The scream continued until the last bit of flame finally went out. What was left was the ashy, gray remains of the woman, only she wasn’t a woman at all now. She was a girl, no older than Eric. And she was looking at him.
“Thank you,” the ashy lips said.
There was a shy smile on her face, and relief in her eyes.
Suddenly a breeze rushed down through the hole in the ceiling, and the ash girl scattered into a million tiny particles, forming a gray cloud that rushed around the room then whisked out the hole.
Fiona’s shocked voice came through the radio. “You killed her.”
“Did I?” Eric was horrified. “Oh, no. I didn’t mean to. That little girl.”
“Not the girl,” Mr. Trouble said. “She died long ago. You freed what was left of her. Her soul, I guess. It was the Maker you killed.”
“Freed her?” Eric asked. Then he knew that Mr. Trouble was right. Suddenly he realized what he had to do. It was up to him. He had to help them all.
He threw his arms out wide and ran through the basement, touching as many Makers as he could and chasing after the ones that tried to get away.
Screams and more flames and more ash and more children freed from the slavery their bodies had endured for who knew how long. Their ashy remains then followed the first girl’s into the night.
Finally, of the nine Makers, only the blond man remained. He had been quicker than the others and had moved to the far back wall, at the very edge of the light from the lanterns.
Panting, Eric moved toward him. For the first time in his entire life, he felt in total control of himself. He was focused. He had a purpose. He knew what he had to do.
The blond maker hissed at him and bared his teeth. “You will not be forgotten.”
“Yes. He will,” Mr. Trouble said as he moved up behind Eric with Fiona and Keira.
Mr. Trouble leaned forward and said into Eric’s ear, “You have to tell him to leave you alone. Tell him to never come back.”
Eric took another step toward the Maker and said in a strong, commanding voice he’d never had before, “You will leave me, and my friends, alone.”
Another hiss.
“You will never, ever come back here again.”
The Maker started vibrating, faster and faster, his hiss turning into a growl, then a roar. After a few more seconds, he seemed to collapse in on himself, and in an instant he was gone.
Eric whipped from side to side, searching. “Where is he?”
Mr. Trouble grabbed his arm, stopping him. “He left.”
“But I didn’t release the boy he’d taken. He’s still using that body. It’s not his.”
“This one we had to let go.”
“But why? I could have saved—”
“If you had gotten rid of him like you did the others, your message to leave you alone would have been useless. Other Makers would have come to find out what had happened. They would have made another attempt to take you. He needed to see they could not break you. The curse that governs us, also affects them. You’ve banished them. They can’t come back now.”
Eric stared at the place where the Maker had been. In that moment, he was more upset about the one that got away than happy about the other eight possessed bodies he had freed.
29
“What…what’s going on?”
Eric spun around. “Mom?”
His mother was standing near the boxes Vice Principal Rose had pulled her behind. She was swaying slightly, and having a hard time keeping her eyes open.
Eric ran over. “Here, sit down.” He lowered her onto one of the boxes then knelt beside her.
“Eric?” Her voice was full of sleep. “What are you…doing here? Where are we?”
“It’s okay, Mom. You’re fine now. I’m going to take you home.”
“Home?” She smiled. “I want to go home.”
Mr. Trouble walked over. “Sorry, Mrs. Morrison.”
Eric looked at him, confused. When he saw the injection gun in Mr. Trouble’s hand, he reached out to stop him, but was too late. The gun had already shot its contents into his mother’s arm.
“Ow,” she said, then swayed for a moment before falling into Eric’s arms, unconscious.
“Why did you do that?” Eric asked, staring up at Mr. Trouble.
“Do you really want to explain all of this to her?” Mr. Trouble asked.
“She already knows something’s happened.”
“Doubtful. Makers tend to keep abduction victims in a trance. Easier to control that way. We’ll take her home, put her in bed, and when she wakes up, it’ll be like nothing ever happened.”
“Nothing ever happened? My father is going to wonder where she’s been.”
“Trust me,” Mr. Trouble said, smiling. “Okay, everyone, we should get out of here.”
Mr. Trouble lifted Eric’s mom in his arms, while Eric and the Trouble sisters picked up Maggie. Then, as a group, they headed back upstairs and out of the barn.
“You could have prepared me a little better,” Eric finally said, breaking his silence. “I didn’t know you meant it would actually be up to me to get rid of them.”
Mr. Trouble took several steps before he said anything. “Well, that’s not what I meant at all. What I meant was what you did there at the end, telling them to leave you alone and not come back. They had to hear that from you. It had to be said with strength and meaning.”
“You did that great, by the way,” Fiona said.
“Then what was all that other stuff about?” Eric asked. “The fire? The wind? The ashes?”
Mr. Trouble shook his head and shrugged. “That was something new.”
“Are you saying that no one’s touched a Maker before?”
“No. People have touched them. My own family.” He paused. “There’s something inside of us, given to us a long time ago. The males in the direct line of descent are immune to Maker mental attack. My sisters are resistant but not fully immune. Unfortunately, this immunity comes at a price. If Fiona or Keira were to touch a Maker, they would become very sick. If a male direct descendant, like me, were to do it, we would be the one to die, not them.”
Eric was silent for a moment. “Your father.”
Mr. Trouble nodded. “The thing is, we’ve done such a good job keeping a barrier between our clients and the Makers, none has ever touched one.”
“Until me.”
“Until you.” Mr. Trouble paused for a moment.
They walked the rest of the way to the car in silence.
Uncle Colin and Uncle Carl must have picked them up on one of the monitors, because they and Mother Trouble were soon out of the plane and heading to meet them.
“What if one of them touched a Maker?” Eric asked.
Mr. Trouble’s mother and uncles weren’t related by blood to the Trouble family.
“Nothing really. The Makers would feel like real people to them.”
“Solid?”
“Yeah. You’re actually the first person I know who’s gone through them. We didn’t know that was possible.”
Mother Trouble rushed up, her arms wide open. “Is it over? Please tell me it’s over.”
“Yeah,” Mr. Trouble said. “It’s over.”
She looked at the woman in her son’s arms. “Is this your mother, Eric?”
“Yes.
“You found her. Such wonderful news.” Though Eric was still helping to carry Maggie, Mother Trouble gave him a hug. “You done good.”
“He’s done better than good,” Fiona said.
Uncle Colin was all smiles, and even Uncle Carl’s usual scowl was gone.
Uncle Colin tousled Eric’s hair. “So? Another satisfied client then?”
Eric smiled. “Yeah. Definitely.”
“Oh,” Uncle Colin said, looking down at Maggie. “We should do something about that.” He looked at his brother. “Do you have another wake-up shot?”