Ashes (15 page)

20

 

“I DIDN'T KNOW SHE was your daughter,” Kyro admitted, finally breaking the silence in the car. “I'm sorry, man.”

The right words just didn't seem like they wanted to come, so Joel was content with saying nothing. He was focused on the road, now foggy in front of him.

“So what are you doing? What brought you out here?”

Joel turned toward the boy then looked back at the road. “A hunch, I guess. Something in my spirit led me.”

“Yeah, right. Tell me for real.”

“For real?” Joel said, almost mockingly. It was unclear what this kid's angle was. He wondered if it was stupid bringing him along, but he had to take a chance if it meant finding his daughter. Maybe it was time to risk honesty with this kid. At length, he said, “She was taken.”

“Taken? Man, you sounded like that dude from
X-Files
just then. You practice sayin' that?”

“No. Why don't you stop joking about it!
”

“Sorry, pops. You look like you ain't heard nobody joke with you in a hard minute.”

“Will you stop talking like that?”

“Like what?”

“Like a thug.”

“It's where I'm from, man. Respect that.”

Joel felt his eyes roll.

“Do you even know where you're going?” Kyro asked.

“Haven't got a clue. I've been searching blindly, asking people if they've seen her. I feel like an idiot. Putting up flyers. I'm exhausted. I don't know what to do anymore.”

The boy choked up a laugh. “So you turned to Kyro. My man knows what's good.”

“I didn't turn to you. You had my wallet and we had a mutual friend.” Joel noticed a set of eyes glaring at him. “I meant you and my daughter.”

The boy, who looked like little more than skin and bones, kept glued to the photograph, as if waiting for Emery to speak. The way the outside light—what little there was—flickered on the image made it seem like Emery's eyes were alive.

“Man, oh man, you can't forget eyes like that,”
Kyro
whispered.

“Yeah, you're right. My Emery was a beautiful girl.”

“That's for sure. Look, like I said, I didn't know she was your girl when you came up to the skate park. I wouldn't have hustled ya if I knew, swear it.” He tapped his chest and put it to the roof of the car, as if he were communicating with God or something. “So what happened to her face?”

“Who are you, kid?”

“I'm the guy who's helping you out. Now what's the deal?”

Joel forced himself to explain. “When she was a little girl, her mother and I left her alone with her cousins. We hadn't had a date in forever. There was a bonfire accident, and certain parts of her face got burned, okay?”

“Shoot,” Kyro said. “That's heavy. My aunt, she was tellin' me how my gramps knew this girl and she thought he was half-baked 'cause he kept spittin' about how this Phoenix chick wore a mask all the time. Freaky stuff.”

“
This Phoenix chick?
She isn't freaky. She's my daughter! Emery was a very special girl.”

“I'll bet,” the boy said, hushed so Joel couldn't hear. “She's kinda hot. Little makeup will fix her right up.”

Joel glared disapprovingly. “She wore the mask to hide from the world. And sick degenerates.”

“I resent that. I got a four-point-oh GPA, sucka!”

“She's not some object. She's my flesh and blood. The world never understood how special she was.
I
never understood. I was selfish.” Joel rolled his jaw back and forth, looking like he wanted to cry.

“Let it out, Cass, I won't tell. We're just two dudes on a road trip. It's straight.”

“No, it isn't
straight
, Kyro. And this isn't a road trip. I let you come with me because you said you'd help me find Emery. So far all you've been doing is talking incessantly, so much so I can't even think.”

“Ouch, man. I get more respect from my crew.”

Joel gritted his teeth. “Fine. I'm sorry. Look, my mind's a mess right now. I don't have a lot of patience, and I don't have a lot of money. So can you help me or not?”

Kyro glanced down at the photograph again, taking in Emery's face, her innocent eyes. He bit down hard, feeling his teeth jam up against each other. “It's all comin' back now. Look, Casper, you
gotta
promise not to flip out, okay? Be cool. And remember, I got a knife.”

“If you're smart, kid, the last thing you do is
go
around bragging about a weapon you wouldn't have time to reach for anyway.”

“Point taken,” Kyro said, cowering back slightly. “I'm not as tough as I look. I act tough so fools think I'm tough. I travel with a crew…”

“So nobody messes with you. I get it.”

“Aight.
 
So remember, stay cool.” After a short pause, he said. “I think I might possibly, sorta- kinda know where she is.”

Joel slammed on the brakes as soon as he heard it. Kyro's face smashed into the dash, and a curse flew out.

“Easy, man!” He grabbed his head, but there was barely a bruise.

They were stopped in the middle of the road, no one coming on either side. Fog enveloped the car.

“You wanna run that by me again?” Joel turned red.

“Why do you think I'm with you, man?
I'm on your side
,
remember
? I want to bring her back, same as you.”

“Tell me everything you know right now!”

After a series of heavy breathing and twitchy blinks, he said, “There's this place called Salvation Asylum. It
ain't
exactly on the up and up.
Ain't
for normal people, if you know what I'm saying. It's for the ones that got issues. The ones that aren't all there.”

“A mental hospital? What does this have to do with Emery?”

“Yeah, Salvation is a mental joint. It used to be this big-deal hospital, the normal kind. Years ago it burned down, though. And, boom, this place took over. Shoot, I think the devil runs it or something.”

“Get to the point, kid.”

“I heard a bunch o' little birdies talkin'. They say it gets weirder. They say there's this place underneath where they take some of 'em…and do things.”

