by D L Blade
I found myself hyperventilating as I took a step back.
“Did you … did you go … go to my school?”
Act like you’re not scared out of your freaking mind, Mercy.
“I don’t understand. How do you know my name?”
“We met a long time ago, but your memory of me no longer exists. I tracked you down tonight and was waiting for you to be alone after that boy left.”
“Did you mess with my car?” I asked. Tears welled up in my eyes and I couldn’t stop the uncontrollable shaking.
He didn’t answer. His intense gaze was fixated on me, as if he had been analyzing every detail of my face.
This time I stepped back, thinking if I ran fast enough, I could run from behind the bench and get to my car before he could stop me. It was as if he could read my thoughts; he moved forward, grabbed my arm in a tight grip and pulled me toward his chest. He looked down at me, brushing the hair away from my eyes and tucking it behind my ears.
“I’ve missed you,” he said softly as he slowly lowered me down to the bench again next to us.
Oh my God, he’s crazy.
The look he gave me—as if I meant something to him—shook me to the core.
“Please don’t hurt me.” I closed my eyes as if I were anticipating a blow. Tears stung my eyes.
“I already told you, I’m not going to hurt you.” I heard a frustrated grunt and sigh come from him. “Open your eyes, Mercy, and look at me.”
My eyes shot open.
“You’re in danger and it’s not from me. Someone has been following you. I’m here to protect you.” He slowly released his grip and gave us some space.
“I don’t want your help. I don’t know you.” My voice cracked.
Oh God, Riley. Please come back.
He let out another frustrated grunt. “Mercy, you really need to relax and trust me. I know it’s hard, but I am the only one you can trust right now.” I couldn’t believe what he was saying. He was a stalker and I had to get away from him. He must have seen me eyeing my car, because he gripped my wrist again, keeping me from moving.
“Now, we can chat out here, or we can drive over to the other side of the cove and talk over coffee. I say coffee.”
“I … I …”
“Look, I knew if I approached you with Lily or your friends around, there’d be more questions than answers I’m willing to give them. This is the first time I’ve been able to get you alone. Now, let’s get in my car and drive to the other side where the bar is. You can come willingly, or I can make you.”
Screw this guy.
I bent down quickly, grabbed a long, thick branch, and brought it hard against his head. He fell to the ground, so I bolted toward the forest.
I didn’t get far before I felt my body lunge forward and my legs kick back. His grip on my ankle caused me to wince.
“Mercy, stop running, dammit. I can explain everything if you just stop freaking the hell out.”
I kicked him in the face with my other leg until he let go and I got back to my feet, now sprinting deeper into the forest.
Where am I going to go?
All I knew was this guy was not someone I wanted to be alone with. I may not have seen anyone else out there, but I hoped someone would hear me and help me.
“Help!” I screamed as loud as I could. I just needed to lock myself in the truck and call the police.
When I turned around, he was nowhere to be seen. A heavy sigh escaped as I eyed Lily’s truck about a hundred feet ahead. I looked around one more time and then sprinted to the truck. Once inside, I locked it and pulled my phone out of my pocket. My phone had been turned off.
This is going to take too long.
He would reach me before my phone powered on. I powered it on anyway and put my hands back on the keys which were still in the ignition. I tried again. The car didn’t make a sound.
Please turn on, please turn on.
I gripped the keys so tightly that the house key was digging into my palm. “Turn on!” The feeling of electricity sparked in my hand, followed by a green light from my fingertips. I quickly removed my hand and the car started up.
What the hell?
The shock of what had just happened stunned me. I couldn’t move or think straight.
I sensed movement ahead coming out of the forest and I looked up. He was standing there. His sleeves were now pulled up to his elbows, revealing his muscular arms. My eyes narrowed down to his wrist, revealing a red flame tattoo that reached from his wrist to his elbow. My stomach churned and I felt like throwing up. It was him; it was the man who had pulled me from my car after the accident.
I knew I should have driven straight to the cops, but I didn’t. I was too scared to stop. After about an hour of driving around, making sure he wasn’t tailing me, I pulled into my driveway and ran into the house, screaming for Lily.
She bolted down the stairs, catching herself on the railing as she missed a couple steps, and ran into the kitchen. She must have seen the mascara smudged all over my face and the scrapes I now had from the being chased and attacked by my stalker. Fear was the only expression on her face.
I told Lily what had happened and of course she was more concerned with my safety than the fact that I left with her truck so soon after my accident.
She called the police and they arrived at the house to take my statement. They asked me to come to the police station the next day to give a description of him to a sketch artist.
“We’ll find him, ma’am,” Officer Bolton assured me. I knew there was no way they could guarantee that, though.
Who knows how long this guy had been watching me or how long he planned to play this game? He also wasn’t what I pictured a stalker would look like, that’s for sure. He was handsome and charming, but then again, the devil himself was the master of deception.
I sat next to Lily and nodded when the officer asked me questions. I did my best to explain what had happened and I even mentioned the incident during my accident the day before. I mentioned to the officer that I had seen someone watching me a few times this week, and about the incident at the hospital. Lily told me how sorry she was for not believing me. I left out the part about what happened with my hands at the park. I didn’t believe it myself.
