Gone (Gone #1)(134)

"Maybe for you, Sam. Not for me. I know the way. I know the way to stay" He laughed in wild triumph.

Astrid said, "Sam, you have to do it. Destroy him "

Diana was mounting the stairs.

"Yeah, Sam, destroy me" Caine mocked. "You have the power. lust burn a hole right through her and you'll get me, too,"

Diana said, "Caine, put her down. Be a man, for once."

"Put her down, Caine" Sam said."It's the end. Fifteen and out. I don't know what it is, but it may be death, and you don't want to die with more blocd on your hands."

Caine laughed mirthlessly. "You know nothing about me. You didn't grow up not knowing who you were. You didn't have to create yourself out of your own imagination, out of your own will."

"I grew up with no father at all," Sam said. "And no explanation. And no truth. Same as you"

Caine glanced at his watch. "I think time is up for you, Sam. You go first, remember? And here's what I want you to know before you go: Tm going to survive, Sam. I'm going to be here still. Me and your lovely Astrid and all of the FAYZ. All of it mine"

Diana said, "Sam, the way you beat the poof is—>"

Caine rounded on her, raised lis hand, and blasted her in mid-sentence. She flew through the air, somersaulted backward and landed across the street on the grass of the plaza.

The effort had distracted Caine. He dropped Astrid.

Sam extended his hand, palm out.





FORTY-SIX


01 MINUTES

A CLEAR SHOT.

With a thought, he could kill Caine,

Bui the world around him faded. Astrid. lying in a heap, seemed bleached, colorless, almost translucent. Caine himself, a ghost.

No sound. The screams of children were muted. The battle between Drake and Ore moved in slow motion, the attacks by the coyotes, all of it frame-by-frame, human and beast and monster Sam's body was numb, as if it had died and left only his brain still whirring away inside hisskulL It's time, a voice said.

He knew that voice and the sound of it was a knife in his guts.

His mother stood before him. She was as beautifijl as she had always been to him. Her hair stirred in a breeze he did not feel. I ler blue eyes were the only true color.

"Happy birthday," she said. "No," he whispered, though his lips did not move. "You really are the man now," she said, and her mouth made awry smile.

"My little man," she said. "No*

She stretched out her hand to him. "Come," "I canV he said.

"Sam, I'm your mother. I love you. Come with me" "Mom.. r "Just reach out to me. fm sale. I can carry you away, out of this place"

Sam shook his head slowly, slowly, like he was drowning in molasses. Something was happening to time. Astrid wasn*t breathing. Nothing was moving. The whole world was frozen.

"it will be like it was" his mother said. "It was never..." he began. "You lied to me. You never told me.. r "I never lied " she said, and frowned at him, disappointed.

"You never told me I had a brother. You never told—"

"lust come with me," she said, impatient now, jerking her hand a little like she would when he was a little kid and reliised to take her hand to cross the street. "Come with me now, Sam. You'll be safe and out af this place."

He reacted instinctively, the little boy again, reacted to the "mommy" voice, the "obey me" voice. He reached for her, stretched his hand out to her.

And pulled it back.

"I can't" Sam whispered. "I have someone I have to stay here for."

Anger flashed in his mother's eyes, a green light, surreal, before she blinked and it was gone.

And then, out of the bleached, unreal world, Caine stepped into the eerie light.

Sam's mother smiled at Caine, and he stared at her wonderingly, "Nurse Temple " Caine said.

"Mom," she corrected. "It's time for both my boys to join me, to come away with me. Out of this place."

Caine seemed spellbound, unable to tear his gaze away from the gentle, smiling face, the piercing blue eyes.

"Why?" dine asked in a small chiUTs voice.

Their mother said nothing. On:e again, for just a heartbeat, her blue eyes glowed a toxic green before returning to cool, icy blue.

"Why him and not me?" Caine asked.

"It's time to come with me now," their mother insisted. "We'll be a family. Far from here"

"You first, Sam," Caine said. "Gc with your mother."

"No," Sam said.

Caine's face darkened with rage. "Go, Sam. Go. Go. Go with her" He was shouting now. He seemed to want to grab Sam physically, push him toward Ihe mother they had not quite shared, but his movements were odd, disjointed, a jerky stick figure in a dream.

Caine gave up trying. "Jack told you," he said dully.

"No one told me anything "Sam said."! have things I have lo do here"

Their mother extended her arms lo than, angry, demanding to be heeded-"Come to me. Come to me" Caine shook his head slowly. "No"

"But you're the man of the house now, Sam," his mother wheedled."My little man, Mine" "No" Sam said/Tm my own ^ian" "And I was never yours," Caine sneered, "Too late now, Mother."