And It Arose from the Deepest Black (John Black Book 2) (16 page)

5

Without moving my body, for fear of giving something away, I opened one eye and scanned the room. The ruined front door, formerly a gash of darkness peering out into the night, was now a blot of growing light.

Jake’s dream and Pip’s rattled in my head.
Pip is in the other room, so that makes sense. But where’s Jake? He must be close by for me to —

Something moved in the doorway.

I couldn’t help it. I inhaled, quickly and loudly, which woke Bobby. “What is it, Johnny?” He rubbed at his eyes, but sat up quickly. Then Pip appeared in her doorway. I guess we were all tense from the night before.

“Outside…” In unison, Bobby and I stood, and I stepped closer to the hole that used to be our front door. I could hear the sound of paper flapping in the light morning breeze. I stepped through the opening and into the light. Laying on the ground in front of me was a note, weighed down by a rock the size of a softball. I pushed the rock aside and retrieved the note, unfolding it.

JOHN BLACK —

I’M GOING TO MAKE SURE YOU REGRET WHAT YOU’VE DONE. JUST WATCH ME.

It wasn’t signed, but, you know, the morning after someone rips down your front door and tries to kill you, it’s pretty obvious who might be leaving you threatening notes. Well, I suppose the note could have been from the Gorgol family, but as far as I knew, they couldn’t write.

Just watch me.
Pretty dramatic, huh? What was that supposed to mean? What did Jake have planned? Or was he just mouthing off because I got the best of him? Probably that. Hopefully that.

And still, one small corner of my brain kept thinking,
Bring it on, Jake. Just try me.

From inside, the phone rang. “John, it’s your mom,” Pip called to me.

If there is any quicker way to quell bravado than having your mother call, I don’t know what it is. “Hi, Mom,” I said as I took the phone from Pip with an embarrassed nod.

“John. Are you okay? I saw…” I guess she couldn’t bear to describe my fight with Omicron, which must have been on rapid repeat on every news channel.

“Yeah, Mom, I’m okay. I just… I’m not proud of what I did. I think it was the wrong thing.”

The line was silent for a moment. “John,
you
know
you
better than anyone, better than even I do. And these powers you have, they’re yours, to use or not. For whatever you want, good or bad. But I’ll tell you this. That creature killed a lot of people, crushed their homes, ruined a lot of lives. People were terrified. You may feel bad for what you did, but you stopped any more of that from happening. Besides…”

“Besides what, Mom?”

“Holly. She felt it. Like a wave of relief. Like it had taken away some burden or pain. I believe her, John. Those things are looking for her. Stopping them was what you had to do.”

I sighed. “Yeah, I know, but Omicron had
feelings
, or something like feelings. Before he died, I could sense it. Besides, there are still two more of them.”
And I’m afraid that if I kill again, this feeling that right now is only part of me now might become all of me.
But how do you tell that to your mom?

“I understand, John. It makes perfect sense with what the news has been playing, too.”

“What do you mean?”

“You haven’t seen?” she asked.

“No. We had, uh, kind of a rough night.” My mom didn’t need to know about me nearly being beheaded, right?

“Sorry. But as you can imagine, the news is going crazy with all this. Replaying the footage over and over. You in the black mask.”

“Uh-huh. Must be an excellent disguise if you could tell.”

“Well, I
am
your mother, and I think I can see through you wearing one little mask. Besides, don’t forget that I had the benefit of knowing where you were going.”

“Oh yeah, right,” I laughed.

“Have you heard what they’ve started calling you?”

Oh God, no.
“Please tell me it’s not ridiculous.
Please
.” Of all the things,
this
was making me nervous. Finding out what people nicknamed me.

“Black Sword.”

I had to let that sink in for a moment.
Black Sword? Is that cool?
Maybe it was, kind of, but I felt decidedly unlike any person who should be called
Black Sword
. Though I suppose the name made sense, considering I wore a black mask and fought with a sword. It was just… weird. “And Bobby?” I asked.

“Well, he has a particularly frantic way of fighting, according to the talking heads analyzing this whole thing.”

“And…?”

“They call him Yellow Fury.”

I laughed out loud.
Black Sword, Yellow Fury, and Red Hope.
If the world was going to be saved from Gorgols, apparently it was going to be at the hands of three complete dorks
.
The only thing worse would be if
we
started calling
ourselves
these names.

“What’s so funny, Johnny?” Bobby said, coming inside.

