Penumbra (The Midnight Society #2) (26 page)

“Open the third door, and set this ghost along his path to freedom.”

“I can’t. I just...”

“The third door,” she said again, stubbornly. I started to hear the hint of annoyance in her voice, and I knew better than to anger the woman who had me under her spell.

I entered into the cafeteria.

Inside, I found myself standing in a lake. Surrounding the crystal waters were mountains and large pine trees. The air was cold, and fresh, flooding my lungs with pure, clean oxygen.

In front of me was a wooden canoe and sitting inside, on top of a pile of kindling, was Justin.

“Just in time,” he said, “Get it?
Just-in time? My name is Justin.”

I couldn’t help but laugh. He always had a quirky sense of humor.

“We should pop some kernels with that corn of yours,” I said.

“So, you here to say goodbye again?” Justin asked.

I nodded.

He looked around and smiled. “This place was a lot nicer than the swamp, the last time you invaded my dreams.”

“You mean
my
dreams,” I said. “The dead can’t dream.”

Justin shook his head. “Of course we can,” he replied. “Except our dreams tend to repeat themselves over and over again. Often they’re of sadder moments in our lives—regret, sorrow, and all that other bullshit we had to experience while breathing.”

“I asked you last time if you forgave me.”

I needed to get an answer out of him.

He smiled at me as I held my breath, waiting for his answer.

“Aria, there’s nothing for me to forgive,” he replied.

“I was the one who told you about the Midnight Society when I shouldn’t have,” I said. “I was the one who eventually got you killed.”

He shook his head. “You tried to save me.”

“And I failed.”

“No
,” he replied, “You did all you could. At the end of the day, I died because Calisto was a thunder cunt—sorry I know you ladies hate that word, but I can’t think of anything more appropriate to describe her.”

I nodded. “I’ll
let it slide,” I said. “It does suit her properly.”

“L
ike I said before, there’s nothing for me to forgive.”

I shook my head. “I also broke your heart.”

“It happens to the best of us,” he replied. “We all have our hearts broken by someone at one point or another.”

How very true. Maybe
this was the foundation of true love—an endless cycle of heartbreaks.

Justin looked at the blue sky and sighed. “The sun will set soon,” he said. “I wanted to start this journey while there was still day light. Hopefully I’ll sleep through the darkness and when I wake up, I’ll find myself in some magical paradise filled with bikini tops and an endless supply of beer and sweet chili Doritos.”

“Is this goodbye then? I won’t see you again?” I asked.

Justin smiled. “I’m sure I’ll visit you in your dreams from time-to-time, but knock on wood…” he tapped on the canoe with his knuckles, “…I won’t be suffering anymore.”

I wiped the wetness away from the corner of my eyes.

“You have too many tears these days,” Justin
said, “And that just won’t do. Do yourself a favor and find some happiness again.”

“I will when I kill that bitch Calisto.”

He shook his head.

“You don’t have to,” Justin replied. “Just let her go and move onto bigger and better things.”

“I have nothing left to move on to,” I said.

“Now, that just isn’t true. Your fingers recently rekindled their romance with the piano, haven’t they?”

I nodded.

“And there’s a certain man
you need to set straight,” Justin said.

“He’s been such a dick,” I sighed.

“But you love him.”

I nodded.

“Then it’s worth giving him one more shot. At some point, he might realize that he’s being a jackass. It’s a shitty thing that he’s done to you, but we all make mistakes. It may take a little longer for him to realize his.”

“I thought you didn’t like Shadow?” I said.

Justin smiled. “I don’t,” he said. “After all, he stole the heart of the girl I dreamed of being with.”

“Sorry.” My eyes gravitated down into the water.

“No, I shouldn’t have brought it up,” Justin said. “I don’t like Shadow, but at the same time, I can never forget that he was willing to give up his life to save both you and me. He’s a decent guy, and deserves the same happiness you deserve. Now you two stubborn fools just need to find it together.”

