Caloric

Once again, the world around Phoenyx changed. The sand on which she sat melted away and hardened into dark brown wood panels, radiating out to their limits where they met perpendicular stained papered walls that grew up a few meters. A wood paneled ceiling that, as it materialized closed, stole away the blue of the sky and the warmth of the sun.

They now sat in a cold, dank rectangular room that stank of mildew and body odor. All evidence of the beach they were at was gone; the happy voices snuffed out and replaced by the sound of thunder beyond the tiny windows. Lily and Skylar were nowhere in sight. All around them, the large empty room was filled with rickety bunk beds covered by dirty sheets and dirty clothes in piles on the floor and tattered stuffed animals with missing eye buttons lying about. Old calcified pipes snaked through places in the ceiling from the floor above and slither down along the walls and back into the floor.

“Where are we now?” she asked, looking all around.

“This is the foster home where Skylar and I grew up,” he answered.

“This is a foster home? There are so many beds.” She counted. “There were ten of you living here? Isn’t there some kind of limit to how many children can stay in one home? Or at least in one room?”

“I’m sure there are, but our foster parents had ways of staying under the radar.”

Just then, the sound of footsteps rumbled from up the stairs, and a herd of young boys emerged from them and into the room. Scampering to the bunk bed Phoenyx and Sebastian were sitting in front of were a pair of small boys. It was easy to see that they were young Sebastian and Skylar. Young Sebastian had the same raven black hair, all tousled about his head; the same blue eyes that shone like topaz stones with his innocence; and an unbelievably adorable face with pinch-able pink cheeks and an optimistic smile. He had to be the cutest little kid she had ever seen.

Young Skylar was a thousand times dorkier than adult Skylar. He wore large bug-eye glasses with thick brims that screamed Poindexter, and the super blond hair and pasty white skin didn’t help at all. What a surprise that Skylar turned out looking so handsome!

Thunder cracked and lightening lit up the sky and flashed light through the tiny windows around the room. Several of the boys jumped, and Phoenyx tried to hide the fact that it made her jump too. But young Sebastian and Skylar were laughing and playing with action figures like they were the only ones in the room, their play unable to be disturbed.

Or so it seemed.

Stomps traveled down the stairs and a rotund, homely little girl trounced in with an equally unattractive woman and an unshaven, sloppy man in tow.

“He’s the one who took it, Daddy,” the little girl proclaimed, pointing an accusing finger at young Skylar.

Young Sebastian and Skylar put down their toys and put their full attention on all the fuss.

“The blond one?” the man asked. “Are you sure, punkin’?”

“Yes, Daddy, I saw him take it with my own two eyes,” the girl said, crossing her arms and stomping one foot.

“Took what?” Sebastian demanded.

Skylar kept quiet. He looked dismayed, like if he said anything he would get himself into deeper trouble.

“Look at his face. See? The boy knows what you’re talkin’ about,” the woman said angrily.

“So, you ungrateful little brat,” the man trod aggressively toward young Skylar. “You think it’s okay to steal from me, huh?”

“I didn’t steal anything from you,” young Skylar protested meekly.

“Don’t lie to me, boy,” the man yelled, pointing a stern finger at young Skylar. “Cynthia saw you take the fifty dollar bill out of my wallet, so I know it was you.”

“I’m not lying; it wasn’t me,” young Skylar insisted. “She’s the one who’s lying. She took it.”

The little girl sneered at him.

“How dare you accuse my little girl of stealing,” the man said. “She has no reason to steal from me; I get her whatever she wants because she’s a good little girl. But you, all of you, are good-for-nothing little brats.”

“We’re good enough to keep around so the state can fill your pockets,” young Sebastian spat, his British accent sounding even sharper.

“What did you say?” The man looked very dangerous now. Phoenyx felt an innate need to protect the two children, even though she knew they were beyond her reach, that whatever danger was about to come to them already happened years ago.

Young Skylar stepped in front of young Sebastian. “But she did steal your money. She took it because she wanted to get the new Aaron Carter CD you told her she couldn’t have.”

The little girl’s eyes were murderous now as they stared at young Skylar. The man turned around and looked at his daughter for any sign of truth in what young Skylar said.

“He’s lying, Daddy,” the girl shouted. “That’s all they do: lie and steal. It’s time to teach them a lesson and make them stop!”

“No, I swear; I’m not lying!” young Skylar urged.

“That’s it; I’m tired o’ this,” the man said. He grabbed young Skylar’s wrists hard and jerked him. “Where is it? Just give it to me and your punishment will be less bad.”

