XXXIII. | 'O, solemn child...'

For a time, he couldn't even respond.

'Hector?! I... I went to the house, and I saw Geoffrey's body. And Nathan's. And. I checked the school and--I... Hector, talk to me.'

'Everything went wrong, Garovel... everything is... it's all... I can't...'

'Okay, just tell me where you are first,' said Garovel.

'I don't really, uh... I think I went south...'

'You gotta give me more to go on, Hector.'

'I'll... I'll make you a guidepost.'

'What do you mean?'

Hector stretched his arms. He took a hard breath and rubbed his hands together. 'Fly up high and look south.'

'Er, okay...'

He placed both hands against the ground. A metal beam exploded out of the ground in front of him. He continuously added to it, wider and wider layers at its base, and soon, he had created the tallest needle he'd ever seen. 'Do you see it?'

'Um. See what?'

Hector furrowed his brow. He took a step back and added even more. It shot up into the sky, becoming a tower.

'Holy shit,' said Garovel. 'You didn't just... Did you really just make that gigantic needle there?'

'Yeah...'

'Oh, wow... I'm on my way. Now what the hell happened?'

Hector still wasn't sure where to begin. He closed his eyes and tried to think. 'The cellphone,' he thought. 'The text messages... they were a trap. By Geoffrey.'

'Not sure I understand...'

Hector elaborated at length. He told the reaper everything. He fumbled over the worst parts. His father. Nathan. Micah. At least a dozen students. His throat swelled up as he talked further. He was practically choking by the end.

And Garovel listened patiently to it all. Perhaps too patiently. The reaper hardly said anything. His skeletal face spoke of abject horror. Evening arrived by the time Garovel spoke again. 'How could...? I was only gone for three hours... three-and-a-half, at the most...'

Hector leaned against a tall rock and rubbed his swollen eyes. "What do we do now, Garovel? I'm just... I'm so fucking lost..."

For a long while, Garovel had no answer to that. But then he said something that made Hector stare. '...Who still needs you?'

"I..." His gaze hardened and fell to the ground. "I have to go find my mom."

'Hector, I'm not sure that's a good idea.'

He looked up with a furrowed brow. "Why not?"

'I visited the police station while I was looking for you. I saw your mother there. She was very distraught and confused, but she... agh, I'm not even sure how to put this...'

"Just say it."

Garovel eyed him heavily. 'When I saw her, she was under the impression that you murdered your father. I don't think she wants to see you.'

"The cops told her that I...?" He sighed. "Of course they did..."

'I'm sorry.'

"But..."

'Hector. I think it's time we left Brighton behind.'

He was silent at that.

'Your life here... it's been destroyed. Between the crime scene at your house and the crime scene at your school, the police have pieced together your identity. I saw them in the station. They're not just hunting for some guy in a metal mask. They're hunting for Hector Goffe.'

"I can't just leave my mother behind..."

'Hector...'

"I'm all she has left, Garovel. I have to... try to... make her understand... somehow..." His expression searched for the right words. "I have to see her again. I just. I have to..."

The reaper floated around him. 'You are easily the most wanted person in the city. Going back there right now is--'

"Do you know where she is?"

The reaper was hesitant to answer.

"Garovel, don't lie to me..."

'Yes. I do know. She's in a hotel with a police detail.'

"Take me to her."

'What if you can't convince her?'

"I don't know. But I'm not leaving without trying."

'And what if you do convince her? What difference will that make? You'll still be wanted for murder.'

Hector's expression faltered. He shut his eyes and rubbed his forehead. "She... I... I've never been sure if she actually, um... if she actually cared about me. But... I've always known that she loved my dad. The two of them were--" He shook his head. "--They tried really hard to stay together. Their entire lives revolved around one another. And... now..."

Garovel frowned.

"Mom doesn't have any siblings. And her parents died years ago. So I'm... I mean... I think I'm the only family she has left..."

'You don't want to abandon her. I understand. But even still--'

"It's not just that. I... I get that we shouldn't stay. I do. School is... I can't just... go back there... and I can't go home, either... But I don't want her to think that I... that I... did all those horrible things... If she thinks I killed Dad, then... agh..." He sighed.

'You want a proper goodbye.'

"Y-yeah..."

Garovel was briefly quiet. 'I still think it's a bad idea. But alright. I'll take you to her.'

"Thank you."

Hector destroyed the needle tower, and once night fell, Garovel guided him back into the city. They stopped by the cemetery along the way and picked up the five remaining bags of money. There wasn't much room on the bike, so Hector dropped four of them on the steps of the nearby police precinct. He tried to keep to the shadows as much as possible, prepared to flee again if someone spotted him, but no one did.

They arrived at the hotel next. It stood fifteen stories tall and had no balconies to climb.

