“I used to crash up near Fort Funston, back, you know, before. Before the White Lady started looking around for Lost. And then I went back after she, you know, went away.” Sarah pulled out her hat, tapped the brim absently. “I've been hanging out there since…what, the sixties? So I really know the area.”
“Indeed?” Lily said, surprised that this little ghost had survived so long on her own. Shivering in the cold she seemed to small and fragile, so tiny, but if Sarah could remember that far back she might even be as old as Elle. Possibly older, given the odd cut of her clothing and the possessive way she handled her hat. “Were there many gulls there?”
“Around the fort? Tons. They kept an eye out, you know, for the Reapers. You had to move around at night, keep low, cuz if you saw a gull chances were that a Reaper or maybe some soul they had jockeying for them wasn't gonna be too far behind. It was like that for a long time.”
Sarah yanked her cap back on and shoved any loose tendrils under until she looked like a very skinny boy. “If the gulls took your lady, she's probably up that way. The Reapers probably plucked her right up. They had a house or something up there, up near San Ramon.”
“I know the place,” Eddie said slowly. “Though I don't know where they'd stash someone like Ada. I mean, how do you keep tabs on a ghost?”
“Easier than you might imagine,” Lily said shortly, annoyed that Eddie hadn't shared the location of the Reapers’ stronghold with them already. It would have been good information to have. “But it is no matter. We will fetch Ada as soon as we can. In the meantime—”
“Your friend isn't looking so hot,” Sarah finished.
Piotr was jerking on the floor, spasming up and down, back arching wildly as his head hit the floor with enough force to crack the thick layer of ice that'd formed beneath him. One moment he was nearly solid, slamming into the wood with enough force to make the old boards creak and groan and splinter beneath the ice, the next he was hardly there, his shoulders resting on the floor as his head vanished through the floorboards into the room below.
Sarah, without being asked, approached Piotr with her hands outstretched. Unfortunately, no sooner did she get close enough to touch him than his flailing tripled, and he caught her on the hip and shoulder with one wildly jerking leg. Lily darted forward to catch her but Sarah, shoved violently backward, stumbled and fell, slamming her head into the corner of the desk. Eddie was at her side in a second, lifting her carefully from the floor and examining the spreading bruise and jagged cut along her temple.
Lily gestured to Elle and Elle nodded in return. Silently, acting as one, they moved to either side of Piotr, close enough to touch him but still just out of striking range. Piotr, lost in his delirium, abruptly sat up and said something long and convoluted in Russian, eyes open but rolled back in his head, spitting and cursing as he swung his arms left and right.
“As soon as she's better?” Elle asked, dodging one of Piotr's wilder swings.
The breeze from his fist passing left Lily's flesh prickling. “On three,” Lily agreed, sidestepping another swipe as Piotr, turning at the sound of her voice, spit and cursed. Lily knew very little Russian but what she did recognize was the torrent of profanity pouring from his lips. Though she did not say so out loud, Lily was willing to bet that Piotr was once more reliving his death. The now-familiar word for uncle spewed forth with such venom that her ears fairly burned.
“Are you willing to try again?” Lily heard Eddie asking Sarah. She glanced over her shoulder to see Eddie pressing a scrap of his shirt to her cut. She recognized the expression on his face—Eddie was marveling at how Sarah's flesh quickly closed beneath his palm.
“They'll hold him down this time,” Eddie promised her, and Lily, despite Piotr cursing violently beside her, preened for a bare moment at Eddie's solid, unwavering assurance. Then Piotr arched forward, this time so hard his head nearly smacked the floor, and Lily immediately dropped all thoughts of Eddie to corral her friend.
“We should wrap our hands,” Elle panted, wincing. “He's colder than a Sunday ice cream cone. Hey Sarah, kiddo, wait a second.”
“No time. Three!” Lily declared and lunged forward, searing her palms on Piotr's freezing shoulders as she grabbed him and shoved him down to the floor. Elle, following her lead, grabbed his ankles. Piotr flailed fiercely, wildly, feet kicking and shoulders lifting off the boards with such strength that Lily ripped the flesh of her palms free to get a better grip and kneel on his torso.
