Axiom Theory: Book Four of the Shadow Series (10 page)

Upon striking the deal with who she now called her apprentice, they visited the park. To her surprise, it was an amazing place. Not for the rides or the scenery, but for the opportunity. There were so many people walking around that using her powers to pick pockets or to steal tickets was as easy as taking candy from a baby.

She’d woken up that morning with a lack of energy and enthusiasm that not even the most potent cup of coffee could kick start. As usual, since their first visit to the boardwalk, Destin was up bright and early (what she considered bright and early anyway), ready and waiting for her to get out of bed. Apparently, she’d been there too long.

“Ashley?”

She heard Destin’s voice whispering through a crack in her bedroom door.

“What?” she answered, her voice snapping like a whip. She continued to linger in and out of sleep until she heard his voice again.

“It’s getting late,” he said. “Shouldn’t we get going?”

Smashing her face into the pillow, she asked, “What time is it?”

“It’s ten o’clock,” he replied.

She rolled to her back and
pulled the covers over her head. “Come on, Dest, it’s more fun when we go at night. There are more people there.”

“I know, but today the
y’re having an anniversary thing or something. I saw a commercial on T.V.”

Grumbling beneath her covers, she replied. “In a little bit.”

Suddenly, the blankets were ripped from off of her. She shot up in bed, thinking that Destin had quietly crept in. To her surprise, the boy was still standing in the doorway, right arm extended towards her with weak pulses of light fading beneath his flesh.

She glared at him for a moment, ready to yell at him, when suddenly he grinned mischievously. Unable to keep her face from matching his, she rolled her legs off the bed.

“I guess the practice is paying off, huh kid?”

Destin’s grin turned into a full toothed smile. “Does this mean you’re not mad at me?” he asked.

“I’m always mad at you,” she replied, trying to curb her smile as she stood and walked to the closet. “Now get out of here so I can get dressed.”

“Does this mean we’re going then?” he asked timidly.

Without answering, she reached out with her left hand and allowed her power to shove him backwards and close the door. Before she could even get the t-shirt off the hanger, she heard Destin’s muffled voice from behind the door.

“Is that a yes then?”

With an uncharacteristic giggle, she answered trying her best to sound irritated. “Yes! Now go away!”

As she slipped off her pajamas, she found herself smiling. It wasn’t that she’d never smiled before, just not for the reason she was then. Whether she liked it or not, she felt herself beginning to care for Destin in a motherly way.

After a moment of pondering, she shook her head as if trying to shake the feelings out. “Shit,” she said under her breath. “This wasn’t in the plan.”

****

Destin’s sight had returned and the involuntary gasp for air caused his body to arch painfully. Though Ashley had taken him on the other side many, many times, he’d never gotten used to the awakening. He couldn’t wait until he learned how to do it on his own.

His lessons had mostly consisted of lifting objects, or crumpling things from a distance. He’d gotten pretty good at lifting wallets out of people’s pockets as they walked by, but his favorite thing to do by far was to cause the Ferris Wheel carts to rock back and forth while watching the people inside squirm.

With the fog cleared from his mind, Ashley released her hold on him and began to walk away. He shook his head briefly and rubbed his eyes before jogging off after her. As he caught up, he matched her pace, but stayed just behind and to the right. He took a few long strides before he asked what he thought was a reasonable question.

“When do I get to learn to do other things?”

Ashley didn’t even look over her shoulder as they weaved their way through the increasingly thick crowd of people. “What do you mean?” she asked.

“Like when can I learn to go travel on my own, like you and Casper do?”

“You mean on the dead side?” she replied, turning her head slightly.

He’d heard her call it that a couple of times and each time it had sent a chill down his spine. “Why do you call it that?” he asked.

Not breaking stride, Ashley laughed and lowered her head so that her hair hung over her face. She flipped it up and stopped while turning to the boy. “Seriously? Why do you think we would call it the dead side?” Destin stared at her blankly as he shrugged his shoulders. With a twisted expression, she continued. “Some of our kind simply call it the ‘other side’. Some call it ‘the spirit world’ or ‘spirit realm’. Casper and I thought that was kind of boring, so we started calling it the dead side.”

Still not understanding, Destin continued with his blank stare.

With people walking by at a constant pace, Ashley looked for a place to sit so that they could speak more freely. Across the walkway, and down about twenty yards, was an empty bench. She quickly took Destin’s hand into hers and drug him swiftly to it. As they both sat, she turned herself to him.

“I guess I never thought about the understanding part of things,” she began. She watched as Destin’s eyes lit up with anticipation. A stray grin appeared on her lips. “The dead side is the world where the dead walk as if they were the living.
We, as Reapers, can walk in both worlds. The trick is that we can only spend so much time on the dead side until we run out of energy to keep ourselves there.”

Destin’s nose and brow wrinkled.

“What’s the matter?” asked Ashley.

The boy hesitated a moment before answering. “Well, I’m a Reaper, right?” he asked.

Ashley began to nod her head. “Yes, more or less.”

“Then why don’t I remember being on the other side when you take me there?”

Raising her eyebrows, she had to think about her answer as the conversation had gotten much deeper than she’d ever considered it might. With a deep breath, she exhaled sharply and patted her knees. “You don’t remember because I take you there. Whenever a Reaper takes someone to the other side, human or otherwise, if they don’t use their power, they die.” Her words were so matter-of-factly that she might as well have been talking about how to plant a garden.

Destin’s eye grew wide as he tried to process what he’d been told. “You mean I die every time you take me somewhere?”

Again, with absolutely no emotion, Ashley replied. “Yep.”

