Chapter 404: 1-2

Was she worried that the Elders had figured out that Marx was taken to me? That Gabriel and I were alive? There were too many possibilities as to why she was frowning. "What?" I finally just asked point blank. She sighed, her frown deepening, "two things, the first is your worry about Marx and Camilla. You healed her vision using your blood and while the Elders were aware of such thing occurring, I'm sure they are besides themselves wondering why they couldn't read Marx and her thoughts..." I'm sure I made some choking sound in shock, "Have you forgotten that you created an alliance with Marx? When you did this, his thoughts were protected." My eyes widened and there was a blanket of relief that I felt in hearing that. It made more sense to me now because I was wondering how he thought for a moment that he was about to pull out a phone, send a text and wait for Logan to respond without once alerting the Elders? Our alliance protected his thoughts. In the middle of my mini celebration - of utter relief - I remembered Mother said that there were two things and she had only mentioned one. "What's the second thing?" her grim smile morphs into an obvious frown, "When you left the Hotel you left behind your blood." I nodded. We hadn't taken much with us, not wanting to make it appear that we had no plans to return. "I believe there is a boy here that you need to speak with," her tone was soft, her eyes pained, unable to read her thoughts my own gut turned uncomfortably, my legs shake and feel weak. "Follow me," she whispered and we begin walking, the white surrounding us never changes and though we move, I find it hard to find a way to measure the distance. There's no way to mark how far we go, but eventually in the distance a shape forms and the boy from the video Gabriel showed me his features are on that boy. The closer we get, the more my dread grows. It is that boy. I see the fear as we approach, "I - I - I'm not going home?" his lip wobbles, "Am I?" in a voice so small. Mother shakes her head, his face is torn, literally battered, and his clothes are saturated, red. His clothes ragged. A cold sweat takes over my whole body, as I try to factor down how he ended up in this state, but shying away from such horrid thoughts all at once. I had an idea how he got this way, I had seen the video, but as I looked at him, I knew that my upset stomach wasn't the main focus, how I felt was not the reason Mother brought me to this boy. Bracing myself I entered his mind, and I was surprised to note that he doesn't seem to see the same white walls that I see, in fact there are no walls. There's a bright blue, red and green iron colored playground, swings, and wooden picnic table near by has food laid out, his Hereafter was truly calming to him. "You were with a man Matthew?" I used the name I knew Remy had found when we went searching for him. I waited for him to think of what happened, using his thoughts to gather images. "My family they let him take me, we - we went to a hotel, the man he said to call him Miguel, but when we were leaving the car before we entered he said to call him dad. He said that - that if I didn't go along or tell anyone that he took me, that people back home would hurt my family. The man - he said that I just had to pretend. When we went to the room he gave me a drink, it was sugary." Matthew rubbed his head smearing more blood along the side of his face, but again to him, that wasn't the case. He looked down, and instead of the muddy, bottoms, he saw clean blue jeans. I blinked repeated trying to prevent the tears from gathering, knowing that this wasn't about me. "After I drank it I felt sick and we went to another room, a doctor saw me and gave me something. When the doctor left the man, Miguel he put red bags in his suit, stuffed them inside his jacket," he patted his own chest. I gasped, my eyes widened when his words along with proof from the images in his mind, this man - Miguel Randall that was once Breton Rylarde - he had my blood, which meant the Elders had my blood. They had my blood. "Are you okay?" the boy asks me, his face filled with concern over my reaction. I nod at him, but that's a life. I'm just taken aback... his response to my own shocks me. I'm moved and both uneasy, but the latter feeling in my belly fades. A nice boy like this is taken but monsters like the Elders are roaming freely? Swallowing, I focus, "What happened next?" I bring attention back to where it is needed. "We went up to the room and then he put the red bags in a suitcase, he said that we were going back home..." his lip wobbled and eyes were filled to the brim. Kicking the grass, that only he saw, he looked away for a minute, "I don't remember anything after leaving... I woke up here..." he waved his arms around. There's so much helplessness in his facial expression and gestures and Mother reaches out to Matthew, holding him whispering soothing words to ease his pain and fears. With his thoughts and images in my head, having what I needed and more, I returned to Gabriel's office. Jack, Greta, Zeke, Nonno and Nona are all still in the room waiting. I instantly pushed all I learned to all six in the room, keeping the conversation about my blood silent however. "They killed him?" Gabriel growled. "His family gave him away?" Greta said her eyes wide, filled with pain, "that poor boy." Gabriel comes pulling me to him, inhaling deeply when his nose is right at my neck. I turn my head to kiss him right over his collarbone. When I finally pull away the slight distance clears the fog his touch brings me and I go to what Philip told us. The Elders had something on this boy's family, whatever it was they handed their child over to monsters. "We're going to head off to bed," Greta announced when neither Gabriel nor I said anything for a while, Nonno and Nona following their lead.