by Chase Connor
Shepard Bachman, like myself, was an out and proud male actor from Hollywood, there to enjoy all of the hedonism the island had to offer. Possibly more famous than myself, Shepard had a few years on me, as far as careers go, so he’d had more time to work on his stock. He’d starred in more movies—even some of those superhero movies that make a billion dollars worldwide—and had the clout that made everyone desire him. When I had walked into the club with my “friends” and went to the VIP area to sit down at our reserved banquette, people noticed. When Shepard walked into the club, it was like a parting of the Red Sea. People didn’t just notice—they were starstruck.
One way or another, he had ended up sitting next to me at my table, trading war stories, sipping obscenely expensive cocktails and champagne, laughing like he hadn’t a care in the world. Maybe he didn’t. I wasn’t Shepard. I only knew the troubles of Jacob Michaels. For hours that night, we talked, laughed, drank too many drinks, popped a couple tabs of Ecstasy—the good stuff, none of that crap cut with meth—and danced like we expected the morning to bring about the end of the world. Within hours, pictures of us together would end up on blogs and tabloid sites, even some of the more reputable news sites. However, in those hours together, the world ceased to exist.
At the end of the night, in the wee morning hours, as everyone was leaving the club and my handlers were trying to shove me into my waiting vehicle, Shepard had proposed that we carry on the festivities. He could come to my hotel, or I could go to his. As soon as this suggestion met my ears, a vision of green eyes flashed through my mind, and I couldn’t think of anything else but how nauseated the thought of sleeping with Shepard Bachman made me. Instead of answering, I merely stared at Shepard as though he was the most disgusting thing I had ever seen, and as the remnants of my Ecstasy induced euphoria coursed through my veins, I allowed my security to shove me into the waiting SUV.
As we drove away, Shepard staring after my car quizzically, all I could do was lower my head so that I wouldn’t be sick.
“Fine.” Oma shrugged, as though the world wasn’t literally falling down around us. “Let’s get down to business.”
Oma turned to head into the house, as though this one sentence was enough to make us trust her enough to enter the house with her.
“Excuse me.” I raised my hand, though her back was turned. “Crazy person? Yeah. You?”
Oma turned to glare at me, her hands going to her hips again.
“Last time I was in that house with you,” I reminded her, “you tried to make sure I could never leave again. What on God’s green Earth makes you think that I am going to step one foot in that house again?”
“Do ya’ think you’re safer out here, wise ass?” She asked sharply.
“Rob.” Lucas grabbed my hand.
“Hold on, Lucas.” I tried to stop him as nicely as possible. “Oma…Lady…how do we know that we’re safe going in there with you? I don’t trust you any further than I can throw you right now.”
“Do you feel safe out here?” She barked.
“Absolutely not.” I shrugged. “But at least I can see what’s coming out here in the open. How do we know you don’t have Jason and his wolves in there waiting to jump us? Or Bloody Bones himself.”
I felt Lucas shiver next to me, his hand clenching mine tightly.
“Lord,” Oma rolled her eyes, her neck rolling back so she could look up to the heavens for guidance, “you’d think with your memory gone, you’d still have common sense, Robbie.”
Lucas squeezed my hand, stopping me from answering before he could.
“Meaning what?” He asked quickly.
“Meaning that if I wanted either one of you idiots dead,” She waggled her head at us, “you’d be dead. I didn’t protect y’all from them idiots of Jason’s pack just to have them kill you tonight. And I didn’t fuck with your memories just to prolong your sufferin’. But if you ain’t gonna come in the house like a couple of sensible people, you ain’t gonna know nothin’ else than what you know right now. You can stand out here until Bloody Bones shows up and kills you both deader than shit. I’ll stand here and watch. Might even make me happy to see it, the way you’re treatin’ me now.”
“You just confessed to fucking with our memories, Oma.” I snapped at her before Lucas could stop me. “How, exactly, are we the ones treating you poorly?”
“Let it go, Rob.” Lucas shook his head.
“Listen to your boyfriend.” Oma snorted.
