The Light Who Shines (36 page)

Jack Tanner: June 2, 2022, Red Ages

We pull up to the Cock and Bull Tap and exit the car. I
point to the first warehouse on the street, a short, steel structure, looking
squat against the darkening sky with the last pink rays of the sun streaming
behind it. “We will start here and move all the way up the street, then circle
back.”

Xavier takes a look down the long street. “You want covert,
right?”

“Yes.”

Xavier looks back at me. “How about I go ahead and start
gaining access to the back doors. I’ll disable any security systems along the
way, and you two can follow behind and do the searching.”

Ernesto says, “I should come with you to scout for security
guards.” He looks at me with a calm I wish I could feel. “If there is a guard,
I will place three stones by the back door so you know not to enter that way.
Then I’ll place another three stones by a window or vent or other location we open
up instead of the back door.”

Evening is on us, and I am anxious to start. “Let’s get
going.”

Ernesto turns to me, looking resolute, and grasps both my
forearms in his own. “We will find her, mi amigo.”

I try to take strength from my longtime friend’s support,
but it gives only a weak glimmer of light in the abyss of darkness I’m stranded
in. I can only say, “We will get every building. Let’s not leave one undone.”

Then I run to the back door of the first warehouse. Xavier
runs after me, his ebony skin melting into the shadows. Ernesto gracefully
circles around the building, listening and smelling for life. He must hear no
sign, as he gives Xavier the nod. Xavier’s excitement is palpable. There is
nothing he enjoys more than the challenge of covert entry. He quickly unlocks
the door, and I slip in as Xavier and Ernesto are on to the next building.

I do a quick run through of the entire building. It’s a one
floor open warehouse with a small office. I smell every crate, thankful each
time that I do not smell Blue in one of them. I press my ear to the floor and
listen for signs of life below. Then I move on to the next warehouse.

This one has three stones by the door. I find another three
stones under a vent on the roof. I grasp the ridging of the steel walls and
easily climb up. The vent lid is loose. I remove it and peer in. It’s a fifteen
foot drop. I hold on to the vent lid and silently drop inside, landing with
ease. The security guard is in a small office with a window facing the main aisle
that is flanked by shelves and shelves of boxed goods. I use the corner of the
back wall and climb up to the roof. Then I swing from steel beam to steel beam
until I have viewed and scented the entire open space.

I drop noiselessly in the front corner of the warehouse out
of view of the security guard. Crouched down, I make my way below the office
window, quickly scanning my senses through the wall for life. I only smell and
hear the security guard. I cross to the other side, climb the wall, then scale
the ceiling beams to the back of the building. I lever myself through the vent
hole. Then, grasping on to the ridges of the building again, I replace the vent
and drop back down.

I continue on to the next building, and the next, and the
next. At each large crate I am filled with hope that Blue is not inside. At the
end of each building my heart plummets that we haven’t found her yet. When we
are done with over thirty buildings on this street, we move on to the next
street, and then the next. The night wears on, and my hope becomes dimmer and
dimmer.

Finally, when every building has been searched and the night
has grown old, we reconvene at the Cock and Bull Tap. Ernesto looks grim, and
Xavier looks worn. I want to scream into the night air, howl my frustration at
the stars. Instead I open the car that Rubalia had parked here and toss several
bags of blood to Ernesto, taking my own fill. Rubalia packed more earthy
sustenance for Xavier, and he enjoys it ravenously.

We head inside the Cock and Bull Tap near closing time.
Xavier heads toward the men’s bathroom. I order a beer and sit quietly with
Ernesto. The noise of the bar, loud men and women laughing and slurring their
words, grates on me. How can they not know that such a precious person is lost
and in trouble? How can they go on enjoying their lives when all joy is gone
from mine?

When Xavier returns, he nods, and I hand him the beer. I
then head toward the men’s bathroom, pass it up, and continue on to the “No
Entrance” door beyond it. I open it and quickly ascend the staircase to the
upper floor of the Cock and Bull Tap. It appears to be a residence, clean,
comfortable, and small. I quickly do a check and find no life here.

Damn it! I need to find her! She is in trouble. I know it.

My chest aches, and my insides are cold. I take a minute to
lean against the door and remember her as I saw her yesterday. She was sitting
in the office, going over all the logic of why it must have been Tobias
Blackwater who tortured Jason. She spoke intelligently and vivaciously, so full
of life and quiet strength. She is a veritable warrior in her own way, digging
and poking until she finds the truth. She spoke with such logical reasoning and
determination that somehow fit perfectly with her beautiful face and that
arresting blue lock that stands out from her chocolate brown hair. She has no
idea how beautiful she is, inside and out.

I repeat her name in my head, letting it echo around.
Blue.
Blue. Blue.
I should never have left you alone! With this last thought, I
push myself away from the door. Missing her and hurting for her will not help
her.

