Casey's dreams are a jumbled mess, brief, flashing vignettes of scenes he can barely comprehend before they move on, but there's a single common theme that he chases through each one.
Zilla, just out of reach.
He's on the ice, hockey stick in hand. He hears her cheering for him in the crowd, but when Casey tries to find her, she's gone. He's on a soccer field. She appears in the corner of his vision, slamming the soccer ball into the net, but when he turns to look, he's all alone.
She stays just out of view.
He runs. He wonders if he goes fast enough if he'll be able to catch up to her. His chest starts to burn, the heat getting hotter, sharper, shaping into a point like a searing knife slicing his skin open.
Casey wakes with a cry as the burning sensation surges down his left arm. He sits up, fumbling in the dark for the lamp switch, brain fogged between sleep and pain. April stirs beside him, bleary.
"Casey?" she mumbles.
He finds the switch, turning the lamp on just in time to see a black mark finish curling around his arm, a winding shadow imprinted on his skin.
The burning fades. April sits up, blinking at the light in the room as she readjusts, and Casey stares at the mark in shock. It starts at the tiny white scar over his heart, blooming over his shoulder and curling around his arm like a snake. Only, instead of a reptile, he's marked with a smoke-like black pattern that stops at his wrist.
April takes his hand, dragging his arm closer to her as her brow furrows. Casey hesitantly touches his arm, wary of more pain, but the skin where the ink is feels cool to the touch and there's no pain. It's like a fully healed tattoo.
"I don't understand," Casey whispers.
April shakes her head. "Me, neither." She looks up at him. "Should we go talk to Donnie and Sarina?"
He nods. "Yeah. Whatever this is, I'm not risking it."
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Casey counts himself lucky that his friends are such night owls. Donatello and Sarina flit around him and he sits like a dutiful little science experiment, letting them poke and prod and examine what they need to. April lingers nearby, staying as out of the way as possible.
"And this just happened?" Donatello clarifies, motioning to the tattoo now decorating his arm.
"I woke up and it was there," Casey says. April nods in confirmation.
"Well, it's unusual, but your vitals are fine. They're...fantastic, actually," Donatello says as he does a double take at Metalhead II's readouts. He tears off the strip of paper from the robot's chest and skims it, eyes wide. "By Darwin's beard..."
"Hm," Sarina hums. She had stuck a few electrodes to Casey's temples earlier and now she reads the results while looking over the brain scan she also took earlier—they're thorough, what can he say? "Casey, if I'm not completely reading this wrong, it seems your concussion has not only healed up, but your brain has recovered from previous damage too."
"Is that good?"
"It's impossible, at least with how quickly it has recovered itself. A brain's neuroplasticity is a wonder to behold, but it cannot do what it seems yours has done," Sarina says.
Casey purses his lips. "Oh." After another second of watching the brainiacs mutter to each other, he sighs. "I have a theory, if you wanna hear it." Their heads whip towards him like he just offered them a lifetime supply of coffee and he takes that as a yes. "Zilla's life force did more than just bring me back to life."
Their eyes nearly bug out of their heads. Even Sarina, usually intensely composed, seems caught off-guard. Donatello's expression floods with shock, then realization, and then sorrow all in a few seconds.
"Life force?" Sarina repeats. She inhales slowly, her mouth open. "Oh...ohhhhh, it all makes sense! I cannot believe I didn't think—" She stops as she looks at Donatello, at his expression, and her fingertips press to her lips. "Oh, no. Casey..."
Casey digs into his pocket and holds out the letter to them. He knows that if he tries to explain or read the letter out loud, he'll just cry again. They look it over and he hopes that, wherever she is, she isn't mad at him for sharing her words with them.
"Fascinating," Donatello murmurs. "So, she somehow transferred her life force to you, and not only did it bring you back to life, but it healed you?" Casey nods. "Fascinating."
"And tragic," April pipes up. They look at her as she crosses her arms over her chest in a gentle self-hug. "We were all so annoyed with her for not showing up, but she did. We have no way of thanking her."
Casey almost catches himself smiling. "You know, she was never big on thank you's," he murmurs.
He hopes she knows, or that she knew. She did say that part of her would always be with him. He wasn't expecting a tattoo but, then again, there was nothing to expect because no one had ever done what she did before. Likely, no one ever will.
The others stay silent. Donatello folds up the letter, holding it back out to Casey, and he takes it. Casey stands up, fighting back a yawn.
"So, I'm not dying?" he asks. Three expressions furrow with discomfort and he holds his hands up. "Sorry, you know what I mean."
"You're fine," Sarina confirms. "Do let us know if you notice any strange side effects."
"Sure."
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"Are you sure you don't need me to stay?" April asks. She sits on her yellow scooter outside Casey's home, helmet still clipped on. "I can, if you need."
"I'm good, Red. Thanks." He hesitates on the sidewalk, looking back at her as he rubs the back of his neck. "Look..."
He isn't sure what to say. Sorry doesn't seem like enough after what he said to her when they broke up. The more he tries to think, the more his tongue freezes.
"It's late," April says. "Maybe we can talk some other time?"
He exhales. "Yeah. Sounds good."
"Goodnight?"
"Goodnight."
He waits on the steps as she drives off. He looks up at the dark winter sky, blowing out a breath that fogs into the air before him. He almost dreads going inside, only because he knows that in the morning, he has to carry out one of Zilla's final requests. He has to break Harry and Eustace's hearts tomorrow.
YOU ARE READING
Shadow Mutation (Book Seven)
Fanfiction"Try not to be stupid next time, okay?" When he's told shortly after graduation that he didn't actually pass and, in order to truly earn his diploma, he must redo his senior year math credit, Casey Jones isn't sure how things could get worse. He kno...
