Marrow (14 page)

“Yeah,” he murmured, nodding his head slowly. “Me too.”

Okay. This was too weird. It was one thing if I was hearing a ticking sound inside my head. I was crazy. Big deal. But if all of us had been hearing the same ticking sound inside our own heads…

“You can hear it right now?” Sapphire asked me.

“Yeah,” I said. “You can’t?”

Sapphire shook her head.

“Whisp?” I asked.

“Not since yesterday,” he said.

TICK TICK TICK TICK…TICK…TICK TOOOCK TICK TICK…

The ticking continued to pound my skull. It was so relentless I could barely think.

“When did you start hearing the ticking today?” Whisp asked.

“When?” I squeezed my eyes shut in a futile attempt to clear my mind. “Uh…I dunno. I woke up to it.”

“Has anything made it worse?”

I opened my eyes. My gaze drifted to Nero lying peacefully in his bed.

“Yeah. It got worse when I came here.”

Now that I thought about it, there was only one other time when the ticking sound was this bad. It was on the drive back from the hospital two nights ago.

Right before Nero attacked us.

“Nero,” I said, breathless. “It’s always worse when I’m around Nero.”

Sapphire’s eyes grew even wider, bouncing back and forth between Whisp and me. Meanwhile, Whisp had his lips pursed in a straight line, his gaze concentrated on some invisible point in space.

“What does it sound like?” Whisp asked.

“Huh? You just said you’ve heard it.”

“Yes, I know I’ve heard it,” he said. “But I can’t hear it right now. What does it sound like?”

“Um…” I said. I actually struggled to concentrate
on
the sound now that I had spent so long trying to concentrate in
spite
of it.

TICK TOOOCK TOOOCK TICK…TOOOCK TOOOCK…TICK

“I dunno,” I said. “It’s a ticking sound. Like a clock. Except some of the ticks are longer than the others. Deeper. Like they’re scratching on my skull or something.”

“And there are spaces between some of them, right?” said Whisp. “Like some of the ticks are grouped together?”

“Er…Yeah, I guess so,” I said.

“Like…Morse code.”

Morse code? I didn’t really know anything about Morse code. But I had heard someone else mention it recently.

We should communicate to each other with Morse code or something.

“Nero knows Morse code,” I said. “He wanted to use it when we were about to fight Arachnis in the Final Chall—”

My breath fell short as I realized where Whisp was getting at with this.

Was Nero trying to communicate with us?

Whisp dashed out of the room. This earned a baffled look from the police officer standing outside. Sapphire and I exchanged puzzled glances, but Whisp was only gone for a few short seconds. He brushed past the police officer and came into the room with a custom St. Luke’s Hospital pen and notepad in hand. He shoved both of them into my chest.

“Write it down,” said Whisp.

“What? How am I supposed to write down ticking?”

“Use dots for the short ticks and dashes for the long ones. And be sure to leaves spaces when the ticks pause.”

“You know Morse code too?” I asked.

“Yeah. Don’t you?”

“Um…” I chose not to answer the question, focusing instead on the ticks. Holding the paper against the wall, I immediately started drawing dots and dashes.

TICK TOOOCK TICK TICK…TICK TOOOCK TOOOCK TICK…TOOOCK TOOOCK…TICK…TICK TICK TICK TICK…TICK…

I scratched my pen on the paper furiously. I did not go long after this point when Whisp stopped my hand.

“The pattern is repeating,” he said. “Let me translate it.”

I surrendered the pen and paper to him as he took my place at the wall. Whisp stuck his tongue out of the side of his mouth as he scribbled down letter after letter with hardly a pause in between. He dropped his writing hand and held the paper up for us all to see.

L P M E H E

“Lipmeehee,” I said, pronouncing the letters together as one word. “Well that’s helpful. Morse code can kiss my butt.”

“No, wait,” said Sapphire, snatching the paper and pen out of Whisp’s hands. She proceeded to jot down new letters. At first I thought they were random, but I quickly realized she was starting from a different point in the loop.

It took her only seconds to finish. When she did, she seemed to falter. She held the paper away from her like it was diseased, and her hand began to tremble. Whisp and I crowded around her.

H E L P M E

Help me.

The brief silence felt like an eternity. None of us spoke. None of us moved. The two words seemed to scream from the paper

“What is this?” Sapphire finally said. Her voice seemed to waver in sync with her trembling hand.

She knew. We all knew. All three of our gazes shifted in synchronization to Nero lying on his bed.

“It’s Nero,” said Whisp. “Somehow he’s using his telekinesis to cause the ticking.” His voice choked slightly as he added. “H-h-he…he wants us to help him.”

“Because he’s in a coma?” asked Sapphire.

“No,” I said, shaking my head. “I heard the ticking a couple days before then. I mean…I even heard it right before he attacked me.”

“So what are you saying? Nero’s being mind-controlled by someone?”

There was a clearly mocking edge to her tone. She obviously intended the comment as pure sarcasm. However, Whisp and I exchanged uncomfortable glances.