“Oh, nothing,
Yellow Fury
.” I laughed again.

On the phone, Mom stepped in. “John, behave.”

“Sorry, Mom,” I said.

“Oh, shit. They call me
Yellow Fury
?” Bobby asked.

I nodded, giggling.

“I…” he started, suddenly beaming. “I
love
it! Yes! I sound bad ass!” He pumped a fist. Across the room, Pip rolled her eyes. “Wait — what about you?” Bobby said, rounding on me.

I looked away. I should have seen this moment coming. In a low voice, I said the nickname like a punishment. “Black Sword.”

“Black Sword?” Bobby pondered it for a moment. “Yellow Fury, Black Sword, and Red Hope. Us.” He thought about the names, looking back and forth at us, once again breaking out in a smile. “We’re awesome! We have awesome names! And — oh wait! Now we need a team name!”

“No way, shut up!” I yelled.

“The Triangle Gang! No, wait. Force Three?” Pip threw a shoe at Bobby to express her displeasure.

“No, Bobby!” Thankfully, to my knowledge, no one ever again called us the Triangle Gang or Force Three. I hope.

“John? Are you still there?” Mom said on the phone.

“Yeah, Mom, sorry. Bobby got a little excited.”

“I understand. But there’s more. The news has been showing some other footage, too. Strange footage. The Gorgols, all together. Alpha — that’s what they’re calling the new one, the really big one — and Sigma, standing over Omicron’s body.”

A wave of guilt hit me, as powerful as one of Omicron’s swipes. Swipes that, to him, were just like human hands waving at a mosquito. “They really do feel,” I said quietly.

“I guess so,” my mother replied. “But that’s not the really weird part. There’s a man, too. The helicopter cameras show him up on the hillside, looking down at the Gorgols.”

“A man?”
Jake?

“Yeah, a man in khakis.”
Okay, definitely Jake.
“And the three of them — the man, and the two living Gorgols. They seem to be in a trance or something.”

A million thoughts ran through my mind, looping and turning and flipping over one another. The Gorgols, in a trance? Maybe peaceful now? They mourned their dead. The one I killed. And now, Jake. Had he subdued the monsters? Succeeded in peace where I had used only war? Jake was right, the Gorgols were just nature’s creatures. Or did that make any sense? They still seemed so alien, so much out of place. But if he could reach their minds… “Could he be talking to them?” I pondered aloud.

“Maybe, John, I don’t know.”

I gave it very little thought. I had traveled so far, and, from all the evidence, done exactly the wrong thing. And a part of me even enjoyed it, which turned my stomach. I needed to think about what to do next, either way. If the Gorgols could be reasoned with, I needed to think that over. If they couldn’t, well, I needed to think about that, too. Because my anger, my want to fight, was a fire. And that fire was changing me.

Like a phoenix. Reborn from fire.

But was that a good thing?

What if, when the fire died out next time, I didn’t recognize myself anymore?

If the Gorgols were under control, I could go in peace. And if they weren’t, I could hold off deciding what to do for a bit longer if I went home.

So that’s what I did.

And Force Three or the Triangle Gang or whatever you want to call us broke apart the same day we were formed.

6

Pushing minds once again, we flew home without Pip, our fledgling team soon to be separated by the entire width of the country. Bobby and I said all the right words, so did she.
We got your back. We’ll meet again soon.
But we were leaving, Bobby and I.

Honestly, I was surprised Bobby was willing to go. I think it was just our friendship that swayed him. I don’t really think Bobby cared whether people found out about him or not. And it seemed unlikely that he was going home because he missed his parents too much. Maybe he realized that if he was outed as Yellow Fury, it wouldn’t take much to pin Black Sword as me. And then what? I had already been through the whole paparazzi thing once, and didn’t like it. It was too hard on Mom, and even worse, maybe dangerous for Holly. We weren’t ready to go public.

Not for the first time, not for the last time, I wished none of this had happened to me. Not the powers, not the crazy thorns in my body that changed me. I could have lived a life without knowing Sol. Without killing him. Without killing Omicron. I could have lived a normal life and been happy. I think. I hope.

Does it matter, though?

The taste for killing, for not just exercising my power, but
over
exercising it. Showing off. I could feel it, deep inside, and it scared me. I wanted a normal life instead.

An hour into the flight, I scanned the movie options. That dragon movie was still available. So I turned everything off and went to sleep instead.

