In the Shadows of Fate

by Rick Jurewicz

  Once shining so bright, from grace he had fell.”

  There was something deeply haunting about the words of Suzanne's poem. Miranda could not put a finger on what it was, but she felt a certain darkness was hidden within their meaning. She folded both letters back up and replaced them in her laptop case.

  The door to the room opened, and Jake was standing outside. He had in one hand a small paper bag, and in the other a four cup beverage carrier with two steaming hot cups of coffee.

  "You all set to go? Matt has time to take us to the garage right now. I thought we could just eat in the car," he said, seeming surprisingly casual after what had gone on between them just over an hour before.

  "Yeah, I'm all set," she said, grabbing the rest of their things and following him out to the main office where Matt was waiting outside.

  "What is for breakfast then?" she asked.

  Jake pulled out a package of powdered sugar coated donuts and a small bag of beef jerky. Miranda raised her eyebrows as a slight grin slipped onto her face. One brow was raised slightly higher than the other.

  "It's all we could afford. Something filling and delicious, hence the donuts. And I figured that we could use a little protein as well, hence the beef jerky." He held the jerky bag up to her eye level.

  Miranda snatched the bag of jerky, tore it open and took a piece out of the bag.

  "I guess I am feeling a little more carnivorous this morning over anything else," she said. She put it between her teeth and ripped a small piece off. It probably had been the toughest piece of jerky she'd ever had, but right now it was satisfying enough. Jake watched her and smiled, until she noticed that he was watching her. She stopped in mid-chew and looked at him, and he quickly looked away and tore open the package of donuts.

  Matt had been watching the two of them curiously in the rearview mirror. He thought there was something odd about them, but didn't pay much attention to it. He had seen a lot of odd over the years that he had owned the motel, not to mention the things he had to clean up after. There had been one time that he had to pay a special cleaning crew to come in and clean a room that a dead goat had been left in. There hadn't been any signs as to exactly how the goat had died. It was just dead, and the rest of the room was a total disaster, littered with beer bottles and used condoms, and a dozen pairs of dirty, booze-soaked socks.

  He had absolutely no idea what any of it was about, but the renters had paid in cash, and there was an extra $600 for the mess that was left. The names given for the room were fake, but that didn't matter to Matt. He paid the cleaners $150 to clean up and get rid of the goat, and an extra $50 for them to "forget" about the whole ordeal. The rest, he pocketed for himself. Life in the big city, he thought.

  The car pulled into Billy K's, and Miranda's Vibe was already sitting out front.

  "Hey," said Matt, as Jake started to get out of the car. "Make sure you didn't get any of that powder shit all over my backseat. My old lady don't need to be thinkin' I been using coke again! Been off that shit for six months now."

  Jake brushed down the backseat, all the while thinking of what else might be ground into the fabric of the seat. He made a quick job of it, and he and Miranda thanked Matt and walked over to the office to see Billy K.

  Billy K walked out to them with keys in hand.

  "You're all set," he said, handing Jake the keys.

  "Thank you,” said Jake with a short nod.

  "The pleasure was all mine," said Billy K., grinning as he walked away. Miranda found the short and sweet exchange kind of peculiar, but didn't think a lot on it. She had too many other things on her mind already. As they got closer to the car, Miranda pulled the keys from Jake's hands and walked around to the driver’s side.

  "What are you doing?" asked Jake, reaching out for the keys from her.

  She pulled her hand back away from his. "You were up all night watching to make sure I didn't misbehave any more. You need to try and get some sleep. I'll be fine driving. I promise."

  He knew that she was right. He hadn't gotten any sleep after the club incident, and knew it would do neither of them any good if he veered off into the path of a semi and got them splattered along the highway. He pulled his hand away and sulked over to the passenger’s side, which he was never accustomed to taking a seat in.

  They placed their bags in the backseat and drove off down the road. Next stop – Feast’n’Baristas. Home again.

