White Shadows

Chapter 18 - Sweet Dreams (Are Made Of This)

***LUCA***

I'm still paralyzed with shock for the longest time until Gideon tugs on my arm, yelling into my ear. I can hardly hear him, though, but I get the message when he gesticulates at the ground, pointing down. That's when I see a long black arm cutting through the rain, roughly level with both our heads, and we immediately, simultaneously, duck.

At the same time, we both get a little more up close and personal with Paul's corpse. Obviously, we can't just leave it here - but where are we going to go with it? To Ocean Beach? Even with the storm getting worse, I doubt it's completely deserted. Hell, there might even be a few people trying to surf the waves, only to drown like those people on the south coast.

The scriv-monster's arm sweeps around again, hoping to cut someone down. This time, Gideon and I have to jump to avoid it. We hover about four feet off the ground until the arm comes after us at this height instead, so we go higher. How much longer can we keep up this dance?

"Luca! Gideon!" Mattia calls down to us. Does she not see that Paul's dead? "I'm gonna need your help!"

I shake my head to clear it, then turn to Gideon and say, "Stay down, and try and earthquake these guys as much as you can."

He clenches his fist, showing me his bleeding knuckles. There's a lot of dirt and pulverized rock in those cuts - he's going to need some really deep cleaning there. "I'm not sure I have the strength for another big one," he says in a broken voice.

I grab his shoulders. "Look at me, Gid," I say, my voice just as broken as his. "I wanna stop and process this too, but Paul...he'd want us to keep fighting. We gotta do this for him, okay?"

Mattia flies down next to us, burning the arm as it comes in for another pass. Why the hell didn't I think to do that? "Guys, what's wrong?" she asks. Then she looks down and sees Paul on the rocks below us. "NO! Oh my God..."

"You got this, man." I let go of him and wait for him to fly down to the island again before turning to Mattia. "What...what did you need our help for?"

"Well," Mattia says, "no offense to Gideon, but I wouldn't have needed him for this anyway, I don't think-"

"What is it?" I say. "Spit it out!"

"You don't have to yell at me!" Mattia says, flapping upward.

"Jesus, when did you start turning into Mom?"

Mattia stops short, and I immediately apologize for going too far. "No, no, it's okay," she says, distracted. "I mean...you just saw...okay, maybe I shouldn't...I can do it myself."

"Come on!" I yell, not even caring how I sound at this point. "I'm not gonna stand back now! See that, down there?" I point down at the island, at Paul, whose body Gideon is defending from further scriv-monster attacks. "That's what happened the last time I stood back!"

"You don't know that!"

"Mattia, you weren't there!"

"I know." She bites her lip. "We can't all be everywhere at once...but we can still all work together so we won't have to."

"Doing what?" I ask.

Mattia scratches her head. "How good are you with lava?"

"Lava?" I repeat. "Really? If you wanted lava, why'd you send Gideon back down?"

"So he can get the rock for you to light up, of course. Go, go, go! Now!"

I fly down to Gideon, but I'm pretty damn sure I won't be able to help him much with the lava thing. It's basically my equivalent of ice for a water elemental like the twins - very difficult to master, but once you figure it out, it becomes like riding a bike. I don't think I'm exactly at bike-riding level, though.