Chasing Power

by Sarah Beth Durst

  “Stop,” the woman said calmly. “Or I release it.” She pointed above Kayla’s head.

  “No!” Daniel cried. Clutching his head, he’d fallen to one knee.

  Kayla looked up and saw the stone coffin lid, hovering in the air above her. She let the cyclone collapse to the ground. The woman pointed at Daniel. “Don’t vanish.” And then at Kayla. “No more tricks.”

  Continuing to stare up at the stone, Kayla marveled at the woman’s power. She’d never even imagined being able to move something that weighed so much. She couldn’t even move it with her arms, much less with her mind. “Amazing,” she breathed. “Who are you?”

  “I’m not your enemy.” The coffin lid lowered back onto the coffin. Stone hit stone with a heavy thud. “And I am sorry if I startled you.”

  “If you aren’t our enemy, then give us back the stone,” Daniel said.

  “Oh, no, can’t do that, but thank you so much for finding it for me. I am grateful.” She did look earnestly grateful—her green eyes were wide and her soft lips were parted as if in breathless excitement.

  “You’re the one I saw in the church in Mexico,” Kayla said. “Who are you? What do you want with the stone? Do you know my father? Are you with him?”

  The woman tossed the stone into the air, caught it, and then winked, as if this were all some delightful joke. “Come on, figure it out, Katie.”

  Katie.

  No one called her Katie. No one knew to call her that. Kayla slowly stood up. Staring at the woman, she tried to force her features to match a memory.

  “She looks like you,” Daniel said quietly.

  “Aw, I wanted Katydid to figure it out on her own.” Katydid, her old nickname. The woman flicked her finger, and several rags from a mummy flew into Daniel’s mouth, gagging him. He clawed at the rags, and the woman leaned over him and tied a knot with her hands. She then tied ropes around his hands and ankles. “Much better. Never a good idea to annoy people who are stronger than you. You really should work on your people skills.”

  “Amanda,” Kayla said, tasting the name.

  Amanda turned back to Kayla, and her expression changed, softening like butter. “Oh, Katie, I thought I’d never see you again. We looked for you, you know. For years, we kept looking for you.” A tear welled up in one of her bright green eyes.

  “I don’t find that as comforting as you seem to think I should.” Kayla’s eyes flicked to the entrance. She wondered where Dad was, if he was nearby, if he was listening.

  “Dad never gave up hope that you were out there somewhere. Some days I didn’t believe him. Some days I didn’t want to. After all, you left me.”

  “We thought you were dead,” Kayla said.

  “Dead?” Both her eyebrows shot up. Kayla noticed that her makeup was perfect, delicate natural eye shadow over her eyes and pink shimmery lips. In comparison, Kayla was coated in dust and dirt. Amanda was not only alive; she looked vibrant. “As you can see, I’m not. Why on earth would you think that?”

  “Dad killed you.” She said it slowly, carefully, as if to someone hard of hearing. “That’s why we fled. Left our house. Left friends. Left everything.”

  Amanda’s beautiful smile faded. “Left me. Or Mom did. I couldn’t believe it when Dad told me he saw you. I thought I’d never see you again.”

  “We’ve been hiding,” Kayla said. “From Dad. Because he killed you. Because we thought he’d kill me. And you’re … It was for nothing? We were afraid for no reason? Why did Moonbeam think you were dead?”

  Gently, Amanda said, “She lied to you.”

  “No, she wouldn’t. Not about this.” Kayla tried to match this woman up with her memory of her sister. The memory was so frayed, though. She mostly remembered Amanda’s laugh. It filled a room. She remembered they used to play dress-up with Moonbeam’s hats and scarves and makeup. Or the afternoons they’d have tea parties—Amanda would write out invitations, and they’d set up Kayla’s stuffed animals around a blanket. “You could be a fake. Maybe you’re just pretending to be my sister, trying to trick me in order to steal the stone.”

  “I already have the stone,” Amanda pointed out. For emphasis, she waved it in the air, and then she tucked it into her pink purse. “No further tricks necessary. Did you call our mother ‘Moonbeam’?”

  Stupid, Kayla thought at herself. She fervently hoped that Dad hadn’t heard. “Mom said you were dead.”

