The Broken

knock yourself unconscious. Nice work. What were you thinking? We were worried sick!"

  "Celia?" Link moved his head gingerly as his eyes slowly brought the rest of the room into focus. "Where's Ayden?" Link began to panic. He raised his head only to be knocked back by a familiar stab of pain. He had to stop banging his head on everything.

  "Rest, child. Your brother is fine. Save your strength. You will need all of it and more for what lies ahead. But for now, you must rest." Mrs. Kidacki emerged into Link's view. She was holding a tray with a cup of warm tea and a bag of ice.

  "Mrs. Kidacki? What are you...you're not dead...we thought..."

  "Eloquent as ever, I see." She smiled and handed him the bag of ice. "Use this, dear. It will help with the pain. You hit your head pretty hard. Do you remember what happened?"

  Link wasn't certain whether he should tell her about the mirror. If he didn't, where should he begin? As he looked into the concerned faces of Ayden and Celia, he wondered if the night's events were some sort of illusion caused by all of the recent trauma to his head. "Where's Panch?"

  "Don't you remember?" Celia said, sounding concerned.

  "Remember what?" Link knew exactly what Celia was talking about, but he hoped with all his heart that he was wrong and that she was referring to some other memory.

  "Mrs. Kidacki," Celia said, "did he forget everything?"

  Before Mrs. Kidacki could answer, Link sat up. He tried his best to ignore the throbbing pain. "So it was real? All of it? Even the thing that attacked us? That was real, too?"

  "Afraid so," Celia said. "But there's more...a whole lot more. Just wait till you hear what Mrs. Kidacki has to tell you. You're not going to believe it."

  "And Panch?"

  "Not good." She looked back toward Mrs. Kidacki. "I think I'd better let her explain it, though. I'm still fuzzy on the details."

  "Does my dad know about any of this? He'll be worried if he..."

  "Hush, child," Mrs. Kidacki cooed. "Be patient. There is much we need to discuss, but first drink some tea. I think it will help."

  35

  Death of a Friend

  When Mrs. Kidacki had finished explaining, Link stared back at her. He wanted to say something profound, something wise, to convey that he understood all she had just told him, but her story had sounded so preposterous. On the flipside, no alternative explanation adequately covered the day's events either.

  The tea was warm and tasted of honey and cinnamon. Mrs. Kidacki had been right. It did make him feel a little better. He rested his cup on the floor next to his feet.

  "Celia, be a dear and bring Ayden into the kitchen for some cookies. He looks as though he could use something sweet." To Ayden she said, "I have plenty. Eat as many as you like."

  Once Celia and Ayden had left the room, Link resumed his barrage of questions. Though Mrs. Kidacki had already explained what she knew, Link remained skeptical. She must have him confused with somebody else. Despite her certainty on the matter, there was no conceivable way that he was one of the Chosen. She must have him confused with somebody else. Such extraordinary things simply didn't happen to kids like him.

  Finally making eye contact with Mrs. Kidacki, he said, "So you're sure that Panch will die no matter what we do? Those bites from the creature will kill him?"

  "No, Lincoln. You misunderstand. I am afraid your friend is dead already. But it is true that there was nothing you could have done to save him once he was bitten." She looked at me sympathetically. "Skias are a nasty lot. But we'll address that later. For now, why don't you repeat what you've learned so far? It's imperative that you understand what you are up against if you are to have any chance of making it through this."

  Wait a minute. He might not make it out of all this? Until now, Link had dreaded the possibility of pain and suffering, but for some reason he'd never contemplated actually dying.

  For the time being, he tried to push all that aside and answer her question. "You believe that there are two parts of life, the spiritual and the physical. The spirit is our connection to the Spark, and the body is our connection to the physical world. In one breath, Ap?l?g??mai made all spirits and all life. These spirits were then forced to wait until they were granted a body. Once they get a body, they are 'born' and are then connected to the physical world.

  "The spirits from the Spark cannot reunite with Ap?l?g??mai until after the body dies. But since the Skias are not allowed to have bodies, they can never truly be alive. That means they can never reunite with Ap?l?g??mai in death, so they can never reach Halcyon, which is kind of like heaven. I think I get all that. I'm not saying I believe it, but I get it. What I don't understand is what all this has to do with the monster that attacked us."