“Oh nuh-uh,” said Sapphire, shaking her head in a blue flurry “That’s ridiculous. Mind control isn’t real. I mean…it just isn’t! Right?”

Whisp shrugged. “Superheroes weren’t real until the Gaia comet hit. Who’s to say there isn’t a Super out there who has the power to control minds?”

“I think we’re jumping to conclusions here,” said Sapphire. “Just because we
think
the ticking sound is louder around Nero and he just
happens
to know Morse code doesn’t mean some Super is mind-controlling Nero to make him assassinate you, Marrow.”

She had a point. The message was real, but we had no solid proof that it was, in fact, Nero.

Unless…

I approached Nero’s bed. Now that I was familiar with the rhythm of the ticking, it was obvious that this Morse code message was ticking on a loop. There was very little conscious effort going into it. But it was a conscious effort nonetheless. I leaned into Nero’s ear.

“Nero…do you need help?” I whispered.

Sapphire rolled her blue eyes. “Oh my gosh, Marrow. Are you kidding me? He’s in a coma. He’s not going to—”

The ticking stopped

“SHHHHHHHHHH!” I said, shushing Sapphire with a fierce pointed finger. Sapphire stared at my fingertip appalled, as if I had just pointed a bazooka at her.

I waited. Whisp leaned in closer, adjusting his glasses as if that would make some profound difference. Sapphire continued to glare at my finger and looked like she might break it.

Tooock tick tooock tooock…tick…tick tick tick…

I bolted up, ripping the pen and paper from Sapphire’s hands. This new ticking pattern didn’t continue on a loop, but I had already slashed the paper in a violent line of dots and dashes. As I stabbed the last dot, I pushed the paper into Whisp’s face.

“What does it say?” I asked.

Whisp’s eyes zipped across the dots and dashes, but he didn’t bother writing it out this time.

“Yes!” he exclaimed. “It says ‘yes’!”

My heart pummeled inside my chest. I leaned into Nero’s ear again.

“What do you need help from?” I asked. “What’s happening to you?”

A series of ticks erupted into my brain faster than ever. I attacked the paper with my pen, struggling to keep up. When I had two lines of dots and dashes, the ticking ceased. I gave the notepad to Whisp. He took one glance at it and took my pen. He scribbled letters down and then lowered it for us to read.

I N S I D E M Y H E A D

Inside my head.

The hair on my arms and neck pricked.

“Who?” I asked into Nero’s ear. “Who’s inside your head?”

Tick—

Then it stopped. Everything stopped. I waited for several long seconds, expecting it to continue at any moment.

Nothing.

Sapphire and Whisp glanced between me and the single dot I had drawn on my notepad.

“What’s going on?” Sapphire whispered.

“E?” said Whisp, reading the single dot on the notepad. “Nero is being mind-controlled by someone named E?”

TOOOCK TOOOCK TOOOCK—!

The ticking erupted with greater force and urgency than I had ever heard before. I scrambled to readjust my pen, copying the dots and dashes which looked more like chicken scratch than anything that was ever meant to be read.

…TICK TOOOCK…TICK TOOOCK TICK TICK…TI—

The ticking stopped abruptly. As if something had smothered it. I hesitated before ending the message with one last dot.

Nero’s eyes and mouth opened wide beside me.

He gasped, but that soon became a croaking sound. Thrusting his back off the bed, his body formed a contorted arch. His heart monitor buzzed with activity.

Nero dropped to the bed, motionless. His heart monitor flatlined.

The police officer ambled into the room but hesitated the moment he entered. A nurse burst in past him, followed by several more people in medical scrubs and white coats. In mere seconds, the room was swarming.

“Oh my gosh oh my gosh oh my gosh,” said Sapphire in wide-eyed panic.

“Get these kids out of here,” a doctor ordered amidst the chaos.

A nurse stepped forward, shepherding us out the door with extended arms. “I’m sorry. You three have to go.”

“Is he okay?” I asked. “Is he alive?”

The door closed in front of us.

I was so stunned that I hardly noticed Whisp as he ripped the pen and paper from my hands. He scribbled hastily while Sapphire observed over his shoulder.

His handwriting slowed. Sapphire’s jaw dropped.

When Whisp finally finished, he dropped the paper. He stared past me as if he might pass out.

“Whisp?” I said, finally snapping out of my own daze. “What’s the—?”

My gaze shifted to the floor for only a second. That was all I needed to see it—a single name that impaled me.

O R A C L E
 

Oracle? The weird old cat lady who smelled like mothballs and boiled cabbage?
She
was controlling Nero?

She
tried to have him kill me?

“This has to be some kind of sick joke,” said Sapphire, shaking her head. “There’s no way.”

I wanted to agree. I really did. I mean, what motive could she possibly have for killing me? But one glaring detail kept me from agreeing.

She was a Telepath. And not just any Telepath.
THE
Telepath. Her power was all about getting inside people’s brains, and she was the best at it. Motivations aside, she was easily the best equipped for the job.

Could she really be so powerful? Could she really go this far?

Whisp took a deep huff from his inhaler as if it might be his last breath. “We need to do something,” he said. “We have to tell our partners.”

