A Hidden Element (27 page)

Sleet pelted Ben's cheeks. Snow numbed his body, creeping over him with its death chill. He lay on his back, paralyzed with exhaustion and cold. His dry, aching throat burned from thirst. The yellow light became a blinding white above him, piercing his eyes.

He had failed his family. Death could take him now.

Was this the good light that took you to the other side?

Unlike the dark that threatened to take him to the other side long ago. A night on Oahu when Samoan brutes had tied him to a rock and whipped him again and again, intending to rape him and throw him off a cliff.

The howling storm tore at him with icy fingers. They wanted him. Like the Samoans had wanted him that night.

S-n-a-p.

The crack whipped across his back. Streaks of fire cut into him like snow burning him with its frozen bite.

S-n-a-p
.

"Motherfuckers!" He cursed them, twisting away from his tormentors. How did they find him again here in this godforsaken place?

No one will hear you scream, brah. This is a haunted place. Your screams carry away on the wind.

The wild mountain wind raged around him and shrieked in his ears.

Ben screamed but it carried away in the storm. He flung himself on the snow, pulling at the ropes that held him. He was so tired. Death called. Like it had that night when Felix saved him from those monsters torturing him on a Hawaiian mountain. Felix had physically set him free only to wander lost inside himself, until Laura came into his life and set him free in his heart.

"Laura. Charlie." He had to live for them. Cold grit crusted his eyes as he strained to see through the white everywhere. Light blinked from above. Was that the bustle of Honolulu in the distance? Drifts moved around him, changing shape with the wind. Snow piled on him, pressing on him. His raspy breath spewed out clouds that were whisked away. He couldn't stop shivering.

And then the cold slipped away. The frigid soldiers attacking him put down their arctic weapons. Warm flowed into him. The light beckoned him. It grew until it filled the sky above him.

A lightning flash zapped the air. Dark shapes moved
through the swirling madness.

A hand caressed his face. A gray blur hovered over him.

And then he hung in the wind, lighter than air.

Another flash. And he was gone.

Laura and Charlie ran on. Toward Ben. Toward home. Adrian's howls faded. Her heart thudded inside like a hand mixer on a metal bowl, beating fast against Benny who had quieted down.

Charlie's anguish pumped into her. "Charlie, you're not like Adrian."

Silence.

"Or my twin brother."

More silence. "You named me after him."

"Yes." She tugged at his shirt. "I wanted something good to come out of all the bad."

He slowed his pace and looked at her, his face a disturbing green from the dim light of the glow stick. "Like canceling out the evil things he did?"

"Yes."

"But I
am
like Adrian, like your twin. I tried to kill Dad. I did other bad things—and I liked it."

Laura put her hand on his arm to stop him. They stood facing one another, but he wouldn't meet her eyes. "My twin never had love. He didn't know what to do with it when I offered it to him. And Adrian was surely raised by hate. You've had too much love in your life to give in to the darkness. Genes do not make who you are—environment does. You can overcome your genes."

Charlie looked at her. "I want to, but can I?"

"You will."

"Maybe it's what Caleb's been trying to do all along."

"Yes."

"I've been wrong about a lot of stuff." Charlie sighed.

"You're just fourteen. You're supposed to be wrong about stuff. It's how you grow up. I
want
you around to grow up. We all do wrong. It's how we embrace the right afterwards that matters."

"I got sucked in by evil."

"You were taken advantage of by Adrian. He swayed a young boy to his evil force. He's responsible, not you."

"And he made me like Leah. I thought I loved her."

"Someday someone will love you so deeply and you'll belong to each other and in that you'll discover all the good hidden inside you. Love brings out our good. Hate only destroys it. You can choose love, Charlie. It's what makes us strong. Hate only makes us weak."

"But Adrian isn't weak. He's the most powerful person I know."

"No, he is the weakest because he used his powers to cause pain. Those who use their powers for good, even at their own expense, are the strong ones."

"Like Caleb."

"Yes." Laura squeezed his arm. "Caleb has true power in healing not in destroying—as Adrian does. Caleb has a brave heart. To do what's right. And so do you. Now, let's go get Dad."

"Will he still want me? I mean, I tried to—" His voice broke.

"Of course. There's nothing you could do that would stop us from loving you."

He nodded and they ran on. Not far.