Piotr, eyes frosted over entirely with white now, stilled his thrashing just long enough to twist upward and whisper so only Lily could hear, “You bitch. You know what you do is wrong, you know it is evil, yet still you abide. I will make you pay for this, if it takes me until the sun is blotted from the sky, if it takes me until your precious Ragnarok. I will destroy you both.”
Then, yanking one arm free with impossible strength, he raked at Lily's face.
“Sarah! Now!”
Sarah, flinging herself forward, grabbed Piotr by the temples and sank her hands all the way into his head.
The room filled with rainbow light.
“It worked,” Lily said, wincing in pain as Sarah tended to her savaged palms. Eddie and Elle lifted Piotr up, Elle at his feet and Eddie at his head, and carried him carefully upstairs to his pallet. “Thank you, Sarah. You have no idea how special he is to us.”
“He feels different from the rest of you guys,” Sarah said hesitantly. “He feels…old.”
“He is old,” Lily said, running her newly healed palms over her upper arms. Piotr's chill was finally beginning to wear off and the room was filled with the drip of slowly melting water, both in the Never and the living lands. “Perhaps it is my imagination but I think he may be one of the oldest ghosts there is.”
Sarah grimaced. “He's dangerous. You guys know that right? He's…messed up somehow. He's wrong.”
“Perhaps,” Lily said. She felt heavy and sad and so, so very tired. It was just all the work she'd done to lock Piotr down, Lily assured herself, but her treacherous brain kept circling to the feeling of Piotr taking too much essence, taking and taking and taking, and then, only hours later, Lily just giving essence away to Eddie, as if she truly had any extra to spare. Frowning at her selfishness, Lily banned these intrusive thoughts and turned all her attention to Sarah. “But I think he's important nonetheless. Thank-you for seeing to him.”
“Elle promised me the stuff.” Sarah jerked her thumb over to the alcove where Piotr and his Lost had kept their scavenged goods. “She said I could have my pick.”
“You are welcome to all that is there but, please, know that you do not have to go,” Lily said, secretly glad that Piotr's hard-earned salvage would find some serious use. “You could stay with us. We protect the Lost.”
“Yeah, I heard, but I also heard that lately you don't do a very good job of it.” Sarah found a tattered backpack amid the goods and unzipped it, quickly stuffing the main compartment full. “Don't get me wrong, you Riders have your hearts in the right places, I see that, but I know what happened with all those other kids you guys ‘took care of’ a few months back. The White Lady got ’em. So if it's all the same to you, I've been on my own this long, I think I can survive pretty well for a while longer.”
Lily nodded. She didn't like the decision but she was not one to force the girl to come with her. Sarah must find her own way—and if she faltered, she knew where the Riders would be found. Now, Lily thought, Sarah had their scent. “I understand. Good luck.”
Sarah patted the bulky bag and slung it over her shoulders as she stood. “Don't need it. Not for a bit, at least.” She glanced up the stairs. “I'd be willing to help you or Elle or Eddie out, if you get hurt, I mean. But him? Count me out. I won't come for him again.” Then, without waiting for Lily's reply, Sarah turned and hurried through the wall, leaving them all behind.
Piotr woke slowly. The moon was well up and the last he could clearly recall, the sun had just been setting. How
long had he slept?
Gingerly, Piotr sat up and stretched. His body felt kinked all over, but strong. He was warm, all aches were gone. It took him several minutes of hard thinking but then, slowly, it came back to him.
Elle had found a Lost, and, ironically, she may have found the very Lost Ada had suggested was hanging near the docks. If only they'd listened to Ada first!
Sighing with relief, Piotr stood as carefully as he could. He could hear movement downstairs—low, familiar voices discussing their situation—and Piotr was overwhelmed with gratitude and shame.
Lily. Oh, Lily, he'd treated her atrociously. Piotr wasn't sure how he was going to make it up to her, but so far as he could recall, he'd spat on his best friend at least three times and she hadn't punched him once. Knowing Lily's fierce pride, such consideration and restraint must have taken some true self-control. Elle would have laid him flat.
