Chapter 37: Chapter 37

Detective Russo has the paper-thin file in his hand while searching the online database.

“Impossible.”

He’s run it back over and over again, but the result stays the same.

Irene Trinket. A steadfast citizen of Braidwood for the last eighteen years, but there are no official records of her before she came to Braidwood. It’s like she didn’t exist.

There is no legal paper trail or background from her past. It’s like she’d been living off the grid before she decided to relocate to Braidwood.

All the current information on her like place of residence and occupation dates back to no later than eighteen years ago. The same age as Mia. He doesn’t find that a coincidence.

His phone vibrates, he gropes the desk mindlessly, finds it, and answers.

“Detective Russo.”

“It’s me.”

His focus shifts to call completely. “Katherine.”

“You told me to tell you if I remembered anything from the past that I brushed off then, but could be useful now.”

He rotates his chair away from the computer. “What do you remember?”

“Erin,” she says, everlasting pain still lingers in her name. “One time, Leonard was meant to fetch Erin from school.

“It was a Friday. He said that she begged him if she could stay over for a bit at Opal’s house. When Lenny told me, I didn’t blink. This was common; those kids were attached to the hip.”

The line goes silent. Katherine stammers, audibly holding back a sob.

“Erin came home sopping wet.” She takes steadying breaths between each sentence. “She claimed that she had fallen into Opal’s pool, and Daiyu had an emergency of some kind.

“Apparently, it was so important that she couldn’t get her dry. And drove with her soaking wet all the way home to drop her off. Sound strange to you?”

“Stranger things have happened,” he says in accord. “What did you do?”

“~Nothing~.” Her voice cracks, and she clears her throat. “Leonard dissuaded me. I was stupid to think it was nothing.

“But now that I found out that Erin and her friends were fooling around in the woods. It has me thinking, you know?”

“I do know.” He turns in the chair slowly, his eyes reviewing the circular drawing on the crime wall, all five pages pieced together to illustrate one picture. “It’s starting to come together.”

“In a good way?”

“I’m not sure yet. Thank you, Mrs. Mizrahi. I’ll let you know when I have something more concrete to share with you.”

***

Russo is anchored at the Ballo residence.

Two guests are parked in front of the three-door garage. Opal and Aries climb out of the BMW and Mia hops out of the silver Volkswagen. The three trade terse greetings before waling to the Romanesque pillared front entrance.

Akin opens the opulent door and welcomes the girls with a heartfelt hug. He reaches for Aries, but he bats his friend’s hand away and enters, towing the three with him.

This is where Russo loses visual, but he remains. Despite Irene’s warning, he does not plan on taking eyes off them.

Something has triggered them, he perceives it, and it wasn’t Keila’s disappearance, it is something more.

***

“Welcome to my casa,” Akin announces, sliding his hands into his pockets. “My parents are out the whole day and won’t be back until late, so we’ll have enough time to talk.”

Akin guides them through the lavish layout, unfolding a grand architecture inspired by a timeless design style, artistically crafted with an aristocratic character.

The palatial estate is perfectly situated on a massive plot complemented by an expanse of tranquil landscape overlooking a peaceful scene with a panoramic view of the outdoors.

It boasts a double height formal living area, grand scale dining area, deluxe en suite rooms and a glamorous indoor pool, gym, and a VIP cinema.

“Wow,” Opal says, ogling the luxurious interior. “I forgot how remarkable your home is.”

Aries sniffs disdainfully. “Living large with daddy’s money.”

Akin chucks a glare back at him. “It’s not like I bought the house. Though this house would suit you better. Big enough to house your ego.”

Aries flicks him an apathetic scowl.

Akin leads them to one of the lounges that he finds the most comfortable. This sun-drenched room features a fireplace of ledger sandstone and glass walls that open onto a terrace.

The room is furnished with cushioned chairs and ottomans with upholstered custom-made sofas in a Glant fabric.

They occupy their seats, far from each other, quite like the time when they first reunited at Mrs. Venus’s house. The reunion before the reunion.

“So what’s up?” Akin asks, looking ill-placed in his own house, sitting on the edge of his seat, forearm on his thighs, his eyes homed in on Opal.

Opal shifts the attention away from herself. “Mia, where were you yesterday after school?”

