Of Breakable Things

by A. Lynden Rolland

  The attention only increased when Alex broke away from the current to stand alone in the corner of the square. The whispers and the pointing didn’t bother her, but the paranoia did. Kids stood on tiptoe, scanning the perimeter, and some covered their heads with their books. Alex tried to ignore them and keep her focus, searching for Chase. Hoping.

  She probably wouldn’t have seen it coming if not for the eruption of screams. A dark shadow inched across the crowd. Above it, a stone boulder of a bench arched to the peak of its height and surrendered to gravity.

  Ellington had not been lying about the new extent of her mind. Now that she thought about it, she could see the trajectory of the object, as though someone had used a marker to trace it in the air. The bench was set to land on the crown of her head. In that split second, she could even visualize exactly where the pieces would land once the bench was demolished.

  Instinctively she thought to run, a logical reaction, but before she could move, an unexplainable energy tugged at her brain. She cried out as her head filled with pressure like a screeching teapot. She feared her skull might burst, and prayed for the pain to release her. It aptly obeyed, shooting from her, detonating like a bomb, forcing her to her knees. The granite bench halted above her, colliding with an invisible barrier. It fell to the ground and landed with five simultaneous claps of thunder.

  Alex remained on her knees, head in her hands, arms shaking like she had just bench-pressed three hundred pounds, and all the weight had landed on her throbbing head. The whispers commenced, but in shock now instead of curiosity. Everyone turned to gawk at her.

  As the dust cleared, there was a figure walking towards her, his shoulders thrown back in a familiar stance of confidence. A moment later, his arms were around her. But something didn’t feel right. His grip was too tight, and his build was too bulky. Alex realized then that it was Jonas Lasalle, and not his brother, who was burying his face in her hair.

  Jonas Lasalle had never been speechless in his life. He was actually quite proud of his big mouth. But when he saw Alex, it took him a few moments to find his voice. He had known she would join them eventually; the girl had been a walking corpse since birth, but it still didn’t prepare him. There she was. Alive. Prettier than ever. Alone. Without Chase around to distract her, to hover over her like a canopy, hell-bent on preventing her from having any fun in life.

  Who the hell had thrown that bench? Usually when new kids arrived someone would throw a rock or a book at them. It was a barbaric form of initiation, but it was also hilarious. Most boys ran away while the girls screamed like their lives were ending all over again. But not Alex.

  He smirked, listening to the kids around him.

  “Who did that?”

  “How did it explode?”

  “Forget that, who threw it?”

  “How did she do that?”

  He strutted forward, blinded by the dust that stubbornly hung in the air alongside his anticipation. When she saw him, her face twisted into such an expression of joy that Jonas supposed Chase had appeared right behind him. But that was impossible. Chase was gone. For the time being, at least.

  He forgot himself and wrapped his arms around her. Her shock was tangible. He could feel it emanate from her. The fact that he was hugging her was certainly uncharacteristic. Of all the Lasalles, Jonas knew he was considered to be the least likeable, especially in Alex’s eyes. As a child he had ridiculed her. He’d kicked her shins, pulled her hair, hid her belongings, and once even locked her in an old trunk. Now he was hugging her. This PDA went against the image he’d tried so hard to maintain his whole life. He was a desperado of a boy who was acting like he needed a place to rest his reckless head, and he knew it.

  He hated to admit it, but he could get used to it.

  Alex’s arms hung stiff at her sides until Jonas finally let go.

  “You look like you’ve seen a ghost.”

  Bad joke, he thought to himself, cursing loudly in his head. None of this was funny. But Alex’s face broke into a smile, and they both began to laugh. And they kept on laughing until they were practically holding each other for support.

  It felt good.

  Alex composed herself. “And your brothers? Are they here too?”

  Annoyance tasted like a mouthful of salt. Jonas tried to keep it from showing on his face. Before he could answer, the door of the Brigitta building swung open. Ellington Reynes emerged, looking antsy.

  Oh, not this guy, Jonas thought with a roll of his eyes. Ellington was way too serious for his liking.