  “She knew I wasn’t. She knew Dad didn’t kill me. Just as she knew he would never kill you.” Amanda tilted her head—she looked like Moonbeam when she was thinking hard. “I can’t imagine why she lied to you.”

  Kayla swallowed. Her eyes felt hot. “My whole life, ever since you died, we’ve been hiding from Dad so he wouldn’t find us and kill me too. She can’t have lied. I don’t believe it.”

  “I’m not dead. Ipso facto, Dad’s not a murderer.” Amanda smiled sunnily.

  Kayla shook her head. Moonbeam couldn’t have lied. But Amanda was here … Kayla felt sick thinking about it. She sank onto the ground and hugged her knees to her chest.

  Across the crypt, her sister plopped cross-legged on the dusty ground. Her dress poofed out around her as she sat. “Come on, Katydid, talk to me. Tell me about yourself. What have you been doing in the years since my supposed death?”

  “You’re really Amanda?”

  “And you’re really Katie.”

  “Kayla now.”

  They both stared at each other in silence. Amanda’s smile faded as they evaluated each other. Without moving, Kayla slid the razor blade out of her pocket. She hesitated—she could use it either to cut the purse or to slice the ropes around Daniel. Glancing at him, she saw his eyes were fixed on the purse.

  Hoping she was making the right choice, she snaked the razor blade across the catacomb floor. She let the dust hide it.

  “Kayla. You were a lot smaller last time I saw you.”

  “You were less blond.”

  “You were less pink.”

  “It’s my natural color,” Kayla said blandly. She lifted the razor blade up to the fabric of Amanda’s purse, directly beneath the stone, and began to saw through the threads.

  Amanda laughed, and Kayla felt prickles walk up her spine. She knew that laugh. Any doubt she had was swept away in the tinkling lightness of that laugh. This woman was truly her sister. “So’s mine. If by ‘natural’ you mean chemically enhanced by products from a lab.” Her laugh faded. “I thought I’d feel differently seeing you.”

  “Oh?” Kayla didn’t know what to say to that. She never imagined she’d see Amanda. She felt as if the world had shifted under her, and the continents had rearranged. She’d walk out of here to find Spain connected to Australia and New Zealand in the middle of the Mississippi River. “I missed you. A lot.” So badly that she thought sometimes that she’d die too, or that she should have died. She wondered a lot about why Dad had spared her and why Mom had been able to save her. For a while, she even blamed Moonbeam for not saving Amanda too. When they finally settled in Santa Barbara, she wanted so badly to have her sister there to share their new home and face the new school and learn the new city.

  “I didn’t miss you,” Amanda said, and the words felt like a stab. “Not at first. You were always the one Mom loved best, you know? Because you weren’t the freak in the family. You were normal. She didn’t want a freak. But looks like she got one anyway.” Amanda grinned but the humor didn’t reach her eyes.

  Kayla continued cutting through the fabric of the pink purse, creating a hole directly beneath the stone. “She doesn’t like me to use my powers. Thought it would make it easier for Dad to find me. And kill me. Everything, everything, has been about keeping me safe.”

  “Think about it logically, Katie. Why would your own father want to kill you?”

  Kayla opened her mouth and then shut it. She’d asked herself that question so many times. She’d even asked Moonbeam. But Moonbeam had only said that some people were sick in the head, and her fath
er was sadly one of them. They got wrong ideas and couldn’t shake them. “Because he’s crazy.”

  Amanda shook her head. “Mommy Dearest is the delusional, paranoid one.”

  “She thought you were dead! She mourned you. Really mourned you. I did too. I had issues because of you. Because of your death. Which I guess is not your fault.” Kayla shook her head as if to clear it. This was all insane. She couldn’t be having this conversation. Amanda couldn’t be here. She had to be dreaming. Or drugged. Or … She didn’t know.

  Amanda’s voice was gentle, even mournful. “Katie. Kayla. She knew I wasn’t dead.”

  Kayla felt cold. She hugged her arms, but it didn’t help. “No.”

