Merrick and Jeff were exchanging significant glances, meaning they were talking. Then, Merrick threw himself on the ground in front of Jeff and as the Lighter bent to follow him, Jeff pulled the pointed yard sign stake from the back waistband of his jeans, driving it right through the Lighters neck.
The Lighter fell, the brilliant blinding burst of light and then pounding lighting, flame and smoke taking him with it a split second before he would have landed on Merrick, still on the ground.
“Ok. Someone definitely heard that,” Jeff said.
He helped Merrick up and they brushed off as Merrick ran to Danny’s side. Danny came around asking what had happened. Why had the Lighter no longer thought he was stabbed?
“He can only be compelled by one command at a time. He would have continued to think he was stabbed but Marissa compelled him to find the key,” Jeff explained, brushing his hands off.
“I’m sorry. I didn’t know,” Marissa said, now behind us on the steps, looking more upset than I’ve ever seen her. We all turned to look at her. “If something had happened to one of you because of my stupidity-”
Jeff was there in an instant blur, hugging her to him, his hand on her cheek to press her to him, tucking her under his chin.
“No. No, we needed to find the key. I should have warned you about that. It’s ok, it’s not your fault. It’s fine, sweetie,” he said, running a hand down her hair.
We all just stood there and stared like a bunch of idiots as Marissa buried her tear streaked face in Jeff’s chest and clung to him and he moved his hands over her like it was nothing. Nothing new that is. I had suspected but completely forgotten all about it.
I look at Merrick, he looks more shocked than anyone. I guess he’d been keeping his part of the promise to stay out of the other Keeper’s heads. I grab his hand and squeeze to get his attention. He looks at me, a slow reserved happy smile spreading across his face.
I didn’t know about this. Did you?
I shake my head no and he sighs and shakes his head, still smiling.
I can’t believe this. I’m so...happy for him. For both of them.
“Me too,” I say smiling, but as we hear a yell from behind us we are jolted back to reality. They are still fighting out there in the street.
“Ok,” Jeff says, releasing Marissa and clearing his throat and looking around like he had completely forgotten where he was. “Now we got the key, let’s get moving.”
He walks over to the porch steps and goes right to the plant, by the rock and snatches the key on a long bright red ribbon out from under it. Merrick lifts me in one quick stride to bypass the steps, then sets me back down.
Before the door is unlocked, Josh takes a quick peek and tells us it’s all clear. We go in quietly and shuffling slowly. We know someone is up there with Lily. We want to be as quiet as we can until we no longer can hide the fact that we’re here.
The elevator is in the hall, pass the dining room and sitting room, at the end of the hall. The house is ginormous and jacked as Josh had said. Everything cherry wood and pewter. Paintings and plagues lining the walls. The kitchen appliances were all black. Even the cabinets. It looked odd to me and off putting but I bet in the daylight it looked rich and sophisticated.
The elevator is small, only three can fit at one time so Trudy, Merrick and I take it, waiting until the others are already on the second floor before going up ourselves.
Once Merrick pressed the button and the hum and screech of shifting gears rang out, I knew our presence here was no longer be a secret. It sounded like it hadn’t been used in a long time. It jerked to a stop at the second floor and we piled out quickly and quietly.
I’m so anxious to hold Calvin and see that he’s ok, but I will restrain myself. Lana is here and she will be the one to comfort him. To let him know we came for him and didn’t leave him here to fend for himself.
As I look at Lana’s face I see how anxious she is as well. Then I realize she doesn’t even know that Calvin’s here. Within her grasp. No one has told her yet. She’s just following us. I haven’t spoken to her since I signed at home that the Lighter told us where to go to find them.
I tap her shoulder and tell her as we head down the hall. I put a ‘C’ over my heart and point at the door to indicate - Calvin is inside there. She straightens up quickly and rushes forward. Jeff catching her before she can snatch the door open. She struggles and fights him a few seconds while he asked Josh to make sure Calvin’s still alone.
Ryan blurs up and holds up a hand to her, to calm and steady her, to indicate to just wait. She stops squirming.