He turned his attention back to the sky, now the color of faded rose petals.

“I wanted to set off before sunset. I better get going,” he said as he tilted his head towards the water. “Do you want to pass me the candle?”

I turned and saw a single white candle floating on top of the water, the tip burning with a perfect, orange flame.

I looked at Justin, almost mortified.

“I watched you burn once, and the image has been the foundation of all my nightmares,” I stated. “You’re high if you think I’m going to give you the candle so I can watch you burn all over again
.” I gestured towards the kindling that lined the insides of the canoe.

“It’s different this time,” Justin said. “First, I’m already dead. Second, picture this as a cremation. You know, this is how they used to send Vikings off into Valhalla.”

I smiled. “You’re not a Viking, Justin.”

He shrugged. “Maybe in a past life I was, getting drunk off fermented goat’s milk and pillaging u
nsuspecting women. Now be a sweetheart, hand me that candle, and then say goodbye to your best friend.”

With a heavy heart, I picked up the candle and gave it to him.

“I’ll save you the trouble. I won’t light myself up here,” he said. “However I do require a gentle push…” he looked into the sky and pointed at the red sun that was descending into the mountains, “…into the sunset.”

I nodded. “Goodbye
, Justin,” I said, as I gave the canoe a gentle shove towards the direction of the mountains. I was surprised how fast the boat began moving away from me, as if an invisible motor propelled it forward.

“Goodbye, Aria, my clos
est friend,” he replied. “I’ll see you on the other side, but not anytime soon, I hope.”

I watched as the canoe
drifted further and further away from me. Justin waved once more, before he lay down in the canoe, disappearing from my vision altogether.

“God, how beautiful the sky is during this time of day,” I heard him shouting from the distance.

I looked up, and shared the same sentiments as he did—enthralled by the majestic sky, purple clouds floating across like silent giants navigating through still, pink waters.

The inside of the canoe suddenly burst into flames, and I watched with a conflicted heart as the floating torch carried my friend far, far away from me, and into another world.

A happier world.

And that was when I woke up.

#

I was flooded with so many different emotions that I couldn’t even begin to sort it all out. I closed my eyes, took a deep breath and reflected on the dreams I had.

“The ghosts are gone,” Isadora said.

I opened my eyes and nodded.

“Did all that really happen?”

“To a certain extent, yes,” Isadora said. “Your living ghost has done its job by freeing you from much of the darkness that held you prisoner. Before, you were a girl without direction, but now—with some of the ghosts removed—you are reborn. How do you feel?”

I took a deep breath and reflected on everything I had just experienced. “I feel…” I paused. What possible sentence could summarize all that was going on in my head and in my heart?

Isadora looked at me with a glimmer in her eye, as if she knew what I was about to say.

“I feel like I have hope,” I finally said.

She smiled. “And that, girl, is the essence of life,” she said as she kissed me gently on the forehead with her soft lips. “Now come, let’s get me to the altar on time, otherwise my bride-to-be is going to kill me.”

Chapter Twenty-Eight

Shadow

Cairo devoured his noodles, slurping them down like he hadn’t eaten for days, as we sat in the diner, just on the outskirts of Kwonloon.

Reiko pushed her noodles around with her chopsticks while chewing on her lower lip. She looked antsy.

“Everything alright?” I asked while staring into the large, black sunglasses she was wearing. She was trying to conceal herself.

Reiko shrugged. “I’m not a fan of public places,” she said, “I like to stay invisible.” It was evident from her plain grey clothes and the hood draped over her head.

During the walk over here, she constantly looked over her shoulder, paranoid that someone had followed us the entire time.

I couldn’t blame Reiko for her behavior. Her mom was ambushed and killed during the Midnight Society’s war with the Ascension, collateral damage during that senseless power struggle with Elias Rose.

That was sure to leave a lasting impression on someone.

“It’s good to get out once in a while,” Cairo said, polishing the last of his noodles and pushing his bowl aside. “Fresh air and a little sun does everyone good.”

