Hurricane (The Charmed)

by Dianne Nutting

  “Lyla, I was wondering, would you help me with something? I can’t ask Chase because it’s a surprise.” Chase’s mother placed a hand on Lyla’s arm.

  “Uh, okay.” Remembering how Brendan’s parents took Harley, Lyla was grateful Chase’s parents were even speaking to her. “I guess I’ll be right back.”

  “Okay.” Chase kissed Lyla on the cheek, worry in his eyes.

  “Are you okay?” Lyla whispered.

  “Yeah, just hurry back.”

  Lyla smiled. “Of course.”

  They walked out of the hall to the back side where the Fountaine’s white limousine was waiting. Mr. Fountaine ushered the two women to the door. “Wait until you see what we got Chase, it’s just inside here, we were wondering what you think of it. I’m afraid we don’t know our son’s tastes very well. We can take it back.”

  Lyla walked with Mrs. Fountaine to the door.

  “Lyla darling, will you get it. It’s just inside that cupboard right there. I’m afraid I strained my back and can’t reach for it.”

  Lyla, wanting to make a good impression on Chase’s family, obliged. She stepped inside the limousine, reached inside the cupboard but found nothing. She looked back at the door to see it slammed shut. She reached for the door but it wouldn’t open. The Limousine started to move. She banged on the window. “Hey! I’m still in here! Hey! Hey!”

  The hair on the back of her neck stood up. A hand wrapped around her mouth, a spell thrown into the air and Lyla was out cold.

  Chase waited around for his parents to come back with Lyla. He was growing agitated and anxious. For the better part of ten minutes Mr. Johnson, his next door neighbor, was talking a mile a minute about his landscaping business that was booming.

  “You have no idea how hard it is to keep azalea’s here in Florida. But people want them!”

  “I bet.” Chase felt a hand tug on his arm. He looked over and saw Mr. M.

  “Where’s Lyla?”

  “She went with my parents to get something for me out of the car.”

  Mr. M stopped and looked Chase directly in the eyes. “Your parents are back?”

  “Yeah, kind of a shock really. They weren’t supposed to be back.”

  “They came back for your graduation?”

  “Yeah, that’s what I just said.”

  “They went with Lyla?”

  “Yeah, but I thought they’d be back by now.”

  “How long has it been?”

  Mr. M was slowly squeezing Chase’s arm to the point of breaking.

  “Mr. M, my arm.”

  Mr. M didn’t let up “Chase, how long has it been?”

  “I don’t know, maybe twenty minutes?”

  “Oh god, why didn’t I see it. How did she find out?”

  “What? What are you talking about?” Chase looked at Mr. M and stumbled forward. His arm was on fire, his head hurt. Chase’s world went black.

  Chase opened his eyes he was in his room at Mr. M’s. He could sense someone was in there with him.

  “Who’s there?”

  “It’s me, Jaden.”

  Chase could hear Harley’s voice raised in the other room. Chase sat up slowly. He felt like he was under water. Clearly a spell had been placed on him. “I feel like throwing up,” He ran to the bathroom and did just that.

  Mr. M appeared with a rag. “Chase, the spell will keep you alive right now but you’ll continue to get sick until we find her.”

  Chase sat on the floor and put his head in his hands. “What happened? Where is she?”

  “She’s gone. I don’t know where they’ve taken her.”

  “It’s my parents, right? They took her?”

  “Yes, Chase.” Sadness filled Mr. M’s every being.

  “We have to look for her.” Chase continued to hold his head. It was screaming with pain.

  “Where? We could go in any direction right now and potentially kill you. We have to wait until we know the direction they went.”

  “I need a piece of paper.”

  Mr. M looked confused. “Jaden, bring a piece of paper in here.”

  Jaden brought it in and handed it to him.

  “Here.”

  Chase took a deep breath to steady his nausea and stared at the paper. Chase spoke the spell and then asked it to reveal a message. The only thing that appeared was a big E.

