Black Heart Inertia - 3. Chapter 3: Missing

Mr. Dervings stared hard at Mr. Xion as he walked out the basement wiping his hands on a wet towel “You lied to us!”

“Oh, I did?” Mr. Xion said with an eyebrow raised. “I told you when I gave him back that he would be different and you said you could handle it.”

Mr. Dervings shook his head, “But not like this! He can’t just keep eating like that! They’re so close together! Someone’s going to figure it out.”

“I told you he would need to feed.” He picked up his list, scanning the names. “If you get enough magic he’ll be able to stop for the time being.”

“How long? Who?” They asked in unison.

“Well, for quite a long time actually, the boy has a lot within him, such a shame, I thought I would be able to use him again, oh well.” He circled the name, “Chance Shatterheart.”

Mr. Dervings shook his head. “What? No, not after the accident. I helped his father looked for him, they’ll look all over the world for that boy!”

He shrugged, “It’s up to you whether you feed him to your son or not.” With that, he left. He was a busy man reuniting families with their loved ones after all.

* * *

Nico slammed the newspaper on the lunch table as he sat down. “There’s another kid gone missing.”

“Who now?” Sebastian asked. He never left after Nico joined and he even brought his friends along.

Nico shrugged, “Some girl this time, a Noel Williams.”

“The witch girl?” Sam asked.

Most people knew the Williams’ as the creepy “Wicca” family of our town, every town has one. But we all knew of Noel because she would cast love spells on the hot boys and hexes on the girls. Actually, she had a whole little clique of witch girls with the whole emo look. They would walk around spilling pig’s blood on the floor, drawing pentagrams, and trying incantations that did nothing for them but that didn’t stop them from trying. Now, she was the fifth to go missing.

I looked over to their usual spot to find it empty.

“Chance.” Someone called me. I turned to see the witch clique standing at our table handing out pamphlets.

“What’s going on?”

The one with the crescent moon tattooed on her forehead answered, “We’re having a search party for Noel tomorrow.”

“Oh, when?”

“After school since we couldn’t get them to cancel school, we’re heading over to our spot near the woods.” She said. “It’s been raining lately and they found her car wrecked over there.”

“Yeah, we’ll be there.” I said and everyone nodded.

“Thanks.” And they left to talk to another table.

We were all silent for a moment. No one, outside of their clique, particularly liked Noel with the witch stuff but she wasn’t like that at the beginning from what Sam told me. She was once a nice little girl. Easy to befriend and things like that until she reached High School. She never fell into the norm and attached to the first thing to say ‘hey.’ It was a common story for people like her.

“So how many people are missing now?” Ty asked.

“The college student, Noel, that homeless man, and I think two other people. So, five people.” Nico said.

Nico had become our resident ‘ears’ of the town gossip because the school newspaper was the town’s newspaper. He wasn’t the dumb hot bad boy that we all thought he would be and he was trying really hard to take my seat for the violin.

“Who are you looking for?” Sebastian asked me. I ignored him. “Chance, what are you looking for?”He sighed and looked to Sam.

“Chance, what’s wrong?”

“Where’s Chloe?” She didn’t reply. “You know, Clark’s girlfriend.”

“Oh, um, she doesn’t go to school.”

“What do you mean she doesn’t go to school? Is she in college?”

Sam rolled her eyes at me, “No, I mean she dropped out last year.”

Shit. “Do any of you know where she is now?”

Nico smirked, “Why the sudden interest?”

I shrugged my shoulders, trying to come up with something. “Well, since no one did an article on Clark’s life, I was thinking I could write a piece, I mean since he was a classmate and everything.” I smiled internally at my cunningness. “And Chloe would be great to get an interview for his social life along with some of friends and his parents.”

Nico nodded, “Okay, but since you’re not on the paper I’ll sponsor you and track down Chloe.”

“Thanks.” I said and he winked back.

We were all surprised at the turn out for the search party. There were more people than we expected but I guess that’s what happens with small towns. We care for each other even if we don’t like it but some people are probably here for enlightened self-interest. You know people who help other people because it’ll make them seem deeper but they’re still helping.