“The air in Hong Kong certainly isn’t fresh,” Reiko pointed out, “and it’s cloudy today.”

Cairo shrugged. “We make do with what we have,” he said.

I turned to Reiko. “Did you get anything useful out of that phone?”

She pulled it out from the pocket of her faded jeans and handed it to me. “I ran a check on all the calls—incoming and outgoing. Most of them were legit business calls to clients and business associates. The only exception was an unknown caller.”

“Calisto?” I asked.

Reiko shook her head. “I can’t confirm for sure. It was impossible to pinpoint the location of the call. I’ve never seen anything like it,” she said pulling out her own phone. She swiped to a screen that displayed the map of the world. Red circles pinned down hundreds of different locations all across the map.

“What am I looking at?” I asked.

“This is a trace of one single call made by the unknown caller.”

I raised a brow. “There are over twenty locations identified.”

“Like I said, I’ve never seen anything like it. The bits of the digital message had been chopped up, filtered, sent through an unidentifiable router to all of these locations across the globe, reassembled, and then sent directly to Elena’s phone. It’s ingenious. I’m afraid this is beyond my capabilities.”

I slammed my fist down on the table, startling Reiko.

So much time wasted trying to hunt down Calisto, and on top of that, I had given up far more than I had gained. I had lost Midnight Society’s hold over the Triad and potentially instigated a war with the Yuen Xi Zhao.

“Easy man,” Cairo said raising his hand.

Was seeing the flat of his palm was supposed to calm me down?

“This, coming from the guy who’s first reaction was to pound away on my face when I tried to talk to him,” I rolled my eyes.

“Sometimes, atmosphere is everything,” Cairo said. “If you wanted to reason with me, take me to a coffee shop and chat there, rather than trying to catch me in a fighting pit.”

“Give me a break,” I said, “At the first sight of me, you were going to run your fists through the back of my head. You’re like a single-minded mule when it comes down to it.”

“And you’re a scheming snake,” Cairo retaliated. “You don’t have an honest bone in your body, calling a truce and then—”

“For fucks sake, did I not just say I wanted to stay invisible while I was out in public?” Reiko hissed. “You two bickering is not helping my cause.”

I shook my head and leaned back in my chair. “What a waste of time,” I uttered. “Calisto’s getting stronger by the second and here I am in Hong Kong, wasting away while arguing with the world’s largest dumb ass over a bowl of noodles.”

“Why do
we
need to be the ones finding Calisto?” Cairo asked.

I looked at him, surprised.
“I’m not sure if you remember, but she murdered all of our parents? If you made peace with that already, then good for you,” I said. “You’re a better person than I am.”

“That’s not what I’m saying man. Look, we’re throwing shit at the wall and hoping that it’ll stick…” he began.

I interrupted him. “I don’t think that’s the exact saying you’re looking for.”

“Whatever,” Cairo rolled his eyes. “The point is, we need for her to come to us. You get me?”

“Cairo’s got a point,” Reiko said. “We should devise a plan to draw her out. It makes more sense than blindly chasing her.”

They were right. I had let my anger consume me and instead of thinking things strategically, my first instinct was to hunt her down like a blood hound.

I was never the leader that the Midnight Society needed. I was far too hot headed and emotional. Often, it was Abraham who settled me and forced me to think logically about a problem instead of rushing headfirst into it while my emotions were clouding my judgment.

But Abraham was gone, stolen away from me by Calisto too.

God, I hate her.

“Calisto’s one smart bitch,” Reiko said. “We’ll need to think of something, or someone that could draw her out of the hole she’s hiding in.”

“I know how,” I stated. From the moment Cairo mentioned luring Calisto out, I knew what had to be done.

“Someone’s going to have to kill me,” I said.

“What the hell are you talking about?” Cairo asked, shooting me a backwards glance.

I took a deep breath, and then told them my plan, one which required my death.

#