  “They’re headed out of state.” Chase leaned over the bowl and threw up again, dropping the paper. Mr. M picked up the paper and stared at it.

  “What is this, Chase?”

  Jaden, who hadn’t moved, looked at the paper. “You taught her our game, that’s great!”

  “Jaden explain.”

  “When Chase and I were little we found this spell that lets you talk to each other on paper. We stayed up all night, well, most nights playing on the page. Sometimes it was tic-tac-toe, sometimes we talked about girls. If Lyla sent this E it means we can reach her again. Chase, what should I send back so she knows we got it?”

  “Just write Love. It’s all I can think of.” Chase curled up on the floor still holding his head.

  “What cleaver kids you all are. Harley! Brendan! Kayla! Pack up, we’re heading out!”

  Chase curled his legs up to his chest and waited for the house of people to come get him but they weren’t coming. He could hear someone arguing with Mr. M. Chase stood up and held onto the counter for support. He made his way slowly to the living room and surveyed the scene.

  Kayla was sitting in a chair by the cold fireplace. Harley in front of her, hands on her hips.

  “I will not go look for that whore. You can’t make me!”

  Chase stepped forward but Harley is the one who reacted. She slapped Kayla across the face, breathing heavy she said, “Lyla isn’t a whore, nobody is! Chase needs us, if you have any ounce of compassion in that whiney little head of yours, you’d do it for him! Now get your scrawny ass in that car or I’ll start throwing fireballs at your hair!”

  Chase remained motionless. He would have rather just left her here but Harley had a point, they were all stronger together.

  Mr. M walked in through the front door. “Okay, we’re set, everybody in.”

  Kayla was the first to stand, holding her cheek and walked out.

  The rest of the room filed out, they put Chase in the front seat so his window would open. Harley and Brendan were in the middle and Kayla and Jaden in the back of the van. Kayla stared out the window still holding her cheek. A small tear slid down and landed on her shirt.

  Jaden glanced over, he wasn’t sure there was any possibility for them. He refused to coddle her tantrum. Even if he didn’t like Kayla that way, he had the sense to know that Chase and Lyla belonged together. He looked up front. Chase’s breathing was uneasy.

  “Hey Brendan, trade places with me.”

  Brendan glanced at Harley. She was looking at the window ignoring everyone. “Yeah, okay.”

  Once moved, Jaden took his necklace off and put it over Chase’s head. “That should help with the nausea.”

  Chase’s breathing was labored.

  “Dad, he’s not getting any better.”

  “I know. All we can hope for is to get them closer together. Jaden, take the paper Chase has in his hand, do the spell you know, see if Lyla said anything else.” He looked at his watch. It had been two hours since the graduation departure. They could be within hours of getting out of the state.

  “Okay.” Jaden did as he was told. He waited while words formed.

  I-10 Tally Hurt

  That was all. Jaden read everything but the word hurt to the car. He didn’t want Chase to get upset or worse, violent. Jaden wrote back: Hang on. J

  Nothing came back. He hoped she had the wherewithal to erase his letters. He instantly regretted writing back; it could have put her in jeopardy.

  Mr. M drove on I-4 toward Tampa. I-10 was twenty miles away. The car dropped into silence.

  Jaden checked the paper regularly. About three hours into the dri
ve, Lyla wrote back:

  9 Garden Inn

  Mr. M pulled off at a gas station. He bought a map and looked for Exit 9; they were forty five minutes away. They drove as fast as the van would go. Mr. M figured he would put a charm on a cop if he was stopped but they never were. He checked his watch, it was nine-thirty. They pulled into the restaurant behind the hotel.

  “Chase, I’m going to release you from the charm, it’s going to be painful because the charm holds the pain at bay so it has to be released from your body. It’ll be over before you know it.”

  Chase was groggy. He looked over at Mr. M and there were two of him. Mr. M placed a hand on his shoulder and whispered the charm. Pain like he’d never felt before screamed through his body.

  Mr. M put a silencer on the car so nobody outside could hear his screams. Everyone in the car however, had to cover their ears.