We walked up to table to be separated into two main groups to search the nearby forest. Noel’s car had been found in a ditch a few miles away with a crater on the passenger side door and the windshield had been…”ripped off” by someone but she hasn’t appeared in any of the hospitals. If we were dealing with a serial killer then we might find the other people gone missing in the forest since no one really goes there unless it’s for something illegal or immoral.

Noel’s friends wore normal clothes and the emo make-up was gone leaving only pretty girls. Their heads hung low as they gave instructions, flashlights for when it got darker and the number to call it anyone found something or was in trouble. With that, we were separated. Sam got Nico, Sebastian and Blake, and I got a witch. She was slightly shorter than I with thick glossy pastel red hair was. She wore jeans and our school sweatshirt. We both said hello at the same time.

“Hi,” her voice was like that of a mouse, “Chance, It’s been a long time.” I tilted my head slightly trying to remember but nothing came to me. She smacked herself lightly on the forehead, scaring me a bit. “I’m sorry, I forgot you don’t remember. I’m Alice.”

I shook her hand, “Nice to meet you, I guess.”

We were silent for a moment until people started to move around us. “We’re going to look over the southwestern edge of the forest.”

I nodded, “Ok.” We began to walk.

“So, how have you been since the accident?” She said, brushing her hair out of her face.

I shrugged my shoulders, “Good, I guess. How have you been?” I felt funny asking a question like that since I didn’t have anything to go on.

She nodded absentmindedly, “I’ve been good.”

This was getting awkward. “Why was Noel out here? Isn’t her house on the other side of town?”

She sighed, looking at the ground. “She said she was going to the Dervings’ house.”

“Why?”

She looked around like someone was watching her and in a hush tone she said, “She thought she could give them closure if they had séance.” I looked at her incredulously. “I know. We all told her that it was a horrible idea but we couldn’t sway her from going.” She sniffed a little.

I gripped her shoulder lightly, “It’s not your fault.” Then I added. “Or hers for getting kidnapped.”

She wiped her face a bit and we started moving again. “You know why it’s ironic?”

“What?”

“She probably would’ve pulled it off. She was something special.”

“What do you mean?”

She smiled a bit, “She could light a candle from about four feet away and blow them all out at once just by clapping her hands.”

“So she was really a witch?” I asked, stunned at the thought.

* * *

“Can I ask you a question?” Blake asked. They didn’t see anything except some squirrels scurrying away from them as their feet crunched the leaves and sticks. It had been a few hours since they started to search for Noel but they probably weren’t going to find anything anyway.

Sebastian looked up, “Shoot.”

“What’s with you and Chance?”

Sebastian sighed. He knew sooner or later that the question would come up.

He sighed and ran a hand through his puffy blonde hair. “A little while back, Chance and I used to date.”

“That explains a lot. What happened?”

Sebastian nodded at a rock, “Let’s go sit down first. I’ll have to start from the beginning.”

“About 3 or 4 years ago Chance had an accident and he lost his memory. I mean not just people, but every single memory to point where he had to relearn how to talk and walk. When he finally got back to our group he was different.” He said, thinking of the day he saw his best friend for the first time. “Sam was the only allowed to visit him so he didn’t know the rest of us. I found him; hiding in the janitor’s closet crying because he couldn’t find Sam and no one would help him. I held him close to me and promised that I wouldn’t let anyone hurt him. And I didn’t until a few months ago.”

* * *

Nico sat on the tree limb, watching Chance talk to the red headed girl. The kid was finally starting to get the pieces he needed. All Nico had to do was get Chloe to set him on the right path. Nico jumped when he felt the vibration come from his pocket. He cursed at himself when he saw it was Nathan.

“Yes sir?”

The person was curt. “How is he progressing?”

Nico looked down again, “He’s getting closer to finding the first replica.”

The man smiled. “So you have given Xion the tools to make one, good.”

“Is there anything else, sir?”

“Yes, we have reports the Acolytes have an agent stashed there too.”

Nico almost fell off the tree when he heard it. “Dammit, the father must have alerted them. Do you know who?”

“No, we only know that there is an Acolyte agent and an unknown third party.”

Nico whined, “This makes everything much harder.”

“Yes, it does. Be careful and if you find the agent or the other kill them both.”

“Yes, sir.”

“Goodbye.”

