And It Arose from the Deepest Black (John Black Book 2) (32 page)

19

Playa Beach had the vaguely haunted appearance of a place that had been heavily populated until five minutes ago. This was even more pronounced along the boardwalk, where lights still flashed, arcade games still blared music and sound effects, and the detritus of the human race still blew in the wind.

But no one was there.

It
smelled
populated. You know how things just smell when people are there in great numbers? The natural ocean salt mixed with sweat and sunscreen and greasy food to make a sort of human cologne. But it was dissipating. The place was empty.

From the backseat, I was no longer lazing about, half asleep. Mom and Holly were near. I scanned for them in every direction.

It was weird. A place I had been so many times before, a place I associated with the simple idea of being crowded.

Nothing.

Finally, after another call to my mother, we arranged to meet on the north end of the boardwalk. The shops and wooden walkway ended there, and so did the beach. A steep, rocky hill took over, leading around a bend in the coastline. Of course, whenever you combine steep rocks and public beach, you get the obligatory and supposedly illegal jumping spot, a flattened section about 20 feet up the rock wall. I had never done it. When we first started coming to Playa Beach, I was too small. Later on, I was too chicken. And now, well, I had other things to do. Once or twice a year, you’d hear stories of teenagers sneaking up there to jump at dusk (usually not at dawn, because, really, who wants to get up at dawn?) and hurting themselves. I never heard of anyone dying from the jump, but that possibility always lingered.

Pip didn’t so much park the minivan as she just stopped and got out. It seemed unlikely that we’d get a ticket, and besides, it wasn’t even our car. Going to the back, Pip pulled out her sword and strapped it on. Bobby took a second blade. Then Pip looked at me, up and down.

“I see you got the belts.”

“Thanks.”

She shrugged.

Out on the boardwalk, the odd feeling of the empty city increased. Even the roller coaster performed its endless streaming of light, enticing us to ride, though none of its cars would run on this particular night.

In the moonlight, I saw Mom waiting with Holly in her chair, facing south toward us, a short distance from where beach turned to rock. I ran to give them both a hug. Thankfully, we could do all this sans masks. The helicopters — and therefore, Alpha — were some distance off, toward the southwest edge of town.

Holly was scratching her left arm, and I could see it was raw and irritated, nearly bleeding, probably only kept from doing so by her powers.

Bad, Hol?

Yeah, Johnny. The worst it’s been. But I tried.

Tried what?

I tried to disconnect. Hide from it. Make it go away. I — I just couldn’t, though. It’s like the feeling is part of me.

I pressed my forehead against hers and smiled.
It’s okay, Hol. We can’t run anymore. There’s nothing left to do but stand and fight, and then I think this feeling will go away.

I hope so, Johnny. Thanks.
She scratched her arm even more intensely.

“What should I do?” Mom asked, looking completely lost.

You know, that kind of question never stops being weird. Your own
parent
asking you for advice.

“Just stay with Holly. Keep her out of danger.” I nodded to Bobby and Pip. “We’ll go after Alpha. And Jake.”

“No need, my friend,” a voice said from behind us.

We turned to find Jake standing alone on the boardwalk, illuminated by the colorful flashing lights of the shops and rides.

Wordlessly, Pip, Bobby, and I arrayed ourselves around Mom and Holly, and each of us drew our weapons, my double sword-spears coming to urgent life in my hands.

“Such a welcome, so friendly.” Jake chuckled, then coughed. He looked sick, like something was coming apart inside him. The idea that he was sunburned no longer seemed accurate. It was too far gone for that. He looked irradiated. Which, of course, made him seem all the more dangerous.

“Someone knows how to quiet his sound,” Pip muttered. “What do you guys call it? His beacon.”

Quiet
. It was then that I realized things were too quiet. Something I’d been hearing so frequently for so long was missing.

The sound of helicopters.

If Jake was here, why weren’t they? The likely answer to that question made me sick. Jake had sent one helicopter crashing to its doom, why not others? Why not all of them?

