Chapter 21
WHILE WE DRIVE, I TRY A FEW MORE TIMES TO regain the signal with the
globes, but every time I get the solar system up and running they just orbit
like normal. It’s almost midnight and I’m about to rifle through the other
stones and objects in my Chest, but it’s then I see the scattered lights of a
town on the horizon. A sign passes on my right just like it did a few months
ago when Henri was behind the wheel:
WELCOME TO PARADISE, OHIO
POPULATION 5,243
“Welcome home,” Sam whispers.
I press my forehead against the window and recognize a
dilapidated barn, an old sign for apples, a green pickup still
for sale. A warm feeling comes over my entire body. Of all
the places I’ve ever lived, Paradise has been my favorite.
It’s where I made my first best friend. It’s where I developed
my first Legacy. It’s where I fell in love. But Paradise was
also where I met my first Mogadorians. Where I had my first
real battle and felt real pain. It’s the place where Henri died.
Bernie Kosar jumps onto the seat next to me, and his tail
wags at an amazing rate. He shoves his nose through the
small crack in his window, and he sniffs furiously at the
familiar air.
As we take the first side road on the left and make
several more turns, backtracking here and there, making
sure we’re not being followed, finding the best and least
conspicuous place to leave the SUV, we go over the plan
once more.
“After we get the transmitter we go right back to the car
and we leave Paradise immediately,” Six says. “Right?”
“Right,” I say.
“We don’t make contact with anyone else; we just go.
We leave.”
I know she’s referring to Sarah, and I bite my lip. Finally
after all these weeks on the run, I’m back in Paradise and
I’m told I can’t see Sarah.
“Got it, John? We leave? Right away?”
“Lay off already. I know what you’re getting at.”
“Sorry.”
Sam parks the SUV on a dark street under a maple tree
two miles from his house. My shoes drop to the asphalt, my
lungs take their first real breath of Paradise air and I
instantly want to go back to how it was, back to Halloween,
back to coming home to Henri, back to sitting on my couch
next to Sarah.
We don’t take any chances of losing my Chest in an
unguarded car, so Six opens the back door and lugs it onto
her shoulder. Once comfortable, she makes herself
invisible.
“Wait,” I say. “I want something out of there first. Six?”
Six reappears and I open the Chest and retrieve the
dagger, slipping it into the back pocket of my jeans. “Okay.
Now I’m ready. Bernie Kosar, buddy, are you ready?”
Bernie Kosar transforms into a small brown owl, and he
Bernie Kosar transforms into a small brown owl, and he
flaps his way onto a low branch of the maple tree.
“Let’s do this already.” Six picks up my Chest and
disappears again.
Then we run. With Sam trailing at a good pace, I jump a
fence and pick up speed on the edge of the nearest field.
After a half mile, I’m veering into the forest, loving the way
the branches break off my chest and arms, how the tall
patches of grass whip my jeans. I look over my shoulder
often, and Sam is never farther than forty yards behind me,
jumping over logs, sliding under branches. There is a noise
beside me, but before I can reach for my dagger Six
whispers that it’s just her. I see a swatch of grass part down
the middle and I follow.
Luckily, Sam lives on the outskirts of Paradise with large
yards separating each neighbor. I stop just inside the lip of
the forest when his house comes into view. It’s a small,
modest house with white aluminum siding and black
shingles, a thin chimney on its right side, a tall wooden
fence enclosing the backyard. Six materializes and sets
down my Chest.
“That it?” she asks.
“That’s it.”
Thirty seconds later, Bernie Kosar lands on my shoulder.
Four minutes go by until Sam lumbers through a line of
brush and stands next to us, out of breath, his palms
planted firmly on his thighs. He looks up at his house in the
distance.
“How are you feeling?” I ask.
“Like a fugitive. Like a bad son.”
“Like a fugitive. Like a bad son.”
“Think about how proud your dad would be if we pull this
off,” I say.
Six turns herself invisible to run reconnaissance,
checking the shadows of the nearby houses, the backseats
of every car on the street. She returns and says everything
looks okay, but there are some motion sensor lights on the
house on the right. Bernie Kosar flies away, perching
himself on the highest point of the roof.
Six grabs Sam’s hand and they turn invisible. I tuck the
Chest under my arm and quietly follow them to the back
fence. They reappear, and Six goes over first, then Sam. I
toss the Chest over and climb quickly after. We duck
behind an overgrown shrub, and I survey the backyard and
its trees, high grass, a big tree stump, a rusty swing set,
and an antique wheelbarrow on its side. There’s a back
door on the left side of the house and two dark windows on
the right.
“There it is,” Sam whispers, pointing.
What I first thought was a tree stump peeking out of the
middle of the yard is actually, upon closer inspection, a
wide stone cylinder. Squinting, I see a triangular object
sticking up off its top.
“We’ll be right back,” Six whispers to Sam.
My hand in Six’s, I turn invisible and say, “Okay, Eagle
Goode. Guard that Chest as if my life depends on it.
Because it does.”
