Chapter 33

Johnny stopped at a red light, and Kevin tapped him on the shoulder.

“Remember those woods we used to go to when we were kids?” Kevin asked, yelling over the sound of the engine.

Johnny nodded, his vizor still down.

“I need you to take me there,” Kevin said. “I’ll explain later.”

Johnny gave him a thumbs-up, and turned his attention back to the road. He was glad Kevin couldn’t see his face. The Agent had told him that Kevin would go looking for a stone. As soon as Kevin found what he was searching for, Johnny was supposed to call for Reynolds.

It sickened him to do this, but he had no choice. If he turned around now and dropped Kevin off at home, the Advent Guard would find out. Who knew what would happen to Johnny and his parents in that case?

I’m sorry, Kevin, Johnny thought. I have to do this, I have to turn you in so they can help you. It’s the only way.

— ✧ —

Back inside the fabricated void of Section 18, Stewart pushed as hard as he could. He had to snap out of the machine’s control if he was going to help his friend. At last, it happened. He broke free. The machine relayed the next occurring event to the scientists.

Now that he was free, the fact of what to do next was his major conundrum. They knew Kevin and the stone were connected. He couldn’t hide that at this point. If he hacked into the machine’s brain, the scientists would simply restart the system again, perhaps without him. He had to be stealthy, to stop this motion for good.

The cryptic message he saw, Stewart knew he had to change the reality. Someone was calling for help within that stone, and that person needed to find Kevin before the Advent Guard did.

He glanced at the other three Jins who were under the machine’s influence. If they could manage to work together, Stewart’s plan would definitely be successful. The tube closes to him contained an Asian girl, similar to his age, named Fujiko. He’d start with her.

He knelt and placed his hands on the ground, concentrating his powers on her. This had to work.

With willpower alone, he transferred some of his powers to her tube. His purple energy engulfed it. The status bars on the outside of the tube turned a translucent purple, and as the energy flowed, the captive inside awoke.

Fujiko blinked several times. Her mind was fuzzy, but she began to grow aware of her surroundings: the tube, the purple energy bars, the lack of space to move. She turned and caught Stewart’s eye. They were close enough to whisper through the glass that contained them.

“Where am I?” she whispered, panicked. “What is all this?”

Stewart didn’t say anything at first. The strength it took to transfer his energy over to her nearly overwhelmed him, he leaned forward.

“I need your help,” he said. “There’s a Seirei Jin like us who’s in trouble. Help me change this reality please.”

Fujiko didn’t have to ask to know who Stewart was talking about: the face in her mind. It had been the same since she’d first been trapped here. She nodded to Stewart, who still grit his teeth in pain and effort. Then, she knelt and matched his stance. A teal-colored energy emitted from her, and it slowly turned her tube’s color once again. The two pillars glowed, and Stewart felt their connection.

They could do this, he realized. They could really change this reality.

— ✧ —

Meanwhile, Mike’s friends were gathering behind a small convenience store. They tended to take orders from their fearless leader without asking any questions, and tonight was no different. It was late. They had to sneak out of their houses to get here, without waking up their parents. But still, they came.

Behind a dumpster, they found Mike leaning on his bike, guzzling a beer. Next to him were a couple of six-packs. Three cans were already empty and crushed on the ground nearby. Mike was in one of those moods. Sometimes, he could get drunk but be funny drunk. This was not one of those moods. They’d lost the race. Mike was a loose cannon.

Mike never bothered staying home—not that his old man would care. His father was always to be found in the same place: on his recliner, passed-out drunk. He knew where his father would be: on his recliner passed out drunk. Besides, he didn’t want to go home—not after seeing what he saw at the tracks. He was enraged. The convenience store was his usual destination when he was feeling that way. Despite being underage, Mike knew an employee who would hook them up. Since his arrival, Mike had been sitting alone, staring into the darkness. His phone was dead, and he had no charger. He didn’t realize it was midnight when he had to ask the employee to borrow his phone to call up his crew to meet him here.

“Drink,” ordered Mike now that they’d arrived.

He opened a new beer for himself, his fourth. His friends looked at each other for a moment, gauging their shared willingness to get drunk, but before they knew it, they each had a can in their hand. The crew drank in silence, and Mike returned to the thoughts he’d been lost in before the guys arrived. Kevin had used Jin powers.

Riley’s a jin. He thought to himself. Kevin Riley was a Jin, hiding in plain sight, just like what happened at the school.

He knew Kevin was weird-looking, with that scar and eye, but he didn’t think he was one of those freaks. Mike felt the world grow fuzzy around him. He was going to begin a tirade when Glen spoke.

“Can you believe Riley survived that bike accident?” Glen seemed shocked.

Mike narrowed his bloodshot eyes. “What?!”

“Yeah, it was on the nine o’clock news,” his buddy Ralph added. “Something about faulty brakes.”

“Faulty brakes?!” Mike was raving now. “The guy’s a Seirei Jin.”

No one responded. Mike guzzled the rest of his beer, as the others exchanged puzzled glances. He let out a brazen belch, crushed the can in one hand, and then tossed the can into the dumpster as if shooting a basketball. He reached for another, his anger rising within his chest.