Did I really start the car with some green glow from my hands? That isn’t even possible. Things like that don’t exist.
After the police left, I sat down with Lily at the kitchen table. “It was the same guy who pulled me from the car. It wasn’t a dream.”
“You’re not to be alone, okay? I will make sure we have the same work shift so you don’t have to open the café by yourself.” Lily grabbed a new bottle of wine from the cabinet and popped off the cork, slowly pouring her wine of choice, Cabernet Sauvignon, into her glass.
Lily sat back down at the table and I shook my head. “I can’t make you change your schedule for me,” I said.
“Are you kidding me? My job as your legal guardian is to protect you. Once we close shop, have Riley or someone pick you up and stay with them until I can get home. The paperwork and accounting won’t take me more than an hour.” She placed her hand near mine, which was resting on the table. “They’ll find him, okay? We will go to the police station tomorrow morning so you can give the sketch artist a description.”
I stood up and walked over to my phone that had been charging. I unhooked my phone from the charger, walked toward the stairs and turned to Lily. “I need to sleep. Can we talk about this in the morning?”
“Of course we can. Get some rest.” She walked up to me and grabbed my hand, squeezing it softly. I didn’t pull away. I didn’t flinch or feel uneasy.
This is good. I feel safe.
I squeezed her hand back and gave her a warm smile. “Night, Lily.”
When I entered my room, I plugged my phone into the charger again, set it on my nightstand, and pulled out my pajamas from my drawer.
Ugh, I probably look like hell.
I r
emoved my clothes by my bed and tossed them into the hamper in the corner of my room. I smelled so bad after today that I couldn’t just crawl into bed, so I decided a much-needed shower was in order. Entering the bathroom, I grabbed the hooks to my necklace but then stopped, now glancing up at the mirror. My heart leaped out of my chest. The only messes on my body were a few twigs and dirt from when I fell in the forest. I turned around to view my backside and saw nothing. I examined every part of me, but my skin was flawless, just like what I had witnessed at the hospital.
“How is it possible?” I asked out loud, still not believing what I was seeing in the mirror.
“Magic,” a familiar voice calmly spoke behind me.
I screamed and jumped back, banging my back against the towel rack. I winced but didn’t take my eyes off him. It was him, standing in my bathroom doorway. I quickly covered my chest, standing there in all my nakedness. He had a grin on his face, but kept his eyes locked on mine. I quickly grabbed the towel off the hook next to me and covered myself up again.
“Lily!” I screamed so loudly I probably popped a blood vessel in my eye.
“She won’t hear you. I put up a shield around your room.” He kept his eyes focused on mine.
“A shield? What are you talking about, you freak?” I shouted.
I backed up another foot, but closer to the shower, and looked around for anything that could be used as a weapon. I grabbed a soap dispenser from the counter and threw it toward his head, but he only moved to the side, letting it land on the floor behind him.
He huffed and shook his head. “Really, Mercy?”
I screamed Lily’s name again.
Caleb lifted his left hand and pointed to the walls that I now noticed were radiating with a blue glow. My jaw dropped open.
“Go ahead. Put your hand on it.”
I blinked at him and then looked back at the blue light. I placed my fingers on the light and felt a surge of energy push my hand back lightly, but I was still able to linger my fingertips on the surface of the light. The light grew brighter the longer my fingers were on it. The inexplicable sight in front of me defied all laws of physics.
“That shield is around your entire room. You can’t leave, no one can come in, and no one can hear us.”
My heartbeat picked up, creating an unnerving feeling in my stomach.
“What are you? How are you doing this?” I looked back around the room at the luminous, blue light. He reached behind the door of the bathroom and grabbed my robe. He tossed it toward me and I caught it.
“Put this on. We need to talk.” He turned toward my bed, leaving me in the bathroom. I watched him take a seat on the foot of my mattress, making himself at home.
After about a minute of slow and steady breathing to calm my nerves, I wrapped and secured the robe around my body and wiggled the towel down, letting it fall to my feet. If he wanted to kill or rape me, he would have done it by now. I had decided to give him just a little bit of my trust. I needed another minute, so I paced my breath again, never taking my eyes off him and clutching my robe.
After I felt calm enough to enter my bedroom, where he was waiting for me, I moved toward the bed he was sitting on, but stopped before I reached him. I eyed the bench connected to my bay window and decided I’d feel safer over there. He chuckled as I moved as far away as I could. I took a seat, not taking my eyes off him. He, too, was watching me closely.
I looked around the room and saw more of the blue light surrounding the walls. It was so beautiful, but also terrifying.
“Who are you and what is happening?” I asked him with a trembling voice.
“I came here to protect you, Mercy. I’m sorry I scared you in the process, but I didn’t know how else to just come out and tell you everything.”
I looked around the room again at the blue light. I was seeing something that seemed completely impossible and beyond my understanding. I allowed my mind to open to the possibility that whatever he was about to tell me might have some truth to it.
