by Harper Lin
“I remember that one. For the forts we’d build in the woods.” She smiled, color almost instantly returning to her cheeks.
“That’s right. I think it ought to work for the time being,” I said with a sigh of relief. “Plus, I don’t think Sheila can stay out until sunrise. I think she has to get back to the room in the Gingerbread House before the sun comes up.” I shook my head.
“Who in the world is Sheila?” Bea asked.
I slapped my forehead as I remembered I hadn’t even told Bea what I learned while hiding in the she-shed at the Gingerbread House. I filled her in about everything except what they wanted Bea’s baby for and that I knew it was going to be a boy.
“So we have to keep your mom safe. This is probably the best place for her,” I mused, looking around Jake’s office. Of course, there was a picture of him and Bea on their wedding day. There was a picture of Bea sitting at their kitchen table, looking all pretty with her curly red hair loose around her face. And there was a picture of Bea, Jake, and me that Aunt Astrid had taken one Christmas when we all wore ugly sweaters. I walked over to the picture and picked it up.
“Where are you going?” Bea asked, propping herself on her elbow.
“To see your mom. You stay here and let the cats and me do the heavy lifting. Right, guys?” Each of them let out a meow, and Peanut Butter gave Bea an affectionate headbutt. It made her smile and scratch him under the chin. Bea was already looking better, and I was happy about that. I went to the desk just outside Jake’s office, where Jake and Blake were going over a thick file.
“Cath, how is she?” Jake asked.
“She’s all right, Jake. Hey, can you take me to my aunt?” I asked, scared to even see what was happening with her.
“She’s in the holding cell,” Jake said.
“With other people? Jake, really?” I gasped. The thought of my wonderful Aunt Astrid sitting with shoplifters and drug dealers and prostitutes made my heart break.
“It’s a quiet night. She’s all alone, except there was one woman who was arrested for drunk and disorderly. She’s sleeping it off in another cell.” Jake shook his head while he got to his feet and walked me to the small cell they had for female prisoners. The men’s holding cell was on the other end of the building.
The rattling of the keys echoed down the concrete hallway. The dead bolt sliding open made a menacing sound that reaffirmed my desire to never be locked up for any reason. As soon as we stepped inside, I saw the bars and heard the shuffle of feet.
“Cath? Oh, Cath. Look what they’ve done to me,” Aunt Astrid said as she shielded her eyes. “I have to get out of here. I have to see Cedar. She’s the only one who can help me.”
“She can’t help you, Aunt Astrid,” I said. “She’s the one who did this to you.”
“What? That’s crazy. That whole group has been nothing but kind to me. They’ve welcomed me and encouraged me and…”
She looked so desperate. I’d never seen my aunt this way. Part of me wanted to cry and throw up my hands. She was always thoughtful and in control, but now she was like a kid who’d lost sight of her parent at an amusement park, frantic and scared. But then there was that part of me that wanted nothing more than to slap those witches back into the Middle Ages where they belonged.
“Aunt Astrid, I need to talk to you about these women,” I said firmly. “They took your vision. They are the ones holding it hostage to get you to join them. Except they aren’t telling you they are the ones responsible.”
“I don’t believe you,” she said.
“Well, of course not. They want you to believe they are just a handful of hippie throwbacks who want to get back to nature and peace, love, and happiness. Well, the Age of Aquarius is over, Aunt Astrid,” I snapped. “They cut your hair to use on their sick altar in the shed.”
“I know that,” Aunt Astrid said.
“What? And you’re okay with it?” I exclaimed. My voice reverberated back to me from the cold slabs of concrete.
“Well, at first, I was put off. But when they told me what it was for, I—”
“They told you what it was for and you’re still okay with it?” I paced back and forth as if I was the one in the cage.
“They said it was for me to see their vision for the future. That anyone new joining their coven sacrificed the same thing. It’s just a couple locks of hair.” Aunt Astrid looked at me as if I was the one with a screw loose.