  Chase took a few shuddering breaths as the last of the pain escaped. It was over.

  “I’m getting out, I need air.” Chase stepped out of the car, his arm was changing back to black marks, the whole drive they had been an angry red. Lyla was nearby, he could feel her. He stretched his arm out and paced around the car popping joints and stretching.

  Jaden stepped out of the car. “Long drive.”

  “Yeah, although I couldn’t tell. If feels like we just left.”

  “We’ll find her, Chase.”

  “I’m still confused as to why my parents would take her. Why them?”

  Mr. M stepped out of the car. “It’s a story I need to tell you.”

  Jaden and Chase turned to look at him. “You knew this might happen? You didn’t tell me?” Chase walked forward, his eyes had turned black. The air around them began to buzz with an angry humming wind that was sweeping up off the ground and around the car.

  “Chase, we’ll put Lyla in jeopardy, calm your anger!”

  Chase covered his face and knelt on the ground. The air calmed down and the buzzing went away. Mr. M was visibly shaken but the fact that Chase could stop the anger said something. Power might not overtake him.

  “Let’s get a room. You four stay here. I’m going to check in to the hotel. With any luck we’ll find out what room they have her in.”

  They were in room 216. The hotel was frayed and old. All the rooms opened up to the outside, the pool was green and the soda machine was right outside their door making a loud humming noise. Chase walked in and sat in the only chair. He was exhausted. The pain of Lyla being ripped from him was overwhelming. He hoped they could locate her fast and get the heck out of here.

  Brendan sat on one of the beds, Kayla on the other with Jaden. Mr. M stood by the window, pulled the curtain back an inch and peeked out. Harley leaned against the door, clearly avoiding Brendan.

  “So what’s the story, Mr. M?” Harley spoke up.

  “First of all, I want to ask you all to not judge me until I’ve finished with the story. I’ll try and get through it quickly so we can get the hell out of here.”

  “When I was a senior in high school I became obsessed with Occlusion.” He stared at his hands not wanting to look up. “I had a best friend in those days that shared my geeky love of it. His name was James McGillicuddy.” He looked up at Harley at the same moment she gasped.

  “We studied it, asked questions, learned everything we needed to know about it. We graduated and started Polk Community College together. It wasn’t a four year college back then.” He added as a side note. “He paced away from the window, feeling trapped by everyone’s eyes. “Soon we asked too many questions and it brought other people to us.” He waited a beat. “Emily and Ted Fountaine. They were already married and done with college. James and I were so excited to meet people with the same affinity as us. It gave our academic take on it some merit. I met Veronica, James met Hailey. Harley, you were named for her.” He stopped for a moment and looked around the room. Everyone’s eyes were fixed on him.

  “Pretty soon Emily had you, Chase, Harley and Jaden came along right after. We were all such good friends. We had barbecues and pool parties. I found a job teaching and James worked at the power plant. But things started to change. Emily and Ted kept pushing to locate the next heir who would be in two-thousand thirteen. All of us realized our children would be of age that year. Hailey started to get nervous. James bowed out of the group first, telling us it wasn’t fun anymore. I continued for a while longer…I regret that to this day. My studies found all the lines joined here in Lakeland. I made the discovery with Ted in the room. He was obsessed, mad even. Veronica and I had fights about my work on it. I told her I would try to get out but it wasn’t as easy as that...Hailey had the first accident a car veered off the road and hit her. Veronica died two weeks later. Both Jaden and Harley were six.” He stopped for a moment lost in thought.

  “Anyway, we received a note sealed with an ancient rune of secrecy telling us our children were next if we moved, which made us realize that our wives were victims of murder. Harley, your father blamed himself for her death, that’s why he continued to say he killed your mother. He didn’t. James started drinking and I became a recluse. Working and staying home, never leaving except to shop late at night in obscure grocery stores. I didn’t want to be anywhere close to the group if I didn’t have to.

  “Do you think my parents were involved?”