Mia stiffens, looking back at her, feeling attacked. “At the hospital to see Doctor Jo. Why?”

“You were at the hospital?” Aries interjects.

She nods.

“So was I…I was visiting my brother. He broke his leg.”

“On the same day my mom had the accident,” Akin says, sharing a pointed look with Mia.

And she nods knowingly.

“That’s why I wanted us to meet up.” Opal includes everyone in her look, making brief eye contact with each of them.

“You don’t find that strange? Doctor Jo gets hurt, Calum gets hurt, and Akin’s mom gets hurt. What do all these people have in common?”

“People we care about,” Akin answers.

“Exactly. This is getting dangerous. This time we were fortunate they weren’t killed. But what if next time we’re not so lucky. What if we keep ignoring him?”

Aries cannot refute it this time. Calum’s coincidental accident didn’t feel like a coincidence the moment he learned he’d fallen from the Great Oak.

A tree that had stood strong for many years, and never did its branches once waver. Until now.

Mia and Akin come to their own mute accord, unnerved by the consistent coincidences that follow one after the other.

“And what are you suggesting?” Aries asks, sitting back and crossing his arms. “We go back? You got amnesia or something? We talked about this. And I said no.”

“You said no?” Mia repeats theatrically, brows slapping against her hairline.

Opal gapes at him. “We don’t take orders from you. No one made you group leader,” she says wryly.

He exhales, freeing his frustration. “That’s not what I meant. I mean, you know what happens if we go. We’re defenseless, you know that, right? He could kill us with just a thought.”

“Then why hasn’t he?” Mia debates.

“We can’t break the two laws,” he grumbles back.

“Laws made by us; therefore, they can be renounced by us,” Opal states. “And you’re outnumbered.”

“If we go back, we’d only doom Keila. He can’t kill us here, but he can kill us there.”

“He’s picking us off anyway,” Akin says, a cold realization seeping into his skin like wintry dew.

“Some time ago…after Mia barged into the locker room to talk to me. I ran out on her and I left the school.

“And somehow I ended up in the middle of the road…so close to woods. I have no memory of what happened between that.”

Mia pivots so her body can face him. “You just blacked out?”

He nods carefully. “I thought it was nothing, and I was just tripping. But what if it wasn’t nothing? What if I was being lured out there? Maybe that’s how he got Keila.

“I snapped out of it because Brett and Ethan were there. What if Keila had no one? No one to stop her, no one to save her.”

“Not this time,” Opal says with iron conviction pouring into her words. “We failed her once. We’re not going to again. We lost Erin…but there’s a chance to save Keila.

“It has her, it told us that much. We have to go back. We know where she is.”

“I agree with the ethics,” Akin begins with a refusal in his throat. “But when I tried to approach the subject with you the first time, you ran out of the music room with your hands covering your ears.

“Now you’re the one advocating that we return?”

Opal shrugs flippantly. “I wasn’t ready. And the fact is that none of us will ever be. But this is our responsibility. We did what we did. Erin was the cost, now Keila. Who’s next?”

Opal springs to her feet, making a decree in this action. “I’d rather die doing the right thing then die a coward.”

Aries stands up with her. “Okay…death or Keila.”

Mia nods and rises. “Death or Keila.”

Akin ascends, shaking out his legs readily. “Glory or Valhalla.”

They all glance at him curiously.

“What? I’ve always wanted to say that. Haven’t you turds watched ~The Last Kingdom ~or ~Vikings~?”

Aries look to Opal. “We go now?”

She nods curtly.

Deserting the living room, they head back to the front entrance.

Mia is in black cargo pants with a ruched long-sleeve top with black combat boots. Opal is outfitted in a pair of jeans with an oversized drop-shoulder T-shirt with a white rose print.

Akin casts one last, long, lingering look at the swiveling, Persian-carpeted staircase. Mia clasps a comforting hand on his shoulder. They trade heartening smiles, bolstering each other’s spirits.

All together, they depart from the house, slowing down to a pause.

“So, where do we go from here?”

Opal looks out thoughtfully. “We can take the route here, but what will get us to Table Bridge faster is the one by Erin’s house.”

