Little Spark

54 - The Doctor

I stare at the boiler shadow. All the new info seems to float just above my head like the butterflies from my dreams. As each piece of the puzzle nestles into place and I'm able to see the picture in front of me, Rave's words seem to stab into the marks behind my ear:

The apple doesn't fall far from the tree.

I think back over the past four months: all the things I've learned; challenges I've faced; secrets I've uncovered; new things I've experienced—making friends; losing them; flashing; blazing; shifting; healing; kissing; loving; I can see all of it there in the shadow Reign just used to vanish from my life.

I walk over and stand in it, spinning around and examining it from different angles in attempt to make sense of things. I lay my palm against the metal of giant water heater, marveling that something cool to the touch on the outside could contain something so hot it boils. This has to be true of Reign too. It has to be. I know the guy that let me snot all over his button-down in the woods is boiling beneath the cold exterior of the guy who just departed through this shadow. Roman did say he'd make sure Reign stays away from me....

But then again, Reign was playing me; he said it was "done", but he didn't say when it ended.

Warring emotional cyclones whip around inside my head and chest, but right now, the one that spins the fastest is rage, because the truth of the matter is, as much as I despise Reign Patos, and as betrayed as I feel right now, he was as just as much a pawn in Mauro's little game as I was. I'm furious about Mauro pulling my strings and dancing me around like a marionette, but the fact that he played Reign and me against each other royally pisses me off.

Walking to the heavy exit door as Reign suggested, I shove my way back out into the crisp afternoon. As my eyes adjust to the daylight, I shield them with my hand and look around to figure out where I am. An empty parking lot stretches out in front of me. When I spot a bike rack with my bike neatly tucked inside at the opposite end of the lot—so he implies he never cared about me, but hand delivers my bike from the park... makes perfect sense, right?—I shake my head: somewhere no one would look for us on a Saturday? Our high school's boiler room.

I look over my shoulder at the door I just exited, and the conversation that took place on the other side replays in my head; I want to make someone pay. Yes, I conceded and will likely never find the weapon that can defeat the Shadows. But I'm going to find Mauro.

And I'm going to kill him.

I may not be able to eliminate them all, but if I can make sure he never occupies a position of authority, Cocoa Falls will be a much better place—even if I die in the process.

At this point, I've got nothing to lose.

********************

My face goes numb from the constant rush of cold air, but my legs are on fire by the time I climb off my bike and conceal it in the bushes outside the gate to the cemetery. I doubt Mauro is even in The Crypt, but I figure that's the best place to begin the search for him; maybe I can even summon him from inside.

I cross the cemetery and walk straight into the upper structure. I don't glow, of course; but it turns out, I don't need to.

I can see in the dark.

I can see the fissures in the walls and the wild earth sprouting up from the cracks in the marble floor and the small colony of bats hanging in silent slumber just a couple feet above my head. I can see the opening to the staircase, and when I reach the top of it, I can see all the way to the bottom. As I descend, I can see the random shoots of varying shades of grey that make up the jagged pattern in the black marble of the downward sloping walls, and I can see the sharp edge of each stair.