“No, it’s not just a couple locks of hair. It’s all your hair,” I snapped. “And they are using you because you can see into the other dimensions. You are to be some jacked-up best man at the wedding of the Kly and the witch Sheila, who is outside at this very moment trying to get in here at you and Bea.” I felt as if I had been running for miles and only had a few seconds to rest and get all this out.
“Best man? Cath, you aren’t making any sense,” Aunt Astrid said sadly, as if I was the one acting out of character.
“Aunt Astrid, don’t you find it weird that Cedar and her clan showed up when they did and insisted on having just you join their coven?” I said.
“Cath, if you think I would have intentionally kept you out, you’re crazy. I knew once I got accepted that they’d learn to love you like I do,” Aunt Astrid said. I could tell by her expression that she hadn’t quite convinced herself that statement made any sense.
“But Aunt Astrid, ask yourself why they always wanted you alone. Why did they come to your house when you were just getting up and then stay at your house until it was late?” I took a deep breath. “You have to see that they were working you over. They kept you tired and off balance, and that allowed them to take your vision.” I reached to the bars she was holding tightly and wrapped my hands around hers. “Aunt Astrid, they want Bea’s baby too. And not to be a bunch of cool aunties like me. That won’t even be Bea’s baby if they have their way.”
“I can’t help you, Cath,” Aunt Astrid said. “I can’t even see. Everything is so dull and dreary, and there is no life anywhere.”
“It’s all around you, Aunt Astrid. It didn’t go away just because you can’t see it. People go blind. That doesn’t mean the things they’ve come to love and care for go away. If anything, they become stronger because they are experienced in a different way.” I was getting angry and tightly squeezed my aunt’s hands. “The other senses get stronger, Aunt Astrid. They do.”
For a second, I thought she understood what I was saying. But as quickly as that spark had come, it was gone, and she pulled her hands away, wringing them nervously.
“Jake?” I called.
Behind me, I heard the key clang and clack as he opened the door for me.
“How did it go? I’ve never seen her like this before,” he said. “I don’t think Bea should see her unless you think it might help.”
“No, Jake. I think maybe just a little time and she might come around. I don’t care how smart these witches think they are. They are using basic brainwashing techniques on my aunt. If she gets a little more rest, she might come out of it,” I grumbled. “So, what is this evidence you had come back from the lab?”
“You aren’t going to believe this,” Jake said.
“Try me,” I replied.
“The woman you call Cedar, the blonde. She’s got a criminal record.” Jake shook his head and let out a deep breath.
“What? Let me guess. Practicing witchcraft without a license.” I smirked.
“Not quite. You might want to take a seat,” Jake said. Blake, who was already poring over the new files from the lab and the forensics team, pulled a chair out for me.
21
Aliases
“The crime scene investigation team visited each house on Peabody Street and found a couple of strange similarities at all the places,” Blake said. “First, there were strange symbols drawn in chalk somewhere on each house.”
I nearly choked and looked at Jake. “Did you know this?”
“If I did, I would have never left Bea alone for a
second. The photos came back with them on the houses or on the property somehow.” Jake clenched his jaw. “You can bet we’d be having a completely different discussion had I known about this earlier. It would probably be me behind those bars instead of your aunt, because I would have killed someone.”
I nodded before patting Jake’s hand.
“They don’t make any sense to anyone here,” Blake said, but when he slid the pictures over to me, I thought they looked familiar. Although they weren’t exactly like the one Cedar had scribbled outside Bea’s house, they were close enough. If I’d had to guess, I’d have said these symbols drew some kind of negative energy to each residence in order to get the people to carry out their ugly deeds. I told the guys as much.
“We also found a couple small footprints—women’s size. We are pretty sure we know who they belong to and shouldn’t have a hard time confirming that,” Blake continued. But then he smiled at me. It was one of those confident, all-knowing smiles that I thought were so handsome.
“And?” I asked.