* * *

When we landed, people were standing around a TV monitor at the gate. The endlessly blaring news channel most airports leave on, to try to distract passengers’ minds from the endlessly boring nature of travel.

What caught my attention were the words
Black Sword
and the almost absurd realization that they were talking about
me.

For the past several hours, there has been no sign of the three heroes known as Red Hope, Yellow Fury, and Black Sword, so we don’t know how they might react to this truly unexpected development. Back to you, Jim.

Thanks, Todd.

The news show continued with other analysis and banter, but unfortunately failed to recap what “this truly unexpected development” might be. And since it was pretty clear from what we did hear that we might want — or need — to know what was happening, Bobby decided to ask someone nearby.

“Ma’am. Excuse me, do you know what this
unexpected development
is they’re talking about? We’ve been on a plane.”

The woman turned to answer, then, noticing Bobby’s age, wrinkled up her forehead. A quick push from me helped smooth away the concern. I looked around to see if anyone else had a similar issue, noticed a few stares, and pushed accordingly. I didn’t make the woman ignore us, just stop being concerned.

“Well, it’s most peculiar. After all this time those monsters have been by the ocean, they’re now headed inland, east. With that man.”

“Man?” Bobby asked.

“The man they’re calling
Ranger
. Because he wears those clothes.”
Jake, of course.

“The man is with the Gorgols?”

“Oh, yes. The creatures are walking east and — ”

“Walking?” I asked. “Not that rolling thing they do?” The Gorgols must not have been in much of a hurry.

“Yes, walking.” The woman looked at me, a little annoyed by the interruption. “I suppose they have to walk, because the man, Ranger, is up on top of the big one. Of course, rolling or walking, they’re still smashing everything wherever they go. And nobody knows where they’re headed. People are terrified. I just glad it’s all so far away.”

“
Up on top
…” Bobby echoed. Shaking his head, he thanked the woman and we slipped away.

“What do you think that means, Johnny?” Bobby asked as we headed toward the cab line. One more stolen ride before home.

I grimaced, not sure what to say. “Somehow Jake has gotten through to the Gorgols, communicated with them. Come to some sort of agreement.”

“He’s
riding
one of the damn things? What the hell?” I just nodded and shrugged. Since we had once again taken the red eye, the cab line was deserted. The taxi attendant eyed us suspiciously, but Bobby gave him a quick push and that was gone. “They’re headed east. To us. You think this plane ride we just took was all for nothing?” Bobby said.

I shook my head. “No idea. But maybe it gives us some time to think.”

“Right.” Bobby chuckled.

One of those rental-car shuttle vans slowly motored past. “Bobby?”

“Yeah, Johnny?”

“If Jake has somehow determined how to talk to them, he must be light years ahead of us.”

Bobby shook his head. “After talking to that guy, I don’t believe that. I don’t think he was all there, Johnny. I kept feeling him, I don’t know,
pulse
back and forth. Like he couldn’t decide who to be at that moment. It was weird. Anyway, I don’t think massive feats of intellectual skill are suddenly going to be Jake’s thing, if you know what I mean.” Bobby Graden, the town bully, was questioning someone else’s smarts. That was saying something.

Finally, a taxi pulled up. Push, push, in we went. In the back of the car, we talked freely. The cabbie would never remember, thanks to a little of the influence we provided.

“Bobby,” I started. “Maybe it’s Jake we need to talk to. Learn what he knows.”

“Johnny, he tried to
kill
you,” Bobby said.

“Because of what I’d done. What I might have done
wrong
.” I let the word hang in the air.

Bobby turned to me, more serious than he usually was. “Was it wrong, though, Johnny? I mean, I didn’t
kill
Sigma, but I gave her some wounds she won’t forget. Those Gorgols are strong. Dangerous. You said it yourself that they’re here to come after Holly. And they don’t belong here, anyway. This isn’t a new normal, this is just crazy. Jake talking to them — if he is doing that — doesn’t make it normal, either. It might just mean he really is crazy. Either way, the Gorgols need to go, and if they won’t leave on their own, they need to be dealt with. You took out Omicron. I came pretty close with Sigma.” He sounded… boastful.

“You want to kill them?” I asked, afraid of Bobby’s answer.

He nodded, slowly looking up to me. “Yeah, I think I do. If they show up here, then definitely.”

Oh God,
I thought.
Oh God.
Not for Bobby, not for what he’d said. For myself.
I want to kill them, too.