"It must be here." Charlie stopped and held out the glow stick. At first glance it appeared to be the same wall of earth that encased them. Charlie frantically scraped the dirt away. "A handle."

He tugged. Laura pulled with him.

The door creaked. Charlie wrenched it open.

An underground hole. Light slanted down from above. They were under a building. Cold gusts blew down through the cracks.

"Ben?"

A body lay there. A breath caught in Laura's chest.

Please don't be Ben.

Caleb opened his eyes. The alarm bell gonged from the courtyard. Then it stopped. He pulled himself up on shaky legs. The back of his head throbbed. He stretched his neck. Pain ripped through him. He put his hand up and pulled away sticky blood. Near him sprawled Leah, one hand outstretched toward a candlestick. She didn't get far before the drugs knocked her out. Evil harlot. The fact he nearly plundered her again made him sick even though she had manipulated him to do so. He placed his hands on his head and willed the pain and wound away.

His thoughts ran dizzy through him. Had Laura and her family's absence been discovered? He didn't know, but he did know someone would come into the sanctuary soon and discover him and Leah. He dragged Leah back under the altar and hid her under the curtain.

"Stay there forever, wicked wench, and when you awake you'll be as weak as any human for a while."

He looked up. Blue sky gleamed cold through the skylight, as clouds raced frantic across it. The storm had passed.
Safe passage to you, Laura.
He ran to the altar door but as he turned the knob it swung open. Tollen and the elders stood before him. The cobblestone courtyard had been shoveled clean. It gleamed in the new sun as workers wheeled in the stoning gates.

"We've been looking for you, Caleb. Why are you in here?"

Caleb looked at the curious faces before him. He closed his mind off to them.

"I was restless," he lied. "This place is peaceful."

Tollen looked behind him. "It doesn't look peaceful."

The candlestick.

"They fell. Sorry I didn't put them back on the altar."

Tollen pushed Caleb aside and strode in, his flock flowing behind him. He leaned over and picked up the candlesticks and set them on the altar. Sweat sprung on Caleb's upper lip.
Stay still and silent under there, you devil's trollop
.

"We have more important things to discuss. Your father has killed a guard and escaped. We raided his room and found cryptic drawings. We believe them to be a secret tunnel he created long ago and we found him there."

Tollen bent his head and squinted at him. The elders stood behind him, united.

"This is terrible news." Caleb chose his words carefully, praying Laura and her family made it out. His leg muscles tightened as if answering his own urge to flee.

"Yes, indeed. Terrible for him, too. On top of that, the humans are missing. And a slaughtered female has been found in the nursery."

Sweat now trickled down Caleb's back. He folded his hands across his stomach, as the elders did, straining to look calm. "And you believe my father killed this female and hid the humans away?"

Tollen smiled at him. A knowing smile, as if he knew Caleb played games with him.

"We believe the human, Laura, killed the female in the nursery to take her baby. When we caught your father he was ranting that the humans had escaped through his tunnel. We sent a search party out just now to find them. But I have a question for you."

"Yes?"

"How did the humans know about the tunnel? Did you know about it and escort them there?"

A dozen pairs of eyes stared at him, wanting to accuse him. "I did not," he said sharply, trusting he sounded indignant. "I know my place here."

"As you should. For your sons."

The hairs on Caleb's necked prickled, his fear mixing with his sweat now.

"We scanned the storage room where the tunnel leads from. Memory traces of you are there."

Caleb thought fast. "Well of course I've been in there. Part of my job is to review our inventory and store things in there not in use anymore."

"I see." Tollen moved away from the altar and paced across the sanctuary floor. His minions waited as cones of silence. Caleb took the opportunity to sidle closer to the altar and stand in front of it.

Leah sighed. A soft breath that floated out. Caleb sucked in his stomach.

Tollen stopped pacing and looked up with a frown.

Caleb sighed and the elder's frown disappeared. "And what will you do when you find the humans, Brother Tollen?" His heart thudded hard inside as he forced a concerned, dispassionate look on his face.

"Charlie will be lobotomized and work as a cleaner. Laura will die. She has taken the life of an Elyon."

"No." It came out a tortured plea.

"No?" Tollen raised his eyebrows.

The elders shook their heads, pursing their lips, a conglomerate of one mind subservience.

"I mean, they could be our ticket to the human world as Adrian planned. They would be useful in assimilating our community in human towns."

"Perhaps."

