Chapter 10: The Church of Bones
656 Words
The church sat on a hill overlooking the city, its spire broken and crumbling like a monument to forgotten faith. The sign out front had been knocked over, but someone had written words in spray paint across the wood:
"HE RISES"
【Charming. Definitely not ominous at all.】
Jaxon stood at the bottom of the hill, Cross beside him, both of them watching the building for any sign of movement. It was past midnight. The kind of hour when bad things happened and good people stayed home.
"You sure about this?" Cross asked.
"No." Jaxon's hand rested on the grip of the pistol she'd given him—a weapon that wasn't registered to anyone, the kind that disappeared when you needed it to. "But I don't have a choice."
"None of us do. Not anymore."
They climbed the hill in silence, their footsteps crunching on dead leaves. The church doors hung open, broken hinges groaning in the wind. Inside, moonlight filtered through holes in the roof, illuminating pews that had been rotting for decades.
And in the center of the nave, sitting in a wheelchair that looked just as ancient as the building itself, was a man Jaxon had thought he'd never see again.
Marcus Reid.
【Holy s**t. He looks...】
Marcus looked like death. His skin was pale, almost translucent. His body was skeletal, wasted away like a corpse that had been left in the desert sun. But his eyes—his eyes were the same. Sharp. Alert. Alive.
"Marcus." The name came out as a whisper.
Marcus turned, and a smile crossed his wasted face. "Jaxon. Took you long enough."
【Okay. That's definitely him. But what the hell happened to him?】
Jaxon rushed forward, dropping to his knees beside his partner. Marcus's hand—thin, bony, covered in IV scars—found his.
"Three years," Jaxon breathed. "I've been mourning you for three years."
"And I've been running for three years. Different kind of hell." Marcus's grip tightened. "But I knew you'd figure it out eventually. I left you clues. Breadcrumbs. Hope you were smart enough to follow them."
"Hey—"
"I'm kidding." Marcus laughed, and it turned into a cough that shook his entire body. "Mostly."
Cross stepped forward, her gun still drawn. "The Tracker System. Where is it?"
Marcus looked at her, then back at Jaxon. "She's FBI. Cross. I know her. She's been tracking me for two years."
"She's trying to help."
"Everyone's trying to help." Marcus's eyes grew distant. "But help comes with a price. The Tracker System is inside me. Bonded to my nervous system. It's the only reason I'm still alive."
【That's why he's so f****d up. The system is keeping him alive, but it's consuming him in the process.】
"Carter wants to extract it," Marcus continued. "Victoria wants to absorb it. And the FBI wants to study it." He looked at Jaxon. "But you... you're different. You've got your own system. The Death Playback. And somehow, they've merged."
Jaxon shook his head. "What do you mean?"
"The systems aren't just tools, Jaxon. They're alive. Conscious. Mine and yours—we're connected. That's why I could reach you through your visions. That's why you could see my message."
【Well. This is news to me. But it explains a few things.】
"The Tracker System can find any system," Marcus said. "Including the others. Including the one Victoria needs to complete her collection."
"How many does she have?" Jaxon asked.
"Seven. Out of twelve. And she's getting closer to the rest."
Marcus reached up, touching Jaxon's face with fingers that trembled. "You need to find them before she does. All of them. Or she becomes... something else. Something unstoppable."
【And there it is. The big picture. The reason for everything.】
"Help me up," Marcus said. "We've got a lot of work to do."
【And so it begins.】
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