V. H. King's Ink

Caegan paused just off the elevator—as if taking a moment to scan signs to see which way Izzy’s room was. He tapped Irene’s arm, but her arms tightened around his hoodie. She was scared, like she had every right to be. And she was trying her damnedest not to bolt. He shifted her weight, giving her a hug in the process, and continued down the hall.

At his side, Scott scrolled through his phone. Every time his thumbs paused, Caegan’s phone buzzed. He wouldn’t have to catch up on the group chat later though, because Scott kept up a running narrative of what was going on.

“Skylar said she’ll be on her way in a minute. Has she been here before? I feel like she has but I don’t know if she’s visited since they moved Iz. I told her we should meet in the gift shop.”

“But that’s back on the first floor,” Irene leaned to look at him.

“I’ll go back to find her,” Scott said. “That way she doesn’t get lost on her way up here.”

“What if you get lost on your way back?”

“Then I’ll go find him,” Caegan said, “if Spy doesn’t get to him first.”

“I don’t get lost that easy!” Scott darted away from the wall, surprised at the way his voice echoed off everything. “Besides, I have a super special top secret mission, so I’m focused!”

“As focused as a fly,” Irene stuck her tongue out, then scrunched her face at the taste of chemicals on the air. “What’s your special mission?”

“It’s a super special top secret mission,” Scott grinned. “That means I can’t tell you.”

“But what if I can help?”

“Hmm…” Scott tapped his head while he pretended to think about it.

“Pleeeaaasse?”

“Well…I’m not sure if I should…”

“If you tell me the mission, I can tell you how I can help.”

“How about this—can you give good hugs? And remember to do something every day? And keep a promise?”

Scott ticked off the skills he was looking for and Irene nodded emphatically on each one. He exaggerated his thinking faces, making a big deal over his decision. Caegan slowed as they turned down the hall of Izzy’s room. He elbowed Scott in the side.

“Come on, you gonna keep Reenie waiting or what?”

“I’ll make you a deal,” Scott said. “You keep Izzy company while I meet up with Skylar, and once we get back, I’ll give you a special assignment.”

“A top secret assignment?”

“Even better—a classified one.”

“Classified? Like fancy?”

“Like only the ones in-the-know even know it exists,” Scott lowered his voice. “And only some of the ones in the know have special clearance to get updates on how the whole operation is going. Not even I know everything about it, so you’re gonna be the captain on this one.”

With wide eyes, Irene nodded—slowly and seriously. She glanced around his shoulder and saw they’d made it to Izzy’s room. For a moment she froze again, her fists clenched into Caegan’s arm. But then her eyes went narrow, and she purposefully took big, slow breaths.

Finding her courage. Trying to be brave for Izzy. Knowing Scott was just trying to distract her and make her feel better, but at least he wasn’t mean about her being scared–and whatever he was doing was working anyway. Finally, Irene set her shoulders and wriggled her way down. She looked up. and Caegan gave her a nod. Scott, of course, was smiling like he always was.

And then they went in.

---

Dee didn’t know what to make of her son’s friends, at first. Grade school, they’d all been concerned with their dolls and action figures and toy cars and Lego sets. By fifth grade—definitely sixth—it he was different. Not that they lived in the part of the city where anyone expected much. What else were pre-teen boys going to do other than get in fights and get caught when trying to pull off whatever nonsense their friends had dared them to do?

She’d tried to keep Izzy out of that, with programs at the library—and then here these two came around. Three of them actually, if you counted Skylar. That girl was everywhere and into everything—and if she’d had any other boy as her son, she would have said Skylar was trouble. The type to sink her hooks into whoever she could, making promises and trading favors and talking you into all kinds of mess.

Izzy wasn’t interested in her, though–and Skylar knew it. Besides, she already had her claws in Caegan. No matter the rumors—from kids and other parents alike—Dee could see it. Skylar had Caegan on some kind of leash. Dee didn’t like it, but she also didn’t like to think about the alternatives either.