Suddenly, I was very afraid.

Not for me. For my friends, my sister, and more than any of them, for my mom. I realized, with a deep sadness, that of all the people standing on the boardwalk, only one of us didn’t have powers.

My father was gone. My mother wasn’t. And I wasn’t ready to see that change, no matter what Jake had done to the Gorgol.

A fire started, within.

“Leave us alone, Jake, or else,” I said.

The bastard clucked, dismissing me. “Really, John?
Or else
what?”

I took a step toward him. Bobby and Pip followed. “Or else it all ends for you, right here, right now.”

Jake chuckled, and the hairs on the back of my neck stood up.

What is —?

“John Black, you’re strong. And you’re brave or you’re foolish, the difference is immaterial. But more than anything, you’re vicious. You’ve killed two Gorgols, Omicron and Sigma, and yet one remains. The most powerful one of all, made even more powerful. By me.” Jake stood tall, but the appearance was deceptive.

From behind, I heard a faint sound. A rustling or shaking. I started to turn, but Bobby spoke. “Let’s take him down, Johnny. One against three.”

I nodded, and my sword-spears grew, looking more lethal than ever before. “Right now,” I said, “it’s just you and us.” I began to walk toward Jake with confidence and purpose, Pip and Bobby trailing me.

Once more, Jake chuckled, but his voice cracked and the laughter turned into a cough. He hid his face in one hand as the coughing worsened, his back hunching.

Finally, the hacking stopped, and Jake slowly stood straight again, his head gradually turning back toward us again.

There was something. His eyes. I think it was his eyes.

The sound behind us grew louder, distracting, and for a moment I turned my head back. Holly was scratching furiously.

Holly?

Oh, Johnny, it burns so bad
, she said, eyes pleading with me, scratching harder.

“Don’t be foolish,” Jake said. “I’m not alone.”

Oh no.

We’d been looking in the wrong direction, it seemed.

The massive form of Gorgol Alpha, curled in on herself as her children had done when they first arrived, pushed through the water, creating a mountain of swell that looked like a tidal wave. As she hit land, the water frothed and sloshed in every direction, surging up the long white plain of sandy beach before us. Then Alpha rolled to a stop and stood, smashing shops and lengths of boardwalk as she unfolded, so close to us the smell was nearly overwhelming. She towered over the rides and attractions, striking a terrifying silhouette in front of the colorfully lit Ferris wheel spinning idly and empty in the distance.

Alpha roared, and a spray of water flew off her scales in every direction.

A giant monster just snuck up on us,
I thought.
We suck.

My fear and anger coalesced, fueling the fire within me. This was too close, too dangerous. Mom. Holly. I had to do something.

Jake had been in control of Alpha for so long, but now he hardly seemed in control of himself. Maybe if I timed it right… in that dead space between the pulses, between his two sides.

I closed my eyes.

And reached out my mind, to see if I could wrestle Gorgol Alpha away from the man they called Ranger.

20

It didn’t work.

Whatever else Jake might have been, he was deeply connected to Alpha, like maintaining the bond for so long had only made it stronger.

I couldn’t pull him away.

But now I could feel him fighting me, with his mind. I sensed all the energy he put into it, realizing that there was nothing I could do.

Unless…

While I kept fighting for Alpha’s mind, I also sent a tendril into Jake’s. Nothing much. Just gauging the pulse.

One. The other. One —

And I physically launched myself at him, not the lofty jump I’d done before, but a cannonball shot into his chest. His body sluiced but not enough, my speed was so great. He fell backward in a heap.

And his connection to Gorgol Alpha snapped.

The creature wailed, a forlorn sound. For Jake?

Behind me, Holly moaned, a sound that turned from a low bass note into a scream.

Gorgol Alpha smashed through more buildings, one massive foot destroying a huge section of the boardwalk.

And Jake stood.

I looked to Bobby, to Pip.

