“If he doesn’t confess, he’s going to die,” Isabelle tells us.
“I think I saw a Touch plant somewhere around here,” Wolf says.
“That’s perfect! Go find it and cut the liquid from its roots.”
“How will that help?” I ask.
“The liquid from the root of the Touch plant is paralyzing. The snake will be immobilized for a few seconds. That’s enough time to get Tony out.”
“Ameana go with Wolf to find the plant,” Marcus orders.
The two of them take off quickly and disappear into the fog. I turn my attention back to Tony whose face has now turned a ghoulish shade of blue. Blood seeps out of his nose as the snake coils itself around Tony’s neck.
He’s not going to survive…
“I cheated on a math test once,” I shout over at him. Everyone looks back at me. I don’t care. I won’t let anyone else die. If I have to get Tony to fess up to save his life, then that’s what I’ll do.
“I met a guy online once. He asked for my pic and I was afraid he’d think I was ugly so I sent him someone else’s picture.”
Then I saw it. Tony let a little bit of hope in. He parted his lips but he just couldn’t get the words out. I pushed myself to give him one last confession; one that I was hoping to take to my grave.
“I planned to kill myself so I could be with my mom.”
I can’t bring myself to look at Marcus’s face. I focus on the Seller. Tony chokes out five words that would untimely save his life.
“I killed my best friend.”
The words give life to a small mass of dark energy. It hovers in the air and the snake greedily swallows it. As soon as it does, it uncoils itself from Tony and slithers away. The team runs over to Tony, who is coughing and having a hard time controlling his breathing.
Wolf and Ameana come back just in time to see Tony being helped to his feet. He takes a bottle of water out from his knapsack and drinks. Everyone is watching him. He turns to us and for the first time ever, Tony isn’t up for talking.
“Can we go now?” he asks harshly. Tony has never raised his voice to the team. Seeing him so uneasy and upset throws all of us off. Instead of moving, we all stand still looking at him.
“WHAT?” he shouts.
No one says a word. He looks down at the ground, leans on a tree and drinks from the bottled water once again. When he speaks, it’s not the Tony we all know. His tone is reflective and filled with regret.
“Back when I was human, my best friend Anderson and I hung out together everyday. We had been friends since we were kids. He was smart; book smart. He pushed me to try harder in school but I just wasn’t gifted academically. No, my gift was talking people into things. I could sell sand to the desert.
“I owed some guys a few grand for some ‘not-so-wise’ bets I had made. They weren’t very understanding when I couldn’t pay. They hired some low lives to come to my apartment and ‘take care of me. ’
“Anderson had come down from school to see me. He knew where my spare key was hidden, so he let himself in. When the guys came, they thought he was me and they beat him to death. Crazy thing is, he didn’t even want to come down that weekend. But my gift is talking people into things…”
There’s more Tony wants to say. But judging from the tight grip he has on the water bottle, it would take a hundred Pity Snakes to get it out of him. Marcus goes over to Tony, places a hand on his shoulder and says, “We need to keep moving.”
Tony nods quickly and follows the team as they walk ahead. A few minutes later, he comes over to me and thanks me for helping him.
I smile and reassure him, “I do that for all my Facebook friends.”
***********************
As we make our way through Pyron, the sounds that surround us get more and more threatening. The menacing gray skies give way to night and what was difficult to see in daylight is now impossible to make out.
“We need to stop Marcus,” Ameana says.
“No, we should keep going.”
“We can’t see anything.”
“She’s right. Even Wolf’s Para powers are no match for this kind of night,” Rio says.
“That’s because it’s a devil’s night. That means it’s a night made by Lucy herself. Well, at least that’s what I read,” Isabelle says.
“Thank you, Library,” Jay snaps.
I whisper to Marcus that the team looks like they need to recharge. He reluctantly agrees.
“We need to find a spot where we can hide. I don’t want to think about what kind of creatures are lurking around here,” he says.
“I can help you with shelter,” Tony responds. He goes into his knapsack and takes out a small liquid vial.