Nico wanted to scream for saying yes to this mission. The Acolytes were the biggest threat against the Court. They had gone sleeper cell when they rescued Chance from the Ensis, the Court’s headquarters, but now, it was clear. They were hiding everything to hide Chance and now they were already there protecting the boy. How was he supposed to figure out who the Acolyte and the third person were?

He just cursed his luck and fell backwards off the tree, landing squarely on the balls of his feet barely making any noise when he landed. He took one last look at Chance and began walking back to Sam before they had a search party for him too.

“Nico! Dammit, where did you go?!” Sam gritted through her teeth.

Nico smiled, creeping up behind her. “Boo!”

“Ah!” Sam swung the flashlight blindly, hitting Nico square on the head. “Oh, it’s just you. Don’t! Ever! Do! That! Again! Or I’ll my foot so far up your ass you’ll be eating Jimmy Cho for a month.”

Nico stood up, rubbing the angry bruise on his forehead. “You didn’t have to hit me so hard.”

She rolled her eyes and snorted, “Where were you anyway?”

“I had to piss, goddamn you hit hard.”

“Come on, it’s time to go.” She said, seeing the lights of a truck flashing for everyone to come back. “Hopefully, someone found her or something.”

* * *
It was bust. No one found Noel or anything for her. I saw her parents as Sam and I were leaving. Her mom was crying into her husband’s chest as he said thank you to everyone. I started to think how people could just kidnap someone without having a guilty thought but I guess that’s why they’re called sociopaths.

Right before I went to bed my phone rang. I didn’t recognize the number but I answered anyway. “Hello?”

“Hi, Chance.”

“Who is this?”

“Aw,” I knew who it was when he whined. “You forgot about me, how could you?”

“Shut up, Nico.”

He laughed lightly. He had a great laugh. “What are you doing?”

“About to go to bed.”

“I wish I was there to tuck you in….or out.”

I just smiled and rolled my eyes. “Is there something you wanted?”

“You.” He said confidently. “Oh you mean besides that. Yeah, I found Chloe. She works at Café World. She works from 12 to 4 on Saturdays.”

Good, after what Alice told me about Noel, hopefully Chloe could help me connect Noel to Clark. “Thanks, Nico, I owe you big time.”

I could hear him smile like a Cheshire cat. “Good, I’ll ask my favor later though. Goodnight, Rey.”

I scowled at the phone, “Who told you my middle name?”

“Night.” He made a kissing noise and hung up.

I fell back in the bed and just smiled. I think I’m going to dreaming about him tonight.

Before I left my house, I asked Sam to find out more about the other kids that had gone missing to see if they had anything in common with Noel and she said she would if I would tell why I was interested in finding out. I told her everything and she just nodded and hopped on her laptop and I went to talk to Chloe.

Chloe looked much better than she did at the funeral but most people do looked better when they’re not at a funeral. She wasn’t ghastly pale anymore and her hair wasn’t all over and her mascara wasn’t running. She looked healthy now, but I could still see the pain in her lovely eyes but she seemed to be trying to move on somehow. I just hope I wouldn’t destroy her peace of mind.

Chloe saw me from a distance and waved. “Hi, I didn’t know you come here.”

“Yeah, but it’s usually the drive thru.”

She pulled out her pad, “So what would you like?”

“Uh, a blueberry muffin and coffee.”

“Ok, I’ll be-.” I interrupted her.

“I was hoping I could talk to you.” She made a confused face. “About Clark. Since no one at the paper ever wrote an article about his life. I was wondering if you could help me.”

She smiled brightly and hugged me, “I think that’s the best idea ever. Yeah, I would love to help.” She looked at her watch then at me. “I get off in twenty minutes. Can you wait?”

“Yeah.”

* * *

“I’m not doing it anymore!” Mr. Dervings shouted at his wife as he grabbed his shotgun from his closet.

She was in tears, pulling against her husband, “Please, no, Martin don’t. We just got him back!” She cried. “You can’t kill him!”

Martin shoved her off, hard. “He’s killing kids, Kyra, he’s killing other people’s children and you’re fine with that?! You’re fine with making people go through what we went through.”

He stormed downstairs, bolting for the basement door where the son was finishing his meal. He walked down quietly, keeping his eyes locked on the figure against the farthest wall of the basement. He saw his son, no, that thing in its true form. It wasn’t his son, just a demon with a mask that was his son.

