The Object: Book One (Object Series) (19 page)

In two more leaps Hayden was on top of the building.  Ted jumped up onto the bottom and thickest part of the bat.

Sherman
hid in an alley when he saw what was happening next.

Hayden got up under the handle of the bat and tore it from its bolts in the ground.  He raised the bat up, something that had to weigh several thousand pounds, Ted astride it as if riding some strange sports-oriented theme park attraction.

Then Hayden flicked the bat upward, shooting Ted into the air.  Hayden reared the bat back, both arms wrapped around it as far as they would go, and swung, connecting with Ted as he freefell and sending his body in an arch at least five blocks away.

He dropped the bat.  It hit the roof ledge, tearing out a chunk of bricks, and crashed down on the street, splintering in several places and partially collapsing, pieces of the building raining down after it.

Sherman
saw Hayden standing there at the broken section of the roof, looking off to the east, where Ted had crash landed.

"Hey!" he called up to the roof.  "The library!"

"What?" Hayden called down, his voice faint.

Sherman
cupped his hands around his mouth.  "If he ain't dead, he's going to the library!  Where's Lillia?"

But Hayden was already gone, leaping rooftops like a frog on lily pads, leaving his car idling in the street with no driver's side door.

~ ~ ~ ~

Lillia searched the reception area and the office where they'd found the baby.  She checked the tables with computers, the downstairs lounge area.  Nothing.  Then she climbed the steps and went to the couch where Kate and Drake had been sitting when she'd left.  She saw the
blood and collapsed on the floor sobbing.

She didn't understand.  The thing on her head, it made her feel smarter and faster.  Better.  Happier.  Those big monsters swimming in the sky had to be the parents of the little ones.  But it wasn't feeding off of her.  If anything, she was feeding off of it.  It was like a battery, pumping energy into her body and making her more capable.

Why would its mother eat her brother and sister?

Lillia crawled over to the couch and lay curled up on it, crying until her body ached.  She didn't know what to do.  She had no one.  Sooner or later she would be up next to die.

Downstairs, the door handle clicked and the door squealed open.  Lillia climbed to her feet and slowly approached the rail.  A dark figure stepped into the doorway.

"Hello, Lillia."

Lillia studied the figure closely.  It wasn't Ted.  Ted was short.

"Who are you?" she asked.

"I'm Barry," the voi
ce said.  "I'm Hayden's father.  I'd like to talk to you for just a moment.  Can you come down?"

"What do you want?"

"Just a conversation," Barry said.  "I can help you.  But I need you to help me find my son.  He's gone crazy.  He's been going around saying terrible things about his mother.  She's worried sick about him.  Can you help me?"

"Sure," Lillia said.

She walked the rail until she came to the staircase
.  She
descended
slowly
, keeping her eye on him.  He was far enough inside
now
that his face caught the la
mplight.  He was big, meaty, and he
looked mean.  Just as Hayden had described him.

She stopped at the landing halfway down
and thought
about Hayden, what he'd said right before she left.
  She'd thought him so cold for describing the kids' deaths so bluntly, but she'd forgotten he'd just witnessed the death of his own mother, without time to deal with his own loss, much less hers.  He was only trying to communicate to her what she refused to believe.

"Come on down," Barry said.  "That's it.  Good girl."

Her shoes clopped on the marble steps, one after the other.

"Did you kill Hayden's mom?" she asked.

Barry tilted his head and grinned, feigning confusion.  "His mother is fine.  I can get her on the phone right now."

"No you can't," Lillia said.  "You're lying.  You killed her."

Barry began to walk quickly towards her, saying, "And you're next, you little bitch."

Lillia ripped the marble knob off one of the newel posts at the bottom of the staircase and threw it at Barry, striking him in the chest and setting him flat on his back.

She stepped down off the last step and stood over him.  He clutched his chest, wheezing and coughing, gasping for air.

"Why did you kill her?  What did she do to you?"

He couldn't speak.

"Why does everyone have to be so
mean
?"
 
She reached down, grabbed his lapels, and pulled him to his feet effortlessly.
 
She stared into his black pupils, at his big toothy grin. 
"It's not necessary, you know
," she said
. 
"
You can be nice sometimes."

Barry tried to
grab her
, but she made a choking gesture with her hand and he froze in place, wrapping his hands around his neck, mouth open, tongue sticking out.

Lillia walked to
wards
the door, pushing Barry backwards though
she stood
six feet removed from him.  His shoes scraped the floor when he wasn't kicking outward.

When his back hit the door, she used hi
s body
to
push it
open,
forcing
him outside
.  She followed him quickly into the
morning breeze, where she
dangled
him
over the staircase, kicking his feet, choking.

"You choked
your wife, didn't you?
"  She looked across the street at the statue of a man seated.  "I don't even know how I know that."

Then she dropped him.  Coming upon her fast was the most frightening thing she'd ever seen.  A ghoulish man with blackened skin and bones showing all over his body, running full speed in her direction, his eyes squinted with determination
.  It was Ted.
  H
e shouldn't be alive.  No one could burn like that and still be breathing, much less sprinting for her.