The sweat now rolled down Caleb's neck. "And I could oversee this. They respond well to me."

"Are you sure you don't want the human female for yourself?"

Caleb shook his head. "I like blondes."

Tollen nodded. "Like Leah. She defied me. She never came to me last night. Have you seen her?"

Caleb shook his head. His palms were now sweating. He wanted to wipe them on his robe but didn't dare. "Sorry, I have not."

Tollen stretched out his arms. "Come now, Caleb, your help is needed." He took him by the arm and led him toward the door. The elders murmured behind him, falling in step.

"Where are we going?"

"It's time to present Adrian to our community for punishment."

"Stoning."

"Yes, and you will throw the first stone."

Caleb stopped. "I cannot."

Tollen turned to him. "Even with all he's done to you, Caleb?"

Caleb shook his head, stepped back and tripped on an elder who pushed him away.

"No. He's my father."

"He killed your mother."

"Yes." It came out a whisper. He looked at the floor. "But he spared my sons."

"I see. Then you will not cooperate and do what is asked of you?"

"No." He looked up at Tollen who watched him.

"So be it. Then you will be drugged and locked in your room until the execution is over. And then you will be brought out to dispose of your father."

"No!" Caleb shoved Tollen into the door. It banged open, slamming onto the outside wall. Cold rushed in from the courtyard. The elders pulled him back but he punched Tollen in the face. The elder teetered back but didn't make a sound. Caleb tried to punch him again but guards rushed in. They held him back.

Tollen wiped his mouth where a spot of blood oozed. "I knew you wouldn't do your duty." He jerked his head to the guards. "Drug him, take him to his room, and lock him in. Perhaps later he will change his mind."

Caleb struggled against the arms that held him as he shot pain into Tollen's brain. From his peripheral vision a hand drew back. Too late. A syringe plunged into his neck. He stumbled, tried to yank it out but dizziness overcame him.

"Jeremiah and Josiah!" He shouted their names out loud for the first time as a prayer to a human god.

The last thing he remembered was being dragged across cold stone, the wintry air on his face.

Laura's sighed with relief looking at the body of man that lay on his side before them.

"It's not Dad," Charlie cried.

Laura held him back and knelt in the mud floor next to the large man. A hook protruded from his back. Had Ben killed him and fled? She traced the earth, trying to feel Ben. He had lain here, hurt and so alone.

Ben, we're coming to you. We're free.

Laura. The light is taking me. I'm sorry…I failed you.

What light? No, stay with me, Ben.

Love you. Tell Charlie-boy I will always be with him.

Hang on, Ben.

Goodbye, my Laura.

"No!" And he was gone.

Charlie stepped over the man and climbed up rungs on the walls. He banged on the ceiling and pushed a door up. Cold light blinded her and snow drifted down with a frigid wind. He looked down at her. "Come on, Mom. Maybe Dad escaped. Let's follow him."

"Get back down here, Charlie! Caleb said there was a vehicle at the end of the tunnel beyond the perimeter."

"But Dad might be out there, hurt!"

"We go through the tunnel. I have to save all of us."

"But what about Dad?" She looked up into Charlie's eyes, so full of eagerness to save his father and prove himself worthy.

"We need to survive first to save him. Hurry back down here, before someone comes along."

Charlie looked around. "There's no one here. This looks like a torture chamber."

A bell rang out. It blared through the silence. Over and over it gonged.

"Charlie, get down here now."

He nodded and quickly backed down the rungs.

They returned to the tunnel and jogged on through its dark depths.

"Mom, why'd you yell 'no' back there?"

"I put all my hopes on the fact your dad would be here."

"Me too."

She was glad he believed her. Because she believed Ben was truly dead this time.

And he wasn't coming back.

Adrian hobbled in chains as they led him to the stoning gates. The cold buffeted against his naked flesh. He couldn't stop shivering. The snow blew in drifts around the compound as the sun adorned him on his way to death. The cobblestones blurred beneath his feet. Each step full of icy pain.

The pain seemed far away though, locked in another part of himself, along with his powers. His time was done. Time held no chance of reinventing himself in the human world to create a new community to rule.

They locked him in the gates. His legs and arms were stretched taut, wide open for all to target. The shackles bit into his skin. His once loyal followers stared at him. They held no grief in their faces. Tollen stood by, alongside the other elders. He had wanted to take his place and now he had. Adrian hoped for Tollen to find himself in the stoning gates soon, his flaccid manhood torn to pieces. Adrian grinned at his successor.

