Dangerous Days of Daniel X

Chapter 58

FOR A WHILE, I did my best to stay upbeat. The night is darkest before the dawn, I reminded myself. Every cloud has a silver lining. What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger. I will live to fight another day.

Yeah, right, I thought as the bullet in my abdomen continued to send out unrelenting pulses of agony.

Makes you stronger; cripples you forever. Flip a coin.

I couldn’t believe how overly confident I’d been. I’d actually thought I could defeat Ergent Seth. But I was a loser, complete and utter. I guess it was a family tradition.

“You are not a loser!” said a voice. “Not always, anyway.”

It must have been my fever. I was hearing voices now. Was it Glenda, the good witch? Or maybe Pinocchio’s friend the Blue Fairy?

“I’ve been brave, truthful, and unselfish,” I slurred. “Now make me a real boy.”

I guess several hours held captive by Seth was my mental limit. E.T. ready for funny farm.

I opened my eyes and saw that it was Dana. Well, sort of.

She was coming in hazily, kind of two-dimensional. I could actually see through her. How weird was that? She seemed like a ghost. Or an angel. Maybe I was dead and had gone to heaven?

“You are not a loser, Daniel,” Dana insisted again, her matchless blue eyes on the verge of tears. Then a second later, she was past the verge.

“Oh, Daniel,” she sobbed. “You can’t die.”

“Don’t,” I said. “You can’t cry, Dana. My heart can stand pretty much anything except seeing you cry.”

“But look at you. I’ve never seen you like this. What happened to you? Besides that… Phoebe Cook flirtation. What was that about? God, Daniel.”

The last thing I was going to do was tell her that I was gut-shot.

“Seth,” I said. That about summed it up.

“What about your powers? Don’t tell me they’re gone. Please don’t tell me that.”

“Dana, c’mon,” I said. “Of course I still have my powers.”

“Maybe you’d feel better if you got up off that cold floor and moved around,” Dana said, offering me her hand.

Maybe she was right. Maybe all this agony was in my head. With super effort, I climbed up on my knees. Then I dropped facedown, cracked my head on the hard cell floor, and passed out cold.