Strike 2: Dawn of the Daybreaker (14 page)

“It’s just what happens, Tobin. And the harder you try and hold onto them, the more they slip through your fingers.”

Tobin looked at Adrianna, thinking.

“Wow,” he said after a moment. “You’re depressing.”

She laughed. “I’m just trying to explain it to you, that’s all. So you aren’t shell-shocked when it happens. I didn’t mean to make you cry.”

She grinned and splashed him in the face. He splashed her back.

“I didn’t cry. I’ll save that for later, when I’m all alone and friendless.”

She laughed again, then arched her head up toward the kitchen window. “You think they can see us up there?”

Tobin looked at the window. “I don’t know. Why?”

“Come here.”

Adrianna took Tobin’s hand and led him into a cave behind the waterfall.

“What’s back here?” Tobin said, looking at the rocks around him.

“You think they can see us now?” Adrianna asked.

“No,” Tobin replied, “‘cuz all I can see is the backside of water. Why are we—”

Adrianna grabbed Tobin and kissed him, pulling him close, holding her body against his. He was shocked, but then quickly wrapped his mind around what was happening, and kissed her back. In the silence in the cave behind the waterfall, they kissed, with their arms around each other, their bodies pressed against each other. At this point in his life, Tobin had kissed four girls, but none of them with this passion, this intensity. With the other girls, it had always been quick and mostly awkward, with Tobin constantly wondering if he was doing the right thing. Now, though, he was barely thinking at all, and could only feel an incredible, emotional energy being shared between him and Adrianna. He pulled her closer into the waterfall, then parted from her and looked her in her eyes.

“Hi,” she said with a smile, embarrassed. “Was that okay?”

“Uh, yes.” He shook his head. “Wow, you’re just full of surprises, aren’t you?”

She laughed, and they embraced again, holding each other close.

With a brief moment of thought, Tobin realized that he had never really kissed anyone. Not really, not until this moment. And no one had ever really kissed him.

***

In the Wakefield & Son’s repair shop in the Never-World, Orion and Wakefield were standing in the lobby, looking out the front door. Scott was there, sitting on the front porch; the lost soul was quietly watching the sparse cars and horses travel down the road. It had taken a lot of reassuring and frustrating conversation to get Scott to leave the Midnight Hills, but finally Orion had convinced him that he had a friend who might be able to help.

“He has no idea who he is, or how he got here,” Orion said. “He remembered me eventually, but only as how we were when we were kids. He’s so confused. Just getting him to come here, I thought he was gonna lose it.”

“None of this makes any sense,” Wakefield said. “Look at how young he is: he’s exactly the same age as the day he died. He should be your age, even older.”

“I know. What the hell is going on here, Wakefield?”

“I don’t know. See if you can get him to remember anything else. I’m gonna look through those drawings of his.”

Wakefield stepped into his workshop, while Orion walked onto the front porch and sat down in a chair next to Scott.

“Hi,” the old man said. “Do you mind if I join you?”

“No,” Scott replied. “Did your friend know anything about me?”

“He’s, uh, still looking over some things. He’s your friend, too, you know. Do you remember him?”

“No, I don’t remember...” Scott looked out at the road. “Sometimes I remember...little pieces. A blonde woman, who doesn’t seem like she was from the same place as me. But I loved her very much. And a boy. A baby boy. Is that right?”

Orion nodded.

“And sometimes I remember,” Scott said, struggling with the thoughts. “I remember I had other friends. And we went to all kinds of strange places, and wore these weird costumes. But that can’t be true, can it?”

Orion laughed. “Yes, it can, actually. We had a lot of adventures. You, I, and our friends.”

Scott thought, then turned to Orion. “My wife...did she die?”

“No, she didn’t.”

Scott nodded. “Did I die?”

Orion didn’t know how to answer. Wakefield stepped out of the shop and joined them on the porch. He was holding a pile of Scott’s drawings in one hand, and a thick, hardcover book in the other.

“Scott, what is this?” Wakefield asked. He handed Scott one of the drawings; it was a sketch of a pocket watch with a translucent backside. The watch’s gears and cogs were visible. “Why did you draw that?”

Scott looked at the drawing. “I don’t know. That’s the circle. I see it everywhere. When I’m awake, when I’m asleep. Everywhere.”

Wakefield flipped through the book he was holding. He showed a page to Orion. “Do you know what this is, Orion?”

Orion looked at the page; it contained a photograph of a blue pocket watch on a silver chain, and also an article about the watch. The photo looked nearly identical to Scott’s drawing.

“It looks like a pocket watch that used to belong to Scott,” Orion said, “when we were kids. I gave it to Tobin a few months ago, right before Tobin’s final battle with Vincent. Why? What is it?”

Wakefield pointed to the photo of the watch. “This is the Chrono-Key,” he said. “And it explains everything. We need it right now.”