  “I’m so sorry, Alex,” Ellington said, nodding to acknowledge Jonas. He didn’t seem surprised at all to see Jonas standing there.

  Ellington had been the one to greet him at the gates of Eidolon, and he had access to various milestones in Jonas’s former life. How did Ellington interpret his odd history with Alex? Judging by the knowing look on his face, he’d seen enough. Damn it.

  “I’m afraid the Brigitta director is detained at the moment.”

  “That means you can’t get in the building,” Jonas informed Alex before turning to Ellington. “I’m willing to bet that Romey will be gone the rest of the day. She had to take care of my brother.”

  Ellington groaned. “Not again.”

  “Yep.”

  “Where?”

  “No idea.”

  “Which brother?” Alex demanded, interrupting them.

  “Your favorite one.” Jonas tried to wipe the salty taste from his lips. He watched Ellington begin to bite his nails. “At least Chase didn’t get anywhere this time. He was caught pretty early.”

  “Any other newbury would have been expelled by now.”

  “Newbury?” Alex cut in.

  “Newly buried, like you.” Ellington paused, noticing the large slabs of granite scattered throughout the courtyard. He cringed at what was left of the bench. “Is this what I think it is?”

  “If you’re thinking that a bench the size of a standard midsized sedan came flying at Alex’s head, then yes,” Jonas replied.

  Ellington huffed. “They didn’t waste any time, did they? I take it you were forced to run for your life?”

  “Actually,” Jonas said, “she diverted it.”

  “She what?”

  “You heard me.”

  Ellington closed his eyes tightly, as if some secret was out of the bag. “She can’t just stay out here until Romey returns.”

  Jonas sensed the opportunity. “I’ll just take her with me. I’m heading to Lazuli Street now, and then we’ll be back for curfew.”

  Ellington looked wary. “That is probably the last thing she should be subjected to on her first day here. It will probably scare her a bit.”

  “Might as well rip off the Band-Aid.” He glanced at Alex, satisfied to see that she was stepping closer to him.

  “What’s Lazuli Street?”

  “If you come along, I’ll show you.”

  Ellington didn’t look convinced. “I’d feel better if I could join you.”

  A chaperone was the last thing Jonas wanted.

  “But I have a meeting in the city at the Dual Tower.”

  Score.

  “You’ll probably find Romey there,” Jonas said eagerly. “I think that’s where they took Chase.”

  Alex opened her mouth, but Jonas held up a hand to shush her. “Cool it,” he warned. Alex crossed her arms in frustration, and the way she stuck out her lower lip was kind of adorable. He did his best to ignore it. “It’s a masque. She’ll be fine.”

  “That’s true. I’ll meet you back here before curfew, just in case,” Ellington said. “Alex, will you be okay?”

  “Don’t worry,” Jonas said. “She’s tougher than she looks.” He took Alex’s arm and she followed obediently.

  As they departed, Jonas heard Ellington mutter under his breath, “She’ll need to be.”

  Wrong, Jonas thought. Alex would finally be able to make her own choices. She wasn’t made of glass anymore.

  Alex
didn’t care where Jonas led her. He was a piece of home. She’d rather be in the company of familiarity than be left alone.

  They crossed through the courtyard, and Alex thought the scene was like something out of a dream. The rain had stopped, but several spirits formed circles around the dark puddles. They held their hands above the water, which rose and fell like a solid object, morphing like putty. Near them, a mob chanted for what appeared to be an unorthodox race. Two spirits sprinted towards each other until, in the split second before collision, one disappeared, like a game of invisible chicken. Jonas called it “child’s play.”

  Though the sun had not decided to show itself at all that day, it appeared the moon was much more curious as to what was going on below. As the day died, the sky darkened in mourning, and the clouds parted for the moon to peek through.

  “Jonas,” Alex began. “Was that normal?”

  “What?”

  “That bench?”

  Jonas let out a little laugh. “It’s normal when you’re new. I’m not sure when the tradition started, but it’s like a rite of passage around here.”