“Why did you leave me injured after my accident? I know it was you,” I said boldly, raising my brow.
“I was tracking you in my car when I saw you swerve into the forest. I know about your healing powers, so I knew you’d be okay, but you weren’t healing fast enough; not how you used to. The last thing we need is for the police to become involved and ask questions. I heard someone open their door across the street, so I took off before they could see me with you. I’m so sorry. I hated seeing you hurt like that.”
“I have healing powers?” I asked, now thinking about every injury that had occurred in the past week that had unnaturally disappeared within hours.
“You were born with magic that can allow your body to heal itself within minutes, sometimes seconds. When I saw you weren’t healing at the accident as fast as you used to be able to, I realized you had no idea the power you held. I believe your mother was taking that power from you your entire life and shielded you from knowing who you were.”
“My mother?” My pulse picked up again.
What does he know about my mom?
I closed my eyes tightly. I felt like the room was spinning now and I couldn’t keep my eyes open without falling over.
I heard him speaking, but I couldn’t look up.
“She was using her own magic to take away all of your powers so you could have a normal life.”
“None of this is making sense to me.” I looked down and touched the soft, pink flesh on my chest. “But my scar? My mom stabbed me right through the chest and it didn’t heal. I have a mark to prove it.”
“She must have laced it with magic. It’s the only way it could have penetrated your skin the way it did without your body healing around the blade.”
I removed my hand from my scar.
Hearing the words “powers” and “magic” only caused my mind to race again. I found myself staring at the wall, as if I weren’t even in this conversation anymore.
My head was so out of focus, I hadn’t noticed he was now standing right in front of me until I heard his voice. “Mercy, are you okay?” he asked, leaning down toward me and lifting my chin with the tip of his finger.
I finally snapped out of it and saw him looking down at me with concern in his eyes. I opened my mouth to speak, but nothing came out. I took a few deep breaths to help slow down my heartbeat and finally found the question I’d been too afraid to ask.
“What am I?”
The smile on his face was one of pride and sincerity. “You’re a witch.”
I blinked at him several times and leaned back, shaking my head and whispering to myself, “Of course I am.” I looked up, sighing with relief.
He noticed my reaction. “You knew? Or at least, a part of you did.”
“Several times growing up, I felt different. I didn’t notice I was healing or a green glow shooting out of my hands. But there were times I would feel this energy in my body whenever I’d get upset, though it wasn’t adrenaline. As a kid I would play make-believe that I was a witch and had these crazy powers whenever I felt them, but then the feelings would fade. I guess that was my mom’s doing.” I closed my eyes again, tears stinging my eyes. “I thought at times I was just crazy, or it was my imagination. When I got older, my mom told me about my ancestors, how we were descendants of some of the accused in Salem, but she told me they weren’t real witches. There was a part of me that believed they were real. I tried to deny it because it scared me.”
He smiled. “May I?” He gestured to the bench I was sitting on.
I didn’t say yes, but I moved over a few inches, allowing him to sit. He leaned back against the bay window, keeping his eyes on me.
“I’m going to tell you a story about five children born in 1674.”
I lowered my brow. “My ancestors?”
“Not exactly.”
I looked at him curiously. “Okay, I’m listening.”
“There were five special covens that lived in Salem from five different bloo
dlines, and each of them was blessed with the gift of a child. The children were each born with gifts that would help other witches with their magic.”
He brought his hand to my neckline and I flinched. I realized what he was going to do and relaxed, letting him grab the jet stone necklace around my neck. He rubbed the symbol with his thumb and smiled. “You were so powerful back then.”
It took me a moment to realize what he was implying.
“You’re lying,” I snapped.
“I have no reason to lie to you. We were born on March 2, 1674. Our mission was to train and be soldiers. The five of us were called the Chosen Ones. After we turned ten years old, we formed our own coven. Eight years later, we would go through what was called an Awakening. It happens when we turn eighteen on the minute we were born. An Awakening is when a witch gains all their powers to their fullest. As children, having that kind of power is dangerous, so witches aren’t given all their powers at birth. Our coven decided that once we gained all of our powers, we would do another ritual right after, to make ourselves immortal, so we could live our lives protecting other witches and the humans on Earth.”
“How do I not remember any of this? Do I suffer from amnesia or something?” I was now rambling, as so many questions entered my mind. “I mean, I have clear memories of myself as a kid, here in East Greenwich. Am I really that old? Does that mean my mom, Lily, and Joel have lied to me my entire life? Did they just create this story that I was born in Greenwich and—”
“No, Mercy.” He stopped my questions in their tracks. “You do not understand what I’m telling you.” His face looked pained as he closed his eyes. He brought his hand over to mine again and squeezed, opening his eyes again. “You died before your Awakening.”
My eyes grew wide and my jaw dropped slightly.
“It took me centuries to find a spell to bring you back. I finally had everything I needed to reincarnate you into this life.”
I couldn’t find the words to speak. I was trying to wrap my mind around what he had just told me. If this was true, there was an entire life I had experienced that I knew nothing about.