Wordlessly, Aries takes out his car keys. Without needing an invitation, they all assemble around the BMW and enter once the doors are unlocked.

Mia and Akin hop in the back seat, Aries and Opal in the front. The car rolls backward, straightens out and cruises down the road, Aries not engaging his usual breakneck speed.

Detective Russo starts his car and tails them from a safe distance, wary of Aries’s acute senses, not knowing that he’s too distracted to take notice of their tail.

The short journey is lengthened by the slow-crawl pace of the car.

Akin glances down at the center seat occupied by Mia’s quivering hand. He looks back at her. Her face is turned away from him, staring out of the window wide-eyed.

Hesitantly, his larger hand sneaks to hers, sliding it over, and Mia instantly holds his hand back without looking.

Her eyes flung far out of the window, Akin interlocks their fingers, turning his attention out of the window on his side but still holding onto her.

All too soon, the car pulls to the side, from tar to gravel. Aries parks.

The reality of what is about to occur sinks deep. Aries’s leg bops up and down uncontrollably as he surveys the area in front of him.

Opal places a hand on his thigh to still his leg. His gaze snaps to her and she sends him a fear-thawing look. And it isn’t fear for his life.

“We’ll be fine,” she murmurs.

“You can’t promise that.”

“He’s not going to kill us,” Mia says with eerie certitude. “He needs us. This must be about what happened the night Erin died. The ceremony. It got interrupted when we ran away, which is why he wants us back.”

“Then we can’t help it,” Akin refutes. “Imagine what it could do with full dominion?”

“It left us with no choice,” Opal argues. “Unless you want your mother to have another ~accident~?”

Aries gives her a long, side-eye as if appraising her anew, then sighs.

“Shadow came for my brother. I draw the line there. I will gladly lay down my life to protect his. And yours, which is why I think I should go in myself and see what it wants. If we can’t defeat it, maybe we can bargain.”

A furor of protests flares up. Aries groans and looks out the window.

“You’re insane,” Mia says from the back, her other hand still laced with Akin’s, his mere touch staving off the trembles.

“We group swore, remember?” Akin says. “Everyone has everyone’s back.”

“We’re doing this together,” Opal harmonizes. “It will end how it started. We’re doing this for the ones we have lost.”

She links Aries’s gaze with hers. “And the ones we love.”

Everyone in the car can feel the tangible alchemy that burns between them.

“If you guys kiss I will puke all over your leather seats, Aries,” Mia scoffs.

He jerks to the side and pitches her a dagger glare. “Ye, and you’ll be the one to lick it all back up.”

“You’re disgusting~,” ~she says with a foul frown.

They exit the car.

Detective Russo has already left his vehicle, prepared to make the spontaneous trek on foot, following a good distance as they dissipate into the forest.

Russo tries to get close enough to hear their conversation but none of them say a word. The only sound is the clacking of boughs and beaked animals announcing their arrival to the woodland.

The forest is ablaze in its fiery cloak of colors, the radiant-red to lightning-gold from the filtered light of the sun.

The scarlet leaves hang silently on the trees. Muffling winds deaden all sound, weighted by the autumnal flurries.

“I can’t take the silence.” The steep gradient is a strain on Mia’s legs. “Someone say something.”

No one does. For a while.

“It’s Aries’s birthday soon,” Akin says jubilantly. “~Anti-birthday~, pardon. I only remember because every year I get phantom pains along my jaw from when he pounded me to the ground.

“That was around the time of your birthday, right?”

Opal glances at a stoic-faced Aries, his eyes on the overgrown path like he doesn’t hear him.

“Yeah,” Mia confirms. “I know you hate to celebrate it, but eighteen is a big one.”

“You guys want to talk about this right now?” Opal questions to deter them. “Considering where we are and what we’re about to do?”

“Perfect timing,” Mia says, a bit breathless. “The memorable last moments. Something good to dwell on before, you know, we all die.”

“We’re not going to die,” Opal moans.

“You’re evading,” Akin points out. “Respectfully, I was talking to Aries.”

“I’m not eighteen.”

“Cap,” he retorts. “You forget that you were in mine and Keila’s class during the last year of middle school.”

“Because I flunked my year so I could get held back,” he confesses, only after a decade. “It gave me another year with you guys.