Moving quietly down the stairs, Piotr waited patiently at the halfway point for his companions to notice he was awake. Eddie was the first to glance up.
“Wakey, wakey, eggs and bakey,” he said, hopping to his feet and approaching the stairs. “You're looking better. How're you doing, man?”
“Much better indeed,” Piotr said. “Well-rested and much healed. I owe you many thanks. All of you.” He held Lily's gaze a moment before continuing on. “And you have my deepest apologies for how I acted before. I was not in my right mind. I hope you could see that.”
“Have you ever been in your right mind?” Elle quipped, joining Eddie at the foot of the stairs. “I mean, hell flyboy, your head's like a sieve most days. Ain't nothin’ much right about all that.”
Piotr smiled gently at Elle's jest and Lily, ever observant, rose to her feet. “You remember. You do. I can see it in your eyes.”
Elle glanced quickly between them. “Remember? He remembers what?”
“Many things, now.” Piotr held out his hand and began ticking off points. “Elle, once, maybe a few months ago, you asked me if I could recall how you died, did you not?”
“Err, yes.” Elle crossed her arms over her chest and took back a step, narrowing her eyes. “The only thing you could rustle up was that I was in red.”
“You shot yourself.” Piotr mimed aiming a handgun at his head for effect. “Over a boy. And you did it on his lawn to teach him a lesson about sleeping with girls and leaving them high and dry when they…” he drifted off politely. The memory nearly had texture and weight, it was suddenly so fresh in his mind.
“Say it,” Elle said, lips thinned to a narrow line. “Finish up, Pete.”
“You were Catholic and knew your parents would ship you off to a nunnery to have the baby. You hated them, you hated yourself, and most of all you hated him. So rather than deal with the mess you'd made of your flamboyant life, you committed suicide.” Piotr swallowed deeply. The red had bled even into the Never.
“Got it in one,” Elle said, relaxing and smiling grimly. “And you found me, yeah? All confused and wandering, crying my damn eyes out cuz that baby was already dead inside me and I just didn't know it yet. If I'd waited maybe a few more weeks it would've passed on its own.” She spat. “Such a waste.”
“I found you bleeding out on his front lawn. I took you to the Pier and we watched the children play in the waves. We talked of many things—of how babies never wake in the Never. Of how they are always taken by the Light.” Piotr felt the words dry up on his tongue. He could so clearly remember now—the waves in the grey Neverlight, the feeling of the pier beneath his feet, the distant sound of laughter. How tired he'd felt, standing beside this girl no older than he'd been when he'd died, and thinking what a shame it was. What a shame.
“That was a cold summer,” Elle said softly. “I never knew how they could stand to dip their toes in water that cold. Toddlers like Tubs, dancing on the edge of the surf, kids like Specs and Dora keepin’ an eye out for ’em.” She rubbed a fist against her eye. “Boys. Ain't none of you worth it, not then and certainly not now. If I could do it again…” she drifted off.
They waited patiently, kindly, for her to gather herself and her thoughts.
“Well, never you mind, then,” Elle finally said, shaking her pincurls roughly. “What's done is done. What I really want to know is if that sickness of yours jarred any other special memories loose, or is it all about pretty, precious little ol’ me?”
“I remember much,” Piotr said softly. It was the truth. The memories were so haphazard, though, surfing through his mind, searching for a hole to fill, until he felt painfully stuffed, and yet the memories kept coming and coming and coming. Hundreds…no, thousands of years pouring into his brain in steady spurts. “Sarah, when she touched me, she took me by the head, did she not?”
“Grabbed you right in the ol’ brainpan,” Elle agreed, narrowing her eyes. “Sunk in up to her wrists, or pretty close to.”
“I think…perhaps she inadvertently fixed something wrong. Long wrong. In my head.” Piotr touched his temple. He wondered if his head was bulging; it felt like it would burst under all the new pressure. “I can remember so, so many things that were missing before. So, so many things.”
“Anything you want to natter about, Petey-boy?” Elle asked curiously.
