Spring-Heeled Jack (22 page)

However, somethings did get brighter.
Atticus and Camila finally got to see their movie together. In
fact, the two had seen a lot of each other since the incident. The
two had study sessions nearly every day after class. Of course,
they didn’t need to study, but it made a good excuse to see one
another.

One night, as Atticus lay asleep, he
had a familiar dream. He was back in the nothingness. It was
completely silent, and he was alone. He began to fear what he might
see. He feared that he’d get another vision and see one of his
friends getting attacked by McCloud, but that wasn’t the case.
Instead, it was much worse.

Again, he heard the rustic squeak of
the bike chain. He looked all around, but there was no sign of the
Gray Man anywhere. He wanted to run, but he held himself back. He
wasn’t going to be afraid of a dream ever again, he told himself.
He’d fought, and almost got killed by, Detective McCloud; there was
nothing his mind could do to scare him anymore.

He was wrong.

From the shadows of the abyss, the
Gray Man appeared riding his old broken down bicycle. His
appearance frightened Atticus more than it ever had before. Nothing
about the man was different. He still had leathery gray skin and
wore his ragged old tuxedo; but his cheshire grin and pure white
eyes were even more awful. In the blackness, the man’s teeth and
eyes were blinding.

“
You’VE dONe well, mR.
WhaELOrd.”

Atticus was frozen. His mouth went dry
and he couldn’t even muster up a scream.

The man laughed his horrible cackle of
a laugh. “HOw fuNNy! DEspITe EveRYthiNg you’VE bEeN ThrOuGH, facing
mY favorite AsSAssiN, YOU sTIll cower BeFORe little oL’
ME.”

Hearing the man’s voice smacked some
sense back into Atticus. “W-What do you mean your assassin? You
mean McCloud?”

The Gray Man stared with his blank
eyes; a gaze far worse than anything he’d experienced with McCloud.
“ThaT iS ExACtlY WhAt i said, bOY. mCclOud woRKs fOR Me. I control
hIm. i Give hIM every oRDer AND He foLLows without
fAil.”

“
Y-You’re The Master,”
Atticus said. “The one he and the others all talked
about.”

“
It lOOks LiKE wE hAvE a
wINNer,” the Gray Man said. “yeS, I aM the MAsTer oF ZeBUlon, aND
SoOn, thE conQUeRoR oF tHIs mEASly WorLD.”

Atticus tried to force himself awake,
but to no avail.

The Gray Man found that quite amusing.
“WhAT’s tHe mATteR, BoY? You hAvE The GranD ArchITect of AlL Your
PaIN BEforE yOU, aNd yoU doN’t Even wANT tO QUEstIon me? WhaT KINd
of dETectiVe aRe yoU?” The man laughed, and then resumed. “ThiS IS
yOuR head, AtTICus. You cALl thE Shots.”

“
Shut up,” Atticus snapped.
“You want questions? Fine! Tell me who you really are!”

The Gray Man hushed up and
his smile faded. He hobbled off of his rusty old bicycle and stood,
hunched over, on his own two feet. Then, dark purple light began to
glow from the back of his hand. A
Gambler’s Crest
, Atticus remembered
Ace had said, but he couldn’t make out the shape.

Then, the dark purple light
changed into a familiar blue, and the shape on his hand became much
more visible: The
Queen of
Spades
. The darkness began to swirl around
the man like smoke, and his wicked smile returned. His skin began
to change from gray to a more human-like tan, and his greasy black
groomed itself and changed to a pale blond. The tattered old tuxedo
he wore transformed into a charcoal suit jacket with a black tie
and vest. He also became much, much younger. Whereas before, he was
ancient, afterwards he looked like he was in his early thirties.
However, his blank white eyes and pearly grin remained exactly the
same.

It was hard to believe the man
standing before Atticus was the same Gray Man from before. He stood
straight up, his posture was perfect. He had an aura about him that
demanded the spot light. Atticus thought that if the man was in the
circus, he’d have no trouble being the ringleader. But, there was
something horribly familiar about him. Atticus recognized him from
somewhere.