I return to join Xavier and Ernesto downstairs, shaking my
head at the outcome of my search.

Xavier has dark circles under his eyes and is slumping in
his chair. “Xavier, I think you should get some rest and join up with us
tomorrow morning.”

Xavier yawns and says, “Sorry, I wish I could go on
endlessly like you guys, but I will be better help after some shut-eye.”

I give him a half-hearted smile. I can’t quite muster the
whole thing. “I know. Why don’t you use the car that Rubalia left us? Stock up
on blood for when you meet up with us tomorrow. We’re heading back to the
island to do some more searching.”

Ernesto asks, “What is next, mi amigo?”

“We are going to search up and down the river. We are going
to find her.”

Bluebell Kildare: June 2, 2022, Red Ages

I gradually awaken from the searing pain in my back and a
biting pain in my arms. My body is hanging from my arms, which are still above
my head, held in place by the shackles around my wrists. The iron is cutting
into my numb hands from the weight of my body.

But that is nothing compared to the pain in my back. My back
is a living fire! Every small movement sends another rush of muscle spasms and
twitches through my back. I can smell a strong metallic scent in the air, and I
know that is from my own blood, pooling on the floor. I also recognize the
heavy, acrid scent that is mixed with the scent of iron. It is coming from the
urine pooled around my feet. My inner thighs and legs burn from where it has sat
on my skin for hours, and the soles of my feet are damp from it.

Ohh, no! This is exactly what happened to Jason. He had
calluses on his wrists and arms from these shackles. His feet were rotting, and
the smell of human feces and urine covered him. My feet will be rotting soon
too if I don’t get out of here.

I stop thinking for a minute as another wave of muscle
spasms rips across my back. The horror begins to set in my mind. My back is
just like Jason’s. I am exactly where Jason was. How did this happen to me? I
was supposed to be capturing Blackwater, not getting captured by him.

I slowly stand so that my legs are supporting my weight, and
a thousand pinpricks filled my hands as the blood gradually returns. My mouth
is parched, my lips cracked. It’s completely dark in here, and freezing too.
I’m shivering and I feel feverish, but more than that, the air is simply cold.
I feel small and lost in the darkness, and panic begins to rise in me again. I
push those feeling away and instead focus on how grateful I am that the
solitude announces so loudly the absence of Blackwater.

I wonder where Jack and Gambino are. I wonder where I am.
Where can you scream and have nobody hear? I wonder if they’ll find me in time.
How much time has passed? How much time do I have? The questions stretch on
endlessly, but not as far as the darkness.

I decide that this line of thinking will drive me mad.
Instead it is better to investigate the darkness with my senses to see what I
can learn. I can hear a light but distinct plop, plop, plop sound behind me to
the left and up high. Is that water dripping? I close my eyes and listen
carefully. I can hear a softer and duller dlop, dlop that sounds lower to the
ground. I think the sharper, higher noise is water dripping onto the protruding
edge of a rock on the wall, and the softer noise is water dripping onto the
earthen floor. All of the water drops seem to be coming from behind me.

I smell the air. Behind the scent of urine and blood I can
smell the rich, decaying scent of moist earth. I open my eyes again. There is
no light to be seen. Not even a crack of light, not a single ray of sunshine.
I’m in complete darkness. I remember the beam above me, but I don’t recall the
ceiling behind the beam. What is the beam attached to? Cripes! I should have
been more attentive!

So the sounds—is it raining somewhere, or am I just near
water?

My legs are cramping with cold. I shift my weight to ease
the worst of the cramping, and a roll of excruciating pain washes through my
back again. I hold still and breathe evenly until the pain subsides.

I decide to reach out to feel the darkness with my sixth
sense. I close down my senses and open up my sixth sense. It flares to life
stronger than ever before. The Belladonna Necklace definitely isn’t hurting my
abilities. If anything, it’s helping them. I can sense my own fear and pain
permeating the room, and I can feel the vile, malicious madness that is
Blackwater’s signature.

Beyond that, I feel remnants of terror and aloneness that
still remain from Jason. He was in this room. I feel it in little wisps of
emotions that linger and waft toward me like scents blowing past me in a
breeze. It’s unbelievable that I can feel this after so much time! I also catch
the feeling of his quiet strength, so weak now that it is hardly there. But it
is
there.

I push my internal sense further outward, hoping to find the
souls of people. I push past the boundaries of the room, seeking at all sides
for some sign of others. Nothing. No, not true. There is something. I can sense
several tiny souls, oblivious and ravenous, from behind the walls. They are
down the tunnel, perhaps. Some small hungry creatures live down here with me. I
am stunned and elated that I can feel the souls of animals now, but at the same
time, my mind shudders from the thought of the hungry creatures and the blood
at my feet that is surely calling to them. I am immobile. A new horror at my
situation begins to set in, but I push the thought away. Fear will not serve me
well now.

