Mania (21 page)

Twenty-Seven
Jack

Mason had a cabin so far outside of Fairview that it wasn't technically considered part of the town. The area was filled with dense natural forests and roads that were barely usable. We bounced along the roads in tense silence. I'd tried to call Mason a few more times from the van, but he still wasn't answering. I wasn't sure what that meant, but I couldn't imagine it was a good thing.

Finn pulled his phone out. “I'm going to tell Addie and Mia we got the second ingredient and are on our way to the third. That okay?”

“Sure.” I turned on my blinker, relieved that Finn had taken on the task of keeping the girls in the loop this time. If I had to name things I was terrible at, first on the list was probably communication—as I'm sure Parker would attest to—and second would be reassuring others.

Finn was obviously the clear choice for this job.

We'd been driving for a couple of hours and were getting close now, but I still didn't know exactly what I was going to say to Mason. Since he'd been kept in the Takers' prison, it seemed a safe assumption that he at least knew about the Night Walkers. But other than that, the man was kind of a mystery.

Libby had a book open. She was stretched out across the very rear seat, reading and trying to ignore the rest of us. Finn, finished with his phone call and looking bored, leaned up from the middle seat to talk to Chloe and me. His shirt of the day read,
What I really need are minions.
The shirt had a point. Minions could really come in handy with the way things were going lately.

“So, this Mason guy—he can't be a Taker?” he asked.

I glanced over at Chloe, but we both were shaking our heads no even before I responded. “He's gotta be at least fifty. No Taker has ever—” I cut myself off, realizing what I was about to say and how much I didn't want to say it, especially not in front of Chloe.

“No Taker has ever lived that long,” Chloe finished for me, then shrugged it off as though it didn't matter at all. “It's okay to say it. It isn't new information.”

“Okay. But he could be a Builder, though?” Finn looked eager to move on to a different possibility.

“Probably,” I said, and Chloe nodded in agreement.

“And you don't know anything about why he might have been thrown into the Takers' prison?” I asked Chloe, not for the first time. It really wasn't about trust—I just hoped she might finally remember something about the base.

“No. I didn't have anything to do with all that.” She shifted uncomfortably in her seat. “I told you, they didn't trust me enough. They didn't even tell me where they moved to when they left it.”

“So you say … ” I heard Libby mutter not too quietly from the backseat.

“Why couldn't Mason be a Watcher?” Finn asked.

“Because he's usually alone.” Libby dropped her book and spoke up. “And Watchers don't live that long either unless they can
use
someone like me.”

I looked up sharply into the rearview mirror and met her eyes, but she quickly looked away. The word
use
felt specifically selected to hurt me. The Libby I knew would never want to do that. She'd been broken by all of this … and I didn't know how to fix it.

By the time I finally pulled to a stop in front of Mason's cabin, it was late afternoon and the sun was rapidly moving across the sky. The house looked quiet, but there was an old car parked next to it and I hoped Mason would be home.

We jogged up the front steps and I knocked loudly on the door. We listened as some robins took flight from a large oak tree by one end of the house. They flapped around the tree a few times before deciding that everything was probably okay and settling back down on whatever branch I'd disturbed them from. A full minute passed before I raised my hand to knock again … and then I heard a creak from inside.

“Mason? Are you in there?” I called, hoping he was being overly cautious and didn't know who was outside. In response, I heard a few louder creaks and then locks being thrown back on the opposite side of the door.

A few seconds later, the door opened a crack—then an inch—and then all the way, to reveal Mason squinting out into the sunlight at us.

“Well, this is quite the surprise … ” Then he pulled out a rifle and pointed it straight at Chloe's head. “You're picking some strange traveling companions these days, Jack.”

“Whoa, whoa, Mason.” Every instinct in me told me to tackle him, to take him down and get him away from Chloe. Instead, I shifted slowly in front of her until the gun was pointed at me instead. “She's
helping
us. You can trust her.”

Mason looked at me with watery eyes, and then peered at Chloe over my shoulder before lowering his gun back to his side. “I just hope you know what you're getting yourself into.”

“I do,” I said as I heard Chloe release a shaky breath. I felt her place one trembling hand against my back.

“Well, come on in, then.” Mason opened the door wide and gestured for us to enter the shadowy interior. “I imagine you wouldn't have come all the way out here if you didn't have something important to discuss.”

“I might not have had to come out here if you answered your phone ever.” I gave him a rueful smile as we walked past him. Chloe stuck so close behind me she was nearly a shadow. I couldn't blame her. Plus, feeling her presence this close felt kind of great.

After we were all inside and settled, I started from the beginning and gave Mason the abbreviated version of what we'd been doing. Since it was clear from his reaction to Chloe that he knew plenty about Night Walkers, I didn't hold anything back. I told him about Cooper and Parker and my dad's new formula and the ingredients we'd been tracking down. He appeared surprised and eager to help at first, but the more I explained the details, the quieter Mason became.

“Yours is the last name I was given, Mason.” I watched for any sign of surprise, but his face was like a brick wall at this point, so I just continued. “We know that somehow my dad left the last ingredient with you. You're a Builder, right?”

Mason leaned forward with a loud sigh and rubbed his hand through his beard. “I wish I'd answered my phone. I'm afraid you've come all the way out here for nothing.” He somehow looked visibly older than he had when we'd gotten here. “Your dad didn't leave me with any secrets, kid. I think you must've gotten your information mixed up somewhere.”

I gave him a quick shake of my head, thinking he'd misunderstood. “The others didn't think they had anything for me either, but they were wrong. The information was buried somewhere they didn't know they ha—”

“I'm not like them, Jack. This isn't the same situation. I'm sorry.” Mason was on his feet and moving toward the door.