“Not as of yet,” Piotr said seriously. “But I will tell what comes most clearly, what I know to be most true and not the possible imaginings of a fevered mind beset on all sides. Ada, for example, is far more important than she let on, perhaps for her own safety.”
Eddie crossed his arms over his chest. “How so?”
“Ada must be fetched from the Reapers,” Piotr said. Flashes now, of Mary talking, of Mary explaining, of Mary waving the little test vial of the very first poison under his nose as she ranted and raved about the Reapers, about Mary's sister Tracey and her family and Wendy. Ada hadn't known Mary had stolen it. Mary had wanted a backup in case Ada failed.
“It is imperative,” Piotr said, trying to push the intense memory of Mary's stalking rant into a dim, quiet corner of his mind. The edges of him felt like they were stretching painfully, like who he was was being bent out of shape…or into a new one. He felt bloated, like a tick, and bursting with intent. “Ada's work at Alcatraz is of great importance and must not be discovered by the Reapers.” Piotr closed his eyes. He could see the thin space in the basement, hidden behind a broken mirror. Ada had been gone but Mary had known how to get in. She'd dragged Piotr to Alcatraz and showed him the thin layers of the Never, the tiny hole, the rip between the worlds.
Piotr shuddered. To Ada, it must have been some interesting anomaly. To anyone else who knew what they were looking at, the darkness with the red eyes blinking within was terrifying.
“Why, Piotr?” Eddie asked. “Is it the weapons you guys said the Council has stashed?”
“No. It is much, much greater than that.” Piotr thought a moment of telling them everything he could remember, but time was short and he worried for Wendy. No, he thought, they had time for revelations later. For now…for now he had a job to do.
“No, we must return to Wendy's and garner her aid. This city cannot be left under Elise's control, but wresting power away from Elise cannot be done without the Lightbringer.” Piotr began walking toward the far wall, instinctively sensing that if he moved quickly, with purpose, the others would tag along like ducklings in a row. “This way, I will lead you down the quickest path toward Mountain View. We must locate Wendy now.”
“Pete, I was just there,” Elle said, proving Piotr right by following him unquestioningly through the wall. “I know maybe you weren't all with the up and up at the time, but Wendy's place is completely trashed; feathers and bird crap everywhere in her yard, her kitchen's a wreck—in the Never, at least—and Wendy-girl's nowhere to be seen.” Elle glanced back at Lily and Eddie, both keeping an even, loping pace behind but staying silent for the time being.
“That was then,” Piotr said, sinking through the remnants of a door on the far side, taking the stairs down two a
t a time. “Not necessarily now. Wendy has a vehicle and the living move far more swiftly than the dead. She very may well have returned home by now.”
When Elle began to protest, he raised a quieting hand. “By my faith, Elle, your trust I need. Wendy would not abandon us, this I know.”
They'd reached the main floor. Piotr peered through the front door to make sure there were no surprises like gulls or Walkers about, and then guided them toward a nearly-hidden tangle of bushes at the back of the complex. A thin trail snaked toward the highway. The path was very thin in the Never, hardly there, but smooth worn beneath their feet; under Piotr's experienced guidance they would be traveling as the crow flies.
“No duh,” Eddie said as he, wincing, walked through a particularly thin eucalyptus. He glanced uneasily up at the tossing branches above. “No one's suggesting that.”
“I was just about to,” Elle said, narrowing her eyes at Piotr as they broke through the brush and he led them straight up a hill toward the highway. “But someone's fancy pants knows me a little too well, I guess.”
“We need her,” Piotr said simply, eying the traffic. It was late in the evening, nearing ten by the position of the moon, but the airport was relatively close. All he had to do was wait for the right transport to come along.
“I don't need her.”
“Fine, Elle. Perhaps you do not, but I need her. I know you and the Lightbringer have not always seen eye to eye, but she is important, this you cannot deny. Not only to us, but to them. We must reach her first.”
Piotr was moving too fast; Eddie was struggling to catch up. He had to stop and say, “Look, I know everyone here is all ‘grrr Reapers’ but seriously, come on guys, do you really believe that Wendy's family would do all that bad stuff? I mean, come on, we haven't even given one of them a chance to explain themselves.”
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