I slowly withdraw my sixth sense and pull it back in. I let
my regular senses rise, and I focus on the sound of the darkness again. The
agony of my back and the cramping in my legs return to me. My arms hurt so bad
from holding them over my head for so long. And my fingers… well, I have no
feeling in them any longer.

I try to focus away from my body. The plopping noise of the
dripping water is coming more quickly now, and the lower dlop, dlop, dlop noise
has become continuous. I feel a drop of water hit my head. Then one hits my
shoulder. Then several more hit me on my cold and fevered body. I feel it stinging
my back, but my back is so pain-filled it hardly registers. My skin feels
clammy and feverish all at once. I shiver with cold.

I stand quietly and feel the endless dark around me, and I
push the pain out of my mind again. I let the sound of the water and the feel
of its drips, cold, sharp, and biting on my skin, fill my mind completely. I
focus on it. I meditate on it. I become a part of it. I let all fear slip from
my mind and envelop myself in the music of the rain and the darkness.

After some time, I slowly become aware again, out of my
self-induced trance. My stomach feels sick from lack of food. How much time
passed while I was absorbed in the rain? I should stop asking myself that. It’s
a useless question. The rain is now dripping so heavily from the beam overhead
that my hair is drenched. Water is coursing down my arms. I put my mouth to my
shoulder and lap at what water I can get. Then I open my mouth and lift my head
to take in the water that drips from the beam. It tastes richly of earth. It is
cold, and I am cold to the bone. I hope it is helping to clean my mangled back.

I wonder what Maud is doing. Has she had another round with
Harry? Will she ever be able to admit she likes him? What color is her hair
today? I hope I don’t end up dying here because then Maud would be alone. I
want to hear more about Harry and laugh with her over their pranks. I hope she
isn’t worried about me now.

Then I think of Alexis and her shop. The kitchen in back is
so cozy, and Alexis is so fun. She makes the most amazing things. I wonder what
Varg is doing. Did Gambino take him? I hope he’s okay without me. My heart
aches for my friends.

I decide to blank out my mind again and feel with my inner
self. I feel the glow of my sixth sense, and this time instead of pushing it
out, I imagine it softly expanding away from me. I feel it lightly disperse and
effortlessly fill up the space around me. I let it drift through the darkness
of the room, beyond the walls, out over the first small souls that I felt and
beyond. It feels like it’s going further than it has ever gone before, but it’s
hard to tell in the boundless darkness. I can feel all around me at once, and I
feel the souls of many, many small creatures. I let my fear go, and I feel them
as small balls of light. I try to focus my sixth sense in one direction to try and
feel further and further. I search for any sign of people. I stretch first in
one direction, then another. But as far as I can reach, I only feel the tiny
balls of light from the small mammals that inhabit the earth around me. Where
could I be that there’s no human life around?

I pull my sixth sense in again. The room is suddenly here,
freezing me. My pain slams into me, and I nearly choke at the sudden onslaught.
I realize that while I was feeling with my sixth sense, the pain and the sense
of my body faded. Good. I will use that when I need it.

The rain must have stopped. The water drops are coming less
frequently now, even irregularly. If this is the same rain that threatened the
sky on Phantom Island, then it’s likely that it’s nighttime on the same day, or
it is early morning. I listen carefully, and between the sounds of the
occasional rain dripping I perceive a low rushing noise. I must be by the Half
Moon River! I’m underground. I wonder if I’m at Red Wood Cemetery. I feel a
rush of hope. Then it fizzles out. What good does knowing where I am do me if I
can’t move?

I try pulling on my arms again. I let my hand muscles go
limp and round and try to slip them through the shackles, but they prove too
tight. I try to pull at my feet, but the shackles are even tighter there. I
grit my teeth against searing pain as I stretch my left foot as far as it will
go and try to wiggle the chain. Blast it! There is no movement in the bolt
cemented into the block I stand on. I breathe quietly for a while until the
pain subsides. Then I try the right foot. Same result.

I wonder how long until Blackwater returns. I don’t want to
think about it, but I must. What do I need to learn the next time he comes? I
need him to bring the light so I can examine my shackles. I need to examine the
beam my shackles are attached to. I want to see the roof over the beam. I want
to check the bolts in the floor and the size of the cement pad I stand on. I
need to check the chain links for any spots of weakness.

I think about Jason and wonder if he did all of these
things. He had no shackles on him when he was found. I wonder how he escaped. I
must convince Blackwater to tell me. I also need to learn about the amulet and
what he wants with it, just in case I make it out alive.

As I think all of these thoughts, the fever gets stronger
and stronger. I finally let my mind rest and slip away into a darkness of my
own making.