Bobby nodded toward Jake. “You take care of him.” Then he looked up at Alpha. “We’ll dance with this devil for a bit.” With that, they leapt forward, swords out. I had to laugh.
“Dance with this devil.” He’d been practicing his material.

Two small blurs surrounded one giant one, as Bobby and Pip pestered Alpha, running around her in circles, slashing and jumping and diving away. She wasn’t hurt — her body was too quick for that — but they kept her occupied.

I turned back to Jake.

“Why us?” I yelled. “I told you Holly can’t do anything for Alpha. So why us?”

Jake, his face falling apart, smiled a hideous, rictus smile. “I did what you suggested. I looked into Alpha’s mind. It’s not quite what you think, John Black. Alpha,
she wants Holly. She wants your sister.”

“I don’t understand,” I said.

“In time,” he said, his smile fading. “Gorgol Alpha doesn’t wish to return to your sister for a way home. She thinks your sister
is
home.”

“What? Why?”

“That, you would have to ask Gorgol Alpha.”

I shook my head. It made no sense. “What about you?”

He paused, looking around as if he were pondering an interesting news article or listening to smooth jazz. “You, John Black. I came for you. Because I owe you something.”

“What?”

“How many have you killed, John? Not just the Gorgols. People, too.
Your own father
.” Jake raised a mocking eyebrow. “How many more will you kill, John?”

I had no answer. And the fury rose in me.
How dare he?

“That’s the funniest thing about all of this. The funniest, saddest, most tragic thing.”

“What?”

“It’s that
you
still think
you’re
the good guy.”

I couldn’t breathe. My vision began to collapse, pulling inward to a blackout.

Then Jake attacked.

He lashed out with a devastating blow, too fast for any power to stop. And at the same time, he drove his mind deep into mine. Scouring every part of my brain.

I tried to push back, but he was everywhere.

How can you fight everywhere?

The blackout tightened, and I knew it was over. I would succumb. Would Pip and Bobby defeat Alpha? Who knew? But I imagined blood. Bobby’s. Pip’s. Holly’s. Mom’s.

How can you fight everywhere?

There was nothing to do except one thing.

Try.

If these thorns in our cells were to blame, then they could help, too. I called for every cell to fight.

And the cells responded.

They were eager to fight.

They were the root of my fire.

No.

In that instant, I knew I was wrong.

The cells, the thorns were
not
the fire. That fire was my own. My own anger, my own grief, my own viciousness.

The thorns just enabled me to act on those things in ways that would otherwise be impossible. They were ready, always.

I knew I could do great things. And terrible things. The thorns were always ready, but they did not judge. They simply acted.
I was responsibl
e
.

I alone.

Despite the grief, I had one more job to do.

I used each and every thorn in my cells at that moment to dispel Jake. Mentally and physically.

Maybe it was completely silent, maybe there was a riot of light and sound, an explosion. I don’t know. But every single cell in my body — every thorn in every cell — blasted forth its energy.

Jake wasn’t simply pushed back, he flew away from me like a bomb had gone off.

Me.

* * *

I turned back to see Holly and Mom, the center of all things and yet too vulnerable.

Why did I ask them to come here?
I asked myself. But I knew.
Would it matter where I sent them? Is any place any different? This had to happen. Here. Wherever.

Bobby and Pip swarmed around Alpha, and the giant monster circled and sluiced. An endless dance that nonetheless would end. Someone would slip up. Someone would tire. I figured I knew who.

And Jake was nowhere to be found.

Looking up, I saw the blinking lights of the roller coaster —where I’d first learned that Jose do Branco, Sol, was more than I’d assumed. It was a place with history for me. A fitting place to end.

To my family, I sent messages.

I love you, Mom.
Maybe she could understand, maybe not.

I love you, Holly.

Holly twitched. The sunburn feeling, or something else. I don’t know.

Then I slowly lifted myself toward the top of the roller coaster’s biggest hill.

A fitting place to end.