Tollen did not grin back. He turned and faced the hundreds gathered to do their duty.

"Fellow Elyons, we are called here today to punish one of our own who has strayed. He has savagely murdered members of our flock."

The crowd swayed and murmured their anger.

"Justice is here though. The elders have agreed. And I will lead you into our new world. A world where all will be accepted and listened to. And we will go out into the human community and make it our own. Earth shall be Elyon someday and we are the founders."

The flock nodded in unison.

"Now come, my people, and pick your stones."

Where was Caleb? His son, who so hated him, would miss out on his end.

His people surged forward and stepped to the stone pit. Adrian watched as they chose their rocks to smash at him. At first they would fling softly then their rage would sink in and they would pummel him with power. His fingers broken. His nose cracked. His eyes, blinded and torn, stabbed with sharp edges. His testicles mashed to pulp. His kidneys and liver ruptured. He would bleed to death internally, unless his skull was crushed first.

He looked to the blue above. A glorious day to die. The clouds sailed over him. The sun embraced him although the wind battered him with steel knives. He closed his eyes to pull the sun's warmth to him when the first blow struck like a bullet to his chest. He stiffened and looked toward the sky. It was so wide open, so beckoning. So free.

Pain attacked him. He grunted and jerked. He would not cry out. Sharp stone bit into him. Over and over. Like the invisible creatures in that well.

Make the pain yours, Son. Accept it. Don't be weak.

He tried to drive the voice away, but his father's angry face reared. It rose over the well. The dark encroached upon him. The world of white faded away. Stars appeared above.

Don't leave me here to die, Father. Please
.

You must suffer for being weak.

Teach Brahm or Feo, Father, please. I'm not weak. They are.

You are my true heir. You are the strongest one of all.

But he was here now. His people had turned on him, yet they adored Caleb. Why? Because he helped the weak? Didn't that make him weak? And Laura. How he had wanted her. They had created life between them. Like he and Manta had done. He and Laura could create more sons. Why couldn't she love him? Why couldn't she give in to her Destroyer side? Strong Laura. She had survived him.

The creatures nipped at his legs with fire from their carnivorous mouths. They bit into his most vulnerable places. He twitched to make them stop.

"Father, please. Don't leave me here!"

Embrace the pain they bring. It's the only way you can be a Destroyer and rule.

They're hurting me, Father. And it's s-s-so cold. Please. I don't know if I can be a Destroyer.

Weakling!

His father's face swirled away. The stars receded and the sun blinded him once again.

"Father!"

Teeth chomped away at his legs and privates. Tore chunks from him. His blood ran. He thrashed about, screaming. He stared unblinking at the light above. It burned into his bleeding eyes. He watched it as it watched him. He kept his eyes on the golden orb above. The bites increased. He remained still and let the creatures eat on him as he once had.

And his hate grew. For himself.

And he would die from hate.

As his wife had.

How fitting.

The cold had melted away. Warmth radiated through Ben. His pain was almost gone. It throbbed far away, barely touching him. Silence filled his head with blessed peace. There was no wind, no blowing snow to sting his frozen face. No soaked jeans plastered to him with a chilling grip. He half slumbered, connected to life again. Soft light gleamed through his sleepy eyes.

Laura! Charlie!

He jolted awake and sat up. A gray robe had replaced his clothes. He lay on a padded table in a round room. Sloped walls shimmered midnight blue. He was thrown back to the night Charlie had been born. The maternity rooms had been so tranquil and softly lit to soothe women in labor.

Except the night Charlie was born, Laura's serenity had turned to fear. He recalled staring at his son's head pushing his way into the world between her quivering legs and Laura screaming in agony—and mad horror
. I don't want to see it! He changed inside me. I know it.
She had gripped his arm as he wept alongside her.
Don't let it be a freak.

Ben loved Charlie no matter what he was, and he needed the chance to tell him. He jumped off the table and swayed. Must get to Charlie and Laura…and their baby. Were they okay? Fear spurred up his throat. Had to get out of here. Where
was
here? Part of the Elyon compound? Something told him it wasn't.

Food and drink waited for him on a table. A cheeseburger and pickles. A human offering. He hesitated. They had saved him. They wouldn't kill him now. He gulped the food down as he ran his hands along the wall, looking for a door.