“I knew that I was going to be pulled out of the education system after middle school. Erin’s disappearance fast-tracked it but I was always going to go ghost.”

A beat of silence.

“Damn,” Akin says thoughtfully. A grin illuminates his face. “That was the sweetest thing ever. I honestly thought you tolerated us. But who knew you loved us ~that much~?”

“It wasn’t about any of you. I knew what I’d have to give up the day I graduated.”

The truth pricks at Opal’s heart.

A part of the journey is spent with another interval of silence, meandering up the tree-engulfed gorge.

The boys aid the girls’ ascent up the rocky terrain that grows more jagged and perilous, a lot more arduous than any of them remember.

Russo keeps up, managing by the skin of his teeth to keep up with their youthful pace, but it helps that he scaled this height before with Mason.

“Was Skeleton Gorge always this steep?” Mia asks between panting breaths. “It’s really steep.”

“I think it’s just you,” Akin says with a sheepish smile.

“Says the literal athlete.” Her eyes flit to Aries. “And he looks like he lives at the gym. And Opal, I don’t know where you find the time to work out with ~your ~schedule.”

“No such thing. There’s never enough time, you just make it,” she replies.

A distant branch snaps.

Aries holds out his fist beside his head to bring everyone to a standstill.

Akin looks at him up and down with melodrama. “Are we supposed to know what that means?”

“Stop.”

“Oh, thank God.” Mia pauses and drops to place her hands on her knees.

Russo dives behind a bulbous tree, flattening himself against it.

Aries canvases the area, senses sharpening as his eyes scour through every leaf, his gaze gliding up to the canopy, seeing as far as the spiders clutching their snare strings.

Aries’s head cocks to the side, his vision enhanced to HD quality like his retina is embedded with binoculars.

“You spot something, Captain America?”

Aries levels his gaze to frown at the reference. “Who?”

Akin fakes a stumble and holds onto Mia to keep himself from fainting. “He did not just say that.”

“You don’t know who Captain America is?” Mia asks with equal shock.

Opal looks at him with an astonished expression. “I live in the household I live in and even ~I~ know Marvel, you uncultured heathen. How do you not know who he is?”

“Shut up,” he mutters, waving them all off. “I heard something…we’re not alone.”

Akin looks around dramatically, outstretching his arms. “No kidding, Sherlock. We’re in a forest.”

“Not even you are dumb enough to miss what I meant.”

His retort silences Akin.

He sniffs the air, drawing in only organic smells, sweetness and the scent of nameless flowers.

“Move out,” Aries orders, resuming his lead, taking point.

“Seriously, all he’s missing is the suit and shield,” Akin remarks.

“No way, he’s way too broody to be Steve. With the dark hair and death stares, he’s definitely Bucky,” Opal says matter-of-factly.

In due time, a salvo of sound swerves between the trees. The group emerges at Table Bridge, watching the water rushing through the river, sparkling under sunlight.

Single file, they line themselves up on the bridge and look down at the abyssal waters, staring at their reflections varnished on its glossy surface.

With a ripple, the image flashes into another and they all stagger back.

Opal claps her hand over her mouth, edging away. Mia blinks rapidly like her mind is malfunctioning and Akin drops to a lunge, suddenly disoriented. Aries’s hands clench and unclench into fists incessantly.

The overwhelming emotions bound to the memories are all-pervading.

“I-I can’t,” Mia says, gasping for breath. “I can—I-I can’t.”

The unbearable dread and all-consuming fear of that night rears up within them all.

“I can feel it,” Aries says, suddenly scant of breath, clutching his chest. “~I can feel it~.”

Mia shakes her head and runs off the bridge. The others follow.

“We can’t go back there.”

“We don’t have a choice,” Opal repeats with a heaving chest.

“She’s right.” Aries finds the closest tree and plants his hand on the trunk. “We have to. Shadow sent a message that he’s comin’ for us by comin’ for those we care about. ~He sees everything~, remember?”

Akin nods brokenly. “We gave that to him when we made the bond. We just didn’t know what it meant or what it would cost.”

“I’m not saying never. I just can’t—not now. It felt like I was relieving her death all over again.”