He pumped the barrel and aimed as the beast turned to face him. It still had chunks of raw flesh in his mouth. “Father, what are you doing?” He asked in Clark’s voice.

Martin steeled himself, “I’m not your father, you bastard.” He took aim again, his hand on the trigger.

Before he could pull the trigger he felt something smash into the side of his head and he doubled over. Kyra stood behind her unconscious husband, quivering uncontrollably; she wouldn’t let anyone take her baby away from her. She looked over to her son, smiling at him and he smiled back.

He crawled over to his father, holding his head gently before twisting it with a sickening crack. He rolled the body over and started feasting. Even though it wouldn’t fill him like he wanted, he still loved the taste of fresh blood.

Kyra walked over to him, petting his head as he feasted. “Don’t worry my baby; Mommy will get you what you need.” With that, she kissed him on the head and walked upstairs. “Now, how do I get Chance here?”

* * *

Sam jumped for joy when she finished linking everyone together. “You sure are happy.”

She clutched at her heart, “You could’ve given me a heart attack.”

Blake smiled from across the room. “So what are you doing?”

She hit the sleep button, “Nothing, just some research for Chance.”

“What research? You have a project?”

She shook her head, “No, you know he, uh…wanted to write that article on Clark and I just got some info for him.” He knew she was lying.

“Oh yeah.” He said, remembering what Chance said. “Do you know where Chance is?”

“Oh, he’s interviewing Chloe.”

“Hm.” He mumbled. He needed to keep an eye on Chance.

The colonel found out someone from the Court was here and another person entirely. Nico would be most likely to be with the Court. Not because he was a jackass, his timing with Chance’s Mind Rapier was just too perfect. He would have to check him. He was snapped out of his thoughts by Sam.

“Hello.” She said in an aggravated tone. “Hey!” She punched him.

Blake shook himself, thinking how a tiny girl could punch so hard. “Ow. Sorry, I was thinking.”

“About?”

He raised the sleeve of his shirt to see the little red mark. “That’s going to bruise. Anyway, I wanted to know if you and Chance wanted to go to the movies or something.”

“Cool.” Crap, she thought to herself. “I just need to call Chance and change. My mom should have something cooked that you can snack on while you wait.” He nodded and headed downstairs.

She raced back to her laptop, and sent the info to Chance’s email. She started to wonder if he would mind if she just went with Blake to the movies by herself. But she shouldn’t feel bad. Chance and Nico had been flirting pretty heavily and he admitted himself that he couldn’t figure out if Blake was gay or not. Maybe she should tell him anyway.

She hit speed dial, “Hi Chance.”

She heard him tell someone to hold on. “Hey, Sammy, you got anything?”

“Yeah, I sent most of it to your email but I’ll give you the good parts.” She pulled up the info. “It seems that the only thing they have in common is ‘Wicca’.”

“All of them?”

“Yep. I talked to a few of their friend on Facebook and they say all of the kids that went missing actually have powers.”

Chance was silent for a minute. “Like Noel?”

“No, some could levitate or use hexes, stuff like that. But get this; they all were going over to have a séance for the Dervings.”

Her conscience started to annoy her about Blake and movies. ‘Come on, he’s your friend, he won’t get mad.’

‘Yes, he will. You know how Chance is.’

‘But he has Nico.’

“Sam, are you there?”

“Yeah, yeah, sorry I was talking to Blake.” ‘Dammit!’

“Oh, about what?”

She sighed internally, “Um, he wanted to go to the movies.”

“That’s great, what ti-.”

She cut him off. “With Me.” As soon as the words left her mouth she felt bad.

“Oh, that’s great!”

“So you’re not mad?”

He laughed a little. “No, why would I be? I mean, it’s not like he’s my boyfriend or anything. He’s not even interested in me like that. So, go for it!”

“Thanks. So what are you going to do?”

“Well, after this I’m going over by the Dervings to see if I can find something.”

She shook her head, “What?! No! That’s stupid, they could be the killers. You could get hurt!”

He sighed, “Sam, you’re overreacting again. I can protect myself now; I’m not like I was a year ago.”