And then it dawned on him: he had seen
the man before. He’d seen pictures of him in his history books and
in the papers, and a large portrait of him hung in the Zebulon
Headquarters.

“
My name,” he said, “is
Yliaster Zebulon.”

The man let out one final
squeal of laughter and the dark smoke around him shot out and
grabbed hold of Atticus. He tried to fight it off, but it dragged
him deep into the abyss. For a moment, Atticus thought he might be
trapped in his own dream and that waking up would be impossible. As
the smoke dragged him deeper in deeper into the darkness, Atticus
looked up and saw Yliaster staring down at him. He heard the words,
“
So Say I,
” ring
through the darkness and then everything went black.

Atticus thought he was dead, but
luckily, he realized he’d just woke up face first in his pillow. He
rolled over, his face covered in sweat, and looked over at Brock
who was passed out on his bed. He continued to roll over onto his
back and stare up at the ceiling. Yliaster Zebulon, the Gray Man
called himself. It couldn’t have been the same Yliaster who founded
the Zebulon Corporation, Atticus thought.

Regardless, Atticus couldn’t go back
to sleep. His heart was racing too fast and his head was pushing
out thousands of thoughts a second.

He snuck out of his dorm, making sure
not to wake up Brock, and made his way back to Mike’s tree. He’d
found his murder, like he’d promised, and he even got a little bit
of insight about the lockets; but now another mystery was on his
hands.

Finally, for the first time since
Mike’s death, Atticus cried. He didn’t want to, he hated crying,
but he just couldn’t help it. He’d lost one of his best friends to
the man who he always thought was a great man. Not only that, but
the same man was responsible for the disappearances of his parents.
This entire time, he’d hoped that they just went missing and that
one day he’d find them. He would be their hero.

Atticus sat down at the base of the
tree and tried to dry his eyes. He tried to think of those who made
him happy: Brock and Camila, Principal Shepard and Professor
Banner; but then his mind began drifting off to Ace, the strange
man who saved him and called himself the “Captain of the
Mekanile.”

As he sat thinking, Atticus felt an
all too familiar tug in his stomach. The sensation came from behind
the tree.

Atticus bolted up to his feet. “Who’s
there?”

“
No need to be afraid,
Atticus,” a voice said. “It’s just me.”

Atticus recognized the Voice. From the
shadows emerged a man with a white trench coat and a pair of black
sunglasses: Ace.

“
W-What are you doing
here?”

Ace smiled and said, “It’s been a
while since our last meeting. I think now would be a good time to
talk.”

Atticus nodded. “Good, because I have
a lot of questions.”

“
As one would imagine. Ask
away.”

“
First things first;”
Atticus reached into his pocket and pulled out the locket. “Why
does McCloud want this so badly?”

“
Yes, the locket,” Ace said.
His gaze shifted up to the sky. “Zebulon has plans, Atticus, to
destroy everything we hold dear, and they need the lockets to do
so.”

“
And that’s why my parents
founded Mekanile,” he said. “To stop them.”

Ace nodded and said, “Your parents
gave up much, but they did it because they loved you. If Zebulon
goes unopposed, then everyone will be at risk.”

Atticus thought that sounded too
ridiculous to be true. Why would the Zebulon Corporation want to
“destroy everything” like Ace said? And why would they need his
locket?

“
W-What’s Zebulon’s
plan?”

“
A little over ten years
ago,” Ace said, “Zebulon developed the most powerful weapon to ever
touch the Earth. It was the weapon that singlehandedly ended the
Second World War: Bahamut, the Sky Ziggurat. They want to conquer
the world, and using Bahamut, Zebulon will crush anyone who opposes
them.”

“
T-That can’t be true,”
Atticus argued. “I can believe Zebulon wanting to create a monopoly
over the entire world and rule that way, but you’re saying
something right out of an adventure book.”

