Endgame (Book 3)

Chapter 35

"I'm going first," I asserted. He was making me feel uneasy, but if he agreed to do this, I would get what I could out of him. 

"Ask away," he invited me.  Little emotion was evident in his voice.

"Okay," I thought. 

I drew up a blank. 

I knew I had questions, but I wasn't sure of where to start. The problem was that I knew what I wanted to find out. I just didn't know how many answers he had. 

"Ask him what he knows about Di-Men." Jay nudged me in the right direction. 

"What do you know about Di-Men?" I asked. 

"What is he, you mean?" He furrowed his brow. "And that doesn't count as my question."

I clarified. "Yes."

"Di-Men is a living form of interdimensional energy," he said easily. "Now. My turn."

I should've asked a better question. 

There wasn't much he could ask me that he didn't already know, just like Di-Men said. Nothing important. So I was good, right?

"Can you communicate with Jay?" 

"Don't answer that," Jay quickly rebuffed in my mind.

"I don't have a choice," I said. I felt uncomfortable giving that to him, but the rules were the rules. 

Still, I could be just as simple as Jeremiah was with his answer. "Yes."

He nodded his head in an understanding that didn't quite catch me. 

A breeze from another car blew the hair around our faces. I brushed mine back with my hand, but he let his rest over his eyes in an unkempt fashion, not even noticing the disposition.

My turn again.

"Has Di-Men hurt my family?" I said. "Or you?"

"That's two questions," he warned.

I grunted in annoyance. "Have either of you done anything to my family or Cassie?"

"Speaking for Di-Men, not at all," he said. "He has other plans. But with me-" He brought his hands to his chest. "-It gets a little more complicated." 

"Did you hurt them or not?" 

His eyes moved past me. He remembered all of the encounters he'd had with my parents, Sage, and Cassie. "Well, I've only threatened your parents- I think- but Cassie and Sage have definitely been through some stuff."

I dashed to him so he could see my constrained fury. "What have you done to them?"  

"See, that's not what you asked," Jeremiah said with a slight lilt in his voice. He raised a hand and flicked me in the chest. "The answer to your question is yes. And you didn't ask about any of your other friends. Ashley seems to be a little worse for wear."

My heart clenched in my chest. I curled my fists and brought one up to punch him with. My body was pushed back by enough force to make me fall over before I could hit him. 

"You don't want to do that," he said. "Now...hm..." He grabbed his chin. "What else do I need to know?"

Was he listening to Di-Men as I was listening to Jay? Was he receiving the same guidance? Something about the way he looked- it was as if he could see, but wasn't actually seeing. He had retreated into his mind. 

Were we both just puppets being strung along by higher powers than us?  

"I've got it!" he exclaimed. He pointed a finger at me. "How do you think you're going to stop Di-Men?"