aterovis_bleedinghearts.pm6 (26 page)

“Most people wouldn’t want it. But I’m not talking about giving it away to just any person.”

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“What?” Now I was really confused.

“There is only one who can take your pain and replace it with peace.”

“Who?” Even I was taken aback by the desperation in my voice. Why? I hadn’t I been able to see the pain before, but now it seemed as if it would overwhelm me at any moment. All the hurt and fear from Seth’s murder and my attack, my dad’s rejection and beating, my mom moving away...everything just suddenly bubbled to the top. I hadn’t even realized how much I had been stuffing it away. Ignoring it and hoping it would just go away. Obviously it hadn’t. I gasped with the sudden surge of emotion.

“The only one who can take away your pain is God.”

I was quiet for a moment. “God?” I whispered quietly at last.

He nodded solemnly. “Have you forgotten about Him? He hasn’t forgotten about you.” He broke into that infectious grin of his, then quickly became serious once again. “Dude, you have got to let go of all that stuff, it’s going to eat you up inside. How can you be happy when you are carrying around so much nega-tive stuff?”

“I—I don’t know how to give it to Him.”

“It’s easy. Like this...” He threw his head back, squeezed his eyes shut and just sat there. Slowly, a smile spread its way across his face. Suddenly his eyes snapped open and he looked at me again. “Now you try it.”

“What did you do?”

“I gave it to Him.”

“Huh?”

“First I feel Him. I always feel Him there all the time, a constant presence everywhere, but when I need Him I...call, kinda, with my need, reach out, and He’s there.

And I feel His arms around me and I cry into them, and 224

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picture all my problems coming out in my tears. They aren’t real tears, but...well...you get the idea.”

“It’s that easy?”

“Yup. Now you try it.”

I looked around nervously.

“No one’s watching you. Besides, who cares? Just let it go.”

He was right. No one was paying any attention to us.

It was like we were invisible. I looked at Dash for a few more seconds then took a deep breath and closed my eyes. Slowly I tipped my head back until my face was pointed towards the sky. I thought about all my pain, all the hurt and sadness. And I waited for God. At first I thought nothing was going to happen. Then I noticed a pinpoint of light appear above me. It began to grow, slowly at first, then faster and faster. Then, with a brilliant flash of pure white light that I could actually see through my closed eyelids, I felt myself enfolded in unseen arms. And I was crying, real tears along with my symbolic tears. And slowly, slowly, I felt it all drain away.

I opened my eyes, blinking rapidly to make the spots go away. I heard Dashel laughing before I could see him. It was a clear, joy-filled laugh that made me want to join in.

“All gone?” he said.

I nodded, at a loss for words.

“Yosh major, dude!” he crowed gleefully. He jumped up and did a little dance right where he stood.

I grinned even though I had no idea what he had just said. He stopped dancing and reached down to pull me up. As I took his hand I felt a sensation like electricity course out of him and into me. I was standing before I knew what hit me. Dash threw his arms around me in a tight hug, then stepped back with his hands on my shoulders.

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“Dance with me,” he commanded.

“What? I can’t dance!” I laughed.

“You just felt God’s arms around you and you say you can’t dance? Open up your heart and just—dance!”

And with that he spun off in a leaping twirl.

I stood awkwardly, not sure what to do. Then I threw up my hands and gave in. At first, I simply tried to imi-tate Dash’s movements, but soon I was lost in the feeling and was hardly even aware of his presence. I don’t know how long I danced, but next thing I knew I was bone tired. I stopped dancing and collapsed to the ground again. Dash plopped down next to me and then flopped onto his back. I lay back too, our arms touching.

“Feels good, huh?” he said.

“Very.” I agreed.

“You caught on fast.”

“Guess I had a good teacher.”

“The best, but it wasn’t me.”

“Are you always so cryptic?”

He laughed, “Pretty much. I don’t mean to be.”

“I’ve never met anyone like you before.”

He sat up. “I’m pretty unique.” He studied me for a minute. “I’m getting ready to split. But before I go I have a message for you.”

I sat up as well. “A message? From who?”

