Chapter Ten: Cotton Candy Kiss

Charlie

Infinity never came home. Originally, Uncle Paton insisted that we go after her immediately, but mom and Maisie wanted to give her time. It felt strange knowing that I had a sister all this time, but had never been told. I couldn't imagine how Infinity must have felt. So we waited. We waited until the sun went down and the looming threat of Asa Pike possibly being out there somewhere made everyone feel uneasy. My mother called the police and they immediately issued the alert because of her medical complications and the fact that she had just been in a coma the week before. They looked everywhere, but there wasn't a single sign of her.

They had asked if she was a runaway, but nothing from her room was missing besides the cellphone she carried on her at all times. No matter how many times it was called, it went straight to voicemail. Everyone we knew searched day and night, until finally someone mentioned briefly seeing her in the park. There wasn't much to go on after that. My mother was in a panic, unable to sleep or eat. "I just got her back. I can't lose her again." She sobbed. Then the news came on and we saw the missing person's report for Salem Bloor. "They did this!" She stood to her feet, screeching at the television (and my mother never raised her voice). "Oh my god. She's dead, Charlie. They've killed her."

"Mom. No. Salem missing as well is good news." I put my hand on her shoulder. "He and Infinity are friends. I bet they are somewhere safe, hiding out. Look, Manfred says they'll give a reward if they find him."

"I'm afraid they might be looking for Infinity too. Something must have happened that caused Salem and Infinity to run." Uncle Paton frowned.

"She's barely been conscious for a week. She hasn't met up with anyone since being home. What could she have possibly done to cause them to come after her?" My mother continued to pace the room.

"She was trying to help me remember dad at one point. Maybe she figured it out?" I shrugged.

And then the phone rang. Uncle Paton was the one who picked it up. "Ye Gods! Infinity! Where the are you!? We have been worried sick. Are you safe? Do you need me to come get you?"

Mom jumped up from the couch and pried the phone from his hands. "Infinity, sweetie, please come home. We won't let anything happen to you. I'm so sorry about everything! Did you remember something about Lyell? Is that why this is happening?" I watched her face fall when she got the answer she didn't want to hear. "Oh… you didn't?" And then anger. "They what!? Those greedy animals!"

Grandma Bone decided to make her presence known from the front door. "Who is on the phone?" She raised an eyebrow.

"Those awful bill collectors." Mom slammed down the phone. "Calling at a time like this. The nerve of those greedy animals!" She gave me a look that told me that I should follow her, Paton too. "We're going out to try and see if anyone else has seen Infinity. Paton. Charlie. Let's go." She grabbed my arm roughly and pulled me out the door. I had never seen my mother act in such a way. It was terrifying. We climbed into Uncle Paton's car and engine turned over. "We're going to the academy. Now. Don't you dare try to talk me out of it. I need to find out what happened."

In the few minutes that Infinity was able to speak with mom, she was able to fill in the blanks of the night she went missing. She had been grabbed in the park by Dr. Bloor and Mr. Weedon. From there, she was knocked unconscious and finally woke up in the attic of Bloor's academy. Infinity's ability to completely heal herself from the extreme trauma she endured at the hands of Manfred had piqued Old Mr. Ezekiel's interest. He wanted her power for himself and planned to find a way to siphon it, leaving Infinity a powerless shell. To ensure his plan worked, he had something done to Salem that rendered his endowment useless. Salem managed to help her escape, but now they were forced to hide out until they could figure out a new plan.

When we arrived at the academy, we were surprised to find the doors were unlocked. Uncle Paton remembered the academy from when he attended and had no problem remembering how to access the West Wing. We went up the large stairway and into what I assumed was the Bloor family sitting room. Only Dr. Bloor and Manfred were present and they seemed to be discussing something important. When they saw us, their eyes went wide.

Dr. Bloor stood up, obviously flustered and caught off guard. "Mrs. Bone, what are you doing here? This is highly inappropriate."

"My daughter is missing." She began to shake again, like she was going to lose her nerve. She steadied when Uncle Paton put his hand on her shoulder. "I don't know where she is."

"Well, she isn't here." He barked. "Maybe if you paid better attention to what your children were doing-"

"I pay plenty of attention to what my children are doing, thank you very much. You don't have any room to talk. From what I have been told, your son is missing as well." She snapped. Her nerve was back. "I am not a bad parent. I make my children face when they do something wrong. I don't cover it up with money." She turned to address Manfred directly. "You never would have been able to walk out of that courtroom if Judge Sage had been on the bench like he was supposed to be that day. I'm sure there is a special place for you in hell after what you have put my family through." She pointed a finger at Manfred. "You took Lyell from us, you almost killed my daughter, and you almost had my son killed his first month here with that awful beast."

"We didn't take your husband. He's dead. He drove off of a quarry. And we don't know where Infinity is either." Manfred rose from his chair next. He was intimidated by Unclel Paton and kept his distance.

Paton looked at the lamp next to him and the light bulb exploded, causing everyone to jump. "You're a bad liar. I saw your little message. You said that you believe they're together. Tell me where my niece is now, or else."

