The Root

by Na'amen Tilahun

  The smile on Daniel’s face dared him to figure this one out on his own.

  The wall in front of them was a different material than the other walls they had been passing. Instead of the plain gray stone, this one was slightly illuminated white with veins of sickly green.

  “This is like the walls of that hole they put me into.”

  Matthias’s gaze on him sharpened.

  “What do you mean?”

  “The walls all around me were glowing, they felt weird like something slimy, like they were sticking onto my skin but also wanted me to slip off.” He grimaced in embarrassment. “It’s hard to explain.”

  Matthias made an odd humming note in his voice and reached forward to touch the glowing rock. He quickly pulled his hand back and shook it back and forth and then stared down at it. Erik saw the flesh slowly blend and fade. However, unlike the other times Erik had seen Matthias use his power, it still remained there in shadow. It was almost blended, but not quite.

  Sweat broke out on Matthias’s forehead.

  “Did you cut yourself on this rock getting out?”

  “Yes.”

  Matthias hummed again and his hand came back to solid.

  “You think there’s something in the rock. Something to block our abilities?” Erik asked.

  “Maybe so. Or maybe it doesn’t block so much as absorb. That must be why you still haven’t healed completely. By now you should be fine.”

  Erik nodded, not worried about himself. “So you think Tae and the others are behind this wall?”

  “I don’t know about that.” Matthias frowned. “You’re the one who brought us here, aren’t you?”

  Erik simply nodded, ignoring the question in Matthias’s tone.

  “So how would the Suits be around this? They’re Blooded too, aren’t they?”

  “As far as we know, though what one of the Angelics said at the meeting makes me wonder.” Matthias seemed lost in thought, but then came back to himself. “In any case, they’re enough like us. So it must not be the Suits who maintain this.”

  “The Angelics have a different power source.”

  “According to them.”

  Erik paused and thought about that. They were supposed to be related to these beings. When the Angelics he’d seen had been humanoid, that had been easier to swallow. Now, though, he shuddered. How closely related could they be?

  “Our other option is to try and find someone who knows about it and I think that would be a really bad idea,” Erik stated.

  “As opposed to dragging an actual Angelic back here to do something?” Matthias asked.

  “What if all it needs is their presence?”

  “Still—”

  “What if all it needs is the presence of something that used to be an Angelic?” Erik interrupted.

  Matthias looked confused before a dark smile took over his face. A little more discussion and they realized they had nothing to lose from trying it out. In any case, their only other option did seem to be finding someone to explain it to them.

  They were turning away when a figure came directly through the wall. Matthias made no move at all but Erik immediately threw a punch that went right through it. He recognized it as Elana right after and took a step back with his hands in the air to show his mistake.

  Elana gave him a quick nod of forgiveness but the smile she wore in no way reached her eyes. After a quick glance at Matthias, her gaze stayed on Erik’s face, her mouth moving but not opening as if she wanted to say something but was unsure where to begin. He began to get nervous.

  She had not acknowledged Daniel at all.

  Then she spoke.

  “Daniel is dead. Byron killed him.”

  Hearing it was no less devastating. He could feel his face begin to crumple before he took a deep breath and pulled it together.

  “How do you know?”

  “I watched it. The gas didn’t knock me out, just confused me for a bit.” She scrutinized his face further, the sympathy turning to suspicion. “How did you know?”

  Erik shrugged and asked a different question. “Is everyone on the other side of that wall?”

  She nodded and looked back at it.

  “Did you see them get put inside?” Matthias wanted more details.

  “No. I followed my bond with Elliot but there’s something in the building that muddles it, makes it weak, so it took me a while.”

  Matthias and Erik both looked at the softly glowing wall.

  “What did you see when you got here?”

  “Two of those things, the one that looked like soap bubbles and the one made up of all the sand, and the stone was closing up like water.”

  “Did you see what they did to make it open and close?”

  “No, not really. It looked like the soap bubble popped against it a few times. I guess.”

  “So probably some switch or lever.” Matthias moved closer to the wall, not touching it but running his hands right above it, searching for something. Finally with a snort of frustration he laid his hands on the wall, slowly running them up and down.

  “Aha.” Matthias stopped and ran his hands over the same section again and again until the tip of his finger brushed against a small raised portion of the stone. “There’s a small piece of stone here completely invisible to sight. I think it might be the trigger.”

  Erik saw his arm bulge as he tried to press down or trigger something.

  “We should mark it in some way so we don’t have to search for it again.”

  Erik stepped forward and reached up, gathering some of the blood from his ear. He drew a circle around the place Matthias’s hand was.

  Matthias let his hand fall but kept it away from his body.

  “Let’s go back and get a piece.”

  “A piece of what?” Elana asked, but Erik was already walking back to where he left the Angelic. He heard them speaking behind him but didn’t pay attention. He had another conversation to conduct quietly, a few feet in front of them.

  “What are you? Why can’t they see you?”

  Daniel had been floating along silently but pretended to not understand what Erik was asking.

