Little Spark

46 - Aftermath

"Wait, you mean you can travel at the speed of light? Candis didn't tell me that!"

"Yeah dude. That's how Bliss just appeared out of nowhere when we got to CG. It's actually kind of a weird feeling...."

The low whispers drift across my waking mind, and I lift my shockingly heavy eyelids, fully expecting to see trees overhead. As the ceiling fan dizzily spins into focus, and I turn my head to the right and see the clock—02:07AM—I'm relieved to find I'm in my own bed. I slowly come to, sliding my bare legs against the cool sheet to get the blood circulating.

"Hey, look, she's up!" The masculine voice reaches my ears at the same moment I realize I'm in my underwear. I pull the covers up to my neck to make sure I'm completely covered and slowly sit up to face my visitors.

"Bliss!" Apollo says standing up from my desk chair and coming over to the bed. He kneels to my left, and Von, who is sitting on the floor against the wall, comes over and kneels to my right. "Man," Apollo says, reaching out to feel my forehead with the back of his hand, "we're so glad you're okay! You had us worried for a minute, kid."

I'm so staggered by the fact that there are two boys in my room at two in the morning, I lose the capacity to put together a sentence.

"She looks a little spooked, A.B.," Von says to Apollo—them being here together, and apparently quite chummy, makes things that much more bizarre. "Maybe we should explain what we're doing here? It is like two in the morning, bro."

"True," Apollo says. "Very true. Well, Reign's miraculous rise from the dead is all over the news, but we hadn't heard from you, so when the cops and news vans left the scene of the accident, we went to find you. I checked inside the house first"—he gives me a pitying look—"but of course you weren't in there. I did find some stuff you might be interested in—these weird magnetic pendants and a newspaper." He gestures over his shoulder to the desk where the objects lie.

"We found you passed out in the woods and brought you home," Von says. "Mr. Casey came by to check on you after your aunt got you in bed. Said you just needed some rest."

"Hope you don't mind, but we decided to stick around until you woke up to make sure you were okay," Apollo says. "Your aunt was pretty nice about it." I smile faintly in appreciation. "We uhh, kinda had to tell her the truth about where you were though."

I groan.

"She wanted to take you to the hospital, but you showing up there after Reign—it just wasn't a good idea, Bliss," Apollo continues. "If the Shadows happen to put two and two together—"

"Yeah, I get it." My anger spikes at the sound of the S-word, but when no lights flicker and no bulbs break, the weight of my deal with Mauro drops into my belly like a pallet of bricks.

"You did a good job staying hidden though," Apollo says. "Nobody saw you on the scene."

I choose my next words carefully. "So, umm, what are they saying on the news?" I just gave my life to the Shadows to save Reign's. I still have no clue what that even means, but I need to know he's actually alive.

"It doesn't make any sense," Von says, shaking his head and looking bewildered. "My dad says nobody's driven on that road in seventeen years. There was some big tragedy at a house there before we were born, and everybody left the neighborhood."

Apollo and I make uncomfortable eye contact.

"The whole area is rumored to be cursed, and most people are so scared to go near there, the city didn't even bother to condemn the houses and board them up. People say it's so bad, even forest critters stay away from the abandoned houses. Can't ask the driver what he was doing in the area because he's dead," Von continues. "And from what I understand, Reign hasn't said a whole lot."