The Acolytes of Crane (Theodore Crane, #1)(48)

Liam’s face changed in that one second. He went from his usual jolly self, to a mood of melancholy. He hung his face. ‘I already know what you guys are going to say. My mom told me that you stopped over when my dad and I were gone. So yeah, it is true. My mom is having an affair with another man. I know that is what you guys wanted to tell me. My dad and I already know about it. She left us last night. It is really tough and I don’t want to talk about it, so can we just do something else?’ Now he was fighting back tears.

Lincoln jumped in, and said, ‘You’re right. We did expect something, but that isn’t why we brought you here. What we wanted to discuss is out of this world as we know it.’

‘Are you guys about to sell me something?’ Liam asked.

I couldn’t hold myself back. ‘Okay stop! I am going to tell him because you are taking too long.’ I pled with Liam. ‘Liam, we were chosen by a demigod named Zane to save the world and Sephera from these Dacturon devils. There, I said it. We need you to leave with us into space to help fight evil. That is as simple as I can make this.’

‘That’s it, you guys are nuts!’ Liam exclaimed. ‘I had to put up with liver for this?’ He stomped out of my bedroom, accidentally knocking over a couple of trophies to the floor. ‘Sorry,’ Liam muttered, but he continued his stride.

‘Please give us a chance,’ I begged him. ‘We are under attack. The Dacturons are at our doorstep, and if we don’t do something, they are going to consign Earth to the dustbin. You have to help us.’

‘Dacterrians? Earth?’ Liam spat out, unable to emulate the exact pronunciation of the alien race. ‘I did help you, and now you expect me to believe this nonsense. You guys are weird! I am outta here,’ Liam said, as he marched out the front door. He darted to the cul-de-sac, and down the road.

I cupped my mouth with my hands and yelled after him, ‘Dude, if you change your mind, be at County Hearth on Saturday at noon!’ trying not to be a disturbance to the rest of the neighborhood. I just hoped that he would change his mind, although that was a very long shot.


I looked over at Lincoln, ‘That really didn’t go as planned.’

‘Yeah, I think you need more patience. Please, next time let me do the talking. You cannot just shove the end of the world down someone’s throat like that . . .’ Lincoln said, as he was obviously angry with me. He continued to ramble, and I was just too shocked to think.

‘Why didn’t you just give him a taste of your powers?’ Lincoln spurted out.

I felt as if the ground would swallow me. ‘Oh, right. I never thought of that,’ I said meekly.

‘Just like you did with me!’ Lincoln retorted.

‘Well, you could have thought of that too, Mr. Smarty Pants!’

‘I’m leaving now!’

We heard my grandmother’s concerned voice from downstairs. ‘Are you boys all right up there?’

‘We’re fine, grandma!’ I shouted though my door.

Lincoln glared at me, then stormed out of my room, leaving me alone to collect my thoughts.

Sunday was almost gone, and the clock was ticking. I heard was the ticking from the grandfather clock in the living room. Tick, tick, tick, tick, ding-dong-ding-dong, it was nine-o-clock, and the chiming from the clock snagged me back toward reality.

I felt like I was ruining the adventure for everyone, and we weren’t even close to assembling a full team. I ran into my room, and cried into my pillow.

There was a knock at my room, and my grandma was standing there.

‘What’s wrong, honey? You okay?’

I continued to cry. ‘Honey, listen to me,’ she said, as she sat down beside me and ran her fingers through my hair, ‘You have been living a tough life. I know, but it is only going to get worse if you don’t sit down and try to figure things out right from the beginning. You cannot fix everything around you before forgiving yourself. I know that you are holding yourself responsible for many things. The reason why you are crying right now is because you are trying to understand things that you are not even capable of understanding . . . Am I right?’

‘Yes, but you don’t understand. There is a battle going on right now, in my head. There are many tough things for me right now. You wouldn’t understand, because you and grandpa are not my parents. Please, just leave!’ I yelled.

Tears welling in her eyes, Laverne drew in her lips. She was about to say something, but stopped herself just in time. Jolting up from her sitting position on my bed, she abruptly left my room. She was such a saint, because even after her obvious upset, she took great pain to ease up on my door as she closed it behind her.

I knew that what I said was wrong and unfair. A scream of frustration stayed throttled in the back of my throat, and a whiplash of trauma seared my mind. Taking deep breaths, I composed myself and calmed down. I needed to understand more about what I was fighting for, so I dug deeper. I held up my hand to consult my IPU.

I thought—Nezatron, what is this war all about?

Nezatron said, ‘Sephera, clearance level three. In the beginning, space was deep, black, and infinitely sparse. There was a universe, planets and stars were few, and living beings evolved over billions of years from a single cell . . .’

I could have sat and listened to Nezatron’s historical account about the Dacturon creation of two Omnians—Odion and Zane—all night. Sure. If I wanted my mind to grow so numb that it would think no better than a slab of particleboard. I turned off the nanocom so that I could finally get some sleep.