Josh says Calvin is alone and Jeff releases her. She yanks the door open and flicks on the light, we see Calvin, still sitting in the tub. His eyes are squeezed shut and his hands are covering his ears, he yells at us, thinking we are the Lighters and remembering the warnings not to listen.
Good boy.
“I’m not telling you anything! You might as well go on and get out of here. My mom is coming for me. You’ll see!”
Lana rushes over and touches his arm and he flinches back further into the tub and yells louder.
“No! No! I won’t tell you!”
Lana touches his arm again and lifts his face with her finger under his chin. He opens his eyes, blinks rapidly like he can’t believe what he’s seeing. Then he leaps up and grabs Lana around her neck using both of his arms. She pulls him out of the tub and they fall back on the floor in a heap of happy tears and quiet sobs.
It’s the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen. Words are overrated. They can say a million words with their embrace. Lana, though she can’t speak, shows her son she loves him and cares for him and would do anything for him. She braved Lighters for him. And he knew she would. He yelled it out before that his mom would come for him.
And she did.
Ryan stands to the side awkwardly. I can tell he’s inching to physically make sure Calvin’s ok. Calvin quickly turns and hugs Ryan too. Ryan’s eyes went wide with surprise and he is beaming as he pats Calvin’s shoulder.
Marissa and Celeste are both wiping their eyes as Jeff tells Calvin to explain to Lana that we have to keep moving. He does and we head down the hall to the stairs and the elevator.
I’m still surprised to not see any Lighters in the house or hear anything. I’m beginning to wonder if this is a trap or something. It still seems a little too easy.
Once we’re on the third floor and under the attic trap door, Miguel reaches up to pull the cord and we hear a voice. A voice I’m very familiar with boom through the house, rattling the hinges of the trap door and the windows.
“STOP!”
We stop because he commanded it and you can’t fight the Taker’s compulsion.
Just be still and wait for what is to come.
Then I gasp. It feels like his hands are on my arms, caressing me. His voice is like a caress in my mind as well. Almost...sexual. It makes me want to vomit right there.
I rub my arms, trying to throw his hands off but they are nowhere. Not here. It’s all in my mind. So how do you get someone out of your mind? I rake my hands through my hair. I put the palms of my hands over my eyes. I shake myself, looking around, flinging arms.
His voice is in my mind so loudly, speaking the same things from our dream, the same promises and assurances, letting nothing else in.
I am vaguely aware of yelling and grabbing at me but I can’t focus on it. Only Crandle. Then Merrick is in my mind.
Sherry?
I snap out of it in an instant with a gasp. I come to and they are watching me with worrisome gazes. Everyone. I’m breathing heavy. Merrick’s in front of me holding my elbows to keep my from falling, eying me quizzically.
“It’s Crandle,” I say breathlessly, shaking my head to unrattle it. “He’s...he’s up there with her.”
“You ok?” Merrick says, looking in my eyes to make sure I tell him the truth.
“Yes. Crandle was...never mind. Let’s get her out of there an
d go home, Merrick,” I try to say with conviction but the tears that want to fall make me squeak.
Merrick pulls me closer and then we hear the booming voice again.
“Merrick? Sherry’s Merrick, I presume.”
As soon as the voice stops, another loud booming. The attic trap door explodes, loudly and violently. Wood chips and splinters and steps along with metal hinges fly, sending us all ducking to the floor for cover.
When I look up again Crandle is standing in front of us, under where the trap door was. A smug smile in place. He is wearing the same attire from the dream. Tan khakis, bare feet, white button up, dazzling smile. I wonder if he only looks that way to me. A glamour to me like before and his true self to everyone else.
“So...this is the one Sherry can’t seem to live without. What’s so special about you...Keeper?” he says, only moving to turn his head as if inspecting Merrick.
Crandle doesn’t seem bothered by the debris he’s standing on in bare feet, nor the other people in the room with us. He eyes Merrick up and down and then his eyes find me and he locks me in.
