by Jerry Hart
Nikki sat for a moment in silence, then smiled slyly. “Boys are all the same. You all think your dads are the best at everything.”
Owen laughed. For the first time in twenty-four hours, he felt good. He thought talking about his dad would be depressing, but it was having the opposite effect.
“All right,” Nikki said, “I guess you do have a past, but it’s foggier than any I’ve ever seen on a person. You’re a mystery, Owen Walters.”
“More mysterious than Michael?”
“I’d say equally mysterious, but he has an excuse: He isn’t here before me and you are.”
“What about you?” Owen asked. “What’s your story?”
Nikki shook her head. “You don’t want to know my past. It’s boring.”
“Try me.”
Nikki sighed. “Let’s just say things didn’t work out at home. My dad left when I told him my mom was having an affair.”
“An affair?” Owen had heard most of this already, but he liked talking with her.
“Yep. All I had to do was hear her voice to know it. I was only a little girl. If I had been a little older,” Nikki said, “I wouldn’t have said anything at all.”
Owen nodded. “Nikki, about that thing you said to Chris, about our monster-hunting group not being a good idea.”
“Yes.” She raised her eyebrows.
“What made you say that?”
Owen suddenly remembered how she had reminded Chris of something she’d told him long ago, before the group was officially formed: that doing so would be a terrible idea. Ever since Chris, Owen and Alyssa joined Daniel’s softball team, the Unstoppable Titans, they’d lost every game.
And now Daniel and Alyssa were dead.
“I just saw it. It’s something I like to call the Quartet’s Curse. When four people with certain abilities get together for a common goal, they are doomed to fail at it. And their failure always proved lethal.”
“The Quartet’s Curse?” Owen grinned.
“When you meet and help as many people as I have,” Nikki said, adjusting herself in her seat, “you see a lot of things. Links to here and there. It took me a while to see the pattern, but yes, I have met a lot of people who have fallen into this curse.”
“Wait, what do you mean by ‘abilities’?”
“You should know by now, Owen.” Nikki said nothing else after that.
* * *
It was 8 p.m. and there were at least a dozen people in the “waiting room” of the gift shop. Owen made his way through the crowd and outside onto the fairgrounds. He was standing in the middle of the old abandoned amusement park, where Nikki had made her home and read fortunes. There was an old Ferris wheel on his right and a carousel on his left. A few more people were making their way through the entrance of the park, having paid the way at the box office. At first Owen wasn’t sure why he’d come outside in the first place. Then he remembered.
He wanted to speak to Darlington.
Owen walked across the relatively dark grounds and knocked on the door to the box office. He waited for over a minute, but there was no answer. He walked around to the front and tried looking through the window, but the inside was too dark to make out much: All he could see was a brief image of a ghostly white figure staring back at him.
“Hey,” Owen said to the figure as more people approached the box office behind him. “Can we talk?”
The figure didn’t respond. Owen stepped aside to let two girls and a guy pay admission. A long, pale hand reached out through a slot in the window to collect their money. After the kids left, Owen jumped back to the box office.
“It’s just, I don’t really know you and I wanted to fix that,” he said kindly. “It must get lonely out here. Have you ever had anyone try to sneak in?”
No response.
Owen was getting nowhere with this guy. He wasn’t even sure why he felt the need to try to connect with him. He gave up, waved goodbye and walked back into the park.
“He doesn’t talk at all,” Nikki told Owen after he told her about his attempt to speak with Darlington. “Why did you try talking to him anyway?”
“I don’t know. Something just told me to go out there. How did you two meet?”
Nikki smiled, as if remembering something pleasant.
“I met him a few years ago. He saved me; I was being attacked by some weird dog. He was my knight in shining armor, I guess you could say.”
“How did you guys end up here?”
“Oh, this park has a history. I’m guessing Chris told you about that rich kid who built the place a long time ago. Then he just abandoned it and everyone forgot about it. I got tired of living on the streets, though I wasn’t out there for very long. I decided to check the place out. I couldn’t believe it hadn’t been demolished. Just forgotten, I guess.”
“And that’s where you met Chris? On the streets?”
Nikki nodded. “You know,” she said, “it bugs me that your past is so mysterious, that I can’t see into your memories.”
“Me, too,” Owen said.
“I think I might know a way around that.”
“How?”
* * *
Owen was lying flat on a mattress that he assumed was Darlington’s an hour later. Nikki had finished readings for the day. Darlington himself was kneeling next to him and Nikki was standing to the side, watching. Darlington was wearing gray sweatpants and a dirty white T-shirt.
“I’ve never been hypnotized before,” Owen said anxiously.
“It won’t hurt,” Nikki said. “I mean, I don’t think it will. I’ve only seen Darlington do this once.”
Darlington started placing his hands on either side of Owen’s head, causing him to jump up.
“What is he doing?” he demanded.
“That’s how it works,” Nikki said, alarmed. “What’s wrong?”
“Michael did the same thing to me. It’s how he found out how to use the orb. Plus, it hurts, like, a lot.”
Nikki looked from Darlington to Owen, not knowing what to say.