Destin turned his eyes into the crowd and stared through them all as if they weren’t even there. “So do you bring me back to life each time?”

Ashley giggled. “Kind of—I bring you back to this world. You see, if we take someone to the dead side, they have a short period of time where they can still return to this world without consequence. However, if we keep them there too long, there is no coming back for them.”

Destin swallowed heavily. “That’s kind of scary.”

Ashley placed a hand on Destin’s shoulder. “Not really,” she replied. “I know how long you will survive, and I make sure that we even cut it under that.” With a grin she shook him gently. “I wouldn’t let anything happen to you.”

Destin grinned back. “So when can I learn how to travel on the dead side?”

“Well,” replied Ashley. “I don’t know for sure. Some of it depends on your powers and how advanced you are. I wouldn’t think it’d be too long before you discover how to do it.” A thought hit her as Destin replied and it overshadowed his words. Maybe she’d need Casper in this training after all. His barrage of insults and teasing might just be what Destin needed to push his evolution farther and faster.

“Ashley!”

Destin’s shout awoke her from her thoughts. “What?” she replied with an annoyed sneer.

“What about flying?” he asked.

With her thoughts drifting back to a use for Casper, she stood from the bench. “Come on,” she said taking Destin’s forearm into her grip. “We’ve talked enough for today. Let’s go have some fun.”

Lauren
leaned on the bathroom counter and stared solemnly at the wall across from her. The hopelessness that she was feeling was something that, since meeting Prim, she’d thought impossible to experience anymore. A gentle knock on the door caused a rush of panic to race through her and she quickly sidestepped to the toilet, lowered the lid, and took a seat.

“Go away,” she said.

From the other side of the door, she heard Alyssa’s voice.

“Lauren? Are you okay?”

Though the sound of her voice was soft and sweet, in the moment it still sounded like fingernails on a chalkboard to Lauren.

“I said go away!” she shouted back.

Leaning forward, her hair draped around her face as she rested it in her hands. She sensed that Alyssa had not followed her command as she could feel her presence still lingering outside of the door. She continued to hide her face, using her hands and hair as a shield, hoping that everything would go away. It didn’t. Alyssa’s voice was preceded by a gasp.

“Lauren
, what’s wrong?”

Lauren quickly looked up just in time to see Alyssa’s body fully materialize inside of the bathroom. Without a word, she quickly spun on her seat and faced the shower curtain. She
looked down and locked her eyes on the caulked seam where the bathtub and the floor met, unwilling to even acknowledge Alyssa’s presence. She could feel Alyssa take slow steps towards her and watched as the shower curtain moved by her feet. She tried not to notice her unwelcomed visitor take a seat on the tub next to her, but it was impossible. Without averting her gaze, she felt the first tear trickle down her cheek as she spoke.

“I thought I told you to leave me alone
,” she said, her voice dripping with defeat.

Her mouth getting ahead of her brain (something that seemed to happen more and more as of late), Alyssa replied. “Technically you told me to go away.”
She tried to make it sound comical, but it was obvious that her sense of timing was brutally poor as she noticed Lauren’s body trembling.

“Lauren, will you please look at me?” she asked.

With no answer, Alyssa reached out and tucked Lauren’s hair behind her right ear, revealing the pain on her face. “Oh, Lauren, what’s going on? This isn’t like you!”

Like a flash of lightning, Lauren
snapped her head and tore into Alyssa. “How the hell would you know what’s like me and what isn’t?”

Though she’d not seen this side of Lauren before, she’d felt her intimidation first hand, but this time, she wasn’t going to let it affect her.
Her friend needed help.

Lauren’s eyes were bloodshot and puffy; her lips pursed tightly, obviously frustrated with Alyssa’s presence. Though intimidated, Alyssa returned
Lauren’s glare with a sweet smile as she replied.

“Do you remember when you and I
took that walk in Jenz’s garden?” She watched as Lauren gave her a puzzled look and then continued. “I think about it a lot actually. It was the first time I feel like I got to see the real you.” She thought hard for a moment about her next sentence and ultimately felt like honesty was the best way to go. “Before that, I thought you were a real bitch.” She was relieved when Lauren attempted to contain a huffed laugh. “I really felt like we connected. Didn’t you?”

Lauren’s features sof
tened as she recalled the memory. While another errant tear rolled down her cheek, she quickly glanced to Alyssa and nodded.

Though she wanted to ask yet again what was wrong, Alyssa didn’t want to upset
her any further. Wiping away Lauren’s tear with her thumb, she tried to think of what she could do to help without inciting another burst of emotion.

“Do you want to go for a walk?” she asked.

Lauren rolled her eyes as she leaned her head back, looking up to the ceiling. “I don’t want…”

“No, no, no,” said Alyssa
, cutting her off. “You don’t have to tell me anything. I just thought a walk through the trees might make you feel better. I know it does me.”

Lauren allowed her shoulders to relax
as she lowered her head once again. With a deep breath and a subtle sniff, she replied. “Actually, that sounds kind of nice.”

Not wanting to assume anything, Alyssa asked, “Do you want me to come with you?”

Lauren allowed the corner of her lip to curl into a grin as she met Alyssa’s hopeful eyes. “As long as you don’t ask a bunch of questions,” she replied. “Sure, I’d like the company.”

The two of them stood, and as Alyssa turned for the door, Lauren gripped her elbow.

“No—not that way,” she said as she glanced over her shoulder into the wall behind her. “Let’s take the back door.”

Alyssa felt a sudden sense of relief as
Lauren’s grin turned to a smile and then watched as she disappeared into a flash of white light. A fraction of a second later, Alyssa let go of her solid form and followed.

****