Aries drags a hand through his hair, gripping the ends for a pensive moment. “Then we leave. For now. We come back when we’re ready.”

“And when will that be?” Opal demands.

“When I say so.” Aries drops his arm to face her.

“You should know better than to doubt. If I’m going to risk my life, I’m going to make sure it’s worth it. If I lose it down there, and he kills us, he could still come for our family. We do this another day.”

“I’m with Aries,” Mia says quickly.

“Another day…so when someone we love dies?”

Aries’s eyes slice into Opal with the fatalness of a blunt blade. He turns and walks away, returning to the route.

Mia glances at them both before she follows after him. Akin nods her over. Opal nears him, and he steers her away for a second before they all return to the path.

Russo is so flabbergasted by what he heard, he almost doesn’t see them making their retreat.

He backs away, dissolving into the bushes, letting loose-hanging foliage conceal him as they walk past. And he waits long enough until he can safely pursue.

Not even ten minutes into the start of their descent, the forest darkens. The wheezing wind stills and the canopy becomes thicker, sunlight struggling to penetrate, its light straining through.

The group forges on, consoled by the cold comfort that it cannot touch them when they are here and it is on the other side.

So they think.

The further they venture, the darker it becomes, making every tree identical, concealing every indicator on ground and on high to distinguish their path.

Mia’s eyes dart everywhere at once, then they fall on Akin. He smiles back at her and it banishes her fear, even if it’s just for a moment. He looks forward and so does she as they journey back.

An ethereal gust comes from nowhere and rips through the Opal’s hair, stealing her ribbon, and the top half of her tresses fall to blanket her shoulders.

She grabs at it but it eludes her and, like a child chasing a kite, she veers off the path to go after it. Mia sees her and follows, only meaning to chide her for diverting.

Opal searches frantically, pushing past stone boulders and gangly limbs until she spots the ribbon caught on a thin branch.

She runs up to it and untangles it, then quickly ties up a high ponytail to secure the ribbon and keep her hair from her face. Mia rounds a short curve and finds her.

“Dude, you can’t be disappearing like that.”

“Sorry, but you know how important this is to me,” Opal says, her fingers working fast behind her head. “I would just die if I lost it.”

Mia’s hand reaches up to thumb her pendant. “I know, but say something next time. Don’t just leave, you know it isn’t safe.”

“I know,” she accepts her blunder. “I know and I’m sorry, but I was quick.”

Opal heads back first to the path, only to see no one on it. Mia sidles to her flank.

“Um, where did they go?”

Mia takes a few investigative steps forward, looking around, then down at the path carved out in front of her, winding down. But she should be able to see them even from several yards away.

It’s impossible for them to have traveled so far out of sight within only a couple of seconds of their separation.

“I’m not hallucinating, am I?”

“No,” Opal says absently, dumbfounded. “This is impossible. There is no way they could have gone out so far, that we can’t even see them in less than a minute since we’ve been apart.

“Even if, they wouldn’t just walk out if they didn’t see us behind them.”

“Right,” Mia says, baffled, with no reason to explain the occurrence. “Okay, we should just get down and hopefully, we’ll bump into them along the way. Worst-case scenario, we only meet them by the car.”

Opal purses her lips “I have a feeling it’s worse than that.”

***

“What do you mean you don’t know?” Aries barks.

“I mean I don’t know!” Akin panics, gesticulating wildly. “I was behind you, and they were behind me. I didn’t hear anything. That’s why I looked back and saw they were gone.”

He makes an explosion with his fingers. “~Poof.~ Vanished. I don’t know what happened.”

Aries’s hands balls into fists. “We should’ve never come here. Do you think we should double back, retrace our steps to where theirs diverge?”

“Right behind you, Cap.”

Aries goes back up with Akin behind him. His needle-like focus tracks every leaf on the ground—browning leaves fallen a while ago, nothing fresh.

He follows their shoe prints but no matter how far up he goes, it’s only two sets of shoe prints like it was only ever just him and Akin.

Even back to where he knows they passed with them still in his field of view. Even at those points. They are only two sets of shoe prints.

“No frickin’ way,” Akin breathes. “I know we passed here with them, I know ’cause I looked back at Mia, and she was looking spooked. I know they were still with us ~here~.”

