The Man In The Midnight Blue Suit

Chapter Twenty-Six

Three gruelling months pass. I don't see Jonathan again. I never go a day without thinking of him, and hoping that he's surviving. At night, after the challenges of the day, when the moon shines through my window and I can't sleep, I wonder about my brother. I wonder what Lucian is doing. Where they are. Jonathan never got the chance to say. And then, the memories of the mansion's top floor invade my thoughts. The broken people held in cages, the creatures screaming brokenly from dislocated jaws. I only hope that I can help them. If we overthrow the Elites, their tormentor will be gone. Even if we fail, at least I'm not leaving them to rot on concrete floors while I bend to the Elites will. At least I won't become one of them.

On those nights, when I finally fall asleep, I'm back in the dark place where a six-pointed star is drawn crudely into the floor's centre. Except for this time, Jonathan is there, trapped in the star's centre by midnight blue fire flickering from the edges. And it's him who screams with eyes so bloodshot they've lost their colour, with skin so taut it rips apart, revealing blood and bones underneath. It's my brother who has been turned into a beast.

I complete the challenges set out for me in the crystal arena. I do them with all the vigour I can muster, in the hopes that somehow I can support the people separated from me by walls of fire, the people who have become my friends. And although Katelyn weakens with each challenge, her yellow flame weakly sputtering for hours after, and although Gin's spirit sometimes only comes in flares, and although Tobias cries silent tears that only I see in a pitch black winter wonderland, they are the strongest, smartest, bravest people I have ever known. If it's them I have to die with, then I will not have suffered.

Although death is the final challenge that everyone, abilities or none, will face, it only makes a small hollow in our minds. As Gin reminded us, we should never think for a minute that we will beat the Elites and make it out alive. "We have to be ready for it." She had said to me, and I passed on it to Tobias, who passed it on Katelyn, "We need to accept its part in what we are doing. We have no idea how they will react, so we must always accommodate it. Be aware of death, but do not let it overpower you." After all, Death is the only thing none of us, not even the Elites, can beat.

We have no idea how long this competition will last. It could stretch years, a test of stamina. Fortunately, we have no intention of waiting for so long. After three months of whispers as we pass each other, of brief meetings between two but never three, there is a hush in our communications. We are close - so close. Plans have been made, pieces passed between us slowly, though never all at once. Somehow we managed to combine our intelligence to find a way out. There's no counting it will work, but it's something. Now we have a plan, we have the hole in the wall. The Elites won't expect it: we've been careful. Every day now, my mind is humming with anticipation, and I know theirs are too. We won't be trapped in a crystal arena any longer.

There is one thing I've been reluctant to share. Because if the wrong ears heard these words, it would ruin us. Without it though, we've got no hope. So it was only yesterday that they found out. I told Gin: I knew she wouldn't take the secret we'd been hiding too well. Katelyn would hear it from Tobias. It was one of the hardest parts of our scheme, to work as a team and yet be separate.
"I'm sorry," I had started, whispering as we walked through the courtyard gardens, "In advance. I hope you'll see why it was necessary."
"You've got something to say, don't you?" Gin replied, her voice flatter than the marble floors of the arena.
I know that easing up to it will never work with Gin. So I jump right in and hope she'll understand. "Elites, from the early ages, have evolved like any other species. They've developed their skills, with more staggering abilities appearing with the generations. That's how I think I got my skill. I can do more than what we were taught to. It's hard to explain – but somehow, I can, well, 'cross the border' into other people's minds. It's not about controlling bodies and objects anymore – I can access the mind. I can hear thoughts, see memories. I can make someone think whatever I want. It's scary, but I can do it."
Gin stops in her path and turns to face me. Her eyes are cold, hiding the emotion lurking just beneath. "Have you ever used it on me?"
"Never." With that one word, the tension leaves her.
"I knew you and Tobias weren't telling us something," She said, looking at me with an amused grin, "So it's not a shock. And I knew that you wouldn't tell us because it's fragile information. So I waited. But really, Casey, mind reading?"
"You knew something was up?"
"Of course I did. If you can do this, it's a game changer. The Elites don't know?"
"No. We don't think they can do it themselves, either."
"A secret weapon. Maybe we do have a chance."
"Did you ever think we didn't?"
"I tried to not think about the logic of it. Katelyn's better at that. Just make sure, Casey, that you don't reveal what we've got against them until we need to."
"You trust me to handle it?"
"Would I be doing this if I wasn't?"
I smile, and she punches my shoulder. "Now," she says, "is not the time to get soft on me."

Everything was ready. There was no point in waiting. Although we all knew it was time, we whispered it to each other as we passed, never looking at the other. Tomorrow. The magic word. Tomorrow we would face the Elites.

I knew the night before our plans took action would not be simple. When everyone was shut behind their metallic doors, I hesitated in front of mine. I didn't want to go back to my apartment with the four poster bed and silk pillows and nightmares so vivid I couldn't tell if it was my own screams I was hearing or someone else's. I don't know if I could stand it there, knowing I wouldn't be coming back. It wasn't that I'd miss it. That apartment had become a cage for me. A place for the Elites to store me, out of sight, until they wanted me. No, I wouldn't go back there.

I walked down the white hallway and knocked on another door. Tobias appeared behind it. He was the only one who knew about the nightmares. When you jump another person's mind so many times, you tend to share almost as much about yourself as you take from them.

"Can I stay here?" I ask. He simply steps aside to let me walk through.

I sleep on one of his couches, a blanket taken from his bed thrown over me. But sleeping somewhere else doesn't mean the nightmares won't follow you. I was back on the top floor. There were the creatures, the people that were once like me. I don't know how I knew it. Suddenly it was there, a fact as clear as my own existence. They were Lucians past students. Somehow they'd ended up there, become his experiments. He turned them into creatures, grinding away the last wisps of who they used to be. And there was Jonathan, tortured and in pain, screaming out at me. I couldn't help him, couldn't fight the midnight blue fire dancing around him in the shape of that star, because a wall of bars held me back. They were cold, ice cold, despite the heat. I grappled them, trying to reach him, my dear brother. I threw fire at fire, white bright against the darkness, but it was only spat back towards me. I couldn't reach him, couldn't stop his screams, and I, I –

I woke, screaming, blanket thrown onto the floor, bright white fire wildly flickering at my palms. I was in Tobias's apartment, where I had been all along. He was there, watching me with such concern it made my screams turn to salty tears. He held my palms until the white fire calmed, and then he drew me to him, holding me tight as tears leaked from my eyes.

"Jesus, Casey." He said. "You should've come here sooner."

I fell back to sleep in his arms and it seemed he did too. We woke when the sun began to light his apartment, entangled on the floor. The nightmare didn't come back that night.