Single drops of rain began to fall, dampening the ground and preparing it for a sheet of rain, still ten miles away, that rolled south like a wall of water.
In his tiny dungeon of a bathroom, Kevin lost all track of time. He drifted half conscious through the loneliest, emptiest expanses of his mind; a dim universe growing dimmer by the minute. Then for a moment, perhaps the moment before dying, Kevin regained his senses and realized where he was.
It was much later now. Kevin could tell that it had been a long time since he heard from Josh.
"Josh!" he tried to yell, but all that came out was a wheeze of air. He pounded on the door, and it rang out with dull leaden thuds, but no one was out there.
If he closed his eyes now, he knew it would be for the last time.
But wasn't this what I wanted? thought Kevin. To kill the glasses at all costs?
Maybe not.
There was something he wanted more than that. He wanted to live. Kevin hadn't known that his will to survive could be so strong—so overpowering that it turned his fear into fury. All that mattered was getting out and getting warm—and both those things required giving the glasses whatever they needed.
There had to be a way out—but how? Wishing wouldn't make it so; the glasses were powerless now—and he had sealed himself in there so well it would take a battering ram to get him out. If he were going to live, then the answer had to come from him, and it had to come now.
Then all at once, the answer did come.
It was so simple, so amazingly simple, Kevin couldn't believe that it had taken him so long to think of it.
Kevin dragged himself across the icy floor to the bathtub, and with frozen fingers that could barely move, he turned on the hotwater faucet.
The frozen pipes clanged as the water tried to force its way through. Kevin thought it would never come, but finally cold water began to pour into the tub. Degree by degree the water slowly grew warmer until it was scalding hot. It flowed from the faucet, bubbling with heat, filled with energy.
In the dark, Kevin kept his distance as the bathtub filled, so the glasses wouldn't begin working too soon. Then, when the tub was full, Kevin stared at the dark door with a look of sheer determination. He focused all his thoughts on getting out of that awful room . . . and then he touched his fingertips to the surface of the water.
Josh heard the explosion five blocks away, and he instinctively knew it was Kevin. He flew out of the house, sprinting down the street at top speed toward the wall of rain clouds that loomed over the edge of town. He charged through backyards and crashed through hedges on the shortest route to Kevin's place.
He could see from halfway down the block that the front door of Kevin's house had been blown off its hinges by the force of the explosion. Shards of glass from the broken windows lay in the street. Josh raced inside and took the stairs three at a time.
"Kevin!" he screamed. "Kevin, where are you?"
All that was left of the upstairs bathroom was a gaping hole. That, and a bathtub full of solid ice.
"KEVIN!"
Through the huge hole in the wall, Josh could see the backyard, the brush-covered hill beyond, and the massive electrical tower that stood atop the hill like a giant Christmas tree.
That was where Josh spotted Kevin. He was climbing the hill toward the tower—the tower that brought in Ridgeline's entire energy supply.
As soon as Kevin's eyes had adjusted to the faint light after the explosion, he had begun his search for energy. The heat from the water had not been enough; he was still hungry, still cold. The glasses would fix him, but only if they had the energy.
When he saw the tower up on the hill, he licked his lips. Such a tremendous source of power was the perfect place to feed himself and the glasses. As far as Kevin was concerned, it was the most beautiful thing he had ever seen.
Halfway to the top of the hill, he heard Josh behind him.
"Kevin!" Josh screamed. "No!"
Kevin doubled his speed, scrambling through nettles that scraped his arms and legs. No one was going to stop him from reaching the top. He was going to get there. He had to.
"Kevin!" Josh screamed again, closer now. Kevin didn't turn around. He could already hear the electricity humming through the wires.
The nettles thinned to a bald spot atop the hill, out of which sprouted the four legs of the great steel beast. Kevin, unable to catch his breath, now dragged himself between two of the tower's legs, as if crossing through the gates of heaven.
But a demon had grabbed his leg, holding him back.
"I can't let you do it," Josh yelled over the electrical whine, locking himself around Kevin's legs like a ball and chain. "I won't let you!"
Kevin kicked and struggled. "Get your hands off me!" he screamed. Kevin then reached his hand out and pulled a pinecone out of thin air. "You're not my friend!" said Kevin. "A friend wouldn't have left me like that!" He brought his hand down, forcing the entire thing into Josh's mouth, as Bertram had done to him two weeks before.
Josh squealed a muffled cry of pain and loosened his grip just enough for Kevin to kick him away and scramble toward the nearest leg of the tower. The electricity was buzzing in Kevin's ears like a thousand sirens, promising him the world.
Josh plucked the pinecone from his mouth. "Kevin!"
"If you come any closer, I'll turn you into a snail—I swear I will!" Kevin turned from Josh and reached for the tower.
"If you do it, it'll be the end of everything," yelled Josh, "and you won't be able to blame that on the glasses—because you'll be the one who did it! . . . And then you'll be worse off than Bertram!"
"I don't care," Kevin growled. Then he added, "I already am." And with that Kevin firmly clasped the ridge of the girder.
Electricity instantly shot down the tower and surged into the glasses. The rush was more than Kevin could have imagined. He could feel his body and spirit inflate like a balloon. The glasses lapped up the energy, focused it, and sent it surging deep into Kevin's mind. He had never felt so completely energized—he never knew it was possible.
Then something went wrong. The joy became so intense that it began to burn, and the glasses, unable to bear the overload, started to crack again. Hairline fractures like the spiderweb of a smashed windshield spread across the whole surface of the sleek glass blade.
Josh, just ten feet away, lay on the ground, shielding his eyes. He looked up when he heard the crackling, popping sound of the glasses as they fractured—but still, the current of electricity fed them. Then at last the wires supplying the tower snapped, and with an earthshaking shudder, the arms of the tower melted down into twisted black stubs. The city below was plunged into darkness, and the power supplying the glasses finally died.
Josh could see Kevin now, standing on the scorched ground, looking more like a light bulb than a thirteen-year-old boy. Kevin's whole body seemed bloated, as if he had swallowed an entire ocean.
My God, thought Josh, all that power is still inside of him. But it couldn't stay in there for long. Josh knew what was about to happen, but all he could do was watch as Kevin Midas became the gateway to the Dream Time.
When Kevin could no longer hold in his ocean of energy, his mind exploded, blowing out through the fractured lens like a fiery supernova.
Josh saw shock waves of change radiate out from where Kevin stood, colorful surges like the northern lights that twisted space and time. Day changed to night changed to day, over and over; stars seemed to swarm in the sky like fireflies, changing their positions in the heavens.