“Leave him alone,” young Sebastian yelled. He grabbed the man’s arm but the man easily shook him off. He landed on his butt on the floor.

Again, Phoenyx felt compelled to jump in and help the boys but she knew it wasn’t real. This was like watching a scary movie in 3-D—all she could do was watch the bad things happen.

“I don’t have it, please,” young Skylar pleaded.

“Fine!” The man raised his hand threateningly.

“Don’t you touch him,” young Sebastian yelled.

Phoenyx covered her eyes.

Suddenly, the pipes that snaked around this room burst at just about every joint all at once, spitting out water everywhere and instantly soaking everything. The sound scared everyone more than any of the previous thunder had, and now they all tried to shelter themselves from the raining pipes.

“Ahh, dammit to hell!” the man said, dropping young Skylar’s wrist to shield his face. “Look at this place! I think it’s raining more in here than it is out there.”

“Daddy, I’m getting soaked!” the little girl complained.

“Come on, punkin’. Let’s go upstairs,” the woman said, leading the girl away from the showering pipe above their heads.

“I’m gonna go turn the damn water off,” the man grumbled. “And you…” He pointed at young Skylar. “…as punishment, you are gonna clean up this mess.” He stomped up the stairs, muttering to himself, “Don’t know how the hell we can afford to fix these damn pipes now…damn kids stealing my money.”

“Are you okay?” young Sebastian asked young Skylar just before the two boys faded away, along with the spurting water and all the other children who were watching.

The water that had soaked Phoenyx’s clothes and hair disappeared, too, leaving her once again dry, even though she knew that the feeling of being wet was just an illusion, as well.

“You made the pipes burst,” she said.

“I think maybe I did,” adult Sebastian answered. “I always just thought that maybe God or someone up there was doing us a favor. You say that you felt it when you started that fire. I think I felt something when those pipes burst. I was overwhelmed with anger, at the way they were about to hurt my only friend, and still at the fact that my parents were gone. I felt so helpless. I wanted to be strong, to be powerful, so I wouldn’t be stepped on anymore. That’s all what I felt when those pipes burst.”

“How old were you then?” she asked.

“Almost nine,” he said.

“Oh, you poor thing,” she said. “Poor Skylar too. Your foster parents were awful people. I wanted so much to beat the hell out of that man.”

“Trust me, I had that dream many times when I lived there.”

“That despicable little girl,” she sneered.

“Cynthia always caused us problems,” he said. “I think she had a crush on Skylar and wasn’t used to not getting what she wanted. Being the only natural child in a house full of foster kids is even worse than being just an only child, apparently.”

“What an awful place,” she said. “Did they ever hit you?”

“No, that was the only time he ever came close to hitting one of us. If he ever hit Skylar or me, I don’t know what I would have done but I wouldn’t have let him forget it.”

Overcome with affection and sympathy, she hugged him before she knew what she was doing. When she realized that her arms were touching the bare, wonderfully soft, yet firm skin of his back because his shirt was off, she removed herself, embarrassed.

“Sorry,” she said awkwardly.

“No problem,” he said, looking a little embarrassed himself but not dropping his hands from her waist.

Their eyes met for the first moment of silence that she enjoyed. All she wanted to do was put her arms around him again. But their moment was all too short.

A loud clank broke through the illusion and, too quickly, the illusion ripped away. They were back in their cells, the two of them pressed up against the bars that divided them. Skylar and Lily stood only a foot or so away from either of them, obviously interrupted from a conversation of their own.

The clank was followed by another and the door opened, demanding all their attention. Has Lucas returned to set us free? Phoenyx’s heart leapt with hope for an instant.

She dropped back down when she saw a different man enter. He held a cloth bag of some kind, maybe a pillow case, filled with something large and round, stained at the bottom and dripping something dark. He threw it at the cells and closed the door again.

Skylar instantly backed away and put his hand over his mouth, face turning pale.

Sebastian crawled to the edge of the cell and stuck his hand through the bars to inspect the strange package. He pulled the cloth away, revealing the single most horrifying thing Phoenyx had ever seen with her own eyes—Lucas’s severed head! The words “Nice Try” were written on his large forehead in black permanent marker.

Lily screamed at the top of her lungs and Skylar rushed to the toilet to puke.

Sebastian immediately moved to cover the head back up, then stuck his leg through the bars to kick it as far away from them as possible.

Lily’s screaming continued and turned into weeping. Skylar stayed hunched over the toilet with his head resting on one arm while the other wrapped around his stomach. Sebastian and Phoenyx only kept looking at each other because they didn’t want to look at anything else. She knew they were both thinking the same thing: they were screwed.