Those are the darkest black eyes I’ve ever seen. So much deeper in real life. The deepest and darkest. His eyes refuse to let go. It’s harder to fight him in person and so different than in my dream. I’m instantly ashamed. Shamed beyond shame because whatever powers of persuasion he’s using on me are finally working...to a degree.
I wouldn’t actually run over and jump in his arms as some inkling of my brain is telling me to do, but I can’t look away either. He’s looking at me like I’m the most beautiful person he has ever seen. Like he has to have me. Like I’m special. My mind is wanting me to consider his offer. It pleads with me to.
I feel awkward. Everyone is watching, waiting for something to happen and I can’t seem to tear my gaze from him. And then, I feel him caressing my mind again.
I feel his hands on me, my arms, fingers and breath on my neck making me shiver and my eyelids flutter. He whispers in my mind that it can always be this way. That he can love me like Merrick. More if I so choose. Give me everything. That he is everything Merrick is and more. He was human before, he knows what I need. All the things he can do to me.
All I have to do is come to him and let him show me how he absorbs a Lighter...
I stare, listening, contemplating. I feel spongy, flimsy, see through. Like I can take anything and it would bounce off. Nothing can hurt me. My lips are parted and dry. I can feel my breath going in and out rapidly. His eyes still so intently focused on mine. His smile. How can anyone with a smile that looks at me that way be evil? He’s barefoot for goodness sake! But I can still feel a sense of...wrong.
A flicker of something creeps in. A flicker of something right. I turn my head slightly and lick my dry lips, but I’m still unable to look away though. I know I’m being sucked into something. Pulled. Drawn into something I’m not supposed to be but I can’t quite make it connect...but I can’t seem to focus on what I should be heading towards.
Merrick pulls me behind him and as soon as my gaze is broken from Crandle I’m myself again.
Crandle’s hands are no longer on me, no longer in my mind. I realize I have no idea how long we’ve been standing here like this, gazing at each other. I wasn’t aware of any other voices or movements in the room. Was it seconds or minutes? Was Merrick trying to speak to me?
Instantly shame and guilt overwhelms me and I let a small sob escape, against my will, and I cover my mouth with my hand. I couldn’t contain it any other way.
I replay the words in my head, the Takers whispers and promises to me in my head and gasp and at my own stupidity and vulnerability.
I grab Merrick’s shirt back in my fist to keep him in front of me so Crandle can’t see me. So no one can.
Crandle actually said he wanted me to watch him absorb a Lighter and I didn’t revolt! I just stood there and let him touch me with his mind. I’m so disgusted with myself. I can feel the bile rising in my throat. A couple hot tears spill over and I wipe them on Merrick’s shirt back. The guilt is a blaze, a fire, even though technically I didn’t do...
And then I hear him laughing, out loud. I peek around Merrick’s arm in utter disbelief.
“Oh, Sherry. Don’t cry. Don’t distress. And don’t be too hard on yourself either, love. No one. No one can resist my persuasion. In fact, you fought it more than anyone ever has. That’s nothing to snuff at.” Then he turns to Merrick. “That’s right. I can read your mates thoughts. Irritating for you isn’t it? You want to so badly,” he mocks and looks back to me.
I shut my eyes so tightly they hurt, thinking that’s how he must have controlled me before.
“No, it’s not the eyes, love. It’s just you. Humans are weak, mundane things. You remember what I told you before? You can have it you know. Right now. Just tell your mate that you want real power, push his puny protective arm away from you and come to mine. Lily’s waiting upstairs. For you. Come on. Merrick wouldn’t hurt you. Even if you betrayed him right now in front of everyone. He wouldn’t. Come to me, Sherry.”
He is using his compelling voice again and I’m worried.
Because I can feel a little part of me wanting to cave.
“I don’t think that is going to happen,” Merrick says through his teeth and pushes me back behind him further and then speaks to me in my mind.
He’s trying to compel you. Just don’t listen. Stay behind me, touching me at all times. I won’t let him hurt you. We’ll get out of here together, I promise.
