She pointed to the couch and sat down, patting it with her hands.
“This is fine for me, thanks,” she said. “I don’t want to take your bed.”
He smiled. She was a very sweet girl, and he liked her a lot already.
He pulled out his notebook.
Food in the kitchen if you get hungry.
Stay away from the window.
Stay quiet. Many rotters here.
She read over his notes and nodded her head. “I’ll be fine. You get some rest.”
He nodded and disappeared into the bedroom, leaving the door cracked in case she needed to call out to him.
He must have fallen asleep within seconds, because he didn’t even remember laying down. He had no idea how much time had passed before he woke up, but since the sun was still down, it couldn’t have been long.
Still, the sound of music startled him. It was so faint, he almost couldn't tell at first if it was real, but it was so foreign, some part of his brain must have picked up on it and alerted him.
Either way, her playing was dangerous.
He rushed from the bedroom, his hand outstretched as he reached for Zoe’s shoulder. She was turned away from him, her head angled downward.
Time seemed to slow down as his hand reached toward her. It was as if some energy field surrounding her connected him to another place.
His vision blurred, and as his hand made contact with the skin on Zoe’s arm, a different scene came into focus.
The guardians were there, sitting in a circle around him.
The connection was brief, only lasting for a moment, but it was enough to let him know he was not alone in this world, anymore.
As his own living room came back into focus, he noticed Zoe standing in front of him, her arms hugging her violin as if it were a doll. Her mouth was open in surprise, her eyes wide.
“What was that?” she asked, blinking back tears as she looked around the room. “Was that Parrish and her friends? I don’t understand.”
The boy smiled, a sense of peace filling him for the first time since the pandemic began.
The connection had been made. A first step to truly finding each other and putting an end to all of this.
Yes, he said inside his mind, sensing that now, she would be able to hear him.
Zoe’s eyes grew even wider, and she gasped, touching a hand to her forehead.
He gently touched her arm and squeezed.
Those were four of the guardians sent here a long time ago to keep this world safe, he said, lifting his hand to see that a strong blue glow emanated from within. And I am the fifth.
He used the tip of one glowing finger to draw his sign in the air. A spiral that seemed to hover between them for a moment before it faded and disappeared into the darkness.
The boy smiled.
Finally, the real magic had begun.
Three
Crash
When the first light of the sun appeared on the horizon, the group left the safety of their small house and started their journey back to the compound.
They’d spent the early morning hours talking about what had happened with the fatalis stone, the boy they’d all seen in their vision, and what it all had to mean. In the end, the truth was undeniable.
This boy they had seen was the fifth they’d been searching for all this time.
And somehow, he’d gotten to Zoe before the Dark One ever had a chance.
Crash hadn’t even realized he’d been dreaming of Parrish’s little sister playing her violin, but after seeing her there in that flash moment, he knew it had been her all along.
None of them were exactly sure how it had happened. How had they managed to connect to the fifth’s energy strongly enough to actually see him?
They’d spent hours trying to recreate it, but it hadn’t happened again.
Crash was sure it had something to do with the fact that they’d all been touching at the same exact moment. The four of them in the house, and miles away in New York City, the boy touching Zoe.
Zoe was the connection.
She had more of a connection with Parrish than even most sisters, since she’d had a bone marrow transplant a few years ago. After hours of talking through the possibilities, that was the best they could figure.
Somehow, that transplant had given Zoe some of Parrish’s powers. Maybe not enough to allow her to fight zombies with a glowing blue light or make her tears turn to ice, but maybe it was enough to give her a more natural immunity to the virus.
And to allow the fifth to sense her presence.
So, he’d found Zoe first, like some miracle of fate, and in the early morning hours, they’d somehow completed a circle of connection that allowed them all to see and sense each other.
It had also managed to unlock a piece of the magic inside the fatalis stone.
Every single one of them felt a new power surge through them the moment the fifth appeared, and after the brutal attack and betrayal the day before, it had given them all hope and the energy to move forward.
So, they’d spent the rest of the morning making their plans to go to New York.
Making the journey was unavoidable now.
It had gone from a suicide mission to save a small child to a necessary part of their hope of saving the world.
They had no idea what they would face once they got there, but it was going to take everything they had just to survive it. Rescuing Zoe and meeting up with the fifth would take a miracle.
But then again, crazier things had happened.
Only, despite their hours of talking and planning, there were a few things Crash had decided to keep to himself.
Details about the dreams he’d been having lately. Or more appropriately, nightmares.
He’d hoped at first they were just dreams.