"Let me out. I have to save my family." He pounded on the wall. Its light kept a steady pulse. Stars flickered in and out. "Help me!"

The light became still. Ben stepped back. A picture formed on the wall. A face appeared before him. An Elyon face. White hair flowed into his pearly skin. Yellow eyes watched him. Sympathetic eyes.

"Why am I here?"

The face spoke to him yet its lips did not move.
You would have died out there, Ben Fieldstone.

Tiredness swept over him.

"Thank you for saving me but I need to get to my family."

Soon. They come.

"No, now!"

His fell on one knee. His side ached. Dizziness flooded through him.

Your body is not fully recovered from your death experience.

"I don't care. Let me out. They will die."

Not if we can help it.
We have traveled a long distance to reclaim our people from the evil Destroyer Uprising. Laura and Charlie are part of our new world here. And your new son.

"
Our baby! He's okay? How can you know?" Ben struggled to get up, but he found himself floating, being carried on nothing. They placed him back on the table.

He is fine. We see many things. We see the present. We see the future.

"My sons…" He now had two chances to make it right. He hadn't been there for Laura in her darkest time of need. He needed a lifetime to make it up to her.
Let us have a lifetime.
But for now he was so tired. The light was fading.

Your people are near. We hope they will accept us in our final hour. If not, we accept our end.

I accept you.

So tired.

Rest now, Ben Fieldstone.

And he did.

Light appeared in the dark. A tiny dot. It grew and grew. The floor of the tunnel angled up. They neared the surface. They ran faster. Benny gurgled from being jostled. They had reached the end of the tunnel. White blinded them. The storm had passed. A crystalline landscape spread before them. Heavy blankets of snow glittered untouched. Birds' feet marked it with their scattered pictures. A cold gust blew soft flakes past them. They swirled and played as if glad the blizzard had left them behind. It presented a surreal scene from the dark and danger they left behind.

Laura pulled Charlie back. Their captors could be waiting above to snatch them.

"Got to find the vehicle Caleb told us about, Mom."

She put her fingers to her lips. He nodded. Together they searched the walls of the tunnel.

"Here," Charlie whispered. She squinted in the dark, her eyes trying hard to adjust from the blinding light of the snow back to the inky black of the tunnel.

Deep in the recesses of the wall he had found a hole. Inside it sat a bulky form. Charlie pulled its cover off to reveal an all-terrain vehicle of some kind. It had a long wide seat that two people could easily sit on and three wheels.

Thank you, Caleb
.
And Adrian.

They wheeled the vehicle out to the end of the tunnel. Its key hung from the ignition. Laura looked up at Charlie. He got on the front. She settled in behind him. Benny protested at being squished. She soothed him.

"Get us out of here, Charlie," she whispered in his ear. She sensed his same trepidation at heading out. Underground they felt safe. Now they were exposed.

"There's a compass on the dash," Charlie said.

"Caleb said to head east."

"How do we find Dad?"

"First, we need to get safe. Your dad would want it."

Charlie nodded then turned the key. The vehicle started up with a hacking rumble then smoothed out to a dull roar. He pressed his foot on the gas. They blasted forward into the bright world before them. He gunned it. They launched out of the dark and into the glaring sun, slamming down onto a drift. Wheels spun then they sped forward over the snow. It blew around them angry to be parted. No one attacked them. No shouts of alarm called out.

Laura hugged Charlie tight. Benny's cries punched the air, but she had no choice but to hang on. Her eyes teared up from the freezing wind. Fall had been taken out by winter. A strange, early snow for here. Trees flashed by. Charlie deftly wound between them. Pride welled inside for her son. He had been through so much and now guided them to safety like a man.

She dared to peer behind her. A world of white enveloped them. Nothing more. Her heart began to slow. They were going to make it. She breathed in deep. The air had a crisp, ozone snap to it making everything pure and clean. She needed to feel clean again and not think of Ben being dead. He was alive until she saw his lifeless body before her. She would not let him go until she touched his cold, dead face.

The woods opened up and Charlie stayed a straight course. They were alone in a lifeless landscape. Snow shot down from trees as branches split and fell, not ready for the heavy burden placed upon them. Wooden screams wrenched the air. Blowing snow scratched her face. Her knuckles were raw from the cold. The frozen landscape held them captive in its terrible beauty.