“Kevin is a Jin?” Lu seemed to find the idea ridiculous. “He’s human like us.”

Mike burst into laughter, figuring this was all some stupid joke to make them feel better after the race. Yet, when he laughed, no one joined him.

“You’re kidding, right?” he asked, annoyed. “Dude, we were there. We saw him use his powers fighting that other Jin.”

His friends exchanged confused glances. “Did you watch the news?” Lu asked. “Maybe you should hold off on the drinking.”

Mike’s anger cowered behind his confusion. His friends had never been good at jokes like this. What they were saying didn’t make any sense. “Come on, man, what’s wrong with you guys? We saw it ourselves. I mean, my phone has been dead since the race but—”

The rumble of a motorcycle stopping at a nearby traffic light interrupted them.

Lu turned around the corner and then chuckled, his volume low. “Speak of the devil. That’s Kevin over there.”

Mike glanced over, and sure, enough, that looked like Kevin riding on the back of Johnny’s motorcycle.

“It can’t be,” he muttered. The Advent Guard had taken him into custody.

The light turned green, and Johnny rode off. Mike tossed his newest unopened can aside and strode over to his bike. He was going to follow that punk.

“Yo, Mike, wait up!” Glen called after him.

Mike didn’t care. They’d either catch up or they wouldn’t.

— ✧ —

After a few turns, Johnny reached their old stomping grounds. He parked on the side of the road and wheeled the bike along to their old hiding spot. Kevin rushed ahead toward the tattered remains of their fort.

“No way,” Johnny said, out of breath, his mind spinning. “It’s still here.”

The tent was weather-worn. There seemed to be some old magazines and playing cards scattered about, but that was all that remained. Johnny didn’t have enough time to look; Kevin was already racing through the now-sparse forest.

Johnny followed. He figured that, in order to seem not so suspicious, he’d best make conversation. “So Kev, why are we here? It doesn’t seem like you came to talk about the good ole days.”

“I’m looking for something,” Kevin replied, scanning the area.

Johnny didn’t ask again because Kevin was walking too far in front of him. He followed as Kevin drew deeper into the woods. Some of the forest seemed to be a construction site, and without a second thought, Kevin ducked under the surrounding caution tape.

Most of the trees were toppled, which made Kevin’s search more difficult. He remembered the map he’d drawn as a boy, but without so much of the forest for reference points, he was slower in his search than expected.

Suddenly, he heard a melodic tone from a nearby heap of branches. He froze. Johnny slipped his hand in his pocket and clutched the device the Agent had given him.

“What’s wrong?” he asked Kevin gingerly.

Kevin raised a hand to silence Johnny and closed his eyes to focus on the sound. The stone seemed to be calling to him. He had to find it. Maybe he could use his connection to the stone to locate it.

He moved forward toward the vibrations, feeling them pulse through his body. He drew closer, and the vibrations grew stronger. Soon, his whole body was trembling. At that moment, he opened his eyes. There, before him, was the oak tree.

However, the hollow where he remembered hiding the stone was empty. The intense vibration was coming from a nearby pile of branches. Kevin approached, knelt down, and moved the branches aside. He was met with a rusted blue tin box. Next to it was the gemstone, glowing like it had when they were kids.

“There you are,” Kevin whispered.

He picked it up and rose to show Johnny. His friend stood still, memories washing over him.

“Hey, that’s the thing we took from your dad,” Johnny said, breathless.

As if to prove it to himself, Johnny took the stone from Kevin for a closer look. Just like before, the glow faded. He smirked. Some things never change. When he handed the stone back to Kevin, it glowed once more.

“Okay, mind telling me what the hell that is and why it keeps doing that?

Kevin’s smile disappeared. Having this in his possession only confirmed what his father had said. He turned to Johnny with a sigh.

“This stone and I are connected somehow.”

Johnny’s expression was one of confusion, but inside, he felt sadder than he’d felt in a long time.

“My memories are still fuzzy, but I…I did something terrible to protect my parents.”

While Kevin said this, Johnny slid his hands into his pockets and rested his thumb once again over the device’s red button. He knew what was coming, as much as he didn’t want to.

“The last thing I remember is being attacked by the Guard,” Kevin said, his voice low. “Then, it’s just darkness. When I woke up, I had this.”

Kevin pointed at his scar and right eye.

This particular detail stopped Johnny in his tracks.

“Wait…but you said that was from a car accident.”

“That’s what I thought too,” Kevin said. “But that whole story was a lie my parents told me.”

Kevin seemed to be avoiding looking at him, Johnny noticed. His friend gripped the stone tightly. Kevin let out a small sigh.

“I overheard my dad earlier. He said he used this to seal my powers.”

Johnny’s eyes widened. “Powers?! So you really are—"

“A Seirei Jin?” Kevin interrupted, finally meeting Johnny’s gaze. “Yes. I am.”

Johnny’s head spun. He didn’t know which way was up. The general confusion he felt made him even more confused when he heard a third voice ring from behind him.

“That’s all I needed to hear!”

Kevin and Johnny recognized that voice immediately, it was Mike’s. When the boys turned, they saw Mike, surrounded by his friends, all of them drunk and staggering. There were so many of them. It quickly became clear that Kevin and Johnny weren’t going to be allowed to escape.