Mark. “With luck, they’ll just think it was an earthquake. Keep it going, Mark.”
He sped up and looked back at me with a big smile. Niles and Leo pushed the massive carts full of alchemy books and stones along the dirt path I knew so well. Angela struggled with Dave in the chair until Bridget helped her keep it straight.
This display would normally have been comical to me, but I could see the top of my house in the distance. This was the point where I used to start getting nervous, but now I felt different. Even though I was only a few hundred feet from it, it felt a thousand miles away. My life would be with my mother now, and Mark. I couldn’t wait to get started.
“That should be far enough,” Mom said.
Mark set the wires on the ground. Niles and Leo struggled to catch up with the heavy carts, but they made it.
Niles cut the copper wires and separated them from the spool.
“Bridget, I think you have the honors,” Mom said.
Bridget strutted to the wires and held one in each hand.
“I bet you can send a spark right down those wires using your ability. If you can get emotional enough?”
“I don’t think I’ll have a problem.”
I’d never seen Bridget so happy. She looked like a different person, holding the wires apart and looking at each of us. The wires shook in her hands as her gaze passed over us. “I just want to let you guys know….” She started to lose it and sucked in air through her nose.
“It’s okay, Bridget,” I said.
“No.” She collected herself. “I treated you like a grade-A bitch for no reason. I knew you had problems with the deaths of your parents. I knew I could break you down.”
“Bridget,” I said.
“No, let me finish. We grew up together, we even had sleepovers when we were younger, but something happened to me. Something terrible. It broke me, shattered me.” Tears rolled down her face.
I knew the something that had happened, but she had no idea that I knew because Mark had used a time stone to change things. I glanced at Mark and saw the agony on his face.
Bridget closed her eyes and stamped her feet on the ground. Then she opened her teary eyes and gazed into mine. “All I’m trying to say is that I’m sorry, Allie. I’m sorry for being a bitch all those years.”
Now she was getting to me and I felt tears filling my eyes. I walked over and hugged her. She hugged me back, and I heard the sound of electricity zapping.
I looked over my shoulder to see the wires touching. “Did it work—” was all I got out before the explosion.
The ground shook and a stack of books rattled off the cart. I steadied myself and gazed in the direction of my treehouse. After a few seconds the ground stopped shaking, but the boom echoed around the surrounding hills. A dust cloud billowed upward and the tree house all but disappeared in it.
“Oh no,” I said as I watched the tree tilt. I thought it might hold and I’d have a crooked house to visit, but then the whole tree crashed to the ground.
“Shame. That was a nice treehouse,” Mark said.
I stared at the treehouse, which now lay shattered on the ground. Something about seeing all that wrecked wood scattered across the forest floor told me I was never coming back to Summerford.
“Gwen’s going to pick us up at your house, Allie. You think your stepmom will let us crash at her place for a bit?” Mom asked.
“Does she have a choice?”
“We could use a few stones, if you think it’s a problem.”
“No, I want to talk with her anyway.” I looked at Bridget and knew what I had to do. “Are you going to talk to your mom, Bridget?”
“Yeah, right. I’ll send her an email or something. If I tried to explain all the crap that just happened, she’d probably lock me in the basement for the rest of my life.” She laugh
ed.
“Okay, then, next stop is my house.” I sighed.
Niles and Leo pushed their carts ahead. Many of the books jiggled around and some of them fell onto the dirt path. Bridget and Angela got a handle on Dave and pushed him along. Jackie grazed the bushes with her hands and plucked a few leaves off the low-hanging branch of an oak tree.
“Been a while, huh?” Leo said, smiling as he picked a book up off the ground and placed it back on the pile. I hadn’t noticed how good-looking he was. Maybe it was because of my constant fear of the Blues attacking, or maybe the natural light brought out the best in him.
My spirit soared at seeing him free, at thinking of all those kids free of the grasp of Verity.
“I’m going to go ahead and give Janet a fair warning we’re coming her way. Smooth things out,” my mom said.