Just like she wasn’t sure she wanted Irene to be like Skylar in her teens, but she was glad Skylar took the time to talk to her daughter. All of them did, really, which made it that much harder to be distrustful when they never shooed Irene away or made fun of her. Those three weren’t mean to little kids, and at their age, Dee thought that said something.

She could admit to being caught up in the emergency of everything. Ambulances, surgery, hospital bills—nothing they had money for, and everything she’d want the best of, for her son. She hadn’t wanted to ignore Irene, but she didn’t know how to let her daughter be a kid about these things either. Not with everything that was on the line.

What was a few weeks of her being distracted and distant compared to whether they’d have a roof over their head in a few months? Or worse, child services coming to take Reenie and Izzy away? Dee was supposed to be there, for both of her children, and she knew she couldn’t be. Not in the way that Reenie needed, and she certainly couldn’t work any miracles for Izzy.

So if Caegan, Scott, and Skylar’s kindness had been a begrudging comfort before, her heart could not withstand the sight of Irene on Caegan’s hip, her jaw set as she stared into Izzy’s room. Dee knew that look on Reenie’s face–making up her mind to do something she thought was going to be really hard, but determined to do it anyway. Pausing for a moment at the other end of the hallway, Dee pressed her knuckles to her lips.

Right as she was telling herself she could cry about it later, Caegan turned to look at her. As if he knew–which he probably did, given what people said about him. He held her gaze over Irene’s shoulder for a moment, before Reenie pushed against him so he would put her down. Then the three of them were through the door, and Dee knew she should be there–for both of her children, no matter how scared or silent they were.

Something about Caegan’s brief stare stuck behind her eyelids, pinning her feet to the floor. It wasn’t that she didn’t believe the word on the street; she just preferred to never have to find out for herself, how true the rumors might be. There was a lot of talk about how he was everywhere and knew everything, but not in the loud-mouth way Skylar had, spinning gossip to keep a story snow-balling.

But now she knew the other part—and she knew why nobody talked about it. Because it was like someone pulling back the shower curtain on all your pride and regret, all your hope and heartache. And since he didn’t talk, you knew your secrets were safe with him—yours and everyone else’s. People didn’t understand that boy, but Dee could see why they trusted him.

---

Considering the vine of fire that had constricted his torso, drowning wasn’t so bad. It was kind of funny, actually. What they called irony, in his Honors’ Lit class. Not that he’d be going back. Izzy hadn’t wanted to think about it at first—and maybe he couldn’t, with however many needles and tubes and whatever else had been stuck in him.

The fire-vine had grown into a wild plant-thing that had taken over his stomach and lungs and the back of his neck, but now that part was over. And he was drowning. It was a slow thing, a quiet sinking, and Izzy didn’t mind it one bit.

Life would be all kinds of ruined when he woke up, and he would have to wake up. But not before he made his peace with what he’d have to carry with him. Besides, he wasn’t alone here. He’d lived his entire life in the desert, but here he was, with a friend at the bottom of the sea.

Izzy had no idea how deep sharks could actually swim. He’d never been to the ocean or the beach—nobody in twenty square miles had that kind of money. There were the movies from the eighties, but in more recent news, sharks had been sighted farther north than scientists expected. Weren’t sharks cold-blooded? Probably, but that just proved global warming wasn’t a gimmick.

How long did it take to hit rock bottom? He wasn’t sure if it really mattered. No one would pull him up out of this. He had to wake up on his own…but not yet. There was only one person who could be watching over him in whatever trenches of semi-consciousness he’d been drifting through.

Like a shape in a dense fog, Caegan circled the depths of whatever plane of existence this was. What would Father Rocci call it? Could you go to Purgatory before you were dead? Maybe if you’d made it more than halfway to the grave, you got a sneak-peek of the place you’d be stuck if you didn’t get your shit together.

But that was another kind of irony too, because his parents had counted on him getting good grades at Brighton and doing enough extra-curriculars so he’d have better options for his college applications. They’d been drilling that into him since the sixth grade—or had it been fifth? Didn’t matter, since he’d blown it. At least, his appendix had.

So what now?