“We’ve got a fingerprint. Actually, we’ve got over a dozen fingerprints from the same person at each house,” Blake said. “After talking to the Stortzes, I found out that although the neighbors all knew each other, they didn’t ever go to each other’s houses.”
“Good fences make great neighbors,” I replied.
“So the fact that there was a set of prints that didn’t match any of the residents was an amazing clue,” Blake said before looking up at his partner.
“And we ran that print through the database and, after a few days, got a hit,” Jake said.
“Cedar Kolowonski,” Blake replied.
“What? I thought her name was Cedar Lott,” I said. “That’s what it said on the business card that she gave me.”
“Oh, she’s got quite a few aliases,” Jake said.
“What’s she been busted for?” I asked. This was not the turn of events I had expected the case to take.
“That’s the real interesting thing,” Blake said. “She’s been busted for public indecency for performing some kind of ritual in the nude in a park in Chicago. Death threats and violating a protective order. Harassment. Animal cruelty. And she was arrested, charged, and did time for kidnapping a pregnant woman, who was found, three days after her disappearance, locked in the basement of a house that was vacant and for sale.”
“I don’t believe it,” I gasped.
“Now our problem is finding her,” Jake said.
“She’s not at the Gingerbread House?” I looked at Blake. “She’s probably out looking for Sheila. It’s getting later and later by the minute. Soon enough, the sun will start to come up. Remember they said she can’t stay out past dawn.”
“Stake out the house?” Blake asked Jake.
“She has no idea she left something so traceable at each scene.” I looked from one guy to the other.
“Sounds good. I want you and Bea and the animals to stay here. No matter what happens,” Jake instructed. “I don’t want to worry about Bea and the baby while I’m trying to make a bust. And just for the record, I—”
Just then, a huge crash shook the entire police station down to the foundation. Earthquakes didn’t happen in Wonder Falls. But pictures fell from the walls, the metal file cabinets rattled, and the blinds on the windows shook. In a flash, Jake was off to check on Bea. I turned to Blake, and suddenly we heard a scream from the cells. It was Aunt Astrid, and she was in trouble.
Blake ran ahead of me, grabbing one of the uniformed officers on duty who had a key for the holding cells on him. In between the sounds of panicked footfalls and shouting, I managed to hear Blake tell the man to get the door open. As soon as he did, he stepped aside for Blake to charge in. I was right behind him but stopped, terrified to take another step forward when I saw Blake’s face.
Was Aunt Astrid dead? Was she hurt? Without taking my eyes off Blake, I walked to his side and carefully peered into the cell. I didn’t know what to think of what I saw. The entire outer wall, which had held the barred, unbreakable window, was not just broken. It was missing entirely. And so was Aunt Astrid.
“Where do you think they’d take her?” Blake whispered.
“You don’t think maybe she did this? Maybe she wanted to join them so badly she busted her way out of here?” I asked, staring at the crumbled bits of concrete and bent iron sticking out of what was left of the wall.
“No. I don’t. I think that thing we saw outside—you know, Sheila? I think this is the fun she wanted to have that Cedar was talking about,” Blake said.
Just when I had thought Aunt Astrid was safe to wait out the storm, the rug was yanked out from under me. Now that I knew the truth about Cedar Kolowonski—that she was a crackpot, third-rate necromancer who was so bad at her craft that she had a police record—I was furious. She’d dug up some ancient witch for a satanic wedding with an interdimensional thing no one had heard of in a million years and was using my aunt to accomplish it. If Aunt Astrid was going to put together any wedding, it was going to be mine.
“If that’s true,” I said, “I think she’ll take her back to the Gingerbread House.”
“That’s what I was thinking,” Blake said. “Are you ready?”
I nodded just as I heard Bea shouting at Jake. “Jake, my mom was down here!”
I rushed over to her. “She’s not here, Bea. They took her,” I said quickly. “But it’s under control. Blake and I will go get her. You stay here.”
