Whispers

Realizations

What could have been minutes or hours after Lucius had unleashed the vortex of energy on Janika couldn’t blunt the sizzling pain that woke him. He gasped like a swimmer surfacing after leaping into the pool. His heart stuttered then restarted with such ferocity it tripled his current agony. The scent of burning flesh choked him. His vision blurred. The tears that escaped carved a path down his face like acid on skin.

“I’ve seen burnt cow look better than you do right now,” said someone with a heavy Texan drawl.

Lucius made the mistake of swallowing. The knives lining his throat bumped against each other. A shattered femur seemed preferable that his current state. He croaked a response.

“What was that?” The tall whisperer bent over Lucius, shielding him from the too hot sun.

“Trah . . . viiss.” His voice came hoarse, his breathing labored. A prominent gurgle bubbled from his lungs. It was like he drowned from the inside. “I'm . . . stt . . . ill . . .”

He made the mistake of swallowing again. A keening cry left his lips.

“Barely.” Travis squeezed Lucius's shoulder, producing a sickening squelch, like a rag being wrung dry.

Lucius’s vision tunneled, his body shuddered violently. The feeling of fainting edged closer to his consciousness.

Travis pulled his hand away as if he’d been bitten. “Sorry. I wasn’t thinking there.”

“Jah . . . nee . . . kah?”

“Worse than you, Brother.”

“Goh . . . ood.” He sighed and closed his eyes.

Lucius jumped in and out of consciousness after that. He had a vague memory of someone picking him up off the ground. There was more than one of them. He recognized Travis, but not the rest of who was there with him. The ringing in his ears wouldn’t let him catch what they were talking about. An argument ensued, from what he could tell. The raised voices managing to overpower the ringing, but the words remained unclear.

When he finally lost consciousness, he found himself wondering the alley where Karina took him for her shopping excursion. He thought he was invisible to the eyes of everyone because they didn’t acknowledge him. He passed the flower shop where Mrs. Kent arranged a bouquet of pink carnations in an oval vase. Then he passed Mr. Higgs’s bakery, but instead of freshly baked bread, he smelled barbeque on the grill. Odd, considering the baker who looked like Santa Clause had pulled out a pumpernickel loaf from the oven.

Lucius shrugged and kept moving. He was really getting good at the human habit of shrugging. Maybe Karina was finally rubbing off on him.

Karina.

The thought of her made him smile. Where was she?

Lucius, her voice called out. But no matter where he looked, she wasn’t there.

He hurried to the Japanese grocery store. Inside, Mr. Watanabe was seated behind the counter reading a newspaper. Lucius tried to ask him if he had seen Karina, but nothing came out of his mouth. He touched his throat and tried speaking again, but it was no use. He searched the entire store for Karina without any luck. The aquariums that used to be filled with catfish now contained rattlesnakes wriggling among each other. The sound of their shaking tails was deafening. Lucius covered his ears and ran out of the store.

The calm he felt morphed into mild panic. He knew he was in a dream. He did. But the sights, sounds, and smells felt too real. It messed with his senses.

He pushed through the crowd and realized the people shopping had no faces. His heart pounded hard in his chest. What was going on? Mr. Watanabe, Mrs. Kent, Mr. Higgs no longer had faces.

Lucius. Again Karina called his name.

It was clear she wasn’t in the alley, so Lucius took the bus. He didn’t think of teleporting, and he didn’t know why. The bus driver, also faceless, didn’t ask him to pay. The bus was empty. Lucius could have taken any seat he wanted, but he was pulled toward the back of the bus. He took a seat by the aisle and stared at the empty window seat beside his until the bus stopped outside of Blackwood High.

Lucius. Her voice was more insistent now. He was getting closer. He knew it. Felt it in his bones.

One second he was sitting on the bus, the next he was standing across the street from Blackwood High. He stepped away from the sidewalk and made his way across the parking lot and up the stairs. One of the double doors opened like someone had pulled it for him. He entered the school filled with faceless students walking around aimlessly.

He glided through the crowd, tugged by some unseen force toward a specific classroom. Something heavy weighed the back pocket of his jeans. Lucius ignored it, continuing to move forward until he entered the classroom he was being led to. He stopped just inside, the chairs were scattered about. Nine bodies lay on the floor. His gaze studied each body until he noticed the ninth body had flaming red hair.

Lucius . . .

He ran to the body, screaming Karina’s name. He fell to his knees by her side and turned her over gently. Blood soaked the entire front of her white dress. She was the only one who had a face. Her blue eyes stared up at him. Empty.

