He thought he had died, but the fact he was conscious proved otherwise... Or did it? The darkness that surrounded him was absolute.

Maybe he was dead, after all.

Maybe this was what death was like.

It wasn’t like he had anything to compare with.

But then he felt the pains in his body and he knew for sure he was alive.

He opened his eyes.

The light blinded him, so he shut them again.

“Jack?”

That voice...

“Will?”

“Jack! You scared the heck out of me... What happened to you?”

Oddly enough, his friend’s voice made him feel better and his heart stopped pounding so fast. He took a deep breath... and immediately regretted it. The pain brought tears to his eyes.

“Are you alright?”

“No, Will,” he said more harshly than he had meant, “I’m not alright.”

There was a long silence.

Had Will left?

He tried to open his eyes again.

The light was more bearable this time.

He blinked a few times and looked around.

Clean white walls, a window left slightly ajar to let fresh air in, a hand sanitizer near the door... in the stead of a nightstand, there was a large table with a monitor on it, a box with rubber gloves, and various other medical apparatus.

But that characteristic smell of body odor, alcohol, and disinfectant had given away his location before he’d even seen any of those common hospital items.

Will sat on the right side of the bed, watching him with sad eyes.

“I’m sorry,” Jack managed to say between two gut-twisting coughs. “It’s just—”

“It’s okay. I know you’re sick. Why didn’t you tell us, Jack? Why didn’t you tell me?”

He stared at the ceiling.

“I thought I could beat this...”

“You will.”

Jack half-laughed half-coughed. “No, Will. I won’t. I really won’t. Haven’t they told you? I’m dying. There’s no coming back from this.” His friend looked shocked. He hadn’t known. “Sorry,” muttered Jack. “I shouldn’t have lashed out at you.”

But now it was anger that appeared on his friend’s face.

“Why haven’t you been in the hospital, if you’re so sick? Why run away? Why waste so much time with that wretched mask? You can be such a fool sometimes!”

Jack smiled a bit. “I had a plan. But it didn’t quite work out as I had hoped.”

“A plan?”

“You’re gonna think I’m crazy again, but... The Zendaar wanted the mask, and I wanted the secret to their immortality. I thought they’d agree to trade... It almost worked, too.”

Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on the original website.

Will remained quiet, unsure how to respond.

The door opened and two men in black suits came in. They flashed badges at them.

“Inspectors Gibbs and Horton. We have a few questions for you, Mr. Arnett.”

Jack cringed. “Yeah, sure.”

He should have guessed something like this would happen.

“We know you took the Face of Xian from the cave. Then you disappeared. Care to explain what happened, and where the mask is now?”

As they spoke, Jack contemplated everything he had done... Had it all been in vain? Was he just going to give up? He had been very close. He still was! There had to be some way to reach Rakash.

But he’d never be able to if he got dragged into some heavy interrogation... He needed to buy himself time.

“I was kidnapped,” he improvised. “I managed to escape, but they still have the mask.”

“Who?”

He shrugged. “I don’t know. Whoever it was who took me. Fanatics, of course.”

The two cops looked at each other. Were they buying it? It was difficult to tell.

“The boy never mentioned any of this,” said one of them with a frown.

“He wouldn’t have known. I was delirious when he found me in the street and took me to his place.”

“Alright. We will need a description of anyone you’ve been in contact with. And if you can recall the way you took, maybe we can retrace your steps back to the place where you were held.”

“Of course. I’ll be glad to help in any way I can. But if you don’t mind, I need to rest right now. The pain is killing me...”

The two cops nodded. “We’ll come back later, Mr. Arnett.”

Will stared at him after they’d stepped out.

“You do realize they’ll quickly figure out you lied to them, right? You can’t make up imaginary abductors.”

“It doesn’t matter. I’m getting out of here.”

“What?”

He sat up in his bed. “I need to find Rakash.”

“Who?”

His friend looked confused.

“He’s the only one who can save me. I can’t give up. Not yet. Not when I’m so close...”

He tried to stand but his legs gave out. Will caught him as he fell, and helped him back to the bed.

“You’re not in a state to go anywhere! Come on, buddy, be reasonable...”

“I have to do this, Will! I don’t know how much time I have left... Everything inside me is falling apart.”

“And where are you going to go?”

“I... don’t know.”

“What are you going to do to find this Rakash?”

“I don’t know!” said Jack irritably.

“Well if you must go, then I’m going with you.”

The sick man’s friend grabbed him under the arm and helped him out of the room.

***

He wasn’t sure how he felt about it. It was a fantastical story. Though enough of it was based on known facts to trouble him.

For instance, it was indisputable that the Zendaar lived longer lives. How long exactly was a matter of debate. He had never really looked into it closely himself. But there was definitely something there.

That, however, did not mean they could heal diseases. How Jack could have reached such a conclusion was beyond him.

Then again, Will had never heard of a Zendaar being sick.

Still, there were too many unknowns to make him comfortable.

The only thing he was sure of, though, was that his friend needed him.

Jack tried to protest but Will ignored him, tossed his friend’s arm over his own shoulder, and started toward the door.

“You wouldn’t get far without help. So shut up and let me do this.”

After grabbing some medicine from the table, he opened the door and peered down the hall on both sides. The cops were nowhere in sight, at least. Some people walked by—including nurses and occasional doctors—but no one paid attention to them.

They stepped out of the room and headed toward the elevator, working hard to look like they were not doing anything wrong.

Spotting an empty wheelchair on the way, Will helped his friend sit down, then pushed him into the elevator before anyone could notice.

They got through the lobby and the parking lot without attracting attention.

Though it had stopped raining, the air was fresh and humid. The sky was still dark, and they could hear thunder in the distance.

He helped Jack into the glider, then stepped in himself.

“Alright, let’s do this.” He paused, thinking. “We’ll have to switch vehicles. They’re bound to figure out I helped you. We wouldn’t want them to find us through the glider. So we’ll start with that.”

To make it harder to track them, Will ditched the vehicle far from the destination he had in mind. They would take public transportation to get there. But first, he stopped at a credis to withdraw a large amount of credits. It would make it more difficult for the cops to see what they were doing.

The transit dropped them three blocks away from a used glider shop. There, Will paid cash for a cheap model with a broken AI.

All the while, Jack remained quiet, brooding.

Once they were in the new vehicle, his friend asked: “Why are you doing all this? We’re wasting time!”

“Do you have a plan?” asked Will.

“No,” admitted Jack.

“I do. And that’s why we’re doing all this.”

Jack blinked.

“You have a plan?”

“Haven’t you heard?” smiled Will. “The Zendaar use human servants.”

Jack frowned. “What does that have to do with anything?”

“You want to find Rakash? Well, all we have to do is become his servants.”

It started to rain again as their glider took off.