  Mrs. Kidacki seemed to understand Link's struggle. "It was a dog, well, a Broken actually. The Broken are not truly living creatures. They are thieves. They are spirits, known as Skias when they have no body, that take the bodies of the dying, or recently dead, in order to inhabit them. Because the body they take wasn't intended for them, this makes the union imperfect. Broken"

  "So they're like snails picking out new shells?"

  "Sort of. You see, Lincoln, bodies are more alive than shells. Once the physical body dies, it's no longer connected to its intended spirit, so it becomes worthless. Even with a Skia inside, the body can never be returned to true life ? which is what the Skia want."

  A sudden, terrible realization made Link jump to his feet nearly knocking over his tea in the process. "The dog!" he said. "It's still here! They can come back!"

  Before he could run off to check, Mrs. Kidacki calmly said, "Lincoln, it's all taken care of. Please, take a seat. I have already disposed of the body. I am glad to see that you are understanding things more clearly, but you needn't worry about the dog. He will not bother anybody again."

  "But how can you be sure?"

  "I am certain. Let us leave it at that and finish our talk. Time is not on our side."

  Reluctantly, Link sat down. "Okay, I've got another question. Where do the Skia come from?"

  Mrs. Kidacki nodded her head in approval of the question. "They began where all souls began: in the moment of the Spark."

  "So then the Broken are just like us, only they don't have a body?" Link said.

  "The Skias, or 'moving dark,' as Ayden calls them, are similar to people in that they are spirits, much as humans are before and after they are alive. However, unlike humans, they don't have a body and never will. As I said before, Ap?l?g??mai believed these particular spirits were too wicked to be given access to the world. However, since they are spirits, they are also eternal, which is why Ap?l?g??mai could not destroy them. Instead, Ap?l?g??mai condemned them to the spiritual realm. They exist among us, but they never actually live."

  "But then what are the Broken?"

  "Ahhh... That is precisely where it all went wrong. Long ago, some exceptionally strong Skias found a way to move physical objects. None had ever mastered it sufficiently to do any real damage, however. That is, until a spirit named Raythuse found a way to steal the bodies of the dying. Only when a Skia accomplishes this can they become a Broken. It's only a temporary solution, though. For once the intended soul has left, the body begins to break down. Eventually it becomes a worthless vessel, thereby reducing the Broken back into a Skia. Long story short, the Broken and the Skia are the same thing. The only difference is that a Broken lives inside a stolen body."

  "Why are the Broken so keen on becoming people? They don't have such a bad gig. Float around a lot, watch a bunch of movies, just chill. Sounds pretty cool."

  Mrs. Kidacki looked at Link for a while before saying anything, as if appraising his sincerity. At last she said, "Lincoln, think about what you are saying. There's nothing good about the path of the Skias. Their condition is the truest hell of all. They can do nothing; they experience nothing. They don't even have a means of communication unless they succeed in clothing themselves in someone else's skin. Instead of living, they are condemned to w
atch everyone around them take for granted the very thing they would gladly suffer eternal torment to attain. This is why their hatred of humanity has festered since the dawn of time. And this is why it will continue to grow."

  "You really believe all of this?"

  "Would it make any difference if I didn't?" Mrs. Kidacki's expression grew troubled. "You are in the middle of a war, a war that has been raging since the beginning of time. But all is not lost. Panch may be dead to this world, but that does not mean that he is beyond saving. When the Broken bit him, it bonded to him so that another Skia could enter his body from the Neverworld itself. This caused Panch's soul to be trapped in Neverworld in exchange."

  "What about the camera? It trapped that shadow thing earlier, and it sucked up the dog. Isn't that the end of it? You don't suppose the dog thing was Raythuse, do you?"

  "I doubt it. It was probably just an underling. As for your friend, you must rid yourself of the notion that everything ends. It doesn't. Material things, yes. But not the spirit. The spirit is eternal."

  "So...what?"

  "Think of life as a movie...a movie that you can pause. Panch's spirit is trapped in time. Your friend Panch is not dead in the permanent sense. At least not yet, though he will be soon should you fail."

  "What? Is he dead, or isn't he?"

  "For now, yes. He's trapped in Neverworld, stuck between the past and the future. As long as the Skia that took his place remains