  “Yes. She tried to take us both with her, but I didn’t want to leave. I wanted us to stay together, all four of us, as a family, like we were supposed to be. So when she woke me up in the night and told me we were leaving, I ran into the bathroom, locked myself in, and screamed for Dad. I thought that would keep her there. She wouldn’t leave without me, her oldest daughter, her firstborn! But rather than stay and be a family, she took you and left me behind. When I came out again, it was just Dad and me. And he was angry, so extremely angry, but you know what he didn’t do with all that anger? He didn’t kill me. He held me while I cried and said we’d be a team, him and me, and we’d be fine.” Amanda’s voice cracked on the last word, and she looked away.

  “But …” Kayla trawled through her mind, searching for a reasonable argument or at least an explanation. “He nearly killed me in Peru. If Daniel had died, I would have been trapped. There was no way down from that cliff. I would have starved or dehydrated until I looked like a mummy.”

  “I didn’t hit him that hard.”

  Kayla felt her eyes widen and her jaw drop open. “You? You hit Daniel with a rock on purpose?” A few things began to click together, logistical questions that suddenly had answers. She thought of how her father had rappelled into the cave. Amanda must have been above them, helping lower the rope … and sending that rock to hit Daniel’s head.

  Amanda shrugged. “It was necessary.”

  “What about in Tikal? Was that cave-in you too?”

  “That was before I knew you were, well, you. And besides, you survived fine.”

  That last part was true, but Kayla was more inclined to credit luck than intent. “So you have telekinesis. Like me.” Or not like her. Kayla couldn’t lift a massive stone coffin lid into the air. “Do we have Dad to thank for that?”

  “Dad doesn’t have it. Only us kids. He didn’t tell me who you were until after Peru. But he told me to be careful. Would a killer do that? And would a killer return your pack of supplies so you could have food and water? Nice rings, by the way. What on earth were you doing with them?”

  “To pawn for cash, in case Dad returned to murder me. I didn’t want us to flee with nothing. That’s what we did after you were killed. Left with nothing. We were homeless for months. We slept in alleyways, warmed by garbage. We sneaked into people’s garages and slept there, hidden behind lawn mowers. We stole food from their trash cans and from Dumpsters outside restaurants. Also, supermarkets. I wore clothes lifted from Laundromats and bought for pennies at flea markets and yard sales and Goodwill.” She’d been young, but she remembered it so clearly. Mom had explained it wasn’t theft if you really needed it and if you planned to pay them back. Later, when Moonbeam got the job at Envision Crystal, she’d mailed cash to several places, anonymously of course. She had Kayla stick on the stamps, all the while lecturing on how stealing was bad. She might as well have saved her breath—and the stamps.

  “Dad cares about you, even if he barely knows you. And he cares about me. For years, it was just the two of us against the world. He protected me. When kids at school decided to torment me because I was ‘different,’ he marched down to the school and yelled at the principal. Next day, the tormenting stopped. Of course, it may have helped that I scared the living crap out of the ring leader, Jessica Billings. Still remember her with her flawless skin and voice like a mouse.”

  As Amanda talked, Kayla whisked away the fabric beneath the triangle stone. She studiously avoided looking at it. Carefully, she guided the razor blade toward Daniel. She began to saw through the ropes that bound his wrists. “If Dad is such a hero, why did he kidnap Daniel’s mother?”

  “Evelyn’s fine,” Amanda said blithely. “She sends her love.”

  “Let her go, and you can have the stone.”

  “I already have the stone, and she’s needed. The spell requires three casters. She understands that.” Amanda rose. Dusting off her sundress, she shouldered her purse. The stone lay on the floor at her feet. Kayla kept her eyes glued to Amanda’s face. “Speaking of which, it’s time for me to be getting back. Dad will be worrying about me.”

  “Then Dad is planning on using the stones?”

  “Of course. Who would turn down a chance like this? Invincibility!” Amanda stretched her arms out in a delicate curve, as if she wanted to embrace the world. Or do a pirouette.

  She’s crazy, Kayla thought. Screw loose. Bats in the belfry. One card short of a full deck. “You know someone will die if you use the stones, right? ‘Three stones, one death.’ One of the casters will die. Dad could die. Daniel’s mother could die. You could die!”

  “Oh, I’m not the third. I’m already powerful. But don’t you think we’ve already considered the cost? It’s worth the prize.”