Aries wrestles with his calm. “I know. If we can’t track them, what do we do?”

“I’m not leaving here without either of them. And I know Mia will make for the car to get the hell out of here. If they’re together, they are going down.

“If we can’t retrace their steps, we’ll have to track them going forward. Should we split up?”

“No,” Aries says sharply, a blank stare on the ground. “I’m not going to lose you, too.”

He glances at him sideways.

“We find them together.”

Akin nods with a smile fighting its way on his face. “Should we hold hands? So, you know, we can stay close.”

Aries wets his lower lip, stifling a smile of his own. “Not the time for jokes, Ballo.”

“I’m sorry,” he says, walking to go ahead of him. “It’s just how I cope. Better that than throwing fists.”

Aries’s face falls. “Keep talkin’ and you’ll be dodgin’ mine.”

***

An hour passes, and they seed no sign of human life other than each other.

“I feel like we’re going in circles,” Mia says, trying to douse the ever-flaring panic. “It’s downhill from here, but it feels like we’re walking down an endless plateau.”

Opal shrugs, squinting her eyes, clear vision ebbing with the light.

“Why the hell do you seem so calm?”

“Freaking out is not going to help,” she says, level-headed. “We need to focus on finding the boys.”

~And getting out of here, forget that part?~ Mia nearly falls, but she regains her balance at the last second.

She tries to take out her foot but her foot is stuck, ensnared by the undergrowth like she’s trapped in sinking mud except for the sinking part.

Mia uses max effort, but even that’s not enough, it’s like the something beneath the vegetation has locked onto her.

“Little help, or are you gonna just watch?”

“You’re being dramatic.”

Mia huffs and puff until she becomes red-face, almost falling over again. She looks up at a bewildered Opal from her bent position. “I can assure you, I’m not.”

Opal rolls her eyes and goes over to her. She latches onto both of Mia’s forearms and pulls, pulls, until eventually Mia bursts free and they collide. Opal practically wipes Mia off her with a revolted expression.

“Gee, ~thanks~.”

They continue, but they don’t even make it more than ten paces. A palpable presence descends upon them, though they cannot see it yet.

Suddenly a plume of smoke-like essence billows from the trees, curling around trunks like vaporous veils.

The forest floor steams out black swirling wisps met with a chorus of whispers, indistinct but constant like a multitude of malicious mutterings.

“Please tell me you see and hear that, too.”

Opal nods carefully. “He’s here.”

Mia’s eyes bulge from their sockets. “There’s no way he got out!”

She leaps into a run, only to be held back. She looks down to see a snarl of shadows coiling around her one leg and then another, binding them together.

More encroaching on her rear, slithering up her back and wrapping around her frame, seeking to entomb her in a standing crypt of shadows.

She goes mute with horror, terror tightening her throat, unable to call out for help.

Even if she could, Opal too is bound by shadows, chaining her to the ground, tendrils of black taut around her wrists, mooring her to the ground like a prisoner.

The shadows inflate over Mia’s head like a helmet, a lattice of shadows threading over her face, covering her mouth, nose, then her vision narrows.

A rustle of movement in her shrinking periphery. A white blur streaks across—a flash of white light. The shadows sunder at the blade of light, relinquishing their siege on her.

Mia drops to her knees with her hands soiled in dirt. She looks up at the hooded feminine figure with a spear-like weapon as tall as her in her grasp.

She lunges for Opal and launches into diagonal strikes, severing Opal’s bonds before she staggers back, alarmed.

Mia stands to her feet, tearing out clumps of vegetation as she rises.

The figure turns to her; her face is concealed by a cobalt-blue mask bound tight around her face, the same color as the cape attached to the hood.

Her white full-body, long-sleeved suit is form-fitting, with sections of the reoccurring blue made from a material alien to this world but bearing the appearance of white leather.

The weapon evolves into a sword’s blade and she aims the point downward before she plunges it into the ground. An explosion of blinding light ripples out, scorching every trace of shadow into oblivion. For now.

The white-clad warrior rises from her lunge. The weapon shapeshifts in her hand, retracting from either ends in a flourish to contract into a thick, iridescent, shortened shaft.

She slides it into the holster strapped to her back.

“Who are you?” Opal demands.

