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Rather than driving to school, I headed to the forest, to Lucius, trying my best to remember the way. He’d been ready and anxious to talk to me when I’d given him Bo’s final message. I was curious to see what he had to say now.
Getting to the right spot along the road to stop and enter the forest wasn’t the difficult part of my journey. Bo had parked just beyond a sign about littering that someone had spray painted obscene symbols all over. I wasn’t likely to forget that marker. No one probably did.
No, it was the forest itself that gave me a fit. I couldn’t imagine how I’d found it so easily the night of Bo’s death, because today I felt like I was walking in circles. Everything looked the same. Just when I thought I was making progress, I’d run into something that I’d already seen once or twice.
Finally, just before I was about to give up, I widened my path further to the right and came upon the huge boulder that Lars had staked Bo to. It still gave me chills to look at it, although it wasn’t as devastating now that I believed Bo was alive. Twenty-four hours ago, I wouldn’t have been able to stand the sight of it.
Within ten minutes of finding the rock, I found the cabin that was my destination. I hesitated before walking up on the small porch. I was just about to reconsider my impulsive visit, a tiny doubt niggling at my brain, telling me I was wrong, that Bo wasn’t alive. I was suddenly afraid that Lucius would tell me that Bo was never coming back, rather than confirm that what I’d felt had been real. I didn’t think I could survive that soul-crushing loss again.
Turning back was no longer an option, however, when a quiet whoosh broke into my musing. The cabin door opened and Lucius stood just inside. We stared at each other for a couple of long, tense minutes before he stepped aside and swept one arm in front of him, beckoning me in.
Taking a deep breath, I walked into the tiny above-ground living area, the one I liked to think of as a decoy, and turned to look back at Lucius.
“You know,” he said simply.
I felt like crying again, but this time for joy. Those two words, they said all that needed to be said, all that I needed so desperately to hear. Bo was alive.
I nodded.
“That’s why I wanted to talk to you the night it happened. There are things you need to know.”
“What kinds of things?”
“Things about Bo, about who he is.”
“What do you mean? I know who Bo is.”
“No, I’m afraid you don’t.”
“Lucius, what are you trying to say?”
He paused. “Bo’s not who you think he is. Bo’s doesn’t even know who he really is.”
I had no idea what to say to that. I had only questions, hundreds of questions.
Lucius looked at me and nodded, as if in understanding. “Come with me,” he said, walking to the door that led to the cabin’s luxurious basement. “I’ll tell you everything I know.”
