Finding North (48 page)

“
This is a great room,”
Samantha said without looking up. “It’s so quiet and peaceful. How
did you do that?”

“
Ghost hunters came and
cleaned out the space,” Alex said.

“
No really,” Samantha
said.

“
Really,” Alex
said.

“
What
about . . .” Samantha leaned forward and whispered,
“Jesse.”

“
He’s not stagnant energy
or a stuck spirit,” Alex smiled.

Samantha gave a thoughtful
nod. She got up and gave Alex an Ensure drink. When Alex finished
the container, Samantha gave her some water.

“
While it’s just
us . . .” Samantha said.

Alex looked at her sister
and smiled.

“
I wanted to say thanks,”
Samantha said. “When you yelled, ‘Get down!’ Helen and
I . . . We froze. If Art hadn’t grabbed us, we’d
be . . .”

Samantha
nodded.

“
He told me that you
ordered him to take care of me and not you,” Samantha said. “His
job is to take care of you, but you ordered him not to.”

Samantha gave a soft smile
and nodded.

“
I
realized . . .” Samantha turned away from Alex and
walked to the dresser, where Alex’s pills were laid out.
“ . . .that I’m mad at Mom.”

“
Oh?”

“
She’s the one who left
me,” Samantha said. “When she came back, she wasn’t available to me
because of stuff with dad, and then you guys came along. I’ve kind
of taken it out on you and Max since then. I apologized to Max,
but . . .”

Samantha walked back to
the bed and sat down.

“
I’m sorry,” Samantha
said. “Mom and I went to a couple of therapy sessions while you
were in New York and then again this week. It’s helping, especially
since Mom found out that she might have been tricked into leaving
me. I don’t know why, but that feels so true to me, so real.
Anyway, I now vow to be mad at Mom and not take it out on
you.”

Alex smiled.

“
Let’s get you to the
bathroom,” Samantha said.

Alex rotated her legs to
the side of the bed and sat up. For the first time in a while, she
felt less woozy. She let Samantha help her to the bathroom. With
Samantha’s help, Alex attempted a shower, which was a moderate
success. While Alex brushed her teeth, Samantha changed the sheets.
Samantha helped Alex into a clean pair of pajamas and got her
settled in bed before giving her the white pills. Alex settled back
and fell asleep again.

She opened her eyes. The
room was dark. Maggie was not lying on the bed next to her. She
looked at the chair. No one was sitting in the chair and John
wasn’t in bed with her. A golden light shone from the mostly closed
bathroom door.

“
John?” Alex
asked.

“
In here,” John’s voice
came from the bathroom.

She got out of bed and
went to the bathroom door.

“
I had the most amazing
dream,” Alex said. “I had a brain injury and was in bed. It was
like a movie. Every time I opened my eyes someone else was there.
And they were really nice to me.”

“
Oh, yeah?” John’s voice
said.

“
Even my mom and Sami,”
Alex laughed. “Some crazy dream.”

John didn’t respond. She
waited a minute.

“
John?”

Chapter
Thirty-three

She opened the door to the
bathroom and found herself floating over an operating room. Her
body lay on the operating table. There was a huge hole in the left
side of her where her hip had been shot away. Her face was covered
in an oxygen mask. The machines were squealing. The surgeon was
screaming orders at a bevy of agitated nurses.

In the corner of the room
stood a black skeleton. As if it felt her stare, the black skeleton
looked up at her and sneered. When it moved, she saw that it
absorbed the light and color around it. The skeleton tiptoed on
boney feet to the bed. When it leaned over her body, Alex could see
through its black ribs to the misery of her own shredded and
bleeding flesh.

The skeleton looked up at
her and laughed a deep, blood-chilling laugh. The room vibrated
with the terrible sound. As if he’d heard it, the surgeon pointed
his scalpel at the skeleton.

“
Not today,” the surgeon
said.

He glanced up at Alex
floating above him.

“
You will not die today,”
he said to her. “You are needed here.”

Over the surgical mask,
Alex saw his gorgeous hazel-grey eyes. His eyes were large and
almond shaped. Although he was wearing a surgical cap, Alex could
have sworn he had a bony neural ridge starting at his head and
going down his back.

“
A dragon,” Alex
said.

The surgeon looked up at
her. He pointed his scalpel at her.

“
Get back here,” he
said.

She tried to get back into
her body, but the horrifying skeleton blocked her path. The closer
she got to it, the bigger it became. It opened its mouth, and the
stench of rotting flesh filled the room. The creature’s hard, bony
hand reached around her wrists. She looked down, and the hand had
blotted out the color and form of her hand. All that was left was
the grey-black of nothingness. It stretched up to consume her
whole, blot out her very existence.

She screamed in
terror.

And she opened her
eyes.

The room was dark. Maggie
was not lying on the bed next to her. She looked at the chair. No
one was sitting in the chair and John wasn’t in bed with her. A
golden light shone from the mostly closed bathroom door.

“
John?” Alex
asked.

Raz came out of the
bathroom. He walked across the room and sat on the side of the bed.
For a moment, his hazel-grey eyes just looked at her. He leaned
forward.

The black skeleton came
through his body. Obliterated by the skeleton, Raz crumpled onto
the bed. The terrible black skeleton circled the bed. She screamed
and reached for Raz. Her fingers caught the silky fabric of the
shell of the man she’d known. She fell back and the horrible black
skeleton dropped down on her. The black skeleton pressed on her,
stealing her energy. Reeking of death, the creature smothered her
breath. She tried to scream and . . .

She opened her
eyes.

The room was dark. Maggie
was not lying on the bed next to her. She looked at the chair. No
one was sitting in the chair, and John wasn’t in bed with her. A
golden light shone from the mostly closed bathroom door.