“Well, I doubt it’s exactly the same,” she said. “And, besides, he’s hypnotizing you. He’s not extracting thoughts out of your head.”
Owen still remained upright, staring into the pale, expressionless skeletal face of Darlington. The light from the candles danced off his bald, shiny head. His hands were still held in place, as if cupping an invisible head.
It was difficult to forget the sensation Owen had felt when Michael had done the same thing to him the night before. It was as if Owen’s head had touched a live high-tension wire, only a million times worse.
Slowly he lay back down. Darlington gently grasped the sides of Owen’s head and leaned in closer to his face.
Owen and Darlington looked into each other’s eyes. And now Darlington spoke (his lips weren’t moving), but the words didn’t make any sense. Owen continued to stare into those dark, blank eyes, though. He didn’t care what Darlington was saying. He didn’t really care about anything at that moment. He just let his mind go. He felt like sleeping, but kept his eyes open just the same.
And now Darlington was sitting upright. Owen blinked and looked around. Nikki’s jaw was dropped, her eyes wide.
“What’s wrong?” Owen asked.
“Nothing,” she said, shaking her head.
Owen looked back at Darlington, who was still expressionless.
“I thought he was going to hypnotize me.”
“He just did. You said a lot of things just now.”
Owen was shocked. He didn’t remember saying anything. He had just laid down for a few seconds.
“What did I say?” he asked.
“You said that you didn’t make the orb, but that you know who did.”
He gave her a curious look. “Did I say who it was?”
Nikki nodded.
“Who?”
She took a deep breath and said, “Your father made it.”
* * *
Nikki paced back and forth i
n the room, having told Owen what he had just revealed in his hypnotic state. And he was not taking it well.
“There’s no way he made it. I remember doing it myself.”
“Well, I’m just telling you what you told me,” she replied.
“Did I say anything else?”
She shook her head, but she was lying. Owen had said plenty of things while hypnotized for nearly ten minutes—something about taking the orb and escaping from “the twins.”
“I can’t believe it,” Owen said as he cupped his face in his hands. He was clearly exhausted. Nikki grabbed a sheet of paper, pretending to study it.
“I don’t believe it,” Owen said, more determined this time.
“Darlington, this admission sheet doesn’t match the amount of money we’ve taken in,” Nikki said. “We’re forty dollars short.”
Darlington didn’t respond or even acknowledge that he heard her.
“You probably dropped some of the money before you came in here. I’ll check the box office.” She left Darlington and Owen in the room and quickly made her way outside. It was nearly eleven o’clock and the air was pretty warm.
Unlocking the door, she quickly stepped into the box office and sat down on the stool Darlington used during his shifts. She couldn’t get out of her mind what Owen had said during his trance.
Since the register count had actually been correct, Nikki made no attempt to search for the forty dollars she claimed were missing. She’d just needed an excuse to get away for a moment. She looked up at the moon, which was partially obscured by the scattered clouds. She knew she couldn’t keep the truth from Owen for very long.
Thinking about what was likely to come depressed her, so she decided to think of something happier. Like she told Owen, she had met Darlington two years ago in Birch (she’d left the town out, even though Owen was from there), but she had been on her way to downtown San Sebastian, running away from her family, of all things.
While hitchhiking down a lonely highway, she had been picked up by a kind-looking truck driver. Nikki had been very grateful.
Things had gone south shortly after when they’d hit an animal in the road. The driver told her to stay in the truck while he checked it out.
Nikki never forgot what she saw after that. She watched from the cab as the thing they’d hit lunged onto the kind, old truck driver and ripped his face off. It then turned its attention to Nikki, jumping onto the front of the truck, attempting to smash its way through the windshield.
At that moment, a pale, skeletal figure emerged from the dark field and tackled the creature, killing it with a swift jerk of its furry neck.
Nikki had been hesitant to leave the truck for her rescuer had been strange-looking. Also most off-putting was that he had been wearing a silver suit that was almost entirely ripped, making him appear naked, his body covered in burns and scratches.
Having heard about the meteor shower that had struck nearby the night before, Nikki thought maybe this poor stranger had been caught up in it.
Her beloved Darlington. She’d named him after her favorite flower, the Bishop Darlington, because he hadn’t been able to talk and didn’t seem to remember his actual name. Nikki couldn’t imagine living without her best friend.
Something in the distance drew her attention away from the sky. A lone figure emerged from the woods and approached the box office. It was a young African-American man around Nikki’s age of twenty-three. He looked exhausted. He was wearing a dark blue shirt and jeans, and crazily enough, flip-flops.
“Is it too late to speak with Nikki?” he asked her.
Clearly this was his first time here if he didn’t realize he was already speaking to the one he came to see.
“It is after hours,” Nikki said through the slot in the window, “but, considering you walked all this way, I guess I can give you a quick read.”
The young man gave her a quizzical look. “Are you Nikki?”
“Yes, sir. And who might you be?”
“My name,” he said with a smile, “is Curtis Merriman.”