“No!” I grabbed his shoulder, trying to force him to face me, but he pulled away. “We aren't leaving here. I can tell you know more than you're saying, Mason. We saved your life. Parker did. He risked his life and saved yours, and you aren't going to send us away and leave him to die until you tell us everything you know.”

Mason wavered, closing his eyes and shaking his head. Finally, his shoulders crumpled forward and he turned away from me. His voice had lost all gruffness when he spoke again. “I don't have your answers, Jack. I wish I did, but I don't.”

I shook my head, panic gripping my heart at the idea of getting this close only to have it all slip away over Mason being unwilling to listen. “How can you even know that?”

“Because I do, okay?” Mason spun on me, but his eyes were guarded like he still was holding a secret. But what kind of secret? If he was a Builder, he could use the dream he created to craft a dream to hide his secrets from me … .

So he wasn't a Builder.

Going into another Watcher's void would be a battle for me … I'd have to fight him if I wanted to find out anything, both of us struggling to take control. At his age, Mason would have more experience, and that could give him an advantage. But where was the Builder who kept him alive?

Which only left me one option—an impossible one.

I shook my head and took a step away from him. “You can't be … ”

He whipped his eyes up to meet mine, obviously shocked by my words. I could see immediately in his face that I was right.

I just didn't know how it could conceivably be true …

He moved back to his chair and settled into it again. I stayed rooted in place as I stared at him, dreading whatever he might say next to prove me right.

“Your dad couldn't hide anything in my dreams … because I don't have them
.” Mason inclined his head toward Chloe and finished, “I'm like her. I'm one of them. Type 1.”

Libby scoffed behind me and I heard her mutter, “They're everywhere.”

Chloe's eyes widened. I tried to process this information into something that made any sense. I'd never heard of a Taker living this long.

“How?” I growled out the word, furious that he would've kept whatever was keeping him alive a secret for this long.

“I helped your dad with his work for years. He spent so many nights studying my mind, Jack. He wanted to know why Eclipse did what it did. Danny tried to figure out how the connection worked between my kind and the Dreamers. He wanted the real answers to find the real cure he'd been looking for from the beginning.” Mason looked past me like he was lost in a memory. “I was the only one of my kind he could still trust. The only one he could know for certain wouldn't ever share anything he discovered. Not until we were both sure it was the right cure this time around.”

“Why would he believe you wouldn't betray him?” Libby asked, a sharp edge of doubt tingeing her voice.

“Because I was the one who helped him destroy Eclipse after he first created it and we realized what it could do.” He sank deeper into his chair and closed his eyes, with a frown so intense it looked like it might brand his face permanently. “No one should have that kind of power.”

I repeated the only question that mattered right now. “How are you still alive?”

“Helping your dad had some benefits.” Mason opened his eyes and gave me a tired smile. “We found some herbs and specific kinds of meditation that helped create a kind of hypnotic sleep. It's helped prolong my life quite a bit … but even that can only help so much. It's why I missed your earlier phone calls, actually. It's gotten to the point that if I don't do that ritual for at least twelve hours a day, I'll be dead in a week.”

Chloe's mouth hung open as she looked at him. This information was pretty amazing to me … but for her, it must've been on an entirely different level.

“But all of this just doesn't feel like living anymore.” Mason moaned slightly and shifted his weight in the chair again. He saw the way I watched him, and grunted. “Look, I've told you all I can to convince you that I don't have your answer. Only thing left is to enter my mind while I go into my resting state. See it for yourself, if you still don't believe.”

“No.” Chloe spoke up faster than I could, and it surprised me.

“Why not?” I asked.

“Because if he's really a Taker, it could be dangerous for you in there.” Chloe's pose was relaxed as she leaned on the arm of her chair, but she looked at me with concern obvious in her eyes.

“She's right, Jack.” Finn nodded. “Isn't overexerting an already-exhausted mind pretty much what made Parker become Divided?”

“I'm tired, but I'm nowhere near Divided.” I spoke confidently.

Libby ratted me out anyway. “He's more tired than I've seen him in a very long time.”

“The last few days have been rough, but I'm still fine. I've been through worse,” I said, dismissing her concern along with everyone else's. We didn't have time for any other options. And it really was the truth—it had only been a couple of days since Libby had healed me. And while everything I'd taught Parker about being in a Taker's mind was from what Dad had taught me rather than from experience, I was sure I could handle it.

Besides, even if I became Divided while saving Parker, I'd never regret it. Despite knowing what having your mind broken like that had done to my brother … and to Dad.

Parker was my brother. I had to save him. I
would
save him. Completed formula or not, I would not let him die.

No matter what it cost.

“I'm ready.” I met Mason's eyes again, and after asking Finn to wake us up in four hours if we didn't wake up sooner, we both went into separate rooms and lay down. It was time to enter the mind of a Taker.

And it was time to discover if Dad had really spent all this time leading us down a dead end road with no hope of finding the answers we so desperately needed.

Mason must've beaten me to sleep, because there was no stop in the Hollow to ease me into the inky blackness where our minds merged. It was just straight into the dark, the air so thick it was nearly liquid. It pressed in on me, pressed down until I was struggling beneath it. Everything was pain and agony. It was hard to move or breathe or even think. Fighting against it was so much harder than I expected. It used parts of my mind I'd never had to use before.

It took me some time to orient myself to the truth. Mason was absolutely a Taker, and he was right. There was no way Dad could've hidden the last ingredient in here. So how could I get myself out of this mess? I pushed out with my mind as hard as I could and created a little bubble of clear space to breathe in. It was so strange in here. It was exactly as Parker had described it.

I tried to picture my dad spending so many nights in this awful place. Why would he? What could he discover here? What could he learn? I reached one hand outside my bubble, feeling the thick weight of the murky air. It just didn't make any sense.