Ace raised his eyebrows. “I guess it
does seem rather ridiculous. But, you’ve seen that Zebulon is not
afraid of shedding blood.” He looked up at the tree. “They killed
your friend, a child, all for a small trinket. Don’t underestimate
the lengths they’ll go through to get what they want.” He turned
back to Atticus. “They’ve been a political power for a long time,
and now they’re ready to take everything by force.”

“
Politicians do shady things
all the time though,” Atticus argued. He lowered his head and felt
tears begin to well up in his eyes. “You’re crazy; my parents were
crazy. How could anybody believe such nonsense.”

Atticus felt Ace put his hand on his
shoulder. “I understand, son. It does sound crazy. I didn’t want to
believe it at first either, but when I-” His breath staggered for
just a moment. “When I saw all the terrible things happen before my
very eyes: My loved ones taken, innocent people slaughtered in cold
blood, their attempts at playing God; I couldn’t stand by
anymore.”

Atticus didn’t say
anything.

Ace let out a sigh and said, “Give it
sometime, Atticus. A good detective needs to learn it for himself.”
He began to back away. “Despite me not making a sound, you knew I
was behind you. How is that, Atticus?”

He shrugged. “I just felt it in my
gut.

Ace removed his glove and
held up his hand. “That’s because of your
Gambler’s Crest
. When you’re looking
for another, they call out to each other.” As he spoke, the man’s
had began to glow blue, just like Atticus’. On his appeared
the
Ace of Spades
.
Atticus felt his own hand tingle and he looked down to see
his
Queen
glowing
the same color. “Our crests are destined to come together in the
end and, as such, they’ll attract us to other
Gamblers
nearby.”

Atticus stared down at
the
Queen of Spades
. He’d had it for years and always wondered where it came from
and why he figured was the best time to ask.

“
Where did these come
from?”

Ace looked down at his own mark,
disgusted. “They were created by the mad man behind all of this,”
he said. “Yliaster Zebulon.”

Atticus heard the laugh of the Gray
Man in his head. “B-But, how is that possible?”

“
That, Atticus,” Ace said,
“is a story for another time.”

Atticus opened his mouth to argue, but
he was shut down before he could start.

“
Always remember, kid,” Ace
said, “you’re a blood member of The Mekanile. We will look out for
you. We’ll do our best to keep you safe.” He turned around and
began to walk away. “You will always have allies in the
sky.”

Atticus started to chase after the
man, calling out to him and demanding more answers, but before he
could catch him, a ladder fell from the sky directly in front of
Ace. Atticus looked up and saw a small airship silently hovering
overhead, the win gears of the Mekanile designed on the sides. Ace
grabbed hold of the ladder and the ship began to soar away into the
night.

As it ascended, Atticus saw a woman
standing on the ship, looking down at him. She had short black hair
and wore a pair of her own sunglasses as well as what looked like a
red leather jacket. In the darkness it was hard to tell. When he
looked at her though, he thought she looked incredibly
familiar.

Just as the ship flew out of
sight, Atticus realized that the woman on the ship was the same as
the woman in his dream. She was the one who took the place of his
mother and warned him about
The
Jack
.

Atticus stood in awe at the base of
Mike’s tree. He didn’t know how much was real and what was a dream.
Everything sounded too ridiculous. Sooner or later, he was going to
wake up in his bed and realized that all the bad things were just a
dream. He was going to head to class and find Professor Varnum,
grumpy and grouchy as always. Mike was still going to be alive, and
McCloud wasn’t going to be looking to kill him, and his parents
weren’t going to be the founding members of a pirate
organization.

He put his hand on the tree,
the
Queen of Spades
still glowing its bright blue. “It looks like I’ve got the
biggest puzzle of my life ahead of me, Mike,” he said. “I wish you
could be here to help me solve it.”

Atticus turned and made way
back to his dorm and the
Queen of
Spades
began to disappear.

When he got back to the dorm, he found
Brock awake and waiting for him.

“
Where’d you disappear to,”
he asked. “It’s the middle of the night?”