Flight of Life (Essence Series #1) (17 page)

“
It’s a long story,”
Calloway said. “Basically, he was harassing a girl and I defended
her. He wasn’t too happy about that.”

“
Well, I’m sure the girl
appreciated it.”

Calloway shook his head. “It was the
same girl he came in here with.”

Marquan flashed him a confused
expression. “That girl is dumb.”

Calloway shrugged his shoulders but
didn’t say anything.

“
Don’t let it get to you,
Cal,” he said. “It says more about him than it does
you.”

“
Thanks,” Calloway
said.

“
And why does he call you
Poverty Boy#2?” he asked. “Who is the first?” He
laughed.

“
My cousin.” Calloway
smiled. “My family is really poor. He finds that knowledge
hilarious for some reason.”

Marquan shook his head. “I don’t see
what the problem is. We actually work for our money—big deal. If
anything, that makes us better. I would rather understand the value
of a dollar than be a rich brat that has no respect for anyone
else.”

Calloway nodded. “I couldn’t agree
more,” he said. “But I wouldn’t mind being rich.”

Marquan laughed. “That makes two of
us.”

Calloway ripped of his gloves and
shoved them into a garbage can. He glanced at the clock and
realized his shift was almost over. “Are you in high school,
Marquan?”

“
Nah,” he said. “I go to
Fresno University. I’m a freshman.”

“
Cool,” Calloway nodded.
“I’m applying there. Do you like it?”

“
It’s nice,” he said.
“It’s close to home and work so I have no complaints. The
professors are good instructors, too.”

“
I hope I get in,”
Calloway said.

“
You seem like a smart
guy,” Marquan said. “I wouldn’t worry about it.”

“
I hope you’re
right.”

Two employees walked into the store,
and Calloway introduced himself to the two workers. They walked in
the back and clocked in.

“
Yes,” Marquan said
happily as he watched the night shift come in. “I can’t wait to get
out of here.”

“
Do you have any plans?”
Calloway asked.

“
I just got to study for
my finals,” he said. “What are you up to?”

“
I’m going to the public
library to work on college applications.”

Marquan looked at Calloway’s bike
outside the window. “Do you need a lift?” he asked. “It’s cold out
there.”

Calloway shook his head. “I’ll be fine
but thanks.”

“
I really don’t mind,” he
said. “It’s on my way anyway.”

Calloway shrugged. “If you don’t mind,”
he said.

Marquan clapped him on the shoulder.
“Of course not,” he said. “Now let’s clock out and get out of here.
My hair is starting to smell like onions.”

“
What?” Calloway
asked.

Marquan smiled. “You’ll see what I
mean.”

They clocked out and left the store.
Calloway placed his bike and backpack into the backseat of the car
then Marquan drove him to the public library across
town.

“
How long have you worked
at Togo’s?” Calloway asked.

“
Since my junior year in
high school,” he said. “So I’ve been working there for three
years.”

Calloway nodded. “That’s a long
time.”

“
Too long.” Marquan
laughed. “But it pays the bills and the owner is pretty
awesome.”

“
Yes,” Calloway said. “He
hired me even though I had no work experience. He didn’t even
interview me.”

“
Joe can read people
pretty well,” Marquan said. “He can tell if you’re a good kid or
not.”

Calloway nodded. “That’s good to
know.”

Marquan parked in front of the library.
“You know it’s Saturday, right? Why are you doing homework
today?”

“
I have a lot of stuff to
do during the week.” Calloway sighed. “And I don’t have a computer
at home so I have to find other resources.”

“
Well, I’ll see you next
time,” he said.

“
Thanks, MQ,” Calloway
said as he got out of the car.

“
MQ?” He laughed. “What
did you just call me?”

“
I thought it would be a
cool nickname.” Calloway laughed. “Marquan is a long
name.”

Marquan nodded. “I like it,” he said
with a smile. “I’ll you see you later, Cal.”

Calloway laughed. “My nickname isn’t as
cool as yours.”

“
Yeah. It sounds a bit
pretentious.” Marquan laughed. “But I’m going to call you that
anyway.”

“
Alright,” Calloway said
as he walked away. He waved when he reached the entrance and
Marquan drove out of the parking lot and merged with the traffic on
the street.

Calloway walked inside and
took a seat at a computer. The library was deserted on this
Saturday afternoon. There was an elderly woman sitting at a table,
reading
Robinson Crusoe,
and the secretary at the desk was staring at her
computer screen. It was so quiet that when Calloway typed on the
keyboard both women looked up at the noise, distracted from their
reading.

Calloway worked on his school
applications for a few hours. When he noticed a strong scent, he
sniffed the air but couldn’t detect where the odor was coming from.
Finally, he sniffed his shirt and realized he was the culprit—he
smelled like onions. Calloway laughed to himself and decided he
would change his shirt before he left.

When his eyes started to blur from
staring at the computer screen for so long, he walked to the front
desk and waited for the librarian to look at him.

“
Yes?” she
asked.

“
Can I use your phone?” he
asked.

She picked up the wireless phone and
handed it to Calloway. She stared at him for a moment. “You smell
good.”

Calloway shifted his weight at her
unexpected comment. He realized he must smell like sandwiches and
onions. “Thanks,” he said awkwardly. “I work at a sandwich
shop.”

She smiled. “Good for you,” she said.
“I smell like dusty books all the time.”

Calloway quickly walked away and dialed
Easton’s number on the phone. Librarians were always weird—probably
because they were alone all day. After the phone rang a few times,
Easton answered.