She bit back her rebuttal, “I know I just worry about you.”

“I’ll be fine. But if it worry’s you that much, if I’m not at home by 6 and I don’t call you, call my dad.” She sighed in relief.

“I can do that.”

“Alright, well, I have an interview to finish. Good Luck!” He shouted.

“Thanks. Bye.”

* * *

“Sorry, Sam was telling me that she got a date.” I apologized to Chloe, who had been waiting patiently.

She waved off my apology, “That’s fine.”

I looked down at my pad, “Um, I only have a few more questions for you but if you don’t want to answer them you don’t have to.” She nodded. “Ok, um, I heard from some people that you said that Clark didn’t want to be cremated.”

She sniffed a bit and her eyes became wet with tears. “I know Clark. He wouldn’t want to be cremated. He said he thought of it as defiling the body.” I never heard someone say cremating was “defiling the body” before.

“So why do you think they cremated him? Were they low on money?” Someone people did that to save money.

She blew her nose, “Excuse me. But no, they were doing fine. To tell you the truth I don’t think he’s dead.” She got my look. “Yeah, I don’t know why they would lie about something like that but I don’t know. “

“So what do you know?”

She looked around and leaned in closer. “Two days after the funeral, I went over there to pick up some of my stuff and to get a memento of Clark.” She pulled out a beanie. “I got him this for his birthday last year.” She put on the brown beanie, tucking her hair in it. “Sometimes I hold it just to remember what he smelled like,” She thought for a moment. “That’s a little weird isn’t?”

“No, it isn’t. People have mementoes of everyone. See.” I said pulling the silver chain out of my shirt. At the end was a black heart made out onyx with a smaller sapphire heart within it. “This is a memento of my mother.”

“What is it?” She pulled it closer to see. “A blue heart inside of a black heart.”

I smiled, “Yeah, my dad said she got it after she gave birth to me and she said, “Our hearts are always connected to the ones we love and when we lose the one we love, their heart will be in ours.” I fingered the heart lightly then put it back in my shirt.

“It’s gorgeous.” She said

“Thank you.” I hadn’t thought about my mother in a long time. I could barely remember the home movies that held her image. “But back to why you don’t think he’s dead.”

“Oh, right. I was in his room, carrying my stuff out when I passed the window.” She paused for a moment, her eyes staring at the table but showing her something different. “I looked down and saw him staring right back at me. I screamed and ran outside to see him but he wasn’t there. But I know he was there.”

I reached across the table to hold her hand. “I believe you.” She smiled and wiped her tears.

* * *

Kyra opened the door, her plan ready to capture Chance for her son. But God must’ve been hearing her prays as she saw the same black Audi that Chance’s father put him in at the funeral. He parked and got out of the car.

He saw her dressed and said, “Oh, I’m sorry. I didn’t know you were leaving.”

She stared at him for a moment, thinking of what she was about to do to him. Everyone knew the accident that caused Chance to lose his memories and his mother at Balmier Lake. He was ice skating on the thin ice and a fell through. His mother went in after him and managed to pull him out and put him in his father arms but the ice broke again, swallowing her whole until the paramedics fished her body out several hours later.

Chance came back but she heard his father say at the funeral how different he was. She saw now that his hair seemed whiter and straighter than before. He was more attentive than assertive. His glacier eyes were brighter than before. Could she really take away a friend’s child after they had been through so much?

‘You have to! Your child is the one who’s sick and hungry and after this you two can leave and have a nice normal life like a mother and child should.’ She smiled warmly at Chance. “It’s fine, really. Come in.” They came in and she motioned him to take a seat while she went to go get something to drink. “So what brings you here?”

He looked around, seeing everything was normal. “Well, after the funeral, I realized that the school newspaper never did an article on the life of Clark. So I thought that maybe I could if you would let me.”

“I think that’s a very splendid idea. I would be happy if you did that for Clark.”

He smiled brightly, showing his white teeth. “I’m glad I could help.” He pulled out his notepad and a pen. “I was wondering if Mr. Dervings was here too so I can interview both of you.”

She hesitated at the mention of her husband. “Oh, no, dear, he left a little while ago to the store.”

“Oh, um, would you like me to come another time?”

“No!” She said a bit too loud. “I mean, since you’re already here, you can start with me.”