Joel's face read defeat. “Enough. This isn't a stupid horror flick, Kyro. Do you know anything or not?”

“You don't believe me? Crap, I thought we was bondin' just now.”

“You're about to be walking back to that skate park in a second, unless you tell me the truth.”

“What aren't you g'ttin'? I am spillin' the truth, man. This place is real.”

“How do you know?”

Kyro took a deep breath. “Because I got out.”

Joel sat back in the chair and put the car in park. “Wait, you were a patient?”

“
Were
, exactly. Past
tense,
pops. And I got out. Shoot, now you're
gonna
think I'm some psychopath. I'm tellin' the truth, nothing
but,
swear it. Salvation's real.”

“But you're barely sixteen? Why would they put you in a mental hospital?”

“Man, I'm nineteen. Felons
ain't
exactly looked upon like saints, case you hadn't noticed. I look young and all, but you do the crime, you do the time.” Kyro chewed his lip and finally removed his hand from his forehead. “Look, let me give it to you straight. I loved Abraham. He was like my father. Hell, he was better than a father. He adopted me when I was wicked young. Nobody else gave two pennies about a little street thug. He did. I had no family. My aunt was high most of the time. I mean, that chick finally got her act together, but it was too late.
Fast forward
a few years. Abe gets sick. I went cuckoo.”

“Why?”

“'Cause Abe started dying! What don't you get! He was sick for years before it got to the point where they tossed him away like some used-up trash. The white suits put him in that hospice unit to die. That's where Emery met him.” He started to tear. “That man was Hercules. He didn't need
nothin'
from nobody.
Especially no yuppies in suits.
Bunch of heartless murderers.”

Joel could finally see this kid for what he was: frail, always watching his back. Sarcasm masking a lack of confidence, smirks hiding fear. Joel was so focused on his daughter that he had been blind to the tragedy of Kyro losing someone he loved.

“I lost it. I got wicked violent.” The boy lifted up his sleeve to show Joel the cuts he'd inflicted on himself, wounds he'd have to carry for the rest of his life. “I wanted it to go away, man. The pain. Started stealing pills from people. My crew's families, they're all screwed up. So it wasn't too hard to drown in something other than pain for a while. Man, when Abe got sick, I split. Just ran and ran from it. What a coward. What a stupid coward.”

“It's human to want to run, Kyro. Try to escape it if we can.”

“Yeah, but ya can't. The truth's always there. Nobody can run forever.” The boy was sobbing now. He wiped his nose and eyes, hiding his face in the dark of the car. “My aunt couldn't deal with me no more, and after I got busted with the prescription crap, I started doin' whatever I could to lose myself. Dealin' and thuggin' and takin' a swing at a cop once or twice, it caught up. Judge wasn't so nice. It was either the joint or the funhouse. Guess they thought that place would fix me or something.”

“I'm sorry, kid. Really, I am.”

“Yeah, whatever. It's nothing.” Kyro tried to laugh, but he couldn't, not fully.

Joel sensed a splinter inside, and maybe it was growing. Still, he had to know more about where Emery was, and he hoped, deep down, that this hustler wasn't up to any new tricks.

“I wasn't in there for long, but if you got half a brain left, it doesn't take long to figure out it ain't legit down below. That joint's got many levels, man. That's how I found out about Emery. Every now and then, they roll in with new meat. Somebody that
ain't
crazy. No one knows what happens to them, only that we see 'em come in, but we never see 'em roll out.”

 
Joel gripped the wheel tightly.

“They tell us we're imagining it all. And you know what? We believed that garbage. No questions asked, just keep quiet so you can get out. But being on the streets taught your boy how to keep his lips shut and his eyes and ears open. I listened to everything.”

“Everything?”

“Yeah. Sometimes you hear the nurses talking about something they
ain't
supposed to be knowing about. That's when you act real cool, like you're Rain Man or something.”

Joel's chest was prepared to cave in. “What'd they say about Emery? Is she all right?”

“Look, I don't know. I started asking questions. You can see the fear on their faces, fear that told 'em I was close to finding out something I shouldn't know. Man, thought they were
gonna
ice me. Suddenly I got dismissed way earlier than I was supposed to. Tell you the truth, if I stayed in there any longer, I woulda gone bat—”

“Tell me what happened to her!” Joel said, cutting him off.

“I don't know
nothin' for sure.
This was months ago. I only overheard a few details. But I put all that stuff outta my head. And then you showed up, brought it all back. All I know is I seen these eyes before. I wasn't supposed to, but I did.”

“So maybe Emery's still in there.”

“Big maybe, Casper. That's if those creeps didn't do anything to her. Crap, I shouldn't have spilled my guts. Not sure what good any of this is
gonna
do anyhow. I just had to tell you. Abe woulda wanted me to.”

“Don't say that. She's there. She's
gotta
be. She's alive, and I'm going to bring her home.”

“Okay, Superman. Be real, unless you got a death wish.”

“You have to take me there.”

“Are you crazy? They all know my face in there. And I
ain't
exactly made nice with Jesus just yet. This cat's not stepping within a hundred yards of that prison. That place isn't right.” Kyro was getting antsy. “Plus I was one of the only black dudes in the joint. Now you can't tell me that
ain't
racial profiling! Makes sense, though, white people never ask any questions so long as you get 'em their Starbucks venti-mocha junk in a cup.”

“You know where to go, where to look. I need you.”

“Maybe
you
should check in,” Kyro said, interlocking his arms. “You're crazy enough for the both of us.”

“Maybe you're right. That might not be a bad idea.”