All the cats circled around Bea and me.
“I can’t leave my mom,” Bea said, looking terrified.
“Bea, you are a mom. And you have to think of what a mom would do.”
I saw the shift in her eyes as she realized I was right. She squared her shoulders and nodded.
Before she could say anything else, a slew of uniformed cops came down the hallway. All of them were shocked at what they saw. Only a couple had known Aunt Astrid was there, and when they asked about it, Jake handled it.
“This is some kind of kidnapping,” he said, and he wasn’t lying.
Blake took my hand and pulled me through the crowd of cops that had gathered. Treacle came with us, while Marshmallow and Peanut Butter stayed with Bea. She and the baby would need their strength and protection.
“How do we do this?” Blake asked me.
“Well, I’m not sure,” I began as we carefully went outside. I looked everywhere for any sign of Sheila, but I saw nothing out of the ordinary. Nothing stepping from the shadows. Nothing grinning at us with huge, shiny, square teeth. “Are we bringing backup?”
“Not at this point,” Blake said as we got in the car.
“You don’t think that something that could punch in the window to the holding cell of your police station is something we might want to call backup for?” I sighed. Treacle hopped in and stretched out calmly in the back seat. “You don’t look worried either,” I said to the cat.
“They think Aunt Astrid is under their control,” Treacle purred.
“Is there something you know that I don’t?” I asked him as Blake began speeding in the direction of the Gingerbread House.
“No. But we both know Astrid. That should be enough.” His tail flipped wildly.
Treacle was right. My aunt wasn’t easily fooled. Once they told her what she was there for, she’d come to her senses. She had to have heard what I’d said. Right? My aunt had to know I’d never lie to her. She had to know that. No matter what Cedar or Sheila said or what kind of spell they cast over her, Aunt Astrid had to know.
22
Electric Storm
When we pulled up just a block from the Gingerbread House, the entire street looked like the set of a scary movie. The trees looked scraggily. The streetlights barely gave off any light, making only dim circles on the ground. And none of the houses except for the Stortzes’ had any lights on. It was as if they were the only things living on the block besides Blake and me.
“Is it just me, or does thi
s look like an alternate reality?” Blake asked, his voice deep and low. “Like we’re in the right neighborhood but the wrong dimension.”
“That’s exactly what it feels like,” I said.
We got out of the car, and Treacle, as usual, went off toward the house on his own. I knew if I needed him, he’d come. As of right now, Blake and I just needed to see what was going on, although I wasn’t really sure that was what I wanted. As we approached the house, strange sounds were coming from the backyard.
“Do you feel that?” I whispered to Blake as we carefully approached the fence around the Gingerbread House. We stuck to the shadows, crouching so low that my thighs burned with each step.
“It’s like an electric storm is coming,” Blake replied.
All the hair on my arms and up the back of my neck to the top of my head felt like it was standing on end. I knew if I touched anything metal, I’d not just get a shock but see the miniature lightning bolt snap alive as it zapped me.
We finally reached the privacy fence and pressed our backs against it. There were no cracks between the beams through which to see anything. But the top floor of the house was illuminated by what could only be a crackling fire. Except the glow wasn’t orange like it should have been but a sickly green color. The stench from the shed permeated the air—decay and illness and unsavory things all lumped together. The smell had filled the small space of the shed, but what was causing the whole yard to reek like this?
I turned around and frantically searched for a crack in the fence to peek through. I had to see if my aunt was in there somewhere. But the fence was fit together tightly. Not even a small ray of light slipped through anywhere.
“We can’t see anything,” I whispered.
Blake shook his head and shrugged. “Give me a minute to think,” he said.
But I didn’t want to wait a minute. With every minute that slipped by, my aunt could be slipping deeper under their spell. Or she could be getting more and more scared, wondering whether anyone was going to come and help her. Without her vision, she wasn’t herself. How could she be expected to defend herself against these broom riders?