“Okay.” He looked back down at his pad. “I have a few questions about his childhood.”

“Yes?” She gripped the rolling pin since she had nothing else. Walking slowly towards him as his back was turned. She tried to control her breathing and silence her steps.

“When Clark was a child what were his first words?” Chance waited for a reply but she said nothing. He turned the second before the rolling pin collided with the side of his head.

“His words were “Mommy”.” She said, staring at the boy. He was still alive but he was out cold. “Come on, we’ve got to get you downstairs.” She started pulling his limb body.

* * *

Nico stared through the window quietly as Mrs. Dervings pulled Chance into the basement. Nico held the talk button on his headset and reported. “Sir, the wife just incapacitated Chance.”

“No! Whatever you do, do not let him die. Not until he unleashes the heart.” He snorted.

“Yes, sir.”

* * *

Sam had a great time. She and Blake went to go see Avatar. They walked out of the movie theater hand in hand. In the movie Blake moved the armrest and pulled her closer, her head resting on his chest. She felt comfortable with him. He had a good sense of humor and she liked his strangely colored eyes but nothing was final.

Before she could say anything Blake’s phone rang. “I have to take this.” He said, seeing the colonel’s number and walked a bit away.

She nodded, “Oh, I need to check my phone.” She hit the wake up button for her phone to wake up. She had no missed calls or messages and it was 7:28. “No.”

A few feet away Blake couldn’t hear Sam curse. “Yes, colonel?”

“Nothing, I just seeing if you have been keeping tabs on Chance.”

Blake’s stomach went sour when she said that. He completely forgot about Chance, his mission. “No ma’am, I haven’t checked in on him yet.”

The colonel sighed. “It’s fine. When was the last time you checked him?”

He looked at his watch, “Yesterday.” He pulled the phone away before he became deaf.

“What?! Is this your first mission, agent?” How could he not check in? “He is the reason you’re here! And you forget about him! Why?!”

He swallowed hard, “I went out.”

“You went out?” She said in a relaxed tone. “Oh, you went out so it’s perfectly fine to abandon your mission because you went out!” She tried to calm herself but she couldn’t. “You find out where he is now! And we’ll resume this conversation afterwards. IS THAT CLEAR, cadet?” She growled.

“Yes, ma’am.” She hung up before he could finish. He punished himself for forgetting about Chance. He shook it off and dialed Chance but it went to voicemail.

“Blake!” He twisted around to face Sam. Her eyes bloodshot with tears and her lip quivered.

“What’s wrong?”

She calmed herself to stop hyperventilating. “It’s Chance. I can’t find him!”

His eyes grew wide and he grabbed her shoulders. “What do you mean?”

“Chance said he was going over to the Dervings and if he wasn’t home by 6 and didn’t call that I was to call his dad! I called him but Chance isn’t there! I called Derrick, Jeremy, Sebastian, Claire, Cody, Steven, he’s gone!” She started to cried.

‘You let him go there without any help because you wanted to be a selfish bitch.’

‘No, no, I….I…I just-‘

‘You bitch; you did this to your best friend for what? Blake, I’m glad you did it.’

“Hey, Sam, come on.” Blake said, shaking her gently. “We’ll find him. Just hold on.” He stepped away again and pressed call.

A growl came across the line. “I thought I told you that you were to report back when you got here.”

Blake’s guts twisted as he breathed out, “Colonel, Chance is missing.”

* * *

I tried to shift my body to a different position but I couldn’t. My whole body hurt and my head was trying to implode. I tried to move my arms but I couldn’t. My eyes fluttered open, adjusting to the dim light in the room. The smell hit me right on. The damp, heavy, metallic smell of blood polluted the air around me hard. I looked around to see my arms were taped to the cold steel chair that I was sitting on. I was in a basement, but why?

My brain started to move the fog away as it replayed Mrs. Dervings cracking me in the head with a rolling pin. I should’ve listened to Sam. I looked around to see if I could get to anything to get free but I couldn’t find anything. The whole basement was bare excepted for the blood and the decomposing body parts lying scattered on the floor. I couldn’t scream either, not with the duck tape wrapped around my head. If I learned one thing, Mrs. Dervings is not a stupid serial killer.