'Her room is on the seventh floor,' said Garovel. 'There are four cops in the adjacent rooms and two more in the lobby. If you go through the front door, you'll alert them and have to fight your way to her. So please don't do that.'

Without his helm, he scratched his head. He looked up at the building from the rear parking lot, crouching behind a dumpster. "Can I scale the wall?"

'Maybe. I think a seven-story platform would be quieter, though. Just let me scout the area for prying eyes, first.'

"Okay..."

After a spell, Garovel returned and showed him the exact spot to stand. He created a broad pillar below his feet, raising himself to the window of the reaper's designation. It was shut, of course, and locked as well, but he could see the tiny latch that he needed to move. He pressed a hand to the glass and made a small pillar on the other side, starting from the windowsill, then growing out and pushing against the latch. He heard the shunk, pulled the bug screen off, and slipped inside, disintegrating his metal.

His mother was in the bathroom. He could hear her crying.

He sat on the end of the bed and waited for her.

A hundred thoughts swirled through his mind. He still wasn't sure how to explain everything to her. The truth sounded so ridiculous, but it seemed like the only thing that could vindicate him. And then he just started recounting everything in his head. By the time she came out of the bathroom, Hector was crying again.

Vanessa Goffe stared at him, her own eyes still puffy and red. She looked like she didn't know whether she wanted to scream or not.

Hector just went for it. "I didn't kill Dad."

She did not react.

He tried again. "I didn't kill him. Mom, you have to believe me. I would never hurt him. Or you. I... I w-wouldn't..."

Her face was tear-streaked stone, now. "What do you want from me?" was all she asked.

"I just..." He grit his teeth, angry with himself. Now was not the time to struggle for the right words. "I want to explain what happened... and... and..."

"Explain, then," she said. "Why do the police think you killed Samuel?"

"Because... uh..." He looked at the floor. 'Garovel, help me...'

'You didn't kill him, but someone made it look like you did.'

He gave a tiny nod and glanced up at his mother again. "Someone made it look like I did it..."

She merely listened.

"S-someone came to the house... after you left for work... and... they took Dad h-hostage and... brought him to my school... which was where he was... killed..."

"Why would they do that?" Her voice trembled. "Who were they?"

"A lunatic... His name was Geoffrey Rofal."

"You knew this person?"

He cringed at the question.

'Don't lie about being a vigilante. She already knows. The police told her.'

"Geoffrey was a... he was a criminal... he and I fought before... a-and, ah... he, uh--"

"During one of your outings, is that it?" Her anger showed through now. "One of your little adventures fighting crime, right? It came back to bite us. You went and got involved in something you shouldn't, and now your father is dead because of it. My husband..." She breathed hard. "Because of you! You got him killed, didn't you?! That's what happened, isn't it?!"

Hector couldn't look at her.

"Answer me! You didn't kill him yourself, but you're still responsible for it, aren't you?! Well?! Just tell me!"

"...Y-y-yes. I... I'm..."

'Hector, please. It's not your fault. Don't let her convince you that it is. That won't help anyone.'

There came a knock at the door. "Ma'am, is everything alright in there?"

Vanessa settled her breathing. She looked at the door, then back at Hector.

He could see her considering what to do. He stood, preparing to run as her gaze lingered on him.

She answered the door.

Hector was surprised when she didn't ask the officers to enter and arrest him. He watched her block the doorway so they didn't spot him, watched her reassure them of her safety, watched her close the door behind her. He couldn't understand what she was thinking. "Mom--"

She held a hand up. It clenched into a fist. She put her knuckles to her mouth and closed her eyes. "Just. Go."

"But... please, just listen--"

She glared at him, furious tears in her eyes. "I don't care what your reasons were," she said shakily. "I don't even care how you got in here. Just leave. And don't come back. I don't ever want to see you again."

His face cracked. "Y-you, you don't mean that..."

"Get out."

"Mom, please...!"

"Don't test me, Hector. If you don't leave right now, I will turn you in."

'Do as she says,' said Garovel. 'Just for now, that is.'

He slowly backed away.

'We'll see her again, Hector. It might be a long time, but we'll visit her and sort all this out, one day. I promise. I'm sure she'll be ready to listen then.'

Hector wasn't sure he believed the reaper, but he sure wanted to. He stopped in front of the open window and looked at her one last time. "I love you, Mom..." And he jumped out the window.

He raised a pillar up from the parking lot and gave it a sloped edge, expanding it out into a gigantic slide. His landing was a rough tumble, and Garovel started healing his broken leg as he limped the rest of the way to the motorcycle.

'You're doing the right thing,' Garovel told him.

Hector made no response. He still wanted to cry, but the tears had stopped falling a while ago. As he mounted the bike, he pulled out his phone and looked for Colt's number.