He must have one on his head, too.

Suddenly Ted was tumbling across the sidewalk fighting with someone.  It wasn't until they stopped rolling that she
could make out her attacker's subjugator as
Hayden.  He'd wound up on top, pounding Ted's head so hard with his fist the impact made popping sounds.

Ted reached up and grabbed
Hayden's arm, and suddenly Hayden screamed in pain.  Ted jumped to his feet and flung Hayden through the stone wall of the library.  Then he plowed through the door, shattering what remained of the glass and cutting himself open in several places.
  He leapt great distances, great heights.

Lillia watched as chunks of the walls and roof blew out, as the entire structure eventually shifted, then as Hayden and Ted came bursting out of the roof and into the sky, leaving the library toppling over and disintegrating.

Hayden and Ted
flew so high in the air
,
Lillia lost sight of them
.  They might well have disappeared into the dark bowels of the object
.
  She suddenly recalled how she'd always felt a twinge of fear and panic when letting go of a balloon, watching it rise higher and higher into the sky, becoming a pinpoint, then nothing.

She thought about everyone at school.  Chase Kolton, the boy she'd been infatuated with since freshman year.  Was he still in the city?  Probably not.  From what she understood, his family had a cabin on a lake somewhere.  They most likely skipped town.  As did Sophie and Autumn Payton, most likely.  Their parents had a lot of money.

For the first time ever, Lillia was glad she didn't have any friends.  The only person she had left to fear losing was Hayden, and he was falling out of the sky, grappling an undead monster.

When
they
were level with the tree tops,
Lillia
reached out for Ted, gripped her hand into a fist, and
swung
it down to
wards
the ground. 
Ted's
body changed course
in a violent jerk
and sl
ammed like a rock
onto the head of the steps, right at Lillia's feet.

She took several steps back and
used both hands to wring his neck.  She could feel his telekinetic defenses trying to pry at her
phantom
fingertips.  She squeezed as tight as she could, gritting her teeth, her shoulders raised to the sides of her head.

Hayden appeared beside her
, his shirt ripped down the front
and spattered with blood
.
"Hold him," he said.  Then Ted
began to drift
out
over
the road.

"What are you doing?" Lillia asked.

"Just trust me."

Lillia walked forward with Hayden, holding her grip around Ted's neck as Hayden positioned
Ted
just over the
yellow
line.

A car came sliding around the corner, squealing tires and accelerating fast.  It was
Hayden's car
, and w
hoever was driving
was in quite a hurry
.

She looked over at Hayden and realized
the extent of
his
plan.
  He must have heard the car coming and thought that e
nough
momentum, with the right timing . . .

When the car's brakes began to squeal, Hayden made a
flipping
motion with his hands, spinning T
ed's body like a Roulette wheel.  His
head connect
ed
perfectly with th
e grill of the car
and popped off his neck like a tee ball.
  The head
spun in the air for a moment and then
bounced into the grass across the street
.

T
he driver
fought to keep the car straight
as he came to a screeching halt
but wound up sideways with one tire up on the sidewalk
.

"Who is that?" Lillia asked, but
before Hayden could answer,
Sherman
jumped out of the doorless driver's side.

"
Sherman
!"

Lillia
ran to him and threw her arms around his waist.
  She smelled the alcohol on him and began to cry.
 
Sherman
was already crying and
mumbling ap
ologies, his body stiff and trembling.

"It's my fault," he said.

Hayden appeared next to them. 
"Where's the head?"
he
asked.

Lillia pulled away from
Sherman
and pointed at the patch of grass where the head had landed.

It wasn't there.

"Roger!" Hayden called.

Lillia turned to see
a group
of people coming up the street:
a man carrying several guns,
the cop
Meredith, and two young boys.

"Everybody okay?" Roger asked, looking at her.

"I think so," Lillia said, making eye contact with Hayden.  She sniffled, tried to sm
ile
.
  Hayden stood at a distance.  He returned the smile but stayed his position.

That was when all the city's tornado sirens went off at once, and everyone's eyes were drawn up to the sparkle of lights in the sky.

~ ~ ~ ~

T
he little creature began to glow, dimly at first but brightening fast.  Ted's brain activity was diminishing, and the alien's tentacles
began to
loosen around his head,
rippling
.

T
he thing
's head felt like a small water balloon in his hand.  He pulled on it, but the tentacles clung to Ted's hair like two root systems grown together.  He waited a moment, tried again using all the force he could muster.  The tips of the creature's tentacles clung to Ted's skull as if magnetized.

When the sirens went off, he finished yanking the tiny squid thing from the severed and bashed head
, then quickly
fitted it to his own head like a toboggan.

It took hold of him instantly and he trembled as a surge of electricity, adrenaline . . .
something raced through him, like a warm jolt of lightning, refreshing, revitalizing.  He felt immortal.