  CHAPTER 16

  The traffic had not been all that bad for a Thursday in the early afternoon hours. They had made good time into Preston, the home of South Central Michigan College, and the only home Miranda felt she had left. Jake had slept most of the trip into town, which was good, although Miranda had watched him stir quite a bit as she drove along the expressway. She wondered if he was dreaming, and if so, of what it might be.

  Miranda wondered if anyone else had had dreams like she has had. Thinking about her own haunting dream, she was starting to feel a strange comfort in its familiarity to her. The man...his dark eyes...the sound of the rising tempo in the music from the piano...something stirred deep within her, but she couldn't put a finger on what it was.

  Thoughts kept fluttering through her head as she drove along. It had started like this not long after she first noticed Jake had fallen asleep. Thoughts of Robert and Lorri, and of Steven. Miranda wondered so much about her little brother's life, and it sickened her to think about all of the things that he would not get to experience. Had he ever been kissed? Did he even care about girls? What kind of dreams did he have? So many things...so many questions, never to be answered. She didn't care about what might happen to her from that moment on. The only thing she cared about was all of the hurt she caused in the wake of what she had inadvertently set into motion.

  Miranda made a decision at that point. After she and Jake got the money from Lydia, and they were far enough away from everyone else that they knew, she would leave. Slip out in the night, and far away from everyone else from her past. She would then send the cursed Oraclum to some news agency and wait until the storm blew over.

  But she would not ever return. There was nothing left for her in Michigan, and the further away she could go, the lesser the chance of hurting anyone else she cared for.

  She knew that Jake wouldn't understand. She knew that he would be hurt still. But eventually, he would move on as well. Miranda had to stop herself from thinking. She found her iPod and slipped one headphone into her ear so she could still hear what was going on around her, but she would not disturb Jake with the music.

  Whenever Miranda didn't want to let her thoughts go to dark and disturbing places, it was the magic of random shuffle on her music player that would often divert her from such a course. Usually the iPod would select songs that she hadn't heard in a long time, and her mind would find itself trying to remember the last time she had heard the song. She found it amazing how, outside of sight, the more subtle senses triggered the most powerful memories. Whenever she smelled cedar, she could close her eyes and find herself in her grandmother's cabin on Lake Huron near Roger's City; or the smell of eucalyptus would remind her of her Aunt Laura's backyard in the summers when she would stay with her cousins for weeks at a time and swim in their enormous four-foot-deep circular pool set up in the yard.

  But now, it was the sense of hearing that was sparking the deepest memories and emotions. The random shuffle’s first selection was, oddly enough, "Ice Ice Baby" by Vanilla Ice. It was hardly a song that one might expect to find in any collection of Miranda's, and even she had forgotten that is was on the iPod, but it was a guilty pleasure song that took her back to her junior year of high school, hanging out at the local park where all of the town’s Little League and high school baseball and softball games were played.

  It had been her and Jake, and her friends Annie and Cassie, along with Jake's best friend Wes. Cassie had a mix CD that her older sister's boyfriend had made for her sister, and it was loaded with a bunch of early 90s cheesy music that
Cassie became addicted to. That song was played over and over again. What Miranda remembered most about that time was Annie coming to her and confiding a secret in her that she had been keeping to herself for quite some time.

  Annie was a very pretty girl with short brown hair, and she always wore long skirts and dresses that were usually earth tones; browns and greens mostly, often with leaf patterns and sometimes blues that looked like flowing waterfalls as she walked along. It was one of those nights in the park that Annie walked off by herself, and Miranda had followed behind her.

  Miranda found her sitting alone on one of the short bleachers beside a Little League baseball diamond, and she climbed up on the bench and sat next to her. She seemed very distant, and Miranda asked her if everything was alright. Annie looked very nervous at first, but then made Miranda promise not to tell anyone what she was going to tell her. Miranda was a little shaken by the serious tone in Annie's voice, but nodded her promise to Annie, who then slowly pulled her long brown skirt up high onto her thigh. It was from just above her knee and on up her thigh that there were several cuts, not on just the one leg, but on both legs. Some looked as if they had been there only a day or two, while the others were already well scarred over. A few looked almost faded away except for faint red and white lines.