“No.” I stammered and pulled my hand out of Lucas’.
Oma watched me as I took a step closer towards the porch and looked up at her. To Lucas’ credit, he didn’t try to stop me from getting closer to Oma, nor did he tell me to watch what I said to her either. He knew that I had to do what I had to do, so he didn’t try to intervene. Bonus points for Lucas. Oma just crossed her arms over her chest again and stared down the steps from her perch a few feet above me as I approached the porch.
“Tell me why you messed with our heads first.” I jabbed a finger up at her, making her wince. “Tell me that first. I thought I understood what was going on with why we didn’t have our memories—or we didn’t have the right memories…or whatever—but now I don’t know that I know anything that’s correct. I need you to tell me why this is going on before I’ll trust you enough to go in that house for even a second, Oma.”
“I think that’s fair.” Lucas sighed from behind me. “And I’d really like to know myself.”
Oma sighed, her arms dropping to her sides.
“Because, ya’ damn fool,” She tried to hiss, but her heart wasn’t in it, “I was trying to keep you out of this fight until you had a real chance of winnin’ it, wasn’t I?”
“How would I know?”
“Well, that’s the truth.” She nodded firmly. “You forgot a lot of shit because of your own doin’. Not mine. Maybe I put the idea in your head, but it was still your own doin’. But, okay, so I’ve intervened since you got back. It was obvious that you being back here was undoin’ your piddly ass magic and wishes, and something had to be done. I’ve done all I could to run you back out of this town. You shouldn’t be standin’ here right now lookin’ up at me with all of this sass. You should be off gettin’ stronger—just like I thought you would. I figured if we kept you alive a little bit longer, maybe if your magic developed a little bit more—you got a little more mature and less careless—you might live to end up in a nursing home before you hit the grave. But you came back—and it was obvious that threw a wrench in the works. So…I’ve done what I’ve had to do to try to get you back on the right path. The one that doesn’t end in more death than necessary.”
“Well,” I shrugged, though I felt chastened for some reason, “Here we are. I’m back, and there’s no leaving now. What does that mean?”
“Ask him.” Oma jabbed a finger at Lucas. “He’s seen it.”
Turning to look at Lucas, I could see how pale he had gotten.
“Fire and death, right, Lucas?” Oma asked as I stared at my boyfriend. “You knew wise-ass here was comin’ back, and you saw destruction. Tell him. Tell him he’s an idiot for returning.”
“Lucas?” I whispered.
He just looked up at me, all of the color drained from his face.
“Is that true?” I asked quietly.
“I saw a possibility, Rob.” He stated softly. “That’s all. I don’t see absolutes. Anything can change, I guess.”
Oma snorted, and a cackle erupted from her throat. Whipping my head around, I glared up at her.
“What’s so funny, asshole?”
“You make wishes, and this one sees possibilities.” She shook her head, ruefully. “Shit in one hand and wish in the other—see which one fills up first, why don’tcha?”
“What are you babbling on about now?” I barked.
“Your boyfriend there knows as well as I do that what he’s seen is what’s to come,” Oma stated with finality. “Now it’s just a matter of what all that fire and dea
th means. How much fire? How much death? All we can do now is try to control how far it spreads. We can’t stop it.”
“Mrs. Wagner.” Lucas sighed from behind me. “I didn’t specifically see any of you dying. I didn’t see anything particular on fire. You’re assuming that the destruction I saw involved this town. And us. It could mean his destruction.”
The fact that Lucas refused to say the name of the man in the black hooded cloak let me know how terrified he was.
“I can’t argue that.” She relented with a sniff. “But, I still call bullshit.”
“Something up here,” She tapped her finger against her temple, “told you that Rob was coming back—weeks before even I knew—and it told you that was bad. If the destruction and death you was seeing was Bloody Bones, it wouldn’t have filled you with a sense of terror now, would it?”
“Maybe not.” Lucas agreed. “But anytime I sense something bad is going to happen, I’m bound to not feel good one way or the other, right?”