“
Hello?”

“
Hey,” Calloway said. “I’m
at the public library.”

“
Alright,” she said.
“We’ll be there in a few minutes.”

“
I’ll be waiting outside.”
Calloway ended the call then returned the phone to the librarian.
He walked away before she could say anything else. Calloway didn’t
want to hear any more comments about how good he
smelled.

Calloway spotted the classic car down
the street as it approached the building. She pulled into the
parking lot and Calloway moved to the backseat.

“
So how’d your
applications go?” she asked.

Calloway sighed. “It’s a lot of
work.”

“
And time,” she
said.

Calloway recognized the real meaning in
her comment. “Are you applying to college?” he asked
her.

“
Yes,” she answered. “I
already did.”

“
But I thought you said it
was a waste of time,” Calloway said.

“
It is—for
you
,” she said. “I
finished my applications in a day and before we became Hara-Kir
hunters.”

“
I knew it!” Breccan
yelled. “We are Hara-Kir hunters!”

Easton rolled her eyes. “We’re going to
Weston’s,” she said.

“
Did you make any progress
today?” Calloway asked.

Easton stopped at the stoplight then
turned right onto the residential street. “We translated a few
pages but not more than that.”

“
I helped,” Breccan
said.

Easton sighed. “Yes, Breccan helped me
eat my lunch.”

Calloway laughed. “That was
productive.”

“
She’s lying,” he said. “I
don’t eat
all
the
time.”

“
It seems that way,”
Easton said as she parked her car against the curb.

“
I like food,” Breccan
yelled. “What’s the big deal?”

“
You like it too much,”
Easton said as she grabbed her bag from the trunk and closed it.
They walked up the driveway to the house hidden in the back, behind
the mansion in the front yard, and knocked on the door.

“
I’m not fat,” Breccan
said quietly.

Easton laughed. “I never said you were.
You just like food.”

“
More than anything,”
Calloway added. “That’s why Aunt Grace and Uncle Scott are tight on
money—they have to feed you.”

Breccan rolled his eyes. “Whatever,” he
said. “I don’t care.”

Weston opened the door. “Back already?”
she asked.

“
I just had to pick up
Calloway,” Easton said as she walked inside. The two boys followed
behind her. Breccan immediately fell silent now that Weston was in
the room. Calloway felt himself staring at her.

Weston’s brown hair curled around her
face and highlighted the angle of her cheekbones. Her smile lit up
the room like Calloway’s glowing orb did when he squeezed it, and
her upbeat personality was immediately infectious. Calloway
couldn’t help but he happy when she was in the room.

“
What are you guys doing?”
she asked.

“
Homework,” Easton said
quickly.

Weston raised an eyebrow. “On a
Saturday?”

“
We’re good students,”
Easton said as she walked to the basement entrance. “We don’t wait
until the last minute to study for our exams.”

“
Well, I get nearly a
perfect score on every test,” she said. “What does that say about
me?”

“
That you’re arrogant.”
Easton smiled.

Weston rolled her eyes. “If I’m a
genius, then so are you,” she said. “And believe me, high school is
a waste of time. It’s a useless investment of our tax
dollars.”

“
That’s the arrogance
talking again,” Easton said as she climbed down the
stairs.

Weston laughed and
returned to the couch where an open copy of the
Count of Monte
Cristo
was placed next to her. She started to read it
again, and Calloway stared at her for a moment before he walked
down the ladder to the basement.

They sat at their usual places at the
table, and Easton pulled the Kirin Book from her backpack and
placed it on the surface. She opened the book to the page she was
decoding and looked at the letters.

“
What did you learn
today?” Calloway asked.

Breccan leaned back in his chair. “The
book rambles on about the essence and something to do with
purpose—something like that.”

Easton shook her head. “It says that a
person’s essence is their purpose, or what we know as the soul, and
without it they have no purpose to live or move
forward.”

“
And?” Calloway
asked.

“
That’s it,” she said.
“But now I understand why the Hara-Kirs are harvesting it. If they
take away the purpose of the humans, then they are closer to
reaching the void. Humans have no interest in continuing a
meaningless existence.”

“
How do they take it?”
Calloway asked. “None of the Hara-Kirs we’ve encountered have
tried—at least that I know of.”

Easton shook her head. “I have no
idea,” she said. “I don’t know if it’s by force or they sneak it
away. I’m assuming the chapter will answer those
questions.”

“
I hope so,” Breccan
asked. He ran his hands through his hair and met Calloway’s gaze.
“You know what I’ve noticed?”

“
What?” Calloway
asked.

“
The Hara-Kirs never tried
to hurt you—not once.”

“
What are you talking
about?” Easton asked.

“
When the Hara-Kir was
chasing me around the library, Calloway kept intervening but it
wouldn’t pursue him. Even when Calloway stabbed the Hara-Kir it
still didn’t try to kill him—it only wanted me.”

“
What are you saying?”
Calloway asked.

“
I don’t know,” he said
quietly. “It’s just something I noticed.”

Calloway nodded. He remembered his
first encounter with the Hara-Kir in the Grandiose Historian
Library and how he managed to get away even though the creature was
stronger and faster than he was. He assumed the Hara-Kir didn’t
want to injure the book but now he wasn’t so sure. “I don’t know,”
he said. “I didn’t notice it before. And I don’t see the purpose in
sparing me unless they want to keep me alive because I have the
Kirin Book.”

Easton nodded. “That makes sense,” she
said. “They have no issue killing us but they will never find the
book if they execute you. They probably intend to torture you for
the information.”