The notion that anyone could smooth things out with Janet bordered on delusional. I had been dreading the first moments of getting back to her. Maybe the shock of seeing my mom alive would lessen her reaction. I didn’t know if she’d be ecstatic, or angry, or disgusted by my return. It didn’t matter much; I knew what I had to say to Janet, something I should have been saying to her for a long time.
“Hey, Mark, think you could take over cart duties?” Niles asked, and jogged ahead to catch up to Mom.
“Sure,” Mark said, and stepped in to push the cart.
“Wait!” I called after my mom. “My house is the one with the red roof and the white vinyl fence.”
“I know which house it is,” she called back, then disappeared around a manzanitas bush.
“You know these people?” Leo asked Jackie as Brett took over pushing the cart.
“Yeah, she’s a little crazy, but I like her,” Jackie said. “Besides, she’s Allie’s mom. Good genetics.”
Leo didn’t say much else about the new members of the team, but he asked a bunch of questions about where Jackie had been and what she had been doing. Angela stayed near me and kept giving me glances as if she had something to say. I couldn’t blame her. If I’d been pushing Dave, I might have a few words to say as well.
“You need help?” I asked.
“Nah, we got it,” Bridget said.
“Angela, right?” I tried to get her attention. “What room did they keep you in?”
She frowned and gave Dave a shove. “Room twenty-eight.”
No wonder she kept staring at me. I’d given her that victory. I wish I could remember how far she’d taken her victory celebration.
“Well, we can put that place behind us now,” I said.
“It’s never going to be behind us. It’s only going to get worse.” She gripped the edge of the chair and looked down.
I wanted to ask her what she meant. “What’s up with her?” I whispered to Jackie.
“Orphan, like us. Wait, you got yours back,” she said. “I wonder how the conversation’s going between your two moms.” Jackie laughed.
I chuckled. I couldn’t imagine Janet’s face, seeing my mom and Niles at her door. Surely she knew my mom from pictures; my dad had kept a few around. I cringed and clenched my jaw. I was doing it again—talking about my dad in the present tense, like he’d still be coming home any day now.
“You okay?” Mark said as he shoved the cart next to me.
“Yeah.”
“Hey,” Leo said. “I think the first thing we should all do is go out on the town. I can’t wait to eat some real processed, partially reconstituted, good old American fast food.”
“You’re reconstituted,” Jackie said.
“Oh, really?” Leo played along. “I’m going to take you out on a real date. Dinner, movies, and maybe something fun like miniature golf.”
Jackie gasped. “I love miniature golf, and we have so many freaking movies to catch up on.”
Leo smiled, moved closer to Jackie, and took her hand in his. “We have a lot of things to catch up on. So, how did you get out of that nice academy again?”
“This girl Kylie made a stone that melted the shield around it.”
“Out of what?” Leo asked with glee, as if he didn’t care what the answer was. He just wanted Jackie to keep talking and holding his hand.
I couldn’t stop smiling, seeing her happy. I beamed at Mark. “You’re going to take me out too, right?”
He pushed the cart closer to me. “Just me and you? Sounds like an impossible fantasy we could get lost in.”
I raised an eyebrow.
“I’ll make it a reality,” he said. “I want to sit down with you at a table over dinner, walk through a park, or even go on a road trip. I’d do anything for it to be just me and you.”
The idea sent heat through my whole body. Alone with Mark sounded like a wonderland I could get lost in. I stared at the books as they shook around on the cart. I knew what he was hinting at, yet not saying. His eyes told me exactly what he meant and they were pleading with me right now to go with him, to leave my mother, leave the whole alchemy world. Just me and him. Could it really be over like that? Was it possible to pack up the whole world and put it behind us? Damn right it was, and the longer I went without seeing my mother, the more running away seemed like the better option.
With our skills in stones, we could make do anywhere. I closed my eyes for a second to picture us traveling, laughing, being alone for once. Away from it all. Did I really want to see Blane again? Did I really want to bring that man into the world?
“Your street.” Mark pointed ahead.