But Mia knows, because even though her face is hidden. Those eyes are the first she ever saw. Irene swipes the hood off her head, her lengthy plait unfurling on her shoulder.

“~Mom~,” Mia breathes.

Opal’s hand flies to her gaping mouth.

“We have to get out of here. No time to explain.”

“No,” Opal says, since Mia is too thunderstruck to say anything. “The boys, we’re not alone. Aries and Akin are still lost somewhere.”

“We don’t have much time, then. Let’s go, I can find them.”

***

The crimson-gold sheets of autumn beams turn into despairing fingers of moonlight. They poke through the trees, reaching for the forest’s floor. Darkness tears into the night sky, leaving a luminous, crescent-shaped scar.

“We’ve been out here for hours, going in circles. This ain’t it.”

Nothing.

Aries twists around to stare back at a deadly still Akin.

“I’m talkin’ to you. You hear me?”

Nothing.

Fear flutters in his stomach. His resolve crushes it. He walks back to a frozen Akin and goes around to stand right in front of him, looking into his unblinking stare. A deep, terrifying emptiness looming behind his eyes.

Not knowing what to do, Aries snaps his fingers in his face.

Nothing.

He grasps his shoulders and shakes him vigorously. But still.

Nothing.

“Akin…”

Akin eases forward with a vacant stare, marching absentmindedly back up toward the incline.

Aries stares after him for a flabbergasted moment before he catches up to him, walking beside Akin, trying to talk him out of his apparent trance, but nothing is getting through.

Akin is transfixed, needing to obey the instruction.~ Come.~

“Snap out of it or I’ll snap your legs and see how you’ll get to where you going.”

Nothing.

Patience exceeded, Aries obstructs Akin’s path like a linebacker and locks his feet to stop him from moving. Akin keeps walking forward, pushing Aries back until he slides, leaving ground-deepening tracks.

Aries eyes widen as his shoes glide back as if he’s on a slippery surface like ice. Aries musters strength and hurls a gut-wrenching punch, causing Akin to falter.

“Move again,” Aries challenges.

Akin’s arm twitches—Aries’s breathing hitches. Akin’s hand is clamped around his throat with a vice-like grip, then lifts him off the ground with superhuman strength.

He pulls him close only to fling him across the woods like a rag doll—soaring in the air—his body smacks against a tree with a bone-jarring crunch and he drops to the ground, rolling haphazardly.

Pain branches through his back. He gasps for breath as he scrambles back up to his feet, clutching his side. He spots Akin in the distance and it dawns on him where he is going.

Determination drowning out his pain and adrenaline loaning vigor as he speeds up, running after him, his hand grafted to his side.

“Akin!”

When he’s in range, he repays him with a devastating blow to his gut that sends Aries to his knees. He lets out a series of coughs, veins prominent in his neck, his face inflamed.

Aries looks up at Akin’s receding frame and he springs up, chasing after him doggedly. Aries grabs him from behind in a classic chokehold, his musclebound arm coiled around his throat mercilessly.

Akin flails, thrashing violently, but Aries’s hold persists. Akin gags, breaths slipping out as rasps, suffocating silently. Aries doesn’t know what measure of force is too much, how much will incapacitate him or kill him.

“A—ries,” he utters strenuously.

A moment of doubt weakens Aries’s grip. Enough for Akin to latch onto him and flip him over his shoulder. Akin doesn’t even look down at him before he stomps on his stomach, crushing his insides before he marches off.

Aries curls up, but soon moves onto all fours, breathing raggedly. He gets back up and follows after him.

He accepts that if he can’t physically stop Akin without severely harming him, he’s going to have to delve deep into a foreign place and reach him emotionally.

“Akin—~please~.” He makes the bone-weary trudge behind him, hunched over, every part of him throbbing. “You have to fight. I can’t do it for you, but I don’t need to because you’re strong enough, you hear me?”

He winces, holding onto trees as he hobbles by. “You can fight it. You’re too good to be taken by darkness. I need you to remember that.”

And before he knows it, he’s too late.

Aries bristles at the salvo of sound.

“No…” he increases his speed but still is wary of proximity. “Akin!”

They emerge at Table Bridge once more. Akin steps onto the bridge.