Lucius kept calling her name, but still no voice came out of him. Tears spilled down his face, landing on her soft pink cheeks splattered with blood. She raised a shaking hand and grabbed at the front of his shirt.

She took a rasping breath and said, “You killed me, Lucius. You killed me.”

Lucius shook his head, openly sobbing. He mouthed that he didn’t do it. That he would never hurt her, but she didn’t seem to understand what he was trying to say. Karina gasped again and pointed at the back of Lucius’s jeans. He reached for the heavy object weighing down his back pocket and pulled out a gun covered in blood. It coated his hand red. He stared at the weapon in shock.

“See,” Karina said. “You killed me.”

“No!” Lucius screamed out. He sat up and gasped in pain. His chest constricted.

It took him a minute to process the fact that he was sitting on a large bed inside a dark room and not in a classroom cradling a dying Karina in his hands. The silk sheets felt rough against his sweat-slicked skin. Whoever had put him to bed didn’t think to dress him. He shuddered. The idea of Karina dead in his arms . . . he couldn’t let himself dwell on the image. It was a dream. Nothing more.

He looked around the room again. It wasn’t his. The bed wasn’t a four poster. Instead of rugs, furs littered the floor. The cold fireplace was made from marble instead of stone without reading chairs. Gaudy wallpaper graced the walls rather than floor to ceiling bookcases. And red sheets? He didn’t own red sheets.

“Where am I?” he asked, glad to have a voice, albeit a rough one.

He glanced at the nightstand and found a glass of water there. He wasn’t particularly thirsty, but he thought it might help wash away the rust inside his throat.

“You’re finally awake,” Desmond said. He manifested into the room as Lucius slid the empty glass back onto the nightstand. “Welcome back to the land of the living. It was touch and go there for a while. We actually thought you wouldn’t heal.”

He moved to Lucius’s bedside.

“Why are you wearing a tux?” Lucius raked his gaze up and down Desmond. “A party you are attending?”

“Actually, we’re already late.”

“We?”

Desmond winced. “That’s why I’m here. I was given the task of waking you up. Dee insists that you attend. Tomas begged him to let you rest, but you know Dee. When he gets something in his mind, you’ll never get him to budge. So, are you up for it?”

Lucius assessed his body. Despite the lingering tightness in his chest, he seemed more or less healed.

“Where am I?” he repeated his previous question.

“Dee’s mansion.”

His brows rose up. “In the Crossroads? Why wasn’t I allowed to go home?”

“Because . . ." Desmond sighed as if something hurt in him too. He paled visibly. "Dude, you really almost died back there. What were you thinking?”

“I wasn’t.” Lucius shook his head. “I needed to protect Karina.” He jumped off the bed. “Karina! Where is she? I need to find her.”

Desmond grabbed him by the arms. “Whoa, there! She's fine. And you're buck naked!” He looked away then snapped his fingers. A tux burned onto Lucius’s body. When he was fully dressed, Des returned his gaze to Lucius’s face, not once letting go of his arms. “You can see her after this party.”

Nausea assailed Lucius. His eyes rolled to the back of his head and his knees buckled. If it wasn’t for Desmond holding him, he would have crumpled to the floor.

“Jeez!” Des maneuvered Lucius back onto the bed and sat him back down. “Maybe Tomas was right. Maybe you should sit this party out, damn what Dee wants.”

Lucius touched a clammy hand on his face. “Why does Dee want me to attend this party anyway?”

“Because you’re the Guest of Honor.”

That got Lucius’s attention. “What? Why?”

“I don’t know anything, man.” Desmond stood back and paced. “I was lucky they let me see you after you were brought here, but they wouldn’t tell me anything. You should have seen yourself, like a slab of meat left on the grill too long.”

“Then what do you know?” The question came out harshly, but Desmond didn’t seem to notice when he answered.

“The buzz is that you got into a fight with Janika.” He stopped pacing and faced Lucius. “No one’s seen her since Travis and Tomas brought you here.”

“Oh, that was Tomas.” Lucius finally made sense of the voices. The other was most likely Dee. But where was Janika? If Desmond didn’t know where she was then Dee, Travis, and Tomas were clearly hiding something, but what? “How long was I under?”

“Just a couple of days. You’re lucky Dee was inclined to lend you a healing hand.” Desmond frowned. “But fighting with Janika in your In Between? I was sure he was going to let you die. And this party afterwards? Did you know a contingent of redeemers is here too?"

Shock hit Lucius again. Dee hardly invited the heavenly hosts unless he had to. Redeemers were the antithesis of whisperers. Where Lucius and Desmond suggested someone take his or her life, a redeemer suggested hope and redemption. Their job was to keep humans alive.