  "Oh my God, Annie..." whispered Miranda. "Who did this to you?"

  Annie's head dropped down, and Miranda could see a tear run down her face.

  "I did it to myself," Annie told her.

  Miranda sat still and silent for a long moment. She didn't understand what was happening. She had never heard of someone doing this to themselves; growing up in a little town like Native Springs, if these things happened, people never talked about it, if they ever even knew of it at all.

  Miranda didn't know what to say. She just hugged Annie and told her she was there for her, for whatever she needed. Annie shed a few more tears that night with Miranda, and thanked her for listening to her. Miranda and Annie grew apart as the school year went on. Annie started hanging around with another group of friends from a neighboring town, rarely seen after school on the streets of Native Springs.

  One day many months later, Jake and Miranda went to see a movie in the town that Annie spent most of her time. They saw Annie on the street as they drove by; she was holding hands with another girl in front of the ice cream parlor in the center of town. Jake raised his eyebrows and flashed a quick smile at Miranda, but Miranda remembered how she smiled for a different reason altogether. She had hoped, deep down, that Annie had faced her demons and had moved on past them. It was moments like that in which she could remember believing in something that seemed so distant from her now. She once believed in hope.

  But that was a long time ago. And the demons they faced now were far darker and more dangerous. Miranda nudged Jake.

  "Jake. You need to wake up. We're about five blocks away from the café."

  Jake stirred groggily, and cranked the seat back into its upright position.

  "How long was I asleep? We're hear already?"

  "Almost two hours. You needed it. Do we have a game plan?" she asked.

  Jake seemed suddenly alert and focused, as if he just realized the seriousness of the situation all over again.

  "Is this coffee shop close to the end of the block?" he asked.

  "No. It's in the dead center. Is that bad?" she asked.

  "I don't know, really. I've never had to strategically plan escape routes or anything. I guess we only have two directions on the street that we have to watch. Drive up on past the place and circle the block a couple of times. We can see if anything looks suspicious, and I can get a lay of the land, so to speak."

  Miranda drove the Vibe around the block twice, as Jake suggested, and Jake surveyed the area examining as much as he could take in. Jake saw nothing that led him to believe there was anything to be concerned about...but the all too familiar Pontiac Vibe did not escape the sharp and seasoned eyes of Mr. Skye and Mr. Cain, who had been lying in wait for quite some time now. As soon as they had seen Miranda and Jake, Mr. Cain dialed his phone.

  "She's here, as you said," stated Cain. "Yes. I...yes. Understood."

  Mr. Skye looked to Mr. Cain as he hung up the phone.

  "We are to wait for further instructions," said Mr. Cain. Mr. Skye looked less than pleased.

  Miranda parked her car near the farthest corner of the block from Feast’n’Baristas, and she and Jake walked as briskly as they could to the entrance without attracting undue attention. As they walked inside, Miranda almost immediately caught the attention of Donatello.

  "ME-RAN-DAH! Couldn't stay away, could you girl?" he said with his usual pronounced grin.

  Miranda ran up to him and gave him a huge hug; Jake saw the sudden surprise in the barista's eyes when she had grabbed hold of him.

  "Donny! You are a sight for sore eyes," she told him.

  Donatello looked bewildered as Miranda finally released him from her grip.

  "It has only been about a week now, hasn't it?" he asked her.

  "It's been the longest week ever, Donny. I'll have to tell you about it some time," she said without thinking, realizing that this was probably the last time she would ever see the lanky and loveable barista. She felt a tightening in her chest when she thought this, but shook it off as best as she could. "Have you seen Lydia, Donny?"

  "Yes. She's at the table in the corner," he told her, pointing off to an area out of the way near the back of the café.

  Lydia sat alone, her eyes moving nervously around the café's busy dining floor. Miranda paused for a moment to look at her as she scanned the room, and when their eyes met, a wide and genuine smile came to Lydia's face.