Too petrified to say
anything, Alex watched the door. She hugged her knees against her
chest.

“
Bad dream?” she heard
inside her head.

Alex looked around the
room. There was no one there. Frozen with fear, she shut her eyes
tight. She felt the skeleton near her.

“
You may open your eyes
now,” the voice said.

Alex opened her eyes. The
room was bright, and she was cold. She could hear the rhythmic beep
that meant she was in the hospital. She smelled freshly brewed
coffee. Drawn by the smell, she sat up and looked around. She was
in her own private hospital room. Wearing her usual linen outfit,
Bestat was sitting in the blue plastic chair next to her bed. Her
dark hair hung loose to her waist.

“
How . . .?” Alex asked.

“
You had a seizure,”
Bestat said.

“
I did?”

“
You were rushed here last
night,” Bestat said.

“
I was?”

“
The dream?” Bestat
nodded.

Alex gave an involuntary
shiver.

“
Am I better?” Alex asked
to avoid her fear.

Bestat gave her a broad
smile.

“
What did you see?” Bestat
asked.

“
I saw the surgical room
after the assault,” Alex said. “The surgeon . . .
He . . .”

“
Yes,” Bestat said. “He is
Josh’s father. He is also my kin, one of two even older than I.
Amam was his . . . student when he knew Sasha
Peretz.”

“
Josh’s mom,” Alex
said.

“
He is also one of the top
trauma surgeons in the world. You were lucky to get
him.”

“
Lucky?” Alex
asked.

“
You’re right,” Bestat
said. “Luck has only the smallest sway in these
matters.”

Alex nodded. She fell
silent and wondered if this was real. Would the skeleton come out
of Bestat? Terrified, she glanced at Bestat.

“
What did you see?” Bestat
asked again.

“
Skeleton,” Alex shivered
with fear. “Terrible, scary . . . like it was terror
itself or some horrible version of death. Smelled like rotting
blood, flesh. I . . .”

“
Seemed black or possibly
the color of ash?” Bestat asked.

“
Seemed to absorb the
light around it,” Alex said. “Dreadful. It grabbed my wrist,
and . . .”

Alex looked at her left
wrist. Her wrist was blistered and red, as if a burning hand had
grabbed onto it. The sight of her burned wrist was almost more
horrifying than the skeleton. She tried to move her right arm but
found it anchored to her side with tape. Bestat came to her side of
the bed. When Bestat put her hand over the burns, Alex felt instant
relief. She leaned forward to Bestat.

“
What’s happening to me?”
she whispered. “Am I brain damaged?”

“
There is an area of your
brain — Max’s, too — which is a little different from most
humans’,” Bestat said.

“
Different?”

“
Ever wonder how you see
Jesse? Or my real shape, for that matter? Or ‘just know’ where a
hostage is and what the captors desire?” Bestat smiled. “It’s from
a part of your brain which gets a little . . . out
of whack sometimes. You start seeing and interpreting other bands
of light.”

“
Out of whack?” Alex
asked.

“
When you get knocked
around too much,” Bestat said. “It’s one of the reasons I came to
you in the Mariscal Mine.”

“
What is?”

“
You needed some help
getting it back into . . .”

“
Whack?” Alex
asked.

Bestat smiled. Alex was
struck by Bestat’s loveliness. She watched the crinkles at the edge
of Bestat’s mouth when she smiled and the glint of Bestat’s teeth.
Somehow, just looking at Bestat made Alex feel better.

“
Why do we have this
thing?” Alex asked.

“
It runs in your mother’s
family,” Bestat said. “Recessive gene. Her father had it.
Benjamin’s father had it as well.”

“
We were bio-engineered,”
Alex said.

“
No one imagined there
would be two,” Bestat said. “That is something you did
yourselves.”

“
Why were we made?” Alex
asked.

“
You’ve guessed why,”
Bestat said.

“
Will you tell me?” Alex
asked.

“
The easiest way to say it
is that the black skeleton you saw in your dream is real,” Bestat
said. “It absorbs everything light, everything good, and leaves
only suffering and struggle in its wake.”

“
It was horrible,” Alex
said. As if to protect herself, she pulled her thin hospital
blanket up around her throat.

“
Yes,” Bestat
said.

“
Max and me?”

“
Very simply, you and Max
are its opposite.”

“
We emit light?” Alex
frowned with disbelief.

“
No one has ever told you
that you are a bright light?” Bestat smiled at Alex.

Rather than confess that
Bestat was right, Alex scowled. Bestat gave her a toothy
grin.

“
Is this the first time
you’ve seen the black skeleton?” Bestat asked. “In dream world or
the living world?”

“
Is it always a
skeleton?”

“
No,” Bestat said. “It can
be a shadow or a feeling of dread or quite possibly a flash of
terror for no reason.”

“
I’ve seen a shadow,” Alex
nodded.

“
I’m not surprised that
he’s come to you now,” Bestat said. “You will have to watch for
him.”

Alex shivered at the
thought of having to see the dark creature again.

“
Can you tell me who is
behind all of this?” Alex asked. “We’ve found the families, like
Josh’s old partner Dex, who’ve kept track and watched for
everything to fall apart again. We’ve even heard of people who
‘want to watch the world burn.’ But I don’t know
who
is behind this
or
why
they want
this to happen.”

“
It’s a good question,”
Bestat said.

“
And the
answer?”

“
Is complicated,” Bestat
said. “As for why, the clearest answer, is that when the world is
poorer, and people are hungrier and more desperate, some rise in
wealth and have more power. This has always been true. As for who
is behind this? That is much less clear.”