Merrick’s voice is worried and shaky. Jeff and him told me before that no one can refuse the Takers compulsion. The Taker told me that as well. Merrick is worried that he’s about to lose me to it, Merrick can tell he’s doing it too.
I rack my brain quickly. I have my wits back and I won’t be fooled again. Should I pretend to be interested in his proposal? Would that give the others time to do something? Would Merrick know what I was doing, that I was tricking the Taker or would he assume I’d been tricked? What alternative do we have?
Merrick said the Taker can’t be killed like normal Lighters, so can we fight him here? What can I do once he takes me? My leg. I couldn’t run. Crap! Think!
Then I remember, the Taker can read my mind.
I look over and he’s grinning, clearly amused at my inner turmoil. He whispers to me in my head, caressing my arms with his mind.
Even if you come to me only to save your pathetic family, I’ll still have you, Sherry. I wouldn’t refuse you even if you are trying to trick me. I need you. I want you. It may not be real for you now, but it will be. It can be. Come to me and save them. Save Merrick. Save Danny. Save Calvin. Lily is waiting for you. Come, Sherry.
“Why me? What’s so special about me?” I ask him out loud without thinking.
He looks taken back that I spoke to him out right as do some of the others.
“Well...you’re beautiful,” he says sweetly and I actually laugh.
“I doubt the leader of all evil wants me because I’m beautiful. Why?” I ask again with more force.
“Because you’re...honest. Pure. Wholesome. Pretty. Meek. Compassionate. Loving.” His voice is so...endearing, then it turns to something else. Mocking laughter. “Short. Shy. Naïve. Weak-minded.” I feel Merrick flinch and I hold tight to keep him from charging Crandle as he continues. “Puny. Sterile,” he drags out the last word to goad me and I decide to end his long windedness.
“Are you trying to impress me with that list?” I spit out angrily through clenched teeth, pulling Merrick’s arm tighter in front of me, needing to feel him here, to anchor me more than anything else.
“It just is. You are puny where I am strong. You are compassionate where I am ruthless. You are weak-minded where I am most definitely am not. You are my opposite in every sense of the word. Altruistic. I can not exist without you. I searched long for someone like you, someone to complete what we started. If you want to blame someone, blame your Keeper. If he had not come to love you
, and I knew that this was a first, I’ve never heard of such a thing, a Keeper loving a human. Phillip, you remember him, don’t you?
I believe he paid you a little visit a while back in your mind. He warned you I was coming for you, didn’t he?
“He let me in on all your little secrets. But I knew...a Keeper could only love you if you were perfectly good. So, one quick glance at your pretty little mind and I knew that is was true. I could find a human worth something in this sea of useless mindless idiots. You were the one that I needed. Once I rid the world of humans, and we, “he palms his chest with both hands, “are all that exist, we need to have you for the balance. There can’t only be evil, as you put it. There has to be both. Balance. So, in a sense, if I destroy all of you, I destroy myself along with you. I can’t have that. And your altruism will be the key to your own races destruction. It’s the perfect wickedly ironic ending. Don’t you think?”
“You’re delusional. I’m not perfect nor selfless by any standards, especially not human ones. Merrick doesn’t love me because I’m perfect.”
“Then ask him why. Why would he risk everything for you if you were not?” he asks but I stay silent as does Merrick. “If I ask him, he will say that is why. You are quite a sight to behold, Sherry. I wish you could see yourself. So small yet so strong willed. Broken physically,” he gestures to my leg, then stretched his arms out to his sides, “yet here you are, in the Lighters nest ready to strike down anyone who comes between you and your precious Lily.”
“Why Lily? Why Calvin?”
“Oh, Sherry. They are nothing to me. Except food,” he said laughing maliciously. “Just as those people you saw in the basement will be. I want to absorb them, Sherry, that’s all. Children offer so much more...sustenance that Lighters and humans do. They are so pure and clean on the inside. It does wonders for my complexion.” He rolls his eyes to fake modesty and then he laughs again, making my stomach turn but I try not to show it. “More than anything, they were just my ploy to get you here. And here you are.”