  “Invincibility? Really? Stupid prize. Also, vague. What do you plan to do, start a new Roman Empire? Please tell me you aren’t planning some comic-book-style supervillain plot. Are you planning to take over the world? Because that never works out well. And who’s the third?” One of the ropes around Daniel’s wrists snapped. She started on the next one.

  “Don’t insult me, Katie. You don’t even know me, not anymore.” As if she’d had a brilliant idea, she clapped her hands. “You should come with me! Talk to Dad. Get to know both of us. He has so much to teach you. He taught me. You saw how strong I am. That’s all due to him.” For an instant, Kayla imagined herself as strong as Amanda. She imagined being with people who encouraged, rather than suppressed, her power. Depending, of course, on who died when they cast the stupid invincibility spell … No, she couldn’t do it. Obviously no. They’d kidnapped Daniel’s mother!

  “You should come with me and talk to Moonbeam,” Kayla said. “She can explain all this, I know it.” Moonbeam would be so happy to see Amanda. Her lost daughter, returned! And she could explain everything. This had to be some kind of tragic misunderstanding.

  Amanda’s smile faded. “I’m sure she can. You should ask her to explain. And once you know the truth, you should join us. Together, the three of us would be so powerful that we could do anything we want, live whatever lives we want, without fear. That’s what power does, Katie. It takes away fear.”

  “I hadn’t actually noticed that,” Kayla said drily. “No offense meant, but have you considered therapy, in lieu of this not-well-thought-out and obviously insane plan to cast an ancient evil spell?”

  “Our father was abused when he was younger. I bet you didn’t know that.”

  Kayla hadn’t known. She opened her mouth, then shut it.

  “You don’t know anything about him. How dare you judge him? He had to live with so much fear. He never feels safe. But these stones … this spell, it can give him safety. He deserves that. And he can use his power to protect others.”

  Was it true? Did it matter if it was? Casting the spell was still wrong, no matter what his childhood trauma. “Exactly why he needs therapy.”

  Amanda looked sadly at Kayla. “I suppose it was too much to expect you to understand. Perhaps in time you’ll see.” Bending down, she picked up the stone.

  Kayla felt her stomach drop. She sawed faster at Daniel’s ropes, and he struggled against them. She hadn’t cut enough yet.

  “Nice try,” Amanda said. “But I’m older, stronger, and better than you, little sis.” She
tossed the stone in the air, and it hovered there. It trailed her as she walked out of the tunnel. Her skirt swished as she walked into the shadows, and darkness swallowed her whole.

  Chapter 23

  Kayla chased after her. “Look, sis, I appreciate the dramatic exit and all. But …” Darkness closed around her, and she reached for her lighter and flicked it on again. She had to strike it twice before it caught—she was running low on lighter fluid. But she succeeded and cupped the flame with her mind and sent it forward. “Amanda?”

  She saw a shape fly toward her. Cloth flapped in the air like bat wings, and the lighter flame illuminated the face of a skull, contorted into a silent scream. Kayla lost control of the flame, and it died, plunging her into darkness, as the skeleton crashed at her feet. Dust plumed up into her face. She heard whispers and rustles all around her.

  “Amanda!”

  Shaking, she lit the lighter again. One after another, the shrouded bodies flew from their shelves. Kayla screamed as corpses crashed to the ground, into the walls, and into her. She ran, knocking them away, her hands hitting bones and shrouds.

  She heard a rumble. The ground shook. As she ran past, the statues of saints plummeted one by one from their alcoves. They shattered as they crashed down. Stone shards flew through the air, and Kayla ducked down, hands over her head. She dove behind a coffin. The flame died again as she huddled, curled into a ball.

  In the darkness, she heard crash after crash. She prayed that the ceiling wasn’t falling in on her or Daniel. It sounded as if the world were shaking apart. And through it, she heard the sound of her sister’s laugh, filling the spaces between the crashes.

  At last, it quieted.

  Listening, she waited. Her breathing was loud and fast. Hands trembling, she flicked on the lighter. It sputtered but it worked. The dim amber light flickered around her—and she saw she was closed in on all sides, trapped behind the stone coffin.

  She didn’t know if Amanda was still out there or not. Switching off the lighter, she listened again. She heard a few pebbles skitter, followed by the light sound of dust raining down on stone. It could be the aftermath. Or Amanda could be in the catacombs, waiting for Kayla to emerge.