Six and I carefully walk through the high grass towards
the well, and then kneel in front of it. Numbers border the
circumference of the sundial—one through twelve on the left
side and another one through twelve on the right, zero at the
top—and the numbers are surrounded by a series of lines.
I’m about to grip the middle triangle and twist randomly
when I hear Six gasp.
“What?” I whisper, raising my eyes to the dark back
windows.
“In the middle. Look. The symbols.”
I study the sundial again, and my breath is caught in my
throat. They’re faint and easy to overlook, but in the middle
of the circle are nine shallow Loric symbols. I recognize the
numbers one through three because they match the scars
on my ankle, but the others are new to me.
“What’s Sam’s birthday again?” I ask.
“January fourth, nineteen ninety-five.”
The triangle clicks like a lock as I turn it right to the Loric
number one. I turn it left, swallowing hard as I aim it at what
must be number four. My number. Then I rotate the triangle
to one, nine, back around to nine again, and five. Nothing
happens for a few seconds, and then the sundial begins to
hiss and smoke. Six and I step back and watch as the
stone lid of the well flips back and opens with a loud
echoing crack. When the smoke clears, I see a ladder
inside.
Sam is jumping up and down near the fence. One hand
over his mouth, the other raised in a fist.
One of the dark windows of the house turns yellow.
Bernie Kosar lets out two long hoos from the roof. Before I
can think, Six yanks me forward, and soon I’m visible and
descending the ladder inside the well. Six follows, pulling
descending the ladder inside the well. Six follows, pulling
the lid almost closed above her. I illuminate my palms and
see we’re twenty feet from a cement floor.
“What about Sam?” I whisper.
“He’ll be fine. Bernie Kosar’s up there.”
We reach the floor and find ourselves in a short hallway
that curves to the left. The air is musty. I shine my palms
back and forth as we walk through the curve; and when the
hallway straightens again, we see there’s a room ahead
with a cluttered desk and hundreds of papers pinned to the
wall. I’m about to run inside, but that’s when my lights catch
a long white object in the doorway.
“Is that …” Six trails off.
I’m stuck in my tracks. It’s an enormous bone. Six pushes
me forward and I pull the dagger from my back pocket.
“Ladies first?” I offer.
“Not this time.”
With a running start, I jump over the bone and
immediately light up the room with my hands. A yell
escapes my mouth as I take in the skeleton sitting against
the wall. Six jumps inside, and when she sees it, she
stumbles backwards into the desk.
The skeleton is over eight feet tall, with giant feet and
hands. Thick blond hair falls from the top of its skull and
reaches past its wide shoulder blades. Around its neck
hangs a blue pendant similar to mine.
“That’s not Sam’s dad,” Six says.
“Definitely not.”
“Then who is it?”
I step forward and examine the pendant. The blue
I step forward and examine the pendant. The blue
Loralite stone is slightly larger than mine, but everything
else is the same. I stare at it and feel an overwhelming
connection to whoever this was. “I’m not sure, but I think he
was a friend.” I reach over his head and retrieve the
pendant, handing it to Six.
We move to the desk. I don’t know where to start. A
heavy layer of dust covers stacks of papers and writing
utensils. The writing on the papers pinned to the wall above
the desk is in every language but English. I recognize a few
Loric numbers, but nothing else. A white electronic tablet
sits on a dilapidated wooden chair, and I pick it up and
press my fingers over its black screen. Nothing happens.
Six opens the top drawer to find more papers, and as
she grabs the second drawer’s handle, an explosion
aboveground knocks us off our feet. A long crack travels
along the room’s ceiling and then the concrete buckles.
Chunks fall all around us.
“Run!” I yell.
With the pendant around her neck, Six tears a dozen
papers from the wall and I stuff the white tablet in the back
of my waistband. We scramble up the ladder and peek out
the sliver of space between the well and the sundial.
Dozens of Mogs. Smoldering fires. Bernie Kosar has
transformed himself into a tiger with the curling horns of a
ram. A Mog’s arm is in his teeth. Sam is no longer at the
fence, and neither is my Chest.
I’m about to burst out of the well when Six launches
herself past me in a tornado of clouds. The sundial lid
whips backwards, and she rips through a huddle of five
whips backwards, and she rips through a huddle of five
Mogs, sending them across the yard. I pull myself out of the
well and close it as she picks up a gleaming Mog sword,
turning invisible.
I use my telekinesis to toss three armed Mogs standing
near the well against the house. They explode into thick
ash, and when I turn I see a shirtless man frozen in the back
door with a shotgun in his hands. Behind him stands Sam’s
frightened mom in a nightgown.
Six materializes next to two Mogs running at me with
glowing cannons, and she swings the sword through both
their necks. Then she uses her telekinesis to throw the
wheelbarrow at another, turning him into a pile of ash. I toss
two Mogs against another, and Six impales all three in one
quick motion. Bernie Kosar leaps into the middle of the
yard and digs his teeth into a few Mogs struggling to their
feet.
“Where’s Sam?” I yell.