Bridget pulled on the hem of her shirt. Looking down at it, she sighed. “Maybe I can go to my house real quick and grab some clothes.”
“Nah,” Leo said. “We’d better stick together for now. Do you think your mom would let you walk in and then just leave again?”
Bridget crunched up her brow and pulled on her dirty shirt. Her hair still looked perfect and she was so beautiful, even all the dirt she was wearing somehow worked on her.
The clattering from the carts lessened as the boys pushed them onto the asphalt road. Leo and Mark seemed to be happy about not juggling the falling books, and we sped up down the street. We passed a few houses, finally arriving at my driveway.
My heart thumped in my chest. I hadn’t realized how nervous I’d be, staring at my old house. I saw my bedroom window, the front door Janet had painted red for some reason, and the perfectly maintained grass Nico always aerated over the summer.
“You ready?” Mark asked.
I nodded. Even with the nerves, I knew I was ready. I felt I had grown more in the two academies than I had in my entire life before. It was time to have those words with Janet, and even with Spencer.
Jackie stood next to me, arms crossed over her chest. “You have cable?”
I laughed. “Yes.”
“Good.”
I thought I heard a few words, like snippets of conversations coming from the house. My mom had taken the initial brunt for me and I was grateful. Janet was probably being nasty to her, but my mom would soften the transition for me. Maybe I could get the words out that I needed to say.
“Well, what are we waiting for, buttercup?” Jackie asked.
We gathered at the front porch, leaving the carts sitting in the driveway. Mark stayed at one side of me and Jackie at the other. It was the nudge I needed. I walked to the front door and wondered if I should knock. I raised my hand and then just turned the knob.
The family room looked much the same, but no one was there.
“Hello?” I said.
“In the kitchen,” Janet called.
Odd. She sounded so calm. I smiled and thought my mom had probably slipped her a stone or two. Or maybe she was just happy to finally be rid of me. She and Spencer could spend their days in the perfection of each other.
I glanced back. Leo and Brett had stayed behind us and were looking around the house with curiosity. Angela had stayed near the door and was glaring at Leo and Brett. The Red in her wouldn’t allow her to trust them. I knew the feeling well, but after all I’d
seen and done, I didn’t feel any resentment toward Leo or any Blue, for that matter. They’d been trapped in a situation and fed a way of doing things that wasn’t right.
Mark rubbed my back. “You’ve got this.”
With Mark, Bridget, and Jackie next to me, I felt the strength to push open the kitchen door.
Janet was standing on the far side of the island. She was shaking, with tears flowing from her eyes, and I knew what I’d needed to tell her all along. I didn’t have hate for her anymore and I realized what she had actually done for me.
I needed to thank her.
For taking care of me, giving me a home to live in and space enough to deal with my Dad and Mom issues, keeping me with her even after all connections had been severed. She had a viper’s tongue, but her actions now showed me her true heart. She cared for me but hadn’t known how to show it. Seeing her crying over me made me want to cry.
Why was she still standing there, not moving?
I stepped farther into the kitchen and saw behind Janet a pair of fierce-looking people glaring at me. Verity, and a man who had to be Axiom. Panic hit me when I saw Niles and my mom lying on the floor.
Mark fell to the floor like a plank of wood. Jackie and Bridget both were frozen with open mouths near the door. Leo looked stunned and was holding a stone in his hand.
“What did you do?” I asked Leo, but he just stood there, staring at Jackie.
“Thanks, son,” Verity said.
“No!” I dove to the floor and pulled at my pockets looking for stones. Mark’s frozen face stared at me and I wished I had listened to him. We should have run away from it all. I reached for his face, but a hand grabbed the back of my shirt and pulled me to my feet.
Axiom faced me with pure disgust.
“You destroyed the Academy. Our Academy.”
He slapped me hard, and I fell against the island. The granite felt cold against my hot face. I whimpered and my eyes watered from the pain. I felt Axiom behind me, grabbing me by the waist. I struggled to get away, but he thrust me against the island, pinning me down.
“That’s enough,” Verity said.