  “I’m what’s left of Daniel after his death.”

  “So why can’t they see you the way they can Elana?”

  “If someone comes back from the other side, and it’s very rare, usually only those who share close blood ties or a strong emotional connection can see the ghost. Blooded are obviously more powerful than normal humans, that goes for their ghosts too—anyone with the slightest blood relation can see them. Technically all you Blooded and Angelics share a single forebear if you go back far enough. So you can all see Elana. But I’m not Blooded. So they can’t see me. You loved me, so you can. Simple enough.”

  “How do you know all this?” Erik whisper-asked.

  “Surely you don’t think you come back from the other side without some compensation for the horrible journey?”

  Erik blinked at that. It made some sort of sense but he still felt nervous.

  “So I should tell them about you?”

  Daniel shrugged. “It’s up to you. I can’t do anything about that, although it seems to me that the time to tell them about me was when you first saw them. It may be too late.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Look at the way they’re looking at you.”

  Erik glanced behind him quickly. Matthias and Elana were huddled in conversation as they followed him, their eyes darting to him and away many times.

  “They worry. Remember what they said about the past berserkers? How they broke?”

  “That’s what they said about the ones who were used and did not have the same control.”

  Daniel shrugged as if the difference were negligible. “That’s what they think you are. That’s the standard they will judge you against. You have gone through much trauma. They will worry.”

  Daniel was acting like he didn’t care one way or the other, but the tone of his words was a su
btle threat. Erik had dealt with enough of them to know it. However, it didn’t mean he was wrong. Already they were looking at him with an odd tilt to their faces. How much more odd would the look become if they knew he was speaking to the ghost of his ex-boyfriend who died because of him?

  That only he could see, other than Byron, and wasn’t that great evidence? You guys know that traitor who screwed us over? Well, he can see my brain ghost too! That would not go over well.

  They would chalk it up to survivor’s guilt and PTSD. The looks did not improve as they passed the room with Brady’s broken body suspended above the hole. Erik moved quickly into the room with the remnants of the Angelic. It was hard to tell for sure but its viscera was changing color, slowly turning from a light gray/white to something darker the longer it lay there.

  He reached down and gathered half of the gray-red meat he had ripped apart in one hand, picking up a hand full of sand for good measure.

  They headed back in more silence.

  At the wall Matthias reached for the effluvia in Erik’s hand, but Erik pulled away. His own hand was already soaked in the Angelic blood. He covered it in the sand as well and pressed his palm where Matthias’s had been. He felt something shift and yanked his hand back. As the door started to melt open, he threw the remains of the Angelic to the side.

  TAE

  The young girl from the mall had finally woken up. She said her name was Zaha, with an understandable wariness that could have arisen from a hundred different things. The last thing she remembered was shopping in the mall with her friend.

  “Where are we?”

  Tae swallowed and tried to answer calmly. He’d heard that trauma victims sometimes mirrored the emotions of the ones talking to them. It was probably bullshit but worth a try.

  “In the basement of an office building in San Francisco . . . I think.”

  Her eyes widened and Tae allowed that this quite probably was not the most calming thing to say.

  “Why?”

  Tae struggled with an answer. Normally reading a non-Blooded was something that could get you in trouble if the Organization found out, but they were in some extreme circumstances and anyway it wasn’t their fault they were in this. He decided to start out smaller than the whole basement thing.

  “Because something attacked you at the mall. Do you remember anything about that?”

  Zaha rested her head on her knees, eyes closed in confusion.

  “I remember being in the mall. I was there with my friend Carlie—” She broke off and her head shot up. “Carlie, did you see her?”

  Tae shook his head, not wanting to reveal that her friend was most likely dead or something different, like those others in the mall. The wall in the back of their cell suddenly melted off to the sides like a liquid curtain, flowing and disappearing to reveal Erik, Elana, and Matthias.

  Both the live ones looked like they had taken quite a beating. Their clothes were ripped and dried blood adorned them in various places.

  Daya and Elliot moved forward, but Tae beat them to Erik. He stopped when he saw the viscous white liquid on his hands, lumpy as if it were milk gone bad.

  “I’m glad you’re okay.”

  That was when a scream interrupted them all.

  “Who are they? Why are they floating?”

  In the rush to greet Erik he’d completely forgotten about Zaha. He turned back to her and she was backed against the opposite wall, her eyes wide and terrified, looking at Elana. Everyone froze, including Elana. This girl could see her. It should have been impossible unless the girl was Blooded in some way. Erik was proof enough they didn’t know all of the bloodlines in the Bay Area. Tae hurried over to her.

  “It’s okay. Elana’s, well, she is a ghost but I promise, she’s friendly.”

  Zaha was shaking her head back and forth but she was no longer trembling. Elana was no longer floating in the air above the crowd of people but was hovering very close to the ground, trying to make herself as human-seeming as possible.

  “What about the other one?”

  Tae immediately looked around, looking for another spirit. Blooded ghosts were rare but not unique. Perhaps the Organization had sent one of the others to look for them. They had to know the meeting had gone rogue by now, but there was no one he could see in the space of air that she was staring at.