“Don’t do this to us, we can’t lose you!” Pain gnaws at him from the inside, but he doesn’t let that stop him.

“If you can’t fight for yourself, fight for the ones you care about and who care about you. Your family, your mom, Opal, ~me~.”

Akin teeters the brink, a heartbeat from falling.

“Don’t do this, star boy.”

Akin inhales a jagged breath, the dark gloom thaws from his mind, giving sight to his eyes. He wobbles away from the edge, bemused and wide-eyed, looking around like he doesn’t know where he is or what has just happened.

His busy eyes dart to a battered Aries, hunched and hanging to his stability, looking as if his legs are going to buckle beneath him at any moment.

“Aries…what happened to you?”

He closes his eyes for a moment, basking in relief.

Akin walks briskly off the bridge, not knowing how he got there.

“You okay?” he says with a tone welded with worry, outstretching his hand to him. “Did I…”

Aries jerks his injured self out of reach. “Let’s just focus on finding our girls.”

***

Mia has not said a word, her mind still numb with shock.

Opal, however, has been very vocal about her perplexity, though Irene has not answered any of her questions.

“Don’t you think your daughter deserves answers?”

Irene keeps her eyes trained ahead of her.

“This is not the time nor the place. Once we are out from the jaws of peril, I will give her the answers she is owed,” she says sternly. Her voice is different, smokier and regally refined.

“Seems to me you had years to give her answers.”

Irene pivots sharply, aware of the presence of another peril. She whips out the weapon and it elongates from both sides. An advanced piece of technology, way ahead of its time, configured with bionic nanites.

She holds it with both hands with the spearhead aimed in front of her, creeping toward a tree carefully. Another figure leaps out with a narrow rod of wood in his hands, leveled with the spearhead aimed at his chest.

“Aries!” Opal beckons.

Irene gawks at him.

“Ms. Trinket?” he says, lowering his impromptu walking stick. “How—”

She seizes him and pins him against the tree with the deadly sharp spearhead at his throat.

“Mom, no!” Mia exclaims, lunging for her but refrains when she gets too close.

Irene scans him with horror-filled eyes, seeing something they all can’t.

“What is happening right now?” Akin says with his hands slightly elevated in confused fear.

“You don’t know what he is,” she mumbles to herself. Addressing all of them, she says, “How could I not see what you are…”

Rapid calculations flit through her mind.

“It must’ve been dormant within you. It’s the only way to explain why I didn’t detect it the moment I first met you.”

“Detect what?” Akin asks.

“What are you on about?” Mia questions.

Irene’s eyes bore into Aries with a penetrating stare. “You know, don’t you?”

An emotion flickers in his eyes, then it dissolves. “I don’t know what you’re talkin’ about. Either use that thing in your hand or get it out of my face.”

Irene backs away from him, her eyes rove over each of them with a long, considering look.

“The reckoning has dawned. It has begun.”

“Reckoning?” Akin repeats.

~You~, she thought.

Aries pauses, his ears flinch, certain that there is another. He shares this look with Irene and she knows.

Aries dives out of the way. Irene goes deeper, her ensemble shimmers before it camouflages with the colors of forest cast under the night spell.

Detective Russo cowers away but in the blink of an eye, she slinks out into visibility, her cobalt blue and holy white a stark contrast against the darkness. Irene sheathes her weapon.

“Didn’t I tell you to stop following us?”

“Detective Russo?”

Most of the group reappear to surround her.

Russo fumbles for his firearm, draws it, and points it at Irene. “What…what are you people?”

She smiles wickedly. “The kind you hope you never meet.”

Aries skulks up behind him and clubs him in the head with the log, knocking him out cold.

“What did you do that for?” Akin yells.

Aries shrugs, putting the tall stick down to prop his forearm on its head. “He saw too much.”

“He’s right,” Irene agrees.

Aries makes an old man’s attempt toward him. Irene dismisses him and goes over to Russo’s unconscious body, much larger than hers.

With surprising strength, she scoops him up effortlessly and lifts his dead weight from the ground to drape him over her shoulder.

And she makes a casual start down the gorge, descending as if this is perfectly normal. Aries goes for his pistol.

“Where to from here?”

“I know,” Aries mutters.