  Miranda walked quickly to her, and Jake followed closely behind. Jake nodded to Donny on the way past him, and Donny returned a friendly nod. Lydia got up from her seat as Miranda approached her, and the two friends hugged tightly without a word being spoken.

  "Are you alright?" whispered Lydia into Miranda's ear. Miranda held tight and said nothing in return. She didn't want to let go of her friend. She knew after today that she would not see her again. She would pay her back, eventually, when she could, but she would not return. Miranda finally let up on her grip.

  "I'm okay."

  Lydia stared at Miranda's face for a long, solemn moment, but said nothing. She knew better. She knew Miranda was lying to her, and she understood.

  "Lyd, this is Jake. Jake, Lydia Snow," Miranda introduced them; Jake held his hand out, and Lydia shook it in turn. They both gave a short, polite smile, but under the circumstances, formal introductions seemed unnecessary. Lydia sat back down in her chair, and Jake and Miranda followed suit.

  Lydia reached into the bag beside her chair, laid an envelope on the table and slid it to Miranda. Miranda took it, and put it into her inside jacket pocket.

  "There's $4,000 there. I know it's more than you asked for, but I wanted to make sure that you had enough. It's from a stash of cash that I have been saving for a while. Not from an account, so no one will know it's missing. It's mine, anyway, but still," said Lydia.

  "Thank you Lyd. I swear I will pay you back as soon as this mess gets sorted out," Miranda told her.

  "Don't worry about that...I don't know what's going on, but I am always here for you...whenever you are ready to talk, I am ready to listen."

  Miranda had been listening, but her focus was lost on something else now. She stared towards the front windows of the coffee shop, where the bright afternoon sun was blazing through the glass. Donatello stood in the rays of light, wiping down bistro tables that sat just inside the window beside the front door. The sunlight had taken on a strange form surrounding Donatello. It took several seconds for Miranda to fully realize that she could see the light, not as simple rays or blinding illumination, but as tiny, individual particles that formed the rays that were shining through the glass. Miranda watched with the keenest of vision as the light particles around Donatello seemed to be absorbe
d into the surface of his skin as they came close to his body.

  Donatello could feel Miranda's eyes upon him, and he stopped what he was doing and stood straight up and looked at Miranda. Miranda stood up from her chair; in that moment, all other motion in the coffee shop ceased to an almost incomprehensible crawl.

  Miranda looked around at the others in the coffee shop. All seemed frozen in time, including Jake and Lydia, whose eyes had been fixed on Miranda at the moment that time seemed to have stopped. She turned and looked back at Donatello, whose lips were pressed together in a smile much unlike the wide, toothy grin he had offered each and every day she came to the coffee shop. With this smile, he gave a nod of his head, and Miranda walked slowly towards her long-time friend, stopping short five feet away from him.

  "You do not need to fear me, Miranda. I mean you no harm," said Donatello, in his familiar Jamaican accent.

  "Donny - what's going on? What's happening?" asked Miranda. Her voice sounded shaky, and Donatello looked down at the floor for a second or two, then back up to Miranda.

  "You're starting to see things, aren't you Miranda? Your eyes...they are focusing on the world in a different way. We did not know when or how, or even if, this would happen. But it is now," he said, still trying to keep a calming smile on his face.

  "Who...what do you mean? Please, tell me what is going on," she pleaded.

  Donatello lowered his head again. "I'm sorry Miranda. To my shame, I cannot help you. It is forbidden for me to interfere."

  Miranda stared at him for what seemed like forever. He raised his head to her once more, and then looked down again, and still she said nothing. Now, he felt the only right thing to do was to look her straight in the eye.

  "I was sent here only to watch you. To keep an eye on you. To...monitor you, I suppose would be the best way to describe it," he said, keeping his eyes to hers.

  "WHO sent you? Donny...you're my friend. Tell me, please...what the hell is going on?!"

  Donatello's face revealed the sadness within him. His eyes held a somber weight that subsided only when his expression suddenly became cold and serious. Miranda was taken aback by its stark change.