"She and Salem drove off. I wasn't able to follow. He withdrew money just outside of town before his accounts were frozen and his phone is turned off." He yelled over the pop of the remaining light bulbs. I noticed his hands were bleeding and scarred and raw. "But why are you so upset, Amy? You gave her away, didn't you?"

She tried to pretend that Manfred's words didn't make her feel guilty, but we all knew that they did. She didn't talk much for the next few days and called off work until further notice. Olivia Vertigo came over after Infinity had been missing for about nine days on behalf of all of my friends, who I had dropped contact with. I didn't want to talk to anyone, but I let her in anyway. She said a quick hello to my mother and we went upstairs into my room where we could discuss Infinity without mom hearing her name and shutting down even more.

"Wow, your mom looks so frail and sad. I don't think I've ever seen her so down in the dumps before." She noted, sitting down on Infinity's bed. "What's the deal?"

"I found out some really heavy things the other day, and so did Infinity." I sat down on my own bed and focused on Olivia's light pink hair. She looked like cotton candy. "The day Infinity went missing, my mom told us that Infinity isn't really my cousin. She's actually my older sister."

"That does make sense." Olivia remarked. "Didn't you ever notice how she's the spitting image of your mother? That should have been a dead giveaway."

"You could at least act a little surprised since neither of us knew." I rolled my eyes. "It was harder on Infinity than it was me. She had to live with my awful Aunt Lillian for years."

"So when do you think she's going to come home?"

"I have no idea. When she called, she told us that Salem had lost his powers. The Bloors had done something to him and they can't figure out what it is. Once he gets his powers back, he can make them forget everything and then they won't hurt her." I leaned back into my bed. "This is all beyond my help. I don't know what to do. Usually I can fix a situation no matter how hopeless. Look what I did for Emma, Henry and Ollie Sparks. But they're going after her in a way that I can't even do anything to stop it and she's my family. They don't want her hidden or hypnotized. Old Mr. Bloor wants her powers for himself. And then they managed to control the one person who could have made this all go away."

"But she doesn't even know what her powers are." Olivia noted.

"I think she figured it out. When I saw Manfred, his hands were all raw and bloody. I think Infinity did that. And when she tried to get me to remember my father she ended up curing my headache instead." I smirked at the memory and touched my temple. "She even healed herself. Dr. Dobinski said that people comatose for as long as Infinity was usually start to waste away. They lose the muscles in their legs and because they can't eat, their bodies suffer a lot. Infinity spontaneously started to heal herself, and then she woke up completely fine. Like she woke up from a nap or something."

"Thats...amazing." Olivia gasped. "No wonder that nasty old man is interested in her endowment. I guess that means that we're going to have to find a way to keep Infinity safe so she can come home again, right?" She shrugged and stood to her feet. "I'm going to the café to meet with everyone else and to see if we can figure something out. Do you want to come with?"

"Oh, Liv. Please don't. I don't want anyone else to get hurt. Uncle Paton and I will handle it."

"Then I guess you're going to have to come with me to stop me." She twirled on her heel and marched towards the door. I jumped up and grabbed her arm and pulled her back. She smiled at me and batted her long, mascara coated eyelashes before kissing me on the cheek and running out the door. I blushed and followed close behind.

When we arrived at the Café, everyone sat at our usual table and stared at us with sad eyes. I decided to fill them in on everything that I knew and they all realized that the situation was hopeless, as I had tried to explain before. "I can't believe they would go after her again. Especially with that close call Manfred had." Gabriel frowned, looking down at his hands. "Do you have anything of hers on you? Maybe I can try and find her."

"Do you need to have something she wore the night she was taken?" I asked.

"No, just about anything will do. It will help me see her emotions. Like the ones she's feeling right now. It might give something away."

"See! I knew Gabe could help." Olivia lit up and dug something out of her purse. It was a tank top that I recognized as Infinity's. "I saw it sitting on her bed, bunched up by a pillow. I bet it wasn't even washed yet."

"I...uh. I'm going to have to put it on." Gabe awkwardly shifted in his seat. He took the shirt from Olivia's hands and held it out in front of him. It was a solid black tank-top with one of her favorite band logos on it. Luckily for Gabe, it was a unisex size small and he would be able to fit it.

"Can you put it over the shirt you have on now, or...?" Tancred raised a curious brow.

"Yeah, but I'm going to look rather silly. I wish you would have grabbed a glove or a hat or something."

"It's summer." Olivia shrugged. "You're lucky I thought to even grab that."

Gabe pulled the tank top over his own shirt and took a deep breath. When there weren't any immediate signs of pain or sadness, I felt relieved. "She's very anxious, but at the moment she feels little bursts of happiness. Other times she feels overwhelmed because she knows something she shouldn't."

"I think I know why they took her." I lowered my head. "She must have figured out where our father was. Or she at least remembered what he looked like. That's why they grabbed her. Ezekiel wanting to figure out how to take her power was an afterthought..."