Sapphire attempted to nod, but her unsteady attempt more resembled a dashboard bobblehead doll. “Specter’s at the gym right now. It’s only a couple of blocks away.”

“Nova isn’t far either.”                           

The realization didn’t hit me until then.

Flex.

My voice became lodged in my throat. Both Sapphire and Whisp turned my way when I didn’t speak.

“Marrow?” said Sapphire. “Are you okay?” Her gaze penetrated me for a few long seconds before her eyebrows shifted ever so slightly. “Where’s Flex?”

I didn’t reply.

I ran instead.

“Marrow?” asked Whisp.

“MARROW!” Sapphire yelled. I might have been a little terrified by her tone if I wasn’t in such a panic already.

Oracle
wanted
Flex to visit her. But if she was the one behind Nero’s attack, who knew what her true intentions were. Was he in danger? He
was
the laziest, most unmotivated Superhero of all time after all. One detail set him apart however—a detail Oracle had shared with me herself.

His brain was immune to her power.

I ran faster.

Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed a plastic barrel water dispenser vibrate beside me. Then it exploded. The plastic shrapnel missed me, but the water erupted in a very concentrated horizontal stream, blasting me in the side. I barely tapped into my skeletal structure, bracing myself for the impact. I hit the wall and then slumped to the floor, sopping wet.

“W-wh-wha…what the…?” I sputtered.

As I staggered upright, slipping on the wet tile floor, Sapphire stormed up to me.

“Sapphire? Was that y—?”

Sapphire slapped me in the face. If you remember me telling you how much her playful punches hurt, multiply that by eight hundred and fifty-seven, and that’s how much this hurt. It hurt even more than being blasted into the wall with water, but maybe that’s because I had a split second to brace myself. This, however, caught me completely off guard. I opened my mouth to adjust my jaw which felt like it had been knocked out of place.

“Ow!” I said. “What was that for?”

“Don’t you dare run off like that again!” said Sapphire. “What do you think you’re doing, anyway?”

“Flex is in danger!” I protested. “He’s visiting Oracle right now. I need to help him!”

“Are you stupid?” asked Sapphire. “Oracle tried to kill you with Nero! She
wants
you dead!”

“What are you, my mom?” I asked. “Get out of my way!”

“You are NOT going over there!”

“I’m not going to let Flex die!” I snapped. I stepped forward, shoving my way past Sapphire.

Sapphire shoved me even harder back into the wall. And then she slapped me in the face. Again. I blinked in stunned shock. The good news was that the left side of my face felt pretty much numb at this point.

“And I’m not going to let you die!” said Sapphire. “I will not let you be that selfish. There’s nothing heroic about getting yourself killed and hurting the people who care about you. I know you
think
nobody cares about you, but they do.”

A mascara-stained tear trickled down Sapphire’s cheek.

“I do.”

After two slaps in the face, I was surprised when she leaned forward and hugged me, her face in my shoulder. After several seconds of stunned silence, I awkwardly wrapped my arms around her as well. I mean, what else was I supposed to do with them? Stand there and look like a tree?

Whisp shifted uncomfortably where he stood. I attempted to shrug and gave him a look that said, ‘Girls. Go figure.’

He shrugged also and gave me a look that said, ‘This is why I play computer games instead.’

Sapphire finally let go and wiped away at her eyes. “Sorry. I don’t know what came over me.”

“No, it’s…uh…fine,” I said. I raised my fist and coughed into it.

Whisp’s gaze was once again bouncing back and forth between our embarrassing exchange. “So…should we maybe be getting help right about now?”

Sapphire turned from Whisp to me with a quiet, pleading look.

“Yeah,” I said, nodding slowly. “Let’s get help.”

The three of us raced for the elevator. Fortunately, the door opened right as I pushed the button. Burnished wood panel walls surrounded us. The sleek metal doors slid shut and the elevator descended. I stood closest to the doors, ready to bolt out the moment they opened.

“We’ll probably need more than just Nova and Specter,” said Whisp. “If Oracle is half as powerful as I think she is, we’ll need all the help we can get.”

There were a lot of Supers out there to choose from. But I’m pretty sure all three of us were thinking of the exact same person.

We were nearly to the ground level when the elevator lights began to flicker above us. Our smooth descent jerked and shuddered.

The elevator then came to a complete halt.

“You’ve got to be kidding me,” said Sapphire. “This seriously cannot get any worse.”

The lights went out entirely.

“Well this is awesome,” I said. “Remind me to never take the elevator again.”

Neither Sapphire nor Whisp said anything.

“Hello? You guys?”

The lights flickered back on. I released a very audible sigh.

“Oh, thank goodness,” I said, turning around. “For a second I thought—”

Whisp and Sapphire both stood side by side with their eyes rolled back, exposing nothing but the whites.

“Sapphire!” I said, gasping. “Whisp! What happened to your eyes?”

Whisp and Sapphire opened their mouths and spoke simultaneously.

“Hello, Marrow,” said their combined voices. Together, they had a very demonic quality that stripped any sort of humanity out of them. “Your friends aren’t home right now.”