“Suppose.” She stated simply.
Looking back at Lucas was something I hadn’t been able to do as they discussed what Lucas had seen—somewhere in the deep recesses of his mind where his magic worked. Knowing that Lucas knew things that I didn’t and not knowing how he decided to interpret them made me uneasy. How did I know if what he saw and how he felt about it was accurate? Even more importantly, I couldn’t look and see if my boyfriend was still ashen-faced and uneasy. I didn’t want to see the look on his face that told me that he expected doom for us all. Knowing that Bloody Bones was coming was bad enough. Having it painted all over Lucas’ face and seeing how scared that made him was too much.
“So,” Oma continued, “I answered your question. We goin’ inside or we all gonna sit down for a spell and wait for Bloody Bones to show up and do what he’s comin’ to do? Y’all’s choice.”
My mouth desired to spit a few more expletives and insults back and forth with Oma before I even thought about going into her house once again. However, a gust of wind blew in from the direction of Point Worth proper, carrying what could only be the sound of a wolf howling with it. Shivering, I turned to look back at the town in the distance. Of course, all I could see was the vague lights that came from town. Lucas followed my lead, his head turning to look off toward town as well.
Lights, like we were used to seeing, were not what greeted us on the dark horizon. It wasn’t large streetlights casting their hazy glow over Point Worth—it was red and yellow flickering light. Like fire. I gasped as Lucas began to shiver. I couldn’t help but wonder if Oma hadn’t already seen the fire behind us as we fought in front of her porch, yet refused to say anything. Maybe she hadn’t wanted us to look back and see for ourselves that what Lucas had seen had come to pass. Was that her trying to distract us from finding out because she had something nefarious in mind…or did she just figure it didn’t matter? Was she trying to hide more things from us, or unconcerned with everything now that everything was falling apart?
Why worry about fire when there’re no firemen?
“Well?” Oma barked, causing Lucas and me to snap our heads back around to look at her.
“Point Worth is on fire,” I said simply, my gut slowly traveling towards my knees as I stood there.
“Can’t get nothin’ past you, can we?” Oma rolled her eyes and turned towards the house.
“Oma?” I whispered.
“Ya’ got two choices, Rob,” Oma said over her shoulder, pausing for a moment. “Stay out here and watch your hometown burn—and not be able to do anything about it—or get in here, and maybe we can save something.”
Then she went into the house. Not another word about me being a wise-ass, no threats, no demands. Oma simply walked into the house, either confident we would follow as she wished, or simply not caring. Of course, with Point Worth on fire, there being no way for Lucas and me to leave Point Worth, and Bloody Bones coming…what else would we do? What else could be done? It truly didn’t matter—as far as the town was concerned at that moment—whether or not Lucas and I followed her. So, she was willing to go inside and wait for us to make up our minds one way or another.
“Rob.” Lucas sighed from behind me.
I turned to look at him. “Yeah?”
He wasn’t ashen-faced or terrified anymore. He just looked sad.
“Get in the car.” He said. “There’s enough gas to get you out of town. Don’t stay here. Maybe you can…I don’t know…get far enough away that you’ll have time to figure something out? Maybe you can figure out how to do something about…him…if you have time. But if you stay here, I’m afraid of what’s going to happen.”
For the space of several breaths, I stared at Lucas.
“What happens if I don’t stay?” I stared into his eyes.
Those green eyes that held nothing but kindness. Now they looked defeated. Resigned. He had accepted something.
“The same thing,” He shrugged, “except you won’t be one of the casualties.”
“Will you?” I asked. “And I can’t believe I’m asking this, but will Oma?”
I jabbed a thumb over my shoulder at the house.
“Not that I care.” I looked away.
“I only know how this ends if you stay.” He whispered.
“Specifically?” My eyebrow raised precipitously.
“Well…I mean, no. Of course not. But there’s already fire, and—”
I stepped up to Lucas, silencing him. Doing my best to be reassuring, I smiled and took his face in my hands.
“I’m a fireman,” I whispered. “Remember?”