Desmond’s information got weirder and weirder. Why would Dee hold a party in his honor after he clearly disobeyed a job by saving Karina from Janika? And why would he invite Redeemers?

Lucius breathed in and out deeply several times to clear the remaining nausea in his system and stood up. He adjusted the bow tie on his neck and swept his gloved hands over his jacket.

“Where’s this party?”

Desmond grinned. “The ballroom.”

Lucius failed at keeping his jaw from falling. “The party is here?”

“Well, Dee thought that since you’re recovering in his mansion, might as well hold the party here.” Desmond touched his shoulder. “Are you sure you want to attend? Tomas and I can cover for you if you’re not feeling well enough.”

Lucius gently pushed away his friend’s restraining hand. “I’ll be fine.”

“But you still look too pale.”

“How else do you think we’ll get any answers to what’s going on here?” Lucius challenged.

Desmond sighed. “Fine, but I’m not leaving your side. And no getting drunk this time, do you hear me?” He tapped a finger on Lucius’s chest. “The last thing we need is our top whisperer embarrassing us in front of the redeemers. You know what they think about us.”

Lucius laughed around the persistent ache in his chest. “They’re heavenly hosts. They can’t pass judgement on others. Or at least, they don’t show it.” He stopped a moment and listened.

“What?” Desmond moved closer still. “Are you feeling faint again?”

“No . . .” Lucius shook his head slowly. “I don’t hear them anymore.”

“Who?”

“The voices in my head,” he said, awe in his tone. He listened harder, but there was nothing. Not a scream.

“You have voices in your head?” Desmond looked freaked.

Lucius smiled at him reassuringly. “It’s a long story. Let’s get through tonight, get answers, and I’ll tell you everything.”

In response, Desmond teleported them both to a brightly lit ballroom filled with fancy-dressed whisperers and redeemers. Lucius let the smirk play on his lips. The whisperers were all in black, as was their preferred hue, and the redeemers were all in various shades of white. The space looked like a living chess game. There was easy a couple hundred in attendance. His head swam again for a moment.

“I thought you said there would only be a contingent of redeemers here?” Lucius asked, massaging one temple with his fingertips. Even without the voices, a headache was still threatening to come alive.

“Oh, you know how this works,” Tomas said. He sidled closer without Lucius noticing. He was still far from fully recovered after all. “You have a hundred whisperers, so a hundred redeemers must attend.”

“Ah, yes. Keeping the balance and all that,” Desmond scoffed.

“You look absolutely dreadful, Lucius.” Tomas gave Lucius an assessing glance. The champagne glass he held was already half empty.

Lucius inhaled. The sweetness of lilacs, vanilla, and orange blossom assailed his senses. He cast his glance over the crowd, answering Tomas distractedly. “Didn’t Dee insist I be here?”

“He did.” Tomas clucked. “But you didn’t have to be.”

“Yes, about that . . .” Lucius’s voice trailed away.

“What’s the matter with you?” Desmond asked.

“Nothing.” Lucius returned his attention to Tomas. “What happened to Janika after our little disagreement?”

Sweat dotted Tomas’s brow, which was surprising for the usually confident whisperer. He dabbed at the moisture with a handkerchief. “I think you should let Dee explain.”

Lucius was about to say something when the sound of a spoon hitting a crystal glass had everyone glancing toward the grand staircase at the far end of the ballroom. Dee stood at the very top in a tux. His beauty was resplendent underneath the light of the large chandelier that hung above them all. The usual tumble of blonde hair was tamed with one curl falling over his forehead. His crystal eyes shined. If anyone was entranced, they didn’t show it. The room must have been mostly filled with powerful whisperers and redeemers if they could withstand gazing at Dee without swooning.

“Welcome, one and all,” Dee said. He stretched out his arms as if to embrace everyone. The glass and spoon he held disappeared in a puff from his hands. “I’m glad that you are here to celebrate one of my own and one of your own.”

“I thought you said I was the Guest of Honor at this thing?” Lucius whispered to Desmond.

But it was Tomas who cleared his throat and said, “You’re one of them.”

“Lucius,” Dee called out to him before he could address Tomas. “Please join me.”

Lucius closed his eyes and teleported to Dee’s side. When he reappeared, a dizzy spell had him staggering slightly. He covered it up by grabbing the banister. He should have climbed the stairs instead, but he needed to show everyone he was fine if nothing else.

“Good.” Dee nodded once. “Now, if our other Guest of Honor would please join us?”

A figure materialized at the other side of Dee. Lucius turned his head to greet who had joined them and sucked in a breath.