“Don’t you know?” he asked with a grin. Then he frowned. “You are in danger. You were almost killed in this very spot earlier tonight.” My mouth flew open, but he raised his hand and continued, “In your effort to avoid the pain caused by Seth’s death, you have forgotten what you started out to do. You have to finish that now. Find Seth’s killer. It’s up to you to bring closure to this horrible thing that has happened. But please be careful. If you take foolish risks, you will have to pay the price.” Then, as suddenly as the serious mood and the 226

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frown had appeared, they were gone. Everything was sudden about Dash. His movements, his moods, even his speech. The grin was back and Dash was on his feet again.

“Dude, it’s been so radiotopically unbelievably awesome, but now I have to go.”

“Why? Where are you going?”

He shrugged. “I did what I was sent here to do.” He started off into the crowd.

“Wait, Dash! Will I see you again?”

He shrugged, “Who knows, dude? It’s not really up to me. I hope so.”

“Killian,” a voice called from behind me. I spun around and saw Kane pushing through the crowd with Asher right behind him. “Where have you been? We’ve been looking all over for you. We were getting worried.”

I spun back around, but it was too late. He was gone, swallowed up by the crowd.

“Killian?” Asher said.

I glanced back at him, then continued my futile search for Dash.

“Are you okay? Who are you looking for?” Kane asked me.

I turned back to them. “I’m great. I haven’t been this good in weeks and weeks. It was amazing!”

“What was?” Asher said, obviously confused.

“There was this guy named Dash, and he was dancing and I started crying, and he came over to me and talked to me and he helped me give my pain to God and then we danced and now he’s gone.”

“Whoa, dude,” Asher laughed while Kane stared at me as if I’d gone crazy, “Slow down. Who is this guy?

I’ve never heard of any Dash, does he go to our school?”

“I don’t know. No one seems to know him. He didn’t even tell me his last name. But he told me I had to find 227

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Seth’s killer.”

Kane snapped to attention at that. “He said what?”

“He said that I had to find Seth’s killer, and I had to be careful because I was in danger.”

“This guy sounds really creepy,” Asher said.

“No, he wasn’t. He wasn’t like anyone I’ve ever met.”

“Well, it sounds like he was the man of your dreams, huh?” Asher said, sounding more than a little jealous,

“I thought that was Jake.”

“You thought what was me?” Jake asked as he appeared at my side.

I shot Asher a dirty look before turning to face Jake.

He was wearing a pirate costume, complete with hook, open tattered shirt, and a plastic parrot on his shoulder.

“Nice dive earlier,” I said.

Jake grimaced. “Thanks, I think I got a splinter in my nipple.”

“So what was that all about, anyway?” Asher asked.

Jake’s eyes shifted away and he shrugged, “Who knows? You know how women are. I just grabbed for the mike cord and hoped for the best.”

“That was you that jumped on stage earlier?” Kane asked, jumping into the conversation for the first time.

“Oh, I’m sorry,” I said realizing that I hadn’t made any introductions. “Jake, this is my new little brother, Kane. Kane, this is my friend Jake. He’s Gilly’s brother.”

Kane smiled and extended his hand. Jake answered his smile with one of his patented lopsided grins.

“So since this is one of your parties, maybe you know who this guy I met was,” I started.

“Whoa, don’t pin this shindig on me. This is Todd and Gilly’s baby all the way. I just help decorate and do impromptu stunt dives, you know...the normal stuff.”

We all laughed. “Well anyway,” I continued, “maybe you know him anyway. His name was Dash. He’s about 228

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Asher’s height with curly blonde hair?”

“Dash?” he said, “No, I’m pretty sure I don’t know anyone named Dash. Why, what was so special about this guy?”

“Killian has a crush on him,” Asher volunteered, with just a hint of satisfaction in his voice.

“I do not. I just met him tonight. It was just that he was...”

“Different from anyone you’ve ever met before?”

Asher finished.

“Yeah, something like that,” I muttered. “Just forget about it.”

“Yeah, forget about him,” Jake agreed. “Let’s dance!”

