Collin doesn’t get back up. His entire body twitches once and then falls still. His face is pressed into the dirt, mud smeared onto his cheek. Why doesn’t he get up? I am frozen, watching Collin’s body with a blank mind. Noah on the other hand springs into action. He drops down beside Collin, throws the flaps of his sweater to the side and rips open his shirt. Collin’s blue vein is bare. It runs diagonal from near his belly button to underneath his arm. Noah touches each finger to his thumb, a small spark issuing each time. He presses his hand on Collin’s chest. Another spark issues and Collin’s entire body twitches. Noah shakes his hand out and then presses each finger to his thumb again. When he touches Collin’s chest this time, Collin jolts awake. He gasps for air as emerging from underwater.

“Collin?” Noah asks, his voice edged with panic. “Are you alright?”

Collin doesn’t answer. He looks confused. He glances around the room as if unsure of what has happened. His eyes are half closed and fluttering. He pants, struggling to catch his breath.

“Someone get him some water,” Noah shouts. Several kids run for the water supply, a makeshift well dug in the cavern. Sarsa is the first to make it back. She hands a cup of water to Collin who guzzles it down.

“I’m okay,” he manages to say. His voice is raspy but his face is beginning to gain some color back.

“I’m so, so sorry,” Noah says earnestly. “I didn’t mean to. I just got so-”

“I know. I really know.” He taps two fingers to his head. “You have to know I can’t control it sometimes. I can’t stay out if the feeling is so strong.”

“I’m just so sorry,” Noah mutters.

I watch all of this with an open mouth. My mind is so filled with questions I don’t know how to even begin to articulate them. The most important slowly pushes its way forward. “What the gods just happened!” I’m not even aware that I said it aloud until the entire Haunt turns to face me.

“Oh,” Noah says, still knelt on the muddy floor. “You shouldn’t have…we were just….” He trails off, apparently unsure of what they were just doing.

My mouth opens and closes several times before I’m able to put words to my next question. “How did you do that…that…thing!” I shake my hand around in a horrible imitation of what just happened.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Noah says lamely. He looks around at the rest of the kids. “Do you guys know what he’s talking about?” Several kids shake their heads.

“Stop it,” I snap. “What was that!”

“I can see I’m breaking up a party.” Layla appears by my side. “Are you alright, Collin?”

“I’ll be fine,” Collin says, still looking at me. “But I think that maybe Javin’s-”

“Layla!” I shout, almost beyond words. “Explain!”

“We tried to tell him that he was just imagining it,” Noah says to Layla as if I’m not even here, “but he wouldn’t believe us.” He glances at me and smiles sheepishly.

“It’s alright. It’s time. Come on, kid,” Layla says. “It’s your lucky day.” She walks through the crowd of people. I follow behind her, glaring at the kids as I pass them. We leave through the back alley. Layla grabs a torch from the wall and, after a few minutes of walking, enters an empty cavern.

I round on Layla as soon as we stop. “No more lies!” I shout. “You need to tell me everything or I’m done! You’ve wasted my time for too long. I need actual answers. What happened in there?”

“Alright.” She takes a deep breath and looks me squarely in the eyes. “Have you ever heard of the myths of creation?”

“What does that have to do with any-”

If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.

“Have you?” Layla snaps.

“Yes. Of course.”

“Well it’s not of course,” Layla says. “Most people don’t know them at all or they only know bits. Either way whatever version you know isn’t the original. It’s some gutted down edited version. The original version speaks very specifically to the principles of the water. Do you know that the original text doesn’t even mention the word gods? Or almighty powers? No. The text says the humans evolved. It reads that six people from Kostos discovered the pool and when they baptized themselves in the water, their genetic makeup changed. It was a…..reaction.”

“Why don’t I know this?” I ask, my ever present thirst for knowledge taking over for a moment.

“Because it doesn’t make for a good story. That’s what myths became. Stories. The first text is different. It wasn’t written to explain things like thunder and rain to a simpler people. It’s scientific. Exact. So exact that some people have devoted their lives to studying it.”

“I know. I’ve read there are tribes in the west that still worship the gods.”

“That’s not what I’m talking about,” Layla says. “This has nothing to do with the gods. It has to do with that original text and with a very powerful man that is obsessed with them. Beyond that. The idea of the godspool has consumed him.”

“I don’t understand. What does any of this have to do with Evan? With us?”

“It has everything to do with us. This obsessed man? He is at the center of all the mysteries, the train, the keep and the Haunt.”

“Who is it?” I ask. The flame of Layla’s torch flickers in the ever present wind that passes through the Haunt. It brings with it the scent of pine needles. Although that may be Layla.

Layla tips her head to the side. “I’m not sure you’ll believe me.”

“I will.”

“Just keep an open mind.”

“I will,” I say impatiently.

“It’s going to sound crazy. You’re going to laugh.”

“Just tell me! Who is this obsessed man?”

“The Kai.”

She’s right. I want to laugh. “That’s insane.”

Layla shrugs. “I know.”

“You’re telling me that the most powerful man in all of Kostos, the great Kai, believes in the godspool? That he is somehow involved with the kidnappings? With all the strange things I’ve seen down here?”

“Pretty much,” Layla says.

“You’re crazy.”

“Yes.”

“Really, really crazy.”

“Sure,” Layla says. “But so is everyone else.”

We are silent for a moment. She watches me as I try to digest this information. I’m not able to at this moment. It’s too much.

“Are you okay?” Layla asks after a couple minutes of silence.

“Keep going.”

Layla’s usual smile is gone. In its place her mouth has formed a hard line. “The original text says that after the baptism, those men and women that were bathed in the godspool became heightened versions of their former selves. It was as if they had evolved into a more powerful species of people. They lived longer. They were stronger. Faster. Smarter. It even hints at abilities we would probably call supernatural. That whatever individual traits the men and women already had where heightened in epic proportions. The Kai would do anything to obtain such powers. It is not well known amongst the people, but there have been dozens of attempts on the Kai’s life. Powerful people that want more power. If he discovered the secrets of the pool, who would dare to challenge him then?

“Originally he tried to reach the actual pool which is said to be hidden in the impassable mountains. For years he sent men to climb the mountains. When that failed he sent machines to dig through them and then to tunnel under them. Nothing worked. The machines broke. Cave-ins happened daily. Men that were sent to climb never returned or their frozen bodies fell down to the base of the mountain weeks after they’d set out. When the Kai realized he couldn’t reach the pool, he turned to other means.”

“How do you know all of this?”

“We’ll get to that.” Layla shifts the torch to her left hand, throwing shadows over her face. I can only see her lips, moving quickly with her words. “As I said before, the original text is very specific about the pool. It explains several of the properties of the water, how such a reaction could occur and the catalytic effects. No matter what I have to say about the Kai, he’s a genius in his own right. He was so consumed by his desire for this power that he decided to recreate the water.”

I want to interrupt. To demand that she get to the point. To tell me how this is all connected with the Haunt. With me. With Evan. But I don’t. I think perhaps I already know. That the pieces are all there and yet I simply refuse to push them together.