“Why?” Orion asked.

“Because whoever holds it,” Wakefield replied, “can travel through time.”

***

At Adrianna’s house on the mountain overlooking Zanatopia, Keplar and Junior had finally fallen asleep, while Tobin and Adrianna had returned from their swim in the hot spring; they were now warming themselves by the fireplace, wrapped in blankets. The walk back to the house had been mostly silent.

“Hey,” Adrianna said, watching the fire. “I wanna say...thanks for trusting me. And not treating me like, ya know, one of them or something.”

“One of who?” Tobin asked.

“You know. A bad guy.”

Tobin laughed. “You’re not a bad guy.”

“No, seriously. Everyone I meet treats me like one of them, you know. And I’m not. I just...I don’t know. I probably sound like an idiot right now.”

“No, you don’t. Not at all.”

Adrianna thought a moment. “What I wanted to say was…Rigel and Nova… when they find out that I left...I didn’t have anywhere else to go. So I’m glad you listened to me.”

“Don’t worry about it. You helped me, so now I’ll help you. Okay?”

A silence. Adrianna leaned toward the fire, with her elbows on her knees.

“Why are you hanging out with me?” she asked.

“Because you’re better looking than the bald guy and the dog,” Tobin replied. “Why
wouldn’t
I be hanging out with you?”

“Well…because of what I do, people like you...don’t usually talk to me.”

“What is it that you do?”

“Whatever pays the most. Robbery, bounty hunting, protection. Usually things that aren’t very nice.” 

“Why do you do those things?

“I’m...I don’t want…I don’t want to sound…”

“Go ahead.”

“It’s...my mother,” Adrianna said, watching the fire. “And my brother. They’re both sick, they have been for a long time. They have a horrible...it’s awful. No one really knows what’s wrong, but the…it costs a lot of money, to keep up with the treatments and everything.”

“Is that why you were helping Rigel?”

“Yes. He said that if I helped him, he would be able to heal them, find a cure. Or at least pay for it.” She shrugged.

“That’s probably a lie, you know,” Tobin said. “He won’t help you.”

“I know. But I’ll try anything. It’s my family.”

Tobin nodded.

“Why do you do it?” she asked.     

“What? You mean be a hero?”

She nodded.

“I don’t know. Because it’s the right thing to do.”

She laughed. “Oh my god.”

“No, I’m serious. I have these powers for a reason, you know? So, me and my friends...this is what we do. Well, until someday soon when they aren’t my friends anymore, and I never talk to them again, like you warned me about.”

She chuckled. “I’m just telling you, Tobin; everyone leaves sometime.”

“Not this time. I’m still looking forward to proving you wrong on this.”

She shrugged. “Friends come in and out of your life. Even your best ones. People change, lives change...and the friends who were once a huge part of your life are suddenly gone. Your lives go in different directions.

“The only thing that lasts in this life is family. And even then...that can change, too. It just happens.”

A silence.

“Well, I think you’re wrong,” Tobin said. “I think you just want me to get mad and leave you alone so you can go to sleep.”

She laughed. “No, actually—I like hearing all your naive views on life. I was hoping you’d stay awake a little longer.”

Tobin laughed. “Sure. I just live to entertain you.”

***

Tobin heard the chirping of crickets. He opened his eyes; he was lying on the couch in front of the fire at Adrianna’s house. It was still night. He must have fallen asleep.

Tobin looked to where Adrianna had been sitting, and saw that she was gone. But there was a note on the coffee table in front of the couch:

HEY, TOBIN, STILL COULDN’T SLEEP. IF YOU WAKE UP, MEET ME ON TOP OF THE WATERFALL. I NEED TO TELL YOU SOMETHING.

After a quick change of clothes into his Strike costume to keep warm, Tobin walked to the top of the waterfall above the hot spring. Adrianna was there, standing at the edge of the rocks, with her back to him.

“Hey, Adrianna. What’d you wanna tell me?”

She turned around. She was crying.

Tobin was confused. “Hey. What’s wrong?”

“I’m so sorry, Tobin,” she said.

Tobin felt a burning. He looked down. The blade of a glowing, purple knife was sticking out of his chest, having been shoved all the way through his back. The white-hot burning spread to his arms and stomach as the knife was removed, disappearing back through his ribs.

With his eyes wide and his lungs breathless, Tobin turned to his attacker; Jonathan Ashmore—the pale man in the purple suit, the man who had turned into a bat-creature the first night Tobin had used his powers—was standing there, holding a glowing, purple, bloodied knife. Before Tobin could defend himself or yell for help, his vision went blurry and left him, and he fell to the ground.

Adrianna looked at Tobin’s unmoving body, sobbing, with her hands against her mouth.

“It’s okay, sis,” Jonathan said. “You did a great job. Everything’s gonna be fine. We did what we had to do. Everything’s gonna be fine.”