  “It isn’t very nice.”

  “You’re dead, Alex. Don’t be so sensitive.”

  She glared at him. “What’s the point of it?”

  “I guess to see the reaction. To see the new kids squirm.” He stepped over a dimple in the stone walkway. “That dent is from Kaleb’s initiation. He had a tree nearly fall on him. Newburies don’t usually demolish the object like you did.”

  “I have no idea what happened,” Alex admitted. How could she even be sure she’d been the one who caused the explosion? The only thing she’d done was wish for the pain to cease.

  “It would be weird if you did.”

  The wind flitted through Alex’s hair. It reminded her of childhood bike rides, or cruising in Kaleb’s jeep with Chase at her side, and she wished for him. “Jonas, what did Chase do? Why is he in so much trouble?” A shadow flashed across Jonas’s face, but it happened too quickly for Alex to identify the sentiment. For a moment, the air was filled with the sharp reek of salty bay water.

  “He got a taste for breaking the rules, and I guess he liked it.”

  Not likely. Chase was never one to stray from order, but to Alex’s exasperation, Jonas didn’t seem willing to offer more of an explanation.

  “Where are we going?”

  Jonas looked back haughtily over his shoulder. “There’s a festival tonight.”

  “A what?”

  “A festival. Like a party.”

  She doubted this day could become any stranger. Death, third grade, California, and now a party? A part of her would prefer to curl into a ball and take time to process this unbelievable world, but Jonas wasn’t the type to sit at her side and pat her hand. If she needed to go to this festival in order to keep him around, she’d do it.

  “Feel that charge around us? Spirits like to let loose. You’ll learn that pretty quickly.” He skirted around some loose bricks. “One of the perks of being dead. With all the time in the world, why not have a little fun?”

  She understood what he meant about the charge. The air around them began to tremble. “Is that why you’re dressed up?”

  Jonas hurriedly rolled the sleeves of his button-down shirt. “I hadn’t noticed.”

  “How could you not know what you’re wearing?”

  “Because it changes according to my mood.”

  “Is everyone that way?”

  “Of course.”

  That explained the eccentrically dressed kids in the courtyard. Ellington had said the mind created its own version of reality. She just hadn’t realized how public it would be.

  “You look nice,” Alex noted. “Is there an occasion for this party?”

  “Actually, yes. Autumn is like Christmas around here. Best time of the year. A small piece of the world dies for a bit, just like us. Spirits celebrate all over the world. One of these days I’m going to travel to one of the larger festivals. I hear it’s insane in other countries because they aren’t confined to the city like we are.”

  Jonas always used his hands for emphasis when he spoke, and she noticed he had something clutched in one of his fists. “What’s that?”

  “My mask for the festival. It’s a masquerade.”

  This kept getting worse. “I have to dream up a costume?”

  “Or maybe we can just find a sheet to throw over your head.”

  Alex bit her lip. How ironic that after everything she’d been through in the past few hours, her biggest concern was a costume.

  “I’m kidding,” Jonas said with a roll of his eyes. “Can’t you hear it yet? The music? It’s already started.”

  They crossed through a guard of gnarled trees and emerged onto a dark cobblestone road. Knobby lampposts with orange lights bathed the throngs of people who flooded the streets. Alex glanced up at the signpost. They stood on Lazuli Street, but she could not read the name of the adjacent road because the sign itself wore a feathered, birdlike mask.

  “If you can’t dream up a costume, here you go.” Jonas stopped next to a table that was littered with disguises and nodded at the vendor. He took a blue mask with peacock feathers, and fastened it gently around Alex’s head. “Now you don’t have to be the new girl until tomorrow.”

  Alex liked this idea. No one would be staring at her tonight; she could be the one doing the watching. Since when did Jonas understand her so well? “What’s the purpose of the masks?”

  “It’s tradition. Like I said, some festivals are outside of our own cities. If everyone wears masks, no one can distinguish the living from the dead.”