  “No, Chase. But I think the people they know and are in their circles, which are a bunch of fanatics, might have. People would do anything for power or to control power. Your gifts, if shaped correctly, could possibly rule the world. I never told your parents one thing.”

  “What’s that?”

  “That the power very well could change to a boy this time. Everything was pointing to a change-up. They must think Lyla is the receiver like all the others were.”

  Chase stood. “They had no idea the receiver was with them the whole time. My god. That’s why you made me keep it a secret.”

  “Yep.”

  “What are they going to do to Lyla?”

  “I don’t know. I left that group years ago, I don’t know what their plans are. My guess is, they’re headed to meet another group.”

  Chase glanced at the mirror over the dresser. A figure was emerging. He moved closer. Lyla was in the mirror. She was in the bathroom. She held up a paper.

  “Someone get me some paper!” Brendan handed him the phone book off the nightstand.

  Chase said the spell, words appeared: I’m in room 210.

  She put her hand to her head, moved it to the right listening for a noise it seemed. Chase could see blood all over the left side of her scalp. A collective gasp went through the room. When her face came forward he could see bruising starting on her cheek and a gash just above her right eye.

  We’ll be there, erase this Lyla. I love you.

  Lyla put her hands to her mouth and a tear fell down her cheek. She wiped the paper clean. They made eye contact, Chase mouthed to stay in the bathroom.

  She shook her head. The mirror was wiped to black. Chase ran to the door but Mr. M, figuring he would go to the room without thinking, had Brendan bar the door.

  “Let me through.” Chase said through clenched teeth.

  “Chase, think about it, if we just go barreling in there, they would knock us off one at a time.”

  “They’re hurting her!”

  “Yes, we know. If we work on a plan, we can all get out alive and with her, got it?” Brendan wasn’t budging, at two-hundred and sixty five pounds and six foot five; Chase was in no position to move him.

  “I could move you like I did Jaden.”

  Mr. M stepped forward. “If you do that while you’re emotionally compromised, you could kill him.”

  Chase walked over to the bed and sat down, head in his hands and screamed.

  “So we draw them out.” Kayla spoke up for the first time. “We gather together, create an explosion that makes them come out of the room to look.”

  Everyone stared at Kayla.

  Jaden joine
d in. “Yeah, when they run out, one of us runs in to get her and we bring her here. They won’t know she’s gone until she’s safe.” He looked over at Kayla, “Where are we going to get the explosion?”

  “I’ve been working on a little trick. Something I picked up while sulking. I can cut something with my mind, like a pipe of a gas tank. Say Harley just happened to have her fireball handy she could throw at it?”

  “You’re talking about their car?

  “Why not? If it was someone else’s they wouldn’t care. We would debilitate their ability to get away and make them come out of the room all at the same time.”

  “Sounds like a plan.” Mr. M was shaking his head. “Let’s give it a shot, and the sooner the better.”

  They stood and walked out of the room. Jaden held Kayla back. “What did you originally plan to do with that trick?”

  Kayla looked away.

  He held her by the arms. “Kayla, when are you going to realize there are other people in the world who care about you?” A hint of sadness and anger were mixed together.

  She snapped her head around. “I don’t need anyone to care about me.”

  Jaden shrugged and let go of her. “Everyone needs someone.” He walked out after the others.

  Kayla slumped to the bed and sobbed.

  The room Lyla was in was at the opposite end of the complex from where they were. Harley scooted ahead dodging around halls and windows as stealthy as she could while the rest held back. Harley was back quickly. “Their car is a good twenty feet away from the room. I think Chase may need to push it with that crazy force he has as soon as the explosion starts.”

  Mr. M started walking. “That’s a great plan, let’s go.” He checked his watch.

  Jaden sidled up next to his Dad. “What aren’t you telling us?”

  “There’s probably more either on their way or already here. I want to get her before they show up. This was one of their plans. Basically annihilation of the whole hotel while forcing the power out of the host. Their goal had been to get the power and kill the person. Power like this doesn’t come along too often.”