  “What do you see?” Erik was pale, staring at her as if she were a ghost herself.

  “Some guy floating!” She was on the edge of hysteria and it felt like Tae was not that far behind her. He opened himself to the world, opened himself to visions, but still he could see nothing. It had been a long time since he had felt out of his depth in this way.

  “Describe him.” Erik’s voice was now loud and commanding. Tae wondered if he was calling on all his acting training. Wasn’t that the sort of thing they taught?

  “He—he’s younger. His skin is a light, gold brown, his head is shaved, and he’s wearing what looks like an orange prison jumpsuit and his chest—oh, lord, above his chest.” She screwed her eyes closed and would not look at any of them.

  None of them noticed. They were all looking at Erik.

  “Erik, who is she talking about?” Matthias’s hand hovered over Erik’s arm as if he wanted to touch him but didn’t know what kind of reaction he would get.

  “It’s Daniel.”

  Everyone was silent, looking at each other. A non-Blooded ghost!

  “That’s how you knew he was dead,” Elana accused.

  “Yeah, he came to me while I was in the oubliette.”

  “That’s how you’ve been guiding us? Why didn’t you tell me?” Matthias sounded more hurt than angry and still Erik would not even look at him.

  “Because you and Elana couldn’t see him. I didn’t want—”

  No one said anything but everyone heard the you to think I was losing it on the end of that sentence.

  “He says the rest of you can’t see him because you weren’t emotionally connected to him or blood related. That we can all see Elana because if you go back far enough we’re all related to one another.”

  “That’s not wrong,” Tae said, still scrutinizing the air Zaha was staring at, straining to see anything. “I should still be able to see him, though.”

  “How?” Erik asked. “You’re not related to him or emotionally connected as far as I know.”

  “My power is sight, Erik. I and others like me are the reason we know non-Blooded ghosts even exist. I should still be able to see him.”

  Everyone was quiet. Erik looked at what still looked like a blank space to Tae, no matter how he tried to tune his power.

  “He could be part of Byron’s plan.” Daya sounded like she wanted that to be the case.

  “Why would you say that?” Erik asked.

  “How many times has one of us lost someone close to us? We’ve never gotten a ghost back. Why now?”

  Erik looked pointedly at Elana. Daya shook her head.

  “That’s different.”

  Erik didn’t looked convinced. “You told me ghosts were rare, so that explains why it doesn’t happen more often.” He hesitated. “Anyway, Byron could see Daniel too. He ran when he saw him.”

  Tae turned to look at Zaha, but she no longer looked terrified. In fact, the argument was having the opposite effect. All the people debating and discussing and accepting it as real had made it more mundane for her. She’d even taken a step forward from the wall. Tae noticed it was toward Elana and away from the other thing she saw.

  “So Byron ran from a ghost that only he, yourself, and this girl we just happened to meet can see? That doesn’t sound suspicious to you?” Daya asked.

  “Of course it does, but what do you suggest? Unless you’re hiding something, you know as little as the rest of us,” Erik said.

  “I know enough to know this is not normal.” Daya took a step forward and Tae watched Matthias shake his head and take hold of Erik’s arm. Daya should have known better than to challenge Erik in such a
direct way, especially after all the things he’d gone through today.

  Erik shook off Matthias’s hand but didn’t step forward or get into Daya’s face.

  “Well, you know, I think you just want to be special. The only one in love with a ghost around here.” No one was looking at Matthias except for Tae, so no one else saw the way the man’s face broke at those words before he brought himself back under control.

  “And if we’re gonna talk about the enemy using our lovers? You need to have a talk with the Organization.”

  “Erik,” Matthias hissed.

  “What do you mean?” Daya hesitated to take another step, but she didn’t need to. Erik took that final step to bring them nose to nose.

  “We found Elana’s body, at least what the Angelics left of it. It’s been with them this whole time. What have they been doing with her? Using her as a spy somehow?”

  Daya looked devastated at the news. Matthias was finally able to pull his aspirant away and got him calmed down in the corner. Elana simply floated with her hand over her mouth before she spoke.

  “Matthias, you knew this?”

  Matthias turned from Erik and looked at Elana.

  “Yeah, sorry, Elana. We found out when we left the safe house. I’ve been waiting for a time to tell you.”

  “And you didn’t think before now would be best?” Daya exploded.

  Erik growled but did not leave the corner.

  “Did you think it best to antagonize a traumatized berserker who only awakened two weeks ago?”

  Daya looked down but her mouth opened.

  Elana chose to interrupt before Daya could reply.

  “I hate to break up a lovely go-nowhere fight, but how about we try to get the hell out of here before anyone comes to check on us or the missing Angelic? We’ll deal with all of this later, we can figure it out and do some tests when we’re safe.” She glanced at Erik as she said the last part and then down and away.

  No one could argue with that. They filed out with Erik in the lead, head tilted to the side, listening to a ghost none of them could see.