  The party was like Mardi Gras. People hung over the distorted iron balconies of the shops, toasting with stemmed glasses in their hands and shouting merrily to the people who danced and sang below. Games with dice and wheels, bands, tables of books, and holograms of advertisements lined the streets. Vendors smiled and offered vials, stones, or odd-looking gadgets. Some tables were even clustered with steaming cups, from which Alex shied away. What could a spirit possibly drink?

  Was Chase somewhere in this mess? Would she even recognize him if he was? Yes, she thought without doubt. Even if she were blind, she could find Chase.

  Alex watched a girl peel off Jonas’s mask and hand him an alternative, this one more like a headdress of a great black bear. Jonas laughed loudly, his face engulfed by the fangs of the beast. The girl thrust a champagne glass in his hand, filled with a gray swirling mist, and he tipped back his head to empty it.

  The exchanging of masks seemed to be the custom. The first person who tore off Alex’s mask surprised her so greatly that she cried out in shock, though the noises around her drowned it out. The girl narrowed her eyes at Alex and opened her mouth to speak, but Alex quickly snatched her cardinal red mask in return.

  The horde of hidden faces and maniacal laughter disoriented her. Alex clung tightly to Jonas’s arm. He stiffened, and through the fangs of the bear, Alex could see uneasiness flicker in his eyes. In that same instant, Alex was jostled by the crowd. Jonas had no choice but to catch her fall. He helped her find her feet again, his expression unreadable.

  “Crazy, huh?” he whispered into her ear. “You should see this place on All Soul’s Day. It’s twice as nuts.”

  An invisible wave herded them to the right, out of the street and up the sidewalk. The crowd sliced itself in half cleanly, making way for something Alex could only see on tiptoe. It resembled an approaching fog the way it drifted above the heads of the partygoers who clapped and cheered in excitement. Alex jumped and swayed from left to right to get a better view, but she was too small.

  Jonas watched her with amusement. “Come on,” he said, grabbing her hand and elbowing his way to the edge of the crowd.

  And then Alex could see that it wasn’t a fog at all, but dancers. They moved like nothing she’d ever seen before. Weightless and wispy like rolling clouds, they moved so rapidly that their black and white costumes created a gr
ay haze to shroud them. She stood dumbstruck and mesmerized until something she feared was blood began to splash out into the crowd. These dancing storm clouds produced a horrific rain. She stepped even closer to Jonas.

  “Don’t worry. They’re poppy flowers.”

  A red drop landed on her forearm. He was right. It was only a petal.

  As the dancers continued on their path, trickling by in perfect cadence, their porcelain masks hid all the emotion their movements so sublimely portrayed. Behind them, the crowd spilled back into the street, a confluence of the two masses.

  Just as quickly as the dancers arrived, they were gone. Alex realized she hadn’t been breathing this entire time, not that it mattered. She exhaled, and her cold breath became visible. All that was frozen burst back to life with new vigor.

  A jazz band kicked into gear above them. Alex felt a zap of energy and noticed a hand resting lightly on her shoulder. “Care for a reading, young one?”

  “Sorry?”

  The cat-like mask only covered the eyes of the woman who spoke, and Alex watched the corners of her lips curl upward in an appropriately feline sort of way.

  “No thanks.” Jonas yanked Alex’s hand and pulled her back into the street. “Stay away from those,” he hissed, jerking his head in the direction of the shop.

  “Those what?”

  “Aura readers. They’re like fortune tellers.”

  “Oh.” She glimpsed back over her shoulder with interest.

  “Don’t even think about it. They’re unreliable.”

  The street forked, and Jonas steered Alex to the left, where the noise was less deafening. Puffy lollipop trees lined the road, their color fading in and out like blinking Christmas lights.

  “How are they doing that?” Alex asked. Another spirit stole her mask, leaving her with shimmery feathers resembling angel wings.

  “Too many feelings,” Jonas said. “They can’t decide.”

  “This place is really confusing.”

  “It’s kind of like how spirits are dressed around here. It’s just their mood affecting their appearance.” He waved his hand at the trees. “They have feelings too. Who would’ve guessed?”