Chapter 27. The Blanks
It didn’t take much time for Curtis to figure out that something bad happened to Marco Garcia. For one, all calls he made to Marco went unanswered and unreturned. The two of them were supposed to get together and hang out.
The thought had crossed his mind that Marco was avoiding him because he was having trouble getting over Curtis’s constant lectures. Curtis was always getting on Marco’s case about being such a trouble seeker. He got arrested often and Curtis couldn’t stand it, especially since he was the one always bailing Marco out.
But in Curtis’s mind, he knew there was something more, that there was something terribly wrong. Marco hadn’t just been ignoring him; he’d been ignoring everyone. Marco’s parents, with whom he lived, hadn’t heard from him since the night he and Curtis had run into Les Huntington and his weird friend at the arcade, and deep down, Curtis knew that Les had something to do with this.
A few people had told Curtis he was overreacting, that Marco had only been missing a day, but he refused to listen to any of them. He needed answers, and, though it seemed a long shot, he’d decided to give in to the rumors he’d heard about a “fortune teller” named Nikki, who lived in the woods of Baker.
He’d never believed those rumors until he heard from a good friend that she was, in fact, real. That confirmation had been what Curtis needed to go through with it.
That and the strangeness going on in San Sebastian. Some people were just acting too weird for him. Not that San Sebastian wasn’t always weird, but now things were out of control. Certain people were walking around with blank expressions, constantly muttering “huh” every few seconds, even though there was never anyone to talk to. It was like they were talking to invisible people.
And then there was the discovery of David Hernandez’s body. It was terrifying for Curtis to think that David had been murdered at the party that he himself had attended, the top half of David’s head severed. Curtis made a note to mention it to the fabled Nikki when he saw her, but for now, his mind was only on Marco.
After the twenty-minute drive to Baker, Curtis had parked his truck at the edge of the woods and made the rest of the way on foot. Once deep inside the dark forest, he had been startled by some noises behind him, but couldn’t see what had made them. At one point, he’d been certain he heard someone moan “huh,” which positively made his skin crawl. He prayed those blank-faced people weren’t following him.
Finally he had come to a clearing to discover an old abandoned amusement park. At the front of the park rested a box office, and inside was a strawberry blonde who had just revealed herself to be the person he was looking for.
“Are you Nikki?” he asked.
“Yes, sir. And who might you be?”
“My name is Curtis Merriman,” he said.
“Nice to meet you, Curtis. How can I help?”
“Well, a friend of mine is missing and I was hoping you could tell me where he is.”
“Oh, dear, that’s a terrible business,” Nikki said sadly.
At the word business, Curtis remembered the charge that was required. “Anything you can manage,” his friend had told him when confirming Nikki’s existence. “Don’t be cheap, though.”
He pulled out his wallet, but Nikki stopped him.
“No, I didn’t mean that. This one’s on the house, but don’t tell anybody.”
Curtis smiled and put his wallet away.
“Tell me about this missing person,” she said. “As much detail as you can.”
“Well, his name is Marco Garcia. He’s five-nine, a hundred and eighty pounds....”
“Your best friend?” Nikki asked.
Curtis gasped. Perhaps it was just a lucky guess, or maybe she was the real deal. Suddenly Nikki, who had been wearing a kind smile, frowned.
“Curtis, I’m afraid Marco is dead.”
Curtis’s heart suddenly started beating so loudly he could ba
rely hear anything else. “Are you sure? How do you know?”
“I can see the link in my head. I see that another friend is also dead.”
Bile rose in Curtis’s throat. “David,” he confirmed quietly before he could stop himself. He was close to vomiting. At first, he was ready to dismiss Nikki’s claim that Marco was dead, but found it impossible once she’d mentioned David.
“I truly am sorry,” she offered.
“What happened to Marco?” Curtis asked desperately.
“He was murdered...murdered by the same man who killed David.” She looked anxious now, as if she suddenly realized something important. “In fact, there’s someone here I think you should talk to.”
A noise caught Curtis’s attention. He spun around and saw a pale figure walking among the trees. It was too dark to get a good look, but Curtis had the distinct feeling the figure was a girl.
After a moment, the figure was close enough to see. It was a young, black-haired girl. She was wearing a pale-blue dress. Her skin was ghostly white. She looked lost.
“Looks like you have another customer,” Curtis told Nikki.
“I don’t think so,” she said awkwardly.
Curtis turned back to see the fortune-teller looked a little scared. The ghostly girl was now walking toward the park entrance. That’s when Curtis noticed two more figures emerging from the woods. One was a little boy around ten years old, the other an old woman. Both were just as pale as the young woman.
“I think you should come inside,” Nikki told Curtis. She was opening the door to the box office just as he was going through the turnstile, into the park.
Nikki grabbed his arm and dragged him toward a small building to the right. It looked like a gift shop. Before they could get there, someone emerged from the side of the building. It was a pale old man. Curtis and Nikki were close enough to see the man’s face clearly. There was something dripping from his eyes. It looked black against his wrinkled white skin.
The man blocked the entrance to the shop now. Nikki and Curtis started walking back toward the box office when the old man noticed them.