A small smile came to his face.
“Yeah.” He nodded. “I said that. Somehow, at the time, I didn’t really think this day would come, though, babe.”
Looking past him, over his shoulder, I looked off toward town, the red and yellow light showing over the tops of the trees still. In fact, I was pretty sure that the fire was growing. Soon, it might even consume the whole town. Maybe it would work its way to Oma’s. It didn’t matter.
“The day came.” I shrugged dismissively. “I say we go in there, find out what the crazy old lady has to say, and we face this together. Because if I leave—and you stay—and I lose you, there’s no way I could face it alone. If I know my final day is coming, I want it to be with you. Okay?”
Lucas nodded. “Okay. I just want you to know that I wouldn’t be upset if you ran away. Because you can.”
“Oh, please.” I gave him a quick kiss, then grabbed his hand, pulling him towards the house. “You’d hold it over me as long as you could.”
“I would totally fight you in Hell.” He agreed with a laugh.
“What?” I laughed as we began climbing the porch stairs. “You still don’t think we’d get into Heaven?”
Lucas turned at the top of the stairs to look out at the fire raging in Point Worth.
“I think we’re too used to Hell to ever do well in Heaven, babe.”
“Fair enough.” I kissed him quickly again. “You ready?”
“Yeah.” He nodded.
“Are you two gonna suck face out there all day or are we gonna do this?” Oma bellowed from somewhere inside the house. “I’m too old to be waitin’ around this long for anybody—even you two.”
I rolled my eyes, and Lucas laughed, but hand in hand, we entered Oma’s house, prepared for whatever awaited. No matter what that thing was, we were going to meet it together.
Chapter 9
Oma was standing in the living room, hands on her hips, and though the lights were all out, I could see enough to know that she was alone. There was no one waiting with her, ready to jump out and attack Lucas and me as we entered the house. My first thought was to be a smart mouth and tell her to turn on a damn light so I could see all of her liver spots, but then I realized the lights might have been off for other reasons. With Point Worth on fire, Bloody Bones returning—and what was probably turning out to be the first stage of an apocalypse, lines were probably down all
over town. Even if Oma wanted, the house might not have any power. For curiosity’s sake, I reached over and flipped the switch on the wall. The darkness remained.
“I ain’t standin’ in the dark for my health,” Oma said simply.
“Just checking,” I replied.
“The power’s out, genius.”
“Got it.”
“Rob.” Lucas squeezed my hand. “Mrs. Wagner. Let’s just stop fighting and being hateful. We’re here so you can help us in any way that you can. But most of all, we need you to fix whatever you did to our memories. All of the fighting and insults are getting us nowhere.”
“Fine.” Oma threw her hands up in the air. “I guess I can keep from insulting smart mouth over here for a few minutes.”
“Stop,” I said.
Oma seemed to deflate, obviously unsure of what to do if she wasn’t allowed to use her arsenal of hatred and insults.
“Well,” Oma said, “I guess the best thing I can do is start with telling you about Bloody Bones. Well, reminding you, I guess.”
“Why’s that?” Lucas answered for us, causing me to glance over at him.
“Because that’s where this all starts and ends.” Oma waved him off. “Do the two of you remember the legend of Bloody Bones…or is that something your tiny little brains squeezed out when the genius over here made his wishes?”
“His wishes?” Lucas shook his head. “I don’t really remember that.”
“I don’t either.” I shrugged. “Not really. I mean…I remember that I made wishes…for some reason. But whatever you’ve done has made it hazy. I don’t think I remember it for real.”
“Well,” Oma sighed, “old as I am, I don’t know everything, but—”
“Imagine that,” I mumbled.
Oma shot me a look, and Lucas gave me a disapproving, though amused look, but neither of them said anything.
“But,” Oma glowered at me, “I know enough. Wish I had the book so I could tell it properly, but someone took it.”
“The book?” Lucas perked up. “The book Rob had? It’s in the car!”
Lucas started to move, as if to run for the car to retrieve the book, but Oma held a hand up.