“Here!”
I twist to see Sam lying on his stomach under a charred
shrub. Blood runs down his scalp.
“Sam!” his mom yells from the doorway.
He struggles to his knees. “Mom!”
His mom yells again, but a Mog reaches down and pulls
Sam up by his shirt. I concentrate and uproot the rusty
swing set, but before one of its metal poles can spear the
Mog in the chest, he tosses Sam over the fence.
With an intensity I’ve never seen in her before, Six slices
through the remaining Mogs. She’s covered in ash when
she jumps over the fence after Sam. I leap onto Bernie
Kosar and we follow.
Sam is on his back in the neighbor’s yard. Motion sensor
lights flood over him. I jump off Bernie Kosar and pick him
up.
“Sam? Are you okay? Where’s my Chest?”
He opens his eyes halfway. “They got it. I’m sorry, John.”
“There!” Six points to several Mogs running through a
field towards the forest.
I set Sam on Bernie Kosar’s back, but he pushes himself
off. “I’m okay. I swear.”
From the other side of the fence, Sam’s mom yells,
“Sam!”
“I’ll be back, Mom! I love you!” And then he’s the first to
run towards the Mogs. Six and I catch up easily, but she
veers right to plunge her sword into an approaching Mog.
Four more are thirty yards ahead of her; and with the large
pendant bouncing around her neck, she charges, with
Bernie Kosar at her heels.
Sam and I enter the muddy field, and two Mogs cut off
our path. Over my shoulder I see two more separating and
marching in our direction at strategic angles. The others
have entered the forest at two different sections, and I can’t
see who has the Chest. I pull the dagger out of my back
pocket. The handle wraps around my hand.
I run ahead, and the two Mogs in front of me run, too, their
swords bouncing and cutting into the empty field behind
them. When we’re less than five yards apart I leap with my
dagger above my head. As I start to fall, a huge tree zips
underneath me, ramming both Mogs and killing them. Six.
As I hit the ground again I turn to see her running towards
Sam and the two Mogs who circle him.
The one on Sam’s left tackles him around the waist. Six
tears the Mog off and throws him far into the field, where he
immediately gets back on his feet and charges.
I sneak up behind the other Mog and hammer my dagger
into the back of his neck, pulling it out at an angle that slices
down through his shoulder blade. He falls to a pile of ash
that blows onto my shoes.
Bernie Kosar pounces on the other Mog and quickly he
has a tongue coated in thick ash.
“We have to get back to the car and get out of here,” Six
says. “There must be more on their way—they were waiting
for us.”
“We have to get my Chest first,” I say.
“Then we’re going to have to split up,” Six says. With her
soot-covered sword, she points at the two sections of forest
the Mogs disappeared into. “Bernie Kosar, you’re with me.”
Bernie Kosar shrinks into a hawk, and he and Six head left.
Sam and I enter the forest in the other direction. Soon we
hear twigs cracking, and we run in that direction. I speed
ahead and hurdle a series of dead trees to see four Mogs
trying to escape through a small clearing. In the moonlight, I
still can’t see if any of them hold my Chest.
I slide down the hill on my side, crushing saplings,
creating a small landslide of loose rock. I hear Sam
crashing after me.
They’re halfway through the small clearing. It’s dense,
with grass six feet tall, and I run through it at full speed. Sam
yells for me to tell him what direction I’m headed in, but
instead I keep running and aim my lit palm straight up into
the sky as a beacon. “Okay! Got it!” he yells.
Finally, right before the clearing becomes forest again, I
can almost reach one. I dive for his legs and slice through
the bottom of his muddy khakis and sever his Achilles
tendon, causing him to roar onto his back. I climb up his
flailing body and stab him in the chest, killing him.
Sam trips over my legs and falls on his face. “You get it?”
“No. Come on!”
Using one hand as a flashlight and the other as a
machete, I race through the forest with ease, not caring how
close Sam stays behind me. In less than a minute, I see
another Mog struggling over a fallen log. From twenty-five
yards away, I lift the log high off the ground, tip it, and force
the Mog to teeter and fall headfirst. I crash through weeds
to find him motionless on his stomach. I can already tell he
doesn’t have my Chest. I kill him with two stabs of my
dagger.
“John?” Sam yells in the darkness. “Dude?”
I again shine my palm in the air, and I’m scanning the
trees when Sam arrives.
“Tell me you got it?”
“Not yet,” I say.
“No Chest,” Sam mutters.
“I just hope Six had better luck.” I reach behind me and
pull the white tablet out to show Sam. “But I do have this.”
He grabs it out of my hand. “From the well?”
“That’s not all we found. Wait until I tell you what else—” I
suddenly recognize where we are. I stop walking. I even
stop breathing.
Sam grabs my shoulder and says, “Whoa, dude. What’s
going on? You feeling something? Like maybe somebody
just opened your Chest?”
As far as I can tell, my Chest hasn’t been opened. The
feeling brewing inside me is something entirely different.
“We’re near Sarah’s house.”
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