9 Lives

Chapter 25, Mourning

When Luke showed me what was supposed to be his "house," I was shocked. It was a whole castle made of some kind of crystal or glass with a blue hue. It looked like the sapphire necklace Luke had given me. This was new; I couldn't recall it from my past lives. It shone so brightly even in the dark of the night.

"Where'd you get the money for this?" I sputtered.

"Oh, I didn't buy it. Seph created it for me since I'm supposed to be dead and can't go back to Mr. Fox," he shrugged.

My heart ached at the mention of Seph. "Shouldn't we contact the crew and let them know that I'm with you?"

"No. Only Jacob knows that I'm alive, so we'll let him take care of it."

"Jacob was heavily injured. Dougleman used the sword on him. Do I need to explain?"

"Please."

"There's a sword in the underworld that can hurt Jacob's kind. Dougleman somehow got ahold of that sword and used it to torture Jacob and kill Seph."

Luke froze with shock. "Seph's . . . dead?"

I bit my lip to keep myself from crying. "Yes."

Unlike me, Luke couldn't hold in his tears and started bawling. I sighed. He was never great at controlling his emotions. Neither was I because silent tears were streaming down my cheeks thinking of my friend who'd kept me out of harm's way.

"Seph can't be dead!" He sobbed.

"We'll avenge her. We'll find that microchip and destroy it, then we'll kill Dougleman. She didn't deserve to die."

Luke nodded, still sobbing. I wiped his tears with my sleeve until his sobs ceased.

"I know where the microchip is," Luke whispered.

"How?" I questioned.

"You think I stayed here for over a year doing nothing? No. I looked ceaselessly for that microchip. Do you know Nick?"

I shook my head no.

"He's Roland's older brother. Roland tried to kill him long before all of this started. Nick played dead, like me, and stayed hidden from society. I'm assuming you don't know that Roland killed his parents? Nick knew all of Dougleman's plans and tried to stop him, so Dougleman stabbed him 15 times in the gut. Roy managed to get him an ambulance but never told anybody that it was Roland who tried to kill Nick, and Nick didn't say anything either. Nick knew that Roland hid the microchip underwater, in a body of water behind this castle. That's why I asked Septh to build my sanctuary here."

That was a lot to take in. I didn't know that Dougglemna had killed his parents. Anything could come out of that bastard.

"So we can find the microchip?"

"Yes. Have you unlocked your second power yet?"

"What second power?"

Luke sighed. "They left you clueless." At that, I gawked at him with an incredulous look. Hypocrite!

"Well. . . that's partly my fault. Sorry. I didn't know that you had any powers in this life until a few weeks ago. Seph told me that you have yet to unlock your second power, but that it was useless. She said you could breathe underwater. It's less of a second power and more of an extension of your powers, but it's not useless. You can use it to help me find that microchip."

Nothing could surprise me anymore. "Great. Then I'll use this power to my advantage. Tomorrow, I'll find that microchip. Today, I plan on taking a long shower and an even longer nap. Are you not going to show me inside?"