The rest of the night was just plain fun. I hung out with Asher, Kane, and Jake all night and everyone seemed to get along. Marcus came and went with some of his friends. Jake and Kane hit it off and it was obvious that they were going to be good friends. There was no more drama with Gilly; in fact, I didn’t even see her anymore. I never saw Dash again either. I caught a glimpse of Zack and Jesse a few times, but they kept their distance.

The party started winding down around 1:00 am and Adam wanted us home by 1:30 anyway, so Kane and I decided to go. We said our good-byes and started back out towards our car. It got darker and darker the closer we got to the gate. It seemed the security light had burned out or something. By the time we got to my car the only light came from a sliver of moon that hung low in the sky, but it was enough light to see that all my windows had been smashed.

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“Oh shit!” I gasped.

“What happened?” Kane asked. He sounded scared.

I knew how he felt.

“Someone smashed my windows.”

“What are we going to do?”

“We’re gonna go back to the house and call the police.” I said, backing away from the car. Then I remembered the camera Adam had given to me before we left.

It had hung from my belt all night, forgotten. I grabbed it now and took several pictures of the car. I didn’t know why, exactly; it just seemed like the thing to do.

We ran into Jake as we were walking back to the house.

“I thought you guys were leaving,” he said when he saw us.

“So did we,” I said.

“Someone smashed out all the windows in Killian’s car,” Kane told him.

“What?” Jake gasped.

“Yeah, I need to call the police—and Adam, so he’ll know where we are and can come pick us up.”

“You can stay here tonight if you want.”

“Thanks, Jake,” I said, “We might end up doing that.”

The police got there about a half hour later, just after Adam arrived. He had insisted on coming to get us, 230

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saying he wanted us home. Soon the whole area out by the road was lit up brighter than the back yard dance floor. They worked, while Adam, Kane, Jake, and I watched from a distance. Asher and Marcus joined us after a little bit. Everyone who was still here was being kept in the back yard until the police knew more. The whole thing was being treated a little more seriously because of my stabbing back in September.

One of the cops disengaged himself eventually and came over to us. “Mr. Kendall?” he asked Adam.

“No, I’m Mr. Connelly. Adam Connelly. Killian is staying with me while his mother is out of town.”

“Connelly?” the cop asked with raised eyebrows.

“Any relation to the Connelly kid...”

“He was my son.” Adam said quietly.

“I’m sorry,” the cop said quickly, “That was insensitive. I’m Officer Hoetz.”

“It’s okay, Officer Hoetz. You couldn’t know.”

He nodded, “Well, here’s what we’ve concluded so far. In light of what happened last month and how it involved Killian here, we took this more seriously than we normally would have. I mean, windows smashed at a party might be upsetting, but it isn’t an earth-shattering event. But under the circumstances...well, as you can see, we took precautions. We searched the car and the surrounding area and we kept everyone that was still here on the premises. It paid off. We found a scrap of material caught on a piece of glass and we may be able to match it up with one of the people still here.

We’re trying to do that now. We are also taking names and releasing people as we can. We don’t want to keep everyone here all night, but things took a nasty turn when we found this in the front seat of the car.” He held up a plastic zip-lock bag with a folded piece of paper inside. “Someone threw it in after the windows were smashed, because it was on top of the broken 231

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glass.”

“What is it?” I asked.

“It’s a note.”

“What does it say?” Adam asked.

Officer Hoetz thought a moment, then nodded and reached into his pocket. He pulled out a pair of rubber gloves and slipped them on. Then he opened the bag and drew out the note, opened it, and read it.

“Killian,” he read, “You’d think after last time, you’d learn. This is just a warning. Next time you won’t be so lucky.”

We all stood stunned as Officer Hoetz folded the note again and sealed it back in the bag. Adam snapped out of it first.

“That proves that Seth’s death was murder, and now the killer is after Killian.”

“Mr. Connelly, calm down,” Officer Hoetz said sooth-ingly. “It doesn’t mean anything of the sort, necessar-ily. It just means that someone is unhappy with Killian and is trying to scare him. Maybe he stole someone’s girlfriend or something.”

Adam snorted, “Here we go again, huh? My son was murdered and no one wants to do anything about it.”

“Mr. Connelly, I understand your grief, but there was no proof...”